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books tagged “US History” (us history)
books tagged “US History”
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Across Five Aprilsby Irene HuntISBN 0382243676 (0-382-24367-6)
Hardcover, Silver Burdett Press
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The Adams Chronicles: Four Generations of Greatnessby Jack Shepherd, Daniel J. BoorstinISBN 0316785016 (0-316-78501-6)
Softcover, Little Brown & Company
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Adams Chronicles: Four Generations of Greatness'Book summary:The Adams Chronicles is the endlessly fascinating text and picture history of four generations of one of America's most prominent families, told largely in their own words from diaries and letters. The four generations in this volume are represented by (1) John Adams, (2) John Quincy Adams, (3) Charles Francis Adams, and (4) the brothers John Quincy II, Charles Francis Hr., Henry, and Brooks Adams. Hardcover. Original jacket. Stated First Edition. Bumping on book corners. Jacket has been price-clipped. Edge wear. Very Good/Good. [via]
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Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republicby Joanne B. FreemanISBN 0300097557 (0-300-09755-7)
Softcover, Yale Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic'Book summary:The more things change, the more they remain the same. Modern American politics may often resemble a demented circus, but thus it has always been. So writes historian Joanne Freeman in this vigorous account of America's first national leaders, those entrusted with creating a nation unlike any other on Earth, one "egalitarian, democratic, representative, straightforward, and virtuous in spirit, public-minded in practice." The reality was less noble than all that; as Freeman writes, the first postrevolutionary Congress, convened in the spring of 1789, was marked by regional and private rivalries, mudslinging, acrimony, favor-seeking, and backroom bargaining, all of which produced far more discord than unity. In that climate, as John Adams and George Washington would often complain, these early politicians were more interested in "their interests, careers, reputations, and pocketbooks" than in matters of the public good. Yet, Freeman suggests, it could scarcely have been otherwise; an "emotional logic" governed the governors, involving a shared code of honor that drew no lines between the personal with the political, so that any disagreement over policy was liable to turn into a duel or campaign of slander; a day-to-day style of conduct in which panic, paranoia, and shrill accusations were the norm; a fortress mentality in which anyone who was not a sworn friend was a sworn enemy.
Amazingly, it sometimes seems, they made a nation. Freeman's well-crafted study makes a useful corrective to the view that contemporary politics represents a freefall from some golden age, and it adds much to our understanding of America's past. --Gregory McNamee [via]
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The Age of Jacksonby Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr.ISBN 0316773433 (0-316-77343-3)
Softcover, Little Brown & Company
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All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slaveryby Henry MayerISBN 0312253672 (0-312-25367-2)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery'Book summary:Born in poverty, and self-educated while working in a print shop, William Lloyd Garrison was one of the United States' greatest crusading editors, putting out a weekly anti-slavery newspaper, The Liberator, for 35 years, beginning in 1831. A product of the rough and tumble political journalism of the day, Garrison wrote with extreme passion and from an uncompromising point of view. Yet the man who emerges from the pages of All on Fire is a deeply thoughtful person who, despite barely escaping lynch mobs himself, had a great sense of humor and a very polite demeanor. Historians have tended to minimize Garrison's impact on America, and some consider him a fringe character. But Henry Meyer, in this hefty biography, places Garrison at the center of his century, noting that Garrison's thought and tactics influenced not only the country's changing view of slavery, but also inspired the incipient feminist movement. The Lincoln administration noted Garrison's influence by inviting him to help raise the flag over the recaptured Fort Sumter. All on Fire goes into great detail on Garrison's life and work, providing the close and copious examination this activist's life fully deserves. --Robert McNamara [via]
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At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black Americaby Philip DrayISBN 0375754458 (0-375-75445-8)
Softcover, Modern Library
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Bad Landby Jonathan RabanISBN 0330346210 (0-330-34621-0)
Hardcover, Picador
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Bad Land'Book summary:Part history, part modern-day travelogue, Bad Land attempts to locate the dry plains of eastern Montana and the Dakotas in the American imagination. Jonathan Raban (author of the best-selling Old Glory) explores deserted homesteads and listens to the persevering descendants of the rugged pioneers who settled this territory. Toward the end of his eclectic book, Raban tries to explain why a place like this would appeal to people like Ted Kaczynski, a.k.a. the Unabomber. The best passages recall Paul Theroux in top form. [via]
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The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracyby Nicholas LemannISBN 0374527512 (0-374-52751-2)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy'Book summary:Nicholas Lemann's The Big Test starts off as a look at how the SAT became an integral part of the college application process by telling the stories of men like Henry Chauncey and James Bryant Conant of Harvard University, who sought in the 1930s and '40s to expand their student base beyond the offspring of Brahmin alumni. When they went into the public schools of the Midwest to recruit, standardized testing gave them the means to select which lucky students would be deemed most suitable for an Ivy League education. But about a third of the way through the book, Lemann shifts gears and writes about several college students from the late '60s and early '70s. The reasons for the change-up only become clear in the final third, when those same college students, now in their 40s, lead the fight against California's Proposition 209, a 1996 ballot initiative aimed at eliminating affirmative action programs.
Do these two stories really belong together? For all his storytelling abilities--and they are prodigious--Lemann is not entirely persuasive on this point, especially when he identifies the crucial moment in the civil rights era when "affirmative action evolved as a low-cost patch solution to the enormous problem of improving the lot of American Negroes, who had an ongoing, long-standing tradition of deeply inferior education; at the same time American society was changing so as to make educational performance the basis for individual advancement." Lemann's muddled transition is somewhat obscured by frequent digressions (every new character gets a lengthy background introduction), but a crucial point gets lost in the shuffle, only to reappear fleetingly at the conclusion: "The right fight to be in was the fight to make sure that everybody got a good education," Lemann writes, not to continue to prop up a system that creates one set of standards for privileged students and another set for the less privileged. If The Big Test had focused on that issue, where equal opportunity is genuinely at stake, instead of on the roots of standardized testing, where opportunity was explicitly intended only for a chosen few, it would be a substantially different book--one with a story that almost assuredly could be told as engrossingly as the story Lemann chose to tell, but perhaps with a sharper focus. --Ron Hogan [via]
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Brown V. Board of Education: A Brief History With Documentsby Waldo E. MartinISBN 0312111525 (0-312-11152-5)
Softcover, Bedford/st Martins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Brown V. Board of Education: A Brief History With Documents'Book summary:Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka was one of the most important legal decisions in the US this century and the effects of desegregation and the legacy of the civil rights movement still greatly influence race relations today. Over thirty primary documents are here used to place the Brown case in its historical context with both contemporary and retrospective responses.[via]More editions of Brown V. Board of Education: A Brief History With Documents:
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Cold Mountainby Charles FrazierISBN 0375700757 (0-375-70075-7)
Softcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Cold Mountain'Book summary:NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
One of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory, Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain is a masterpiece that is at once an enthralling adventure, a stirring love story, and a luminous evocation of a vanished American in all its savagery, solitude, and splendor.
Sorely wounded and fatally disillusioned in the fighting at Petersburg, Inman, a Confederate soldier, decides to walk back to his home in the Blue Ridge Mountains and to Ada, the woman he loved there years before. His trek across the disintegrating South brings him into intimate and sometimes lethal converse with slaves and marauders, bounty hunters and witches, both helpful and malign. At the same time, Ada is trying to revive her father's derelict farm and learn to survive in a world where the old certainties have been swept away. As it interweaves their stories, Cold Mountain asserts itself as an authentic American Odyssey--hugely powerful, majestically lovely, and keenly moving. [via]More editions of Cold Mountain:
Coming of Age : The Story of Our Century by Those Who've Lived Itby Studs TerkelISBN 031214573X (0-312-14573-X)
Softcover, St. Martin's Press
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Crossroads of Freedom: Antietamby James M. McPhersonISBN 0195173309 (0-19-517330-9)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam'Book summary:The bloodiest day in United States history was September 17, 1862, when, during the Civil War battle at Antietam, close to 6,500 soldiers were killed or mortally wounded and another 15,000 were seriously wounded. Moreover, James M. McPherson states in his concise chronicle of the event Crossroads of Freedom, it may well have been the pivotal moment of the war and possibly of the young republic itself. The South, after a series of setbacks in the spring of 1862, had reversed the war's momentum during the summer, and was on not only on the "brink of military victory" but about to achieve diplomatic recognition by European nations, most notably England and France. Though the bulk of his book concerns itself with the details--and incredible carnage--of the battle itself, McPherson raises it above typical military histories by placing it in its socio-political context: The victory prodded Abraham Lincoln to announce his "preliminary" Emancipation Proclamation, freeing slaves. England and France deferred their economic alliance with the battered secessionists. Most importantly, it kept Lincoln's party, the Republicans, in control of Congress. McPherson's account is accessible, elegant, and economical. --H. O'Billovich [via]
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Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766by Fred AndersonISBN 0375706364 (0-375-70636-4)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766'Book summary:Histories of the American Revolution tend to start in 1763, the end of the Seven Year's War, a worldwide struggle for empire that pitted France against England in North America, Europe, and Asia. Fred Anderson, who teaches history at the University of Colorado, takes the story back a decade and explains the significance of the conflict in American history. Demonstrating that independence was not inevitable or even at first desired by the colonists, he shows how removal of the threat from France was essential before Americans could develop their own concepts of democratic government and defy their imperial British protectors. Of great interest is the importance of Native Americans in the conflict. Both the French and English had Indian allies; France's defeat ended a diplomatic system in which Indian nations, especially the 300-year-old Iroquois League, held the balance between the colonial powers. In a fast-paced narrative, Anderson moves with confidence and ease from the forests of Ohio and battlefields along the St. Lawrence to London's House of Commons and the palaces of Europe. He makes complex economic, social, and diplomatic patterns accessible and easy to understand. Using a vast body of research, he takes the time to paint the players as living personalities, from George III and George Washington to a host of supporting characters. The book's usefulness and clarity are enhanced by a hundred landscapes, portraits, maps, and charts taken from contemporary sources. Crucible of War is political and military history at its best; it never flags and is a pleasure to read. --John Stevenson [via]
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- Crucible of War : The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766: ISBN 0375406425 (0-375-40642-5)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group - Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766: ISBN 0375706364 (0-375-70636-4)
Softcover, Vintage Books
- Crucible of War : The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766: ISBN 0375406425 (0-375-40642-5)
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Dave Barry Slept Hereby Dave BarryISBN 0345416600 (0-345-41660-0)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Dave Barry Slept Here'Book summary:Dave runs American history through the wringer, and comes up with some wonderfully warped formulations. (The Vikings, for example, "were extremely rugged individuals whose idea of a fun time was to sail over and set fire to England, which in those days was fairly easy to ignite because it had a very high level of thatch, this being the kind of roof favored by the local tribespeople...") Covering pre-Columbian days through the dawn of the Bush administration, Dave Barry Slept Here is the funniest thing to hit this great nation since the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930. [via]
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Devil in Massachusetts a Modern Enquiry into the Sby StarkeyISBN 0385035098 (0-385-03509-8)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Devil in Massachusetts a Modern Enquiry into the S'Book summary:This historical narrative of the Salem witch trials takes its dialogue from actual trial records but applies modern psychiatric knowledge to the witchcraft hysteria. Starkey's sense of drama also vividly recreates the atmosphere of pity and terror that fostered the evil and suffering of this human tragedy. [via]
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A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural Americaby Ronald TakakiISBN 0316831115 (0-316-83111-5)
Softcover, Little Brown & Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America'Book summary:"A Different Mirror" is a dramatic new retelling of our nation's history, a powerful larger narrative of the many different peoples who together compose the United States of America.
In a lively account filled with the stories and voices of people previously left out of the historical canon, Ronald Takaki offers a fresh perspective - a "re-visioning" - of our nation's past. [via]
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Dutchby Edmund MorrisISBN 0375756450 (0-375-75645-0)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Dutch'Book summary:In what must surely be one of the most unusual and critically scrutinized biographies ever written, Edmund Morris has created a difficult but fascinating chronicle nearly as enigmatic as his book's inscrutable subject. Read by the author himself, this audio version comes replete with a special acknowledgment of the controversial nature of the book and an especially poignant closing passage addressing Reagan's senescent slide into dementia. In the explanatory preface Morris describes the rationale behind his unconventional effort: "When the biographer sits talking with the still living subject, as I did so often with President Reagan ... the story of his journey becomes, in effect, an autobiography, that interrelates with the biography he's writing. In other words, this is the true story of a real person told by an imaginary narrator who eventually mutates into myself." A curious and debatable strategy. However, using this unprecedented approach, Morris has created an unarguably intimate, highly detailed, and powerfully moving memoir which reaches a level of emotional resonance rarely achieved in more traditional biographies. (Running time: 9 hours, 6 cassettes) --George Laney [via]
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Final Daysby Bob Woodward, Carl BernsteinISBN 0380008440 (0-380-00844-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Final Days'Book summary:The Final Days is the classic, behind-the-scenes account of Richard Nixon's dramatic last months as president. Moment by moment, Bernstein and Woodward portray the taut, post-Watergate White House as Nixon, his family, his staff, and many members of Congress strained desperately to prevent his inevitable resignation. This brilliant book reveals the ordeal of Nixon's fall from office -- one of the gravest crises in presidential history. [via]
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Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnamby Frances FitzgeraldISBN 0316159190 (0-316-15919-0)
Softcover, Little Brown & Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam'Book summary:This is the prize winning work of the tragic collision between two cultures - the Vietnamese and the American. [via]
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedomby Conrad BlackISBN 0297646311 (0-297-64631-1)
Hardcover, Weidenfeld & Nicolson
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From Manassas to Appomattox: Memoirs of the Civil War in Americaby James LongstreetISBN 0306804646 (0-306-80464-6)
Softcover, Perseus Books Group
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A Godly Hero : The Life of William Jennings Bryanby Michael KazinISBN 0375411356 (0-375-41135-6)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Godly Hero : The Life of William Jennings Bryan'Book summary:Politician, evangelist, and reformer William Jennings Bryan was the most popular public speaker of his time. In this acclaimed biographythe first major reconsideration of Bryans life in forty yearsaward-winning historian Michael Kazin illuminates his astonishing career and the richly diverse and volatile landscape of religion and politics in which he rose to fame. Kazin vividly re-creates Bryans tremendous appeal, showing how he won a passionate following among both rural and urban Americans, who saw in him not only the practical vision of a reform politician but also the righteousness of a pastor. Bryan did more than anyone to transform the Democratic Party from a bulwark of laissez-faire to the citadel of liberalism we identify with Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1896, 1900, and 1908, Bryan was nominated for president, and though he fell short each time, his legacya subject of great debate after his deathremains monumental. This nuanced and brilliantly crafted portrait restores Bryan to an esteemed place in American history. [via]
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Goldwaterby Barry M. Goldwater, Jack CasserlyISBN 0312920008 (0-312-92000-8)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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The Good War : An Oral History of World War IIby Studs TerkelISBN 0345325680 (0-345-32568-0)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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Great Crashby John Kenneth GalbraithISBN 0317669923 (0-317-66992-3)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin
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The Growth of the American Republicby Samuel S. MorisonISBN 0195009959 (0-19-500995-9)
Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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Hard Timesby Studs TerkelISBN 0380002833 (0-380-00283-3)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Hard Times'Book summary:First published in 1970, this classic of oral history features the voices of men and women who lived through the Great Depression of the 1930s. It includes accounts by congressmen C. Wright Patman and Hamilton Fish, as well as failed presidential candidate Alf M. Landon, who recalls what it was like to be governor of Kansas in 1933:
Men with tears in their eyes begged for an appointment that would help save their homes and farms. I couldn't see them all in my office. But I never let one of them leave without my coming out and shakin' hands with 'em. I listened to all their stories, each one of 'em. But it was obvious I couldn't take care of all their terrible needs.
The book includes also the perspectives of ordinary men and women, such as Jim Sheridan, who took part in the 1932 march by World War I veterans to petition for their benefits in Washington, D.C., where they were repelled by army troops led by General Douglas MacArthur. Or Edward Santander, who was a child then: "My first memories come about '31. It was simply a gut issue then: eating or not eating, living or not living." Studs Terkel makes history come alive, drawing out experiences and emotions from his interviewees to the degree few have ever been able to match. [via]More editions of Hard Times:
How Did American Slavery Begin: Readingsby Edward CountrymanISBN 0312182619 (0-312-18261-9)
Softcover, Bedford/st Martins
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Hunting Mister Heartbreak: A Discovery of Americaby Jonathan RabanISBN 037570101X (0-375-70101-X)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of Americaby Henry WiencekISBN 0374529515 (0-374-52951-5)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America'Book summary:Was George Washington a dedicated slaveholder and, like Thomas Jefferson, a father of slave children? Or was he a closeted abolitionist and moralist who abhorred the abuse of African-Americans? In An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America Henry Wiencek delves into Washington's papers and new oral history information to assemble a portrait of the first President of the United States that (while uneven in the telling) concludes that Washington supported emancipation by the time of his death.
To begin, Wiencek briefly addresses and dismisses the claim that Washington fathered a child with Venus, (a slave owned by Washingtong's brother, John Augustine). According to Wiencek, the President was likely sterile and such an affair would have been out of character for a man who prided himself on "self-control."
Wiencek's real focus in An Imperfect God is Washington's personal and political position regarding emancipation. The primary ground for Wiencek's argument is Washington's will and a selection of private letters that elaborate a plan for providing land and means for his freed laborers. The will in particular offers powerful evidence of Washington's true intentions, including explicit declarations manumitting Washington's slaves after his death. As Wiencek shows, the document punctuated a long period of equivocation.
An Imperfect God is an imperfect book. Wiencek's occasional first-person accounts of his field research, including discussions with descendants of Washington, feel strangely out of place in what is elsewhere a straightforward biography punctuated with digressions into Washington's larger historical context. Further, Wiencek sometimes dabbles in hagiography and is willing to excuse much in a man who was a slaveholder his entire life. Yet, Wiencek is right to point out the distinctions of Washington among the slaveholding Founding Fathers. Readers can only imagine along with Wiencek the national tragedy that could have been averted had Washington provided the great example of emancipation while in office. --Patrick O'Kelley [via]
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Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girlby Harriet A. Jacobs, L. Brent, Lydia Maria Francis ChildISBN 0156443503 (0-15-644350-3)
Softcover, Harcourt
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl'Book summary:Not only one of the last of over one hundred slave narratives published separately before the Civil War, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) is also one of the few existing narratives written by a woman. It offers a unique perspective on the complex plight of the black woman as slave and as writer. In a story that merges the conventions of the slave narrative with the techniques of the sentimental novel, Harriet Jacobs describes her efforts to fight off the advances of her master, her eventual liaison with another white man (the father of two of her children), and her ultimately successful struggle for freedom. Jacobs' account of her experiences, and her search for her own voice, prefigure the literary and ideological concerns of generations of African-American women writers to come. [via]
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The Inner World of Abraham Lincolnby Michael BurlingameISBN 0252066677 (0-252-06667-7)
Softcover, Univ of Illinois Pr
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John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rightsby David S. ReynoldsISBN 0375726152 (0-375-72615-2)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, And Seeded Civil Rights'Book summary:A cultural biography of John Brown, the controversial abolitionist who used violent tactics against slavery and single-handedly changed the course of American history. Reynolds brings to life the Puritan warrior who gripped slavery by the throat and triggered the Civil War. Reynolds demonstrates that Browns most violent actsincluding his killing of proslavery settlers in Kansas and his historic raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia--were inspired by the slave revolts, guerilla warfare, and revolutionary Christianity of the day. He shows how Brown seized public attention, polarizing the nation and fueling the tensions that led to the Civil War. Reynolds recounts how Brown permeated American culture during the Civil War and beyond, and how he planted the seeds of the civil rights movement by making a pioneering demand for complete social and political equality for Americas ethnic minorities. [via]
More editions of John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights:
- John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights: ISBN 0375411887 (0-375-41188-7)
Hardcover, Random House Inc - John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, And Seeded Civil Rights: ISBN 0375726152 (0-375-72615-2)
Softcover, Random House Inc
- John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights: ISBN 0375411887 (0-375-41188-7)
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The Lance and the Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bullby Robert M. UtleyISBN 0345389387 (0-345-38938-7)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Lance and the Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull'Book summary:"His narrative is griping....Mr. Utley transforms Sitting Bull, the abstract, romanticized icon and symbol, into a flesh-and-blood person with a down-to-earth story....THE LANCE AND THE SHIELD clears the screen of the exaggerations and fantasies long directed at the name of Sitting Bull."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
Reviled by the United States government as a troublemaker and a coward, revered by his people as a great warrior chief, Sitting Bull has long been one of the most fascinating and misunderstood figures in American history. Now, distinguished historian Robert M. Utley has forged a compelling new portrait of Sitting Bull, viewing the man from the Lakota perspective for the very first time to render the most unbiased and historically accurate biography of Sitting Buil to date.
WINNER OF THE SPUR AWARD FOR BEST WESTERN NONFICTION
HISTORICAL BOOK OF 1993
A MAIN SELECTIN OF THE HISTORY BOOK CLUB
A FEATURED ALTERNATE SELECTION OF THE QUALITY PAPERBACK BOOK
CLUB [via]More editions of The Lance and the Shield: The Life and Times of Sitting Bull:
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Letters from an American Farmerby J. Hector St. John De Crevecoeur, Susan ManningISBN 0192838989 (0-19-283898-9)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Letters from an American Farmer'Book summary:Written by an emigrant French aristocrat turned farmer, the Letters from an American Farmer (1782) posed the famous question: "What, then, is the American, this new man?", as a new nation took shape before the eyes of the world. Addressing some of American literature's most pressing concerns and identity issues, these Letters celebrate personal determination, freedom from institutional oppression, and the largeness and fertility of the land. They also address darker and more symbolic elements, particularly slavery. This book is the only critical edition available of what is seen by many as the first-ever work of American literature. [via]
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Liberty and Power: The Politics of Jacksonian Americaby Eric Foner, Harry L. WatsonISBN 0374521964 (0-374-52196-4)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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Liberty!: How the Revolutionary War Beganby Lucille Recht Penner, David WenzelISBN 0375822003 (0-375-82200-3)
Softcover, Random House Childrens Books
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Life on the Mississippiby Mark Twain, James Danly, Bill McKibbenISBN 0375759379 (0-375-75937-9)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Life on the Mississippi'Book summary:The spirit of the Mississippi flows through all Mark Twain's best work and here the romantic heyday of the steamboat is recalled in a characteristically nostalgic mixture of journalism and autobiography. He describes people and places with affection and humour, but of the Mississippi itself, on which he was once a cub pilot travelling between New Orleans and St Louis, he writes with repect and loving devotion. [via]
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Life on the Mississippi (1883by Mark Twain, Shelley Fisher FishkinISBN 0195114078 (0-19-511407-8)
Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Life on the Mississippi (1883'Book summary:Twain reflects on the people and places of his childhood, the way things looked and felt in the memorable locales of his growing up and his later return to them in maturity. [via]
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Lincolnby Gore VidalISBN 0375708766 (0-375-70876-6)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Lincoln'Book summary:Lincoln is a masterwork of historical fiction, in which Gore Vidal combines a comprehensive knowledge of Civil War America with 20th-century literary technique, probing the minds and motives of the men surrounding Abraham Lincoln, including personal secretary John Hay and scheming cabinet members William Seward and Salmon P. Chase, as well as his wife, Mary Todd. It is a book monumental in scope that never loses sight of the intimate and personal in its depiction of the power struggles that accompanied Lincoln's efforts to preserve the Union at all costs--efforts in which the eradication of slavery was far from the president's main objective. As usual, there's plenty of room for Vidal's wickedly humorous deflation of American icons, including a comic interlude in a Washington bordello in which Lincoln's former law partner informs Hay that Lincoln had contracted syphilis as a young man and had, just before marrying Mary Todd, suffered what can only be described as a nervous breakdown. (Protestors should note that Vidal is only passing along what that former partner had written in his own biography of Lincoln.) Don't be intimidated by the size of Lincoln; if you like historical fiction, you should read this book at the first opportunity. --Ron Hogan [via]
A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colonyby John DemosISBN 0195128907 (0-19-512890-7)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Little Commonwealth: Family Life in Plymouth Colony'Book summary:The customary modern image of the New England Puritans is a dark one: the Puritans, religious dissenters who valued propriety and order, are seen as a witch-hunting, suspicious tribe, and their very name carries connotations of grimness and primness.
Thirty years ago, at the outset of his career as a historian, John Demos decided to reexamine that view in light of the evidence. Among the findings that he reports in A Little Commonwealth is the surprising discovery that the Puritans were not so, well, puritanical. They were not, Demos argues, especially consumed by ideology, and in their daily lives, "religion seems to figure in a somewhat haphazard and occasional way." The Puritans, he continues, had no unusual objections to sexuality or fun-seeking, except where such activities endangered social harmony--and the Puritans were indeed fiercely protective of group stability. Demos examines such documents as the transcripts of divorce proceedings to suggest that Puritan women enjoyed, if not equal rights, then better consideration than most women in other English colonies in the New World. He looks closely into the material culture of the Puritans, which shows some odd discrepancies: for instance, although few households possessed more than a single chair (usually reserved for the elderly), many contained elaborate wardrobes--for, Demos writes, "clothing was not only a good investment for a man of some means; it was also a way of demonstrating his standing in the larger community and of confirming his own self-image."
In questioning the view of the Puritans as a plain-dressing, plain-living, haunted, and repressed sect, Demos provides a close and intriguing look at the New England past. Reissued on the 30th anniversary of its first publication, A Little Commonwealth deserves a wide audience today. --Gregory McNamee [via]
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Lost Prophet: The Life And Times Of Bayard Rustinby John D'EmilioISBN 0226142698 (0-226-14269-8)
Softcover, Univ of Chicago Pr
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Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New Yorkby Luc SanteISBN 0374528993 (0-374-52899-3)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York'Book summary:There are very few classics in the field of pop culture--the academic stuff tends to be too dry and the fun stuff is too quickly dated. This book by Luc Sante is the exception--in fluid prose liberally sprinkled with astute metaphors, Sante tells the story of New York's Lower East Side, circa 1840-1920. The personal histories of criminals, prostitutes, losers, and swindlers bring to life the social and statistical history that the author has meticulously researched. Not limiting himself to the usual sources, Sante finds his history in old copies of Police Gazette as well as actual police, fire, and social service records. Above all, what really makes this book work is the writing, which brings to life a culture of the streets that continues to form a silent influence on our contemporary popular culture. [via]
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Madam Secretaryby Madeleine AlbrightISBN 0375432159 (0-375-43215-9)
Hardcover, Random House Large Print
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Madam Secretary'Book summary:Madeleine Albright is one of the most deeply admired women of our time, and the first female in our nation's history to achieve the title Secretary of State. For eight years during the first and second Clinton terms, she was privy to some of the most fascinating and controversial episodes in memory. Now, in this outspoken memoir, Madeleine Albright shares her personal story, and provides an insider's look into the White House and world affairs during an era of unprecedented change. From a difficult start as a political refugee from Czechoslovakia, Albright went on to become a tireless advocate of civil and women's rights, and pursued a life in politics that ultimately landed her in the upper stratosphere of diplomacy and policy-making in her adopted country. Refreshingly candid, Madam Secretary brings to life the world leaders Albright worked with intimately in her years of service, and the battles she fought to prove her worth in a male-dominated arena. We also get to know Albright, the private woman: her life raising three daughters, the painful breakup of her marriage, and the discovery late in life of her own Jewish background and that her grandparents had died in concentration [via]
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Mary Chesnut's Civil Warby C.V. WoodwardISBN 0300029799 (0-300-02979-9)
Softcover, Yale Univ Pr
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Meet Benjamin Franklinby Maggie Scarf, Pat FogartyISBN 0375815244 (0-375-81524-4)
Softcover, Random House Children's Books
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Money of the Mind: Borrowing and Lending in America from the Civil War to Michael Milkenby James GrantISBN 0374524017 (0-374-52401-7)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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- Money of the Mind: Borrowing and Lending in America from the Civil War to Michael Milken: ISBN 0374169799 (0-374-16979-9)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux - Money of the Mind: Borrowing and Lending in America from the Civil War to Michael Milken: ISBN 0374524017 (0-374-52401-7)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
- Money of the Mind: Borrowing and Lending in America from the Civil War to Michael Milken: ISBN 0374169799 (0-374-16979-9)
A Museum of Early American Toolsby Eric SloaneISBN 0345326113 (0-345-32611-3)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Museum of Early American Tools'Book summary:[via]This delightful evocation of simpler times and the tools that built America has always held a special place in the hearts of lovers of Americana and Yankee ingenuity. Now available in a handsome hardcover gift edition, this engaging, informative book features 184 of the author's inimitable drawings.More editions of A Museum of Early American Tools:
Myths America Lives byby Richard T. HughesISBN 0252072200 (0-252-07220-0)
Softcover, Univ of Illinois Pr
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Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Wordby Randall KennedyISBN 0375713719 (0-375-71371-9)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word'Book summary:Nigger is Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy's ornate, lively monograph on what he calls the "paradigmatic" racial slur in the English language. A neutral noun in the 17th century, nigger had, by 1830, become an "influential" insult. Kennedy traces the word's history in literature, song, film, politics, sports, everyday speech, and the courtroom. He also discusses its plastic, contradictory, and volatile place in contemporary American society. Should it be eradicated from dictionaries and the language? Should it be, somehow, regulated? What is the significance of its emergence among some blacks as a term with "undertones of warmth and good will"? Do blacks have a historical right to its use or does that place the term under a "protectionist pall"? With courage and grave measure Kennedy has, in effect, created a forum for discussion of the word he calls a "reminder of the ironies and dilemmas, the tragedies and glories, of the American experience." --H. O'Billovitch [via]
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The Oxford History of the American Westby Carol A. O'Connor, Clyde A. Milner, Martha A. SandweissISBN 0195112121 (0-19-511212-1)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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Present at the Creation, My Years in the State Departmentby Dean AchesonISBN 0241018668 (0-241-01866-8)
Hardcover, Hamilton
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The Reckless Decade: America in the 1890sby H. W. BrandsISBN 0226071162 (0-226-07116-2)
Softcover, Univ of Chicago Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Reckless Decade: America in the 1890s'Book summary:Examining the 1890s in terms of a reckless end-of-the-century period not unlike the present one, a detailed study covers such events as the Spanish-American War; the rivalry between Morgan, Carnegie, and Rockefeller; and economic upheaval. [via]
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The Robber Baronsby Matthew JosephsonISBN 0156767902 (0-15-676790-2)
Softcover, Harvest Books
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The Slaveholding Republic: An Account of the United States Government's Relations to Slaveryby Don Edward Fehrenbacher, Ward McAfeeISBN 0195158059 (0-19-515805-9)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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The Slaveholding Republic: An Account of the United States Government's Relations to Slaveryby Ward McAfee, Don Edward FehrenbacherISBN 0195141776 (0-19-514177-6)
Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faithby Jon KrakauerISBN 0375432213 (0-375-43221-3)
Hardcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith'Book summary:Under the Banner of Heaven is a riveting read. The Lafferty boys were brought up in a squeaky clean All-American family. So what made two of them follow revelations from God to slit the throat of their ex-beauty queen sister-in-law and her infant daughter? The problem was that they got involved in the fundamentalist, survivalist wing of the Mormon Church.
Author Jon Krakauer expertly jumps from the immediate horror of the Lafferty boys to the context of Mormonism and the wider questions of religious violence. In the process we are taken on a house of horrors ride through the badlands of fundamentalist Mormon religion. Krakauer introduces us to red necks with more than 30 "wives"--many who were "married" in their early teens. It's a story of fraud, child abuse, incest, physical violence and spiritual and emotional rape at a deep level.
The contemporary story is lurid and shocking, but as Krakauer relates the picaresque story of Joseph Smith--the founder of the Mormon religion--you realise that present day fundamentalist Mormons are far closer to their founder in spirit and behaviour than the more squeaky clean manifestations of modern Mormonism. This well researched and tightly written account gives a great potted history of Mormonism and illuminates the psychotic fringes of religious mentality. In doing so it reveals the wild dangers of spiritual free wheeling and the need for caution and restraint in religion. --Dwight Longenecker [via]
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Unearthing Gotham: The Archaeology of New York Cityby Anne-Marie Cantwell, Diana Dizerega WallISBN 0300097999 (0-300-09799-9)
Softcover, Yale Univ Pr
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Up from Slaveryby Booker T. Washington, W. Fitzhugh BrundageISBN 0312394489 (0-312-39448-9)
Softcover, Bedford/st Martins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Up from Slavery'Book summary:Nineteenth-century African American businessman, activist, and educator Booker Taliaferro Washington's Up from Slavery is one of the greatest American autobiographies ever written. Its mantras of black economic empowerment, land ownership, and self-help inspired generations of black leaders, including Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and Louis Farrakhan. In rags-to-riches fashion, Washington recounts his ascendance from early life as a mulatto slave in Virginia to a 34-year term as president of the influential, agriculturally based Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. From that position, Washington reigned as the most important leader of his people, with slogans like "cast down your buckets," which emphasized vocational merit rather than the academic and political excellence championed by his contemporary rival W.E.B. Du Bois. Though many considered him too accommodating to segregationists, Washington, as he said in his historic "Atlanta Compromise" speech of 1895, believed that "political agitation alone would not save [the Negro]," and that "property, industry, skill, intelligence, and character" would prove necessary to black Americans' success. The potency of his philosophies are alive today in the nationalist and conservative camps that compose the complex quilt of black American society. [via]
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Up from Slavery: An Autobiographyby William L. Andrews, Booker T. WashingtonISBN 0192835629 (0-19-283562-9)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Up from Slavery: An Autobiography'Book summary:Nineteenth-century African American businessman, activist, and educator Booker Taliaferro Washington's Up from Slavery is one of the greatest American autobiographies ever written. Its mantras of black economic empowerment, land ownership, and self-help inspired generations of black leaders, including Marcus Garvey, Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and Louis Farrakhan. In rags-to-riches fashion, Washington recounts his ascendance from early life as a mulatto slave in Virginia to a 34-year term as president of the influential, agriculturally based Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. From that position, Washington reigned as the most important leader of his people, with slogans like "cast down your buckets," which emphasized vocational merit rather than the academic and political excellence championed by his contemporary rival W.E.B. Du Bois. Though many considered him too accommodating to segregationists, Washington, as he said in his historic "Atlanta Compromise" speech of 1895, believed that "political agitation alone would not save [the Negro]," and that "property, industry, skill, intelligence, and character" would prove necessary to black Americans' success. The potency of his philosophies are alive today in the nationalist and conservative camps that compose the complex quilt of black American society. [via]
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Walter Lippmann and the American Centuryby Ronald SteelISBN 0316811904 (0-316-81190-4)
Hardcover, Little Brown & Co
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Washington Goes to Warby David BrinkleyISBN 0345359798 (0-345-35979-8)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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Where the Domino Fell: America and Vietnam, 1945 to 1990by Randy Roberts, James S. OlsonISBN 0312032633 (0-312-03263-3)
Softcover, Bedford/st Martins
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Where the Domino Fell: America and Vietnam, 1945 to 1995by Randy Roberts, James S. OlsonISBN 0312084315 (0-312-08431-5)
Softcover, St Martins Pr
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Wilderness and the American Mindby Roderick NashISBN 0300091222 (0-300-09122-2)
Softcover, Yale Univ Pr
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- Wilderness and the American Mind: ISBN 0300016492 (0-300-01649-2)
Softcover, Yale University Press - Wilderness and the American Mind: ISBN 0300029101 (0-300-02910-1)
Softcover, Yale Univ Pr - Wilderness and the American Mind: ISBN 0300016484 (0-300-01648-4)
Hardcover, Yale Univ Pr - Wilderness and the American Mind: ISBN 0300091222 (0-300-09122-2)
Softcover, Yale Univ Pr
- Wilderness and the American Mind: ISBN 0300016492 (0-300-01649-2)
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