Non-Fiction Books
Traces the history of tea, and describes the author's experiences visiting the places where the tea industry began
Jason Goodwin, inspired by his grandmothers who spent their lives in China and India observing the custom of afternoon tea, set off to explore the relics of this imperial age and its worldwide trade, delving into the extraordinary history of tea.Evoking a vanished world, he follows the origin of tea, its use, influence and importance, from the the Canton factories through the establishment of British India and the Opium Wars, all the way to that great tea metropolis, London.
On Foot to the Golden Horn recounts Jason Goodwin’s breathtaking journey with two companions through Eastern Europe from the dikes and marshes of Poland’s Baltic coast across to the Golden Horn in Istanbul. Along the way, they sleep in haystacks, drink with Gypsies, and play with Ceaucescu’s orphans, meeting with blatant hostility and overwhelming hospitality as an older Europe tries to settle with itself, and a new one struggles to be born. It is the story of three friends’ walk through some of the world’s most beautiful and tragic places, and of their encounters with a varied and vivid cast of characters.
"A work of dazzling beauty...the rare coming together of historical scholarship and curiosity about distant places with luminous writing." -- The New York Times Book Review Since the Turks first shattered the glory of the French crusaders in 1396, the Ottoman Empire has exerted a long, strong pull on Western minds. For six hundred years, the Empire swelled and declined. Islamic, martial, civilized, and tolerant, in three centuries it advanced from the dusty foothills of Anatolia to rule on the Danube and the Nile; at the Empire's height, Indian rajahs and the kings of France beseeched its aid. For the next three hundred years the Empire seemed ready to collapse, a prodigy of survival and decay. Early in the twentieth century it fell. In this dazzling evocation of its power, Jason Goodwin explores how the Ottomans rose and how, against all odds, they lingered on. In the process he unfolds a sequence of mysteries, triumphs, treasures, and terrors unknown to most American readers. This was a place where pillows spoke and birds were fed in the snow; where time itself unfolded at a different rate and clocks were banned; where sounds were different, and even the hyacinths too strong to sniff. Dramatic and passionate, comic and gruesome, Lords of the Horizons is a history, a travel book, and a vision of a lost world all in one.
Elisha Graves Otis invented the safe elevator almost by accident. In doing so he made possible the construction of the skyscraper and laid the technical foundation for dynamic urban centers around the world.
From the author of Lords of the Horizons, the fascinating story of a new kind of money for a new world Money has always been at the heart of the American experience. Paper money, invented in Boston in 1698, was a classic of American ingenuity-and American disregard for authority and tradition. With the wry and admiring eye of a modern Tocqueville, Jason Goodwin has written a biography of the dollar, giving us the story of its astonishing career through the wilds of American history. Greenback looks at the dollar over the years as a form of art, a kind of advertising, a reflection of American attitudes, and a builder of empires. Goodwin shows us how the dollar rolled out the frontier and peopled the Plains; how it erected the great cities; how it expressed the urges of democracy and opportunity. And, above all, Goodwin introduces us to the people who championed-or ambushed-the dollar over the years: presidents, artists, pioneers, and frontiersmen; bankers, shady and upright; safecrackers, crooks, and dreamers of every stripe. It's a vast and colorful cast of characters, who all agreed on one thing: getting the money right was the key to unlocking liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Greenback delves into folklore and the development of printing, investigates wildcats and counterfeiters, explains why a buck is a buck and how Dixie got its name. Like Goodwin's Lords of the Horizons , another story of empire, Greenback brings together an array of quirky detail and surprising-often hilarious-anecdote to tell the story of America through its best-beloved product.
"People of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." Those words come from Henry Ford, and they are truer today than ever. Banks continue to purchase assets with other people's money, which contributed to the global debt crisis that devastated so many individuals and families. Jason Goodwin, a lifelong student of the economy, outlines how the banking and monetary system work in this book that not only informs but will make you downright angry. He focuses on topics such as - countries like Greece that are hamstrung by massive debt, - causes of the global debt crisis, and - economic policies that make it difficult for households to pay their bills and get ahead in life. He also examines how banks become investors when companies offer shares to the public via initial public offerings. Banks use other people's money to become the largest investors of these companies, which can cause massive socio-economic problems. Get truthful answers on why the world is suffering a debt crisis along with practical solutions to solve the problem with this insightful overview of the global economy.
"Erudite and insightful, yet most of all practical. Don't step out in London without it." - The British Pilgrimage Trust Beneath the carapace of busy London lie relics of an old enchantment, whem Guildhall was the palace of Trojan kings and Westminster Abbey was the holy of holies, secluded on Thorney Island. Follow the itineraries or dip into pages at will, and Sacred London will let you see the capital in a new light. Bathed in the gleam of saints and angels, discover a city of river worship, ancient stones, and holy wells. Visit places of sanctuary and haunts of peace, picked out from the scrum of the modern city, quiet churches and forgotten wildernesses, in the very heart of London.