In June 1792, the cosmopolitan Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre and the scrupulous Pierre-Francois-Andre Mechain set out from Paris to calculate the length of the meter. In the bestselling tradition of "Longitude and The Map that Changed the World, " Alder has written an extraordinary and riveting tale. Illustrations.

The building of the Erie Canal is one of the greatest and most riveting stories of American ingenuity. Now a bestselling author presents the story of the canal's construction against the larger tableau of America in the first quarter-century of the 1800s.

Wonderfully rich, readable, and detailed, this volume rebukes the common fallacies of the greatest medical disaster in history. Cantor pierces the haze of myths that surrounds the understanding of the fundamental impact of the Plague on society, religion, and the Renaissance. Photos.

"A beautifully written...and illustrated history of the Food of the Gods, from Olmecs to present-day developments."--"Chocolatier"
This delightful and best-selling tale of one of the world's favorite foods draws upon botany, archaeology, and culinary history to present a complete and accurate history of chocolate.
The story begins some 3,000 years ago in the jungles of Mexico and Central America with the chocolate tree, Theobroma Cacao, and the complex processes necessary to transform its bitter seeds into what is now known as chocolate. This was centuries before chocolate was consumed in generally unsweetened liquid form and used as currency by the Maya, and the Aztecs after them. The Spanish conquest of Central America introduced chocolate to Europe, where it first became the drink of kings and aristocrats and then was populariz

Mercator was the greatest cartographer of all--a poor farm boy who attended one of Europe's top universities, was persecuted and imprisoned by the Inquisition, but survived to coin the term "atlas" and to produce the so-called projection for which he is known. Illustrations.

Winner - 1998 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction
Why did Eurasians conquer, displace, or decimate Native Americans, Australians, and Africans, instead of the reverse? In this groundbreaking book, evolutionary biologist Jared Diamond stunningly dismantles racially based theories of human history by revealing the environmental factors actually responsible for history's broadest patterns. Here, at last, is a world history that really is a history of all the world's peoples, a unified narrative of human life even more intriguing and important than accounts of dinosaurs and glaciers. A major advance in our understanding of human societies, Guns, Germs, and Steel chronicles the way that the modern world, and its inequalities, came to be. It is a work rich in dramatic revelations that will fascinate readers even as it challenges con

In her remarkable and engrossing book, Fenster has written a vivid history that is stranger than fiction of the men behind the first surgical use of anesthesia and the price they paid for their breakthrough. 15 photos throughout.

The companion to the upcoming History Channel mini-series tells the stories of the heretics and healers who pushed the boundaries into the modern age.

Freese takes readers on a rich and fascinating journey as she tells how a simple black rock has altered the course of history. 8-page photo insert.

Linklater's fascinating, provocative and eye-opening story of why America has ended up with its unique system of weights and measures, is explained in this volume that also shows how it has shaped the culture and country. 30 illustrations. 5 maps.

Anyone alive in Florence on August 19, 1418, would have understood the significance of the competition announced that day concerning the city's magnificent new cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, already under construction for more than a century. "Whoever desires to make any model or design for the vaulting of the main Dome ... shall do so before the end of the month of September". The proposed dome was regarded far and wide as all but impossible to build, due not only to its enormous size but also because its original and sacrosanct design eschewed the flying buttresses that supported cathedrals all over Europe. The dome would literally need to be erected over thin air.

Of the many plans submitted, one stood out -- a daring and unorthodox solution to vaulting the largest dome (143 feet in diameter) in the world. It was offered not by a

Cod spans a thousand years and four continents. From the Vikings, who pursued the codfish across the Atlantic, and the enigmatic Basques, who first commercialized it in medieval times, to Bartholomew Gosnold, who named Cape Cod in 1602, and Clarence Birdseye, who founded an industry on frozen cod in the 1930s, Mark Kurlansky introduces the explorers, merchants, writers, chefs, and of course the fishermen, whose lives have interwoven with this prolific fish. He chronicles the fifteenth-century politics of the Hanseatic League and the cod wars of the sixteenth and twentieth centuries. He embellishes his story with gastronomic detail, blending in recipes and lore from the Middle Ages to the present. And he brings to life the cod itself: its personality, habits, extended family, and ultimately the tragedy of how the most profitable fish in hi

"Tea" is the complete story of the commodity that shaped four centuries of British history and slaked the British thirst for empire and profit.

Henry Petroski traces the origins of the pencil back to ancient Greece and Rome, writes factually and charmingly about its development over the centuries and around the world, and shows what the pencil can teach us about engineering and technology today.

Winner - 2003 ALA Non-Fiction Notable Selection
In her riveting account of the torpedoing and sinking of the ship "Lusitania, " Preston recalls both a pivotal moment in history and a remarkable human drama. Illustrations. Maps.

The Spanish considered vanilla the ultimate aphrodisiac, the Totonac Indians called it the fruit of the gods, and the Aztecs taxed the Mayans in vanilla beans, using the beans as currency. In this colorful history, Patricia Rain explores the incredibly diverse effect of vanilla on the worlds of food, medicine, psychology, and even politics.

In a landmark work of history, Russell Shorto presents astonishing information on the founding of our nation and reveals in riveting detail the crucial role of the Dutch in making America what it is today.
In the late 1960s, an archivist in the New York State Library made an astounding discovery: 12,000 pages of centuries-old correspondence, court cases, legal contracts, and reports from a forgotten society: the Dutch colony centered on Manhattan, which predated the thirteen "original" American colonies. For the past thirty years scholar Charles Gehring has been translating this trove, which was recently declared a national treasure. Now, Russell Shorto has made use of this vital material to construct a sweeping narrative of Manhattan's founding that gives a startling, fresh perspective on how America began.
In an account that ble

"The son of a musician, Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) tried at first to enter a monastery before engaging the skills that made him the foremost scientist of his day. Though he never left Italy, his inventions and discoveries were heralded around the world. Most sensationally, his telescopes allowed him to reveal a new reality in the heavens and to reinforce the astounding argument that the Earth moves around the Sun. For this belief, he was brought before the Holy Office of the Inquisition, accused of heresy, and forced to spend his last years under house arrest."--BOOK JACKET. "Of Galileo's three illegitimate children, the eldest best mirrored his own brilliance, industry, and sensibility, and by virtue of these qualities became his confidante. Born Virginia in 1600, she was thirteen when Galileo placed her in a convent near him in Florenc

Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest, and of John Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, brilliance and the absurd, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking. Through Dava Sobel's consummate skill, Longitude will open a new window on our world for all who read it.

Art historians have long speculated on how Vermeer achieved the uncanny mixture of detached precision, compositional repose, and perspective accuracy that have drawn many to describe his work as "photographic." Indeed, many wonder if Vermeer employed a camera obscura, a primitive form of
camera, to enhance his realistic effects?
In Vermeer's Camera, Philip Steadman traces the development of the camera obscura--first described by Leonaro da Vinci--weighs the arguments that scholars have made for and against Vermeer's use of the camera, and offers a fascinating examination of the paintings themselves and what they
alone can tell us of Vermeer's technique. Vermeer left no record of his method and indeed we know almost nothing of the man nor of how he worked. But by a close and illuminating study of the paintings Steadman concludes

In the 1760s a group of amateur experimenters met in the English Midlands. Blending science, art, and commerce, the Lunar Men changed the face of England. Uglow's vivid, exhilarating account uncovers the friendships, political passions, love affairs, and love of knowledge that drove these extraordinary men.

Wild, a coffee trader and historian delivers a rollicking history of the most valuable legally traded commodity in the world after oil, and an industry that employs 100 million people throughout the world.

From its infancy in Peru and Pakistan 6,000 years ago to the fields of the antebellum South to its current association with big name clothiers, Yafa tells the epic story of how a humble fiber created fortunes, wrecked civilizations, and put America on the map.