Best of
18th-Century

2014

My Name Is Resolute


Nancy E. Turner - 2014
    Now Turner has written the novel she was born to write, this exciting and heartfelt story of a woman struggling to find herself during the tumultuous years preceding the American Revolution.The story begins in 1729, when Resolute Talbot and her siblings are captured by pirates, taken from their family's plantation in Jamaica, and brought to the New World. Resolute and her sister become indentured servants and are taught the trade of spinning and weaving. Betrayed by her first love, Resolute falls back on her skill with a loom to survive. Then she meets a young woodsman who is living a double life and is wanted in England. When British rule begins to crush the Colonials, Resolute begins to work in secret, hiding her craft and smuggling goods to keep Patriot soldiers clothed. Ultimately she becomes a friend of Margaret Gage, the very real wife of the commanding general of the British Army in America. On the night of April 18, 1775, Resolute carries a message to the Reveres' silver shop, changing the course of American history.Heart-wrenching, brilliantly written, and historically authentic, My Name is Resolute is destined to become an instant classic.

The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn


Lori Benton - 2014
    Trouble awaits in the form of a divided frontier community. Across the mountains the State of Franklin has been declared, yet many settlers remain loyal to North Carolina. Chaos reigns, thwarting Tamsen and Jesse’s hastily cobbled plan to keep her safe. With her pursuers ever nearing, the region in turmoil, neighbors grown suspicious of her presence, Tamsen’s safety is soon put in greater jeopardy. Gaining the freedom she longs for will mean running yet again, to the most unlikely refuge imaginable—the Cherokees, a people balanced on the knife edge of war. But the biggest complication may prove to be Tamsen’s growing bond with her knight in greasy buckskins, Jesse Bird. Falling in love was never part of the plan.

The Stolen Girl


Zia Wesley - 2014
    Innocent Aimée refuses to believe she might ever have to face the intrigue and evil that lurks beneath the exotic beauty and opulence of the Ottoman Empire. Rose mistakenly believes that her marriage to an aristocratic French lieutenant will insure her place in Parisian society. Both will be proven wrong.This first book in Zia Wesley’s The Veil and the Crown series tells the beginning of the extraordinary true story of Aimée Dubucq de Rivery and her cousin, Rose Tascher de La Pagerie…both destined to be queens.Publisher's Note: This is an extraordinarily well-researched novel that is true to the period. As such, there is explicit sexual and violent content that, while typical to the era, is most appropriate for adult readers.The Veil and the Crown, in series order:The Stolen GirlThe French Sultana“I lingered over and savored the vivid descriptions and found it absorbing, historically interesting, well researched and constantly enticing. It was as if Zia took me by the hand and we followed the heroine through all her adventures. Scheherazade, eat your heart out!” - Lorain Fox Davis, Grammy winner and educator

The Devil on Her Tongue


Linda Holeman - 2014
    Unbaptized, tainted by her mother's witchcraft and her foreign blood, the girl is an outcast who seems doomed in her struggle to survive. Diamantina refuses to accept her destiny and vows to escape her circumstances and forge a life of her own, no matter the cost. But as the price of her desires rises, can she live with the choices she has made? Diamantina's odyssey to change her life is a narrative of starvation and plenty, cruelty and love, disaster and triumph.

A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III


Janice Hadlow - 2014
    But this was far from the only difference between him and his predecessors. Neither of the previous Georges was faithful to his wife, nor to his mistresses. Both hated their own sons. And, overall, their children were angry, jealous, and disaffected schemers, whose palace shenanigans kick off Hadlow's juicy narrative and also made their lives unhappy ones.Pained by his childhood amid this cruel and feuding family, George came to the throne aspiring to be a new kind of king—a force for moral good. And to be that new kind of king, he had to be a new kind of man. Against his irresistibly awful family background—of brutal royal intrigue, infidelity, and betrayal—George fervently pursued a radical domestic dream: he would have a faithful marriage and raise loving, educated, and resilient children.The struggle of King George—along with his wife, Queen Charlotte, and their 15 children—to pursue a passion for family will surprise history buffs and delight a broad swath of biography readers and royal watchers.

Highland Deception


Meggan Connors - 2014
    He certainly doesn’t expect to be confronted with his twin’s imminent death, or with the plan his brother has concocted. Ten years before, Malcolm made a tragic mistake, and, to preserve the family name—and his own skin—he allowed Kenneth to take the fall. Now that he is dying without an heir, Malcolm plans to atone for his mistake: by giving Kenneth his life back. All Kenneth has to do is assume his brother’s identity. But complicating matters is the unexpected return of Lady Isobel Mackay, the daughter of an English marquess and the wife Malcolm didn’t want. Isobel barely knows the husband who abandoned her even before their marriage, and she'd long since given up on having a real marriage with him. Yet when she returns to the Mackay holding far earlier than expected, she finds her husband a changed man. Despite the hurt between them, Isobel's heart responds to this man who cares for his entire clan as if they were family. Who, for the first time, cares for her as if she is, too. Falling in love with her husband had never been part of Isobel’s plan. But when their future is suddenly in peril, Isobel must find a way to save him—from himself and from the deception threatening to tear them apart.

Punishing Miss Primrose, Parts I - XX: The Complete Set: An Erotic Historical in the Red Chrysanthemum Series


Em Brown - 2014
    This was one of those books for me. I just got so into the story and never wanted it to end.” - Romancing the Book review of SUBMITTING TO THE RAKE ____________________________________________________________ Miss Primrose needs to be punished. A member of the wickedly wanton Inn of the Red Chrysanthemum, where the most taboo and illicit pleasures are indulged, Miss Primrose—or Mistress Primrose, as she prefers—left Nicholas Edelton a shell of a man. Now his older brother, Spencer Edelton, the Marquess of Carey, intends to provide her a set-down she will never forget. Weary from exacting her revenge upon the man who raped her sister, Beatrice Primrose has had her fill of men of privilege and presumption, but she accepts a fateful invitation from a handsome nobleman to spend a sennight at his estate for a grand sum of money. She soon learns, however, that she will not get to reprise her role as Mistress. To her horror, she finds his lordship expects her to submit to him! But Beatrice won’t give in so easily. In a clash of wills, fueled by vengeance and lust, Lord Carey and Miss Primrose wrestle for dominance in, and out of, the bedchamber. Their biggest struggle, however, may be against their own desires… Can Miss Primrose take what she dishes? And will Lord Carey succumb or succeed in punishing Miss Primrose? READER ADVISORY: Punishing Miss Primrose is an erotic historical romance with BDSM elements. It was originally written as a serial of short stories. This complete set contains all 20 parts and is equivalent to a "super novel" length at 145,000 words and over 500 pages.

Liberty or Death


David Cook - 2014
    One hundred thousand peasants have risen up against the Crown to the tales of men, women and children butchered as traitors. It is whispered that the feared and despised ghosts of Oliver Cromwell’s New Model army have returned seeking bloodshed, and no one is safe.Major Lorn Mullone, a man forged by war and torn by past failures, is sent by the government to apprehend Colonel Black, a dangerous and shadowy figure, who is harming the fragile peace talks with his own murderous retribution.In a race against time, Lorn must journey across a country riven by fighting, where at the walled town of New Ross, he discovers a new horror.In the desperate battle for peace, Lorn must survive for the sake of Ireland's future.Liberty or Death is an authentic historical story set against the brutal backdrop of Ireland's Great Rebellion, the first novella in The Soldier Chronicles series.

Band of Giants: The Amateur Soldiers Who Won America's Independence


Jack Kelly - 2014
    Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin are known to all; men like Morgan, Greene, and Wayne are less familiar. Yet the dreams of the politicians and theorists only became real because fighting men were willing to take on the grim, risky, brutal work of war. We know Fort Knox, but what about Henry Knox, the burly Boston bookseller who took over the American artillery at the age of 25? Eighteen counties in the United States commemorate Richard Montgomery, but do we know that this revered martyr launched a full-scale invasion of Canada? The soldiers of the American Revolution were a diverse lot: merchants and mechanics, farmers and fishermen, paragons and drunkards. Most were ardent amateurs. Even George Washington, assigned to take over the army around Boston in 1775, consulted books on military tactics. Here, Jack Kelly vividly captures the fraught condition of the war—the bitterly divided populace, the lack of supplies, the repeated setbacks on the battlefield, and the appalling physical hardships. That these inexperienced warriors could take on and defeat the superpower of the day was one of the remarkable feats in world history.

The Devil in the Marshalsea


Antonia Hodgson - 2014
    Those with none will starve in squalor and disease. And those who try to escape will suffer a gruesome fate at the hands of the gaol's rutheless governor and his cronies.The trouble is, Tom Hawkins has never been good at following rules - even simple ones. And the recent grisly murder of a debtor, Captain Roberts, has brought further terror to the gaol. While the Captain's beautiful widow cries for justice, the finger of suspicion points only one way: to the sly, enigmatic figure of Samuel Fleet.Some call Fleet a devil, a man to avoid at all costs. But Tom Hawkins is sharing his cell. Soon, Tom's choice is clear: get to the truth of the murder - or be the next to die.A twisting mystery, a dazzling evocation of early 18th Century London, The Devil in the Marshalsea is a thrilling debut novel full of intrigue and suspense.

Fashion Victims: Dress at the Court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette


Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell - 2014
    Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell offers a carefully researched glimpse into the turbulent era’s sophisticated and largely female-dominated fashion industry, which produced courtly finery as well as promoted a thriving secondhand clothing market outside the royal circle. She discusses in depth the exceptionally imaginative and uninhibited styles of the period immediately before the French Revolution, and also explores fashion’s surprising influence on the course of the Revolution itself. The absorbing narrative demonstrates fashion’s crucial role as a visible and versatile medium for social commentary, and shows the glittering surface of 18th-century high society as well as its seedy underbelly.  Fashion Victims presents a compelling anthology of trends, manners, and personalities from the era, accompanied by gorgeous fashion plates, portraits, and photographs of rare surviving garments. Drawing upon documentary evidence, previously unpublished archival sources, and new information about aristocrats, politicians, and celebrities, this book is an unmatched study of French fashion in the late 18th century, providing astonishing insight, a gripping story, and stylish inspiration.

In These Times: Living in Britain Through Napoleon's Wars, 1793–1815


Jenny Uglow - 2014
    Illustrated by the satires of Gillray and Rowlandson and the paintings of Turner and Constable, and combining the familiar voices of Austen, Wordsworth, Scott, and Byron with others lost in the crowd, In These Times delves into the archives to tell the moving story of how people lived and loved and sang and wrote, struggling through hard times and opening new horizons that would change their country for a century.

Dawnland Voices: An Anthology of Indigenous Writing from New England


Siobhan Senier - 2014
    This pathbreaking anthology includes both classic and contemporary literary works from ten New England indigenous nations: the Abenaki, Maliseet, Mi’kmaq, Mohegan, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Schaghticoke, and Wampanoag.  Through literary collaboration and recovery, Siobhan Senier and Native tribal historians and scholars have crafted a unique volume covering a variety of genres and historical periods. From the earliest petroglyphs and petitions to contemporary stories and hip-hop poetry, this volume highlights the diversity and strength of New England Native literary traditions. Dawnland Voices introduces readers to the compelling and unique literary heritage in New England, banishing the misconception that “real” Indians and their traditions vanished from that region centuries ago.

A Devil of a Time


Gretchen Jeannette - 2014
    When Niall becomes a suspect in a grotesque murder, his reputation as a merciless Indian fighter and scalp hunter turns the public against him. Worse, the real killer has only begun to rampage, his sights set on those close to Niall.Now the hunt for evil is on . . .Niall's only allies are Andrew Wade, a hopeless drunkard tormented by his act of cowardice, and Andrew's young wife, Clarice, a woman of mettle who captivates Niall’s heart. After another murder occurs, Niall manages to stay out of jail, but can he protect Clarice from the formidable creature prowling in their midst?From the mysterious forests of Kentucky to a graceful Virginia plantation, from the fevered heat of battle to the passionate struggle for renewal, A Devil of a Time weaves a tale of courage, betrayal, and forbidden love, of three men grappling with the demons of their past, and the remarkable woman destined to change all their lives forever."A devilishly good novel." --The Kindle Book Review"This is adventure at the finest level." --GoodbooksToday.com"One hell of a fulfilling read." --E-book PlanetMATURE CONTENT: This novel borders on American Gothic, with dark themes, a strong romantic element, and integral violence that some readers might find disturbing.

The Pocket Haiku


Matsuo Bashō - 2014
    Based on images from nature, the poems address the themes of joy, temporality, beauty, wonder, loneliness, and loss. Haiku may be the most popular and widely recognizable poetic form in the world. In just three lines a great haiku presents a crystalline moment of image, emotion, and awareness. Elements of compassion, silence, and a sense of temporality often combine to reveal a quality of mystery. Just as often, haiku may bring a startling insight into the ordinary, or a flash of humor. Collected here are over two hundred of the best haiku of Japanese literature--written by the great masters of the genre.The featured poets are Bashō, Buson, Issa, Moritake, Sōin, Sanpū, Kikaku, Ransetsu, Kyorai, Raizan, Kakei, Onitsura, Taigi, Chiyo, Sogetsuni, Sogi, Fuhaku, Teiga, Kikusha-ni, Tayo-jo, Sōchō, Shōha, and Shiki.     This is a pocket-size reissue of The Sound of Water (Shambhala, 1995).

Yakimali's Gift


Linda Covella - 2014
    While she tends her garden, matches wits with buyers and sellers at the weekly market, and avoids Mama’s lectures and the demands of Nicolas, the handsome soldier pursuing her, Fernanda grabs any opportunity to ride the horses she loves, racing across the desert, dreaming of adventure in faraway lands.But when a tragic accident presents her with the adventure she longed for, it’s at a greater cost than she could have ever imagined. With her family, Fernanda joins Juan Bautista de Anza’s historic colonization expedition to California.On the arduous four-month journey, Fernanda makes friends with Feliciana, the young widow Fernanda can entrust with her deepest thoughts; Gloria, who becomes the sister Fernanda always wished for; and Gloria’s handsome brother Miguel, gentle one moment, angry the next and, like Fernanda, a mestizo–half Indian and half Spanish. As Fernanda penetrates Miguel’s layers of hidden feelings, she’s torn between him and Nicolas, who has joined the journey in the ranks of Anza’s soldiers and whose plans include marrying Fernanda when they reach California.But propelling Fernanda along the journey is her search for Mama’s Pima Indian past, a past Mama refused to talk about, a past with secrets that Fernanda is determined to learn. The truths she discovers will change the way she sees her ancestry, her family, and herself.

The Duel for Consuelo


Claudia H. Long - 2014
    In this second passionate and thrilling story of the Castillo family, the daughter of a secret Jew is caught between love and the burdens of a despised and threatened religion. The Enlightenment is making slow in-roads, but Consuelo’s world is still under the dark cloud of the Inquisition. Forced to choose between protecting her ailing mother and the love of dashing Juan Carlos Castillo, Consuelo’s personal dilemma reflects the conflicts of history as they unfold in 1711 Mexico. A rich, romantic story illuminating the timeless complexities of family, faith, and love.

Cadence to Glory


Mary Beth Dearmon - 2014
    The return of the wealthy Eton family to Williamsburg, Virginia, however, briefly distracts the town's elite. The youngest Eton son, Thomas, thus reunites with Priscilla Parr, his childhood friend and the now-cynical daughter of a proud Loyalist family. Thomas learns to admire her scathing wit while Priscilla finds herself drawn to his ambitious idealism. He soon introduces her to the radical principles of liberty, the fuel of the colonial rebellion. On the eve of Revolution, however, fate turns against the young lovers, whose families are politically opposed. As the ideological forces within her own home begin to parallel the clash between Britain and the Colonies, Priscilla is unexpectedly faced with a dangerous decision between two rivaling ideals - and destinies. Set against a backdrop of intrigue, espionage, treachery, and romance, "Cadence to Glory" thus chronicles the deepening schism within the Parr family. By exploring the ancient conflicts between youth and age, conviction and neutrality, self-interest and principle, the novel speculates that liberty itself is as natural and inevitable as the coming of age.

Cadence to Glory: A Novel of the American Revolution


Mary Beth Dearmon - 2014
    The return of the wealthy Eton family to Williamsburg, Virginia, however, briefly distracts the town's elite. The youngest Eton son, Thomas, thus reunites with Priscilla Parr, his childhood friend and the now-cynical daughter of a proud Loyalist family. Thomas learns to admire her scathing wit while Priscilla finds herself drawn to his ambitious idealism. He soon introduces her to the radical principles of liberty, the fuel of the colonial rebellion. On the eve of Revolution, however, fate turns against the young lovers, whose families are politically opposed. As the ideological forces within her own home begin to parallel the clash between Britain and the Colonies, Priscilla is unexpectedly faced with a dangerous decision between two rivaling ideals - and destinies. Set against a backdrop of intrigue, espionage, treachery, and romance, "Cadence to Glory" thus chronicles the deepening schism within the Parr family. By exploring the ancient conflicts between youth and age, conviction and neutrality, self-interest and principle, the novel speculates that liberty itself is as natural and inevitable as the coming of age.

Burke in the Land of Silver


Tom Williams - 2014
    But with Napoleon rampaging through Europe, the War Office needs agents and Burke isn't given a choice. It's no business for a gentleman, and disguising himself as a Buenos Aires leather merchant is a new low. His mission, though, means fighting alongside men who see the collapse of the old order giving them a chance to break free of Spanish colonial rule. He falls in love with the country – and with the beautiful Ana. Burke wants both to forward British interests and to free Argentina from Spain. But his new found selflessness comes up against the realities of international politics. When the British invade, his attempts to parley between the rebels and their new rulers leave everybody suspicious of him. Despised by the British, imprisoned by the Spanish and with Ana leaving him for the rebel leader, it takes all Burke's resolve and cunning to escape. Only after adventuring through the throne rooms and bedrooms of the Spanish court will he finally come back to Buenos Aires, to see Ana again and avenge himself on the man who betrayed him.

A History of Early Modern Southeast Asia, 1400-1830


Barbara Watson Andaya - 2014
    Proceeding chronologically, each chapter covers a specific time frame in which Southeast Asia is located in a global context. A discussion of general features that distinguish the period under discussion is followed by a detailed account of the various sub-regions. Students will be shown the ways in which local societies adapted to new religious and political ideas and responded to far-reaching economic changes. Particular attention is given to lesser-known societies that inhabited the seas, the forests, and the uplands, and to the role of the geographical environment in shaping the region's history. The authoritative yet accessible narrative features maps, illustrations, and timelines to support student learning. A major contribution to the field, this text is essential reading for students and specialists in Asian studies and early modern world history.

New World Drama: The Performative Commons in the Atlantic World, 1649-1849


Elizabeth Maddock Dillon - 2014
    Moving from England to the Caribbean to the early United States, she traces the theatrical emergence of a collective body in the colonized New World—one that included indigenous peoples, diasporic Africans, and diasporic Europeans. In the raucous space of the theatre, the contradictions of colonialism loomed large. Foremost among these was the central paradox of modernity: the coexistence of a massive slave economy and a nascent politics of freedom. Audiences in London eagerly watched the royal slave, Oroonoko, tortured on stage, while audiences in Charleston and Kingston were forbidden from watching the same scene. Audiences in Kingston and New York City exuberantly participated in the slaying of Richard III on stage, enacting the rise of the "people," and Native American leaders were enjoined to watch actors in blackface "jump Jim Crow." Dillon argues that the theater served as a "performative commons," staging debates over representation in a political world based on popular sovereignty. Her book is a capacious account of performance, aesthetics, and modernity in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world.

The Settling Earth


Rebecca Burns - 2014
    The final story in the collection, written by Shelly Davies of the Ngātiwai tribe, adds a Maori perspective to the experience of British settlement in their land.

Lives in Common: Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Hebron


Menachem Klein - 2014
    Menachem Klein offers an illuminating alternative by telling the intertwined histories, from street level upwards, of three cities-Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Hebron-and their intermingled Jewish, Muslim and Christian inhabitants, from the nineteenth century to the present. Each of them was and still is a mixed city. Jerusalem and Hebron are holy places, while Jaffa till 1948 was Palestine's principal city and main port of entry.Klein portrays a society in the late Ottoman period in which Jewish-Arab interactions were intense, frequent, and meaningful, before the onset of segregation and separation gradually occurred in the Mandate era. The unequal power relations and increasing violence between Jews and Arabs from 1948 onwards are also scrutinised. Throughout, Klein bases his writing not on the official record but rather on a hitherto hidden private world of Jewish-Arab encounters, including marriages and squabbles, kindnesses and cruelties, as set out in dozens of memoirs, diaries, biographies and testimonies.Lives in Common brings together the voices of Jews and Arabs in a mosaic of fascinating stories, of lived experiences and of the major personalities that shaped them over the last 150 years.Most books dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict see events through the eyes of policy-makers, generals or diplomats. Menachem Klein offers an illuminating alternative by telling the intertwined histories, from street level upwards, of three cities-Jerusalem, Jaffa, and Hebron-and their intermingled Jewish, Muslim and Christian inhabitants, from the nineteenth century to the present. Each of them was and still is a mixed city. Jerusalem and Hebron are holy places, while Jaffa till 1948 was Palestine's principal city and main port of entry. Klein portrays a society in the late Ottoman period in which Jewish-Arab interactions were intense, frequent, and meaningful, before the onset of segregation and separation gradually occurred in the Mandate era. The unequal power relations and increasing violence between Jews and Arabs from 1948 onwards are also scrutinised. Throughout, Klein bases his writing not on the official record but rather on a hitherto hidden private world of Jewish-Arab encounters, including marriages and squabbles, kindnesses and cruelties, as set out in dozens of memoirs, diaries, biographies and testimonies. Lives in Common brings together the voices of Jews and Arabs in a mosaic of fascinating stories, of lived experiences and of the major personalities that shaped them over the last 150 years.

Stagecoach travel in Britain


Louise Allen - 2014
    It looks at the improvements in road maintenance and the turnpike system, which made faster travel practical and thereby led to a great increase in the use of stagecoaches, which would shuttle people along main routes from city to city (for example, the Great North Road from London to Edinburgh), stopping only to hitch a new set of horses to the stagecoach at designated refreshment areas. It explains who might travel in this way and why, and also shows the streamlining of the postal system through mail coaches, which would also carry passengers, The main routes, operators and infrastructure are explored, including the coaching inns that remain in so many towns today. Also explored are the practicalities of travelling, the dangers from Highwaymen such as Dick Turpin and the reasons for the decline of coaching - mainly the rise of railways.

Selling Silks: A Merchant's Sample Book


Lesley Ellis Miller - 2014
    This merchant’s sample book was acquired in 1972 by the Victoria and Albert Museum, and today it provides a fascinating record of the 18th-century French and English silk industries and their commercial practices. Alongside a full and faithful reproduction of the whole beautiful album—an extremely rare, fragile, and significant object—Lesley Miller describes how the sample book was a marketing tool for the premier European silk-weaving center of Lyon, France, and a model for English textile manufacturers in Spitalfields. She also discusses how the silks were made and for whom through the use of contemporary portraits and archival documents dating to the 1760s. The album itself is astonishing, reproducing hundreds of patterns.

Printed Textiles: British and American Cottons and Linens 1700-1850


Linda Eaton - 2014
      From slipcovers that belonged to George Washington, to bedhangings described by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Delaware’s Winterthur Museum holds some of the finest cotton and linen textiles made or used in America and Britain between 1700 and 1850. One of the fastest growing and potentially most lucrative trades in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, on the forefront of developments in science and engineering, chemistry and technology, the textile industry is a fascinating lens into international trade relations and cultural exchange over nearly two centuries.   Printed Textiles is a major update to the classic text published by Winterthur in 1970—a sourcebook compiled by celebrated curator Florence Montgomery that detailed all aspects of the fabrics’ lifespan, from their design and method of manufacture to their use and exchange value. Linda Eaton, Director of Collections and Senior Curator of Textiles, updates the classic with a particular focus on furnishing fabrics—referred to as “furnitures.” Building on research that has come to light since 1970 and benefiting from the technical and scientific expertise of the conservators and scientists at Winterthur, Eaton presents a thorough and sweeping study enriched by the diverse approaches to material culture today.   With hundreds of beautifully photographed samples—engagingly contextualized with iconic figures in American history including Betsy Ross and Benjamin Franklin—this significant addition to textile scholarship allows for a full appreciation of these fascinating fabrics. Printed Textiles is destined to become an essential reference for interior designers, fashion and textile design students, conservators, collectors, and anyone with an interest in the textile industry.

An Able and Faithful Ministry: Samuel Miller and the Pastoral Office


James M. Garretson - 2014
    While Miller is most commonly remembered for his writings on church office, he also played a significant role instructing students and shaping their theology of preaching and pastoral ministry. In the present volume, Jim Garretson highlights the narrative of Miller’s life and the major ministerial emphases found in his published writings, sermons, and unpublished lecture notes. As a result, readers will come to know the spiritual convictions of Miller’s heart and understand the theology of ministry he imparted over the course of his lifetime.

Voices Echo (Voices, #3)


Linda Lee Graham - 2014
    When Albert Ross sailed to Jamaica months after their wedding, Rhiannon Ross believed he'd abandoned her for the sanctuary of his West Indies plantation and complacent mulatta mistress. Not one to live life in limbo, Rhiannon has followed in a bid to secure the funds necessary to ensure her financial independence and position as his lawful wife, and to quell her growing attraction to her unsuitable American advisor, Liam Brock. Determined to put the enticing Mrs. Ross out of his mind, Liam Brock accepts an assignment to escort a young heiress to her father's Jamaican estate. Convinced his and Rhiannon's ships have crossed paths, he is stunned to learn Rhiannon is still with her husband, and shocked when he finds her isolated and frightened--a shell of the vibrant woman who still fills his dreams. He begins to suspect that beneath the exotic beauty of an island teeming with vitality, there beats a sinister pulse. As evidence of smuggling and dark magic are uncovered, Rhiannon realizes that not only is her plantation in danger, but the lives of those she holds dearest are at stake. Though she struggles to hide her feelings for Liam, she cannot bear the thought of him coming to harm because of her. As greed on the island evolves into violence and violence into murder, Liam and Rhiannon find themselves in the midst of a deadly intrigue. Both must decide how far they will go in the name of protecting the other, and how much they will sacrifice to attain a future neither thought possible.

The Problem of Slavery in Early Vermont, 1777-1810


Harvey Amani Whitfield - 2014
    Vermonters have always been proud that their state was the first to outlaw slavery in its constitution - but is that what really happened?This Vermont Historical Society book forces us to squarely consider the deepest questions about what freedom actually meant for African Americans in Vermont well into the nineteenth century.The Problem of Slavery in Early Vermont joins the growing literature on the complicated history of race, emancipation, and antislavery in antebellum New England.

Leibniz's Monadology: A New Translation and Guide


Lloyd Strickland - 2014
    The sharp focus on the various arguments and other justifications Leibniz puts forward makes possible a deeper and more sympathetic understanding of his doctrines.Written in 1714, the Monadology is widely considered to be the classic statement of Leibniz's mature philosophy. In the space of 90 numbered paragraphs, totalling little more than 6000 words, Leibniz outlines - and argues for - the core features of his philosophical system. Although rightly regarded as a masterpiece, it is also a very condensed work that generations of students have struggled to understand.

Women and Shakespeare in the Eighteenth Century


Fiona Ritchie - 2014
    The period's perception of Shakespeare as unlearned allowed many women to identify with him and in doing so they seized an opportunity to enter public life by writing about and performing his works. Actresses (such as Hannah Pritchard, Kitty Clive, Susannah Cibber, Dorothy Jordan and Sarah Siddons), female playgoers (including the Shakespeare Ladies Club) and women critics (like Charlotte Lennox, Elizabeth Montagu, Elizabeth Griffith and Elizabeth Inchbald), had a profound effect on Shakespeare's reception. Interdisciplinary in approach and employing a broad range of sources, this book's analysis of criticism, performance and audience response shows that in constructing Shakespeare's significance for themselves and for society, women were instrumental in the establishment of Shakespeare at the forefront of English literature, theatre, culture and society in the eighteenth century and beyond.

The Passenger Pigeon


Errol Fuller - 2014
    The flocks were so large and so dense that they blackened the skies, even blotting out the sun for days at a stretch. Yet by the end of the century, the most common bird in North America had vanished from the wild. In 1914, the last known representative of her species, Martha, died in a cage at the Cincinnati Zoo.This stunningly illustrated book tells the astonishing story of North America's Passenger Pigeon, a bird species that--like the Tyrannosaur, the Mammoth, and the Dodo--has become one of the great icons of extinction. Errol Fuller describes how these fast, agile, and handsomely plumaged birds were immortalized by the ornithologist and painter John James Audubon, and captured the imagination of writers such as James Fenimore Cooper, Henry David Thoreau, and Mark Twain. He shows how widespread deforestation, the demand for cheap and plentiful pigeon meat, and the indiscriminate killing of Passenger Pigeons for sport led to their catastrophic decline. Fuller provides an evocative memorial to a bird species that was once so important to the ecology of North America, and reminds us of just how fragile the natural world can be.Published in the centennial year of Martha's death, The Passenger Pigeon features rare archival images as well as haunting photos of live birds.

Houghton Hall: Portrait of An English Country House


David Cholmondeley - 2014
    The definitive survey of one of the great treasures of the English country landscape and British architectural heritage.

The Opened Letter: Networking in the Early Modern British World


Lindsay O'Neill - 2014
    As colonial possessions and populations grew and more individuals moved around the globe, Britons both at home and abroad required a constant and reliable means of communication to conduct business, plumb intellectual concerns, discuss family matters, run distant estates, and exchange news. As face-to-face communication became more intermittent, men and women across the early modern British world relied on letters.In The Opened Letter, historian Lindsay O'Neill explores the importance and impact of networking via letter-writing among the members of the elite from England, Ireland, and the colonies. Combining extensive archival research with social network digital technology, The Opened Letter captures the dynamic associations that created a vibrant, expansive, and elaborate web of communication. The author examined more than 10,000 letters produced by such figures as Virginia planters William Byrd I and his son William Byrd II; the Anglo-Irish nobleman John Perceval; the newly minted Duke of Chandos, James Brydges, and his wife Cassandra Brydges; and Sir Hans Sloane, the president of the Royal Society, and his colleague Peter Collinson. She also mined letters from the likes of Nicholas Blundell, a Catholic member of the Lancashire gentry, and James Eliot, a London merchant and ardent Quaker. The Opened Letter reassembles and presents the vital individual and interlocking epistolary webs constructed by disparate groups of letter writers. These early social networks illuminate the structural, social, and geographic workings of the British world as the nation was becoming a dominant global power.

One Last Letter


Pema Donyo - 2014
    Now twenty-three, she works hard to keep the property afloat, but no suitor has stirred her heart the way Jesse did. After her father falls ill, she needs all the help she can get to keep the ranch running.A cowboy returning to what he left behind… After making his fortune, a newly wealthy Jesse has returned home to see his younger sister married. Still smarting from Evelyn’s rejection, he finds the tables have turned, and now only his investment could save the ranch that he vowed to never step foot on again. When he agrees to help her salvage her family legacy, they must overcome their pride and painful past to work together. As long-held emotions rekindle, Jesse pretends indifference, only to admit his true feelings in an unsigned letter left on Evelyn’s porch.Evelyn finds the missive and writes back, beginning a furtive correspondence. She dares to hope her mystery admirer is Jesse, but then another man comes forward to claim the letters as his own. Will one last letter give them the courage to say yes to love on the wild Texas plains?

Ôoku: The Secret World of the Shogun's Women


Cecilia Segawa Seigle - 2014
    Long the object of titillation and a favorite subject for off-the-wall fantasy in historical TV and film dramas, the actual daily life, practices, cultural roles, and ultimate missions of these women have remained largely in the dark, except for occasional explosions of scandal. In crystal-clear prose that is a pleasure to read, this new book, however, presents the Ooku in a whole new down-to-earth, practical light. After many years of perusing unexamined Ooku documents generated by these women and their associates, the authors have provided not only an overview of the fifteen generations of Shoguns whose lives were lived in residence with this institution, but how shoguns interacted differently with it. Much like recent research on imperial convents, they find not a huddled herd of oppressed women, but on the contrary, women highly motivated to the preservation of their own particular cultural institution. Most important, they have been able to identify "the culture of secrecy" within the Ooku itself to be an important mechanism for preserving the highest value, 'loyalty, ' that essential value to their overall self-interested mission dedicated to the survival of the Shogunate itself." - Barbara Ruch, Columbia University "The aura of power and prestige of the institution known as the ooku-the complex network of women related to the shogun and their living quarters deep within Edo castle-has been a popular subject of Japanese television dramas and movies. Brushing aside myths and fallacies that have long obscured our understanding, this thoroughly researched book provides an intimate look at the lives of the elite female residents of the shogun's elaborate compound. Drawing information from contemporary diaries and other private memoirs, as well as official records, the book gives detailed descriptions of the physical layout of their living quarters, regulations, customs, and even clothing, enabling us to actually visualize this walled-in world that was off limits for most of Japanese society. It also outlines the complex hierarchy of positions, and by shining a light on specific women, gives readers insight into the various factions within the ooku and the scandals that occasionally occurred. Both positive and negative aspects of life in the "great interior" are represented, and one learns how some of these high-ranking women wielded tremendous social as well as political power, at times influencing the decision-making of the ruling shoguns. In sum, this book is the most accurate overview and characterization of the ooku to date, revealing how it developed and changed during the two and a half centuries of Tokugawa rule. A treasure trove of information, it will be a vital source for scholars and students of Japan studies, as well as women's studies, and for general readers who are interested in learning more about this fascinating women's institution and its significance in Japanese history and culture." - Patricia Fister, International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto

A really useful guide to the Georgians


Tracy Borman - 2014
    A really useful guide to the Georgians is crammed full of really useful facts, from the absurd to the awful to the inspiring and important that changed the course of British history.Published by Historic Royal Palaces.

Patriot's Point


Douglas Boren - 2014
    In the aftermath, colonists-ordinary men and women, farmers, shopkeepers, and back woodsmen-come together in secret at an abandoned Spanish mission, renaming it Patriot's Point. There they organize themselves into a fighting force, vowing to contain the British advance at all cost until the Continental Army can retaliate. Fewer than two hundred men stand in defiance of over five thousand British soldiers: two hundred patriots, who understand that freedom is not free.

Marriage and the British Army in the Long Eighteenth Century: 'The Girl I Left Behind Me'


Jennine Hurl-Eamon - 2014
    From 1685 to the beginning of the Victorian era, army administration attempted to discourage marriage among men in almost all ranks. It fostered a misogynist culture of the bachelor soldier whotrifled with feminine hearts and avoided responsibility and commitment. The army's policy was unsuccessful in preventing military marriage. By concentrating on the many soldiers' wives who were unable to win permission to live on the strength of the regiment (entitled to half-rations) and travelwith their husbands, this title explores the phenomenon of soldiers who persisted in defying the army's anti-marriage initiatives.Using evidence gathered from ballads, novels, court and parish records, letters, memoirs, and War Office papers, Jennine Hurl-Eamon shows that both soldiers and their wives exerted continual pressure on the state through evocative appeals to officers and civilians, fuelled by wives' pride inperforming their own military duty at home. Respectable, companionate couples of all ranks reflect a subculture within the army that recognized the value in Enlightenment femininity. Looking at military marriages within the telescoping contexts of the state, their regimental and civiliancommunities, and the couples themselves, The Girl I Left Behind Me reveals the range of masculinities beneath the uniform, the positive influence of wives and sweethearts on soldiers' performance of their duties, and the surprising resilience of partnerships severed by war and army anti-marriagepolicies.

Murderous East Anglia: Casting a flickering candle over a miscellany of dark and nefarious deeds resulting in bloodshed…


Joanna Elphick - 2014
    The criminal intent behind these nefarious deeds stem from places deep within the human psyche, places of greed and jealousy that will send a shiver down your spine. So, journey down the rabbit-hole of crime and punishment – if you dare – and discover the secret history of a region with more suspicious deaths per capita than central London. Among these historical tales, read about the grizzly story of the death of Rose Harsent, a maid at Providence House in Peasanhall and the electrifying murder mystery that followed; how a young man tired of his lover hid his criminal intent by asking her to run away with him; the mystery and suspense following the hunt for the Bootlace Beach killer. In all these true crime and murder thriller short stories, echoes of the past resound into the present, whether it be through the ghostly footsteps of the helpless victims, or in the amendments made to laws of crime and punishment as a result of these tragedies. So, dare you delve into the shadowy history of ‘Murderous East Anglia’? Check out the LOOK INSIDE feature and discover the fascinating world of the macabre.

Driv'n by Fortune: The Scots' March to Modernity in America, 1745–1812


Sam Allison - 2014
    Simon Fraser, chief of the Clan Fraser of Lovat, raised the 78th Highlanders, a regiment that also played a major role in defeating the French on the Plains of Abraham. Sam Allison tackles the myths embedded in nationalistic history and in fictional accounts of the Highlanders and dispels much misinformation about these soldier-settlers. The impact of the 78th Fraser's Highlanders, which extended far beyond Scotland and far beyond the Canada of their times, is finally being told.

The Eighteenth-Century Wyandot: A Clan-Based Study (Indigenous Studies)


John L. Steckley - 2014
    This book weaves these fragmented histories together, with a focus on the mid-eighteenth century. Author John Steckley claims that the key to consolidating the stories of the scattered Wyandot lies in their clan structure. Beginning with the half century of their initial diaspora, as interpreted through the political strategies of five clan leaders, and continuing through the eighteenth century and their shared residency with Jesuit missionaries—notably, the distinct relationships different clans established with them—Steckley reveals the resilience of the Wyandot clan structure. He draws upon rich but previously ignored sources—including baptismal, marriage, and mortuary records, and a detailed house-to-house census compiled in 1747, featuring a list of male and female elders—to illustrate the social structure of the people, including a study of both male and female leadership patterns. A recording of the 1747 census as well as translated copies of letters sent between the Wyandot and the French is included in an appendix.

Nothing But Murder


William Roughead - 2014
    Henry James himself once urged Roughead: Keep on with them all please, and continue to beckon me along the gallery that I can t tread alone and where, by your leave, I link my arm fraternally in yours: the gallery of sinister perspective just stretches in this manner straight away. Here you will find such Roughead classics as My First Murder: Featuring Jessie King, the crime that fortuitously set Mr. Roughead s steps toward matters criminous, Locusta in Scotland, a familiar survey of poisoning as practiced in the realm. The Fatal Countess, a Jacobean royal flush of didoes in high places; Physic and Forgery: A Study in Confidence, and many more capital crimes old and new, but all revealed with that dry wit and mellow artistry that is the mark of fine wine or writing. Above all you must not miss Mr.Roughead s ensemble by the entire company entitled, An Academic Discussion wherein his best known murders sit in judgment on the qualities of their crimes and discuss the artistry of their chosen metier."

The Whartons of Winchendon: A Tale of Dynasty, Power and Madness at the Heart of Stuart England


Jonathan Law - 2014
    Barely noticed now, it was once part of a great palace and home to one of the most remarkable families in English history. In this riveting, tragic, but frequently hilarious book, Jonathan Law tells the strange story of the Wharton family in the turbulent era between the Civil War and the Jacobite Rebellion. The family’s meteoric rise and fall turns out to be a drama of Shakespearian proportions – a story of faction and intrigue, of high politics and low shenanigans, of dynastic power and strange human cruelties. It is also a tale of incest, treason, alchemy, deep-sea diving, syphilis, ghosts, and the self-proclaimed Solar King of the World – a man who believed he had found the doors to Fairyland. The world may have forgotten the Whartons of Winchendon; but after you've read this book, you never will.

Becoming Men of Some Consequence: Youth and Military Service in the Revolutionary War


John A. Ruddiman - 2014
    Their experiences of coming of age during the upheavals of war provide a novel perspective on the Revolutionary era, eliciting questions of gender, family life, economic goals, and politics. "Going for a soldier" forced young men to confront profound uncertainty, and even coercion, but also offered them novel opportunities. Although the war imposed obligations on youths, military service promised young men in their teens and early twenties alternate paths forward in life. Continental soldiers' own youthful expectations about respectable manhood and their goals of economic competence and marriage not only ordered their experience of military service; they also shaped the fighting capacities of George Washington's army and the course of the war.Becoming Men of Some Consequence examines how young soldiers and officers joined the army, their experiences in the ranks, their relationships with civilians, their choices about quitting long-term military service, and their attempts to rejoin the flow of civilian life after the war. The book recovers young soldiers' perspectives and stories from military records, wartime letters and journals, and postwar memoirs and pension applications, revealing how revolutionary political ideology intertwined with rational calculations and youthful ambitions. Its focus on soldiers as young men offers a new understanding of the Revolutionary War, showing how these soldiers' generational struggle for their own independence was a profound force within America's struggle for its independence.

Wildcat Mountain: Life Death and Love in the Year of Blood 1782


Stephen Challis - 2014
    They stopped to camp for the night on the slopes of Wildcat Mountain. It was a mistake for both her and her Father, but most of all for the 3 Wyandotte Indians that attacked them. When she left the mountain, her father was dead along with the three Indians that killed him. From that day on, Rebecca Reed was dead. In her place was a determined cold calculating woman with only one purpose in life, to kill each and every Indian that crossed her path, regardless of age or sex. As the body count grew the Indians gave her a name, The Wildcat Woman. The settlers left her alone, and she had few, if no friends. Nothing could ease her torment, until one day a young a militia Ensign, William Tritt, arrived at Little Mountain and broke through her icy heart. As the Revolutionary War was winding down and the Tribes of the Huron and Shawnee nations were abandoned by their British Allies, the Indians set out to clear the America settlers from the territory. Leading them were three renegade colonial officers who had changed sides to protect them. This was the time of Heroes like the legendary Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton, the time of Simon Girty and General Rogers Clarke. For the settlers who lived through it all, it was a desperate struggle, with horrific death and cruelty never far away. This was the Infamous 'Year of Blood' in the frontier that would eventually become the State of Kentucky. Wildcat Mountain is a tale of love, violence, and adventure set against the true story of the Bluegrass. The incidents, battles, and bloody encounters depicted are based on real documented events. It is a stark and graphic vision of life and death as it really happened, and as such, it is recommended for adult readers only.

Inventing American Still Life, 1800�1960


Mark D. Mitchell - 2014
    A stunning array of works, some never before published, are beautifully illustrated in more than 250 color images. Four thematic essays address the connections between still life and other aspects of American culture, including literature and philosophy; the intersection of still-life painting, natural-history illustration, and commercial photography; the Philadelphia region’s defining impact and lasting influence on American still life; and the reception of still life by American critics and art historians from its earliest days to the present. Among the works featured are Raphaelle Peale’s celebrated Blackberries (c. 1813), Severin Roesen’s majestic Flower Still Life with Bird’s Nest (1853), William Michael Harnett’s landmark trompe l’oeil painting After the Hunt (1885), and Charles Sheeler’s modern masterpiece Rolling Power (1939).

Chinoiserie: Commerce and Critical Ornament in Eighteenth-Century Britain


Stacey Sloboda - 2014
    Analysing ceramics, wallpaper, furniture, garden architecture and other significant examples of British and Chinese design, this book takes an object-focused approach to studying the cultural phenomenon of the 'Chinese taste' in eighteenth-century Britain.It is essential reading for anyone interested in the critical history of design and the decorative arts in eighteenth-century Britain, and students and scholars of art history, material culture, eighteenth-century studies and British history will find a novel approach to studying the decorative arts and a forceful argument for their critical capacities.

Queen Caroline: Cultural Politics at the Early Eighteenth-Century Court


Joanna Marschner - 2014
    James’s Palace, and her renowned salons attracted many of the great thinkers of the day; Voltaire wrote of her, “I must say that despite all her titles and crowns, this princess was born to encourage the arts and the well-being of mankind.”