{"title":"Books by Ian Kumekawa","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781399816229","title":"Empty Vessel","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Thrilling, meticulous and wondrously original' PHILIPPE SANDS\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA jaw-dropping microhistory of the global economy over the last fifty years told through the many lives of a single ship.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAt 94 meters long and 9,500 deadweight tonnes, once called the \u003ci\u003eBibby Resolution\u003c\/i\u003e, is an unremarkable hulk, crossing the oceans unnoticed. And yet, the astonishing journey of this boat can tell us the story of the modern world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFirst built as a Swedish offshore oil rig in the 1970s, it went on to become a barracks for British soldiers in the Falklands War in the 1980s, a jail off New York in the 1990s, a prison in Portland in the 2000s, and accommodation for Nigerian oil workers off the coast of Africa in the 2010s. It has been called \u003ci\u003eSafe Esperia, \u003c\/i\u003eHMP \u003ci\u003eThe Weare\u003c\/i\u003e, even 'The Love Boat'. In each of its lives this empty vessel has been commanded by economic forces much larger than itself: private investment, war, mass incarceration, imperial interests, national sovereignty, inflation, booms, busts and greed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThrough its encounters with a world of island tax havens, the English court system, exploited labour forces, free banking zones or immigration politics, the ordinary boat at the heart of this story reveals our complex modern economy to us, connecting the dots of a dramatically changing world in the making, and warning us of its dangerous consequences.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56298845798773,"sku":"9781399816229","price":22.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781399816229_6b51d6de-4991-4996-97c9-8261ec566926.jpg?v=1786019511"},{"product_id":"the-business-state","title":"The Business State","description":"Narrates how big business guided policy and expanded the state in early twentieth-century Britain.   During World War I, British businessmen streamed into government service. When Britain faced unprecedented economic challenges after the war’s end, civil servants turned to the same businessmen with whom they had worked. The result was a durable public-private network of both bureaucrats and executives: the business state.   In this book, Ian Kumekawa throws light on the previously obscured and hidden world of the business state and the economic thinking of its administrators. He breaks new methodological ground by treating the state and business together as a single entity. Twentieth-century states, he argues, were porous networks in which lines between business and governance were not clearly defined. In liberal democracies, the term “business-friendly” has long been understood as synonymous with laissez-faire. The Business State explores the historical limits of that assumption by focusing on Britain, the self-identified small, liberal state par excellence. In doing so, the book shows how a liberal democracy was effectively co-opted by private interests and explores how actively assisting big business became not just acceptable—but a political necessity.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57682744312181,"sku":"9780226857169","price":26.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":57680111206773,"sku":"9780226857145","price":92.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-ian-kumekawa.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}