"Over the past two centuries, humanity has experienced unprecedented progress. Extreme poverty has declined, life expectancy has doubled, illiteracy has declined. While we as a species are becoming more prosperous, more educated, healthier, and more peaceful, it is useful to remind ourselves of the underlying cause of this progress: innovation. Human innovation--whether it be new ideas, inventions, or systems-is the primary way people create wealth...

Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data. In seventy-five graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force....

Describes the many things that originally came from Spain, such as inventions, holidays, animals, foods, sports, and music.

Looks at how the fashions of the 1970s reflected the social, historical and cultural events of that decade.

A guide to the Middle Ages, discussing events, people, and practices around the world from 500 to 1500.

A humanities professor describes the impact had by the translation of the last remaining manuscript of "On the Nature of Things" by Roman philosopher Lucretius, which fueled the Renaissance and inspired artists, great thinkers, and scientists.

An expedition into an industrialized civilization that has collapsed in the year 2310 in which scientists try to figure out what happened.

"From a New York Times best-selling historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist, a sweeping epic of how the Vikings and their descendants have shaped history and America"-- Provided by publisher.

"In this revolutionary book, renowned physician Gabor Maté eloquently dissects how in Western countries that pride themselves on their healthcare systems, chronic illness and general ill health are on the rise. Nearly 70 percent of Americans are on at least one prescription drug; more than half take two. In Canada, every fifth person has high blood pressure. In Europe, hypertension is diagnosed in more than 30 percent of the population. And everywhere,...