audiobook The Body Incantatory: Spells and the Ritual Imagination in Medieval Chinese Buddhism (The Sheng Yen Series in Chinese Buddhist Studies) by Paul Copp in History

Description

A Brief History of Entrepreneurship charts how the pursuit of profit by private individuals has been a prime mover in revolutionizing civilization. Entrepreneurs often butt up against processes; technologies; social conventions; and even laws. So they circumvent; innovate; and violate to obtain what they want. This creative destruction has brought about overland and overseas trade; colonization; and a host of revolutionary technologies―from caffeinated beverages to the personal computer―that have transformed society.Consulting rich archival sources; including some that have never before been translated; Carlen maps the course of human history through nine episodes when entrepreneurship reshaped our world. Highlighting the most colorful characters of each era; he discusses Mesopotamian merchants' creation of the urban market economy; Phoenician merchant-sailors intercontinental trade; which came to connect Africa; Asia; and Europe; Chinese tea traders' invention of paper money; the colonization of the Americas; and the current "flattening" of the world's economic playing field. Yet the pursuit of profit hasn't always moved us forward. From slavery to organized crime; Carlen explores how entrepreneurship can sometimes work at the expense of others. He also discusses the new entrepreneurs who; through the nascent space tourism industry; are leading humanity to a multiplanetary future. By exploring all sides of this legacy; Carlen brings much-needed detail to the role of entrepreneurship in revolutionizing civilization.