Search:

Results 121 to 130 of 140 | « previous |

Written in the Waters A Memoir of History, Home, and Belonging [electronic resource] : by Roberts, Tara.aut; CloudLibrary;
This searing memoir by a National Geographic explorer recounts one woman's epic journey to trace the global slave trade across the Atlantic Ocean—and find her place in the world. For fans of adventurous women’s memoirs like Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love, Cheryl Strayed's Wild, and Jesmyn Ward's Men We Reaped. When Tara Roberts first caught sight of a photograph at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History depicting the underwater archaeology group Diving With a Purpose, it called out to her. Here were Black women and men strapping on masks, fins, and tanks to explore Atlantic Ocean waters along the coastlines of Africa, North America, and Central America, seeking the wrecks of slave ships long lost in time. Inspired, Roberts joined them—and started on a path of discovery more challenging and personal than she could ever have imagined. In this lush and lyrical memoir, she tells a story of exploration and reckoning that takes her from her home in Washington, D.C., to an exotic array of locales: Thailand and Sri Lanka, Mozambique, South Africa, Senegal, Benin, Costa Rica, and St. Croix. The journey connects her with other divers, scholars, and archaeologists, offering a unique way of understanding the 12.5 million souls carried away from their African homeland to enslavement on other continents. But for Roberts, the journey is also intensely personal. Inspired by the descendants of those who lost their lives during the Middle Passage, she decides to plumb her own family history and life as a Black woman to help make sense of her own identity. Complex and unflinchingly authentic, this deeply moving narrative heralds an important new voice in literature that will open minds and hearts everywhere.General adult.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Adventurers & Explorers; African American Studies; Personal Memoirs; Women;
© 2025., National Geographic,
unAPI

The Life of Herod the Great A Novel [electronic resource] : by Hurston, Zora Neale.aut; Plant, Deborah G..aut; cloudLibrary;
A never before published novel from beloved author Zora Neale Hurston, revealing the historical Herod the Great—not the villain the Bible makes him out to be but a religious and philosophical man who lived a life of valor and vision. In the 1950s, as a continuation of Moses, Man of the Mountain, Zora Neale Hurston penned a historical novel about one of the most infamous figures in the Bible, Herod the Great. In Hurston’s retelling, Herod is not the wicked ruler of the New Testament who is charged with the “slaughter of the innocents,” but a forerunner of Christ—a beloved king who enriched Jewish culture and brought prosperity and peace to Judea. From the peaks of triumph to the depths of human misery, the historical Herod “appears to have been singled out and especially endowed to attract the lightning of fate,” Hurston writes. An intimate of both Marc Antony and Julius Caesar, the Judean king lived during the first century BCE, in a time of war and imperial expansion that was rife with political assassinations and bribery, as the old world gave way to the new. Portraying Herod within this vivid and dynamic world of antiquity, little known to modern readers, Hurston’s unfinished manuscript brings this complex, compelling, and misunderstood leader fully into focus. Hurston shared her findings about Herod’s rise, his reign, and his waning days in letters to friends and associates. Text from three of these letters concludes the manuscript in an intimate way. Scholar-Editor Deborah Plant’s "Commentary: A Story Finally Told" assesses Hurston’s pioneering work and underscores Hurston’s perspective that the first century BCE has much to teach us and that the lens through which to view this dramatic and stirring era is the life and times of Herod the Great.
Subjects: Electronic books.; Classics; Christian; Historical; Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology; Cultural Heritage; Biographical; Action & Adventure;
© 2025., HarperCollins,
unAPI

Stamped from the beginning : the definitive history of racist ideas in America / by Kendi, Ibram X.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Americans like to insist that we are living in a postracial, color-blind society. In fact, racist thought is alive and well; it has simply become more sophisticated and more insidious. And as award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues in Stamped from the Beginning, racist ideas in this country have a long and lingering history, one in which nearly every great American thinker is complicit. In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-Black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. Stamped from the Beginning uses the lives of five major American intellectuals to offer a window into the contentious debates between assimilationists and segregationists and between racists and antiracists. From Puritan minister Cotton Mather to Thomas Jefferson, from fiery abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison to brilliant scholar W. E. B. Du Bois to legendary anti-prison activist Angela Davis, Kendi shows how and why some of our leading proslavery and pro-civil rights thinkers have challenged or helped cement racist ideas in America. As Kendi provocatively illustrates, racist thinking did not arise from ignorance or hatred. Racist ideas were created and popularized in an effort to defend deeply entrenched discriminatory policies and to rationalize the nation's racial inequities in everything from wealth to health. While racist ideas are easily produced and easily consumed, they can also be discredited. In shedding much-needed light on the murky history of racist ideas, Stamped from the Beginning offers us the tools we need to expose them--and in the process, gives us reason to hope." -- Publisher's description.
Subjects: Racism;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The 1619 Project : a new origin story / by Roper, Caitlin,editor.; Silverman, Ilena,editor.; Silverstein, Jake,editor.; Hannah-Jones, Nikole,editor.; New York Times Company.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The animating idea of The 1619 Project is that our national narrative is more accurately told if we begin not on July 4, 1776, but in late August of 1619, when a ship arrived in Jamestown bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival inaugurated a barbaric and unprecedented system of chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country's original sin, but it is more than that: It is the country's very origin. The 1619 Project tells this new origin story, placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans at the center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are as a country. Orchestrated by the editors of The New York Times Magazine, led by MacArthur "genius" and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, this collection of essays and historical vignettes includes some of the most outstanding journalists, thinkers, and scholars of American history and culture--including Linda Villarosa, Jamelle Bouie, Jeneen Interlandi, Matthew Desmond, Wesley Morris, and Bryan Stevenson. Together, their work shows how the tendrils of 1619--of slavery and resistance to slavery--reach into every part of our contemporary culutre, from voting, housing and healthcare, to the way we sing and dance, the way we tell stories, and the way we worship. Interstitial works of flash fiction and poetry bring the history to life through the imaginative interpretations of some of our greatest writers. The 1619 Project ultimately sends a very strong message: We must have a clear vision of this history if we are to understand our present dilemmas. Only by reckoning with this difficult history and trying as hard as we can to undersand its powerful influence on our present, can we prepare ourselves for a more just future"--
Subjects: 1619 Project.; African Americans; Slavery;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The Queen's men / by Clements, Oliver,1972-author.;
"Masked gunmen ambush Queen Elizabeth as she travels through Waltham forest, peppering her carriage with ball holes before disappearing like wraiths in the night. In the tense hours that follow, while no one knows whether she will live or die, her councillors must make decisions, and roll dice. Some argue for acceptance of the new Queen: Mary of Scotland, while others - John Dee - argue the fight against the darkness must go on, and that he should go across the sea, and into the courts of the Queen's enemies, to do to them what they would do to her. When she survives, Francis Walsingham - responsible for her safety - must explain how such a plot could so nearly succeed: who are the gunmen? How did they know she was coming on that road, that night, and in which carriage she would be travelling? And more importantly, where are they now? Robert Beale, Walsingham's deputy, shaken by the thought of Mary of Scotland inheriting the throne and returning England to Catholicism, stumbles on a solution if such a thing could happen again, but the scheme is lethally fraught with risk, and should it be uncovered, he will be hung, drawn and quartered as a traitor. And in her fever her Majesty dreams of fire, and on waking, comes to believe the only way to protect her country is with Greek Fire, the secret of which died with the Byzantines, but which she commissions her disappointed alchemist and scholar John Dee to rediscover. With the help of one of the Queen's women - Jane Frommond - Walsingham learns the depth and complexity of the plot to kill the Queen; Robert Beale falls violently in love and John Dee reluctantly rediscovers Greek Fire. But their enemy is cunning, and fate fickle. Beale's plot is uncovered, and the Greek Fire stolen, and the Queen's would be assassins evade capture, only to reappear, bent on inflicting a grisly death on Her Majesty. Only one man can stop them. John Dee"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Biographical fiction.; Historical fiction.; Elizabeth I, Queen of England, 1533-1603; Dee, John, 1527-1608; Attempted assassination; Greek fire;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The Mesopotamian riddle : an archaeologist, a soldier, a clergyman, and the race to decipher the world's oldest writing / by Hammer, Joshua,1957-author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."It was one of history's great vanishing acts. As early as 3500 BCE, scribes in the mud-walled city-state of Sumer used a reed stylus to press tiny wedge-shaped symbols into clay. For three thousand years, the script chronicled the military conquests, scientific discoveries, and epic literature of the grand kingdoms of Mesopotamia-Assyria, Babylon, the mighty Achaemenid Empire -- along with precious minutia about everyday life so long ago. But as the palaces of these once great kingdoms sank beneath the desert sands, the meaning of these characters was lost. London, 1857. Colossal sculptures of winged bulls and alabaster bas-reliefs depicting cities under siege and vassals bearing tributes to Biblical kings lined the halls of the British Museum. In the Victorian era's obsession with the triumph of human progress, the mysterious kingdoms of ancient Mesopotamia -- the very cradle of civilization -- had captured the public imagination. Yet Europe's best philologists struggled to decipher the strange characters. Cuneiform seemed to have thousands of symbols -- with some scholars claiming each could be pronounced in up to eight, nine, even ten different ways. Others insisted they'd cracked the code and deciphered inscriptions that corresponded precisely to the Old Testament -- proving the veracity of the Word of God. Was it all a hoax? A delusion? A rollicking adventure through the golden age of archaeology, The Writing on the Wall tracks the decades-long race to decipher the oldest script in the world. It's the story of a swashbuckling young archaeologist, a suave British military officer, and a curmudgeonly Irish rector, all vying for glory -- from the ruins of Persepolis to the opulence of Ottoman-era Baghdad -- in a quest to unearth the relics of lost civilizations and unlock the secrets of humanity's past"--
Subjects: Assyriology; Cuneiform inscriptions.; Cuneiform writing.;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Seeing the supernatural : investigating angels, demons, mystical dreams, near-death encounters, and other mysteries of the unseen world / by Strobel, Lee,1952-author.;
Includes bibliographical references."Discover solid biblical answers to the provocative questions you have been asking about the supernatural world-healings, angels, demons, mystical dreams, near-death experiences, heaven, hell, and more-through the investigative work of a former spiritual skeptic. We hear stories all the time about the supernatural-miraculous healings, unexplained sightings, near-death experiences-but how do we know what is real? Are rumors of spiritual beings, healings, and prophetic dreams dangerous deceptions, or is there something important for us to explore? Join investigative journalist and former atheist Lee Strobel as he examines the evidence and considers how we should think about the unseen world-and the God who made and rules over it. As the bestselling author of the popular Case For series, which has sold millions of copies, Lee Strobel has interviewed some of the most brilliant scientists and philosophical thinkers in the world on topics of apologetics and faith. In Seeing the Supernatural, Lee weaves together his best material from several previous books with dynamic new and never-published interviews to investigate what the Bible really teaches about the unseen world. As he asks scholars the very questions you have about otherworldly experiences, Lee will help you: Better understand how God chooses to work in the fascinating supernatural realm-and why it is important Avoid common mistakes people make, including both ignoring the supernatural and becoming obsessed with it. Have answers ready for when you face objections or deceptions that are common in a world of supernatural counterfeits. Draw closer to God as you catch glimpses of his power and glory in ways you don't typically experience Written for skeptics and believers alike, Seeing the Supernatural is a transformative exploration of how the supernatural can shape our understanding of God's character and our own faith"--
Subjects: Powers (Christian theology); Spirits.; Supernatural (Theology);
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The wife's tale : a personal history / by Aida Edemariam,author.;
"One remarkable woman--caught in the tumult of an extraordinary century in Ethiopia's history. Told by her granddaughter, Canadian journalist Aida Edemariam, Yetemegnu's story is of courage, struggle and survival. The wife's tale has the sweep and lyrical power that captivated readers of Abraham Verghese's Cutting for Stone, and of Michael Ondaatje's Running in the Family. Born in the northern Ethiopian city of Gondar in about 1916, and a child bride at eight years old, Aida Edemariam's grandmother once stood, shaking, as fascists searched her home for guns she knew were there; in the late 1930s and early 1940s she fled both Italian and Allied bombardment. When her husband was imprisoned, in the 1950s, Yetemegnu--a woman who had hardly left her own compound for three decades--managed to gain audiences with Emperor Haile Selassie I in Addis Ababa, to argue for justice, for revenge, and for the futures of her seven children. Widowed, she fought for thirteen years through courts unaccustomed to a woman determined to defend her assets. A feudal landlord herself, she felt the first tremors of the coming revolution, then, in the early 1970s, watched it burst into flower: night after night she listened, praying desperately, to the firing squads of the Red Terror doing their work next door, and endured yet more soldiers tramping through her home. In her sixties she learned to read, and eventually made a longed-for pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Told from Yetemegnu's own point of view, The wife's tale features a rich cast of characters--emperors and empresses, archbishops and slaves, priests and scholars, monks and nuns, Marxist revolutionaries and wartime double agents. But above all, there is Yetemegnu herself, grand and haughty and sometimes difficult but also vulnerable and incredibly generous and who, despite everything--the toil, the deaths, the cruelties and the many, many tears--retains an infectious sense of mischief and joy."--
Subjects: Biographies.; Yetemegnu Mekonnen.; Women;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The bookseller of Florence : the story of the manuscripts that illuminated the Renaissance / by King, Ross,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The Renaissance in Florence conjures images of beautiful frescoes and elegant buildings-the dazzling handiwork of the city's skilled artists and architects. But equally important for the centuries to follow were geniuses of a different sort: Florence's manuscript hunters, scribes, scholars, and booksellers, who blew the dust off a thousand years of history and, through the discovery and diffusion of ancient knowledge, imagined a new and enlightened world. At the heart of this activity, which bestselling author Ross King relates in his exhilarating new book, was a remarkable man: Vespasiano da Bisticci. Born in 1422, he became what a friend called "the king of the world's booksellers." At a time when all books were made by hand, over four decades Vespasiano produced and sold many hundreds of volumes from his bookshop, which also became a gathering spot for debate and discussion. Besides repositories of ancient wisdom by the likes of Plato, Aristotle, and Quintilian, his books were works of art in their own right, copied by talented scribes and illuminated by the finest miniaturists. His clients included a roll-call of popes, kings, and princes across Europe who wished to burnish their reputations by founding magnificent libraries. Vespasiano reached the summit of his powers as Europe's most prolific merchant of knowledge when a new invention appeared: the printed book. By 1480, the king of the world's booksellers was swept away by this epic technological disruption, whereby cheaply produced books reached readers who never could have afforded one of Vespasiano's elegant manuscripts. A chronicle of intellectual ferment set against the dramatic political and religious turmoil of the era, Ross King's The Bookseller of Florence is also an ode to books and bookmaking that charts the world-changing shift from script to print through the life of an extraordinary man long lost to history-one of the true titans of the Renaissance"--
Subjects: Biographies.; Vespasiano, da Bisticci, 1421-1498.; Booksellers and bookselling; Booksellers and bookselling; Publishers and publishing;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

The battle of Maldon : together with The homecoming of Beorhtnoth, Beorhthelm's son, and The tradition of versification in Old English / by Tolkien, J. R. R.(John Ronald Reuel),1892-1973,author.; Grybauskas, Peter,editor.; container of (work):Tolkien, J. R. R.(John Ronald Reuel),1892-1973.Homecoming of Beorhtnoth.; container of (work):Tolkien, J. R. R.(John Ronald Reuel),1892-1973.Tradition of versification in Old English.; translation of:Tolkien, J. R. R.(John Ronald Reuel),1892-1973.Maldon (Anglo-Saxon poem).English.(Tolkien);
Includes bibliographical references."First ever standalone edition of one of J.R.R. Tolkien's most important poetic dramas, that explores timely themes such as the nature of heroism and chivalry during war, and which features unpublished and never-before-seen texts and drafts. In 991 AD, vikings attacked an Anglo-Saxon defence-force led by their duke, Beorhtnoth, resulting in brutal fighting along the banks of the river Blackwater, near Maldon in Essex. The attack is widely considered one of the defining conflicts of tenth-century England, due to it being immortalised in the poem, The Battle of Maldon. Written shortly after the battle, the poem now survives only as a 325-line fragment, but its value to today is incalculable, not just as an heroic tale but in vividly expressing the lost language of our ancestors and celebrating ideals of loyalty and friendship. J.R.R. Tolkien considered The Battle of Maldon 'the last surviving fragment of ancient English heroic minstrelsy'. It would inspire him to compose, during the 1930s, his own dramatic verse-dialogue, The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son, which imagines the aftermath of the great battle when two of Beorhtnoth's retainers come to retrieve their duke's body. Leading Tolkien scholar, Peter Grybauskas, presents for the very first time J.R.R. Tolkien's own prose translation of The Battle of Maldon together with the definitive treatment of The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth and its accompanying essays; also included and never before published is Tolkien's bravura lecture, 'The Tradition of Versification in Old English', a wide-ranging essay on the nature of poetic tradition. Illuminated with insightful notes and commentary, he has produced a definitive critical edition of these works, and argues compellingly that, Beowulf excepted, The Battle of Maldon may well have been 'the Old English poem that most influenced Tolkien's fiction', most dramatically within the pages of The Lord of the Rings."--
Subjects: English poetry;
Available copies: 1 / Total copies: 1
unAPI

Results 121 to 130 of 140 | « previous |