Simon Winchester

Životní příběh osiřelého syna anglického vesnického kováře, korunovaný dílem světového historického dosahu. Tento muž jménem William Smith pracoval jako kopáč vodních kanálů a v roce 1793 zjistil, že se půda pod povrchem země skládá z různých vrstev, které lze sledovat podle druhů zkamenělin. Zmocnila se ho touha tento objev důsledně prozkoumat. Během dvou desetiletí, která strávil cestami napříč Anglií a dalšími výkopy, vytvořil v roce 1815 velkou podrobnou mapu jejího skrytého podzemí. Jeho úsilí provázely vážné útrapy – pletichy závistivců ho dokonce načas přivedly do vězení pro dlužníky. Teprve po dlouhé době byl rehabilitován jako autor první geologické mapy a otec moderní geologie. Jeho dílo podstatně přispělo k světovému rozvoji těžby uhlí, rud, ropy a zlata i k racionální výstavbě silniční a železniční sítě.

In the nineteenth century, two distinguished clever men become friends. But they come from very different backgrounds, one is a brilliant academic, the other is a madman and murderer. In spite of this they work together on one of the greatest works in the English language. An intriguing tale about the compilation of the Oxford English Dictionary.

From bestselling author Simon Winchester, the extraordinary story of how America was united into a single nation. For more than two centuries, E pluribus unum - out of many, one - has been featured on America's official government seals and stamped on its currency. But how did America become 'one nation, indivisible'? In this monumental history, Simon Winchester addresses this question, introducing the fearless trailblazers whose achievements forged and unified America. Winchester follows in the footsteps of America's most essential explorers, thinkers, and innovators. He treks vast swaths of territory, introducing these fascinating pioneers - some, such as Washington and Jefferson, Lewis and Clark being familiar, some forgotten, some hardly known - who played a pivotal role in creating today's United States. Throughout, he ponders whether the historic work of uniting the States has succeeded, and to what degree. 'The Men Who United the States' is a fresh, lively, and erudite look at the way in which the most powerful nation on earth came together, from one of our most entertaining, probing, and insightful observers.

Vypráví skutečný příběh profesora Jamese Murraye, který se v roce 1857 pustil do jednoho z nejambicióznějších projektů v historii – kompilaci Oxfordského slovníku angličtiny. Přitom si začal dopisovat s americkým chirurgem a veteránem z občanské války Dr. W.C. Minorem , který do svazku přispěl více než deseti tisíci příspěvky. Když se ale po několika odmítnutých návrzích, aby ho přijel navštívit do Oxfordu, vydá Murray přítele hledat, zjistí, že kromě geniálního jazykovědce má co dělat také se šíleným vrahem, hospitalizovaným v Broadmoorském ústavu pro choromyslné.

Bestselling author Simon Winchester writes a magnificent history of the pioneering engineers who developed precision machinery to allow us to see as far as the moon and as close as the Higgs boson. Precision is the key to everything. It is an integral, unchallenged and essential component of our modern social, mercantile, scientific, mechanical and intellectual landscapes. The items we value in our daily lives - a camera, phone, computer, bicycle, car, a dishwasher perhaps - all sport components that fit together with precision and operate with near perfection. We also assume that the more precise a device the better it is. And yet whilst we live lives peppered and larded with precision, we are not, when we come to think about it, entirely sure what precision is, or what it means. How and when did it begin to build the modern world? Simon Winchester seeks to answer these questions through stories of precision's pioneers. Exactly takes us back to the origins of the Industrial Age, to Britain where he introduces the scientific minds that helped usher in modern production: John `Iron-Mad' Wilkinson, Henry Maudslay, Joseph Bramah, Jesse Ramsden, and Joseph Whitworth. Thomas Jefferson exported their discoveries to the United States as manufacturing developed in the early twentieth century, with Britain's Henry Royce developing the Rolls Royce and Henry Ford mass producing cars, Hattori's Seiko and Leica lenses, to today's cutting-edge developments from Europe, Asia and North America. As he introduces the minds and methods that have changed the modern world, Winchester explores fundamental questions. Why is precision important? What are the different tools we use to measure it? Who has invented and perfected it? Has the pursuit of the ultra-precise in so many facets of human life blinded us to other things of equal value, such as an appreciation for the age-old traditions of craftsmanship, art, and high culture? Are we missing something that reflects the world as it is, rather than the world as we think we would wish it to be? And can the precise and the natural co-exist in society?

From the bestselling author Simon Winchester, a human history of land around the world: who mapped it, owned it, stole it, cared for it, fought for it and gave it back. In 1889, thousands of hopeful people raced southward from the Kansas state line and westward from the Arkansas boundary to stake claims on the thousands of acres of unclaimed pastures and meadows. Across the twentieth century, water was dammed and drained in Holland so that a new province, Flevoland, rose up, unchartered and requiring new thinking. In 1850, California legislated the theft of land from Native Americans. An apology came in 2019 from the governor, but what of the call for reparations or return? What of government confiscation of land in India, or questions of fairness when it comes to New Zealand's Maori population and the legacy of settlers? The ownership of land has always been complicated, opaque, and more than a little anarchic when viewed from the outside. In this book, Simon Winchester explores the the stewardship of land, the ways it is delineated and changes hands, the great disputes, and the questions of restoration - particularly in the light of climate change and colonialist reparation. A global study, this is an exquisite exploration of what the ownership of land might really mean - not in dry-as-dust legal terms, but for the people who live on it.

Vypráví skutečný příběh profesora Jamese Murraye, který se v roce 1857 pustil do jednoho z nejambicióznějších projektů v historii – kompilaci Oxfordského slovníku angličtiny. Přitom si začal dopisovat s americkým chirurgem a veteránem z občanské války Dr. W.C. Minorem , který do svazku přispěl více než deseti tisíci příspěvky. Když se ale po několika odmítnutých návrzích, aby ho přijel navštívit do Oxfordu, vydá Murray přítele hledat, zjistí, že kromě geniálního jazykovědce má co dělat také se šíleným vrahem, hospitalizovaným v Broadmoorském ústavu pro choromyslné.