three-masted sailing ship

Them And Us: Politics, Greed And Inequality - Why We Need A Fair Society

by Will Hutton  · 30 Sep 2010  · 543pp  · 147,357 words

been no indication of how these might be established, especially in the current climate. Cameron himself seemed reluctant to expand on the idea in the three televised leadership debates. In reality, the centre of gravity in contemporary Conservatism remains the old-time religion of a smaller state, which the rest

…

, universities, health and science – and with significant results. Between 1948 and 1994 there had been little significant improvement in literacy and numeracy. In the three years after 1997 the proportion meeting the literacy standard rose from 63 to 75 per cent and numeracy improved as well. Six hundred thousand children

…

centred big ideas.19 Indeed, without morally driven ideas, we do not have the nerve to face the future and shape an appropriate response. All three principal parties have begun to search for a moral voice, and ‘fairness’ crops up increasingly in the language of all of them. Nick Clegg

…

to their wealth, benchmarking themselves only against their fellow rich. Philanthropic giving is declining; tax avoidance is rising; and executive pay is rising exponentially. All three are justified by the doctrine that the rich simply deserve to be rich. Meanwhile, the poor, in their view – and that of a virulent

…

’s: intentionally killing somebody to create a greater good. He is not considered to be morally in the right. From such tests, Hauser deduces three great moral principles to which every human being subscribes. The first is the Intention Principle. We morally value intentions that bring about desired ends without

…

being clever at capturing wealth that others have made and redistributing it to oneself – what economists call ‘rent’ or a return for inert property possession. Three leading theorists from Harvard and MIT – Kevin Murphy, Robert Vishny and Andrei Shleifer – argue in an important paper that countries in which talent pursues

…

, while unemployment benefit (which previously lasted unconditionally for a year) has been turned into a job seeker’s allowance that lasts for a mere three months. Consequently, unemployment benefit is no longer a system of risk insurance but a short-term payment to people who are assumed to be shirkers

…

the fairness principle should be that migrants are eligible for full housing and other benefits only after a reasonable period of time – say, two to three years. By then, they would have contributed something, which would take the sting out of the complaint that masses of newcomers are free-riding

…

to determine my fate. Self-determination of this type, as psychologists have long recognised, is a crucial stimulant and confirmation of self. This incorporates three different but related needs: I need to be able to act autonomously and organise my own actions; I need to have some capacity to view

…

over one’s actions satisfies a fundamental human psychological need. That is why self-employment is valued so highly, as a study spanning twenty-three countries by Matthias Benz and Bruno Frey demonstrates.19 It is also why people in higher-status jobs that afford more potential for self-organisation

…

vote and participate in civic life, compared with those of immigrants to Switzerland, who do not have the same rights. Overall, the Swiss were three times more satisfied than the foreigners, while those who happened to live in cantons that made full use of direct democratic instruments (petitions, referenda and

…

his skills to construct ever stronger castles. Over the last twenty-five years American and British MBA graduates working in investment banking have made nearly three times more than their peers who have chosen other professions. Yet in none of these cases is talent engaging in the kind of innovation

…

creating central heating and warm public baths – neither developed a transformatory GPT. By contrast, the modern era – starting with the development of the three-masted sailing ship by entrepreneurial Portuguese ship-wrights and mariners in the middle of the fifteenth century – has witnessed a rush of GPTs. According to Lipsey et al., only 23

…

, the growth of science would have been impossible as there could have been no codifying or dissemination of scientific discoveries. Then there is the three-masted sailing ship, which allowed large vessels to sail close to the wind, permitted the Portuguese and then their European imitators to sail around the world. Without

…

Enlightenment – occurs in open, pluralist societies in which incumbent elites can be challenged by the new. Douglas North, John Joseph Wallis and Barry Weingast – three distinguished economic historians – develop this concept further.13 The challenge for early society was to assure order and limit violence. North et al. characterise ‘natural

…

won 14.1 million votes – 2.5 million more than Labour – despite having caused a recession in which unemployment was once again close to three million. In part this was because the Tories were so successful in terrifying the electorate about Labour’s ambitions to tax them, despite Labour’s

…

exchange for very little. After all, he could never have beaten Blair for the leadership, and it is very doubtful that he could have won three general elections so convincingly. As his premiership progressed, Blair felt he did not have the political strength, economic justification or moral authority to remove

…

to generate a sustained recovery. Banking is vital but dangerous The fundamental attribute of finance is its capacity to make money from money. Financiers have three avenues to riches that are not available to non-financial entrepreneurs: the laying off of risk through diversification; the extra capital gains to be

…

in the middle of all these complex highly leveraged exotic trades he created without necessarily understanding all of the implications of those monstrousities [sic]’.29 Three years later, Tourre (against whom a case is still pending) felt a great deal less fab. But along with his CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, he

…

Pimco, perhaps the biggest player in the international bond markets. These personal connections were multiplied many times over at the lower levels of the past three presidential administrations, strengthening the ties between Washington and Wall Street. It has become something of a tradition for Goldman Sachs employees to go into

…

image of Goldman (inside the Beltway, at least) as an institution that was itself almost a form of public service.9 A study by three IMF economists shows how aggressive and successful lobbying by the US financial, insurance and real-estate businesses has been.10 Their lobbying intensity grew between

…

1999 and 2006, resisting or emasculating thirty-three federal initiatives that would have addressed predatory lending or enforced more responsible banking. Finance was the single biggest lobbying sector, accounting for 15 per

…

’ views. There was no chance of that happening under New Labour. One welcome aspect of the new coalition government is that it ensured that three of the five members of the inquiry into banking announced in June 2010 were distinguished non-bankers – and the two with banking backgrounds were notable

…

whole edifice would come tumbling down. It came in July, when two Bear Stearns hedge funds closed their doors. Days later they were followed by three Paribas funds. Depositors in other funds rushed to withdraw their money. The interbank markets in London and New York became paralysed with fear. Before

…

long, Northern Rock was unable to find any buyers for the residential mortgage-backed securities upon which its business model relied. Three decades of accumulated debt, credit and derivatives would be shown to have been constructed on sand. Even modern mathematics cannot eliminate risk and uncertainty Bankers

…

positive of the network’s resilience. Liquidity became totemic: the more there was, the better and more resilient the system supposedly would be. However, three questions should have been asked. How had the liquidity occurred? To what purpose was it being put? And how resilient would the whole structure be

…

Nor should hedge funds be declared innocent; they were crucial parts of the network as well. What to do? Reform has to be built on three principles. It has to be comprehensive and simple and, above all, must try to hard-wire more fairness into the operation of the network.

…

time. For example, Alexander Graham Bell did not patent the first telephone. Rather, the now-unknown Elisha Gray beat Bell to the patent office by three hours, on 14 February 1876. Moreover, an Italian immigrant called Antonio Meucci had declared his invention of a ‘voice telegraphy device’ fully five years

…

-sale service. British investment in these ‘intangibles’ now comfortably exceeds investment in the ‘tangibles’ of factories and machines, partly because it has risen at three times the latter rate for a generation. Firms have to be clever in what they do, how they do it and how they present themselves

…

short of complete rationality, partly because there is insufficient opportunity to learn from our mistakes. For example, we might buy a house only two or three times in a lifetime, and might choose a school only once; it is hard to be rational with such limited opportunities for learning. In

…

. But they get a firm only so far. The researchers did not include any measure of market responsiveness, capacity to innovate or employee engagement – three management techniques that are essential for sustained performance.31 For example, Britain’s most successful supermarket over the last two decades, Tesco, has a quadrant

…

parents are prepared to pay fees on this scale for their children between eleven and eighteen, they could certainly continue to do so for another three years when university education is so plainly valuable and so underpriced in relation to the resources allocated to it. Students from state schools would

…

underperforming, disadvantaged people and a tiny head at its top. Ten million British adults earn less than £15,000 a year, and close to three million are workless and not even offering themselves for employment – a condition that is increasingly likely to be shared through the generations. The distribution of

…

housing for those in disadvantaged areas – the ‘national strategy for neigh-bourhood renewal’. Thus Sure Start, the programme offering childcare and early education for three- and four-year-olds. Thus increased child benefit and a raft of benefit improvements for disabled and ethnically disadvantaged children. The evidence is that these

…

felt to belong to the same society. A different and noxious subculture deserves harsher treatment. This has always been a trait in Britain, but three new trends have interacted to undermine popular support for social spending. The first is the way in which the media lauds celebrity and mocks poverty

…

return for immediate social entitlements. The third is the rise of the assumption that the poor usually deserve their fate. The combined impact of these three factors has been devastating. Toby Young shrewdly argues that the ‘celebritariat’ – footballers and their WAGs, pop stars, movie stars, soap stars, winners of talent

…

hear, on average, 2153 words per hour, compared with just 616 words per hour for kids in welfare families. So, by the age of three, there is a cumulative 30-million-word gap. Furthermore, welfare children hear words of discouragement twice as often as they hear words of encouragement; while

…

well. But, of course, this represents a huge increase in risk for the workers, which would be unfair without any compensations. Wilthagen has therefore devised three big compensating proposals – hence both ‘flexi’ and ‘(se)ecurity’. First, payments to the unemployed should be substantially increased, especially in the early months after

…

for the gravely weakened power of their union. Twenty years later, Davies’s researchers calculated that a falling payroll of national journalists was writing three times more copy every year to fill ever more sections and magazines as the great titles competed for market share. But no one ever seriously

…

the more influence it has and the more its approach is validated. It generates more complaints to the PCC than any other paper – with complaints three times more likely to be upheld against the Mail than the national newspaper average – but its formula works. It is Britain’s second-best-selling

…

will do. For years, the system has creaked under the sheer workload: according to the Better Government initiative, the British government now deals with three times more legislation than it did in 1965.25 There has been so much centralisation of government partly in an attempt to be streamlined, efficient

…

demands of the all-pervasive and spinning media. Admittedly, the issues facing the cabinet have grown in complexity, so a quasi-public meeting of twenty-three secretaries of state and their advisers is hardly the optimal (or leak-proof) forum for free debate. Nevertheless, the decline in importance of cabinet

…

much more fluid political market place. Only a fifth of the electorate is traditionally egalitarian and only a fifth is traditionally free market. The other three-fifths are biddable – and therefore highly significant in a first-past-the-post electoral system. At the same time there are new fears. As

…

For, as former Number 10 adviser David Soskice argues, politicians are responding rationally to this evolving political market place. Coherent presentation of an image when three-fifths of the electorate are biddable does demand centralised control.30 Just as importantly, Soskice maintains that majoritarian voting systems deliver a right-of-centre

…

media’s capacity to hold the powerful to account, gain access to information and publish. In short, media and politics both need to be fairer. Three major reforms to the British constitution would push it in a fairer direction. The first concerns the voting system – every vote should count, wherever

…

having signalled its intention to halve the deficit within four years. In particular, capital investment was to be cut by some £30 billion. So all three main parties have signed up to a faster pace of deficit reduction than was implemented after the 1976 and 1992 sterling crises, with a greater

…

Speech’, at http://www.arup.com/Publications/The_Key_Speech.aspx. 25 John Spedam Lewis’s 1957 broadcast on the BBC, John Lewis website. Chapter Three: Lucky Man 1 Leonard Mlodinow (2008) The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives, Allen Lane. See also Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2007) Fooled

…

189 Russia, 127, 134–5, 169, 201, 354–5, 385; fall of communism, 135, 140; oligarchs, 30, 65, 135 Rwandan genocide, 71 Ryanair, 233 sailing ships, three-masted, 108 Sandbrook, Dominic, 22 Sands, Peter (CEO of Standard Chartered Bank), 26 Sarkozy, Nicolas, 51, 377 Sassoon, Sir James, 178 Scholes, Myron, 169, 191, 193

Caribbean Islands

by Lonely Planet

people to take to the streets with a passion. JAMAICA JAZZ & BLUES FESTIVAL Internationally acclaimed acts jam Jamaica’s Montego Bay in late January for three nights of mellow music under the stars (www.jamaicajazzandblues.com). It starts the jazz festival season across the region. FESTIVAL SAN SEBASTIÁN Puerto Rico’s

…

sails are set by hand. This German-American company operates luxury cruises in the Eastern Caribbean. Star Clippers (www.starclippers.com) These modern four-masted clipper ships have tall-ship designs and carry 180 passengers. Itineraries take in smaller islands of the Eastern Caribbean. Windstar Cruises (www.windstarcruises.com) Windstar’s luxury four

…

desalinates much of its water. Be mindful of letting the water run needlessly. SURVIVAL GUIDE Directory A–Z PRACTICALITIES » Electricity 110V, 60 cycles; standard American three-pin plugs are used. » Newspapers & Magazines The weekly Anguillian newspaper comes out on Friday. » Radio & TV Radio Anguilla is at 1505AM and 95.5FM.

…

spot and also does lunch on weekends. Reefview Apartments APARTMENTS $$ ( 560-4354; www.reefviewapartments.com; Cades Bay; apt from US$139; ) Energetic expat Karoll maintains three gorgeous apartments close to the beach and with views of Cades Bay. Rates include airport transfer and a welcome drink. Ocean View Apartments APARTMENTS $$ ( 560

…

here ) » Andicuri Beach ( Click here ) Best Places to Stay » Bucuti Beach Resort ( Click here ) » Manchebo Beach Resort ( Click here ) » Beach House Aruba ( Click here ) Itineraries THREE DAYS Find your hotel, head out to the beach and stay there. Maybe spend half a day exploring some other part of the island, but

…

here ) Best Places to Stay » Graycliff Hotel ( Click here ) » Hope Town Harbour Lodge ( Click here ) » Pink Sands Resort ( Click here ) » Kamalame Cay ( Click here ) Itineraries THREE DAYS Explore Pirates of Nassau, the National Art Gallery and Fort Fincastle in downtown Nassau, grab a jitney for beach-bar cocktails, hike over the

…

deposit is required. Exuma Kitesurfing KITESURFING ( 242-524-0523, www.exumakitesurfing.com; George Town) Offers a dizzying array of packages, including a learn-to-kiteboard three-day package (BS$985) and a five-hour ‘kiteventure’ package from BS$295. Off Island Adventures TOURS ( 242-524-0524; www.offislandadventures.com; George

…

SURVIVAL GUIDE Directory A–Z PRACTICALITIES » Electricity Hotels operate on 120 volts/60 cycles, which is compatible with US appliances. Plug sockets are two- or three-pin US standard. » Newspapers & Magazines Daily New Providence newspapers include the Nassau Guardian, the Tribune and the Bahama Journal. Grand Bahama offers the daily Freeport

…

damage from the salt ponds is limited mostly to the ponds themselves. SURVIVAL GUIDE Directory A–Z PRACTICALITIES » Electricity 110V, 60Hz; US-style two- and three-pin plugs are used. » Media Bonaire Reporter (www.bonairereporter.com) is a free newspaper that actually covers controversial issues on the island. Bonaire Affair and

…

includes the giant boulder formations at the Baths. SURVIVAL GUIDE Directory A–Z PRACTICALITIES » Electricity 110 volts; North American–style plugs have two (flat) or three (two flat, one round) pins. » Newspapers The BVI Beacon and StandPoint are the BVI’s main newspapers; they’re published weekly. BVI News (www.

…

» Grandview ( Click here ) » Turtle Nest Inn ( Click here ) » Walton’s Mango Manor ( Click here ) » Southern Cross Club ( Click here ) » Pirates Point Resort ( Click here ) Itineraries THREE DAYS Join the crowds on wonderful Seven Mile Beach, shop yourself silly in George Town and experience the extraordinary Stingray City. Head east to the

…

as eaten, and pingwing, whose barbed branches were once fashioned into a natural fence. SURVIVAL GUIDE Directory A–Z PRACTICALITIES » Electricity 110V, 60Hz; US-style three-pin plugs are used. » Newspapers & Magazines Tourist publications abound; among the better is Cayman Explore . The Caymanian Compass is a daily with local stories,

…

his friendly family house just a block from Prado. Taking advantage of the new liberalized rental laws, he has also recently opened Hostal Peregrino , with three more rooms and an independent apartment in a building nearby (book through number above). Services include airport pickup, internet, laundry, and cocktail bar. The

…

or legal casa particular, if only to avoid unnecessary questioning. Business travelers and journalists need visas. Applications should be made through a consulate at least three weeks in advance, preferably longer. Obtaining an extension is easy: go to an immigration office and present your documents and CUC$25 in stamps (obtainable

…

( Click here ) » Knip Beaches ( Click here ) Best Places to Stay » Avila Beach Hotel ( Click here ) » Hotel Kura Hulanda ( Click here ) » Hotel Scharloo ( Click here ) Itineraries THREE DAYS Set yourself up in a place to stay in or near Willemstad. Explore this fascinating and at times confounding old town. Shop the markets

…

Stay » Jacoway Inn (Click here) » Pagua Bay House (Click here) » Silks Hotel (Click here) » River Rush Eco Retreat (Click here) » Cocoa Cottages (Click here) Itineraries THREE DAYS Dominica in a nutshell: on day one drive south from Melville Airport via spectacular Pagua Bay through the Carib Territory to Roseau, briefly stopping

…

be sharing one. Health The Princess Margaret Hospital (with a hyperbaric chamber for decompression sickness) in Roseau, Marigot Hospital and the Portsmouth Hospital are the three main medical facilities. Intensive care units are available at Princess Margaret and Portsmouth hospitals. According to the US Center for Disease Control, drinking tap water

…

mixed with peas, nuts and raisins. » Dominican ron (rum) Known for its smoothness and hearty taste. Dozens of local brands are available, but the big three are Brugal, Barceló and Bermudez. AT A GLANCE » Currency Dominican Republic peso (RD$); US dollars (US$) also accepted some places » Language Spanish » Money ATMs

…

Baryshnikov, this discerning and quiet resort is also notable for its environmental efforts, especially the associated ecological park across the street from the resort entrance. Three-story buildings with newly modernized rooms line an average beach, which sees seaweed mucking up the sands but offers miraculous water, and there are six

…

( Click here ) Best Places to Stay » Petite Anse ( Click here ) » La Sagesse Nature Centre ( Click here ) » Flamboyant Hotel ( Click here ) » Sunset Beach ( Click here ) Itineraries THREE DAYS Stay on Grenada Island. Sample the beach at Grand Anse, then spend an afternoon in St George’s, having lunch and strolling around the

…

a glossy magazine with general information on Grenada, Carriacou and Petit Martinique; the similar Lime & Dine focuses on restaurants and entertainment. » Radio & TV Grenada has three local TV stations and four radio stations. » Weights & Measures Imperial system. Children Grenada has many calm, gently shelving beaches perfectly suited to children, such as

…

) Best Places to Stay » Hostellerie des Châteaux ( Click here ) » La Métisse ( Click here ) » Auberge Les Petits Saints ( Click here ) » Ti Gli Gli ( Click here ) Itineraries THREE DAYS If you only have a few days in Guadeloupe, prioritize beautiful Basse-Terre – drive the northern coast road and stop at the sublime beaches

…

the holidays observed throughout the region (Click here ), Haiti has the following public holidays: Independence Day January 1 Ancestors’ Day January 2 Carnival January/February (three days before Ash Wednesday) Agriculture and Labor Day May 1 Flag and University Day May 18 Anniversary of Jean-Jacques Dessalines’ Death October 17 Anniversary

…

$$ midrange US$75 to US$200 $$$ top end more than US$200 PRACTICALITIES » Electricity The voltage used is 110V, 50Hz. Sockets are usually two- or three-pin – the US standard. » Newspapers & Magazines The Jamaica Gleaner is the most respected newspaper; its rival is the Jamaica Observer . » Radio & TV There are

…

mausoleum inside a tiny church of traditional Ethiopian design. The stained-glass windows are tinged red, green and yellow, and a single window depicts three flowers, the ‘three little birds’ from the song of the same name. Bob’s widow, Rita, periodically expresses disdain at how her husband’s legacy has been

…

profile music festivals. Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival MUSIC (www.jamaicajazzandblues.com) Brings internationally acclaimed acts to Cinnamon Hill, near Rose Hall, in late January for three nights of music under the stars. Red Stripe Reggae Sumfest MUSIC (www.reggaesumfest.com) Jamaica’s premier reggae festival typically includes over 50 world-class

…

MARTINIQUE History French & British Occupation When Christopher Columbus first sighted Martinique it was inhabited by Caribs, who called the island Madinina meaning ‘island of flowers.’ Three decades passed before the first party of French settlers, led by Pierre Belain d’Esnambuc, landed on the northwest side of the island. There they

…

endemic Montserrat Oriole, the critically endangered ‘mountain chicken’ (actually a huge frog) and a shy lizard called Montserrat Galliwasp. The island is also home to three species of sea turtle. The Montserrat National Trust arranges turtle-watching treks during nesting time in August and September. SURVIVAL GUIDE Directory A–Z Accommodations

…

220V; 60 cycles; some buildings are wired for both 220V and 110V. Otherwise, transformers are widely available. North American two-pin sockets are prevalent but three-pins are around too, so bring an adaptor. » Local Taxes 10% at hotels, 7% at guesthouses. » Newspapers & Magazines The Montserrat Reporter is an enthusiastic

…

Culture As a predominantly Catholic country (albeit widely mixed with African and indigenous practices), Puerto Ricans treasure family values and family pursuits and often have three or more generations living in the same home. But they don’t interpret ‘family friendly’ as being close-minded. They are fiercely and justifiably proud

…

corners, take a Spanish phrasebook. Public Holidays In addition to holidays observed throughout the region (Click here ), Puerto Rico also has the following public holidays: Three Kings Day (Feast of the Epiphany) January 6 Eugenio María de Hostos’ Birthday January 10; honors the island educator, writer and patriot Martin Luther King

…

from other countries must have a valid passport to enter Puerto Rico. Air AIRPORTS Puerto Rico is the most accessible island in the Caribbean, with three major airports and several small ones. Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (http://www.san-juan-airport.com) San Juan’s recently modernized airport – commonly

…

Reef ( Click here ) » Charlie Brown ( Click here ) Best Places to Stay » Kings Well ( Click here ) » Old Gin House ( Click here ) » Statia Lodge ( Click here ) Itineraries THREE DAYS Spend your first two days blowing bubbles with rays and sea turtles at various dive sites off the coast. Before leaving, fill up your

…

in this chapter: $ budget less than US$75 $$ midrange US$75 to US$200 $$$ top end more than US$200 PRACTICALITIES » Electricity 220V (50 cycles); three-pronged, square European-style plugs. » Newspapers & Magazines The Voice (www.thevoiceslu.com) is the island’s main, tri-weekly newspaper. » Radio Tune into music,

…

a variety of other activities as well, including horseback riding, hiking, paragliding, golf and cycling. PRACTICALITIES » Electricity French side: 220V, 60 cycles; standard two- and three-pronged plugs as found in the US; Dutch side: 220V, 60 cycles; standard European two-pin plugs. » Newspapers & Magazines French side: Saint-Martin’s Week

…

the past there have been reports of assaults on foreigners. Eric Blackman ( 669-3995) can arrange a guide or short kayaking trips to the Three Pools, three luscious pools found less than 1.5km up the Marianne River from Blanchisseuse. There are trails flanking the river if you want to meander up

…

www.tobagobluecrab.com; cnr Robinson & Main Sts; r incl breakfast US$70; ) Behind the Blue Crab Restaurant, amicable owners Ken and Alison Sardinha rent out three rooms in their home. The rooms are pleasantly simple with pine floors, nice furniture and views overlooking Rockly Bay. Hope Cottage GUESTHOUSE $ ( 639-2179; hcghtobago

…

beachside, about five minutes’ walk south of the village. Charlotte Villas GUESTHOUSE $ (www.charlottevilla.com; d US$80) In the south part of town, these three fully equipped, high-ceiling apartments are spacious, simple and relaxing with verandahs and tons of natural light flooding in. Cholson Chalets GUESTHOUSE $ ( 639-8553; 74

…

to US$200 $$$ top end more than US$200 PRACTICALITIES » Electricity Electrical current 115/230V, 60hz; US-style two-pin plug. » Newspapers & Magazines There are three daily newspapers: Trinidad Express, Newsday and Trinidad Guardian . Discover Trinidad & Tobago is a helpful free tourist magazine found at tourist offices and hotels. » Radio & TV

…

There are three local TV stations: TV6 (channel 5), CVM (channel 6) and Gayelle (channel 7), the latter broadcasting only local programming. Cable channels include CNN and BBC

…

transportation is required upon entry, so make sure you have your return flight confirmation to show immigration officers if they ask. Air AIRPORTS There are three airports handling international traffic to Grand Turk and Provo, but nearly all international flights arrive at Provo. The Provo airport has a tourist information booth

…

visitors center). The Customs House , recognizable by its sweeping 16-step stairway, served as the Danes’ customs house for more than a century. Nearby, the three-story neoclassical Danish West India and Guinea Company Warehouse served as company headquarters; slaves were auctioned in its central courtyard. Next door, the 1753 Steeple

…

expeditions for gap-year and university students, who work with scientists to study the Andros reef system in the Bahamas. Cost is from £1550 for three weeks. Habitat for Humanity (www.habitat.org) An international nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing organization. Volunteers build simple, affordable housing for people in need. Costs

…

has offices in Melbourne, London and Oakland, with more than 600 staff and writers. We share Tony’s belief that ’a great guidebook should do three things: inform, educate and amuse’. Our Writers Ryan Ver Berkmoes Coordinating Author, Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, Cayman Islands, Curaçao, St Vincent & the Grenadines Ryan Ver

Discover Caribbean Islands

by Lonely Planet

there’s the odd cool day in the north. Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival Internationally acclaimed acts jam Jamaica’s Montego Bay in late January for three nights of mellow music under the stars (www.jamaicajazzandblues.com). It starts the jazz festival season across the region. Festival San Sebastián Puerto Rico’s

…

. St Kitts Music Festival Top-name calypso, soca, reggae, salsa, jazz and gospel performers from throughout the Caribbean gather on the small island during the three-day St Kitts Music Festival and pack out every venue – plus parks, stadiums and more. Reserve a room way in advance. July Summer holiday crowds

…

hurricane season. There’s another tranche of carnivals and other special events. Crop-Over Festival Marks the end of the sugarcane harvest in Barbados. Over three weeks from mid-July, there are calypso competitions, fairs and more, finishing with a costume parade and fireworks on Kadooment Day in August. Reggae Sumfest

…

place around the first week of August and is celebrated with boat races, music, dancing and more. Latin Music Festival The Dominican Republic’s huge, three-day festival, held at Santo Domingo’s Olympic Stadium, attracts the top names in Latin music; dates vary. Grenada Carnival Grenada’s big annual event

…

. Advance Planning Six months before Book your accommodations if you will be traveling in peak season. Do so earlier if you hope for special deals. Three months before Reserve rental cars and make reservations for special meals if traveling in a busy time. One month before Book special tours like kayaking

…

-profile music festivals. Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival Music (www.jamaicajazzandblues.com) Brings internationally acclaimed acts to Cinnamon Hill, near Rose Hall, in late January for three nights of music under the stars. Red Stripe Reggae Sumfest Music (www.reggaesumfest.com) Jamaica’s premier reggae festival typically includes more than 50 world

…

Craft Markets Markets For the largest crafts selection head to the Harbour Street Craft Market map Google map (Harbour St; 7am-7pm), which extends for three blocks between Barnett and Market Sts. Fantasy Craft Market map Google map (8am-7pm), at the northern end of Gloucester Ave, and Fort Montego Craft

…

are categorized as follows: $ less than US$90 $$ US$90 to US$200 $$$ more than US$200 Practicalities Electricity 110V, 50Hz; standard US two- or three-pin plugs. Newspapers & Magazines The Jamaica Gleaner is the biggest newspaper, rivaled by the Jamaica Observer. Smoking Banned in public places (including bars and restaurants

…

; ) You might leave this oasis of comfort and sophistication on an otherwise gritty stretch feeling envious of the regulars who are welcomed like family. Nearly three-dozen types of really top-notch pizza and pasta, plus fish and meat dishes round out the menu. Adrian Tropical Dominican $ (Av George Washington; mains

…

from El Cortecito. Expreso Santo Domingo Bávaro (809-552-1678; Av Estados Unidos) has direct 1st class service between Bávaro and the capital (RD$400, three hours). Departure times are 7am, 9am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm and 4pm. From the same terminal, Sitrabapu (809-552-0771; Av Estados Unidos) has departures to

…

-Dec) , the most recommended outfit, is owned and operated by pioneering Canadian marine mammal specialist Kim Beddall. The daily tour leaves at 9am and lasts three to four hours. Occupying the western third of Cayo Levantado, a lush island 7km from Samaná, is a gorgeous beach open to the public. Boatmen

…

, and outdoor adventurers can raft, hike, bike, horseback ride, go canyoning or simply explore rural life. Kitesurfer, Cabarete (Click here) Greg Johnston/Getty Images © Sights Three nearby waterfalls, Salto de Jimenoa Uno, Salto de Jimenoa Dos and Salto de Baiguate, are easy to visit if you’ve got your own transportation

…

to 10pm Monday to Saturday. Public Holidays In addition to holidays observed throughout the region, the Dominican Republic also has the following public holidays: Epiphany/Three Kings Day January 6 Our Lady of Altagracia January 21 Duarte Day January 26 Independence Day February 27 Holy Thursday, Holy Friday, Easter Sunday March

…

. Footbridge, El Yunque (Click here) ALEKSANDAR KOLUNDZIJA/GETTY IMAGES © Ponce POP 160,000 Central Ponce has outstanding colonial architecture and a dozen or so museums. Three miles south, the seashore-hugging restaurant-lined boardwalk of La Guancha Paseo Tablado is another fine draw. Sights & Activities Plaza Las Delicias Square map Google

…

-12am) On warm evenings lines stretch down the sidewalk of this institution, located across from Parque de Bombas. Getting There & Around The público terminal is three blocks north of the plaza, near Plaza del Mercado, with connections to all major towns. There are plenty of long-haul vans headed to Río

…

, 11am to 5pm Sunday, later in malls. Public Holidays In addition to holidays observed throughout the region, Puerto Rico also has the following public holidays: Three Kings Day (Feast of the Epiphany) January 6 Eugenio María de Hostos’ Birthday January 10; honors the island educator, writer and patriot Martin Luther King

…

island’ where Main St is a calypso-wafting beach? Virgin Gorda (Click here) MONICA AND MICHAEL SWEET/GETTY IMAGES © Top of chapter Virgin Islands Itineraries Three Days North Shore (Click here) Spend the day on a gorgeous beach in the heart of the St John’s protected parkland. Lengthy Cinnamon Bay

…

of pirates, hurricanes and slave revolts. Cannons on the ramparts, an echoey claustrophobic dungeon and latrines with top-notch sea views await inside. Nearby, the three-story neoclassical Danish West India and Guinea Company Warehouse served as company headquarters; slaves were auctioned in its central courtyard. Buck Island Reef National Monument

…

-and-snorkeling ecotours and dives. Sleeping & Eating Ali Baba’s Guesthouse $$ (284-495-9280; www.alibabasheavenlyroomsbvi.com; r US$140-160; ) This popular restaurant offers three ‘heavenly rooms’ on its 2nd floor. The compact, whitewashed, wicker-furnished units face the beach and have a wind-cooled balcony from which to view

…

hook can be. SURVIVAL GUIDE Directory A–Z Accommodations High season is from mid-December through April, when rooms are costly and advance reservations essential. Three-night minimum stay requirements are common. Prices listed in this chapter for double occupancy during high season and, unless stated otherwise, do not include taxes

…

’s difficult to find local SIM cards. Practicalities Electricity 120 volts is standard throughout the Virgins. Plugs are North American–style with two (flat) or three (two flat, one round) pins. Smoking Smoking is banned in all restaurants, bars and other public venues throughout the Virgins. Time GMT -4. Relative to

…

harbors of St Thomas’ Charlotte Amalie and St Croix’s Christiansted. VI Airlink (www.viairlink.com) buzzes between Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada and St Thomas three times per week. Boat There are excellent ferry connections between the USVI and BVI. The free tourist magazines publish full schedules. Note ferries run until

…

charmer has lovely views from its 60 colonial-meets-contemporary rooms, the nicest of which have big verandas, four-poster beds and private plunge pools. Three onsite pools, two restaurants and a posh Aveda spa provide ample diversion and the beach is only a short, free shuttle ride away. Eating Dennis

…

buildings have been restored and house a restaurant bar; its legendary Sunday barbecue party with live bands has drawn revelers from around the island for three decades. Admission to the barbeque is EC$20. Fort Berkeley Fort (English Harbour) Though ruined, this fort, built in 1704 to defend English Harbour, still

…

15% service charge. Price ranges: $ less than US$100 $$ US$100 to US$150 $$$ more than US$150 Practicalities Electricity North American–style two- and three-pin sockets dominate on all islands; however, Anguilla, Saba and Sint Eustatius are on 110V/60hz while St Kitts & Nevis and Antigua & Barbuda are on

…

white-sand beach. The town has a charming collection of old stone structures, including a small Caribbean-style convent and one of the island’s three Catholic churches. Sleeping Les Mouettes Bungalow $ (0590-27-77-91; www.lesmouetteshotel.com; bungalow €165-255; ) For budget-conscious beach lovers, it’s hard to

…

stunning resort is a hidden village of splendid bungalows flung across jungly grounds. It features a host of amenities, including two swimming pools, a spa, three restaurants, tennis courts, a kids club and a water-sports center. The icing on the cake: two beaches, both with different orientations. O’Corail International

…

. Each unit is styled with knickknacks and drapery from a far-flung destination. The French owner, Jean-Phillipe, creates an inviting and friendly ambience. Minimum three nights. Le Grain de Sel Creole $ (0590-52-46-05; Anse de Grande Saline; mains €14-28; lunch & dinner) Bedecked with stone pillars and hidden

…

atmospheric heritage building that offers nine impeccably simple and airy rooms. The upstairs rooms are a tad smaller but have more charm. There are also three cozy bungalows. Hiking Mont Pelée Mont Pelée is the island’s most famous natural attraction and a must-do for walkers. There are strenuous trails

…

Rock, Pointe de la Cherry) A small outfit capably managed by a French couple; known for friendly service and small groups. Has introductory dives (€60), three-dive packages (€135), certifications courses and snorkeling trips. Sleeping & Eating L’Anse Bleue Bungalow $$ (0596-76-21-91; www.hotel-anse-bleue.com; La Dizac

…

(0825-01-01-25; www.jeansforfreedom.com) operates services between Pointe-à-Pitre and St-Pierre in Martinique (one way €79). There are one to three weekly services depending on season. Beachfront, Philipsburg (Click here), Sint Maarten adrian beesley/Getty Images © Martinique Air The island’s only airport is Aéroport International

…

for Freedom (0825-01-01-25; www.jeansforfreedom.com) operates services between St-Pierre and Pointe-à-Pitre (one way €79). There are one to three weekly services depending on season. Getting Around Boat Guadeloupe Ferries are the principal way to get between the islands of Guadeloupe. Multiple ferry operators run

…

, can be arranged by the Chaguaramas Development Authority (634-4227; www.chagdev.com). Popular options include the boat trip out to Gasparee Island (US$25, three hours), where you can visit caves that drip with stalactites. The most distant, 360-hectare Chacachacare, was once a leper colony, and is best visited

…

, providing hiking and boating trips. Sleeping Castara Cottage Guesthouse $ (757-1044; www.castaracottage.com; apt US$70-110; ) Decked out in rich tropical colors, these three simple apartments are perched on a hillside between Big and Heavenly Bays. Each is equipped with all you need to self-cater, and has pleasant

…

your bill. Most advertised accommodations rates include the tax and service charge, but not always. Practicalities Electricity All islands: 110V, 60Hz; US-style two- and three-pin plugs are used. Time Atlantic Standard Time (GMT-4) Tipping A 15% to 20% overall tip is the norm in restaurants; 10% to 15

…

ticket. Air Insel Air (www.fly-inselair.com) has a near-monopoly on service linking Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. KLM (www.klm.com) serves all three from Amsterdam. Aruba Reina Beatrix International Airport (AUA; www.airportaruba.com) is a busy, modern airport with plenty of service to North America. Bonaire There

…

Tobago, the cruise ship terminal is adjacent to the ferry terminal in downtown Scarborough. Departing Aruba Passengers flying to the US absolutely must check in three hours before flight time. Actually four hours might be better because all US-bound passengers clear customs and immigration before they leave Aruba. Most flights

…

British representation abroad. Getting There & Away All visitors need a valid passport to enter the country. Proof of onward transportation is required. Air There are three airports handling international traffic, but nearly all international flights arrive at Provo. Grand Turk International Airport (946-2233) Providenciales International Airport (941-5670; www.provoairport

…

norm in restaurants and taxis. In hotels, 10% is usually added to the bill. Weights & Measures Imperial system. Bicycle Bikes are readily available on all three islands and are often included as part of an accommodations package. Flat terrain, relatively light traffic and near-constant sea access make cycling a pleasure

…

, Grenada and St Kitts were each linked with smaller neighboring islands to form new nations. Anguilla, which was connected with St Kitts and Nevis, rebelled three months after the new state’s inauguration in 1967 and negotiated with the British to be reinstated as a Crown Colony. Montserrat also refused to

…

Virgin Islands One of the best destinations for kids. Highlights are abundant and include resort fun and tourist towns with child-friendly allure on all three main islands. Planning Where to Stay Resorts offer scores of kid-friendly amenities, but some families prefer staying in simpler places closer to island life

…

fooled by the plastic bottles or cheap-looking label, it’s an undiscovered gem. Dominican Republic Dozens of local brands are available, but the big three are Brugal, Barceló and Bermudez. Jamaica Clear and light white rums, flavored rums, brain-bashing overproof rums (rum over 151 proof), deep dark rums, and

…

: Cayman Islands and Jamaica. Ports of Departure Main departure ports for Caribbean cruises are Fort Lauderdale and Miami, Florida; and San Juan, Puerto Rico. All three cities are well equipped to deal with vast numbers of departing and arriving cruise-ship passengers and are closest to the Caribbean. Secondary departure ports

…

sails are set by hand. This German-American company operates luxury cruises in the Eastern Caribbean. Star Clippers (www.starclippers.com) These modern four-masted clipper ships have tall-ship designs and carry 180 passengers. Itineraries take in smaller islands of the Eastern Caribbean. Windstar Cruises (www.windstarcruises.com) Windstar’s luxury four

…

Franklin, London, Melbourne, Oakland, Beijing and Delhi, with more than 600 staff and writers. We share Tony’s belief that ‘a great guidebook should do three things: inform, educate and amuse’. Our Writers Ryan Ver Berkmoes Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, Cayman Islands, Curaçao, Dominica, Grenada, Puerto Rico, St Lucia, St Vincent & the

…

party in a Kingston ghetto, don’t expect to get too many hotel reviews done the next day. Michael Grosberg Dominican Republic Michael has written three editions of the Lonely Planet Dominican Republic guidebook. In addition to his Lonely Planet assignments, he’s visited the Dominican Republic on other occasions, going

The Wood Age: How One Material Shaped the Whole of Human History

by Roland Ennos  · 18 Feb 2021

around 30 percent of the country. The problem was the lack of trees tall and straight enough to make the 100-to-120-foot masts of the ships. Most forests in Europe were already being managed, and it was becoming harder to find areas of primary forest where tall trees could still

…

and its forests had long before been put under management. Few conifers grew there, and no trees tall and straight enough to be made into ships’ masts. Even by the sixteenth century, Britain had been forced to obtain almost all its masts from the countries adjoining the Baltic Sea. The problem was

…

they implemented what was known as the King’s Broad Arrow policy. White pine trees above twenty-four inches in trunk diameter were marked with three strokes of a hatchet in the shape of an upward-pointing arrow and were deemed to be crown property. Unfortunately, this policy soon proved

…

to be wildly unpopular and totally unenforceable. Colonists continued to fell the huge trees and cut them into boards twenty-three inches wide or less, to dispose of the evidence. Indeed wide floorboards became highly fashionable, as a mark of an independent spirit. The British responded

…

look at the world in a way that is unhindered by the conventional wisdom that the story of humanity is defined by our relationship with three materials: stone, bronze, and iron. It refutes the common assumption that wood is little more than an obsolete relic from our distant past. I

…

with 70 percent for a macaque, 76 percent for a chimpanzee, and 80 percent for us humans. It is starting to become clear that these three characteristics, body size, neocortical size, and intelligence, are actually linked—primates got smarter as they got bigger—and that these changes are related to their

…

2 million years ago on the open plains of East Africa would therefore have got cold at night and have had disturbed sleep. There are three possible ways out of this conundrum. Early humans could have huddled around the fires that they built and maintained overnight for protection from predators. Most

…

actual physical evidence for clothes, or the tools such as needles needed to make them, comes far later in the story of humans—scraped hide three hundred thousand years ago, and sewn clothes just twenty thousand years ago. It is far more likely that the Homo erectus were already doing something

…

and branches are so good at resisting bending. Dried wooden branches have even better properties, being just as strong and tough as green wood, and three times as stiff. They are, therefore, ideal for making digging sticks and spears: they are rigid and strong in bending, so they don’t

…

the objects on which they are focused, to produce what she called a cognigram. Making the chimp’s spear involves fourteen steps, which acted on three “foci,” the chimp itself, the prey item, and the tool. In contrast, the human spear took twenty-nine steps, acting on eight foci. The

…

their javelins with the aid of leather thongs called amenta, which they looped over two fingers. It is also becoming clear that from around twenty-three thousand years ago Upper Paleolithic Homo sapiens did much the same, but using a special tool to hold the string. From the beginning of

…

the arms of the bow have effectively come to rest, having transmitted virtually all of their elastic and kinetic energy to the arrow. Bows have three major advantages over all the other techniques we have seen. First, since our muscles can produce more energy when contracting slowly, a bow can release

…

developed rapidly. Indeed, by the fourth millennium BC, log boat builders had finessed the design to make a craft from several components; the thirty-three-foot-long and twenty-six-inch-wide log boat found at Tybrind Vig, Denmark, has the rear end of its limewood hull reinforced and made

…

cut the rabbets with a chisel, and pierced the mortise with a flint piercer, before finally sanding and polishing the handle. All this took some three or four days of work, but an experienced Neolithic carpenter could probably have done this faster. The LBK people were certainly able to make far

…

at the Všestary Archeopark, Czech Republic. LBK longhouses could be up to fifty-five yards long and eleven yards wide. The roof was supported by three lines of posts within the building, while the outer walls were constructed using a line of thinner posts with grooves cut into them into which

…

from the Great Lakes; the bamboo longhouses of Southeast Asia; the villages of Amazonian tribes; and the meetinghouses of the New Zealand Maori. The three lines of posts would have held up a pitched roof. The ridgepole set on top of the central posts and the purlins set on top

…

to be discovered preserved in the mud surrounding the shore, particularly in Great Britain. Among the best-known, and oldest, Bronze Age boats, are the three Ferriby Boats, which were discovered in the 1930s and 1940s by two schoolboys, Ted and Will Wright, on the northern shore of the Humber estuary

…

a tree trunk, they would have had to be rather small. Most Bronze Age wheels were therefore made by joining together two or more, usually three, planks of wood. The difficulty with this design is making the joints strong enough to stop the wheel from folding up. Bronze Age wheelwrights

…

were also built by the inhabitants of the Chonos Archipelago, on the coast of Chile, some 47° south. They were built by sewing together three planks of larch and were rather like the early Bronze Age boats from Great Britain. How could these isolated tribes build plank boats, and how

…

wooden looms; and the leather had been tanned with tree bark. Yet in many ways wood is an unpromising material with which to make complex three-dimensional items. Unlike clay or metal it cannot be molded into shape; complex wooden items either have to be assembled by joining together several smaller

…

and ships. For some purposes, people found that wood was best used unmodified, in the form of whole logs. We saw in the prologue that ships’ masts were essentially complete tree trunks. Apart from the convenience of this arrangement, which meant that they needed only to have their branches cut off and

…

hold almost four thousand tons of grain. The English colonists brought this basic design to North America, where it gradually evolved into the all-wooden three-bay barns and New England barns, with their chestnut roof shingles. Traditionally, the houses and halls of Northern Europe were also built with wooden frames

…

warp than board batten doors, though they can drop in the same way if the joints work loose. Carpenters also quickly learned how to make three-dimensional structures by joining planks and battens to each other with mortise-and-tenon, dovetail, miter, and a host of more complex joints. But

…

be the lifeblood of commerce in preindustrial times, the equivalent of the tin cans, plastic bottles, and shipping containers of today combined. Wheelwrights used all three of the woodworking techniques: carpentry, turning, and steaming, to improve the design of a final wooden structure: the wheel. As we saw in the

…

and keep the joints taut, which is why the hay wain in John Constable’s famous painting is standing in the river Stour. Over the three thousand years following the discovery of iron smelting, therefore, iron tools helped to carve a world where wooden artifacts were ubiquitous. But as we

…

lines of pillars bounding a narrow central space. Even in the Parthenon, the widest gap between supports was only around thirty-six feet. Indeed, thirty-three to thirty-six feet seems to have been the maximum span that simple wooden lintels could safely bridge in early stone buildings. The book of

…

was not assuaged until he had built an even bigger ship, modestly named the Henry Grace à Dieu, which had two gun decks sporting forty-three heavy guns and a total displacement of around fifteen hundred tons. Neither ship had a distinguished career. James was diverted from his plans for

…

pieces, and pack efficiently into a small space. English woodsmen traditionally cut coppiced firewood into small relatively straight twigs and bound them together into faggots three feet long and with a diameter of around eight inches. Only then could the wood be transported on wagons away from the forest. The difficulties

…

that they could readily exploit these peat reserves. When they dug up the peat, it exposed the underlying clay, whose surface was two or three meters below sea level, and this automatically opened up new lakes and canals along which the peat could then be transported to nearby towns. This

…

which it was cut. He found that the new low-peat reserves gave the Dutch access to twenty-five petajoules of heat energy each year, three times the energy per person than the English were then obtaining from their firewood. Moreover, in removing the peat, they exposed rich clay soils

…

Northumberland and Durham coalfield, had readily accessible coal reserves lying just below the surface, close to the North Sea coast and along the banks of three major rivers: the Tyne, the Wear, and the Tees. Miners could dig huge quantities of coal from the mines in this area, which were

…

the British fleet had some fourteen thousand cannon, ranging from the largest, 32-pounders (guns that fired thirty-two-pound cannonballs), each gun weighing over three tons, to smaller 16- and 8-pounders, and still smaller guns firing grapeshot and mortar shells. These guns alone would have used around twenty-five

…

uncomfortable, and wooden ships remained small, cramped, and leaky, and this conspired to limit travel. At the end of the eighteenth century it still took three to four days to travel the four hundred miles from London to Edinburgh. Sailing times barely improved either. It took Benjamin Franklin some seven weeks

…

and novel design, and gigantic ships was the invention of a rather different material: wrought iron. Ten times as stiff as wood, up to three times as strong in tension, and ten times as tough, wrought iron was the first material with mechanical properties superior to those of timber that

…

was the largest unsupported covered open space in the world when it was opened in 1868. Each of the twenty-nine arches spans a distance three times as wide as the Palazzo della Ragione in Padua, the nearest wooden equivalent. But of all structures, wrought iron transformed the building of

…

planking, ships could be built larger, more quickly, and more cheaply. Britain’s most charismatic Victorian engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, for instance, designed and built three ships in his career, each larger than its predecessor, and unprecedented in size. His first, the paddle steamer the SS Great Western, built in oak

…

a supply problem with one standardized component that all sailing ships of the time needed in large numbers—ship’s blocks or pulleys. A single three-masted ship of the line could have over a thousand pulleys in the complicated rigging, which were essential to enable the crew to set the sails. The

…

to make and assemble large numbers of identical items. To make each block he therefore designed machines that could cut and shape each of the three main elements of the block so accurately that they would always fit together: the main body of the block, called the shell; the rotating

…

locks. The collaboration between the two engineers proved fruitful, and the final machines, made from wrought iron, worked perfectly. In all, forty-three machines, carrying out twenty-three processes, produced three sizes of blocks. Not only were these among the first machine tools, but they were arranged in order, making them into perhaps

…

ideal material. Designers such as John Henry Belter of New York showed that it could readily be bent and molded into two-dimensional, and even three-dimensional, curves, enabling him to produce graceful rococo revival furniture. The ability to make curved shells also attracted early airplane designers as it suggested a

…

1912 a monocoque Deperdussin monoplane, piloted by Jules Védrines, won the Gordon Bennett Trophy race. This graceful midwing monoplane, with its conical fuselage made from three-ply tulipwood sheets, and with a huge streamlined propeller spinner, was way ahead of its time, pointing the way for the airplanes of the future

…

Havilland Mosquito had a fuselage made using an ingenious sandwich construction, in which a light central core of balsa was covered on each side by three-ply birch plywood. The shape was formed by molding the two halves separately and then gluing them together. The wings were also covered by sheets

…

of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, is perhaps the most spectacular example of the use of glulam’s artistic possibilities. The roof is a sweeping three-hundred-foot-wide hexagon, supported by a hexagonal framework made from ten miles of laminated beams, and rising to a central spire 253 feet

…

, pollen records show that the loss of conifer forests in Scandinavia and the Alps was undetectable before two thousand years ago and barely noticeable even three hundred years ago. A second effect was that the area of pristine “wildwood” or “old growth forest” declined drastically. Europe currently has just a

…

temperature until it is solid. The cellulose fibers reorient themselves along the grain, making the new material not only twelve times stronger than timber but three times as tough; it can be used as a replacement for steel or aluminum. Scientists at the Wallenberg Wood Science Center have shown that modified

…

the roof is covered with wooden shingles. Andreas Werth/Alamy; Harmondsworth Great Barn was built near London in the early fifteenth century and could store three thousand tons of grain. The oak pillars are mounted on stone supports to prevent the base rotting, while the roof is held up by a

…

Charcoal Fumifugium he railed against the smogs: See Evelyn (1661). Jan de Zeeuw of the Agricultural University of Wageningen has calculated: See de Zeeuw (1978). three times the energy per person than the English: See Wrigley (2010). Francis Bacon, who, in: The New Atlantis: See Bacon (1627). the first-ever

…

Hindle, 159–83. Tarrytown, NY: Sleepy Hollow Press. Ozden, S., and A. R. Ennos. 2018. “The Mechanics and Morphology of Branch and Coppice Stems in Three Temperate Tree Species.” Trees 32:933–49. Parry, D. 2004. Engineering the Pyramids. Stroud, UK: Sutton Publishing. Pollard, S. 1980. “A New Estimate of British

…

A., W. Sellers, S. Thorpe, S. Coward, R. Crompton, and A. R. Ennos. 2012a. “Why Don’t Branches Snap? The Mechanics of Bending Failure in Three Temperate Angiosperm Trees.” Trees: Structure and Function 26:789–97. van Casteren, A., W. Sellers, S. Thorpe, S. Coward, R. Crompton, J. P. Myatt, and

…

shadoof, 84 Shakers, 133 shear rigidity, 182–83 sheet glass, 211 ships British-French arms race and, ix–x Bronze Age, 107–9 masts, ix–xiv, 120–22 ship’s blocks, 214, 215–16 Viking longships, 127–29 wood as limit to progress and, 169–72, 182–84, 206 wooden plank, 108

Rope: How a Bundle of Twisted Fibers Became the Backbone of Civilization

by Tim Queeney  · 11 Aug 2025  · 264pp  · 88,907 words

extent is a bit messy and cries out for detailed classification, so archeologists have drawn up some boundaries. The Stone Age is generally divided into three major periods: the Paleolithic, or old Stone Age; the Mesolithic, or middle period; and the Neolithic, or new period, when agriculture blossomed. The Stone Age

…

New Kingdoms. The writing translates as “twisting the ropes for boatbuilding.”10 In another tomb in Thebes from 1500 BCE, a scene is depicted of three men making two-strand rope. “The man on the right is separately twisting the two strands, which are attached to whirling tools, in the clockwise

…

made with natural fibers, and discover how rope’s practical importance led to it being used as a metaphor for connection in many cultures. STRAND THREE CORDAGE GETS TO WORK THE VOYAGING CANOE HŌKŪLE‘A, LAUNCHED in 1975 by the Polynesian Voyaging Society of Hawaii, is a modern reconstruction of a

…

, and the payment included gold, silver, garments of royal linen, and five hundred coils of rope.12 In the time after 900 BCE there were three main Phoenician cities: Sidon, Tyre, and Byblos. From these ports Phoenician sailors raised their masts, cast off their bow and stern lines, and sailed

…

were stepped, usually a mainmast and a foremast, and the ship was sailed from point to point. When it was time to engage enemy ships, the masts and the associated rope rigging were removed and put ashore, as there was no room on board with all those grunting rowers on a narrow

…

dara knot is supposed to provide inner strength and even transformation. Another frequently seen Irish knot with spiritual overtones is the triquetra or trefoil. This three-lobed Celtic symbol was used by early Christian missionaries to Ireland to help explain the concept of the Christian Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy

…

earth. These ethereal traceries of stone rose in great numbers, especially in northern France and England. As Jean Gimpel wrote in The Cathedral Builders, “In three centuries—from 1050 to 1350—several million tons of stone were quarried in France for the building of 80 cathedrals, 500 large churches and some

…

tens of thousands of parish churches. More stones were excavated in France during these three centuries than at any time in Ancient Egypt.… The foundations of the cathedrals are laid as deep as 10 meters [33 feet] (the average

…

of how to proceed. Scott wrote, “the design of every aspect and detail seems unquestionably to have been worked out almost exclusively in terms of three-dimensional models of all sorts, both for the details and the ensembles.”15 For example, when Hugh Herland, master carpenter to the English king Richard

…

the type of rope guidance used, in other words according to the system of rollers and pulleys involved, and the arrangement of the ropes. The three-roped ‘Trispastos,’ therefore, operated with two upper and one lower pulley, the ‘Pentapastos’ had five rope runs and the ‘Polypastos’ had multiple rope runs.”

…

day, the sailors of the powerful U.S. Navy frigate USS Constitution were too busy to notice. They were aloft in the rigging of the three-masted ship working the ropes—untying reefing nettles, loosing buntlines and clewlines, and shaking out the canvas of the man-of-war’s sails. Their instructions were

…

Hull, an experienced commander and ship handler. He was so determined to join up with Rodgers that when a masthead lookout sighted the masts and sails of five ships on the horizon off Egg Harbor, New Jersey, Hull assumed that Rodgers had departed New York with his squadron and was sailing south

…

of Zheng He’s ships isn’t known for certain, they were, by all accounts, large, impressive vessels and carried at least six masts.11 To control such ships, Zheng He’s fleet would have required a massive supply of rope. Zheng He, a eunuch from the Ming Dynasty court who had

…

foremast, the second and largest mast the mainmast, and the last mast going aft the mizzenmast. Some ships had five or six masts or more, but the standard ship rig evolved in Europe as a three-master. At the beginning of this vertical expansion, the mainmast carried a big mainsail and a much

…

square rigger. STANDING RIGGING As we touched on above, in addition to the running rigging, these ships also required standing rigging to keep the masts from falling. As ships got higher, shipbuilders couldn’t find tree trunks long enough. So they used composite masts. The masts of USS Constitution are each assembled

…

from three smaller masts, one stacked above the next. This approach allowed shipbuilders to make prodigiously tall composite masts for the towering rigs of sailing vessels

…

were twisted together into thicker elements called strands. The next step was to attach these strands to the rotating hooks of the ropemaking machine. The three strands were then twisted in the opposite direction that the yarns were twisted. This bringing together of the strands into rope was called “laying” the

…

anchor cable of 720 feet. So, to make a 720-foot cable we want a ropewalk 1,000 feet in length. The British government established three ropewalks along the Thames: at Woolwich, Deptford, and Chatham. The ropewalk at Chatham Dockyard in Kent, England, which still makes rope for sale, has

…

’—a section on the outskirts of a city where objectionable or undesirable industries and institutions are located.”14 The fringe status of ropemaking was for three reasons: space, stench, and danger. Space, because ropemaking needed open land on which to build its long ropewalks. Stench, because the practice of dunking hemp

…

160 capital offences referred to by Blackstone [who wrote a treatise on English law], four-fifths were made so during the reigns of the first three Georges, and the number rose to 222 before reforms began.”34 Capital crimes included murder and manslaughter but also robbery, theft, and counterfeiting, and

…

nothing like the attempt at systematic execution that later evolved in the nineteenth century. Seventeenth- and eighteenth-century hangings in Britain and North America used three methods: the ladder, the cart, or the haul. All of the methods require something from which to hang the rope. A stout tree limb

…

permanent gallows, usually a wooden beam on two uprights. The city of London had so many hangings on the docket that in 1571 a distinctive three-sided structure called the Tyburn “triple tree” was built that allowed for dispatching multiple condemned at once.42 Since ladders were needed for the executioner

…

. Conducting the hangings was Albert Pierrepoint, a British executioner who had conducted many executions of British criminals before the war. Pierrepoint was tasked with executing three women prisoners, including Grese, and ten men, including Kramer, all in one day. On December 12, Pierrepoint weighed and measured the condemned Nazis and set

…

gives talks on wire rope (in the industry he’s been dubbed “The Rope Pope”). Verreet pointed out that Albert’s first wire rope design (three strands of four wires) wasn’t all that well suited for easy handling or going through pulleys. “He immediately understood, this is not round,” Verreet

…

screw propeller driven by two 500-horsepower steam engines. Steam power had yet to entirely prove itself by 1843, however, so the Great Britain had three masts and could sail if necessary. It seemed at first that Smith’s company would be the likely provider of the standing rigging for the

…

,081 gross tons, and carried five square-rigged masts. Sailors had to climb 190 feet from the deck to reach the mastheads of its three tallest masts. The ship was equipped with forty-seven sails that spread 73,000 square feet of canvas. With enough wind, all that sail area could drive the

…

was to build the portage railroad and haul the boats over the mountains on railroad flatcars. The project began in 1831 and was completed in three years, stretching from Hollidaysburg east of the Alleghenies to Johnstown on the western side of the mountains. It comprised ten inclined planes. At the

…

on one side of the mountains and lowered down on the other. The portage railroad helped reduce travel time between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh from twenty-three days by road to four days.16 To haul the flatcars, the stationary engines connected to them via thick hemp ropes. The first ropes used

…

rope inventors like Roebling worked on the best design for their products, different arrangements of wire were devised. William Albert’s first wire rope was three strands, each composed of four wires. Later, wire rope was sought that had greater breaking strength and more flexibility. This meant rope with a

…

core was made by the Gutta-Percha Company and consisted of seven wires of No. 22 stranded copper ‘of the best quality,’ then covered by three separate layers of gutta percha, thus forming the core of the cable. Around this were wrapped layers of tarred hemp saturated with a preservative compound

…

in the planning stage—of walking the 138-foot gap that separated the two Trade Center towers. For his attempt, Petit recruited a group of three Frenchmen and four Americans. Like a special ops force, they planned and prepared for months, with Petit even practicing on a wire between two mockups

…

Rhine. SYNTHESIZING THE SYNTHETICS The 2-inch-diameter rope used on all the gliders on D-Day was made of a new synthetic material: nylon. Three-stranded, it looked much like a traditional hemp or manila rope, except for its shiny white color. The introduction of nylon ropes made the use

…

up of very large molecules, many times larger than those in many common materials. For example, a sugar molecule has forty-five atoms, gasoline twenty-three or twenty-six atoms, and grain alcohol has nine; but a molecule of silk can contain ten thousand to one hundred thousand atoms.8 In

…

of another by molecular forces to give the long chains of these amino acids called proteins.”10 Chemists had been unable to manipulate more than three or four of these natural molecules to string together. Carothers, therefore, went about the problem by designing his own molecule, one that included the

…

short fibers, nylon fibers were many times longer. Just like natural-fiber rope, synthetic fibers could be combined into yarns and then strands and then three-strand rope—but the end result was substantially stronger than hemp or manila. The raw material for this version of nylon, which is called nylon

…

Vectran, and Xylon (they sound like planets in a sci-fi novel). Another type of synthetic is high modulus polyethylene (HMPE), a fiber that is three to four times tougher than conventional nylon and polyester. All these flavors of synthetic rope are many times stronger than any natural-fiber rope ever

…

looped around the pins and belayed (tied off) with locking hitches. This system is still used, with some modernization, in theaters today. Recently I visited three theaters in Manhattan to get a backstage look at how rope and rigging are used in the Broadway theaters. My first stop was the Perelman

…

saved us from instant death on Sefton,’ his companion later wrote. When at last the situation was retrieved it was discovered that two of the three strands of rope had been severed: ‘I had been suspended in mid-air by a single strand.’”13 Though the accidents mentioned above involved multiple

…

being weakened. A kernmantle rope can devote its core fiber properties toward strength without having to worry about abrasion like all the fibers of a three-strand rope. Kernmantle climbing ropes began to be widely available in the 1960s, first in Europe. In the United States, the Plymouth Cordage Company

…

made a three-strand 7/16-inch nylon climbing rope called Goldline (the fibers were dyed gold) that was popular until the early 1970s when Yvon Chouinard’s

…

company Patagonia introduced a brightly colored kernmantle rope called Fantasia that rapidly became popular.17 A problem that can bedevil both three-strand ropes and kernmantle ropes when climbing or mountaineering is sharp rock edges. The force of a rope running over a sharp edge while under

…

have a loss of efficiency. We made special braid Kevlar that was a little bit heavier that matched the strength of the Technora. The last three feet or so was Kevlar webbing to where it attaches to the spacecraft.” To get the parachute with its one million painstakingly applied hand stitches

…

stopped descending and hovered in the Martian air. And this is where ropes again came into play. The rover was connected to the skycrane by three nylon and Vectran ropes. These would be used to slowly lower the craft down to the surface. Manning and Simon detailed how the descent unfolded

…

: The rover released herself from the descent stage [skycrane] onto her three nylon and Vectran bridle ropes, which paid out gradually along with an electrical cable that carried communications between the rover’s computer and the descent

…

a, seen here after voyaging to Japan, is a modern reconstruction of one of these voyaging vessels. Public domain. Greek trireme warships were propelled by three banks of oarsmen and with sails. They used rope for rigging sails and for a heavy cable called a hypozomata or hypozoma that ran from

…

Company, 1964. Russell, Don. The Lives and Legends of Buffalo Bill. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1960. Russell, Howard S. A Long, Deep Furrow: Three Centuries of Farming in New England. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1976. Sahrhage, Dietrich, and Johannes Lundbeck. A History of Fishing. Berlin: Springer

…

and America’s Death Penalty. Stanford: Stanford Law Books, 2014. Schuyler, Hamilton. The Roeblings: A Century of Engineers, Bridge-builders and Industrialists: The Story of Three Generations of an Illustrious Family, 1831–1931. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1931. Scott, Robert A. The Gothic Enterprise: A Guide to Understanding the Medieval Cathedral

…

Build Stonehenge, 123. 25. Waldron, Great Wall of China, 27. 26. Keay, China: A History, 402. 27. Man, Great Wall, 249. 28. Man, 250. STRAND THREE: CORDAGE GETS TO WORK 1. Thompson, “Recollections of the Voyage of Rediscovery.” 2. Thompson. 3. Thompson. 4. Diamond, Guns, Germs, and Steel, 340. 5. Diamond

…

FREE EPIGRAPHS INTRODUCTION. Dad’s Knots PART I FIBERS FROM THE EARTH STRAND ONE. We All Pull Together STRAND TWO. Stitching Boats, Raising Pyramids STRAND THREE. Cordage Gets to Work STRAND FOUR. A Line to the Divine STRAND FIVE. Getting the Message STRAND SIX. Controlling the Age of Sail STRAND SEVEN

The confusion

by Neal Stephenson  · 13 Apr 2004  · 1,020pp  · 339,564 words

of the Plan, I must admit, involved throwing you overboard as soon as it was practicable. But today when fifteen hundred guns spoke from the three-tiered batteries of the Peñon and the frowning towers of the Kasba, some lingering obstructions were, it seems, finally knocked loose inside your head, and

…

was moved to an apartment where I recovered my health, and then I was conveyed back down to Vera Cruz and given command of a three-masted ship of thirty-two guns, and a fair crew, and told to go out and kill pirates and come ashore as infrequently as possible until I

…

a naval officer, which was not terribly different from what any other civilian gentleman would wear, viz. breeches, waistcoat, Persian coat over that, periwig, and three-cornered hat. The costume’s color (tending to blue), its decoration (facings, piping, epaulets, cuffs), and the selection of plumes that erupted from the folds

…

to a stack of portraits leaning against a wall, and began to paw through them: men, women, children, and families, dressed in the fashions of three generations ago. “When the Wars of Religion finally came to an end, both families, having nothing else to do, began to produce children. A generation

…

you have never seen about a pillowcase that no longer exists, supposedly carrying an encrypted message in Qwghlmian, which no one reads except for some three-fingered monk in Ireland.” “We shall see,” said d’Avaux. “My interview with Father Édouard de Gex will be a simple matter by comparison.” “And

…

her weight on the bench, facing Eliza and Rossignol, the runners broke loose on the snow and the sleigh moved backwards a few inches. All three of the occupants whooped: the Duchess because she was alarmed, Eliza because it was amusing, and Bonaventure Rossignol because Eliza, under the blanket, had shoved

…

like to turn his head from side to side if he could avoid it; such complicated maneuvers demanded as much prudent premeditation as tacking a three-masted ship. Eliza, recognizing as much, sidestepped into the Duke’s field of view. “I cannot imagine why you look to me when you say this, Monsieur

…

. A bergantine, for that reason, would arouse more suspicion than this (much larger) galleot; it would be seen as a nimble platform for up to three dozen boarders, whereas the galleot’s crew (not counting chained slaves) was much smaller—in this case, only eight Corsairs, pretending to be peaceful traders

…

gone by, his promises had flourished like mushrooms after an autumn rain, until he had laid out a scheme for constructing or buying an actual three-masted ship, manning it with freed slaves, and setting out to found a new country somewhere. But as they had inched across the map towards Algiers, a

…

, being buggered by the Investor in Alexandria,” said Jeronimo. “Two, being thrown into a dungeon-pit in some flyblown port in the Levant,” said Dappa. “Three, running the ship aground in some uninhabited place and trudging off into the Sahara bent under the weight of our cargo,” said Vrej. “Ethiopia sounds

…

periwigs going to and fro in longboats, parleying with the customs officials, who here as in Algiers were all black-clad Jews. “The French pay three percent—merchants of other nations pay twenty,” Monsieur Arlanc commented, “probably thanks to the machinations of your Investor, and of other great Frenchmen.” Since his

…

were now in the presence of a man who could understand French. Moseh now emerged and stood on Jack’s right to even the count, three facing three. The Frenchmen—wishing to command the field—rode forward all the way to the center of the alley. Likewise Jack strolled forward until he

…

its balance-point and whirling it round and round so fast that he, and the pike, taken together, seemed and sounded like a monstrous hummingbird. Three Janissaries stood round about him at a respectful distance; two, who’d ventured within the fatal radius, lay spreadeagled in the dust bleeding freely from

…

) and the fourth left metatarsal bone of Saint Louis (which was embedded in a golden reliquary cemented into the wall). “Pontchartrain sent no fewer than three messages here this morning, requesting the latest news,” said Eliza, “but I did not know the contrôleur-général had also contacted you, my lady.” “His

…

sharply enough to make d’Avaux inhale sharply—which meant he could not finish his sentence. “Merci beaucoup, monsieur,” she whispered, and executed a full three-hundred-sixty-degree pirouette that brought her face to face with the King while relegating d’Avaux to the background. Her hand was behind the

…

Apollonius of Perga, the Folium of Descartes, and the Limaçon of Pascal. The walls of the room were decorated with impossibly optimistic paintings, two to three fathoms on a side, of sowers, reapers, and gleaners plying their respective trades in sun-gilded fields. Fickle light was shed on these by flames

…

them into his breast pocket. Then he ventured back outside. “Are your hands warm, Monsieur Fatio?” “Exceeding warm, Doctor Leibniz.” The Doctor had arranged the three snowballs—one giant one and the two small indiscernibles—on the field between the stable, the Schloß, and the nearby Arsenal. The triangle defined by

…

open disbelief. “What do you call him, when the two of you are alone together in your London house?” “I stand corrected, Doctor. There are three of us who have known him thusly.” “That is a very clever sentence you just uttered,” Leibniz exclaimed, sounding genuinely impressed. “Like a silken cord

…

much lighter casualties than other English regiments. In June 1690, then, William of Orange finally arrived in Ulster as only a King could, viz. with three hundred ships, fifteen thousand troops, hundreds of thousands of pounds sterling, more Princes, Dukes, and Bishops than a boat-load of playing-cards and chess

…

the air, and further evidence that Connaught was a realm of mischievous faeries. Setting aside eldritch deceptions, and listening patiently whilst smoking his way through three pipe-bowls of tobacco, and (above all) thanking that barber for having drawn the wax out of his ear, Bob collected the following: That there

…

engagement. As this was Sunday, the French and Irish regiments were taking turns at Mass; Bob could track the gradual progress of two or perhaps three different priests along the Jacobite line of battle, stopping every so often to deliver a warlike homily and celebrate a truncated version of the sacrament

…

personal interest in their quarrel, rode through them all like a cannonball through a bank of smoke and discovered himself in open country pursuing the three riders. The standard-bearer was moving slowest, and gradually falling behind. Bob almost had him when the fellow chanced to look back; then he let

…

inspection of my yard is further proof of the businesslike nature of the transaction just concluded, is it not?” “Very well…I hope that Number Three, as you count them, or Two, as Étienne does, will be half-Shaftoe rather than half-Lavardac, and, in consequence, altogether fitter, handsomer, and cleverer

…

the Café Esphahan after the tumult of invasion has subsided. Your humble &c. Samuel Bernard Cabin of Météore, off Cherbourg, France 2 JUNE 1692 FOR THREE DAYS Météore had been swinging about her anchor in a languid circle like the shadow on a sundial, driven by the comings and goings of

…

of silver, as she had every right to expect. Indeed, the lawyers out-numbered their clients: four (presumably German) bankers. Of these she had met three before, when she had stopped by with the Marquis of Ravenscar to present the Bills. The fourth was unfamiliar, and older. Eliza supposed that he

…

. The lawyers were five strong. To judge from their ages, the quality of their periwigs, and their posture, she guessed two full-fledged barristers and three clerks. The barristers were shoulder-to-shoulder with their clients, the clerks packed like oakum into spaces beneath the stair and among bancas that were

…

wife of the Grand Admiral of France—the superior of Captain Jean Bart, who confiscated my client’s silver.” “That man is incorrigible! Why, only three years ago the rascal confiscated every last penny that I owned! I am relieved to be informed that the House of Hacklheber escaped with comparatively

…

“They are divided into two great classes, the noble and the ignoble, the former being divided into thirty-seven subtribes and the latter into ninety-three. The Shudra Ahir were formerly one of the thirty-seven, until after the Third Incarnation of Lord Kalpa, when they came up from Anhalwara by

…

for your point to arrive.” “The point is that the Shudra Ahir have been herdsmen and feeders of livestock since before the breaking of the Three Jade Eggs, and the Swapak, for almost as long, have been—” “Feeders of bloodsucking insects in animal hospitals that are operated by some other

…

is.” Surendranath: “Of course.” Jack: “But Balochistan is that hellish bit that went by to port—the country that vomited hot dust on us for three weeks.” Surendranath: “The description is cruel but fair.” Jack: “That would be a Mahometan country if ever there was one.” Surendranath: “Balochis are Muslims.” Padraig

…

moment later, a rumble of a laugh, followed by some patient explanation. Hearing that voice, Eliza by some instinct turned and gazed up at a three-storey balcony that projected out into the space above the court, all decked out with golden Mercurys and other Barock commerce-emblems. She had once

…

to find not only swords but firearms. “So naturally the cousins allied themselves with powerful men who sought to unify Japan. This tale extends across three generations and as many shoguns—the first two being Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi—and has more twists and turns than a game trail over

…

shogun decreed that thenceforward no Japanese could leave the Home Islands on pain of death, and that all Japanese currently abroad must return home within three years or face the same penalty. Two years after that, the Christian ronin staged a great rebellion on Kyushu and fought the forces of the

…

, and the construction of the ship began. Lately even my most skeptical captains have been vying with each other for the honor of supplying the ship’s masts.” “I was wondering where you were going to obtain masts.” “Come with me, O Bringer of Armaments,” said Queen Kottakkal, and whirled around and

…

. “They are a living memory.” HALF THE TOWN WAS PULLED away from their mock-battle to heave the mast up onto the beach, and eventually three elephants were brought into play. Through the Queen’s spyglass, which had evidently been pilfered from some Portuguese sea-captain’s personal effects, Jack could

…

rendezvous in Surat with a Danish merchantman that was ballasted with cannons, and that wanted to unload them to make space for saltpeter and cloth. THREE MONTHS LATER JACK WAS a King no longer: merely a Vagabond sailor infringing on the hospitality of the Malabar pirate-queen. He and van Hoek

…

nobility, however these two chaps did nothing but. Charles White wanted chiefly to stare at Météore, and Daniel gave him something to notice by dropping three lengths of Spotted Dick down the hole. But his companion had eyes for London, and would not leave off staring, pointing, and tugging at White

…

, “that private soldiers James and Daniel Shaftoe are absent without leave.” “Since how long?” asked Barnes, sounding interested, but not surprised. “That might be debated. Three days ago, they claimed they had come upon the spoor and tracks of a feral pig, and requested leave to hunt it down. They vanished

…

almost certain to be a Queen one day.” He regarded Daniel skeptically. “All right,” said Daniel, moving. “I’ll sit up straight.” THE TRAIN WAS THREE CARRIAGES, a baggage-wain, and several mounted dragoons. The latter had been sent down from Berlin, which was to say they were Brandenburgish/Prussian. Leibniz

…

far?” “Infinitely small.” “One mark.” “All the universe explainable in terms of their interactions.” “Two marks.” “They perceive all the other monads in the universe.” “Three. And—?” “And they act.” “They act, based on what?” “Based on what they perceive, Dr. Leibniz.” “Four marks! A perfect score. Now, what must be

…

settled that much, brushed past the Doctor on his way to greet George Louis. Book 4 Bonanza Japan MAY 1700 DAPPA EXCHANGED MALABAR-WORDS with three black sailors who had just hauled in the sounding-lead, then turned toward the poop deck and gave van Hoek a certain look. The captain

…

care until the hills and headlands of Ilocos—the northwestern corner of Luzon—came into view. At that moment the character of the voyage changed. Three hundred miles separated them from the point of Mariveles at the entrance to Manila Bay, and it would all be coastal sailing, which meant contending

…

churches in Manila this night and do likewise.” There was a general muttering of assent as this was translated. Minerva had no fewer than three cooks, and three completely different sets of pots. The only group who did not have their own were the Christians, who, when it came to food, would

…

you, alone in your quiet Massachusetts cabin, are better qualified to draw up the immense symbol-tables. Setting aside political entanglements, calculus-controversies, and the three Ladies (Sophie, Sophie Charlotte, and Princess Caroline) who never stop asking me to explain things to them, my chief project, at the moment, is the

…

he spent several long evenings sitting by the fire with Jimmy and Danny Shaftoe talking about what sons of bitches Englishmen were in general. Almost three weeks after Minerva had dropped anchor at Port Marques, Edmund de Ath came out alone one morning from Acapulco, bearing sealed letters from the Viceroy

…

-branches are not so much sweeping the pavement as spanking it!” “Those are from that batch of Jewish monks we arrested at the Dominican monastery three years ago,” said Diego. From any other Inquisition prison warden, this might have sounded judgmental—even condemnatory. But Diego de Fonseca presided over what was

…

Christopher! Brother Peter! Brother Diaz! There are ladies present! Try to move some dirt as long as you are sweeping the courtyard, will you?” The three monks straightened up and glared at Moseh, then bent their backs again and began scraping dust across the stones. Clouds of volcanic ash built up

…

procession of processions that wound its way through the streets to the zócalo, but cheerfully insinuated themselves among and between the nuns and monks, the three-or four-hundred-strong staff of the Cathedral, the asesors, fiscals, alquaciles, and familiares of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, and diverse priests, friars

…

seized and burnt by the Inquisition when Minerva called at Acapulco or Lima. The trip back to Zacatecas was exceptionally dangerous because no fewer than three groups of desperadoes were waiting to waylay them in the passes. But Jimmy and Danny, as the result of their journey halfway around the world

Legacy

by Greg Bear  · 1 Jan 1995  · 523pp  · 149,772 words

huge sugar cake; it would become the remaining half of Axis Nader, a concession to those forces that did not even believe in the Way. Three previously threaded sections or precincts of the Axis City already floated over us, white and steel and gray, great cylindrical monuments studded with towers that

…

I was gone. This is the way history sometimes works. Simple connections, simple decisions, with untold consequences. I studied the secret Dalgesh report, made by three surveyors immediately after Lamarckia’s discovery. Lamarckia was the second planet of a yellow sun, born in a relatively metal-poor galactic region, not correlated

…

The surveyors had barely had two days to do their work before the gate was closed, and so their findings were incomplete. They had left three monitors on the largest continent but had launched no satellites. The photos and recordings showed a world at once familiar and extraordinary. I was particularly

…

were their essential ecosystem. The chemicals, the immigrants believed, could be found or synthesized on Lamarckia. The immigrants took no animals. For machines, they transported three small factories for making tools and electronics, and twenty multipurpose tractors, all capable of self-repair. In one way, Lenk had stuck to his divaricate

…

sure how much time had passed since the arrival of Lenk and his followers. Four thousand one hundred and fourteen illegal immigrants; as much as three decades between my arrival and theirs. What could they have done to Lamarckia in that time? I pushed through a tangle of purple helixed

…

to date on what progress had been made in Lamarckian studies in almost four decades. The encyclopedia postulated that life had first arisen on Lamarckia three hundred million years ago. The star was young, barely four billion years old; the planet still retained a great deal of primordial heat, which

…

small house thirty meters west of the power shed. The equipment — simple radios, judging by the marks and few implements left behind — had been removed. Three bodies sprawled on the porch. I studied the dark greenhouse and crop fields, a hundred hectares of cleared land cut out of the silva. The

…

and heads of triad families of his district to act as chief disciplinary, a kind of constable. The disciplinary would choose new citizen deputies every three years, a tradition in divaricate communes. He had arrived late, I judged, because there would have been nothing he could have done. He had

…

his jacket collar. “All of them?” “All but the missing,” Thomas said. “There are seven boats upriver,” Randall said, pointing. “They must be the ones. Three flatboats. They didn’t even bother shooting us.” “Good to see you’re healthy,” Thomas said without irony. “I passed a radio message down to

…

launch drifted with the stream. Breezes carried unfamiliar scents — tomato juice, ginger. From the south, upriver, I heard the thin, flat whine of more motors. Three large flat-bottom boats were gaining on us. Clutching a half-eaten biscuit, Randall stepped aft and stared at them. With disgust, he crumpled the

…

biscuit and threw it between the thwarts. “Here they come, the bold bastards,” he growled. Soon the three boats were less than a hundred meters away. Uniformed men crowded their decks, perhaps a hundred in all. Each flatboat was about fifteen meters long

…

their midday meal, watching us. The men waved politely. They might have waved at the gray boats as well; they did not seem concerned. Three naked children splashed in the river, their musical shouts and screams rising above the liquid lapping of the river against the boat hulls. I wondered

…

table to ladle helpings from several bowls of flockweed paste and baked piscids from the river: gray-skinned mouthless fishlike creatures with translucent fringed tails, three black eye-spots, and a body about twenty centimeters long. They consisted almost entirely of ropy muscle-like proteins that were nourishing but tasteless. Various

…

in charge checked our names and let us through. Outside the main courtroom, a group of five citizens rank, two grim-faced older men and three women past childbearing years, greeted us stiffly. Before hearing our testimony, they were taking a short break in the annex, standing in their dark

…

saw tall poles in the direction of the river, rising between a gap in a row of shops. Yards and rigging crossed the poles — masts, I realized. Sailing ships in the main harbor. A fair number of them, judging by the number of masts. That was where I would meet Randall. For

…

. The cook and waiter, a thin young woman who kept her gaze on the brightness of the single small window, described the menu to me: three kinds of grain bread they had baked that morning, Liz cherries and hookvine paste — both from epidendrids, forms aclenophora and ampelopsis — and fried flockweed

…

newly founded port of Athenai to oversee food production. But the attractions of Hsia and Godwin were immense. Four hundred and five women and ninety-three men shipped across the Darwin, causing crises in Calcutta and Jakarta. The remaining splinter groups finally united behind a strong and able leader, born on

…

for generating power. Two gangplanks linked the ship with the pier, and men carried boxes along the planks, loading them onto the ship. More sailing ships — three-masted schooners, barques, a small ketch, all with elegant sharp prows, all wide in the beam — lay at anchor. One of these ships, a barque

…

s benefit. “Received this while you were up the Terra Nova. Permission from the Administer of Science and Metallurgy at Athenai. Should have been here three months ago. We are forbidden to ‘risk the metal-containing ship Vigilant unnecessarily, or to report findings to anyone other than the officers and ministers

…

that, deleted or elided, added and compressed, but still, most were recognizable. Recognizable as well was the design of the Vigilant, a forty-meter three-masted full-rigged ship made largely of xyla, with brass and steel trim. A few details would have startled sailors on Earth (or in the fourth chamber of

…

the craft rates served watches, four hours on and four off, divided into port and starboard. Each craft rate and A.B. and apprentice received three meals a day. Grain from Jakarta and Tasman provided the staple, supplemented by flockweed flour. The mainstay was freechunk, a paste made of soy

…

low, false-fronted buildings orange. Dusk followed quickly, gray and dismal. The fitful lighting, dim lamps on xyla poles at corners, made us all shadows. Three scattered knots of searchers, twenty in all — eight from the Vigilant including Shimchisko and Ibert; the eldest among us, Shankara; and the round-faced young

…

Able Lenk. He never quite recovered from the death of his sister. He departed from Jakarta, sailing north to the smaller continent of Tasman, discovered three years earlier by merchant ships. There, he founded what was now Lamarckia’s second largest city, Athenai. He had not since returned to Jakarta or

…

drooping in abject exhaustion. With the windscrews stowed, and the ship on backup batteries, the electric lights glowed fitfully and in alternation, first three on one side, then three on the other, as if trading duty. They cast long alternating flickers of brown shadow around us while we tried to eat. With

…

manning the winches when the electric motors failed (as they did more often than not). Greasing the trees, the lowest and thickest trees consisting of three straight legs of a cathedral tree strapped together with thick iron bands; pulling mat fiber strands from great wads of junk and spinning them into

…

threaten Kissbegh with a tree hearing — being called up before Keyser-Bach for whatever infractions had most recently occurred. Kissbegh always relented. We traveled for three days in the sea-chopping westerly, then turned south southeast, coming within a mile of the eastern Sumner Coast, though still sailing in deep water

…

Volunteers?” I raised my hand. Ibert scowled at me from one side. “It is a most unpleasant region,” Shimchisko whispered from the opposite side. Shirla, three places down in the same line, volunteered as well, and Shankara. Grimacing at me out of the sight of the master and the captain, Shimchisko

…

young child. Bright red, like everything else alive around there. Long, six or seven legs — the last legs large, for jumping — covered with fur, with three or four eyes on the back or on the ‘head.’ They harvest fume fruit — florid scions clustered around fumaroles. Very sparse — just the dogs and

…

said. “Harvesters. Damnedest things you ever saw.” The buzzing rose to a high, slapping drone, as if a hundred children were whacking long sticks together. Three furry black saucers like flattened beetles flew into view above the pool and hovered. Each was about a meter wide and sported two long thin

…

received their human-assigned numbers by order of discovery, not identification as separate organisms. Explorers heading upriver from Calcutta had first discovered zones two and three, followed by zone four along the western coast. Petain’s expedition had set out shortly thereafter. What had astonished the early explorers — all searching

…

were hardly any tides on Lamarckia — while a few small boats bobbed offshore in the regular, gentle surf. The wind blew offshore at two or three knots, complicating our maneuvers; we tacked back and forth across several miles before dropping anchor in sixteen meters of effervescent water, about two hundred meters

…

moment, and when Randall was out of sight — walking off the dinner Salap had prepared, a dubious feast of unfamiliar bits of prairie fabric — the three researchers found me on the beach, watching the storm in its unmoving, ever-changing grandeur. “We have some questions,” Thornwheel said amiably enough. He wore

…

said, clucking sympathetically. “Looking for its mama,” Shimchisko said, only weakly sardonic. The scion was a piscid, a slender orange and black torpedo shape with three lines of stiff dark purple fins spaced equidistant on back and sides. The Captain watched from the puppis, tapping his fingers on the rail and

…

descended from the maintree shrouds with Riddle. Both had pushed their way through the crew to the port rail and stood beside us. “Jiddermeyer lost three of his crew here. Nobody ever found them. My father sailed with Jiddermeyer.” We wondered why he had not mentioned this before. “He did.

…

compared to Elizabeth’s Land and Hsia. “We captured specimens, dissected them, and wherever we went, the ecoi were curious. I was personally sampled thirty-three times.” She lifted her arms to show us tiny pockmarks, some as large as thumbprints. She also pointed out pocks on her neck and lifted

…

, the huge and rare hemohamatids and the coastal halimids. Martha sampled us for five years after we first arrived as if we were new … three-legged scions the size of mice springing out of the lower alsophileids, nipping our arms, late in the summer, with the penultimate warming of the

…

, perhaps to haul nutrients from one location to another, or to convey volumes of microscopic scions from the palaces; tiny four-limbed creatures with three equilateral snipping jaws that Salap called muscids. By the end of the day, when we crawled out of the palace and rested on the barren

…

, will you guarantee this for me?” Randall nodded, face still pale. “Good.” Digging around the bottom of the chamber, within an hour we found three of the unfinished scions — if indeed that was what they were. I helped Salap photograph the remains, using our hands and a metric ruler for

…

cylinders a meter wide, lined along their inner length with coarse bristles like hairy nostrils (and some of them turning inside out as I watched); three-cornered flat shapes reddish brown trimmed with blue that filled the interstices between all the others. I did not have the concentration to keep track

…

fluting. The corrugations had become blades, the edges of knives pressed tight against each other and arrayed into an endless wall taller than the ship’s highest mast by at least a hundred meters. The shadow of the wall fell over the ship and, almost gently, it bumped the stern. With

…

to my feet, but the hatch cover tilted dangerously and I fell back on hands and knees. “Shirla!” I yelled. “Salap! Captain! Anybody!” Two or three weak voices answered. Among them, a woman — too hoarse to identify immediately. I grabbed a splintered lizboo plank and began to paddle toward the bobbing

…

Calcutta,” Randall said. “What happened?” “Sunk in a storm,” Randall explained. “How long ago?” the man asked, face showing great sympathy. “A day. Maybe two.” “Three-treed full-rig?” the man asked. “Yes,” Randall said. “We saw her, and we saw the storm. A terrifying thing. We pulled out of its

…

blew over. After the story, the first officer, a tall, well-built woman named Helmina Leschowicz, called for a toast to “survivors, one and all.” Three stewards cleared the tables efficiently and sharp Tasmanian wine was served in crystal goblets. I had still not developed a taste for Lamarckian alcoholic beverages

…

of a loved one. “It is true, whatever we wish to believe,” Salap said. “Some misinterpretation … Remains of humans, not scions,” Fassid murmured. “You said three vanished from the Jiddermeyer expedition … and her husband’s body was exhumed and carried off by … scions.” Salap shook his head, and Randall finally spoke

…

and crossed the compound. “Grass,” Ferrier said, shaking his head in amazement. ––— 19 “Brion’s confessed to sending the pirates,” Keo said. We walked between three guards and behind the auburn-haired woman, whose ubiquitous presence had not yet been explained. We did not even know her name. “Everybody else denies

…

stiff, well-manicured “grass” we had seen before. A lattice of smooth bright-green branches, like the weave of a wicker bowl, overarched and shaded three square gray brick buildings on the edge of the clearing. “Some of your people are quartered here,” the auburn-haired woman said. She stopped at

…

like deflated balloons hung, their lower extremities bulging round with deposits of dark fluid. To left and right, translucent blisters interrupted the resilient floor, each three to four meters broad and rising above the level of our waists. Within the blisters, coiled tubes and flattened oblongs pressed together against the membrane

…

back and forth. For the first time, Salap seemed ill at ease. “Did you?” Shirla asked. Salap smiled and leaned his head to one side. “Three months after you left, the hemisphere withered,” he continued. “The last of the balloons had been manufactured and sent away with the winds.” “What happened

…

removed. Because of the difficulties of a gate in the geometry stack, fifteen years have passed since I was retrieved. Rebecca has died. All but three hundred of the remaining nine thousand Lamarckians have been brought through the gate. My two sons are not among them. They have chosen to remain

Firepower: How Weapons Shaped Warfare

by Paul Lockhart  · 15 Mar 2021

line of Spanish arquebusiers. The skirmish line easily gave way, the arquebusiers scampering back to their prepared positions to the south. The Swiss were about three hundred yards out from the Spanish trench when Colonna’s artillery opened up. Round shot, solid iron cannonballs, hit the ranks of the pikemen, plowing

…

as easily rendered neutral: water, even excess humidity, can make it useless. As originally formulated, black powder was a simple mixture, produced by combining the three ingredients with mortar and pestle. Gunpowder doesn’t actually explode when ignited. Rather it deflagrates—it burns rapidly—which means that it is better suited

…

, including ammunition, tools, apparata, and draft animals, was a major logistical enterprise. When a Flemish army marched against the city of Bruges in 1382, its three hundred cannon and accompanying gear required about two hundred wagons for transport. The baggage for the entire Flemish army and its provisions, by contrast, took

…

was almost flat. A hinged rudder replaced the cog’s steering oar. The carrack’s size required more than one sail, so carracks typically shipped three or four masts, square-rigged on the foremast and mainmast, lateen rigged (that is, with triangular sails) on the mizzen and after-mizzen—meaning there were ten

…

path was unpredictable. Beyond two hundred yards, there was little chance that the ball would hit, much less seriously hurt, a human target, and at three hundred yards it would be harmless. So, were these first infantry firearms powerful and accurate? Obviously, from a twenty-first-century standpoint, the answer is

…

return fire—and quite another to do so on the battlefield, under enemy fire. Once muskets began to foul with carbon, loading became much slower. Three rounds per minute is probably a good overall estimate. The transition from matchlock to flintlock was fast, though not entirely without reluctance; the Austrian army

…

shallower and shallower formations: ten ranks of musketeers under Maurice, six under Gustavus Adolphus, four by 1700, when the flintlock was in its ascendancy, and three ranks by midcentury. In the American Revolution, where the field armies were comparatively puny, two-rank formations prevailed. To the modern eye, there are few

…

could be massive affairs. At Borodino (7 September 1812), the single bloodiest day of fighting in the Napoleonic wars, Russian and French forces totaled some three hundred thousand men. Opposing French and Allied armies at Leipzig—the “Battle of Nations,” 16–19 October 1813—numbered well over half a million. The

…

would become a different place, and that had everything to do with technology. After a century without significant improvement in the tools of war, and three full centuries with only minor tweaks, Europe and the West would witness in the nineteenth century a giant leap forward in the complexity and efficiency

…

implications of that revolution, the impact of the factory on warfare in the West, were just as profound. Industrialization shaped the conduct of war in three complementary ways, all directly tied to technology. First is the matter of productive capacity, or how much stuff can be produced within a given period

…

two rifling grooves. Loading it was much easier, and therefore faster, than loading a conventional muzzle-loading rifle. The Brunswick’s rate of fire, roughly three rounds per minute, was comparable with that of a smoothbore musket. Unfortunately, the bullet itself was not ideal. Its flight path was slightly erratic, for

…

intervention could make a smoothbore musket throw a ball much more than half that distance. It was no longer safe to position field artillery within three hundred to four hundred yards of enemy infantry, a common practice in Napoleonic warfare. But in every other regard, an ordinary infantryman with a

…

not just battered and leaking but actually ablaze—was something new and unsettling. That dramatic ending owed entirely to a new kind of artillery, patented three decades earlier. This new gun was the brainchild of a middle-aged French artillery officer and ordnance expert, Henri-Joseph Paixhans. Paixhans was a firm

…

and it was an impressive performer. Using a charge of 40 pounds of gunpowder, the 25-ton behemoth could hurl a 350-pound shell nearly three miles. Yet the construction was amazingly durable; Rodman guns almost never burst. The Rodman wet chill method was equally applicable to smaller guns. Another American

…

sat on guard, gunports open, black cannon muzzles protruding menacingly. The Federal sailors were not alarmed, not at first, for the rebel squadron looked harmless: three small gunboats—nothing more than half-broken-down harbor tugboats, each carrying a cannon or two—and a couple of paddle-wheel steamboats with a

…

marine engines. That didn’t stop the steamship pioneers from attempting longer voyages, even transoceanic passages. In 1819, the American steamship Savannah, a ship-rigged three-master retrofitted with a steam engine and a paddle wheel, crossed the Atlantic from Savannah to Liverpool in twenty-nine and a half days, cruising

…

“floating batteries,” with the first sliding down the ways at Cherbourg in late 1854. Despite the name, the Dévastation-class ironclads were fully functional ships, each with three masts and a steam engine capable of moving the ironclad along at a top speed of four knots. But their main purpose was bombardment—both

…

ironclads did most of the heavy work in reducing the main Russian fortress at Kinburn to rubble and knocking out its guns, collectively firing over three thousand rounds from their shell guns. And while the Russian guns frequently found their mark, they left few visible scars on the ironclads. Dévastation

…

was hit seventy-two times, Tonnante sixty-six, and the total casualties between the three ironclads amounted to two killed and twenty-one wounded. French observers noted with satisfaction that Russian solid shot bounced harmlessly off the sides of the

…

its vital lifeline to European ports, where it could trade its cotton for war materiel, medicines, and other essentials. Confederate naval strategy therefore focused on three priorities: keeping the major ports—Charleston, Savannah, Pensacola, Mobile, New Orleans, Galveston—out of Federal hands, breaking the Federal blockade, and using wide-ranging commerce

…

Portugal had worked assiduously to build up their overseas empires in the Americas and Asia since the close of the fifteenth century. And the subsequent three centuries saw Britain, France, the Netherlands, and even some of the lesser European powers, endeavor to build viable colonies outside Europe. For all the

…

more than four years of the bloodiest and most destructive conflict that the Western world had been compelled to endure since the Thirty Years’ War three centuries earlier. Many factors led Europe to the brink of catastrophe in 1914, but the increasingly heated rivalries between the European powers stand out as

…

gas-operated systems since the late 1880s. By 1889, John Browning and his brother Matthew had constructed a working machine-gun prototype; a patent followed three years later, and then the Colt firearms concern purchased it, putting it into production as the M1895 Colt-Browning. In the Colt-Browning gun, the

…

but only a kernel. As historian Paul Cornish has pointed out, the machine gun was part of a “triumvirate of death” in the Great War, three technologies that contributed most to the death toll: quick-firing artillery, high explosives, and automatic firearms. Of these, the combination of quick-firing artillery with

…

in 1915; the French consolidated their machine-gun crews, formerly dispersed throughout the infantry, into autonomous machine-gun companies; the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) included three machine-gun battalions in each division, in addition to machine-gun companies in each infantry regiment. As the factories churned out more and more machine

…

t very portable. Heavy, bulky, water-cooled guns—Maxim, Vickers, Browning, Schwarzlose—could be moved from position to position with a crew of two or three men, but they could not accompany fast-moving infantry on the assault. Even the air-cooled, relatively stripped-down French Hotchkiss tipped the scales at

…

was in the process of transitioning from muzzleloaders to breechloaders. The Prussian army that struck the Austrians at Königgrätz in July 1866 used three different field guns of three different calibers: a twelve-pounder smoothbore muzzleloader and two Krupp-built breech-loading rifles made from cast steel. The new Krupp field guns

…

had been transformed in the space of two decades between 1860 and 1880. In 1860, the cannon was essentially the same as it had been three hundred years before: muzzle-loading, fashioned from cast iron or cast bronze, probably smoothbore. Now cast steel replaced iron and bronze, rifled tubes replaced

…

fired shells filled with xylyl bromide—a kind of tear gas—on Russian troops, with little effect, thanks to very low temperatures and contrary winds; three months later, in their spring offensive, they launched a barrage of chlorine gas shells at French positions near Ypres. The French and British scrambled to

…

proposed a truly audacious summer offensive against Austro-Hungarian forces in Galicia: a surprise attack along a wide swath of the enemy’s front lines, three hundred miles in breadth. The attack involved stealthy but massive infiltration attacks against weak and thinly held sectors in the enemy’s front lines. That

…

and sails. Most American ironclads of the Civil War era were outliers here, with no sailing rigs at all, but for oceangoing vessels the venerable three-masted configuration was remarkably persistent elsewhere. Sail power, now an auxiliary to steam and not the other way around, did have the practical advantage of

…

. The ship’s designer, Cowper Phipps Coles, added two gun turrets of his own design to Captain’s main deck, but retained a full ship-rig on three masts. Captain’s freeboard was quite low but its center of gravity was high, meaning that in heavy seas the ship would be highly unstable

…

method that created a superhardened, high carbon “face” on the steel plate. The final product was far more resistant to penetration by steel projectiles. For three years or so, “Harveyized” armor reigned supreme, until it too was rendered obsolete by a series of discoveries made by engineers at the Krupp works

…

of warships, the frigates, which had proven themselves more valuable in day-to-day naval operations than the biggest three-deckers? They evolved, too. Oddly, frigates persisted in their old form—wooden-hulled, three-masted, ship-rigged—longer than any other kind of Western warship. They were hopelessly anachronistic by the 1880s, though, and

…

the opening engagement of the war, the Japanese surprise night attack on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur (8–9 February 1904), Japanese destroyers scored three hits out of sixteen torpedoes launched, damaging two battleships and one protected cruiser but not sinking anything. But what European naval observers really wanted to

…

were some unusual experiments with submarine design—both the British and the Germans worked on aircraft-launching subs—submarines tended to fall into one of three basic types. Smaller coastal subs (like the German UB-III class) were designed to operate close to port on very short cruises, displaced two

…

in combat areas. They were too vulnerable to fire from ground troops, their vast bulk and slow speed making them easy targets. The Germans lost three zeppelins over the Western Front during the first month of the war alone. French attempts at deploying dirigibles were equally disappointing, mostly because French troops

…

1917), for example, German bombers hit and destroyed a British ammunition train, disrupting Allied logistics and effectively silencing British artillery batteries in the area for three hours. The main flaw of the light bombers—observation planes employed in a bombing role—was their capacity. Bigger bombs, and more of them, would

…

weapons featured sights that—while they couldn’t be adjusted laterally—were at least graduated for distance. The American M1861 Springfield rifle-musket had a three-leaf rear sight, each leaf of a different height, corresponding to the greater elevation of the muzzle required for long-distance shooting. The shortest

…

were typical of interwar tank design, which tended to favor small, fast tankettes or “cavalry tanks” over larger designs. Image: Library of Congress. Hence the three main categories of tank at the outset of the Second World War: light (cavalry), medium (infantry), and heavy. Light tanks, easier and cheaper to build

…

during the 1930s, due to a series of fatal accidents, including the loss of US Navy airships Shenandoah (1925), Akron (1933), and Macon (1935). These three separate accidents alone, with an aggregate death toll of eighty-nine, went a long way toward proving their vulnerability. The stagnancy in aircraft design wasn

…

an air force worthy of the name. Instead, interested outside parties—Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin—supplied the hardware and often the pilots, too. For all three, whatever their political motivations for inserting themselves into Spain’s domestic tragedy, the war presented an unparalleled opportunity to try out both frontline aircraft and

…

but eloquent demonstration of the power of close air support. And this power was demonstrated in bombing raid after bombing raid after bombing raid, like three days of bombing by Italian and Nationalist planes over Barcelona (March 1938), and the raid that came to symbolize the wanton cruelty of modern warfare

…

core of Douhet’s arguments. German, Italian, and Russian pilots learned, too, how very effective ground support could be if carefully planned and directed. These three air forces in particular would focus their attention in the next war on their ground-attack role and de-emphasize strategic bombing. THE SECOND WORLD

…

fire from the surface vessels, without inflicting any noteworthy damage on the Japanese ships themselves. Carrier construction, though, was a high wartime priority for the three major carrier navies. It had to be; as powerful as they were, aircraft carriers were highly vulnerable to attack, and carrier losses were accordingly high

…

. The Germans continually upgraded their sub models during the war, as combat conditions revealed shortcomings in performance. But nearly all German submarine operations fell to three basic U-boat types, all developed before the outbreak of war: the Type II, a small, no-frills, short-range coastal sub; the Type

…

fought in the wake of decolonization, the civil unrest, the cultural and social upheaval—all the momentous disorder that would characterize the world in the three-quarters of a century following 1945—none of these things would have unfolded in quite the same way without the foreboding presence of nuclear weapons

The First Tycoon

by T.J. Stiles  · 14 Aug 2009

Man of Honor Part Two COMMODORE 1848–1860 7 Prometheus 8 Star of the West 9 North Star 10 Ariel 11 Vanderbilt 12 Champion Part Three KING 1861–1877 13 War 14 The Origins of Empire 15 The Power to Punish 16 Among Friends 17 Consolidations 18 Dynasty Epilogue Acknowledgments Bibliographical

…

EVERYTHING. For Phebe Hand Vanderbilt, another child meant more of the same. In May 1794, during the last month of her fourth pregnancy, her first three children, Mary, Jacob, and Charlotte, ran about their humble house. Knowing the Vanderbilt tradition, she could expect many more to follow the unborn infant in

…

Terror, and the massed armies of the surrounding monarchies marched in to crush the revolution. How different the United States was: during Rochefoucauld-Liancourt's three years there, the nation's military hero, George Washington, voluntarily stepped down from the presidency, declining to stand for a third term. Despite some

…

write, “commerce surrounds it with her surf.” Every visitor, it seems, felt compelled to comment on the teeming scene. “The wharfs were crowded with shipping, whose tall masts mingled with the buildings,” wrote John Lambert, after seeing it all in 1807, “and together with the spires and cupolas of the churches, gave

…

general merchants. “Their activities,” writes historian George Rogers Taylor, “comprehended almost every aspect of business.” Each master of the counting-house (perhaps with two or three partners) bought and sold cargoes of goods, owned the ships that carried them, and warehoused them in the same building with his office. He distributed

…

Vanderbilt and his father the substantial sum of $900 for “divers quantities of fish and goods, wares, and merchandize before that time sold and delivered.” Three merchant referees examined the books. In April 1817, they reported that the true debt was only $189.57 Americans had long been comfortable with the

…

merchant reigned, and methodically became one himself. AN OFT-REPEATED BUT APOCRYPHAL TALE portrays a thoughtful Cornelius in December 1817, tallying his wealth. Just twenty-three years old, he was now supposedly worth $15,000, including $9,000 in cash. But the Vanderbilt of legend was always one step ahead of

…

adulthood he opened a thriving law practice in Savannah, and eventually bought more plantations. He accumulated and consumed until he himself had swelled to almost three hundred pounds. Cunning and commanding, he had, his daughter dryly noted, “a particular and singular mode of doing… business.” In other words, he was

…

estate, rapidly multiplying banks, and turnpike corporations that constructed solid new toll roads across New Jersey5 He also discovered a culture surprisingly familiar to him. Three years after Gibbons's arrival, in that ritual he knew so well, Vice President Aaron Burr shot Alexander Hamilton dead in nearby Weehawken, in the

…

of Manhattan's piers, he could see what little time he had to secure his boat. The winds began to howl through the bare masts of the ships that nursed along South Street, driving hail, then rain, then snow down New York's narrow ways. Then the little steam ferry York* came

…

sails and Steam Boats with their long trails of smoke, crossing the Bay in all directions.… Directly ahead is the Battery… with the numerous masts of the shipping that line the wharves on each side of the city, the whole conspiring to render it the most delightful scene imaginable.” The view took

…

churned in from neighboring states. In November 1824, Niles' Register reported, the number of paddle-wheelers in New York had increased from six to forty-three. New York went from stumbling block to keystone in the American economy6 Aaron Ogden—hero of the Revolution, former New Jersey governor, former United States

…

Vanderbilt himself in September. Dr. Jared Linsly treated him with quinine, but the “ague,” as the doctor called it, forced him to bed repeatedly for three months.53 Bankruptcies shadowed Vanderbilt as well—though this was not entirely a bad thing. Like Drew, he lent money to his fellow businessmen, drawing

…

to meet this demand, forcing the monopoly to either buy them off or include them. By 1834, it had swollen to an overstretched alliance of three steamboat companies: the Hudson River, the North River, and the Troy. This confrontation, Vanderbilt recognized, was a dangerous moment. In this age of the

…

agreed to build it. “There was no written contract, no price agreed upon beforehand,” Bishop recalled. Simonson was Vanderbilt's brother-in-law, and the three trusted one another implicitly. In the days that followed, as Bishop erected the gallows frame in their shipyard, Vanderbilt decided on a name: the Lexington

…

and private businessman.26 A group of influential New Yorkers organized one of the first of these pioneering railways: the Boston & Providence Railroad, a forty-three-mile line that would link its eponymous cities and allow passengers and freight from Boston to connect to Long Island Sound steamboats, bypassing the long

…

New York, Providence & Boston Railroad, and better known as the Stonington, it cut inside dreaded Point Judith, where steamboats ran into rough seas, which eliminated three hours and much seasickness from the trip between New York and Boston. Soon after that first locomotive opened the route, Cornelius Vanderbilt investigated the line

…

sea. Twenty years earlier, when Vanderbilt first had met Vice President Daniel D. Tompkins, the founder of the Richmond Turnpike Company, Mauran had owned a three-masted ship, the Maria Caroline, and he still invested heavily in the Havana trade. But most of his money was in the Richmond Turnpike corporation, which ran

…

someone else? As Vanderbilt hunted out intelligence on the stinking docks and in gaslit offices, he had a very short list of suspects. There were three major forces controlling Long Island Sound's steamboat business: first was the Navigation Company, which dominated the outside route to Providence and the inside to

…

or steeple, looking down upon the herd below; and here and there, again, a cloud of lazy smoke; and in the foreground a forest of ships' masts, cheery with flapping sails and waving flags.” Every time the Sylph or the Staten Islander chuffed closer to Whitehall Slip, Vanderbilt heard “the city's

…

s plans proceeded heedless of such worries. So, too, with Vanderbilt, who rammed through all obstacles. On July 19, 1845, a huge fire destroyed some three hundred buildings along Whitehall and Broad streets, “occupied principally by importing and other merchants,” the press reported. The blaze burned down Vanderbilt's office, wiping

…

impossible to tell whether either boat was ahead of the other. Vanderbilt commanded his steamer in person as the two great vessels, each more than three hundred feet long, thrashed up the Hudson, smoke trailing from their funnels, the furious splashing of the enormous side-wheels echoing inside their arching wooden

…

of the canal company included Cornelius Vanderbilt, of course, along with White and his brother David, merchants Nathaniel H. Wolfe and Edmund H. Miller, and three Wall Street firms: Livingston, Wells & Co.; Hoyt & Hunt; and Bowden, Groesbeck & Bridgham. The last-named firm suggests the disguised involvement of Daniel Drew, for

…

of unmotivated Indians and mestizos who were dragooned out of the sparse population of only 275,000 or so. In 1849 alone, no less than three men declared themselves the supreme director, as the Nicaraguan chief executive was called. “Nothing exists but our misfortune,” declared a government report. “One man

…

in the slips. They came to witness the “singular sight,” as the New York Herald called it, of four steamships departing at the same time. Three of these enormous vessels—the Crescent City, the Ohio, and the Cherokee—were headed for Chagres, Panama, carrying hundreds of California-bound passengers. The Vanderbilts

…

who crossed the ocean, to discover London was to discover the world. His very presence on this mission speaks of a particular, perhaps growing, confidence. Three more years would pass before the Mercantile Agency pronounced him “boorish” and “offensive,” suggesting that he retained the crude manners of a Staten Island mariner

…

tropics coiled among the branches of strange trees, loaded with flowers and fragrant with precious gums.” Going ashore, Vanderbilt found a shanty port populated by three hundred Americans, Miskito Indians, mestizos, and “the English authorities,” as Squier wrote disapprovingly, “consisting chiefly of negroes from Jamaica.… All mingle together with the utmost

…

Granada was the capital of the Conservative government that ruled Nicaragua when Vanderbilt established the transit route. He visited the city on two of his three expeditions to the country. William Walker captured Granada in 1855 and consolidated his power by executing Conservative general Ponciano Corral on the city plaza, shown

…

a second front by attacking one of the main sources of Morgan's wealth: his Gulf Coast steamship company. Vanderbilt established a rival line, running “three large first-class steamships” between Texas and New Orleans. “The avowed object,” the Indianola Bulletin reported, “is to oppose Harris & Morgan—to the death.” (

…

did indeed have a steamship under construction at the Simonson shipyard, one specifically designed for the Atlantic. The New York Post lovingly described the three-deck sidewheeler: “twenty-three hundred tons burden, and named the Ariel, diagonally iron-braced throughout, and considered as strongly built as any steamship of her class afloat

…

said about the excellence of these steamers,” one congressman quipped. “They are certainly the deepest-draught steamers I have ever yet heard of—drawing thirty-three feet in the National Treasury.” Collins secretly pooled earnings with the Cunard company, and earned an average annual profit of 40 percent per year, though

…

Vanderbilt's rising status, for these men—both leaders of New York's social establishment—wished to place their fortunes in his hands.46 The three men crafted a multifaceted plan for both immediate profit and long-term dominance. First, after they acquired control of Accessory Transit they intended to have

…

closely together, and the road was not wide enough.” With dozens of horses sprinting down the lane, the spinning wheels cracked against each other, and three wagons were smashed to pieces, “and all tumbled together. The Commodore came out all right.” Municipal policemen rushed to the scene from Mayor Wood's

…

and New York bids fair to vie with France in the manufacture of this description of artistic invention.”77 Like those hidden stereoscopes, a vivid, three-dimensional world of passion and appetites certainly played out in Vanderbilt's private, unseen spaces. The inner lives of his wife and daughters in particular

…

of war, the army assigned him to the unglamorous task of training the recruits who signed up by the thousands.26 Of the Commodore's three sons, George remains the most mysterious. William was dutiful, diligent, and dull, the colorless farmer and manager whose profile steadily rose higher without ever

…

soon he could have the great steamship at Hampton Roads. “The Vanderbilt should be at Fortress Monroe properly equipped and officered, under my direction, within three or four days at the farthest,” he answered. Vanderbilt then left immediately for New York. With the fate of McClellan's planned expedition in peril

…

by their very nature—often compared to nation-states by contemporaries and historians. The Commodore understood this intimately, having been involved in the industry for three decades. Though famous as a warrior, he demonstrated statecraft in the New York Central election, offering no hint of aggressive intent. Diplomacy, unfortunately, did

…

made nearly inevitable by the fragmentation of the railroad net into multiple companies. “In a hundred miles,” the Railway Times observed, “we have two or three corporations with their conflicting interests, conflicting time tables, and different organizations, likely at any moment to be at war with each other as interest or

…

unwritten nonaggression pact—and their long-standing partnership—by pitting their interests against each other for the first time since their clash on the river three decades before. Drew's participation in the second Harlem corner had turned their rivalry into a matter of open combat. Vanderbilt's infiltration of

…

be the costliest mistake he ever made. THE YEAR 1867 WAS ONE OF momentous business for one Cornelius Vanderbilt—and of momentous personal developments for three Cornelius Vanderbilts: the Commodore; his benighted son; and his grandson, the oldest of William's four male children. “Handsome, serious, high-minded, industrious, efficient,

…

a break in the stock which threatened the credit of his enemies and certainly entailed great losses upon them.” Vanderbilt delivered all his stock on three successive days, collapsing Lake Shore from 107 to 75. This erased its value as collateral for the heavily leveraged Lockwood, leaving him “thoroughly frightened,”

…

new empire. From St. John's Park to the shores of Lake Erie, its tracks stretched 740 miles in length, with branches fingering out another three hundred miles. It operated 132 baggage cars, four hundred locomotives, 445 passenger cars, and 9,026 freight cars. In 1870, the consolidating railroads carried

…

the organization. According to press reports, state and federal authorities believe that he forged a document to establish his ownership of the stolen letters, sold three of them through an auction house for nearly $100,000, and came under suspicion when he attempted to sell a fourth. (See Newsday, March

…

often in his own hand, with his daughter-in-law's family. Finally, the miscellaneous NYHS manuscripts relating to Vanderbilt add significant details. For Part Three, various congressional reports reveal Vanderbilt's role in the Civil War, as do the Stanton Papers at the Library of Congress and the well-worn

…

paresis is progressive, marked by wild behavioral aberrations and rapid loss of motor control. When untreated it leads to total paralysis and finally death within three or four years of its manifestation. Private letters, newspaper reports, and the directors' minutes of Vanderbilt's railroads show him to have been active,

…

of the United States, 1790–1860 (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1961), 24–35, 43, 250; Elisha P. Douglass, The Coming of Age of American Business: Three Centuries of Enterprise, 1600–1900 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1971), 39; Dorothy Gregg, “John Stevens: General Entrepreneur, 1749–1838,” in William Miller

…

50, 354, Long Island Railroad Company Directors' Minutes Book 2, 1, box 305, PennCentral Collection, NYPL. ARJ, February 27, 1845, discussed CVs sale of the three steamboats to the Long Island Railroad, and noted, “the former successful and experienced proprietor of these boats has taken a large interest in the company

Begin the World Over

by Kung Li Sun  · 14 Jun 2022  · 288pp  · 84,613 words

between the two. James stepped around the pair and into the sailmaker’s loft. This was no musty warehouse—the loft was tall as a ship’s mast, the roof punched through with skylights. The space was filled with a bright, golden light. Sails spilled over the tables and collected in puddles

…

on the floor. Three posts along the center of the loft were rigged like masts. On each, a sail was stretched to full majesty, as if a

…

too many onions. Peter accepted only the fallen breads. It was Sally, possessing an iron-lined stomach, who happily ate whatever James handed her. At three, she polished off an entire apple tansy. At four, she downed a pot of peanut soup thickened nearly to paste. At five, Sally valiantly ate

…

after James. It was an ugly baby, though. James, for his part, could barely believe this was his baby sister. They had been separated only three years, but in that time Sally had grown into a young woman nearly as beautiful as him. Jefferson installed her as the femmes de chamber

…

coiffeur to raise her wavy black hair into a tower atop her head. Then from one season of masked balls to the next, she grew three inches and an ample bosom. She radiated health. James credited the good butter. Sally loved Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s operas, but it was the

…

southward, threading a line between the Florida Keys and its reef. Inspired by James’s cooking, the sailors became enthusiastic fishermen. One evening, it took three of the crew to wrestle onto the deck a goliath grouper. James steamed it and served it with pickled berries. The chickens felt the change

…

the water. The harbor was a frenzy of boats, the water barely visible in the most crowded areas. There were twenty or so two- and three-mast ships at anchor, a typical number for a port of this size. What crowded the water were more than a hundred dinghies and skiffs, each of

…

be on a ship and not ashore. A new voice behind the group said, in French, “There are two thousand people dead. At least, perhaps three.” The crew turned from the fires ashore to the stranger behind them. It was the mysterious passenger Denmark had brought onboard the day before. Dressed

…

my jailer. Mary is the Blessed Virgin Mary. She is my godmother. How far to our destination?” “Nuevo Orleans,” James said. “Denmark says two or three weeks to the mouth of the Mississippi if the winds are good but then double that to get to port.” “Your French is very good

…

and the Golden Dragon had to drop anchor to keep from being pushed back downriver by the current. They fought the hot, thick air for three weeks, finally dragging it all the way into the port of Nuevo Orleans. Even before the gangplank could be secured to the wharf, the refugees

…

rushed off the ship, pushing past one another along the narrow boards. They were greeted by the corpse of a dog, three days old at least. The once wealthy planters gagged at the smell and assured themselves they were safe now, far from the savagery of Africans

…

his voice? James could not tell for sure. From the corner of his eye, he saw the woman squat. Her curses flew over the ship’s masts, settling in among the line of pelicans that flew along the river. Captain Mai emerged from her captain’s quarters, cradling her money pouch with

…

garni. It was a simple threesome: a stick of thyme, a bay leaf, and a strand of parsley, wrapped together with string. He felt the three of them were being bound together as such. Ready to be lowered into a pot of boiling stock. Chapter 4 The invitation was carried to

…

the paper for Mary in the original English. “And ten dollars extra, for every hundred lashes any person will give her, to the amount of three hundred.” James handed the paper back to Romaine. The Prophetess folded it back and offered it to Mary. She refused. Her dress, James noticed, was

…

it to be over. The bloody rivulet crept closer. He preferred this all to be over. The sound of the stable door opening sent all three of them scrambling to the back of the loft. “James, you here?” Denmark’s baritone boomed through the stables. James’s heart leapt with

…

had said. “And to translate.” James pointed out that Denmark had enough French and English to translate. As for the prophecy, he had already seen three revolutions—the American, while enslaved at Monticello; the French, as a servant in Paris; and the one in Saint-Domingue, from the deck of a

…

I will be sure to be unavailable.” Romaine laughed. “It has already started. And by your own telling, you’ve been at the start of three. You have a talent for being available.” Dozens of eyes stared unblinking from the murk, but James was suddenly too tired to be afraid. The

…

, the venture kept Mary busy, distracting her from her desire to ride off in search of her twin sister. Day after day, sometimes twice or three times in one day, James translated the same conversation between Mary and Romaine: “I am leaving to find her.” “If anyone can find her, it

…

disgust, but momentum carried it onward to his mouth. With some reluctance, he opened his mouth to receive it. His eyes flew open. He took three quick breaths through his nose. He could not swallow. It was that good. This was not soup at all. It was something else entirely. It

…

hot bowl of gombo. The Prophetess promised an additional half loaf of crusty bread when the news was of her homeland. The very next day, three draysmen raced one another to James’s Café, each determined to be the first to tell Romaine about the discontent brewing among those enslaved in

…

plantations in Pointe Coupee, a hundred miles upriver. Food portions, the tallest of the three told Romaine, were being cut in half. The second of the draysmen shouldered his way to the front and reported secret meetings were being held

…

Jacques Vignes’s plantation. Among the trees, they were studying copies of the Declaration of the Rights of Man. “Can you get word upriver?” The three nodded in unison, their bowls held at the ready. “Let the leaders know the Decree of the National Convention has ended slavery in all of

…

Faitman led mass incantations in the mountains that loomed over Le Cap. Men and women from two thousand plantations set fire to their misery. For three weeks, the black smoke of burning cane turned day to night, and, in the darkness, the rapes and tortures endured for a hundred years by

…

and read the newspapers. The rebellion in Saint-Domingue was spreading fast as gombo. And then there was word, finally, from Pointe Coupee. The same three draysmen came with hats in hand to give Romaine the news, eyes downcast. The plan to burn the plantations and kill all the white men

…

Tunica women who feared they would be among those killed. Within two days of discovery, the Pointe Coupee commandants arrested and conducted trials of sixty-three people, ending in the execution of twenty rebels and banishment of the rest. The draysmen concluded their report with a description of the twenty severed

…

dear girl?” “What are you—” James started, startled. Mary clapped her hands. “Yes, absolutely. And you will come with us.” James looked wildly between the three of them. “Where are you—” Romaine cut him off, “We’re all going to Charleston. You should join us, James. It will be hard to

…

Muskogee country.” “He ceded too much land, then?” “No, that was not the mistake. They offered my uncle a bribe: a yearly payment for life, three plantations and sixty Africans as property. They wanted, in return, a promise to send back all current and future runaways. My uncle accepted. That was

…

of light drifted up from the cracks in the floorboard, but otherwise it was black as a bucket of pine tar. Jonah made it three days and three nights. Mary struggled against the panic that rose in her chest. The wagon pulled forward, and Mary forced herself to lie down in the

…

call the attack this Sunday.” “I might help you gather your troops, but I have no muskets,” Romaine said. “Knives, but no guns.” “There are three batteries along the Ashley River and another two along the Cooper. We will be well armed before we reach the city.” Romaine picked up a

…

snapped open her cleaning towel and was giving the tray its first swipe when the door crashed open. Reflected on the silver surface, Romaine saw three hazy figures squeezing through the doorway carrying something. A deer, perhaps, field-dressed and still bleeding. Romaine frowned. If one of the Pinckney boys had

…

bit of orange light caught Romaine’s attention—Race Week festivities, maybe a bonfire. Something moved, very quickly, out from the dark. The Prophetess counted three, four, six figures as they burst out of the blackness and ran towards her. Within seconds, they were close enough for Romaine to see that

…

s hesitation, Pinckney leapt out of the bed towards the door. The whites of Pinckney’s thighs startled Ellison out of his pause, and in three soaring strides Ellison was upon the older man. But the habits of his body intervened yet again at the critical instant. Instead of swinging the

…

without a rider. Another horse stepped out of the fog, then another, and another. “Mary, mother of God,” Romaine muttered as she counted thirty, thirty-three, thirty-seven horses behind Red Eagle, each one more magnificent than the one before. Setting down her gun, she relit the lantern and went outside

…

guessed. A thousand or more, even. Red Eagle glanced at the foyer that opened behind Romaine. It was strewn with the bodies of white men. Three of them wore the sash of night patrolmen. “You will come with me to Muskogee country,” he said to Mary and Romaine. Romaine counted the

…

Muskogee land to carry on this plan of civilization.” Through the years, McGillivray’s conversations with Red Eagle oftentimes became arguments with Sehoy as the three of them sat in the shade of Sehoy’s courtyard and puzzled out what to make of the Americans, as they now called themselves. These

…

City, Red Eagle was the only one among the group to accept the invitation to the President’s Birthnight Ball and, with the help of three glasses of wine, was a favorite among the ladies dancing the minuet. The treaty they signed made the Oconee River the boundary between the state

…

was ambushed. The men and women decided as a group to follow the map one of the ambushers had, and here they were. “There were three drivers?” Red Eagle asked. “You are certain they are dead?” The older man who stood at the front of the group nodded, confident. “We

…

the townspeople, calculating whether these newcomers were adding or subtracting from the common stores. So when the first group of ten runaways—seven men and three women—presented themselves to Ote Emathla for training, Romaine was glad that the grizzled warrior sent them into the fields and directed them to tend

…

arrived with her ten-year old twins, the broadside advertisement announcing their auction folded in behind the map that had passed from hand to hand three times before reaching hers. Jack from the Holloway plantation in Georgia braved the dangers of the vast and dark Okefenokee Swamp. At the King plantation

…

Gabriel. All six survived their journey east, though Absalom who suffered dysentery, survived only barely. From North Carolina, it was the woman Chastity who insisted three others from the Jernegan farm risk an escape. The foursome arrived the same day as Fanny Goode, who rode in on a hag nearly as

…

the melon. She should have— The melon exploded. The crowd went wild with delight. In the joy of the live fire exercises that ensued, only three people blasted off bodily digits. Four if Thomas’s little toe lost under the rim of a barrel of powder was counted. Taking after Mary

…

return some hospitality. I don’t think Red Eagle expected quite so many runaways would make their way back.” They were now up to nearly three hundred, according to the palm-sized notebook Romaine carried around with her, taking notes with a pencil stub the way her daughter Louise-Marie did

…

men with him. Behind the trio, another five appeared. Then another five. Then another four. Then a cluster of twenty. Then another twenty-two or three. Then dozens more. Among them, four horses pulled a wagon, where a pair of cannons glistened side by side. Behind the cannons, more men streamed

…

never hurts to add something unexpected. A spice of some sort, a dash of something strong.” Romaine found the Cooper River and followed it inland three inches until it became the Congaree. “The maroons of Congaree camp, here. Or here, the Savannah River maroons, if we can find them.” Denmark jumped

…

mercy.” “And.” The post master repeated the words the best he could, the task made harder by a sudden attack of hiccups. It took him three tries before he could say the message through without flaw. When she was finally satisfied, Romaine nodded to the warriors holding the man’s arms

…

the red fabric but too late—they were at their destination, the barricade. George planted the thin pole into the bramble as Jeremiah used his three good limbs to swing and kick through the flimsy fence. There was a second round of gunfire, men from the barrack windows firing into the

…

white men went still, chipmunks hoping to escape the talons of a hawk. Too late. Nikola roared at his prey. He bounded up the steps three at a time, a cutlass in each hand. The white men in his path yelped and scattered. Denmark strode through the gaping front doors of

…

man gripped hard at the banister as he made his way down. The mayor’s one plantation had, until the day before, been worked by three hundred people. Red Eagle made the calculation. It was enormous. He heard the familiar, vaguely exasperated voice of his mother. No debt incurs for

…

from the Georgia militia. And Carolina. How many? Many. I could not count. Many. Horses? Little Warrior nodded. Cannons? Yes. How far? Wilson’s Ferry. Three days. Maybe less. Mary pulled a chair close to Ote Emathla while Romaine conferred with the king of the Congaree maroons and Little Warrior, with

…

it.” Romaine looked around and felt the room in agreement. “Let’s build the line, then.” Listening hard to the discussion around him, James drew three ships in the Ashley River, doing his best to make the tiny little blobs of ink look ferocious. These were Denmark’s pirate ships. They

…

on his shoulder and chuckled. “Yes, battle plans do tend to look quite good,” Denmark said. “Until the enemy arrives to spoil them.” Chapter 20 Three days later, the enemy arrived in the early morning, carrying with them a fog that spread over the field thick as milk. There were two

The system of the world

by Neal Stephenson  · 21 Sep 2004  · 1,199pp  · 384,780 words

Norman Foster: A Life in Architecture

by Deyan Sudjic  · 1 Sep 2010

1,000 Places to See in the United States and Canada Before You Die, Updated Ed.

by Patricia Schultz  · 13 May 2007  · 2,323pp  · 550,739 words

The Rough Guide to Egypt (Rough Guide to...)

by Dan Richardson and Daniel Jacobs  · 1 Feb 2013

Ireland (Lonely Planet, 9th Edition)

by Fionn Davenport  · 15 Jan 2010

Seapower States: Maritime Culture, Continental Empires and the Conflict That Made the Modern World

by Andrew Lambert  · 1 Oct 2018  · 618pp  · 160,006 words

The Rough Guide to Australia (Travel Guide eBook)

by Rough Guides  · 14 Oct 2023  · 1,955pp  · 521,661 words

France (Lonely Planet, 8th Edition)

by Nicola Williams  · 14 Oct 2010

Lonely Planet Ireland

by Lonely Planet

Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World

by Niall Ferguson  · 1 Jan 2002  · 469pp  · 146,487 words

The Ice at the End of the World: An Epic Journey Into Greenland's Buried Past and Our Perilous Future

by Jon Gertner  · 10 Jun 2019  · 488pp  · 145,950 words

The Rough Guide to France (Travel Guide eBook)

by Rough Guides  · 1 Aug 2019  · 1,994pp  · 548,894 words

Insight Guides Pocket Cape Verde

by Insight Guides  · 1 May 2018  · 128pp  · 32,375 words

Berlitz Pocket Guide Cape Verde

by Berlitz Publishing  · 1 May 2018  · 225pp  · 41,269 words

The Rough Guide to Norway

by Phil Lee  · 25 Nov 2013

Lonely Planet Belgium & Luxembourg

by Lonely Planet

God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs That Changed History

by Stephen Hawking  · 28 Mar 2007

Plot 29: A Memoir

by Allan Jenkins  · 15 Mar 2017  · 196pp  · 68,365 words

The Words You Should Know to Sound Smart: 1200 Essential Words Every Sophisticated Person Should Be Able to Use

by Bobbi Bly  · 18 Mar 2009  · 251pp  · 44,888 words

The Serengeti Rules: The Quest to Discover How Life Works and Why It Matters

by Sean B. Carroll  · 16 Feb 2016  · 314pp  · 77,409 words

The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention

by William Rosen  · 31 May 2010  · 420pp  · 124,202 words

This Machine Kills Secrets: Julian Assange, the Cypherpunks, and Their Fight to Empower Whistleblowers

by Andy Greenberg  · 12 Sep 2012  · 461pp  · 125,845 words

Lonely Planet France

by Lonely Planet Publications  · 31 Mar 2013

Fodor's Dordogne & the Best of Southwest France With Paris

by Fodor's Travel Publications Inc.  · 18 Apr 2011

Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks

by Ken Jennings  · 19 Sep 2011  · 367pp  · 99,765 words

Fodor's Essential Belgium

by Fodor's Travel Guides  · 23 Aug 2022

The Case for Space: How the Revolution in Spaceflight Opens Up a Future of Limitless Possibility

by Robert Zubrin  · 30 Apr 2019  · 452pp  · 126,310 words

Case for Mars

by Robert Zubrin  · 27 Jun 2011  · 437pp  · 126,860 words

The River of Lost Footsteps

by Thant Myint-U  · 14 Apr 2006

The Rough Guide to Chile

by Melissa Graham and Andrew Benson  · 11 May 2003

The Rough Guide to Chile & Easter Island (Travel Guide with Free eBook)

by Rough Guides  · 15 Mar 2023  · 885pp  · 238,165 words

Danube (Panther)

by Claudio Magris  · 10 Jan 2011  · 459pp  · 154,280 words

Never Bet Against Occam: Mast Cell Activation Disease and the Modern Epidemics of Chronic Illness and Medical Complexity

by Lawrence B. Afrin M. D., Kendra Neilsen Myles and Kristi Posival  · 15 Jan 2016

Higher: A Historic Race to the Sky and the Making of a City

by Neal Bascomb  · 2 Jan 2003  · 366pp  · 109,117 words

Around the World in 80 Trees

by Jonathan Drori  · 28 May 2018

Voyage for Madmen

by Peter Nichols  · 1 May 2011

Racing With Death

by Beau Riffenburgh  · 25 Jul 2008

Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down

by J. E. Gordon  · 1 Jan 1978  · 382pp  · 112,061 words

Cities in the Sky: The Quest to Build the World's Tallest Skyscrapers

by Jason M. Barr  · 13 May 2024  · 292pp  · 107,998 words

Sextant: A Young Man's Daring Sea Voyage and the Men Who ...

by David Barrie  · 12 May 2014  · 366pp  · 100,602 words

Godforsaken Sea

by Derek Lundy  · 15 Feb 1998  · 300pp  · 99,432 words

Blue Mars

by Kim Stanley Robinson  · 23 Oct 2010  · 824pp  · 268,880 words

Quicksilver

by Neal Stephenson  · 9 Sep 2004  · 1,178pp  · 388,227 words

New York 2140

by Kim Stanley Robinson  · 14 Mar 2017  · 693pp  · 204,042 words

Slow Boats to China

by Gavin Young  · 24 Feb 1983  · 586pp  · 184,480 words

The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge

by David McCullough  · 1 Jun 2001  · 848pp  · 240,351 words

Red November: Inside the Secret U.S.-Soviet Submarine War

by W. Craig Reed  · 3 May 2010  · 523pp  · 143,639 words

Alone on the Ice: The Greatest Survival Story in the History of Exploration

by David Roberts  · 28 Jan 2013

Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms & a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories

by Simon Winchester  · 27 Oct 2009  · 522pp  · 150,592 words

The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource

by Chris Hayes  · 28 Jan 2025  · 359pp  · 100,761 words

The Planet on the Table

by Kim Stanley Robinson  · 2 Jan 1986  · 254pp  · 78,000 words

The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean

by David Abulafia  · 4 May 2011  · 1,002pp  · 276,865 words

The Dawn of Innovation: The First American Industrial Revolution

by Charles R. Morris  · 1 Jan 2012  · 456pp  · 123,534 words

The Ministry for the Future: A Novel

by Kim Stanley Robinson  · 5 Oct 2020  · 583pp  · 182,990 words

The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson

by Kim Stanley Robinson  · 1 Mar 2001  · 493pp  · 172,533 words

The Years of Rice and Salt

by Kim Stanley Robinson  · 2 Jun 2003  · 762pp  · 246,045 words

New World, Inc.

by John Butman  · 20 Mar 2018  · 490pp  · 146,259 words

Outposts: Journeys to the Surviving Relics of the British Empire

by Simon Winchester  · 31 Dec 1985  · 382pp  · 127,510 words

The Boundless Sea: A Human History of the Oceans

by David Abulafia  · 2 Oct 2019  · 1,993pp  · 478,072 words

Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities

by Vaclav Smil  · 23 Sep 2019

Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters

by Steven Pinker  · 14 Oct 2021  · 533pp  · 125,495 words

Red Storm Rising

by Tom Clancy  · 2 Jan 1986

On Her Majesty's Nuclear Service

by Eric Thompson  · 18 Apr 2018  · 379pp  · 118,576 words

A Man and His Ship: America's Greatest Naval Architect and His Quest to Build the S.S. United States

by Steven Ujifusa  · 9 Jul 2012  · 650pp  · 155,108 words

Into the Raging Sea

by Rachel Slade  · 4 Apr 2018  · 390pp  · 109,438 words

Jutland to Junkyard

by S. C. George  · 15 Jun 2009  · 163pp  · 52,352 words

Energy: A Human History

by Richard Rhodes  · 28 May 2018  · 653pp  · 155,847 words

The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History

by Kassia St Clair  · 3 Oct 2018  · 480pp  · 112,463 words

The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge

by Vernor Vinge  · 30 Sep 2001  · 659pp  · 203,574 words

Humble Pie and Cold Turkey: English Expressions and Their Origins

by Caroline Taggart  · 29 Sep 2021  · 143pp  · 42,555 words

High Steel: The Daring Men Who Built the World's Greatest Skyline

by Jim Rasenberger  · 15 Mar 2004  · 397pp  · 114,841 words

Skeletons on the Zahara

by Dean King  · 11 Apr 2005

Skyfaring: A Journey With a Pilot

by Mark Vanhoenacker  · 1 Jun 2015  · 319pp  · 105,949 words

New York

by Edward Rutherfurd  · 10 Nov 2009  · 1,169pp  · 342,959 words

Tesla: Man Out of Time

by Margaret Cheney  · 1 Jan 1981  · 478pp  · 131,657 words

The Railways: Nation, Network and People

by Simon Bradley  · 23 Sep 2015  · 916pp  · 248,265 words

Guadalcanal Diary

by Richard Tregaskis  · 1 Mar 1943  · 264pp  · 80,849 words

The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict From 1500 to 2000

by Paul Kennedy  · 15 Jan 1989  · 1,477pp  · 311,310 words

Humble Pie and Cold Turkey

by Caroline Taggart  · 143pp  · 42,546 words

Completely Mad: Tom McClean, John Fairfax, and the Epic of the Race to Row Solo Across the Atlantic

by James R. Hansen  · 4 Jul 2023  · 362pp  · 134,405 words

They Gave Me a Seafire

by Commander R 'Mike' Crosley Dsc Rn  · 5 Aug 2014  · 473pp  · 156,146 words

The Clockwork Universe: Saac Newto, Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern WorldI

by Edward Dolnick  · 8 Feb 2011  · 439pp  · 104,154 words

Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded

by Simon Winchester  · 1 Jan 2003  · 582pp  · 136,780 words

Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World

by Mark Kurlansky  · 30 Jun 1998  · 239pp  · 64,987 words

The Rough Guide to Finland

by Rough Guides  · 31 May 2010  · 493pp  · 155,660 words

The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth

by Michael Spitzer  · 31 Mar 2021  · 632pp  · 163,143 words

Owning the Earth: The Transforming History of Land Ownership

by Andro Linklater  · 12 Nov 2013  · 603pp  · 182,826 words

AC/DC: The Savage Tale of the First Standards War

by Tom McNichol  · 31 Aug 2006

Scandinavia

by Andy Symington  · 24 Feb 2012

A Crack in the Edge of the World

by Simon Winchester  · 9 Oct 2006  · 482pp  · 147,281 words

Top 10 San Diego

by Pamela Barrus and Dk Publishing  · 2 Jan 2007  · 135pp  · 53,708 words

The Rough Guide to Wales

by Rough Guides  · 24 Mar 2010

The Great Railway Bazaar

by Paul Theroux  · 1 Jan 1975  · 383pp  · 118,458 words

About Time: A History of Civilization in Twelve Clocks

by David Rooney  · 16 Aug 2021  · 306pp  · 84,649 words

The Rough Guide to New Zealand: Travel Guide eBook

by Rough Guides  · 1 Jan 2024  · 1,383pp  · 367,401 words

The Grand Scuttle

by Dan Van der Vat  · 266pp  · 87,456 words

The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor

by David S. Landes  · 14 Sep 1999  · 1,060pp  · 265,296 words

The scramble for Africa, 1876-1912

by Thomas Pakenham  · 19 Nov 1991  · 1,194pp  · 371,889 words

The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World From Scratch

by Lewis Dartnell  · 15 Apr 2014  · 398pp  · 100,679 words

Germany Travel Guide

by Lonely Planet

Frommer's San Francisco 2012

by Matthew Poole, Erika Lenkert and Kristin Luna  · 4 Oct 2011

Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack

by Steve Twomey  · 1 Nov 2016  · 419pp  · 118,414 words

The Frayed Atlantic Edge: A Historian’s Journey From Shetland to the Channel

by David Gange  · 10 Jul 2019

Heavy Metal: The Hard Days and Nights of the Shipyard Workers Who Build America's Supercarriers

by Michael Fabey  · 13 Jun 2022  · 319pp  · 102,839 words

The Euro and the Battle of Ideas

by Markus K. Brunnermeier, Harold James and Jean-Pierre Landau  · 3 Aug 2016  · 586pp  · 160,321 words

Enigma

by Robert Harris  · 15 Feb 2011  · 387pp  · 111,096 words

Frommer's Memorable Walks in San Francisco

by Erika Lenkert  · 15 Mar 2003  · 188pp  · 57,229 words

Heaven's Command (Pax Britannica)

by Jan Morris  · 22 Dec 2010  · 699pp  · 192,704 words

The Rough Guide to Sweden (Travel Guide eBook)

by Rough Guides  · 1 Nov 2019

Europe by Eurail 2023

by Laverne Ferguson-Kosinski and C. Darren Price  · 8 Jan 2023  · 570pp  · 186,017 words

The Rough Guide to Devon & Cornwall

by Robert Andrews

The Rough Guide to Wales

by Rough Guides  · 14 Oct 2024  · 882pp  · 240,215 words

The Rough Guide To Devon & Cornwall

by Rough Guides  · 29 Apr 2024  · 558pp  · 147,947 words

The Cable

by Gillian Cookson  · 19 Sep 2012  · 136pp  · 42,864 words

Top 10 Venice

by Gillian Price  · 21 Feb 2011  · 162pp  · 56,627 words

The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance

by Ron Chernow  · 1 Jan 1990  · 1,335pp  · 336,772 words

Systematic Trading: A Unique New Method for Designing Trading and Investing Systems

by Robert Carver  · 13 Sep 2015

Presidents of War

by Michael Beschloss  · 8 Oct 2018

The Post-American World: Release 2.0

by Fareed Zakaria  · 1 Jan 2008  · 344pp  · 93,858 words

Venice: A New History

by Thomas F. Madden  · 24 Oct 2012  · 466pp  · 146,982 words

Black Fire: The True Story of the Original Tom Sawyer--And of the Mysterious Fires That Baptized Gold Rush-Era San Francisco

by Robert Graysmith  · 30 Oct 2012  · 314pp  · 106,575 words

1494: How a Family Feud in Medieval Spain Divided the World in Half

by Stephen R. Bown  · 15 Feb 2011  · 295pp  · 92,670 words

Red Plenty

by Francis Spufford  · 1 Jan 2007  · 544pp  · 168,076 words

The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution

by David Wootton  · 7 Dec 2015  · 1,197pp  · 304,245 words

An Empire of Wealth: Rise of American Economy Power 1607-2000

by John Steele Gordon  · 12 Oct 2009  · 519pp  · 148,131 words

The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company

by William Dalrymple  · 9 Sep 2019  · 812pp  · 205,147 words

The Hero With a Thousand Faces

by Joseph Campbell  · 14 Apr 2004

Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence

by Anna Lembke  · 24 Aug 2021

The Rough Guide to Cyprus (Travel Guide eBook)

by Rough Guides  · 30 Apr 2019

Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel

by Matti Friedman  · 5 Mar 2019  · 220pp  · 69,282 words

Fodor's Oregon

by Fodor's Travel Guides  · 13 Jun 2023  · 590pp  · 156,001 words

Germany

by Andrea Schulte-Peevers  · 17 Oct 2010

Italy

by Damien Simonis  · 31 Jul 2010

Headache and Backache

by Ole Larsen  · 24 Apr 2011  · 89pp  · 31,802 words

Nobody's Perfect: Writings From the New Yorker

by Anthony Lane  · 26 Aug 2002  · 879pp  · 309,222 words

England

by David Else  · 14 Oct 2010

Jennifer Morgue

by Stross, Charles  · 12 Jan 2006

Lonely Planet London City Guide

by Tom Masters, Steve Fallon and Vesna Maric  · 31 Jan 2010

The Rough Guide to Cyprus

by Rough Guides  · 2 Feb 2025

Civilization: The West and the Rest

by Niall Ferguson  · 28 Feb 2011  · 790pp  · 150,875 words

The Best of Best New SF

by Gardner R. Dozois  · 1 Jan 2005  · 1,280pp  · 384,105 words

The Greek Revolution: 1821 and the Making of Modern Europe

by Mark Mazower  · 4 Nov 2021  · 887pp  · 242,125 words

NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity

by Steve Silberman  · 24 Aug 2015  · 786pp  · 195,810 words

Crossing the Heart of Africa: An Odyssey of Love and Adventure

by Julian Smith  · 7 Dec 2010  · 311pp  · 89,785 words

Pastwatch The Redemption of Christopher Colombus

by Orson Scott Card  · 30 Jan 2012  · 211pp  · 22,862 words

Aerotropolis

by John D. Kasarda and Greg Lindsay  · 2 Jan 2009  · 603pp  · 182,781 words

Pacific: Silicon Chips and Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading Empires, and the Coming Collision of the World's Superpowers

by Simon Winchester  · 27 Oct 2015  · 535pp  · 151,217 words

The Age of Wonder

by Richard Holmes  · 15 Jan 2008  · 778pp  · 227,196 words

Origins: How Earth's History Shaped Human History

by Lewis Dartnell  · 13 May 2019  · 424pp  · 108,768 words

Wind, Sand and Stars

by Antoine de Saint-Exupery and Lewis Galantiere  · 1 Jan 1939  · 210pp  · 67,361 words

Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future

by Ed Conway  · 15 Jun 2023  · 515pp  · 152,128 words

Why the West Rules--For Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future

by Ian Morris  · 11 Oct 2010  · 1,152pp  · 266,246 words

The Year 1000: When Explorers Connected the World―and Globalization Began

by Valerie Hansen  · 13 Apr 2020

Atlas Obscura: An Explorer's Guide to the World's Hidden Wonders

by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras and Ella Morton  · 19 Sep 2016  · 1,048pp  · 187,324 words

Who Is Rich?

by Matthew Klam  · 3 Jul 2017  · 291pp  · 92,688 words

Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn't Food

by Chris van Tulleken  · 26 Jun 2023  · 448pp  · 123,273 words

Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America

by Jill Leovy  · 27 Jan 2015  · 388pp  · 119,492 words

Stranger Than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel

by Edwin Frank  · 19 Nov 2024  · 467pp  · 168,546 words

Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control, and Disease

by Gary Taubes  · 25 Sep 2007  · 936pp  · 252,313 words

Queens of Jerusalem: The Women Who Dared to Rule

by Katherine Pangonis  · 17 Feb 2021  · 332pp  · 105,387 words

(Pocket Adventures Pocket Adventures) Lynne Sullivan

by Pocket Adventures Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao -Hunter (2008)

London: The Autobiography

by Jon E. Lewis  · 25 Aug 2009  · 655pp  · 151,111 words

vN: The First Machine Dynasty (The Machine Dynasty Book 1)

by Madeline Ashby  · 28 Jul 2012  · 343pp  · 93,544 words

Frommer's Hawaii 2009

by Jeanette Foster  · 2 Jan 2008  · 675pp  · 344,555 words

Ada BlackJack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic

by Jennifer Niven  · 1 Jan 1990

In Pursuit of Privilege: A History of New York City's Upper Class and the Making of a Metropolis

by Clifton Hood  · 1 Nov 2016  · 641pp  · 182,927 words

Fred Dibnah's Age of Steam

by David Hall and Fred Dibnah  · 1 Jan 2003  · 229pp  · 71,872 words

Horizons: The Global Origins of Modern Science

by James Poskett  · 22 Mar 2022  · 564pp  · 168,696 words

Empire: What Ruling the World Did to the British

by Jeremy Paxman  · 6 Oct 2011  · 427pp  · 124,692 words

Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West

by William Cronon  · 2 Nov 2009  · 918pp  · 260,504 words

A Very Strange Way to Go to War: The Canberra in the Falklands

by Andrew Vine  · 30 Jun 2012  · 367pp  · 122,140 words

Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East

by Sandy Tolan  · 1 Jan 2006  · 488pp  · 150,477 words

The Cold War: A World History

by Odd Arne Westad  · 4 Sep 2017  · 846pp  · 250,145 words

Lonely Planet Iceland

by Lonely Planet

Hope Dies Last: Visionary People Across the World, Fighting to Find Us a Future

by Alan Weisman  · 21 Apr 2025  · 599pp  · 149,014 words

Chief Engineer

by Erica Wagner  · 513pp  · 154,427 words

Lonely Planet Norway (Travel Guide)

by Lonely Planet and Donna Wheeler  · 1 Apr 2015  · 1,510pp  · 218,417 words

Frommer's New York City Day by Day

by Hilary Davidson  · 6 Jan 2006

The Temporal Void

by Peter F. Hamilton  · 1 Jan 2008  · 897pp  · 242,580 words

The Evolutionary Void

by Peter F. Hamilton  · 18 Aug 2010  · 857pp  · 232,302 words

Land: How the Hunger for Ownership Shaped the Modern World

by Simon Winchester  · 19 Jan 2021  · 486pp  · 139,713 words

The Little Black Book of Decision Making

by Michael Nicholas  · 21 Jun 2017

Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War

by P. W. Singer and August Cole  · 28 Jun 2015  · 537pp  · 149,628 words

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

by James Clear  · 15 Oct 2018  · 301pp  · 78,638 words

Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms and the Corruption of Justice

by David Enrich  · 5 Oct 2022  · 373pp  · 108,788 words

The Digital Divide: Arguments for and Against Facebook, Google, Texting, and the Age of Social Netwo Rking

by Mark Bauerlein  · 7 Sep 2011  · 407pp  · 103,501 words

Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2020

by Lonely Planet  · 21 Oct 2019  · 201pp  · 33,620 words

iPad: The Missing Manual, Fifth Edition

by J.D. Biersdorfer  · 21 Nov 2012

The River: A Novel

by Peter Heller  · 5 Mar 2019  · 206pp  · 67,388 words

Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time

by Michael Shermer  · 1 Jan 1997  · 404pp  · 134,430 words

Lonely Planet Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2022

by Lonely Planet  · 26 Oct 2021  · 147pp  · 33,578 words

Sorrowland: A Novel

by Rivers Solomon  · 4 May 2021  · 374pp  · 103,314 words

An Unexpected Light: Travels in Afghanistan

by Jason Elliot  · 1 Aug 2011  · 535pp  · 167,111 words

The Behavioral Investor

by Daniel Crosby  · 15 Feb 2018  · 249pp  · 77,342 words

The Beekeeper of Aleppo: The Sunday Times Bestseller and Richard & Judy Book Club Pick

by Christy Lefteri  · 28 Apr 2019

More Than You Know: Finding Financial Wisdom in Unconventional Places (Updated and Expanded)

by Michael J. Mauboussin  · 1 Jan 2006  · 348pp  · 83,490 words

The Peripheral

by William Gibson  · 23 Oct 2014  · 513pp  · 128,075 words

A Pelican Introduction Economics: A User's Guide

by Ha-Joon Chang  · 26 May 2014  · 385pp  · 111,807 words

Future Politics: Living Together in a World Transformed by Tech

by Jamie Susskind  · 3 Sep 2018  · 533pp

The Stonemason: A History of Building Britain

by Andrew Ziminski  · 5 Mar 2020  · 256pp  · 84,034 words

The Plundered Planet: Why We Must--And How We Can--Manage Nature for Global Prosperity

by Paul Collier  · 10 May 2010  · 288pp  · 76,343 words

Sacred Economics: Money, Gift, and Society in the Age of Transition

by Charles Eisenstein  · 11 Jul 2011  · 448pp  · 142,946 words

The Despot's Accomplice: How the West Is Aiding and Abetting the Decline of Democracy

by Brian Klaas  · 15 Mar 2017

The Green New Deal: Why the Fossil Fuel Civilization Will Collapse by 2028, and the Bold Economic Plan to Save Life on Earth

by Jeremy Rifkin  · 9 Sep 2019  · 327pp  · 84,627 words

Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman

by James Gleick  · 1 Jan 1992  · 795pp  · 215,529 words

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

by David Eagleman  · 29 May 2011  · 383pp  · 92,837 words

Fermat’s Last Theorem

by Simon Singh  · 1 Jan 1997  · 289pp  · 85,315 words

The End of Doom: Environmental Renewal in the Twenty-First Century

by Ronald Bailey  · 20 Jul 2015  · 417pp  · 109,367 words

The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City: 1986-1990

by Jonathan Mahler  · 11 Aug 2025  · 559pp  · 164,804 words

The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape

by James Howard Kunstler  · 31 May 1993

The Personal MBA: A World-Class Business Education in a Single Volume

by Josh Kaufman  · 2 Feb 2011  · 624pp  · 127,987 words

The City: A Global History

by Joel Kotkin  · 1 Jan 2005

Lonely Planet Hong Kong

by Lonely Planet

Supertall: How the World's Tallest Buildings Are Reshaping Our Cities and Our Lives

by Stefan Al  · 11 Apr 2022  · 300pp  · 81,293 words

The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind

by Raghuram Rajan  · 26 Feb 2019  · 596pp  · 163,682 words

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

by Bill Bryson  · 8 Sep 2010  · 331pp  · 106,256 words

Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology

by Johnjoe McFadden and Jim Al-Khalili  · 14 Oct 2014  · 476pp  · 120,892 words

The Planet Remade: How Geoengineering Could Change the World

by Oliver Morton  · 26 Sep 2015  · 469pp  · 142,230 words

Lonely Planet Wales (Travel Guide)

by Lonely Planet  · 17 Apr 2017  · 1,181pp  · 163,692 words

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

by Yuval Noah Harari  · 1 Jan 2011  · 447pp  · 141,811 words

Sweden Travel Guide

by Lonely Planet

Fodor's Rome: With the Best City Walks and Scenic Day Trips

by Fodor's Travel Publications Inc.  · 24 Sep 2012  · 618pp  · 159,672 words

On Thermonuclear War

by Herman Kahn  · 16 Jul 2007  · 1,117pp  · 270,127 words

Bill Marriott: Success Is Never Final--His Life and the Decisions That Built a Hotel Empire

by Dale van Atta  · 14 Aug 2019  · 520pp  · 164,834 words

Sweden

by Becky Ohlsen  · 19 Jun 2009

Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War

by Robert Fisk  · 1 Jan 1990  · 1,208pp  · 364,966 words

Paper: A World History

by Mark Kurlansky  · 3 Apr 2016  · 485pp  · 126,597 words

Matter

by Iain M. Banks  · 14 Jan 2011  · 348pp  · 185,704 words

Engineering Infinity

by Jonathan Strahan  · 28 Dec 2010  · 360pp  · 101,636 words

A History of Future Cities

by Daniel Brook  · 18 Feb 2013  · 489pp  · 132,734 words

The Long Twentieth Century: Money, Power, and the Origins of Our Times

by Giovanni Arrighi  · 15 Mar 2010  · 7,371pp  · 186,208 words

Look Homeward, Angel

by Thomas Wolfe  · 9 Oct 2006  · 747pp  · 218,317 words

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

by Jack Weatherford  · 21 Mar 2005

Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin's Most Dangerous Hackers

by Andy Greenberg  · 5 Nov 2019  · 363pp  · 105,039 words

Escape From Rome: The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity

by Walter Scheidel  · 14 Oct 2019  · 1,014pp  · 237,531 words

The City and the Stars / The Sands of Mars

by Arthur C. Clarke  · 23 Oct 2010  · 542pp  · 163,735 words

The Ringworld engineers

by Larry Niven  · 12 Nov 1985  · 388pp  · 102,994 words

Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley

by Antonio Garcia Martinez  · 27 Jun 2016  · 559pp  · 155,372 words

Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond

by Gene Kranz  · 7 Jan 2000  · 549pp  · 162,164 words

More: The 10,000-Year Rise of the World Economy

by Philip Coggan  · 6 Feb 2020  · 524pp  · 155,947 words

Hawaii

by Jeff Campbell  · 4 Nov 2009

The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet

by Jeff Goodell  · 10 Jul 2023  · 347pp  · 108,323 words

Likewar: The Weaponization of Social Media

by Peter Warren Singer and Emerson T. Brooking  · 15 Mar 2018

Foucault's Pendulum

by Umberto Eco  · 15 Dec 1990  · 948pp  · 214,109 words

Singularity Sky

by Stross, Charles  · 28 Oct 2003  · 448pp  · 116,962 words