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Author
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
In these deeply researched essays, a Paris Review contributor blends science, history, and memoir to explore human obsession with gorgeous things, exposing the fraught histories of makeup, silk, jewels, perfume, and other objects, helping readers to ethically partake in the beauty of the world around them.
Author
Language
English
Appears on these lists
Description
Journalist Weisman offers an original approach to questions of humanity's impact on the planet. Drawing on the expertise of engineers, atmospheric scientists, art conservators, zoologists, oil refiners, marine biologists, astrophysicists, religious leaders, and paleontologists, he illustrates what the planet might be like today if humans disappeared. He explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence;...
Publisher
Kanopy Streaming
Pub. Date
2015.
Language
English
Description
Consumer capitalism dominates our economy, our politics, and our culture, even though a growing body of research suggests it may be well past its sell-by date. In Consumerism and the Limits to Imagination, media scholar Justin Lewis makes a compelling case that consumer capitalism can no longer deliver on its promise of enhancing quality of life, and argues that changing direction will require changing our media system and our cultural environment....
Author
Publisher
W.W. Norton & Company
Pub. Date
2018.
Language
English
Description
The Old English word "craeft" signified knowledge, skill, wisdom, and resourcefulness. Today, in the wake of industrialization, people are again seeking products made with authenticity -- artisan breads, local honey, craft beers, furniture and other goods made by human hands. Archaeologist and medieval historian Alexander Landlands travels from his home in Wales along the Atlantic seaboard of Europe learning a wide range of traditional manual skills,...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"Bagley, city archaeologist of Boston, uncovers a fascinating hodgepodge of history-from ancient fishing grounds to Jazz Age red-light districts-that will surprise and delight even longtime residents. Each artifact is shown in full color with a description of the item's significance to its site location and Boston's larger history"--
Author
Series
Publisher
Kanopy Streaming
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
This powerful documentary was made by Oomera (Coral) Edwards on Super 8mm film as a training exercise at the (then) Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies in Canberra. The film surveys the New South Wales policy of taking Aboriginal children from their families and putting them in institutions run by the Aborigines Welfare Board. From 1883 to 1969, this policy deprived generations of children of their Aboriginal identity. Oomera was one of these...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"In this engaging exploration, archaeologist Ian Hodder departs from the two prevailing modes of thought about human evolution: the older idea of constant advancement toward a civilized ideal and the newer one of a directionless process of natural selection. Instead, he proposes a theory of human evolution and history based on "entanglement," the ever-increasing mutual dependency between humans and things. Not only do humans become dependent on things,...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Neil MacGregor's radio series 'A History of the World in 100 Objects' has been a unique event that has set a benchmark for public service broadcasting in the UK and across the world. This book will be the tie-in to that event, reproducing the scripts describing the objects that made us who we are.
Author
Language
English
Appears on these lists
Description
"In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose faced a crisis, the imminent sale of her daughter Ashley. Thinking quickly, she packed a cotton bag with a few precious items as a token of love and to try to ensure Ashley's survival. Soon after, the nine-year-old girl was separated from her mother and sold. Decades later, Ashley's granddaughter Ruth embroidered this family history on the bag in spare yet haunting language--including Rose's wish...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"Centered in Muscat and Nizwa, the book analyzes the relations with the past that undergird the shift in Oman from an Ibadi shari'a Imamate (1913-1958) to a modern nation state from 1970 onwards. Key locales and objects become sites for tracking transformations in forms of history, religious and political authority"--
Author
Pub. Date
[2022]
Language
English
Formats
Description
An "exciting and engaging" investigation (Jonah Berger) of the secret, tangled emotional relationships people have with things--drawing on cutting-edge findings from the fields of psychology, neuroscience, and marketing. Books, baseball cards, ceramic figurines, art, iPhones, clothing, cars, music, dolls, furniture, and even nature itself. If you're like most people, at some point in your life you've found yourself indulging in a love affair with...
Publisher
Kanopy Streaming
Pub. Date
2014.
Language
English
Description
Agnes Abbott was born at Loves Creek Station in the 1930s. She lived in the bush with her Eastern Arrernte family, travelling across the parts of her homeland which are still accessible to the old people. From her early years born and raised in the bush, learning the survival tools and the ways of their culture, Agnes' life underwent many and expansive changes. More of her homelands became inaccessible to families for hunting, and finding new ways...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
"Wendy Woloson considers seriously the detritus of everyday consumerist Western lives--a category that comprises objects that function as art, jokes, tools, embodiments of fantasies, cultural signifiers, status symbols, and much more; a.k.a. "crap." She seeks to use these possessions to illuminate our society, culture, and economy. Why do we--as individuals and as a culture--have these things? Where do they come from, and why do we want them? In her...
Author
Language
English
Formats
Description
Readers explore different aspects of Ancient Egypt's economy, including the importance of the sea and how papermaking was an art essential to Egypt's success. Students will gain an understanding of how the culture used money and which trades flourished during this period of history.
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