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Showing 741 - 760 of 1370 items
By Richard A. Pierce. 2020
Russian Central Asia is the vast area, half as large as the United States, extending from the Caspian Sea to…
China, from Siberia to northern Iran. Ever since its conquest by Russia in the nineteenth century this region has been both an asset and a problem—because of its strategic and economic importance and because of its several million Moslem inhabitants, to this day unassimilated and unreconciled to Russian control. This book describes events under Imperial Russian rule, treating the period in the light of the conflict between nineteenth-century concepts “the white man’s burden” and the awakening aspirations of colonial peoples, and as part of the contest between Western imperialism and the Islamic world. It shows the enduring geographic, political, and cultural factors that must be faced by an regime in Central Asia, provides a basis for comparison between the methods and motives of the Imperial Russian colonizers and those of the Soviet regime, and refutes misconceptions regarding Russian colonizing techniques.By Jeff Corwin. 2003
"Get rid of it, for gosh sakes! Get rid of it!" my aunt barked when she spied the garter snake…
latched onto my six-year-old arm. I then responded with, "No!" That's when everyone went silent until my aunt spoke out once again, "What do you mean 'no'? Why not?" As the tears continued to stream down my face, I answered back through an exaggerated and convulsing huff, "Because I love it!" It was then that Jeff Corwin was hooked. Whether it's serpents, lizards, crocs, or frogs, or any number of furry creatures, Jeff has spent decades learning--and educating--about the world's most diverse ecosystems and their inhabitants. Travel with him now through Arizona, Africa, Costa Rica, and Venezuela to encounter those who are familiar--coyotes, elephants, anteaters, and crocodiles--and meet those who aren't: the vinegaroon, which keeps out of harm's way by gagging and repelling potential predators with caustic fumes; painted dogs, which allow only one monogamous pair within the clan to breed; the omnivorous kinkajou, which helps propagate the enormous strangler fig tree; and capybaras, the world's largest rodents, who happen to be excellent swimmers. Bear witness to the codependency of all these creatures on either the plants that surround them or each other, and look behind the scenes to see Jeff's coming of age in the world of biodiversity. Some of the fabulous creatures in these pages are in danger of becoming extinct, while all carry a vital role in maintaining these ecosystems. Without the interplay of predator, prey, and symbiotic communalism, the world as we know it would be a vastly different place.By Christine Holden, Russell True. 2020
Dude ranches were the West's first destination vacation. In the early 20th century, they lured East Coast elites and their…
families out to the unspoiled wilderness and ranching country of the Rocky Mountains. In order to get to the dude ranches, tourists, who were often looking for an escape from their city lives, had to travel long journeys via trains, stages, wagons, and horseback. Wyoming was home to two dude ranch firsts. Howard, Willis, and Alden Eaton were pioneers in the business, and their Eatons' Ranch continues today. Larry Larom, another dude ranch trailblazer, became the first president of the Dude Ranchers' Association. His tireless work, vision, and leadership secured the future of dude ranching in the West. Working successfully with the railroad and the government, Larom set the stage for important cooperation between ranchers and diverse agencies, ensuring the preservation of the natural environment. Echoes of his wisdom are still felt today.By Caroline Schaumann. 2020
An interdisciplinary cultural history of exploration and mountaineering in the nineteenth century European forays to mountain summits began in the…
late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries with the search for plants and minerals and the study of geology and glaciers. Yet scientists were soon captivated by the enterprise of climbing itself, enthralled with the views and the prospect of &“conquering&” alpine summits. Inspired by Romantic notions of nature, early mountaineers idealized their endeavors as sublime experiences, all the while deliberately measuring what they saw. As increased leisure time and advances in infrastructure and equipment opened up once formidable mountain regions to those seeking adventure and sport, new models of masculinity emerged that were fraught with tensions. This book examines how written and artistic depictions of nineteenth-century exploration and mountaineering in the Andes, the Alps, and the Sierra Nevada shaped cultural understandings of nature and wilderness in the Anthropocene.By John Moynihan. 2011
A gripping, beautifully told story of a young man's coming-of-age at sea When John Moynihan decided to ship out in…
the Merchant Marine during the summer of his junior year at Wesleyan University, his father, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, was not enthusiastic: As a young man, before joining the U.S. Navy, Pat Moynihan had worked the New York City docks and knew what his son would encounter. However, John's mother, Elizabeth, an avid sailor, found the idea of an adventure at sea exciting and set out to help him get his Seaman's Papers. When John was sworn in, he was given one piece of advice: to not tell the crew that his father was a United States senator.The job ticket read "forty-five days from Camden, New Jersey, to the Mediterranean on the Rose City," a supertanker. As the ship sailed the orders changed, and forty-five days became four months across the equator, around Africa, across the Indian Ocean, and up to Japan--a far more perilous voyage than John or his mother had imagined. The physical labor was grueling, and outdated machinery aboard the ship, including broken radar, jeopardized the lives of the crew. They passed through the Straits of Malacca three times, with hazardous sailing conditions and threats of pirates. But it was also the trip of a lifetime: John reveled in the natural world around him, listened avidly to the tales of the old timers, and even came to value the drunken camaraderie among men whose only real family was one another. A talented artist, John drew what he saw and kept a journal on the ship that he turned into his senior thesis when he returned to Wesleyan the following year.A few years after John died in his early forties, the result of a reaction to acetaminophen, his mother printed a limited edition of his journal illustrated with drawings from his notebooks. Encouraged by the interest in his account of the voyage, she agreed to publish the book more widely. An honestly written story of a boy's coming into manhood at sea, The Voyage of the Rose City is a taut, thrilling tale of the adventure of a lifetime.From the Hardcover edition.By Alfredo Molano Bravo. 2020
“Muchas veces se le oyó hablar de este texto, lo hizo no como uno más de sus veinte y tantos…
libros, sino como el mejor regalo que le habría hecho a esa niña que tanto amó. De todos sus libros es el más profundo, autobiográfico y universal”. Alfredo Molano Jimeno Este es el libro inédito que Alfredo Molano Bravo le escribió a su nieta durante más de una década, en el que reúne sus historias y pensamientos más íntimos para explicarle el país en el que nació, y le relata muchos de los viajes que lo llevaron a recorrer casi 14.000 kilómetros del territorio colombiano, a pie, subido en sus Converse de colores. Este libro incluye el diario que Molano llevó hasta pocos días antes de morir, donde narra los detalles de su lucha contra el cáncer con la rigurosidad de cronista que lo caracterizó y que lo llevó a convertirse en uno de los escritores más destacados de la historia reciente del país. Un libro imperdible para entender a Colombia y convencerse de la importancia de vivir con intensidad. “Lo de los perros fue una metáfora que nos permitió volver a hablar de los miedos. Esos mismos que por la noche, cuando ya todo está en silencio y las luces se han apagado, saltan sobre mi cama y mi almohada, me cercan, me paralizan y se llevan mi sueño entre sus fauces. Al miedo, le decía yo a Antonia, hay que mirarle la cara. A los perros hay que mirarlos a los ojos, a la muerte también”. Alfredo Molano BravoBy Beatrice Gormley. 2000
"Brad Ricca’s Olive MacLeod is my favorite sort of woman from history—bold and unconventional, utterly unsinkable—and her story is so…
full of adventure and acts of courage, it’s hard to believe she actually lived. And yet she did! Brad Ricca has found a heroine for the ages, and written her tale with a winning combination of accuracy and imagination." — Paula McLain, author of Love and Ruin and The Paris WifeFrom the Edgar-nominated author of the bestselling Mrs. Sherlock Holmes comes the true story of a woman's quest to Africa in the 1900s to find her missing fiancé, and the adventure that ensues.In 1910, Olive MacLeod, a thirty-year-old, redheaded Scottish aristocrat, received word that her fiancé, the famous naturalist Boyd Alexander, was missing in Africa.So she went to find him.Olive the Lionheart is the thrilling true story of her astonishing journey. In jungles, swamps, cities, and deserts, Olive and her two companions, the Talbots, come face-to-face with cobras and crocodiles, wise native chiefs, a murderous leopard cult, a haunted forest, and even two adorable lion cubs that she adopts as her own. Making her way in a pair of ill-fitting boots, Olive awakens to the many forces around her, from shadowy colonial powers to an invisible Islamic warlord who may hold the key to Boyd’s disappearance. As these secrets begin to unravel, all of Olive’s assumptions prove wrong and she is forced to confront the darkest, most shocking secret of all: why she really came to Africa in the first place.Drawing on Olive’s own letters and secret diaries, Olive the Lionheart is a love story that defies all boundaries, set against the backdrop of a beautiful, unconquerable Africa.This book is not for sale in the United Kingdom.By Jon T. Coleman. 2020
An award‑winning environmental historian explores American history through wrenching, tragic, and sometimes humorous stories of getting lost The human species…
has a propensity for getting lost. The American people, inhabiting a mental landscape shaped by their attempts to plant roots and to break free, are no exception. In this engaging book, environmental historian Jon Coleman bypasses the trailblazers so often described in American history to follow instead the strays and drifters who went missing. From Hernando de Soto&’s failed quest for riches in the American southeast to the recent trend of getting lost as a therapeutic escape from modernity, this book details a unique history of location and movement as well as the confrontations that occur when our physical and mental conceptions of space become disjointed. Whether we get lost in the woods, the plains, or the digital grid, Coleman argues that getting lost allows us to see wilderness anew and connect with generations across five centuries to discover a surprising and edgy American identity.By Ed Cobleigh. 2020
La primavera de 1915, un playboy parisino se convirtió en el primer piloto de combate del mundo. Nunca antes un…
piloto solitario había cazado a otros aviadores. Roland Garros libró ilimitados combates aéreos, cambiando para siempre la guerra. Antes de abandonar la sociedad francesa del café para ir a la Primera Guerra Mundial, el joven piloto estableció récords de aviación, ganó carreras aéreas e introdujo el vuelo más pesado que el aire a las multitudes emocionadas en los Estados Unidos, Europa y América Latina. Voló como explorador para el Ejército de los EE.UU., paseó como Boulevardier, vendió autos deportivos, tocó el piano clásico, fue abogado, ciclista profesional y atleta de clase mundial. El piloto pionero de La Belle Époque descendió al infierno artificial de la Gran Guerra. Derribado y capturado, escapó, regresó a París y a los brazos de una bailarina exótica que le esperaba antes de regresar al cielo. La emocionante vida y los fascinantes tiempos de Roland Garros tejen una historia fascinante. Esta biografía narrativa de no ficción ofrece esa crónica emocionante y objetiva.By Kilian Jornet. 2020
"Kilian Jornet is the most dominating endurance athlete of his generation."—NEW YORK TIMES"Inspiring and humbling"— ALEX HONNOLDThe most accomplished mountain…
runner of all time contemplates his record-breaking climbs of Mount Everest in this profound memoir—an intellectual and spiritual journey that moves from the earth’s highest peak to the soul’s deepest reaches.Kilian Jornet has broken nearly every mountaineering record in the world and twice been named National Geographic Adventurer of the Year. In 2018 he summitted Mount Everest twice in one week—without the help of bottled oxygen or ropes.As he recounts a life spent studying and ascending the greatest peaks on earth, Jornet ruminates on what he has found in nature—simplicity, freedom, and spiritual joy—and offers a poetic yet clearheaded assessment of his relationship to the mountain . . . at times his opponent, at others, his greatest inspiration.By Mark Paul Smith. 2020
Mark Paul Smith's hitchhike from Indiana to India in 1972 changed him from being an Air Force Officer into a…
conscientious objector. He hitchhiked through the Iron Curtain and worked on a collective farm in Hungary only to find that communism wasn't our real enemy. He met people from North Vietnam who showed him the real enemy was the U.S. war machine. Being an American was popular in those days, but the people of the world showed Smith kindness and kept him alive when he ran out of money. The long road to decision showed him that people everywhere want peace, not war. His faith in the United States of America was restored when he sued the government and won his case in federal court.By Marty Meierotto. 2020
If you are a long-time Alaskan hunter and trapper or an adventurous person that has dreamed about wilderness experiences in…
Alaska, you will not be able to put this book down. As other have said, “ Marty is the real deal” when it comes to a person who has lived the wilderness lifestyle in Alaska. Luckily for us readers, Marty was willing to share his wonderful stories (some humorous, some harrowing) in this book. - Ted Spraker My good friend, Marty Meierotto, has lived a life that most of us have only dreamed of. His new book is filled with true life adventures that reflect both the joys and hazards of living in the remote Alaskan Bush. It is definitely a read worth your time. John Daniel President, National Trappers Association When I first met Marty Meierotto, I thought he looked like the vending machine repairman at a bowling alley in Cleveland. Three days later, having gotten lost in the Arctic while trapping with him and having him rescue me, I realized that there was nothing the guy couldn't do. Read this book and you'll see what I mean. -Bill Heavey editor-at-large Field & StreamBy Nancy Becker. 2020
A story of love, loss, family and discovery — a story of life on a trapline in the Far North.…
“Bob Harte was well-known to those of us in the trapping community long before he became an international celebrity as a star of the Last Alaskans TV program. Bob was born to live a remote lifestyle and found his slice of heaven in the remote region of northeast Alaska. Nancy's book offers a perspective on their life together in the wilderness. Readers will gain a new understanding of what it's like to live in one of the most isolated places on earth. The lifestyle is simple and challenging, but very rewarding.” — Randy Zarnke – President of the Alaska Trappers AssociationBy Anthony Smith. 2015
Octogenarian Anthony Smith's journey was originally inspired by both the Kontiki Expedition of Thor Heyerdahl (who he knew) and the…
incredible story of the survivors of a 1940 boat disaster, who spent 70 days adrift in the Atlantic, eventually reaching land emaciated and close to death. While this might sound like a voyage no-one would wish to emulate, to octogenarian Anthony Smith it sounded like an adventure, and he placed a typically straightforward advertisement in the Telegraph that read "Fancy rafting across the Atlantic? Famous traveller requires 3 crew. Must be OAP. Serious adventurers only." In his inimitable style, Smith details their voyage and the hardships they endured with a matter-of-fact air that makes his story seem all the more impressive. His advanced age allows him a wider perspective not only on the journey but on life itself, and his never-say-die attitude to the difficulty of the journey is inspirational. 'Old men ought to be explorers' said T.S. Eliot, and this book certainly gives a compelling argument in his favour. It is both a great story (a huge storm on the final night of the voyage almost wrecked them on a reef) and a call to action for the older generation - do not go quietly, says Anthony Smith, but seek out adventure as long as you are able.By W. Gillies Ross. 2019
Captains of whaling vessels were experienced navigators of northern waters, and William Penny was in the vanguard of the whaling…
fraternity. Leading the first maritime expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, he stood out not just for his skill as a sailor but for his curiosity about northern geography and his willingness to seek out Inuit testimony to map uncharted territory. Hunters on the Track describes and analyzes the efforts made by the Scottish whaling master to locate Franklin's missing expedition. Bookended by an account of Penny's whaling career, including the rediscovery of Cumberland Sound, which would play a vital role in British whaling a decade later, W. Gillies Ross provides an in-depth history of the first Franklin searches. He reconstructs the brief but frenetic period when the English-speaking world was preoccupied with locating Franklin, but when the means of that search – the ships chosen, the route taken, the evidence of Franklin's traces – were contested and uncertain. Ross details the particularities of each search at a time when no fewer than eight ships comprising four search expeditions were attempting to find Franklin's tracks. Reconstructing events, relationships, and decisions, he focuses on the work of Penny as commander of HMS Lady Franklin and Sophia, while also outlining the events of other expeditions and interactions among the officers and crews. William Penny is respected as one of the most influential and innovative figures in British Arctic whaling history, but his brief role in the Franklin expedition is less known. Using primary sources, notably private journals from each of the expeditions, Hunters on the Track places him at the forefront of a critical chapter of maritime history and the geographical exploration that began after Franklin disappeared.By Jeremy Hance. 2020
An award-winning journalist&’s eco-adventures across the globe with his three traveling companions: his fiancée, his OCD, and his chronic anxiety—a…
hilarious, wild jaunt that will inspire travelers, environmentalists, and anyone with mental illness. Most travel narratives are written by superb travelers: people who crave adventure, laugh in the face of danger, and rapidly integrate into foreign cultures. But what about someone who is paranoid about traveler&’s diarrhea, incapable of speaking a foreign tongue, and hates not only flying but driving, cycling, motor-biking, and sometimes walking in the full sun? In Baggage: Confessions of a Globe-Trotting Hypochondriac, award-winning writer Jeremy Hance chronicles his hilarious and inspiring adventures as he reconciles his traveling career as an environmental journalist with his severe OCD and anxiety. At the age of twenty-six—after months of visiting doctors, convinced he was dying from whatever disease his brain dreamed up the night before—Hance was diagnosed with OCD. The good news was that he wasn&’t dying; the bad news was that OCD made him a really bad traveler—sometimes just making it to baggage claim was a win. Yet Hance hauls his baggage from the airport and beyond. He takes readers on an armchair trek to some of the most remote corners of the world, from Kenya, where hippos clip the grass and baboons steal film, to Borneo, where macaques raid balconies and the last male Bornean rhino sings, to Guyana, where bats dive-bomb his head as he eats dinner with his partner and flesh-eating ants hide in their pants and their drunk guide leaves them stranded in the rainforest canopy. As he and his partner soldier through the highs and the lows—of altitudes and their relationship—Hance discovers the importance of resilience, the many ways to manage (or not!) mental illness when in stressful situations, how nature can improve your mental health, and why it is so important to push yourself to live a life packed with experiences, even if you struggle daily with a mental health issue.By Gonzalo Solís de Merás. 2017
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés (1519–1574) founded St. Augustine in 1565. His expedition was documented by his brother-in-law, Gonzalo Solís de…
Merás, who left a detailed and passionate account of the events leading to the establishment of America’s oldest city. Until recently, the only extant version of Solís de Merás’s record was one single manuscript that Eugenio Ruidíaz y Caravia transcribed in 1893, and subsequent editions and translations have always followed Ruidíaz’s text. In 2012, David Arbesú discovered a more complete record: a manuscript including folios lost for centuries and, more important, excluding portions of the 1893 publication based on retellings rather than the original document. In the resulting volume, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and the Conquest of Florida, Arbesú sheds light on principal events missing from the story of St. Augustine’s founding. By consulting the original chronicle, Arbesú provides readers with the definitive bilingual edition of this seminal text.Captain Cook claimed the honor of being the first man to sail into the Antarctic Ocean in 1773, which he…
then circumnavigated the following year. Cook, though, did not see any land, and he declared that there was no such thing as the Southern Continent. Fifty years later, an Irishman who had been impressed into the Royal Navy at the age of eighteen and risen through the ranks to reach the position of master, proved Cook wrong and discovered and charted parts of the shoreline of Antarctica. He also discovered what is now Elephant Island and Clarence Island, claiming them for the British Crown.Edward Bransfield&’s varied naval career included taking part in the Bombardment of Algiers in 1816 onboard the 50-gun warship HMS Severn. Then, in 1817, he was posted to the Royal Navy&’s Pacific Squadron off Valparaíso in Chile, and it was while serving there that the owner and skipper of an English whaling ship, the Williams, was driven south by adverse winds and discovered what came to be known as the South Shetland Islands where Cook had said there was no land.Bransfield&’s superior officer, Captain Sherriff, decided to investigate this discovery further. He chartered Williams and sent Bransfield with two midshipmen and a ship&’s surgeon into the Antarctic – and the Irishman sailed into history.Despite his achievements, and many parts of Antarctica and an Antarctic survey vessel being named after him, as well as a Royal Mail commemorative stamp being issued in his name in 2000, the full story of this remarkable man and his historic journey, have never been told – until now.Following decades of research, Sheila Bransfield MA, a member of the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust, has produced the definitive biography of one of Britain&’s greatest maritime explorers. The book has been endorsed by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust, whose patron the Princess Royal, has written the Foreword.By General P. N. Krassnoff. 2020
Pyotr Nikolayevich Krasnov (1869-1947) was Lieutenant General of the Russian army when the revolution broke out in 1917 and one…
of the leaders of the counterrevolutionary White movement afterward. According to its introduction, From Double Eagle to Red Flag "was born of the debris of Imperial Russia, conceived in the shadow of Leo Tolstoy's historical narrative, by a Russian General with exceptional opportunities." This "monumental" novel "has a naked, a terrible fascination."