"This is the story of the birth of the mountain bike and the new off-road sport which spurred its development. It also settles once and for all the oft-disputed question, 'who invented the mountain bike?' The expert author has left no stone unturned to get to the facts, including taped interviews with all the major players from Gary Fisher and Charlie Kelly to Joe Breeze and Tom Ritchey - and many other luminaries in the history of the sport. Illustrated with 160 period action photographs and technical drawings."--Amazon website.

Much expanded and updated new edition of the book that started out by trying to answer the question, who invented the mountain bike. Well, it turns out the mountain bike has many fathers and mothers, and this edition of the book credits them all. Illustrated with numerous period color photographs, this book is truly a celebration of the early days of the sport.

Syndicated columist Wattenberg is the author of The Good News Is That the Bad News Is Wrong and other optimistic books. Conversely, his new book aims at warning the public about the so-called danger of the declining birth rate in the U.S. and allied countries. Taking issue with those who cite problems arising from overpopulation, the author quotes statistics to argue that democratic nations potentially are weaker now, with fewer young people. The book contains bleak predictions of a future with America and European citizenry vastly outnumbered by people from other parts of the world. Speculating on the consequences of the birth dearth, Wattenberg provokes concern about a crippled economy and other threats to an industrial society diminished in status and strength. Author tour. (July 7) -Publishers Weekly.

A spirited chronicle of the West's ambivalent relationship with dirt The question of cleanliness is one every age and culture has answered with confidence. For the first-century Roman, being clean meant a two-hour soak in baths of various temperatures, scraping the body with a miniature rake, and a final application of oil. For the aristocratic Frenchman in the seventeenth century, it meant changing your shirt once a day and perhaps going so far as to dip your hands in some water. Did Napoleon know something we didn't when he wrote Josephine "I will return in five days. Stop washing"? And why is the German term Warmduscher—a man who washes in warm or hot water—invariably a slight against his masculinity? Katherine Ashenburg takes on such fascinating questions as these in Dirt on Clean, her charming tour of attitudes to hygiene through time. What could be more routine than taking up soap and water and washing yourself? And yet cleanliness, or the lack of it, is intimately connected to ideas as large as spirituality and sexuality, and historical events that include plagues, the Civil War, and the discovery of germs. An engrossing fusion of erudition and anecdote, Dirt on Clean considers the bizarre prescriptions of history's doctors, the hygienic peccadilloes of great authors, and the historic twists and turns that have brought us to a place Ashenburg considers hedonistic yet oversanitized.

Tells the story of uranium mining on the Navajo reservation and its legacy of sickness and government neglect, documenting one of the darker chapters in 20th century American history. --From publisher description.

We all have an amusing relationship with dirt. Some of us have just thought about it more than others. How we feel about keeping house speaks volumes about who we are, our roots, relationships, and even our outlook on life. Everyone can relate to DIRT.

A legendary mountain biking champion offers practical instructions, accompanied by entertaining anecdotes and reminiscences, on the essential techniques, skills, and tactics of mountain biking, offering tips on safety, developing a training program, equipment, and more. Original. 20,000 first printing.

Expanded and updated 2nd edition of the book that covers the history and development of the modern derailleur bicycle-and the gadget that makes it tick: the derailleur gearing mechanism. The Dancing Chain picks up where other bicycle history books leave off: at the introduction of multiple-speed gearing mechanisms at the beginning of the 20th century. 384 pages of text with 1,200 black & white illustrations, including many new Daniel Rebour drawings never before published in any English-language publications.

A newly-wed couple escape a busy confusion of their homeland for a distant and almost uninhabited lakeshore. They plan to lead a simple life there, fishing the lake, trapping the nearby woods and building a house upon the dirt between where they can raise a family. But as their every pregnancy fails, the child-obsessed husband begins to rage at this new world: the song-spun objects somehow created by his wife's beautiful singing voice, the giant and sentient bear that rules the beasts of the woods... A powerful exploration of the limits of parenthood and marriage.

“A must-read . . . Takes you inside a child’s gut and shows you how to give kids the best immune start early in life.” —William Sears, MD, coauthor of The Baby Book Like the culture-changing Last Child in the Woods, here is the first parenting book to apply the latest cutting-edge scientific research about the human microbiome to the way we raise our children. In the two hundred years since we discovered that microbes cause infectious diseases, we’ve battled to keep them at bay. But a recent explosion of scientific knowledge has led to undeniable evidence that early exposure to these organisms is beneficial to a child’s well-being. Our modern lifestyle, with its emphasis on hyper-cleanliness, is taking a toll on children’s lifelong health. In this engaging and important book, microbiologists Brett Finlay and Marie-Claire Arrieta explain how the trillions of microbes that live in and on our bodies influence childhood development; why an imbalance of those microbes can lead to obesity, diabetes, and asthma, among other chronic conditions; and what parents can do--from conception on--to positively affect their own behaviors and those of their children. They describe how natural childbirth, breastfeeding, and solid foods influence children’s microbiota. They also offer practical advice on matters such as whether to sterilize food implements for babies, the use of antibiotics, the safety of vaccines, and why having pets is a good idea. Forward-thinking and revelatory, Let Them Eat Dirt is an essential book in helping us to nurture stronger, more resilient, happy, and healthy kids.