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A lively and engaging introduction to the progress of science over the ages Science is key to understanding the infinite distances of space, the tiniest living organisms body and the history of our planet. From Hippocrates and Aristotle to Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking, men and women have asked how things work, and through experiments have made earth-shattering discoveries. This inviting Litte History takes readers to the stars. We delve beneath the surface of the planet, chart the evolution of chemistry's periodic table, and explore the physics that explain electricity, gravity, and the atoms that make up our bodies and everything around us. Little Histories - Inspiring Guides for Curious Minds

The internationally bestselling guide to the extraordinary human story, for the curious of all ages The world has existed for over 4 billion years, but humanity arrived much more recently. Here E. H. Gombrich brings to life the full story of human experience on Earth. He paints a colourful picture of remarkable people and events, from Confucius to Catherine the Great, from the invention of art to the destruction of the Berlin Wall. This is a book dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of mankind's experience across the centuries. It is both a guide to humanity's achievements and an acute witness to its frailties. The product of a generous and humane sensibility, this is a timeless account of our shared history. Little Histories - Inspiring Guides for Curious Minds

A vital guide to poetry from ancient times to the present Poetry is language made special, so that it will be remembered and valued. It does not always work - over the centuries countless thousands of poems have been forgotten. This Little History is about some that have not. John Carey tells the stories behind the world's greatest poems, from the oldest surviving one written nearly 4,000 years ago to those being written today. Carey looks at poets whose works shape our view of the world - such as Shakespeare, Whitman and Yeats - and more recent poets like Sylvia Plath, Seamus Heaney, and Marianne Moore who have started to question what makes a poem 'great' in the first place. Little Histories - Inspiring Guides for Curious Minds

A lively journey through the story of language, from an infant's first word to the languages of the internet Language never leaves you alone. It's there in your head, helping you think. It's there to help you make relationships - and to break them. It's there to remind you who you are and where you come from. From the first words of an infant to texting and emojis, languages are full of mysteries and quirks. In this entertaining book, renowned author David Crystal sheds light on the development of unique linguistic styles, the origins of obscure accents, and the search for the first written word. Little Histories - Inspiring Guides for Curious Minds

A character-filled history that brings the American saga to life A New York Times Bestseller "Davidson has written a work that should lead readers to reflect anew on America's past and present. . . . We can all use not just a good refresher course on American history, but also some good historical thinking on how we might better realize freedom, equality, and E pluribus unum."-Daily Beast The United States is one of the most powerful countries in the world. This is the remarkable story of how it came to be. Beginning with the first contact between the old world and the new over 500 years ago, this Little History moves through the centuries from the first European explorers and slave-owning farmers, to the Declaration of Independence and the Civil War, to the Great Depression and the wars of the twentieth century. We meet key figures, including founding father Benjamin Franklin, the Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull, the abolitionist Harriet Tubman, and the civil rights activist Rosa Parks. This is a fast-paced, character-filled history that brings the great, diverse American saga to life. Little Histories - Inspiring Guides for Curious Minds

A superbly engaging guide to music around the world, from prehistory to the present Music excites and moves us perhaps more than any other art form. From a Neanderthal's bone flute to the festivals of Glastonbury and Coachella, human beings have always made and enjoyed music. Covering a remarkable range, including Indian raga, Javanese gamelan, medieval chant, jazz and K-pop, this Little History celebrates the wonder of music, and why it is treasured across the world. Within its pages, readers will find familiar composers and musicians, and will be introduced to a host of exciting new discoveries. Little Histories - Inspiring Guides for Curious Minds

A rich and inclusive history of belief, from humanity's earliest days to our own times Religion is distinctly human. We can't help wondering about where we come from and why we are here. Did some all-powerful being make the universe? When we die, is there anything else to come? And what will it be like? Questions like these have occupied human minds across the ages. In our search for answers, we have come up with different stories. Richard Holloway tells the history of the major religions from the dawn of belief to the twenty-first century. Ranging far beyond Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism, he writes for those with faith and those without, and for those who might be making up their minds. Little Histories - Inspiring Guides for Curious Minds

A lucid guide to humankind's greatest thinkers, from Aristotle to Peter Singer Philosophy begins with the nature of reality and how we should live. These were the concerns of Socrates, who spent his days in the ancient Athenian marketplace asking awkward questions, disconcerting the people he met by showing them just how little they genuinely understood. This engaging Little History introduces the great thinkers in Western philosophy and explores their most compelling ideas about the universe and our place in it. Nigel Warburton guides us on a tour of the lives and work of thought-provoking philosophers - from the certainty of Descartes ('I think, therefore I am') to Hannah Arendt who examined crimes against humanity and taught us 'the banality of evil'. Little Histories - Inspiring Guides for Curious Minds

An evocative voyage through the Carpathian mountain range and its threatened landscape, peoples, and history The Carpathian Mountains of Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and Ukraine are Europe's last true wilderness. A landscape of great spruce and beech forests, grass meadows, and ancient villages, its people contend daily with the elements-as well as Europe's last large carnivores. But this fragile ecosystem is now under threat, from climate change and illegal logging. Journeying from the banks of the Danube to Transylvania, Nick Thorpe guides us through the history and ecology of the watershed of Europe, between the Black Sea and the Baltic. For a thousand years the Carpathians have been a place of refuge, of identity and belonging, where powerful rulers and dynasties fought to gain control over rich gold seams and the unruly inhabitants of strategic valleys. Today, its inhabitants struggle to protect its vast forest habitat from urban sprawl as well as logging. Drawing on interviews with shepherds, foresters and loggers, and his four decades of experience in the region, Thorpe sheds light on a neglected part of Europe-where bears, wolves, chamois, and lynxes still roam.

What happened when Jane Austen's heroines and heroes were finally wed? Marriage is at the centre of Jane Austen's novels. The pursuit of husbands and wives, advantageous matches, and, of course, love itself, motivate her characters and continue to fascinate readers today. But what were love and marriage like in reality for ladies and gentlemen in Regency England? Rory Muir uncovers the excitements and disappointments of courtship and the pains and pleasures of marriage, drawing on fascinating first-hand accounts as well as novels of the period. From the glamour of the ballroom to the pressures of careers, children, managing money, and difficult in-laws, love and marriage came in many guises: some wed happily, some dared to elope, and other relationships ended with acrimony, adultery, domestic abuse, or divorce. Muir illuminates the position of both men and women in marriage, as well as those spinsters and bachelors who chose not to marry at all. This is a richly textured account of how love and marriage felt for people at the time-revealing their unspoken assumptions, fears, pleasures, and delights.

The first English-language biography in over fifty years to tell the full, vibrant story of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, known to history as the Brothers Grimm More than two hundred years ago, the German brothers Jacob Grimm (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859) published a collection of fairy tales that remains famous the world over. It has been translated into some 170 languages-more than any other German book-and the Brothers Grimm are among the top dozen most translated authors in the world. In addition to collecting tales, the Grimms were mythographers, linguists, librarians, civil servants, and above all the closest of brothers, but until now, the full story of their lifelong endeavor to preserve and articulate a German cultural identity has not been well known. Drawing on deep archival research and decades of scholarship, Ann Schmiesing tells the affecting story of how the Grimms' ambitious projects gave the brothers a sense of self-preservation through the atrocities of the Napoleonic Wars and a series of personal losses. They produced a vast corpus of work on mythology and medieval literature, embarked on a monumental German dictionary project, and broke scholarly ground with Jacob's linguistic discovery known as Grimm's Law. Setting their story against a rich historical backdrop, Schmiesing offers a fresh consideration of the profound and yet complicated legacy of the Brothers Grimm.

Thomas R. Martin recounts the unmatched political and military career of Phocion of Athens, and his tragic downfall Phocion (402–318 BCE) won Athens’s highest public office by direct democratic election an unmatched forty-five times and was officially honored as a “Useful Citizen.” A student at Plato’s Academy, Phocion gained influence and power during a time when Athens faced multiple crises stemming from Macedonia’s emergence as an international power under Philip II and his son Alexander the Great. Following Athens’s defeat by Macedonia, Phocion unsuccessfully sought mild terms of surrender. Oligarchy was imposed on democratic Athens, and more than twelve thousand “undesirable” Athenians were exiled. When the oligarchic regime was overthrown and the exiles returned, dispossessed Athenians took out their volcanic anger on Phocion, who throughout his career had often been a harsh critic of the citizens’ political decisions. His inflammatory rhetoric contributed to the popular conclusion that he lacked a genuine sense of belonging to the community he wished so desperately to preserve. When he was eighty-four, the Athenians convicted him of treason and condemned him to die by hemlock. In this fresh biography, Thomas R. Martin explores how and why Phocion ultimately failed as a citizen and as a leader. His story offers unsetting lessons for citizens in democracies today.

A revelatory history of the women who brought Victorian criminals to account—and how they became a cultural sensation From Wilkie Collins to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the traditional image of the Victorian detective is male. Few people realise that women detectives successfully investigated Victorian Britain, working both with the police and for private agencies, which they sometimes managed themselves. Sara Lodge recovers these forgotten women’s lives. She also reveals the sensational role played by the fantasy female detective in Victorian melodrama and popular fiction, enthralling a public who relished the spectacle of a cross-dressing, fist-swinging heroine who got the better of love rats, burglars, and murderers alike. How did the morally ambiguous work of real women detectives, sometimes paid to betray their fellow women, compare with the exploits of their fictional counterparts, who always save the day? Lodge’s book takes us into the murky underworld of Victorian society on both sides of the Atlantic, revealing the female detective as both an unacknowledged labourer and a feminist icon.

How the character of war is changing and how militaries can successfully adapt to meet the challenge This book by military strategist Andrew F. Krepinevich, Jr., is the definitive take on the race for military dominance in the twenty-first century. It shows how militaries that successfully pursue disruptive innovation can gain a major advantage over their rivals, while those that fail to do so risk exposing their countries to great danger. The Precision Warfare Revolution introduced by the U.S. military in the First Gulf War found the United States enjoying a near monopoly in this form of warfare for several decades. But now other powers have these capabilities. The U.S. military also confronts an emerging military revolution driven by advances across a wide range of technologies—from artificial intelligence and synthetic biology to quantum computing and additive manufacturing. To stay competitive, the U.S. military must pursue disruptive innovation in a race with other militaries to exploit war’s changing character. Clues exist as to the winner’s identity. They are revealed by militaries that went beyond the bounds of mere innovation to overturn the existing forms of warfare, changing the course of history and the fate of nations. Through exploring their experiences, Krepinevich shows how the U.S. military can win the race to identify and exploit the “next big thing” in warfare.

The long history of China's relationship between stability, diversity, and prosperity, and how its current leadership threatens this delicate balance A Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2023 Chinese society has been shaped by the interplay of the EAST-exams, autocracy, stability, and technology-from ancient times through the present. Beginning with the Sui dynasty's introduction of the civil service exam, known as Keju, in 587 CE-and continuing through the personnel management system used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-Chinese autocracies have developed exceptional tools for homogenizing ideas, norms, and practices. But this uniformity came with a huge downside: stifled creativity. Yasheng Huang shows how China transitioned from dynamism to extreme stagnation after the Keju was instituted. China's most prosperous periods, such as during the Tang dynasty (618-907) and under the reformist CCP, occurred when its emphasis on scale (the size of bureaucracy) was balanced with scope (diversity of ideas). Considering China's remarkable success over the past half-century, Huang sees signs of danger in the political and economic reversals under Xi Jinping. The CCP has again vaulted conformity above new ideas, reverting to the Keju model that eventually led to technological decline. It is a lesson from China's own history, Huang argues, that Chinese leaders would be wise to take seriously.

The fascinating stories behind the essential seven units of measurement that allow us to understand the physical world From the beginning of history, measurement has been interwoven into the human experience, shaping our understanding of nature, personal relationships, and the supernatural. We measure the world to know our past, comprehend the present, and plan the future. Renowned physicist Piero Martin explores how scientific knowledge is built around seven key pillars of measurement: the meter for length; the second for time; the kilogram for mass; the kelvin for temperature; the ampere for electricity; the mole for quantity of substance; and the candela for luminous intensity. Martin examines the history and function of these units and illustrates their applications in rich vignettes on a range of topics—from quarks to black holes, from a glass of wine to space exploration. He delves into not only the all-important numbers but also anecdotes that underline each unit’s special quality. At the same time, he explains how each unit contributes to important aspects of science, from classical physics to quantum mechanics, from relativity to chemistry, from cosmology to elementary particle physics, and from medicine to modern technology. Martin eloquently shows how the entire universe can be measured and understood using just seven units.