A narrative of pioneer hardship and heroism on the boundless Dakota prairie, as a Norwegian-American immigrant family passed through Ellis Island and worked to eke out a living in America's midwest.
A cultural exploration of the Dark Age landscapes of Britain that poses a significant question: Is the modern world simply the realization of our ancient past? The five centuries between the end of Roman Britain and the death of Alfred the Great have left few voices save a handful of chroniclers, but Britain's "Dark Ages" can still be explored through their material remnants: architecture, books, metalwork, and, above all, landscapes. Max Adams explores Britain's lost early medieval past by walking its paths and exploring its lasting imprint on valley, hill, and field. From York to Whitby, from London to Sutton Hoo, from Edinburgh to Anglesey, and from Hadrian's Wall to Loch Tay, each of his ten walking narratives form free-standing chapters as well as parts of a wider portrait of a Britain of fort and fyrd, crypt and crannog, church and causeway, holy well and memorial stone. Part travelogue, part expert reconstruction, In the Land of Giants offers a beautifully written insight into the lives of peasants, drengs, ceorls, thanes, monks, knights, and kings during an enigmatic but richly exciting period of Britain’s history.
In the east, a pirate king finds his plans foiled by a formidable force of nature. In the north, a majestic mountain range emerges from a demon's tantrum. In the west, a sea keeps a city safely hidden in its deep waters. In the south, the avatar of a god gives a forest its name. Long ago, before science came up with explanations for the events that occurred in nature, people turned to stories to make sense of the wondrous workings of the natural world. And so, a life-giving stream became the gift of a goddess, a hot spring arose from the breath of a celestial snake and a heap of broken boulders served as a testament to a divine battle. Zigzagging through myths, folklore, local history and geological theories, this extraordinary book draws fascinating connections between ancient tales and the science behind the spectacular geography of India. Join Nalini Ramachandran on a most unusual, adventure-filled expedition up, down and across the country's varied terrain!
"The felling and transporting of behemoth New England oak and white pine trees, destined to become masts of 18th-century British ships, is gracefully recounted in this elegant picture book."--"School Library Journal, " starred review. An ALA Notable Children's Book, "Booklist" Youth Nonfiction Top of the List, "School Library Journal" Best Book, NCSS-CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies. Illustrations.
I am just blown away by Peter C. Stone s Waltzes with Giants. He has captured the story all so well, so tragically, so beautifully. Amy Knowlton, North Atlantic right whale research scientist, New England...
In Catholic Literary Giants, Joseph Pearce takes the reader on a dazzling tour of the creative landscape of Catholic prose and poetry. Covering the vast and impressive terrain from Dante to Tolkien, from Shakespeare to Waugh, this book is an immersion into the spiritual depths of the Catholic literary tradition with one of today's premier literary biographers as our guide. Focusing especially on the literary revival of the twentieth century, Pearce explores well-known authors such as G.K. Chesterton, Graham Greene and J.R.R. Tolkien, while introducing lesser-known writers Roy Campbell, Maurice Baring, Owen Barfield and others. He even includes the new saint, Pope John Paul II, who wrote many literary and poetic pieces, among them the story that was made into a feature film, The Jeweler's Shop.
Did giants really exist in the British Isles? Do the legends of them building Stonehenge hold any reality? Why does the establishment deny they ever existed? Hugh Newman and Jim Vieira, best selling authors of Giants On Record: America's Hidden History, Secrets in the Mounds and the Smithsonian Files (2015), and stars of History Channel's Search for the Lost Giants, investigate these claims and take a deep dive into obscure newspaper accounts, antiquarian diaries, archaeological reports, local history records, newly-translated ancient texts, academic papers, new scientific reports and written evidence from hundreds of sources going back over a 4,000-year period to uncover the truth. Over 250 accounts of the remains of giant human skeletons ranging from 7 feet to 21 feet have been found in the archaeological and historical record, often measured and commented on by famous scientists, scholars and writers at the time. A wealth of folklore from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland talks about sophisticated cultures of giants with supernatural powers and advanced technology who had control over thunder and lightning, as witnessed when their tombs were disturbed by later generations. They were often high kings and queens who were master geomancers, surveyors, architects and astronomers who ruled from their mountaintop fortresses--whilst others were cannibals with violent tendencies who enjoyed throwing gigantic rocks across the landscape! The authors take a close look at these age-old stories and the remarkable skeletal discoveries to reveal for the first time an important lost chapter of British history. Includes an 8-page color section.
Featuring numerous illustrations, this book explores the many lessons to be learned from Pleistocene megafauna, including the role of humans in their extinction, their disappearance at the start of the Sixth Extinction, and what they might teach us about contemporary conservation crises. Long after the extinction of dinosaurs, when humans were still in the Stone Age, woolly rhinos, mammoths, mastodons, sabertooth cats, giant ground sloths, and many other spectacular large animals that are no longer with us roamed the Earth. These animals are regarded as “Pleistocene megafauna,” named for the geological era in which they lived—also known as the Ice Age. In Vanished Giants: The Lost World of the Ice Age, paleontologist Anthony J. Stuart explores the lives and environments of these animals, moving between six continents and several key islands. Stuart examines the animals themselves via what we’ve learned from fossil remains, and he describes the landscapes, climates, vegetation, ecological interactions, and other aspects of the animals’ existence. Illustrated throughout, Vanished Giants also offers a picture of the world as it was tens of thousands of years ago when these giants still existed. Unlike the case of the dinosaurs, there was no asteroid strike to blame for the end of their world. Instead, it appears that the giants of the Ice Age were driven to extinction by climate change, human activities—especially hunting—or both. Drawing on the latest evidence provided by radiocarbon dating, Stuart discusses these possibilities. The extinction of Ice Age megafauna can be seen as the beginning of the so-called Sixth Extinction, which is happening right now. This has important implications for understanding the likely fate of present-day animals in the face of contemporary climate change and vastly increasing human populations.
'The fragmented stories and haunted photographs in Paul Scraton and Eymelt Sehmer's In the Pines feel like field recordings from the shadow forest of their imaginations, transcribed into the pages of an old Explorer's Journal. I felt like I had gone into the forest, rucksack packed with Binoculars, Compass, Penknife, Whistle, Magnifying glass, Notebook, Pencil... and this haunting, collodion-eerie book..' – Jeff Youngl, author of Ghost Town In the Pines is author Paul Scraton's story of an unnamed narrator's lifelong relationship with the forest and the mysteries it contains, told through fragmented stories that capture the blurred details and sharp focus of memory.. Accompanied by eerie images created using a 170-year-old technique of collodion wet plate photography by Eymelt Sehmer, In the Pines is a powerfully evocative collaboration between image and text
Shortly before his death, 150 years ago, King William I of Wurttemberg gave the royal forestry commission in the country an unusual mission, the preparation and realization of which, lead to a diversity of results which was without parallel. The discovery of the giant sequoia trees in North America in the middle of the 19th century caused a sensation, which King William I as a nature lover took as an opportunity to have seeds of these exotic trees sent directly from California to the temperate greenhouse of the current Wilhelma in Stuttgart in order to raise thousands of young trees. The giant trees were known at this time in Wurttemberg as Wellingtonia. The young trees were then planted systematically at exposed locations in the royal forests and in numerous castle gardens and parks in Wurttemberg. This anniversary treatise is intended to describe the history of this impressive initiative of King Wilhelm I of Wurttemberg, and in particular the diversity and beauty of the remaining 132 sites of this so called “Wilhelma-Seed” in all of Wurttemberg, distributed from North Wurttemberg to Lake Constance in the south. This book presents details of the locations in Wurttemberg, which were developed with the help and support of my friends and colleagues of the initiative "Project Sequoia" launched years ago. Note, this e-book contains 30 pages and 140 photos.