From internationally bestselling author Simon Winchester, a vibrant history of the collection and dissemination of knowledge.
In Knowing What We Know, Simon Winchester offers a global narrative history of how civilizations have accumulated knowledge. Winchester follows the eccentric ways and by-ways of those who compile encyclopaedias, dictionaries and online resources - from ancient texts to Wikipedia.
This remarkably original book addresses the consequences of the democratisation of knowledge. The invention of the internet has made knowledge more readily available than ever before, but is this a good thing? Winchester questions how this effects our creativity, our decision-making, our compassion.
Today, it is not people on thrones that hold the most power but the people behind the screen at companies like Google and Facebook. Winchester argues that these are the political leviathans that we must monitor.
Split into three parts - knowledge taught, dispersed, and stored - Winchester''s Knowing What We Know is an ambitious and colourful history spanning twelve millennia. Follow as humans draw on the cave wall and invent the internet, as they learn the value of almanacs and fight against censorship.
Travelling the circumference of the truly gigantic Pacific, Simon Winchester tells the story of the world''s largest body of water, and - in matters economic, political and military - the ocean of the future.
The Pacific is a world of tsunamis and Magellan, of the Bounty mutiny and the Boeing Company. It is the stuff of the towering Captain Cook and his wide-ranging network of exploring voyages, Robert Louis Stevenson and Admiral Halsey. It is the place of Paul Gauguin and the explosion of the largest-ever American atomic bomb, on Bikini atoll, in 1951. It has an astonishing recent past, an uncertain present and a hugely important future. The ocean and its peoples are the new lifeblood, fizz and thrill of America - which draws so many of its minds and so much of its manners from the sea - while the inexorable rise of the ancient center of the world, China, is a fixating fascination. The presence of rogue states - North Korea most notoriously today - suggest that the focus of the responsible world is shifting away from the conventional post-war obsessions with Europe and the Middle East, and towards a new set of urgencies. Navigating the newly evolving patterns of commerce and trade, the world''s most violent weather and the fascinating histories, problems and potentials of the many Pacific states, Simon Winchester''s thrilling journey is a grand depiction of the future ocean.
Dans cet ouvrage, Simon Winchester présente l'histoire captivante de crânes, d'hommes et d'animaux, mais aussi celle d'Alan Dudley, un homme qui a passé sa vie à rassembler avec une passion obsessionnelle ce qui est sans doute la plus grande et la plus exhaustive des collections personnelles de crânes dans le monde. Alan Dudley possède plus de 2 000 crânes qu'il a préparés et catalogués avec des soins dignes d'un musée, pendant plus d'un demi-siècle. Reconnu et salué comme un pair dans le cercle des spécialistes, il offre une collection de référence, qui constitue la partie centrale de cet ouvrage. Crânes est ainsi selon l'auteur "une vue d'ensemble presque parfaite, un recueil biologiquement équilibré, taxinomiquement exhaustif : il a été conçu pour être feuilleté, pour distraire ou pour susciter une fascination (un peu macabre), mais surtout pour instruire".
The first geological map was made by an Oxfordshire farmer's son called William Smith. His life was beset with troubles: his work was plagiarized, he was imprisoned for debt, his wife went insane and the scientific establishment shunned him. This is the tale of his life and work in modern geology.
In August 1883 there was a series of volcanic eruptions on the island of Krakatoa - these were so extreme that the effects were heard and felt over ten per cent of the Earth's surface. This text uses contemporary reports to recount the events leading up to and following the cataclysm.
Travelling the circumference of the truly gigantic Pacific, Simon Winchester tells the story of the world''s largest body of water, and - in matters economic, political and military - the ocean of the future.
The Pacific is a world of tsunamis and Magellan, of the Bounty mutiny and the Boeing Company. It is the stuff of the towering Captain Cook and his wide-ranging network of exploring voyages, Robert Louis Stevenson and Admiral Halsey. It is the place of Paul Gauguin and the explosion of the largest-ever American atomic bomb, on Bikini atoll, in 1951. It has an astonishing recent past, an uncertain present and a hugely important future. The ocean and its peoples are the new lifeblood, fizz and thrill of America - which draws so many of its minds and so much of its manners from the sea - while the inexorable rise of the ancient center of the world, China, is a fixating fascination. The presence of rogue states - North Korea most notoriously today - suggest that the focus of the responsible world is shifting away from the conventional post-war obsessions with Europe and the Middle East, and towards a new set of urgencies. Navigating the newly evolving patterns of commerce and trade, the world''s most violent weather and the fascinating histories, problems and potentials of the many Pacific states, Simon Winchester''s thrilling journey is a grand depiction of the future ocean.
From the bestselling author Simon Winchester, a human history of land around the world: who mapped it, owned it, stole it, cared for it, fought for it and gave it back.
In 1889, thousands of hopeful people raced southward from the Kansas state line and westward from the Arkansas boundary to stake claims on the thousands of acres of unclaimed pastures and meadows. Across the twentieth century, water was dammed and drained in Holland so that a new province, Flevoland, rose up, unchartered and requiring new thinking. In 1850, California legislated the theft of land from Native Americans. An apology came in 2019 from the governor, but what of the call for reparations or return? What of government confiscation of land in India, or questions of fairness when it comes to New Zealand''s Maori population and the legacy of settlers?
The ownership of land has always been complicated, opaque, and more than a little anarchic when viewed from the outside. In this book, Simon Winchester explores the the stewardship of land, the ways it is delineated and changes hands, the great disputes, and the questions of restoration - particularly in the light of climate change and colonialist reparation.
A global study, this is an exquisite exploration of what the ownership of land might really mean - not in dry-as-dust legal terms, but for the people who live on it.
From the bestselling author Simon Winchester, a human history of land around the world: who mapped it, owned it, stole it, cared for it, fought for it and gave it back. In 1889, thousands of hopeful people raced southward from the Kansas state line and westward from the Arkansas boundary to stake claims on the thousands of acres of unclaimed pastures and meadows. Across the twentieth century, water was dammed and drained in Holland so that a new province, Flevoland, rose up, unchartered and requiring new thinking. In 1850, California legislated the theft of land from Native Americans. An apology came in 2019 from the governor, but what of the call for reparations or return? What of government confiscation of land in India, or questions of fairness when it comes to New Zealand''s Maori population and the legacy of settlers? The ownership of land has always been complicated, opaque, and more than a little anarchic when viewed from the outside. In this book, Simon Winchester explores the the stewardship of land, the ways it is delineated and changes hands, the great disputes, and the questions of restoration - particularly in the light of climate change and colonialist reparation. A global study, this is an exquisite exploration of what the ownership of land might really mean - not in dry-as-dust legal terms, but for the people who live on it.
En 1815, William Smith mettait le point final à un travail de plus de vingt ans qui allait bouleverser la géologie, remettre en question le dogme de la date de la Création du monde. Et pourtant il lui fallut encore attendre des années, supporter la ruine et la prison, avant que la paternité de cette entreprise lui fût reconnue et qu'il en tirât une gloire méritée.
Dès sa jeunesse Smith se passionne pour la géologie. Il prend rapidement conscience que les strates rocheuses du sous-sol se présentent toujours dans le même ordre vertical et que les fossiles qu'elles renferment, particuliers à chacune, permettent de déterminer leur ancienneté.
Pour confirmer son intuition, il va sillonner la Grande-Bretagne, parcourant à pied des milliers de kilomètres, et élaborer, à la main, la première carte géologique au monde (ci-dessus). Son chef-d'oeuvre.
Une découverte fondamentale pour comprendre l'histoire de notre planète, qui allait aider Darwin à concevoir sa théorie de l'évolution.
Aujourd'hui, William Smith est considéré comme le père de la géologie moderne. Sa fameuse carte est protégée comme un trésor à la Société Géologique de Londres.
Simon Winchester est l'auteur du best-seller Le Fou et le Professeur. Il est diplômé d'Oxford en géologie.
Voici l'histoire vraie de l'une des plus étonnantes épopées intellectuelles du XIXe siècle.
Non seulement parce qu'elle retrace l'élaboration de l'Oxford English Dictionary qui exigea près de soixante-dix ans de recherches lexicographiques afin de produire cet incomparable monument de la langue anglaise, mais aussi parce qu'elle met face à face deux extraordinaires protagonistes : un chirurgien fou, assassin, William Chester Minor, et un universitaire génial, auto-didacte, James Murray. En 1890, le professeur Murray décide de rencontrer le docteur Minor qui, depuis vingt ans, lui adresse des dossiers d'une infinie précision sur l'évolution du sens des mots.
Murray découvre que Minor vit dans un asile. Que, taraudé par ses obsessions morbides et sexuelles, il a quitté l'Amérique. Et qu'un meurtre dans un quartier louche de Londres a provoqué son internement. Va naître une fantastique amitié. Tous deux vont déambuler dans les allées de l'asile à se raconter la paix, la guerre, Dieu, la passion et les mots... Une histoire d'une puissante originalité où se mêlent la linguistique, la folie et la fraternité.
Il arrive que la réalité dépasse la fiction.
Il est difficile d'imaginer des créatures aussi bizarres et au comportement aussi étrange que celles qui nous sont présentées ici. réalisé avec la collaboration de plus de cent cinquante scientifiques travaillant dans toutes les régions du globe, cet ouvrage passe en revue les plantes et les animaux les plus surprenants, les plus intrigants, les plus extraordinaires de la planète. les records du monde vivant rassemblent ici plus de cent cinquante espèces superbement illustrées, qui vous permettront de découvrir l'animal qui a la meilleure vision des couleurs, combien de pattes a réellement le mille-pattes, la vitesse à laquelle vole le faucon lorsqu'il est en piqué, le serpent le plus dangereux du monde.
