Books about Half century from Amazon.com

The world is an uncertain place, which is why the future and the unknown absolutely fascinate us. Veteran television journalist Mike Wallace asked the question "What will life be like 50 years from now?" to sixty of the world's greatest minds. Their responses offer a fascinating glimpse into the cultural, scientific, political, and spiritual moods of the times. Edited and with an introduction by Mike Wallace, this book provides an imaginative and thought-provoking look into our collective soul and the critical issues that underlie our hopes, prayers, fears, and dreams for life in the 21st century.

Contributors include former presidents, leading scientists, noted writers and artists, respected religious leaders, and current political figures, including:

• Vint Cerf, Vice President of Google; known as a "Father of the Internet"
• Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., a geneticist who led the Human Genome Project
• Dr. Wanda Jones, Director of the Office on Women's Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Ray Kurzweil, an inventor whose developments include the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind and the first text-to-speech synthesizer
• General James E. Cartwright, Commander of United States Strategic Command
• Kim Dae-jung, the former President of the Republic of Korea
• Ronald Noble, Secretary General of Interpol
• Norman Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize winner; called "the father of the Green Revolution"
• Carol Bellamy, former Executive Director UNICEF, first former volunteer to serve as director of Peace Corp, and current president and CEO of World Learning
• Gerardus 't Hooft, Professor of Theoretical Physics at Utrecht University in the Netherlands; Nobel Prize in Physics
• Craig Newmark, Internet pioneer and founder of craigslist

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“Part treatise, part miscellany, unfailingly entertaining.”
–The New York Times

“A small pearl of a book . . . a great tale of the growth of a modern city as seen through the rise and fall of the lowly oyster.”
–Rocky Mountain News

Award-winning author Mark Kurlansky tells the remarkable story of New York by following the trajectory of one of its most fascinating inhabitants–the oyster.
For centuries New York was famous for this particular shellfish, which until the early 1900s played such a dominant a role in the city’s life that the abundant bivalves were Gotham’s most celebrated export, a staple food for all classes, and a natural filtration system for the city’s congested waterways.

Filled with cultural, historical, and culinary insight–along with historic recipes, maps, drawings, and photos–this dynamic narrative sweeps readers from the seventeenth-century founding of New York to the death of its oyster beds and the rise of America’s environmentalist movement, from the oyster cellars of the rough-and-tumble Five Points slums to Manhattan’s Gilded Age dining chambers. With The Big Oyster, Mark Kurlansky serves up history at its most engrossing, entertaining, and delicious.

“Suffused with [Kurlansky’s] pleasure in exploring the city across ground that hasn’t already been covered with other writers’ footprints.”
–Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Fascinating stuff . . . [Kurlansky] has a keen eye for odd facts and natural detail.”
–The Wall Street Journal

“Kurlansky packs his breezy book with terrific anecdotes.”
–Entertainment Weekly

“Magnificent . . . a towering accomplishment.”
–Associated Press
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This exciting book documents the complete decade-by-decade story of one of the world's most important and influential electric guitars The Gibson Les Paul turned 50 years old in 2002, and since its invention, its sweet, urgent sound has been used by a host of major rock players - from Eric Clapton in Cream to Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols, from Joe Walsh in The Eagles to Slash of Guns N'Roses. Unique color photographs feature a multitude of luscious Les Paul models and highlight great players in action with their Les Paul guitars. Meticulous listings for the collector document every model produced from 1952 to the present day. 50 Years of the Gibson Les Paul is a beautiful, detailed examination of six decades of great guitars and the fine musicians inspired to play them.

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From Sea to Shining Sea for Children tells Americas story during its first fifty years. These were the days of Benjamin Franklin and Daniel Boone, Francis Asbury and Charles Finney, Andrew Jackson and Sam Houston. During these years Conestoga wagons and circuit riders became famous, Indian wars and slavery were major concerns, and the Louisiana Purchase and the Oregon Trail expanded Americas boundaries from sea to shining sea. But God was also at work in the young nation, giving its settlers exciting opportunities to shape its history and to be His people. This book, written primarily for young people in the middle grades, includes study questions for each chapter and helps its readers see Gods part in American history..
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Scientists love to speculate about the direction research and technology will take us, and editor John Brockman has given a stellar panel free rein to imagine the future in The Next Fifty Years. From brain-swapping and the hunt for extraterrestrials to the genetic elimination of unhappiness and a new scientific morality, the ideas in this book are wild and thought-provoking. The list of scientists and thinkers who participate is impressive: Lee Smolin and Martin Rees on cosmology; Ian Stewart on mathematics; and Richard Dawkins and Paul Davies on the life sciences, just to name a few. Many of the authors remind readers that science has changed a lot since the blind optimism of the early 20th century, and they are unanimously aware of the potential consequences of the developments they describe. Fifty years is a long time in the information age, and these essays do a credible and entertaining job of guessing where we're going. --Therese Littleton.
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What began 50 years ago, when
two high-school English teachers
in an Indiana farm community
began writing songs to express
spiritual insights, has become a
volume of church standards sung
the world over. Bill and Gloria
Gaither's songs have found permanent
homes in people's hearts
and hymnals, making this couple
among the most prolific and popular
in Christian music history. Now
fans and music lovers can see inside
the inspiration and life events
that created the songs they sing
most, including Because He Lives,
There's Something About That Name, and The Family of
God. In her trademark elegant prose, Gloria has created a
beautiful keepsake for all those who love Christian music
and its history..
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The denouement of Philip Winter's ill begotten engagement to featherbrained Rose Birkett is enacted in full view of Southbridge School's extended family during a holiday break. Everyone, including her parents, is rooting for Philip's escape which occurs when Rose breaks it off as the utter dullness of being engaged overwhelms her. Along the way, we enjoy the tea party where Rose, "through sheer want of personality brings the talk to her own level" and confounds her audience by insisting that Hamlet and Shakespeare are both names of plays (and probably the same one).

As in many of Thirkell's books, the characters refer to a body of literature, both classic and modern, with a casualness that would be improbable today; the assumption of a shared background and culture having been lost. The ceremony of the "Cleaning of the Pond" by Lydia, Eric Swan and a much improved Tony Morland brings the holiday to a satisfactory conclusion as does a match between Kate Keith and Everard Carter.

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From the Boy Scouts and the U.S. military to marriage and adoption, the gay civil rights movement has exploded on the national stage.Eric Marcus takes us back in time to the earliest days of that struggle in a newly revised and thoroughly updated edition of Making History, originally published in 1992.Using the heart-felt stories of more than 60 people, he carries us through the compelling five-decade battle that has changed the fabric of American society.

The rich tapestry that emerges from Making Gay History includes the inspiring voices of teenagers and grandparents, journalists and housewives, from the little known Dr. Evelyn Hooker and Morty Manford to former Vice President Al Gore, Ellen DeGeneres, and Abigail Van Buren. Together, these many stories bear witness to a time of astonishing change as gay and lesbian people have struggled against prejudice and fought for equal rights under the law.

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