The conventional wisdom says that the devolution of Classic Maya civilization occurred because its population grew too large and dense to be supported by primitive neotropical farming methods, resulting in debilitating famines and internecine struggles. Using research on contemporary Maya farming techniques and important new archaeological research, Ford and Nigh refute this Malthusian explanation of events in ancient Central America and posit a radical alternative theory. The authors-show that ancient Maya farmers developed ingenious, sustainable woodland techniques to cultivate numerous food plants (including the staple maize);-examine both contemporary tropical farming techniques and the archaeological record (particularly regarding climate) to reach their conclusions;-make the argument that these ancient techniques, still in use today, can support significant populations over long periods of time.
Using studies on contemporary Maya farming techniques and important new archaeological research, the authors show that the ancient Maya were able to support, sustainably, a vast population by farming the forest—thus refuting the common notion that Maya civilization devolved due to overpopulation and famine.
With contributions from seven of Mexico's finest journalists, this is reportage at its bravest and most necessary - it has the power to change the world's view of their country, and by the force of its truth, to start to heal the country's many sorrows. Supported the Arts Council Grant's for the Arts Programme and by PEN Promotes Veering between carnival and apocalypse, Mexico has in the last ten years become the epicentre of the international drug trade. The so-called "war on drugs" has been a brutal and chaotic failure (more than 160,000 lives have been lost). The drug cartels and the forces of law and order are often in collusion, corruption is everywhere. Life is cheap and inconvenient people - the poor, the unlucky, the honest or the inquisitive - can be "disappeared" leaving not a trace behind (in September 2015, more than 26,798 were officially registered as "not located"). Yet people in all walks of life have refused to give up. Diego Enrique Osorno and Juan Villoro tell stories of teenage prostitution and Mexico's street children. Anabel Hernández and Emiliano Ruiz Parra give chilling accounts of the "disappearance" of forty-three students and the murder of a self-educated land lawyer. Sergio González Rodríguez and Marcela Turati dissect the impact of the violence on the victims and those left behind, while Lydia Cacho contributes a journal of what it is like to live every day of your life under threat of death. Reading these accounts we begin to understand the true nature of the meltdown of democracy, obscured by lurid headlines, and the sheer physical and intellectual courage needed to oppose it.
The definitive account of the disappearance of forty-three Mexican students On September 26, 2014, a party of students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College were en route to a protest when intercepted by local police. A confrontation ensued. Come the morning, the students were nowhere to be found. The crime that had transpired and the resultant cover-up brought the profound depths of corruption in the Mexican government and police force—as well as the vulnerability of ordinary Mexicans—into stark relief. Investigative reporter Anabel Hernández reconstructs the terrible events of that night and its aftermath, giving us the most complete picture available. Her sources are unparalleled. In researching this book, she secured access to internal government documents that have not been made public and to surveillance footage the government has tried to hide and destroy. Hernández demolishes the Mexican state’s official version of events, which the Peña Nieto government cynically dubbed the “historic truth.” As her research shows, state officials at all levels, from police and prosecutors to the upper echelons of government, conspired to put together a fake case, concealing and manipulating evidence, and arresting and torturing dozens of “suspects,” procuring forced confessions to back up the official lie. By following the role of the various Mexican state agencies through the events in such remarkable detail, A Massacre in Mexico shows with exacting precision precisely who is responsible for this monumental crime and who needs to be held accountable.
What kind of person are you, Alex Tanner? How would you describe yourself?' 'Curious,' I said. 'I'd call myself curious. I like to find things out.' It's often proved my downfall . . . In her childhood Alex dreamt of being a private eye. Actually she'd wanted to be a male private eye in Los Angeles, working Philip Marlowe's patch; instead she's settled for being a freelance TV researcher and private investigator based in Notting Hill . . . And her latest investigation takes her to an exclusive boys' boarding school, Rissington Abbey. Her brief: to discover the state of mind of young Oliver de Sauvigny Desmoulins in the days before his drowning. But Alex soon begins to hear chilling reports about Rissington Abbey. Unfortunately she ignores them - until the second death . . .
Through a close study of local demographies and topographies, this study considers patterns of piety, charity and patronage, and by extension, the development of art and architecture in Siena's southern contado during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Garrisoning the Borderlands of Medieval Siena describes Sant'Angelo in Colle as a designated 'castello di frontiera' under the Sienese Government of the Nine (1287-1355), against the background of Siena's military and economic buoyancy during the early fourteenth century. At the same time, mining thoroughly the Tax Record of 1320 and the Boundary Registration of 1318 and presenting a large number of individual records that have not been published before-including wills, tenancy agreements, land exchange and sharecropping contracts-the author constructs a portrait of the people, buildings and surrounding countryside of Sant'Angelo in Colle. Finally, adopting the methodological approach of first considering patterns of ownership of land and property in the context of identifying potential patrons of art, the study considers patterns of piety and charity established in the early fourteenth-century village and the extent to which these affected the development of the urban fabric and the embellishment of key buildings in medieval Sant'Angelo in Colle.
For most people, a diagnosis of cystic fibrosis means the certainty of a life ended too soon. But for Isabel Stenzel Byrnes and Anabel Stenzel, twin girls with the disease, what began as a family’s stubborn determination grew into a miracle. The tragedy of CF has been touchingly recounted in such books as Frank Deford’s Alex: The Life of a Child, but The Power of Two is the first book to portray the symbiotic relationship of twins who share this life-threatening disease through adulthood.Isabel and Anabel tell of their lifelong struggle to pursue normal lives with cystic fibrosis while grappling with the realization that they will die young. Their story reflects the physical and emotional challenges of a particularly aggressive form of CF and is an honest and gripping portrayal of the daily struggle associated with long-term hospitalization, the impact of chronic illness on marriage and family, and the importance of a support network to continuing survival. Born in 1972, seventeen years before scientists discovered the genetic mutation that causes CF, the Stenzel twins endured the daily regimen of chest percussion, frequent doctor visits, and lengthy hospitalizations. But in the face of innumerable setbacks, their deep-seated dependence on each other allowed them to survive long enough to reap the benefits of the miraculous lung transplants that marked a turning point in their lives: “We have an old life—one of growing up with chronic illness—and anew life—one of opportunities and gifts we have never imagined before.” In this memoir, they pay tribute to the people who shaped their experience. These two remarkable sisters have much to teach about the power of perseverance—and about the ultimate power of hope.
Is that Alex Tanner, private investigator?' It was a female voice. British. 'Yes.' 'I'm a friend of Polly's. She said you'd help me.' 'To do what?' 'To find the love of my life.' Alex Tanner, TV researcher and occasional PI, jumps at the chance of a short assignment in Chicago. But she's only been in the Windy City a few hours when a beautiful young model called Jams Treliving knocks on her door. The father of her unborn child has vanished - and she begs Alex to find him. Unfortunately Jams can offer few clues on where to look. Except that Jacob was in the process of 'finding himself' - and he believed all his answers lay 'in the loop' . . .
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