Showing titles in Civilization

Two-time Pulitzer Prize - winning historian Barbara Tuchman explores the complex relationship of Britain to Palestine that led to the founding of the modern Jewish state - and to many of the problems that plague the Middle East today.

All golden ages are marked by periods of spectacular cultural flourishing, scientific exploration, technological achievement and economic growth; yet no two are the same. Their beliefs, societies and place in the wider world all vary. Despite this, all previous golden ages have ended, whether it be because of external pressures or internal fracturing; too much hubris or too little wariness.

The Rare Genes from History and Basic Haplotype Test of DNA Consultants can produce sharply delineated patterns of genetic matches. From the Helen Gene and Peoples of the Steppes Gene to the Sundaland Gene and Aztlan Gene, rare values on your autosomal DNA profile are better than common ones in analyzing your various ethnic strains and deep history since the last Ice Age.

Discover the remarkable history of the Fall of the Roman Empire... At its height, the Roman Empire was the largest and most powerful empire ever seen in the Western world. It covered 2 million square miles (5 million square kilometers) of territory, where a population of over 80 million was protected by a disciplined, well-trained army of almost half a million troops. By the third century, the empire had become so vast that it was effectively divided into two parts: the Western Empire, including the city of Rome, and an Eastern Empire governed from the city of Nicomedia in present-day Turkey.

An upstart French duke who sets out to conquer the most powerful and unified kingdom in Christendom. An invasion force on a scale not seen since the days of the Romans. One of the bloodiest and most decisive battles ever fought.

Drawing on startling new evidence from the mapping of the genome, an explosive new account of the genetic basis of race and its role in the human story Fewer ideas have been more toxic or harmful than the idea of the biological reality of race, and with it the idea that humans of...

Explores how our ancestors used shamanic rituals at sacred sites to create portals for communication with nonhuman intelligences Shares supporting evidence from the spiritual and shamanic beliefs of more than 100 Native American tribes Shows how the earliest forms of shamanism began...

D'Alexandre le Grand aux nouvelles Routes de la Soie, 2 500 ans d'histoire comme vous ne l'avez jamais lue. Avec son "histoire du cœur du monde", Peter Frankopan renverse notre récit traditionnel, qui gravite autour de la Grèce antique, de Rome et de l'irrésistible ascension de l'Occident. Une approche réductrice, qui mérite une relecture urgente et approfondie. L'auteur élargit la perspective et tourne son regard vers "une région située à mi-chemin entre Orient et Occident, qui va des rives orientales de la Méditerranée jusqu'à la mer Noire et à l'Himalaya".

With a language disappearing every two weeks and neologisms springing up almost daily, an understanding of the origins and currency of language has never seemed more relevant. In this charming volume, a narrative history written explicitly for a young audience, expert linguist David Crystal proves why the story of language deserves retelling. From the first words of an infant to the peculiar modern dialect of text messaging, A Little Book of Language ranges widely, revealing language's myriad intricacies and quirks.

Reveals the profound influence of the Denisovans and their hybrid descendants upon the flowering of human civilization around the world Traces the migrations of the sophisticated Denisovans and their interbreeding with Neanderthals and early human populations more than 40,000 years ago ...

Con Augusto acaba la República y se inicia el Imperio. Acaba el mundo antiguo y la civilización romana se hace universal, así comienza el mundo moderno. Con el Imperio, la ciudadanía dejará de ser un privilegio de una minoría opresora para convertirse en un derecho de nacimiento que integrará a todos por igual, y las viejas ciudades-estado como Atenas, Esparta, Cartago, o incluso Roma, serán sustituidas por el concepto de nación.

Surely, Christmas in the distant past must have been different from the one we know today. But how different? You’re about to find out. The Christmases of long, long ago were a merry mess of odd superstitions, dangerous games, and overindulgences that lasted from Christmas Day until Epiphany twelve days later. The “Christmas season” of earlier times was not the period from Thanksgiving to Christmas Day that Americans experience today, but rather a no-holds-barred bacchanalia following the austerity period of Advent.

According to legend, the Roman emperor Nero set fire to his majestic imperial capital on the night of July 19, 64 AD and fiddled while the city burned. It’s a story that has been told for more than two millennia - and it’s likely that almost none of it is true. In Rome Is Burning, distinguished Roman historian Anthony Barrett sets the record straight, providing a comprehensive and authoritative account of the Great Fire of Rome, its immediate aftermath, and its damaging long term consequences for the Roman world.

In this magnificent book, distinguished archaeologist Barry Cunliffe reframes our entire conception of early European history, from prehistory through the ancient world to the medieval Viking period. Cunliffe views Europe not in terms of states and shifting political land boundaries but as a geographical niche particularly favored in facing many seas. These seas, and Europe's great transpeninsular rivers, ensured a rich diversity of natural resources while also encouraging the dynamic interaction of peoples across networks of communication and exchange.

Growth has been both an unspoken and an explicit aim of our individual and collective striving. It governs the lives of microorganisms and galaxies; it shapes the capabilities of our extraordinarily large brains and the fortunes of our economies. Growth is manifested in annual increments of continental crust, a rising gross domestic product, a child's growth chart, the spread of cancerous cells. In this magisterial book, Vaclav Smil offers systematic investigation of growth in nature and society, from tiny organisms to the trajectories of empires and civilizations.

When three-month-old Lia Lee arrived at the county hospital emergency room in Merced, California, a chain of events was set in motion from which neither she nor her parents nor her doctors would ever recover. Lia's parents, Foua and Nao Kao, were part of a large Hmong community in Merced, refugees from the CIA-run "Quiet War" in Laos.

A pathbreaking neuroscientist reveals how our social instincts turn Me into Us, but turn Us against Them - and what we can do about it. The great dilemma of our shrinking world is simple: never before have those we disagree with been so present in our lives. The more globalization dissolves national borders, the more clearly we see that human beings are deeply divided on moral lines - about everything from tax codes to sexual practices to energy consumption - and that, when we really disagree, our emotions turn positively tribal.

The story of human civilization can be read most deeply in the materials we have found or created, used or abused. They have dictated how we build, eat, communicate, wage war, create art, travel, and worship. Some, such as stone, iron, and bronze, lend their names to the ages. Others, such as gold, silver, and diamond, contributed to the rise and fall of great empires.

While plenty of entertaining books have been written about the history of alcohol and other intoxicants, none have offered a comprehensive, convincing answer to the basic question of why humans want to get high in the first place. Drunk elegantly cuts through the tangle of urban legends and anecdotal impressions that surround our notions of intoxication to provide the first rigorous, scientifically grounded explanation for our love of alcohol.

Here, leading social philosopher Roman Krznaric unearths fascinating insights and inspiration from the last 1000 years of world history that could help us confront the most urgent challenges facing humanity in the twenty-first century. From bridging the inequality gap and keeping AI under control, to reviving our faith in democracy and avoiding ecological collapse, History for Tomorrow shows that history is not simply a means of understanding the past but a way of reimagining our relationship with the future.