Ilumina Public Library: El Paso County's All-Digital Library

A scathing reexamination of the lives of nine female celebrities in the 2000s, and the sexist, exploitative culture that took them down Welcome to celebrity culture in the early aughts: the reign of Perez Hilton, celebrity sex tapes, and dueling tabloids fed by paparazzi who were willing to do anything to get the shot. It was a time when the Internet was still the Wild West, and when slut-shaming, fat-shaming, and revenge porn were all considered...

Get the Summary of Jack Weatherford's Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World in the World in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in twenty-five years than the Romans did in four hundred. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade,...

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 It's a book-length essay about Reagan's novels, which Byrne describes as insightful, thoughtful, and a valuable contribution to the literature of the American Dream. According to Byrne, these books were the first to argue that government should never intrude on the lives of Americans. They were also among the first to feature an African American family in a positive...

In this collection of essays, interviews, and speeches, the renowned activist examines today's issues-from Black Lives Matter to prison abolition and more. Activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis has been a tireless fighter against oppression for decades. Now, the iconic author of Women, Race, and Class offers her latest insights into the struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world. Reflecting on the importance...

-- No Visible Bruises An examination of the phenomenon of mass shootings in America and an urgent call to implement evidence-based strategies to stop these tragedies Winner of the 2022 Minnesota Book Award   Using data from the writers’ groundbreaking research on mass shooters, including first-person accounts from the perpetrators themselves, The Violence Project charts new pathways to prevention and innovative ways to stop the social contagion...

An "utterly lucid, thoughtfully illustrated, and thoroughly convincing" book on the origins of the world's oldest known system of writing (American Journal of Archaeology). One of American Scientist's Top 100 Books on Science, 2001 In 1992, the University of Texas Press published Before Writing, Volume I: From Counting to Cuneiform and Before Writing, Volume II: A Catalog of Near Eastern Tokens. In these two volumes, Denise Schmandt-Besserat...

The role of monuments in the Roman imperial cult. "Davies sets out to ask, How did the Romans bury Caesar? And with what monuments did they sing his praises? . . . The architectural elaboration of these structures, their siting in the capital, the lines of vision and approaches that exposed them to view, the paths their complex outworks formed for visitors to walk, are all picked out with skill and presented with care in Death and the Emperor." Times...

Stem cell research has sparked controversy and heated debate since the first human stem cell line was derived in 1998. Too frequently these debates devolve to simple judgments-good or bad, life-saving medicine or bioethical nightmare, symbol of human ingenuity or our fall from grace-ignoring the people affected. With this book, Ruha Benjamin moves the terms of debate to focus on the shifting relationship between science and society, on the people...

It has been our nature as humans to be curious since birth, eager to learn, and to gain a comprehensive understanding of everything. There may be differences in our clothing styles and food preferences, but there are some things we all share in common. In our minds, this is the question we all ask regarding the creation of the universe. As a result of our desire to uncover when and how things all began, we are likewise curious about the exact moment...

The first major study of population size and its tremendous importance to the character and quality of society, this polemic examines the tendency of human numbers to outstrip their resources. Pivotal in establishing the field of demography, it remains crucial to understanding modern problems with food production and distribution. Anglican parson Thomas Robert Malthus wrote his famous essay in 1798 in response to speculations on social perfectibility...