Mohandas Karamchand [Mahatma] Gandhi (1869-1948), anti-colonial nationalist who led nonviolent campaign for India's national self-reliance and independence from British rule; with spinning wheel and caption “The future depends on what we do in the present”.
Tomoji NAKAMURA, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
A year or so before South Africa hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup, a visiting professor gave a talk at a South African university. He asked a very simple question: How do you win a world cup? Do you, he continued, appoint a very expensive coach? This, in fact, was exactly what South Africa had […]
In the spring of 1716, the entire French financial community was put on trial in a ritual prosecution known as the chambre de justice. Over the preceding centuries, these trials were held periodically, usually after wars, when a royal debt crisis was looming. Although they mostly were not very effective (most of the richest financiers […]
If one visits Shanghai’s iconic waterfront known as the Bund (or Waitan in Chinese) today, one immediately notices the many historical buildings that line the western side of the Huangpu River. Remnants of Shanghai’s former foreign-controlled International Settlement, between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries many of these buildings were erected and occupied by the leading […]
Historians have long argued that the value of their field lay in its applicability to the present day. It serves society best, according to a recent formulation, as a guide that encourages broad perspective and careful judgement among policy makers in the public sphere. The judgments appear particularly appropriate now, as the world endures a […]
How we understand and respond to failure is one of the most defining features of how our lives pan out. Some people refuse to fail. Some people expect to fail. Some people always hide from their own failings (most of these currently seem to be in politics). Others always look for failings in themselves, or […]
The World Trade Organization has always had more critics than champions. These days, the charges that are made against the WTO include that it has overstepped its authority, that it impedes the ability of members to set their own trade policies, and, paradoxically, that it has been unable to deal effectively with China. The recent […]
A year or so before South Africa hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup, a visiting professor gave a talk at a South African university. He asked a very simple question: How do you win a world cup? Do you, he continued, appoint a very expensive coach? This, in fact, was exactly what South Africa had […]
In the spring of 1716, the entire French financial community was put on trial in a ritual prosecution known as the chambre de justice. Over the preceding centuries, these trials were held periodically, usually after wars, when a royal debt crisis was looming. Although they mostly were not very effective (most of the richest financiers […]
If one visits Shanghai’s iconic waterfront known as the Bund (or Waitan in Chinese) today, one immediately notices the many historical buildings that line the western side of the Huangpu River. Remnants of Shanghai’s former foreign-controlled International Settlement, between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries many of these buildings were erected and occupied by the leading […]
Historians have long argued that the value of their field lay in its applicability to the present day. It serves society best, according to a recent formulation, as a guide that encourages broad perspective and careful judgement among policy makers in the public sphere. The judgments appear particularly appropriate now, as the world endures a […]
How we understand and respond to failure is one of the most defining features of how our lives pan out. Some people refuse to fail. Some people expect to fail. Some people always hide from their own failings (most of these currently seem to be in politics). Others always look for failings in themselves, or […]
The World Trade Organization has always had more critics than champions. These days, the charges that are made against the WTO include that it has overstepped its authority, that it impedes the ability of members to set their own trade policies, and, paradoxically, that it has been unable to deal effectively with China. The recent […]
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