Learning World History

Welcome to Russia! Look at the fairy-tale castles of Moscow. Search forests for endangered Siberian tigers. Learn about the people, places, and traditions of the world's largest country.

The narrative of the Korean War in the West, and particularly in the United States, tells the tale of a conflict between two global superpowers and competing ideologies in a far-flung corner of the globe. The reality is that the wheels of motion that drove the country to war in 1950 began turning long before American boots set foot on Korean soil. The heart of the conflict was a civil war between a population arbitrarily divided by colonization and the global geopolitics at the end of the Second World War.

In the summer of 1940, Adolf Hitler and his henchman, Luftwaffe Commander-in-Chief Hermann Göring, began their attempt to clear the skies over England to invade Great Britain. Despite very long odds, the Royal Air Force stood its ground, prevented the German invasion, and helped turn the tide of WWII.

Who would have thought that from its humble beginnings as a small group of followers of a Jewish man called Jesus that Christianity would become, less than 2,000 years later, the most widespread religion on Earth? Christianity's birth and development is a vast, complex story filled with setbacks and contradictions but also with triumphs.

On June 23, 2018, 12 members of the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach were exploring the Tham Luang cave complex in northern Thailand when disaster struck. A rainy season downpour flooded the tunnels, trapping them as they took shelter on a shelf of the dark cave. Eight days of searching yielded no signs of life, but on July 2, they were discovered by two British divers. This is the incredible true story of their inspiring rescue. Award-winning author Marc Aronson brings us the backstory behind how this astounding rescue took place.

Today, globalism has a bad reputation. 'Citizens of the world' are depicted as recklessly uninterested in how international economic forces can affect local communities. Meanwhile, nationalists are often derided as racists and bigots. But what if the two were not so far apart? What could globalists learn from the powerful sense of belonging that nationalism has created? Faced with the injustices of the world's economic and political system, what should a responsible globalist do?

In its long history, the English language has had many lawmakers - those who have tried to regulate or otherwise organize the way we speak. The Lexicographer's Dilemma poses a pair of questions: What does proper English mean? And who gets to say what's right? Our ideas of correct or proper English have a history, and today's debates over the state of the language - whether about Ebonics in schools, the unique use of language in a South Park episode, or split infinitives in the Times - make sense only in historical context.

Regardless of how much has been written about it, new information continues to be discovered about the thousands of events that make up the six years that shaped the world we live in today.

In the early sixties, Calvin Trillin got his start as a journalist covering the Civil Rights Movement in the South. Over the next five decades of reporting, he often returned to scenes of racial tension. Now, for the first time, the best of Trillin’s pieces on race in America have been collected in one volume.

Welcome, curious reader! This book is a collection of explorations into some of life's most fascinating questions - questions that have tickled my brain and sparked my imagination. Over the course of 30 chapters, we'll embark on a journey through a diverse landscape of knowledge, from the quirks of human biology to the mysteries of the cosmos. As I pondered life's big questions, I found myself wondering about everything from the subtle effects of hot and cold water on our bodies to the profound influence of historical figures from around the globe. I delved into the intricacies of ...

As a child he dreamt of changing South Africa; as a man he changed the world. Nelson Mandela spent his life battling apartheid and championing a peaceful revolution. He spent 27 years in prison and emerged as the inspiring leader of the new South Africa. He became the country’s first Black president and went on to live his dream of change.

Jonathan Starr is not your traditional do-gooder, and in 2009, when he decided to found Abaarso, a secondary school in Somaliland, the choice seemed crazy to even his closest friends. Why, they wondered, would he turn down a life of relative luxury to relocate to an armed compound in a breakaway region of the world's number one failed state? To achieve his mission, Starr would have to overcome profound cultural differences, broken promises, and threats to his safety and that of his staff.

Ever since it was established in 1789, the United States Supreme Court has had a major impact on the lives of all Americans. Some of its landmark decisions have helped end segregation, protected a person’s privacy, and allowed people to marry whomever they love.

Thomas B. Allen’s expertise in military history and strategy is combined with Roger MacBride Allen’s knowledge of technology to reveal a lesser-known yet fascinating side of the 16th president of the United States. Their authoritative narrative reveals Lincoln as our nation’s first hands-on commander in chief, whose appreciation for the power of technology plays a critical role in the North’s Civil War victory over the less-developed South.

To imagine - to see that which is not there - is the startling ability that has fuelled human development and innovation through the centuries. As a species we stand alone in our remarkable capacity to refashion the world after the pictures in our minds. Traversing the realms of science, politics, religion, culture, philosophy and history, Felipe Fernández-Armesto reveals the thrilling and disquieting tales of our imaginative leaps - from the first Homo sapiens to the present day.

Welcome to a journey of discovery and intellectual exploration! I'm thrilled to share with you this collection of 30 essays that delve into a wide array of fascinating topics. As an author with an insatiable curiosity about the world around us, I set out on a mission to create a book that would not only satisfy my own quest for knowledge but also ignite the spark of wonder in others. In crafting this book, I embraced the cutting-edge technology of our time. I utilized advanced AI chatbots and assistants to scour the vast expanse of the internet, helping me uncover intriguing facts, studies,...

Counsels and Maxims is a classic work by noted German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. His work has influenced some of the modern world's greatest thinkers, including Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, and Erwin Schrödinger. This piece was originally translated by Thomas Bailey Saunders.

A perfect gift to surprise and delight anyone! Did you know that in some tribal communities, temple monkeys steal tourists’ glasses and valuables, then return them only if “bribed” with food? Have you ever wondered what it would be like to wear a Victorian-era hat with a built-in water tank designed to mist your face on the hottest days? Can you imagine bridges made from living roots that grow stronger over time instead of weaker, as if nature itself were an ingenious engineer? Did you know that the platypus—part mammal, part duck-billed oddity with a venomous spur—actually lays ...

Precursores de los aztecas (lo que en sí mismo es asombroso), la civilización precolombina de los toltecas despertó tanto respeto y admiración en sus sucesores, en especial por su dominio de la artesanía y su ferocidad en la guerra, que los aztecas afirmaban ser sus descendientes. ¿Por qué este imperio llegó a ser considerado la cúspide de la cultura, la sofisticación y la civilización? ¿Cómo y por qué los superaron los aztecas?

The British presence in India lasted for nearly 350 years, but only the last 90 were under the direct rule of the British government. To some, 90 years might seem a short period to write a history book about. However, the time of the British Raj was very influential. It brought change to Indian politics, education, society, infrastructure, industry, and other aspects of Indian life. But while the British Empire brought modernization to its colonies, that modernization came with a price.