Into the Darkness by Harry Turtledove

Harry Turtledove is known for his alternate histories; from The Guns of the South to The Great War: American Front, he's practiced at imagining the ways society would have changed if various things had been different in history. Sometimes it's a key figure surviving (or dying); other times it's a strange new variable, like aliens landing during World War II. With Into the Darkness, Turtledove investigates a new wrinkle in this successful field: What if a world war were fought using magic?

Mesopotamia: The World's Earliest Civilization

Fantastic and massive human-headed, winged bulls and a curious wedge-shaped writing system are the best-known legacies of the place known as Mesopotamia. Although these objects give some sense of the grandeur and mystery of an ancient culture, the influence of the region and its people extends far beyond them. Long described as the “cradle of civilization,” Mesopotamia is clearly one of the earliest civilizations in the world. Its many contributions include the development of written language, as well as several advances in science, economics, law, and religion.

Retaining the thrill and tone of oral storytelling as the written word became increasingly widespread was the charge of early English writing. Beginning in the Old English period and continuing through the Medieval and Renaissance periods, writers such as Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare began to elevate the place of literature in society. This volume details the evolution of early English literature And The enduring works that have withstood centuries of linguistic and cultural change.

ALLEGORIES OF READING started out as a historical study and ended up as a theory of reading. De Man began to read Rousseau seriously in preparation for a historical reflection on Romanticism and found himself unable to progress beyond local difficulties of interpretation. In trying to cope with this, he had to shift from historical definition to the problema tics of reading. This shift, which is typical of his generation, is of more interest in its results than in its causes.

Modern Philosophy: From 1500 Ce to the Present

During the 14th century, European society suffered an unprecedented series of natural and humanmade disasters, including famine, the Black Death, and numerous devastating and expensive wars. By the end of the century, the continent was a great deal poorer and much less populous than it had been in 1300. According to some historians, these calamities were the death knell of the Middle Ages: the drastic changes they brought about hastened the disappearance of characteristically medieval forms of political authority and social organization.