history

Hardcover. NY, Norton, 1st US, 1985, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 192 pages. The photos are breathtaking not necessarily for their quality - many are washed out and most of the subject matter is routine day to day military stuff - but for their rarity. While the Germans seem to have been at least as far advanced in the use of color photography as the Americans, there is still a paucity of color photography in the public record. That is being addressed by the various nations who took large amounts of color film in an official capacity, including the US, UK, Germany and Canada.The book's captions are adequate to the task, and there are good historical sections, as well as an introduction by Max Hastings as well as commentary by an actual German war correspondent. The strength of the book is in its ability to bring the participants of the subject campaign - the German invasion of Russia up to and including Stalingrad - to life. The use of a large format allows one to note small details of the photos, and relate to the subject matter on a personal level. Despite the lack of "action" shots, there is much to see in facial expressions, uniform details, and especially geography as the Russian steppe is shown in summer and winter, as well as the famous Russian mud (Rasputitsa) about which so much has been written.

Softcover. NY, Onassis Foundation, 1st, 2009, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 131 pages illustrated in color. The Origins of El Greco focuses on the evolution of the multifaceted relationship of Cretan painters with Western art during this rich period. The icon painters in the workshops on Crete in the 15th and 16th centuries-the setting in which El Greco was trained-were renowned for their skill in painting impeccable panels not only in the traditional Byzantine manner but also in a style inspired by Western models. The Origins of El Greco presents an extraordinary group of 15th and 16th century paintings, including works by El Greco. The color-illustrated catalogue features detailed descriptions of all 46 masterpieces included in the exhibition, some of them published for the first time, as well as 3 informative essays: Anastasia Drandaki, Curator, Byzantine Collection, Benaki Museum, Athens writes on "Between Byzantium and Venice: Icon Painting in Venetian Crete in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries", Olga Gratziou, Professor of Byzantine Art and Archaeology, University of Crete writes on "Cretan Architecture and Sculpture in the Venetian Period" and Nicos Hadjinicolaou, Professor Emeritus in Art History, University of Crete, and Honorary Fellow of the Institute for Mediterranean Studies, writes on "Early and Late El Greco". Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. Boston, Houghton Mifflin , 1st US, 1967, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, lightly worn dust jacket, 206 pages. Name on front fly leaf otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Harper and Row, 1st US, 1967, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a bright, lightly worn dust jacket, 355 pages, b&w illustrations. Offers the general reader the complete history of Norman Sicily--"from the first day, in 1016, when a party of Norman pilgrims was accosted in the shrine of the Archangel Michael on Monte Gargano, to the last, a hundred and seventy-eight years later, when the brightest crown of the Mediterranean passed to one of the blackest of the German Emperors." The present volume covers the first hundred and fourteen of those years and is a history of struggles, intrigues, sieges, and insurrections, dominated by the sons and grandsons of Tancred de Hauteville and, above all, by the "gigantic blond buccaneer," Robert Guiscard, one of the most incredible men of the Middle Ages. The Other Conquest is an excellent book distinguished by its Horatian ability to delight as well as teach. Lord Norwich does not pretend to have unearthed any new material or to have put forward any startlingly original conclusions, but he has succeeded admirably in explaining "how the Normans got to Sicily in the first place, what sort of country they made of it, and how they managed to imbue it with a culture at once so beautiful and so unique." Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Quill/ William Morrow, reprint, 1988, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 432 pages, b&w illustrations. Dotted with stunning disclosures of crimes and cover-ups, this is a startling narrative of the way Japan conducted World War II: from Nanking to Pearl Harbor to the attempted assassination of Stalin to their final surrender. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1st, 2015, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Paris, the City of Light, the city of fine dining and seductive couture and intellectual hauteur, was until fairly recently always accompanied by its shadow: the city of the poor, the outcast, the criminal, the eccentric, the willfully nonconforming. In The Other Paris, Luc Sante gives us a panoramic view of that second metropolis, which has nearly vanished but whose traces are in the bricks and stones of the contemporary city, in the culture of France itself, and, by extension, throughout the world.Drawing on testimony from a great range of witnesses-from Balzac and Hugo to assorted boulevardiers, rabble-rousers, and tramps-Sante, whose thorough research is matched only by the vividness of his narration, takes the reader on a whirlwind tour. Richly illustrated with more than three hundred images, The Other Paris scuttles through the knotted streets of pre-Haussmann Paris, through the improvised accommodations of the original bohemians, through the whorehouses and dance halls and hobo shelters of the old city. A lively survey of labor conditions, prostitution, drinking, crime, and popular entertainment, and of the reporters, realiste singers, pamphleteers, and poets who chronicled their evolution, The Other Paris is a book meant to upend the story of the French capital, to reclaim the city from the bons vivants and the speculators, and to hold a light to the works and lives of those expunged from its center by the forces of profit.

Softcover. UK, Cambridge University Press, reprint, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 273 pages, b&w illustrations. Despite the fact that its capital city and over one third of its territory was within the continent of Europe, the Ottoman Empire has consistently been regarded as a place apart, inextricably divided from the West by differences of culture and religion. A perception of its militarism, its barbarism, its tyranny, the sexual appetites of its rulers and its pervasive exoticism has led historians to measure the Ottoman world against a western standard and find it lacking. In recent decades, a dynamic and convincing scholarship has emerged that seeks to comprehend and, in the process, to de-exoticize this enduring realm. Dan Goffman provides a thorough introduction to the history and institutions of the Ottoman Empire from this new standpoint, and presents a claim for its inclusion in Europe. Clean copy.

Softcover. NY, Oxford University Press, reprint, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 425 pages, b&w illustrations. The word "prison" immediately evokes stark images: forbidding walls spiked with watchtowers; inmates confined to cramped cells for hours on end; the suspicious eyes of armed guards. They seem to be the inevitable and permanent marks of confinement, as though prisons were a timeless institution stretching from medieval stone dungeons to the current era of steel boxes. But centuries of development and debate lie behind the prison as we now know it--a rich history that reveals how our ideas of crime and practices of punishment have changed over time. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Columbia University Press, 1st, 1994, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket with a small closed tear to front panel. 187 pages, 117 b.w. photos, index, bibliography, 187p., notes. A scholarly monograph, addressing our image of the Chinese artist, the painters' livelihood, studio & hand. A grand essay, giving us the kind of insights to really appreciate the full art of Chinese painters & paintings.

Softcover. New Haven, New Haven Colony Historical Society, 1st, 1971, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 100 pages in color illustrated wrappers. 45 b&w illustrations from a catalogue of 227 works in the collection. Preface by Robert R. MacDonald. Clean, tight copy

Softcover. Iowa City IA, State Historical Society of Iowa, 1960, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, monthly magazine, stapled color wraps, 86 pages with b&w illustrations. Entire issue devoted to "Railroads Come to Iowa" by William Petersen. Clean copy.

Softcover. Stanford CA, Hoover Institution Press, 1st, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 198 pages. History, politics, economics, and diplomacy surrounding the Panama Canal controversy in the 1970s. Illustrations., maps, appendix, bibliographic note, index. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. Charlottesville, University of Virginia Press, 1st, 1981, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 393 pages. Part of the monumental series comprised of all of the papers and correspondence of America's first President, George Washington (1732-1799). This stand-alone volume is "an executive daybook, a day-by-day account of many of the matters that engaged the attention of the executive departments during Washington's administration. The entries cover Washington's decisions on government contracts, appointments of office, and individual departmental problems. They throw considerable light on presidential and cabinet participation in decision-making during Washington's administration. Entries relating to the War Department are of particular value because of the destruction of most of the War Department's records by fire in 1800. ... Kept primariy by Washington's secretaries Tobias Lear and Bartholomew Dandridge, the Journal is written in th first person as if Washington were penning the entries himself." Name on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Bonanza Books, reprint, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a lightly worn, price-clipped dust jacket. Reprint of the original Knopf 1968 edition with the same quality of binding and paper as the original. Classic book on the history of silent film. 598 pages including index. Illustrated with numerous b&w photos throughout. The magic of the silent screen, illuminated by the recollections of those who created it. A narrative and photographic history of the early days of the movies, combining fact, anecdote, and reminiscence in a critical survey of films, actors, directors, producers, writers, editors, technicians, and other participants and hangers-on. Clean copy.

Hardcover. New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1st, 1997, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 354 pages, b&w illustrations. An illustrated study brings to life the atmosphere and personalities of pre-revolutionary Paris, traces their influence on the American envoy, and recounts his participation in the life of the city and its intrigues at court. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 1964, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a nice, unclipped dust jacket with light tanning to spine. 290 pages plus index. Clean copy. THE ENLIGHTENMENT has long been the victim of uninformed or hostile criticisms. Even so respected a source as the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines the Enlightenment as "shallow and pretentious intellectualism, unreasonable contempt for authority and tradition," thus collecting in one sentence most of our current prejudices. In this provocative book--at once a scholarly study and a vigorous polemic--Peter Gay sets out to shatter old myths, to sort out illusion from reality, and to restore the men of the Enlightenment--Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot--to the esteem they deserve.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Book Four of Robert A. Caro's monumental The Years of Lyndon Johnson displays all the narrative energy and illuminating insight that led the Times of London to acclaim it as "one of the truly great political biographies of the modem age. A masterpiece." This volume follows Johnson through both the most frustrating and the most triumphant periods of his career. It tells the story of his volatile relationship with John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy during the fight they waged for the 1960 Democratic nomination for president and through Johnson's unhappy vice presidency. It gives us for the first time the story of the assassination from the viewpoint of Lyndon Johnson himself. And with the depth of insight, the profound grasp of both the life and times of his subject that Robert Caro has consistently brought to this mesmerizing biography, it reveals what it was like to suddenly become president in a time of great crisis.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 2012, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Book Four of Robert A. Caro's monumental The Years of Lyndon Johnson displays all the narrative energy and illuminating insight that led the Times of London to acclaim it as "one of the truly great political biographies of the modem age. A masterpiece." This volume follows Johnson through both the most frustrating and the most triumphant periods of his career. It tells the story of his volatile relationship with John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy during the fight they waged for the 1960 Democratic nomination for president and through Johnson's unhappy vice presidency. It gives us for the first time the story of the assassination from the viewpoint of Lyndon Johnson himself. And with the depth of insight, the profound grasp of both the life and times of his subject that Robert Caro has consistently brought to this mesmerizing biography, it reveals what it was like to suddenly become president in a time of great crisis.

Hardcover. NY, John Wiley & Sons , 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 170 pages, color illustrations. n The Passionate Collector: Eighty Years in the World of Art, you'll follow this fascinating financial figure and great patron of the arts from the streets of 1920s Paris to the museums of New York as he develops the eye of a connoisseur and begins to collect great contemporary art.Vivid detail puts you in the center of the action as Neuberger collects the brilliant artists of his time-Milton Avery, Jackson Pollock, Ben Shahn, Edward Hopper; works with legendary art dealers Paul Rosenberg, Betty Parsons, Sidney Janis, and Leo Castelli; and befriends avid collectors, including the incomparable Duncan Phillips. You'll follow Neuberger as he strives to further the cause of contemporary American artists by exhibiting, lending, and donating from his growing collection, and becoming an activist for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney. You'll also see how the Neuberger Museum of Art was created at the urging of Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and how it continues to fascinate art enthusiasts today. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Walker & Company, 1st, 2000, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. chronicles the Roman Catholic Church's crusade against--and ultimate annihilation of--the Albigenses, or Cathars, a group of heretical Christians who thrived in what is now the Languedoc region of Southern France. The Cathars held revolutionary beliefs that threatened the authority of the church. The world, they maintained, was not created by a benevolent God. Rather, it was the creation of a force of darkness, immanent in all things. They considered worldly authority a fraud, and authority based on some divine sanction, such as claimed by the church, outright hypocrisy. Innocent III, resolved to eradicate the Cathar threat to church authority, recruited the military powers of France, eager to expand their territory to the south. Together, they systematically exterminated the Cathars and their supporters in a series of crusades between 1209 and 1229. The Dominican-led Inquisition that ensued built upon this momentum of intolerance and tormented Europe for centuries to come. 333 pages, endpapers map.

Hardcover. Albany NY, J. B. Lyon Company, 1st, 1916, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, 309 pages of text. 73 pages of b&w illustrations throughout. Oversized, brown embossed cloth cover with gilt lettering and design. Bumped corners, some wear to edges. Slight foxing to pages. Diverse content, commemorates Oliver H. Perry's naval victory in the War of 1812. Clean copy. DUE TO WEIGHT, DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY.

Hardcover. Malden MA, Blackwell , 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 311 pages, b&w illustrations. A succinct narrative of Iranian history from the time of Cyrus the Great in 558 BC to the present day. The book traces events from the rise of the Persian empire, through competition with Rome and conquest by the Arabs, through to the re-establishment of a Persian state in the sixteenth century, and finally the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the establishment of the current Islamic Republic. For each period, the author utilizes the most recent scholarship in order to examine Iran's political, social, and cultural history. He presents this history within an analytical framework which focuses on rulership as the central theme of identity for Iranians. He also considers the part played in Iranian identity by land, political culture, religion, and the arts. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, W W Norton & Co., 1st, 1993, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 281 pages, minor dust jacket edge wear and foxing on edges, otherwise, very clean and tight copy. A brilliant, daring, and utterly original book that analyzes (even as it exemplifies) the effect that the image saturation of a hundred years of moving pictures have had on human culture and consciousness.