The Mississippi Bubble Cortero Pantheon Edition

In 1716 France was broke. A series of wars waged by Louis XIV had left the economy in ruins, the king in debt, and the government coffers empty. France did not even have enough gold to produce new coins. Into this breech stepped John Law, a brilliant Scottish economist, and a man on the run from British justice. He knew that France could never recover if it continued to base it's money on precious metals that the government actually owned. So, he set up a bank and obtained the right to issue "paper money"-pieces of paper that stood for value, but had no intrinsic worth of its own. Next, he bought a nearly defunct entity called the Mississippi Company, spun stories of gold and gems for the taking in France's Louisiana territories, and issued shares of stock. To sweeten the deal, he offered nearly unlimited credit and would guarantee the share's value. People flocked from all over France to buy Mississippi Company stock. By 1719, 500 livre shares were selling for 5000 livres. Overnight, poor people were becoming rich, and the rich were becoming even wealthier. At some point the bubble had to burst; and, in 1720, it did. The value of Mississippi Company shares began decreasing; and people started asking, if my paper stock shares were losing value, what was happening to my paper money? This began a run of people demanding gold for paper, which the banks could not provide. When the Mississippi bubble burst, tens of thousands were left impoverished. John Law was forced to flee the country, to die three years later-penniless. Emerson Hough has beautifully captured the triumph and tragedy of that era in his best selling novel: The Mississippi Bubble. It's a must read for anyone interested in how greed can overcome common sense in even the most rational of people.

Missouri was in a delicate position in the years leading up to the Civil War. The state had been forged by two streams of immigrants, one from the north and one from the south. As a result, half of it was in favor of slavery, and half was against it. Indeed, when the Civil War finally broke out, the state had a star on the flag of both sides. The story is set initially in St. Louis where Stephen Brice, a talented young lawyer, arrives to work at a prestigious law firm. He quickly makes a name for himself in the community, and soon falls in love with Virginia Carvel, a young lady whose family is deeply Southern. After meeting Abraham Lincoln, he becomes convinced that no country can exist half-slave and half-free; and becomes an abolitionist. Needless to say, this does not sit well with the young lady, who would now rather die than marry a Yankee. When the shots were fired at Fort Sumter in 1861, they echoed all the way to St. Louis. It was time to decide. Slave or free? Union or Confederacy? The nation had to choose; and so did Stephen Brice and Virginia Carvel. The Crisis contains superb and well-researched descriptions of life in the Western theater of the war. Historical characters, such as Grant, Sherman, and Lincoln, are introduced naturally and realistic-ally. It is perhaps for these reasons, plus the riveting twists and turns of the plot, that The Crisis became a number one best seller. The author, Winston Churchill, is not to be confused with the man who would eventually become Britain's prime minister. Indeed, in his day, the American author was by far the more famous of the two.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ The Mississippi Bubble: A Memoir Of John Law Adolphe Thiers Francis Skinner Fiske W.A. Townsend & Company, 1859 History; United States; State & Local; General; Darien (Panama and Colombia); History / General; History / United States / General; History / United States / State & Local / General; New Caledonia (Colony); Scots

It’s 1964 and Alice has moved to Mississippi from Chicago with her family. Nicknamed ‘Yankee Girl’ and taunted by the in-crowd at school, Alice soon discovers the other new girl Valerie – one of the school’s first black students – has it much worse. Alice can’t stand the way Valerie is treated, and yet she knows she will remain an outsider if she speaks up. It takes a horrible tragedy to finally give Alice the courage to stand up for what she believes. Set in the Deep South in the 1960s, Yankee Girl is a powerful, resonant and relevant story about racism and doing the right thing.