Boll Weevil Blues
Boll Weevil Blues

Author: James C. Giesen

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2012-08-01

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 0226292851

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Between the 1890s and the early 1920s, the boll weevil slowly ate its way across the Cotton South from Texas to the Atlantic Ocean. At the turn of the century, some Texas counties were reporting crop losses of over 70 percent, as were areas of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi. By the time the boll weevil reached the limits of the cotton belt, it had destroyed much of the region’s chief cash crop—tens of billions of pounds of cotton, worth nearly a trillion dollars. As staggering as these numbers may seem, James C. Giesen demonstrates that it was the very idea of the boll weevil and the struggle over its meanings that most profoundly changed the South—as different groups, from policymakers to blues singers, projected onto this natural disaster the consequences they feared and the outcomes they sought. Giesen asks how the myth of the boll weevil’s lasting impact helped obscure the real problems of the region—those caused not by insects, but by landowning patterns, antiquated credit systems, white supremacist ideology, and declining soil fertility. Boll Weevil Blues brings together these cultural, environmental, and agricultural narratives in a novel and important way that allows us to reconsider the making of the modern American South.

Corporate Governance Regulation
Corporate Governance Regulation

Author: Nicholas V. Vakkur

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2013-01-10

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 1118496310

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Why U.S. corporate governance regulation has lost its way, and what must be done to improve it Modern history persuasively demonstrates the inexorable link that binds comprehensive regulation to the global economy. This important book, rather than simply recount a litany of corporate governance failures, persuasively explains why, despite policymakers' best intentions, regulation has failed in the modern era. An objective study intended for a diverse readership, Corporate Governance Regulation unveils the underlying, root causes of regulatory failure. The result: A compelling and original analysis, broadly suited for a global audience of all backgrounds. Written by published, subject-area experts, the authors carefully delineate how U.S. corporate governance regulation, beginning with Sarbanes Oxley, lacks an adequate rational basis, as may be attributed to a non-existent policy dialogue The witnessed result: A conspicuous lack of regulatory efficacy, enormous costs, coupled with paltry benefits The focus is upon reigniting a stalled, non-productive policy dialogue, by eschewing stale, overly-polemicized arguments, as needed to develop a common ground Drawing from an eclectic, analytic framework, governance experts Nicholas Vakkur and Zulma Herrera offer both the professional and global citizen alike a multi-dimensional understanding of issues critical to global economic health. Nuanced and persuasively argued, Corporate Governance Regulation represents a formidable catalyst in the elusive, ongoing quest for global economic stability.