Heinz Kohler

HEINZ KOHLER was born in Berlin, Germany, where he grew up before and during World War II. By the war's end, he found himself in rural East Germany and spent years watching the Nazi tyranny give way to a Communist one. He made it to West Berlin before the Wall went up and came to the United States in the late 1950s. Since 1961, he was associated with Amherst College, Massachusetts, where he became the Willard Long Thorp Professor of Economics, taught Economics as well as Statistics and published numerous textbooks on both subjects. His most recent writings include MY NAME WAS FIVE, a memoir of World War II, CAUTION: SNAKE OIL! which shows how statistical thinking can help us expose misinformation about our health, STATISTICS: A UNIVERSAL GUIDE TO THE UNKNOWN, which is a series of KINDLE books, and SURFING A MAGICAL INTERNET, another series of ebooks that show how people gathered information some 150 years ago before the current internet existed. MY NAME WAS FIVE is a powerful tale of war and its aftermath that draws upon the author's experiences during World War II as well as later ones when he logged thousands of flight hours as a commercial pilot. As early readers put it, the book is "unflinching, stark and painfully compelling," "a psychological tour de force," "a haunting chronicle of war and its aftermath," and "a riveting child's-eye account of growing up in Germany under the Nazis and then the Russians; laced with extraordinary photos and posters from those times, it combines memory with testimony." [Paperback since 2010, Kindle edition since 2012] CAUTION: SNAKE OIL! was inspired by the author's concern with the proper design and execution of observational studies and controlled experiments---both prone to many potential errors and abuses---and his eagerness to show how careful scientists can use these statistical procedures to find the truth about health-related claims and how the rest of us, properly equipped with a few statistical tools, can gain crucial insights from the daily flood of medical news, while escaping mere hype and outright lies. The book has been hailed as "one of the most impressive and eye-opening books about your health you will ever read" and as "finally a book that empowers its readers to navigate safely the minefield of conflicting and confusing medical claims." As other readers put it, "put this one high on your list; enter the world of evidence-based medicine; learn which stories to believe, which to take with a grain of salt, and which to discard without a second thought" and "an authoritative and fascinating book, beautifully written in a style to which we can all relate; a must-read for anyone seeking credible health information in print or online." [Paperback since 2010, Kindle edition since 2012] The SURFING A MAGICAL INTERNET series takes us back to a time, almost 150 years ago, when the newly formed Liebig's Extract of Meat Company decided to advertise its product by rewarding loyal customers with gifts of colorful and ever so beautiful picture cards. Each card was a little work of art; no wonder the images and their associated commentary captivated and mesmerized people. Before long, thousands of these cards were circulating. They told fascinating stories about every conceivable aspect of life on earth and, as a group, similar to what the Internet might do in our time, came to embody the sum total of human knowledge. Collectors could travel the globe, meet people from any country on earth, and learn about their customs. They could visit lost civilizations, too, or view the world's natural wonders of the day. They could study plants or animals or the evolution of commerce and transport. They could discover the secrets of agriculture, forestry, and fishing or find out how new inventions were transforming industry. They could familiarize themselves with music and literature, great art and architecture, with famous men and women of all ages, and, most importantly for children no doubt, with giants and dwarfs, elves and gnomes, riddles and fairy tales! In hindsight, strange as it may sound, the company's most important contribution was not to the kitchens of the world, but to the education of millions of people of all ages who could not go to school or afford books! The author's grandmother was one of these people and, many years later, when he was a child, she often "googled" her large collection of Liebig cards to satisfy his urge to find out everything about the big wide world. Book 1: EXTRAORDINARY BIRDS is the first volume of the series that resurrects grandmother's magical Internet. We meet the most beautiful, the fastest, the largest, and the most powerful birds in the world; we come across magnificent bird's nests unlike any we have ever known; we encounter birds that once carried the mail in peace and in war; we discover the role of birds in history; we marvel at the amazing patterns of migrating birds in the sky; we learn of birds that can't fly at all and of birds inspiring poetry. We even go up in the sky and get a bird's eye view of the earth at a time long before airplanes and satellites existed. And that's not all. There are surprises on every page and there is fun for children of all ages. [Kindle edition since April 2014] Book 2: BRAINTEASERS is a collection of all sorts of mental challenges that delighted children during my grandmother's youth. Over 150 pictures confront readers with riddles they can try to solve, illustrate proverbs they must identify, or depict scenes in which something is missing that they are urged to find. There are new conundrums on every page; even the book cover contains a mental challenge; can you see it? [Kindle edition since May 2014] Book 3: UNUSUAL PLANTS presents over 100 pictures along with fascinating stories about all sorts of unusual plants that excited people during my grandmother's youth and are bound to do the same for us. We meet medicinal plants that may or may not heal people and others that would definitely poison them. We learn of plants that are the source of beautiful paints and dyes and of others that have long been celebrated in works of art. We study spice plants and carnivorous plants and find out how some plants came to be sacred plants. We visit night-blooming plants and nightshade plants and marvel at the world's most remarkable trees. We meet up with exotic food plants and encounter others still that manage to prosper in the driest of deserts or on the highest of mountains. And we come across intriguing stories about reeds and cane plants and all sorts of useful "industrial" plants that have supported a great variety of human endeavors for millennia. There are amazing stories associated with all of these. [Kindle edition since August 2014] Book 4: REMARKABLE ANIMALS presents almost 150 pictures along with fascinating stories about all sorts of fascinating animals. We meet magnificent creatures from antediluvian times and travel through different geological eras; most of these animals roamed the earth long before humans did. We visit beautiful animals inhabiting the sea --- colorful anemones, corals, jellyfish and all sorts of luminescent beings that light up the undersea world, but are rarely seen. Back on firmer ground, we discover animals celebrated in works of art and others once considered sacred and even worshiped by people. We come across individual animals that have been immortalized by stories historians tell. We study strange mammals without teeth and beasts of burden that have supported human endeavors for millennia. We marvel at insects that are masters of camouflage and at colorful butterflies of the day or the night. We face poisonous snakes and animals living on the world's highest mountains. And we read intriguing stories about animals that lived among ancient gods who turned them into glimmering objects in the sky! [Kindle edition since March 2015.] Book 5: WONDERS OF THE WORLD presents nearly 100 pictures and associated stories. Right away, we meet the "seven wonders of the ancient world" of which, sadly, only the great pyramids of Egypt survive. But we can still visit the wonders of our own world, natural and man-made. We stand in awe before powerful volcanoes and geysers, amazing rock formations, and strange bridges that nature has built. We marvel at the beauty of giant caves and magnificent waterfalls, follow the paths of explorers through narrow waterways between the world's oceans, enjoy the grandeur of fjords and the breathtaking splendor of mountain passes. We learn how people built seemingly impossible tunnels through the Alps, view colossal statues from ancient and modern times, inspect the ruins of lost cities and civilizations. Are nature's works longer lasting? We examine the question by looking at lights in our sky: the sun and the moon, comets, rainbows, mirages and more. [Kindle edition since August 2015.] Book 6: THE WORLD'S GREATEST INVENTIONS presents 176 pictures and associated stories. They trace the history of civilization from the Stone Age right up to the early 1900s when the last one of these pictures was published. We watch how people learned to make fire, to harness flammable gases, and, finally, make electricity. We see how they managed to light up the night, using lamps at home and in the streets and lighthouses at the coast. We recognize the importance of fire in manufacturing, of the plow in agriculture, of weights and measures, clocks, money, writing, reading, printing, paper making, and musical instruments. We follow the history of medicine from outright quackery to later scientific approaches, of communications from bells and fire signals to the telegraph. We meet the steam engine, along with steamships and railway locomotives, which it spawned. We marvel at the fascinating story of the automobile (a windmill car drove in 1460) and of people taking to the air (the first balloon flight came in 1783, the first heavier-than-air plane, which used modern three-axis controls, flew in 1903. [Kindle edition since December 2015.] Book 7: EXPLORING NORTHERN EUROPE presents 72 pictures and associated stories. They show what a person would have seen when traveling through Northern Europe a century or more ago. When joining that traveler to visit places like Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Iceland, some of which were not even independent countries at the time, the reader enters something like a time machine, which makes for an especially intriguing trip. Unlike the real thing, it is much less scary, too. In fact, in the process, readers can safely travel to an even more distant past and have fun by learning about a time when Norse gods ruled the world! [Kindle edition since March 2016.] Book 8: EXPLORING WESTERN EUROPE presents over 250 pictures that illustrate grandmother’s captivating tales of a trip to Western Europe more than a century ago. As we join her to visit England, Scotland, and Wales, then Holland, Belgium, and France and, finally, Andorra and Portugal, we enter something like a time machine, which makes for an especially intriguing trip. Way back in 1880, the white cliffs of Dover may look the same as they do now and so will, perhaps, mountain ranges and great rivers and lighthouses along the coast. But city streets with no automobiles in sight and people dressed in unfamiliar ways may well strike us as odd—not to mention their different customs, music, and dance. Likewise, we may marvel at all the grand structures from Europe’s Baroque, Gothic or Renaissance times—cathedrals, town halls, court houses, castles and palaces, and houses of parliament---but we certainly won’t be able to hail a cab or find a plane to fly home. Imagine visiting Paris without the Eiffel Tower! (It wasn’t there before 1889.) Imagine London without its famous Tower Bridge! (Construction began in 1886 and wasn’t completed until 1894.) In fact, as we will discover, grandmother’s Liebig cards can take us beyond her lifetime as well. We can visit medieval Flanders and Brabant at a time when fine Belgian lace first came into being or the England of 1750 when the first umbrella was put to use on London’s rainy streets. (Jonas Hanway, its inventor, was ridiculed by all!) And using grandmother’s Liebig-card time machine, we can even join the excitement in 1499 when Portugal’s Vasco da Gama returned home after having discovered a sea route to India! (Kindle edition since July 2016.) Book 9: EXPLORING SOUTHWESTERN EUROPE presents over 300 pictures of an imaginary trip, well over a century ago, to some of Europe’s Mediterranean lands. As we visit Gibraltar, Spain, Southern France, Monaco, Malta, and, finally, Italy and San Marino, we enter something like a time machine, which makes for an especially intriguing tour. To be sure, finding ourselves, in, say, 1880, the Blue Grotto of Capri or the Leaning Tower of Pisa or the Fountains of Rome may look the same as they do now and so will, perhaps, mountain ranges and volcanoes, great rivers and lakes and famous villas along the coast. But city streets with no automobiles in sight and people dressed in unfamiliar ways may well strike us as odd—not to mention their different customs, music, and dance. Still, if we are willing to stay around, we can marvel at grand structures from Europe’s Baroque, Gothic or Renaissance times—city gates, cathedrals and bell towers, town halls, court houses, castles and palaces, and houses of parliament---but we certainly won’t be able to hail a cab or find a plane to fly home. In fact, as we will discover, grandmother’s Liebig cards can take us further back beyond her time as well. We can inspect amazing structures from the days of ancient Rome, explore fortresses and palaces from a time when Spain and Sicily belonged to the Moors, and even visit the Medieval world and come to know artists, explorers, and scientists like Dante, Columbus, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian, Raphael, and more. We can meet them all using grandmother’s Liebig-cards time machine and we can feel the excitement in the air when Galileo insists that the earth is rotating around the sun rather than the sun around the earth, or when Garibaldi’s Expedition of the Thousand helps create the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. [Kindle edition since November 2016.] Book 10: EXPLORING CENTRAL EUROPE, presents over 270 pictures of an imaginary trip, well over a century ago, across the pre-World War I world of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Switzerland, which then included all sorts of places now found in Poland, the Czech Republic, and even Slovenia. In the process, we enter something like a time machine, which makes for an especially intriguing tour. To be sure, finding ourselves along the banks of the Rhine or the Danube, among breathtaking peaks and valleys of the Alps, or in front of grand structures from Baroque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Rococo times—city gates, cathedrals, town halls, court houses, castles and palaces, and houses of parliament---we may feel quite at home even in, say, 1895. But city streets with no automobiles in sight and people dressed in unfamiliar ways may well strike us as odd—not to mention their different customs, music, and dance. We certainly won’t be able to hail a cab or find a plane to fly home. In fact, as we will discover, the Liebig card pictures presented here can take us further back in time as well. We can inspect amazing structures from the days of ancient Rome and visit with Hannibal, the Carthaginian general, who surprised the Romans in 218 B.C. by his daring attempt to cross the Alps with 100,000 men, 12,000 horses, and 37 elephants! We can learn about the days in 1241 when Genghis Khan’s Mongolian hordes reached Silesia’s capital of Wroclaw (Germany’s Breslau) and burned it to the ground. We can watch Bohemian rebels in 1618, throwing an emperor’s emissaries out of a Prague castle window (the famous defenestration) and igniting the Thirty Years’ War, while Frederick II of Brandenburg, a few years later, swelled the population of Berlin by providing refuge to 5,000 French Protestants there. And much more recently, in 1910, we can follow Géo Chávez, the Peruvian aviator, who was first in crossing the Alps by air in a tiny plane. [Kindle edition since January 2017.] Book 11: EXPLORING AFRICA, presents more than 160 pictures of an imaginary trip to Africa---at a time, before World War I, when many of the 29 modern nations visited here were still colonies of various European powers. In the process, we find ourselves at the fortress of Ceuta, the Kasbah of Marrakesh, among the minarets of Tunis. We stand in awe before the rock temple of Abu Simbel, the Great Sphinx of Giza, and Cheop’s Pyramid---at 481 feet it had been the tallest man-made structure on earth for over 3,800 years! We travel among the wonders of nature, too, from the snow-capped Atlas Mountains to Saharan petrified forests and on to Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest peak, which tops 19,300 feet. We follow some of the world’s longest rivers: the Nile, 4,350 miles, the Congo, over 700 feet deep at times and almost 3,000 miles long, and the Niger, 2,600 miles. We meet the most amazing plants---the Welwitschia, over a thousand years old, the manna lichens, said to have provided nourishment to the Israelites during their 40-year flight from Egypt, the baobab tree, storing 26,000 gallons of water in its swollen trunk. We meet most unusual animals, too---the Barbary sheep, the klipspringer and the dromedary, whose incredible abilities will surprise you, and the aardvark, whose sticky tongue can catch 50,000 insects in a single night! We can go further back in time as well, stand before Roman citadels, amphitheaters, triumphal arches, the ruins of Carthage, hang out with Phoenician traders, who brought us our alphabet, or watch Pharaoh Ramesses and his gods in 1300 B.C. And, of course, we meet dozens of modern-day tribes---Kabyles, Bedouins, Maasai, Bushmen, Zulu and many more, whose customs are simply fascinating. [Kindle edition since March 2017.] Book 12: EXPLORING SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE, presents over 100 pictures of an imaginary trip to the pre-World War I world of what is now known as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, and European Turkey---pictures taken at a time when some of the areas visited here were still part of the Austro-Hungarian or Ottoman Empires. As we accompany grandmother on her trip, we follow the course of Europe’s second longest river, the Danube, as it passes ten modern countries on its way to the Black Sea. We marvel at the remnants of Roman roads and palaces---Emperor Trajan’s Road at the Iron Gate, Emperor Diocletian’s Palace at Split, or the ruins of Golubac, allegedly infested with hordes of blood-sucking flies, called “mosquitoes”, that have shown themselves capable of killing off entire herds of cattle! Before long, we stand in awe before the fortresses lining the Turkish Straits and protecting the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, and the Bosporus. We relax on Greek islands---Corfu, Thera, Crete, Rhodes, and more --- and, using my grandmother’s time machine, we go further back in time as well, to explore life in ancient Greece at the golden age of Pericles, to visit the hermits at Mount Athos, to witness the founding of Byzantium, then Constantinople and now Istanbul, and to observe the construction of the Acropolis and two of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World--the Colossus of Rhodes and the Statue of Zeus at Olympia. [Kindle edition since April 2017.] Book 13: EXPLORING RUSSIA AND CENTRAL ASIA, presents some 136 pictures of an imaginary trip, long before World War I, to Russia and beyond, to areas now known as Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Tibet, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan. As we accompany grandmother on her trip, we explore cities in Europe and Asia, from St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Nishny Novgorod to Tbilisi, Baku and Samarkand, on to Tashkent, Kandahar and Kabul. We join the Trans-Siberian Railway at Chelyabinsk and let it take us to the fur traders of Irbit, across the giant Yenisei bridge at Krasnoyarsk, past Lake Baikal to the sellers of frozen milk at Irkutsk, and on to the Sea of Japan at Vladivostok. We marvel at the beauty of Russia’s Arctic, of Eurasia’s great lakes and rivers, deserts, and mountain ranges. We meet people, so many different people, not just Russians, but also Buryats, Chechens, Circassians, Cossacks, Lezgians, Kalmyks, Kyrgyz, Mongolians, Ossetians, Tatars, Samoyeds, Ukrainians, Yakuts, and many more. And what stories we have to tell! About climbing Mount Elbrus, Europe’s highest peak, about watching crude oil being transported from Baku oil fields (in rubber tubes loaded onto camels), about the proper way to greet people in Tibet (stick out your tongue and rub the back of your ear). More than that! Using my grandmother’s time machine, we can go further back in time as well and experience the birth of Russia in 861 as Rurik becomes King, the crowning of Catherine the Great in 1762 (after she dethrones her husband), and the abolition of serfdom in 1861. We can accompany Sven Hedin on his treks through Tibet and his failed attempt to enter the forbidden city of Lhasa, we can even witness the horrors visited upon these lands by Mongolian conquerors, like Genghis Khan and his Golden Horde and, later, by Tamerlane---in the 1300s, the latter alone probably massacred some 17 million people and managed to wipe out 5% of the world’s population! [Kindle edition since June 2017.] Book 14: EXPLORING WESTERN ASIA presents some 125 pictures of an imaginary trip, long before World War I, to areas now known as Turkey and Cyprus, Syria and Lebanon, Iraq and Iran, on to the Arabian Peninsula (Saudi Arabia and Yemen now), and to what was then simply Palestine (now Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip and West Bank). And as we move from the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, and the Bosporus to the mountains of Judaea and the valley of the Euphrates, we also meet the people—Turks celebrating Ramadan with a sword dance, Hebrews having fun at the Feast of Ingathering, Persians welcoming a New Year at the Temple of Holy Fire. We marvel at their musical instruments, their writing, their art, the groves of date palms and coffee trees growing on terraced farms at the very edge of the Arabian desert. And everywhere we run into history: the mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the temple of Diana at Ephesus, the hanging gardens of Semiramis at Babylon, the ruins of Persepolis, of Baalbek. More than that! Using grandmother’s time machine, we can go further back in time as well and watch Thutmose III of Egypt subject the Syrians in 1402 B.C., Cyrus giving birth to Persia in 538 B.C., King Gordius making the legendary knot and Alexander the Great cutting it in two with his sword and conquering Babylon in 331 B.C., the Greeks building a giant wooden horse and burning down Troy, Muhammad entering Mecca in 629, Caliph Omar entering Jerusalem in 638, Christian Crusaders laying siege to the city and storming it in 1099, Saladin taking it right back in 1187, and Tamerlane’s Mongols annihilating the Turks in 1402. So many stories, captivating all. So much to learn. But none of these war stories is a pretty one; after praying at Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives and worshipping at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, for example, Christian knights had no problem massacring the city’s Jews and Muslims. One can only hope that people one day will learn from history. Ignoring it certainly doesn’t help. [Kindle edition since July 2017.] Book 15: EXPLORING SOUTHERN ASIA presents some 145 pictures of an imaginary trip, long before World War I, to areas now known as India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, on to Myanmar and Thailand, and, finally, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia, all but one of which were colonies of various European powers at the time. And as we move from the Arabian Sea to the Indus and Ganges rivers, climb the breathtaking Himalayas, and marvel at temples, mosques, pagodas, and palaces on the way, we also meet the people of these lands. There are rajas, and fakirs, snake charmers and pious beggars, ordinary folk crowding the streets of Hyderabad, Mumbai (then Bombay), Kolkata (then Calcutta), Saigon, and Jakarta (then Batavia), and hard-working cultivators of the land growing black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, cotton, ginger, indigo, jute, nutmeg, rice, tea, and tobacco and what to us may seem the strangest of plants---caoutchouc trees, gutta-percha trees. And everywhere we run into history: Alexander the Great taking peacocks and pepper back to Greece in 320 B.C., Vasco da Gama finding the sea route to India in 1497, Robert Clive and the East India Company establishing British rule in 1757. Using grandma’s time machine, we can go farther back in time as well and meet the ancient gods of India---Brahma, Hanuman, Saraswati, Shiva, Vishnu and more--- and learn how cattle, cobras, elephants, and monkeys came to play a key role in their worship as well. [Kindle edition since August 2017.] Book 16: EXPLORING EASTERN ASIA presents some 178 pictures of an imaginary trip, long before World War I, to areas now known as China (including Tibet), Korea, Japan, and the Philippines, portions of which were still under colonial rule at grandmother’s time. As we move through the great cities of those days---from Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Hangzhou to Hong Kong, Manila, Nagasaki and Tokyo and on throughout the countryside---we meet the fascinating people of these lands, at work and at play. We watch them dance, do theater, make music, get married, go to court, heal the sick, learn to write and print. We marvel as they create beautiful gardens, bronze statues, amazing umbrellas, paintings on silk. We watch hard-working cultivators of the land grow rice and rubber trees, flax, jute, and hemp, produce camphor, cinnamon, and silk. We visit the countryside, ride the rickshaw into town, and dream of the wild camels, gorgeous yaks, and golden pheasants we just met. And everywhere we run into history: Genghis Khan crossing China’s Great Wall, Sven Hedin exploring Tibet, Morinobu producing Japanese paintings of heavenly beauty, and Magellan dying in the Philippines while circumnavigating the globe. [Kindle edition since September 2017.] Book 17: EXPLORING AUSTRALIA AND OCEANIA presents some 63 pictures of an imaginary trip, long before World War I, to what are now the independent nations of Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Micronesia, Samoa, New Caledonia, and Fiji. Many of these areas were under colonial rule at grandmother’s time; even Germany had its colonies there, along with Britain, Holland, and France. As we travel to the cities of her day—Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Port Moresby, Yap, Apia, Noumea, Suva---and on throughout the countryside, we come across frightening volcanoes and deserts, beautiful glaciers, waterfalls, geysers, breath-taking virgin forests. And we meet the fascinating people of these lands—Arunta, Tasmanians, Papua, Maori and more---at home, at work, and at play. We admire their carvings, their tree houses, their double boats, their villages on poles, their money made of giant circular stones. Above all, we marvel at the flora and fauna that seems so strange to us: bottle trees, kauri spruces, grass gum trees, giant kangaroos, sugar gliders, birds of paradise, owl parrots, flying foxes, kiwis, emus, death adders, and Southern cassowaries on the land; bamboo coral, comb stars, coral sponges, pearl oysters in the sea, along with luminescent underwater creatures, like the deep-sea shrimp, the elongated bristlemouth, the stoplight loosejaw and so many more. There even is an egg-laying mammal that suckles its young, the platypus! [Kindle edition since October 2017.] Book 18: EXPLORING NORTH AMERICA presents some 158 pictures that illustrate an imaginary trip, long before World War I, to Greenland and Alaska, Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Those were very different times; Alaska and Hawaii hadn’t yet become U.S. states, Canada was a British crown land, and the Panama Canal was just being built. As we travel from the Bering Strait to Quebec and on south to the Yucatan Peninsula, we meet fascinating places and people in-between: the Yukon Territory, the Canadian Rockies, the Dakota Bad Lands, Yellowstone Geysers and Hot Springs, the Great Salt Lake, California Redwood Trees, Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave, Niagara Falls, Washington’s Capitol. We come across Eskimos, Iroquois and Sioux Indians, and Pueblo cliff dwellers. We learn about dog sleds, polar bears, great auks, and grizzlies. And everywhere there is history: the conquest of the North Pole, the exploration of Labrador, the Klondike gold rush, the Boston Tea Party, the Wild West, the Spanish destruction of the Aztec Empire, and the U.S. Civil War. And we meet the movers of North America’s history as well: Nansen, Amundsen, Cabot, Raleigh, Metacomet, Washington, Franklin, Lincoln, Grant, Edison, Montezuma, Cortez, and many more. [Kindle edition since January 2018.] Book 19: EXPLORING CENTRAL AMERICA presents some 49 pictures that illustrate an imaginary trip, long before World War I, to the Bahamas and other parts of an area now known as the West Indies because Columbus thought he had traveled around the globe to reach the west coast of India. In the process, we meet Columbus persuading the nobles of Spain to finance his voyage of discovery to the New World and we recall the rather sad end of his own life. We follow the steps of Spanish conquerors to the Greater Antilles and visit Cuba and Haiti and, in the Lesser Antilles, Guadeloupe and Martinique, concluding by a mainland trip to Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Panama. We explore Havana and St. Pierre, before the great earthquake of 1902, then board a volante at Havana’s fish market to explore sugar and tobacco plantations in the countryside, learn about caoutchouc trees and yuca plants, and the sources of tapioca and ginger and even our childhood’s rubber balls. On the mainland, we admire Guatemala’s hieroglyph rock that summarizes the Mayan writing system and we stand in awe before larger-than-life prehistoric idols that occupy Nicaragua’s rain forest. Wearing newly made Panama hats, we inspect the most remarkable and most difficult of human project yet, the construction of a canal that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by cutting across the isthmus of Panama. [Kindle edition since March 2018.] Book 20: EXPLORING South AMERICA presents some 147 pictures that illustrate an imaginary trip, long before World War I, to eleven countries of South America, from Amazon’s rainforest to the grassy plains of the Pampas and on to Fireland’s glaciers and the magnificent peaks of the Andes. We meet all sorts of people---aborigines descended from the great Inca Empire and gauchos descended from their Spanish conquerors. We also encounter people who shaped the continent’s history---Atahualpa, the last Inca Emperor, Spanish conquerors, like Franzisco Pizarro and Juan San Martin, and explorers of the New World, from Columbus and Vespucci to von Humboldt, Magellan, and Bolivar. We stand in awe before the remarkable fauna and flora of the land---from anteaters, armadillos, caimans, and condors to howler monkeys, hummingbirds, llamas, sea turtles, sloths, and tapirs, on to equally unusual plants, like bottle trees, cinchona trees, cork oaks, dye-woods, mahogany and rubber trees. Finally, we inspect the most remarkable and most difficult of human projects yet, the construction of a canal that connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by cutting across the Isthmus of Panama.. [Kindle edition since May 2018.]