The Winchester Biography Gets a New Cover!

Did you watch the Winchester movie that came out in February? Or did you read this interesting article about her house? Or lastly, did you read Mary Jo Ignoffo’s book Captive of the Labyrinth: Sarah L. Winchester, Heiress to the Rifle Fortune?

If you haven’t done the latter, then you should now, because not only is it interesting but the book received a new cover! Check it out below.

“Captive of the Labyrinth is an excellent read. Ignoffo finally sets the record straight on one of the most fascinating and misunderstood women in California history. A real page-turner!”—Gary F. Kurutz, California State Library Director of Special Collections

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It feels like the new cover is shrouded in mystery like Sarah Winchester was! For those who don’t know much about Sarah Winchester, here’s a little taste to what you can find inside the book.

$24.95 • 978-0-8262-1983-1 • paperback • 29 illus.

Since her death in 1922, Sarah Winchester has been perceived as a mysterious, haunted figure. After inheriting a vast fortune upon the death of her husband in 1881, she bought a simple farmhouse and turned it into what it is today. A hostile press cast Sarah as the conscience of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company—a widow shouldering responsibility for the many deaths caused by the rifle that brought her riches. She was accused of being a ghost-obsessed spiritualist, and to this day it is largely believed that the extensive construction she executed on her San José house was done to appease the ghouls around her.

“While the film and the biography couldn’t be less alike, both reach similar conclusions about Ms. Winchester: She was considerably more heroic, and considerably less nuts, than she has sometimes been painted. In Ms. Ignoffo’s book, Ms. Winchester is a savvy businesswoman; a beloved employer; and a generous sister, aunt and philanthropist. In “Winchester,” she’s a tough heroine out to protect her family and home from evil spirits and greedy company executives alike.”–New York Time’s review

End of Summer Book Special!

Sadly, the fun in the sun is coming to an end! Don’t be too sad though because we have a 40% off end of summer book special with four of our literature and art books!

Use code EOS2018 on our website or by calling (800)-621-2736.
Offer expires September 30th, 2018.

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American Tragedian: The Life of Edwin Booth by Daniel J. Watermeier

Regularly $55 • Now $33 • 978-0-8262-2048-6 • hardcover • 25 illus.

“One may say that any life or any company is without consequence, but well-done biographies and performance histories, such as Edwin Booth and American Tragedian, remind theatre historians that, without them, further histories will also suffer in consequence.”—Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism

 

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Joyce’s City: History, Politics, and Life in Dubliners by Jack Morgan

Regularly $60 • Now $36 • 978-0-8262-2045-5 • hardcover

In 1914, James Joyce published Dubliners, a collection of short stories depicting life in Dublin at the turn of the century. One hundred years later, readers and critics alike continue to return to this book, Joyce’s first major work. One of these critics is Jack Morgan, whose study Joyce’s Cityoffers refreshing readings on the occasion of the Dubliners centennial.

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The New Woman Gothic: Reconfigurations of Distress by Patricia Murphy

Regularly $50 • Now $30 • 978-0-8262-2067-7 • hardcover

“The New Woman Gothic is a well-written and fascinating study. Murphy makes compelling arguments throughout and opens space for further exploration into New Woman Gothic fiction.”—Studies in the Novel

 

 

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Crossing Borders Through Folklore: African American Women’s Fiction and Art by Alma Jean Billingslea-Brown

Regularly $40 • Now $24 • 978-0-8262-1199-6 • hardcover • 15 illus.

“Overall, her navigation of the borders between visual art and literature, her ability to mediate between the masculinist impulse of the black arts movement and feminism, as well as her juxtaposition of European/mainstream art and the aesthetics and politics of minority art, provides a constant argument for the folk aesthetic, which she positions as the ‘fecunding matrix’ that allows artists to traverse the shifting slopes of identity politics and avant-garde asthetics that comprise the postmodernist art of the 1990s.”—Novel, A Forum on Fiction

Robert H. Ferrell, 1921-2018

We are sorry to announce the death of author and American historian, Robert H. Ferrell, who died on August 8th at the age of 97. The New York Times gives a very nice account of his life in their obituary.

Today, we feature a tribute to Ferrell from friends and former students in the form of a book the University of Missouri Press published several years ago: Presidents, Diplomats, and Other Mortals, edited by J. Garry Clifford and Theodore A. Wilson.

The Ferrell contribution rests on the special qualities of his scholarship, expressed with grace and economy, and often with humor, over the past half century. To say that he is a prolific scholar does not do justice to the stream of books—monographs, surveys, diaries, memoirs, texts, and documents—he has written or edited since the publication of his first book in 1952. They number more than fifty…

Yet it is arguable in light of the recollections of his students that his influence as a teacher may have been more significant than his accomplishments as a writer.—Lawrence Kaplan

The authors of this tribute sought to exemplify the scholarly standards of narrative diplomatic history espoused by Ferrell—especially the notion that historians should attempt to explain fully the circumstances, opportunities, and pressures that influence foreign policy decisions while remembering that historical actors cannot with certainty predict the outcomes of their actions.

Presidents, Diplomats, and Other Mortals
J. Garry Clifford, Theodore A. Wilson
9780826217479 • hardcover • 352 pp. • $50.00

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Robert Ferrell wrote and edited more than 60 (!) books in his lifetime and published more than 20 with the University of Missouri Press. Here are a just a few:

               

               

Harry S. Truman: A Life
97808262105000 • paperback • 520 pp. • 32 illus. • $29.95

The Autobiography of Harry S. Truman
9780826214454 • paperback • 160 pp. • 32 illus. • $19.95

Five Days in October: The Lost Battalion of World War I
9780826220738 • paperback • 152 pp. • 17 illus. • $19.95

Collapse at Meuse-Argonne: The Failure of the Missouri-Kansas Division
9780826221421 • paperback • 176 pp. • 21 illus. • $24.95

Harry S. Truman and the Cold War Revisionists
9780826220608 • paperback • 160 pp. • $19.95

Dear Bess: The Letters from Harry to Bess Truman, 1910-1959
9780826212030 • paperback • 608 pp. • 55 illus. • $34.95

Early Missouri

Rich details of early life in Missouri’s river valleys define two of our newly available paperbacks.

$36.95 • ISBN: 978-0-8262-2132-2

François Vallé (1716–1783) was born in Beauport, Canada and immigrated to Upper Louisiana as a penniless common laborer sometime during the early 1740s. Settling in Ste. Genevieve, he engaged in agriculture, lead mining, and the Indian trade, and ultimately became the wealthiest and most powerful individual in Upper Louisiana, although he never learned to read or write.

Based entirely on primary source documents, Carl Ekberg’s François Vallé and His World: Upper Louisiana Before Lewis and Clark traces the life of Vallé, his family, and the lives of his slaves. In doing so, Ekberg provides a portrait of Missouri’s very first black families, something that has never before been attempted.

$39.95 • ISBN: 978-0-8262-2143-8

The mass migrations to the United States from Europe that began in the 1830s were strongly influenced by what is known today as emigration literature—travelers’ writings about their experiences in the New World. Gottfried Duden’s account, published in 1829, was among the most influential of these books. Written as a collection of letters, the idyllic descriptions of pioneer farming in Missouri made it an instant success that attracted thousands of Germans to the Midwest, particularly to Missouri. This edited and annotated translation is the first complete version to be published in English.

The Mississippi-Missouri valley reminded Duden of his native Rhineland where the rivers facilitated trade and transportation, and fertile river bottom land offered the perfect environment for agriculture. Duden farmed the land he bought during his stay in Missouri, and he includes meticulous descriptions of clearing, fencing, and harvesting. His pro-emigration bias and his ability to hire help on his farm made his view of the farmer’s life more idyllic than practical. Many would-be gentlemen farmers, inspired by his book to come to Missouri, found pioneer farming more strenuous than they had expected.

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FRANÇOIS VALLÉ AND HIS WORLD
Upper Louisiana before Lewis and Clark
Carl J. Ekberg

Winner, Kemper and Leila Williams Prize in Louisiana History

$36.95 | ISBN: 978-0-8262-2132-2 |  336 pp. | 16 illus. | 6.13 x 9.25

REPORT ON A JOURNEY TO THE WESTERN STATES OF NORTH AMERICA
and a Stay of Several Years Along the Missouri (During the Years 1824-1827)
By Gottfried Duden; James W. Goodrich, General Editor
George H. Kellner, Elsa Nagel, Adolf E. Schroeder, and W. M. Senner, Editors and Translators

$39.95| ISBN: 978-0-8262-2143-8 | 400 pp. | 6 x 9

François Vallé and Report on a Journey are both available at Amazon and IndieBound,  and on our website, or by calling 800-621-2736.

Intellectual History Book Special!

It’s our back-to-school special with a 40% discount on four of our intellectual history books!

Use code IH2018 on our website or by calling (800)-621-2736.
Offer expires August 31st, 2018.

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The Eric Voegelin Reader: Politics, HIstory, Consciousness
Selected and Edited by Charles R. Embry and Glenn Hughes

Regularly $50 • Now $30 • 978-0-8262-2134-6 • hardcover • 1 chart

“The achievement of this volume is superb. Through a selection of his writings perfectly chosen, it makes manifest to everyone the preeminent place of Eric Voegelin in the intellectual landscape of the twentieth century.”–Tilo Schabert, University of Erlangen, author of How World Politics Is Made

Recently, an article came out from the VoegelinView about The Eric Voegelin Reader, called, Establishing True Community in Philia Among Students: Teaching The Eric Voegelin Reader. If this book interests you, then definitely read this article too!

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John Henry Wigmore and the Rules of Evidence:
The Hidden Origins of Modern Law by Andrew Porwancher

Regularly $40 • Now $24 • 978-0-8262-2086-8 • hardcover • 5 illus.

“[The book] will become the standard work on the subject, and more than that, will contribute to emerging clarity in the field of early twentieth-century legal ideas more broadly.”–Noah Feldman, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, author of Cool War: The Future of Global Competition

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A New Basis for Animal Ethics: Telos and Common Sense by Bernard E. Rollin

Regularly $40 • Now $24 • 978-0-8262-2101-8 • hardcover

“Possibly the most important book on animal welfare written to date. In exquisite chapter after chapter Rollin presents the philosophical background of what telos is, why it matters and demonstrates with stories, anecdotes, and data, why common sense is an important basis for understanding animals, their needs and their wants. Rollin has the ability to speak to each reader as if s/he is the only person he is talking to. He is a remarkable talent and brilliant teacher. A great read, a must read.”–Alan Goldberg, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health Founding Director Emeritus of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, Berman Institute of Bioethics

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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Challenge of Religion by Johannes Morsink

Regularly $65 • Now $39 • 978-0-8262-2084-4 • hardcover • 3 illus., 2 tables

“Johannes Morsink is one of the rare scholars who combines astonishing erudition with an ability to focus on our biggest and most pressing contemporary problems. He has succeeded in creating a universal narrative of global human rights accessible to believers and non-believers alike. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Challenge of Religion is an important, magisterial, timely and highly relevant work for both theorists and practitioners of global politics.”–Anne-Marie Slaughter, President and CEO, New America Foundation