history world

Hardcover. San Francisco, Encounter Books, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 222 pages. Clean, unmarked copy. Black and white pictures in center. Goodyear was an entrepreneur who actually made good on the ever-popular claim that his company would change the world. Korman, senior editor of Engineering News-Record, dryly traces the life of the rubber pioneer and American industrial legend in this part scientific history lesson and part American business story. Goodyear (1800-1860) became an inventor not out of any great scientific thirst; he was self-taught and wanted to make money. He earned success, but endured continual patent monopoly battles and numerous trips to debtors' prison as he steadfastly and compulsively held onto his dream of using rubber to change just about every aspect of life. (According to Korman, Goodyear frequently wore a coat made of rubber in his early inventing days to underscore the versatility of his product.) Korman waxes scientific at times, offering in-depth descriptions of how Goodyear cooked rubber and sulfur compounds, yet his technical discourses are not so esoteric that they will turn away amateurs. His book is also valuable for its accurate portrayal of factory life in the 1830s and '40s; his accounts of the aproned men who chopped rubber with axes and knives and the machines that ground it are lively examples of industrial age America. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Hill & Wang, 3rd pr., 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 358 pages, b&w illustrations. From modest beginnings as a tea shop, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company became the largest retailer in the world. It was a juggernaut, with nearly sixteen thousand stores. But its explosive growth made it a mortal threat to mom-and-pop grocery stores across the nation. Main Street fought back tooth and nail, leading the Hoover, Roosevelt, and Truman administrations to investigate the Great A&P. In a remarkable court case, the government pressed criminal charges against the company for selling food too cheaply-and won. The acclaimed historian Marc Levinson tells the story of a struggle between small business and big business that tore America apart. George and John Hartford took over their father's business and reshaped it again and again, turning it into a vertically integrated behemoth that paved the way for every big-box retailer to come. George demanded a rock-solid balance sheet; John was the marketer-entrepreneur who led A&P through seven decades of rapid changes. Together, they set the stage for the modern consumer economy by turning an archaic retail industry into a highly efficient system for distributing food at low cost. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Liveright, 1st, 2023, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Years before Charles Lindbergh's flight from New York to Paris electrified the nation, a group of daredevil pilots, most of them veterans of the World War I, brought aviation to the masses by competing in the sensational transcontinental air race of 1919. The contest awakened Americans to the practical possibilities of flight, yet despite its significance, it has until now been all but forgotten. In The Great Air Race, journalist and amateur pilot John Lancaster finally reclaims this landmark event and the unheralded aviators who competed to be the fastest man in America. His thrilling chronicle opens with the race's impresario, Brigadier General Billy Mitchell, who believed the nation's future was in the skies. Mitchell's contest--critics called it a stunt--was a risky undertaking, given that the DH-4s and Fokkers the contestants flew were almost comically ill-suited for long-distance travel: engines caught fire in flight; crude flight instruments were of little help in clouds and fog; and the brake-less planes were prone to nosing over on landing. The race was a test of endurance that many pilots didn't finish: some dropped out from sheer exhaustion, while others, betrayed by their engines or their instincts, perished. For all its tragedy, Lancaster argues, the race galvanized the nation to embrace the technology of flight. A thrilling tale of men and their machines, The Great Air Race offers a new origin point for commercial aviation in the United States. Clean copy.

Softcover. New York, Brooklyn Museum, 1st, 1983, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 180 pages, b&w and color photography. Very light edge wear, else a very clean, tight copy. Wonderful book on the great Brooklyn Bridge. Includes much historical material, chapters on the design of the bridge with several beautiful fold-outs, and many full color repros. of the many paintings and artwork that have been inspired by the beauty of one of the wonders of the modern world. Even includes a small filmog. of films that have used the Bridge as a background or a major location/set. Published on the 100th anniversary of the opening of the bridge and an exhibition celebrating it, held at The Brooklyn Museum.

Hardcover. Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1st, 1961, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, lightly worn dust jacket. "The Great Epidemic" by A. A. Hoehling is a dramatic documentary about the worst plague in history, the flu epidemic of 1918. Between March and December five hundred thousand Americans perished, and nearly twenty million sickened.

Hardcover. Cambridge UK, Cambridge University Press, 1st, 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket, 296 pages, b&w illustrations. This is the first full scholarly study of the Great Wall of China to appear in any language, and it challenges many deeply held ideas about Chinese history. Drawing both on primary sources and on the latest archaeology, the book first demonstrates that the standard account of the Great Wall is untrue and misleading and then presents a convincing new account. It begins by tracing the various walls and systems of frontier defences that existed in early Chinese history, and shows how the greatest of these achieved a mythical symbolic stature which long survived the Wall itself. A striking concluding chapter traces how the true history of the Wall was lost in the early twentieth century as it was gradually transformed into a Chinese national symbol explained through historical myth. The book is an important contribution to the history of China's defensive policy, and her ideological attitudes, and will be of interest both to students of Chinese history and of international relations in the pre-modern world. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. UK, Sutton Publishing, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 244 pages, b&w photos. In 1908 talented black US fighter Jack Johnson won the heavyweight championship of the world from the Canadian Tommy Burns. There was an immediate storm of protest. Writers, including Jack London, and politicians feared the accession of the fearless and outspoken Johnson would threaten white supremacy. It was predicted that his reign would lead to civic unrest and race riots. Over the next seven years, more than 30 white fighters tried to beat Jackson, lured by the prospect of fame and a quick buck. It was not until 1915 that Jackson lost his crown, and during the years in between an extraordinary human drama was played out on the boxing world stage. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 1968, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a dust jacket with fading to spine, 289 pages, b&w illustrations. Turner's work on the frontier and on sectional development helped transform the teaching and writing of American history. Here are 150+ letters excerpted or given in full (to Woodrow Wilson, Arthur Schlesinger, Carl Becker, Merle Curti and others.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Since 1945 there have been more than one hundred biographies of Hitler, and countless other books on him and the Third Reich. What happens when so many people reinterpret the life of a single individual? Dangerously, the cumulative portrait that begins to emerge can suggest the face of a mythic antihero whose crimes and errors blur behind an aura of power and conquest. By reversing the process, by making Hitler's biographers--rather than Hitler himself--the subject of inquiry, Lukacs reveals the contradictions that take us back to the true Hitler of history. Like an attorney, Lukacs puts the biographies on trial. He gives a masterly account of all the major works and of the personalities, methods, and careers of the biographers (one cannot separate the historian from his history, particularly in this arena); he looks at what is still not known (and probably never will be) about Hitler; he considers various crucial aspects of the real Hitler; and he shows how different biographers have either advanced our understanding or gone off track. By singling out those who have been involved in, or co-opted into, an implicit "rehabilitation of Hitler," Lukacs draws powerful conclusions about Hitler's essential differences from other monsters of history, such as Napoleon, Mussolini, and Stalin, and--equally important--about Hitler's place in the history of this century and of the world.

Hardcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 4th pr., 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 553 pages including index, b&w illustrations. Roughly half the world's population speaks languages derived from a shared linguistic source known as Proto-Indo-European. But who were the early speakers of this ancient mother tongue, and how did they manage to spread it around the globe? Until now their identity has remained a tantalizing mystery to linguists, archaeologists, and even Nazis seeking the roots of the Aryan race. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language lifts the veil that has long shrouded these original Indo-European speakers, and reveals how their domestication of horses and use of the wheel spread language and transformed civilization. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1st, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a dust jacket with edge wear and chipping. 305 pages, maps, glossary, bibliography, index. This is a unique and fascinating account of how a World War II resistance movement become communist and its violent struggle against the Philippine government and USA backing. The Huk Rebellion is fundamental to the understanding of Philippines politics and its evolution. This account is written from the rebel's point of view and contains many interviews with combatants from both sides. It provides many lessons for both guerillas and counter-insurgent forces. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Columbia University Press, 1st, 1951, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a very good dust jacket, 278 pages. This carefully written, well-annotated book is more than an analysis of world government intended to ascertain upon what terms it would be both feasible and desirable. The author concludes it could only happen with an expansion of democratic societies throughout the world. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, American Italian Historical Association, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 244 pages, 35th Conference of the American Italian Historical Association . "'Italian Americans and World War II, ' explores many facets of the dynamic period of the 1940s and the consequences of war and peace. Scholars within AIHA and outside the academy have been slow to recognize the significance of World War II, now recognized as a seminal event in Italian-American life and culture. . . . "This volume is dedicated to all Italian Americans who lived and died, fought and prayed during World War II." Clean copy.

Hardcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 3rd pr., 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 316 pages. David Hume is widely regarded as the most important philosopher ever to write in English, but during his lifetime he was attacked as "the Great Infidel" for his skeptical religious views and deemed unfit to teach the young. In contrast, Adam Smith was a revered professor of moral philosophy, and is now often hailed as the founding father of capitalism. Remarkably, the two were best friends for most of their adult lives, sharing what Dennis Rasmussen calls the greatest of all philosophical friendships. The Infidel and the Professor is the first book to tell the fascinating story of the friendship of these towering Enlightenment thinkers-and how it influenced their world-changing ideas. The book follows Hume and Smith's relationship from their first meeting in 1749 until Hume's death in 1776. It describes how they commented on each other's writings, supported each other's careers and literary ambitions, and advised each other on personal matters, most notably after Hume's quarrel with Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1st, 1957, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth with gilt lettering on spine. Volume XI in The History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. 360 pages, illustrated with maps (one fold-out) and b&w photos. Gilt on spine with light fading, lacks dust jacket, dj flap copy pasted inside front cover, otherwise clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Oxford University Press, 1st, 1985, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 364 pages. The Second World War's Pacific conflict was one of the most complex in history. It embrioled peoples from opposite sides of the globe; it was fought in China, across the expanses of the Pacific, and in the jungles of Southeast Asia; and it was devastating in its consequences for civilians and servicemen alike. It saw the first use of atomic weapons, hastened the end of the Western empires in Asia, and marked America's rise to the position of the most powerful nation in the world.Christopher Thorne, whose previous studies of the war in the Pacific have become landmarks in the field, here weaves together both the entire network of international relations surrounding the war and the impact the war had on all the societies involved--Indian as well as American; Australian and New Zealand as well as Japanese; Korean, Chinese, and Southeast Asian as well as British, French, and Dutch. The Issue of War draws on material gathered over many years in the Far East, Western Europe, and the U.S.--material including wartime films, broadcasts, and newspapers,as well as countless private and offical papers. Representing a synthesis of military, diplomatic, economic, intellectual, and social history, it not only places the war in the context of developments before 1941, but illuminates various patterns that cut across the familiar distinctions between Asia and the West or between Japan and the Allies. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY/Koln, Taschen, 1st, 2023, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover. "Bond, James Bond." Since Sean Connery uttered those immortal words in 1962, the most dashing secret agent in the history of cinema has been charming and thrilling audiences worldwide. This impeccably British character created by author Ian Fleming has starred in 25 EON-produced films, played by six different actors over five decades.EON Productions opened their archives of photos, designs, storyboards, and production materials to editor Paul Duncan, who spent two years researching over one million images and 100 filing cabinets of documentation. The result is the most complete account of the making of the series, covering every James Bond film ever made, beginning with Dr. No (1962) and ending with No Time To Die (2021), including the spoof Casino Royale (1967) and Never Say Never Again (1983).The wealth of previously unpublished photography, set designs, storyboards, and production memos is supplemented by an oral history recounted by over 150 cast and crew. From producers to stuntmen, directors to production designers, these personal narratives relate the true inside story from the Bond sets, offering outstanding insight into the personalities and processes behind the most successful and longest-running film franchise in cinema history. " Still in publisher's shrinkwrap. DUE TO WEIGHT, DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Softcover. Bloomington IN, Indiana University Press, reprint., 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 300 pages. Illustrated with maps. Contents: Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Bibliographical Essay, Index. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY/Oxford UK, Berghahn Books, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 232 pages, pictorial boards. Milena Jesenska, born in Prague in 1896, is most famous as one of Franz Kafka's great loves. Although their relationship lasted only a short time, it won the attention of the literary world with the 1952 publication of Kafka's letters to Milena. Her own letters did not survive. Later biographies showed her as a fascinating personality in her own right. In the Czech Republic, she is remembered as one of the most prominent journalists of the interwar period and as a brave one: in 1939 she was arrested for her work in the resistance after the German occupation of Bohemia and Moravia, and died in Ravensbruck concentration camp in 1944. It is estimated that Jesenska wrote well over 1,000 articles but only a handful have been translated into English. In this book her own writings provide a new perspective on her personality, as well as the changes in Central Europe between the two world wars as these were perceived by a woman of letters. The articles in this volume cover a wide range of topics, including her perceptions of Kafka, her understanding of social and cultural changes during this period, the threat of Nazism, and the plight of the Jews in the 1930s. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Abrams, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 200 pages. The photography that Americans invented in the 1960s and ?70s was as fresh and vital as their music. Photographers of those years believed in their medium?s unlimited capacities of expression. Between the publication of Robert Frank?s The Americans (1958) and the coming of post-modernism, the photographers featured in this book embarked on their own personal quests. Whether they roamed the world, like Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand, or sought out its dark corners, like Larry Clark and Nan Goldin, they shared a fierce devotion to their medium and its unique qualities. The generation that created this work knew it was remarkable. Today, with Gilles Mora as a guide, we can look back on it with even greater appreciation, since we know that these were indeed the last photographic heroes. Also includes work by Joel Meyerowitz, William Eggleston, and many others.

Hardcover. NY, Abrams, 1st, 2007, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 200 pages. The photography that Americans invented in the 1960s and ?70s was as fresh and vital as their music. Photographers of those years believed in their medium?s unlimited capacities of expression. Between the publication of Robert Frank?s The Americans (1958) and the coming of post-modernism, the photographers featured in this book embarked on their own personal quests. Whether they roamed the world, like Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand, or sought out its dark corners, like Larry Clark and Nan Goldin, they shared a fierce devotion to their medium and its unique qualities. The generation that created this work knew it was remarkable. Today, with Gilles Mora as a guide, we can look back on it with even greater appreciation, since we know that these were indeed the last photographic heroes. Also includes work by Joel Meyerowitz, William Eggleston, and many others.

Hardcover. NY, Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1st, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, tan cloth with gilt lettering on black title blocks, 650 pages. "This is the only complete history of the Latin American Republics that takes into account the important subject of inter-American relations in the present war {World War II}. It brings Latin American history down to the conferences in which Under-Secretary of State Sumner Welles helped to cement North and South solidarity." The book presents, in separate chapters, the history of each of the twenty Latin American nations since independence. Bookplate and name on front endpapers, otherwise a clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. Philadelphia, Quirk Books, 1st, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in pictorial boards, 255 pages. A hilarious spotlight on the strangest second bananas in superhero comics, including junior partners, animal assistants, and even heinous henchmen (sidekicks of the villain world). Complete with vintage art and publication details.Batman has Robin. Captain America has Bucky. And Yankee Doodle had Dandy. Being a superhero is hard work, which is why so many comics characters rely on a sidekick for help. Someone who can watch the hero's back, help search for clues, or, if nothing else, give the hero someone to talk to. But just as not every superhero achieves the glory of Batman, not all sidekicks are as capable as the Boy Wonder. In The League of Regrettable Sidekicks, author Jon Morris discusses some of the strangest iterations of the sidekick phenomenon, and in the process explores how important these characters were to comic book storytelling.

Hardcover. Philadelphia, Quirk Books, 1st, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in pictorial boards, 255 pages. A hilarious spotlight on the strangest second bananas in superhero comics, including junior partners, animal assistants, and even heinous henchmen (sidekicks of the villain world). Complete with vintage art and publication details. Batman has Robin. Captain America has Bucky. And Yankee Doodle had Dandy. Being a superhero is hard work, which is why so many comics characters rely on a sidekick for help. Someone who can watch the hero's back, help search for clues, or, if nothing else, give the hero someone to talk to. But just as not every superhero achieves the glory of Batman, not all sidekicks are as capable as the Boy Wonder. In The League of Regrettable Sidekicks, author Jon Morris discusses some of the strangest iterations of the sidekick phenomenon, and in the process explores how important these characters were to comic book storytelling.