Italy

Pound lived out most of his professional life in Italy, dying in Venice.

The United States

Pound was born in the Idaho Territory in the 1880s and eventually left the United States for Italy.

Usury

The practice of charging money on loans which Pound believed was a great destroyer of civilizations.

Ideograms

A graphic symbol used to represent ideas or concepts and used in the Chinese language; Pound makes use of Chinese ideograms in the book.

Kulchur

Kulchur is the process of putting ideas into action.

The New Learning

The new learning is the learning that must take place beyond the confined structures of thought given in most universities.

Puritanism

Pound condemns Puritanism for its focus on the equality of persons and its (in Pound's opinion) resulting obsessive focus on sex.

Civilization

Civilization and culture are what is left over once propositions and knowledge about a people's...