Showing results by author "Ian Morris" in All Categories

Sometime around 1750, English entrepreneurs unleashed the astounding energies of steam and coal, and the world was forever changed. The emergence of factories, railroads, and gunboats propelled the West’s rise to power in the nineteenth century, and the development of computers and nuclear weapons in the 20th century secured its global supremacy.

When Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016, the 48 percent who wanted to stay and the 52 percent who wanted to go each accused the other of stupidity, fraud, and treason. In reality, the Brexit debate merely reran a script written ten thousand years earlier. Since 1900, however, thanks to rapid globalization, Britain has been overshadowed by American, European, and—increasingly—Chinese actors. Geography Is Destiny shows that the great question for the coming century is not what to do about Brussels; it's what to do about Beijing.

Surprising as it sounds, war has made humanity safer and richer. In War! What Is It Good For?, the renowned historian and archaeologist Ian Morris tells the gruesome, gripping story of 15,000 years of war, going beyond the battles and brutality to reveal what war has really done to and for the world. War, and war alone, has created bigger, more complex societies, ruled by governments that have stamped out internal violence.

In 1959, Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, was commissioned by the Sunday Times to explore 14 of the world’s most exotic cities. Fleming saw it all with a thriller writer’s eye. From Hong Kong to Honolulu, New York to Naples, he left the bright main streets for the back alleys. The result is a series of vivid snapshots of a mysterious, vanished world.

We are again transported to London in the '90s, where Peter Ritchie’s list of suspects for the murder of prostitute Bobby Black is getting shorter and shorter. Due to his involvement with the case, Ritchie now finds himself so entrenched in a dark world of blackmail, police corruption, and cover-ups, he’s forced to put everything on the line, including those who are closest to him, in order to uncover the truth and finally set himself free.

Peter Ritchie is just an ordinary solicitor with an ordinary (if slightly shambolic) life, until the day his client, a male prostitute called Bobby Black, dies suddenly when a kinky trick goes wrong. Bobby has been brutally murdered, and someone had tried to cover it up. But who, and why? Peter cannot rest until he knows the truth.

Two brothers-in-law, Ian Morris and Simon Sansbury from Portsmouth (UK) talk about local and national politics without the point scoring.

Philipp Hochmair spielt auf den unterschiedlichsten Klaviaturen. Und das (fast) im wörtlichen Sinne: Schließlich hat er sich mit seiner Band "Die Elektrohand Gottes" nicht nur mit "Jedermann Reloaded" einen Namen gemacht, sondern auch Goethe (mit "Werther") oder Schiller ("Schiller Balladen Rave") musikalisch-theatralisch in Szene gesetzt und so nicht zuletzt ein jüngeres Publikum für eine entstaubte Klassiker-Rezeption begeistert.