"Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) was a self-taught artist with a unique style, exemplified in his visionary jungle scenes. These dream-like tableaux, for which he drew heavily on visits to Paris' Botanical Gardens, captivate with the lushness of their plant and animal life, while unsettling the viewer with their heady combination of exoticism and romanticism. This sumptuously illustrated book provides not only a comprehensive overview of Rousseau's career, but also penetrating insights into his inspiration. With large, color reproductions of his paintings, many previously unpublished illustrations of his sources and influences, and a wealth of new research on his life and work (including the only interview conducted with the artist), "Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris is poised to become the definitive volume on this remarkable painter."--BOOK JACKET.

Ghenie's works--painted in oils sometimes applied with a palette knife or thrown onto the canvas--have already gained entry into the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern and the Centre Pompidou, and have achieved one auction record after another in the art market. Yet neither Ghenie's subjects nor his technique cater to public taste.lic taste.

Noted photographer's collection of images made over a period of 20 years, from the Congo to the cloud forests of the Andes.

Take a trip to the jungle and see what you can spot with this great title! Fantastic spot book activities, combined with non-fiction settings, make for an informative and entertaining series. Look for hidden objects as you work your way through every spread, taking in all the detail. By engaging the reader to express their opinion, Spot The Monkey in the Jungle encourages children to develop and express their own point of view. Whilst each scene will help develop the reader's numeracy, this title will also improve literacy by introducing new adjectives on every spread.

"Betancourt's riveting account...is an unforgettable epic of moral courage and human endurance." -Los Angeles Times In the midst of her campaign for the Colombian presidency in 2002, Ingrid Betancourt traveled into a military-controlled region, where she was abducted by the FARC, a brutal terrorist guerrilla organization in conflict with the government. She would spend the next six and a half years captive in the depths of the Colombian jungle. Even Silence Has an End is her deeply moving and personal account of that time. The facts of her story are astounding, but it is Betancourt's indomitable spirit that drives this very special narrative-an intensely intelligent, thoughtful, and compassionate reflection on what it really means to be human.

The epic story of the Congo-Océan railroad and the human costs and contradictions of modern empire. The Congo-Océan railroad stretches across the Republic of Congo from Brazzaville to the Atlantic port of Pointe-Noir. It was completed in 1934, when Equatorial Africa was a French colony, and it stands as one of the deadliest construction projects in history. Colonial workers were subjects of an ostensibly democratic nation whose motto read “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” but liberal ideals were savaged by a cruelly indifferent administrative state. African workers were forcibly conscripted and separated from their families, and subjected to hellish conditions as they hacked their way through dense tropical foliage—a “forest of no joy”; excavated by hand thousands of tons of earth in order to lay down track; blasted their way through rock to construct tunnels; or risked their lives building bridges over otherwise impassable rivers. In the process, they suffered disease, malnutrition, and rampant physical abuse, likely resulting in at least 20,000 deaths. In the Forest of No Joy captures in vivid detail the experiences of the men, women, and children who toiled on the railroad, and forces a reassessment of the moral relationship between modern industrialized empires and what could be called global humanitarian impulses—the desire to improve the lives of people outside of Europe. Drawing on exhaustive research in French and Congolese archives, a chilling documentary record, and heartbreaking photographic evidence, J.P. Daughton tells the epic story of the Congo-Océan railroad, and in doing so reveals the human costs and contradictions of modern empire.

If they are to survive, cities need healthy chunks of the world’s ecosystems to persist; yet cities, like parasites, grow and prosper by local destruction of these very ecosystems. In this absorbing and wide-ranging book, Eldredge and Horenstein use New York City as a microcosm to explore both the positive and the negative sides of the relationship between cities, the environment, and the future of global biodiversity. They illuminate the mass of contradictions that cities present in embodying the best and the worst of human existence. The authors demonstrate that, though cities have voracious appetites for resources such as food and water, they also represent the last hope for conserving healthy remnants of the world’s ecosystems and species. With their concentration of human beings, cities bring together centers of learning, research, government, finance, and media—institutions that increasingly play active roles in solving environmental problems. Some of the topics covered in Concrete Jungle: --The geological history of the New York region, including remnant glacial features visible today --The early days of urbanization on Manhattan Island, focusing on the history of Central Park, Collect Pond, and Manhattan Square --The history of early railway lines and the development of New York’s iconic subway system --The problem of producing enough safe drinking water for an ever-expanding population --Prominent civic institutions, including universities, museums, and zoos