The Paper Trail

The Paper Trail PDF Author: Alexander Monro
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 030796230X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
A sweeping, richly detailed history that tells the fascinating story of how paper—the simple Chinese invention of two thousand years ago—wrapped itself around our world, humankind’s most momentous ideas imprinted on its surface. The emergence of paper in the imperial court of Han China brought about a revolution in the transmission of knowledge and ideas, allowing religions, philosophies and propaganda to spread with ever greater ease. The first writing surface sufficiently cheap, portable and printable for books, pamphlets and journals to be mass-produced and distributed widely, paper opened the way for an unprecedented, ongoing dialogue between individuals and between communities across continents, oceans and time. The Paper Trail explores how the new substance was used to solidify social and political systems that influenced China even into our own time. We see how paper made possible the spread of the then new religions of Buddhism and Manichaeism into Japan, Korea and Vietnam . . . how it enabled theologians, scientists and artists to build the vast and signally intellectual empire of the Abbasid Caliphate and embed the Koran in popular culture . . . how paper was carried along the Silk Road by merchants and missionaries, finally reaching Europe in the late thirteenth century . . . and how, once established in Europe, along with the printing press, paper played an essential role in the three great foundations of Western modernity: the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Scientific Revolution. Here is a dramatic, comprehensively researched, vividly written story populated by holy men and scholars, warriors and poets, rulers and ordinary men and women—an essential story brilliantly told in this luminous work of history.

The Paper Trail

The Paper Trail PDF Author: Alexander Monro
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 030796230X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
A sweeping, richly detailed history that tells the fascinating story of how paper—the simple Chinese invention of two thousand years ago—wrapped itself around our world, humankind’s most momentous ideas imprinted on its surface. The emergence of paper in the imperial court of Han China brought about a revolution in the transmission of knowledge and ideas, allowing religions, philosophies and propaganda to spread with ever greater ease. The first writing surface sufficiently cheap, portable and printable for books, pamphlets and journals to be mass-produced and distributed widely, paper opened the way for an unprecedented, ongoing dialogue between individuals and between communities across continents, oceans and time. The Paper Trail explores how the new substance was used to solidify social and political systems that influenced China even into our own time. We see how paper made possible the spread of the then new religions of Buddhism and Manichaeism into Japan, Korea and Vietnam . . . how it enabled theologians, scientists and artists to build the vast and signally intellectual empire of the Abbasid Caliphate and embed the Koran in popular culture . . . how paper was carried along the Silk Road by merchants and missionaries, finally reaching Europe in the late thirteenth century . . . and how, once established in Europe, along with the printing press, paper played an essential role in the three great foundations of Western modernity: the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Scientific Revolution. Here is a dramatic, comprehensively researched, vividly written story populated by holy men and scholars, warriors and poets, rulers and ordinary men and women—an essential story brilliantly told in this luminous work of history.

Paper Trails

Paper Trails PDF Author: Mandy Haggith
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0753516314
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
From the medical sheets in maternity wards to our death certificates, paper charts the course of our lives. Paradoxically, it spreads ideas and learning as well as thousands of tons of junk mail, yet our dependence on this material is damaging our planet and creating mountains of unnecessary waste. Mandy Haggith explores our society's obsession with paper, from its invention in China 2000 years ago to the millions of tonnes we now use every year. Following the paper trail around the world, Mandy discovers the human stories of those affected by the industry, from a Russian ecologist, a Finnish logger and Indonesian tribal leaders, to a Canadian publisher and a Vietnamese paper technologist. In the process, she uncovers the paper industry's dirtiest secrets and sets out simple, practical steps we can take to minimise our own personal use of 20 tonnes of paper over our lifetime.

Paper Trail

Paper Trail PDF Author: Julia Bird
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781916213203
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 105

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Book Description


Catastrophe and Systemic Change: Learning from the Grenfell Tower Fire and Other Disasters

Catastrophe and Systemic Change: Learning from the Grenfell Tower Fire and Other Disasters PDF Author: Gill Kernick
Publisher: Do Sustainability
ISBN: 1913019306
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
The Grenfell Tower tragedy was the worst residential fire in London since World War II. It killed seventy-two people in the richest borough of one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Like other catastrophic events before it and since, it has the power to bring about lasting change. But will it? The historical evidence is weighed against ‘lessons being learned’ in a meaningful or enduring way. In an attempt to understand why, despite enormous efforts, we persistently fail to learn from catastrophic events, this book uses the details of the Grenfell fire as a case study to consider why we don’t learn and what it would take to enable real systemic change. The book explores the myths, the key challenges and the conditions that inhibit learning, and it identifies opportunities to positively disrupt the status quo. It offers an accessible model for systemic change, not as a definitive solution but rather as a framework to evoke reflection, enquiry and proper debate. Catastrophe and Systemic Change is a must-read book for a wide range of readers including those interested in change management, leadership, policy-making, law, housing, construction and public safety.

The Secret Life of Stuff

The Secret Life of Stuff PDF Author: Julie Hill
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1409040232
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Wouldn't you like: - Products that don't damage the environment? - A better way of life without agonising about your 'footprint'? - To really know your stuff? Climate change? Biofuels? Nuclear power? Landfills? Recycling? Renewable energy? Environmental issues can feel overwhelming. But, in fact, it is simple; it all comes down to one thing - stuff. Our use of the Earth's resources - whether a crisp packet or a cargo ship, a T-shirt or a wind turbine - has an inescapable impact on our future. In The Secret Life of Stuff, Julie Hill uncovers the origins and the true cost of what we use. Her inventory of over-consumption may shock but it is the first step towards overcoming waste. The misuse of stuff is not your fault, it's a product of history. But it is only by understanding what has gone wrong, that everyone - politicians, business people and us as consumers - can create a new and better material world.

Paper Trails

Paper Trails PDF Author: Sarah B. Horton
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 1478012099
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
Across the globe, states have long aimed to control the movement of people, identify their citizens, and restrict noncitizens' rights through official identification documents. Although states are now less likely to grant permanent legal status, they are increasingly issuing new temporary and provisional legal statuses to migrants. Meanwhile, the need for migrants to apply for frequent renewals subjects them to more intensive state surveillance. The contributors to Paper Trails examine how these new developments change migrants' relationship to state, local, and foreign bureaucracies. The contributors analyze, among other toics, immigration policies in the United Kingdom, the issuing of driver's licenses in Arizona and New Mexico, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and community know-your-rights campaigns. By demonstrating how migrants are inscribed into official bureaucratic systems through the issuance of identification documents, the contributors open up new ways to understand how states exert their power and how migrants must navigate new systems of governance. Contributors. Bridget Anderson, Deborah A. Boehm, Susan Bibler Coutin, Ruth Gomberg-Muñoz, Sarah B. Horton, Josiah Heyman, Cecilia Menjívar, Juan Thomas Ordóñez, Doris Marie Provine, Nandita Sharma, Monica Varsanyi

Safe as houses

Safe as houses PDF Author: Stuart Hodkinson
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526130017
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
As the tragedy of the Grenfell tower fire has slowly revealed a shadowy background of outsourcing, private finance initiatives and a council turning a blind eye to health and safety concerns, many questions need answers. Stuart Hodkinson has those answers. He has worked for the last decade with residents groups in council regeneration projects across London. As residents have been shifted out of 60s and 70s social housing to make way for higher rent paying newcomers, they have been promised a higher quality of housing. Councils have passed the responsibility for this housing to private consortia who amazingly have been allowed to self-regulate on quality and safety. Residents have been ignored for years on this and only now are we hearing the truth. Stuart will weave together his research on PFIs, regulation and resident action to tell the whole story of how Grenfell happened and how this could easily have happened in multiple locations across the country.

Britain's X-traordinary Files

Britain's X-traordinary Files PDF Author: David Clarke
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472904958
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
David Clarke opens The National Archives' own X Files to uncover the secret, official accounts behind legendary paranormal and extraordinary phenomena. From mediums employed by the police to help with psychic crime-busting to sea monster sightings reported to the Royal Navy, Britain's X-traordinary Files brings to light a range of secret documents created by military intelligence and government agencies who have investigated and even used extraordinary phenomena or powers in recent history. Each chapter is underpinned by original, official records held at The National Archives, which throw new light on many rumours and unsolved historical mysteries, including the Angels of Mons and other legends of the Great War plus a variety of strange phenomena reported both in the sea and in the air, from phantom helicopters to the great sea serpent of the Victorian era. The final chapter scrutinises official interest in the infamous Loch Ness Monster of Scotland and the 'Beast of Bodmin'. These accounts are supplemented with contextual material gathered from interviews and the author's own investigations, making truly eye-opening reading for anyone interested in the paranormal.

The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America

The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America PDF Author: Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780966707113
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Discover "how good teachers across America have been forced to use controversial, non-academic methodology in their classrooms; how "school choice" is being used to further dangerous reform goals, and how home schooling and private education are especially vulnerable; how workforce training (school-to-work) is an essential part of an overall plan for a global economy, and how this plan will shortcircuit your child's future career plans and opportunities; and how the international, national, regional, state and local agendas for education reform are all interconnected and have been for decades. The deliberate dumbing down of America is a chronological history of the past 100+ years of education reform. Each chapter takes a period of history and recounts the significant events, including important geopolitical and societal contextual information. Citations from government plans, policy documents, and key writings by leading reformers record the rise of the modern education reform movement.

Building/Object

Building/Object PDF Author: Charlotte Ashby
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1350234028
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 313

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Book Description
Building/Object addresses the space in between the conventional objects of design and the conventional objects of architecture, probing and reassessing the differences between the disciplines of design history and architectural history Each of the 13 chapters in this book examine things which are neither object-like nor building-like, but somewhere in between – air conditioning; bookshelves; partition walls; table-monuments; TVs; convenience stores; cars – exposing particular political configurations and resonances that otherwise might be occluded. In doing so, they reveal that the definitions we make of objects in opposition to buildings, and of architecture in opposition to design, are not as fundamental as they seem. This book brings new aspects of the creative and experiential into our understanding of the human environment.