Since his canonization in 1970, St. Herman has been remembered for his just treatment of native peoples and his respect of the environment. Explaining how it came to be that this simple Russian Orthodox monk eventually settled in Kodiak, Alaska, this account brings to light many primary sources that illuminate the story of St. Herman and the wider context of the little-known history of Russian colonization in the Pacific Northwest. Providing a considerable amount of new information about h...

This is a book for anyone that has ever wanted to start a business (or just likes a great story). In it you will discover the five most important things to consider before starting a business, the systems you will need in place, and the reason why you want to start your business.

The possibility that Polynesian seafarers made landfall and interacted with the native people of the New World before Columbus has been the topic of academic discussion for well over a century, although American archaeologists have considered the idea verboten since the 1970s. Fresh discoveries made with the aid of new technologies along with re-evaluation of longstanding but often-ignored evidence provide a stronger case than ever before for multiple prehistoric Polynesian landfalls. This...

“Compulsively readable—a masterpiece, maybe the masterpiece of science journalism.” —Bill McKibben, AudubonA brilliant, stirring work, breathtaking in its scope and far-reaching in its message, The Song of the Dodo is a crucial book in precarious times. Through personal observation, scientific theory, and history, David Quammen examines the mysteries of evolution and extinction and radically alters our understanding of the natural world a...

T****he monumental statues of Easter Island, both so magisterial and so forlorn, gazing out in their imposing rows over the island’s barren landscape, have been the source of great mystery ever since the island was first discovered by Europeans on Easter Sunday 1722. How could the ancient people who inhabited this tiny speck of land, the most remote in the vast expanse of the Pacific islands, have built such monumental works? No such astonishing numbers of massive statues ...

Charles Darwin called it "a little world within itself." Sailors referred to it as "Las Encantadas"- the enchanted islands. Lying in the eastern Pacific Ocean, straddling the equator off the west coast of South America, the Galágos is the most pristine archipelago to be found anywhere in the tropics. It is so remote, so untouched, that the act of wading ashore can make you feel like you are the first to do so.Yet the Galágos is far more than a wild paradise on earth-it is one of ...

The first publication to outline the complex global story of human migration and dispersal throughout the whole of human prehistory. Utilizing archaeological, linguistic and biological evidence, Peter Bellwood traces the journeys of the earliest hunter-gatherer and agriculturalist migrants as critical elements in the evolution of human lifeways.The first volume to chart global human migration and population dispersal throughout the whole of human prehistory, in all regions of...

The jaguar is one of the most mysterious and least-known big cats of the world. The largest cat in the Americas, it has survived an onslaught of environmental and human threats partly because of an evolutionary history unique among wild felines, but also because of a power and indomitable spirit so strong, the jaguar has shaped indigenous cultures and the beliefs of early civilizations on two continents.In An Indomitable Beast: The Remarkable Journey of the Jaguar, big-cat...

Archaeologists have long encountered evidence of natural disasters through excavation and stratigraphy. In Surviving Sudden Environmental Change, case studies examine how eight different past human communities-ranging from Arctic to equatorial regi

Glorious photographs and accurate answers to every question about parrots make this a must-have for any bird lover.Have you ever wondered what parrots eat in the wild? Or why so many species live in the Amazon? How intelligent are parrots? What is the world’s rarest parrot? Parrots: The Animal Answer Guide provides detailed, factual answers to the ninety questions most on our minds.There are more than 350 species of these colorful callers, ranging ...

Penguins have become a standard fixture in both zoos and imaginations for centuries. But beyond the classic tuxedo markings of the Emperor penguin and what we see in childrens cartoons, how much do we really know about these fascinating creatures? How aware are we of the perpetual danger in which these animals find themselves after so many years of environmental abuse on the part of humans? David Salomon has traveled the world photographing and studying the various species and subspecies ...

Thousands of years ago migrants from South China began the journey that took their descendants through the Pacific to the southernmost islands of Polynesia. Atholl Anderson’s ground-breaking synthesis of research and tradition charts this epic journey of New Zealand’s first human inhabitants.Taken from the multi-award-winning Tangata Whenua: An Illustrated History this Text weaves together evidence from numerous sources: oral traditions, archaeology, genetics, linguistics, ethnography, his...