Service Alert
Website maintenance April 24 10pm ET
On Wednesday April 24 at 10pm ET the CELA website will be unavailable for about 15 minutes for planned maintenance.
On Wednesday April 24 at 10pm ET the CELA website will be unavailable for about 15 minutes for planned maintenance.
Showing 3661 - 3680 of 5599 items
By Kate Falvey. 2018
Have you ever heard of a bed that dumps you out if you try to hit snooze on your alarm…
clock? The “early rising machine” was one of John Muir’s many inventions. He loved to use his innovation and creativity to come up with new technology. If you could invent anything you want, what would you make?By James Grant. 2019
The definitive biography of one of the most brilliant and influential financial minds—banker, essayist, and editor of the Economist. During…
the upheavals of 2007–09, the chairman of the Federal Reserve had the name of a Victorian icon on the tip of his tongue: Walter Bagehot. Banker, man of letters, inventor of the Treasury bill, and author of Lombard Street, the still-canonical guide to stopping a run on the banks, Bagehot prescribed the doctrines that—decades later—inspired the radical responses to the world’s worst financial crises. Born in the small market town of Langport, just after the Panic of 1825 swept across England, Bagehot followed in his father’s footsteps and took a position at the local family bank—but his influence on financial matters would soon spread far beyond the county of Somerset. Persuasive and precocious, he came to hold sway in political circles, making high-profile friends, including William Gladstone—and enemies, such as Lord Overstone and Benjamin Disraeli. As a prolific essayist on wide-ranging topics, Bagehot won the admiration of Matthew Arnold and Woodrow Wilson, and delighted in paradox. He was also a misogynist, and while he opposed slavery, he misjudged Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. As editor of the Economist, he offered astute commentary on the financial issues of his day, and his name lives on in an eponymous weekly column. He has been called "the Greatest Victorian." In James Grant’s colorful and groundbreaking biography, Bagehot appears as both an ornament to his own age and a muse to our own. Drawing on a wealth of historical documents, correspondence, and publications, Grant paints a vivid portrait of the banker and his world.By Nancy Galloway. 2018
Did you know that writing letters used to be the only way to communicate with people far away? Samuel F.B.…
Morse changed all of that when he invented the telegraph and Morse code! Using wires and electromagnetism, Morse found a way to communicate over long distances almost instantly. This new technology paved the way for the telephone, as well as the other methods of communication we use today!By Paula Morrow. 2018
Garrett Morgan was an inventor concerned for the well-being of other people. His inventions included the safety hood gas mask…
and signals that set the standard for today's traffic lights. It is easy to see that the lives of many people were made better or saved by Garrett Morgan’s inventions.By Ruth Spencer Johnson. 2018
When Thomas Edison was a boy, he loved performing experiments and coming up with new inventions. His curiosity sometimes got…
him in trouble, though, like when he accidentally burned down his dad’s barn! By the time he turned 12, he had found ways to make a living by learning how to print newspapers and send telegraphs in Detroit, Michigan. Imagine what he did as an adult!By Joseph Taylor. 2018
Did you know hot air balloons were dreamed up by a French boy in the 1700s? Joseph Montgolfier devoted his…
life to experiments that he hoped would allow him to fly. With the help of his little brother, his invention allowed humans to fly for the first time in history!By Christine Graf. 2018
In the 1600s, a boy from colonial Jamestown named Thomas Savage was traded to the Powhatans in exchange for a…
boy named Namontack. The English hoped this gift would prove their friendship to Chief Powhatan and allow them to teach Namontack about England. While staying with the tribe, Thomas learned their language and culture, and served as an interpreter between the Native Americans and Europeans.By Godfrey Hodgson. 2010
Martin Luther King left an indelible mark on 20th-century American history through his leadership of the non-violent civil rights campaigns…
of the 1950s and 1960s. The election of Barack Obama as America's first black president in November 2008 has spawned a renewed interest in King's role as an agent and prophet of political change in the United States. Writing with verve and clarity but also with acute insight, Godfrey Hodgson traces King's life and career from his birth in Atlanta in 1929, through the campaigns that made possible the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, to his assassination in Memphis in 1968. Hodgson sheds light on every aspect of an extraordinary life: the Black Baptist milieu in which King grew up, his theology and political philosophy, his physical and moral courage, his insistence on the injustice of inequality, his campaigning energy, his repeated sexual infidelities. Martin Luther King is a rounded and fascinating portrait of a Christian prophet and the most brilliant orator of his age, the central message of whose life and ministry was that Americans would never be fully free until they accepted that black and white Americans must be equal.By Gustavo Vázquez. 2019
Carlota pasó de un cuento de hadas a un infierno. Ésta es la historia de ese infierno. La emperatriz volvió…
a ser princesa. Después de que su marido fuera fusilado en el Cerro de las Campanas, la consentida, la enamorada, se convirtió en una paria de las monarquías europeas y pasó sesenta años en la locura. Esta obra es la primera que se concentra en las seis décadas que Carlota de Sajonia-Coburgo-Gotha vivió después de que se derrumbara el Segundo Imperio Mexicano, y ofrece un estudio lúcido de uno de los personajes más apasionantes en la historia del país. Aquí hablan los diarios de los médicos de Carlota, los papeles de Adrien Goffinet (administrador de sus bienes), testigos de aquellos años, archivos reales, las cartas de su servidumbre, bitácoras de viajeros y la prensa europea de la época. Paso a paso, se revela cómo la "princesa más triste del mundo" terminó convertida en un peón. Y cómo, de las ruinas del México de Maximiliano, surgió el imperio privado del rey belga Leopoldo II en el Congo.By John Charmley. 1995
By John Charmley. 1994
By Peter Kurth. 1986
Time and research have blurred my memory of the initial experience, but I do recall my mother remarking off-handedly, "You…
know that's a true story, don't you? Sort of..." Peter Kurth's search for "the truth" about Anastasia took him fifteen years, including ten years research and several trips to Europe.By Geert Mak. 2008
Geert Mak spent 1999 crisscrossing Europe, tracing the history of the continent from Verdun to Berlin, from Saint Petersburg to…
Auschwitz, from Kiev to Srebrenica. He set off in search of evidence and witnesses, looking to define the condition of Europe on the cusp of a new millennium. The result is an account of that journey, full of diaries, newspaper reports, and memoirs, and the voices of prominent figures and unknown players - from a grandson of Kaiser Wilhelm II to Adriana Warno, the eighteen-year-old ticket taker at the gate of the Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.This biography by Edmund Morris, the Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning author of The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and…
Theodore Rex, marks the completion of a trilogy sure to stand as definitive. Of all our great presidents, Theodore Roosevelt is the only one whose greatness increased out of office. What other president has written forty books, hunted lions, founded a third political party, survived an assassin's bullet, and explored an unknown river longer than the Rhine? Packed with more adventure, variety, drama, humor, and tragedy than a big novel, yet documented down to the smallest fact, this masterwork recounts the last decade of perhaps the most amazing life in American history., variety, drama, humor, and tragedy than a big novel, yet documented down to the smallest fact, it recounts the last decade of perhaps the most amazing life in American history. What other president has written forty books, hunted lions, founded a third political party, survived an assassin's bullet, and explored an unknown river longer than the Rhine?Colonel Roosevelt begins with a prologue recounting what TR called his "journey into the Pleistocene"--a yearlong safari through East Africa, collecting specimens for the Smithsonian. Some readers will be repulsed by TR's bloodlust, which this book does not prettify, yet there can be no denying that the Colonel passionately loved and understood every living thing that came his way: The text is rich in quotations from his marvelous nature writing.Although TR intended to remain out of politics when he returned home in 1910, a fateful decision that spring drew him back into public life. By the end of the summer, in his famous "New Nationalism" speech, he was the guiding spirit of the Progressive movement, which inspired much of the social agenda of the future New Deal. (TR's fifth cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt acknowledged that debt, adding that the Colonel "was the greatest man I ever knew.")Then follows a detailed account of TR's reluctant yet almost successful campaign for the White House in 1912. But unlike other biographers, Edmund Morris does not treat TR mainly as a politician. This volume gives as much consideration to TR's literary achievements and epic expedition to Brazil in 1913-1914 as to his fatherhood of six astonishingly different children, his spiritual and aesthetic beliefs, and his eager embrace of other cultures--from Arab and Magyar to German and American Indian. It is impossible to read Colonel Roosevelt and not be awed by the man's universality. The Colonel himself remarked, "I have enjoyed life as much as any nine men I know."Morris does not hesitate, however, to show how pathologically TR turned upon those who inherited the power he craved--the hapless Taft, the adroit Woodrow Wilson. When Wilson declined to bring the United States into World War I in 1915 and 1916, the Colonel blasted him with some of the worst abuse ever uttered by a former chief executive. Yet even Wilson had to admit that behind the Rooseveltian will to rule lay a winning idealism and decency. "He is just like a big boy--there is a sweetness about him that you can't resist." That makes the story of TR's last year, when the "boy" in him died, all the sadder in the telling: the conclusion of a life of Aristotelian grandeur.From the Hardcover edition.By Robin Cross. 2009
As Chancellor of Germany between 1933 and 1945, Adolf Hitler exercised unrestricted power over his country's social, political and economic…
life. Hitler's belligerent re-armament programme, his imposition of anti-Semitic legislation and his territorially aggressive policies led to genocide and worldwide conflict on an unprecedented scale. Although the subject of numerous biographies and fictional portrayals, there have hitherto been few succinct, factual narratives of Hitler's life. Hitler is a short chronicle of the Fuhrer's career, amplified with numerous rare photographs and artefacts from the period. Second World War expert Robin Cross offers a clear outline of Hitler's progress: from his unhappy childhood as the son of a minor Austrian official in Braunau, to his inglorious early occupation as a jobbing Viennese artist; from his formative experiences as a corporal in the First World War, to his emergence as leader of the National Socialist Workers' Party in the 1920s; from his extraordinary rise to supreme power in 1933, to his suicide amidst the ruins of Berlin in 1945. Commanding, informative and stylish, and written by a scholar who is steeped in knowledge of the period, Hitler is an essential companion for anyone with a fascination for the twentieth century, the Second World War or the age of dictators.By Mary Pope Osborne, Natalie Pope Boyce. 2019
Track the facts about the great printer, inventor, and Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin!When Jack and Annie came back from their…
adventure in Magic Tree House #32: To the Future, Ben Franklin! they had lots of questions. What was Ben Franklin's first job? How did a kite teach him about electricity? What are some of Ben's most famous inventions? Why did he have so many nicknames? Find out the answers to these questions and more as Jack and Annie track the facts about Benjamin Franklin.Filled with up-to-date information, photographs, illustrations, and fun tidbits from Jack and Annie, the Fact Trackers are the perfect way for kids to find out more about the topics they discover in their favorite Magic Tree House adventures.Did you know that there's a Magic Tree House book for every kid?Magic Tree House: Adventures with Jack and Annie, perfect for readers who are just beginning chapter booksMerlin Missions: More challenging adventures for the experienced readerFact Trackers: Nonfiction companions to your favorite Magic Tree House adventuresBy Mauricio Rojas. 2019
En este nuevo libro, Mauricio Rojas repasa la vida del joven Karl Marx y reconstruye sus ideas en torno a…
la construcción de la sociedad comunista Las ideas de Karl Marx, el pensador revolucionario más influyente de los tiempos modernos, han marcado de manera indeleble la historia contemporánea. Tanto la formación de su pensamiento como elpoderoso atractivo de su visión del mundo han concitado la atención de generaciones de intelectuales y políticos y han sido objeto de acalorados debates. En este ensayo, Mauricio Rojas realiza un cuidadoso análisis interpretativo de la evolución intelectual y política del joven Marx. El origen de su concepción de mundo no se encontraría, afirma el autor, en estudios de carácter científico, sino en la reformulación de la herencia filosófica de Hegel, que lo lleva desde la «filosofía total» de este último a la propuesta de una «sociedad total», donde el individuo se funde con el colectivo.By Judith Burtner. 2018
In 1911, 22 year old Hettie Belle Matthew takes a daring leap into the unknown as she sails away from…
her cosmopolitan life in the bustling Bay Area for the remote Hawaiian Islands to work as a Governess for the prominent and wealthy Robinson Family. Letters discovered by her granddaughter over a century later are painstakingly woven together to bring this true story to life with rare insight and authenticity. “Hettie Belle's descriptive letters from over one hundred years ago make me feel as if I know my grandparents well. Her experiences bring the family to life, and I am not able to put the book down!”-- LOIS ROBINSON SOMERS, Descendant “Hettie Belle's charming letters open a fascinating window into the world of Kaua`i and Ni`ihau over 100 years ago. Through her eyes we are introduced to the lives of the plantation elite who ran Kaua`i society and to the magnificent landscapes that surrounded them. Hettie writes with aloha for both land and people, and Judith Burtner provides the necessary context so that we can get the most out of Hetties letters.”--ANDY BUSHNELL, Emeritus Professor of History, Kaua`i Community CollegeBy Amy M. O'Quinn. 1893
Nikola Tesla was a physicist, scientist, electrical engineer, and world-renowned inventor whose accomplishments faded into oblivion after his death in…
1943. Tesla was undeniably eccentric and compulsive; some considered him to be somewhat of a "mad" scientist. But in reality, he was a visionary. Many of his ideas and inventions that were deemed impossible during his lifetime have since become reality. He was the first to successfully use rotating magnetic fields to create an AC (alternating current) electrical power supply system and induction motor. He is now acknowledged to have invented the radio ahead of Marconi. Among other things, he developed the Tesla coil, an oscillator, generators, fluorescent tubes, neon lights, and a small remote-controlled boat. He helped design the world's first hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls. Nikola Tesla for Kids is the story of Nikola Tesla's life and ideas, complete with a time line, 21 hands-on activities, and additional resources to better understand his many accomplishments.By Richard Wightman Fox. 2015
Even two hundred years after Abraham Lincoln's death, we, like Walt Whitman, "love the President personally." In a stunning feat…
of scholarship, insight, and engaging prose, Lincoln's Body explores how a president ungainly in body and downright "ugly" of aspect came to mean so much to us. The very roughness of Lincoln's appearance made him seem all the more common, one of us--as did his sense of humor about his own awkward physical nature. Nineteenth-century African Americans felt deep affection for their "liberator" as a "homely" man who did not hold himself apart. During Reconstruction, Southerners felt a nostalgia for the humility of Lincoln, whom they envisioned as a "conciliator." Later, teachers glorified Lincoln as a symbol of nationhood that would appeal to poor immigrants. Monument makers focused not only on the man's gigantic body but also on his nationalist efforts to save the Union, downplaying his emancipation of the slaves. Among both black and white liberals in the 1960s and 1970s, Lincoln was derided or fell out of fashion. More recently, Lincoln has once again been embodied (as both idealist and pragmatist, unafraid of conflict and transcending it) by outstanding historians, by self-identified Lincolnian president Barack Obama, and by actor Daniel Day-Lewis--all keeping Lincoln alive in a body of memory that speaks volumes about our nation.