Product Description: In the tradition of the instant bestsellers The Intellectual Devotional and The Intellectual Devotional: American History comes the third installment in this indispensable series. In The Intellectual Devotional: Modern Culture, the authors explore the fascinating world of contemporary culture to offer 365 daily readings that provide the essential references needed to navigate the world today...read more

Product Description: When The Intellectual Devotional debuted in the fall of 2006, it became an instant national bestseller. NBC’s Today show judged it a "great book to give as a Christmas gift." A year later, The Intellectual Devotional: American History also leaped onto bestseller lists...read more

Product Description: In Ultra-Talk, David Kirby poses a simple question: What makes a cultural phenomenon truly great? Exploring a wide variety of "king-sized cultural monuments," Kirby argues that one qualification for greatness is that a phenomenon be embraced by both the elite and the general public...read more

Curious minds will rejoice in this enlightening resource that provides the origins of more than three hundred modern phenomena, objects, sayings, stories, and superstitions, including the evolution of the brown paper bag, the history of toothpaste, and the hidden secrets of Rubik's Cube.

Product Description: 'Curiosity' and 'wonder' are topics of increasing interest and importance to Renaissance and Enlightenment historians. Conspicuous in a host of disciplines from history of science and technology to history of art, literature, and society, both have assumed a prominent place in studies of the Early Modern period...read more