Lightbulb Moments In Human History From Cave To Colosseum

Author : Scott Edwin Williams
Publisher : John Hunt Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1803412011
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.16/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Lightbulb Moments in Human History written by Scott Edwin Williams and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2023-02-24 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Here's your chance to learn and enjoy Big History in a slightly 'deranged' romp.' Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, Australian science communicator, author, and populariser Lightbulb Moments in Human History tracks humanity's big ideas and the eccentricities of those who conceived them. Along the way you'll find answers to questions such as: Why did the Sumerians have temple prostitutes? Just how psychotic was the God of the Old Testament? Why did parents in ancient Greece encourage their young sons to take older male lovers? And what on earth inspired the Mayans to have tobacco enemas? Funny. Irreverent. Never boring. This is not the history you were taught in school. Scott Edwin Williams' Lightbulb Moments in Human History engages, entertains, and provides hope that while times are tough, we're not all going to hell in a handbasket.

Author : Scott Edwin Williams
Publisher : John Hunt Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1803415045
Total Pages : 310 pages
Book Rating : 4.48/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Lightbulb Moments in Human History (Book II) written by Scott Edwin Williams and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2024-03-29 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Lightbulb Moments in Human History is flavored with scintillating wit and dark humor, and served to the open-minded by an intelligent observer, who manages to evoke empathy and hope for the human spirit.' Dr. Micki Pistorius, author of Catch Me a Killer Lightbulb Moments in Human History: From Peasants to Periwigs continues the humorous and informative series exploring the big ideas that have shaped humanity. Packed with laughs and fascinating insights, it documents the progression from the boozy peasants of the Middle Ages to the bewigged boffins of the Scientific Revolution. Along the way, you'll find answers to burning questions such as: Why did a mob of peasants follow a 'divinely inspired' goose to the Crusades? Was Captain Cook really devoured by cannibals, or was it just a terrible misunderstanding? What the hell is a periwig, and why did the best-dressed seventeenth-century men insist on wearing them? Lightbulb Moments in Human History: From Peasants to Periwigs by Scott Edwin Williams is not the history you were taught in school. It demonstrates that, despite all evidence to the contrary, our world is actually getting better. So grab a mug of mead, slap on your finest periwig, and dive into the rich history of human ingenuity.

Author : Maria Misra
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300145233
Total Pages : 592 pages
Book Rating : 4.36/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Vishnu's Crowded Temple written by Maria Misra and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As it enters its sixtieth year of independence, India stands on the threshold of superpower status. Yet India is strikingly different from all other global colossi. While it is the world's most populous democracy and enjoys the benefits of its internationally competitive high-tech and software industries, India also contends with extremes of poverty, inequality, and political and religious violence. This accessible and vividly written book presents a new interpretation of India's history, focusing particular attention on the impact of British imperialism on Independent India. Maria Misra begins with the rebellion against the British in 1857 and tracks the country's advance to the present day. India's extremes persist, the author argues, because its politics rest upon a peculiar foundation in which traditional ideas of hierarchy, difference, and privilege coexist to a remarkable degree with modern notions of equality and democracy. The challenge of India's leaders today, as in the last sixty years, is to weave together the disparate threads of the nation's ancient culture, colonial legacy, and modern experience.

Author : Edna Fernandes
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1626369356
Total Pages : 219 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Last Jews of Kerala written by Edna Fernandes and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-06-01 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two thousand years ago, trade routes and the fall of Jerusalem took Jewish settlers seeking sanctuary across Europe and Asia. One little-known group settled in Kerala, in tropical southwestern India. Eventually numbering in the thousands, with eight synagogues, they prospered. Some came to possess vast estates and plantations, and many enjoyed economic privilege and political influence. Their comfortable lives, however, were haunted by a feud between the Black Jews of Ernakulam and the White Jews of Mattancherry. Separated by a narrow stretch of swamp and the color of their skin, they locked in a rancorous feud for centuries, divided by racism and claims and counterclaims over who arrived first in their adopted land. Today, this once-illustrious people is in its dying days. Centuries of interbreeding and a latter-day Exodus from Kerala after Israel's creation in 1948 have shrunk the population. The Black and White Jews combined now number less than fifty, and only one synagogue remains. On the threshold of extinction, the two remaining Jewish communities of Kerala have come to realize that their destiny, and their undoing, is the same. The Last Jews of Kerala narrates the rise and fall of the Black Jews and the White Jews over the centuries and within the context of the grand history of the Jewish people. It is the story of the twilight days of a people whose community will, within the next generation, cease to exist. Yet it is also a rich tale of weddings and funerals, of loyalty to family and fierce individualism, of desperation and hope.

Author : Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1108470971
Total Pages : 575 pages
Book Rating : 4.71/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Human Evolution Beyond Biology and Culture written by Jeroen C. J. M. van den Bergh and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-18 with total page 575 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A complete account of evolutionary thought in the social, environmental and policy sciences, creating bridges with biology.

Author : Eduardo Galeano
Publisher : Portobello Books
ISBN 13 : 1846274397
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.98/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mirrors written by Eduardo Galeano and published by Portobello Books. This book was released on 2011-08-04 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Mirrors, Galeano smashes aside the narrative of conventional history and arranges the shards into a new pattern, to reveal the past in radically altered form. From the Garden of Eden to twenty-first-century cityscapes, we glimpse fragments in the lives of those who have been overlooked by traditional histories: the artists, the servants, the gods and the visionaries, the black slaves who built the White House, and the women who were bartered for dynastic ends

Author : Sir Thomas Browne
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 58 pages
Book Rating : 4.78/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Garden of Cyrus.. written by Sir Thomas Browne and published by . This book was released on 1736 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Author : Grant Heiken
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 1400849373
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.76/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Seven Hills of Rome written by Grant Heiken and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-10-24 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From humble beginnings, Rome became perhaps the greatest intercontinental power in the world. Why did this historic city become so much more influential than its neighbor, nearby Latium, which was peopled by more or less the same stock? Over the years, historians, political analysts, and sociologists have discussed this question ad infinitum, without considering one underlying factor that led to the rise of Rome--the geology now hidden by the modern city. This book demonstrates the important link between the history of Rome and its geologic setting in a lively, fact-filled narrative sure to interest geology and history buffs and travelers alike. The authors point out that Rome possessed many geographic advantages over surrounding areas: proximity to a major river with access to the sea, plateaus for protection, nearby sources of building materials, and most significantly, clean drinking water from springs in the Apennines. Even the resiliency of Rome's architecture and the stability of life on its hills are underscored by the city's geologic framework. If carried along with a good city map, this book will expand the understanding of travelers who explore the eternal city's streets. Chapters are arranged geographically, based on each of the seven hills, the Tiber floodplain, ancient creeks that dissected the plateau, and ridges that rise above the right bank. As an added bonus, the last chapter consists of three field trips around the center of Rome, which can be enjoyed on foot or by using public transportation.

Author : Carolyn Marvin
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198021380
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.84/5 ( download)

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Download or read book When Old Technologies Were New written by Carolyn Marvin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1990-05-24 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the history of electronic communication, the last quarter of the nineteenth century holds a special place, for it was during this period that the telephone, phonograph, electric light, wireless, and cinema were all invented. In When old Technologies Were New, Carolyn Marvin explores how two of these new inventions--the telephone and the electric light--were publicly envisioned at the end of the nineteenth century, as seen in specialized engineering journals and popular media. Marvin pays particular attention to the telephone, describing how it disrupted established social relations, unsettling customary ways of dividing the private person and family from the more public setting of the community. On the lighter side, she describes how people spoke louder when calling long distance, and how they worried about catching contagious diseases over the phone. A particularly powerful chapter deals with telephonic precursors of radio broadcasting--the "Telephone Herald" in New York and the "Telefon Hirmondo" of Hungary--and the conflict between the technological development of broadcasting and the attempt to impose a homogenous, ethnocentric variant of Anglo-Saxon culture on the public. While focusing on the way professionals in the electronics field tried to control the new media, Marvin also illuminates the broader social impact, presenting a wide-ranging, informative, and entertaining account of the early years of electronic media.

Author : Andrew Collins
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1591438527
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.26/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Gods of Eden written by Andrew Collins and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2002-04-01 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking historical documentation of the secret history of pre-Pharonic Egypt and the race of angels that built it. •By the author of From the Ashes of Angels and Gateway to Atlantis (more than 30,000 copies sold in the United Kingdom). •Unlocks the secrets of how the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx were built. •Explains the traces left by the race of Elder gods that founded ancient Egypt through ancient texts of the Hall of Records. •Proves the foundations of ancient astronomy 10,000 years ago. Hidden deep below Egypt's Giza plateau is perhaps the key to unlocking the mysteries of the Great Pyramid, one of the seven wonders of the world. Built using a technology unequaled even today, the ancient Egyptians claimed they inherited their advanced culture from a race of Elder gods who lived during a previous age known as Zep Tepi, the First Time. In his earlier companion book From the Ashes of Angels, renowned historical writer Andrew Collins provided historical and scientific evidence showing how these Elder gods, who were the flesh and blood members of a race of fallen angels, founded ancient Egypt. Now, in Gods of Eden, he describes the remarkable achievements of their culture. Assembling clues from archaeology, mythology, and religion, Collins shows us how this great society mastered acoustic technology and employed the use of sound to raise heavy objects into the air and pierce holes through solid rock. It was with this technology that they were able to construct gigantic structures that have marveled adventurers and archaeologists worldwide. With findings based on more than 20 years of research and scholarship, Collins reveals the fascinating historical destiny of this culture of fallen angels and the imprints and legacies they left behind at the genesis of civilization.