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Heirloom Vegetable Gardening: A Master Gardener's Guide to Planting, Seed Saving, and Cultural History
William Woys Weaver Manufacturer: Henry Holt & Company ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover Similar Items:
ASIN: 0805040250 |
Amazon.com
William Woys Weaver has written an important book in Heirloom Vegetable Gardening--important for the kitchen gardener, the cook, the historian, and any American who might wonder what our forebears were up to when they sat down to eat. What was the food on their table? Where did it come from? How did they get it? All these questions are addressed in Weaver's elegant prose.But there's another side to the story, and Weaver meets his reader there, too: Where is food headed, and what's an individual to do?
We have seen the rise of hybrid crops in the years since World War II. They are good for the seed business because the grower can't just let a few plants grow to seed, save the seed, then plant that seed next season. Hybridized plants don't yield seed that's true to the character of the plant, so the grower has to return to the seed rack year after year. Buying seed on a commercial level is a big deal, as is growing enough of it to meet the market. A lot of tillable land in South America isn't growing food for hungry South Americans, but growing corn seed for American farmers, and the biggest use of corn in this country is animal feed. Not many hungry South Americans get to eat corn-fed American beef and pork. In one sense, he who controls seed controls food. Or, he who owns seed owns food, and the highest bidder takes all.
Heirloom seed, then, is more than a trinket or curiosity from the past. It represents the chance of survival in the future. Should an as-yet-unknown plant virus come along and take out the American hybrid corn crop (something that has in fact come close to happening), it's the genetic diversity available in heirloom, open-pollinated seeds that will save the bacon. Governments maintain plant gene banks, but individuals can do much the same, and authors like Weaver show how.
What Weaver injects into the tale is the incredible pleasure that comes of growing heirloom crops and saving seed, and of eating from a table laden with 17th- and 18th-century foods. He shares his own history and his family's history, all of it tied up in gardening and sharing and caring. This lovely book is an extension that can reach into any garden being dug today. In other words, don't hesitate with this title, whether history, science, gardening, or a rich enthusiasm for constructive ways the individual can affect the future drives your interest. --Schuyler Ingle
Book Description
Julia Child Award for Food Reference.Jane Grigson Award for Distinguished Scholarship.
Vast in scope and erudition; unique and enjoyable.
In this encyclopedic guide to the history and cultivation of some of America's most treasured heirloom vegetables, food historian and organic gardener Will Weaver focuses on 280 profiled varieties of 37 vegetables and discusses nearly 400 others. He shares his over thirty years of original research from historical archives as well as hands-on gardening experience to help the lay person appreciate the fascinating history of each vegetable, grow it, and incorporate it into everyday cooking.
Some 100 varieties are shown in full color and more than 200 with line drawings by Signe Sundberg Hall. Weaver traces the development of the seed-saving movement and the history of the kitchen garden in America and gives a list of commercial seed and plant stock sources, plus an extensive bibliography.
Customer Reviews:
beyond the usual seed catalog business.......2002-10-03
Very informational and enjoyable reading.......1998-01-19
Outstanding book helps gardeners choose heirloom varieties.......1997-11-10
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Berlin Cabaret (Studies in Cultural History)
Peter Jelavich Manufacturer: Harvard University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0674067622 |
Book Description
Step into Ernst Wolzogen's Motley Theater, Max Reinhardt's Sound and Smoke, Rudolf Nelson's Chat noir, and Friedrich Hollaender's Tingel-Tangel. Enjoy Claire Waldoff's rendering of a lower-class Berliner, Kurt Tucholsky's satirical songs, and Walter Mehring's Dadaist experiments, as Peter Jelavich spotlights Berlin's cabarets from the day the curtain first went up, in 1901, until the Nazi regime brought it down.
Fads and fashions, sexual mores and political ideologies--all were subject to satire and parody on the cabaret stage. This book follows the changing treatment of these themes, and the fate of cabaret itself, through the most turbulent decades of modern German history: the prosperous and optimistic Imperial age, the unstable yet culturally inventive Weimar era, and the repressive years of National Socialism. By situating cabaret within Berlin's rich landscape of popular culture and distinguishing it from vaudeville and variety theaters, spectacular revues, prurient "nude dancing," and Communist agitprop, Jelavich revises the prevailing image of this form of entertainment.
Neither highly politicized, like postwar German Kabarett, nor sleazy in the way that some American and European films suggest, Berlin cabaret occupied a middle ground that let it cast an ironic eye on the goings-on of Berliners and other Germans. However, it was just this satirical attitude toward serious themes, such as politics and racism, that blinded cabaret to the strength of the radical right-wing forces that ultimately destroyed it. Jelavich concludes with the Berlin cabaret artists' final performances--as prisoners in the concentration camps at Westerbork and Theresienstadt.
This book gives us a sense of what the world looked like within the cabarets of Berlin and at the same time lets us see, from a historical distance, these lost performers enacting the political, sexual, and artistic issues that made their city one of the most dynamic in Europe.
Customer Reviews:
Thoroughly excellent.......2007-02-22
Berlin Cabaret.......2007-01-10
Outstanding chronicle of a very unique period.......2001-06-30
Jelavich, mixing culture and politics.......2000-04-15
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Varieties of Cultural History
Peter Burke Manufacturer: Cornell University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0801484928 |
Book Description
In this collection of essays, of which four are published here for the first time, Peter Burke explores the theory and practice of what is called "new cultural history." He focuses on the varieties of cultural history which have emerged since the writings of Jacob Burckhardt and Johan Huizinga. No new orthodoxy has emerged to replace the classic model, Burke suggests, despite the importance of innovative approaches inspired by social and cultural anthropology.After discussing the origins and identity of cultural history, Burke explores the social history of dreams and the relation between history and social memory. He presents five case studies addressing topics in the history of early modern Italy. Each is located on the frontiers of cultural history--between learned and popular culture, between the public and the private spheres, and between the serious and the comic. Burke then turns to the encounter between Europe and the New World and to the phenomenon of cultural translation in the etymological, literal, and metaphorical senses of the term. He concludes with two theoretical investigations: one on the history of mentalities and one which asks why cultural history seems doomed to fragmentation.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent synopsis of cultural history.......2000-12-03
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Varieties of Javanese Religion: An Anthropological Account (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology)
Andrew Beatty Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0521624738 |
Book Description
Java is famous for its combination of diverse cultural forms and religious beliefs. In this most comprehensive study of Javanese religion since Clifford Geertz's classic study, Andrew Beatty considers Javanese solutions to problems of cultural difference, and how villagers make sense of their complex, multi-layered culture. Pantheist mystics, supernaturalists, orthodox Muslims and Hindu converts at once construct contrasting faiths and create a common ground through syncretist ritual. Vividly evoking the local religious life, this book probes beyond the surface of ritual and cosmology, revealing the compromise inherent in practical religion.Download Description
Java is famous for its combination of diverse cultural forms and religious beliefs. Andrew Beatty considers Javanese solutions to the problem of cultural difference, and explores the ways in which Javanese villages make sense of their complex and multi-layered culture. Pantheist mystics, supernaturalists, orthodox Muslims and Hindu converts at once construct contrasting faiths and create a common ground through syncretist ritual. Vividly evoking the religious life of Javanese villagers, its controversies and reconciliations, its humour and irony, its philosophical seriousness, and its formal beauty, Dr Beatty probes beyond the finished surfaces of ritual and cosmology to show the debate and compromise inherent in practical religion. This is the most comprehensive study of Javanese religion since Clifford Geertz's classic study of 1960.
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Africans on Stage: Studies in Ethnological Show Business
Manufacturer: Indiana University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 0253212456 |
Customer Reviews:
Superb combination of thought-provoking essays........2001-06-07
The authors fall short of mentioning that animals have been treated like animals too -- for example, the Bronx Zoo's exhibition of a San tribesmember in a cage with an orang-utan was demeaning for both the former and the latter. But the book shows us in a striking way the problematic nature of the human obsession with cages and the spectacle.
Excellent study of the dynamic of racism, sexism, imperialist greed, and the roots of prejudice.
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The Last Party: Studio 54, Disco, and the Culture of the Night
Anthony Haden-Guest Manufacturer: Harper Perennial ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0688160980 |
Amazon.com
British socialite and writer Anthony Haden-Guest has been a champion party-goer for more than 30 years. There are few people more qualified to lead a reader, as he does in The Last Party, past the velvet ropes and doorman and into the tornado of 1970s disco, drug excess, and excessive sex that was Studio 54. Unlike some of his contemporaries whose memories are dulled by years of hard living, Haden-Guest seems to actually recall many of his experiences at Studio. His book is therefore part personal memoir, part reportage.The cast of characters includes Andy, Liza, Halston, and Bianca--no last names needed--and other luminaries etched into Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager's exclusive guest list. The anecdotes include lurid details of the revelry and stories like the one about that Halloween when two Lady Godivas were kept outside but their horse was allowed in. Haden-Guest resists the obvious urge to dish too much about the stars and instead examines the club as a social phenomenon. In his book, the front door of Studio 54 swings open just long enough to let escape the shadow of a scene that's long since seen the light of day.
Book Description
Studio 54 was the epicenter of disco culture and pre-AIDS debauchery. Now, journalist and nightworld denizen Anthony Haden-Guest takes us behind the velvet rope that separated the celebrities from the wanna-bes, into an all-night world of revelry, sensation, and decadence.Going beyond the endless partying with Liza, Bianca, Halston, Andy, and Mick, Haden-Guest probes the seamy underside of Studio 54: the drugs, the deaths, and the corruption that eventually shuttered the club. It is the story of Studio 54's flamboyant owners, Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, who achieved early success beyond their wildest imaginings, came within a hair's breadth of great power, and then crashed and burned.
Customer Reviews:
An Incredibley Boring Book.......2006-03-20
Excellent Book, But Not For All Studio 54 Fans.......2004-07-22
Too Bad I am only 19.......2003-05-09
Hard going!.......2003-03-17
A muddled work.......2002-12-01
First, readers who want a Studio 54 story will be disappointed. Only about one-third of the book covers Studio 54. (For a much better explanation, see VH1's "Behind the Music" which did a 90-minute show on Studio 54.) While the story of this nightclub is told in disjointed segments with some interesting anecdotes, coverage of the celebrities and their stories is sparse, the role of the founders is incompletely explained, and the rise and fall of the club's fortune with Disco lacks analysis. The story is interesting, but incomplete. You will not have all of your questions answered.
After the Studio 54 story, the book then goes into a story loop of: some semi-legitimate person opens a hip new club without all of the necessary paperwork, the club rocks for a while and attracts the latest NY scene, the club gets stale, and then goes out of business two years later. Repeat cycle. With the maze of players, it's easy to get confused with who's who and what they did.
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The Spirit of Montmartre: Cabarets, Humor, and the Avant-Garde, 1875-1905
Manufacturer: Rutgers University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback ASIN: 0813523249 |
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Rank Ladies: Gender and Cultural Hierarchy in American Vaudeville (Gender and American Culture)
M. Alison Kibler Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0807848123 Release Date: 1999-05-12 |
Book Description
A disrobing acrobat, a female Hamlet, and a tuba-playing labor activistall these women come to life in Rank Ladies. In this comprehensive study of women in vaudeville, Alison Kibler reveals how female performers, patrons, and workers shaped the rise and fall of the most popular live entertainment at the turn of the century.Kibler focuses on the role of gender in struggles over whether high or low culture would reign in vaudeville, examining women's performances and careers in vaudeville, their status in the expanding vaudeville audience, and their activity in the vaudevillians' labor union. Respectable women were a key to vaudeville's success, she says, as entrepreneurs drew women into audiences that had previously been dominated by working-class men and recruited female artists as performers. But although theater managers publicly celebrated the cultural uplift of vaudeville and its popularity among women, in reality their houses were often hostile both to female performers and to female patrons and home to women who challenged conventional understandings of respectable behavior. Once a sign of vaudeville's refinement, Kibler says, women became associated with the decay of vaudeville and were implicated in broader attacks on mass culture as well.
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Steppin' Out: New York Nightlife and the Transformation of American Culture
Lewis A. Erenberg Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 0226215156 |
Book Description
Customer Reviews:
wonderful.......2003-12-01
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Swinging At The Savoy The Memoir of a Jazz Dancer
Norma Miller , and Evette Jensen Manufacturer: Temple University Press ProductGroup: Book Binding: Paperback Similar Items:
ASIN: 1566398495 |
Book Description
Dancer, award-winning choreographer, show producer, stand-up comedienne, TV/film actress and author, Norma Miller shares her touching historical memoir of Harlem's legendary Savoy Ballroom and the phenomenal music and dance craze that "spread the power of Swing across the world like Wildfire."It was a time when the music was Swing, and Harlem was king. Renowned as 'the world's most beautiful ballroom" and the largest, most elegant in Harlem, the Savoy was the only ballroom not segregated when it opened in 1926. The Savoy hosted the best bands and attracted the best dancers by offering the challenge of fierce competition. White people traveled uptown to learn exciting new dance styles. A dance contest winner by fourteen, Norma Miller became a member of Herbert White's world-famous Lindy Hoppers and a celebrated Savoy Ballroom Lindy Hop champion.
Swingin' at the Savoy chronicles a significant period in American cultural history and race relations, as it glorifies the popularized home of the Lindy Hop, and the birthplace of such memorable dance fads as the Big Apple, Shag, Truckin', Peckin', Susie Q, Charleston, Peabody, Black Bottom, Cake Walk, Boogie Woogie, Shimmy, and tap dancing.
Miller shares fascinating anecdotes about her youthful encounters with many of the greatest jazz legends in music history including Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, Artie Shaw, Duke Ellington, Ethel Waters, and even boxer Joe Louis.
Customer Reviews:
Fluffy but Fun.......2003-06-21
Swinging at the Savoy traces the life of Harlemite Norma Miller, who came of age just at the perfect time to invest her entire future in a faddish dance despite protests from her disapproving mother.
Of course, Norma beat the odds and made a decent living as a performer, but this is not what the book is about. The real draw of this book is the chance to glean musical and dance history straight from the horses mouth. Indeed, Norma discusses the bands, the clientele, the lifestyle, the celebrities she met, and racial issues, but more often than not the bubbly Norma gets caught up in the warmth of her very dear memories.
Swinging at the Savoy follows Norma through innumerable dance
performances, which were far from dull thanks to infectious Norma's joy and enthusiasm for dance. However, I would have preferred that her performances had been given a bit less weight and more had been included a few more anecdotes on Duke Ellington and Chick Webb, more discussion on issues such as the development of the music and dance, and how interracial dancing was possible in the dark ages of the 1930s.
Of course, the book is subtitled The Memoir of a Jazz Dancer and so I cannot really fault the book for putting the events of Norma's life at the center. Furthermore, the book is prefaced with an excellent essay by jazz expert Ernie Smith that provides a solid historical perspective on the music and dance of Swing.
Swinging at the Savoy is a breeze to read and includes a good number of photographs that help bring the book to life. I recommend this book to anyone interested in African-American culture, jazz, dance, or U.S. history.
True Original.......2001-03-29
If the spunk she has now is any indication of what she was like at 15, though, it's no surprise she helped invent a whole new dance form.
This down-to-earth personal memoir by an effervescent woman whose first and last love is the excitement of swing is an invigorating read for almost anyone.
It might make you want to drop everything and go out and dance . . .or it might just give you a better understanding of the history of Harlem and the extraordinary people who helped keep it on the map all these years with their artistic spirits and rich energy.
For the true lindy hopper... the first book of choice........1999-01-21
Very Good Swing Dance Book.......1998-12-25
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