Author : James Burke
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 369 pages
File Size : 45,36 MB
Release : 1997-03-31
Category : Science
ISBN : 0874778565
"A detailed, original and persuasive reading of cultural and intellectual history."—Los Angeles Times. "A genuine tour de force."—San Francisco Chronicle.
Author : James Burke
Publisher : Putnam Adult
Page : 376 pages
File Size : 19,6 MB
Release : 1995
Category : History
ISBN :
"At the close of this century of creativity and discovery, humanists and scientists alike wonder: How could human beings in all their brilliance - those "axemakers" with the genius to invent, lead, inspire, heal, design - have brought the world to the brink of destruction?" "The answers can be found in The Axemaker's Gift, an imaginative and brilliantly informed double-edged history of human culture. James Burke, a leading expert on the interaction of technology and society, and Robert Ornstein, a pioneer in charting the evolution of consciousness, show how the interaction between innovation and the brain has continually reshaped the world and, more important, the way we think."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Author : Brett McLeod
Publisher : Storey Publishing, LLC
Page : 193 pages
File Size : 43,52 MB
Release : 2020-10-13
Category : Sports & Recreation
ISBN : 163586139X
From bronze axes of the Viking conquests to the American homesteader’s felling axe, this is a tool that has shaped human history like few others. American Axe pays tribute to this iconic instrument of settlement and industry, with rich history, stunning photography, and profiles of the most collectible vintage axes such as The Woodslasher, Keen Cutter, and True Temper Perfect. Combining his experiences as a forester, axe collector, and former competitive lumberjack, author Brett McLeod conveys the allure of this deceptively simple woodcutting implement and celebrates the resurging interest in its story and use.
Author : James Burke
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 290 pages
File Size : 36,51 MB
Release : 2003-09-08
Category : Literary Collections
ISBN : 9780743249768
Burke takes readers on 50 surprising journeys through the history of technology, each following a chain of consequential events that ends precisely where it began.
Author : James Burke
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 563 pages
File Size : 26,52 MB
Release : 2007-07-03
Category : History
ISBN : 0743298713
Using the unique approach that he has employed in his previous books, author, columnist, and television commentator James Burke shows us our connections to the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence. Over the two hundred-plus years that separate us, these connections are often surprising and always fascinating. Burke turns the signers from historical icons into flesh-and-blood people: Some were shady financial manipulators, most were masterful political operators, a few were good human beings, and some were great men. The network that links them to us is also peopled by all sorts, from spies and assassins to lovers and adulterers, inventors and artists. The ties may be more direct for some of us than others, but we are all linked in some way to these founders of our nation. If you enjoyed Martin Sheen as the president on television's The West Wing, then you're connected to founder Josiah Bartlett. The connection from signer Bartlett to Sheen includes John Paul Jones; Judge William Cooper, father of James Fenimore; Sir Thomas Brisbane, governor of New South Wales; an incestuous astronomer; an itinerant math teacher; early inventors of television; and pioneering TV personality Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, the inspiration for Ramon Estevez's screen name, Martin Sheen.
Author : James Burke
Publisher : Hachette+ORM
Page : 567 pages
File Size : 21,7 MB
Release : 2009-11-11
Category : Science
ISBN : 031609191X
The Day the Universe Changed presents a sweeping view of the history of science, technology, and human civilization and examines the moments in history when a change in knowledge radically altered man's understanding of himself and the world around him. James Burke examines eight periods in history when our view of the world shifted dramatically: In the eleventh century, when extraordinary discoveries were made by Spanish crusaders. In fourteenth-century Florence, where perspective in painting emerged. In the fifteenth century, when the advent of the printing press shook the foundations of an oral society. In the sixteenth century, when gunnery developments triggered the birth of modern science. In the early eighteenth century, when hot English summers brought on the Industrial Revolution. In the battlefield surgery stations of the French revolutionary armies, where people first became statistics. In the nineteenth century, when the discovery of dinosaur fossils led to the theory of evolution. In the 1820s, when electrical experiments heralded the end of scientific certainty. Based on the popular television documentary series, The Day the Universe Changed is a bestselling history that challenges the reader to decide whether there is absolute knowledge to discover-or whether the universe is "ultimately what we say it is."
Author : Ben Hopkins
Publisher : Europa Editions
Page : 527 pages
File Size : 40,1 MB
Release : 2021-01-26
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1609456246
A sweeping story about obsession, mysticism, art, earthly desire, and the construction of a Cathedral in medieval Germany. At the center of this story is the Cathedral. Its design and construction in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the Rhineland town of Hagenburg unites a vast array of unforgettable characters whose fortunes are inseparable from the shifting political factions and economic interests vying for supremacy. From the bishop to his treasurer to local merchants and lowly stonecutters, everyone, even the town’s Jewish denizens, is implicated and affected by the slow rise of Hagenburg’s Cathedral, which in no way enforces morality or charity. Around this narrative center, Ben Hopkins has constructed his own monumental edifice, a novel that is rich with the vicissitudes of mercantilism, politics, religion, and human enterprise. Fans of Umberto Eco, Hilary Mantel, and Ken Follett will delight at the atmosphere, the beautiful prose, and the vivid characters of Ben Hopkins’s Cathedral. “Cathedral is a brilliantly organized mess of great, great characters. It is fascinating, fun, and gripping to the very end.” —Roddy Doyle, Booker Prize–winning author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha “A varied cast of hugely engaging characters jostle for status, rising and falling according to the whims of pirates and Popes. An immersive, old-fashioned read that rattles along at a cracking pace.” —Richard Beard, author of Lazarus is Dead and The Day That Went Missing “Six hundred pages sounds long, but this deeply human take on a medieval city and its commerce and aspirations, its violent battles and small intimacies, never feels that way. This sweeping work is as impressive as the cathedral at its center.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review, PW Pick
Author : Derek Bickerton
Publisher : Hill and Wang
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 50,38 MB
Release : 2009-03-17
Category : Science
ISBN : 1429930292
How language evolved has been called "the hardest problem in science." In Adam's Tongue, Derek Bickerton—long a leading authority in this field—shows how and why previous attempts to solve that problem have fallen short. Taking cues from topics as diverse as the foraging strategies of ants, the distribution of large prehistoric herbivores, and the construction of ecological niches, Bickerton produces a dazzling new alternative to the conventional wisdom. Language is unique to humans, but it isn't the only thing that sets us apart from other species—our cognitive powers are qualitatively different. So could there be two separate discontinuities between humans and the rest of nature? No, says Bickerton; he shows how the mere possession of symbolic units—words—automatically opened a new and different cognitive universe, one that yielded novel innovations ranging from barbed arrowheads to the Apollo spacecraft. Written in Bickerton's lucid and irreverent style, this book is the first that thoroughly integrates the story of how language evolved with the story of how humans evolved. Sure to be controversial, it will make indispensable reading both for experts in the field and for every reader who has ever wondered how a species as remarkable as ours could have come into existence.
Author : Jonathan Eisen
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 566 pages
File Size : 46,65 MB
Release : 2001-01-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780399527357
A scientist with a revolutionary cure for AIDS is incarcerated without explanation. Valuable artifacts are mysteriously misplaced by a prominent archaeological institution. Three celebrated astronauts perish in a suspicious fire after voicing their criticism of the US space program. Yet our world’s most powerful agencies hastily dispel these alarming reports as conspiracy theories, and bury them in padlocked archives. The fact is that a suppression syndrome exists in our society. Suppressed Inventions and Other Discoveries exposes the startling degree of truth behind the rumors. Jonathan Eisen has collected over forty intriguing stories of scientific cover-ups and programs of misinformation concocted to conceal some of the most phenomenal innovations in mankind’s history. These no-holds-barred accounts force us to confront the naiveté—and danger—of trusting our academic and political leaders to act always for the common good. Suppressed Inventions and Other Discoveries presents documented evidence that corporate self-interest, scientific arrogance, and political savvy have contrived to keep us in the dark about technological breakthroughs or interplanetary contact that may shift the current balance of power. Prepare yourself for a revealing look at the research and development to which we’ve been denied access. Suppressed Inventions and Other Discoveries begins by examining the ties that bind the medical establishment to powerful pharmaceutical corporations. Then it details the struggle of the independent research against Orthodox Science and its code of conduct, the Scientific Method. Next, the book investigates the cover-up of information concerning UFOs and extraterrestrial life that’s certain to make you reconsider what you thought was science fiction. The final section discusses just a few of the numerous alternate energy resources and fuel savers that, if put on the market today, would soon run the fossil fuel monopolies out of business.
Author : Robert Evan Ornstein
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 324 pages
File Size : 12,47 MB
Release : 1992-11
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 0671792245
Based on his life's research, Robert Ornstein provides a look at the evolution of the mind. He explains that we are not rational but adaptive, and that it is Darwin, not Freud, who is the central scientist of the brain. Our minds have evolved to help us survive, not to reason. At the same time, our individual worlds have developed our minds and destroyed many of our natural abilities.
