Washoe County Library System

"A structural engineer examines the seven most basic building blocks of engineering that have shaped the modern world. Some of humanity’s mightiest engineering achievements are small in scale―and, without them, the complex machinery on which our modern world runs would not exist. In Nuts and Bolts, structural engineer Roma Agrawal examines seven of these extraordinary elements: the nail, the wheel, the spring, the magnet, the lens, the string,...

"In today's contentious political climate, understanding religion's role in American government is more important than ever. Christian nationalists assert that our nation was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and advocate an agenda based on this popular historical claim. But is this belief true? The Founding Myth answers the question once and for all. Andrew L. Seidel, a constitutional attorney at the Freedom from Religion Foundation, builds...

Photographs and text explore such inventions as the wheel, gears, levers, clocks, telephones, and rocket engines.

Examines part, but not all, of the evidence surrounding some of history's unsolved mysteries, from why the pyramids were built to whether or not there was a conspiracy to kill President John F. Kennedy.

No other form of communication reaches people in as many parts of the world as television. Broadcasts are received by audiences in every country, in nearly every language. This fascinating history follows the evolution of television from early technology to its development as the world's most popular global medium. The book also takes a close up look at the contributions of different inventors, the growth of broadcasting, and the cultural implications...

In this book, Richard W. Bulliet focuses on three major phases in the evolution of the wheel and their relationship to the needs and ambitions of human society. He begins in 4000 B.C.E. with the first wheels affixed to axles. He then follows with the innovation of wheels turning independently on their axles and concludes five thousand years later with the caster, a single rotating and pivoting wheel. Bulliet's most interesting finding is that a simple...

A history of the key technologies that made each stage of human civilization possible details the science, engineering, mathematics, art, music, philosophy, facts and figures required for even the most clueless time traveler to build a civilization.