Civilization category: 1351 books

William Humber’s Bowmanville: A Small Town at the Edge is an extraordinarily detailed, often affectionate and occasionally critical account of a modern small town on the edge of a rapidly expanding metropolitan region. The book recounts stories from the time of Charles Bowman, the potential ambition...

An emerging cult classic about America's cultural meltdown—and a surprising solution. A prophetic examination of Western decline, The Twilight of American Culture provides one of the most caustic and surprising portraits of American society to date. Whether examining the corruption at the...

MICHAEL ANGELO'S great painting of the newly created Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel might be taken as a symbol of the Renaissance, of the time when man was, as it were, re-created more glorious than before, with a body naked and unashamed, and a strong arm, unimpaired by fasting, outstretched...

The study of pre-Hispanic societies focuses not only on their most remarkable aspects—their technological developments, military exploits, political events, and economic achievements—but also on the everyday phenomena through which their ideology and identity are reproduced. One such element is...

What does it mean to be Irish? ‘We’ve been clever and stupid, principled and corrupt. We can be kind and cruel, guilty of dopey optimism and chronic fatalism. We’re friendly, but near impossible to get to know. We’re proud to be Irish but often crippled with self-loathing. We think...

L’histoire d’une seule région aurait-elle conditionné celle de la terre entière ? Dans ce carnet de facéties et badinages les faits relatés se montrent extravagants, mais ils résistent à l’actualité, dans une même vérité : de très anciennes sociétés secrètes, honorant...

文明的進步，來自於吃喝嫖「毒」！ 亞馬遜書店4.5顆星推薦，一部讓你笑到捨不得把書闔上的文明史 ●在帳篷裡燒大麻 ●用龍舌蘭酒杯喝菸草尿 ●空腹跑半馬後立刻吞下奧羅米亞流咖啡球 ●喝蠑螈泡白蘭地 ●探索情趣玩具的秘密 這到底是自殺還是在開玩笑？ 都不是！這是重現人類文明進展的歷程。 讓我們從狩獵採集演化成現代智人的，或許是「槍砲、病菌與鋼鐵」，但讓人類文明得以突飛猛進的，卻是「酒精、性愛跟迷幻藥」。搞笑網站Cracked.com主編羅伯‧埃文斯，發揮他出名的「死纏爛打」研究精神，揭露了一件件在世人眼中看似墮落至極的事是如何開啟文明之門。「唬爛」始於中世紀，而且跟攻擊他人有關；「公娼」始於古希臘，是為了宗教募款；「酒醉」讓擁有地表上最大帝國的亞歷山大大帝，失去征服印度的機會；「迷幻藥」讓哲學家和科學家完成輝煌成就的幕後推手，更多你想像不到的墮落至極的行為，在文明演進上都是缺一不可的大事。 本書除了用文字記載史實外，埃文斯也提供不少模仿古人瘋狂行徑的小撇步，更重現了這些墮落的事是如何享受（或折磨）人的。只要按照他的筆記，你也可以在家嘗試： ●學古希臘哲人藉迷幻藥暢遊天堂 ●學印度神享用蘇摩酒 ●開一場石器時代的銳舞趴踢 ●學中美洲原住民用古鼻煙管抽菸草...

I've tried to bring the arts together to tell a story - our story - of life in the 21st Century. Each Volume has direct links to applicable songs, movies and other author's works to help tell a particular piece of that story. There are three Volumes that make up The Book of Change: A Tapestry...

J. M. Adovasio has spent the last thirty years at the center of one of our most fiery scientific debates: Who were the first humans in the Americas, and how and when did they get there? At its heart, The First Americans is the story of the revolution in thinking that Adovasio and his fellow...

'It was at Rome, on the 15th of October 1764, as I sat musing amid the ruins of the capitol, while the barefooted friars were singing vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind,' recorded Edward Gibbon with characteristic exactitude....

Has there ever been a history of the world as readable as this? In The Human Story, James C. Davis takes us on a journey to ancient times, telling how peoples of the world settled down and founded cities, conquered neighbors, and established religions, and continues over the course of history,...

An asteroid the size of Table Mountain crashed into what was to become South Africa over 2 billion years ago, marking the spot. The country’s history since then has always been robust and full of energy. This book takes you in record time from that moment, when the earth’s richest gold reefs were...

“Rich with photographs and descriptions of how landscape design has shaped and reflected culture over time.” —The American Gardener The History of Landscape Design in 100 Gardens explores the defining moments in garden design. Through profiles of 100 of the most influential gardens, Linda...

Join us in an exciting adventure back in time to the Iron Age in the sixth century BC, a warlike and autocratic period in which iron was the centerpiece. The king in Högom ruled his kingdom with the aid of his army which helped him protect and create income and power. This book is suitable...