The Monster in the Machine tracks the ways in which human beings were defined in contrast to supernatural and demonic creatures during the time of the Scientific Revolution. Zakiya Hanafi recreates scenes of Italian life and culture from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries to show how monsters were conceptualized at this particular locale and historical juncture—a period when the sacred was being supplanted by a secular, decidedly nonmagical way of looking at the world.
Grade 4-6-Joining the ranks of those books recently published that combine history with crafts and hands-on activities, Herbert's book is one of the best of its kind. Reading it and doing some of the activities, or even just reading the activity directions, brings the character of this period into focus. Achieving a good balance between textual material, illustration, and projects, the book immerses children in the milieu of these years. The text discusses in detail the causes of the Revolution, the personalities involved, the formation of the new national government, and life in 18th-century America.
Frederick Copleston's nine-volume A History of Philosophy has universal acclaim as the best history of philosophy in English. Copleston, an Oxford Jesuit, knew that seminary students familiarity with most of history's great thinkers was reduced to simplistic caricatures. Copleston set out to redress the wrong by writing a complete history of Western philosophy, one crackling with incident and intellectual excitement and one that gives full place to each thinker, presenting his thought in a beautifully rounded manner and showing his links to those who went before and to those who came after him. Volume 9 is from the French Revolution to Satre, Camus and Levi Strauss.
William Burns’s guide to the scientific revolution offers readers a synthesis of recent research on the scientific revolution in an accessible format that reflects recent trends in scholarship and will guide readers through this literature.
Readers of this book will find biographical entries for well-known figures such as Tycho Brahe and Robert Boyle juxtaposed with equally important figures such as the Spanish physician Francisco Hernández, whose natural history of Mexico represents an early example of the relationship between science and empire, and Margaret Cavendish, the most prolific female natural philosopher of the early modern period.
Like any reference work, this guide reflects the interests and preferences of its author. But it also casts its net widely, defining “science” not just in a narrow sense but in relation to such subjects as art, music, and literature and introducing readers to an interdisciplinary literature on the scientific revolution that is not always included in standard accounts of this period.
Added by: Maria | Karma: 3098.81 | Kids, Non-Fiction | 14 October 2008
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Discover how a few brave patriots battled a great empire. Be an eyewitness to the thrilling American war for independence: the battles and leaders, soldiers and heroes, scoundrels and patriots. It's all here in this ultimate visual guide that show you how it really was. See a continental solder's musket, a spy's hollow "silver bullet", Washington's sword, a bullet-riddled battle flag, the Liberty Bell, the Declaration of Independence. Learn why Washington was commander-in-chief, how the Declaration of Independence was written, how Benedict Arnold was at first a patriot hero, how solders were drilled, who the Loyalists were, how France helped win American liberty. Discover how Betsy Ross sewed the Stars and Stripes, the secrets of spies and traitors, why it was Breed's not Bunker Hill, why King George admired Washington, why Yorktown was not the end of the Revolution, and much, much more.
