Books on History

Fanshen
A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village
by William Hinton
new preface by Fred Magdoff

More than forty years after its initial publication, Fanshen remains the essential volume for those interested in Chinas revolutionary process of rural reform and social change. William Hintons pioneering work is a marvelous and revealing look into life in the Chinese countryside, where tradition and modernity have had both a complementary and caustic relationship since the Chinese Communist Party first came to power. It is a rare, concrete record of social struggle and transformation, as witnessed by a participant. Fanshen continues to offer profound insight into the lives of peasants and Chinas complex social processes. Rediscover this classic volume, which includes a new preface by Fred Magdoff.

The Cold War and the New Imperialism
A Global History, 19452005
by Henry Heller



The Cold War and the New Imperialism is an account of global history since 1945, which ties together the narrative of the Cold War to that of neoliberalism and the new imperialism in ways that illuminate and clarify the dilemmas of the present moment. Written for the general reader, it draws together scholarly research on a huge range of events, countries, and topics into an intelligible whole.

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Religion and the Human Prospect
by Alexander Saxton




“Religion and the Human Prospect is a work of amazing originality and profound scholarship that is an urgent tract for our time. Saxton brings us face to face with the massive worldwide religious revival of the past quarter century and the flight of major social scientists from Enlightenment values and scientific conquests. In response, he offers huge, and disconcerting, analyses of the universality of religion in human societies, of its historical role in sustaining the species, of its capacity to circumvent the most devastating intellectual criticisms, and of its current potential for accelerating environmental destruction and bringing on war. Saxton has, in previous incarnations, given us the classic proletarian novel, The Great Midland and path-breaking studies of working-class racism. His new, rigorously argued book might be his most important contribution yet. None of us can afford to ignore it.” —Robert Brenner, director, Center for Social Theory and Comparative History, UCLA, author of The Economics of Global Turbulence

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

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.

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’s 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.

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

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.

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.