Cynthia Stokes Brown was an avid reader and researcher. This collection is a digital representation of her personal library with the books categorized as Cynthia had them on the bookshelves in her home.
These are the books she had in her Research collection
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Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica
Christophe A. Pool
Between 1500 and 500 BC the Olmecs flourished in the tropical lowlands of Mexico's Gulf Coast, creating the most complex of Mesoamerica's early societies and its first monumental art. Emphasising the strategies of political leaders and the environmental and social diversity within the Olmec region, this up-to-date and comprehensive study describes the history of Olmec research, synthesises recent scholarship on the ecology, economy, socio-political organisation and ideology of Olmec society, and evaluates current debates over the influence of the Olmecs on their contemporaries and their contributions to later Mesoamerican civilisations.
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The View from the Center of the Universe: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos
Joel P. Primack and Nancy Ellen Abrams
In this strikingly original book, a world-renowned cosmologist and an innovative writer of the history and philosophy of science uncover an astonishing truth: Humans actually are central to the universe. What does this mean for our culture and our personal lives? The answer is revolutionary: a science-based cosmology that allows us to understand the universe as a whole and our extraordinary place in it.
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What is Life?: How Chemistry Becomes Biology
Addy Pross
Seventy years ago, Erwin Schrodinger posed a profound question: 'What is life, and how did it emerge from non-life?' This problem has puzzled biologists and physical scientists ever since.
Living things are hugely complex and have unique properties, such as self-maintenance and apparently purposeful behaviour which we do not see in inert matter. So how does chemistry give rise to biology? What could have led the first replicating molecules up such a path? Now, developments in the emerging field of 'systems chemistry' are unlocking the problem. Addy Pross shows how the different kind of stability that operates among replicating molecules results in a tendency for chemical systems to become more complex and acquire the properties of life. Strikingly, he demonstrates that Darwinian evolution is the biological expression of a deeper, well-defined chemical concept: the whole story from replicating molecules to complex life is one continuous process governed by an underlying physical principle. The gulf between biology and the physical sciences is finally becoming bridged. -
Ishmael
Daniel Quinn
Ishmael is an utterly unique and captivating spiritual adventure which redefines what it is to be human. We are introduced to Ishmael, a creature of immense wisdom. He has a story to tell, one that no human being has ever heard before. It is the story of man's place in the grand scheme, and it begins at the birth of time. This history of the world has never appeared in any schoolbook. "Does the earth belong to man?" Ishmael asks. "Or does man belong to the earth?"
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The Human Species: An Introduction to Biological Anthropology
John H. Relethford
The Human Species provides a comprehensive approach to biological anthropology, especially the relationship between biology and culture, behavior in an evolutionary context, and humans as a species within the primate order. With its lively narrative and emphasis on the most current topics and findings in the field, The Human Species explores the major questions that concern biological anthropologists about our species.
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Dogs of God: Columbus, The Inquisition, and the Defeat fo the Moors
James Reston Jr.
From the acclaimed author of Warriors of God comes a riveting account of the pivotal events of 1492, when towering political ambitions, horrific religious excesses, and a drive toward international conquest changed the world forever.James Reston, Jr., brings to life the epic story of Spain’s effort to consolidate its own burgeoning power by throwing off the yoke of the Vatican. By waging war on the remaining Moors in Granada and unleashing the Inquisitor Torquemada on Spain’s Jewish and converso population, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella attained enough power and wealth to fund Columbus’ expedition to America and to chart a Spanish destiny separate from that of Italy. With rich characterizations of the central players, this engrossing narrative captures all the political and religious ferment of this crucial moment on the eve of the discovery of the New World.
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Farming in the Iron Age
Peter J. Reynolds
An account of farming, building, and daily life in the Iron Age in Britain based on experimental archaeological reconstructions.
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In The Beginning: world History from Human Evolution to the First States
Lauren Ristvet
This engaging and accessible volume draws on the most recent historical archeological scholarship to tell the stories of human evolution, "gathering and hunting" societies, and the distinct breakthroughs that led to the emergence of the earliest cities, states, and civilizations. Highlighting both the separate paths and the intersecting journeys of diverse human communities, In the Beginning provides the essential but often neglected foundation on which all subsequent historical development was constructed.
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Dances with the Earth: Geophonic Music from the Stratigraphic Record of Central Italy
Gabriele Rossetti and Alessandro Montanari
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Ancient Iraq
Georges Roux
Newly revised and containing information from recent excavations and discovered artifacts, Ancient Iraq covers the political, cultural, and socio-economic history from Mesopotamia days of prehistory to the Christian era.
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Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
Carlo Rovelli
'Here, on the edge of what we know, in contact with the ocean of the unknown, shines the mystery and the beauty of the world. And it's breathtaking.' These seven short, simple lessons guide us through the scientific revolution that shook physics in the twentieth century and still continues to shake us today. Theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli, a founder of the loop quantum gravity theory, explains Einstein's theory of general relativity, quantum mechanics, black holes, the complex architecture of the universe, elementary particles, gravity, and the nature of the mind. In under eighty pages, readers will understand the most transformative scientific discoveries of the twentieth century and what they mean for us
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Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate
William F. Ruddiman
The impact on climate from 200 years of industrial development is an everyday fact of life, but did humankind's active involvement in climate change really begin with the industrial revolution, as commonly believed? Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum has sparked lively scientific debate since it was first published--arguing that humans have actually been changing the climate for some 8,000 years--as a result of the earlier discovery of agriculture.
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Evolutionary History: Uniting History ad Biology to Understand Life on Earth
Edmund Russell
We tend to see history and evolution springing from separate roots, one grounded in the human world and the other in the natural world. Human beings have, however, become probably the most powerful species shaping evolution today, and human-caused evolution in other species has probably been the most important force shaping human history. This book introduces readers to evolutionary history, a new field that unites history and biology to create a fuller understanding of the past than either can produce on its own. Evolutionary history can stimulate surprising new hypotheses for any field of history and evolutionary biology. How many art historians would have guessed that sculpture encouraged the evolution of tuskless elephants? How many biologists would have predicted that human poverty would accelerate animal evolution? How many military historians would have suspected that plant evolution would convert a counter-insurgency strategy into a rebel subsidy? With examples from around the globe, this book will help readers see the broadest patterns of history and the details of their own life in a new light.
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The New Archaelology and the Ancient Maya
Jeremy A. Sabloff
Using high-tech equipment, chemical analyses and sampling strategies, archaeologists are learning more about how and why cultures change. Using the study of the Maya as a test case, this book shows how the transformation of archaeology has brought new understanding of past civilizations.
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Cosmos
Carl Sagan
Cosmos is one of the bestselling science books of all time. In clear-eyed prose, Sagan reveals a jewel-like blue world inhabited by a life form that is just beginning to discover its own identity and to venture into the vast ocean of space.
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The Dragons of Eden
Carl Sagan
A presentation of the physical development of human intelligence. Includes color fold-out prehistoric illustration on inside front cover.
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Islands of History
Marshall Sahlins
Marshall Sahlins centers these essays on islands—Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand—whose histories have intersected with European history. But he is also concerned with the insular thinking in Western scholarship that creates false dichotomies between past and present, between structure and event, between the individual and society. Sahlins's provocative reflections form a powerful critique of Western history and anthropology.
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The Conquest of Paradise: Christopher Columbus and the Columbian Legacy
Kirkpatrick Sale
Christopher Columbus' arrival on a small Bahamian island in 1492 is often judged to be a defining moment in the history of mankind, changing forever the map of the world. Kirkpatrick Sale offers readers a unique take on Columbus and his legacy, separating the man from the legend. Sale also looks at the global consequences of the discovery, revealing the colossal impact this brief moment in history had not only on a continent but also on the world. Now with a new introduction by Sale, this classic book is being re-issued for the 500th aniversary of Columbus' death in the heart of Castille.
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A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscentist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons
Robert M. Sapolsky
In the tradition of Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, Robert Sapolsky, a foremost science writer and recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant, tells the mesmerizing story of his twenty-one years in remote Kenya with a troop of Savannah baboons.
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The Human Past
Chris Scarre
The Human Past has established itself as a thorough and authoritative survey of human prehistory and the development of civilizations. Written by an international team of respected experts in the field, it presents a streamlined overview that can be broken down into a series of chapters focusing on individual regions and time periods.
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The Copernicus Complex: Our Cosmic Signficance in a Universe of Planets and Probabliities
Caleb Scharf
In The Copernicus Complex, the renowned astrophysicist Caleb Scharf takes us on a scientific adventure, from tiny microbes within the Earth to distant exoplanets, probability theory, and beyond, arguing that there is a solution to this contradiction, a third way of viewing our place in the cosmos, if we weigh the evidence properly. As Scharf explains, we do occupy an unusual time in a 14-billion-year-old universe, in a somewhat unusual type of solar system surrounded by an ocean of unimaginable planetary diversity: hot Jupiters with orbits of less than a day, planet-size rocks spinning around dead stars, and a wealth of alien super-Earths. Yet life here is built from the most common chemistry in the universe, and we are a snapshot taken from billions of years of biological evolution. Bringing us to the cutting edge of scientific discovery, Scharf shows how the answers to fundamental questions of existence will come from embracing the peculiarity of our circumstance without denying the Copernican vision.
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How Writing Came About
Denise Schmandt-Besserat
In 1992, the University of Texas Press published Before Writing, Volume I: From Counting to Cuneiform and Before Writing, Volume II: A Catalog of Near Eastern Tokens. In these two volumes, Denise Schmandt-Besserat set forth her groundbreaking theory that the cuneiform script invented in the Near East in the late fourth millennium B.C.—the world's oldest known system of writing—derived from an archaic counting device.How Writing Came About draws material from both volumes to present Schmandt-Besserat's theory for a wide public and classroom audience. Based on the analysis and interpretation of a selection of 8,000 tokens or counters from 116 sites in Iran, Iraq, the Levant, and Turkey, it documents the immediate precursor of the cuneiform script.
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The Universe Within: Discovering the Common History of Rocks, Planets, and People
Neil Shubin
In The Universe Within, Neil Shubin reveals the connection between the evolution of the cosmos and the evolution of the human body.
Just as the history of the earth is written in the rocks, so too is the universe’s 14-billion-year history written in the human body. Starting at the smallest level, with our very molecular composition, Shubin explores the question of why we are the way we are, tracing the formation of the planets, the moon, and the globe of Earth through the development of the organs, cells, and genes that make up human life. -
Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of he Human Body
Neil Shubin
By examining fossils and DNA, he shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our heads are organized like long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genomes look and function like those of worms and bacteria. Your Inner Fish makes us look at ourselves and our world in an illuminating new light.
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Many Mexicos
Lesley Byrd Simpson
Perhaps no country's history is as fascinating and perplexing as that of Mexico. "Mother Mexico," land of paradox, of contradiction and extreme--these are the strands that Lesley Byrd Simpson weaves into a unified fabric in presenting the country's history. First published in 1941, Many Mexicos was awarded the Commonwealth Club Gold Medal for Literature. Travelers, students, and all who delight in the adventure of narrative history have since treasured the volume for its clarity and readability. Now, completely revised, the Silver Anniversary Edition reflects the vast published output of these past twenty-five years on the history of Mexico. Some chapters have been enlarged, others corrected. A map of Mexico showing political subdivisions is now included, and, in general, new material has been added to document the author's controversial statement (and there are many). Bloody conquests and revolutions; men, good or evil; art, religion, and institutions brought from Spain or made in Mexico; topography and climate; the conflict of cultures and races; and finally, the emergence of Mexico into today's bewildering world--this in broad outline is the absorbing story Mr. Simpson so warmly presents.
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The Glory of Hera: Greek Mythology and the Greek Family
Philip E. Slater
The ancient Athenians were "quarrelsome as friends, treacherous as neighbors, brutal as masters, faithless as servants, shallow as lovers--all of which was in part redeemed by their intelligence and creativity". Thus writes Philip Slater in this classic work on narcissism and family relationships in fifth-century Athenian society. Exploring a rich corpus of Greek mythology and drama, he argues that the personalities and social behavior of the gods were neurotic, and that their neurotic conditions must have mirrored the family life of the people who perpetuated their myths. The author traces the issue of narcissism to mother-son relationships, focusing primarily on the literary representation of Hera and the male gods and showing how it related to devalued women raising boys in an ambitious society dominated by men.
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On Deep History and the Brain
Daniel Lord Smail
When does history begin? What characterizes it? This brilliant and beautifully written book dissolves the logic of a beginning based on writing, civilization, or historical consciousness and offers a model for a history that escapes the continuing grip of the Judeo-Christian time frame. Daniel Lord Smail argues that in the wake of the Decade of the Brain and the best-selling historical work of scientists like Jared Diamond, the time has come for fundamentally new ways of thinking about our past. He shows how recent work in evolution and paleohistory makes it possible to join the deep past with the recent past and abandon, once and for all, the idea of prehistory. Making an enormous literature accessible to the general reader, he lays out a bold new case for bringing neuroscience and neurobiology into the realm of history.
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The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel
Mark S. Smith
In this remarkable, acclaimed history of the development of monotheism, Mark S. Smith explains how Israel's religion evolved from a cult of Yahweh as a primary deity among many to a fully defined monotheistic faith with Yahweh as sole god. Repudiating the traditional view that Israel was fundamentally different in culture and religion from its Canaanite neighbors, this provocative book argues that Israelite religion developed, at least in part, from the religion of Canaan. Drawing on epigraphic and archaeological sources, Smith cogently demonstrates that Israelite religion was not an outright rejection of foreign, pagan gods but, rather, was the result of the progressive establishment of a distinctly separate Israelite identity.
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The Aztecs
Michael E. Smith
The Aztecs brings to life one of the best-known indigenous civilizations of the Americas in a vivid, comprehensive account of the ancient Aztecs.
- A thorough examination of Aztec origins and civilization including religion, science, and thought
- Incorporates the latest archaeological excavations and research into explanations of the Spanish conquest and the continuity of Aztec culture in Central Mexico
- Expanded coverage includes key topics such as writing, music, royal tombs, and Aztec predictions of the end of the world
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Time Reborn: From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe
Lee Smolin
It’s the sort of question we rarely ask because it seems so obvious. And yet, to a physicist, time is simply a human construct and an illusion. If you could somehow get outside the universe and observe it from there, you would see that every moment has always existed and always will. Lee Smolin disagrees, and in Time Reborn he lays out the case why.
Developments in physics and cosmology point toward the reality of time and the openness of the future. Smolin’s groundbreaking theory postulates that physical laws can evolve over time and the future is not yet determined. Newton’s fundamental laws may not remain so fundamental. Time Reborn serves as a popular primer and investigation of time, both what it is and how the true nature of it impacts our world. -
Wrinkles in Time
George Smoot and Keay Davidson
Astrophysicist George Smoot spent decades pursuing the origin of the cosmos, "the holy grail of science," a relentless hunt that led him from the rain forests of Brazil to the frozen wastes of Antarctica. In his search he struggled against time, the elements, and the forces of ignorance and bureaucratic insanity. Finally, after years of research, Smoot and his dedicated team of Berkeley researchers succeeded in proving the unprovable; uncovering, inarguably and for all time, the secrets of the creation of the universe. Wrinkles in Time describes this startling discovery that would usher in a new scientific age; and win Smoot the Nobel Prize in Physics.
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Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in th Greco-Roman Experience
Frank M. Snowden Jr.
The Africans who came to ancient Greece and Italy participated in an important chapter of classical history. Although evidence indicated that the alien dark- and black-skinned people were of varied tribal and geographic origins, the Greeks and Romans classified many of them as Ethiopians. In an effort to determine the role of black people in ancient civilization, Mr. Snowden examines a broad span of Greco-Roman experience--from the Homeric era to the age of Justinian--focusing his attention on the Ethiopians as they were known to the Greeks and Romans. The author dispels unwarranted generalizations about the Ethiopians, contending that classical references to them were neither glorifications of a mysterious people nor caricatures of rare creatures.
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Significant Others: The Ape-human Continuum and the Quest for Human Nature
Craig Stanford
Evolutionary scientists know that the line that divides humans from other animals has grown increasingly blurry, yet many other fields, especially in the social sciences, have not really absorbed this knowledge. At the same time, the knowledge that all humans are genetically and cognitively modern has left the apes as our only true "savages." Thus if we want to learn about human nature and how we came to be as we are, we must look to the apes. In this sweeping, fresh, controversial book, primatologist Craig Stanford does just that, giving us fascinating insights--and debunks many myths--about infanticide, mating practices, and the origins of human cognition.
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Interpreting the Industrial Revolution
Peter N. Stearns
This essay examines the causes and changes--economic, social, political, and technological--of the Industrial Revolution that first influenced European and American societies and were then felt on a global basis. Industrial revolutions in Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, the United States, and several developing nations are also studied.
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When God Was a Woman
Merlin Stone
Here, archaeologically documented,is the story of the religion of the Goddess. Under her, women’s roles were far more prominent than in patriarchal Judeo-Christian cultures. Stone describes this ancient system and, with its disintegration, the decline in women’s status. Index; maps and illustrations.
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Gender, Sex, and Empire
Margaret Strobel
The intersection of gender, sexuality, and race is a new area of exploration within the study of European imperialism. In this essay the author discusses such roles as white women’s implicit task of regulating the sexual boundaries between the ruling classes and the indigenous populations during the 18th and 19th centuries. The focus of this exploration is primarily on British Africa and India, with other areas briefly touched upon.
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The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals our Genetic Ancestry
Bryan Sykes
n 1994 Bryan Sykes was called in as an expert to examine the frozen remains of a man trapped in glacial ice in northern Italy for over 5000 years―the Ice Man. Sykes succeeded in extracting DNA from the Ice Man, but even more important, writes Science News, was his "ability to directly link that DNA to Europeans living today." In this groundbreaking book, Sykes reveals how the identification of a particular strand of DNA that passes unbroken through the maternal line allows scientists to trace our genetic makeup all the way back to prehistoric times―to seven primeval women, the "seven daughters of Eve."
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Religion and the Rise of Capitalism
R. H. Tawney
In one of the truly great classics of twentieth-century political economy, R. H. Tawney addresses the question of how religion has affected social and economic practices. He does this by a relentless tracking of the influence of religious thought on capitalist economy and ideology since the Middle Ages. In so doing he sheds light on why Christianity continues to exert a unique role in the marketplace. In so doing, the book offers an incisive analysis of the historical background of present morals and mores in Western culture.
Religion and the Rise of Capitalism is even more pertinent now than when it first was published; for today it is clearer that the dividing line between spheres of religion and secular business is shifting, that economic interests and ethical considerations are no longer safely locked in separate compartments.
By examining that period which saw the transition from medieval to modern theories of social organization, Tawney clarifies the most pressing problems of the end of the century. In tough, muscular, richly varied prose, he tells an absorbing and meaningful story. And in his new introduction, which may well be a classic in its own right, Adam Seligman details Tawney's entire background, the current status of social science thought on these large issues, and a comparative analysis of Tawney with Max Weber that will at once delight and inform readers of all kinds.
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The Old Way: A Story of the First People
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas was nineteen when her father took his family to live among the Bushmen of the Kalahari. Fifty years later, after a life of writing and study, Thomas returns to her experiences with the Bushmen, one of the last hunter-gatherer societies on earth, and discovers among them an essential link to the origins of all human society.
Humans lived for 1,500 centuries as roving clans, adapting daily to changes in environment and food supply, living for the most part like their animal ancestors. Those origins are not so easily abandoned, Thomas suggests, and our modern society has plenty still to learn from the Bushmen.
Through her vivid, empathic account, Thomas reveals a template for the lives and societies of all humankind.
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Industrialization and Gender Inequality
Louise A. Tilly
This essay explores the impact of changing socioeconomic structures on gender inequality by making systematic comparisons of early industrialization and urbanization in Britain, China, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States. The essay draws conclusions based on the analysis of the differing effects and methods of industrialization and makes suggestions for continued research.
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Understanding Early Civilizations
Bruce G. Trigger
Arising independently in various parts of the world, early civilizations-the first class-based societies in human history-are of importance to social scientists interested in the development of complexity, while their cultural productions fascinate both humanists and the general public. This book offers the first detailed comparative study of the seven most fully documented early civilizations: ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, Shang China, the Aztecs and their neighbors, the Classic Maya, the Inca, and the Yoruba. Unlike previous studies, equal attention is paid to similarities and differences in their sociopolitical organization, their economic systems, and their religious beliefs, knowledge, art, and values.
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The Time Before History: 5 Million Years of Human Impact
Colin Tudge
Chronicles the period in evolution during which human beings progressed from simians to hominids, citing the pivotal roles of climate, ecology, and geological movements while predicitng future changes
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Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors
Nicholas Wade
Nicholas Wade’s articles are a major reason why the science section has become the most popular, nationwide, in the New York Times. In his groundbreaking Before the Dawn, Wade reveals humanity’s origins as never before—a journey made possible only recently by genetic science, whose incredible findings have answered such questions as: What was the first human language like? How large were the first societies, and how warlike were they? When did our ancestors first leave Africa, and by what route did they leave? By eloquently solving these and numerous other mysteries, Wade offers nothing less than a uniquely complete retelling of a story that began 500 centuries ago.
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The Odyssey of Ibn Battuta: Uncommon Tales of a Medieval Adventurer
David Waines
Ibn Battuta was, without doubt, one of the world’s truly great travelers. Born in fourteenth-century Morocco, and a contemporary of Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta left an account in his own words of his remarkable journeys, punctuated by adventure and peril, throughout the Islamic world and beyond. Whether sojourning in Delhi and the Maldives, wandering through the mazy streets of Cairo and Damascus, or contesting with pirates and shipwreck, the indefatigable Ibn Battuta brought to vivid life a medieval world brimming with marvel and mystery. Carefully observing the great diversity of civilizations that he encountered, Ibn Battuta exhibited an omnivorous interest in such matters as food and drink; religious differences among Christians, Hindus, and Shia Muslims; and ideas about purity and impurity, disease, women, and sex.
David Waines offers here a graceful analysis of Ibn Battuta’s travelogue. This is a gripping treatment of the life and times of one of history’s most daring, and at the same time most human, adventurers.
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Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos
M. Mitchell Waldrop
Why did the stock market crash more than 500 points on a single Monday in 1987? Why do ancient species often remain stable in the fossil record for millions of years and then suddenly disappear? In a world where nice guys often finish last, why do humans value trust and cooperation? At first glance these questions don't appear to have anything in common, but in fact every one of these statements refers to a complex system. The science of complexity studies how single elements, such as a species or a stock, spontaneously organize into complicated structures like ecosystems and economies; stars become galaxies, and snowflakes avalanches almost as if these systems were obeying a hidden yearning for order.
Drawing from diverse fields, scientific luminaries such as Nobel Laureates Murray Gell-Mann and Kenneth Arrow are studying complexity at a think tank called The Santa Fe Institute. The revolutionary new discoveries researchers have made there could change the face of every science from biology to cosmology to economics. M. Mitchell Waldrop's groundbreaking bestseller takes readers into the hearts and minds of these scientists to tell the story behind this scientific revolution as it unfolds.
