Best of
18th-Century

1986

Old Glory


Christopher Nicole - 1986
     Young Harry McGann is forced to flee Ireland for the unknown shores of America. On that voyage he meets Elizabeth Bartlett, who seems as far beyond his reach as the stars which guide him across the Atlantic. Through the years that follow, Harry finds himself involved in the formation of the American Navy. It is a world of intrigue, violence and untold dangers at sea. But always the memory of Elizabeth is there … and their paths are destined to cross again and again. ‘Old Glory’ is a tale of blistering naval battles and wild romance on the high seas. It is the first book in The McGann saga.

The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History, Volume 1: Atlantic America 1492-1800


D.W. Meinig - 1986
    Meinig here focuses on colonial America, examining how an immense diversity of ethnic and religious groups—Europeans, Africans, American Indians—ultimately created a set of distinct regional societies. Richly illustrated with more then forty specially prepared maps and contemporary illustrations, this volume prompts us to rethink the settling of North America. “A standard work in its field. . . . For readers seeking a bird’s-eye view of early American geography. . . there is no better guide available.”—William Cronon, New York Times Book Review “Simply the best book in the English language by a contemporary geographer I have read over the past forty-odd years, and one of the most important. . . . A magisterial achievement, a grand shaking up and reassembling of fact and ideas.”—Wilbur Zelinsky, Journal of Geography “All historians of the American experience should read and come to terms with this book.”—Malcolm J. Rohrbough, Georgia Historical Quarterly “This book is a masterpiece in the best and old sense of the word.”—Alfred W. Crosby, Southwestern Historical Quarterly

Voyagers to the West: A Passage in the Peopling of America on the Eve of the Revolution


Bernard Bailyn - 1986
    "Voyagers to the West is a superb book. . . . It should be equally admired by and equally attractive to the general reader as to the professional historian."--R.C. Simmons, Journal of American Studies

Fragile Lives: Violence, Power, and Solidarity in Eighteenth-Century Paris


Arlette Farge - 1986
    Exploring three arenas of conflict and solidarity--the home, the workplace, and the street--Arlette Farge offers the reader an intimate social history, bringing long-dead citizens and vanished social groups back to life with sensitivity and perception.Fragile Lives reconstructs the rhythms of this population's daily existence, the way they met, formed relationships and broke them off, conducted their affairs in the community, and raised their young. Farge follows them into the factory and describes the ways they organized to improve their working conditions, and how they were controlled by the authorities. She shows how these Parisians behaved in the context of collective events, from festive street spectacles to repressive displays of power by the police. As the author examines interwoven lives as revealed in judicial records, we come to know and understand the criminals and the underworld of the time; the situation of women as lovers, wives, or prostitutes; anxieties about food and drink, and the rules of conduct in a "fragile" society. Elegantly written and skillfully translated, Fragile Lives is a book for the curious general reader and for those interested in social and cultural history.

Holy Things and Profane: Anglican Parish Churches in Colonial Virginia


Dell Upton - 1986
    Lavishly illustrated with photographs and drawings, the book examines the architecture, decoration, and furniture of Virginia`s Anglican churches and puts them in the context of eighteenth-century life and society."The finest study ever done of early American religious architecture."—Jon Butler, Journal of British Studies"A splendid volume, thoroughly researched, well written, and handsomely produced. . . . The most satisfying and dexterous analysis of material culture to date."—Randall H. Balmer, Religious Studies Review"A remarkable book about the construction and meaning of Anglican churches in colonial Virginia."—Lois Green Carr, American Historical Review"Upton provides the general reader with a fascinating portrait of architecture as the physical embodiment of a certain time, place, and society without ignoring its technological or stylistic details and development."—Robin A. S. Haynes, American Quarterly"Upton . . . answers many questions about early Virginia life with deep insight through a study of a building type that mixed high style architecture with the vernacular."—Dennis Domer, Journal of Architectural EducationWinner of the 1987 Alice Davis Hitchcock Award given by the Society of Architectural Historians, the 1987 John Hope Franklin Prize of the American Studies Association, and the 1987 Abbott Lowell Cummings Award of the Vernacular Architecture Forum.Dell Upton is professor of architectural history at the University of California, Berkeley.

Gilbert White


Richard Mabey - 1986
    In this award-winning biography, Richard Mabey tells the wonderful story of the clergyman - England's first ecologist - whose inspirational naturalist's handbook has become an English classic.

In the Family Way: Childbearing in the British Aristocracy, 1760-1860


Judith S. Lewis - 1986
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A Son of Thunder: Patrick Henry and the American Republic


Henry Mayer - 1986
    As a lawyer and a member of the Virginia House of Burgess, Henry spoke eloquently of the inalienable rights all men are born with. His philosophy inspired the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and, most significantly, the Bill of Rights. Famous for the line "Give me liberty or give me death!" Patrick Henry was a man who stirred souls and whose dedication to individual liberty became the voice for thousands. A Son of Thunder is as eloquent, witty, charged, and charismatic as its subject.

British and American Poets: Chaucer to the Present


Walter Jackson Bate - 1986
    

Essays on Art and Literature


Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - 1986
    A product of recollection, historical hindsight, and considerable study of other published sources, it is a fascinating document of the military catastrophe exposing the decline of Prussian power since the death of Frederick II, which eventually culminated in Napoleon's devastating 1806 victory at Jena and Auerstedt.

Frederick the Great: The Magnificent Enigma


Robert B. Asprey - 1986
    A cruel childhood forced him to lie, deceive and cheat in order to enjoy, if only for brief periods, the life of an intellectual. Once on the throne he spent many years of often brilliant field command of his army in seemingly endless campaigns. He remained an intellectual, however, an essayist, historian, poet, flautist, consorting when possible with the French writer Voltaire.