How did those Britons who believed that free trade and the gold standard had effortlessly made Britain a world hegemon in 1885 lose the faith by 1931 when their Empire was the largest in the world?

This chapter demonstrates the routine prevalence of forced labor in Germany prior to World War II, its expansion during the early years of the fighting, the slow introduction of concentration camp slave labor to the German economy, and the reasons for its adoption by nearly every major German enterprise. Contrary to common belief, the chief motivation driving both processes was the shortage of German workers, thanks to conscription and wartime demand for output, not the cost of the forced and slave laborers. But the great growth of German industrial capacity during the war owed much to these labor inputs.

Let us optimistically assume that sooner or later a workable interstellar propulsion system will be found, and also be built and successfully tested in space. While this would be a great advance toward making interstellar travel possible, it nevertheless does not automatically follow that a voyage to the stars will in fact be attempted. There are a few other issues that must also be settled first: for example, a habitable exoplanet must be identified. It must be suitable for human colonization and ought to be a reachable distance away from Earth within a reasonable period of travel time. Second, engineers must provide a plausible space vehicle design architecture, and a spacecraft of that design must then be constructed, and tested successfully. Such a craft does not exist as yet, one among many reasons being that the specifications for it depend in turn upon the size and makeup of the likely boarding population. But both of those factors are still unknown. In addition, and perhaps most important of all, an unprecedented level of funding and resources must be allocated to the project.

In the early part of the 20th century, Hermann Minkowski developed a novel geometric approach to several questions in number theory. This approach developed into a field called the geometry of numbers and it had an influence on fields outside number theory as well, particularly functional analysis and the study of Banach spaces, and more recently on cryptography and discrete optimization. This chapter covers those aspects of the geometry of numbers that are most relevant for the second part of the book on optimization. Topics include the basic theory of lattices (including Minkowski’s convex body theorem), packing and covering radii, shortest and closest lattice vector problems (SVPs and CVPs), Dirichlet-Voronoi cells, Khinchine’s flatness theorem, and maximal lattice-free convex sets. Several topics like lattice basis reduction and SVP/CVP algorithms are presented without making a rationality assumption as is common in other expositions. This presents a slightly more general perspective on these topics that contains the rational setting as a special case.

Adolf Hitler sought to transform Berlin as capital of the Nazi Third Reich. Berlin’s topography of power changed dramatically, including the construction of grandiose new buildings and the imposition of ideological visions on both housing and public spaces. Nazi plans for ‘Germania’ were never fully achieved; instead, the impact of Nazi rule was destructive. The overwhelming majority of Berlin Jews who did not flee abroad in time were ultimately deported to ghettos, slave labour, and extermination camps, as were Roma and Sinti; only a tiny minority survived. During the war, Berlin’s already militarised architecture was massively augmented by the building of flak towers, bunkers and air-raid shelters. By the time of defeat in 1945, the city lay in ruins, devastated by the effects of bombing and having been forced to continue fighting to the last. Surviving Berliners eked out a living among ruins, searching for food and fuel, and fearing rape or robbery by Soviet troops.

How was the British imperial state transformed from an ancien régime in 1819 to a liberal one that depended upon a new science of government?

Ganciclovir is related to aciclovir but is more active against CMV. It is also more toxic. It causes profound myelosuppression when given with zidovudine; the two should not be given together, particularly during initial ganciclovir therapy.

By the 1960s, quite different societies were developing in the two halves of Berlin, one under capitalist auspices and the other under communism. With West German Chancellor Willy Brandt’s Ostpolitik in the early 1970s, a series of treaties resulted in recognition of the GDR and easing of travel restrictions from west to east. Under GDR leader Erich Honecker, the modernity of ‘actually existing socialism’ was expressed in an energetic housing development programme, significant public buildings, and some leeway for cultural experimentation; yet the secret police or Stasi continued to expand, and the physical apparatus of the Wall was further refined. Divergent identities between East and West were evident not only in differing political ideologies, social profiles, and degrees of freedom, consumerism, and material well-being, but also in patterns of historical memorialisation. In the 1980s the economic and environmental decline of the GDR became ever more visible. Growing unrest culminated in challenges to communist rule and the opening of the Wall on 9 November 1989, and led to German reunification in October 1990.