Biography: general Books
Paragon House Publishers Blood on the Snow: Eyewitness Accounts of the
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£23.70
Paragon House Publishers Reflections: Auschwitz, Memory, and a Life
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£13.29
Paragon House Publishers Shell Games: The Life and Times of Pearl McGill,
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£22.46
Paragon House Publishers Ain't No Harm to Kill the Devil: The Life and
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£18.04
Paragon House Publishers Heav'nly Tidings from the Afric Muse: The Grace
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£26.09
John Wiley and Sons Ltd The Life of Samuel Johnson: A Critical Biography
Book SynopsisIn this major revision of The Life of Samuel Johnson, Robert DeMaria makes a compelling claim for the attention of a new generation of Johnson's readers and admirers.Trade Review"DeMaria's excellent revision of Johnson the scholar..." TES "DeMaria is himself a fine commentator, and some of his paraphrases outshine the originals..." Bostonia "DeMaria's scrupulous patient exploration of the career in all its aspects is - right down to his book's informative and skillful Notes and Index - a heroic undertaking. He has carried it out beautifully." Professor William H. Pritchard, Amherst "DeMaria's penetrating biography..." Gwin J. Kolb "Balanced, incisive, and wide-ranging..." Bruce Redford "Robert DeMaria has written a learned and at times provocative work which undoubtedly adds to our understanding of the great man." The Times "Robert DeMaria has very nearly done it ... a thoroughly serious, even solemn Johnson." Keith Walker, TLS "This is a fine and original critical account." Literary Review "A pleasantly written, useful introduction to Johnson's writing." Library Journal "A very readable account." Times Educational Supplement "Johnson observed that people require reminding more often than instructing. Demaria's study provides both." Magill's Literary Annual 1994 "Demaria's biography is a balanced book, and - as one might expect - a learned one." Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 "An erudite, fact-packed work that delves into the social context for Johnson's writing." The Observer "Anyone wishing to enjoy a highly readable and informative book on Johnson should find a copy of Robert DeMaria's The Life of Samuel Johnson, A Critical Biography. Even the most ardent Johnsonian will learn something new, and it can be recommended to students without qualification... Most of the facts of Johnson's life are well known; DeMaria uses them to guide us on a journey through Johnson's intellectual landscape. Rocky Mountain Modern Language AssociationTable of ContentsList of Illustrations. A Note on the Form of Citation. Preface. 1. Lichfield. 2. Oxford and Birmingham. 3. Irene. 4. London. 5. Early Biographical Writings. 6. Miscellaneous Prose. 7. The Harleian Library. 8. Johnson's Dictionary. . 9. The Vanity of Human Wishes. 10. The Rambler. 11. Sermons. 12. The Adventurer. 13. The Literary Magazine. 14. The Idler. 15. Rasselas. 16. Shakespeare. 17. Lectures on the English Law. 18. Late Political Writings. 19. A Jourey to the Western Islands of Scotland. 20. The Lives of the Poets. 21. Final Years. Notes. Bibliography. Index.
£41.75
John Wiley and Sons Ltd The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer: A Critical
Book SynopsisThis important new critical biography traces in carefully considered detail what is known of Geoffrey Chaucer's personal life while exploring the fascinating relationship between the man of affairs, who made so many 'improvisations and accommodations' to ensure his own survival, and the poet. A major reexamination of England's greatest narrative poet, it is supplemented with reproductions of Chaucer portraits and other illustrations, including maps of medieval England.Trade Review"Few can write so interestingly, fewer Chaucerians." Notes and Queries "In this rich and comprehensive book, Professor Pearsall combines his expert knowledge of modern Chaucer scholarship and criticism with a refreshing directness in expressing his own opinions. He sees the same `aloof and uncomitted' spirit in Chaucer's poems as in his career; and it is hard to believe that there will ever be a more coherent and convincing account of the life and works of this elusive poet." J. A. Burrow "... highly readable, built on a sound scholarly base with wit and judgment...." Derek Brewer "... it is the merit of Pearsall's book that he returns England's first true poet to the muddle, viciousness and disorder of 14th-century London. He insists continually that we divest ourselves of modern preoccupations... in order to see Chaucer as he was." Peter Ackroyd, The Times "An excellent account." Peter Ackroyd The Times "The life-records are expertly interpreted in terms of social history. The works are placed in their generic frames, and discussed in probable order of composition through the life. The criticism, if at times it has to be summary, is sturdy, candid and well-judged. The scholarship is masterly, that is, unobtrusive, and the lively exposition free from old academic vices, and from modern ones." English "Rife with insights into both the poet's life and his work, this superb book can introduce undergraduates to Chaucer and yet also provide much for seasoned critics and scholars to ponder and debate. A fine reference for the life, times, and works. A must for all libraries." Choice "Is a pleasure to read. An excellent book by a distinguished scholar." Notes and Queries "Pearsall has solved, with elegance and precision, the problem of writing on things which have not only often been considered before, but also frequently discussed." Buchbesprechungen "Pearsall's writing is marked by its firm reasonableness and humour and a confident awareness of contemporary critical thought, and his studies of Chaucer's literary experiments and enquiries as he turned from one visionary poem to another form some of the most stimulating pages of this book." Southern Humanities Review "Often hilarious, by turns, enlightening and provocative. It can be read and appreciated on several levels, as a detailed history of the period, as textual history, and as literary criticism as well as biography." Modern Law Review "Any book-length biography of Chaucer has to be the product of a highly creative imagination, for very little is known about the poets life. This one, highly readable, is fleshed out with a little history and a lot of intelligent and perceptive literary criticism." Sunday Telegraph "Excellent on Chaucer both as a creative writer and a public administrator." The Observer "It is hard to imagine how Derek Pearsall's fine 'critical biography' of Chaucer could be superseded. It will, however, enrage most people some of the time, and some people most of the time; but all for the right reasons. Its originality lies in its refusal to speculate. Pearsall refuses to join the game of invention. Nor will he refashion Chaucer to his own preferred image... this book is a delight to read." Review of English StudiesTable of ContentsList of figures and illustrations. List of Abbreviations. Introduction: Writing a life of Chaucer. 1. Beginnings (c.1340-1360). 2. Early Career (The 1360s). 3. Advances (The 1370s). 4. Fame (1380-1386). 5. Reversals, New Beginnings (1386-1391). 6. Renewal (The 1390s). Epilogue. Appendix I The Chaucer Portraits. Notes. List of Short Titles and Bibliography. Index.
£41.75
University of Massachusetts Press The Monkey's Paw: New Chronicles from Peru
Book SynopsisCombining interviews and personal narrative, the author presents a portrait of the turbulent history of Peru, starting in 1983 when the Shining Path guerillas plunged the country into crisis. She explores why so many Peruvian women felt compelled to join the terrorists.
£32.11
University of Massachusetts Press Broken Contract: Memoir of Harvard Law School
Book SynopsisThis volume presents Richard D. Kahlenberg's memoirs of his time at the Harvard Law School. He cites incident after incident to show how students' natural public-spiritedness is turned into self-interest.
£32.11
University of Massachusetts Press A House is Not a Home
Book SynopsisPolly Adler's ""house"" - the brothel that gave this best-selling 1953 autobiography its title - was a major site of New York City underworld activity from the 1920s through the 1940s. Adler's notorious Lexington Avenue house of prostitution functioned as a sort of social club for New York's gangsters and a variety of other celebrities, including Robert Benchley and his friend Dorothy Parker. According to one New York tabloid, it made Adler's name ""synonymous with sin."" This new edition of Adler's autobiography brings back into print a book that was a mass phenomenon, in both hardback and paperback, when it was first published. A self-consciously literary work, ""A House Is Not a Home"" provides an informal social history of immigrant mobility, prostitution, Jewish life in New York, police dishonesty, the ""white slavery"" scare of the early twentieth century, and political corruption. Adler's story fills an important gap in the history of immigrant life, urban experience, and organized crime in New York City. While most other accounts of the New York underworld focus on the lives of men, from Herbert Asbury's ""Gangs of New York"" through more recent works on Jewish and Italian gangsters, this book brings women's lives and problems to the forefront. ""A House Is Not a Home"" is compellingly readable and was popular enough to draw Hollywood's attention in the early 1960s - leading to a film starring Shelley Winters as Adler. The book has been largely forgotten in the ensuing decades, lost both to its initial audience of general readers and to scholars in women's studies, immigration history, and autobiography who are likely to find it a treasure trove. Now, with a new introduction by Rachel Rubin that contextualizes Adler's life and literary achievement, ""A House Is Not a Home"" is again available to the many readers who have come to understand such ""marginal"" life stories as a special refraction of the more typical American success narrative.
£21.80
Markus Wiener Publishing Inc Biography of Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua
Book SynopsisThis is the biography of an American slave who was born in Africa. His adventures took him to Rio de Janeiro, New York, Boston, Canada, and Britain; he knew Arabic, Dendi, probably Hausa, Portuguese, English, and French. In recent times scholars raised the doubt that such biographies of slaves born in Africa were only partially true; so, Law and Lovejoy traveled to Djougou and Brazil and followed the traces of Baquaqua via various collections, documents, oral history and written reports. They photographed the sites described by Baquaqua and included them in the book. They have also added several letters and other documents to the 1854 original edition.Baquaqua was enslaved in northern Benin in the early 1840s when he was about 20. At the time he was a bodyguard for the ruler of a subordinate town. He was abducted, taken south through Togo to Ouidah, a port in Dahomey, shipped to Pernambuco in Brazil, and sold to a merchant from Rio. This merchant then sold him to another Rio merchant, who took him by ship to New York City, where a little-known black group, the New York Vigilance Society, convinced him to jump ship. He escaped to Boston and traveled to Haiti, the only free Black state, where he was picked up by the Free Baptist Mission. Here Baquaqua converted to Christianity. He later returned to the U.S. and attended college, and traveled extensively.Trade ReviewBaquaqua, born in the town of Djougou (in northern Benin) in the 1820s and raised as a Muslim, lived a busy life as an ironsmith and palace servant. Then he was kidnapped and transported to Recife in about 1845. In 1847 he arrived in New York and there was able to gain his freedom. He then went to Haiti for two years, returned to New York, and in 1850 began studies at Central College. This exemplary volume is worthy of study and emulation.... Extensive detail and clear overview of the present edition contrast powerfully with the previous versions."" - International Journal of African Historical Studies
£26.95
Arte Publico Press Two Badges: The Lives of Mona Ruiz
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£14.20
Arte Publico Press Night-Blooming Jasmin(n)E: Personal Essays and
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£999.99
Farcountry Press Deadwood's Al Swearingen: Manifest Evil in the
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£14.20
Farcountry Press Heroes of the Bob Marshall Wilderness
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£17.05
Signature Books Confidence Amid Change: The Presidential Diaries
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£23.75
Signature Books Writing Mormon History: Historians and Their
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£16.15
Signature Books Writing Mormon History: Historians and Their
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£10.00
Hay House Inc The Jesus Code
Book SynopsisIn a very vivid dream during the night of January 1, 1998, John Randolph Price was emphatically denied access to the secret gate leading to Cosmic Consciousness. Both curious and concerned, he pondered what to do next. Then he was suddenly given the specific instruction: see Jesus for the Code. John began the task immediately upon awakening, first with quiet prayer to become attuned to the 'mind which was in Christ Jesus', followed by several days of meditative inner plane work. There was little progress until he took a break from the project and went for a long walk in the woods. And it was there that he heard the central message of the Code - a challenge for all of us to embrace a new Model of Reality, and change our perspective on what it means to be 'spiritual' in this world.
£12.34
Gallaudet University Press,U.S. Deaf Peddler
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£17.19
Gallaudet University Press,U.S. Gaillard in Deaf America
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£24.00
Gallaudet University Press,U.S. Surviving in Silence: A Deaf Boy in the
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£26.00
Gallaudet University Press,U.S. From Pity to Pride: Growing Up Deaf in the Old
Book SynopsisFrom Pity to Pride depicts the history of young, wealthy men in the old South who were barred from high posts because they were deaf, and how they formed their own societies that after the Civil War included deaf northerners.
£43.70
Gallaudet University Press,U.S. Edmund Booth – Deaf Pioneer
Book SynopsisHomesteader in Iowa, a 49er in the California Gold Rush, and editor of his town-s local paper, Edmund Booth epitomized the classic 19th-century pioneer, except for one difference - he was deaf.
£28.00
Gallaudet University Press,U.S. In Silence
Book SynopsisAt last, Ruth Sidranksy's groundbreaking book "In Silence: Growing Up Hearing in a Deaf World" is back in print. Her account of growing up as the hearing daughter of deaf Jewish parents in the Bronx and Brooklyn during the 1930s and 1940s reveals the challenges deaf people faced during the Depression and afterward. Inside her family's apartment, Sidransky knew a warm, secure place. She recalls her earliest memories of seeing words fall from her parents' hands. She remembers her father entertaining the family endlessly with his stories, and her mother's story of tying a red ribbon to herself and her infant daughter to know when she needed anything in the night. Outside the apartment, the cacophonous hearing world greeted Sidransky's family with stark stares of curiosity as though they were "freaks." Always upbeat, her proud father still found it hard to earn a living. When Sidransky started school, she was placed in a class for special needs children until the prinicipal realized that she could hear and speak. Sidransky portrays her family with deep affection and honesty, and her frank account provides a living narrative of the Deaf experience in pre- and post-World War II America. "In Silence" has become an invaluable chronicle of a special time and place that will affect all who read it for years to come.
£22.50
Gallaudet University Press,U.S. Deaf Women's Lives
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£26.50
Gallaudet University Press,U.S. Building Bridges, Crossing Borders
Book SynopsisKyler Daniels was born deaf in 1988. Unlike other deaf children, Kyler's parents jumped into action to find the best way to educate their daughter. Although they lived in a rural area, they sought out every possible resource to aid their daughter. The author of this book was a parent/infant educator who was involved in Kyler's education for the next 22 years, when Kyler graduated from college. Kyler's story serves as a model for parents of other deaf children and the professionals who work with them.
£21.38
Gallaudet University Press,U.S. Voyage to the Island
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£22.50
Workman Publishing Educating Esmé: Diary of a Teacher's First Year
Book SynopsisAt once "a pop culture phenomenon" (Publishers Weekly) and "screamingly funny" (Booklist), Educating Esmé "should be read by anyone who's interested in the future of public education" (Boston Phoenix Literary Section). A must-read for parents, new teachers, and classroom veterans, Educating Esmé is the exuberant diary of Esmé Raji Codell’s first year teaching in a Chicago public school. Fresh-mouthed and free-spirited, the irrepressible Madame Esmé—as she prefers to be called—does the cha-cha during multiplication tables, roller-skates down the hallways, and puts on rousing performances with at-risk students in the library. Her diary opens a window into a real-life classroom from a teacher’s perspective. While battling bureaucrats, gang members, abusive parents, and her own insecurities, this gifted young woman reveals what it takes to be an exceptional teacher. Heroine to thousands of parents and educators, Esmé now shares more of her ingenious and yet down-to-earth approaches to the classroom in a supplementary guide to help new teachers hit the ground running. As relevant and iconoclastic as when it was first published, Educating Esmé is a classic, as is Madame Esmé herself.Trade Review"Educating Esme is that exceptional education book about an even more exceptional teacher." Kirkus Reviews"
£13.29
New City Press Francis of Assisi Vol 3 the Prophet
£38.00
Pelican Publishing Co Road To The Sea: The Story of James B. Eads and the Mississippi River
£34.84
Pelican Publishing Co Wanted
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£13.33
Temple University Press,U.S. The Woman I Was Not Born To Be: A Transsexual
Book SynopsisTold with humor and flair, this is the autobiography of one transsexual's wild ride from boyhood as Alfred Brevard ("Buddy") Crenshaw in rural Tennessee to voluptuous female entertainer in Hollywood. Aleshia Brevard, as she is now known, underwent transitional surgery in Los Angeles in 1962, one of the first such operations in the United States. (The famous sexual surgery pioneer Harry Benjamin himself broke the news to Brevard's parents.)Under the stage name Lee Shaw, Brevard worked as a drag queen at Finocchio's, a San Francisco club, doing Marilyn Monroe impersonations. (Like Marilyn, she sought romance all the time and had a string of entanglements with men.) Later, she worked as a stripper in Reno and as a Playboy Bunny at the Sunset Strip hutch.After playing opposite Don Knotts in the movie The Love God, Brevard appeared in other films and broke into TV as a regular on the Red Skelton Show. She created the role of Tex on the daytime soap opera One Life To Live. As a woman, Brevard returned to teach theater at East Tennessee State, the same university she had attended as a boy.This memoir is a rare pre-Women's Movement account of coming to terms with gender identity. Brevard writes frankly about the degree to which she organized her life around pleasing men, and how absurd it all seems to her now.Trade Review"...an entertaining and heartfelt journey from male to female, ostracism to acceptance, and obscurity to fame. ... Aleshia Brevard's journey is a brilliant, gutsy, and insightful look at a life simultaneously marginalized and in the spotlight."—Lambda Book Report"The Woman I Was not Born to Be is not the kind of book one really expects from an academic press: no statistics, no elaborate theoretical structure. Nor is it the story of people whom history has utterly ignored. Mocked, crucified, tortured, and jailed, yes; ignored, no. But I'm glad Temple University Press chose to publish it: in academia as in real life, a reasonably well-adjusted, kind-hearted woman who was born male is not so common."—Amy Bloom, Wilson Quarterly"Brevard's story adds an entertaining curve to the growing body of literature—academic scientific, theoretical and literary—on transgendered experience, without the self-pity or sentimentality found in many such memoirs....Written in a gossipy style reminiscent of 1950's movie-star autobiographies (which at heart, it is)."—Publishers WeeklyTable of Contents1. Just for a Change 2. Farm Boy 3. Drag Queen 4. A Man in the House 5. Alfred, Adieu 6. The Coed 7. Burlesque Queen 8. Miss Congeniality 9. Call Me Mrs. 10. Teacher! Teacher! 11. A Playboy Bunny 12. That Female Bunch 13. Fashion's Guru 14. Off-Broadway Baby 15. A Faceless Intruder 16. Mother's Final gift 17. The Finished Produce Index
£73.80
Temple University Press,U.S. The Woman I Was Not Born To Be: A Transsexual
Book SynopsisTold with humor and flair, this is the autobiography of one transsexual's wild ride from boyhood as Alfred Brevard ("Buddy") Crenshaw in rural Tennessee to voluptuous female entertainer in Hollywood. Aleshia Brevard, as she is now known, underwent transitional surgery in Los Angeles in 1962, one of the first such operations in the United States. (The famous sexual surgery pioneer Harry Benjamin himself broke the news to Brevard's parents.)Under the stage name Lee Shaw, Brevard worked as a drag queen at Finocchio's, a San Francisco club, doing Marilyn Monroe impersonations. (Like Marilyn, she sought romance all the time and had a string of entanglements with men.) Later, she worked as a stripper in Reno and as a Playboy Bunny at the Sunset Strip hutch.After playing opposite Don Knotts in the movie The Love God, Brevard appeared in other films and broke into TV as a regular on the Red Skelton Show. She created the role of Tex on the daytime soap opera One Life To Live. As a woman, Brevard returned to teach theater at East Tennessee State, the same university she had attended as a boy.This memoir is a rare pre-Women's Movement account of coming to terms with gender identity. Brevard writes frankly about the degree to which she organized her life around pleasing men, and how absurd it all seems to her now.Trade Review"...an entertaining and heartfelt journey from male to female, ostracism to acceptance, and obscurity to fame. ... Aleshia Brevard's journey is a brilliant, gutsy, and insightful look at a life simultaneously marginalized and in the spotlight."—Lambda Book Report"The Woman I Was not Born to Be is not the kind of book one really expects from an academic press: no statistics, no elaborate theoretical structure. Nor is it the story of people whom history has utterly ignored. Mocked, crucified, tortured, and jailed, yes; ignored, no. But I'm glad Temple University Press chose to publish it: in academia as in real life, a reasonably well-adjusted, kind-hearted woman who was born male is not so common."—Amy Bloom, Wilson Quarterly"Brevard's story adds an entertaining curve to the growing body of literature—academic scientific, theoretical and literary—on transgendered experience, without the self-pity or sentimentality found in many such memoirs....Written in a gossipy style reminiscent of 1950's movie-star autobiographies (which at heart, it is)."—Publishers WeeklyTable of Contents1. Just for a Change 2. Farm Boy 3. Drag Queen 4. A Man in the House 5. Alfred, Adieu 6. The Coed 7. Burlesque Queen 8. Miss Congeniality 9. Call Me Mrs. 10. Teacher! Teacher! 11. A Playboy Bunny 12. That Female Bunch 13. Fashion's Guru 14. Off-Broadway Baby 15. A Faceless Intruder 16. Mother's Final gift 17. The Finished Produce Index
£24.29
Temple University Press,U.S. Fireweed: A Political Autobiography
Book SynopsisA beautifully written, dramatic memoir from one of women's history's foundersTrade Review"Gerda Lerner's absorbing memoir bears witness to the major events of the twentieth century...[She] is a gifted storyteller who writes with passion and clarity. This political autobiography is a must read!"-Joyce Antler, Samuel Lane Professor of American Jewish History and Culture, Brandeis University "A spirited, eminently readable and unapologetic memoir of leftist life in a rightist era...[L]eaving readers hungry for more[,] Lerner's autobiography also makes a fine contribution to social history."-Kirkus Reviews "Fireweed is made out of courage and wisdom. One of the finest historians of our time has written an eloquent memoir that makes clear how Women's History has grown out of lived experience. Read it as a story of a girl coming of age in dark times; read it as a story of a brave young woman who lives her progressive ideals in cold war America. I simply could not put down this loving, chilling and heartbreaking book."-Linda K. Kerber, May Brodbeck Professor of History, University of Iowa and author of No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship "Gerda Lerner, a leading pioneer in Women's History...presents an especially vivid account of the connections between her ambivalent but loving relations with her parents...and her own escape from fascism and quest for both autonomy and a professional career."-Professor David Brion Davis, Director, Yale's Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition, and author of In the Image of God: Religion, Moral Values, and Our Heritage of Slavery "[A] superb memoir... Lerner's power and precision as a writer makes this story read like a fast-paced novel."-Linda Gordon, Professor of History, NYU "Most people become historians by going to school day and night for years. Gerda Lerner became a historian by working in her youth in social justice and women's rights movements that became history. Then, in middle age, she went to school day and night-finally becoming one of our preeminent writers and teachers of Women's History. Fireweed is a wonderful and inspiring story for young women."-Grace Paley "[Fireweed] reads like a novel..."-The New York Times Book Review "As a work of prose, this autobiography has a peculiar beauty. Some of the lines are magical... Perhaps the most striking aspect of Gerda Lerner's memoir, as of her many other publications, is the lucidity of her vision... But, like the eloquent Simone de Beauvoir, who also told her own life, she has made it difficult for any would-be biographer to do better."-The Women's Review of BooksTable of ContentsA Note on UsageIntroductionPart I: BeginningsPart II: Becoming an AmericanPart III: Becoming an American RadicalPart IV: In the Eye of the StormThanksPhotograph gallery
£62.10
Temple University Press,U.S. White Boy: A Memoir
Book SynopsisHow does a Jewish boy who spent the bulk of his childhood on the basketball courts of Brooklyn wind up teaching in one of the city's pioneering black studies departments? Naison's odyssey begins as Brooklyn public schools respond to a new wave of Black migrants and Caribbean immigrants, and established residents flee to virtually all-white parts of the city or suburbs. Already alienated by his parents' stance on race issues and their ambitions for him, he has started on a separate ideological path by the time he enters Columbia College. Once he embarks on a long-term interracial relationship, becomes a member of SDS, focuses his historical work on black activists, and organizes community groups in the Bronx, his immersion in the radical politics of the 1960s has emerged as the center of his life. Determined to keep his ties to the Black community, even when the New Left splits along racial lines, Naison joined the fledgling African American studies program at Fordham, remarkable then as now for its commitment to interracial education. Author note: Mark D. Naison is Professor of African American Studies and History as well as Director of Urban Studies at Fordham University. He is the author of "Communists in Harlem During the Depression".Trade Review"White Boy effectively blends social history and autobiography together in an engaging tale..." The Radical Teacher "When W.E.B. Du Bois wisely cautioned in The Souls of Black Folk that 'he would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa,' might he have had some future Mark Naison in mind? In any case, if a shade of doubt had ever existed about this white boy's qualifications to teach and write African American history, Naison's engrossing, tumultuous memoir ought assure the author a place of honor not only among his professional peers of color but in the front ranks of all those for whom differences based on ideas and ideals--not on color or gender or class--are the only ones that matter." --David Levering Lewis, Martin Luther King, Jr., University Professor at Rutgers University and twice recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1994 and 2001 "White Boy is a happy exception to the absence of autobiographical writings of historians of social movements. It is also an inspired intervention into the history of Black Studies. Its ability to sustain optimism regarding interracialism while acknowledging the costs of long histories and deep structures of division makes the book a great asset." --David Roediger, Babcock Professor of History at the University of Illinois, and author of Colored White: Transcending The Racial Past "White Boy is one of the most fascinating memoirs I've read in a while. It does much more than provide us with an interesting coming-of-age tale of a smart Jewish kid who discovered and fell in love with black life and culture--a love, like all loves, full of discord and mad misunderstandings. Instead, Naison tries to be self-reflexive along the way, providing social historical contexts while attempting to reconstruct his own sense of naivete he experienced at the moment of certain cultural encounters. Chock full of stories, White Boy will be an important and much debated book." --Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Yo' Mama's DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America "...forthright and thoughtful memoir... An adroit writer with a winning voice, Naison avoids romanticizing his activist days; he is at times also critical of New Left tactics (particularly those that reinforced racial polarization among activists), and he interrogates his own interest in and identification with black culture." --Choice "Naison [writes] with unsparing honesty and personal revelation... Naison's memoir grows in importance. It has raised some crucial issues, many of which go to the heart of the continuing search for racial justice and interracial unity. It should be read widely and debated vigorously." --Science and Society "In this forthright and thoughtful memoir, Naison, who became, in the early 1970s, one of the first professors (and the only white man) at Fordham's new Institute of Afro-American Studies, recalls a lifetime of fascination with black history and culture and of antidiscrimination activism. ...An adroit writer with a winning voice, Naison avoids romanticizing his activist days; ...he interrogates his own interest in and identification with black culture." --Publishers WeeklyTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments 1. Crown Heights in the 1950s 2. Race Conscious 3. Looking Down on Harlem 4. Meeting Ruthie 5. Contested Territory 6. Ball of Confusion 7. Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide 8. Bringing the War Home 9. A White Man in Black Studies 10. Riders on the Storm 11. Close to the Edge
£69.30
Temple University Press,U.S. White Boy: A Memoir
Book SynopsisHow does a Jewish boy who spent the bulk of his childhood on the basketball courts of Brooklyn wind up teaching in one of the city's pioneering black studies departments? Naison's odyssey begins as Brooklyn public schools respond to a new wave of Black migrants and Caribbean immigrants, and established residents flee to virtually all-white parts of the city or suburbs. Already alienated by his parents' stance on race issues and their ambitions for him, he has started on a separate ideological path by the time he enters Columbia College. Once he embarks on a long-term interracial relationship, becomes a member of SDS, focuses his historical work on black activists, and organizes community groups in the Bronx, his immersion in the radical politics of the 1960s has emerged as the center of his life. Determined to keep his ties to the Black community, even when the New Left splits along racial lines, Naison joined the fledgling African American studies program at Fordham, remarkable then as now for its commitment to interracial education. This memoir offers more than a participant's account of the New Left's racial dynamics; it eloquently speaks to the ways in which political commitments emerge from and are infused with the personal choices we all make. Author note: Mark D. Naison is Professor of African American Studies and History as well as Director of Urban Studies at Fordham University. He is the author of Communists in Harlem During the Depression.Trade Review"When W.E.B. Du Bois wisely cautioned in The Souls of Black Folk that 'he would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa,' might he have had some future Mark Naison in mind? In any case, if a shade of doubt had ever existed about this white boy's qualifications to teach and write African American history, Naison's engrossing, tumultuous memoir ought assure the author a place of honor not only among his professional peers of color but in the front ranks of all those for whom differences based on ideas and ideals-not on color or gender or class-are the only ones that matter."-David Levering Lewis, Martin Luther King, Jr., University Professor at Rutgers University and twice recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1994 and 2001 "White Boy is a happy exception to the absence of autobiographical writings of historians of social movements. It is also an inspired intervention into the history of Black Studies. Its ability to sustain optimism regarding interracialism while acknowledging the costs of long histories and deep structures of division makes the book a great asset."-David Roediger, Babcock Professor of History at the University of Illinois, and author of Colored White: Transcending The Racial Past "White Boy is one of the most fascinating memoirs I've read in a while. It does much more than provide us with an interesting coming-of-age tale of a smart Jewish kid who discovered and fell in love with black life and culture-a love, like all loves, full of discord and mad misunderstandings. Instead, Naison tries to be self-reflexive along the way, providing social historical contexts while attempting to reconstruct his own sense of naivete he experienced at the moment of certain cultural encounters. Chock full of stories, White Boy will be an important and much debated book."-Robin D. G.Kelley, author of Yo' Mama's DisFunktional!: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America "...forthright and thoughtful memoir... An adroit writer with a winning voice, Naison avoids romanticizing his activist days; he is at times also critical of New Left tactics (particularly those that reinforced racial polarization among activists), and he interrogates his own interest in and identification with black culture."-Choice "Naison [writes] with unsparing honesty and personal revelation... Naison's memoir grows in importance. It has raised some crucial issues, many of which go to the heart of the continuing search for racial justice and interracial unity. It should be read widely and debated vigorously."-Science and Society "In this forthright and thoughtful memoir, Naison, who became, in the early 1970s, one of the first professors (and the only white man) at Fordham's new Institute of Afro-American Studies, recalls a lifetime of fascination with black history and culture and of antidiscrimination activism. ...An adroit writer with a winning voice, Naison avoids romanticizing his activist days; ...he interrogates his own interest in and identification with black culture."-Publishers Weekly "...engrossing... more than just a political memoir... White Boy is an extraordinary, valuable and often funny memoir in which Naison relates his personal odyssey against the social ferment of the 1960s and early 1970s."-The Nation "In a world where academic language waters down essential issues of truth and commercially driven art warps beauty, Naison's attempt to keep it real should be applauded."-Socialism and Democracy OnlineTable of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgments1. Crown Heights in the 1950s2. Race Conscious3. Looking Down on Harlem4. Meeting Ruthie5. Contested Territory6. Ball of Confusion7. Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide8. Bringing the War Home9. A White Man in Black Studies10. Riders on the Storm11. Close to the Edge
£23.39
Ivan R Dee, Inc Josh Gibson: A Life in the Negro Leagues
Book SynopsisDuring the first half of the twentieth century, Josh Gibson was a legendary figure among black baseball players, who were barred from playing in the major leagues. Perhaps baseball's greatest hitter, Gibson was known as "the black Babe Ruth." In this illuminating biography, William Brashler introduces an authentic American sports hero and recaptures the mood and style, the excitement and poignance of a world of black baseball that has vanished from the American scene. He traces Gibson's career from the sandlots and semi-pro teams of Pittsburgh, through his debut with the Homestead Grays in 1930, and on to his untimely death in 1947 at age thirty-five—the winter after Jackie Robinson broke through the minor leagues' color barrier. With 12 pages of black-and-white photographs. "Brashler has put together a balanced account that, while deflating some of the apocryphal tales of Gibson's exploits, brings him into clear focus as one of the outstanding baseball players of his era....He emerges here as a stoic figure...totally dedicated to baseball."—New York Times Book Review. "Brashler helps to cut through the legend of a moonfaced laughing giant and give us a sense of Josh's life, in and out of baseball."—New York Review of Books.Trade ReviewOutstanding...a cornerstone for any baseball collection. -- Lee Milazzo * The Dallas Morning News *A life of the 'black Babe Ruth' doubles as a history of the Negro Leagues. * Chicago Tribune *A vivid, moving account...one fine book! -- Charles C. Alexander * The Historian *Considered by many historians to be the best biography of the slugger. -- Josh Hamill * The New York Times *
£15.60
Ivan R Dee, Inc The Angel Letters: Lessons That Dying Can Teach
Book SynopsisWorking in the children's cancer unit of a New York hospital for fifteen years, Norman Fried has been psychotherapist and counselor to both physically ill children and their worried families and friends. He has been part of scenes of bitterness and pain–and has observed how these sad moments have taught all concerned about life's important lessons. Sitting at the bedsides of children with life–threatening cancer, he has been sadly fortunate to hear their messages of hope and love, which have taught him how to help those they were leaving behind. The Angel Letters is his extraordinary book based on his experiences. It is intended for the living but is composed in the form of letters addressed to a dozen different children whose last days and months he shared intimately. From each experience he draws a lesson—in love, family, courage, belonging, etc.—that can help parents and family learn to suffer through the tragedy of their sick or lost child, drawing strength from their understanding of what has happened and from an appreciation for their child's perspective. "No story ends in death," Dr. Fried writes, "not in this book, and not in life. What happens after death is ours to ponder and struggle with. Some questions remain unanswered. But how a family lives after a death, how we as mourners can carry on–these are the questions I wrestle with here." In The Angel Letters he proves to be an inspiring companion for this difficult journey.Trade ReviewReaders will shed tears of gratitude for what Dr. Norman Fried has given us. -- Arthur Kurzweil, author of Kabbalah for Dummies and On the Road with Rabbi SteinsaltzThe insights in this book can help the reader find ways to use their suffering as a path that opens out an expanded vision of this journey of love we normally call 'life.' -- Christine Longaker, author of Facing Death and Finding Hope.[A] beautifully written book that provides the reader with invaluable lessons.... I recommend this book highly. -- David Pelcovitz Ph.D., Professor, Straus Chair in Psychology and Education, Azrieli Graduate School, Yeshiva UniversityEach poignantly written missive points a hauntingly hopeful lesson—in friendship...in love...and in other essentials for living. -- Donna Chavez * Booklist *Although the book will probably bring tears to readers' eyes, it likely will leave them feeling uplifted. * Oklahoman *This is a very inspirational book. * Spectator Australia *The Angel Letters is an extraordinary book. -- Ina Hughs * Sentinel *Any interested in belief, acceptance, and working through illness will find The Angel Letters an inspiration... * Midwest Book Review *The lessons are written in a manner that is personal yet still able to transcend specific cultural and religious beliefs. * Aphon Counts *A collection of poignant essays....This is an unusual and touching book....Fried manages to convey a sense of each child's struggle in a deeply compassionate and illustrative way. * JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association *
£14.99
Book Publishing Company Hitman for the Kindness Club: High Seas Escapades
Book Synopsis
£19.12
University of North Texas Press,U.S. Billy the Kid: El Bandido Simpático
Book SynopsisIn the annals of American western history, few people have left behind such lasting and far-reaching fame as Billy the Kid. Some have suggested that his legend began with his death at the end of Pat Garrett’s revolver on the night of July 14, 1881, in Fort Sumner. Others believe that the legend began with his unforgettable jailbreak in Lincoln, New Mexico, several months prior on April 28, 1881. Others still insist his legend began with the publication in 1926 of Walter Noble Burns’s book, The Saga of Billy the Kid. James B. Mills has left no stone unturned in his twenty-year quest to tell the complete story of Billy the Kid. He explores the Kid’s disputable origins, his family’s migration from New York into the Southwest, and how he became an orphan, as well as his involvement in the Lincoln County War, his outlaw exploits, and his dealings with Governor Lew Wallace. Mills illuminates the Kid’s relationships with his enemies, lovers, and numerous friends to contextualize the man’s character beyond his death and legacy. Most importantly, Mills is the first historian to fully detail the Kid’s relations with New Mexicans of Spanish descent. So, the question remains, who really was the person the world knows as Billy the Kid? Was he more than a young reprobate committed to a life of crime, who relished becoming the famous outlaw and cold-blooded, self-absorbed “sociopath” or “thug” that some still prefer him—need him—to be? Or was he in fact the generally good-hearted, generous, courteous, young vigilante that so many remembered with considerable fondness, who ultimately preferred the company of the more peaceable Hispanic population than his own Anglo people? In this groundbreaking biography, Mills takes the reader closer to the flesh-and-blood human being named Henry McCarty, alias William H. Bonney, than ever before.
£27.96
Avalon Publishing Group A World I Loved: The Story of an Arab Woman
Book Synopsis"This is my story, the story of an Arab woman. It is the story of a lost world. It begins in 1917, in Lebanon, when I was seven years old." So opens this haunting memoir by Wadad Makdisi Cortas, who eloquently describes her personal experience of the events that have fractured the Middle East over the past century. Through Cortas' eyes we experience life in Lebanon under the oppressive French mandate, and her desire to forge an Arab identity based on religious tolerance. We learn of her dedication to the education of women, and the difficulties that she overcomes to become the principal of a school in Lebanon. And in final, heartbreaking detail, we watch as her world becomes rent by the Palestine question," Western interference, and civil war. The World I Loved is both an elegy on Lebanon and her people, and the unforgettable story of one woman's journey from hope to sorrow as she bears painful witness to the undoing of her beloved country by sectarian and religious division.
£15.19
University of North Texas Press,U.S. Texas Ranger Captain William L. Wright
Book SynopsisWilliam L. Wright (1868–1942) was born to be a Texas Ranger, and hard work made him a great one. Wright tried working as a cowboy and farmer, but it did not suit him. Instead, he became a deputy sheriff and then a Ranger in 1899, battling a mob in the Laredo Smallpox Riot, policing both sides in the Reese-Townsend Feud, and winning a gunfight at Cotulla.His need for a better salary led him to leave the Rangers and become a sheriff. He stayed in that office longer than any of his predecessors in Wilson County, keeping the peace during the so-called Bandit Wars, investigating numerous violent crimes, and surviving being stabbed on the gallows by the man he was hanging. When demands for Ranger reform peaked, he was appointed as a captain and served for most of the next twenty years, retiring in 1939 after commanding dozens of Rangers.Wright emerged unscathed from the Canales investigation, enforced Prohibition in South Texas, and policed oil towns in West Texas, as well as tackling many other legal problems. When he retired, he was the only Ranger in service who had worked under seven governors. Wright has also been honored as an inductee into the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame at Waco.
£27.96
Charlesbridge Publishing,U.S. Esquivel!
Book SynopsisA playful picture-book biography of the father of space-age bachelor-pad lounge music.Gorgeously illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh, this lively biography follows Juan Garcia Esquivel from Mexico to New York City. Juan grew up to the sounds of mariachi bands; he loved music and became a musical explorer. Defying convention, he created music that made people laugh and planted images in their minds. His musical dreams brought him from Mexico to America and gained him worldwide renown. Juan’s space-age lounge music—popular in the fifties and sixties—has found a new generation of listeners. This account honors Esquivel as one of the great composers of the 20th century.
£7.99
Kodansha America, Inc Confessions Of A Yakuza
Book SynopsisThis is the true story, as told to the doctor who looked after him just before he died, of the life of one of the last traditional yakuza in Japan. It wasn't a good' life, in either sense of the word, but it was an adventurous one; and the tale he has to tell presents an honest and oddly attractive picture of an insider in that separate, unofficial world. In his low, hoarse voice, he describes the random events that led the son of a prosperous country shopkeeper to become a member, and ultimately the leader, of a gang organizing illegal dice games in Tokyo's liveliest'Trade Review"Vivid and accurate." —Los Angeles Times"A wonderful storyteller with a variety of unusual experiences." —Washington Post Book World"Packed with colorful details and insights, told straightforwardly without machismo or exaggeration... Important and entertaining." —Manoa"This is the kind of history that rarely gets recorded... Interesting, candid, and honest." —Far Eastern Economic Review"Memories of pain and pleasure…a witness to the past." —Le Monde"Fascinating ... gang hierarchy, the relationship between the police and the mob, the organization of gambling sessions and of prison life." —Quadrant"Compelling…big-hearted."—International Herald Tribune
£11.39
Hazelden Information & Educational Services Bill W
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£15.19
Red Sea Press,U.S. Reminiscences Of My Life
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£25.46
Red Sea Press,U.S. Wounded Nation: How a Once Promising Eritrea Was
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£29.71
