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Human Frontiers: The Future of Big Ideas in an Age of Small Thinking
by Michael BhaskarWhy has the flow of big, world-changing ideas slowed down? A provocative look at what happens next at the frontiers of human knowledge.The history of humanity is the history of big ideas that expand our frontiers—from the wheel to space flight, cave painting to the massively multiplayer game, monotheistic religion to quantum theory. And yet for the past few decades, apart from a rush of new gadgets and the explosion of digital technology, world-changing ideas have been harder to come by. Since the 1970s, big ideas have happened incrementally—recycled, focused in narrow bands of innovation. In this provocative book, Michael Bhaskar looks at why the flow of big, world-changing ideas has slowed, and what this means for the future.Bhaskar argues that the challenge at the frontiers of knowledge has arisen not because we are unimaginative and bad at realizing big ideas but because we have already pushed so far. If we compare the world of our great-great-great-grandparents to ours today, we can see how a series of transformative ideas revolutionized almost everything in just a century and a half. But recently, because of short-termism, risk aversion, and fractious decision making, we have built a cautious, unimaginative world. Bhaskar shows how we can start to expand the frontier again by thinking big—embarking on the next Universal Declaration of Human Rightsor Apollo mission—and embracing change.
Human Frontiers: The Future of Big Ideas in an Age of Small Thinking
by Michael Bhaskar'A fascinating book . . . Bhaskar is a reassuringly positive and often witty guide'Observer'A fascinating, must-read book covering a vast array of topics from the arts to the sciences, technology to policy. This is a brilliant and thought-provoking response to one of the most critical questions of our age: how we will come up with the next generation of innovation and truly fresh ideas?'Mustafa Suleyman, cofounder of DeepMind and Google VP'Have "big ideas" and big social and economic changes disappeared from the scene? Michael Bhaskar's Human Frontiers is the best look at these all-important questions.'Tyler Cowen, author of The Great Stagnation and The Complacent Class'Michael Bhaskar explores the disturbing possibility that a complacent, cautious civilization has lost ambition and is slowly sinking into technological stagnation rather than accelerating into a magical future. He is calling for bold, adventurous innovators to go big again. A fascinating book'Matt Ridley, author of How Innovation WorksWhere next for humanity? Is our future one of endless improvement in all areas of life, from technology and travel to medicine, movies and music? Or are our best years behind us? It's easy to assume that the story of modern society is one of consistent, radical progress, but this is no longer true: more academics are researching than ever before but their work leads to fewer breakthroughs; innovation is incremental, limited to the digital sphere; the much-vaunted cure for cancer remains elusive; space travel has stalled since the heady era of the moonshot; politics is stuck in a rut, and the creative industries seem trapped in an ongoing cycle of rehashing genres and classics. The most ambitious ideas now struggle. Our great-great-great grandparents saw a series of transformative ideas revolutionise almost everything in just a few decades. Today, in contrast, short termism, risk aversion, and fractious decision making leaves the landscape timid and unimaginative.In Human Frontiers, Michael Bhaskar draws a vividly entertaining and expansive portrait of humanity's relationship with big ideas. He argues that stasis at the frontier is the result of having already pushed so far, taken easy wins and started to hit limits. But new thinking is still possible. By adopting bold global approaches, deploying cutting edge technology like AI and embracing a culture of change, we can push through and expand afresh.Perfect for anyone who has wondered why we haven't gone further, this book shows in fascinating detail how the 21st century could stall - or be the most revolutionary time in human history.
Human Game
by Simon ReadIn March and April of 1944, Gestapo gunmen killed fifty POWs--a brutal act in defiance of international law and the Geneva Conventions. This is the true story of the men who hunted them down. The mass breakout of seventy-six Allied airmen from the infamous Stalag Luft III became one of the greatest tales of World War II, immortalized in the film The Great Escape. But where Hollywood's depiction fades to black, another incredible story begins . . . Not long after the escape, fifty of the recaptured airmen were taken to killing fields throughout Germany and shot on the direct orders of Hitler. When the nature of these killings came to light, Churchill's government swore to pursue justice at any cost. A revolving team of military police, led by squadron leader Francis P. McKenna, was dispatched to pick up a trail long gone cold. Amid the chaos of postwar Germany, divided between American, British, French, and Russian occupiers, McKenna led a three-year manhunt that brought twenty-one Gestapo killers to justice. In Human Game, Simon Read delivers a clear-eyed and meticulously researched account of this often overlooked saga of hard-won justice. INCLUDES PHOTOS
Human Game: The True Story Of The 'great Escape' Murders And The Hunt For The Gestapo Gunmen
by Simon ReadIn March 1944, 76 Allied officers tunnelled out of Stalag Luft III. Of the 73 captured, 50 were shot by direct order of Hitler. This is the story of how a British Bobby from Blackpool, Frank McKenna, was sent to post-war Germany on the express orders from Churchill to bring the Gestapo murderers to justice. In a quest that ranges from the devastated, bombed out cities of Europe to the horrors of the concentrations camps, McKenna is relentless in his pursuit. A gripping read set in the aftermath of World War II.
A Human Garden: French Policy and the Transatlantic Legacies of Eugenic Experimentation (Berghahn Monographs in French Studies #16)
by Paul-André RosentalWell into the 1980s, Strasbourg, France, was the site of a curious and little-noted experiment: Ungemach, a garden city dating back to the high days of eugenic experimentation that offered luxury living to couples who were deemed biologically fit and committed to contractual childbearing targets. Supported by public authorities, Ungemach aimed to accelerate human evolution by increasing procreation among eugenically selected parents. In this fascinating history, Paul-André Rosental gives an account of Ungemach’s origins and its perplexing longevity. He casts a troubling light on the influence that eugenics continues to exert—even decades after being discredited as a pseudoscience—in realms as diverse as developmental psychology, postwar policymaking, and liberal-democratic ideals of personal fulfilment.
Human Geography For Dummies
by Kyle TredinnickYour map to understanding human geography Human Geography For Dummies introduces you to the ideas and perspectives encompassed by the field of human geography, and makes a great supplement to human geography courses in high school or college. So what is human geography? It’s not about drawing maps all over your body (although you’re welcome to do that if you want—no judgment). Human geography explores the relationship between humans and their natural environment, tracking the broad social patterns that shape human societies. Inside, you’ll learn about immigration, urbanization, globalization, empire and political expansion, and economic systems, to name a few. This learner-friendly Dummies guide explains all the key concepts clearly and succinctly. Find out how location and geography impact population, culture, economics, and politics Learn about contemporary issues in human migration, health, and global peace and stability Get a clear understanding of all the key concepts covered in your introductory human geography class Understand how society got to where it is, and get a glimpse into potential changes in the futureHuman Geography For Dummies is perfect for students who need additional study materials or simplified explanations. It’s also a fun read for anyone curious about the comings and goings of people on this planet of ours.
Human Guinea Pigs, by Kenneth Mellanby: A Reprint with Commentaries (Philosophy and Medicine #134)
by Lisa M. RasmussenThis book reprints Human Guinea Pigs, by Kenneth Mellanby, a seminal work in the history of medical ethics and human subject research that has been nearly unavailable for over 40 years. Detailing the use of World War II conscientious objectors who volunteered for experimentation on scabies transmission, Mellanby’s book offers insight into one approach to human subject experimentation before the development of ethical oversight regulations. His work was initially published prior to the articulation of the Nuremberg Code, which makes his subsequent position as a reporter for the British Medical Journal at the Nuremberg Trials very interesting, particularly given his sometimes controversial opinions on Nazi medical experimentation. This book reprints the second edition together with commentary essays that situate Mellanby’s ethical approach in historical context and relative to contemporary approaches. This volume is of particular interest to scholars of the history of human subject research.
The Human Hand (Collected Works of Charlotte Wolff #1)
by Charlotte WolffOriginally published in 1942, this book was very different from anything else written about the psychology of hands. The author had worked amongst apes and monkeys at the zoo, patients in what at the time were called ‘mental hospitals’, and amongst all manner of men, women and children. The results of her research are found here where she looks at how the hands link to the brain and ultimately our personality. A pioneer in this field the author continued her research in this area for a number of years. A fascinating glimpse into early personality psychology.
Human Heredity in the Twentieth Century (Studies for the Society for the Social History of Medicine #15)
by Bernd GausemeierThe essays in this collection examine how human heredity was understood between the end of the First World War and the early 1970s. The contributors explore the interaction of science, medicine and society in determining how heredity was viewed across the world during the politically turbulent years of the twentieth century.
Human Heritage: A World History
by Miriam Greenblatt Peter S. LemmoA world history textbook chronicling the rise of Western and Eastern civilizations.
Human Heritage: A World History
by Miriam Greenblatt Peter S. LemmoThis text contains unit lessons on: Place and Time, River Valley Civilizations, Ideas and Armies, The Greeks, The Romans, The Early Middle Ages, Emergence of New Empires, The Late Middle Ages, Beginning of Modern Times, The Changing World, Nations and Empires, and The Twentieth Century.
Human Heritage
by Miriam Greenblatt Peter S. LemmoHuman Heritage uses both history and geography to show the chronicles of major events in the world.
Human Heritage: A World History
by Miriam Greenblatt Peter S. LemmoThis world history textbook chronicles the rise of Western and Eastern civilizations.
A Human History of Emotion: How the Way We Feel Built the World We Know
by Richard Firth-GodbehereA sweeping exploration of the ways in which emotions shaped the course of human history, and how our experience and understanding of emotions have evolved along with us. "Eye-opening and thought-provoking!&” (Gina Rippon, author of The Gendered Brain) We humans like to think of ourselves as rational creatures, who, as a species, have relied on calculation and intellect to survive. But many of the most important moments in our history had little to do with cold, hard facts and a lot to do with feelings. Events ranging from the origins of philosophy to the birth of the world&’s major religions, the fall of Rome, the Scientific Revolution, and some of the bloodiest wars that humanity has ever experienced can&’t be properly understood without understanding emotions.Drawing on psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, art, and religious history, Richard Firth-Godbehere takes readers on a fascinating and wide ranging tour of the central and often under-appreciated role emotions have played in human societies around the world and throughout history—from Ancient Greece to Gambia, Japan, the Ottoman Empire, the United States, and beyond. A Human History of Emotion vividly illustrates how our understanding and experience of emotions has changed over time, and how our beliefs about feelings—and our feelings themselves—profoundly shaped us and the world we inhabit.
Human Infancy: An Evolutionary Perspective (Psychology Library Editions: Cognitive Science #11)
by Daniel G. FreedmanOriginally published in 1974, this volume is primarily devoted to what is known about human infancy from an ethological, evolutionary viewpoint. Included are discussions of pan-specific traits, presumably shared by all infants; individual genetic variations on these behaviours (as judged by twin-studies); sex differences, presumably shared by infants of all ethnic groups; and genetically based ethnic differences. However, the author favours neither biological determinism nor cultural determinism, and does not consider ‘interactionism’ to be a viable solution. Instead, a monistic position is taken, stressing the inseparability of the innate and the acquired, of genetics and environment, and of biology and culture. The heredity-environment issue is tackled head-on throughout the volume. The interaction between the two (an implied dualism) is described as a statistical abstraction from measured populations, while the position here is that heredity and environment are not separable in any single organism. In the same vein, the author argues that on logical grounds everything one does, every ‘cultural’ act, has within it some biological component.
Human Insufficiency: Natural Slavery and the Racialization of Vulnerability in Early Modern England (Routledge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture)
by Jeffrey B. GriswoldHuman Insufficiency argues that early modern writers depict the human political subject as physically vulnerable in order to naturalize slavery. Representations of Man as a weak creature—“poor” and “bare” in King Lear’s words—strategically portrayed English bodies as needing care from people who were imagined to be less fragile. Drawing on Aristotle’s depictions of the natural master and the natural slave in the Politics, English writers distinguished the fully human political subject from the sub-human Slave who would care for his feeble body. This justification of a nascent slaving economy reinvents the violence of enslaving Afro-diasporic peoples as a natural system of care. Human Insufficiency’s most important contribution to early modern critical race studies is expanding the scope of the human as a racialized category by demonstrating how depictions of Man as a vulnerable species were part of a discourse racializing slavery.
The Human Journey: A Concise Introduction to World History, Volume 1: Prehistory to 1450
by Kevin Reilly<i>The Human Journey</i> offers a truly concise yet satisfyingly full history of the world from ancient times to the present. The book’s scope, as the title implies, is the whole story of humanity, in planetary context. Its themes include not only the great questions of the humanities—nature versus nurture, the history and meaning of human variation, the sources of wealth and causes of revolution—but also the major transformations in human history: agriculture, cities, iron, writing, universal religions, global trade, industrialization, popular government, justice, and equality.
The Human Journey: A Concise Introduction to World History Volume 2: 1450 to Present
by Kevin ReillyThe Human Journey offers a full history of the world from ancient times to the present. Its themes include not only the great questions of the humanities-nature versus nurture, the history and meaning of human variation, the sources of wealth, and causes of revolution-but also the major transformations in human history: agriculture, cities, iron, writing, universal religions, global trade, industrialization, popular government, justice, and equality.
The Human Journey: A Concise Introduction to World History
by Kevin ReillyThe Human Journey offers a truly concise yet satisfyingly full history of the world from ancient times to the present. The book’s scope, as the title implies, is the whole story of humanity, in planetary context. Its themes include not only the great questions of the humanities—nature versus nurture, the history and meaning of human variation, the sources of wealth and causes of revolution—but also the major transformations in human history: agriculture, cities, iron, writing, universal religions, global trade, industrialization, popular government, justice, and equality. <P><P>In each conceptually rich chapter, leading historian Kevin Reilly concentrates on a single important period and theme, sustaining a focused narrative and analytical perspective. Chapter 2, for example, discusses the significance of bronze-age urbanization and the advent of the Iron Age. Chapter 3 examines the meaning and significance of the age of “classical” civilizations. Chapter 4 explains the spread of universal religions and new technologies in the postclassical age of Eurasian integration. But these examples also reveal a range of approaches to world history. The first chapter is an example of current “Big History,” the second of history as technological transformations, the third of comparative history, the fourth the history of connections that dominates, and thus narrows, so many texts. Free of either a confined, limiting focus or a mandatory laundry list of topics, this book begins with our most important questions and searches all of our past for answers. Well-grounded in the latest scholarship, this is not a fill-in-the-blanks text, but world history in a grand humanistic tradition.
The Human Kind: Imperial War Museum Wartime Classics (Alexander Baron's 'War Trilogy')
by Alexander BaronSpanning the Sicilian countryside to the brothels of Ostend, and the final book in Alexander Baron's War Trilogy, The Human Kind is a series of pithy vignettes reflective of the author's own wartime experiences. From the interminable days of training in Britain to brutal combat across north-west Europe, the book depicts many of the men, women - and, in some cases, children - affected by the widespread reach of the Second World War. In his trademark spare prose, Baron's work provides an emotive and incisive snapshot into the lives of myriad characters during this tumultuous period in history.
Human Landscapes in Classical Antiquity: Environment and Culture (Leicester-Nottingham Studies in Ancient Society #Vol. 6)
by Graham Shipley John SalmonHuman Landscapes in Classical Antiquity shows how today's environmental and ecological concerns can help illuminate our study of the ancient world. The contributors consider how the Greeks and Romans perceived their natural world, and how their perceptions affected society. The effects of human settlement and cultivation on the landscape are considered, as well as the representation of landscape in Attic drama. Various aspects of farming, such as the use of terraces and the significance of olive growing are examined. The uncultivated landscape was also important: hunting was a key social ritual for Greek and hellenistic elites, and 'wild' places were not wastelands but played an essential economic role. The Romans' attempts to control their environment are analyzed.This volume shows how Greeks and Romans worked hand in hand with their natural environment and not against it. It represents an outstanding collaboration between the disciplines of history and archaeology.
Human Nature: The Categorial Framework
by P. M. HackerThis major new study by one of the most penetrating and persistent critics of philosophical and scientific orthodoxy, returns to Aristotle in order to examine the salient categories in terms of which we think about ourselves and our nature, and the distinctive forms of explanation we invoke to render ourselves intelligible to ourselves. The culmination of 40 years of thought on the philosophy of mind and the nature of the mankind Written by one of the world’s leading philosophers, the co-author of the monumental 4 volume Analytical Commentary on the Philosophical Investigations (Blackwell Publishing, 1980-2004) Uses broad categories, such as substance, causation, agency and power to examine how we think about ourselves and our nature Platonic and Aristotelian conceptions of human nature are sketched and contrasted Individual chapters clarify and provide an historical overview of a specific concept, then link the concept to ideas contained in other chapters
Human Nature: A Reader
by Joel J. KuppermanThis anthology provides a set of distinctive, influential views that explore the mysteries of human nature from a variety of perspectives. It can be read on its own, or in conjunction with Joel Kupperman's text, Theories of Human Nature.
Human Nature And Conduct
by John Dewey John CappsIn Human Nature and Conduct, the philosopher John Dewey looks at the connection between human nature and morality. While some people believe that we are naturally good, others believe that we are naturally evil. Likewise, while some people believe that morality is all relative, others believe that moral laws are as universal as laws of nature. In these twenty-six succinct chapters Dewey argues that morality is not so simple. He claims that morality depends on both individual people and societies, on both nature and nurture, and on a complex interaction between biological impulses, social customs, and human intelligence. He argues against those who believe morality depends on the will of the majority, those who believe it depends on the will of God and, most of all, those who believe the purpose of morality is to protect us from our own instincts. In Human Nature and Conduct Dewey gives us a new perspective on morality.