The Middle Ages are widely considered to be a thousand-year period of superstition, ignorance, and belief in a flat earth, punctuated by witch burnings and violent crusades to the Middle East. But the medieval period, more than any other time in history, laid the foundations for the modern world. The work of scholars, architects, statesmen and craftsmen led to rise of towns, the earliest bureaucratic states, the culmination of Romanesque and the beginnings of Gothic art, the recovery of Greek science and philosophy, and the beginnings of the first universities.This book is a chronological and thematic exploration of the history of the Middle Ages, starting with the Roman Empire's collapse in the fifth century and marches through Charlemagne's reign, the breakup of his empire, the Black Plague, the fall of Constantinople, and everything in between. It explores social aspects of the Middle Ages that are still largely misunderstood (for example, no educated person believed the earth was flat). There was also a surprisingly high level of medieval technology--mechanical clocks, horse stirrups, and even primitive human flight emerges at this time. Most surprisingly, there was a lack of witch burnings, which were not popularized until the Thirty Years War in the Renaissance Period.The Middle Ages were not a time to suffer through until the Renaissance returned Europe to a path of intellectual and cultural ascendance. Rather, they illuminated the darkness following the collapse of Rome and guided the path to the world we inhabit today.

Short stories that “situate themselves as natural heirs to such masterpieces as Denis Johnson’s ‘Train Dreams’ and James Joyce’s ‘The Dead.’” —The New York Times Book Review Beginning at the dawn of the past century, in the early days of electrification, and moving into an imagined future in which the world is lit day and night, each tale in The Age of Perpetual Light follows characters through different eras in American history: a Jewish dry goods peddler who falls in love with an Amish woman while showing her the wonders of an Edison Lamp; a 1940 farmers’ uprising against the unfair practices of a power company; a Serbian immigrant teenage boy in 1990s Vermont desperate to catch a glimpse of an experimental satellite; a back-to-the-land couple forced to grapple with their daughter’s autism during winter’s longest night. From the prize-winning author of The Great Glass Sea, these stories explore themes of progress, the pursuit of knowledge, and humankind’s eternal attempt to decrease the darkness in the world. “A rich, often dazzling collection of short stories linked by themes while ranging widely in style from Babel-like fables to gritty noir and sci-fi . . . engrossing, persuasively detailed, and written with a deep affection for the way language can, in masterful hands, convey us to marvelous new worlds.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review “A storyteller of the first order.” —Joshua Ferris, author of the National Book Award finalist Then We Came to the End “A spectacular talent.” —Lauren Groff, New York Times–bestselling author of Fates and Furies

Based on lectures given at the University of Vienna, this book examines all types of book decoration and illumination between late Antiquity and the Renaissance from the point of view of format and style. Pacht explains the basic vocabulary and concepts by which this art-form is to be understood, and offers insights into the philosophy, theology, technology and culture underlying its history. His subjects include pictorial decoration in the organic structure of the book; the initial; bible illustration; didactic miniatures; illustration of the apocalypse; illustration of the psalter; the conflict of surface and space. Now available in paperback.

What makes the Book of Illumination stand out among other philosophical and or religious titles is its precision to math, definition, and it's deciphering of prophecy. There truly is no book like it, as it combines every major religion, history, prophecy, pop culture, as well as the occult, into one comprehensive record. It also, with the use of Kabbalah and sacred geometry, animates the lives of past mythological deities, and composites their lives with "stars" that are living today. The revelation given within the Book of Illumination is in direct alignment with New Age prophecy as well as the resurrection spoken of by Jesus. This resurrection is validated by Hinduism, the world's oldest religion, which is also the largest religion in the world that openly acknowledges and promotes reincarnation. Reincarnation, after reading the Book of Illumination, becomes fully realized. It is no longer a matter of theory, as again, the book proves with mathematics and sacred geometry, the existences of ancient celestial beings of folklore and mythology, who walk the earth today in the flesh.

A sweeping history of the electric light revolution and the birth of modern America The late nineteenth century was a period of explosive technological creativity, but more than any other invention, Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulb marked the arrival of modernity, transforming its inventor into a mythic figure and avatar of an era. In The Age of Edison, award-winning author and historian Ernest Freeberg weaves a narrative that reaches from Coney Island and Broadway to the tiniest towns of rural America, tracing the progress of electric light through the reactions of everyone who saw it and capturing the wonder Edison’s invention inspired. It is a quintessentially American story of ingenuity, ambition, and possibility in which the greater forces of progress and change are made by one of our most humble and ubiquitous objects.

The fantasy field has been waiting for this for years: Terry McGarrys first novel. Formerly the Vice President of the Science Fiction Writers of America, a longtime copyeditor for all the major publishers, and the author of a number of well-received short stories, McGarry is extremely well known throughout the genre. And now, with talent, insight, and skill rarely seen today, McGarry has crafted a fantasy adventure of the first rank; a wonderful, gripping adventure. Liath was proud to have passed her challenge and become a true mage, ready to journey the land and find a Triad to bond with as an Illuminator. But that very night, her light fails her: she can no longer see the magical illumination guiders, and thus, despite the mages badge upon her breast, can no longer call herself Illuminator. Liath travels to the city and petitions the Ennead, the senior mages of the land, for help and a cure. Before they will help her, they set a task for her to fulfill: she must find and capture the rogue Dark Mage, and bring him to the Ennead for justice; only then will her light be freed. So goes Liath on the most important journey of her life, for the future of the world rests on her success or failure--but which one? At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

How medieval manuscripts were understood in the 19th and 20th centuries is the basis for this volume co-written by four art historians; Hindman (Northwestern U.), Michael Camille (U. of Chicago), Rowan Watson (Victoria and Albert Museum), and Nina Rowe (Block Museum, Northwestern U.). The attitudes