28164 books match the query 'History' and 2536 start with a

cover of A Second Look at First Things: A Case for Conservative Politics: The Hadley Arkes Festschrift

A Second Look at First Things

A Case for Conservative Politics: The Hadley Arkes Festschrift

Francis J. Beckwith

St. Augustine's Press, 2013

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cover of A Second Voice: A Century of Osteopathic Medicine in Ohio

A Second Voice

A Century of Osteopathic Medicine in Ohio

Carol Poh Miller

Ohio University Press, 2004

Doctors of osteopathy today practice side by side with medical doctors, employing the same diagnostic and curative tools of scientific—with a difference. A Second Voice: A Century of Osteopathic Medicine in Ohio is the story of that difference. Focusing on the historical experience of a pivotal midwestern state, historian Carol Poh Miller illuminates struggles common to osteopathic medicine nationwide as it fought to secure its place in American health care.

First promulgated by Dr. Andrew Taylor Still in 1874, osteopathy was a reaction against the primitive medical practices of the period. Believing that the body had its own natural curative powers, Still manipulated vertebrae to free circulation and to remove pathology. Early osteopaths endured discrimination, as orthodox medicine and its allies sought to prevent the establishment of Still’s new healing method.

Written in conjunction with the one-hundredth anniversary of the Ohio Osteopathic Association, A Second Voice traces the origins and growth of the profession in Ohio. It recounts the early legal battles, the establishment of separate osteopathic hospitals, and the hard-fought campaigns to win equal practice rights and to build a state college of osteopathic medicine. Finally, it reconsiders the notorious murder trial of Cleveland osteopathic physician Sam Sheppard in the context of his family’s contributions to the osteopathic profession and a prosecution that, evidence has shown, fingered the wrong man.

A Second Voice is a valuable addition to the history of medicine in Ohio and the nation.

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cover of A Secret Society History of the Civil War

A Secret Society History of the Civil War

Mark A. Lause

University of Illinois Press, 2014

This unique history of the Civil War considers the impact of nineteenth-century American secret societies on the path to as well as the course of the war. Beginning with the European secret societies that laid the groundwork for Freemasonry in the United States, Mark A. Lause analyzes how the Old World's traditions influenced various underground groups and movements in America, particularly George Lippard's Brotherhood of the Union, an American attempt to replicate the political secret societies that influenced the European revolutions of 1848. Lause traces the Brotherhood's various manifestations, the most conspicuous being the Knights of the Golden Circle (out of which developed the Ku Klux Klan), and the Confederate secret groups through which John Wilkes Booth and others attempted to undermine the Union. Lause profiles the key leaders of these organizations, with special focus on George Lippard, Hugh Forbes, and George Washington Lafayette Bickley.

Antebellum secret societies ranged politically from those with progressive or even revolutionary agendas to those that pursued conservative or oppressive goals. This book shows how, in the years leading up to the Civil War, these clandestine organizations exacerbated existing sectional tensions in the United States. Lause's research indicates that the pervasive influence of secret societies may have played a part in key events such as the Freesoil movement, the beginning of the Republican party, John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, Lincoln's election, and the Southern secession process of 1860-1861.

This exceptional study encompasses both white and African American secret society involvement, revealing the black fraternal experience in antebellum America as well as the clandestine operations that provided assistance to escaped slaves via the Underground Railroad. Unraveling these pervasive and extensive networks of power and influence, A Secret Society History of the Civil War demonstrates that antebellum secret societies played a greater role in affecting Civil War-era politics than has been previously acknowledged.

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cover of A Secret To Be Burried: Diary Emily Hawley Gillespie

A Secret To Be Burried

Diary Emily Hawley Gillespie

Judy Nolte Lensink

University of Iowa Press, 1989

The sound of nineteenth-century women, once thought lost to us, is alive because ordinary women like Emily Hawley Gillespie gave voice to their thoughts in diaries. This condensed version of the 2,500-page journals of Emily Gillespie, faithfully written from 1858 to 1888, is a detailed account of rural Iowa life. More than this, it contains the reflections of a woman who dreamed of being a painter and writer and instead became a wife and a mother, a woman whose radical convictions were recorded in her diary, while publicly she conformed to the prescribed life of a Victorian pioneer woman. Through Emily's journals, readers are offered immediate and unmodified contact with settlers in Iowa one hundred years ago. A wealth of facts are included—what produce she harvested and preserved from her garden, how her husband tended his fields and what he raised, the challenges and rewards of family life.

Judy Lensink's skillful analysis shows the larger patterns in Emily Gillespie's life and provides keys that unlock the diary's secrets. Emily's life is revealed as a youth full of promise fading into middle and declining years of lost dreams and eventual tragedy, which caused her to write, "I have written many things in my journal, but the worst is a secret to be burried when I shall cease to be."

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cover of A Selection of Modernized Recipes from Food in the Civil War: The North

A Selection of Modernized Recipes from Food in the Civil War

The North

Jennifer Billock

Michigan State University Press, 2015

As companions to the first and second volumes in the American Food in History series we offer selections of recipes, updated and tested by food editor Jennifer Billock, using measurements and techniques that modern readers can use in their own kitchen. Arranged by main meal occasions (breakfast, picnic or lunch, dinner, dessert) these recipes—some familiar, some curious, all intriguing—will allow family and friends to get a “taste of the times” with their own “Civil War era” meals. The original versions of these recipes (and many more) can be found in Food in the Civil War Era: The North and Food in the Civil War Era: The South, edited by Helen Zoe Veit, along with fascinating essays about the history and the times.
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cover of A Selection of Modernized Recipes from Food in the Civil War: The South

A Selection of Modernized Recipes from Food in the Civil War

The South

Jennifer Billock

Michigan State University Press, 2015

As companions to the first and second volumes in the American Food in History series we offer selections of recipes, updated and tested by food editor Jennifer Billock, using measurements and techniques that modern readers can use in their own kitchen. Arranged by main meal occasions (breakfast, picnic or lunch, dinner, dessert) these recipes—some familiar, some curious, all intriguing—will allow family and friends to get a “taste of the times” with their own “Civil War era” meals. The original versions of these recipes (and many more) can be found in Food in the Civil War Era: The North and Food in the Civil War Era: The South, edited by Helen Zoe Veit, along with fascinating essays about the history and the times.
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cover of A Sense of Space: A Local’s Guide to a Flat Earth, the Edge of the Cosmos, and Other Curious Places

A Sense of Space

A Local’s Guide to a Flat Earth, the Edge of the Cosmos, and Other Curious Places

John Edward Huth

University of Chicago Press, 2025

From global navigation to natal charts to memory palaces and beyond, a thrilling journey through humanity’s visualization of new spaces.
 
When you give directions, do you tell someone to go straight ahead and turn left? Or do you suggest that they head north before moving west? Your answer reveals more than you might think.
 
In A Sense of Space, writer and physicist John Edward Huth uses these two kinds of navigation—either centered on or independent of people—to help readers chart a path through evolving spatial models. In doing so, he offers an astonishing exploration of how changing scientific models of space alter our social perceptions, and vice versa. New visions of space can emanate from human considerations, he argues, and those new visions can in turn spawn new cultural phenomena. With accessible introductions to topics including mental maps, astrology, astronomy, particle physics, and Einstein’s relativity, Huth makes clear that, although our minds have evolved to comprehend space in terrestrial distances, we routinely extend this understanding to realms far removed from our everyday experiences, from cosmological to subatomic scales.
 
Taking us across the eons from the myth of a flat earth to the mysteries of the multiverse, A Sense of Space is an energetic, thoughtful guide to how we orient ourselves in our world—and beyond.
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cover of A Sense of Things: The Object Matter of American Literature

A Sense of Things

The Object Matter of American Literature

Bill Brown

University of Chicago Press, 2003

In May 1906, the Atlantic Monthly commented that Americans live not merely in an age of things, but under the tyranny of them, and that in our relentless effort to sell, purchase, and accumulate things, we do not possess them as much as they possess us. For Bill Brown, the tale of that possession is something stranger than the history of a culture of consumption. It is the story of Americans using things to think about themselves.

Brown's captivating new study explores the roots of modern America's fascination with things and the problem that objects posed for American literature at the turn of the century. This was an era when the invention, production, distribution, and consumption of things suddenly came to define a national culture. Brown shows how crucial novels of the time made things not a solution to problems, but problems in their own right. Writers such as Mark Twain, Frank Norris, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Henry James ask why and how we use objects to make meaning, to make or remake ourselves, to organize our anxieties and affections, to sublimate our fears, and to shape our wildest dreams. Offering a remarkably new way to think about materialism, A Sense of Things will be essential reading for anyone interested in American literature and culture.
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cover of A Sentimental Education for the Working Man: The Mexico City Penny Press, 1900-1910

A Sentimental Education for the Working Man

The Mexico City Penny Press, 1900-1910

Robert M. Buffington

Duke University Press, 2015

In A Sentimental Education for the Working Man Robert Buffington reconstructs the complex, shifting, and contradictory ideas about working-class masculinity in early twentieth-century Mexico City. He argues that from 1900 to 1910, the capital’s satirical penny press provided working-class readers with alternative masculine scripts that were more realistic about their lives, more responsive to their concerns, and more representative of their culture than anything proposed by elite social reformers and Porfirian officials. The penny press shared elite concerns about the destructive vices of working-class men, and urged them to be devoted husbands, responsible citizens, and diligent workers; but it also used biting satire to recast negative portrayals of working-class masculinity and to overturn established social hierarchies. In this challenge to the "macho" stereotype of working-class Mexican men, Buffington shows how the penny press contributed to the formation of working-class consciousness, facilitated the imagining of a Mexican national community, and validated working-class men as modern citizens.
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cover of A Serpent's Tale: Discovering America's Ancient Mound Builders

A Serpent's Tale

Discovering America's Ancient Mound Builders

Lorett Treese

Westholme Publishing, 2016

The Fascinating Story of the Enigmatic Monuments that Inspired American Archaeology
When American settlers first crossed the Appalachian Mountains they were amazed to discover that the wilderness beyond contained ancient ruins—large man-made mounds and enclosures, and impressive earthen sculptures, such as a gigantic serpent. Reports trickled back to the eager ears of President Thomas Jefferson and others. However, most did not believe these earthworks had anything to do with Native Americans; rather, given the intense interest in the history of Western Civilization at the time, it became popular to speculate that the ruins had been built by refugees from Greece, Rome, Egypt—or even the lost continent of Atlantis. Since their discovery, the mounds have attracted both scholars and quacks, from the early investigations sponsored by the then new Smithsonian Institution to the visions of the American psychic Edgar Cayce.
As Lorett Treese explains in her fascinating history A Serpent’s Tale: Discovering America’s Ancient Mound Builders, the enigmatic nature of these antiquities fueled both fanciful claims and scientific inquiry. Early on, the earthworks began to fall to agricultural and urban development. Realizing that only careful on-site investigation could reveal the mysteries of the mounds, scholars hastened to document and classify them, giving rise to American archaeology as a discipline. Research made it possible to separate the Mound Builders into three distinct pre-contact Native American cultures. More recently, Mound Builder remains have attracted the practitioners of new disciplines like archaeoastronomy who suggest they may have functioned as calendars. There is no doubt that the abandoned monuments that made the Midwest’s Ohio Valley the birthplace of American archaeology have yet to reveal all the knowledge they contain on the daily lives and world views of persons of North American prehistory.
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cover of A Setting For Excellence, Part II: The Story of the Planning and Development of the Ann Arbor Campus of the  University of Michigan

A Setting For Excellence, Part II

The Story of the Planning and Development of the Ann Arbor Campus of the University of Michigan

Frederick W. Mayer

University of Michigan Press, 2017

Campus planning is often a crucial underlying set of goals for university administrations, even if, over time, the mix of new and old buildings, changes in usage patterns and activities of students, and evolution of styles present challenges to a cohesive campus plan. In its two-hundred year history the University of Michigan has planned its campus in waves, from the earliest days of the iconic buildings around the Diag to the plans for the hospitals and the North Campus. This immensely informative and entertaining second volume in the history of the evolution of the campuses offers an absorbing narrative from the perspective of Fred Mayer, who served for more than three decades as the campus planner for the university during an important period of its growth during the late twentieth century.

By tracing the development of the Ann Arbor campus from its early days to the present, within the context of the evolution of higher education in America, Mayer provides a strong argument for the importance of rigorous and enlightened campus planning as a critical element of the learning environment of the university. His comprehensive history of campus planning, illustrated with photos, maps, and diagrams from Michigan’s history, is an outstanding contribution to the university’s history as it approaches its bicentennial.

 
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cover of A Setting For Excellence: The Story of the Planning and Development of the Ann Arbor Campus of the University of Michigan

A Setting For Excellence

The Story of the Planning and Development of the Ann Arbor Campus of the University of Michigan

Frederick W. Mayer

University of Michigan Press, 2015

While there are times when the mix of old and new buildings and the chaotic activities of thousands of students can give a haphazard appearance to the university, campus planning has in fact become a highly refined form of architecture. This is demonstrated in a convincing fashion by this immensely informative and entertaining history of the evolution of the campuses of the University of Michigan by Fred Mayer, who served for more than three decades as the campus planner for the university during an important period of its growth during the late twentieth century.

By tracing the development of the Michigan campus from its early days to the present, within the context of the evolution of higher education in America, Mayer provides a strong argument for the importance of rigorous and enlightened campus planning as a critical element of the learning environment of the university. His comprehensive history of campus planning, illustrated with photos, maps, and diagrams from Michigan’s history, is an outstanding contribution to the university’s history as it approaches its bicentennial in 2017. Perhaps more important, Mayer’s book provides a valuable treatise on the evolution of campus planning as an architectural discipline.

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cover of A Settler's Year: Pioneer Life through the Seasons

A Settler's Year

Pioneer Life through the Seasons

Kathleen Ernst

Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2015

"This is a book with great meaning for those of us who grew up on farms, and a book to be shared with young people eager to know more about pioneer life." --Jerry Apps, author of "Old Farm: A History" and "Whispers and Shadows: A Naturalist's Memoir"

"A Settler's Year" provides a rare glimpse into the lives of early immigrants to the upper Midwest. Evocative photographs taken at Old World Wisconsin, the country's largest outdoor museum of rural life, lushly illustrate stories woven by historian, novelist, and poet Kathleen Ernst and compelling firsthand accounts left by the settlers themselves.

In this beautiful book, readers will discover the challenges and triumphs found in the seasonal rhythms of rural life in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As they turn the pages--traveling from sprawling farm to tidy crossroads village, and from cramped and smoky cabins to gracious, well-furnished homes--they'll experience the back-straining chores, cherished folk traditions, annual celebrations, and indomitable spirit that comprised pioneer life.

At its heart "A Settler's Year" is about people dreaming of, searching for, and creating new homes in a new land. This moving book transports us back to the pioneer era and inspires us to explore the stories found on our own family trees.

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cover of A Shadow on Our Hearts: Soldier-Poetry, Morality, and the American War in Vietnam

A Shadow on Our Hearts

Soldier-Poetry, Morality, and the American War in Vietnam

Adam Gilbert

University of Massachusetts Press, 2018

The American war in Vietnam was one of the most morally contentious events of the twentieth century, and it produced an extraordinary outpouring of poetry. Yet the complex ethical terrain of the conflict is remarkably underexplored, and the prodigious poetic voice of its American participants remains largely unheard. In A Shadow on Our Hearts, Adam Gilbert rectifies these oversights by utilizing the vast body of soldier-poetry to examine the war's core moral issues.

The soldier-poets provide important insights into the ethical dimensions of their physical and psychological surroundings before, during, and after the war. They also offer profound perspectives on the relationships between American soldiers and the Vietnamese people. From firsthand experiences, they reflect on what it meant to be witnesses, victims, and perpetrators of the war's violence. And they advance an uncompromising vision of moral responsibility that indicts a range of culprits for the harms caused by the conflict. Gilbert explores the powerful and perceptive work of these soldier-poets through the lens of morality and presents a radically alternative, deeply personal, and ethically penetrating account of the American war in Vietnam.
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cover of A Shared History: Writing in the High School, College, and University, 1856-1886

A Shared History

Writing in the High School, College, and University, 1856-1886

Amy J. Lueck

Southern Illinois University Press, 2020

In the nineteenth century, advanced educational opportunities were not clearly demarcated and defined. Author Amy J. Lueck demonstrates that public high schools, in addition to colleges and universities, were vital settings for advanced rhetoric and writing instruction. Lueck shows how the history of high schools in Louisville, Kentucky, connects with, contradicts, and complicates the accepted history of writing instruction and underscores the significance of high schools to rhetoric and composition history and the reform efforts in higher education today.
 
Lueck explores Civil War- and Reconstruction-era challenges to the University of Louisville and nearby local high schools, their curricular transformations, and their fate in regard to national education reform efforts. These institutions reflect many of the educational trends and developments of the day: college and university building, the emergence of English education as the dominant curriculum for higher learning, student-centered pedagogies and educational theories, the development and transformation of normal schools, the introduction of manual education and its mutation into vocational education, and the extension of advanced education to women, African American, and working-class students.
 
Lueck demonstrates a complex genealogy of interconnections among high schools, colleges, and universities that demands we rethink our categories and standards of assessment and our field’s history. A shift in our historical narrative would promote a move away from an emphasis on the preparation, transition, and movement of student writers from high school to college or university and instead allow a greater focus on the fostering of rich rhetorical practices and pedagogies at all educational levels. As the definition of college-level writing becomes increasingly contested once again, Lueck invites a reassessment of the discipline’s understanding of contemporary programs based in high schools like dual-credit and concurrent enrollment.
 
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cover of A Shi'ite Pilgrimage to Mecca, 1885-1886: The Safarnâmeh of Mirzâ Mo?ammad ?osayn Farâhâni

A Shi'ite Pilgrimage to Mecca, 1885-1886

The Safarnâmeh of Mirzâ Mo?ammad ?osayn Farâhâni

By Mirzâ Farâhâni

University of Texas Press, 1990

Western accounts of the Hajj, the ritual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, are rare, since access to Mecca is forbidden to non-Muslims. In the Muslim world, however, pilgrimage literature is a well-established genre, dating back to the earliest centuries of the Islamic era. A Shiʿite Pilgrimage to Mecca is taken from the original nineteenth-century Persian manuscript of the Safarnâmeh of Mirzâ Moḥammad Ḥosayn Farâhâni, a well-educated, keenly observant, Iranian Shiʿite gentleman.

This memoir holds a wealth of social and economic information about Czarist Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, Northern Iran, and Arabia. The author is a meticulous observer, recording details of distances, currencies, accommodations, modes of travel, and so on. He records the experiences encountered by pilgrims of his day: physical hardships, disease, generosity and compassion, banditry, hospitality, comradeship, and exaltation. And, without prejudice, he discusses the tensions between the Shiʿites and the Sunnites in the holy places—tensions that still exist and have erupted in bloody clashes during recent pilgrimages.

A Shiʿite Pilgrimage to Mecca will appeal to a wide audience of general readers, Middle Eastern scholars, anthropologists, and historians.

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cover of A Shining Lamp

A Shining Lamp

Mary C. Sullivan

Catholic University of America Press, 2017

Catherine McAuley (1778-1841), the founder of the Sisters of Mercy in 1831, frequently gave oral instructions to the first Mercy community. Though she sometimes spoke explicitly about their religious vows, her words were always focused on the life, example, teachings, and evangelic spirit of Jesus Christ, emphasizing "resemblance" to him, and fidelity to the calls of the Gospel. Her instructions have, therefore, a broad present-day relevance that can be inspiring and encouraging for all Christians. They are the "shining" words of a companion, a soul-friend, who offers guiding light to those who wend their pilgrim way toward the full embrace of God's merciful reign.
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cover of A Short History Of Reno

A Short History Of Reno

Barbara Land

University of Nevada Press, 1995

This is an entertaining and anecdotal treatment of Reno's history. Wonderfully illustrated with dozens of black & white photographs, the authors uncover some little known facts and enlighten readers about Reno's colorful past and the parade of larger-than-life characters who left their mark on the city, including: pathfinder John C. Frémont who named the river coursing down from Lake Tahoe after his Paiute guide, Truckee; railroad barons who plotted out the financial heart of Nevada; gambling kings who ran strings of prostitutes and laundered money for gangsters like Pretty Boy Floyd and John Dillinger; the celebrities who made Reno a divorce mecca; the carnival barker named Pappy Smith who invented Harrold Club; bingo man Bill Harrah who made Nevada the entertainment capital of the world.
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cover of A Short History of Bath

A Short History of Bath

Richard Tames

Haus Publishing, 2027

This highly readable guide to Bath details the entire history of the historic city, from the Roman period to the present day, as well as its historic architecture, thermal springs, and other attractions.

Any time spent in Bath is a pleasure. The historic city buzzes with vitality and its designation as one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites is confirmed by the annual arrival of some four million visitors from Britain and all over the world. Whereas most accounts of Bath's history focus on the Roman and Georgian periods, skipping over much of the rest, this short history offers a chronological survey of the entire span of Bath's existence, supplemented by lively accounts of its food, its fashions, its theatrical and artistic heritage, its music, and its memorials. Almost two-thirds of the city center is a conservation area, the largest in Britain. One in six of the city's houses was built before 1850, almost half before the twentieth century. The city's highlights include not only the Roman baths, the elegant Pump Room, the majestic abbey, and half a dozen museums, but also one of only four bridges in the world with shops on both sides and Britain's last remaining Georgian pleasure gardens. With the opening of the striking new Thermae Spa complex, Bath entered the twenty-first century by reasserting its original identity as a uniquely therapeutic location.

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cover of A Short History of Beijing

A Short History of Beijing

Jonathan Clements

Haus Publishing, 2022

A guide to the history of China’s capital, from before its rise to prominence as the seat of empires to the 2022 Winter Olympics.
 
Before China’s capital became a sprawling megacity and international center of business and culture, its fortunes fluctuated under a dozen dynasties. It has been a capital for several states, including those headed by Mongolian chiefs and the glorious Ming emperors, whose tombs can still be found on its outskirts. And before all that, it was a campsite for primitive hominids, known as the Peking Man. A Short History of Beijing tells the story of this remarkable city, from its more famous residents—Khubilai Khan, Marco Polo, and Chairman Mao—right up to the twenty-first century, as modern construction wiped out so much of the old city to make way for its twenty-million-strong population. Through his timely and intimate portrait of the world’s most populous capital city, Jonathan Clements reveals the history of China itself.
 
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cover of A Short History of Cambridge

A Short History of Cambridge

Richard Tames

Haus Publishing, 2025

A digestible and comprehensive tour of the fascinating history of one of England’s most famous towns.

A Short History of Cambridge provides a narrative of the city and university, from the Middle Ages to the present day. Going beyond the world-renowned research attractions of Cambridge University, this revised paperback edition explores the vast cultural output of the town, from art and literature to theater and comedy. Richard Tames sheds light on the very origins of academia in the area, the intricate lives of the students and scholars who studied there, and how this community interacted with the townsfolk over the past eight hundred years.

Cambridge offers the splendor of King's College Chapel and the beauty of “the Backs” as well as outstanding collections of fans and fritillaries, sculpture and stained glass, and medieval coins and oriental manuscripts. Attractions include the world-class Fitzwilliam Museum and Botanic Gardens, quirky Kettle’s Yard, and museums devoted to archaeology, anthropology, zoology, earth sciences, polar research, and the history of science, plus Britain's oldest bookshop. Enter the world of “Bumps and Bedders” and learn why May Week is in June. This joyful history of the town to which more than eight million visitors flock every year will delight both readers familiar with the cobbles of Cambridge and those who have seen no further than the stained-glass windows of King’s College Chapel.
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cover of A Short History of Cambridge

A Short History of Cambridge

Richard Tames

Haus Publishing, 2025

An Armchair Traveller's History of Cambridge provides not only a narrative of the city and university, and a guide to visits within a short driving distance, it also features a variety of aspects ignored in other accounts: food and fashion, music and gardens, books and clubs, Cambridge contributions to poetry, theatre and sport, royal associations and links with the Arab world and China. Cambridge offers the splendour of King's College Chapel and the beauty of "the Backs" but also outstanding collections of fans and fritillaries, sculpture and stained glass, medieval coins and oriental manuscripts. Free attractions include the world-class Fitzwilliam Museum and Botanic Gardens, quirky Kettle's Yard, and museums devoted to Archaeology, Anthropology, Zoology, Earth Sciences, Polar Research and the History of Science—plus Britain's oldest bookshop. Enter the world of "Bumps and Bedders" and learn why May Week is in June. Research reveals that most visitors to Cambridge never venture more than four hundred yards from the Market Square. An Armchair Traveller's History of Cambridge will help you do better than that—and want to.
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cover of A Short History of Canada for Americans

A Short History of Canada for Americans

Alfred Leroy Burt

University of Minnesota Press, 1942

A Short History of Canada for Americans was first published in 1942. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

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cover of A Short History of Carson City

A Short History of Carson City

Richard Moreno

University of Nevada Press, 2011

Nevada’s capital city is today a charming, modern community, with an unusually eventful past. A Short History of Carson City traces its history from its origin as a mid-nineteenth-century trading post to its rise as the political center of Nevada. Here are the hard-working citizens and colorful characters, the political and business decisions, and the evolving economy that helped shape it. This is the first comprehensive historical account of a thoroughly modern state capital with its roots deep in Nevada’s turbulent past.
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cover of A Short History of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

A Short History of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

Terri Ochiagha

Ohio University Press, 2018

The publication of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (1958) is heralded as the inaugural moment of modern African fiction, and the book remains the most widely read African novel of all time. Translated into dozens of languages, it has sold more than twelve million copies and has become a canonical reading in schools the world over. While Things Fall Apart is neither the first African novel to be published in the West nor necessarily the most critically valued, its iconic status has surpassed even that of its author.

Until now—in the sixtieth anniversary year of its publication—there has not been an updated history that moves beyond the book’s commonly discussed contexts and themes. In the accessible and concise A Short History of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Terri Ochiagha provides that history, asking new questions and bringing to wider attention unfamiliar but crucial elements of the Things Fall Apart story. These include new insights into questions of canonicity and into literary, historiographical, and precolonial aesthetic influences. She also assesses adaptations and appropriations not just in films but in theater, hip-hop, and popular literary genres such as Onitsha Market Literature.

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cover of A Short History of Denver

A Short History of Denver

Stephen J. Leonard

University of Nevada Press, 2016

A Short History of Denver covers more than 150 years of Denver’s rich history. The book recounts the takeover of Native American lands, the founding of small towns on the South Platte River at the base of the Rocky Mountains, and the creation of a city, which by 1890 was among the nation’s major western urban centers. Leonard and Noel tell the stories of powerful economic and political leaders such as John Evans, Horace Tabor, and David Moffat, and delve into the contributions of women, including Elizabeth Byers and Margaret (Molly) Brown. The book also recognizes the importance of the city’s ethnic communities, including African Americans, Asians, Latinos, and many others.
 
A Short History of Denver portrays the city’s twentieth-century ups and downs, including the City Beautiful movement, political corruption, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, and the Great Depression of the 1930s. Here readers will find the meat and potatoes of economic and political history and much more, including sports history, social history, and the history of metropolitan-wide efforts to preserve the past.
 
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cover of A Short History of Film

A Short History of Film

Dixon, Wheeler Winston

Rutgers University Press, 2013

A Short History of Film, Second Edition, provides a concise and accurate overview of the history of world cinema, detailing the major movements, directors, studios, and genres from 1896 through 2012. Accompanied by more than 250 rare color and black-and-white stills—including many from recent films—the new edition is unmatched in its panoramic view, conveying a sense of cinema's sweep in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries as it is practiced in the United States and around the world.

Wheeler Winston Dixon and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster present new and amended coverage of the industry in addition to updating the birth and death dates and final works of notable directors. Their expanded focus on key films brings the book firmly into the digital era and chronicles the death of film as a production medium.

The book takes readers through the invention of the kinetoscope, the introduction of sound and color between the two world wars, and ultimately the computer-generated imagery of the present day. It details significant periods in world cinema, including the early major industries in Europe, the dominance of the Hollywood studio system in the 1930s and 1940s, and the French New Wave of the 1960s. Attention is given to small independent efforts in developing nations and the more personal independent film movement that briefly flourished in the United States, the significant filmmakers of all nations, and the effects of censorship and regulation on production everywhere. In addition, the authors incorporate the stories of women and other minority filmmakers who have often been overlooked in other texts.

Engaging and accessible, this is the best one-stop source for the history of world film available for students, teachers, and general audiences alike.
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cover of A Short History of Film

A Short History of Film

Dixon, Wheeler Winston

Rutgers University Press, 2008

The history of international cinema is now available in a concise, conveniently sized, and affordable volume. Succinct yet comprehensive, A Short History of Film provides an accessible overview of the major movements, directors, studios, and genres from the 1880s to the present. More than 250 rare stills and illustrations accompany the text, bringing readers face to face with many of the key players and films that have marked the industry.

Beginning with precursors of what we call moving pictures, Wheeler Winston Dixon and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster lead a fast-paced tour through the invention of the kinetoscope, the introduction of sound and color between the two world wars, and ultimately the computer generated imagery of the present day. They detail significant periods in world cinema, including the early major industries in Europe, the dominance of the Hollywood studio system in the 1930s and 1940s, and the French New Wave of the 1960s. Special attention is also given to small independent efforts in developing nations and the corresponding more personal independent film movement that briefly flourished in the United States, the significant filmmakers of all nations, censorship and regulation and how they have affected production everywhere, and a wide range of studios and genres. Along the way, the authors take great care to incorporate the stories of women and other minority filmmakers who have often been overlooked in other texts.

Compact and easily readable, this is the best one-stop source for the history of world film available to students, teachers, and general audiences alike.
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cover of A Short History of Film, Fourth Edition

A Short History of Film, Fourth Edition

Wheeler Winston Dixon

Rutgers University Press, 2026

A Choice Significant University Press Title for Undergraduates

This updated and expanded edition of A Short History of Film provides an accessible overview of the major movements, directors, studios, and genres from the 1880s to the present. Succinct yet comprehensive, with more than 250 rare stills and illustrations, this edition provides new information on contemporary horror, comic book, and franchise films; issues surrounding women and minority filmmakers; the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on movies worldwide; the shift from film to digital production; the rising use of artificial intelligence in cinema; and the impact of streaming on the industry.

Beginning with the precursors of moving pictures, Wheeler Winston Dixon and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster lead a fast-paced tour through the invention of the kinetoscope, the introduction of sound and color between the two world wars, and ultimately the computer-generated imagery of the present day. They detail significant periods in world cinema, including the creation of early major industries in Europe, the dominance of the Hollywood studio system in the 1930s and 1940s, and the French New Wave of the 1960s. They also highlight independent efforts in developing nations and the corresponding more personal independent film movement that briefly flourished in the United States. 

Compact and easily readable, this is a vital history of international cinema is a one-stop resource for students, teachers, and general readers alike.
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cover of A Short History of Film, Third Edition

A Short History of Film, Third Edition

Dixon, Wheeler Winston

Rutgers University Press, 2018

With more than 250 images, new information on international cinema—especially Polish, Chinese, Russian, Canadian, and Iranian filmmakers—an expanded section on African-American filmmakers, updated discussions of new works by major American directors, and a new section on the rise of comic book movies and computer generated special effects, this is the most up to date resource for film history courses in the twenty-first century.  
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cover of A Short History of Finland

A Short History of Finland

Jonathan Clements

Haus Publishing, 2022

A fascinating history of Finland from prehistoric times to the twenty-first century.
 
The modern nation of Finland is the heir to centuries of history, as a wilderness at the edge of early Europe, a borderland of the Swedish empire, and a Grand Duchy of tsarist Russia. And, as Jonathan Clements’s vivid, concise volume shows, it is a tale paved with oddities and excitements galore: from prehistoric reindeer herders to medieval barons, Christian martyrs to Viking queens, and, in the twentieth century, the war heroes who held off the Soviet Union against impossible odds.
 
Offering accounts of public artworks, literary giants, legends, folktales, and famous figures, Clements provides an indispensable portrait of this fascinating nation.
 
This updated edition includes expanded coverage on the Second World War, as well as new sections on Finns in America and Russia, the centenary of the republic, and Finland’s battle with COVID-19, right up to its historic application to join NATO.

 
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cover of A Short History of Lake Tahoe

A Short History of Lake Tahoe

Michael J. Makley

University of Nevada Press, 2011

Lake Tahoe is one of the scenic wonders of the American West, a sapphire jewel that attracts millions of visitors each year. But the lake drew Native Americans to its summer shores for millennia, as well as more recent fortune hunters, scientists, and others.

A Short History of Lake Tahoe recounts the long, fascinating history of Lake Tahoe. Author Michael J. Makley examines the geology and natural history of the lake and introduces the people who shaped its history, including the Washoe Indians and such colorful characters as Mark Twain and legendary teamster Hank Monk, and later figures like entertainer Frank Sinatra and Olympic skier Julia Mancuso. He also covers the development of the lake's surrounding valley, including the impacts of mining, logging, and tourism, and the economic, political, and social controversies regarding the use and misuse of the lake's resources.

Generously illustrated with historic photographs, this book is an engaging introduction to one of the most magnificent sites in the world. It also illuminates the challenges of protecting natural beauty and a fragile environment while preserving public access and a viable economy in the surrounding communities.

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cover of A Short History of Las Vegas

A Short History of Las Vegas

Barbara Land

University of Nevada Press, 2004

Today’s Las Vegas welcomes 35 million visitors a year and reigns as the world’s premier gaming mecca. But it is much more than a gambling paradise. In A Short History of Las Vegas, Barbara and Myrick Land reveal a fascinating history beyond the mobsters, casinos, and showgirls. The authors present a complete story, beginning with southern Nevada’s indigenous peoples and the earliest explorers to the first pioneers to settle in the area; from the importance of the railroad and the construction of Hoover Dam to the arrival of the Mob after World War II; from the first isolated resorts to appear in the dusty desert to the upscale, extravagant theme resorts of today. Las Vegas—and its history—is full of surprises. The second edition of this lively history includes details of the latest developments and describes the growing anticipation surrounding the Las Vegas centennial celebration in 2005. New chapters focus on the recent implosions of famous old structures and the construction of glamorous new developments, headline-making mergers and multibillion-dollar deals involving famous Strip properties, and a concluding look at what life is like for the nearly two million residents who call Las Vegas home.
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cover of A Short History of Parliament: 1295-1642

A Short History of Parliament

1295-1642

Faith Thompson

University of Minnesota Press, 1953

A Short History of Parliament was first published in 1953. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.

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cover of A Short History of Reno, Second Edition

A Short History of Reno, Second Edition

Richard Moreno

University of Nevada Press, 2015

This completely revised and updated edition of A Short History of Reno provides an entertaining and informative account of Reno’s remarkably colorful history. Richard Moreno discusses Reno’s efforts, from its early beginnings in the 1850s to the present day, to reinvent itself as a recreation, entertainment, education, and technology hub. Moreno looks at the gamblers, casino builders, and performers who helped create the world-famous gaming industry, and he considers the celebrities who came to end unhappy marriages, back when Reno was “the divorce capital of the world.”
 
Moreno brings the city’s history up-to-date with coverage of the businesspeople and civic leaders who helped make Reno an attraction that still lures millions of visitors each year. Today’s travelers and residents explore Reno’s flamboyant heart and scenic wonders, topics the author examines in an accessible and lively fashion.
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cover of A Short History of San Francisco

A Short History of San Francisco

Robert W. Cherny

University of Nevada Press, 2026

When British explorer George Vancouver arrived at the San Francisco presidio in 1792, he described it as resembling a “compound for cattle”—hardly the opulent outpost he had expected of Spanish California. Today San Francisco is a bustling metropolis with picturesque neighborhoods, dramatic engineering feats such as the Golden Gate Bridge, and innovative tech companies. How did we get here? To answer that question, A Short History of San Francisco moves from the first Ohlone settlements to the Spanish missions and Gold Rush mansions, to the glaring inequalities of the Gilded Age and the turbulent labor politics of the early and mid-twentieth century, to the birth of the counterculture and the rise of the tech companies that now define the region. Concise yet packed with information, this book is vital reading for anyone who wants to understand the city at the Golden Gate.
 
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cover of A Short History of Sonoma

A Short History of Sonoma

Lynn Downey

University of Nevada Press, 2013

Sonoma is one of Northern California’s most desirable places to live and a popular tourist destination, combining small-town charm, a colorful past, and its current role as the hub of one of the world’s premier wine-producing regions. A Short History of Sonoma traces its past from the Native American peoples who first inhabited the valley, proceeding through the establishment of a mission by Spanish priests, the Bear Flag Revolt that began California’s movement to become part of the United States, the foundation of what would become a celebrated wine industry, and its role today as the center of a sophisticated and highly envied food and wine culture.

The book also addresses such topics as the development of local ranching and businesses and of transportation links to San Francisco that helped to make Sonoma and the surrounding Valley of the Moon a popular location for summer homes and resorts. It discusses the role of the nearby hot springs in attracting visitors and permanent residents, including people seeking cures for various ailments. There are also accounts of some of the famous people who lived in or near Sonoma and helped establish its mystique, including Mexican general Mariano Vallejo, the town’s first leader; Hungarian winemaker Agoston Haraszthy, who first saw the region’s potential for producing superior wines; and writers Jack London and M. F. K. Fisher, who made their homes in the Valley of the Moon, drawn by its beauty and bucolic lifestyle.

A Short History of Sonoma is generously illustrated with vintage photographs. It is a delightful account of one of America’s most charming towns and its evolution from rowdy frontier settlement to the paragon of sophisticated living that it is today.
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cover of A Short History of Tokyo

A Short History of Tokyo

Jonathan Clements

Haus Publishing, 2020

Tokyo, which in Japanese means the “Eastern Capital,” has only enjoyed that name and status for 150 years. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the city that is now Tokyo was a sprawling fishing town by the bay named Edo. Earlier still, in the Middle Ages, it was Edojuku, an outpost overlooking farmlands. And thousands of years ago, its mudflats and marshes were home to elephants, deer, and marine life. 

In this compact history, Jonathan Clements traces Tokyo’s fascinating story from the first forest clearances and the samurai wars to the hedonistic “floating world” of the last years of the Shogunate. He illuminates the Tokyo of the twentieth century with its destruction and redevelopment, boom and bust without forgoing the thousand years of history that have led to the Eastern Capital as we know it. Tokyo is so entwined with the history of Japan that it can be hard to separate them, and A Short History of Tokyo tells both the story of the city itself and offers insight into Tokyo’s position at the nexus of power and people that has made the city crucial to the events of the whole country.
 
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cover of A Short History of Virginia City

A Short History of Virginia City

Ronald M. James

University of Nevada Press, 2014

Founded in 1859, Virginia City quickly became world famous for its extraordinary prosperity. Over the next two decades, the mines of “the Richest City on Earth” yielded millions in gold and silver. The newly wealthy built mansions and churches, opera houses and schools, with furniture, fashions, and entertainment imported from Europe and the Far East. Here young Samuel Clemens, reporting for the Territorial Enterprise in 1863, first called himself Mark Twain. At its height Virginia City was a magnet for immigrants and the world leader in technological innovations in mining.
 
The city’s story did not end when the Comstock Lode played out. Beginning in the 1930s, bohemian artists, literati, and tourists were intrigued by this remnant of the Old West. The leader of Manhattan’s café society, Lucius Beebe, moved here and relaunched the Territorial Enterprise in 1950. Television’s most popular western from 1959 to 1973, Bonanza, located its fictional Ponderosa Ranch nearby. In the summer of 1965, a handful of Bay Area musicians, including Big Brother and the Holding Company, performed at the Red Dog Saloon and launched psychedelic rock, part of the inspiration for a defining decade of youth culture. Today it is both a National Historic Landmark District and a living community. Visitors come to enjoy its saloons and restaurants, admire its architecture, and learn from its museums and exhibits. A Short History of Virginia City will enhance their experience and will also be enjoyed by anyone interested in the history of Nevada, mining, and the Old West.

• Includes an illustrated walking tour describing more than thirty buildings and sites
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cover of A Short History of Wisconsin

A Short History of Wisconsin

Erika Janik

Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2010

Rediscover Wisconsin history from the very beginning. A Short History of Wisconsin recounts the landscapes, people, and traditions that have made the state the multifaceted place it is today. With an approach both comprehensive and accessible, historian Erika Janik covers several centuries of Wisconsin's remarkable past, showing how the state was shaped by the same world wars, waves of new inhabitants, and upheavals in society and politics that shaped the nation.

Swift, authoritative, and compulsively readable, A Short History of Wisconsin commences with the glaciers that hewed the region's breathtaking terrain, the Native American cultures who first called it home, and French explorers and traders who mapped what was once called "Mescousing." Janik moves through the Civil War and two world wars, covers advances in the rights of women, workers, African Americans, and Indians, and recent shifts involving the environmental movement and the conservative revolution of the late 20th century. Wisconsin has hosted industries from fur-trapping to mining to dairying, and its political landscape sprouted figures both renowned and reviled, from Fighting Bob La Follette to Joseph McCarthy. Janik finds the story of a state not only in the broad strokes of immigration and politics, but also in the daily lives shaped by work, leisure, sports, and culture. A Short History of Wisconsin offers a fresh understanding of how Wisconsin came into being and how Wisconsinites past and present share a deep connection to the land itself.

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A Short History of the Nigerian Civil War

Douglas A. Anthony

Ohio University Press, 2027

A Short History of the Nigerian Civil War is an accessible and balanced scholarly account of the 1967–70 conflict (also remembered as the Nigeria-Biafra War or simply the Biafran War). More than a seminal event in the history of Africa’s most populous country, the war marked a tragic milestone in the narrative of African decolonization. It also helped shape both international humanitarianism and media coverage of conflicts in developing countries, and offers an interesting, counterintuitive footnote to Cold War history. Interest in the war remains high, though recent book-length treatments have gravitated to memoir and specialized accounts. This book offers readers a concise, evenhanded introduction to the war’s causes, major events, and consequences, presented with a balance of narrative and analysis.

Author Douglas A. Anthony begins by explaining the influence of British imperialism on the country’s historical trajectory. Colonial geography and governance presented the leaders of newly independent Nigeria a template for ongoing polarization and suspicion, and when a military coup toppled the country’s short-lived First Republic (1960–66), existing geopolitical, economic, and ethnic tensions reached unprecedented levels. A second coup, accompanied by lethal coordinated attacks by civilians and soldiers on members of the Igbo ethnic group, triggered the return of most Igbos to their home region in southeastern Nigeria. Here, in May 1967, they declared independence as the Republic of Biafra, led by Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.

The war that followed, which Nigerian military leader Yakubu Gowon had promised would be a brief police action, lasted thirty months. During that time, Biafra, blockaded and diplomatically isolated, confronted larger and better-supplied Nigerian forces, an economic embargo, and escalating starvation. What the Nigerian government described as a war of unification was for most Biafrans a defensive war against a genocidal threat. By most accounts one million people died, the vast majority Biafran civilians.

With the war’s end in 1970, Biafra’s people and greatly diminished territory rejoined Nigeria. But behind formal declarations of “No victor, no vanquished” lingered the war’s enormous human, economic, and political consequences, felt most acutely by Igbos, many of whom continue to contend with a legacy of marginalization.

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cover of A Short History of the Silk Road

A Short History of the Silk Road

Jonathan Clements

Haus Publishing, 2017

The Silk Road is not a place, but a journey, a route from the edges of the Mediterranean to the central plains of China, through high mountains and inhospitable deserts. For thousands of years its history has been a traveller's history, of brief encounters in desert towns, snowbound passes and nameless forts. It was the conduit that first brought Buddhism, Christianity and Islam into China, and the site of much of the "Great Game" between 19th-century empires. Today, its central section encompasses several former Soviet republics, and the Chinese Autonomous Region of Xinjiang. The ancient trade route controversially crosses the sites of several forgotten kingdoms, buried in sand and only now revealing their secrets. An Armchair Traveller's History of the Silk Road not only offers the reader a chronological outline of the region's development, but also provides an invaluable introduction to its languages, literature and arts. It takes a comprehensive and illuminating look at the rich history of this dynamic and littleknown region, and provides an easy-to-use reference source. Clements pays particular attention to the fascinating historical sites which feature on any visitor's itinerary and special emphasis is also given to the writings and reactions of travellers through the centuries.
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cover of A Short Introduction to the Ancient Greek Theater

A Short Introduction to the Ancient Greek Theater

Graham Ley

University of Chicago Press, 1991

Contemporary productions on stage and film, and the development of theater studies, have created a new audience for ancient Greek drama. This volume fills the need for a clear, concise statement of what is known about the original conditions of production for tragedy, comedy, and satyr play in the age of Pericles and provides observations on all aspects of performance.

Reexamining the surviving plays of the tragic writers Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides and of the comedian Aristophanes, Graham Ley discusses the actor's technique, the power and range of the chorus, the use of theatrical space, and parody in the plays. A series of diagrams relates the theater to the city and political life of ancient Athens, and photographic illustrations of scenes from Greek vases document the visualization of theatrical performance.

An ideal companion to The Complete Greek Tragedies (University of Chicago Press), Ley's work is a valuable user's guide to the critical assessment of modern translations and adaptations of tragedy and comedy. It is designed for all students of Greek drama with an interest in performance, and for theatrical practitioners who require a concise but informative introduction to one of the great periods of world drama.
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cover of A Short Introduction to the Ancient Greek Theater: Revised Edition

A Short Introduction to the Ancient Greek Theater

Revised Edition

Graham Ley

University of Chicago Press, 2007

Contemporary productions on stage and film, and the development of theater studies, continue to draw new audiences to ancient Greek drama. With observations on all aspects of performance, this volume fills their need for a clear, concise account of what is known about the original conditions of such productions in the age of Pericles. 

Reexamining the surviving plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, Graham Ley here discusses acting technique, scenery, the power and range of the chorus, the use of theatrical space, and parody in their plays. In addition to photos of scenes from Greek vases that document theatrical performance, this new edition includes notes on ancient mime and puppetry and how to read Greek playtexts as scripts, as well as an updated bibliography. An ideal companion to The Complete Greek Tragedies, also published by the University of Chicago Press, Ley’s work is a concise and informative introduction to one of the great periods of world drama.

"Anyone faced with Athenian tragedy or comedy for the first time, in or out of the classroom, would do well to start with A Short Introduction to Ancient Greek Theater."—Didaskalia

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cover of A Significant Year

A Significant Year

Abdallah Saaf

Seagull Books, 2018

On the eve of the 2007 general elections in Morocco, writer, academic, and former cabinet minister Abdallah Saaf embarked on several road trips across the country to get a feel for how its citizens had fared since Mohammed VI’s accession to the throne.
 
A Significant Year is the result: an analysis of the political and sociological state of the Moroccan nation on the eve of a crucial moment in the post–Hassan II period, but also a travelogue that describes what the author saw and heard on his travels in the summer months leading up to the epochal vote. Through Saaf’s eyes, we see the country’s varied regions and its urban and rural landscapes. We meet Moroccans from all walks of life, such as a waiter at a favorite cafe, a car-park attendant who recognizes the author from TV, and fellow writer and intellectual Abdelkabir Khatibi. Behind the deceptive simplicity of the book’s narrative structure, readers will find in A Significant Year an insightful and nuanced portrayal of modern Morocco’s many complexities.
 
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cover of A Singing Army: Zilphia Horton and the Highlander Folk School

A Singing Army

Zilphia Horton and the Highlander Folk School

By Kim Ruehl

University of Texas Press, 2021

Zilphia Horton was a pioneer of cultural organizing, an activist and musician who taught people how to use the arts as a tool for social change, and a catalyst for anthems of empowerment such as “We Shall Overcome” and “We Shall Not Be Moved.” Her contributions to the Highlander Folk School, a pivotal center of the labor and civil rights movements in the mid-twentieth century, and her work creating the songbook of the labor movement influenced countless figures, from Woody Guthrie to Eleanor Roosevelt to Rosa Parks. Despite her outsized impact, Horton’s story is little known. A Singing Army introduces this overlooked figure to the world.

Drawing on extensive archival and oral history research, as well as numerous interviews with Horton's family and friends, Kim Ruehl chronicles her life from her childhood in Arkansas coal country, through her formative travels and friendship with radical Presbyterian minister Claude C. Williams, and into her instrumental work in desegregation and fostering the music of the civil rights era. Revealing these experiences—as well as her unconventional marriage and controversial death by poisoning—A Singing Army tells the story of an all-but-forgotten woman who inspired thousands of working-class people to stand up and sing for freedom and equality.

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cover of A Single Star and Bloody Knuckles: A History of Politics and Race in Texas

A Single Star and Bloody Knuckles

A History of Politics and Race in Texas

By Bill Minutaglio

University of Texas Press, 2021

Finalist, 2021 Writers’ League of Texas Book Award

For John Nance “Cactus Jack” Garner, there was one simple rule in politics: “You’ve got to bloody your knuckles.” It’s a maxim that applies in so many ways to the state of Texas, where the struggle for power has often unfolded through underhanded politicking, backroom dealings, and, quite literally, bloodshed. The contentious history of Texas politics has been shaped by dangerous and often violent events, and been formed not just in the halls of power but by marginalized voices omitted from the official narratives.

A Single Star and Bloody Knuckles traces the state’s conflicted and dramatic evolution over the past 150 years through its pivotal political players, including oft-neglected women and people of color. Beginning in 1870 with the birth of Texas’s modern political framework, Bill Minutaglio chronicles Texas political life against the backdrop of industry, the economy, and race relations, recasting the narrative of influential Texans. With journalistic verve and candor, Minutaglio delivers a contemporary history of the determined men and women who fought for their particular visions of Texas and helped define the state as a potent force in national affairs.

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cover of A Sip from the "Well of Grace": Medieval Texts from the Apostolic Penitentiary

A Sip from the "Well of Grace"

Medieval Texts from the Apostolic Penitentiary

Kirsi Salonen

Catholic University of America Press, 2009

The first book to include full texts and photographs from the Apostolic Penitentiary, A Sip from the "Well of Grace" is groundbreaking in its analysis of one of the most important papal offices of the Middle Ages.
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cover of A Sister's Memories: The Life and Work of Grace Abbott from the Writings of Her Sister, Edith Abbott

A Sister's Memories

The Life and Work of Grace Abbott from the Writings of Her Sister, Edith Abbott

Edited by John Sorensen

University of Chicago Press, 2015

Among the great figures of Progressive Era reform, Edith and Grace Abbott are perhaps the least sung. Peers, companions, and coworkers of legendary figures such as Jane Addams and Sophonisba Breckinridge, the Abbott sisters were nearly omnipresent in turn-of-the-century struggles to improve the lives of the poor and the working-class people who fed the industrial engines and crowded into diverse city neighborhoods. Grace’s innovative role as a leading champion for the rights of children, immigrants, and women earned her a key place in the history of the social justice movement. As her friend and colleague Eleanor Roosevelt wrote, Grace was “one of the great women of our day . . . a definite strength which we could count on for use in battle.”

A Sister’s Memories is the inspiring story of Grace Abbott (1878–1939), as told by her sister and social justice comrade, Edith Abbott (1876–1957). Edith recalls in vivid detail the Nebraska childhood, impressive achievements, and struggles of her sister who, as head of the Immigrants’ Protective League and the U.S. Children’s Bureau, championed children’s rights from the slums of Chicago to the villages of Appalachia. Grace’s crusade can perhaps be best summed up in her well-known credo: “Justice for all children is the high ideal in a democracy.” Her efforts saved the lives of thousands of children and immigrants and improved those of millions more. These trailblazing social service works led the way to the creation of the Social Security Act and UNICEF and caused the press to nickname her “The Mother of America’s 43 Million Children.” She was the first woman in American history to be nominated to the presidential cabinet and the first person to represent the United States at a committee of the League of Nations.

Edited by Abbott scholar John Sorensen, A Sister’s Memories is destined to become a classic. It shapes the diverse writings of Edith Abbott into a cohesive narrative for the first time and fills in the gaps of our understanding of Progressive Era reforms. Readers of all backgrounds will find themselves engrossed by this history of the unstoppable, pioneer feminist Abbott sisters.
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cover of A Slave's Tale

A Slave's Tale

Erik Christian Haugaard

University of Minnesota Press, 2013

A Slave’s Tale, the sequel to Hakon of Rogen’s Saga, is told from the point of view of a slave girl, Helga, who stows away on the longship when Hakon, the young Viking chieftain, sets sail for France on a voyage to return Rark, a freed slave, to his homeland. The voyagers’ journey is perilous—they narrowly escape capture by an invading fleet, and their ship is severely damaged by a storm. Upon reaching France—where the Vikings are now hated, not feared—only tragedy ensues.

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