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This chapter returns to the question who invented what in central banking. The review confirms broader and earlier origins of central banking, with particularly the early banks in Barcelona, Genoa, Naples, Venice, Amsterdam, and Hamburg having all made major contributions and actually having developed all central bank operations that would prevail until the early twentieth century (except discounting trade bills). The Bank of England invented the private ownership model based on a joint stock company, which became the template for most central bank creations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but has been considered outdated since the mid twentieth century. Moreover, it had the largest balance sheet amongst all central banks in the eighteenth century. The chapter ends with a list of 15 major current central bank topics which all can be traced back to before 1800, showing how relevant the study of early central banking remains.

This chapter focuses on William Gardner Smith, an African American writer who did not expect to write protest fiction at all. Like other young African American writers of the period, he resisted the burdensome obligation of following Wright’s blueprint. He struggled to reconcile his commitment to what he saw as universal themes with the raw materials for fiction with which his experiences had provided him. He initially determined that he would follow the model of best sellers such as The Foxes of Harrow and Willard Motley’s Knock on Any Door in which blacks were always only secondary characters. Smith viewed his approach as pragmatic and a logical consequence of his orientation toward canonical European and American writers.

This chapter summarizes the authors’ reflections of the publication journey in conjunction with the volume’s themes and contents. Thoughts of the complexity of the main theme, the spirited, are revisited in the context of the book’s production process, including the multi-dimensional backgrounds of the contributors. Editorial management and direction are explained as the authors share their review of the book project and that the essential presence of a meta goodwill spirit is important to its completion and success. The expanding boundaries of animation studies is once again emphasized as the authors re-state the spectrum of inquiry into seemingly unrelated subjects of study, as well as the equally related universal humanistic visions and quest for wider cultural knowledge and understanding.

This chapter discusses the acquisition and programming of integrated sitcoms in apartheid South Africa. It analyzes how the South African channel Bop-TV used integrated sitcoms to construct an antiapartheid program schedule and channel identity. In addition to demolishing the prevalent industry lore that programming must have “universal themes” in order to appeal to international viewers, the story of integrated situation comedies in South Africa demonstrates the various institutional labors that broadcasters could generate from imported African American programming. It also displays the centrality of African American themes, even in highly integrated series, in explaining the value that foreign broadcasters often find in such imports.