Books

A collection of essays addressing the collaboration of human and natural forces in the creation of cities, the countryside, and empires.

In this volume, an international group of environmental historians examine the significant ways in which humans have impacted their surroundings throughout history.

Fossil fuels propelled industries and nations into the modern age and continue to powerfully influence economies and politics today. As Energy Capitals demonstrates, the discovery and exploitation of fossil fuels has proven to be a mixed blessing in many of the cities and regions where it has occurred. With case studies from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Norway, Africa, and Australia, this volume views a range of older and more recent energy capitals, contrasts their evolutions, and explores why some capitals were able to influence global trends in energy production and distribution while others failed to control even their own destinies.

Combining perspectives from the history of science and world history, this volume examines the impact of major world-historical processes of the postwar period on the evolution of the life sciences. Contributors consider the long-term evolution of scientific practice, research, and innovation across a range of fields and subfields in the life sciences, and in the context of Cold War anxieties and ambitions. Together, they examine how the formation of international organizations and global research programs allowed for transnational exchange and cooperation, but in a period rife with competition and nationalist interests, which influenced dramatic changes in the field as the postcolonial world order unfolded.

These detailed yet interlocking studies consider whether knowledge evolved more through recurring intercultural links or through localized innovations; or whether it arose more from endogenous scientific study or from exogenous shifts in the world order.

A new and incisive rexamination of Alexander’s life including his economic as well as military achievements.