Walking History

Robert Twigger, poet and travel author, was in search of a new way up England when he stumbled across the Great North Line. From Christchurch on the South Coast to Old Sarum to Stonehenge, to Avebury, to Notgrove barrow, to Meon Hill in the midlands, to Thor's Cave, to Arbor Low stone circle, to Mam Tor, to Ilkley in Yorkshire and its three stone circles and the Swastika Stone, to several forts and camps in Northumberland to Lindisfarne (plus about thirty more sites en route). A single dead-straight line following one degree 50 West up Britain.

A handbook written for those visiting Trafalgar Square, London. Information about its history, art, culture and contemporary aspects. From this Square, radiate several roads which lead to tourist landmarks nearby. The reader can find maps and outlines of these routes, most of which are at walking disctance.

When Ron Zaleski returned home from his service to the Marine Corps in 1972, he was plagued by feelings of anger and guilt. As an act of penance, in 2006 he walked barefoot across the Appalachian Trail, where he learned self-forgiveness, empathy, and found a purpose greater than himself. In 2010, he upped the stakes and walked barefoot from Concord, MA to Santa Monica, CA. He traversed over 3,400 miles without shoes, all the while carrying a sign that read "18 Vets a Day Commit Suicide!" and a petition for military personnel to receive mandatory counseling.

The Victorians invented mass entertainment. As the 19th century's growing industrialized class acquired the funds and the free time to pursue leisure activities, their every whim was satisfied by entrepreneurs building new venues for popular amusement. Contrary to their reputation as dour, buttoned-up prudes, the Victorians reveled in these newly created "palaces of pleasure".

Ever since Jurassic Park we thought we knew how dinosaurs lived their lives. In this remarkable new book, Brian J. Ford reveals that dinosaurs were, in fact, profoundly different from what we believe, and their environment was unlike anything we have previously thought. In this meticulous and absorbing account, Ford reviews the latest scientific evidence to show that the popular accounts of dinosaurs’ lives contain ideas that are no more than convenient inventions: how dinosaurs mated, how they hunted and communicated, how they nursed their young, even how they moved....

Frank Conroy first visited Nantucket with a gang of college friends in 1955. They came on a whim, and for Conroy it was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with this "small, relaxed oasis in the ocean." This audiobook, part travel diary, part memoir, is a hauntingly evocative and personal journey through Nantucket: its sweeping dunes, rugged moors, remote beaches, secret fishing spots, and hidden forests and cranberry bogs.

Every journey has its stories. Beginning with Enid Blyton and childhood in the Isle of Purbeck, Peter Fiennes embarks on a unique exploration of Britain. He follows in the footsteps of some our greatest writers, tracing the paths recorded in their books, journals and diaries, and looks for the country they knew. How much has time changed us? And has it been for better, or worse? Are we trapped in the past?

June 30, 1944: Fifty members of the United States 460th Bomb Group embarked on an important mission to destroy German oil refineries in Silesia, Hungary, only to come under heavy attack. Sgt. John L. Lenburg, on his 36th mission, was shot down along with the crew of their B-24, "Miss Fortune", over enemy lines near Lake Balaton, Hungary. Taken prisoner (or "Kriegsgefangenen #6410", the code name the Germans gave him), he never knew if he would see his homeland again.

If you follow the works of best-selling authors Malcolm Gladwell, Faith Popcorn, Daniel Pink, and other trend forecasters, you’ll appreciate learning about over 25 rings of fire that lie ahead for Christians around the world. Len Sweet once again maps the future for the church in this sweeping survey of the 21st century. In the face of eruptive and disruptive culture changes from economics and communications to bioethics and beyond, how do we fight fire with fire, not only catching up to our culture but leading our friends and neighbors toward the feet of Christ?

In Going Home, Raja Shehadeh, the Orwell Prize-winning author of Palestinian Walks, takes us on a series of journeys around his hometown of Ramallah. Set in a single day - the day that happens to be the 50th anniversary of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank - the audiobook is a powerful and moving record and chronicle of the changing face of his city.

Often overshadowed by San Francisco, its twinkling sister city across the Bay, Oakland is itself an American wonder. The city is surrounded by and filled with natural beauty - mountains and hills and lakes and a bay - and architecture that mirrors its history as a Spanish mission, a gold rush outpost, and home of the West's most devious robber barons. It's also a city of artists and blue-collar workers, the birthplace of the Black Panthers, neighbor to Berkeley, and home to a vibrant and volatile stew of immigrants and refugees.

The eerie silence was broken only by the sound of scuffling feet as marchers approached the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. The mood was sober. Hundreds of men, women, and children had been protesting in Selma for weeks to win black Americans the right to vote. They’d been threatened. Been arrested. Jailed. This march was likely to end in violence, yet they went anyway. But when state troopers attacked with billy clubs and tear gas, the brute force was a shock.

Step into the heart of Rome without ever leaving your space. Rome: A Meditation Walk Through the Eternal City is a beautifully crafted guided meditation that transports you to the timeless streets of Italy’s capital through rich visualization, sensory immersion, and mindfulness cues. Whether you seek deep relaxation, a mental escape, or a profound connection with history, this journey offers a one-of-a-kind experience.

Hard Border goes to the very roots of the Irish boundary where, after decades of division and conflict, a fragile peace has prevailed since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Post-Brexit, it will re-emerge as the only land frontier between the United Kingdom and the European Union. In his travelogue of the abandoned 50-mile route along the Ulster Canal, Darach MacDonald presents a close-up narrative history of Ireland.

This is a neglected history. Not a sweeping, definitive, exhaustive history of the world but something quieter, more intimate and particular. A single journey, picked out in 101 objects, through the fascinating, too-often-overlooked, manifold histories of women. Through the variety and nuance in all these objects, Annabelle Hirsch has created a new history – teeming, unexpected, witty and always illuminating.

In the graveyard of economic ideology, dead ideas still stalk the land. The recent financial crisis laid bare many of the assumptions behind market liberalism--the theory that market-based solutions are always best, regardless of the problem. For decades, their advocates dominated mainstream economics, and their influence created a system where an unthinking faith in markets led many to view speculative investments as fundamentally safe.

In Blues City, Ishmael Reed, one of our most brilliant essayists, takes us on a tour of Oakland, exploring its fascinating history, its beautiful hills and waterfronts, and its odd cultural juxtapositions. He takes us into a year in the life of this amazing city, to black cowboy parades and Indian powwows, to Black Panther reunions and Gay Pride concerts, to a Japanese jazz club where a Lakota musician plays Coltrane’s "Naima".

Frank Conroy first visited Nantucket with a gang of college friends in 1955. They came on a whim, and for Conroy it was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with this "small, relaxed oasis in the ocean." This book, part travel diary, part memoir, is a hauntingly evocative and personal journey through Nantucket: its sweeping dunes, rugged moors, remote beaches, secret fishing spots, and hidden forests and cranberry bogs. Admirers of Conroy’s classic and acclaimed memoir Stop-Time will again delight in what James Atlas called his "genius for close observation."

This is a neglected history. Not a sweeping, definitive, exhaustive history of the world but something quieter, more intimate and particular: a single journey, picked out in 101 objects, through the fascinating, manifold, and too often overlooked histories of women.

The Coloseum, Villa Borghese, the Piazza di Spagna, the Trevi Fountain, and the Capuchin Church of Santa Maria della Concezione whose macabre crypt had impressed the likes of Mark Twain and Marquis de Sade; these are just some of the landmarks William Murray points out on his walking tour of Rome. Having grown up in the city, Murray makes for an expert (and engaging) tour guide who captures Rome's sights, sounds, and flavors, while also revealing its mythologized history and folklore.