極上の1000語と、洗練された英文　これが知識層の「当たり前」
※この書籍は2008年発行の『究極の英単語セレクション』を新装したものです。内容は基本的に変わりません

England: From the Fall of Rome to the Norman Conquest takes you through the mists of time to the rugged landscape of the British Isles. Over the course of 24 sweeping lectures, Professor Jennifer Paxton of The Catholic University of America surveys the forging of a great nation from a series of warring kingdoms and migrating peoples. From Germanic tribes to Viking invasions to Irish missionaries, she brings to life an underexamined time and place.

Though it ended five centuries ago, the medieval era continues to permeate our world in far-reaching ways. Whether we pay attention to them or not, the influences and imprints of the Middle Ages are all around us, sometimes evident and sometimes less so. In these 36 revealing lectures, you’ll learn how to recognize the medieval impacts on the modern world, and to grasp their significance and implications. The Medieval Legacy offers you a deep look at a stunning millennium of change and innovation which continues to inform our contemporary world.

Heidi Sormaz has a PhD in psychology from Yale University with an emphasis on cognitive psychology, and she’s been a meditation and yoga practitioner and teacher for two decades. She is also a reformed over-thinker, so, she knows exactly what you’re going through—or what you’re (over)thinking, so to speak. Over the 12 engaging lessons of Overcome Your Overthinking, Heidi not only provides the science behind cognitive behavioral therapy but she’ll also arm you with a toolbox of exercises and techniques that are most effective at breaking the spell of overthinking.

The promise of America is that the country is based on an idea, one where everyone is created equal and equally free to chart their own course. From 13 newly independent states ratifying a national constitution to the heated debates in the halls of Congress today, American politics is about negotiation over what our country is—and where we are going.

Sleep neurologist Jennifer Molano explores many different aspects of sleep, helping you better understand common sleep issues and providing practical tips to improve sleep in your life. Over the course of six lectures, she will reveal what drives our sleep-wake cycle, what “healthy sleep” is, how our sleep cycles change over time, why sleep is important in regulating systems in our brains and bodies, and what symptoms may occur with sleep disturbances.

Railways are one of the most important inventions in modern history. From the 1825 opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in England, trains revolutionized both travel and trade and radically changed the way we experience the world. In the 24 richly illustrated lectures of How Railways Transformed the World, you’ll experience the amazing world and impact of railways, from the early 19th century to today’s futuristic trains, including extensive material on the pleasure and appeal of rail travel today.

Think of Cultured: A World History of Cheese as a 10-episode cheese course, or a cheese plate large enough to contain a well-rounded sampling of great cheeses from around the world. Janet Fletcher, a noted food writer and publisher of the Planet Cheese blog, provides deeper (and delectable) insights into a familiar food you only think you know. Included in this Audible Original are peeks at the nine steps of cheesemaking, the 10 most important cheese families, and tips on how to taste cheese with the same refined palate as a professional cheese judge.

Every hero works to soothe the fears of the people during their period in history. Heroes are not only brave, but they’re also able to navigate the convoluted corridors of society, and to see through the respectable pretense of others to detect the evil that lies within. So, who better to take on the foggy, crime-ridden streets and strict social mores of Victorian London than the iconic literary detective Sherlock Holmes? In Sherlock Holmes: Beyond the Elementary, you’ll investigate the history behind Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s whip-smart, charismatic detective.

“Who are you?” Chances are you’d answer this question by describing the highlights of your personality and life experiences. But if you’d been asked this same question yesterday, you might have responded with a slightly different description. Does that mean you are a particular person today but were a different person yesterday? And what about tomorrow? Welcome to the slippery, shape-shifting nature of memory. As Professor Gabrielle Principe reveals, “you” are the conglomeration of the often-unreliable information your brain decides to feed you at any given moment.

Thought experiments are “what if” scenarios that invite us to look carefully at how we think and view the world. They’ve been used throughout history by philosophers and other thinkers to explore our intuitions and ways of reasoning, to find solutions to problems, and to expand our knowledge of ourselves and the world. In these 24 eye-opening lectures, Professor Breyer takes you deeply into the historical tradition of thought experiments, shining a light on both the purpose and the outcomes of these compelling mental voyages.

The Spanish Civil War was a local conflict on the margins of Europe—a short yet bloody series of battles in a lull between the great World Wars—but the conflict was a microcosm of war in the 20th century. Not only did the Spanish Civil War foreshadow the global conflagration to come, but it also had its roots in the modern era’s central divides: urban versus rural, religion versus secularization, rich versus poor, progress versus tradition, democracy versus fascism and communism.

The issues addressed by macroeconomics are all around you, all the time—from taxes to inflation to mention of the GDP on the nightly news. By learning the principles of macroeconomics, you’ll be able to go beyond simply hearing the terms to better understanding their relationships to each other and how they create the economic environment in which you live. In fact, macroeconomics with its “big-picture glasses” allows you to better ask—and better try to answer—the biggest questions of our time, questions that impact the lives of billions of people.

The history of the Constitution is therefore a history of ideas that define our country and our national identity—and it’s a fascinating and revealing story. The US Constitution Through History gives you the opportunity to explore the story of this powerful document, as well as the way our interpretation of it has evolved. In 24 riveting lectures, Professor Eric Berger of the University of Nebraska takes you on a journey through America’s constitutional history. He takes you inside the minds of the Framers and unpacks the ideas that led to the break from England.

Throughout the 24 lectures of Banned Books, Burned Books: Forbidden Literary Works, author and book critic Professor Maureen Corrigan of Georgetown University will take you on a tour of some of the most challenged and controversial works of literature, from the plays of Shakespeare to 21st-century best-sellers—even including the dictionary and classic fairy tales. You will trace the history, in the United States and Great Britain, of the challenges to books, the censoring of books, book bans, and even burnings.

To be human in today’s world means that you engage in constant linguistic interactions with some form of technology, from your smart phone to your refrigerator. That’s not as new a trend as you might think. Language has shaped - and been shaped by - some of our world’s most significant communication technologies. Our current language bears the marks of millennia of interaction between humans and our technologies, beginning with the very first primitive writing systems and moving into the age of the printing press, the telegraph, and the typewriter.

The Middle Ages was a time of major historical shifts and transformations. This amazing era reverberates with discoveries, innovations, events, and historical processes that are integral to the world we know now. In these 24 enthralling lectures, Professor Salisbury leads you on a sumptuous tour of this incredible historical epoch, making clear that the remarkable historical currents and advances of the Middle Ages unfolded not only in the West, but across the globe, from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East to Asia, the Americas, and beyond.

Why are we scared of ghosts, zombies, vampires, demons, and monsters, when we know they are not real? Why do dark attics give us the creeps? How do writers and directors know exactly what anxieties to tap into, so that we break out in goosebumps, cover our eyes, and cringe? Shannon Scott invites you into the spooky, creepy, and sometimes surprising world of the horror genre to examine how popular scary movies and books manipulate our collective and individual fears—not only to frighten us, but also to address taboo subjects, and to reflect and comment on the state of our society.

From spirituality to politics and science, the occult has had an astonishing influence on the human experience across the centuries. It may surprise you to learn that everyday activities like attending church services or reading your daily horoscope all fit the broad definition of the occult. As you will see in the 24 illuminating episodes of Secrets of the Occult, the mystic and obscure are threaded through our ordinary lives in more ways than you may realize.

Shedding light on what creative people do, and how they do it, neuroscientists are mapping the regions of the brain that come into play during creative work, showing that creativity is a skill and something that all of us can cultivate. In these 24 compelling lectures, Professor Viskontas takes you on a deep dive into the human creative faculty. Through the many areas of knowledge within the course, Creativity and Your Brain offers empowering and inspiring guidelines for developing your own creativity.

Science has come a long way in solving the mysteries of the human brain, but we still have a long way to go. Understanding Disorders of the Brain is a powerful introduction to the journey of brain science in the 21st century and an excellent addition to your lifelong learning library.

Meet Agatha Christie, the best-selling novelist in human history. Her writing career spanned six decades, during which time she wrote 66 crime novels, 6 non-crime novels (including romances), and over 150 short stories. Not only was she a phenomenally successful novelist, but she is also the most successful female playwright of all time - her play “The Mousetrap” is the longest-running show in history. As you learn about Christie’s experiences and her storied career, you will better understand how the circumstances of her life shaped her work and vice versa.

Eminent biblical scholar Michael D. Coogan offers here a wide-ranging and stimulating exploration of the Old Testament, illuminating its importance as history, literature, and sacred text.

This Very Short Introduction explores the considerable variations of neoliberalism around the world, and discusses the origins, evolution, and core ideas of neoliberalism. This new edition brings the story of neoliberalism up to date, and asks whether new versions of neoliberalism might succeed in drowning out the rising tide of national populism and its nostalgic longing for a return to territorial sovereignty and national greatness.

大好評「究極のビジネス英語リスニング」シリーズの改訂版です。
「打診の電話」から「取引成立」「フィードバック」まで国際ビジネスの流れを英語で一通り疑似体験できるシミュレーションストーリー。