culture

Hardcover. Boston, Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1st, 1849, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, embossed brown cloth covers with gilt lettering on spine. How respectable members of society communicated by letter with examples of mannered correspndence of the mid-19th century. Clean copy.

Softcover. Berkeley CA, University of California Press, reprint, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 210 pages. Taking Gandhi's statements about civil disobedience to heart, in February 1922 residents from the villages around the north Indian market town of Chauri Chaura attacked the local police station, burned it to the ground and murdered twenty-three constables. Appalled that his teachings were turned to violent ends, Gandhi called off his Noncooperation Movement and fasted to bring the people back to nonviolence. In the meantime, the British government denied that the riot reflected Indian resistance to its rule and tried the rioters as common criminals. These events have taken on great symbolic importance among Indians, both in the immediate region and nationally. Amin examines the event itself, but also, more significantly, he explores the ways it has been remembered, interpreted, and used as a metaphor for the Indian struggle for independence. The author, who was born fifteen miles from Chauri Chaura, brings to his study an empathetic knowledge of the region and a keen ear for the nuances of the culture and language of its people. In an ingenious negotiation between written and oral evidence, he combines brilliant archival work in the judicial records of the period with field interviews with local informants. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Just One Guy Press, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 64 pages. In his most recent body of work, Hollingsworth sends up his former home of Los Angeles, the vortex of American pop culture, playing the characters who populate and define it: personas ranging from the well-worn stereotypes to the forgotten and disenfranchised. Shot entirely on Polaroid film, the images have a mug-shot aesthetic, whereby each character seems to have been momentarily plucked from his immediate environment for scrutiny under the artist's no-holds-barred gaze.

Hardcover. Paris, Editions Place de Victoires, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 599 pages. Like new in publishers shrink-wrap. This vivid photo-essay on the great adventure of discovery and exploration 1860-1930 is drawn from the collection of The Royal Geographical Society in London. It begins with Stanley and Livingstone in Africa and proceeds through Asia and Oceania, the Americas, and the Middle East. The work of twenty-three intrepid photographers are included.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 512 pages. B&w illustrations. With this handsome book, David Sweetman, a biographer of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, brings together the dissolute lives of various artists who came to represent decadent fin-de-siecle Paris: Oscar Wilde, Felix Feneon, Alfred Jarry, and, of course, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. As the author reminds us, imitations of the latter's work adorn the walls of French-themed bars worldwide and have become a shorthand for sanitized debauchery. Toulouse-Lautrec--absinthe drinker and brothel frequenter--was instrumental in the development of the poster, but what is his artistic legacy? Although Toulouse-Lautrec dominates the book's subtitle, Sweetman's sweep is much grander. In much the same way as his main subject was, Sweetman proves a sympathetic host to the women of Montmartre, tragic figures such as La Goulue, Jane Avril, and Suzanne Valadon, and he is particularly insightful on the singer Aristide Bruant's influence on the fledgling artist. Clean copy.

Softcover. Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 1st, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Still wrapped in plastic. Accompanied the exhibition "Expressionist Utopias" at the Los Angeles County Museum in 1993. In great condition. Color illustrations throughout. A nice, tight copy.

Softcover. Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 1st, 2001, Book: Near Fine, Dust Jacket: Near Fine, Still wrapped in plastic. Accompanied the exhibition "Expressionist Utopias" at the Los Angeles County Museum in 1993. In great condition. Color illustrations throughout. A nice, tight copy.The notion of utopia exists in every culture, capturing shared dreams and common goals. This book--prepared to accompany the exhibition Expressionist Utopias mounted at the Los Angeles County Museum in 1993--explores how the optimistic themes of utopia and fantasy sustained faith among artists and architects in the power of art to shape a better world during the tumultuous World War I era in Germany. The exhibition's curator, Timothy O. Benson along with David Frisby, Reinhold Heller, Anton Kaes, Wolf Prix, and Iain Boyd White present the diverse manifestations of the utopia metaphor in its progression throughout Expressionism from Arcadian to manmade utopias.

Softcover. Durham NC, Duke University Press, 2nd pr., 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 342 pages. In Extended Play, one of the country's most innovative music writers conducts a wide-ranging tour through the outer limits of contemporary music. Over the course of more than twenty-five portraits, interviews, and essays, John Corbett engages artists from lands as distant as Sweden, Siberia, and Saturn. With a special emphasis on African American and European improvisers, the book explores the famous and the little known, from John Cage and George Clinton to Anthony Braxton and Sun Ra. Employing approaches as diverse as the music he celebrates, Corbett illuminates the sound and theory of funk and rap, blues and jazz, contemporary classical, free improvisation, rock, and reggae. Using cultural critique and textual theory, Corbett addresses a broad spectrum of issues, such as the status of recorded music in postmodern culture, the politics of self-censorship, experimentation, and alternativism in the music industry, and the use of metaphors of space and madness in the work of African American musicians. He follows these more theoretically oriented essays with a series of extensive profiles and in-depth interviews that offer contrasting and complementary perspectives on some of the world's most creative musicians and their work. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, Aperture, reprint, 1998 , Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 162 pages, many B&W & sepia period photographs of China, its people and culture. Very richly illustrated, captions, chronology, list pioneer photographers, sources, general bibliography, acknowledgments. Photographs from the archives of Arnold Arboretum - Harvard University.

New York, Aperture, Rep., 1998 , Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 162 pages, many B&W & sepia period photographs of China, its people and culture. Very richly illustrated, captions, chronology, list pioneer phiotographers, sources, general bibliography, acknowledgements. Photographs from the archives of Arnold Arboretum - Harvard University.

Hardcover. NY, Oxford University Press;, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 288 pages. As an essayist and Village Voice columnist, Gary Giddins is widely known as a preeminent jazz writer. Walter Clemons, writing in Newsweek, hailed him as "the best jazz critic now at work," praising his "elegant prose" and "encyclopedic knowledge." Yet he has won a devoted audience for his reflections on popular culture, books, and movies as well--including a marvelous essay on Jack Benny that Gay Talese selected for Best American Essays of 1987. In Faces in the Crowd, Giddins once again demonstrates his graceful style and sharp wit in a brilliant collection of critiques,assessments, and profiles of major figures in the culture of our century.

Hardcover. New York, Spiegel & Grau, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 420 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket. A very clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to dust jacket edges. A tight copy.

Hardcover. Burlington VT, Ashgate, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 245 pages, in a bright. unclipped dust jacket. Fado, often described as 'urban folk music', emerged from the streets of Lisbon in the mid-nineteenth century and went on to become Portugal's 'national' music during the twentieth. It is known for its strong emphasis on loss, memory and nostalgia within its song texts, which often refer to absent people and places. One of the main lyrical themes of fado is the city itself. Fado music has played a significant role in the interlacing of mythology, history, memory and regionalism in Portugal in the second half of the twentieth century. Richard Elliott considers the ways in which fado songs bear witness to the city of Lisbon, in relation to the construction and maintenance of the local. Elliott explores the ways in which fado acts as a cultural product reaffirming local identity via recourse to social memory and an imagined community, while also providing a distinctive cultural export for the dissemination of a 'remembered Portugal' on the global stage.

Hardcover. New York, Picador, 1st Edition, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 566 pages. Hardcover. Full page, full color and b/w illustrations throughout. Dust jacket with graphic illustration in very good condition. Clean, unmarked copy.

Hardcover. Chicago, American Sheep Breeder Compny, 1st, 1910, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, green cloth covers with gilt lettering, 96 pages plus ads in rear. b&w illustrations. Gilt faded on cover and spine, clean copy. The book provides a comprehensive overview of the different types of cheese made in America, specifically focusing on cheeses made from cow, sheep, and goat milk. The author delves into the history of cheese-making in America, discussing the various techniques and methods used to produce cheese. The book also includes detailed descriptions of different cheese varieties, their flavors, textures, and uses. It is a valuable resource for cheese enthusiasts, historians, and anyone interested in the history and culture of cheese-making in America.

Hardcover. NY, Aperture, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 144 pages. Photographer Elena Dorfman examines the pop culture phenomenon of 'cosplay,' in which participants dress up in costumes--and live part of their lives--as characters from video games, animated films and Japanese graphic novels. The exploding cosplay subculture flourishes at convention centers, college dorms, private clubs and in homes across the country. Dorfman puts herself quietly behind the scenes of these fan-based events to create a remarkable collective portrait. Color portrait photos.

Softcover. London, Black Dog Publishing, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 185 pages, color illustrations. Contemporary designers, artists and scientists explore the evolution of this ubiquitous and endlessly malleable material, through its trademarked names - Spandex, Teflon, Nylon, Rayon, Formica, Tupperware - through to looking at how its function and reputation have changed over its lifetime. It is an essential book for designers, academics and everyone interested in our consumer culture.

Softcover. NY, Oxford University Press, reprint, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 592 pages. Two-time Lincoln Prize-winning historian Allen C. Guelzo offers a marvelous portrait of the Civil War and its era, covering not only the major figures and epic battles, but also politics, religion, gender, race, diplomacy, and technology. And unlike other surveys of the Civil War era, it extends the reader's vista to include the postwar Reconstruction period and discusses the modern-day legacy of the Civil War in American literature and popular culture. Guelzo also puts the conflict in a global perspective, underscoring Americans' acute sense of the vulnerability of their republic in a world of monarchies. He examines the strategy, the tactics, and especially the logistics of the Civil War and brings the most recent historical thinking to bear on emancipation, the presidency and the war powers, the blockade and international law, and the role of intellectuals, North and South. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Santa Barbara CA, Capra Press, 1st, 1979, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 126 pages. Hardcover with foxing to edges. Dust jacket with light wear to edges. Photographs & illustrations of vineyards, wine making apparatus. Remainder mark to bottom edge. Otherwise, clean unmarked copy.

Hardcover. India, Mapin Publishing Group, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 171 pages, color and b&w illustrations. This very visual work features the religious and historical significance of feet and footwear in Indian culture as reflected in the civilization's art, sacred writings, and literature. Like new in publishers shrink-wrap.

Hardcover. New York, Oxford University Press, 1st, 1996, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 243 pages, illustrated throughout in color and b&w. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor shelf-wear to dust jacket.

Hardcover. New York, Fifth Avenue Association, 1st, 1924, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 124 pages of text and full color and black & white illustrations followed by large section of advertisements. Book measures: 12.25" X 9.25". Light rubbing to cover corners. Clean, unmarked pages.

Hardcover. New York, Fifth Avenue Association, 1st, 1924, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 124 pages of text and illustrations followed by 66 pages of ads. Hinges tender. Green cloth covers with full color pastedown on front. Light rubbing to cover corners. Clean, unmarked copy.

Hardcover. Gillian McCain and James Marshall, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 111 pages. Collects fifty found photos from the collection of McCain, a poet and co-author of "Please Kill Me: The Uncensored History of Punk." Presented with accompanying text by the WFMU DJ James Marshall and, on the verso leaves, original comments from The Hound Blog, where the photos were first published.