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"The invention of numerals is perhaps the greatest abstraction the human mind has ever created. Virtually everything in our lives is digital, numerical, or quantified. The story of how and where we got these numerals, which we so depend on, has for thousands of years been shrouded in mystery. [This book] is an adventure-filled saga of Amir Aczel's lifelong obsession: to find the original sources of our numerals. Aczel has doggedly crisscrossed the...
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Downtown department stores were once the heart and soul of America's pulsing Broadways and Main Streets. With names such as City of Paris, Penn Traffic, The Maze, Maison Blanche, or The Popular, they suggested spheres far beyond mundane shopping. Nicknames reflected the affection customers felt for their favorites, whether Woodie's, Wanny's, Stek's, O.T.'s, Herp's, or Bam's.
The history of downtown department stores is as fascinating as their...
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"Examining the long history of urbanization and suburbanization of Indian communities in Minnesota, American Indians and the American Dream investigates the ways American Indians accessed homeownership, working with and against federal policy, underscoring American Indian peoples' unequal and exclusionary access to the way of life known as the American dream"--
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The diesel locomotive sent shock waves through rigid corporate cultures and staid government regulators. For some, the new technology promised to be a source of enormous profits, for others, the railroad industry seemed a threat to their very livelihoods. Evolution of the American Diesel Locomotive introduces the reader to the important technological advances that gave rise to diesel engines, examining not only their impact on locomotive design, but...
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A collection of previously unheard-of, incredible tales from the Indiana University Athletics program.
For over 125 years, Hoosier athletes and coaches have grabbed headlines with their accomplishments and accolades. Legendary performers and larger-than-life figures have called Bloomington home, and their stories have been passed down through generations. But for every classic tale about a Hoosier athlete, coach, or program, there's another that's...
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In his first book since the bestselling Fermat's Enigma, Simon Singh offers the first sweeping history of encryption, tracing its evolution and revealing the dramatic effects codes have had on wars, nations, and individual lives. From Mary, Queen of Scots, trapped by her own code, to the Navajo Code Talkers who helped the Allies win World War II, to the incredible (and incredibly simple) logisitical breakthrough that made Internet commerce...
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Gordon Thomas has established himself as a leading expert on the intelligence community. He returns here on the one hundredth anniversaries of Britain's Security and Secret Intelligence Services to provide the definitive history of the famed MI5 and MI6.
These agencies rank as two of the oldest and most powerful in the world, and Thomas's wide-sweeping history chronicles a century of both triumphs and failures. He recounts the roles that British...
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Writings on the American Civil War selected from the Pulitzer Prize–winning presidential biography Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, with illustrations and maps. Drawn from Carl Sandburg's magisterial biography of the sixteenth US president, this volume focuses in on the War Between the States, bringing the author's trademark clarity and vivid style to this dark and dramatic period in the nation's history. Moving from Sumter to Shiloh, Antietam...
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"A nightmare had been haunting Carolinians. In the fall of 1734, readers of the South Carolina Gazette learned of three separate revolts on sailing ships transporting Africans to bondage in the New World. In all three incidents, the Africans killed the ship's captain, and in two of the incidents the Africans took full control of the ship and its cargo. A few months later, the paper reported that black slaves had revolted on St. John in the Virgin...
11) Year of desperate struggle: Jeb Stuart and his cavalry, from Gettysburg to Yellow Tavern, 1863-1864
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By the summer of 1863, following Chancellorsville, it was clear to everyone on both sides of the Civil War that the Army of Northern Virginia was the most formidable force Americans had ever put in the field. It could only be "tied" in battle, if against great odds, but would more usually vanquish its opponents. A huge measure of that army's success was attributable to its cavalry arm, under Major General J.E.B. Stuart, which had literally "run rings"...
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By 1966 the steam locomotive was entering its death throes: withdrawals were being carried out at a frenetic pace, with the slightest defect sending engines straight to the cutter's torch.
In an attempt to capture the British steam scene before it was no more, teenage enthusiast Keith Widdowson made it his mission to travel the length and breadth of the country to obtain runs behind as many locomotives as possible. Armed with a Southern Region season...
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Early parks evolved from deer parks nobles used for hunting. United States cities constructed huge landscaped graveyards, which people used for recreational purposes. Cities next created public parks based on the cemetery concept. The desire to preserve natural areas led the establishment of the National Park System. The book includes an extensive list of US state park systems.
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Wales is a Celtic country and the Celts have always treasured oral learning and recitation. Indeed they have a passion for committing facts to memory rather than relying on the written word. So it is no surprise, as we can see from Anne Ross's study, that Welsh folklore and story-telling is so rich and varied. In addition to examining the part played by the medieval church in this oral tradition, individual chapters cover legends associated with place-names;...
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Scurvy took a terrible toll in the Age of Sail, killing more sailors than were lost in all sea battles combined. The threat of the disease kept ships close to home and doomed those vessels that ventured too far from port. The willful ignorance of the royal medical elite, who endorsed ludicrous medical theories based on speculative research while ignoring the life-saving properties of citrus fruit, cost tens of thousands of lives and altered the course...
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Psychological research sheds light on why some people are more drawn to conspiracy thinking, especially when they feel discontented, distrustful, and desire privileged knowledge. But ultimately we are all natural-born conspiracy theorists. Our brains are wired to see patterns and to weave unrelated data points into complex stories. We instinctively see events in the world in terms of human motives and intentions, leading us to discount the role of...
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In this hip, hilarious and truly eye-opening cultural history, menstruation is talked about as never before. Flow spans its fascinating, occasionally wacky and sometimes downright scary story: from mikvahs (ritual cleansing baths) to menopause, hysteria to hysterectomies-not to mention the Pill, cramps, the history of underwear, and the movie about puberty they showed you in 5th grade.
Flow answers such questions as: What's the point of getting...
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The world today is beset with too many conflicts and dangers.The two most frightening words are: "Aggressiveness" and "Arrogance".They describe the terrible human behaviours that are threatening the survival of Planet Earth and the human species.Then, there is this fearsome word "NATO" that represents the most powerful military force in the world centred around the vast North Atlantic Ocean. It literally has the sheer fire power and nuclear power...
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Ancient Wonderings tells a tale of stepping into the past, of journeying across Britain's wildest lands on a trail of prehistoric worlds. James Canton immerses himself into the landscape, chasing physical obsessions of prehistory: stone circles, flint arrowheads, sacred stones, gold, tin, and a lost Roman road. He explores those wonders of the natural world which occupied ancient minds: the night sky, shooting stars, the rising and setting sun. And...
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'I cannot help but see the bodies of my near ancestors in the current caravans of desperate souls fleeing from place to place, chased by famine, war and toxins. Ideas honed in slavery — of the otherness, the boorishness, the inferiority of thy neighbour — have continued to travel through American society.' The story of slavery in America is not over. It lives on in how we speak to one another, in how we treat one another, in how our societies...
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