History S Worst Inventions And The People Who Made Them Eric Chaline

History's Worst Inventions is a light-hearted look at 50 of the worst inventions to grace the history of humankind. It casts light on the failures of otherwise celebrated inventors from Da Vinci to Edison, alongside the work of less well known and sometimes short-lived pioneers. Each entry outlines the inventor and his/her invention, as well as the reasons for its shortcomings, and their extent and consequences. They bring the personalities, history, science, politics and intrigue behind each of the innovations to life, before going on to unveil their consequences. History's Worst Inventions is illustrated in full colour using a wide range of drawings, paintings, photographs and maps.

History's Worst Predictions is a lighthearted look at fifty of the grandest predictions the world has seen - and how they proved to be spectacularly wrong. Every aspect of human life - religion, politics, science, economy, culture and war - has provided material for the most far-fetched and inaccurate of predictions. The book asks why we are still here, given that the end of the world has been foretold over 200 times, including: for 1833 by William Miller, who claimed to be in direct contact with God, and for 1997 by Nostradamus, king of the poor prediction. This beautifully illustrated, full-colour volume contains photographs and maps that bring each chapter to life, depicting the people and institutions responsible for some of the most infamous predictions in human history.

It could be argued that the most significant advances in the past two centuries have been made in the fields of science and technology, and that the defining objects of our culture are its mechanical devices. Rather than at looking at technology as a succession of generic inventions, 50 Machines that Changed the course of History identifies the most significant branded or one-off machines of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, placing them in their historical and technological contexts, and evaluating their impact on the development of human civilization. The preeminent machines of the First Industrial Revolution, the “Age of Steam,” include the first locomotive designed for passenger transport, Stephenson’s Rocket (1829), and the Corliss steam engine (1849) that powered Britain’s “Satanic mills,” in which the Harrison power loom (1851) produced the bulk of the world’s cotton cloth. The turn of the twentieth century, and the Second Industrial Revolution, saw the invention of many of the technologies that have created modern lifestyles: the Westinghouse AC system (1887) brought electrical power and lighting to homes and workplaces; the Berliner gramophone (1892), Lumière cine projector (1896), and Marconi radio (1897) heralded the dawn of the media age; and the age of the mass-produced automobile began with the Model T Ford (1908). Perfect for history buffs and anyone who is fascinated by complex and beautiful mechanical devices, Fifty Machines that Changed the Course of History is a celebration of 50 iconic machines, and of mechanical technology in general.

HISTORY'S WORST DISASTERS takes an informative look at fifty of the biggest catastrophes in history, and paints an inspiring picture of humankind's capacity to turn the tide of adversity. The world we live in is usually benign and forgiving, but on numerous occasions over the course of history it has also provided us with a reminder of the precarious nature of our existence. HISTORY'S WORST DISASTERS deals with the worst of these events, describing fifty of the most extreme disasters we have suffered, from those natural phenomena which were beyond our control to the catastrophes we brought on ourselves and for which we have only ourselves to blame. Beginning 65 million years ago with the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction, which accounted for the dinosaurs and almost extinguished all life on Earth, we move on to examine disasters that have occurred throughout the entire span of human history: the earthquakes and epidemics, the famines and hurricanes, and those horrors we have inflicted on each other through massacres, genocide and war. In addition, there are examples of disasters brought on by financial, political, and military incompetence, together with those which have arisen as a result of our industrial development, at, for instance, Chernobyl and Bhopal, and those associated with mass transportation, such as the sinking of the Titanic. Finally we take a look at environmental disasters, both actual, like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the dessication of the Aral Sea, and those which have the potential to cause us all manner of trouble in the future, including the loss of biodiversity and climate change. The scope of this book is to go beyond being a catalog of death and destruction in order to examine the consequences of these terrible events and to tell the stories of those people involved in them. Despite all the tragedy and strife, we have shown a remarkable capacity for both physical and mental endurance and have consistently demonstrated our ability to adapt to whatever is thrown at us and then bounce back even stronger than before. What emerges is a portrait of the fortitude and resilience of human beings in the face of adversity, allowing us to gain an appreciation for just how precious life is and how fragile our grip on it can be.

Gordon Sumner was born in a mainly working-class area of North Tyneside, England, in 1951. Decades later, we would come to know him as Sting, one of the world’s best-selling music artists. Sting was the lead singer of the Police from 1977 to 1984 before launching a hugely successful solo career. In Sting:From Northern Skies to Fields of Gold, popular music scholar Paul Carr argues that the foundations of Sting’s creativity and drive for success were established by his birthplace, with vestiges of his “Northern Englishness” continuing to emerge in his music long after he left his hometown. Carr frames Sting’s creative impetus and output against the real, imagined, and idealized places he has occupied. Focusing on the sometimes-blurry borderlines between nostalgia, facts, imagination, and memories—as told by Sting, the people who knew (and know) him, and those who have written about him—Carr investigates the often complex resonance between local boy Gordon Sumner and the star the world knows as Sting. Published to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the formation of the definitive line-up of the Police, this is the first book to examine the relationship between Sting’s working class background in Newcastle, the life he has consequently lived, and the creativity and inspiration behind his music.

The fascinating stories of the animals that changed civilizations.

Emmeline Muchamore was respectable once. Her sweetheart, Matilda Newry, certainly put a stop to that. But when Emmeline gains magical insight into a disastrous future battle, she weaponises her wild reputation in order to draw trouble and death away from her adopted home ¿ risking everything and everyone she loves in the process.Iron Lights is a steam-powered tale of honour, love, magic, adventure, and mechanical spiders.

big history and the future of humanity “This remains the best single attempt to theorize big history as a discipline that can link core concepts and paradigms across all historical disciplines, from cosmology to geology, from biology to human history. With additional and updated material, the Second Edition also offers a fine introduction to the history of big history and a superb introductory survey to the big history story. Essential reading for anyone interested in a rapidly evolving new field of scholarship that links the sciences and the humanities into a modern, science-based origin story.” David Christian, Macquarie University “Notable for its theoretic approach, this new Second Edition is both an indispensable contribution to the emerging big history narrative and a powerful university textbook. Spier defines words carefully and recognizes the limits of current knowledge, aspects of his own clear thinking.” Cynthia Brown, Emerita, Dominican University of California Reflecting the latest theories in the sciences and humanities, this new edition of Big History and the Future of Humanity presents an accessible and original overview of the entire sweep of history from the origins of the universe and life on Earth up to the present day. Placing the relatively brief period of human history within a much broader framework – one that considers everything from vast galaxy clusters to the tiniest sub-atomic particles – big history is an innovative theoretical approach that opens up entirely new multidisciplinary research agendas. Noted historian Fred Spier reveals how a thorough examination of patterns of complexity can offer richer insights into what the future may have in store for humanity. The second edition includes new learning features, such as highlighted scientific concepts, an illustrative timeline and comprehensive glossary. By exploring the cumulative history from the Big Bang to the modern day, Big History and the Future of Humanity, Second Edition, sheds important historical light on where we have been – and offers a tantalizing glimpse of what lies ahead.