Tag: Century

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Edge of Eternity: The Century Trilogy, Book 3

Edge of Eternity is the sweeping, passionate conclusion to Ken Follett’s extraordinary historical epic, The Century Trilogy.

Throughout these books, Follett has followed the fortunes of five intertwined families – American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh – as they make their way through the twentieth century. Now they come to one of the most tumultuous eras of all: the enormous social, political, and economic turmoil of the 1960s through the 1980s, from civil rights, assassinations, mass political movements and Vietnam to the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, presidential impeachment, revolution – and rock and roll.

East German teacher Rebecca Hoffman discovers she’s been spied on by the Stasi for years and commits an impulsive act that will affect her family for the rest of their lives. George Jakes, the child of a mixed-race couple, bypasses a corporate law career to join Robert F. Kennedy’s Justice Department, and finds himself in the middle not only of the seminal events of the civil rights battle, but a much more personal battle of his own. Cameron Dewar, the grandson of a senator, jumps at the chance to do some official and unofficial espionage for a cause he believes in, only to discover that the world is a much more dangerous place than he’d imagined. Dimka Dvorkin, a young aide to Nikita Khrushchev, becomes a prime agent both for good and for ill as the United States and the Soviet Union race to the brink of nuclear war, while his twin sister, Tania, carves out a role that will take her from Moscow to Cuba to Prague to Warsaw – and into history.

As always with Follett, the historical background is brilliantly researched and rendered, the action fast-moving, the characters rich in nuance and emotion. With the hand of a master, he brings us into a world we thought we knew but now will never seem the same again.

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Capital in the Twenty-First Century

What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories. In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty analyzes a unique collection of data from 20 countries, ranging as far back as the 18th century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings will transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality.

Piketty shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl Marx. But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and inequality as much as we thought in the optimistic decades following World War II. The main driver of inequality – the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth – today threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values. But economic trends are not acts of God. Political action has curbed dangerous inequalities in the past, Piketty says, and may do so again.

A work of extraordinary ambition, originality, and rigor, Capital in the Twenty-First Century reorients our understanding of economic history and confronts us with sobering lessons for today.

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Capital in the Twenty-First Century

What are the grand dynamics that drive the accumulation and distribution of capital? Questions about the long-term evolution of inequality, the concentration of wealth, and the prospects for economic growth lie at the heart of political economy. But satisfactory answers have been hard to find for lack of adequate data and clear guiding theories. In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty analyzes a unique collection of data from twenty countries, ranging as far back as the eighteenth century, to uncover key economic and social patterns. His findings will transform debate and set the agenda for the next generation of thought about wealth and inequality.

Piketty shows that modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have allowed us to avoid inequalities on the apocalyptic scale predicted by Karl Marx. But we have not modified the deep structures of capital and inequality as much as we thought in the optimistic decades following World War II. The main driver of inequality—the tendency of returns on capital to exceed the rate of economic growth—today threatens to generate extreme inequalities that stir discontent and undermine democratic values. But economic trends are not acts of God. Political action has curbed dangerous inequalities in the past, Piketty says, and may do so again.

A work of extraordinary ambition, originality, and rigor, Capital in the Twenty-First Century reorients our understanding of economic history and confronts us with sobering lessons for today.

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Norton Recorded Anthology of Western Music (Sixth Edition) (Vol. 3: Twentieth Century)

The newly expanded recorded anthology features updated recordings from some of the best performers and ensembles working today alongside classic recordings by great artists.

Early-music ensembles Sequentia, Altramar, Hilliard Ensemble, Anonymous 4, Tallis Scholars, La Chapelle Royale, and Les Arts Florissants.

Singers Paul Hillier, Ellen Hargis, Emma Kirkby, Maria Callas, Christa Ludwig, Luciano Pavarotti, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Peter Pears, and Bethany Beardslee.

Harpsichordists Gustav Leonhardt and Trevor Pinnock.

Pianists Mitsuko Uchida, Rudolf Serkin, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and Pierre-Laurent Aimard.

Orchestras Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, Vienna Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Concertgebouw Orchestra, and London Symphony Orchestra.

Opera companies La Scala of Milan, Bayreuth Festival Opera, Kirov Opera, and Royal Opera House at Covent Garden.

Chamber ensembles the Tokyo String Quartet, Guarneri String Quartet, and Beaux Arts Trio.

Jazz artists Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie.

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Edge of Eternity: Book Three of The Century Trilogy

EDGE OF ETERNITY is the sweeping, passionate conclusion to Ken Follett’s extraordinary historical epic, The Century Trilogy.
 
Throughout these books, Follett has followed the fortunes of five intertwined families – American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh – as they make their way through the twentieth century. Now they come to one of the most tumultuous eras of all: the enormous social, political, and economic turmoil of the 1960s through the 1980s, from civil rights, assassinations, mass political movements and Vietnam to the Berlin Wall, the Cuban Missile Crisis, presidential impeachment, revolution – and rock and roll.
 
East German teacher Rebecca Hoffman discovers she’s been spied on by the Stasi for years and commits an impulsive act that will affect her family for the rest of their lives.…George Jakes, the child of a mixed-race couple, bypasses a corporate law career to join Robert F. Kennedy’s Justice Department, and finds himself in the middle not only of the seminal events of the civil rights battle, but a much more personal battle of his own.…Cameron Dewar, the grandson of a senator,  jumps at the chance to do some official and unofficial espionage for a cause he believes in, only to discover that the world is a much more dangerous place than he’d imagined.…Dimka Dvorkin, a young aide to Nikita Khrushchev, becomes a prime agent both for good and for ill as the United States and the Soviet Union race to the brink of nuclear war, while his twin sister, Tania, carves out a role that will take her from Moscow to Cuba to Prague to Warsaw – and into history.  
 
As always with Follett, the historical background is brilliantly researched and rendered, the action fast-moving, the characters rich in nuance and emotion. With the hand of a master, he brings us into a world we thought we knew but now will never seem the same again.

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The Inspiration of the Past: Country House Taste in the Twentieth Century

The twentieth century has seen an extraordinacy blossoming of enthusiasm for country houses, and, while on the one hand it
has been a period of destruction and dispersal, it has also been
a period of restoration, decoration and preservation as well as new building. In recent years the country house has had an
influence on taste and fashion in decoration in both Great
Britain and North America. This book concentrates on the rise of interior decoration as it is now understood. From the early
twentieth-century enthusiasm for the interiors of medieval and
Tudor houses such as Lytes Cary, Westwood and Cothay, followed by the rediscovery of eighteenth-century houses such
as Kelmarsh, Ditchley and Buxted and of the Regency style in the 1920s and 1930s; it continues the story through the depress¬ed condition of country houses in 1945 to the recovery of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, illustrated by, among other houses, Ramsbury, Haseley and Leixlip.
It is a book about people as well as places and it explores the connection between the concern of individuals for their houses and the development of the National Trust’s involvement with country houses since the mid-1930s.
The principal figure in the book is John Fowler, the interior decorator, who died in 1977. Through his work in the thirty
years after 1945 and his unconventional partnership with
Mrs Lancaster, herself a considerable influence on taste in houses on both sides of the Atlantic, he had a remarkable
influence on the look of country houses, on their decoration
and their restoration, and in the last ten years of his life he made an important contribution to the houses of the National Trust,
particularly through what he did at Shugborough, Sudbury and Clandon. Since his death his style has continued to influence decoration.

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Self-Empowerment: Nine Things the 19th Century Can Teach Us About Living in the 21st

The past comes to the rescue as a Washington, D.C., reporter / talk show host and a spiritual medium turn back the clock on self-help, pointing readers in the direction of history in order to help them heal from physical, psychological, and spiritual ailments.
In this thoroughly researched book, Anne Gehman and Ellen Ratner give credence to the pioneers who risked their lives, homes, and reputations to bring us some of the most effective alternative treatments in self-help and spirituality known today. In our search for understanding our minds, bodies, and spirits, we have become more open than ever to “alternative” treatments like homeopathy, prayer mediation, herbal remedies, psychic mediums, Eastern medicine, and many others.
When Ellen Ratner experienced chronic anxiety, she sought out a holistic psychiatrist who treated her using a little-known science called Coherent Breathing. It worked. Ratner dug deeper into this science and discovered invented and cultivated treatments that were so ahead of their time and far away from traditional medicine that their practitioners were deemed witches or charlatans. But, still, they persevered.
Together, Ratner and Gehman explore the lives, ideologies, philosophies, and intellect of hundreds of history’s greatest healers and pioneers, among them names we know, like Appleseed and Mesmer, and others, who we will soon meet in the pages of this enlightening book.

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New Self, New World: Recovering Our Senses in the Twenty-First Century

New Self, New World challenges the primary story of what it means to be human, the random and materialistic lifestyle that author Philip Shepherd calls our “shattered reality.” This reality encourages us to live in our heads, self-absorbed in our own anxieties. Drawing on diverse sources and inspiration, New Self, New World reveals that our state of head-consciousness falsely teaches us to see the body as something we possess and to try to take care of it without ever really learning how to inhabit it. Shepherd articulates his vision of a world in which each of us enjoys a direct, unmediated experience of being alive. He petitions against the futile pursuit of the “known self” and instead reveals the simple grace of just being present. In compelling prose, Shepherd asks us to surrender to the reality of “what is” that enables us to reunite with our own being. Each chapter is accompanied by exercises meant to bring Shepherd’s vision into daily life, what the author calls a practice that “facilitates the voluntary sabotage of long-standing patterns.” New Self, New World is at once a philosophical primer, a spiritual handbook, and a roaming inquiry into human history.