Download or read book Think to New Worlds written by Joshua Blu Buhs and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2024-06-24 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How a writer who investigated scientific anomalies inspired a factious movement and made a lasting impact on American culture. Flying saucers. Bigfoot. Frogs raining from the sky. Such phenomena fascinated Charles Fort, the maverick writer who scanned newspapers, journals, and magazines for reports of bizarre occurrences: dogs that talked, vampires, strange visions in the sky, and paranormal activity. His books of anomalies advanced a philosophy that saw science as a small part of a larger system in which truth and falsehood continually transformed into one another. His work found a ragged following of skeptics who questioned not only science but the press, medicine, and politics. Though their worldviews varied, they shared compelling questions about genius, reality, and authority. At the center of this community was adman, writer, and enfant terrible Tiffany Thayer, who founded the Fortean Society and ran it for almost three decades, collecting and reporting on every manner of oddity and conspiracy. In Think to New Worlds, Joshua Blu Buhs argues that the Fortean effect on modern culture is deeper than you think. Fort’s descendants provided tools to expand the imagination, explore the social order, and demonstrate how power is exercised. Science fiction writers put these ideas to work as they sought to uncover the hidden structures undergirding reality. Avant-garde modernists—including the authors William Gaddis, Henry Miller, and Ezra Pound, as well as Surrealist visual artists—were inspired by Fort’s writing about metaphysical and historical forces. And in the years following World War II, flying saucer enthusiasts convinced of alien life raised questions about who controlled the universe. Buhs’s meticulous and entertaining book takes a respectful look at a cast of oddballs and eccentrics, plucking them from history’s margins and spotlighting their mark on American modernism. Think to New Worlds is a timely consideration of a group united not only by conspiracies and mistrust of science but by their place in an ever-expanding universe rich with unexplained occurrences and visionary possibilities.

Download or read book The Amazing Story of Lise Meitner written by Andrew Norman and published by Pen and Sword History. This book was released on 2021-07-07 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book describes how Lisa Meitner, of Jewish heritage, found herself working as a physicist at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin when the Nazis came to power in 1933; how she was hounded out of the country and forced to relocate to Sweden; how German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman continued with the project – on the effect of bombarding uranium (the heaviest known element at the time) with neutrons, a project which Lise herself had initiated, being the intellectual leader of the group. It describes how Hahn and Strassmann, with whom she kept in touch, came up with some extraordinary results which they were at a loss to explain; how Lise, and her nephew Otto Frisch, who was also a physicist, confirmed what they had achieved - the ‘splitting of the atom’, no less, and provided them with a theoretical explanation for it. This laid the foundation for nuclear power, medical-scanning technology, radiotherapy, electronics, and of course, the atomic bomb - the creation of which filled Lise with horror. It describes the crucial part that Lise played in our understanding of the world of atoms, and how deliberate and strenuous attempts were made to deny her contribution; to belittle her achievements, and to write her out of the history books, even though Albert Einstein said she was even ‘more talented than Marie Curie herself’. The author is fortunate and honoured to have been granted several interviews with Lise’s nephew Philip Meitner – himself a refugee from the Nazis - who with his wife Anne, provided much valuable information and many photographs.

Download or read book The Great Escaper written by Simon Pearson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Sunday Times bestseller, the real story behind the mastermind of the most famous breakout in history—The Great Escape. While the most famous images from the 1963 film The Great Escape include either a motorcycle or a ball—but definitely Steve McQueen—Richard Attenborough played the part of “Big X,” the British mastermind behind the greatest escape in history. Like the subject of the film, “Big X” was a real person. Roger Bushell was the mastermind of the mass breakout from Stalag Luft III in March 1944. Very little was known about Bushell until 2011, when his family donated his private papers to the Imperial War Museum. Through exclusive access to this material, as well as new research from other sources, Simon Pearson has written the first biography of this iconic figure. Born in South Africa in 1910, Roger Bushell was the son of a British mining engineer. On May 23, 1940, his Spitfire was shot down during a dogfight over Boulogne after destroying two German fighters. Over the next four years he made three escapes, coming within one hundred yards of the Swiss border during his first attempt. His third (and last escape) destabilized the Nazi leadership and captured the imagination of the world, forever immortalized by Hollywood. Simon Pearson's revealing biography is a vivid account of war and love, triumph and tragedy—and one man's attempt to challenge remorseless tyranny in the face of impossible odds.

Download or read book Postwar written by Tony Judt and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-09-05 with total page 1000 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize • Winner of the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award • One of the New York Times' Ten Best Books of the Year “Impressive . . . Mr. Judt writes with enormous authority.” —The Wall Street Journal “Magisterial . . . It is, without a doubt, the most comprehensive, authoritative, and yes, readable postwar history.” —The Boston Globe Almost a decade in the making, this much-anticipated grand history of postwar Europe from one of the world's most esteemed historians and intellectuals is a singular achievement. Postwar is the first modern history that covers all of Europe, both east and west, drawing on research in six languages to sweep readers through thirty-four nations and sixty years of political and cultural change-all in one integrated, enthralling narrative. Both intellectually ambitious and compelling to read, thrilling in its scope and delightful in its small details, Postwar is a rare joy. Judt's book, Ill Fares the Land, republished in 2021 featuring a new preface by bestselling author of Between the World and Me and The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Download or read book The Supernatural and Fantastic in Short Detective Fiction written by Laird R. Blackwell and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2020-11-09 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although fantasy and supernatural literature have long and celebrated histories, many critics contend that the fantastic and the supernatural have no place in the logical, rational, world of the detective story. This book is the first extensive study of the fantastic in detective fiction and it explores the highly debated question of whether detective fiction and the fantastic can comfortably coexist. The "locked room" mystery--which often uses the fantastic as a red herring to eventually be debunked by reason and logic--has long been among the most popular subgenres of detective fiction. This book also explores stories featuring almost supernaturally gifted detectives, stories where the supernatural is truly encountered, and stories with ambiguous endings. Close to 500 detective stories from 1841 to 2000, in which the fantastic or supernatural plays a central role, are discussed and analyzed. Although not all the stories are judged to be successful as detective tales, in the great majority, the fantastic enlivens the tale and deepens the mystery without weakening the detective elements.

Download or read book War over Lemuria written by Richard Toronto and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2013-05-04 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life magazine described the Shaver Mystery as "the most celebrated rumpus that rocked the science fiction world." Its creators said it was a "new wave in science fiction." Critics called it "dangerous nonsense" and labeled its fans the lunatic fringe. Whatever else the Shaver Mystery was, it became a worldwide sensation between 1945 and 1948, one of the greatest controversies to hit the science fiction genre. Today these stories of the remnants of a sinister ancient civilization living in caverns under the Earth are an all but forgotten sidebar to the historical record. The Shaver Mystery began as a series of science fiction yarns in Amazing Stories nearly 70 years ago. The men behind it, Ray Palmer and Richard Shaver, were derided and seldom understood by a fandom that did its best to sweep them under the carpet of history. Though Ray Palmer was one of the earliest and biggest names in SF fandom, credited with many firsts in his field, his fannish brethren have roundly ignored him, thanks to the Shaver Mystery. What is the truth behind these men and their "mystery"? This is the question writers and editors that promoted the Shaver Mystery try to answer as they reveal the behind-the-scenes story of the phenomenon known as "Shaverism."

Download or read book The Rescue Man A Snafu Snatching Rescue Pilot s Extraordinary Journey through World War II written by Henry Lowenstein and published by Van Rye Publishing, LLC. This book was released on 2017-06-01 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Reports of General MacArthur suppl MacArthur in Japan The occupation military phase written by Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reports of General MacArthur are the official after-action reports of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur. Long out of print, this facsimile edition contains not only MacArthur's own perspective of his operations against the Japanese in the Southwest Pacific Area during World War II but also the enemy's unique account of Imperial Army campaigns against MacArthur's forces. Collectively, the reports have substantial and enduring value for military historians and students of military affairs, providing an illuminating record of momentous events influenced in large measure by a distinguished Soldier and towering figure in American historiography.--https://history.army.mil

Download or read book Reports of General MacArthur written by United States. Department of the Army and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Fighting from Home written by Serge Durflinger and published by UBC Press. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Verdun, English and French speakers lived side by side. Through their home-front activities as much as through enlistment, they proved themselves partners in the prosecution of Canada's war. Shared experiences and class similarities shaped responses based first and foremost in a sense of local identity. Fighting from Home paints a comprehensive, at times intimate, portrait of Verdun and Verdunites at war. Durflinger offers an innovative interpretive approach to wartime Canadian and Quebec social and cultural dynamics in this history of the Canadian home front during the Second World War.

Download or read book Hungary as a Sport Superpower written by Lorenzo Venuti and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2024-06-17 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What role has football (and sport in general) played in Hungarian foreign policy? Was there a continuity between the inter-war period and communism? Are foreign politics and sporting diplomacy synonyms? This book tries to provide answers to these questions through a careful examination of documents of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry and Hungarian newspapers, supplemented by documentation from several European countries. Through Hungarian football, the author traces a history of Hungary during the Age of Extremes with a special focus on the period during which sport played a particular role in Hungarian foreign policy: from 1924, the date of the Paris Olympics, the first time the country competed after World War I, to 1960, date of the Olympics of Rome. The result is a study from a particularly original perspective, highlighting, first and foremost, the transnational dimension of Hungarian football.

Download or read book Profits Politics and Panics written by Leo Goodstadt and published by Hong Kong University Press. This book was released on 2007-10-01 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Goodstadt brilliantly weaves a tapestry that resolves major puzzles about Hong Kong's growth as an international financial centre during this pivotal fifty-year period. This is a devastating expose of the consequences of the British colonial government's failure to effectively regulate banking and manage monetary policy."--David Meyer, Washington University. St. LouisLeo F. Goodstadt is adjunct professor in the School of Business Studies at Trinity Colletge, University of Dublin. He was formerly deputy editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review.

Download or read book Reports of General MacArthur The campaigns of MacArthur in the Pacific written by Douglas MacArthur and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Reports of General MacArthur supplement MacArthur in Japan the occupation military phase written by Douglas MacArthur and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Crop Production written by and published by . This book was released on 1947 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The United States Army Chaplaincy Gushwa R L The best and worst of times 1920 1945 written by and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Reins of Liberation written by Xiaoyuan Liu and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author's purpose in writing this book is to use the Mongolian question to illuminate much larger issues of twentieth-century Asian history: how war, revolution, and great-power rivalries induced or restrained the formation of nationhood and territoriality. He thus continues the argument he made in Frontier Passages that on its way to building a communist state, the CCP was confronted by a series of fundamental issues pertinent to China's transition to nation-statehood. The book's focus is on the Mongolian question, which ran through Chinese politics in the first half of the twentieth century. Between the Revolution of 1911 and the Communists' triumph in 1949, the course of the Mongolian question best illustrates the genesis, clashes, and convergence of Chinese and Mongolian national identities and geopolitical visions.