Sharing many common beliefs, deities, and rituals, the religion of the Maya, Aztec, and Inca was rooted in both the earth and the sky, the rhythms of the seasons, and the movements of the sun, moon, and stars. Readers will meet rain and sun gods, corn gods and fertility gods, earth mothers who are both creators and destroyers, and even a feathered serpent. Lavish primary-source images of arts a…
Central bankers are supposed to be a rather dour lot. They are charged, after all, with maintaining the monetary and financial integrity of the whole economy. They cultivate a public reputation as prudent, cautious guardians of price stability — an independent, reliable force, ready to pounce at the first signs of economic overheating and inflationary pressure. They are the ones wh…
No one has given the polymath Thomas Young (1773–1829) the all-round examination he so richly deserves—until now. Celebrated biographer Andrew Robinson portrays a man who solved mystery after mystery in the face of ridicule and rejection, and never sought fame. As a physicist, Young challenged the theories of Isaac Newton and proved that light is a wave. As a physician, he showed how the ey…
Think outside the box and get results with Essential Managers: Innovation. This book will give you all the tools you'll need to succeed.
An overview of the philosophy, inventions, art, government, religion, and daily life of the Renaissance.
Is film a medium of communication? This is a basic question of film studies. It is about as old as the field itself, and the discursive frameworks and underlying assumptions that make the question relevant are about as old as the medium, or the art form, of cinema itself. As John Durham Peters argues, “only since the late nineteenth century have we defined ourselves in terms our ability to co…
Cofee is grown typically between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn where conditions are ideal for the species. There are two main branches of the cofee varietal, Robust and Arabica. Robusta is less favoursome, high yielding with high pest tolerance. Hence, it is great for cheaper, low-quality instant cofees. Arabica makes up the majority of the cofee grown in the world and is wha…
Twenty years ago, very few music scholars examined Broadway musicals. If musicologists were a bit slow to approach the musical theater reper-toire (and they were), theorists and analysts arrived—and are only now arriving—more than fashionably late to the party. We hope that this vol-ume loudly announces that we are here.Music theorists care about musical theater. We kn…
How We Use Stories and Why That Matters guides the reader through the tangled undergrowth of communication and cultural expression towards a new understanding of the role of group-mediating stories at global and digital scale. It argues that media and networked systems perform and bind group identities, creating bordered fictions within which economic and political activities are made meaningfu…
Our best science tells us wonderful things. The cold and dark skies of our universe were not so long ago in their entirety in a state of unimaginably high energy and temperature. The detritus that exploded from it congealed into stars, planets, and galaxies. These systems of celestial masses are in turn held together by a curvature of the geometry of space and time itself. On a most minute scal…
Discover the amazing inventions throughout history that have shaped the world as we know it. This stunning visual guide explores and explains the greatest inventions, ideas, and discoveries throughout the ages, and introduces their inventors. From fire, stone tools, and the wheel to ploughs and paper, discover the first inventions that shaped societies and grew mighty civilizations and empir…
Pack up your bags for a round the world trip! You’ll take in natural wonders far and wide as this spectacular visual encyclopedia leads the exciting exploration of Earth and beyond.?? From the tallest snowy peak of Mount Everest to the deep, dark waters of the Mariana Trench, you’ll see it all in stunning color images that bring the world to life. Feel the heat in the African desert,…
Plagues in World History provides a concise, comparative world history of catastrophic infectious diseases, including plague, smallpox, tuberculosis, cholera, influenza, and AIDS. Geographically, these diseases have spread across the entire globe; temporally, they stretch from the sixth century to the present. John Aberth considers not only the varied impact that disease has had upon human hist…
Uncertainty and interconnecting crises are no longer exceptional. In almost everypart of the world, living with water crises is an everyday reality for many. Yet,water supply sustains a functioning society, and as such any threat to it must becountered head-on. Frontline water suppliers, routinely forced to respond andadapt so they can deliver water in the face of all challenges, have found tha…
This book critically examines assumptions about age, women, and gender. Amidst all the attention that has been granted to difference and inequality, however uneven and unsatisfactory in terms of class and caste, race and ethnicity, sexuality and gender, disability, religion, and nation, questions of age and its importance for feminism have been less well defined. Drawing on recent literature on…
This open access edited volume reports on a unique network of innovative in-school and out-of-school programs, University-Community Links. UC Links connects university faculty and students with young people and their families in diverse communities around the world. Chapters in this volume describe programs in the United States (California) as well as Germany, Italy, Spain, Uganda, and Uruguay.…
Communities great and small across Europe for eight centuries have contracted with doctors. Physicians provided citizen care, helped govern, and often led in public life. Civic Medicine stakes out this timely subject by focusing on its golden age, when cities rivaled territorial states in local and global Europe and when civic doctors were central to the rise of shared, organized written inform…
See the greatest medical breakthroughs come to life through superb illustrations! From ancient herbal medicine to traditional Chinese medicine, take a visual tour throughout the history of medicine with this comprehensive medical reference book.
Discover 10,000 years of the shadowy side of our world in this treasure trove of alternative history. The Encyclopedia of Secret Societies features detailed information about.
Everyone knows Vietnam for its turbulent environment during the second half of the 20th century, but few know that archaeologists believe that civilization there existed as far back as the Bronze Age. Vietnam's history runs rampant with clashing dynasties, civil wars and power struggles between the North and South, and conflicts with neighboring and other countries. First ruled under China's cl…
Culturally and politically, Indonesia is one of the more complex countries in the world, with 336 ethnic groups speaking 583 languages and dialects. It is only recently that these people have been contained within one political framework. Throughout most of history, Indonesia's inhabitants were divided politically in many different ways as a bewildering array of kingdoms and empires rose and fe…
The book provides a clear portrayal of Thailand's culture and society, and explains its significance in the history of human civilization, its strategic geographic location, and its attraction as a tourist destination. Thailand is a fascinating country with a very rich culture and history. Today, it is home to over 60 million people, and is a newly industrialized nation with an emerging worl…
International politics has become ever more volatile in the last decade,increasing the risk of large-scale military violence. Yet the precise charac-ter of future wars will depend on a range of factors that relate to adversaries,allies, technology, geographical scope, and multiple domains of warfighting.Few would question that land forces will also be important in the foreseeablefuture. Recent …
In this book the author takes an unusual multi-disciplinary approach to debates about contemporary art and poetry, ideas about the mind and its representations, and theories of knowledge and being. Arts practices are considered as enactments of mind and as transformative modes of consciousness. Ideas drawn from poetics, philosophy and consciousness studies are used to illuminate the conceptual …
Top 10 Beijing will lead you straight to the best attractions this rewarding and vibrant city has to offer. There are dozens of Top 10 lists, including the Top 10 restaurants, Top 10 liveliest bars and clubs, the Top 10 places to stay in Beijing — and even a Top 10 list of things to avoid. Whether you want to explore the Forbidden City, visit Tian'an Men Square, rickshaw around the back lane…
Turkey occupies a strategic position in today's world: the only predominantly Muslim nation to be a member of NATO and an ally of Israel, it straddles both Europe and Asia. Turkey is the link between Islam and Western democracy, between Europe and the Middle East. In this concise introduction, Andrew Finkel, who has spent twenty years in Turkey writing about the country for publications such as…
For thirty years Sudan has been a country in crisis, wracked by near-constant warfare between the north and the south. But on July 9, 2011, South Sudan became an independent nation. As Sudan once again finds itself the focus of international attention, former special envoy to Sudan and director of USAID Andrew Natsios provides a timely introduction to the country at this pivotal moment in its h…
John McMurry
The Battle of Mantzikert had profound consequences for both Byzantine and Turkish history, yet the historical sources for this campaign contain significant gaps. This book presents the results of a project that seeks to demonstrate the important role computer simulation can play in the analysis of pre-modern military logistics.
We have seen how, as a consequence of the Revolution and of the cold, destructive, criticism of the eighteenth century, there was a demand for constructive thought. This was a desire common not only to the Traditionalists but to De Biran and Cousin. They aimed at intellectual reconstruction. While, however, there were some who combated the principles of the Revolution, as did the Traditionalist…
Mr. Wang died of cancer at the Nanjing Municipal Hospital of Chinese Medicine during the wee hours of the morning on December 14, 2014. He was eighty-four years old and had been at the hospital for almost two weeks. Before coming to the hospital, he saw a series of doctors about pain in his legs and hips, but checked into the hospital when the pain increased. About five days before his death, a…
Thinking back, it seems fitting that my relationship with manhua, usually called cartoons or comics in English, started with a magazine, because this book is about both. Why both? Cartoons are cartoons, and magazines are magazines; what is to be gained by combining the two? My reply is that many hours spent marveling at, puzzling over, and gradually deciph…
e migration of the Normans across Europe is a well-known and much written about subject. Originating in the principality of Normandy that took its name from the ‘men of the north’ who came from Scandinavia to settle on the French coast from the ninth century onwards, the Normans then established themselves during the eleventh century in two main areas some , mil…
A comprehensive and authoritative short guide, this Very Short Introduction to Medieval Britain covers the establishment of the Anglo-Norman monarchy in the early Middle Ages, through to England's failure to dominate the British Isles and France in the later Middle Ages. Out of the turbulence came stronger senses of identity in Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Yet this was an age, too, of growing …
Visit and explore Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania during your trip to the Baltic States. From top restaurants, bars, and clubs to standout scenic sites and walks, our insider tips are sure to make your trip outstanding. Whether you're looking for unique and interesting shops and markets, or seeking the best venues for music and nightlife, we have entertainment and hotel recommendations for ever…
Discover DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Vietnam and Angkor Wat. • Detailed itineraries and "don't-miss" destination highlights at a glance. • Illustrated cutaway 3-D drawings of important sights. • Floor plans and guided visitor information for major museums. • Guided walking tours, local drink and dining specialties to try, things to do, and places to eat, drink, and sho…
Eyewitness Medieval Life is a compelling introduction to the people and culture of the Middle Ages. Superb color photographs of artifacts, costumes, furniture, and buildings bring daily life in Medieval Europe vividly to life. Explore the magnificent tournaments of the royal court, the bustling streets of a developing town, how the feudal system worked, and much more. Find out how monks deco…
This Very Short Introduction to Classics links a haunting temple on a lonely mountainside to the glory of ancient Greece and the grandeur of Rome, and to Classics within modern culture-from Jefferson and Byron to Asterix and Ben-Hur. We are all Classicists - we come into touch with the Classics daily: in our culture, politics, medicine, architecture, language, and literature. What are the tr…
In this Very Short Introduction, Prof Lord John Krebs provides a brief history of human food, from our remote ancestors 3 million years ago to the present day. By looking at the four great transitions in human food - cooking, agriculture, processing, and preservation - he considers a variety of questions, including why people like some kinds of foods and not others; how your senses contribute t…
Homer, Leonardo da Vinci, Mozart, Shakespeare, and Tolstoy; Curie, Darwin, Einstein, Galileo, and Newton. What do these world-famous artists and scientists have in common?- apart from the fact that their achievements predate our own time by a century or more. Most of us would probably answer: all ten possessed something we call genius, which in each instance permanently changed the way that hum…
This Very Short Introduction answers four basic questions: what is Geography, how do geographers work, why is Geography important, and where is the discipline of Geography heading? Geography has always been important, though it has had only a short history as an academic discipline and is much misunderstood. Modern Geography has come a long way from its historical roots in exploring foreign lan…
Who or what is God? How do different religions interpret God's existence? How can we know God? Many people believe in God; not just throughout history but also in the present day. But who or what is it they believe in? Many different and sometimes conflicting answers have been suggested to this question. This Very Short Introduction explores some of the answers provided by philosophers, poet…
There are many stories we can tell about the past, and we are not, perhaps, as free as we might imagine in our choice of which stories to tell, or where those stories end. John Arnold's addition to Oxford's popular Very Short Introductions series is a stimulating essay about how people study and understand history. The book begins by inviting us to think about various questions provoked by our …
This highly original and sophisticated look at architecture helps us to understand the cultural significance of the buildings that surround us. It avoids the traditional style-spotting approach and instead gives us an idea of what it is about buildings that moves us, and what it is that makes them important artistically and culturally. The book begins by looking at how architecture acquires mea…
This Very Short Introduction looks at Africa's past and reflects on the changing ways it has been imagined and represented, both in Africa and beyond. The author illustrates important aspects of Africa's history with a range of fascinating historical examples, drawn from over 5 millennia across this vast continent. The multitude of topics that the reader will learn about in this succinct work i…
John Hagee's breathtaking biblical tour of the three heavens takes you inside the timeless clash between the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Darkness and explains why that battle makes all the difference in this world and the world to come. In The Three Heavens, Hagee uses the Word of God, science, and incredible true stories of the supernatural to explore the First Heaven. He then expos…
It was the summer of 1843, and in Tai County the okra flowers had just bloomed. Lu Yitian’s aunt, Madame Zhou, enjoyed making medi-cal concoctions and people came from all around seeking her treat-ment. There was a man who had been severely scalded, so that his body was covered in festering sores, and no one had been able to affect a cure. He came to beg for …
Many children and adults experience considerable difficulty producing or understanding a spoken language despite having adequate hearing levels. Some of these persons may benefit from learning a full and genuine sign language, such as one of the sign languages used by members of a Deaf1 community. They may acquire a substantial vocabulary of signs and learn to combine them into complex s…
In this 7th edition of his award-winning Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction, John Storey has extensively revised the text throughout. As before, the book presents a clear and critical survey of competing theories of and various approaches to popular culture. Its breadth and theoretical unity, exemplified through popular culture, means that it can be flexibly and relevantly app…
The hoard that forms the focus for this book was discovered on farmland in the vicinity of the small Oxfordshire town of Watlington in October 2015. It consists of 203 coins, most of which were issued by the early-medieval kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia in the late 870s, and silver ingots and metalwork — some in the form of fragmented hack-silver and a single piece of hack-gold. The metalwork …