How did everything get so dumb?.. How did we become hostages to idiocy?.. What must we do to be freed from a captor whose ransom note simply reads, `D`oh`?.. The deteriorating quality of our public debate & the dwindling of common sense in media, politics & culture can drive you to despair & rage. It certainly drove writers Helen Razer & Bernard Keane to a desperate act: befriending each other for long enough to write a book... Join forces with these uneasy allies to fight against a world that has lost its reason. Explore what`s behind the remorseless spread of idiocy, & why there`s just so much damn Stupid around you... Stupid isn`t just ignorance; it`s not just laziness. Worse than the absence of thought, Stupid is a virus that drains our productivity & leaves us sick & diminished. & Stupid has a long, complex & terrible past, one we need to understand in order to defeat it...A Short History of Stupid traces the origins of this maddening ill, examining the different ways in which we`ve been afflicted over the last three thousand years. It damns those who have spread Stupid & celebrates the brave few who resisted. It shows how Stupid tightens the grubby grip of the foolish around our throats... Hilarious, smart, unpleasant, infuriating & rude, A Short History of Stupid is at once a provocation & a comfort. It will spark debate, soothe the terminally frustrated & outrage the righteously Stupid. It is a book whose Stupid time has come. ...

Situated at the crossroads of three continents, the Middle East has confounded the ambition of conquerors & peacemakers alike. Christianity, Judaism & Islam all had their genesis in the region but with them came not just civilization & religion, but also some of the great struggles of history. A Short History of the Middle East makes sense of the shifting sands of Middle Eastern History, beginning with the early cultures of the area & moving on to the Roman & Persian Empires; the growth of Christianity; the rise of Islam; the invasions from the east; Genghis Khan`s Mongol hordes; the Ottoman Turks & the rise of radicalism in the modern world symbolized by the Islamic State. ...

The Mongol Empire was the mightiest land empire the world has ever seen. At its height it was twice the size of its Roman equivalent. For a remarkable century & a half it commanded a population of 100 million people, while the rule of Chinggis (Genghis) Khan marched undefeated from the Pacific Ocean to the Caspian Sea. George Lane argues that the Mongols were not only subjugators who swept all before them but one of the great organising forces of world history. His book traces the rise of the Great Khan in 1206 to the dissolution of the empire in 1368 by the Ming Dynasty. He discusses the unification of the Turko-Mongol tribes under Chinggis` leadership; the establishment of a vigorous imperium whose Pax Mongolica held mastery over the Central Asian steppes; imaginative policies of religious pluralism; & the rich legacy of the Toluid Empire of Yuan China & Ilkhanate Iran. Offering a bold & sympathetic understanding of Mongol history, the author shows that commercial expansion, cultural assimilation & dynamic political growth were as crucial to Mongol success as desire for conquest. ...

It`s cold, wet & dangerous, so why do we do it? Richard Hammond`s A SHORT HISTORY OF THE MOTORCYCLE attempts to explain what it is about bikes & biking that calls to some people, leaving them powerless to resist. This entertaining guide charts the history of the bike from its origins as a cheap & modest means of transport for the masses to its modern incarnations: a terrifying symbol of rebellion & menace, a high-tech racing machine & the rich kid`s plaything. We look at the bikes that have propelled people across the world to work, to school & to their doom. As for the bikers.. . Edwardian ladies did it, though not in large numbers. Young bucks desperate to prove their manhood did it, because it was the cheapest speed available. Hammond examines bikers of every type, from the happy farmer trundling through fields on their Honda Cub to the Hell`s Angel terrorising Californian towns on their hog. Wittily written & lavishly illustrated, A SHORT HISTORY OF THE MOTORCYCLE is a thrilling ride for bikers & non-bikers alike. ...

From hunter-gatherers in the Ice Age to technological innovators in modern times, this book provides a short introduction to the world`s history. Lively text introduces historical concepts such as civilization, empires, revolutions, religion & democracy, while bitesize narrative accounts describe the people & events that have shaped our world. ...

”A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian” is bestselling author Marina Lewycka`s hilarious & award winning debut novel. ` Two years after my mother died, my father fell in love with a glamorous blonde Ukrainian divorcee. He was eighty-four & she was thirty-six. She exploded into our lives like a fluffy pink grenade, churning up the murky water, bringing to the surface a sludge of sloughed-off memories, giving the family ghosts a kick up the backside.` Sisters Vera & Nadezhda must aside a lifetime of feuding to save their emigre engineer father from voluptuous gold-digger Valentina. With her proclivity for green satin underwear & boil-in-the-bag cuisine, she will stop at nothing in her pursuit of Western wealth. But the sisters` campaign to oust Valentina unearths family secrets, uncovers fifty years of Europe`s darkest history & sends them back to roots they`d much rather forget...” It`s rare to find a first novel that gets so much right... Lewycka is a seriously talented comic writer”. (” Time Out”). ” Hugely enjoyable...yields a golden harvest of family truths”. (” Daily Telegraph”). ” Delightful, funny, touching”. (” Spectator”). Bestselling author Marina Lewkyca has received great critical acclaim since the publication of her hilarious first novel ”A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian” in 2005, which was the winner of the Bollinger Everyman Prize for Comic Fiction 2005, winner of the Saga Award for Wit 2005, shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2005 & longlisted for the Booker prize 2005. Her other humorous novels ” Two Caravans” (published as Strawberry Fields in the USA & Canada), ” We Are All made from Glue” & ” Various Pets Alive & Dead” are also available from Penguin. ...

How did we find ourselves in a ”post-truth” world of ”alternative facts”? & can we get out of it? A Short History of Truth sets out to answer these questions by looking at the complex history of truth & falsehood. It identifies ten types of supposed truth & explains how easily each can become the midwife of falsehood. There is no species of truth that we can rely on unquestioningly, but that does not mean the truth can never be established. Attaining truth is an achievement we need to work for, & each chapter will end up with a truth we can have some confidence in. This history builds into a comprehensive & clear explanation of why truth is now so disputed by exploring 10 kinds of truth: 1. Eternal truths.2. Authoritative truths.3. Esoteric truths.4. Reasoned truths.5. Evidence-based truths.6. Creative truths.7. Relative truths. 8. Powerful truths.9. Moral truths.10. Holistic truths. Baggini provides us with all we need to restore faith in the value & possibility of truth as a social enterprise. Truth-seekers need to be sceptical not cynical, autonomous not atomistic, provisional not dogmatic, open not empty, demanding not unreasonable. ...

How did we find ourselves in a ”post-truth” world of ”alternative facts”? & can we get out of it? A Short History of Truth sets out to answer these questions by looking at the complex history of truth & falsehood. It identifies ten types of supposed truth & explains how easily each can become the midwife of falsehood. There is no species of truth that we can rely on unquestioningly, but that does not mean the truth can never be established. Attaining truth is an achievement we need to work for, & each chapter will end up with a truth we can have some confidence in. This history builds into a comprehensive & clear explanation of why truth is now so disputed by exploring 10 kinds of truth:1. Eternal truths.2. Authoritative truths.3. Esoteric truths.4. Reasoned truths.5. Evidence-based truths.6. Creative truths.7. Relative truths. 8. Powerful truths 9. Moral truths.10. Holistic truths. Baggini provides us with all we need to restore faith in the value & possibility of truth as a social enterprise. Truth-seekers need to be sceptical not cynical, autonomous not atomistic, provisional not dogmatic, open not empty, demanding not unreasonable. ...

In these two closely linked works
- a travel book & a biography of its author
- we witness a moving encounter between two of

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` For the first time in my life I felt that death was a possibility; a stupid, pointless, lonely death on the aptly named Mondulkiri Death Highway.` The Ho Chi Minh Trail is one of the greatest feats of military engineering in history. But since the end of the Vietnam War much of this vast transport network has been reclaimed by jungle, while remaining sections are littered with a deadly legacy of unexploded bombs. For Antonia, a veteran of ridiculous adventures in unfeasible vehicles, the chance to explore the Trail before it`s lost forever was a personal challenge she couldn`t ignore
- yet it would sometimes be a terrifying journey. Setting out from Hanoi on an ageing Honda Cub, she spent the next two months riding 2000 miles through the mountains & jungles of Vietnam, Laos & Cambodia. Battling inhospitable terrain & multiple breakdowns, her experiences ranged from the touching to the hilarious, meeting former American fighter pilots, tribal chiefs, illegal loggers & bomb disposal experts. The story of her brave journey is thrilling & poignant: a unique insight into a little known face of Southeast Asia.
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