Showing results for "bill bryson" in History

A Short History of Nearly Everything is Bill Bryson's quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization. He takes subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us, like geology, chemistry, and particle physics, and aims to render them comprehensible to people who have never thought they could be interested in science. In the company of some extraordinary scientists, Bill Bryson reveals the world in a way most of us have never seen it before.

Bill Bryson was struck one day by the thought that we devote more time to studying the battles and wars of history than to considering what history really consists of: centuries of people quietly going about their daily business. This inspired him to start a journey around his own house, an old rectory in Norfolk, considering how the ordinary things in life came to be.

A Short History of Nearly Everything is Bill Bryson’s quest to find out everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization - how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us. His challenge is to take subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people who have never thought they could be interested in science. It's not so much about what we know, as about how we know what we know.

Christmas is the single biggest annual event on the planet, a time for merry-making, over-indulgence, peace, goodwill, and the occasional family row. It’s as comfortable and familiar as a pair of old shoes and yet still glittery and exciting. But what do you really know about it? It’s stuffed full of traditions and rituals that most of us have been observing all our lives without having the slightest idea of where they come from.

One Summer: America, 1927, is the new book by Britain’s favourite writer of narrative nonfiction, Bill Bryson. Narrated by the man himself, One Summer takes you to the summer when America came of age, took centre stage, and changed the world forever. In the summer of 1927, America had a booming stock market, a president who worked just four hours a day, a semi-crazed sculptor with a plan to carve four giant heads into a mountain called Rushmore, a devastating flood of the Mississippi, a sensational murder trial, and a youthful aviator named Charles Lindbergh who started the summer wholly unknown, and finished it as the most famous man on Earth.

In Made in America, Bryson de-mythologizes his native land, explaining how a dusty hamlet with neither woods nor holly became Hollywood, how the Wild West wasn't won, why Americans say 'lootenant' and 'Toosday', how Americans were eating junk food long before the word itself was cooked up, as well as exposing the true origins of the G-string, the original $64,000 question, and Dr Kellogg of cornflakes fame.

Bill Bryson is the world's funniest travel writer, and a master of comic observation. His hugely popular books, spanning topics from linguistics to Shakespeare to the human body, have sold over 16 million copies and been translated into 30 languages, and his 2003 science book A Short History of Nearly Everything won the prestigious Aventis and Descartes prizes.

In At Home, Bill Bryson applies the same irrepressible curiosity, irresistible wit, stylish prose and masterful storytelling that made A Short History of Nearly Everything one of the most lauded books of the last decade, and delivers one of the most entertaining and illuminating books ever written about the history of the way we live. Bill Bryson was struck one day by the thought that we devote a lot more time to studying the battles and wars of history than to considering what history really consists of: centuries of people quietly going about their daily business – eating, sleeping and merely endeavouring to get more comfortable.

This highly entertaining BBC Radio 4 series is written and presented by Bill Bryson and based on his best-selling book, Mother Tongue. In it, he romps through the history of Britain to reveal how English became such an infuriatingly complex - but ultimately world-beating - language.

Was ist das für ein Land, in dem sich fliegende Füchse tummeln und Schweinefußnasenbeutler einst ihr Unwesen trieben? In seinem ebenso amüsanten wie informativen Streifzug durch ein unbekanntes Australien erzählt Bill Bryson von den historischen Hintergründen der Entdeckung dieses faszinierenden Kontinents...

Some say that the first hint that Bill Bryson was not of Planet Earth came when his mother sent him to school in lime-green Capri pants. Others think it all started with his discovery, at the age of six, of a woollen jersey of rare fineness. Across the moth-holed chest was a golden thunderbolt. It may have looked like an old college football sweater, but young Bryson knew better.

Es ist die Geschichte eines Sommers, und doch ist es so viel mehr. Das Jahr 1927 ist für Amerika entscheidend auf dem Weg zur Weltmacht. Es sind die goldenen Zwanziger: Der Aktienmarkt boomt, das Fernsehen wird erfunden, die Filme sind nicht mehr stumm, und verrückte Pläne entstehen, wie der, vier Köpfe in den völlig unzugänglichen Mount Rushmore zu meißeln. Es ist die Zeit, in der ein junger Flieger namens Charles Lindbergh Ruhm und Ehre erlangt, aber auch die des Al Capone und des größten Schulmassakers aller Zeiten.

Australia es mucho más que un enorme país. Y mucho más que la isla más grande del mundo. Es un universo aparte. Árida, con una climatología extrema y una fauna atípica (y en muchos casos muy peligrosa), Australia también tiene gentes hospitalarias, ciudades muy modernas y otros muchos secretos por descubrir. ¿Cómo no enamorarse de un lugar fascinante que no se parece a ningún otro?

O istorie ingenioasa si antrenanta a universului, Pamintului, vietii si omului, o poveste care merge de la Big Bang, cind nu eram nimic, pina la aparitia civilizatiei si la noi, cei de astazi. Bill Bryson pleaca de la propria experienta de elev care, intrigat de o imagine a Pamintului in sectiune, citeste manualul de stiinte ca sa gaseasca aici un amestec de lucruri de neinteles – mai putin raspunsurile la ceea ce ii stirnise curiozitatea, inclusiv cum si de unde stim toate aceste lucruri.

En mai 1927, l'aviateur américain Charles Lindbergh fut le premier à traverser l'Atlantique seul, sans escale et de continent à continent. Cet événement changea le monde, comme plusieurs autres survenus jusqu'en septembre dans son pays natal (dont l'invention du cinéma parlant et de la télévision).

El verano de 1927 estuvo lleno de hazañas legendarias, villanos, inventos revolucionarios, catástrofes y decisiones trascendentales: Charles Lindbergh cruzó el Atlántico en avión por primera vez, Al Capone llegó al momento álgido de su poder, nacieron la televisión y el cine sonoro, el Misisipi causó la mayor inundación de la historia estadounidense y la Reserva Federal cometió el error que precipitaría la Gran Depresión.

Uno de los mejores audiolibros de divulgación científica de todos los tiempos. Más de 120.000 ejemplares vendidos en España. ¿Puede un solo audiolibro convertirse en la perfecta introducción para adentrarse en disciplinas tan dispares como la astronomía, la geología, la física, la química y la biología? ¿Puede un trabajo de divulgación científica ofrecer razonamientos y datos precisos, y al mismo tiempo ser tremendamente entretenido?