Half Lives

Half Lives PDF Author: Lucy Jane Santos
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1643137492
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
The fascinating, curious, and sometimes macabre history of radium as seen in its uses in everyday life. Of all the radioactive elements discovered at the end of the nineteenth century, it was radium that became the focus of both public fascination and entrepreneurial zeal. Half Lives tells the fascinating, curious, sometimes macabre story of the element through its ascendance as a desirable item – a present for a queen, a prize in a treasure hunt, a glow-in- the-dark dance costume – to its role as a supposed cure-all in everyday twentieth-century life, when medical practitioners and business people (reputable and otherwise) devised ingenious ways of commodifying the new wonder element, and enthusiastic customers welcomed their radioactive wares into their homes. Lucy Jane Santos—herself the proud owner of a formidable collection of radium beauty treatments—delves into the stories of these products and details the gradual downfall and discredit of the radium industry through the eyes of the people who bought, sold and eventually came to fear the once-fetishized substance. Half Lives is a new history of radium as part of a unique examination of the interplay between science and popular culture.

Half Lives

Half Lives PDF Author: Lucy Jane Santos
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1643137492
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Get Book Here

Book Description
The fascinating, curious, and sometimes macabre history of radium as seen in its uses in everyday life. Of all the radioactive elements discovered at the end of the nineteenth century, it was radium that became the focus of both public fascination and entrepreneurial zeal. Half Lives tells the fascinating, curious, sometimes macabre story of the element through its ascendance as a desirable item – a present for a queen, a prize in a treasure hunt, a glow-in- the-dark dance costume – to its role as a supposed cure-all in everyday twentieth-century life, when medical practitioners and business people (reputable and otherwise) devised ingenious ways of commodifying the new wonder element, and enthusiastic customers welcomed their radioactive wares into their homes. Lucy Jane Santos—herself the proud owner of a formidable collection of radium beauty treatments—delves into the stories of these products and details the gradual downfall and discredit of the radium industry through the eyes of the people who bought, sold and eventually came to fear the once-fetishized substance. Half Lives is a new history of radium as part of a unique examination of the interplay between science and popular culture.

Hidden Sources

Hidden Sources PDF Author: Laura Szucs Pfeiffer
Publisher: Ancestry Publishing
ISBN:
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Family history researchers are accustomed to searching among vital records, censuses, and other commonly used sources. But there are any number of more-obscure sources that can lead researchers to vital information, and Obscure Sources: Great Clues in Hidden Places will introduce you to them. Bankruptcy records, special censuses, employment records, and coroners' records are only a few of the kinds of records you can turn to when other sources prove unfruitful. Obscure Sources is an overview of a large number of sources that are often overlooked. It discusses where these records can be found, offers some options for locating these records through the Internet, and provides a selected bibliography of background information and methodology.

To the Flag

To the Flag PDF Author: Richard J. Ellis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Saluting the flag in public schools began as part of a national effort to Americanize immigrants. Here, Richard Ellis unfurls the history of the Pledge of Allegiance and of the debates and controversies that have sometimes surrounded it.

Unlikely Partners

Unlikely Partners PDF Author: Julian Gewirtz
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 067497347X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
Unlikely Partners recounts the story of how Chinese politicians and intellectuals looked beyond their country’s borders for economic guidance at a key crossroads in the nation’s tumultuous twentieth century. Julian Gewirtz offers a dramatic tale of competition for influence between reformers and hardline conservatives during the Deng Xiaoping era, bringing to light China’s productive exchanges with the West. When Mao Zedong died in 1976, his successors seized the opportunity to reassess the wisdom of China’s rigid commitment to Marxist doctrine. With Deng Xiaoping’s blessing, China’s economic gurus scoured the globe for fresh ideas that would put China on the path to domestic prosperity and ultimately global economic power. Leading foreign economists accepted invitations to visit China to share their expertise, while Chinese delegations traveled to the United States, Hungary, Great Britain, West Germany, Brazil, and other countries to examine new ideas. Chinese economists partnered with an array of brilliant thinkers, including Nobel Prize winners, World Bank officials, battle-scarred veterans of Eastern Europe’s economic struggles, and blunt-speaking free-market fundamentalists. Nevertheless, the push from China’s senior leadership to implement economic reforms did not go unchallenged, nor has the Chinese government been eager to publicize its engagement with Western-style innovations. Even today, Chinese Communists decry dangerous Western influences and officially maintain that China’s economic reinvention was the Party’s achievement alone. Unlikely Partners sets forth the truer story, which has continuing relevance for China’s complex and far-reaching relationship with the West.

A Short History of Indonesia

A Short History of Indonesia PDF Author: Colin Brown
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 9781865088389
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
New in the Short Histories of Asia series, edited by Milton Osborne, this is a readable, well-informed and comprehensive history of Indonesia and its peoples, from ancient origins to the present day.

Unlikely Pilgrim

Unlikely Pilgrim PDF Author: Alfred Regnery
Publisher: Beaufort Books
ISBN: 0825308003
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
Two middle-aged men, fast friends, make eleven foreign trips—pilgrimages you might call them —to parts of the world rich in the history of Christianity. The trips combine adventure, strenuous physical activity, exhilaration, discovery, and friendship. Three of the journeys were to Western Europe; six were to Eastern Europe and the Balkans and two to the Middle East. The trips were spontaneous and unplanned, often requiring improvisation along the way. Told in a lighthearted and often amusing style, An Unlikely Pilgrim provides a vivid and colorful picture of parts of the world often out of the range of American tourists, but deep in both ancient and current geopolitical, historical, and cultural wealth.

An Invisible Thread

An Invisible Thread PDF Author: Laura Schroff
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451648979
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
A cloth bag containing eight copies of the title, that may also include a folder.

Life in Motion

Life in Motion PDF Author: Misty Copeland
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476737983
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Profiles the life and career of the professional ballerina, covering from when she began dance classes at age thirteen in an after-school community center through becoming the only African American soloist dancing with the American Ballet Theatre.

Star-Spangled Banner

Star-Spangled Banner PDF Author: Marc Ferris
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421415186
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
" In September, 2014, Baltimore and the United States will mark the bicentennial of the event that inspired "The Star-Spangled Banner." But Francis Scott Key's poem, set to a British drinking song, has not always been our anthem, nor even especially popular. Aiming at a broad readership, Ferris examines the history of the song through the generations that followed the War of 1812, the kinds of Americans who rallied behind the song, and the successful lobbying effort that in 1933 convinced Congress to adopt the music and four stanzas as our official national anthem. Since then many citizens have called for its replacement with something less warlike; people quarrel over its apparent militarism and also difficulty level. Politically, Ferris finds, the song has an interesting and somewhat tortured story. Are we the only nation on earth with a controversial national anthem?"--Provided by publisher.

Standing Strong

Standing Strong PDF Author: Diane Reeve
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 0757319033
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
Diane Reeve thought she had found everything in handsome Frenchman Philippe Padieu. Believing him to be her last great love, she spent every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday with him for four years, and they were about to buy a house together. When Diane learned he had Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday women, too, she was devastated. But the pain was just beginning. A week after their breakup, during a routine exam, she tested positive for an STD. After calling every woman she found in Philippe's phone records, she was told to get tested for something much worse: HIV. The sick reality was that Philippe was deliberately infecting multiple women—women in their 20s through 60s, with little in common except their vulnerability. It was a sisterhood none of them wanted to belong to, but it became their lifeline as they struggled with anger, the specter and stigma of an HIV diagnosis, and failing health. Despite plummeting t-cell numbers and declining health, Diane vowed to stop Philippe from victimizing anyone else. In a race against time, she tracked down as many of his conquests as possible. Against all odds, this unlikely group made legal history, successfully prosecuting Padieu and sending him to prison for assault with a deadly weapon. This fascinating case—won only through the help of new DNA science—is Diane's story of victory and her mission to bring awareness and empowerment to others. As she explains, "Courage is doing what's right, even when you're afraid."