A SCOTSMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR Stranded at Schiphol airport Ben Coates called up a friendly Dutch girl he'd met some months earlier He stayed for dinner Actually he stayed for good In the first book to consider the hidden heart & history of the Netherlands from a modern perspective the author explores the length & breadth of his adopted homeland & discovers why one of the world's smallest countries is also so significant & so fascinating It is a self-made country the Dutch national character shaped by the ongoing battle to keep the water out from the love of dairy & beer to the attitude to nature & the famous tolerance Ben Coates investigates what makes the Dutch the Dutch why the Netherlands is much more than Holland & why the colour orange is so important Along the way he reveals why they are the world's tallest people & have the best carnival outside Brazil He learns why Amsterdam's brothels are going out of business who really killed Anne Frank & how the Dutch manage to be richer than almost everyone else despite working far less He also discovers a country which is changing fast with the Dutch now questioning many of the liberal policies which made their nation famous A personal portrait of a fascinating people a sideways history & an entertaining travelogue Why the Dutch are Different is the story of an Englishman who went Dutch & loved it ...

This book is a brilliant account of German military history which makes for thought-provoking reading Military Modelcraft International The German armed forces suffered crushing defeat in the last century Kenneth Macksey examines the reasons behind these catastrophic military failures Were they the random fortunes of war or the inevitable result of a particular structure leadership & history? A nation with few natural defensive boundaries Germany traditionally had to struggle to survive & developed an aggressive & militant outlook Its great strengths were the brilliance of individual generals & military thinkers the innovative development of the military forces & the skill & tenacity of the fighting men Set against all this was a short-term war policy a tendency to underestimate the enemy & believe its own propaganda & the politicisation of the military staffs These & many other factors were to lead Germany from nineteenth-century success & dreams of world domination to twentieth-century defeat ...

Once the kangaroo couldn't jump Find out how that changed in this lively tale adapted from one of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories This title is part of the Usborne Reading Programme (First Reading level 1) with simple charming text puzzles after the story to consolidate learning & gorgeous atmospheric illustrations by John Joven Illustrations Full colour throughout ...

As you read this billions of neutrinos from the sun are passing through your body antimatter is sprouting from your dinner & the core of your being is a chaotic mess of particles known only as quarks & gluons If the recent discovery of the Higgs Boson piqued your interest then Why The Universe Exists will take you deeper into the world of particle physics with leading physicists & New Scientist exploring how the universe functions at the smallest scales Find out about hunt for dark matter & why there is something rather than nothing Discover how accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland are rewinding time to the first moments after the big bang & how ghostly neutrino particles may hold the answers to the greatest mysteries of the universe ABOUT THE SERIESNew Scientist Instant Expert books are definitive & accessible entry points to the most important subjects in science; subjects that challenge attract debate invite controversy & engage the most enquiring minds Designed for curious readers who want to know how things work & why the Instant Expert series explores the topics that really matter & their impact on individuals society & the planet translating the scientific complexities around us into language that's open to everyone & putting new ideas & discoveries into perspective & context ...

In the middle of the eighteenth century British entrepreneurs unleashed the astounding energies of steam & coal & the world changed forever Factories railways & gunboats then propelled the West's rise to power & computers & nuclear weapons in the twentieth century secured its global supremacy Today however many worry that the emergence of China & India spell the end of the West as a superpower How long will the power of the West last? In order to find out we need to know why has the West been so dominant for the past two hundred years? With flair & authority historian & achaeologist Ian Morris draws uniquely on 15000 years of history to offer fresh insights on what the future will bring Deeply researched & brilliantly argued Why The West Rules
- For Now is a gripping & truly original history of the world
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Where do we come from? Are we merely a cluster of elementary particles in a gigantic world receptacle? & what does it all mean? In this highly original new book the philosopher Markus Gabriel challenges our notion of what exists & what it means to exist He questions the idea that there is a world that encompasses everything like a container life the universe & everything else This all-inclusive being does not exist & cannot exist For the world itself is not found in the world & even when we think about the world the world about which we think is obviously not identical with the world in which we think For as we are thinking about the world this is only a very small event in the world Besides this there are still innumerable other objects & events rain showers toothaches & the World Cup Drawing on the recent history of philosophy Gabriel asserts that the world cannot exist at all because it is not found in the world Yet with the exception of the world everything else exists; even unicorns on the far side of the moon wearing police uniforms Revelling in witty thought experiments word play & the courage of provocation Markus Gabriel demonstrates the necessity of a questioning mind & the role that humour can play in coming to terms with the abyss of human existence ...

From the financial fraudsters of Enron to the embezzlers at Tyco to the insider traders at Mc Kinsey to the Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff the failings of corporate titans are regular fixtures in the news But what drives wealthy & powerful people to white-collar crime? Harvard Business School professor Eugene Soltes draws from extensive personal interaction & correspondence with nearly fifty former executives as well as the latest research in psychology criminology & economics to investigate how once-celebrated executives become white-collar criminals The product of seven years in the company of the men behind the largest corporate crimes in history Why They Do It is a breakthrough look at the dark side of the business world Soltes reveals how the usual explanations fail to tell the whole story of why many seemingly successful people go over the line White-collar criminals are not merely driven by excessive greed or hubris nor do they usually carefully calculate costs & benefits before breaking the law Instead Soltes shows that most of the executives who committed crimes made decisions the way we all do- on the basis of their intuitions & gut feelings The trouble is that these gut feelings are often poorly suited for the modern business world where leaders are increasingly distanced from the consequences of their decisions & the individuals they impact The extraordinary costs of corporate misconduct are clear to its victims Yet never before have we been able to peer so deeply into the minds of the many prominent perpetrators of white-collar crime With the increasing globalization of business threatening us with even more devastating corporate misconduct the lessons Soltes draws in Why They Do It are needed more urgently than ever ...

A practical guide to teaching philosophical thinking through play questioning & dialogic activities to develop children's deeper understanding of life's big questions It enables practitioners of children aged 3-11 to turn their classrooms into spaces where thinking challenging & reasoning become as natural as play 248 pages Stanley Sara ...

A look at the enduring importance of To Kill a Mockingbird at a time when racial division in the US is at its most severe 320 pages

Includes:: 20 black-&-white photographs throughout Santopietro Tom

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Why was the partridge in the pear tree? Who was Good King Wenceslas? & what are the pagan origins behind The Holly & the Ivy'? Discover the hidden stories behind our best-loved Christmas carols from their earliest incarnations in the Middle Ages & their banning under the Puritans to the wassailing traditions of the nineteenth century & the carols that united soldiers on the Western Front during the First World War This fascinating book charts the history of one of Christmas' longest-running traditions & is sure to appeal to all those who love the festive season ...