History of the Americas Books

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

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Book SynopsisA source book for American culture in the 1960s and 1970s: “suggested reading” from the Last Whole Earth Catalog, from Thoreau to James Baldwin.The Whole Earth Catalog was a cultural touchstone of the 1960s and 1970s. The iconic cover image of the Earth viewed from space made it one of the most recognizable books on bookstore shelves. Between 1968 and 1971, almost two million copies of its various editions were sold, and not just to commune-dwellers and hippies. Millions of mainstream readers turned to the Whole Earth Catalog for practical advice and intellectual stimulation, finding everything from a review of Buckminster Fuller to recommendations for juicers. This book offers selections from eighty texts from the nearly 1,000 items of “suggested reading” in the Last Whole Earth Catalog.After an introduction that provides background information on the catalog and its founder, Stewart Brand (interesting fact: Brand go

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Book SynopsisThis attractively packaged gift book offers a highly illustrated introduction to some of the American Civil War''s most famous and important battles, from the Battle of Fort Sumter in 1861 to the Battle of Appomattox Court House in 1865.The American Civil War was the most cataclysmic military struggle of the late 19th century, and in four bloody years of fighting from 1861 to 1865 over 620,000 American soldiers and sailors lost their lives in more than 8,000 battles, engagements, and skirmishes. U.S. Civil War Battle by Battle tells the story of 30 of the most significant of these battles. These include some of the most famous clashes, such as the battles of Gettysburg and the Fredericksburg, which resonate through American military history, but also the less well known, such as the battles of Brandy Station and Cedar Creek. This highly illustrated introduction, packed full of color artwork, covers every theater of the war and detTrade ReviewJust the thing for US Civil War buffs: snappily written, informative and entertaining. A cracking read. -- Saul David, bestselling author and historianThe book is an excellent introduction to the war’s 30 most famous and significant battles * History of War *Table of ContentsChronology The Battle of Fort Sumter The Battle of First Manassas/ First Bull Run The Battle of Wilson’s Creek/ Oak Hills The Battle of First Lexington The Battle of Ball’s Bluff/ Leesburg The Battle of Fort Donelson The Naval Battle of Hampton Roads The Battle of Glorieta Pass The Battle of Shiloh The Battle of Gaines’ Mill—The Seven Days The Battle of Second Manassas/ Second Bull Run The Battle of Antietam/ Sharpsburg The Battle of Fredericksburg The Battle of Chancellorsville The Siege of Vicksburg The Battle of Brandy Station The Battle of Gettysburg The Second Battle of Fort Wagner The Battle of Chickamauga The Battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge The Battle of Okolona The Battle of the Wilderness The Battle of Cold Harbor The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain The Battle of the Crater—Petersburg The Battle of Jonesborough The Battle of Cedar Creek The Battle of Nashville The Battle of Bentonville The Battle of Appomattox Court House Index

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Book SynopsisAn intimate conversation between towering public intellectuals examining the contentious interplay between the Cuban Revolution and U.S. empireAn audacious revolutionary experiment in the backyard of empire, Cuba has occupied a vexed role in the international order for decades. Though its doctors (and fighters)?and the outsized influence of its example?have traversed the globe, from Venezuela to Angola, its political and economic future remain uncertain as the Castro era comes to a close and the U.S. embargo proceeds unabated.Through an intimate conversation between two of the country?s most astute observers of international politics, Noam Chomsky and Vijay Prashad, On Cuba traces Cuban history from the early days of the 1950s revolution to the present, interrogating U.S. interventions and extracting lessons on U.S. power and influence in the Western Hemisphere along the way. Neither a jingoistic condemnation nor an uncritical celebration, Chomsky?s heterodox approach to world affairs is on full display as he and Prashad grapple with Cuba?s unique place on the international scene.In a media landscape saturated with half-truths and fake news, Chomsky and Prashad??our own Frantz Fanon . . . [whose] writing of protest is always tinged with the beauty of hope? (Amitava Kumar, author of Immigrant, Montana)?seek to shed light on the truth of a complex and perennially controversial nation, while examining the limits of mainstream media discourse.

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Book SynopsisThe Confederate States of America was born in defense of slavery and, after a four-year struggle to become an independent slaveholding republic, died as emancipation dawned. Between Fort Sumter to Appomattox, Confederates bought and sold thousands African American men, women, and children. These transactions in humanity made the internal slave trade a cornerstone of Confederate society, a bulwark of the Rebel economy, and a central part of the experience of the Civil War for all inhabiting the American South. As An Unholy Traffic shows, slave trading helped Southerners survive and fight the Civil War, as well as to build the future for which they fought. They mitigated the crises the war spawned by buying and selling enslaved people, using this commerce to navigate food shortages, unsettled gender roles, the demands of military service, and other hardships on the homefront. Some Rebels speculated wildly in human property, investing in slaves to ward off inflation and to buy shares in the slaveholding nation they hoped to create. Others traded people to counter the advance of emancipation. Given its centrality to their nationhood, Confederates went to great lengths to prolong the slave trade, which, in turn, supported the Confederacy. For those held in slavery, the surviving slave trade dramatically shaped their pursuit of freedom, inserting a retrograde movement into some people''s journeys toward liberty while inspiring others to make the risky decision to escape. Offering an original perspective on the intersections of slavery, capitalism, the Civil War, and emancipation, Robert K.D. Colby illuminates the place of the peculiar institution within the Confederate mind, the ways in which it underpinned the CSA''s war effort, and its impact on those attempting to seize their freedom.

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Book Synopsis2.20am on 15th April 1912, the Titanic is plunging 12,000 feet to the ocean floor. Machinery, coal, crystal goblets, pianos and jewellery all tumbled through the dark water. Hundreds of passengers and crew remained trapped below decks - hundreds more would perish on the surface. This is the definitive chronology of the Titanic's final hours, offering readers a real-time experience of one of the greatest dramas of twentieth century history.

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Book SynopsisPeter Cozzens is the author of over eighteen books on the Civil War and the American West. He recently retired after thirty years as a Foreign Service Officer with the U. S. Department of State. His previous book, The Earth Is Weeping, was awarded the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History and the Caroline Bancroft History Prize. The Warrior and the Prophet was the winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Biography.

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Book SynopsisHow did the United States appoint itself as the world’s supreme military power? Stephen Wertheim delves into the archives of the U.S. foreign policy elite to trace armed dominance to its origin in World War II. He shows how officials and intellectuals suddenly chose to embrace perpetual dominance—at the price of perpetual war.Trade ReviewYou really ought to read it…It is a tour de force…While Wertheim is not the first to expose isolationism as a carefully constructed myth, he does so with devastating effect. Most of all, he helps his readers understand that ‘so long as the phantom of isolationism is held to be the most grievous sin, all is permitted.’ -- Andrew J. Bacevich * The Nation *For almost 80 years now, historians and diplomats have sought not only to describe America’s swift advance to global primacy but also to explain it…Any writer wanting to make a novel contribution either has to have evidence for a new interpretation, or at least be making an older argument in some improved and eye-catching way. Stephen Wertheim’s Tomorrow, the World does both…[An] estimable book. -- Paul Kennedy * Wall Street Journal *The only recent book to explore U.S. elites’ decision to become the world’s primary power in the early 1940s—a profoundly important choice that has affected the lives of billions of people throughout the globe…Contributes to the effort to transform U.S. foreign policy by giving pro-restraint Americans a usable past. Though Tomorrow, the World is not a polemic, its implications are invigorating…Wertheim opens space for Americans to reexamine their own history and ask themselves whether primacy has ever really met their interests. -- Daniel Bessner * New Republic *In writing the history of the country’s decision to embrace a militarist vision of world order—and to do so, counterintuitively, through the creation of the United Nations—Wertheim provides an importantly revisionist account of U.S. foreign policy in the 1940s, one that helps us think anew about internationalism today…The contemporary stakes of Wertheim’s work are plainly apparent…A reminder of just how strange it is that Americans have come to see military supremacy as a form of selfless altruism, as a gift to the world. -- Sam Lebovic * Boston Review *Wertheim delves into an important bit of history to try to pinpoint exactly when and why the United States embraced the global military supremacy that Americans have taken for granted for decades…He is on [firm] ground in arguing that today U.S. global military dominance has outlived its original purpose. -- Jessica T. Mathews * Foreign Affairs *The Trump and Biden administrations have seen a sharp shift away from the United States’ desire to be the preeminent power in the world. But how did it get there in the first place? In painstaking detail, Wertheim draws the battle map of intellectual warfare that went on during World War II between U.S. thinkers who wanted the United States to continue the tradition of British preeminence and those who didn’t. -- Jack Detsch * Foreign Policy *Stephen Wertheim isn’t only a great historian of American foreign policy. He uses history to offer a critique of American foreign policy that Americans desperately need now. -- Peter Beinart, author of The Icarus SyndromeHow did the United States acquire the will to lead the world? How did primacy come to be the natural posture of America’s policy elite? In this groundbreaking new history, Stephen Wertheim overturns our existing understanding of the emergence of American global dominance. A work of brilliantly original historical scholarship that will transform the way we think about the past, the present, and the future. -- Adam Tooze, author of CrashedAmericans now believe global leadership is their birthright; this splendid book uncovers the origins of that conviction. Wertheim’s detailed analysis of strategic planning before and during World War II shows that the pursuit of global primacy was a conscious choice, made by a foreign policy elite that equated ‘internationalism’ with the active creation of a world order based on U.S. military preponderance. Myths about the seductive dangers of ‘isolationism’ helped marginalize alternative perspectives, leaving armed dominance and military interventionism as the default settings for U.S. foreign policy. A carefully researched and beautifully written account, Tomorrow, the World sheds new light on a critical period in U.S. history and reminds us that internationalism can take many different forms. -- Stephen M. Walt, author of The Hell of Good IntentionsHow did the idea of American military supremacy come to be understood as essential and inevitable? In this important and beautifully crafted revisionist history, Stephen Wertheim shows the way a foreign policy consensus in favor of American predominance was forged as Hitler ransacked Europe. It became an assumed necessity after World War II, and later fueled military build-up and ongoing armed conflict. By revealing the contingent path of American global militarism, Wertheim makes an urgent and overdue reassessment possible. -- Mary L. Dudziak, author of War TimeExcellent…An important contribution to the history of U.S. foreign policy, and it is also relevant to contemporary debates about the proper U.S. role in the world. -- Daniel Larson * American Conservative *Forcefully argues that primacy-by-choice has had parlous consequences—for both the United States and the world. -- Susan L. Caruthers * Diplomatic History *One does not need to be universally opposed to all of American policy since the Second World War to see the immense value of this book in showing the ideological lineage we have inherited that distorts how we talk about Grand Strategy through the present. -- Christopher Mott * Global Security Review *Wertheim challenges the longstanding U.S. foreign policy by dismantling a narrative about American ‘isolationism’; in doing so, he provides the intellectual foundations for the reemergence of a truly liberal American grand strategy. -- Jennifer Lind * H-Diplo *He brings into sharp focus the doings of elites…America’s pursuit of global supremacy was, in his engaging and studious retelling, less the final outcome of long-simmering forces or of latent but unreasoned belief systems than a ‘deliberate decision’ made by a numerically small group of individuals at a very specific moment in time. -- Matthew Cantirino * Humanitas *A brisk, deeply researched, and thought-provoking revisionist history of the US foreign policy establishment surrounding World War II, pinpointing the moment when America abandoned its traditional mode of engagement in world affairs in favor of global hegemony underwritten by military force…This is an essential read for understanding how American empire came to seem permanent and inevitable—a topic very much relevant today. -- David Klion * Jewish Currents *Not only a sharp and well-argued historical analysis of American foreign policy, but also a persuasive political argument about America’s place in the world today…The rise of the American Empire was not facilitated by ‘absent-minded’ policy makers. Instead, the drafters of the plan were very much aware of their own ambitions while not necessarily sharing them with the wider public…An exceptionally readable blend of intellectual history, foreign policy and international theory. -- Or Rosenboim * Journal of Strategic Studies *Even readers who question Wertheim’s premises or differ from him on current policy will find much to learn in a concise, jargon-free study grounded on careful research. -- William Anthony Hay * Law & Liberty *Wertheim provides an important historical corrective to the notion that the United States sleepwalked into global supremacy…An important read. -- Charles Dunst * LSE Review of Books *In the wake of [WWII], decision makers regarded military restraint not as a virtue but as a recipe for chaos. Intervention was seen as inevitable, and isolationism became a dirty word. Politicians debated particular engagements, but they rarely questioned America's role as global cop…But as Wertheim reminds us, foreign policy elites chose to take on this role, and they can choose to leave it behind. -- Fiona Harrigan * Reason *Original…A bold and sweeping reinterpretation of history…It is also a tract for our times. As such, its key point is that the United States’ commitment to global military dominance arose from the specific, unforeseen and exceptional circumstances of 1940–41 and represented a departure from the nation’s previous path. -- John A. Thompson * S-USIH: Society for U.S. Intellectual History *A stimulating revisionist view that sees the move to world dominance as a conscious choice. * Choice *Wertheim…details the thinking behind America’s pursuit of global dominance from the 1940s to the present day in this impeccably researched debut history…This fine-grained account sheds new light on an era and a worldview too often obscured by gauzy patriotism. * Publishers Weekly *Influential…Since World War II, the U.S. idea of internationalism has become fatally intertwined with the idea of maintaining the United States’ global military dominance. -- Michael Hirsch * Foreign Policy *

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Book Synopsis"Unflinchingly illustrates the reality of life during this extraordinary moment in American history."—Dinitia Smith, The New York TimesTrade Review"In these days of fear of the terrorist 'other', reading this measured, intelligent introduction to a time that is all-too possible to imagine recurring, and looking at Lange's photos... may be one of the most useful things one can do this Christmas." "[The] images show Americans of Japanese extraction being relocated to 'assembly centers', labeled and processed like cattle and closeted away in dismal shacks for the duration of the war... No wonder her pictures were never used and disappeared for half a century." "Through her discerning and sensitive eye, Lange's observations of the situation were too real and too critical for the government, and were consequently confiscated." "[T]he bulk of the book is given over to Lange's photographs. Several of these are as powerful as her most stirring work, and the final image-of a grandfather in the desolate Manzanar Center looking down in anguish at the grandson between his knees-is worth the price of the book alone."

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Book SynopsisNaval intelligence agents working the most dangerous beat in the world the narco-state of Panama in the late 1980s struggle to penetrate Noriega's organization and protect their families on the eve of invasion.

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Book SynopsisEnsure your students have access to the authoritative, in-depth and accessible content of this series for the IB History Diploma. This series for the IB History Diploma has taken the clarity, accessibility, reliability and in-depth analysis of our best-selling Access to History series and tailor-made it to better fit the IB learner''s needs. Each title in the series provides depth of content, focussed on specific topics in the IB History guide, and examination guidance on different exam-style questions - helping students develop a good knowledge and understanding of the topic alongside the skills they need to do well.- Ensures students gain a good understanding of the IB History topic through an engaging, in-depth, reliable and up-to-date narrative - presented in an accessible way. - Helps students to understand historical issues and examine the evidence, through providing a wealth of relevant sources and analysis of the historiography surrounding key Table of Contents : Introduction : 1 What you will study : 2 How you will be assessed : 3 About this book : Chapter 1 The USA in the 1920s: prosperity? : 1 The extent of prosperity : 2 Reasons for prosperity : Chapter 2 The Wall Street Crash and the causes of the Great Depression in the USA : 1 The Wall Street Crash : 2 Problems in the economy : 3 Effects of the Wall Street Crash : 4 Key debate: How strong was the American economy in the 1920s and how real was the prosperity? : Chapter 3 President Hoover and the Great Depression : 1 The impact of the Great Depression on the presidency of Herbert Hoover : 2 The USA during the Great Depression : 3 Key debate: Why was the Depression so extensive and long lasting? : 4 Federal government policies : 5 The 1932 presidential election : Chapter 4 The US 1933-45: New Deals and economic recovery : 1 The first 100 days and the First New Deal : 2 Alternatives to the New Deal : 3 Key debate: Was the First New Deal a planned programme or simply a series of unrelated measures to deal with specific problems? : 4 The Second New Deal 1935-6 : 5 Problems in Roosevelt's second term : 6 The Third New Deal 1937-9 : 7 Political developments 1938 and 1939 : 8 Key debate: How much impact did the New Deal have on American politics and the economy? : 9 The impact of the Great Depression on society: African-Americans and women : 10 The New Deal: an evaluation : 11 Literature and the arts during the Great Depression : 12 The impact of the Second World War on the USA : Chapter 5 The Great Depression in Canada : 1 Canada in the 1920s : 2 The causes and effects of the Depression in Canada : 3 Federal government responses to the Depression 1929-34 : 4 Bennett's proposed 'New Deal' and the 1935 election : 5 Alternative responses to the Depression : 6 Mackenzie King's government 1935-48 : 7 The impact of the war on Canada : 8 Key debate: How far did the Great Depression lead to the growth of the role of federal government? : Chapter 6 The Great Depression in Latin America : 1 Latin America in the 1920s : 2 Argentina in the 1920s : 3 Argentina in the 1930s : 4 Literature and the arts in Argentina : 5 Brazil in the 1920s : 6 Brazil in the 1930s : 7 Key debate: What were the characteristics of the Estado Novo? : Glossary : Timeline : Further reading : Internal assessment

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Book SynopsisIn the United States at the height of the Cold War, roughly between the end of World War II and the early 1980s, a new project of redefining rationality commanded the attention of sharp minds, powerful politicians, wealthy foundations, and top military brass. Its home was the human sciencespsychology, sociology, political science, and economics, among othersand its participants enlisted in an intellectual campaign to figure out what rationality should mean and how it could be deployed. How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind brings to life the peopleHerbert Simon, Oskar Morgenstern, Herman Kahn, Anatol Rapoport, Thomas Schelling, and many othersand places, including the RAND Corporation, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, the Cowles Commission for Research and Economics, and the Council on Foreign Relations, that played a key role in putting forth a u201cCold War rationality.u201d Decision makers harnessed this picture of rationalityoptimizing, formal, algorithmic, and m

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Book SynopsisExplores the sexual world of the one of the most fabled and romanticized character in history--the piratePirates are among the most heavily romanticized and fabled characters in history. From Bluebeard to Captain Hook, they have been the subject of countless movies, books, children''s tales, even a world-famous amusement park ride. In Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition, historian B. R. Burg investigates the social and sexual world of these sea rovers, a tightly bound brotherhood of men engaged in almost constant warfare. What, he asks, did these men, often on the high seas for years at a time, do for sexual fulfillment? Buccaneer sexuality differed widely from that of other all- male institutions such as prisons, for it existed not within a regimented structure of rule, regulations, and oppressive supervision, but instead operated in a society in which widespread toleration of homosexuality was the norm and conditions encouraged its practice. In his new Trade Review"A great . . . very interesting book." -- Johnny Depp"Burg puts historians to shame by raising extremely interesting questions that no one before had asked." -- Christopher Hill * New York Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisAngel in the Forest is Marguerite Young's fascinating chronicle of two attempts to establish utopian communities in nineteenth-century America.In it, she recounts the strange tale of New Harmony, Indiana, a community originally founded in 1814 by the German mystic Father George Rapp, who wanted to apply Scriptural communism to daily life in order to bring about the New Jerusalem. It was sold in 1825 to Robert Owen, the father of British socialism who, with a group of English immigrants, implemented his own theories for a perfect community, this time based on rationalism.Both experiments failed, but Young finds in both a distinctively American yearning for utopia, which continues to characterize the American spirit to this day: a tradition of faith and folly can be traced from Owen's New Moral World to George Bush's New World Order.Written with the same elegance, wit, and lyric beauty that distinguishes her fiction, Angel in the Forest was widely praised upon its first publication in 1945. This edition includes Mark Van Doren's introduction to Scribner's 1966 reprint.Trade Review“When a poet chooses to write history facts gain in power and in dimension. Young is a meticulous scholar, but she illumines every description and every character with her laser light of significance. Her facts radiate wit and irony and are incarnated in human beings.” —Anaïs Nin, Los Angeles Times”One of my very treasured books . . . the best book I know on the subject of the early primitive religious cults. I hope it will get the attention it deserves.” —Katherine Anne PorterTable of ContentsContentsNew Harmony Today—A Glimpse in Summer, 1940Backward into Old Harmony—A Dissolving VistaThe Children of the Ozarks, 1940The Children of IsraelA Journey to the WabashA Machine Like ClockworkA City Whose Ten Gates Are of GoldFrederick Rapp, the Lord TemporalThe Exodus of the Rappites from HarmonyThe Coming of OneThe Fading of the Golden RoseAnother Coming, Another DispensationA Pilgrim's ProgressDearest CarolineAn Eden of ChildrenParadise Was LostJehovah and RousseauInterviews with Emperors and KingsNew Harmony, the Goal of ManAmerica, the Promised LandThe Pears FamilyThe Fool of NatureNoah's Ark, the Maid of Mist, the Boatload of KnowledgeNew Harmony, the Golden RoseAn Adult ViewSerpents in the GardenThe Declaration of Mental IndependenceExodus from New HarmonyGlaucas, 1940The Third Age of New HarmonyRobert Owen's Ideal Made Real to Dwell Among UsBuilder of Old HarmonyUtopia in BedlamFarewell to New Harmony

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Book SynopsisLigon's True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados is the most significant book-length English text written about the Caribbean in the seventeenth century. [It] allows one to see the contested process behind the making of the Caribbean sugar/African slavery complex. Kupperman is one of the leading scholars of the early modern Atlantic world. . . . I cannot think of any scholar better prepared to write an Introduction that places Ligon, his text, and Barbados in an Atlantic historical context. The Introduction is quite thorough, readable, and accurate; the notes [are] exemplary! --Susan Parrish, University of MichiganTrade Review"Ligon's True and Exact History is perhaps the most important document regarding English colonization efforts in the 17th-century Caribbean. The book offers a wealth of information about the natural world--Barbados's climate, flora, and fauna--as well as social and economic conditions on the island in the late 1640s. Scholars have long used the text as a source for tracing the development of sugar and slavery, in particular. Although previously available in a facsimile edition, Kupperman's is the first modern, edited version of the text, and it is a most welcome publication. Kupperman, one of the foremost scholars of the 17th-century Atlantic world, has written an excellent introduction that outlines what is known about Ligon and provides context on issues ranging from early modern ideas about the environment, to conditions in Barbados during the tobacco era, to the rise of sugar and the island's place in England's emerging empire. Throughout, Kupperman provides detailed, useful notes that make the text accessible to students and others. . . . This is a first-rate example of historical editing. Highly recommended." --M. Mulcahy, Loyola College in Maryland, in CHOICEA foundational text for the history and literature of the early Caribbean and the early Americas. Kupperman's expert Introduction and annotations . . . make this important text come alive for scholarly and undergraduate audiences alike. In all aspects, this edition is a model of historical and textual scholarship. --Ralph Robert Bauer, University of MarylandScholars, students, and general readers will applaud and greatly appreciate the context Kupperman provides in her highly informative, insightful Introduction and notes. This volume offers readers the opportunity to explore Ligon's world and times, when sugar and black slavery were dramatically and aggressively transforming Caribbean society and contributing to English economic, maritime, and imperial strength. --David Barry Gaspar, Duke UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction: Mending a Broken Lineage: Women, Writing, Theology; Fear & Women's Writing: Choosing the Better Part; 'A Wretched Choice?': Evangelical Women & the Word; 'My God Became Flesh': Angela of Foligno Writing the Incarnation; Speaking Funk: Womanist Insights into the Lives of Syncletica & Macrina; 'A Moor of One's Own': Writing & Silence in Sara Maitland's "A Book of Silence"; With Prayer & Pen: Reading Mother E J Dabney's "What It Means to Pray Through"; Writing a Life, Writing Theology: Edith Stein in the Company of the Saints; Writing Hunger on the Body: Simone Weil's Ethic of Hunger & Eucharistic Practice; The Body, to be Eaten, to be Written: A Theological Reflection on the Act of Writing in Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's "Dictee"; Not with One Voice: The Counterpoint of Life, Diaspora, Women, Theology, & Writing; Embodying Theology: Motherhood as Metaphor/Method; Postscript: Wounded Writing / Healing Writing.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“A knowledgeable overview of [a] vast, vibrant country . . . a thorough study deeply informed by on-the-ground reporting.”—Kirkus Reviews * Kirkus Reviews *‘Until now, there has been no concise English-language history of Brazil – vastness has perhaps overwhelmed previous attempts. Michael Reid’s Brazil fills the gap with a valuable study likely to remain a well-thumbed reference for years. . .His clear, deeply researched account reaches back 500 years to identify three broad themes that continue to shape Brazil’s development.’—John Paul Rathbone, The Financial Times -- Michael Reid * Financial Times *‘Perfectly timed for the World Cup, Reid’s book is highly readable and scholarly. His subtle analysis is captured in a subtitle that makes clear that Brazil is both an emerging world power and a nation with deep-seated problems rooted in its colonial past, slavery and official paternalism.’—Gideon Rachman, The Financial Times -- Gideon Rachman * The Financial Times *“A rich, detailed account of Brazil’s tug-of-war between hope and disappointment”—Marcos Troyjo, Americas Quarterly -- Marcos Troyjo * Americas Quarterly *“This compelling account of the country’s history . . . represents the most thoughtful and balanced recent assessment of Brazil’s enormous triumphs and crushing failures, and of what lies ahead.”—Peter Hakim, Foreign Affairs -- Peter Hakim * Foreign Affairs *

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Book SynopsisOffers an overview and critique of the foreign policy of an emerging great power whose claims to rightness often spill over into self-righteousness, whose ambitions conflict with power realities, whose judgmentalism precludes the interests of other states, and whose domestic politics frequently prevent prudent policies and result in overstretch.Trade Review"A book about foreign policy by a man who really knows something about foreign policy." (New York Times) "A classic foreign policy text." (Washington Post Book World) "These celebrated lectures, delivered at the University of Chicago in 1950, were for many years the most widely read account of American diplomacy in the first half of the twentieth century." (Foreign Affairs, Significant Books of the Last 75 Years)"

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Book SynopsisA terrific, lavishly illustrated look at the fascinating world of American roadside signs.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"As Benjamin Madley writes in An American Genocide, by 1873, roaming bands of Indian-killers played a major role in reducing native numbers by more than 80 percent. . . . The mass murders raise the question: Did they constitute genocide by official design? [Madley] thinks so. He thoroughly documents the extent of the killings and their horrific consequences. . . . Emphasizing 'intention and repetition' in the California massacres, Madley [underscores] the designing role of state and federal officials."—Alan Taylor, New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice"Gruesomely thorough. . . . Others have described some of these campaigns, but never in such strong terms and with so much blame placed directly on the United States government."—Alexander Nazaryan, Newsweek"By removing any doubt that genocide against Native people took place in the most populous and prosperous state in the US, Madley is aiming for a profound revisioning of US history as a whole. . . . No longer will genocide be something that happened in some distant locale—Namibia, Germany, Cambodia or Rwanda. Instead, it took place in the same sunny clime that American culture has long celebrated with images of fun and frolic: Disney, Hollywood, the Beach Boys and surfers in search of the endless summer."—Karl Jacoby, Journal of Genocide Research"An American Genocide has settled the issue on whether or not genocide occurred in California."—William Bauer Jr., Journal of Genocide Research"Madley has written an intensely disturbing and invaluable account of the genocide that white Americans carried out against California’s Indian peoples. . . . Madley’s book should move historians of the American West to consider genocide studies as a serious framework for analysing settler–Indian relations, and it should also compel genocide studies scholars to reconsider their understandings of genocide."—Margaret D. Jacobs, Journal of Genocide Research "[A] stellar example of an unflinching commitment to document and analyse . . . invasion’s often horrific consequences."—Jeffrey Ostler, Journal of Genocide Research Winner, Los Angeles Times Book Award for HistoryWinner, Gold Medal, California Book Award for CalifornianaWinner, Heyday History Award from Heyday Books PublishingTrue West Best New Western AuthorIndian Country Today Hot List Book"An American Genocide provides one of the most detailed and stunning narratives of violence, murder, and state-sponsored genocide in North America, making this book a major achievement in the fields of both Native American history and Genocide Studies."—Ned Blackhawk (Yale University), author of Violence Over the Land: Indians and Empires in the Early American West"Madley has far exceeded previous scholarship in making a persuasive case for concluding that what happened to California Indians from 1846 to 1873 qualifies as genocide."—Jeffrey Ostler (University of Oregon), author of The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism from Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee"This book is a powerful contribution to the study of Native Americans, to California history, and to genocide studies as a whole. It should be read by every Californian."—Norman Naimark (Stanford University), author of Stalin’s Genocides"Benjamin Madley has changed the conversation on genocide and American Indians. After An American Genocide, it will no longer be possible to debate whether or not genocide took place. Instead we will need to confront the questions of how and why genocide against American Indians took place and what the United States owes its indigenous communities."—Karl Jacoby (Columbia University), author of Shadows at Dawn: A Borderlands Massacre and the Violence of History"Benjamin Madley’s book is brilliant, unsettling, and necessary. It will change forever how we understand the history of California, and it will make historians of other places and periods wonder what they have missed. An American Genocide will have a long legacy."—Pekka Hämäläinen (Oxford University), author of The Comanche Empire

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Book SynopsisIn this classic text, Jane Jacobs set out to produce an attack on current city planning and rebuilding and to introduce new principles by which these should be governed. The result is one of the most stimulating books on cities ever written. Throughout the post-war period, planners temperamentally unsympathetic to cities have been let loose on our urban environment. Inspired by the ideals of the Garden City or Le Corbusier's Radiant City, they have dreamt up ambitious projects based on self-contained neighbourhoods, super-blocks, rigid 'scientific' plans and endless acres of grass. Yet they seldom stop to look at what actually works on the ground. The real vitality of cities, argues Jacobs, lies in their diversity, architectural variety, teeming street life and human scale. It is only when we appreciate such fundamental realities that we can hope to create cities that are safe, interesting and economically viable, as well as places that people want to live in.'Perhaps the most influential single work in the history of town planning... Jacobs has a powerful sense of narrative, a lively wit, a talent for surprise and the ability to touch the emotions as well as the mind' New York Times Book ReviewTable of Contents 1: Introduction Part One: The Peculiar Nature of Cities 2: The uses of sidewalks: safety 3: The uses of sidewalks: contact 4: The uses of sidewalks: assimilating children 5: The uses of neighbourhood parks 6: The uses of city neighbourhoods Part Two: The Conditions for City Diversity 7: The generators of diversity 8: The need for mixed primary uses 9: The need for small blocks 10: The need for aged buildings 11: The need for concentration 12: Some myths about diversity Part Three: Forces of Decline and Regeneration 13: The self-destruction of diversity 14: The curse of border vacuums 15: Unslumming and slumming 16: Gradual money and cataclysmic money Part Four: Different Tactics 17: Subsidizing dwellings 18: Erosion of cities or attrition of automobiles 19: Visual order: its limitations and possibilities 20: Salvaging projects 21: Governing and planning districts 22: The kind of problem a city is

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Book SynopsisThe Spanish conquest of the Americas in the 16th century was one of the most important and cataclysmic events in history. Spanish expeditions endured incredible hardships in order to open up the lands of the 'New World', and few stories in history can match these for drama and endurance.In Conquistadors, Michael Wood follows in the footsteps of some of the greatest of the Spanish adventurers travelling from the forests of Amazonia to Lake Titicaca, the deserts of North Mexico, the snowpeaks of the Andes and the heights of Machu Picchu. He experiences the epic journeys of Cortes, Pizarro, Orellana and Cabeza de Vaca, and explores the turbulent and terrifying events surrounding the Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires.Wood brings these stories to vivid life, highlighting both the heroic accomplishments and the complex moral legacy of the European invasion. Conquistadors is Michael Wood at his best - thoughtful, provocative and gripping history.Trade ReviewGripping... the book is a triumph * Observer *

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Book SynopsisGuru to the World tells the story of Swami Vivekananda, the nineteenth-century Hindu ascetic who introduced the West to yoga and to a tolerant, scientifically minded universalist conception of religion. Ruth Harris explores the many legacies of Vivekananda’s thought, including his impact on anticolonial movements and contemporary Hindu nationalism.Trade ReviewThis is a deeply researched and compellingly argued biography of Swami Vivekananda, one of the first Indian religious thinkers to become known in the west, and one of the makers of modern India. -- Rana Mitter * BBC History Magazine *Guru to the World is a triumph of research and ambition, drawing connections between a dazzling array of philosophies, figures, languages, geographies and religions. -- Abhimanyu Arni * Literary Review *This will be the standard biography of [Vivekananda] for years to come…Admirable. -- Jon M. Sweeney * Spirituality & Practice *Vivekananda’s life was an embarrassment of epiphanies and contradictions, and Harris exhaustively uncovers all of them. -- Pratinav Anil * History Today *Vivekananda was many things to many people: the first global religious celebrity, an apostle of Indian nationalism, a man whose message was heard, and heard differently, in salons as well as slums. It’s not just any biographer who can do justice to such a complex life. He’s fortunate to have found a perfect interpreter in Ruth Harris. -- Benjamin Moser, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Sontag: Her Life and WorkIn Ruth Harris’s vivid portrait of India’s Vivekananda, we discover a compelling story of interconnected lives—the guru, his disciple, the international followers, his own teacher—that sheds new light on religion, race, gender, colonialism, and nationalism. This impressive book introduces us to some important but half-forgotten cultural currents in the life of India, Europe, and America at the end of the nineteenth century. To understand contemporary India, we need to pay more attention to these currents, and Harris is a sure-footed guide. -- Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of CanterburyIn Guru to the World, Ruth Harris gives us riveting accounts of both the Indian and the international sides of Swami Vivekananda, one of the most provocative personalities of the nineteenth century. The connections between tradition and modernity forged by him over a century ago continue to influence culture, politics, and religion worldwide. A brilliant read. -- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, author of An Aesthetic Education in the Era of GlobalizationAn inspired blend of religion, politics, and biography, Guru to the World takes a novel approach to the history of empire and cross-cultural encounters that foregrounds the workings of love, friendship, and faith. In the lives of Vivekananda and his associates, Ruth Harris delivers insight into topics ranging from yoga to anticolonial nationalism that should interest any readers curious to understand the workings of what might be called globalized culture. -- Maya Jasanoff, author of The Dawn Watch

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Book SynopsisRonald Takaki's beloved revisionist history of America, praised by Howard Zinn as 'a bold and refreshing new approach to our national history,' now featuring a foreword from Clint Smith, author of the award-winning #1 bestseller How the Word Is Passed. Ronald Takaki's 'brilliant revisionist history of America' (Publishers Weekly) is a landmark work of American history retells American history from the bottom up, through the lives of many minorities — Native Americans, African Americans, Jewish Americans, Irish Americans, Asian Americans, Latino Americans, and others — who helped create this country's mighty economy and rich mosaic culture. A Different Mirror brilliantly illuminates our country's defining strengths as it reveals America as a nation peopled by the world. 

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Book SynopsisA History Book of the Year in The Times 'Cozzens is a master storyteller; his books weave a wealth of intricate detail into gripping historical narrative.' The Times'Marvellous... One of the best pieces of Native American history I have read.' S.C. Gwynne, bestselling author of Empire of the Summer MoonWinner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Biography.Shawnee chief Tecumseh was a man destined for greatness - the son of a prominent war leader, he was supposedly born under a lucky shooting star. Charismatic, intelligent, handsome, he was both a fierce warrior and a savvy politician. In the first biography of Tecumseh in more than twenty years, Peter Cozzens thoroughly revises our understanding of this great leader and his movement, arguing that his overlooked younger brother Tenskwatawa, the 'Shawnee Prophet', was a crucial partner in Tecumseh's success.Until Tecumseh's death in 1813, he was, alongside Tenskwatawa, the co-architect of the greatest pan-Indian confederation in history. Over time, Tenskwatawa has been relegated to the shadows, described as a talentless charlatan and a drunk. But Cozzens argues that while Tecumseh was the forward-facing diplomat, appealing even to the white settlers attempting to steal Shawnee land, behind the scenes, Tenskwatawa unified multiple tribes with his deep understanding of Shawnee religion and culture. No other Native American leaders enjoyed such popularity, and none would ever pose a graver threat to colonial expansion than Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa. Bringing to life an often-overlooked episode in America's past, Cozzens paints in vivid detail the violent, lawless world of the Old Northwest, when settlers spilled over the Appalachians to bloody effect in their haste to exploit lands won from the War of Independence. The Warrior and the Prophet tells the untold story of the Shawnee brothers who retaliated against this threat - becoming allies with the British army in the process - and reveals how they were the last hope for Native Americans to preserve ways of life they had known for centuries.Trade ReviewCozzens is a master storyteller; his books weave a wealth of intricate detail into gripping historical narrative... In this book descriptions of battles are especially enthralling; one can almost smell the gunpowder, the blood and the loamy forest floor. * The Times *Mr. Cozzens puts his narrative skills to great use. His compelling prose and deep research in both primary sources and histories of the period combine to place the reader on the ground with the Shawnee brothers... Sharply drawn. * Wall Street Journal *A towering work of scholarship... Indispensable -- Frank McLynn * Literary Review *Marvellous... The Warrior and the Prophet tells a story of nation-defining events and larger-than-life leaders, and Cozzens' nuanced portrait stands as one of the best pieces of Native American history I have read. -- S.C. Gwynne, bestselling author of EMPIRE OF THE SUMMER MOONA thorough profile of the notable Tecumseh and his brother. Author Peter Cozzens sculpts his narrative deftly and compellingly. In relating the barbarity of the frontier wars, the author remains objective yet empathetic. Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa are fascinating figures, capable of greatness and leadership, yet destined for tragedy. A+ work. * San Francisco Book Review *The strength of Cozzens' book is his ability to bring to life the thrilling adventures of Tecumseh and his people. Many a war yarn gets bogged down in minutiae, but the author animates these battles by sharing the human stories behind the fighting. By ably piecing together a history that is equal parts engaging and amply sourced, Cozzens has crafted a satisfying work that leads us to sympathize with his subjects without putting his finger on the scale to prove his point. * Washington Independent Review of Books *Cozzens expertly mines the surprisingly varied array of sources for the brothers' early lives; he presents the fullest picture yet of who these men were before they achieved national fame. His book balances them more than any previous retelling of the story ever has... As close to a fully realized popular biography of Tenkswatawa as is ever likely to be written... Paints in vivid colors the grandest effort of Native Americans to retain their independence - and the political and spiritual leaders who tried to make it happen. * Christian Science Monitor *Award-winning historian Peter Cozzens admirably brings this lost world to life... Cozzens's descriptions of Tenskwatawa's spiritual agenda, centered on Indian independence and rejection of White culture, will remind readers that tribal leaders from Osceola to Sitting Bull attempted to preserve native culture with the weapons of war. The tragedy of their failure haunts America today. * American History Magazine *An insightful, unflinching portrayal of the remarkable siblings who came closer to altering the course of American history than any other Indian leaders. -- Professor H.W. Brands, author of HEIRS OF THE FOUNDERSCozzens has a gift for depicting the intricacies of combat with both clarity and flair... the dual biography comes across as fair and impartial. Without sentimentality, and without overlooking the faults of its heroes, it presents a nuanced look at their attempt to halt the invasion of their lands. * Columbus Dispatch *An enthralling, deeply researched dual biography of Shawnee leader Tecumseh and his younger brother... Cozzens's cinematic narrative is steeped in Native American culture and laced with vivid battle scenes and character sketches. * Publishers Weekly *Cozzens... shows his skill at revealing the social and daily realities of late 18th- and early 19th-century life, including wonderfully vivid descriptions of pioneer conditions and Algonquin villages... A long overdue non-fiction account. * Library Journal (Starred review) *Engrossing... Cozzens' biography is solidly researched, fluently written, and bound to stand as the best history to date about the Shawnee brothers' lives and effort to rally pan-Indian resistance. * Booklist (Starred review) *Comprehensive... Blending historical fact with solid storytelling, Cozzens delivers a nuanced study of the great warrior and his times. * Kirkus Reviews *Table of Contents1: The Great Awakening 2: A Restless People 3: A Turbulent Youth 4: A Nation Divided 5: War and Wanderings 6: Out from the Shadows 7: The Making of a Chief 8: A Culture in Crisis 9: A Prophet Arises 10: Black Sun 11: Greenville Interlude 12: A Double Game 13: One Treaty Too Many 14: No Difficulties Deter Him 15: Southern Odyssey 16: The Prophet Stumbles 17: From the Ashes of Prophetstown 18: Into the Maelstrom 19: Kindred Spirits 20: A Man of Mercy 21: An Adequate Sacrifice to Indian Opinion 22: Death on the Thames 23: Twilight of the Prophet

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Book SynopsisAfter decades of bloodshed and political terror, many lament the rise of the left in Latin America. With Guatemala as the case study, this title argues that the Latin American Cold War was a struggle not between political liberalism and Soviet communism but two visions of democracy.Trade Review"In a series of remarkable biographies Grandin shows how men and women made high politics and high politics made them, demonstrating that the Cold War was waged not only in the airy game rooms of nuclear strategists but 'in the closed quarters of family, sex, and community.'" (London Review of Books) "A searing indictment of U.S. imperialism in Latin America." (Science & Society) "This work admirably explains the process in which hopes of democracy were brutally repressed in Guatemala and its people experienced a civil war lasting for half a century." (International History Review) "A richly detailed, humane, and passionately subversive portrait of inspiring reformers tragically redefined by the Cold War as enemies of the state." (Journal of American History)"

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Book SynopsisAhead of the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving, a new look at the Plymouth colony's founding events, told for the first time with Wampanoag people at the heart of the story.In March 1621, when Plymouth's survival was hanging in the balance, the Wampanoag sachem (or chief), Ousamequin (Massasoit), and Plymouth's governor, John Carver, declared their people's friendship for each other and a commitment to mutual defense. Later that autumn, the English gathered their first successful harvest and lifted the specter of starvation. Ousamequin and 90 of his men then visited Plymouth for the First Thanksgiving. The treaty remained operative until King Philip's War in 1675, when 50 years of uneasy peace between the two parties would come to an end.400 years after that famous meal, historian David J. Silverman sheds profound new light on the events that led to the creation, and bloody dissolution, of this alliance. Focusing on the Wampanoag Indians, Silverman deepens the narrative to consider tensions that developed well before 1620 and lasted long after the devastating wartracing the Wampanoags' ongoing struggle for self-determination up to this very day. This unsettling history reveals why some modern Native people hold a Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving, a holiday which celebrates a myth of colonialism and white proprietorship of the United States. This Land is Their Land shows that it is time to rethink how we, as a pluralistic nation, tell the history of Thanksgiving.

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Book SynopsisA Times History Book of the Year 2022From Sunday Times bestselling historian Saul David, the dramatic tale of the first American troops to take the fight to the enemy in the Second World War, and also the last.The Devil Dogs' of K Company, 3/5 Marines, were part of the legendary first Marine Division. They landed on the beaches of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in 1942 the first US ground offensive of the war and were present when Okinawa, Japan's most southerly prefecture, finally fell to American troops after a bitter struggle in June 1945. In between they fought in the Green Hell' of Cape Gloucester on the island of New Britain, and across the coral wasteland of Peleliu in the Palau Islands, a campaign described by one K Company veteran as thirty days of the meanest, around-the-clock slaughter that desperate men can inflict on each other.'Ordinary men from very different backgrounds, and drawn from cities, towns, and settlements across America, the Devil Dogs were asked to do Trade Review PRAISE FOR DEVIL DOGS ‘Exquisite detail…subtly textured… the Pacific War is rendered in painful and poignant detail… A narrative that reads like war in real time. It's war unplugged: cruelty, destruction, pain, but also love, kindness and camaraderie. I cried for these men and then thanked God that I will never have to send my son to war.’ Times ‘Brilliant… A chronicle that is part Hollwood film-script, but never less than vigorously researched history. David has a claim to be our finest military historian… Superb’’Daily Telegraph ‘David recounts in this stirring saga the WWII campaigns of Company K, the 1st Marine Division unit … Skillfully plumbing the rich array of firsthand accounts by Company K veterans, David vividly describes pillbox raids, accidental deaths, and hellish jungle conditions, and draws incisive portraits of Marine officers and their command decisions. The result is a captivating chronicle of the war in the Pacific’Publishers Weekly PRAISE FOR SBS: SILENT WARRIORS A SUNDAY TIMES #4 BESTSELLER A TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021 ‘This is a terrific book, written with all the gusto, thrills and heady excitement these SBS operations richly deserve. It really is one of the most enjoyable histories I’ve read in many a year’James Holland, Daily Telegraph, five stars ‘It’s an extraordinary trawl through the archives, backed up with diaries and interviews; an accomplished act of storytelling… David has written a book that often gladdens the heart, but also makes you think about the nature of sacrifice’ Times ‘A brilliant account of how the SBS was born from wartime needs, and just how much the organisation and its affiliated units were able to achieve in those early years’Daily Mail

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Firmly planted in both the past and the present, this is an excellent introduction to an oft-misunderstood chapter in American history.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “The Reconstruction era is perceived within the racist imagination to be a failure. In fact, popular memory has been a failure. Make Good the Promises is a powerful and illuminating exploration that shows the Black struggle during the Reconstruction era for a multiracial democracy. We are fighting the same struggle today.” — Ibram X. Kendi, National Book Award-Winning Author of Stamped from the Beginning and How to Be an Antiracist “The truly impressive essays and gorgeous illustrations collected here offer a powerful and unflinching look at a critical period of our history. Engaging directly with a history of what W.E.B. Du Bois called 'propaganda' about this period, Make Good the Promises helps us see that we cannot understand the present without grappling with this violent, transformative time. This beautiful collection reveals why Reconstruction belongs at the center of Black history and, indeed, all of American history.” — Kate Masur, Author of Until Justice Be Done: America's First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction

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Book Synopsis2014 is the 100-year-anniversary of the panama canal: one of the most extraordinary engineering feats in world history.Hell''s Gorge traces a heroic dream that spanned four centuries: to build a canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.The human cost was immense: in appalling working conditions and amid epidemics of fever, tens of thousands perished fighting the jungle, swamps and mountains of Panama, a scale of attrition comparable to many great battles.Matthew Parker explores the fierce geo-political struggle behind the heroic vision of the canal, and the immense engineering and medical battles that were fought. But he also weaves in the stories of the ordinary men and women who worked on the canal, to evoke everyday life on the construction and depict the battle on the ground deep in ''Hell''s Gorge''. Using diaries, memoirs, contemporary newspapers and previously unseen private letters, he draws a vivid picture of the heart-breaking struggle onTrade ReviewAn epic tale of human folly and endeavour, beautifully told and researched -- John le CarréMatthew Parker has picked a fascinating subject and written a book worthy of it ... It is peopled with a host of characters, some heroic, others corrupt, almost all out of the ordinary. There isn't a dull page -- Allan Massie * Daily Telegraph *Parker's epic story, from the 18th century to the present day, is awesome * The Times *Parker has written the Panama story for a new generation. He quotes extensively from letters and diaries of ordinary workers writing home to their families. And it is their heartfelt views on the conditions in which they lived and worked that really bring this book to life * The Economist *Parker's great forte in Panama Fever is to bring this complex story to life through a succession of vivid characters * Sunday Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis book snaps, crackles and pops ... Readers will emerge from this heady blend of economic, business, and political history with a sense of exhilaration that so much of the American experience could be described so vividly and insightfully -- Robert Gordon * Financial Times *Capitalism in America makes a strong case, with some wonderful insights into business history. Innovation, spread to the masses, is indeed the engine of capitalist economies. * The Economist *A superbly written book ... the tone is businesslike but culturally savvy - with sociological themes from "America's urban nightmare" of the seventies and eighties to "the rising share of working women" handled with sensitivity and skill ... Capitalism in America is an inspiring, rip-roaring read - like the astonishing story it describes. -- Liam Halligan * The Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisTo Know the Soul of a People is a history of religion and race in the agricultural South before the Civil Rights era. Jamil W. Drake chronicles a cadre of social scientists who studied the living conditions of black rural communities, revealing the abject poverty of the Jim Crow south. These university-affiliated social scientists documented shotgun houses, unsanitary privies and contaminated water, scaly hands, enlarged stomachs, and malnourished bodies. However, they also turned their attention to the spiritual possessions, chanted sermons, ecstatic singing, conjuration, dreams and visions, fortune-telling, taboos, and other religious cultures of these communities. These scholars aimed to illuminate the impoverished conditions of their subjects for philanthropic and governmental organizations, as well as the broader American public, in the first half of the 20th century, especially during the Great Depression. Religion was integral to their efforts to chart the long economic depression across the South.From 1924 to 1941, Charles Johnson, Guy Johnson, Allison Davis, Lewis Jones, and other social scientists framed the religious and cultural practices of the black communities as folk practices, aiming to reform them and the broader South. Drawing on their correspondence, fieldnotes, and monographs, Drake shows that social scientists'' use of folk reveals the religion was an important site for highlighting the supposed mental, moral, and cultural deficits of America''s so-called folk population. Moreover, these social scientists did not just pioneer rural social science and reform but used their study of religion to plant the seeds of the concept that would become known as the culture of poverty in the latter half of the twentieth century. To Know the Soul of a People is an exciting intellectual history that invites us to explore the knowledge that animated the earnest yet shortsighted liberal efforts to reform black and impoverished communities.Trade ReviewDrake's well-written, important, timely examination of these pioneering studies is excellent.... Highly recommended. * CHOICE *Drake outlines with precision social scientific constructions of the category of 'folk religion' and demonstrates the significance of ideas about religion to liberal reformers' analyses of Black cultures, family, labor, and health. He shows how their analyses contributed to moralizing discourses about race and poverty and supported government policies aimed at 'modernizing' Black culture. The book provides new tools to understand the connections among religion, race, and class in African American history. * Judith Weisenfeld, Author of New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration *Jamil Drake follows Depression-era social scientists who spread across the rural U.S. South-particularly the Black rural South-in search of an explanation for its entrenched poverty and resistance to modernization. They found 'folk religion,' a category that challenged biological racism but entrenched a cultural critique of poor black southerners that remains with us. This is a timely, sobering, and important book * Alison Greene, Associate Professor of American Religious History, Emory University *Table of ContentsPreface: The Legacy of Hampton: Folk, Religion, and Classifying the Cabin People Introduction Chapter 1: Moralizing the Folk: The Negro Problem, Racial Heredity, and Religion in the Progressive Era Chapter 2: Assimilating the Folk: White Southern Liberals, Revival Religion, and Regional Isolation Chapter 3: Medicalizing the Folk: Superstitions, Family, and Germs in the Venereal Disease Control Program Chapter 4: Saving the Folk: Cultural Lag and the Southern Roots of the Religion of Poverty Chapter 5: Preserving the Folk: Folk Songs and the Irony of Romanticism Conclusion: The Aftermath of the Religion of Southern Folk Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis Very Short Introduction employs the disciplines of history, religious studies, and anthropology as it illuminates the complexities of Aztec life. Readers meet a people highly skilled in sculpture, astronomy, city planning, poetry, and philosophy, who were also profoundly committed to cosmic regeneration through the thrust of the ceremonial knife and through warfare. Davíd Carrasco looks beyond Spanish accounts that have colored much of the Western narrative to let Aztec voices speak about their origin stories, the cosmic significance of their capital city, their methods of child rearing, and the contributions women made to daily life and the empire. Carrasco discusses the arrival of the Spaniards, contrasts Aztec mythical traditions about the origins of their city with actual urban life in Mesoamerica, and outlines the rise of the Aztec empire. He also explores Aztec religion, which provided both justification for and alternatives to warfare, sacrifice, and imperialism, and he sheds light on Aztec poetry, philosophy, painting, and especially monumental sculpture and architecture. He concludes by looking at how the Aztecs have been portrayed in Western thought, art, film, and literature as well as in Latino culture and arts. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of ContentsChapter 1: The City of Tenochtitlan: Center of The Aztec World ; Chapter 2: Aztec Foundations: Aztlan, Cities, Peoples ; Chapter 3: Aztec Expansion through Conquest and Trade ; Chapter 4: Cosmovision and Human Sacrifice ; Chapter 5: Women and Children: Weavers of Life and Precious Necklaces ; Chapter 6: Word Play, Philosophy, Sculpture ; Chapter 7: The Fall of the Aztecs ; Chapter 8: The Return of the Aztecs ; References ; Further Reading ; Index

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewAn encyclopedic treatise of ancient Maya environmental archaeology and paleoenvironmental science...I highly recommend The Maya and Climate Change to both scholars and students interested in environmental archaeology and the Maya. As a readable, afordable, short, and comprehensive monograph, this would be a great textbook for a Maya-focused, environmental archaeology course. This valuable contribution to the feld will no doubt become a classic reference on ancient Maya ecology. * Maxime Lamoureux-St-Hilaire, The Mayanist *This book provides a thorough, up-to-date, and well-written introduction to the ecology of the Maya civilization, especially during the Classic period...Excellent for courses on, and readers interested in, Mesoamerican archaeology, human ecology, and studies of ancient civilizations... Highly recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Chapter 1: Shifting the Focus Chapter 2: From Camera Lucida to Lidar: A Brief History of Maya Archaeology Chapter 3: Forests Chapter 4: Fields Chapter 5: Water Chapter 6: Stone Chapter 7: Collapse and Resilience Chapter 8: Looking Forward References

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Book SynopsisVery Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, InspiringFor 30 years, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Linda Greenhouse chronicled the activities of the U.S. Supreme Court and its justices as a correspondent for the New York Times. In this Very Short Introduction, she draws on her deep knowledge of the court''s history and of its written and unwritten rules to show readers how the Supreme Court really works.Greenhouse offers a fascinating institutional biography of a place and its people--men and women who exercise great power but whose names and faces are unrecognized by many Americans and whose work often appears cloaked in mystery. How do cases get to the Supreme Court? How do the justices go about deciding them? What special role does the chief justice play? What do the law clerks do? How does the court relate to the other branches of government? Greenhouse answers these questions by depicting the justices as they confront deep constitutional issues or wrestle with the meaning of conTrade Review[A] new one-of-a-kind book on the Supreme Court." * SCOTUSblog *Linda Greenhouse has long been one of the most astute observers of the U.S. Supreme Court and most trusted translators of its mysteries and traditions. This elegant and concise guide is invaluable for beginners and veteran court watchers alike. An ideal introduction to the Court for students and citizens of all ages. * Jeffrey Rosen, professor of law, George Washington University, and legal affairs editor, The New Republic *There is hardly anyone in the country, outside the Court, who knows the institution and its practices as well as Linda Greenhouse does. * Melvin I. Urofsky, author of Louis D. Brandeis: A Life *Greenhouse cogently illustrates the history, functions, composition and importance of the Supreme Court. In a slim volume that you can literally carry around in your pocket, you will find a wealth of knowledge." * Yale Daily News *[A]n amuse-bouche of a book . . . short, but pithy. After finishing this book, readers should be inspired to take up [Greenhouse's] implicit invitation to read about the Court and its impact on shaping American law in a more substantial, meatier format. * Judicature *For those interested in how cases come to be heard by the Court, the process leading to a decision and the Court's relationship with the other branches of the federal government and the public, this is an excellent way to begin. * Washington Independent Review of Books *Table of ContentsList of illustrations Acknowledgments 1 Origins 2 The Court at work (1) 3 The justices 4 The chief justice 5 The Court at work (2) 6 The Court and the other branches 7 The Court and the public 8 The Court and the world Appendix 1: U.S. Constitution, Article III Appendix 2: The Supreme Court's rules Appendix 3: Chart of the Justices References Further reading Websites Index

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Book SynopsisThere are few moments in American history in which the course of events tipped so suddenly and so dramatically as at the Battle of Midway. At dawn of June 4, 1942, a rampaging Japanese navy ruled the Pacific. By sunset, their vaunted carrier force (the Kido Butai) had been sunk and their grip on the Pacific had been loosened forever. In this riveting account of a key moment in the history of World War II, one of America''s leading naval historians, Craig L. Symonds, paints an unforgettable portrait of ingenuity, courage, and sacrifice. Symonds begins with the arrival of Admiral Chester A. Nimitz at Pearl Harbor after the devastating Japanese attack, and describes the key events leading to the climactic battle, including both Coral Sea--the first battle in history against opposing carrier forces--and Jimmy Doolittle''s daring raid of Tokyo. He focuses throughout on the people involved, offering telling portraits of Admirals Nimitz, Halsey, Spruance and numerous other Americans, as well as the leading Japanese figures, including the poker-loving Admiral Yamamoto. Indeed, Symonds sheds much light on the aspects of Japanese culture--such as their single-minded devotion to combat, which led to poorly armored planes and inadequate fire-safety measures on their ships--that contributed to their defeat. Symond''s account of the battle itself is masterful, weaving together the many disparate threads of attack--attacks which failed in the early going--that ultimately created a five-minute window in which three of the four Japanese carriers were mortally wounded, changing the course of the Pacific war in an eye-blink.Symonds is the first historian to argue that the victory at Midway was not simply a matter of luck, pointing out that Nimitz had equal forces, superior intelligence, and the element of surprise. Nimitz had a strong hand, Symonds concludes, and he rightly expected to win.Trade Review"The Battle of Midway was the hinge on which the war in the Pacific turned. Its story deserves retelling, and Symonds' book does a wonderful job of it." --The American Spectator "Mr. Symonds has marshaled the data of seven decades to produce an account that is clear and readable, benefiting from his easy expertise in naval matters." --The Wall Street Journal "Important...documenting a role too often overlooked and too little understood: the essential role played by the U.S. Navy in winning the war in the Pacific." - The Dallas Morning News "[W]holly satisfying . . . a lucid, intensely researched, mildly revisionist account of a significant moment in American military history." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Craig Symonds has delivered yet another outstanding work, a work that will set the standard for studies of the Battle of Midway for years to come. Even if one thinks one knows all there is to know about Midway, Mr. Symonds' plethora of new facts, rationales for what and why each side performed the way it did, human interest stories and more make The Battle of Midway indispensable . . . The story of the battle unfolding and being fought is absolutely outstanding, but the events before and after it are equally well told. In addition, the supporting charts, photographs, references and bibliography are awesome. For anyone at all interested in the Battle of Midway, the Pacific War or the Navy, this is a must read." --The Washington Times Selected as a Best Book of 2011 by Military History Quarterly "Deeply researched, shrewdly argued, and powerfully narrated, The Battle of Midway is a superb work of the historian's craft. It easily takes its place as the best and most comprehensive account of the pivotal battle from the American perspective." -Richard B. Frank, author of Guadalcanal: The Definitive Account of the Landmark Battle and Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire "In The Battle of Midway Symonds has effectively synthesized the huge mass of information about the Midway battle into a fast-moving, highly readable account filled with nuggets of fascinating biographical material about many of the principals, both American and Japanese . . . Symonds describes the scenes of the Battle of Midway itself with the knowing eye of a fine historian . . . Craig Symonds has crafted an excellent addition to the pantheon of important literature about the transcendent American naval victory at Midway. The Battle of Midway deserves to be read and enjoyed." --Naval History "Compulsively readable" --The Week "Well documented through interviews, official records, and secondary sources, the book will show readers that Midway was, as Wellington would have said, "a close-run thing." General military history enthusiasts will be fascinated, and specialists will revel in the careful dissection of the action. -- Library Journal "[A] superb narrative, clearly, vividly, and energetically written, with attention to detail that is always relevant to his interpretation . . . this book will be read appreciatively by other non-specialists. Indeed, it demonstrates why military history should not be considered 'merely' a 'niche' subject, but part of the mainstream of the national narrative." --HNN.com "A fascinating and informative retelling of the most important naval battle of the Pacific War. Symonds once again demonstrates his superb mastery of his craft." -Jonathan Parshall, co-author of Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway Chosen as one of Proceedings Notable Books of 2011Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. CinCPac ; 2. The Kido Butai ; 3. The Brownshoe Navy ; 4. American Counterstrike ; 5. Seeking the Decisive Battle ; 6. Pete and Jimmy ; 7. The Codebreakers ; 8. The Coral Sea ; 9. The Eve of Battle ; 10. Opening Act ; 11. Nagumo's Dilemma (4:00 A.M. to 8:30 A.M.) ; 12. The Flight to Nowhere (7:00 A.M. to 11:20 A.M.) ; 13. Attack of the Torpedo Squadrons (8:30 A.M. to 10:20 A.M.) ; 14. The Tipping Point (7:00 A.M. to 10:30 A.M.) ; 15. The Japanese Counterstrike (11:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M.) ; 16. Denouement ; Epilogue

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Book SynopsisIn The Cuban Missile Crisis: A Concise History, Second Edition, Don Munton and David A. Welch distill the best current scholarship on the Cuban missile crisis into a brief and accessible narrative history. The authors draw on newly available documents to provide a comprehensive treatment of its causes, events, consequences, and significance. Stressing the importance of context in relation to the genesis, conduct, and resolution of the crisis, Munton and Welch examine events from the U.S., Soviet, and Cuban angles, revealing the vital role that differences in national perspectives played at every stage. While the book provides a concise, up-to-date look at this pivotal event, it also notes gaps and mysteries in the historical record and highlights important persistent interpretive disputes. The authors provide a detailed guide to relevant literature and film for those who wish to explore further. Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the crisis, this revised and updated edition of The CTable of ContentsContents ; New to the Second Edition Acknowledgments ; List of Acronyms ; Dramatis Personae (and Positions in October 1962) ; Introduction: The REAL Thirteen Days ; Chapter 1: Background to the Crisis ; U.S.-Cuban Relations in Historical Perspective ; The Bay of Pigs and Operation Mongoose ; The Soviet Decision to Deploy ; Chapter 2: Deployment and Discovery ; Details of the Deployment ; The Intelligence Game of Cat and Mouse ; Warnings Too Late ; On the Eve of Crisis ; Chapter 3: From Discovery to Blockade ; The Storm Before the Calm ; Narrowing the Options ; Decision ; Chapter 4: The Perfect Storm ; The Speech ; Carrots and Sticks ; Khrushchev and Kennedy Waver ; The Crisis Heats Up ; The Dobrynin Meeting ; Climax and Resolution ; Chapter 5: Aftermath ; Removing the Missiles from Cuba ; The Cuban Bomber Crisis ; The Domestic and International Public Reaction ; Steps Toward Detente: The Hot Line and Test Ban ; Conclusion: The Cuban Missile Crisis Fifty Years Later ; Bibliographic Essay ; Early Treatments of the Crisis ; The Second Wave: "Critical Oral History" ; Recent Accounts ; Background and History ; Aftermath and Lessons ; Document Collections and Websites ; Film ; Index

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Book SynopsisEuropeans, Africans, and American Indians practiced slavery long before the first purchase of a captive African by a white land-owner in the American colonies; that, however, is the image of slavery most prevalent in the minds of Americans today. This Very Short Introduction begins with the Portuguese capture of Africans in the 1400s and traces the development of American slavery until its abolition following the Civil War. Historian Heather Andrea Williams draws upon the rich recent scholarship of numerous highly-regarded academics as well as an analysis of primary documents to explore the history of slavery and its effects on the American colonies and later the United States of America. Williams examines legislation that differentiated American Indians and Africans from Europeans as the ideology of white supremacy flourished and became an ingrained feature of the society. These laws reflected the contradiction of America''s moral and philosophical ideology that valorized freedom on one hand and justified the enslavement of a population deemed inferior on another. She explores the tense and often violent relationships between the enslaved and the enslavers, and between abolitionists and pro-slavery advocates as those who benefited from the institution fought to maintain and exert their power. Williams is attentive to the daily labors that enslaved people performed, reminding readers that slavery was a system of forced labor with economic benefits that produced wealth for a new nation, all the while leaving an indelible mark on its history.Trade ReviewWilliam's study provides a concise overview of many of the key issues and topics surrounding the nature of American slavery * Review in History *Table of ContentsCHAPTER 1-OLD WORLDS COLLIDE THROUGH THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE; CHAPTER 2-PUTTING SLAVERY INTO PLACE IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES; CHAPTER 3-EARLY CHALLENGES TO SLAVERY IN AMERICA; CHAPTER 4-AMERICA BUILT ON SLAVERY; CHAPTER 5-MAKING LIFE BEARABLE; CHAPTER 6-DOMINATION AND RESISTANCE; CHAPTER 7-TAKING SLAVERY APART; EPILOGUE

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Shoddy is that rare book that takes you from the direct experiences you share with the author (what to do with your used clothes? the feeling of 'doing good' when you donate them to clothe someone 'less fortunate') to the larger social, economic, historical, and yes, moral universe in which those experiences live. Shell brings gives us this kind of journey by searching for shoddy. Through her we learn about the human costs of the industrial revolution, learn about British Chartism, the economic realities of the American Civil War, learn about the ideas that animated dissent--Carlyle, Disraeli, and Marx, just for a start, and so much more, all through the eyes of shoddy. It is an exemplary book in its use of the visual record to weave a narrative that implicates current practice, not just in how we do scholarship across a range of fields in media and science and technology studies, but how we think about ourselves. Shoddy is a book that will change your mind." --Sherry Turkle, author of Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital AgeTable of ContentsPrologue: Finding Shoddy Old Clothes Odyssey The Heap Act I: Devil’s Dust Emergence of an Industry Narratives of Transmutation, Myths of Invention Devil’s Dust Politics Material Philosophy and the Shredded Self Shoddy as Paradox and Marx’s “Excrements of Consumption” Act II: Textile Skin The Wear of War Textile Skin and “the Sinews of War” Shoddy and the Body Politic Photography and the “Harvest of Death” On Shrouds and Shoddy Act III: Lively Things Miasma and Contagion Consolidation of Clothes and Corpses Disinfection and Its Discontents The Intimate Materiality of the Unknowable Liveliness and Formlessness Epilogue: Shoddy Renaissance Acknowledgments Notes Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisFrom the earliest days of rock and roll, white artists regularly achieved fame, wealth, and success that eluded the Black artists whose work had preceded and inspired them. This dynamic continued into the 1960s, even as the music and its fans grew to be more engaged with political issues regarding race. In Tear Down the Walls, Patrick Burke tells the story of white American and British rock musicians' engagement with Black Power politics and African American music during the volatile years of 1968 and 1969. The book sheds new light on a significant but overlooked facet of 1960s rockwhite musicians and audiences casting themselves as political revolutionaries by enacting a romanticized vision of African American identity. These artists' attempts to cast themselves as revolutionary were often naïve, misguided, or arrogant, but they could also reflect genuine interest in African American music and culture and sincere investment in anti-racist politics. White musicians such as those in popTrade Review"Thoughtful, well-researched. . . .There is nothing soothing about the sometimes-overwhelming white noise of late 1960s rock, but Burke will not let the music’s radical roar fade to silence below its problematically persistent hum of racial retrenchment. The dissonances that emerge from his carefully wrought ambivalences are a good thing." * The Sixties *"Burke takes an even-keeled approach to Black-influenced revolutionary music in the 1960s created by white musicians within a white-centric industry, shedding light on an under-researched aspect of the music of the period." * Choice *"As a whole, the book reveals that the walls of race have not been torn down. This is hardly the fault of music and musicians, however. In fact, those making claims to 'race music' include a diversity of interested parties." * Ethnic and Racial Studies *"Incisive and even-handed, Tear Down the Walls is bound to enrich ongoing discussions of the enigmatic relationship between rock and race. Its findings pave the way for future studies to understand these categories more holistically and further analyze the discrepancies between artistic intent and cultural consequence." * Rock Music Studies *"Tear Down the Walls successfully problematizes ideas of musical and political appropriation and authenticity, as well as white radical politics and its organization, messaging, and relationship to white rock groups of the late 1960s. Burke’s text is clearly rooted in extensive research and built on established theoretical ideas, but he avoids overly technical musical analysis and writes engagingly, widening the prospective audience. Tear Down the Walls is recommended for public and academic libraries, and should be accessible and of interest to readers in the humanities as well as in music." -- Alyssa Nance * Music Reference Services Quarterly *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 Honkie Soul: The MC5 at the Democratic National Convention—Lincoln Park, Chicago, August 25, 1968 2 Blue Eyes and a Black Face: Jefferson Airplane and the Rock Revolution—The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (CBS-TV), November 10, 1968 3 One Plus One: Jean-Luc Godard Meets the Rolling Stones—London Film Festival, November 29, 1968 4 The Seats Belong to the People: The Battle of the Fillmore East—Lower East Side, Manhattan, December 26, 1968 5 Declare the Nation into Being: Woodstock and the Movement—Woodstock Music & Art Fair, White Lake, NY, August 15–18, 1969 Epilogue Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Impressive and authoritative. . . . Over the past two decades, Oreskes has helped transform how scholars understand the history of scientific and political debates over continental drift and anthropogenic climate change. Her latest work weaves together insights from these and other intellectual spheres to deliver a crucial message: Patronage of knowledge production—that is, who pays for science—matters deeply. . . . Oreskes uses fascinating historical episodes to reveal serious, underappreciated consequences of oceanographers' prolonged reliance on secret, mission-driven navy projects. . . . We need more historical scholarship on how powerful entities produce ignorance as well as knowledge, and Oreskes provides a model for doing so. . . . As an exposé of how navy-sponsored oceanographers wound up constraining their own research agendas and believing their own myths, the book should give pause to all scientists who consider themselves immune to the potential influence of their funders, or who romanticize the golden age of military scientific patronage." * Science *"Insightful. . . . The book reminds us that science does not happen in a vacuum." * Scientific American *"Science on a Mission is what you want in a history: interesting research, stories with context and multiple points of view, clearly and compellingly written." * Nature *"With its empirical richness and its conceptual concerns, this book is essential reading." * Metascience *"Anyone who really wants to understand Cold War-era oceanography now has a definitive text to turn to... Oreskes makes a strong case for why histories of physics must now encompass oceanography." * Physics Today *"In Science on a Mission, historian Naomi Oreskes delves into the role of patronage in science, what emerges is a vivid portrait of how naval oversight transformed what we know about the sea. It is a detailed, sweeping history that illuminates the ways funding shapes the subject, scope, and tenor of research, and it raises profound questions about American science. What difference does it make who pays? A lot." * Yale Climate Connections *"Important and fascinating work. . . . The book is well documented and features many interesting stories and illustrations that professionals and academicians will find appealing. . . . Highly recommended." * Choice *"Had I known then what I have learned from Oreskes’s new book, I would have been a better Scripps director." -- Charles Kennel, former director, Scripps Institution of Oceanography"Oreskes's timely, clear-eyed, and extensive history serves as a powerful reminder in a time when our oceans and basic science are under attack: we must defend scientific truth." -- Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island"Science on a Mission is a subtle, human picture of science at war, both hot and cold. Focusing on three vastly important institutes of oceanography, Oreskes tracks how the demands of international conflict have shaped the discipline. In fascinating detail, she explores the discovery of the deep ocean currents and their dynamics; in another precisely documented section, she illuminates the military origins of the ‘pure science’ bathysphere Alvin. With engaging prose and scientific grasp, Oreskes gives us a rich and well-told history of how the navy’s engagement redefined the field, ushering in central discoveries of modern oceanography while hiding its secret-cloaked depths." -- Peter Galison, Harvard University“With her characteristic but rare combination of philosophical and historical insight, and her sharp eye for the politics beneath the surface, Oreskes has skillfully interpreted the wide-ranging legacies of oceanography and brought them into our understanding of scientific—and political—debates of the present day." -- Katharine Anderson, York University"Oreskes has given us a monumental history of the social and political construction of Cold War science. Her analysis lends fascinating insight to the role of the war economy in the creation of American oceanography and raises complex questions about scientific integrity, intellectual autonomy, and the difference between pure and tainted science." -- Matthew England, University of New South Wales"Science on a Mission is a remarkable work of scholarship built on deep research into the institutions and people involved in advancing American oceanography at the height of the Cold War. Oreskes relies on a detailed approach, including over a dozen illustrations and diagrams alongside extensive quotations from relevant scientific papers, to provide internal histories, whether in accounting for how one experiment led to the next or how personalities and ideologies clashed within an institution. As such, the work makes important contributions to the literature and is an excellent companion to texts on naval and industrial laboratories." * Isis *"In this book, Naomi Oreskes demonstrates once again that the history of science is not merely a discipline for the ivory tower. In her work on the denial of man-made climate change and on the procedures that guarantee the trustworthiness of scientific knowledge, she combines historical analysis with topics of current political importance in an exemplary manner." * Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (translated from German) *“Highly recommended for anyone interested in the broad topics of geophysics, the history of the oceans, and how American naval spending influenced the shape of modern oceanography.” * The Northern Mariner *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1 The Personal, the Political, and the Scientific 2 Seeing the Ocean through Operational Eyes: The Stommel-Arons Model of Abyssal Circulation 3 Whose Science Is It Anyway? The Woods Hole Palace Revolt 4 Stymied by Secrecy: Harry Hess and Seafloor Spreading 5 The Iron Curtain of Classification: What Difference Did It Make? 6 Why the Navy Built Alvin 7 Painting Projects White: The Discovery of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents 8 From Expertise to Advocacy: The Seabed Disposal of Radioactive Waste 9 Changing the Mission: From the Cold War to Climate Change Conclusion: The Context of Motivation Acknowledgments Sources and Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisBased on long-term ethnographic fieldwork at the Caribbean Court of Justice, A Region among States explores the possibility of constituting a region on a geopolitical and ideological terrain dominated by the nation-state. How is it that a great swath of the independent, English-speaking Caribbean continues to accept the judicial oversight of their former colonizer via the British institution of the Privy Council? And what possibilities might the Caribbean Court of Justicea judicial institution responsive to the region, not to any single nationoffer for untangling sovereignty and regionhood, law and modernity, and postcolonial Caribbean identity? Joining the Court as an intern, Lee Cabatingan studied its work up close: she attended each court hearing and numerous staff meetings, served on committees, assisted with the organization of conferences, and helped prepare speeches and presentations for the judges. She now offers insight into not only how the Court positions itself vis-à-viTrade Review“This is an empathetic and rigorous anthropology of the CCJ. Sharply constructed and with flowing writing, Cabatingan’s ethnography brings together questions and approaches from postcolonial regionalism, legal anthropology, and Caribbean studies. Through eye-opening conversations with judges and throughout the court, interwoven with a careful study of media and archival material, she shows how the delicate balance between the work of adjudication and of political region making raises dilemmas that otherwise remain right below the surface.” * Naor Ben-Yehoyada, author of The Mediterranean Incarnate *“This fascinating study of the CCJ deftly mines the peripheries of the court’s work to show successfully how the court uses and reimagines the tools of statecraft in its central effort of promoting a region. The book’s rich analysis of the array of activities of and feelings about the CCJ is a great contribution to what we know about the complex work of new apex courts and scholarly debates about region-making projects in the Caribbean.” * Tracy Robinson, coeditor of Transitions in Caribbean Law *Table of ContentsOrientation: The Caribbean Court of Justice 1 Introduction 2 A Myth 3 A Territory 4 A People 5 A Language 6 A Brand 7 A Region Acknowledgments Appendix: Methods and Positionality Notes References Index

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