This book answers the most obvious the most important yet the most difficult question about human history: why history unfolded so differently on different continents. Geography & biogeography not race moulded the contrasting fates of Europeans Asians Native Americans sub-Saharan Africans & aboriginal Australians. An ambitious synthesis of history biology ecology & linguistics Guns Germs & Steel is one of the most important & humane works of popular science. ...

This is the ultimate record of guns through the ages. From rifles to sniper guns machine guns to grenade launchers a fully loaded guide to over 300 of the most important guns from the last 700 years. Discover revealing features on twenty 'key' guns from history including the Musket Gatling Gun & AK-47 assault rifle. Step inside famous gun maker factories from Colt & Smith & Wesson to Beretta & discover how guns were
- & still are
- developed & produced. Meet famous gunslingers & legendary sharpshooters from Dick Turpin & Billy the Kid to James Bond hear their stories & learn about the guns that made them famous. It's the ultimate visual history of guns.

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The classic World War II thriller from the acclaimed master of action & suspense. Now reissued in a new cover style. Twelve hundred British soldiers isolated on the small island of Kheros off the Turkish coast waiting to die. Twelve hundred lives in jeopardy lives that could be saved if only the guns could be silenced. The guns of Navarone vigilant savage & catastrophically accurate. Navarone itself grim bastion of narrow straits manned by a mixed garrison of Germans & Italians an apparently impregnable iron fortress. To Captain Keith Mallory skllled saboteur trained mountaineer fell the task of leading the small party detailed to scale the vast impossible precipice of Navarone & to blow up the guns. The Guns of Navarone is the story of that mission the tale of a calculated risk taken in the time of war... ...

The Guns of Navarone & its three sequels in which the same characters are sent on other wartime missions together in one volume for the first time to mark the 50th anniversary of the original book. THE GUNS OF NAVARONE Mallory Miller & Andrea are united into a lethally effective team. Their mission: to silence the impregnable guns set in the tall cliffs of Navarone. On their success or failure rests one of the most critical offensives of the Second World War. FORCE 10 FROM NAVARONE Almost before the last echoes of the famous guns have died away the three Navarone heroes are parachuted into war-torn Yugoslavia to rescue a division of partisans & fulfil a secret mission so deadly that it must be hidden even from their own allies. ...

Last seen in the award-winning Diamond Dove Emily Tempest has a new job: an Aboriginal Community Police Officer. A cop. Not quite what she had in mind when she returned to Central Australia. If anything her instincts & background would propel her in the opposite direction. But for an Aboriginal woman in a pissant mining & meatworks town the career options are limited. & theres a car attached. Her new boss the dour Superintendent Cockburn sees her role as making tea & rounding up the truants. But when one old friend is murdered out on the Gunshot Road & another one gets the blame Emily leaps into the investigation feet first mouth never far behind. Behind its veil of lyricism & quickfire wit Gunshot Road transports the reader into a world few have ever seen up close: the Australian outback where cultures collide & where temperatures
- & the odd bullet
- go through the roof.

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In June 2006 the Neue Galerie in New York purchased Gustav Klimts 1907 Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I for $135 million. This deposed Picassos Boy With a Pipe (sold May 2004 for $104 million) as the highest reported price ever paid for a piece of art sold at a public auction. However Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was a controversial figure in his time. Far from being acknowledged as the representative artist of his age he was the target of violent criticism
- his work sometimes being displayed behind a screen to avoid corrupting the sensibilities of the young. Today Klimts works are recognized as masterpieces & stand out as some of the most significant paintings ever to come out of Vienna. The Byzantine luxuriance of form the vivid juxtaposition of colours & the rich symbolism sensuality & eroticism of his work have made Klimt one of the most popular artists in the world. Arranged thematically the 130 reproductions of Klimts most important work are accompanied by Rachel Barnes expert & insightful commentary on all aspects of the artists life influences & paintings
- from the inspiration & provenance of each painting to the technique used to create it & a list of exhibitions. Featuring some of the most iconic important (and valuable) artworks of the late 19th/early 20th centuries such as the Judith I Portrait of Adele-Bloch-Bauer I & II & The Kiss this is a book that Klimt enthusiasts & art lovers will cherish.

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The countless events being held to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth make a clear statement to the enduring appreciation for the work of Gustav Klimt. Not that it takes such a special occasion for the press & the public to start talking about Klimt. More than two hundred articles about the artist appeared online in August 2011 alone in comparison with barely seventy on Rembrandt within the same period. This media publicity set editor Tobias G. Natter thinking about the value of compiling the present book. During his lifetime Klimt was a controversial star whose works made passions run high; he stood for Modernism but he also embodied tradition. His pictures polarized & divided the art-loving world. Journalists & general public alike were split over the question: For or against Klimt? The present publication therefore places particular emphasis upon the voices of Klimt's contemporaries via a series of essays examining reactions to his work throughout his career. Subjects range from Klimt's portrayal of women to his adoption of landscape painting in the second half of his life. The cliche that Gustav Klimt was a man of few words who rarely put pen to paper is vehemently dispelled: no less than 179 letters cards writings & other documents are included in this monograph. This wealth of archival material assembled here for the first time on such a scale represents a major contribution to Klimt scholarship. Defining features of this edition: Catalog of Klimt's complete paintings All known letter correspondence Featuring new photographs of the Stoclet Frieze commissioned exclusively for this book ...

A bestseller when first published in Germany in 2003 Jens Malte Fischers Gustav Mahler" has been lauded by scholars as a landmark work. He draws on important primary resources
- some unavailable to previous biographers
- & sets in narrative context the extensive correspondence between Mahler & his wife Alma; Alma Mahlers diaries; & the memoirs of Natalie Bauer-Lechner a viola player & close friend of Mahler whose private journals provide insight into the composers personal & professional lives & his creative process. Fischer explores Mahlers early life his relationship to literature his achievements as a conductor in Vienna & New York his unhappy marriage & his work with the Metropolitan Opera & the New York Philharmonic in his later years. He also illustrates why Mahler is a prime example of artistic idealism worn down by Austrian anti-Semitism & American commercialism. " Gustav Mahler" is the best-sourced & most balanced biography available about the composer a nuanced & intriguing portrait of his dramatic life set against the backdrop of early 20th century America & fin de siecle Europe."

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' Are Collected Letters a superior form of biography? When as numerous & meticulously edited as these of Gustav mahler when they provide a time capsule ride back to the last days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire the answer must be yes.. . This remarkable book is unputdownable even for a non-Mahlerite.' Literary Review ' The letters are linked by a commentary that makes the volume both an easy & gripping read.. . There is passion in this book to scald the h&.' Sunday Times 'A vivid & telling portrayal of Mahler's personality in his voice.' Times Literary Supplement ...

In this pioneering book Pierre Pallardy shares his 7-step method of caring for the stomach -- the bodys second brain. It



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