Engelska

<b>Blending the allure of the supernatural with keen historical insights and more than 500 photos, this enchanting chronicle of magic around the world will bewitch skeptics and true believers alike.</b><br/><br/>Magic and the occult have held humanity in their thrall for thousands of years. This sweeping history traces its origins across time and culture-from the protective amulets of ancient Egypt to ceremonial magic in India, Celtic paganism to modern magic tricks.<br/><br/><i>National Geographic Book of Magic and the Occult</i> illuminates this enthralling world across more than 90,000 years of history. You'll meet witches and wizards, healers and alchemists, discovering the legends behind them and how they have enriched modern culture. You'll also encounter a host of spellbinding subjects, including:<br/><br/><ul><li>Mystical moments, including spooky gatherings, strange happenings, and ghost stories</li><li>Magic in pop culture, from Harry Houdini to Harry Potter</li><li>Places of power, from Mount Fuji to "phantom" islands like Hy-Brasil</li><li>Magical creatures like dragons and the Loch Ness Monster</li><li>The art of divination, including the Chinese Zodiac, numerology, and tarot</li><li>Modern magic, from neopaganism to astrology and herbalism</li></ul><br/>Filled with more than 500 vivid illustrations and dynamic maps, this bewitching book is the true story of magical beliefs around the world.

<b>For fans of <i>Hidden Figures </i>and <i>The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks</i></b><br/><br/><b>'The kind of history I wish I learned as a child dreaming of the stage!' MISTY COPELAND</b><br/><br/><b>'Vibrant, propulsive and inspiring' TIA WILLIAMS</b><br/><br/>Harlem 1969; it's the height of the Civil Rights era and the community is still reeling from the assassination of Martin Luther King. Arthur Mitchell, the first Black principal dancer at the New York City Ballet, takes his protest to the stage and establishes the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Here begins the story of the five extraordinary women at the heart of this book.<br/><br/>Both a group biography and a story of a particular time, this is a book about ballet, the enduring allure of ballet for young girls, and about how these pioneers broke into a world that was closed to them and changed ideas of what a classical dancer could be. It is about the heart-breaking impact of the AIDS epidemic which claimed the lives of so many of the male dancers. It's about racism and activism through art. And it's about the eternal glamour of ballet; these swans appeared at the grandest opera houses and theatres, dancing at the White House, and even for the Queen. Their fans included Mick Jagger and they performed alongside the likes of Michael Jackson and Josephine Baker.<br/><br/>But most importantly it tells the universal story of female friendship, and in particular how these five young women formed a bond - while experimenting with different ways of dying ballet shoes and tights to match their skin tones - which still endures many decades later.

New York City entered 1986 as a city reborn, with record profits on Wall Street sending waves of money splashing across Manhattan and bringing a once-bankrupt and reeling city back to life. But it also entered 1986 as a city divided. Nearly one-third of the city's Black and Hispanic residents were living below the poverty line. Thousands of New Yorkers were sleeping in the streets - and in many cases addicted to drugs, dying of AIDS, or suffering from mental illness. The manufacturing jobs that had once sustained a thriving middle class had vanished. Long-simmering racial tensions were boiling over.<br/><br/>Over the next four years, a singular confluence of events - involving a cast of outsized, unforgettable characters - would widen those divisions into chasms. Ed Koch. Donald Trump. Al Sharpton. The Central Park Five. Larry Kramer. Spike Lee. Rudy Giuliani. Howard Beach. Tawana Brawley. The Preppy Murder. The Tompkins Square Riots. Jimmy Breslin. Ivan Boesky. <i>Do the Right Thing</i>, Wall Street, crack, the AIDS epidemic, Black Monday and, of course, ready to pour gasoline on every fire - the tabloids.<br/><br/>In <i>The Gods of New York</i>, bestselling author Jonathan Mahler tells the story of these outsized characters and of these convulsive, defining years. It's an exuberant, kaleidoscopic, and deeply immersive portrait of a city in transformation, one whose long-held identity was suddenly up for grabs: Could it be both the great working-class city, drawing in and lifting up immigrants from around the world and the money-soaked capital of global finance? Could it retain a civic culture - a common idea of what it meant to be a New Yorker - when the rich were building a city of their own and vast swaths of its citizens were losing faith in the systems that were intended to protect them? New York was one thing at the dawn of 1986; it would be something very different as 1989 came to a close. This book is the story of how that happened.

<b>Antibiotics: one of humanity's greatest achievements - but invented by microbes.</b><br/><br/><b>An epic narrative of discovery and innovation - but also of extraction and exploitation.</b><br/><br/><b>This is the spellbinding story of how we have burned through the fossil fuels of medicine.</b><br/><br/>Since their advent, antibiotics have saved millions of lives, marking one of the greatest medical advances in our history. <i>Dangerous Miracle </i>weaves together the grand arc of the evolution of antibiotics over millions of years with a history of the past century: first as we mined the earth for naturally occurring antibiotic molecules, then as we learned to synthesise our own.<br/><br/>But like fossil fuels, antibiotics are a finite resource which we've regarded as a cheap, everlasting fuel. They are unlike other drugs: every time we use them we increase the possibility of antibiotic resistance emerging, risking their future effectiveness. If we want antibiotics to have a future, we need to prepare to adapt. And fast.<br/><br/>Rich with pioneering characters, great breakthroughs and grave risks, <i>Dangerous Miracle</i> is a grand drama of science, history and politics. It is a revelatory account of the miraculous history and uncertain future of antibiotics from a gifted writer.

WINNER OF THE 2021 NDR BOOK PRIZE IN GERMANY 'A must-read' Lyndal Roper, Regius Professor of History at Oriel College, Oxford Fishing quotas on Lake Constance. Common lands in the UK. The medieval answer to Depop in the middle of Frankfurt. These are all just some of the sustainability initiatives from the Middle Ages that Annette Kehnel illuminates in her astounding new book, The Green Ages. From the mythical-sounding City of Ladies and their garden economy to early microcredit banks and rent-a-cow schemes, Kehnel uncovers a world at odds with what we might think of as the typical medieval existence. Pre-modern history is full of inspiring examples and concepts that open up new horizons. And we urgently need them as today's challenges - finite resources, the twilight of consumerism, growing inequality - threaten what we have come to think of as a modern way of living sustainably. This is a revelatory look at the past that has the power to change our future.

'Essential reading' John Bradshaw, author of In Defence of Dogs 'A riveting history: a book stuffed with knowledge and quietly radiating affection' Church Times, Books of the Year 2024 Dogs are our constant companions: models of loyalty and unconditional love for millions around the world. But these beloved animals are much more than just our pets - and our shared history is far richer and more complex than you might assume. Here, historian and dog lover Chris Pearson reveals how the shifting fortunes of dogs hold a mirror to our changing society, from the evolution of breeding standards to the fight for animal rights. Wherever humans have gone, dogs have followed, changing size, appearance and even jobs along the way. Despite vast social change, however, the power of the human-canine bond has never diminished. By turns charming, thought-provoking and surprising, Collared reveals the fascinating tale of how we made the modern dog.

The North Sea, a maritime highway and the edge of the nation of islanders with a proud sea-faring past. Running from Kent and the Rhine estuary to the Norwegian coast and the tip of the Shetland islands, it has been home to warring tribes, foreign invaders, lost civilisations and holidaymakers. Its history spans millennia, since a seismic shift sent land retreating and water rushing in. Today, the North Sea continues to rise, claiming land mass as the east coast crumbles and sinks.<br/><br/>In <i>The North Sea</i>, renowned historian Alistair Moffat spends a year travelling its shores to better understand our relationship to the sea. He takes us on an epic, sweeping history from the white cliffs of Dover to flooded homes, crossing wild fenland and Brexit fault lines, visiting well-worn seaside towns and windswept island monasteries.<br/><br/>The story he tells is one of newcomers and the mark they left, of Roman invasions, the arrival of the Saxons and the Viking raids. But it is also a story of those they met, of Pictish citadels and Orcadian stone circles. It is a story of technological advancement, of submarine engineering and weather forecasting. It is a story of huge industry, from whaling expeditions and fishing trawlers to the boom of North Sea oil and offshore wind farms. This is the story of how the North Sea shaped us and will continue to do so; it is above all a story of insistent, inescapable change.