By Title

Bahamian Society After Emancipation
Saunders, Gail

Subject: Caribbean

This book examines the social aspects of Bahamian society between the early 19th- and mid-20th- centuries, advancing our knowledge of Bahamian history and helping to locate the Bahamas within the regional and historical context of the West Indies. It shows …

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Battleship Vieques: Puerto Rico from World War II to the Korean War
Ayala, César J. and José L. Bolívar

Subject: Latin America, Caribbean, U.S. History

Outstanding Book of the Year, Choice Magazine

The demonstrations that resulted in the U.S. Navy’s being forced out of Vieques in 2003 were the result of the island’s occupation during and after World War II. After German …

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The Bear and the Porcupine: The US and Mexico
Davidow, Jeffrey

Subject: Latin America, U.S. History

Jeffrey Davidow coined the phrase “the bear and the porcupine”—which has now entered Mexican political discourse—to describe the difficult relationship between the hypersensitive Mexican “porcupine” and the “insensitive” American bear.

In this revised and expanded second edition, Davidow picks up …

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Beauty in Arabic Culture
Behrens-Abouseif, Doris

Subject: Middle East, Religion

Arabic Islamic thought allowed the development of autonomous norms of beauty that were independent of moral or religious criteria. The artistic work was viewed separately from the divine scheme and was free of metaphysical associations.

Beauty, however, had a significant …

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Between Pit and Pedestal: Women in the Middle Ages
Williams, Marty; Echols, Anne

Subject: European History, Women's History

“A fascinating and highly readable survey.” — Library Journal

“Crusader and concubine, laundress and troubadour, mystic and midwife and miniaturist, beguine and bondwoman and the bersatrix rocking the cradle of kings — all find their rightful place in this …

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Beyond Fragmentation: Perspectives on Caribbean History
de Barros, Juanita, Audra Diptee and David Trotman (edited by Franklin Knight)

Subject: Caribbean

In this book, leading scholars pull together some of the most recent research on the key themes of Caribbean history: slavery, the transition to freedom, colonialism, and decolonization. Although all parts of the Caribbean experienced these phases, the manner in …

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The Biography of Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua: His Passage from Slavery to Freedom in Africa and America
Law, Robin and Paul E. Lovejoy

Subject: Africa, U.S. History, Latin America, Caribbean, History of Slavery

This is the biography of an American slave who was born in Africa. His adventures took him to Rio de Janeiro, New York, Boston, Canada, and Britain; he knew Arabic, Dendi, probably Hausa, Portuguese, English, and French. In recent times …

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Bitter Bonds: A Colonial Divorce Drama of the Seventeenth Century
Blussé, Leonard (translated by Diane Webb)

Subject: World History, European History, Asian History, Women's History

Book of the Year – Times Literary Supplement

In seventeenth-century Batavia, Cornelia van Nijenroode, the daughter of a geisha and a Dutch merchant in Japan, was known as “otemba” (meaning “untamable”), which made her a heroine to …

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The Bitter Legacy: African Slavery Past and Present
Klein, Martin, Alice Bellagamba, Sandra Greene, Editors

Subject: Africa, Slavery

This collection of essays explores the ways that memories of African slavery and the slave trade persist into the present, as well as the effect those memories have in shaping political, social, economic, and religious behavior today. The …

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Black Rebels: African-Caribbean Freedom Fighters in Jamaica
Zips, Werner (preface by Franklin Knight; translated by Shelley Frisch)

Subject: Africa, Caribbean

This book chronicles the struggles of African-Americans who escaped from slavery and developed autonomous, “maroon” societies beyond the fringes of the colonial system, demonstrating the vulnerability of colonial rule and the vitality of black resistance in the Caribbean.

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A Black Woman’s Civil War Memoirs
Taylor, Susie King (edited by Patricia W. Romero and Willie Lee Rose)

Subject: U.S. History

“These are the memoirs of a black woman who was born a slave, who had the good fortune to gain her freedom early in the war, with the education and ability to observe and the will to recall in later …

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A Black Woman’s Odyssey Through Russia and Jamaica: The Narrative of Nancy Prince
Prince, Nancy (introduction by Ronald Walters; edited by Patricia Romero)

Subject: Africa, Europe, U.S. History, Caribbean, History of Slavery, Women's History

Memories of Africa, pre-civil war New England, political turmoil in Russia, the end of slavery in Jamaica, and Caribbean pirates; an intrepid black woman experiences many turning points in world history.

Nancy Prince paints a blunt picture of the struggle …

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Blacks in Bondage: Letters of American Slaves
Starobin, Robert S., editor

Subject: U.S. History, Slavery

Written while enslaved or shortly after escape, the words recorded here express complexity and diversity of thought and feeling about slavery and being black. Blacks in Bondage is a landmark document in understanding the human side of history.

  …

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Bon Papa: Haiti’s Golden Years
Diederich, Bernard

Subject: Caribbean

This is Haiti, pearl of the Antilles, during the presidency of General Paul E. (Bon Papa) Magloire (1950-56). It was an exciting time, when Haitians stood tall, and their country flourished, as reported in the pages of the Haiti Sun

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The Book of Strangers: Medieval Arabic Graffiti on the Theme of Nostalgia
Crone, Patricia and Shmuel Moreh, editors

Subject: Middle East

A tenth-century Iraqi longing for the happy days of the past took to collecting verse graffiti left behind by travelers and others who did not feel at home where they were in order to console himself. Some of the graffiti …

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Boricuas in Gotham: Puerto Ricans in the Making of Modern New York City
Haslip-Viera, Gabriel, Angelo Falcón and Félix V. Matos-Rodríguez, editors

Subject: Latin America, Caribbean, U.S. History

This new and very important collection of essays reinterprets and updates the history of New York’s Puerto Rican community and its leaders from the beginnings of the great migration in the 1940s to the present time. The collection also honors …

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The Bork Hearings: Highlights From the Most Controversial Judicial Confirmation Battle in U.S. History
Shaffer, Ralph E., editor

Subject: U.S. History

The Bork hearings marked the beginning of a trend toward ideological evaluation of Supreme Court judicial nominees. These were the first and last hearings to feature such extensive discussion of legal and constitutional issues, as presidents quickly discovered that a …

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Born at the Battlefield of Gettysburg: An African-American Family Saga
Rinaldi, Harriette C.

Subject: African American History, Women's History, History of Slavery

“Tremendous! Part history, part detective story, and wholly good.” — Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

The lives of Victor Chambers—who was born on the battlefield at Gettysburg to a runaway slave and later became an artist in Providence—and …

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Brown v. Board of Education: A Documentary History
Whitman, Mark

Subject: U.S. History

Fiftieth Anniversary Edition

This critical contribution marks the fiftieth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. The book lets the reader come to grips with the fascinating record of a case in which facts have made a more thrilling …

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Busha’s Mistress: A Stirring Romance from the Days of Slavery in Jamaica
Perkins, Cyrus Francis (edited by Paul E. Lovejoy, Verene Shepherd and David Trotman)

Subject: Caribbean, World Literature

This is one of the earliest Caribbean novels written in English. The novel tells the story of Catherine, the slave concubine of a cruel white overseer on Greenside Estate, near Falmouth, whose ruins today attest to the tensions of a …

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By the Waters of Manhattan
Reznikoff, Charles (introduction by Milton Hindus)

Subject: Europe, U.S. History, World Literature

This is the first novel of Charles Reznikoff, one of the outstanding American poets of this century. It tells the story of a courageous woman in Russia who immigrates to America and starts a family and business in New York’s …

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