History

After the Boom in Tombstone and Jerome, Arizona by Eric L. Clements Focusing on two Arizona towns that had their origins in mining bonanzas - Tombstone and Jerome - this book offers a rare study dissecting the process of bust itself - the reasons and manners in which these towns declined as the mining booms ended.

Arizona by Thomas E. Sheridan Hailed as a model state history thanks to Thomas E. Sheridan's thoughtful analysis and lively interpretation of the people and events shaping the Grand Canyon State, Arizona has become a standard in the field. Now, just in time for Arizona's centennial, Sheridan has revised and expanded this already top-tier state history to incorporate events and changes that have taken place in recent years. Addressing contemporary issues like land use, water rights, dramatic population increases, suburban sprawl, and the US-Mexico border, the new material makes the book more essential than ever. It successfully places the forty-eighth state's history within the context of national and global events. No other book on Arizona history is as integrative or comprehensive. From stone spear points more than 10,000 years old to the boom and bust of the housing market in the first decade of this century, Arizona: A History explores the ways in which Native Americans, Hispanics, African Americans, Asians, and Anglos have inhabited and exploited Arizona. Sheridan, a life-long resident of the state, puts forth new ideas about what a history should be, embracing a holistic view of the region and shattering the artificial line between prehistory and history. Other works on Arizona's history focus on government, business, or natural resources, but this is the only book to meld the ethnic and cultural complexities of the state's history into the main flow of the story. A must read for anyone interested in Arizona's past or present, this extensive revision of the classic work will appeal to students, scholars, and general readers alike.

Levi's and Lace by Jan Cleere Award-winning author Jan Cleere brings her exceptional skills in research and writing to a new book about more than 35 heroic women of Arizona. From teachers and entrepreneurs to artists and healers, Cleere provides an informative text that highlights historical Hispanic, African American, Native American, and Anglo women who made their mark in the intriguing history of our state.

Rim to River by Tom Zoellner Tom Zoellner walked across the length of Arizona to come to terms with his home state. But the trip revealed more mountains behind the mountains. Rim to River is the story of this extraordinary journey through redrock country, down canyons, up mesas, and across desert plains to the obscure valley in Mexico that gave the state its enigmatic name. The trek is interspersed with incisive essays that pick apart the distinctive cultural landscape of Arizona: the wine-colored pinnacles and complex spirituality of Navajoland, the mind-numbing stucco suburbs, desperate border crossings, legislative skullduggery, extreme politics, billion-dollar copper ventures, dehydrating rivers, retirement kingdoms, old-time foodways, ghosts of old wars, honky-tonk dreamers, murder mysteries, and magical Grand Canyon reveries. In Rim to River, Zoellner does for Arizona what Larry McMurtry did for Texas in In a Narrow Grave and what Wallace Stegner did for Utah in Mormon Country: paint an enduring portrait of a misunderstood American state. An indictment, a love letter, and a homecoming story all at once.  

A Concise History of the World by J. M. Roberts When Oxford published J. M. Roberts's History of the World last year, it was immediately acclaimed as a classic. Writing in The Observer, A. J. P. Taylor called it "a stupendous achievement...the unrivalled world history of our day." The Christian Science Monitor greeted it as a "landmark book....Highly readable...intelligently organized, insightful, and balanced." And The Sunday Telegraph declared, "There is nothing better of its kind." Now we proudly present the new, conveniently sized, and remarkably affordable Concise History of the World. Vividly written and beautifully illustrated, it brings the outstanding breadth of scholarship and international scope of the larger History of the World within the grasp of every home, school, and library. Completely up-to-date, comprehensive yet succinct, it accompanies readers on an amazing journey from the first appearance of the species Homo sapiens up to the bloodshed in the former Yugoslavia and the latest chapter in the exploration of space. Informative, beautifully rendered maps, photographs of key archaeological finds, and stunning reproductions of important artwork (some in full color) bring the past to life as Roberts surveys the major events, developments and personalities that have shaped the civilizations of the world. From the arts, politics and religion to scientific and technical breakthroughs, Roberts tells the story of the growing power of humans to remake their world and control their own destiny. Effortlessly drawing together the great themes of civilization with details from everyday life, he brings readers face to face with the exciting, dramatic, often tragic story that is the history of the world. Following in the international success of Roberts's History of the World, the highly readable Concise History of the World is an indispensable reference that will inform, enlighten, and entertain readers for many years to come.

The Undivided Past by David Cannadine From one of our most acclaimed historians, a wise and provocative call to re-examine the way we look at the past: not merely as the story of incessant conflict between groups but also of human solidarity throughout the ages. Investigating the six most salient categories of human identity, difference, and confrontation--religion, nation, class, gender, race, and civilization--David Cannadine questions just how determinative each of them has really been. For while each has motivated people dramatically at particular moments, they have rarely been as pervasive, as divisive, or as important as is suggested by such simplified polarities as "us versus them," "black versus white," or "the clash of civilizations." For most of recorded time, these identities have been more fluid and these differences less unbridgeable than political leaders, media commentators--and some historians--would have us believe. Throughout history, in fact, fruitful conversations have continually taken place across these allegedly impermeable boundaries of identity: the world, as Cannadine shows, has never been simply and starkly divided between any two adversarial solidarities but always an interplay of overlapping constituencies. Yet our public discourse is polarized more than ever around the same simplistic divisions, and Manichean narrative has become the default mode to explain everything that is happening in the world today. With wide-ranging erudition, David Cannadine compellingly argues against the pervasive and pernicious idea that conflict is the inevitable state of human affairs. The Undivided Past is an urgently needed work of history, one that is also about the present--and the future. 

The Weather Factor by Erik Durschmied