Women, Accounting and Narrative: Keeping Books in Eighteenth-Century England (Routledge International Studies in Business History, 8)

Book Description

In the early eighteenth century, the household accountant was traditionally female. However, just as women were seen as financial accountants, they were also deeply associated with the literary and narrative accounting inherent in letters and diaries. This book examines these socio-linguistic acts of feminized accounting alongside property, originality, and the development of the early novel.

The book begins with an investigation of the reconceptualization of value that occurred between the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. While women were denied inheritance of land their fortune was increasingly realized in moveable wealth: textiles, furniture, valuables and money. The author shows how numbers, and in particular, number in financial accounts were used to record experience and create subjectivity, highlighting the role of almanac-diaries in providing a way in which the female owner-author could document her experienced sociability, thrift, prudence and control.

Two female-narrated novels-Aphra Behn's Fair Jilt and Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders-are then examined, questioning the way in which the century's preoccupation with accounting manifested itself differently in novels of the time. The book concludes with an examination of the developing relationship between property, narrative, and 'personality'. The picaresque an older form of narrative which charts the search for real property or land is contrasted with the 'novel of personality', which charts the search for personal property or land.

This book will be essential reading for students and researchers of History, Economic History, Women's Studies and those interested in the early novel.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic!.......2000-09-01

If you are looking for insight in this area, look no further. A really good book. Penetrating analysis.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Journal of the American Oriental Society, published by American Oriental Society on October 1, 1999. The length of the article is 1886 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Laws of the Hittites: A Critical Edition.(Review) (book review) (book review)
Author: Petra Goedebuure
Publication: The Journal of the American Oriental Society (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 1999
Publisher: American Oriental Society
Volume: 119 Issue: 4 Page: 705

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Amazon.com

"Do you feel lucky? Well do ya?" asked Dirty Harry. Paleontologist Peter Ward and astronomer Donald Brownlee think all of us should feel lucky. Their rare Earth hypothesis predicts that while simple, microbial life will be very widespread in the universe, complex animal or plant life will be extremely rare. Ward and Brownlee admit that "It is very difficult to do statistics with an N of 1. But in our defense, we have staked out a position rarely articulated but increasingly accepted by many astrobiologists."

Their new science

is the field of biology ratcheted up to encompass not just life on Earth but also life beyond Earth. It forces us to reconsider the life of our planet as but a single example of how life might work, rather than as the only example.

The revolution in astrobiology during the 1990s was twofold. First, scientists grew to appreciate how incredibly robust microbial life can be, found in the superheated water of deep-sea vents, pools of acid, or even within the crust of the Earth itself. The chance of finding such simple life on other bodies in our solar system has never seemed more realistic. But second, scientists have begun to appreciate how many unusual factors have cooperated to make Earth a congenial home for animal life: Jupiter's stable orbit, the presence of the Moon, plate tectonics, just the right amount of water, the right position in the right sort of galaxy. Ward and Brownlee make a convincing if depressing case for their hypothesis, undermining the principle of mediocrity (or, "Earth isn't all that special") that has ruled astronomy since Copernicus. --Mary Ellen Curtin

Book Description

The sweeping diversity of complex life on Earth, Ward and Brownlee argue, evolved out of an extraordinary set of physical conditions and chance events that would be extremely hard to duplicate––though not impossible. Many planets throughout the vastness of the Universe may be teeming with microbial life, but advancement beyond this stage is very rare. Everyone with an interest in the possible extent of life in the Universe and the nature of life's evolution on our own planet will be fascinated by Rare Earth. "...likely to cause a revolution in thinking..." The New York Times "...[the book] has hit the world of astrobiologists like a killer asteroid..." Newsday (New York) "...a sobering and valuable perspective..." Science "...a startling new hypothesis..." Library Journal "...Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee offer a powerful argument..." The Economist "...provocative, significant, and sweeping..." Northwest Science & Technology "...a stellar example of clear writing..." American Scientist

Customer Reviews:

Tectonic plates balance Greenhouse gases.......2007-08-31

Earth is the only planet with tectonic plates. Earth possesses water, the universal solvent and indispensable for life. Earth's mountains occur in chains. The giant mountains are Mars were created by volcanos. There is no equivalent to the Rockies, the Andes, the Himalyas, or the score of linear mountain chains. The process, the movement of planetary crust across the surface of the planet, is found in our solar system only on Earth.

Tectonic plates provide a wide range of biodiversity. The defense against mass extinction is diversity. Second, the tectonic plates provide our global thermostat by recycling chemical crucial to keeping the volume of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere relatively uniform. Third, plate tectonics is the dominate force that cause changes in sea levels, which in turn, are vital to the formation of minerals that keep the level of global carbon dioxide in check. Fourth, plate tectonics create continents on the earth. And finally, plate tectonics make possible the earth's magnetic field, the protection against cosmic radiation.

All the continents are masses of relatively low-density rock embedded in ground mass of more dense material. The low density rock have the average composition of granites, whereas, the higher density rocks that make up the ocean crust are basaltic in composition. Because granite is less dense than basalt, the granite rich continents float on a thin bed of basalt. The earth inner core is radioactive and generates heat deep inside the earth. As this heat rise toward the surface, it creates gigantic cells of hot, liquid rock in the mantle. The mantle rises, moves parallel with the surface for great distance, and then, cooled, settles back down into the depths. The upper mantle has a convection behavior. The mantle convects in the manner of liquid because the movement is so slow, and the temperatures so high, that the individual crystals have time to deform in response to stress.

Volcanos occur along subduction zones. The total are of the oceanic plates have decreased over time and the area of the continental plates has grown. The ocean crust can sink and be remelted back to magma. Whereas, the lighter continental crust remains afloat like a cork on the sea.

Plate tectonics promote environmental complexity and thus increase biodiversity. "Changes in continental position would affect ocean currents, temperature, seasonal rainfall patterns and fluctuations, the distribution of nutrients, and patterns of biological productivity." 2/3 of all animal species live on land. There are between 3 and 30 million plant and animal species alive today.

Volcanos recycle CO2 into the atmosphere. CO2 is stored in Limestone at the bottom of the ocean. The Limestone moves into subduction channels and is recycle through volcanic activity into the atmosphere. A temperature of 4-40 C is suitable for life and must be maintained. Greenhouse gases include: H20, O3, CO2, CH4 and are capable of capturing infrared energy from the earth's surface, in so doing, warm the planet. Oxygen and Nitrogen do not capture energy. However, suppose the oceans froze, this would cause an insufficient amount of CO2 generated for life to exist. CO2 constitutes on 0.035% of the atmosphere. Plate tectonics play an important role in maintaining levels of greenhouse gases. The water on the earth is .05% by weight. The maintenance of liquid water is controlled by global temperatures. The temperature of the earth is controlled by the amount of energy coming from the sun and how much energy is absorbed by the planet and how fast the greenhouse gases are replenished. If the green house gases are not replenished the earth will grow colder. "On a planet with volcanism there is usually an abundance of greenhouse gases, too much in some cases" - from both active and dormant volcanos.

Yes, but...........2007-08-13

Good book. Good recap of history of the planet and of our knowledge of the development of life on it.

Nice to read a work in which the pragmatism of the geologist tempers for theory of the astronomer. Good to read that there remain many things the authors don't or cannot know. That's life. Much better, so much better, than reading the nonsense posing as science that astrophysicists churn out when THEY don't know something.

From that maelstrom of 200 + IQs we get such nonsense as string theory and the big bang......but I don't recall once reading in this book how everything we observe out billions of light years all started as an infintesimal point .

I stopped reading astronomy books twenty years ago when I learned that those more intelligent than I had concluded that galaxies were held in place by strings of matter unimaginably strong etc. None of that bull in this book. Very pragmatic.

good show guys. I think we are alone in this little slice of time.

history of earth is fine, but left out the present and future.......2007-04-29

I gave this book 3 stars because it did not continue to go anywhere. Apparently the authors haven't spent as much time studying and keeping up with the subject of Extraterrstrials/UFOs. There is a wealth of information on the subject as a whold and they seemed to ignore it. I have a hard time beleiving that we are the only ones in the universe. We don't know how much is out there, and probably never will. But the UFO question is real and cannot dismiss it with it's available history.

Dodges the real issues.......2007-01-14

The authors theorize that because primitive life apparently (based on scientific evidence) began early in the earth's history that it is likely universal (and may have bounced around from Mars to earth). Once they accept this as a given the rest of the book is about how many factors are uniquely involved to accomodate complex life.

This approach glosses over two critical issues.

(1) All life on earth is based on the genetic code right down to 'simple' (structurally) viruses (from this point of view it is 'universal'; i.e. all life as we know it). The DNA and RNA processes of the genome are far too complex to arise spontaneously, whether here or from Mars. Modern science suggests that there must be a prebiotic evolution with a DNA precursor. The authors mention a number of theories including the popular "RNA World" theory where the RNA performed all of the necessary functions. However no one has successfully modeled this so it is only a hypothesis bordering on pure speculation. RNA specialist Gerald Joyce has gone so far as to say "The most reasonable assumption is that life did not start with RNA...The transition to an RNA world, like the origins of life in general, is fraught with uncertainty and is plagued by a lack of experimental data." The authors' distinction between 'simple' and 'complex' life from a scientific viewpoint is misguided. The critical first step or 'prebiotic phase' is so far unexplainable and applies to all life. As the authors of a recent unpublished paper (available on the web like many articles) state "The information crisis in prebiotic or chemical evolution stems essentially from two observations: (i) the length of a replicating polymer (i.e. RNA-like template) is limited by the replication accuracy per nucleotide, and (ii) templates that differ significantly from each other cannot coexist in a purely competitive setup. Realistic estimates of the error rate of primitive replication mechanisms predict too scanty information content per template - less than 100 nucleotides - to permit the complete codification of the mechanism in just one template."

(2) The earth clearly evolved over time from an original molten mass so one might well expect that as it cooled and water formed that more structurally complex life evolved with it (even if the prebiotic phase is universal). For those interested in the evolution they would be better educated by a book on Evolutionary Dynamics that does not, by a bunch of 'hand waving', spend time speculating about the qualitative effects of the moon on tides and Jupitor on asteroids. There is lots of science on the evolution of complexity and how it can work as opposed to not work. This is not to deny that life in the universe maybe very rare, but this is apparent from our telescopes and the very complexity of the much misunderstood first prebiotic steps. However the inference that these first steps can be taken for granted is not science.

Well thought out.......2006-11-04

A good book about the different "types" of life on earth and the necessary supporting ecosystems. Even though the book would be considered about astrobiology, much of it is about Earth and it's diversity of life.

Whether you agree with the authors or not, there is a lot of information of interest in the book.

Life Issues: Its Origin, Rarity and Sometimes Artful Arrangement.(Review): An article from: American Scientist

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Life Issues: Its Origin, Rarity and Sometimes Artful Arrangement.(Review): An article from: American Scientist

Manufacturer: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

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Doublecrossed? Yes. Triplecrossed? Yes. Who will be left holding the bag? A smuggling ring falls apart as each character tries to outwit the other. Smuggling seemed so easy until it all fell apart.

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