history

A novel about the history of philosophy, that uses the life of a schoolgirl, Sophie, as a backdrop for a discussion of the meaning of life.

Contains color photographs and descriptions of some of the most exciting sports cars of the twentieth century from the 1920s to the late 1990s.

Traces the history of adoption in the United States, discussing how adoption policies and practices have changed throughout the twentieth century to reflect the changing structures of both family and society.

Presents a twenty-first-century view of evolution, exploring the implications of Darwin's theory and demonstrating the power and relevance of evolution in the modern world. A companion to the series aired on PBS in 2001.

Tells the story of the development of the U-2 and supersonic SR-71 spy planes and the first reconnaissance satellites during the 1950s, and discusses their impact on how foreign relations and intelligence gathering have been conducted since World War II.

Contains critical articles which analyze important literary works from the Harlem Renaissance and provide information about the genre's most influential writers and works.

Presenting mathematical ideas of peoples from a variety of small-scale and traditional cultures, this book humanizes our view of mathematics and expands our conception of what is mathematical. Through engaging examples of how particular societies structure time, reach decisions about the future, make models and maps, systematize relationships, and create intriguing figures, Marcia Ascher demonstrates that traditional cultures have mathematical ideas that are far more substantial and sophisticated than is generally acknowledged. Malagasy divination rituals, for example, rely on complex algebraic algorithms. And some cultures use calendars far more abstract and elegant than our own. Ascher also shows that certain concepts assumed to be universal--that time is a single progression, for instance, or that equality is a static relationship--are not. The Basque notion of equivalence, for example, is a dynamic and temporal one not adequately captured by the familiar equal sign. Other ideas taken to be the exclusive province of professionally trained Western mathematicians are, in fact, shared by people in many societies. The ideas discussed come from geographically varied cultures, including the Borana and Malagasy of Africa, the Tongans and Marshall Islanders of Oceania, the Tamil of South India, the Basques of Western Europe, and the Balinese and Kodi of Indonesia.

A collection of essays on photographers who were pioneers in the medium.