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This sumptuously illustrated, beautifully written encyclopedia, the best book available on the topic, presents the most up-to-date information about planet Earth in a style and format that will appeal to an extremely wide range of readers. With thousands of photographs, illustrations, diagrams, and maps and a text written by a team of international experts, it presents an impressive overview of our globe--beginning with the history of the universe and ending with today's conservation issues. A truly spectacular reference,
The Encyclopedia of Earth offers new visual interpretations of many ideas, concepts, and facts, painting a fascinating picture of Earth today and across the ages.
The encyclopedia is divided into six sections that are designed for either browsing or in-depth study. Birth gives an overview of Earth's 4.6-billion-year history, including the evolution of life. Fire explains the inner workings of our dynamic planet, its structure, and the tectonic forces that have molded its landscape. Land surveys rocks, minerals, and habitats. Air covers weather, including extreme weather events such as tornadoes and hurricanes. Water tours the oceans, rivers, and lakes of the world. The final section, Humans, provides a compelling portrait of our relationship with Earth, and of how the natural world has shaped social and political developments.
Copub: Weldon Owen Publishing The Encyclopedia of Earth features:
* Some of the world's finest landscape photography and hundreds of detailed illustrations and diagrams, cross sections, cutaways, maps, and charts
* Coverage of topics including volcanology, paleontology, geology, natural history, cosmology, and more
* Simple, easy-to-understand explanations of complex phenomena
* The most recent scientific information and conservation data
* "Fact files" providing information at readers' fingertips
* "Heritage Watch" boxes focusing on key conservation issues and World Heritage sites Read more!
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What does it mean to be an American, and what can America be today?
To answer these questions, celebrated philosopher and journalist Bernard-Henri Lévy spent a year traveling throughout the country in the footsteps of another great Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville, whose Democracy in America remains the most influential book ever written about our country.
The result is
American Vertigo, a fascinating, wholly fresh look at a country we sometimes only think we know. From Rikers Island to Chicago mega-churches, from Muslim communities in Detroit to an Amish enclave in Iowa, Lévy investigates issues at the heart of our democracy: the special nature of American patriotism, the coexistence of freedom and religion (including the religion of baseball), the prison system, the ?return of ideology? and the health of our political institutions, and much more. He revisits and updates Tocqueville?s most important beliefs, such as the dangers posed by ?the tyranny of the majority,? explores what Europe and America have to learn from each other, and interprets what he sees with a novelist?s eye and a philosopher?s depth.
Through powerful interview-based portraits across the spectrum of the American people, from prison guards to clergymen, from Norman Mailer to Barack Obama, from Sharon Stone to Richard Holbrooke, Lévy fills his book with a tapestry of American voices?some wise, some shocking. Both the grandeur and the hellish dimensions of American life are unflinchingly explored. And big themes emerge throughout, from the crucial choices America
faces today to the underlying reality that, unlike the ?Old World,? America remains the fulfillment of the world?s desire to worship, earn, and live as one wishes?a place, despite all, where inclusion remains not just an ideal but an actual practice.
At a time when Americans are anxious about how the world perceives them and, indeed, keen to make sense of themselves, a brilliant and sympathetic foreign observer has arrived to help us begin a new conversation about the meaning of America.
From the Hardcover edition.Read more!
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The New Concise World Atlas, Second Edition offers a sweeping look at the world in a fresh, clear manner, opening with six pages of compiled statistics on world population, climate and geography, all important points of reference for the global citizen. The highly illustrated "Earth in Space" thematic section that follows provides a wide-angle overview of the planet, placing the human world in the larger context of the universe. Then, in twenty-two compact yet compelling essays, the Earth's human and natural processes are explained using a balanced combination of informative text, instructive charts and graphs, and vibrant photography and cartography.
As part of a suite of annually updated atlases, the second edition offers information the competition lacks: revised province names and boundaries in Denmark, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Serbia and Montenegro as well as the opening of four new international airports and several major new railroads. Five new city maps, several regional spreads of the United States, and inset maps of island groups such as the Azores, the Seychelles and the Comoros also appear here for the first time. With 128 pages of the latest maps at carefully selected scales, every region from the Arctic Ocean to The Volga Basin is rendered in layer-colored contours, revealing detailed political and topographical information about each of the 192 countries recognized by the United Nations. Mirroring style changes made to the popular Atlas of the World, page number indicators have been added throughout which, along with refined locator windows, allow for easy identification of adjacent map pages. Historical cross-references have also been added to the already comprehensive 55,000-entry index, so that finding specific locations will be effortless no matter which place name is most familiar. Topping off this value-laden resource, a "Regions in the News" element highlights those geographic areas that have struggled with strife and turmoil over the last twelve months. These thematic maps illustrate local ethnic populations and occupied territories, helping to decode some of the issues plaguing Afghanistan, Israel, Iraq, and Sudan.
With hundreds of dramatic full-color, large-format maps produced by Europe's finest team of cartographers, the New Concise World Atlas, Second Edition will surely be found on the shelf of anyone concerned with the state of the world.
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What is it about Italy that inspires passion, fascination, and utter devotion? This quirky guide to the Italian way of life, with its fifty witty mini-essays on iconic Italian subjects, will answer that question as well as entertain and delight both real and armchair travelers. Topics range from insulting hand gestures to patron saints, pasta, parmesan, shoes, opera, the Vespa, the Ferrari, gelato, gondolas, and more. History, folklore, superstitions, traditions, and customs are tossed in a delicious sauce that also includes a wealth of factual information for the sophisticated traveler:? why lines, as we know them, are nonexistent in Italy? why a string of coral beads is often seen around a baby?s wrist? what the unlucky number of Italy is (it?s not thirteen, unless seating guests at a table, when it IS thirteen?taking into account the outcome of the Last Supper)? why red underwear begins to appear in shops as the New Year approaches In addition to the lyrical and poetic,
Italianissimo provides useful and indispensable information for the traveler: deciphering the quirks of the language (while English has only one word for ?you,? in Italy there are three), the best place to find balsamic vinegar (in Modena, of course), the best gelato (in Sicily, where they first invented it using the snow from Mount Etna). There are also recommendations for little-known museums and destinations (the Bodoni museum, the Pinocchio park, legendary coffee bars).This is a new kind of guidebook overflowing with enlightening and hilarious miscellaneous information, filled with luscious graphics and unforgettable photographs that will decode and enrich all trips to Italy?both real and imaginary.
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In 1984, photographer Peter Feldstein set out to photograph every single resident of his town, Oxford, Iowa (pop. 676). He converted an abandoned storefront on Main Street into a makeshift studio and posted fliers inviting people to stop by. At first they trickled in slowly, but in the end, nearly all of Oxford stood before Feldstein's lens. Twenty years later, Feldstein decided to do it again. Only this time he invited writer Stephen G. Bloom to join him, and together they went in search of the same Oxford residents Feldstein had originally shot two decades earlier. Some had moved. Most had stayed. Others had passed away. All were marked by the passage of time.
In a place like Oxford, not only does everyone know everyone else, but also everyone else's brothers, sisters, parents, grandparents, lovers, secrets, failures, dreams, and favorite pot luck recipes. This intricate web of human connections between neighbors friends, and family, is the mainstay of small town American life, a disappearing culture that is unforgettably captured in Feldstein's candid black-and-white portraiture and Bloom's astonishing rural storytelling.
Meet the town auctioneer who fell in love with his wife in high school while ice-skating together on local ponds; his wife who recalls the dress she wore as his prom date over fifty years ago; a retired buck skinner who started a gospel church and awaits the rapture in 2028; the donut baker at the Depot who went from having to be weighed on a livestock scale to losing over 150 pounds with the support of all of Oxford; a twenty-one-year-old man photographed in 1984 as an infant in his father's arms, who has now survived both of his parents due to tragedy and illness.
Considered side-by-side, the portraits reveal the inevitable transformations of aging: wider waistlines, wrinkled skin, eyeglasses, and bowed backs. Babies and children have instantly sprouted into young nurses, truck drivers, teachers, and rodeo riders, become Buddhists, racists, democrats, and drug addicts. The courses of lives have been irrevocably altered by deaths, births, marriages, and divorces. Some have lost God--others have found Him. But there are also those for whom it appears time has almost stood still. Kevin Somerville looks eerily identical in his 1984 and 2004 portraits, right down to his worn overalls, shaggy mane, and pale sunglasses. Only the graying of his lumberjack beard gives away the years that have passed.
Face after face, story after story, what quietly emerges is a living composite of a quintessential Midwestern community, told through the words and images of its residents--then and now. In a town where newcomers are recognized by the sound of an
unfamiliar engine idle, The Oxford Project invites you to discover the unexpected details, the heartbreak, and the reality of lives lived on the fringe of our urban culture.
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This remarkable book introduces us to four unforgettable Apache people, each of whom offers a different take on the significance of places in their culture. Apache conceptions of wisdom, manners and morals, and of their own history are inextricably intertwined with place, and by allowing us to overhear his conversations with Apaches on these subjects Basso expands our awareness of what place can mean to people.
Most of us use the term sense of place often and rather carelessly when we think of nature or home or literature. Our senses of place, however, come not only from our individual experiences but also from our cultures. Wisdom Sits in Places, the first sustained study of places and place-names by an anthropologist, explores place, places, and what they mean to a particular group of people, the Western Apache in Arizona. For more than thirty years, Keith Basso has been doing fieldwork among the Western Apache, and now he shares with us what he has learned of Apache place-names—where they come from and what they mean to Apaches.
"This is indeed a brilliant exposition of landscape and language in the world of the Western Apache. But it is more than that. Keith Basso gives us to understand something about the sacred and indivisible nature of words and place. And this is a universal equation, a balance in the universe. Place may be the first of all concepts; it may be the oldest of all words."—N. Scott Momaday
"In Wisdom Sits in Places Keith Basso lifts a veil on the most elemental poetry of human experience, which is the naming of the world. In so doing he invests his scholarship with that rarest of scholarly qualities: a sense of spiritual exploration. Through his clear eyes we glimpse the spirit of a remarkable people and their land, and when we look away, we see our own world afresh."—William deBuys
"A very exciting book—authoritative, fully informed, extremely thoughtful, and also engagingly written and a joy to read. Guiding us vividly among the landscapes and related story-tellings of the Western Apache, Basso explores in a highly readable way the role of language in the complex but compelling theme of a people's attachment to place. An important book by an eminent scholar."—Alvin M. Josephy, Jr.
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Attention, guys of America: It’s time to get off the couch, turn off the PlayStation, and set down your beer (just kidding—never set down your beer). Your days of freedom are numbered. Every guy owes it to himself to do something audacious, ostentatious, hilarious, or just plain fun before it’s too late. The time is now for the kinds of things that will be decidedly against the rules after you “settle down.” Die Happy is here to help you create the kind of stories you’ll be telling for the rest of your life. Stories about things like:
· How you spent your graduation cash: You start at Oktoberfest in Munich and wake up on a Thai beach (which is totally what your Aunt Edith had in mind). From Fantasy Fest to La Tomatina, here’s a breakdown of the wildest parties and the craziest worldwide destinations.
· The best places to, ahem, explore other cultures (or whatever): Corfu’s Pink Palace. Ireland’s pubs. Amsterdam’s Red Light District. Ibiza. Plus plenty of other fascinating events and locales, many of which also happen to serve booze.
· Getting a job (don’t worry, not a real job): Jet Ski guy. Cruise ship bartender. Casino dealer. Lifeguard. Roadie. Where and how to earn the money to subsidize your fun, usually in some exotic location full of very friendly women.
At once a “How To,” a “To Do,” and a “We Did,” Die Happy contains all the ideas, checklists, and insanely funny true stories you’ll need to help you have as much fun as possible—while you still can.
Product Description
America’s #1 bestselling travel series Written by more than 175 outspoken travelers around the globe, Frommer’s Complete Guides help travelers experience places the way locals do.
More annually updated guides than any other series
16-page color section and foldout map in all annual guides
Outspoken opinions, exact prices, and suggested itineraries
Dozens of detailed maps in an easy-to-read, two-color design
Explore the city with a real New Yorker, who gives you inside tips on hotels, restaurants, attractions, and nightlife.
- The best places to eat, from vintage delis to pizza joints to power palaces.
- Off-the-beaten-path experiences and undiscovered gems, plus new takes on top attractions, and the latest news on the newest hotels, restaurants and hotspots in the City that Never Sleeps.
The most frequently updated travel series on the market. Plus, online updates are available at Frommers.com so travelers don't have to worry about out-of-date information.
Opinionated write-ups. No bland descriptions and lukewarm recommendations. Our expert writers are passionate about their destinations--tell it like it is in an engaging and helpful way.
Exact prices listed for every establishment and activity--no other guides offer such detailed, candid reviews of hotels and restaurants. We include the very best, but also emphasize moderately priced choices for real people.
All Complete guides offer user-friendly features including star ratings and special icons to point readers to great finds, excellent values, insider tips, best bets for kids, special moments, and overrated experiences.
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At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.The River of Doubt—it is a black, uncharted tributary of the Amazon that snakes through one of the most treacherous jungles in the world. Indians armed with poison-tipped arrows haunt its shadows; piranhas glide through its waters; boulder-strewn rapids turn the river into a roiling cauldron.
After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Together with his son Kermit and Brazil’s most famous explorer, Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many at the time refused to believe it. In the process, he changed the map of the western hemisphere forever.
Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide.
The River of Doubt brings alive these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived.
From the soaring beauty of the Amazon rain forest to the darkest night of Theodore Roosevelt’s life, here is Candice Millard’s dazzling debut.
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Route 312 is the Chinese Route 66. It flows three thousand miles from east to west, passing through the factory towns of the coastal areas, through the rural heart of China, then up into the Gobi Desert, where it merges with the Old Silk Road. The highway witnesses every part of the social and economic revolution that is turning China upside down.
In this utterly surprising and deeply personal book, acclaimed National Public Radio reporter Rob Gifford, a fluent Mandarin speaker, takes the dramatic journey along Route 312 from its start in the boomtown of Shanghai to its end on the border with Kazakhstan. Gifford reveals the rich mosaic of modern Chinese life in all its contradictions, as he poses the crucial questions that all of us are asking about China: Will it really be the next global superpower? Is it as solid and as powerful as it looks from the outside? And who are the ordinary Chinese people, to whom the twenty-first century is supposed to belong?
Gifford is not alone on his journey. The largest migration in human history is taking place along highways such as Route 312, as tens of millions of people leave their homes in search of work. He sees signs of the booming urban economy everywhere, but he also uncovers many of the country’s frailties, and some of the deep-seated problems that could derail China’s rise.
The whole compelling adventure is told through the cast of colorful characters Gifford meets: garrulous talk-show hosts and ambitious yuppies, impoverished peasants and tragic prostitutes, cell-phone salesmen, AIDS patients, and Tibetan monks. He rides with members of a Shanghai jeep club, hitchhikes across the Gobi desert, and sings karaoke with migrant workers at truck stops along the way.
As he recounts his travels along Route 312, Rob Gifford gives a face to what has historically, for Westerners, been a faceless country and breathes life into a nation that is so often reduced to economic statistics. Finally, he sounds a warning that all is not well in the Chinese heartlands, that serious problems lie ahead, and that the future of the West has become inextricably linked with the fate of 1.3 billion Chinese people.
“Informative, delightful, and powerfully moving . . . Rob Gifford’s acute powers of observation, his sense of humor and adventure, and his determination to explore the wrenching dilemmas of China’s explosive development open readers’ eyes and reward their minds.”
–Robert A. Kapp, president, U.S.-China Business Council, 1994-2004
From the Hardcover edition.Read more!
