Extreme History

For the captains of industry ? men like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and Henry Ford ? the Gilded Age is a time of big money. Technology boomed with the invention of trains, telephones, electric lights, harvesters, vacuum cleaners, and more. But for millions of immigrant workers, it is a time of big struggles, with adults and children alike working 12 to 14 hours a day under extreme, dangerous conditions.

In the short century between 1914 and 1991, the world has been convulsed by two global wars that swept away millions of lives and entire systems of government. Communism became a messianic faith and then collapsed ignominiously. Peasants became city dwellers, housewives became workers - and, increasingly leaders. Populations became literate even as new technologies threatened to make print obsolete. And the driving forces of history swung from Europe to its former colonies.

Scholars and laymen alike have long projected their fantasies onto the great expanse of the global North, whether it be as a frozen no-man's-land, an icy realm of marauding Vikings, or an unspoiled cradle of prehistoric human life. Bernd Brunner reconstructs the encounters of adventurers, colonists, and indigenous communities that led to the creation of a northern "cabinet of wonders" and imbued Scandinavia, Iceland, and the Arctic with a perennial mystique.

Tom Araya’s voice defined the menace of Slayer. From South Gate garages to sold-out arenas, his delivery carved thrash metal into a global force. Angel of Death Voice: Tom Araya and the Architecture of Menace is the first in-depth cultural and musical biography that traces how a Chilean-born bassist and vocalist transformed extremity into sustainable practice. This book follows Araya’s life chronologically, from bilingual roots in Viña del Mar and South Gate to the formation of Slayer alongside Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman, and Dave Lombardo. Each chapter examines a crucial phase: garage ...

The Age of Extremes is eminent historian Eric Hobsbawm's personal vision of the 20th century. Remarkable in its scope, and breathtaking in its depth of knowledge, this immensely rewarding book reviews the uniquely destructive and creative nature of the troubled 20th century and makes challenging predicitions for the future.

The decisions to trust—or not—are pervasive throughout our everyday lives. Whether or not we trust others, for example, depends on many factors, and they all have a history. The battle to trust or mistrust, as experienced at the personal, political and cultural levels, are revealed in this well-documented story. This book illuminates the nature of trust, a deeply abstract and critically important concept.

From one of the most prominent voices on the American left, a galvanizing argument for why we need socialism in the US today. Bhaskar Sunkara explores socialism's history since the mid-1800s and presents a realistic vision for its future. Sunkara shows that socialism, though often seen primarily as an economic system, in fact offers the means to fight all forms of oppression, including racism and sexism. The ultimate goal is not Soviet-style planning, but to win rights to health care, education, and housing and to create new democratic institutions in workplaces and communities.

Everywhere hailed as a masterpiece of historical adventure, this enthralling narrative recounts the experiences of 12 American sailors who were shipwrecked off the coast of Africa in 1815, captured by desert nomads, sold into slavery, and subjected to a hellish two-month journey through the bone-dry heart of the Sahara. The ordeal of these men - who found themselves tested by barbarism, murder, starvation, death, dehydration, and hostile tribes that roamed the desert on camelback - is made indelibly vivid in this gripping account of courage, brotherhood, and survival.

Little more than 100 years ago, maps of the world still boasted white space: places where no human had ever trod. Within a few short decades the most hostile of the world's environments had all been conquered. Likewise, in the 20th century, medicine transformed human life. Doctors took what was routinely fatal and made it survivable. As modernity brought us ever more into different kinds of extremes, doctors pushed the bounds of medical advances and human endurance. Extreme exploration challenged the body in ways that only the vanguard of science could answer.

On a foggy July evening in 1956, the Italian cruise liner Andrea Doria, bound for New York, was struck broadside by another vessel. In eleven hours, she would sink nearly 250 feet to the murky Atlantic Ocean floor. Thanks to a daring rescue operation, only 51 of more than 1,700 people died in the tragedy. But the Andrea Doria is still taking lives. Considered the Mt. Everest of diving, the Andrea Doria is the ultimate deepwater wreck challenge.

Nuno Bettencourt has long been celebrated as one of rock’s most innovative guitarists, blending ferocious funk grooves with the precision and fire of a true virtuoso. From his beginnings in the Azores to the clubs of Boston, from global stardom with Extreme to touring stadiums with Rihanna, Bettencourt’s story is one of relentless discipline, fearless creativity, and an unshakable commitment to groove. This definitive biography, Nuno Bettencourt: Funk and Fire, takes readers deep inside the artistry and resilience that shaped one of the most distinctive players of his generation. Each ...

A powerful critique of the failures in our healthcare system and an inquiry into the sinister strains of wellness culture that prey on people’s vulnerabilities through schemes, scams, and diets. Jacqueline Alnes was a Division One runner during her freshman year of college, but her season was cut short by a series of inexplicable neurological symptoms.

Betty Friedan once told Simone de Beauvoir that women should have the option of staying at home to raise children, and Beauvoir replied that they shouldn't have , since too many would choose. It is time to say that a certain derivation of the feminist movement has derived in a group that is very authoritarian -with respect to the life that other women must have- "FEMINAZIS: psycho-social portrait of extreme feminism and the risks of the dictatorship of correct political thought," is a revealing book regarding this phenomenon, from a perspective that cannot be found in the hegemonic ...

It is likely not terribly surprising that surfers like to party. The 1960-'70s image, bolstered by Tom Wolfe and Big Wednesday, was one of mild outlaws. Tanned boys who refused to grow up, spending their days drinking beer and smoking joints on the beach in between mindless hours in the water. As the surf brands accidentally morphed into a multimillion- then multibillion-dollar industry beginning in the 1980s, however, the derelict portrait began to harm business.

The ocean teems with life that thrives under difficult situations in unusual environments. The Extreme Life of the Sea takes listeners to the absolute limits of the ocean world - the fastest and deepest, the hottest and oldest creatures of the oceans. It dives into the icy Arctic and boiling hydrothermal vents - and exposes the eternal darkness of the deepest undersea trenches - to show how marine life thrives against the odds. This thrilling book brings to life the sea's most extreme species, and tells their stories as characters in the drama of the oceans.

In this deeply original book, science writer Anil Ananthaswamy sets out in search of the telescopes and detectors that promise to answer the biggest questions in modern cosmology. Why is the universe expanding at an ever faster rate? What is the nature of the "dark matter" that makes up almost a quarter of the universe? Why does the universe appear fine-tuned for life? Are there others besides our own?

From his cage in a putrid, overcrowded Indian jail, Paul Jordan reflects on a life lived on the edge. His childhood, marred by the loss of his father and brother, produces a young man hell-bent on being the best of the best - an ambition he achieves by being selected to join the elite SAS. The Easy Day Was Yesterday is fast paced, brutally honest, raw and laced with dark humour. The core of Paul Jordan's eventful life, it shows the ability of the human spirit to survive even in the direst adversity.

Human flight is one of the last great challenges on Earth. Not like how the Wright brothers flew, but how we fly in our dreams. This is the goal of the Wingsuit Landing Project: to soar through the sky at speeds up to one hundred miles per hour and to land without the aid of a parachute. This project is the creation of 37-year-old Jeb Corliss, Jr., a Southern Californian who seeks to emulate a mode of flight more like a flying squirrel than bird or plane.

From the dawn of civilization, humanity has been drawn to the water, but we often forget that the world's waterways are not always our allies. This book embarks on a global journey to the twenty most perilous bodies of water on Earth, exploring places where the simple act of being on the water is a high-stakes gamble. It is an unflinching examination of the planet's most hostile aquatic environments. Discover the raw, untamed power of nature, from the colossal rapids of the Congo River's Gates of Hell to the savage, unpredictable waves of the Bay of Biscay. Venture into the Amazon, a liquid...

Grab a warm blanket. This audiobook puts you right into the action of the life-and-death decisions made by early Antarctic explorers. It is filled with unforgettable stories about the challenges and decisions they faced on the ice. While we might not be pulling sledges across Antarctica in the early 1900s, this audiobook also reveals valuable lessons in leadership, teamwork, and sheer grit and determination that can help all of us make better decisions in our lives today.