Book picks similar to
Washington, D.C. by Alice Leccese Powers
travel
non-fiction
reference
travel-guides
Gangland: How the FBI Broke the Mob
Howard Blum - 1993
Reveals the inside story of how a special team of FBI agents used high-tech bugs and informants to crack the case against John Gotti.
Signs and Symbols
Miranda Bruce-Mitford - 1996
A rich source of information for readers of all ages, this book is divided into two sections, first looking at major sources of symbols (basic shapes, colors and numbers, the natural world), then, placing symbols in context of mythologies and religions, the human life cycle, people and culture, and symbol systems. Clear cross-referencing illuminates connections between symbols, while beautiful artwork and photography make this a collector's edition to treasure.
Sweden
Ulf Johansson - 2005
With beautifully commissioned photographs and spectacular 3-D aerial views revealing the charm of each destination, these amazing travel guides show what others only tell.
National Geographic Traveler: Japan
Nicholas Bornoff - 2000
Isolated from the world until 150 years ago, Japan today comfortably blends old, new, East, West, tradition, and change. Bornoff describes the best ways to tackle Tokyo and such other must-see sites as Mount Fuji, Hokkaido and its national parks, imperial Kyoto, historical Nagasaki, and dozens of other major and lesser-known places. In-depth features discuss the fascinating contrasts between Japan's modern, cutting-edge technological facade and its ancient core, and highlight traditions such as Kodo drumming, the exquisite beauty of garden design, and the spirits and demons that animate Noh and kabuki theater. Numerous city walking tours, a hike through feudal Hagi, and a stunning array of photos and artwork compliment this exciting, insider's guide.
A Field Guide to American Houses
Virginia McAlester - 1984
17th century to the present. Book was reprinted in 2006
The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga
Doris Kearns Goodwin - 1987
Drawing on unprecedented access to the family and its private papers, Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling historian Doris Kearns Goodwin takes readers from John Francis "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald's baptism in 1863 through his reign as mayor of Boston, to the inauguration of his grandson as president ninety-eight years later. Each character emerges unforgettably: the young, shrewdly political Rose Fitzgerald; her powerful, manipulative husband, Joseph P. Kennedy; and the "Golden Trio" of Kennedy children -- Joe Jr., Kathleen, and Jack -- whose promise was eclipsed by the family's legacy of tragedy. Through the prism of two self-made families, Goodwin reveals the ambitions and the hopes that form the fabric of the American nation.
Science: The Definitive Visual Guide
Adam Hart-Davis - 2009
This remarkable reference book reveals the story of scientific progress from the invention of the wheel to 21st-century climate solutions, including everything from ancient Greek geometry and quantum physics to the worldwide web. Explore every key moment of scientific discovery and find out how the concepts, inventions and the individuals behind them have changed our world. With stunning artworks and authoritative information this makes even complex scientific subjects easily comprehensible.
Lonely Planet London
Peter Dragicevich - 1998
Check out cutting-edge art at the Tate Modern, wander the historic Royal Parks and explore riverside pubs and the bars of Shoreditch; all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of London and begin your journey now! Inside Lonely Planet London Travel Guide: Full-colour maps and images throughout Highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sight-seeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Cultural insights give you a richer, more rewarding travel experience - covering history, literary London, music, theatre, architecture, art, fashion and film Free, convenient pull-out London map (included in print version), plus over 50 colour maps Covers the West End, the City, the South Bank, Kensington & Hyde Park, the East End and more eBook Features: (Best viewed on tablet devices and smartphones) Downloadable PDF and offline maps prevent roaming and data charges Effortlessly navigate and jump between maps and reviews Add notes to personalise your guidebook experience Seamlessly flip between pages Bookmarks and speedy search capabilities get you to key pages in a flash Embedded links to recommendations' websites Zoom-in maps and images Inbuilt dictionary for quick referencing The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet London, our most comprehensive guide to London, is perfect for both exploring top sights and taking roads less travelled. Looking for just the highlights of London? Check out Lonely Planet Discover London, a photo-rich guide to the city's most popular attractions, or Lonely Planet Pocket London, a handy-sized guide focused on the can't-miss sights for a quick trip. Looking for more extensive coverage? Check out our Lonely Planet England guide for a comprehensive look at all the country has to offer. Authors: Written and researched by Lonely Planet. About Lonely Planet: Since 1973, Lonely Planet has become the world's leading travel media company with guidebooks to every destination, an award-winning website, mobile and digital travel products, and a dedicated traveller community. Lonely Planet covers must-see spots but also enables curious travellers to get off beaten paths to understand more of the culture of the places in which they find themselves.
A History of the American People
Paul Johnson - 1997
"No other national story holds such tremendous lessons, for the American people themselves and for the rest of mankind."In his prize-winning classic, Johnson presents an in-depth portrait of American history from the first colonial settlements to the Clinton administration. This is the story of the men and women who shaped and led the nation and the ordinary people who collectively created its unique character. Littered with letters, diaries, and recorded conversations, it details the origins of their struggles for independence and nationhood, their heroic efforts and sacrifices to deal with the 'organic sin’ of slavery and the preservation of the Union to its explosive economic growth and emergence as a world power. Johnson discusses contemporary topics such as the politics of racism, education, the power of the press, political correctness, the growth of litigation, and the influence of women throughout history. He sees Americans as a problem-solving people and the story of their country as "essentially one of difficulties being overcome by intelligence and skill, by faith and strength of purpose, by courage and persistence... Looking back on its past, and forward to its future, the auguries are that it will not disappoint humanity."Sometimes controversial and always provocative, A HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE is one author’s challenging and unique interpretation of American history. Johnson’s views of individuals, events, themes, and issues are original, critical, and in the end admiring, for he is, above all, a strong believer in the history and the destiny of the American people.
World Heritage Sites: A Complete Guide to 890 UNESCO World Heritage Sites
UNESCO - 2009
In response, UNESCO launched an international safeguarding campaign, which ultimately led to the list of World Heritage sites. In clear text that highlights all the fascinating facts, World Heritage Sites details all 878 properties, including the 20 American and 15 Canadian sites. Covering 141 countries, the World Heritage List has proved to be a valuable tool in the battle to preserve much of the world's cultural and natural heritage. Its strict criteria result in only the world's most spectacular and extraordinary sites making it onto the list, including: The Acropolis in Athens, The Statue of Liberty in New York, The Rideau Canal in eastern Ontario, Waterton Glacier International Peace Park, the world's first international peace park, which straddles the US-Canada border, The ancient Nabataean city of Petra in Jordan, The remarkable Dazu Rock Carvings in China, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Missouri, the largest pre- Columbian settlement north of Mexico, The unique ecosystem of the Serengeti in Tanzania, And 870 more. Featuring gorgeous photographs and a location map for every site, World Heritage Sites is uniquely comprehensive. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was founded in 1945 with the ambitious goal to build peace in the minds of men and women through education, social and natural science, culture and communication.
The Travel Book: A Journey Through Every Country in the World
Roz Hopkins - 2004
Inspirational, inviting, and beautiful, it combines stunning images with entertaining and informative text that captures the essence of being there.
New York
Edward Rutherfurd - 2009
From this intimate perspective we see New York’s humble beginnings as a tiny Indian fishing village, the arrival of Dutch and British merchants, the Revolutionary War, the emergence of the city as a great trading and financial center, the convulsions of the Civil War, the excesses of the Gilded Age, the explosion of immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the trials of World War II, the near demise of New York in the 1970s and its roaring rebirth in the 1990s, and the attack on the World Trade Center. A stirring mix of battle, romance, family struggles, and personal triumphs, New York: The Novel gloriously captures the search for freedom and opportunity at the heart of our nation’s history.
Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America (America: A Cultural History, Vol. I)
David Hackett Fischer - 1989
It is a history of American folkways as they have changed through time, and it argues a thesis about the importance for the United States of having been British in its cultural origins.From 1629 to 1775, North America was settled by four great waves of English-speaking immigrants. The first was an exodus of Puritans from the east of England to Massachusetts (1629-1640). The second was the movement of a Royalist elite and indentured servants from the south of England to Virginia (ca. 1649-75). The third was the "Friends' migration,"--the Quakers--from the North Midlands and Wales to the Delaware Valley (ca. 1675-1725). The fourth was a great flight from the borderlands of North Britain and northern Ireland to the American backcountry (ca. 1717-75).These four groups differed in many ways--in religion, rank, generation and place of origin. They brought to America different folkways which became the basis of regional cultures in the United States. They spoke distinctive English dialects and built their houses in diverse ways. They had different ideas of family, marriage and gender; different practices of child-naming and child-raising; different attitudes toward sex, age and death; different rituals of worship and magic; different forms of work and play; different customs of food and dress; different traditions of education and literacy; different modes of settlement and association. They also had profoundly different ideas of comity, order, power and freedom which derived from British folk-traditions. Albion's Seed describes those differences in detail, and discusses the continuing importance of their transference to America.Today most people in the United States (more than 80 percent) have no British ancestors at all. These many other groups, even while preserving their own ethnic cultures, have also assimilated regional folkways which were transplanted from Britain to America. In that sense, nearly all Americans today are "Albion's Seed," no matter what their ethnic origins may be; but they are so in their different regional ways. The concluding section of Albion's Seed explores the ways that regional cultures have continued to dominate national politics from 1789 to 1988, and still control attitudes toward education, government, gender, and violence, on which differences between American regions are greater than between European nations.Albion's Seed also argues that the four British folkways created an expansive cultural pluralism that has proved to the more libertarian than any single culture alone could be. Together they became the determinants of a voluntary society in the United States.
The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time
Hunter S. Thompson - 1979
Thompson’s bestselling Gonzo Papers offers brilliant commentary and outrageous humor, in his signature style.Originally published in 1979, the first volume of the bestselling “Gonzo Papers” is now back in print. The Great Shark Hunt is Dr. Hunter S. Thompson’s largest and, arguably, most important work, covering Nixon to napalm, Las Vegas to Watergate, Carter to cocaine. These essays offer brilliant commentary and outrageous humor, in signature Thompson style.Ranging in date from the National Observer days to the era of Rolling Stone, The Great Shark Hunt offers myriad, highly charged entries, including the first Hunter S. Thompson piece to be dubbed “gonzo”—“The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved,” which appeared in Scanlan's Monthly in 1970. From this essay a new journalistic movement sprang which would change the shape of American letters. Thompson's razor-sharp insight and crystal clarity capture the crazy, hypocritical, degenerate, and redeeming aspects of the explosive and colorful ‘60s and ‘70s.
Humans of New York: Stories
Brandon Stanton - 2015
The photos he took and the accompanying interviews became the blog Humans of New York. In the first three years, his audience steadily grew from a few hundred to over one million. In 2013, his book Humans of New York, based on that blog, was published and immediately catapulted to the top of the NY Times Bestseller List. It has appeared on that list for over twenty-five weeks to date. The appeal of HONY has been so great that in the course of the next year Brandon's following increased tenfold to, now, over 12 million followers on Facebook. In the summer of 2014, the UN chose him to travel around the world on a goodwill mission that had followers meeting people from Iraq to Ukraine to Mexico City via the photos he took.Now, Brandon is back with the follow up to Humans of New York that his loyal followers have been waiting for: Humans of New York: Stories. Ever since Brandon began interviewing people on the streets of NY, the dialogue he's had with them has increasingly become as in-depth, intriguing, and moving as the photos themselves. Humans of New York: Stories presents a whole new group of humans, complete with stories that delve deeper and surprise with greater candour.