It is human stupidity. Carlo M. Cipolla, noted professor of economic history at the UC Berkeley, created this vitally important book in order to detect and neutralize its threat.

In this volume, Carlo M. Cipolla throws new light on the subject, utilizing newly uncovered and significant archival material.

In this wise and witty work, a world-renowned economic historian takes us behind the scenes to observe a small band of scholars reconstructing the past with the tools of economic analysis and the narrative power of the traditional historian ...

Recreates the struggles within plague-stricken Italy, relating events that led to a confrontation between the advocates of science and the followers of faith.

The book is: * Interdisciplinary - blending the economist's and the historian's approach * Full of sources and commentary derived not only from social and economic history, but from the history of medicine, technology and ideas * ...

This book explores the themes of health, medicine, and the origins of infectious disease in pre-industrial Italy.

The history of the clock opens a window on how different cultures have viewed time and on Europe's path to industrialization.

Guns, Sails and Empires is that rarity among works of history: a short book with a simple, powerful thesis that the entire book is devoted to proving.