Yale University Press

Private currencies have always existed, from notes printed by individual banks to the SH Green Stamps that consumers once redeemed for household items. Today's economy has seen an explosion of new forms of monetary exchange not created by the federal government. Credit card companies offer points that can be traded in for a variety of goods and...

For centuries, people in the West have been fascinated, enchanted and perplexed in equal measure by Japan and its culture. Following a crushing defeat in the Second World War, this small, proud country rose like a phoenix from the literal ashes to become a model of modernity and success, for decades Asia's premier economic giant. Yet it remains a...

Within weeks of the September 11 attacks in 2001, the United States had captured hundreds of suspected al Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan, and by the following January the first of these prisoners arrived at the U.S. Navy's detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Wall Street Journal correspondent Jess Bravin was there the day the prison camp...

While dozens of recent books and articles have predicted the near-certainty of China's rise to global supremacy, this book boldly counters such widely-held assumptions. Timothy Beardson brings to light the daunting array of challenges that today confront China, as well as the inadequacy of the responses. He presents bold policy prescriptions...

This important book delivers a critical wake-up call: a fierce global race for innovation advantage is under way, and while other nations are making support for technology and innovation a central tenet of their economic strategies and policies, America has no robust innovation policy at all. What does this portend? Robert Atkinson and Stephen...

Highlighting an enduring interest in natural history from the 16th century to the present, this gorgeous book explores depictions of the natural world, from centuries-old manuscripts to contemporary artists' books. It examines the scientific pursuits in the 18th and 19th centuries that resulted in the collecting and cataloguing of the natural...