Volcanoes Linked to Fall of Cleopatra’s Empire
Oct 24, 2017 Research into the impact of climate change on early society reveals a connection between environmental stress and the collapse of civilizations.
Cities, Cars and Other Human-Made Things Weigh 30 Trillion Metric Tons
Dec 14, 2016 The first attempt to measure the volume of stuff created by humankind reveals that it is at least 100,000 times heavier than the global human population.
The Story of Egypt
Oct 8, 2016 A new book on ancient Egypt is full of fascinating material, including a re-examination of Cleopatra's death, a look at the fluidity of sexual identity, and a tale about being carried off by a hippopotamus.
The ‘Long Peace’ Is Not Upon Us
Mar 14, 2015 Cognitive scientist Steven Pinker’s 2011 book “The Better Angels of Our Nature” has convinced many people that humanity has steadily become less violent in the recent past. English philosopher John Gray argues that Pinker merely sees what he wants in trends and statistics.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Sep 5, 2014 This novel, nominated for the Man Booker Prize, examines a group of Australian POWs during WWII as individuals, and their efforts to cling to the trappings of civilization no matter how slight or futile.
Chris Hedges and Herman Melville Assault the Fruits of ‘Enlightenment’
Jul 20, 2013 A description of the lives of Polynesian islanders in Melville's book "Typee" shows that the inhumanities of capitalism visible today and constantly attacked by Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges were plainly recognized in American literature of the mid-19th century.
The Life and Death of Words, People and Even Nature
May 1, 2013 After Roman legions invaded Egypt, during one of the battles waged by Julius Caesar against the brother of Cleopatra, fire devoured most of the thousands upon thousands of papyrus scrolls in the Library of Alexandria. A pair of millennia later, during George W. Bush’s crusade against an imaginary enemy in Iraq, most of the books in the Library of Baghdad were reduced to ashes.
Beautiful Foolish Arm
Jan 21, 2013
The Myth of Human Progress
Jan 14, 2013 The mounting distortions of climate change and the rapid depletion of natural resources have done little to blunt the self-destructive notion of ceaseless expansion The road we are on points toward human extinction.
