Birth History

The English-speaking peoples comprise perhaps the greatest number of human beings sharing a common language in the world today. These people also share a common heritage. For his four-volume work, Sir Winston Churchill took as his subject these great elements in world history. Volume 1 commences in 55BC, when Julius Caesar famously "turned his gaze upon Britain" and concludes with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

To an extraordinary extent we continue to live in the shadow of the classical world. At every level, from languages to calendars to political systems, we are the descendants of a “classical Europe,” using frames of reference created by ancient Mediterranean cultures. As this consistently fresh and surprising new audio book makes clear, however, this was no less true for the inhabitants of those classical civilizations themselves, whose myths, history, and buildings were an elaborate engagement with an already old and revered past - one filled with great leaders and writers....

Lawyer and human rights advocate Elizabeth Prochaska’s ambitious cultural history of childbirth reveals how the stories we tell about reproduction have been used to exercise power over women’s bodies – and asks what freedom in birth might look like. It matters who tells a story. For much...

The first book to truly focus solely on the birth of your baby (rather than pregnancy) and without a specific agenda. This is a comprehensive, everything-you-need-to-know guide to childbirth from leading Australian obstetrician and international researcher into safe childbirth, Professor Stephen...

Firstborn? Only child? Middle child? Baby of the family? Find out what it means to you, your relationships, and your career. Do you realize that of the first twenty-three astronauts in space, twenty-one were firstborns and the other two were the only child in their family? Are you aware that...

From its inception, Atlantic City has always been a town dedicated to the fast buck, and this wide-reachinghistory offers a riveting account of its past 100 year, from the city's heyday as a Prohibition-era mecca of lawlessness to its rebirth as a legitimate casino resort in the modern era.

Discover the spellbinding history of astrology and divination across the world. A History of Astrology, Divination & Prophecy traces the journey of astrology from its roots in the 3rd century BCE, when ancient Mesopotamians studied celestial bodies with the aim of predicting the future, through...

The Clockwork Universe is the story of a band of men who lived in a world of dirt and disease but pictured a universe that ran like a perfect machine. A meld of history and science, this book is a group portrait of some of the greatest minds who ever lived as they wrestled with natures most sweeping mysteries. The answers they uncovered still hold the key to how we understand the world.

This panoramic book shows how the Greek Revolution was a demographic upheaval more consequential than the overthrow of a ruler. Drawing on Ottoman sources together with archival evidence from Greece, Britain, France, Russia, and Switzerland, the book reframes the birth of modern Greece within the imperial history of the global nineteenth century.

“I delivered twenty babies in the summer of 1977. I was hardly more than a baby myself, just turned twenty-four and starting my third year of medical school.” So began Mark Sloan’s three-decades-long exploration of the wonders and oddities of human childbirth. Pediatrician, husband, and...

There are few events as significant and life-altering as birth, marriage, and death. These are the moments in which we experience our greatest happiness and our deepest grief. And so it is profoundly important to understand these events and their religious and spiritual significance in the...

Brought to you by Penguin. Motherhood is a political state. Helen Charman makes a radical case for what liberated mothering could be, and tells the story of what motherhood has been, from the 1970s to the 2010s. When we talk about motherhood and politics together, we usually talk about isolated...

For many Americans, the birth certificate is a mundane piece of paper, unearthed from deep storage when applying for a driver's license, verifying information for employers, or claiming state and federal benefits. Yet as Donald Trump and his fellow "birthers" reminded us when they claimed that Barack Obama wasn't an American citizen, it plays a central role in determining identity and citizenship. The Birth Certificate: An American History traces the document's two-hundred-year history to explain when, how, and why birth certificates came to matter so much in the United States.

Trace the thought-provoking history of reproductive rights and the fierce global battle for bodily autonomy. From ancient herbal remedies to modern medical ethics, this eye-opening journey reveals how control over fertility has shaped societies, laws, and human lives. Perfect for your daily...

Penguin presents The Birth of the RAF by Richard Overy, read by Jonathan Keeble. The dizzying pace of technological change in the early 20th century meant that it took only a little over ten years from the first flight by the Wright Brothers to the clash of fighter planes in the Great War. A...

Explore the gripping geopolitical history of a fractured subcontinent forever changed by violent mass migration. Perfect for a thought-provoking morning commute, this sobering narrative bridges the gap between distant political decisions and the lived realities of ordinary citizens. Immerse...

Written for readers age 10 and up -- enjoyed by adults! Six-year-old Ludwig was sitting at the table, reading his Bible and praying, when Swedish soldiers stormed through the castle door. Ludwig looked up at the soldiers and then returned to his prayer and reading. The soldiers stopped and...

Arguing that rent gave birth to capital, this book shows us how rent's lost history has striking implications for capitalism's future.

This audiobook includes an exclusive conversation between authors Ceridwen Dovey and Eliza Bell and their composer Keppie Coutts. After sharing their artistic frustrations at the school gate, two women decide to take a risk: to co-write a book about early motherhood. Off-colour, offbeat, off...

Approved by the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787, the US Constitution was to become law only if ratified by nine of the thirteen states then comprising the United States. The eighty-five letters in support of the Constitution collected here have become recognized as the most...