The meteoric rise of the largest unregulated financial market in the world-for contemporary art-is driven by a few passionate, guileful, and very hard-nosed dealers. They can make and break careers and fortunes. The contemporary art market is an international juggernaut, throwing off multimillion-dollar deals as wealthy buyers move from fair to fair, auction to auction, party to glittering party. But none of it would happen without the dealers-the tastemakers who back emerging artists and steer them to success, often to see them picked off by a rival. Dealers operate within a private world of handshake agreements, negotiating for the highest commissions. Michael Shnayerson, a longtime contributing editor to Vanity Fair, writes the first ever definitive history of their activities. He has spoken to all of today's so-called mega dealers-Larry Gagosian, David Zwirner, Arne and Marc Glimcher, and Iwan Wirth-along with dozens of other dealers-from Irving Blum to Gavin Brown-who worked with the greatest artists of their times: Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, and more. This kaleidoscopic history begins in the mid-1940s in genteel poverty with a scattering of galleries in midtown Manhattan, takes us through the ramshackle 1950s studios of Coenties Slip, the hipster locations in SoHo and Chelsea, London's Bond Street, and across the terraces of Art Basel until today. Now, dealers and auctioneers are seeking the first billion-dollar painting. It hasn't happened yet, but they are confident they can push the price there soon.
PublicAffairs
|
9781610398404
|
Hardcover
Earth's Deep History
By Rudwick, Martin J. S.
Earth has been witness to mammoths and dinosaurs, global ice ages, continents colliding or splitting apart, comets and asteroids crashing catastrophically to the surface, as well as the birth of humans who are curious to understand it all. But how was it discovered How was the evidence for it collected and interpreted And what kinds of people have sought to reconstruct this past that no human witnessed or recorded In this sweeping and magisterial book, Martin J. S. Rudwick, the premier historian of the earth sciences, tells the gripping human story of the gradual realization that the Earths history has not only been unimaginably long but also astonishingly eventful. Rudwick begins in the seventeenth century with Archbishop James Ussher, who famously dated the creation of the cosmos to 4004 BC.
University Of Chicago Press
|
9780226203935
|
Hardcover
Scars of Independence
By Hoock, Holger
A magisterial new work that rewrites the story of America's foundingThe American Revolution is often portrayed as an orderly, restrained rebellion, with brave patriots defending their noble ideals against an oppressive empire. It's a stirring narrative, and one the founders did their best to encourage after the war. But as historian Holger Hoock shows in this deeply researched and elegantly written account of America's founding, the Revolution was not only a high-minded battle over principles, but also a profoundly violent civil war - one that shaped the nation, and the British Empire, in ways we have only begun to understand.In Scars of Independence, Hoock writes the violence back into the story of the Revolution. American Patriots persecuted and tortured Loyalists. British troops massacred enemy soldiers and raped colonial women. Prisoners were starved on disease-ridden ships and in subterranean cells. African-Americans fighting for or against independence suffered disproportionately, and Washington's army waged a genocidal campaign against the Iroquois. In vivid, authoritative prose, Hoock's new reckoning also examines the moral dilemmas posed by this all-pervasive violence, as the British found themselves torn between unlimited war and restraint toward fellow subjects, while the Patriots documented war crimes in an ingenious effort to unify the fledgling nation.For two centuries we have whitewashed this history of the Revolution. Scars of Independence forces a more honest appraisal, revealing the inherent tensions between moral purpose and violent tendencies in America's past. In so doing, it offers a new origins story that is both relevant and necessary - an important reminder that forging a nation is rarely bloodless.
Crown Publishing
|
9780804137287
|
Hardcover
Cuba
By Ferrer, Ada
In Cuba, the passing of Fidel Castro from this world and of Raul Castro from power have raised urgent questions about the island's political future. In the United States, Barack Obama's opening to Cuba, the reversal of that policy during Donald Trump's administration, and Joseph Biden's apparent willingness to reinitiate open relations have made the nature of the historic relationship between the two nations a subject of debate once more. In both countries, the time is ripe for a new reckoning with Cuba's history and its relationship to the United States. Now, award-winning historian Ada Ferrer delivers an ambitious and moving chronicle of more than five hundred years of Cuban history, reconceived and written for a moment when history itself seems up for grabs.
Scribner
|
9781501154553
|
Hardcover
An Idea Whose Time Has Come
By Purdum, Todd S
A top Washington journalist recounts the dramatic political battle to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the law that created modern America, on the fiftieth anniversary of its passageIt was a turbulent time in America--a time of sit-ins, freedom rides, a March on Washington and a governor standing in the schoolhouse door--when John F. Kennedy sent Congress a bill to bar racial discrimination in employment, education, and public accommodations. Countless civil rights measures had died on Capitol Hill in the past. But this one was different because, as one influential senator put it, it was "an idea whose time has come."In a powerful narrative layered with revealing detail, Todd S. Purdum tells the story of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, recreating the legislative maneuvering and the larger-than-life characters who made its passage possible.
Henry Holt
|
9780805096729
|
Hardcover
Brunch
By Ternikar, Farha
When Americans think of brunch, they typically think of Sunday mornings swelling into early afternoons; mimosas and bloody Marys; eggs Benedict and coffee cake; bacon and bagels; family and friends. This book presents a modern history of brunch not only as a meal, but also as a cultural experience. Relying on diverse sources, from historic cookbooks to Twitter and television, Brunch: A History is a global and social history of the meal including brunch in the United States, Western Europe, South Asia and the Middle-East. Brunch takes us on a tour of a modern meal around the world.While brunch has become a modern meal of leisure, its history is far from restful; this meal’s past is both lively and fraught with tension. Here, Farha Ternikar explores the gendered and class-based conflicts around this meal, and provides readers with an enlightening glimpse into the dining rooms, verandas, and kitchens where brunches were prepared, served, and enjoyed.
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
|
9781442229426
|
Hardcover
Artificial Hells
By Bishop, Claire
This searing critique of participatory art - from its development to its political ambitions - is "an essential title for contemporary art history scholars and students as well as anyone who has . . . thought, 'Now that's art!' or 'That's art?'" (Library Journal) Since the 1990s, critics and curators have broadly accepted the notion that participatory art is the ultimate political art: that by encouraging an audience to take part an artist can promote new emancipatory social relations. Around the world, the champions of this form of expression are numerous, ranging from art historians such as Grant Kester, curators such as Nicolas Bourriaud and Nato Thompson, to performance theorists such as Shannon Jackson. Artificial Hells is the first historical and theoretical overview of socially engaged participatory art, known in the US as "social practice.
Verso
|
9781839767753
|
Paperback
Cowboy is a Verb
By Collins, Richard
From the big picture to the smallest detail, Richard Collins fashions a rousing memoir about the modern-day lives of cowboys and ranchers. However, Cowboy is a Verb is much more than wild horse rides and cattle chases. While Collins recounts stories of quirky ranch horses, cranky cow critters, cow dogs, and the people who use and care for them, he also paints a rural West struggling to survive the onslaught of relentless suburbanization. A born storyteller with a flair for words, Collins breathes life into the geology, history, and interdependency of land, water, and native and introduced plants and animals. He conjures indelible portraits of the hardworking, dedicated people he comes to know. With both humor and humility, he recounts the day-to-day challenges of ranch life such as how to build a productive herd, distribute your cattle evenly across a rough and rocky landscape, and establish a grazing system that allows pastures enough time to recover.
University of Nevada Press
|
9781948908238
|
Paperback
Pesos
By Jr., Pietro La Greca
A true multigenerational story of how one family had and lost it all along the US-Mexican border.Pietro La Greca Sr. was an intimidating Napolitano con man dubbed "Mexico's real-life Don Corleone." He ran Mexico's biggest money-laundering scheme during the worst economic period in the country's history. His was a world of fast cars, mansions on the water, and VIP treatment at Las Vegas casinos. His exploitation of Mexico's financial free fall made him a wealthy man. But while he was running his criminal empire, his son, Pietro Jr., a.k.a. Picho, was learning his father's tricks - if only to bring the man down.An epic tale of greed, high-finance scams, drug cartels, and brazen corruption by the rich and powerful on both sides of the border, Pesos is as personal as it is lavish and fantastical.
Little A
|
9781542033466
|
Hardcover
Blood Moon
By Sedgwick, John
This sweeping American epic reveals one of the greatest untold stories of the nineteenth century: the fierce rivalry between two great Cherokee chiefs that led to war, forced migration, and the devastation of a once-proud nation.Blood Moon is the story of the century-long blood feud between two rival Cherokee chiefs from the early years of the United States through the infamous Trail of Tears and into the Civil War. While little remembered today, their mutual hatred shaped the tragic history of the tribe far more than anyone, even the reviled President Andrew Jackson, ever did. In this epic saga, John Sedgwick brings to life an untold chapter of American history through the relationship between one chief called The Ridge, a fearsome warrior who spoke no English but whose exploits on the battlefield were legendary, and John Ross, who was the Cherokees' primary chief for nearly forty years, yet displayed the Scottish side of his mixed-blood heritage and spoke not a word of Cherokee. To protect their sacred landholdings from American encroachment, these two men negotiated with almost every American president from George Washington through Abraham Lincoln. At first friends and allies, they broke on the subject of Removal, breeding an enmity that lead to a bloody civil war within Cherokee Nation that culminated in the two factions battling each other in the War Between the States. Dramatic, far-reaching, and unforgettable, Blood Moon paints a portrait of these two inspirational leaders who worked together to lift their people to the height of culture and learning as the most civilized tribe in the nation, and then drop them to the depths of ruin and despair as they turned against each other. Theirs is a story of land, pride, honor, and loss that forms much of the country's mythic past today.
Boom
By Shnayerson, Michael
The meteoric rise of the largest unregulated financial market in the world-for contemporary art-is driven by a few passionate, guileful, and very hard-nosed dealers. They can make and break careers and fortunes. The contemporary art market is an international juggernaut, throwing off multimillion-dollar deals as wealthy buyers move from fair to fair, auction to auction, party to glittering party. But none of it would happen without the dealers-the tastemakers who back emerging artists and steer them to success, often to see them picked off by a rival. Dealers operate within a private world of handshake agreements, negotiating for the highest commissions. Michael Shnayerson, a longtime contributing editor to Vanity Fair, writes the first ever definitive history of their activities. He has spoken to all of today's so-called mega dealers-Larry Gagosian, David Zwirner, Arne and Marc Glimcher, and Iwan Wirth-along with dozens of other dealers-from Irving Blum to Gavin Brown-who worked with the greatest artists of their times: Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, and more. This kaleidoscopic history begins in the mid-1940s in genteel poverty with a scattering of galleries in midtown Manhattan, takes us through the ramshackle 1950s studios of Coenties Slip, the hipster locations in SoHo and Chelsea, London's Bond Street, and across the terraces of Art Basel until today. Now, dealers and auctioneers are seeking the first billion-dollar painting. It hasn't happened yet, but they are confident they can push the price there soon.
Earth's Deep History
By Rudwick, Martin J. S.
Earth has been witness to mammoths and dinosaurs, global ice ages, continents colliding or splitting apart, comets and asteroids crashing catastrophically to the surface, as well as the birth of humans who are curious to understand it all. But how was it discovered How was the evidence for it collected and interpreted And what kinds of people have sought to reconstruct this past that no human witnessed or recorded In this sweeping and magisterial book, Martin J. S. Rudwick, the premier historian of the earth sciences, tells the gripping human story of the gradual realization that the Earths history has not only been unimaginably long but also astonishingly eventful. Rudwick begins in the seventeenth century with Archbishop James Ussher, who famously dated the creation of the cosmos to 4004 BC.
Scars of Independence
By Hoock, Holger
A magisterial new work that rewrites the story of America's foundingThe American Revolution is often portrayed as an orderly, restrained rebellion, with brave patriots defending their noble ideals against an oppressive empire. It's a stirring narrative, and one the founders did their best to encourage after the war. But as historian Holger Hoock shows in this deeply researched and elegantly written account of America's founding, the Revolution was not only a high-minded battle over principles, but also a profoundly violent civil war - one that shaped the nation, and the British Empire, in ways we have only begun to understand.In Scars of Independence, Hoock writes the violence back into the story of the Revolution. American Patriots persecuted and tortured Loyalists. British troops massacred enemy soldiers and raped colonial women. Prisoners were starved on disease-ridden ships and in subterranean cells. African-Americans fighting for or against independence suffered disproportionately, and Washington's army waged a genocidal campaign against the Iroquois. In vivid, authoritative prose, Hoock's new reckoning also examines the moral dilemmas posed by this all-pervasive violence, as the British found themselves torn between unlimited war and restraint toward fellow subjects, while the Patriots documented war crimes in an ingenious effort to unify the fledgling nation.For two centuries we have whitewashed this history of the Revolution. Scars of Independence forces a more honest appraisal, revealing the inherent tensions between moral purpose and violent tendencies in America's past. In so doing, it offers a new origins story that is both relevant and necessary - an important reminder that forging a nation is rarely bloodless.
Cuba
By Ferrer, Ada
In Cuba, the passing of Fidel Castro from this world and of Raul Castro from power have raised urgent questions about the island's political future. In the United States, Barack Obama's opening to Cuba, the reversal of that policy during Donald Trump's administration, and Joseph Biden's apparent willingness to reinitiate open relations have made the nature of the historic relationship between the two nations a subject of debate once more. In both countries, the time is ripe for a new reckoning with Cuba's history and its relationship to the United States. Now, award-winning historian Ada Ferrer delivers an ambitious and moving chronicle of more than five hundred years of Cuban history, reconceived and written for a moment when history itself seems up for grabs.
An Idea Whose Time Has Come
By Purdum, Todd S
A top Washington journalist recounts the dramatic political battle to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the law that created modern America, on the fiftieth anniversary of its passageIt was a turbulent time in America--a time of sit-ins, freedom rides, a March on Washington and a governor standing in the schoolhouse door--when John F. Kennedy sent Congress a bill to bar racial discrimination in employment, education, and public accommodations. Countless civil rights measures had died on Capitol Hill in the past. But this one was different because, as one influential senator put it, it was "an idea whose time has come."In a powerful narrative layered with revealing detail, Todd S. Purdum tells the story of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, recreating the legislative maneuvering and the larger-than-life characters who made its passage possible.
Brunch
By Ternikar, Farha
When Americans think of brunch, they typically think of Sunday mornings swelling into early afternoons; mimosas and bloody Marys; eggs Benedict and coffee cake; bacon and bagels; family and friends. This book presents a modern history of brunch not only as a meal, but also as a cultural experience. Relying on diverse sources, from historic cookbooks to Twitter and television, Brunch: A History is a global and social history of the meal including brunch in the United States, Western Europe, South Asia and the Middle-East. Brunch takes us on a tour of a modern meal around the world.While brunch has become a modern meal of leisure, its history is far from restful; this meal’s past is both lively and fraught with tension. Here, Farha Ternikar explores the gendered and class-based conflicts around this meal, and provides readers with an enlightening glimpse into the dining rooms, verandas, and kitchens where brunches were prepared, served, and enjoyed.
Artificial Hells
By Bishop, Claire
This searing critique of participatory art - from its development to its political ambitions - is "an essential title for contemporary art history scholars and students as well as anyone who has . . . thought, 'Now that's art!' or 'That's art?'" (Library Journal) Since the 1990s, critics and curators have broadly accepted the notion that participatory art is the ultimate political art: that by encouraging an audience to take part an artist can promote new emancipatory social relations. Around the world, the champions of this form of expression are numerous, ranging from art historians such as Grant Kester, curators such as Nicolas Bourriaud and Nato Thompson, to performance theorists such as Shannon Jackson. Artificial Hells is the first historical and theoretical overview of socially engaged participatory art, known in the US as "social practice.
Cowboy is a Verb
By Collins, Richard
From the big picture to the smallest detail, Richard Collins fashions a rousing memoir about the modern-day lives of cowboys and ranchers. However, Cowboy is a Verb is much more than wild horse rides and cattle chases. While Collins recounts stories of quirky ranch horses, cranky cow critters, cow dogs, and the people who use and care for them, he also paints a rural West struggling to survive the onslaught of relentless suburbanization. A born storyteller with a flair for words, Collins breathes life into the geology, history, and interdependency of land, water, and native and introduced plants and animals. He conjures indelible portraits of the hardworking, dedicated people he comes to know. With both humor and humility, he recounts the day-to-day challenges of ranch life such as how to build a productive herd, distribute your cattle evenly across a rough and rocky landscape, and establish a grazing system that allows pastures enough time to recover.
Pesos
By Jr., Pietro La Greca
A true multigenerational story of how one family had and lost it all along the US-Mexican border.Pietro La Greca Sr. was an intimidating Napolitano con man dubbed "Mexico's real-life Don Corleone." He ran Mexico's biggest money-laundering scheme during the worst economic period in the country's history. His was a world of fast cars, mansions on the water, and VIP treatment at Las Vegas casinos. His exploitation of Mexico's financial free fall made him a wealthy man. But while he was running his criminal empire, his son, Pietro Jr., a.k.a. Picho, was learning his father's tricks - if only to bring the man down.An epic tale of greed, high-finance scams, drug cartels, and brazen corruption by the rich and powerful on both sides of the border, Pesos is as personal as it is lavish and fantastical.
Blood Moon
By Sedgwick, John
This sweeping American epic reveals one of the greatest untold stories of the nineteenth century: the fierce rivalry between two great Cherokee chiefs that led to war, forced migration, and the devastation of a once-proud nation.Blood Moon is the story of the century-long blood feud between two rival Cherokee chiefs from the early years of the United States through the infamous Trail of Tears and into the Civil War. While little remembered today, their mutual hatred shaped the tragic history of the tribe far more than anyone, even the reviled President Andrew Jackson, ever did. In this epic saga, John Sedgwick brings to life an untold chapter of American history through the relationship between one chief called The Ridge, a fearsome warrior who spoke no English but whose exploits on the battlefield were legendary, and John Ross, who was the Cherokees' primary chief for nearly forty years, yet displayed the Scottish side of his mixed-blood heritage and spoke not a word of Cherokee. To protect their sacred landholdings from American encroachment, these two men negotiated with almost every American president from George Washington through Abraham Lincoln. At first friends and allies, they broke on the subject of Removal, breeding an enmity that lead to a bloody civil war within Cherokee Nation that culminated in the two factions battling each other in the War Between the States. Dramatic, far-reaching, and unforgettable, Blood Moon paints a portrait of these two inspirational leaders who worked together to lift their people to the height of culture and learning as the most civilized tribe in the nation, and then drop them to the depths of ruin and despair as they turned against each other. Theirs is a story of land, pride, honor, and loss that forms much of the country's mythic past today.