Best of
History

1939

Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years


Carl Sandburg - 1939
    Representing a lifetime of study by the great American poet, Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and The War Years distills Sandburg's monumental six volume set into a single one-book edition. By gleaning every possible reference from history, literature, and popular lore, Sandburg successfully captures not only the legendary president, but also Lincoln the man. He reveals exactly who Lincoln was, and what forces in his life shaped his personality. More than 100 black-and-white historical photographs and linecuts show Lincoln himself, the places he went, and the people who knew him.

The Civilizing Process


Norbert Elias - 1939
    The Civilizing Process stands out as Norbert Elias' greatest work, tracing the civilizing of manners and personality in Western Europe since the late Middle Ages by demonstrating how the formation of states and the monopolization of power within them changed Western society forever.

The Roman Revolution


Ronald Syme - 1939
    The transformation of state and society, the violent transference of power and property, and the establishment of Augustus' rule are presented in an unconventional narrative, which quotes from ancient evidence, refers seldomly to modern authorities, and states controversial opinions quite openly. The result is a book which is both fresh and compelling.

Abraham Lincoln


Ingri d'Aulaire - 1939
    As European immigrants the d'Aulaires felt keenly the importance of standing against injustice, and saw in Lincoln the archetypal American hero as he stood against the injustice of slavery. It was this spirit they hoped to exemplify in their biography of young Abe as he grew into manhood against the backdrop of the wilderness of Kentucky, the deep woods of Indiana, and the prairies of Illinois. Camping for weeks in Lincoln country, the d'Aulaires imbibed the spirit of the man Lincoln as well as his humor and good will. From his days as a clerk, teaching himself law reading Blackstone, practicing law in Springfield, running unsuccessfully for office, debating Stephen Douglas over the issue of slavery, and ultimately becoming President of the United States, the d'Aulaires have written and beautifully illustrated the life of one of America's most remarkable citizens. This book was awarded the Caldecott Medal in 1940.

The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1919-1939: An Introduction to the Study of International Relations


Edward Hallett Carr - 1939
    H. Carr's classic work on international relations published in 1939 was immediately recognized by friend and foe alike as a defining work. The author was one of the most influential and controversial intellectuals of the 20th century. The issues and themes he developed continue to have relevance to modern day concerns with power and its distribution in the international system. Michael Cox's critical introduction provides the reader with background information about the author, the context for the book, and its main themes and contemporary relevance.

Fighting for Life


S. Josephine Baker - 1939
    Health inspectors called the neighborhood “the suicide ward.” Diarrhea epidemics raged each summer, killing thousands of children. Sweatshop babies with smallpox and typhus dozed in garment heaps destined for fashionable shops. Desperate mothers paced the streets to soothe their feverish children and white mourning cloths hung from every building. A third of the children living there died before their fifth birthday.By 1911, the child death rate had fallen sharply and The New York Times hailed the city as the healthiest on earth. In this witty and highly personal autobiography, public health crusader Dr. S. Josephine Baker explains how this transformation was achieved. By the time she retired in 1923, Baker was famous worldwide for saving the lives of 90,000 children. The programs she developed, many still in use today, have saved the lives of millions more. She fought for women’s suffrage, toured Russia in the 1930s, and captured “Typhoid” Mary Mallon, twice. She was also an astute observer of her times, and Fighting for Life is one of the most honest, compassionate memoirs of American medicine ever written.

Love in the Western World


Denis de Rougemont - 1939
    At the heart of his ever-relevant inquiry is the inescapable conflict in the West between marriage and passion—the first associated with social and religious responsiblity and the second with anarchic, unappeasable love as celebrated by the troubadours of medieval Provence. These early poets, according to de Rougemont, spoke the words of an Eros-centered theology, and it was through this "heresy" that a European vocabulary of mysticism flourished and that Western literature took on a new direction.Bringing together historical, religious, philosophical, and cultural dimensions, the author traces the evolution of Western romantic love from its literary beginnings as an awe-inspiring secret to its commercialization in the cinema. He seeks to restore the myth of love to its original integrity and concludes with a philosophical perspective on modern marriage.

Feudal Society


Marc Bloch - 1939
    Feudal Society discusses the economic and social conditions in which feudalism developed providing a deep understanding of the processes at work in medieval Europe

The History of Manners (The Civilizing Process, Vol. 1)


Norbert Elias - 1939
    The History of Manners examines the links between the social graces and social control, concentrating on changes in social norms and individual perceptions and behavior.

The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia


René Grousset - 1939
    Hailed as a masterpiece when first published in French in 1939, and in English in 1970, this great work of synthesis brings before us the great people of the steppes, dominated by three mighty figures - Attila, Genghiz Khan, and Tamberlain - as they marched through ten centuries of history, from the borders of China to the frontiers of the West. Includes nineteen maps, a comprehensive index, notes, and bibliography.

The WPA Guide to New York City: The Federal Writers' Project Guide to 1930s New York


Work Projects Administration - 1939
    The New York of 1939 was a city where adventures began "under the clock" at the Biltmore, and the big liners sailed at midnight. The Yankees were on their way to four in a row, and Times Square was truly the crossroads of the world.

The End of Economic Man: The Origins of Totalitarianism


Peter F. Drucker - 1939
    Drucker explains and interprets fascism and Nazism as fundamental revolutions. In some ways, this book anticipated by more than a decade the existentialism that came to dominate the European political mood in the postwar period. Drucker provides a special addition to the massive literature on existentialism and alienation since World War II. The End of Economic Man is a social and political effort to explain the subjective consequences of the social upheavals caused by warfare.Drucker concentrates on one specific historical event: the breakdown of the social and political structure of Europe which culminated in the rise of Nazi totalitarianism to mastery over Europe. He explains the tragedy of Europe as the loss of political faith, resulting from the political alienation of the European masses. The End of Economic Man is a book of great social import. It shows not only what might have helped the older generation avert the catastrophe of Nazism, but also how today's generation can prevent another such catastrophe. This work will be of special interest to political scientists, intellectual historians, and sociologists.The book was singled out for praise on both sides of the Atlantic, and is considered by the author to be his most prescient effort in social theory.

An American Exodus: A Record of Human Erosion - Dorothea Lange & Paul Taylor


Dorothea Lange - 1939
    Produced by incomparable documentary photographer Dorothea Lange with text by her husband, Paul Taylor, An American Exodus was taken in the early 1930s while the couple were working for the Farm Security Administration (FSA) The book documents the rural poverty of the depression-era exodus that brought over 300,000 migrants to California in search of farmwork, a westward mass migration driven by economic deprivation as opposed to the Manifest Destiny of 19th century pioneers. This facsimile edition of the original volume reintroduces this sought-after work of art -- a pioneering book that was among the first to combine photographs with oral testimony -- to a contemporary audience, providing an insight into the struggles of the Depression as well as offering a profound and timeless look at the human condition.

Abraham Lincoln: The War Years


Carl Sandburg - 1939
    Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in History, 1940.

Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver


J. Frank Dobie - 1939
    Guarded by the bones of dead men, the legendary treasures of the Southwest still wait for those foolhardy or desperate enough to seek them.Death is the cure for gold fever, and the lucky few who saw the riches and lived to tell of them spent the rest of their lives searching, haunted by faulty memories, changed landscapes, and quirks of fate. It is the stories of these men and the wealth they pursued that J. Frank Dobie tells in Apache Gold and Yaqui Silver.In this masterful collection of tales, Dobie introduces us to Pedro Loco, General Mexhuira's ghost, the German, and a colorful group of oddfellows driven to roam the hills in an eternal quest for the hidden entrance, the blazed tree, the box canyon, for fabulous wealth glimpsed, lost, and never forgotten.Are treasures really there? Searchers still seek them. But for the reader, the treasure is here—Dobie’s tales are pure gold.

We Will Not Cease


Archibald Baxter - 1939
    In 1915, when he was 33, Baxter was arrested, sent to prison, then shipped under guard to Europe, where he was forced to the front line against his will. Punished to the limits of his physical and mental endurance, Baxter was stripped of all dignity, beaten, starved, and left for dead. In a final attempt to discredit him, authorities consigned him to a mental institution, an experience that would haunt him for the rest of his life.Against the backdrop of troops being mindlessly slaughtered at the whim of upper-echelon officers, We Will Not Cease is a story of extreme bravery and ultimate resolve. Archibald Baxter's lonely fight against the war to end all wars is a nightmare that Kafka could have penned -- except that the story is true.

Power & Civility (The Civilizing Process, Vol. 2)


Norbert Elias - 1939
    In it, Elias widens his scope to examine the social, economic, and political changes in European society from the time of Charlemagne to the twentieth century and constructs a highly original theory of the formation of the state and the growth of power. His explanation of the social process by which the private power monopoly of kings turned into the public power monopoly of the modern nation-state concludes with a stunning synopsis proposing the beginnings of a theory of the process of civilization.

Karl Marx: His Life and Environment


Isaiah Berlin - 1939
    It provides a penetrating, lucid, and comprehensive introduction to Marx as theorist of the socialist revolution, illuminating his personality and ideas, and concentrating on those which have historically formed the central core of Marxism as a theory and practice. Berlin goes on to present an account of Marx's life as one of the most influential and incendiary social philosophers of the twentieth century and depicts the social and political atmosphere in which Marx wrote. This edition includes a new introduction by Alan Ryan which traces the place of Berlin's Marx from its pre-World War II publication to the present, and elucidates why Berlin's portrait, in the midst of voluminous writings about Marx, remains the classic account of the personal and political side of this monumental figure.

Diplomacy


Harold Nicolson - 1939
    The historical development of diplomacy is traced from primitive origins (when, hypothetically, the concept of diplomatic immunity arose from the realization that it was impractical to kill and eat an emissary before he had delivered his message), to modern times, when diplomatic procedure has become highly sophisticated and is controlled by strict conventions. Sir Harold also describes the ideal diplomatist, the varying types of European diplomacy, and recent changes in diplomatic procedure. The remodeled British diplomatic service has been analyzed in the revised chapter dealing with "The Foreign Service." The chapter on "Diplomatic Language" includes a glossary of words and phrases currently employed in diplomatic usage. An epilogue, added to this third edition, discusses the changes that have occurred in the field in post-war times, and refutes some of the the basic contentions of "The Ugly American" view of diplomacy.Sir Harold Nicolson, author and critic, was formerly with the British diplomatic service, and is considered an authority on diplomatic problems and procedure. Some of his other books are: The English Sense of Humour; King George V, His Life and Reign; and The Age of Reason.

The Descent of the Dove


Charles Williams - 1939
    It the most significant of Williams' theological writings. (Christian)

Melbourne


David Cecil - 1939
    As Victoria's first Prime Minister, and father figure, he was responsible for introducing the young Queen to public life. He was also one of the great masters of the art of conversation and thus a wonderful subject for the biographer.An established classic that brings Melbourne and his whole period to life.

The Vampire Economy: Doing Business Under Fascism


Günter Reimann - 1939
    Written in 1939, Reimann discusses the effects of heavy regulation, inflation, price controls, trade interference, national economic planning, and attacks on private property, and what consequences they had for human rights and economic development. This is a subject rarely discussed and for reasons that are discomforting,: as much as the left hated the social and cultural agenda of the Nazis, the economic agenda fit straight into a pattern of statism that had emerged in Europe and the United States, and in this area, the world has not be de-Nazified. This books makes for alarming reading, as one discovers the extent to which the Nazi economic agenda of totalitarian control--without finally abolishing private property--has become the norm. The author is by no means an Austrian but his study provides historical understanding and frightening look at the consequences of state economic management.

History of the World


Will & Ariel Durrant - 1939
    It was facinating and tedious. You might be able to check out the tapes or cd's from your local library.

These Poor Hands: The Autobiography of a Miner Working in South Wales


B.L. Coombes - 1939
    L. Coombes, to the front rank of proletarian writers. Coombes was born in England, but he lived for decades in the Vale of Neath in south Wales, and as the economic problems of the 1930s deepened, he turned to writing as a way to spread the word about the plight of miners and their communities to a wider world. Presenting the daily lives of miners in documentary fashion, with special attention to the damaging lockouts of 1921 and 1926, These Poor Hands retains the power to astonish readers with its description of the ways that unfettered capitalism can lay waste to human potential.

The Englishman's Food: Five Centuries of English Diet


J.C. Drummond - 1939
    . .The Englishman's Food was first published in 1939, fully revised in 1957 and now appears with a new updating introduction. A ground-breaking book, it is a fascinating and authoritative survey of food production, consumption, fashions and follies over a period of five hundred years.Reprinted with a new introduction by food editor Tom Jaine.

These Are Our Lives


Work Projects Administration - 1939
    A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

The Races of Europe


Carleton S. Coon - 1939
    

Mrs. Robert E. Lee


Rose Mortimer Ellzey MacDonald - 1939
    Lee's faithfulness to Christ through youth, marriage, motherhood, loss of luxury, war, and crippling arthritis. Douglas Southall Freeman says Mrs. Lee displayed all the qualities that could have been asked of a woman whose life was confined to four walls, most notable of which was her industry. A role model for young women of today.

The Thirty Years War, 1618-1648


Georges Pages - 1939
    

The Life and Death of Louis XVI


Saul K. Padover - 1939
    

An Autobiography


R.G. Collingwood - 1939
    Collingwood was originally published in 1939 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'An Autobiography' is the story of Collingwood's personal and academic life. Robin George Collingwood was born on 22nd February 1889, in Cartmel, England. He was the son of author, artist, and academic, W. G. Collingwood. He was greatly influenced by the Italian Idealists Croce, Gentile, and Guido de Ruggiero. Another important influence was his father, a professor of fine art and a student of Ruskin. He published many works of philosophy, such as Speculum Mentis (1924), An Essay on Philosophic Method (1933), and An Essay on Metaphysics (1940).

Step by Step (Winston Churchill's Essays and Other Works Collection Book 2)


Winston S. Churchill - 1939
     In the first few years of Nazi ascendance, many European intellectuals and leaders advocated avoiding war and negotiating with Hitler. Churchill is one of the few who understood the scope of the Nazi threat and advocated armament against Germany early on—and his early prescience serves as a fine prediction of his determined stance against Hitler as a World War II leader and statesman. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sir Winston Churchill was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953 “for his mastery of historical and biographical description as well as for brilliant oratory in defending exalted human values.” Over a 64-year span, Churchill published over 40 books, many multi-volume definitive accounts of historical events to which he was a witness and participant. All are beautifully written and as accessible and relevant today as when first published. During his fifty-year political career, Churchill served twice as Prime Minister in addition to other prominent positions—including President of the Board of Trade, First Lord of the Admiralty, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Home Secretary. In the 1930s, Churchill was one of the first to recognize the danger of the rising Nazi power in Germany and to campaign for rearmament in Britain. His leadership and inspired broadcasts and speeches during World War II helped strengthen British resistance to Adolf Hitler—and played an important part in the Allies’ eventual triumph. One of the most inspiring wartime leaders of modern history, Churchill was also an orator, a historian, a journalist, and an artist. All of these aspects of Churchill are fully represented in this collection of his works. ABOUT THE SERIES When the Conservative government was defeated in Britain’s 1929 general election, Winston Churchill was exiled from the party—chiefly because of his disagreements with party leaders over Indian Home Rule and protective tariffs, as well as his connections with financiers, press barons, and others who were not trusted by Conservative leadership.

Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution


Thorstein Veblen - 1939
    and these are fortifed in this connection by a traditional loyalty of service to a master, to whom the civil servant stands in a relation of personal stewardship. -from "Economic Policy of the Imperial State" One of the great thinkers of the early 20th century, American economist and sociologist THORSTEIN BUNDE VEBLEN (1857-1929) is best remembered for coining the phrase "conspicuous consumption" and, in this 1915 work, explaining how the stage was set for something like the Third Reich in Germany decades before its appearance. Veblen describes: . how the pagan past of the Germans gave rise to their modern character . how Germany's appropriation of industrial technology limited its cultural growth . how a medieval perspective endured in Germany into its imperial era . how the dominance of Prussia impacted Germany as a whole . and more. ALSO FROM COSIMO: Veblen's The Vested Interests and the Common Man, The Theory of Business Enterprise, and An Inquiry into the Nature of Peace and the Terms of Its Perpetuation

Diving to Adventure: Harpoon and Camera Under the Sea


Hans Hass - 1939
    This tells of Hans Haas's first meeting with a shark and the method he adopted in dealing with it.

The Manila Galleon


William Lytle Schurz - 1939
    For two hundred and fifty years--from 1563 to 1813--they regularly made the five-to-eight-month voyage across the Pacific between Manila and Acapulco. The largest and riches merchandise ships of their age, the galleons carried to Mexico all the fabulous luxuries of the Orient and returned to the Philippines laden with silver ingots. Their capture was the ultimate ambition of every pirate and privateer. Many were lost at sea; one drifted down the Mexican coast without a living soul on board; the mutiny on the San Geronimo surpassed in dram that on the Bounty.But this is more than a story of ships, for whole history of the Pacific Area revolved around these lonely voyages. They supplied the central theme of Philippine history; they were the original motive for the exploration and settlement of California; they brought the Chinese and Japanese to the Philippines."This is a sumptuous banquet of glamor, excitement and thrill. The reader is given a glowing and unforgettable panorama of one of the most romantic ventures in history." (Howard Mumford Jones)

Charles II: The Last Rally


Hilaire Belloc - 1939
    Restored to the throne following the interlude of Cromwell's "Commonwealth," Charles II devoted his life as King of England to maintaining the integrity of the throne against all the forces arrayed against it: the power of the great landowners who worked through the Parliament; the influence of the Lawyers' Guild; and the irresistible mercantile and financial strength of the city of London. The story that Belloc brings to life is thus one of survival: the story of a ship of state brought "through peril and storm under a great captain." It is also the story of manhood and determination in the face of overwhelming odds; as such it is a story that Hilaire Belloc was eminently qualified to write.

The WPA Guide to 1930s Kansas


Work Projects Administration - 1939
    After six decades and more, its pages still provide a wealth of reliable historic, geographic, and cultural information on Kansas, as well as some intriguing lore that many modern-day readers will find new. Not the least of its contributions is the accurate picture it gives of Kansas between the Great Depression and World War II--of its industrial, agricultural, and natural resources.The book is divided into three sections: seventeen topical essays covering subjects such as Indians, folklore, religion, and architecture; touring information of the eighteen largest Kansas cities and towns; and twelve automobile tours spanning Kansas and border states. Included are eighty photographs, four maps, and an essay on the contemporary scene by William Allen White.

The Roman Antiquities Of Dionysius Of Halicarnassus


Dionysius of Halicarnassus - 1939
    

The Glass Giant of Palomar,


David O. Woodbury - 1939
    Discussion of the inception, construction, and purpose of the greatest telescope of its time, as well as a historic background of American astronomy.

The Geese Fly High


Florence Page Jaques - 1939
    Beginning with a duck-hunting trip in Minnesota, Florence writes a lively and detailed account of their trip down the Mississippi flyway, through the White River bottom swamps in Arkansas, and around the Rainey Wildlife Sanctuary in the marshlands of Louisiana.

A Cape Cod Sketch Book


Jack Frost - 1939
    There is more real history and spirit of the Cape in these firm, yet delicate sketches than can be found in any of the carefully written texts. Jack Frost has captured the very essence of the sea, the sand dunes, the quaint architecture and the salt tang in the air.''

California in the 1930s: The WPA Guide to the Golden State


Work Projects Administration - 1939
    Alive with the exuberance, contradictions, and variety of the Golden State, this Depression-era guide to California is more than 700 pages of information that is, as David Kipen writes in his spirited introduction, “anecdotal, opinionated, and altogether habit-forming.” Describing the history, culture, and roadside attractions of the 1930s, the WPA Guide to California features some of the very best anonymous literature of its era, with writing by luminaries such as San Francisco poet Kenneth Rexroth, composer-writer- hobo Harry Partch, and authors Tillie Olsen and Kenneth Patchen.

North Carolina: The Wpa Guide to the Old North State


Work Projects Administration - 1939
    Devils Elbow. Whim Knob. Mush Island. Here in one thick volume are 20,000 entries that locate the geographical features of North Carolina—counties, towns, cities, rivers, creeks, lakes, mountains, gaps, ridges, bays, sounds, inlets. All are listed and in many cases the derivation of the name and additional historical data are included. The North Carolina Gazetteer is a fascinating and indispensable reference for Tar Heels (and those who wish they were), tourists, students, historians, geographers, journalists, and genealogists.

Illinois: A Descriptive and Historical Guide


Work Projects Administration - 1939
    During the Great Depression of the 1930's thousands of writers were hired by the Works Project Administration to create hundreds of guidebooks on all the state. Collectively these volumes made up the AMERICAN GUIDE SERIES. Each state guidebook contains articles on the History, Geography, Agriculture, Art, Architecture, Education, Indians, Archaeology, Transportation, Industry, Labor, Folklore, Religion, Sports and more. The Tour Guide sections of the guidebooks offer a treasure trove of historical information on the cities, towns, points of interest, physical features and cultural institutions. Other features of the guidebooks contain a Bibliography of state related books, hundreds of illustrations, maps and detailed Index.

Development Of The Canaanite Dialects: An Investigation In Linguistic History


Zellig S. Harris - 1939