Search

A chi appartiene la terra? È possibile rivendicarne la proprietà? La questione è da sempre materia di uno scontro di carattere etico, politico e ideologico, ma nella maggior parte dei casi sono state le armi a risolvere la contesa. In questo libro, il giornalista britannico Simon Winchester affronta il tema della gestione della terra da parte dell'uomo, i modi in cui viene spartita e passata di mano, le grandi controversie legate al cambiamento climatico e alla riparazione del colonialismo. Uno studio globale che va dal grande furto ai danni dei nativi americani alla creazione di nuove province sottratte all'acqua in Olanda, passando per la confisca delle terre in India fino alle rivendicazioni della popolazione Maōri in Nuova Zelanda. Un'affascinante esplorazione di ciò che la proprietà della terra potrebbe realmente significare, non in termini aridamente burocratici, ma per le persone che la abitano.

如何測量世界的深度，唯有精密、準確的力量，開啟人類的長和寬！ 少了它，這世界就不會有鐘錶、汽車、鏡頭、槍、電腦、大數據！ 從美國、西歐橫跨亞洲全球，從工業時代到數位時代，全靠人類最偉大的技術發明成就──精密！ 但是，追求極致完美主義，人類是否會忽略了這世界真實的模樣？精密和自然可以共存嗎？ 《紐約時報》暢銷書《不平靜的太平洋》作者、電影《牛津解密》原著作者賽門‧溫契斯特匠心力作，揭開人類科學與工業史上最神奇、複雜的發展歷程。

《牛津英文大字典》是有史以來最重要的工具書，一部令人驚嘆的偉大巨構。一位負責字典編輯的教授，廣徵各地對英語字源有研究、感興趣的義工，耗費七十年的韶光編纂、搜羅四十多萬條字辭解釋的大字典，全書字串相連可以繞地球百餘圈有餘；背後還藏著一段現代文學史上最神祕、詭奇與悲慘的一段軼事。這不為人知的事件一直深鎖在大英帝國官方機密檔案中，直到《天才、瘋子、大字典家》出版才獲公諸於世。 一位退役的美國軍醫麥諾，在倫敦誤殺了一名啤酒廠工人，引起輿論譁然。麥諾因捲入血腥殘酷的南北戰爭，導致精神失常並出現幻覺，此一殺人案件開啟了他被監禁在精神病院裡的後半生。然而參與《牛津英文大字典》的編纂工作，為她的生命找到了出口。 由於麥諾的加入，字典編輯小組獲得一大助力，困難重重的編輯工程得以順利進行。總編輯莫雷博士與麥諾醫師，在魚雁往返之間相識、相知、相惜，卻從來沒有見過面。莫雷博士對這位神祕的醫師深感好奇，決定親自去拜訪他，也揭開麥諾悽楚傳奇的一生。

'The greatest enterprise of its kind in history,'was the verdict of British prime minister Stanley Baldwin in June 1928 when The Oxford English Dictionary was finally published. With its 15,490 pages and nearly two million quotations, it was indeed a monumental achievement, gleaned from the efforts of hundreds of ordinary and extraordinary people who made it their mission to catalogue the English language in its entirety. In The Meaning of Everything, Simon Winchester celebrates this remarkable feat, and the fascinating characters who played such a vital part in its execution, from the colourful Frederick Furnivall, cheerful promoter of an all-female sculling crew, to James Murray, self-educated son of a draper, who spent half a century guiding the project towards fruition. Along the way we learn which dictionary editor became the inspiration for Kenneth Grahame's Ratty in The Wind in the Willows, and why Tolkien found it so hard to define'walrus'. Written by the bestselling author of The Surgeon of Crowthorne and The Map That Changed the World, The Meaning of Everything is an enthralling account of the creation of the world's greatest dictionary.

太平洋廣大得令人難以想像，它是迄今世上最大水域，覆蓋地球表面積近三分之一，對全球的影響亦十分巨大：不僅是世界氣候模式的源頭，也是最危險板塊碰撞運動的核心，海面下一萬多公尺處更有全球最深的海溝。它是西方人發現的最後一座海洋，也是牽引世界前途的大洋，這片幅員廣達1.8億平方公里的水域所發生的一切，攸關著人類全體的命運。 知名作家與探險家溫契斯特，詳述這片複雜得令人目不暇給的巨洋，自1950年代以降所經歷的種種關鍵時刻，以及影響迄今的重大趨勢和事件。讀者首先看到比基尼環礁舉行原子彈試爆後，因遭輻射汙染而成為徒留某種超現實景觀的無人島。書中除了介紹令全球年輕人趨之若鶩的衝浪活動由來背景，也揭露小型電晶體收音機如何點燃從日本東京延燒到美國矽谷的數位革命，進而改變人類的生活，還提到澳洲大堡礁的驚人發現和海底神祕噴口的探勘活動，對於太平洋周邊領土的地緣政治變化、流氓國家北韓的興起、英國殖民時代的結束亦有所著墨，並兼論環境惡化與氣候變遷為這個龐大水域帶來的威脅。 溫契斯特長期接觸太平洋及周邊區域，憑藉淵博的歷史學識和無人能出其右的敘事長才，以生動的文筆為這片浩瀚無垠、美麗神祕、引人遐思的大海寫下這部禮讚之作。

New York Times bestselling author Simon Winchester looks at which way the wind blows in this exciting book about giant storms.Simon Winchester is an avid weather watcher. He's scanned the skies in Oklahoma, waiting for the ominous “finger” of a tornado to touch the Earth. He's hunkered down in Hong Kong when typhoon warning signals went up. He's visited the world's hottest and wettest places, reported on fierce whirlpools, and sailed around South Africa looking for freak winds and waves. He knows about the worst weather in the world.A master nonfiction storyteller, Winchester looks at how, when, where, and why hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, and tornadoes start brewing, how they build, and what happens when these giant storms hit. His lively narrative also includes an historical look at how we learned about weather systems and where we're headed because of climate change. Stunning photographs illustrate the power of these giant storms.

One of Library Journal's 10 Best Books of 2015Following his acclaimed Atlantic and The Men Who United the States, New York Times bestselling author Simon Winchester offers an enthralling biography of the Pacific Ocean and its role in the modern world, exploring our relationship with this imposing force of nature.As the Mediterranean shaped the classical world, and the Atlantic connected Europe to the New World, the Pacific Ocean defines our tomorrow. With China on the rise, so, too, are the American cities of the West coast, including Seattle, San Francisco, and the long cluster of towns down the Silicon Valley.Today, the Pacific is ascendant. Its geological history has long transformed us—tremendous earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis—but its human history, from a Western perspective, is quite young, beginning with Magellan's sixteenth-century circumnavigation. It is a natural wonder whose most fascinating history is currently being made.In telling the story of the Pacific, Simon Winchester takes us from the Bering Strait to Cape Horn, the Yangtze River to the Panama Canal, and to the many small islands and archipelagos that lie in between. He observes the fall of a dictator in Manila, visits aboriginals in northern Queensland, and is jailed in Tierra del Fuego, the land at the end of the world. His journey encompasses a trip down the Alaska Highway, a stop at the isolated Pitcairn Islands, a trek across South Korea and a glimpse of its mysterious northern neighbor.Winchester's personal experience is vast and his storytelling second to none. And his historical understanding of the region is formidable, making Pacific a paean to this magnificent sea of beauty, myth, and imagination that is transforming our lives.

Earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis. Headline-making natural disasters with devastating consequences for millions of people. But what do we actually know about these literally earth-shaking events? New York Times bestselling author, explorer, journalist, and geologist Simon Winchester—who's been shaken by earthquakes in New Zealand, skied through Greenland to help prove the theory of plate tectonics, and even charred the soles of his boots climbing a volcano—looks at the science, technology, and societal impact of these inter-connected natural phenomena. A master nonfiction storyteller, Winchester digs deep into the powerful natural forces that shape the earth, exploring the how and why of world-changing events from the 19th-century's infamous volcanic eruption at Krakatoa and the earthquake that flattened San Francisco, to the 21st-century tsunamis that devastated Indonesia and Japan. It's a gripping story about what happens when our seemingly unmovable planet shakes, explodes, and floods—all richly illustrated with fascinating historical and stunning contemporary photographs.

The bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman and The Map That Changed the World examines the enduring and world-changing effects of the catastrophic eruption off the coast of Java of the earth's most dangerous volcano -- Krakatoa.The legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa -- the name has since become a byword for a cataclysmic disaster -- was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly forty thousand people. Beyond the purely physical horrors of an event that has only very recently been properly understood, the eruption changed the world in more ways than could possibly be imagined. Dust swirled round die planet for years, causing temperatures to plummet and sunsets to turn vivid with lurid and unsettling displays of light. The effects of the immense waves were felt as far away as France. Barometers in Bogotá and Washington, D.C., went haywire. Bodies were washed up in Zanzibar. The sound of the island's destruction was heard in Australia and India and on islands thousands of miles away. Most significant of all -- in view of today's new political climate -- the eruption helped to trigger in Java a wave of murderous anti-Western militancy among fundamentalist Muslims: one of the first outbreaks of Islamic-inspired killings anywhere.Simon Winchester's long experience in the world wandering as well as his knowledge of history and geology give us an entirely new perspective on this fascinating and iconic event as he brings it telling back to life.

“Simon Winchester never disappoints, and The Men Who United the States is a lively and surprising account of how this sprawling piece of geography became a nation. This is America from the ground up. Inspiring and engaging.” —Tom BrokawSimon Winchester, acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of Atlantic and The Professor and the Madman, delivers his first book about America: a fascinating popular history that illuminates the men who toiled fearlessly to discover, connect, and bond the citizenry and geography of the U.S.A. from its beginnings.How did America become “one nation, indivisible”? What unified a growing number of disparate states into the modern country we recognize today? To answer these questions, Winchester follows in the footsteps of America's most essential explorers, thinkers, and innovators, such as Lewis and Clark and the leaders of the Great Surveys; the builders of the first transcontinental telegraph and the powerful civil engineer behind the Interstate Highway System. He treks vast swaths of territory, from Pittsburgh to Portland, Rochester to San Francisco, Seattle to Anchorage, introducing the fascinating people who played a pivotal role in creating today's United States.Throughout, he ponders whether the historic work of uniting the States has succeeded, and to what degree. Featuring 32 illustrations throughout the text, The Men Who United the States is a fresh look at the way in which the most powerful nation on earth came together.

In the late 1980s, New York Times bestselling author Simon Winchester set out on foot to discover the Republic of Korea - from its southern tip to the North Korean border - in order to set the record straight about this enigmatic and elusive land.Fascinating for its vivid presentation of historical and geographic detail, Korea is that rare book that actually defines a nation and its people. Winchester's gift for capturing engaging characters in true, compelling stories provides us with a treasury of enchanting and informed insight on the culture, language, history, and politics of this little-known corner of Asia.With a new introduction by the author, Korea is a beautiful journey through a mysterious country and a memorable addition to the many adventures of Simon Winchester.

A New York Times Notable Book The Professor and the Madman is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary—and literary history.The making of the OED was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, was stunned to discover that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. But their surprise would pale in comparison to what they were about to discover when the committee insisted on honoring him. For Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.Masterfully researched and eloquently written, The Professor and the Madman “is the linguistic detective story of the decade.” (William Safire, New York Times Magazine)This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

From the best-selling author of The Professor and the Madman, The Map That Changed the World, and Krakatoa comes a truly wonderful celebration of the English language and of its unrivaled treasure house, the Oxford English Dictionary. Writing with marvelous brio, Winchester first serves up a lightning history of the English language--'so vast, so sprawling, so wonderfully unwieldy'--and pays homage to the great dictionary makers, from'the irredeemably famous'Samuel Johnson to the'short, pale, smug and boastful'schoolmaster from New Hartford, Noah Webster. He then turns his unmatched talent for story-telling to the making of this most venerable of dictionaries. In this fast-paced narrative, the reader will discover lively portraits of such key figures as the brilliant but tubercular first editor Herbert Coleridge (grandson of the poet), the colorful, boisterous Frederick Furnivall (who left the project in a shambles), and James Augustus Henry Murray, who spent a half-century bringing the project to fruition. Winchester lovingly describes the nuts-and-bolts of dictionary making--how unexpectedly tricky the dictionary entry for marzipan was, or how fraternity turned out so much longer and monkey so much more ancient than anticipated--and how bondmaid was left out completely, its slips found lurking under a pile of books long after the B-volume had gone to press. We visit the ugly corrugated iron structure that Murray grandly dubbed the Scriptorium--the Scrippy or the Shed, as locals called it--and meet some of the legion of volunteers, from Fitzedward Hall, a bitter hermit obsessively devoted to the OED, to W. C. Minor, whose story is one of dangerous madness, ineluctable sadness, and ultimate redemption. The Meaning of Everything is a scintillating account of the creation of the greatest monument ever erected to a living language. Simon Winchester's supple, vigorous prose illuminates this dauntingly ambitious project--a seventy-year odyssey to create the grandfather of all word-books, the world's unrivalled uber-dictionary.