Posts tagged ‘america’
Weekly Book Special: Terry Foster’s Pale Ale, No. 1 in Classic Beer Style Series (ISBN: 0937381187)
Weekly Book Special: August 3rd-August 9th
August 5th is International Beer Day, a celebration of beers, breweries and bars. Learn about the history of pale ale in this week’s book special:
Pale Ale: No. 1 in Classic Beer Style Series
by Terry Foster (Hardcover, 134 pages)
List Price: $15.00, OUR PRICE: $5.95
This concise guide traces the convoluted history of pale ale, the giant of beer styles.
Terry Foster, the author and longtime master brewer who holds a Ph.D. in chemistry, dissects the flavor profile, lays out an in-depth examination of brewing techniques, tosses in a handful of recipes and wraps up with a look at several leading commercial examples of pale ales.
Chapters: History: The First India Pale Ale, Competition, Bitter and Modern Times, Adjuncts — Use or Abuse; Character Profile of Pale Ale; How Pale Ale is Brewed: Ingredients, Equipment and Procedures; Pale Ale Recipes; and Glossary.
More than a dozen Illustrations and recipes highlight this highly-prized handbook, which combines the British tradition with intense American ideas.
Read how to brew the perfect wheat malt (click to enlarge):
“Foster is perhaps the last of this tradition of British home brewing writers […] a bit folksy while also well researched,” writes Alan McLeod on A Good Beer Blog. “Foster provides context and technique, showing how historical styles can be recreated with confidence.”
This book is discounted only through August 9th. Purchase it for $5.95 (list price $15.00):
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The Hook and The Book: The Emergence of Crochet and Knitting in American Popular Culture, 1840-1876 (Library Company of Philadelphia)
The Hook and The Book: The Emergence of Crochet and Knitting in American Popular Culture, 1840-1876
by Nicole Scalessa (Library Company of Philadelphia)
(Paperback, 46 pages, 2001, ISBN: 0914076981, $15.00)
Nicole’s casual interest in old crochet and knitting patterns grew into a mission to search The Library Company’s collections and make available to patrons a comprehensive database of holdings focused on needle crafts and their relationship to the economy of the family, leisure, philanthropy, and manufacturing.
Read the 
of this book before you purchase it.
Nicole’s research has allowed her to cross-reference a large number of materials on the history of knitting and crochet throughout the 19th century and translate patterns of the period for modern use while uncovering a social history of knitting and crochet in early American culture.
The culmination of her research is presented in both the exhibition and her book “Historic Reflections in Crochet.”
To Do Justice to Him and Myself: Evert Wendell’s Account Book of the Fur Trade with Indians in Albany, New York, 1695-1726 (includes cd-rom with original Dutch text) (ISBN: 1606189123)
To Do Justice to Him and Myself:
Evert Wendell’s Account Book of the Fur Trade with Indians in Albany, New York, 1695-1726
by Kees-Jan Waterman (American Philosophical Society, ISBN: 1606189123)
(Paperback, 310 pages and CD-ROM with original Dutch text, 2008, $50.00)
This translated Dutch account book of the fur trade with Indians yields essential data for understanding workings of intercultural fur trade in colonial North America.
It contains accounts of hundreds of Indians, many listed with their own names, who purchased merchandise on credit from Evert Wendell (1681-1750) and his relatives in Albany, NY. Over 2,000 credit transactions and payments are recorded. This book has been praised as a major addition to the literature on the fur trade which challenges many widely held interpretations.
Illustrations. Tables. The book also includes a CD-ROM with transcription of the Dutch manuscript (searchable).
“The introductory essay and the tables put together from Waterman’s detailed reading of the account suggest an active trade between the Evert family and a wide range of Indians from many different tribal groupings,” writes Ann M. Carlos in the Journal of Economic History (70:2). “One has to be particularly impressed with the level of detail extracted from the accounts after looking at the photographs of the original documents.
“Waterman argues that these accounts with about 300 different individuals give us an unprecedented glimpse into intercultural exchanges in the upper Hudson River valley. He points to the role played by women in this trade; to the nature of the goods exchanges; to the range of different tribal groupings; to the mention of “white” and “black” individuals and to the descriptions of naming practices and tattoos or lack of same.
“Not too many family account books from the early eighteenth century exist. This one documents commercial exchanges between an important Dutch trading family and native traders. Waterman provides an incredible level of detail about the people in these transactions [in this] interesting primary source.”
Polar Hayes: The Life and Contributions of Isaac Israel Hayes, M.D. (American Philosophical Society Memoir 262, ISBN: 9780871692627)
Polar Hayes: The Life and Contributions of Isaac Israel Hayes, M.D.
(American Philosophical Society Memoir, ISBN: 9780871692627)
by Douglas W. Wamsley (Hardcover, 547 pages, 2009, $75.00)
In the mid-19th century as an ambitious young country expanded its horizons westward, Dr. Isaac Israel Hayes, a young physician from an Orthodox Quaker family in the rural farmland of Pennsylvania, turned his eyes to the North.
As a member of the harrowing American arctic expedition under the command of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane in search of the lost British explorer Sir John Franklin, Hayes became obsessed with making his own mark in the far northern polar regions.
He organized his own privately funded voyage to the Arctic in 1860, during which he claimed to have reached a ‘farthest north’ and to have stood on the edge of the fabled “Open Polar Sea,” a mythical ice-free zone in the high northern latitudes.
Through his own hard fought experiences, combined with the knowledge learned from native Greenlanders or Polar Eskimos, he successfully influenced the course of Arctic discovery, causing perceptive explorers to follow his guidance and lead. Directing the same ambition to humanitarian and social causes, during the devastating U.S. Civil War and as an elected politician in New York State during its Gilded Age, Hayes served the ‘public good’ for a decade, with accomplishments as far reaching as his Arctic service, but little recognized even during his lifetime.
In this book, which draws upon Hayes family papers, the little viewed diaries from Hayes’s own expeditions, as well as other unpublished primary sources, the story emerges of a remarkable but forgotten explorer, writer, politician, and humanitarian who epitomized the rugged and restless spirit of adventure and individualism of 19th-century America. Illustrations.
“Polar Hayes” has been nominated for the 2010 William Mills Prize [PDF], which honors the best Arctic or Antarctic nonfiction books published throughout the world, according to the Polar Libraries Bulletin.
“All aspects of Hayes’ life are packaged in a marvelously researched book that effectively uses valuable primary source material, some of it newly discovered,” writes Hal Vogel in Arctic Magazine (December 2009) [PDF]. “Wamsley’s thorough knowledge of his subject and environment can often be seen when he refers to collateral polar events and personalities that were influenced by Hayes.
“His descriptions of the Kane expedition from the perspective of Dr. Hayes are especially noteworthy. They alone make a worthwhile read. Dr. I.I. Hayes lacked a biography, but deserved one. Now he has one that deserves its place among our best polar biographical literature.”
“Lawyer and independent scholar Wamsley has written and lectured extensively on 19th-century Arctic exploration and explorers,” writes Book News in a review. “Here he narrates how Hayes (1832-81), a Quaker physician from rural Pennsylvania, got a taste of Arctic exploration early then became a leading advocate of it as a means of advancing science and geography. Overcoming public apathy, he organized and led the first privately funded American expedition to find the North Pole, thus initiating the modern pole race.”
American Photographic Patents 1840-1880: The Daguerreotype and Wet Plate Era (ISBN: 1887694218)
Read more about our selection of books on 19th century photography. >>
American Photographic Patents 1840-1880:
The Daguerreotype and Wet Plate Era (ISBN: 0871699729)
by Janice G. Schimmelman (Paperback, 119 pages, 2002, $25.00)
Identifies all of the nearly 1,000 United States patents related to photography during the wet plate era. To be included in this list the patent had to have direct application to photography or its application had to be recognized and indicated by the applicant.
Read this book on before you purchase it.
There is no easy way to identify 19th century patents by one simple subject heading, instead photographic patents appear in the official records under such headings as album, albumen, ambrotype, camera, carte de visite, collodion, daguerreotype, ferrotype, magic lantern, multiplying camera, picture card holder, plate holder, portable camera, solar camera and stereoscope, and photograph or photographic.
Patent for Improvement in Stereoscopes, 1876. American Photographic Patents, p.100
Contents: List by Title, Patentee, Residence and Date for Invention, Reissued Invention, and Design Patents. Illustrations.
Maureen Taylor on Family Tree Magazine‘s Photo Detective blog recommends this book to learn more about photographic patents and “clamps around a person’s waist or head to keep him still for the long exposure time.”
Purchase this book for $25.00:
Read more about our selection of books on 19th century photography. >>
Tintype in America, 1856-1880 (American Philosophical Society Transaction 97-2, ISBN: 0871699729)
Read more about our selection of books on 19th century photography. >>
Tintype in America, 1856-1880
(American Philosophical Society Transaction 97-2, ISBN: 0871699729)
by Janice G. Schimmelman (Paperback, 270 pages, 2007, $29.00)
A history of the ferrotype or tintype in American photography, from its origin in the 1850s until 1880.
Schimmelman, Professor of Art History, presents a history of the technological development of the tintype and its manufacture, and touches upon a number of issues relating to the cultural and social aspects of the tintype. She lays an interesting groundwork for thinking about the class dimensions of Victorian aesthetics and about the political economy of taste.
The heart of the book is the extended accounts of the improvements in the presentation of the images and of the inventors and businessmen who made the improvements and advanced their careers in the business. Raises important issues in art history and the history of photography. Includes over 200 reproductions of actual tintypes.
[A]n excellent resource for collectors, researchers, and nineteenth-century photography enthusiasts,” writes Dennis O. Williams in The Daguerreian Society Newsletter (20:2, May-July 2008) [PDF].
“Schimmelman guides the reader through the book in a chronological fashion that the reader can easily follow. Through the writing of this text, her passion for the photographic history of the tintype has indeed been preserved. The organization of the book is splendid. Along with the wealth of written history to complement the story, Schimmelman includes examples of patent drawings and photographic advertisements. Exemplifying the depth of research that went into this book, a reference section concludes each chapter. ”
People posing for tintypes.
Tintype in America, 1856-1880, p.48.
The journal Early Popular Visual Culture (8:2, May 2010) adds: “This is not the only book on the tintype photograph, but it is probably the most comprehensive, being based on years of collecting and research by the author, with information culled from books, photographic journals and newspapers.”
“As the author puts it, these images offer ‘small windows into American life.’ The book is good on the themes of these photographs, and Chapter 9 is arranged thematically, dealing with such subjects as death and remembrance, Americans at play and work, and beloved children.
“Elsewhere in the book the author covers the invention and development of the process, various kinds of studios and albums, and double exposures, as well as techniques for retouching and colouring tintypes.”
Purchase this book for $29.00:
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Peter Collinson and the Eighteenth-Century Natural History Exchange (American Philosophical Society Memoir 264, ISBN: 9780871692641)
Peter Collinson and the Eighteenth-Century Natural History Exchange
(American Philosophical Society Memoir 264, ISBN: 9780871692641)
by Jean O’Neill and Elizabeth P. McLean
(Paperback, 216 pages, 2008, $75.00)
Collinson’s life is a microcosm of 18th-century natural history. A gardener and naturalist by avocation, he was what we would now call a facilitator in natural science, disseminating botanical and horticultural knowledge during the Enlightenment.
He influenced the Comte de Buffon and Linnaeus. He found clients for the Philadelphia naturalist John Bartram. American plants populated great estates like those of the Dukes of Richmond, Norfolk, and Bedford, as well as the Chelsea Physic Garden, and the nurseries of James Gordon and Robert Furber. Botanic painters such as Mark Catesby and Georg Dionysius Ehret painted American plants in Collinson’s garden.
He had an unprecedented effect on the exchange of scientific information on both sides of the Atlantic, being credited for introducing more than 150 plans to horticulture. Illustrations.
“One man can make a difference,” co-author Elizabeth McLean tells Green Scene [PDF] in the September/October 2009 issue. “[Collinson] did it for love. He was self-educated, yet he made enormous contributions to natural history in the eighteenth century.”
This book has been indexed by H.W. Wilson in their “Essay and General Literature Index” for June 2009.
H.W. Wilson writes: “These essays describe the life and achievements of the Quaker Peter Collinson, an 18th century London draper and naturalist whose interest in horticulture led him to establish contact with the Philadelphia Quaker farmer and naturalist John Bartram and to import Bartram’s American plants to England.
“The consequent popularity of American plants in English gardens, reflected even in the botanic paintings of the period, have earned Collinson a place in the history of botany as a facilitator between English and American horticulture.”
Weekly Book Special: July 4th Children’s Book: Building Liberty: A Statue is Born (ISBN: 0792269691)
Weekly Book Special: June 22nd-June 28th
The Fourth of July celebrates American independence, and this week’s special tells the story of the Statue of Liberty — a gift from the French people to celebrate the 100th anniversary of American independence:
Building Liberty: A Statue Is Born
Written and Illustrated by Serge Hochain
(Hardcover with reinforced library binding, 46 pages, 2003, $25.00)
Did you know that Statue of Liberty did not begin her life in New York?
The extraordinary construction of the Statue of Liberty began in France in 1875, and with the work of many people, was completed 11 years later on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean in New York.
Join a cross-Atlantic adventure with four boys — Italian construction worker Leo, French sailor Fanch, African-American newsboy Benjamin and Irish ironworker Angus — as they help to build one of the world’s most famous landmarks.
Also includes a step-by-step illustrated history of the statue’s creation (with captions) from Bartholdi’s sketch pad to its completion.
Our favorite illustration is when the Statue of Liberty is unveiled in Paris (click to enlarge):
“This is a great little book,” writes Social Studies for Kids. “The illustrations are amazing in their depth and choice of color. The book also showcases the difficulties young boys and their families faced in the late 19th century in America and in France. There are many excellent details that leave the reader knowing much more than the average American about how the statue came to be.”
Purchase this book for $25.00:
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Caribbean-American Heritage Month Book Special: Vertamae Cooks in The Americas’ Family Kitchen by Vertamae Grosvenor (ISBN: 091233388X)
Weekly Book Special: June 14th-June 21st
June is Caribbean-American Heritage Month. In commemoration, this week’s special is:
Vertamae Cooks in “The Americas’ Family Kitchen”
Written by Vertamae Grosvenor, Foreword by Ed Bradley
(Paperback, 192 pages, 1996, $19.00)
Storyteller, poet and culinary anthropologist Vertamae Grosvenor displays the pleasures of Caribbean-American cooking in this companion to the PBS series “The Americas’ Family Kitchen.” Learn how African tastes and traditions have influenced the various cuisines of America, acquiring new flavors and ingredients along the way in Central America, South America and the Caribbean.
You’ll find more than 100 full-color down-home recipes, spiced with Vertamae’s anecdotes, humor and historical insights. Every recipe, ranging from Hoppin’ John to Sunshine Soup to Low Country Red Rice, has a story. Also includes an introduction to the history of Afro-Caribbean cooking and culture.
Our favorite recipe is for Auntie Kali’s Puerto Rican-Style Pork Roast (click to enlarge):
“These recipes are a sweet mix of history, anthropology, and storytelling that come together to create a tasty treat for the most modest of cooks,” writes Book News. “Every recipe is thoughtfully written, and many are annotated with Vertamae’s own historical or anecdotal take on the origin of the recipe. A beautiful and moving portrait of Caribbean culture — and delicious recipes to boot.”
Purchase this book for $19.00:
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In addition, let your loved one, relative or friend choose a unique gift from our extensive selection of nearly 40,000 hard-to-find books and prints. Give a gift certificate in any amount. | |
Memorial Day Book Special: Rakkasans: The Combat History of the 187th Airborne Infantry (ISBN: 0891416048)
Weekly Book Special: May 18th-May 24th
Memorial Day, on May 31st, commemorates American soldiers who died while in service. In commemoration, this week’s special is:
The Rakkasans:
The Combat History of the 187th Airborne Infantry
By E.M. Flanagan, Jr. (Hardcover, 392 pages, 1997, $25.00)
This is the complete account of one of the most remarkable regiments in the history of the U.S. Army, written by a retired lieutenant general who served with airborne outfits during World War II and the Korean War.
The 187th Infantry Regiment, known as “Rakkasans,” have fought in every major American military conflict from World War II to Afghanistan and Iraq.
They were chosen by Gen. Douglas MacArthur to be the first wave of troops to occupy Japan, were the only airborne unit in the Korean War, made history at the Vietnam War’s Hamburger Hill, and made a grueling helicopter assault during Operation Desert Storm. Includes 30 rarely-published photos.
Here’s a 60-second video of the Rakkasans preparing for deployment:
“The Rakkasans is important military history,” writes Kirkus Reviews. “It is well researched and articulated for both the student of military history and the non-specialist general reader with an interest in military history.”
Purchase this book for $28.00:
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