"An illustrated history of the railroad, with particular emphasis on the quarter-century from the Western Maryland's Centennial in 1952 to the Chessie System's assumption of the line in the seventies."

Presents speeches by famous speakers each with an introduction detailing the time, place and events surrounding them.

German poet Heinrich Heine was bedridden with a debilitating illness for the last eight years of his life, during which time he reassessed many of his previous views on life. By the Rivers of Babylon examines the changes in his thinking about history, philosophy, and religion during that period and shows how those changes are reflected in his later poetry. Roger Cook offers an analysis of Heine's vehement renunciation of the Hegelian ideas that had shaped his earlier conception of history. Refuting accepted opinions that this shift in thought was a displaced opposition to social developments, Cook contends that these late writings represent Heine's consistent rejection of idealist philosophy and reveal Heine's new understanding of poetry's role as a transmitter of myth. Cook shows how Heine transcended the boundaries of European culture and Judeo-Christian religion by aligning his work with alternative cultures on the margins of society.

A kitten is a kitten, but each mature cat is unique. Shaped by experience - good and bad - cats are survivors, whether they have wrestled with the dark forces of nature or nothing more demanding than securing the most comfortable billet on the sofa. Older cats are not afraid to be themselves – not that there’s ever any real danger of cats worrying what anybody thinks. Mature cats have had years to grow into their ears and even if their ears don’t hear too well, those cats still have plenty to say. Author Heather Cook spent 30 years as the homing officer for Woking Branch of Cats Protection and this has afforded her an endless supply of cats that could variously be described as “past their sell-by date”, “off-the-wall” or “damaged”. This book documents the special felines who have taken up residence at her home (Tresta Towers). “Some of these have presented me with significant challenges, but there is no such thing as a bad cat. I believe that animals react to outside stimuli, favourable or unfavourable, in order to survive,” says Heather. Madness happens: in cats as in people. It can take the form of harmless eccentricity, dementia or out and out psychosis. In cats it can be a rather attractive quality, only necessitating the wearing of protective clothing in extreme cases. Think of kittens racing round a room at head height, their tails like loo brushes and their ears like helicopter blades. They start off bonkers and it can only get worse. Some cats are born wobbly, some achieve wobbliness and some have wobbliness thrust upon them, by illness or accident. If you love cats, you will love this book. The cats featured are very special and have overcome any number of problems to survive. This is not a dreary book, however, as cats are by nature humorous creatures and there are many amusing incidents along the way. All the stories are true and all the cats are very real indeed.

A study of how film has continually intervened in our sense of perception, with far-ranging insights into the current state of lived experience How has cinema transformed our senses, and how does it continue to do so? Positing film as a stage in the long coevolution of human consciousness and visual technology, Postcinematic Vision offer a fresh perspective on the history of film while providing startling new insights into the so-called divide between cinematic and digital media. Starting with the argument that film viewing has long altered neural circuitry in our brains, Roger F. Cook proceeds to reevaluate film’s origins, as well as its merger with digital imaging in the 1990s. His animating argument is that film has continually altered the relation between media and human perception, challenging the visual nature of modern culture in favor of a more unified, pan-sensual way of perceiving. Through this approach, he makes original contributions to our understanding of how mediation is altering lived experience. Along the way, Cook provides important reevaluations of well-known figures such as Franz Kafka, closely reading cinematic passages in the great author’s work; he reassesses the conventional wisdom that Marshall McLuhan was a technological determinist; and he lodges an original new reading of The Matrix. Full of provocative and far-reaching ideas, Postcinematic Vision is a powerful work that helps us see old concepts anew while providing new ideas for future investigation.

'More Dangerous Ground' takes a fascinating look behind the scenes of The Cook Report and offers a provocative insight into what makes Roger Cook tick.

Describes the mythological background of the tree of life, shows examples of this motif in art, and discusses the symbolic meanings associated with trees.