Charles River

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the expedition *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading "It is both the duty and the tradition of the Royal Navy to engage the enemy wherever there is water to float a ship." - Admiral Sir Henry Jackson World War I, also known in its time as the "Great War" or the "War to End all Wars", was an unprecedented holocaust in terms of its sheer scale. Fought by men who hailed from all corners of the globe, it saw millions of soldiers do battle in brutal assaults of attrition which dragged on for months with little to no respite. Tens of millions of artillery shells and untold hundreds of millions of rifle and machine gun bullets were fired in a conflict that demonstrated man's capacity to kill each other on a heretofore unprecedented scale, and as always, such a war brought about technological innovation at a rate that made the boom of the Industrial Revolution seem stagnant. World War I was the first truly industrial war, and it created a paradigm which reached its zenith with World War II and towards which virtually all equipment, innovation and training were dedicated throughout the Cold War and the remainder of the 20th century. To this day, modern warfare remains synonymous with tanks and mass infantry battles, although a confrontation of this nature has not occurred (except briefly during Operation Desert Storm) since World War II. The enduring image of World War I is of men stuck in muddy trenches, and of vast armies deadlocked in a fight neither could win. It was a war of barbed wire, poison gas, and horrific losses as officers led their troops on mass charges across No Man's Land and into a hail of bullets. While these impressions are all too true, they hide the fact that trench warfare was dynamic and constantly evolving throughout the war as all armies struggled to find a way to break through the opposing lines. This was the experience of most frontline soldiers during that great conflict, but it was not the only experience. In reality, World War I was fought in far more places, some thousands of miles away from France, including in Africa. The modern history of Africa was, until very recently, written on behalf of the indigenous races by white men, who had forcefully entered the continent during a particularly hubristic and dynamic phase of European history. In 1884, Prince Otto von Bismark, the German chancellor, brought the plenipotentiaries of all major powers of Europe together to deal with Africa's colonization in such a manner as to avoid provocation of war. This event - known as the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 - galvanized a phenomenon that came to be known as the Scramble for Africa. The conference established two fundamental rules for European seizure of Africa. The first of these was that no recognition of annexation would granted without evidence of a practical occupation, and the second, that a practical occupation would be deemed unlawful without a formal appeal for protection made on behalf of a territory by its leader, a plea that must be committed to paper in the form of a legal treaty. This began a rush, spearheaded mainly by European commercial interests in the form of Chartered Companies, to penetrate the African interior and woo its leadership with guns, trinkets and alcohol, and having thus obtained their marks or seals upon spurious treaties, begin establishing boundaries of future European African colonies. The ease with which this was achieved was due to the fact that, at that point, traditional African leadership was disunited, and the people had just staggered back from centuries of concussion inflicted by the slave trade. Thus, to usurp authority, to intimidate an already broken society, and to play one leader against the other was a diplomatic task so childishly simple, the matter was wrapped up, for the most part, in less than a decade.

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the tower's construction *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading It may be human nature to strive for perfection, but flaws and imperfections can bring character and create unique, unrivaled beauty in a league of its own. Old scars, burns, pockmarks, and other so-called blemishes of the like serve as reminders of disasters and adversities one has survived, no matter how grave or trivial. The uncooked macaroni shells glued to the card might be slightly askew and the glitter dispersed unevenly, but one tends not to even notice these mistakes, as they have already been won over by the endearing effort the child has put into the project. Curiously enough, as much as humans steer away from imperfection, they can be inexplicably drawn to it. In 2012, the otherwise obscure Spanish town of Borja was thrust into the global spotlight, and had gone viral overnight. A well-meaning 83-year-old widow by the name of Cecilia Gim nez, armed with a paintbrush and a small array of poster colors, trotted up to the 82-year-old fresco in her local church named the Ecce Homo, and gave it the eye-watering restoration no one had asked for. What began as a beautiful, but somewhat faded and spotty depiction of Christ crowned with thorns and dressed in blood-red robes had become an overly-simplistic, ape-like character with misaligned eyes, a pair of dots for noses, and an unfinished gaping mouth. The Good Samaritan's masterpiece was ruthlessly ridiculed and circulated around dozens of social media and news platforms, but the embarrassment would soon prove to be sweeter than it was bitter. Thanks to the accidental publicity, over 150,000 tourists flocked to the village for a picture with the fascinating fiasco, more visitors than the "sleepy town" had seen in over a century. Perhaps the most renowned of all the perfect imperfections history has ever known is also one of the largest of its kind. Visitors can often be spotted strewn across the lush bed of grass in front of their cameras with scrunched up faces and their hands in the air as if holding up the tower, and striking other versions of the clich d pose. This architectural conundrum-turned-iconic landmark, of course, is none other than the legendary Leaning Tower of Pisa. Unlike the Ecce Homo, visitors from near and far have been marveling at the tower for centuries, its chin-scratching admirers speculating about just how all 8 stories of the structure seem to defy gravity. The Leaning Tower of Pisa: The History and Legacy of Italy's Most Unique Building examines the origins of the fabled Meadow of Miracles and the birth of the lopsided bell tower, its 3 phases of construction, and the multiple restoration attempts to rectify its trademark tilt. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Leaning Tower of Pisa like never before.

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the construction and history of the palaces *Includes a bibliography for further reading In every nation, in every era of history, there are inevitably one or two places that become the symbol of the times. Mention Valley Forge to an American and it will immediately conjure up visions of a hard won fight for freedom. Likewise, the word Dunkirk said to a Briton will elicit a sense of both pride and horror at the lives lost and saved at that desperate point in World War II. For the French, and those who study their history, Versailles is a symbol of, as Charles Dickens once put it, "the best of times...the worst of times." It was here that the Sun King, Louis XIV, built a palace worthy of a great nation during a time when peace was, at best, short-lived. It was at Versailles that Russian Tsar Peter the Great to study the palace's architecture and gardens so that he could recreate them in his home country. Indeed, the greatest minds and artistic geniuses of the later stages of the Renaissance came to Versailles to build and paint, and it was here that Madame de Pompedour and her successor, Madame du Barry, used their wit and beauty to charm a king into doing their bidding. France, like all European countries, has had its fair share of palaces over time, but none suffered the rise and fall of fortune like the Tuileries. Built by a widow with a flair for architecture, it grew for more than a decade, along with the royal family that it housed. Then, during the French Revolution, it fell from grace with that family and even became a sight of execution, its famous gardens providing the background for the infamous guillotine. Though the French Revolution came to a close at the end of the 19th century, the revolutionary spirit remained alive in France, and with it the desire to overthrow whatever government happened to be in power. With the ruler living at the Tuileries, it became the symbol of the government, so in 1830 and again in 1848, crowds attacked and pillaged the palace. While it survived these two attacks, it was not so lucky in 1871, when a mob finally burned it to the ground. The Louvre: The very name conjures up scenes of art and elegance, and of long halls filled with beauty and people strolling through them whispering quietly among themselves about the glories they are witnessing. Even those who have never been to the Louvre know some of its most prized possessions, from ancient statues to Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa". As the world's largest museum, the Louvre is unquestionably the cultural highpoint of Paris, a city that has long been considered the cultural center of Europe. However, life is rarely as simple as one imagines, and the life of the Louvre is no different. While just about everyone is familiar with its history as an art museum, the Louvre's history goes back over 800 years, and it used to have far different purposes, both as a medieval fortress and a palatial residence for French kings. The Louvre bore witness to mass murder during the French Revolution, and there have been countless accusations of theft and other questionable actions since its opening. Furthermore, the museum is also a classic example of beating one's swords into ploughshares, for it has been largely stocked through the conquests of war. Its first collection was put on display by a king who wanted to share his personal art collection with his subjects. Following the French Revolution, the Louvre became a place of ascetic refuge, where those burdened by daily life could go, often at no cost, and visit some of the most beautiful pieces of art in the world. France's Most Famous Palaces: The History and Legacy of Versailles, the Louvre, and the Tuileries chronicles the remarkable history of some of the world's most famous palaces. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about France's most famous palaces like never

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the construction and history of the palaces *Includes a bibliography for further reading In every nation, in every era of history, there are inevitably one or two places that become the symbol of the times. Mention Valley Forge to an American and it will immediately conjure up visions of a hard won fight for freedom. Likewise, the word Dunkirk said to a Briton will elicit a sense of both pride and horror at the lives lost and saved at that desperate point in World War II. For the French, and those who study their history, Versailles is a symbol of, as Charles Dickens once put it, "the best of times...the worst of times." It was here that the Sun King, Louis XIV, built a palace worthy of a great nation during a time when peace was, at best, short-lived. It was at Versailles that Russian Tsar Peter the Great to study the palace's architecture and gardens so that he could recreate them in his home country. Indeed, the greatest minds and artistic geniuses of the later stages of the Renaissance came to Versailles to build and paint, and it was here that Madame de Pompedour and her successor, Madame du Barry, used their wit and beauty to charm a king into doing their bidding. France, like all European countries, has had its fair share of palaces over time, but none suffered the rise and fall of fortune like the Tuileries. Built by a widow with a flair for architecture, it grew for more than a decade, along with the royal family that it housed. Then, during the French Revolution, it fell from grace with that family and even became a sight of execution, its famous gardens providing the background for the infamous guillotine. Though the French Revolution came to a close at the end of the 19th century, the revolutionary spirit remained alive in France, and with it the desire to overthrow whatever government happened to be in power. With the ruler living at the Tuileries, it became the symbol of the government, so in 1830 and again in 1848, crowds attacked and pillaged the palace. While it survived these two attacks, it was not so lucky in 1871, when a mob finally burned it to the ground. The Louvre: The very name conjures up scenes of art and elegance, and of long halls filled with beauty and people strolling through them whispering quietly among themselves about the glories they are witnessing. Even those who have never been to the Louvre know some of its most prized possessions, from ancient statues to Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa". As the world's largest museum, the Louvre is unquestionably the cultural highpoint of Paris, a city that has long been considered the cultural center of Europe. However, life is rarely as simple as one imagines, and the life of the Louvre is no different. While just about everyone is familiar with its history as an art museum, the Louvre's history goes back over 800 years, and it used to have far different purposes, both as a medieval fortress and a palatial residence for French kings. The Louvre bore witness to mass murder during the French Revolution, and there have been countless accusations of theft and other questionable actions since its opening. Furthermore, the museum is also a classic example of beating one's swords into ploughshares, for it has been largely stocked through the conquests of war. Its first collection was put on display by a king who wanted to share his personal art collection with his subjects. Following the French Revolution, the Louvre became a place of ascetic refuge, where those burdened by daily life could go, often at no cost, and visit some of the most beautiful pieces of art in the world. France's Most Famous Palaces: The History and Legacy of Versailles, the Louvre, and the Tuileries chronicles the remarkable history of some of the world's most famous palaces. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about France's most famous palaces like never

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the campaign *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading "The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood." - German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck World War I, also known in its time as the "Great War" or the "War to End all Wars", was an unprecedented holocaust in terms of its sheer scale. Fought by men who hailed from all corners of the globe, it saw millions of soldiers do battle in brutal assaults of attrition which dragged on for months with little to no respite. Tens of millions of artillery shells and untold hundreds of millions of rifle and machine gun bullets were fired in a conflict that demonstrated man's capacity to kill each other on a heretofore unprecedented scale, and as always, such a war brought about technological innovation at a rate that made the boom of the Industrial Revolution seem stagnant. World War I was the first truly industrial war, and it created a paradigm which reached its zenith with World War II and towards which virtually all equipment, innovation and training were dedicated throughout the Cold War and the remainder of the 20th century. To this day, modern warfare remains synonymous with tanks and mass infantry battles, although a confrontation of this nature has not occurred (except briefly during Operation Desert Storm) since World War II. The enduring image of World War I is of men stuck in muddy trenches, and of vast armies deadlocked in a fight neither could win. It was a war of barbed wire, poison gas, and horrific losses as officers led their troops on mass charges across No Man's Land and into a hail of bullets. While these impressions are all too true, they hide the fact that trench warfare was dynamic and constantly evolving throughout the war as all armies struggled to find a way to break through the opposing lines. Most books and documentaries about the war focus on the carnage of the trenches, depicting the ceaseless bombardment and sniping, and the assaults and counterattacks that took millions of lives. This was the experience of most frontline soldiers during that great conflict, but it was not the only experience, even as people immediately think of the Western Front when World War I springs to mind. As it turned out, the East African Campaign would be the longest campaign of the war, lasting from its outbreak in mid-1914 to the Armistice in late 1918. The campaign was fought in three phases. The first took the form of an under-strength British colonial force defending the infrastructural assets of Kenya, Uganda, and Nyasaland against attacks from an aggressive German garrison operating from within German East Africa. This encompassed the period from the outbreak of war until early 1916, during which time neither the British Imperial Government nor South Africa was in a position to effectively intervene. The second phase began upon the arrival of a substantial imperial force in the wake of the Allied victory in South West Africa, which allowed the allies to claim the initiative and put the Germans on the run. The third phase, beginning in early 1917, saw a lapse into guerrilla tactics by a remnant German colonial force, operating under no particular illusion of victory and with no higher purpose than to tie up large deployments of Allied manpower. The East African Campaign of World War I: The History and Legacy of the Allied Victory over Germany in East Africa examines one of the most unique campaigns of the Great War. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about World War I's East African Campaign like never before.

H d cadas, par dias apresentando cultos misteriosos e sinistros t m sido um entretenimento favorito da cultura pop - irm os fraternais s o frequentemente representados em algum tipo de covil subterr neo, vestidos com mantos cerimoniais extravagantes e suas faces cobertas por capuzes, sentados em volta de uma longa mesa, repleta de c lices g ticos, cr nios e tesouros sombrios cintilantes. Filmes apresentando um lado mais m rbido podem ainda apresentar imagens tenebrosas com sangue, tortura e sacrif cios. Assim como em todo tipo de arte, a criatividade agu ada por uma fonte de inspira o, e uma das musas inspiradoras mais conhecidas para este tipo de cenas a ma onaria. Acredita-se que esta sociedade antiga, que descende da antiga cultura da cantaria, possui as mais profundas, sombrias e inexplic veis verdades do universo. Diz-se que seus membros possuem poderes m sticos como nenhum outro - talvez at mesmo m gicos. Mas ser que este estigma possui algum m rito, ou apresenta-se como um severo mal-entendido? Como muitos o sabem, os ma ons t m estado presentes na sociedade h s culos. O Renascentismo, que teve seu auge entre os s culos XIV e XVI, presenciou um estouro de criatividade e avan os em uma grande variedade de formas de arte por toda a Europa. As alian as dos canteiros lideraram as mar s de mudan a; aprendizes n o mais precisavam se restringir apenas ao com rcio. Grande parte deles era composta de artistas e pensadores livres, embora ainda jurasse aderir tradicional cultura dos "cortadores de pedra". Esta nova esp cie de canteiros separou-se da ortodoxa cantaria "operacional", e come ou a fomentar o que ficou conhecida como a cantaria "especulativa". Como na maioria das lendas, as que relatam as origens da ma onaria disputam lugar at os dias de hoje. A mais antiga men o esse tipo de sociedade data do Manuscrito Halliwell, ou Poema Regius, supostamente elaborado em algum momento entre o fim do s culo XIV e o in cio do s culo XV. O manuscrito, redigido em requintada caligrafia e Ingl s M dio, consistia de 64 p ginas e 794 linhas de rimas. considerado o primeiro dos manuscritos ma nicos consagrados no tempo, e geralmente aceito como a hist ria "verdadeira" das origens da fraternidade. O poema em quest o inicia-se com Euclides, matem tico grego do s culo IV a. C., conhecido hoje como o "pai da geometria". Acredita-se que o matem tico tenha incorporado as ci ncias geom tricas em um novo campo, que ele apelidou de "alvenaria". Com esse novo e refinado tipo de ci ncia, ele viajou ao Egito, onde transmitiu sua sabedoria aos filhos dos nobres eg pcios. A despeito das origens da organiza o, o crescente fen meno se transformaria um dia na Sociedade da Ma onaria, os portadores de segredos divinos, e uma das mais fascinantes e controversas irmandades da hist ria da humanidade. Os Ma ons: A Hist ria da Ma onaria e a Sociedade Secreta Mais Famosa do Mundo examina as origens e a hist ria da fraternidade, sua expans o pelo mundo, e algumas das alucinantes teorias de conspira o que cercam a sociedade at os dias de hoje. Juntamente com imagens que representam pessoas, lugares e eventos importantes, voc aprender sobre os ma ons como nunca antes.

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the campaign *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading "The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood." - German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck World War I, also known in its time as the "Great War" or the "War to End all Wars", was an unprecedented holocaust in terms of its sheer scale. Fought by men who hailed from all corners of the globe, it saw millions of soldiers do battle in brutal assaults of attrition which dragged on for months with little to no respite. Tens of millions of artillery shells and untold hundreds of millions of rifle and machine gun bullets were fired in a conflict that demonstrated man's capacity to kill each other on a heretofore unprecedented scale, and as always, such a war brought about technological innovation at a rate that made the boom of the Industrial Revolution seem stagnant. World War I was the first truly industrial war, and it created a paradigm which reached its zenith with World War II and towards which virtually all equipment, innovation and training were dedicated throughout the Cold War and the remainder of the 20th century. To this day, modern warfare remains synonymous with tanks and mass infantry battles, although a confrontation of this nature has not occurred (except briefly during Operation Desert Storm) since World War II. The enduring image of World War I is of men stuck in muddy trenches, and of vast armies deadlocked in a fight neither could win. It was a war of barbed wire, poison gas, and horrific losses as officers led their troops on mass charges across No Man's Land and into a hail of bullets. While these impressions are all too true, they hide the fact that trench warfare was dynamic and constantly evolving throughout the war as all armies struggled to find a way to break through the opposing lines. Most books and documentaries about the war focus on the carnage of the trenches, depicting the ceaseless bombardment and sniping, and the assaults and counterattacks that took millions of lives. This was the experience of most frontline soldiers during that great conflict, but it was not the only experience, even as people immediately think of the Western Front when World War I springs to mind. As it turned out, the East African Campaign would be the longest campaign of the war, lasting from its outbreak in mid-1914 to the Armistice in late 1918. The campaign was fought in three phases. The first took the form of an under-strength British colonial force defending the infrastructural assets of Kenya, Uganda, and Nyasaland against attacks from an aggressive German garrison operating from within German East Africa. This encompassed the period from the outbreak of war until early 1916, during which time neither the British Imperial Government nor South Africa was in a position to effectively intervene. The second phase began upon the arrival of a substantial imperial force in the wake of the Allied victory in South West Africa, which allowed the allies to claim the initiative and put the Germans on the run. The third phase, beginning in early 1917, saw a lapse into guerrilla tactics by a remnant German colonial force, operating under no particular illusion of victory and with no higher purpose than to tie up large deployments of Allied manpower. The East African Campaign of World War I: The History and Legacy of the Allied Victory over Germany in East Africa examines one of the most unique campaigns of the Great War. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about World War I's East African Campaign like never before.