Unfolds the many wonders of this lost civilization and gives readers a rare look at the exciting explorations that are gradually uncovering its long-buried secrets.

Though Mayan culture has existed for more than 3,500 years, researchers and historians have only recently started unlocking some of the mysteries behind this Central American society. Thoroughly researched text guides readers through the gripping history of the Maya, including a detailed description of Maya culture. The main text is supplemented with engaging sidebars, full-color photographs, historical images, and expert, annotated analysis from leading scholars.

At its peak, the Maya civilization consisted of two million people populating over forty cities. While Europe languished in darkness after the fall of Rome, the Maya were advancing irrigation and terracing techniques in agriculture, pioneering the use of the zero in mathematics, and creating accurate astronomical tables. Yet, much about this great culture is unknown, as scholars struggle to decipher Mayan texts. This compelling volume examines the Maya civilization in accessible chapters with supplemental maps, timelines, and charts to support student research. Relevant topics discussed in this edition include the rise of the Mayans, the lives of the nobility and commoners during the classical period, achievements in science, engineering, and writing, the spirit realm and cosmology, and elements of Mayan culture in modernity.

Bloom draws an analogy between the biological material whose primordial multiplication began life on earth and the ideas, or "memes," that define, give cohesion to, and justify human superorganisms.

The Great Lakes Basin is under severe ecological threat from fracking, bursting pipelines, sulfide mining, abandonment of government environmental regulation, invasive species, warming and lowering of the lakes, etc. This book presents essays on Traditional Knowledge, Indigenous Responsibility, and how Indigenous people, governments, and NGOs are responding to the environmental degradation which threatens the Great Lakes. This volume grew out of a conference that was held on the campus of Michigan State University on Earth Day, 2007. All of the essays have been updated and revised for this book. Among the presenters were Ward Churchill (author and activist), Joyce Tekahnawiiaks King (Director, Akwesasne Justice Department), Frank Ettawageshik, (Executive Director of the United Tribes of Michigan), Aaron Payment (Chair of the Sault Sainte Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians), and Dean Sayers (Chief of the Batchewana First Nation). Winona LaDuke (author, activist, twice Green Party VP candidate) also contributed to this volume. Adapted from the Introduction by Dr. Phil Bellfy: "The elements of the relationship that the Great Lakes' ancient peoples had with their environment, developed over the millennia, was based on respect for the natural landscape, pure and simple. The "original people" of this area not only maintained their lives, they thrived within the natural boundaries established by their relationship with the natural world. In today's vocabulary, it may be something as simple as an understanding that if human beings take care of the environment, the environment will take care of them. The entire relationship can be summarized as "harmony and balance, based on respect."

Renowned historian, Jeffrey Burton Russell, famous for his studies of medieval history, sets the record straight against the New Atheists and other cultural critics who charge Christianity with being outdated, destructive, superstitious, unenlightened, racist, colonialist, based on fabrication, and other significant false accusations.