What does it mean for our understanding of history if we assume that everything is physical and that no immaterial entities, forces, or phenomena exist? A Materialist Philosophy of History: A Realist Antidote to Postmodernism examines the implications of a materialist worldview in contemporary philosophy of history. Materialism has wide-ranging consequences for historical research as well as for the credibility of various conceptions of the historical past. Branko Mitrovic´ shows how these...

The main objective of this book is to present the distribution and diversity of major soil types in Serbia. It focuses on giving a detailed description of the physical, chemical and biological properties of soil and their geomorphological forms, as well as the geological characteristics of parent material. An integrative approach is used to study the interaction between climate, vegetation and geology in soil formation. Special attention is paid to human-induced soil degradation due to the...

What is more important in architectural works—their form, shape, and color, or the meanings and symbolism that can be associated with them? Can aesthetic judgments of architecture be independent of the stories one can tell about buildings? Do non-architects perceive buildings in the same way as do architects?For the greater part of the twentieth century it was common to respond to these and similar questions by relying on psychological theories asserting there is no innocent eye, t...

"[A] scholarly but accessible analysis . . . [explores] forces that led to 'The Great Dying'—and the rebound of life in its aftermath." — Gemma Tarlach, Discover magazineTwo hundred sixty million years ago, life on Earth suffered wave after wave of cataclysmic extinctions, with the worst wiping out nearly every species on the planet. The Worst of Times delves into the mystery behind these extin...

Unconventional Petroleum Geology is the first book of its kind to collectively identify, catalog, and assess the exploration and recovery potential of the Earth's unconventional hydrocarbons. Advances in hydrocarbon technology and petroleum development systems have recently made the exploration of unconventional hydrocarbons—such as shale gas, tight sandstone oil and gas, heavy oil, tar sand, and coalbed methane—the hottest trend in the petroleum industry. Detailed case studies act as real...

Peatlands form important landscape elements in many parts of the world and play significant roles for biodiversity and global carbon balance. This new edition has been fully revised and updated, documenting the latest advances in areas such as microbial processes and relations between biological processes and hydrology. As well as thoroughly referencing the latest research, the authors expose a rich older literature where an immense repository of natural history has accumulated. The Biolog...

This text is designed for students and anyone else with an interest in the history of life on our planet. The author describes the biological evolution of Earth’s organisms, and reconstructs their adaptations to the life they led, and the ecology and environment in which they functioned. On the grand scale, Earth is a constantly changing planet, continually presenting organisms with challenges. Changing geography, climate, atmosphere, oceanic and land environments set a stage in which orga...

This new edition of an established textbook provides a comprehensive and stimulating introduction to rivers, lakes and wetlands, and was written as the basis for a complete course on freshwater ecology. Designed for undergraduate and early postgraduate students who wish to gain an overall view of this vast subject area, this accessible guide to freshwater ecosystems and man's activities will also be invaluable to anyone interested in the integrated management of freshwaters. The author mai...

Humanity’s ever-increasing hunger for mineral raw materials, caused by a growing global population and ever increasing standards of living, has resulted in economic geology becoming a subject of urgent importance.This book provides a broad panorama of mineral deposits, covering their origin and geological characteristics, the principles of the search for ores and minerals, and the investigation of newly found deposits. Practical and environmental issues that arise during the life c...

The invasion of land by ocean-dwelling plants and animals was one of the most revolutionary events in the evolution of life on Earth, yet the animal invasion almost failed—twice—because of the twin mass extinctions of the Late Devonian Epoch. Some 359 to 375 million years ago, these catastrophic events dealt our ancestors a blow that almost drove them back into the sea. If those extinctions had been just a bit more severe, spiders and insects—instead of vertebrates—might have become the ec...

Captivating photographs of the world’s most detailed bird fossils illuminate the early diversity of avifauna.When fossils of birds from China’s Jehol region first appeared in scientific circles, the world took notice. These Mesozoic masterpieces are between 120 and 131 million years old and reveal incredible details that capture the diversity of ancient bird life. Paleontologists all over the world began to collaborate with Chinese colleagues as new and wondrous fo...

No other single volume reference to the Jehol site and its fossils exists and nowhere is there such a collection of fine photos of the fossils concerned. This book has pieced together the most up-to-date information on the Jehol Biota, a place that has shown the world some of the most astonishing fossil finds including the first complete skeleton of Archaeopteryx in 1861, four-winged dinosaurs- many feathered ones, the first beaked bird, the first plants with flowers and fruits, and thousa...