Hardcover. NY, Touchstone, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The first biography of arguably the most influential member of Franklin Delano Roosevelt?s administration, Marguerite "Missy" LeHand, FDR?s de facto chief of staff, who has been misrepresented, mischaracterized, and overlooked throughout history until now. If you wanted access to Franklin, you had to get through Missy. She was one of his most trusted advisors, affording her a unique perspective on the president that no one else could claim, and she was deeply admired and respected by Eleanor and the Roosevelt children. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Pantheon, 1st US, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. A magisterial achievement: part biography, part history, part moral meditation on the resurrection of torture as an instrument of political power in the twentieth century, The Good Listener tells the story of Helen Bamber, a good but complex woman now in her seventies, who has spent her life battling to bring the dark side of history into the light. In almost every situation in our century where mankind has demonstrated its capacity to intensify evil--during the Nazi Holocaust, in Algeria, Chile, Africa, the USSR, and Israel, as well as in postwar Britain and Germany--Bamber has served as a witness, an expert, or a reproach, as well as a repository of our collective memory of debasement. Her father, a Polish Jew, had been so obsessed by the Fascist threat that he would read to Helen from Goebbels' speeches, teaching her how corrupting and manipulative language can be. She went to Bergen-Belsen after World War II had ended, and upon her return to London she dedicated herself to caring for the young survivors of the camp. So began Bamber's brave devotion to the grim and dangerous task of undoing the work of the torturer--culminating, after her participation as a central force in Amnesty International, in her establishment in England of the Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture. Because Bamber's uncanny openness to others has been one of her great skills, Clean copy.
Softcover. Seattle, Fantagraphics Books, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 184 pages. Color frontispiece, b&w illustrations. The Great Anti-War Cartoons by Craig Yoe offers a "hard-hitting but hopeful" collection spanning centuries of anti-war drawings by some of the best graphic artists, from Honore Daumier to R. Crumb and many others. As noted in the foreword, the works included in this compilation of responses to war come from both the left and the right, and this is indeed one of the strengths of this book. The insightful, thought-provoking introduction is delivered by none other than Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dr. Muhammad Yunus and proves to be well worth reading in its own right.
Hardcover. NY, Brentano's, 1st, 1930, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, original publisher's blue cloth, lettered silver on spine and on front cover. Signed presentation from Stephen Wise on front fly leaf. 294 pages. A critique of the White Paper of Lord Passfield and the charges of betrayal hurled at the British Labor Government by Jews regarding British-Zionist relations. Mild shelf wear, clean copy. Remnants of dj laid in.
Softcover. NY, Harper Torchbooks, reprint, 1965, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 357 pages. A scholarly study about life in the Old South. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1st, 2024, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 525 pages. "Forgotten founder" no more, Alexander Hamilton has become a global celebrity. Millions know his name. Millions imagine knowing the man. But what did he really want for the country? What risks did he run in pursuing those vaulting ambitions? Who tried to stop him? How did they fight? It's ironic that the Hamilton revival has obscured the man's most dramatic battles and hardest-won achievements-as well as downplaying unsettling aspects of his legacy. Thrilling to the romance of becoming the one-man inventor of a modern nation, our first Treasury secretary fostered growth by engineering an ingenious dynamo-banking, public debt, manufacturing-for concentrating national wealth in the hands of a government-connected elite. Seeking American prosperity, he built American oligarchy. Hence his animus and mutual sense of betrayal with Jefferson and Madison-and his career-long fight to suppress a rowdy egalitarian movement little remembered today: the eighteenth-century white working class. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Forum/Prima Publishing, 1st, 2002, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 652 pages. As relevant today as the day it was written; to truly comprehend why peace in the Middle East-an end coveted for so long by so many-is becoming more and more illusive, one must read this excellent book. Clean copy.
Hardcover. NY, Creative Age Press, 2nd pr., 1944, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Fair, Hardcover in a worn, chipped dust jacket. 368 pages, red cloth, black border and gilt title on upper cover. Black label with gilt title on spine. Second printing copy of this detailed look at FDR's New Deal. Jacket art by C.B. Falls. Some tape repair to dj, name on inside front cover hidden by dj flap. Otherwise a clean copy,
Hardcover. NY, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1st, 1936, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, blue cloth with gilt lettering, 553 pages. "The complete, fully documented, and authoritative story of Herbert Hoover's four years in Washington." Written by Myers, a history scholar whose academic field was the GOP, and Newton, a former member of Congress who was for many years Hoover's personal secretary or roughly his Chief of Staff.This is about as good a defense of Hoover's actions just before and during the Great Depression as anything that has come out since. Bookplate on inside front cover, otherwise clean.
Softcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Softcover, 339 pages, b&w illustrations. The Hundred Years War (1337-1453) dominated life in England and France for well over a century. It became the defining feature of existence for generations. This sweeping book is the first to tell the human story of the longest military conflict in history. Historian David Green focuses on the ways the war affected different groups, among them knights, clerics, women, peasants, soldiers, peacemakers, and kings. He also explores how the long war altered governance in England and France and reshaped peoples' perceptions of themselves and of their national character. 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.
Hardcover. NY, Burdick Brothers, reprint, 1857, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, embossed brown cloth with gilt lettering on spine. Ninth thousand. The Impending Crisis is often considered the only popular antislavery work by a southern author prior to the outbreak of the Civil War. Helper (1829-1909)'s argument that "slavery was economically unsound" caused this work to be "officially banned in the South"; in the North, it "vied in popularity and influence with Uncle Tom's Cabin" (Howes). The book stoked fears among southern slaveholders that the "North would promote a class conflict among southern whites," and helped drive many towards secessionism. Bookplate on inside front cover, front fly leaf missing. Otherwise a clean copy in exceptionally nice condition.
Softcover. NY, Red Sea Press, 1st, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 321 pages. This book tells the story about an African Jewish community known as the Beta Israel that used to live in the northern part of Ethiopia. They were repatriated to Israel in many waves with the aid of the Israeli government and the Jewish Diaspora. The Beta Israel had struggled and faced hardships in order to live out their destiny which was to migrate to the Promised Land. However, their struggle did not stop there. They have had to struggle again to overcome unexpected and new challenges after their long anticipated migration. The book is organized around these two issues. The early chapters of the book describe the quest for Beta Israel identity within Ethiopia and explore their origins. The discussion on this topic is based on mainly textual analyses of previous works on the Beta Israel. It outlines their history and explores their origins. It examines whether the different types of oppressive Ethiopian regimes have contributed to their decision to leave for the Promised Land. It sketches the socio-economic background of the twentieth-century Aliyah, and briefly analyses the impact of the political upheavals in Ethiopia between 1974 and 1991 when the Derg, the post Haile Selassie military regime, was in power.
Hardcover. Boston, Rockwell & Churchill, 1st, 1894, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, dark olive-green cloth with gilt lettering, 415 pages. Preface by William Whitmore. Vol. I ONLY. Name on front fly leaf, rear cover with light soil, otherwise internally clean.
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. NY, WW Norton, 1wst, 2014, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. A landmark collection, spanning ninety years of U.S. history, of the never-before-published diaries of George F. Kennan, America's most famous diplomat. Through it all, Kennan kept a diary. Spanning a staggering eighty-eight years and totaling over 8,000 pages, his journals brim with keen political and moral insights, philosophical ruminations, poetry, and vivid descriptions. In these pages, we see Kennan rambling through 1920s Europe as a college student, despairing for capitalism in the midst of the Depression, agonizing over the dilemmas of sex and marriage, becoming enchanted and then horrified by Soviet Russia, and developing into America's foremost Soviet analyst. But it is the second half of this near-century-long record--the blossoming of Kennan the gifted author, wise counselor, and biting critic of the Vietnam and Iraq wars--that showcases this remarkable man at the height of his singular analytic and expressive powers, before giving way, heartbreakingly, to some of his most human moments, as his energy, memory, and finally his ability to write fade away.
Hardcover. NY, The Free Press, 1st, 1968, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, gray cloth binding with orange and gilt lettering on spine. 394 pages. Prof. Paige's reconstruction and analysis of the U.S. decision to resist Chinese aggression in Korea in 1950. Name on front fly leaf othewise clean. No dust jacket.
Hardcover. Berkeley, University Of California Press, 1st, 1984, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 278 pages. History of the Pedi's struggle to keep the land that belonged to them in South Africa. Clean copy.
Softcover. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, reprint, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 311 pages. After decades of bloodshed and political terror, many lament the rise of the left in Latin America. Since the triumph of Castro, politicians and historians have accused the left there of rejecting democracy, embracing communist totalitarianism, and prompting both revolutionary violence and a right-wing backlash. Through unprecedented archival research and gripping personal testimonies, Greg Grandin powerfully challenges these views in this classic work. In doing so, he uncovers the hidden history of the Latin American Cold War: of hidebound reactionaries holding on to their power and privilege; of Mayan Marxists blending indigenous notions of justice with universal ideas of equality; and of a United States supporting new styles of state terror throughout the region. With Guatemala as his case study, Grandin argues that the Latin American Cold War was a struggle not between political liberalism and Soviet communism but two visions of democracy--one vibrant and egalitarian, the other tepid and unequal--and that the conflict's main effect was to eliminate homegrown notions of social democracy.
Hardcover. Birmingham AL, The Legal Classics Library, reprint, 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 72 pages. Quarto [30.5 cm] Maroon leather with raised bands, a gilt stamped title on the spine, and decorative gilt stamped designs on the spine and covers. All edges gilt. Marbled endsheets. Very good. There is a former owner's bookplate on the inside of front cover. The Laws and Liberties of Massachusetts is one of the seminal documents in the development of the American legal system. It is believed to be the precursor to the General Laws of Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Constitution. An influence on the U.S. Constitution, it contains provisions that were incorporated in the Bill of Rights.
NY, Random House, 1st, 2013, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. An advisor to presidents, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and tireless champion of progressive government, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., was also an inveterate letter writer. Indeed, the term "man of letters" could easily have been coined for Schlesinger, a faithful and prolific correspondent whose wide range of associates included powerful public officials, notable literary figures, prominent journalists, Hollywood celebrities, and distinguished fellow scholars. The Letters of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. reveals the late historian's unvarnished views on the great issues and personalities of his time, from the dawn of the Cold War to the aftermath of September 11. Here is Schlesinger's correspondence with such icons of American statecraft as Harry Truman, Adlai Stevenson, Hubert Humphrey, Henry Kissinger, Bill Clinton, and, of course, John and Robert Kennedy (including a detailed critique of JFK's manuscript for Profiles in Courage). There are letters to friends and confidants such as Eleanor Roosevelt, John Kenneth Galbraith, Gore Vidal, William Styron, and Jacqueline Kennedy (to whom Schlesinger sends his handwritten condolences in the hours after her husband's assassination), and exchanges with such unlikely pen pals as Groucho Marx, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Bianca Jagger. Finally, there are Schlesinger's many thoughtful replies to the inquiries of ordinary citizens, in which he offers his observations on influences, issues of the day, and the craft of writing history.
Softcover. Cambridge University Press, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 485 pages, b&w illustrations. By analytically de-coupling war and violence, this book explores the causes and dynamics of violence in civil war. Against the prevailing view that such violence is an instance of impenetrable madness, the book demonstrates that there is logic to it and that it has much less to do with collective emotions, ideologies, and cultures than currently believed. Kalyvas specifies a novel theory of selective violence: it is jointly produced by political actors seeking information and individual civilians trying to avoid the worst but also grabbing what opportunities their predicament affords them. Violence, he finds, is never a simple reflection of the optimal strategy of its users; its profoundly interactive character defeats simple maximization logics while producing surprising outcomes, such as relative nonviolence in the 'frontlines' of civil war. Clean copy.