Reprint of the original, first published in 1873. The publishing house Anatiposi publishes historical books as reprints. Due to their age, these books may have missing pages or inferior quality. Our aim is to preserve these books and make them available to the public so that they do not get lost.

In eight case studies by leading scholars in history, archaeology, business, economics, geography, and political science, the authors showcase the “natural experiment” or “comparative method”—well-known in any science concerned with the past—on the discipline of human history. That means, according to the editors, “comparing, preferably quantitatively and aided by statistical analyses, different systems that are similar in many respects, but that differ with respect to the factors whose influence one wishes to study.” The case studies in the book support two overall conclusions about the study of human history: First, historical comparisons have the potential for yielding insights that cannot be extracted from a single case study alone. Second, insofar as is possible, when one proposes a conclusion, one may be able to strengthen one’s conclusion by gathering quantitative evidence (or at least ranking one’s outcomes from big to small), and then by testing the conclusion’s validity statistically.

In ten essays, anthropologists (mostly) focus more on the practical rather than cultural and ideological issues of postcolonial legacies in land law, contemporary claims on ancestral lands, and conservation issues--from Australia to West Africa. Abramson is with U. College London. Theodossopoulos is at the U. of Wales-Lampeter. The book is distributed by Stylus. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

First published in 2004. The purpose of this reference work is to offer a range of materials covering the history of the East India Company during the two and a half centuries of its existence. Volume IV, entitled Trade, Finance and Power, considers the Company's exercise of power in relation to a number of economic issues, and covers not only its official trade, but the entrepreneurial activities of private individuals operating under Company licence.