Harvard University Press - BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Democracy's Prisoner

Sat, 31 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Ernest Freeberg
In 1920, socialist leader Eugene V. Debs ran for president while serving a ten-year jail term for speaking against America's role in World War I. In this book, Freeberg shows that the campaign to send Debs from an Atlanta jailhouse to the White House was part of a wider national debate over the right to free speech in wartime. In this story of democracy on trial, Freeberg excavates an extraordinary episode in the history of one of America's most prized ideals.
Hardcover May 2008

Papers of John Adams, Volume 14, 27 October 1782 - 31 May 1783

Sat, 31 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

John Adams
Gregg L. Lint, Volume editor
C. James Taylor, Volume editor
Hobson Woodward, Volume editor
Margaret A. Hogan, Volume editor
Mary T. Claffey, Volume editor
Sara B. Sikes, Volume editor
Judith S. Graham, Volume editor
John Adams reached Paris on October 26, 1782, for the final act of the American Revolution: the peace treaty. This volume chronicles his role in the negotiations and the decision to conclude a peace separate from France.
Hardcover May 2008

Lives of the Popes, Volume 1, Antiquity

Thu, 1 May 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Bartolomeo Platina
Edited and translated by Anthony F. D'Elia
Imprisoned for conspiring against Pope Paul II Platina (1421–1481) returned to favor under Pope Sixtus IV, and composed his most famous work, a biographical compendium of the Roman popes from St. Peter down to his own time. The work critically synthesized a wide range of sources and became the standard reference work on papal history for early modern Europe. This edition contains the first complete translation into English and an improved Latin text.
Hardcover May 2008

City Between Worlds

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Leo Ou-fan Lee
Hong Kong is perched on the fault line between China and the West, a Special Administrative Region of the PRC. Lee offers an insider’s view of Hong Kong, capturing the history and culture that make his densely packed home city so different from its generic neighbors.
Hardcover April 2008

Einstein and Oppenheimer

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Silvan S. Schweber
Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer, two iconic scientists of the twentieth century, belonged to different generations, with the boundary marked by the advent of quantum mechanics. By exploring how these men differed—in their worldview, in their work, and in their day—this book provides powerful insights into the lives of two critical figures and into the scientific culture of their times.
Hardcover April 2008

How To Do Biography

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Nigel Hamilton
Following his recent Biography: A Brief History (from Harvard), award-winning biographer and teacher Nigel Hamilton tackles the practicalities of doing biography in the first succinct primer to elucidate the tools of the biographer’s craft.
Hardcover April 2008

Mean and Lowly Things

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Kate Jackson
In 2005 Jackson ventured into the remote swamp forests of the northern Congo to collect reptiles and amphibians. This book is Jackson’s unvarnished account of her research on the front lines of the global biodiversity crisis—coping with interminable delays in obtaining permits, learning to outrun advancing army ants, subsisting on a diet of Spam and manioc, and ultimately falling in love with the strangely beautiful flooded forest.
Hardcover April 2008

Theodor W. Adorno

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Detlev Claussen
Translated by Rodney Livingstone
This book gives us our first clear look at how the man and his moment met to create “critical theory.” An intimate picture of the quintessential twentieth-century transatlantic intellectual, the book is also a window on the cultural ferment of Adorno’s day—and its ongoing importance in our own.
Hardcover April 2008

The Word of the Lord Is Upon Me

Fri, 4 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Jonathan Rieder
Taking us deep into King’s backstage discussions with colleagues, his preaching to black congregations, his exhortations in mass meetings, and his crossover addresses to whites, Rieder tells a powerful story about the tangle of race, talk, and identity in the life of one of America’s greatest moral and political leaders.
Hardcover April 2008

The Road to Dallas

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT

David Kaiser
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy was an appalling and grisly conspiracy. In this unvarnished story, Kaiser shows that the events of November 22, 1963, cannot be understood without fully grasping the two larger stories of which they were a part: the U.S. government’s campaign against organized crime, which began in the late 1950s and accelerated dramatically under Robert Kennedy; and the furtive quest of two administrations to eliminate Fidel Castro. This book brings to light the complete, frequently shocking, story of the JFK assassination and its aftermath.
Hardcover March 2008

The Impulse to Preserve

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Robert Gardner
Foreword by Charles Simic
In The Impulse to Preserve, filmmaker Robert Gardner reflects on a life spent observing, recording, and illuminating the human condition in some of the most remote regions of the world. Originally published in 2006, this lavishly illustrated book is now distributed by the Peabody Museum Press.
Hardcover March 2008

Big Enough to Be Inconsistent

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 EST

George M. Fredrickson
This book focuses on the most controversial aspect of Lincoln’s thought and politics—his attitudes and actions regarding slavery and race. Drawing attention to the limitations of Lincoln’s judgment and policies without denying his magnitude, the book provides the most comprehensive and even-handed account available of Lincoln’s contradictory treatment of black Americans in matters of slavery in the South and basic civil rights in the North.
Hardcover February 2008

Lamentations of Youth

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST

Gershom Scholem
Edited and translated by Anthony David Skinner
For decades, Scholem kept these diaries locked away. They remained unread by others until the meticulously edited German edition appeared in 2002. Lamentations of Youth gives insight into a crucial stage in Scholem's life, a time of incubation and growth for his later ideas, and makes available the diaries where Scholem forged his anarchic orthodoxy and chronicled his intense relationship with Walter Benjamin.
Hardcover January 2008

Out of the Alleyway

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST

Eve Zimmerman
In this critical study of Nakagami's life and oeuvre, Zimmerman delves into the writer's literary world, exploring the genres, forms, and themes with which Nakagami worked and experimented. These chapters trace the biographical thread running through his works while foregrounding such diverse facets of his writing as his interest in the modern possibilities of traditional myths and forms of storytelling, his deployment of shocking tropes and images, and his crafting of a unique poetic language.
Hardcover January 2008

Commentaries, Volume 2, Books III-IV

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST

Pius II
Edited by Margaret Meserve
Edited by Marcello Simonetta
The Renaissance popes were among the most enlightened and generous patrons of arts and letters in the Europe of their day. The diaries of Pius II give us an intimate glimpse of the life and thought of one of the greatest of the Renaissance popes. Commentaries, the only autobiography ever written by a pope, was composed in elegant humanistic Latin modeled on Caesar and Cicero. This edition contains a fresh Latin text based on the last manuscript written in Pius's lifetime and an updated translation.
Hardcover November 2007

Flaubert

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST

Frederick Brown
Brown brings his subject remarkably and fully to life, illuminating not only the novelist but also his milieu--the Paris and Normandy of the revolution of 1848 and of the Second Empire--with arresting clarity and a deepening sense of Flaubert's time and place. Flaubert is a sophisticated, thorough, and utterly absorbing re-creation of the life and times of the man who is arguably the architect of the modern novel.
Paperback November 2007

LBJ

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:00 EST

Randall B. Woods
A distinguished historian of twentieth-century America, Woods offers a wholesale reappraisal and sweeping, authoritative account of the life of one of the most fascinating and complex U.S. presidents.
Paperback November 2007

My Dearest Friend

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EDT

With a Foreword by Joseph J. Ellis
Abigail Adams
John Adams
Edited by Margaret A. Hogan
Edited by C. James Taylor
Foreword by Joseph J. Ellis
In 1762, John Adams penned a flirtatious note to "Miss Adorable," the 17-year-old Abigail Smith. In 1801, Abigail wrote to wish her husband John a safe journey as he headed home to Quincy after serving as president of the nation he helped create. The letters that span these nearly forty years form the most significant correspondence--and reveal one of the most intriguing and inspiring partnerships--in American history.
Hardcover October 2007

The Highly Civilized Man

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:00:00 EDT

Dane Kennedy
Though best remembered as an adventurer who entered Mecca in disguise and sought the source of the White Nile, Richard Burton contributed so forcefully to his generation that he provides us with a singularly panoramic perspective on the world of the Victorians. Engagingly written and vigorously argued, this book is an important contribution to our understanding of a remarkable man and a crucial era.
Paperback October 2007

From Foot Soldier to Finance Minister

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EDT

Richard J. Smethurst
From his birth into the lowest stratum of the samurai class to his assassination at the hands of right-wing militarists, Takahashi Korekiyo (1854-1936) lived through tumultuous times that shaped the course of modern Japan. This engaging biography underscores the profound influence of the charismatic seven-time finance minister on the political and economic development of Japan by casting new light on his unusual background, unique talents, and singular experiences.
Hardcover September 2007

The Murder of Regilla

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 00:00:00 EDT

Sarah B. Pomeroy
Born to an illustrious Roman family in 125 BCE, Regilla was married at the age of fifteen to Herodes, a wealthy Roman. Twenty years later--and eight months pregnant with her sixth child--Regilla died under mysterious circumstances, after a blow to the abdomen delivered by Herodes's freedman. Though Herodes was charged, he was acquitted. Pomeroy's investigation suggests that despite Herodes's erection of numerous monuments to his deceased wife, he was in fact guilty of the crime.
Hardcover September 2007