Also featured are interviews with comedians—one teenaged, the other 92 years old—who demonstrate basic joke mechanics, while doctors and patients express varying degrees of skepticism about laughter’s healing power.
Chapters examine the origins of world trade, the rise of trade in the Indian Ocean, how this trade system was first shattered by Portuguese explorers who rounded the Cape of Good Hope (and then capitalized upon by the Dutch and others), and today’s global trade in light of its underlying modern economic doctrines.
As author Jared Diamond puts it, “why were Europeans, rather than Africans or Native Americans, the ones to end up with guns, the nastiest germs, and steel?” His deftly reasoned answer draws on fascinating archaeological, anthropological, and environmental evidence, and offers a convincing refutation of racially-based theories of history.
Why do Hindus worship cows? Why do Jews and Muslims refuse to eat pork? Why did so many people in post-medieval Europe believe in witches? Author Marvin Harris addresses these and other queries about human behavior, showing that no matter how bizarre a people’s behavior may seem, it always stems from identifiable and intelligble sources.
In this incisive, conversationally written, and often entertaining book, author Bobby Duffy, a leading social researcher, offers a sweeping account of the stubborn problem of human delusion: how society breeds it, why it will never go away, and what our misperceptions say about what we really believe.
Writes Bluglass, "Those who feel they have overcome adversity hope to record an optimistic message about the strength…of the human organism….
The book divides human history into seven eras, from the Stone Age to the end of the 20th century, devoting chapters to topics such as the Neolithic "revolution," Byzantium, slavery and racism, the Enlightenment, the Paris Commune, and the Cold War.
Focusing a thousand years of human history on the history of the codfish, author Mark Kurlansky’s unconventional "biography" explains how an unassuming fish inspired wars, spurred revolutions, formed the foundation of economies and national diets, and even fueled the settlement of North America.
Delving into the mysteries of everyday human behavior, the book tackles questions such as Why do I keep leaving things until the last minute? Why do I keep buying the same brand all the time? How can I stop people unfriending me on social media? Why can’t I concentrate? Accompanied by Venn diagrams, mind maps, […]
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