Urban Communities

Search for a winged lion in Venice, a surfer in Sydney, a samba parade in Rio de Janeiro, a historic emperor in Beijing, a famous park in Nairobi, and so much more! Learn how a king of Jaipur built giant tools to study the stars, and whats buried beneath the streets of Paris. Che...ck out ballet in Moscow and sports in Dubai. Each page is a window into the amazing history and vibrant cultures of the world we share. Can you find whats hidden? Kids explore new places and eras as they search for people, animals, and objects in each illustrated scene. Every page is packed with things to discover and colorful characters to spot, making the books fun to revisit again and again. Facts and history bring the colorful images to life. Things to find are presented visually on each spread, so kids not yet reading can search too. Great for parents and young children to read together, and for older kids to try on their own. Hardcover. Full color throughout. 32 pages. 9-3/4 wide x 12 high (24.5 cm wide x 30.5 cm high). Ages 3 to 9. Rights: World (English).
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An intimate portrait of the city after dark.

Cafe culture is flourishing in cities across the world. From London to Seoul, Melbourne to Shanghai and many cities in between, people are flocking to cafes. A recent phenomenon, cafe culture has made its reappearance only since the end of the twentieth century. What is the appea...l of the cafe for urban dwellers? And why now? `Having a coffee' might be a daily ritual, yet it is more than coffee that draws us to the cafe. Cafes are vital social spaces, technically connected workspaces, and businesses that are forging design and food trends. The cafe is the lens through which this book explores major changes occurring in everyday life in cities across the world. Urban regeneration has fuelled the growth of urban amenity and social consumer spaces. The impact of technology, social and workplace transformation, and the ascendency of the design and food industries all find expression in the spaces of the cafe. The specialty coffee movement is a thriving, global presence, uniting cafe staff and customers across geographical borders, with a shared commitment to the connoisseurship of coffee. In the book's global sweep, it examines the development of cafe culture in China, Japan and Australia, as significant and interesting departures from traditional European cafe culture. Australia is a world leader and successful exporter of its unique style of coffee and food. Interviews with cafe patrons and staff illuminate why the cafe has become a meaningful place for many people in the 21st century city.
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Love, envy and revenge in divided Britain

Islamic civilisation was once the envy of the world. From a succession of glittering, cosmopolitan capitals, Islamic Empires lorded it over the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and swathes of the Indian Subcontinent, while Europe cowered feebly at the margins. For centurie...s the caliphate was both ascendant on the battlefield and triumphant in the battle of ideas, its cities unrivalled powerhouses of artistic grandeur, commercial power, spiritual sanctity and forward-looking thinking in which nothing was off limits. Islamic Empires is a history of this rich and diverse civilisation told through its greatest cities over the fifteen centuries of Islam, from its earliest beginnings in Mecca in the seventh century to the astonishing rise of Doha in the twenty-first. It dwells on the most remarkable dynasties ever to lead the Muslim world - the Abbasids of Baghdad, the Umayyads of Damascus and Cordoba, the Merinids of Fez, the Ottomans of Istanbul, the Mughals of India and the Safavids of Isfahan - and some of the most charismatic leaders in Muslim history, from Saladin in Cairo and mighty Tamerlane of Samarkand to the poet-prince Babur in his mountain kingdom of Kabul and the irrepressible Maktoum dynasty of Dubai. It focuses on these fifteen cities at some of the defining moments in Islamic history: from the Prophet Mohammed receiving his divine revelations in Mecca and the First Crusade of 1099 to the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 and the phenomenal creation of the merchant republic of Beirut in the nineteenth century. In this epic new history Justin Marozzi weaves a grand narrative of glory and destruction, providing a timely reminder of what made Islamic civilisation the greatest on earth.
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