A Vatican-censured former priest, tells the history of the papacy from the point of view of the women, radicals, and marginalized who have been betrayed by conservative historians. This survey of key popes documents the evolution of the papacy from its beginning to all its monarchical trappings in our own day.

A photographic tour of some of the most magnificent artistic creations from ancient Iraq - the palace sculptures of Assyria. A superb introduction to the spectacular reliefs from Assyrian palaces in the British Museum.

The story takes a lighthearted look at how life might be for children in the future. Subsequent stories will explore ways in which people in different places and in different conditions cope with the problem of bringing the atmosphere back into balance.

Every piece of exercise equipment serves a purpose, but none more so than the dumbbell, commonly referred to as 'free weights' or 'hand weights'. This title offers readers a revolutionary new way to get the most out of any exercise plan using the tried-and-tested 3-stage dumbbell training system.

- Mountains and Lowlands is an engaging exploration of the history of ancient Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and Iran from 6000 BC-AD 650Ancient Mesopotamia and Iran are usually treated separately or as part of a much broader 'Ancient Near East'. However, the developments that lie at the root of our own world - farming, cities, writing, organized religion, warfare - were forged in the tensions and relations between the inhabitants of lowland Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq) and the highlands of Iran. Mountains and Lowlands explores this relationship providing a detailed but accessible account covering...

The concept of stylus phantasticus (or fantastic style ) as it was expressed in free keyboard music of the north German Baroque forms the focus of this book. Exploring both the theoretical background to the style and its application by composers and performers, Paul Collins surveys the development of Athanasius Kircher s original concept and its influence on music theorists such as Brossard, Janovka, Mattheson, and Walther. Turning specifically to fantasist composers of keyboard works, the book examines the keyboard toccatas of Merulo, Fresobaldi, Rossi and Froberger and their influence on...

Sumer was an ancient world that today forms the southern part of Iraq. It is a vast, flat land of floodplains formed by the Rivers Tigris and Euphrates. It was here that some of the world's first cities arose and writing was invented. Archaeologists have explored the remains of some of Sumer's ancient settlements. They have made remarkable discoveries at places such as Uruk, Ur, Eridu, Nippur, Kish and Lagash. These show that the people of Sumer were great artists, builders, inventors, warriors and traders. By 3500 BC the population of some Sumerian towns had grown cities. The largest was...

The current world population is 7.9 billion people. Our demands are already making a massive impact on the earth. Global warming, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, these are all symptoms of a bigger problem, human numbers and excessive consumption. Given our impact on earth now we have to reduce our numbers rapidly. We don't have time to wait until 2100 for numbers to decrease gradually. After looking at all of the issues surrounding the population debate, The Depopulation Imperative argues that to achieve any reduction we need a profound moral change from an emphasis on the priority of...