history

Hardcover. NY, Harper & Row, 1st, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, lightly worn dust jacket that's price-clipped. 434 pages, b&w illustrations. This is a full-scale biography of John Brown. "John Brown was a profoundly religious man dedicated to emancipation and Negro rights..." He "tried to overthrow slavery in the South itself by attacking Harpers Ferry and inciting a slave insurrection."Was Brown a vicious fanatic, or the greatest abolitionist hero in history?" This history is based on "contemporary letters, diaries, journals, newspapers, published reports, and recollections of eyewitnesses, this book is especially notable for providing the first really full account ever written of Brown's career before he went to Kansas..." Bold presentation inscription on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Softcover. UK, Penguin Books, 1st, 1986, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 226 pages, profusely illustrated in b&w. This book presents not only formal or professionally taken photos but also a fair amount of ordinary photos taken by soldiers and civilians. The history of the personal camera is tied up into the Boer War and the quality and candid nature of some of the photos are representatives of early personal use. A general pictorial overview of an ugly conflict in the waning days before WW1. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New York, privately printed, reprint, 1906, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 13 page essay, Franklin's famous essay on farting. Here printed and bound in a 64 page signature, most of the pages therefore blank. Three-quarter leather with marbled boards, gold lettering on spine. Limited to 250 copies, this being #90.

Softcover. Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 1st pbk., 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 273 pages, b&w illustrations. The first in-depth analysis of the rich spiritual and artistic traditions of the Carib-speaking Yekuana Indians of Venezuela, who live in the dense rain forest of the upper Orinoco. Within their homeland of Ihuruna, the Yekuana have succeeded in maintaining the integrity and unity of their culture, resisting the devastating effects of acculturation that have befallen so many neighboring groups. Yet their success must be attributed to more than natural barriers of rapids and waterfalls, to more than lack of "contact" with our "modern" world. The ethnographic history recounted here includes not only the Spanish discovery of the Yekuana but detailed indigenous accounts of the entire history of Yekuana contact with Western culture, revealing an adaptive technique of mythopoesis by which the symbols of a new and hostile European ideology have been consistently defused through their incorporation into traditional indigenous structures. Clean copy.

Hardcover. London, Angus and Robertson, 1st UK, 1967, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn dust jacket. General, minister of war, prime minister, and unrepentant ultranationalist, Hideki Tojo was the most powerful leader in the Japanese government during World War II. This clear and compelling portrait of Tojo illuminates the spartan, single-minded, incorruptible personality of the man who chose war rather than succumb to U.S.-induced economic strangulation. 20 photos. 288 pages. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 1st, 1979, Hardcover in a nice dust jacket with mild fading to spine, 347 pages. This work is the autobiography of Arai Hakuseki, the celebrated Confucian scholar who holds a prominent position in Japanese history as the influential adviser to Shogun Tokugawa Ienobu and his successor Ietsugu. Hakuseki's administrative reforms, his voluminous writings, and his advice on a multitude of topics--coinage, foreign trade, taxation, diplomatic protocol, justice, the samurai code and benevolent government, for example. governed most of the policies implemented during Ienobu's rule and influenced many of those of his successors. The book contains notes, biographical notes, appendices, a chronology, maps, and an index. Name on front flyleaf, otherwise a clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. Westport CT, Greenwood Press, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, maroon cloth covers stamped in silver, 242 pages. Previous owner's inscription on front fly leaf, otherwise clean. Over the course of the American Occupation of Japan, the U.S. attitude toward the Japanese Communist Party (JCP) gradually shifted from one of friendly cooperation to one of mutual opposition. This new study examines the initial approach toward communism in Japan; internal and external factors that affected American attitudes; the various phases of the relationship; and how Japan ultimately became a democratic nation. Oinas-Kukkonen investigates American information gathering techniques used at the time to determine possible links with the Soviet Union. He also discusses the possibility that Nosaka Sanzo, one of the main leaders of the JCP, was an American spy. Using previously secret records of General MacArthur's intelligence staff and plentiful archival materials on the Occupation, this study explores how the United States originally sought to utilize the JCP to assist in the democratization process. It identifies the perceived threat of a revolution in March 1947 as a key turning point in U.S. attitudes. Involved in a delicate balancing act with multiple Japanese interests, some American officials feared that elements of the extreme left might even evolve into extreme right-wing terrorists. In this comprehensive account, Oinas-Kukkonen includes information on the indirect role of the Europeans in this affair, as well as the roles of outsider groups such as the outcaste burakumin and the Koreans residing in Japan.

self published, circa 1970, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, A typed/xeroxed manuscript in a 3-ring orange binder with metal clasps. A scholarly history of boys series books complete with an introduction, biographies, criticism, and lists of titles/authors. A valuable research tool by someone with a passionate interest in the field of children's writing. No date anywhere but around mid 1970s. About 250 one-sided pages, with some hand-written notations. Probably an early version of a manuscript later published in 1982 by McFarland in North Carolina. "Tom Swift & Company: Boys Books by Stratemeyer and Others".

Hardcover. New York , Dodd Mead, 1st, 1942, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 70 pages, illustrated in color and b&w by Paul Lantz. Blue cloth covers, dust jacket with light edgewear, soil.

Hardcover. NY, Crown, 1st, 1995, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 644 pages, b&w illustrations. After a protracted squabble over private papers with the playwright's estate, Leverich delivers this hefty first volume of a projected two-volume life of Tennessee Williams (1911-1983). In it, Leverich, who produced several of Williams's plays and calls himself Williams's "chosen biographer", covers the years through 1945, when The Glass Menagerie opened on Broadway. Treated are Williams's youth in Mississippi and St. Louis; the college years at the universities of Missouri and Iowa; bumming around (but always writing) in New Orleans and Greenwich Village; the disaster of his first Broadway play (it closed in Boston); script writing, or avoiding it, at MGM's Hollywood mill; and, finally, the evolution of Menagerie, a wonderfully detailed and dramatic case history in itself. Leverich's overworked conceit, which he restates at intervals, is that this is the life of Tom Williams, a "repressed puritan" poet, who in time created a more flamboyant public persona called Tennessee. A few matters are set straight. Leverich maintains his subject's active homosexual life started in his late 20s, later than Williams stated in his memoirs, and that his sister's infamous lobotomy came later than his mother claimed. Although the accumulation of information is impressive, the lower Leverich keeps his own profile and editorial commentary the better his book is, which means it is at its best when it simply reproduces Williams's sporadically kept journal. If you believe that all the details of a life are but preparation for a single event, in this case, the opening of a remarkable play, this is an impressively argued biography.

Hardcover. New York , Viking Press , 1st, 1973, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover, 260 pages, b&w illustrations. Light edgewear to dust jacket with creases to both front and rear flap. Internally very good.

Softcover. Wellington AU, The Polynesian Society, 1st, 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, illustrated wrappers, 187 pages. Clean, bright copy. With notes, glossary, index.

Hardcover. NY, Abbeville Press, 1st, 2023, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, pictorial boards, 222 pages in color and b&w. Tony Sarg (1880-1942), an American artist born in Guatemala to a diplomatic family, first achieved professional success as an illustrator in London and New York. But in the 1920s, he gained even greater renown for his touring puppet shows based on classic tales like Alice in Wonderland and Robinson Crusoe. Fusing the time-honored craft of traditional marionette shows with a playful modern sensibility, Sarg's productions were foundational to American puppetry: Jim Henson can be considered a direct artistic descendant. Yet this was only one facet of Sarg's varied accomplishments: he was also a pioneer in animated films and children's books, and, as a longtime designer for Macy's, he invented the gigantic balloons used in the firm's Thanksgiving Day Parade. (He also employed one of his parade balloons in the famous Nantucket Sea Serpent hoax of 1937.) This abundantly illustrated volume, published to coincide with a major exhibition organized by the Norman Rockwell Museum, is the first to survey Tony Sarg's protean career. It brings together imagery and artifacts from numerous public and private collections, and includes special sections on Sarg's long association with the island of Nantucket and his influence on American puppetry. Tony Sarg: Genius at Play will be essential reading for anyone with an interest in the history of popular culture. Claen copy.

Softcover. NY, Museum of Modern Art, 1st, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, oblong format. Replete with photographs and reproductions of Tony Smith's work. 200 pages including 237 illustrations (108 in color), Chronology, Selected Bibliography, and Exhibition History. Tony Smith (1912-1980) was an American sculptor, architect, and painter best-known for his abstract, large-scale sculptures. As an architect, he worked with Frank Lloyd Wright and founded his own architectural firm during the 1940s. Clean copy.

Softcover. Minnesota Historical Society, reprint, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, oblong format, 309 pages. A collection of b&w seasonal photos from Minnesota's past with excerpts from letters and journals from each season. The book is broken up into the four seasons of the year and the author wrote captions giving available information about each photo. A fun look into Minnesota's past. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics, 1st, 2022, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, large format pictorial boards, 200 pages. In 1949, the ambitious Charles Biro - who had previously co-created the realistically brutal comic Crime Does Not Pay - edited and wrote an oversized comic aimed at adults, called Tops. Like several other radical adult comics projects that would follow, it proved to be a commercial failure and lasted only two Life magazine-sized issues. The original comics have since become a legendary holy grail among comics fans and historians, fetching as much as $6,000 on the collector's market: written about but rarely seen and never reprinted. Until now.Fantagraphics' Tops collects both issues of these oversized experimental comics in their entirety. Some of the best craftsmen working in comics at that time drew these pulpy, sexy, and melodramatic stories: Dan Barry, George Tuska, and others. It includes two stunning pre-EC crime tales illustrated by Reed Crandall, reminiscent of his Crime SuspenStories work. Actor Melvyn Douglas (believe it or not) takes the reader on a tour of utopia, entitled "How Would You Live Under A World Government?" - a positive spin on global Socialism! A treasure trove of fascinating and revelatory comics history for scholars and fans, this compilation includes an introduction by the editor, the historian and cartoonist Michael T. Gilbert, as well as several other essays providing background on the creation of the series and the publisher, editors, and cartoonists who realized it. It includes a chronicle in essay form of experimental, adult comics endeavors throughout the first half of the 20th century. Tops is a landmark work of historical importance and a mind-boggling reading experience from a bygone era meticulously restored and reproduced in a deluxe hardcover in its originally published dimensions. Full-color illustrations throughout.

Hardcover. Boston, A.J. Wright, 1st, 1848, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 300 pages, illustrated with 6 b&w engravings from sketches done by the author. Interesting sailing, whaling adventures by a 14-year veteran seaman. Embossed brown cloth with gilt design on cover, gilt lettering and design on spine. Spine cloth chipped, worn at top and bottom. Previous owner's signature in pencil on front fly leaf. Corners show wear, internally very good with only minor foxing.

Hardcover. London, Cambridge University Press, 1st, 1969, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 403 pages, 2 maps. In the belief that intensive study of selected local areas is an important development in scholarship on Africa, the author presents a micropolitical study of an important region of one of East Africa's Rew nations. Sukumaland, an area of Tanzania which contains one tenth of the country's population and its largest tribe, was chosen for the study. Before independence it exhibited the most organized nationalist political activity of any part of the country and developed the largest African-owned co-operative movement in all of Africa. In the final decade of the colonial era Sukumaland was the British administration's principal experimental area for attempts at radical transformation of indigenous political institutions and traditional agricultural techniques. After independence it became a critical testing ground for President Julius Nyerere's concepts of African socialism. Owner's signature on the front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 1st, 1965, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 463 pages with index. This study considers the subtle and frequently confused relationship of armed force and political control in the British Empire before the American Revolution. It also clarifies a number of points of controversy and uncertainty about the causes of the American Revolution. A crisp copy of the 1965 1st edition. Name on front fly leaf, price clipped otherwise clean.

Softcover. Cambridge MA, MIT Press, 1st pbk, 1970, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, yellow card wraps with b&w designs and black lettering. 287 pages with 55 b/w line drawings and 96 b/w plates. The first publication in English that gives a general survey of the development of the inner structure of the town from a dual point of view: that of the function of the square in the life of the community and that of its conception in purely aesthetic terms. Zucker shows a continuous development from Greece and Rome, through the Middle Ages and Renaissance, to the creative heights of the 17th and 18th centuries, periods which he considers the culmination of this development. The concluding chapter surveys the role of the square in early American life. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Burlington VT, University of Vermont, 1st, 1964, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, light blue cloth with gilt lettering on spine, 276 pages. Annotated, bibliography, index. This book is described as the only comprehensive work available on Vermont local government and the first such state study in New England since the 1930's. Publisher's correction to page 232 laid in. Bookmarks on front endpaper, owner's small stamp to half-title page. Otherwise clean.

Softcover. Strafford, Vt., Strafford Historical Society, 1st, 1992, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 189 pages, b&w photos. Clean, unmarked copy with only minor wear to wrappers.

Hardcover. Lunenburg, Town of Lunenburg Historical Society, 1st, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, 80 pages. Illustrated with black & white photographs. Previous owners bookplate on half-title page. Some light underlining in pen of residents names on front endpaper. Cloth covers age darkened along spine and edges. Clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. New York, HarperCollins Publishers, 1st US, 1987, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 168 pages illustrated in color. Dust jacket with light wear and rubbing to edges, covers. Clean, tight copy.