Presents a comprehensive history of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola from ancient times through to the twenty-first century, and discusses their individual importance throughout the centuries to culture and society.

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER • Far more than a history of the Silk Roads, this book is truly a revelatory new history of the world, promising to destabilize notions of where we come from and where we are headed next.
"A rare book that makes you question your assumptions about the world.” —The Wall Street Journal
From the Middle East and its political instability to China and its economic rise, the...

"Award-winning author Simon Barnes selects the one hundred animals who have had the greatest impact on humanity and on whom humanity has had the greatest effect. He shows how we have domesticated animals for food and for transport, and how animals powered agriculture, making civilisation possible. In short, he charts the close relationship between humans and animals, finding examples from around the planet that bring the story of life on earth vividly...

"This book tells engaging stories about the science of dendrochronology, the study of tree growth rings. From studying tree rings, scientists can learn about the past climate on earth, and sometimes tree-ring data provide evidence of natural events that affected human history. Connecting natural history (as read through tree rings) to human history is at the heart of this book"--

Economics created our world. As the process through which societies provide for their citizens, it has driven everything from trade and politics to warfare and diplomacy. There's not a single aspect of history that has not been influenced by economics. Discover a riveting, centuries-long story of power, glory, and ideology that reveals how economic ideas emerged, evolved, and thrived or died.

This course provides a survey of the expanse of human development and civilization across the globe. It begins with the invention of agriculture in the Neolithic era and ends with the urbanized, technologically sophisticated world of the 21st century.

With her golden lasso and her bullet-deflecting bracelets, Wonder Woman is a beloved icon of female strength in a world of male superheroes. But this close look at her history portrays a complicated heroine who is more than just a female Superman. The original Wonder Woman was ahead of her time, advocating female superiority and the benefits of matriarchy in the 1940s. At the same time, her creator filled the comics with titillating bondage imagery,...

"A sweeping history of Jerusalem and the pivotal role that archaeology has played--both in its invention as a modern holy city and as the match that lit a geopolitical fire beneath it. In 1863, a French politician and adventurer heard a rumor of biblical treasures beneath Jerusalem. At the time, Jerusalem was a venerable backwater, not the thriving religious center we think of today. Archaeology itself was in its infancy--more a pastime for treasure-hunting...

Ferrara takes a profound look at how-- and how many times-- human beings have managed to produce the miracle of written language around the world. Readers will examine the enigmas of undeciphered scripts; study the turtle shells and ox scapulae that bear the earliest Chinese inscriptions, and venture to the cutting edge as high-powered laser scanners bring tears to an engineer's eyes. Ferrara chronicles a journey filled with past flashes of brilliance,...