Social and cultural history Books
Oxford University Press, USA History and Memory in AfricanAmerican Culture HISTORY AND MEMORY IN AFRICANAMERICAN CULTURE By Fabre Genevieve E Author Dec081994 Paperback
Book SynopsisThe relation between history and memory has become an object of increasing attention among historians and literary critics. Through a team of leading scholars, this volume offers a complex picture of the dynamic ways in which an African-American historical identity constantly invents and transmits itself in books, art, performance, and oral documents.Trade Review...an excellent collection of pieces that makes one more aware of the major markets and repositories of an African American identity and culture, while it helps one recognize the important role of contemporary, collective action in the shaping of that identity. * Journal of American Ethnic History *...an excellent collection of pieces that makes one more aware of the major markets and repositories of an African American identity and culture, while it helps one recognize the important role of contemporary, collective action in the shaping of that identity. * Journal of American Ethnic History *
£39.42
Oxford University Press, USA Visions of Modernity American Business and the Modernization of Germany
Book SynopsisNolan's book explores the impact of America on the German imagination in the critical interwar period of the 1920s, when the USA became Weimar Germany's model in a broad-based movement for economic reform and social modernization. The USA was seen as an intriguing vision for a revitalized economy and a new social order.Trade Reviewstimulating and wide-ranging new study...the real interest in Nolan's study lies less in her discussion of production itself than in the issue of social engineering and the creation of the 'rational family * German History *
£40.84
Oxford University Press, USA Them Dark Days
Book SynopsisThe book represents a close study of slavery in the rice plantations of South Carolina and Georgia. The emphasis is principally on the human relations of slavery, both black and white. The book presents unique insights on how the institution of slavery actually functioned in the Antebellum American South.Trade ReviewThe majority of Dusinberre's research is based upon a careful reading and close analysis of a variety of published sources. Dusinberre's description of life and death at Gowne between 1833 and 1865 constitutes one of the most fully realized and horrific portraits of slavery on a single North American plantation ever written ... Them Dark Days is often so combative and polemical in its interpretation that its author must have expected to provoke controversy. I hope and expect that students of the subject will be reading and debating Them Dark Days for years to come. * Robert Olwell, University of Texas at Austin, Slavery & Abolition, Vol. 18, No. 2, August '97 *The sheer weight of evidence employed to support this thesis is impressive, and sobering ... as the first full-length study devoted to a reassessment of this contentious and important topic, Dusinberre's work stands out as a significant achievement, a timely reminder that even modern assessments of slavery do not yet tell the whole story of 'them dark days' in the antebellum South. * S-M. Grant, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, The Historical Association 1997 *
£161.50
Oxford University Press, USA The Young Turks in Opposition Studies in Middle Eastern History
Book SynopsisA detailed study of the Turkish secret society known as CUP (Committee of Union and Progress), a movement which continues to influence the thinking of Turkish intellectuals. It also provides insights into diplomatic relations between the Ottoman Empire and Europe in the early 20th century.Trade ReviewHanioglu's study is based on exhaustive primary research; his is the first history of the CUP based on the private papers, journals, and newspapers of its members. This archival research will surely delight specialists and is clearly the greatest strength of the text. * David J. Staley, Marietta College, The Historian *This is a highly original and meticulously researched account of what has been hitherto a somewhat neglected subject ... Hanioglu has produced a balanced and sophisticated account of Young Turk thought which is unlikely to be superseded for many years. It will be indispensable to anyone working on the political, intellectual or social history of the late Ottoman empire and the Turkish republic. * Stephanie Cronin, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 60, No. 2, '97 *
£83.60
Oxford University Press America Divided The Civil War of the 1960s
Book SynopsisThis is the definitive interpretive survey of the political, social and cultural history of 1960s America. Arguing that the period marked the end of the country's two-century-long ascent toward widespread affluence, domestic consensus, and international hegemony, the authors explore what did and did not change in the 1960s, and why American culture and politics have never been the same since.Trade ReviewAmerica Divided is a first-rate work of synthesis that seamlessly integrates social, culture and political history. * Mark Newman, Journal of American Studies, 36 *
£29.92
Oxford University Press Growing Up in Medieval London
Book SynopsisWhen Barbara Hanawalt''s acclaimed history The Ties That Bound first appeared, it was hailed for its unprecedented research and vivid re-creation of medieval life. David Levine, writing in The New York Times Book Review, called Hanawalt''s book as stimulating for the questions it asks as for the answers it provides and he concluded that one comes away from this stimulating book with the same sense of wonder that Thomas Hardy''s Angel Clare felt [:] ''The impressionable peasant leads a larger, fuller, more dramatic life than the pachydermatous king.'' Now, in Growing Up in Medieval London, Hanawalt again reveals the larger, fuller, more dramatic life of the common people, in this instance, the lives of children in London. Bringing together a wealth of evidence drawn from court records, literary sources, and books of advice, Hanawalt weaves a rich tapestry of the life of London youth during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Much of what she finds is eye opening. She shows for instaTrade Review`densely informative, fluid, and often charming study ... exemplary scholarship that blends traditional painstaking research with contemporary approaches and understanding Kirkus Reviews'Hanawalt skillfully transforms her archival data into a textured, vivid history of youthful experience ... a highly significant contribution to the study of childhood in general as well as an important exploration of a medieval urban culture which collectively exhibited 'growing concern about children and adolescents'.' Marilynn Desmond, History Workshop Journal, Vol 37, Spring 1994the book contains a mass of extremely useful material on the demography, affective relations and household economy of the medieval London family * History Today June 1995 *lively and vigorous survey which justifies her subtitle * D.M. Palliser, The Historical Association 1996 *her book leaves a vivid collection of images of that almost irrecoverable past * Gervase Rosser, St Catherine's College, Oxford, EHR Nov. 96 *
£28.49
Oxford University Press A History of the Supreme Court
Book SynopsisA lucid, lively, and definitive one-volume history of the USA''s highest court. Schwartz ranges from the earliest history of court dress to history''s most important cases in this illuminating examination.Trade Reviewthe best one-volume history of the US Supreme Court * Library Journal *
£20.99
Oxford University Press Behind the Mask of Chivalry
Book SynopsisElegantly written and meticulously researched, this book offers a major new interpretation of the Ku Klux Klan in America, placing the organization in its context of class and gender as well as race and religion.Trade Reviewa study that demonstrates how race relations are intertwined with other kinds of hierarchical relations. * The Historian *a remarkable, readable, and important book on the second Ku Klux Klan. From a database of 418 Klan memebers she extracted statistical and individual profiles. She skilfully weaves national,state, and local Athens activities together with individual stories and profiles of the membership to create a mosaic of the Klan. With this study, Nancy Maclean has made a significant scholarly contribution to our understanding of the Klan. * The Historian *
£18.99
Oxford University Press The Movement and The Sixties Protest in America from Greensboro to Wounded Knee
Book SynopsisThis is a broad history of the various reform and radical groups of the 1960s who went under the name of the Movement. It demonstrates what profound influence the Movement had upon the period and the reasons why it fragmented and disappeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This is the first major interpretative history of this subject.Trade Review"Terry Anderson has written the best book yet on the broad protest movement that dominated American life in the 1960s. Unlike earlier writers, who focus on elites or just one group, he offers a kaleidoscopic view that stresses the grass-roots involvement of American youth as they challenged both the politics and the values of their elders in a frontal assault on the established Cold War culture. It is a tour de force."--Robert A. Divine, George W. Littlefield Professor in American History, University of Texas at Austin"A splendid study, exhaustively researched and engagingly written, and a useful--indeed essential--corrective to the new conventional wisdom about a tumultuous era."--George C. Herring, Professor of History, University of Kentucky"A marvelous tour de force....Anderson's book is an indispensable tool for anyone trying to understand the perplexing range of movements during the 1960s. It should be on the bookshelf of every serious student of social activism."--Mary King, author of Freedom SongAnderson has written a very detailed and absorbing account of these events..a detailed description of events, this is a useful book * Socialist Review *"A disturbing tale, well told in exhaustive detail....It is the merit of Terry Anderson's book that it captures the tone, as well as the events, of a decade in which America finally emerged from cold-war simplicities and began the painful discovery of itself."--The Economist"Hundreds of voices resound in this thoroughgoing analysis of '60s radicalism....A highly accessible survey that should be the standard for years to come."--Kirkus Reviews"A valuable, refreshingly unbiased reassessment of the '60s legacy." --Publishers Weekly"Anderson's well-written, accessible history is much more than nostalgic reading for baby boomers, the great majority of whom sat on the sidelines during most of the decade while a minority acted. Neither is it a polemic in unquestioning defense of '60s activists. Instead, it attempts to understand the motives of 'the movement' and place its actions in the context of the times. In doing so, it provides a valuable counterpoint to the reductionist and revisionist views now prevalent."--The Christian Science Monitor"For those already tested in the political fires of the '60s, [Anderson's] book is a reminder to keep alert and stay active. For a younger generation, he provides a concise and closely packed history that precedes the roil and boil of today's political activity."--The Seattle Times"Perceptive....Anderson takes on all strands of the Movement."--Booklist (starred review)"Ably surveys a busy, complex era....This is a resonant book. Most of all, it recalls a not-so-distant past when Americans thought we could and should reform our society."--The Dallas Morning NewsThis volume is a lively account of the turbulence experienced by American society after two decades of Cold War...While the whole book is compelling, chapter 6, entitled "Power and Liberation", is particularly incisive...a welcome addition to the literature of the period. Written with both passion and control. * The Historian *"A fascinating, extensively researched account of a time when the younger generation opened pop culture's Pandora's box, and an estranged segment of America took to the streets and said: 'We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore.'...Dig it, man. It's a trip."--Fort Worth Star-Telegram"Anderson leaves no lunch counter unturned. It is all there, from Rosa Parks and the Summer of Love to bra burnings and the March on the Pentagon, complete with selected quotations from various songs of the era atop each chapter."--William McGurn, writing in The Wall Street Journala very detailed and absorbing account * Socialist Review, November 1996 *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction, Spawning Ground: Cold War Culture I. The First Wave: The Surge, 1960 to 1968 1. The STruggle 2. The Movement and the Sixities Generation 3. Days of Decision 4. 1968: Rip Tides II. The Second Wave: The Crest, 1968 to the early 1970s 5. Counterculture 6. Power and Liberation 7. The Movement Toward a New America Legacies, The Sea Change
£22.32
Oxford University Press Stalins Peasants
Book SynopsisDrawing on newly-opened Soviet archives, especially the letters of complaint and petition with which peasants deluged the Soviet authorities in the 1930s, Stalin''s Peasants analyses peasants'' strategies of resistance and survival in the new world of the collectivized village. Stalin''s Peasants is a story of struggle between transformationally-minded Communists and traditionally-minded peasants over the terms of collectivization: a struggle of opposing practices, not a struggle in which either side clearly articulated its position. But it is also a story about the impact of collectivization on the internal social relations and culture of the village, exploring questions of authority and leadership, feuds, denunciations, rumors, and changes in religious observance. For the first time, it is possible to see the real people behind the facade of the Potemkin village created by Soviet propagandists. In the Potemkin village, happy peasants clustered around a kolkhoz (collective farm) tractTrade Reviewwell-researched and richly detailed ... It adds a great deal of new information on rural conditions and attitudes in the 1930s. No other work comes close to it in recounting the tragedy of collectivization from the peasant's point of view. * Times Literary Supplement *
£52.25
Oxford University Press, USA Civic Virtues Rights Citizenship and Republican Liberalism Oxford Political Theory
Book SynopsisPart of the OXFORD POLITICAL THEORY series discussing political rights and arguing for a republican liberalism that, while celebrating the liberal heritage of autonomy and rights, solidly places these within social relations and obligations which are often obscured and forgotten.Trade Reviewan important work givent the growing interest in active citizenship....Dagger's book makes a very important contribution to our understanding of citizenship through its clear demonstration that state promotion of civic virtue is compatible with individual autonomy. * Political Studies Vol 47/1 *This book is a pleasure to read. It combines clarity of philosophical argument with thorough knowledge of the empirical social and political sciences. Many of his ideas will prove highly valuable for moderate attempts to beat the odds. - Bert Van den Brink - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice no2 1999
£37.52
Oxford University Press Inc Crowns of Glory Tears of Blood
Book SynopsisThis text explores the 1823 slave rebellion in Demerara (now Guyana) - one of the largest in history. The 60,000 black slaves who rose up against their British masters were brutally put down. The book looks at the conflict which gave the rebellion life and the forces which finally ended slavery.Trade ReviewIn Crowns of Glory, Tears of Blood Emilia Viotti da Costa tells the story of the Demerara slave rebellion of 1823, and she tells it very well. Her narrative, vividly written, utilizes multiple sources to tell the story from different points of view. Her book comes out of a tradition of writing inspired both by marxist and nationalist historiographies and has none of the trappings of a postcolonial text. The older questions of historical determination, of causality and of agency meet the new agendas of cultural history in a deeply satisfying narrative. * History Workshop Journal *
£64.60
Oxford University Press How Long How Long
Book SynopsisA compelling and readable narrative history, How Long? How Long? presents both a rethinking of social movement theory and a controversial thesis: that chroniclers have egregiously neglected the most important leaders of the Civil Rights movement, African-American women, in favour of higher-profile African-American men and white women. Author Belinda Robnett argues that the diversity of experiences of the African-American women organizers has been underemphasized in favour of monolithic treatments of their femaleness and blackness. Drawing heavily on interviews with actual participants in the American Civil Rights movement, this work retells the movement as seen through the eyes and spoken through the voices of African-American women participants. It is the first book to provide an analysis of race, class, gender, and culture as substructures that shaped the organization and outcome of the movement. Robnett examines the differences among women participants in the movement and offers thTrade Review"Professor Belinda Robnett's book, How Long? How Long?, makes a valuable contribution to the field by providing a workable analytical framework for those scholars studying African American women in the movement." --The Journal of American History"How Long? How Long? is a very impressive and theoretically rich piece of scholarship by sociologist and women's studies scholar Belinda Robnett. A chapter rethinking social movement theory and one on theoretical conclusions frame the book, with the rise of the civil rights movement in the South and its ultimate unraveling from below by 1966 marking the progression of Robnett's story. Most chapters add fresh insights to understanding the formal organizations, formal and informal leadership, and grassroots mobilization of the civil rights era. Robnett finds complex interactions and offers an exceptionally vivid and compelling specification of the way regional culture, race, gender, class, and education shaped leadership possibilities, roles, and experiences." --Carol Nackenoff in American Political Science Review"Bound to be controversial, Robnett's How Long? How Long? challenges received perspectives on the role of gender in the Civil Rights Movement. In doing so she has made a major contribution to our understanding of the internal dynamics of social movements. It is both impassioned and impressive."--Mayer Zald, Department of Sociology, University of Michigan"Belinda Robnett has made a unique contribution to our understanding of the Civil Rights movement and social movements generally. How Long? How Long? clearly demonstrates that gender mattered in the Civil Rights movement and that gender must be taken into account if we are to formulate accurate and comprehensive theories of collective action. This work is based on extensive research which gives voice to the masses of women who played pivotal roles in the Civil Rights movement. Finally a work has appeared that captures the monumental contributions women made to the Civil Rights movement. After reading Belinda Robnett's book, one comes to understand clearly that if it were not for the actions of Black women, there would not have been a Civil Rights movement."--Aldon D. Morris, Northwestern University"This book rewrites the history of the Civil Rights movement from the standpoint of African-American women. Conceptually, this project joins a recent wave of scholarship in social movements that is beginning to address the intersections of race, class, gender, and social movements. Substantively, this book contributes a beautiful overview of Black women's long history of resistance to race and gender oppression in the United States...No one has ever undertaken such an ambitious project with respect to Black women's activism."--Verta Taylor, Ohio State University
£45.12
Oxford University Press Fetish Fashion Sex and Power
Book SynopsisKinky boots, corsets, underwear as outerwear, second-skin garments of rubber and leather, uniforms, body piercing. Today everything from a fetishist''s dream appears on the fashion runways. Although some people regard fetish fashion as exploitative and misogynistic, others interpret it as a positive Amazonian statement--couture Catwoman. But the connection between fashion and fetishism goes far beyond a few couture collections. For the past thirty years, the iconography of sexual fetishism has been increasingly assimilated into popular culture. Before Michelle Pfeiffer''s Catwoman, there was Mrs. Peel, heroine of the 1960s television show The Avengers, who wore a black leather catsuit modeled on a real fetish costume. Street styles like punk and the gay leatherman look also testify to the influence of fetishism.as interviews with individuals involved in sexual fetishism, sadomasochism, and cross-dressing, to illuminate the complex relationship between appearance and identity. Based on Trade ReviewSteele is to fetish dressing what Anne Rice is to vampires. * Christa Worthington, Elle *
£25.64
Oxford University Press Inc Shades of Freedom
Book SynopsisIn Shades of Freedom, A. Leon Higginbotham provides a magisterial account of the interaction between the law and racial oppression in America from colonial times to the present. The issue of racial inferiority is central to this volume, as Higginbotham documents how early white perceptions of black inferiority slowly became codified into law. In Shades of Freedom, a noted scholar and a celebrated jurist offers a work of magnificent scope, insight, and passion. Ranging from the earliest colonial times to the present, it is a superb work of history and a mirror to the American soul.Trade ReviewReviews of the cloth edition: "Judge Higginbotham's book is customarily well researched, extensively documented, persuasively written, and offers compelling insights on the painfully slow process of racial progress in America. While W.E.B. DuBois reminded us that the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line, Judge Higginbotham has documented DuBois's prophecy in Shades of Freedom, the seminal work on race in the legal system for the twenty-first century."--Charles J. Ogletree, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School"In his powerful treatise, Judge Higginbotham has exposed both the pathology and the potential of the law in either eliminating or perpetuating racial injustice. He has written with the eloquence of a Martin Luther King, the scholarship of a W.E.B. DuBois, and the superb legal craftsmanship and wisdom of Chief Justice Warren and Thurgood Marshall. For all individuals who believe that history is relevant, Shades of Freedom must be read and reflected on. A must-read book for every generation of Americans."--Kweisi Mfume, President & CEO, NAACP"Shades of Freedom is a worthy successor to In the Matter of Color. With eloquence and authority, Judge Higginbotham chronicles and analyzes the long, sordid history of the use of law in establishing and maintaining a system in which 'Equal Justice Under Law' is a mockery of the actual practice. Anyone interested in race in America should read this important book."--John Hope Franklin, James B. Duke Professor of History Emeritus, Duke University"Shades of Freedom magnificently reflects on the systematic denial and betrayal of our past and present rights to full liberty and justice, while providing a sobering and disturbing prognosis of our future progress in achieving our full Constitutional guarantees. It superimposes a historical mosaic of denial and unkept promises. The Judge brilliantly chronicles the insidious patterns of racism that have always short-circuited our quest for unconditional freedom, as embraced by America's most enduring concept 'We the People.' In Shades of Freedom, as in In the Matter of Color, Judge Higginbotham passionately sounds the trumpet for a Rainbow of Freedom for 'We the People.'"--Dr. C. DeLores Tucker, President/Founder, The Bethune-DuBois Fund"Judge Higginbotham is once again the smithy, wielding, as a mighty hammer, his powerful intellect, scholarship, historical, and logic, in the forge of justice, seeking to reshape on the anvil of the Constitution, minds badly twisted by racism. In this classic work, Shades of Freedom, Higginbotham takes his readers through historical and social time zones with their sunlight and shadows, showing forward movement and retreat. Given the confused state of race relations today this remarkable book could not be more timely."--Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit"Higginbotham's masterful work is a compelling and convincing examination of how the law developed the official American doctrine of racial inferiority."--Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton"Once again, this great freedom fighter, A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., has masterfully presented a remarkable and refreshingly honest assessment of the role of race in American society and law. With great clarity and perception, Higginbotham exposes underlying cultural assumptions of inferiority and the impact such assumptions have on our collective progress. Shades of Freedom is aptly entitled because in describing the vast spectrum of freedoms enjoyed by African Americans today, it serves as a poignant reminder that there are many miles yet to travel on the road to freedom and equality."--Honorable Damon J. Keith, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit"In my lifetime, two giants of the bench did not make the Supreme Court: Learned Hand and Leon Higginbotham. Now one has written a book that you would expect from him: eloquent, scholarly, compassionate, and a ringing call for justice."--Senator Paul Simon"In Shades of Freedom one of our greatest legal minds makes a powerful case for turning the use of law to the service of justice. Judge Higginbotham carefully explains the role of law in reinforcing the concept of African American inferiority since the colonial period."--Mary Frances Berry, University of Pennsylvania, and Chairperson, United States Commission on Civil Rights"Eighteen years is a long time to hold one's breath, but it has been worth the pain and effort. Shades of Freedom is in its own way as remarkable a book as Leon Higginbotham's magnificent In The Matter of Color. It reflects the same mastery of historical research, passion for equality and the rule of law, and judicial temperament. With the publication of this volume, Judge Higginbotham confirms my judgement that he is our leading judicial scholar, and my hope that, with his leadership, this nation will resume its progress toward equal protection of the law for all."--Stanley N. Katz, President, American Council for Learned Societies, and Professor, The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
£19.99
Oxford University Press Forbidden Friendships
Book SynopsisIn 1432, the Office of the Night was created specifically to police sodomy in Florence. Seventy years of denunciations, accusations, interrogations, and sentencings left an extraordinarily detailed record, which Rocke uses to its fullest in this richly documented portrait. He uncovers a culture in which sexual roles were strictly defined by age, with boys under eighteen the ''passive'' participants in sodomy, youths in their twenties the ''active'' participant, and men in their thirties marrying women, their days of sexual frivolity over. This richly documented book paints a fascinating picture of a vibrant time and place and calls into question our modern conceptions of gender and sexual identity.Trade ReviewRocke does a brilliant job of teasing out this wealth of material, and of presenting the complex relationships which underlie the criminal statistics ... this book makes a substantial contribution to the history of homosexuality. * Tim Hitchcock, Urban History *remarkable ... Forbidden Friendships is a study of considerable importance. * Times Literary Supplement *
£42.27
Oxford University Press In Hope of Liberty
Book SynopsisCovering the colonial period to the Civil War and spanning all of the northern United States, this text documents the antebellum northern black experience. It demonstrates the central role of the black community in successfully managing the tensions born of assimilation and cultural difference.Trade Reviewwhat makes In Hope of Liberty so stimulating is the juxtaposition of the broad historical sweep with individual experience. * S-M Grant, American Studies, 33:2, 1999. *it is the Horton's ability to pull together such a wide and varied range of individual voices that makes this work so approachable. * S-M Grant, American Studies, 33:2, 1999. *Given the amount of scholarship to-date on the themes of black culture, community and protest, the Hortons have set their sights high in attempting a single-volume study covering all three topics. They have nevertheless succeeded in producing a work of synthesis which is both broad in scope and, most importantly, accessible to a wide readership. * S-M Grant, American Studies, 33:2, 1999. *
£37.99
Oxford University Press Common Women
Book SynopsisA Common Woman in medieval England was a prostitute, distinguished as such less for taking money for sex than for belonging to all men in common. Karras's book tells the story of these women, their experiences, relations, and treatment under the law, and concludes that prostitution was central to the medieval understanding of feminity.Trade ReviewThis is a useful and perceptive addition to the ever growing collection of works on medieval sexuality. * Corinne Saunders, Medium Aevum. *Karras s style is approachable and pleasingly uncluttered by theoretical vocabulary; her conclusions are both sensible and sensitive. * Corinne Saunders, Medium Aevum. *this is an admirable academic study, the product of careful research over years. * The Literary Review *
£32.29
Oxford University Press The Image of Man The Creation of Modern Masculinity Studies in the History of Sexuality
Book SynopsisWhat does it mean to be a man? This text examines the manly stereotype, which stresses courage, moral restraint and athletic comportment, which has become representative of normative modern society. The role of women and the "unmanly men" in maintaining the stereotype and its erosion is studied.Trade Reviewhis points emerge with the special authority of an eye-witness and a courageous, thoughtful survivor. * TLS *
£64.60
Oxford University Press Beyond the Boundaries
Book SynopsisSpanning the years 1840-1875, Beyond the Boundaries focuses on the settlement of Upper Michigan''s Keweenaw Peninsula, telling the story of reluctant pioneers who attempted to establish a decent measure of comfort, control, and security in what was in many ways a hostile environment. Moving beyond the technological history of the period found in his previous book Cradle to the Grave: Life, Work, and Death at the Lake Superior Copper Mines (OUP 1991), Lankton here focuses on the people of this region and how the copper mining affected their daily lives. A truly first-rate social history, Beyond the Boundaries will appeal to historians of the frontier and of Michigan and the Great Lakes region, as well as historians of technology, labor, and everyday life.Trade Review"The social history of the mining frontier should be written and researched as well as Larry Lankton's Beyond the Boundaries....The book is a treat to read and a worthy contribution to helping us understand frontier mining societies."--Mining History News"To tell his story, the author has mined diaries, manuscripts, newspapers, and company records, as well as a wealth of other primary and secondary literature. What emerges is a richly textured story that Lankton recounts with authority and gusto. It is a book that will interest local historians and those whose focus is social or western history."--Labor History"With clarity, precision, and sound scholarship, Lankton examines everyday life on the Keweenaw frontier from 1840-1875, the years of growing pains for the infant copper industry...Lankton describes with vivid detail the tedious day of a hard rock miner...Beyond the Boundaries is local history at its best. Lankton has provided a scholarly look at early life on the copper range in Michigan amid the transformation of a wilderness. The net of topics is widely thrown, but Lankton articulates everyday life based on the facts and with eloquent interpretation...Beyond the Boundaries belongs on the shelf of every library in Michigan next to its copy of Cradle to Grave."--Michigan Historical Review"Conducting two decades of research, assisted by student projects, [Lankton] has delved extensively into diaries, company personnel files, and local government records to profile the human aspects of this mining region....The large amount of new historical material is arranged by category and well indexed. This is no ordinary anecdotal history....As an academic work it is refreshingly unquantitative: the reader is not inundated....This broad-minded treatment of a major, now-dormant mining region should interest practicing economic geologists."--Economic Geology"In this, his third book on the region, Larry Lankton examines the simultaneous development of Keweenaw mining and the attendant cultural and social institutions of the people who worked and lived there. What he describes is a world far removed from either civilization or the frontier....Lankton discusses a number of fascinating issues....By relying on primary sources and by covering a breadth of topics, the author demonstrates extensive knowledge of the history of the region, and uncovers a number interesting avenues of research for the Keweenaw district."--Journal of Economic History"Larry Lankton's Beyond the Boundaries invites comparison with the best studies of 'everyday life' in similar settings, and with classics such as Rockdale and Amoskeag. It is an impressively researched and gracefully narrated companion-piece to his Cradle to Grave volume."--Robert C. Post, Past President of the Society for the History of TechnologyTable of Contents1: Water, Woods, and Winter: A Special Sense of Place 2: Heaving Up Jonah: The Travail of Travel 3: Settling In: Camps, Communities, Houses, and Hotels 4: A Lapful of Apples: Foodways in the Far North 5: Keeping House: All the Work of the Family 6: Tasks at Hand: Making a Living: Men and Women, Boys and Girls 7: Saints and Scholars: Village Churches and Schools 8: The Sins of the Body: Maladies, Medicines, and Frontier Physicians 9: Ice Carnivals, Camels, and Sunday Trombones: Pioneer Pastimes 10: Shattered Hopes and Broken Prospects: Lunatics, Larcenists, and Lives of Woe 11: Transformations: A Long-Lived Frontier
£34.67
Oxford University Press The Machine in the Garden Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America
Book SynopsisThis new edition marks the 35th anniversary of Marx's classic text on the relationship between technology and culture in 19th- and 20th-century America. It features a new afterword by the author on the process of writing this pioneering book, a work that all but founded the discipline now called American Studies.Trade ReviewAn exciting book, exemplifying studies in American culture at their best. * Hennig Cohen, Saturday Review *This is an important contribution to our understanding of some of the enigmas and conflicts at work in the American imagination, particularly in the 19th century. * Tony Tanner, Encounter *
£18.49
Oxford University Press Dispossessing the Wilderness
Book SynopsisThis book examines the ideal of wilderness preservation in the United States from the antebellum era to the first half of the twentieth century, showing how the early conception of the wilderness as the place where Indians lived (or should live) gave way to the idealization of uninhabited wilderness. It focuses on specific policies of Indian removal developed at Yosemite, Yellowstone, and Glacier national parks from the early 1870s to the 1930s.Trade ReviewDispossessing the Wilderness has many virtues. Accurate, detailed accounts of the creation of Yellowstone and Glacier national parks rest on solid research, as does the story at Yosemite. * The Journal of American History *Adding to recent scholarship exploring the cultural construction of nature, this succinct study opens up new areas of research in park service scholarship and paves the way for a more comprehensive study of the role and place of Native Americans in the national parks * The Historian *Table of ContentsIntroduction: From Common Ground 1: Looking Backward and Westward: The "Indian Wilderness" in the Antebellum Era 2: The Wild West, or Toward Separate Islands 3: Before the Wilderness: Native Peoples and Yellowstone 4: First Wilderness: America's Wonderland and Indian Removal from Yellowstone National Park 5: Backbone of the World: The Blackfeet and the Glacier National Park Area 6: Crowning the Continent: The American Wilderness Ideal and Blackfeet Exclusion from Glacier National Park 7: The Heart of the Sierras, 1864-1916 8: Yosemite Indians and the National Park Ideal, 1916-1969 Conclusion: Exceptions and the Rule
£31.34
Oxford University Press Capitalists in Spite of Themselves
Book SynopsisHere, Richard Lachmann offers a new answer to an old question: Why did capitalism develop in some parts of early modern Europe but not in others? Finding neither a single cause nor an essentialist unfolding of a state or capitalist system, Lachmann describes the highly contingent development of various polities and economies. He identifies, in particular, conflict among feudal elites--landlords, clerics, kings, and officeholders--as the dynamic which perpetuated manorial economies in some places while propelling elites elsewhere to transform the basis of their control over land and labor. Comparing regions and cities within and across England, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands from the twelfth through eighteenth centuries, Lachmann breaks new ground by showing step by step how the new social relations and political institutions of early modern Europe developed. He demonstrates in detail how feudal elites were pushed toward capitalism as they sought to protect their privilegesTrade Review"Richard Lachmann's Capitalists in Spite of Themselves is a strikingly original and analytically powerful study of the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Western Europe. It is not simply one more study that repackages familiar arguments in new rhetoric. It proposes a novel synthesis of ideas derived from Marxist class analysis and theories of elite conflict. He then deploys this reasoning in a diverse and compelling series of case studies of medieval and early modern Europe written in an engaging and accessible manner. This book should be read, studied, and debated by anyone interested in large-scale historical processes of social change." --Erik Olin Wright, University of Wisconsin, Madison"This long-awaited volume from Professor Lachmann is a major intellectual achievement. Writing in the tradition of Max Weber and drawing on extensive original research, Lachmann offers an important new interpretation of the social changes that resulted in the economic and cultural transformation of Europe between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. Capitalists in Spite of Themselves should be read by all social scientists who have been interested in the rise of commercial and industrial capitalism." --Robert Wuthnow, Princeton University"Capitalists in Spite of Themselves reaches much beyond even its broad title, and yet its hallmark is precision, on trends, numbers, and nuances alike. It manages to focus an explicit argument about mechanisms of power upon each of a diverse array--of city states, empires, nations, provinces, but also of agricultural practices, manorial courts, monetary systems, and trade, across the past few centuries in Europe." --Harrison C. White, Columbia University"Thumbs in his galluses, Richard Lachmann swaggers down the boulevard of historical sociology, challenging just about everyone he sees to a match. Lachmann battles knowledgeably, and many an opponent emerges with bruises. Winners, losers, and spectators all end up wiser for Lachmann's bold exploration of European social change over a long, formative period." --Charles Tilly, Columbia UniversityTable of Contents1. Something Happened ; 2. Feudal Dynamics ; 3. The Limits of Urban Capitalism ; 4. State Formation ; 5. A Dead End and a Detour: Spain and the Netherlands ; 6. Elite Defensiveness and the Transformation of Class Relations in Britain and France ; 7. Religions and Ideology ; 8. Conclusion ; Notes ; Bibliography
£43.69
Oxford University Press American Wilderness A New History
Book SynopsisThis collected volume of original essays proposes to address the state of scholarship on the political, cultural, and intellectual history of Americans responses to wilderness from first contact to the present. While not bringing a synthetic narrative to wilderness, the volume will gather competing interpretations of wilderness in historical context.Trade ReviewValuable for both is synthesis and innovation. American Wilderness: A New History successfully draws together essays that explore the paradoxes and controversies that continue to plague this mercurial concept. * Robin O'Sullivan, H-Net Book Review *Table of ContentsCh. 1: Michael Lewis: American Wilderness--An Introduction Ch. 2: Melanie Perreault: American Wilderness and First Contact Ch. 3: Mark Stoll: Religion "Irradiates" the Wilderness Ch. 4: Steven Stoll: Farm Against Forest Ch. 5: Bradley P. Dean: Natural History, Romanticism, and Thoreau Ch. 6: Angela Miller: The Fate of Wilderness in American Landscape Art: The Dilemmas of "Nature's Nation" Ch. 7: Benjamin Johnson: Wilderness Parks and Their Discontents Ch. 8: Char Miller: A Sylvan Prospect: John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and Early Twentieth-Century Conservatism Ch. 9: Kimberly A. Jarvis: Gender and Wilderness Conservation Ch. 10: Paul Sutter: Putting Wilderness in Context: The Interwar Origins of the Modern Wilderness Idea Ch. 11: Mark Harvey: Loving the Wild in Postwar America Ch. 12: Michael Lewis: Wilderness and Conservation Science Ch. 13: Christopher Conte: Creating Wild Places from Domesticated Landscapes: The Internationalization of the American Wilderness Concept Ch. 14: James Morton Turner: The Politics of Modern Wilderness Donald Worster: Epilogue: Nature, Liberty, and Equality Recommended Readings
£31.34
Oxford University Press Chants Democratic
Book SynopsisSince its publication in 1984, Chants Democratic has endured as a classic narrative on labor and the rise of American democracy. In it, Sean Wilentz explores the dramatic social and intellectual changes that accompanied early industrialization in New York. He provides a panoramic chronicle of New York City''s labor strife, social movements, and political turmoil in the eras of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson. Twenty years after its initial publication, Wilentz has added a new preface that takes stock of his own thinking, then and now, about New York City and the rise of the American working class.Trade Review"Certainly the best book yet written about the emergence of New York City's working class and a major contribution to American working-class history."--The New Republic"[Chants Democratic] is nothing less than a scholarly epic...it has no equal in breadth of subject, grace of style or acuity of interpretation."--The Nation"A great leap forward in both American social and American political history....Wilentz has written the statement on Jacksonian New York."--Journal of American History"Chants Democratic is a remarkable book that will quickly establish itself in the historiography and exert a powerful influence on the future direction of social, labor, and political history."--Journal of Interdisciplinary History"Gives the student of the Jacksonian Era an insider's look at the developing labor system of the northern industrialization process. In my 'Voices of the Union' course I use Chants to contrast the young republic's divergent and conflicting concepts of the Union, including its ideologic, economic, political, religious, and historical identities."--Wayne Cutler, University of Tennessee"A brilliant book."--U. Scharff, University of New Mexico"Wilentz's Chants Democratic gives the student of the JACKSONIAN ERA an insider's look at the developing labor system of the northern industrialization process. In my "Voices of Union" course, I use hants to contrast the young Republic's divergent and conflicting concepts of the Union, inclusing its ieologic, economic, political, religious, and historical identities."--Professor Wayne Cutler, University of Tennessee
£22.49
OUP USA Chinas Golden Age
Book SynopsisThe Tang Dynasty (618-907), traditionally regarded as the goldenage of China, was a time of patricians and intellectuals, Buddhist monks and Taoist priests, poetry and music, song and dance. In China''s Golden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty, Charles Benn paints a vivid picture of the lifestyle behind the grandeur of the Tang culture. All aspects of day-to-day life are presented, including crime, entertainment, fashion, marriage, food, hygiene, dwellings, and transportation. Attend an ancient feast to celebrate an imperial birthday, where ale was served in elaborate pitchers before a meal of fourteen hors d''oeuvres and twenty-three courses. Learn which colors concubines used for their eye makeup and beauty marks, and what their jealous wives did to discourage such enhancement. See the similarities between today''s pubs and the Tang alehouses, where women were hired to dance and sing to encourage patrons to stay longer and spend more money. Decide for yourself why Yangzhou, a city on the Grand Canal close to the Yangtze River, was considered one of the greatest cities in the Tang Dynasty. Benn translates and paraphrases his classical Chinese sources from the Tang era with fresh and polished prose. He also includes his own illustrations of everything from tools and hairstyles to musical instruments and courtyard dwellings. A history of the rise and fall of the dynasty is presented, as is a look at the societal structure of the aristocracy, bureaucracy, eunuchs, clergy, peasants, artisans, merchants, and slaves. This thorough explanation provides fascinating insight into a culture and time that is often misunderstood by Westerners and brings alive both the everyday routine and the timeless splendor of this intellectually and artistically powerful epoch. Enjoy your journey in China''s Golden Age, and come back to the present with a greater understanding of this amazing time.
£18.49
Oxford University Press Nat Turner
Book SynopsisNat Turner''s name rings through American history with a force all its own. Leader of the most important slave rebellion on these shores, variously viewed as a murderer of unarmed women and children, an inspired religious leader, a fanatic--this puzzling figure represents all the terrible complexities of American slavery. And yet we do not know what he looked like, where he is buried, or even whether Nat Turner was his real name. In Nat Turner: A Slave Rebellion in History and Memory, Kenneth S. Greenberg gathers twelve distinguished scholars to offer provocative new insight into the man, his rebellion, and his time, and his place in history. The historians here explore Turner''s slave community, discussing the support for his uprising as well as the religious and literary context of his movement. They examine the place of women in his insurrection, and its far-reaching consequences (including an extraordinary 1832 Virginia debate about ridding the state of slavery). Here are discussioTrade Review[A] dedicated effort by historians to unearth the rich particulars from which historical memory is created. * Richmond Times-Dispatch *Offer[s] new insight into the man, his rebellion and his time. * Publishers Weekly *An eclectic collection of perspectives about Nat Turner and his rebellion. * Times Literary Supplement *An illuminating stew of antebellum Southern history, ethnic relations, and contemporary social literature. * Kirkus Reviews *Informed by much new work on the context of slave life and rebellion, an understanding of African American folk and literary texts, and improved methods of psychobiography. No single vision of Nat Turner or meaning for his rebellion emerges, but all the essays repay several readings and remind us how central understanding of him is to any hope of getting hold of slavery's place in the American mind and conscience. * Library Journal *With the prospects of terror so much on our minds, the publication of this fascinating collection is especially appropriate. Kenneth Greenberg's engrossing introduction and the essays that follow explore from nearly every interpretive angle the dramatic events of Southampton County, Virginia (1831). The authors illustrate how a deep, incandescent loathing of slavery and desire for freedom led the visionary Turner and his slave band to slaughter white civilians, young and old, an effort that prompted equally terroristic vengeance by an outraged, frightened slaveholding population. Moral ambiguities abound, and the reader is compelled to ponder the tragedy of American race relations in a most profound way. * Bertram Wyatt-Brown, University of Florida *Nat Turner is no longer merely villain or hero in American memory. This splendid collection of scholarly essays and remembrances offers the most thorough understanding we have yet had of this pivotal slave rebel. We can see Turner here from multiple perspectives: historical, moral, psychological, literary, and especially the politics of memory and race. * David W. Blight, Yale University *
£14.99
Oxford University Press, USA American Genesis The Antievolution Controversies from Scopes to Creation Science
Book SynopsisTeaching evolution in the public schools has been a perennial problem in America. From the courthouse in Dayton, Tennessee, in 1925, to modern fights over intelligent design and creation science, evolution and its critics have battled over the role of science and religion in American public life.But the antievolution controversies are not merely political problems. In American Genesis, Jeffrey P. Moran explores the ways in which the evolution struggles also have reverberated beyond the confines of legislatures and courthouses. In addition to offering a careful analysis of antievolutionism''s ideological and strategic development, this wide-ranging social history argues that evolution''s reception has been shaped by four peculiarly American forces: a diverse population, regional divisions, a sometimes shaky Protestant dominance, and a tradition of democratic populism. In each area, the battles over evolution exposed and polarized existing divisions.Using extensive research in newspapers, periodicals, and archives, Moran investigates the critical influence that gender ideals have had in antievolutionism, as well as the complex role women play in modern controversies. Similarly, he analyzes the unexamined relationship between African Americans and antievolution. Moran''s reading of regional differences explains how fundamentalism, a movement born in the North, came to flourish primarily in the South.Throughout the nation, Moran argues, antievolutionist ideology has retained strong continuities from its roots in the early twentieth century, despite its modern packaging as creation science or Intelligent Design. Finally, Moran balances scholars'' understandable focus on the unfamiliar territory of antievolutionism by considering the self-conceptions and preconceptions of modern scientists as activists, teachers, and bystanders in the struggle.Trade ReviewMoran...explores aspects of creationism that receive scant attention elsewhere...A well-written, thoroughly researched, valuable contribution. Highly recommended. * CHOICE *Moran's book has much to offer historians of science who are interested in antievolutionism. Historians of American culture, race, gender, and religion will also profit from reading it. * John M. Lynch, Isis Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ; Preface ; Introduction: Darwin Comes to America ; Chapter One: Monkeys and Mothers ; Chapter Two: Regionalism and the Antievolution Impulse ; Chapter Three: Fighting for the Future of the Race ; Chapter Four: Descent with Modification ; Chapter Five: Creationism and the Campus ; Notes ; Index
£38.94
Oxford University Press, USA Hillbilly
Book SynopsisIn this pioneering work of cultural history, historian Anthony Harkins argues that the hillbilly-in his various guises of briar hopper, brush ape, ridge runner, and white trash-has been viewed by mainstream Americans simultaneously as a violent degenerate who threatens the modern order and as a keeper of traditional values of family, home, and physical production, and thus symbolic of a nostalgic past free of the problems of contemporary life. Hillbilly signifies both rugged individualism and stubborn backwardness, strong family and kin networks but also inbreeding and bloody feuds. Spanning film, literature, and the entire expanse of American popular culture, from D. W. Griffith to hillbilly music to the Internet, Harkins illustrates how the image of the hillbilly has consistently served as both a marker of social derision and regional pride. He traces the corresponding changes in representations of the hillbilly from late-nineteenth century America, through the great Depression, the Trade Review"a sophisticated mélange of image and reality regarding southern white culture"-- History of Education Quarterly"Harkin's research is truly impressive, and his writing could not be clearer....a significant, highly accessible book of considerable value to scholars and advanced students."--History"Tony Harkins has gone deeper, understood a wider range of pop-culture materials, and analyzed more insightfully the twentieth-century image of the American 'hillbilly' than any other scholar in this or the previous century. My hat's not only off to him. It's way up in the air!"-- Jerry Williamson, author of Hillbillyland"This is an impressively researched and meticulously documented study of one of the pervasive terms in American popular culture, 'hillbilly,' a concept that has both reflected and shaped public views of southern white working people. Students in my field of research, Southern Folk Music, will obviously profit from this beautifully written work, but anyone intrigued by the ways in which stereotypes have clouded our perceptions will want to read this book."-Bill C. Malone, author of Country Music, U.S.A."Harkins' Hillbilly is an intriguing and wide-ranging study of a strangely enduring American type, one both loved and despised but still nationally (if not internationally) recognized. From Snuffy Smith and Li'l Abner to The Real McCoys and the Clampett clan, Harkins discusses how the hillbilly image itself has remained relatively unchanged, while its meaning has evolved in response to broader social, economic, and cultural transformations in American society."--Erika Doss, University of Colorado"Distilling truths and untruths about a great American archetype, Hillbilly is insightful and respectful without draining out all the fun. Anthony Harkins writes entertaining yet sophisticated analysis, free of ten-dollar words and other academic moonshine."--Scott A. Sandage, Carnegie Mellon University
£43.69
Oxford University Press, USA France 18151914 The Bourgeois Century
Book SynopsisMagraw examines how the 19-century French bourgeoisie struggled and succeeded in consolidating the gains it made in 1789. Incorporating research on religion and anticlericalism, the devolopment of the economy, the role of women in society and the educational system, he defends the view that the French revolution was indeed a "bourgeois revolution".Trade Review"A fine, thoughtful, and intellectually courageous book--bold in its interpretations and measured in its assessments."--Jane Clement Bond, Baruch College, City University of New York"Magraw writes in a compact, clear style."--History: Review of New Books"A successful synthesis of the historical literature that has emerged in the last 20 years."--Raymond Jonas, University of Washington
£31.34
Oxford University Press Southern Honor Ethics and Behavior in the Old South
Book SynopsisA finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award, hailed in The Washington Post as a work of enormous imagination and enterprise and in The New York Times as an important, original book, Southern Honor revolutionized our understanding of the antebellum South, revealing how Southern men adopted an ancient honor code that shaped their society from top to bottom.Using legal documents, letters, diaries, and newspaper columns, Wyatt-Brown offers fascinating examples to illuminate the dynamics of Southern life throughout the antebellum period. He describes how Southern whites, living chiefly in small, rural, agrarian surroundings, in which everyone knew everyone else, established the local hierarchy of kinfolk and neighbors according to their individual and familial reputation. By claiming honour and dreading shame, they controlled their slaves, ruled their households, established the social rankings of themselves, kinfolk, and neighbors, and responded ferociously against perceived threats. The shamed and shameless sometimes suffered grievously for defying community norms. Wyatt-Brown further explains how a Southern elite refined the ethic. Learning, gentlemanly behavior, and deliberate rather than reckless resort to arms softened the cruder form, which the author calls primal honor. In either case, honor required men to demonstrate their prowess and engage in fierce defense of individual, family, community, and regional reputation by duel, physical encounter, or war. Subordination of African-Americans was uppermost in this Southern ethic. Any threat, whether from the slaves themselves or from outside agitation, had to be met forcefully. Slavery was the root cause of the Civil War, but, according to Wyatt-Brown, honor pulled the trigger. Featuring a new introduction by the author, this anniversary edition of a classic work offers readers a compelling view of Southern culture before the Civil War.Trade Review"A remarkable achievement--a re-creation of the living reality of the antebellum South from thousands of bits and pieces of the dead past."--Walker Percy"A work of enormous imagination and enterprise. Employing a beautifully woven fabric of traditional storytelling and contemporary social science, Bertram Wyatt-Brown has altered and deepened our understanding of the Southern past--and thus, inevitably, of the American past as well." --Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World"Unlike so many historians who have been interested in handing down judgments, favorable or unfavorable, on the Old South, Mr. Wyatt-Brown has studied Southerners much as an anthropologist would an aboriginal tribe. An important, original book which challenges so many widely held beliefs about the Old South." --David Herbert Donald, The New York TimesTable of ContentsPREFACE TO TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION; PART ONE: ORIGINS AND DEFINITIONS; PART TWO: FAMILY AND GENDER BEHAVIOR; PART THREE: STRUCTURES OF RIVALRY AND SOCIAL CONTROL; LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND SHORT TITLES; NOTES; INDEX
£20.99
Oxford University Press Inc On Monsters
Book SynopsisMonsters. Real or imagined, literal or metaphorical, they have exerted a dread fascination on the human mind for many centuries. They attract and repel us, intrigue and terrify us, and in the process reveal something deeply important about the darker recesses of our collective psyche. Stephen Asma''s On Monsters is a wide-ranging cultural and conceptual history of monsters--how they have evolved over time, what functions they have served for us, and what shapes they are likely to take in the future. Asma begins with a letter from Alexander the Great in 326 B.C. detailing an encounter in India with an enormous beast--larger than an elephantthree ominous horns on its forehead. From there the monsters come fast and furious--Behemoth and Leviathan, Gog and Magog, the leopard-bear-lion beast of Revelation, Satan and his demons, Grendel and Frankenstein, circus freaks and headless children, right up to the serial killers and terrorists of today and the post-human cyborgs of tomorrow. Monsters embody our deepest anxieties and vulnerabilities, Asma argues, but they also symbolize the mysterious and incoherent territory just beyond the safe enclosures of rational thought. Exploring philosophical treatises, theological tracts, newspapers, pamphlets, films, scientific notebooks, and novels, Asma unpacks traditional monster stories for the clues they offer about the inner logic of an era''s fears and fascinations. In doing so, he illuminates the many ways monsters have become repositories for those human qualities that must be repudiated, externalized, and defeated. Asma suggests that how we handle monsters reflects how we handle uncertainty, ambiguity, insecurity. And in a world that is daily becoming less secure and more ambiguous, he shows how we might learn to better live with monsters--and thereby avoid becoming one.Trade ReviewAsma's wide-ranging study is accessible and the monsters are fascinating. * Alexander Blasdel, Times Literary Supplement *Hugely entertaining book. * Philip Jacobson, Daily Mail *Absorbing, entertaining survey...an enjoyable and thought-provoking read. * Michael Kerrigan, The Scotsman *Eloquently produced, wideranging study. * Christopher Hawtree, The Independent *A terrific read: cogent and witty and thought-provoking fom start to finish. * Daily Telegraph, Toby Clements *His book is irresistable. * John Carey, Sunday Times *A very readable and surprising history of every sort of monster, from the Biblical to the biotechnical. * Audrey Niffenegger, The Guardian *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Extraordinary Beings Part 1 - Ancient Monsters 1 Alexander Fights Monsters in India 2 Monsters Are Nature's Playthings 3 Hermaphrodites and Man-headed Oxen 4 Monstrous Desire Part 2 - Medieval Monsters: Messages from God 5 Biblical Monsters 6 Do Monsters Have Souls? 7 The Monster Killer 8 Possessing Demons and Witches Part 3 - Scientific Monsters: The Book of Nature is Riddled with Typos 9 Natural History, Freaks, and Nondescripts 10 The Medicalization of Monsters 11 Darwin's Mutants Part 4 - Inner Monsters: The Psychological Aspects 12 The Art of Human Vulnerability: Angst and Horror 13 Criminal Monsters: Psychopathology, Aggression, and the Malignant Heart Part 5 - Monsters Today and Tomorrow 14 Torturers, Terrorists, and Zombies: The Products of Monstrous Societies 15 Future Monsters: Robots, Mutants, and Posthuman Cyborgs Epilogue Notes Index
£24.22
Oxford University Press Atlantic in World History
Book SynopsisAs the Atlantic Ocean was transformed from a terrifying barrier into a highway uniting four continents, the lives of people all around the ocean were transformed. After 1492 merchants and political leaders around the Atlantic refocused their attention from trade highways in their interiors to the coasts. Those who emigrated, willingly or unwillingly, had their lives changed completely, but many others became involved in new trades and industries that necessitated consolidation of populations. American gold and silver contributed to the emergence of nation-states. New foods enriched diets all over the world. American foods such as fish, cassava, maize, tomatoes, beans, and cacao fed burgeoning populations. Sugar grown around the Atlantic transformed tastes everywhere. Tobacco was the first great consumer craze. Furs provided the raw material for fashionable broad hats. Chains of commodity exchange linked the Atlantic to the Pacific; they also linked Americans to the Mediterranean and the goods of the Middle East. Creation of Atlantic economies required organization of labor and trade on a scale previously unknown. Generations of Europeans who signed up for servitude for a number of years in order to pay their passage over were gradually supplanted by enslaved Africans, millions of whom were imported into slavery. Wars, fueled by the need for ever more slaves, spread throughout West and Central Africa. The African end of the slave trade produced powerful rulers and great confederations in Africa. Consolidation of displaced tribal groups and remnants of populations depleted by epidemic disease led to the emergence of the Six Nations of the Iroquois League in northern North America, and the Creeks, Cherokees, and others in the south. Those who made a choice to travel across the Atlantic did so for economic advancement, but many also were influenced by religious concerns. Conflict between Roman Catholics and Protestants in Europe, and the power of political leaders to force conformity, caused many to feel that their right to worship was under threat. They were willing to accept servitude to make emigration possible, in order to protect their religious lives. Attempting to create and control vast networks of settlement and trade enhanced the rise of nation-states in Europe and contributed to the growth of national identities. The wars of independence in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries changed the nature of relationships, but did not end them. Abolitionism serves as a vivid example of the collision of religious, philosophical, and economic realities and the ways in which the Atlantic context posed new possibilities and new answers.Trade Reviewa worthy contribution to the considerable number of Atlantic history surveys. ... Kupperman skilfully uses the concept of modernity as the device by which to close the Atlantic story. * Allan Dwyer, International Journal of Maritime History *Table of ContentsEditors' Preface ; Introduction: Thinking Atlantically ; Chapter 1: Atlantic Memories ; Chapter 2: Atlantic Beginnings ; Chapter 3: Atlantic People ; Chapter 4: Commodities: Foods, Drugs, and Dyes ; Chapter 5: Eighteenth-Century Realities ; Epilogue: The Atlantic ; Chronology ; Notes ; Further Reading ; Websites ; Index
£26.59
Oxford University Press The Silk Road in World History
Book SynopsisThe Silk Road was the current name for a complex of ancient trade routes linking East Asia with Central Asia, South Asia, and the Mediterranean world. This network of exchange emerged along the borders between agricultural China and the steppe nomads during the Han Dynasty (206BCE-220CE), in consequence of the inter-dependence and the conflicts of these two distinctive societies. In their quest for horses, fragrances, and spices, gems, glassware, and other exotics from the lands to their west, the Han Empire extended its dominion over the oases around the Takla Makan Desert and sent silk all the way to the Mediterranean, either through the land routes leading to the caravan city of Palmyra in Syria desert, or by way of northwest India, the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea, landing at Alexandria. The Silk Road survived the turmoil of the demise of the Han and Roman Empires, reached its golden age during the early middle age, when the Byzantine Empire and the Tang Empire became centers of silk culture and established the models for high culture of the Eurasian world. The coming of Islam extended silk culture to an even larger area and paved the way for an expanded market for textiles and other commodities. By the 11th century, however, the Silk Road was in decline because of intense competition from the sea routes of the Indian Ocean. Using demand and supply as the framework for analyzing the formation and development of the Silk Road, the book examines the dynamics of the interactions of the nomadic pastoralists with sedentary agriculturalists, and the spread of new ideas, religions, and values into the world of commerce, thus illustrating the cultural forces underlying material transactions. This effort at tracing the interconnections of the diverse participants in the transcontinental Silk Road exchange will demonstrate that the world had been linked through economic and ideological forces long before the modern era.Trade ReviewA welcome addition to the New Oxford World History series...Any general reader interested in silk or textiles will enjoy this book, but so too will one who is captivated by any other aspect of the Silk Road, for it provides a quick but fascinating historical narrative. As a textbook for a world history class, its appeal lies not only in the romance of the Silk Road but also in its use of material culture to write world history by connecting economic and political activities with the religious values of various traditions. * Journal of Asian Studies *A carefully constructed narrative and analysis...This is an excellent text that will be useful for orientating students and introducing them to the sources and interpretive problems of ancient and medieval Central Asian history. * World History Bulletin *Table of ContentsChapter 1: China looks west ; Chapter 2: Rome looks east ; Chapter 3: The Kushan Empire and the Silk Road ; Chapter 4: The golden age: The Byzantine Empire (310-1453 CE) and Tang China (618-906 CE) ; Chapter 5: The coming of Islam ; Chapter 6: Religions, languages, and artistic styles of the Silk Road
£27.99
Oxford University Press, USA The Family
Book SynopsisThis book addresses the question of what world history looks like when the family is at the center of the story. People have always lived in families, but what that means has varied dramatically over time and across cultures. The family is not a natural phenomenon--it has a history. And family life is not limited to the realm of the private or the strictly personal; the family is a force of history. Gender and generational differences affect how individual family members relate to each other and how the family operates in changing historical times. For example, youth rebellion against repressive elders fed into choices about conversion to Christianity in colonial Kenya in the early twentieth century and also into the May Fourth rebellion against traditional rule in China in 1919.These are the sorts of examples that drive the narrative of The Family: A World History. Maynes and Waltner begin their story more than 10,000 years ago with various projects of domestication around the globe -Trade ReviewA thoughtful work that is part of an exciting series, the New Oxford World History. This is very much an American series and reflects the energy of that historical community. Pledged to offer a comprehensive world history that looks over a long timespan, this series provides the basis for an account of the family that begins in 10,000 BCE ... the scholarship is up to date, the judgments pertinent and the writing good. An impressive volume. * Jeremy Black, The Historian *This welcome addition to the New Oxford World History series examines both the history of the family as a social institution from Paleolithic times to the present, and the ways in which the family has been an agent of historical change ... excellent * Merry Wiesner-Hanks, Journal of Social History *Table of ContentsEditors' Preface ; Introduction ; Chapter 1: Domestic Life and Human Origins ; Chapter 2: The Birth of the Gods: Family in the Emergence of Religions and Cosmologies ; Chapter 3: Ruling Families: Kinship at the Dawn of Politics (3000 BCE to 1450 CE) ; Chapter 4: Family Dynamics in a Global Frame (1400-1750) ; Chapter 5: Families in Global Markets (1600-1850) ; Chapter 6: Families in Revolutionary Times (1750-1920) ; Chapter 7: Powers of Life and Death: Families in the Era of State Population Management (1880 to the Present) ; Epilogue: The Future of the Family ; Chronology ; Notes ; Further Reading ; Websites ; Index
£26.59
Oxford University Press Central Asia in World History
Book SynopsisA vast region stretching roughly from the Volga River to Manchuria and the northern Chinese borderlands, Central Asia has been called the pivot of history, a land where nomadic invaders and Silk Road traders changed the destinies of states that ringed its borders, including pre-modern Europe, the Middle East, and China. In Central Asia in World History, Peter B. Golden provides an engaging account of this important region, ranging from prehistory to the present, and focusing largely on the unique melting pot of cultures that this region has produced. Golden describes the traders who braved the heat and cold along caravan routes to link East Asia and Europe; the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan and his successors, the largest contiguous land empire in history; the invention of gunpowder, which allowed the great sedentary empires to overcome the horse-based nomads; the power struggles of Russia and China, and later Russia and Britain, for control of the area. Finally, he discusses the regioTrade ReviewThis concise but comprehensive textbook outlines the transformation of Central Asia from prehistory to the collapse of the USSR. ... The scope is ambitious ... the book is chronologically, spatially, and thematically wide-ranging without sacrificing the level of detail in the narrative. * Jagjeet Lally, Journal of Global History *Table of Contents1. Editors' Preface
£25.19
Oxford University Press Union Pacific The Reconfiguration Americas Greatest Railroad from 1969 to the Present
Book SynopsisPraised by the Chicago Tribune as thoroughly and compellingly detailed history, Volumes I and II of Maury Klein''s monumental history of the Union Pacific Railroad covered the years from 1863-1969. Now the third and final volume brings the story of the Union Pacific--the oldest, largest, and most successful railroad of modern times--fully up to date. The book follows the trajectory of an icon of the industrial age trying to negotiate its way in a post-railway world, plagued by setbacks such as labor disputes, aging infrastructure, government de-regulation, ill-fated mergers, and more. By 1969 the same company that a century earlier had triumphantly driven the golden spike into Promontory Summit--to immortalize the nation''s first transcontinental railway--seemed a dinosaur destined for financial ruin. But as Klein shows, the Union Pacific not only survived but is once more thriving, which proves that railways remain critical to commerce and industry in America, even as passenger train travel has all but disappeared. Drawing on interviews with Union Pacific personnel past and present, Klein takes readers inside the great railroad--into its boardrooms and along its tracks--to show how the company adapted to the rapidly changing world of modern transportation. The book also offers fascinating portraits of the men who have run the railroad. The challenges they faced, and the strategies they developed to meet them, give readers a rare glimpse into the inner workings of one of America''s great companies. A capstone on a remarkable achievement, Union Pacific: The Reconfiguration will appeal to historians, business scholars, and transportation buffs alike.Trade ReviewMr. Klein has written thoroughly researched and scrupulously objective biographies of the previously much maligned Jay Gould and E.H. Harriman, remaking their public images by presenting them in full. Now he has published the third and final volume of his magisterial history of the Union Pacific railroad, taking the company from 1969 to the present day. * Wall Street Journal *
£47.49
Oxford University Press Becoming African in America
Book SynopsisThe first slaves imported to America did not see themselves as African but rather as members of ethnic groups such as the Temne, Igbo, or Yoruban. In Becoming African in America, James Sidbury reveals how an African identity emerged in the late eighteenth-century Atlantic world, tracing the development of African from a degrading term connoting savage people to a word that was a source of pride and unity for the diverse victims of the Atlantic slave trade. In this wide-ranging work, Sidbury first examines the work of black writers - such as Ignatius Sancho in England and Phillis Wheatley in America - who created a narrative of African identity that took its meaning from the diaspora, a narrative that began with enslavement and the experience of the Middle Passage, allowing people of various ethnic backgrounds to become African by virtue of sharing the oppression of slavery. He looks at political activists who worked within the emerging antislavery moment in England and North America inTrade Review...a fine and welcome addition to the literature on the history of the African diaspora and the black Atlantic world...the book...will serve as a generative source for further research and inquiry. There can be no greater tribute to a person's scholarship, nor any greater reward. * Michael A. Gomez, African History *Taking us on a journey that stretches from New York and Philadelphia to Nova Scotia and Sierra Leon, Jim Sidbury tells an elegant tale of how several generations of thinkers shaped, pursued, and transformed the idea of Africa. In the process, he provides a deeply engaging, and deeply human, portrait of intellectuals and communities in motion and in struggle. * Laurent Dubois, Duke University *The most sophisticated, best researched, and subtly argued book yet on the complex story of how Africans became African Americans in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This is a genuinely Atlantic book in its scope and importance. * David W. Blight, author of A Slave No More *An outstanding, detailed survey emerges which blendsrich source writings with a history of ethnic identity development. * The Bookwatch *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION; EPILOGUE THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW OF 1850 AND RENEWED ASSERTIONS OF AFRICAN IDENTITY
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