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Displaying records 1 through 10 of 4000 |
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Price: $23.95
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Sale: $15.34
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Manufacturer: Collins
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Hardcover
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Author: Erik Sass::Steve Wiegand::Editors Of Mental Floss
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Publisher: Collins
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Dewey Decimal Number: 909
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Publication Date: 2008-11-01
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Reading Level: 432
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Description: History is . . .
(a) more or less bunk.
(b) a nightmare from which I am trying to awaken.
(c) as thoroughly infected with lies as a street whore with syphilis. Match your answers:
(1) Stephen Daedalus of James Joyce's Ulysses
(2) Henry Ford
(3) Arthur Schopenhauer It turns out that answer need not be bunk, nightmarish, or diseased. In the hands of mental_floss, history's most interesting bits have been handpicked and roasted to perfection. Packed with little-known stories and outrageous—but accurate—facts, you'll laugh yourself smarter on this joyride through 60,000 years of human civilization. Remember: just because it's true, doesn't mean it's boring! Exclusive: Amazonian Tips for Amazon.com  When you think of the word “Amazon,” we’re sure the first thing that comes to mind is the fantastic website where you can buy our book (buy our book!) or half-naked warrior women. But here are three tantalizing tidbits you might not know--and why you need to act now. 1. Find Gold
There’s something about long, tropical rivers that seems to drive people batty. But the Basque conquistador Lope de Aguirre was by all accounts a murderous sociopath long before he got to the Amazon. Take, for instance, the time a judge sentenced Aguirre to be flogged. The brutish Basque hunted the terrified magistrate across 4,000 miles of rough South American terrain, barefoot, to kill him! So, in 1560, it probably wasn’t the best idea to invite Aguirre along on the quest to find El Dorado, the legendary city of gold. After 900 miles of unbroken rain forest, Aguirre was fed up. He led a mutiny that killed more than half of his fellow conquistadors. Then, he declared himself prince of Peru, Tierra Firma, and Chile. Eventually he and his tiny army attacked Panama…where he was killed and dismembered so his body parts could be paraded around the colony.
The bright side: El Dorado is still out there, waiting for you to discover it! Just don’t bring a friend like Lope. 2. Invest a Dollar
When it’s not making people crazy, the Amazon seems to inspire bizarre, larger-than-life schemes. In 1967, American shipping magnate and billionaire Daniel Ludwig bought a larger-than-Connecticut sized chunk of the Amazon to create a gigantic industrial and agricultural complex called the Jari Project. It didn’t work out. All the construction led to massive soil erosion, screwing up the “agricultural” part of his plan. After sinking $1 billion into the project (back when $1 billion really meant something) Ludwig called it quits in 1982. It was eventually put up for sale for $1--a great deal, if you’re willing to assume $354 million in debt.
The bright side: For anyone with a dollar and a dream, it’s your lucky day: the Jari Project is still for sale! 3. Make New Friends
The pictures of spear-wielding tribesmen produced in May 2008 may have been a hoax, but it’s true that there are literally dozens of so-called “uncontacted” native tribes in the Amazon basin--Stone Age peoples who have never had any contact with the outside world! While this seems preposterous, it makes sense when you consider the Basin’s size, over 2.7 million square miles in area, half of which is covered by dense rain forest and divided by 15,000 rivers and tributaries. Altogether, there are believed to be about three dozen uncontacted tribes in Brazil and 15 in Peru.
The bright side: If you’re up for the adventure, you have more than 50 chances to claim fame and fortune. Just make sure you don’t accidentally give everyone smallpox. … And so much more!
What you’ve just read isn’t available in our book, but don’t worry--roughly 82% of the rest of history is. Our twelve essential chapters tackle everything from civilization’s baby steps in the Fertile Crescent to the Pope’s first text message, the 6,000-pound super-wombats of early Australia to the Goose Crusade of 1096, the golden hemorrhoids of the Philistines to the most important assassinations of the 20th century, and everything else that’s wacky, entertaining, and completely, unbelievably true.
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Price: $24.95
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Sale: $14.90
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Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Hardcover
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Author: Jared Diamond
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Publisher: W. W. Norton
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Edition: 1
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Dewey Decimal Number: 303.4
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Publication Date: 2005-07-11
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Reading Level: 512
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Description: Explaining what William McNeill called The Rise of the West has become the central problem in the study of global history. In Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond presents the biologist's answer: geography, demography, and ecological happenstance. Diamond evenhandedly reviews human history on every continent since the Ice Age at a rate that emphasizes only the broadest movements of peoples and ideas. Yet his survey is binocular: one eye has the rather distant vision of the evolutionary biologist, while the other eye--and his heart--belongs to the people of New Guinea, where he has done field work for more than 30 years.
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Price: $24.00
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Sale: $12.17
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Manufacturer: Rodale Books
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Hardcover
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Author: David S. Kidder::Noah D. Oppenheim
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Publisher: Rodale Books
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Dewey Decimal Number: 909.8
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Publication Date: 2008-10-14
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Reading Level: 384
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Description: In the tradition of the instant bestsellers The Intellectual Devotional and The Intellectual Devotional: American History comes the third installment in this indispensable series. In The Intellectual Devotional: Modern Culture, the authors explore the fascinating world of contemporary culture to offer 365 daily readings that provide the essential references needed to navigate the world today. Quench your intellectual thirst with an overview of the literature, music, film, personalities, trends, sports, and pop references that have defined the way we live. From the Slinky to Star Wars; Beatlemania to Babe Ruth; flappers to fascism—refreshing your memory and dazzling your friends has never been easier, or more fun. Whether you're a trivia genius, pop-culture buff, or avid reader, you'll be riveted by this comprehensive journey through contemporary culture. |
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Price: $19.95
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Sale: $15.91
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Manufacturer: Center for Constitutional Studies
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Binding: Paperback
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Author: W. Cleon Skousen
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Publisher: Center for Constitutional Studies
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Edition: 7th
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Dewey Decimal Number: 320
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Publication Date: 2006-06-01
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Reading Level: 310
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Description: Discover the 28 Principles of Freedom our Founding Fathers said must be understood and perpetuated by every people who desire peace, prosperity, and freedom. Learn how adherence to these beliefs during the past 200 years has brought about more progress than was made in the previous 5,000 years.
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Price: $24.95
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Sale: $14.30
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Manufacturer: Collins
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Hardcover
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Author: Bob Brier::Jean-pierre Houdin
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Publisher: Collins
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Dewey Decimal Number: 932
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Publication Date: 2008-10-01
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Reading Level: 304
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Description: Nine years ago, French architect Jean-Pierre Houdin became obsessed by the centuries-old mystery of how the Great Pyramid was built. For ten hours a day, he labored at his computer to create exquisitely detailed 3-D models of the interior of the Great Pyramid. After five years of effort, the images rotating on his computer screen provided evidence of an astonishing secret. Corkscrewing up the inside of the Great Pyramid is a mile-long ramp, unseen for 4,500 years. The pyramid was built from the inside. This revelation casts a fresh light on the minds that conceived one of the wonders of the ancient world. The Secret of the Great Pyramid moves between the ancient and the modern. The ancient story chronicles, step-by-step, how a nation of farmers only recently emerged from the Stone Age could construct one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. To execute something as complex and massive as the Great Pyramid, Egypt needed architects, mathematicians, boat builders, stone masons, and metallurgists. It took twenty years to build the Great Pyramid. By the time its capstone was laid in 2560 B.C., the innovations born of the building quest had transformed agrarian Egypt into the world's most modern, most powerful nation. As we follow the progress of Hemienu, the innovative architect who planned, organized, and oversaw construction of the Great Pyramid, we also follow Houdin working to discover how and why the ancient architect designed the Pyramid as he did. Houdin works as a forensic architect, aiming to reconstruct the lessons Hemienu had learned from construction of three previous pyramids and to visualize his blueprint for the massive stone building. In the process, Houdin also discovers the answers to other questions that have bedeviled Egyptologists for centuries: such as what was the purpose of the mysterious Grand Gallery and when did the Pyramid crack? Along the way, Houdin receives the support of a pathbreaking French software company, which helps him validate his theory virtually—a first in archaeology! The story of genius and obsession in the ancient and modern world, this archaeological mystery will appeal to anyone who has ever been captivated by this magnificent edifice.
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Price: $18.00
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Sale: $5.75
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Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Paperback
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Author: Jared Diamond
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Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Dewey Decimal Number: 304.28
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Publication Date: 2005-12-27
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Reading Level: 592
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Description: Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed is the glass-half-empty follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel. While Guns, Germs, and Steel explained the geographic and environmental reasons why some human populations have flourished, Collapse uses the same factors to examine why ancient societies, including the Anasazi of the American Southwest and the Viking colonies of Greenland, as well as modern ones such as Rwanda, have fallen apart. Not every collapse has an environmental origin, but an eco-meltdown is often the main catalyst, he argues, particularly when combined with society's response to (or disregard for) the coming disaster. Still, right from the outset of Collapse, the author makes clear that this is not a mere environmentalist's diatribe. He begins by setting the book's main question in the small communities of present-day Montana as they face a decline in living standards and a depletion of natural resources. Once-vital mines now leak toxins into the soil, while prion diseases infect some deer and elk and older hydroelectric dams have become decrepit. On all these issues, and particularly with the hot-button topic of logging and wildfires, Diamond writes with equanimity. Because he's addressing such significant issues within a vast span of time, Diamond can occasionally speak too briefly and assume too much, and at times his shorthand remarks may cause careful readers to raise an eyebrow. But in general, Diamond provides fine and well-reasoned historical examples, making the case that many times, economic and environmental concerns are one and the same. With Collapse, Diamond hopes to jog our collective memory to keep us from falling for false analogies or forgetting prior experiences, and thereby save us from potential devastations to come. While it might seem a stretch to use medieval Greenland and the Maya to convince a skeptic about the seriousness of global warming, it's exactly this type of cross-referencing that makes Collapse so compelling. --Jennifer Buckendorff
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Price: $16.00
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Sale: $8.25
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Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Paperback
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Author: Mark Kurlansky
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Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Dewey Decimal Number: 553.63209
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Publication Date: 2003-01-28
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Reading Level: 498
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Description: Mark Kurlansky, the bestselling author of Cod and The Basque History of the World, here turns his attention to a common household item with a long and intriguing history: salt. The only rock we eat, salt has shaped civilization from the very beginning, and its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of humankind. A substance so valuable it served as currency, salt has influenced the establishment of trade routes and cities, provoked and financed wars, secured empires, and inspired revolutions. Populated by colorful characters and filled with an unending series of fascinating details, Kurlansky's kaleidoscopic history is a supremely entertaining, multi-layered masterpiece.
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Price: $24.00
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Sale: $11.94
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Manufacturer: Modern Times
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Hardcover
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Author: David S. Kidder::Noah D. Oppenheim
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Publisher: Modern Times
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Edition: 1st
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Dewey Decimal Number: 973
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Publication Date: 2007-10-16
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Reading Level: 368
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Description: Modeled after those bedside books of prayer and contemplation that millions turn to for daily spiritual guidance and growth, the national bestseller The Intellectual Devotional—offering secular wisdom and cerebral nourishment—drew a year’s worth of readings from seven different fields of knowledge. In this follow-up volume, authors David S. Kidder and Noah D. Oppenheim have turned to the rich legacy of American history for their selections. From Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin to Martin Luther King Jr., from the Federalist Papers to Watergate, the giant figures, cultural touchstones, and pivotal events in our national heritage provide a bountiful source of reflection and education that will refresh knowledge, revitalize the mind, and open new horizons of intellectual discovery. |
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Price: $22.95
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Sale: $13.28
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Manufacturer: Sounds True, Incorporated
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Hardcover
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Author: Gregg Braden::Peter Russell::Daniel Pinchbeck::Geoff Stray::John Major Jenkins
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Publisher: Sounds True, Incorporated
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Dewey Decimal Number: 133.3
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Publication Date: 2007-09-01
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Reading Level: 417
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Description: What Will Happen in 2012? Will there be an age of awakening, a new step in human evolution, or even an end to the world we know? For years, archaeologists have known the Mayan calendar predicts this date as the end of an era on Earth. Today, more and more researchers, spiritual explorers, and even scientists are witnessing signs that 2012 will mark a critical shift in the history of our planet. Now, the leading authorities on the 2012 phenomenon present their insights about this enigmatic date. Featuring essays from 25 renowned experts on the question of 2012, this invaluable anthology examines the mystery from every angle--spiritual, economic, ecological, and scientific--and to decide for yourself whether 2012 will end with a whimper or a bang. In The Mystery of 2012, you will discover the startling predictions and revelations of prominent thinkers, including: * John Major Jenkins' journey to the source for answers--the original Mayan calendar * Gregg Braden's examination of the scientific evidence for a shift in the Earth's magnetic field, and how it will affect all life * Barbara Marx Hubbard's and Peter Russell's explorations of the accelerating pace of evolution--why we may literally be transforming into a new species * Ecologist Joanna R. Macy's vision of "The Great Turning," and how we can take part in this shift to a life-sustaining culture * Daniel Pinchbeck's investigation of the shift of consciousness that will be necessary for humanity to survive 2012 * Jean Houston's predictions on the coming "Jump Time," and her practical advice for dealing with the impact it will have on your life * Corinne MacLaughlin's discussion of using spirituality and consciousness to influence business and political trends
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Price: $45.00
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Sale: $26.97
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Manufacturer: Pantheon
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Hardcover
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Author: Herodotus
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Publisher: Pantheon
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Dewey Decimal Number: 930
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Publication Date: 2007-11-06
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Reading Level: 1024
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Description: From the editor of the widely praised The Landmark Thucydides, a new Landmark Edition of The Histories by Herodotus, the greatest classical work of history ever written.
Herodotus was a Greek historian living in Ionia during the fifth century BCE. He traveled extensively through the lands of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea and collected stories, and then recounted his experiences with the varied people and cultures he encountered. Cicero called him “the father of history,” and his only work, The Histories, is considered the first true piece of historical writing in Western literature. With lucid prose that harks back to the time of oral tradition, Herodotus set a standard for narrative nonfiction that continues to this day.
In The Histories, Herodotus chronicles the rise of the Persian Empire and its dramatic war with the Greek city-states. Within that story he includes rich veins of anthropology, ethnography, geology, and geography, pioneering these fields of study, and explores such universal themes as the nature of freedom, the role of religion, the human costs of war, and the dangers of absolute power.
Ten years in the making, The Landmark Herodotus gives us a new, dazzling translation by Andrea L. Purvis that makes this remarkable work of literature more accessible than ever before. Illustrated, annotated, and filled with maps, this edition also includes an introduction by Rosalind Thomas and twenty-one appendices written by scholars at the top of their fields, covering such topics as Athenian government, Egypt, Scythia, Persian arms and tactics, the Spartan state, oracles, religion, tyranny, and women.
Like The Landmark Thucydides before it, The Landmark Herodotus is destined to be the most readable and comprehensively useful edition of The Histories available.
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Displaying records 1 through 10 of 4000
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