Bring real business insights to your company through effective and engaging dashboards in QlikViewAbout This BookBuild outstanding dashboards that respond to your company’s information needsPresent the data in efficient and innovative ways to promote insightsUnleash the true power of QlikView by creating engaging visualizations Who This Book Is For This book is focused on QlikView developers with basic knowledge of *ing and layouts who want to improve their designing skills and build effective, eye-catching dashboards that deliver tangible value to their business.What You Will LearnBuild a comprehensive library of QlikView components to speed up your developmentsDefine a practical roadmap that will help you build business-driven dashboardsExplore the most effective and engaging ways to present dataApply the best practices in the field of data visualizationAvoid common pitfalls when creating bar, line and pie chartsCreate robust visualizations such as heat maps, histograms and scatter plots In Detail QlikView is one of the most powerful analytical tools in the market. Based on an in-memory associative model, it lets users freely navigate through the data, spot trends and make better decisions. This platform is capable of integrating a wide range of data sources like ERP systems, data warehouses or spreadsheets into a single application in order display dashboards with state-of-the-art visualizations. Creating Stunning Dashboards with QlikView is an easy to follow handbook that guides you through the process of creating an effective and engaging dashboard that delivers tangible value to the business. It starts with the identification of the business needs and the definition of the main KPIs, and takes you all the way to the application rollout. Throughout the book, you will learn how to apply some of the best practices in the field of data visualization, create a robust navigation schema, chose the best chart types for each scenario and many other things that will help you create effective dashboards that uncover all the stories behind the data.Style and approach This easy-to-follow compilation of best practices, tips, and tricks will help you leverage your QlikView developments. Each section presents practical guidelines to help you create dashboards that are not only functional, but also engaging and compelling.

Design and develop advanced computer vision projects using OpenCV with PythonAbout This BookProgram advanced computer vision applications in Python using different features of the OpenCV libraryPractical end-to-end project covering an important computer vision problemAll projects in the book include a step-by-step guide to create computer vision applications Who This Book Is For This book is for intermediate users of OpenCV who aim to master their skills by developing advanced practical applications. Readers are expected to be familiar with OpenCV’s concepts and Python libraries. Basic knowledge of Python programming is expected and assumed.What You Will LearnGenerate real-time visual effects using different filters and image manipulation techniques such as dodging and burningRecognize hand gestures in real time and perform hand-shape analysis based on the output of a Microsoft Kinect sensorLearn feature extraction and feature matching for tracking arbitrary objects of interestReconstruct a 3D real-world scene from 2D camera motion and common camera reprojection techniquesTrack visually salient objects by searching for and focusing on important regions of an imageDetect faces using a cascade classifier and recognize emotional expressions in human faces using multi-layer peceptrons (MLPs)Recognize street signs using a multi-class adaptation of support vector machines (SVMs)Strengthen your OpenCV2 skills and learn how to use new OpenCV3 features In Detail OpenCV is a native cross platform C++ Library for computer vision, machine learning, and image processing. It is increasingly being adopted in Python for development. OpenCV has C++/C, Python, and Java interfaces with support for Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS, and Android. Developers using OpenCV build applications to process visual data; this can include live streaming data from a device like a camera, such as photographs or videos. OpenCV offers extensive libraries with over 500 functions This book demonstrates how to develop a series of intermediate to advanced projects using OpenCV and Python, rather than teaching the core concepts of OpenCV in theoretical lessons. Instead, the working projects developed in this book teach the reader how to apply their theoretical knowledge to topics such as image manipulation, augmented reality, object tracking, 3D scene reconstruction, statistical learning, and object categorization. By the end of this book, readers will be OpenCV experts whose newly gained experience allows them to develop their own advanced computer vision applications.Style and approach This book covers independent hands-on projects that teach important computer vision concepts like image processing and machine learning for OpenCV with multiple examples.

Over 40 recipes to help you create real-time JavaScript applications using the robust Socket.IO frameworkAbout This BookCreate secure WebSocket connections and real-time mobile applications using Socket.IODevise efficient messaging systems between the server side and the client sideA step-by-step implementation guide to help you create elements of Socket.IO application Who This Book Is For If you have some knowledge of JavaScript and Node.js and want to create awe-inspiring application experiences using real time communication, then this book is for you. Developers with knowledge of other *ing languages should also be able to easily follow along.What You Will LearnBuild rich and interactive real-time dashboards using Socket.IO to pipe in data as it becomes availableDesign chat and multiple-person interfaces that leverage Socket.IO for communicationSegment conversations to rooms and namespaces so that every socket doesn’t have to receive every messageSecure your data by implementing various authentication techniques, locking down the HTTP referrer and using secure WebSocketsLoad balance across multiple server-side nodes and keep your WebSockets in sync using Redis, RabbitMQ or MemcachedStream binary data such as audio and video in real-time over a Socket.IO connectionCreate real-time experiences outside of the browser by integrating Socket.IO with hybrid mobile applications In Detail Socket.IO is a JavaScript library that provides you with the ability to implement real-time analytics, binary streaming, instant messaging, and document collaboration. It has two parts: a client-side library that runs in the browser, and a server-side library for node.js. Socket.IO is event-driven and primarily uses the WebSocket protocol that allows us to emit data bi-directionally from the server and the client. Socket.IO This book is a complete resource, covering topics from webSocket security to scaling the server-side of a Socket.IO application and everything in between. This book will provide real-world examples of how secure bi-directional, full-duplex connections that can be created using Socket.IO for different environments. It will also explain how the connection vulnerabilities can be resolved for large numbers of users and huge amounts of data/messages. By the end of the book, you will be a competent Socket.IO developer. With the help of the examples and real-world solutions,you will learn to create fast, scalable, and dynamic real-time apps by creating efficient messaging systems between the server side and the client side using Socket.IO.Style and approach This book is written in a cookbook-style format and provides practical, immediately usable task-based recipes that show you how to create the elements of a Socket.IO application.

Learn how to do more with the Android SDK with this advanced Android Application guide which shows you how to make even better Android apps that users will loveAbout This BookLearn how to design and build better Android apps to reach new usersExplore the latest features and tools in the Android SDK that will help you become a better developerFrom concurrency to testing – through to adding adverts and billing, this book ties together every element to help you deliver a high-quality Android application on Google Play Who This Book Is For Mastering Android Application Development is intended for Android developers that want insight on and guidance through the steps they need to take to give their creations the edge in a competitive market.What You Will LearnCreate an Android project with Android M featuresDesign the basic navigation for our app using the UI componentsSet up a cloud-based platform and store data on itImplement programming patterns such as Singleton and Observer to maintain your project code for future useDisplay lists and grids using Android RecyclerViewImplement user interface components and make your app look professionalHandle, download, and store images along with memory managementCreate the database and content providers to perform read-write operationsAdd notifications to the app and analytics to track the user’s usageShow a Google map view on your appConfigure minify to obfuscate the codeAdd adverts and create products for purchase in your app In Detail There are millions of Android apps out there for people to download – how do you make sure yours has the edgeIt’s not always about innovation and ideas – the most successful apps are those that are able to satisfy customer demands – they’re the ones that look the best, the fastest, and the easiest and most intuitive to use. This book shows you how to create Android applications that do precisely that – it has been designed help you consider and answer those questions throughout the development process, so you can create applications that stand out against the crowd. Learn how to create exemplary UIs that contribute to a satisfying user experience through the lens of Material Design, and explore how to harness the range of features within the Android SDK to help you. Dive deeper into complex programming concepts and discover how to leverage concurrency and navigate memory management and image handling. You’ll also find further guidance on testing and debugging so you can guarantee that your application is reliable and robust for users. Beyond this you’ll find out how to extend your app and add greater functionality, including notifications, location services, adverts and app billing (essential if you want to properly monetize your creation!). To make sure you have confidence at every stage in the process, the book also shows you how to release your app to the Play store – to make sure your maximising your efforts to create a popular Android application!Style and approach This is a step-by-step guide where theory and practice are merged in a way that helps you to put a new concept into practice with ease. By helping to focus on the end result, and showing all the technical steps you need to get there, you will be poised for development success!

When Stanley Lambchop wakes up one morning, his brother, Arthur, is yelling. A bulletin board fell on Stanley during the night, and now he is only half an inch thick! Amazing things begin happening to him. Stanley gets rolled up, mailed, and flown like a kite. He even gets to help catch two dangerous art thieves. He may be flat, but he's a hero. This is the very first Flat Stanley adventure, updated with crisp new art. Supports the Common Core State Standards

After decades of service and years of watching her family's troubles splashed across the tabloids, Britain's Queen is beginning to feel her age. She needs some proper cheering up. An unexpected opportunity offers her relief: an impromptu visit to a place that holds happy memories—the former royal yacht, Britannia, now moored near Edinburgh. Hidden beneath a skull-emblazoned hoodie, the limber Elizabeth (thank goodness for yoga) walks out of Buckingham Palace into the freedom of a rainy London day and heads for King's Cross to catch a train to Scotland. But a characterful cast of royal attendants has discovered her missing. In uneasy alliance a lady-in-waiting, a butler, an equerry, a girl from the stables, a dresser, and a clerk from the shop that supplies Her Majesty's cheese set out to find her and bring her back before her absence becomes a national scandal.Mrs Queen Takes the Train is a clever novel, offering a fresh look at a woman who wonders if she, like Britannia herself, has, too, become a relic of the past. William Kuhn paints a charming yet biting portrait of British social, political, and generational rivalries—between upstairs and downstairs, the monarchy and the government, the old and the young. Comic and poignant, fast paced and clever, this delightful debut tweaks the pomp of the monarchy, going beneath its rigid formality to reveal the human heart of the woman at its center.

In 1950 Krishnamurti said: It is only when the mind is not escaping in any form that it is possible to be in direct communion with that thing we call lonliness, the alone, and to have communion with that thing, there must be affection, there must be love. On Love and Lonliness is a compelling investigation of our intimate relationships with ourselves, others, and society. Krishnamurti suggests that true relationship can come into being only when there is self-knowledge of the conditions which divide and islolate individuals and groups. Only by renouncing the self can we understand the problem of lonliness, and truly love.

Jenna Miscavige Hill was raised to obey. As the niece of the Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige, she grew up at the center of this highly controversial and powerful organization. But at twenty-one, Jenna made a daring break, risking everything she had ever known and loved to leave Scientology once and for all. Now she speaks out about her life, the Church, and her dramatic escape, going deep inside a religion that, for decades, has been the subject of fierce debate and speculation worldwide. Piercing the veil of secrecy that has long shrouded the world of Scientology, this insider reveals unprecedented firsthand knowledge of the religion, its obscure rituals, and its mysterious leader David Miscavige. From her prolonged separation from her parents as a small child to being indoctrinated to serve the greater good of the Church, from her lack of personal freedoms to the organization emphasis on celebrity recruitment, Jenna goes behind the scenes of Scientology oppressive and alienating culture, detailing an environment rooted in control in which the most devoted followers often face the harshest punishments when they fall out of line. Addressing some of the Church most notorious practices in startling detail, she also describes a childhood of isolation and neglect a childhood that, painful as it was, prepared her for a tough life in the Church most devoted order, the Sea Org. Despite this hardship, it is only when her family approaches dissolution and her world begins to unravel that she is finally able to see the patterns of stifling conformity and psychological control that have ruled her life. Faced with a heartbreaking choice, she mounts a courageous escape, but not before being put through the ultimate test of family, faith, and love. At once captivating and disturbing, Beyond Belief is an eye-opening exploration of the limits of religion and the lengths to which one woman went to break free.

The first edition of Bearing Witness brought together for the first time 176 slave narratives from the state of Arkansas. Now, this new edition adds ten previously undiscovered accounts. No one knew the truths of slavery better than the slaves themselves, but no one consulted them until the 1930s. Then, recognizing that this generation of unique witnesses would soon be lost to history, the Works Progress Administration's Federal Writers' Project acted to interview as many former slaves as possible. In a continuation of the project's interest in the life histories of ordinary people, writers interviewed over two thousand former slaves, more than a third of them in Arkansas. These oral histories were first published in the 1970s in a thirty-nine-volume series organized by state, and they transformed America's understanding of slavery. They have offered crucial evidence on a variety of other topics as well: the Civil War, Reconstruction, agricultural practices, everyday life, and oral history itself. But some former Arkansas slaves were interviewed in Texas, Oklahoma, and other states, so their narratives were published in those other collections. And more than half of the testimonies in the Arkansas volume were interviews with people who had moved to Arkansas after freedom. Folklorist George Lankford combed all of the state collections for the testimonies properly belonging to Arkansas and deleted from this state's collection the testimony of later migrants

The quest to pinpoint the age of the Earth is nearly as old as humanity itself. For most of history, people trusted mythology or religion to provide the answer, even though nature abounds with clues to the past of the Earth and the stars. In A Natural History of Time, geophysicist Pascal Richet tells the fascinating story of how scientists and philosophers examined those clues and from them built a chronological scale that has made it possible to reconstruct the history of nature itself.Richet begins his story with mythological traditions, which were heavily influenced by the seasons and almost uniformly viewed time cyclically. The linear history promulgated by Judaism, with its story of creation, was an exception, and it was that tradition that drove early Christian attempts to date the Earth. For instance, in 169 CE, the bishop of Antioch, for instance declared that the world had been in existence for quote;5,698 years and the odd months and days quote;Until the mid-eighteenth century, such natural timescales derived from biblical chronologies prevailed, but, Richet demonstrates, with the Scientific Revolution geological and astronomical evidence for much longer timescales began to accumulate. Fossils and the developing science of geology provided compelling evidence for periods of millions and millions of years-a scale that even scientists had difficulty grasping. By the end of the twentieth century, new tools such as radiometric dating had demonstrated that the solar system is four and a half billion years old, and the universe itself about twice that, though controversial questions remain.The quest for time is a story of ingenuity and determination, and like a geologist, Pascal Richet carefully peels back the strata of that history, giving us a chance to marvel at each layer and truly appreciate how far our knowledge-and our planet-have come.

In Studying Human Behavior, Helen E. Longino enters into the complexities of human behavioral research, a domain still dominated by the age-old debate of "e;nature versus nurture."e; Rather than supporting one side or another or attempting to replace that dichotomy with a different framework for understanding behavior, Longino focuses on how scientists study it, specifically sexual behavior and aggression, and asks what can be known about human behavior through empirical investigation.?She dissects five approaches to the study of behavior-quantitative behavioral genetics, molecular behavior genetics, developmental psychology, neurophysiology and anatomy, and social/environmental methods-highlighting the underlying assumptions of these disciplines, as well as the different questions and mechanisms each addresses. She also analyzes efforts to integrate different approaches. Longino concludes that there is no single "e;correct"e; approach but that each contributes to our overall understanding of human behavior. In addition, Longino reflects on the reception and transmission of this behavioral research in scientific, social, clinical, and political spheres. A highly significant and innovative study that bears on crucial scientific questions, Studying Human Behavior will be essential reading not only for scientists and philosophers but also for science journalists and anyone interested in the engrossing challenges of understanding human behavior.

Students in special education programs can have widely divergent experiences. For some, special education amounts to a dumping ground where schools unload their problem students, while for others, it provides access to services and accommodations that drastically improve chances of succeeding in school and beyond. Distinguishing Disability argues that this inequity in treatment is directly linked to the disparity in resources possessed by the students' parents.Since the mid-1970s, federal law has empowered parents of public school children to intervene in virtually every aspect of the decision making involved in special education. However, Colin Ong-Dean reveals that this power is generally available only to those parents with the money, educational background, and confidence needed to make effective claims about their children's disabilities and related needs. Ong-Dean documents this class divide by examining a wealth of evidence, including historic rates of learning disability diagnosis, court decisions, and advice literature for parents of disabled children. In an era of expanding special education enrollment, Distinguishing Disability is a timely analysis of the way this expansion has created new kinds of inequality.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BCE-65 CE) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, dramatist, statesman, and adviser to the emperor Nero, all during the Silver Age of Latin literature. The Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca is a fresh and compelling series of new English-language translations of his works in eight accessible volumes. Edited by world-renowned classicists Elizabeth Asmis, Shadi Bartsch, and Martha C. Nussbaum, this engaging collection restores Seneca-whose works have been highly praised by modern authors from Desiderius Erasmus to Ralph Waldo Emerson-to his rightful place among the classical writers most widely studied in the humanities.Written near the end of Seneca's life, Natural Questions is a work in which Seneca expounds and comments on the natural sciences of his day-rivers and earthquakes, wind and snow, meteors and comets-offering us a valuable look at the ancient scientific mind at work. The modern reader will find fascinating insights into ancient philosophical and scientific approaches to the physical world and also vivid evocations of the grandeur, beauty, and terror of nature.

Life is short. This indisputable fact of existence has driven human ingenuity since antiquity, whether through efforts to lengthen our lives with medicine or shorten the amount of time we spend on work using technology. Alongside this struggle to manage the pressure of life's ultimate deadline, human perception of the passage and effects of time has also changed. In On Borrowed Time, Harald Weinrich examines an extraordinary range of materials-from Hippocrates to Run Lola Run-to put forth a new conception of time and its limits that, unlike older models, is firmly grounded in human experience. Weinrich's analysis of the roots of the word time connects it to the temples of the skull, demonstrating that humans first experienced time in the beating of their pulses. Tracing this corporeal perception of time across literary, religious, and philosophical works, Weinrich concludes that time functions as a kind of sixth sense-the crucial sense that enables the other five. Written with Weinrich's customary narrative elegance, On Borrowed Time is an absorbing-and, fittingly, succinct-meditation on life's inexorable brevity.

establishment of the modern synthesis in the 1940s and the pioneering work of George Gaylord Simpson, Ernst Mayr, and Theodosius Dobzhansky, as well as the subsequent efforts of Stephen Jay Gould, David Raup, and James Valentine, paleontology became embedded in biology and emerged as paleobiology, a first-rate discipline central to evolutionary studies. Pairing contributions from some of the leading actors of the transformation with overviews from historians and philosophers of science, the essays here capture the excitement of the seismic changes in the discipline. In so doing, David Sepkoski and Michael Ruse harness the energy of the past to call for further study of the conceptual development of modern paleobiology.

A work of striking originality bursting with unexpected insights, The Human Condition is in many respects more relevant now than when it first appeared in 1958. In her study of the state of modern humanity, Hannah Arendt considers humankind from the perspective of the actions of which it is capable. The problems Arendt identified then-diminishing human agency and political freedom, the paradox that as human powers increase through technological and humanistic inquiry, we are less equipped to control the consequences of our actions-continue to confront us today. This new edition, published to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of its original publication, contains an improved and expanded index and a new introduction by noted Arendt scholar Margaret Canovan which incisively analyzes the book's argument and examines its present relevance. A classic in political and social theory, The Human Condition is a work that has proved both timeless and perpetually timely.Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) was one of the leading social theorists in the United States. Her Lectures on Kant's Political Philosophy and Love and Saint Augustine are also published by the University of Chicago Press.

In Reading Darwin in Arabic, Marwa Elshakry questions current ideas about Islam, science, and secularism by exploring the ways in which Darwin was read in Arabic from the late 1860s to the mid-twentieth century. Borrowing from translation and reading studies and weaving together the history of science with intellectual history, she explores Darwin's global appeal from the perspective of several generations of Arabic readers and shows how Darwin's writings helped alter the social and epistemological landscape of the Arab learned classes.?Providing a close textual, political, and institutional analysis of the tremendous interest in Darwin's ideas and other works on evolution, Elshakry shows how, in an age of massive regional and international political upheaval, these readings were suffused with the anxieties of empire and civilizational decline. The politics of evolution infiltrated Arabic discussions of pedagogy, progress, and the very sense of history. They also led to a literary and conceptual transformation of notions of science and religion themselves. Darwin thus became a vehicle for discussing *ural exegesis, the conditions of belief, and cosmological views more broadly. The book also acquaints readers with Muslim and Christian intellectuals, bureaucrats, and theologians, and concludes by exploring Darwin's waning influence on public and intellectual life in the Arab world after World War I.?Reading Darwin in Arabic is an engaging and powerfully argued reconceptualization of the intellectual and political history of the Middle East.

Who among us hasn't marveled at the diversity and beauty of shellsOr picked one up, held it to our ear, and then gazed in wonder at its shape and hueMany a lifelong shell collector has cut teeth (and toes) on the beaches of the Jersey Shore, the Outer Banks, or the coasts of Sanibel Island. Some have even dived to the depths of the ocean. But most of us are not familiar with the biological origin of shells, their role in explaining evolutionary history, and the incredible variety of forms in which they come.Shells are the external skeletons of mollusks, an ancient and diverse phylum of invertebrates that are in the earliest fossil record of multicellular life over 500 million years ago. There are over 100,000 kinds of recorded mollusks, and some estimate that there are over amillion more that have yet to be discovered. Some breathe air, others live in fresh water, but most live in the ocean. They range in size from a grain of sand to a beach ball and in weight from a few grams to several hundred pounds. And in this lavishly illustrated volume, they finally get their full due.The Book of Shells offers a visually stunning and scientifically engaging guide to six hundred of the most intriguing mollusk shells, each chosen to convey the range of shapes and sizes that occur across a range of species. Each shell is reproduced here at its actual size, in full color, and is accompanied by an explanation of the shell's range, distribution, abundance, habitat, and operculum-the piece that protects the mollusk when it's in the shell. Brief scientific and historical accounts of each shell and related species include fun-filled facts and anecdotes that broaden its portrait.The Matchless Cone, for instance, or Conus cedonulli, was one of the rarest shells collected during the eighteenth century. So much so, in fact, that a specimen in 1796 was sold for more than six times as much as a painting by Vermeer at the same auction. But since the advent of scuba diving, this shell has become far more accessible to collectors-though not without certain risks. Some species of Conus produce venom that has caused more than thirty known human deaths.The Zebra Nerite, the Heart Cockle, the Indian Babylon, the Junonia, the Atlantic Thorny Oyster-shells from habitats spanning the poles and the tropics, from the highest mountains to the ocean's deepest recesses, are all on display in this definitive work.

The eighty-nine cetacean species that swim our seas and rivers are as diverse as they are intelligent and elusive, from the hundred-foot-long, two-hundred-ton blue whale to the lesser-known tucuxi, ginkgo-toothed beaked whale, and diminutive, critically endangered vaquita. The huge distances these highly migratory creatures cover and the depths they dive mean we catch only the merest glimpses of their lives as they break the surface of the water. But thanks to the marriage of science and technology, we are now beginning to understand their anatomy, complex social structures, extraordinary communication abilities, and behavioral patterns. In this beautifully illustrated guide, renowned marine mammalogist Annalisa Berta draws on the contributions of a pod of fellow whale biologists to present the most comprehensive, authoritative overview ever published of these remarkable aquatic mammals.Opening with an accessible rundown of cetacean biology-including the most recent science on feeding, mating, and communication-Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises then presents species-specific natural history on a range of topics, from anatomy and diet to distribution and conservation status. Each entry also includes original drawings of the species and its key identifiers, such as fin shape and color, tooth shape, and characteristic markings as they would appear both above and below water-a feature unique to this book.Figures of myth and-as the debate over hunting rages on-figures of conflict since long before the days of Moby-Dick, whales, dolphins, and porpoises are also ecologically important and, in many cases, threatened. Written for general enthusiasts, emergent cetacean fans, and biologists alike, this stunning, urgently needed book will serve as the definitive guide for years to come.

"e;I took my road with no little pride of fear; one morning I feared very sharply, as I saw what looked like a rising shroud over a wooden cross in the clustering mist. Horror! But on a closer study I realized that the apparition was only a flannel gas helmet. . . . What an age since 1914!"e;In Undertones of War, one of the finest autobiographies to come out of World War I, the acclaimed poet Edmund Blunden records his devastating experiences in combat. After enlisting at the age of twenty, he took part in the disastrous battles at the Somme, Ypres, and Passchendaele, describing them as "e;murder, not only to the troops but to their singing faiths and hopes."e;All the horrors of trench warfare, all the absurdity and feeble attempts to make sense of the fighting, all the strangeness of observing war as a writer-of being simultaneously soldier and poet-pervade Blunden's memoir. In steely-eyed prose as richly allusive as any poetry, he tells of the endurance and despair found among the men of his battalion, including the harrowing acts of bravery that won him the Military Cross.Now back in print for American readers, the volume includes a selection of Blunden's war poems that unflinchingly juxtapose death in the trenches with the beauty of Flanders's fields. Undertones of War deserves a place on anyone's bookshelf between Siegfried Sassoon's poetry and Robert Graves's Goodbye to All That.

"e;Family history begins with missing persons,"e; Alison Light writes in Common People. We wonder about those we've lost, and those we never knew, about the long skein that led to us, and to here, and to now. So we start exploring.?Most of us, however, give up a few generations back. We run into a gap, get embarrassed by a ne'er-do-well, or simply find our ancestors are less glamorous than we'd hoped. That didn't stop Alison Light: in the last weeks of her father's life, she embarked on an attempt to trace the history of her family as far back as she could reasonably go. The result is a clear-eyed, fascinating, frequently moving account of the lives of everyday people, of the tough decisions and hard work, the good luck and bad breaks, that chart the course of a life. Light's forebears-servants, sailors, farm workers-were among the poorest, traveling the country looking for work; they left few lasting marks on the world. But through her painstaking work in archives, and her ability to make the people and struggles of the past come alive, Light reminds us that "e;every life, even glimpsed through the chinks of the census, has its surprises and secrets."e;?What she did for the servants of Bloomsbury in her celebrated Mrs. Woolf and the Servants Light does here for her own ancestors, and, by extension, everyone's: draws their experiences from the shadows of the past and helps us understand their lives, estranged from us by time yet inextricably interwoven with our own. Family history, in her hands, becomes a new kind of public history.