Search Results: History from 20 Ants Fine Books, IOBA

New York, NY: Library of America. Fine with no dust jacket. 2015. Reprint. Hardcover. This 2-volume set covers September 17, 1787, to August 9, 1788: the year of public and private debate after the Constitutional Convention, mostly held in secret before its proposed Constitution was made public. Federalist vs. anti-Federalist opinions ranged from rational, to ranting, to raging in speeches, newspapers, and private letters. Those advocating for the middle ground sought to balance public order with private liberty. Contains original texts by Franklin, Henry, Jefferson, Madison, Washington, and other lesser-knowns. Includes the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and Constitution with Amendments. Editor Bernard Bailyn (1922-2020) was an academic, author, historian of the Colonial and Revolutionary United States, and two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for history. Contains Bailyn's Notes, Indexes, biographical profiles, chronology, and other supplemental information.… Read More

Anchorage, Alaska.: National Park Service. Near Fine with no dust jacket. 2002. Hardcover. Light wrinkling to front and rear covers at the spine.; A highly-detailed assessment of an archeological excavation of this saloon in Skagway, Alaska. Converted from a hardware store to a saloon in 1898, the site assessment and cataloging of artifacts occurred during excavations in 1987, 1995, and 1996. At the time of this book's publishing, The Pantheon Saloon was being restored to its appearance of 1905-1907. Lists of 110 figures and 13 tables. The Appendices catalog found artifacts and examples are bottles, doll heads, dog collar tags, table china, cans, vials, suspender supports, toilet tank parts, lamp chimneys, toothbrush, whistles, and hundreds of items. The book covers the history of the saloon, the surrounding town, mining in the area, and gives a view of life in an Alaskan mining town at the turn of the century. Text contributions by Catherine Holder Spude, Thomas Wake, Ph.D., Linda… Read More

Oxford: Oxford University Press. Fine with no dust jacket. 1985. First Edition. Hardcover. Lacks the dust jacket. ; This book is primarily about the starts and stops, political manipulation and change, financial travails, cancellations, disappointment, and ultimate success in building an English facility and battery of radio telescopes that revolutionized astronomy. It's a complete story with sufficient technical detail embedded in it. The pinnacle was the 250-foot dish radio telescope and the MERLIN network of radio telescopes. The author Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell, OBE (1913-2012) was a physicist, radio astronomer, and first director of Jodrell Bank Observatory. Lovell believed that the physics of radar could be applied to distant celestial bodies. Proven correct, his theories translated into the design of revolutionary methods and radio telescopes still in use today. Illustrated with monochrome photographs and graphs. Extensively indexed. Light blue, laid pastedowns and… Read More

No Place Stated: No Publisher Listed.. Fine with no dust jacket. N.D.. Softcover. Bastain's concise account of Admiral David G. Farragut's naval foray up the Mississippi river in 1862 to attack Vicksburg during the American Civil War. The battle itself is detailed, including the ship maneuvers of both sides. The movement up the Mississippi was successful due to piloting skill, extremely good luck, or likely a mix of both. The Mississippi delta and river offered little opportunity for deep-drafted naval vessels to navigate the200 miles inland to Vicksburg. Two full-page maps. The cover has a map of Vicksburg and the adjacent Mississippi river, July 5, 1862. The author worked with the Army Corps of Engineers for 5 years on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and is a retired civil and hydraulic engineer with relevant interests in the water and storm-related history of the South and the Civil War. The author has published over 50 technical papers and the books Grant's Canal: The… Read More

Brooklyn, NY: Mergenthaler Linotype Company. Very Good+ with no dust jacket. 1954. Hardcover. Roll to the lower half of the spine, yet all board edges are parallel and properly aligned.; This book commemorates the 100th birthday of Ottmar Mergenthaler, inventor of the Linotype, a hot metal typesetting system that cast type in lines or slugs instead of individual characters. Linotype steadily replaced hand setting for newspapers, magazines, books, cards, etc. as it shortened the time required for compostion. This revolutionized daily newspaper production which was previously limited by the small number of pages that could be typeset per day. An Introduction by Lin Yutang briefly outlines the history of printing, throughout the world, that led to the need for and design of the Linotype. The main text is a chronology of printing methods, comprised of three sections: I. The Printing Industry Undergoes a Revolution. II. The Effort to Speed Up Typesetting. III. Ottmar Mergenthaler Invents the… Read More

New York, NY: Library of America. Fine with no dust jacket. 1995. Hardcover. A 2-volume compilation of journalism related to reporting the events and personalities of World War II. Volumes I and II contain contemporary newspaper and magazine articles, editorial opinions, book excerpts, and radio transcripts to form an orderly view of war reporting. Both volumes cover reporting from the theaters of war and the home front. Most reporting is on the mainstream topics of the time, but includes often-neglected topics include the wartime issues and involvement of African-Americans and women. Volume I (Part I), 912 pages, spans 1938-1944, the work of 47 writers, and covers the buildup to war and the first years of fighting: the Munich crisis, Kristallnacht, the fall of Poland and France, Pearl Harbor and Bataan, Guadalcanal and Salerno. Volume II (Part II), 969 pages, spans 1944-1946, the work of 45 writers, and covers the campaigns in Italy and the Southwest Pacific, the Normandy invasion, the… Read More

Dublin Ireland: Cuala Press. Very Good+ with no dust jacket. 1942. Limited/Numbered Edition; First Printing. Hardcover. Endpapers are wrinkled where they meet the gutter. Dark speck on front cover. Light, 1/2" long impression at the head edge of the front cover and a similar, very faint impression to the head edge of the back cover. Lower corners of the boards are bumped at the fore edge. Lacks the ephemeral tissue wrapper.; This compelling memoir recounts the author's childhood views of living in Dublin Ireland during seven consecutive winters, her summers being spent in County Cork. The memories are detailed and evoke both the chilled, gray days and the beauty of Dublin. Founded and operated by women, entirely, the Cuala Press was focused on new works in the emerging Irish Literary Revival. One of only two titles published by the press in 1942, as the entire press operation was moved to a different location in that year. This is copy 448 of an edition of 450 "finished in… Read More

Williamsburg, Virginia: Printing Office Of The Williamsburg Foundation. Fine in Very Good dust jacket. 1972. Softcover. Written as a tract to inform Delegates to the Continental Congress, the Summary View impressed some Delegates sufficiently that they had it printed as a pamphlet by Clementina Rind, the only woman printer in Williamsburg. In this tract, Jefferson's eloquently expressed grievances against King George III and Parliament showed his compositional skill and were instrumental in his being selected to write the Declaration of Independence. This facsimile edition was set in Caslon type and letterpress printed and bound by the Printing and Post Office, Williamsburg, Virginia. On fine, cream paper. As with other copies we've handled, the type was deeply struck by an enthusiastic printer. Comprised of three gathers, side stitched with what appears to be flax twine or cord. In overall Fine condition.; Narrow 8vo 8" to 9" tall; 23 pages .

Salisbury, Connecticut: Ink, Inc.. Near Fine with no dust jacket. 1992. Limited Edition; Privately Printed. 3-ring binder. Corners lightly bumped.; Tulipomania was the speculative, economic bubble that evolved in 17th century Dutch Republic, now Netherlands. The price of tulip bulbs rose to unimaginable extremes as people assigned value to the bulbs far in excess of their intrinsic value. Bulbs were sold and traded as investments and buyers could purchase futures contracts on speculated future values. The average person could buy, hold, and resell a single bulb, and the wealthy could have vast holdings. In February 1637, this speculative bubble collapsed as people stopped buying tulip bulb futures contracts and the rest of the market plummeted, erasing the fortunes of both the meek and the mighty. Like some highly-speculative investments today, people ignored the fundamentals, invested in an idea, and lost their money when the market collectively realized that the idea was not backed by… Read More

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Good+ with no dust jacket. 1893. First American Edition. Hardcover. Overall wear to spine with bumped ends and residue from removal of a library label, wear to corners and edges, small remanant of a laid down library pocket on the rear endpaper, and "Withdrawn" stamps to front pastedown and head of text block.; Eyre Crowe's account of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1892-1893 travels in the US. Crowe, a skilled British painter, served as Thackeray's secretary for the trip and recorded their journeys in both text and drawings. The result was a view of US life as rendered by a truly fascinated Englishman. Crowe recorded the proceedings of Congress, hospitality in the Southern states, slave markets, Boston, sledding, Baltimore, Thackeray's lectures, and all manner of daily doings. As a painter his topic matter tilted heavily toward social realism, and he maintained this approach in documenting the American life he observed. Crowe… Read More