Walk through five centuries of homes both great and small?from the smoke-filled manor halls of the Middle Ages to today's Ralph Lauren-designed environments?on a house tour like no other, one that del
"The American Dream" is one of the most familiar and resonant phrases in our national lexicon, so familiar that we seldom pause to ask its origin, its history, or what it actually means. In this fasci
Englishness is an idea, a consciousness and a proto-nationalism. There is no English state within the United Kingdom, no English passport, Parliament or currency, nor any immediate prospect of any. Th
The idea of a rebirth in the art and civilization of the western world during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries has proved an enduring one. Italy has long been seen as its home: the source of both
The idea of a rebirth in the art and civilization of the western world during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries has proved an enduring one. Italy has long been seen as its home: the source of both
Democracy today is widely regarded as an ideal form of government. Yet in practice it sometimes seems a sham, a political puppet show in which hidden elites pull all the strings. As trust in elected r
Democracy today is widely regarded as an ideal form of government. Yet in practice it sometimes seems a sham, a political puppet show in which hidden elites pull all the strings. As trust in elected r
Why and under what circumstances did the religion of Islam emerge in a remote part of Arabia at the beginning of the seventh century? Traditional scholarship maintains that Islam developed in opposition to the idolatrous and polytheistic religion of the Arabs of Mecca and the surrounding regions. In this study of pre-Islamic Arabian religion, G. R. Hawting adopts a comparative religious perspective to suggest an alternative view. By examining the various bodies of evidence which survive from this period, the Koran and the vast resources of the Islamic tradition, the author argues that in fact Islam arose out of conflict with other monotheists whose beliefs and practices were judged to fall short of true monotheism and were, in consequence, attacked polemically as idolatry. The author is adept at unravelling the complexities of the source material, and students and scholars will find his argument both engaging and persuasive.
Written with the verve of such works as The Big Short, The History of the Future, and The Spider Network, here is the fascinating, true story of the rise of Ethereum, the second-biggest digital asset in the world, the growth of cryptocurrency, and the future of the internet as we know it. Everyone has heard of Bitcoin, but few know about the second largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum, which has been heralded as the "next internet."The story of Ethereum begins with Vitalik Buterin, a supremely gifted nineteen-year-old autodidact who saw the promise of blockchain when the technology was in its earliest stages. He convinced a crack group of coders to join him in his quest to make a super-charged, global computer.The Infinite Machine introduces Vitalik's ingenious idea and unfolds Ethereum's chaotic beginnings. It then explores the brilliant innovation and reckless greed the platform-an infinitely adaptable foundation for experimentation and new applications-has unleashed and the consequences
A beautifully illustrated edition of the Number One Bestseller and Sunday Times Science Book of the Year, this head-to-toe tour of the marvel that is the human body is as compulsively readable as it is comprehensive.Number One Bestseller in both hardback and paperback The Sunday Times Book of the Year The ideal gift for everybody'We spend our whole lives in one body and yet most of us have practically no idea how it works and what goes on inside it. The idea of the book is simply to try to understand the extraordinary contraption that is us.'Bill Bryson sets off to explore the human body, how it functions and its remarkable ability to heal itself. Full of extraordinary facts, astonishing stories and now fully illustrated for the first time, The Body: A Guide for Occupants is a brilliant, often very funny attempt to understand the miracle of our physical and neurological make up.A wonderful successor to A Short History of Nearly Everything, this new book is an instant classic. It will h
This is a revised and expanded version of the much-praised short book Universities: The Recovery of An Idea. It addresses the history of universities; the value of university education; the nature of
In the twentieth century England lost an empire, built a welfare state, and began to accept the idea of being part of Europe. Abroad her relative power declined; at home life became more tolerable for
