Trousson, Raymond / Vercruysse, Jeroom (dir.), Dictionnaire general de Voltaire. (Champion classiques, references et dictionnaires 18) 1272 p. 2020:10 (Champion, FR) <670-9>
ISBN 978-2-38096-016-7 paper ¥7,064.- (税込) EUR 38.00

King, Stephen D., We Need to Talk About Inflation: 14 Urgent Lessons from the Last 2,000 Years. 224 pp. 2023:4 (Yale U. Pr., US) <692-137>
ISBN 978-0-300-27047-1 hard ¥6,036.- (税込) US$ 28.00 *

A FINANCIAL TIMES "BOOK TO READ IN 2023" "Everything you wanted to know about inflation but were afraid to ask."-Mervyn King "King's lessons command our attention."-Lawrence H. Summers "Maybe you don't think inflation is back for good. That is your right. But you'd be advised to read this book first."-Stephanie Flanders From investors and monetary authorities to governments and policy makers, almost everyone had assumed inflation was dead and buried. But now people the world over are confronting a poisonous new economic reality and, with it, the prospect of vast and increasing wealth inequality. How have we arrived in this situation? And what, if anything, can we do about it? Celebrated economist Stephen D. King-one of the few to warn ahead of time about the latest inflationary upheaval-identifies key lessons from the history of inflation that policy makers chose not to heed. From ancient Rome through the American Civil War and up to the asset bubbles of today, inflation stems from policy error, sovereign greed, and a collective loss of faith in currencies. We Need to Talk About Inflation cuts through centuries of bad judgment and misunderstanding, offering a means to intervene now-so we can begin to tackle the political and social upheaval unleashed by inflation.

ベーシック・インカムのグローバル・ヒストリー
Jaeger, Anton / Zamora Vargas, Daniel, Welfare for Markets: A Global History of Basic Income. (The Life of Ideas) 264 pp. 2023:4 (U. Chicago Pr., US) <692-167>
ISBN 978-0-226-82368-3 hard ¥7,007.- (税込) US$ 32.50 *

A sweeping intellectual history of the welfare state's policy-in-waiting. The idea of a government paying its citizens to keep them out of poverty-now known as basic income-is hardly new. Often dated as far back as ancient Rome, basic income's modern conception truly emerged in the late nineteenth century. Yet as one of today's most controversial proposals, it draws supporters from across the political spectrum. In this eye-opening work, Anton Jaeger and Daniel Zamora Vargas trace basic income from its rise in American and British policy debates following periods of economic tumult to its modern relationship with technopopulist figures in Silicon Valley. They chronicle how the idea first arose in the United States and Europe as a market-friendly alternative to the postwar welfare state and how interest in the policy has grown in the wake of the 2008 credit crisis and COVID-19 crash. An incisive, comprehensive history, Welfare for Markets tells the story of how a fringe idea conceived in economics seminars went global, revealing the most significant shift in political culture since the end of the Cold War.

Balasubramanian, Aditya, Toward a Free Economy: Swatantra and Opposition Politics in Democratic India. (Histories of Economic Life) 304 pp. 2023:7 (Princeton U. Pr., US) <692-203>
ISBN 978-0-691-20524-3 hard ¥9,702.- (税込) US$ 45.00 *

The unknown history of economic conservatism in India after independenceNeoliberalism is routinely characterized as an antidemocratic, expert-driven project aimed at insulating markets from politics, devised in the North Atlantic and projected on the rest of the world. Revising this understanding, Toward a Free Economy shows how economic conservatism emerged and was disseminated in a postcolonial society consistent with the logic of democracy.Twelve years after the British left India, a Swatantra ("Freedom") Party came to life. It encouraged Indians to break with the Indian National Congress Party, which spearheaded the anticolonial nationalist movement and now dominated Indian democracy. Rejecting Congress's heavy-industrial developmental state and the accompanying rhetoric of socialism, Swatantra promised "free economy" through its project of opposition politics.As it circulated across various genres, "free economy" took on meanings that varied by region and language, caste and class, and won diverse advocates. These articulations, informed by but distinct from neoliberalism, came chiefly from communities in southern and western India as they embraced new forms of entrepreneurial activity. At their core, they connoted anticommunism, unfettered private economic activity, decentralized development, and the defense of private property.Opposition politics encompassed ideas and practice. Swatantra's leaders imagined a conservative alternative to a progressive dominant party in a two-party system. They communicated ideas and mobilized people around such issues as inflation, taxation, and property. And they made creative use of India's institutions to bring checks and balances to the political system.Democracy's persistence in India is uncommon among postcolonial societies. By excavating a perspective of how Indians made and understood their own democracy and economy, Aditya Balasubramanian broadens our picture of neoliberalism, democracy, and the postcolonial world.

Crosthwaite, Paul / Knight, Peter / Marsh, Nicky et al., Invested: How Three Centuries of Stock Market Advice Reshaped Our Money, Markets, and Minds. 368 pp. 2022:12 (U. Chicago Pr., US) * paper 2023:1 <692-204>
ISBN 978-0-226-82098-9 hard ¥24,147.- (税込) US$ 112.00 *
ISBN 978-0-226-82100-9 paper ¥6,468.- (税込) US$ 30.00 *

Invested examines the perennial and nefarious appeal of financial advice manuals. Who hasn't wished for a surefire formula for riches and a ticket to the good life? For three centuries, investment advisers of all kinds, legit and otherwise, have guaranteed that they alone can illuminate the golden pathway to prosperity-despite strong evidence to the contrary. In fact, too often, they are singing a siren song of devastation. And yet we keep listening. Invested tells the story of how the genre of investment advice developed and grew in the United Kingdom and the United States, from its origins in the eighteenth century through today, as it saturates our world. The authors analyze centuries of books, TV shows, blogs, and more, all promising techniques for amateur investors to master the ways of the market: from Thomas Mortimer's pathbreaking 1761 work, Every Man His Own Broker, through the Gilded Age explosion of sensationalist investment manuals, the early twentieth-century emergence of a vernacular financial science, and the more recent convergence of self-help and personal finance. Invested asks why, in the absence of evidence that such advice reliably works, guides to the stock market have remained perennially popular. The authors argue that the appeal of popular investment advice lies in its promise to level the playing field, giving outsiders the privileged information of insiders. As Invested persuasively shows, the fantasies sold by these writings are damaging and deceptive, peddling unrealistic visions of easy profits and the certainty of success, while trying to hide the fact that there is no formula for avoiding life's economic uncertainties and calamities.

鉄道の到来－新しいグローバル・ヒストリー　1750～1850年
Gwyn, David, The Coming of the Railway: A New Global History, 1750-1850. 416 pp. 2023:6 (Yale U. Pr., US) <692-205>
ISBN 978-0-300-26789-1 hard ¥7,546.- (税込) US$ 35.00 *

The first global history of the epic early days of the iron railway Railways, in simple wooden or stone form, have existed since prehistory. But from the 1750s onward the introduction of iron rails led to a dramatic technological evolution-one that would truly change the world. In this rich new history, David Gwyn tells the neglected story of the early iron railway from a global perspective. Driven by a combination of ruthless enterprise, brilliant experimenters, and international cooperation, railway construction began to expand across the world with astonishing rapidity. From Britain to Australia, Russia to America, railways would bind together cities, nations, and entire continents. Rail was a tool of industry and empire as well as, eventually, passenger transport, and developments in technology occurred at breakneck speed-even if the first locomotive in America could muster only 6 mph. The Coming of the Railway explores these fascinating developments, documenting the early railway's outsize social, political, and economic impact-carving out the shape of the global economy as we know it today.

H.ジェームズ著　7つの衝突－グローバル化を形成した経済危機
James, Harold, Seven Crashes: The Economic Crises That Shaped Globalization. 376 pp. 2023:7 (Yale U. Pr., US) <692-206>
ISBN 978-0-300-26339-8 hard ¥7,007.- (税込) US$ 32.50 *

A leading economic historian presents a new history of financial crises, showing how some led to greater globalization while others kept nations apart "[A] fascinating book."-Martin Wolf, Financial Times, "Best Books of 2023-Economics" The eminent economic historian Harold James presents a new perspective on financial crises, dividing them into "good" crises, which ultimately expand markets and globalization, and "bad" crises, which result in a smaller, less prosperous world. Examining seven turning points in financial history-from the depression of the 1840s through the Great Depression of the 1930s to the Covid-19 crisis-James shows how crashes prompted by a lack of supply, like the oil shortages of the 1970s, lead to greater globalization as markets expand and producers innovate to increase supply. By contrast, crises triggered by a lack of demand-such as the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2008-result in less globalization as markets contract, austerity measures are imposed, and skepticism of government grows. By considering not only the times but also the observers who shaped our understanding of each crisis-from Karl Marx to John Maynard Keynes to Larry Summers-James shows how the uneven course of globalization has led to new economic thinking, and how understanding this history can help us better prepare for the future.

中世初期における金儲け
Naismith, Rory, Making Money in the Early Middle Ages. 472 pp. 2023:7 (Princeton U. Pr., US) <692-209>
ISBN 978-0-691-17740-3 hard ¥9,702.- (税込) US$ 45.00 *

An examination of coined money and its significance to rulers, aristocrats and peasants in early medieval EuropeBetween the end of the Roman Empire in the fifth century and the economic transformations of the twelfth, coined money in western Europe was scarce and high in value, difficult for the majority of the population to make use of. And yet, as Rory Naismith shows in this illuminating study, coined money was made and used throughout early medieval Europe. It was, he argues, a powerful tool for articulating people's place in economic and social structures and an important gauge for levels of economic complexity. Working from the premise that using coined money carried special significance when there was less of it around, Naismith uses detailed case studies from the Mediterranean and northern Europe to propose a new reading of early medieval money as a point of contact between economic, social, and institutional history.Naismith examines structural issues, including the mining and circulation of metal and the use of bullion and other commodities as money, and then offers a chronological account of monetary development, discussing the post-Roman period of gold coinage, the rise of the silver penny in the seventh century and the reconfiguration of elite power in relation to coinage in the tenth and eleventh centuries. In the process, he counters the conventional view of early medieval currency as the domain only of elite gift-givers and intrepid long-distance traders. Even when there were few coins in circulation, Naismith argues, the ways they were used-to give gifts, to pay rents, to spend at markets-have much to tell us.

商人とトランスアトランティックな奴隷貿易の変容
Radburn, Nicholas, Traders in Men: Merchants and the Transformation of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. 288 pp. 2023:9 (Yale U. Pr., US) <692-210>
ISBN 978-0-300-25761-8 hard ¥7,546.- (税込) US$ 35.00 *

A sweeping new history that reveals how British, African, and American merchants developed the transatlantic slave trade "This is a landmark study given its clear status as easily the best researched and most comprehensive book on the British slave trade to date."-David Eltis, coauthor of Atlas of the Transatlantic Slave Trade "A masterful account of one of the most brutal moments in the history of capitalist modernity. Radburn brilliantly details all aspects of the process of commodification of human beings in the Liverpool slave trade, vividly depicting the long journeys endured by Africans in Africa, across the Atlantic, and in the Americas."-Leonardo Marques, Universidade Federal Fluminense During the eighteenth century, Britain's slave trade exploded in size. Formerly a small and geographically constricted business, the trade had, by the eve of the American Revolution, grown into a transatlantic system through which fifty thousand men, women, and children were enslaved every year. In this wide-ranging history, Nicholas Radburn explains how thousands of merchants collectively transformed the slave trade by devising highly efficient but violent new business methods. African brokers developed commercial infrastructure that facilitated the enslavement and sale of millions of people. Britons invented shipping methods that quelled enslaved people's constant resistance on the Middle Passage. And American slave traders formulated brutal techniques through which shiploads of people could be quickly sold to colonial buyers. Truly Atlantic-wide in its vision, this study shows how the slave trade dragged millions of people into its terrible vortex and became one of the most important phenomena in world history.