Softcover. London, Bloomsbury, reprint, 2008, Book: Very Good, Softcover, 692 pages. Coursing through Austerity Britain is an astonishing variety of voices - vivid, unselfconscious, and unaware of what the future holds. A Chingford housewife endures the tribulations of rationing; a retired schoolteacher observes during a royal visit how well-fed the Queen looks; a pernickety civil servant in Bristol is oblivious to anyone's troubles but his own. An array of working-class witnesses describe how life in post-war Britain is, with little regard for liberal niceties or the feelings of their 'betters'. Many of these voices will stay with the reader in future volumes, jostling alongside well-known figures like John Arlott (here making his first radio broadcast, still in police uniform), Glenda Jackson (taking the 11+) and Doris Lessing, newly arrived from Africa, struck by the levelling poverty of postwar Britain. David Kynaston weaves a sophisticated narrative of how the victorious 1945 Labour government shaped the political, economic and social landscape for the next three decades.Deeply researched, often amusing and always intensely entertaining and readable, the first volume of David Kynaston's ambitious history offers an entirely fresh perspective on Britain during those six momentous years. Clean copy.
Softcover. Mechanicsburg PA, Stackpole Books, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 194 pages, b&w illustrations. This is a fascinating account of Australia's M/Z commando unit and the part it played in the Southwest Pacific during World War II. M Unit personnel were secretly landed to set up coast-watching posts and radio stations to monitor Japanese shipping movements and bombing flights. Members of the Z Unit carried out raids in enemy-controlled areas and also attacked targets of opportunity. Many commandos were delivered on their missions by U.S. Navy submarines that sneaked into dangerously shallow waters to put the men ashore. Other operatives were inserted by PT boats, Catalina aircraft, parachute, and snake boats. Clean, bright copy.
Hardcover. New York, Random House, 1st U.S., 1971, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 430 pages. Hardcover. B/w illustrations throughout. Gilt title on spine and front cover. Covers bound in red fabric, in great shape. Dust jacket unclipped and excellent. Decorated endpapers. Top edge dyed. Clean and bright inside and out.
Hardcover. NY, Atheneum, 1st, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. 245 pages. B&w illustrations and photographs throughout. Decorated endpapers. Decorative pink stain to top edge. Private library stamp on front endpaper. Otherwise clean. Entertaining recount of the pivotal battle of the Crimean War. Includes bibliography & index. Excellent collection of period photographs and artwork.
Softcover. Annapolis MD, Naval Institute Press, 1st pbk, 2023, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 325 pages, b&w illustrations. Author Edward S. Miller contends in this work that the United States forced Japan into international bankruptcy to deter its aggression. While researching newly declassified records of the Treasury and Federal Reserve, Miller, a retired chief financial executive of a Fortune 500 resources corporation, uncovered just how much money mattered. Washington experts confidently predicted that the war in China would bankrupt Japan, not knowing that the Japanese government had a huge cache of dollars fraudulently hidden in New York. Once discovered, Japan scrambled to extract the money. But, Miller explains, in July 1941 President Roosevelt invoked a long-forgotten clause of the Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 to freeze Japan's dollars and forbade it to sell its hoard of gold to the U.S. Treasury, the only open gold market after 1939. Roosevelt s temporary gambit to bring Japan to its senses, not its knees, was thwarted, however, by opportunistic bureaucrats. Dean Acheson, his handpicked administrator, slyly maneuvered to deny Japan the dollars needed to buy oil and other resources for war and for economic survival. Clean copy.
Hardcover. Washington DC, Smithsonian, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Baseball, the sport that helped reunify the country in the years after the Civil War, remains the National Pastime. The Library of Congress houses the world's largest baseball collection, documenting the history of the game and providing a unique look at America since the late 1700s. Now Baseball Americana presents the best of the best from that treasure trove. From baseball's biggest stars to street urchins, from its most newsworthy stories to sandlot and Little League games, the book examines baseball's hardscrabble origins, rich cultural heritage, and uniquely American character. The more than 350 fabulous illustrations--many never before published--featured first-generation, vintage photographic and chromolithographic baseball cards; photographs of famous players and ballparks; and newspaper clippings, cartoons, New Deal photographs, and baseball advertisements.
Softcover. NY, Franklin Watts, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 176 pages, b&w photos. The Contents are: Gentleman's Agreement - African Americans and Baseball's Beginning; A Ballplayer from Cooperstown - Post Reconstruction America and the Strange Career of Bud Fowler; False Spring - Fleet Walker and the Grudging Integration of the 1880s; Jim Crow Wins - Cap Anson Gets the Save; War Paint and Feathers - Jim Crow and Chief Tokohama; Second Class Immortals - Satchel Paige and the Black Babe Ruth; The Badge of Martyrdom - The Myth of Rickey and Robinson; and They Never Had It Made - from 1947 to Today; followed by Appendix: Professional Baseball Leagues Chronology; Glossary of Team Names; and an index. Clean copy.
Softcover. NY, Watson-Guptill, 1st pbk, 2001, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 292 pages. A detailed resource on the comics and collectibles inspired by the classic character provides close-up photography and information on everything Batman, from the history of the character's graphic design to sixteen new pages of obscure memorabilia. Chip Kidd, who also wrote a neat "Batman Animated" coffee able book on the well-loved and critically acclaimed "Batman: The Animated Series" that debuted in 1992, turns here to the hobby (and serious business, for some) of collecting. He includes his own childhood remembrances of Bat-items, as well as wonderfully quirky photography. This book, full-color throughout, is not a "guide" to the collectibles, as it does not include price values or manufacturers (it does give the year and dimensions for each piece pictured). Plus, there is an editorial comment on the Andy Warhol Batman piece that's got a bit of an attitude. Clean copy.
Hardcover. New York, Sterling, reprint, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. Originally published in 1990 by Kitchen Sink Press. Color throughout. 208 pages. When Bob Kane's seminal Batman first reached newspapers during World War II, only a small group of papers published it. So the early Batman and Robin comic strips have remained among the most elusive works in comics' history. Not anymore: these rare Sunday color pages are now reprinted in a generously sized format worthy of their importance. The many fans of the Caped Crusader will thrill to see Batman and the Boy Wonder do battle once again with both common thugs and outrageous villains in order to save Gotham City from plot after evil plot. Making their nefarious way across these illustrated panels are some of the Caped Crusader's most indelible adversaries, including the Joker, Catwoman, Penguin, and Two-Face. In addition to behind-the-scenes information and rare promotional materials, this deluxe edition collects the first four years of the classic Batman and Robin newspaper comics exactly as written and illustrated by the strip's most famous writers and artists. Among the classic stories are: ?The Penguin's Crime-Thunderstorms," ?Catwoman's Grasshopper Chase," and ?Half Man?Half Monster."
Hardcover. Philadelphia, PA, Hubbard Brothers, 1st Edition, 1882, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 488 pages. Hardcover. B/w illustrations (including frontispiece with tissue guard--see image). Decorated endpapers. Previous owner's stamp of ownership on two preliminary pages. Cover boards bound in brown mustard cloth, gilt title and decorations on spine and front cover board (see image). Cover boards have a touch of age wear. Pages and edges have some tanning from age. Loose gutter at top of title page (see image), otherwise binding tight. "A graphic recital of personal experiences throughout the whole period of the late war for the Union--during which the author was actively engaged in 25 Battles and Skirmishes, was three times taken prisoner..."
Hardcover. Monmouth Beach, Philip Freneau Press, 1st, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 96 pages. Hardcover. Illustrated with black & white maps and diagrams showing battle strategies. Blue cloth with degree of fading to front and back covers. Title in gilt on front cover and spine. No dust jacket. Clean, tight copy. Scarce.
Hardcover. Stanford CA, Stanford University Press, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 559 pages. "Behind the Bamboo Curtain is an important collection of essays on Sino-Vietnamese relations during the Cold War An excellent contribution from a Vietnamese historian and well-documented chapters on Soviet and French policy further augment the importance of the volume. The contributors make extensive use of primary documents from the United States, the People's Republic of China, Vietnam, and Russia and offer authoritative analyses." -- The Journal of Cold War Studies. Claen, unread copy.
Hardcover. New York , Alfred A. Knopf, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 579 pages. Hardcover with dust jacket, many BW illus. The third book in a triology, prefaced by The Parade's Gone By ... (1968) and The War, the West and the Wilderness (1979). Offers a full and illustrated "exploration of a vital and now almost forgotten chapter of American moviemaking: the response of early producers and directors to the agonizing social problems of the decades before World War I. ... An essential work of silent-film history, certain to become a standard reference." Clean, tight copy.
Hardcover. Austin TX, Texas State Historical Association, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 128 pages, 109 b&w photographs by Hickman. Bright copy in a nice dust jacket. This remarkable book reproduces more than one hundred photographs taken by R. C. Hickman, a professional photographer whose work provides a fascinating visual record of life in Dallas's black community during the three decades following World War II.After the war, he returned to Dallas and joined the staff of the Dallas Star Post. He also worked as a freelance photographer for Jet magazine, for several newspapers in the East, and for the NAACP. His work led him to photograph notables such as Martin Luther King Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Ella Fitzgerald, Joe Louis, and others when they visited Dallas.
Softcover. US, University of Illinois Press, 1st, 2010, Book: Near Fine, Dust Jacket: None, 190 pages, illustrated throughout in b&w. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to wrappers. The paintings, murals, and graphics of Ben Shahn (1898-1969) have made him one of the most heralded American artists of the twentieth century, but during the 1930s he was also among the nation's premier photographers. Much of his photographic work was sponsored by the New Deal's Farm Security Administration, where his colleagues included Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans.Ben Shahn's American Scene: Photographs, 1938 presents one hundred superb photographs from his most ambitious FSA project, a survey of small-town life in the Depression. John Raeburn's accompanying text illuminates the thematic and formal significance of individual photographs and reveals how, taken together, they address key cultural and political issues of the years leading up to World War II. Shahn's photographs highlight conflicts between traditional values and the newer ones introduced by modernity as represented by the movies, chain stores, and the tantalizing allure of consumer goods, and they are particularly rich in observation about the changes brought about by Americans' universal reliance on the automobile. They also explore the small town's standing as the nation's symbol of democratic community and expose the discriminatory social and racial practices that subverted this ideal in 1930s America.
Softcover. US, University of Illinois Press, 1st, 2010, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 190 pages, illustrated throughout in b&w. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to wrappers. The paintings, murals, and graphics of Ben Shahn (1898-1969) have made him one of the most heralded American artists of the twentieth century, but during the 1930s he was also among the nation's premier photographers. Much of his photographic work was sponsored by the New Deal's Farm Security Administration, where his colleagues included Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans.Ben Shahn's American Scene: Photographs, 1938 presents one hundred superb photographs from his most ambitious FSA project, a survey of small-town life in the Depression. John Raeburn's accompanying text illuminates the thematic and formal significance of individual photographs and reveals how, taken together, they address key cultural and political issues of the years leading up to World War II. Shahn's photographs highlight conflicts between traditional values and the newer ones introduced by modernity as represented by the movies, chain stores, and the tantalizing allure of consumer goods, and they are particularly rich in observation about the changes brought about by Americans' universal reliance on the automobile. They also explore the small town's standing as the nation's symbol of democratic community and expose the discriminatory social and racial practices that subverted this ideal in 1930s America.
Hardcover. New York, Vanguard Press, 1st, 1932, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 306 pages. Hardcover. B/w illustrated frontispiece. Some age wear to covers. Bound in gray fabric. Previous owner's bookplate on front endpaper. Deckled edges. Some age yellowing to pages and edges. In good condition for its age.
Hardcover. Indianapolis/NY, Bobbs-Merrill, 1st, 1971, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a worn dust jacket, 490 pages, b&w frontis. Rush, the Philadelphia doctor who signed the Declaration of Independence, was an energetic, ambitious man given to devising reforms and, as the author puts it, meddling in politics. He studied medicine in Edinburgh and London, meeting Hume, Goldsmith, Samuel Johnson, et al. and, Hawke thinks, solidifying his republican disposition. Back in Pennsylvania he agitated for independence, made friends with John Adams, urged Paine to write Common Sense, and entered Congress. Apart from the recurrent epidemics of the age, the practice of military medicine and propaganda for resuming debt payments occupied Rush during the war; afterwards he turned to progressive education, speculated in land, fought paper money, equivocally supported the abolition of slavery, declared that tobacco is unhealthful, and boosted the Constitution before it was even written. Dust jacket chipped, faded in parts, clean internally.
Hardcover. Philadelphia, J.B. Lippincott, 1st, 1965, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 192 pages. B&W illustrations by Leonard Vosburgh. In a lightly chipped dust jacket, price-clipped. A young adult novel set in the Carolinas during the Revolutionary War.
Hardcover. New York, Norton, 1st, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 634 pages, b&w illustrations. In a bright, unclipped dj. In Berenice Abbott: A Life in Photography, author, archivist, and curator Julia Van Haaften brings this iconic public figure to life alongside outlandish, familiar characters from artist Man Ray to cybernetics founder Norbert Wiener. A teenage rebel from Ohio, Abbott escaped first to Greenwich Village and then to Paris-photographing, in Sylvia Beach's words, "everyone who was anyone." As the Roaring Twenties ended, Abbott returned to New York, where she soon fell in love with art critic Elizabeth McCausland, with whom she would spend thirty years. In the 1930s, Abbott began her best-known work, Changing New York, in which she fearlessly documented the city's metamorphosis. When warned by an older male supervisor that "nice girls" avoid the Bowery-then Manhattan's skid row-Abbott shot back, "I'm not a nice girl. I'm a photographer...I go anywhere." This bold, feminist attitude would characterize all Abbott's accomplishments, including imaging techniques she invented in her influential, space race-era science photography and her tenure as The New School's first photography teacher.With more than ninety stunning photos, this sweeping, cinematic biography secures Berenice Abbott's place in the histories of photography and modern art, while framing her incredible accomplishments as a female artist and entrepreneur.
Softcover. Bergen County Historical Society, 1st, 1960, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, pale rose wrappers with black type and engraving of courthouse and church in Hackensack. 112 pages, clean copy.