World Civilizations

"Know thyself" - this fundamental imperative appeared for the first time in ancient Greece. For the Greeks, self-knowledge and identity were the basics of their civilization and their sources were to be found in where one was born and into which social group. These determined who you were and what your duties were. In this book the independent scholar Ingrid Rossellini surveys the major ideas that, from Greek and Roman antiquity through the Christian medieval era up to the dawn of modernity in the Renaissance, have guided the Western project of self-knowledge.

Here's a sly, dry, hilarious collection of essays, his first in more than 10 years, from the writer who, according to The New York Times Book Review, is "in serious contention for the title of America's most cherished humorist". This time Blount focuses on his own dueling loyalties across the great American divide, North vs. South.

Ancient Iran: Cosmology, Mythology, History presents Iran's pre-Islamic history within the context of both its complex cosmology and rich mythology. The audiobook uses the concept of farr to show how authority, finding guidance in the cosmic realm, organized the lives of Iran's hero-saints in the mythic realm. It also discusses how historical monarchs organized their hierarchical societies according to the dictates of Ahura Mazda.

Grandes temas a través de la historia y el cine es un libro dirigido a todo aquel interesado en conocer en profundidad algunos de los problemas más relevantes de nuestra historia pasada y presente. Analizado con gran rigor histórico y redactado de forma didáctica y amena, la autora aborda cuestiones claves como los nacionalismos, las represiones políticas, el enfrentamiento entre la ciencia y la fe, las grandes plagas de la historia o las minorías religiosas y étnicas. Cada uno de estos temas se entreteje en torno a una serie de películas seleccionadas.

The indigenous Africans known as pygmies have interested outsiders for thousands of years. In the 2200s BC, the Egyptian pharaoh Pepi II referred to one as a "dancing dwarf of the god from the land of spirits", and the Ancient Greeks were also familiar with them. Today, of course, anthropologists know a lot more about the pygmies, a collective of indigenous groups in Africa who are still defined by the fact that they have an average height of less than five feet tall.

Embark on a Captivating Journey through the Epochs of Human History.

According to history books, the Roman Empire ended in 476 CE with the fall of Rome. But if you asked most people alive at that time, they would have pointed you to what they considered the continuation of the Roman Empire - the civilization we now call the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines, however, were more than just a remnant of Roman glory. At its geographical peak, the Byzantine Empire stretched out across the Mediterranean world.

This $57 billion dollar industry is swallowing peoples worldwide as its revenues exceed that of professional football, baseball, and basketball combined. Statistics reveal that upwards of 40 million American adults regularly visit over 372 million published pornographic web pages. How did we get here?

Descubra la fascinante historia de los godos (visigodos, ostrogodos, greutungos y baltos), desde sus orígenes en el mundo báltico hasta la derrota final frente a los musulmanes en el extremo sur de la península ibérica. Los godos protagonizaron medio milenio de la historia de Europa que descubrirás que en este audiolibro.

It is difficult to realize that the Earth on which Alexander the Great was born was the same in its main outlines as the Earth on which we stand today, and at the same time to realize how very different from our present knowledge were men's ideas then of its area. Even modern writers picture Alexander as primitive in his notions, and it will be interesting to remember, when we find him anxious to press ever farther east and south, that the philosophers of his time, especially his teacher Aristotle, had just announced new arguments to prove that the Earth was spherical in form.

Hape Kerkeling ist wieder unterwegs: Durch die Geschichte der Menschheit von den Anfängen bis heute...

Balıkçı'nın kitaplaşmamış yazılarından derlenen bu yapıt, bir yandan yurdumuzun tarih, sanat ve uygarlığını sergilerken, öte yandan Anadolu birikiminin nesnel temellerine ışık tutuyor. Halikarnas Balıkçısı'nın birbirinden ilginç düşünce yazılarını bir araya getiren Merhaba Anadolu'dan tadımlık: “Anadolu'da açılan özel bankaların garip gelenekleri vardı. Bankalar şairlere bankalarıyla ilgili şiirler sipariş ederlerdi. Bu şiirler bankaların kapılarına asılırdı. Bu yolla bankaların sanatçılara da yardımları dokunurdu. Şimdi de bankaların sanatçılara yardımları olmuyor değil…”

In the tradition of Guns, Germs, and Steel, Enlightenment Now, and Sapiens, Michael Magoon shows us that by learning from the past, we can let go of our negative attitudes about the present, and change our world for the better. For virtually all of history, humanity was trapped in poverty by geographical constraints. Fortunately for us, a few societies invented the five keys to progress (productive agriculture, cities, decentralization of power, export industries, and fossil fuels), laying the foundations for our current progress.

La historia universal es sin duda el mejor anecdotario que existe. El devenir de la humanidad es un continuo de despropósitos, coincidencias, exageraciones, curiosidades y difamaciones. Nieves Concostrina - que ya nos deleitó con las "andanzas" más divertidas de los muertos en Polvo eres - nos conduce con mucho humor en un sorprendente viaje por algunos de los hechos más curiosos que han moldeado nuestra historia.

La trepidante historia de la humanidad, desde las primeras tribus a las megalópolis actuales, contada esta vez desde el punto de vista de los gobernados, no de los gobernantes. Unánimemente se ha tratado la historia universal atendiendo a dos factores que desvirtúan un poco la perspectiva global del devenir de la humanidad: la perspectiva de los gobernantes y la perspectiva de Europa.

From one of our most acclaimed historians comes an account of human solidarity throughout the ages, provocatively arguing against the received wisdom that history is best understood as a chronicle of groups in conflict. Investigating the six most pervasive categories of human difference - religion, nation, class, gender, race, and civilization - Cannadine asks how determinative each of them has really been over the course of history.

La presentación completa de los persas, un pueblo casi desconocido que, no obstante, igualó y superó, en algunos aspectos, a Grecia y a Roma.La influencia de los persas en la historia es enorme, no sólo en la historia de Asia o del Oriente Próximo, sino en la historia universal ya que es una de las fuentes indiscutibles de la civilización. Es curioso, por ello, la escasez de estudios sobre la totalidad de la historia de este pueblo.

Today, almost every nation on Earth is teetering on the brink of a societal meltdown as it finds itself in the midst of a sociopolitical upheaval, the like of which has not hitherto been witnessed in our lifetime. Yet, hardly anyone realizes that, like a winter that returns every year, such a concerted turmoil across the globe is also periodic due to what I have dubbed the "oqual cycle".

Flavia, Jonathan, Lupus, and Nubia - friends and detectives - sail to the Bay of Naples to spend the summer with Flavia's uncle, who lives near Pompeii. There they uncover a riddle that may lead them to a great treasure. Meanwhile, tremors shake the ground, animals behave strangely, and people dream of impending doom. One of the worst natural disasters of all time is about to happen: the eruption of Mount Vesuvius!

O istorie ingenioasa si antrenanta a universului, Pamintului, vietii si omului, o poveste care merge de la Big Bang, cind nu eram nimic, pina la aparitia civilizatiei si la noi, cei de astazi. Bill Bryson pleaca de la propria experienta de elev care, intrigat de o imagine a Pamintului in sectiune, citeste manualul de stiinte ca sa gaseasca aici un amestec de lucruri de neinteles – mai putin raspunsurile la ceea ce ii stirnise curiozitatea, inclusiv cum si de unde stim toate aceste lucruri.