A ROUNDUP OF 160 OR SO JAZZ, BLUES, BEYOND, AND OTHER BOOKS PUBLISHED IN THE PAST YEAR OR SO

1) BIOGRAPHIES

2) PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTIONS, HISTORY,

REFERENCE, CRITICISM, ETC.

3) MISCELLANEOUS

1) BIOGRAPHIES

Muneer Nasser,Upright Bass The Musical Life and Legacy of Jamil Nasser: A Jazz Memoir (Vertical Visions Media Group). “George Joyner, Jamil Sulieman, and Jamil Nasser are three names that appear on the records of Phineas Newborn, Lou Donaldson, Red Garland, and Ahmad Jamal. These names identify one jazz bassist, composer, and jazz advocate, who made an indelible mark upon in the the jazz world for over fifty years, Jamil Nasser.Upright Basschronicles his evolution from a young bassist on Beale Street, the musical epicenter of Memphis, to a top-flight bassist on the New York jazz scene. Miles Davis harbored curiosity about the environment that produced Jamil and three Memphis musicians he hired in 1963. "’ wondered what they were doing down there when all the guys came through that same school.’ Nasser's narrative captures the untold stories of two piano giants, Phineas Newborn and Oscar Dennard. He also shares anecdotes about his mentors: Papa Jo Jones, Lester Young, Charles Mingus, Oscar Pettiford, and Ray Brown. Moreover, Jamil describes his decade long tenure with Ahmad Jamal, which included a life threatening imprisonment in South America. Finally, we learn about the perils of heroin addiction, his plight as an outspoken, Muslim jazz artist fighting for greater union representation, media access, healthcare, and self-ownership.”

Muneer Nasser is the author ofUpright Bass: The Musical Life & Legacy of Jamil Nasser. As Jamil's son, he experienced some of the history documented in the book. Moreover, he read over one hundred books, magazines, and conducted interviews with jazz masters whose answers piqued his interest in jazz history. “My father shared many compelling stories about his career.” Recently, Muneer put down the pen and picked up his trumpet to record A Soldier's Story, a companion CD to the book. Muneer developed a lifelong commitment to the study of jazz from his early exposure to Jazz through his father.

“Jamil was my favorite bassist,” Randy Weston

“I certainly made a point of buying any record on which he played bass,” Ron Carter

Photographs, notes, discography, list of compositions, index.

Lew Shaw,Jazz Beat: Notes on Classic Jazz(AZtold Publishing Company), cartoons by Bill Keane. “Even in a time of constant change, Classic Jazz is alive and well and continues to be relevant in today’s musical environment. ‘Classic’ is defined as ‘serving as a standard; an enduring example; always revered and never obsolete; a treasured art form that secures its future by honoring its past.’ In Jazz Beat, Notes on Classic Jazz, veteran jazz journalist Lew Shaw takes the reader along as he travels his jazz beat and presents a group of contemporary musicians who have interesting and reflective stories to tell that can only broaden a jazz fan’s appreciation of what it's like to play music for a living as well as gain a better understanding for what is happening on the band stand. The 47 profiles in Jazz Beatare a representative cross-section of today’s music makers: Old pros who have enjoyed long and illustrious careers like Ed Polcer (pictured above), Bucky Pizzarelli, Jim Cullum, and Pat Yankee, one of the last ‘Red-hot Mamas’; The new generation of super-talented musicians who are keeping Classic Jazz alive: Bria Skonberg, Stephanie Trick, and the Anderson twins, Pete and Will; From foreign lands, proving that jazz is world music: Anat Cohen, Niki Parrott, and Rossano Sportiello; Multi-instrumentalists Clint Baker and Andy Schumn, who qualify as versatile autodidacts; Perpetuating the roots of jazz from early New Orleans—New Black Eagle Jazz Band, and the hot jazz of the 1920s—Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks;- The singing ‘canaries—Banu Gibson and Molly Ryan; and the swinging drummers—Danny Coots, Ed Metz, and Hal Smith; And 28 more interviews of what has been described as ‘more like understanding, compassionate conversations’ that offer close-up and personal looks at what makes these jazz musicians tick. Plus  a bevy of jazz-oriented Family Circus cartoons by longtime jazz fan and friend, Bil Keane.” 

“This collection is more like understanding, compassionate ‘conversations’ that present close-up and personal looks at what makes us tick as musicians.” Ed Polcer, trumpeter and bandleader.

“5.0 out of 5 stars. Jazz bios you won't find anywhere else!

Lew Shaw is a masterful interviewer who manages to get the most interesting stories from his subjects. His book lets you really feel like you get to know the person he interviews and Lew always finds out interesting facts about the people--not just who they've played with or where they've performed, but how they got into jazz and why they chose what they do! The articles are interesting and never just a bunch of boring statistics. If you listen to jazz and love, as I do, to learn about the people who play the music we love, you NEED this book!” Jan, Amazon reviewer

Photographs, cartoons.

Chris Hillman and Richard Rains, The Art and Craft of Discography (Chris Hillman Books/chbooks.info). “Our new publication, The Art and Craft of Discographyincludes a detailed review of the history of discography followed by a new look at all our books on the subject with corrections, new relevant information, and further assessments of personnels.” 

As I have observed in reviews of Chris Hillman’s earlier publications, he and his collaborators are musical archaeologists, adept at unearthing all available information about the subjects of their investigations. This most recent of their numerous publications (see: chbooks.info) is highly recommended for both its text and the accompanying CD, which will provide rewarding repeated listenings. Mr. Hillman and his colleagues in research have provided an invaluable service by their delving onto the roots of jazz and blues. It would be well for those truly interested in the history of these two classic idioms—including musicians of any stylistic persuasion—to look into the works complied by this team (again, check out chbooks.info).  As the late great alto saxophonist Jackie McLean said to me in the 1990s, “I tell my students, ‘It’s an important tradition and you have to go back and hear this music and learn its language all the way through. How are you going to know what’s new to play, if you haven’t listened to everything that’s old?’”

Debbie Burke’sTasty Jazz Jams for Our Times(Kindle Direct Publishing) “shines a warm and loving spotlight on jazz artists around the globe. Heavily tipped towards the indie musician (on guitar, vocals, keys, harp, percussion, etc., and from diverse corners like Sweden, Italy, Brazil, Israel, Hong Kong, and Russia), the book also includes household-name jazz personalities like Houston Person, Christian McBride, Andy Snitzer, Jane Ira Bloom, Bobby Sanabria, and many more. With an intro by the esteemed smooth jazz artist and fellow author Maurice Johnson plus cool pull-quotes from other fascinating jazzers, this book is an exciting musical trip around the world.”

Debbie Burke has written hundreds of columns and articles, was the editor of an award-winning business journal and the editor of a lifestyle magazine. She played alto saxophone in concert bands and jazz bands. Brooklyn-born, she has lived in the northeast US for what seems like forever, but now inhabits the Deep South. Her jazz blog at www.debbieburkeauthor.com offers hundreds of insightful Q&As with the hottest bands, the most exciting emerging musicians, plus music promoters, producers, authors, painters, songwriters, illustrators, and more.

“Enjoyed reading through it!” Giovanni Russonello, New York Timesmusic critic

“A terrific book. Very inspiring!” Jamie O'Donnell (saxophone), Jamie O'Donnell Quartet

“Impressive!” Loretta Chin, journalist

Photographs.

John McCuskerrecounts the story of this legendary player and bandleader in his Creole Trombone: Kid Ory and the Early Years of Jazz(University Press of Mississippi), now reissued in paperback. Driving across country from Seattle to Yale grad school in July 1960 (in a tiny Fiat 600!), I spent a week or so in San Francisco visiting friends and while there checked out several bands, among which was Kid Ory’s, then in residence at On The Levee. My several-minute chat between sets with this trailblazer of ur-jazz is a treasured memory and an early-jazz “interview” that I would never match, across the subsequent five decades of conversations with musicians, in terms of the seniority of interviewee. McCusker provides a well-researched story of a pioneering New Orleans musician bearing witness to the dawn of jazz. It is a fascinating tale. Ory’s role, a major one, in the 1940s New Orleans Revival is recounted as well. 

“At last! John McCusker's Creole Tromboneprovides a compelling account of the early life and career of Ed Ory, one of the most fascinating protagonists in the development of New Orleans jazz. Through meticulous research and an innate sensitivity to Louisiana's distinctive couture de métissage, McCusker has brought hitherto undiscovered aspects of Ory's life to light, while deepening our understanding of his contributions to the idiom.” Bruce Boyd Raeburn, curator of the Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University and author of New Orleans Style and the Writing of American Jazz History.

Photos, notes, Selected discography, index.

Pelle Berglund,Buddy Rich: One of a Kind: The Making of the World's Greatest Drummer(Hudson Music) “In this meticulously researched biography, author Pelle Berglund presents the first comprehensive book on the life of Buddy Rich, still considered by many to be the greatest drummer ever to pick up sticks. Using interviews with many of Buddy's band members (some conducted by the author himself) along with extensive sourcing of quotes from practically every interview ever given by Buddy himself, a complete chronology of Buddy's life is presented along with insights into what drove him and what he thought about the various situations and people he encountered through his life. One of a Kindrecounts each chapter of a life lived in the spotlight: childhood star Traps, the Drum Wonder; young jazz drummer with Joe Marsala and Bunny Berigan; star sideman with Artie Shaw, Harry James, and Tommy Dorsey; and leading various incarnations of the Buddy Rich Big Band. A twentieth century icon, Buddy's relationships with Shaw, Dorsey, Count Basie, Johnny Carson, Frank Sinatra, Mel Torme, Gene Krupa, Norman Granz, Lana Turner, and his family, including wife Marie and daughter Cathy, are insightfully investigated. Never-before-seen photos of Buddy culled from the private collection of collector Charley Braun add a new perspective on Buddy's life including a 16-page featured photo section. Beyond providing a complete timeline of Buddy Rich's life, One of a Kind provides a glimpse into the mind of a musical titan who demanded greatness from himself and those around him, and became of the most celebrated and controversial stars in music. Also includes an incredible introduction by drummer Max Weinberg and a link to additional online photos, video and audio.”

“The definitive book on the life and music of Buddy Rich.”

Walter Hern, Amazon commentor.

Photos, notes, bibliography, filmography.

Dave Rivello,Bob Brookmeyer in Conversation with Dave Rivello (ArtistShare). Dave Rivello, Professor at the Eastman School of Music and a former student of Bob Brookmeyer, shares Brookmeyer's compositional legacy with his new textbook and app, which contains sketches/scores, video, audio, and text to create a 360 degree view of the music.

“Brilliance and wisdom abound in this treasure of a book that is pure Brookmeyer gold. . . . Thanks to Dave, Bob’s tremendous insights are not lost treasures, but ones that will continue to enrich us all.” Maria Schneider, award-winning composer, arranger, and bandleader. 

Musical scores, Suggested Listening and Reading, List of Works.

Paul Lopes’Art Rebels: Race, Class, and Gender in the Art of Miles Davis and Martin Scorsese(Princeton University Press) “is the essential account of a new breed of artists who left an indelible mark on American culture in the second half of the twentieth century. It is an unforgettable portrait of two iconic artists who exemplified the complex interplay of the quest for artistic autonomy and the expression of social identity during the Heroic Age of American Art. Lopes tells the story of how a pair of talented and outspoken art rebels defied prevailing conventions to elevate American jazz and film to unimagined critical heights. During the Heroic Age of American Art―where creative independence and the unrelenting pressures of success were constantly at odds―Davis and Scorsese became influential figures with such modern classics as Kind of Blueand Raging Bull. Their careers also reflected the conflicting ideals of, and contentious debates concerning, avant-garde and independent art during this period. In examining their art and public stories, Lopes also shows how their rebellions as artists were intimately linked to their racial and ethnic identities and how both artists adopted hyper-masculine ideologies that exposed the problematic intersection of gender with their racial and ethnic identities as iconic art rebels.”

Paul Lopes is associate professor of sociology at Colgate University. He is the author of Demanding Respect: The Evolution of the American Comic Book andThe Rise of a Jazz Art World.

“With brilliant analyses of the race and gender politics in the personae and works of iconic creative rebels Miles Davis and Martin Scorsese, Art Rebels provides necessary tools for examining the past, present, and future of American popular film and music.” Maxine Leeds Craig, author of Sorry I Don't Dance: Why Men Refuse to Move

Notes, index.

Max Bolleman,Sounds: The History of Studio 44(Mijnbestseller.nl) 

“The most famous musicians come to the recording studio of Max Bolleman, e.g., Art Blakey, Chet Baker, Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, Kenny Burrell, Bob Brookmeyer, Freddie Hubbard, and Wtnton Marsalis.”

“Back in 1982, jazz drummer Max Bolleman embarked on a new career, determined to open his own recording studio in his native Holland. The rest, as they say, is history—in this case, history sprinkled with an abundance of interesting anecdotes and experiences along the way. These moments form the basis for Bolleman's new book, which is brimming with fascinating stories delivered in a casual manner that reveals the character of the storyteller and his subjects. . . . . .  Bolleman details his work for Criss Cross at several New York studios, along with the particulars of his own studios in Holland. He does not go into great technical detail, but does reveal some of the many lessons he learned ‘on the job.’ With wit and candor, Max adds considerably to the legacy of a field where so much of what happens remains lost behind closed doors. His story is a vital one that any jazz fan will find a delightful and engaging read.” Andrew Hovan, All About Jazz.

Photographs, discography, index.

Kevin D. Greene’sThe Invention and Reinvention of Big Bill Broonzy (University of North Carolina Press) “assesses major themes and events in African American history, including the Great Migration, urbanization, and black expatriate encounters with European culture consumers. Drawing on a range of historical source materials as well as oral histories and personal archives held by Broonzy's son, Greene perceptively interrogates how notions of race, gender, and audience reception continue to shape concepts of folk culture and musical authenticity. Over the course of his long career, legendary bluesman William “Big Bill” Broonzy (1893–1958) helped shape the trajectory of the genre, from its roots in the rural Mississippi River Delta, through its rise as a popular genre in the North, to its eventual international acclaim. Along the way, Broonzy adopted an evolving personal and professional identity, tailoring his self-presentation to the demands of the place and time. His remarkable professional fluidity mirrored the range of expectations from his audiences, whose ideas about race, national belonging, identity, and the blues were refracted through Broonzy as if through a prism. Kevin D. Greene argues that Broonzy's popular success testifies to his ability to navigate the cultural expectations of his different audiences. However, this constant reinvention came at a personal and professional cost. Using Broonzy's multifaceted career, Greene situates blues performance at the center of understanding African American self-presentation and racial identity in the first half of the twentieth century.

“A wonderfully engaging and intellectually creative rendering of African American life, the city, and even U.S. foreign affairs through the life and music of Big Bill Broonzy. Davarian L. Baldwin, author of Chicago's New Negroes.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Bitten by the Blues: The Alligator Records Story(Chicago Visions and Revisions/ University of Chicago Press), by Bruce Iglauer andPatrick A. Roberts, “is Iglauer’s memoir of a life immersed in the blues—and the business of the blues. No one person was present at the creation of more great contemporary blues music than Iglauer: he produced albums by Koko Taylor, Albert Collins, Professor Longhair, Johnny Winter, Lonnie Mack, Son Seals, Roy Buchanan, Shemekia Copeland, and many other major figures. In this book, Iglauer takes us behind the scenes, offering unforgettable stories of those charismatic musicians and classic sessions, delivering an intimate and unvarnished look at what it’s like to work with the greats of the blues. It’s a vivid portrait of some of the extraordinary musicians and larger-than-life personalities who brought America’s music to life in the clubs of Chicago’s South and West Sides. Bitten by the Blues is also an expansive history of half a century of blues in Chicago and around the world, tracing the blues recording business through massive transitions, as a genre of music originally created by and for black southerners adapted to an influx of white fans and musicians and found a worldwide audience. Most of the smoky bars and packed clubs that fostered the Chicago blues scene have long since disappeared. But their soul lives on, and so does their sound. As real and audacious as the music that shaped it, Bitten by the Blues is a raucous journey through the world of Genuine Houserockin’ Music.”

“This book is long overdue. Alligator Records has been a cornerstone of the blues world for over four decades. The stories about the artists and sessions that have paved the way for so many others are a pleasure to read. As an Alligator artist I am truly grateful for what Bruce and Alligator Records have done for me and this genre.” Shemekia Copeland

Photographs, discography, index.

Alan Paul andAndy Aledort, Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan(St. Martin's Press) is “The first definitive biography of guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughan, with an epilogue by Jimmie Vaughan, and foreword and afterword by Double Trouble’s Chris Layton andTommy Shannon. Just a few years after he almost died from a severe addiction to cocaine and alcohol, a clean and sober Stevie Ray Vaughan was riding high. His last album was his most critically lauded and commercially successful. He had fulfilled a lifelong dream by collaborating with his first and greatest musical hero, his brother Jimmie. His tumultuous marriage was over and he was in a new and healthy romantic relationship. Vaughan seemed poised for a new, limitless chapter of his life and career. Instead, it all came to a shocking and sudden end on August 27, 1990, when he was killed in a helicopter crash following a dynamic performance with Eric Clapton. Just 35 years old, he left behind a powerful musical legacy and an endless stream of What Ifs. In the ensuing 29 years, Vaughan’s legend and acclaim have only grown and he is now an undisputed international musical icon. Despite the cinematic scope of Vaughan’s life and death, there has never been a truly proper accounting of his story. Until now. Texas Floodprovides the unadulterated truth about Stevie Ray Vaughan from those who knew him best: his brother Jimmie, his Double Trouble bandmates Tommy Shannon, Chris Layton and Reese Wynans, and many other close friends, family members, girlfriends, fellow musicians, managers and crew members.”

Alan Paul is the author of the New York Times bestsellerOne Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band, the definitive book on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band. His first book, Big in China, is about his experiences raising an American family, forming a band and becoming an unlikely rock star in Beijing. He is a regular guest on radio shows and a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, Guitar World, and other publications. He lives in New Jersey.

Andy Aledort has been an essential contributor to the international music scene for 35 years, working as a journalist, instructor and performer. He has conducted hundreds of interviews and lessons with the world’s greatest guitarists for Guitar Worldand other publications, and toured and recorded with original Jimi Hendrix bandmates Mitch Mitchell and Buddy Miles and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble. He was a member of Dickey Betts and Great Southern for 12 years. He has also sold over one million instructional DVDs and teaches guitar privately and via online sites such as Truefire. He lives on Long Island.

“Soul Brother Stevie Ray Vaughan was a force of nature! His fearless, furious and elegant approach to the guitar was breathtaking. Texas Floodhelps you understand both the player and the person. We are grateful for the gifts he left for us all. We thank God for the Vaughan family; Jimmie and Stevie are both astonishing.” Carlos Santana

“Over 35 years ago when he was still playing small clubs, I saw Stevie Ray Vaughan at Antone’s in Austin. Standing so close to the stage, absolutely mesmerized, I knew I was watching a legend in the making. He was dripping with soul and already miles ahead of everyone else. A true, vital influence on my music. This book is important and long overdue.” Lucinda Williams

Photographs, Cast of Characters, index.

David Dann,Guitar King: Michael Bloomfield's Life in the Blues (University of Texas Press). “Named one of the world’s great blues-rock guitarists by Rolling Stone, Mike Bloomfield (1943–1981) remains beloved by fans nearly forty years after his untimely death. Taking readers backstage, onstage, and into the recording studio with this legendary virtuoso, David Dann tells the riveting stories behind Bloomfield’s work in the seminal Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the mesmerizing Electric Flag, as well as on the Super Session album with Al Kooper and Stephen Stills, Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, and soundtrack work with Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson. In vivid chapters drawn from meticulous research, including more than seventy interviews with the musician’s friends, relatives, and band members, music historian David Dann brings to life Bloomfield’s worlds, from his comfortable upbringing in a Jewish family on Chicago’s North Shore to the gritty taverns and raucous nightclubs where this self-taught guitarist helped transform the sound of contemporary blues and rock music. With scenes that are as electrifying as Bloomfield’s solos, this is the story of a life lived at full volume.”

David Dann is a commercial artist, music historian, writer, and amateur musician who worked for many years in the news industry, including serving as copublisher of an award-winning Catskills weekly. Most recently, he was editor of Artenol, a radical art journal described by the New York Times as “a cross betweenThe New Republic andMad Magazine.” He has produced radio and video documentaries of Michael Bloomfield and served as a consultant to Sony/Legacy on their recent Bloomfield boxed set.

“I love this book. It’s the best thing I’ve read about Mike Bloomfield and about the whole era.” Charlie Musselwhite, Grammy Award-winning blues harmonica player and bandleader.

“David Dann has restored bluesman Michael Bloomfield’s premier place in the pantheon as the very first American rock guitar god. The author brings the excitement of Michael’s searing licks to the written word and paints a poignant portrait of a man who was unequipped for and uninterested in playing the games that the entertainment-industrial complex demands of artists. This soulful bio reminds us of one man’s dedication to excellence at the expense of fame and fortune." Michael Simmons, contributor to MOJOand author of liner notes to Michael Bloomfield: From His Head To His Heart To His Hands.

Photos, index.

Billy Edd Wheeler’sHotter Than a Pepper Sprout: A Hillbilly Poet's Journey From Appalachia to Yale to Writing Hits for Elvis, Johnny Cash & More(BMG Books) “is populated by a fascinating cast of characters which he encountered on his journey. Songwriting changed his life, bringing him a long lasting career that saw the birth of classic tunes such as “The Reverend Mr. Black,” “High Flyin' Bird,” “The Coming of the Roads,” “It's Midnight,” “Coal Tattoo,” and others. Peppered with the folksy wisdom of his beloved Appalachia, Hotter Than a Pepper Sprout is like pulling a chair up next to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Famer by a warm fire. . . .  Award winning songwriter, musician, author, playwright, poet, visual artist, and Appalachian Renaissance man Billy Edd Wheeler is best known for penning “Jackson,” which was popularized by Johnny Cash and June Carter with their Grammy-winning recording from 1967. In addition to his own albums and singles as a highly regarded singer/songwriter (including the Top 5 hit, “Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back”), Billy Edd has penned numerous songs for artists such as Elvis Presley, Judy Collins, The Kingston Trio, Neil Young, and Kenny Rogers.

“Billy Edd Wheeler is a creative spirit the sort of which this world has rarely seen. He lives it and breathes it. Surrounds himself with it.” Janis Ian

Photographs, discography.

Sheree Homer,Under the Influence of Classic Country: Profiles of 36 Performers of the 1940s to Today.

Foreword by Eddie Clendening(McFarland). “The music today known as ‘classic country’ originated in the South in the 1920s. Influenced by blues and folk music, instrumentation was typically guitar, fiddle, bass, steel guitar, and later drums, with lyrics and arrangements rooted in tradition. This book covers some of the genre’s legendary artists, from its heyday in the 1940s to its decline in the early 1970s. Revivalists keeping the traditions alive in the 21st century are also explored. Thirty-six performers are profiled, including Ernest Tubb, Ray Price, Loretta Lynn, Bill Anderson, Faron Young, Mickey Gilley, Freddie Hart, Jerry Reed, Charley Pride, David Frizzell, The Cactus Blossoms, The Secret Sisters, and Pokey LaFarge. Drawing on original interviews with artists and their associates, biographical profiles chronicle their lives on the road and in the studio, as well as the stories behind popular songs.”

“One of the best Country Music books of all time.” Book Authority

Photographs, discography, bibliography, index.

Dorothy Carvello,Anything for a Hit: An A&R Woman's Story of Surviving the Music Industry(Chicago Review Press). “Dorothy Carvello knows all about the music biz. She was the first female A&R executive at Atlantic Records, and one of the few in the room at RCA and Columbia. But before that, she was secretary to Ahmet Ertegun, Atlantic’s infamous president, who signed acts like Aretha Franklin and Led Zeppelin, negotiated distribution deals with Mick Jagger, and added Neil Young to Crosby, Stills & Nash. The stories she tells about the kingmakers of the music industry are outrageous, but it is her sinuous friendship with Ahmet that frames her narrative. He was notoriously abusive, sexually harassing Dorothy on a daily basis. Still, when he neared his end, sad and alone, Dorothy had no hatred toward him—only a strange kind of loyalty. Carvello reveals here how she flipped the script and showed Ertegun and every other man who tried to control her that a woman can be just as willing to do what it takes to get a hit. Featuring never-before-heard stories about artists like Michael Jackson, Madonna, Steven Tyler, Bon Jovi, INXS, Marc Anthony, Phil Collins, and many more, this book is a must-read for anyone who has ever wondered what it's really like to be a woman in a male-dominated industry. 

“Carvello’s memoir is wild, sexy, bold, honest, and brave. If you don’t know about the music business it is illuminating, if you do, it is sure to be revelatory. It is an amazing testament to her experience as a woman in the complicated, fast-moving, abusive, and compelling world of business and rock ’n’ roll. An important read in today’s climate in the workplace.” Maury Sterling, actor, Homeland

“Dorothy’s book lays out the music industry from a woman’s eyes. I applaud her courage and humor. It is a must-read for any woman thinking of entering the business.” Don Lenner, former chairman, Sony Music

“The music industry is long overdue for its #MeToo explosion, and this memoir seems ready to light the fuse  . . . . No matter how sleazy you might have heard the music industry is, this memoir suggests that it was worse.” Kirkus Reviews

Photographs.

John McEuen,The Life I've Picked(Chicago Review Press). “John McEuen is one of the founding members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, NGDB. Now 50-years strong, the band is best known for its evergreen bestselling album Will the Circle Be Unbroken and for its gorgeous version of the song “Mr. Bojangles.” McEuen is one of the seminal figures who conceived and originated the fusion of folk, rock and country, a unique sound still hugely popular today. In addition to performing on tour with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and on dozens of bestselling NGDB albums (many of which went platinum and gold), McEuen also has a successful solo performing and recording career. And as a music producer, he won the Grammy Award in 2010 for producing The Crow, a music album by Steve Martin, John’s lifelong friend. McEuen writes candidly and movingly about the ups and downs in his life. Among the highs was NGDB’s tour of  the Soviet Union in 1977, they were the first American group to perform there. Among the downs was the breakup of his family in the 1980s. McEuen is a born storyteller, and his tales of working with everyone from Linda Ronstadt to Willie Nelson to Johnny Cash to the Allman Brothers to Bob Dylan to Dolly Parton to, of course, Steve Martin will thrill every fan of folk, rock, and country music alike. 

“5.0 out of 5 stars fun, unlikely experiences along the way.

As a longtime NGDB and John McEuen fan I was eager to read this book. But his life has crossed paths with such interesting people, including many, many very well-known artists in the music industry, and he has had such crazy, fun, unlikely experiences along the way, that I think just about anyone, fan or not, would have a hard time putting it down. Aside from being a great musical talent with a storied career, John is a wonderful story-teller, and his story was one worth telling. I love this book.” SneffelsClimber, Amazon reviewer

Photographs, index.

Susan Whitall’sJoni on Joni: Interviews and Encounters with Joni Mitchell (Musicians in Their Own Words) (Chicago Review Press) “is an authoritative, chronologically arranged anthology of some of Mitchell’s most illuminating interviews, spanning the years 1966 to 2014. It includes revealing pieces from her early years in Canada and Detroit along with influential articles such as Cameron Crowe’s never-before-anthologized Rolling Stone piece. Interspersed throughout the book are key quotes from dozens of additional Q&As. Together, this material paints a revealing picture of the artist— bragging and scornful, philosophical and deep, but also a beguiling flirt. Few artists are as intriguing as Joni Mitchell. She was a solidly middle-class, buttoned-up bohemian, an anti-feminist who loved men but scorned free love, a female warrior taking on the male music establishment. She was both the party girl with torn stockings and the sensitive poet. She often said she would be criticized for staying the same or changing, so why not take the less boring option? Her earthy, poetic lyrics (“the geese in chevron flight” in “Urge for Going”), the phrases that are now part of the culture (“They paved paradise, put up a parking lot”), and the unusual melodic intervals traced by that lissome voice earned her the status of a pop legend. Fearless experimentation ensured that she will also be seen as one of the most important musicians of the twentieth century.”

Susan Whitall was a writer/editor at Creem magazine in Detroit in its 1970s heyday and a music and feature writer at the Detroit News. Her previous books are Women of Motown and Fever: Little Willie John’s Fast Life, Mysterious Death and the Birth of Soul.

“5.0 out of 5 stars. As a native Detroiter who became a percussionist who got my ‘Eat Some Vegetables’ song mentioned on The Tonight Show, I've always been aware of Joni Mitchell's songs and respect what she's done for music, however, as someone who came to music later in life, I really appreciated the perspectives on the industry and its realities within her expert context. Also, I enjoyed the boxed-in comments that dovetailed each chapter/interview. Further, since I've always been on the outside of the Joni Mitchell fishbowl, I enjoyed the editor’s set-up, author notes, and detail.” Brian Shell, Amazon reviewer

Photographs, index.

Leonard CohenThe Flame: Poems Notebooks Lyrics Drawings(Farrar, Straus and Giroux) “is the final work from Leonard Cohen, the revered poet and musician whose fans span generations and whose work is celebrated throughout the world. Featuring poems, excerpts from his private notebooks, lyrics, and hand-drawn self-portraits, The Flameoffers an unprecedentedly intimate look inside the life and mind of a singular artist. A reckoning with a life lived deeply and passionately, with wit and panache, The Flame is a valedictory work.

“This volume contains my father’s final efforts as a poet,” writes Cohen’s son, Adam Cohen, in his foreword. “It was what he was staying alive to do, his sole breathing purpose at the end.” Leonard Cohen died in late 2016. But “each page of paper that he blackened,” in the words of his son, “was lasting evidence of a burning soul.”

“If you felt Leonard Cohen’s death in 2016 as a personal assault, this book is a posthumous balm . . . All of Cohen’s work has a raw, straight-to-the-heart intensity―reach for this the next time you need inspiration for a wedding toast that will leave them gutted, or any other moment you need a little sustenance for the soul.” Chloe Schama, Vogue

“Cohen’s final volume shows his poetic soul. If you know the man only because of ‘Hallelujah’ or ‘Suzanne,’ pick up The Flameand warm yourself within its pages.” Bethanne Patrick, The Washington Post

Drawings, index.

Ethan Mordden’sOn Streisand: An Opinionated Guide(Oxford University Press) “begins with a broad year-by-year outline of the landmark achievements and a few of her more whimsical escapades, as when Rex Reed apologizes for an oafish interview piece and she responds with "I had more respect for him when he hated me." This is followed by a long essay on how Streisand's idiosyncratic self-realization marks her as a unique national treasure, an artist without limits. Then comes the major part of the book, a work-by-work analysis. This section is broken down into separate chapters, each organized chronologically: the stage shows, then the television shows and concerts, then the movies, and last (because longest) the recordings. Throughout, Mordden follows Streisand's independence, which he sees as her central quality. Throughout all of the chapters on Streisand's shows, concerts, films, and recordings, Mordden illustrates how she was exercising individualistic control of her career from her very first audition, and how the rest of her professional life unfolded from that point. A book written by an opinionated expert whose prose is consistently full of flair and wit, On Streisand: An Opinionated Guide will appeal to general readers in all aspects of American life that Streisand has touched, from film to television to popular music to stardom.”

Ethan Mordden is a recognized expert on American musical theatre and the author of When Broadway Went to Hollywood, Anything Goes: A History of American Musical Theatre, Beautiful Mornin', Coming Up Roses: The Broadway Musical in the 1950s,andOn Sondheim: An Opinionated Guide, all published by Oxford University Press. His writing has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, andThe New Yorker. His numerous books include friendly introductions to opera and film, as well as five collections of short stories chronicling gay life in New York City. He lives in Manhattan.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, chronology, index.                            

Peter Doggett’sCSNY: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young(Atria Books) is “The first ever biography focused on the formative and highly influential early years of ‘rock’s first supergroup’ (Rolling Stone) Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young—when they were the most successful, influential, and politically potent band in America—in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Woodstock and the formation of the band itself. 1969 to 1974 were true golden years of rock n’ roll, bookmarking an era of arguably unparalleled musical power and innovation. But even more than any of their eminent peers, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and Neil Young channeled and broadcast all the radical anger, romantic idealism, and generational angst of their time. Each of the members had already made their marks in huge bands (The Hollies, Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds), but together, their harmonies were transcendent. The vast emotional range of their music, from delicate acoustic confessionals to raucous counter-culture anthems, was mirrored in the turbulence of their personal lives. Their trademark may have been vocal harmony, but few—if any—of their contemporaries could match the recklessness of their hedonistic and often combative lifestyles, when the four tenacious, volatile, and prodigal songwriters pursued chemical and sexual pleasure to life-threatening extremes. Including full color photographs, CSNY chronicles these four iconic musicians and the movement they came to represent, concentrating on their prime as a collective unit and a cultural force: the years between 1969, when Woodstock telegraphed their arrival to the world, and 1974, when their arch-enemy Richard Nixon was driven from office, and the band (to quote Graham Nash himself) ‘lost it on the highway.’ Even fifty years later, there are plenty of stories left to be told about Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young—and music historian Peter Doggett is here to bring them to light in the meticulously researched CSNY, a quintessential and illuminative account of rock’s first supergroup in their golden hour for die-hard fans, nostalgic flower-children, and music history aficionados alike.”

Peter Doggett has been writing about rock music and interviewing rock stars for more than thirty years. He is the author of You Never Give Me Your Money, the definitive story of the Beatles’ break-up and its aftermath, chosen as one of the Best 10 Books of the year by the LA Times. His other books include his panoramic history of popular music, Electric Shock; The Man Who Sold the World; There’s a Riot Going On; andAre You Ready for the Country.”

“A must for CSNY fans and anyone who remembers the era when it ruled the pop charts." Starred KirkusReview

“Plenty of nuggets for the diehard fan...a more than welcome addition to the band’s bookshelf.” Houston Press

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

David Browne’sCrosby, Stills, Nash and Young: The Wild, Definitive Saga of Rock's Greatest Supergroup(Da Capo Press) “presents the ultimate deep dive into rock and roll's most musical and turbulent brotherhood on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. Featuring exclusive interviews with David Crosby and Graham Nash along with band members, colleagues, fellow superstars, former managers, employees, and lovers-and with access to unreleased music and documents--Browne takes readers backstage and onstage, into the musicians' homes, recording studios, and psyches, to chronicle the creative and psychological ties that have bound these men together--and sometimes torn them apart. This is the sweeping story of rock's longest-running, most dysfunctional, yet pre-eminent musical family, delivered with the epic feel their story rightly deserves.”

"Few rock and roll sagas are as genuinely epic as this one, in which, over nearly five decades, four enormous talents/egos come together, find musical perfection, and fall apart in seemingly unlimited ways. With unparalleled skill and wry insight, David Browne chases down the details of CSNY's unique collaboration, uncovering larger truths about creativity and collaboration, debauchery and recovery, and a generation's harmonizing heart.” Ann Powers, author of Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

John Doe andTom DeSavia, More Fun in the New World: The Unmaking and Legacy of L.A. Punk(Da Capo Press) “explores the years 1982 to 1987, covering the dizzying pinnacle of L.A.'s punk rock movement as its stars took to the national -- and often international -- stage. Detailing the eventual splintering of punk into various sub-genres, the second volume of John Doe and Tom DeSavia's west coast punk history portrays the rich cultural diversity of the movement and its characters, the legacy of the scene, how it affected other art forms, and ultimately influenced mainstream pop culture. The book also pays tribute to many of the fallen soldiers of punk rock, the pioneers who left the world much too early but whose influence hasn't faded. As with Under the Big Black Sun, the book features stories of triumph, failure, stardom, addiction, recovery, and loss as told by the people who were influential in the scene, with a cohesive narrative from authors Doe and DeSavia. Along with many returning voices, More Fun in the New World weaves in the perspectives of musicians Henry Rollins, Fishbone, Billy Zoom, Mike Ness, Jane Weidlin, Keith Morris, Dave Alvin, Louis Pérez, Charlotte Caffey, Peter Case, Chip Kinman, Maria McKee, and Jack Grisham, among others. And renowned artist/illustrator Shepard Fairey, filmmaker Allison Anders, actor Tim Robbins, and pro-skater Tony Hawk each contribute chapters on punk's indelible influence on the artistic spirit. In addition to stories of success, the book also offers a cautionary tale of an art movement that directly inspired commercially diverse acts such as Green Day, Rancid, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Wilco, and Neko Case. Readers will find themselves rooting for the purists of punk juxtaposed with the MTV-dominating rock superstars of the time who flaunted a "born to do this, it couldn't be easier" attitude that continued to fuel the flames of new music. More Fun in the New World follows the progression of the first decade of L.A. punk, its conclusion, and its cultural rebirth.”

Photographs, index.

Elton John,Me: Elton John(Henry Holt and Co.). “In his first and only official autobiography, music icon Elton John reveals the truth about his extraordinary life, from his rollercoaster lifestyle as shown in the film Rocketman, to becoming a living legend. Christened Reginald Dwight, he was a shy boy with Buddy Holly glasses who grew up in the London suburb of Pinner and dreamed of becoming a pop star. By the age of twenty-three he was performing his first gig in America, facing an astonished audience in his bright yellow dungarees, a star-spangled T-shirt, and boots with wings. Elton John had arrived and the music world would never be the same again. His life has been full of drama, from the early rejection of his work with song-writing partner Bernie Taupin to spinning out of control as a chart-topping superstar; from half-heartedly trying to drown himself in his LA swimming pool to disco-dancing with Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth; from friendships with John Lennon, Freddie Mercury, and George Michael to setting up his AIDS Foundation to conquering Broadway with Aida, The Lion King, andBilly Elliot the Musical.All the while Elton was hiding a drug addiction that would grip him for over a decade. In Me, Elton also writes powerfully about getting clean and changing his life, about finding love with David Furnish and becoming a father. In a voice that is warm, humble, and open, this is Elton on his music and his relationships, his passions and his mistakes. This is a story that will stay with you by a living legend.

“A uniquely revealing pop star autobiography. . . . Meis essential reading for anyone who wants to know the difficult road that [Elton has] walked.” Rolling Stone

Photographs, index.

Mark Slobin’sMotor City Music: A Detroiter Looks Back(Oxford University Press) “is the first-ever historical study across all musical genres in any American metropolis. Detroit in the 1940s-60s was not just "the capital of the twentieth century" for industry and the war effort, but also for the quantity and extremely high quality of its musicians, from jazz to classical to ethnic. The author, a Detroiter from 1943, begins with a reflection of his early life with his family and others, then weaves through the music traffic of all the sectors of a dynamic and volatile city. Looking first at the crucial role of the public schools in fostering talent, Motor City Music surveys the neighborhoods of older European immigrants and of the later huge waves of black and white southerners who migrated to Detroit to serve the auto and defense industries. Jazz stars, polka band leaders, Jewish violinists, and figures like Lily Tomlin emerge in the spotlight. Shaping institutions, from the Ford Motor Company and the United Auto Workers through radio stations and Motown, all deployed music to bring together a city rent by relentless segregation, policing, and spasms of violence. The voices of Detroit's poets, writers, and artists round out the chorus.”

“Motor City Musicis a loving portrait of one person's experience with the history of musicmaking in the D. Mark Slobin does not limit himself to one or two styles or genres, thus giving the reader valuable insight into the variety of sounds coming into and out of Detroit.” Leonard Slatkin, Music Director Laureate, Detroit Symphony Orchestra

“What at first reads like a loose memoir of growing up Jewish in Detroit ends up being a very detailed and widely comprehensive portrait of what makes Motor City's music so special and multifarious. There is no easily-drawn metaphor to stand for this sprawling, often-terrifying, still-volatile metropolis, no cliche to invoke Detroit in a few words as one might find for Chicago or New York. Mark Slobin's youthful life was exposed to an enormous number of ethnic musics derived from the many peoples throughout the world and America who jostle each other in Detroit, this has collided into an eclectic matrix which has influenced and alimented our whole nation's music.” William Bolcom, composer

Photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Marianne Preger-Simon’sDancing with Merce Cunningham(University Press of Florida) “offers a rare account of exactly how Cunningham taught and interacted with his students. She describes the puzzled reactions of audiences to the novel non-narrative choreography of the company’s debut performances. She touches on Cunningham’s quicksilver temperament―lamenting his early frustrations with obscurity and the discomfort she suspects he endured in concealing his homosexuality and partnership with composer John Cage―yet she celebrates above all his dependable charm, kindness, and engagement. She also portrays the comradery among the company’s dancers, designers, and musicians, many of whom―including Cage, David Tudor, and Carolyn Brown―would become integral to the avant-garde arts movement, as she tells tales of their adventures touring in a VW Microbus across the United States. Finally, reflecting on her connection with Cunningham throughout the latter part of his career, Preger-Simon recalls warm moments that nurtured their enduring bond after she left the dance company and, later, New York. Interspersed with her letters to friends and family, journal entries, and correspondence from Cunningham himself, Preger-Simon’s memoir is an intimate look at one of the most influential companies in modern American dance and the brilliance of its visionary leader.”

“A cross between personal memoir and cultural history―an insider’s look at a pivotal moment in American dance history.” Elizabeth Zimmer, dance critic, Village Voice

“Charming and moving. A delightful memoir of a woman’s 60-year relationship with perhaps the most important and innovative figure in dance in the second half of the twentieth century and a privileged introduction to the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.”Jay Caplan, Amherst College

Photographs, notes, index.

Bettijane Sills, with Elizabeth McPherson,Broadway, Balanchine, and Beyond: A Memoir(University Press of Florida). “In this memoir of a roller-coaster career on the New York stage, former actor and dancer Bettijane Sills offers a highly personal look at the art and practice of George Balanchine, one of ballet’s greatest choreographers, and the inner workings of his world-renowned company during its golden years. Sills recounts her years as a child actor in television and on Broadway, a career choice largely driven by her mother, and describes her transition into pursuing her true passion: dance. She was a student in Balanchine’s School of American Ballet throughout her childhood and teen years, until her dream was achieved. She was invited to join New York City Ballet in 1961 as a member of the corps de ballet and worked her way up to the level of soloist. Winningly honest and intimate, Sills lets readers peek behind the curtains to see a world that most people have never experienced firsthand. She tells stories of taking classes with Balanchine, dancing in the original casts of some of his most iconic productions, working with a number of the company’s most famous dancers, and participating in the company’s first Soviet Union tour during the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis. She walks us through her years in New York City Ballet first as a member of the corps de ballet, then a soloist dancing some principal roles, finally as one of the “older” dancers teaching her roles to newcomers while being encouraged to retire. She reveals the unglamorous parts of tour life, jealousy among company members, and Balanchine’s complex relationships with women. She talks about Balanchine’s insistence on thinness in his dancers and her own struggles with dieting. Her fluctuations in weight influenced her roles and Balanchine’s support for her―a cycle that contributed to the end of her dancing career. Now a professor of dance who has educated hundreds of students on Balanchine’s style and legacy, Sills reflects on the highs and lows of a career indelibly influenced by fear of failure and fear of success―by the bright lights of theater and the man who shaped American ballet.” 

“A lively and valuable read for dance fans, particularly Balanchine enthusiasts. It provides not only a trajectory of Bettijane Sills’s career―from child actor to hardworking ballerina to dedicated teacher ―but also a candid view of the talented, complicated Mr. B.” Yaël Tamar Lewin, author of Night’s Dancer: The Life of Janet Collins

“A behind-the-scenes glimpse into the fascinating and challenging world of New York City Ballet under Balanchine. It is also a compelling portrait of a dancer’s career and a testament to the many places a love of dance can take you.” Suzannah Friscia, former assistant editor, Dance Magazine and Pointe

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Ruth Feldstein’sHow It Feels to Be Free: Black Women Entertainers and the Civil Rights Movement(Oxford University Press) “examines celebrated black women performers, illuminating the risks they took, their roles at home and abroad, and the ways that they raised the issue of gender amid their demands for black liberation. Feldstein focuses on six women who made names for themselves in the music, film, and television industries: Simone, Lena Horne, Miriam Makeba, Abbey Lincoln, Diahann Carroll, and Cicely Tyson. These women did not simply mirror black activism, their performances helped constitute the era's political history. Makeba connected America's struggle for civil rights to the fight against apartheid in South Africa, while Simone sparked high-profile controversy with her incendiary lyrics. Yet Feldstein finds nuance in their careers. In 1968, Hollywood cast the outspoken Lincoln as a maid to a white family in For Love of Ivy, adding a layer of complication to the film. That same year, Diahann Carroll took on the starring role in the television series Julia. Was Julia a landmark for casting a black woman or for treating her race as unimportant? The answer is not clear-cut. Yet audiences gave broader meaning to what sometimes seemed to be apolitical performances.”

“By placing black female musicians and actors at the center of Civil Rights history, Ruth Feldstein has written a tremendously important study that challenges readers to consider the imaginative activism of artists who performed progressive representations of black womanhood. How It Feels to Be Free takes readers on a critical journey across the mid-twentieth century freedom struggle by way of women performers who rehearsed, remixed, and renegotiated civil rights and black power politics, as well as emergent feminisms...Feldstein places their lives and careers in conversation with one another and, in doing so, recuperates the crucial role that black women of music, film and television played in transforming our contemporary world.” Daphne Brooks, Princeton University

Photographs, notes, index.

Rethinking Reich, edited by Sumanth Gopinath andPwyll ap Siôn(Oxford University Press).

“Described by music critic Alex Ross as ‘the most original musical thinker of our time’ and having received innumerable accolades in a career spanning over fifty years, composer Steve Reich is considered by many to be America’s greatest contemporary composer. His music, however, remains largely under-researched. Rethinking Reichredresses this imbalance, providing a space for prominent and emerging scholars to reassess the composer's contribution to music in the twentieth century. Featuring fourteen tightly focused and multifarious essays on various aspects of Reich’s work--ranging from analytical, aesthetic, and archival studies to sociocultural, philosophical, and ethnomusicological reflections--this edited volume reveals new insights, including those enabled by access to the growing Steve Reich Collection at the Paul Sacher Foundation archive, the premier institution for primary research on twentieth-century and contemporary classical music. This volume takes on the timely task of challenging the hegemony of Reich’s own articulate and convincing discourses on his music, as found in his Writings on Music(OUP, 2002), and breaks new ground in the broader field of minimalism studies.

Pwyll ap Siôn is Professor of Music at Bangor University, Wales. He studied music at Oxford University. Ap Siôn has published books and articles in the areas of minimalist and postminimalist music, quotation and intertextuality in music and minimalist music in film and media. He has contributed record reviews and articles for Gramophonemusic magazine since 2007.

Sumanth Gopinath is Associate Professor of Music Theory at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. He is the author of The Ringtone Dialectic: Economy and Cultural Form(2013), co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Mobile Music Studies, vols. 1 and 2(2014) with Jason Stanyek, and has published work on Steve Reich, minimalism, new media, Marxism, country music, and other topics. He is the leader of the independent Americana band, The Gated Community.

“This volume ‘rethinks Reich’ both by drawing substantially on unexplored archive materials, and by approaching Reich's varied output from original and unexpected cultural perspectives. It represents a major contribution both to our understanding of Steve Reich and to the broader fields of post-1960 experimental and postmodern music.” Robert Adlington, Professor of Contemporary Music, University of Huddersfield

“A book-length study of Steve Reich is long overdue, particularly one that critically and creatively engages his work -- as this book does, from the title onward -- beyond the bounds of the composer's own exegeses. The contributors' varied approaches constitute some the most exciting and insightful voices in contemporary music scholarship, commensurate with Reich’s own complicated intersections with diverse musics, methods, and media. And because of Reich's ubiquity within contemporary art music as well as his eclectic inroads into popular culture, this volume will likely find its way onto the shelves of musicians, scholars, and fans alike.” Jeremy Grimshaw, Associate Dean, BYU College of Fine Arts and Communications, author of Draw a Straight Line and Follow It: The Music and Mysticism of La Monte Young

Photographs, musical scores, Cited Works, index

Alan Walker,Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times(Farrar, Straus and Giroux). “Based on ten years of research and a vast cache of primary sources located in archives in Warsaw, Paris, London, New York, and Washington, D.C., Alan Walker’s monumental Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Timesis the most comprehensive biography of the great Polish composer to appear in English in more than a century. Walker’s work is a corrective biography, intended to dispel the many myths and legends that continue to surround Chopin. Fryderyk Chopin is an intimate look into a dramatic life, of particular focus are Chopin’s childhood and youth in Poland, which are brought into line with the latest scholarly findings, and Chopin’s romantic life with George Sand, with whom he lived for nine years. Comprehensive and engaging, and written in highly readable prose, the biography wears its scholarship lightly: this is a book suited as much for the professional pianist as it is for the casual music lover. Just as he did in his definitive biography of Liszt, Walker illuminates Chopin and his music with unprecedented clarity in this magisterial biography, bringing to life one of the nineteenth century’s most confounding, beloved, and legendary artists. 

“For a biographer, there's a lot to untangle. Alan Walker does so brilliantly in Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times, a magisterial portrait . . . A polyphonic work that elegantly interweaves multiple strands.” Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim,The New York Times Book Review

“Adopting the same combination of broad perspective, wealth of telling detail, and musical expertise that he brought to his classic biography of Franz Liszt, Alan Walker has now produced a vast work on Fryderyk Chopin that is likely to remain the most important account of the great Polish master’s life for a long time to come. Walker vividly recounts Chopin’s happy childhood and youth in Warsaw, his unfortunate but artistically prolific adult life in exile from his native country, his loves, and his losing battle with the tuberculosis that killed him at the age of thirty-nine. The book also delves deeply into Chopin’s music. A must for musicians and music-lovers alike.” Harvey Sachs, author of Toscanini: Musician of Conscience

Photographs, notes, musical scores, Catalogue of Chopin’s Works, index.

Stephen Walsh,Debussy: A Painter in Sound(Knopf)

Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was that rare creature, a composer who reinvented the language of music without alienating the majority of music lovers. The creator of such classics as La Mer andClair de Lune, ofPelléas et Mélisande, and his magnificent, delicate piano works, he is the modernist everybody loves, the man who drove French music into entirely new regions of beauty and excitement at a time when old traditions--and the overbearing influence of Wagner--threatened to stifle it. As a central figure at the birth of modernism, Debussy's influence on French culture was profound. Yet at the same time his own life was complicated and often troubled by struggles over money, women, and ill-health. Walsh's engagingly original approach is to enrich a lively account of this life with brilliant analyses of Debussy's music: from his first daring breaks with the rules as a Conservatoire student to his mature achievements as the greatest French composer of his time. The Washington Post called Stephen Walsh's Stravinsky‘one of the best books ever written about a composer.’ Debussyis a worthy successor.”

“Stephen Walsh has followed his magnificent, two-volume Stravinsky biography with this smaller but no less brilliant gem of a book on Debussy. Combining psychological perspicacity about his subject’s life with deep insight into his music, Walsh has made me not only better understand the composer—he has also made me want to re-listen to and re-reflect upon every piece that Debussy ever wrote.” Harvey Sachs, author of Toscanini: Musician of Conscience

Stephen Walsh is Emeritus Professor of Music at Cardiff University and author of a number of books on music including Musorgsky and His Circleand the prizewinning biography of Igor Stravinsky, selected as one of the ten Books of the Year by The Washington Post. He served for many years as deputy music critic for The Observerand writes reviews for many journals. He lives in Herefordshire, England.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Alexandra Kieffer’sDebussy's Critics: Sound, Affect, and the Experience of Modernism (Oxford University Press) “explores the music of Claude Debussy and its early reception in light of the rise of the empirical human sciences in Western Europe around the turn of the twentieth century. In the midst of a sea change in conceptions of the human person, the critics who wrote about Debussy's music in the Parisian press-continually returning to this music's nebulous relationship to sensation and sensibilité-attempted to articulate a music aesthetic appropriate to the fully embodied, material self of psychological modernism. While scholarship on French music in this period has often emphasized its affinities with other art forms, such as Impressionist painting and Symbolist poetry, Debussy's Critics demonstrates that a preoccupation with the specifically sonic materiality of Debussy's music, informed by late nineteenth-century scientific discourses on affect, perception, and cognition, was central to this music's historical intervention. Foregrounding the dynamic exchange between sounds and ideas, this book reveals the disorienting and bewildering experience of listening to Debussy's music, which compelled its early audiences to reimagine the most fundamental premises of the European art-music tradition.”

Musical scores,, notes, bibliography, index.

Judith Chernaik’sSchumann: The Faces and the Masks(Knopf) “draws us into the milieu of the Romantic movement, which enraptured poets, musicians, painters, and their audiences in the early nineteenth century and beyond, even to the present day. It reveals how Schumann (1810-1856) embodied all the contrasting themes of Romanticism--he was intensely original and imaginative but also worshipped the past, he believed in political, personal, and artistic freedom but insisted on the need for artistic form based on the masters: Bach, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. It details his deep involvement with other composers of his time, such as Chopin and Mendelssohn, Liszt and Brahms, as well as the literary lights of the age--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich Heine, E.T.A. Hoffmann--whose works gave inspiration to his compositions and words to his songs. Drawing on hitherto unpublished archive material, as well more established sources of journals, letters, and publications, Judith Chernaik provides enthralling new insight into Schumann's life and his music: his sexual escapades, his fathering of an illegitimate child, the facts behind his courtship of Clara Wieck--already a noted young concert pianist--his passionate marriage to her despite the opposition of her manipulative father, his passionate marriage, and the ways his many crises fed into the dreams and fantasies of his greatest works, turning his tumultuous life into music that speaks directly to the heart.”

Judith Chernaik was born and grew up in New York City. She graduated from Cornell University and received a PhD from Yale University. She has taught at Columbia, Tufts, and after moving to London with her husband and children, at Queen Mary College, University of London. In 1986 she founded London's popular Poems on the Underground, imitated in cities around the world. Her books include The Lyrics of Shelleyand four novels. Most recently she has published essays on Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Chopin in the English journal Musical Times. She lives in London with her husband Warren Chernaik, emeritus professor at the University of London.

“Chernaik is an enthusiastic student of Schumann’s music and a fine chronicler of his turbulent life. Schumann: The Faces and the Masksis a well-proportioned, highly readable biography for general readers that establishes Schumann as a man thoroughly of his time. The book’s greatest contribution is to situate Schumann in a remarkable fraternity of 19th-century composers.” Michael O’Donnell, The Wall Street Journal

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index of Schumann’s works, index.

Colm Toibin’sMad, Bad, Dangerous to Know: The Fathers of Wilde, Yeats and Joyce(Scribner) Is “an illuminating, intimate study of Irish culture, history, and literature told through the lives and work of three men—William Wilde, John Butler Yeats, and John Stanislaus Joyce—and the complicated, influential relationships they had with their complicated sons. Colm Tóibín begins his incisive, revelatory Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Knowwith a walk through the Dublin streets where he went to university—a wide-eyed boy from the country—and where three Irish literary giants also came of age. Oscar Wilde, writing about his relationship with his father, William Wilde, stated: ‘Whenever there is hatred between two people there is bond or brotherhood of some kind…you loathed each other not because you were so different but because you were so alike.’ W.B. Yeats wrote of his father, John Butler Yeats, a painter: ‘It is this infirmity of will which has prevented him from finishing his pictures. The qualities I think necessary to success in art or life seemed to him egotism.’ John Stanislaus Joyce, James’s father, was perhaps the most quintessentially Irish, widely loved, garrulous, a singer, and drinker with a volatile temper, who drove his son from Ireland. Elegant, profound, and riveting, Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Knowilluminates not only the complex relationships between three of the greatest writers in the English language and their fathers, but also illustrates the surprising ways these men surface in their work. Through these stories of fathers and sons, Tóibín recounts the resistance to English cultural domination, the birth of modern Irish cultural identity, and the extraordinary contributions of these complex and masterful authors.”

“Juicy, wry and compelling . . . an entertaining and revelatory little book about the vexed relationships between these three pairs of difficult fathers and their difficult sons.”

Maureen Corrigan, The Wall Street Journal   

Photographs, bibliography, index.

Mary Schmidt Campbell’sAn American Odyssey: The Life and Work of Romare Bearden(Oxford University Press) “offers a full and vibrant account of Bearden's life -- his years in Harlem (his studio was above the Apollo theater), to his travels and commissions, along with illuminating analysis of his work and artistic career. Campbell, who met Bearden in the 1970s, was among the first to compile a catalogue of his works. An American Odyssey goes far beyond that, offering a living portrait of an artist and the impact he made upon the world he sought both to recreate and celebrate. . . . By the time of his death in 1988, Romare Bearden was most widely celebrated for his large-scale public murals and collages, which were reproduced in such places as Time and Esquire to symbolize and evoke the black experience in America. As Mary Schmidt Campbell shows us in this definitive, defining, and immersive biography, the relationship between art and race was central to his life and work -- a constant, driving creative tension. Bearden started as a cartoonist during his college years, but in the later 1930s turned to painting and became part of a community of artists supported by the WPA. As his reputation grew he perfected his skills, studying the European masters and analyzing and breaking down their techniques, finding new ways of applying them to the America he knew, one in which the struggle for civil rights became all-absorbing. By the time of the March on Washington in 1963, he had begun to experiment with the Projections, as he called his major collages, in which he tried to capture the full spectrum of the black experience, from the grind of daily life to broader visions and aspirations.”

Mary Schmidt Campbell is President of Spelman College and Dean Emerita of the Tisch School of the Arts. She served as the vice chair of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities under former President Barack Obama.

“Meticulously researched and highly readable, this ground-breaking analytical biography of one of the twentieth century's leading figures in painting, collage and other art forms is an immensely important addition to recent art historical literature and biography. It is a pleasure to read and is a necessary addition to our American cultural consciousness.” Edward J. Sullivan, Helen Gould Sheppard Professor of the History of Art, Institute of Fine Arts (Deputy Director), New York University

Illustrations, photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Carolyn Burke’sFoursome: Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Paul Strand, Rebecca Salsbury(Knopf) is “A captivating, spirited account of the intense relationship among four artists whose strong personalities, passionate feelings, and aesthetic ideals drew them together, pulled them apart, and profoundly influenced the very shape of twentieth-century art. New York, 1921: Alfred Stieglitz, the most influential figure in early twentieth-century photography, celebrates the success of his latest exhibition--the centerpiece, a series of nude portraits of the young Georgia O'Keeffe, soon to be his wife. It is a turning point for O'Keeffe, poised to make her entrance into the art scene--and for Rebecca Salsbury, the fiancée of Stieglitz's protégé at the time, Paul Strand. When Strand introduces Salsbury to Stieglitz and O'Keeffe, it is the first moment of a bond between the two couples that will last more than a decade and reverberate throughout their lives. In the years that followed, O'Keeffe and Stieglitz became the preeminent couple in American modern art, spurring each other's creativity. Observing their relationship led Salsbury to encourage new artistic possibilities for Strand and to rethink her own potential as an artist. In fact, it was Salsbury, the least known of the four, who was the main thread that wove the two couples' lives together. Carolyn Burke mines the correspondence of the foursome to reveal how each inspired, provoked, and unsettled the others while pursuing seminal modes of artistic innovation. The result is a surprising, illuminating portrait of four extraordinary figures.”

Carolyn Burke is the author of No Regrets: The Life of Edith Piaf, Lee Miller: A Life(finalist for the NBCC), and Becoming Modern: The Life of Mina Loy. Born in Sydney, Australia, she now lives in Santa Cruz, California.

“[A] sharp-eyed group portrait of two artistic couples . . . . [Burke depicts] in rich detail the complex interactions among four vibrant people during a seminal era in American culture—a task she accomplishes in astute, lucid prose.” Wendy Smith, The Washington Post

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Brenda Wineapple’sThe Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Just Nation(Rnandom House) “When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and Vice-President Andrew Johnson became ‘the Accidental President,’ it was a dangerous time in America. Congress was divided over how the Union should be reunited: when and how the secessionist South should regain full status, whether former Confederates should be punished, and when and whether black men should be given the vote. Devastated by war and resorting to violence, many white Southerners hoped to restore a pre–Civil War society, if without slavery, and the pugnacious Andrew Johnson seemed to share their goals. With the unchecked power of executive orders, Johnson ignored Congress, pardoned rebel leaders, promoted white supremacy, opposed civil rights, and called Reconstruction unnecessary. It fell to Congress to stop the American president who acted like a king. With profound insights and making use of extensive research, Brenda Wineapple dramatically evokes this pivotal period in American history, when the country was rocked by the first-ever impeachment of a sitting American president. And she brings to vivid life the extraordinary characters who brought that impeachment forward: the willful Johnson and his retinue of advocates—including complicated men like Secretary of State William Seward—as well as the equally complicated visionaries committed to justice and equality for all, like Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, Frederick Douglass, and Ulysses S. Grant. Theirs was a last-ditch, patriotic, and Constitutional effort to render the goals of the Civil War into reality and to make the Union free, fair, and whole.”

Brenda Wineapple is the author of several books including Ecstatic Nation: Confidence, Crisis, and Compromise, 1848-1877, named a best book of 2 013 by The New York Timesamong many other publications; White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and winner for the Marfield Prize for Arts Writing; and Hawthorne: A Life, winner of the Ambassador Award for Best Biography of 2003, as well as Sister Brother Gertrude and Leo Stein, and Genêt: A Life of Janet Flanner.  She's received a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Pushcart Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, two National Endowment Fellowships in the Humanities, and most recently a National Endowment Public Scholars Award.  An elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Society of American Historians, she regularly contributes to major publications such as the New York Times Book Review, The New York Review of Books, The Wall Street Journal, andThe Nation.

“The relevance of this riveting and absorbing book is clear enough . . . literary and incisive . . . vivid and perceptive.” Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

“Riveting . . . Wineapple has written a stunningly well-timed book on a question ripped from the headlines.  Compulsively readable” John Fabian Witt, The Washington Post

Dramatis Personae, photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Jeffrey C. Stewart’sThe New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke(Oxford University Press) “offers the definitive biography of the father of the Harlem Renaissance, based on the extant primary sources of his life and on interviews with those who knew him personally. He narrates the education of Locke, including his becoming the first African American Rhodes Scholar and earning a PhD in philosophy at Harvard University, and his long career as a professor at Howard University. Locke also received a cosmopolitan, aesthetic education through his travels in continental Europe, where he came to appreciate the beauty of art and experienced a freedom unknown to him in the United States. And yet he became most closely associated with the flowering of Black culture in Jazz Age America and his promotion of the literary and artistic work of African Americans as the quintessential creations of American modernism. In the process he looked to Africa to find the proud and beautiful roots of the race. Shifting the discussion of race from politics and economics to the arts, he helped establish the idea that Black urban communities could be crucibles of creativity. Stewart explores both Locke's professional and private life, including his relationships with his mother, his friends, and his white patrons, as well as his lifelong search for love as a gay man. 

Stewart’s thought-provoking biography recreates the worlds of this illustrious, enigmatic man who, in promoting the cultural heritage of Black people, became -- in the process -- a New Negro himself.”

Jeffrey C. Stewart is a professor of Black Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of Paul Robeson: Artist and Citizenand 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About African American History.

“Locke represents a biographical challenge of unusual difficulty. Superbly educated, dazzlingly intelligent, psychologically complicated, and a cultural analyst and visionary whose books and essays helped to shape our understanding of race and modern American culture, Locke could also be petty and vindictive, manipulative and cruel. Also stamping his identity was his brave commitment to living fully as a gay man, despite its various dangers. Jeffrey Stewart, rising superbly to this challenge, has given us one of the finest literary biographies to appear in recent years.” Arnold Rampersad, Stanford University 

“Jeffrey Stewart’s long anticipated biography of the enigmatic Alain Locke fulfills its promise-and then some. It is magnificent! A panoramic portrait of one of the great thinkers, teachers, and literary entrepreneurs of the early twentieth century, The New Negro sheds fresh light on the intellectual firmament whose brightest star discovered African American modernism in an era of cosmopolitanism, colonialism, and catastrophe, and the man whose complex and tragic life left him defeated, unfulfilled, and underappreciated. . . . until now.” Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Dave Tell’sRemembering Emmett Till(University of Chicago Press) “gives us five accounts of the commemoration of this infamous crime. In a development no one could have foreseen, Till’s murder—one of the darkest moments in the region’s history—has become an economic driver for the Delta. Historical tourism has transformed seemingly innocuous places like bridges, boat landings, gas stations, and riverbeds into sites of racial politics, reminders of the still-unsettled question of how best to remember the victim of this heinous crime. Tell builds an insightful and persuasive case for how these memorials have altered the Delta’s physical and cultural landscape, drawing potent connections between the dawn of the civil rights era and our own moment of renewed fire for racial justice. Take a drive through the Mississippi Delta today and you’ll find a landscape dotted with memorials to major figures and events from the civil rights movement. Perhaps the most chilling are those devoted to the murder of Emmett Till, a tragedy of hate and injustice that became a beacon in the fight for racial equality. The ways this event is remembered have been fraught from the beginning, revealing currents of controversy, patronage, and racism lurking just behind the placid facades of historical markers.”

Dave Tell is professor of communication studies at the University of Kansas and the principal investigator of the Emmett Till Memory Project.

“Tell, the principal investigator of the Emmett Till Memory Project, takes readers through thickets of politics and commemoration, of fact and fiction, and of local communities trying to leverage civil rights histories to which they may not have strong connections. . . .  A book with broad application to the study of the civil rights movement but particularly useful for students and practitioners of local history and civic tourism.” Kirkus Reviews

“Remembering Emmett Tillsets the bar for future work on memory, civil rights, and the case that arguably gave the movement its legs. With deft archival work and savvy on-the-ground sleuthing, Tell unearths from the unrelenting Delta landscape many secrets locals have longed to keep buried. Accessible, engaging, and a page-turner from the jump.” Davis W. Houck, coauthor of Emmett Till and the Mississippi Press.

Photographs, map, notes, bibliography, index.

Dorian Lynskey, The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell's 1984(Doubleday) is “An authoritative, wide-ranging, and incredibly timely history of [the novel] 1984--its literary sources, its composition by Orwell, its deep and lasting effect on the Cold War, and its vast influence throughout world culture at every level, from high to pop. 1984isn't just a novel; it's a key to understanding the modern world. George Orwell's final work is a treasure chest of ideas and memes--Big Brother, the Thought Police, Doublethink, Newspeak, 2+2=5--that gain potency with every year. Particularly in 2016, when the election of Donald Trump made it a bestseller ("Ministry of Alternative Facts," anyone?). Its influence has morphed endlessly into novels (The Handmaid's Tale), films (Brazil), television shows (V for Vendetta), rock albums (Diamond Dogs), commercials (Apple), even reality TV (Big Brother). The Ministry of Truthis the first book that fully examines the epochal and cultural event that is 1984in all its aspects: its roots in the utopian and dystopian literature that preceded it; the personal experiences in wartime Great Britain that Orwell drew on as he struggled to finish his masterpiece in his dying days; and the political and cultural phenomena that the novel ignited at once upon publication and that far from subsiding, have only grown over the decades. It explains how fiction history informs fiction and how fiction explains history.”

Dorian Lynskey has been writing about music, film, and politics for more than twenty years for publications including The Guardian, The Observer, GQ, Q, Empire, Billboard,and The New Statesman. His first book, 33 Revolutions Per Minute: A History of Protest Songs(Ecco), was published in 2011.

“A rich and compelling case for the novel as the summation of Orwell’s entire body of work and a master key to understanding the modern world. . . Lynskey’s account of the reach of 1984is revelatory.” George Packer, The Atlantic.

Photos, notes, index.

Roy Flechner’s Saint Patrick Retold: The Legend and History of Ireland's Patron Saint(Princeton University Press) “draws on recent research to offer a fresh assessment of Patrick’s travails and achievements. This is the first biography in nearly fifty years to explore Patrick’s career against the background of historical events in late antique Britain and Ireland [and] examines the likelihood that Patrick, like his father before him, might have absconded from a career as an imperial official responsible for taxation, preferring instead to migrate to Ireland with his family’s slaves, who were his source of wealth. Flechner leaves no stone unturned as he takes readers on a riveting journey through Romanized Britain and late Iron Age Ireland, and he considers how best to interpret the ambiguous literary and archaeological evidence from this period of great political and economic instability, a period that brought ruin for some and opportunity for others. Rather than a dismantling of Patrick’s reputation, or an argument against his sainthood, Flechner’s biography raises crucial questions about self-image and the making of a reputation. From boyhood deeds to the challenges of a missionary enterprise, Saint Patrick Retold steps beyond established narratives to reassess a notable figure’s life and legacy.”

“This superb and stylishly executed work does a splendid job of surveying the life of Patrick, ending with a helpful overview of later developments of the saint in popular culture. Filling a gap, this impressive work will be gratefully received by historians of late antiquity and early medieval Britain and Ireland, and Celticists, not to mention a large body of general readers.” Mark Williams, author of Ireland’s Immortals

Photographs, maps, notes, bibliography, index.

Marion Turner, Chaucer: A European Life(Princeton University Press). “Uncovering important new information about Chaucer’s travels, private life, and the early circulation of his writings, this innovative biography documents a series of vivid episodes, moving from the commercial wharves of London to the frescoed chapels of Florence and the kingdom of Navarre, where Christians, Muslims, and Jews lived side by side. The narrative recounts Chaucer’s experiences as a prisoner of war in France, as a father visiting his daughter’s nunnery, as a member of a chaotic Parliament, and as a diplomat in Milan, where he encountered the writings of Dante and Boccaccio. At the same time, the book offers a comprehensive exploration of Chaucer’s writings, taking the reader to the Troy of Troilus and Criseyde, the gardens of the dream visions, and the peripheries and thresholds of The Canterbury Tales. By exploring the places Chaucer visited, the buildings he inhabited, the books he read, and the art and objects he saw, this landmark biography tells the extraordinary story of how a wine merchant’s son became the poet of The Canterbury Tales.

“Marion Turner’s ambitious biography is significantly different from others of Chaucer. Its focus on place enables Turner to explore Chaucer’s national and international political and cultural background in more detail than ever before.” Helen Cooper, Cambridge University

“Marion Turner, in this splendid biography, shows us that Chaucer was, to be sure, powerfully inflected by the extraordinary range of places, both English and continental, through which he travelled and in which he lived. She also demonstrates, in lucid and lively prose, that Chaucer was what he read and imagined. Turner enlarges the genre, without for a moment losing her eagle-eyed command of the fascinating empirical detail.” James Simpson, Harvard University

Photographs, maps, bibliography, index.

Lucasta Miller’sL.E.L.: The Lost Life and Scandalous Death of Letitia Elizabeth Landon, the Celebrated “Female Byron”(Knopf) “tells the full story and re-creates the literary London of [L.E.L.’s] time. She was born in 1802 and was shaped by the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, a time of conservatism when values were in flux. She began publishing poetry in her teens and came to be known as a daring poet of thwarted romantic love. We see L.E.L. as an emblematic figure who embodied a seismic cultural shift, the missing link between the age of Byron and the creation of Victorianism. Miller writes of Jane Eyre as the direct connection to L.E.L.--its first-person confessional voice, its Gothic extremes, its love triangle, and in its emphasis on sadomasochistic romantic passion. Letitita Elizabeth Landon--pen name L.E.L.--dared to say it and made sure she was heard. Hers was a life lived in a blaze of scandal and worship, one of the most famous women of her time.”

Lucasta Miller is a British literary critic who has worked for The Independentand The Guardian, and contributed to The Economist, The Times(London), The New Statesman, and the BBC. She was the founding editorial director of Notting Hill Editions and has been a visiting scholar at Wolfson College, Oxford, and a visiting fellow at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She lives in London with her husband, the tenor Ian Bostridge, and their two children.

“Lucasta Miller's stellar research blows two centuries of accumulated dust off a phenomenon worth knowing ... This book takes biography to a new level . . . . We see the network of manipulations, hypocrisy, commercial evil. Miller's investigation into the corroded promise of one young life opens up an abyss and, holding our gaze, speaks eloquently to the present” Lyndall Gordon (author of Outsiders: Five Women Writers Who Changed the World),New Statesman

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index. 

James Grant’s Bagehot: The Life and Times of the Greatest Victorian(W. W. Norton & Company) is “The definitive biography of one of the most brilliant and influential financial minds―banker, essayist, and editor of the Economist. During the upheavals of 2007–09, the chairman of the Federal Reserve had the name of a Victorian icon on the tip of his tongue: Walter Bagehot. Banker, man of letters, inventor of the Treasury bill, and author of Lombard Street, the still-canonical guide to stopping a run on the banks, Bagehot prescribed the doctrines that―decades later―inspired the radical responses to the world’s worst financial crises. Born in the small market town of Langport, just after the Panic of 1825 swept across England, Bagehot followed in his father’s footsteps and took a position at the local family bank―but his influence on financial matters would soon spread far beyond the county of Somerset. Persuasive and precocious, he came to hold sway in political circles, making high-profile friends, including William Gladstone―and enemies, such as Lord Overstone and Benjamin Disraeli. As a prolific essayist on wide-ranging topics, Bagehot won the admiration of Matthew Arnold and Woodrow Wilson, and delighted in paradox. He was also a misogynist, and while he opposed slavery, he misjudged Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. As editor of the Economist, he offered astute commentary on the financial issues of his day, and his name lives on in an eponymous weekly column. He has been called "the Greatest Victorian." In James Grant’s colorful and groundbreaking biography, Bagehot appears as both an ornament to his own age and a muse to our own. Drawing on a wealth of historical documents, correspondence, and publications, Grant paints a vivid portrait of the banker and his world.”

The definitive biography of one of the most brilliant and influential financial minds―banker, essayist, and editor of the Economist. During the upheavals of 2007–09, the chairman of the Federal Reserve had the name of a Victorian icon on the tip of his tongue: Walter Bagehot. Banker, man of letters, inventor of the Treasury bill, and author of Lombard Street, the still-canonical guide to stopping a run on the banks, Bagehot prescribed the doctrines that―decades later―inspired the radical responses to the world’s worst financial crises. Born in the small market town of Langport, just after the Panic of 1825 swept across England, Bagehot followed in his father’s footsteps and took a position at the local family bank―but his influence on financial matters would soon spread far beyond the county of Somerset. Persuasive and precocious, he came to hold sway in political circles, making high-profile friends, including William Gladstone―and enemies, such as Lord Overstone and Benjamin Disraeli. As a prolific essayist on wide-ranging topics, Bagehot won the admiration of Matthew Arnold and Woodrow Wilson, and delighted in paradox. He was also a misogynist, and while he opposed slavery, he misjudged Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. As editor of the Economist, he offered astute commentary on the financial issues of his day, and his name lives on in an eponymous weekly column. He has been called ‘the Greatest Victorian’. In James Grant’s colorful and groundbreaking biography, Bagehot appears as both an ornament to his own age and a muse to our own. Drawing on a wealth of historical documents, correspondence, and publications, Grant paints a vivid portrait of the banker and his world.”

James Grant founded Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, a financial markets journal, and authored The Forgotten Depression, which won the Hayek Prize. His writing has appeared in the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

“A gem of a book: entertaining, wry, and gloriously eccentric.” Sebastian Mallaby, Foreign Affairs

“Bagehot was a financial journalist with a love of English literature and a facility for clear and cogent prose. So is Mr. Grant. . . . Bagehot is a terrific and efficient survey of the political and economic disputations of mid-Victorian England and a fine narrative of the life of the era’s most brilliant essayist.” Barton Swaim, Wall Street Journal

Photographs, illustrations, bibliography, notes, index.

Anne Frank: The Collected Works(Bloomsbury Continuum) “brings together for the first time Anne's world-famous diary, in both the version edited for publication by her father and the more revealing original, together with her letters, essays and important contextual scholarship. Supported by the Anne Frank Foundation in Basel, Switzerland, set up by Otto Frank to be the guardian of Anne's work, this is a landmark publication marking the anniversary of 90 years since Anne's birth in 1929. Anne Frank is one of the most recognized and widely read figures of the Second World War. Thousands of people visit the Anne Frank House on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam each year to see the annex where Anne and her family hid from the Germans before eventually being deported to Auschwitz in 1944. Only Anne's father, Otto, survived the Holocaust.

An essential book for scholars and general readers alike, The Collected Works includes Anne Frank's complete writings, together with important images and documents that tell the wider story of her life. Also included are background essays by notable historians and scholars--including "Anne Frank's Life"; "The History of the Frank Family", "the Publication History of Anne Frank's diary"--and photographs of the Franks and the other occupants of the annex.” 

Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt am Main on 12 June 1929 as Annelies Marie Frank, the daughter of Otto and Edith Frank and the younger sister of Margot. She was given a diary as a 13th birthday present and kept it from 12 June 1942 to 1 August 1944, during the period in which she and her family, together with others, hid from anti-jewish Nazi persecution in a small set of rooms above an Amsterdam warehouse. After Anne's arrest and deportation to Auschwitz and later to Bergen-Belsen in 1944, where she would eventually die in early 1945 from typhus, her diary was published by her father, Otto Frank, and became a worldwide bestseller.

“A magisterial edition . . . one of the virtues of The Collected Worksis that it allows readers to track the evolution of the diary across its different incarnations . . . . The Complete Worksthus gives a greatly enriched picture, and, as one reads its pages, one cannot help thinking of what Anne might have become.” Bart van Es, Author of The Cut Out Girl,Guardian

Photographs, chronology, notes, bibliography.

Colin Asher,Never a Lovely So Real: The Life and Work of Nelson Algren(W. W. Norton & Company). “For a time, Nelson Algren was America’s most famous author, lauded by the likes of Richard Wright and Ernest Hemingway. Millions bought his books. Algren’s third novel, The Man with the Golden Arm, won the first National Book Award, and Frank Sinatra starred in the movie. But despite Algren’s talent, he abandoned fiction and fell into obscurity. The cause of his decline was never clear. Some said he drank his talent away; others cited writer’s block. The truth, hidden in the pages of his books, is far more complicated and tragic. Now, almost forty years after Algren’s death, Colin Asher finally captures the full, novelistic story of his life in a magisterial biography set against mid-twentieth-century American politics and culture. Drawing from interviews, archival correspondence, and the most complete version of Algren’s 886-page FBI file ever released, Colin Asher portrays Algren as a dramatic iconoclast. A member of the Communist Party in the 1930s, Algren used his writing to humanize Chicago’s underclass, while excoriating the conservative radicalism of the McCarthy era. Asher traces Algren’s development as a thinker, his close friendship and falling out with Richard Wright, and his famous affair with Simone de Beauvoir. Most intriguingly, Asher uncovers the true cause of Algren’s artistic exile: a reckless creative decision that led to increased FBI scrutiny and may have caused a mental breakdown. In his second act, Algren was a vexing figure who hid behind a cynical facade. He called himself a “journalist” and a “loser,” though many still considered him one of the greatest living American authors. An inspiration to writers such as Hunter S. Thompson, Martha Gellhorn, Jimmy Breslin, Betty Friedan, Cormac McCarthy, Don DeLillo, Russell Banks, and Thomas Pynchon, Algren nevertheless struggled to achieve recognition, and died just as his career was on the verge of experiencing a renaissance. Never a Lovely So Realoffers an exquisitely detailed, engrossing portrait of a master who, as esteemed literary critic Maxwell Geismar wrote, was capable of suggesting ‘the whole contour of a human life in a few terse pages.’”

Colin Asher is an award-winning writer whose work has been featured in the Believer,Los Angeles Review of Books,  Boston Globe, andSan Francisco Chronicle. An instructor at CUNY, he was a 2015/2016 Fellowat the Leon Levy Center for Biography.

“Absorbing. . . . [Asher] scrupulously attempts to separate facts from myths . . . as he explores how a writer who produced prose-poetry of such a high order could now be largely forgotten.” Susan Jacoby, New York Times Book Review

Photographs, notes, index.

Armand D’Angour’sSocrates in Love: The Making of a Philosopher (Bloomsbury Publishing) is “An innovative and insightful exploration of the passionate early life of Socrates and the influences that led him to become the first and greatest of philosophers. Socrates: the philosopher whose questioning gave birth to the foundations of Western thought, and whose execution marked the end of the Athenian Golden Age. Yet despite his pre-eminence among the great thinkers of history, little of his life story is known. What we know tends to begin in his middle age and end with his trial and death. Our conception of Socrates has relied upon Plato and Xenophon--men who met him when he was in his fifties, a well-known figure in war-torn Athens. There is mystery at the heart of Socrates's story: what turned the young Socrates into a philosopher? What drove him to pursue with such persistence, at the cost of social acceptance and ultimately his life, a whole new way of thinking about the meaning of existence? In this revisionist biography, classicist Armand D'Angour draws on neglected sources to explore the passions and motivations of young Socrates, showing how love transformed him into the philosopher he was to become. What emerges is the figure of Socrates as never previously portrayed: a heroic warrior, an athletic wrestler and dancer--and a passionate lover. Socrates in Love sheds new light on the formative journey of the philosopher, finally revealing the identity of the woman who Socrates claimed inspired him to develop ideas that have captivated thinkers for 2,500 years.”

Armand D'Angour is an Associate Professor of Classics at Oxford and Fellow and Tutor at Jesus College, Oxford. Author of The Greeks and the New(2011), an investigation into ancient Greek attitudes to novelty, he has written widely about Greek and Latin poetry, music and literature, and was commissioned to compose odes in ancient Greek for the Olympic Games in Athens (2004) and London (2012). He was trained as a pianist and cellist as well as a classicist, and has recently reconstructed ancient Greek music from original documents on stone and papyrus.

“Write the name Aspasia on your hearts! History, as told by men, has often erased the role of women. Our new champion Armand D’Angour has pieced together the evidence—that a woman of great intellectual powers helped lay the foundations of Western philosophy. This is a delicious and exhilarating piece of serious scholarship.” Helena Kennedy, author of Eve Was Framed—Women and British Justice

Map, Timeline,notes,bibliography, index. 

Steven Saylor,Roma: A Novel of Ancient Rome (Novels of Ancient Rome Series)(St. Martin's Griffin). “Spanning a thousand years, and following the shifting fortunes of two families though the ages, this is the epic saga of Rome, the city and its people.

Weaving history, legend, and new archaeological discoveries into a spellbinding narrative, critically acclaimed novelist Steven Saylor gives new life to the drama of the city's first thousand years ― from the founding of the city by the ill-fated twins Romulus and Remus, through Rome's astonishing ascent to become the capitol of the most powerful empire in history. Roma recounts the tragedy of the hero-traitor Coriolanus, the capture of the city by the Gauls, the invasion of Hannibal, the bitter political struggles of the patricians and plebeians, and the ultimate death of Rome's republic with the triumph, and assassination, of Julius Caesar.

Witnessing this history, and sometimes playing key roles, are the descendents of two of Rome's first families, the Potitius and Pinarius clans: One is the confidant of Romulus. One is born a slave and tempts a Vestal virgin to break her vows. One becomes a mass murderer. And one becomes the heir of Julius Caesar. Linking the generations is a

mysterious talisman as ancient as the city itself.

Epic in every sense of the word, Romais a panoramic historical saga and Saylor's finest achievement to date.” 

Steven Saylor is the author of the long running Roma Sub Rosa series featuring Gordianus the Finder. He has appeared as an on-air expert on Roman history and life on The History Channel. Saylor was born in Texas and graduated with high honors from The University of Texas at Austin, where he studied history and classics. He divides his time between Berkeley, California, and Austin, Texas.

“Before the Roman Empire, there was the Roman Republic, and before that, what? If all you recall is Romulus and Remus, here is a more complete story of the founding of Rome, from 1000 B.C.E. to the much more familiar territory of Julius Caesar and his successor in 1 B.C.E. Many customs and legends lingering into the Empire era have their original explanation here, such as the sacred geese or the building of various temples. The city's fictionalized history is likewise full of original source material, which relates, the author notes, ‘uncannily familiar political struggles and partisan machinations.' Class warfare, nepotism, and moral and theological battles dogged the development of this often idealized Roman Republic, and a truly remarkable propensity for cruelty and merciless judgment foreshadows the later Empire. Unlike Saylor's popular mysteries, this work compares more to Edward Rutherfurd's London as it focuses on crucial incidents in the intervening centuries. Two families of ancient origin who pass an amulet onto the next generation provide continuity. This work will attract a different fan base from Saylor's other work but should prove appealing to history and political buffs who enjoy comparing our current events with ancient Rome.” Mary K. Bird-Guilliams, Library Journal

Maps, Family Tree.

Julius Caesar and The War for Gaul: A New Translation by James O'Donnell(Princeton University Press). “A new translation that captures the gripping power of one of the greatest war stories ever told―Julius Caesar’s pitiless account of his brutal campaign to conquer Gaul

Imagine a book about an unnecessary war written by the ruthless general of an occupying army―a vivid and dramatic propaganda piece that forces the reader to identify with the conquerors and that is designed, like the war itself, to fuel the limitless political ambitions of the author. Could such a campaign autobiography ever be a great work of literature―perhaps even one of the greatest? It would be easy to think not, but such a book exists―and it helped transform Julius Caesar from a politician on the make into the Caesar of legend. This remarkable new translation of Caesar’s famous but underappreciated War for Gaul captures, like never before in English, the gripping and powerfully concise style of the future emperor’s dispatches from the front lines in what are today France, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland. While letting Caesar tell his battle stories in his own way, distinguished classicist James O’Donnell also fills in the rest of the story in a substantial introduction and notes that together explain why Gaul is the “best bad man’s book ever written”―a great book in which a genuinely bad person offers a bald-faced, amoral description of just how bad he has been. Complete with a chronology, a map of Gaul, suggestions for further reading, and an index, this feature-rich edition captures the forceful austerity of a troubling yet magnificent classic―a book that, as O’Donnell says, “gets war exactly right and morals exactly wrong.”

“James O’Donnell’s version of The War for Gaulis as gripping and readable as Caesar's itself. Brisk, terse, and potent, the translation captures the meaning of the original. It is a marvelous achievement. I sat, I read, I loved.” Barry Strauss, author of The Death of Caesar

“The War for Gaulis Caesar’s report of his conquest of Gaul, an amoral war and a vastly destructive prelude to political revolution at Rome. O’Donnell does full justice to Caesar’s Latin, giving us an account as terse and understated as the original. The introductions preceding each Commentary give the modern reader a sense of the context that the ancient reader brought to the story and show us Caesar in the process of becoming Caesar.” Cynthia Damon, editor and translator of Caesar’s Civil War

Chronology, Index of Key Terms.

Fred K. Drogula,Cato the Younger: Life and Death at the End of the Roman Republic(Oxford University Press). “Marcus Porcius Cato (‘the Younger’) is most famous for being Julius Caesar's nemesis. His sustained antagonism was in large part responsible for pushing the Romans towards civil war. Yet Cato never wanted war even though he used the threat of violence against Caesar. This strategic gamble misfired as Caesar, instead of yielding, marched on Rome, hurling the Republic into a bloody civil war. Refusing to inhabit a world ruled by Caesar, Cato took his own life. Although the Roman historian Sallust identified Cato and Caesar as the two most outstanding men of their age, modern scholars have tended to dismiss Cato as a cantankerous conservative who, while colorful, was not a critical player in the events that overtook the Republic. This book, in providing a much-needed reliable biography of Cato, contradicts that assessment. In addition to being Caesar's adversary, Cato is an important and fascinating historical figure in his own right, and his career-in particular, his idiosyncrasies-shed light on the changing political culture of the late Republic. Cato famously reached into Rome's hallowed past and found mannerisms and habits to adopt that transformed him into the foremost champion of ancestral custom. Thus Cato did things that seemed strange and even bizarre such as wearing an old-fashioned tint of purple on his senatorial toga, refusing to ride a horse when on public business, and going about barefoot and without the usual tunic as an undergarment. His extreme conservatism-which became celebrated in later ages, especially in Enlightenment Europe and revolutionary America--was actually designed to give him a unique advantage in Roman politics. This is not to claim that he was insincere in his combative promotion of the mos maiorum (the way of the ancestors), but his political manipulation of the Romans' reverence for their traditions was masterful. By providing a new, detailed portrait of Cato, the book also presents a unique narrative of the age he helped shape and inadvertently destroy.”

Fred K. Drogula is the Charles J. Ping Professor of Humanities and Professor of Classics at Ohio University.

“Cato the Younger: Life and Death at the End of the Roman Republicby Fred K. Drogula is an excellent biography of one of the greatest men of the Roman Republic, who, as the author notes, has been dismissed by historians as an eccentric and ineffective conservative. Even novelists, such as Colleen McCullough in her erudite Masters of Romeseries, dismissed him as a fool and intransigent conservative, who was more guilty than Caesar for the bloody civil war that brought the death knell of the Republic. Yet in his own time, Cato the Younger was recognized as an incorruptible statesman, a political giant, the greatest defender of the mos maiorum (i.e., the status quo based on the traditions of the ancestors), and the most formidable champion of the Republic. Cato was also a great stoic philosopher who followed the teachings in both spirit and practice. It was time for a well written biography of this great Roman to appear in current historiography, and that time has been reached with this excellent tome. This book is highly recommended for laymen as well as historians, especially for those who have loved Plutarch, Polybius, Livy, and the great historians of the past.” Miguel A. Faria, M.D., Associate Editor in Chief in socioeconomics, politics, medicine, and world affairs of Surgical Neurology International (SNI). He is the author of the upcoming book, America, Guns, and Freedom — A Journey Into Politics and the Public Health & Gun Control Movements (2019).

Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, glossary of terms, index.

Barry Strauss’s Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantin(Simon & Schuster) “examines this enduring heritage through the lives of the men who shaped it: Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, Vespasian, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Diocletian and Constantine. Over the ages, they learned to maintain the family business—the government of an empire—by adapting when necessary and always persevering no matter the cost. Ten Caesars is essential history as well as fascinating biography.”

“"In a single volume, Barry Strauss delivers the near-impossible: a straightforward, factual, insightful survey of the vast and turbulent history of Rome’s emperors from Augustus to Constantine. Any reader, from novice to expert, will arrive at the final page with a clearer understanding of the men (and sometimes women) who oversaw the shifting fortunes of Rome for over three hundred years.” Steven Saylor, author of The Throne of Caesarand the New York Times bestseller Roma: The Novel of Ancient Rome

Photographs, maps, notes, bibliography, index. 

Maria Popova’sFiguring(Pantheon) “explores the complexities of love and the human search for truth and meaning through the interconnected lives of several historical figures across four centuries—beginning with the astronomer Johannes Kepler, who discovered the laws of planetary motion, and ending with the marine biologist and author Rachel Carson, who catalyzed the environmental movement. Stretching between these figures is a cast of artists, writers, and scientists—mostly women, mostly queer—whose public contribution have risen out of their unclassifiable and often heartbreaking private relationships to change the way we understand, experience, and appreciate the universe. Among them are the astronomer Maria Mitchell, who paved the way for women in science; the sculptor Harriet Hosmer, who did the same in art; the journalist and literary critic Margaret Fuller, who sparked the feminist movement; and the poet Emily Dickinson.

Emanating from these lives are larger questions about the measure of a good life and what it means to leave a lasting mark of betterment on an imperfect world: Are achievement and acclaim enough for happiness? Is genius? Is love? Weaving through the narrative is a set of peripheral figures—Ralph Waldo Emerson, Charles Darwin, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Herman Melville, Frederick Douglass, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Walt Whitman—and a tapestry of themes spanning music, feminism, the history of science, the rise and decline of religion, and how the intersection of astronomy, poetry, and Transcendentalist philosophy fomented the environmental movement.”

“An intricate tapestry in which the lives of these women, and dozens of other scientific and literary figures, are woven together through threads of connection across four centuries . . . In Figuring, we are thrust into a waltz of exquisitely honed minds—most of them belonging to women, many of them sexually queer—all insisting on living to their fullest.” Margaret Werth, The Washington Post

Bibliography, index.

2) PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTIONS, HISTORY,

REFERENCE, CRITICISM, ETC.

Neil Shapiro,The Jazz Alphabet(JazzAlphabet.com), Foreword by Neil Tesser. “Neil Shapiro loves jazz.

And since he can’t play or sing a note to save his life, depicting jazz artists is the best way he knows to honor the music he loves and the musicians who make it. In a previous life Neil was an advertising art director, creating award winning campaigns for national clients such as Gatorade, McDonald’s, and Cap’n Crunch. Since then, he has created scores of editorial and advertising illustrations, and illustrated numerous children’s books. Neil has taught, lectured, and written extensively on illustration and advertising design. His artwork has been exhibited in solo and group shows in Chicago and New York galleries, and he has led the design and creation of a public work of art. Neil lives in Chicago with his wife, Maureen Gorman, and his dog, Ruka. A personal look at 26 Jazz greats from A to Z.” 

“Look closely enough and you can hear the music.” Neil Tesser, author of The Playboy Guide to Jazz. He has composed liner notes for over 400 albums, which have garnered him one Grammy Award and another nomination. Artists for whom Tesser has written liner notes include Blood, Sweat & Tears, John Coltrane, Freddie Hubbard, Gil Scott-Heron, Kurt Elling, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, Chick Corea, Bill Evans and Patricia Barber.

“Neil is improvising on a form here — the alphabet—taking ideas and inspiration from his ears — sending it all through his hands and into our eyes.” Matt Ferguson, Bassist for Von Freeman

“A blending of portraiture, words, caricature and letterforms into a unique and loving tribute. The ABC’s and the masters of jazz never had a better partner!” Scott Gustafson, Winner, Grand Master Award for Illustration

“5.0 out of 5 stars A delight for jazz lovers

(For starters, I’m no relation to the artist/author.)

If you, like me, were never lucky enough to see these musicians in person, Neil Shapiro’s magical illustrations somehow give you the sense of what that must have felt like. Put on your favorite Django, turn to page 36 and you’ll see what I mean. Also a perfect gift for the jazz lover in your life.” Gary Shapiro, Amazon reviewer.

George Burrows, The Recordings of Andy Kirk and his Clouds of Joy (Oxford University Press Studies in Recorded Jazz).“Andy Kirk's Clouds of Joy came from Kansas City to find nationwide fame in the later 1930s. The many records they made between 1929 and 1949 came to exemplify the Kansas City style of jazz, but they were also criticized for their populism and inauthenticity. In The Recordings of Andy Kirk' and his Clouds of Joy, George Burrows considers these records as representing negotiations over racialized styles between black jazz musicians and the racist music industry during a vital period of popularity and change for American jazz. The book explores the way that these reformative negotiations shaped and can be heard in the recorded music. By comparing the band's appropriation of musical styles to the manipulation of masks in black forms of blackface performance--both signifying and subverting racist conceptions of black authenticity--it reveals how the dynamic between black musicians, their audiences and critics impacted upon jazz as a practice and conception.”

George Burrows is Reader in Performing Arts at the University of Portsmouth, where he has lectured on music and theatre for more than 15 years. His published research focuses on interwar musical theatre and jazz. He founded the Song, Stage and Screen international conference in 2006 and the academic journal, Studies in Musical Theatre(Intellect) in 2007. He is also active as a performing musician and directs the University of Portsmouth Choir. Writing this book inspired him to learn the sousaphone.

Photographs, musical scores, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Sammy Stein’sWomen in Jazz: The Women, The Legends & Their Fight (8th House Publishing). All who are concerned about “the stubbornly misogynistic” (Stein’s assessment, and mine, too) world of jazz—and, most especially, those who should getconcerned about it—should buy a copy of this important book and read it with close attention. It is a thorough update to all previous books on the subject—and, incidentally, to my essay of a decade and a half ago, “Women in Jazz: Some Observations Regarding the Ongoing Discrimination in Performance and Journalism”  (https://wroyalstokes.squarespace.com/blog/women-in-jazz). Sammy Stein and I agree that Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

“[Stein’s book] is about women in jazz. It charts their journeys, celebrates their presence, hears their voices, wonders at their prowess and revels in their being. We hear from female agents, arrangers, composers, musicians, PR people, radio hosts, record label managers, singers, writers and more. These are their stories; their views of jazz and how they see the future. The established performers share their years of experience whilst those newer to jazz reflect on observations and changes they have seen. Containing interviews and first-hand accounts, this book is witness to the generosity, profundity and positivity with which women have responded and the energy they have put into their lives in overcoming challenges.”

“Refreshing perspectives on the challenges of being a female artist. Stein widens her net by including the impressions of record executives, radio hosts and others who have built their lives around jazz. This whole-ball-of-wax (or vinyl) study of women in jazz hits all the major and minor keys with the shiny energy of a live bebop session. It’s an intelligent and highly enjoyable choice for jazz lovers of all stripes.” Debbie Burke, author of Glissando: A Story of Love, Lust and Jazzand Tasty Jazz Jams for Our Times.

Photographs.

Ted Gioia’sMusic: A Subversive History(Basic Books) is “a four-thousand-year history of music as a global source of power, change, and upheaval. He shows how social outcasts have repeatedly become trailblazers of musical expression: slaves and their descendants, for instance, have repeatedly reinvented music, from ancient times all the way to the jazz, reggae, and hip-hop sounds of the current day.

Histories of music overwhelmingly suppress stories of the outsiders and rebels who created musical revolutions and instead celebrate the mainstream assimilators who borrowed innovations, diluted their impact, and disguised their sources. In Music: A Subversive History, historian Ted Gioia reclaims the story of music for the riffraff, insurgents, and provocateurs. Music: A Subversive History is essential reading for anyone interested in the meaning of music, from Sappho to the Sex Pistols to Spotify. Music: A Subversive Historyis essential reading for anyone interested in the meaning of music, from Sappho to the Sex Pistols to Spotify.”

Ted Gioia is a music historian and the author of eleven books, including How to Listen to Jazz. His three previous books on the social history of music -- Work Songs, Healing Songs, and Love Songs-- have each been honored with ASCAP Deems Taylor Award. Gioia's wide-ranging activities as a critic, scholar, performer and educator have established him as a leading global guide to music past, present, and future.

“In this meticulously-researched yet thoroughly page-turning book, Gioia argues for the universality of music from all cultures and eras. Subversives from Sappho to Mozart and Charlie Parker are given new perspective -- as is the role of the church and other arts-shaping institutions. Music of emotion is looked at alongside the music of political power in a fascinating way by a master writer and critical thinker. This is a must-read for those of us for whom music has a central role in our daily lives.” Fred Hersch, pianist and composer, and author of Good Things Happen Slowly: A Life In and Out of Jazz.

Notes, index.

Gerald Horne’sJazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music(Monthly Review Press) is “A galvanizing history of how jazz and jazz musicians flourished despite rampant cultural exploitation. The music we call ‘jazz’ arose in late nineteenth century North America—most likely in New Orleans—based on the musical traditions of Africans, newly freed from slavery. Grounded in the music known as the “blues,” which expressed the pain, sufferings, and hopes of Black folk then pulverized by Jim Crow, this new music entered the world via the instruments that had been abandoned by departing military bands after the Civil War. Jazz and Justice examines the economic, social, and political forces that shaped this music into a phenomenal US—and Black American—contribution to global arts and culture. Horne assembles a galvanic story depicting what may have been the era’s most virulent economic—and racist—exploitation, as jazz musicians battled organized crime, the Ku Klux Klan, and other variously malignant forces dominating the nightclub scene where jazz became known. Horne pays particular attention to women artists, such as pianist Mary Lou Williams and trombonist Melba Liston, and limns the contributions of musicians with Native American roots. This is the story of a beautiful lotus, growing from the filth of the crassest form of human immiseration.”

Gerald Horne is Moores Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston, and has published three dozen books including, The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the USA and Race War! White Supremacy and the Japanese Attack on the British Empire.

Jim Daniels and M. L. Liebler,RESPECT: The Poetry of Detroit Music (Michigan State University Press). 

“While there have been countless books written about Detroit, none have captured its incredible musical history like this one. This collection of poems and lyrics covers numerous genres including jazz, blues, doo-wop, Motown, classic rock, punk, hip-hop, and techno. Detroit artists have forged the paths in many of these genres, producing waves of creative energy that continue to reverberate across the country and around the world. While documenting and celebrating this part of Detroit’s history, this book captures the emotions that the music inspired in its creators and in its listeners. The range of contributors speaks to the global impact of Detroit’s music scene—Grammy winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, and poet laureates all come together in this rich and varied anthology, including such icons as Eminem, June Jordan, Fred “Sonic” Smith, Rita Dove, Jack White, Robbie Robertson, Paul Simon, Nikki Giovanni, Philip Levine, Sasha Frere-Jones, Patricia Smith, Billy Bragg, Andrei Codrescu, Toi Derricotte, and Cornelius Eady.”

Jim Daniels is the author of six fiction collections, seventeen poetry collections, and four produced screenplays, and has edited five anthologies, including Challenges to the Dream: The Best of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Writing Awards. Honors and awards he has received include the Tillie Olsen Award for Creative Writing, the Brittingham Prize in Poetry, the Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award, and two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. A native of Detroit, Daniels is the Thomas Stockham Baker University Professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

M. L. Liebler is the author of fifteen books and has been on faculty in the English department at Wayne State University since 1980. He is an internationally known and widely published Detroit poet, university professor, literary arts activist, and arts organizer. He received the 2017–2018 Murray E. Jackson Scholar in the Arts Award at Wayne State University, the Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award in 2010, and the 2018 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award. He is currently the President of the Detroit Writers’ Guild.

“So many lines and stanzas emblematic of Detroit’s poetry and music resonate in R E S P E CT, edited by Jim Daniels and M. L. Liebler, and Kim D. Hunter’s homage to the late Faruq Z. Bey personifies the collection. His horn, Hunter writes, ‘was just another / way to breathe.’ And this is a breathless assemblage of the city’s most gifted voices.”

Herb Boyd, author ofBlack Detroit: A People’s History of Self-Determination.

Dr. Regennia N. Williams andRev. Dr. Sandra Butler-Truesdale, Washington, DC, Jazz (Images of America)(Arcadia Publishing). Foreword by Willard Jenkins. This is a splendid compilation of photographs with substantial captions. The compilers have done their research well and present a broad history of jazz in D.C., adding to this an overview of the current scene that includes many young contributors to the art form.

“Home to ‘Black Broadway’ and the Howard Theatre in the Greater U Street area, Washington, D.C., has long been associated with American jazz. Duke Ellington and Billy Eckstine launched their careers there in the early 20th century. Decades later, Shirley Horn and Buck Hill would follow their leads, and DC's ‘jazz millennials’ include graduates of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. For years, Bohemian Caverns and One Step Down were among the clubs serving as gathering places for producers and consumers of jazz, even as Rusty Hassan and other programmers used radio to promote the music. Washington, DC, Jazz focuses, primarily, on the history of straight-ahead jazz, using oral histories, materials from the William P. Gottlieb Collection at the Library of Congress, the Felix E. Grant Jazz Archives at the University of the District of Columbia, and Smithsonian Jazz. This volume also features the work of photographers Nathaniel Rhodes, Michael Wilderman, and Lawrence A. Randall.”

I add here a roster of some others who grew up in and performed in D.C. and its environs or impacted its jazz scene in a significant way:

Jelly Roll Morton (mentioned but not depicted, he managed and played at the Jungle Inn on U Street in the late 1930s), Wild Bill Davison (who lived on outer Connecticut Avenue during the 1970s, played Blues Alley and other venues, and used the city as base for world-wide touring), Blues Alley founder, clarinetist, and vibraphonist Tommy Gwaltney, James Yancey, founder of Mr. Y’s, Charlin Jazz Society founders Charles Cassell and Linda Wernick, Manassas Jazz Festival founder Johnson (Fat Cat) McRee, John Eaton, Duke Ellington bassist Billy Taylor Sr. and his bassist son Billy Taylor Jr., John Malachi, Jimmy Cobb, Frank Wess, George Botts, Steve Jordan, Van Perry, Eddie Phyfe, Wild Bill Whelan, Mason Country Thomas, Wally Garner, Jimmy Hamilton, Walt Combs, Larry Eanet, Robert Redd, Dave Sager, Dave Robinson, Scott Robinson, Allen Houser, Kenny Reed, Al Brogdon, Jamie Broumas, Clea Bradford, Beverly Cosham, Lennie Cujé, Dick Morgan, Ed Fishel, Vicki Garno, Harold Mann, Adolphus (Snooks) Riley, Charlie Rouse, Brooks Tegler, Roberta Washington, Fred Foss, Vaughn Nark, Wallace Roney, Antoine Roney, Deanna Bogart, Pam Bricker, Clement Wells, Linda Cordray, K Shalong, Deater O’Neill, Arnaé Burton, Lisa Rich, Ellen Gross, Sharon Clark, Caron Tate, Mary Blankemeier, Karen Akers, Eleanor Ellis, Sherry Wisda, Julie Moore Turner, Brenda Files, Jamie Broumas, Maura Sullivan, Debra Tidwell, Beverly Cosham, Judy Willing, Sherry Wisda, Sweet Honey in the Rock.

“Within the photo-heavy Arcadia format, the authors have put together an eminently browsable book that will keep readers checking YouTube and Spotify -- or perhaps their own record collection. Each chapter includes vintage photos mixed with portraits of younger musicians working in the DC area, and only the most dedicated local jazz fans will be familiar with all of them.” The DC Line

A scholar, curator, and Fulbright alumna with more than 20 years experience teaching at the post-secondary level, Dr. Regennia N. Williams is the founder and executive director of The RASHAD Center, Inc., a Maryland-based nonprofit organization, and a part-time faculty associate and instructor in the Lifelong Learning Institute at Maryland's Montgomery College. 

Rev. Dr. Sandra Butler-Truesdale is the founder and chairperson of DC Legendary Musicians, Inc., music programmer at WPFW FM Radio, and associate minister at Washington's Metropolitan AME Church. A native Washingtonian, she has worked with performers like Ray Charles and James Brown and served as an elected member of the DC Board of Education.

Photographs, bibliography.

Thomas Brothers,Help!: The Beatles, Duke Ellington, and the Magic of Collaboration (W. W. Norton & Company) is “The fascinating story of how creative cooperation inspired two of the world’s most celebrated musical acts. The Beatles and Duke Ellington’s Orchestra stand as the two greatest examples of collaboration in music history. Ellington’s forte was not melody―his key partners were not lyricists but his fellow musicians. His strength was in arranging, in elevating the role of a featured soloist, in selecting titles: in packaging compositions. He was also very good at taking credit when the credit wasn’t solely his, as in the case of Mood Indigo, though he was ultimately responsible for the orchestration of what Duke University musicologist Thomas Brothers calls “one of his finest achievements.” If Ellington was often reluctant to publicly acknowledge how essential collaboration was to the Ellington sound, the relationship between Lennon and McCartney was fluid from the start. Lennon and McCartney “wrote for each other as primary audience.” Lennon’s preference for simpler music meant that it begged for enhancement and McCartney was only too happy to oblige, and while McCartney expanded the Beatles’ musical range, Lennon did “the same thing with lyrics.” Through his fascinating examination of these two musical legends, Brothers delivers a portrait of the creative process at work, demonstrating that the cooperative method at the foundation of these two artist-groups was the primary reason for their unmatched musical success. While clarifying the historical record of who wrote what, with whom, and how, Brothers brings the past to life with a lifetime of musical knowledge that reverberates through every page, and analyses of songs from Lennon and McCartney’s Strawberry Fields Forever to Billy Strayhorn’s Chelsea Bridge. Help! describes in rich detail the music and mastery of two cultural leaders whose popularity has never dimmed, and the process of collaboration that allowed them to achieve an artistic vision greater than the sum of their parts.”

“Richly detailed and immersive . . . . Fascinating.” Willard Jenkins, DownBeat

“A historically masterly and musically literate unraveling of some of the most-admired credits in 20th-century popular music . . . . This is musicology with taste as well as ears.”

Dominic Green, Wall Street Journal

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Gloria Krolak’sJazz Lines: Free Verse and Photos in the Key of Jazz, photographs by Ed Berger (Gloriajazz.com/StarBooks.biz) “is the expression of music and poetry combined with powerful, expressive photography by the great jazz photographer Ed Berger, you’ll experience unparalleled enjoyment with an abundance of jazz. Part poetry, part music, and completely entertaining, Jazz Lineswill tickle your rhythm bone and bring to memory all the great melodies of jazz. Over 1,000 song titles make up the verses. The song indexes in the back of the book chronicle the author’s vast knowledge and provides you with references to add to your musical repertoire. You’ll enjoy reading and reciting the poems out loud to get the rhythm and cadence of the verses as Gloria Krolak has put them together. Jazz Linesis music in your mouth!”

“What a wonderful, beautiful resource! Reading Free Verse and Photos in the Key of Jazzis like having a wonderful dictionary/glossary of a myriad of verses heard only in the jazz idiom. I really can't imagine how Gloria did this— gathered so much material that I'm sure is not gathered in any other single location. Plus Ed Berger's images are the wonderful companion to this. Thank you, Gloria, for writing such a great book, pretty enough to make it to our ‘cocktail table’ collection!” Sharla Feldscher, Amazon reviewer

Eugene Marlow’sJazz in China: From Dance Hall Music to Individual Freedom of Expression(University Press of Mississippi) “traces China's introduction to jazz in the early 1920s, its interruption by Chinese leadership under Mao in 1949, and its rejuvenation in the early 1980s with the start of China's opening to the world under Premier Deng Xiaoping. Covering a span of almost one hundred years, Marlow focuses on a variety of subjects--the musicians who initiated jazz performances in China, the means by which jazz was incorporated into Chinese culture, and the musicians and venues that now present jazz performances. Featuring unique, face-to-face interviews with leading indigenous jazz musicians in Beijing and Shanghai, plus interviews with club owners, promoters, expatriates, and even diplomats, Marlow marks the evolution of jazz in China as it parallels China's social, economic, and political evolution through the twentieth and into the twenty-first century. Also featured is an interview with one of the extant members of the Jimmy King Big Band of the 1940s, one of the first major all-Chinese jazz big bands in Shanghai. Ultimately, Jazz in China: From Dance Hall Music to Individual Freedom of Expression is a cultural history that reveals the inexorable evolution of a democratic form of music in a Communist state.”

Eugene Marlow, Brooklyn, New York, is an award-winning composer, producer, performer, author, journalist, and educator. He has written eight books dealing with communications, technology, and culture and more than four hundred articles and chapters published in professional and academic journals in the United States, Germany, Greece, Japan, China, and Russia. He is currently a professor at Baruch College, City University of New York, where he teaches courses on media and culture.

Notes, bibliography, index.

Katherine Baber’sLeonard Bernstein and the Language of Jazz(Music in American Life) (University of Illinois Press) “investigates how jazz in its many styles served Bernstein as a flexible, indeed protean, musical idea. As she shows, Bernstein used jazz to signify American identity with all its tensions and contradictions and to articulate community and conflict, irony and parody, and timely issues of race and gender. Baber provides a thoughtful look at how Bernstein's use of jazz grew out of his belief in the primacy of tonality, music's value as a unique form of human communication, and the formation of national identity in music. She also offers in-depth analyses of On the Town, West Side Story, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and other works to explore fascinating links between Bernstein's art and issues like eclecticism, music's relationship to social engagement, black-Jewish relations, and his own musical identity.”

Katherine Baber is an associate professor of music history at the University of Redlands.

“While jazz has been discussed as a component in Bernstein’s musical style before, Baber’s focus is more on the potential meanings of Bernstein’s use of that jazz, both in what it might have meant for Bernstein and for the audiences listening to the music. A strong contribution to the field.” Paul Laird, author of Leonard Bernstein: A Guide to Research.

Musical notations, notes, bibliography, index.

Peter Erskine and Dave BlackThe Musician's Lifeline(Alfred Music) “represents the combined opinions of the authors and their knowledge gained through their lives in music. In addition, it includes advice from 150 of the best musicians---such as Gordon Goodwin, Nathan East, Janis Siegel, Christian McBride, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Gary Burton, Kenny Werner, Steve Smith, and so many more---who responded to seven simple questions about topics like sight-reading, travel, warm-ups, networking, preparing for auditions, and general wisdom. The answers will surprise, inform, and confirm what you already know or completely contradict what you've been taught by others. This is a book you can read straight through in one sitting or jump around in . . . and always return to time and again.”

“This book may cost less than $20 but in reality it’s priceless. There’s a world of information for anyone who is looking to make a career in music. I love the section that suggests strategies on how to overcome performance anxiety, but that just scratches the surface! Tons of valuable information here.” Bobby, an Amazon.com commenter. 

Cynthia Sayer,You’re IN the Band: The Real Experience of Playing in a Traditional Jazz/Hot Jazz Band(cynthiasayer.com). 

“This play-along program (book + 2 CDs) (also available with downloads) gives you the real experience of playing in a Traditional Jazz/Hot Jazz Band along with top experts in the genre. Unlike most other play-along programs available, YITBoffers correct melodies, chords, and tempos that are actually used by bands today, as well as inside tips on what you need to know, like hand signals, intros and endings, and more. Enjoy learning and/or practicing with You're IN The Band! NOTE: YITB is also available with downloads instead of 2 CDs -- see separate Amazon listing to purchase.”

It includes classic tunes popularly played in traditional jazz/hot jazz bands, two CDs (or downloads), each tune in 2 speeds: “Gig Tempo” & Practice Tempo”, playing tips & traditions you should know, Lingo & Definitions, lead sheets with lyrics in concert key, B♭, E♭, and bass clef, chord charts, and tune layouts. Also available (as downloads only, $9.99 per set): all tracks minus trumpet & all tracks minus banjo. Here are the play-along tunes: Avalon, Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives To Me, China Boy, Darktown Strutters’ Ball, Down By The Riverside, Just A Closer Walk With Thee, My Gal Sal, Some Of These Days, Take Me Out To The Ball Game, The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise, Way Down Yonder In New Orleans, When The Saints Go Marching In, Whispering. The musicians are Cynthia Sayer, banjo, arrangements, Bria Skonberg, trumpet, Mike Weatherly, string bass, Kevin Dorn, drums. 

“This is the only program I've seen that really delivers. It offers many great ways for players to truly grow their skills, and also enjoy the fun process of learning to swing in a band! Get it now - you'll thank me later! Matt Glaser, Artistic Director, American Roots Music Program, and Berklee College Of Music

“A wonderful and helpful work that will instruct young players who are learning about playing traditional jazz. Also a great refresher for musicians already established and playing this style of music.” says bandleader and multi- instrumentalist Vince Giordano.

“You’re IN The Bandoffers the opportunity to develop, hone and master one’s skills for playing jazz by using the best teaching technique known to date, actually playing inthe band. I highly recommend this method,” says trombonist Wycliffe Gordon.

“You're IN The Bandis the next-best thing to actual on-the-job training .It's an extremely practical and efficient way to learn how to play in a traditional jazz context.” Ked Peplowski, Jazz Clarinetist and Saxophonist

Bill McBirnie, The Technique and Theory of Improvisation: A Practical Guide for Flutists, Doublers, and Other Instrumentalists(Library and Archives Canada/www.extremeflute.com). “This book is a concise but comprehensive guide to (1) the technique (articulation, vibrato, and breathing) and (2) the theory (rhythm, melody and harmony) that are essential in learning to improvise. The book also addresses how to integrate the technique with the theory using a simple melodic approach, based on small bits that you can develop into bigger bits. In addition, the book examines practical issues such as analyzing tunes, using an idiomatic approach, and transcribing, with plenty of examples and illustrations. As Sir James Galway points out in the foreword, this is a useful and valuable source of reference for the aspiring student and the experienced performer or teacher.”

“McBirnie discusses potentially complex musical ideas with a laser focus on disentangling them in a way that is easy for the reader to follow. This is most helpful when McBirnie delves into difficult topics like theory where he also provides musicians and students with a useful philosophical underpinning they may not have had before reading this text. McBirnie deservers much praise for his ability to reduce important [topics] in a manner that never sounds pretentious or high-handed. The effect is ultimately one of sharing private instruction time with him, and this feeling of intimacy makes the book’s content all the more impactful.” Garth Thomas, The Hollywood Digest

“The reach of this book goes far beyond McBirnie’s chosen instrument. Every novice musician can read it, and glean important guidance, and share the obvious passion McBirnie has for his art. The text often reads as if it is alight with joy. He cuts intimidating propositions down to a manageable size by including a variety chord charts, lists, and snippets of sheet music throughout the text, including lots of listening suggestions. These never overshadow his writing, and they balance the exposition adding immeasurable value to the book. It is genuinely impressive how much knowledge McBirnie packs into such a limited length. . . . McBirnie has written a brief but enduring work that ranks as one of the best contributions to music literature published in recent memory, and his résumé backs him up every step of the way. This is a book suited to endure indefinitely and gain even more lustre over time.” Clay Burton, Independent Music and Arts.

“McBirnie’s book formulates a musically sound approach to improvisation in clear and concise terms that musicians at any level can use.” Jason Hillenburg, Good Reads.

Illustrations

E. Douglas Bomberger,Making Music American: 1917 and the Transformation of Culture(Oxford University Press) “recounts the musical events of this tumultuous year month by month from New Year's Eve 1916 to New Year's Day 1918. As the story unfolds, the lives of these eight musicians intersect in surprising ways, illuminating the transformation of American attitudes toward music both European and American. In this unsettled time, no one was safe from suspicion, but America's passion for music made the rewards high for those who could balance musical skill with diplomatic savvy. . . . The year 1917 was unlike any other in American history, or in the history of American music. The United States entered World War I, jazz burst onto the national scene, and the German musicians who dominated classical music were forced from the stage. As the year progressed, New Orleans natives Nick LaRocca and Freddie Keppard popularized the new genre of jazz, a style that suited the frantic mood of the era. African-American bandleader James Reese Europe accepted the challenge of making the band of the Fifteenth New York Infantry into the best military band in the country. Orchestral conductors Walter Damrosch and Karl Muck met the public demand for classical music while also responding to new calls for patriotic music. Violinist Fritz Kreisler, pianist Olga Samaroff, and contralto Ernestine Schumann-Heink gave American audiences the best of Old-World musical traditions while walking a tightrope of suspicion because of their German sympathies. Before the end of the year, the careers of these eight musicians would be upended, and music in America would never be the same.”

E. Douglas Bomberger teaches courses in popular and classical music at Elizabethtown College. He is the author of MacDowell(Oxford University Press, 2013) and four other books.

“A hundred years ago almost everything changed in American music - and we are still living with the after effects today. This important book by E. Douglas Bomberger tells the fascinating story of how the United States found its own musical identity at a time of global crisis and war.” Ted Gioia, music historian and author of The History of Jazz

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Aaron Cohen,Move On Up: Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power(University of Chicago Press).

“Drawing on more than one hundred interviews and a music critic’s passion for the unmistakable Chicago soul sound, Cohen shows us how soul music became the voice of inspiration and change for a city in turmoil. Curtis Mayfield. The Chi-Lites. Chaka Khan. Chicago’s place in the history of soul music is rock solid. But for Chicagoans, soul music in its heyday from the 1960s to the 1980s was more than just a series of hits: it was a marker and a source of black empowerment. In Move On Up, Aaron Cohen tells the remarkable story of the explosion of soul music in Chicago. Together, soul music and black-owned businesses thrived. Record producers and song-writers broadcast optimism for black America’s future through their sophisticated, jazz-inspired productions for the Dells and many others. Curtis Mayfield boldly sang of uplift with unmistakable grooves like “We’re a Winner” and “I Plan to Stay a Believer.” Musicians like Phil Cohran and the Pharaohs used their music to voice Afrocentric philosophies that challenged racism and segregation, while Maurice White of Earth, Wind, and Fire and Chaka Khan created music that inspired black consciousness. Soul music also accompanied the rise of African American advertisers and the campaign of Chicago’s first black mayor, Harold Washington, in 1983. This empowerment was set in stark relief by the social unrest roiling in Chicago and across the nation: as Chicago’s homegrown record labels produced rising stars singing songs of progress and freedom, Chicago’s black middle class faced limited economic opportunities and deep-seated segregation, all against a backdrop of nationwide deindustrialization.”

Aaron Cohen covers the arts for numerous publications and teaches English, journalism, and humanities at the City Colleges of Chicago. He is the author ofAretha Franklin’s “Amazing Grace”.

“Move On Upis an extraordinary achievement, packed with deep research and vivid writing, with a backbeat so strong it thumps from every page. Cohen has written the definitive account of an important slice of American popular culture. Cue up the Chi-Lites, open this book, and enjoy!” Jonathan Eig, author of Ali: A Life.

“With a journalist’s clarity, a scholar’s curiosity, and a local’s passion, the incomparable Aaron Cohen affirms why Chicago has always been more than its challenges. Move On Upshows how big-shouldered grit, astonishing talent, and entrepreneurial savvy combined to make ‘the Chi’ a powerhouse center for music and activism back in the days when the world discovered that black was, indeed, beautiful.” Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr., University of Pennsylvania, author of Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop and The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop.

Photographs, notes, discography, bibliography, index.

Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw, Songs of America: Patriotism, Protest, and the Music That Made a Nation(Random House) “explores both famous songs and lesser-known ones, expanding our understanding of the scope of American music and lending deeper meaning to the historical context of such songs as ‘My Country, ’Tis of Thee,’ ‘God Bless America,’ ‘Over There,’ ‘We Shall Overcome,’ and ‘Blowin’ in the Wind.’ As Quincy Jones says, Meacham and McGraw have ‘convened a concert in Songs of America,” one that reminds us of who we are, where we’ve been, and what we, at our best, can be. From ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ to ‘Born in the U.S.A.,’ Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw take readers on a moving and insightful journey through eras in American history and the songs and performers that inspired us. Meacham chronicles our history, exploring the stories behind the songs, and Tim McGraw reflects on them as an artist and performer. Their perspectives combine to create a unique view of the role music has played in uniting and shaping a nation. Beginning with the battle hymns of the revolution, and taking us through songs from the defining events of the Civil War, the fight for women’s suffrage, the two world wars, the Great Depression, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, and into the twenty-first century, Meacham and McGraw explore the songs that defined generations, and the cultural and political climates that produced them. Readers will discover the power of music in the lives of figures such as Harriet Tubman, Franklin Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King, Jr., and will learn more about some of our most beloved musicians and performers, including Marian Anderson, Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan, Duke Ellington, Carole King, Bruce Springsteen, and more.”

About the Authors

Jon Meacham is a Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer. The author of the New York Timesbestsellers Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, Franklin and Winston, Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush,andThe Soul of America, Meacham holds the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Chair in the American Presidency and is a distinguished visiting professor at Vanderbilt University. He is a contributing writer to The New York Times Book Review, a contributing editor to Time, and a fellow of the Society of American Historians.

Tim McGraw is a Grammy Award–winning entertainer, author, and actor who has sold more than fifty million records worldwide and dominated the charts with forty-three number one singles. He is the most played country artist since his debut in 1992, has two New York Timesbestselling books to his credit, and has acted in such movies as Friday Night Lights andThe Blind Side. McGraw is considered one of the most successful touring acts in the history of country music. His last solo project spawned one of the biggest hit singles of all time, “Humble and Kind,” whose message continues to impact fans around the world.

“From hymns that swelled the hearts of revolutionaries to the spirituals that stirred citizens to spill blood for a more perfect Union and the blues- and country-infused beats that aroused change in the 1960s, Jon Meacham and Tim McGraw form an irresistible duo—connecting us to music as an unsung force in our nation's history. Songs of Americais not just a cultural journey—it strikes our deepest chords as Americans: patriotism, protest, possibility, creativity, and, at the root of it all, freedom of expression enshrined in our founding document.” Doris Kearns Goodwin

Photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Robert Christgau,Book Reports: A Music Critic on His First Love, Which Was Reading(Duke University Press). “In this generous collection of book reviews and literary essays, legendary Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau showcases the passion that made him a critic—his love for the written word. Many selections address music, from blackface minstrelsy to punk and hip-hop, artists from Lead Belly to Patti Smith, and fellow critics from Ellen Willis and Lester Bangs to Nelson George and Jessica Hopper. But Book Reports also teases out the popular in the Bibleand 1984as well as pornography and science fiction, and analyzes at length the cultural theory of Raymond Williams, the detective novels of Walter Mosley, the history of bohemia, and the 2008 financial crisis. It establishes Christgau as not just the Dean of American Rock Critics, but one of America's most insightful cultural critics as well. 

“For Christgau fans and anyone seeking thought-provoking musings on books and music” Melissa Engleman Library Journal

“Robert Christgau, writing on books, is enthralling and energetic, and as persuasive and argument-sparking as he is on records. He sees them both as entrances into a thousand subject matters, but also as formal objects—that's to say, books. His stock is his comprehensive confidence, no matter the arena; so often, as declaring The Country and the Cityto be Raymond Williams's essential book—he's stunningly right. Book Reportsmade me glance at my shelf longingly where a run of compilations of his ‘Consumer Guides: Books of the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s’ (and beyond) might sit, but alas. If we’re not that lucky, we’re lucky enough to have this generous compendium of his longer-form stuff.” Jonathan Lethem)

Index.

Norman Seeff’sJoni: The Joni Mitchell Sessions(Insight Editions) is certainly the music coffee table book of 2018. Seeff is an award-winning photographer, director, and filmmaker who for over 35 years has defined the look of rock and roll through his dramatic and intensely personal photography and videos. His camera has captured hundreds of public personalities including the Rolling Stones, Tina Turner, Michael Jackson, Ray Charles, Joni Mitchell, and Fleetwood Mac, for Rolling Stone, Life,Esquire, TIME, American Photographer, and numerous album covers.

“Joni: The Joni Mitchell Sessionsis the ultimate celebration of a visionary musician and the artist who captured her spirit on film. It is a creative partnership that has lasted for over 40 years. Joni Mitchell, the artist behind celebrated hits “Help Me” and “Big Yellow Taxi,” and Norman Seeff, a rock-and-roll photographer with a host of legendary subjects in his portfolio, did some of their best work together. Joni was a truly authentic subject, able to surrender herself to the art and express herself freely within his lens. Through over a dozen sessions across more than a decade together, the photographer captured the many facets of her personality in some of her most famous images. Joni: The Joni Mitchell Sessionsis the culmination of their partnership. Timed to release on Joni’s 75th birthday, this collection of familiar and rare imagery tracks the pair’s history together through these exclusive moments captured on film. A combination of album artwork and candid shots reveals Joni’s personality in ways few have managed to capture before or since. Featuring commentary from Seeff on the enlightenment into his art that he gained from their sessions, this compilation is a true reflection on mutual creativity between artist and muse.

“There is something truly fascinating in the timeline of this book as both photographer and subject age as the pages are turned. . . . The emotional truth of the portraits pierce deeper with each new session. This truly superb book makes for a great addition to any coffee table or bookshelf” Vinton Rafe McCabe New York Journal of Books.

The Cambridge Companion to the Rolling Stones (Cambridge Companions to Music)edited by Victor Coelho and John Covach(Cambridge University Press) “provides the first dedicated academic overview of the music, career, influences, history, and cultural impact of the Rolling Stones. Shining a light on the many communities and sources of knowledge about the group, this Companionbrings together essays by musicologists, ethnomusicologists, players, film scholars, and filmmakers into a single volume intended to stimulate fresh thinking about the group as they vault well over the mid-century of their career. The Rolling Stones are one of the most influential, prolific, and enduring Rock and Roll bands in the history of music. Threaded throughout these essays are album- and song-oriented discussions of the landmark recordings of the group and their influence. Exploring new issues about sound, culture, media representation, the influence of world music, fan communities, group personnel, and the importance of their revival post-1989, this collection greatly expands our understanding of their music.”

“An intriguing prospect for serious Stones fans.” Ian Fortnam, Classic Rock

“A bold attempt to up the intellectual ante around Stones criticism.” Jim Wirth, Uncut

Photographs, illustrations, bibliography, index of songs, index.

Seth Bovey’sFive Years Ahead of My Time: Garage Rock from the 1950s to the Present (Reverb Series)(Reaktion Books) “tells of a musical phenomenon whose continuing influence on global popular culture is immeasurable. The story begins in 1950s America, when classic rock ’n’ roll was reaching middle age, and teenaged musicians kept its primal rawness going with rough-hewn instrumentals, practicing guitar riffs in their parents’ garages. In the mid-1960s came the Beatles and the British Invasion, and soon every neighborhood had its own garage band. Groups like the Sonics and 13th Floor Elevators burnt brightly but briefly, only to be rediscovered by a new generation of connoisseurs in the 1970s. Numerous compilation albums followed, spearheaded by Lenny Kaye’s iconic Nuggets, which resulted in garage rock’s rebirth during the 1980s and ’90s. Be it the White Stripes or the Black Keys, bands have consistently found inspiration in the simplicity and energy of garage rock. It is a revitalizing force, looking back to the past to forge the future of rock ’n’ roll. And this, for the first time, is its story.”

Seth Bovey is professor of English at Louisiana State University at Alexandria. He is also a musician and played in several garage bands in the 1970s and early ’80s.

“A fine and thorough account, copious in historical detail and explanation of a movement that has survived on sheer, unquenchable fuzztone enthusiasm.” David Stubbs, author of Future Days andMars by 1980.

Photographs, notes, bibliography, recommended listening, online resources, index.

Matthew Collin’sRave On: Global Adventures in Electronic Dance Music (University of Chicago Press) “takes stock of [electronic dance music’s] highest highs and lowest lows across its global trajectory. Through firsthand reportage and interviews with clubbers and DJs, Collin documents the itinerant musical form from its underground beginnings in New York, Chicago, and Detroit in the 1980s, to its explosions in Ibiza and Berlin, to today’s mainstream music scenes in new frontiers like Las Vegas, Shanghai, and Dubai. Collin shows how its dizzying array of genres—from house, techno, and garage to drum and bass, dubstep, and psytrance—have given voice to locally specific struggles. For so many people in so many different places, electronic dance music has been caught up in the search for free cultural space: forming the soundtrack to liberation for South African youth after Apartheid, inspiring a psychedelic party culture in Israel, offering fleeting escape from—and at times into—corporatization in China, and even undergirding a veritable “independent republic” in a politically contested slice of the former Soviet Union. Full of admiration for the possibilities the music has opened up all over the world, Collin also unflinchingly probes where this utopianism has fallen short, whether the culture maintains its liberating possibilities today, and where it might go in the future.”

“Fabulous. . . . One of the sharpest books on the topic I’ve read.” Michaelangelo Matos, author of The Underground is Massive: How Electronic Dance Music Conquered America

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

James Sullivan’sWhich Side Are You On?: 20th Century American History in 100 Protest Songs(Oxford University Press) “delivers a lively anecdotal history of the progressive movements that have shaped the growth of the United States, and the songs that have accompanied and defined them. Covering one hundred years of social conflict and progress across the twentieth century and into the early years of the twenty-first, this book reveals how protest songs have given voice to the needs and challenges of a nation and asked its citizens to take a stand--asking the question ‘Which side are you on?’”

“Sullivan's fluid prose and attention to detail serve him admirably in this engaging title, which should awaken nostalgia in those of a certain age and introduce new generations to these musical catalysts for social change.” Library Journal

Photographs, notes, bibliography, index.

Stephen Nachmanovitch’sThe Art of Is: Improvising as a Way of Life (New World Library) “is a philosophical meditation on living, living fully, living in the present. To the author, an improvisation is a co-creation that arises out of listening and mutual attentiveness, out of a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity. It is a product of the nervous system, bigger than the brain and bigger than the body; it is a once-in-a-lifetime encounter, unprecedented and unrepeatable. Drawing from the wisdom of the ages, The Artof Is not only gives the reader an inside view of the states of mind that give rise to improvisation, it is also a celebration of the power of the human spirit, which — when exercised with love, immense patience, and discipline — is an antidote to hate.” Yo-Yo Ma, cellist.

“In an age of standardized packages and constrained choices, Stephen Nachmanovitch gives us The Art of Is, a refreshing encounter with how to improvise and be fully alive in the face of deadening habits of mind. The author is a musician and a teacher who has an uncanny ability to see and listen and help others do likewise. We are verbs, not nouns, he tells us, because we are ever in motion — open to change and surprise. Like musicians who improvise together, human beings can break barriers: teaching, playing, creating, and being present to one another. In clear prose, Nachmanovitch effortlessly shows how people discover — in themselves — the sheer power to relate and endlessly adapt.” Jerry Brown, governor of California 1975–1982 and 2011–2018.

“Stephen Nachmanovitch beautifully reveals a world of communication and co-creation that is both new and ancient. To play in this realm of improvisation is to recognize the tenderness with which interdependence knows aloneness, and the way silence defines sound. The stories he tells show us that the complexity and simplicity of life itself exist in our interrelationships. These findings are laid out in this book with grace, humor, and careful articulation. Nachmanovitch makes it clear that the art of being human now is acutely tied into an improvisational way of being: making sense of ourselves, each other, and the natural world in ways that find new offerings within old patterns. It is to feel anew.” Nora Bateson, filmmaker, International Bateson Institute

An improvisational violinist and the author of the classic work Free Play, Stephen Nachmanovitch, PhD, performs and teaches internationally at the intersections of multimedia, performing arts, ecology, and philosophy.

Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

David Rothenberg’sNightingales in Berlin: Searching for the Perfect Sound (University of Chicago Press) “shows in this searching and personal new book, the nightingale’s song is so peculiar in part because it reflects our own cacophony back at us. As vocal learners, nightingales acquire their music through the world around them, singing amidst the sounds of humanity in all its contradictions of noise and beauty, hard machinery and soft melody. Rather than try to capture a sound not made for us to understand, Rothenberg seeks these musical creatures out, clarinet in tow, and makes a new sound with them. He takes us to the urban landscape of Berlin—longtime home to nightingale colonies where the birds sing ever louder in order to be heard—and invites us to listen in on their remarkable collaboration as birds and instruments riff off of each other’s sounds. Through dialogue, travel records, sonograms, tours of Berlin’s city parks, and musings on the place animal music occupies in our collective imagination, Rothenberg takes us on a quest for a new sonic alchemy, a music impossible for any one species to make alone. In the tradition of The Hidden Life of Trees andThe Invention of Nature, Rothenberg has written a provocative and accessible book to attune us ever closer to the natural environment around us.”

David Rothenberg is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Music at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He is the author of many books investigating music in nature, including Why Birds Sing, Survival of the Beautiful, andBug Music: How Insects Gave Us Rhythm and Noise.His writings have been translated into more than eleven languages and among his twenty one music CDs is One Dark Night I Left My Silent House, on ECM.

“In David Rothenberg’s unique, beautiful, and vitally important new book, we are dropped into the wonder of a wild musical landscape, where birds have been singing for millions of years before the arrival of humans. In these pages we find our most authentic voice—one that never rises in isolation but in a great intertwining with nightingales, all beings, and the earth itself.” Lyanda Lynn Haupt, author of Mozart’s Starling

Photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Nick Collins (editor),The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music(Cambridge University Press). “Musicians are always quick to adopt and explore new technologies. The fast-paced changes wrought by electrification, from the microphone via the analogue synthesiser to the laptop computer, have led to a wide range of new musical styles and techniques. Electronic music has grown to a broad field of investigation, taking in historical movements such as musique concrète and elektronische Musik, and contemporary trends such as electronic dance music and electronica. The first edition of this book won the 2009 Nicolas Bessaraboff Prize as it brought together researchers at the forefront of the sonic explorations empowered by electronic technology to provide accessible and insightful overviews of core topics and uncover some hitherto less publicised corners of worldwide movements. This updated and expanded second edition includes four entirely new chapters, as well as new original statements from globally renowned artists of the electronic music scene, and celebrates a diverse array of technologies, practices and music.”

Nick Collins is Reader in Composition at the University of Durham. His research interests include live computer music, musical artificial intelligence, and computational musicology, and he is a frequent international performer as composer-programmer-pianist or codiscian, from algoraves to electronic chamber music.

Photographs, illustrations, notes, chronology, index.

Johnny Farraj and Sami Abu Shumays, Inside Arabic Music: Arabic Maqam Performance and Theory in the 20th Century(Oxford University Press) “Arabic music has spread across the globe, influencing music from Greece all the way to India in the mid-20th century through radio and musical cinema, and global popular culture through Raqs Sharqi, known as "Bellydance" in the West. Yet despite its popularity and influence, Arabic music, and the maqam scale system at its heart, remain widely misunderstood. Inside Arabic Music de-mystifies maqam with an approach that draws theory directly from practice, and presents theoretical insights that will be useful to practitioners, from the beginner to the expert - as well as those interested in the related Persian, Central Asian, and Turkish makam traditions. Inside Arabic Music'sdiscussion of maqam and improvisation widens general understanding of music as well, by bringing in ideas from Saussurean linguistics, network theory, and Lakoff and Johnson's theory of cognition as metaphor, with an approach parallel to Gjerdingen's analysis of Galant-period music - offering a lens into the deeper relationships among music, culture, and human community.”

Johnny Farraj is a Lebanese-born musician and software engineer of Palestinian descent. His main instrument is the riqq; he also plays the 'ud and sings. Farraj is the creator of MaqamWorld, the leading Internet reference on Arabic music theory, and is a frequent Arabic music blogger, teacher and performer, as well as a lifelong listener. 

Sami Abu Shumays is a Palestinian-American musician, arts administrator, and independent scholar, who travelled to Cairo and Aleppo to immerse himself in Arabic Music. After returning to the U.S., he began performing and teaching, founded Zikrayat ensemble, and developed the pedagogical website Maqam Lessons. He is currently Deputy Director of Flushing Town Hall, an arts presenter in Queens, NY.

Musical examples, charts, notes, glossary, bibliography, index.

Richard H. Brown’sThrough The Looking Glass: John Cage and Avant-Garde Film (Oxford Music/Media Series) (Oxford University Press) “examines John Cage’s interactions and collaborations with avant-garde and experimental filmmakers, and in turn seeks out the implications of the audiovisual experience for the overall aesthetic surrounding Cage’s career. As the commercially dominant media form in the twentieth century, cinema transformed the way listeners were introduced to and consumed music. Cage's quest to redefine music, intentionality, and expression reflect the similar transformation of music within the larger audiovisual experience of sound film. This volume examines key moments in Cage’s career where cinema either informed or transformed his position on the nature of sound, music, expression, and the ontology of the musical artwork. The examples point to moments of rupture within Cage's own consideration of the musical artwork, pointing to newfound collision points that have a significant and heretofore unacknowledged role in Cage’s notions of the audiovisual experience and the medium-specific ontology of a work of art.”

“This history asks us to re-engage with Cage’s ideas about listening and perception through the lens of moving-image culture, while also encouraging us to re-read the history of experimental film from a sonic perspective. As a result, this is not just a book about Cage or avant-garde film. It's a book about the nature of collaborative creativity, the rise of audiovisual art and the emergence of new forms of intermedial culture in the Twentieth Century. Required reading for us all!” Holly Rogers, author of Sounding the Gallery: Video and the Rise of Art Music

Richard Brown earned a PhD in musicology from the University of Southern California. He has published articles on John Cage, experimental music, sound art, film music and copyright in The Journal of the Society for American Music, Contemporary Music Review, Leonardo, and American Music Review.

Photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Mark Wigglesworth’sThe Silent Musician: Why Conducting Matters(University of Chicago Press) “deepens our understanding of what conductors do and why they matter. Neither an instruction manual for conductors, nor a history of conducting, the book instead explores the role of the conductor in noiselessly shaping the music that we hear. Writing in a clever, insightful, and often evocative style, world-renowned conductor Mark Wigglesworth deftly explores the philosophical underpinnings of conducting—from the conductor’s relationship with musicians and the music, to the public and personal responsibilities conductors face—and examines the subtler components of their silent art, which include precision, charisma, diplomacy, and passion. Ultimately, Wigglesworth shows how conductors—by simultaneously keeping time and allowing time to expand—manage to shape ensemble music into an immersive, transformative experience, without ever making a sound. The conductor—tuxedoed, imposingly poised above an orchestra, baton waving dramatically—is a familiar figure even for those who never set foot in an orchestral hall. As a veritable icon for classical music, the conductor has also been subjected to some ungenerous caricatures, presented variously as unhinged gesticulator, indulged megalomaniac, or even outright impostor. Consider, for example: Bugs Bunny as Leopold Stokowski, dramatically smashing his baton and then breaking into erratic poses with a forbidding intensity in his eyes, or Mickey Mouse in Fantasia,unwittingly conjuring dangerous magic with carefree gestures he doesn’t understand. As these clichés betray, there is an aura of mystery around what a conductor actually does, often coupled with disbelief that he or she really makes a difference to the performance we hear.”

Mark Wigglesworth is an internationally renowned and Olivier Award-winning conductor. He has written articles for the Guardianand the Independentand made a six-part TV series for the BBC entitled Everything to Play For. He is currently the principal guest conductor of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

“An illuminating account of what it means to be [a conductor], how it feels, what’s required and why it’s a misunderstood job that has the potential to enrich and terrify in equal measure. The most fascinating sections are those in which Wigglesworth discusses the relationship between conductor and orchestra, one that can be fraught with struggle and blessed with joys. His later musings on music itself—our relationship with it and how we listen—go way beyond the book’s premise of ‘Why Conducting Matters,’ and you feel all the more enlightened for it. Four stars.” Michael Beek, BBC Music Magazine.

Vanessa Cornett’sThe Mindful Musician: Mental Skills for Peak Performance (Oxford University Press) “offers guidelines to help musicians cultivate artistic vision, objectivity, freedom, quiet awareness, and self-compassion, both on- and offstage in order to become more resilient performers. Contrary to modern culture's embrace of busyness and divided attention, Cornett's contemplative techniques provide greater space for artistic self-expression and satisfaction. With the aid of a companion website that includes audio files and downloadable templates, The Mindful Musician provides a method to promote attentional focus, self-assessment, emotional awareness, and creativity. The first of its kind to combine mindfulness practices with research in cognitive and sport psychology, this book helps musicians explore the roots of anxiety and other challenges related to performance, all through the deliberate focus of awareness.”

Dr. Vanessa Cornett is the Director of Keyboard Studies and Associate Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy at the University of St. Thomas in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis - St. Paul. An international clinician, she has presented workshops and masterclasses on six continents. She published book chapters in the fourth edition of Creative Piano Teaching, and papers in the Journal of Transformative Education, American Music Teacher, the MTNA eJournal, the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education, College Music Symposium, Clavier Companion, and The Canadian Music Teacher. A certified meditation instructor and licensed hypnotherapist, she received outstanding teaching awards from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and the Music Academy of North Carolina, an editor's choice award from the Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education, and a distinguished alumni award from UNCG. A proud native of West Virginia, her most recent obsession is the (mindful) study of wine. She is a Certified Specialist of Wine, American Wine Expert, and French Wine Scholar, and hopes someday to incorporate this very important research into her professional work.

“All musicians must read this book!I found this book to be very helpful! More than just addressing the immediate physical symptoms associated with performance anxiety, this book is helping me understand the underlying causes of stage fright to better manage them and ENJOY the experience of performing. It is very well articulated and clearly written. I love the anecdotes, witty humor and the deep sense of our humanity that permeates every chapter.

Mindfulness is essential on many levels. In a society that is addicted to computer gadgets and reliant on multi-tasking and instant gratification, this book speaks to our compelling need to be present in every moment. I predict that it will open doors to further research in the area of mindfulness. I strongly recommend this book.” Amazon Customer

Bibliography, index.

The Cambridge Companion to Music in Digital Culture(Cambridge Companions to Music), Nicholas Cook, Monique M. Ingalls, andDavid Trippett,editors (Cambridge University Press). “Through chapters by scholars at the forefront of research and shorter 'personal takes' from knowledgeable practitioners in the field, this Companionbrings the relationship between digital technology and musical culture alive by considering both theory and practice. It provides a comprehensive and balanced introduction to the place of music within digital culture as a whole, with recurring themes and topics that include music and the Internet, social networking and participatory culture, music recommendation systems, virtuality, posthumanism, surveillance, copyright, and new business models for music production. The impact of digital technologies on music has been overwhelming: since the commercialisation of these technologies in the early 1980s, both the practice of music and thinking about it have changed almost beyond all recognition. From the rise of digital music making to digital dissemination, these changes have attracted considerable academic attention across disciplines,within, but also beyond, established areas of academic musical research.”

Nicholas Cook is Emeritus Professor at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of Music: A Very Short Introduction andMusic as Creative Practice, and won the SMT's Wallace Berry Award for The Schenker Project.

Monique M. Ingalls is Assistant Professor of Music at Baylor University, Texas. Author of Singing the Congregation (2018), she is Series Editor for Routledge's Congregational Music Studies Seriesand co-organiser of the biennial international conference Christian Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives.

David Trippett is Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge. Author of Wagner's Melodies, his wide-ranging research has received the Einstein and Lockwood Prizes (American Musicological Society), the Nettl Prize (Society for Ethnomusicology), and an American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) Deems Taylor award.

Bibliography, index.

Sharon Marcus’sThe Drama of Celebrity(Princeton University Press) “challenges everything you thought you knew about our obsession with fame. Icons are not merely famous for being famous; the media alone cannot make or break stars; fans are not simply passive dupes. Instead, journalists, the public, and celebrities themselves all compete, passionately and expertly, to shape the stories we tell about celebrities and fans. The result: a high-stakes drama as endless as it is unpredictable. Drawing on scrapbooks, personal diaries, and vintage fan mail, Marcus traces celebrity culture back to its nineteenth-century roots, when people the world over found themselves captivated by celebrity chefs, bad-boy poets, and actors such as the “divine” Sarah Bernhardt (1844–1923), as famous in her day as the Beatles in theirs. Known in her youth for sleeping in a coffin, hailed in maturity as a woman of genius, Bernhardt became a global superstar thanks to savvy engagement with her era’s most innovative media and technologies: the popular press, commercial photography, and speedy new forms of travel. Whether you love celebrity culture or hate it, The Drama of Celebritywill change how you think about one of the most important phenomena of modern times.”

Sharon Marcus is the Orlando Harriman Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. She is a founding editor of Public Books and the author of the award-winning Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian Englandand Apartment Stories: City and Home in Nineteenth-Century Paris and London. Twitter @MarcusSharon

“The Drama of Celebrityby Sharon Marcus is a hybrid of biography and sociological treatise on one of the most important phenomena of modern times . . . why we are attracted to ― or, conversely, repulsed by ― celebrity culture.” Kitty Kelley, Washington Independent Review of Books.

“[An] insightful and engaging examination of celebrity culture . . . Marcus augments her analysis by drawing on types of sources that are rarely used, such as scrapbooks, letters and life writing produced by fans of celebrities. The inclusion of normally neglected voices adds richness and depth to this work, ensuring it is more comprehensive than most earlier studies of this intriguing subject.” Eleanor Fitzsimons, Literary Review.

Photos, illustrations, index.

Rick Atkinson’sThe British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 (The Revolution Trilogy)(Henry Holt and Co.) “is a tale of heroes and knaves, of sacrifice and blunder, of redemption and profound suffering. Rick Atkinson has given stirring new life to the first act of our country’s creation drama. . . . From the battles at Lexington and Concord in spring 1775 to those at Trenton and Princeton in winter 1777, American militiamen and then the ragged Continental Army take on the world’s most formidable fighting force. It is a gripping saga alive with astonishing characters: Henry Knox, the former bookseller with an uncanny understanding of artillery; Nathanael Greene, the blue-eyed bumpkin who becomes a brilliant battle captain; Benjamin Franklin, the self-made man who proves to be the wiliest of diplomats; George Washington, the commander in chief who learns the difficult art of leadership when the war seems all but lost. The story is also told from the British perspective, making the mortal conflict between the redcoats and the rebels all the more compelling.”

Rick Atkinson is the bestselling author of the Liberation Trilogy―An Army at Dawn (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for history), The Day of Battle, and The Guns at Last Light―as well as The Long Gray Lineand other books. His many additional awards include a Pulitzer Prize for journalism, the George Polk Award, and the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award. A former staff writer and senior editor at The Washington Post, he lives in Washington, D.C.

“To say that Atkinson can tell a story is like saying Sinatra can sing. . . . Historians of the American Revolution take note. Atkinson is coming. He brings with him a Tolstoyan view of war; that is, he presumes war can be understood only by recovering the experience of ordinary men and women caught in the crucible of orchestrated violence beyond their control or comprehension.” Joseph J. Ellis, The New York Times Book Review

Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index.

Joseph J. Ellis, American Dialogue: The Founders and Us(Knopf). “The award-winning author of Founding Brothers and The Quartet now gives us a deeply insightful examination of the relevance of the views of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and John Adams to some of the most divisive issues in America today. The story of history is a ceaseless conversation between past and present, and in American Dialogue Joseph J. Ellis focuses the conversation on the often-asked question "What would the Founding Fathers think?" He examines four of our most seminal historical figures through the prism of particular topics, using the perspective of the present to shed light on their views and, in turn, to make clear how their now centuries-old ideas illuminate the disturbing impasse of today's political conflicts. He discusses Jefferson and the issue of racism, Adams and the specter of economic inequality, Washington and American imperialism, Madison and the doctrine of original intent. Through these juxtapositions—and in his hallmark dramatic and compelling narrative voice—Ellis illuminates the obstacles and pitfalls paralyzing contemporary discussions of these fundamentally important issues.” 

Joseph J. Ellis is the author of many works of American history including Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, which won the National Book Award. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts with his wife and is the father of three sons.

Notes, index.

John Ruskin: Selected Prose (21st Century Oxford Authors), Richard Lansdown, editor (Oxford University Press) “offers students an authoritative, comprehensive selection of the work of John Ruskin (1819-1900). The edition represents Ruskin's extraordinary literary output, ranging from lectures, essays, and treatises to reviews, correspondence, and critical notes.Ruskin has been called 'the most powerful and original thinker of the nineteenth century' and yet, like his two fellow Victorian Sages, Thomas Carlyle and Matthew Arnold, his work remains obscure to modern readers. This anthology hopes to remedy this situation by presenting the immense range of Ruskin's interests, from art to politics, museology to ornithology, architecture to geology, and morals to economics--all of which interests were indivisible in his view. Here are rapturous accounts of Turner, the Alps, Renaissance painters, and Gothic architecture; but here, too, are urgently dystopian analyses of the modern culture that we continue to inhabit: vacuousness in communication, callousness in labour relations, amoral sophistication in art, and rationalism in all its various delusory forms in politics, society, and the economy. There are special stresses on cultural preservation and the illusions that it both fosters and depends upon; the status of women in society, which Ruskin reflected on constantly; nature, wilderness, and eco-catastrophism; and the role of artists like the Pre-Raphaelites in a society mostly given over to Philistinism. In short, the nineteenth century continues to cast an interrogatory shadow over the twenty-first, and Ruskin is its most vital and critical antagonist in the English language, inspiring intellectuals as diverse as Tolstoy, Proust, and Gandhi during his lifetime and afterwards. He was, this collection suggests, nothing like a 'sage', but something much more important and much more like those impossible things, a Victorian Renaissance man, an English Rousseau, and a post-religious Jeremiah.

Explanatory notes and commentary are included, to enhance the study, understanding, and enjoyment of these works, and the edition includes an Introduction to the life and works of Ruskin, and a Chronology.”

Richard Lansdown is a graduate of University College London. He is the author of three books on Lord Byron, one with Cambridge, the other two with Oxford University Press, and numerous articles on nineteenth-century literature, from Austen to Ibsen and Hardy to Berlioz and Delacroix. A New Scene of Thought: Studies in Romantic Realism was published in 2016, and Literature andTruth: Imaginative Literature as a Mediumfor Ideas is due in 2018, following on from The Autonomy of Literaturein 2001. He taught in Finland and Australia before moving to The Netherlands in 2017.

Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Robert Morrison’sThe Regency Years: During Which Jane Austen Writes, Napoleon Fights, Byron Makes Love, and Britain Becomes Modern(W. W. Norton & Company) is “A surprising and lively history of an overlooked era that brought the modern world of art, culture, and science decisively into view. The Victorians are often credited with ushering in our current era, yet the seeds of change were planted in the years before. The Regency (1811–1820) began when the profligate Prince of Wales―the future king George IV―replaced his insane father, George III, as Britain’s ruler. Around the regent surged a society steeped in contrasts: evangelicalism and hedonism, elegance and brutality, exuberance and despair. The arts flourished at this time with a showcase of extraordinary writers and painters such as Jane Austen, Lord Byron, the Shelleys, John Constable, and J. M. W. Turner. Science burgeoned during this decade, too, giving us the steam locomotive and the blueprint for the modern computer. Yet the dark side of the era was visible in poverty, slavery, pornography, opium, and the gothic imaginings that birthed the novel Frankenstein. With the British military in foreign lands, fighting the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and the War of 1812 in the United States, the desire for empire and an expanding colonial enterprise gained unstoppable momentum. Exploring these crosscurrents, Robert Morrison illuminates the profound ways this period shaped and indelibly marked the modern world.

Robert Morrison, author of The Regency Years and The English Opium-Eater, a finalist for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, is Queen’s National Scholar at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. He has produced editions of works by Jane Austen, Thomas De Quincey, Leigh Hunt, and John Polidori. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and lives in Brewer’s Mills, Ontario.

“Elegant, entertaining and frequently surprising.” Miranda Seymour, New York Times Book Review

“Morrison showcases that relatively brief period―less than a decade―as an age of ‘remarkable diversity, upheaval, and elegance.' . . . Given such plenty, what more could one ask from a work of cultural history?” Michael Dirda, Washington Post

Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index.

Cassandra L. Yacovazzi, Escaped Nuns: True Womanhood and the Campaign Against Convents in Antebellum America(Oxford University Press). “Just five weeks after its publication in January 1836, Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery, billed as an escaped nun's shocking exposé of convent life, had already sold more than 20,000 copies. The book detailed gothic-style horror stories of licentious priests and abusive mothers superior, tortured nuns and novices, and infanticide. By the time the book was revealed to be a fiction and the author, Maria Monk, an imposter, it had already become one of the nineteenth century's best-selling books. In antebellum America only one book, Uncle Tom's Cabin, outsold it. The success of Monk's book was no fluke, but rather a part of a larger phenomenon of anti-Catholic propaganda, riots, and nativist politics. The secrecy of convents stood as an oblique justification for suspicion of Catholics and the campaigns against them, which were intimately connected with cultural concerns regarding reform, religion, immigration, and, in particular, the role of women in the Republic. At a time when the term "female virtue" pervaded popular rhetoric, the image of the veiled nun represented a threat to the established American ideal of womanhood. Unable to marry, she was instead a captive of a foreign foe, a fallen woman, a white slave, and a foolish virgin. In the first half of the nineteenth century, ministers, vigilantes, politicians, and writers--male and female--forged this image of the nun, locking arms against convents. The result was a far-reaching antebellum movement that would shape perceptions of nuns, and women more broadly, in America.” 

Cassandra L. Yacovazzi is Visiting Assistant Professor of History at the University of South Florida-Sarasota-Manatee. Her research focuses on American cultural, religious, and gender history in the nineteenth century.

“More than a fascinating work of cultural history, Escaped Nuns convincingly connects the sexual and spiritual politics that create untenable visions of 'womanhood.' Yacovazzi provides a compelling narrative of how nineteenth-century American nativism, anti-prostitution, abolitionism, and anti-polygamy campaigns collided into a perverse abhorrence for nunsor, really, any woman who operated outside the confines of the Protestant family. This is a must-read to understand the dangerous arguments about women being made today by political and religious leaders on all sides.” Rebecca Sullivan, Professor of English, University of Calgary.

Illustrations, notes, index.

Pamela Nadell’sAmerica's Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today(W. W. Norton & Company) is “A groundbreaking history of how Jewish women maintained their identity and influenced social activism as they wrote themselves into American history. What does it mean to be a Jewish woman in America? In a gripping historical narrative, Pamela S. Nadell weaves together the stories of a diverse group of extraordinary people―from the colonial-era matriarch Grace Nathan and her great-granddaughter, poet Emma Lazarus, to labor organizer Bessie Hillman and the great justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, to scores of other activists, workers, wives, and mothers who helped carve out a Jewish American identity. The twin threads binding these women together, she argues, are a strong sense of self and a resolute commitment to making the world a better place. Nadell recounts how Jewish women have been at the forefront of causes for centuries, fighting for suffrage, trade unions, civil rights, and feminism, and hoisting banners for Jewish rights around the world. Informed by shared values of America’s founding and Jewish identity, these women’s lives have left deep footprints in the history of the nation they call home.”

Pamela S. Nadell is the Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women’s and Gender History and director of Jewish studies at American University. Her books include Women Who Would Be Rabbis, a National Jewish Book Award finalist. She lives in North Bethesda, Maryland.

Photographs, illustrations, notes, index.

Anne Gardiner Perkins, Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant(Sourcebooks). “In the winter of 1969, from big cities to small towns, young women across the country sent in applications to Yale University for the first time. The Ivy League institution dedicated to graduating ‘one thousand male leaders’ each year had finally decided to open its doors to the nation's top female students. The landmark decision was a huge step forward for women's equality in education. Or was it? The experience the first undergraduate women found when they stepped onto Yale's imposing campus was not the same one their male peers enjoyed. Isolated from one another, singled out as oddities and sexual objects, and barred from many of the privileges an elite education was supposed to offer, many of the first girls found themselves immersed in an overwhelmingly male culture they were unprepared to face. Yale Needs Womenis the story of how these young women fought against the backward-leaning traditions of a centuries-old institution and created the opportunities that would carry them into the future. Anne Gardiner Perkins's unflinching account of a group of young women striving for change is an inspiring story of strength, resilience, and courage that continues to resonate today.”

Anne Gardiner Perkins grew up in Baltimore and attended Yale University, where she earned her BA in history and was the first woman editor-in-chief of the Yale Daily News. She is also a Rhodes Scholar and completed a BA in modern history at Balliol College, Oxford University. She has spent her life in education, from urban high school teacher to state-level policy maker. She received her PhD in higher education at UMass Boston and has presented papers on higher education at leading conferences. Yale Needs Womenis her first book.

“Perkins makes the story of these early and unwitting feminist pioneers come alive against the backdrop of the contemporaneous civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1970s, and offers observations that remain eerily relevant on U.S. campuses today.” Edward B. Fiske, author of Fiske Guide to Colleges.

“While working on a Ph.D. in history at the University of Massachusetts, the author had a light bulb moment about the first females at historically all-male Yale. The slightly more than 200 women admitted in 1969 as freshmen, sophomores and juniors had become a footnote in history but no one had ever told their stories. So she decided to do it. Yale Needs Womenreminds us of how much has changed over the past 50 years as well as how little essential change has occurred. Those of us who came of age in the bad old days of the 1960s and 1970s will identify with the struggles of the female undergrads at Yale. Despite being eminently qualified for admission and for the most part outperforming their male cohorts, they were treated as ‘lesser than’ and simply ignored by most of the 99% all-male faculty. For the majority of their male classmates they were simply sexual targets.” MaggieG13, Amazon reviewer

Photographs, notes, index.

Peter Moore’sEndeavour: The Ship That Changed the World (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) “is a revealing and comprehensive account of the storied ship’s role in shaping the Western world. Endeavour famously carried James Cook on his first major voyage, charting for the first time New Zealand and the eastern coast of Australia. Yet it was a ship with many lives: During the battles for control of New York in 1776, she witnessed the bloody birth of the republic. As well as carrying botanists, a Polynesian priest, and the remains of the first kangaroo to arrive in Britain, she transported Newcastle coal and Hessian soldiers. NASA ultimately named a space shuttle in her honor. But to others she would be a toxic symbol of imperialism. Through careful research, Moore tells the story of one of history’s most important sailing ships, and in turn shines new light on the ambition and consequences of the Age of Enlightenment.”

Peter Moore teaches creative writing at the University of London and the University of Oxford. He is the author of Damn His Blood and The Weather Experiment, which was named one of the New York Times Book Review’s100 Notable Books of 2015 and adapted for a BBC4 documentary series. He lives in London.

“[A] fantastically detailed story . . . a joy of a biography, offering up a blizzard of maritime and political fascinations . . . Moore has written a book that makes the case for [Endeavour] both compelling and irrefutable―and offers up besides an immense treasure trove of fact-filled and highly readable fun.” Simon Winchester, The New York Times Book Review

Photographs, illustrations, map, notes, bibliography, index.

Remaking New Orleans: Beyond Exceptionalism and Authenticity, Thomas Jessen Adams andMatt Sakakeeny, editors(Duke University Press). “Approached as a wellspring of cultural authenticity and historical exceptionality, New Orleans appears in opposition to a nation perpetually driven by progress. Remaking New Orleansshows how this narrative is rooted in a romantic cultural tradition, continuously repackaged through the twin engines of tourism and economic development, and supported by research that has isolated the city from comparison and left unquestioned its entrenched inequality. Working against this feedback loop, the [20] contributors place New Orleans at the forefront of national patterns of urban planning, place-branding, structural inequality, and racialization. Nontraditional sites like professional wrestling matches, middle-class black suburbs, and Vietnamese gardens take precedence over clichéd renderings of Creole cuisine, voodoo queens, and hot jazz. Covering the city's founding through its present and highlighting changing political and social formations, this volume remakes New Orleans as a rich site for understanding the quintessential concerns of American cities.”

Thomas Jessen Adams is Lecturer in History and American Studies, Academic Director of the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, and coeditor of Working in the Big Easy: The History and Politics of Labor in New Orleans.

Matt Sakakeeny is Associate Professor of Music at Tulane University and author of Roll With It: Brass Bands in the Streets of New Orleans, also published by Duke University Press.

“This is NOLA unmasked: a brave and unflinching critique of the myth of the Big Easy. In fact, as these essays argue so powerfully, no southern city is less at ease or more pervaded by class and racial tension.” Mike Davis

Bibliography, notes, index.

Laurent Dubois and Richard Lee, Freedom Roots: Histories from the Caribbean(The University of North Carolina Press). “’To tell the history of the Caribbean is to tell the history of the world,’ write Laurent Dubois and Richard Lee Turits. In this powerful and expansive story of the vast archipelago, Dubois and Turits chronicle how the Caribbean has been at the heart of modern contests between slavery and freedom, racism and equality, and empire and independence. From the emergence of racial slavery and European colonialism in the early sixteenth century to U.S. annexations and military occupations in the twentieth, systems of exploitation and imperial control have haunted the region. Yet the Caribbean is also where empires have been overthrown, slavery was first defeated, and the most dramatic revolutions triumphed. Caribbean peoples have never stopped imagining and pursuing new forms of liberty. Dubois and Turits reveal how the region's most vital transformations have been ignited in the conflicts over competing visions of land. While the powerful sought a Caribbean awash in plantations for the benefit of the few, countless others anchored their quest for freedom in small-farming and counter-plantation economies, at times succeeding against all odds. Caribbean realities to this day are rooted in this long and illuminating history of struggle.”

Laurent Dubois, author of Haiti: The Aftershocks of History andA Colony of Citizens, among other books, is professor of history and romance studies at Duke University. 

Richard Lee Turits, author of Foundations of Despotism, is associate professor of history, Africana studies, and Latin American studies at The College of William & Mary.

Map, notes, index.

Mark Peterson’s The City-State of Boston: The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic Power, 1630-1865(Princeton University Press) is “A groundbreaking history of early America that shows how Boston built and sustained an independent city-state in New England before being folded into the United States. In the vaunted annals of America’s founding, Boston has long been held up as an exemplary ‘city upon a hill’ and the ‘cradle of liberty’ for an independent United States. Wresting this iconic urban center from these misleading, tired clichés, The City-State of Boston highlights Boston’s overlooked past as an autonomous city-state, and in doing so, offers a pathbreaking and brilliant new history of early America. Following Boston’s development over three centuries, Mark Peterson discusses how this self-governing Atlantic trading center began as a refuge from Britain’s Stuart monarchs and how―through its bargain with slavery and ratification of the Constitution―it would tragically lose integrity and autonomy as it became incorporated into the greater United States.

Drawing from vast archives, and featuring unfamiliar figures alongside well-known ones, such as John Winthrop, Cotton Mather, and John Adams, Peterson explores Boston’s origins in sixteenth-century utopian ideals, its founding and expansion into the hinterland of New England, and the growth of its distinctive political economy, with ties to the West Indies and southern Europe. By the 1700s, Boston was at full strength, with wide Atlantic trading circuits and cultural ties, both within and beyond Britain’s empire. After the cataclysmic Revolutionary War, ‘Bostoners’ aimed to negotiate a relationship with the American confederation, but through the next century, the new United States unraveled Boston’s regional reign. The fateful decision to ratify the Constitutionundercut its power, as Southern planters and slave owners dominated national politics and corroded the city-state’s vision of a common good for all.

Peeling away the layers of myth surrounding a revered city, The City-State of Bostonoffers a startlingly fresh understanding of America’s history.”

Mark Peterson is the Edmund S. Morgan Professor of History at Yale University. He is the author of The Price of Redemption: The Spiritual Economy of Puritan New England.

“Mark Peterson’s story of the rise and fall of the city-state of Boston over nearly three centuries is a remarkable achievement. He has told the story in such a rich and extraordinary way that our understanding of Boston’s history will never again be the same.” Gordon S. Wood, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and author of Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson

Photographs, illustrations, notes, index.

Evan Friss’On Bicycles: A 200-Year History of Cycling in New York City(Columbia University Press) “traces the colorful and fraught history of cycling in New York City. He uncovers the bicycle’s place in the city over time, showing how it has served as a mirror of the city’s changing social, economic, infrastructural, and cultural politics since it first appeared. It has been central, as when horse-drawn carriages shared the road with bicycle lanes in the 1890s; peripheral, when Robert Moses’s car-centric vision made room for bicycles only as recreation; and aggressively marginalized, when Ed Koch’s battle against bike messengers culminated in the short-lived 1987 Midtown Bike Ban. On Bicyclesilluminates how the city as we know it today―veined with over a thousand miles of bicycle lanes―reflects a fitful journey powered, and opposed, by New York City’s people and its politics.”

Evan Friss is an associate professor of history at James Madison University and the author of The Cycling City: Bicycles and Urban America in the 1890s. He used to pedal around New York City, but now lives in Virginia with his family.

“In On Bicycles, Evan Friss fills in the missing chapters that bicycles hold in New York City’s near-miraculous transportation history and shows how the city’s streets are finally catching up with them.” Janette Sadik-Khan, Bloomberg Associates, former NYC transportation commissioner.

“Witty and wise, engaged and engaging, surprising, fun and fabulous―I’m running out of adjectives to describe Evan Friss’s wondrous new book. Move over Amsterdam: New York City is a bicycling city too, though with fits and starts, grunts and guffaws, and more than a handful of bike haters (some in high places). A great way to learn about the history of the city that never sleeps―and has never stopped arguing about its bicycles and bicyclists.” David Nasaw, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Professor of History, CUNY Graduate Center.

Photographs, illustrations, notes, index.

Samuel R. Delany, Times Square Red, Times Square Blue 20th Anniversary Edition (Sexual Cultures)with a new Foreword by Robert F. Reid-Phar(New York University Press). “The twentieth anniversary edition of a landmark book that cataloged a vibrant but disappearing neighborhood in New York City. In the two decades that preceded the original publication of Times Square Red, Times Square Blue, Forty-second Street, then the most infamous street in America, was being remade into a sanitized tourist haven. In the forced disappearance of porn theaters, peep shows, and street hustlers to make room for a Disney store, a children’s theater, and large, neon-lit cafes, Samuel R. Delany saw a disappearance, not only of the old Times Square, but of the complex social relationships that developed there.”

Samuel R. Delanybore witness to the dismantling of the institutions that promoted points of contact between people of different classes and races in a public space, and in this hybrid text, argues for the necessity of public restrooms and tree-filled parks to a city's physical and psychological landscape. This twentieth anniversary edition includes a new foreword by Robert Reid-Pharr that traces the importance and continued resonances of Samuel R. Delany’s groundbreaking Times Square Red, Times Square Blue.”

Robert F. Reid-Pharr is Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Harvard University. He is the author of Archives of Flesh: African America, Spain, and Post-Humanist Critique, Once You Go Black: Choice, Desire, and the Black American Intellectual, Black Gay Man: Essays, and Conjugal Union: The Body, the House, and the Black American.

Works cited.

The Mueller Report: The Final Report of the Special Counsel into Donald Trump, Russia, and Collusion,

byRobert S. Mueller III, Special Counsel's Office U.S. Department of Justice, et alii (Scribner) “is that rare Washington tell-all that surpasses its pre-publication hype  . . . the best book by far on the workings of the Trump presidency. It was delivered to the attorney general but is also written for history. The book reveals the president in all his impulsiveness, insecurity and growing disregard for rules and norms; White House aides alternating between deference to the man and defiance of his ‘crazy s—‘ requests; and a campaign team too inept to realize, or too reckless to care, when they might have been bending the law. And special counsel Robert Mueller has it all under oath, on the record, along with interviews and contemporaneous notes backing it up.” Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post

“This is a document that, like the Badlands National Park, one has to visit for oneself. If you rely on the velvet fog of Attorney General William Barr’s Cliffs Notes, you will get an ‘F’ on the exam… So much of what’s in the Mueller report is already known, thanks to what never again should be referred to as ‘fake news,’ that reading it is like consuming a short story collection that’s already been excerpted in every magazine you subscribe to. But its two volumes nonetheless have the power to shock and appall.” Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“It's amazing how many journalistic stories derided as ‘fake news’ over the past few years now re-appear in Mueller's recounting — only this time as documented evidence…. Mueller's contribution to the literature of this period in history will have an expanding readership in the immediate future as well.” NPR

“The Mueller report, Olympian and meticulous, feels like an attempt to wrest back our government on behalf not just of real lawyers but of reality itself.” Laura Miller, Slate

U.S. House Impeachment Report of Trump on Ukraine 

Full Text of the U.S. House Democrats' Report

No Commentary, Spin, or Interpretation 

Preface by Rep. Adam Schiff, Executive Summary by House Intel Committee(Independently Published).

Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, Crime in Progress: Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Investigation of Donald Trump(Random House). “Before Ukraine, before impeachment: This is the never-before-told inside story of the high-stakes, four-year-long investigation into Donald Trump’s Russia ties—culminating in the Steele dossier, and sparking the Mueller report—from the founders of political opposition research company Fusion GPS. Fusion GPS was founded in 2010 by Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, two former reporters at The Wall Street Journal who decided to abandon the struggling news business and use their reporting skills to conduct open-source investigations for businesses and law firms—and opposition research for political candidates. In the fall of 2015, they were hired to look into the finances of Donald Trump. What began as a march through a mind-boggling trove of lawsuits, bankruptcies, and sketchy overseas projects soon took a darker turn: The deeper Fusion dug, the more it began to notice names that Simpson and Fritsch had come across during their days covering Russian corruption—and the clearer it became that the focus of Fusion’s research going forward would be Trump’s entanglements with Russia. To help them make sense of what they were seeing, Simpson and Fritsch engaged the services of a former British intelligence agent and Russia expert named Christopher Steele. He would produce a series of memos—which collectively became known as the Steele dossier—that raised deeply alarming questions about the nature of Trump’s ties to a hostile foreign power. Those memos made their way to U.S. intelligence agencies, and then to President Barack Obama and President-elect Trump. On January 10, 2017, the Steele dossier broke into public view, and the Trump-Russia story reached escape velocity. At the time, Fusion GPS was just a ten-person consulting firm tucked away above a Starbucks near Dupont Circle, but it would soon be thrust into the center of the biggest news story on the planet—a story that would lead to accusations of witch hunts, a relentless campaign of persecution by congressional Republicans, bizarre conspiracy theories, lawsuits by Russian oligarchs, and the Mueller report. In Crime in Progress, Simpson and Fritsch tell their story for the first time—a tale of the high-stakes pursuit of one of the biggest, most important stories of our time—no matter the costs.” 

Glenn Simpson is the co-founder of Fusion GPS. He is a former senior reporter for The Wall Street Journalwho has specialized in campaign finance, money laundering, tax evasion, terrorism finance, securities fraud, and political corruption. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his family.

Peter Fritsch co-founded Fusion GPS. He is a former reporter and bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, previously based in Mexico City, São Paulo, South and Southeast Asia, and Brussels. He finished his Wall Street Journalcareer as national security editor in Washington, D.C. He lives in Maryland with his family.

“A fascinating read. An extraordinary book.” Andrea Mitchell

“A master class in how Washington works.” The Atlantic

“I hope some talented filmmaker makes a movie out of the new book by Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, Crime in Progress . . . the best procedural yet written about the discovery of Trump’s Russia ties. It demolishes a number of right-wing talking points, including the claim that the Steele dossier formed the basis of the F.B.I.’s counterintelligence inquiry into Trump.” Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times

“[Simpson and Fritsch] present a mountain of evidence that Trump’s dealings with corrupt foreign players—particularly those from the former Soviet Union—are both real and go back decades.” Jane Mayer, The New Yorker

“Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch’s Crime in Progressuntangles one of the great mysteries of the Trump era—the full story of the Steele dossier—and provides a fascinating insight into the investigatory mind at work. It’s an indispensable guide to the Russia scandals—and a reminder of the redemptive power of facts over lies.” Jeffrey Toobin

 “We just got a really, really, really, really good new account of how [it] all came together. . . . I feel fairly steeped in this matter and I learned something on every page.” Rachel Maddow

Notes, bibliography, index.

Eric Klinenberg (Editor), Sharon Marcus (Editor), Caitlin Zaloom (Editor), Michelle Wilde Anderson, Lisa Wade, and 31 more, Antidemocracy in America: Truth, Power, and the Republic at Risk (Public Books Series)(Columbia University Press). “Antidemocracy in Americais a collective effort to understand how we got to this point and what can be done about it. Assembled by the sociologist Eric Klinenberg as well as the editors of the online magazine Public Books, Caitlin Zaloom and Sharon Marcus, it offers essays from many of the nation’s leading scholars, experts on topics including race, religion, gender, civil liberties, protest, inequality, immigration, climate change, national security, and the role of the media. Antidemocracy in Americaplaces our present in international and historical context, considering the worldwide turn toward authoritarianism and its varied precursors. Each essay seeks to inform our understanding of the fragility of American democracy and suggests how to protect it from the buried contradictions that Trump’s victory brought into public view.”

“Antidemocracy in Americais essential reading for understanding the deep divisions within American society, which are not new and have led us to this critical moment in U.S. political culture.” Alondra Nelson, author of The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation After the Genome

“This provocative book offers an all-star lineup for scholars from multiple disciplines who provide a fascinating analysis of the anti-democratic forces that have gained hold within the United States. As readers try to make sense of the era of Trump, this is a perfect starting point to make sense of the troubling developments we have seen.” Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer, coauthors of Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974

“This book offers readers more than respite from the relentless buzz of tweets, shares, and posts that overcrowd our daily consciousness; it supplies a beneficial point of departure for thinking critically about the direction of our political life in these challenging times. Antidemocracy in America is thoughtfully curated and insightful.” Anthony S. Chen, author of The Fifth Freedom: Jobs, Politics, and Civil Rights in the United States, 1941-1972

Alex Zamalin’sBlack Utopia: The History of an Idea from Black Nationalism to Afrofuturism(Columbia University Press) “offers a groundbreaking examination of African American visions of social transformation and their counterutopian counterparts. Considering figures associated with racial separatism, postracialism, anticolonialism, Pan-Africanism, and Afrofuturism, he argues that the black utopian tradition continues to challenge American political thought and culture. Black Utopia spans black nationalist visions of an ideal Africa, the fiction of W. E. B. Du Bois, and Sun Ra’s cosmic mythology of alien abduction. Zamalin casts Samuel R. Delany and Octavia E. Butler as political theorists and reflects on the antiutopian challenges of George S. Schuyler and Richard Wright. Their thought proves that utopianism, rather than being politically immature or dangerous, can invigorate political imagination. Both an inspiring intellectual history and a critique of present power relations, this book suggests that, with democracy under siege across the globe, the black utopian tradition may be our best hope for combating injustice.”

Alex Zamalin is assistant professor of political science and director of the African American Studies Program at University of Detroit Mercy. He is the author of African American Political Thought and American Culture: The Nation’s Struggle for Racial Justice (2015);Struggle on Their Minds: The Political Thought of African American Resistance (Columbia University Press, 2017);andAntiracism: An Introduction (2019).

“Crisply written and compellingly argued, Black Utopiatraces a remarkable genealogy of black utopian and anti-utopian thought from Martin Delany in the early nineteenth century to Octavia Butler in the early twenty-first. A versatile cultural historian and political theorist, Alex Zamalin reveals that the democratic hope for racial equality and social justice has historically overcome dystopian conditions, ranging from slavery to present-day racism, while animating the African American intellectual imagination.” Gene Andrew Jarrett, author of Representing the Race: A New Political History of African American Literature.

Notes, bibliography, index.

Wendy Brown’sIn the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West (The Wellek Library Lectures)(Columbia University Press) “casts the hard-right turn as animated by socioeconomically aggrieved white working- and middle-class populations but contoured by neoliberalism’s multipronged assault on democratic values. From its inception, neoliberalism flirted with authoritarian liberalism as it warred against robust democracy. It repelled social-justice claims through appeals to market freedom and morality. It sought to de-democratize the state, economy, and society and re-secure the patriarchal family. In key works of the founding neoliberal intellectuals, Wendy Brown traces the ambition to replace democratic orders with ones disciplined by markets and traditional morality and democratic states with technocratic ones. Yet plutocracy, white supremacy, politicized mass affect, indifference to truth, and extreme social disinhibition were no part of the neoliberal vision. Brown theorizes their unintentional spurring by neoliberal reason, from its attack on the value of society and its fetish of individual freedom to its legitimation of inequality. Above all, she argues, neoliberalism’s intensification of nihilism coupled with its accidental wounding of white male supremacy generates an apocalyptic populism willing to destroy the world rather than endure a future in which this supremacy disappears.”

Wendy Brown is Class of 1936 First Chair at the University of California, Berkeley, where she teaches political theory. Her recent books include Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution (2015) andWalled States, Waning Sovereignty (2010).

“Wendy Brown is the great radical theorist of democracy of our time, in the grand tradition of Sheldon Wolin. This book is the best treatment we have of the aftermath of the high moments of our neoliberal age and the descent into antidemocratic darkness. Yet Brown's profound analysis and mature vision give us a glimmer of hope!” Cornel West, Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy, Harvard University.

Notes, index.

Jedediah Purdy’sThis Land Is Our Land: The Struggle for a New Commonwealth (Princeton University Press) is “a powerful book about how the land we share divides us―and how it could unite us

Today, we are at a turning point as we face ecological and political crises that are rooted in conflicts over the land itself. But these problems can be solved if we draw on elements of our tradition that move us toward a new commonwealth―a community founded on the well-being of all people and the natural world. In this brief, powerful, timely, and hopeful book, Jedediah Purdy, one of our finest writers and leading environmental thinkers, explores how we might begin to heal our fractured and contentious relationship with the land and with each other. From the coalfields of Appalachia and the tobacco fields of the Carolinas to the public lands of the West, Purdy shows how the land has always united and divided Americans, holding us in common projects and fates but also separating us into insiders and outsiders, owners and dependents, workers and bosses. Expropriated from Native Americans and transformed by slave labor, the same land that represents a history of racism and exploitation could, in the face of environmental catastrophe, bind us together in relationships of reciprocity and mutual responsibility. This may seem idealistic in our polarized time, but we are at a historical fork in the road, and if we do not make efforts now to move toward a commonwealth, Purdy warns, environmental and political pressures will create harsher and crueler conflicts―between citizens, between countries, and between humans and the rest of the world.”

“Showcasing the ideas of one of our finest writers, political commentators, and environmental law scholars, this is a wonderful book filled with insight.” Katrina Forrester, Harvard University

“This is a pragmatic, bracing, and beautiful book about the inextricable connections between ecological health and human justice. Purdy's diagnosis is as persuasive as his call for new kinds of solidarity in pursuit of economic and environmental equality.” Jane Bennett, author of Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things

“This is a Thoreauvian call to wake up, to take up the long-forgotten work of building a 'world-renewing ecological commonwealth, ' forging alliances across all that keeps us apart, but that must hold us together if we are to survive the twenty-first century. Don't just read this book--think with it.”Laura Dassow Walls, author of Henry David Thoreau: A Life.

Index.

Philip K. Howard,Try Common Sense: Replacing the Failed Ideologies of Right and Left(W. W. Norton & Company). 

“Is now really the best time for another jeremiad against regulation’? After years of Reagan rhetoric and Trump diatribes, Howard, a lawyer, obviously believes so. He lays down the foundation for Try Common Sensewith ex cathedra generalizations (‘pretty much everything run by Washington is broken”, ‘bureaucracy is evil’) and then adds a brick-by-brick account of alleged regulatory idiocies: He decries how airport screenings pull people aside ‘if, say, we left a nickel in our pocket’ and highlights the case of an angry public employee who supposedly sued his dry cleaner for $54 million for losing a pair of pants.

Disappointingly, he almost never gets around to explaining why we have regulation in the first place and when it succeeds. Agencies that protect workers, consumers and the environment did not emerge from liberals who ‘want to shackle businessmen,’ but only after public complaints, congressional hearings, majorities in two chambers, the signature of a president and court challenges by corporate interests with deep pockets.

Nor do we learn from Howard that teenage smoking and auto deaths per mile driven have plummeted because of government oversight. Love Canal in upstate New York and the Upper Big Branch Mine collapse in West Virginia are what happen when you fail to regulate. For a recent book that avoids antiregulatory diatribes but explains who such public servants are and how they decide, see Michael Lewis’s engaging The Fifth Risk.

A fairer view of the regulatory structure might be Samuel Johnson’s well-known observation about a dog walking on its hind legs: ‘It is not done well but you are surprised to find it done at all.’” Mark Green, the author or editor of 23 books, including Losing Our Democracy(2006). He was New York City’s first public advocate.

Notes, bibliography, index.

3) MISCELLANEOUS

Robert A. Carol, Working(Knopf). “For the first time in book form, Robert Caro gives us a glimpse into his own life and work in these evocatively written, personal pieces. He describes what it was like to interview the mighty Robert Moses; what it felt like to begin discovering the extent of the political power Moses wielded; the combination of discouragement and exhilaration he felt confronting the vast holdings of the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, Texas; his encounters with witnesses, including longtime residents wrenchingly displaced by the construction of Moses' Cross-Bronx Expressway and Lady Bird Johnson acknowledging the beauty and influence of one of LBJ's mistresses. He gratefully remembers how, after years of working in solitude, he found a writers' community at the New York Public Library, and details the ways he goes about planning and composing his books. Caro recalls the moments at which he came to understand that he wanted to write not just about the men who wielded power but about the people and the politics that were shaped by that power. And he talks about the importance to him of the writing itself, of how he tries to infuse it with a sense of place and mood to bring characters and situations to life on the page. Taken together, these reminiscences--some previously published, some written expressly for this book--bring into focus the passion, the wry self-deprecation, and the integrity with which this brilliant historian has always approached his work.”

“Caro’s work is the gold standard of deep-dive biography; he has become an almost mythic figure, the Ahab of nonfiction, relentless in the ever-elusive pursuit of truth. In Working, he shares tips on researching, interviewing and writing, showcased in wonderful, revealing, often funny anecdotes . . . Its real theme goes far beyond authorial tradecraft. Caro’s own life has been an epic of human endeavor, a tale of obsession . . . Writing truth to power takes time.” Evan Thomas, The Washington Post

Leah Price,What We Talk About When We Talk About Books: The History and Future of Reading(Basic Books). “Do you worry that you've lost patience for anything longer than a tweet? If so, you're not alone. Digital-age pundits warn that as our appetite for books dwindles, so too do the virtues in which printed, bound objects once trained us: the willpower to focus on a sustained argument, the curiosity to look beyond the day's news, the willingness to be alone. The shelves of the world's great libraries, though, tell a more complicated story. Examining the wear and tear on the books that they contain, English professor Leah Price finds scant evidence that a golden age of reading ever existed. From the dawn of mass literacy to the invention of the paperback, most readers already skimmed and multitasked. Print-era doctors even forbade the very same silent absorption now recommended as a cure for electronic addictions. The evidence that books are dying proves even scarcer. In encounters with librarians, booksellers and activists who are reinventing old ways of reading, Price offers fresh hope to bibliophiles and literature lovers alike.”

Leah Price has taught English at Cambridge University, Harvard University, and Rutgers University, where from fall 2019 onward she will be founding director of the Rutgers Book Initiative. She is the author How to Do Things with Books in Victorian Britain and the editor of Unpacking My Library.

“No one writes about books-and their bookness-with anything close to the daunting curiosity and dazzling acuity of the inimitable Leah Price. What We Talk About When We Talk About Books is a rags to paper to Amazon Kindle bookshelf of delight and instruction, as entertaining as it is illuminating.” Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States.

Notes, index.

Tom Brokaw,The Fall of Richard Nixon: A Reporter Remembers Watergate(Random House). “In August 1974, after his involvement in the Watergate scandal could no longer be denied, Richard Nixon became the first and only president to resign from office in anticipation of certain impeachment. The year preceding that moment was filled with shocking revelations and bizarre events, full of power politics, legal jujitsu, and high-stakes showdowns, and with head-shaking surprises every day. As the country’s top reporters worked to discover the truth, the public was overwhelmed by the confusing and almost unbelievable stories about activities in the Oval Office. Tom Brokaw, who was then the young NBC News White House correspondent, gives us a nuanced and thoughtful chronicle, recalling the players, the strategies, and the scandal that brought down a president. He takes readers from crowds of shouting protesters to shocking press conferences, from meetings with Attorney General Elliot Richardson and White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig, to overseas missions alongside Henry Kissinger. He recounts Nixon’s claims of executive privilege to withhold White House tape recordings of Oval Office conversations; the bribery scandal that led to the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew and his replacement by Gerald Ford; the firing of Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox; how in the midst of Watergate Nixon organized emergency military relief for Israel during the Yom Kippur War; the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court that required Nixon to turn over the tapes; and other insider moments from this important and dramatic period. The Fall of Richard Nixon allows readers to experience this American epic from the perspective of a journalist on the ground and at the center of it all.”

Tom Brokaw is the author of seven bestsellers: The Greatest Generation, The Greatest Generation Speaks, An Album of Memories, A Long Way from Home, Boom!, The Time of Our Lives, andA Lucky Life Interrupted.A native of South Dakota, he graduated from the University of South Dakota with a degree in political science. He began his journalism career in Omaha and Atlanta before joining NBC News in 1966. Brokaw was the White House correspondent for NBC News during Watergate, and from 1976 to 1981 he anchored Today on NBC. He was the sole anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokawfrom 1983 to 2005. In 2008 he anchored Meet the Pressfor nine months following the death of his friend Tim Russert. He continues to report for NBC News, producing long-form documentaries and providing expertise during breaking news events. Brokaw has won every major award in broadcast journalism, including two duPonts, two Peabody Awards, and several Emmys. In 2014, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He lives in New York and Montana.

“A divided nation. A deeply controversial president. Powerful passions. No, it’s not what you’re thinking, but Tom Brokaw knows that the past can be prologue, and he’s given us an absorbing and illuminating firsthand account of how Richard Nixon fell from power. Part history, part memoir, Brokaw’s book reminds us of the importance of journalism, the significance of facts, and the inherent complexity of power in America.” Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Soul of America

Photographs, index.

Nicholas Buccola,The Fire Is upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America(Princeton University Press). “On February 18, 1965, an overflowing crowd packed the Cambridge Union in Cambridge, England, to witness a historic televised debate between James Baldwin, the leading literary voice of the civil rights movement, and William F. Buckley Jr., a fierce critic of the movement and America's most influential conservative intellectual. The topic was ‘the American dream is at the expense of the American Negro,’ and no one who has seen the debate can soon forget it. Nicholas Buccola's The Fire Is upon Usis the first book to tell the full story of the event, the radically different paths that led Baldwin and Buckley to it, the controversies that followed, and how the debate and the decades-long clash between the men continues to illuminate America's racial divide today. Born in New York City only fifteen months apart, the Harlem-raised Baldwin and the privileged Buckley could not have been more different, but they both rose to the height of American intellectual life during the civil rights movement. By the time they met in Cambridge, Buckley was determined to sound the alarm about a man he considered an ‘eloquent menace.’ For his part, Baldwin viewed Buckley as a deluded reactionary whose popularity revealed the sickness of the American soul. The stage was set for an epic confrontation that pitted Baldwin's call for a moral revolution in race relations against Buckley's unabashed elitism and implicit commitment to white supremacy. A remarkable story of race and the American dream, The Fire Is upon Us reveals the deep roots and lasting legacy of a conflict that continues to haunt our politics.”

“Written with marvelous style, The Fire Is upon Usis captivating, provocative, and exciting. Through its deep and thoughtful portraits of Baldwin and Buckley and its readings of American culture, politics, and history, the book casts light on the national past, present, and (one presumes) future.” Susan McWilliams Barndt, editor of A Political Companion to James Baldwin.

“An insightful, thoroughly researched, and well-written analysis of a pivotal moment in the history of civil rights in America.” David Leeming, author of James Baldwin: A Biography.

“Drawing deep from archives while reminding us of that classic, grainy video of Baldwin and Buckley squaring off in England, Buccola brilliantly illuminates the American dilemma of race in the context of the early sixties, as well as now. As historian and political analyst, he deftly captures these two iconic wordsmiths at the peak of their divergent powers. How forcefully the past is past, but also so present in the hands of a superb scholar.” David W. Blight, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.

Photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Sally Roesch Wagner, The Women's Suffrage MovementForeward by Gloria Steinem(Penguin Classics). “Comprised of historical texts spanning two centuries, The Women's Suffrage Movementis a comprehensive and singular volume with a distinctive focus on incorporating race, class, and gender, and illuminating minority voices. This one-of-a-kind intersectional anthology features the writings of the most well-known suffragists, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, alongside accounts of those often overlooked because of their race, from Native American women to African American suffragists like Ida B. Wells and the three Forten sisters. At a time of enormous political and social upheaval, there could be no more important book than one that recognizes a group of exemplary women--in their own words--as they paved the way for future generations. The editor and introducer, Sally Roesch Wagner, is a pre-eminent scholar of the diverse backbone of the women's suffrage movement, the founding director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, and serves on the New York State Women's Suffrage Commission.”

Sally Roesch Wagner is the founding director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation in Fayetteville, New York and currently serves as adjunct faculty in the honors program at Syracuse University. She is a member of the New York State Women's Suffrage Commission and a consultant to the National Women's History Project. Author of numerous women's history books and articles telling the "untold stories", her recent publications center on the Haudenosaunee influence on the women's rights movement. Wagner appeared in the Ken Burns PBS documentary, Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthonyfor which she wrote the accompanying faculty guide for PBS, was a historian in the PBS special, One Woman, One Voteand has been interviewed on NPR's All Things Considered and Democracy Now.

Gloria Steinem is a writer, lecturer, editor, and feminist activist. Her books include the bestsellers My Life on the Road, Revolution from Within, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, Moving Beyond Words, Marilyn: Norma Jeane, andAs if Women Matter. Steinem has received the National Magazine Award, the Lifetime Achievement in Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Society of Writers Award from the United Nations, and many others. In 2013, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.

Bee Wilson,The Way We Eat Now: How the Food Revolution Has Transformed Our Lives, Our Bodies, and Our World(Basic Books;) “An award-winning food writer takes us on a global tour of what the world eats--and shows us how we can change it for the better. Food is one of life's great joys. So why has eating become such a source of anxiety and confusion? Bee Wilson shows that in two generations the world has undergone a massive shift from traditional, limited diets to more globalized ways of eating, from bubble tea to quinoa, from Soylent to meal kits. Paradoxically, our diets are getting healthier and less healthy at the same time. For some, there has never been a happier food era than today: a time of unusual herbs, farmers' markets, and internet recipe swaps. Yet modern food also kills--diabetes and heart disease are on the rise everywhere on earth. This is a book about the good, the terrible, and the avocado toast. A riveting exploration of the hidden forces behind what we eat, The Way We Eat Now explains how this food revolution has transformed our bodies, our social lives, and the world we live in.”

Bee Wilson is a celebrated food writer, food historian, and author of five books, including First Bite: How We Learn to Eat andConsider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat. She has been named BBC Radio's food writer of the year and is a three-time Guild of Food Writers food journalist of the year. She writes a monthly column on food in the Wall Street Journal. She lives in Cambridge, England.

“Bee Wilson has done it again. With a sharp eye and

engaging narrative, Bee chronicles how our current food culture represents the best and worst of times. If you've ever felt conflicted about what to eat, here's the book that untangles the complex story of how we got here and

where we might go, giving us an enlightening account that's as sobering as it is enjoyable. A prescient, important book.” Dan Barber, chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, and author of The Third Plate

Charts, notes, bibliography, index.

Peter Martin’sThe Dictionary Wars: The American Fight over the English Language(Princeton University Press) “recounts the patriotic fervor in the early American republic to produce a definitive national dictionary that would rival Samuel Johnson’s 1755 Dictionary of the English Language. But what began as a cultural war of independence from Britain devolved into a battle among lexicographers, authors, scholars, and publishers, all vying for dictionary supremacy and shattering forever the dream of a unified American language. The overwhelming questions in the dictionary wars involved which and whose English was truly American and whether a dictionary of English should attempt to be American at all, independent from Britain. Martin tells the human story of the intense rivalry between America’s first lexicographers, Noah Webster and Joseph Emerson Worcester, who fought over who could best represent the soul and identity of American culture. Webster believed an American dictionary, like the American language, ought to be informed by the nation’s republican principles, but Worcester thought that such language reforms were reckless and went too far. Their conflict continued beyond Webster’s death, when the ambitious Merriam brothers acquired publishing rights to Webster’s American Dictionaryand launched their own language wars. From the beginning of the nineteenth century to the end of the Civil War, the dictionary wars also engaged America’s colleges, libraries, newspapers, religious groups, and state legislatures at a pivotal historical moment that coincided with rising literacy and the print revolution.

Delving into the personal stories and national debates that arose from the conflicts surrounding America’s first dictionaries, The Dictionary Warsexamines the linguistic struggles that underpinned the founding and growth of a nation.”

“Wonderfully told. . . . For a tale of lexicographic intrigue, Mr. Martin’s book is unexcelled.” Bryan A. Garner (author of Garner’s Modern English Usage), Wall Street Journal

“Peter Martin’s highly readable work untangles the surprising plot twists that have resulted in Americans’ popular acceptance of the name Webster as being synonymous with dictionary. The tale is far more dramatic and surprising than many might imagine and this lively account sets the record straight.” Orin Hargraves, past president of the Dictionary Society of North America 

“The level of specific, thorough attention given to a particular period of U.S. lexicography sets The Dictionary Warsapart from other lexicographical histories. It tells a great, human story.” Lynne Murphy, author of The Prodigal Tongue: The Love-Hate Relationship between American and British English.

Photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Anne Harrington’sMind Fixers: Psychiatry's Troubled Search for the Biology of Mental Illness(W. W. Norton & Company) “explores psychiatry’s repeatedly frustrated struggle to understand mental disorder in biomedical terms. She shows how the stalling of early twentieth century efforts in this direction allowed Freudians and social scientists to insist, with some justification, that they had better ways of analyzing and fixing minds. But when the Freudians overreached, they drove psychiatry into a state of crisis that a new “biological revolution” was meant to alleviate. Harrington shows how little that biological revolution had to do with breakthroughs in science, and why the field has fallen into a state of crisis in our own time. Mind Fixersmakes clear that psychiatry’s waxing and waning biological enthusiasms have been shaped not just by developments in the clinic and lab, but also by a surprising range of social factors, including immigration, warfare, grassroots activism, and assumptions about race and gender. Government programs designed to empty the state mental hospitals, acrid rivalries between different factions in the field, industry profit mongering, consumerism, and an uncritical media have all contributed to the story as well. In focusing particularly on the search for the biological roots of schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder, Harrington underscores the high human stakes for the millions of people who have sought medical answers for their mental suffering. This is not just a story about doctors and scientists, but about countless ordinary people and their loved ones. A clear-eyed, evenhanded, and yet passionate tour de force, Mind Fixers recounts the past and present struggle to make mental illness a biological problem in order to lay the groundwork for creating a better future, both for those who suffer and for those whose job it is to care for them.”

Anne Harrington is the Franklin L. Ford Professor of the History of Science and faculty dean of Pforzheimer House at Harvard University. She is the author of four books, including Mind Fixers andThe Cure Within. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“A laudable venture, in which Harrington’s intellectual precision and exacting research cannot be faulted.” Helen Thompson, New York Times Book Review

“Superb . . . nuanced . . . . In Mind Fixers, Anne Harrington has written an excellent, engaging guide to what biological psychiatry has accomplished―and not accomplished―so far.” Richard J. McNally, Wall Street Journal

Photographs, illustrations, notes, bibliography, index.

Pamela Paul andMaria RussoHow to Raise a Reader,

illustrated by Dan Yaccarino, Lisk Feng, Vera Brosgol, andMonica Garwood(Workman Publishing Company) is “An indispensable guide to welcoming children—from babies to teens—to a lifelong love of reading. Do you remember your first visit to where the wild things are? How about curling up for hours on end to discover the secret of the Sorcerer’s Stone? Combining clear, practical advice with inspiration, wisdom, tips, and curated reading lists, How to Raise a Reader shows you how to instill the joy and time-stopping pleasure of reading. Divided into four sections, from baby through teen, and each illustrated by a different artist, this book offers something useful on every page, whether it’s how to develop rituals around reading or build a family library, or ways to engage a reluctant reader. A fifth section, “More Books to Love: By Theme and Reading Level,” is chockful of expert recommendations. Throughout, the authors debunk common myths, assuage parental fears, and deliver invaluable lessons in a positive and easy-to-act-on way.”

Pamela Paul is the editor of The New York Times Book Reviewand oversees books coverage at The New York Times, which she joined in 2011 as the children's books editor. She is also the host of the weekly Book Reviewpodcast for The Times. She is the author and editor of five books: My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues, The Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony, Pornified, Parenting, Inc., andBy the Book. She is a former columnist for The Economist, Worth, andThe New York Times Stylessection. Her work has also appeared in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Slate, Vogue, Psychology Today, Brown Alumni Magazineand other national publications.

Maria Russo is the children’s books editor of The New York Times Books Review. She has been a writer and editor at the Los Angeles Times, The New York Observer, andSalon, and holds a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey with her husband and three children. 

Dan Yaccarinois the author of Five Little Pumpkinsand many other children’s books; creator of the Parents’ Choice Award-winning animated TV series Oswald—chosen byTime as one of the top 6 shows to watch on cable—and the Emmy-winning Willa’s Wild Life. His awards include the Bologna Ragazzi, The New York TimesTop 10 Best Illustrated, and an ALA Notable award.

Toni Morrison’sThe Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditation(Knopf) “is brimming with all the elegance of mind and style, the literary prowess and moral compass that are Toni Morrison's inimitable hallmark. It is divided into three parts: the first is introduced by a powerful prayer for the dead of 9/11, the second by a searching meditation on Martin Luther King Jr., and the last by a heart-wrenching eulogy for James Baldwin. In the writings and speeches included here, Morrison takes on contested social issues: the foreigner, female empowerment, the press, money, “black matter(s),” and human rights. She looks at enduring matters of culture: the role of the artist in society, the literary imagination, the Afro-American presence in American literature, and in her Nobel lecture, the power of language itself. And here too is piercing commentary on her own work (including The Bluest Eye, Sula, Tar Baby, Jazz, Beloved, and Paradise) and that of others, among them, painter and collagist Romare Bearden, author Toni Cade Bambara, and theater director Peter Sellars. In all, The Source of Self-Regardis a luminous and essential addition to Toni Morrison's oeuvre.”

Toni Morrison is the author of eleven novels, from The Bluest Eye (1970) to God Help the Child (2015). She has received the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In 1993 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She lives in New York.

“The Source of Self-Regardspeaks to today's social and political moment as directly as this morning's headlines... a call to action... Morrison tackles headfirst the weighty issues that have long troubled America's conscience... profoundly insightful...Is it a collection worth reading? Undoubtedly... Throughout the collection she calls on us to do what she knows, what we should all know, is possible: “To lessen suffering, to know the truth and tell it, to raise the bar of humane expectation.” NPR

“Clearly we do not deserve Morrison, and clearly we need her badly . . . . In this collection of nonfiction written over the past four decades, the revered (and sometimes controversial) author reinforces her status as a piercing and visionary analyst of history, society, literature, language, and, always, race... the book explodes into pure brilliance... despite its overflowing content, the book still inspires the desire for more . . . . The Source of Self-Regardis the definitive statement that Morrison, who has thought as much as anyone about the ways countries, cultures, and people fail and hurt each other and themselves, still believes that we can be better.” The Boston Globe

Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered: A Novel(Harper Collins) “is the compulsively readable story of two families, in two centuries, who live at the corner of Sixth and Plum in Vineland, New Jersey, navigating what seems to be the end of the world as they know it. With history as their tantalizing canvas, these characters paint a startlingly relevant portrait of life in precarious times when the foundations of the past have failed to prepare us for the future. . . . [A] troubled husband and public servant asks, How can a man tell the truth, and be reviled for it? A science teacher with a passion for honest investigation, Thatcher Greenwood finds himself under siege: his employer forbids him to speak of the exciting work just published by Charles Darwin. His young bride and social-climbing mother-in-law bristle at the risk of scandal, and dismiss his worries that their elegant house is unsound. In a village ostensibly founded as a benevolent Utopia, Thatcher wants only to honor his duties, but his friendships with a woman scientist and a renegade newspaper editor threaten to draw him into a vendetta with the town’s powerful men.”

New York Timesbestseller

An NPR pick for Best Books of 2018

One of Christian Science Monitor'sbest fiction reads of 2018

One of Newsweek'sBest Books of the year

“Kingsolver’s dual narrative works beautifully. By giving us a family and a world teetering on the brink in 2016, and conveying a different but connected type of 19th-century teetering, Kingsolver creates a sense…that as humans we’re inevitably connected through the possibility of collapse, whether it’s the collapse of our houses, our bodies, logic, the social order or earth itself…In this engaged and absorbing novel, the two narratives reflect each other, reminding us of the dependability and adaptiveness of our drive toward survival.” Meg Wolitzer, New York Times Book Review

“I felt almost bereft closing the cover on this book… With a spellbinding narrative and its exquisitely accurate evocation of two eras, Barbara Kingsolver’s novel is itself a shelter of sorts. One doesn’t want to leave it.” Helen Klein Ross, Wall Street Journal

“Barbara Kingsolver’s latest novel, Unsheltered, will make you weep . . . . But Kingsolver is also downright hilarious. . . .Unsheltered is also a sociopolitical novel tackling real-world issues, especially how we humans navigate profound changes that threaten to unmoor us.” O, the Oprah Magazine

I've read all the previous novels (and seen the movies) about Lisbeth Sanders and put the books into my roundups. She truly is "A Heroine For Our Times.

David LagercrantzThe Girl Who Lived Twice: A Lisbeth Salander Novel, continuing Stieg Larsson's Millennium Series (Knopf). 

SPOILER ALERT.I never read the jacket description of a work of fiction. Almost always, it reveals more of the plot than I want to know before reading the book. The account below does exactly that. My advice: Skip it. 

“Lisbeth Salander--the fierce, unstoppable girl with the dragon tattoo--has disappeared. She's sold her apartment in Stockholm. She's gone silent electronically. She's told no one where she is. And no one is aware that at long last she's got her primal enemy, her twin sister, Camilla, squarely in her sights. Mikael Blomkvist is trying to reach Lisbeth. He needs her help unraveling the identity of a man who lived and died on the streets in Stockholm--a man who does not exist in any official records and whose garbled last words hinted at possible damaging knowledge of people in the highest echelons of government and industry. In his pocket was a crumpled piece of paper with Blomkvist's phone number on it. Once again, Salander and Blomkvist will come to each other's aid, moving in tandem toward the truths they each seek. In the end, it will be Blomkvist--in a moment of unimaginable self-sacrifice--who will make it possible for Lisbeth to face the most important battle of her life, and, finally, to put her past to rest.”

David Lagercrantz is an acclaimed Swedish writer and journalist. In 2015 The Girl in the Spider's Web, his continuation of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, became a worldwide best seller, and it was announced that Lagercrantz would write two further novels in the series. The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eyewas published in September 2017. He is the coauthor of numerous biographies including the internationally best-selling memoir I Am Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and the acclaimed novel Fall of Man in Wilmslow, on the death and life of Alan Turing.

“A murder mystery inside an espionage conspiracy wrapped in an action thriller—a unique concoction that should leave Salander’s legion of followers clamoring for more.” The Wall Street Journal.

 “A quest for revenge and atonement that plumbs the depths of Russian troll factories and scales the heights of Mount Everest.” TIME.

Janet Malcolm’sNobody's Looking at You: Essays(Farrar, Straus and Giroux) “brings together previously uncompiled pieces, mainly from The New Yorkerand The New York Review of Books. The title piece of this wonderfully eclectic collection is a profile of the fashion designer Eileen Fisher, whose mother often said to her, “Nobody’s looking at you.” But in every piece in this volume, Malcolm looks closely and with impunity at a broad range of subjects, from Donald Trump’s TV nemesis Rachel Maddow, to the stiletto-heel-wearing pianist Yuju Wang, to ‘the big-league game’ of Supreme Court confirmation hearings. In an essay called ‘Socks,’ the Pevears are seen as the ‘sort of asteroid [that] has hit the safe world of Russian Literature in English translation,’ and in ‘Dreams and Anna Karenina,’ the focus is Tolstoy, ‘one of literature’s greatest masters of manipulative techniques.” Nobody’s Looking at Youconcludes with ‘Pandora’s Click,’ a brief, cautionary piece about e-mail etiquette that was written in the early two thousands, and that reverberates―albeit painfully―to this day.”

“Seeing things differently is the essence of what sets Malcolm apart. Few writers pay attention with the precision, acuity and patience she has exhibited during her career . . . Taking no particular issue with the work of her colleagues, I wish nonetheless to say that Malcolm, line to line, is a more revealing writer, one whose presence in her pieces isn’t meant to advertise the self so much as complicate the subject. And also, line to line, she is a better writer . . . We are fortunate to have Malcolm’s kind of authority, one founded as much on her failures as on her successes at seeing.” Wyatt Mason, The New York Times Book Review

“There are few writers who command the respect of their fellows more than Janet Malcolm . . . Malcolm is always worth reading, it can be instructive to see how much satisfying craft she brings to even the most trivial article . . . a collection that veers between tenderness and asperity.” Phillip Lopate, TLS

Marina MacKay’sIan Watt: The Novel and the Wartime Critic (Oxford Mid-Century Studies Series)(Oxford University Press) “reconstructs Watt's wartime world: these were harrowing years of mass death, deprivation, and terror, but also ones in which communities and institutions were improvised under the starkest of emergency conditions. Ian Watt: The Novel and the Wartime Critic argues that many of our foundational stories about the novel about the novel's origins and development, and about the social, moral, and psychological work that the novel accomplishes can be traced to the crises of the Second World War and its aftermath. Before his masterpiece The Rise of the Novel made him one of the most influential post-war British literary critics, Ian Watt was a soldier, a prisoner of war of the Japanese, and a forced labourer on the notorious Burma-Thailand Railway.”

Marina MacKay is Associate Professor of English and Tutorial Fellow of St Peter's College, University of Oxford. Her books include Modernism and World War II(2007) and The Cambridge Introduction to the Novel(2010). Her articles on mid-century writing have appeared in a range of journals including PMLA, ELH, andLiterature & History.

Bibliography, index.

Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation, adapted by Ari Folman, illustrated by David Polonsky(Pantheon Graphic Library) is “A timeless story rediscovered by each new generation, The Diary of a Young Girlstands without peer. For both young readers and adults it continues to capture the remarkable spirit of Anne Frank, who for a time survived the worst horror the modern world has seen—and who remained triumphantly and heartbreakingly human throughout her ordeal. Adapted by Ari Folman, illustrated by David Polonsky, and authorized by the Anne Frank Foundation in Basel, this is the first graphic edition of The Diary and includes extensive quotation directly from the definitive edition. It remains faithful to the original, while the stunning illustrations interpret and add layers of visual meaning and immediacy to this classic work of Holocaust literature.

Michael J. Rosen,A Mile and a Half of Lines: The Art of James Thurber(Trillium/Ohio State University Press).

“Including some 260 drawings, this collection is the first comprehensive focus on his work as an artist, a cartoonist, and an illustrator. With commentary from a host of preeminent cartoonists and writers, including Ian Frazier, Seymour Chast, and Michael Maslin, A Mile and a Half of Lines celebrates the significance of Thurber’s spontaneous, unstudied, and novel drawing style that not only altered the nature of American cartooning but also expanded the very possibilities of an illustrated line. Coinciding with the first major retrospective of Thurber’s art presented by the Columbus Museum of Art in 2019, A Mile and a Half of Lines showcases both classic Thurber as well as visual material never before seen in print.”

Michael J. Rosen is a writer, an illustrator, and an editor who has collaborated with the Thurber Estate and written about the works of James Thurber for almost forty years. He was the founding literary director of the Thurber House and has edited six volumes of Thurber’s work.

James Thurber (1894–1961), the twentieth century’s most popular American humorist, authored nearly three dozen collections of cartoons, essays, stories, fables, and biographical works—much of which he published as one of the original voices of the New Yorkermagazine—in addition to creating a shelf of classic children’s books, the gem-like autobiography My Life and Hard Times, and two Broadway productions.

“The most wonderful thing about Thurber’s drawings is how they prove the point of a cartoon is not to show off a mastery of perspective or anatomy, or that the cartoonist can render a horse—or a sea—better than anyone else on the planet. Not that I can tell you what the point is, other than it has a lot more to do with being funny than anatomy.” Roz Chast, author of Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant?

Chronology, notes, bibliography, index.

Ralph Clare (editor),The Cambridge Companion to David Foster Wallace(Cambridge University Press). “Best known for his masterpiece Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace re-invented fiction and non-fiction for a generation with his groundbreaking and original work. Wallace's desire to blend formal innovation and self-reflexivity with the communicative and restorative function of literature resulted in works that appeal as much to a reader's intellect as they do emotion. As such, few writers in recent memory have quite matched his work's intense critical and popular impact. The essays in this Companion, written by top Wallace scholars, offer a historical and cultural context for grasping Wallace's significance, provide rigorous individual readings of each of his major works, whether story collections, non-fiction, or novels, and address the key themes and concerns of these works, including aesthetics, politics, religion and spirituality, race, and post-humanism. This wide-ranging volume is a necessary resource for understanding an author now widely regarded as one of the most influential and important of his time.”

Ralph Clare is Associate Professor of English at Boise State University, Idaho and specializes in post-45 American literature. He is the author of Fictions Inc.: The Corporation in Postmodern Fiction, Film, andPopular Cultureand is currently at work on a study of emotion and affect in contemporary fiction of the neoliberal era.

Bibliography, index.

Jonathan Rosenbaum’sCinematic Encounters: Interviews and Dialogues (University of Illinois Press) “collects more than forty years of interviews that embrace Rosenbaum's vision of film criticism as a collaboration involving multiple voices. Rosenbaum accompanies Orson Welles on a journey back to Heart of Darkness, the unmade film meant to be Welles's Hollywood debut. Jacques Tati addresses the primacy of décor and soundtrack in his comedic masterpiece PlayTime, while Jim Jarmusch explains the influence of real and Hollywoodized Native Americans in Dead Man. By arranging the chapters chronologically, Rosenbaum invites readers to pursue thematic threads as if the discussions were dialogues between separate interviews. The result is a rare gathering of filmmakers trading thoughts on art and process, on great works and false starts, and on actors and intimate moments.”

Jonathan Rosenbaum was the film critic for the ChicagoReader from 1987 to 2008. He is the coauthor of Abbas Kiarostami: Expanded Second Editionand the author of Goodbye Cinema, Hello Cinephiliaand Discovering Orson Welles. He archives his work at jonathanrosenbaum.net.

“Rosenbaum is arguably America's greatest living film critic. This stimulating collection forms a kind of essay about the types of dialogues and meditations that one can have about a film or a body of films. It is often absolutely riveting.” Alan Williams, author of Republic of Images: A History of French Filmmaking

“Given the power and voraciousness of his mind, Jonathan Rosenbaum could dominate and devour everything in his path if he wanted to, like the bullying movies he abhors. But with his openness of spirit, he prefers films that let you question and participate. Those are also his activities in Cinematic Encounters, as he converses with great and good filmmakers he admires and swaps ideas and enthusiasms with his cinephile friends. Open the book and you, too, are welcome to join in.” Stuart Klawans, film critic, The Nation

Index.

Louise Carley Lewisson and Mary Nolan, Mary Nolan, Ziegfeld Girl and Silent Movie Star: A Biography Including Her 1941 Memoir(McFarland). “Mary Nolan (1905-1948), also known as Imogene "Bubbles" Wilson, was the subject of two infamous court cases--one with Frank Tinney and the other with Eddie Mannix--in the 1920s. Like many Ziegfeld Follies girls, she had the beginnings of a promising career, but by the 1930s it had been destroyed by adultery, drugs and physical abuse. This biography follows Nolan's life from the backwoods of Kentucky to her death in 1948. Included is a series of newspaper articles published in 1941 that were to be expanded into her memoir, which she was unable to complete before her death.”

About the Author Louise Carley Lewisson: “I am a huge movie fan, especially stars of the Golden Age, and I love unearthing stories of little known actors and actresses that played a role when the industry was just starting. My next book will be on Agnes Ayres who starred with Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik, and amassed a fortune in real estate, before losing it in the 1930s in the Depression, and then died in relative obscurity.”

Photographs, notes, filmography, bibliography, index.

Harold Bloom,Falstaff: Give Me Life (Shakespeare's Personalities)(Scribner). “From Harold Bloom, one of the greatest Shakespeare scholars of our time comes ‘a timely reminder of the power and possibility of words [and] the last love letter to the shaping spirit of Bloom’s imagination’ (front page, The New York Times Book Review) and an intimate, wise, deeply compelling portrait of Falstaff—Shakespeare’s greatest enduring and complex comedic characters. Falstaff is both a comic and tragic central protagonist in Shakespeare’s three Henry plays: Henry IV, Parts One and Two, andHenry V. He is companion to Prince Hal (the future Henry V), who loves him, goads, him, teases him, indulges his vast appetites, and commits all sorts of mischief with him—some innocent, some cruel. Falstaff can be lewd, funny, careless of others, a bad creditor, an unreliable friend, and in the end, devastatingly reckless in his presumption of loyalty from the new King. Award-winning author and esteemed professor Harold Bloom writes about Falstaff with the deepest compassion and sympathy and also with unerring wisdom. He uses the relationship between Falstaff and Hal to explore the devastation of severed bonds and the heartbreak of betrayal. Just as we encounter one type of Anna Karenina or Jay Gatsby when we are young adults and another when we are middle-aged, Bloom writes about his own shifting understanding of Falstaff over the course of his lifetime. Ultimately we come away with a deeper appreciation of this profoundly complex character, and this ‘poignant work’ (Publishers Weekly, starred review) as a whole becomes an extraordinarily moving argument for literature as a path to and a measure of our humanity.

Bloom is mesmerizing in the classroom, wrestling with the often tragic choices Shakespeare’s characters make. ‘In this first of five books about Shakespearean personalities, Bloom brings erudition and boundless enthusiasm’ (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) and his exhilarating Falstaff invites us to look at a character as a flawed human who might live in our world. 

“[Bloom’s] last love letter to the shaping spirit of his imagination . . . . An explanation and reiteration of why Falstaff matters to Bloom, and why Falstaff is one of literature’s vital forces . . . . A pleasure to read.” Jeanette Winterson, New York Times Book Review.

F. Scott Fitzgerald, I'd Die For You: And Other Lost Stories(), edited by Anne Margaret Daniel, “is a collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s stories never widely shared. Some were submitted individually to major magazines during the 1930s and accepted for publication during Fitzgerald’s lifetime, but never printed. Some were written as movie scenarios and sent to studios or producers, but not filmed. Others are stories that could not be sold because their subject matter or style departed from what editors expected of Fitzgerald. Some of the eighteen stories were physically lost, coming to light only in the past few years. All were lost, in one sense or another: lost in the painful shuffle of the difficulties of Fitzgerald’s life in the middle 1930s; lost to readers because contemporary editors did not understand or accept what he was trying to write; lost because archives are like that. Readers will experience here Fitzgerald writing about controversial topics, depicting young men and women who actually spoke and thought more as young men and women did, without censorship. Rather than permit changes and sanitizing by his contemporary editors, Fitzgerald preferred to let his work remain unpublished, even at a time when he was in great need of money and review attention. Written in his characteristically beautiful, sharp, and surprising language, exploring themes both familiar and fresh, these stories provide new insight into the bold and uncompromising arc of Fitzgerald’s career. I’d Die For You is a revealing, intimate look at Fitzgerald’s creative process that shows him to be a writer working at the fore of modern literature—in all its developing complexities.”

“A treasure trove for Fitzgerald enthusiasts, scholars, and aspiring writers . . . . an invaluable glimpse into a brilliant but struggling writer's process.” Heller McAlpin, NPR.org.

“His best writing is grounded in a specific time and place, and then propelled by his deep emotional attachment to the subject matter . . . shows curious readers how the author tried to mine an idea . . . . Editor Anne Margaret Daniel’s individual story introductions are highly informative, and her extensive annotations are illuminating.” Dave Page, Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Salman Rushdie,Quichotte: A Novel(Random House). “Inspired by the Cervantes classic, Sam DuChamp, mediocre writer of spy thrillers, creates Quichotte, a courtly, addled salesman obsessed with television who falls in impossible love with a TV star. Together with his (imaginary) son Sancho, Quichottesets off on a picaresque quest across America to prove worthy of her hand, gallantly braving the tragicomic perils of an age where “Anything-Can-Happen.” Meanwhile, his creator, in a midlife crisis, has equally urgent challenges of his own. Just as Cervantes wrote Don Quixote to satirize the culture of his time, Rushdie takes the reader on a wild ride through a country on the verge of moral and spiritual collapse. And with the kind of storytelling magic that is the hallmark of Rushdie’s work, the fully realized lives of DuChamp and Quichotte intertwine in a profoundly human quest for love and a wickedly entertaining portrait of an age in which fact is so often indiscernible from fiction.” 

Sir Salman Rushdie is the author of many novels including Grimus, Midnight's Children, Shame, The Satanic Verses, The Moor's Last Sigh, The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Fury, Shalimar the Clown andThe Enchantress of Florence. He has also published works of non-fiction including, The Jaguar Smile, Imaginary Homelands, The Wizard of Oz and, as co-editor,The Vintage Book of Short Stories. He has received many awards for his writing including the European Union's Aristeion Prize for Literature. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres. In 1993 Midnight's Childrenwas judged to be the 'Booker of Bookers', the best novel to have won the Booker Prize in its first 25 years. In June 2007 he received a knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours.

“Rushdie weaves together all of his subjects, sharply observed, with extraordinary elegance and wit. . . . Cervantes’s hero, who is eternally modern perhaps because he is essentially anti-contemporary, couldn’t be a more inspired transplant into the mad reality of the present day, which Rushdie sends up in terms both universal and highly specific, tragic and hilarious, strange but hauntingly familiar. . . . At least here’s something worth reading as civilization crumbles around us, before we succumb to our fates. Right?” Entertainment Weekly

Kathryn Davis’The Silk Road: A Novel(Graywolf Press) is “A spellbinding novel about transience and mortality, by one of the most original voices in American literature. Since the beginning of her extraordinary career, Davis has been fascinated by journeys. Her books have been shaped around road trips, walking tours, hegiras, exiles: and now, in this triumphant novel, a pilgrimage. The Silk Road is her most explicitly allegorical novel and also her most profound vehicle, supple and mesmerizing, the journey here is not undertaken by a single protagonist but by a community of separate souls―a family, a yoga class, a generation. Its revelations are ravishing and desolating.”

“[Kathryn Davis’s] writing exists outside of genre and trends and time. . . . For those willing to get lost in its spiritual haze, there is a uniquely un-2019 pleasure to be found: a meditative bewilderment that just might cede to enlightenment.” Nadja Spiegelman, The New York Times Book Review. 

Max Porter’sLanny: A Novel(Graywolf Press) “extends the potent and magical space Max Porter created in his Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, which won the International Dylan Thomas Prize and The Sunday Times/PFD Young Writer of the Year Award, and was short-listed for The Guardian First Book Award and the Goldsmiths Prize. Porter’s brilliant new novel,Lanny, will ensorcell readers with its anarchic energy, with its bewitching tapestry of fabulism and domestic drama. Lannyis a ringing defense of creativity, spirit, and the generative forces that often seem under assault in the contemporary world, and it solidifies Porter’s reputation as one of the most daring and sensitive writers of his generation.”

“It’s hard to express how much I loved Lanny. Books this good don’t come along very often. It’s a novel like no other, an exhilarating, disquieting, joyous read. It will reach into your chest and take hold of your heart. Every page is a joy. It’s a novel to press into the hands of everyone you know and say, read this.” Maggie O’Farrell

“Max Porter writes like no one else and it is impossible not to be swept along and astounded. Lannyis a wonder.” Daisy Johnson

“The writing is stunning and deeply affecting. The plot thunders along. This is a book that resolutely refuses to be categorised but to get somewhere close, think: Under Milk Wood meetsBroadchurch.” Nathan Filer

“It takes a special kind of genius to create something which is both so strange and yet so compulsive.” Mark Haddon

“It shouldn’t be possible for a book to be simultaneously heart-stopping, heart-shaking and pulse-racing, but that is only one of the extraordinary feats Max Porter pulls off in this astonishing novel.” Kamila Shamsie

“A powerful yet tender reclamation of the imagination, love, and artmaking―all of it a brilliant defense of the outsider’s tenuous foothold in society.” Ocean Vuong

“Reading Lannyis like going to the back of the garden to find the exact spot where magic and menace meet. It’s delightful and dark, stark and stylish, and as strange as it is scary―I loved it.” Claire Cameron

Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses: A Novel(Graywolf Press), translated by Anne Born. “A bestseller and winner of the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, now in paperback from Graywolf Press for the first time. ‘We were going out stealing horses. That was what he said, standing at the door to the cabin where I was spending the summer with my father. I was fifteen. It was 1948 and one of the first days of July.’ Trond's friend Jon often appeared at his doorstep with an adventure in mind for the two of them. But this morning was different. What began as a joy ride on "borrowed" horses ends with Jon falling into a strange trance of grief. Trond soon learns what befell Jon earlier that day―an incident that marks the beginning of a series of vital losses for both boys. Set in the easternmost region of Norway, Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson begins with an ending. Sixty-seven-year-old Trond has settled into a rustic cabin in an isolated area to live the rest of his life with a quiet deliberation. A meeting with his only neighbor, however, forces him to reflect on that fateful summer.”

Per Petterson won the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award for the novel Out Stealing Horses, which has been translated into more than thirty languages and was named a Best Book of 2007 by The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly. Before publishing his first book, Petterson worked as a bookseller in Norway.

“Petterson’s spare and deliberate prose has astonishing force, and the narrative gains further power from the artful interplay of Trond’s childhood and adult perspectives. Loss is conveyed with all the intensity of a boy’s perception, but acquires new resonance in the brooding consciousness of the older man.” The New Yorker

Jamel Brinkley,ALucky Man: Stories(Graywolf Press). “In the nine expansive, searching stories of A Lucky Man, fathers and sons attempt to salvage relationships with friends and family members and confront mistakes made in the past. An imaginative young boy from the Bronx goes swimming with his group from day camp at a backyard pool in the suburbs, and faces the effects of power and privilege in ways he can barely grasp. A teen intent on proving himself a man through the all-night revel of J’Ouvert can’t help but look out for his impressionable younger brother. A pair of college boys on the prowl follow two girls home from a party and have to own the uncomfortable truth of their desires. And at a capoeira conference, two brothers grapple with how to tell the story of their family, caught in the dance of their painful, fractured history. Jamel Brinkley’s stories, in a debut that announces the arrival of a significant new voice, reflect the tenderness and vulnerability of black men and boys whose hopes sometimes betray them, especially in a world shaped by race, gender, and class―where luck may be the greatest fiction of all.”

“With equal parts precision and poetry, these nine audacious stories step into the minefields awaiting boys of color as they approach manhood in Brooklyn and the Bronx―testing the limits of relationships, social norms, and their own definitions of masculinity.” O, The Oprah Magazine

Dobby Gibson’sLittle Glass Planet: Poems(Graywolf Press) “transform the everyday into the revelatory. Little Glass Planetexults in the strangeness of the known and unknowable world. In poems set as far afield as Mumbai and Marfa, Texas, Dobby Gibson maps disparate landscapes, both terrestrial and subliminal, to reveal the drama of the quotidian. Aphoristic, allusive, and collaged, these poems mine our various human languages to help us understand what we might mean when we speak to each other―as lovers, as family, as strangers. Little Glass Planet uses lyric broadcasts to foreshorten the perceived distances between us, opening borders and pointing toward a sense of collectivity. ‘This is my love letter to the world,’ Gibson writes, ‘someone call us a sitter. / We’re going to be here a while.’ Elegiac, funny, and candid, Little Glass Planet is a kind of manual for paying attention to a world that is increasingly engineered to distract us from our own humanity. It’s a book that points toward hope, offering the possibilities of a “we” that only the open frequency of poetry can create, possibilities that are indistinguishable from love.”

Tess Gallagher’sIs, Is Not: Poems(Graywolf Press) “upends our notions of linear time, evokes the spirit and sanctity of place, and hovers daringly at the threshold of what language can nearly deliver while offering alternative corollaries as gifts of its failures. Tess Gallagher’s poems reverberate with the inward clarity of a bell struck on a mountaintop. Guided by humor, grace, and a deep inquiry into the natural world, every poem nudges us toward moments of awe. How else except by delight and velocity would we discover the miracle within the ordinary? Gallagher claims many Wests―the Northwest of America, the Northwest of Ireland, and a West even further to the edge, beyond the physical. These landscapes are charged with invisible energies and inhabited by the people, living and dead, who shape Gallagher’s poems and life. Restorative in every sense, Is, Is Not is the kind of book that takes a lifetime to write―a book of the spirit made manifest by the poet’s unrelenting gaze and her intimate engagement with the mysteries that keep us reaching.”

Dobby Gibson is the author of Skirmish, It Becomes You, and Polar, which won the Alice James Award.  His poetry has appeared in Fence, New England Review, andPloughshares,among others. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.”

“Exuberant, electric, and frank; [Little Glass Planet] is a love letter, despite ― despite the bleakness of late capitalism, the complicated pull of our many devices, our often terrifying political sphere. There is still so much to love in this world, and Gibson recognizes it in small moments of shared humanity and pockets of the natural world. In Little Glass Planet, he invites us to celebrate with him.” BuzzFeed Books

Fanny Howe, Love and I: Poems(Graywolf Press). “Set in transit even as they investigate the transitory, the cinematic poems in Love and Imove like a handheld camera through the eternal, the minds of passengers, and the landscapes of Ireland and America. From this slight remove, Fanny Howe explores the edge of “pure seeing” and the worldly griefs she encounters there, cast in an otherworldly light. These poems layer pasture and tarmac, the skies above where airline passengers are compressed with their thoughts and the ground where miseries accumulate, alongside comedies, in the figures of children in a park. Love can do little but walk with the person and suddenly vanish, and that recurrent abandonment makes it necessary for these poems to find a balance between seeing and believing. For Howe, that balance is found in the Word, spoken in language, in music, in and on the wind, as invisible and continuous lyric thinking heard by the thinker alone. These are poems animated by belief and unbelief. Love and I fulfills Howe's philosophy of Bewilderment.” 

Fanny Howe is the author of The Needle's Eye, Come and See, andThe Winter Sun. Her most recent poetry collection,Second Childhood,was a finalist for the National Book Award, and her fiction has been a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize. She lives in New England.

“[Love and I] hurries to join a long and illustrious career, which, besides poetry, includes novels, stories, memoir, and short films. . . . Howe prefers the clarity of misunderstanding to the blur of certainty. Like stained glass, her poems await illumination, but it is important not to flood them with a klieg light. . . . It is marvelous to think of these works as having been made not in some bower but in the midst of life.” Dan Chiasson, The New Yorker

Fanny Howe,The Needle's Eye: Passing through Youth(Graywolf Press) “is a sequence of essays, short tales, and lyrics that are intertwined by an inner visual logic. The book contains filmic images that subvert the usual narrative chronology; it is focused on the theme of youth, doomed or saved. A fourteenth-century folktale of two boys who set out to find happiness, the story of Francis and Clare with their revolutionary visions, the Tsarnaev brothers of Boston, the poet George Oppen and the philosopher Simone Weil, two strangers who loved but remain strange, and the wild-child Brigid of Ireland: all these emerge ‘from multiple directions, but always finally from the eye at the end.’ As the philosopher Richard Kearney writes, ‘Howe's ruminations and aesthetics are those of the fragmentary, but are unified by world thinkers like Arendt, Weil, Agamben, and Yeats.’ The Needle's Eyeis a brilliant and deeply felt exploration of faith and terror, coincidence and perception, by a literary artist of profound moral intelligence, ‘recognized as one of the country’s least compromising yet most readable experimentalist writers.’ (The Boston Globe).”

“[Fanny Howe’s] experimental tales, mixing poetry and prose, offer little miracles of meaning growing from the darkest detritus of our planet. If there are epiphanies here, they are matches struck in the dark, wonders shining through wounds, intimacies of the banal.” Richard Kearney, Los Angeles Review of Books

“[The Needle's Eye] possesses a liquid quality: fluid and elemental, substantial but not strictly or permanently shaped, like a river, maybe, or better yet like mercury. . . . The pleasures of this book are, like many of their subjects, mystical and itinerant, ricocheting and nonlinear.” Kathleen Rooney, Los Angeles Review of Books.

Claudia Rankine’sThe White Card: A Play(Graywolf Press) is “a moving and revelatory distillation of racial divisions as experienced in the white spaces of the living room, the art gallery, the theater, and the imagination itself.” 

It is “‘a conversation that is both informed and derailed by the black/white American drama. The scenes in this one-act play, for all the characters’ disagreements, stalemates, and seeming impasses, explore what happens if one is willing to stay in the room when it is painful to bear the pressure to listen and the obligation to respond.’—from the introduction by Claudia Rankine.”

Claudia Rankine is the author of five works of poetry, including Citizen: An American Lyric, a New York Timesbest seller and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is a MacArthur Fellow and the Iseman Professor of Poetry at Yale University.

“Claudia Rankine’s captivating and seductive provocations about modern life have moved seamlessly in and out of several genres. As a dramatist, her searing mind and sharp sense of humor give us much to debate, ponder, and love about the American race story when we need it most.” Anna Deavere Smith

Ariana Reines,A Sand Book(Tin House Books) “Deadpan, epic, and searingly charismatic, A Sand Bookis at once relatable and out-of-this-world. In poems tracking climate change, bystanderism, state murder, sexual trauma, shopping, ghosting, love, and the transcendent shock of prophecy, A Sand Book chronicles new dimensions of consciousness for our strange and desperate times. What does the destruction of our soil have to do with the weather in the human soul? From sand in the gizzards of birds to the iridescence on the surface of spilt oil, from sand storms on Mars to our internet-addicted present, from the desertifying mountains of Haiti to Sandy Hook to Hurricane Sandy to Sandra Bland, A Sand Bookis both a travelogue and a book of mourning. In her long-anticipated follow-up to Mercury, Ariana Reines has written her most ambitious, visceral, and satisfying work to date.”

Ariana Reines is author of Mercury, The Cow, andCoeur de Lion. Her playTelephonewas produced at the Cherry Lane Theater and won several Obie awards. Reines was 2009 Roberta C. Holloway Lecturer in Poetry at the University of California Berkeley; she has taught master classes at Pomona College, the University of California Davis, and the University of Pittsburgh. She lives in New York, NY.

“Mind-blowing.” Kim Gordon

LGBTQ Fiction and Poetry from Appalachia, edited by Jeff Mann and Julia Watts(West Virginia University Press), “the first of its kind, gathers original and previously published fiction and poetry from lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer authors from Appalachia. Like much Appalachian literature, these works are pervaded with an attachment to family and the mountain landscape, yet balancing queer and Appalachian identities is an undertaking fraught with conflict. This collection confronts the problematic and complex intersections of place, family, sexuality, gender, and religion with which LGBTQ Appalachians often grapple. With works by established writers such as Dorothy Allison, Silas House, Ann Pancake, Fenton Johnson, and Nickole Brown and emerging writers such as Savannah Sipple, Rahul Mehta, Mesha Maren, and Jonathan Corcoran, this collection celebrates a literary canon made up of writers who give voice to what it means to be Appalachian and LGBTQ.” 

“A gratifying diversity of multigenerational voices, styles, and attitudes. The theme of loyalty to place paired with queer identity results in marvelous poetry and fiction.”

Felice Picano, author of Justify My Sins.

Joe Malta, inviting contributions to his web site JerryJazzMusician.com, clarifies, “Any creative offerings are considered for publication, including original poetry, short fiction, memoirs, criticism, essays, nonfiction, interviews, fine art, short films, and photographs. Ideally your submission will appeal to readers who have an interest in jazz music and related culture.”

For recently posted collections see:

https://jerryjazzmusician.com/2019/06/a-collection-of-jazz-poetry-june-2019-edition/

https://jerryjazzmusician.com/2019/05/a-special-collection-of-poetry-devoted-to-mothers-and-fathers/

https://jerryjazzmusician.com/2019/04/a-collection-of-jazz-poetry-april-2019-edition/

https://jerryjazzmusician.com/2019/03/a-collection-of-jazz-poetry-march-2019-edition/

https://jerryjazzmusician.com/2019/02/a-collection-of-jazz-poetry-february-2019-edition/

https://jerryjazzmusician.com/2019/01/a-collection-of-poetry-celebrating-the-culture-of-jazz-january-2019/

Mountains Piled Upon Mountains: Appalachian Nature Writing in the Anthropocene,Jessica Cory, editor (West Virginia University Press) “features nearly fifty writers from across Appalachia sharing their place-based fiction, literary nonfiction, and poetry. Moving beyond the tradition of transcendental nature writing, much of the work collected here engages current issues facing the region and the planet (such as hydraulic fracturing, water contamination, mountaintop removal, and deforestation), and provides readers with insights on the human-nature relationship in an era of rapid environmental change. This book includes a mix of new and recent creative work by established and emerging authors. The contributors write about experiences from northern Georgia to upstate New York, invite parallels between a watershed in West Virginia and one in North Carolina, and often emphasize connections between Appalachia and more distant locations. In the pages of Mountains Piled upon Mountains are celebration, mourning, confusion, loneliness, admiration, and other emotions and experiences rooted in place but transcending Appalachia’s boundaries.”

Jessica Cory teaches in the English department at Western Carolina University. She grew up in southeastern Ohio, and her work has been published in ellipsis . . . , A Poetry Congeries, and other journals.

“From the introduction onward, this collection, filled with bright surprises and sharp challenges, engaged my emotions, mind, and senses. Taking in its life-giving poems, heart-piercing stories, and ethically profound essays, night after night I pondered this collection, drank in Appalachia and nature, and felt my sense of wonder and connection renewed.” Chris Green, director of the Loyal Jones Appalachian Center, Berea College

Contributors bios.

John Koethe,Walking Backwards: Poems 1966-2016(Farrar, Straus and Giroux). “John Koethe’s poems―always dynamic and in process, never static or complete―luxuriate in the questions that punctuate the most humdrum of routines, rendering a robust portrait of an individual: complicated, quotidian, and resounding with truth. Gathering for the first time his impressive and award-winning body of work, published between 1966 and 2016, Walking Backwardsintroduces this gifted poet to a new, wider readership.”

John Koethe has published many books of poetry, including North Point North, The Swimmer, Falling Water, and has received the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, and the Frank O’Hara Award. He has also published books on Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosophical skepticism, and poetry, and is the Distinguished Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 

“5.0 out of 5 stars. Wonderful selection of poems. John Koethe is a wonderful poet who writes beautifully. The images he presents are moving and remarkable and I can read his poems over and over again, each time discovering something new. While this isn't a complete collection of his work, it is definitely a good selection. The book is divided by his previous works of poetry, from Blue Vents(1968) through The Swimmer(2016). There is a section at the end of New Poems which haven't been published in a book but may have been published online or in various publications. Every poem is worth reading in this collection so there are too many favorites to name. I'd recommend getting his other books to read those poems that were not printed in this collection.” Digitalshores [an Amazon reviewer]

Index of titles ad first lines.

Jeff Jackson’sDestroy All Monsters: The Last Rock Novel(FSG Originals) “has two sides, which can be read in either order. At the heart of Side A, “My Dark Ages,” is Xenie, a young woman who is repulsed by the violence of the epidemic but who still finds herself drawn deeper into the mystery. Side B, “Kill City,” follows an alternate history, featuring familiar characters in surprising roles, and burrows deeper into the methods and motivations of the murderers. An epidemic of violence is sweeping the country: musicians are being murdered onstage in the middle of their sets by members of their audience. Are these random copycat killings, or is something more sinister at work? Has music itself become corrupted in a culture where everything is available, everybody is a “creative,” and attention spans have dwindled to nothing? With its cast of ambitious bands, yearning fans, and enigmatic killers, Destroy All Monsters tells a haunted and romantic story of overdue endings and unlikely beginnings that will resonate with anybody who’s ever loved rock and roll.

“Destroy All Monstershas a distinct pulse―a kind of heartbeat―that comes out of the rhythm of the prose, the inventiveness of the form, and the willingness of Jeff Jackson to engage the mysterious alchemy of violence, performance, and authenticity. This accomplished, uncanny novel is simultaneously seductive and unsettling.” Dana Spiotta, author of Innocents and Others and Eat the Document

“Surges with new-century anxiety and paranoia . . . A clear-eyed, stone-cold vision of what’s to come.” Ben Marcus

“Jeff Jackson is one of contemporary American fiction’s most sterling and gifted new masters. Destroy All Monsters. . . is a wonder to behold.” Dennis Cooper

Richard Powers,The Overstory: A Novel(W. W. Norton) “Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, a New York TimesBestseller, A New York TimesNotable Book and a Washington Post, Time, Oprah Magazine, Newsweek, Chicago Tribune, andKirkus ReviewsBest Book of 2018

“The Overstoryis a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of―and paean to―the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours―vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.”

“The best novel ever written about trees, and really just one of the best novels, period.” Ann Patchett

“The best novels change the way you see. Richard Powers’s The Overstorydoes this. Haunting.” Geraldine Brooks

Mark A. Norell,The World of Dinosaurs: An Illustrated Tour(University of Chicago Press). “Who better to guide us through this ancient world than paleontologist Mark A. Norell? A world-renowned expert in paleontology, with a knowledge of dinosaurs as deep as the buried fossils they left behind, Norell is in charge of what is perhaps America’s most popular collection of dinosaur bones and fossils, the beloved displays at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. In The World of Dinosaurs, he leads readers through a richly illustrated collection detailing the evolution of these ancient creatures. From the horns of the Protoceratops to the wings of the Archaeopteryx, readers are invited to explore profiles of dinosaurs along with hundreds of color photographs, sketches, maps, and other materials—all rooted in the latest scientific discoveries—sure to both capture the imagination and satisfy a prehistoric curiosity. The World of Dinosaurs presents an astonishing collection of knowledge in an immersive visual journey that will fascinate any fan of Earth’s ancient inhabitants. Dinosaurs have held sway over our imaginations since the discovery of their bones first shocked the world in the nineteenth century. From the monstrous beasts stalking Jurassic Park to the curiosities of the natural history museum, dinosaurs are creatures that unite young and old in awestruck wonder. Digging ever deeper into dinosaurs’ ancient past, science continues to unearth new knowledge about them and the world they inhabited, a fantastic time when the footprints of these behemoths marked the Earth that we humans now walk.”

Mark A. Norell is Division Chair and Macaulay Curator, Curator-in-Charge of Fossil Amphibians, Reptiles, and Birds, Division of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. One of the most respected living paleontologists, Norell is a professor at Richard Gilder Graduate School, has held faculty appointments in the Department of Biology at Yale University, and has taught at Columbia University and the City University of New York.

“A publishing season wouldn’t be complete without an oversize full-color dinosaur book, and if such a book isn’t produced under the auspices of the great American Museum of Natural History, it will naturally wish it were. Such a book must be as up-to-date as the breakneck pace of paleontological developments allows; it must be as visually stunning as its subjects; and, if possible, it must be written by somebody with a CV as long as your arm. New from the University of Chicago Press is just such a book: The World of Dinosaursby Mark Norell, the chairman of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History (the only true must-see destination for Manhattan tourists) and one of the specialists who oversees what is surely the most impressive collection of dinosaur bones and remains and artifacts in the world. In this book—extensively illustrated with photos and drawings—Norell takes readers through the whole sprawling story of dinosaurs, organized not by geologic era but by overarching phylogenetic groupings, everything from various ceratopsians to the famous Tyrannosaurus rex and hundreds of their lesser-known kin. This author is well-practiced at conveying vast amounts of complex scientific information in a smooth and accessible narration, and as a result The World of Dinosaursis every bit as much a delight to read as it is to page through.” Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Review

Photographs, illustrations, index.

Donald R. Prothero’sThe Story of the Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries: Amazing Fossils and the People Who Found Them (Columbia University Press) “tells the fascinating stories behind the most important fossil finds and the intrepid researchers who unearthed them. In twenty-five vivid vignettes, he weaves together dramatic tales of dinosaur discoveries with what modern science now knows about the species to which they belong. Prothero takes us from eighteenth-century sightings of colossal bones taken for biblical giants through recent discoveries of enormous predators even larger than Tyrannosaurus. He recounts the escapades of the larger-than-life personalities who made modern paleontology, including scientific rivalries like the nineteenth-century “Bone Wars.” Prothero also details how to draw the boundaries between species and explores debates such as whether dinosaurs had feathers, explaining the findings that settled them or keep them going. Throughout, he offers a clear and rigorous look at what paleontologists consider sound interpretation of evidence. An essential read for any dinosaur lover, this book teaches us to see an ancient world ruled by giant majestic creatures anew.” 

Donald R. Prothero is a paleontology and geology researcher, teacher, and author. He is adjunct professor of geological sciences at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, and research associate in vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. His Columbia University Press books include The Story of Life in 25 Fossils: Tales of Intrepid Fossil Hunters and the Wonders of Evolution andThe Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks: Tales of Important Geological Puzzles and the People Who Solved Them.

“A grand tour of dinosaurs, from one of our most prolific natural history writers. I've been reading Donald Prothero's books since I began studying geology in college, and here he delivers again, with a romping chronicle of some of the most charismatic dinosaurs and the equally fascinating people who have studied them.” Steve Brusatte, University of Edinburgh paleontologist and New York Times best-selling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs.

“This is a highly readable and compelling historical tour of our discovery of dinosaurs, and it focuses on many fascinating stories. It provides equal balance on both human history and the lives and adventures of the people behind the relevant dinosaurs, and scientific thinking on the dinosaurs themselves and adjacent areas of controversy. Darren Naish, author ofDinosaurs: How They Lived and Evolved.

Photographs, illustrations, bibliography, index.

Wesley C. Hogan,On the Freedom Side: How Five Decades of Youth Activists Have Remixed American History(The University of North Carolina Press). “As Wesley C. Hogan sees it, the future of democracy belongs to young people. While today's generation of leaders confronts a daunting array of existential challenges, increasingly it is young people in the United States and around the world who are finding new ways of belonging, collaboration, and survival. That reality forms the backbone of this book, as Hogan documents and assesses young people's interventions in the American fight for democracy and its ideals. Beginning with reflections on the inspiring example of Ella Baker and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s, Hogan profiles youth-led organizations and their recent work. Examples include Southerners on New Ground (SONG) in the NAFTA era; Oakland's Ella Baker Center and its fight against the school-to-prison pipeline; the Dreamers who are fighting for immigration reform; the Movement for Black Lives that is demanding a reinvestment in youth of color and an end to police violence against people of color; and the International Indigenous Youth Council, water protectors at Standing Rock who fought to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline and protect sovereign control of Indigenous lands. As Hogan reveals, the legacy of Ella Baker and the civil rights movement has often been carried forward by young people at the margins of power and wealth in U.S. society. This book foregrounds their voices and gathers their inventions--not in a comprehensive survey, but as an activist mix tape--with lively, fresh perspectives on the promise of twenty-first-century U.S. democracy.”

Wesley C. Hogan is the director of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and author of Many Minds, One Heart: SNCC's Dream for a New America.

“Hogan provides a way for us to explore the evolution of social justice movements, revealing how activists take what they learn from the 'Movement Decade' of the 1960s and build upon it.” Tracy E. K'Meyer, author of From Brown to Meredith: The Long Struggle for School Desegregation in Louisville, Kentucky, 1954–2007

“An informed, passionate, and hopeful book that considers the cutting-edge movements of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Hogan introduces us to the multiracial, intergenerational, and intersectional activists at the heart of contemporary freedom movements, noting their own acknowledged debts to the egalitarian spirit of the Black Freedom struggle and its most egalitarian practitioner, Ella Baker.” Dan Berger, author of Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era

“At a time when too many of us are simply cursing the darkness, Hogan has shone the light of history on the often-invisible youth movements that fueled positive change in the past . . . and that continue to energize us today. Judy Richardson, SNCC veteran and coeditor of Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC.

Photographs, map, notes, index.

Simeon Wade,Foucault in California: A True Story―Wherein the Great French Philosopher Drops Acid in the Valley of Death, Foreword by Heather Dundas (Heyday)

“In The Lives of Michel Foucault, David Macey quotes the iconic French philosopher as speaking ‘nostalgically . . . of “an unforgettable evening on LSD, in carefully prepared doses, in the desert night, with delicious music, [and] nice people”.' This came to pass in 1975, when Foucault spent Memorial Day weekend in Southern California at the invitation of Simeon Wade-ostensibly to guest-lecture at the Claremont Graduate School where Wade was an assistant professor, but in truth to explore what he called the Valley of Death. Led by Wade and Wade's partner Michael Stoneman, Foucault experimented with psychotropic drugs for the first time; by morning he was crying and proclaiming that he knew Truth. Foucault in California is Wade's firsthand account of that long weekend. Felicitous and often humorous prose vaults readers headlong into the erudite and subversive circles of the Claremont intelligentsia: parties in Wade's bungalow, intensive dialogues between Foucault and his disciples at a Taoist utopia in the Angeles Forest (whose denizens call Foucault “Country Joe”); and, of course, the fabled synesthetic acid trip in Death Valley, set to the strains of Bach and Stockhausen. Part search for higher consciousness, part bacchanal, this book chronicles a young man's burgeoning friendship with one of the twentieth century's greatest thinkers.”

Simeon Wade was born July 22, 1940, in Alabama. After earning his Ph.D. in the intellectual history of Western civilization from Harvard in 1969, Wade moved to California and became an assistant professor at Claremont Graduate School. His early teaching years culminated in his hosting a Death Valley trip for Michel Foucault in 1975, an experience Foucault described as “one of the most important in my life.” Wade later taught at several universities in Southern California and worked as a psychiatric nurse. He died in Oxnard, California, on October 3, 2017.

“At times a gay, psychedelic Divine Comedy and at others a Plato's Symposium for the 1970s.” Andrew Marzoni, The Baffler.

Tom Dalzellet alii, The Battle for People's Park, Berkeley 1969, Foreword by Todd Gitlin, Afterword by Steve Wasserman(Heyday)

“In eyewitness testimonies and hundreds of remarkable photographs, The Battle for People's Park, Berkeley 1969commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of one of the most searing conflicts that closed out the tumultuous 1960s: the Battle for People's Park. In April 1969, a few Berkeley activists planted the first tree on a University of California-owned, abandoned city block on Telegraph Avenue. Hundreds of people from all over the city helped build the park as an expression of a politics of joy. The University was appalled, and warned that unauthorized use of the land would not be tolerated; and on May 15, which would soon be known as Bloody Thursday, a violent struggle erupted, involving thousands of people. Hundreds were arrested, martial law was declared, and the National Guard was ordered by then-Governor Ronald Reagan to crush the uprising and to occupy the entire city. The police fired shotguns against unarmed students. A military helicopter gassed the campus indiscriminately, causing schoolchildren miles away to vomit. One man died from his wounds. Another was blinded. The vicious overreaction by Reagan helped catapult him into national prominence. Fifty years on, the question still lingers: Who owns the Park?”

Tom Dalzell is a longtime resident of Berkeley, a union lawyer, a regular contributor to Berkeleyside online newspaper, and the author of the Quirky Berkeley series, published by Heyday.

Todd Gitlin is the author of numerous books, including The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage. A former professor of sociology at UC Berkeley, he is currently a professor of journalism and sociology at Columbia University.

Steve Wasserman is the publisher and executive director of Heyday and, as a junior at Berkeley High School in 1969, helped to build People's Park, participated in Bloody Thursday, and organized several hundred BHS students to protest the military occupation of Berkeley.

“Excellent . . . reads like a gut punch.” Clara Bingham, The Guardian

“This book is a definitive account of the battle for People's Park, a 50th anniversary gem.” Paul Von Blum, Truthdig

“Resplendent. . . . A masterwork of history.” Ron Jacobs, Counterpunch

“Dazzling.” Gar Smith, Berkeley Daily Planet.

Photos, illustrations, sources.

Mark Arax,The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California(Knopf). “Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. This is a heartfelt, beautifully written book about the land and the people who have worked it--from gold miners to wheat ranchers to small fruit farmers and today's Big Ag. Since the beginning, Californians have redirected rivers, drilled ever-deeper wells and built higher dams, pushing the water supply past its limit. The Dreamt Landweaves reportage, history and memoir to confront the "Golden State" myth in riveting fashion. No other chronicler of the West has so deeply delved into the empires of agriculture that drink so much of the water. The nation's biggest farmers--the nut king, grape king and citrus queen--tell their story here for the first time. This is a tale of politics and hubris in the arid West, of imported workers left behind in the sun and the fatigued earth that is made to give more even while it keeps sinking. But when drought turns to flood once again, all is forgotten as the farmers plant more nuts and the developers build more houses. Arax, the native son, is persistent and tough as he treks from desert to delta, mountain to valley. What he finds is hard earned, awe-inspiring, tragic and revelatory. In the end, his compassion for the land becomes an elegy to the dream that created California and now threatens to undo it.”

Mark Arax is an author and journalist whose writings on California and the West have received numerous awards for literary nonfiction. A former staffer at the Los Angeles Times, his work has appeared inThe New York Times andthe California Sunday Magazine. His books include a memoir of his father’s murder, a collection of essays about the West, and the best-selling The King of California, which won a California Book Award, the William Saroyan Prize from Stanford University, and was named a top book of 2004 by theLos Angeles Times andthe San Francisco Chronicle. He lives in Fresno, California.

“There’s a new history of water use in California that’s fantastic. It’s called The Dreamt Land. It’s like John McPhee-level writing. It’s really worth it for the writing alone.” Linda Ronstadt 

“A mesmerizing new book that examines the nation’s most populous state through the prism of its most valuable resource: water. Call author Mark Arax, an award-winning journalist, historian and native son of the Central Valley, a Steinbeck for the 21st century.” Andy Kroll, Rolling Stone

“Arax narrates this tumultuous history skillfully. . . . Water, land and the conjunction of the two have inspired some of California’s most powerful writing: Didion, Mary Austin’s lyrical The Land of Little Rain, Norris Hundley’s authoritative The Great Thirst, William Kahrl’s gorgeous, shamefully out-of-print The California Water Atlas, and, jumping genres, Chinatown, with its water-crazed Mephistopheles, Noah Cross. The Dreamt Landearns its place alongside them.”

Peter Fish, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Photos, bibliography, index.

Colin Burrow’sImitating Authors: Plato to Futurity(Oxford University Press) “is a major study of the theory and practice of imitatio (the imitation of one author by another) from antiquity to the present day. It extends from early Greek texts right up to recent fictions about clones and artificial humans, and illuminates both the theory and practice of imitation. At its centre lie the imitating authors of the English Renaissance, including Ben Jonson and the most imitated imitator of them all, John Milton. Imitating Authorsargues that imitation was not simply a matter of borrowing words, or of alluding to an earlier author. Imitators learnt practices from earlier writers. They imitated the structures and forms of earlier writing in ways that enabled them to create a new style which itself could be imitated. That made imitation an engine of literary change. Imitating Authors also shows how the metaphors used by theorists to explain this complex practice fed into works which were themselves imitations, and how those metaphors have come to influence present-day anxieties about imitation human beings and artificial forms of intelligence. It explores relationships between imitation and authorial style, its fraught connections with plagiarism, and how emerging ideas of genius and intellectual property changed how imitation was practised. In refreshing and jargon-free prose Burrow explains not just what imitation was in the past, but how it influences the present, and what it could be in the future. Imitating Authors includes detailed discussion of Plato, Roman rhetorical theory, Virgil, Lucretius, Petrarch, Cervantes, Ben Jonson, Milton, Pope, Wordsworth, Mary Shelley, and Kazuo Ishiguro.”

Colin Burrow was a Fellow and Tutor and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, before he took up a Senior Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford, in 2006. He has written extensively about classical and early modern British and European literature, and has edited the complete poetry of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and (forthcoming) John Marston. He is an editor of Review of English Studies, and (with Jonathan Bate) General Editor of the Oxford English Literary Historyfor which he is writing the Elizabethan volume. He is a regular reviewer for The London Review of Books. 

Bibliography, index.

Mary Norris’Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen(W. W. Norton & Company) “is a charming account of Norris’s lifelong love affair with words and her solo adventures in the land of olive trees and ouzo. Along the way, Norris explains how the alphabet originated in Greece, makes the case for Athena as a feminist icon, goes searching for the fabled Baths of Aphrodite, and reveals the surprising ways Greek helped form English. Filled with Norris’s memorable encounters with Greek words, Greek gods, Greek wine―and more than a few Greek men―Greek to Meis the Comma Queen’s fresh take on Greece and the exotic yet strangely familiar language that so deeply influences our own.”

Mary Norris is the author of Greek to Meand the New York Timesbestseller Between You & Me, an account of her years in The New Yorkercopy department. Originally from Cleveland, she lives in New York.

One of the most satisfying accounts of a great passion that I have ever read.” Vivian Gornick, New York Times Book Review

“Greek to Me[is] an ode to the joy of exercising free reign in one's life . . . . Norris is an uncommonly engaging, witty enthusiast with a nose for delicious details and funny asides that makes you willing to follow her anywhere.” Heller McAlpin, NPR

Pat Barker,The Silence of the Girls: A Novel(Doubleday). “The ancient city of Troy has withstood a decade under siege of the powerful Greek army, who continue to wage bloody war over a stolen woman--Helen. In the Greek camp, another woman watches and waits for the war's outcome: Briseis. She was queen of one of Troy's neighboring kingdoms, until Achilles, Greece's greatest warrior, sacked her city and murdered her husband and brothers. Briseis becomes Achilles's concubine, a prize of battle, and must adjust quickly in order to survive a radically different life, as one of the many conquered women who serve the Greek army. When Agamemnon, the brutal political leader of the Greek forces, demands Briseis for himself, she finds herself caught between the two most powerful of the Greeks. Achilles refuses to fight in protest, and the Greeks begin to lose ground to their Trojan opponents. Keenly observant and cooly unflinching about the daily horrors of war, Briseis finds herself in an unprecedented position to observe the two men driving the Greek forces in what will become their final confrontation, deciding the fate, not only of Briseis's people, but also of the ancient world at large.

Briseis is just one among thousands of women living behind the scenes in this war--the slaves and prostitutes, the nurses, the women who lay out the dead--all of them erased by history. With breathtaking historical detail and luminous prose, Pat Barker brings the teeming world of the Greek camp to vivid life. She offers nuanced, complex portraits of characters and stories familiar from mythology, which, seen from Briseis's perspective, are rife with newfound revelations. Barker's latest builds on her decades-long study of war and its impact on individual lives--and it is nothing short of magnificent.

“An important, powerful, memorable book that invites us to look differently not only at The Iliad but at our own ways of telling stories about the past and the present.” Emily Wilson, translator of The Odyssey

Caitlín Eilís Barrett’sDomesticating Empire: Egyptian Landscapes in Pompeian Gardens (Oxford University Press) “is the first contextually-oriented monograph on Egyptian imagery in Roman households. Caitlín Barrett draws on case studies from Flavian Pompeii to investigate the close association between representations of Egypt and a particular type of Roman household space: the domestic garden. Through paintings and mosaics portraying the Nile, canals that turned the garden itself into a miniature ‘Nilescape,’ and statuary depicting Egyptian themes, many gardens in Pompeii offered ancient visitors evocations of a Roman vision of Egypt. Simultaneously faraway and familiar, these imagined landscapes made the unfathomable breadth of empire compatible with the familiarity of home. In contrast to older interpretations that connect Roman ‘Aegyptiaca’ to the worship of Egyptian gods or the problematic concept of ‘Egyptomania,’ a contextual analysis of these garden assemblages suggests new possibilities for meaning. In Pompeian houses, Egyptian and Egyptian-looking objects and images interacted with their settings to construct complex entanglements of ‘foreign" and ‘familiar,’ ‘self’ and ‘other.’ Representations of Egyptian landscapes in domestic gardens enabled individuals to present themselves as sophisticated citizens of empire. Yet at the same time, household material culture also exerted an agency of its own: domesticizing, familiarizing, and ‘Romanizing’ once-foreign images and objects. That which was once imagined as alien and potentially dangerous was now part of the domus itself, increasingly incorporated into cultural constructions of what it meant to be ‘Roman.’ Featuring brilliant illustrations in both color and black and white, Domesticating Empire reveals the importance of material culture in transforming household space into a microcosm of empire.”

Caitlín Eilís Barrett is Associate Professor of Classics at Cornell University.

Illustrations, bibliography, index.

Benjamin Sammons,Device and Composition in the Greek Epic Cycle(Oxford University Press). “From a corpus of Greek epics known in antiquity as the Epic Cycle, six poems dealt with the same Trojan War mythology as the Homeric poems. Though they are now lost, these poems were much read and much discussed in ancient times, not only for their content but for their mysterious relationship with the more famous works attributed to Homer. In Device and Composition in the Greek Epic Cycle, Benjamin Sammons shows that these lost poems belonged, compositionally, to essentially the same tradition as the Homeric poems. He demonstrates that various compositional devices well known from the Homeric epics were also fundamental to the narrative construction of these later works. Yet while the ‘cyclic’ poets constructed their works using the same traditional devices as Homer, they used these to different ends and with different results. Sammons argues that the essential difference between cyclic and Homeric poetry lies not in the fundamental building blocks from which they are constructed, but in the scale of these components relative to the overall construction of poems. This sheds important light on the early history of epic as a genre, since it is likely that these devices originally developed to provide large-scale structure to shorter poems and have been put to quite different use in the composition of the monumental Homeric epics. Along the way Sammons sheds new light on the overall form of lost cyclic epics and on the meaning and context of the few surviving verse fragments.”

Benjamin Sammons is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Classical, Middle Eastern, and Asian Languages and Cultures at Queens College, The City University of New York. He has published widely on ancient Greek literature and teaches at Queens College in the City University of New York.

“While the Epic Cycle has received much scholarly attention in recent years, this book takes a truly fresh and engaging approach to the lost epics about Troy. By considering the evidence in the light of the traditional techniques of early Greek narratives, it succeeds in presenting these poems as different from Homeric epic in some ways, but not simply inferior. Presenting more material much more quickly than the Iliad and Odyssey, the cyclic epics adapted available narrative resources for their purposes. While the analysis can only suggest how these narratives were organized and why, the book's solutions for the many problems of the Cycle are always interesting and often plausible.” Ruth Scodel, University of Michigan

Bibliography, index.

Jennifer T. Roberts,The Plague of War: Athens, Sparta, and the Struggle for Ancient Greece (Ancient Warfare and Civilization)(Oxford University Press). “In 431 BC, the long simmering rivalry between the city-states of Athens and Sparta erupted into open warfare, and for more than a generation the two were locked in a life-and-death struggle. The war embroiled the entire Greek world, provoking years of butchery previously unparalleled in ancient Greece. Whole cities were exterminated, their men killed, their women and children enslaved. While the war is commonly believed to have ended with the capture of the Athenian navy in 405 and the subsequent starvation of Athens, fighting in Greece would continue for several decades. Sparta's authority was challenged in the so-called Corinthian War (395-387) when Persian gold helped unite Athens with Sparta's former allies. The war did not truly end until, in 371, Thebes' crack infantry resoundingly defeated Sparta at Leuctra, forever shattering the myth of Spartan military supremacy. Jennifer Roberts' rich narrative of this famous conflict is the first general history to tell the whole story, from the war's origins down to Sparta's defeat at Leuctra. In her masterful account, this long and bloody war affected every area of life in Athens, exacerbated divisions between rich and poor in Sparta, and sparked civil strife throughout the Greek world. Yet despite the biting sorrows the fighting occasioned, it remains a gripping saga of plots and counter-plots, murders and lies, thrilling sea chases and desperate overland marches, missed opportunities and last-minute reprieves, and, as the war's first historian Thucydides had hoped, lessons for a less bellicose future. In addition, Roberts considers the impact of the war on Greece's cultural life, including the great masterworks of tragedy and comedy performed at this time and, most infamously, the trial and execution of Socrates. A fast-paced narrative of one of antiquity's most famous clashes, The Plague of Waris a must-read for history enthusiasts of all ages.”

Jennifer T. Roberts is Professor of Classics and History at the City College of New York and the City University of New York Graduate Center. She is the author of Athens on Trial: The Anti-Democratic Tradition in Western Thought and Herodotus: A Very Short Introduction, and editor (with Walter Blanco) of The Norton Critical Editions of Herodotus' The Histories and Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War.

"An impressively informed and informative work of exceptionally detailed and documented scholarship, The Plague of War: Athens, Sparta, and the Struggle for Ancient Greecereads from beginning to end with an inherently engaging narrative that reads with the smoothness of a well tuned novel. While very highly recommended for both community and academic library World History collections in general, and Hellenic History supplemental studies reading lists in particular, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of students and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the subject that The Plague of Waris also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.39).” Margaret Lane, The Midwest Book Review

Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, glosssary, Cast of Characters, index.

Jacques Jouanna, Sophocles: A Study of His Theater in Its Political and Social Context, translated by Steven Rendall(Princeton University Press). “Here, for the first time in English, is celebrated French classicist Jacques Jouanna's magisterial account of the life and work of Sophocles. Exhaustive and authoritative, this acclaimed book combines biography and detailed studies of Sophocles' plays, all set in the rich context of classical Greek tragedy and the political, social, religious, and cultural world of Athens’s greatest age, the fifth century. Sophocles was the commanding figure of his day. The author of Oedipus Rex and Antigone, he was not only the leading dramatist but also a distinguished politician, military commander, and religious figure. And yet the evidence about his life has, until now, been fragmentary. Reconstructing a lost literary world, Jouanna has finally assembled all the available information, culled from inscriptions, archaeological evidence, and later sources. He also offers a huge range of new interpretations, from his emphasis on the significance of Sophocles' political and military offices (previously often seen as honorary) to his analysis of Sophocles' plays in the mythic and literary context of fifth-century drama. Written for scholars, students, and general readers, this book will interest anyone who wants to know more about Greek drama in general and Sophocles in particular. With an extensive bibliography and useful summaries not only of Sophocles' extant plays but also, uniquely, of the fragments of plays that have been partially lost, it will be a standard reference in classical studies for years to come.”

Jacques Jouanna is a member of the Institut de France and professor emeritus of Greek at the Université de Paris-Sorbonne. His many books include Hippocrates and Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen.

“[Jouanna’s} book will give both classicists and general readers hours of pleasure. It is encyclopaedic, detailed, fascinating, readable and tremendous value for money.” Marion Gibbs, Classics for All

“A milestone. . . . This undertaking is by far the most rich and the most learned which exists today on this subject. . . . For educated readers and classicists who wish to learn about Sophocles and Greek tragedy, it offers an exceptional panorama, which combines the pleasure of reading with flawless scholarship. For specialists, it offers a new methodological approach, set in historical perspective. . . . It will no longer be possible to study Sophocles or Greek tragedy without referring to this work by Jouanna.”

Laurent Pernot, Journal of Hellenic Studies

“Everyone, from students to dedicated fans, will find something to interest them in this learned and wide-ranging book. Jouanna’s discussions of whole plays and of individual scenes are invariably thorough, balanced, sensitive, and stimulating; they are also based on scrupulous examination of the sources, backed up by impeccable scholarship. Undergraduates in particular will find this book a valuable resource, since it provides an excellent introduction not just to Sophocles but to fifth-century theatre in general.”

―Matthew Wright, Classical Review

Notes, bibliography.

Mary Lefkowitz,Euripides and the Gods(Onassis Series in Hellenic Culture) (Oxford University Press). “Modern readers find it hard to come to terms with the gods in Euripides' dramas. Readers try to dismiss them as a literary convention. Stage productions leave them out, especially in the cases when they appear ex machina. Instead, they place disproportionate emphasis on the harsh criticisms of the gods uttered by some of the characters in the dramas, and have sought to interpret Euripides ironically, viewing his portrayal of the cruel and capricious gods as a means of drawing attention to the deficiencies of ancient Greek religion. In their view Euripides' dramas seek to question the nature and sometimes even the very existence of traditional Greek gods. In Euripides and the Gods, classicist Mary Lefkowitz sets out to show that the tragedian is not undermining ancient religion, but rather describing with a brutal realism what the gods are like, impressing upon his mortal audience the limitations of human understanding. Writing the first extended treatment of these issues for a general audience, Lefkowitz provides a book that deals with all of Euripides' dramas, and argues for a more tolerant and nuanced understanding of ancient Greek religion. Euripides, like Homer, is making a statement about the nature of the world and human life, terrifying but accurate. She explains how the idea that Euripides was an atheist derives from ancient biographies that drew their evidence from comic poets, and shows why the doubts about the gods expressed by his characters must be understood in their dramatic context. Euripides and the Gods offers a compelling invitation to return to the dramatic masterpieces of Euripides with fresh eyes.”

Mary Lefkowitz is Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, emerita, at Wellesley College. Her many books on classical culture include Women in Greek Myth, Greek Gods, Human Lives, The Lives of the Greek Poets, andNot Out of Africa.

“There are some books that alter the way you think about the world. Before reading this book I thought I understood Euripides, but in fact I was just following the herd, which did not understand either! I think there is an assumption that a playwright so central to Classical studies has been studied so much there is nothing more to say. This book shows how wrong that idea is.” Murray Eiland, Amazon reviewer.

Illustrations, bibliography, subject index, indexlocorum.

Simon Critchley’sTragedy, the Greeks, and US (Pantheon) “argues that if we want to understand ourselves we have to go back to theater, to the stage of our lives. Tragedy presents a world of conflict and troubling emotion, a world where private and public lives collide and collapse. A world where morality is ambiguous and the powerful humiliate and destroy the powerless. A world where justice always seems to be on both sides of a conflict and sugarcoated words serve as cover for clandestine operations of violence. A world rather like our own. The ancient Greeks hold a mirror up to us, in which we see all the desolation and delusion of our lives but also the terrifying beauty and intensity of existence. This is not a time for consolation prizes and the fatuous banalities of the self-help industry and pop philosophy. Tragedy allows us to glimpse, in its harsh and unforgiving glare, the burning core of our aliveness. If we give ourselves the chance to look at tragedy, we might see further and more clearly.”

Simon Critchley is Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research. His many books include Very Little . . . Almost Nothing, The Book of Dead Philosophers, The Faith of the Faithless, and Memory Theater. He is the series moderator of The Stone, a philosophy column in The New York Times, to which he is a frequent contributor.

“Substantial introductory material on tragedy and ancient philosophy; it is energetic, engaging and thought-provoking without too much abstraction and with just enough detail to add flavor . . . It has something of the chatty vigor of a successful seminar discussion. . . infectiously enthusiastic . . . genuinely invigorating . . .” Edith Wilson, New Statesman. Edith Wilson isprofessor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Her translation ofThe Odyssey is published by W.W. Norton.

Notes, bibliography, index.

F. S. Naiden,Soldier, Priest, and God: A Life of Alexander the Great(Oxford University Press) is “the first religious biography of Alexander. . . . [It] incorporates this recent scholarship to provide a vivid and unique portrait of a remarkable leader. . . . Ancient writers knew little about Near Eastern religions, no doubt due to the difficulty of travel to Babylon, India, and the interior of Egypt. Yet details of these exotic religions can be found in other ancient sources, including Greek, and in the last thirty years, knowledge of Alexander's time in the Near East has increased. Egyptologists and Assyriologists have written the first thorough accounts of Alexander's religious doings in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Recent archaeological work has also allowed scholars to uncover new aspects of Macedonian religious policy. . . . Whatever we may think of Alexander--whether Great or only lucky, a civilizer or a sociopath--most people do not regard him as a religious leader. And yet religion permeated all aspects of his career. When he used religion astutely, he and his army prospered. In Egypt, he performed the ceremonies needed to be pharaoh, and thus became a god as well as a priest. Babylon surrendered to him partly because he agreed to become a sacred king. When Alexander disregarded religion, he and his army suffered. In Iran, for instance, where he refused to be crowned and even destroyed a shrine, resistance against him mounted. In India, he killed Buddhists, Jains, and Hindus by the hundreds of thousands until his officers, men he regarded as religious companians, rebelled against him and forced him to abandon his campaign of conquest. Although he never fully recovered from this last disappointment, he continued to perform his priestly duties in the rest of his empire. As far as we know, the last time he rose from his bed was to perform a sacrifice.”

F. S. Naiden is Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the author of Ancient Supplication, and a former New York subway motorman.

“Alexander the Great--man, hero or god? He was all three, in different ways and at different times, but of the countless attempts to nail down ancient perceptions of Alexander's metaphysical status, not least his own, Naiden's richly detailed biography is the most exhaustive, the most sophisticated, and the most illuminating by far.” Paul Cartledge, author of Alexander the Great: The Truth behind the Myth and Democracy: A Life

Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, glosssary, index.

Katherine Clarke’sShaping the Geography of Empire: Man and Nature in Herodotus' Histories(Oxford University Press) “explores the spatial framework of Herodotus' Histories, the Greek historian's account of Persian imperialism in the sixth and fifth century BC and its culmination in a series of grand expeditions against Greece itself. Focusing on his presentation of the natural world through careful geographical descriptions, ranging from continents and river and mountain networks on a vast scale down to the local settings for individual episodes, it also examines how these landscapes are charged with greater depth and resonance through Herodotus' use of mythological associations and spatial parallels. Man's interaction with, and alteration of, the physical world of the Histories adds another critical dimension to the meaning given to space in Herodotus' work, as his subjects' own agency serves to transform their geography from a neutral backdrop into a resonant landscape with its own role to play in the narrative, in turn reinforcing the placing of the protagonists along a spectrum of positive or negative characterizations. The Persian imperial bid may thus be seen as a war on nature, no less than on their intended subjects: however, as Herodotus reflects, Greece itself is waiting in the wings with the potential to be no less abusive an imperial power. Although the multi-vocal nature of the narrative complicates whether we can identify a 'Herodotean' world at all, still less one in which moral judgments are consistently cast, the fluid and complex web of spatial relationships revealed in discussion nevertheless allows focalization to be brought productively into play, demonstrating how the world of the Histories may be viewed from multiple perspectives. What emerges from the multiple worlds and world-views that Herodotus creates in his narrative is the mutability of fortune that allows successive imperial powers to dominate: as the exercise of political power is manifested both metaphorically and literally through control over the natural world, the map of imperial geography is constantly in flux.”

Katherine Clarke, Fellow and Tutor in Ancient History at St Hilda's College, Oxford, and Associate Professor in Ancient History, University of Oxford. She undertook her BA in Classics (Literae Humaniores) at St John's College, Oxford, before going on to obtain her D.Phil. in Ancient History also at Oxford in 1996, where she held a Graduate Scholarship followed by a Junior Research Fellowship, both at Christ Church. In 1998 she was appointed to the Tutorial Fellowship in Ancient History at St Hilda's College, where she has remained ever since. She was the recipient of a Philip Leverhulme Prize for the period 2001-3 and has held various positions of responsibility in both her College and the university's Faculty of Classics including Vice Principal in College, 2013-16, and Chair of the Sub-Faculty, 2015-17.

Bibliography, index. 

Richard Buxton’sMyths and Tragedies in their Ancient Greek Contexts(Oxford University Press) “brings together eleven of Richard Buxton's studies of Greek mythology and Greek tragedy, focusing especially on the interrelationship between the two, and their importance to the Greeks themselves. Situating and contextualizing topics and themes, such as mountains, (were)wolves, mythological names, movement/stillness, blindness, and feminization, within the world of ancient Greece - its landscapes, social and moral priorities, and mental structures - he traces the intricate variations and retellings which they underwent in Greek antiquity. Although each chapter has appeared in print in some form before, each has been thoroughly revised for the present book, taking into account recent research. The introduction sets out the principles and objectives which underlie Buxton's approach to Greek myths, and how he sees his own method in relation to those of his predecessors and contemporaries.”

Richard Buxton is Emeritus Professor of Greek Language and Literature at the University of Bristol. He works on ancient Greek literature (especially tragedy), and ancient mythology and religion. One of his main aims is to explore the contexts – for example, social life and the landscape – which can help us to recover the meanings which myths had for their tellers and hearers/readers (see his Imaginary Greece, 1994, and The Complete World of Greek Mythology, 2004). In 1996 he organized a major international conference at Bristol, whose proceedings appeared as From Myth to Reason?(1999) Since 2003 he has been one of the editors of Thesaurus Cultus et Rituum Antiquorum and since 2006 he has been President of the LIMC Foundation. His book Forms of Astonishment: Greek Myths of Metamorphosis was published in 2009. He will next be revising for publication a selection of his papers on Greek myth and tragedy. He has taken part in a number of radio programs about myth. His work has been translated into nine languages.

Notes, bibliography, index. 

Kyle Harper’sThe Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire (The Princeton History of the Ancient World) (Princeton University Press)“is the monumental retelling of one of the most consequential chapters of human history: the fall of the Roman Empire. The Fate of Rome is the first book to examine the catastrophic role that climate change and infectious diseases played in the collapse of Rome’s power―a story of nature’s triumph over human ambition. Interweaving a grand historical narrative with cutting-edge climate science and genetic discoveries, Kyle Harper traces how the fate of Rome was decided not just by emperors, soldiers, and barbarians but also by volcanic eruptions, solar cycles, climate instability, and devastating viruses and bacteria. He takes readers from Rome’s pinnacle in the second century, when the empire seemed an invincible superpower, to its unraveling by the seventh century, when Rome was politically fragmented and materially depleted. Harper describes how the Romans were resilient in the face of enormous environmental stress, until the besieged empire could no longer withstand the combined challenges of a ‘little ice age’ and recurrent outbreaks of bubonic plague. A poignant reflection on humanity’s intimate relationship with the environment, The Fate of Rome provides a sweeping account of how one of history’s greatest civilizations encountered and endured, yet ultimately succumbed to the cumulative burden of nature’s violence. The example of Rome is a timely reminder that climate change and germ evolution have shaped the world we inhabit―in ways that are surprising and profound.

“Kyle Harper's extraordinary new account of the fall of Rome is a gripping and terrifying story of the interaction between human behavior and systems, pathogens and climate change. The Roman Empire was a remarkable connector of people and things--in towns and cities, through voluntary and enforced migration, and through networks of trade across oceans and continents--but this very connectedness fostered infectious diseases that debilitated its population. Though the protagonists of Harper’s book are nonhuman, their effects on human lives and societies are nonetheless devastating.” Emma Dench, author of RomulusAsylum: Roman Identities from the Age of Alexander to the Age of Hadrian

Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. 

Jonathan BateHow the Classics Made Shakespeare (E. H. Gombrich Lecture Series)(Princeton University Press). “Revealing in new depth the influence of Cicero and Horace on Shakespeare and finding new links between him and classical traditions, ranging from myths and magic to monuments and politics, Bate offers striking new readings of a wide array of the plays and poems. At the heart of the book is an argument that Shakespeare’s supreme valuation of the force of imagination was honed by the classical tradition and designed as a defense of poetry and theater in a hostile world of emergent Puritanism.

Ben Jonson famously accused Shakespeare of having ‘small Latin and less Greek.’ But he was exaggerating. Shakespeare was steeped in the classics. Shaped by his grammar school education in Roman literature, history, and rhetoric, he moved to London, a city that modeled itself on ancient Rome. He worked in a theatrical profession that had inherited the conventions and forms of classical drama, and he read deeply in Ovid, Virgil, and Seneca. In a book of extraordinary range, acclaimed literary critic and biographer Jonathan Bate, one of the world’s leading authorities on Shakespeare, offers groundbreaking insights into how, perhaps more than any other influence, the classics made Shakespeare the writer he became.

Rounded off with a fascinating account of how Shakespeare became our modern classic and has ended up playing much the same role for us as the Greek and Roman classics did for him, How the Classics Made Shakespeare combines stylistic brilliance, accessibility, and scholarship, demonstrating why Jonathan Bate is one of our most eminent and readable literary critics.

Jonathan Bate is Provost of Worcester College and professor of English literature at the University of Oxford and Gresham Professor of Rhetoric at Gresham College. His many books include Soul of the Age: A Biography of the Mind of William Shakespeareand an award-winning biography of Ted Hughes. He broadcasts regularly for the BBC, has been on the board of the Royal Shakespeare Company, is the coeditor of The RSC Shakespeare: Complete Works, and wrote a one-man play for Simon Callow, Being Shakespeare. Twitter @provbate ‏

“Jonathan Bate's How the Classics Made Shakespeareis the fruit of wide reading, rich learning, and a lifetime of singularly intelligent reflection on the playwright and his sources. Bate's fresh insights into even the most familiar of plays amply justifies his claim that Shakespeare's imagination had its birth in his Latin lessons in the Stratford-upon-Avon schoolroom and that throughout his career he turned for inspiration to the heritage of Greece and Rome.” Stephen Greenblatt, author of Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

“This book is a wonderful treat for all. Scholars who thought that they knew all about the influence of the classics on Shakespeare will have to think again. Bate explains with unparalleled synthesis and lucidity why Shakespeare was ‘the Cicero of his age’ and how and why he modeled his lifework on Horace. General readers will not be able to put this book down: it is beautifully written and packed with arresting insights.” Sonia Massai, King’s College London

Notes, index.

Philip M. Napoli’sSocial Media and the Public Interest: Media Regulation in the Disinformation Age(Columbia University Press) “explores how and why social media platforms became so central to news consumption and distribution as they met many of the challenges of finding information―and audiences―online. Napoli illustrates the implications of a system in which coders and engineers drive out journalists and editors as the gatekeepers who determine media content. He argues that a social media–driven news ecosystem represents a case of market failure in what he calls the algorithmic marketplace of ideas. To respond, we need to rethink fundamental elements of media governance based on a revitalized concept of the public interest. A compelling examination of the intersection of social media and journalism, Social Media and the Public Interest offers valuable insights for the democratic governance of today’s most influential shapers of news. Facebook, a platform created by undergraduates in a Harvard dorm room, has transformed the ways millions of people consume news, understand the world, and participate in the political process. Despite taking on many of journalism’s traditional roles, Facebook and other platforms, such as Twitter and Google, have presented themselves as tech companies―and therefore not subject to the same regulations and ethical codes as conventional media organizations. Challenging such superficial distinctions, Philip M. Napoli offers a timely and persuasive case for understanding and governing social media as news media, with a fundamental obligation to serve the public interest.” 

Philip M. Napoli is the James R. Shepley Professor of Public Policy in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, where he is also a faculty affiliate with the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy. His previous books include Audience Economics: Media Institutions and the Audience Marketplace and Audience Evolution: New Technologies and the Transformation of Media Audiences, both from Columbia University Press.

Drawing on the history of U.S. media regulation, Napoli offers an insightful framework for reimagining how social media can serve the public interest. Social Media and the Public Interest is an essential text for policy makers and those struggling to reduce the harm of caustic content and misinformation.” Danah Boyd, author of It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens.

“Napoli takes up the daunting challenge of lassoing and taming the wild social media beasts that have wreaked so much havoc in democracies around the world. This book is bold, clear, and necessary. Readers of this book will gain a deep historical understanding of the complex relationship among social media platforms, news producers, citizens, and the state.” Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy.

Illustrations, notes, index.

   Caitlin Doughty, Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals(W. W. Norton & Company). “Every day, funeral director Caitlin Doughty receives dozens of questions about death. The best questions come from kids. What would happen to an astronaut's body if it were pushed out of a space shuttle? Do people poop when they die? Can Grandma have a Viking funeral? In Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?,Doughty blends her mortician's knowledge of the body and the intriguing history behind common misconceptions about corpses to offer factual, hilarious, and candid answers to 35 distinctive questions posed by her youngest fans. In her inimitable voice, Doughty details lore and science of what happens to, and inside, our bodies after we die. Why do corpses groan? What causes bodies to turn colors during decomposition? And why do hair and nails appear longer after death? Listeners will learn the best soil for mummifying your body, whether you can preserve your best friend's skull as a keepsake, and what happens when you die on a plane. Beautifully illustrated by Dianné Ruz, Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?shows us that death is science and art, and only by asking questions can we begin to embrace it.”

Caitlin Doughty is a mortician and the author of the New York Times best-selling Smoke Gets in Your Eyes andFrom Here to Eternity.She is the creator of the Ask a Morticianweb series and founder of The Order of the Good Death. She lives in Los Angeles, where she owns and runs a funeral home, Undertaking LA.

Illustrations.

W. Royal Stokes, a novelist and a former professor of Greek and Latin languages and literature and ancient history, was the 2014 recipient of the Jazz Journalists Association’s Lifetime Achievement in Jazz Journalism Award. He has been observing the jazz, blues, and popular music worlds since the early 1940s.  He was editor of Jazz Notes (the quarterly journal of the Jazz Journalists Association) from 1992 to 2001, was Program Director of WGTB-FM (D.C.) in the 1970s, and has participated in the annual Down Beat Critics Poll since the 1980s. He hosted his weekly programs “I thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say  . . . .” andSince Minton’s on public radio in the 1970s and ’80s. He has been the Washington Post's jazz critic and editor of JazzTimes and is author of The Jazz Scene: An Informal History from New Orleans to 1990, Swing Era New York: The Jazz Photographs of Charles Peterson, Living the Jazz Life: Conversations with Forty Musicians about Their Careers in Jazz, and Growing Up With Jazz: Twenty-Four Musicians Talk About Their Lives and Careers. His trilogy of novels Backwards Over was published in 2017 and his The Essential W. Royal Stokes Jazz, Blues & Beyond Readersaw print in December 2019. Publications he has written for, in addition to the Washington Post and JazzTimes, include Down Beat, Mississippi Rag, Jazz Notes,JazzHouse.org, and JJA News. A founding member of the JJA, he authored, for JJA News, “The Jazz Journalists Association: A 25-Year Retrospective” (http://news.jazzjournalists.org/2013/06/the-jazz-journalists-association-a-25-year-retrospective/). He is currently at work on a memoir.