![]() ![]() 'Guns, Germs, and Steel' is a distorting disservice to the real historical record. I argue anthropologists should be critiquing Diamond’s ideas in Introduction to Anthropology courses. ![]() Diamond claims that the differential success of the world’s nations is due to the accidents of agriculture, except when societies “choose to fail.” This claim does not withstand scrutiny. I argue that although Diamond makes interesting points, his work from Guns Germs and Steel to Collapse is a distorting disservice to the real historical record. The key question is whether Jared Diamond’s work is broadly correct about human history or a distortion of that history. Jared Diamond’s ideas about human society and human nature continue to be enormously influential. Guns Germs and Steel is surely the most widely read book about agriculture anyone has ever written. It’s become a landmark, best-seller book that would win the Pulitzer Prize and be filmed by National Geographic for PBS. In 1997, ten years after calling agriculture The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race, Jared Diamond came out with Guns, Germs, and Steel. ![]()
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![]() ![]() Kirkus Reviews wrote "The veteran writer has the ability to make her characters recognizable even with brief sketches, and she holds attention with the mounting suspense of Lindsay’s dilemma, especially when her choices turn out to be wrong. The truth is much stranger, but that tabloid article sets off a chain of events that forces Lindsay to finally confront who she really is. Now she’s sixteen, and a tabloid newspaper claims that her own father is holding her hostage. Every time anyone said anything about her, anywhere in the world, she heard it: praise, criticism, back-stabbing… Lindsay had what looked like a nervous breakdown and vanished from the public eye. The next day her fame had turned into torture. One day, Lindsay Scott was on the top of the world, the child star of a hit TV show. It was a talent that came out of nowhere. Claim to Fame is a novel by Margaret Peterson Haddix published by Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing in 2009. ![]() ![]() ![]() Yagas are kind, and their chicken-legged houses aren’t merely a means to get from place to place. ![]() Marinka’s story takes her to England’s Lake District, an unidentified desert, a marketplace in North Africa, and to the Russian steppes. Although the Yaga story originates in Eastern Europe, these Yagas travel all over the world to guide the dead. Anderson has fully and lovingly developed her Yaga mythology. Marinka has to find a way to get Baba back, but her plan may change everything forever. Then two life-changing events happen in succession: Marinka learns a devastating truth about her life and Baba disappears. A Yaga’s life is secret and lonely her (or his) only friends are the dead who stop in nightly for a celebration of their lives before the Yaga guides them back to the stars from whence they came. But the 12-year-old doesn’t want to be a Yaga. Her grandmother Baba, who is also a Yaga, is training her to take over this important job when the time comes. ![]() Orphan Marinka descends on both sides from the first Yaga, whose house plied the Russian steppes. ![]() In this reimagining of Russian tales of Baba Yaga, Yagas act as benevolent Guardians of The Gate between the worlds of the living and the dead. ![]() ![]() ![]() It is reported that he offered to pay friends double their current salaries to move there with him. His latest project was trying to create a Utopian community in Park City, Utah. ![]() In 2010, Hsieh wrote a bestselling book called Delivering Happiness. In addition to revolutionizing employee well-being at Zappos, he spearheaded remarkable work revitalizing a seedy part of Las Vegas and turning it into an up-and-coming neighborhood. What is clear is that during the last few months of his life, Hsieh was spiraling downward into substance abuse (nitrous oxide) and biohacking (starvation and sleep deprivation), while at the same time latching onto utopian fantasies. It is unclear whether the death was accidental, if Hsieh was intoxicated at the time, or if he locked himself in a room. A few weeks ago, Zappos founder and CEO Tony Hsieh tragically died in a house fire. ![]() ![]() ![]() Radclyffe has some great plot ideas, and this one is no different. Romantic fiction is not generally my genre of choice, but given that Radclyffe is a popular lesbian fiction writer, I thought it was necessary to give this a try. ![]() She is also the president of Bold Strokes Books, one of the world’s largest independent LGBT publishing companies. Readers' award Winner, and a finalist for the Benjamin Franklin award, the ForeWord Review Book of the Year award, and the 2010 Heart of Excellence Readers' Choice award. ![]() A member of the Saints and Sinners Literary Hall of Fame, she is also a 2010 RWA/FF&P Prism Award Winner for Secrets in the Stone, an Independent Publisher's award winner (IPPY), an Alice B. She is a seven time Lambda Literary Award finalist in romance, mystery and erotica-winning in both romance (Distant Shores, Silent Thunder) and erotica (Erotic Interludes 2: Stolen Moments edited with Stacia Seaman and In Deep Waters 2: Cruising the Strip written with Karin Kallmaker). ![]() Raand, has authored a paranormal romance series, The Midnight Hunters. Radclyffe, a retired surgeon and full time author-publisher, has published over thirty-five novels as well as dozens of short stories, has edited numerous anthologies, and, writing as L. ![]() ![]() These difficulties notwithstanding, certain individuals in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Western societies, such as Karl Ulrichs and Magnus Hirschfeld in Germany and Edward Carpenter and John Addington Symonds in Britain, began to conceive of themselves as belonging to a discrete group possessing a distinct identity that this insight was revolutionary is underscored by the fact that no name existed for this body of people who shared similar sexual longings and desires. This guide offers multiple trajectories into this richly varied field.ĭespite the presence of large numbers of homosexuals in New York City and other urban centers in the United States and throughout the world, their history has often been neglected or marginalized, a testimony to the inhibiting factors of legal restrictions on certain forms of sexual conduct, the lack of organization among gay men and lesbians, and the unwillingness of the larger society to recognize the value and merit of different forms of erotic and affectional expression. ![]() Resources in this subject area may be found in nearly every division of the Research Libraries. ![]() Gay and Lesbian Studies is by nature cross-disciplinary, covering a wide range of intellectual bases: literature, history, religion, psychology, sociology, philosophy, anthropology, medicine, law, fine arts, and others. ![]() ![]() Common enemies and uncommon dangers force thief and knight on an epic journey where goblins hunger for human flesh, krakens hunt in dark waters, and honor is a luxury few can afford. ![]() ![]() Unsuccessful in his robbery and lucky to escape with his life, Kinch now finds his fate entangled with Galva's. She is searching for her queen, missing since a distant northern city fell to giants. Galva is a knight, a survivor of the brutal goblin wars, and handmaiden of the goddess of death. His debt has driven him to lie in wait by the old forest road, planning to rob the next traveler that crosses his path.īut today, Kinch Na Shannack has picked the wrong mark. ![]() Kinch Na Shannack owes the Takers Guild a small fortune for his education as a thief, which includes (but is not limited to) lock-picking, knife-fighting, wall-scaling, fall-breaking, lie-weaving, trap-making, plus a few small magics. Set in a world of goblin wars, stag-sized battle ravens, and assassins who kill with deadly tattoos, Christopher Buehlman's The Blacktongue Thief begins a 'dazzling' (Robin Hobb) fantasy adventure unlike any other. ![]() ![]() ![]() Russell's exquisite art has a supple ink line that's never fussy. Russell catches this mood perfectly, not trying to overshadow Wilde but merely helping him do his disturbing work. He is, however, suggesting that even the most genuinely beautiful surfaces shouldn't be trusted. Wilde isn't blatantly jeering at hypocrites or credulous fools in these stories. ![]() In "The Nightingale and the Rose," an innocent bird sacrifices itself for the sake of a true love that turns out to be a sham. In "The Devoted Friend," a rich miller who can talk eloquently about friendship exploits his trusting neighbor to the point of death. There are no happy little diversions for children here Wilde appreciated childlike innocence, but he also realized how often it was abused and disappointed in the adult world. Two perfect prose miniatures find their ideal illustrator in this fourth volume of Russell's adaptations from Wilde. ![]() ![]() Temperance, on the other hand, is a well meaning philanthropist, who also believes she has unnatural desires. Lazarus is a jaded rake and there are lots of suggestions about his perverted sexual preferences. ![]() While they continue their detective work, they get to know one another. They follow up some leads, more people continue to die, and there is a bit of action when they are attacked in the street. The couple are acting as detectives to solve the murder of Lord Clare’s mistress. The plot meanders along for the first half of the book and includes an unnecessary scene where he visits his mother, but nothing that happens actually moves the plot along. In return, she must help him find a killer in the slums of St Giles. In order to find financial support for her foundling home, widow Temperance Dews, makes a deal with Lazarus Huntington, Lord Clare. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() “June Bugs,” for instance, follows the travails of Martha, a woman who moves to a new place abounding with an uncanny number of bugs. This book will likely resonate with readers of Karen Russell and Ben Loory like them, Fu is equally at home chronicling bizarre events and pondering her characters’ inner lives. In the pages of this collection, readers will discover a sea monster more aptly described as “an amalgamation of brainless multicellular organisms” a sinister doll that once belonged to a family beset by tragedy and a being with a hood that pours out sleep-inducing sand. It’s worth mentioning this from the outset: The title of Fu’s latest book is not a metaphor. Stories blending emotional realism with surreal imagery. ![]() |