Brazil is the world's sixth-largest economy, and for the first three-quarters of the twentieth century was one of the fastest-growing countries in the world. While the country underwent two decades of unrelenting decline from 1975 to 1994, the economy has rebounded dramatically. How did this nation become an emerging power? Brazil in Transition looks at the factors behind why this particular country has successfully progressed up the economic development ladder. The authors examin...

What explains the great variability in economic growth and political development across countries? Institutional and organizational analysis has developed since the 1970s into a powerful toolkit, which argues that institutions and norms rather than geography, culture, or technology are the primary causes of sustainable development. Institutions are rules that recognized authorities create and enforce. Norms are rules created by long-standing patterns of behavior, shared by people in a soci...

The Amazon, the world's largest rain forest, is the last frontier in Brazil. The settlement of large and small farmers, squatters, miners, and loggers in this frontier during the past thirty years has given rise to violent conflicts over land as well as environmental duress. Titles, Conflict, and Land Use examines the institutional development involved in the process of land use and ownership in the Amazon and shows how this phenomenon affects the behavior of the economic actors. ...

Dans les premières années du XVIe siècle, au village de Biron, près de Monpazier, en la province de Guienne, naissait, de très pauvres gens, un enfant qui devait avoir une étrange destinée : Bernard Palissy fut son nom. Ses parents, voyant, dès ses jeunes ans, se révéler en lui une heureuse vivacité d’esprit, s’imposèrent des sacrifices afin qu’il apprît à lire et à écrire — ce qui était beaucoup pour l’époque.Un arpenteur, venu dans le pays pour en dresser le plan terrier, ayant r...

Meticulous detail and insightful analysis combine with a gripping chronological narrative to provide the essential guide to the Pacific Theater of World War II.On December 7, 1941, Japanese fighter planes appeared from the clouds above Pearl Harbor and fundamentally changed the course of history; with this one surprise attack the previously isolationist America was irrevocably thrown into World War II.This definitive history explores each of the major battl...

Trente ans ont passé depuis que l'URSS s'est effondrée, en décembre 1991. Depuis cette date, à Moscou, les archives se sont ouvertes, les témoignages personnels se sont multipliés, les révélations ont succédé aux révélations. Notamment à propos du plus secret des piliers du système soviétique : le KGB.Depuis les débuts de la police politique bolchevique (en décembre 1917) jusqu'à sa tentative ratée de sauver le régime (en août 1991), il était devenu indispensable de reprendre, corr...

‘Banana Systems in the Humid Highlands of Sub-Saharan Africa: Enhancing Resilience and Productivity’ addresses issues related to agricultural intensification in the (sub)humid highland areas of Africa, based on research carried out in the Great Lakes Region by the Consortium for Improving Agriculture-based Livelihoods in Central Africa.