Acclaimed national security columnist–and noted cultural critic–Fred Kaplan looks past the 1960s to the year that really changed America

Conventional historical wisdom focuses on the sixties as the era of pivotal change that swept the nation, yet, as Fred Kaplan argues, it was 1959 that ushered in the wave of tremendous cultural, political, and scientific shifts that would play out in the turbulent decades that followed. Pop culture exploded in upheaval with the rise of artists like Jasper Johns, Norman Mailer, Allen Ginsberg, and Miles Davis. Court rulings unshackled previously banned books. Political power broadened with the onset of Civil Rights laws and protests. The sexual and feminist revolutions took their first steps with the birth control pill. America entered the war in Vietnam, and a new style in superpower diplomacy took hold. The invention of the microchip launched the Computer Age, and the Space Race put a new twist on the frontier myth. Dr...
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A Brief History of Ancient Astrology explores the theory and practice of astrology from Babylon to Ancient Greece and Rome and its cultural and political impact on ancient societies.

• Discusses the union between early astrology and astronomy, in contrast to the modern dichotomy between science and superstition.
  
• Explains the ancient understanding of the zodiac and its twelve signs, the seven planets, and the fixed circle of places against which the signs and planets revolve.
  
• Demonstrates how to construct and interpret a horoscope in the ancient manner, using original ancient horoscopes and handbooks.
  
• Considers the relevance of ancient astrology today.

The act of death itself and the rituals surrounding it vary enormously and shed a fascinating light on the cultures of which they are a part. In this brief and lively history, Douglas Davies – internationally acknowledged as one of the leading experts in this field – tackles some of the most significant aspects of death and weaves them into a compelling story about our changing attitudes to dying.

In this brief history, philosopher Nicholas White reviews 2,500 years of philosophical thought about happiness.

• Addresses key questions such as: What is happiness? Should happiness play such a dominant role in our lives? How can we deal with conflicts between the various things that make us happy?
  
• Considers the ways in which major thinkers from antiquity to the modern day have treated happiness: from Plato’s notion of the harmony of the soul, through to Nietzsche’s championing of conflict over harmony.
  
• Relates questions about happiness to ethics and to practical philosophy.