Taming the Octopus

Taming the Octopus PDF Author: Kyle Edward Williams
Publisher: W. W. Norton
ISBN: 9780393867237
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The untold story of how efforts to hold big business accountable changed American capitalism.

Taming the Octopus

Taming the Octopus PDF Author: Kyle Edward Williams
Publisher: W. W. Norton
ISBN: 9780393867237
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The untold story of how efforts to hold big business accountable changed American capitalism.

Taming the Octopus: The Long Battle for the Soul of the Corporation

Taming the Octopus: The Long Battle for the Soul of the Corporation PDF Author: Kyle Edward Williams
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393867242
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 190

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Book Description
The untold story of how efforts to hold big business accountable changed American capitalism. Recent controversies around environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing and “woke capital” evoke an old idea: the Progressive Era vision of a socially responsible corporation. By midcentury, the notion that big business should benefit society was a consensus view. But as Kyle Edward Williams’s brilliant history, Taming the Octopus, shows, the tools forged by New Deal liberals to hold business leaders accountable, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, narrowly focused on the financial interests of shareholders. This inadvertently laid the groundwork for a set of fringe views to become dominant: that market forces should rule every facet of society. Along the way, American capitalism itself was reshaped, stripping businesses to their profit-making core. In this vivid and surprising history, we meet activists, investors, executives, and workers who fought over a simple question: Is the role of the corporation to deliver profits to shareholders, or something more? On one side were “business statesmen” who believed corporate largess could solve social problems. On the other were libertarian intellectuals such as Milton Friedman and his oft-forgotten contemporary, Henry Manne, whose theories justified the ruthless tactics of a growing class of corporate raiders. But Williams reveals that before the “activist investor” emerged as a capitalist archetype, Civil Rights groups used a similar playbook for different ends, buying shares to change a company from within. As a rising tide of activists pushed corporations to account for societal harms from napalm to environmental pollution to inequitable hiring, a new idea emerged: that managers could maximize value for society while still turning a maximal profit. This elusive ideal, “stakeholder capitalism,” still dominates our headlines today. Williams’s necessary history equips us to reconsider democracy’s tangled relationship with capitalism.

The Soul of an Octopus

The Soul of an Octopus PDF Author: Sy Montgomery
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501161148
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction * New York Times Bestseller * Starred Booklist and Library Journal Editors’ Spring Pick * A Huffington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of the Year * One of the Best Books of the Month on Goodreads * Library Journal Best Sci-Tech Book of the Year * An American Library Association Notable Book of the Year “Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus does for the creature what Helen Macdonald’s H Is for Hawk did for raptors.” —New Statesman, UK “One of the best science books of the year.” —Science Friday, NPR Another New York Times bestseller from the author of The Good Good Pig, this “fascinating…touching…informative…entertaining” (The Daily Beast) book explores the emotional and physical world of the octopus—a surprisingly complex, intelligent, and spirited creature—and the remarkable connections it makes with humans. In pursuit of the wild, solitary, predatory octopus, popular naturalist Sy Montgomery has practiced true immersion journalism. From New England aquarium tanks to the reefs of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, she has befriended octopuses with strikingly different personalities—gentle Athena, assertive Octavia, curious Kali, and joyful Karma. Each creature shows her cleverness in myriad ways: escaping enclosures like an orangutan; jetting water to bounce balls; and endlessly tricking companions with multiple “sleights of hand” to get food. Scientists have only recently accepted the intelligence of dogs, birds, and chimpanzees but now are watching octopuses solve problems and are trying to decipher the meaning of the animal’s color-changing techniques. With her “joyful passion for these intelligent and fascinating creatures” (Library Journal Editors’ Spring Pick), Montgomery chronicles the growing appreciation of this mollusk as she tells a unique love story. By turns funny, entertaining, touching, and profound, The Soul of an Octopus reveals what octopuses can teach us about the meeting of two very different minds.

America and the Pill

America and the Pill PDF Author: Elaine Tyler May
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1458758273
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
In 1960, the FDA approved the contraceptive commonly known as “the pill.” Advocates, developers, and manufacturers believed that the convenient new drug would put an end to unwanted pregnancy, ensure happy marriages, and even eradicate poverty. But as renowned historian Elaine Tyler May reveals inAmerica and the Pill, it was women who embraced it and created change. They used the pill to challenge the authority of doctors, pharmaceutical companies, and lawmakers. They demonstrated that the pill was about much more than family planning—it offered women control over their bodies and their lives. From little-known accounts of the early years to personal testimonies from young women today, May illuminates what the pill did and didnotachieve during its half century on the market.

The Phoenix – Rising from the Ashes

The Phoenix – Rising from the Ashes PDF Author: Dian Griffin Jackson
Publisher: Abbott Press
ISBN: 1458215288
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
Praise for The Phoenix “The constant pressures from the men she dared to love caused Melanie to crumble under their attacks. She is now soaring on the wings of an eagle, flying high into the deep blue sky, moving forward to fulfill her destiny. A must-read!” —Minister Vickie Robertson, The Fellowship of Faith Church, Huntsville, AL Uniquely Christian, uniquely honest – this book amazes, delights, saddens and ultimately encourages each reader who knows the joy and pain inside a marriage. With shocking honesty, author Dian Griffin Jackson tells a story of love, abuse and the hard work of rebuilding. A must read book for pastor and parishioner alike – anyone ready to know the reality of resurrection. —Rev. Dr. Nancy Ellett Allison, Pastor, Holy Covenant United Church of Christ, Charlotte, NC Melanie Bell—a university graduate, devoted wife and mother, pastor, and many things in between—searches for the love and acceptance that has eluded her since birth. The Phoenix – Rising from the Ashes follows Melanie’s struggles as a teenage mom who became a wife and mother of two early in life and as a woman who loved her husband and desired to please him above all else and make him happy. During therapy, she learns there’s a thirsty, hungry, needy little girl inside who is looking for her parents’ love and acceptance. After leaving her abusive husband, she sets out to find a man who will love her enough to help her right the wrongs both she and her mother experienced. She is also determined to reconcile the disenfranchised little girl with the beautiful, phenomenal woman she is certain the Creator has made her to be. A story of growing up too soon, this novel shares the journey of a woman who has been through the fires and storms of life and realized that—despite the teachings of the church intended to dehumanize her by telling her she is dirty, wretched, and unclean—she has had God’s favor her entire life.

A World Without Email

A World Without Email PDF Author: Cal Newport
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0525536558
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
New York Times bestseller! From New York Times bestselling author Cal Newport comes a bold vision for liberating workers from the tyranny of the inbox--and unleashing a new era of productivity. Modern knowledge workers communicate constantly. Their days are defined by a relentless barrage of incoming messages and back-and-forth digital conversations--a state of constant, anxious chatter in which nobody can disconnect, and so nobody has the cognitive bandwidth to perform substantive work. There was a time when tools like email felt cutting edge, but a thorough review of current evidence reveals that the "hyperactive hive mind" workflow they helped create has become a productivity disaster, reducing profitability and perhaps even slowing overall economic growth. Equally worrisome, it makes us miserable. Humans are simply not wired for constant digital communication. We have become so used to an inbox-driven workday that it's hard to imagine alternatives. But they do exist. Drawing on years of investigative reporting, author and computer science professor Cal Newport makes the case that our current approach to work is broken, then lays out a series of principles and concrete instructions for fixing it. In A World without Email, he argues for a workplace in which clear processes--not haphazard messaging--define how tasks are identified, assigned and reviewed. Each person works on fewer things (but does them better), and aggressive investment in support reduces the ever-increasing burden of administrative tasks. Above all else, important communication is streamlined, and inboxes and chat channels are no longer central to how work unfolds. The knowledge sector's evolution beyond the hyperactive hive mind is inevitable. The question is not whether a world without email is coming (it is), but whether you'll be ahead of this trend. If you're a CEO seeking a competitive edge, an entrepreneur convinced your productivity could be higher, or an employee exhausted by your inbox, A World Without Email will convince you that the time has come for bold changes, and will walk you through exactly how to make them happen.

Sweet Sweet Revenge LTD

Sweet Sweet Revenge LTD PDF Author: Jonas Jonasson
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 1443462667
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
The beloved author of The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared returns with an enchanting adventure that skewers the greed and hypocrisy that dominate our time and holds lessons about what is truly important in life Meet Ole Mbatian Jr., a Maasai warrior; Kevin, his sort-of-son; Agneta, a wronged and penniless ex-wife; and Johan, an unscrupulous Stockholm ad-man whose company specializes in revenge services. As Agneta and Kevin seek revenge against a gallery owner who has wronged them, this funny and philosophical novel takes off on a madcap journey that spans five continents and whirls around a colourful cast of characters, including a goat called Molly and the Pope. As he’s done in his previous novels, Jonas Jonasson acts as a travel guide through time, drops in a few lessons on colonialism and art history, and pokes fun at capitalism and the art world, supplying plenty of laughs along the way. Translated from the Swedish by Rachel Willson-Broyles.

The Monster's Bones: The Discovery of T. Rex and How It Shook Our World

The Monster's Bones: The Discovery of T. Rex and How It Shook Our World PDF Author: David K. Randall
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324006544
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
A Science Friday Best Book to Read This Summer A gripping narrative of a fearless paleontologist, the founding of America’s most loved museums, and the race to find the largest dinosaurs on record. In the dust of the Gilded Age Bone Wars, two vastly different men emerge with a mission to fill the empty halls of New York’s struggling American Museum of Natural History: Henry Fairfield Osborn, a privileged socialite whose reputation rests on the museum’s success, and intrepid Kansas-born fossil hunter Barnum Brown. When Brown unearths the first Tyrannosaurus Rex fossils in the Montana wilderness, forever changing the world of paleontology, Osborn sees a path to save his museum from irrelevancy. With four-foot-long jaws capable of crushing the bones of its prey and hips that powered the animal to run at speeds of 25 miles per hour, the T. Rex suggests a prehistoric ecosystem more complex than anyone imagined. As the public turns out in droves to cower before this bone-chilling giant of the past and wonder at the mysteries of its disappearance, Brown and Osborn together turn dinosaurs from a biological oddity into a beloved part of culture. Vivid and engaging, The Monster’s Bones journeys from prehistory to present day, from remote Patagonia to the unforgiving badlands of the American West to the penthouses of Manhattan. With a wide-ranging cast of robber barons, eugenicists, and opportunistic cowboys, New York Times best-selling author David K. Randall reveals how a monster of a bygone era ignited a new understanding of our planet and our place within it.

Soaring Earth

Soaring Earth PDF Author: Margarita Engle
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 1534429549
Category : Young Adult Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
In this powerful companion to her award-winning memoir Enchanted Air, Newbery Honor–winning author Margarita Engle recounts her teenage years during the turbulent 1960s. Margarita Engle’s childhood straddled two worlds: the lush, welcoming island of Cuba and the lonely, dream-soaked reality of Los Angeles. But the revolution has transformed Cuba into a mystery of impossibility, no longer reachable in real life. Margarita longs to travel the world, yet before she can become independent, she’ll have to start high school. Then the shock waves of war reach America, rippling Margarita’s plans in their wake. Cast into uncertainty, she must grapple with the philosophies of peace, civil rights, freedom of expression, and environmental protection. Despite overwhelming circumstances, she finds solace and empowerment through her education. Amid the challenges of adolescence and a world steeped in conflict, Margarita finds hope beyond the struggle, and love in the most unexpected places.

Permanent Crisis

Permanent Crisis PDF Author: Paul Reitter
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022673823X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 335

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Book Description
Leads scholars and anyone who cares about the humanities into more effectively analyzing the fate of the humanities and digging into the very idea of the humanities as a way to find meaning and coherence in the world. The humanities, considered by many as irrelevant for modern careers and hopelessly devoid of funding, seem to be in a perpetual state of crisis, at the mercy of modernizing and technological forces that are driving universities towards academic pursuits that pull in grant money and direct students to lucrative careers. But as Paul Reitter and Chad Wellmon show, this crisis isn’t new—in fact, it’s as old as the humanities themselves. Today’s humanities scholars experience and react to basic pressures in ways that are strikingly similar to their nineteenth-century German counterparts. The humanities came into their own as scholars framed their work as a unique resource for resolving crises of meaning and value that threatened other cultural or social goods. The self-understanding of the modern humanities didn’t merely take shape in response to a perceived crisis; it also made crisis a core part of its project. Through this critical, historical perspective, Permanent Crisis can take scholars and anyone who cares about the humanities beyond the usual scolding, exhorting, and hand-wringing into clearer, more effective thinking about the fate of the humanities. Building on ideas from Max Weber and Friedrich Nietzsche to Helen Small and Danielle Allen, Reitter and Wellmon dig into the very idea of the humanities as a way to find meaning and coherence in the world. ,