A complete repackaging of the classic work about grand-scale madness, major schemes, and bamboozlement--and the universal human susceptibility to all three. This informative, funny collection encompasses a broad range of manias and deceptions, from witch burnings to the Great Crusades to the prophecies of Nostradamus.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, many in Britain believed their nation to be a dominant world power that its former colony, the United States, could only hope to emulate. Yet by the interwar years, the United States seemed to some to embody a different type of global eminence, one based not only on political and economic stature but also on new forms of mass culture like jazz and the Hollywood film. Britain's fraught transition from formidable empire to victim of Americanization is rarely discussed by literary scholars. However, the dawn of the " is the period of literary modernism and, this book argues, the signs of Americanization-from jazz records to Ford motorcars to Hollywood films-helped to establish the categories of elite and mass culture that still inspire debate in modernist studies. This book thus brings together two major areas of modernist scholarship, the study of nation and empire and the study of mass culture, by suggesting that Britain was reacting to a new type of empire, the American entertainment empire, in its struggles to redefine its national culture between the wars. At the same time, British anxieties about American influence contributed to conceptions of Britain's imperial scope, and what it meant to have or be an empire. Through its treatment of a wide range of authors and cultural phenomena, the book explores how Britain reinvented itself in relation to its ideas of America, and how Britain's literary modernism developed and changed through this reinvention.

Since it opened in May 1889, the Eiffel Tower has
been an iconic image of modern times—as much a beacon
of technological progress as an enduring symbol
of Paris and French culture. But as engineer Gustave
Eiffel built the now-famous landmark to be the spectacular
centerpiece of the 1889 World’s Fair, he stirred
up a storm of vitriol from Parisian tastemakers, lawsuits,
and predictions of certain structural calamity.
In Eiffel’s Tower, Jill Jonnes, critically acclaimed
author of Conquering Gotham, presents a compelling
account of the tower’s creation and a superb portrait
of Belle Epoque France. As Eiffel held court that summer
atop his one-thousand-foot tower, a remarkable
host of artists and personalities—Buffalo Bill, Annie
Oakley, Gauguin, Whistler, and Edison—traveled to
Paris and the Exposition Universelle to mingle and
make their mark.
Like The Devil in the White City, Brunelleschi’s
Dome, and David McCullough’s accounts of the building
of the Panama Canal and the Brooklyn Bridge,
Eiffel’s Tower combines technological and social history
and biography to create a richly textured portrayal of
an age of aspiration, dreams, and progress.

"The most belated of nations", Theodore Roosevelt called his country during the workmen's compensation fight in 1907. Earlier reformers, progressives of his day, and later New Dealers lamented the nation's resistance to models abroad for correctives to the backwardness of American social politics. This text is an account of the vibrant international network that they constructed - so often obscured by notions of American exceptionalism - and of its profound impact on the USA from the 1870s through to 1945. On a narrative canvas that sweeps across Europe and the United States, Daniel Rodgers retells the story of the classic era efforts to repair the damages of unbridled capitalism. He reveals the forgotten international roots of such innovations as city planning, rural co-operatives, modernist architecture for public housing, and social insurance, among other reforms. From small beginnings to reconstructions of the new great cities and rural life, and to the wide-ranging mechanics of social security for working people, Rodgers finds the interconnections, adaptations, exchanges, and even rivalries in the Atlantic region's social planning. He uncovers the immense diffusion of talent, ideas, and action that were breathtaking in their range and impact.

An exclusive insight -- by Fisher's daughter -- of a man whose achievements in mathematical statistics continue to dominate the age. Traces his mobilization and extension of the resources of mathematics to solve the problems of estimation, analysis and design of experiments, and inductive inference. Reflecting the vitality of Fisher's immense pleasure in the process of thinking, the play of ideas, and the solution of puzzles, this biography introduces a complex and fascinating personality.

"In most fields the great work is done early on. The paintings made between 1430 and 1500 are still unsurpassed. Shakespeare appeared just as professional theater was being born, and pushed the medium so far that every playwright since has had to live in his shadow. Albrecht Durer did the same thing with engraving, and Jane Austen with the novel.

Acclaimed historian and award-winning author Simon Schama offers an essential historical perspective on the crucial 2008 presidential election and its importance for reclaiming America's original ideal. It's not business as usual. Cultural hostilities more irreconcilable than any since the Civil War have divided America in two. In November 2008, the American people elected a new president, feeling more anxious about the future of the nation than at any time since Watergate. Our omnipotent military, the cornucopia of material comforts available, the security of our borders, and the global economy can no longer be taken for granted. In The American Future , historian Simon Schama takes a long look at the multiple crises besetting the United States and asks how these problems look in the mirror of time. In four crucial debates—on wars, religion, race and immigration, and the relationship between natural resources and prosperity—Schama looks back to see more clearly into the future. Full of lost insights, The American Future showcases Schama's acclaimed gift for storytelling, ensuring these voices will be heard again.

‘History clings tight but it also kicks loose,’ writes Simon Schama at the outset of this, the first book in his three-volume journey into Britain’s past. ‘Disruption as much as persistence is its proper subject. So although the great theme of British history seen from the twentieth century is endurance, its counter-point, seen from the twenty-first, must be alteration.’ Change – sometimes gentle and subtle, sometimes shocking and violent – is the dynamic of Schama’s unapologetically personal and grippingly written history, especially the changes that wash over custom and habit, transforming our loyalties. At the heart of this history lie questions of compelling importance for Britain’s future as well as its past: what makes or breaks a nation? To whom do we give our allegiance and why? And where do the boundaries of our community lie – in our hearth and home, our village or city, tribe or faith? What is Britain – one country or many? Has British history unfolded ‘at the edge of the world’ or right at the heart of it? Schama delivers these themes in a form that is at once traditional and excitingly fresh. The great and the wicked are here – Becket and Thomas Cromwell, Robert the Bruce and Anne Boleyn – but so are countless more ordinary lives: an Irish monk waiting for the plague to kill him in his cell at Kilkenny; a small boy running through the streets of London to catch a glimpse of Elizabeth I. They are all caught on the rich and teeming canvas on which Schama paints his brilliant portrait of the life of the British people: ‘for in the end, history, especially British history with its succession of thrilling illuminations, should be, as all her most accomplished narrators have promised, not just instruction but pleasure.’

An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers by G.H. Hardy and E. M. Wright is found on the reading list of virtually all elementary number theory courses and is widely regarded as the primary and classic text in elementary number theory. Developed under the guidance of D.R. Heath-Brown this Sixth Edition of An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers has been extensively revised and updated to guide today's students through the key milestones and developments in number theory. Updates include a chapter by J.H. Silverman on one of the most important developments in number theory - modular elliptic curves and their role in the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem - a foreword by A. Wiles, and comprehensively updated end-of-chapter notes detailing the key developments in number theory. Suggestions for further reading are also included for the more avid reader The text retains the style and clarity of previous editions making it highly suitable for undergraduates in mathematics from the first year upwards as well as an essential reference for all number theorists.