History of the Americas Books

4624 products


  • The Republic for Which It Stands

    Oxford University Press Inc The Republic for Which It Stands

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisThe newest volume in the Oxford History of the United States series, The Republic for Which It Stands argues that the Gilded Age, along with Reconstruction--its conflicts, rapid and disorienting change, hopes and fears--formed the template of American modernity.Trade Review5* review. American history at its best. * Paul Donnelley, Express.co.uk *(White) is one of the outstanding historians of his generation. It is difficult to think of many others who can match the range, depth, originality and influence of his writings. * Eric Foner, Times Literary Supplement *When questions of race, economic inequality, and the rise of giant corporate monopolies and a plutocratic elite dominate U.S. politics, it is time to take another look at Reconstruction and the Gilded Age...The rich history of those years (The Industrial Revolution) can be difficult to follow; readers will thank White for the clear prose and strong narrative drive that makes this complicated story easier to understand. * Foreign Affairs *[White] is one of the outstanding historians of his generation. It is difficult to think of many others who can match the range, depth, originality and influence of his writings, which include a prize-winning account of the construction of the transcontinental railroads, an environmental history of the Columbia River Valley, a general history of the American West, and even a memoir of his mothers life as an emigrant from Ireland. White is to be commended for assuming responsibility for this part of the series after more than one historical had abandoned it. His footnotes and bibliography reveal a remarkable command of the historical literature which he uses to construct a vast, sprawling and often original panorama of the American economy, politics and society between 1865 and 1896. * Times Literary Supplement *The Republic for Which It Stands is a remarkably fresh and innovative way of looking at the Reconstruction and Gilded Age by an academic with unmatched academic credentials. No matter how much you have read on the Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, The Republic for Which It Stands has a lot to offer you. The Republic for Which It Stands should be a required part of any American history syllabus in all universities. * The Washington Book Review *There is almost nothing about the era that White fails to treat with intelligence and style... Richard White has related a decisive part of its history with stamina and skill. * The New York Times Book Review *But most of all Mr White's book should be read -- not just because it has so much to say about the latter part of the 19th century, but also because it casts light on America's current problems with giant companies and roiling populism. * Economist *The 10th entry in the series, covering the United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, may be the most erudite and sweeping of them all as well as among the most timely, reminding during a time of turmoil that the divisive tensions of race and class inequities, economic upheaval, and regional schisms have deep, tangled roots. * The Boston Globe *In this monumental yet highly readable book, Mr. White has given us a panorama of an age that in many ways seems like our own. The volcanic turmoil of the late 19th century did much to shape the world that we live in today, with its creative and destructive cycles of industry, its quickening technological change, its extremes of wealth and poverty, its struggle to impose fairness in the jungle of the marketplace, its tug of war between freedom and regulation in the public interest. The Republic for Which It Stands is, in no small part, the story of how we came to be who we are. * The Wall Street Journal *This seminal work is essential reading on the history of the United States. * Library Review *This splendid history from White (Railroaded), professor of American history at Stanford, reveals why the 30 years after the Civil War do not readily draw historians to them... White's great achievement is to capture the drabbest, least-redeeming three decades of American history with unimpeachable authority. * Publishers Weekly *Fearless and peerless, Richard White leads us through a transformed and fragmented nation in turmoil, haunted by the slain Abraham Lincoln, where visions of freedom and equality were rapidly vanishing. In the rural South, in the urban North, and out West, from the terribly destitute to the stupendously wealthy, White brings together stories that historians have long told separately, untangling the anger and blame that grew so deeply entrenched in the Gilded Age. How did all this happen? Richard White explains everything. * Martha Hodes, author of Mourning Lincoln *This union of an iconoclastic historian and an icon-making series has produced a surprising, ultimately fulfilling match of author and age ... White's accomplishment in this thickly researched, energetically written, and at times mordantly funny book, is to find the newness and meaning in people and events that ... have been more familiar than understood. * Gregory Downs, Journal of American History *Table of ContentsList of Maps Editor's Introduction Introduction Part I: Reconstructing the Nation Prologue: Mourning Lincoln Chapter One: In the Wake of War Chapter Two: Radical Reconstruction Chapter Three: The Greater Reconstruction Chapter Four: Home Chapter Five: Gilded Liberals Chapter Six: Triumph of Wage Labor Chapter Seven: Panic Chapter Eight: Beginning a Second Century Part II: The Quest for Prosperity Chapter Nine: Years of Violence Chapter Ten: The Party of Prosperity Chapter Eleven: People in Motion Chapter Twelve: Liberal Orthodoxy and Radical Opinions Chapter Thirteen: Dying for Progress Chapter Fourteen: The Great Upheaval Chapter Fifteen: Reform Chapter Sixteen: Westward the Course of Reform Chapter Seventeen: The Center Fails to Hold Chapter Eighteen: The Poetry of a Pound of Steel Part III: The Crisis Arrives Chapter Nineteen: The Other Half Chapter Twenty: Dystopian and Utopian America Chapter Twenty-one: The Great Depression Chapter Twenty-two: Things Fall Apart Chapter Twenty-three: An Era Ends Conclusion Bibliographic Essay Index

    Out of stock

    £30.49

  • The Pioneers

    Simon & Schuster The Pioneers

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisAs part of the Treaty of Paris, in which Great Britain recognized the new United States of America, Britain ceded the land that comprised the immense Northwest Territory, a wilderness empire northwest of the Ohio River containing the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. A Massachusetts minister named Manasseh Cutler was instrumental in opening this vast territory to veterans of the Revolutionary War and their families for settlement. Included in the Northwest Ordinance were three remarkable conditions: freedom of religion, free universal education, and most importantly, the prohibition of slavery. In 1788 the first band of pioneers set out from New England for the Northwest Territory under the leadership of Revolutionary War veteran General Rufus Putnam. They settled in what is now Marietta on the banks of the Ohio River. McCullough tells the story through five major characters: Cutler and Putnam; Cutler’s son Ephraim; and two other men, Trade Review"A tale of uplift, with the antislavery settlers embodying a vision of all that was best about American values and American ideals." * The New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice *“David McCullough has become perhaps our best-loved chronicler of America’s past. . . . The Pioneers is the account not just of one Ohio settlement but of myriad such places across America, where innumerable immigrants (as the settlers were known) came to make a fresh start in a strange land. It is a story as resonant today as ever.” -- Gerard Helferich * The Wall Street Journal *“McCullough is among the most thoughtful and thorough historians of the past two generations. . . . [A] great American mind.” -- John S. Gardner * The Guardian *"McCullough is a master of research along with being a wonderful storyteller. He takes the history of the area and turns what could be dry and dull into vibrant and compelling tales. . . . Lovers of history told well know that McCullough is one of the best writers of our past, and his latest will only add to his acclaim." -- Jeff Ayers * Associated Press *"To read The Pioneers is to understand that the settlement of the Northwest Territory was, in some ways, a second phase of the American Revolution – a messy experiment, touched by high ideals and bitter conflicts, that still resonates in ways we’re only beginning to grasp." -- Danny Heitman * Christian Science Monitor *“Like McCullough's other books, The Pioneers succeeds because of the author's strength as a storyteller. The book reads like a novel, with a cast of fascinating characters that the average reader isn't likely to know about. . . . A worthy addition to McCullough's impressive body of work.” -- Michael Schaub * NPR.org *"Readers will immediately recognize that storytelling is one of Mr. McCullough’s great literary strengths. He consistently produces engaging prose about a particular period of time, and makes history come alive." -- Michael Taube * The Washington Times *"A lively history of the Ohio River region in the years between the Revolution and the Civil War. . . . [McCullough's] narrative abounds with well-recognized figures in American history—John Quincy Adams, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Johnny Appleseed—while highlighting lesser-known players. . . . Vintage McCullough and a book that students of American history will find captivating." * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *“In his usual revealing style, McCullough has crafted another dynamic volume of American history. With clarity and incisiveness, he details the experience of a brave and broad-minded band of people who crossed raging rivers, chopped down forests, plowed miles of land, suffered incalculable hardships and braved a lonely frontier to forge a new American ideal. They were indeed the pioneers." -- Dave Kindy * The Providence Journal *

    1 in stock

    £12.99

  • Patagonia National Park Chile

    Patagonia Books Patagonia National Park Chile

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisAndean condors soaring over snow-capped mountains. Waving grasslands where herds of guanacos roam. Mountain lions haunting the shadows . . . Patagonia National Park offers an extraordinary combination of natural beauty and abundant wildlife.Centered on southern Chile’s Chacabuco Valley, it showcases the fascinating natural and cultural history of this amazing windswept region at the end of the world. The park exists today due to a committed team of conservationists who forged an innovative public-private partnership catalyzed by private philanthropyIn Patagonia National Park: Chile, photographer Linde Waidhofer captures the region’s singular beauty. For more than a decade Waidhofer witnessed this national park’s founders—Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, the late Douglas Tompkins, and the Tompkins Conservation team—as they shepherded the land’s transition from former sheep ranch to world-class national

    Out of stock

    £30.59

  • Aztec and Maya An Illustrated History The

    Anness Publishing Aztec and Maya An Illustrated History The

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisAn enthralling reference to the architecture, art, religion, myths and everyday life of the Aztec and Maya civilizations, in a new edition with 1000 images.Trade ReviewThis is a book that gets to the heart of the Maya and Aztec civilisations. It stands head and shoulders above others in the way the ancient world has been simplified and brought to life with a clear, concise text backed by thoughtfully chosen illustrations. It is a thoroughly readable account and reference work. Tony Morrison, author of Pathways to the Gods and photographer.

    5 in stock

    £18.00

  • The Undiscovered Country

    Penguin Books Ltd The Undiscovered Country

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    2 in stock

    £27.19

  • The Only Plane in the Sky: The Oral History of

    Octopus Publishing Group The Only Plane in the Sky: The Oral History of

    3 in stock

    Book Synopsis THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Incredibly evocative and compelling." - The Washington Post"The most moving and chilling oral history you will read." - The Times"Astonishing book about an astonishing, terrifying atrocity, relived in real time by those who were there. I read it in one sitting & was utterly gripped from start to finish." - Piers Morgan"The most vivid portrait of 9/11 I've ever read."- Mike Morell, former deputy director of the CIA** Updated 20th Anniversary edition with additional content **The Only Plane in the Sky is the first comprehensive oral history of 9/11, deftly woven and told in the voices of ordinary people grappling with extraordinary events.It begins predawn, where we meet airport staff who unknowingly usher terrorists onto their flights. From a secret bunker beneath the White House, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice watch for incoming planes on radar. At the Pentagon, officials feel a violent tremor as they come under attack. We hear the stories of the father and son working on separate floors in the North Tower; the firefighter who rushes there to search for his wife; the phone operator who keeps her promise to share a passenger's last words with his family; the chaplain who stays on the scene to perform last rites, losing his own life when the Twin Towers collapse.In New York, first responders confront a scene of unimaginable chaos. At the Pentagon generals break down and weep when they are barred from rushing into the burning building to try and rescue their colleagues.Drawing on never-before-published transcripts, declassified documents and interviews from nearly five hundred people, award-winning historian Garrett Graff skilfully tells the story of the day that changed all of our lives - as it was lived.The Only Plane in the Sky is a unique, profound, and searing exploration of humanity on a day that changed the course of history, and all of our lives, 20 years ago.

    3 in stock

    £12.34

  • Not One Inch

    Yale University Press Not One Inch

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisThirty years after the Soviet Union’s collapse, this book reveals how tensions between America, NATO, and Russia transformed geopolitics between the Cold War and COVIDTrade Review“Sarotte has the receipts, as it were: her authoritative tale draws on thousands of memos, letters, briefs, and other once secret documents—including many that have never been published before—which both fill in and complicate settled narratives on both sides.”—Joshua Yaffa, New Yorker“Prize-winning historian Mary Elise Sarotte . . . charts all the private discussions within the western alliance and with Russia over enlargement and reveals Russia as powerless to slow the ratchet effect of the opening of Nato’s door.”—Patrick Wintour, The Guardian“Sarotte is the unofficial dean of ‘end of Cold War’ studies. . . . With her latest book, she tackles head-on the not-controversial-at-all questions about NATO’s eastward growth and the effect it had on Russia’s relations with the west. I look forward to the contretemps this book will inevitably produce.”—Daniel W. Drezner, Washington Post“‘Not one inch to the east’ . . . [is] a history so often repeated that it’s practically conventional wisdom. Mary Sarotte . . . [describes] what actually happened [between the US and Russia], and how both the reality and distortion really shape today’s events.”—Max Fisher, New York Times, from “The Interpreter” newsletter“A riveting account of Nato enlargement and its contribution to the present confrontation. Sarotte tells the story with great narrative and analytical flair, admirable objectivity, and an attention to detail that many of us who thought we knew the history have forgotten or never knew.”—Rodric Braithwaite, Financial Times“Masterful and exhaustively researched. . . . For this well-written and pacy book, [Sarotte] has uncovered previously unpublished details of former president Bill Clinton’s role in deciding Europe’s fate.”—Con Coughlin, Sunday Telegraph“Highly detailed, thoroughly researched, and briskly written.”—Fred Kaplan, New York Review of Books“There’s no one who has researched the relevant sources more thoroughly than historian Mary E. Sarotte, who has just published Not One Inch . . . successfully reconstructing the most significant days [in NATO expansion].”—Stefan Kornelius, Süddeutsche Zeitung“Sarotte weaves together the most engaging and carefully documented account of this period in East-West diplomacy currently available.”—Andrew Moravcsik, Foreign Affairs“Not One Inch is the best history to date of how American and Russian leaders went from the early post–Cold War world where dreams seemed unnecessary to our current one, in which dreams seem out of reach.”—Fritz Bartel, Journal of Contemporary HistorySelected as a Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2021“The paramount influence of domestic politics on foreign policy [is] Sarotte’s forte, and she incisively portrays Clinton’s hillbilly takeover of Washington and the Monica Lewinsky affair’s impact on NATO and Russia policy. She excels at sketches of European leaders, too, especially Helmut Kohl, nailing his folksiness and sublime skill at self-promotion. . . . To see political actors who were venal and mistake-prone yet effective is what makes her history so compelling.”—Stephen Kotkin, Times Literary Supplement“Russia’s war against Ukraine is an aftershock of the earthquake of 1989–9 . . . [when] two questions dominated European security discussions. . . . The first was about how to integrate Russia into a new world order. The second was about how far, if at all, to stretch the boundaries of NATO membership into eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet states. These questions lie at the heart of M. E. Sarotte’s remarkable book on geopolitics in the final decade of the last century.”—Robert Service, Literary Review“Sarotte’s historical narrative is backed up by extensive source material. . . . The book excels in its extensive investigation of high-tension moments in the debate over NATO enlargement. . . . Indispensable for readers interested in history and international relations.”—Maria Papageorgiou, International Affairs“Multi-archival, multi-lingual, and multi-level research paired with Sarotte’s gripping narration makes Not One Inch a new centrepiece of debate for academics and policymakers alike. . . . The historiography of the 1990s is indebted to the groundwork she has laid.”—Bradley Reynolds, Cold War History“Not One Inch is the best history to date of how American and Russian leaders went from the early post-Cold War world where dreams seemed unnecessary to our current one, in which dreams seem out of reach.”—Fritz Bartel, Journal of Contemporary History“Sarotte traces the difficult course of Russia’s relations with Europe and the United States during the decade which followed the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. . . . The story has been told before, but never so fully or so well. In a remarkable historical coup, Sarotte has persuaded the German foreign ministry to open its archives to her, and the Americans to declassify thousands of documents previously closed to researchers.”—Jonathan Sumption, Spectator"[Sarotte's] nuanced account, based on new evidence, shows that the US never made a promise to Russia that Nato’s borders would move ‘not one inch’ eastwards. Sarotte doesn’t absolve the US from blame, but this should be read by those who tend to heap most blame for the Russian invasion on the west."—Irish Independent 'Best Eight Politics Books of the Year' “Sarotte’s work offers a nuanced, well-founded and comprehensive interpretation of American-Russian relations and the European security architecture after 1989.”—Lukas Baake, sehepunkte2022 Arthur Ross Silver medal winner, sponsored by the Council on Foreign RelationsShortlisted for the 2022 Cundill History Prize “A riveting account of fateful choices to expand NATO and their consequences for relations with Russia today.”—Graham Allison, author of Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?“Sarotte deftly unpacks one of the most important strategic moves of the post–Cold War Era: the decision to enlarge NATO. Her detailed history of the 1990s is groundbreaking, and her assessment of the impacts of NATO expansion on European security is balanced and nuanced. A major accomplishment and a must-read.”—Charles A. Kupchan, Georgetown University and the Council on Foreign Relations“Not One Inch will be considered the best-documented and best-argued history of the NATO expansion during the crucial 1989–1999 period.”—Norman Naimark, author of Stalin and the Fate of Europe: The Postwar Struggle for Sovereignty“Sarotte explores how and why NATO expanded and relations with Russia deteriorated in the post–Cold War world. It is an important book, well documented and told.”—Joseph Nye Jr., author of Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump“A marvelous and timely book. This is history that policymakers, scholars, and pundits need to read right now.”—Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America

    3 in stock

    £17.09

  • Supremacy at Sea

    Yale University Press Supremacy at Sea

    4 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    4 in stock

    £18.00

  • American Midnight

    HarperCollins Publishers Inc American Midnight

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade Review“A harrowing portrait of America in 1917–21, rife with racist violence, xenophobia and political repression abetted by the federal government. The book serves as a cautionary tale and a provocative counterpoint to our own era.” — New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice “The post-WWI ‘red scare’ was the most vicious period of violent repression in U.S. history, apart from the two original sins [slavery and ‘Indian removal’]. The shocking story is recounted in vivid detail in Adam Hochschild’s penetrating study American Midnight.” — Noam Chomsky, Truthout “Hochschild’s masterful new book ... chronicles our nation’s horrific period from 1917–21, when Woodrow Wilson, his men, and a paranoid culture went to war against union activists, immigrants, resisters, and Black people, among others—on a level that should forever shatter any myth about American Exceptionalism. A cautionary tale of what happens when democracy goes off the rails.” — Will Bunch, Philadelphia Inquirer "Adam Hochschild has written a fine book about a grim period a century ago that has largely disappeared from national memory but seems painfully relevant to America in the 2020s... [It] describes vividly a time when racism, white nationalism, and anti-foreign and anti-immigrant sentiment were rampant. Reading it is almost therapeutic. Realizing (thanks to this book) that American democracy survived that dark moment and a decade later began half a century of democratic renewal made this reader more hopeful than he has been in quite a while.” — Washington Post "The four years of American history from 1917 to 1921 are underexamined, but, in this account, they emerge as pivotal." — New Yorker “In American Midnight, the historian Adam Hochschild, celebrated for his King Leopold’s Ghost and other volumes, recounts it with verve and insight… one of several fresh looks at a period that had previously received little widespread attention...Hochschild narrates a time as unsettled, frightening, and (perhaps) transformative as our own.” — Boston Globe “Brilliant historian Adam Hochschild … takes on the echoing years — a century ago — when pandemic and fire-stoking politicians buckled society." — Chicago Tribune “A sweeping look at the years between World War I and the Roaring Twenties, when conscientious objectors to the war were maltreated and conflicts over race and labor were at a high pitch. Hochschild draws direct lines between events of that time and the unrest of today.” — New York Times, 15 Works of Nonfiction to Read This Fall “Exceptionally well written, impeccably organized, and filled with colorful, fully developed historical characters. … A riveting, resonant account of the fragility of freedom in one of many shameful periods in U.S. history.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A chilling tale laid out with engaging storytelling and meticulous detail.” — Los Angeles Times "Expanding his history begun in To End All Wars (2011), Hochschild brings to light people and themes that are often mere footnotes in other records of the Great War.” — Booklist (starred review) “Meticulously researched, fluidly written, and frequently enraging, this is a timely reminder of the ‘vigilant respect for civil rights and Constitutional safeguards’ needed to protect democracy and forestall authoritarianism.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “During the United States’ current tumultuous times, it is important to remember and revisit the forgotten injustices of the previous century. Hochschild succinctly does so here.” — Library Journal (starred review) “Award-winning historian Adam Hochschild (King Leopold's Ghost, To End All Wars and Bury the Chains) provides a timely, fast-paced, revelatory new account of a pivotal but neglected period in American history: World War I and its stormy aftermath, when bloodshed and repression on the home front nearly doomed American democracy. The period's toxic currents of racism, nativism, red-baiting, and contempt for the rule of law feel ominously familiar today.” — Shelf Awareness "The most useful books offer clarity on issues that have animated debate for years. For example, Adam Hochschild’s American Midnight, a broad account of the aftermath of the U.S. joining the First World War, highlights the nativist sentiment that radicalized some Americans against immigrants then, just as it does today." — Kate Cray, The Atlantic "An account of the U.S. after World War I, when hatred, violence, racism, and economic uncertainty threatened democracy. The parallels with today's world are terrifying." — Isabel Allende, Daily Mail (London), "Best Reads of the Year" “American Midnight is a potent reminder of what happens when open discourse is systemically punished. The story happens to be more than 100 years old, which doesn’t mean it can’t happen again." — San Francisco Chronicle "A terrific new account of America’s social and political turmoil during the 1910s and ’20s provides some much-needed perspective on the problems afflicting the country today. ... Like all the best history books, American Midnight reads like a novel with three-dimensional characters." — Quillette "This is undoubtedly one of the year’s best and most important histories." — AudioFile Magazine "A grim (but ultimately hopeful) account of how American democracy survived the dark period between 1917 and 1921 when racism, anti-immigrant sentiment and dangerous white nationalism swelled following the Great War." — Globe and Mail (Toronto), "Best Books to Give This Year" "Hochschild forces readers to confront the abuses and remember those who had the courage to fight against militarism and speak up for the powerless and dispossessed. ... Vivid." — Financial Times "If you often worry about the political polarization of the 2020s, you should pick up historian Adam Hochschild’s clear-eyed and elegantly written new book covering the years surrounding World War I. This period of U.S. history is often glanced over and yet, as Hochschild observes, it was a time with more than a few echoes of the current moment." — Fast Company "The latest of Adam Hochschild's remarkably good books. ... No one who reads Adam Hochschild's admirable but sombre book will feel quite the same about the land of the free." — Times Literary Supplement (London)

    1 in stock

    £11.69

  • Fierce Attachments

    Daunt Books Fierce Attachments

    15 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    15 in stock

    £9.49

  • The Penguin Guide to the United States

    Penguin Putnam Inc The Penguin Guide to the United States

    1 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    1 in stock

    £14.25

  • The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors The

    Random House Publishing Group The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors The

    Out of stock

    Book Synopsis“This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can.” With these words, Lieutenant Commander Robert W. Copeland addressed the crew of the destroyer escort USS Samuel B. Roberts on the morning of October 25, 1944, off the Philippine Island of Samar. On the horizon loomed the mightiest ships of the Japanese navy, a massive fleet that represented the last hope of a staggering empire. All that stood between it and Douglas MacArthur’ s vulnerable invasion force were the Roberts and the other small ships of a tiny American flotilla poised to charge into history. In the tradition of the #1 New York Times bestseller Flags of Our Fathers, James D. Hornfischer paints an unprecedented portrait of the Battle of Samar, a naval engagement unlike any other in U.S. history—and captures with unforgettable intensity the men, the strategies, and the sacr

    Out of stock

    £15.29

  • The Gentrification of the Mind

    University of California Press The Gentrification of the Mind

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisRecalls how much of the rebellious queer culture, cheap rents, and a vibrant downtown arts movement vanished almost overnight to be replaced by gay conservative spokespeople and mainstream consumerism.Trade Review"This bracing, powerful, and well-reasoned work reaffirms the author's stature as a distinctive American woman of letters... Highly recommended." -- Richard Drezen Library Journal "The book that's inspired me more than any other this year is Sarah Schulman's Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination, a razor-sharp memoir of New York in the heyday of the AIDS crisis." -- Jason King Slate "Teeming with ideas, necessary commentary, refreshing connections and examination of the status quo." Lambda Literary "A brilliant critique of contemporary culture... This is the most important book of the year." -- Jeff Miller Cult MTL "Schulman's personal recollections... are sharp and vivid." Gay & Lesbian Review/Worldwide "This is a very good, very sad book about the aftershock of the AIDS crisis in New York. Schulman is a truly gifted thinker." -- Alex Frank Fader Magazine "The author, a true woman of letters, makes a persuasive case." -- Roberto Friedman Bay Area Reporter "This is why the book is so successful and demands our attention: through a focus on the pulse of the queer community (of the 80s), it touches upon the individual condition (of today)." -- Marcie Bianco Velvetpark "A polemic, a passionate, provocative ... account of disappearance, forgetfulness and untimely death." -- Olivia Laing New Statesman "No book has rocked my world in recent times more than Sarah Schulman's 'The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination' ... [it ranks] among the best alternative histories published in the last 50 years." -- Don Shewey Culturevulture.net "A galvanizing account of the transformation, both external and mental, in New York City life." -- Emily Douglas Los Angeles Review Of Books "The essence of what Schulman calls gentrification is to pretend that privilege and difference do not exist and that any attempt to remember that they do is mere 'political correctness' rather than facing up to the reality to who does what to whom. To forget these things, is to deceive ourselves-and Schulman's harsh, bitter prose is a useful way of waking ourselves up." -- Roz Kaveney Times Literary Supplement (TLS) "It's a beautifully written screed (not a bad word in my books)... Schulman shines when she taps her deep knowledge of the AIDS movement... She can be brilliant." -- Susan G. Cole NowTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Making Record from Memory Part I. Understanding the Past 1. The Dynamics of Death and Replacement 2. The Gentrification of AIDS 3. Realizing That They're Gone Part II. The Consequences Of Loss 4. The Gentrification of Creation 5. The Gentrification of Gay Politics 6. The Gentrification of Our Literature Conclusion: Degentrification--The Pleasure of Being Uncomfortable

    7 in stock

    £17.09

  • Our American Israel

    Harvard University Press Our American Israel

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisHow did a Jewish state come to resonate profoundly with Americans in the twentieth century? Since WWII, Israel’s identity has been entangled with America’s belief in its own exceptionalism. Turning a critical eye on the two nations’ turbulent history together, Amy Kaplan unearths the roots of controversies that may well divide them in the future.Trade ReviewFascinating…could hardly be more timely. -- Andrew Bacevich * The Spectator *Our American Israel is a tour de force, examining the profound ties that bind America and Israel together. No other book goes so deeply into American culture and intellectual life to explain the strength of the bond between the two countries. This book will be welcomed by those searching for a deeper and more intelligent analysis of the American-Israeli-Palestinian conundrum than is currently available. -- Rashid Khalidi, author of Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle EastKeen analysis…Kaplan’s approach is so fresh, her command of the sources so solid, and her prose so engaging that both casual readers and experts will find new insights in the book. -- Walter Russell Mead * Foreign Affairs *Our American Israel is an incisive, urgently necessary excavation of the cultural meanings of the U.S.-Israeli relationship by one of the most perceptive cultural historians of the United States. It sheds powerful light on a troubled past and disturbing present, revealing the ways that narratives of similarity and connection were wielded against the demands of human rights and social justice. -- Paul A. Kramer, author of The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States, and the PhilippinesKaplan’s tour of literature and film shows how common understandings of Israel and the U.S. have been shaped—and distorted, as with the Trump administration’s relocation of the American embassy to Jerusalem. A useful reading of history and politics in the light of mythmaking and media. * Kirkus Reviews *Kaplan often confronts us with facts of history that are sometimes awkward and uncomfortable…But no American who loves and supports Israel can afford to ignore the arguments that she makes. * Jewish Journal *Shows how the special relationship between Israel and the US (or even its Jewish population) was never preordained or inevitable. Rather, like any international relationship, it has been molded by a series of cultural and political mediations. In the tradition of critical scholarship Kaplan uncovers the constructedness of US approaches to the State of Israel and so contributes much to our understanding of it…Kaplan’s study is of immense importance to anyone who wishes to study Israel in American culture in the past, present, or future. -- David Hadar * American Literary History *

    Out of stock

    £22.46

  • Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of

    Ohio University Press Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisJames Madison’s record of the Constitutional Convention traces day by day the debates held from May to September 1787 and presents the only complete picture we have of the strategy, interests, and ideas of the Founders at the convention itself.Trade Review“The one invaluable source for the Federal Convention is, of course, James Madison’s Notes of Debates…. essential for all libraries.” * Harvard Law Review *“An important book…. Certainly this volume should be added to the collection of every library.” * Choice *“In our day when the constitution is often interpreted out of context, or even in an alien context, all who truly revere the Constitution should be conversant with Madison’s Notes, in which are set forth the purposes of the Founding Fathers.” * Journal of Southern History *

    1 in stock

    £25.19

  • The Emerald Mile The Epic Story of the Fastest

    Scribner Book Company The Emerald Mile The Epic Story of the Fastest

    Out of stock

    Book Synopsis

    Out of stock

    £16.99

  • American Civilization

    Taylor & Francis Ltd American Civilization

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe eighth edition of the hugely successful American Civilization offers students the perfect background and introductory information on contemporary American life, examining the central dimensions of American society from geography and the environment to government and politics, religion, education, sports, media and the arts.Fully and comprehensively updated throughout with regard to events, processes, attitudes and major figures in society, culture and politics in the United States, this new edition brings the book up to date through: coverage of recent events including the 2020 US election and 2021 presidential inauguration; revised chapters on geography, women and minorities, and the media that incorporate more information on such themes as environmental legislation, the LGBTQ+ community, social media and people, all key themes in the study of American culture and society; the introduction of topical studies that connect small case studies to apposite illustrations to highlight key subjects within the field; and the inclusion of more discussion questions that require analysis and the use of evidence to substantiate argumentation to enable students to develop their own essay responses to typical questions that they may be asked. Supported by exercises and suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter, a substantial chronology that covers key events in the history of the United States and a fully integrated companion website (www.routledge.com/cw/mauk), the textbook remains an essential introduction to American civilization, culture and society for American Studies students.Table of Contents1. The American Context 2. The Country 3. The People: Settlement and Immigration 4. The People: Women and Minorities 5. Religious Culture 6. Political Institutions: The Federal Government 7. Political Institutions: State and Local Government 8. Foreign Policy 9. The Legal System 10. The Economy 11. Social Services 12. Education 13. The Media 14. Arts, Sports and Leisure Cultures

    15 in stock

    £37.99

  • Our Voices: Indigeneity and Architecture

    Oro Editions Our Voices: Indigeneity and Architecture

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisOur Voices: Indigeneity and Architecture is an exciting advance in the field of architecture offering multiple indigenous perspectives on architecture and design theory and practice. Indigenous authors from Aotearoa NZ, Canada, Australia, and the USA explore the making and keeping of places and spaces which are informed by indigenous values and identities. The lack of publications to date offering an indigenous lens on the field of architecture belies the rich expertise found in indigenous communities in all four countries. This expertise is made richer by the fact that this indigenous expertise combines both architecture and design professional practice, that for the most part is informed by Western thought and practice, with a frame of reference that roots this architecture in the indigenous places in which it sits.

    1 in stock

    £20.66

  • Empire of the Summer Moon

    Scribner Empire of the Summer Moon

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe Epic New York Times Bestseller Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award A New York Times Notable Book Winner of the Texas Book Award Winner of the Oklahoma Book Award This stunning historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West “is nothing short of a revelation…will leave dust and blood on your jeans” (The New York Times Book Review).Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.

    10 in stock

    £23.19

  • President McKinley

    Simon & Schuster President McKinley

    10 in stock

    Book Synopsis

    10 in stock

    £19.55

  • Brazil A Biography

    Penguin Books Ltd Brazil A Biography

    5 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade ReviewEngrossing ... eye-opening ... an enormously refreshing treat -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times *With great skill the authors have managed to combine clarity and consistency, substance and fluency, historical precision and a text that is a joy to read * Lira Neto *A thoughtful and profound journey into the soul of Brazil...The Brazil that emerges from this book is, indeed, a fascinating, complex, multicoloured, contradictory and challenging organism, more like a living being than a political, cultural and geographical entity -- Laurentino Gomes * Folha de São Paulo *Coinciding with the election of the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, this epic history of the world's sixth most populous country is a shocking, dramatic and utterly engrossing read. The details of Brazil's history, from the 19th-century empire to the suicide of the quasi-fascist dictator Getulio Vargas, are largely unknown to British readers, but that only makes its dark story all the more fascinating. * The Sunday Times, Books of the Year *Detailed and deeply reasoned . . . Illuminating, engrossing, and consistently thoughtful. -- Larry Rohter * The New York Review of Books *Compelling and insightful . . . One of Schwarcz and Starling's great strengths is their dissection of changing racial identity. -- Geoff Dyer * Financial Times *Evocative . . . Schwarcz and Starling adopt what they call a biographical approach: an attempt to tell the collective stories of the generations of Brazilians that have lived . . . They achieve this with flair in their rich evocations of colonial and imperial Brazil . . . Rich and absorbing. -- Patrick Wilcken * The Times Literary Supplement *

    5 in stock

    £17.99

  • Hard Choices

    Simon & Schuster Ltd Hard Choices

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisHILLARY RODHAM CLINTON''S INSIDE ACCOUNT OF THE CRISES, CHOICES AND CHALLENGES SHE FACED DURING HER FOUR YEARS AS AMERICA''S 67THSECRETARY OF STATE, AND HOW THOSE EXPERIENCES DRIVE HER VIEW OF THE FUTURE, INCLUDING A NEW EPILOGUE. ''All of us face hard choices in our lives,'' Hillary Rodham Clinton writes at the start of this personal chronicle of years at the centre of world events. ''Life is about making such choices. Our choices and how we handle them shape the people we become.'' In the aftermath of her 2008 presidential run, she expected to return to representing New York in the Unites States Senate. To her surprise, her formal rival for the Democratic Party nomination, newly elected President Barack Obama, asked her to serve in his administration as Secretary of State. This memoir is the story of the four extraordinary and historic years that followed, and the hard choices that she and her colleagues confronted. Secretary Clinton and President Obama had

    Out of stock

    £10.44

  • Copper Camp: The Lusty Story of Butte, Montana

    Riverbend Publishing Copper Camp: The Lusty Story of Butte, Montana

    Out of stock

    Book Synopsis

    Out of stock

    £16.19

  • The Long War on Drugs

    Duke University Press The Long War on Drugs

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisAnne L. Foster provides a comprehensive overview of the war on drugs, its failures and continued appeal, and the international consequences of US drug policy.Trade Review“The Long War on Drugs makes diplomatic history, the interaction between US domestic and regional drug policies, and social and cultural history work together to show how the present has been produced by the past. In beautiful prose, Anne L. Foster explains the diplomatic history of global prohibition and the various national interests it has supposedly served over time. Foster does a great job of bringing the current situation into view.” -- Nancy D. Campbell, author of * OD: Naloxone and the Politics of Overdose *“A smart, compelling, and accessible soup-to-nuts narrative history of US drug wars at home and abroad. It’s a terrific survey for newcomers that also advances the field with fresh insights and synthesis.” -- David Herzberg, author of * White Market Drugs: Big Pharma and the Hidden History of Addiction in America *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. The Meaning of Drugs 1 1. The Many Uses of Drugs 5 Part I. The Battle for Prohibition, 1870–1940 15 2. Identifying the Problem 19 3. Deciding on Prohibition 31 4. International Conferences 42 5. Changing Practice and Policy in Medicine and Public Health 55 Part II. To a Declaration of a War on Drugs, 1940–1980 67 6. Opportunities of World War II and Its Aftermath 71 7. US Laws and International Conventions 82 8. Who Is Using? 96 9. War on Drugs Declared 109 Part III. Blurring the Lines, 1980–Present 123 10. Mandatory Minimums 127 11. Environmental Effects of the War on Drugs 139 12. Marijuana’s Different Path 152 13. New Challenges to the War on Drugs 164 Conclusion. Never-Ending War on Drugs? 175 Glossary 179 Notes 181 Suggestions for Further Reading 193 Index 199

    15 in stock

    £18.89

  • Red Deads History

    St Martin's Press Red Deads History

    Out of stock

    Book Synopsis

    Out of stock

    £23.39

  • When France Fell

    Harvard University Press When France Fell

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe fall of France in 1940 panicked US leaders, leading to their fateful decision to recognize the pro-Nazi Vichy government. Michael Neiberg takes readers back to the fraught early years of World War II, when America’s misguided policy on Vichy alienated its British ally and ensured tensions with Charles de Gaulle and the postwar French Republic.Trade ReviewDeeply researched and forcefully written…shed[s] light on an embarrassing period in American diplomacy…Neiberg offers a mesmerizing account of how the U.S., as it anticipated another European war, stumbled through attempts to neutralize Vichy France…Neiberg deftly explains the confused politics and diplomacy that bedeviled the war against the Nazis. -- Ronald C. Rosbottom * Wall Street Journal *Meticulously researched but extremely readable…[An] excellent book. -- Julian Jackson * Washington Post *Michael Neiberg is one of the very best historians on wartime France, and his approach to the fall of France and its consequences is truly original and perceptive as well as superbly written. -- Antony Beevor, author of The Second World WarIt is difficult to find WWII material that is both interesting and fresh, but this book qualifies. -- Tyler Cowen * Marginal Revolution *The fall of France shattered the illusion that the United States could stay on the sidelines while Nazi Germany carved up Europe. Writing with clarity and verve, deep knowledge of French sources, and a keen eye for human foibles, Neiberg explains how the defeat of June 1940 transformed America’s relationship with France and compelled a rethinking of America’s world role. A smart and fresh analysis of Franco–American relations in the darkest hour of our long friendship. -- William I. Hitchcock, author of The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950sNeiberg has rescued an important episode in the history of the Second World War from relative obscurity and done so in great style. His book, with its terrific cast of characters and fast-paced story, reads like a novel and is at the same time an outstanding piece of historical research and analysis. -- Margaret MacMillan, author of War: How Conflict Shaped UsAn utterly gripping account, the best to date, of relations within the turbulent triumvirate of France, Britain, and America in the Second World War. Neiberg vividly brings to life the extraordinary military, domestic, personal, and political pressures on giants such as Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Charles de Gaulle, while also showing the immediate practical effect their interactions had on ordinary people in the struggle against the Nazis. -- Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with DestinyAn excellent book, the product of deep research, clear thought, and gripping writing. Neiberg restores France and the French Empire to its rightful place in the history of the strategy of the Atlantic powers in the Second World War. In so doing, he allows us to understand anew how shocking the French defeat in 1940 was for American policymakers, and the profound consequences that reverberated from that shock for the subsequent course of the war. -- Daniel Todman, author of Britain’s War: A New World, 1942–1947Expertly researched and a pleasure to read, When France Fell fills an important gap in the history of World War II by analyzing American relations with Vichy and Free French forces, how the geopolitical position of France’s colonial holdings steered US policy, and how those decisions deeply strained Anglo–American relations. The story Neiberg tells is one of misguided calculations and ultimately tremendous luck that Americans’ ‘Vichy gamble’ did not cause more political and military turmoil. -- Brooke L. Blower, author of Becoming Americans in Paris: Transatlantic Politics and Culture between the World WarsNeiberg’s fascinating and compelling study places France back at the heart of the story of the Second World War. He crafts a vivid narrative of the extraordinary and radical transformations that accompanied the catastrophe in France. The consequences of defeat were profound for a divided Gallic nation, but they were also defining for Britain and America; the defeat of Europe’s premier land power put a nail in the coffin of one superpower and sparked the rise of another. Highly recommended! -- Jonathan Fennell, author of Fighting the People’s War: The British and Commonwealth Armies and the Second World WarAn important and fascinating book that examines U.S. policy towards Vichy—a policy which not only put the United States at odds with its wartime ally, Great Britain, but also was destined to fail…While numerous books have been written on the fall of France, U.S. policy toward Vichy has been curiously overlooked in recent years. Neiberg remedies this…Highly readable [and] filled with interesting, larger-than-life characters. -- Sean Durns * National Interest *This is an extremely well researched and readable book. And it is a reminder that in wartime, fighting the enemy can often be less complicated than dealing with your allies. -- Calum Henderson * Military History Matters *A superbly crafted synthesis of military, diplomatic, and political history…Neiberg concludes that America’s flirtation with Vichy did not go disastrously wrong, but cautions that this had little to do with wise decision-making in Washington…[An] excellent book. -- Carl Cavanagh Hodge * Michigan War Studies Review *Punctures the myths of the conventional American story of the Second World War…Important, well argued, deeply researched, and a pleasure to read, written by one of the most productive and accomplished American historians of both world wars. -- Richard Fogarty * H-Net Reviews *Neiberg’s important new book, When France Fell, chronicles the often-bungled attempts of the United States to redefine its strategy and navigate its relationship with Vichy France. It is one of the first, if not the first, work in English to address the strategic relationship between the United States and France during the Second World War…A timely reminder of the importance of statecraft in an age where international incivility runs rampant. -- Cameron Zinsou * H-Diplo *

    15 in stock

    £17.06

  • The Invention of Public Space: Designing for

    University of Minnesota Press The Invention of Public Space: Designing for

    3 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe interplay of psychology, design, and politics in experiments with urban open space As suburbanization, racial conflict, and the consequences of urban renewal threatened New York City with “urban crisis,” the administration of Mayor John V. Lindsay (1966–1973) experimented with a broad array of projects in open spaces to affirm the value of city life. Mariana Mogilevich provides a fascinating history of a watershed moment when designers, government administrators, and residents sought to remake the city in the image of a diverse, free, and democratic society.New pedestrian malls, residential plazas, playgrounds in vacant lots, and parks on postindustrial waterfronts promised everyday spaces for play, social interaction, and participation in the life of the city. Whereas designers had long created urban spaces for a broad amorphous public, Mogilevich demonstrates how political pressures and the influence of the psychological sciences led them to a new conception of public space that included diverse publics and encouraged individual flourishing. Drawing on extensive archival research, site work, interviews, and the analysis of film and photographs, The Invention of Public Space considers familiar figures, such as William H. Whyte and Jane Jacobs, in a new light and foregrounds the important work of landscape architects Paul Friedberg and Lawrence Halprin and the architects of New York City’s Urban Design Group.The Invention of Public Space brings together psychology, politics, and design to uncover a critical moment of transformation in our understanding of city life and reveals the emergence of a concept of public space that remains today a powerful, if unrealized, aspiration.Trade Review"Deeply researched and wonderfully written, The Invention of Public Space will inspire a re-thinking of a concept—public space—and a place and time—New York City in the 1960s and ’70s—that we thought we knew well. Mariana Mogilevich captures the unique excitement of that moment when the top-down framework of modernist urban design and planning had collapsed and a new world of open, inclusive, and participatory design seemed to be beginning."—Robert Fishman, Taubman College of Architecture + Planning, University of Michigan"Mariana Mogilevich avoids the expected judgements about the spaces she surveys—how ‘public’ were they, really?—and shows how the idea of ‘public space,’ with all its paradoxes and exclusions, was itself devised as a response to urban crisis in 1960s New York City. Pithy, clever, and wise, The Invention of Public Space is a much-needed reminder that ideas about self and society are at the heart of the cultural history of urbanism."—Samuel Zipp, coeditor of Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs"Thanks to the author's original research and acute analysis, this an important book, not just for the history of 20th-century New York but also for the history of urban America more broadly."—CHOICE"Design and planning of public space play an important role in creating the physical conditions for imagining and experiencing democratic citizenship. But rather than settling on a conclusion whether Lindsay, or later Bloomberg, failed in achieving this goal, Mogilevich leaves us with encouragement to continue the experiment."—Journal of Urban Design"Mogilevich successfully explores how design projects driven by high-minded ideals of spatial politics impacted or even contributed to ongoing racial injustice in the city, and often overlooked the experiences of communities whose lives designers and urbanists were seeking to improve."—ARLIS/NA"This timely book squashes naïveté and inspires, leaving the reader energized and better prepared to pursue spatial justice anew."—The Architect’s NewspaperTable of ContentsContentsIntroduction: The Invention of Public Space1. Space and Politics in Lindsay’s New York2. Topographies of Experience: Jacob Riis Plaza3. Strangers and Neighbors: Residential Territories4. Open Space as Interface: Vest-Pocket Parks5. Pedestrian Experiments: Designs on the Street6. Metropolitan Environments: The Waterfront ParkEpilogue: The Deaths and Lives of Urban Public SpaceAcknowledgmentsAbbreviations for Frequently Cited Archival CollectionsNotesIndex

    3 in stock

    £23.39

  • Hidden Figures

    HarperCollins Publishers Hidden Figures

    4 in stock

    Book SynopsisNOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTUREOscar Nominated For Best Picture and Best Adapted ScreenplaySet amid the civil rights movement, the never-before-told true story of NASA's African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America's space program.Before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of professionals worked as Human Computers', calculating the flight paths that would enable these historic achievements. Among these were a coterie of bright, talented African-American women. Segregated from their white counterparts, these colored computers' used pencil and paper to write the equations that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space.Moving from World War II through NASA's golden age, touching on the civil rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War, and the women's rights movement, Hidden Figures interweaves a rich history of mankind's greatest adventure with the intimate stories of five courageous women whose work forever changed the world.Trade ReviewA TIME Magazine Top 10 Nonfiction Book of 2016 ‘Clearly fueled by pride and admiration, a tender account of genuine transcendence and camaraderie.The story warmly conveys the dignity and refinements of these women’ New York Times Book Review ‘Much as Tom Wolfe did in The Right Stuff, Shetterly moves gracefully between the women’s lives and the broader sweep of history … Shetterly blends impressive research with an enormous amount of heart in telling these stories … Genuinely inspiring book’ Boston Globe ‘A fascinating and important document about the hitherto unknown impact of NASA’s endeavours’ BBC Sky at Night magazine ‘Shetterly’s highly recommended work offers up a crucial history that had previously and unforgivably been lost. We’d do well to put this book into the hands of young women who have long since been told that there’s no room for them at the scientific table’ Library Journal ‘Inspiring and enlightening’ Kirkus ‘Exploring the intimate relationships among blackness, womanhood, and 20th-century American technological development, Shetterly crafts a narrative that is crucial to understanding subsequent movements for civil rights’ Publishers Weekly ‘This an is incredibly powerful and complex story, and Shetterly has it down cold. The breadth of her well-documented research is immense, and her narrative compels on every level. The timing of this revelatory book could not be better, and book clubs will adore it’ Booklist ‘Meticulous … the depth and detail that are the book’s strength make it an effective, fact-based rudder with which would-be scientists and their allies can stabilise their flights of fancy’ Seattle Times

    4 in stock

    £9.49

  • Katrina

    Harvard University Press Katrina

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe Katrina disaster was not a weather event of summer 2005. It was a disaster a century in the making, a product of lessons learned from previous floods, corporate and government decision making, and the political economy of the United States at large. New Orleans’s history is America’s history, and Katrina represents America’s possible future.Trade ReviewThe main thrust of Horowitz’s account is to make us understand Katrina—the civic calamity, not the storm itself—as a consequence of decades of bad decisions by humans, not an unanticipated caprice of nature…He leaves readers with a strong sense that it’s only a matter of time before there is a similar disaster in New Orleans, and that, in whatever lull there is between now and then, things aren’t great. -- Nicholas Lemann * New Yorker *Brilliant…If you want to read only one book to better understand why people in positions of power in government and industry do so little to address climate change, even with wildfires burning and ice caps melting and extinctions becoming a daily occurrence, this is the one… Horowitz shows—patiently and damningly—how the decisions made by Louisiana’s political and business elite systematically rendered the region vulnerable to disaster. -- Scott W. Stern * Los Angeles Review of Books *Easily the best book on the subject since Douglas Brinkley’s 2006 The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast…The fact that Katrina’s impact fell disproportionately on poor Louisianans raises a host of issues that Horowitz addresses better than any previous narrative history of the catastrophe. -- Steve Donoghue * Christian Science Monitor *Horowitz does a masterful job of describing the public and private engineering projects that made possible real estate construction, oil exploration, and other forms of economic expansion in New Orleans during the twentieth century, building fortunes for a few while putting thousands in the path of the next big storm… Disasters have the power to reveal who we are, what we value, what we’re willing—and unwilling—to protect. -- Eric Klinenberg * New York Review of Books *Horowitz is engrossed by the stark imbalance that pandering to the powerful industries of shipping and oil and gas has produced between ‘private profits and public liabilities.’ His story is a feisty blend of urban environmental history and history of political economy, of land subsidence (drained land sinks) and subsidized loans that create a false sense of impermeability…From start to finish, Horowitz’s necessary book is passionately political. -- Peter Coates * Times Literary Supplement *This masterful history opens nearly a century before the storm and examines how so many people came to live in such a vulnerable place. * The Economist *Horowitz chronicles an endless hustle in which governments and wealthy developers seize landscapes and mold them without regard to long-term consequences, and in which white people and moneyed interests have fixed advantages…A sadly predictable, distinctly American story. -- John McQuaid * Washington Monthly *Politicians and corporations, among others, have made poor communities of color vulnerable to climate disasters. As Katrina: A History demonstrates, political and economic choices traded the present and future lives of Louisiana’s poor (and especially poor Black) people for unevenly distributed short-term gain…Attentive to history, Horowitz has harsh words for climate utopians who look for technological solutions to the city’s problems. -- Elias Rodriques * Bookforum *Calling upon a century of history to tell the story of what many Americans limit to a span of days or weeks, Horowitz’s Katrina is a devastating and important text for understanding the deep-seated inequality, infrastructure failure, and government carelessness that led to one of America’s worst disasters…Reading Horowitz in the age of COVID-19, as the powerful determine who and what are expendable, feels especially instructive. -- Andru Okun * Los Angeles Review of Books *The definitive portrait of the ‘causes and consequences’ of Hurricane Katrina. Horowitz brilliantly explores the disastrous links between warming temperatures, systemic racism, government mismanagement, and corporate greed. Few books better capture the monumental threat that climate change poses to America’s cities. * Publishers Weekly *For those who are interested in getting through this current disaster by reading about other disasters…The whole idea is that Katrina was not just a tragic singular event that happened in 2005, but the result of centuries of terrible—often intentional—political and business decisions that had been made over the course of the hundred years prior…A super lively and engaging writer. * The Strategist *[A] sweeping overview of the historic, social and economic factors that played into the disaster and its aftermath. * The Times-Picayune *A vivid and persuasive chronicle of the ‘causes and consequences’ of Hurricane Katrina…Horowitz argues that a combination of environmental challenges, structural racism, and governmental misjudgment resulted in a massive loss of life…Even readers who have never visited the Crescent City will be moved by this incisive account. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *Incisive…Horowitz argues persuasively that the destruction incurred by Hurricane Katrina was not merely a meteorological event, but part of a long process of political, environmental, economic, and cultural decisions…An eye-opening environmental history. * Kirkus Reviews *Horowitz’s lucid, detailed, and balanced account of the long, crooked paths that led up to Katrina reinforces one of history’s most important lessons. * Daily Beast *Horowitz disrupts the narrative of disaster as exception…[Tells] the story of Katrina as a cycle of profit-driven and government-sanctioned growth and dispossession. -- Maia Silber * Public Books *Horowitz relentlessly pursues how the history of New Orleans, Louisiana, and the United States produced Katrina over the course of a century…Horowitz’s argument…has the potential to make a radical contribution to the history of technology…The writing is masterful, at times transcendent. -- Cornelis Disco * Technology and Culture *This thoroughly researched and clearly written book exposes the relationship between inequality and urban geography, offering a chilling glimpse of future disasters in the making. * Climate and Capitalism *Among the best histories of modern New Orleans. It is, moreover, a towering intervention in modern urban environmental and political history that shows not only how human actions shape disasters, but also how urban history is inseparable from metropolitan, regional, and national histories. Finally, it offers a warning that in an age of climate change and rising sea levels, no one may assume that future crises will visit themselves only on the disadvantaged in urban America. -- J. Mark Souther * The Metropole *Not only a definitive analysis of the storm as it affected New Orleans but also a peerless example of how historians should understand disasters—regardless of specialization—and why those events might matter even to scholars normally unconcerned with such seemingly extraordinary phenomena…As Horowitz goes on to illustrate in gripping detail, the wreckage of Hurricane Katrina is inextricable from decades of slow-moving, unexceptional events that are as much the province of social or political history as environmental history. -- Adam Mandelman * Environmental History *Horowitz is a gifted storyteller…This book is the best published history of Katrina. It is a major contribution to urban history, environmental history, and disaster studies, with relevance far beyond southern Louisiana. -- Josiah Rector * Journal of Southern History *Katrina: A History is a beautiful book about a long, ugly chapter in our nation’s history. Horowitz brilliantly demonstrates that the storm carried with it a century of poor decisions that both preceded and followed the disaster. Corporate greed, misguided policymaking, environmental blindness, corrupt politics, crippling racism, and class inequality: all these human failings were as significant as the broken levees and hurricane-force winds. This is not just a compelling history; it is a distressing warning about our future. -- Lizabeth Cohen, author of Saving America’s Cities: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban AgeThis is by far the most important treatment of Hurricane Katrina—an extraordinarily valuable work of scholarship. Andy Horowitz offers a fresh perspective that serves both as a corrective and also an entirely different way of understanding one of the most critical chapters in the nation’s environmental and political history. -- Ari Kelman, author of A River and Its City: The Nature of Landscape in New OrleansIn 2005, in the eyes of many, the history of New Orleans and lower Louisiana shrank to a single moment of natural disaster. Andy Horowitz’s Katrina recovers the all-too-human policies, limited perspectives, and sheer greed that created the conditions for the events of 2005 over the course of the previous century—conditions that prevented an equitable recovery process, and continue to obscure the ways in which ‘Katrina’ was not just about one unfortunate group of people, but also heralds our collective future. This book is an important reinterpretation of the history of New Orleans, the history of disaster, and the history of our nation. -- Leslie M. Harris, author of In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626–1863This book sees not only the forest and the trees but the blades of grass between the trees. Horowitz properly places the disaster of Hurricane Katrina in the much larger context of regional history, national and local policy decisions, and societal mores which all added up to having tragic if—mostly—unintended consequences, while not losing sight of intimate details and the personal stories of those who experienced the storm and rebuilt the city. Well-written and at times gripping, this is the most important book about Katrina so far. -- John M. Barry, author of Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed AmericaAlthough it is difficult to imagine a fresh take, Andy Horowitz has provided one…Horowitz has made a superb contribution to the field. His long view of the conditions that created New Orleans’s particular vulnerability fundamentally shifts the paradigm for understanding both the impact of and recovery from the storm, and his extraordinary prose will make the reader stop and read twice just for the fun of it. -- Christopher Manning * Louisiana History *Meant to be read, and ought to be read, by anyone who wishes to be an engaged citizen in our current moment of climate change, racial reckoning, and vast economic inequality. -- Aaron Sachs * California History *Katrina is a masterful work that is multi-disciplinary in its approach to a very complex city situated in a hazardous environment…[and] a model for the evaluation of exposure and vulnerability in other cities and communities that experience geophysical events (such as earthquakes and tornadoes). It makes a strong case that ‘disasters’ are not natural. -- Gerald Mills * Society *

    15 in stock

    £14.36

  • The Atlas of the Civil War

    Skyhorse Publishing The Atlas of the Civil War

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisFrom the first shots fired at Fort Sumter in 1861 to the final clashes on the Road to Appomattox in 1864, The Atlas of the Civil War reconstructs the battles of America's bloodiest war with unparalleled clarity and precision. Edited by Pulitzer Prize recipient James M. McPherson and written by America's leading military historians, this peerless reference charts the major campaigns and skirmishes of the Civil War. Each battle is meticulously plotted on one of 200 specially commissioned full-color maps. Timelines provide detailed, play-by-play maneuvers, and the accompanying text highlights the strategic aims and tactical considerations of the men in charge. Each of the battle, communications, and locator maps are cross-referenced to provide a comprehensive overview of the fighting as it swept across the country. With more than two hundred photographs and countless personal accounts that vividly describe the experiences of soldiers in the fields, The Atlas of the Civil War brings to life the human drama that pitted state against state and brother against brother.

    Out of stock

    £17.09

  • By the Fire We Carry

    HarperCollins Publishers By the Fire We Carry

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisTHE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERLONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN''S PRIZE FOR NONFICTIONA New Yorker Best Book of 2024 An Esquire Best Book of Fall 2024 Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard First Book Prize''Reads like a legal thriller'' ESQUIRE''As propulsive and affecting as it is infuriating'' VANITY FAIRA powerful work of reportage and American history that braids together the story of the forced removal of Native Americans onto treaty lands in the nation's earliest days, and a small-town murder in the 1990s that led to a Supreme Court ruling reaffirming Native rights to that land more than a century later.Before 2020, American Indian reservations made up roughly 55 million acres of land in the United States. By contrast, nearly 200 million acres are reserved for National Forests in the emergence of the United States as a nation, the government set aside more land for trees than for Indigenous peoples.In the 1830s, Muscogee people were rounded up by the US military at gunpoint and forced into exile halfway across the continent. At the time, they were promised this new land would be theirs for as long as the grass grew and the waters ran. But that promise was not kept. When Oklahoma was created on top of Muscogee land, the new state claimed their reservation no longer existed. Over a century later, a Muscogee citizen was sentenced to death for murdering another Muscogee citizen on tribal land. His defense attorneys argued that the murder occurred on the reservation of his tribe, and therefore Oklahoma didn't have the jurisdiction to execute him. Oklahoma asserted that the reservation no longer existed. In the summer of 2020, the Supreme Court settled the dispute. Its ruling would ultimately underpin multiple reservations covering almost half the land in Oklahoma, including the author's own Cherokee Nation.Here Rebecca Nagle recounts the generations long fight for tribal land and sovereignty in eastern Oklahoma. By chronicling both the contemporary legal battle and historic acts of Indigenous resistance, By the Fire We Carry stands as a landmark work of American history.

    10 in stock

    £19.80

  • How to Hide an Empire: A Short History of the

    Vintage Publishing How to Hide an Empire: A Short History of the

    15 in stock

    Book Synopsis'Wry, readable and often astonishing... A provocative and absorbing history of the United States' New York TimesThe United States denies having dreams of empire.We know America has spread its money, language and culture across the world, but we still think of it as a contained territory, framed by Canada above, Mexico below, and oceans either side. Nothing could be further from the truth.This is the story of the United States outside the United States – from nineteenth-century conquests like Alaska and Puerto Rico to the catalogue of islands, archipelagos and military bases dotted around the globe. Full of surprises and previously forgotten episodes, this fascinating book casts America’s history, and its present, in a revealing new light.Trade Review[A] smashing new book… fascinating -- Tim Stanley * Daily Telegraph *Lively and fascinating … [Immerwahr] is incapable of writing a dull page, and he has a real gift for making striking and unusual connections -- Noel Malcolm * Sunday Telegraph *To call this standout book a corrective would make it sound earnest and dutiful, when in fact it is wry, readable and often astonishing … It’s a testament to Immerwahr’s considerable storytelling skills that I found myself riveted by his sections on Hoover’s quest for standardized screw threads, wondering what might happen next. But beyond its collection of anecdotes and arcana, this humane book offers something bigger and more profound. How to Hide an Empire nimbly combines breadth and sweep with fine-grained attention to detail. The result is a provocative and absorbing history of the United States — ‘not as it appears in its fantasies, but as it actually is.’ * New York Times *There are many histories of American expansionism. How to Hide an Empire renders them all obsolete. It is brilliantly conceived, utterly original, and immensely entertaining - simultaneously vivid, sardonic and deadly serious. -- Andrew J. Bacevich, author of Twilight of the American CenturyThis book changes our understanding of the fundamental character of the United States as a presence in world history. By focusing on the processes by which Americans acquired, controlled, and were affected by territory, Daniel Immerwahr shows that the United States was not just another “empire,” but was a highly distinctive one the dimensions of which have been largely ignored. -- David A. Hollinger, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of Protestants AbroadHow to Hide an Empire is a breakthrough, for both Daniel Immerwahr and our collective understanding of America’s role in the world. His narrative of the rise of our colonial empire outside North America, and then our surprising pivot from colonization to globalization after World War II, is enthralling in the telling -- and troubling for anyone pondering our nation’s past and future. The result is a book for citizens and scholars alike. -- Samuel Moyn, professor of law and history at Yale UniversityA deft disquisition on America, and America in the world, with a raconteur’s touch and keen sense of the absurd -- Stephen Phillips * Spectator *[A] lively new book… Immerwahr peppers his account with colourful characters and enjoyable anecdotes… [How to Hide an Empire] throws light on the histories of everything from the Beatles to Godzilla, the birth-control pill to the transistor radio * Economist *This is an easily readable and vividly written book, filled with numerous fascinating tales, some well known, but many obscure… [How to Hide an Empire] illuminate[s] the wider history of both the United States and its colonies -- Andrew Johnstone * BBC History *How to Hide an Empire…achieves a strong grounding in its sources material and the wider history of empire studies… [it] is timely and raises weighty questions on themes of identity and belong that are all very relevant today * All About History *[A] vivid, and sometimes quirky, retelling of American expansionism… The originality of Immerwahr’s book… [is] in his explanation of how Washington purposely avoided converting its occupations to annexations -- Gavin Jacobson * New Statesman *Daniel Immerwahr… writes in the manner of an entertaining and informative lecturer who cannot wait to tell the class his latest discovery from the archives -- James Michael * Times Literary Supplement *

    15 in stock

    £11.69

  • The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden

    Simon & Schuster The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe world’s leading expert on Osama bin Laden delivers for the first time the “riveting” (The New York Times) definitive biography of a man who set the course of American foreign policy for the 21st century and whose ideological heirs we continue to battle today.In The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden, Peter Bergan provides the first reevaluation of the man responsible for precipitating America’s long war with al-Qaeda and its decedents, capturing bin Laden in all the dimensions of his life: as a family man, as a zealot, as a battlefield commander, as a terrorist leader, and as a fugitive. The book sheds light on his many contradictions: he was the son of a billionaire yet insisted his family live like paupers. He adored his wives and children, depending on his two wives, both of whom had PhDs, to make critical strategic decisions. Yet, he also brought ruin to his family. He was fanatically religious but willing to kill thousands of civilians in the name of Islam. He inspired deep loyalty, yet, in the end, his bodyguards turned against him. And while he inflicted the most lethal act of mass murder in United States history, he failed to achieve any of his strategic goals. In his final years, the lasting image we have of bin Laden is of an aging man with a graying beard watching old footage of himself, just as another dad flipping through the channels with his remote. In the end, bin Laden died in a squalid suburban compound, far from the front lines of his holy war. And yet, despite that unheroic denouement, his ideology lives on. Thanks to exclusive interviews with family members and associates, and documents unearthed only recently, Bergen’s “comprehensive, authoritative, and compelling” (H.R. McMaster, author of Dereliction of Duty and Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World) portrait of Osama bin Laden reveals for the first time who he really was and why he continues to inspire a new generation of jihadists.Trade Review"Meticulously documented, fluidly written and replete with riveting detail... Equally revealing about the Americans and their pursuit of him." — The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) "Of the raft of books that are marking the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and its aftermath, few are likely to be as meticulously documented, as fluidly written or as replete with riveting detail as Peter Bergen’s The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden... A page-turner." — The New York Times Book Review "The portrait [Bergen] draws is intimate and detailed."— The Washington Post "The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden does much more than reveal a human side to a mass murderer, offering the general reader an authoritative and convincing portrait of a man whose misdeeds changed all our lives in many ways, none for the better." — The Guardian "Comprehensive, authoritative, and compelling." — H.R. McMaster, author of Dereliction of Duty and Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World

    2 in stock

    £11.69

  • When America Stopped Being Great

    Bloomsbury Publishing PLC When America Stopped Being Great

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade ReviewBryant has an encyclopedic knowledge of public affairs and popular culture ... The result is riveting, often revelatory, crammed with facts … The great strength of Bryant’s book is his ability to make large structural changes vivid through outsized personalities and his own personal experiences … Readable, powerful and instructive. * Washington Post *A masterclass from an outstanding chronicler of modern America ... Insightful, thoughtful, and beautifully written. -- Orla GuerinNick Bryant writes like a dream, and is one of those very rare things on TV - a man who makes you want to turn up the sound. His eye for description is sublime, and he has a way of showing you what you’ve been missing from the whole story, whilst never leaving you feeling stupid. -- Emily MaitlisAn absolutely belting achievement ... An elegy for a lost nation and a lost cause. -- Justin WebbThere are all too many people who can opine about the United States but there are very few with Nick Bryant’s depth of knowledge, experience and empathy for the country and his ability to communicate intelligently, engagingly and entertainingly. -- Nick RobinsonBryant is a genuine rarity, a Brit who understands America. * Washington Post *A scathing indictment of the polarization and degradation that has transformed the US … [A]n adroit political critique. * Kirkus Reviews *Few outsiders explain America better than Nick Bryant or write about it as well. This is a must-read guide to an extraordinary time. -- Katty Kay[Bryant] has a deeper understanding than many of the ebb and flow of history ... [His] breezy prose displays a keen eye for good quotations and telling anecdotes. * TLS *Listeners who want a perspective that’s both outside and inside and crucially, that comes from a place of love for the US, should look out for When America Stopped Being Great. * The New Statesman *Terrific. Very much recommended. * The Monocle Daily *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Face to Face with ‘The Donald’ 1 It’s Morning Again in America 2 Goodbye to the Greatest Generation 3 Bill and Newt 4 The Three Convulsions 5 No You Can’t 6 The Donald Trump Show 7 American Carnage 8 The Descent into January 6th Conclusion: Present at the Destruction Afterword: Code Red for American Democracy Acknowledgements Notes Index

    15 in stock

    £11.69

  • The Tame and the Wild

    Harvard University Press The Tame and the Wild

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisMarcy Norton tells a new history of the European colonization of the Americas, one that places wildlife and livestock at the center of the story. She reveals that it was, above all, the encounters between European and Native American beliefs about animal life that transformed societies on both sides of the Atlantic.Trade ReviewRelationships—between animals and humans, and between humans and other humans—are at the heart of Marcy Norton’s original and ambitious The Tame and the Wild. -- Alexander Bevilacqua * London Review of Books *[Norton] argues that biology cannot be separated from culture — a stance that allows her to reconsider why animals were treated in a certain way in the past and how they could be treated in the future… A fascinating book. -- Henry Mance * Financial Times *The Tame and the Wild reads like a revelation. Norton’s groundbreaking work compellingly shows how the history of nonhuman animals in the Atlantic world, and their transformation from beings to things, is intrinsically entangled with the history of the early-modern European extractivist and genocidal colonial project in the Americas. At the same time, it luminously recovers and foregrounds early-modern American Indigenous ways of being in the world and knowing it that emphasize the shared nature of human and nonhuman flesh and subjectivity. Her book shows us new ways for writing both our histories and those of our ‘fellow creatures.’ -- Pablo F. Gómez, author of The Experiential Caribbean: Creating Knowledge and Healing in the Early Modern AtlanticMarcy Norton offers an erudite and innovative perspective on the relationships between humankind and animals in the context of the European colonization of Mexico and South America. By analyzing the history of the clash between Indigenous and Western conceptions of hunting, domestication, and coexistence with pets, this book reveals the origins of consumption practices and objectification of the animal world, as well as the struggles to recognize animal rights. -- Guilhem Olivier, National Autonomous University of MexicoNorton revolutionizes our understanding of the world after 1492. Until now theories of ecological imperialism have conceived of animals a lot like diseases: as biological forces undermining colonized societies. She refutes that determinist story by showing animals as subjects in relationships—sometimes tender, sometimes violent, sometimes extractivist—with Indigenous people and Europeans in the Americas. The Tame and the Wild puts animals and human relationships at the center of the history of contact. -- Nancy J. Jacobs, author of Birders of Africa

    15 in stock

    £27.16

  • University Press of Colorado The Friar and the Maya: Diego de Landa and the

    Out of stock

    Book Synopsis

    Out of stock

    £19.90

  • Mafia Spies

    Skyhorse Publishing Mafia Spies

    2 in stock

    Book Synopsis**SOON TO BE A MINI-SERIES FROM PARAMOUNT+ IN SPRING 2024** From bestselling author and the producer of the hit cable series Masters of Sex, Thomas Maier, comes a true story of espionage and mobsters, based on the never-before-released JFK Files. From Vegas to Miami to Havana, the shocking connections between the CIA, the mob, and Sinatra’s Rat Pack—with new revelations and details. Mafia Spies is the definitive account of America’s most remarkable espionage plots ever—with CIA agents, mob hitmen, “kompromat” sex, presidential indiscretion, and James Bond-like killing devices together in a top-secret mystery full of surprise twists and deadly intrigue. In the early 1960s, two top gangsters, Johnny Roselli and Sam Giancana, were hired by the CIA to kill Cuba’s Communist leader, Fidel Castro, only to wind up murdered themselves amidst Congressional hearings and a national debate about the JFK assassin

    2 in stock

    £13.49

  • Nicaragua Must Survive

    University of California Press Nicaragua Must Survive

    4 in stock

    Book SynopsisTable of ContentsContents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments List of Abbreviations Introduction 1 • Internationalizing Struggle, 1977–1979 2 • Triumph and Consolidation, 1979–1980 3 • The Revolution under Attack, 1981–1982 4 • Creative Defense, 1983–1984 5 • Fundraising for the Revolution, 1985–1986 6 • Peace and Elections, 1987–1990 Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

    4 in stock

    £21.25

  • Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest

    Basic Books Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe United States is in the grip of a crisis of bad history. Distortions of the past promoted in the conservative media have led large numbers of Americans to believe in fictions over facts, making constructive dialogue impossible and imperilling our democracy. In Myth America, Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer have assembled an all-star team of fellow historians to push back against this misinformation. The contributors debunk narratives that portray the New Deal and Great Society as failures, immigrants as hostile invaders, and feminists as anti-family warriors-among numerous other partisan lies. Based on a firm foundation of historical scholarship, their findings revitalize our understanding of American history. Replacing myths with research and reality, Myth America is essential reading amid today's heated debates about our nation's past. With Essays ByAkhil Reed Amar Kathleen Belew Carol Anderson Kevin Kruse Erika Lee Daniel Immerwahr Elizabeth Hinton Naomi Oreskes Erik M. Conway Ari Kelman Geraldo Cadava David A. Bell Joshua Zeitz Sarah Churchwell Michael Kazin Karen L. Cox Eric Rauchway Glenda Gilmore Natalia Mehlman Petrzela Lawrence B. Glickman Julian E. Zelizer

    15 in stock

    £22.50

  • Now You Know Canada

    Dundurn Group Ltd Now You Know Canada

    Out of stock

    Book SynopsisA National Bestseller!A new collection of the best Canadian trivia in honour of Canada's 150th birthday.Just in time for Canada's 150th birthday comes this collection of the best in Canadian questions and answers, covering history, famous Canadians, sports, word origins, geography, and everything in between. In these pages, you'll learn the answers to questions like: Where did the word Canuck come from? How did an aristocratic French girl become a Canadian Robinson Crusoe? What famous explorer played hockey in the Arctic? Who was the first black woman elected to Canada's Parliament? What unlikely team beat Canada for the gold medal for hockey in the 1936 Winter Olympics? How did the Halifax Explosion occur? Table of Contents1. O CANADA 2. POLICY-MAKERS and GROUND-BREAKERS3. REBELLIONS4. CANADA AT WAR5. HEROES AND LEGENDS6. PRODIGIES OF SCIENCE, INVENTION, AND MEDICINE7. CANADIAN DISASTERS8. INTREPID EXPLORERS9. ENTERTAIN ME10. THE OLD BALL GAME11. GRIDIRON HISTORY12. CANADA‘S GAME13. THE BEAUTIFUL GAME, NOW IN CANADA14. SCOOPS ON CANADIAN HOOPS15. CANADA‘S OTHER NATIONAL GAME16. ROCKS AND ROLLS17. MAKING A SPLASH18. OLYMPIC FEATS19. MORE CHAMPIONS OF CANADIAN SPORT

    Out of stock

    £11.39

  • The Souls of Black Folk: The Unabridged Classic

    Skyhorse Publishing The Souls of Black Folk: The Unabridged Classic

    7 in stock

    Book SynopsisOne of the Most Important Books on Civil Rights, Race, and Freedom Ever Written. “A groundbreaking challenge to white supremacy.” —The New York Times A classic work of American literature, African-American history, and sociology by W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk is a monumental collection of essays that examines race and racism in America during the early 1900s and prior. Du Bois derived much of the book’s content from his own personal experience as an African-American living during these tumultuous times, which resulted in an expertly crafted firsthand account of the trials of oppression and segregation existing in America. Many of the book’s essays formulated Du Bois’s then-perceived radical thought and platform for change, and eventually became catalysts that sparked protest movements across the country. Containing some of the most revered work on the topic of race, this stunning new trade edition of The Souls of Black Folk is perfect for anyone interested in African-America literature and history.

    7 in stock

    £5.05

  • Firearms, Traps, and Tools of the Mountain Men: A

    Skyhorse Publishing Firearms, Traps, and Tools of the Mountain Men: A

    10 in stock

    Book SynopsisThis classic, scholarly history of the fur trappers and traders of the early nineteenth century focuses on the devices that enabled the opening of the untracked American west. Sprinkled with interesting facts and old western lore, this guide to traps and tools is also a lively history. The era of the mountain man is distinct in American history, and Russell’s exhaustive coverage on the guns, traps, knives, axes, and other iron tools of this era, along with meticulous appendices, is astonishing. The result of thirty-five years of painstaking research, this is the definitive guide to the tools of the mountain men.

    10 in stock

    £10.99

  • The Republic for Which It Stands

    Oxford University Press Inc The Republic for Which It Stands

    1 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe newest volume in the Oxford History of the United States series, The Republic for Which It Stands argues that the Gilded Age, along with Reconstruction--its conflicts, rapid and disorienting change, hopes and fears--formed the template of American modernity.Trade ReviewFearless and peerless, Richard White leads us through a transformed and fragmented nation in turmoil, haunted by the slain Abraham Lincoln, where visions of freedom and equality were rapidly vanishing. In the rural South, in the urban North, and out West, from the terribly destitute to the stupendously wealthy, White brings together stories that historians have long told separately, untangling the anger and blame that grew so deeply entrenched in the Gilded Age. How did all this happen? Richard White explains everything. * Martha Hodes, author of Mourning Lincoln *Richard White has given us a brilliantly imagined narrative of astonishing breadth, thickly peopled with figures from familiar political lions to Lizzie Borden, Dorothy and Toto, that brings to vivid life one of the most challenging periods of American history. His is a twisting, often violent and above all ironic story of a nation finding its way from a time of both tragedy and optimism to one of prodigious wealth and colossal energy, of deepening divisions of class, blood, and ideas, of new meanings of everything from government to geographical space, and of a shaken, tempered faith in the century ahead. This is a masterful performance. * Elliott West, author of The Last Indian War *Richard White offers a remarkable new synthesis of the decades following the Civil War, showing the myriad ways in which a period about which most modern Americans know too little in fact laid the foundations for the nation we know today. This book will change the ways we think not just about the past, but about the present as well. * William Cronon, author of Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West *The Republic for Which It Stands illuminates every key aspect of the industrializing, expanding nation in the final third of the nineteenth century: racial, ecological, legal, political, economic, and cultural. In lucid, witty, and often dramatic prose, Richard White makes sense of them all in a way that powerfully echoes the inequalities and environmental degradation of our own day. Yet he also captures the mighty appeal of the developing capitalist economy that was becoming the envy of the world. This is the best book on the Gilded Age that has ever been written. * Michael Kazin, author of War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914-1918 *This is a marvelous achievement of narrative history by a great historian. Written with immense learning, wit, indignation, fearless judgments, and imagination, the book will stand up for a long time as a new vision of two eras with reputation problems. White masterfully weaves the metaphor of the 'vanished twin' through the book and persuasively makes 'home' a central theme binding all Americans of every class or race: as dream, as reality, as racial and gendered place, and as politics. This is not your grandaddy's Gilded Age, although corruption - lots of it - oozes from the story. It is powerful and readable history that exudes all the 'hallmarks of modernity' we have claimed and soberingly invokes our own grave political moment. What 'vanished' is nothing less than the meaning of Union victory and the world the first Republican party struggled to achieve. White is our Mark Twain with archival authority and footnotes. * David W. Blight, Yale University *The Oxford History of the United States continues to surpass expectations with this latest contribution. For many Americans, Reconstruction is still remembered as a period of racial anarchy, political failure, and the humiliation of the defeated South. This volume presents detailed knowledge of what actually happened in the South between 1865 and 1876 and the years that followed. It is sometimes an inspiring but more often deeply shocking story that reveals a nation at its best and worst, when newly freed slaves and idealists, both black and white, struggled to preserve the rights Union armies had won on the battlefield and that Republican members of Congress affirmed in the years after the Civil War. * Frank J. Williams, President of The Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library and Association *The conclusion of the Civil War through the 1890s marked the transformation of the US from a rural and agrarian society of free laborers to a modern, urban, industrial nation where wages and possessions replaced liberty and individualism. White's rich, sweeping history chronicles the divide between the Radical Republicans (today's Libertarians) and those who saw the need for governmental protection of individual rights. White seamlessly incorporates political, economic, social, and legal history to show the birth of the modern US. Throughout, he includes fascinating anecdotes that captivate readers. Highly recommended. * Choice *The Republic for Which It Stands is a remarkably fresh and innovative way of looking at the Reconstruction and Gilded Age by an academic with unmatched academic credentials. No matter how much you have read on the Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, The Republic for Which It Stands has a lot to offer you. The Republic for Which It Stands should be a required part of any American history syllabus in all universities. * The Washington Book Review *Stanford professor Richard White's The Republic for Which It Stands, a sweeping history of the United States from 1865 to 1896 that just published last month. It's 941 pages but beautifully written and a gripping narrative of a tumultuous era. (White was one of my favorite professors at Stanford. I took two of his classes.) * Washington Post *There is almost nothing about the era that White fails to treat with intelligence and style,,,,Here is the constant American struggle, and Richard White has related a decisive part of its history with stamina and skill. * Sean Wilentz, The New York Times Book Review *White's masterful book offers a treasure trove of information about a pivotal time in American history, crafted with a compelling combination of well-written recreations of events and careful analysis based on the latest historical research. The Republic for Which It Stands is the best available guide to the period. * BookPage *Stanford historian White (Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America, 2011) tells this tumultuous story with authority, an eye for detail, and a dash of moral outrage. A noted historian of the West, he covers monetary policy, land use, social history, literature, and biography as he examines America from 1865 to 1896. * Booklist *The Republic for Which It Stands is a thorough examination of late 19th-century America. White tracks the building of a nation and the growth of its industrial and economic power with an eye toward those left behind by the changes - a welcome focus at a moment when those being left behind by the equivalent changes of our time have just helped spark profound political upheaval by electing President Trump. And even when his analysis tends toward the negative, progressive view of American history, his detail nevertheless enlightens the reader. * Kyle Sammin, The National Review *In this monumental yet highly readable book, Mr. White has given us a panorama of an age that in many ways seems like our own. The volcanic turmoil of the late 19th century did much to shape the world that we live in today, with its creative and destructive cycles of industry, its quickening technological change, its extremes of wealth and poverty, its struggle to impose fairness in the jungle of the marketplace, its tug of war between freedom and regulation in the public interest. 'The Republic for Which It Stands' is, in no small part, the story of how we came to be who we are. * The Wall Street Journal *[White] is one of the outstanding historians of his generation. It is difficult to think of many others who can match the range, depth, originality and influence of his writings, which include a prize-winning account of the construction of the transcontinental railroads, an environmental history of the Columbia River Valley, a general history of the American West, and even a memoir of his mother's life as an emigrant from Ireland. * Times Literary Supplement" *In his impressive new book The Republic for Which It Stands, the latest volume in the ongoing 'Oxford History of the United States,' White links the Gilded Age with Reconstruction-the two 'gestated together,' he writes-and, in so doing, casts both in a different light while raising new questions about a nation born in the cauldron of civil war. * Steven Hahn, The Nation *Winner of the Ellis W. Hawley Prize of the Organization of American Historians“The Republic for Which It Stands demonstrates White's subtle understanding of a period that may once have been regarded as 'historical flyover country'-and of the American West…..Immigration, industrialization, failures of governance, class conflict and, importantly, the vestiges of Civil War, he shows, dominate and roil this period in ways that shaped the upheavals, inequities, and even the hopefulness, sometimes blinkered, that remain with us today.> * Brenda Wineapple, The New Republic *“White's fascinating and comprehensive book could not be more timely....When questions of race, economic inequality, and the rise of giant corporate monopolies and a plutocratic elite dominate U.S. politics, it is time to take another look at Reconstruction and the Gilded Age….Readers will thank White for the clear prose and strong narrative.> * Walter Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs *White…is one of the outstanding historians of his generation. It is difficult to think of many others who can match the range, depth, originality and influence of his writings….His footnotes and bibliography reveal a remarkable command of the historical literature, which he uses to construct a vast, sprawling and often original panorama of the American economy, politics and society between 1865 and 1896….White has any number of interesting things to say about any number of subjects, many of them ignored in most books on the period.”-Eric Foner, Times Literary Supplement“Richard White is well qualified to cover this tumultuous era....He knows as much as anybody about the most important technology of the era. As a professor at Stanford University, he can see the era from the perspective of the west coast as well as the east....White's book should be read-not just because it has so much to say about the latter part of the 19th century, but also because it casts light on America's current problems with giant companies and roiling populism.” -Economist“White's great achievement is to capture the drabbest, least-redeeming three decades of American history with unimpeachable authority….[and] manages to imbue these ignoble years with the importance that they're due.”-Publishers Weekly (starred review)Table of ContentsList of Maps Editor's Introduction Introduction Part I: Reconstructing the Nation Prologue: Mourning Lincoln Chapter One: In the Wake of War Chapter Two: Radical Reconstruction Chapter Three: The Greater Reconstruction Chapter Four: Home Chapter Five: Gilded Liberals Chapter Six: Triumph of Wage Labor Chapter Seven: Panic Chapter Eight: Beginning a Second Century Part II: The Quest for Prosperity Chapter Nine: Years of Violence Chapter Ten: The Party of Prosperity Chapter Eleven: People in Motion Chapter Twelve: Liberal Orthodoxy and Radical Opinions Chapter Thirteen: Dying for Progress Chapter Fourteen: The Great Upheaval Chapter Fifteen: Reform Chapter Sixteen: Westward the Course of Reform Chapter Seventeen: The Center Fails to Hold Chapter Eighteen: The Poetry of a Pound of Steel Part III: The Crisis Arrives Chapter Nineteen: The Other Half Chapter Twenty: Dystopian and Utopian America Chapter Twenty-one: The Great Depression Chapter Twenty-two: Things Fall Apart Chapter Twenty-three: An Era Ends Conclusion Bibliographic Essay Index

    1 in stock

    £18.89

  • Accounting for Slavery

    Harvard University Press Accounting for Slavery

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisTrade ReviewExamine[s] how slavery laid the foundation of American capitalism, including the invention of financial instruments, such as bonds that used enslaved people as collateral. -- Parul Sehgal * New York Times *Slavery in the United States was a business. A morally reprehensible—and very profitable business. Much of the research around the business history of slavery focuses on the horrors of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the business interests that fueled it. The common narrative is that today’s modern management techniques were developed in the factories in England and the industrialized North of the United States, not the plantations of the Caribbean and the American South. According to a new book by historian Caitlin Rosenthal, that narrative is wrong… Rosenthal argues that slaveholders in the American South and Caribbean were using advanced management and accounting techniques long before their northern counterparts. Techniques that are still used by businesses today. * Marketplace *Absolutely compelling. -- Diane Coyle * Five Books *[This] history of the accounting and management of slave plantations in the Americas goes a long way towards puncturing common-sense narratives of free market economics. -- Martin Myers * Times Higher Education *Valuable…Rosenthal proves that precise calculation of labor productivity took root in the slave economy. The irony is that it was more aggressively calculated there than among many Northern manufacturers of the time. -- Jeremy Ray Jewell * Arts Fuse *Looks at how sugar and cotton plantations organised and tracked production. It is a fascinating yet horrifying history of how planters saw the slaves they profited from—and how they drove up production…Challenges many dominant ideas about capitalism, class and progress. -- Sadie Robinson * Socialist Worker *Full of insights into the history of Atlantic slavery, Accounting for Slavery will force its readers to look with fresh eyes at the many freedoms and unfreedoms of the modern American workplace. This is an original book, which uniquely draws from and speaks to many disciplines, while written compellingly for a wide audience. -- Jonathan Levy, University of ChicagoBy paying close attention to slaveholders’ methods of keeping accounts, Caitlin Rosenthal shows how and why they tried to reduce human beings to marks on a ledger. Anyone concerned with the sometimes dark history of management, data, and modern accounting practices needs to read this brilliant, carefully argued book. -- W. Caleb McDaniel, Rice University

    15 in stock

    £17.06

  • The Culture of Narcissism

    WW Norton & Co The Culture of Narcissism

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe classic The New York Times bestseller, with a new introduction from much-lauded The Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr.Trade Review"Lasch took in a remarkable range of contemporary experience, making many observations that, if anything, ring more true today." -- Lee Siegel - The New York Times"Morbidly clever, brilliantly on target, idiosyncratically compelling." -- Alan Wolfe - The New Republic"A bestseller in 1979, this outstanding analysis is enjoying a resurgence, being reissued with a new introduction by EJ Dionne Jr, who praises Lasch’s “intellectually rebellious spirit”." -- The Herald

    15 in stock

    £13.29

  • The Global Interior

    Harvard University Press The Global Interior

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisMegan Black argues that the U.S. Department of the Interior, known for managing domestic natural resources and operating public parks, constantly supports and projects American power abroad. In the guise of sharing expertise globally, Interior has helped the U.S. maintain key benefits of empire without the burden of playing the imperialist villain.Trade ReviewBlack’s extraordinary book…demonstrates the remarkable reach of the Interior Department…By zooming in on the work of this important but too easily forgotten agency, The Global Interior deftly rearranges the last century and a half of American history in fresh and useful ways…Most notably, her book allows us to see how settler colonialism served as the staging ground for the United States’s rise to its superpower status. -- Dexter Fergie * Los Angeles Review of Books *The Global Interior offers unprecedented insights into the depth and staying power of American exceptionalism. Black offers a lively rendering of the torturous obfuscation of the inside and outside, domestic and foreign, as generations of policymakers sought to extend the reach of U.S. power globally while emphatically denying that the United States was an empire. -- Penny M. Von Eschen, author of Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold WarA smart, original, and ambitious book. Black demonstrates that the Interior Department has had a far larger, more invasive, and more consequential role in the world than one would expect from its carefully cultivated image of domestic scientific benevolence. -- Brian DeLay, author of War of a Thousand DesertsIn this stimulating book, Black succeeds in showing both the central importance of minerals in the development of American power and how the realities of empire could be obscured through a focus on modernization and the mantra of conservation. -- Ian Tyrrell, author of Crisis of the Wasteful Nation: Empire and Conservation in Theodore Roosevelt’s AmericaThe Global Interior is a model of how to seamlessly combine distinct literatures—environmental and diplomatic histories, Native American studies and the American West—in a fresh and important contribution to our understanding of the United States in the world. -- Gretchen Heefner, author of The Missile Next Door: The Minuteman in the American Heartland

    15 in stock

    £22.46

  • Whisper Not

    Temple University Press,U.S. Whisper Not

    15 in stock

    Book SynopsisOne of the greatest artists our country has is Benny Golson. He is not only a great musician, but an original and fabulous composer. He is inventive and creative and his work is loved the world over. Benny is a rare, creative genius. All I would like to say is THREE CHEERS for Benny Golson!Tony BennettComposer supreme, tenor man supreme, jazz man supreme, good guy supreme: that's BENNY GOLSON!Sonny RollinsBorn during thede factoinaugural era of jazz, saxophonist Benny Golson learned his instrument and the vocabulary of jazz alongside John Coltrane while Golson was still in high school in Philadelphia. Quickly establishing himself as an iconic fixture on the jazz landscape, Golson performed with dozens of jazz greats, from Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, and Jimmy Heath to Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, and many others. An acclaimed composer, Golson also wrote music for Hollywood films and television and composed such memorable jazz standards as Stablemates, Killer Joe, and Whisper NTable of ContentsPreface, by Jim Merod IntroductionPart I John Coltrane Chapter 1 One of a Kind: John Coltrane Chapter 2 John and I Meet Diz and Bird Chapter 3 John Becomes a Dynamo Part II The ’Hood and Youthful Reckonings Chapter 4 Uncle Robert and the Man Chapter 5 Two Heroes and a Night at Minton’s Chapter 6 Early Tragedies and Victories Chapter 7 Welfare Days, Hard TimesPart III Great People Chapter 8 No One Else: Bobbie Hurd Chapter 9 Moose and Bostic Chapter 10 Art Blakey’s Neophytes and Tadd Dameron’s Luck Chapter 11 Further Adventures with Tadd and an Evening with Louis Armstrong Chapter 12 The Duel: Clifford Brown and Fats Navarro Chapter 13 Wonder and Beauty: Betty Carter and Art Farmer Chapter 14 Genius Squared: Jimmy and Percy Heath Chapter 15 Unrivaled Aces: Sarah Vaughan and Bill Evans Chapter 16 Four "Brothers": Mulgrew Miller, Woody Herman, Henry Brant, and George RussellPart IV Hollywood Chapter 17 Starting Over Chapter 18 Gettin’ My Mojo Workin’ Chapter 19 M*A*S*H Chapter 20 Movie Stars Like Jazz, TooPart V Amazing Friendships Chapter 21 Quincy Jones Chapter 22 Sweets and Diz Chapter 23 Philly Joe Jones Chapter 24 Monk, Max, and Dinah Chapter 25 Curtis Fuller and The JazztetPart VI Music and Writing Chapter 26 Writing Chapter 27 Lessons Chapter 28 "Stablemates": My First Recorded Song Chapter 29 "Along Came Betty" Chapter 30 "I Remember Clifford" Chapter 31 The Ballad and "Weight"Part VII Icons Chapter 32 Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks Chapter 33 Duke and Strayhorn Chapter 34 Coleman Hawkins Chapter 35 Art Blakey and Thelonious Monk Chapter 36 Blakey and The Jazz Messengers Chapter 37 Kenny Dorham and Lee Morgan Chapter 38 Sonny Rollins Chapter 39 Great Performances: Oscar Pettiford, Ron Carter, Billy Higgins, Billy Taylor, and Walter Davis, Jr. Chapter 40 Charles Mingus, Benny Goodman, Gigi Gryce, and Horace Silver Chapter 41 Peggy Lee and Diana Ross Chapter 42 Milt "Bags" Jackson, Larry Young, Joe Farrell, and Tony Williams Chapter 43 Wynton Kelly and Chick Corea Chapter 44 Miles Davis and Geoffrey Keezer Chapter 45 Mickey Rooney, Redd Foxx, Jersey Joe Walcott, and Muhammad AliPart VIII Verses and a Coda Chapter 46 Notes on Starting Over Chapter 47 The Blues Chapter 48 Brielle Coda: A New Way of Life Acknowledgments Index

    15 in stock

    £27.90

  • My Life with Bonnie and Clyde

    University of Oklahoma Press My Life with Bonnie and Clyde

    2 in stock

    Book SynopsisThe sister-in-law of Clyde Barrow chronicles the escapades of her famous brother-in-law and his paramour Bonnie Parker. For this book, Phillips supplements Blanche's memoir with notes and biographical information about Blanche and her accomplices. Illustrations. Maps.

    2 in stock

    £17.06

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