Mark Kurlansky, the bestselling author of Cod and The Basque History of the World , here turns his attention to a common household item with a long and intriguing history: salt. The only rock we eat, salt has shaped civilization from the very beginning, and its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of humankind. A substance so valuable it served as curr...(展开全部)

个人写作的世界通史中经典的一部…… 在西方史学界的知名度和在高校中的使用率甚至要超过斯塔夫里阿诺斯的《全球通史》……

个人写作的世界通史中经典的一部…… 在西方史学界的知名度和在高校中的使用率甚至要超过斯塔夫里阿诺斯的《全球通史》……

Picture, if you can, a world without glass. There would be no microscopes or telescopes, no sciences of microbiology or astronomy. People with poor vision would grope in the shadows, and planes, cars, and even electricity probably wouldn't exist. Artists would draw without the benefits of three-dimensional perspective, and ships would still be steered by what stars navigators c...(展开全部)

Proceeding chronologically from the first Neolithic "bun bricks" to relatively high-tech contemporary forms, Cambridge University art historian Campbell and documentary photographer Pryce reveal the building blocks of the Coliseum, the Taj Mahal, the Florence Cathedral and the Chrysler Building, as well as more humble abodes. Pryce's photos are stunning, making up the bulk of t...(展开全部)

Our understanding of world history is changing, as new discoveries are made on all the continents and old prejudices are being challenged. In this truly global journey Andrew Marr revisits some of traditional histories, which have tended to be Eurocentric, telling mankind's story through tales of Greece and Rome and the crowned heads of Europe's oldest monarchies. Here he widen...(展开全部)

A library is not just a collection of books, but also the buildings that house them. As varied and inventive as the volumes they hold, such buildings can be much more than the dusty, dark wooden shelves found in mystery stories or the catacombs of stacks in the basements of academia. From the great dome of the Library of Congress, to the white façade of the Seinäjoki Library in...(展开全部)

A library is not just a collection of books, but also the buildings that house them. As varied and inventive as the volumes they hold, such buildings can be much more than the dusty, dark wooden shelves found in mystery stories or the catacombs of stacks in the basements of academia. From the great dome of the Library of Congress, to the white façade of the Seinäjoki Library in...(展开全部)

Since its first publication this book has been hailed as the most up-to-date and wide-ranging history of art ever published in a single volume. This quote from Andrew Graham Dixon describes the book: 'Spanning continents and millennia, ranging from man's earliest cave paintings to the works of Picasso and beyond, this is a hugely ambitious book. But thanks to the breadth of the...(展开全部)

The history of textiles, more than that of any other artifact, is the history of human ingenuity. From the earliest needles of 25,000 years ago to techno textiles used in Space Shuttle parachutes today, textiles have been fundamental to human existence and achievements, and have informed developments in other areas from agriculture to metallurgy. Textiles are global commodities...(展开全部)