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Einstein in time and space: A life in 99 particles
Par Samuel Graydon. 2023
Walter Isaacson's Einstein meets Craig Brown's 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret , in this innovative biography of the famous physicist…
told in ninety-nine dazzling vignettes. Most of us would agree that Albert Einstein's name is synonymous with "genius" and that his likeness is often used as a shorthand for all scientists, appearing everywhere from cartoons to textbooks. He has become more myth than man. That being the case, how best to capture his essence? In Einstein in Time and Space , talented young science journalist Samuel Graydon answers that question with an illuminating mosaic—99 intriguingly different particles that cumulatively reveal Einstein's contradictory and multitudinous nature. Glimpsed among these shards: a slacker who failed every subject but math, a job seeker who couldn't get hired, a lothario who courted many women, and a charmer who was the life of the party. As brilliant as he was inconsistent, Einstein was simultaneously an avid supporter of the NAACP and the fight for civil rights and someone capable of great prejudice. He was loved by many, known by few, and inspirational to a generation of young physicists. Graydon reveals every corner of Einstein's world: the false reporting that rocketed Einstein to fame nearly overnight, his effect on people he met merely in passing, even the remarkable posthumous journey of the famed physicist's brain. Entertaining, comforting, bolstering, and shocking, Einstein in Time and Space is the unique story of a man who redefined how we view our universe and our place within itRussia transformed: breakthrough to hope : Moscow, August 1991
Par James Billington. 1992
The librarian of Congress, a Soviet scholar and firsthand witness to the events of August 1991, chronicles his personal observations…
of the failed coup. Billington describes how the people protected their democratically elected government and came together to replace totalitarian rule with "politics of hope."Boys from different generations of the same family reveal what it is like to grow up in Europe in the…
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Michael, apprenticed to a merchant at fourteen, asserts his rights as he forges his career. Homesick Friederich is coached by his mother about girls and spending money. Stephan Carl pays for his adventuresome spiritFunny business: an outsider's year in Japan
Par Gary Katzenstein. 1989
Katzenstein, chosen as one of fifteen Americans to be Luce Scholars, spent a year studying in Japan. With degrees in…
business and computer science, he felt well equipped to work at Sony. However, with no first-hand knowledge of Asia, he found a world so totally different from America that he made a cross-cultural mess of things. Sony gave up on him, but with ingenuity he found another job in Japan1312 raisons d'abolir la police (Instinct de liberté #38)
Par Gwenola Ricordeau. 2023
D'où vient l'idée d'abolir la police et que recouvre-t-elle au juste? Si la police ne nous protège pas, à quoi…
sert-elle? Comment dépasser la simple critique de la police pour enfin en finir avec elle?I hope
Par Raisa Gorbacheva. 1991
In her introduction, the wife of Michail Gorbachev states that her book is not an autobiography but rather a story…
about herself, past and present, and her reactions to historical events. In a series of five interviews held with Georgi Pryakhin, and translated by David Floyd, Raisa Gorbachev describes the role she came to play as the Soviet Union's first ladyThe August coup: the truth and the lessons
Par Mikhail Gorbachev. 1991
The Soviet Union's first democratically elected president describes the three-day coup d'etat that occurred in August of 1991. Gorbachev defends…
his actions during his confrontation with the plotters, addresses rumors concerning the incident, and discusses events that occurred immediately after the coup, such as the withdrawal of the Baltic States from the Union. He outlines his hopes for the USSRKhubilai Khan: his life and times
Par Morris Rossabi. 1987
Portrait of the legendary Mongol drawn from Chinese, Korean, Persian, Russian, Armenian, and Syrian sources. The author focuses on Khan's…
military exploits and political maneuverings and suggests that the leader's mother and his favorite wife played essential roles in his rise to power. Without their guidance, Rossabi states, the Khan descended to drunkenness and debaucheryThis entertaining as well as informative collection provides a continuous history of English monarchy from Celtic times to the reign…
of Elizabeth II. Longford gathered these anecdotes from information written by victims, perpetrators, eye-witnesses, biographers, historians, and the monarchs themselvesThe pyramids: an enigma solved
Par Joseph Davidovits. 1988
For centuries people have presumed the pyramids were built by slaves working for years to move large blocks of stone…
into place. But was that possible given the lack of tools for cutting blocks and the high level of skill required for fitting them together? The authors suggest that a desert chemical called natron was used to cast hard stones in much the way we now use concreteThe Spanish Armada
Par Colin Martin. 1988
A revisionist history of the defeat of Philip II's grand Spanish fleet in 1588. Utilizing recent archaeological findings and previously…
unstudied documents found in the archives of Spain and the Netherlands, the authors explain why a supposedly invincible fleet, believed by the Spaniards to be guided by God's hand, suffered so disastrous a defeat off the British coastThe Queen & her court: a guide to the British monarchy today
Par Jerrold Packard. 1981
A close look at the royal family, their lives, personalities, associates, and residences. Also explains various titles and ranks and…
what they signify, how to address members of the nobility, and customs surrounding the royal family and the courtThe Japanese today: change and continuity
Par Edwin Reischauer. 1981
A well-known scholar on Japan presents an overview of the history and culture of the country and an analysis of…
its contemporary development and society. Included are sections on Japan's government and politics, economic success, and relations with the rest of the worldThe secret that exploded
Par Howard Morland. 1981
The author tells the true story of his investigation of the nuclear weapons industry, the inner workings of the H-bomb,…
and the U.S. government's unsuccessful attempt to suppress his discoveries. Morland, a former Air Force pilot, is devoutly anti-nuclear and very forthright about his positionInvitation to a banquet: The story of chinese food
Par Fuchsia Dunlop. 2023
The world's most sophisticated gastronomic culture, brilliantly presented through a banquet of thirty Chinese dishes. Chinese was the earliest truly…
global cuisine. When the first Chinese laborers began to settle abroad, restaurants appeared in their wake. Yet Chinese has the curious distinction of being both one of the world's best-loved culinary traditions and one of the least understood. For more than a century, the overwhelming dominance of a simplified form of Cantonese cooking ensured that few foreigners experienced anything of its richness and sophistication-but today that is beginning to change. In Invitation to a Banquet, award-winning cook and writer Fuchsia Dunlop explores the history, philosophy, and techniques of Chinese culinary culture. In each chapter, she examines a classic dish, from mapo tofu to Dongpo pork, knife-scraped noodles to braised pomelo pith, to reveal a distinctive aspect of Chinese gastronomy, whether it's the importance of the soybean, the lure of exotic ingredients, or the history of Buddhist vegetarian cuisine. Meeting food producers, chefs, gourmets, and home cooks as she tastes her way across the country, Fuchsia invites listeners to join her on an unforgettable journey into Chinese food as it is cooked, eaten, and considered in its homeland"Absolutely gripping… a perfectly splendid read—I highly, highly recommend it" — Douglas Preston, author of the #1 New York Times…
bestseller The Lost City of the Monkey God A sixty-year saga of frostbite and fake news that follows the no-holds-barred battle between two legendary explorers to reach the North Pole, and the newspapers which stopped at nothing to get–and sell–the story. In the fall of 1909, a pair of bitter contests captured the world’s attention. The American explorers Robert Peary and Frederick Cook both claimed to have discovered the North Pole, sparking a vicious feud that was unprecedented in international scientific and geographic circles. At the same time, the rivalry between two powerful New York City newspapers—the storied Herald and the ascendant Times —fanned the flames of the so-called polar controversy, as each paper financially and reputationally committed itself to an opposing explorer and fought desperately to defend him. The Herald was owned and edited by James Gordon Bennett, Jr., an eccentric playboy whose nose for news was matched only by his appetite for debauchery and champagne. The Times was published by Adolph Ochs, son of Jewish immigrants, who’d improbably rescued the paper from extinction and turned it into an emerging powerhouse. The battle between Cook and Peary would have enormous consequences for both newspapers, and help to determine the future of corporate media. BATTLE OF INK AND ICE presents a frank portrayal of Arctic explorers, brave men who both inspired and deceived the public. It also sketches a vivid portrait of the newspapers that funded, promoted, narrated, and often distorted their exploits. It recounts a sixty-year saga of frostbite and fake news, one that culminates with an unjustly overlooked chapter in the origin story of the modern New York Times. By turns tragic and absurd, BATTLE OF INK AND ICE brims with contemporary relevance, touching as it does on themes of class, celebrity, the ever-quickening news cycle, and the benefits and pitfalls of an increasingly interconnected world. Above all, perhaps, its cast of characters testifies—colorfully and compellingly—to the ongoing role of personality and publicity in American cultural life as the Gilded Age gave way to the twentieth century—the American centuryAnansi's gold: The man who looted the west, outfoxed washington, and swindled the world
Par Yepoka Yeebo. 2023
New Yorker Best Book of the Year "A fascinating story brilliantly told."— The Boston Globe * "A non-fiction masterpiece." —…
Philadelphia Inquirer The astounding, never-before-told story of how an audacious Ghanaian con artist pulled off one of the 20th century's longest-running and most spectacular frauds. When Ghana won its independence from Britain in 1957, it instantly became a target for home-grown opportunists and rapacious Western interests determined to snatch any assets that colonialism hadn't already stripped. A CIA-funded military junta ousted the new nation's inspiring president, Kwame Nkrumah, then falsely accused him of hiding the country's gold overseas. Into this big lie stepped one of history's most charismatic scammers, a con man to rival the trickster god Anansi. Born into poverty in Ghana and trained in the United States, John Ackah Blay-Miezah declared himself custodian of an alleged Nkrumah trust fund worth billions. You, too, could claim a piece—if only you would "invest" in Blay-Miezah's fictitious efforts to release the equally fictitious fund. Over the 1970s and '80s, he and his accomplices—including Ghanaian state officials and Nixon's former attorney general—scammed hundreds of millions of dollars out of thousands of believers. Blay-Miezah lived in luxury, deceiving Philadelphia lawyers, London financiers, and Seoul businessmen alike, all while eluding his FBI pursuers. American prosecutors called his scam "one of the most fascinating—and lucrative—in modern history." In Anansi's Gold , Yepoka Yeebo chases Blay-Miezah's ever-wilder trail and discovers, at long last, what really happened to Ghana's missing wealth. She unfolds a riveting account of Cold War entanglements, international finance, and postcolonial betrayal, revealing how what we call "history" writes itself into being, one lie at a timeI am still with you: A reckoning with silence, inheritance, and history
Par Emmanuel Iduma. 2023
"Powerful and transcendent" — Chigozie Obioma "Both epic and intimate" —Margo Jefferson A deeply moving, lyrical journey through the author's…
homeland of Nigeria, in search of the truth about his disappeared uncle and the history of a war that shaped him, his family, and a nation In inimitable, rhythmic prose, the author and winner of the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize Emmanuel Iduma tells the story of his return to Nigeria, where he grew up, after years of living in New York. He traveled home with an elusive mission: to learn the fate of his uncle Emmanuel, his namesake, who disappeared in the Nigerian Civil War in the late 1960s. A conflict that left so many families broken, the war remains at the margins of the history books, almost taboo to discuss. To find answers, Iduma stopped in city after city throughout the former Biafra region, reconnecting with relatives dear and distant to probe their memories, prowling university libraries to furtively photocopy illicit books, and visiting half-abandoned monuments along the highway. Perhaps, he realized, if he could understand how his father grieved the loss of a brother in the war, he might learn how to grieve his late father in turn. His is also the story of countless families across the country and across the world who will never have answers or proper funerals for their loved ones. It's a story about the birth of an artist, about writing itself as an act both healing and political, even dangerous. And it's a story about family history and legacy, and all the questions the dead leave unanswered. How much of the author's identity is wrapped up in this inheritance? And what does it mean to return home, when the people who define it are gone? Equal parts memoir, national history, and political reckoning, I Am Still With You is a profoundly personal story of collective loss and making peace with the unknowableThe life and times of High Times ' enigmatic founder Thomas King Forçade, an underground newspaper editor and marijuana kingpin…
who—between police raids, smuggling runs, and outrageous stunts—battled both the US government and fellow radicals. At the end of the 1960s, the mysterious Tom Forçade suddenly appeared, insinuating himself into the top echelons of countercultural politics and assuming control of the Underground Press Syndicate, a coalition of newspapers across the country. Weathering government surveillance and harassment, he embarked on a landmark court battle to obtain White House press credentials. But his audacious exploits—pieing Congressional panelists, stealing presidential portraits, and picking fights with other activists—led to accusations that he was an agent provocateur. As the era of protest faded and the dark shadows of Watergate spread, Forçade hoped that marijuana could be the path to cultural and economic revolution. Bankrolled by drug-dealing profits, High Times would be the Playboy of pot, dragging a once-taboo subject into the mainstream. The magazine was a travelogue of globe-trotting adventure, a wellspring of news about "the business," and an overnight success. But High Times soon threatened to become nothing more than the "hip capitalism" Forçade had railed against for so long, and he felt his enemies closing in. Assembled from exclusive interviews, archived correspondences, and declassified documents, Agents of Chaos is a tale of attacks on journalism, disinformation campaigns, governmental secrecy, corporatism, and political factionalism. Its triumphs and tragedies mirror the cultural transformations of 1970s America, wrought by forces that continue to clash in the spaces between activism and powerThe core of an onion: Peeling the rarest common food-featuring more than 100 historical recipes
Par Mark Kurlansky. 2023
From the New York Times- bestselling author of Cod and Salt , a delectable look at the cultural, historical, and…
gastronomical layers of one of the world's most beloved culinary staples — featuring recipes from around the world. As Julia Child once said, "It is hard to imagine a civilization without onions." Historically, she's been right—and not just in the kitchen. Flourishing in just about every climate and culture around the world, onions have provided the essential basis not only for sautés, stews, and sauces, but for medicines, metaphors, and folklore. Now they're Kurlansky's most flavorful infatuation yet as he sets out to explore how and why the crop reigns from Italy to India and everywhere in between. Kurlansky begins with the science and history of the only sulfuric acid–spewing plant, then digs through its twenty varieties and the cultures built around them. Entering the kitchen, Kurlansky celebrates the raw, roasted, creamed, marinated, and pickled. Including a recipe section featuring more than one hundred dishes from around the world, The Core of an Onion shares the secrets to celebrated Parisian chef Alain Senderens's onion soup eaten to cure late-night drunkenness; Hemingway's raw onion and peanut butter sandwich; and the Gibson, a debonair gin martini garnished with a pickled onion. Just as the scent of sautéed onions will lure anyone to the kitchen, The Core of an Onion is sure to draw readers into their savory stories at first taste