Essential Terms of Chinese Painting provides a comprehensive coverage of the broad spectrum of Chinese painting. Through an array of some 900 terms, it exhibits the history of Chinese culture, as interpreted by artists and portrayed in their work. In masterful detail, it describes not only the artistic implements and drawing styles, but also how these are influenced by changing cultural considerations over time such as religion, philosophy, intellectual ideas, and political developments. From the broad view of how the change of dynasties affected painting trends in both format and subject, to the smallest detail of the methods used to paint different styles of tree branches, this is a full compendium of the scope and depth of artwork from China. This volume features twelve chapters which • explore all major areas of art including techniques, implements and materials, inscriptions and seals, painting and mounting formats for all categories including landscape, bird-and-flower, figure
A memoir of a queer Quaker activist and master storyteller on his involvement in struggles for peace, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, labor justice, and the environment, whose life will be the subject of a new documentary film coming in 2022.From his first arrest in the Civil Rights era to his most recent during a climate justice march at the age of 83, George Lakey has committed his life to a mission of building a better world through movements for justice. Lakey draws readers into the center of history-making events, telling often serious stories with playfulness and intimacy. In this memoir, he describes the personal, political, and theoretical—coming out as bisexual to his Quaker community while known as a church leader and family man, protesting against the war in Vietnam by delivering medical supplies through the naval blockade in the South China Sea, and applying his academic study of nonviolent resistance to creative tactics in direct action campaigns. From strategies he
"Although the title makes it sound like a reference book, it is so much more than that. The style of writing is engaging and informative. The layout is attractive, with beautiful illustrations, photos, period paintings, quotes, and interesting inserts on every page. Wilkinson's history unfolds like a symphonic work with instrument makers, composers and virtuosic performers picking up these incredible creations and exposing their beauty and capability. To open it up is to be instantly hooked."-- Publishers Weekly The 400-year story of music told by the instruments that make an orchestra. The History of Music in Fifty Instruments outlines musical history in well-written nuggets of information. Profiling one instrument at a time, it describes the history of music since the 1700s, when orchestras first took the formal shape familiar to us. The concise text explains the role of each instrument in the orchestra and its importance in the development of music in general. The book lists the 50
In A History of the Human Brain, popular science writer Bret Stetka reveals how the evolution of the brain made us human―and where it may lead us to next.Just over 125,000 years ago, humanity was goin
Bestselling philosophy book is reimagined for the first time as a graphic novelOne day, young Sophie finds a letter addressed to her that contains only one question: “Who are you?” Then there’s another one asking, “Where does the world come from?” The sender of these letters remains a mystery, but the questions intrigue Sophie. This is the beginning of a strange correspondence that will lead the young girl on a coming-of-age quest to meet major figures of philosophy (Socrates, Plato, Descartes, Hegel, Sartre, etc.). In the first volume, Sophie begins by questioning the philosophers of Antiquity and goes all the way to those of the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods. This is the first of two volumes. In the second volume, she discovers metaphysical doubt while continuing on her way to modern times. This comic book adaptation of Jostein Gaarder’s original book breathes new life into a cult classic.
From UFOs to Dr. Strangelove, LSD experiments to Richard Nixon, author Brian Brown investigates the paranoid, panicked history of the Cold War. In Someone Is Out to Get Us, Brian T. Brown explores the
A portrait―by turns celebratory, skeptical, and surprisingly moving―of an iconic American institution, from an author who “might be the most influential design critic writing now” (LARB).Few places have been as nostalgized, or as maligned, as the American mall. Since its birth around the turn of the 1950s, it has loomed large as a temple of commerce and agora of the suburbs. In its prime, it proved a powerful draw for creative thinkers from Joan Didion to Ray Bradbury to George Romero, who understood its appeal as both critics and consumers. Yet today, amid the aftershocks of financial crises and a global pandemic, as well as the rise of online retail, the dystopian husk of an abandoned shopping center has become one of our era’s defining images. Conventional wisdom holds that the mall is dead. But what was the mall, really? And have rumors of its demise been greatly exaggerated?In her acclaimed The Design of Childhood, Alexandra Lange uncovered the histories of toys, classrooms, and p
From bestselling author Gary Kinder, Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea is a “ripping true tale of danger and discovery at sea” (Washington Post), newly updated for this special 20th-anniversary editio
