History Books

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Book SynopsisMagic and Religion by Andrew Lang is a collection of essays that explore the relationship between magic and religion in different cultures throughout history. The book examines the ways in which magic and religion have intersected and influenced each other, as well as the similarities and differences between these two forms of belief. Lang argues that both magic and religion are attempts by humans to understand and interact with the supernatural, but that they differ in their approach and their goals. Magic is often associated with individualistic and practical goals, such as achieving success in love or business, while religion is more concerned with communal and spiritual goals, such as salvation or enlightenment. The book also discusses the role of ritual in both magic and religion, and how rituals can be used to create a sense of community and connection to the divine. Lang draws on examples from a wide range of cultures and historical periods, including ancient Greece, medieval Europe, and indigenous cultures from around the world, to illustrate his arguments. Overall, Magic and Religion is a thought-provoking exploration of the complex and often overlapping relationship between two fundamental aspects of human belief and experience.

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Book SynopsisA Smaller History of Greece, authored by William Smith, offers readers a concise yet comprehensive journey through the rich historical tapestry of ancient Greece. Drawing upon his expertise as a classicist and historian, Smith presents a condensed narrative that captures the essence of Greek civilization, from its mythical origins to its pivotal contributions to philosophy, politics, arts, and warfare. The book navigates through key epochs such as the rise of city-states, the flourishing of Athens' democratic governance, and the influence of philosophers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. It delves into the Persian Wars, highlighting the Greeks' steadfast defense against overwhelming odds. Smith also explores the complexities of Spartan society and the transformative campaigns of Alexander the Great. With a skillful blend of narrative and analysis, A Smaller History of Greece provides readers with a clear understanding of Greece's impact on Western civilization. The author's concise style doesn't compromise the depth of knowledge shared, making this work a valuable resource for students, history enthusiasts, and anyone seeking a succinct yet informative exploration of ancient Greece's legacy. William Smith's expertise shines in this accessible yet scholarly account, offering readers a compelling journey through the triumphs, conflicts, and enduring legacy of one of history's most influential civilizations.

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Book SynopsisBruni (1370-1444) was the best-selling author of the 15th century, and this book is generally considered the first modern work of history. This volume concludes the edition, the first in English translation. It includes Bruni’s Memoirs, an autobiographical account of the events of his lifetime, and cumulative indexes to the complete work.

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Book SynopsisWoman in the Nineteenth Century, published by Margaret Fuller, is a landmark essay which criticizes cultural standards and gender roles of the time. The work of literature is a powerful manifesto for women's liberation and empowerment in a world marked with tight expectations and limited risks. Margaret Fuller, a well-known feminist, writer, and thinker, is a staunch supporter of women's equality and liberty in both the public and private spheres. In beautiful words and serious analysis, she challenges patriarchal structures and advocates for women's self-awareness, education, and freedom.

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Book SynopsisBernard Shaw's The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Ring of the Niblung is a major work. This book offers an in-depth examination of Richard Wagner's famous opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Shaw's commentary delves into the complex strata of Wagner's magnum opus, providing a multidimensional assessment that goes beyond typical music analysis. He introduces readers to Wagnerian mythology, complex character relationships, and the overarching plot, frequently through the lens of socialism and revolutionary thought. Shaw's opinion that the Ring Cycle might be viewed as a parable for societal reform is one of his core arguments. He sees the demise of the gods and the return of the ring to the Rhine as a metaphor for the inevitable collapse of repressive society systems and the possibility of a more egalitarian future. Shaw's distinct wit and intellectual depth shine through throughout the book as he connects with Wagner's work. His commentary extends beyond musical criticism to include political and philosophical implications. Shaw's approach encourages readers to evaluate Wagner's music dramas in the light of a broader cultural and historical backdrop. In conclusion, George Bernard Shaw's The Perfect Wagnerite is a thought-provoking and enduring investigation of Wagner's vast operatic masterpiece, providing readers with a novel perspective that mixes musical analysis with socio-political criticism.

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Book SynopsisScala (14301497) trained in the law and rose to prominence serving as secretary and treasurer to the Medicis and chancellor of the Guelf party before becoming first chancellor of Florence. This volume collects works from throughout his career that show the influence of fellow humanists such as Ficino, Pope Pius II, and Pico della Mirandola.

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Book SynopsisThe Book of Mormon, by Joseph Smith, is a holy book in Mormonism and the founding scripture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). This work of literature is classified as historical, and it is a great collection of ideas which have been condensed into a single draft for readers of all ages to read. As the title character is so self-indulgent, readers are forced to keep reading. Some tales are violent and strange, while others creep up on you and slowly imbibeyou in. Its followers think it is a divinely created record of ancient American peoples. According to him, the Prophet Joseph Smith interpreted whatever appeared on a set of golden plates etched with ancient script and directed to him by an angel named Moroni. The Story of Mormon narrative tells the story of various ancient tribes of people who came to the Americas and interacted with God. This edition of The Book of Mormon is both modern and legible, with an eye-catching new cover and professionally typeset manuscript.

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Book SynopsisThe Kiltartan History Book was written as a historical masterpiece by Lady Gregory, an Irish playwright, folklorist, and literary icon. With an eye-catching new cover and a beautifully typeset copy, this version of THE KILTARTAN HISTORY BOOK is both modern and legible. The story is full of unexpected twists and turns that will keep the reader engaged. Some narratives are violent and strange, whereas others creep up on you and slowly bother you in. Readers are compelled to keep reading because the title character is so self-indulgent. Lady Gregory's work, noted for its painstaking research and enthralling storytelling, contributes significantly to Irish history and literature. The literary work sheds light on many aspects of Kiltartan's past, including its cultural legacy, social traditions, and historical events. Lady Gregory weaves a lovely tapestry of the region's past using her deep knowledge of Irish folklore and oral traditions.

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Book SynopsisHow does the outsider find community and a sense of place? Chad Bryant tells the stories of five ordinary people over two centuries who struggled to make lives in Prague, a city whose beauty masks a history of exclusionary nationalism. Exploring the tense interplay of cohesion and difference, Prague is a powerful meditation on the need to belong.Trade Review[A] subtle, lyrical book. Like the denizens of many other cities, Praguers have juggled identities for centuries…Chad Bryant concentrates on five fascinating individuals, guiding readers through Czech history along the way. * The Economist *What is rich and suggestive is [Bryant’s] tracing of ‘practices of belonging’—strategies which complicate the overarching narratives of Czech history by showing how individuals shape their sense of self within the city—and, specifically, this city, with its vertiginous political and ideological shifts…Prague is an inventive, engaging call to imagine the city not only from the perspective of prophetic panorama, but also from the experience of the citizen on foot. -- Kathryn Murphy * Times Literary Supplement *The concept of ‘belonging’ allows [Bryant] to turn urban history into a true biography of the modern city through the authentic experience of real individuals…A very fine scholarly work. -- Jakub Rákosník * Austrian History Yearbook *Original…The author offers a history of the city as a living organism as told through the life stories of its actual inhabitants. -- Jakub Rakosník * Deník N *Bryant is to be commended for producing an eminently readable book that weaves together the broader trajectories of Czech history with the more everyday aspects of life in Prague over the last two centuries. -- Joshua Hagen * H-Net Reviews *Engaging even for the casual reader, and at the same time a masterfully crafted work of scholarship. For historians of Central Europe, the book offers a number of inspiring ideas and concepts that can also be applied to the history of other Central European cities. -- Patrícia Fogelová * Individual and Society *[Bryant] has succeeded in producing a well-written work that, through the subjective perspectives of the individual protagonists, allows the historic panorama of the city to unfold [while] discussing the question of how belonging was imagined and realized in practice. -- Florian Ruttner * Journal for East Central European Studies *Since the post-1989 explosion of tourism to the former communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Prague has become a prime destination and, as such, the subject of many books. Few of them have explored the city, its history, and its people as originally, insightfully, and compassionately as Chad Bryant does in this elegant volume. -- Hugh L. Agnew * Journal of Modern History *[An] evocative and innovative study…Bryant has woven for us a rich tapestry, using the lives of five very different characters to tell the story of the city over a century and a half, and of the various ways in which people have imagined their place in it. In so doing, he pushes our boundaries in thinking about the meaning of Czech identity, making a robust case for a more multifaceted approach to it. -- Brigitte Le Normand * Journal of Planning History *An exciting work in urban history…By focusing on what it means to live in times of change, to dwell in the city, and to belong in an often fragmented and contested sense of community, Prague extends urban history into a wider interdisciplinary field deeply informed by social theory, spatial thinking, and a rich geographical imagination…Both a pleasure to read and a useful guide to thinking about cities. -- John Pickles * Journal of the Bulgarian Geographical Society *Moving and deeply informative. -- Addison Del Mastro * Mere Orthodoxy *An exemplary work of contemporary historiography that uses individual biographies to tell ‘great’ histories…Inspiring…not just for historians and researchers, but accessible to a broad readership interested in this Central European city—be it Praguers, or tourists coming to Prague. -- Tereza Juhászová * Slavonic Review *Brilliant…Prague is a remarkable book and [it] illuminates our ways of inhabiting modern cities in times past and present. -- Nandini Bhattacharya * The Telegraph (India) *Chad Bryant has produced a fun, engagingly written book that guides readers through modern Prague, as well as providing an innovative way of looking at history from below and considering the history of emotions at one of Central Europe’s richest crossroads. -- Cathleen M. Giustino * Central European HIstory *A worthwhile tome for anyone who wants to get under the skin of this fabulous and historic city. * TripFiction *Provides differing perspectives of past and present-day Prague. Each nuanced viewpoint (be it German, Czech, revolutionary, communist, or global) captures the imagination by tapping into the sense of belonging and its relationship to nationalism…Evocative and well-researched…Recommended for travelers interested in the history and politics of Prague. * Library Journal *A lively jaunt through Czech history from the nineteenth century to the present told via the lives of five individuals who found themselves in Prague searching for a sense of belonging. -- Paulina Bren, author of The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women FreeA beautifully written biography of a city told through the lives of individuals who inhabited it. Bryant goes deep into Prague’s social, political, and cultural history, featuring characters who move between different communities of belonging—Czech-speaking, German-speaking, Jewish, communist, Vietnamese. While this book complicates our understanding of what it means to be ‘Czech,’ it also illuminates the search for belonging across the modern world. -- Tara Zahra, author of The Great Departure: Mass Migration from Eastern Europe and the Making of the Free WorldAn innovative, engagingly written book that uses the stories of five Prague residents to subtly upend the traditional narratives of Czech history. Throughout Bryant emphasizes the human element in the search for home and community, showing belonging not only as a practice of pursuing connection, but as an emotional need. The result is a sweeping history of the Bohemian lands, both a masterful synthesis and at the same time highly original. -- Melissa Feinberg, author of Curtain of Lies: The Battle over Truth in Stalinist Eastern EuropePrague creates its own niche and then fills it beautifully, with brisk, fluent writing and an appealing mix of historical background and individual stories. In looking at history from below, through the lives of people who don’t quite fit in, Bryant offers a new way of seeing the city as a crossroads of varied cultures and identities. -- Jonathan Bolton, author of Worlds of Dissent: Charter 77, The Plastic People of the Universe, and Czech Culture under Communism

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Book SynopsisEminent Victorians is a seminal work of biography and social commentary published by British writer and critic Lytton Strachey. By offering four unique portrayals of notable Victorian people, the book challenges the standard approach to biography. Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Dr. Thomas Arnold, and General Charles Gordon are among Strachey's subjects. Strachey takes a sarcastic and critical perspective to their lives, rather than offering hagiographic narratives. He examines their shortcomings, paradoxes, and character complexity, presenting the human side of these great figures. Strachey's style is funny and astute, providing readers with a new perspective on these great figures. When it was initially released, the book's satirical tone and unorthodox biographical format generated quite a stir. Strachey's presentation of these illustrious Victorians as flawed and deficient questioned the conventional veneration for the era's heroes and heroines. Eminent Victorians is more than just a biography compilation; it's a critique of the Victorian society and beliefs that these figures embodied. Strachey's work was influential in altering the biography genre and encouraging a more nuanced and critical assessment of historical characters.

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Book SynopsisHolland is a historical novel written by Thomas Colley Grattan. The novel, set against the backdrop of the 16th-century Dutch War of Independence, provides a vivid and dramatic picture of the Dutch people's battle against Spanish authority. Some narratives are brutal and weird, whereas others creep up on you and draw you in slowly. As the title character is so indulgent, readers are forced to keep reading to find out what happens next. The plot concentrates mostly upon Gerard, a Dutch patriot and military leader who becomes a crucial figure in the Dutch independence movement. Gerard's journey takes readers through the conflict's various stages, beginning with the early revolts and uprisings and ending with the establishment of the Dutch Republic. Along the way, the story explores themes of bravery, patriotism, and the continuous spirit of resistance. Grattan's Holland is well-known for its meticulous historical study and attention to detail, which provides readers with an exciting mix of truth and fiction. The book not only recounts a gripping story, but it also illuminates the larger historical and political context of the Dutch struggle for independence. Holland is a historical novel that exhibits Grattan's ability to convey the spirit of a nation's yearning for liberation.

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Book SynopsisIn the Miscellanies, the great Italian Renaissance scholar-poet Angelo Poliziano penned two sets of mini-essays focused on lexical or textual problems. He solves these with his characteristic deep learning and brash criticism. The two volumes presented here are the first translation of both collection into any modern language.Trade ReviewA lot of work has gone into the English translation, which is more helpful than usual given the kind of material with which Poliziano is working. There are also enough notes to facilitate a first reading of the text. In short, the work itself is well worth the read, and the editors/translators have done a real service in making it much more accessible than it has been. -- Craig Kallendorf * Neo-Latin News *

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Book SynopsisPersonal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 Vol. 2, authored by Aimé Bonpland and Alexander von Humboldt, is a monumental work that chronicles their scientific expedition across the diverse landscapes of South America. Readers are compelled to continue reading to find out what happens next since the title character is so indulgent. Some stories are gruesome and bizarre, while others softly creep up on you and pull you in. The narrative is a captivating account of exploration, scientific inquiry, and cultural documentation. The book encompasses Volume 2 of their journey, detailing their travels from Spain to the northern parts of South America, particularly Venezuela and Colombia. Humboldt and Bonpland, both distinguished naturalists and explorers, embarked on a five-year expedition to study the region's geography, geology, flora, fauna, and indigenous cultures. Their goal was to comprehensively document and analyze the equatorial regions, shedding light on previously unknown aspects of the natural world. Throughout the narrative, the authors vividly describe their experiences, ranging from navigating treacherous terrains to conducting meticulous scientific experiments. They meticulously document the geological features, including the majestic Andes Mountains, and provide insights into the local flora and fauna.

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Book SynopsisPersonal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 Vol. 1, authored by Aimé Bonpland and Alexander von Humboldt, is a monumental work that chronicles their scientific expedition across the diverse landscapes of South America. Readers are compelled to continue reading to find out what happens next since the title character is so indulgent. Some stories are gruesome and bizarre, while others softly creep up on you and pull you in. The narrative is a captivating account of exploration, scientific inquiry, and cultural documentation. The book encompasses Volume 1 of their journey, detailing their travels from Spain to the northern parts of South America, particularly Venezuela and Colombia. Humboldt and Bonpland, both distinguished naturalists and explorers, embarked on a five-year expedition to study the region's geography, geology, flora, fauna, and indigenous cultures. Their goal was to comprehensively document and analyze the equatorial regions, shedding light on previously unknown aspects of the natural world. Throughout the narrative, the authors vividly describe their experiences, ranging from navigating treacherous terrains to conducting meticulous scientific experiments. They meticulously document the geological features, including the majestic Andes Mountains, and provide insights into the local flora and fauna.

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Book SynopsisIn 1039 Byzantium was the most powerful empire in Europe and the Near East. By 1079 it was a politically unstable state half the size, menaced by enemies on all sides. The History of Michael Attaleiates is our main source for this astonishing reversal. This translation, based on the most recent critical edition, includes notes, maps, and glossary.Trade ReviewThis history is the most useful account of Byzantium's critical fall from a major empire to a state struggling for survival. The English translation follows the original Greek as faithfully as 11th-century Greek could allow. The translators have taken some minor liberties in order to make the reading easier to follow. -- T. Natsoulas * Choice *

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Book SynopsisHistory of the Negro Race in America, Vol. 1 by George Washington Williams is a significant historical work that explores the complex journey of African Americans in the United States. Williams provides an insightful narrative of the struggles, triumphs, and contributions of the Black population from the colonial era to the early 19th century. The book delves into various aspects of African American history, including the transatlantic slave trade, the establishment of slavery in the American colonies, and the enduring fight for freedom and civil rights. Williams skillfully examines pivotal events like the American Revolution and its impact on the enslaved population, as well as the growth of abolitionist movements and their role in shaping public opinion. Through meticulous research, Williams highlights the resilience and cultural richness of African Americans amidst adversity. His work lays the foundation for a comprehensive understanding of the historical, social, and political forces that have shaped the African American experience. This book has been deemed a classic and has been a great collection of ideas that are comprehended into a single draft to read by readers of several age groups. Some stories are gruesome and bizarre, while others softly creep up on you and pull you in.

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Book SynopsisThe Bridge-Builders is a short story written by way of Rudyard Kipling, the renowned British author. The narrative is about in British-ruled India and centers across the construction of a railway bridge. The tale revolves across the characters Strickland, a British engineer, and his Indian counterpart, Riviere. As they work together on constructing the bridge, the tale explores the complexities of British colonialism in India. Kipling delves into subject matters of cultural conflict, mutual recognize, and cooperation between the British and the local population. The Bridge-Builders offers a poignant portrayal of the demanding situations and hardships faced by way of the laborers, a lot of whom are local Indians, in constructing the bridge. It highlights the inherent tensions among the colonial rulers and the colonized as they attempt to work collectively to obtain a common aim. Kipling's narrative skillfully captures the intricate web of relationships, hierarchies, and cultural dynamics at play within the British Raj. The tale no longer most effective serves as an exploration of colonial India but additionally as a reflection at the broader troubles of imperialism, colonialism, and the ethics of building bridgesboth literal and metaphorical. The Bridge-Builders is a thought-frightening paintings that exemplifies Kipling's knack for depicting the complexities of colonialism and the interaction between cultures, all inside the context of an apparently simple undertakingbuilding a bridge.

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Book SynopsisAmerica is a nation making itself up as it goes along—a story of discovery and invention unfolding in speeches and images, letters and poetry, unprecedented feats of scholarship and imagination. In more than 200 original essays, this history brings together the nation’s many voices.Trade ReviewIn snapshots of a few thousand words each, the entries in A New Literary History put on display the exploring, tinkering, and risk-taking that have contributed to the invention of America… A New Literary History of America gives us what amounts to a fractal geometry of American culture. You can focus on any one spot and get a sense of the whole or pull back and watch the larger patterns appear. What you see isn’t the past so much as the present. -- Wes Davis * Wall Street Journal *A New Literary History of America is not your typical Harvard University Press anthology...[It] roams far beyond any standard definition of literature. Aside from compositions that contain the written word, its subjects include war memorials, jazz, museums, comic strips, film, radio, musicals, skyscrapers, cybernetics and photography. -- Patricia Cohen * New York Times *This magnificent volume is a vast, inquisitive, richly surprising and consistently enlightening wallow in our national history and culture...Neither reference nor criticism, neither history nor treatise, but a genre-defying, transcendent fusion of them all. It sounds impossible, but the result seems both inevitable and necessary and profoundly welcome, too...This book is not so much a history of our literature as it is a literary version of our history, told through the culture we've created to recount our past and conjure our future...In the age of Wikipedia, a reference book like this needs more than just the facts; it needs to tell us what the facts mean, and A New Literary History does just that. -- Laura Miller * Salon *Ambitious, thought-provoking, and comprehensive, A New Literary History of America edited by Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors, features more than 200 essays on poems, letters, novels, memoirs, speeches, movies, and theater, by writers ranging from Bharati Mukherjee to John Edgar Wideman, reinterpreting the American experience form the 1500s forward. * Elle *The huge, welcoming, exciting, just-published volume A New Literary History of America is a book with which to spend entire days and the rest of your life...Where else are you going to read Camille Paglia on Tennessee Williams, Mary Gaitskill on Norman Mailer, and Walter Mosley on the hardboiled detective novel? Don't you want to do that right now?...Talk about an all-American value: You could read this 1,000-plus-page book forever and never use up its revelations and its pleasures. -- Ken Tucker * Entertainment Weekly online *[This] represents a rethinking of the awkward genre of literary history, which can fall disappointingly between the cracks of straight criticism and narrative history, devolving into a dull recitation of author bios and conventional literary wisdom. With the help of an editorial board, Marcus and Sollors settled on 216 artworks (film and painting as well as texts), authors, movements, and cultural artifacts that help answer the question, "What is America?" Emerson, Melville, Dickinson, and Faulkner are in there, to be sure, but so are the Winchester rifle, "Steamboat Willie," Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven," Alcoholics Anonymous, and Linda Lovelace (the star of the pornographic film "Deep Throat," who later said she'd been raped during its filming)...It will be a welcome change if a "literary history," for once, stirs up a little dust. -- Christopher Shea * Boston Globe Brainiac blog *[An] essential, eclectic doorstop anthology. * New York Magazine *The full national-literary character of the United States is on display in this mighty history and reference work for our time. Written by a distinguished team, under the sure-handed editorship of musicologist and historian Marcus and Sollors...this volume begins with America's first appearance on a map and concludes with the election of President Obama. Among the more than 200 contributors are Bharati Mukherjee (on The Scarlet Letter), Camille Paglia (on Tennessee Williams) and Ishmael Reed (on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)...This is an astounding achievement in multiculturalism and American studies, which in the age of Google and the Internet lights the way toward serious interpretive reference publishing. (Starred Review) * Publishers Weekly *Of course it's hefty; it's a "broadly cultural history" of America with a literary bent, an avid and provocative collaboration that tracks the American story not only through works of American literature, classic and forgotten, but also via music, art, pop culture, speeches, letters, religious tracts, photographs, and Supreme Court decisions. Versatile social critic and historian Marcus, Harvard University professor of English and African American studies Sollors, and their illustrious board of editors assembled more than 200 commissioned essays, which meander chronologically from 1507 and the first appearance on a map of the name "America" to Barack Obama's election. In between is a dazzling array of inquiries into Gone with the Wind and Invisible Man, The Wizard of Oz and the blues, hard-boiled detective stories and Mickey Mouse, "Howl" and Miles Davis, nature writing and Zora Neale Hurston. With such contributors as Elizabeth Alexander, Mary Gaitskill, Bharati Mukherjee, Richard Powers, Ishmael Reed, David Thomson, David Treuer, and John Edgar Wideman, this is an adventurous, jazzily choral, and kaleidoscopic book of interpretations, illuminations, and revitalized history. -- Donna Seaman * Booklist *Marcus and Sollors trace through literature the dynamism of American society and culture spanning 500 years, from the first time the name America appears on a map (1507) to the election of Barack Obama as president...No single volume can fully capture the range of a nation's literary history, but this book succeeds in highlighting new ideas and providing a starting point for further investigation. Above all, it is a pleasure to read. -- Mark Alan Williams * Library Journal *Reading this gorgeous compendium on the written word in America should be required for gaining or maintaining U.S. citizenship. And even at more than 1,000 pages, it's a fun way to learn what we're all about...The list of contributors is a rich, varied array of our best contemporary writers and cultural mavens...The editors were aiming for "a reexamination of the American experience as seen through a literary glass." Marcus and Sollors have succeeded: This book is a literary history in every sense of the phrase. -- Ron Antonucci * Cleveland Plain Dealer *Hundreds of essayists write short, but think expansively on just about everything that makes us who we are--from Elvis to Obama. * Entertainment Weekly *It's natural to have high expectations of a book with the lofty title A New Literary History of America. What isn't natural is for the book to not just live up to, but far exceed those expectations...Edgar Allen Poe's invention of the detective story hobnobs with the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Hank Williams' country music is only a few pages from Zora Neale Hurston. It's as glorious a melting pot as America itself...If you've found yourself envying Britain her Shakespeare, Dickens, and Austen, this book will bring you back to America and make you fall in love with her confidence, her innovation, her sheer pluck, all over again... A treasure for American history AND literature lovers. -- Michelle Kerns * Boston Examiner *You could get a hernia lifting A New Literary History of America, a 1,095-page tome edited by Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors. But you could also get a thorough, original, and occasionally startling education. Some 200 essays on our literary past by writers as disparate as critic/provocateur Camille Paglia (on the sexually electric Broadway opening of A Streetcar Named Desire) and sportswriter Michael MacCambridge (on football fiction) make for a book as richly varied as the nation itself. * Fortune *The book is not your usual bookish chronicle made up of fearless men churning out classics for the edification of the nation...[It's an] eclectic, opinionated vision of the story of American letters. -- Bill Marx * Arts Fuse *A wildly informative, hugely entertaining and sometimes even revelatory book. -- Jeff Simon * Buffalo News *Tailor-made for fruitful and fun browsing...This is a reference book for anyone with a curiosity about the sweep and scope of not just American literature but the culture itself in art, film, sermon and song. -- Robert Pincus * San Diego Union-Tribune *The feel of the whole is epic...By the time I had made my way through about a third of this book I began to feel an emotion that comes but rarely to a reviewer: pride. Not pride in America's politics or policies necessarily, but pride in our speech...In my opinion perhaps the single most impressive achievement in the book is the editors' and writers' ability to pinpoint linkages between one kind of fact and another...All the major writers, whether in poetry or prose, draw thoughtful essays. -- Larry McMurtry * New York Review of Books *The editors of this rich exercise in cultural history have taken up Pound's challenge [to "make it new"], producing an eloquent patchwork volume that gathers up more than 200 essays, chronologically arranged by subject, into a beguiling symphony that expresses the bewildering, often intimidating varieties of what we presume to call the American experience...This splendiferous tribute to the best that so many of us have thought and said and made embraces classic and watershed literary works and their authors, political acts and events and issues, statements of purpose and conscience, achievements in both the fine arts (music, painting, sculpture, et al) and the raucous venues of popular culture (yes, Virginia, we do get a crash course in the autobiographical writings of 1970s porn queen Linda Lovelace), and major figures ranging from the makers of the Constitution of the United States to contemporary film and television personalities and the giants and giantesses of pop, jazz and rock music...Defiantly unconventional...Surely one of the best books published in this country in a very long time. -- Bruce Allen * Washington Times *The mammoth New Literary History of America [is] an extraordinary anthology of literary culture brought to you by a seat-of-the-pants polyglot of a country. -- Chris Vognar * Dallas Morning News *This new-breed reference book--featuring freshly penned and eccentrically focused essays by a heterogeneous who's who of academics, journalists and authors--ventures to remap the expanse of American history through five centuries of literary and cultural landmarks...Although it shares with its history-book forebears unimpeachable intellect and seriousness of intent, this is not the Oxford Companion to American Literature. For one thing, it's a lot more fun. -- John McAlley * npr.org *This hefty yet invigorating anthology of 225 new essays about American culture and history is perfect for the hard-to-please smarty-pants. * Time Out New York *A New Literary History of America is about what's Made in America, and America, made. It's about what the writers who are its subjects have made of America, and, equally, what the contributors, writing about these writers, make of America, too. There's a certain amount of trading on literary celebrity, to be sure. But the claims on our attention, and it is a serious claim, lies within the republic of these writers' imaginations. -- Jill Lepore * Times Literary Supplement *In the monumental, absorbing A New Literary History of America, editors Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors have assembled a fascinating collection of writings on a range of subject matters: everything from maps, diaries and Supreme Court decisions to religious tracts, public debates, comic strips and rock and roll...In 1,000-odd pages, Marcus and Sollors have compiled a remarkable history of America. Their expanded definition of literary encompasses "not only what is written but also what is voiced, what is expressed, what is invented, in whatever form." Most of all, A New Literary History of America is a reminder of just how vibrant and diverse United States history--and culture--really is. -- Lacey Galbraith * BookPage *This brick of a book is a browser's delight. Ranging over many high points and exploring interesting crannies of the American experience from 1507 to 2008, A New Literary History offers those interested in culture, history, and politics much to savor and more than a little with which to match wits. Among those entries bringing fresh insight to seemingly exhausted subjects are Ted Widmer on Roger Williams and Abraham Lincoln, Greil Marcus on Moby-Dick, Anita Patterson on T.S. Eliot and D.H. Lawrence, Camille Paglia on Tennessee Williams, and Charles Taylor juxtaposing with great verve JFK's inaugural with Catch-22. There are virtuoso explanations: Anthony Grafton on Edmund Wilson's The American Earthquake, Dave Hickey on Hank Williams's transformation of the American song in country music, and Monica Miller on the transcendental meaning of Zora Neale Thurston's denunciation of Brown v. The Board of Education. Mary Gaitskill on Norman Mailer is a stylistic tour de force...This ambitious anthology succeeds beyond reasonable expectations in satisfying what Lionel Trilling...said was "the moral obligation to be intelligent." -- Peter Kadzis * Boston Phoenix *[The editors] tell an equally fascinating and moving history of the country, as we have never heard it before--and a story like which, say the editors, would not be possible in any other country...Instead of blending into the background of different shades of gray of a historical order, each of the events here radiates with seemingly contemporary luminosity. -- Jörg Häntzschel * Süddeutsche Zeitung *A DIY college course unto itself. -- Anneli Rufus * East Bay Express *An impressive achievement. -- Jim Kiest * San Antonio Express-News *[An] original new history of literature...A New Literary History of America recounts the history of the mind of a continent, and each single subject is approached with stylistic verve and thus knighted as literature by its authors, many of whom are themselves writers...Even though an idiosyncratic sprint across half a millennium of cultural history cannot avoid certain abbreviations, this amusing-to-read anthology teaches us that what appears to get more and more lost in this age of Wikipedia: well-researched, reflective, subjective and stylistically brilliant approaches that transform facts and figures into knowledge that can be passed on. -- Andrea Köhler * Neue Zürcher Zeitung *This may be called a literary history but it is more broadly a cultural history, a history of language in its many forms--novels, essays, plays, public speeches and private letters, sermons and on and on...The choices made by the editors are smart, and the writers of the essays engage ideas with great passion. -- Elizabeth Taylor * Chicago Tribune *[This] may be the most unique attempt yet to tell the story of the United States...It's a feast for anyone who cares about history and national identity, not to mention a showcase for virtuoso writing. * avclub.com *Brings together a series of disconnected, personal (and often very opinionated) essays that not only offer new angles on the big names of U.S. literature but also consider Alcoholics Anonymous, the Book-of-the-Month Club, Citizen Kane, Dr. Seuss, skyscrapers, and Superman. -- Matthew Reisz * Times Higher Education *It's hard to imagine anyone right up to full professor failing to get excitement from this charged grid of event and interpretation...Hats off, though, to the editors above all, for constructing a volume where each element reinforces every other, often by contradicting it, so that the whole vast book is more exciting than even its most impressive part. -- Adam Mars-Jones * The Observer *Who would want to go into this particular new year, with all its uncertainties, without a copy of A New Literary History of America? Many hands delight and inform, and "literary history" is time stuffed full of "cultural creations" like this perfect bedside book. The selections are short, written with both precision and passion, and not infrequently deliver insights. -- Tom D'Evelyn * Providence Journal *One way to reinvigorate our opinions about the nation's literary life is to encounter new ways to think about it. A New Literary History of America edited by Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors does just that with a wide-ranging collection of essays. -- Bob Hoover * Pittsburgh Post-Gazette *It's weirdly inclusive (Is the Winchester Rifle really part of literary history?), but the big book has so many lively entries, on everything from hard-boiled fiction to New Journalism, that you can overlook its faults and enjoy its sweep. -- Robert L. Pincus * San Diego Union-Tribune *Never fails to engross and edify. -- Rodney Clapp * Christian Century *A New Literary History of America...avoids the temptation to rein in its subject too neatly or ease the strangeness out of American history. Not only does it stretch, appropriately, to America's earliest pre-history--the first essay, by Toby Lester, examines the first appearance of "America" on a map--this enormous anthology stretches the definition of literary...A New Literary History of America challenges not only its own structure, but also our traditional view of history's structure in order to emphasize the transmission, conscious or collectively unconscious, of ideas...But the pleasure of the volume, of course, is the massive collection of voices it brings together, subjects and authors both. -- Robert Loss * popmatters.com *A collection of great minds writing on other great minds, art and literature, social movements, feats of scholarship and everything in between. * San Francisco Chronicle *This book came out only last year and has already proved itself indispensable. If I'm writing about anything that has to do with American literature, I look it up here first. The format is a little unwieldy--the book is organized chronologically around idiosyncratically chosen dates--but its capsule essays build into a surprising, inventive narrative of American culture: Ishamel Reed on "Mark Twain's hairball", Luc Sante on the blues, David Thomson on Chaplin, Ruth Wisse on Saul Bellow, Gish Jen on Catcher in the Rye, Mary Gaitskill on Norman Mailer....I could quibble with the omissions, or I could just shut up and be grateful that this book exists in any form. -- Ruth Franklin * National Book Critics Circle Board of Directors blog *In the monumental, absorbing A New Literary History of America, editors Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors have assembled a fascinating collection of writings on a range of subject matters: everything from maps, diaries and Supreme Court decisions to religious tracts, public debates, comic strips and rock and roll...In 1,000-odd pages, Marcus and Sollors have compiled a remarkable history of America...Most of all, A New Literary History of America is a reminder of just how vibrant and diverse United States history--and culture--really is. -- Lacey Galbraith * Book Page *Table of Contents* Introduction [Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors] *1507: The name "America" appears on a map [Toby Lester] *1521, August 13: Mexico in America [Kirsten Silva Gruesz] *1536, July 24: Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca [Ilan Stavans] *1585: "Counterfeited according to the truth" [Michael Gaudio] *1607: Fear and love in the Virginia colony [Adam Goodheart] *1630: A city upon a hill [Elizabeth Winthrop] *1643: A nearer neighbor to the Indians [Ted Widmer] *1666, July 10: Anne Bradstreet [Wai Chee Dimock] *1670: The American jeremiad [Emory Elliott] *1670: The stamp of God's image [Jason D. LaFountain] *1673: The Jesuit relations [Laurent Dubois] *1683: Francis Daniel Pastorius [Alfred L. Brophy] *1692: The Salem witchcraft trials [Susan Castillo] *1693--1694, March 4: Edward Taylor [Werner Sollors] *1700: Samuel Sewall, The Selling of Joseph [David Blight] *1722: Benjamin Franklin, The Silence Dogood Letters [Joyce E. Chaplin] *1740: The Great Awakening [Joanne van der Woude] * Late 1740s; 1814, September 13--14: Two national anthems [John Picker] *1765, December 23: Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur [Leo Damrosch] *1773, September: Phillis Wheatley [Rafia Zafar] *1776: The Declaration of Independence [Frank Kelleter] *1784, June: Charles Willson Peale [Michael Leja] *1787: James Madison, Notes of the Debates in the Federal Convention [Mitchell Meltzer] *1787--1790: John Adams, Discourses on Davila [John Diggins] *1791: Philip Freneau and The National Gazette [Jeffrey L. Pasley] *1796: Washington's farewell address [Francois Furstenberg] *1798: Mary Rowlandson and the Alien and Sedition Acts [Nancy Armstrong] *1798: American gothic [Marc Amfreville] *1801, March 4: Jefferson's first inaugural address [Jan Ellen Lewis] *1804, January: The matter of Haiti [Kaiama Glover] *1809: Cupola of the world [Judith Richardson] *1819, February: The Missouri crisis [John Stauffer] *1820, November 27: Landscape with birds [Christoph Irmscher] *1821: Sequoyah, the Cherokee syllabary [Lisa Brooks] *1821, June 30: Junius Brutus Booth [Coppelia Kahn] *1822: Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, the Ojibwe firefly, and Longfellow's Hiawatha [David Treuer] *1825, November: Thomas Cole and the Hudson River school [Alan Wallach] *1826, July 4: Songs of the republic [Steve Erickson] *1826: Cooper's Leatherstocking tales [Richard Hutson] *1826; 1927: Transnational poetry [Stephen Burt] *1827: Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon [Terryl L. Givens] *1828: David Walker, Appeal, in Four Articles [Tommie Shelby] *1830, May 21: Jump Jim Crow [W.T. Lhamon, Jr.] *1831, March 5: The Cherokee Nation decision [Philip Deloria] *1832, July 10: President Jackson's bank veto [Dan Feller] *1835, January: Democracy in America [Ted Widmer] *1835: William Gilmore Simms, The Yemassee [Jeffrey Johnson] *1835: The Sacred Harp [Sean Wilentz] *1836, February 23--March 6: The Alamo and Texas border writing [Norma E. Cantu] *1836, February 28: Richard Henry Dana, Jr. [Kirsten Silva Gruesz] *1837, August 15: Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The American Scholar" [James Conant] *1838, July 15: "The Divinity School Address" [Herwig Friedl] *1838, September 3: The slave narrative [Caille Millner] *1841: "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" [Robert Clark] *1846, June: James Russell Lowell's Biglow Papers [Shelley Streeby] *1846, late July: Henry David Thoreau [Jonathan Arac] *1850: The Scarlet Letter [Bharati Mukherjee] *1850, July 19: Margaret Fuller and the Transcendentalist Movement [Lawrence Buell] *1850, August 5: Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville [Clark Blaise] *1851: Moby-Dick [Greil Marcus] *1851: Uncle Tom's Cabin [Beverly Lowry] *1852: Hawthorne's Blithedale Romance and utopian communities [Winfried Fluck] *1852, July 5: Frederick Douglass, "What to the slave is the Fourth of July?" [Liam Kennedy] *1854: Maria Cummins and sentimental fiction [Cindy Weinstein] *1855: Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass [Angus Fletcher] *1858: The Lincoln--Douglas debates [Michael T. Gilmore] *1859: The science of the Indian [Scott Richard Lyons] *1861: Emily Dickinson [Susan Stewart] *1862, December 13: The journeys of Little Women [Shirley Samuels] *1865, March 4: Lincoln's second inaugural address [Ted Widmer] *1865: "Conditions of repose" [Robin Kelsey] *1869, March 4: Carl Schurz [Michael Boyden] *1872, November 5: All men and women are created equal [Laura Wexler] *1875: The Winchester Rifle [Merritt Roe Smith] *1876, January 6: Melville in the dark [Kenneth W. Warren] *1876, March 10: The art of telephony [Avital Ronell] *1878: "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" [Christopher Hookway] *1879: John Muir and nature writing [Scott Slovic] *1881, January 24: Henry James, Portrait of a Lady [Alide Cagidemetrio] *1884: Mark Twain's hairball [Ishmael Reed] *1884, July: The Linotype machine [Lisa Gitelman] *1884, November: The Southwest imagined [Leah Dilworth] *1885: The problem of error [James Conant] *1885, July: Limits to violence [James Dawes] *1885, October: Writing New Orleans [Andrei Codrescu] *1888: The introduction of motion pictures [Jonathan Lethem] *1889, August 28: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court [Yael Schacher] *1893: Chief Simon Pokagon and Native American literature [David Treuer] *1895: Ida B. Wells, A Red Record [Jacqueline Goldsby] *1896: Paul Laurence Dunbar, Lyrics of Lowly Life [Judith Jackson Fossett] *1896, September 6: Queen Lili'uokalani [Rob Wilson] *1897, Memorial Day: The Robert Gould Shaw and 54th Regiment Monument [Richard Powers] *1898, June 22: Literature and imperialism [Amy Kaplan] *1899; 1924: McTeague and Greed [Gilberto Perez] *1900: Henry Adams [T.J. Jackson Lears] *1900: The Wizard of Oz [Gerald Early] *1900; 1905: Sister Carrie and The House of Mirth [Farah Jasmine Griffin] *1901: Charles W. Chesnutt, The Marrow of Tradition [John Edgar Wideman] *1901; 1903: The problem of the color line [Arnold Rampersad] *1903, May 5: "The real American has not yet arrived" [Aviva Taubenfeld] *1903: The invention of the blues [Luc Sante] *1903: One sees what one sees [Daniel Albright] *1904, August 30: Henry James in America [Ross Posnock] *1905, October 15: Little Nemo in Slumberland [Kerry Roeder] *1906, April 9: The Azusa Street revival [RJ Smith] *1906, April 18, 5:14 a.m.: The San Francisco Earthquake [Kathleen Moran] *1911: "Alexander's Ragtime Band" [Philip Furia] *1912, April 15: Lifeboats cut adrift [Alan Ackerman] *1912: The lure of impossible things [Heather Love] *1912: Tarzan begins his reign [Gerald Early] *1913: A modernist moment [Bonnie Costello] *1915: D.W. Griffith, The Birth of a Nation [Richard Schickel] *1915: Robert Frost [Christian Wiman] *1917: The philosopher and the millionaire [Richard J. Bernstein] *1920, August 10: Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues" [Daphne A. Brooks] *1921: Jean Toomer [Elizabeth Alexander] *1922: T.S. Eliot and D.H. Lawrence [Anita Patterson] *1923, October: Chaplinesque [David Thomson] *1924: F.O. Matthiessen meets Russell Cheney [Robert Polito] *1924, May 26: The Johnson--Reed Act and ethnic literature [Yael Schacher] *1925: The Great Gatsby [Lan Tran] *1925, June: Sinclair Lewis [Jeffrey Ferguson] *1925, July: The Scopes trial [Michael Kazin] *1925, August 16: Dorothy Parker [Catherine Keyser] *1926: Fire!! [Carla Kaplan] *1926: Hardboiled [Walter Mosley] *1926: The Book-of-the-Month Club [Joan Shelley Rubin] *1927: Carl Sandburg and The American Songbag [Paul Muldoon] *1927, May 16: "Free to develop their faculties" [Jeffrey Rosen] *1928, April 8, Easter Sunday: Dilsey Gibson goes to church [Werner Sollors] *1928, Summer: John Dos Passos [Phoebe Kosman] *1928, November 18: The mouse that whistled [Karal Ann Marling] *1930: "You're swell!" [Robert Gottlieb] *1930, March: The Silent Enemy [Micah Treuer] *1930, October: Grant Wood's American Gothic [Sarah Vowell] *1931, March 19: Nevada legalizes gambling [David Thomson] *1932: Edmund Wilson, The American Jitters [Anthony Grafton] *1932: Arthur Miller [Andrea Most] *1932, April or May: The River Rouge plant and industrial beauty [John M. Staudenmaier, S.J.] *1932, Christmas: Ned Cobb [Robert Cantwell] *1933: Baby Face is censored [Stephanie Zacharek] *1933, March: FDR's first Fireside Chat [Paula Rabinowitz] *1934, September: Robert Penn Warren [Howell Raines] *1935: The Popular Front [Angela Miller] *1935: The skyscraper [Sarah Whiting] *1935, June 10: Alcoholics Anonymous [Michael Tolkin] *1935, October 10: Porgy and Bess [John Rockwell] *1936: Gone with the Wind and Absalom, Absalom! [Carolyn Porter] *1936, July 5: Two days in Harlem [Adam Bradley] *1936, November 23: Life begins [Michael Lesy] *1938: Superman [Douglas Wolk] *1938, May: Jelly Roll Morton speaks [Marybeth Hamilton] *1939: Billie Holiday, "Strange Fruit" Robert O'Meally *1939; 1981: Up from invisibility [Josef Jarab] *1940: "No way like the American way" [Erika Doss] *1940--1944: Preston Sturges [Douglas McGrath] *1941: An insolent style [Carrie Tirado Bramen] *1941: Citizen Kane [Joseph McBride] *1941: The word "multicultural" [Werner Sollors] *1943: Hemingway's paradise, Hemingway's prose [Keith Taylor] *1944: The second Bill of Rights [Cass R. Sunstein] *1945, February: Bebop [Ingrid Monson] *1945, April 11: Thomas Pynchon and modern war [Glenda Carpio] *1945, August 6, 10:45 a.m.: The atom bomb [Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi] *1946, December 5: Integrating the military [Gerald Early] *1947, December 3: Tennessee Williams [Camille Paglia] *1948: Norbert Wiener, Cybernetics [David A. Mindell] *1948: Saul Bellow [Ruth Wisse] *1949--1950: "The Birth of the Cool" [Ted Gioia] *1950, November 28: "Damned busy painting" [T.J. Clark] *1951: A poet among painters [Mark Ford] *1951: The Catcher in the Rye [Gish Jen] *1951: James Jones, From Here to Eternity [Lindsay Waters] *1951: A soft voice [M. Lynn Weiss] *1952, April 12: Elia Kazan and the blacklist in Hollywood [Michael Ventura] *1952, June 10: C.L.R. James [Donald E. Pease] *1953, January 1: The song in country music [Dave Hickey] *1954: Wallace Stevens, Collected Poems [Helen Vendler] *1955, August 11: "The self-respect of my people" [Monica L. Miller] *1955, September 21: A.J. Liebling and the Marciano--Moore fight [Carlo Rotella] *1955, October 7: A generation in miniature [Richard Candida Smith] *1955, December: Nabokov's Lolita [Stephen Schiff] *1956, April 16: "Roll Over Beethoven" [James Miller] *1957: Dr. Seuss [Philip Nel] *1959: "Nobody's perfect" [William J. Mann] *1960: Psycho [William Beard] *1960, January: More than a game [Michael MacCambridge] *1961, January 20: JFK's inaugural address and Catch-22 [Charles Taylor] *1961, July 2: The author as advertisement [David Thomson] *1962: Bob Dylan writes "Song to Woody" [Joshua Clover] *1962: "White Elephant Art vs. Termite Art" [Howard Hampton] *1963, April: "Letter from Birmingham Jail" [George Hutchinson] *1964: Robert Lowell, "For the Union Dead" [Peter Sacks] *1964, October 27: "The last stand on Earth" [Gary Kamiya] *1965, September 11: The Council on Interracial Books for Children [Dianne Johnson] *1965, October: The Autobiography of Malcolm X [David Bradley] *1968: Norman Mailer [Mary Gaitskill] *1968, March: The illusory babels of language [Hal Foster] *1968, August 28: The plight of conservative literature [Michael Kimmage] *1969: Elizabeth Bishop, Complete Poems [Laura Quinney] *1969, January 11: The first Asian Americans [Hua Hsu] *1969, November 12: The eye of Vietnam [Thi Phuong-Lan Bui] *1970: Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker [Cheryl A. Wall] *1970; 1972: Linda Lovelace [Ann Marlowe] *1973: Loisaida literature [Frances R. Aparicio] *1973: Adrienne Rich, Diving into the Wreck [Maureen N. McLane] *1975: Gayl Jones [Robert O'Meally] *1981, March 31: Toni Morrison [Farah Jasmine Griffin] *1982: Edmund White, A Boy's Own Story [Sarah Shun-lien Bynum] *1982: Wild Style [Hua Hsu] *1982: Maya Lin's wall [Anne M. Wagner] *1982, November 8: Harriet Wilson [Saidiya V. Hartman] *1985, April 24: Henry Roth [Mario Materassi] *1987: Maxine Hong Kingston, Tripmaster Monkey [Seo-Young Chu] *1995: Philip Roth [Hana Wirth-Nesher] *2001: Twenty-first-century free verse [Stephen Burt] *2003: Richard Powers, The Time of Our Singing [Greil Marcus] *2005, August 29: Hurricane Katrina [Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors] *2008, November 4: Barack Obama [Kara Walker] * Contributors * Index

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Book SynopsisL.L. Langstroth at the Hive and the Honey-Bee is a seminal paintings authored through the use of Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth, an American apiarist and clergyman. This ebook is appeared as one of the most distinguished texts in the region of beekeeping and has made giant contributions to modern-day beekeeping techniques. Langstroth's invention, commonly referred to as the Langstroth hive or Langstroth beehive, revolutionized beekeeping by using incorporating moveable frames inside beehives. This ground-breaking layout enabled beekeepers to without problems check out and operate beehives, minimizing disruption to the bees and growing honey manufacturing. Langstroth's concept is still the typical beehive layout used around the sector. In The Hive and the Honey-Bee, Langstroth methodically describes the biology and conduct of honey bees, as well as their complicated social systems and value in pollination and honey production. He also gives sensible advice on beekeeping strategies, hive control, and honey extraction. Langstroth's writing is prominent through its readability and accessibility, making it a precious useful resource for each skilled and green beekeepers.

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Book SynopsisThe eastern Roman Empire was the largest state in western Eurasia in the sixth century. A century later, it was a fraction of its former size. Ravaged by warfare and disease, the empire seemed destined to collapse. Yet it did not die. John Haldon elucidates the factors that allowed the empire to survive against all odds into the eighth century.Trade ReviewHaldon masterfully integrates contemporary historical records, numismatic studies, and agricultural data to create an overall coherent picture of a turbulent age. -- A. J. Papalas * Choice *The Empire That Would Not Die is the latest contribution from a prolific scholar who has been laying the foundations of Byzantine history for the last twenty-five years. Haldon returns to seventh-century Byzantium with a new approach full of fresh insights. -- Averil Cameron, Keble College, University of OxfordA magisterial synthesis by a historian at the height of his powers, drawing on decades of sustained enquiry and scholarship. One hopes that this book will draw greater attention to its subject as a significant moment in world history. -- Eric A. Ivison * Speculum *

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Book SynopsisJianglin Li provides the first clear historical account of the Chinese crackdown in Lhasa in 1959. Sifting facts from the distortions of propaganda and partisan politics, she reconstructs a chronology of events that answers lingering questions and tells a gripping story of a crisis whose aftershocks continue to rattle the region today.Trade ReviewThrough her meticulous research and engaging narrative, Li is the first to convincingly reconstruct the events that forced the Dalai Lama to escape from Tibet. This pathbreaking book helps us understand why the violence of 1959 still resonates to this day. -- Frank Dikötter, author of Mao’s Great FamineA wonderful combination of really good storytelling and meticulous, painstaking research. We are left with a much more thorough understanding of what must have happened in the weeks before and after the Dalai Lama’s escape as well as a new certainty that there is much we will never know—or understand—for sure. -- Anne F. Thurston, coauthor of The Noodle Maker of KalimpongThis remarkable book is told with the narrative force of a compelling novel. Exposing the violence of the ‘peaceful liberation’ and the myth of ‘democratic reform,’ Li’s excavation of Tibet’s agony in the 1950s reveals that Mao hoped for the Tibetans to rise up in order to crush them and bring Tibet under Communist control. This pathbreaking book involved not only painstaking research into sources that have not been made public in English before, but also personal sacrifice by the author, who now lives in exile. -- Kate Saunders, Director of Communications, International Campaign for TibetShould be required reading. -- Jonathan Mirsky * The Spectator *Remarkable…for its meticulously researched and detailed exposé of Chinese duplicity and ruthlessness…What you hear turning every page of this book—the first book written with full access to official Chinese documents and accounts of the events—is the sound of scales falling from the eyes. -- Mick Brown * Literary Review *Li provides a look at March 1959 Lhasa that is by turns poetic and forensic. The book draws from extensive investigation of CCP-published documents, memoirs, and interviews with Tibetan participants, including the Dalai Lama circa 2009. -- Adam Cathcart * Chinese Historical Studies *

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Book SynopsisNeeti Nair explores the trend toward legal protection for the religious “sentiments” of majorities in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Nair offers historical context for contemporary persecution and rising religious fundamentalism, and highlights how growing political solicitation of religious sentiments has fueled a secular resistance.Trade ReviewNeeti Nair’s seminal work is bookended by one of the most significant issues of our times: the contentious and divisive Citizenship Amendments Bill…Its vast sweep of history, dating back to pre-Independence, straddles the space that sits between erudition and expatiation as well as reflection and retelling without descending into pedagogy and pamphleteering. -- Radhika Ramaseshan * The Tribune *This is an important book for all looking at the past to seek answers to what is going on in South Asia at present. -- Paranjoy Guha Thakurta * The Telegraph *Explores how secularism impacted state ideology in the decades after Partition in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh…Brilliant. -- Mani Shankar Aiyar * Frontline *Probably the most important and notable book on South Asian constitutional and political history this year. -- Yasser Latif Hamdani * Friday Times *A timely reminder that ascendant expressions of intolerance in South Asia are not aberrations…By exploring the connected historical causes of its current embattled state in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Hurt Sentiments stands out as an original work of research that has much to offer to scholars of South Asian history and politics. -- Shreya Das * South Asian Review *Represents a notable addition to the scholarly discourse on the evolving dimensions of secularism. This intellectual history work delves into the foundational and early years of the South Asian states, providing valuable insights into the complex interplay between secularism, identity and belonging. …This is an essential read. -- Ammad Ali * The News *[Nair is] able to simultaneously address those uninitiated in the politics of Hindu majoritarianism and minority communalism with a thought-through and riveting text, as well as provide food for contemplation for those who track the rise of divisive politics in India and its neighbours. -- Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay * Business Standard *A wide-ranging exploration of the many ways in which ‘hurt sentiments’ have been weaponised to disenfranchise and ghettoise religious minorities not just in India but across the subcontinent…Compelling. -- Paromita Chakrabarti * Indian Express *Richly layered and draw[s] upon a wealth of details…The real story—and this is indeed the novelty and strength of Nair’s book—is how Gandhi’s death, and Godse’s defence in court shaped post colonial secularism, and the way in which minority rights were framed. -- Manisha Sethi * Biblio *Provides helpful detail about parliamentary and constitutional debates in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan to show how majoritarian parties and interests mobilized and expanded the scope of ‘hurt sentiments’ to marginalize minorities…A valuable resource for students and scholars of South Asia. -- Humeira Iqtidar * Asian Affairs *An important contribution…Give[s] critical insights into the ideology and practices of South Asian secularists and their role in the weakening of secularism as a political force in the region. -- Sunny Kumar * Indian Economic and Social History Review *If defining concepts is an attempt to make our societies livable, it is a task worth to be taken. Nair does a remarkable job of showing how South Asian lawmakers navigated it. The book provides insights into what happened at the founding moments that influence the trajectory of the political life in the nation and its constituent elements, notably the marginalized. -- Iymon Majid * Doing Sociology *The strength of the book is its historical detail and its comparative work. Nair maps out in great detail how each of these three nations — India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, begin with secularism as an ideology of the state. -- Shefali Jha * Book Review *An engaging, insightful, and deeply researched account of the trajectory of secularism in South Asia. Nair brilliantly juxtaposes debates in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh to reveal how ‘hurt sentiments’ have imperiled secularism in different ways. Her focus on the late 1960s and 1970s as a pivotal moment in the transformation of secularism is entirely original, and powerfully illuminates its contemporary politics. -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta, author of The Burden of DemocracyBreaking important new ground, Nair tracks the convoluted history of secularist practices in the subcontinent, in contrast to the more conventional preoccupation with their conceptual content. In the process, she enriches and complicates theories of Indian secularism. Historians and political sociologists of South Asia, as well as political theorists in general, will find much to appreciate. A truly significant work. -- Tanika Sarkar, author of Hindu Nationalism in IndiaOpening with a brilliant chapter on the political aftermath of Gandhi’s assassination, Nair offers a new, compelling interpretation of the place of religion in the public life of postcolonial India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Hurt Sentiments deftly reconnects the history of ideas with the history of governmental practice. Making extensive and skillful use of constituent assembly and parliamentary debates, Nair provides a rare depth of historical understanding of censorship, civil liberties, blasphemy laws, and the fraught quest for secularism in the subcontinent. -- Sugata Bose, author of His Majesty’s Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India’s Struggle against EmpireIn a wide-ranging intellectual history, Nair deftly explores the interrelated trajectories of freedom of expression to religion and public life in India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Hurt Sentiments offers a thoughtful history that is urgently relevant to questions of the present day. -- Alyssa Ayres, author of Our Time Has Come: How India Is Making Its Place in the WorldThis timely book speaks to the embattled state of secularism and minorities in South Asia over the last few years, keeping in view the legacies of colonialism and partition. Crossing national boundaries, it offers an insightful history of how majoritarian politics has mobilized the idea of ‘hurt sentiments’ to marginalize minority communities and redefine state ideologies in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Nair makes clear that the fate of secularism is not about an abstract ideology but concerns the polities where minorities enjoy equality. -- Gyan Prakash, author of Emergency Chronicles: Indira Gandhi and Democracy’s Turning PointA sensitive, historically textured, and wide-ranging assessment of the way in which hate speech and the weaponizing of ‘hurt sentiments’ efface the political agency of religious minorities across India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Nair assesses key conjunctures in colonial and postcolonial South Asia that led to either creative debate about constitutional guarantees for minorities or violent populist sentiment winning the day. Essential reading for our troubled times. -- Radhika Singha, author of The Coolie's Great War: Indian Labour in a Global Conflict, 1914–1921

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Book SynopsisTHE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERUSA TODAY AND PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BESTSELLER'Salena Zito…. She understands you people and me better than we do.” -- President Donald J. Trump“You're going to learn things in this book. Beautifully written. Story after story after story.' -- Mark Levin​From the acclaimed journalist standing only a few feet away from the stage when the gunshots began is this gripping first-hand account of the near assassination of Donald Trump – and the inside story of Trump’s heartland-fueled victory.  That day in Butler, had the wind gusted less, had Trump’s head turned in a slightly different direction, or had the adrenaline-fueled heart of the shooter beat slower, America would have been plunged into chaos, possibly even civil war. As a local reporter with deep ties to the area, Salena Zito had been invited by the president to interview him at the Butler Farm Show Grounds. She was standing only four feet away from the presidential podium when the bullets started to fly. A campaign staffer tackled her to the ground. Throughout it all, Salena never stopped reporting. She spoke by phone to Trump several times in the immediate aftermath and was granted access to community members, rally participants, family members and local law enforcement officials. “I rarely look away from the crowd,” Trump told her in one of several of those conversations. “Had I not done that in that moment, well, we would not be talking today, would we?” Known for her on-the-ground reporting on populism and rural America, Salena zooms out to tell the fascinating story of the battle for America’s heartland and the issues that actually motivate voters. To understand how and why Trump won the 2024 election, you have to understand places like Butler. Big cities like Los Angeles, New York and D.C. don’t decide who wins election cycles, but people in places like Butler, Pennsylvania sure do. President Trump gave the author extraordinary access for this book, including to his top aides, to his running mate JD Vance, to billionaire supporter Elon Musk, and even his security detail.  There are moments that define America. The late afternoon hours of July 13, 2024 was one of them. This book is a narrative of that fateful day, the people of the heartland and the untold story of how the president found his way back into the heart of the electorate.

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Book SynopsisThis is the extraordinary story of the author’s twenty year quest to find gold coins which his father’s family buried in their backyard in Poland just prior to being deported by the Nazis into concentration camps. His father survived the war but died when the author was a teenager, leaving him only with the knowledge that he had buried coins somewhere in Poland, and no information about his family. During his quest, Biederman uncovers many interesting and disturbing facts about his father and mother and their families, such as the fact that his father was the third person on Oskar Schindler’s list and had a chance meeting with Adolph Hitler, and that his mother was selected as a cook for the infamous Dr. Josef Mengele. The book details the author’s quest to unearth his family’s past and his father’s treasure and continues with his parent’s amazing post-war years in Europe and their eventual arrival in North America.Table of Contents Introduction The Quest Begins 1993–1996: Relocating to Windsor 1996: Travel to Poland Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland: July 1944 Auschwitz-Birkenau: 1996 Krosno Airbase, Poland: August 27, 1941 Fate of My Father’s Family I Receive Unexpected News Maidstone Ontario: Spring 2001 New Information Changes Our Course December 4, 1939: Zeglarska 7, Lodz, Poland Europe: 2001 Majdanek Lodz Postwar Europe Maidstone, Ontario: 2001 through 2003 Yaron Svoray New York: July 2003 Maidstone, Ontario: 2003 Wednesday April 21, 2004: Maidstone, Ontario Poland: April 2004 Jedwabne Wolf’s Lair Berlin 1946 Warsaw: 2004 Windsor: Spring/Summer 2004 Lodz: October 2004 Wroclaw Gross-Rosen The Trip Home April 1949 and Beyond: The American Journey Back Home: Ontario, 2004 Late 2004–Present: Epilogue

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Book SynopsisAs Spang explains, during the 1760s and 1770s, sensitive, self-described sufferers made public show of their delicacy by going to the new establishments known as “restaurateurs’ rooms” to sip bouillons. But these locations soon became sites for extending frugal, politically correct hospitality and later became symbols of aristocratic greed.Trade ReviewSpang has written an ambitious, thought-changing book. Until now, most restaurant history was pop history, filled with canned ‘Eureka!’ moments and arch legend-making… Spang’s book is an example of the new ‘niche’ history, and, like the best of such books, it is rich in weird data, unsung heroes, and bizarre true stories about the making of familiar things. -- Adam Gopnik * New Yorker *[A] pleasingly spiced history of the restaurant… How has [the] restaurant ritual come to be? And why does it have this form? Such questions are now familiar in works of cultural and social history…[but] Spang adds to the genre without falling prey to its jargon. -- Edward Rothstein * New York Times *This prize-winning academic historical study is a lively, engrossing, authoritative account of how the restaurant as we know it developed… Rebecca Spang is consistently perceptive about the semiotics of her theme, and as generous in her helpings of historical detail as any glutton could wish. * The Times *No more fables about ancien régime chefs, whose aristo patrons had been guillotined or exiled in the French Revolution…an end to those anecdotes about their invention of dishes broiled on a breastplate on some Napoleonic battlefield. Because Spang reveals the restaurant’s first true author: Mathurin Roze de Chantoiseau, ‘friend of all the world,’ an entrepreneur who edited an annual business directory in which he recommended himself as the ‘king’s restauranteur’ and founder of the first ‘house of health.’ -- Vera Rule * The Guardian *Rebecca Spang explodes a culinary myth that has lasted nearly two hundred years. -- Margaret Visser * London Review of Books *Almost every page of this decidedly scholarly though highly readable book gave me something to think about: the origins of restaurant reviewing in the early years of the 19th century, the way in which other Europeans came to identify the restaurant with the essence of French-ness itself, or the fact that in French one word—carte—does double duty for both menu and map. -- Michael Gora * Boston Sunday Globe *The perfect book for a time of year that celebrates, among other things, food. Historian Rebecca Spang begins with an inspired question: Why are there restaurants? To answer this, she takes the reader back a couple of centuries to France, when a restaurant was actually a thing to eat and not a place to go. Her well-researched, compelling book deservedly won several awards. * Globe and Mail *Readers hungry for mouth-watering accounts of sumptuous meals or paeans to the glories of French cuisine will not find them here. Spang’s focus is on the restaurant as an institution, and her history pretty much ends in the mid-19th century. Spang is far more interested in viewing restaurants in a wider social, political, and historical context. Her book is well…argued, dryly witty, and full of fascinating details. -- Merle Rubin * Los Angeles Times *Spang writes entertainingly, with a keen sense of humor and with no great reverence for her subject. It is a refreshing contrast to much of the overwritten adulation of restaurants that passes for criticism today. -- Roger Harris * Newark Star-Ledger *The title of Rebecca L. Spang’s scholarly yet highly accessible social history, The Invention of the Restaurant, causes a small jolt of surprise. For people who eat out so often that boiling a pot of spaghetti at home is a special occasion, a world without restaurants is hard to imagine. We realize, at some level, that they have not always been here, but few of us could say who invented them, or when… Much of this information is ignored in the standard food histories, and Spang’s excavation of it makes for interesting reading, particularly because the French Revolution and its aftermath would change restaurants almost beyond recognition, into something very like the places where we go out to eat today. -- Pete Wells * Salon *Spang presents her story as an excursive and discursive feast, seasons it with wit and gentle irony, lards it with cameos, quotations, and illustrations. Her appetizing message is served with a deft touch. -- Eugen Weber * American Historical Review *Why do restaurants exist? Why do we go to restaurants? Reading Rebecca Spang’s Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture does not directly answer these questions on a personal level, but it does, with many insights, help illuminate the history and sociology of eating out… Spang’s book, while thoroughly researched, is highly readable and enjoyable. This French Revolution of the table will obviously interest amateurs and professionals of culinary topics. I would argue, though, that the book should intrigue even more many readers with no knowledge or particular love of the kitchen. Because every chapter is well introduced and focuses on a particular aspect of the restaurant, such varied fields of study as sociology, history, economy, science, literature, and law find their place. As a result, the book will appeal to many types of readers including undergraduates and graduates. Of special interest is the way Spang considers the public-and-private-sphere debate as well as her unique approach of the French Revolution. Her analysis is accomplished in great detail—starting with the various definitions of the evolution of the word ‘restaurant’—and includes many frontspieces, caricatures, and copious notes. Finally, Spang’s book is an engaging portrait and a serious but accessible tool for understanding the metamorphosis of the emerging modern French society. The Invention of the Restaurant deserves to be read by all. -- Veronique Olivier-Wallis * Eighteenth-Century Book Reviews Online *By focusing on the development of gastronomy as a discourse, and by analyzing that discourse’s constitutive claims to autonomy, Spang offers a more nuanced understanding of what makes her study important and new, if not revolutionary… With its engaging prose style and its judicious use of both scholarly apparatus and illustrations, the book is reminiscent of the work of John Brewer and Simon Schama (not coincidentally, since the latter was Spang’s thesis director). Offering both a detailed history of the emergence of the restaurant and an introduction to the major cultural and political movements of the revolutionary era, The Invention of the Restaurant spans the period from 1770 to about 1840. -- Jody Greene * Eighteenth-Century Studies *It is by now hardly necessary to point out that this is an excellent book. Rebecca Spang’s Invention of the Restaurant well deserves the prizes and enthusiastic reviews it has garnered from both academic and non-academic sources since its appearance in 2000. The reasons for these successes are easy to discern. Spang’s book is delightful to read, beautifully constructed and concerned with a topic of immediate appeal: how and why was the restaurant invented? …A splendid work showing considerable erudition and great narrative talent. I look forward to reading Spang’s next publication. -- Rebecca Earle * French History *This is a book that works on a number of different levels. There is meat and drink here for those interested in the metaphysical and metaphorical aspects of eating; a wealth of erudition on some relatively little studied aspects of Enlightenment culture and the French Revolution; and those scholars of the period who follow convention in regarding the rise of the French restaurant as epiphenomenon of the French Revolution, a well presented challenge to their account. -- Kate Soper * Radical Philosophy *Spang chronicles these developments [in the history of restaurants] in a tasty work, which is about far more than food. * Harvard Magazine *Spang traces [the] history [of restaurants] and challenges the traditional gastronomic narrative of dining out in the French capital… Spang’s work should appeal to readers seriously interested in the social and intellectual history of dining out. -- Mary Carroll * Booklist *A deeply gratifying social history of the Parisian public food world, as multilayered and earthy as pot-au-feu, for all its scholarship, as agreeably informal as a bistro. * Kirkus Reviews *

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Book SynopsisA sweeping and comprehensive new oral history of the atomic bomb's creation and deployment, on the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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Book SynopsisThe History of Akbar by Abu’l-Fazl is one of the most important works of Indo-Persian history. The eighth and final volume includes the conquest of Ahmadnagar, prince Salim’s rebellion, and the emperor’s final days. The Persian text is presented in the Naskh script along with a new English translation.Trade ReviewOf all the great monarchs to have ruled over India—a land whose history is richer and more turbulent than that of almost any other—the one who most retains our modern-day attention is Akbar, Mughal emperor from 1556 to 1605…[The History of Akbar] includes accounts of his court and his governance, as well as of the wars, alliances and intrigues of his time…Thackston’s translation is the first complete rendition into English of Abu’l-Fazl’s Persian text since Henry Beveridge, a British orientalist and imperial civil servant, completed his version in 1921…Thackston’s English is modern and…[his] translation…is impressively meticulous. -- Tunku Varadarajan * Wall Street Journal *At a time when Hindutva historians are eager to distort the history of Muslim invasions in order to deepen religious cleavages and consolidate vote banks, [Abu’l-Fazl's] elaboration of Akbar’s legacy as a tolerant Muslim ruler of a non-Muslim majority is an important reminder of how Indian society has evolved. -- Pragya Tiwari * India at LSE blog *We can only welcome an undertaking like the Murty Classical Library of India, which intends to inject fresh blood directly into the circulatory system of the English language. Any intelligent reader cannot fail to be favorably impressed in the presence of the variegated offerings of the series’ first titles…The Murty Classical Library offers a surprising array of texts that are in any case capable of broadening the all-too-restricted horizons of the average Western reader. -- Roberto Calasso * New York Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisOne of the most exciting periods of Britain’s history under the Romans remains largely unknown today. Yet, at the end of third century AD, two men successively ruled the island, together with parts of the Continental coast, as emperors of Britannia for a period of ten years. They minted their own coins, initiated Britain’s first truly integrated defence system and successfully repelled an invasion from the mighty Roman empire. This is the story of Carausius and Allectus – the rebel emperors of Britannia.

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Book SynopsisFrom the ashes of empire, the nation rose on a wave of idealism. That, at least, is the standard tale. Dominique Reill argues that empire retained many supporters after 1919. Investigating the post-WWI crisis in multicultural, urbane Fiume, she finds that the stories of empire’s cosmopolitans have been overwritten by the triumph of nationalism.Trade Review[An] excellent example of how modern historians are adding texture to our understanding of 20th-century Europe…The colorful story of Fiume has indeed been told before, but never with so many fresh and fascinating insights as Reill provides. -- Tony Barber * Financial Times *Reill’s depiction of the local, enriched by massive research in Rijeka’s archives (and some at the Vittoriale [degli Italiani]), is a delight…One of the pleasures of Reill’s work is its inclusion of period photographs…Throughout the book, Reill paints deft portraits of people and events. -- R. J. B. Bosworth * Literary Review *So important…By looking at the ways in which the grandiose D’Annunizian rhetorical flourishes were translated into pragmatic everyday life solutions, Reill opens up an important conversation on What Is History and Who Gets to Write It…With the rigor of a scholar and the artistry of a bard, she finds not just a story to represent the complexities of speaking local problems into a larger global conversation. She finds the story, the case study, the Martin Guerre who articulates a worldview. -- Aliza Wong * Los Angeles Review of Books *An important addition to a hitherto neglected area of Habsburg studies, by helping to disrupt the common wisdom…Brilliantly written…A path-breaking contribution in reconsidering the imperial transitions in twentieth-century Europe. -- Marco Bresciani * H-Net Reviews *As this impeccably researched and engagingly written book demonstrates, the Habsburg monarchy’s afterlife is often as interesting as its proper history. -- Ian D. Armour * History Today *A superb book, smartly conceived and beautifully written. With a genius for unearthing fascinating stories of local people, then using them to illuminate larger issues, Reill forces us to reconsider in profound ways how we conceive the history of the immediate postwar period in Europe. This history from below questions stale nationalist certainties and depicts vividly how communities worked to create their own options in a challenging postwar world. -- Pieter Judson, author of The Habsburg Empire: A New HistoryThe Fiume Crisis offers a fundamentally new way of thinking about war and postwar rebuilding. By zooming in to a specific city at the crossroads of many different pasts and multiple possible futures, Reill provides a fresh perspective on who makes history happen—bilingual cabbage sellers and young schoolteachers, emigré lawyers and seductive dockworkers—all those who tried to create a city that could escape the ravages of war and economic devastation. Their creativity and vision, triumphs and failures come alive in this breathtaking story. -- Alison Frank Johnson, author of Oil Empire: Visions of Prosperity in Austrian GaliciaIn this fascinating and important book Reill transforms our understanding of both the Fiume crisis and the whole geopolitical metamorphosis of Europe that followed World War I. She shows that the struggle over the city between Italy and Yugoslavia reflected a much deeper and more complex history of Adriatic identities in a Habsburg and post-Habsburg context. -- Larry Wolff, author of Woodrow Wilson and the Reimagining of Eastern EuropeA magisterial account of everyday life in the multi-ethnic city of Fiume after the end of the Great War. Moving well beyond the familiar story of the soldier-poet Gabriele D’Annunzio and his occupation of Fiume, Reill succeeds in telling the fascinating story of how a city of considerable cultural complexity dealt with the challenges of being a small successor state in a post-imperial world. -- Robert Gerwarth, author of November 1918: The German RevolutionA brilliant reevaluation of the nationalist myths and legends that have grown up around the history of Fiume under Gabriele D’Annunzio. Shifting our gaze away from his charismatic personality to the experiences of the citizens of Fiume, Reill demonstrates the persistence of imperial loyalties underpinning their quest for greater autonomy. This book forces us to question what we think we know about the relationship between nationalism and empire in the aftermath of the First World War. -- Tara Zahra, author of The Great Departure: Mass Migration from Eastern Europe and the Making of the Free WorldIn this gem of a book, Reill peels away the sensational stories that made Fiume notorious as both a diplomatic thorn in Woodrow Wilson’s peacemaking and the prancing ground of proto-fascist Gabriele D’Annunzio, revealing a more thrilling, politically meaningful history. In the plucky polyglot city’s colliding authorities, crazy quilt laws, and contradictory wants, Reill vividly captures the human comedy as well as the shoals on which hopes for the Great Peace to follow the Great War foundered. -- Victoria de Grazia, author of The Perfect Fascist: A Story of Love, Power, and Morality in Mussolini’s ItalyReill offers a new interpretation of Fiume…Will surely be one of the most, if not the most influential monograph on Fiume in years to come…Impressive in its thoroughness. -- Ágnes Ordasi * Hungarian Historical Review *Reill seeks to show how ordinary Fiumians navigated this period of crisis in the history of their city…Her research reveals their pragmatism as they tried to make the best of their new position as an isolated city-state in the age of nations. -- Liam Hoare * Metropole *[A] crucial new study…A thorough and convincing portrait of a city striving to come to terms with the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian empire and find its way in an evolving political landscape…Reill has produced a compelling analysis of how fundamental day-to-day issues such as currency, legal codes, citizenship, and school curriculums were dealt with in the city. This is a scrupulous, sober, history from below that is essential in a context such as d’Annunzio’s Fiume, which was all about imposing an image from above. -- Aidan O’Malley * Dublin Review of Books *Engaging…Readers will finish this book enthusiastic about Fiume. But they will also come away with new insights into the creative ways that Europeans tackled the aftermath of World War I on the ground…Reill highlights the importance of considering both the imperial and the local if we want to understand the end of World War I or the mapping of interwar Europe. -- Caitlin E. Murdock * Canadian-American Slavic Studies *Particularly relevant to historians of Habsburg Europe, while challenging standard accounts of modern Italian history. The history of interwar Fiume is much more than an Italian story, more than the prehistory of Italian Fascism. Extremely erudite, well-written, and illustrated with many astonishing photographs. -- Axel Körner * Austrian History Yearbook *An important contribution to the burgeoning literature on post-1918 Europe and the debate on continuities between empires and nation-states…This accomplished study invites further discussion and research on a key moment in European history. -- Laurence Cole * Journal of Modern History *

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Book SynopsisThis is a book that makes sense of the complexities of Scottish history in an insightful way, at a glance. Anna Groundwater has long experience of dealing with British, foreign and Scottish students, of all ages, who are bewildered by the huge task of trying to reconcile the development of Scotland as a nation with what they know of global history. Over time she has developed a way of presenting Scottish history, within a simple framework of dates, which students find helpful.

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Book SynopsisMichael Breidenbach traces American secularism to an unexpected source: not Enlightenment liberalism but Catholic tradition. Suspected of dual loyalty, colonial American Catholics drew on the medieval doctrine of conciliarism to declare independence from the pope. Conciliarism inspired their push for toleration, shaping the nation at large.Trade ReviewAn impressive work of historical scholarship that makes a persuasive case for the importance of American Catholics in the story of American religious liberty…Breidenbach has broken new ground. -- Lael Weinberger * National Review *An original, provocative contribution to the study of U.S. Catholic history. -- George Weigel * First Things *The definitive treatment of the Catholic quest for religious toleration in America…An excellent work that should be read by anyone interested in church–state relations in early America. -- Mark David Hall * Law & Liberty *[A] superb study of American attitudes toward Catholicism in the founding era. -- Gerard V. Bradley * Claremont Review of Books *Can Catholics be Americans?…Breidenbach offers a persuasive account of how Catholics have wrestled with this question since the earliest days of the Maryland Colony. In so doing, he exhumes treasures of great significance for our own time…Opens up new vistas on the history of religion in the American colonies. -- Bill McCormick * America *One of the most comprehensive and well-researched histories of American colonial Catholicism of our generation…A triumph of academic scholarship yet also a pleasure to read…Rich in its account of how Catholics contributed to the American tradition of religious liberty. -- James Patterson * Public Discourse *[An] important new book…Required reading for anyone who wants to delve deeply into the American founding and how it came to achieve the constitutional separation of church and state that has so shaped our culture and society. Breidenbach’s achievement is large. -- Michael Sean Winters * National Catholic Reporter *An essential corrective to the dominant narratives of early American church/state separation. By integrating Maryland Catholics and conciliarism into this history, [this book] demonstrates that early American secularism took root not only in republican ideology and Protestantism, but also in a Catholic political theology that, against Protestant assumptions and accusations, defined the colonial-era American Catholic experience. May it inspire further inclusive rethinking of American secularism’s origins. -- Dawn Coleman * Early American Literature *What has medieval Catholic ecclesiology and political thought to do with the US Constitution? Much more than anyone thought, it turns out, as Breidenbach shows in this impressively researched, superbly argued, and beautifully written book. Our Dear-Bought Liberty will compel a rethinking of church–state relations, religious liberty and toleration, and the place of Catholicism in American history. A truly important, original work. -- Brad S. Gregory, author of The Unintended Reformation: How a Religious Revolution Secularized SocietyBreidenbach’s provocative book makes the case for Catholics’ intellectual contributions to the juridical separation of church and state. Ranging from medieval jurist John of Paris to James Madison, this vigorously argued, richly sourced work should permanently widen the lens through which American constitutional history is discussed and debated. -- Catherine O’Donnell, author of Men of Letters in the Early Republic: Cultivating Forums of CitizenshipAn extremely interesting and well-written book. It isn’t easy to make a new contribution to the much-studied topic of religious liberty in colonial America, but Breidenbach does so by exploring the subject within the broad tradition of conciliarist or Gallican Catholic thinking about the nature of papal authority. Situating the American experience within an often overlooked dimension of European religious history, he offers a valuable perspective on historical questions that remain enormously important to the study of early America, early modern Britain, and the Atlantic world. -- Jeffrey Collins, author of In the Shadow of Leviathan: John Locke and the Politics of ConscienceIn this remarkably well researched book, Breidenbach shows that Anglo-American Catholics embraced a centuries-old intellectual tradition within Catholicism to contribute to the idea of church–state separation that ultimately took root in the United States. He deftly shows that American Catholics were not the grateful beneficiaries of church–state separation; rather, they were early—and natural—architects of it. -- Maura Jane Farrelly, author of Papist Patriots: The Making of an American Catholic IdentityOur Dear-Bought Liberty sheds new light on the Catholic origins of religious liberty in the United States and its constitutional tradition. Although colonial Catholics are often forgotten and overlooked, Breidenbach asserts their wide-ranging impact in the Maryland colony and the nascent republic as they helped shape the American understanding of religious liberty. This extensively researched and eloquent work leads the reader to a greater appreciation of this central theme advanced by Catholics from the Constitutional Convention to the Second Vatican Council. -- Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New YorkA valuable reconstruction of a hitherto poorly understood dimension of American religious liberty. -- Evan Haefeli * Journal of Church and State *Breidenbach has gifted us with a synthesis of years of research into early modern Anglo-American Catholicism…He revises, definitively, the picture of Catholic involvement in the forging of religious liberty in America, from ideals to rhetoric to actual laws. -- Shaun Blanchard * Newman Studies Journal *Breidenbach’s history of Catholics in early America provides a much more nuanced and insightful treatment of the relationship between the American constitutional order and the Catholic faith as understood by prominent Catholics who took part in the Founding. -- Jerome C. Foss * Interpretation *Unequivocally excellent, one of the most important recent books in modern Catholic history. Clearly argued, brilliantly researched, important in its implications, Breidenbach’s book convincingly lays out how the Reform Catholic, or conciliar Catholic, tradition—deeply Catholic but resolutely opposed to any papal interference in temporal politics—shaped the American idea of religious liberty. We needed Our Dear-Bought Liberty. -- John T. McGreevy, author of American Jesuits and the World: How an Embattled Religious Order Made Modern Catholicism GlobalThis volume is a challenging and welcome exploration of the relationship between American and Catholic principles around the time of the American Founding, which itself is a contemporary example of a perennial question regarding faith and culture. As Breidenbach ably demonstrates, Catholics did participate in the creation of the American republic and its commitment to human freedom and human flourishing; they were not simply a convenient foil against which the new regime might define itself. -- Thomas W. Jodziewicz * Touchstone *

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Book SynopsisHomilies collects seven sermons delivered by Sophronios during his short tenure as patriarch of Jerusalem, which coincided with the Holy City’s capitulation to the Arab army in 638 CE. Based on a completely new edition of the Byzantine Greek text, this is the first English translation of the homilies of Sophronios.

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2022 Ab Imperio Award for the Best Study in New Imperial History and History of Diversity in Northern EurasiaThis first English-language synthesis of the history of Dnipro (until 2016 Dnipropetrovsk, until 1926 Katerynoslav) locates the city in a broader regional, national, and transnational context and explores the interaction between global processes and everyday routines of urban life. The history of a place (throughout its history called ‘new Athens’, ‘Ukrainian Manchester’, ‘the Brezhnev`s capital’ and ‘the heart of Ukraine’) is seen through the prism of key threads in the modern history of Europe: the imperial colonization and industrialization, the war and the revolution in the borderlands, the everyday life and mythology of a Soviet closed city, and the transformations of post-Soviet Ukraine. Designed as a critical entangled history of the multicultural space, the book looks for a new analytical language to overcome the traps of both national and imperial history-writing.Trade Review“Overall, the book offers a vivid assemblage of interwoven storylines and episodes from the city’s multi-dimensional past, which combined result in an entangled history of Dnipro as a European city. This book is an essential read for everyone wishing to understand the multi-layered history of Ukraine and diversity of its regions.”— Olena Palko, European History Quarterly“Andrii Portnov has written a fascinating, well-illustrated book about an ‘entangled’ history of the Ukrainian city of Dnipro/Dnipropetrovsk… After reading Portnov’s amazing study about a history of the city of my youth, I reevaluated Dnipro’s complicated past… Portnov’s book is a most interesting and important contribution to the field of the Ukrainian studies, demonstrating the role of such multinational cities as Dnipro in the Ukrainian struggle against the Russian and Soviet empires.”— Sergei I. Zhuk, Russian Review“It is rare to find a book title more apt than the one selected by Andrii Portnov for his monograph Dnipro. An Entangled History of a European City. … I claim so because Portnov, in publishing the first English-language monograph on the history of Katerynoslav (1776–1926), then Dnipropetrovsk (1926–2016), and now Dnipro (since 2016), today the fourth largest city in Ukraine by population, has expertly demonstrated how to apply this approach to the past in practice. … Portnov’s historical tale of Katerynoslav / Dnipropetrovsk / Dnipro faithfully and consequently reflects the entangled character of the city’s history.”— Tomasz Stryjek, Kultura i Społeczeństwo“One outstanding feature of the book is its ability to bring different strands of Ukrainian historiography into dialogue. … [T]he footnotes are a priceless treasure trove of source material, secondary literature in Western languages, Russian, and, most importantly, Ukrainian and Polish. The book is written in straightforward, relatable English and is easily accessible to readers possessing no prior knowledge of Ukrainian or Russian history. … Although Portnov’s book ends before Russia’s attempted total invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it offers very timely reading, integrating different strands of Ukraine’s history into the story of a city. … In combining a multitude of different sources, research literature, and narrative styles (from interviews to close reading of sources to birds-eye geopolitical analyses), this book highlights the complexity and often contradictory nature of Dnipro’s history. This does not always make for easy reading, but following the different paths of this European city is worthy of the reader’s time.”— Boris Belge, H-Soz-Kult“This book is a great example of a history of a place that resists any linear genealogy. Andrii Portnov introduces this place—Dnipro (Ekaterynoslav/Katerynoslav, Dnipropetrovsk/Dnepropetrovsk)—as a city without ‘a single national majority, well-established self-identification, or a broadly recognizable mythology,’ and manages to avoid ascribing it one. His ‘entangled history’ approach combines a thorough, sometimes truly fascinating exploration of local circumstances with a broader perspective on the dynamics that Dnipro embodied in the pre-1917 and Soviet imperial formations. The book discusses the overlapping (national and social) revolutions, cultural movements in the city, considerable economic transformations, local religious and linguistic patterns, and aspects of basic everyday coexistence, cooperation, and competition of the city’s various ethnic and confessional communities. Dnipro is simultaneously a microhistory and a decentered history of ‘European,’ imperial, and national modernity. Finally, Portnov’s ‘entangled history’ explains the evolution of typically ‘Eastern Ukrainian’ Dnipropetrovsk into a center of Ukrainian resistance against pro-Russian separatism after the Euromaidan (2013–14) and later, its defiance of Russian aggression. The book thus offers a unique view, still lacking in English, on modern Ukrainianness. It deserves to be broadly read by all those interested in historical complexity and human agency’s potential to overcome the determinism of the past.”— Marina Mogilner, Edward and Marianna Thaden Chair in Russian and East European Intellectual History, University of Illinois at Chicago"This is a brilliant study of Katerynoslav-Dnipropetrovsk-Dnipro – the changes of the name are a first indicator of the dramatic fate of this extraordinary urban project. Andrii Portnov draws a fascinating portrait of the city that evolved from a new Athens in Southern Russia to a Soviet Manchester and finally to a stronghold of Ukrainian independence. He explains the rather surprising resistance against the covert Russian aggression in 2014 against the background of the multifaceted history of the city. Portnov takes an innovative, methodologically reflected approach and includes cultural, religious, social and political aspects in his nuanced analysis. As Portnov convincingly shows, the entangled history of Dnipro can be read as a history of Ukraine in nuce.”— Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schmid, Eastern European Studies, University of St. Gallen (Switzerland)“The fascinating city of Dnipro on the river bearing the same name is indispensable for understanding modern Ukraine and modern Eastern Europe. Surprisingly for the city of its size and importance, very little has been written about Dnipro. Andriy Portnov’s pathbreaking study finally gives the city its due. Portnov promises and delivers an ‘entangled history’ at its very best. Not only are the fates of the city’s many ethnic groups intertwined and interdependent, the city itself is written into a broader story of global processes and events that have shaped the modern world. As the book shows those global forces themselves are interlocked and materialize in all their complexity only in concrete tangible places, and Andriy Portnov’s Dnipro is one of those places.”— Andriy Zayarnyuk, Professor of History, University of Winnipeg“Professor Portnov has written an outstanding history of Dnipro, one of the most interesting cities in Ukraine. He reveals how, by the turn of the twentieth century, this Russian imperial outpost in the, South named Katerynoslav after Catherine II, became a ‘new Manchester,’ an industrial hub straddling a major river, the Dnipro. In 1926 the Soviets renamed it Dnipropetrovsk after the local Bolshevik leader Hryhorii Petrovsky. A major center of Jewish settlement that produced important Zionist leaders, Dnipropetrovsk saw the brutal murder of its Jews during the Holocaust. The Soviets then turned it into a well-supplied ‘closed city’ producing intercontinental ballistic missiles. By examining the situational responses of the local elites and civil society, Portnov solves the puzzle of present-day Dnipro, now stripped of Petrovsky’s ghost: how this eastern Ukrainian city became a Ukrainian stronghold against Russian aggression. This book makes a major contribution to the field.”— Serhy Yekelchyk, author of Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to KnowTable of ContentsIntroduction: “The Unfinished City” and Its Histories1. The Potemkin City2. Manchester on the Dnipro3. The Symphony of Revolutions4. The Soviet Dnipropetrovsk5. A City at War 6. Brezhnev’s CapitalEpilogue: Neither the City Number One nor the City Number Two BibliographyIndex

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Book Synopsis“With clarity and penetrating insight, Alex Ryvchin unravels the mystery of antisemitism… Mandatory reading for anyone concerned with the ethical fate of the human race.” ― Isaac Herzog, President of the State of IsraelThe 7 Deadly Myths traces antisemitism from its earliest origins to the present day and uncovers the dangerous conspiracy theories that have corrupted reasoning and led people and nations to diabolical acts. Exploring some of the most significant events in history and uncovering little-known villains, this book answers the questions of how antisemitism takes hold, how it is transmitted and how it inspires violence to the present day. Written in a clear and compelling style, this book is essential to understanding why this ancient hatred continues to plague society, inspiring pop stars, athletes and demagogues alike. It is a crucial resource for policy makers, students and the reading public seeking to understand racism and how it can be stopped.Trade Review“With clarity and penetrating insight, Alex Ryvchin unravels the mystery of antisemitism, distilling the roots of this most tenacious and pernicious conspiracy theory into seven fundamental myths. By shifting emphasis from the ‘why’ of this puzzling and dangerous phenomenon to the ‘how’ of the mechanics of its transmission, Ryvchin points to the possibility of actually confronting and diffusing it. This highly intelligent and well-written work should be on the mandatory reading list of anyone seeking to understand the age-old phenomenon of antisemitism, but moreso, of anyone concerned with the ethical fate of the human race.”— His Excellency Isaac Herzog, President of the State of Israel“[A] congenitally optimistic (or maybe just stubborn) Soviet-born Australian Jew has taken up the challenge of confronting this ever-present, baseless hatred. Endowed with both talent and passion, Alex Ryvchin… is well suited for the task. … With an easy, entertaining style devoid of ponderous didactics, his footnotes unintrusive, he fits a plethora of information into improbably few pages. Indeed, Ryvchin does a remarkable job of getting straight to the core, and he is truly masterful in unmasking the nonsensical prejudices without excessive rhetoric. … Intended as a resource for students, educators, and policymakers, this page-turner contains fascinating accounts of conspiracy theories, stunning in their absurdity. If calling the monstrous lies ‘myths’ seems overly generous, it does set the right tone for Ryvchin’s appeal to reason. … Only by exposing myths and lies is there any hope of healing, and the future of the Jewish people may become more tranquil. History has yet to prove whether this can occur, but miracles have been known to happen and may do so again.”— Juliana Geran Pilon, Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs“A smart, concise, and very up-to-date guide to the world’s oldest hatred.”— David Baddiel, author of Jews Don’t Count“Ryvchin is an invaluable resource in his knowledge of our challenges and what needs to be done to address them, as well as in his stalwart commitment to the future of Jewish community life. His book is clear, persuasive, and a pleasure to read. Ryvchin takes a complex and ancient hatred and shows us where it comes from, how it changes, and how it remains the same. Essential reading for educators, policy makers and anyone seeking to grapple with the dangerous rise in conspiracy theories and Jew hatred.”— Ronald S. Lauder, President, World Jewish Congress“Alex Ryvchin has made a significant contribution to the field of antisemitism studies. In a very readable narrative, he uses seven of the most powerful stereotypes about Jews to encompass the history of Jew hatred and in doing so lends perspective to what’s happening now. At this moment in history when antisemitism has found new life around the world, this is a timely and important work.”— Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO and National Director“Carefully researched and graphically expressed, Alex Ryvchin's The 7 Deadly Myths systematically demolishes those antisemitic tropes, deeply embedded in Western culture, that are once again surfacing with potentially deadly implications. A trenchant warning of the sort that was all too easily ignored in Germany in 1933.”— Victor Lieberman, Raoul Wallenberg Distinguished University Professor of History, University of Michigan“Hostility to Jews and Judaism dates back over centuries. In succinct, well-informed, and lucidly composed chapters, Alex Ryvchin focuses on seven of the most persistent and deadly myths that fuel such animosity. Readers interested in a brief but illuminating explanation of many of the causative factors behind antisemitism will benefit from Mr. Ryvchin’s vividly drawn presentation of age-old anti-Jewish stereotypes. For all of their irrationality, they hang on threateningly to this day.”— Alvin H. Rosenfeld, Professor of English and Jewish Studies and Irving M. Glazer Chair in Jewish Studies, Indiana University"Antisemitism is the oldest, longest, most enduring, toxic and lethal of hatreds. Alex Ryvchin wrote a timely and significant work which unmasks and exposes the deadly myths that have bred, nurtured and advanced with metastasizing hatred. An essential read for the understanding of traditional and contemporary antisemitism, and the moral imperative to combat it as a threat to our common humanity."— Irwin Cotler, Founder & International Chair, Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human RightsTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionMyth 1—The Blood LibelMyth 2—Christ-KillersMyth 3—Global DominationMyth 4—ChosenMyth 5—MoneyMyth 6—Dual LoyaltiesMyth 7—Oppressed to OppressorsEpilogue

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Book SynopsisThe Image of the Black in Latin American and Caribbean Art is the first comprehensive survey of the visual representation of people of African descent in the region. This second volume explores the period from the final abolition of slavery in Brazil and Cuba through the independence of the Caribbean islands to the present day.

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Book SynopsisThe volume focuses on violence during the breakdown of East Central European states brought by one of the most violent periods in modern European history: from the start of the Great War in 1914 until 1923 when Europe, finally, achieved peace after a series of civil conflicts and interstate wars. The contributors offer several case studies that cover the vast region stretching from the Baltic states to Hungary. They explore different types of violence against its civilian populations with a particular focus on communal violence committed by civilians onto their neighbors. They suggest that disintegration of state power brought by the Great War was a key condition that produced violence. Yet the process of post-WWI state building was equally or more violent as nascent East Central European states institutionalized the use of violence to achieve their political agendas.Trade Review“East Central Europe was transformed by war, revolution, and the birth of nation-states after the First World War. The Shaken Lands excels by examining 1914 to 1923 as an interconnected ‘Greater War’. Combining conceptual insights with solid case studies, it suggests both national comparisons and transnational overviews of the manifold violence that shaped the entire region, including the Baltic states. It is an indispensable study in this rapidly emerging field.”— John Horne, emeritus Professor of History, Trinity College Dublin“Based on the latest scholarship and written by some of the leading historians in the field, this volume makes an outstanding contribution to a better understanding of one of the most violent periods in modern European history and the deeper historical origins of present-day conflicts such as Russia’s current war against Ukraine.” — Prof. Robert Gerwarth, University College DublinTable of ContentsAcknowledgements IntroductionTomas Balkelis and Andrea Griffante Contributors 1. The Evolution of Wartime Criminality in Lithuania, 1914–1920 Vytautas Petronis 2. War Violence and Its Representation: A Comparison of Civilian Experiences of the Great War on Both Sides of the Former Russian-German Border Vasilijus Safronovas, Vygantas Vareikis, and Hektoras Vitkus 3. The Military Pogroms in Lithuania, 1919–1920 Darius Staliūnas 4. Scandinavian Volunteers as Perpetrators of Violence and Crime in the Estonian War of Independence Mart Kuldkepp5. The Rich and the (In)famous: Social Conflicts and Paramilitary Violence in Hungary during the Counterrevolution, 1921–1923 Béla Bodó 6. The Polish Central Government, Regional Authorities, and Local Paramilitaries during the Battle for the Western Borderlands, 1918–1921 Jochen Böhler7. Eisenbahnfeldzug: Railway War in East Central EuropeMaciej Górny 8. Beyond Comparison? The Challenges of Applying Comparative Historical Research to ViolenceJulia Eichenberg

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