1169 results for "Historical Fiction"

American folklore studies: an intellectual history

Bronner, Simon J.
Folklore. Washington Irving and Mark Twain used it in their fiction; Sigmund Freud and William James incorporated it into their work; Henry Ford and Franklin Roosevelt promoted it. Their efforts were set against the background of folklorists who brought collections of traditional tales, songs, and crafts to the attention of a modernizing society. The ideas of these folklorists influenced how Americans thought about the character of their society and the directions it was taking.Here for the first time is a history of American folkloristic ideas and the figures who shaped them. Simon Bronner puts these ideas in cultural context, showing the interconnection of folklore studies with historical events, social changes, and intellectual movements. He follows the beginnings of American folklore studies in the antiquarian literature of the 1830s through the rise of folklore societies in the 1880s to the emergence of an independent discipline in the 1950s. In this progression, Bronner identifies several major themes tying folklore studies to intellectual history: first, the unearthing of a hidden, usable past; second, the charting of time and space; and third, the structuring of communication. More than a chronological or biographical history, this book is an interpretation of folkloristic ideas and their relationship to American society.
University Press of Kansas 1986 213 pages

The future of war: a history

Freedman, Lawrence
Questions about the future of war are a regular feature of political debate, strategic analysis, and popular fiction. Where should we look for new dangers? What cunning plans might an aggressor have in mind? What are the best forms of defense? How might peace be preserved or conflict resolved? From the French rout at Sedan in 1870 to the relentless contemporary insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, Lawrence Freedman, a world-renowned military thinker, reveals how most claims from the military futurists are wrong. But they remain influential nonetheless. Freedman shows how those who have imagined future war have often had an idealized notion of it as confined, brief, and decisive, and have regularly taken insufficient account of the possibility of long wars--hence the stubborn persistence of the idea of a knockout blow, whether through a dashing land offensive, nuclear first strike, or cyberattack. He also notes the lack of attention paid to civil wars until the West began to intervene in them during the 1990s, and how the boundaries between peace and war, between the military, the civilian, and the criminal are becoming increasingly blurred. Freedman's account of a century and a half of warfare and the (often misconceived) thinking that precedes war is a challenge to hawks and doves alike, and puts current strategic thinking into a bracing historical perspective.
Public Affairs 2019 376 pages

Aurora Dawn

Herman Wouk
The publication of 'Aurora Dawn' in 1947 immediately established Herman Wouk as a novelist of exceptional literary and historical significance. Today, Aurora Dawn's themes have grown still more relevant and, in the manner of all great fiction, its characters and ironies have only been sharpened by the passage of time. Wouk's raucous satire of Manhattan's high-power elite recounts the adventures of one Andrew Reale as he struggles toward fame and fortune in the early days of radio. On the quest for wealth and prestige, ambitious young Andrew finds himself face-to-face with his own devil's bargain: forced to choose between soul and salary, true love and a strategic romance, Wouk's riotous, endearing hero learns a timeless lesson about the high cost of success in America's most extravagant metropolis.
Pocket Books 1983 224 pages

Sex in an age of technological reproduction: ICSI and Taboos

Djerassi, Carl
Carl Djerassi is one of "the fathers of the Pill"--he was awarded the National Medal of Science for the first synthesis of a steroid oral contraceptive--and has had a prolific additional career as a writer of fiction, plays, and dialogues about science. In these two plays, ICSI and Taboos , he dramatizes the social transformations and contested viewpoints created by advances in reproductive science and technology. Two of the most startling developments in contemporary science have radically disrupted the historical connection between sex and reproduction: in vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI)--an assisted reproductive technique that directly injects a single sperm into an egg. The word play ICSI --designed for classroom readings--presents, in the format of a contentious talk-show dialogue, the science of direct-injection fertilization and the ethical issues connected with it. A DVD included in the book provides video of the ICSI injection process as viewed through a microscope, to be used in performances of the ICSI one-act dialogue. Taboos, a full-length play, turns the screws on characters that reflect a polarized America. Two couples--lesbian partners and a conservative husband and wife struggling with infertility--must make choices in a drama that examines the disjunction of sexual reproduction and the physical act of sex.
University of Wisconsin Press 2008 115 pages

In the company of educated women: a history of women and higher education in America

Solomon, Barbara Miller
A leading authority in the field here provides the first synthetic and comprehensive history of women in American higher education in over fifty years. "Essential reading for feminists and educators, appealing to general readers as well, this study joins familiar material with new insights gleaned from fiction, journals and the records of deans and dons." - Publishers Weekly "An absorbing history of women's higher education in the United States." -Patricia Meyer Spacks, The New Republic "Will be invaluable to social historians or anyone interested in the education of women." -Sue Beckwith, New Directions for Women "An aid and resource for women to continue their struggle for equality, it is a work of both scholarship and inspiration." -Jurgen Herbst, Reviews in American History " An] excellent history." -Christine Bolt, Times Higher Education Supplement "A major contribution to the exploration of women's past." -Joyce Antler, American Educator "This marvelous and monumental book will be an enduring classic--a major contribution to our understanding of historical changes in the lives of American women during the past two hundred years. It is a very human book, filled with humor as well as statistics, and it will be enjoyed by a general as well as an academic audience." -Kathryn Kish Sklar
Yale Univ. Press 1985-01-01 298 pages

The Jekyll Legacy

Andre Norton,Robert Bloch
When Hester Lane arrives in England, she swiftly discovers her true identity as Hester Jekyll, niece of the respected Dr. Henry Jekyll. But the inheritance she thought she could claim easily proves to be elusive... the friends she thought she had made are suddenly untrustworthy and aloof... and she finds herself entangled in the frightening mystery of her uncle's past. And as a series of brutal deaths begins and Hester is haunted by a dark, terrifying figure, she is forced to ask a new question: Have we truly seen the last of Dr. Jekyll... or Mr. Hyde?
Ethan Ellenberg Literary Agency 2018-03-14 238 pages

The Last Jew A Novel of The Spanish Inquisition

Noah Gordon
In the year 1492, the Inquisition has all of Spain in its grip. After centuries of pogrom-like riots encouraged by the Church, the Jews - who have been an important part of Spanish life since the days of the Romans - are expelled from the country by royal edict. Many who wish to remain are intimidated by Church and Crown and become Catholics, but several hundred thousand choose to retain their religion and depart; given little time to flee, some perish even before they can escape from Spain. Yonah Toledano, the 15-year-old son of a celebrated Spanish silversmith, has seen his father and brother die during these terrible days - victims whose murders go almost unnoticed in a time of mass upheaval. Trapped in Spain by circumstances, he is determined to honor the memory of his family by remaining a Jew. On a donkey named Moise, Yonah begins a meandering journey, a young fugitive zigzagging across the vastness of Spain. Toiling at manual labor, he desperately tries to cling to his memories of a vanished culture. As a lonely shepherd on a mountaintop he hurls snatches of almost forgotten Hebrew at the stars, as an apprentice armorer he learns to fight like a Christian knight. Finally, as a man living in a time and land where danger from the Inquisition is everywhere, he deals with the questions that mark his past. How he discovers the answers, how he finds his way to a singular and strong Marrano woman, how he achieves a life with the outer persona of a respected Old Christian physician and the inner life of a secret Jew, is the fabric of this novel. The Last Jew is a glimpse of the past, an authentic tale of high adventure, and a tender and unforgettable love story. In it, Noah Gordon utilizes his greatest strengths, and the result is remarkable and moving.
St. Martin's Publishing Group 1992-08-15 352 pages

The Man with the Golden Arm

Nelson Algren
A novel of rare genius, The Man with the Golden Arm describes the dissolution of a card-dealing WWII veteran named Frankie Machine, caught in the act of slowly cutting his own heart into wafer-thin slices. For Frankie, a murder committed may be the least of his problems. The literary critic Malcolm Cowley called The Man with the Golden Arm "Algren's defense of the individual," while Carl Sandburg wrote of its "strange midnight dignity." A literary tour de force, here is a novel unlike any other, one in which drug addiction, poverty, and human failure somehow suggest a defense of human dignity and a reason for hope.
Seven Stories Press 1996-01-09 368 pages

Soul Sisters

Lesley Lokko
Soul Sisters by Lesley Lokko is a rich, intergenerational tale of love, race, power and secrets which centres on the lifelong friendship between two women: Scottish Jen McFadden and South African-born uKwemisa Mashabane, known to her friends as Kemi. Since childhood, Jen and Kemi have lived like sisters in the McFadden family home in Edinburgh, brought together by a shared family history which stretches back generations. Kemi was educated in Britain alongside Jen and the girls could not be closer; nor could they be more different in the paths they take in life. But the ties that bind them are strong and complicated, and a dark family secret exists in their joint history. Solam Matsunyane is from South Africa's black political elite. Handsome, charismatic, charming, and a successful young banker, he meets both Kemi and Jen on a trip to London and sweeps them off their feet. Partly influenced by her interest in Solam, and partly on a journey of self-discovery, Kemi, now 31, decides to return to the country of her birth for the first time. Jen, seeking an escape from her father's overbearing presence, decides to go with her. In Johannesburg, it becomes clear that Solam is looking for the perfect wife to facilitate his soaring political ambitions. But who will he choose? All the while, the real story behind the two families' connection threatens to reveal itself - with devastating consequences . . .
Macmillan Publishers Limited 2021-07-22 432 pages

The Golden Shrine

Harry Turtledove
Continuing the alternate-Bronze-Age epic begun in Harry Turtledove's Beyond the Gap: The glaciers came and covered the world with ice. Now they are in retreat. North of the city of Nidaros, north of the forest, north of the steppes where the nomadic Bizogots hunt, a gap has opened in the ice-wall. And down through that gap come the men who call themselves "Rulers." Their terrifying cavalry rides wooly mammoths. Their bows can shoot arrows farther than those of the southerners. Their wizards wield power that neither the shamans of the Bizogots nor the wizards of Raumsdalian Empire can match, a magic that can melt the stone beneath a man's feet, call down blasting fire from the sky, or decimate a tribe with plagues that have no cure. Scattered survivors of the Bizogot tribes hide from the Rulers. The Empire is shattered. The feckless Emperor Sigvat II is in hiding. Against the Rulers stands Count Hamnet Thyssen and his small band of friends. Jarl Trasamund of the Three Tusk Bizogots. The adventurer Ulric Skakki. And, most important, Marcovefa, the female shaman of a cannibal tribe that lives atop the Glacier itself. Marcovefa has magic that the Rulers cannot counter. But there are many Rulers, and they have many wizards. Marcovefa is but one. Perhaps Hamnet and his allies can save their lands from the Rulers. But first they must seek out the legendary Golden Shrine – and the Golden Shrine has not been seen by human eyes since the time before the glaciers came.
Macmillan 2010-11-02 438 pages

Opening Atlantis

Harry Turtledove
Atlantis lies between Europe and the East Coast of Terranova. For many years, this land of opportunity lured dreamers from around the globe with its natural resources, offering a new beginning for those willing to brave the wonders of the unexplored territory. It is a new world indeed: ripe for discovery, for plunder, and eventually for colonization?but will its settlers destroy the very wonders they had journeyed to Atlantis to find?
National Geographic Books 2008-12-02 528 pages

The Betsy

Harold Robbins
Angelo Perino lives life on the bleeding edge of speed and success--a race car driver of humble origins who dominates on and off the track. Loren Hardeman is the ruthless patriarch of an auto empire, fighting to keep his family from self-destructing under the weight of its own greed and decadence. The two men, bound by their passionate vision as well as their charismatic power over women, come together to create the world's fastest, most advanced automobile, "The Betsy"--named after Hardeman's great-granddaughter, who has captured Perino's heart. Their creation threatens to disrupt the industry, whose power brokers are determined to prevent it no matter the cost. This pits Hardeman's own grandson, the company's current CEO, against him, revealing the depths to which Hardeman went to build his empire--including murder, incestuous adultery, and organized crime. As the family feud escalates, Perino makes his move to conquer Hardeman's empire... as well as his great-granddaughter. From master storyteller Harold Robbins, The Betsy pulls back the curtain on the glittering world of fame, fortune, and passion of the auto industry, giving a look into a world riddled with scandal, graft, family drama, and product recalls.
Oghma Creative Media 2019-06-18 396 pages