Allen Lane – Knjiga.hr

A Dictionary of Archeology

Mon, 25 May 2026 18:15:59 +0000

This concise reference work offers clear, accessible definitions of key terms, concepts, cultures, and methods in archaeology. Designed for students, enthusiasts, and general readers, it explains the technical vocabulary of the field while also introducing major archaeological sites, periods, and discoveries from around the world. The entries reflect the state of archaeological knowledge at the time of publication, providing insight into both classical and emerging approaches to the discipline. Warwick Bray, a respected British archaeologist known for his work in Latin American archaeology, brings scholarly authority and clarity to the volume. It serves as a practical guide for anyone seeking a reliable introduction to archaeological terminology and ideas.

Skin in the Game : Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life

Fri, 17 May 2024 17:26:51 +0000

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Black Swan, a bold new work that challenges many of our long-held beliefs about risk and reward, politics and religion, finance and personal responsibility In his most provocative and practical book yet, one of the foremost thinkers of our time redefines what it means to understand the world, succeed in a profession, contribute to a fair and just society, detect nonsense, and influence others. Citing examples ranging from Hammurabi to Seneca, Antaeus the Giant to Donald Trump, Nassim Nicholas Taleb shows how the willingness to accept one’s own risks is an essential attribute of heroes, saints, and flourishing people in all walks of life. As always both accessible and iconoclastic, Taleb challenges long-held beliefs about the values of those who spearhead military interventions, make financial investments, and propagate religious faiths. Among his insights: For social justice, focus on symmetry and risk sharing. You cannot make profits and transfer the risks to others, as bankers and large corporations do. You cannot get rich without owning your own risk and paying for your own losses. Forcing skin in the game corrects this asymmetry better than thousands of laws and regulations. Ethical rules aren’t universal. You’re part of a group larger than you, but it’s still smaller than humanity in general. Minorities, not majorities, run the world. The world is not run by consensus but by stubborn minorities imposing their tastes and ethics on others. You can be an intellectual yet still be an idiot. Educated philistines have been wrong on everything from Stalinism to Iraq to low-carb diets. Beware of complicated solutions (that someone was paid to find). A simple barbell can build muscle better than expensive new machines. True religion is commitment, not just faith. How much you believe in something is manifested only by what you’re willing to risk for it. The phrase skin in the game is one we have often heard but rarely stopped to truly dissect. It is the backbone of risk management, but it’s also an astonishingly rich worldview that, as Taleb shows in this book, applies to all aspects of our lives. As Taleb says, The symmetry of skin in the game is a simple rule that’s necessary for fairness and justice, and the ultimate BS-buster, and Never trust anyone who doesn’t have skin in the game. Without it, fools and crooks will benefit, and their mistakes will never come back to haunt them.

Why Wall Street Matters

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 14:46:43 +0000

A timely, counterintuitive defense of Wall Street and the big banks as the invisible—albeit flawed—engines that power our ideas, and should be made to work better for all of us Maybe you think the banks should be broken up and the bankers should be held accountable for the financial crisis in 2008. Maybe you hate the greed of Wall Street but know that it’s important to the proper functioning of the world economy. Maybe you don’t really understand Wall Street, and phrases such as credit default swap make your eyes glaze over. Maybe you are utterly confused by the fact that after attacking Wall Street mercilessly during his campaign, Donald Trump has surrounded himself with Wall Street veterans. But if you like your smart phone or your widescreen TV, your car or your morning bacon, your pension or your 401(k), then—whether you know it or not—you are a fan of Wall Street. William D. Cohan is no knee-jerk advocate for Wall Street and the big banks. He’s one of America’s most respected financial journalists and the progressive bestselling author of House of Cards. He has long been critical of the bad behavior that plagued much of Wall Street in the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, and because he spent seventeen years as an investment banker on Wall Street, he is an expert on its inner workings as well. But in recent years he’s become alarmed by the cheap shots and ceaseless vitriol directed at Wall Street’s bankers, traders, and executives—the people whose job it is to provide capital to those who need it, the grease that keeps our economy humming. In this brisk, no-nonsense narrative, Cohan reminds us of the good these institutions do—and the dire consequences for us all if the essential role they play in making our lives better is carelessly curtailed.

Keynes : The Return of the Master

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 18:38:00 +0000

The ideas of John Maynard Keynes have never been more timely. No one has bettered Keynes’s description of the psychology of investors during a financial crisis: The practice of calmness and immobility, of certainty and security, suddenly breaks down. New fears and hopes will, without warning, take charge of human conduct…the market will be subject to waves of optimistic and pessimistic sentiment. ‘ Keynes’s preeminent biographer, Robert Skidelsky, Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the University of Warwick, brilliantly synthesizes from Keynes’s career and life the aspects of his thinking that apply most directly to the world we currently live in. In so doing, Skidelsky shows that Keynes’s mixture of pragmatism and realism which distinguished his thinking from the neo-classical or Chicago school of economics that has been the dominant influence since the Thatcher-Reagan era and which made possible the raw market capitalism that created the current global financial crisis is more pertinent and applicable than ever. Crucially Keynes offers nervous capitalists and Keynes never wavered in his belief in the capitalist system a positive answer to the question we now face: When unbridled capitalism falters, is there an alternative? In the long run, as Keynes famously said, we are all dead. We may not have time to wait for the perfect theoretical operation of capital as the neo-classicists insist will happen eventually. In the meantime, we have Keynes: more supple, more human and more magnificently real than ever.

Skin in the Game

Fri, 10 Nov 2023 18:54:40 +0000

THE TOP TEN BESTSELLER From the bestselling author of The Black Swan, a bold book that challenges many of our long-held beliefs about risk and reward, politics and religion, finance and personal responsibility Why should we never listen to people who explain rather than do? Why do companies go bust? How is it that we have more slaves today than in Roman times? Why does imposing democracy on other countries never work? The answer: too many people running the world don’t have skin in the game. In his inimitable, pugnacious style, Nassim Nicholas Taleb shows that skin in the game applies to all aspects of our lives. It’s about having something to lose and taking a risk. Citizens, lab experimenters, artisans, political activists and hedge fund traders all have ski…

Margaret Thatcher (Volume 1): The Authorized Biography Volume One: Not For Turning

Fri, 16 Jun 2023 17:59:44 +0000

Moore illuminates Thatcher’s youth–her relationship with her parents and early romantic attachments, including her courtship and marriage to Denis Thatcher–moving forward to the determination and boldness that marked even the very beginning of her political career. His account of her political relationship with Ronald Reagan is riveting. Throughout Moore explores in compelling detail the obstacles and indignities that Thatcher encountered as a woman in what was still overwhelmingly a man’s world. A clear-eyed, fair account, conveying Thatcher’s remarkable talents and sometimes infuriating qualities, Moore’s portrait enlivens the woman who was prime minister for more than a decade (1979-1990), re-creating the circumstances and experiences that shaped one of the most significant world leaders of the postwar era.

12 Rules For Life

Fri, 16 Jun 2023 17:57:56 +0000

Jordan Peterson has helped millions of people, young and old, men and women, aim at a life of responsibility and meaning. Now he can help you. Drawing on his own work as a clinical psychologist and on lessons from humanity””s oldest myths and stories, Peterson offers twelve profound and realistic principles to live by. After all, as he reminds us, we each have a vital role to play in the unfolding destiny of the world. Deep, rewarding and enlightening, 12 Rules for Life is a lifeboat built solidly for stormy seas: ancient wisdom applied to our contemporary problems.