20th Century Mind Openers ... and bogglers.
Explore mind-expanding 20th-century books that open and boggle the mind—from Marquez’s magical realism to Watson’s DNA discovery and philosophical journeys.
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Black Lamb and Grey Falcon
by Rebecca West
Shares the author's impressions of Yugoslavia, and describes the history of the region and the sources of its political problems
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The Double Helix
by James D. Watson
The classic personal account of Watson and Crick’s groundbreaking discovery of the structure of DNA, now with an introduction by Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind. By identifying the structure of DNA, the molecule of life, Francis Crick and James Watson revolutionized biochemistry and won themselves a Nobel Prize. At the time, Watson was only twenty-four, a young scientist hungry to make his mark. His uncompromisingly honest account of the heady days of their thrilling sprint against other world-class researchers to solve one of science’s greatest mysteries gives a dazzlingly clear picture of a world of brilliant scientists with great gifts, very human ambitions, and bitter rivalries. With humility unspoiled by false modesty, Watson relates his and Crick’s desperate efforts to beat Linus Pauling to the Holy Grail of life sciences, the identification of the basic building block of life. Never has a scientist been so truthful in capturing in words the flavor of his work.
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One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The rise and fall, birth and death, of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendía family.
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The Raj Quartet, Volume 1
by Paul Scott
In August of 1942, a young Englishwoman is raped in an Indian garden, and her fate and that of an elderly English school teacher entwine.
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The Sacred and the Profane
by Mircea Eliade
Famed historian of religion Mircea Eliade observes that even moderns who proclaim themselves residents of a completely profane world are still unconsciously nourished by the memory of the sacred. Eliade traces manifestations of the sacred from primitive to modern times in terms of space, time, nature, and the cosmos. In doing so he shows how the total human experience of the religious man compares with that of the nonreligious. This book serves as an excellent introduction to the history of religion, but its perspective also emcompasses philosophical anthropology, phenomenology, and psychology. It will appeal to anyone seeking to discover the potential dimensions of human existence. -- P. [4] of cover.
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The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II, Vol. 1
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