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Games People Played

Wray Vamplew

Games People Played is, surprisingly, the first global history of sports. The book shows how sports have been practiced, experienced, and made meaningful by players and fans throughout history. It assesses how sports developed and diffused across the globe, as well as many other aspects, from emotion, discrimination, and conviviality; to politics, nationalism, and protest; and how economics has turned sports into a huge consumer industry. It shows how sports are sociable and health-giving, and also contribute to charity. However, it also examines their dark side: sports’ impact on the environment, the use of performance-enhancing drugs, and match-fixing. Covering everything from curling to baseball, boxing to motor racing, this book will appeal to anyone who plays, watches, and enjoys sports, and wants to know more about their history and global impact.

Hinterland

Phil Neel, PHIL NEEL

An exploration of America’s declining heartland, the Hinterland.

Over the last forty years, the landscape of the USA has been fundamentally transformed. It is partially visible in the ascendance of glittering coastal hubs for finance, infotech and the so-called ‘creative class’. But this is only the tip of an economic iceberg, the bulk of which lies in the darkness of the declining heartland or on the dimly lit fringe of sprawling cities. This is America’s hinterland.
Drawing on his direct experience of recent popular unrest, Phil A. Neel provides a close-up and intimate view of this landscape in all its grim but captivating detail.

Nature Fast and Nature Slow

Nicholas Money, Nicholas Money

A new vision of biology, from microseconds to millions of years.

This book is a vision of biology set within the entire timescale of the universe. It is about the timing of life, from microsecond movements to evolutionary changes over millions of years. Human consciousness is riveted to seconds, but a split-second time delay in perception means that we are unaware of anything until it has already happened. We live in the very recent past. Over longer timescales, this book examines the lifespans of the oldest organisms, prospects for human life extension, the evolution of whales and turtles, and the explosive beginning of life 4 billion years ago. With its poetry, social commentary and humour, this book will appeal to everyone interested in the natural world.

Simulating The Cosmos

Romeel Davé

Simulating the Cosmos is a behind-the-scenes look into one of the hottest and fastest-moving areas of astrophysics today: simulations of cosmology and galaxy formation, which illustrate how everything we see in the universe arose out of the primordial soup of the Big Bang.
Leading cosmologist Romeel Davé guides you through the trials and tribulations of what it takes to put the universe into a computer, the amazing new insights revealed by cosmological simulations, and the many mysteries yet to be solved. This rollicking and extraordinary journey is a rare glimpse into science in action, showing how cosmologists are using the laws of physics and supercomputers to uncover the secrets of why the universe looks the way it does.

Doping

Paul Dimeo, April Henning

A gripping, provocative account of doping in sport.

Why is doping a perennial problem for sport? Is this solely a contemporary phenomenon? And should doping always be regarded as cheating, or do today’s anti-doping measures go too far?
Drawing on case studies from the early twentieth century to the present day, Doping: A Sporting History explores why the current anti-doping system looks as it does, charting its origins to the founding of the modern Olympic Games. From interwar notions of sporting purity to the post-war stimulant crisis, what seemed an easily resolvable problem soon became an impossible challenge as pharmacology improved, the policy system stuttered, and Cold War politics allowed doping to flourish. The late twentieth century saw the creation of the World Anti-Doping Agency, but has the intensity of these global measures led to unintended harms?
From the cyclist Tommy Simpson, who died in 1967 on Mont Ventoux with amphetamines in his jersey, to Team Russia’s expulsion from the 2018 Winter Olympics, Doping: A Sporting History is a gripping, provocative account that ultimately proposes a new approach: one for the inclusion and protection of athletes themselves.

The Selfish Ape

Nicholas Money, Nicholas Money

An accessible and entertaining portrait of humans as a brilliantly inventive, yet self-destructive animal.

Weaving together stories of science and sociology, The Selfish Ape offers a refreshing response to common fantasies about the ascent of humanity. Rather than imagining modern humans as a species with godlike powers, or Homo deus, Nicholas P. Money recasts us as Homo narcissus, paragons of self-absorption. This exhilarating story takes in an immense sweep of modern biology, leading readers from earth’s unexceptional location in the cosmos, to the story of our microbial origins, and the workings of the human body. It explores human genetics, reproduction, brain function and ageing, creating an enlightened view of humans as a brilliantly inventive, yet self-destructive animal.
This is a book about human biology, the intertwined characteristics of human greatness and failure, and the way that we have plundered the biosphere. Written in a highly accessible style, it is a perfect read for those interested in science, human history, sociology and the environment.

Planet Hunters

Lucas Ellerbroek

Astronomers are on the verge of answering one of the most profound questions ever asked: are we alone in the universe? The ability to detect life in remote solar systems is at last within sight. Its discovery, even if only in microbial form, would revolutionize our self-image. Planet Hunters tells a delightful tale of smart-alec nerds, the search for extraterrestrial life and the history of an academic discipline.

Professional astronomer Lucas Ellerbroek takes readers on a fantastic voyage through space, time, history and the future. He describes the field of exoplanet research in its proper historical perspective, from the early ideas of sixteenth-century heretic Giordano Bruno and the rise of science fiction to the discovery of the first exoplanet in 1995 and the invention of the Kepler space telescope.
He travels the world to talk to leading scientists in the field, including first exoplanet discoverer Michel Mayor, NASA Kepler mission scientist Bill Borucki and MIT astrophysicist Sara Seager.
Presenting cutting-edge research in a dynamic, fun and accessible way, this book will appeal to everyone with an interest in astronomy and space.

A History of Diplomacy

Jeremy Black

In A History of Diplomacy, historian Jeremy Black investigates how a form of courtly negotiation and information-gathering in the early modern period developed through increasing globalization into a world-shaping force in twenty-first-century politics. The monarchic systems of the sixteenth century gave way to the colonial development of European nations—which in turn were shaken by the revolutions of the eighteenth century—the rise and progression of multiple global interests led to the establishment of the modern-day international embassy system. In this detailed and engaging study of the ever-changing role of international relations, the aims, achievements, and failures of foreign diplomacy are presented along with their complete historical and cultural background.

The Tower

Adam Copeland

In a time that predates history, an ancient race called the Nephilim battle for dominance while leading mankind astray with their seemingly god-like powers. During a confrontation at the foot of a monument of folly, even gods discover they can experience fear.

Ripples in the Chalice

Adam Copeland

The Holy Grail is found! Sir Patrick, the Irish knight who brought the cup to Greensprings on the Isle of Avalon, never intended for it to stay there. He had only wished to save his love from the clutches of death with its miraculous abilities. Now, Roman Church officials, politically ambitious nobility, and ancient supernatural creatures fight to lay claim to it. In the resulting battle, it is not enough to be strong—one must also be ruthless. To live with the consequences of his act, Sir Patrick assumes the burden of leadership to protect his comrades and the woman he loves. But in his struggles to set matters aright, he risks losing that love forever. Patrick must grow stronger in body and soul to keep the chalice out of the wrong hands, and to keep his world intact.

Echoes of Avalon: Tales of Avalon Book I

Adam Copeland

Patrick Gawain knows monsters. He's seen plenty of the human sort in the Holy Lands, and as he sails home from The First Crusade, a hooded apparition begins to stalk him. Convinced that he's lost his mind, he holes up in a monastery to convalesce and, if recovery proves impossible, to hide his demons from the world. But a stranger comes to find him and presents a barely credible invitation: travel to Avalon and serve with the Avangarde, an order of knights sworn to protect young scholars from around the world. Thinking it will be a fresh start, Patrick agrees, and soon discovers that Avalon is more than a myth; it is the site of a vibrant secret academy - and it's also full of ghosts, goblins, and talking wolves. He can capably protect the castle from the island's supernatural beasts, but in the relative peace of the academy life, his hooded demon returns and his troubled heart causes him to sabotage the love of a young woman, Katherina. When an ancient being with sinister designs for the island infiltrates the academy, Patrick is the first to suspect its true nature when it begins its quest by seducing Katherina. Patrick soon learns that before he can defeat monsters, he must first defeat his personal demons.

Midnight in Silverton

Adam Copeland