A 48-lecture course that reveals the stories of how human beings around the world transitioned from small farming communities to the impressive cultural and political systems that would forever alter the course of history. Taking a gripping archaeological and historical approach to these formative states and civilizations, archaeologist and Professor Scott MacEachern of Bowdoin College completes your understanding of the history of human civilization{u2014}by...

"These wide-ranging essays--on many individual political, economic, cultural and legal issues--have as a recurring underlying theme the decline of the values and institutions that have sustained and advanced American society for more than two centuries...Whether these essays (originally published as syndicated newspaper columns) are individually about financial bailouts, illegal immigrants, gay marriage, national security, or the Duke University...

A world-famous novelist puts her career on the line to prove she can still lead a normal life. But her move into a typical middle-class family's home yields unexpectedly comical results.

The film centers around Sebastian who is encouraged by his fiancée to bring his immigrant, hairdresser father, Salvo, to a weekend get-together with her super-rich and exceedingly eccentric family. The weekend develops into what can only be described as a culture clash, leaving Sebastian and Salvo to discover that the great thing about family is everything about family.

The Anasazi Indians of the Southwest represent 2,500 years of cultural continuity, from the early Basket Makers of 700 B.C. to their modern descendants, the Pueblo Indians. The pueblos and cliff dwellings they built during their halcyon days between 1100 and 1500 are the most spectacular ruins north of Mexico. In this book, all of the significant and accessible Anasazi ruins are photographed and described in detail. Many of the photographs are aerial...

From the acclaimed Ojibwe author and professor Anton Treuer comes an essential book of questions and answers for Native and non-Native young readers alike. Ranging from "Why is there such a fuss about nonnative people wearing Indian costumes for Halloween?" to "Why is it called a 'traditional Indian fry bread taco'?" to "What's it like for natives who don't look native?" to "Why are Indians so often imagined rather than understood?", and beyond, Everything...

"Our world was made on and by the Silk Roads. For millennia it was here that East and West encountered each other through trade and conquest, leading to the spread of ideas and cultures, the birth of the world's great religions, the appetites for foreign goods that drove economies and the growth of nations. From the first cities in Mesopotamia to the growth of Greece and Rome to the depredations by the Mongols and the Black Death to the Great Game...

Covering subjects ranging from healthcare to the economy to food, Stephen gives America the dose of truth it needs to get back on track. The political satirist, comedian, and host of "The Colbert Report" puts his signature humorous spin on healthcare, the economy, and food, promising that this book will singlehandedly fix an America that is broken and has lost its way.

In these deeply researched essays, a Paris Review contributor blends science, history, and memoir to explore human obsession with gorgeous things, exposing the fraught histories of makeup, silk, jewels, perfume, and other objects, helping readers to ethically partake in the beauty of the world around them.

"Published by E.M. Forster in 1908, A Room with a View follows the story of Lucy Honeychurch, a well-to-do young woman living in the restrained culture of Edwardian era England. While on vacation in Italy, she finds her somewhat neatly ordered existence thrown off balance, when she meets and falls for the passionate, but conventionally unsuitable, George Emerson. With a cast of flamboyant and memorable characters, including romantic novelist Eleanor...