This memoir is less a chronicle of the life of a leading scholar and critic of matters French than a series of differently angled fragments, each with its attendant surprise, in what one commentator has called Jeffrey Mehlman's amour vache—his injured and occasionally injurious love—for France and the French. The reader will encounter masters of the art of reading in these pages, the exhilaration elicited by their achievements, and the unexpected (and occasionally unsettling) resonances those achievements have had in the author's life. With all its idiosyncrasies, Adventures in the French Trade depicts an intellectual generation in ways that will attract not only people who recall the heady days of the rise and reign of French theory but also those who do not. This provocative book should be of interest to students of intellectual history, literary criticism, Jewish studies, the history of American academia, and the genre of the memoir itself.

The history of the French in India has received far less scholarly attention than that of other European nations; English historiography, in particular, has often treated it as no more than a preliminary to the extension of British power. In addition, work hitherto has tended to focus on the trade with Europe, not the Asian trade - the 'country trade' carried on within Asia; the full importance of this trade for the Dutch and British is now being recognised. This book represents the first sustained study of French activities in Asian trade, and fills this gap in the historiography. Catherine Manning is concerned to relate the French traders to their social, regional and financial roots, and to trace their connections with other commercial groups in India, both European and Asian. The French evidence that she assembles, including much archival material, also makes a significant contibution to the debate about economic decline and renewal in 18th-century India. Her analysis stresses the importance of the Indian context, and shows that economic and political developments in South India were crucial to the French move from trade to war in the 1740s. Finally the book examines why the French failed in an enterprise which was to succeed so signally for the British only a few decades later.

George Steiner's discussion of Jeffrey Mehlman's writing on Walter Benjamin gives the flavor of Mehlman's writing in Second Thoughts. "The arch erudition and playful intelligence of Jeffrey Mehlman's concise jeu d'esprit, Walter Benjamin for Children, sparkle. Mehlman weaves a sequence of associative arabesques, 'intertextually imbricated, psychoanalytically informed, ' on the script for two radio programmes for children which Benjamin wrote during 1929-1930. Almost in the style of a magician, Professor Mehlman demonstrates the literally catastrophic substance of Benjamin's tales for children. With a scholastic acuity and wit resembling that of Benjamin himself, Mehlman teases out in the thematic rootedness of catastrophe and fraud the "phantom presence of the motif of a 'false messianism' which flowers, nearly subliminally, in these seemingly innocent broadcasts."

Provides a historical overview of the Hudson's Bay Company and the people involved in Canada's fur trade.

In 1953 the proprietor of the chateau of Bonneval at La Haye-Aubrée par Routot in the Norman department of Eure presented the French National Archives with a collection of eighteenth-century papers. They had been brought to the chateau by previous owners at the time of the French Revolution. The proprietor was unrelated to these shadowy figures, and the papers concerned neither his family nor the estate. Now deposited at the Archives Nationales in Paris, the 45 cartons of letters and business papers tell the story of the business activities of the Dugard family of Rouen. The earliest item in the collection is a bill of exchange dated 3 January 1658/59, and the last letter is from 1794. Most of the papers concern Roben Dugard, 1704-70, and a number of companies formed by him and several other Rouen merchants, among them the societé du Canada. Dugard and Company, as the societé may be called with less formality, was founded in 1729 to exploit the trade of Canada with France and the West Indies. Soon it directed its attention to the development of a Franco-Caribbean trade independent of its North-Atlantic commerce. The present history is a case study of a business partnership. The size and structure of eighteenth-century French business enterprises, the nature of French business finance, methods and maritime insurance, French commodities of trade and markets, and the relation of French business to government are all examined. So too is the manner and extent of the penetration of French business into Canada and the West Indies.

This Book Deals With The Period Of Transition In The Indian Economy From Pre-Colonial To Colonial Times. Since Post-1763 French Trading Activities Are Rarely Discussed By Historians In India, This Book Attempts To Fill Part Of This Gap. It Questions The Traditional View That Trade Virtually Ceased After The Treaty Of Paris In 1763 And Suggests That The Two Rival Powers, France And England, Were Engaged In A Peculiar Game That Required Public Antagonism But Private Cooperation. It Also Examines The Active Collaboration Of The European Banking Houses In Financing The French Trade In India. The Factors Responsible For The Vagaries In The French Policy, Which Resulted First In The Abolition And Then The Re-Creation Of Their Companies, Have Also Been Explained.

In Daniel Defoe's Ultimate Collection, readers are presented with a treasure trove of adventure classics, pirate tales, and historical novels that showcase the author's unique literary style and keen sense of storytelling. Defoe's works are known for their vivid imagery, riveting plots, and engaging characters, making them stand out in the literary context of the 18th century. This collection also includes biographies, historical works, travel sketches, poems, and essays, all complemented with illustrations that bring the narratives to life. Defoe's versatile writing transcends genres, offering a diverse and immersive reading experience for fans of historical fiction and adventure tales.

Here is the riveting story of the English language, from its humble beginnings as a regional dialect to its current preeminence as the one global language, spoken by more than two billion people worldwide. In this groundbreaking book, Melvyn Bragg shows how English conquered the world. It is a magnificent adventure, full of jealousy, intrigue, and war—against a hoard of invaders, all armed with their own conquering languages, which bit by bit, the speakers of English absorbed and made their own. Along the way, its colorful story takes in a host of remarkable people, places, and events: the Norman invasion of England in 1066; the arrival of The Canterbury Tales and a “coarse” playwright named William Shakespeare, who added 2,000 words to the language; the songs of slaves; the words of Davy Crockett; and the Lewis and Clark expedition, which led to hundreds of new words as the explorers discovered unknown flora and fauna. The Adventure of English is an enthralling story not only of power, religion, and trade, but also of a people and how they changed the world.