The Rise and Fall of Nations: Ancient and mediaeval

The Rise and Fall of Nations: Ancient and mediaeval PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Civilization
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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Book Description

The Rise and Fall of Nations: Ancient and mediaeval

The Rise and Fall of Nations: Ancient and mediaeval PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Civilization
Languages : en
Pages : 516

Get Book Here

Book Description


The Rise and Fall of Nations: Ancient and mediaeval

The Rise and Fall of Nations: Ancient and mediaeval PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Civilization
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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Book Description


Empires of Food

Empires of Food PDF Author: Andrew Rimas
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439110131
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 375

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Book Description
We are what we eat: this aphorism contains a profound truth about civilization, one that has played out on the world historical stage over many millennia of human endeavor. Using the colorful diaries of a sixteenth-century merchant as a narrative guide, Empires of Food vividly chronicles the fate of people and societies for the past twelve thousand years through the foods they grew, hunted, traded, and ate—and gives us fascinating, and devastating, insights into what to expect in years to come. In energetic prose, agricultural expert Evan D. G. Fraser and journalist Andrew Rimas tell gripping stories that capture the flavor of places as disparate as ancient Mesopotamia and imperial Britain, taking us from the first city in the once-thriving Fertile Crescent to today’s overworked breadbaskets and rice bowls in the United States and China, showing just what food has meant to humanity. Cities, culture, art, government, and religion are founded on the creation and exchange of food surpluses, complex societies built by shipping corn and wheat and rice up rivers and into the stewpots of history’s generations. But eventually, inevitably, the crops fail, the fields erode, or the temperature drops, and the center of power shifts. Cultures descend into dark ages of poverty, famine, and war. It happened at the end of the Roman Empire, when slave plantations overworked Europe’s and Egypt’s soil and drained its vigor. It happened to the Mayans, who abandoned their great cities during centuries of drought. It happened in the fourteenth century, when medieval societies crashed in famine and plague, and again in the nineteenth century, when catastrophic colonial schemes plunged half the world into a poverty from which it has never recovered. And today, even though we live in an age of astounding agricultural productivity and genetically modified crops, our food supplies are once again in peril. Empires of Food brilliantly recounts the history of cyclic consumption, but it is also the story of the future; of, for example, how a shrimp boat hauling up an empty net in the Mekong Delta could spark a riot in the Caribbean. It tells what happens when a culture or nation runs out of food—and shows us the face of the world turned hungry. The authors argue that neither local food movements nor free market economists will stave off the next crash, and they propose their own solutions. A fascinating, fresh history told through the prism of the dining table, Empires of Food offers a grand scope and a provocative analysis of the world today, indispensable in this time of global warming and food crises.

The Rise and Decline of Nations

The Rise and Decline of Nations PDF Author: Mancur Olson
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300254067
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
"A compelling theory on the rationale for the changing fortunes of nations"--Publisher's website.

Economic and Social History of Medieval Europe

Economic and Social History of Medieval Europe PDF Author: Henri Pirenne
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136788557
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
First published in 2005. This original study the author writing in 1936 has tried to sketch the character and general movement of the economic and social evolution of Western Europe from the end of the Roman Empire to the middle of the fifteenth century.

The Emanu-El Review

The Emanu-El Review PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Jewish periodicals
Languages : en
Pages : 538

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How the Irish Saved Civilization

How the Irish Saved Civilization PDF Author: Thomas Cahill
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0307755134
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A book in the best tradition of popular history—the untold story of Ireland's role in maintaining Western culture while the Dark Ages settled on Europe. • The perfect St. Patrick's Day gift! Every year millions of Americans celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but they may not be aware of how great an influence St. Patrick was on the subsequent history of civilization. Not only did he bring Christianity to Ireland, he instilled a sense of literacy and learning that would create the conditions that allowed Ireland to become "the isle of saints and scholars"—and thus preserve Western culture while Europe was being overrun by barbarians. In this entertaining and compelling narrative, Thomas Cahill tells the story of how Europe evolved from the classical age of Rome to the medieval era. Without Ireland, the transition could not have taken place. Not only did Irish monks and scribes maintain the very record of Western civilization -- copying manuscripts of Greek and Latin writers, both pagan and Christian, while libraries and learning on the continent were forever lost—they brought their uniquely Irish world-view to the task. As Cahill delightfully illustrates, so much of the liveliness we associate with medieval culture has its roots in Ireland. When the seeds of culture were replanted on the European continent, it was from Ireland that they were germinated. In the tradition of Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror, How The Irish Saved Civilization reconstructs an era that few know about but which is central to understanding our past and our cultural heritage. But it conveys its knowledge with a winking wit that aptly captures the sensibility of the unsung Irish who relaunched civilization.

Bulletin

Bulletin PDF Author: University of Texas at Austin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 982

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Catalogue for Allegheny College

Catalogue for Allegheny College PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 490

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The Monthly Cumulative Book Index

The Monthly Cumulative Book Index PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American literature
Languages : en
Pages : 1344

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Book Description