Yale University Press

"Historian Alejandra Dubcovsky tells a story of war, slavery, loss, remembrance, and the women whose resilience and resistance transformed the colonial South. In exploring their lives she rewrites early American history, challenging the established male-centered narrative. Dubcovsky reconstructs the lives of Native women -- Timucua, Apalachee, Chacato, and Guale -- to show how they made claims to protect their livelihoods, bodies, and families. Through...

"A groundbreaking examination of polygamy showing that monogamy was not the only form marriage took in early America. Today we tend to think of polygamy as an unnatural marital arrangement characteristic of fringe sects or uncivilized peoples. Historian Sarah Pearsall shows us that polygamy's surprising history encompasses numerous colonies, indigenous communities, and segments of the American nation. Polygamy-as well as the fight against it-illuminates...

A lively and thought-provoking tour of the intertwined histories of art and walking. -- from Amazon.

"Ramesses II ruled the Nile Valley and the wider Egyptian empire from 1279 to 1213 B.C., one of the longest reigns in pharaonic history. He was a cultural innovator, a relentless self-promoter, and an astute diplomat--the peace treaty signed after the Battle of Kadesh was the first in recorded history. He outbuilt every other Egyptian pharaoh, leaving behind the temples of Abu Simbel; the great hypostyle hall of Karnak; the tomb for his wife Nefertari;...

"Isaac Murphy, born enslaved in 1861, still reigns as one of the greatest jockeys in American history. Black jockeys like Murphy were at the top of the most popular sport in America at the end of the nineteenth century. They were internationally famous, the first African American superstar athletes--and with wins in three Kentucky Derbies and countless other prestigious races, Murphy was the greatest of them all. At the same time, he lived through...

“Writers write. They can’t help it. They can’t not.” In this spirited book, the revered cultural critic Greil Marcus explains his compulsion as a yearning for fun, for play, and, most of all, to discover—to feel the moment when a creation speaks in its own voice. Marcus reflects on over half a century spent honing the art of attention—from his California childhood, overshadowed by mystery and silence surrounding his father’s death, to...

A spirited dive into the life and career of a performer, writer, and director who dominated twentieth-century American comedy --from Amazon.

"Claude Monet, the leading figure in the Impressionist movement, was also a great collector. He lavished great attention on his acquisitions, whether selecting works to buy or taking care of the paintings given to him by his artist friends. He was capable of spending very considerable sums to obtain major works by the likes of Renoir or Cézanne. By dint of paintstaking research worthy of a complex police investigation, Marianne Mathieu and Dominique...

"Seeking to bring Gallic sophistication and worldly elegance into their galleries and drawing rooms, wealthy Americans of the late 19th and early 20th centuries collected the work of William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) in record numbers. This revelatory volume offers an in-depth exploration of Bouguereau's overwhelming popularity in turn-of-the-century America and the ways that his work--widely known from reviews, exhibitions, and inexpensive reproductions--resonated...