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The Strange Laws Of Old England
By Nigel Cawthorne. 2004
Did you know that: It's against the law to check into a hotel in London under assumed names for the…
purpose of lovemaking? Under a statute of Edwards II all whales washed up on the shore belong to the monarch? Under a Tudor law Welshmen are not allowed into the city of Chester after dark?In THE STRANGE LAWS OF OLD ENGLAND, Nigel Cawthorne unearths an extraordinary collection of the most bizarre and arcane laws that have been enacted over the centuries. Some of the laws, incredibly, are still in force. It is still illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament in a suit of armour . . . This elegant and amusing book is perfect for everyone fascinated by the eccentric history of these islands.Survivor: The Autobiography (Brief Histories )
By Jon E. Lewis. 2011
This collection of classic tales comprises over 50 accounts of true-life adventure taken from contemporary memoirs, letters and journals. They…
span the years 1800 to the end of the 20th century, in a period which can be termed the modern age of exploration. Inspired by Ernest Shackleton's 1914-15 escape from the bitter clutches of Antarctica, this book is by turn inspirational, harrowing, tragic and unimaginable. It recounts stories of ordinary mortals who achieved extraordinary things. From the ice-locked poles and endless deserts of Arabia to the storm-tossed South Atlantic, the rainforests of the Amazon and sheer peaks of the Himalayas, the world's most famous adventurers recount their experiences.Includes accounts from some of the greatest ever explorers and adventurers: Captain Scott, Ernest Shackleton; John Franklin, Edmund Hilary, Laurens Van der Post, Thor Heyerdahl, John Blashford-Snell, Ranulp Fiennes, Chay Blyth, Jacques Cousteau, Nick Danziger,; Charles Lindbergh, Peter Fleming and many more.The Women Who Broke All the Rules: How the Choices of a Generation Changed Our Lives
By Susan B. Evans, Joan P. Avis. 1999
Featuring in-depth interviews with over 100 women, this important book uncovers the untold stories of lives in progress, doing one's…
best and rewriting old rules. The stories tell of the creativity, courage, and determination used by women to forever redefine womanhood.My Appeal to the World: Statements On The 10th Of March, 1961-2010
By Sofia Stril-Rever, HIS HOLINESS, THE DALAI LAMA. 2015
His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama is the foremost spokesperson for the people of the Tibetan Plateau although…
his home is in India in the Himalayan foothills where he has been forced to live in exile since 1959 As a Buddhist monk his main focus has been the spiritual life and the leadership of his people in exile ensuring their survival and preserving their unique Buddhist culture while appealing to the world to stop the destruction of their homeland and the six million Tibetans oppressed within it Every March 10th from 1961 until 2011 in commemoration of the greatest uprising of the Tibetan people against the Chinese military occupation the Dalai Lama delivered an appeal to the world on behalf of his people Each statement is a heartfelt call to recognize the truth and the factual reality of Tibet s history and situation a cry for help a plea for justice and a pledge of determination to withstand the worst and to overcome In these annual addresses he began to articulate and fully express his overarching appeal to humanity All of the Dalai Lama s March 10th speeches at their most poignant and eloquent are collected here introduced and historically contextualized by Sofia Stril-Rever an author and scholar of Tibetan history and culture and Buddhist spirituality who has long served as his French translator Here in this book is his appeal to us all The people of all nations have heard it and have tried to help but their governments still have not dared to stand up effectively for justice on behalf of the Tibetan people and for recognition of the basic human rights to which we all are entitled The question therefore remains Who will finally respond to this appeal in time to prevent the ultimate disaster that is looming on the roof of the worldWhite Rajah: A Biography of Sir James Brooke
By Nigel Barley. 2002
Sir James Brooke was an extraordinary 'eminent' Victorian, whose life was the stuff of legend.His curious career began in 1841…
when he was caught up in a war in Brunei which had started because a party of local Dayaks had refused to furl their umbrellas in the presence of the Sultan. Brooke was an opportunist who, with the Sultan's backing, made war on the Dayaks tribespeople and eventually found himself ruling over Sarawak - a kingdom the size of England - as a result. How he achieved it is a romantic, sometimes horrifying story. Brooke is someone that George Macdonald Fraser would scarcely dare to invent. Errol Flynn wanted to play him in a movie, seventy years after his death and his dynasty is remembered throughout South-East Asia.ANZACS on the Western Front: The Australian War Memorial Battlefield Guide
By Peter Pedersen. 2018
A newly updated, lavishly illustrated account of the ANZACs involvement in the Western Front—complete with walking and driving tours of…
28 battlefields. With rare photographs and documents from the Australian War Memorial archive and extensive travel information, this is the most comprehensive guide to the battlefields of the Western Front on the market. Every chapter covers not just the battles, but the often larger-than-life personalities who took part in them. Following a chronological order from 1916 through 1918, the book leads readers through every major engagement the Australian and New Zealanders fought in and includes tactical considerations and extracts from the personal diaries of soldiers. Anzacs On The Western Front: The Australian War Memorial Battlefield Guide is the perfect book for anyone who wants to explore the battlefields of the Western Front, either in-person or from the comfort of home. It does far more than show where the lines that generals drew on their maps actually ran on the ground and retrace the footsteps of the men advancing towards them. It is a graphic and wide-ranging record of the Australian and New Zealand achievements, and of the huge sacrifices both nations made, in what is still arguably the most grueling episode in their history. A complete guide to the ANZAC battlefields on the Western Front—featuring short essays on important personalities and events, details on relevant cemeteries, museums, memorials and nearby places of interest, and general travel information. Carefully researched and illustrated with colorful maps and both modern and period photographs. Includes information about the Sir John Monash Centre near Villers-Bretonneux in France—a new interpretative museum set to open on Anzac Day 2018, coinciding with the centenary of the Year of Victory 1918. Anzacs On The Western Front: The Australian War Memorial Battlefield Guide is the perfect book for historians, history buffs, military enthusiasts, and Australians and New Zealanders who want to explore the military history and battlefields of their heritage.Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory Of The Web
By David Weinberger. 2002
The Web has not been hyped enough. That's the startling thesis of this one-of-a-kind book that's sure to become a…
classic work of social commentary. Just as Marshall McLuhan forever altered our view of broadcast media, Weinberger shows that the new medium of the Web is not only altering social institutions such as business and government but, more important, is transforming bedrock concepts of our culture such as space, time, the public, and even reality itself. Weinberger introduces us to denizens of this new world, among them Zannah, whose online diary turns self-revelation into play; Tim Bray, whose map of the Web reveals what's at the heart of the new Web space; and Danny Yee and Claudiu Popa, part of the new breed of Web experts we trust despite their lack of qualifications. Through stories of life on the Web, an insightful take on some familiar (and some unfamiliar) Web sites, and a wicked sense of humor, Weinberger puts the Web into the social and intellectual context we need to begin assessing its true impact on our lives. The irony, according to Weinberger, is that this new technology is more in tune with our authentic selves than is the modern world. Funny, provocative, and ultimately hopeful, Small Pieces Loosely Joined makes us look at the Web--and at life--in a new light. From Small Pieces Loosely Joined:The Web has sent a jolt through our culture, zapping our economy, our ideas about the sharing of creative works, and possibly even institutions such as religion and government. Why? How do we explain the lightning charge of the Web? If it has fallen short of our initial hopes and fears about its transformational powers, why did it excite those hopes and fears in the first place? Why did this technology hit our culture like a bolt from Zeus?Suppose--just suppose--that the Web is a new world we're just beginning to inhabit. . . If the Web is changing bedrock concepts such as space, matter, time, perfection, public, knowledge, and morality--each a chapter of this book--no wonder we're so damn confused. That's as it should be. The Web is enabling us to rediscover what we've always known about being human: we are connected creatures in a connected world about which we care passionately. . . If this is true, then for all of the over-heated, exaggerated, manic-depressive coverage of the Web, we'd have to conclude that the Web in fact has not been hyped enough.The Third Bank of the River: Power and Survival in the Twenty-First-Century Amazon
By Chris Feliciano Arnold. 2018
During the 2014 World Cup, an isolated Amazonian tribe emerged from the jungle on the misty border of Peru and…
Brazil, escaping massacre at the hands of illegal loggers. A year later, in the jungle capital of Manaus, a bloody weekend of reprisal killings inflames a drug war that blurs the line between cops and kingpins. Both events reveal the dual struggles of those living in and around the vast, endangered Amazon jungle. As indigenous tribes lose their ancestral territory every day to loggers and drug runners, local communities in cities such as Manaus, are plagued by intense violence due to the ongoing drug wars and entrenched corruption within the police and government. The chaos and violence echo the atrocities that have haunted the rain forest since Europeans first arrived in the New World.Following doctors and soldiers, environmental activists and indigenous Olympic archers, among others, The Third Bank of the River traces development in the Amazon from the arrival of the first Spanish flotilla. Veteran journalist Chris Arnold grounds his story in rigorous first-hand reporting and in-depth research, revealing a portrait of Brazil and the Amazon that is complex, bloody, and often tragic.Up and Down Stairs: The History Of The Country House Servant
By Jeremy Musson. 2009
Country houses were reliant on an intricate hierarchy of servants, each of whom provided an essential skill. Up and Down…
Stairs brings to life this hierarchy and shows how large numbers of people lived together under strict segregation and how sometimes this segregation was broken, as with the famous marriage of a squire to his dairymaid at Uppark. Jeremy Musson captures the voices of the servants who ran these vast houses, and made them work. From unpublished memoirs to letters, wages, newspaper articles, he pieces together their daily lives from the Middle Ages through to the twentieth century. The story of domestic servants is inseparable from the story of the country house as an icon of power, civilisation and luxury. This is particularly true with the great estates such as Chatsworth, Hatfield, Burghley and Wilton. Jeremy Musson looks at how these grand houses were, for centuries, admired and imitated around the world.Floods, Famines, and Emperors: El Nino and the Fate of Civilizations
By Brian M. Fagan. 2009
In 1999, few people had thought to examine the effects of climate on civilization. Now, due in part to the…
groundbreaking work of archaeologist Brian Fagan, climate change is a central issue. Revised and updated ten years after its first publication, Floods, Famines and Emperors remains the definitive account of how the world's best-known climate event had an indelible impact on history.The Silence and the Scorpion: The Coup Against Chavez and the Making of Modern Venezuela
By Brian A. Nelson. 2009
On April 11, 2002, nearly a million Venezuelans marched on the presidential palace to demand the resignation of President Hugo…
Chavez. Led by Pedro Carmona and Carlos Ortega, the opposition represented a cross-section of society furious with Chavez's economic policies, specifically his mishandling of the Venezuelan oil industry. But as the day progressed the march turned violent, sparking a military revolt that led to the temporary ousting of Chavez. Over the ensuing, turbulent seventy-two hours, Venezuelans would confront the deep divisions within their society and ultimately decide the best course for their country -and its oil-in the new century.An exemplary piece of narrative journalism, The Silence and the Scorpion provides rich insight into the complexities of modern Venezuela.Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire
By Brendan Simms. 2007
In the eighteenth century, Britain became a world superpower through a series of sensational military strikes. Traditionally, the Royal Navy…
has been seen as Britain's key weapon, but in Three Victories and a Defeat Brendan Simms argues that Britain's true strength lay with the German aristocrats who ruled it at the time. The House of Hanover superbly managed a complex series of European alliances that enabled Britain to keep the continental balance of power in check while dramatically expanding her own empire. These alliances sustained the nation through the War of the Spanish Succession, the War of the Austrian Succession, and the Seven Years' War. But in 1776, Britain lost the American continent by alienating her European allies.An extraordinary reinterpretation of British and American history, Three Victories and a Defeat is a masterwork by a rising star of the historical profession.Deaf Heritage: A Narrative History of Deaf America
By Jack R. Gannon. 2012
Now, Jack R. Gannon's original groundbreaking volume on Deaf history and culture is available once again. In Deaf Heritage: A…
Narrative History of Deaf America, Gannon brought together for the first time the story of the Deaf experience in America from a Deaf perspective. Recognizing the need to document the multifaceted history of this unique minority with its distinctive visual culture, he painstakingly gathered as much material as he could on Deaf American life. The result is a 17-chapter montage of artifacts and information that forms an utterly fascinating record from the early nineteenth century to the time of its original publication in 1981. Deaf Heritage tracks the development of the Deaf community both chronologically and by significant subjects. The initial chapter treats the critical topics of early attempts at deaf education, the impact of Deaf and Black deaf teachers, the establishment of schools for the deaf, and the founding of Gallaudet College. Individual chapters cover the 1880s through the 1970s, mixing milestones such as the birth of the National Association of the Deaf and the work of important figures, Deaf and hearing, with anecdotes about day-to-day deaf life. Other chapters single out important facets of Deaf culture: American Sign Language, Deaf Sports, Deaf artists, Deaf humor, and Deaf publications. The overall effect of this remarkable record, replete with archival photographs, tables, and lists of Deaf people's accomplishments, reveals the growth of a vibrant legacy singular in American history. Advisory: Bookshare has learned that this book offers only partial accessibility. We have kept it in the collection because it is useful for some of our members. To explore further access options with us, please contact us through the Book Quality link on the right sidebar. Benetech is actively working on projects to improve accessibility issues such as these.The War Behind Me: Vietnam Veterans Confront the Truth about U.S. War Crimes
By Deborah Nelson. 2008
A seasoned journalist uncovers a secret archive of hundreds of war crime investigations, tracks down the people involved, and emerges…
with a disturbing and revelatory story of what really happened in Vietnam.Feminism and Pop Culture: Seal Studies (Seal Studies)
By Andi Zeisler. 2008
Whether or not we like to admit it, pop culture is a lens through which we alternately view and shape…
the world around us. When it comes to feminism, pop culture aids us in translating feminist philosophies, issues, and concepts into everyday language, making them relevant and relatable. In Feminism and Pop Culture, author and cofounder of Bitch magazine Andi Zeisler traces the impact of feminism on pop culture (and vice versa) from the 1940s to the present and beyond. With a comprehensive overview of the intertwining relationship between women and pop culture, this book is an ideal introduction to discussing feminism and daily life.The Fall of the Berlin Wall (Turning Points)
By William F. Buckley. 2004
Venerable American political conservative, Buckley offers his account of why the Berlin Wall was built, how it ruined German lives…
for nearly three decades, and how it fell -- was pushed actually -- in 1989. He delights in such images as children of Nazis, the undeniable spirit of East German dissenters, and Communist overlords.Threshold: Emergency Responders On The U.S. - Mexico Border
By Ieva Jusionyte. 2018
Emergency responders on the US-Mexico border operate at the edges of two states. They rush patients to hospitals across country…
lines, tend to the broken bones of migrants who jump over the wall, and put out fires that know no national boundaries. Paramedics and firefighters on both sides of the border are tasked with saving lives and preventing disasters in the harsh terrain at the center of divisive national debates. Ieva Jusionyte’s firsthand experience as an emergency responder provides the background for her gripping examination of the politics of injury and rescue in the militarized region surrounding the US-Mexico border. Operating in this area, firefighters and paramedics are torn between their mandate as frontline state actors and their responsibility as professional rescuers, between the limits of law and pull of ethics. From this vantage they witness what unfolds when territorial sovereignty, tactical infrastructure, and the natural environment collide. Jusionyte reveals the binational brotherhood that forms in this crucible to stand in the way of catastrophe. Through beautiful ethnography and a uniquely personal perspective, Threshold provides a new way to understand politicized issues ranging from border security and undocumented migration to public access to healthcare today.Mountain Climbing in Washington State (Images of Modern America)
By Donald R. Tjossem. 2015
This book contains images of many of the mountains and views that are available to be climbed in Washington State.…
Washington's mountains have been used for many years as a training ground for major international mountain climbing expeditions. The very first Americans to climb Mount Everest trained on the mountains of Washington State. Many of these scenes have never been seen by the casual hiker or climber, merely because they cover such a large geographic area of the state and are otherwise very remote.The Dictator's Shadow: Life Under Augusto Pinochet
By Heraldo Munoz. 2008
Augusto Pinochet was the most important Third World dictator of the Cold War, and perhaps the most ruthless. In The…
Dictator's Shadow, United Nations Ambassador Heraldo Muñoz takes advantage of his unmatched set of perspectives--as a former revolutionary who fought the Pinochet regime, as a respected scholar, and as a diplomat--to tell what this extraordinary figure meant to Chile, the United States, and the world. Pinochet's American backers saw his regime as a bulwark against Communism; his nation was a testing ground for U. S. -inspired economic theories. Countries desiring World Bank support were told to emulate Pinochet's free-market policies, and Chile's government pension even inspired President George W. Bush's plan to privatize Social Security. The other baggage--the assassinations, tortures, people thrown out of airplanes, mass murders of political prisoners--was simply the price to be paid for building a modern state. But the questions raised by Pinochet's rule still remain: Are such dictators somehow necessary? Horrifying but also inspiring, The Dictator's Shadow is a unique tale of how geopolitical rivalries can profoundly affect everyday life.The Edda
By Winifred Faraday. 2012
The term Edda (Old Norse Edda, plural Eddur) applies to the Old Norse Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, both of…
which were written down in Iceland during the 13th century in Icelandic, although they contain material from earlier traditional sources, reaching into the Viking Age. The books are the main sources of medieval skaldic tradition in Iceland and Norse mythology.