China is much in the news these days, but it remains oddly opaque to most foreigners, at least partly by design. This book, the longest and most ambitious yet in the Wonders of the World series, is an attempt to remedy that. Taking as its central metaphor the legendary Great Wall of China, it explores the country's almost incomprehensibly long history, from Peking Man to COVID-19, in the exciting, thought-provoking, readable fashion for which this series has become known. The Chinese of th...

For hundreds of years, a woman dictated the fates of men, cities, and empires from the Greek town known as Delphi. This oracle of Delphi listened quietly to the suppliants who came to her from all over the ancient world with their queries, then retired to her inner sanctum to commune with the god Apollo, whose sacred vapors filled that space. And then she emerged again to shape the course of history with her answers. In these pages, you'll come to know the extraordinary place that the Gree...

Who needs sleep anyway? The men (and woman) who established a genre of television—comedy after dark—are revealed in probing, wide-ranging and provocative interviews that first appeared in Playboy magazine. From pioneers Dick Cavett and Tom Snyder to the original meta-hosts David Letterman and Garry Shandling to contemporary keepers of the late-night flame Jon Stewart and Jimmy Kimmel, these hilarious, ever-charming talkers reflect the very best of 50 years of the Playboy Interview. Late-Nigh...

Exploring the often-overlooked history and technological innovations of the world's first true multimedia computer.Long ago, in 1985, personal computers came in two general categories: the friendly, childish game machine used for fun (exemplified by Atari and Commodore products); and the boring, beige adult box used for business (exemplified by products from IBM). The game machines became fascinating technical and artistic platforms that were of limited real-world ...

This is a book about the Sistine Chapel, but also a book about so much more. Although it includes the story of how the great artist Michelangelo came to paint the chapel's ceiling and altar wall, that is only a part of its agenda. And although there are pictures here, this is not a coffee-table book either. This book is rather predicated on the principle that all human-made wonders, no matter how majestic and other-worldly they may appear, spring from a specific place, time, and state of m...

Whether you go to work every day in a laboratory or go to church every day to pray -- or do both -- you are in some sense an heir to the legacy of ancient Alexandria. Alexander the Great founded his namesake city in Egypt in 331 BC, intending for it to be the crown jewel of his burgeoning empire. Alas, only his mummified corpse returned to Alexandria after that date, but it nevertheless fulfilled all of his ambitions for it. For many centuries, it was rivaled only by Rome as an internation...

The Pyramids of Giza have been fascinating humanity for more than 4500 years. Who built them? How? And why? And why have so many people been prompted to believe so many weird things about them? Join in one of the greatest intellectual adventures in history alongside the people who rediscovered the pyramids in the Middle Ages, then plumbed their depths and learned at least some of their secrets over the centuries that followed. You'll meet adventurers and scholars, scientists and charlatans...

On September 20, 1519, five proud ships crewed by 239 sailors set off to sea from the little Spanish town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda. On September 6, 1522, a single ship returned, battered and scarcely seaworthy, crewed by just eighteen exhausted, emaciated men. Between these two events there occurred the most epic voyage of exploration in human history, an adventure which changed our view of ourselves and our world forever. Climb aboard to relive this trip that spanned from the Tropics to t...

The Colossus of Rhodes toppled to the ground more than 2300 years ago, after standing upright and intact for just 56 years. And yet it has been inspiring our idle summer dreams ever since. This book, a shorter entry in the Wonders of the World series, separates the mythical from the likely historical reality of this monumental statue of the sun god Helios which once watched over the main harbor on the island of Rhodes. First, it situates the construction and the short lifetime of the intac...

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are the most alluring of all the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. They are also the most mysterious of them all, in every sense of the word. The questions of when they were built, who built them, where they stood, what form they took, and even whether they ever really existed at all have been vexing historians and archaeologists for centuries. This book, a shorter installment in the Wonders of the World series, peels back the layers of myth and fact that s...

Laugh along with the men (and woman) who used comedy to reveal the human condition in probing, wide-ranging and provocative interviews that first appeared in Playboy magazine. From the seven-dirty words of George Carlin to the nothingness of Jerry Seinfeld to the political satire of Stephen Colbert, these comic geniuses reflect the very best of 50 years of the Playboy Interview. Funny People is part of the 50 Years of the Playboy Interview e-book series, for which the magazine's editors have...

The heartbreakers, lovemakers and dreamers always at the top of the music charts are revealed in probing, wide-ranging and provocative interviews that first appeared in Playboy magazine. From the forefathers of modern music Frank Sinatra, the Beatles and Bob Dylan to larger-than-life rock gods Elton John, David Bowie and Frank Zappa to the kings of hip-hop Jay-Z and Kanye West, the musicians who never missed a beat and have turned sound into magic reflect the very best of the 50 years of the ...