The Race to the Future: 8,000 Miles to Paris - The Adventure That Accelerated the Twentieth Century

The Race to the Future: 8,000 Miles to Paris - The Adventure That Accelerated the Twentieth Century PDF Author: Kassia St. Clair
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
ISBN: 1324094923
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 234

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Book Description
The rise of the automobile as told through its Rubicon moment—a sensational, high-risk race across two continents on the verge of revolution. The racers—an Italian prince and his chauffeur, a French racing driver, a con man, and several rival journalists—battle over steep inclines, through narrow mountain passages, and across the arid Gobi Desert. Competitors endure torrential rain and choking dust. There are barely any roads, and petrol is almost impossible to find. A global audience of millions follows each twist and turn, devouring reports telegraphed from the course. More than its many adventures, the Peking-to-Paris Motor Challenge took place on the precipice of a new world. As the twentieth century dawned, imperial regimes in China and Russia were crumbling, paving the way for the rise of communist ones. The electric telegraph was rapidly transforming modern communication, and with it, the news media, commerce, and politics. Suspended between the old and the new, the Peking-to-Paris, as best-selling historian Kassia St. Clair writes, became a critical tipping point. A gripping, immersive narrative of the race, The Race to the Future sets the drivers’ derring-do (and occasional cheating) against the backdrop of a larger geopolitical and technological race to the future. Interweaving events from the fall of the Qing dynasty to the departure of the horse economy and the rise of gendered marketing, St. Clair shows how the Peking-to-Paris provided an impetus for profound social, cultural, and industrial change, while masterfully capturing the mounting tensions between nations and empires—all building up to the cataclysmic event that changed everything: the First World War. “Consistently mind-boggling, often funny, and occasionally hair-raising” (Philip Ball), The Race to the Future is the incredible true story of the quest against the odds that propelled us along the road to modernity.

The Race to the Future: 8,000 Miles to Paris - The Adventure That Accelerated the Twentieth Century

The Race to the Future: 8,000 Miles to Paris - The Adventure That Accelerated the Twentieth Century PDF Author: Kassia St. Clair
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
ISBN: 1324094923
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 234

Get Book Here

Book Description
The rise of the automobile as told through its Rubicon moment—a sensational, high-risk race across two continents on the verge of revolution. The racers—an Italian prince and his chauffeur, a French racing driver, a con man, and several rival journalists—battle over steep inclines, through narrow mountain passages, and across the arid Gobi Desert. Competitors endure torrential rain and choking dust. There are barely any roads, and petrol is almost impossible to find. A global audience of millions follows each twist and turn, devouring reports telegraphed from the course. More than its many adventures, the Peking-to-Paris Motor Challenge took place on the precipice of a new world. As the twentieth century dawned, imperial regimes in China and Russia were crumbling, paving the way for the rise of communist ones. The electric telegraph was rapidly transforming modern communication, and with it, the news media, commerce, and politics. Suspended between the old and the new, the Peking-to-Paris, as best-selling historian Kassia St. Clair writes, became a critical tipping point. A gripping, immersive narrative of the race, The Race to the Future sets the drivers’ derring-do (and occasional cheating) against the backdrop of a larger geopolitical and technological race to the future. Interweaving events from the fall of the Qing dynasty to the departure of the horse economy and the rise of gendered marketing, St. Clair shows how the Peking-to-Paris provided an impetus for profound social, cultural, and industrial change, while masterfully capturing the mounting tensions between nations and empires—all building up to the cataclysmic event that changed everything: the First World War. “Consistently mind-boggling, often funny, and occasionally hair-raising” (Philip Ball), The Race to the Future is the incredible true story of the quest against the odds that propelled us along the road to modernity.

The Race to the Future

The Race to the Future PDF Author: Kassia St. Clair
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781324094913
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The rise of the automobile as told through its Rubicon moment--a sensational, high-risk race across two continents on the verge of revolution.

Race of the Century

Race of the Century PDF Author: Julie M. Fenster
Publisher: Broadway Books
ISBN: 0307339173
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
Capturing the determination and thrill of an era when technology made anything seem possible, this work tells the story of the death-defying New York-to-Paris Auto Race held in 1908. Photos.

East Against West

East Against West PDF Author: Dmitry Shlapentokh
Publisher: Publish America
ISBN: 9781413756913
Category : Greece
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The United States is possibly the last Western empire that has tried to impose the global predominance of the West. It was assumed in the beginning of the war in the Middle East that American success was predestined and that this encounter would be similar to the first Greek and Persian War in 5 B.C. It is from this prospective that historians have approached the event. This book challenges this assumption. The great Persians had a much greater chance for victory than the Greeks. It was just luck and the genius of a few Greek politicians that saved the West.

Threads of Life

Threads of Life PDF Author: Clare Hunter
Publisher: Abrams
ISBN: 168335771X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
This globe-spanning history of sewing and embroidery, culture and protest, is “an astonishing feat . . . richly textured and moving” (The Sunday Times, UK). In 1970s Argentina, mothers marched in headscarves embroidered with the names of their “disappeared” children. In Tudor, England, when Mary, Queen of Scots, was under house arrest, her needlework carried her messages to the outside world. From the political propaganda of the Bayeux Tapestry, World War I soldiers coping with PTSD, and the maps sewn by schoolgirls in the New World, to the AIDS quilt, Hmong story clothes, and pink pussyhats, women and men have used the language of sewing to make their voices heard, even in the most desperate of circumstances. Threads of Life is a chronicle of identity, memory, power, and politics told through the stories of needlework. Clare Hunter, master of the craft, threads her own narrative as she takes us over centuries and across continents—from medieval France to contemporary Mexico and the United States, and from a POW camp in Singapore to a family attic in Scotland—to celebrate the universal beauty and power of sewing.

Indy Split: The Big Money Battle That Nearly Destroyed Indy Racing

Indy Split: The Big Money Battle That Nearly Destroyed Indy Racing PDF Author: John Oreovicz
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781642340563
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
Tradition, technology, and personal bravery combined to make the Indianapolis 500 one of the world's most famous sporting events. However, political infighting within the industry--which climaxed with a 12-year "Split" from 1996 to 2007 between competing forms of Indy car racing--prevented the sport from achieving its potential. The Split seriously tarnished the reputation of the Indianapolis 500 and allowed NASCAR to become America's most popular form of motorsport. But Indy car racing's dysfunction didn't originate in 1996. The story begins in 1945, when a businessman from Terre Haute, Indiana named Tony Hulman rescued the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from potential redevelopment. Over the next 75 years, the Hulman-George family used the stature of the Speedway to carve out a powerful position in American auto racing. Stewardship of the IMS often brought the family into conflict with Indy car competitors. A volatile period in the late 1970s resulted in the formation of Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART), and tensions ramped up even more when Hulman's grandson, Tony George, assumed power in 1990. The Split forced Indy car fans, sponsors, broadcasters and participants to choose sides. It created confusion and animosity and caused tremendous damage to the sport. With negotiations driven by legendary racer Mario Andretti and actor/racer Paul Newman, The Split was finally resolved in 2008, only for George to walk away less than three years later from the role he so desperately coveted. The long struggle for stability and leadership was finally resolved in 2020 when Roger Penske acquired IMS and the IndyCar Series.

Mind & Body

Mind & Body PDF Author: THE SCHOOL OF LIFE.
Publisher: School of Life
ISBN: 9781912891467
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
A practical and playful guide to balancing and maintaining physical and mental harmony.

Forty Autumns

Forty Autumns PDF Author: Nina Willner
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062410334
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 223

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Book Description
In this illuminating and deeply moving memoir, a former American military intelligence officer goes beyond traditional Cold War espionage tales to tell the true story of her family—of five women separated by the Iron Curtain for more than forty years, and their miraculous reunion after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Forty Autumns makes visceral the pain and longing of one family forced to live apart in a world divided by two. At twenty, Hanna escaped from East to West Germany. But the price of freedom—leaving behind her parents, eight siblings, and family home—was heartbreaking. Uprooted, Hanna eventually moved to America, where she settled down with her husband and had children of her own. Growing up near Washington, D.C., Hanna’s daughter, Nina Willner became the first female Army Intelligence Officer to lead sensitive intelligence operations in East Berlin at the height of the Cold War. Though only a few miles separated American Nina and her German relatives—grandmother Oma, Aunt Heidi, and cousin, Cordula, a member of the East German Olympic training team—a bitter political war kept them apart. In Forty Autumns, Nina recounts her family’s story—five ordinary lives buffeted by circumstances beyond their control. She takes us deep into the tumultuous and terrifying world of East Germany under Communist rule, revealing both the cruel reality her relatives endured and her own experiences as an intelligence officer, running secret operations behind the Berlin Wall that put her life at risk. A personal look at a tenuous era that divided a city and a nation, and continues to haunt us, Forty Autumns is an intimate and beautifully written story of courage, resilience, and love—of five women whose spirits could not be broken, and who fought to preserve what matters most: family. Forty Autumns is illustrated with dozens of black-and-white and color photographs.

The Historical Archaeology of Virginia from Initial Settlement to the Present

The Historical Archaeology of Virginia from Initial Settlement to the Present PDF Author: Clarence R. Geier
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781541023482
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
The book includes six chapters that cover Virginia history from initial settlement through the 20th century plus one that deals with the important role of underwater archaeology. Written by prominent archaeologists with research experience in their respective topic areas, the chapters consider important issues of Virginia history and consider how the discipline of historic archaeology has addressed them and needs to address them . Changes in research strategy over time are discussed , and recommendations are made concerning the need to recognize the diverse and often differing roles and impacts that characterized the different regions of Virginia over the course of its historic past. Significant issues in Virginia history needing greater study are identified.

A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear

A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear PDF Author: Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1541788486
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 318

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Book Description
A tiny American town's plans for radical self-government overlooked one hairy detail: no one told the bears. Once upon a time, a group of libertarians got together and hatched the Free Town Project, a plan to take over an American town and completely eliminate its government. In 2004, they set their sights on Grafton, NH, a barely populated settlement with one paved road. When they descended on Grafton, public funding for pretty much everything shrank: the fire department, the library, the schoolhouse. State and federal laws became meek suggestions, scarcely heard in the town's thick wilderness. The anything-goes atmosphere soon caught the attention of Grafton's neighbors: the bears. Freedom-loving citizens ignored hunting laws and regulations on food disposal. They built a tent city in an effort to get off the grid. The bears smelled food and opportunity. A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear is the sometimes funny, sometimes terrifying tale of what happens when a government disappears into the woods. Complete with gunplay, adventure, and backstabbing politicians, this is the ultimate story of a quintessential American experiment -- to live free or die, perhaps from a bear.