Showing results by narrator "Michael Langan" in All Categories

The Little Ice Age tells the story of the turbulent, unpredictable, and often very cold years of modern European history, how climate altered historical events, and what they mean in the context of today’s global warming.

In this Very Short Introduction, Paul Klenerman describes the immune system, and how it works in health and disease. He considers how the immune system evolved, the basic rules that govern its behavior, and the major health threats where it is important. Paul Klenerman also explains how things can go wrong when there is too little or too much immunity. The book also addresses what we learned about the immune system from the COVID-19 pandemic and how that has influenced thinking about future pandemics.

For three decades, until the day he collapsed in the Brazilian surf in 1979, Josef Mengele, the Angel of Death who performed horrific experiments on the prisoners of Auschwitz, floated through South America in linen suits, keeping two steps ahead of Mossad agents, international police, and the world's journalists.

In the last thirty years, the developing world has undergone tremendous changes. Overall, poverty has fallen, people live longer and healthier lives, and economies have been transformed. And yet many countries have simply missed the boat. Why have some countries prospered, while others have failed? Stefan Dercon argues that the answer lies not in a specific set of policies, but rather in a key "development bargain," whereby a country's elites shift from protecting their own positions to gambling on a growth-based future.

A personal code for living a better, happier, more successful kind of life.

It's 1898. Kismet brings about a chance reunion at a London club between Dr. Watson and Colonel "Maiwand Mike" Fenlon, former military comrades from their Northwest Frontier days and the desperate Battle of Maiwand. A week later an urgent cable seeking Sherlock Holmes's help arrives from the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency 30 miles off the coast of Normandy. A retired high-ranking British Indian Army officer who commanded the troops at Maiwand has dropped dead. Colonel Fenlon is in a holding cell awaiting trial for his murder.

Five Times Faster is an inside story from Simon Sharpe, who has spent ten years at the forefront of climate change policy and diplomacy. In our fight to avoid dangerous climate change, science is pulling its punches, diplomacy is picking the wrong battles, and economics has been fighting for the other side. This provocative and engaging book sets out how we should rethink our strategies and reorganize our efforts in the fields of science, economics, and diplomacy, so that we can act fast enough to stay safe.

It's easy to think that ancient history is, well, ancient history—obsolete, irrelevant, unjustifiably focused on Greece and Rome, and at risk of extinction. In What Is Ancient History?, Walter Scheidel presents a compelling case for a new kind of ancient history—a global history that captures antiquity's pivotal role as a decisive phase in human development, one that provided the shared foundation of our world and continues to shape our lives today.

This is the first thoroughly revised edition of The Rape of the Nile—Fagan’s classic account of the cavalcade of archaeologists, thieves, and sightseers who have flocked to the Nile Valley since ancient times. Featured in this edition are new accounts of stunning recent discoveries, including the Royal Tombs of Tanis, the Valley of Golden Mummies at Bahariya, the Tomb of the Sons of Ramses, and the sunken city of Alexandria (whose lighthouse was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World).

In this game-changing book, Keith Frayn, an international expert in human metabolism and nutrition, dispels common misconceptions about human metabolism, explaining in everyday language the important metabolic processes that underlie all aspects of our daily lives. Frayn describes the communication systems that enable our different organs and tissues to cooperate, for instance in providing fuel to our muscles when we exercise, and in preserving our tissues during fasting.

Money issues dominate the news, but economic jargon and the complexity of it all can be bamboozling for regular folks. Paul Sheard, a leading economist and research fellow at Harvard Kennedy School, is known for his ability to see the forest and the trees and demystify complex economic phenomena. With The Power of Money, Sheard empowers listeners to become better-informed economic citizens by providing context for some of the biggest questions surrounding money.

Why do teenagers stay up late and struggle to get up in the morning? Do teenagers really take more risks? What is happening with teenagers' hormones? The Psychology of the Teenage Brain offers all those involved in teenagers' lives insight into what's happening in their brains and how understanding them can improve relationships and communication at this crucial stage. It explains key topics, including the way the brain changes during adolescence, the role of hormones, and what we really know about risk and resilience, sleep, and peer pressure.

We feel, therefore we are. Conscious sensations ground our sense of self. They are crucial to our idea of ourselves as psychic beings: present, existent, and mattering. But is it only humans who feel this way? Do other animals? Will future machines? Weaving together intellectual adventure and cutting-edge science, Nicholas Humphrey describes in Sentience his quest for answers: from his discovery of blindsight in monkeys and his pioneering work on social intelligence to breakthroughs in the philosophy of mind.

Gray Lexly has returned to Astra Academy to train himself for the ultimate confrontation. Legendary arcanists from across the world are gathering to assist in the ultimate battle of life and death, but will it be enough to stop the rampaging Death Lords who have amassed power in the abyssal hells? And before Gray can focus on any of that, he must first get married. With pressure mounting from all sides, Gray is grateful to have Ashlyn at his side, but will it last? The soul fragment from Death Lord Deimos still skews his perception, and sometimes Gray doesn't feel like himself.

Nonprofit leadership is hard. Most new nonprofit leaders are ill-prepared for the challenges they will face, and even those who are more experienced struggle to ensure their organizations deliver the change they are committed to.

One of the few RAF aircrew to play a central part in two of the Second World War's most momentous events, the Battle of Britain and D-Day, Cyril 'Frank' Babbage was a survivor. He wasn't just an immensely skilled pilot; he was also blessed with extraordinary good fortune.

Rhys Northwick, Duke of Whitby, has unabashedly devoted himself to a life of debauchery and hedonism. With his friends falling prey to the despicable institution of marriage, the responsibility of hosting the sinful Wicked Dukes Society house parties has fallen largely on his shoulders. Rhys doesn’t mind. He’ll happily seduce bored widows and wives out of their drawers any day. Until an encounter with a tempting divorcée leaves him longing for the only woman in London who is immune to his rakish charms.

In 2000, archaeologist Paul Gething rediscovered a sword. An unprepossessing length of rusty metal, it had been left in a suitcase for thirty years. But Paul had a suspicion that the sword had more to tell than appeared, so he sent it for specialist tests. When the results came back, he realized that what he had in his possession was possibly the finest, and certainly the most complex, sword ever made, which had been forged in seventh-century Northumberland by an anonymous swordsmith.

This Very Short Introduction draws on the best scientific research to offer a highly accessible explanation of what anxiety is, why it is such a normal and vital part of our emotional life, and the key factors that cause it. Insights are drawn from psychology, neuroscience, genetics, epidemiology, and clinical trials. Providing a fascinating illustration of the discussion are two interviews conducted specifically for the book, with the actor, writer, director, and television presenter Michael Palin and former England football manager Graham Taylor.

Dickie Metcalfe was not your typical secret agent, but he was larger than life in more ways than one. Unlike many other agents who were part of the Double Cross System during the Second World War, he did not defect; nor was he blackmailed into becoming a spy. Instead, using his father's connection with Sir Vernon Kell, the first director of MI5, Metcalfe volunteered his services. Recently cashiered from his infantry regiment, he had an ulterior motive.