For most of the last 30 years, there s been a feeling of insecurity among real estate professionals. Will buyers and sellers forgo the use of our services and buy and sell without us? Will the Internet enable them to do so? Will some outside force intrude in our business, steal our relationships and cut into our incomes? Behind the scenes and in some cases, out in the open these discussions have been going on for the last 30 years. There s always another threat looming over the horizon: Some monstrous outside force, perhaps new forms of government regulation, a change in the mortgage interest deduction or some other change in the legal environment that will erode the business of brokerage. Big banks could wreak havoc or a technology behemoth might rip our customers away. While the types of threats and the level of them have changed over the years, the feeling that disaster is just around the corner has been a part of the DNA of the residential brokerage industry throughout the modern age. Perhaps it s the perception that the money is too good, the level of effort too low or the requirements too easy for real estate professionals to make a living. While paranoia is too strong a word, an underlying sense of unease permeates the profession.

Game Plan: How Real Estate Professionals Can Thrive in an Uncertain Future

Ian Morris

Steve Murray

REAL Trends

War is one of the greatest human evils. It has ruined livelihoods, provoked unspeakable atrocities and left countless millions dead. It has caused economic chaos and widespread deprivation. And the misery it causes poisons foreign policy for future generations. But, argues bestselling historian Ian Morris, in the very long term, war has in fact been a good thing. In his trademark style combining inter-disciplinary insights, scientific methods and fascinating stories, Morris shows that, paradoxically, war is the only human invention that has allowed us to construct peaceful societies. Without war, we would never have built the huge nation-states which now keep us relatively safe from random acts of violence, and which have given us previously unimaginable wealth. It is thanks to war that we live longer and more comfortable lives than ever before. And yet, if we continue waging war with ever-more deadly weaponry, we will destroy everything we have achieved; so our struggles to manage warfare make the coming decades the most decisive in the history of our civilisation. In War: What Is It Good For?Morris brilliantly dissects humanity's history of warfare to draw startling conclusions about our future.

War: What is it good for?: The role of conflict in civilisation, from primates to robots

History

Military

Profile Books, Ltd.

Geography Is Destiny

Profile Books

There are two broad schools of thought on why the West rules. Proponents of 'Long-Term Lock-In' theories such as Jared Diamond suggest that from time immemorial, some critical factor - geography, climate, or culture perhaps - made East and West unalterably different, and determined that the industrial revolution would happen in the West and push it further ahead of the East. But the East led the West between 500 and 1600, so this development can't have been inevitable; and so proponents of 'Short-Term Accident' theories argue that Western rule was a temporary aberration that is now coming to an end, with Japan, China, and India resuming their rightful places on the world stage. However, as the West led for 9,000 of the previous 10,000 years, it wasn't just a temporary aberration. So, if we want to know why the West rules, we need a whole new theory. Ian Morris, boldly entering the turf of Jared Diamond and Niall Ferguson, provides the broader approach that is necessary, combining the textual historian's focus on context, the anthropological archaeologist's awareness of the deep past, and the social scientist's comparative methods to make sense of the past, present and future - in a way no one has ever done before.

Why the West Rules - For Now: The Patterns of History and What They Reveal About the Future

Business & Money

International

Viva Books

Why The West Rules For Now

Politics & Social Sciences

Anthropology

Why the West Rules--for Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future (Chinese Edition)

CITIC Press Corporation

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Books by Ian Morris