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A profound and incisive analysis of the invasion of WashingtonâEUR(TM)s Capitol on January 6th, 2021.

The untold story of the engineering behind the empire, showing how imperial Spain built upon existing infrastructure and hierarchies of the Inca, Aztec, and more, to further its growth. Sixteenth-century Spain was small, poor, disunited, and sparsely populated. Yet the Spaniards and their allies built the largest empire the world had ever seen. How did they achieve this? Felipe Fernández-Armesto and Manuel Lucena Giraldo argue that Spain's eng...

From cave paintings to Google, a thought-provoking investigation of how maps do not just reflect the world around us, but shape the way we live. Maps go far beyond just showing us where things are located. All Mapped Out is an exploration of how maps impact our lives on social and cultural levels. This book offers a journey through the fascinating history of maps, from ancient cave paintings and stone carvings to the digital interfaces we rely...

Now in paperback, from a leading historian and writer, a delightful exploration of the great English tradition of treading the boards. The English Actor charts the uniquely English approach to stagecraft, from the medieval period to the present day. In thirty chapters, Peter Ackroyd describes, with superb narrative skill, the genesis of acting--deriving from the Church tradition of Mystery Plays--through the flourishing of the craft in the Ren...

An accessible biography of the celebrated early Netherlandish painter, now in paperback. In his lifetime the early Netherlandish painter Hieronymus Bosch was famous for his phantasmagoric images, and today his name is synonymous with the infernal. The creator of expansive tableaus of fantastic and hellish scenes--where any devil not dancing is too busy eating human souls--he has been as equally misunderstood by history as his paintings have. I...

An exploration of the science and cultural significance of carnivorous plants, now in paperback. Carnivorous plants are a unique botanical group, possessing modified leaves to trap, kill, and consume small creatures. As a result, they are often depicted as killers in films and literature--from Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors to the world-dominating plants of The Day of the Triffids--yet many people regard carnivorous plants as exotic and beau...

A new assessment of the inventive and influential artist Jan van Eyck. Jan van Eyck (1390-1441) was one of the most inventive and influential artists in the entire European tradition. The realism of his paintings continues to astound observers more than six centuries on, even though our world is saturated by high-resolution images. However, viewers today are as like to be absorbed by Van Eyck's personality as his realism. While he sometimes di...

A sober engagement with the diverse meanings of intermittent fasting in human culture. Fasting from food is a controversial, dangerous, and yet utterly normal human practice. In Why Fast?, Christine Baumgarthuber engages our fascination with restrictive eating in cultural history. If fasting offers few health benefits, why do people fast? Why have we always fasted? Does fasting speak to something deep and immutable within us? Why are our bodie...

A history of how we came to know that the earth is round, rather than flat.

The story of how the country house, historically a site of violent disruption, came to symbolize English stability during the eighteenth century. Country houses are quintessentially English, not only architecturally but also in that they embody national values of continuity and insularity. The English country house, however, has more often been the site of violent disruption than continuous peace. So how is it that the country how came to repr...

From mangosteen fruit discovered in a colonial Indonesian marketplace to caviar served on the high seas in a cruise liner's luxurious dining saloon, The Food Adventurers narrates the history of eating on the most coveted of tourist journeys: the around-the-world adventure. This book looks at what tourists ate on these adventures, as well as what they avoided, and what kinds of meals they described in diaries, photographs and postcards. Daniel ...

Now in paperback, this first global history of sports offers all spectators and participants a reason to cheer--and to think. Games People Played is, surprisingly, the first global history of sports. The book shows how sports have been practiced, experienced, and made meaningful by players and fans throughout history. It assesses how sports developed and diffused across the globe, as well as many other aspects, from emotion, discrimination, an...

Upending our perception of employment, a surprising investigation into the mystical nature of our daily toil. Dreamwork is a book about the ideas, dreams, dreads, and ideals we have about work. Its central argument is this: Although we depend on the idea of work for our identity as humans, we feel we must disguise from ourselves the fact that we do not know what work is. There is no example of work that nobody might, under some circumstances, ...

Now in paperback, an exploration of the myths of England's deceptively bucolic rolling hills and country lanes believed to be created and shaped by the Dark Lord himself. According to legend, the English landscape--so calm on the surface--is really the Devil's work. Cloven Country tells of rocks hurled into place and valleys carved out by infernal labor. The Devil's hideous strength laid down great roads in one night and left scars everywhere ...

A biography of the revolutionary philosopher and psychiatrist. Doctor, militant, essayist, ambassador, teacher, journalist, pan-Africanist, Frantz Fanon sought to decolonize mid-twentieth-century culture as he embodied a new kind of intellectual. Born in colonial Martinique, he fought for France during World War II but later renounced his citizenship and fought in the Algerian War of Independence. This book emphasizes Fanon's gift for self-inv...

A compelling survey of contemporary radical art in Brazil. Today Is Always Yesterday explores the historical constructs underlying contemporary art in Brazil. Michael Asbury argues that art can activate as well as illustrate history. The colors of the Brazilian flag structure the book's five chapters as Asbury explores artists' vital role in unraveling Brazil's core myths and its projected image as a racial melting pot. Richly illustrated, thi...

The first extended history of the Chinese picture-scroll. The Chinese picture-scroll, a long, horizontal painting or calligraphic work, has been China's pre-eminent aesthetic form throughout the last two millennia. This first history of the picture-scroll explores its extraordinary longevity and adaptability to social, political, and technological change. The book describes what the picture-scroll demands of a viewer, how China's artists grapp...

Both a history and a contemporary analysis, an illuminating investigation of the defining economic concern of our time. The last year has seen the return of inflation as a preoccupation of political decision-makers, economists, and the general public. After two decades of wondering why inflation was so low, despite vast economic stimulus, economists were surprised by the recent surge in price increases. Despite disagreement about what exactly ...

In 1985 Boria Sax inherited an area of forest in New York State that had been purchased by his Russian Jewish Communist grandparents as a buffer against what they felt was a hostile world. For Sax, in the years following, the woodland came to represent a link with those who lived and had lived there, including Native Americans, settlers, bears, deer, turtles, and migrating birds. In this personal and eloquent account, Sax explores the meanings...

The never-before-told story of the extraordinary women behind a trailblazing British magazine. During the 1890s, British women for the first time began to leave their family homes to seek work, accommodation, and financial and sexual freedom. Decadent Women is an account of some of these women who wrote for the innovative art and literary journal The Yellow Book. For the first time, and drawing on original research, Jad Adams describes the liv...