"We wouldn't be able to snap selfies today without the invention of photography over a century ago, but how did this marvelous technology begin? This fascinating book introduces readers to the birth of photography and other innovations from Europe. They'll encounter many innovations throughout history that are crucial to our daily life in modern times. Stunning full-color photographs let readers explore incredible inventions up close. Fun fact boxes...

A multi-volume survey of European history from the beginning of World War I in 1914 to the present, presented through alphabetically arranged entries that focus on the period's scientific, social and cultural history as well as the political, military and economic developments. For students and general readers.

Addresses heavily debated questions by offering different critical perspectives on major historical events, drawn from all time periods and from all parts of the globe. This volume covers twentieth-century European social and political movements. Provides students with an enhanced understanding of events only summarized in history texts, helps stimulate critical thinking and provides ideas for papers and assignments.

People who are anonymous and whose lives are usually ignored in traditional historical accounts are no less important than more prominent individuals in influencing the flow of events. These ordinary, but often heroic, people are the focus of this course. Each of the 48 lectures looks at history from a nontraditional perspective, that of the weak and marginalized-- the poor, sick, disabled, and elderly, as well as the refugees, slaves, women, children,...

From the late stages of the Agricultural Revolution to the doorstep of the Scientific Revolution, this course covers western history from roughly 3000 B.C. to A.D. 1600, when the "foundations" of the modern West come into view. Beginning in the ancient Near East, moving to Greece and Rome, the course explores the shape and impact of large ancient empires, including those of Persia and Alexander the Great. It then considers Western Europe as it expands...

"The hints of an impending environmental crisis appeared as early as the 1570s, as winters grew colder and crops diminished. By the turn of the seventeenth century, the temperature had plummeted so drastically that Mediterranean harbors were covered with ice, birds were dropping frozen out of the sky, and enterprising Londoners erected semipermanent frost fairs on a frozen Thames--with bustling kiosks, taverns, and even brothels. Chronicling the dramatic...