Richard Davidson
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
David Falkner, noted author of five previous books about baseball, deftly portrays the rise to stardom of Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play on a major-league team in baseball's modern era. As Falkner traces the development of Robinson's natural skill and tireless dedication, he focuses on the strengths that earned Robinson a unique place on the diamond and in the struggle for civil rights. This compelling biography illuminates a...
42) Making movies
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Why does a director choose a particular script? What must he or she do to keep actors fresh and truthful through take after take of a single scene? How do you stage a shoot-out -- involving more than one hundred extras and three colliding taxis -- in the heart of New York's diamond district? What does it take to keep the studio honchoes happy? For this book, director Sidney Lumet, provides a memoir and guide to the art, craft, and business of the...
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 166
Language
English
Formats
Description
"In this book, Eric Rauchway shows how the newly central role of the United States in the years between World Wars I and II made errors of American leadership into world-shaking events. The scope of the crisis made way for the dramatic and controversial leadership of Franklin Roosevelt, whose New Deal set the United States on an entirely new political course. Rauchway presents the New Deal's principal successes and failures, showing why some of its...
Author
Series
Very short introductions volume 150
Language
English
Formats
Description
"The Roman Empire was a remarkable achievement. It had a population of sixty million people spread across lands encircling the Mediterranean and stretching from northern England to the sun-baked banks of the Euphrates, and from the Rhine to the North African coast. It was, above all else, an empire of force--employing a mixture of violence, suppression, order, and tactical use of power to develop an astonishingly uniform culture. Here, historian Christopher...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Tearing open the deepest wound in professional sports, Feinstein uncovers the secrets of the NBA before and after that fateful moment in December of 1977 when the face of professional hoops was changed forever. It was a chilly December evening and the Los Angeles Coliseum was buzzing as the Lakers hosted the Houston Rockets. As two players, Houston's Rudy Tomajanovich and LA's Kermit Washington were warming up, they were unaware their lives were about...
Author
Language
English
Description
It is the tournament that separates champions from mortals. It is the starting point for the careers of future legends and can be the final stop on the down escalator for fading stars. The annual PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament is one of the most grueling competitions in any sport. Every fall, veterans and talented hopefuls sweat through six rounds of hell at Q school, as the tournament is universally known, to get a shot at the PGA Tour, vying
...Author
Series
Language
English
Description
There are many stories we can tell about the past, and we are not, perhaps, as free as we might imagine in our choice of which stories to tell, or where those stories end. John Arnold's addition to Oxford's popular Very Short Introductions series is a stimulating essay about how people study and understand history. The book begins by inviting us to think about various questions provoked by our investigation of history, and then explores the ways in...
Author
Series
Language
English
Formats
Description
The history of Western civilization can be divided neatly into pre-Darwinian and post-Darwinian periods. Darwin's 1859 treatise, On the Origin of Species, was not the first work to propose that organisms had descended from other, earlier organisms, and the mechanism of evolution it proposed remained controversial for years. Nevertheless, no biologist after 1859 could ignore Darwin's theories, and few areas of thought and culture remained immune to...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
A Comprehensive self-help library! Discover the books that have already changed the lives of millions. This award-winning, unabridged guide to the "literature of possibility" surveys 50 of the all-time classics, giving you their key ideas, insights and applications-everything you need to know to start benefiting from these legendary works. From the ancient teachings of Buddha and The Bhagavad-Gita, to the early American wisdom of Emerson and Thoreau,...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
With this fascinating book, award-winning journalist Richard Conniff satisfies your cravings for the thrill and horror of formication, that chilling sensation of something crawling across your skin. Blending humor and sophistication, he introduces you to a host of spineless creatures, from moths to leeches, and the extraordinary enthusiasts who study them.
For over 20 years, the author has trekked through jungles, oceans, and deserts in search of...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
If you have ever wondered what is was like to be an explorer in the unspoiled American West of the early 1800s, then this is the audiobook for you. Not only a groundbreaking work of American history by critically acclaimed author Robert M. Utley, A Life Wild and Perilous is also a dramatic story of innovation and survival. Here is your chance to live in the very heart of the American wilderness with legendary trappers and mountain men like Jim Bridger,...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
In Yellow Fever Black Goddess, popular author and biology professor, Christopher Wills, brings the latest scientific developments to the page in entertaining, dramatic form. Through meticulous yet riveting research, he pens a vivid account of deadly microbes struggling for survival in hostile hosts.
Beginning with ancient illnesses like the Black Death and syphilis, Christopher Wills explores how these devastating diseases have changed their method...
55) The enemy of God
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Gabe Driscoll, chief of internal affairs for the New York City police department, stands in the city morgue, watching an autopsy. His interest is more than professional. The body is that of activist priest Frank Redmond, who along with Driscoll belonged to a championship swim relay team at a Jesuit high school in the 1950s. More than three decades later, Redmond has gone off a Harlem rooftop a few blocks from his church, and the surviving members...
56) The Middle East
Author
Language
English
Description
From the birth of Christianity to the modern era, renowned historian and Princeton professor Bernard Lewis charts the history of the Middle East. Elegantly written and accessible, this comprehensive volume paints a varied and intriguing portrait of a region steeped in traditionalism even while geography and politics force change upon it. With wit and gravity, sympathy and objectivity, the author explores the cultural currents that for 2,000 years...
Author
Language
English
Description
Often called the real Indiana Jones, Charles Pellegrino-acclaimed author, scientist, and adventurer-takes the listener on an extraordinary tour of Old Testament archeological sites from the Nile to the Jordan and Tigris-Euphrates rivers. Delightfully candid and refreshingly free of religious dogma, this fascinating and revelatory tale brings together archaeologists, scientists, and theologians to view the same archeological evidence and oral histories....
Author
Language
English
Description
This course is an introduction to the philosophical thought of the two most important philosophical figures of ancient Greece. By working through parts of their central texts and thoughts, we will gain an understanding of Plato and Aristotle's relevance in the past and today as well. After each section of this guide, you will find some questions and suggestions for further thought. There is no right or wrong answer to most of these questions; they're...
Author
Language
English
Description
Includes an exclusive interview with the author Critically acclaimed writer Tom Adelman crafts a dynamic re-telling of baseball's thrilling 1975 season. The year ended with the greatest World Series of all time, featuring a legendary home run by Boston catcher Carlton Fisk. From the preseason through the final game, Adelman gives a behind-the-scenes account that is blunt, funny, and sometimes shocking.
Author
Language
English
Description
Since the time of the abolitionists, no movement has so politicized social life in the United States as feminism. Responsible for wide-ranging legislation, such as women's right to vote and the right to an abortion, feminists have fought their way to the center of the country's political dialogue and made themselves a major presence there. But the road to such influence has not been easy. From the battle over the Equal Rights Amendment to the continuing...