Who Hasn't Gazed upon the abandoned temples of Angkor Wat or the jungle-choked cities of the Maya and wondered, could the same fate happen to us? In this riveting book, Jared Diamond--whose Guns, Germs, and Steel revolutionized our understanding of history--explores how humankind's use and abuse of the environment reveal the truth behind the world's great collapses, from the Anasazi of North America to the Vikings of Greenland to modern Montana. What...

"Humanity evolved in an Ice Age in which glaciers covered much of the world. But starting about 15,000 years ago, temperatures began to climb. Civilization and al of recorded history occurred in this warm period--the long summer of the human species. Fagan illuminates the centuries long pattern of human adaptation to the challenges of an ever-changing climate--and how climate change gave rise to civilization"--Back cover.

Maps on lining papers.

"An epic reappraisal of the medieval world--and the rich and complicated legacy left to us by the rise of the West--from the New York Times bestselling author of The Templars. When the once-mighty city of Rome was sacked by barbarians in 410 and lay in ruins, it signaled the end of an era--and the beginning of a thousand years of profound transformation. In a gripping narrative bursting with big names--from St Augustine and Attila the Hun to the Prophet...

One of Britain's most popular and esteemed historians tells the epic story of the birth of England. The first in an extraordinary six-volume history, "Foundation" takes the reader from the primeval forests of England's prehistory to the death, in 1509, of the first Tudor king, Henry VII.

Presents the events of the Allied landing on the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, in an attempt to take back western Europe from Nazi power. Marathon, Hastings, Midway, just a few of the major battles covered in this series, which introduces readers to the wartime engagements that changed the course of human history. Each book gives a historical account of a decisive battle, its participants, the political climate leading to the engagement, and...

Overview: An urgent and at times terrifying dispatch from a distinguished reporter who has given heart and soul to his subject. Hampton Sides When the demographer Robert Malthus (1766-1834) famously outlined the brutal relationship between food and population, he never imagined the success of modern scientific agriculture. In the mid-twentieth century, an unprecedented agricultural advancement known as the Green Revolution brought hybrid seeds,...

Writers and beekeepers Benjamin and McCallum have traveled across Europe and North America investigating the plight of the honeybee, which is disappearing across the globe at an alarming rate, addressing different causes for this growing catastrophe (dubbed colony collapse disorder or CCD), including viruses, parasites, pesticides, climate change, and the demands of commercial beekeeping.

A series presenting science as a detective story illustrating the connections between events of the past and inventions of the future. Part 5: Traces the connection between medieval astrology, ancient Greek medical manuscripts, the need for precise measuring devices and the invention of such things as the telescope, forged steel and interchangeable machine parts. Part 6: Details many of the changes in building construction and energy usage which occurred...