"Some of humanity's mightiest engineering achievements are small in scale--and, without them, the complex machinery on which our modern world runs would not exist. In Nuts and Bolts, structural engineer Roma Agrawal examines seven of these extraordinary elements: the nail, the wheel, the spring, the magnet, the lens, the string, and the pump. Tracing the evolution from Egyptian nails to modern skyscrapers, and Neanderthal string to musical instruments,...

"Born in Blood and Fire" spans six centuries and covers twenty countries in a concise, compelling narrative of the Latin American experience, animated by stories about men and women from all walks of life and enriched by insightful analysis. -- From publisher's description.

The world's leading economist of inequality presents a short but sweeping and surprisingly optimistic history of human progress toward equality despite crises, disasters, and backsliding. A perfect introduction to the ideas developed in his monumental earlier books. It's easy to be pessimistic about inequality. We know it has increased dramatically in many parts of the world over the past two generations. No one has done more to reveal the problem...

Moving from the Paleolithic age to the present, Karen Armstrong details the great lengths to which humankind has gone in order to experience a sacred reality. While noting that the changing face of the world has necessarily changed the importance of religion at both the societal and the individual level, she makes a powerful, convincing argument for drawing on the insights of the past in order to build a faith that speaks to the needs of our dangerously...

"In After Eden, prominent Latin American historian John Charles Chasteen provided a concise history of the world, in which he explores the origins and persistence of the timeless phenomena of humanity's inhumanity to itself. Where did it come from? Why has it been so prevalent throughout our history? And, most importantly, can we overcome it? Chasteen argues that to do so, we must understand our shared past. While much of that past is violent, we...

"To control the past, they edited history. To control the future, they edited literature. The year is 1953. Edward VIII and Wallis are preparing for their coronation, and the country is tense with expectation. In honor of the event, Adolf Hitler will be making his first visit to the UK since its surrender to the Germans in 1940. One oppressive change conforming with Nazi ideology is the strict classification of women into hierarchical groups, ranging...

A radical reappraisal of the impact of Constantine's adoption of Christianity in 368 AD on the later Roman world, and on Western civilization. Adopting those aspects of the religion that suited his purposes, Constantine turned Rome on a course from the relatively open, tolerant and pluralistic civilization of the Hellenistic world, towards a culture that was based on the rule of fixed authority. Only a thousand years later, with the Renaissance and...

"Now is the time for a new women's history--for the famous, infamous, and unsung women to get their due--from the Enlightenment to the #MeToo movement. Recording the important milestones in the birth of the modern feminist movement and the rise of women into greater social, economic, and political power, Miles takes us through a colorful pageant of astonishing women, from heads of state like Empress Cixi, Eugenia Charles, Indira Gandhi, Jacinda Ardern,...

"Discover the "fascinating and outrageously readable" account of the roguish acts of the first pirates to raid the Pacific in a crusade that ended in a sensational trial back in England."--Amazon. 1680, in the heart of the Golden Age of Piracy. More than three hundred hardened pirates gather on a remote Caribbean island with a plan to wreck havoc on the Pacific coastline. The booty: Spanish gold and the chance to become legends. The buccaneers, primarily...