Hardcover. NY, Alfred A. Knopf, 1st US, 1935, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 337 pages, Index. Black & white photographic illustrations. Cream cloth with red & black illustration and lettering. The exciting story of the author's travels by car with Paris Benga, the famous Negro dancer, on a tour which zigzagged through the French colonies, the French and British mandates, and the Gold Coast to study the native dances in the districts most remote from civilization. This is also a study of the government and religion, the sex-life and marriage ritual, habits and customs, and the emotional and mental character of these West African Negroes. Mild stain to corners of front cover, not affecting the interior. Otherwise clean and tight copy.
Hardcover. Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University , 1st, 1979, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 173 pages. This work is a brief look at worldwide slave revolts in the 17th through 19th centuries, emphasizing their interrelations with European power struggles, which gave rebels hope of finding weak spots in the defenses of the slave powers. The French Revolution also had an influence on slave revolts, but the canny European powers used indigenous peoples to suppress slave revolts (e.g., native Americans) and took advantage of African ethnic divisions as well. American slaves stood little chance of revolt and were under constant surveillance from Southerners, who coward in fear after the successful rebellions in the Caribbean, particularly in Hispaniola, and after Nat Turner and John Brown's efforts. Genovese also brings up religion's double-edged sword: one side used to pacify slaves and the other side to inspire them to break their chains. In short, this scholarly treatise is thought-provoking as well as informative and ends with an inspirational quote from one of Frederick Douglass's lectures. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise a clean copy.
Softcover. Amherst MA, Warring States Project, 1st, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 191 pages. This book is an overview of the history of Early Christianity. Each chapter is based on one selection from Jewish texts or from those produced by the Jesus sect of Judaism. It gives a sense of how things happened, from the words of certain ancient prophets, to Jesus' effort to bring about those prophecies, to the efforts of his followers to reshape their expectations after his death. It follows the movement as it came to regard Jesus himself as divine, a process which eventually led to the separation of the sect from the parent religion. It ends with a glimpse of a surviving early Christian church on the shores of the Black Sea, and how it appeared to the Roman administrator who was in charge of executing those who, like the Early Christians, refused Emperor worship. From the evidence of two deaconesses whom he tortured, which Pliny reported to Emperor Trajan, we too learn what were the regular practices of that church. Clean copy.
Hardcover. New York, Collins Brother & Co, 1st, 1845, Book: Fair, Dust Jacket: None, 309 pages. Hardcover, full leather with black band on spine. Heavy wear to tan leather edges. Water staining throughout bottom half pages, heavy foxing and tanning. bottom corners bumped. Previous owner's name on front fly leaf and end paper. Front end paper has previous owner's name pasted on small piece of paper bottom corner. Binding tight for age of copy.
Hardcover. Burlington VT, Ashgate, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, black cloth stamped in gilt, 263 pages. (Early Modern Englishwoman: a Facsimile Library of Essential Works) Name on front fly leaf otherwise clean.
Hardcover. UK, Cambridge University Press, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 444 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. Light fading to dust jacket front. Light edgewear to dj. Black and white pictures throughout. Clean, tight copy. In 1999 Pope John Paul II proclaimed Our Lady of Guadalupe a patron saint of the Americas. According to oral tradition and historical documents, in 1531 Mary appeared as a beautiful Aztec princess to Juan Diego, a poor Indian. Speaking to him in his own language, she asked him to tell the bishop her name was La Virgen de Guadalupe and that she wanted a church built on the mountain. During a second visit, the image of the Virgin miraculously appeared on his cape. Through the centuries, the enigmatic power of this image has aroused such fervent devotion in Mexico that it has served as the banner of the rebellion against Spanish rule and, despite skepticism and anticlericalism, still remains a potent symbol of the modern nation. In Mexican Phoenix, David Brading traces the intellectual origins, the sudden efflorescence, and the theology that has sustained the tradition of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Brading also documents the interaction of religion and patriotism, and describes how the image has served as a banner both for independence and for the Church in its struggle against the Liberal and revolutionary state.
NY, Farrar, Straus and Company, 1st, 1950, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Fair, Hardcover in a very worn, chipped dust jacket, 312 pages. This autobiography details the struggle of a young Negroe's struggle to rise from a Knoxville slum to reach the ministry in the first half of the 20th century.
Softcover. Urbana IL, University of Illinois Press, reprint, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 433 pages. From the plaintive tunes of woe sung by exiled kings and queens of Africa to the spirited worksongs and "shouts" of freedmen, enslaved people created expansive forms of music from the United States to the West Indies and South America. Dena J. Epstein's classic work traces the course of early black folk music in all its guises. Anchored by groundbreaking scholarship, it redefined the study of black music in the slavery era by presenting the little-known development of black folk music in the United States. Her findings include the use of drums, the banjo, and other instruments originating in Africa; a wealth of eyewitness accounts and illustrations; in-depth look at a wide range of topics; and a collection of musical examples. This edition offers an author's preface that looks back on the twenty-five years of changes in scholarship that followed the book's original publication. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Little Brown, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. This is a biography of C.L. Franklin, one of the black preachers in American history. It tells the story of black migration and activism, alongside the rise of gospel, blues, and soul music, with a cast of characters including Martin Luther King, Jr., B.B. King, Art Tatum, and Coleman Young.
Hardcover. NY, The Viking Press, reprint, 1956, Book: Very Good, Hardcover, tan cloth covers with brown lettering, 187/189 pages. Lyrics with music and a preface of the songs. Two volumes in one. No dust jacket. Inscription on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.
Hardcover. Santa Fe, NM, Twin Palms Publishers, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 96 pages. Hardcover with no dust jacket. Very clean. like new copy in publisher's shrink-wrap. 78 full-page, black and white photographs. Limited to 3000 copies. Tight copy. A look at the black experience in late-20th-century America with powerful documentary images that will remain with the viewer long after the books are closed. Mauskopf presents a quiet collection of images made in one part of the South, the most isolated black communities of the Mississippi Delta, where time seems to have stopped in midcentury. The photographs are full of love, joy, and religious faith and are richly reproduced here as sheet-fed gravures. Mauskopf portrays the poorest Americans, who are nonetheless rich in family, church, and community bonds. He documents the unifying and dominant role of religion as well as the joys and sustenance provided by music, dance, romance, family life, and the land itself. These images capture a sense of place so powerfully that captions aren't necessary, though a brief and poetic essay by novelist Kenan nicely complements the photographs.