Victoria Kazakova

McCormick J. Understanding the European Union: A Concise Introduction

This best-selling textbook provides a broad-ranging but concise introduction to the EU, covering all major aspects of European integration. The revised and updated edition takes full account of the political and economic impact of the Eurozone crisis.

The creation of the European Union will go down in history as one of the most remarkable achievements of the twentieth century. In the space of just forty years – less than two generations – Europeans fought two appalling wars among themselves, finally appreciated the dangers of nationalism and the futility of violence, and sat down to design a system that would make it inconceivable that they would ever take up arms against each other again.

The results have been substantial. A set of treaties, laws and institutions has been created that has altered the political, economic and social landscape of western Europe. They have changed the way Europeans relate to each other, made Europe into a new economic superpower, and helped bring to the region the longest uninterrupted spell of general peace in its recorded history. The European Union is the world's biggest trading bloc, is one of the two largest markets in the world, has adopted a common currency, and has planted the seeds of a common foreign and defence policy.

John Kenneth Galbraith - The Great Crash of 1929

Of Galbraith's classic examination of the 1929 financial collapse, the Atlantic Monthly said:"Economic writings are seldom notable for their entertainment value, but this book is. Galbraith's prose has grace and wit, and he distills a good deal of sardonic fun from the whopping errors of the nation's oracles and the wondrous antics of the financial community." Now, with the stock market riding historic highs, the celebrated economist returns with new insights on the legacy of our past and the consequences of blind optimism and power plays within the financial community.



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Mishra R. A Business of State: Commerce, Politics, and the Birth of the East India Company

At the height of its power around 1800, the English East India Company controlled half of the world’s trade and deployed a vast network of political influencers at home and abroad. Yet the story of the Company’s beginnings in the early seventeenth century has remained largely untold. Rupali Mishra’s account of the East India Company’s formative years sheds new light on one of the most powerful corporations in the history of the world. From its birth in 1600, the East India Company lay at the heart of English political and economic life. The Company’s fortunes were determined by the leading figures of the Stuart era, from the monarch and his privy counselors to an extended cast of eminent courtiers and powerful merchants. Drawing on a host of overlooked and underutilized sources, Mishra reconstructs the inner life of the Company, laying bare the era’s fierce struggles to define the difference between public and private interests and the use and abuse of power. Unlike traditional accounts, which portray the Company as a private entity that came to assume the powers of a state, Mishra’s history makes clear that, from its inception, the East India Company was embedded within―and inseparable from―the state. A Business of State illuminates how the East India Company quickly came to inhabit such a unique role in England’s commercial and political ambitions. It also offers critical insights into the rise of the early modern English state and the expansion and development of its nascent empire.

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Bengtsson T. Population, Economy, and Welfare in Sweden

Tommy Bengtsson The Swedish welfare model of the 1960s and 1970s excited great interest among many other countries. Today it still is an ideal image for some but a warning for many others. The reason why opinion about the Swedish welfare model has changed is primarily Sweden's financial problems, which are associated with a badly financed and excessively large public sector. It is argued that the size of the budget deficit is a great problem in itself, but also, and perhaps more importantly, that the large public sector has negative effects on the entire economy since it lead to inefficient allocation of resources. A first step in order to solve these problems is to examine how they arose. The questions then are to what extent the large public sector which Sweden has today results from social entitlements which have come into existence since the 1960s, from the maturing of welfare systems decided upon earlier, from unfavourable demographic developments, or from economic stagnation, and how these factors are interlinked. What is quite clear is that Sweden has had very low economic growth during the 1970s and 1980s compared with the preceding period. But so have many other industrial countries, without their having in consequence found themselves in difficulties as great as Sweden's. Therefore economic stagnation alone cannot explain Sweden's situation.