Héctor Lindo-Fuentes provides the first in-depth economic history of El Salvador during the crucial decades of the nineteenth century. Before independence in 1821, the isolated territory that we now call El Salvador was a subdivision of the Captaincy General of Guatemala and had only 250,000 inhabitants. Both indigo production, the source of wealth for the country's tiny elite and its main link to the outside world, and subsistence agriculture, which engaged the majority of the population, involved the use of agricultural techniques that had not changed for two hundred years. By 1900, however, El Salvador's primary export was coffee, a crop that demanded relatively sophisticated agricultural techniques and the support of an elaborate internal finance and marketing network. The coffee planters came to control the state apparatus, writing laws that secured their access to land, imposing taxes that paid for a transportation network designed to service their plantations, building ports to expedite coffee exports, and establishing a banking system to finance the new crop. Weak Foundations shows how the parallel process of state-building and expansion of the coffee industry resulted in the formation of an oligarchy that was to rule El Salvador during the twentieth century. Historians and economists interested in the "routes to underdevelopment" followed by Latin American and other "Third World" countries will find this analysis thorough and provocative.

In this work Schum develops a general theory of evidence as it is understood and applied across a broad range of disciplines and practical undertakings. He include insights from law, philosophy, logic, probability, semiotics, artificial intelligence, psychology and history.

This book presents a comprehensive, detailed analysis of the establishment, evolution and current significance of different institutions in today's Islamic Republic of Iran. The volume draws on the insights of a number of Iran experts to examine their establishment, functions and evolution, as a means of understanding Iranian politics and society. The Sacred Republic's specific focus is on the key formal institutions of the state through which the Islamic Republic exercises power, namely the velayat-e faqih: the judiciary, the presidency, the parliament, elections, the Revolutionary Guards, and the foreign policy establishment. Despite significant work on Iranian politics in recent decades, few studies have focused on state institutions, their resilience, or the reasons for and manner of institutional change. Through historical institutionalism and comparative historical analysis, the contributors to this book together fill a glaring gap in the study of Iran's political institutions, offering significant insights for the theoretical literature on comparative politics, Middle Eastern politics, and Iranian Studies.

Introductory technical guidance for civil, structural and geotechnical engineers and construction managers interested in design and construction of foundations for buildings and other structures. Here is what is discussed: 1. BACKFILL FOR SUBSURFACE STRUCTURES 2. BEARING CAPACITY ANALYSIS 3. DEEP FOUNDATIONS 4. EARTHWORK FOR FOUNDATIONS 5. ENGINEERING PROPERTIES OF SOIL AND ROCK 6. EXCAVATION FOR STRUCTURES 7. FIELD AND LABORATORY INVESTIGATIONS FOR FOUNDATIONS IN EXPANSIVE SOILS 8. FOUNDATION DESIGN IN COLD REGIONS 9. FOUNDATIONS ON FILL AND BACKFILLING 10. FOUNDATIONS IN AREAS OF SIGNIFICANT FROST PENETRATION.