Best of
18th-Century

2011

Journey to Victory


Lyn Cote - 2011
    Yet she longs to be the beloved wife of one man, not a lovely piece of human art passed from one noble to another. And the winds of change are sweeping Europe. After her mother's violent murder, Christiane flees France with her renegade father. In the Canadian wilderness, she survives the shock of leaving a life of wealth and privilege. To escape frontier violence, she moves southward only to become involved in the burgeoning American Revolution. Daughter of a French courtesan to frontier wife to companion of Lady Washington, Christiane moves into the heart of the American rebel elite. But one man in her life can never be forgotten. Once he was her friend. Now he has become her enemy. Will he become her destiny? Only God knows. Note to my readers: About La Belle Christiane, my very first manuscript never published till now. When I began writing my first manuscript, I literally ran after my two toddlers with a clipboard in my hand and wrote whenever they paused. GRIN. Anyway I wrote that story without knowing anything about the market. In fact, I told myself just to write the book and then I’d think about marketing it. The thought of that was overwhelming at that time. It took me three years of writing to finish my first manuscript-1,000 handwritten pages. Whew! Then I found out that while it garnered interest from agents and editors, it never found a publisher. I think that’s because there are “unwritten” rules for inspirational and romance fiction and I didn’t know them or follow them. I still think it’s a good story and I didn’t want it to sit ignored on my shelf forever. So I’ve revised it and polished it till its quality matches what I write now. However, I’ve grown as a writer and solidified my brand. I want you to know that Christiane is not my “expected” heroine. She comes from a background far different than say, my Quaker heroines and she is trying to find her way to the truth and true love. So if you want just my regular heroine, I suggest you try my novella, “Where Honor Began” and read my Quaker Brides series. Christiane is different and yet very much like my heroines now. But I wanted you to know she’s flawed upfront. Thanks--Lyn

The Chamomile


Susan F. Craft - 2011
    She'll lie, steal, kill or be killed she promises Nicholas Xanthakos, a scout with Francis Marion's partisans, who leads the mission. In Nicholas' arms she discovers enduring love...a home. But that home is a long time coming. Her journey requires she save the life of one British officer but kill another to protect her Cherokee friend Elizabeth. In escaping bounty hunters, she treks miles of wilderness and very nearly loses everything before finally reuniting with her true love.

Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution


Michelle Moran - 2011
    but who was this woman who became one of the most famous sculptresses of all time? In these pages, her tumultuous and amazing story comes to life as only Michelle Moran can tell it. The year is 1788, and a revolution is about to begin.Smart and ambitious, Marie Tussaud has learned the secrets of wax sculpting by working alongside her uncle in their celebrated wax museum, the Salon de Cire. From her popular model of the American ambassador, Thomas Jefferson, to her tableau of the royal family at dinner, Marie's museum provides Parisians with the very latest news on fashion, gossip, and even politics. Her customers hail from every walk of life, yet her greatest dream is to attract the attention of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI; their stamp of approval on her work could catapult her and her museum to the fame and riches she desires. After months of anticipation, Marie learns that the royal family is willing to come and see their likenesses. When they finally arrive, the king's sister is so impressed that she requests Marie's presence at Versailles as a royal tutor in wax sculpting. It is a request Marie knows she cannot refuse - even if it means time away from her beloved Salon and her increasingly dear friend, Henri Charles. As Marie gets to know her pupil, Princesse Élisabeth, she also becomes acquainted with the king and queen, who introduce her to the glamorous life at court. From lavish parties with more delicacies than she's ever seen to rooms filled with candles lit only once before being discarded, Marie steps into a world entirely different from her home on the Boulevard du Temple, where people are selling their teeth in order to put food on the table. Meanwhile, many resent the vast separation between rich and poor. In salons and cafés across Paris, people like Camille Desmoulins, Jean-Paul Marat, and Maximilien Robespierre are lashing out against the monarchy. Soon, there's whispered talk of revolution... Will Marie be able to hold on to both the love of her life and her friendship with the royal family as France approaches civil war? And more important, will she be able to fulfill the demands of powerful revolutionaries who ask that she make the death masks of beheaded aristocrats, some of whom she knows? Spanning five years, from the budding revolution to the Reign of Terror, Madame Tussaud brings us into the world of an incredible heroine whose talent for wax modeling saved her life and preserved the faces of a vanished kingdom

Improbable Patriot: The Secret History of Monsieur de Beaumarchais, the French Playwright Who Saved the American Revolution


Harlow Giles Unger - 2011
    In 1776, he conceived an audacious plan to send aid to the American rebels. What's more, he convinced the king to bankroll the project, and singlehandedly carried it out. By war's end, he had supplied Washington's army with most of its weapons and powder, though he was never paid or acknowledged by the United States. To some, he was a dashing hero--a towering intellect who saved the American Revolution. To others, he was pure rogue--a double-dealing adventurer who stopped at nothing to advance his fame and fortune. In fact, he was both, and more: an advisor to kings, an arms dealer, and author of some of the most enduring works of the stage, including The Marriage of Figaro and The Barber of Seville.

American Dream: The New World, Colonial Times, and Hints of Revolution


Colleen L. Reece - 2011
    American Dream will transport you back to the birth of our nation, teaching important lessons of history and Christian faith. Featuring bonus educational materials such as time lines and brief biographies of key historical figures, American Dream is ideal for anytime reading and an excellent resource for home schooling.Visit the official Sisters in Time website at www.sistersintime.com

Escape from Zobadak


Brad Gallagher - 2011
    He and his sister Sophie believe that Uncle Gary is hiding somewhere in the nightstand.As Billy, Sophie, and their two friends Chris and Maggie begin to explore the ancient hallways they discover far more than they expect. Billy must make a terrifying choice: let the police handle things the conventional way, or escape to the nightstand and try one last time to find Uncle Gary before it’s too late.

The Guatemala Reader: History, Culture, Politics


Greg Grandin - 2011
    In choosing the selections, the editors sought to avoid representing the country only in terms of its long experience of conflict, racism, and violence. And so, while offering many perspectives on that violence, this anthology portrays Guatemala as a real place where people experience joys and sorrows that cannot be reduced to the contretemps of resistance and repression. It includes not only the opinions of politicians, activists, and scholars, but also poems, songs, plays, jokes, novels, short stories, recipes, art, and photographs that capture the diversity of everyday life in Guatemala. The editors introduce all of the selections, from the first piece, an excerpt from the Popol Vuh, a mid-sixteenth-century text believed to be the single most important source documenting pre-Hispanic Maya culture, through the final selections, which explore contemporary Guatemala in relation to neoliberalism, multiculturalism, and the dynamics of migration to the United States and of immigrant life. Many pieces were originally published in Spanish, and most of those appear in English for the first time.

Soldiers: Army Lives and Loyalties from Redcoats to Dusty Warriors


Richard Holmes - 2011
    From battlefield to barrack-room, this book is stuffed to the brim with anecdotes and stories of soldiers from the army of Charles II, through Empire and two World Wars to modern times.The British soldier forms a core component of British history. In this scholarly but gossipy book, Richard Holmes presents a rich social history of the man (and now more frequently woman) who have been at the heart of his writing for decades.Technological, political and social changes have all made their mark on the development of warfare, but have the attitudes of the soldier shifted as much we might think?For Holmes, the soldier is part of a unique tribe – and the qualities of loyalty and heroism have continued to grow amongst these men. And while today the army constitutes the smallest proportion of the population since the first decade of its existence (regular soldiers make up just 0.087%), the social organisation of the men has hardly changed; the major combat arms, infantry, cavalry and artillery, have retained much of the forms that men who fought at Blenheim, Waterloo and the Somme would readily grasp.Regiments remain an enduring feature of the army and Lieutenant Colonels have lost nothing of their importance in military hierarchy; the death of Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe in Afghanistan in 2009 shows just how high the risks are that these men continue to face.Filled to the brim with stories from all over the world and spanning across history, this magisterial book conveys how soldiers from as far back as the seventeenth century and soldiers today are united by their common experiences.Richard Holmes died suddenly, soon after completing this book. It is his last word on the British soldier – about which he knew and wrote so much.

Independence: A Guide to Historic Philadelphia


George Boudreau - 2011
    Grounded in enlightenment ideals, Philadelphia attracted diverse settlers from the Old and New Worlds. By the 1760s, a cash-strapped England set its sights on taxing the American colonies to pay its debts. Philadelphia assumed roles as a center of revolutionary protests, a meeting place for colonial delegates to decide on independence and a new form of government, and, finally, the first capital of the United States of America.Richly illustrated with both new photography and an amazing array of early American art drawn from the collections of some of America’s leading museums and archives, Independence: A Guide to Historic Philadelphia reveals the stories of the persons who experienced the early years of the new nation in America’s first capital. Based on meticulous research, Independence walks its readers through the lives of the residents and visitors of the revolutionary city, and through the streets and buildings that they knew. Famous names are here: Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Washington. But Independence also focuses on the fascinating stories of less famous American founders. Enslaved and free, women and men, rich and poor, patriot and Tory, shaped Philadelphia’s and America’s experience in the revolutionary era, and all have their say here. In addition, this guide tells the stories of the iconic buildings and streets where America was founded. The book explores the dozens of buildings that make up Independence National Historical Park and connects these with neighboring sites that are also intimately associated with the story of America’s birth.Independence will enrich the experience of those who travel to these historic sites, as well as offer a vivid and fascinating story for the general reader.

The Zong: A Massacre, the Law and the End of Slavery


James Walvin - 2011
    The captain believed his ship was off course, and he feared there was not enough drinking water to last until landfall. This book is the first to examine in detail the deplorable killings on the Zong, the lawsuit that ensued, how the murder of 132 slaves affected debates about slavery, and the way we remember the infamous Zong today. Historian James Walvin explores all aspects of the Zong’s voyage and the subsequent trial—a case brought to court not for the murder of the slaves but as a suit against the insurers who denied the owners’ claim that their “cargo” had been necessarily jettisoned. The scandalous case prompted wide debate and fueled Britain’s awakening abolition movement. Without the episode of the Zong, Walvin contends, the process of ending the slave trade would have taken an entirely different moral and political trajectory. He concludes with a fascinating discussion of how the case of the Zong, though unique in the history of slave ships, has come to be understood as typical of life on all such ships.

American Challenge: Revolution, A New Nation, and Westward Expansion


Susan Martins Miller - 2011
    Featuring bonus educational materials such as time lines and brief biographies of key historical figures, American Challenge is ideal for anytime reading and an excellent resource for home schooling.Visit the official Sisters in Time website at www.sistersintime.com

Thomas Jefferson for Kids: His Life and Times with 21 Activities


Brandon Marie Miller - 2011
    Left fatherless at a young age, he was a hardworking scholar who came into his own as a lawyer, landowner, and county leader. Elected to the Virginia Assembly in 1769, Jefferson became an eloquent critic of the colonial policies of Great Britain and King George III. His talents made him the perfect candidate to write the Declaration of Independence, which set the United States apart in a world ruled by monarchs.Jefferson, however, was not without his contradictions. His quill penned the immortal phrase “all men are created equal,” but during his lifetime he owned 600 slaves. And though he sought elected office, he was sensitive to criticism and often wished to escape his public role and return to his Monticello estate.Author Brandon Marie Miller captures the complexity of this talented leader through his original writings and hands-on activities from the colonial era

Seppuku: A History of Samurai Suicide


Andrew Rankin - 2011
    Here, for the first time in English, is a book that charts the history of seppuku from ancient times to the twentieth century through a collection of swashbuckling tales from history and literature. Author Andrew Rankin takes us from the first recorded incident of seppuku, by the goddess Aomi in the eighth century, through the "golden age" of seppuku in the sixteenth century that includes the suicides of Shibata Katsuie, Sen no Riky? and Toyotomi Hidetsugu, up to the seppuku of General Nogi Maresuke in 1912.Drawing on never-before-translated medieval war tales, samurai clan documents, and execution handbooks, Rankin also provides a fascinating look at the seppuku ritual itself, explaining the correct protocol and etiquette for seppuku, different stomach-cutting procedures, types of swords, attire, location, even what kinds of refreshment should be served at the seppuku ceremony. The book ends with a collection of quotations from authors and commentators down through the centuries, summing up both the Japanese attitude toward seppuku and foreigners' reactions:"As for when to die, make sure you are one step ahead of everyone else. Never pull back from the brink. But be aware that there are times when you should die, and times when you should not. Die at the right moment, and you will be a hero. Die at the wrong moment, and you will die like a dog." -- Izawa Nagahide, The Warrior's Code, 1725"We all thought, 'These guys are some kind of nutcakes.'" -- Jim Verdolini, USS Randolph, describing "Kamikaze" attack of March 11, 1945

The Global Seven Years War 1754 - 1763: Britain and France in a Great Power Contest


Daniel A. Baugh - 2011
    Winston Churchill called it "the first World War." Neither side could afford to lose advantage in any part of the world, and the decisive battles of the war ranged from Fort Duquesne in what is now Pittsburgh to Minorca in the Mediterranean, from Bengal to Quebec. By its end British power in North America and India had been consolidated and the foundations of Empire laid, yet at the time both sides saw it primarily as a struggle for security, power and influence within Europe.In this eagerly awaited study, Daniel Baugh, the world's leading authority on eighteenth century maritime history looks at the war as it unfolded from the failure of Anglo-French negotiations over the Ohio territories in 1784 through the official declaration of war in 1756 to the treaty of Paris which formally ended hostilities between England and France in 1763. At each stage he examines the processes of decision-making on each side for what they can show us about the capabilities and efficiency of the two national governments and looks at what was involved not just in the military engagements themselves but in the complexities of sustaining campaigns so far from home.With its panoramic scope and use of telling detail this definitive account will be essential reading for anyone with an interest in military history or the history of eighteenth century Europe.

Dairy Queens: The Politics of Pastoral Architecture from Catherine De' Medici to Marie-Antoinette


Meredith S. Martin - 2011
    These garden structures--most famously the faux-rustic, white marble dairy built for Marie-Antoinette's Hameau at Versailles--have long been dismissed as the trifling follies of a reckless elite. Martin challenges such assumptions and reveals the pivotal role that pleasure dairies played in cultural and political life, especially with respect to polarizing debates about nobility, femininity, and domesticity. Together with other forms of pastoral architecture such as model farms and hermitages, pleasure dairies were crucial arenas for elite women to exercise and experiment with identity and power.Opening with Catherine de' Medici's lavish dairy at Fontainebleau (c. 1560), Martin's book explores how French queens and noblewomen used pleasure dairies to naturalize their status, display their cultivated tastes, and proclaim their virtue as nurturing mothers and capable estate managers. Pleasure dairies also provided women with a site to promote good health, by spending time in salubrious gardens and consuming fresh milk. Illustrated with a dazzling array of images and photographs, Dairy Queens sheds new light on architecture, self, and society in the ancien regime.

The Journal of Georgian Gentleman


Mike Rendell - 2011
    

The Arabian Nights' Entertainments


Louis Rhead - 2011
    It is often known in English as the Arabian Nights, from the first English language edition (1706), which rendered the title as The Arabian Nights' Entertainment.

The Elusive West and the Contest for Empire, 1713-1763


Paul W. Mapp - 2011
    Breaking from scholars' traditional focus on the Atlantic world, Paul W. Mapp demonstrates the centrality of hitherto understudied western regions to early American history and shows that a Pacific focus is crucial to understanding the causes, course, and consequences of the Seven Years' War.

The Marrow Controversy and Seceder Tradition: Atonement, Saving Faith, and the Gospel Offer in Scotland (1718-1799)


William VanDoodewaard - 2011
    However, until now, there has not been a serious analysis of the theology of the Marrow Men as it relates to churches in Scotland during the aftermath of the controversy.In this important study, William vanDoodewaard identifies characteristic understandings of Marrow theology on the atonement, saving faith, and the free offer of the gospel and traces them out in the theology of the Seceder tradition. In doing so, he presents substantial evidence for the continuity of Marrow theology in the Associate Presbytery and Associate Synod in Scotland during the eighteenth century. He ably demonstrates that while Marrow theology was not the primary cause of the Secession churches, the Seceders were aware of the significance of Marrow theology and consciously made it an integral part of their churches. Table of Contents: Part 1: Views of the Gospel and Its Proclamation: The Era of the Marrow Controversy 1. The Marrow of Modern Divinity and the Marrow Controversy 2. Views of the Gospel and Its Proclamation: Opponents of The Marrow 3. Views of the Gospel and Its Proclamation: Supporters of The Marrow 4. Conclusions on the Doctrine of the Atonement, Saving Faith, and the Gospel Offer during the Marrow Controversy Part 2: Views of the Gospel and Its Proclamation in the Associate Presbytery (1733-1747) and Associate Synod (1747-1799) 5. A Historical Introduction to the Secession Church 6. Historiographical Introduction to the Secession Churches 7. Theological Evidences for the Continuity of Marrow Theology in the Associate Presbytery (1733-1747) 8. The Associate Presbytery, George Whitefield, and the Cambuslang Revival 9. Theological Evidences for the Continuity of Marrow Theology in the Associate Synod: John Swanston to John Fraser (1748-1770)

Pastel Portraits: Images of 18th-Century Europe


Katharine Baetjer - 2011
    The powdery, vibrant crayons are particularly suited to capturing the skin tones and evanescent expressions that characterize the most lifelike portraits.Pastels cannot be permanently displayed because they are susceptible to fading, and they rarely travel. Until now, there has never been an exhibition in the U.S. devoted to these intriguing and important works. Pastel Portraits, the companion book to an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, presents over 40 exquisite works by French, Italian, English, Swiss, and American artists. It offers a technical discussion of the materials and explains why pastels achieved widespread popularity in the 1700s and how the fabrication of this medium intersected with Enlightenment thinking.

Marshal Vauban and the Defence of Louis XIV's France


James Falkner - 2011
    His complex, highly sophisticated fortress designs, his advanced theories for the defense and attack of fortified places, and his prolific work as a writer and radical thinker on military and social affairs, mark him out as one of the most influential military minds of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Yet no recent study of this extraordinary man has been published in English. James Falkner, in this perceptive and lively new account of Vauban's life and work, follows his career as a soldier from a dashing and brave young cavalry officer to his emergence as a masterful military engineer. And he shows that Vauban was much more than simply a superlative builder of fortresses, for as a leading military commander serving Louis XIV, he perfected a method for attacking fortifications in the most effective way, which became standard practice until the present day. James Falkner's new study will add significantly to the understanding of Vauban's achievements and the impact his work has had on the history of warfare.

Portrait Jewels: Opulence and Intimacy from the Medici to the Romanovs


Diana Scarisbrick - 2011
    Dynasties represented here include the Valois and Bourbon in France; Bavarian, Habsburg, and Hanoverian in Germany, Central Europe, and Spain; Tudor, Stuart, and Hanoverian in Britain; and the House of Orange-Nassau in the Netherlands. Men and women famous in politics, religion, history, literature, and the arts, including Queen Elizabeth I, Louis XIV, Catherine the Great, Voltaire and Madame du Châtelet, Popes Clement XII and Pius VII, and Lord Byron are featured in this exquisite miniature gallery.The author draws upon her knowledge of jewelry, painting, history, and literature to set the portrait jewels in the context of people’s lives, and shows how they were worn and what they meant to donors and recipients—tokens of allegiance to a ruler, of commitment between lovers, of affection within families.

Paris: Life Luxury in the Eighteenth Century


Charissa Bremer-David - 2011
    This groundbreaking book seeks to reimagine objects from eighteenth-century Paris within their original context, showing how they were used in the daily routines of elite members of society. Against the background of the reign of Louis XV (r. 1723–1774), the chapters move chronologically from morning to night, covering such topics as temporal literacy and technological advances in timekeeping; innovations in domestic architecture and design for privacy; fashion and self-identity as expressed in the ritual of the morning toilette; reading and discussion of literary texts as influences on the collecting of art; and sociability and politesse during nocturnal entertainments.The book reflects current scholarship in social history and material culture, but rather than being an exploration of the vernacular, it investigates the emergence of the luxury trade in eighteenth-century Paris, whose products survive in great quantity due to their superior materials and craftsmanship. The essays reveal many of the considerations—practical, social, and aesthetic—that inspired their production. By connecting the purposes, function, and beauty of these works of art, the volume makes a fascinating and important contribution to the study and enjoyment of a great period in French culture. The publication coincides with the exhibition Paris: Life & Luxury on view at the J. Paul Getty Museum from April 26 through August 7, 2011 and at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, from September 18 through December 10, 2011.

The Image of the Black in Western Art: From the "Age of Discovery" to the Age of Abolition: Europe and the World Beyond


David Bindman - 2011
    Highlights from her collection appeared in three large-format volumes that quickly became collector's items. A half-century later, Harvard University Press and the Du Bois Institute are proud to publish a complete set of ten sumptuous books, including new editions of the original volumes and two additional ones."Europe and the World Beyond" focuses geographically on peoples of South America and the Mediterranean as well as Africa--but conceptually it emphasizes the many ways that visual constructions of blacks mediated between Europe and a faraway African continent that was impinging ever more closely on daily life, especially in cities and ports engaged in slave trade."The Eighteenth Century "features a particularly rich collection of images of Africans representing slavery's apogee and the beginnings of abolition. Old visual tropes of a master with adoring black slave gave way to depictions of Africans as victims and individuals, while at the same time the intellectual foundations of scientific racism were established.

The Invisible Lodge


Jean Paul Friedrich Richter - 2011
    You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Fragonard's Progress of Love at The Frick Collection


Colin B. Bailey - 2011
    Fragonard (1732–1806) completed four large canvases for the comtesse du Barry’s chateau at Louveciennes, but they were replaced and returned to the artist. In 1790 Fragonard moved them to his cousin’s house in Grasse, and over the course of the year painted two further large-scale works and 18 additional panels.With 140 colour images of the Fragonard paintings, details, shots of the room, plans, original sketches, and other comparative images, author Colin Bailey explores the commission of the four main panels, their original arrangement at Louveciennes and the possible reasons for their rejection. Equally enthralling is the history of how the paintings were rediscovered in the late 19th century and how they eventually came to The Frick Collection.

In the Shadow of Dracula


Leslie S. KlingerCount Stenbock - 2011
    IDW Publishing presents an expertly selected menu of outstanding vampire stories that either informed or benefited from Bram Stoker's hugely popular creation. These eerie tales of the undead - some 22 in all - form the core cannon of classic vampire literature. Chosen and introduced by celebrated literary scholar and author Leslie S. Klinger (The New Annotated Dracula), with illustrations by an array of noted horror artists, In the Shadow of Dracula brings to adventuresome readers stories of nocturnal terror that have lived in Stoker's shadow for too long. Authors include M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, and Bram Stoker himself. Included are what's considered the first true vampire story 1816, as well the classic novella Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu, the first vampire tale with a lesbian theme (it's been adapted to comics and film several times), and "The Family of the Vourdalak" by Aleksei Tolstoy (he's the cousin of the famous one), which gave Boris Karloff one of his greatest roles.

Moll: The Life and Times of Moll Flanders


Siân Rees - 2011
    But who was she? And what world did she really inhabit? To answer these questions Moll takes its readers on a journey of literary and historical detection, across continents, cultures and centuries. Following Moll's tumultuous life, the story moves from Jacobean England to Jamestown, Virginia; from the English Civil War to the struggles of the Powhatan Indians; from the English Restoration to Maryland's slave-worked tobacco farms; and from the metropolis of London to the hamlet of Annapolis in the early eighteenth century.Siân Rees introduces us to real-life versions of Moll's mother, her amoral 'governess', her many husbands and lovers - and Moll herself. These include Moll Cutpurse: thief, receiver, procuress and gangmaster; Mary Moders, known as the 'Kentish Moll' or the 'German Princess', who played a distressed noblewoman to hook rich men; and Moll King, a London thief reprieved from death to be transported as a convict to the Virginian plantations. Combining meticulously researched tales of London's underworld with the little-known story of penal transportation to America, Moll is as fast-moving and rich in incident as Defoe's great novel.

Bread of Heaven: The Life and Work of William Williams, Pantycelyn


Eifion Evans - 2011
    His other writings, which are, in themselves, a treasure store of sound biblical teaching and practical, everyday application are included in summary with frequent original translation. A title in which there is much to challenge the mind, delight the soul and motivate godly living.

The Appeasement of Radhika: Radhika Santawanam


Muddupalani - 2011
    Celebrated as a literary masterpiece in Muddupalani’s lifetime, Radhika Santawanam was banned by the British in 1910 when it was published again, a century and a half later, with critics panning its graphic descriptions of lovemaking. And, after another hundred years, this epic is now available in its entirety for the first time in English translation

Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World


Ilona Katzew - 2011
    Spanning developments from the 15th to the 19th century, this ambitious book looks at the many ways and contexts in which indigenous peoples were represented in art of the early modern period—by colonial artists, European artists, and themselves. More than two hundred works of art, including paintings, sculptures, illustrated books, maps, codices, manuscripts, and other materials such as textiles, keros, and feather works, are reproduced in full-color illustrations, demonstrating the rich variety of these artistic approaches. A collection of essays by an international team of distinguished scholars in the field uncovers the different meanings and purposes behind these depictions of native populations of the Americas. These experts explore the role of the visual arts in negotiating a sense of place in late pre-Columbian and colonial Latin America. They address a range of important topics, such as the construct of the Indian as a good Christian; how Amerindians drew on their pre-Columbian past to stake out a place within the Spanish body politic; their participation in festive rites; and their role as artists. Lavishly illustrated, this ambitious book provides a compelling and original framework by which to understand the intersection of vision and power in the Spanish colonial world.

The War of American Independence: 1775-1783


C. Richard Middleton - 2011
    This book shows how Britain entered a conflict that it believed could not be lost. The American Patriots were similarly optimistic about their martial prospects. Although they eventually secured independence, it was only with the assistance of France and indirectly Spain, who diverted British resources from the conflict in America, allowing France eventually to deliver a knockout blow at Yorktown. Ironically it is America and her NATO allies that are currently involved in neo- colonial military ventures.This extensive yet accessible exploration into the War of American Independence provides aclear analysis of why this complex conflict occurred and why it ended as it did, revealing the fragile nature of the American Patriot cause. An essential guide for any history student, including those specializing in war/peace studies and the study of international relations, as well the general reader with an interest in the study of war.

Conversable Worlds: Literature, Contention, and Community 1762 to 1830


Jon Mee - 2011
    Around 1700 a new commercial society was emerging that thought of its values as the product of exchanges between citizens. Conversation became increasingly important as a model and as a practice for how community could be created. A welter of publications, in periodical essays, in novels, and in poetry, enjoined the virtues of conversation. These publications were enthusiastically read and discussed in book clubs and literary societies that created their own conversable worlds. From some perspectives, the freedom of a distinctively English conversation allowed for the 'collision' of ideas and sentiments. For others, like Joseph Addison and David Hume, ease of 'flow' was the key issue, and politeness the means of establishing a via media. For Addison and Hume, the feminization of culture promised to make women the sovereigns of what Hume called 'the conversable world'. As the culture seemed to open up to a multitude of voices, anxieties appeared as to how far things should be allowed to go. The unruliness of the crowd threatened to disrupt the channels of communication. There was a parallel fear that mere feminized chatter might replace learning. This book examines the influence of these developments on the idea of literature from 1762 through to 1830. Part I examines the conversational paradigm established by figures like Addison and Hume, and the proliferation of conversable worlds into gatherings like Johnson's Club and Montagu's Bluestocking assemblies. Part II looks at the transition from the eighteenth century to 'Romantic' ideas of literary culture, the question of the withdrawal from mixed social space, the drive to sublimate verbal exchange into forms that retained dialogue without contention in places like Coleridge's 'conversation poems, ' and the continuing tensions between ideas of the republic of letters as a space of vigorous exchange as opposed to the organic unfolding of consciousness.

The Eighteenth-Century Church in Britain


Terry Friedman - 2011
    The first substantial study of the subject to appear in over half a century, Terry Friedman's work explores not only the physical aspects of these buildings but church-going activities of Britons from the cradle to the grave. In addition, fully documented, chronologically sequenced design and construction histories of 272 key ecclesiastical buildings are presented on an accompanying CD-ROM.

The Austrian Army in the Seven Years War


Christopher Duffy - 2011
    To avenge defeats in a former war, Austria assembled a massive superiority in forces thanks to powerful alliances, and an army reformed and far more effective than ever before. But Prussia hung on to force a long war and an bloody draw. The brilliance of Frederick the Great and the Prussian army have been given credit for this outcome, but Austria had more than its fair share of good soldiers and skilled generals. Wars never turn out as expected when there are formidable foes, and this book tells what went wrong. This is more than account of battles and marches. The story of the Seven Years War in Central Europe has been long neglected, and yet it was there that the Austrians (followed closely by the Prussians) broke with the former rigidity of the armies of monarchial Europe, and not just foreshadowed but put into actual effect initiatives that are normally associated with the campaigns of the Revolution and Napoleon. The myth of a limited war leading to indecisive battles is no longer tenable.

Unexpected Journey


Christina St. Clair - 2011
    Rich girls did not fraternize with streetwise women, even when they were from the same country. Furthermore, well-bred English girls had no interest in brown-skinned natives from the colonies. Yet the paths of just such very different people cross, and they must deal with the dangerous attractions that lead them into brand new ways of living.

The Image of the Black in Western Art: From the "Age of Discovery" to the Age of Abolition: The Eighteenth Century


David Bindman - 2011
    Highlights from her collection appeared in three large-format volumes that quickly became collector's items. A half-century later, Harvard University Press and the Du Bois Institute are proud to publish a complete set of ten sumptuous books, including new editions of the original volumes and two additional ones."Europe and the World Beyond" focuses geographically on peoples of South America and the Mediterranean as well as Africa--but conceptually it emphasizes the many ways that visual constructions of blacks mediated between Europe and a faraway African continent that was impinging ever more closely on daily life, especially in cities and ports engaged in slave trade."The Eighteenth Century "features a particularly rich collection of images of Africans representing slavery's apogee and the beginnings of abolition. Old visual tropes of a master with adoring black slave gave way to depictions of Africans as victims and individuals, while at the same time the intellectual foundations of scientific racism were established.

Flora's Empire: British Gardens in India


Eugenia W. Herbert - 2011
    In Flora's Empire, Eugenia W. Herbert argues that more than simple nostalgia or homesickness lay at the root of this garden imperialism, however. Drawing on a wealth of period illustrations and personal accounts, many of them little known, she traces the significance of gardens in the long history of British relations with the subcontinent. To British eyes, she demonstrates, India was an untamed land that needed the visible stamp of civilization that gardens in their many guises could convey.Colonial gardens changed over time, from the garden houses of eighteenth-century nabobs modeled on English country estates to the herbaceous borders, gravel walks, and well-trimmed lawns of Victorian civil servants. As the British extended their rule, they found that hill stations like Simla offered an ideal retreat from the unbearable heat of the plains and a place to coax English flowers into bloom. Furthermore, India was part of the global network of botanical exploration and collecting that gathered up the world's plants for transport to great imperial centers such as Kew. And it is through colonial gardens that one may track the evolution of imperial ideas of governance. Every Government House and Residency was carefully landscaped to reflect current ideals of an ordered society. At Independence in 1947 the British left behind a lasting legacy in their gardens, one still reflected in the design of parks and information technology campuses and in the horticultural practices of home gardeners who continue to send away to England for seeds.

Mapping Europe's Borderlands: Russian Cartography in the Age of Empire


Steven Seegel - 2011
    Maps shape and communicate information, for the sake of improved orientation. But maps exist for states as well as individuals, and they need to be interpreted as expressions of power and knowledge, as Steven Seegel makes clear in his impressive and important new book.Mapping Europe’s Borderlands takes the familiar problems of state and nation building in eastern Europe and presents them through an entirely new prism, that of cartography and cartographers. Drawing from sources in eleven languages, including military, historical-pedagogical, and ethnographic maps, as well as geographic texts and related cartographic literature, Seegel explores the role of maps and mapmakers in the East Central European borderlands from the Enlightenment to the Treaty of Versailles. For example, Seegel explains how Russia used cartography in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars and, later, formed its geography society as a cover for gathering intelligence. He also explains the importance of maps to the formation of identities and institutions in Poland, Ukraine, and Lithuania, as well as in Russia. Seegel concludes with a consideration of the impact of cartographers’ regional and socioeconomic backgrounds, educations, families, career options, and available language choices.

Amadeus


Ray Morton - 2011
    Milos Forman's film Amadeus was a big hit with critics and audiences alike, an unlikely feat for a film about the clash of two rival composers Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In this first book ever written about the making of the classic movie, Ray Morton traces the story of Amadeus from its origins as an acclaimed Peter Shaffer play through its transformation into a dazzling cinematic experience.