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Books From University Presses

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Historical
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Helen Keller : A Life - Thryft
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Dorothy Herrmann | University Of Chicago Press

Helen Keller : A Life

$10.12

Goodreads rating: 4.19

$10.12

77% off est. retail
This book is recommended for those who seek inspiration from real-life stories of triumph against all odds. It explores the life of Helen Keller, a charismatic and high-strung woman who had to overcome the challenges of being blind and deaf. The book highlights her love affair, successful education at Radcliffe College, and her passion for advocating for the disabled. The author explores Keller's relationship with Annie Sullivan, her teacher, and how it influenced her life. The book presents Keller in a unique light that neither condemns her as a fraud nor venerates her as a saint. Readers will be inspired by Keller's story of perseverance and determination to chart her own path in life.
Historical Representation - Thryft
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Frank Ankersmit | Stanford University Press

Historical Representation

$11.63 $8.14 30% off

Goodreads rating: 3.92

$11.63 $8.14 30% off

85% off est. retail
Recommendation: This book is a must-read for anyone interested in historical writing as it challenges the conventional understanding of the discipline. The author argues that historical representation is essentially aesthetic and proposes a rationalist aesthetics of historical writing in order to find a balance between the literary approach and empiricism. By drawing on the ideas of influential contemporary historical theorists like Erich Auerbach and Hayden White, the book offers a fresh and insightful perspective on the discipline of history.
Cambridge Student Guide To Julius Caesar - Thryft
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Anthony Davies | Cambridge University Press

Cambridge Student Guide To Julius Caesar

$7.90 $3.90 51% off

Goodreads rating: 2.67

$7.90 $3.90 51% off

80% off est. retail
The Cambridge Student Guide to Julius Caesar is a great read for students who are studying this classic play. It provides insightful commentary on the text, in-depth analysis of the language used and the historical context of the story. The essay-writing tips and recommended resources make it a valuable resource for students preparing for exams or writing essays on the play. Users will find it appealing due to its comprehensive and easy-to-understand approach to understanding the play.
THE RISE OF MODERN CHINA - Thryft
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Immanuel Chung-yueh Hsü | Oxford University Press

THE RISE OF MODERN CHINA

$3.88

Goodreads rating: 4.36

$3.88

/ 019581360x / History / Engels / English / Anglais / Englisch / paperback / 24 x 16 cm / 933 .pp /
The Cambridge Illustrated History of China - Thryft
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Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Kwang-ching Liu  | Cambridge University Press

The Cambridge Illustrated History of China

$10.04

Goodreads rating: 3.86

$10.04

More populous than any other country on earth, China also occupies a unique place in our modern world for the continuity of its history and culture. In this sumptuously illustrated single-volume history, noted historian Patricia Ebrey traces the origins of Chinese culture from prehistoric times to the present. She follows its development from the rise of Confucianism, Buddhism, and the great imperial dynasties to the Mongol, Manchu, and Western intrusions and the modern communist state. Her scope is phenomenal--embracing Chinese arts, culture, economics, society and its treatment of women, foreign policy, emigration, and politics, including the key uprisings of 1919 and 1989 in Tiananmen Square. Both a comprehensive introduction to an extraordinary civilization, and an expert exploration of the continuities and disjunctures of Chinese history, Professor Ebrey's book has become an indispensable guide to China past and present. Patricia Ebrey is Professor of East Asian Studies and History and the author of Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook (1993).
The Fall of the Roman Empire : A New History - Thryft
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Peter Heather | Oxford University Press

The Fall of the Roman Empire : A New History

$13.24

Goodreads rating: 4.15

$13.24

For half a millenium the empire of Rome stretched from Hadrians Wall to the river Euphrates, a massive fortified state founded on military might and the pilllars of civilizationwritting, the city, and the rule of law. But beyond these frontiers lay other lands, the lands of seemingly anarchic warrior tribes, the land of the Barbarians. The opening scenes of Gladiator are based on the victories of Marcus Aurelius over one such tribe, the Marcommani. Two hundered years later the Romans still seemed invincible, routing 30,000 Alamanii at the battle of Strasbourg. However, within a generation, the foundations of this order were shaken to their core, and Roman armies, as one contemporary put it, "vanished like shadows". What had happened? Covering the last 100 years of Empire, a period full of great battles, treachery, and characters as wild as Attila the Hun, Peter Heather shows how the Empire gave way before the relentless and deliberate onslaught of the Huns, Goths and Vandals. These tribes, originating in Eastern Europe, finally conquered large tracts of the old Empire, sacking Rome itself and defeating Roman armies on land and sea.
Writing Singapore : An Historical Anthology on Singapore Literature - Thryft
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Philip Joseph Holden, Angelia Poon, Shirley Geok-Lin Lim  | National University Of Singapore Press

Writing Singapore : An Historical Anthology on Singapore Literature

$13.60

Goodreads rating: 3.5

$13.60

The first comprehensive historical anthology of English-language writing from Singapore, this volume covers more than a century of literary production in a variety of genres. It provides readers in Singapore with an easy point of access to compelling narratives and poems, some of which have been forgotten or are difficult to obtain. For readers outside Singapore, it introduces a neglected but important range of works that represent the historical and contemporary imaginaries and realities of one of the world's most cosmopolitan cities. Uniquely in Southeast Asia, the importance of the English language continued to grow in Singapore after independence. The country's English-language literature documents and reflects on the possibilities and tensions brought about by Singapore's rapid economic transformation and changing society. Because of Singapore's small size and the lack of international reach of many of its publishers, most of this literature has received relatively little international exposure, in contrast to writing in English from the Caribbean, West Africa, or South Asia. Within Singapore itself, a number of major works have gone out of print. This pioneering anthology places key texts in a historical narrative allowing them to be read, studied, critiqued, and treasured. «This historical anthology will prove to be an important, authoritative and dependable resource for researchers, students and teachers of Singaporean literature as well as Southeast Asian literatures for many years to come...» - Eddie Tay, Chinese University of Hong Kong
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era - Thryft
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James M. McPherson | Oxford University Press

Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era

$11.90

Goodreads rating: 4.38

$11.90

Filled with fresh interpretations and information, puncturing old myths and challenging new ones, Battle Cry of Freedom will unquestionably become the standard one-volume history of the Civil War. James McPherson's fast-paced narrative fully integrates the political, social, and military events that crowded the two decades from the outbreak of one war in Mexico to the ending of another at Appomattox. Packed with drama and analytical insight, the book vividly recounts the momentous episodes that preceded the Civil War--the Dred Scott decision, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry--and then moves into a masterful chronicle of the war itself--the battles, the strategic maneuvering on both sides, the politics, and the personalities. Particularly notable are McPherson's new views on such matters as the slavery expansion issue in the 1850s, the origins of the Republican Party, the causes of secession, internal dissent and anti-war opposition in the North and the South, and the reasons for the Union's victory. The book's title refers to the sentiments that informed both the Northern and Southern views of the conflict: the South seceded in the name of that freedom of self-determination and self-government for which their fathers had fought in 1776, while the North stood fast in defense of the Union founded by those fathers as the bulwark of American liberty. Eventually
Spider Eaters : A Memoir - Thryft
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Rae Yang | University Of California Press

Spider Eaters : A Memoir

$5.91 $3.55 40% off

Goodreads rating: 3.98

$5.91 $3.55 40% off

94% off est. retail
Spider Eaters is at once a moving personal story, a fascinating family history, and a unique chronicle of political upheaval told by a Chinese woman who came of age during the turbulent years of the Cultural Revolution. With stunning honesty and a lively, sly humor, Rae Yang records her life from her early years as the daughter of Chinese diplomats in Switzerland, to her girlhood at an elite middle school in Beijing, to her adolescent experience as a Red Guard and later as a laborer on a pig farm in the remote northern wilderness. She tells of her eventual disillusionment with the Maoist revolution, how remorse and despair nearly drove her to suicide, and how she struggled to make sense of conflicting events that often blurred the line between victim and victimizer, aristocrat and peasant, communist and counter-revolutionary. Moving gracefully between past and present, dream and reality, the author artfully conveys the vast complexity of life in China as well as the richness, confusion, and magic of her own inner life and struggle.Much of the power of the narrative derives from Yang's multi-generational, cross-class perspective. She invokes the myths, legends, folklore, and local customs that surrounded her and brings to life the many people who were instrumental in her her nanny, a poor woman who raised her from a baby and whose character is conveyed through the bedtime tales she spins; her father; and her beloved grandmother, who died as a result of the political persecution she suffered.Spanning the years from 1950 to 1980, Rae Yang's story is evocative, complex, and told with striking candor. It is one of the most immediate and engaging narratives of life in post-1949 China.
This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly
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Kenneth S. Rogoff, Carmen M. Reinhart  | Princeton University Press

This Time Is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly

$12.90

Goodreads rating: 3.77

$12.90

71% off est. retail
This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the recurring patterns of financial crises throughout history. Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff take us on a journey through eight centuries of financial folly, debunking the notion that "this time is different". Their groundbreaking research and comprehensive data reveal the alarming consistency in the frequency, duration, and intensity of financial crises. With clear analysis and insightful lessons from history, this book is an eye-opening exploration of the universal rites of passage for emerging and established market nations. It will forever change how you perceive the world of finance and its powerful impact on our lives.
The Mystic Fable, Volume One - The Sixteenth And Seventeenth Centuries - Thryft
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Michael B. Smith, Michel de Certeau  | University Of Chicago Press

The Mystic Fable, Volume One - The Sixteenth And Seventeenth Centuries

$3.85

Goodreads rating: 4.35

$3.85

The culmination of de Certeau's lifelong engagement with the human sciences, this volume is both an analysis of Christian mysticism during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and an application of this influential scholar's transdisciplinary historiography.
Undertones of War - Thryft
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Edmund Blunden | University Of Chicago Press

Undertones of War

$6.50

Goodreads rating: 3.7

$6.50

“I took my road with no little pride of fear; one morning I feared very sharply, as I saw what looked like a rising shroud over a wooden cross in the clustering mist. Horror! But on a closer study I realized that the apparition was only a flannel gas helmet. . . . What an age since 1914!”In Undertones of War , one of the finest autobiographies to come out of World War I, the acclaimed poet Edmund Blunden records his devastating experiences in combat. After enlisting at the age of twenty, he took part in the disastrous battles at the Somme, Ypres, and Passchendaele, describing them as “murder, not only to the troops but to their singing faiths and hopes.”All the horrors of trench warfare, all the absurdity and feeble attempts to make sense of the fighting, all the strangeness of observing war as a writer—of being simultaneously soldier and poet—pervade Blunden’s memoir. In steely-eyed prose as richly allusive as any poetry, he tells of the endurance and despair found among the men of his battalion, including the harrowing acts of bravery that won him the Military Cross.Now back in print for American readers, the volume includes a selection of Blunden’s war poems that unflinchingly juxtapose death in the trenches with the beauty of Flanders’s fields. Undertones of War deserves a place on anyone’s bookshelf between Siegfried Sassoon’s poetry and Robert Graves’s Goodbye to All That .
Magna Carta: A Very Short Introduction - Thryft
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Nicholas Vincent | Oxford University Press

Magna Carta: A Very Short Introduction

$6.05

Goodreads rating: 3.93

$6.05

The Magna Carta is arguably the greatest constitutional document in recorded history, yet few people today understand either its contents or its context. This Very Short Introduction , which includes a full English translation of the 1215 Magna Carta, introduces the document to a modern audience, explaining its origins in the troubled reign of King John, and tracing the significant role that it played thereafter as a symbol of the subject's right to protection against the absolute authority of the sovereign. Drawing upon the great advances that have been made in our understanding of thirteenth-century English history, Nicholas Vincent demonstrates why the Magna Carta remains hugely significant today.
The Restoration: A Political and Religious History of England and Wales, 1658-67 - Thryft
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Ronald Hutton | Oxford University Press

The Restoration: A Political and Religious History of England and Wales, 1658-67

$7.90

Goodreads rating: 4.1

$7.90

In less than a decade, the commonwealth of Oliver Cromwell was dramatically transformed into the very different realm of the Restoration monarchy. This is the first detailed account of this vital and eventful period, which witnessed the end of a republic, the reestablishment of royal government, naval wars, plague, religious persecution, and the destruction of the capital in the Great Fire. Drawing on a wealth of public and private manuscript sources to rework each issue anew, Hutton explores the way government policy was set and put into practice during these nine years and how national concerns, local issues, and various social, political, and religious groups all interacted to influence the shifting currents of the nation's affairs.
The Return of Martin Guerre - Thryft
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Natalie Zemon Davis | Harvard University Press

The Return of Martin Guerre

$11.02

Goodreads rating: 3.76

$11.02

The clever peasant Arnaud du Tilh had almost persuaded the learned judges at the Parlement of Toulouse when, on a summer’s day in 1560, a man swaggered into the court on a wooden leg, denounced Arnaud, and reestablished his claim to the identity, property, and wife of Martin Guerre. The astonishing case captured the imagination of the continent. Told and retold over the centuries, the story of Martin Guerre became a legend, still remembered in the Pyrenean village where the impostor was executed more than 400 years ago.Now a noted historian, who served as consultant for a new French film on Martin Guerre, has searched archives and lawbooks to add new dimensions to a tale already abundant in mysteries: we are led to ponder how a common man could become an impostor in the sixteenth century, why Bertrande de Rols, an honorable peasant woman, would accept such a man as her husband, and why lawyers, poets, and men of letters like Montaigne became so fascinated with the episode.
Architectural Principles in the Age of Historicism - Thryft
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Carroll William Westfall, Robert Jan Van Pelt  | Yale University Press

Architectural Principles in the Age of Historicism

$14.35

Goodreads rating: 4.0

$14.35

Explores the relationship between architectural history and the current practice of architecture. The authors draw on insights from anthropology, ancient history, theology, philosophy and the Holocaust. They also provide practical ideas which should help students build a more human world.
War in European History - Thryft
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Michael Eliot Howard | Oxford University Press

War in European History

$11.33

Goodreads rating: 3.95

$11.33

`Wars have often determined the character of society. Society in exchange has determined the character of wars. This is the theme of Michael Howard's stimulating book. It is written with all his usual skill and in its small compass is perhaps the most original book he has written. Though he surveys a thousand years of history, he does so without sinking in a slough of facts and draws a broad outline of developments which will delight the general reader.' A. J. P. Taylor, Observer
The Trial of the Templars - Thryft
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Malcolm Barber | Cambridge University Press

The Trial of the Templars

$8.11

Goodreads rating: 3.86

$8.11

In 1307, the Templars in France were arrested by King Philip IV's officials in the name of the Inquisition, their property seized and the men charged with serious heresies, including the denial of Christ, homosexuality, and idol worship. Confessions, extracted under torture, were brought before royal and papal tribunals, but in 1310 a number of Templar brothers mounted a defense of their Order. Malcolm Barber's fascinating account, assessing the charges brought against the Order, once again puts the Templars on trial.
The Puritans in America : A Narrative Anthology - Thryft
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Andrew Delbanco, Alan Heimert  | Harvard University Press

The Puritans in America : A Narrative Anthology

$16.21

Goodreads rating: 3.41

$16.21

The whole destiny of America is contained in the first Puritans who landed on these shores, wrote de Tocqueville. These newcomers, and the range of their intellectual achievements and failures, are vividly depicted in The Puritans in America . Exiled from England, the Puritans settled in what Cromwell called “a poor, cold, and useless” place―where they created a body of ideas and aspirations that were essential in the shaping of American religion, politics, and culture.In a felicitous blend of documents and narrative Alan Heimert and Andrew Delbanco recapture the sweep and restless change of Puritan thought from its incipient Americanism through its dominance in New England society to its fragmentation in the face of dissent from within and without. A general introduction sketches the Puritan environment, and shorter introductions open each of the six sections of the collection. Thirty-eight writers are included―among these Cotton, Bradford, Bradstreet, Winthrop, Rowlandson, Taylor, and the Mathers―as well as the testimony of Anne Hutchinson and documents illustrating the witchcraft crisis. The works, several of which are published here for the first time since the seventeenth century, are presented in modern spelling and punctuation.Despite numerous scholarly probings, Puritanism remains resistant to categories, whether those of Perry Miller, Max Weber, or Christopher Hill. This new anthology―the first major interpretive collection in nearly fifty years―reveals the beauty and power of Puritan literature as it emerged from the pursuit of self-knowledge in the New World.
Spanish Republic and the Civil War, 1931-1939 - Thryft
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Gabriel Jackson | Princeton University Press

Spanish Republic and the Civil War, 1931-1939

$14.11

Goodreads rating: 4.16

$14.11

At the time of its occurrence, the Spanish Civil War epitomized for the Western world the confrontation of democracy, fascism, and communism. An entire generation of Englishmen and Americans felt a deeper emotional involvement in that war than in any other world event of their lifetimes, including the Second World War. On the Continent, its "lessons," as interpreted by participants of many nationalities, have played an important role in the politics of both Western Europe and the People's Democracies. Everywhere in the Western world, readers of history have noted parallels between the Spanish Republic of 1931 and the revolutionary governments which existed in France and Central Europe during the year 1848. The Austrian revolt of October 1934, reminded participants and observers alike of the Paris Commune of 1871, and even the most politically unsophisticated observers could see in the Spain of 1936 all the ideological and class conflicts which had characterized revolutionary France of 1789 and revolutionary Russia of 1917.It is not surprising, therefore, that the worthwhile books on the Spanish Civil War have almost all emphasized its international ramifications and have discussed its political crises entirely in the vocabulary of the French and Russian revolutions. Relatively few of the foreign participants realized that the Civil War had arisen out of specifically Spanish circumstances. Few of them knew the history of the Second Spanish Republic, which for five years prior to the war had been grappling with the problems of what we now call an "underdeveloped nation."In Spanish Republic and the Civil War , Gabriel Jackson expounds the history of the Second Republic and the Civil War primarily as seen from within Spain.
Royal Representations : Queen Victoria and British Culture, 1837-1876 - Thryft
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Margaret Homans | University Of Chicago Press

Royal Representations : Queen Victoria and British Culture, 1837-1876

$4.12 $2.00 51% off

Goodreads rating: 3.33

$4.12 $2.00 51% off

Queen Victoria was one of the most complex cultural productions of her age. In Royal Representations , Margaret Homans investigates the meanings Victoria held for her times, Victoria's own contributions to Victorian writing and art, and the cultural mechanisms through which her influence was felt.Arguing that being, seeming, and appearing were crucial to Victoria's "rule," Homans explores the variability of Victoria's agency and of its representations using a wide array of literary, historical, and visual sources. Along the way she shows how Victoria provided a deeply equivocal model for women's powers in and out of marriage, how Victoria's dramatic public withdrawal after Albert's death helped to ease the monarchy's transition to an entirely symbolic role, and how Victoria's literary self-representations influenced debates over political self-representation.Homans considers versions of Victoria in the work of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot, John Ruskin, Margaret Oliphant, Lewis Carroll, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Julia Margaret Cameron.
A Little History of the World - Thryft
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E. H. Gombrich | Yale University Press

A Little History of the World

$10.30

Goodreads rating: 4.11

$10.30

In 1935, with a doctorate in art history and no prospect of a job, the 26-year-old Ernst Gombrich was invited by a publishing acquaintance to attempt a history of the world for younger readers. Amazingly, he completed the task in an intense six weeks, and Eine kurze Weltgeschichte für junge Leser was published in Vienna to immediate success, and is now available in seventeen languages across the world. Toward the end of his long life, Gombrich embarked upon a revision and, at last, an English translation. A Little History of the World presents his lively and involving history to English-language readers for the first time. Superbly designed and freshly illustrated, this is a book to be savored and collected. In forty concise chapters, Gombrich tells the story of man from the stone age to the atomic bomb. In between emerges a colorful picture of wars and conquests, grand works of art, and the spread and limitations of science. This is a text dominated not by dates and facts, but by the sweep of mankind's experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements and an acute witness to its frailties. The product of a generous and humane sensibility, this timeless account makes intelligible the full span of human history.
A Little History of Economics - Thryft
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Niall Kishtainy | Yale University Press

A Little History of Economics

$7.16

Goodreads rating: 4.09

$7.16

What causes poverty? Are economic crises inevitable under capitalism? Is government intervention in an economy a helpful approach or a disastrous idea? The answers to such basic economic questions matter to everyone, yet the unfamiliar jargon and math of economics can seem daunting. This clear, accessible, and even humorous book is ideal for young readers new to economics and for all readers who seek a better understanding of the full sweep of economic history and ideas. Economic historian Niall Kishtainy organizes short, chronological chapters that center on big ideas and events. He recounts the contributions of key thinkers including Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Karl Marx, John Maynard Keynes, and others, while examining topics ranging from the invention of money and the rise of agrarianism to the Great Depression, entrepreneurship, environmental destruction, inequality, and behavioral economics. The result is a uniquely enjoyable volume that succeeds in illuminating the economic ideas and forces that shape our world.
The Rise Of Modern China - Thryft
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Immanuel C.Y. Hsu | Oxford University Press

The Rise Of Modern China

$26.70

Goodreads rating: 4.36

$26.70

Now in its sixth edition, this book has been updated to examine the return of Hong Kong in 1997 and the upcoming return of Macao in 1999. Hsü discusses the end of the last vestiges of foreign imperialism in China, as well as China's emergence as a regional and global superpower. U.S.-China rivalry and the prospect of unification between China and Taiwan are also considered.
A Little History of Literature
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John Sutherland | Yale University Press

A Little History of Literature

$7.90

Goodreads rating: 3.84

$7.90

66% off est. retail
If you're someone who gets excited about the thought of time-traveling through the world of words, "A Little History of Literature" could be the perfect companion. John Sutherland’s passion is contagious as he leads you on an insightful jaunt from ancient epics to modern masterpieces. It's like a vibrant classroom with a favorite professor who makes every literary era feel current and alive. This book promises to deepen your appreciation for literature's vast landscape and might just reignite your love for reading.
100 Dresses
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Harold Koda | Yale University Press

100 Dresses

$10.90

Goodreads rating: 4.24

$10.90

If fashion is your narrative, you'll find "100 Dresses" a sartorial treasure trove. It's like traveling through time via the art of couture, each page turning back the clock with a rustle of taffeta, a whisper of silk. For the dreamers who picture themselves in the sweep of a gown, this book isn't just a history lesson—it's an invitation to the grand ball of fashion's past, accessible from your own cozy corner.