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At the height of World War II, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, was home to 75,000 residents. But to most of the…
world, the town did not exist. Thousands of civilians—many of them young women from small towns across the South—were recruited to this secret city, enticed by solid wages and the promise of war-ending work. Kept very much in the dark, few would ever guess the true nature of the tasks they performed each day in the hulking factories in the middle of the Appalachian Mountains. That is, until the end of the war—when Oak Ridge’s fateful secret was revealed. Bestseller. 2013.
Reveals the Chinese origins of such "modern" inventions as paper and printing, gunpowder, and the magnetic compass. Temple's eleven topics--including…
astronomy, engineering, medicine, and warfare--provide historical context and show that more than half of the basic discoveries considered "Western" were developed earlier in China. 1998, c1986.
Cahill continues his study of civilizations, begun in "How the Irish Saved Civilization" (DC15036), with an extended look at the…
Torah. He shows how events therein, especially the Jews' belief in one God and their ability to look at reality in a whole new way, influenced civilization. Some strong language. Bestseller. 1998.
This book features the church of Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura in Rome as its subject. The author takes readers on…
a journey through time and space, beginning with the modern church and the community that uses it. She discusses the history, theology, art history and technology, hagiography, folklore and iconography expressed in this 7th century building. 2000.
Discusses the 1507 Waldseemüller map - the first to designate America - which is in the collections of and displayed…
by the Library of Congress. Traces the overlapping voyages, some geographical and some intellectual, that brought about the map’s revolutionary depiction of the world. 2009.
Immediately after the Japanese surrender at the end of the Second World War, Saigon was occupied by British forces directed…
from Mountbatten's South East Asia Command. These forces became the first of a Western nation to clash with a Communist-led revolution in Asia, and by thwarting the Viet Minh's desperate attempts to seize power, made it impossible for South Vietnam to hold out when North Vietnam fell to the Communists in 1954. 1985.
Sharifirad was shot down in the Iraqi-Iranian war in the early 1990s, saved by a group of local Kurds, and…
eventually returned to Iran where he became a national hero. The Ayatollah sent him to Pakistan as military attaché, but when he returned to Teheran, he was accused of being a CIA spy and was imprisoned, interrogated, and tortured. Upon his release, despite constant surveillance, he resolved to smuggle his family out of the country. Some descriptions of sex and violence, some strong language. 2010.
Relates the history of the 9th and 10th Cavalry--the "Buffalo Soldiers"--from 1867 to 1898. The units, composed of emancipated slaves,…
were used to subjugate and remove Native Americans onto reservations and for other hazardous duties in the American west. Junior and Senior High. c1993.
This study deals with the history of Wales from the civil war to the industrial revolution. It analyses the powerful…
social forces which took an impoverished, downtrodden nation to the threshold of unprecedented social, economic and political change. 1993.
Economics reporter analyzes the Great Depression era in the United States and posits that federal intervention in the economy lengthened…
its duration. Considers economic plans from members of Franklin Roosevelt's brain trust and alternate solutions of outsiders such as African American Father Divine and Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson. 2007.
An overview of the intellectual forces that precipitated modernism, when a new "world view...gave rise to speed, industry, [and] world…
markets." Surveys key thinkers in academia, science, and the arts, describing their role in helping to usher in the modern era between 1870 and 1914. 1997.
When the decolonization of European empires in Africa began 50 years ago, the process was greeted with immense hope for…
the future. Blessed with bountiful natural resources and led by Western-educated elites, the continent seemed to have a realistic chance to create stable, prosperous, democratic societies. Why did it all go wrong? The arrogance and ignorance of European masters planted the seeds of many of Africa's current problems, but Meredith refuses to let Africans off the hook for the endemic violence, corruption, and political repression that plagues so many African states. Some descriptions of violence. 2005.
The Fate of Rome is the first book to examine the catastrophic role that climate change and infectious diseases played…
in the collapse of Rome's power -- a story of nature's triumph over human ambition. Interweaving a grand historical narrative with cutting-edge climate science and genetic discoveries, Kyle Harper traces how the fate of Rome was decided not just by emperors, soldiers, and barbarians but also by volcanic eruptions, solar cycles, climate instability, and devastating viruses and bacteria. He takes readers from Rome's pinnacle in the second century, when the empire seemed an invincible superpower, to its unraveling by the seventh century, when Rome was politically fragmented and materially depleted. Harper describes how the Romans were resilient in the face of enormous environmental stress, until the besieged empire could no longer withstand the combined challenges of a "little ice age" and recurrent outbreaks of bubonic plague. A poignant reflection on humanity's intimate relationship with the environment, The Fate of Rome provides a sweeping account of how one of history's greatest civilizations encountered, endured, yet ultimately succumbed to the cumulative burden of nature's violence. 2017.
The author looks at the development of the mining industry in the West which he believes was the primary factor…
in encouraging settlement. Cities and improvements in transportation and agriculture are viewed as responses to the needs of the miners. 1988.
In 1683, two empires - the Ottoman, based in Constantinople, and the Habsburg dynasty in Vienna - came face to…
face in the culmination of a 250-year power struggle: the Great Siege of Vienna. Within the city walls the choice of resistance over surrender to the largest army ever assembled by the Turks created an all-or-nothing scenario: every last survivor would be enslaved or ruthlessly slaughtered. Both sides remained resolute, sustained by hatred of their age-old enemy, certain that their victory would be won by the grace of God. 2009.
Ranging from the late-eighteenth century to the present, a narrative history reveals how the boundaries and borders that formed both…
states and the nation as a whole created a sense of identity that is central to defining American character. 2007.
In this course, Boston University professor James Schmidt offers a balanced assessment of the Enlightenment, considering both its achievements and…
its shortcomings and focusing not only on its most important intellectual achievements but also on the strange and often colourful characters that populated it. 2005.
The author chronicles the fitful history of the Galapagos Islands from Inca times and presents an intriguing cast of conquistadors,…
buccaneers, pirates, as well as eccentric explorers, hopeful colonists and naturalists - including Charles Darwin. 1991.