Living World History

The golden traditions of Christmas—gifts, wreaths, stockings, carols, mistletoe, and more—infuse your celebration of the season with meaning and glowing memories. And, in ways you may not realize, they also point you to the birth of Christ. Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas reveals the people, places, and events that shaped the best-loved customs of this merriest of holidays.

When Adéla discovers she has a terminal illness, she leaves behind her native Czech village for a chance at reuniting in America with Tereza, the daughter she gave up at birth, decades earlier. But the country Adéla experienced as a young woman, when she eloped with a filmmaker and starred in his cult sci-fi movie, has changed entirely. In 2030, America is ruled by an authoritarian government increasingly closed off to the rest of the world.

June 6, 1944. There is so much work to be done. The thought depresses me, but I know that I can’t dwell on it too much. If I am to survive the war and find my way to Amélie in Paris, I have to stay on my guard and be ready for anything. At the thought of Paris, I lean back. Memories of those moments remain with me. After almost five years of separation, the promises we made to each other remain. I need to find her. First, I just have to survive one of the most significant battles yet, the one they are calling D-Day. Reaching Paris and finding Amélie has never felt so impossible.

This book will take you back so that you can see the Holocaust through the eyes of a German in World War 2. You'll learn about what growing up in Germany was like during the period of the Holocaust and World War 2 - a period of nationalism and loyalty to the state, where German citizens perceived themselves as superior and were against the Jews in every possible way.

In the indulgence of their egotistical ambitions and reckless whims, kings, conquerors and dictators have frequently presented a spectacle, sometimes comic but more often tragic in its results, that the authors have tried to bring back to life in this book. Here are living biographies of twenty famous rulers including: King Solomon, Caesar, Ivan the Terrible and more.

Weaving myths and legends, author and audio professional Prem Kishore brings the culture and traditions of India to the listener in a fascinating narrative. She takes the listener on a journey, bringing the varied facets of India to life as she provokes the reader's curiosity by speaking on festivals, gods and goddesses, rituals, religions, dance, music, food, and more.

In 1939, Jonathan Lichtenstein's father Hans escaped Nazi-occupied Berlin as a child refugee on the Kindertransport. Almost every member of his family died after Kristallnacht, and, upon arriving in England to make his way in the world alone, Hans turned his back on his German Jewish culture. Growing up in post-war rural Wales where the conflict was never spoken of, Jonathan and his siblings were at a loss to understand their father's relentless drive and sometimes eccentric behavior. As Hans enters old age, he and Jonathan set out to retrace his journey back to Berlin.

After the Berlin Wall fell, a group of Christian colleges in the US seized the opportunity to begin strategic faculty and student exchanges with universities inside the Soviet Union. They could not have foreseen the doors that would open next. During a 1990 visit to Russia, John Bernbaum and his colleagues received a surprising invitation from a Russian government official: come help build a faith-based university in Moscow. Thus, after 70 years of fierce religious persecution under communism, the Russian-American Christian University (RACU) was born.

In this audiobook James Allen makes a trenchant examination of one of the great conundrums of philosophy and religion: the problem of evil. As the author states in the foreword: All the problems of life, whether they be social, political, or religious, subsist in ignorance and wrong living. As they are solved in the heart of each individual, they will be solved in the mass of men.

America's Favorite Holidays explores how five of America's culturally important holidays - Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween, and Thanksgiving - came to be what they are today, seasonal and religious celebrations heavily influenced by modern popular culture.

Many of us recognize the declining influence of the church today. And while we may be interested in doing something to reverse the trend, few of us realize we are part of the problem - especially when we engage the culture in ways that prevent the joy of God from being seen. Greg Forster comes to our aid by first laying out the historical factors that have contributed to the church’s loss of influence in our society today. He then explores the significance of foundational practices such as preaching, worship, and discipleship.

The Best Job in the World is the story of how following your passions can lead to life-changing opportunities. Adventurer Ben Southall shares his experiences and lessons learned as the winner of the inaugural Tourism Queensland's Best Job in the World campaign, and reveals how this has led to ongoing opportunities since. Part autobiography, part insight into the power of a unique marketing campaign, this book follows Ben's journey - from leaving the UK on his own expedition around Africa to his new role as caretaker of Hamilton Island on the Great Barrier Reef.

In The Progress Paradox, Gregg Easterbrook draws upon three decades of wide-ranging research and thinking to make the persuasive assertion that almost all aspects of Western life have vastly improved in the past century—and yet today, most men and women feel less happy than in previous generations. Why this is so and what we should do about it is the subject of this book.

唐朝，自建国以来秉承着兼容并蓄的态度，海纳百川，随着商业贸易范围在海陆的不断扩大，唐文化在世界上的影响力不断提升，现代生活都有唐朝的影子……唐朝，自建國以來秉承著兼容並蓄的態度，海納百川，隨著商業貿易範圍在海陸的不斷擴大，唐文化在世界上的影響力不斷提升，現代生活都有唐朝的影子……

Intimate and richly detailed, The Beauty of Living begins with E. E. Cummings's Cambridge upbringing and his relationship with his socially progressive but domestically domineering father. It follows Cummings through his undergraduate experience at Harvard, where he fell into a circle of aspiring writers including John Dos Passos, who became a lifelong friend. Steeped in classical paganism and literary Decadence, Cummings and his friends rode the explosion of Cubism, Futurism, Imagism, and other "modern" movements in the arts.

A new world thats both global and local - glocal - is being born. What does this look like for believers and the church? How can we adapt to this new world? Glocalization offers an intriguing look at the future of Christianity and how individuals and churches can connect to the future.

Modern readers of the New Testament often notice its varying ideas about women. Some passages encouraged women to be submissive and remain silent. Yet in others, women characters owned property, headed households, or spoke with approval. Women in the New Testament World helps listeners understand this conflicting evidence. It argues that social norms of the time encouraged traditional feminine virtues. However, as Susan Hylen argues, women in the culture enacted these virtues in a variety of ways, including active leadership in households, associations, and cities.

As World War II raged, millions of men and women confronted injury, destruction, separation from home and loved ones, chaos, and death. These challenges and traumas and many others forced an entire generation of everyday heroes to take stock of their lives. And in the process, many turned to God in ways they never had before. In Faith Under Fire, you'll experience scenes of astonishing bravery, moments of heart-breaking loss, and a pervasive sense of love for God, neighbor, and country that was strong enough to transcend denominational and national differences.

Fifteen-year-old Carolyn Maull McKinstry was just a few feet away when the Klan - planted bomb that killed four of her friends exploded in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. It was one of the seminal moments in the Civil Rights movement, a sad day in American history…and the turning point in a young girl's life.

The American church has a history of creating and maintaining racist ideas and practices. This audio original recording from Jemar Tisby is based on the themes introduced in The Color of Compromise, but goes a step further, showing how compromise has three distinct colors: green, white, and red. Green represents the greed than accompanies support of racism. It is white, representing the white supremacy that views white people as inherently superior to other skin colors. And it is red, representing the blood that has been spilled and continues to be shed to fight against racism.