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Wonders of the world / by Steele, Philip,1948-;
Includes bibliographical references (p. 22, 54), Internet addresses and index.An introduction to the seven ancient wonders as well as modern wonders of the world.
Subjects: Civilization, Ancient; Civilization, Modern; Curiosities and wonders; Historic buildings; Historic sites; Antiquities; Architecture; Seven Wonders of the World;
© 2007., Houghton Mifflin,
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The great wave : the era of radical disruption and the rise of the outsider / by Kakutani, Michiko,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."An urgent examination of how disruptive politics, technology, and art are capsizing old assumptions in a great wave of change breaking over today's world, creating both opportunity and peril-from the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and author of the New York Times bestseller The Death of Truth. The twenty-first century is experiencing a watershed moment defined by chaos and uncertainty, as one emergency cascades into another, underscoring the larger dynamics of change that are fueling instability across the world. Since the global financial crisis of 2008, people have increasingly lost trust in institutions and elites, while seizing upon new digital tools to sidestep traditional gatekeepers. As a result, powerful new voices-once regarded as radical, unorthodox or marginal-are disrupting the status quo in politics, business and culture. Meanwhile, social and economic inequalities are stoking populist rage across the world, toxic partisanship is undermining democratic ideals, and the internet and AI have become high-speed vectors for the spread of misinformation. Writing with a critic's understanding of cultural trends and a journalist's eye for historical detail, Michiko Kakutani looks at the consequences of these new asymmetries of power. She maps the migration of ideas from the margins to the mainstream and explores the growing influence of outsiders-those who have sown anger and fear (like Donald Trump), and those who have provided inspirational leadership (like Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky). At the same time, she situates today's multiplying crises in context with those that defined earlier hinge moments in history, from the waning of the Middle Ages, to the transition between the Gilded Age and Progressive era at the end of the nineteenth century. Kakutani argues that today's crises are not only signs of an interconnected globe's profound vulnerabilities, but stress tests pointing to the essential changes needed to survive this tumultuous era and build a more sustainable future"--
Subjects: Civilization, Modern; Elite (Social sciences); Globalization.; Political culture.; Power (Social sciences); Uncertainty.;
Available copies: 0 / Total copies: 1
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The empathic civilization : the race to global consciousness in a world in crisis / by Rifkin, Jeremy.;
Subjects: Civilization, Modern; Conduct of life.; Empathy.; Social prediction.; Twenty-first century;
© c2009., J.P. Tarcher/Penguin,
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Falter : has the human game begun to play itself out? / by McKibben, Bill,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Subjects: Civilization, Modern; Nature; Technology and civilization.; Human ecology.; Climatic changes.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Thank you for being late : an optimist's guide to thriving in the age of accelerations / by Friedman, Thomas L.,author.;
Subjects: Civilization, Modern; Climatic changes; Geopolitics.; Globalization.; Political participation.; Technological innovations; Technology and civilization.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Elderflora : a modern history of ancient trees / by Farmer, Jared,1974-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and indexes."The epic story of the planet's oldest trees and the making of the modern world. Humans have always revered long-lived trees. But as historian Jared Farmer reveals in Elderflora, our veneration took a modern turn in the eighteenth century, when naturalists embarked on a quest to locate and precisely date the oldest living things on earth. The new science of tree time prompted travelers to visit ancient specimens and conservationists to protect sacred groves. Exploitation accompanied sanctification, as old-growth forests succumbed to imperial expansion and the industrial revolution. Taking us from Lebanon to New Zealand to California, Farmer surveys the complex history of the world's oldest trees, including voices of Indigenous peoples, religious figures, and contemporary scientists who study elderflora in crisis. In a changing climate, a long future is still possible, Farmer shows, but only if we give care to young things that might grow old."--
Subjects: Civilization, Modern.; Climatic changes.; Dendrochronology.; Forests and forestry.; Human ecology.; Landscape assessment.; Longevity.; Time perception.; Trees.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Age of anger : a history of the present / by Mishra, Pankaj,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."One of our most important public intellectuals reveals the hidden history of our current global crisis. How can we explain the origins of the great wave of paranoid hatreds that seem inescapable in our close-knit world--from American 'shooters' and ISIS to Trump, from a rise in vengeful nationalism across the world to racism and misogyny on social media? In Age of Anger, Pankaj Mishra answers our bewilderment by casting his gaze back to the eighteenth century, before leading us to the present. He shows that as the world became modern those who were unable to fulfill its promises--freedom, stability and prosperity--were increasingly susceptible to demagogues. The many who came late to this new world or were left, or pushed, behind, reacted in horrifyingly similar ways: intense hatred of invented enemies, attempts to re-create an imaginary golden age, and self-empowerment through spectacular violence. It was from among the ranks of the disaffected that the militants of the 19th century arose--angry young men who became cultural nationalists in Germany, messianic revolutionaries in Russia, bellicose chauvinists in Italy, and anarchist terrorists internationally. Today, just as then, the wider embrace of mass politics, technology, and the pursuit of wealth and individualism has cast many more billions adrift in a literally demoralized world, uprooted from tradition but still far from modernity--with the same terrible results. Making startling connections and comparisons, Age of Anger is a book of immense urgency and profound argument. It is a history of our present predicament unlike any other"--
Subjects: Anger; Civilization, Modern.; Civilization, Western.; Nationalism; Religion and politics; Social change; Terrorism; World politics; World politics; Youth;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The story of more : how we got to climate change and where to go from here / by Jahren, Hope,author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Hope Jahren is an award-winning geobiologist, a brilliant writer, and one of the seven billion people with whom we share this earth. The Story of More is her impassioned open letter to humanity as we stand at the crossroads of survival and extinction. Jahren celebrates the long history of our enterprising spirit--which has tamed wild crops, cured diseases, and sent us to the moon--but also shows how that spirit has created excesses that are quickly warming our planet to dangerous levels. In short, highly readable chapters, she takes us through the science behind the key inventions--from electric power to large-scale farming and automobiles--that, even as they help us, release untenable amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. She explains the current and projected consequences of greenhouse gases--from superstorms to rising sea levels--and shares the science-based tools that could help us fight back. At once an explainer on the mechanisms of warming and a capsule history of human development, The Story of More illuminates the link between our consumption habits and our endangered earth. It is the essential pocket primer on climate change that will leave an indelible impact on everyone who reads it."--
Subjects: Global warming.; Greenhouse gases; Climatic changes.; Technological innovations.; Consumption (Economics); Civilization, Modern;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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The Anthropocene reviewed : essays on a human-centered planet / by Green, John,1977-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this ... symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ... podcast, bestselling author John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale--from the QWERTY keyboard and sunsets to Canada geese and Penguins of Madagascar."--Jacket flap.
Subjects: Essays.; Civilization, Modern; Culture; Manners and customs; Nature; Science;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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Don't let my past be your future / by Smith, Harry Leslie,1923-author.;
Harry Leslie Smith was born in 1923 in Barnsley. King George V was on the throne. Stanley Baldwin was Prime Minister. There was no NHS, no welfare state. Those who could afford to took care of themselves; those who couldn't, suffered. And then out of the rubble of the Second World War Harry's generation rebuilt the country. They wanted to build a better, fairer world for their children and grandchildren. And they succeeded. But now Harry sees history repeating - from NHS cutbacks to immigration policies and everything in between. 'Harry's Last Stand' is a searing modern polemic that shows, with the indisputable force of lived experience, why the past shouldn't stay buried, and the future is ours for the taking.
Subjects: Biographies.; Smith, Harry Leslie, 1923-; World War, 1939-1945; Civilization, Modern.; Depressions;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
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