The Imperial Britian or Managing Complex Systems

The Imperial Britian: The Empire in British Politics, 1880-1932

Author: Andrew S Thompson

 This new study considers the impact of the empire upon modern British political culture. The economic and cultural legacy of empire have received a great deal of attention, but historians have neglected the effects of empire upon the domestic British political scene. Dr Thompson explores economic, demographic, intellectual and military influences and he shows how parliamentary and party opinion interacted with imperial ideas and interests in the country at large. This is a major new book which explores the ideology of key imperial campaigns, and their popular support. It makes a critical contribution to recent debates -- about the importance of empire to the nature and development of British national identities before and after the First World War.

Table of Contents:

	List of Figures, List of Tables
	Preface
	Acknowledgements
	Abbreviations
	Map
	Introduction	1
1	Imperial Languages, Identities and Beliefs	15
	Languages of imperialism	15
	Imagining empire: the idea of a British world	17
	Imperial reform	25
	Dominion nationalism and imperial integration	28
	Margins of empire: India and America	32
2	Mobilising Imperialists	38
	The mainsprings of imperial politics	38
	Extra-parliamentary agitation and empire	39
	The Tariff Reform League	41
	The Navy League	44
	The Emigration Committee of the Royal Colonial Institute	46
	The political status of imperial campaigns	49
	Imperialism as a broad church	52
3	Propagating Imperialism	61
	The imperialising of the British press	61
	The new journalism and the old	62
	The press and imperial agitation	69
	The Imperial Press Conference (1909)	75
4	Imperial Trade: Tariff Reform	81
	Joseph Chamberlain and the origins of tariff reform	81
	The background to the campaign	83
	Imperial preference and the economic unity of empire	85
	The colonial perspective	90
	India and imperial preference	97
	Critics of preference: past and present	104
5	Imperial Security: Naval Supremacy and Defence Planning	110
	Defending the Empire: the debate	110
	The doctrine of sea power and the defence of empire	111
	The size, distribution and composition of the Fleet	112
	Colonial participation in imperial defence	119
	Defence planning and the Committee of Imperial Defence	127
6	Populating the Empire: Overseas Migration	133
	British overseas migration in the long nineteenth century	133
	The benefits of empire migration	135
	Voluntary effort versus state involvement	139
	Migrant personality	141
	Testing the suitability of migrants	152
7	The First World War and its Imperial Aftermath	157
	The Empire at war	157
	The Empire in the aftermath of the War	161
	Imperialists in the Lloyd George Coalition	169
	The Imperial War Cabinet and Imperial foreign policy	171
	The Washington naval treaty (1921-22) and the Singapore strategy	175
	Tariff reform redivivus, the Empire Marketing Board, and the Empire Settlement Act	178
	Conclusions	186
	Biographical Appendix	196
	Select Bibliography	202
	Index	211

Interesting textbook: Smoothies or Asian Tapas

Managing Complex Systems: Thinking Outside the Box

Author: Howard Eisner

Nine innovative methods to think outside the box and solve complex system problems

Managing Complex Systems provides specific tools and guidance needed to be a more creative and innovative thinker. Following the author's methodology, the reader will be better able to devise and implement nontraditional solutions to seemingly intractable complex problems. By challenging the reader to think in new and creative ways, the book offers a road map to success, whether measured in terms of competitive advantage, greater market share, improved productivity, or higher profits, all based upon better solutions to difficult problems.

The first four chapters set the foundation for creative thinking by exploring the nature of large-scale systems and complexity, thinking inside and outside the box, and examples of how an inventive mind solves problems in both management and scientific domains. Subsequent chapters address nine focused methods that the author has formulated to help the reader think outside the box:
* Broaden and generalize
* Crossover
* Question conventional wisdom
* Back of the envelope
* Expanding the dimensions
* Obversity
* Remove constraints
* Thinking with pictures
* Systems approach

Real-life examples are provided for each method that demonstrate how the approach enhances problem solving and decision making in system development and management. Following the discussion of the nine methods, the author examines group decision making as well as additional creative thinking procedures devised by other researchers, including references that assist in exploring these methods in greater detail. The author ends with a wrap-up chapterthat includes a test to help readers practice their tendencies toward creative thinking skills and action with respect to solving real-world problems.

The nine methods discussed in this book have broad applicability and can be used successfully by managers with a wide range of responsibilities in business and technology. For anyone who is tired of the same old approach with the same old results, this book is essential reading.