Kerry Shale
Author
Series
First Civilizations volume 1
Language
English
Description
War addresses the paradox that good comes from bad. The threat of destruction engenders a sense of fear, but also creates tighter bonds within a community, while driving an arms race of technological progress. This happened in the Zapotec civilization in Mexico, but also with the Teotihuacan civilization which overthrew the Zapotecs and emerged as the first superpower of the Americas.
Author
Series
First Civilizations volume 2
Language
English
Description
Religion examines the power of a shared belief system, which serves as the social glue to unify a population within a single state. Nowhere was this truer than in Ancient Egypt - still the world's longest lasting civilization - which depended for its stability on the god-like status of its rulers.
Author
Series
First Civilizations volume 3
Language
English
Description
Cities investigates the symbiotic link between urban living and civilization - there have been no cities without civilization, no civilizations without cities. The world's first settlements were in Mesopotamia, where the emergence of farming created the calories necessary for people to feed themselves on a permanent basis. This led to an exponential increase in population and a blossoming of innovation – civilization itself.
Author
Series
First Civilizations volume 4
Language
English
Description
Trade explores the civilizing effect of buying and selling goods. In particular, the Indus Valley Civilization – on the borders of modern-day India and Pakistan – was seemingly created with the single purpose of encouraging the free flow of trade. The knock-on effects were massively beneficial - an increase in wealth, co-operation and trust.
Author
Series
First Peoples volume 1
Language
English
Description
As early humans spread out across the world, their toughest challenge was colonizing the Americas - because a huge ice sheet blocked the route. It has long been thought that the pioneers, known as Clovis people, arrived about 13,000 years ago, but an underwater discovery in Mexico suggests people arrived earlier than previously thought - and by boat, not on foot. How closely related were these First Americans to today's Native Americans? It's a controversial...
Author
Series
First Peoples volume 5
Language
English
Description
When Homo sapiens turned up in prehistoric Europe, they ran into the Neanderthals. The two types of human were similar enough to interbreed - and both created artifacts of similar complexity. But as more and more Homo sapiens moved into Europe, the balance of power shifted. Neanderthals were overwhelmed. Ever since, we've had Europe and the rest of the world to ourselves.
Author
Series
First Peoples volume 2
Language
English
Description
Around 200,000 years ago, a new species, Homo sapiens, appeared on the African landscape. While scientists have imagined eastern Africa as a real-life Garden of Eden, the latest research suggests humans evolved in many places across the continent at the same time. DNA from a 19th-century African-American slave is forcing geneticists to re-think the origins of our species. The theory is that our ancestors met, mated and hybridized with other human...
Author
Series
First Peoples volume 4
Language
English
Description
When Homo sapiens arrived in Australia, they were, for the first time, truly alone, surrounded by wildly different flora and fauna. How did they survive and populate a continent? There is a close cultural and genetic link between the First Australians and modern-day Aborigines. The ancient and modern story intersect here as nowhere else in the world. The secret to this continuity is diversity. Intuitively, they found the right balance between being...
Author
Series
First Peoples volume 3
Language
English
Description
What happened when early humans ventured out of Africa and into Asia? Where did they go and whom did they meet along the way? The latest evidence suggests they left far earlier than previously thought and interbred with other types of ancient human - Homo erectus, Neanderthals and also the Denisovans, whose existence was established only five years ago when geneticists extracted DNA from a tiny fragment of finger bone. Because these ancient humans...
Author
Language
English
Description
Tad is a bored construction worker dreaming of a life of adventure until one day he is mistaken for a famous archeologist and that dream comes true. Whisked to Peru holding a sacred key, Tad helps Professor Lavrof and his beautiful daughter Sara as they race against evil treasure hunters in search of the Lost City of Paititi.
11) The good soldier
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
At the height of belle époque Europe, an American couple—the narrator John Dowell and his wife Florence–and a British couple–Leonora and the titular “good soldier” Edward Ashburnham—meet and become firm friends. Travelling and socialising together, it’s a full nine years before the cracks start to show, but when they do the whole edifice starts tumbling to reveal the secrecy and lies concealed within.
The Good
...12) Q & A: a novel
Author
Language
English
Description
Vikas Swarup's spectacular debut novel opens in a jail cell in Mumbai, India, where Ram Mohammad Thomas is being held after correctly answering all twelve questions on India's biggest quiz show, Who Will Win a Billion? It is hard to believe that a poor orphan who has never read a newspaper or gone to school could win such a contest. But through a series of exhilarating tales Ram explains to his lawyer how episodes in his life gave him the answer to...
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Around 200,000 years ago, a new species, Homo sapiens, appeared on the African landscape. While scientists have imagined eastern Africa as a real-life Garden of Eden, the latest research suggests humans evolved in many places across the continent at the same time. DNA from a 19th-century African-American slave is forcing geneticists to re-think the origins of our species. The theory is that our ancestors met, mated and hybridized with other human...
14) Australia
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
When Homo sapiens arrived in Australia, they were, for the first time, truly alone, surrounded by wildly different flora and fauna. How did they survive and populate a continent? There is a close cultural and genetic link between the First Australians and modern-day Aborigines. The ancient and modern story intersect here as nowhere else in the world. The secret to this continuity is diversity. Intuitively, they found the right balance between being...
Series
Pub. Date
[2008]
Language
English
Description
Part of the Naxos AudioBooks Essential series, this CD combines some of Poes best-loved ghost stories, plus a selection of poetry including The Raven and an additional biography. This audiobook features The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Masque of the Red Death, The Cask of Amontillado, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Premature Burial and The Facts in the Case of M Valdemar.
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
The Wall Street bombing of September 1920 is the most destruction and deadly terrorist attack ever committed on United States soil. Caught in the blast are war veteran Stratham younger, police detective Jimmy Littlemore, and the beautiful but secretive Colette Rousseau. A mysterious trail of evidence, together with a series of inexplicable attacks on Colette and a secret buried deep in her past, leas the three on a journey from Paris to Prague,...
Pub. Date
[2017]
Language
English
Description
Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon embark on another deliciously deadpan culinary road trip. This time around, the guys head to Spain to sample the best of the country's gastronomic offerings in between rounds of their hilariously off-the-cuff banter. Over plates of pintxos and paella, the pair exchange barbs and their patented celebrity impressions, as well as more serious reflections on what it means to settle into middle age.
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"In his retirement, Thomas Jefferson edited the New Testament with a penknife and glue, removing all mention of miracles and other supernatural events. Inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment, Jefferson hoped to reconcile Christian tradition with reason by presenting Jesus of Nazareth as a great moral teacher--not a divine one. Peter Manseau tells the story of the Jefferson Bible, exploring how each new generation has reimagined the book in its...
20) First peoples
Pub. Date
[2015]
Edition
Widescreen.
Language
English
Description
200,000 years ago we took our first steps in Africa. Today there are seven billion of us living across the planet. How did our ancestors spread from continent to continent? This is a global detective story, featuring the latest archaeological discoveries and genetic research. On each continent, we track down the earliest members of our species, Homo sapiens. Who were these First Peoples? What drove them to the ends of the earth?
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