This is the ironic story of how Italian Renaissance and Baroque gardens encouraged the preservation of the American wilderness and ultimately fostered the creation of the world's first national park system. Told via Mitchell's sometimes disastrous and humorous travels - from the gardens of southern Italy up through Tuscany and the lake island gardens - the book is filled with history, folklore, myths, and legends of Western Europe, including a detailed history of the labyrinth, a common element in Renaissance gardens. In his attempt to understand the Italian garden in detail, Mitchell set out to create one on his own property - with a labyrinth.

Photographs and text depict eleven of the world's most remote and unspoiled locations, including the Antarctic peninsula, Africa's Mountains of the Moon and Skeleton Coast, and Siberia's Lake Baikal

Discover the wildest places on earth, and meet the amazing people dedicating their lives to conserving them. Embark on the journey of a lifetime to 20 of the world's wildest places! Explore each environment and learn about the keepers who are working to preserve them for future generations. Meet the animals and plants who call the wilderness home, and discover how you can take active steps to make a difference. Featuring colorful original illustrations and stunning photography, The World's Wildest Places brings the excitement of the jungle and the adventure of the rainforest to your lap.

It's unbelievable Explore some of the weirdest, wildest places on Earth through the pages of this fascinating book. Get ready to visit the world's strangest and most surprising places From animal islands filled with deadly snakes to terrifying towns and decaying buildings, these natural features and man-made structures will blow your mind. Journey to a giant blue hole in Belize that's filled with toxic gases and sea-creature skeletons, a lake in Tanzania that runs red, a town so overrun with spiders its residents are forced to eat them, and a vast 226-foot-wide crater that is always on fire. You won't believe your eyes The strange places include Terrifying terrains: Deadmen Valley, Canada Spine-tingling towns: Chernobyl, Ukraine and Miyake Village, Japan (the "toxic terror") Weird Water: Devil's Kettle, US and and Blood Falls, Antarctica Beastly abodes: Snake Island, Brazil Fright sites: the Church of Bones, Czech Republic

This compelling and eerie memoir tells of his odyssey through recorded history and eventually to the bay iteslf, as he explores the dark and unyielding side of nature."--BOOK JACKET.

National Geographic photography captures the world's most remote, exotic places in this visually stunning travel book full of scenic wonders to experience. Highlighting 50 of Earth's most pristine, scenic locales, this beautiful book is illustrated with stunning images, coupled with accessible, engaging descriptions and practical travel information. The book covers everything from otherworldly, secluded valleys to far-flung, soaring mountain ranges. National Geographic photographers share some of their favorite shots from around the world and explain how they got them, and historical photos culled from National Geographic's hallowed image archive highlight old Society explorations in rugged, distant locations, and give a glimpse into the bygone days of these exotic places.

A New York Times Notable Book of 2020 A Bloomberg Best Non-Fiction Book of 2020 A Behavioral Scientist Notable Book of 2020 A Human Behavior & Evolution Society Must-Read Popular Evolution Book of 2020 A bold, epic account of how the co-evolution of psychology and culture created the peculiar Western mind that has profoundly shaped the modern world. Perhaps you are WEIRD: raised in a society that is Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. If so, you’re rather psychologically peculiar. Unlike much of the world today, and most people who have ever lived, WEIRD people are highly individualistic, self-obsessed, control-oriented, nonconformist, and analytical. They focus on themselves—their attributes, accomplishments, and aspirations—over their relationships and social roles. How did WEIRD populations become so psychologically distinct? What role did these psychological differences play in the industrial revolution and the global expansion of Europe during the last few centuries? In The WEIRDest People in the World, Joseph Henrich draws on cutting-edge research in anthropology, psychology, economics, and evolutionary biology to explore these questions and more. He illuminates the origins and evolution of family structures, marriage, and religion, and the profound impact these cultural transformations had on human psychology. Mapping these shifts through ancient history and late antiquity, Henrich reveals that the most fundamental institutions of kinship and marriage changed dramatically under pressure from the Roman Catholic Church. It was these changes that gave rise to the WEIRD psychology that would coevolve with impersonal markets, occupational specialization, and free competition—laying the foundation for the modern world. Provocative and engaging in both its broad scope and its surprising details, The WEIRDest People in the World explores how culture, institutions, and psychology shape one another, and explains what this means for both our most personal sense of who we are as individuals and also the large-scale social, political, and economic forces that drive human history. Includes black-and-white illustrations.