Gregory T. Luzitano has narrated 18 audiobooks on Listento.it by 5 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.7★ across 39 ratings. The most-rated is The Case Against Education.
The Case Against Education
Summary
Why we need to stop wasting public funds on education Despite being immensely popular - and immensely lucrative - education is grossly overrated. In this explosive book, Bryan Caplan argues that the primary function of education is not to enhance students' skill but to certify their intelligence, work ethic, and conformity - in other words, to signal the qualities of a good employee. Learn why students hunt for easy A's and casually forget most of what they learn after the final exam, why decades of growing access to education have not resulted in better jobs for the average worker but instead in runaway credential inflation, how employers reward workers for costly schooling they rarely if ever use, and why cutting education spending is the best remedy. Caplan draws on the latest social science to show how the labor market values grades over knowledge and why the more education your rivals have, the more you need to impress employers. He explains why graduation is our society's top conformity signal and why even the most useless degrees can certify employability. He advocates two major policy responses. The first is educational austerity. Government needs to sharply cut education funding to curb this wasteful rat race. The second is more vocational education, because practical skills are more socially valuable than teaching students how to outshine their peers. Romantic notions about education being "good for the soul" must yield to careful research and common sense - The Case Against Education points the way. Cover design by Leslie Flis. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2018 Princeton University Press (P)2018 Audible, Inc.
The Battle of Grunwald
Summary
“We accept the swords you send us, and in the name of Christ, before whom all stiff-necked pride must bow, we shall do battle.” (Polish?King Vladislav II) As the dissipating fog gave way to an unnerving sight, the mass of frightening figures clad head to toe in gleaming armor would have been enough to take anyone's breath away. Some of them were mounted on the backs of handsome stallions, while others leaned forward with squared shoulders, ready to attack. In one swift motion, the men unsheathe their swords and raise it over their heads, their weapons winking as the glare of the sunlight bounces off the blade. To the somewhat trained eye, these warriors in Norman-inspired gear would have appeared to be one of the Crusader forces, but it is that bold, black cross painted across their chests and shields that give them away. These men were none other than the fabled Teutonic Knights. The knights of the Teutonic Order have since been compared to the surreal creature that appeared to the biblical Ezekiel, one that bore 2 faces - one of a man's and one of a lion's. The human side of the creature is said to symbolize the order's charity whereas the lion was a metaphor for its valor and gallant spirit, which they relied on to vanquish the heathens of the world. Like other secretive groups, the mystery surrounding the Teutonic Knights has helped their legacy endure. While some conspiracy theorists attempt to tie the group to other alleged secret societies like the Illuminati, other groups have tried to assert connections with the Teutonic Knights to bolster their own credentials. Who they were and what they had in their possession continue to be a source of great intrigue, even among non-historical circles. While the military orders are now often tied to religion or conspiracy theories, they did once wield great power and influence in Europe, and their actions had consequences centuries after they had reached their peak. This was made clear in the wake of a major battle fought between German and Russian forces from August 26-30, 1914, during the First World War. It occurred in Masuria, a region of marshes, woodland, and numerous lakes in northern Poland, and almost 400,000 men were involved, and it was a decisive victory for the Germans, who annihilated the Russian army. The Germans named the battle after Tannenberg (Polish Stebark), and the battle, though widely fought over 100 miles, did indeed encompass the village, but there was a historical reason for assigning the name to the battle. On July 15, 1410, Tannenberg was the site of another decisive battle between the army of the Germanic Teutonic Order and that of Poland-Lithuania, a battle now commonly referred to as the Battle of Grunwald (after another nearby village). German nationalism saw the destruction of the Russians as vengeance upon the Slavs for the defeat of 1410, and the Nazis also exploited that sentiment during their invasions of Poland and Russia. Conversely, for Poles and Russians, the Teutonic Knights were precursors of the rapacious Germans of the Second and Third Reichs, and Grunwald was a symbol of freedom and resistance. These sentiments remain strong to this day. These considerations aside, the Battle of Grunwald was significant for a number of reasons. It marked the end of the German colonization of Slavic and Baltic lands in northeastern Europe that had begun in the 12th century. It, therefore, also marked the beginning of an age when the Slavic (principally, the Polish) peoples could grow and expand without interference from the West. The battle also signified the end of the Teutonic Knights as a major power and marked the rise of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
©2019 Charles River Editors (P)2019 Charles River Editors
Beavers and Plumes
Summary
When Queen Elizabeth arrived in Lower Fort Garry, Manitoba, in 1970, she was, like many foreign leaders, greeted with a reception and offered tokens by her hosts. What was different about this occasion, however, were the gifts offered: live elk and beaver. In the long-standing tradition of the Hudson’s Bay Company, should the King or Queen arrive in the lands governed by the charter King Charles II granted in 1660, he or she would be presented with two elk and two beavers by the company officials. Only Queen Elizabeth and her father had the opportunity to take advantage of this part of the charter’s clauses, but the royal houses of Britain had benefitted from the Hudson’s Bay Company for hundreds of years beforehand. Britain had grown rich on the profits brought into the country from across the seas in North America, and an incredible amount of those profits came about from a relatively tiny animal that was abundant across the continents. Though the importance of hats is easy to overlook, it was deadly serious in more ways than one, impacting the beavers and birds used to make fashionable hats, the environment of the region, and the people fighting over the resources. Beaver hats put the Dutch, British, and French in conflict, and later the Americans and Canadians. Plumed women’s hats were considerably less important historically, but they had a huge ecological impact. The beaver is a crucial species that once had an immense impact on the environment around it, while the short era concerning the plume trade for women’s hats drove a number of bird species to near-extinction. Indeed, several species have never recovered their numbers. The end product was fashionable men and women’s hats, sold primarily in Europe and the United States, but from raw materials to finished products, these hats linked tribal peoples, traders, hunters, trappers, merchants, and soldiers. Whether it crossed their minds or not, countless men and women in London and Paris were linked to the North American wilderness and all the violence it entailed. Beavers and Plumes: The History of the Trade and Conflicts over Beaver Hats and Feathered Hats examines the impact of the events that occurred as a result of the supply and demand of the fashionable hats.
©2020 Charles River Editors (P)2020 Charles River Editors
Rome and Germania
Summary
Despite all the accomplishments and widespread victories and conquests throughout the long history of Republican and Imperial Rome, general perception still deems the Romans to have failed in one crucial conquest: the subjugation of Germany. Indeed, historians have singled out this one failure as central to the ultimate downfall of the entire empire, as the constant wars against the Germanic tribes and the need to defend the frontier on the Rhine at great expense against those tribes, helped bring the empire to its knees. There are elements of truth in such a conclusion, but the reality was far more fluid than is often realized. From the first century BCE until the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century CE, the relationships between the wider empire and those living in what is now modern Germany were extremely complicated, involving much more than simple warfare. In fact, archaeologist Are Kolberg suggested that there were four distinct aspects that must be considered: military, trade, gifts, and plunder. One could also add the political aspect to this, given the impact that German troops came to exert in the elevation of different emperors to the throne at different times. As a Roman territory, Germania, at one point, included significant areas of land east of the Rhine, all the way up to the Elbe. The Romans would maintain a significant force on this eastern side until the third century CE, but eventually a Frankish invasion ended that presence. The term Germania came to refer specifically to the territory west of the Rhine, which included the two provinces of Germania Superior and Germania Inferior, or Upper and Lower Germany. Those provinces were key to the defense of the empire, so much so that Triers provided the location of one of the four seats of government near the end of Rome’s reign. The people that came to be known as Germans originally came from Scandinavia and were mainly shepherds and hunters, but they comprised a number of distinct groups, the most important of which were the Goths, Vandals, Franks, and Saxons. Within each group, there were separate tribes, and as their populations grew, the land they occupied in Scandinavia was unable to support them, so they began migrating south, settling outside the borders of the Roman Empire. The Germans were fierce warriors who employed rather crude but effective tactics in battle. Their main approach was one of charging directly at an enemy and fighting hand-to-hand using their long swords and shields. Body armor was unknown, and they wore only animal-skins. Most warriors wore their hair long, dyed red, and greased into ponytails. Friction between Rome and the German tribes can be traced back as far as 113 BCE, and the next 500 years brought full-scale campaigns by the Romans against the various individual tribes, resulting in numerous battles and constant uprisings wherever any part of the land east of the Rhine was occupied for any length of time. The impact of this constant warfare on both sides cannot be underestimated, and all the while, the fighting and other interactions had massive cultural and political influences going in both directions. Rome and Germania: The History of the Roman Empire’s Conflicts and Interactions with Germanic Tribes examines the many battles and events that impacted how Rome co-existed with Germania over several centuries.
©2020 Charles River Editors (P)2020 Charles River Editors
What If Alexander the Great Had Lived?
Summary
In the 19th century, the Scottish writer Thomas Carlyle famously wrote that history is “the biography of great men", popularizing the “Great Man” theory that the course of history is shaped by a select few heroic individuals. While historians and others continue to debate the accuracy of the Great Man theory of history, there is no question that the course of history is permanently altered by decisive moments in time, where a different result would have produced drastically different outcomes. As a result, while some of history’s most famous people and events have been permanently etched into the world’s collective imagination, there is a flip side to that coin: Just how differently would history have turned out if certain events never took place? Charles River Editors’ “What If” alternative history series examines some of these people and events, profiling what happened in reality and how things might have been drastically different otherwise. Over the last 2,000 years, ambitious men have dreamed of forging vast empires and attaining eternal glory in battle, but of all the conquerors who took steps toward such dreams, none were ever as successful as antiquity’s first great conqueror. Leaders of the 20th century hoped to rival Napoleon’s accomplishments, while Napoleon aimed to emulate the accomplishments of Julius Caesar. Caesar himself found inspiration in Alexander the Great (356 - 323 BCE), the Macedonian king who managed to stretch an empire from Greece to the Himalayas in Asia by the age of 30. It took less than 15 years for Alexander to conquer much of the known world. In 323 BCE, Alexander the Great was on top of the world. Never a man to sit on his hands or rest upon his laurels, Alexander began planning his future campaigns, which may have included attempts to subdue the Arabian Peninsula or make another incursion into India. But fate had other plans for the young Macedonian king. Alexander died of still unknown causes at the height of his conquests, when he was still in his early 30s. Although his empire was quickly divided, his legacy only grew, and Alexander became the stuff of legends even in his own time. Alexander was responsible for establishing 20 cities in his name across the world, most notably Alexandria in Egypt, and he was directly responsible for spreading Ancient Greek culture as far east as modern-day India and other parts of Asia. For the ancient world, Alexander became the emblem of military greatness and accomplishment. It was reported that many of Rome’s greatest leaders, including Pompey the Great, Augustus, and Caesar himself all visited Alexander’s tomb in Alexandria - a mecca of sorts for antiquity’s other leaders. Thus, while it could be said that Alexander’s empire continued on through its successors, and that the Hellenistic kingdoms of Macedonia, Seleucia, Pergamon, and Ptolemaic Egypt shaped the course of Western history in the centuries that followed and spread Greek culture throughout the known world, their divisions and animosities also weakened them and made them easier to conquer. One by one, they would fall to Rome. But what if Alexander had not died in Babylon years before anyone expected to lose him? How would the world have changed had Alexander remained sole king of the Macedonian Empire and lived long enough to designate an heir? Would history eventually have progressed essentially as it did, or would the world look vastly different? What if Alexander the Great Had Lived?: An Alternative History of the Macedonian King and His Empire profiles Alexander’s life and examines how events may have gone differently if Alexander had survived.
©2020 Charles River Editors (P)2020 Charles River Editors
The 1889-1890 Flu Pandemic
Summary
Plague and pestilence have both fascinated and terrified humanity from the very beginning. Societies and individuals have struggled to make sense of them, and more importantly, they’ve often struggled to avoid them. Before the scientific age, people had no knowledge of the microbiological agents - unseen bacteria and viruses - which afflicted them, and thus, the maladies were often ascribed to wrathful supernatural forces. Even when advances in knowledge posited natural causes for epidemics and pandemics, medicine struggled to deal with them, and for hundreds of years, religion continued to work hand-in-hand with medicine. It was only in the mid-19th century that scientists established a definitive link between viruses and bacteria and disease, and this allowed the development of vaccines to prevent the spread of killers such as smallpox, typhus, and diphtheria. In the early 20th century, the development of antibiotics helped immensely, but as the Spanish Flu of 1918 and the recent coronavirus outbreak demonstrated, people have not succeeded in conquering all infectious diseases. In fact, it was not until World War II that most of the pestilences that have afflicted people in the past could be effectively prevented, and the fear of contagion remains strong. One of these plagues is influenza, a disease now regarded almost with contempt as being a minimal threat to life, but it is actually one of the greatest killers of modern times, taking up to 650,000 lives every year. It may come as a surprise for many to learn that there is no single vaccine for the flu - there are vaccines for the strains that presently exist, but new strains evolve every year, so vaccines must be constantly developed. Influenza remains one of the greatest threats to public health and challenges to the medical profession. The first known influenza pandemic may have occurred in China in 6000 BCE, and the renowned Greek physician Hippocrates described the symptoms of influenza around 600 BCE. The first well-documented pandemic, however, occurred in 1580. It originated in East Asia, spread through Central Asia and the Russian Empire, and then on to Europe. In Rome, about 8,000 people perished, and some settlements in Spain disappeared entirely. Europeans brought it to the Americas in the 16th century, where it may contributed to decimating the indigenous populations. After that, flu epidemics hit Europe sporadically for more than 200 years, with that of 1830-33 being one of the worst, when about 25 percent of 135 million Europeans were infected. Therefore, when an outbreak of flu occurred in the Central Asian city of Bukhara in 1889, it could not have excited any great concern. Certainly, some nearby communities may have anxiously braced themselves, but epidemics had occurred before and Europe had survived. Besides, then - as now - influenza was a disease that affected mostly the elderly and ill. But Europe - and the world - has changed profoundly in recent times. Its states had been industrializing, experimenting with new methods of communication, transportation, and trade, and these very innovations would be the means of spreading the flu, not just through Europe, but across the entire world. For the first time in its history, the world faced a pestilence that would cross every geographical barrier, even the oceans. This meant it would not be an epidemic but a pandemic, embracing the entire globe in its deadly grip. The 1889-1890 Flu Pandemic: The History of the 19th Century’s Last Major Global Outbreak looks at how the pandemic started, what was done to fight the virus, and its impact on the world.
©2020 Charles River Editors (P)2020 Charles River Editors
Admiral David Farragut
Summary
Americans have long been fascinated by the Civil War, marveling at the size of the battles, the leadership of the generals, and the courage of the soldiers. Since the war's start over 150 years ago, the battles have been subjected to endless debate among historians and the generals themselves. The Civil War was the deadliest conflict in American history, and had the two sides realized it would take four years and inflict over a million casualties, it might not have been fought. Since it did, however, historians and history buffs alike have been studying and analyzing the biggest battles ever since. After the first year of the Civil War, the Confederacy was faced with a serious problem. While the South had enjoyed some stunning victories on land, they had been all but cut off from the world at sea. The more industrialized North had realized that in case of an extended war, the best way to defeat the Confederacy was to starve it of supplies. The rebels started the war with no real navy to speak of, and so the federal government quickly set up a blockade of all Southern ports and river mouths. By depriving the South of revenues derived from its main export, cotton, the North seriously injured the Southern economy. While the Confederates tried to rely on blockade runners, the Union Navy assigned many ships the task of tracking them down and stopping them, and by the last year of the war, blockade running had been all but strangled. Several major ports had fallen to the Union, and the rest were tightly blockaded. The blockade runners had also suffered from attrition, so much so that by the end of the war, more than 1,100 of the ships had been captured and another 355 had been sunk or run aground. Meanwhile, the North managed to have spectacular success jointly coordinating operations between the Army and Navy, thanks in large measure to the leadership of officers like David Farragut. While generals like Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman received the lion’s share of the credit for Union victories, especially in the Western Theater, naval forces were instrumental in the capture of New Orleans and Vicksburg, as well as at Fort Donelson and Fort Henry, and Farragut was immediately recognized for his service. Congress made him the nation’s first Rear Admiral in history in 1862, and Farragut would also go on to become the first man in the history of the US Navy to attain the rank of Admiral. Despite his experiences throughout the Civil War, Farragut’s name has become almost universally associated with a famous quote attributed to him during the Battle of Mobile Bay, when his flotilla encountered mines while trying to subdue the Confederacy’s last major open port. After one of the ships hit a mine and sank, the others began to pull back, only for Farragut to urge his forces forward, yelling, "Damn the torpedoes!" The ensuing victory earned Farragut another promotion in rank, and by the time Farragut died in 1870 at the age of 69, he had served in the US Navy for nearly 60 years, ensuring that he would forever be remembered as one of his country’s most important naval officers. Admiral David Farragut: The Life and Legacy of the American Civil War’s Most Famous Naval Officer chronicles Farragut’s upbringing and how it prepared him for his important service in the Civil War.You will learn about Farragut like never before.
©2019 Charles River Editors (P)2019 Charles River Editors
The Age of Reptiles
Summary
The early history of our planet covers such vast stretches of time that years, centuries, and even millennia become virtually meaningless. Instead paleontologists and scientists who study geochronology divide time into periods and eras. The current view of science is that planet Earth is around 4.6 billion years old. The first four billion years of its development are known as the Precambrian period. For the first billion years or so, there was no life in Earth. Then the first single-celled life-forms, early bacteria and algae, began to emerge. We don’t know where they came from or even if they originated on this planet at all. This gradual development continued until around four billion years ago when suddenly (in geological terms!) more complex forms of life began to emerge. Scientists call this time of an explosion of new forms of life the Paleozoic Era and it stretched from around 541 to 250 million years ago (Mya). First of all, in the oceans and then on land, new creatures and plants began to appear in bewildering variety. By the end of this period, life on Earth had exploded into a myriad of complex forms that filled virtually every habitat and niche available in the seas and on the planet’s only continent, Pangea. Then a mysterious event that became known to early paleontologists as “The Great Dying” wiped out more than 95 percent of all life on Earth. No-one is entirely certain what caused this, but the effect of this cataclysm was as if someone had pressed a great, cosmic “reset” button and it took 30 million years for the development of life on Earth to start again.
©2020 Charles River Editors (P)2020 Charles River Editors
The Soviet Nuclear Weapons Program
Summary
Tens of millions died during World War II as the warring powers raced to create the best fighter planes, tanks, and guns, and eventually that race extended to bombs which carried enough power to destroy civilization itself. While the war raged in Europe and the Pacific, a dream team of Nobel Laureates was working on the Manhattan Project, a program kept so secret that Vice President Harry Truman didn’t know about it until he took the presidency after FDR’s death in April 1945.
The Manhattan Project would ultimately yield the "Little Boy" and "Fat Man" bombs that released more than 100 Terajoules of energy at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but weeks earlier, on July 16, 1945, the first detonation of a nuclear device took place in Alamogordo, New Mexico. The first bomb was nicknamed the "gadget", to avoid espionage attempts to discover that it was, indeed, a bomb. In some sense, the device detonated in July was not really a "bomb" anyway; it was not a deployable device, though it was a detonatable one.
With this success, word reached President Truman, who was then attending the Potsdam Conference, and while there, he presented the news to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Stalin feigned surprise; in an ironic twist of fate, espionage missions had revealed American nuclear research to the Soviets before it had even reached Vice President Truman.
The attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, along with the Cold War-era tests and their accompanying mushroom clouds, would demonstrate the true power and terror of nuclear weapons, but in the late 1930s these bombs were only vaguely being thought through, particularly after the successful first experiment to split the atom by a German scientist. Despite the fact the Nazis’ quest for a nuclear weapon began in earnest in 1939, no one really had a handle on how important nuclear weapons would prove to war and geopolitics, so the Germans were hesitant to expend resources on it. Moreover, they were hampered by the fact their policies had compelled Jewish scientists like Liz Meitner and Albert Einstein to flee before the war.
For their part, Stalin’s regime had been working on a nuclear weapons program since 1942, relying greatly upon successful Soviet espionage to help lead the way. With intelligence sources connected to the Manhattan Project, Stalin was able to keep abreast of the Allies’ progress toward creating an atomic bomb, so that by 1945, the Soviets already had a working blueprint of America’s first atomic bombs.
On August 29, 1949, the Soviets successfully tested an atomic bomb, and with that, the Soviet Union became the second nation after the US to develop and possess nuclear weapons. The nuclear age itself was still in its infancy, but within a few short years the advent of nuclear war loomed over the world and the prospect of a malign dictatorship possessing nuclear superiority kept Western leaders awake at night.
The Soviet Nuclear Weapons Program: The History and Legacy of the USSR’s Efforts to Build the Atomic Bomb examines the Soviets’ race to reach the ultimate goal during and after World War II, and how they went about their objectives. You will learn about Nazi Germany’s nuclear weapons program like never before.
©2019 Charles River Editors (P)2019 Charles River Editors
The Domestication of Dogs
Summary
“Isn't it strange that our being such an intelligent primate, we didn't domesticate chimpanzees as companions, instead? Why did we choose wolves, even though they are strong enough to maim or kill us?” (Wolfgang Schleidt) As the oft-repeated and invariably accurate pearl of wisdom goes, a dog truly is man's best friend. For a long time, people have almost universally loved dogs, and it seems to have been that way for at least tens of thousands of years. When affection is abundantly and consistently expressed, this pure, unspoken, wholesome love is one that is very much requited, and then some. This bond can be demonstrated by the mere existence of pet keepers who unironically refer to themselves as “dog parents,” not merely “dog owners”. Of course, this camaraderie between man and dog did not materialize overnight. Quite the contrary, the relationship between people and dogs gradually evolved and steadily strengthened over several millennia, following a premise best summed up by the dog's metamorphosis from a predator to a lifelong companion. Apart from friendship and companionship, dogs may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and they have been trained to provide loyal and competent service in a variety of fields, ranging from seeing-eye dogs to vest-wearing police partners, among other lines of work. The Domestication of Dogs: The History of Dogs’ Genetic Divergence from Wolves and the Origins of Their Relationship with Humans examines the origins of this exceptional bond, including scientific and mythical theories, and explores how wolves gave rise to a new species marked by hundreds of breeds. It also looks at the cultural roles that canines have played around the world throughout the ages.
©2020 Charles River Editors (P)2020 Charles River Editors
Mysterious Polynesia: The Myths, Legends, and Mysteries of the Polynesians
Summary
Taking into account similarities of appearance, customs and languages spread across a vast region of scattered islands, it was obvious that the Polynesian race emerged from a single origin, and that origin Cook speculated was somewhere in the Malay Peninsula or the “East Indies.” In this regard, he was not too far from the truth. The origins of the Polynesian race have been fiercely debated since then, and it was only relatively recently, through genetic and linguistic research, that it can now be stated with certainty that the Polynesian race originated on the Chinese mainland and the islands of Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia. Oceania was, indeed, the last major region of the Earth to be penetrated and settled by people, and Polynesia was the last region of Oceania to be inhabited. The vehicle of this expansion was the outrigger canoe, and aided by tides and wind patterns, a migration along the Malay Archipelago, and across the wide expanses of the South Pacific, began sometime between 3000 and 1000 BCE, reaching the western Polynesian Islands in about 900 BCE. The name Polynesia derives from the ancient Greek meaning “many islands.” The word was first used to describe the entirety of the South Sea Islands by the 18th century French writer and traveler Charles de Brosses, but technically, Polynesia refers specifically to an area described by a vast triangle that stretches across the southern Pacific, with Hawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand serving as the points. Close to the center of this triangle lies Tahiti, with the west limit defined by Samoa and Tonga, with a slight irregularity in the western edge of the triangle that serves to exclude Fiji, the Solomon Islands, the New Hebrides, and a handful of Melanesian and Micronesian islands. The Melanesian demographic tends to differ quite dramatically from the Polynesian in both appearance and culture, the former tending to be of darker complexion, while the latter is more characteristic of the South Seas islanders of popular mythology. Furthermore, not all of the islands included in the broad delineation of Polynesia are the tiny islets and atolls of popular imagination, resplendent with blue lagoons, white sand beaches and pristine coral reefs. Most are located within the tropics and have all the characteristics of an island paradise, but many others, such as Easter Island, the Chatham Islands, and New Zealand, lie well to the south and are, as a consequence, temperate in climate and biology. While the timing of the populations’ movements can be accurately plotted, the motivations and methodology have tended to come to light only through the study of the oral tradition and the folklore associated with many dispersed, but culturally associated peoples. Indeed, when scholars go through the traditions and mythology passed down by people who are dispersed across thousands of miles of water and islands, they are amazed at the striking similarities. Typically, the cultural memories related to these waves of migration speak of warfare and internecine quarrels, often with the defeated chief or king leading an expedition away and thereafter assuming the role of the “first man” in the creation of a new society and political structure. Mysterious Polynesia: The Myths, Legends, and Mysteries of the Polynesians chronicles some of these remarkable stories, as well as lingering mysteries across the region. You will learn about Polynesia like never before.
©2019 Charles River Editors (P)2019 Charles River Editors
Keto Desserts #2019: 111 Quick & Easy Low-Carb Ketogenic Desserts to Lose Weight, Balance Hormones, Boost Brain Health, and Reverse Disease
Summary
Enjoy 111 easy and most delicious, foolproof, hand-picked keto deserts recipes. Is it too hard to stick to your Keto diet because you miss the foods you love? Are you bored of eating the same bland stuff for every meal? Windup your evening with a tasty, delicious, or savory dessert without worrying about adding an extra pound! Keto diet makes one of the healthiest foods you can adopt for a rapid weight loss. You don't have to miss those tasty desserts because of weighing goals anymore, with keto desserts, you will not only enjoy wind your day feeling happy and relaxed but also achieve the perfect weight. This guide has the best selection of 111 keto desserts that will end your day in style and a 30-day meal plan to ensure you are on track and for easier planning. These recipes are easy to make and healthy to eat. Grab this copy today and embrace your new journey to better and romantic evenings and younger you! Buy now!
©2019 Sonya Clifford (P)2020 Sonya Clifford
David Hume Collection
Summary
Explore the ideas and legacy of one of the 18th century’s most influential minds. Do you want to discover more about the reality around you, and your place in it? Are you interested in uncovering the classical contributions to philosophy made by David Hume? Or do you want to understand why his work shaped the course of modern philosophy? Then keep reading. Inside this brilliant three-in-one book collection, you’ll uncover a wealth of philosophical insights about truth, faith, and the universe around us. Drawing on the arguments and musings of the famed philosopher David Hume, this book reveals his ideas on the questions that define our very existence. Inside this collection, you’ll discover: A Treatise of Human Nature, revered as one of the most influential works in philosophy and credited as a fundamental part of philosophical ideas including empiricism, scepticism, and naturalism. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, a succinct, profound, and impactful adaptation of Hume’s earlier work, explaining his ideas in a more easily-digestible way. Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, a thought-provoking discussion on the nature and properties of God, told through the perspectives of three debating characters. Brought to life in this collection for a modern audience, David Hume’s work has stood the test of time to resonate with people across the ages. Whether you’re searching for answers, or if you want to unveil the history behind much of modern-day naturalism and empiricism, then this book is a must-listen. Scroll up and buy now to explore David Hume’s philosophical legacy today.
©2020 Montgomery Providence Publishing (P)2020 Montgomery Providence Publishing
Immanuel Kant Collection
Summary
Explore the ultimate collection of Immanuel Kant’s most famous works. From a gripping exploration of morality to a deep dive into theoretical reasoning and metaphysics, the philosophy of Immanuel Kant has stood the test of time and made him one of the most famous and influential philosophers of the 18th century. Now, this brilliant collection compiles his writings for modern listeners, a testament to the lasting influence of his ideas and inspirations. Whether you want to examine the profound ideas behind his framework for morality, question the nature of logic and the way we view the world, or open your mind to the possibilities of the metaphysical, this book lets you see Immanuel Kant’s philosophy as it evolves over the course of his life and career. Inside this collection, you’ll find: Critique of Pure Reason, offering an enlightening examination of metaphysics, reason, and rationalism Fundamental Principles of The Metaphysic of Morals, in which Immanuel Kant builds a powerful groundwork for moral theory and the ideas surrounding ethics Critique of Practical Reason, an exploration of theoretical reasoning and a foundation of 18th-century moral philosophy Perfect for fans of other influential philosophers including John Locke, David Hume, and Christian Wolff, this collection serves to help you discover the enduring legacy of Immanuel Kant’s work, along with why his writings have inspired and enlightened countless philosophers over the last two centuries. Scroll up and buy now to explore the work of Immanuel Kant today.
Public Domain (P)2020 Montgomery Providence Publishing
The Cretaceous Period
Summary
Scientists have long attempted to understand Earth’s past, and in service to that effort, they have divided the world’s history into eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages. For example, the current eon is called the Phanerozoic Eon, which means “visible life”. This is the eon in which multicellular life has evolved and thrived. Before this, life was microscopic (single cells). The Phanerozoic eon is divided into three eras - Paleozoic (“old life”), Mesozoic (“middle life”), and Cenozoic (“new life”). The Mesozoic era is divided into three periods - Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous. Before the Triassic, primitive life had built up in the oceans and seas, and some lifeforms finally had crawled onto land during the Paleozoic era. With that, life had become well-established, but then came the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, the worst extinction event in the history of the planet. At the end of the Triassic, another extinction event cleared the way for dinosaurs to become the dominant set of species in the Jurassic. Though the Triassic does not have as interesting a list of creatures as those in the Jurassic and Cretaceous - such as Tyrannosaurus rex, Stegosaurus, Pterodactyls, Brontosaurus, and the like - the life which reclaimed the Earth and then thrived during this period was no less important. Life during the Triassic spent nearly 60 percent of its time recovering from the Permian-Triassic extinction event, roughly 30 million years. What had been built up was then slammed by nature, effectively clearing the board once more for new species to take over. The Jurassic is best known, thanks to the series of dinosaur movies featuring its name, but the famous extinction of the dinosaurs took place during the Cretaceous. One of the problems of discussing the ancient history of the Earth is the unimaginably long spans of time involved. People tend to think of human history as old, but compared to other periods of the evolution of the planet, humans have been around for no more than the blink of an eye. Anatomically, modern people have been around for about 200,000 years, and while that may sound like a long time, it can be put in context if the whole history of the planet, from the time that it was first formed until the present day, covered a period of 24 hours. In that timescale, modern humans first appeared a little after 23:59:59, less than one second before midnight, and recorded human history - the point from when people first started writing things down - started less than 6,000 years ago. Despite people’s current ability to impact the planet and denude its resources, they represent a tiny blip in the history of the Earth, though the understanding of this is a relatively recent phenomenon. For much of recorded history, people imagined that human history and the history of the planet were pretty much the same thing. It was assumed that people had always been the dominant life on Earth. Early societies were aware of fossils, but they had no conception of just how old they were; the ancient Chinese, for example, classified many fossils as the bones of dragons. It wasn’t until 1822 that a new word “paleontology” was coined, and it was used to describe the emerging science of using the fossil record to understand what the world was like in the far distant past. Gradually, a better understanding emerged of the different periods through which the Earth had passed and a realization that for hundreds of millions of years, it wasn’t humans, but a very different species that ruled the Earth.
©2020 Charles River Editors (P)2020 Charles River Editors
Roman Arches
Summary
Some of the most iconic symbols of the Roman Empire that have survived into the modern world today are the arches that Romans erected to commemorate military victories and glorify individual emperors. The story of how arches came to be used throughout the Roman world in such a way is one that involves the evolution of the military and its leaders into the political forces that came to dominate the state, and those arches, along with the triumphs that came to be associated with many of them, were key parts in the process of exhibiting the might of Rome. At the same time, they were meant to mark the individual achievements of Rome’s rulers, making them an enormous and expensive PR exercise that steadily grew over the years. At its most basic, and in its earliest incarnation, the arch was a celebration of achievement and, as such, was part of a whole series of methods used by the Romans to record, reward, and publicize success. However, as the imperial period progressed, the arch came to symbolize much more and became exclusively associated with imperial might through the building of triumphal arches. The story of those arches is inextricably linked to the promotion of Rome as the greatest of all powers, and of its leaders as the most worthy and able of all commanders. Triumphal arches in Rome provided a centerpiece for triumphs that were restricted to the emperors and their immediate families after the establishment of the Roman Empire, but arches in the wider empire did not have this specific function. That said, as with those in Italy, foreign arches were strategically placed to ensure they were seen and passed through by the maximum number of people, subjecting them to scenes depicting Roman victories on a regular basis. These arches were inextricably linked to promoting Rome as the greatest of all powers, and also bound up in the policy of Romanization and assimilation of conquered territories and populations. Of course, these arches have intrigued historians for years. Franz Botho Graef, a German classical archaeologist and art historian, a prominent expert in the area, devoted his life to the identification and cataloging of Roman arches. He documented 125 extant arches, and 30 further examples discerned from the literature or other sources, scattered throughout Rome and its provinces. Graef’s listing is usually taken as the starting point for subsequent researchers, but another eminent historian in the field, A. Frothingham, has disputed Graef´s listings, arguing that only 115 of the 125 identified arches actually existed. He also claimed to have identified 280 further “monuments and arches,” the majority of which were located within Asia Minor, North Africa, and Syria. However, this methodological approach introduced a new category - monuments - into the cataloging process, which has only served to complicate the debate. The building process of arches was long and protracted, but it typically served the empire well. Indeed, the success of this physical statement can perhaps be best measured by the number of similar arches erected around the world centuries after the end of the Roman Empire, including the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the Narva Triumphal Arch in Saint Petersburg, the Wellington Arch in London, and the India Gate in Delhi. Roman Arches: The History of the Famous Monuments in Rome and Throughout the Roman Empire examines the events surrounding the celebrations, accounts of them, and how the arches influenced other architectural monuments. You will learn about Roman arches like never before.
©2020 Charles River Editors (P)2020 Charles River Editors
The Dreyfus Affair
Summary
Sometime in 1889, a woman named Madame Marie Bastian was recruited as an agent of the secretive “Statistical Section”, an espionage and counter-intelligence agency attached to the military intelligence office of the French General Staff. Mme. Bastian was a cleaner employed by the German Embassy in Paris. Thanks to her Romany origins, she was somewhat acquainted with Germany and marginally conversant in the German language. She enjoyed complete and unrestricted access to the private residences of many important German diplomats and functionaries, and as she gathered up the torn-up documents in the various wastepaper baskets, she routinely passed them on to a handler attached to the Statistical Section.
In September 1890, among a pile of torn-up documents delivered by Mme. Bastian was found a note handwritten in French which, when pieced together, proved to be a list of French military secrets handed over to the Germans by an unknown French officer of the General Staff. This discovery, which proved the existence of a traitor in the department, triggered a ferment in the corridors of the Conseil Supérieur de la Guerre, and the hunt was on for the culprit.
By a process of elimination, officers of the military intelligence were able to narrow down a list of probable traitors, among whom was a young Jewish staff officer Captain Alfred Dreyfus who was immediately earmarked as the chief suspect. Dreyfus’ handwriting was compared to that on the bordereau and although the various handwriting experts who conducted the comparison failed to reach a common consensus, it was nonetheless judged that Dreyfus was indeed the culprit. In December 1894, Dreyfus was court-martialed, convicted, and sentenced to a term of life in prison.
On January 5, 1895, in a formal parade, Captain Dreyfus was stripped of his rank, his sword was broken over the knee of a sergeant, and he was shipped overseas to the penal colony of Devil’s Island on the coast of French Guiana.
These are the essential facts of the “Dreyfus Affair” as it came to be known, an episode that, in many respects, defined French anti-Semitism in the late 19th century. A case was built with the central objective of protecting the integrity of French military establishment, and in the process, the relatively muted anti-Semitism in France (at least in comparison to other European nations) was transformed into an era of virulent and violent Jew-hatred that characterized and sullied the final decade of the 19th century in France.
The Dreyfus Affair: The History and Legacy of France’s Most Notorious Antisemitic Political Scandal examines the chain of events that produced one of the most notorious episodes in modern French history.
©2019 Charles River Editors (P)2019 Charles River Editors
The Jurassic Period
Summary
The early history of our planet covers such vast stretches of time that years, centuries, and even millennia become virtually meaningless. Instead, paleontologists and scientists who study geochronology divide time into periods and eras. The current view of science is that planet Earth is around 4.6 billion years old. The first four billion years of its development are known as the Precambrian period. For the first billion years or so, there was no life in Earth. Then, the first single-celled life-forms, early bacteria and algae, began to emerge. We don’t know where they came from or even if they originated on this planet, at all. This gradual development continued until around four billion years ago, when suddenly (in geological terms) more complex forms of life began to emerge. Scientists call this time of an explosion of new forms of life the Paleozoic Era, and it stretched from around 541 to 250 million years ago (Mya). First of all, in the oceans and then on land, new creatures and plants began to appear in bewildering variety. By the end of this period, life on Earth had exploded into a myriad of complex forms that filled virtually every habitat and niche available in the seas and on the planet’s only continent Pangea. Then, a mysterious event that became known to early paleontologists as “The Great Dying” wiped out more than 95 percent of all life on Earth. No one is entirely certain what caused this, but the effect of this cataclysm was as if someone had pressed a great cosmic “reset” button and it took 30 million years for the development of life on Earth to start again. The next period of Earth’s history is known as the Mesozoic Era, from about 252 to 66 Mya. This era is further divided into three periods - the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous. During this era, one type of life came to dominate the planet more completely and for a longer period than had been seen before or since; this was the Age of Reptiles. Beginning in the Triassic, but especially in the Jurassic period, reptiles came to dominate the oceans, land and even the skies. There has never been anything else quite like this period in terms of the success of a particular type of creature. For almost 200 million years, reptiles were the only significant creatures on Earth. They were so successful and so diverse that they evolved to take advantage of every available habitat and no other type of large creature had a chance to develop. To put the 200 million years of reptile dominance in perspective, the entire span of recorded human history - the time since people advanced from tribes of primitive, nomadic hunter-gatherers into recognizable societies - covers less than 6,000 years. To put this in context, if the entire history of the planet were to be laid out on the length of a football field, the period of dominance of the age of reptiles would not begin until the five-yard line and would stretch for twelve feet. All of human history would occupy a tiny strip at the end of the field, less than the width of a human hair. It was during the Jurassic period that reptiles began rule the Earth and some of the best-known prehistoric creatures first emerged. The Jurassic Period: The History and Legacy of the Geologic Era Most Associated with Dinosaurs looks at the development of the era, the extinction events that preceded it, and how life began to evolve during it. You will learn about the Jurassic Period like never before.
©2020 Charles River Editors (P)2020 Charles River Editors