"More than any thing else technology creates our world. It creates our wealth, our economy, our very way of being," says W. Brian Arthur. Yet, until now the major questions of technology have gone unanswered. Where do new technologies come from -- how exactly does invention work? What constitutes innovation, and how is it achieved? Why are certain regions -- Cambridge, England, in the 1920s and Silicon Valley today -- hotbeds of innovation, while others languish? Does technology, like biological life, evolve? How do new industries, and the economy itself, emerge from technologies? In this groundbreaking work, pioneering technology thinker and economist W. Brian Arthur sets forth a boldly original way of thinking about technology that gives answers to these questions. The Nature of Technology is an elegant and powerful theory of technology's origins and evolution. It achieves for the progress of technology what Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions did for scientific progress. Arthur explains how transformative new technologies arise and how innovation really works. Conventional thinking ascribes the invention of technologies to "thinking outside the box," or vaguely to genius or creativity, but Arthur shows that such explanations are inadequate. Rather, technologies are put together from pieces -- themselves technologies -- that already exist. Technologies therefore share common ancestries and combine, morph, and combine again to create further technologies. Technology evolves much as a coral reef builds itself from activities of small organisms -- it creates itself from itself; all technologies are descended from earlier technologies. Drawing on a wealth of examples, from historical inventions to the high-tech wonders of today, and writing in wonder fully engaging and clear prose, Arthur takes us on a mind-opening journey that will change the way we think about technology and how it structures our lives.

A Humane Economy offers an understandable and compelling explanation of how economies operate. Over and over, the great Swiss economist stresses one simple point: You cannot separate economic principles from human behavior.

The Pursuit of Organizational Intelligence brings together the writing of one of the best--known academics in the field of decision making and organizational theory.

What does it mean to be an expert? In "Rethinking Expertise", Harry Collins and Robert Evans offer a radical new perspective on the role of expertise in the practice of science and the public evaluation of technology. Collins and Evans present a Periodic Table of Expertises based on the idea of tacit knowledge - knowledge that we have but cannot explain. They then look at how some expertises are used to judge others, how laypeople judge between experts, and how credentials are used to evaluate them. Throughout, Collins and Evans ask an important question: how can the public make use of science and technology before there is consensus in the scientific community? This book has wide implications for public policy and for those who seek to understand science and benefit from it.

Technology matters, writes David Nye, because it is inseparable from being human. We have used tools for more than 100,000 years, and their central purpose has not always been to provide necessities. People excel at using old tools to solve new problems and at inventing new tools for more elegant solutions to old tasks. Perhaps this is because we are intimate with devices and machines from an early age--as children, we play with technological toys: trucks, cars, stoves, telephones, model railroads, Playstations. Through these machines we imagine ourselves into a creative relationship with the world. As adults, we retain this technological playfulness with gadgets and appliances--Blackberries, cell phones, GPS navigation systems in our cars.We use technology to shape our world, yet we think little about the choices we are making. In Technology Matters, Nye tackles ten central questions about our relationship to technology, integrating a half-century of ideas about technology into ten cogent and concise chapters, with wide-ranging historical examples from many societies. He asks: Can we define technology? Does technology shape us, or do we shape it? Is technology inevitable or unpredictable? (Why do experts often fail to get it right?)? How do historians understand it? Are we using modern technology to create cultural uniformity, or diversity? To create abundance, or an ecological crisis? To destroy jobs or create new opportunities? Should "the market" choose our technologies? Do advanced technologies make us more secure, or escalate dangers? Does ubiquitous technology expand our mental horizons, or encapsulate us in artifice?These large questions may have no final answers yet, but we need to wrestle with them--to live them, so that we may, as Rilke puts it, "live along some distant day into the answers."

A direct and fundamentally optimistic indictment of the short-sightedness and intellectual arrogance that has characterized much of urban planning in this century, The Death and Life of Great American Cities has, since its first publication in 1961, become the standard against which all endeavors in that field are measured. In prose of outstanding immediacy, Jane Jacobs writes about what makes streets safe or unsafe; about what constitutes a neighborhood, and what function it serves within the larger organism of the city; about why some neighborhoods remain impoverished while others regenerate themselves. She writes about the salutary role of funeral parlors and tenement windows, the dangers of too much development money and too little diversity. Compassionate, bracingly indignant, and always keenly detailed, Jane Jacobs's monumental work provides an essential framework for assessing the vitality of all cities.

With searing wit and incisive commentary, John Kenneth Galbraith redefined America's perception of itself in "The New Industrial State, one of his landmark works. The United States is no longer a free-enterprise society, Galbraith argues, but a structured state controlled by the largest companies. Advertising is the means by which these companies manage demand and create consumer "need" where none previously existed. Multinational corporations are the continuation of this power system on an international level. The goal of these companies is not the betterment of society, but immortality through an uninterrupted stream of earnings. First published in 1967, "The New Industrial State" continues to resonate today.

<b>A groundbreaking exploration of why we want what we want, and a toolkit for freeing ourselves from chasing unfulfilling desires.</b><br /><br />Gravity affects every aspect of our physical being, but there's a psychological force just as powerful – yet almost nobody has heard of it. It's responsible for bringing groups of people together and pulling them apart, making certain goals attractive to some and not to others, and fueling cycles of anxiety and conflict. In <i>Wanting</i>, Luke Burgis draws on the work of French polymath René Girard to bring this hidden force to light and reveals how it shapes our lives and societies.<br /><br />According to Girard, humans don't desire anything independently. Human desire is <i>mimetic</i> – we imitate what other people want. This affects the way we choose partners, friends, careers, clothes, and vacation destinations. Mimetic desire is responsible for the formation of our very identities. It explains the enduring relevancy of Shakespeare's plays, why Peter Thiel decided to be the first investor in Facebook, and why our world is growing more divided as it becomes more connected.<br /><br /><i>Wanting</i> also shows that conflict does not arise because of our differences--it comes from our sameness. Because we learn to want what other people want, we often end up competing for the same things. Ignoring our large similarities, we cling to our perceived differences.<br /><br />Drawing on his experience as an entrepreneur, teacher, and student of classical philosophy and theology, Burgis shares tactics that help turn blind wanting into intentional wanting – not by trying to rid ourselves of desire, but by desiring differently. It's possible to be more in control of the things we want, to achieve more independence from trends and bubbles, and to find more meaning in our work and lives.<br /><br />The future will be shaped by our desires. <i>Wanting</i> shows us how to desire a better one.

《香港史》系统、全面地叙述了1838到1990年间香港的发展历史，对一些重大事件和问题，如律劳卑使团、港脚贸易、两次鸦片战争、英国强占九龙、新界、“香港海关封锁”、19世纪末香港的瘟疫、香港与1911年的中国革命、香港与抗日战争、战后香港的发展等，引证了大量原始史料加以论述，尤其是深入分析了英国国内政治对英国对华政策以及香港前途的影响。　　为拟定此书，作者除参考数百种相关著述外，还遍访英、美以及中国的档案馆，广泛收集了大量原始资料，其中很多属此前从未使用过的未出版档案。丰富的史料不仅为读者提供了许多此前较少或从未接触到的英国方面的一手史料，也使《香港史》细节生动，读来饶有趣味。

《社会契约论》是一部政治哲学著作。它探讨的是政治权利的原理，它的主旨是为人民民主主权的建立奠定理论基础。它的问世，是时代的需要，是人类社会向前进步的产物；它正确回答了历史进程提出的问题：法国命运的航船驶向何方。人类是幸运的，人民是伟大的，在历史发展的紧要关头，总有人指引前进的道路，人民总能及时做出正确的抉择。“在18世纪的法国政治思想领域里，存在着三种改革国家政治制度的学说：孟德斯鸠主张立宪君主制，伏尔泰主张开明的君主制，而卢梭主张民主共和制。

“菊”本是日本皇室家徽，“刀”是武士道文化的象征。美国人类学家鲁思・本尼迪克特用《菊与刀》来揭示日本人的矛盾性格亦即日本文化的双重性(如爱美而黩武、尚礼而好斗、喜新而顽固、服从而不驯等)……

本书论述了资本主义世界经济体系，即现代世界体系的起源与发展的历程。现代世界体系发端于欧洲的部分地区，后来不断发展，逐渐把世界其他一些地区纳入其中，直至覆盖全球。作者认为，21世界中期资本主义世界体系将让位于后继的体系（一个或多个）。我们不能预测他会是一个什么样的体系，但能通过我们目前政治的和道德的活动来影响其结果。本书享誉西方学术界，是西方大学生必读的参考书。它不是一般的世界近现代史著作，而是一部整体地阐述近5个半世纪世界历史进程的综合性宏观论著。

本书论述了资本主义世界经济体系，即现代世界体系的起源与发展的历程。现代世界体系发端于欧洲的部分地区，后来不断发展，逐渐把世界其他一些地区纳入其中，直至覆盖全球。作者认为，21世界中期资本主义世界体系将让位于后继的体系（一个或多个）。我们不能预测他会是一个什么样的体系，但能通过我们目前政治的和道德的活动来影响其结果。本书享誉西方学术界，是西方大学生必读的参考书。它不是一般的世界近现代史著作，而是一部整体地阐述近5个半世纪世界历史进程的综合性宏观论著。

本书以全新的视角阐述了15世纪以来资本主义世界体系自萌芽、产生，到发展、繁荣、衰落的历史过程。16世纪时，随着资本主义生产方式的发展，以西北欧为中心，形成“世界性经济体系”，即“资本主义的世界经济体”，它由中心区、半边缘区和边缘区三个组成部分联结成为一个整体的结构。自该体系形成之后，始终处于变动之中；其内部也经历了剧烈的斗争和不断的自我调节。该体系现已进入“混乱的告终”时期，势必要由一种具有更高生产效率和更合理的“收入分配制度”的新的世界体系取代。作者认为：到2l世纪中叶资本主义世界体系将让位于后继的体系，而我们目前的政治和道德的活动将对其结果有着重大的影响。本书的第一、二、三卷由高等教育出版社独家引进出版，第四卷尚待引进。