Richard Duke Books

Vaughan's series of books on Valois Burgundy have long been a staple for anyone interested Burgundian history and culture. After a long stretch of being out of print, and very difficult to find, these new editions are sure to be welcomed by many historians. Added to Vaughan's work is a fantastic new introduction written for the 2002 edition by Malcolm Vale (another historian I would readily recommend).
While these works may be older, and more recent work has been done on Burgundy, Vaughan's scholarship is still first-rate. A must for the bookshelf of anyone interested in Valois Burgundy, or Northern Europe in the late 14th and 15th centuries.

Vaughan's series of books on Valois Burgundy have long been a staple for anyone interested Burgundian history and culture. After a long stretch of being out of print, and very difficult to find, these new editions are sure to be welcomed by many historians. Added to Vaughan's work is a fantastic new introduction written for the 2002 edition by Malcolm Vale (another historian I would readily recommend).
While these works may be older, and more recent work has been done on Burgundy, Vaughan's scholarship is still first-rate. A must for the bookshelf of anyone interested in Valois Burgundy, or Northern Europe in the late 14th and 15th centuries.

Vaughan's series of books on Valois Burgundy have long been a staple for anyone interested Burgundian history and culture. After a long stretch of being out of print, and very difficult to find, these new editions are sure to be welcomed by many historians. Added to Vaughan's work is a fantastic new introduction written for the 2002 edition by Malcolm Vale (another historian I would readily recommend).
While these works may be older, and more recent work has been done on Burgundy, Vaughan's scholarship is still first-rate. A must for the bookshelf of anyone interested in Valois Burgundy, or Northern Europe in the late 14th and 15th centuries.

Disclaimer: Dick Duke was one of my mentors in graduate school, and it is a shame when professors like him retire, because they can not be replaced.

Dick is a visionary that developed a powerful approach to planning and decision making decades ago that deals with complexity and post-modern issues. This book captures his thinking and provides case studies of clients that he has helped as well as explains how to use his methods.

A brilliant book by a brilliant thinker.

Television Studies is now booming institutionally if not intellectually. The banality of many of the cloned analyses of particular shows or the remedial narrative accounts of available approaches to television texts has unwittingly contributed to the naturalization of the technology itself. This text is the antidote. Dienst's book provides a series of fresh, beautifully written re-readings of the work of key thinkers (including Marx, Heidegger, Raymond Williams, Deleuze, and Derrida) in terms of television theory. His re-examination of Marx's theory of value "after television" shows us the continuing explanatory power of Capital and Grundrisse. Never reductive and always stimulating, this book offers more starting points for critical students of television than any recent text. What is more, this is "theory" at its best, opening up new ways of thinking about the ownership, value and significations in contemporary culture. This is a "breakthrough" book -- read it!

Best book I ever read! What can I say...the man's my father and he's a living legend.

Exciting, thorough, and amazingly generous, Wirth brings to life a most beguiling participant in the Harlem Renaissance.

This book is a mixture of biography and collected works of Richard Bruce Nugent, the most openly gay writer of the Harlem Renaissance. His 1920s story, "Smoke, Lillies and Jade" has been called the first African-American fictional account regarding homosexuality. The book also includes many photos of Nugent and his gay peers as well as Nugent's artwork.

The book is divided into five sections, emphasizing Nugent's fictional and non-fictional work. However, the best part of the book is the historical introduction; it should have been highlighted somehow. This book is a veritable "Who's Who?" of the Gay Harlem Renaissance. Unfortunately, this excellent documentation of the numerous gay Black authors writing in the early 20th century leaves the impression that little is known about Nugent or little is worth saying. Still, I found myself wanting to read every footnote because they show how much material is out there that has yet to be reviewed scholastically. Heads up, gay studies graduate students!

Though the excerpts of Nugent's writings span a fifty-year period, the grand majority of it comes from the 1930s. Nugent, in "Smoke" and most other writings, was a blatant cheerleader for the Renaissance. I found his work challenging, though at times incredibly boring. It's admitted that his artwork is faux Erte, but it's implied homoeroticism must truly be relished. Be warned that it's very campy. I applaud Nugent in his continual inclusion of women in his artwork, non-fiction, and fiction. You would never have to worry about him saying some foolishness like "Hated it!" Besides, if I read this correctly, Nugent never went to college, yet his writing is quite sophisticated.

Surprisingly, this book reminds me of Little Richard's biography, even though that was written during one of Richard's homophobic stages. Both Richard and Nugent were/are frequently X-rated in order to get laughs and push the envelope on societal norms. Like Dennis Rodman, Nugent swears that because Blacks rejected him, he only pursued "Latins." This fetishization may really disturb gay Latino and Italian-American readers. But remember: gay whites of the era like E.M. Forster also celebrated "difference" in ways that we would now deem politically incorrect.

Skip Gates' forward is scant, but it does reprove his commitment to an anti-homophobic, African-American scholarship. The biographer is a white gay man "interested" in Black culture. Shockingly, he never cites Eric Garber, the non-Black scholar who was the first in gay studies to report on the gay underpinnings of the Harlem Renaissance. It's a shame too, because many of Garber's insights are still useful, yet they go unacknowledged. Wirth includes a section in which Nugent remembers Carl Van Vecten, the gay white celebrity-maker who promoted the Renaissance. This section is confusing and says little. It somewhat re-centers Van Vechten and feels slightly Eurocentric. Still, the biographer has a Ph.D. in chemistry from CalTech yet he writes like the most sophisticated gay studies Ph.D. I give him much credit.

Finally, this book has been categorized under "racially mixed persons." Though it is mentioned that Nugent had some Native American ancestors, interracial romantic liaisons and passing come up much more often than multiracial identity matters in this text.

All people who want to challenge the idea that gayness is a "white thing" or "recent phenomenon" need to read this book.

Richard Bruce Nugent was the son of two black parents,his father was an entertainer and his mother was a member of one of the leading black Washington D.C. families of the day. Nugent was out of the closet at 19 years of age, black and proud and proud to be gay and unconventionally bohemian.

Nugent has often been relegated to only a footnote and a provider of anecdotal stories about the Harlem Renaissance and its leading canonized figures by reserchers and biographers past and present. Thomas Wirth's book seeks to rectify an injustice and put Nugent back to the forefront as a contributing member to the Renaissance. After a brief foreward by Herny Louis Gates Jr. stressing Nugent's importance to the history of black literature, gay literature, especially black gay literature and literature in general, the reader is treated to a very brief biography of Nugent and his milieu of the time by Wirth.

From this point on in the book, Wirht allows Nugent's words to speak for Nugent himself by offering a variety of work that was unpublished during Nugent's lifetime and forgotten or lost. Wirth gives a brief introduction to each piece of work presented explaining nuiances and the history behind it. In addition, presented in GAY REBLE.. are some of Nugent's diverse artwork.

Unlike Langston Hughes who showed very little interest in white men sexually and as objects of desire in much of his life and work, barring simple friendships----but whose preference was for men of his own race, especially the handsome "darker-skinned" black men---- Nugent, in his own words, favored white men. The reason he gives is somewhat inanitious, but is represented in much of his work and life.

Smoke, Lilies, and Jade is the most famous and infamous work presented in GAY REBEL... because it was the first piece of writing by an OPENLY GAY BLACK MAN whose protagonist was a black gay man and "Beauty," the object of desire in the story was a composite of Langston Hughes, Harold Jackman and Valentino. Lesser known works include "Geisha Man" and "Gentleman Jigger," a somewhat semi-autobigraphical sketch where Nugent is honest in how he managed to come to terms with and extinguish his skin color prejudices with darker-skinned black after meeting Wallace Thurman, another influential and leading intellectual of the Harlem Renaissance.

It should be pointed out that Nugent, like Langston Hughes, Zora Hurston, Wallace Thurman were all proud to be black. But again, like Hughes, Hurston, and Thurman, Nugent understood that black Americans are a multicultural people of mixed bloodlines no matter the complextion of skin and the race of either parent. It is important to remeber this when reading some of Nugent's poems and looking at his artwork where he took care to include this fact.

"Gay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance: Selections from the Work of Richard Bruce Nugent" is edited by Thomas H. Wirth, who also wrote the introduction. Also included is a foreword by Henry Louis Gates Jr. Over 300 pages long, this book offers a comprehensive and compelling look at Nugent (1906-1987). In his foreword Gates writes that Nugent was "boldly and proudly gay" and that he "linked the black world of the Harlem Renaissance with the gay world of bohemian New York."

Wirth's fascinating, 61 page introduction is full of photos and illustrations. Wirth looks at Nugent's life and work; among the topics covered are Nugent's relationships to other Harlem Renaissance figures and his involvement with the periodical "Fire!!".

A note to the reader tell us that the book includes previously unpublished work taken directly from manuscript. Overall there is a rich selection of material. Among the pieces included in this book are the short story "Smoke, Lilies and Jade," an oft-reprinted piece described as "Nugent's most important work"; poems; an essay entitled "On Harlem" which was written for the Federal Writers' Project in the late 1930s; excerpts from an unpublished novel; and more. There are also many reproductions (both color and black-and-white) of Nugent's artwork.

"Gay Rebel" is a superb contribution to both African-American studies and gay studies. But beyond that it's a very moving tribute to a remarkable cultural figure.

As a current employee of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, I have found this book to be very truthful. I have many passages highlighted. The official response of the museum was to ignore it. The front line employees of the Foundation were really hopeful that this book would be a lesson, and that they would make some needed changes. Now it is 2003, and the museum is facing some really bad times. For the past 8 years, millions and millions of dollars have been spent on back up facilities like libraries, stables, hotels, bridges, and now a fictious plantation. There has been very little done as far as the upkeep of the historic area itself, and quite honestly the place is falling apart. And now the most important element of all is in grave danger, the historic interpreters who pour their hearts and souls into CW could soon be a thing of the past. Layoffs are to be announced this September 2003. The recent purchase of recording devices, are also a giant threat to the interpreters. The interpreters make the town come alive. Colonial Williamsburg has become a place where the history really does not matter any more! For the past 2 years many of the middle management positions have been filled by former Disney employees!! Ever since the "Disney" people arrived, they no longer offer training about history at all, just customer service training. Please, if you donate money to this worthy cause, stipulate that the money be kept in the historic area, and or go into a fund to help keep the interpreters!!!

This is an invaluable study of the representation of the American past at Colonial Willimaburg. It shows us that as much as CW presents itself as a reproduction of the past, it nonetheless refelcts the social positions of its present-day curators, visitors, and financial backers.

This book was assigned in one of my classes and I was very impressed by it. It, despite the opinions of the above reviewer, clearly strove to be balanced and sympathetic in its discussion without losing sight of its academic aims. I found it extremely helpful in finding another way to look at the history I have been presented with at every museum or class I've been to, not just Williamsburg. I went to Williamsburg for the first time after I read this book and was much more interested in what I was seeing than I might otherwise have been -- actually thinking about what I was hearing and reading rather than simply swallowing it whole. The book itself is very well written and enjoyable as well as informative to read -- a rare thing among scholarly works. Handler and Gable did an excellent job.

Colonial Williamsburg is an elaborate fake, run by corporate devils who mercilessly exploit their workers, while badly distorting America's colonial history. At least that is what Handler and Gable would have us believe. There is more than a grain of truth in some of their contentions, but they undermine their case by digressing into political correctness and left-wing dogma.

The authors relate how Colonial Williamsburg's political agenda has changed to suit successive generations of scholars and managers, who have massaged "facts" accordingly. Front-line interpreters (costumed characters) are trained to parry controversial questions in order to avoid open discussion of them and to maintain the "official" line. They can become impatient with visitors' ignorance of history, and may resort to insulting them. When historians convey new or corrected information to the staff, interpreters sometimes override those directions in favor of their own views.

The historical message is contaminated further by interference from corporate officials, who are more concerned with boosting attendance and competing with theme parks than with running an historically accurate museum. The authors condemn Colonial Williamsburg as a museum that has abandoned its educational mission in favor of showing tourists a good time by building more hotels and golf courses, and which has crassly expanded retail merchandising to compete for tourist dollars. Ironically, Colonial Williamsburg sold Anheuser-Busch the land on which the Busch Gardens theme park now stands, thus helping to create its stiffest competition and spurring its efforts to increase attendance.

The authors make a number of telling points against Colonial Williamsburg's version of history, but they lose credibility by suggesting that the existing presentation merely be replaced with one designed to serve their own politically correct agenda. Although Colonial Williamsburg has come a long way in portraying the role of slaves in the colony, it isn't enough for Handler and Gable, who view those efforts as half-hearted, if not hypocritical, even on the part of some African-American interpreters. While criticizing Colonial Williamsburg for speculating about unknown areas of history in order to create a seamless presentation, the authors promote use of just such hypothetical, unsubstantiated "information" as part of a more politically correct view of 18th Century Williamsburg. For example, whether or not it can be proven that Williamsburg patriot George Wythe kept a female slave as his mistress, and perhaps fathered a child by her, the authors believe that Colonial Williamsburg should tell visitors that he did, since so many white slave owners were guilty of miscegenation.

The book bogs down badly during a lengthy leftist harangue against capitalism and corporate structure, which the authors dislike and consider inappropriate for Colonial Williamsburg, but for which they offer no alternative. Although that digression is followed by a valuable discussion of the struggle between corporate and educational priorities, the authors often confuse issues of education and history with those of corporate policy and labor relations without convincingly linking them. The result is a muddled examination of Colonial Williamsburg as a place of learning.

The work suffers from a lack of systematic data collection, relying instead on anecdotal information gleaned from interviews with officials, interpreters, visitors and others, and there is no sampling or survey data to support the book's broad contentions. The final chapter provides a lucid summary of the book's major points, but the authors have rambled for too long before reaching that point, and many readers will find the preceding chapters heavy going.

Moreover, Colonial Williamsburg is not really a museum, and it is doubtful that patrons expect to see a flawlessly accurate reproduction of the late 18th Century city. Visitors know that the costumed interpreters they encounter are performers and they accept the convention. Even with its shortcomings, Colonial Williamsburg can stimulate interest in the people and ideas that dominated political discourse on the eve of revolution and encourage visitors to learn more about them on their own.

FROM BACK COVER:


HE WAS YOUNG, HANDSOM, AND REGAL.

THE PERFECT KING - UNTIL...


For a while the people loved their beautiful young king, Richard II. But then his extravagances and his indifference to the people's needs aroused their wrath.

John of Gaunt, his uncle, watched all this with great interest. Nothing could slake his thirst for the throne, not even his beautiful wife, Catherine.

Here is a vivid picture of Richard's court, of his spendthrift ways, his folly, his devotion to his favorite, Robert de Vere, and his love for his two queens. And most of all of his headlong journey toward disaster.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Eleanor Alice Burford (b. September 01, 1906 in Kensington, London, England - d. January 18, 1993 at sea, somewhere between Greece and Port Said, Egypt), Mrs. George Percival Hibbert was a British author of about 200 historical novels, most of them under the pen name Jean Plaidy which had sold 14 million copies by the time of her death. She chose to use various names because of the differences in subject matter between her books; the best-known, apart from Plaidy, are Victoria Holt (56 million) and Philippa Carr (3 million). Lesser known were the novels Hibbert published under her maiden name Eleanor Burford, or the pseudonyms of Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow and Ellalice Tate. Many of her readers under one penname never suspected her other identities.

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This is part of: The Plantagenet Saga

1. The Plantagenet Prelude (1976)
2. The Revolt of the Eaglets (1977)
3. The Heart of the Lion (1977)
4. The Prince of Darkness (1978)
5. The Battle of the Queens (1978)
6. The Queen from Provence (1979)
7. Hammer of the Scots (also published as Edward Longshanks) (1979)
8. The Follies of the King (1980)
9. The Vow on the Heron (1980)
10. Passage to Pontefract (1981)
11. The Star of Lancaster (1981)
12. Epitaph for Three Women (1981)
13. Red Rose of Anjou (1982)
14. Sun in Splendour (1982)

What a sad book - the story of Richard II is so compelling and sad and it is told wonderfully by Jean Plaidy. The depth of feeling she gives her characters and the history of the times is so vivid, you just don't want to put the book down and when you are finished you can't wait to go on to the next story. Got to start the series from the first so you can see how the monarchy evolves. Great read!!

I enjoyed this book... although it was not the greatest of Jean Plaidy's books. I just didn't get attached to Richard II or Henry IV... although I did like Catherine Swyford, but that was because I had read Anya Seton's novel... It was not as good as The Vow on the heron, but it's still fun to read.

This is the first in the Women's Murder Club series and it is the first James Patterson book I've read. He is a popular and prolific writer, and this thriller doesn't disappoint. It may not be great literature, but it is easy reading with very short chapters and it keeps the reader's interest to the end. The reason I read the book is because of the TV series based on these books about four women -- a detective, a medical examiner, a crime reporter and an assistant district attorney -- who band together to solve crimes. They call themselves the Women's Murder Club. In this first book Detective Lindsay Boxer is also battling a serious illness and is involved in a romance as well as solving a series of murders. This is a good book to take along on a trip. It will help pass the time at the airport and on the plane.

I have a long drive to work and back through lots of traffic, but this book made me drive so much easier.

First book in the Women's Murder Club series.

Four professional women in San Francisco (a cop, a medical examiner, an assistant DA, and a reporter) join forces to catch a serial killer who is brutally murdering newlyweds.

Lots of page-turning action and Patterson's trademark gruesome, misogynistic murders. Read this for the gory murder mystery, not for the character development. While I didn't love it, I liked it enough that I will continue to read the series.

I started this series on the sixth book, so when I saw this at an airport, I was excited about finding out how the WMC had started. I really enjoyed reading about it unfolding. The mystery of the plot kept me intrigued. It did get a little more graphic than I would have liked at times, and I almost lowered it to 3 stars as a result.

I love murder mysteries, When I first saw this series on television I had to read the books. The only problem I had is that linday has dark hair on t.v. and the books have her as a blonde. Putting that aside the story introduces all the characters, and they work well together and support each other while solving violent crimes. Each woman plays a vital roll to the story. If you do not like women who are in charge and are lead characters, then this is not for you. I personally loved it.