A revolutionary study of nineteenth-century Parisian cartography and its role in shaping a modern conception of space. Maps are rarely given the same attention as other print media or art forms in urban history. Author Min Kyung Lee shows their ric...

An exploration of how the Cryogenian Period, when our planet was covered in ice for millions of years, created today's remarkable biodiversity. More than half a billion years ago, our world was completely covered by glaciers, a "Snowball Earth" tha...

Seeing cities around the globe in their larger environmental contexts, we begin to understand how the world shapes urban landscapes and how urban landscapes shape the world. Authors Karen Seto and Meredith Reba provide these revealing views to enhanc...

The hurricane that pummeled the northeastern United States on September 21, 1938, was New England's most damaging weather event ever. To call it "New England's Katrina" might be to understate its power. Without warning, the storm plowed into Long Isl...

British Royal Navy Captain James Cook's voyages of exploration across and around the Pacific Ocean were a marvel of maritime achievement, and provided the first accurate map of the Pacific. The expeditions answered key scientific, economic, and geogr...

Our future hinges on a set of elements that few of us have even heard of. In this surprising and revealing book, David S. Abraham unveils what rare metals are and why our electronic gadgets, the most powerful armies, and indeed the fate of our planet...

A single, monumental mappa mundi (world map), made around 1300 for Hereford Cathedral, survives intact from the Middle Ages. As Marcia Kupfer reveals in her arresting new study, this celebrated testament to medieval learning has long been profoundly...

As far back as the early 1900s, the Quakers have been engaged in a program of quiet private diplomacy that won them a Nobel Peace Prize in 1947. During the turbulent 1960s, hey acted as unofficial conciliators in several tense situations. This compre...

Would the world be a better place if human societies were somehow able to curb their desires for material goods? Saleem Ali's pioneering book links human wants and needs by providing a natural history of consumption and materialism with scientific de...