By Steppe, Desert, & Ocean is nothing less than the story of how humans first started building the globalized world we know today. Set on a huge continental stage, from Europe to China, it is a tale covering over 10, 000 years, from the origins of farming around 9000 BC to the expansion of the Mongols in the thirteenth century AD. An unashamedly `big history`, it charts the development of European, Near Eastern, & Chinese civilizations & the growing links between them by way of the Indian Ocean, the silk Roads, & the great steppe corridor (which crucially allowed horse riders to travel from Mongolia to the Great Hungarian Plain within a year). Along the way, it is also the story of the rise & fall of empires, the development of maritime trade, & the shattering impact of predatory nomads on their urban neighbours. Above all, as this immense historical panorama unfolds, we begin to see in clearer focus those basic underlying factors
- the acquisitive nature of humanity, the differing environments in which people live, & the dislocating effect of even slight climatic variation
- which have driven change throughout the ages, & which help us better understand our world today.

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In 1897 the Victorian novelist George Gissing undertook a brief but eventful journey in southern Italy. His itinerary took him from Naples to Reggio di Calabria, via Paola, Cosenza, Crotone & Squillace, through the area once known as Magna Graecia. Meditating on the vestiges of Greco-Roman civilization, Gissing visited tombs & temples, museums & cathedrals, in search of the imprint of antiquity & ”that old world which was the imaginative delight of my boyhood.” The result was By the Ionian Sea, first published in 1901. Gissing`s journey by boat, train, & carriage revealed not just the ruined glories of a classical past, but also the hardships of rural life in turn-of-the-century rural Italy. Meeting poverty-stricken peasants & corrupt local officials, he endured discomfort, danger & illness in a remote & little visited corner of Europe. Yet throughout he appreciated the warmth & generosity shown to him by local people, curious about this solitary stranger. By turns lyrical & melancholic, Gissing`s masterpiece of travel writing alternates between light & dark, life & death, Paganism & Christianity. Looking at Italy in both its classical & contemporary

Dimensions, By the Ionian Sea celebrates Calabria`s rich cultural past & beautiful landscapes while providing a candid account of the region`s hardship & poverty. More than a century after its first publication, this is the first critical edition of the book in English.

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Ivan`s old house had always been so warm & friendly. This new one was NOT. Ivan finds his new house strange & can`t sleep. He lies awake & then sees a shimmering light come down. The light turns into a creature called a Moji, & it takes him on a fabulous night-time adventure, up high into space, bounding through starlit forests & down deep into the oceans. Ivan has never had so much fun! & the magical Moji shows him that soon the new house will feel like home. A gently emotional story to reassure fears about moving house, with stunning artwork & a wonderful magical element. The author/illustrator of Herman`s Letter has shown his breadth of talent with this new direction. ...

Boost your math-brain power! Discover the amazing world of numbers & the real-world wonders they represent through creative, totally ”getable” infographics. Colorful illustrated graphs, word clouds, pie charts, maps, photography, comparitive images, & more illuminate the math behind statistics, trends, measurements, & more that we encounter every day. Infographics cover subjects kids care about & can apply to daily living, such as money, food, green living, technology, how things work, & much more. Awesome Q& As with ”numbers” people such as computer programmers, sports statisticians, & more show how math is a cool & useful tool. ...

In 1939 a girl was born in the wild Aspromonte mountains of Calabria, a land haunted by history & suffused with tradition but weighed down by poverty & the ever-present mafia. As the tremors of World War II shake the heart of Calabria, so the little girl`s childhood unfolds. Her life is simple, revolving around school, friendship, family. At its heart is the kitchen where the dramas & joys of family life are played out & where her mother, Giulia, creates the food around which everything revolves. In this rich & heartfelt memoir, Grazia Ietto-Gillies remembers her youth in Calabria, from childhood sickness & her eccentric extended family to the excitement of religious festivals, near-constant struggle with poverty & an incident with the ` Ndrangheta, Calabria`s mafia. Now, sixty years later, she realises that Calabria has defined everything she has ever done & that she has never really left the mountains of her childhood. ...

The environs of Bydgoszcz & Torun in a series covering Poland’s best hiking areas on waterproof & tear-resistant, laminated maps, specially designed to withstand repeated re-folding & even the worst weather conditions. Each map is double-sided & has clear, well presented cartography with a contoured base (20m interval) &, where appropriate, relief shading, graphic relief in rocky areas, & spot heights. Extensive overprint highlights waymarked hiking trails & on many titles also cycling, skiing or canoeing routes. Symbols show accommodation facilities including hotels, campsites, youth hostels, mountain refuges, etc., restaurants & bars in more remote areas, local bus stops, petrol stations, medical facilities, etc. Many titles include street plans of holiday resorts. The maps have either a UTM or latitude/longitude grid. Map legend

Includes:: English.

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In 1975, I was seven years old, & loved the Bazooka bubble-gums my mother would buy for Walid & me in Spinney`s supermarket... Beirut in the 1970s is a paradise. Wealthy families ride escalators & fill shopping carts with imported food & luxury products from Paris & New York. Lamia Ziade, seven years old, dreams of banana splits, American candy, flying on Pan Am Airways & visiting the local cinema. Considered by the elite the ` Paris, Las Vegas or Monaco of the Middle East`, Beirut was in reality a powder-keg, waiting for a spark. On 13 April 1975, Lamia & her family returned from lunch in the countryside to find a city in flames. Looking back on the golden days before the war, & its immediate, devastating effects, ” Bye Bye Babylon” positions an elegiac & shocking narrative next to a child`s perspective of the years 1975-79: of consumer icons next to burning buildings, scenes of violence & sparkling new weapons painted in vivid technicolour
- war as pop. It is both a lament for a home transformed by a destructive madness, & an inventory of the concrete objects of her childhood: the objects, details & fragments of memory which combine to capture the impossible reality of war. Part artist`s sketchbook, part travel notebook & part family album, ” Bye Bye Babylon” is a unique graphic memoir, & an important addition to the Cape list.
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Map No. 10010, Bygl&, in the new topographic survey of Norway at 1:50, 000 covering the country on 195 double-sided sheets & first published by Nordeca in 2011
- 2012; fully GPS compatible, indicating waymarked footpaths, campsites, tourist huts, illuminated ski runs, etc. The maps, now published by Nordeca, the successors to Statens Kartverk & its subsequent owners the Ugland Group, are printed on light, waterproof & tear-resistant synthetic paper. Each map covers an area of 62x 45 kilometres (39 x 28 miles approx.), with a 2-km overlap between the sheets. The maps have contours at 20m intervals (10m glacier contours), plus colouring & graphics to show cultivated areas, bogs, forests, etc. In addition to all the information expected of topographic mapping at this scale the maps distinguish between waymarked & unmarked footpaths & show campsites, tourist huts (serviced/self service/no supplies), country hotels & restaurants, & illuminated ski trails. The series uses EUREF89 (WGS84) datum & the maps have a 1-km UTM grid. Map legend is in Norwegian & English. Each title comes in a sturdy protective card envelope.
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How couldst thou take such journeys into fanatic Arabia?
- Charles M. Doughty, Passages from Arabia Deserta So C.W.R. Long begins
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Byker & Heaton in 1895 in a fascinating series of reproductions of old Ordnance Survey plans in the Alan Godfrey Editions, ideal for anyone interested in the history of their neighbourhood or family. Selected towns in Great Britain & Ireland are covered by maps showing the extent of urban development in the last decades of the 19th & early 20th century. In this title: two maps have been published for this area to show how it has changed over the years. The map covers from Rothbury Terrace in the north to Avondale Road in the south, Heaton Haugh House in the west to Ada Street in the east. Features include Armstrong Park, St Ann's Church, East Heaton Farm, Lawson Main Quarry, NER Railway & Heaton Station, Heaton Junction, St Michael's Church & High Bridge Works. On the reverse of both maps is a street directory for the area. About the Alan Godfrey Editions of the 25 ...