Mark Kurlansky is an acclaimed author whose works have achieved international recognition and bestseller status. His writing delves into the profound connections between seemingly ordinary subjects and the grand sweep of global history and culture. Kurlansky possesses a distinctive narrative style, skillfully uncovering intricate stories within everyday phenomena. He is a masterful storyteller who reveals the extraordinary in the commonplace.
The book explores the pervasive nature of big lies propagated by governments, politicians, and corporations throughout history. It highlights how these falsehoods manipulate public perception, distort scientific understanding, and rewrite historical narratives. By examining the consequences of such deception, the author argues that these lies hinder society's ability to confront pressing challenges and perpetuate injustices, ultimately destabilizing the world.
From the New York Times-bestselling author of Cod and Salt, a delectable look at the cultural, historical, and gastronomical layers of one of the world's most beloved culinary staples--featuring original illustrations and recipes from around the world.
In The Importance of Not Being Ernest, acclaimed journalist and New York Times bestselling author Mark Kurlansky focuses on the sprawling life and work of Ernest Hemingway while drawing parallels to his own. This memoir and biography contains an in-depth analysis of the places and people in Hemingway's life.
In his new book for young readers Mark Kurlansky's lens is the art of the "big lie," a term coined by Adolf Hitler. Kurlansky has written Big Lies: From Socrates to Social Media for the next stewards of our world. It is not only a history but a how-to manual for seeing through big lies and thinking critically.
"Fly fishing, historian Mark Kurlansky has found, is a battle of wits, fly fisher vs. fish--and the fly fisher does not always (or often) win. The targets--salmon, trout, and char--are highly intelligent, wily, strong, and athletic animals. The allure, Kurlansky finds, is that fly fishing makes catching a fish as difficult as possible. There is an art, too, in the crafting of flies. Beautiful and intricate, some are made with more than two dozen pieces of feather and fur from exotic animals. The cast as well is a matter of grace and rhythm, with different casts and rods yielding varying results. [Kurlansky] spent his boyhood days on the shore of a shallow pond. Here, where tiny fish weaved under a rocky waterfall, he first tied string to a branch, dangled a worm into the water, and unleashed his passion for fishing. Since then, a lifelong love of the sport has led him around the world to many countries, coasts, and rivers--from the wilds of Alaska to Basque country, from the Catskills in New York to Oregon's Columbia River, from Ireland and Norway to Russia and Japan. And, in true Kurlansky fashion, he absorbed every fact, detail, and anecdote along the way."-- Provided by publisher
A tribute to a magnificent species whose cycles of life are entwined with every aspect of nature -- freshwater, saltwater, and land -- and whose survival is inextricably tied to the survival of the planet.
Bees are disappearing but they aren't the only insect species at risk. Populations of fireflies, butterflies, and ladybugs have all been declining in recent years, too. But why?To appreciate what's happening to our bugs now, we need to know the history behind diverse bug populations. For example, how did certain bees evolve to pollinate specific plants perfectly or why did some farmers import ladybugs to serve as crop control? Then we can understand what is happening today to put insect populations at risk. How do human-imposed causes like land development and light pollution impact bugs? What's behind natural occurrences like the mysterious colony collapse disorder that plagues the bee populations.Master nonfiction storyteller Mark Kurlansky shows how much bugs matter in our world...and just might inspire you to take action to save bugs in your own backyard.
Mark Kurlansky's first global food history since the bestselling Cod and Salt; the fascinating cultural, economic and culinary story of milk and all things dairy - with recipes throughout While mother's milk may be the essence of nourishment, it is the milk of other mammals that humans have cultivated ever since the domestication of animals more than 10,000 years ago. Today, milk is a test case in the most pressing issues in food politics, from industrial farming and animal rights to GMOs, the locavore movement and advocates for raw milk, who controversially reject pasteurisation. Profoundly intertwined with human civilisation, milk has a compelling and surprisingly global story to tell, and historian Mark Kurlansky is the perfect person to tell it. Tracing the liquid's diverse history from antiquity to the present, he details its curious and crucial role in cultural evolution, religion, nutrition, politics, and economics.
"Kurlansky presents an insider's view of Havana: the elegant, tattered city he has come to know over more than thirty years. Part cultural history, part travelogue, with recipes, historic engravings, photographs, and Kurlansky's own pen-and-ink drawings throughout, Havana celebrates the city's singular music, literature, baseball, and food; its five centuries of outstanding, neglected architecture; and its ... blend of cultures"-- Provided by publisher
Paper is one of the simplest and most essential pieces of human technology. For the past two millennia, the ability to produce it in ever more efficient ways has supported the proliferation of literacy, media, religion, education, commerce, and art. It has created civilizations, fostering the fomenting of revolutions and the stabilizing of regimes. Witness history's greatest press run, which produced 6.5 billion copies of Mao zhu xi yu lu, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (Zedong), or the fact that Leonardo da Vinci left behind only 15 paintings but 4,000 works on paper. Now, on the cusp of "going paperless"--And amid rampant speculation about the effects of a digitally dependent society-we've come to a world-historic juncture to examine what paper means to civilization. Through tracing paper's evolution, Mark Kurlansky challenges common assumptions about technology's influence, affirming that paper is here to stay. 'Paper' will be the history that guides us forward in the twenty-first century and illuminates our times.