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books tagged “modern history”
books tagged “modern history”
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Abraham Lincoln's Worldby Genevieve FosterISBN 0684148552 (0-684-14855-2)
Hardcover, Macmillan Pub Co
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The Age of Capitalby E. J. HobsbawmISBN 0679772545 (0-679-77254-5)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Age of Capital'Book summary:In this book, Eric Hobsbawm chronicles the events and trends that led to the triumph of private enterprise and its exponents in the years between 1848 and 1875. Along with Hobsbawm's other volumes, this book constitutes and intellectual key to the origins of the world in which we now live. [via]
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The Age of Capital, 1848-1875by Eric J. HobsbawmISBN 0684144506 (0-684-14450-6)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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The Age of Revolutionby Eric HobsbawmISBN 0679772537 (0-679-77253-7)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Age of Revolution'Book summary:This magisterial volume follows the death of ancient traditions, the triumph of new classes, and the emergence of new technologies, sciences, and ideologies, with vast intellectual daring and aphoristic elegance. Part of Eric Hobsbawm's epic four-volume history of the modern world, along with The Age of Capitalism, The Age of Empire, and The Age of Extremes. [via]
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Albert Speer: His Battle With Truthby Gitta Sereny, Peter DimockISBN 0679768122 (0-679-76812-2)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Albert Speer: His Battle With Truth'Book summary:Gitta Sereny's biography meticulously re-creates for the reader the professional, emotional, and psychological life of Albert Speer, Hitler's architect and later his Minister of Armaments. Throughout the 12-year history of the Third Reich, Speer remained one of Hitler's most trusted confidants and one of the most powerful political leaders of the Nazi party. Researched and written over an eight year period, Albert Speer weaves together information from innumerable personal interviews with Speer, his family, close friends, and professional colleagues, the author's own solid grasp of German history, and critical readings of Speer's own writings, including various drafts of his memoirs, Inside the Third Reich, first published in 1969.
Throughout, Sereny consciously avoids the pitfall of many Speer biographers, who seek to either blame or exculpate Speer for the Nazi's atrocities. Instead, she succeeds in helping the reader understand a "morally extinguished" man and place into context "all the crimes against humanity which Hitler initiated, which continue to threaten us today, and of which Speer, who was in many ways a man of excellence, sadly enough made himself a part." Well over 700 pages, Albert Speer is not a quick read, but superbly written and meticulously researched, it is a pleasure to read, providing unprecedented insight into one of the most complex figures in modern German history. --Bertina Loeffler [via]
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The American Century, 1929-1945 : The Dream Turns to Dust and the World Goes to Warby Harold Evans, Gail Buckland, Kevin BakerISBN 0679410708 (0-679-41070-8)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The American Century, 1929-1945 : The Dream Turns to Dust and the World Goes to War'Book summary:Although most of this sprawling book is set in the 20th century, it begins on April 29, 1889, when Benjamin Harrison commemorated the first centennial of American government. This 11-year jump-start allows Harold Evans to write about the last major push to settle the Western territories, the gradual dwindling of Native American societies, the rise to prominence of William Jennings Bryan, and other quintessentially American moments of the 19th century.
But make no mistake about it--The American Century is very much rooted in the modern world. Evans's tight, journalistic prose marks the significant events and personages in America's rise to superpower status and offers several educational surprises, such as a two-page spread on too-little-known naval historian Alfred Mahan, whose The Influence of Sea Power upon History shaped foreign policy in America and several European nations. His treatments of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and the Watergate crisis are substantial highlights. Juxtapositions such as Ralph Nader and Rachel Carson or Jimmy Hoffa and Cesar Chavez make for a lively overview. The book essentially ends with the inauguration of George Bush in 1989, although brief mention is made to some of what has happened since then. Filled with photographs and contemporary editorial cartoons, The American Century is an excellent one-volume chronicle of a rather momentous 100 years. [via]
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Amsterdamby Geert Mak, Philipp BlomISBN 0674009932 (0-674-00993-2)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Amsterdam'Book summary:Cosmopolitan, stylish, even a little decadent, Amsterdam--"the Venice of the North"--is a city of legendary beauty. From a twelfth-century settlement of wooden huts at the mouth of the River Amstel, it had become by the late sixteenth century one of the great cultural capitals of Europe and a major financial center.
In this gracefully written examination of Amsterdam's soul--part history, part travel guide--the Dutch writer Geert Mak imaginatively depicts the lives of early Amsterdammers and traces the city's progress from a small town of merchants, sailors, farmers, and fishermen to a thriving metropolis. Mak's Amsterdam is a city of dreams and nightmares, of grand civic architecture and magnificent monuments, but also of civil wars, uprisings, and bloody religious purges. In his delightfully instructive journey through the city and through time, Mak displays an eye for the bizarre and the unexpected: a Rembrandt sketch of a young girl executed for manslaughter; the shoe of a medieval lady unearthed during a remodeling project; a graffito foretelling the city's doom on the wall of a mansion, daubed by a deranged burgomaster with his own blood.
Amsterdam remains a magnet for travelers from around the world, and this charmingly detailed account of its origins and its history through the present day is designed to help the reader step into daily life in a truly modern city. [via]
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Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girlby Anne FrankISBN 0671690094 (0-671-69009-4)
Softcover, Pocket Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl'Book summary:Anne Frank's diaries have always been among the most moving and eloquent documents of the Holocaust. This new edition restores diary entries omitted from the original edition, revealing a new depth to Anne's dreams, irritations, hardships, and passions. Anne emerges as more real, more human, and more vital than ever. If you've never read this remarkable autobiography, do so. If you have read it, you owe it to yourself to read it again. [via]
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Athens on Trial: The Antidemocratic Tradition in Western Thoughtby Jennifer Tolbert RobertsISBN 0691029199 (0-691-02919-9)
Softcover, Princeton Univ Pr
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Basic Writings of Nietzscheby Walter Arnold Kaufmann, Friedrich NietzscheISBN 0679783393 (0-679-78339-3)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Basic Writings of Nietzsche'Book summary:A better title for this book might be The Indispensable Writings of Nietzsche. Indeed, the six selections contained in Walter Kaufmann's volume are not only critical elements of Nietzsche's oeuvre, they are must-reads for any aspiring student of philosophy. Those coming to Nietzsche for the first time will be pleased to find three of his best-known works--The Birth of Tragedy, Beyond Good and Evil, and On the Genealogy of Morals--as well as a collection of 75 aphorisms drawn from Nietzsche's celebrated aphoristic work. In addition, there are two lesser known, but important, pieces in The Case of Wagner and Ecce Homo. Kaufmann's lucid and accurate translations have been the gold standard of Nietzsche scholarship since the 1950s, and this volume does not disappoint.
Anyone who has slogged their way through the swamps of German philosophical writing---in Kant or Hegel or Heidegger--will find Nietzsche a refreshing and exhilarating change. The selections are well chosen, and a cover-to-cover read will aptly depict Nietzsche's philosophy. In this volume the reader will find many of Nietzsche's polemical (and frequently misunderstood) ratiocinations on Christianity, Socrates, Germany, and art. Here, too, are his seminal and unforgettable critiques of Western morality ("That lambs dislike great birds of prey does not seem strange: only it gives no ground for reproaching these birds of prey for bearing off little lambs"). For philosophical fireworks, Nietzsche can hardly be matched. His brazen defiance of intellectualism's conventions still rings in contemporary thought because he practiced philosophy with a hammer. --Eric de Place [via]
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Battle of Wits : The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War IIby Stephen BudianskyISBN 0684859327 (0-684-85932-7)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Battle of Wits : The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II'Book summary:On December 3, 1941, officers of the U.S. Army Signal Intelligence Unit decoded a message sent from Tokyo to the Japanese embassy in Washington, ordering embassy staff to destroy its code books and other sensitive material. This, the officers determined, meant that Japan was preparing to break off diplomatic relations with the United States and go to war. When, they could not say; to gain a precise date, they would have had to break the Japanese naval codes. Therein, writes Stephen Budiansky in Battle of Wits, lay the rub: "Since mid-1939, America had not read a single message in the main Japanese naval code on the same day it had been sent. For most of the period from June 1, 1939, to December 7, 1941, the [U.S.] Navy was working on naval messages that were months, or even over a year old."
For all their lack of preparedness and occasional inefficiencies, and for all the disdain with which some Allied ground commanders held the work of military intelligence, writes Budiansky, Allied cryptographers were of critical importance in determining the outcome of World War II. The decoding of Japanese and German encryption engines, for instance, helped the Allied navies gain victory in the battles of the Atlantic and Midway, while the translation of secret German railroad schedules allowed Winston Churchill to warn Josef Stalin that the German army was about to invade the Soviet Union--though Stalin refused to take the warning seriously. The codebreakers, in short, "averted disasters that would have been terrible setbacks to the Allied cause," and they almost certainly saved a considerable number of lives as they labored to crack such profound puzzles as Enigma and Purple.
Budiansky's narrative is strong on the science of cryptography--so much so that readers without a background in mathematics and logic may have trouble following the arcana of key squares, bigrams, and all the other trade secrets of cryptanalysis. Readers willing to brave matters technical, however, will find Budiansky's comprehensive account to be the best single book on the subject, and one well worth their attention. --Gregory McNamee [via]
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Benjamin Franklin: An American Lifeby Walter IsaacsonISBN 0684807610 (0-684-80761-0)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Benjamin Franklin: An American Life'Book summary:Benjamin Franklin, writes journalist and biographer Walter Isaacson, was that rare Founding Father who would sooner wink at a passer-by than sit still for a formal portrait. What's more, Isaacson relates in this fluent and entertaining biography, the revolutionary leader represents a political tradition that has been all but forgotten today, one that prizes pragmatism over moralism, religious tolerance over fundamentalist rigidity, and social mobility over class privilege. That broadly democratic sensibility allowed Franklin his contradictions, as Isaacson shows. Though a man of lofty principles, Franklin wasn't shy of using sex to sell the newspapers he edited and published; though far from frivolous, he liked his toys and his mortal pleasures; and though he sometimes gave off a simpleton image, he was a shrewd and even crafty politician. Isaacson doesn't shy from enumerating Franklins occasional peccadilloes and shortcomings, in keeping with the iconoclastic nature of our time--none of which, however, stops him from considering Benjamin Franklin "the most accomplished American of his age," and one of the most admirable of any era. And heres one bit of proof: as a young man, Ben Franklin regularly went without food in order to buy books. His example, as always, is a good one--and this is just the book to buy with the proceeds from the grocery budget. --Gregory McNamee [via]
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Beyond Good and Evilby Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Walter Arnold KaufmannISBN 0679724656 (0-679-72465-6)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Beyond Good and Evil'Book summary:Represents Nietzsche's attempt to sum up his philosophy. In nine parts the book is designed to give the reader a comprehensive idea of Nietzche's thought and style. With an inclusive index of subjects and persons. [via]
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The Boer Warby Thomas PakenhamISBN 0679430474 (0-679-43047-4)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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Civilization of Europe in the Renaissanceby John HaleISBN 0684803526 (0-684-80352-6)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Civilization of Europe in the Renaissance'Book summary:In his new book, renowned historian John Hale paints, on a grand canvas, what he calls an "investigative impression" of Europe during the period from 1450 to 1620--the era we have come to call the Renaissance. 200 illustrations. [via]
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Collapse of the Third Republicby William ShirerISBN 0671785095 (0-671-78509-5)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil Warby Tony HorwitzISBN 067975833X (0-679-75833-X)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War'Book summary:Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tony Horwitz returned from years of traipsing through war zones as a foreign correspondent only to find that his childhood obsession with the Civil War had caught up with him. Near his house in Virginia, he happened to encounter people who reenact the Civil War--men who dress up in period costumes and live as Johnny Rebs and Billy Yanks. Intrigued, he wound up having some odd adventures with the "hardcores," the fellows who try to immerse themselves in the war, hoping to get what they lovingly term a "period rush." Horwitz spent two years reporting on why Americans are still so obsessed with the war, and the ways in which it resonates today. In the course of his work, he made a sobering side trip to cover a murder that was provoked by the display of the Confederate flag, and he spoke to a number of people seeking to honor their ancestors who fought for the Confederacy. Horwitz has a flair for odd details that spark insights, and Confederates in the Attic is a thoughtful and entertaining book that does much to explain America's continuing obsession with the Civil War. [via]
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Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bombby Richard RhodesISBN 0684824140 (0-684-82414-0)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb'Book summary:An engrossing history of the scientific discoveries, political maneuverings, and cold-war espionage leading to the creation of mankind's most destructive weapon.
Includes 94 archival photographs and a glossary with brief descriptions of the hundreds of people interviewed and discussed in the book. Author Richard Rhodes won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award for his previous atomic tome, The Making of the Atomic Bomb. [via]
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Daughter of Destiny: An Autobiographyby Benazir BhuttoISBN 0671696033 (0-671-69603-3)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Daughter of Destiny: An Autobiography'Book summary:Daughter of Destiny, the autobiography of Benazir Bhutto, is a historical document of uncommon passion and courage, the dramatic story of a brilliant, beautiful woman whose life was, up to her tragic assassination in 2007, inexorably tied to her nation's tumultuous history. Bhutto writes of growing up in a family of legendary wealth and near-mythic status, a family whose rich heritage survives in tales still passed from generation to generation. She describes her journey from this protected world onto the volatile stage of international politics through her education at Radcliffe and Oxford, the sudden coup that plunged her family into a prolonged nightmare of threats and torture, her father's assassination by General Zia ul-Haq in 1979, and her grueling experience as a political prisoner in solitary confinement.
With candor and courage, Benazir Bhutto recounts her triumphant political rise from her return to Pakistan from exile in 1986 through the extraordinary events of 1988: the mysterious death of Zia; her party's long struggle to ensure free elections; and finally, the stunning mandate that propelled her overnight into the ranks of the world's most powerful, influential leaders.
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The Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Idealsby William J. BennettISBN 0684864037 (0-684-86403-7)
Softcover, Free Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals'Book summary:Don't look for President Clinton's picture in The Book of Virtues; bestselling author and former Secretary of Education William J. Bennett considers Bill Clinton uniquely unvirtuous. In the wake of the White House intern sex scandal, Bennett accuses Clinton of crimes at least as serious as those committed by Richard Nixon during the Watergate imbroglio. Rising above anti-Clinton polemics, The Death of Outrage urges the American public--which initially displayed not much more than a collective shrug--to take issue with the president's private and public conduct. Clinton should be judged by more than the state of the economy, implores Bennett. The commander in chief sets the moral tone of the nation; a reckless personal life and repeated lying from the bully pulpit call for a heavy sanction. The American people should demand nothing less, says the onetime federal drug czar. In each chapter, Bennett lays out the rhetorical defenses made on Clinton's behalf (the case against him is "only about sex," harsh judgmentalism has no place in modern society, independent counsel Kenneth Starr is a partisan prosecutor, etc.) and picks them apart. He may not convince everybody, but this is an effective conservative brief against Bill Clinton. --John J. Miller [via]
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Disraeli and the Rise of a New Imperialismby C. C. EldridgeISBN 0708313523 (0-7083-1352-3)
Softcover, Univ of Chicago Pr
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Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Manby Hugh Sebag-MontefioreISBN 0674024397 (0-674-02439-7)
Hardcover, Harvard Univ Pr
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Eastern Approachesby MacLeanISBN 0689706685 (0-689-70668-5)
Softcover, Atheneum
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The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Ageby Simon SchamaISBN 0679781242 (0-679-78124-2)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age'Book summary:Schama explores the mysterious contradictions of the Dutch nation that invented itself from the ground up, attained an unprecedented level of affluence, and lived in constant dread of being corrupted by happiness. Drawing on a vast array of period documents and sumptuously reproduced art, Schama re-creates in precise detail a nation's mental state. He tells of bloody uprisings and beached whales, of the cult of hygiene and the plague of tobacco, of thrifty housewives and profligate tulip-speculators. He tells us how the Dutch celebrated themselves and how they were slandered by their enemies.
"History on the grand scale...An ambitious portrait of one of the most remarkable episodes in modern history."--New York Times
"Wonderfully inclusive; with wit and intense curiosity he teases out meaning from every aspect of Dutch seventeenth-century life."--Robert Hughes [via]More editions of The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age:
The Emperorby Ryszard KapuscinskiISBN 0679722033 (0-679-72203-3)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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The English Dane: A Life of Jorgen Jorgensonby Sarah BakewellISBN 0701173408 (0-7011-7340-8)
Hardcover, Chatto & Windus
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The Families Who Made Rome: A History and a Guideby Anthony MajanlahtiISBN 0701176873 (0-7011-7687-3)
Hardcover, Chatto & Windus
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The Fiftiesby David HalberstamISBN 0679415599 (0-679-41559-9)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Fifties'Book summary:"In retrospect," writes David Halberstam, "the pace of the fifties seemed slower, almost languid. Social ferment, however, was beginning just beneath this placid surface." He shows how the United States began to emerge from the long shadow of FDR's 12-year presidency, with the military-industrial complex and the Beat movement simultaneously growing strong. Television brought not only situation comedies but controversial congressional hearings into millions of living rooms. While Alfred Kinsey was studying people's sex lives, Gregory Pincus and other researchers began work on a pill that would forever alter the course of American reproductive practices. Halberstam takes on these social upheavals and more, charting a course that is as easy to navigate as it is wide-ranging. [via]
Fourteen Ninety-Two: The Decline of Medievalism and the Rise of the Modern Ageby Barnet LitvinoffISBN 0684192101 (0-684-19210-1)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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A History of Private Life: Riddles of Identity in Modern Timesby Antoine Prost, Gerard Vincent, Arthur GoldhammerISBN 0674400046 (0-674-40004-6)
Softcover, Belknap Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A History of Private Life: Riddles of Identity in Modern Times'Book summary:This fifth and final volume in an award-winning series charts the inner history of our times from the tumult of World War I to the 1990s. Nine historians present a picture of cultures in transition and in the process scrutinize a myriad of subjects - the sacrament of confession, volunteer hotlines, Nazi policies toward the family, the baby boom, evolving sexuality, the history of contraception, and ever-changing dress codes. They draw upon unexpected sources, including divorce hearing transcripts, personal ads, and little-known demographic and consumer data. Perhaps the most notable pattern to emerge is a polarizing of public and private realms. Productive labour shifts from the home to an impersonal public setting. Salaried or corporate employment replaces many independent, entrepreneurial jobs, and workers of all kinds aggressively pursue their leisure time. Zoning laws segregate industrial and commercial areas from residential neighbourhoods, which are no longer a supportive "theatre" of benign surveillance, gossip, and mutual concern, but an assemblage of aloof and anonymous individuals or families. Scattered with personal possessions and appliances, homes grow large by yesterday's standards and are marked by elaborate spatial subdivisions. Men and women are obsessed with health, fitness, diet and appearance as the body becomes the focal point of personal identity. In the search for sexual and individualistic fulfillment, romantic love becomes the foundation of marriage. Couples marry at an older age; families are smaller. The divorce rate rises, and with it the number of single-family households. Women, entering the work forces in unprecedented numbers, frequently function as both breadwinner and homemaker. The authors interrelate these patterns with the changing roles of state and religion in family matters, the socialization of education and elder care, the growth of feminism, the impact of media on private life, and the nature of secrecy. "Riddles of Identity in Modern Times" chronicles a period when the differentiation of life into public and private realms, once a luxury of the wealthy, gradually spread throughout the population. This final volume, differing from the French edition, portrays Italian, German and American family family life in the 20th century. The authors, Chiara Saraceno, Ingeborg Weber-Kellerman and Elaine Tyler May enlarge the European and Atlantic canvas that depicts the modern identity. [via]
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A History of the Twentieth Century: 1933-1951by Martin GilbertISBN 0688100651 (0-688-10065-1)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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A History of the Twentieth Century Vol. 1: 1900-1933by Martin GilbertISBN 0688100643 (0-688-10064-3)
Hardcover, HarperCollins Publishers
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A History of the Twentieth Century Vol. 1: 1900-1933'Book summary:What a terrible disappointment the twentieth century has been, was Winston Churchills comment in 1922. One world war was over, more than 6 million soldiers had been killed, and four vast empires had been destroyed. A second mass slaughterin which more than 46 million would diewas yet to come, bringing in its wake the arms race, the Cold War, and the nuclear age.
This volume of Martin Gilberts three-volume narrative history of the century charts its first thirty-three years. Opening in the age of horse-drawn travel and colonial wars, Gilbert closes this volume with Roosevelt as the newly elected President of the United States, the inauguration of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, and the first of Stalins show trials in the Soviet Union. As well as chronicling the wars, revolutions, and political upheavals, Gilbert tells the story of ordinary men and women in every continent, making them an integral part of the events of which they were sometimes the beneficiaries and often the victims. [via]
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A History of Veniceby John Julius NorwichISBN 0679721975 (0-679-72197-5)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A History of Venice'Book summary:Traces the rise ot empire of this city from its 5th century beginnings all the way through until 1797 when Napolean put an end to the thousand year-old Republic. 32 pages of black and white photos, 4 maps and charts. [via]
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A History of Women in the West: Renaissance and Enlightenment Paradoxesby Natalie Zemon Davis, Georges Duby, Michelle Perrot, Pauline Schmitt PantelISBN 0674403673 (0-674-40367-3)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A History of Women in the West: Renaissance and Enlightenment Paradoxes'Book summary:Volume III of A History of Women draws a richly detailed picture of women in early modern Europe, considering them in a context of work, marriage, and family. At the heart of this volume is "woman" as she appears in a wealth of representations, from simple woodcuts and popular literature to master paintings; and as the focal point of a debate--sometimes humorous, sometimes acrimonious--conducted in every field: letters, arts, philosophy, the sciences, and medicine. Against oppressive experience, confining laws, and repetitious claims about female "nature," women took initiative by quiet maneuvers and outright dissidence. In conformity and resistance, in image and reality, women from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries emerge from these pages in remarkable diversity.
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Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Livesby Alan BullockISBN 0679729941 (0-679-72994-1)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaustby Daniel Jonah GoldhagenISBN 0679772685 (0-679-77268-5)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Hitler's Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust'Book summary:In a work that is as authoritative as it is explosive, Goldhagen forces us to revisit and reconsider our understanding of the Holocaust and its perpetrators, demanding a fundamental revision in our thinking of the years between 1933-1945. Drawing principally on materials either unexplored or neglected by previous scholars, Goldhagen marshals new, disquieting primary evidence that explains why, when Hitler conceived of the "final solution" he was able to enlist vast numbers of willing Germans to carry it out. A book sure to provoke new discussion and intense debate. [via]
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How War Came: The Immediate Origins of the Second World War, 1938-1939by Donald C. WattISBN 0679730931 (0-679-73093-1)
Softcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortageby Kenneth S. DeffeyesISBN 0691116253 (0-691-11625-3)
Softcover, Princeton Univ Pr
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An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding: With a Supplement, An Abstract of A Treatise of Human Natureby David Hume, Charles William HendelISBN 0672602180 (0-672-60218-0)
Softcover, Bobbs-Merrill Educational Pub
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Inside the Third Reich: Memoirsby Albert SpeerISBN 0684829495 (0-684-82949-5)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Inside the Third Reich: Memoirs'Book summary:From 1946 to 1966, while serving the prison sentence handed down from the Nuremburg War Crimes tribunal, Albert Speer penned 1,200 manuscript pages of personal memoirs. Titled Erinnerungen ("Recollections") upon their 1969 publication in German, Speer's critically acclaimed personal history was translated into English and published one year later as Inside the Third Reich. Long after their initial publication, Speer's memoir continues to provide one of the most detailed and fascinating portrayals of life within Hitler's inner circles, the rise and fall of the third German empire, and of Hitler himself.
Speer chronicles his entire life, but the majority of Inside the Third Reich focuses on the years between 1933 and 1945, when Speer figured prominently in Hitler's government and the German war effort as Inspector General of Buildings for the Renovation of the Federal Capital and later as Minister of Arms and Munitions. Speer's recollections of both duties foreground the impossibility of reconciling Hitler's idealistic, imperialistic ambitions with both architectural and military reality. Throughout, Inside the Third Reich remains true to its author's intentions. With compelling insight, Speer reveals many of the "premises which almost inevitably led to the disasters" of the Third Reich as well as "what comes from one man's holding unrestricted power in his hands." -- Bertina Loeffler [via]
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Inventing the Middle Ages: The Lives, Works, and Ideas of the Great Medievalists of the Twentieth Centuryby Norman F. CantorISBN 0688123023 (0-688-12302-3)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Inventing the Middle Ages: The Lives, Works, and Ideas of the Great Medievalists of the Twentieth Century'Book summary:INVENTING THE MIDDLE AGES
The Lives, Works, and Ideas of the Great Medievalists of the Twentieth Century
In this ground-breaking work, Norman Cantor explains how our current notion of the Middle Ages-with its vivid images of wars, tournaments, plagues, saints and kings, knights and ladies-was born in the twentieth century. The medieval world was not simply excavated through systematic research. It had to be conceptually created: It had to be invented, and this is the story of that invention.
Norman Cantor focuses on the lives and works of twenty of the great medievalists of this century, demonstrating how the events of their lives, and their spiritual and emotional outlooks, influenced their interpretations of the Middle Ages. Cantor makes their scholarship an intensely personal and passionate exercise, full of color and controversy, displaying the strong personalities and creative minds that brought new insights about the past.
A revolution in academic method, this book is a breakthrough to a new way of teaching the humanities and historiography, to be enjoyed by student and general public alike. It takes an immense body of learning and transmits it so that readers come away fully informed of the essentials of the subject, perceiving the interconnection of medieval civilization with the culture of the twentieth century and having had a good time while doing it! This is a riveting, entertaining, humorous, and learned read, compulsory for anyone concerned about the past and future of Western civilization.
[via]More editions of Inventing the Middle Ages: The Lives, Works, and Ideas of the Great Medievalists of the Twentieth Century:
- Inventing the Middle Ages: The Lives, Works, and Ideas of the Great Medievalists of the Twentieth Century: ISBN 0688094066 (0-688-09406-6)
Hardcover, W. Morrow - Inventing the Middle Ages: The Lives, Works, and Ideas of the Great Medievalists of the Twentieth Century: ISBN 0688123023 (0-688-12302-3)
Softcover, Harpercollins
- Inventing the Middle Ages: The Lives, Works, and Ideas of the Great Medievalists of the Twentieth Century: ISBN 0688094066 (0-688-09406-6)
Ireland since the Famineby F. S. L. LyonsISBN 0684103699 (0-684-10369-9)
Hardcover, Scribner
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John Adamsby David Willis McCulloughISBN 0684813637 (0-684-81363-7)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'John Adams'Book summary:Left to his own devices, John Adams might have lived out his days as a Massachusetts country lawyer, devoted to his family and friends. As it was, events swiftly overtook him, and Adams--who, David McCullough writes, was "not a man of the world" and not fond of politics--came to greatness as the second president of the United States, and one of the most distinguished of a generation of revolutionary leaders. He found reason to dislike sectarian wrangling even more in the aftermath of war, when Federalist and anti-Federalist factions vied bitterly for power, introducing scandal into an administration beset by other difficulties--including pirates on the high seas, conflict with France and England, and all the public controversy attendant in building a nation.
Overshadowed by the lustrous presidents Washington and Jefferson, who bracketed his tenure in office, Adams emerges from McCullough's brilliant biography as a truly heroic figure--not only for his significant role in the American Revolution but also for maintaining his personal integrity in its strife-filled aftermath. McCullough spends much of his narrative examining the troubled friendship between Adams and Jefferson, who had in common a love for books and ideas but differed on almost every other imaginable point. Reading his pages, it is easy to imagine the two as alter egos. (Strangely, both died on the same day, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.) But McCullough also considers Adams in his own light, and the portrait that emerges is altogether fascinating. --Gregory McNamee [via]
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Mao: The Unknown Storyby Jung Chang, Jon HallidayISBN 0679746323 (0-679-74632-3)
Softcover, Anchor Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Mao: The Unknown Story'Book summary:In the epilogue to her biography of Mao Tse-tung, Jung Chang and her husband and cowriter Jon Halliday lament that, "Today, Mao's portrait and his corpse still dominate Tiananmen Square in the heart of the Chinese capital." For Chang, author of Wild Swans, this fact is an affront, not just to history, but to decency. Mao: The Unknown Story does not contain a formal dedication, but it is clear that Chang is writing to honor the millions of Chinese who fell victim to Mao's drive for absolute power in his 50-plus-year struggle to dominate China and the 20th-century political landscape. From the outset, Chang and Halliday are determined to shatter the "myth" of Mao, and they succeed with the force, not just of moral outrage, but of facts. The result is a book, more indictment than portrait, that paints Mao as a brutal totalitarian, a thug, who unleashed Stalin-like purges of millions with relish and without compunction, all for his personal gain. Through the authors' unrelenting lens even his would-be heroism as the leader of the Long March and father of modern China is exposed as reckless opportunism, subjecting his charges to months of unnecessary hardship in order to maintain the upper hand over his rival, Chang Kuo-tao, an experienced military commander.
Using exhaustive research in archives all over the world, Chang and Halliday recast Mao's ascent to power and subsequent grip on China in the context of global events. Sino-Soviet relations, the strengths and weakness of Chiang Kai-shek, the Japanese invasion of China, World War II, the Korean War, the disastrous Great Leap Forward, the vicious Cultural Revolution, the Vietnam War, Nixon's visit, and the constant, unending purges all, understandably, provide the backdrop for Mao's unscrupulous but invincible political maneuverings and betrayals. No one escaped unharmed. Rivals, families, peasants, city dwellers, soldiers, and lifelong allies such as Chou En-lai were all sacrificed to Mao's ambition and paranoia. Appropriately, the authors' consciences are appalled. Their biggest fear is that Mao will escape the global condemnation and infamy he deserves. Their astonishing book will go a long way to ensure that the pendulum of history will adjust itself accordingly. --Silvana Tropea [via]
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Martyrs' Day: Chronicle of a Small Warby Michael KellyISBN 0679750142 (0-679-75014-2)
Softcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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Maus: A Survivor's Tale My Father Bleeds History and Here My Troubles Beganby Art SpiegelmanISBN 0679748407 (0-679-74840-7)
Softcover, Pantheon Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Maus: A Survivor's Tale My Father Bleeds History/Her My Troubles Began/Boxed'Book summary:NA [via]
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Maus a Survivors Tale: And Here My Troubles Beginby Art SpiegelmanISBN 0679729771 (0-679-72977-1)
Softcover, Pantheon Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Maus a Survivors Tale: And Here My Troubles Begin'Book summary:***WINNER OF THE 1992 PULIZTER PRIZE***Acclaimed as a quiet triumph and a brutally moving work of art, the first volume of Art Spiegelman's Mausintroduced readers to Vladek Spieglman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe, and his son, a cartoonist trying to come to terms with his father, his father's terrifying story, and History itself. Its form, the cartoon (the Nazis are cats, the Jews mice), succeeds perfectly in shocking us out of any lingering sense of familiarity with the events described, approaching, as it does, the unspeakable through the diminutive.This second volume, subtitled And Here My Troubles Began, moves us from the barracks of Auschwitz to the bungalows of the Catskills. Genuinely tragic and comic by turns, it attains a complexity of theme and a precision of thought new to comics and rare in any medium. Mausties together two powerful stories: Vladek's harrowing take of survival against all odds, delineating the paradox of family life in the death camps, and the author's account of his tortured relationship with his aging father. At every level this is the ultimate survivor's tale-and that too of the children who somehow survive even the survivors. [via]
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Maus I: A Survivor's Tale My Father Bleeds Historyby Art SpiegelmanISBN 0679739742 (0-679-73974-2)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Naked Pictures of Famous Peopleby Jon StewartISBN 0688171621 (0-688-17162-1)
Softcover, Rob Weisbach Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Naked Pictures of Famous People'Book summary:Sometimes it seems like every standup comedian worth his or her salt just has to do the book thing, and you might feel that yet another warmed-over stage routine is the last thing you need taking up valuable bookshelf space. Jon Stewart's book will come as an extremely pleasant surprise. He eschews the standard standup patter and instead gives us 18 short comic essays in a variety of styles that recall the prose work of Woody Allen, only with a few more references to genitals. Stewart proves himself a remarkably nimble humorist with a sharp eye for parody, whether he's writing "A Very Hanson Christmas" or "Adolf Hitler: The Larry King Interview."
HITLER: ...Larry, look, I was a bad guy. No question. I hate that Hitler. The yelling, the finger pointing, I don't know ... I was a very angry guy.
KING: And this ... new Hitler?
HITLER: I get up at seven, have half a melon, do the jumble in the morning paper and then let the day take me where it will.... Me!! The inventor of the Blitzkrieg... When you stop having to control everything it's very freeing.
Stewart is not afraid to flirt with bad taste, in fact, some of the pieces in this collection do for "flirting with bad taste" what Bill Clinton did for "not having sexual relations." But it's wonderful to see an edgy comedian taking on the traditionally cozy genre of the humorous essay, creating work that combines the wit of Robert Benchley with the energy and attitude of the best modern standup. Naked Pictures of Famous People proves that Jon Stewart is as comfortable, and accomplished, in front of a word processor as he is in front of an audience. --Simon Leake [via]
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O Jerusalemby Larry Collins, Dominique LapierreISBN 0671662414 (0-671-66241-4)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'O Jerusalem'Book summary:At the center of this massive and brilliant book is the most universal of man's cities: Jerusalem, the mystic heart of three great religions, condemned to pay for the passions it inspires by being, through forty centuries, the most bitterly disputed site in the world.
Collins and Lapierre's story is the fruit of five years of intensive research and many thousands of interviews. It is the epic drama of 1948, in which the Arabs and the Jews, heirs to generations of bitter conflict in a land sacred to them both, fought each other for the city of Jerusalem and for the hopes of fulfillment it represented to each. Here is the account of that struggle that encompasses the full spectrum of its participants, whose experiences, emotions, and acts of bravery have been meticulously brought together and illumined in this monumental and dramatic work. [via] 
On Liberty and Utilitarianismby John Stuart MillISBN 0679413294 (0-679-41329-4)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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On the Genealogy of Morals/Ecce Homoby R. J. Hollingdale, Walter Arnold Kaufmann, Friedrich NietzscheISBN 0679724621 (0-679-72462-1)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'On the Genealogy of Morals/Ecce Homo'Book summary:The great philosopher's major work on ethics, along with ECCE HOMO, Nietzche's remarkable review of his life and works. Translated by Walter Kaufmann. [via]
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Origins of the Second World Warby Alan J. TaylorISBN 0684829479 (0-684-82947-9)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Origins of the Second World War'Book summary:The first book ever to examineexclusively and in depth the cause of the Second World War and to apportion the responsibility among Allies and Germans alike. [via]
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A Passage to India: Library Editionby E. M. ForsterISBN 0679405496 (0-679-40549-6)
Hardcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Passage to India: Library Edition'Book summary:What really happened in the Marabar caves? This is the mystery at the heart of E.M. Forster's 1924 novel, A Passage to India, the puzzle that sets in motion events highlighting an even larger question: Can an Englishman and an Indian be friends?
"It is impossible here," an Indian character tells his friend, Dr. Aziz, early in the novel.
"They come out intending to be gentlemen, and are told it will not do.... Why, I remember when Turton came out first. It was in another part of the Province. You fellows will not believe me, but I have driven with Turton in his carriage--Turton! Oh yes, we were once quite intimate. He has shown me his stamp collection.
Written while England was still firmly in control of India, Forster's novel follows the fortunes of three English newcomers to India--Miss Adela Quested, Mrs. Moore, and Cyril Fielding--and the Indian, Dr. Aziz, with whom they cross destinies. The idea of true friendship between the races was a radical one in Forster's time, and he makes it abundantly clear that it was not one that either side welcomed. If Aziz's friend, Hamidullah, believed it impossible, the British representatives of the Raj were equally discouraging."He would expect you to steal it now. Turton! But red-nosed boy will be far worse than Turton!
"I do not think so. They all become exactly the same, not worse, not better. I give any Englishman two years, be he Turton or Burton. It is only the difference of a letter. And I give any Englishwoman six months. All are exactly alike."
"Why, the kindest thing one can do to a native is to let him die," said Mrs. Callendar.
Despite their countrymen's disapproval, Miss Quested, Mrs. Moore, and Mr. Fielding are all eager to meet Indians, and in Dr. Aziz they find a perfect companion: educated, westernized, and open-minded. Slowly, the friendships ripen, especially between Aziz and Fielding. Having created the possibility of esteem based on trust and mutual affection, Forster then subjects it to the crucible of racial hatred: during a visit to the famed Marabar caves, Miss Quested accuses Dr. Aziz of sexually assaulting her, then later recants during the frenzied trial that follows. Under such circumstances, affection proves to be a very fragile commodity indeed.
"How if he went to heaven?" asked Mrs. Moore, with a gentle but crooked smile.
"He can go where he likes as long as he doesn't come near me. They give me the creeps."Arguably Forster's greatest novel, A Passage to India limns a troubling portrait of colonialism at its worst, and is remarkable for the complexity of its characters. Here the personal becomes the political and in the breach between Aziz and his English "friends," Forster foreshadows the eventual end of the Raj. --Alix Wilber [via]
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Portable Nietzscheby Friedrich NietzscheISBN 0701116013 (0-7011-1601-3)
Hardcover, Chatto & Windus
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The Princeby Niccolo MachiavelliISBN 0671826573 (0-671-82657-3)
Softcover, Pocket Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Prince'Book summary:The Prince is a classic book that explores the attainment, maintenance, and utilization of political power in the western world. Machiavelli wrote The Prince to demonstrate his skill in the art of the state, presenting advice on how a prince might acquire and hold power. Machiavelli defended the notion of rule by force rather than by law. Accordingly, The Prince seems to rationalize a number of actions done solely to perpetuate power. It is an examination of power-its attainment, development, and successful use. [via]
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The Princeby Dominic Baker-Smith, Niccolo Machiavelli, W.K. MarriottISBN 0679410449 (0-679-41044-9)
Hardcover, Alfred a Knopf Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Prince'Book summary:(Book Jacket Status: Jacketed)
That Machiavellis name has become synonymous with cold-eyed political calculation only heightens the intrinsic fascination of The Princethe worlds preeminent how-to manual on the art of getting and keeping power, and one of the literary landmarks of the Italian Renaissance. Written in a vigorous, straightforward style that reflects its authors realism, this treatise on states, statecraft, and the ideal ruler is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how human society actually works. [via]More editions of The Prince:
Radclyffe Hall at The Well of Loneliness: A Sapphic Chronicleby Lovat DicksonISBN 0684145308 (0-684-14530-8)
Hardcover, Scribner
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Restoration, Revolution, Reaction: Economics and Politics in Germany, 1815-1871by Theodore S. HamerowISBN 0691007551 (0-691-00755-1)
Softcover, Princeton Univ Pr
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The Return of Martin Guerreby Natalie DavisISBN 0674766911 (0-674-76691-1)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Return of Martin Guerre'Book summary:The Inventive Peasant Arnaud du Tilh had almost persuaded the learned judges at the Parlement of Toulouse, when on a summer's day in 1560 a man swaggered into the court on a wooden leg, denounced Arnaud, and reestablished his claim to the identity, property, and wife of Martin Guerre. The astonishing case captured the imagination of the Continent. Told and retold over the centuries, the story of Martin Guerre became a legend, still remembered in the Pyrenean village where the impostor was executed more than 400 years ago.
Now a noted historian, who served as consultant for a new French film on Martin Guerre, has searched archives and lawbooks to add new dimensions to a tale already abundant in mysteries: we are led to ponder how a common man could become an impostor in the sixteenth century, why Bertrande de Rols, an honorable peasant woman, would accept such a man as her husband, and why lawyers, poets, and men of letters like Montaigne became so fascinated with the episode.
Natalie Zemon Davis reconstructs the lives of ordinary people, in a sparkling way that reveals the hidden attachments and sensibilities of nonliterate sixteenth-century villagers. Here we see men and women trying to fashion their identities within a world of traditional ideas about property and family and of changing ideas about religion. We learn what happens when common people get involved in the workings of the criminal courts in the ancien régime, and how judges struggle to decide who a man was in the days before fingerprints and photographs. We sense the secret affinity between the eloquent men of law and the honey-tongued village impostor, a rare identification across class lines.
Deftly written to please both the general public and specialists, The Return of Martin Guerre will interest those who want to know more about ordinary families and especially women of the past, and about the creation of literary legends. It is also a remarkable psychological narrative about where self-fashioning stops and lying begins.
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The Rum Diaryby Hunter S. ThompsonISBN 0684856476 (0-684-85647-6)
Softcover, Scribner
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The Russian Revolutionby Richard PipesISBN 0679736603 (0-679-73660-3)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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The Shadow of the Sunby Ryszard Kapuscinski, Klara GlowczewskaISBN 0679779078 (0-679-77907-8)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Shadow of the Sun'Book summary:When Africa makes international news, it is usually because war has broken out or some bizarre natural disaster has taken a large number of lives. Westerners are appallingly ignorant of Africa otherwise, a condition that the great Polish journalist and writer Ryszard KapuSciñski helps remedy with this book based on observations gathered over more than four decades.
KapuSciñski first went to Africa in 1957, a time pregnant with possibilities as one country after another declared independence from the European colonial powers. Those powers, he writes, had "crammed the approximately ten thousand kingdoms, federations, and stateless but independent tribal associations that existed on this continent in the middle of the nineteenth century within the borders of barely forty colonies." When independence came, old interethnic rivalries, long suppressed, bubbled up to the surface, and the continent was consumed in little wars of obscure origin, from caste-based massacres in Rwanda and ideological conflicts in Ethiopia to hit-and-run skirmishes among Tuaregs and Bantus on the edge of the Sahara. With independence, too, came the warlords, whose power across the continent derives from the control of food, water, and other life-and-death resources, and whose struggles among one another fuel the continent's seemingly endless civil wars. When the warlords "decide that everything worthy of plunder has been extracted," KapuSciñski writes, wearily, they call a peace conference and are rewarded with credits and loans from the First World, which makes them richer and more powerful than ever, "because you can get significantly more from the World Bank than from your own starving kinsmen."
Constantly surprising and eye-opening, KapuSciñski's book teaches us much about contemporary events and recent history in Africa. It is also further evidence for why he is considered to be one of the best journalists at work today. --Gregory McNamee [via]
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Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwandaby Romeo DallaireISBN 0679311726 (0-679-31172-6)
Softcover, Random House of Canada Ltd
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda'Book summary:It was one of the fastest, most efficient, most evident genocides of modern history. And it could have been avoided. But the United States and France were content to sit back and watch as Hutu extremists slaughtered 800,000 Rwandans in ethnic pogroms in 1994. Roméo Dallaire, then a brigadier general in the Canadian Forces, was the commander of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Rwanda and witnessed first-hand the "unfolding apocalypse," as he calls it in his stunning book Shake Hands with the Devil. The gruesome experience and his futile attempts to convince the international community to intervene left him with emotional scars that still haven't healed. He tried to commit suicide, was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, got a medical release from the military, and has had extensive therapy.
The slaughter could have been quite easily prevented, Dallaire writes in his memoir, if the United Nations and western countries had sent in a small number of soldiers and resources at a crucial point when Hutu extremists were still plotting the killings and training death squads. But at critical moments, U.S. and French officials dismissed Dallaire's pleadings for action, even though they had solid intelligence about what was happening on the ground. A U.S. military staffer explained to Dallaire that it would take the deaths of 85,000 Rwandans to justify risking the life of one American soldier. Meanwhile, France had long-standing links with elite Rwandan army units closely tied to the Hutu death squads and refused to acknowledge Dallaire's warnings until it was too late.
As painful as it was for Dallaire to write this book, the final result is gripping, expertly crafted, and soul bearing. It gives a taut, riveting hour-by-hour account of the international and human drama he witnessed and the "unimaginable evil [that] had turned Rwanda's gentle green valleys and mist-capped hills into a stinking nightmare of rotting corpses." Dallaire traveled back through his blood-soaked memories, he says, in order to retrieve his soul, and has since thrown himself into giving talks about his experiences. He recounts that after one talk a Canadian military padre asked him how he could still believe in God. "I know there is a God," he replied, "because in Rwanda I shook hands with the devil." --Alex Roslin [via]
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A Struggle for Power: The American Revolutionby Theodore DraperISBN 0679776427 (0-679-77642-7)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Struggle for Power: The American Revolution'Book summary:rom one of the great political journalists of our time comes a boldly argued reinterpretation of the central event in our collective past--a book that portrays the American Revolution not as a clash of ideologies but as a Machiavellian struggle for power. [via]
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The Survival of the Hessian Nobility 1770-1870by Gregory W. PedlowISBN 0691055033 (0-691-05503-3)
Hardcover, Princeton Univ Pr
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Vanishing Children of Paris: Rumor and Politics Before the French Revolutionsby Arlette Farge, Jacques Revel, Claudia MievilleISBN 0674931947 (0-674-93194-7)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
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War for the Union: The Improvised War, 1861-1862by Allan NevinsISBN 0684104261 (0-684-10426-1)
Hardcover, Macmillan Pub Co
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Where Wizards Stay Up Lateby Katie Hafner, Matthew LyonISBN 0684832674 (0-684-83267-4)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Where Wizards Stay Up Late'Book summary:Considering that the history of the Internet is perhaps better documented internally than any other technological construct, it is remarkable how shadowy its origins have been to most people, including die-hard Net-denizens!
At last, Hafner and Lyon have written a well-researched story of the origins of the Internet substantiated by extensive interviews with its creators who delve into many interesting details such as the controversy surrounding the adoption of our now beloved "@" sign as the separator of usernames and machine addresses. Essential reading for anyone interested in the past -- and the future -- of the Net specifically, and telecommunications generally. [via]
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Where Wizards Stay up Late : The Story Behind the Creation of the Internetby Katie Hafner, Matthew LyonISBN 0684812010 (0-684-81201-0)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Where Wizards Stay up Late : The Story Behind the Creation of the Internet'Book summary:Considering that the history of the Internet is perhaps better documented internally than any other technological construct, it is remarkable how shadowy its origins have been to most people, including die-hard Net-denizens!
At last, Hafner and Lyon have written a well-researched story of the origins of the Internet substantiated by extensive interviews with its creators who delve into many interesting details such as the controversy surrounding the adoption of our now beloved "@" sign as the separator of usernames and machine addresses. Essential reading for anyone interested in the past -- and the future -- of the Net specifically, and telecommunications generally. [via]
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Wild Swans: Three Daughters of Chinaby Jung ChangISBN 0671685465 (0-671-68546-5)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China'Book summary:In Wild Swans Jung Chang recounts the evocative, unsettling, and insistently gripping story of how three generations of women in her family fared in the political maelstrom of China during the 20th century. Chang's grandmother was a warlord's concubine. Her gently raised mother struggled with hardships in the early days of Mao's revolution and rose, like her husband, to a prominent position in the Communist Party before being denounced during the Cultural Revolution. Chang herself marched, worked, and breathed for Mao until doubt crept in over the excesses of his policies and purges. Born just a few decades apart, their lives overlap with the end of the warlords' regime and overthrow of the Japanese occupation, violent struggles between the Kuomintang and the Communists to carve up China, and, most poignant for the author, the vicious cycle of purges orchestrated by Chairman Mao that discredited and crushed millions of people, including her parents. [via]
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Women on the Margins: Three Seventeenth-Century Livesby Natalie Zemon DavisISBN 0674955218 (0-674-95521-8)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Women on the Margins: Three Seventeenth-Century Lives'Book summary:As she did with Martin Guerre, Natalie Zemon Davis here retrieves individual lives from historical obscurity to give us a window onto the early modern world. As women living in the seventeenth century, Glikl bas Judah Leib, Marie de l'Incarnation, and Maria Sibylla Merian, equally remarkable though very different, were not queens or noblewomen, their every move publicly noted. Rather, they were living "on the margins" in seventeenth-century Europe, North America, and South America. Yet these women--one Jewish, one Catholic, one Protestant--left behind memoirs and writings that make for a spellbinding tale and that, in Davis' deft narrative, tell us more about the life of early modern Europe than many an official history.
All these women were originally city folk. Glikl bas Judah Leib was a merchant of Hamburg and Metz whose Yiddish autobiography blends folktales with anecdotes about her two marriages, her twelve children, and her business. Marie de l'Incarnation, widowed young, became a mystic visionary among the Ursuline sisters and cofounder of the first Christian school for Amerindian women in North America. Her letters are a rich source of information about the Huron, Algonquin, Montagnais, and Iroquois peoples of Quebec. Maria Sibylla Merian, a German painter and naturalist, produced an innovative work on tropical insects based on lore she gathered from the Carib, Arawak, and African women of Suriname. Along the way she abandoned her husband to join a radical Protestant sect in the Netherlands. Drawing on Glikl's memoirs, Marie's autobiography and correspondence, and Maria's writings on entomology and botany, Davis brings these women to vibrant life. She reconstructs the divergent paths their stories took, and at the same time shows us each amid the common challenges and influences of the time--childrearing, religion, an outpouring of vernacular literature--and in relation to men.
The resulting triptych suggests the range of experience, self-consciousness, and expression possible in seventeenth-century Europe and its outposts. It also shows how persons removed from the centers of power and learning ventured in novel directions, modifying in their own way Europe's troubled and ambivalent relations with other "marginal" peoples.
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The World We Have Lost: Further Exploredby Peter LaslettISBN 0684180790 (0-684-18079-0)
Softcover, Scribner
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The World We Have Lost: Further Explored'More editions of The World We Have Lost: Further Explored:
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