The Golden Age of Discovery is a photographic tribute to the adventures, dangers, hardships, & accomplishments of modern expeditions. In this golden age of exploration & discovery, our knowledge of this planet is being expanded as never before in human history. Discoveries like plate tectonics, desertification, the hole in the ozone layer, & the greenhouse effect have transformed our understanding of the earth & its climate. & from the mountain peaks to ocean floors, untrodden places are being explored for the very first time. It also

Includes:: profiles of noted explorers as well as features on the main fields of sporting exploration, & John Hemming's text is dramatically enhanced with 200 color photos & maps from around the world. John Hemming was Director of the Royal Geographic Society for more than two decades.

...

The Golden Age of European Railways presents the history of Europe’s main railway routes during the late nineteenth & early twentieth century with interesting & informative text from a team of award-winning writers & acknowledged railway experts, lavishly illustrated by contemporary posters, postcards, paintings, maps, photos, etc, as well as present-day photos of restored rolling stock. Chapters are arranged by country or region, from the Settle to Carlisle route & the Jungfraujoch tunnel to that ultimate railway line, the Trans-Siberian, & cover specially selected lines in Great Britain, Irel&, Belgium, France, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Switzerl&, Pol&, Russia, Norway, Sweden & Finl&. The appendix contains further chapters on classic European locomotives, carriage design & railway museums. The presentation & the range of illustrations in this book are simply exceptional, from paintings like Claude Monet’s view of Gare Saint-Lazare & those wonderful advertising posters from the interwar period to numerous postcards of old, some long-gone stations, etc. The selection of maps from various publishers or national surveys is excellent. The book will appeal not only to railway enthusiasts but also to anyone interested in graphic design from that period or simply in the history of Europe. ...

` Portolan charts`, so called from the Italian adjective portolano, meaning `related to ports or harbours`, were born during the 12th century in the maritime community. These charts, drawn on parchment & crisscrossed with lines referring to the compass directions, indicated the succession of ports & anchorages along the shores, & were used by European sailors exploring the world up until the 18th century. Not only used as navigational instruments on boats, they were also produced for wealthy sponsors in the form of illuminated images of the world, to illustrate the economic & political interests of the major European sea powers. This book takes stock of the state of knowledge on these maps, bringing together contributions from a dozen European specialists, who trace the history & diversity of styles & places of production of these charts. This type of mapping is approached from three angles. The first part, ` The Mediterranean`, refers to the manufacture & use of the first charts, centered on the Mediterranean, & the persistence of this tradition in the Mediterranean basin until the 18th century. The second part, ` The Open Sea`, shows how these regional charts have evolved from a technical & iconographical point of view at the time of the great European voyages, in order to include the oceans & new worlds. The third part, ` The Indian Ocean`, shows how these charts, in a maritime area where ancient civilizations coexisted, were dependent on other cartographic traditions (ancient, Arab, Asian) before joining the information reported by Portuguese sailors & European trading companies in the modern era. ...

Few sights can reawaken memories of happy holidays of yesteryear as vividly as the superb railway posters that were so much ...

First published in 1949, ” The Golden Apples” is an acutely observed, richly atmospheric portrayal of small town life in Morgana, Mississippi. There`s Snowdie, who has to bring up her twin boys alone after her husb&, King Maclain, disappears one day, discarding his hat on the banks of the Big Black. There`s Loch Morrison, convalescing with malaria, who watches from his bedroom window as wayward Virgie Rainey meets a sailor in the vacant house opposite. Meanwhile, Miss Eckhart the piano teacher, grieving the loss of her most promising pupil, tries her hand at arson. Eudora Welty has a fine ear for dialogue & describes each of the characters in incisive, haunting prose. `...in the South, ` she says, `everybody stays busy talking all the time
- they`re not sorry for you to overhear their tales`. Welty deftly picks up their stories to create an unflinching potrait of everyday life in the American South & offers a deeply moving look at human nature.
...

The Golden Atlas is a spectacular visual history of exploration & cartography, a treasure chest of adventures from the chronicles of global discovery, illustrated with a selection of the most beautiful maps ever created. The book reveals how the world came to be known, featuring a magnificent gallery of exceptionally rare h&-coloured antique maps, paintings & engravings, many of which can only be found in the author`s collection. Arranged chronologically, the reader is taken on a breathtaking expedition through Ancient Babylonian geography & Marco Polo`s journey to the Mongol Khan on to buccaneers ransacking the Caribbean & the voyages of seafarers such as Captain Cook & fearless African pathfinders. Their stories are told in an engaging & compelling style, bringing vividly to life a motley collection of heroic explorers, treasure-hunters & death-dealing villains
- all of them accompanied by eye-grabbing illustrations from rare maps, charts & manuscripts. The Golden Atlas takes you back to a world of darkness & peril, placing you on storm-lashed ships, frozen wastelands & the shores of hostile territories to see how the lines were drawn to form the shape of the modern world. The author`s previous book, The Phantom Atlas, was a critically acclaimed international bestseller, described by Jonathan Ross as `a spectacular, enjoyable & eye-opening read` & this new book is sure to follow suit.
...

A rich American art-collector & his daughter Maggie buy in for themselves & to their greater glory a beautiful young wife & a noble husb&. They do not know that Charlotte & Prince Amerigo were formerly lovers, nor that on the eve of the Prince`s marriage they had discovered, in a Bloomsbury antique shop, a golden bowl with a secret flaw. When the golden bowl is broken, Maggie must leave the security of her childhood & try to reassemble the pieces of her shattered happiness. In this, the last of his three great poetic masterpieces, James combined with a dazzling virtuosity elements of social comedy, of mystery, terror, & myth. The Golden Bowl is the most controversial, ambiguous, & sophisticated of James`s novels. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World`s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford`s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, & much more. ...

” If you do not have the power to overthrow the rule of oppression, inform others of the oppression.” Persian proverb Questions about Iran`s 1979 Islamic Revolution shape The Golden Cage while the answers shed light on Iran`s current events & tell us why it strives for nuclear energy, chants ” Death to Israel” & claims to be the most powerful force in the Middle East & Muslim world. History perhaps is best described through life stories we each can hold dearly. The Golden Cage is one such story about three brothers whom the author knew through their sister, Pari, a childhood friend. Each brother subscribes to a different political ideology that tears Iran & their lives apart. As Pari observes, her brothers live deluded lives in golden cages of ideology. These words mark the beginning of this story, illuminating the multifaceted, oppressive Iran of today & the past. ...

A loving look at some of the most beautiful motor yachts in the world, beginning in 1830 with the first private steam boat to the modern gas & diesel boats. Ross Mac Taggart documents here a world which has largely vanished, a world where small fortunes were spent tastefully. ...