History of the Americas Books

Book SynopsisAmerican Whitelash is indispensable. Really. It is. - Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an AntiracistFrom a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, a shocking investigation into the cyclical pattern of violence that has marred racial progress in AmericaIn 2008, Barack Obama''s historic victory was heralded as a turning point for the USA. And so it would be - just not in the way that most Americans hoped. The election of the nation''s first Black president fanned long-burning embers of white supremacy, igniting a new and frightening phase in a continuous historical cycle of racial progress and white backlash.In American Whitelash, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author Wesley Lowery charts the return of this blood-stained trend, showing how the forces of white power retaliated against Obama''s victory - and both profited from, and helped to propel, the rise of Donald Trump. Drawing oTrade ReviewWesley Lowery chronicles the most existential racial story of our time: the racist political violence that followed Obama's election, fueled Trump's rise, and continues to threaten our very existence. American Whitelash is indispensable. Really. It is -- Ibram X. Kendi, author of HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACISTThe rise of white supremacist violence is one of the most important stories in American life today. In American Whitelash, Wesley Lowery guides the reader through the social, psychological, and historical realities that animate this violence. It is both a brilliant and unsettling examination of a part of America that many Americans would prefer to look away from. This book reminds us that we cannot look away. American Whitelash is an essential text, one that further demonstrates why Lowery is one of our country's most important and gifted journalists -- Clint Smith, author of HOW THE WORD IS PASSEDAn incredibly thoughtful and provocative and interesting book -- Nihal Arthanayake

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Book SynopsisTHE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER''I''ve been wondering who might fill the intellectual void after James Baldwin died. Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates'' Toni Morrison''Searing. One of the foremost essayists on race in the West... [He] is responsible for some of the most important writing about what it is to be black in America today'' Nikesh Shukla, editor of The Good ImmigrantAn essential account of modern America, from Obama to Trump, from black lives matter to white supremacists rising - by the bestselling author of Between the World and MeObama''s presidency was a watershed moment in American history. From 2008-2016, the leader of the free world was a black man. In those eight years, Obama transformed the conversation around race, gender, class and wealth - inspiring hope but also attracting criticism and breeding discontent.In this unflinching book, Ta-Nehisi Coates takes stock of Obama''s eight years Trade ReviewI've been wondering who might fill the intellectual void that plagued me after James Baldwin died. Clearly it is Ta-Nehisi Coates -- Toni Morrison on 'Between the World and Me'America's latest literary wunderkind... A prodigious talent * The Sunday Times *We are witnessing greatness. The man and his writing will be studied and revered for generations * Minneapolis Star Tribune *[Coates is] the pre-eminent black public intellectual of his generation * The New York Times *We Were Eight Years in Power is an essential text to understand America today * W Magazine *Ta-Nehisi Coates is probably the only magazine writer in the world whose articles are heralded with the same fervor as the release of the latest Beyonce album * Financial Times *A wake up call... More compelling than almost any other public voice about the state we're in. He eloquently conflates the personal, political and existential, while telling it like it is * Observer *Coates eloquently unfurls blunt truths... To have such a voice, in such a moment, is a ray of light * USA Today *Coates succeeds twice over, in justifying not only his account of one election, but the importance of his entire body of work * New Statesman *Brilliant and troubling... Required reading * Vogue *Coates' always sharp commentary is particularly insightful as each day brings a new upset to the cultural and political landscape laid during the term of the nation's first black president. [A] crucial voice in the public discussion of race and equality, and readers will be eager for his take on where we stand now and why * Booklist *It's this timeless timeliness--reminiscent of the work of George Orwell and James Baldwin--that makes Coates worth reading again and again * Publishers Weekly *Fiercely passionate, intelligent and clear-eyed * Newsday *Across his oeuvre, Coates' prose style and literary prowess are hip-hop sharpened: he believes in the art of dexterous reference, potent, lyrical critique and political storytelling * Baltimore Sun *Coates's probing essays about race, politics, and history became necessary ballast for this nation's gravity-defying moment... Essential * The Boston Globe *Biting cultural and political analysis from the award-winning journalist . . . His conclusions are disquieting, his writing passionate, his tenor often angry.... Emotionally charged, deftly crafted, and urgently relevant essays" * Kirkus *Powerfully charged * GQ *[R]aw and hard to read. You'll never forget his point of view, nor should you * Glamour *Thus, We Were Eight Years in Power serves as a clarion call for vigilance about the possible erosion of African-American advances presumed sacrosanct. Consider these riveting, well-reasoned ruminations of the most-prodigious black visionary around a must-read indeed * The Mississippi Link *

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Book SynopsisOpinions of specialized labor courts differ, but labor justice undoubtedly represented a decisive moment in worker ''s history. When and how did these courts take shape? Why did their originators consider them necessary? Leon Fink and Juan Manuel Palacio present essays that address these essential questions. Ranging from Canada and the United States to Chile and Argentina, the authors search for common factors in the appearance of labor courts while recognizing the specific character of the creative process in each nation. Their transnational and comparative approach advances a global perspective on the various mechanisms for regulating industrial relations and resolving labor conflicts. The result is the first country-by-country study of its kind, one that addresses a defining shift in law in the first half of the twentieth century. Contributors: Rossana Barragán Romano, Angela de Castro Gomes, David Díaz-Arias, Leon Fink, Frank Luce, Diego Ortúzar, Germán Palacio, Juan Manuel PaTrade Review"This is a fabulous book. As historians and social scientists return to the distributional dimensions of capitalist development, they should look closely at this anthology. It contains insightful studies of national experiences; it also lays out a template for analyzing a central institution in framing class conflict in the modern age: labor courts and the struggle for justice and recognition. This is a wonderful example of connected and comparative history." --Jeremy Adelman, author of Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O. Hirschman"Labor Justice across the Americas can help us to learn from past struggles to think creatively about new ideas for effective labor justice. It is a unique book that deserves to be read by labor historians, legal historians, labor advocates, and quixotic dreamers who want to keep a toe on the ground." --New Labor Forum“An important and necessary first step in assessing the role of the law in twentieth-century capital-labor relations, a valuable contribution greatly enhanced by its comparative focus." --Hispanic American Historical Review"Highly recommended." --Choice"An ambitious transnational project developed around a specialized body of knowledge, this volume has many great strengths. This book artfully presents side-by-side national histories within their hemispheric context and points us toward a sophisticated neo-Boltonian hemispheric labor history founded on deeply researched national case studies." --Labor

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"The book...combines narrative storytelling, historical research and sociological theory to paint a complete and compelling picture." * Sandpoint Reader *"In clean and engaging prose, Pilgeram describes the heartache of a disenfranchised population, while also delivering a tough scholarly analysis." * Bookmonger *"Through extensive interviews and archival work, this sociological study draws on the descriptive power of ethnographic writing to trace the path of rural development in an engaging and accessible book." * Choice *"[I]t speaks to urgent changes in the contemporary West...the book's closing reminder that we can imagine, and enact, different futures is a hopeful and necessary one." * Western American Literature *"Pilgeram’s work constitutes an excellent intervention into the problems associated with rural gentrification." * Contemporary Sociology *"Pilgeram's book is a thoroughly engaging, well researched, and important exploration of a type of gentrification often ignored and misunderstood in the broader social discussion of displacement." * Growth and Change *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Covering an impressive swath of ground, this book presents insightful and challenging departures in theory and methodology and is a worthwhile read for ecological scientists and social theorists alike." -- Dani Slabaugh * LSE Review of Books *"In insightful, inviting, and compelling ways, Underflows brings attention to possibilities beneath and beyond the surface flows of straight/settler science…[I]nnovative, collaborative approaches like Wölfle Hazard’s, particularly where they support and align with Indigenous-led stewardship and maintenance, are more crucial than ever." * H-Net Reviews *"Underflows will be deeply relevant to thinkers across and beyond academic disciplines. At various times addressed to practitioners of the ecological sciences, river workers, queer and trans theorists, ecocritics, and queer and trans folks outside academia, Wölfle Hazard’s exciting and thought-provoking study offers much-needed insight into queer and trans ecology and its affinities with Indigenous science, environmental justice, ecopoetics, and river ecosystems." * ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment *

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Book SynopsisGeneral Leslie Groves and J. Robert Oppenheimer were the two men chiefly responsible for the building of the first atomic bomb at Los Alamos, code name The Manhattan Project. As the ranking military officer in charge of marshalling men and material for what was to be the most ambitious, expensive engineering feat in history, it was General Groves who hired Oppenheimer (with knowledge of his left-wing past), planned facilities that would extract the necessary enriched uranium, and saw to it that nothing interfered with the accelerated research and swift assembly of the weapon.This is his story of the political, logistical, and personal problems of this enormous undertaking which involved foreign governments, sensitive issues of press censorship, the construction of huge plants at Hanford and Oak Ridge, and a race to build the bomb before the Nazis got wind of it. The role of groves in the Manhattan Project has always been controversial. In his new introduction the noted physicist Edward Teller, who was there at Los Alamos, candidly assesses the general''s contributions,and Oppenheimer''s,while reflecting on the awesome legacy of their work.

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Book SynopsisOnly four men in American history have been promoted to the five-star rank of Admiral of the Fleet: William Leahy, Ernest King, Chester Nimitz and William Halsey. These four men were the best and the brightest the navy produced and together they led the U.S. navy to victory in World War II, establishing the United States as the world''s greatest fleet. In THE ADMIRALS, award-winning historian Walter R. Borneman tells their story in full detail for the first time. Drawing upon journals, ship logs, and other primary sources, he brings an incredible historical moment to life, showing us how the four admirals revolutionized naval warfare forever with submarines and aircraft carriers, and how these men-who were both friends and rivals-worked together to ensure that the Axis fleets lay destroyed on the ocean floor at the end of World War II.Trade ReviewThe first book to deal with the four [admirals] together, focusing on their intertwined lives, friendships, and rivalries....A very well-crafted book. - John Lehman, Washington Post In his superbly reported new book, historian Walter R. Borneman tackles the essential question of military leadership: What makes some men, but not others, able to motivate a fighting force into battle? - Tony Perry, Los Angeles Times Engagingly written and deeply researched... Mr. Borneman makes it easy to understand the complex series of maneuvers and counter-maneuvers at Leyte Gulf...which is not always the case with accounts of the battle. - Andrew Roberts, Wall Street JournalBorneman demonstrates comprehensive command of published and unpublished sources, fingertip understanding of the period, and a polished writing style in this unique collective biography of the four men who 'with a combination of nimble counsel, exasperating ego, studied patience, and street-fighter tactics' shaped the modern U.S. Navy to win WWII at sea. - Publishers WeeklyWalter Borneman's The Admirals is an epic group portrait of Nimitz, Halsey, Leahey, and King. Not since the heyday of Samuel Eliot Morison has a historian painted such a fine portrait of the five-star admirals who helped America beat Japan during the Second World War. Highly recommended! - Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History at Rice University and author of The Wilderness Warrior

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Book SynopsisMost Americans are now familiar with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and its prevalence among troops. In this groundbreaking new book, David Wood examines the far more pervasive yet less understood experience of those we send to war: moral injury, the violation of our fundamental values of right and wrong that so often occurs in the impossible moral dilemmas of modern conflict. Featuring portraits of combat veterans and leading mental health researchers, along with Wood''s personal observations of war and the young Americans deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, WHAT HAVE WE DONE offers an unflinching look at war and those who volunteer for it: the thrill and pride of service and, too often, the scars of moral injury.Impeccably researched and deeply personal, WHAT HAVE WE DONE is a compassionate, finely drawn study of modern war and those caught up in it. It is a call to acknowledge our newest generation of veterans by listening intently to them and absorbing their storie

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Book SynopsisA biography of one of America’s most popular and misunderstood authors, John Steinbeck.Trade Review"[Mad at the World] highlights the staggering amount of work he [Steinbeck] fitted into his overflowing life... highly readable..." -- The Sunday Times"William Souder’s Mad at the World is the first significant biography of Steinbeck since Jackson L. Benson’s... The True Adventures of John Steinbeck, Writer. It is readable, admiring and compact, and provides a narratively energetic look at a man who suffered many of the same weaknesses as his characters — for booze, benzedrine, depression and bad marriages... Souder writes well, and this is a good place to start reading (or rereading) about Steinbeck." -- Scott Bradfield - The Spectator"A comprehensive new biography of America’s best-known novelist of the Great Depression arrives at a timely moment." -- 17 New Books to Watch For in October - The New York Times"Souder’s sympathy for Steinbeck… is most effective and eloquent in his depiction of the California landscape or of the sea, which he describes as swimming with small pelagic crabs “like a crimson carpet spread across an ocean the color of lapis lazuli"." -- Brenda Wineapple - The New York Times Book Review"Painstakingly researched, psychologically nuanced, unshowy, lucid... [Souder] has brought a deeply human Steinbeck forth in all his flawed, melancholy, brilliant complication." -- Alex Kafka - The Washington Post"[An] appreciative yet clear-eyed assessment." -- Wendy Smith - The Boston Globe

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Book SynopsisWhat happens when Americans lose faith in their religious institutions?and politicians fill the void? From the Puritans to Donald Trump, this sweeping history will change your understanding of the forces that create leaders and hold their followers captive.Everyone feels it. Cultural and political life in America has become unrecognizable and strange. Firebrands and would-be sages have taken the place of reasonable and responsible leaders. Nuanced debates have given way to the smug confidence of yard signs. How did we get here?In Spellbound, historian Molly Worthen argues that we will understand our present moment if we learn the story of charisma in America. From the Puritans and Andrew Jackson to Black nationalists and Donald Trump, the saga of American charisma, Worthen argues, stars figures who possess a dangerous and alluring power to move crowds. They invite followers into a cosmic drama where hopes are fulfilled and grievances are put right?and these charismatic leaders insist that they alone plot the way.The story of charisma in America reveals that when traditional religious institutions fail to deliver on their promise of a meaningful life, people will get their spiritual needs met in a warped cultural and political landscape dominated by those who appear to have the power to bring order and meaning out of chaos. Charismatic leaders address spiritual needs, offering an alternate reality where people have knowledge, power, and heroic status, whether as divinely chosen instruments of God or those who will restore national glory.Through Worthen?s centuries-spanning historical research, Spellbound places a crucial religious lens on the cultural, economic, and political upheavals facing Americans today.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewBrilliant…groundbreaking…Brown’s profound analysis and revolutionary vision of the Age of Slave War—from the too-often overlooked Tacky’s Revolt to the better-known Haitian Revolution—gives us an original view of the birth of modern freedom in the New World. -- Cornel WestBrown’s brilliant analysis reveals how slave rebellions across the Americas depended upon experienced combatants captured in African conflicts and then sold to Europeans, refuting the canard that slave traders gathered their victims randomly. While tracing the relationships between African warfare and uprisings in the Americas, Brown offers beautifully written portraits of those who survived the crushing forces of colonial imperialism and fought for freedom. Above all else, this astute and comprehensive book is about agency. -- Henry Louis Gates, Jr.A sobering read for contemporary audiences in countries engaged in forever wars, reminding us how easily and arbitrarily the edges of empire, and its evils, can fade from or focus our vision. It is also a useful reminder that the distinction between victory and defeat, when it comes to insurgencies, is often fleeting: Tacky may have lost his battle, but the enslaved did eventually win the war. -- Casey Cep * New Yorker *Brown derives not only a story of the insurrection, but ‘a martial geography of Atlantic slavery,’ vividly demonstrating how warfare shaped every aspect of bondage…Forty years after Tacky’s defeat, new arrivals from Africa were still hearing about the daring rebels who upended the island. -- Julian Lucas * Harper’s *Outstanding…Brown has produced one of the best treatments of slavery ever written. -- Steve Hahn * Boston Review *A powerful account of the slave rebellion that took place in Jamaica in 1760 situates it in the context of an era of conflict and argues that slavery was itself a ‘state of war.’ * The Guardian *A phenomenally insightful and compelling book on both the brutality of British colonialism and the desire for freedom. -- Brad Evans * Los Angeles Review of Books *Virtuosic…A revelation, and a true heir to The Black Jacobins and The Common Wind…Through prodigious and imaginative work with the archives, or, rather, with their absences—namely, of the voices of the enslaved—Brown shows that, although slavers tried to unmoor the enslaved from their homes and communities, language and culture, and sense of self, the connections between various African communities and the diaspora endured despite the violence of the plantation regime. -- Laleh Khalili * New Statesman *[A] revealing history…Readers interested in the era will find much of value in this exhaustive portrait of the rebellion’s origins and ramifications. * Publishers Weekly *Brown’s reframing of slavery as war allows us to better understand enslaved people as soldiers, diplomats, sailors, and community leaders dedicated to Black freedom (both then and now). Specifically, Brown’s book shows how—within the broader war—enslaved men, women, and children defended themselves and even counterattacked…Will undoubtedly shape generations of scholarship to come. -- Julia Gaffield * Public Books *[A] careful reconstruction of an understudied footnote in Jamaican history. -- Alex Colville * The Spectator *Intricately mapping each of the linked but local uprisings across Jamaica and relating them to tides in the global struggle, Brown demonstrates how the rebels applied strategic concepts mastered in wars an ocean away…He shows how they acted on motives and opportunities as global and complex as those of the military officers and planter militias who moved to contain and kill them…A tour de force of research, theory, and historical imagination that transforms anonymous laboring slaves into actors of tragic majesty in an intricate conflict. -- Christopher Moore * Literary Review of Canada *A compelling account…By connecting the Jamaica insurgencies to larger intra-imperial wars, especially the War of Jenkin’s Ear and the Seven Years’ War, Tacky’s Revolt makes slavery and the violence it produced inseparable from broader military conflicts…Impressively original and painstakingly researched. -- Christine Walker * H-Net Reviews *This is a magnificent piece of historical scholarship. Just as the rebels found pathways up into the steep hills overlooking the plains where enslavers trembled and sugar cane burned, Tacky’s Revolt finds new perspectives on resistance, warfare, culture-making, social death—and social life-after-death. -- Edward E. Baptist * Black Scholar *Brown has produced the most detailed and insightful account to date of Tacky’s Revolt. By framing it through the wide-angle lens of imperial, Diasporic, and Atlantic historical forces converging in Jamaica during the Seven Years’ War and the zoom lens of colonial, local, parish, and plantation dynamics, the reader gets a detailed and personalized account of how enslavement functioned as a deadly and destructive act of war, and, just as importantly, of how resistance to slavery required a creative war to imagine if a different world was (and remains) possible. -- Matt D. Childs * Journal of Early American History *Extraordinary…This well-written, beautifully illustrated, and incredibly well-researched book points the way forward toward a new cartography linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas and toward the future study of slave revolts and resistance. -- Gad Heuman * New West Indian Guide *This lively, sophisticated book proves that Vincent Brown is one of the most creative historians writing anywhere in the world today about the African Diaspora. Tacky’s Revolt is destined to become a classic work on the long, deep struggle against slavery from below. -- Marcus Rediker, author of The Slave Ship: A Human HistoryThe men and women who took up arms to fight against their enslavement across Jamaica in 1760 have long needed a historian. In Vincent Brown’s Tacky’s Revolt they have received their due. Combining precision with attention to the big picture, Brown weaves together stories of alliances, solidarities, and divisions, from St. Mary’s parish in the North of Jamaica, to the ships of the Atlantic ocean, to the forests of the Gold Coast. Brown’s superb archival work and sensitive historical reconstruction enable us to rethink the participants in the revolt as soldiers engaged in a war; a war against the unending, pervasive everyday violence that was slavery itself. -- Diana PatonIn Tacky’s Revolt, Vincent Brown has mapped an innovative history and geography linking power and resistance across Africa, America, and Europe. He demonstrates that slavery was—is—a state of war. -- Catherine Hall, author of Macaulay and Son: Architects of Imperial BritainA masterful interpretation of the roots and routes of revolutionary action and of the inevitable response of African-Jamaican men and women to the violence of the racist and brutal British imperial project which rendered slavery a perpetual state of war. -- Verene A. Shepherd, author of Livestock, Sugar and Slavery: Contested Terrain in Colonial JamaicaThe problem of understanding slave revolts is not why they were relatively few compared to the obvious difficulties of slave life, but why they happened at all. Vincent Brown has successfully worked out this rebellion by treating it as if it were a war, waged by ex-soldiers, chafing at their imprisonment, and looking for an avenue for freedom. Brown’s skillful linking of Tacky’s War to its African and Jamaican roots is an important venture in reconstructing the African Diaspora’s past. -- John Thornton, author of A Cultural History of the Atlantic World, 1250–1820Tacky’s Revolt reveals a truly transatlantic eighteenth-century world of resistance and warfare. Reframing a story often told from the perspective of European colonizers and American planters, Brown successfully places African soldiers at the core of the narrative. A truly masterful piece. -- Manuel Barcia, author of West African Warfare in Bahia and Cuba: Soldier Slaves in the Atlantic World, 1807–1844Adds a new dimension to the study of Atlantic history that centers African people and forces readers to reckon with the primacy of violence in the creation and sustenance of Atlantic networks of trade, migration, and empire. It will surely be widely used by scholars and students of the history of the Caribbean, Atlantic world, and African diaspora. -- Rebecca Shumway * H-Net Reviews *Groundbreaking and will undoubtedly affect several different fields of study…Brown’s argument for viewing the insurrections of 1760–61 as acts of war is extraordinary, transforming our thinking on violence within bondage from isolated events to a connected series of battles and engagements in this centuries-long transatlantic war against human bondage. -- Seth Whitty * H-Net Reviews *Brown at once provides what is surely the authoritative account of the 1760–1761 Jamaican uprising and makes a compelling case for recasting this and other such conflicts as fully-realized instances of Atlantic warfare…Brown makes his case magnificently. -- Ryan Hanley * Eighteenth-Century Studies *Fascinating…A pathbreaking Atlantic analysis of the tricontinental wars that devastated West Africa and extended all the way to Jamaica. Its brilliant reconstruction of West African societies and their importance in the making of the prerevolutionary Greater Caribbean represents a historiographical turning point. -- Aline Helg * Atlantic Studies *A finely crafted account of the micro and macro politics of slave resistance that will inform work in this field for some time to come. -- Christer Petley * Slavery & Abolition *Unbiased and first-rate scholarship. -- Fouad M. Mami * Protest *Innovative and insightful, introducing readers to new ways of thinking about slave revolts and the Atlantic history of slavery…His cartographic methodology successfully poses exciting and thought-provoking questions that certainly expand how we understand slave revolt as a slave war…Has far-reaching implications for scholars of slavery, empire, and resistance and will prove to be of great value to a wide range of scholars. -- Clifton E. Sorrell III * Labour *A must read for scholars and students. While this work focuses on Tacky’s Revolt, the larger scope of the work connects and highlights the warfare that spread across the British Empire during the eighteenth century. -- Jarvis L. Hargrove * North Carolina HIstorical Review *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewReaders of this book will meet some of the most interesting, important, and memorable characters in American history—men and women whose stories are expertly and beautifully recounted in these pages. But they will also see reflected and illuminated in these lives great forces and momentous issues, the passions and motives and movements that have shaped our country. The authors' approach humanizes what might have been lifeless abstractions, showing how the largest of matters can touch and change the lives of individuals and how individuals can give life and voice to things bigger than themselves. -- David W. Levy, David Boyd Ross Professor Emeritus, University of OklahomaThese well-researched, highly readable biographical narratives vividly evoke key issues and trends in American history from the early Colonial era through the Civil War and Reconstruction. The subjects are well chosen to illuminate central features of their era, and each chapter's introductory essay positions these men and women in their larger historical context. Lives and Times: Individuals and Issues in American History should find a broad audience of readers. -- Paul Boyer, Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-MadisonTable of ContentsPreface Introduction Chapter 1: Orthodoxy and Dissent in Puritan England: Mary Dyer, Cotton Mather Chapter 2: The American Mind in the Eighteenth Century: Jonathan Edwards, Benjamin Franklin Chapter 3: Revolutionaries: Thomas Paine, Mercy Otis Warren Chapter 4: Republicans, Federalists, Virginians: Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall Chapter 5: Popular Culture in Antebellum America: David Crockett, Stephen Foster Chapter 6: Clash of Civilizations: Native Americans and the New Republic: Tecumseh, Andrew Jackson Chapter 7: Slavery in Theory and Practice: George Fitzhugh, Harriet Tubman Chapter 8: Reforming Self and Society: Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller Chapter 9: Defining Women's Roles: Catharine Esther Beecher, Elizabeth Cady Stanton Chapter 10: Manifest Destinies: William Walker, Brigham Young Chapter 11: Abolitionists: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln Chapter 12: Uncivil War: William Tecumseh Sherman, Nathan Bedford Forrest Chapter 13: A New Birth of Freedom Deferred: Benjamin R. Tillman, Ida B. Wells

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Book SynopsisOffers a detailed analysis of the end of the Vicksburg Campaign and the forty-day siege. Ranging in scope from military to social history, contributors examine the role of Grant's staff, contributions of African American troops to the Union Army of the Tennessee, both sides' use of sharpshooters, the use of West Point siege theory, and more.Trade ReviewAn impressively informative body of original Civil War scholarship."—James A. Cox Midwest Book Review"Topically diverse in addressing matters on and off the battlefield (mostly the former), Vicksburg Besieged is another solid entry in the ongoing Civil War Campaigns in the West series and a notable contribution to our understanding of the still relatively understudied siege phase of the Vicksburg Campaign."—Andrew Wagenhoffer Civil War Books and Authors"Drawing on many decades of study, the contributors to Vicksburg Besiegedsupply welcome new perspectives on a pivotal moment in Civil War history. While these well-written essays will appeal chiefly to students of the war’s military history, historians of the environment, health, food, and the senses will discover much fodder for their future work."—Brian Matthew Jordan Civil War Monitor"Despite the battlefield being preserved in the Vicksburg National Military Park, the Siege of Vicksburg garners much less attention than other phases of the campaign. Yet its importance as the capstone of the campaign, where victory and defeat finally came, cannot be diminished. Scholars are slowly beginning to turn more attention to these events, and this collection of topical essays provides a wonderful introduction to several areas of importance in the siege."—Timothy B. Smith, author of The Decision Was Always My Own: Ulysses S. Grant and the Vicksburg Campaign"This collection of essays includes some of the best recent history written about the events during the siege of Vicksburg. It illuminates the importance of Vicksburg and how its surrender was a blow from which the Confederacy could not recover. The loss of Vicksburg was a turning point in the Civil War, because it effectively isolated the Trans-Mississippi from the rest of the Confederate states, and this excellent book provides a new look at various activities during the siege."—Anne J. Bailey, author of The Chessboard of War: Sherman and Hood in the Autumn Campaigns of 1864Table of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Charles D. Grear 1. “By Hazard and by Spasms”: Grant and HisStaff at the Siege of Vicksburg Andrew S. Bledsoe 2. “Standing on the Banks”: African American Troops in the Vicksburg Campaign Scott L. Stabler and Martin J. Hershock 3. Plying the Deadly Trade: The Sharpshooters’ War at the Siege of Vicksburg Jonathan M. Steplyk 4. Nights at Vicksbur Steven E. Woodworth 5. Andrew Hickenlooper and the Vicksburg Mines Justin S. Solonick 6. A Community Besieged: Civilians of the Vicksburg Campaign John J. Gaines 7. Mournful Melodies: LouisianansPlayed the Swan Song of the Army of Relief Richard H. Holloway 8. “West of the Mississippi to UsIsNearly a Sealed Book”: Trans-Mississippians and the Fall of Vicksburg Charles D. Grear Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisInvestigating what life was like for African Americans north of the Mason-Dixon Line during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, James Delle presents the first overview of archaeological research on the topic in this book, debunking the notion that the ""free"" states of the Northeast truly offered freedom and safety for African Americans.

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Book SynopsisBrings together the best new scholarship on the modern civil rights movement. It expands our understanding of the movement by engaging issues of local and national politics, gender and race relations, family, community, and sexuality. The volume addresses cultural, legal, and social developments and also investigates the roots of the movement.

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Book SynopsisAlabama's military forces were fierce and dedicated combatants for the Confederate cause. In his new study of Alabama during the Civil War, Ben Severance argues that Alabama's electoral and political attitudes were, in their own way, just as unified in their support for the cause of southern independence.Trade ReviewThis original contribution to the historiography of Alabama's 1863 elections fills an important need by effectively demonstrating that Alabama's elections for state and national representation, as well as how soldiers would have likely voted, were a repudiation of previous politicians, but not necessarily a repudiation of the war effort." - Joseph W. Danielson, author of War’s Desolating Scourge: The Union's Occupation of North AlabamaTable of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. The Congressional Races Chapter 2. The Gubernatorial Contest Chapter 3. Of Senators and Legislators Chapter 4. Alabama's Soldiery and the Elections Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisExplores complex social issues through personal narrative. Jerome Morris does so by blending social-science research with his own memoir of life in Birmingham, Alabama. As Morris’s experiential narrative voice unfolds, the reader is brought on a journey of what life is like for people who live and die at the intersection of race and poverty.Trade ReviewCentral City’s Joy and Pain is not just a story about events that took place several decades ago but is also well connected to the systems that remain in place for the perpetuation of Black oppression. Jerome E. Morris has done a great job of sharing his experiences with the broader community, and readers—not only in Birmingham and the South, but well beyond—will be enriched by the experiences and insights conveyed here." - Charles Connerly, professor emeritus of urban and regional planning, University of Iowa

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Book SynopsisThe long pilgrimage of LeRoy Chatfield weaves its way through multiple collective projects designed to better the condition of the marginalized and forgotten. In this collection of what the author calls Easy Essays, Chatfield recounts his childhood, explains the social issues that have played a significant role in his life and work.

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Book SynopsisFinding and following two of New Hampshire's oldest trails into historyon horseback

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Book SynopsisThe true story of the city of Port Royal in Jamaica. In 1692 an earthquake and tidal wave caused the city to sink beneath the sea. Robert F. Marx was one of the men caught up in the legends of buried treasure and this book describes the fulfillment of his childhood dream: a two-and-a-half year exploration of the historic Jamaican port.Trade ReviewIn a month of high quality publications, this engrossing book stands out as something very special indeed. This is one of the most compelling accounts of an archaeological expedition I have ever read. Marx's ability to bring history to life is extraordinary and his account of the dangerous excavations was pure Indiana Jones stuff. DIVE Magazine The author, Robert Marx, is a colourful and controversial character in the archaeological business and not without his critics. He is well known for his treasure-hunting expeditions around the world. Some say he sails close to the wind in his navigation between archaeology and outright treasure hunting. Such a controversial approach inevitably involves dramatic 'adventures' which, while not necessarily gaining universal approval, assure the reader of a fascinating and exciting ride. John Bevan - Underwater Contractor International

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Book SynopsisIn his compelling new book Ian Smith addresses the pernicious influence of systemic whiteness on our interpretation of Shakespeare's plays. Unmissable reading for students and scholars of drama, cultural and early modern studies.Trade Review'Ian Smith's Black Shakespeare begins by asserting that lingering contemporary resistance to the evidence that people in the early modern world believed that race was real and that it mattered participates in a larger denial of the kinds of work that race performs in our own time. In a series of subtle and revelatory readings-I am thinking particularly of the dazzling chapter on Hamlet-Smith implicitly argues that learning to recognize race's subtle and extensive operations in Shakespeare can be an important first step toward our own achievement of what he calls 'racial literacy'. To see and to know, Smith believes, is to begin to be able to recognize and resist white supremacy's purchase in our field and in the culture that shapes it. Persuasively argued and deeply ethically engaged throughout, Black Shakespeare is the work of a mature scholar who believes that Shakespeare matters and who calls on us both to embrace and to question the conditions under which he has achieved his place in our world.' Joyce MacDonald, University of Kentucky'Ian Smith delivers an indisputable, learned and earth- shattering intervention into our habits and practices of reading the works of William Shakespeare. If, Smith is right that Shakespeare's plays are read, taught and interpreted on stage overwhelmingly through the lens of whiteness, then racial illiteracy informs our relationship with the Bard. To read Shakespeare rigorously, thoroughly and with intention, is to acknowledge what Smith calls our 'racial blindspots'. Smith's novel readings of Shakespeare's tragedies are unflinching as he asks us to confront what is actually before our eyes. Black Shakespeare is essential reading for all those studying, teaching and performing these works.' Farah Karim Cooper, Shakespeare's Globe and King's College London'In Black Shakespeare, Ian Smith trenchantly demonstrates how white epistemology and systemic whiteness cause readers to sanitize, distort, and elide key parts of Shakespeare's texts. Theoretically and historically grounded, Black Shakespeare also deploys dazzling acts of close reading to show exactly what a white reading practice misses or gets wrong. Throughout, Smith makes the stakes of his argument clear: readers must acquire an expanded racial literacy both to read Shakespeare well and also to become citizens fit for the demands of a democratic polity.' Jean E. Howard, Columbia University'Black Shakespeare is an important and timely study of how race affects reading and interpretation. Smith not only illuminates various functions of whiteness within Shakespeare's plays, but also demonstrates that whiteness has shaped the idea of Shakespeare in Shakespeare Studies. Beyond the brilliant insights that it offers about Shakespeare, Black Shakespeare requires literary scholars to reckon with how white supremacy is perpetuated through interpretive practices.' Dennis Britton, The University of British Columbia'Black Shakespeare is revelatory, stunning, and arresting! Crafting a disorienting tour de force, Ian Smith has written an essential book for all readers of Shakespeare that demonstrates not only how we have misread the plays, but also how we might rectify readings in the future. A requisite read!' Ayanna Thompson, Arizona State University'In an argument that is both elegant and forceful, Smith makes the obvious but heretofore underappreciated point that the act of 'reading historically' is itself saturated with a racial history that must be a subject of analysis. For putting this argument on the table, and for its convincing reappraisal of some of Shakespeare's best-known plays, Smith's study is destined to be a landmark in a field that continues to pose powerful, searching questions in the humanities.' Michael Witmore, Folger Shakespeare LibraryTable of ContentsIntroduction. Toward racial literacy; 1. The racialized reader; 2. Racial blind spots: Misreading bodies, misreading texts; 3. Antonio's 'Fair Flesh' and the property of whiteness; 4. Hamlet: Playing in the dark; 5. We are Othello; Epilogue. Forms of whiteness.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisThis book tells the story of the Bible's role in Jamaica's 1865 Morant Bay rebellion and the international debates then occupying the Atlantic world. It will interest students and scholars of African-American history, Atlantic history, biblical studies, religious studies, and Caribbean history.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisThis book takes a new approach by synthesizing the work of scholars of military and Indigenous history to provide the first chronologically ordered, region-wide, and long-term narrative history of conflict in the Early American Northeast. War and Colonization in the Early American Northeast focuses on war and society, European colonization, and Indigenous peoples in New England from the pre-Columbian era to the mid-eighteenth century. It examines how the New English used warfare against Native Americans as a way to implement a colonial order. These conflicts shaped New English attitudes toward Native Americans, which further aided in the marginalization and the violent targeting of these communities. At the same time, this volume pays attention to the experiences of Indigenous peoples. It explores pre-Columbian Native American conflict and studies how colonization altered the ways of warfare of Indigenous people. Native Americans contested New English efforts atTable of Contents1. War before New England: Conflict and Society in Dawnland 2. "It is too furious, it slays too many:" English Colonization and Conflict in Southern New England through King Philip’s War 3. "For every Scalp. . . as Evidence of their Being Killed:" Wars and the Colonization of Northern New England

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Book SynopsisThe Political Psychology of Social Unrest in Latin America is a unique collection of research and writings by Latin American scholars. It explores the social, psychological, and political factors of the recent turmoil in Latin American countries.From the impeachment demonstrations in Brazil, student movements in Chile, and massive demonstrations in Costa Rica, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Mexico, this edited volume analyses the underlying similarities and differences between these events through the lens of diverse research traditions, methods, and researchers. The book examines both actual inequalities and disadvantages as well as the role of perceptions of inequality and injustice. The authors also investigate the role of micro-processes, such as cultural consumption in the family, and the role of social psychological processes in historical Latin American unrest. By utilising leading approaches in social and political psychology and testing these approaches in the context of a very diverse and dynamic non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) societies, the authors bring the communities and civilizations less studied by Western social psychologists to the international audience.Focusing on how social and political processes unfold in different countries and providing insights into the psychological underpinnings of social unrest from a variety of perspectives, this is an essential reading for students and researchers of psychology, social, political, peace and cross-cultural psychology as well as political science and sociology.

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Book SynopsisThis volume untangles the multiple threads of the Mexican Revolution to present an accessible introduction to its causes, development, and consequences.Grounded in a detailed narrative that readers can actively explore through accompanying primary sources, the book also provides a broad view of Mexico's cultural, political, and social evolution from the 1870s to the 1940s. It traces the promises and perils of export-led modernization during the late nineteenth century, the subsequent explosion of popular discontent, the difficult process of reconstruction, and the lasting legacies. The book emphasizes the promises and shortcomings of liberalism; the demands from workers and peasants; the gender underpinnings of revolutionary principles; new forms of authoritarianism; and how conservative resistance curbed the revolution's reform agenda.Featuring a number of learning tools such as a chronology, glossary, and introduction to key historical figures, The Mexican Revolu

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Book SynopsisThis book presents a comparative interpretation of the socio-emotional histories of Europe and Latin America, offering a novel perspective on the roles of religion and politics in managing collective fear and insecurity in these two regions. Emphasizing the historical fears and insecurities faced by underprivileged sectors of Latin American society, the book draws on cognitive and social sciences to compile political, socio-economic, and cultural landmarks, identifying continuities and ruptures in European and Latin American histories. The volume highlights Europeâs success and Latin Americaâs relative failure in crafting political visions capable of taming fear and insecurity. It shows how this largely correlates with how meticulous providentialism (the belief that God governs history) has been supplanted by general providentialism (the belief that God does not intervene in history) in the religious cultures of the two regions. This shift corresponds to the degree of control individuals feel they have over their history and destiny, which typically aligns with their actual social affordances. At the heart of these discussions is the notion that the authenticity of the theoretical foundations of political visions is conditioned by society's view of the divine, which ultimately determines the capacity of these visionsâ potential to impact history.Religion and Politics in Europe and Latin America is a useful resource to students and academics interested Latin American and European history, politics and culture.

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Book SynopsisCitizen Cowboy examines Will Rogers, one of twentieth-century America's most beloved cultural figures, and how his life and work reflected broader changes that created modern America. This book is for general readers interested in the history of American culture.

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Book SynopsisThe City of Cahokia provides a unique case study to review what draws people to a place and why. This Element examines not only the emergence and decline of this great American city but its intersection with the broader Native American world during this period. Cahokia was not an isolated complex but a place vivid on the landscape where people made pilgrimages to and from Cahokia for trade and religious practices. Cahokia was a centre-place with expansive reach and cultural influence. This Element analyses the social and political processes that helped create this city while also reflecting on the trajectory of Native American history in North America.Table of Contents1. Introduction; 2. Cahokia in Context; 3. The Global Mississippian World and its Forebearers; 4. Historicizing the Cahokian World.

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Book SynopsisBetween 1981 and 2016, thousands of American and Australian Vietnam War veterans returned to Vi?t Nam. This oral history tells their story and explores the national narratives which shaped those return journeys. It shows how veterans returned in search of resolution, or peace, manifesting in shifting nostalgic visions of 'Vietnam.'

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