Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

The history of pi, says the author, though a small part of the history of mathematics, is nevertheless a mirror of the history of man. Petr Beckmann holds up this mirror, giving the background of the times when pi made progress -- and also when it did not, because science was being stifled by militarism or religious fanaticism.

The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, a Flying Squirrel, and a Talking Moose

The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, a Flying Squirrel, and a Talking Moose

by Keith Scott

The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show featured some of the wittiest, most inspired, and relentlessly hilarious animation ever created. The legendary Jay Ward and Bill Scott produced the gleeful wonder and cumulative joy that transcended the crude drawings and occasionally muddy sound. Jay Ward was the magnificent visionary, the outrageous showman, while Bill Scott was the genial, brilliant head writer, coproducer, and... (more)

Near a Thousand Tables : A History of Food

Near a Thousand Tables : A History of Food

by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto

In Near a Thousand Tables, acclaimed food historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto tells the fascinating story of food as cultural as well as culinary history -- a window on the history of mankind. In this "appetizingly provocative" (Los Angeles Times) book, he guides readers through the eight great revolutions in the world history of food: the origins of cooking, which set humankind on a course apart from other... (more)

Kindness of Strangers

The Abandonment of Children in Western Europe from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance

by John Boswell

In The Kindness of Strangers , John Boswell argues persuasively that child abandonment was a common and morally acceptable practice from antiquity until the Renaissance. Using a wide variety of sources, including drama and mythological-literary texts as well as demographics, Boswell examines the evidence that parents of all classes gave up unwanted children, "exposing" them in public places, donating them to the... (more)

Pomp and Sustenance: Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food

Pomp and Sustenance: Twenty-Five Centuries of Sicilian Food

by Mary Taylor Simeti

Pomp and Sustenance is a celebration of one of the oldest, most varied, and best-loved cuisines of Europe, at once frugal and extravagant, robustly simple yet often handsomely ornate. For twenty-five centuries, the people of Sicily have been creating what is perhaps the basic cuisine of Europe on the beautiful island in the heart of the Meditteranean. Beginning with the oldest and most elementary components in... (more)

Pickpockets, Beggars and Ratcatchers (Life in the Victorian Underworld)Kellow Chesney

Pickpockets, Beggars and Ratcatchers (Life in the Victorian Underworld)

by Kellow Chesney

New History of Jazz

by Alyn Shipton

Alyn Shipton's book traces the international history of jazz from its earliest days, right through the 20th century to the major trends in jazz of the last 30 years.

Western Times and Water Wars: State, Culture, and Rebellion in California (A Centennial Book)

Western Times and Water Wars: State, Culture, and Rebellion in California (A Centennial Book)

by John Walton

Western Times and Water Wars chronicles more than a hundred years of tumultuous events in the history of California's Owens Valley. From the pioneer conquest of the native inhabitants to the infamous destruction of the valley's agrarian economy by water-hungry Los Angeles, this legendary setting is a microcosm of the development of the American West.

Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography

Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography

by Roger Shattuck

A riveting account of the ways in which man's darkest impulses conflict with common sense. From the lessons learned in "Paradise Lost" and the events which transpired in the tales of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Frankenstein to unlocking the secrets of the atom, Shattuck's brilliant synthesis of history and literature is utterly relevant to our times and addictively readable.

The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War

The Rape of Europa: The Fate of Europe's Treasures in the Third Reich and the Second World War

by Lynn H. Nicholas

The cast of characters includes Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering, Gertrude Stein and Marc Chagall--not to mention works by artists from da Vinci to Picasso. And the story told in this superbly researched and at times suspenseful book is that of the Third Reich's war on European culture and the Allies' desperate effort to preserve it. 90 illustrations and photos. 3 maps.

100 Years Of American Newspaper Comics. An Illustrated Encyclopedia

At the Bottom of the Garden: A Dark History of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Nymphs, and Other Troublesome Things: A Dark History of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Nymphs, and Other Troublesome Things

At the Bottom of the Garden: A Dark History of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Nymphs, and Other Troublesome Things: A Dark History of Fairies, Hobgoblins, Nymphs, and Other Troublesome Things

by Diane Purkiss

At the Bottom of the Garden is a history of fairies from the ancient world to the present. Steeped in folklore and fantasy, it is a rich and diverse account of the part that fairies and fairy stories have played in culture and society. The pretty pastel world of gauzy-winged things who grant wishes and make dreams come true—as brought to you by Disney's fairies flitting across a woodland glade, or... (more)

Confessions of a Maddog: A Romp Through the High-Flying Texas Music and Literary Era of the Fifties to the Seventies

Confessions of a Maddog: A Romp Through the High-Flying Texas Music and Literary Era of the Fifties to the Seventies

by Jay Dunston Milner

Maddog Inc. was a loose confederation of Texas writers and "picker poets," as Jay Milner calls them, whose heydey lasted from the late 1950s to about the mid-'70s. This self-conscious gaggle of merrymakers (the group even had an official Maddog membership card) frequently got together to party through the nights and days. The merry pranksters he fell in with included the likes of Billy Lee Brammer, Bud... (more)

The 1920s (Decades of the 20th Century)

by Nicholas Yapp

Decades of the 20th Century. Photographs from the Getty collection. Fascinating photographs put images of the power of an event or the zaniness of new trends right before the viewers' eyes. The force of war and political conflict is just as important a theme as world-shaking innovations in science and technology. These are accompanied by portraits of great personalities in art, politics, and society.

The Rise and Fall of Popular Music

by Donald Clarke

Popular music--a melding of folk and commerical music with its roots in Renaissance Europe--has reached both zenith and nadir in this century. So argues music critic and historian Donald Clarke in his broad and vibrant history. Navigating the many streams that flow into the river of pop, his chronicle matches authoritative perspective with controversial and convincing commentary.

Mack: Driven for a Century

by John Heilig

Trial by Impotence: Virility and Marriage in Pre-Revolutionary FrancePierre Darmon

Trial by Impotence: Virility and Marriage in Pre-Revolutionary France

by Pierre Darmon

Text: English, French (translation)

Alphabetic Labyrinth: The Letters in History and Imagination

Alphabetic Labyrinth: The Letters in History and Imagination

by Johanna Drucker

The alphabet is at once familiar and mysterious. Its letters have been the object of speculation since their invention almost four thousand years ago; the symbols represent sounds, yet they exist in their own right, often invested with quasi-magical power. Johanna Drucker, who teaches art history at Yale University, examines the imaginative and idiosyncratic ways in which the letters of the alphabet have been... (more)

Distant Water: The Fate of the North Atlantic FishermanWilliam W. Warner

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Tags: microhistory

by Peter Beckman