Lyons Regional Library

"For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike—either free and equal innocents, or thuggish and warlike. Civilization, we are told, could be achieved only by sacrificing those original freedoms or, alternatively, by taming our baser instincts. David Graeber and David Wengrow show how such theories first emerged in the eighteenth century as a conservative reaction to powerful critiques of European society posed by...

A mysterious event, known as the Change, causes all electronic devices, including computers, telephones, engines, and radios, to quit working, and forces a reorganization of society, with groups of survivors banding together for safety and sustenance, or criminal purposes.

Compelled by recent events to consider all the remarkable qualities that make our country worth preservin, the author has fashioned thirty short essay-love letters in spirit-that, like all his writing, are sharp, original, funny, graceful, and wise.

"When a plague wipes out most of humanity, fifteen-year-old Eric sets out to find his father. Sixty years later, Eric starts another long journey in an America that has long since quit resembling our own, but there are shadows everywhere. Shadows of what the world once was, and shadows from Eric's past. Blood bandits, wovles, fire, feral children, and an insane militia are only a few of the problems Eric faces. Set in Denver, Colorado and the western...

Any explanation of political collapse carries lessons not just for the study of ancient societies, but for the members of all complex societies in both the present and future. Dr Tainter describes nearly two dozen cases of collapse and reviews more than 2000 years of explanations. He then develops a new and far-reaching theory that accounts for collapse among diverse kinds of societies, evaluating his model and clarifying the processes of disintegration...

From the formation of the Universe to today, countless major events have changed the course of life on Earth. Aligned with the online Big History Project supported by Bill Gates, Big History puts a wide-angle lens on 13.8 billion years of remarkable history and shows you how and why we got where we are today. With stunning visual timelines and special CGI reconstructions, you can see history's greatest events. Look back to our origins in the stars,...

In this new collection of incisive essays, Robinson returns to the themes which have preoccupied her work: the role of faith in modern life, the inadequacy of fact, the contradictions inherent in human nature.

Fact: For The first time in human history, the future of our species rests upon the choices of a single generation. Fact: We are at the "zero hour" of our opportunity to solve the clear and present threats to our world and our lives. Fact: Our solutions to the immediate crises including climate change, the global economic meltdown, growing shortages of food and fresh water, rising levels of poverty and disease, and the looming threat of global war...