Today's (6/19/2013) New Book Releases on History
Ancient Irrigation Systems of the Aral Sea Area: The History Origin and Development of Irrigated Agriculture (AMERICAN SCHOOL OF PREHISTORIC RESEARCH MONOGRAPH) by - 300 pages
Ancient Irrigation Systems in the Aral Sea Area, is the English translation of Boris Vasilevich Andrianov's work, Drevnie orositelnye sistemy priaralya, concerning the study of ancient irrigation systems and the settlement pattern in the historical region of Khorezm, south of the Aral Sea (Uzbekistan). This work holds a special place within the Soviet archaeological school because of the results obtained through a multidisciplinary approach combining aerial survey, and fieldwork, surveys, and excavations. This translation has been enriched by the addition of introductions written by several eminent scholars from the region regarding the importance of the Khorezm Archaeological-Ethnographic Expedition and the figure of Boris V. Andrianov and his landmark study almost 50 years after the original publication.
The Lifeboat Service in Scotland: Station by Station by - 128 pages
For the past two hundred years, lifeboats have been stationed around the coasts of Scotland, ready to rescue the shipwrecked. In times past, shipwrecks were much more common and there was little provision to help those stranded at sea. Places such as the west coast of Scotland would see hundreds of wrecks per year, from small sailing vessels to large steamers. By the start of the nineteenth century, volunteer lifeboats began to be stationed around the coast in the most dangerous areas and soon, the Royal National Lifeboat Association began to provide new stations and lifeboats. With the introduction of these lifeboats, many lives have been saved over the intervening two centuries. Scotland has seen more than its fair share of wrecks because of its location, with many vessels foundering after a tortuous journey across the Atlantic, as well as coastal traders lost in storms or accident. War has played a part too, with the Western Isles being the graveyard of many a torpedoed or mined vessel. Nicholas Leach tells the story of each Scottish station, both onshore and in the islands, using photographs of the lifeboats, houses and rescues. His book provides a valuable record of two centuries of lifesaving along the Scottish coast.
Wish You Were Still Here: The Scottish Seaside Holiday by - 176 pages
As one of our key forms of leisure and mass entertainment, tourism was a major growth industry of the nineteenth century and this growth continued into the twentieth century. Starting in the golden age of the Victorian and Edwardian resorts, Eric Simpson explores the ways and means whereby the Scottish people were able to enjoy the benefits of seaside and other holidays, including how they travelled, the things they did and where they stayed. This book, therefore, is not just about the holidaymakers but embraces too the many people in the resorts who made their livelihood in the tourist industry. Sporting activities, for spectators no less than participants, were and still are very important, especially golf. So too was swimming and one of the extraordinary features of the early twentieth century was the craze for open-air seawater swimming pools in a country that is not renowned for great warmth. Many Scottish towns, both large and small, ran into debt to construct the open-air swimming ponds that once dotted the coastline. In the large resorts there were entertainments for the masses. But in the wee quiet places, holidaymakers had to find their own ways of spending their time with bathing, country walks and sports always popular.
Tiger I in Action: 1942-1945 by - 288 pages
In April 1941, two months prior to operation 'Barbarossa', Adolf Hitler ordered the development of a heavy tank, armed with the famed 88mm gun. This tank became a legend in its own time. Feared by its adversaries and liked by its crews, the Tiger etched its mark in history and the legend carries on, 60 years after the end of the war. This compilation of the two volumes dealing with Tiger units on the Eastern Front, the Western Front, and Africa, features almost a thousand period pictures, mostly unpublished, and more than 80 full-colour plates by the author: tank profiles, details of markings and insignia, camouflage, and a short history of each Tiger unit. This edition has been revised and augmented, with more accurate captions as to dates and locale, together with new illustrations and a chapter on additional units.
The 2011 Libyan Uprisings and the Struggle for the Post-Qadhafi Future by - 276 pages
In 2011, spontaneous popular uprisings overthrew Muammar Qadhafi - one of the world's most infamous tyrants. Paradoxically, it was Qadhafi's own efforts to "reform" Libya's economy and rebuild the country's international relationships since 2003 that set the stage for Qadhafi's downfall. Despite the enabling effects of twenty-first century communications technology and the aid of NATO jets, the 2011 Libyan uprisings were organized largely along traditional regional, local, and tribal cleavages. The future of post-Qadhafi Libya will be determined by a struggle between "center" and "periphery." This contest has deep resonances in Libyan history. A work of contemporary political history, this volume analyzes the 2011 Libyan uprisings thematically - focusing on the roles of economics, outside actors, tribes, ethnic minorities, and Islamists. This volume's contributors include the British Ambassador to Libya during the uprisings, the President of the American University of Cairo, a former commander of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, and the world's leading academic and security specialists in Libyan affairs.
Indian Life in Pre-Columbian North America Coloring Book by - 48 pages
Forty-two carefully researched illustrations depict prehistoric Indians of the Arctic, woodland cultures in the Northeast, cliff dwellers of the Southwest, many more. Ready-to-color scenes include hunting, food-gathering, ceremonies, games, dances, and numerous other aspects of tribal life before the European arrival. Introduction. Captions. Map.
Constructing East Asia: Technology, Ideology, and Empire in Japan's Wartime Era, 1931-1945 by - 328 pages
The conventional understanding of Japanese wartime ideology has for years been summed up by just a few words: anti-modern, spiritualist, and irrational. Yet such a cut and dried picture is not at all reflective of the principles that guided national policy from 1931–1945. Challenging the status quo, Constructing East Asia examines how Japanese intellectuals, bureaucrats, and engineers used technology as a system of power and mobilization—what historian Aaron Moore terms a "technological imaginary"—to rally people in Japan and its expanding empire. By analyzing how these different actors defined technology in public discourse, national policies, and large-scale infrastructure projects, Moore reveals wartime elites as far more calculated in thought and action than previous scholarship allows. Moreover, Moore positions the wartime origins of technology deployment as an essential part of the country's national policy and identity, upending another predominant narrative—namely, that technology did not play a modernizing role in Japan until the "economic miracle" of the postwar years.
Voice from the North: Resurrecting Regional Identity Through the Life and Work of Yi Sihang (1672-1736) by - 264 pages
Voice from the North resurrects the forgotten historical memory of the people and region in late Choson Korea while also enriching the social history of the country. Sun Joo Kim accomplishes this by examining the life and work of Yi Sihang, a historically obscure person from a hinterland in Korea's northwestern region who was also a member of the literati. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Yi Sihang left numerous writings on his region's history and culture, and on the political and social discrimination that he and others in his region faced from the central elite.
This work explores a regional history and culture through the frames of microhistory and historical memory. Kim criticizes the historiographical problem of "otherizing" the northern region and fills a gap in Korean historiography—the lack of historical study of the northern region from a regional perspective, P'yongan Province in particular. The biographical format of this work engages readers in the investigation of a person's life within the changing world of his time and also creates a space where private and public intersect. Kim places Yi Sihang at the center of the historical stage while describing, analyzing, and reconstructing the world around him through his life story.
This work explores a regional history and culture through the frames of microhistory and historical memory. Kim criticizes the historiographical problem of "otherizing" the northern region and fills a gap in Korean historiography—the lack of historical study of the northern region from a regional perspective, P'yongan Province in particular. The biographical format of this work engages readers in the investigation of a person's life within the changing world of his time and also creates a space where private and public intersect. Kim places Yi Sihang at the center of the historical stage while describing, analyzing, and reconstructing the world around him through his life story.
Writing the Revolution: A French Woman's History in Letters by - 224 pages
Writing the Revolution is a microhistory of a middle-class Parisian woman, Rosalie Jullien, whose nearly 1,000 familiar letters have never before been studied. The Jullien name is not new to histories of the French Revolution. Rosalie's son, Marc-Antoine, known in the family as Jules, was closely connected to the Committee of Public Safety during the Reign of Terror. However, despite being the wife and mother of revolutionary elites, Rosalie led a private life. Connected to the Revolution in very personal ways, she was also distanced from the lime light because of her gender and her proclivity for modesty. Her correspondence allows readers to enter her private world and see the intellectual, emotional, and familial life of a revolutionary in all of its complexity.
The prevailing thesis in the field holds that the revolutionary elite constructed the New Regime against women, effectively excluding them from the political sphere, although nearly every existing study of women has approached the subject through oblique sources and mostly male voices. Rosalie Jullien's long missives to her husband and son, however, document her relationship to politics as she explained it. Despite never seeking a public role, Rosalie developed a political identity that included a revolutionized understanding of womanhood. Writing the Revolution builds on the innovative scholarship on the history of the family during the Revolution and demonstrates how the family sphere was revolutionized even in cases where the wife maintained a traditional family role.
Jullien's correspondence boasts many values as an artifact of the Revolutionary experience, of women's lives, and of epistolary culture. Rosalie demonstrates the individual's experience within the evolving structures of a modernizing state, family, and gender identity. The period covered spans from 1775 to 1810. A portrayal of Rosalie's early married life, and the decade she spent with her husband and children in a small town north of Grenoble, begins the book, and is followed by a chapter on the couple's reading practices and their views toward religion prior to the Revolution. The heart of the research focuses on Rosalie's life and experiences in Revolutionary Paris and her decision, in the aftermath of the Terror, to emphasize private, domestic life over politics.
The prevailing thesis in the field holds that the revolutionary elite constructed the New Regime against women, effectively excluding them from the political sphere, although nearly every existing study of women has approached the subject through oblique sources and mostly male voices. Rosalie Jullien's long missives to her husband and son, however, document her relationship to politics as she explained it. Despite never seeking a public role, Rosalie developed a political identity that included a revolutionized understanding of womanhood. Writing the Revolution builds on the innovative scholarship on the history of the family during the Revolution and demonstrates how the family sphere was revolutionized even in cases where the wife maintained a traditional family role.
Jullien's correspondence boasts many values as an artifact of the Revolutionary experience, of women's lives, and of epistolary culture. Rosalie demonstrates the individual's experience within the evolving structures of a modernizing state, family, and gender identity. The period covered spans from 1775 to 1810. A portrayal of Rosalie's early married life, and the decade she spent with her husband and children in a small town north of Grenoble, begins the book, and is followed by a chapter on the couple's reading practices and their views toward religion prior to the Revolution. The heart of the research focuses on Rosalie's life and experiences in Revolutionary Paris and her decision, in the aftermath of the Terror, to emphasize private, domestic life over politics.
Rocking the Wall. Bruce Springsteen: The Berlin Concert That Changed the World by - 146 pages
Rocking the Wall explores the epic Bruce Springsteen concert in East Berlin on July 19, 1988, and how it changed the world. Erik Kirschbaum spoke to scores of fans and concert organizers on both sides of the Berlin Wall, including Jon Landau, Springsteen's long-time friend and manager, to unearth this fascinating story. With lively behind-the-scenes details from eyewitness accounts, magazine and newspaper clippings, TV recordings, and even Stasi files, as well as photos and memorabilia, this gripping book transports you back in the middle of those heady times shortly before the Berlin Wall fell and gives you a front-row spot at one of the biggest and most exciting rock concerts ever, anywhere. It takes you to an unforgettable journey with Springsteen through the divided city, to his hotel, and his dressing room at the open air concert grounds in Weissensee, where The Boss, live on stage, delivered a courageous speech against the Wall to a record-breaking crowd of more than 300,000 delirious young East Germans full of joy and hope. Their thunderous reaction to his speech was so intense that it even briefly brought tears to Springsteen's eyes. And their tremendous, powerful cry for freedom became the "final nail in the coffin" of the Communist regime and subsequently helped fuel the uprising that brought down the Wall.
Erik Kirschbaum, a native of New York City and long-time Springsteen fan, has lived in Germany for more than twenty-five years and in Berlin since 1993. He is a correspondent for the Reuters international news agency and has written about entertainment, politics, sports, economics, as well as disasters and climate change in nearly thirty countries. He is a devoted father of four, an enthusiastic cyclist, a solar power entrepreneur and an unabashed crusader for renewable energy. Rocking the Wall is his third book.
Praise for Rocking The Wall
Inside this book is as clear a statement of the power of this music as anyone, ever, has come up with." -Dave Marsh
"An illuminating and impressively detailed examination of a frequently overlooked moment in the nexus of rock music and political liberation. I learned a great deal and enjoyed doing so." -Eric Alterman
John Wilkes Booth: Beyond the Grave by - 208 pages
Leading the reader through a series of amazing coincidences and details, this book presents startling evidence that John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln, was never captured but escaped to live for decades, continue his acting career, marry, and have children. Compelling and revealing information in the form of papers and diaries has recently been found in private collections—materials that provide greater insight into the events leading up to the assassination of Lincoln as well as details of the pursuit and capture of the man the government claimed was Booth.
Lincoln and Reconstruction by - 176 pages
Although Abraham Lincoln dominates the literature on the American Civil War, he remains less commonly associated with reconstruction. Previous scholarly works touch on Lincoln and reconstruction, but they tend either to speculate on what Lincoln might have done after the war had he not been assassinated or to approach his reconstruction plans merely as a means of winning the war. In this thought-provoking study, John C. Rodrigue offers a succinct but significant survey of Lincoln’s wartime reconstruction initiatives while providing a fresh interpretation of the president’s plans for postwar America.
Revealing that Lincoln concerned himself with reconstruction from the earliest days of his presidency, Rodrigue details how Lincoln’s initiatives unfolded, especially in the southern states where they were attempted. He explores Lincoln’s approach to various issues relevant to reconstruction, including slavery, race, citizenship, and democracy; his dealings with Congressional Republicans, especially the Radicals; his support for and eventual abandonment of colonization; his dealings with the border states; his handling of the calls for negotiations with the Confederacy as a way of reconstructing the Union; and his move toward emancipation and its implications for his approach to reconstruction.
As the Civil War progressed, Rodrigue shows, Lincoln’s definition of reconstruction transformed from the mere restoration of the seceded states to a more fundamental social, economic, and political reordering of southern society and of the Union itself. Based on Lincoln’s own words and writings as well as an extensive array of secondary literature, Rodrigue traces the evolution of Lincoln’s thinking on reconstruction, providing new insight into a downplayed aspect of his presidency.
The Myth of Indigenous Caribbean Extinction: Continuity and Reclamation in Borikén (Puerto Rico) by - 200 pages
One of the greatest myths ever told in Caribbean historiography is that the indigenous peoples who encountered a very lost Christopher Columbus are effectively "extinct." This book debunks that myth through the uncovering of historical, ethnographical, and census data. The author reveals extensive narratives of Jíbaro Indian resistance and cultural continuity on the island of Borikén. Since the epistemological boundaries of the early history and literature had been written through colonial eyes, key fallacies have been passed down for centuries. Many stories have been kept within family histories having gone "underground" as the result of an abusive past. Whole communities of Jíbaro people survive today.
Congress, the Supreme Court, and Religious Liberty: The Case of City of Boerne v. Flores by - 212 pages
In the landmark case City of Boerne v. Flores, the Supreme Court struck down a major federal statute - the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. This decision raised questions not only about religious freedom in America, but also about federalism and separation of powers. Using the narrative framework of a tense dispute that divided a small Texas town, Waltman offers the first book-length analysis of the constitutional jurisprudence involved in the passage of the act. Congress, the Supreme Court, and Religious Liberty shows how this case and others like it stimulated and advanced an intense legal debate still ongoing today: Can and should the Supreme Court be the exclusive interpreter of the Constitution?
Resurgent Antisemitism: Global Perspectives (Studies in Antisemitism) by - 576 pages
Dating back millennia, antisemitism has been called "the longest hatred." Thought to be vanquished after the horrors of the Holocaust, in recent decades it has once again become a disturbing presence in many parts of the world. Resurgent Antisemitism presents original research that elucidates the social, intellectual, and ideological roots of the "new" antisemitism and the place it has come to occupy in the public sphere. By exploring the sources, goals, and consequences of today's antisemitism and its relationship to the past, the book contributes to an understanding of this phenomenon that may help diminish its appeal and mitigate its more harmful effects.
Tanks and Armored Vehicles, Dover Coloring Book by - 48 pages
Comprehensive collection of 44 accurate, ready-to-color illustrations chronicles the development of tanks and other armored vehicles — from the "Little Willie" (1915), the Rolls Royce armored scout car (1916), and the German Panzer III (1940), to the American M4 Sherman (1942), the Israeli Merkava (MBT) (1980), and the British Challenger 2 MBT (1994).