337 products in Books

A comprehensive and authoritative exploration of Bitcoin and its place in monetary history When a pseudonymous programmer introduced “a new electronic cash system that’s fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party” to a small online mailing list in 2008, very few people paid attention. Ten years later, and against all odds, this upstart autonomous decentralized software offers an unstoppable and globally accessible hard money alternative to modern central banks. The Bitcoin Standard analyzes the historical context to the rise of Bitcoin, the economic properties that have allowed it to grow quickly, and its likely economic, political, and social implications. While Bitcoin is an invention of the digital age, the problem it purports to solve is as old as human society itself: transferring value across time and space. Author Saifedean Ammous takes the reader on an engaging journey through the history of technologies performing the functions of money, from primitive systems of trading limestones and seashells, to metals, coins, the gold standard, and modern government debt. Exploring what gave these technologies their monetary role, and how most lost it, provides the reader with a good idea of what makes for sound money, and sets the stage for an economic discussion of its consequences for individual and societal future-orientation, capital accumulation, trade, peace, culture, and art. Compellingly, Ammous shows that it is no coincidence that the loftiest achievements of humanity have come in societies enjoying the benefits of sound monetary regimes, nor is it coincidental that monetary collapse has usually accompanied civilizational collapse. With this background in place, the book moves on to explain the operation of Bitcoin in a functional and intuitive way. Bitcoin is a decentralized, distributed piece of software that converts electricity and processing power into indisputably accurate records, thus allowing its users to utilize the Internet to perform the traditional functions of money without having to rely on, or trust, any authorities or infrastructure in the physical world. Bitcoin is thus best understood as the first successfully implemented form of digital cash and digital hard money. With an automated and perfectly predictable monetary policy, and the ability to perform final settlement of large sums across the world in a matter of minutes, Bitcoin’s real competitive edge might just be as a store of value and network for the final settlement of large payments―a digital form of gold with a built-in settlement infrastructure. Ammous’ firm grasp of the technological possibilities as well as the historical realities of monetary evolution provides for a fascinating exploration of the ramifications of voluntary free market money. As it challenges the most sacred of government monopolies, Bitcoin shifts the pendulum of sovereignty away from governments in favor of individuals, offering us the tantalizing possibility of a world where money is fully extricated from politics and unrestrained by borders. The final chapter of the book explores some of the most common questions surrounding Bitcoin: Is Bitcoin mining a waste of energy? Is Bitcoin for criminals? Who controls Bitcoin, and can they change it if they please? How can Bitcoin be killed? And what to make of all the thousands of Bitcoin knockoffs, and the many supposed applications of Bitcoin’s ‘block chain technology’? The Bitcoin Standard is the essential resource for a clear understanding of the rise of the Internet’s decentralized, apolitical, free-market alternative to national central banks.

In June 2004, Professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe visited the Mises Institute to deliver an ambitious series of lectures titled Economy, Society, and History. What followed was an intellectual tour de force few academics would even attempt. Over ten lectures, one each morning and afternoon for a week, Dr. Hoppe presented nothing short of a sweeping historical narrative and vision for a society rooted in markets and property. Delivered only from notes, to an audience of academics and intellectuals, the lectures showed astonishing depth and breadth. Even the most jaded scholars in the room were blown away by the erudition and scholarship of Hoppe’s presentation. The result brought together the core of Hoppe’s lifetime of theoretical work in one vital and cohesive series. Here we find provocative themes developed by Hoppe in the 1980s and 90s, particularly in his essays found in A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism and The Economics and Ethics of Private Property. We also find his devastating critique of democracy, made famous in his seminal book Democracy, the God that Failed. We have taken the recordings, edited them, and have now published them in a convenient book for those not lucky enough to have heard these lectures. This is entirely “new” material for the vast majority of Hoppe fans. This book is a tremendous addition to Hoppe’s body of work and a hugely important contribution to the “big picture” outlook for the West. Hoppe’s work is more important today than ever, given the penchant of modern bureaucratic states to war, intervene, tax, regulate, debase, and generally plunder the engines of peace and civilization.

“If you only read one book this year on America’s unending ‘War on Terror,’ it should be this persuasive and devastatingly damning account of how the United States created the original al Qaeda terrorism threat by its own actions and then increased that threat by orders of magnitude by its wanton killings in one country after another in the name of ‘counter-terrorism.’ Once I started reading it, I couldn’t stop!” — Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower and author of The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner

“Instead of 1984, read this.” —Washington Post From New York Times bestselling author Lionel Shriver, a near-future speculative fiction novel that explores the aftershocks of an economically devastating U.S. sovereign debt default on four generations of a once-prosperous American family In 2029, the United States is engaged in a bloodless world war that will wipe out the savings of millions of American families. In this gripping dystopian novel, the “almighty dollar” plummets in value overnight on the international currency exchange, to be replaced by a new global currency, the “bancor.” In retaliation, the president declares that America will default on its loans. “Deadbeat Nation” being unable to borrow, the government prints money to cover its bills. What little remains to savers is rapidly eaten away by runaway inflation. The Mandibles have been counting on a sizable fortune filtering down when their ninety-seven-year-old patriarch dies. Once the inheritance turns to ash, each family member must contend with disappointment, but also—as the U.S. economy spirals into dysfunction—the challenge of sheer survival. Recently affluent, Avery is petulant that she can’t buy olive oil, while her sister, Florence, absorbs strays into her cramped household. An expat author, their aunt, Nollie, returns from abroad at seventy-three to a country that’s unrecognizable. Her brother, Carter, fumes at caring for their demented stepmother, now that an assisted living facility isn’t affordable. Only Florence’s oddball teenage son, Willing, an economics autodidact, will save this formerly august American family from the streets. A potent work of financial fiction, The Mandibles is about money. Thus it is necessarily about bitterness, rivalry, and selfishness—but also about surreal generosity, sacrifice, and transformative adaptation to changing circumstances.

NEBULA AWARD FINALIST and sequel to national bestseller, Nebula Award finalist, and Compton Crook Award winner Fire with Fire. Science fiction adventure on a grand scale. When reluctant interstellar diplomat and intelligence operative Caine Riordan returns from humanity’s first encounter with alien races, sudden war clouds burst. With Earth’s fleet shattered by a sneak attack and its survivors fighting for their lives, Caine must rely upon both his first contact and weaponry skills to contend with the non-humanoid enemy. And when the technologically-superior attackers sweep aside the solar system’s last defenses, and traitorous corporations invite the invaders to land ‘security forces,’ humanity fights back with its best weapons: cunning, inventiveness, and guts. But as Earth hurtles towards a final trial by fire that is certain to scar its collective memory, Caine discovers that there may also be large and disturbing gaps in that memory. Clues point to a much earlier inter-species apocalypse, buried in humanity’s own prehistory. Which raises a terrifying possibility: what if the aliens' invasion of Earth is not one of conquest, but preemption? And what if their harrowing memories of a long-past cataclysmic war makes them willing to do anything to keep it from reigniting? Even if that means exterminating the human race. About Trial by Fire: "Gannon's whiz-bang second Tales of the Terran Republic interstellar adventure delivers on the promise of the first (Fire with Fire). . . . The charm of Caines harrowing adventure lies in Gannons attention to detail, which keeps the layers of political intrigue and military action from getting too dense. The dozens of key characters, multiple theaters of operations, and various alien cultures all receive the appropriate amount of attention. The satisfying resolution is enhanced by the promise of more excitement to come in this fascinating far-future universe."—Publishers Weekly Starred Review " . . . offers the type of hard science-fiction those familiar with the John Campbell era of Analog Science Fiction will remember.Gannon throws his readers into an action-packed adventure. A sequel to Fire With Fire, it is a nonstop tale filled with military science-fiction action." —Daily News of Galveston County "[A] white-knuckle adventure . . . with real stakes, and sets up the next challenge for the newly named Terran Republic. Gannon is making it easy for me to meet my goal of reading more military SF this year."—Fantasy Literature Review About Compton Crook award winner for best first novel, Fire with Fire: “Chuck Gannon is one of those marvelous finds—someone as comfortable with characters as he is with technology, and equally adept at providing those characters with problems to solve. Imaginative, fun, and not afraid to step on the occasional toe or gore the occasional sacred cow, his stories do not disappoint.”—David Weber "If we meet strong aliens out there, will we suffer the fate of the Aztecs and Incas, or find the agility to survive? Gannon fizzes with ideas about the dangerous politics of first contact.”—David Brin "The plot is intriguing and then some. Well-developed and self-consistent; intelligent readers are going to like it."—Jerry Pournelle "[T]he intersecting plot threads, action and well-conceived science kept those pages turning."—SF Crowsnest About Starfire series hit, Extremis, coauthored by Charles E. Gannon: “Vivid. . . Battle sequences mingle with thought-provoking exegesis . . .”–Publishers Weekly "It’s a grand, fun series of battles and campaigns, worthy of anything Dale Brown or Larry Bond ever wrote." –Analog About Charles E. Gannon: "[A] strong [writer of] . . . military SF. . .[much] action going on in his work, with a lot of physics behind it. There is a real sense of the urgency of war and the sacrifices it demands." –Locus

While doing research for a school project on black slavery, four white high school students make a shocking discovery about the forgotten history of white servitude in Colonial America. They learn it was just as cruel and widespread as black slavery, and are now forced to make a choice: Turn in a politically correct project on black slavery, or defy their anti-white teacher by focusing on white slavery, thereby risking being attacked as racists and possibly being expelled. Their futures—and their very identities as white Americans—lay in the balance.

Praised by reviewers and practicing TCP/IP programmers alike, the TCP/IP Illustrated series examines the many facets of the TCP/IP protocol suite using a unique and highly-effective visual approach that describes the inner workings of TCP/IP with detail, insight, and clarity. Volume 3 provides detailed coverage of four essential topics with which today's TCP/IP programmers and network administrators must be thoroughly familiar: *T/TCP (TCP for Transactions), an extension to TCP that makes client-server transactions faster, more efficient, and more reliable; *HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), the foundation for the rapidly expanding World Wide Web; *NNTP (the Network News Transfer Protocol), the basis for the Usenet news system; and *UNIX Domain Protocols, a set of protocols used heavily in UNIX implementations. As in the previous two volumes, the book is filled with examples and implementation details within the 4.4BSD-Lite networking code. The TCP/IP Illustrated series provides a complete picture of the protocol suite that drives the Internet, and gives programmers, system administrators, and serious users the information, understanding, and skills they need to remain at the forefront of networking technology. 0201634953B04062001

The internationally bestselling and highly personal account of a continent and culture caught in the act of suicide. Declining birth-rates, mass immigration and cultivated self-distrust and self-hatred have come together to make Europeans unable to argue for themselves and incapable of resisting their own comprehensive change as a society. The Strange Death of Europe is not only an analysis of demographic and political realities, but also an eyewitness account, reporting from across the entire continent, from the places where migrants land to the places they end up, from the people who appear to welcome them to the places which cannot accept them. Told from this first-hand perspective, and backed with impressive research and evidence, the book addresses the disappointing failure of multiculturalism, Angela Merkel's U-turn on migration, the lack of repatriation and the Western fixation on guilt. Murray travels to Berlin, Paris, Scandinavia, Lampedusa and Greece to uncover the malaise at the very heart of the European culture, and to hear the stories of those who have arrived in Europe from far away. He ends with two visions of Europe – one hopeful, one pessimistic – which paint a picture of Europe in crisis and offer a choice as to what, if anything, we can do next.

Si deseas aprender a usar y abusar de la lógica, este libro es para ti. Las falacias son trucos de persuasión y manipulación intelectualmente indefendibles, y pueden ser devastadoramente peligrosas cuando somos víctimas de ellas, o poderosas herramientas cuando las usamos a nuestro favor. Los argumentos están en todas partes. Enciende el televisor y sin duda te encontrarás con algún político dando una perorata acerca de por qué debes votar por él. Comienzas a ver los comerciales y un anuncio te promete que si utilizas aquel desodorante las mujeres caerán a tus pies. Apagas el televisor para cenar con tu familia y sin duda alguien comenzará a decirte por qué su opinión es la correcta y la tuya la incorrecta. Tal vez ya seas consciente del poder de la argumentación, y simplemente deseas evitar ser engañado por alguien con mayor manejo de la lógica. En este libro encontrarás una larga lista de ejemplos reales de usos y abusos de la lógica. Todo el mundo, desde nuestros parientes hasta nuestros compañeros de trabajo, tiene un gran interés en convencernos de teorías que pueden ser falsas, o que van en contra de nuestros propios intereses ¿Cómo vas a ser capaz de mantener a estas personas a raya si no eres capaz de darte cuenta de que estás siendo engañado? Aprender las reglas y las tácticas de la argumentación es una habilidad esencial de la vida, como aprender a escribir y leer. Es cierto, hasta ahora has podido sobrevivir sin ser un maestro de la argumentación, pero si lo fueras tu vida probablemente mejoraría sustancialmente. Aunque es imposible establecer reglas claras sobre cómo refutar a cada argumento que enfrentes, la lectura de este libro te dirá qué falacias debes buscar y te proporcionará consejos útiles para contrarrestar los argumentos de tu oponente. En “Falacias lógicas: Aprende a ganar cada argumento mediante el uso y abuso de la lógica” encontrarás las 59 falacias más comunes y poderosas explicadas de manera sencilla y con ejemplos. El dominio de esta habilidad puede tomar tiempo y esfuerzo, pero el libro que estás sosteniendo en tus manos es sin lugar a dudas el mejor lugar posible para comenzar. Con cada página que leas de este libro mejorará considerablemente tu razonamiento y la forma en que tomas decisiones.

'Días malditos' no es un diario en el sentido tradicional, sino una obra literaria de composición hermosa y estricta. Se basa en las notas que Bunin escribió bajo la impresión de los acontecimientos de los años 1918 y 1919 en Moscú y Odessa, acontecimientos que fueron decisivos no sólo para Rusia, sino para el propio destino del escritor, y que forzaron su exilio definitivo en 1920. Así, estas memorias ocupan un lugar privilegiado en la herencia de Bunin, como reflexiones sobre la posibilidad de la literatura en un mundo convulsionado y violento.

La fatalidad que persigue a los amantes y su trágico final hizo de Romeo y Julieta una de las obras más populares de William Shakespeare, quizá la más magistral, la que se sigue representando con el mismo entusiasmo que cuando se entrenó. Su habilidad para pasar de la comedia inicial a la definitiva tragedia manteniendo en tensión al lector era ya el indicio de que su fama perduraría en el tiempo como un tratado del amor romántico y de sus funestas consecuencias.

La importancia del legado español frente a las atrocidades cometidas por los enemigos de España En este excepcional libro, Marcelo Gullo Omodeo demuestra que, en el «Tribunal de la Historia», España ha sido juzgada por jueces parciales con testigos falsos. Y asevera: Que América, antes de 1492, se asemejaba más al infierno que al paraíso, pues reinaban en el Nuevo Mundo los sacrificios humanos, el canibalismo, la esclavitud, el machismo y la prostitución. Que Bartolomé de las Casas fue un mercenario disfrazado de sacerdote. Que durante cuatro siglos, Gran Bretaña, Holanda, Estados Unidos, Francia y Alemania ―sin ninguna autoridad moral― le han exigido a España que pida perdón por los supuestos pecados cometidos durante la conquista de América, cuando, en realidad, son esas naciones las que deberían hacerlo porque sus manos están manchadas de sangre. Que España no tiene nada por lo que pedir perdón porque la conquista de América fue uno de los mayores intentos que el mundo haya visto por hacer prevalecer la justicia y los valores cristianos en una época brutal y sanguinaria. Que ese intento exitoso convirtió a España en una excepción en la historia de la humanidad porque ni antes ni después una nación se comportó de esa manera. Y que precisamente por eso mismo cuando el papa Francisco era el padre Jorge consideraba que no había nada por lo que pedir perdón.