american culture

Hardcover. New York , McGraw-Hill, 1st, 1968, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, large folio, 159 pages, index, 60 beautiful tipped-in color plates of ancient Mexican sites after photographs by Irmgard Groth. Original gilt-lettered burgundy cloth in original color pictorial dust jacket that has a small chip to top of spine. The author of this book, Ignacio Bernal (1910 - 1992), was an eminent Mexican anthropologist and archaeologist. Bernal excavated much of Monte Alban, originally starting as a student of Alfonso Caso, and later led major archeological projects at Teotihuacan. In 1965 he excavated Dainzu. He was the Director of Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology 1962-68 (at the time of this publication) and again 1970-77. In 1965, he was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Bernal was awarded the Premio Nacional in 1969. He was a founding member of the Third World Academy of Sciences in 1983. This book includes 60 hand-mounted colour plates and 1 map (all framable); each chosen by Bernal photographed by Mrs. Irmgard Groth, a gifted photographer whose special field was Mexican archaeology. In these plates we see the extraordinary sculpture of the Omecs; the Pyramid of the Moon of Teotihuacan; the Maya temples of Palenque; the Pyramid of the Niches of Tajin on the Gulf Coast; the temples at the great city of Chichen Itza; the gold ornaments of the Mixtecs at Monte Alban; the temple carved by the Aztecs out of the Cliffside at Malinalco; and many other buildings and artifacts, the surviving testimonials - sometimes exquisite, sometimes aw-inspiring - to the greatness of a long-vanished culture.

Hardcover. Gloucester MA, Peter Smith, reprint, 1985, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, green cloth covers, 569 pages. Two decades after Darwin, intellectuals were writing about the evolution of everything. In England Edward Taylor focused on material culture such as fire making, cooking, or tool making. In America, Lewis Henry Morgan, concentrated on social evolution combined with subsistence techniques. His thinking was influenced by his Iroquois neighbors in New York. Like many others he posited three stages of evolution: savagery, barbarism and civilization, but he refined the three periods with three subperiods. In Lower savagery, for example, he saw humans subsisting on fruits and roots in tropical climes, using gesture language and marrying siblings in a consanguine family. Middle savagery saw fish subsistence, monosyllabic language, and marriage of cousins. Bows and arrows appeared in Upper Savagery along with syllabic language, clans, and tribal organization. Obviously Morgan was speculating on most of the developments, but he had found arguments for his positions from the reports of explorers and missionaries around the world. As a result, Morgan inspired an era of inquisitive thought that led to the development of American anthropology. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. London, Phaidon Press, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 624 pages. Hardcover. 2000 illustrations, 1400 in color. Sixteen pound monster elephant folio, a huge volume. Laminated covers, clean, very good. Andy Warhol "Giant" Size is the definitive document of this remarkable creative force, and a telling look at late twentieth-century pop culture. A must-have for Warhol fans and pop culture enthusiasts, this in-depth and comprehensive overview of Warhol's extraordinary career is packed with more than 2,000 illustrations culled from rarely seen archival material, documentary photography, and artwork. Dave Hickey's compelling essay on Warhol's geek-to-guru evolution combines with chapter openers by Warhol friends and insiders to give special insight into the way the enigmatic artist led his life and made his art. It also provides a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the New York art world of the 1950s to the 1980s. DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. Koln GR, Walther Konig, 1st, 2008, Book: Near Fine, Dust Jacket: None, Like new in publishers shrink-wrap. Hardcover, 118 pages, no dust jacket issued. English and French text. On the occasion of what would have been Andy Warhol's eightieth birthday, in 2008, this exquisitely produced volume examines one essential but miraculously under-studied element of the artist's work: The shadow. Beginning with photographic still lifes of skulls and taxidermied animals, then moving on to male nudes, tabletops and table settings, celebrity portraits, gems, fruits and many amazing still lifes of hammers, sickles, shoes and other ordinary objects that presage Fischli & Weiss' Equilibres by several years, Shadows and Other Signs of Life concludes with Warhol's photographs of actual shadows and an outstanding selection of abstract silkscreens, stenciled works and piss paintings. Published to accompany the eponymous exhibition at Paris' Galerie Chantal Crousel, this volume contains illuminating short texts--Anniversary Notes for Andy Warhol--by Benjamin H.D. Buchloh.

Hardcover. Koln GR, Walther Konig, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Like new in publishers shrink-wrap. Hardcover, 118 pages, no dust jacket issued. English and French text. On the occasion of what would have been Andy Warhol's eightieth birthday, in 2008, this exquisitely produced volume examines one essential but miraculously under-studied element of the artist's work: The shadow. Beginning with photographic still lifes of skulls and taxidermied animals, then moving on to male nudes, tabletops and table settings, celebrity portraits, gems, fruits and many amazing still lifes of hammers, sickles, shoes and other ordinary objects that presage Fischli & Weiss' Equilibres by several years, Shadows and Other Signs of Life concludes with Warhol's photographs of actual shadows and an outstanding selection of abstract silkscreens, stenciled works and piss paintings. Published to accompany the eponymous exhibition at Paris' Galerie Chantal Crousel, this volume contains illuminating short texts--Anniversary Notes for Andy Warhol--by Benjamin H.D. Buchloh.

Hardcover. Krause Publications, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 208 pages. As the 2004 Presidential Election was beginning to take shape, Kyle Cassidy took note of the important role the simple concept of gun ownership was playing. Hardly anyone he knew didn't have an opinion in the debate over owning guns. Why was a constitutionally protected right so heavily debated, and who exactly as these folks that own guns? "I began to wonder who these seventy or so million Americans were, how they lived and what was important to them. I set out to photographs as many gun owners as I could and ask them one question: "Why do you own a gun." Cassidy traveled over 20,000 miles, crisscrossing the country to meet with gun owners in their homes. Cassidy's photo essays create a powerful, thought provoking and sometimes startling view of gun ownership in the U.S. These "everyman" portraits, and the accompanying views of gun owners, fashion a riveting and provocative book.

Hardcover. Krause Publications, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 208 pages. As the 2004 Presidential Election was beginning to take shape, Kyle Cassidy took note of the important role the simple concept of gun ownership was playing. Hardly anyone he knew didn't have an opinion in the debate over owning guns. Why was a constitutionally protected right so heavily debated, and who exactly as these folks that own guns? "I began to wonder who these seventy or so million Americans were, how they lived and what was important to them. I set out to photographs as many gun owners as I could and ask them one question: "Why do you own a gun." Cassidy traveled over 20,000 miles, crisscrossing the country to meet with gun owners in their homes. Cassidy's photo essays create a powerful, thought provoking and sometimes startling view of gun ownership in the U.S. These "everyman" portraits, and the accompanying views of gun owners, fashion a riveting and provocative book.

Hardcover. NY, Art in America, 1st, 1961, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Pictorial boards, 136 pages. Hardcover magazine format. Illustrated in full color and black & white. Features articles on: 'What Should a Museum Be?, 'A Day with John Marin', 'Antiques for the Avant-Garde', 'Notes Toward an Ideal School of Fine Art', 'American Art International', 'Paris Letter: Nouveux Realistes', and more. Cover by Saul Steinberg. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. Seattle, WA, University of Washington Press, 1st, 1967, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover black cloth with silver lettering. 410 pages. 32 pages of color plates; near 1000 black-and-white photographs. Bibliography and index. Authoritative guide to the collections at the University of British Columbia. Clean copy in a bright dust jacket.

Hardcover. New York, Morrow, 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 160 pages. Illustrated in full color. In a clean, bright dust jacket. A commercial artist who started out sketching in the 1930s for pulp magazines, Lovell advanced to the glossier "slicks" in the 1950s and has since specialized in Old West, Plains Indian, and Civil War themes. He here presents from that long career his best canvases, among them his famed depictions of Lee's surrender and the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts' assault (in film, the climax of Glory). His spark of inspiration is usually to visualize an incident he has read of in the journals of the first white explorers and trappers, such as those of Lewis and Clark. Whether it's Clark firing his rifle or Indians encountering a cannon lost by Fremont, Native Americans are generally presented as wary but curious about the newcomers; Lovell puts the warfare outside of the frame. Themes aside, he works expertly with natural color, and though not a modern George Caitlin, his attention to the detail of Indian dress, carriage, and equipage is quite affecting, fully reflective of his respect for the cultures of Apache, Sioux, etc. A rich tribute to a captivating artist who evokes the West's vast landscape and its individual braves and traders in moods of exuberance and perseverance.

Hardcover. New York, NYU Press, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 387 pages. Minor wear to dust jacket. Else very good.

Hardcover. London, Carpet Bombing Culture, 1st, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 200 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Very clean, unmarked copy. Full page color photographs throughout. Tight copy. A look deep inside the crumbling apocalyptic landscape of America through the eyes of Photojournalist Seph Lawless.

Softcover. NY, Gagosian, 1st, 2023, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 316 pages. Published on the occasion of the eponymous exhibition at Gagosian, New York, in 2023, this striking illustrated catalog celebrates the centenary of the iconic photographer's birth. Over one hundred celebrated artists, designers, musicians, writers, curators, and figures from the world of fashion were asked to select a photograph by Avedon and elaborate on the ways in which both the image and artist have made an impact on their lives. Participants include Hilton Als, Naomi Campbell, Elton John, Spike Lee, Sally Mann, Polly Mellen, Kate Moss, Chloe Sevigny, Taryn Simon, Christy Turlington, and Jonas Wood."Avedon 100" celebrates Avedon's enduring influence on photography and makes clear his profound impression on visual culture worldwide. The book represents various periods from his oeuvre, including the widely known In the American West series, images of the social justice movement, classic portraiture, advertising, and fashion work. Includes a foreword by Larry Gagosian, texts by Derek Blasberg and Jake Skeets, and an essay by Sarah Elizabeth Lewis. Red remainder dot on bottom edge otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, powerHouse Books, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 108 pages. In the basement of an apartment building in Manhattan, Scott Zieher discovered a pile of photographs among the effects of a recently deceased tenant. These photographs,presented for the first time in Band of Bikers, offer an intimate portrait of a group of gay bikers in the city and the woods, and a touching snapshot of an entire generation at it's carefree zenith.Newly aware of muscle and biker magazines and their heavy-handed eroticism, photographer and photographed brimwith a subtly vibrant, chromatic pride. The photographs as a whole bring into focus a brief, specific period of relative innocence, when middle-of-the-road Americans more often than not failed to perceive the homoerotic undertones of their most heterosexual of institutions. With conceptual light cast by issues ranging from anonymity in homosexuality and underground motorcycle chic, to vernacular photography's pop-culture ramifications, a warm and generous spirit of camaraderie pervades this subterranean survey. Like a real-world set forScorpio Rising casually captured byan unpretentious extra, presented as Band of Bikers and accompanied by an essay by Zieher, this found cache of old-school, leather party snapshots attains archeological significance.

Hardcover. NY, powerHouse Books, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 108 pages. In the basement of an apartment building in Manhattan, Scott Zieher discovered a pile of photographs among the effects of a recently deceased tenant. These photographs,presented for the first time in Band of Bikers, offer an intimate portrait of a group of gay bikers in the city and the woods, and a touching snapshot of an entire generation at it's carefree zenith.Newly aware of muscle and biker magazines and their heavy-handed eroticism, photographer and photographed brimwith a subtly vibrant, chromatic pride. The photographs as a whole bring into focus a brief, specific period of relative innocence, when middle-of-the-road Americans more often than not failed to perceive the homoerotic undertones of their most heterosexual of institutions. With conceptual light cast by issues ranging from anonymity in homosexuality and underground motorcycle chic, to vernacular photography's pop-culture ramifications, a warm and generous spirit of camaraderie pervades this subterranean survey. Like a real-world set forScorpio Rising casually captured byan unpretentious extra, presented as Band of Bikers and accompanied by an essay by Zieher, this found cache of old-school, leather party snapshots attains archeological significance.

Hardcover. New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 1st, 1960, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, 177 pages. Hardcover. Illustrated with black & white photographs. Price clipped dust jacket with wear along edges - now protected with clear plastic cover. Clean, tight copy. Report on the men and women who lived in the South and created work songs, spirituals, blues, and jazz.

Hardcover. NY, Vendome Press, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 208 pages. Beene by Beene is a journey through Geoffrey Beene's life in fashion, a 40-year exploration that was, by turns, visionary, witty, irreverent, iconic, and timeless. His work was of such powerful clarity, such complete complicity between form and function that it actually teaches us-as all works of art do-how to look. A defining American artist, Geoffrey Beene towers in his field.Pamela A. Parmal provides a chronological survey of Mr. Beene's career as a fashion designer and discusses the evolution of his work. Chapters focus on themes or influences-Woman, Body, Fabric, Comfort, Geometry, Sport, Culture-that were a constant source of inspiration to the designer. Beene won the attention and admiration of other artists, and here we see his work through the eyes of renowned photographers and illustrators, even filmmakers and choreographers.

Softcover. NY, Skyhorse, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 361 pages, b&w illustrations. Burlesque was one of America's most popular forms of live entertainment in the first half of the 20th century. Gaudy, bawdy, and spectacular, the shows entertained thousands of paying customers every night of the week. And yet the legacy of burlesque is often vilified and misunderstood, left out of the history books.By telling the intimate and surprising stories from its golden age through the women (and men!) who lived it, Behind the Burly Q reveals the true story of burlesque, even as it experiences a new renaissance. Lovingly interviewed by burlesque enthusiast Leslie Zemeckis who produced the hit documentary of the same name, are former musicians, strippers, novelty acts, club owners, authors, and historians--assembled here for the first time ever to tell you just what really happened in a burlesque show. From Jack Ruby and Robert Kennedy to Abbott and Costello--burlesque touched every corner of American life. The sexy shows often poked fun at the upper classes, at sex, and at what people were willing to do in the pursuit of sex. Sadly, many of the performers have since passed away, making this their last, and often only interview. Behind the Burly Q is the definitive history of burlesque during its heyday and an invaluable oral history of an American art form. Funny, shocking, unbelievable, and heartbreaking, their stories will touch your hearts. We invite you to peek behind the curtain at the burly show.

Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 2019, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 245 pages, b&w illustrations, index. He was, according to Pauline Kael, "the greatest American screenwriter." Jean-Luc Godard called him "a genius" who "invented 80 percent of what is used in Hollywood movies today." Besides tossing off dozens of now-classic scripts--including Scarface,Twentieth Century, and Notorious--Ben Hecht was known in his day as ace reporter, celebrated playwright, taboo-busting novelist, and the most quick-witted of provocateurs. During World War II, he also emerged as an outspoken crusader for the imperiled Jews of Europe, and later he became a fierce propagandist for pre-1948 Palestine's Jewish terrorist underground. Whatever the outrage he stirred, this self-declared "child of the century" came to embody much that defined America--especially Jewish America--in his time. Hecht's fame has dimmed with the decades, but Adina Hoffman's vivid portrait brings this charismatic and contradictory figure back to life on the page. Hecht was a renaissance man of dazzling sorts, and Hoffman--critically acclaimed biographer, former film critic, and eloquent commentator on Middle Eastern culture and politics--is uniquely suited to capture him in all his modes.

Hardcover. NY, Viking Adult, 1st, 1996, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 282 pages, with photographs of the artist and her work. Slight foxing on top edge and small stain on fore edge, otherwise, very clean and tight copy. Twenty years after the publication of her autobiography, Through the Flower, the renowned artist and feminist continues the story of her life and takes a provocative look at late twentieth-century American culture and the allocation of our resources.

Hardcover. Honesdale, Boyds Mills Press, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 31 pages. Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. SIGNED BY ILLUSTRATOR BARRY MOSER ON TITLE PAGE. Full color illustrations. Clean, bright copy.

Softcover. Libreria Musicale Italiana, 1st, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 215 pages, b&w illustrations. A history of the diaspora of Neapolitan musicians in New York. This book reviews the period from the unification of Italy to the fascist era through significant Neapolitan performers such as Gilda Mignonette and Enrico Caruso. It traces the transformation of a popular tradition written in dialect into a popular tradition, written in Italian, that contributed to the production of 'American' identity. PLEASE NOTE: ITALIAN TEXT. Simona Frasca is a lecturer on early sound reproduction and Italian migration, and a freelance music journalist. She hold a doctorate in History and Analysis of Musical Culture from La Sapienza University in Rome. Mild sunning to wraps, clean copy.

Softcover. Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press, reprint, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 310 pages, b&w illustrations. Few Americans, black or white, recognize the degree to which early African American history is a maritime history. W. Jeffrey Bolster shatters the myth that black seafaring in the age of sail was limited to the Middle Passage. Seafaring was one of the most significant occupations among both enslaved and free black men between 1740 and 1865. Tens of thousands of black seamen sailed on lofty clippers and modest coasters. They sailed in whalers, warships, and privateers. Some were slaves, forced to work at sea, but by 1800 most were free men, seeking liberty and economic opportunity aboard ship.Bolster brings an intimate understanding of the sea to this extraordinary chapter in the formation of black America. Because of their unusual mobility, sailors were the eyes and ears to worlds beyond the limited horizon of black communities ashore. Sometimes helping to smuggle slaves to freedom, they were more often a unique conduit for news and information of concern to blacks.But for all its opportunities, life at sea was difficult. Blacks actively contributed to the Atlantic maritime culture shared by all seamen, but were often outsiders within it. Capturing that tension, Black Jacks examines not only how common experiences drew black and white sailors together-even as deeply internalized prejudices drove them apart-but also how the meaning of race aboard ship changed with time. Bolster traces the story to the end of the Civil War, when emancipated blacks began to be systematically excluded from maritime work. Rescuing African American seamen from obscurity, this stirring account reveals the critical role sailors played in helping forge new identities for black people in America.

Softcover. Middletown CT, Wesleyan University Press, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 237 pages. From its beginnings in hip hop culture, the dense rhythms and aggressive lyrics of rap music have made it a provocative fixture on the American cultural landscape. In Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America, Tricia Rose, described by the New York Times as a "hip hop theorist," takes a comprehensive look at the lyrics, music, cultures, themes, and styles of this highly rhythmic, rhymed storytelling and grapples with the most salient issues and debates that surround it. Clean copy.