Excerpts
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 July 2005
A History of World Agriculture:
From the Neolithic Age to
the Current Crisis by Marcel Mazoyer and Laurence Roudart
A History of World
Agricultureis a path-breaking and panoramic work, beginning with the
emergence of agriculture after thousands of years in which human societies had
depended on hunting and gathering, showing how agricultural techniques
developed in the different regions of the world, and how this extraordinary
wealth of knowledge, tradition and natural variety is endangered today by
global capitalism, as it forces the unequal agrarian heritages of the world to
conform to the norms of profit.
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 The Art of
Democracy: A
Concise History of Popular Culture in the United States by Jim Cullen
“Cullen's strength
comes from his understanding of how the different strands of American society
intertwine in imaginative, unpredictable ways ... The shape and vitality of pop
culture's next era will depend, at least in part, on commentators like
Cullen.” —Washington Post Book World
“A thorough, engaging look at
American culture . . . Cullen’s articulate prose is spiced with wicked wit
and he loves a good story . . . Demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of
complex cultural forces.”—Publishers Weekly
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 Cultures of Darkness:
Night Travels in the
Histories of Transgression by Bryan D. Palmer
“[An] enthralling
and important trans-historical study . . . Palmer’s canvas is huge—it
ranges from an analysis of early modern witch culture (which he connects to the
later development of Puritanism) to the emergence of 19th-century semisecret
fraternal orders such as the Oddfellows, the vibrant 20th-century gay male
cultures of drag and sadomasochism, and the emergence of a U.S. jazz and blues
culture—yet he manages to bring these diverse topics together in a
cohesive and astute analysis. Integrating unusual details and artful nuances
…, Palmer creates a multilayered but seamless portrait of four centuries
of Western culture… Palmer's bold theme is sustained by his ability to
communicate his in-depth, far-ranging scholarship with a broad political vision
. . . and by his accessible and highly entertaining writing style.”
—Publishers Weekly
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 Columbus: His Enterprise,
Exploding the Myth by
Hans Koning
“The book is an
idea that has finally found its time.” —Publishers
Weekly
Most of us have been
taught to think of Christopher Columbus as a single-minded, courageous
visionary whose navigational skills led him to “discover” the
Americas. In this beautifully written revisionist biography, accessible to
people of all ages, Hans Koning gives us the true history of Columbus’
life and voyages.
In an afterword for
teachers, Bill Bigelow—a high school social studies teacher and the author
of several curricula—shows how the book can be imaginatively used in the
classroom to teach students to read history skeptically.
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 In Our Time:
The Chamberlain-Hitler
Collusion by Clement Leibovitz and Alvin Finkel
Clement Leibovitz and
Alvin Finkel challenge the familiar understanding of Munich as the product of a
naive "appeasement" of Nazi appetites. They argue that it was the
culmination of cynical collaboration between the Tory government and the Nazis
in the 1930s. Based upon a careful reading of official and unofficial
correspondence, conference notes, cabinet minutes, and diaries, In Our
Time documents the steps taken under diplomatic cover by the West to
strike a bargain with Hitler based upon shared anti-Soviet premises.
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 Law and the Rise of
Capitalism by
Michael E. Tigar
“A thought-provoking
interpretation of the role of legal ideology in the bourgeoisie’s
ascendance to state power.”—Harvard Law Review
This well-researched
and documented study traces the role of law and lawyers in the European
bourgeoisie's conquest of power—the first such history in the English
language—and in the process, contradicts the analyses of such major
figures as R.H. Tawney and Max Weber. Using a wide range of primary sources,
Tigar demonstrates that the legal theory of the insurgent bourgeoisie predated
the Protestant Reformation and was a major ideological ingredient of the
bourgeois revolution.
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