history

"What was the first message sent over the Internet? How much water does a single person use every day? How was the electric light invented? For every utility people use each day, there's a hidden history below the surface--a story of intrigue, drama, humor, and inequity. This graphic novel provides a guided tour through the science of the past--and how the decisions people made while inventing and constructing early technology still affect the way people use it today. Full of art, maps, and diagrams, Hidden Systems is a thoughtful, humorous exploration of the history of science, and what needs to be done now to change the future"--Provided by the publisher.

Twelve-year-old Hazel Rothbury stows away aboard the Titanic and, with the help of a porter named Charlie and a first-class passenger named Sylvia, she sets out to explore the great ship, uncovering a haunting mystery--until the ship hits an iceberg and she must fight to save herself and her friends.

"Did Wilt Chamberlain really score 100 points by himself in a single game? Was the 1985 NBA Draft really fixed to make sure the New York Knicks got the first pick? Was Michael Jordan really let go by his high school basketball team? Get ready to discover the real stories behind these and other great basketball myths and legends!"--Provided by publisher.

"Since the late 1800s, it has been believed that Native American civilization has been wiped from the United States. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee argues that Native American culture is far from defeated--if anything, it is thriving as much today as it was one hundred years ago. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee looks at Native American culture as it exists today--and the fight to preserve language and traditions"--Provided by publisher.

"The story begins with Yaffa Eliach, a spirited young girl who grows up in a vibrant, happy 800-year-old town in Poland, filled with family life and rich traditions. Yaffa's grandmother, who receives a gift of a camera from America, becomes the village photographer, and takes photos of all the family events: weddings, bar mitzvahs, and family gatherings. And on the Jewish New Year, the villagers send photos to their relatives overseas to wish them a 'Gut Yontif'! But one dark day, the town is invaded. And quickly the once happy home to 5,000 Jewish people is uprooted. Yaffa survives the war and becomes a Professor of History and America's foremost Holocaust expert. And when President Jimmy Carter invites her to create an exhibit for the new National Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, she travels around the world hunting down her grandmother's photos taken of people who fled from her beloved town, Eishyshok, along with their stories and memories. This breathtaking revival of the town's collective spirit, which is a permanent exhibit at The National Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, will inspire all who read it"--Provided by the publisher.

"Barry Tucker's family tries to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina hits their home in New Orleans. But when his little sister gets terribly sick, they're forced to stay home and wait out the storm. At first, Katrina doesn't seem to be as bad as predicted. But overnight the levees break, and Barry's world is literally torn apart. He's swept off by the floodwaters, away from his family. Can he survive the storm of the century--alone?"--Provided by the publisher.

"You may be surprised to learn that microchips are the new oil--the scarce resource on which the modern world depends. Today, military, economic, and geopolitical power are built on a foundation of computer chips. Virtually everything--from missiles to microwaves--runs on chips, including cars, smartphones, the stock market, even the electric grid. Until recently, America designed and built the fastest chips and maintained its lead as the #1 superpower, but America's edge is in danger of slipping, undermined by players in Taiwan, Korea, and Europe taking over manufacturing. Now, as Chip War reveals, China, which spends more on chips than any other product, is pouring billions into a chip-building initiative to catch up to the US. At stake is America's military superiority and economic prosperity. Economic historian Chris Miller explains how the semiconductor came to play a critical role in modern life and how the U.S. became dominant in chip design and manufacturing and applied this technology to military systems. America's victory in the Cold War and its global military dominance stems from its ability to harness computing power more effectively than any other power. But here, too, China is catching up, with its chip-building ambitions and military modernization going hand in hand. America has let key components of the chip-building process slip out of its grasp, contributing not only to a worldwide chip shortage but also a new Cold War with a superpower adversary that is desperate to bridge the gap. Illuminating, timely, and fascinating, Chip War shows that, to make sense of the current state of politics, economics, and technology, we must first understand the vital role played by chips"--From the publisher's web site.

What if we were all just characters from a book written by Major Albert Knag as a philosophical present for his daughter Hilde's 15th birthday? This is the question that Sophie Amundsen must ask as she tackles the history of philosophy in what begins as a personalized correspondence course for which she never signed up. Coming home from school one day, Sophie finds questions in her mailbox, followed by typewritten pages about philosophy. She also gets strange birthday cards apparently intended for a Hilde Moller Knag in Lillesand, whom she has never met. Through these unusual circumstances, Sophie embarks on the study of philosophy with Alberto Knox -- a middle-aged mystery man in a beret -- only to discover that she is nothing more than the fictional heroine of a novel (called Sophie's World) about the history of philosophy. Hilde, on the other hand, whom we meet halfway through the book, appears to be a real girl whose father has written a novel entitled Sophie's World. She in turn learns about philosophy by reading about Sophie's study of philosophy, never suspecting that she is merely a character in a book -- Sophie's World -- written by a philosophy teacher named Jostein Gaarder to teach teenagers the beauty of philosophical discourse. In this long, self-referential novel (to use the word loosely), Gaarder presents philosophy in a clear, cogent way, using Sophie's and Hilde's experiences to illustrate his points. The reader who is expecting something other than a creative textbook, however, will be disappointed. Maybe Gaarder can fool Norwegian youths into learning philosophy, but savvy American kids won't be so easily hoodwinked. Index.

"The World Series is the most enduring showcase in American team sports. It's the place where legends are made, where celebration and devastation can hinge on a fly ball off a foul pole or a grounder beneath a first baseman's glove. And there's no one better to bring this rich history to life than New York Times national baseball columnist Tyler Kepner, whose bestselling book about pitching, K, was lauded as 'Michelangelo explaining the brush strokes on the Sistine Chapel' by Newsday. In seven scintillating chapters, Kepner delivers an indelible portrait of baseball's signature event. He digs deep for essential tales dating back to the beginning in 1903, adding insights from Hall of Famers like Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt, Jim Palmer, Dennis Eckersley and many others who have thrived--and failed--when it mattered most. Why do some players, like Madison Bumgarner, Derek Jeter and David Ortiz, crave the pressure? How do players handle a dream that comes up short? What's it like to manage in the World Series, and what are the secrets of building a champion? Kepner celebrates unexpected heroes like Bill Wambsganss, who pulled off an unassisted triple play in 1920, probes the mysteries behind magic moments (Did Babe Ruth call his shot in 1932? How could Eckersley walk Mike Davis to get to Kirk Gibson in 1988?) and busts some long-time myths (the 1919 Reds were much better than the Black Sox, anyway). The Grandest Stage is the ultimate history of the World Series, the perfect gift for all the fans who feel their hearts pounding in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game Seven"--From the publisher's web site.

"Amid a national backdrop of the call to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, the National Women's Football League was founded as something of a gimmick. However, the league's star team, the Toledo Troopers, emerged to challenge traditional gender roles and amass a win-loss record never before or since achieved in American football. The players were housewives, factory workers, hairdressers, former nuns, high school teachers, bartenders, mail carriers, pilots, would-be drill sergeants. Black, white, Latina. Mothers and daughters and aunts and sisters. But most of all, they were athletes who were denied the opportunity to play a game they were born to play. Before the protests and the lobbyists, before the debates and the amendments, before the marches and the mandates, there was only an obscure advertisement in a local Midwestern paper and those who answered it, women such as Lee Hollar, the only woman working the line at the Libbey glass factory; Gloria Jimenez, who grew up playing sports with her six brothers; and Linda Jefferson, the greatest female athlete you've never heard of. Stephen Guinan grew up in Toledo pulling for his hometown football team, and who--in the innocence of youth--did not realize at the time what a barrier-breaking lost piece of history he was witnessing. We Are the Troopers sheds light on forgotten champions who came together for the love of the game"--Provided by the publisher.