This book surveys the major advances that were made in art, architecture, sculpture, science, medicine, transportation, and culture.

This manual of business and management know-how includes stories, specifics, and immediate takeaways crafted to illustrate and explain the dynamics of great teams—and how to create those change-producing forces in teams everywhere. The unconventional collection of applicable narratives, individual and team exercises, and sound management insight invites personal growth for everyone from business executives and parents to coaches and college students. Based on the Team Arch model from ArchPoint Consulting, the book provides deeper information focused on leveraging strengths and solving problems. Its whole team approach in the context of storytelling offers specific steps for individual team members to reach greater productivity and enjoyment at the workplace. The poignant real-life stories woven throughout additionally illustrate that team building and getting the job done right is not just about business plans and strategic workshops, but about the meaning that happens when people move toward each other and build relationships.

'Worldly Goods' provides a radical interpretation of the Golden Age of European culture. During the Renaissance, Jardine argues, vicious commercial battles were being fought over silks and spices, and who should control international trade.

The dawn of print was a major turning point in the early modern world. It rescued ancient learning from obscurity, transformed knowledge of the natural and physical world, and brought the thrill of book ownership to the masses. But, as Andrew Pettegree reveals in this work of great historical merit, the story of the post-Gutenberg world was rather more complicated than we have often come to believe. The Book in the Renaissance reconstructs the first 150 years of the world of print, exploring the complex web of religious, economic, and cultural concerns surrounding the printed word. From its very beginnings, the printed book had to straddle financial and religious imperatives, as well as the very different requirements and constraints of the many countries who embraced it, and, as Pettegree argues, the process was far from a runaway success. More than ideas, the success or failure of books depended upon patrons and markets, precarious strategies and the thwarting of piracy, and the ebb and flow of popular demand. Owing to his state-of-the-art and highly detailed research, Pettegree crafts an authoritative, lucid, and truly pioneering work of cultural history about a major development in the evolution of European society.

"The Renaissance is usually portrayed as a period dominated by the extraordinary achievements of great men: rulers, philosophers, poets, painters, architects and scientists. Leading scholar Margaret King recasts the Renaissance as a more complex cultural movement rooted in a unique urban society that was itself the product of many factors and interactions: commerce, papal and imperial ambitions, artistic patronage, scientific discovery, aristocratic and popular violence, legal precedents, peasant migrations, famine, plague, invasion and other social factors. Together with literary and artistic achievements, therefore, today's Renaissance history includes the study of power, wealth, gender, class, honour, shame, ritual and other categories of historical investigation opened up in recent years. Tracing the diffusion of the Renaissance from Italy to the rest of Europe, Professor King marries the best work of the last generation of scholars with the findings of the most recent research, including her own. Ultimately, she points to the multiple ways in which this seminal epoch influenced the later development of Western culture and society."--Jacket.

If your company needs to develop a more scientific strategic approach - one that's sophisticated and creative, yet rigorous and results-oriented - this book is for you. You've probably discovered that the old strategic approaches, including the pet concept of sustainable competitive advantage, just aren't working. Traditional companies - maybe yours? - find themselves being pushed into risky mergers and other catch-up moves to stay afloat in roiling seas. The preferable way is to set your own course by systematically creating and exploiting opportunity. That is what visionary thinkers have always done, and it's what Strategic Renaissance shows you how to do. This guide is packed with models of corporate strategies, based on revolutionary concepts drawn from science, philosophy, military and political history, and business history - strategies with surprising lessons for your organization's success. Evan M. Dudik shows you how to apply the key elements of great business strategy. You'll learn how to objectively assess business conditions (be prepared to trash most of what you know about market research!), formulate and test a resulting if-then hypothesis, and proceed with strategies that can truly change your company's direction. Here are all the tools you need to analyze your company's current strategic efforts and create new ones with greater chances to succeed.