Pairing fiction with fact is a great way to get beginning readers excited about nonfiction. Let's Read About Animals is the nonfiction companion to our popular series Animal Storybooks. It describes
Sixteen-year-old Miranda Merchant is great at science. . .and not so great with boys. After major drama with her boyfriend and (now ex) best friend, she's happy to spend the summer on small, mysterio
16-year-old Miranda Merchant is great at science...and not so great with boys. After major drama with her boyfriend and (now ex) best friend, she's happy to spend the summer on small, mysterious Selk
After suffering devastating losses in the huge naval battles at Midway and the Soloman Islands, the Imperial Japanese navy attempted to counter-attack against the US forces threatening the Home Island
There are more than 180 exotic species in the Great Lakes. Some, such as green algae, the Asian tapeworm, and the suckermouth minnow, have had little or no impact so far. But a handful of others—sea l
The myths of settlement of the Great Plains usually conjure up images of Anglo-American pioneers moving into a sea of grass, opposed by Native peoples. Such myths leave out the considerable influence
This beautiful and evocative book gives an illustrated overview of the First World War, on land, on sea and in the air. With original drawings in full color, Steven Patricia uses 30 years’ experience
James Geikie (1839–1915) was born in Edinburgh, and his work from 1861 as a field geologist for the Geological Survey in Scotland provided the evidence for the theories he proposes in this work, first published in 1874 (revised editions appeared in 1877 and 1894). Geikie brought together his own research and the findings of other geologists in Scotland to support his main thesis of 'drift' being evidence of the action not of sea ice but of land ice. He was influenced by James Croll's theory that changes in the Earth's orbit led to epochs of cold climate in one hemisphere and warm in the other, and Geikie believed that the geological record provided evidence for inter-glacial periods. The book was hailed as a breakthrough at the time, and brought the author international recognition. With intricate scientific theories explained in clear uncluttered language, this remains a classic text.
Imperial Boundaries is a study of imperial expansion and local transformation on Russia's Don Steppe frontier during the age of Peter the Great. Brian Boeck connects the rivalry of the Russian and Ottoman empires in the northern Black Sea basin to the social history of the Don Cossacks, who were transformed from an open, democratic, multiethnic, male fraternity dedicated to frontier raiding into a closed, ethnic community devoted to defending and advancing the boundaries of the Russian state. He shows how by promoting border patrol, migration control, bureaucratic regulation of cross-border contacts and deportation of dissidents, Peter I destroyed the world of the old steppe and created a new imperial Cossack order in its place. In examining this transformation, Imperial Boundaries addresses key historical issues of imperial expansion, the delegitimization of non-state violence, the construction of borders, and the encroaching boundaries of state authority in the lives of local communi
Human settlement of the western fringes of the Pacific began at least 40,000 years ago. Long, hazardous sea voyages were the only way of reaching the tiny islands scattered through this vast expanse of ocean. Food and shelter were hard to come by, even on land. This book, first published in 1996, documents how these settlers adapted culturally and biologically to the distinctive Pacific environment, and how they evolved into the large-bodied, muscular people seen today in New Zealand, Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia. Philip Houghton considers studies of DNA, patterns of health and disease, and computer simulations of human survival at sea based on the likely routes through the Pacific. People of the Great Ocean is a unique work based on extensive research and careful analysis. Philip Houghton's text presents detailed technical information, but remains highly readable and persuasive.
This book is about the theatre of power and identity that unfolded in and between Britain and Germany in the decades before the First World War. It explores what contemporaries described as the cult of the navy: the many ways in which the navy and the sea were celebrated in the fleet reviews, naval visits and ship launches that were watched by hundreds of thousands of spectators. At once royal rituals and national entertainments, these were events at which tradition, power and claims to the sea were played out between the nations. This was a public stage on which the domestic and the foreign intersected and where the modern mass market of media and consumerism collided with politics and international relations. Conflict and identity were literally acted out between the two countries. By focusing on this dynamic arena, Jan Rüger offers a fascinating new history of the Anglo-German antagonism.
