Most Popular Books by Ian Graham

Discover the most amazing gadget designs since 1900. From the Japanese Tamagotchi to the iPhone, this book charts the story of design that led to some amazing games and gadgets. We look at the needs that prompted their design, the designers responsible for breaking boundariesand the technology that made them possible.

In this fascinating biography, the first ever published about Alfred Maudslay (1850-1931), Ian Graham describes this extraordinary Englishman and his pioneering investigations of the ancient Maya ruins. Maudslay, the grandson of a famous English inventor and engineer, spent his formative adult years in the South Seas as a junior official in Great Britain’s Colonial Office. Despite his exotic experiences, he did not find his true vocation until the age of thirty-one, when he arrived in Guatemala. Maudslay played a crucial role in exploring and documenting the monuments and architecture of the ancient Maya ruins at Palengue Copán, Chichén Itzá, and other sites previously unknown. His photographs and plaster casts have proven to be invaluable in the deciphering of Maya hieroglyphics. Personal resources allowed him to undertake fieldwork at a time when no institution provided such support. He made plaster casts of large stone monuments, accurate maps of sites, and painstaking recordings of inscriptions. His Biologia Centrali-Americana, a multivolume compendium of photographs, drawings, plans, and text published almost a century ago, remains an essential foundation for Maya studies. Perhaps Maudslay’s greatest legacy is magnificent collection of glass-negative photographs, many of which are reproduced in this book.

Information on our bodies, how things work, great inventions, flight, and great buildings.

An introduction to the geography, government, economy, culture, and people of the Caribbean Area.

This book explians what happens through the stages of a car''s life cycle, from design & construction to sale to use to disposal. Covers such concepts as prototyping, production, and recycling.

This book explains the evidence that supports our understanding of the solar system, including the very latest discoveries.

Using a question-and-answer format, describes rock, the material that most people give little thought to but which forms the surface of the earth, some of the processes involving it, and how it is useful to civilization.

Designed for readers from grade 6 and up, this lavishly illustrated set provides comprehensive coverage of the history of aviation, including space flight, as well as the science and technology on which it depends. Detailed A-Z entries trace the development of human flight from ancient myths and legends through today''s space exploration, highlighting scientific discoveries and innovations that made aviation possible."IFlight and Motion" also celebrates the contributions and achievements of the pioneers and visionaries of air and space flight, from inventors and innovators to pilots, astronauts, and cosmonauts. Detailed illustrated diagrams give readers a general understanding of the mechanics of flight and of the physics and technology involved. The set also highlights key air and spacecrafts that have made a unique mark in the history of flight. It features more than 500 full-color and black-and-white photos and illustrations, and also includes a timeline, a listing of museums and exhibits, further reading lists, a comprehensive glossary, and general and subject indexes.

Warplanes have the ability to be the world''s greatest, if we want to build them in such a way. Find out why these machines are considered the greatest in the world. This title is filled with detailed facts and stunning color photography.

In 1965, an impoverished elderly woman was found dead in Nice, France. Her death marked the end of an era; she was the last of the great courtesans. Known as La Belle Otero, she was a volcanic Spanish beauty whose patrons included Kaiser Wilhelm II, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) and Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia. She accumulated an enormous fortune, but gambled it all away. Scarlet Women tells her story and many more, including: Marie Duplessis, who inspired characters by both Dumas and Verdi; Clara Ward, a rare American courtesan who hunted for a European aristocrat, but having married a Belgian prince, ran away with a gypsy violinist; Ninon de L''Enclos, who was offered 50,000 crowns by Cardinal Richelieu for one night. Money left in her will paid for Voltaire''s education. Courtesans were an elite group of talented, professional mistresses. The most successful became wealthy and famous in their own right. While they led charmed lives, they occupied a curious position: they enjoyed freedom and political power unknown to most women, but they were ostracised by polite society. From the hetaerae of ancient Greece to the cortigiani onesti of 16th century Venice, the oiran of Edo-period Japan to the demimondaines of 19th century France, this captivating book--perfect for readers of A Treasury of Royal Scandals--uncovers the rich, colorful lives of these women who dared to pursue fortunes outside their societies'' norms.

Poetry. Fiction. Literary Nonfiction. Asian American Studies. ENDOU is a Josey Foo primer, including a quixotic allegory of death featuring the three-legged dog Karl Barx in paper cut-out collages, lyric poems, and prose. ENDOU is an original dream in words for "fuel, warmth, sustenance." "Josey''s poems are a gift to America''s poetry. They are a quilt made of the bleached, handmade patterns of migrant transformation"—Russell Leong.

For anyone who ever wanted to be an archaeologist, Ian Graham could be a hero. This lively memoir chronicles Graham''s career as the last explorer and a fierce advocate for the protection and preservation of Maya sites and monuments across Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. It is also full of adventure and high society, for the self-deprecating Graham traveled to remote lands such as Afghanistan in wonderful company. He tells entertaining stories about his encounters with a host of notables beginning with Rudyard Kipling, a family friend from Graham''s childhood. Born in 1923 into an aristocratic family descended from Oliver Cromwell, Ian Graham was educated at Winchester, Cambridge, and Trinity College, Dublin. His career in Mesoamerican archaeology can be said to have begun in 1959 when he turned south in his Rolls Royce and began traveling through the Maya lowlands photographing ruins. He has worked as an artist, cartographer, and photographer, and has mapped and documented inscriptions at hundreds of Maya sites, persevering under rugged field conditions. Graham is best known as the founding director of the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions Program at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. He was awarded a MacArthur Foundation genius grant in 1981, and he remained the Maya Corpus program director until his retirement in 2004. Graham''s careful recordings of Maya inscriptions are often credited with making the deciphering of Maya hieroglyphics possible. But it is the romance of his work and the graceful conversational style of his writing that make this autobiography must reading not just for Mayanists but for anyone with a taste for the adventure of archaeology.

Discover the most amazing building designs since 1900. From the Empire State Building to modern design, this book charts the story of design that led to some amazing games and gadgets. We look at the needs that prompted their design, the architects responsible for breaking boundariesand the technology that made them possible.

An introduction to film and photography, this book explores: cameras and types of film; digital cameras; satellite sensors; modern technology in the cinema; holograms and fractals, space photogaphy; filming inside the body; underwater photography and much more

Text and drawings explain the workings of certain everyday items including bicycles, traffic lights, and computers.

Describes the development of airplanes over the years and provides information about various models while focusing on those characteristics which promote speed in flight.

From theory to reality, the controversial science examined in this series is sure to capture the attention and interest of readers. Each book has been designed to prompt a thought-provoking assessment of scientific research, principles, and techniques, with a focus on the daunting questions they pose for the future of humanity.

Giving information about the energy around us, this book on wind power looks at the most up-to-date advances in technology to harness the energy of winds to power turbines. It also demonstrates how windmills pump water; grind grain; power ships; and supply us with electricity. It shows where we can look for new sources of energy and how we can limit the damage to the environment. Case studies focus on specific examples and fact boxes provide information and statistics on both the modern and indust world.