Is civilization teetering on the edge of a cliff? Or are we just climbing higher than ever? Most people who read the news would tell you that 2017 is one of the worst years in recent memory. We're facing a series of deeply troubling, even existential problems: fascism, terrorism, environmental collapse, racial and economic inequality, and more. Yet this narrative misses something important: by almost every meaningful measure, the modern world is better...

AMIDST THE WRECKAGE OF FINANCIAL RUIN, PEOPLE ARE LEFT PUZZLING ABOUT HOW IT HAPPENED. WHERE DID ALL THE PROBLEMS BEGIN? For the answer, Jack Cashill, a journalist as shrewd as he is seasoned, looks past the headlines and deep into pages of history and comes back with the goods. From Plato to payday loans, from Aristotle to AIG, from Shakespeare to the Salomon Brothers, from the Medici to Bernie Madoff-in Popes and Bankers Jack Cashill unfurls a fascinating...

From the masters of storytelling-meets-science and co-authors of Quackery, Patient Zero tells the long and fascinating history of disease outbreaks-how they start, how they spread, the science that lets us understand them, and how we race to destroy them before they destroy us. Written in the authors' lively and accessible style, chapters include page-turning medical stories about a particular disease or virus-smallpox, Bubonic plague, polio,...

From intimate relationships to global politics, Sarah Schulman observes a continuum: that inflated accusations of harm are used to avoid accountability. Illuminating the difference between Conflict and Abuse, Schulman directly addresses our contemporary culture of scapegoating. This deep, brave, and bold work reveals how punishment replaces personal and collective self-criticism, and shows why difference is so often used to justify cruelty and shunning....

NINGÚN OTRO PERIODO DE la historia colombiana del siglo XX muestra el volumen de realizaciones, en todos los campos correspondientes a la acción del Estado, como la llamada República Liberal (1930-1946). Fueron suficientes dieciséis años para dejar una huella profunda en la vida política, social y cultural del país: una reforma constitucional que le permitió a la Carta de 1886 adaptarse a los tiempos modernos, una radical reforma educativa...

Millions of us take package holidays for granted every year but did you ever wonder how it all began? Thanks to Vincent Cobb's 35 years’ experience working in the travel industry culminating in his position as Managing director of Thomson Holidays we can learn about all the tricks they had to get up to that formed the basis of the business at its outset. This fascinating book allows us to observe the industries steep learning curve from its infancy...

Step back in time to 1964, a year of cultural upheaval and political transformation. From the rise of the Civil Rights movement in the United States to the global phenomenon of Beatlemania, this was the year that gave us bold fashion, unforgettable music and social change that continues to shape society across the world today. While Britain's new Labour government promised the 'white heat of technology', on the world stage 1964 saw the escalation...

An account of the life of George Brown who gave his name to Edinburgh's George Square. He was an important, though little-known, player in the practical application of contemporary theories of social improvement to Scottish life in the eighteenth century. His genial, hospitable character and his career offer further insights into a period of remarkable transformation which has much relevance to our struggles for social cohesion and identity today....

La historiografía sobre los movimientos armados en Colombia se ha enfocado, principalmente, en analizar las guerrillas de la segunda mitad del siglo XX desde una perspectiva macro y ofreciendo explicaciones estructurales. En este trabajo, la reducción en la escala de observación, las entrevistas, la historia oral y el análisis de trayectorias biográficas son herramientas que permiten dar cuenta de una organización guerrillera compleja, diversa,...

Gin has been a drink of kings infused with crushed pearls and rose petals, and a drink of the poor flavored with turpentine and sulfuric acid. Born in alchemists' stills and monastery kitchens, its earliest incarnations were juniper flavored medicines used to prevent plague, ease the pains of childbirth, even to treat a lack of courage. In The Book of Gin, Richard Barnett traces the life of this beguiling spirit, once believed to cause a "new kind...