Series: Earth

While concerns about climate change have focused negative attention on the coal industry in recent years, as descendants of the industrial revolution we have all benefitted from the mining of the black seam. Coal has influenced significantly the course of human history and our social and natural environments. Coal takes readers on a journey through the extraordinary artistic responses to...

The Sea explores the sea and its meanings from ancient myths to contemporary geopolitics, from Atlantis to the Mediterranean migrant crisis. Richard Hamblyn traces a cultural and geographical journey from estuary to abyss, beginning with the topographies of the shoreline and ending with the likely futures of our maritime environments. Along the way, the book considers the sea as a...

In Lightning: Nature and Culture, Derek M. Elsom explores the history of humanity's relationship with this natural phenomena, from the myths and legends of the storm deities to in-depth studies of its artistic representations, and state-of-the-art lightning protection systems on aircraft, ships, and skyscrapers. Lightning explores the stories of those struck by lightning and asks the vital question: 'What can...

The rainbow is a compelling spectacle in nature — a rare bridge between subjective experience and objective reality, and no less remarkable as a cultural phenomenon. A symbol of the Left since the German Peasants' War of the 1520s, it has been adopted by movements for gay rights, the environment, multiculturalism, and peace around the globe, and inspired poets, artists,...