Iceland was the last country in Europe to become inhabited, and we know more about the beginnings and early history of Icelandic society than we do of any other in the Old World. This world was vividly recounted in The Book of Settlements, first compiled by the first Icelandic historians in the thirteenth century. It describes in detail individuals and daily life during the Icelandic Age of Settlement.

Ken Taranto had been visiting Israel once or twice a year for seven years when he decided to visit the settlement, Ma'ale Adumim, the first he had ever been to. He had seen the signs for it on the highway from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea and could see clusters of apartment buildings on the hilltops. Six months later Taranto and his family moved to Israel and he printed out a map of all the settlements and began to research them. He learned there were six distinct regions of settlements in the West Bank--Shomron, Binyamin, Gush Etzion, East Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley and the Hebron Hills. They were of various densities and ages. There were small settlements with a few hundred residents, some with a few thousand, and others with over ten or twenty thousand people. There were also many unofficial settlements, called outposts, with populations made up of a small number of families. The Settlements is an architectural portrait of the settlements in Israel from a broad sampling of all types, sizes, densities, ages and regions.

Lords of the Land tells the tragic story of Jewish settlement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the aftermath of the 1967 war and Israel's devastating victory over its Arab neighbors, catastrophe struck both the soul and psyche of the state of Israel. Based on years of research, and written by one of Israel's leading historians and journalists, this involving narrative focuses on the settlers themselves -- often fueled by messianic zeal but also inspired by the original Zionist settlers -- and shows the role the state of Israel has played in nurturing them through massive economic aid and legal sanctions. The occupation, the authors argue, has transformed the very foundations of Israel's society, economy, army, history, language, moral profile, and international standing. "The vast majority of the 6.5 million Israelis who live in their country do not know any other reality," the authors write. "The vast majority of the 3.5 million Palestinians who live in the regions of their occupied land do not know any other reality. The prolonged military occupation and the Jewish settlements that are perpetuating it have toppled Israeli governments and have brought Israel's democracy and its political culture to the brink of an abyss."

In the summer of 1975, NASA brought together a team of physicists, engineers, and space scientists--along with architects, urban planners, and artists--to design large-scale space habitats for millions of people. Space Settlements examines these plans for life in space as serious architectural and spatial proposals.proposals.

The dark ages of English history between the collapse of Roman rule in the early fifth century and the emergence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in the seventh century are examined in this study, which draws attention to political and social factors linking Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England.

The First World War changed the face of Europe - two empires (the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire) collapsed in its wake and as a result many of the boundaries of Europe were redrawn and new states were created. The origins of many of the international crises in the late twentieth century can be traced back to decisions taken in these critical years, Yugoslavia being the most obvious example. An understanding of the peace settlements is thus crucial for any student studying international history/international relations, which is what this book offers. This book provides and accessible and concise introduction to this most important period of history.

History of the Norwegian Settlements provides an engaging and enthusiastic depiction of the struggles as well as the triumphs of pioneer life. The 63-chapter non-fiction book lets readers trace the trails of 3,800 indexed immigrants through Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota and the Dakotas as they explore new frontiers and build new communities. Along the way lurk killer diseases, grasshopper plagues, prairie fires and loneliness.

This is the first book to address future informal settlements at the global scale. It argues that to foster favourable conditions for the sustainable evolution of future informal cities, planners must consider the same issues that are paramount in formal urban developments, such as provision of: balanced land uses energy efficiency and mobility water management and food sufficiency governance and community participation productivity and competitiveness identity and sense of place Planning and Design for Future Informal Settlements makes a call for responsible action to address the urban challenges of the developing world, suggesting that the vitality of informality, coupled with spatial design and good management, can support the efficient use of resources in better places to live. The book analyses the strengths and weaknesses of informal urbanism and the challenges faced by the fast growing cities of the developing world. Through case studies, it demonstrates the contributions and limitations of different attempts to plan ahead for urban growth, from the creation of formal housing and urban infrastructures for self-built dwellings to the improvement of existing informal settlements. It provides a robust framework for planners and designers, policy-makers, NGOs and local governments working to improve living conditions in developing cities.

This book analyzes the history and development of settlements—from the earliest periods in human history to the present day—from a Darwinian evolutionary perspective. At the foundation of the evolutionary model is the argument that the human capacity for complex communication and unique problem-solving ability have led to the formation and reality of the modern city and its scaled-up megacity status. While evolutionary theory forms the platform for the book’s argument, general systems theory provides the operational framework for the organization and interpretations of each chapter. Throughout the book, the authors tackle various issues, questions, and possibilities regarding the future development and evolution of human settlements.