World Civilizations

When there’s nothing left to live for, what will you do with your last six bullets? Thirteen months ago, civilization ended with the arrival of a massive asteroid. For Burt James, a seasoned survivalist, it was the event he'd long prepared for. While the rest of the world descended into chaos, scrambling for food and water, he secluded himself in his fortified hilltop home in a small Australian Outback town. But now, he's out of supplies and down to his final six bullets—and must face the hardest choice of his life.

Latitude is a gloriously exciting tale of adventure and scientific discovery that has never been told before. Nicholas Crane, the former president of the Royal Geographic Society, documents the remarkable expedition undertaken by a group of 12 European adventurer-scientists in the mid-18th century. The team spent years in South America, scaling volcanoes and traversing jungles, before they achieved their goal of establishing the exact shape of the Earth by measuring the length of one degree latitude at the equator.

One of the most dynamic eras in American history, the 1920s began with a watershed year that would set the tone for the century to follow. The Roaring Twenties is the only decade in American history with a widely applied nickname, and our collective fascination with this era continues. But how did this surge of innovation and cultural milestones emerge out of the ashes of World War I?

The term Moor is a historical rather than an ethnic name. It is an invention of European Christians for the Islamic inhabitants of Maghreb (North Africa), Andalusia (Spain), Sicily and Malta, and was sometimes use to designate all Muslims. It is derived from Mauri, the Latin name for the Berbers who lived in the Roman province of Mauretania, which ranged across modern Algeria and Morocco. Saracen was another European term used to designate Muslims, though it usually referred to the Arabic peoples of the Middle East and derives from an ancient name for the Arabs, Sarakenoi.

Of all the peoples of the ancient Near East, the Phoenicians are among the most recognizable but also perhaps the least understood. The Phoenicians never built an empire like the Egyptians and Assyrians; in fact, the Phoenicians never created a unified Phoenician state. Instead, they existed as independent city-state kingdoms scattered throughout the Mediterranean region.

Much of world history is Indian history. Home today to one in four people, the subcontinent has long been densely populated and deeply connected to Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas through migration and trade. In this magisterial history, Audrey Truschke tells the fascinating story of the region historically known as India--which includes today's India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and parts of Afghanistan—and the people who have lived there.

Colonialism: A Global History interprets colonialism as an unequal relationship characterized by displacement and domination and reveals the ways in which this relationship has been constitutive of global modernity.

From the moment Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes first found and confronted them, the Aztecs have fascinated the world, and they continue to hold a unique place both culturally and in pop culture. Ironically, and unlike the Mayans, the Aztecs are not widely viewed or remembered with nuance, in part because their own leader burned extant Aztec writings. The World's Greatest Civilizations: The History and Culture of the Aztecs attempts to portray the Aztecs as they actually were.

In 1892, Sir Charles Oman, a pioneer in military history lifted the curtain and offered the world a rare insight into the Byzantine world. His ground-breaking book on Byzantine history helped bring the attention of historians back to an era that shaped medieval empires, cultures and European history in general. From the foundation of Constantinople to the fall of an empire: embark on a unique adventure! By the end of this eye-opening Byzantine history book, you will be able to fully understand the immense significance of the Byzantine Empire and its cultural legacy.

The first in a fantastically funny new history series from the acclaimed Tony Robinson, who takes you on a headlong gallop through time, pointing out all the most important, funny, strange, amazing, entertaining, smelly and disgusting bits about the Egyptians! It's history, but not as we know it!

Our understanding of the Persian Empire has traditionally come from the histories of Greek writers such as Herodotus—and as such, over many centuries, our perspective has been skewed by ancient political and cultural agendas. Professor Llewellyn-Jones, however, calls upon original Achaemenid sources, including inscriptions, art and recent archaeological discoveries in Iran, to create an authentic 'Persian Version' of this remarkable first great empire of antiquity—the Age of the Great Kings.

Famous for its unflagging narrative power, fine organization, and irresistibly persuasive arguments, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire has earned a permanent place of honor in historical literature. Gibbon's elegantly detached erudition is seasoned with an ironic wit, and remarkably little of his work is outdated.

Xenophon, after being exiled from Athens, spent the last years of his life hunting, writing, and recalling in his books the great days of the Persian expedition. This record of one of the most famous marches in history contains an account of the day-to-day life of ordinary men and soldiers. Translated by Rex Warner.

Sum and Substance is a concise, factual, and lucid summary of the history of our universe and mankind, giving broad understanding of the past, present, and future. Richly illustrated and augmented by insightful quotes from great thinkers, the book offers the ambitious hope that if you spend eight hours reading it, you may learn more than in any other eight hours of your life! This book has been highly praised by reviewers from around the United States. Following are some of their comments: “A timeless classic that will resonate with readers for generations to come.” “An excellent read...

Nearly everyone has played chess at some point in their lives. Its rules and pieces have served as a metaphor for society including military strategy, mathematics, artificial intelligence, literature, and the arts. It has been condemned as the devil’s game by popes, rabbis, and imams, and lauded as a guide to proper living by different popes, rabbis, and imams. In his wide-ranging and ever fascinating examination of chess, David Shenk gleefully unearths the hidden history of a game that seems so simple yet contains infinity.

Most people who pay attention to the news would tell you that 2017 is one of the worst years in recent memory. We're facing a series of deeply troubling, even existential problems: fascism, terrorism, environmental collapse, racial and economic inequality, and more. Yet this narrative misses something important: by almost every meaningful measure, the modern world is better than it ever has been. In the United States, disease, crime, discrimination, and most forms of pollution are in long-term decline, while longevity and education keep rising.

Many ancient civilizations are described as mysterious, but none provide as many puzzles and unanswered questions as the Olmecs. These people arrived in lands near the Gulf of Mexico around 1500 BCE and brought with them entirely new concepts in terms of engineering, agriculture, and religion. The problem is we have no idea where they came from or how they developed these new ideas.

Entropy is the most destructive force in the universe. Entropy shakes the entire universe apart--all according to long understood principals of thermodynamics. People often wonder why things go wrrrong. Entropy, according to the laws of randomness, is the problem here, as well. Whenever we can make a single right action, randomness provides the opportunity for an infinite number of wrong actions. Thus, making things go wrong is easy. Right actions can be problematic. Entropy is a measurement of randomness, or chaos. Since everything in the universe is composed of random energy, entropy is ...

From the end of the Baroque age and the death of Bach in 1750 to the rise of Hitler in 1933, Germany was transformed from a poor relation among Western nations into a dominant intellectual and cultural force more influential than France, Britain, Italy, Holland and the United States. In the early decades of the 20th century, German artists, writers, philosophers, scientists and engineers were leading their freshly unified country to new and undreamed of heights, and by 1933, they had won more Nobel prizes than anyone else and more than the British and Americans combined.

In this post-apocalyptic anthology, nothing matters except survival. Many are forced to scavenge every day to get by while others are part of the remaining vestiges of society. Some face zombies and other monstrous creatures while others watch their backs from fellow humans. Regardless of their numerous challenges, when the end arrives, life finds a way. Features twenty-three short stories by the following authors: Alex Passey, Ainsley Davidson, Daryl Marcus, Stephen A. Roddewig, Matt Spencer, Lee Clark Zumpe, Linda Griffin, Sean E. Britten, Andrea L. Staum, J. VanZile, Kelly Matsuura, ...