Atlantis from a Geographer's Perspective


Book Description

The first modern scientific hypothesis linking Atlantis to Ireland, but also to the megalithic culture of Western Europe and NW Africa. Written for a general audience.




Atlantis


Book Description

A Soviet scientist examines geology, climate, oceanography and attempts reconstruction of Atlantis. Illustrated with maps, charts, tables, illustrations, seismic data, sonar images, etc. The fascinating age-old riddle of the legendary continent of Atlantis is a challenge to any investigator for it would be hard to name a problem of longer standing or one that has given rise to sharper controversies and differences of views and opinions. Some investigators have rejected it as a key to an ancient riddle throwing light on many aspects of human history and civilization. Thousands of books and papers have been devoted to the thrilling problem of Atlantis, and a new scientific trend, atlantology, studying Atlantis has emerged. Atlantology cannot advance without the aid of geomorphology and marine geology, which are relatively new spheres of human knowledge. Indeed, the problems linked up with Atlantis can be approached successfully only by drawing upon the latest achievements of world science in the study of the geological structure and relief of the ocean bed, only in the light of the new ideas about the youth and active development of oceans. The author believes that Atlantis existed and uses a great number of facts to back up his arguments. His work sums up much on what we know about atlantology. This book will unquestionably serve as the basis for elaborating on many aspects of one of the world?s most dramatic problems. Zhirov was a chemist by trade and a leading Soviet Atlantologist. The book was written between 1959-63. New data was added for this English edition. Seismics, gravimetrics, climatology, paleobotanical data, geomorphology, plate tectonics, turbidity data, bottom current patterns, submarine erosion and geological data separate this book from most of the rest of the Atlantology field. Cites 825 separate sources in 34 pages of references - Russian, Ukrainian, Greek, German, English, Latin...




The Rise and Fall of Atlantis


Book Description

Could the lost civilization of Atlantis provide the answer to the origins of human existence? In his controversial new study, John Gordon examines the evidence and makes some startling discoveries. Though many have dismissed Plato’s account of the vanished continent and its people as fantasy, Gordon argues that not only is the story true, but it’s a brilliant and complex metaphor for cosmic creation. Gordon’s research leads him to oppose modern scientific orthodoxy on a range of accepted ideas from the "Big Bang" theory to Darwinian evolution. He questions the concept that humans emerged relatively recently; the notion that dinosaurs became extinct due to an asteroid impact; and the belief that present-day global warming has a human cause. It’s an eye-opening look at our world.




Lost Knowledge


Book Description

Lost Knowledge: The Concept of Vanished Technologies and Other Human Histories examines the idea of lost knowledge, reaching back to a period between myth and history. It investigates a peculiar idea found in a number of early texts: that there were civilizations with knowledge of sophisticated technologies, and that this knowledge was obscured or destroyed over time along with the civilization that had created it. This book presents critical studies of a series of early Chinese, South Asian, and other texts that look at the idea of specific “lost” technologies, such as mechanical flight and the transmission of images. There is also an examination of why concepts of a vanished “golden age” were prevalent in so many cultures. Offering an engaging and investigative look at the propagation of history and myth in technology and culture, this book is sure to interest historians and readers from many backgrounds.




Why Place Matters


Book Description

Contemporary American society, with its emphasis on mobility and economic progress, all too often loses sight of the importance of a sense of “place” and community. Appreciating place is essential for building the strong local communities that cultivate civic engagement, public leadership, and many of the other goods that contribute to a flourishing human life. Do we, in losing our places, lose the crucial basis for healthy and resilient individual identity, and for the cultivation of public virtues? For one can’t be a citizen without being a citizen of some place in particular; one isn’t a citizen of a motel. And if these dangers are real and present ones, are there ways that intelligent public policy can begin to address them constructively, by means of reasonable and democratic innovations that are likely to attract wide public support? Why Place Matters takes these concerns seriously, and its contributors seek to discover how, given the American people as they are, and American economic and social life as it now exists—and not as those things can be imagined to be in some utopian scheme—we can find means of fostering a richer and more sustaining way of life. The book is an anthology of essays exploring the contemporary problems of place and placelessness in American society. The book includes contributions from distinguished scholars and writers such as poet Dana Gioia (former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts), geographer Yi-Fu Tuan, urbanist Witold Rybczynski, architect Philip Bess, essayists Christine Rosen and Ari Schulman, philosopher Roger Scruton, transportation planner Gary Toth, and historians Russell Jacoby and Joseph Amato.




Islands


Book Description

When Lost’s Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 crashed, the survivors found themselves on a seemingly deserted island. In Defoe’s novel, Robinson Crusoe spends twenty-eight years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, while in the movie Castaway Tom Hanks survives over four years on a South Pacific island. And Jurassic Park kept its dinosaur population confined to an island off the coast of Central America. Islands often find themselves at the center of imagined worlds, secluded and sometimes mystical locales filled with strange creatures and savage populations. The cannibals, raptors, and smoke monsters that exist on the islands of popular culture aside, the more than one million islands and islets on the planet are indeed small , geological, biological, and cultural laboratories. From Britain to Japan, from the Galapagos to Manhattan, this book roams the planet to provide the first global introduction to these waterlocked landforms. Longtime island dweller Steven Roger Fischer shows that, since time began, islands have been one of the primary birthplaces for plants, animals, and proto-humans. These eyots of stone and sand—whether in ocean, lake, or river—fostered the human race, and Fischer recounts how humanity then exploited these remarkable habitats as stepping stones to global dominion. He explores island economics, warfare, and politics, and he examines the role they have played in literature, art and psychology. At the same time, he sparks our imagination with visions of islands—from Atlantis to Tahiti, Treasure Island to Hawaii. Ultimately, he reveals, these isolated mini-worlds are a measure of humankind itself. An engaging account of the islets that have enriched, lured, terrified, and inspired us, Islands shines new light on these cradles of earth—and human—history.




The United States of Atlantis


Book Description

Imperialistic England has driven the French from Atlantis and seized the continent's eastern coastal town, prompting Victor Radcliff, leader of the revolutionaries, to preserve the freedom of the Atlantean people at all costs.







Science in the Ancient World


Book Description

The first A–Z resource to catalog the achievements and legacy of more than four millennia of scientific thought in the ancient world of the Mediterranean and the Near East, providing a complete overview of the physical, chemical, life, medical, and social sciences of the classical world. Many are familiar with such wonders as steam power and the discovery that the planets revolve around the Sun. The fact that such phenomena were known to the ancient Greeks more than 2,000 years ago is less well known. Now, Science in the Ancient World fills this gap by covering all the major scientific developments during 4,000 years of ancient history. Over 200 A–Z entries explore the origins of science, from astronomy and mathematics to medicine and chemistry. Giants like Aristotle and Plato are examined, together with more obscure figures like Nearchus, explorer of the Indian Ocean, and Hero, discoverer of steam power. Emphasis is placed on the diversity of ancient science, from the achievements of the Mesopotamians to the science of the Romans. The philosophies behind ancient science are explored, from the Epicurean pursuit of happiness to the asceticism of the Stoics. This comprehensive survey brings to the modern reader a long lost age of scientific discovery.




Strange Truths in Undiscovered Lands


Book Description

Strange Truths in Undiscovered Lands examines the ways in which Shelley developed a 'Romantic geography' to provide visionary alternatives to an earth devastated by a new type of European colonialism and global expansion.