history

Softcover. The New Press, 1st, 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 364 pages. Collects the Pulitzer Prize-winning oral historian's remarkable conversations with some of the greatest luminaries of film and theater. Originally published under the title The Spectator, this "knowledgeable and perceptive" (Library Journal) look at show business presents the actors directors, playwrights, dancers, lyricists, and others who created the dramatic works of the twentieth century. Among the many highlights in these pages, Buster Keaton explains the wonders of unscripted silent comedy, Federico Fellini reflects on honesty in art, Carol Channing reveals that she is far more serious than she lets on, and Marlon Brando turns the tables and wants to interview Terkel. We learn about crucial artistic decisions in the lives of Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, and Edward Albee and hear from a range of film directors, from Vittorio De Sica and King Vidor to Satyajit Ray. We even get to witness Terkel playing straight man to a wildly inventive Zero Mostel. Clean copy.

Hardcover. London, Reaktion Books, 1st, 2016, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 240 pages, illustrated in color and b&w. The story of this most familiar garment, from its emergence in western Europe at the end of the seventeenth century to today. Suit-wearing figures such as the Savile Row gentleman and the Wall Street businessman have long embodied ideas of tradition, masculinity, power and respectability, but the suit has also been used to disrupt concepts of gender and conformity. Adopted and subverted by women, artists, musicians and social revolutionaries through the decades - from dandies and Sapeurs to the Zoot Suit and Le Smoking. Clean, bright copy.

Softcover. Other Press, reprint, 2021, Softcover, 550 pages, b&w illustrations. The little-known story of screenwriter Salka Viertel, whose salons in 1930s and 40s Hollywood created a refuge for a multitude of famous figures who had escaped the horrors of World War ll. Hollywood was created by its "others"; that is, by women, Jews, and immigrants. Salka Viertel was all three and so much more. She was the screenwriter for five of Greta Garbo's movies and also her most intimate friend. At one point during the Irving Thalberg years, Viertel was the highest-paid writer on the MGM lot. Meanwhile, at her house in Santa Monica she opened her door on Sunday afternoons to scores of European emigres who had fled from Hitler--such as Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, and Arnold Schoenberg--along with every kind of Hollywood star, from Charlie Chaplin to Shelley Winters. In Viertel's living room (the only one in town with comfortable armchairs, said one Hollywood insider), countless cinematic, theatrical, and musical partnerships were born. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 1st, 1974, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, brick-red cloth covers, 448 pages with index. The attempted modernization of Central Asia by the central Soviet government in the 1920's was a dramatic confrontation between radical, determined, authoritarian communists and a cluster of traditional Moslem societies based on kinship, custom, and religion. The Soviet authorities were determined to undermine the traditional social order through the destruction of existing family structures and worked to achieve this aspect of revolution through the mobilization of women. Gregory J. Massell's study of the interaction between central power and local traditions concentrates on the development of female roles in revolutionary modernization. Women in Moslem societies were segregated, exploited, and degraded; they were, therefore, a structural weak point in the traditional order-a surrogate proletariat. Through this potentially subversive group, it was believed, intense conflicts could be generated within society which would lead to its disintegration and subsequent reconstitution. Marginal notes to about 15 pages, otherwise clean, solid copy.

Hardcover. NY, Africana Publishing, 1st US, 1971, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 419 pages, 6 maps, appendix, bibliog., index. Based on many original & unpublished materials, this book examines the impact of Omani rule & trade and the growing involvement of Western powers in Zanzibar politics in the first half of the 19th century. Owner's signature on front fly leaf, college bookplate on inside front cover. About 10 pages with light underlining.

Softcover. Boston, Back Bay Books, 1st, 1999, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 246 pages, b&w illustrations. Documents the history of swing music and dancing, covering the important artists, style and fashion, albums, and dance moves of swing. A bright, clean copy that has a light smoker's odor.

Softcover. NY, Public Affairs, 1998, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover in pictorial wraps, 422 pages, b&w illustrations. Combining razor-sharp analysis with dramatic narrative, vivid portraits of soldiers and commanders with illuminating discussions of battle tactics and covert actions, The Sword and the Olive traces the history of the IDF from its beginnings in Palestine to today. The book also goes beyond chronology to wrestle with the political and ethical struggles that have shaped the IDF and the country it serves--struggles that are manifesting themselves in the recent tragic escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Often revisionist in attitude, surprising in many of its conclusions, this book casts new light on the struggle for peace in the Middle East. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Crown Publishers, 1st, 1975, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket with light edgewear, price-clipped. Here is a story of Salem and the frightening time of the Witch Hunts emphasizing the role of John Alden, one of the unjustly accused "witches." Beautiful b&w illustrations throughout by Charles Mikolaycak.

Hardcover. Los Angeles, Ward Ritchie Press , 1st, 1965, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 224 pages, b&w illustrations. Story of a real sailor, Capt. Barney Burnett, aboard the four-masted bark Astral. The ship is smashed and dismasted. at Cape Horn. The crew laboriously clear away the wreckage, rerig the shattered masts, and sail on to San Francisco through the teeth of the gale. Much related ephemeral material laid-in, including correspondence by Burnett.

Hardcover. NY, Hyperion Books, 5th pr., 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 217 pages. "In early October 2001, Dominic DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky begin a 1,300-mile trip by car to visit their beloved teammate Ted Williams, knowing that he is dying. Bobby Doerr, the fourth member of this close group - "my guys," Williams used to call them - is unable to be with them because he is back in Oregon tending to his wife of sixty-three years, Monica, who has suffered her second stroke." "At the core of the book is the friendship of these four very different but extraordinary men, the key players in a remarkable Boston Red Sox team, who stayed close to each other for more than sixty years." The Teammates is the story of two the final one that DiMaggio and Pesky are taking to see Williams, and another, a flight back in time, as they and Bobby Doerr recall the wonders of their years together and reminisce about a magical era. Clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 1978, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 414 pages, b&w illustrations. Explores the history of the Teamsters up through the 1970's by looking at the subject from the perspective of a number of the key players -- one at a time. A novel yet very effective approach to a large and complicated subject. The book proves to be both informative and entertaining. Remainder stamp to bottom edge, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. Singapore, Times Editions-Marshall Cavendish, 1st, 2005, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 335 pages. The Temples of Lhasa is a comprehensive survey of historic Buddhist sites in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. The study is based on the Tibetan Heritage Fund`s official five-year architectural conservation project in Tibet, during which the author and his team had unlimited access to the buildings studied. The documented sites span the entire known history of Tibetan Buddhist art and architecture from the 7th to the 21st centuries The book is divided into thirteen chapters, covering all the major and minor temples in historic Lhasa.

Hardcover. NY, Free Press, 5th pr., 1990, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket, 432 pages. INSCRIBED BY BORK on the title page, wishing someone success in his law career. A nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Bork writes about his social and legal philosophy in what is described on the front flap as "the definitive formulation of the wisdom and necessity of interpreting the Constitution according to the "original understanding" of the framers and the people for whom it was written." A brilliant argument for the wisdom and necessity of interpreting the Constitution according to the "original Understanding" of the Framers and the people for whom it was written. Illuminates the history of the Supreme Court and the underlying meaning of constitutional controversy. Relational between values and the law, concludes with a personal account of Judge Bork's chillingly emblematic experiences during the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on his Supreme Court nomination. Clean copy.

Softcover. Montpelier VT, Lake Champlain Tercentenary Commission of Vermont, 1st, 1910, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Flexible beige cloth covers, 167 pages plus pages of Press Comments. B&w illustrations. Museum bookplate on inside front cover, otherwise a clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. 441 pages, index, notes, glossary, chronology, b&w illustrations. A dramatic new interpretation of the French Revolution that draws troubling parallels with today's politic and religious fundamentalism.

Hardcover. Boston, Little, Brown, and Company, reprint, 1928, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover in black cloth with gilt lettering on spine, 298 pages. A collection of articles about the theater by Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966), a stage designer and theatrical producer and director. Although he directed only a handful of plays, "his controversial theories of scene design and stagecraft gave him eminence in the European and American theater" (The New York Times). For instance, he favored three-dimensional stage effects and more innovative lighting than the traditional footlights. Craig argues that theatre is not just a form of entertainment, but a powerful medium for social and political change. He advocates for a new kind of theatre that is not bound by traditional conventions and that challenges the audience's expectations. Craig also emphasizes the importance of the actor's body and movement, and he proposes new techniques for training actors to be more expressive and dynamic on stage. Previous owner's inscription on front fly leaf, otherwise clean.

London, Rupert Hart-Davis, 1st, 1961, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, green cloth with gilt lettering on spine, 292 pages. Maps on the endpapers. Black and white illustrations by Timothy Birdsall. A illustrated guide to the major theatres in London along with a brief history of each. No dust jacket. A bright, clean copy.

Hardcover. NY, Random House, 1st, 1964, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Good, Hardcover in a dust jacket with some fading, 461 pages. History of the six-year period between the fall of Robespierre and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. Bookplate on inside front cover, otherwise clean.

Hardcover. NY, Simon & Schuster, 1st, 2017, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. In The Third Reich, Thomas Childers shows how the young Hitler became passionately political and anti-Semitic as he lived on the margins of society. Fueled by outrage at the punitive terms of the Versailles Treaty that ended the Great War, he found his voice and drew a following. As his views developed, Hitler attracted like-minded colleagues who formed the nucleus of the nascent Nazi party. The failed Munich putsch of 1923 and subsequent trial gave Hitler a platform for his views, which he skillfully exploited. Clean copy.

Softcover. Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press, reprint, 2011, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 997 pages, color and b&w illustrations. A deadly continental struggle, the Thirty Years War devastated seventeenth-century Europe, killing nearly a quarter of all Germans and laying waste to towns and countryside alike. Peter Wilson offers the first new history in a generation of a horrifying conflict that transformed the map of the modern world. When defiant Bohemians tossed the Habsburg emperor's envoys from the castle windows in Prague in 1618, the Holy Roman Empire struck back with a vengeance. Bohemia was ravaged by mercenary troops in the first battle of a conflagration that would engulf Europe from Spain to Sweden. The sweeping narrative encompasses dramatic events and unforgettable individuals-the sack of Magdeburg; the Dutch revolt; the Swedish militant king Gustavus Adolphus; the imperial generals, opportunistic Wallenstein and pious Tilly; and crafty diplomat Cardinal Richelieu. In a major reassessment, Wilson argues that religion was not the catalyst, but one element in a lethal stew of political, social, and dynastic forces that fed the conflict. By war's end a recognizably modern Europe had been created, but at what price? The Thirty Years War condemned the Germans to two centuries of internal division and international impotence and became a benchmark of brutality for centuries. As late as the 1960s, Germans placed it ahead of both world wars and the Black Death as their country's greatest disaster. Clean, bright copy.

Softcover. NY, Doubleday Anchor Book, 1st US, 1968, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Softcover, 298 pages. First published in 1917 and long regarded as a classic of English social history. Preface by Asa Briggs. Clean, bright copy.

Hardcover. NP, Somogy Art Publishers, 1st, 2006, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 96 pages. This fascinating collection of photographs documents a relatively unknown episode of Jewish history in Eastern Europe. Illustrating how the 1920s and 1930s saw the creation and development of "Jewish agricultural colonies" in the Soviet Union, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and Romania, this history shows that the aim was to "normalize" Jews by teaching them "productive" professional skills. These recently discovered photographs offer a unique and moving insight into the Jewish experience in central and Eastern Europe before World War II. This edition includes English, French, and Yiddish.

Hardcover. NY, E. P. Dutton, reprint, 1977, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright dust jacket. David Irving's The Trail of the Fox is the best work on Rommel ever written. The circumstances around Rommel's involvement with the attempt on Hitler's life, which is the most speculated aspect of Rommel's life, and how the Gestapo came to believe Rommel was involved, have not been made clear in most of the historiography on Rommel. Irving pieces together what really happened most effectively. There are so many strengths of this book, of which the greatest is probably the fact Irving had access to Rommel's dairy and many of his letters, which he got permission from the family to view. Other items he found in collections in the United States, England, and Germany. Since he worked on this in the 1970's he also was able to interview a number of German officers who were still alive that knew and served with Rommel. The whole work is the way historical research should be done; totally reliant on primary source material, and ignores secondary sources that often use conjecture or just repeat incorrect narratives from earlier books. Every source is from people who fought the war; Germans, Italians, British, French and American officers who were in these campaigns and had either first hand observation of Rommel or were major participants like Eisenhower, Churchill, Goebbels, etc. Clean copy.

Hardcover. Philadelphia, David McKay, reprint, 1889, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, terra cotta cloth stamped in black and gilt, 362 pages including index. Originally published in 1878, this is the 1889 New Edition with final corrections and additions. A Victorian era study of male sexuality. Clean copy.