Early Philosophy

With this audiobook, we want to let our listeners know how vibrant and lively (as well as deadly) life in Britain was during the perhaps wrongly-titled “Dark Ages”. With the end of the Roman Empire, the local Britons were left to their devices, and it would be several people groups from a peninsula in Central Europe that would come to dominate the island, making sure their presence was known through a series of kingdoms, battles, clashes, victories, and defeats.

‘In the beginning was the Word,’ says the Gospel of John. This sentence – and the words of all four gospels – is central to the teachings of the Christian church and has shaped Western art, literature and language, and the Western mind. Yet in the years after the death of Christ there was not merely one word, nor any consensus as to who Jesus was or why he had mattered.

Storms, flooding, earthquakes, epidemics, tornadoes, fire. You hope it never happens, but you know you need to be ready. Preschool Preparedness for an Emergency, the second book in the Preparing for the Unexpected Series, will train you for a worst-case scenario. While this may seem like a daunting task, it’s easier when you break it down.

In 1910, Mary Acworth Evershed (1867-1949) sat on a hill in southern India staring at the moon as she grappled with apparent mistakes in Dante's Divine Comedy. Was Dante's astronomy unintelligible? Or was he, for a man of his time and place, as insightful as one could be about the sky? As the 20th century began, women who wished to become professional astronomers faced difficult cultural barriers, but Evershed joined the British Astronomical Association and, from an Indian observatory, became an experienced observer of sunspots, solar eclipses, and variable stars.

Since opening her famed Parisian conservatory over three decades ago, Joan Koenig has led a global movement to improve children’s lives and minds with the transformative power of music. With a curriculum and philosophy drawn from cutting-edge science, L’Ecole Koenig has educated and empowered even the youngest students. Koenig shares stories from her classrooms, along with tips about how to use the latest research during these critical years, when children are most sensitive to musical exposure—and most receptive to its benefits.

Have you ever wondered how your early life shaped you? From beginning to say simple words like 'mama' and learning how to walk around unaided, to the first day of school and forming new friendships, everyone has been a child. The roots of our adult selves go right back to our first experiences. How we think, act and interact is influenced by our early years, yet most people don't know the key findings from the juiciest child development studies that can give us insight into our adult selves.

From ambitious scientists rising above the clouds to analyse the air to war generals floating across enemy lines, Richard Holmes takes to the air in this heart-lifting history of pioneer balloonists. Falling Upwards asks why they risked their lives and how their flights revealed the secrets of our planet. The stories range from early ballooning rivals to the long-distance voyages of American entrepreneurs; from the legendary balloon escape from the Prussian siege of Paris to dauntless James Glaisher, who, in the 1860s, flew seven miles above the earth - without oxygen.