Popular History

In a long line of beloved books, Loud Pictures stands as Marc Spitz’s final project. This big, broad, noisy, and expansive exploration of art marries the two things Marc loved most—movies and rock and roll. In many ways, films can become imprinted on our brains because of their soundtracks.

La historia de Taiwán es asombrosa. Políticamente, Taiwán tenía una cultura de señores de la guerra. Los portugueses, al pasar por la isla a mediados de la década de 1540, llamaron a la isla "Ilha Formosa", que significa "Isla Hermosa". Luego, los holandeses llegaron en la década de 1620, en busca de una base de operaciones para la Compañía holandesa de las Indias Orientales.

How did the dollar come to play such a leading role in Argentina's national existence? How and why did this global currency become a local currency on the other end of the Western hemisphere? Through the reconstruction of the social and cultural history of the US dollar in Argentina, Luzzi and Wilkis provide original insight into this sidebar of the dollar's history, showing how it became a "local" currency even outside its country of origin.

The sublime evokes our awe, our terror, and our wonder. Applied first in ancient Greece to the heights of literary expression, in the 18th century the sublime was extended to nature and to the sciences, enterprises that viewed the natural world as a manifestation of God's goodness, power, and wisdom. In The Scientific Sublime, Alan Gross reveals the modern-day sublime in popular science. He tells how the great popular scientists of our time evoke the sublime in response to fundamental questions: How did the universe begin? How did life? How did language?

All societies, in their very different ways, are orderly. The very term 'society' implies the existence of a degree of organisation and predictability to human life. Orderliness, however, is a matter of degree. It is neither total, nor totally absent. In recent times, however, such concerns have largely given way to a greater preoccupation with disorderliness: with significant and disruptive social change; with rising crime and anti-social behaviour; and with a variety of other social problems. But what has really been happening?

The world's flora and fauna have evolved to operate in the natural cycle of day and night. But constant illumination has made light pollution a major issue. From space, our planet glows brightly, 24/7. By extending our day, we have forced out the inhabitants of the night and disrupted the circadian rhythms necessary to sustain all living things. Our cities' streetlamps and neon signs are altering entire ecosystems. As a devoted friend of the night, Johan Eklöf encourages us to appreciate natural darkness, its creatures and its unique benefits.

Whether you hate him or just feel disgusted with him, the fact is that Ted Bundy remains one of the most discussed serial killers even 27 years after his execution. Even now, anything even remotely connected to Bundy makes headlines. Bundy may have been charged for the murders of 36 women, but most people know that the count of his victims is actually higher than 100. He may have been executed in 1989 in an electric chair, but his charm, intelligence, and communication skills made him a celebrity.

Cinderella stories captured the imagination of girls in the 1950s, when dreams of meeting the right man could seem like a happy ending, a solution to life's problems. But over the next 50 years women's lives were transformed, not by the magic wand of a fairy godmother, nor by marrying princes, but by education, work, birth control - and feminism.

The year 2000. As Britain celebrates the new millennium, something fluorescent and futuristic is stirring in the crumbling council estates of inner city London. Making beats on stolen software, spitting lyrics on tower block rooftops and beaming out signals from pirate radio aerials, a group of teenagers raised on UK garage, American hip-hop and Jamaican reggae stumble upon a dazzling new genre. Against all odds, these young MCs will grow up to become some of the UK’s most famous musicians, scoring number one records and dominating British pop culture for years to come.

Questo ragazzo deve tutto al suo nome diceva di lui Marco Antonio, che lo disprezzava, a torto sottovalutandolo. Però era vero, e Augusto ne era talmente consapevole da affrettarsi a promuovere, non appena gli fu possibile, la divinizzazione di Giulio Cesare, padre suo adottivo, come caposaldo del suo potere. Il capolavoro di Augusto è stato imporre l'immagine di sé come vero e coerente erede e continuatore dell'opera di Cesare, ormai divinizzato, mentre in realtà la trasformava, se non nel suo contrario, certo in altro.

EDITORIAL REVIEW: **SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN's The Big Idea: 150 Years of the Best and Worst Ideas in Modern Science goes beyond the headlines to present the passions, prejudice, and outrage that, from 1845 on, formed the ideas of modern science -- from the sublime to the ridiculous. This fascinating new book, based on SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN's wildly popular feature, "50, 100, and 150 Years Ago in Science Today", presents the often hilarious human aspect of science as well as a serious timetable of scientific discovery. **

The study of classic and contemporary films can provide a powerful avenue to understand the experience of mental illness. In Madness at the Movies, James Charney, MD, a practicing psychiatrist and long-time cinephile, examines films that delve deeply into characters’ inner worlds, and he analyzes moments that help define their particular mental illness.

An eight-year-old boy named James, aka the wannabe Cisco Kid, nearly lost his life as he searched for precious metal in a bone dry southwest Arizona gulley. He retrieved only pyrite before a desert flood swept away his world. Over the course of half a century James acquired several additional nicknames. They were reflections of his multiple personalities. His dad called him Traveler or Trav. Some coworkers referred to him as Point Man. A few colleagues labeled him Knowledge Navigator or Nav.

Over three sessions Suzanne explores how yoga came to Britain, covering the individuals and movements that influenced the exchange between the yoga from India, and the cast of characters in Britain that eagerly received these exotic ideas and practices that have become part of mainstream, modern life.

Rocking in the Free World explains how Americans came to believe they had learned the truth about rock 'n' roll, a truth shaped by the Cold War anxieties of the fifties, the countercultural revolutions (and counter-revolutions) of the sixties and seventies, and the end-of-history triumphalism of the eighties.

The hundreds of end-of-time prophecies splashed across the consciousness from the time of clay tablets to our Internet have had something besides hysteria in common: every one of them has been wrong. Here is a survey of three millennia of apocalyptic prophecies, tracing one of the most remarkable threads of our cultural history: our long and unproductive fascination with apocalyptic myths and miracles that can solve our problems without requiring committed action in our own lives.

China tiene un territorio inmenso, una historia milenaria y un variado ambiente natural y humano, por lo que la diversidad de sus viviendas populares es rara vez vista en la historia mundial de arquitectura. En el presente libro, se presenta los patios cuadrángulo profundos de Pekín con muros altos, y la teoría de suerte y beneficios, así como las viviendas finas, elegantes y simples en el sur de Anhui.

Rein und unvermischt, Urväter deutscher Nation und von überlegener Rasse - die Nationalsozialisten wollten mit den Germanen eine Jahrtausende alte, rassische Überlegenheit der "Deutschen" konstruieren. Auch wir, die es heute besser wissen, stellen uns die Germanen oft recht einseitig vor. Raubeinige Horden, unbarmherziger Krieger und gefürchtete Gegner der Römer - oder doch ein Volk mit reicher Kultur und wechselvoller Geschichte?

From the beginning, American cinema has been both a powerful mythmaker and a social critic. D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, arguably the first feature film, shows us just how early in its history cinema had established its influence. Birth of a Nation famously portrayed the Ku Klux Klan in a favorable light, a portrayal that contributed to the modern resurgence of the group and brought racist depictions of African Americans imported from the minstrel show to the silver screen. In response, filmmakers of color have created nuanced and indelible portraits of race.

Naples is the Italian city richest in esotericism, legends, and mysteries. These stories and secrets intertwine in a web of references and allusions that envelop the city in a subtle yet visible network, discernible to those with eyes to see and hearts to believe. Whether passing through Naples as a tourist or as a simple citizen of their own city, one often fails to realize that they are near places whose stories and mysteries are capable of leaving one astonished: from miraculous blood relics (seven, plus that of San Gennaro) to the sites of the cult of purgatorial souls, a cult bordering...