Benjamin Franklin and his contemporaries brought the Enlightenment to America-an intellectual revolution that laid the foundation for the political one that followed. With the “first Drudgery” of settling the American colonies now past, Franklin announced in 1743, it was time the colonists set about improving the lot of humankind through collaborative inquiry. From Franklin's idea emerged the American Philosophical Society, an association hosted in Philadelphia and dedicated to the harness...

Despite the West's growing involvement in Muslim societies, conflicts, and cultures, its inability to understand or analyze the Islamic world threatens any prospect for East–West rapprochement. Impelled by one thousand years of anti-Muslim ideas and images, the West has failed to engage in any meaningful or productive way with the world of Islam. Formulated in the medieval halls of the Roman Curia and courts of the European Crusaders and perfected in the newsrooms of Fox News and CNN, this...

While comedy writers are responsible for creating clever scripts, comedic animators have a much more complicated problem to solve: What makes a physical character funny? Comedy for Animators breaks down the answer by exploring the techniques of those who have used their bodies to make others laugh. Drawing from traditions such as commedia dell’arte, pantomime, Vaudeville, the circus, and silent and modern film, animators will learn not only to create funny charact...

Shortlisted for the Polari First Book Award 2018‘So you liked Irvine Welsh? Read Carnivore’ CosmopolitanMeet Leander: lover, fighter, liar.He learnt a long time ago that nothing is as intoxicating as blood. But whether it’s his or someone else’s doesn’t matter any more. There’s a mysterious pain in every muscle of his body – and it’s got so bad that he’ll do anything to escape it.Up to now, it’s been his se...

Bloomsbury presents The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization by Jonathan Lyons, read by Nezar Alerazi.For centuries following the fall of Rome, Western Europe was a benighted backwater, a world of subsistence farming, minimal literacy, and violent conflict. Meanwhile Arab culture was thriving, dazzling those Europeans fortunate enough to visit cities like Baghdad or Antioch. There, philosophers, mathematicians, and astronomers were steadily advan...

This book presents biographies of six bishops from the medieval German empire, translated into English for the first time. The bishop was a ubiquitous figure across medieval Europe, providing leadership to the community of Christians within dioceses and linking day-to-day life to centres of political power and ecclesiastical authority. They were particularly prominent in the kingdom of Germany, where the most powerful churchmen led armies and advised kings. The texts collected here, origin...

Shortlisted for the Polari First Book Award 2018‘So you liked Irvine Welsh? Read Carnivore’ CosmopolitanMeet Leander: lover, fighter, liar.Now including an exclusive interview with the author and Jon Appleton at the end of the audiobook.He learnt a long time ago that nothing is as intoxicating as blood. But whether it’s his or someone else’s doesn’t matter any more. There’s a mysterious pain in every muscle...

When Maxwell, the interstellar ambassador of goodwill, first lands on the planet Magellum, he finds two species: Red Elks and Blue Bills. The Red Elks have bullied the Blue Bills for hundreds of years, and Maxwell decides to step in and help them discover ways to work and play together.He decides to teach them about a sporting event from his home world, Pangeria: the Magic Sphere Games. As the two groups practice the sport, they discover they can have fun together. And for the bigge...

**"Bracing, brilliant, and fury-inducing.... a survival story like no other. With positively outstanding storytelling, this is a book that cannot be put down." —Booklist, starred reviewAN OPEN FIELD PUBLICATION FROM MARIA SHRIVEROne of Booklist’s Best Memoirs of 2024One of Booklist Editors' Choice Adult Books for Young Adults, 2024**Banning Lyon was an average 15-year-old, living in Dallas, TX. He enjoyed skateboarding, listening to...

What was an “advocate” (Latin: advocatus; German: Vogt) in the Middle Ages? What responsibilities came with the position and how did they change over time? With this groundbreaking study, Jonathan R. Lyon challenges the standard narrative of a “medieval” Europe of feudalism and lordship being replaced by a “modern” Europe of government, bureaucracy and the state. By focusing on the position of advocate, he argues for continuity in corrupt practices of justice and protection between 750 and...

In Princely Brothers and Sisters, Jonathan R. Lyon takes a fresh look at sibling networks and the role they played in shaping the practice of politics in the Middle Ages. Focusing on nine of the most prominent aristocratic families in the German kingdom during the Staufen period (1138–1250), Lyon finds that noblemen—and to a lesser extent, noblewomen—relied on the cooperation and support of their siblings as they sought to maintain or expand their power and influence withi...

Rivals clash, friendships are tested, and sinister secrets are unsealed as Lockwood & Co. investigate a Victorian occultist in this second spine-chilling, ghost-filled adventure by internationally bestselling author Jonathan Stroud.In the six months since Anthony, Lucy, and George survived a night in the most haunted house in England, Lockwood & Co. hasn't made much progress. Quill Kipps and his team of Fittes agents keep swooping in on Lockwood's investigations. F...