caribbean south

Hardcover. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 320 pages, b&w illustrations. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket. Building the Devil's Empire is the first comprehensive history of New Orleans's early years, tracing the town's development from its origins in 1718 to its revolt against Spanish rule in 1768. Shannon Lee Dawdy's picaresque account of New Orleans's wild youth features a cast of strong-willed captives, thin-skinned nobles, sharp-tongued women, and carousing travelers. But she also widens her lens to reveal the port city's global significance, examining its role in the French Empire and the Caribbean, and she concludes that by exemplifying a kind of rogue colonialism--where governments, outlaws, and capitalism become entwined--New Orleans should prompt us to reconsider our notions of how colonialism works.

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. Washington DC, National Gallery of Art , 2nd pr., 203, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 334 pages illustrated with 224 color plates, 86 black & white. One of America's most innovative artists, Romare Bearden (1911-1988) made colorful and passionate images that reflected his life in a time of creative ferment. His influences ranged from the old masters to African art, as well as the world around him: popular religion and ritual, jazz clubs and brothels, the history and literature of his time, and the places he lived (the rural South, Pittsburgh and Harlem, the Caribbean island of St. Martin). The resulting images are fresh and evocative, filled with quirky details and rhythmic forms. This authoritative and beautiful book, which accompanies a major retrospective opening at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., provides a provocative and absorbing look at a beloved artist. The Art of Romare Bearden showcases compelling examples of his pioneering work: complex collages and photostats; watercolors, gouaches, and oils; little-known landscapes; his only known sculpture; costume designs; and book illustrations. Mildwear to corners otherwise very good, clean copy.

Hardcover. Salem, Peabody Essex Museum & Mystic Seaport Museum, reprint, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 371 pages. Clean, bright copy. Between 1932 and 1934, in the depths of the Depression, Donald Starr and six friends sailed the 85' Alden schooner Pilgrim around the world from Boston by way of the Panama and Suez Canals. Their adventure is recounted with wit and detail in this illustrated book -- a look at bluewater cruising, the Caribbean, the South Pacific, and the Mediterranean before war and tourism altered them forever.

Hardcover. Owings Mills MD, Stemmer House, 1st, 1985, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a dust jacket with mild fading to spine. INSCRIBED BY THE ILLUSTRATOR on the front fly leaf. A collection of fifteen Brer Rabbit trickster tales from the Afro-American culture of Central and South America and the Caribbean. Color illustrations by Clinton Arrowood. Clean copy.