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Fictions of U.S. History
Fictions of History offers a new definition of the term "fictions." A fiction is not merely the imaginative literature we treasure in works of novelists, dramatists, and poets. It is a powerful, driving idea that enters the life of an individual, the course a whole society travels, and the stories historians tell about the human past. In many dimensions, fictions affect every person on planet Earth. We all live lives based on fictions. Frances Richardson Keller chooses fascinating examples to demonstrate how dominant fictions of a given time emerge and are entrenched, and how historical figures have come to accept or reject these fictions. She begins with "the grandest fiction," the patriarchal system, and reflects on its origins, effects, and future. Then she addresses the fictions that dominated stories historians told about the Reconstruction of America after the Civil War. Keller next considers the emergence and demise of Mormon polygamy as a fiction in the 19th century. Her fourth and last illustration is the life of Eleanor Roosevelt and the fictions that empowered her.
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Warrior
Focusing on the front-line soldiers who fought for their tribes, their cities, their overlords and their countriesfrom the Ancient Greeks who repelled the invading Persians in the 5th century to the US Marines in action in Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf, this visual history paints a compelling portrait of the front-line soldier through 2,500 years of history. The third in a series of illustrated military history books, following the highly successful Battle and Weapon , Warrior features vivid accounts of daily life, training, and tactics of the ordinary fighting man. There are also features on the kit they carried and the weapons they used, as well as the part they played in significant battles. In addition to celebrated soldiers of Europe and North America there are sections on equally formidable warriors from other parts of the world, such as the Mongol horsemen of the 13th century, the Aztecs, the Samurai of 17th-century Japan, New Zealand's Maori and the Zulus of South Africa. Warrior is organized into six sections, covering six distinct periods in the history of warfare: Phalanxes and Legions deals with the warfare of Ancient Greece and Rome; Conquest and Chivalry explores the age of warriors who fought for either honor or plunder; Pikemen and Musketeers charts the advent of gunpowder in the 16th century; Empires and Frontiers deals with expansion of empires and the clashes of colonization; Trenches and Dogfights looks at the mechanized warfare of World War I and II, when the development of tanks, aeroplanes and submarines as weapons of war marks the beginning of a completely new era; and Guerillas and Commandos shows that despite the proliferation of death-dealing machines the ordinary soldier still retains a role, sometimes highly specialized, such as helicopter-borne infantry, or guerrilla forces like the Vietcong, who managed to resist the most powerful army on earth.
Why The West Rules – For Now
Why did British boats shoot their way up the Yangzi in 1842, rather than Chinese ones up the Thames? Why do Easterners use English more than Europeans speak in Mandarin or Japanese? To put it bluntly, why does the West rule? There are two schools of thought: the ‘Long-Term Lock-In’ theory, suggesting some sort of inevitability, and the ‘Short-Term Accident’ theory. But both approaches have misunderstood the shape of history. Ian Morris presents a startling new theory, drawing on thousands of years of history and archaeology, and the methods of social science. He explains with flair and authority why the paths of development differed in the East and West and – also analysing a vicious twist in trajectories just ahead of us – when the West’s lead will come to an end.
The Wealth of Nature
Hailed as "one of the most eminent environmental historians of the West" by Alan Brinkley in The New York Times Book Review, Donald Worster has been a leader in reshaping the study of American history. Winner of the prestigious Bancroft Prize for his book Dust Bowl, Worster has helped bring humanity's interaction with nature to the forefront of historical thinking. Now, in The Wealth of Nature, he offers a series of thoughtful, eloquent essays which lay out his views on environmental history, tying the study of the past to today's agenda for change. The Wealth of Nature captures the fruit of what Worster calls "my own intellectual turning to the land." History, he writes, represents a dialogue between humanity and nature--though it is usually reported as if it were simple dictation. Worster takes as his point of departure the approach expressed early on by Aldo Leopold, who stresses the importance of nature in determining human history; Leopold pointed out that the spread of bluegrass in Kentucky, for instance, created new pastures and fed the rush of American settlers across the Appalachians, which affected the contest between Britain, France, and the U.S. for control of the area. Worster's own work offers an even more subtly textured understanding, noting in this example, for instance, that bluegrass itself was an import from the Old World which supplanted native vegetation--a form of "environmental imperialism." He ranges across such areas as agriculture, water development, and other questions, examining them as environmental issues, showing how they have affected--and continue to affect--human settlement. Environmental history, he argues, is not simply the history of rural and wilderness areas; cities clearly have a tremendous impact on the land, on which they depend for their existence. He argues for a comprehensive approach to understanding our past as well as our present in environmental terms. "Nostalgia runs all through this society," Worster writes, "fortunately, for it may be our only hope of salvation." These reflective and engaging essays capture the fascination of environmental history--and the beauty of nature lost or endangered--underscoring the importance of intelligent action in the present.