Kerry Shale
Author
Series
First Civilizations volume 4
Description
Trade explores the civilizing effect of buying and selling goods. In particular, the Indus Valley Civilization – on the borders of modern-day India and Pakistan – was seemingly created with the single purpose of encouraging the free flow of trade. The knock-on effects were massively beneficial - an increase in wealth, co-operation and trust.
Author
Series
First Civilizations volume 2
Description
Religion examines the power of a shared belief system, which serves as the social glue to unify a population within a single state. Nowhere was this truer than in Ancient Egypt - still the world's longest lasting civilization - which depended for its stability on the god-like status of its rulers.
Author
Series
First Civilizations volume 1
Description
War addresses the paradox that good comes from bad. The threat of destruction engenders a sense of fear, but also creates tighter bonds within a community, while driving an arms race of technological progress. This happened in the Zapotec civilization in Mexico, but also with the Teotihuacan civilization which overthrew the Zapotecs and emerged as the first superpower of the Americas.
Author
Series
First Civilizations volume 3
Description
Cities investigates the symbiotic link between urban living and civilization - there have been no cities without civilization, no civilizations without cities. The world's first settlements were in Mesopotamia, where the emergence of farming created the calories necessary for people to feed themselves on a permanent basis. This led to an exponential increase in population and a blossoming of innovation – civilization itself.
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Series
First Peoples volume 1
Description
As early humans spread out across the world, their toughest challenge was colonizing the Americas - because a huge ice sheet blocked the route. It has long been thought that the pioneers, known as Clovis people, arrived about 13,000 years ago, but an underwater discovery in Mexico suggests people arrived earlier than previously thought - and by boat, not on foot. How closely related were these First Americans to today's Native Americans? It's a controversial...
Author
Series
First Peoples volume 5
Description
When Homo sapiens turned up in prehistoric Europe, they ran into the Neanderthals. The two types of human were similar enough to interbreed - and both created artifacts of similar complexity. But as more and more Homo sapiens moved into Europe, the balance of power shifted. Neanderthals were overwhelmed. Ever since, we've had Europe and the rest of the world to ourselves.
Author
Series
First Peoples volume 2
Description
Around 200,000 years ago, a new species, Homo sapiens, appeared on the African landscape. While scientists have imagined eastern Africa as a real-life Garden of Eden, the latest research suggests humans evolved in many places across the continent at the same time. DNA from a 19th-century African-American slave is forcing geneticists to re-think the origins of our species. The theory is that our ancestors met, mated and hybridized with other human...
Author
Series
First Peoples volume 4
Description
When Homo sapiens arrived in Australia, they were, for the first time, truly alone, surrounded by wildly different flora and fauna. How did they survive and populate a continent? There is a close cultural and genetic link between the First Australians and modern-day Aborigines. The ancient and modern story intersect here as nowhere else in the world. The secret to this continuity is diversity. Intuitively, they found the right balance between being...
Author
Series
First Peoples volume 3
Description
What happened when early humans ventured out of Africa and into Asia? Where did they go and whom did they meet along the way? The latest evidence suggests they left far earlier than previously thought and interbred with other types of ancient human - Homo erectus, Neanderthals and also the Denisovans, whose existence was established only five years ago when geneticists extracted DNA from a tiny fragment of finger bone. Because these ancient humans...
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Description
Tad is a bored construction worker dreaming of a life of adventure until one day he is mistaken for a famous archeologist and that dream comes true. Whisked to Peru holding a sacred key, Tad helps Professor Lavrof and his beautiful daughter Sara as they race against evil treasure hunters in search of the Lost City of Paititi.
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Formats
Description
"Today, society embraces sharing like never before. Fueled by our dependence on mobile devices and social media, we have created an ecosystem of obsessive connection. Many of us now lead lives of strangely crowded isolation: we are always linked, but only shallowly so. The capacity to be alone, properly alone, is one of life's subtlest skills. Real solitude is a powerful resource we can call upon|a crucial ingredient for a rich interior life. It inspires...
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Description
It is 1953, a heat wave is sweeping across America and the Grossmans - Ben, Addie and their two children - are moving their lives from the political heart of Washington DC to suburban Long Island. Benny was a successful lawyer in the Department of Justice, but all that has come tumbling down. With the McCarthy era of paranoia, persecution, and propaganda at its height, his past has come back to haunt him, forcing him to pack up his family and leave...
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Description
A shattering account of the crack cocaine years from award-winning American historian David Farber, Crack tells the story of the young men who bet their lives on the rewards of selling 'rock' cocaine, the people who gave themselves over to the crack pipe, and the often-merciless authorities who incarcerated legions of African Americans caught in the crack cocaine underworld. Based on interviews, archival research, judicial records, underground videos,...
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Description
A Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist's explosive examination of the booming industry shaping our modern world: former journalists and spies going for hire—and financed by companies, politicians, lawyers, and the rich and powerful to excavate the lives of their enemies and opponents for dirt and secrets.
While most people now know of Christopher Steele, the British ex-spy, and Fusion GPS, the firm that hired him to dig up dirt on...
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Description
The four Gospels are the source material for this sympathetic account of the life of Jesus, from the traditional account of his birth to his death and resurrection. All the principal episodes are told-his baptism, the Sermon on the Mount, the Last Supper, The Betrayal, The Trial, The Crucifixion-as well as portraits of the principal characters in the story: Mary, Joseph, the Disciples, Mary Magdalene, Pontius Pilate and many others.
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Description
This audiobook narrated by Kerry Shale traces the life and times of a uniquely American testament
In his retirement, Thomas Jefferson edited the New Testament with a penknife and glue, removing all mention of miracles and other supernatural events. Inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment, Jefferson hoped to reconcile Christian tradition with reason by presenting Jesus of Nazareth as a great moral teacher-not a divine one. Peter Manseau tells...
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Description
In 1987 a massive snowstorm hits New York as Peter Kaldheim flees the city, owing drug debts to a dealer who is no stranger to casual violence. Leaving behind his chaotic past, Kaldheim hits the road, living hand-to-mouth in flop-houses, pan-handling with his fellow itinerants. As he makes his way across America in search of a new life, the harsh reality of living hand-to-mouth forces him to face up to his past, from his time in Rikers prison, to...
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Description
When Kent Nerburn received a letter from Jennifer, a young woman questioning her calling to spend her life in the arts, the writer and artist was struck by how closely her questions mirrored the doubts and yearnings of his own youth. Nerburn resolved that he would write his own letter: a letter of welcome and encouragement to all young artists setting out on the same strange and magical journey, sharing the wisdom of a life spent working in the arts....