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An engaging and enlightening account of taxation told through lively, dramatic, and sometimes ludicrous stories drawn from around the world and across the ages Governments have always struggled to tax in ways that are effective and tolerably fair. Sometimes they fail grotesquely, as when, in 1898, the British ignited a rebellion in Sierra Leone by imposing a tax on huts—and, in repressing it, ended up burning the very huts they intended to tax. Sometimes they succeed astonishingly, as when, in eighteenth-century Britain, a cut in the tax on tea massively increased revenue. In this entertaining book, two leading authorities on taxation, Michael Keen and Joel Slemrod, provide a fascinating a...
Countries all over the world make decisions of national and international importance in a national parliament. Today, for a country to have a national parliament is a global norm, but this has only been the case for the last few hundred years. The development of this remarkable uniformity has seen national parliaments become a global institution. National Parliaments as a Global Institution scrutinizes how the current world order comprising national legislatures evolved, how parliaments work, and how they form a global network or field for the transfer of ideas and information. It highlights the remarkably similar structures and practices of national parliaments all around the world, with even the opening words of a session replicating those of other parliaments, and the four sacred principles that define national parliaments as an institution: national sovereignty, parliamentary immunity, the national interest or common good, and the sanctity of fellow parliamentarians. By considering national parliaments as a global institution, Pertti Alasuutari explores how legislatures symbolize, sanctify, and naturalize the nation-state as the component part of world society.
No one knows heaven’s paradise, but earthly paradises created by mortals may mirror the paradise of the afterlife. Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan crafted paradises with Diwan-e-Khas in Delhi and the Taj Mahal in Agra. Enthralled by the splendor, he inscribed a Persian couplet on the Diwan’s arches: ‘If there is paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this.’ The title and contents of this book echo the crux of this couplet. This travelogue explores the author's five-decade journey through European monarchs' architectural marvels of paradisiacal proportions and their eminence relative to South Asian architectural resurgence under Shah Jahan in the 17th century CE.
Demonstrates the role of local and global scientific knowledge about landscapes and environment in shaping Central America.
Covering material from the time of Julius Caesar to the sack of Rome, this topically arranged reference set provides substantive entries on people, cities, government, institutions, military developments, material culture, and other topics related to the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was one of the greatest and most influential forces of the ancient world, and many of its achievements endure in one form or another to this day. Because of its geographic breadth, cultural diversity, and overall complexity, it is also one of the most difficult organizations to understand. This book focuses on the Roman Empire from the time of Julius Caesar to the sack of Rome. While most references on the Roman world provide a series of alphabetically arranged entries, this work is organized in broad topical chapters on government and politics, administration, individuals, groups and organizations, places, events, military developments, and objects and artifacts. Each section provides 20 to 30 substantive entries along with an overview essay. The work also provides a selection of primary source documents and closes with a bibliography of important print and electronic resources.
An indispensable resource for investigating the history of the Byzantine Empire, this book provides a comprehensive summary of its overall development as well as its legacy in the modern world. The existence and development of Byzantium covers more than a millennium and coincides with one of the darkest periods of European history. Unfortunately, the Empire's achievements and brightest moments remain largely unknown except to Byzantine scholars. Through reference entries and primary source documents, this encyclopedia provides essential information about the Byzantine Empire from the reign of Diocletian to the Fall of Constantinople. The reference entries are grouped in eight topical section...
Reference entries, overview essays, and primary source document excerpts survey the history and unveil the successes and failures of the longest-lasting European empire. The Holy Roman Empire endured for ten centuries. This book surveys the history of the empire from the formation of a Frankish Kingdom in the sixth century through the efforts of Charlemagne to unify the West around A.D. 800, the conflicts between emperors and popes in the High Middle Ages, and the Reformation and the Wars of Religion in the Early Modern period to the empire's collapse under Napoleonic rule. A historical overview and timeline are followed by sections on government and politics, organization and administration, individuals, groups and organizations, key events, the military, objects and artifacts, and key places. Each of these topical sections begins with an overview essay, which is followed by alphabetically arranged reference entries on significant topics. The book includes a selection of primary source documents, each of which is introduced by a contextualizing headnote, and closes with a selected, general bibliography.
An introduction and survey that digs into the Bible’s picture of the Messiah’s entire career from Genesis to Revelation, A Primer on Messianic Prophecy is for anyone interested in learning more about Messianic prophecy, its support for Jesus’ identity as the Christ, and its meaning for our present and future. Exploring the Messiah’s First and Second Comings as they are described throughout the Bible and with attention to archaeology, biblical feasts and the Jewish wedding system, history, and current events, this Scriptural synopsis examines Messianic prophecies that span all of time. Some are fulfilled, yet many are to come. Covering topics from the beginning of creation to the last days and beyond, A Primer on Messianic Prophecy is a foundational and inspirational text for readers wanting a better understanding of the Bible’s intricate inerrancy and picture of the key figure throughout Scripture—Jesus Christ, Lamb of God and Lion of Judah.
This two-volume reference provides university and high school students—and the general public—with a wealth of information on one of the most important empires the world has ever known. Arranged in topical sections, this two-volume encyclopedia will help students and general readers alike delve into the fascinating story of an empire that continues to influence the world despite having been dissolved almost 100 years ago. Detailed entries describe the people, careers, and major events that played a central role in the history of the Ottoman Empire, covering both internal developments in Ottoman society and the empire's relationship with the powerful forces that surrounded it. Readers and...
An essential starting point for anyone wanting to learn about life in the largest empire in history, this two-volume work encapsulates the imperial experience from the 16th–21st centuries. From early sixteenth-century explorations to the handover of Hong Kong in 1997, the British Empire controlled outposts on every continent, spreading its people and ideas across the globe and profiting mightily in the process. The present state of our world—from its increasing interconnectedness to its vast inequalities and from the successful democracies of North America to the troubled regimes of Africa and the Middle East—can be traced, in large part, to the way in which Great Britain expanded and ...