Download or read book Origin Story written by David Christian and published by Little, Brown Spark. This book was released on 2018-05-22 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This New York Times bestseller "elegantly weaves evidence and insights . . . into a single, accessible historical narrative" (Bill Gates) and presents a captivating history of the universe -- from the Big Bang to dinosaurs to mass globalization and beyond. Most historians study the smallest slivers of time, emphasizing specific dates, individuals, and documents. But what would it look like to study the whole of history, from the big bang through the present day -- and even into the remote future? How would looking at the full span of time change the way we perceive the universe, the earth, and our very existence? These were the questions David Christian set out to answer when he created the field of "Big History," the most exciting new approach to understanding where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. In Origin Story, Christian takes readers on a wild ride through the entire 13.8 billion years we've come to know as "history." By focusing on defining events (thresholds), major trends, and profound questions about our origins, Christian exposes the hidden threads that tie everything together -- from the creation of the planet to the advent of agriculture, nuclear war, and beyond. With stunning insights into the origin of the universe, the beginning of life, the emergence of humans, and what the future might bring, Origin Story boldly reframes our place in the cosmos.
Download or read book Origin Story written by David Christian and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2018-05-22 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did we get from the Big Bang to today's staggering complexity, in which seven billion humans are connected into networks powerful enough to transform the planet? And why, in comparison, are our closest primate relatives reduced to near-extinction? Big History creator David Christian gives the answers in a mind-expanding cosmological detective story told on the grandest possible scale. He traces how, during eight key thresholds, the right conditions have allowed new forms of complexity to arise, from stars to galaxies, Earth to homo sapiens, agriculture to fossil fuels. This last mega-innovation gave us an energy bonanza that brought huge benefits to mankind, yet also threatens to shake apart everything we have created. This global origin story is one that we could only begin to tell recently, thanks to the underlying unity of modern knowledge. Panoramic in scope and thrillingly told, Origin Story reveals what we learn about human existence when we consider it from a universal scale.
Download or read book On the Origin of Stories written by Brian Boyd and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-05-30 with total page 555 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A century and a half after the publication of Origin of Species, evolutionary thinking has expanded beyond the field of biology to include virtually all human-related subjects—anthropology, archeology, psychology, economics, religion, morality, politics, culture, and art. Now a distinguished scholar offers the first comprehensive account of the evolutionary origins of art and storytelling. Brian Boyd explains why we tell stories, how our minds are shaped to understand them, and what difference an evolutionary understanding of human nature makes to stories we love. Art is a specifically human adaptation, Boyd argues. It offers tangible advantages for human survival, and it derives from play, itself an adaptation widespread among more intelligent animals. More particularly, our fondness for storytelling has sharpened social cognition, encouraged cooperation, and fostered creativity. After considering art as adaptation, Boyd examines Homer’s Odyssey and Dr. Seuss’s Horton Hears a Who! demonstrating how an evolutionary lens can offer new understanding and appreciation of specific works. What triggers our emotional engagement with these works? What patterns facilitate our responses? The need to hold an audience’s attention, Boyd underscores, is the fundamental problem facing all storytellers. Enduring artists arrive at solutions that appeal to cognitive universals: an insight out of step with contemporary criticism, which obscures both the individual and universal. Published for the bicentenary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin of Species, Boyd’s study embraces a Darwinian view of human nature and art, and offers a credo for a new humanism.
Download or read book Iron Man written by Marvel Press and published by Disney Electronic Content. This book was released on 2013-04-02 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inventions are only as good as the men who make them. Billionaire inventor Tony Stark had always put himself first...until one fateful day when his inventions were used for evil. But when Tony tried to set things right, his inventions were turned against him. In order to survive, Tony built himself a high-tech suit of armor and promised to use this technology to help those in need as the Invincible Iron Man
Download or read book The Amazing Spider Man written by Marvel Staff and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With great power comes great responsibility. When Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider he becomes super agile and amazingly strong. He makes a disguise and calls himself Spider-Man. It's not long before Spider-Man realises that New York City needs a superhero.
Download or read book The Superhero Reader written by Charles Hatfield and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2013-06-14 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With contributions from Will Brooker, Jeffrey A. Brown, Scott Bukatman, John G. Cawelti, Peter Coogan, Jules Feiffer, Charles Hatfield, Henry Jenkins, Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence, Gerard Jones, Geoff Klock, Karin Kukkonen, Andy Medhurst, Adilifu Nama, Walter Ong, Lorrie Palmer, Richard Reynolds, Trina Robbins, Lillian Robinson, Roger B. Rollin, Gloria Steinem, Jennifer Stuller, Fredric Wertham, and Philip Wylie Despite their commercial appeal and cross-media reach, superheroes are only recently starting to attract sustained scholarly attention. This groundbreaking collection brings together essays and book excerpts by major writers on comics and popular culture. While superhero comics are a distinct and sometimes disdained branch of comics creation, they are integral to the development of the North American comic book and the history of the medium. For the past half-century, they have also been the one overwhelmingly dominant market genre. The sheer volume of superhero comics that have been published over the years is staggering. Major superhero universes constitute one of the most expansive storytelling canvases ever fashioned. Moreover, characters inhabiting these fictional universes are immensely influential, having achieved iconic recognition around the globe. Their images and adventures have shaped many other media, such as film, videogames, and even prose fiction. The primary aim of this reader is twofold: first, to collect in a single volume a sampling of the most sophisticated commentary on superheroes, and second, to bring into sharper focus the ways in which superheroes connect with larger social, cultural, literary, aesthetic, and historical themes that are of interest to a great many readers both in the academy and beyond.
Download or read book Enter the Superheroes written by Alex S. Romagnoli and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2013-06-20 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ever since the first appearances of Superman and Batman in comic books of the late 1930s, superheroes have been a staple of the popular culture landscape. Though initially created for younger audiences, superhero characters have evolved over the years, becoming complex figures that appeal to more sophisticated readers. While superhero stories have grown ever more popular within broader society, however, comics and graphic novels have been largely ignored by the world of academia. In Enter the Superheroes:American Values, Culture, and the Canon of Superhero Literature, Alex S. Romagnoli and Gian S. Pagnucci arguethat superheroes merit serious study, both within the academy and beyond. By examining the kinds of graphic novels that are embraced by the academy, this book explains how superhero stories are just as significant. Structured around key themes within superhero literature, the book delves into the features that make superhero stories a unique genre. The book also draws upon examples in comics and other media to illustrate the sociohistorical importance of superheroes—from the interplay of fans and creators to unique narrative elements that are brought to their richest fulfillment within the world of superheroes. A list of noteworthy superhero texts that readers can look to for future study is also provided. In addition to exploring the important roles that superheroes play in children’s learning, the book also offers an excellent starting point for discussions of how literature is evolving and why it is necessary to expand the traditional realms of literary study. Enter the Superheroes will be of particular interest to English and composition teachers but also to scholars of popular culture and fans of superhero and comic book literature.
Download or read book Uncanny X Men An Origin Story written by Rich Thomas and published by Marvel Picture Books. This book was released on 2012-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published: New York: Marvel, c2012.
Download or read book The Incredible Hulk An Origin Story Narrated by Stan Lee written by Richard Thomas and published by Disney Electronic Content. This book was released on 2012-04-03 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With word-for-word narration by Stan Lee, this picture book retells the classic origin of the Incredible Hulk! Dr. Bruce Banner was always a quiet, shy boy. When he got older, Bruce became a scientist and went to work for the Army. But when an experiment went wrong, Bruce found himself caught in a blast of dangerous gamma radiation. Now, in times of stress or anxiety, Bruce Banner transforms into the rampaging, green-skinned monster known as the Incredible Hulk!
Download or read book Supergirl written by Steve Brezenoff and published by Stone Arch Books. This book was released on 2020-08 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did Supergirl become one of the Earth's greatest super heroes? Discover the story behind Kara Danvers' journey from Superman's kid cousin to full-fledged Justice League member, including the source of her out-of-this-world superpowers. With action-packed illustrations and easy-to-follow text, these early reader books are perfect for young super hero fans.
Download or read book The 1619 Project written by Nikole Hannah-Jones and published by One World. This book was released on 2024-06-04 with total page 625 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER • A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing vision of the American past and present. “[A] groundbreaking compendium . . . bracing and urgent . . . This collection is an extraordinary update to an ongoing project of vital truth-telling.”—Esquire NOW AN EMMY-NOMINATED HULU ORIGINAL DOCUSERIES • FINALIST FOR THE KIRKUS PRIZE • ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, NPR, Esquire, Marie Claire, Electric Lit, Ms. magazine, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States. The New York Times Magazine’s award-winning 1619 Project issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This book substantially expands on that work, weaving together eighteen essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with thirty-six poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of oppression, struggle, and resistance. The essays show how the inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself. This book that speaks directly to our current moment, contextualizing the systems of race and caste within which we operate today. It reveals long-glossed-over truths around our nation’s founding and construction—and the way that the legacy of slavery did not end with emancipation, but continues to shape contemporary American life. Featuring contributions from: Leslie Alexander • Michelle Alexander • Carol Anderson • Joshua Bennett • Reginald Dwayne Betts • Jamelle Bouie • Anthea Butler • Matthew Desmond • Rita Dove • Camille T. Dungy • Cornelius Eady • Eve L. Ewing • Nikky Finney • Vievee Francis • Yaa Gyasi • Forrest Hamer • Terrance Hayes • Kimberly Annece Henderson • Jeneen Interlandi • Honorée Fanonne Jeffers • Barry Jenkins • Tyehimba Jess • Martha S. Jones • Robert Jones, Jr. • A. Van Jordan • Ibram X. Kendi • Eddie Kendricks • Yusef Komunyakaa • Kevin M. Kruse • Kiese Laymon • Trymaine Lee • Jasmine Mans • Terry McMillan • Tiya Miles • Wesley Morris • Khalil Gibran Muhammad • Lynn Nottage • ZZ Packer • Gregory Pardlo • Darryl Pinckney • Claudia Rankine • Jason Reynolds • Dorothy Roberts • Sonia Sanchez • Tim Seibles • Evie Shockley • Clint Smith • Danez Smith • Patricia Smith • Tracy K. Smith • Bryan Stevenson • Nafissa Thompson-Spires • Natasha Trethewey • Linda Villarosa • Jesmyn Ward
Download or read book Wonder Woman An Origin Story written by John Sazaklis and published by Capstone. This book was released on 2015-03-01 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: She was once a young princess on the secret island inhabited by warrior women known as the Amazons...but she left her homeland--and her royal birthright--behind to become a protector for the entire planet of Earth: Wonder Woman! Follow young Diana's incredible transformation from princess to super hero in this action-packed chapter book for early readers featuring colorful illustrations by DC Comics artists.
Download or read book Pinocchio written by and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Told as a story of cosmic beginnings, this version of Pinocchio is about the formative energy and magic that reside in the wood that becomes the boy. This version is also about life on the molecular level and what it means to think about our composition as human beings from the point of view of energy and cosmic matter. Born in 1975, Alessandro Sanna is one of Italy's leading contemporary illustrators. He has earned wide recognition for his work, which has appeared in the New York Times Book Review and the New Yorker. He is a prolific and popular author and has received many awards. He lives and works in Mantua, Italy.
Download or read book Origins written by Jim Baggott and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-06 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is life? Where do we come from and how did we evolve? What is the universe and how was it formed? What is the nature of the material world? How does it work? How and why do we think? What does it mean to be human? How do we know? There are many different versions of our creation story. This book tells the version according to modern science. It is a unique account, starting at the Big Bang and travelling right up to the emergence of humans as conscious intelligent beings, 13.8 billion years later. Chapter by chapter, it sets out the current state of scientific knowledge: the origins of space and time; energy, mass, and light; galaxies, stars, and our sun; the habitable earth, and complex life itself. Drawing together the physical and biological sciences, Baggott recounts what we currently know of our history, highlighting the questions science has yet to answer.
Download or read book Super Hero Origin Stories written by Michael Robin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-07-12 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where did Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and their super hero friends come from? How did they get their powers? Who were they before they were super heroes? Each origin story is a thrilling, self-contained bedtime story. Baby Kal-El makes a dramatic escape from the planet Krypton, arriving on Earth in a rocket ship. Wonder Woman and Nubia are shaped out of clay by their mother Hippolyta, and given their powers by the gods. Each Green Lantern—Hal Jordan, John Stewart, and Jessica Cruz—came by their power rings in interesting ways. Young super heroes will love learning about how their favorite characters came to be.
Download or read book Comic Books Origin Stories written by Publications International, Ltd and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book captures the fun and excitement that have made comic books popular since the early 1930s. Fabulous covers, complete interior pages and dramatic panel enlargements help to tell the story of this vibrant, exciting publishing phenomenon from superheroes to femme fatales to satire comics. Illuminating essays add insight into notable creative figures, characters and unusual comics.
Download or read book Who We Are and How We Got Here written by David Reich and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-29 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The past few years have witnessed a revolution in our ability to obtain DNA from ancient humans. This important new data has added to our knowledge from archaeology and anthropology, helped resolve long-existing controversies, challenged long-held views, and thrown up remarkable surprises. The emerging picture is one of many waves of ancient human migrations, so that all populations living today are mixes of ancient ones, and often carry a genetic component from archaic humans. David Reich, whose team has been at the forefront of these discoveries, explains what genetics is telling us about ourselves and our complex and often surprising ancestry. Gone are old ideas of any kind of racial âpurity.' Instead, we are finding a rich variety of mixtures. Reich describes the cutting-edge findings from the past few years, and also considers the sensitivities involved in tracing ancestry, with science sometimes jostling with politics and tradition. He brings an important wider message: that we should recognize that every one of us is the result of a long history of migration and intermixing of ancient peoples, which we carry as ghosts in our DNA. What will we discover next?
