Product Description: More than simply sustenance, food historically has been a kind of technology, changing the course of human progress by helping to build empires, promote industrialization, and decide the outcomes of wars. Tom Standage draws on archaeology, anthropology, and economics to reveal how food has helped shape and transform societies around the world, from the emergence of farming in China by 7500 b...read more

Product Description: Throughout history, food has acted as a catalyst of social change, political organization, geopolitical competition, industrial development, military conflict, and economic expansion. An Edible History of Humanity is a pithy, entertaining account of how a series of changes-caused, enabled, or influenced by food-has helped to shape and transform societies around the world...read more

Offers a historical review of the development of the telegraph network, from its invention by Samuel Morse in the nineteenth century to the present day, exploring its social, cultural, economic, and political influence on the world throughout its existence. By the author of A History of the World in 6 Glasses. Reprint.

An offbeat history of the world traces the story of humankind from the Stone Age to the twenty-first century from the perspective of six different drinks--beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola--describing their pervasive influence during pivotal eras of world history, from humankind's adoption of agriculture to the advent of globalization. Reprint. 40,000 first printing.

A guide to how to adapt to and prosper in the post-technology era.

Product Description: From beer to Coca-Cola, the six drinks that have helped shape human history. Throughout human history. certain drinks have done much more than just quench thirst. As Tom Standage relates with authority and charm, six of them have had a surprisingly pervasive influence on the course of history, becoming the defining drink during a pivotal historical period...read more

This title tells the story of the Turk, the infamous 18th-century automation. The story links a cast of historical characters, from Napoleon, Beethoven and Poe to the pioneers of the computer age, and provides an accessible way of examining the relationship between magic, man, mind and machine.

Describes the eighteenth-century invention by Wolfgang von Kempeden of the Turk, a mechanical man fashioned of wood, powered by clockwork, and capable of playing chess, examining the machine's remarkable career in light of the industrial revolution and the impact of the invention on the history of technology. Reprint. (view table of contents)

Describes the eighteenth-century invention by Wolfgang von Kempeden of the Turk, a mechanical man fashioned of wood, powered by clockwork, and capable of playing chess, examining the machine's remarkable career in light of the industrial revolution and the impact of the invention on the history of technology. Serial in Wired. (view table of contents)

Describes the dramatic events surrounding the discovery of Neptune, the eighth planet in the solar system, and profiles the two men, British mathematician John Couch Adams and French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier who predicted where the planet would be based on mathematical calculations rather than on observation. Reprint. (view table of contents)

The first great communication revolution in American history is analyzed in this groundbreaking book, which recounts the story of the Victorian--a technology that baffled millions initially and changed the civilization permanently. Reprint.