“[A] tour de force of global history...Bosma has turned the humble sugar crystal into a mighty prism for understanding aspects of global history and the world in which we live.”—Los Angeles Review of Books The definitive 2,500-year history of sugar and its human costs, from its little-known origins as a luxury good in Asia to worldwide environmental devastation and the obesity pandemic. For most of history, humans did without refined sugar. After all, it serves no necessary purpose in our diets, and extracting it from plants takes hard work and ingenuity. Granulated sugar was first produced in India around the sixth century BC, yet for almost 2,500 years afterward sugar remained marginal in the diets of most people. Then, suddenly, it was everywhere. How did sugar find its way into almost all the food we eat, fostering illness and ecological crisis along the way? The World of Sugar begins with the earliest evidence of sugar production. Through the Middle Ages, traders brought small quantities of the precious white crystals to rajahs, emperors, and caliphs. But after sugar crossed the Mediterranean to Europe, where cane could not be cultivated, demand spawned a brutal quest for supply. European cravings were satisfied by enslaved labor; two-thirds of the 12.5 million Africans taken across the Atlantic were destined for sugar plantations. By the twentieth century, sugar was a major source of calories in diets across Europe and North America. Sugar transformed life on every continent, creating and destroying whole cultures through industrialization, labor migration, and changes in diet. Sugar made fortunes, corrupted governments, and shaped the policies of technocrats. And it provoked freedom cries that rang with world-changing consequences. In Ulbe Bosma’s definitive telling, to understand sugar’s past is to glimpse the origins of our own world of corn syrup and ethanol and begin to see the threat that a not-so-simple commodity poses to our bodies, our environment, and our communities.

Exam Board: Edexcel Level: AS/A-level Subject: Business First Teaching: September 2015 First Exam: June 2017 Topics are broken down to short, clear chapters, that are all structured in the same way, so students can build their understanding with ease. - Covers each syllabus area in the detail you need, with exercises that have enough depth and variety to give full class and homework coverage - Brings the business world into the classroom with real examples used extensively throughout the text, in extra cases and in end-of-chapter exercises - Features to help reinforce student understanding - in every chapter there's Real Business, an Evaluation and Logic Chain, but also the brand new '5 Whys and a How' which will help students tackle exam questions

When President Bush promoted shopping as a patriotic duty, the American culture of consumption hit a new low. But a quiet revolution is growing in the developing world and in a new generation of Americans, fighting the advance of the shopping malls and the desolation they leave behind. Written by one of the most insightful critics of American commercialism, The Business of America probes the forces that have transformed citizens into consumers eager to take as much as they can from the planet. From on-line shopping to spectator sports to the cash-and-carry ethos of political campaigns, Saul Landau decodes the subtle ways in which advertising images tell us to correct our inadequacies with more things: SUVs, credit cards, air conditioning, video games. The winds of change are blowing, Landau shows, from resurgent student protests for underpaid janitors to the Group of 21, the developing countries that stopped the World Trade Organization dead in its tracks in 2003. Eschewing nostalgia for a simpler time--a less-interconnected world that can never return-The Business of America shows how we as citizens can regain our identities, stripping away the plastic overlay of consumerism.

Aimed at key decision makers and those responsible for global strategy, this book is about changing markets and the complexity of undertaking business in a fast paced technological and knowledge based age in a dynamic and strategic context. Trends show a renaissance in entrepreneurial activity that is fuelling innovation particularly in the so called BRIC nations of Brazil, Russia, China and India. For example, both China and India have benefited immensely from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and as a direct consequence both nation states are reshaping the way global business is conducted and the way investment decisions are made. Evidence would suggest that Europe and the United States are more dependent on the BRIC trading nations for earnings and profits. Geographical distance is no longer a barrier between nations; however, the challenges of ethnic diversity in domestic markets are multiplied by the difficulties of delivering goods and services into global markets with different cultures and languages. This book examines the issues associated with undertaking global business in complex and knowledge related markets. - Written by highly knowledgeable and well-respected practitioners and academics in their field - Provides practical insight and realistic answers to global and strategic problems - Progressive constructs of trends and thoughts to take the reader from the current paradigm to the broader yet application-specific view of global business

Business has received little attention in American religious history, although it has profound implications for understanding the sustained popularity and ongoing transformation of religion in the United States. This volume offers a wide ranging exploration of the business aspects of American religious organizations. The authors analyze the financing, production, marketing, and distribution of religious goods and services and the role of wealth and economic organization in sustaining and even shaping worship, charity, philanthropy, institutional growth, and missionary work. Treating religion and business holistically, their essays show that American religious life has always been informed by business practices. Laying the groundwork for further investigation, the authors show how American business has functioned as a domain for achieving religious goals. Indeed they find that religion has historically been more powerful when interwoven with business. Chapters on Mormon enterprise, Jewish philanthropy, Hindu gurus, Native American casinos, and the wedding of business wealth to conservative Catholic social teaching demonstrate the range of new studies stimulated by the business turn in American religious history. Other chapters show how evangelicals joined neo-liberal economic practice and right-wing politics to religious fundamentalism to consolidate wealth and power, and how they developed marketing campaigns and organizational strategies that transformed the American religious landscape. Included are essays exposing the moral compromises religious organizations have made to succeed as centers of wealth and influence, and the religious beliefs that rationalize and justify these compromises. Still others examine the application of business practices as a means of sustaining religious institutions and expanding their reach, and look at controversies over business practices within religious organizations, and the adjustments such organizations have made in response. Together, the essays collected here offer new ways of conceptualizing the interdependence of religion and business in the United States, establishing multiple paths for further study of their intertwined historical development.

The book offers new critical insights into the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainable development in Africa. The extent to which CSR initiatives can contribute to sustainable development in Africa remains debatable. This book examines in a very clear structure how, when, and whether CSR initiatives are able to contribute to the realization of the sustainable development goals, peace, and environmental sustainability at the micro-levels of society. It also explores some macro-level issues such as the relationship between taxation and CSR, CSR and human rights, and CSR and public governance and, in so doing, challenges existing CSR dogmas. With themes aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this book provides useful practical guidance for policymakers and business leaders seeking to better understand the strength and limitations of CSR as a vehicle for advancing sustainable development in Africa. It will also appeal to scholars, researchers, and students of African studies, development studies, international business, strategic management, and business and society.

Human Centered Management in Executive Education provides a comprehensive insight on innovation in Executive Education with a unique global scope. The book integrates studies and experiences of 32 distinguished scholars from 15 countries who are working in the development of theories and practices to advance the human centered management paradigm, sustainability-based quality standards and continuous improvement in education. The discussion presents a well-balanced outlook that combines and contrasts research and programs from 16 developed and 16 developing countries, and the visions of 10 female and 22 male authors from North America, South America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.