Chosen by BusinessWeek as One of the Top Ten Business Books of the Year
With apologies to Hegel, Marx, and Lenin, the basic unit of modern society is neither the state, nor the commune, nor the party; it is the company. From this bold premise, John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge chart the rise of one of history’s great catalysts for good and evil.
In a “fast-paced and well-written” work (Forbes), the authors reveal how innovations such as limitations on liability have permitted companies to rival religions and even states in importance, governing the flow of wealth and controlling human affairs–all while being largely exempt from the rules that govern our lives.
The Company is that rare, remarkable book that fills a major gap we scarcely knew existed. With it, we are better able to make sense of the past four centuries, as well as the events of today.

这本书全面勾勒了英国从农业化社会发展成为工业化社会的历史过程，再现当时英国的农业、工业、政治、宗教等概况，同时对英国的经济结构、人口结构、物质生活、精神生活等各个侧面，做了生动的描述，对其世界性的历史意义，做了较为客观的评述。
本书不乏新颖的观点，富有启迪性，且文字生动流畅，可读性强，对史学、社会学和我国现代化的研究都有借鉴作用

Product Description
Incorporating significant editorial changes from earlier editions, the fourth edition of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations is the definitive en face German-English version of the most important work of 20th-century philosophy
•The extensively revised English translation incorporates many hundreds of changes to Anscombes original translation
•Footnoted remarks in the earlier editions have now been relocated in the text
•What was previously referred to as Part 2 is now republished as Philosophy of Psychology A Fragment, and all the remarks in it are numbered for ease of reference
•New detailed editorial endnotes explain decisions of translators and identify references and allusions in Wittgenstein's original text
•Now features new essays on the history of the Philosophical Investigations, and the problems of translating Wittgensteins text

From the reviews of the third edition: "The author’s goal for Mathematics and its History is to provide a “bird’s-eye view of undergraduate mathematics.” (p. vii) In that regard it succeeds admirably. ... Mathematics and its History is a joy to read. The writing is clear, concise and inviting. The style is very different from a traditional text. ... The author has done a wonderful job of tying together the dominant themes of undergraduate mathematics. ... While Stillwell does a wonderful job of tying together seemingly unrelated areas of mathematics, it is possible to read each chapter independently. I would recommend this fine book for anyone who has an interest in the history of mathematics. For those who teach mathematics, it provides lots of information which could easily be used to enrich an opening lecture in most any undergraduate course. It would be an ideal gift for a department’s outstanding major or for the math club president. Pick it up at your peril — it is hard to put down!" (Richard Wilders, MAA Reviews) From the reviews of the second edition: "This book covers many interesting topics not usually covered in a present day undergraduate course, as well as certain basic topics such as the development of the calculus and the solution of polynomial equations. The fact that the topics are introduced in their historical contexts will enable students to better appreciate and understand the mathematical ideas involved...If one constructs a list of topics central to a history course, then they would closely resemble those chosen here." (David Parrott, Australian Mathematical Society) "The book...is presented in a lively style without unnecessary detail. It is very stimulating and will be appreciated not only by students. Much attention is paid to problems and to the development of mathematics before the end of the nineteenth century... This book brings to the non-specialist interested in mathematics many interesting results. It can be recommended for seminars and will be enjoyed by the broad mathematical community." (European Mathematical Society) "Since Stillwell treats many topics, most mathematicians will learn a lot from this book as well as they will find pleasant and rather clear expositions of custom materials. The book is accessible to students that have already experienced calculus, algebra and geometry and will give them a good account of how the different branches of mathematics interact." (Denis Bonheure, Bulletin of the Belgian Society)

This book describes established and advanced methods for reducing the dimensionality of numerical databases. Each description starts from intuitive ideas, develops the necessary mathematical details, and ends by outlining the algorithmic implementation. The text provides a lucid summary of facts and concepts relating to well-known methods as well as recent developments in nonlinear dimensionality reduction. Methods are all described from a unifying point of view, which helps to highlight their respective strengths and shortcomings. The presentation will appeal to statisticians, computer scientists and data analysts, and other practitioners having a basic background in statistics or computational learning.

The C++11 standard allows programmers to express ideas more clearly, simply, and directly, and to write faster, more efficient code. Bjarne Stroustrup, the designer and original implementer of C++, thoroughly covers the details of this language and its use in his definitive reference,
. In
, Stroustrup excerpts the overview chapters from that complete reference, expanding and enhancing them to give an experienced programmer-in just a few hours-a clear idea of what constitutes modern C++. In this concise, self-contained guide, Stroustrup covers most major language features and the major standard-library components-not, of course, in great depth, but to a level that gives programmers a meaningful overview of the language, some key examples, and practical help in getting started. Stroustrup presents the C++ features in the context of the programming styles they support, such as object-oriented and generic programming. His tour is remarkably comprehensive. Coverage begins with the basics, then ranges widely through more advanced topics, including many that are new in C++11, such as move semantics, uniform initialization, lambda expressions, improved containers, random numbers, and concurrency. The tour ends with a discussion of the design and evolution of C++ and the extensions added for C++11. This guide does not aim to teach you how to program (see Stroustrup's
for that); nor will it be the only resource you'll need for C++ mastery (see Stroustrup's
, for that). If, however, you are a C or C++ programmer wanting greater familiarity with the current C++ language, or a programmer versed in another language wishing to gain an accurate picture of the nature and benefits of modern C++, you can't find a shorter or simpler introduction than this tour provides.

Neural networks are a computing paradigm that is finding increasing attention among computer scientists. In this book, theoretical laws and models previously scattered in the literature are brought together into a general theory of artificial neural nets. Always with a view to biology and starting with the simplest nets, it is shown how the properties of models change when more general computing elements and net topologies are introduced. Each chapter contains examples, numerous illustrations, and a bibliography. The book is aimed at readers who seek an overview of the field or who wish to deepen their knowledge. It is suitable as a basis for university courses in neurocomputing.

Patterns of Empire comprehensively examines the two most powerful empires in modern history: the United States and Britain. Challenging the popular theory that the American empire is unique, Patterns of Empire shows how the policies, practices, forms and historical dynamics of the American empire repeat those of the British, leading up to the present climate of economic decline, treacherous intervention in the Middle East and overextended imperial confidence. A critical exercise in revisionist history and comparative social science, this book also offers a challenging theory of empire that recognizes the agency of non-Western peoples, the impact of global fields and the limits of imperial power.

本书以英国东印度公司为主要研究对象，较为完整和细致地勾勒了它从起步到发展至顶峰，再到成为殖民地统治代理机构的转变，最后逐渐瓦解的全过程。 全书共11章，首先介绍了不断崛起的诸国东印度公司，其次叙述了胡椒、肉桂等香料及棉织物的进口与销售，进而分析了英国东 印度公司的融资形式、组织架构、商品构成等，随后介绍了南海公司及其引起的金融危机，以及此后东印度公司的业务变化，最后述及东印度公司的性质变化及其瓦解的过程。在当今社会已经进入“脱工业化时代”这一时代背景下，重新回顾商业资本家的发展历程显得尤为必要,从这一点来看，本书对于现代商业经济也具有一定的参考意义。

An Introduction to Programming by the Inventor of C++
Preparation for Programming in the Real World
The book assumes that you aim eventually to write non-trivial programs, whether for work in software development or in some other technical field.
Focus on Fundamental Concepts and Techniques
The book explains fundamental concepts and techniques in greater depth than traditional introductions. This approach will give you a solid foundation for writing useful, correct, maintainable, and efficient code.
Programming with Today’s C++ (C++11 and C++14)
The book is an introduction to programming in general, including object-oriented programming and generic programming. It is also a solid introduction to the C++ programming language, one of the most widely used languages for real-world software. The book presents modern C++ programming techniques from the start,
introducing the C++ standard library and C++11 and C++14 features to simplify programming tasks.
For Beginners—And Anyone Who Wants to Learn Something New
The book is primarily designed for people who have never programmed before, and it has been tested with many thousands of first-year university students. It has also been extensively used for self-study. Also, practitioners and advanced students have gained new insight and guidance by seeing how a master approaches the elements of his art.
Provides a Broad View
The first half of the book covers a wide range of essential concepts, design and programming techniques, language features, and libraries. Those will enable you to write programs involving input, output, computation, and simple graphics. The second half explores more specialized topics (such as text processing, testing, and the C programming language) and provides abundant reference material. Source code and support supplements are available from the author’s website.