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Showing 1 - 20 of 6111 items
Panorama des faits marquants de l'égyptologie depuis le début du XIXe siècle : la découverte des momies royales et de…
la tombe de Toutankhamon, le déchiffrement des hiéroglyphes ou encore le déplacement des obélisques en Europe.
British Museum director profiles one hundred pieces from the institution's collection that trace human history, from a stone chopping tool…
discovered in Tanzania in 1931--and estimated to be one of the first manmade objects--to a solar-powered lamp and charger manufactured in China in 2010. Bestseller. 2010
Relic hunter and naturalist exposes the dark side of archaeology. Discusses the reasons people loot, citing cases of antiquities traffickers,…
immoral museum curators, and wealthy collectors. Argues that taking artifacts separates them from their history. Explains his own low-impact method of exploration. 2010
Renowned activist and public intellectual David Graeber teams up with professor of comparative archaeology David Wengrow to deliver a trailblazing…
account of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution--from the development of agriculture and cities to the emergence of "the state," political violence, and social inequality--and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike--either free and equal innocents, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could only be achieved by sacrificing those original freedoms, or alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. Graeber and Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a conservative reaction to powerful critiques of European society posed by Indigenous observers and intellectuals. Revisiting this encounter has startling implications for how we make sense of human history today, including the origins of farming, property, cities, democracy, slavery, and civilization itself.Drawing on path-breaking research in archaeology and anthropology, the authors show how history becomes a far more interesting place once we learn to throw off our conceptual shackles and perceive what's really there. If humans did not spend 95% of their evolutionary past in tiny bands of hunter-gatherers, what were they doing all that time? If agriculture, and cities, did not mean a plunge into hierarchy and domination, then what kinds of social and economic organization did they lead to? What was really happening during the periods that we usually describe as the emergence of "the state"? The answers are often unexpected, and suggest that the course of human history may be less set in stone, and more full of playful, hopeful possibilities, than we tend to assume.The Dawn of Everything fundamentally transforms our understanding of the human past and offers a path toward imagining new forms of freedom, new ways of organizing society. This is a monumental book of formidable intellectual range, animated by curiosity, moral vision, and a faith in the power of direct action.
Anthropology professor and author of Cro-Magnon (DB 72886) surveys fifteen thousand years of Native American history and culture in North…
America. Discusses controversies over the first settlement and humans' role in animal extinction. Covers immigration routes and the diversity of hunter-gatherer societies. 2011
Journalist/filmmaker vacations in seven polluted places, including Chernobyl, site of the 1986 Ukrainian nuclear disaster; Alberta, home of Canada's oil-sand…
mines; and India, where the Yamuna river is full of sewage and industrial runoff. Describes the environmental devastation and discusses the motivations of polluters and activists. Some strong language. 2012
Selection of thirty essays that originally appeared in Condé Nast Traveler between 1988 and 2011. In "The Peak of My…
Desire" Russell Banks--author of The Lost Memory of Skin (DB 74780)--reminisces about his attempt to climb the Andes in Ecuador. 2011
Acclaimed British novelist chronicles his 1842 trip to the United States and offers observations about North American society. Includes Dickens's…
celebrated visit with Laura Bridgman at the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind. Introduction and notes by Patricia Ingham. 2004
Actor and travel writer McCarthy discusses the impact his travels have had on his psyche. Describes climing Mt. Kilimanjaro; visiting…
Baltimore, Maryland; and boating on the Amazon. Details the ways the trips helped him grow up, learn about himself, and better relate to others. 2012
Author of Roads to Quoz (DB 68364) compiles fifty-six short works on his travels all over the world. In "Crossing…
Kansas" the native Missourian pokes fun at just-passing-through vacationers' misconceptions about that state. "Into the Antipodes" relates a journey to New Zealand. 2013
Journalist recounts her walk along St. Declan's Way, from the Rock of Cashel in County Tipperary to Ardmore in County…
Waterford, as she sought to reconnect with her Irish heritage. Describes local scenery and life. Explores Christian and pagan tales related to sites along the ancient road. 2011
An exploration of the mythos of the Amazons, a tribe of female warriors. Discusses the stories told in many cultures…
about them and the past conclusions that they must have been merely myth. The author, however, uses research and archeological discoveries to demonstrate that they did, in fact, exist. 2018
Author of Our Man in Havana (DB 26596) recounts the 1935 trip he took through the interior of Liberia. Discusses…
his preparations for the trip, challenges his group faced, and his impressions of the people he met and environment he encountered. Includes an introduction by Paul Theroux. 1936
Woman chronicles a three-week trip through Europe and Turkey with a man she had met on a dating site only…
a few weeks earlier. They traveled with no luggage and no set agenda or reservations. Discusses their adventures, the philosophy of minimalism, and the development of their relationship. 2016
One of the world's most dangerous volcanoes and capable of destroying entire cities, Vesuvius has fascinated many for over two…
millennia. Scarth draws on research, eyewitness accounts, and other sources to depict the story of this violent volcano from ancient times until the early twenty-first century. 2009
Journalist recounts a summer internship with Zagreb Film in 1968. Discusses the mentors she encountered at the studio, reconnecting with…
the history of her family--many of whom had died in the Holocaust--and reevaluating what it meant to be American when living in a culture markedly different from her own. 2015
Collection of thirty-two essays by authors of fiction about their travel adventures. Includes stories from Frances Mayes, author of Under…
the Tuscan Sun (DB 44847); Joyce Carol Oates, author of Carthage (DB 78237); Alexander McCall Smith, author of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (DB 55503); and more. 2012
Examination of those who choose a career in the field of archaeology--the study of the material remains of culture. Discusses…
the ways in which people are drawn into the field--such as a love of Indiana Jones--challenges archaeologists face in the twenty-first century, and day-to-day lives of practitioners. 2014
Explores the mysteries of the Mawangdui (mah-wahng-dway) tombs, one of China's top archaeological finds, and sheds light on what life…
was like during the Han dynasty (202 B.C.-220 A.D.). Details the burial and condition of Lady Dai's body and cause of death. For grades 6-9 and older readers. 2014
Professional navigator and travel company executive shares the tips and tricks he has learned over his twenty years of experience…
about orienting yourself in both urban and rural environments using nature's clues. Includes information on using your senses, identifying landmarks big and small, and ways different environments affect indicators. 2014