Both a history and an examination of human thought and behavior spanning three thousand years tracing the origins of political philosophy from the ancient Greeks to Machiavelli in Book I and from Hobbes to the present age in Book II. Whether examining Lord Acton's dictum that "absolute power corrupts absolutely" or explicating John Stuart Mill's contention that it is "better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied," Alan Ryan evokes the lives...

Ten Women Who Changed Science tells the moving stories of the physicists, biologists, chemists, astronomers and doctors who helped to shape our world with their extraordinary breakthroughs and inventions, and outlines their remarkable achievements.These scientists overcame significant obstacles, often simply because they were women their science and their lives were driven by personal tragedies and shaped by seismic world events. What drove these...

"Imagine it is the seventh century. As most of Europe continues its descent into a long period of intellectually dormancy, a quiet yet powerful academic revolution is erupting in another corner of the world. Over the next centuries, the geniuses of Muslim society will thrust the boundaries of knowledge forward to such a degree that their innovations still shape civilizations to this day. The staggering achievements of these men and women influenced...

"The second title in DK's new illustrated biography series, Scientists Who Changed History profiles trailblazing individuals from Greek mathematicians, such as Archimedes and Hipparchus, through physicists of the early 20th-century, such as Marie Curie and Albert Einstein, to modern greats such as Stephen Hawking and Tim Berners-Lee. Each featured individual has made a major contribution to one or more scientific fields, from astronomy, biology,...