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Slavery: A World History
Milton Meltzer
Slavery is not and has never been a "peculiar institution," but one that is deeply rooted in the history and economy of most countries. Although it has flourished in some periods and declined in others, human bondage for profit has never been eradicated completely. In Slavery: A World History renowned author Milton Meltzer traces slavery from its origins in prehistoric hunting societies; through the boom in slave trading that reached its peak in the United States with a pre-Civil War slave population of 4,000,000; through the forced labor under the Nazi regime and in the Soviet gulags; and finally to its widespread practice in many countries today, such as the debt bondage that miners endure in Brazil or the prostitution into which women are sold in Thailand. - Publisher's description -
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The Course of Mexican History
Michael C. Meyer and William L. Sherman
Mexico's political, social, and economic landscapes have shifted in very striking ways in recent years and the country now moves cautiously forward in the twenty-first century. Revised to address these remarkable transformations, The Course of Mexican History, now in its tenth edition, offers a completely up-to-date, lively, and engaging survey from the pre-Columbian times to the present.
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The Prehistory of the Mind:The Cognitive Origins of Art and Science
Steven Mithen
Here is an exhilarating intellectual performance, in the tradition of Roger Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind and Steven Pinker's The Language Instinct. On the way to showing how the world of our ancient ancestors shaped our modern modular mind, Steven Mithen shares one provocative insight after another as he answers a series of fascinating questions:
- Were our brains hard-wired in the Pleistocene Era by the needs of hunter-gatherers?
- When did religious beliefs first emerge?
- Why were the first paintings made by humankind so technically accomplished and expressive?
- What can the sexual habits of chimpanzees tell us about the prehistory of the modern mind?
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General History of Africa, Vol. II: Ancient Civilizations of Africa
G. Mokhtar
Volume 2 covers the period beginning at the close of the Neolithic era, from around the eighth millenium before our era. This period of some nine thousand years has been sub-divided into four major geographical zones. Chapters 1 to 12 cover the Nile, Egypt and Nubia: by far the largest part of the book is devoted to the ancient civilization of Egypt because of its pre-eminent place in the early history of Africa. Chapters 13 to 16 relate to the Ethiopian highlands. Chapters 17 to 20 describe the Maghrib and its Sahara hinterland, and Chapters 21 to 29 the rest of Africa including some of the Indian Ocean islands. The series is co-published in Africa with seven publishers, in the United States and Canada by the University of California Press, and in association with the UNESCO Press.
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Christopher Columbus, Mariner
Samuel Eliot Morison
One of the great adventure tales of all time, this is the breathtaking story of Christopher Columbus, the canny and skillful Genoese sailor who set out to explore the Indies and discovered the New World instead! Columbus's journeys in tiny ships across thousands of miles of unknown oceans, battling all kinds of weather and often dealing with unruly crews, are among the most significant achievements of recorded history.
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Emergence of Everything: How the World Became Complex
Harold J. Morowitz
When the whole is greater than the sum of the parts--indeed, so great that the sum far transcends the parts and represents something utterly new and different--we call that phenomenon emergence. When the chemicals diffusing in the primordial waters came together to form the first living cell, that was emergence. When the activities of the neurons in the brain result in mind, that too is emergence.
In The Emergence of Everything, one of the leading scientists involved in the study of complexity, Harold J. Morowitz, takes us on a sweeping tour of the universe, a tour with 28 stops, each one highlighting a particularly important moment of emergence. For instance, Morowitz illuminates the emergence of the stars, the birth of the elements and of the periodic table, and the appearance of solar systems and planets. We look at the emergence of living cells, animals, vertebrates, reptiles, and mammals, leading to the great apes and the appearance of humanity. He also examines tool making, the evolution of language, the invention of agriculture and technology, and the birth of cities. And as he offers these insights into the evolutionary unfolding of our universe, our solar system, and life itself, Morowitz also seeks out the nature of God in the emergent universe, the God posited by Spinoza, Bruno, and Einstein, a God Morowitz argues we can know through a study of the laws of nature.
Written by one of our wisest scientists, The Emergence of Everything offers a fascinating new way to look at the universe and the natural world, and it makes an important contribution to the dialogue between science and religion.- Publisher's description -
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Powers of Ten: About the Relative Size of Things in the Universe
Philip Morrison, Phylis Morrison, and Office of Charles and Ray Eames
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Physics for Future Presidents: The Science Behind the Headlines
Richard A. Muller
We live in complicated, dangerous times. Present and future presidents need to know if North Korea's nascent nuclear capability is a genuine threat to the West, if biochemical weapons are likely to be developed by terrorists, if there are viable alternatives to fossil fuels that should be nurtured and supported by the government, if private companies should be allowed to lead the way on space exploration, and what the actual facts are about the worsening threats from climate change. This is "must-have" information for all presidents―and citizens―of the twenty-first century.
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Cliffs Quick Review: Chemistry
Harold D. Nathan and Charles Henrickson
CliffsNotes Quick Review guides give you a clear, concise, easy-to-use review of the basics. Introducing each topic, defining key terms, and carefully walking you through sample problems, this guide helps you grasp and understand the important concepts needed to succeed.
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Take Over: How Euroman Changed the World
Arthur Niehoff
A retired anthropologist attempts to explain the conquering of the New World, plunder of natural resources, and global imposition of Christianity to aliens who cannot fathom twenty-first-century Earth's homogeneous business structure
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The Fourth Horseman: A Short History of Epidemics, Plagues, Famine and Other Scourges
Andrew Nikiforuk
A history of epidemics, plagues, and famines chronicles the disastrous effects of these often cataclysmic events on the individual and on human history
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Babylon
Joan Oates
Dr. Oates describes the rise of Babylon from Sargon of Agade to Hammurabi, the great law-giver under whom in the 18th century BC the city first attained pre-eminence. She charts its progress under his successors, its greatest period of empire during he reigns of Nebuchadnezzar and Nabonidus in the 6th century BC, and its decay and final abandonment as Persians and Greeks turned Mesopotamia into a battleground.
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Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
Barack Obama
In this lyrical, unsentimental, and compelling memoir, the son of a black African father and a white American mother searches for a workable meaning to his life as a black American. It begins in New York, where Barack Obama learns that his father—a figure he knows more as a myth than as a man—has been killed in a car accident. This sudden death inspires an emotional odyssey—first to a small town in Kansas, from which he retraces the migration of his mother’s family to Hawaii, and then to Kenya, where he meets the African side of his family, confronts the bitter truth of his father’s life, and at last reconciles his divided inheritance.
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The Essentials of Ancient History: 4,500 BC to 500 AD, The Emergence of Western Civilization
Gordon M. Patterson
REA’s Essentials provide quick and easy access to critical information in a variety of different fields, ranging from the most basic to the most advanced. As its name implies, these concise, comprehensive study guides summarize the essentials of the field covered. Essentials are helpful when preparing for exams, doing homework and will remain a lasting reference source for students, teachers, and professionals. Ancient History: 4500 BC to 500 AD discusses Mesopotamian civilization, Egyptian civilization, Hebrew civilization, Greek civilization, Alexander and the Hellenistic Age, the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, and Christianity in the ancient world.
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How the Mind Works
Steven Pinker
In this Pulitzer Prize finalist and national bestseller, one of the world's leading cognitive scientists tackles the workings of the human mind. What makes us rational―and why are we so often irrational? How do we see in three dimensions? What makes us happy, afraid, angry, disgusted, or sexually aroused? Why do we fall in love? And how do we grapple with the imponderables of morality, religion, and consciousness? How the Mind Works synthesizes the most satisfying explanations of our mental life from cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and other fields to explain what the mind is, how it evolved, and how it allows us to see, think, feel, laugh, interact, enjoy the arts, and contemplate the mysteries of life.
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The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence has Declined
Steven Pinker
Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think we live in the most violent age ever seen. Yet as New York Times bestselling author Steven Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true: violence has been diminishing for millenia and we may be living in the most peaceful time in our species's existence. For most of history, war, slavery, infanticide, child abuse, assassinations, programs, gruesom punishments, deadly quarrels, and genocide were ordinary features of life. But today, Pinker shows (with the help of more than a hundred graphs and maps) all these forms of violence have dwindled and are widely condemned. How has this happened?
This groundbreaking book continues Pinker's exploration of the esesnce of human nature, mixing psychology and history to provide a remarkable picture of an increasingly nonviolent world. The key, he explains, is to understand our intrinsic motives--the inner demons that incline us toward violence and the better angels that steer us away--and how changing circumstances have allowed our better angels to prevail. Exploding fatalist myths about humankind's inherent violence and the curse of modernity, this ambitious and provocative book is sure to be hotly debated in living rooms and the Pentagon alike, and will challenge and change the way we think about our society.- Publisher's description -
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Medieval Cities
Henri Pirene
Nearly a century after it was first published in 1925, Medieval Cities remains one of the most provocative works of medieval history ever written. Here, Henri Pirenne argues that it was not the invasion of the Germanic tribes that destroyed the civilization of antiquity, but rather the closing of Mediterranean trade by Arab conquest in the seventh century. The consequent interruption of long-distance commerce accelerated the decline of the ancient cities of Europe. Pirenne challenges conventional wisdom by attributing the origins of medieval cities to the revival of trade, tracing their growth from the tenth century to the twelfth. He also describes the important role the middle class played in the development of the modern economic system and modern culture.
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The Botany of Desire
Michael Pollan
Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowers’ genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desires—sweetness, beauty, intoxication, and control—with the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankind’s most basic yearnings. And just as we’ve benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom?
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The Travels of Marco Polo The Venetian
Marco Polo
Marco Polo (1254 to January 8, 1324) was a Venetian explorer known for the book "The Travels of Marco Polo", which describes his voyage to and experiences in Asia. Polo traveled extensively with his family, journeying from Europe to Asia from 1271 to 1295 and remaining in China for 17 of those years.
Marco Polo’s stories about his travels in Asia were published as a book called "The Description of the World", later known as "The Travels of Marco Polo". Just a few years after returning to Venice from China, Marco commanded a ship in a war against the rival city of Genoa. He was eventually captured and sentenced to a Genoese prison, where he met a fellow prisoner and writer named Rustichello. As the two men became friends, Marco told Rustichello about his time in Asia, what he'd seen, where he'd travelled and what he'd accomplished.
The book made Marco a celebrity. It was printed in French, Italian and Latin, becoming the most popular read in Europe. But few readers allowed themselves to believe Marco's tale. They took it to be fiction, the construct of a man with a wild imagination.- Publisher's description -
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