History

History (from Greek ἱστορία - historia, meaning "inquiry, knowledge acquired by investigation") is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it sometimes attempts to investigate objectively the patterns of cause and effect that determine events. Historians debate the nature of history and its usefulness. This includes discu ...more

New Releases Tagged "History"

Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend

When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution's Greatest Romance

Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism

Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe

Perfect Victims: And the Politics of Appeal

Ends of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and Our Future

Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity

Death Is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare

Wages for Housework: The Feminist Fight Against Unpaid Labor

Secret Servants of the Crown: The Forgotten Women of British Intelligence

Talk to Me: Lessons from a Family Forged by History

More new releases tagged "history"...

Giveaways

Story of a Murder: The Wives, the Mistress, and Dr. Crippen

Hallie Rubenhold (Goodreads Author)

Release date: Mar 25, 2025

We're giving away 25 hardcovers of bestselling author Hallie Rubenhold's epic examination of one of the most infamous murders of the 20th century ...more
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Format: Print book

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Availability: 25 copies available, 6818 people requesting

Giveaway dates: Mar 03 - Mar 24, 2025

Countries available: U.S.

Jane Austen's Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney

Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a Legend

Rebecca Romney (Goodreads Author)

Release date: Feb 18, 2025

From rare book dealer and guest star of the hit show Pawn Stars, a page-turning literary adventure that introduces readers to the women writers who in From rare book dealer and guest star of the hit show Pawn Stars, a page-turning literary adventure that introduces readers to the women writers who inspired Jane Austen—and investigates why their books have disappeared from our shelves.

Long before she was a rare book dealer, Rebecca Romney was a devoted reader of Jane Austen. She loved that Austen’s books took the lives of women seriously, explored relationships with wit and confidence, and always, allowed for the possibility of a happy ending. She read and reread them, often wishing Austen wrote just one more.

But Austen wasn’t a lone genius. She wrote at a time of great experimentation for women writers—and clues about those women, and the exceptional books they wrote, are sprinkled like breadcrumbs throughout Austen’s work. Every character in Northanger Abbey who isn’t a boor sings the praises of Ann Radcliffe. The play that causes such a stir in Mansfield Park is a real one by the playwright Elizabeth Inchbald. In fact, the phrase “pride and prejudice” came from Frances Burney’s second novel Cecilia. The women that populated Jane Austen’s bookshelf profoundly influenced her work; Austen looked up to them, passionately discussed their books with her friends, and used an appreciation of their books as a litmus test for whether someone had good taste. So where had these women gone? Why hadn’t Romney—despite her training—ever read them? Or, in some cases, even heard of them? And why were they no longer embraced as part of the wider literary canon?

Jane Austen’s Bookshelf investigates the disappearance of Austen’s heroes—women writers who were erased from the Western canon—to reveal who they were, what they meant to Austen, and how they were forgotten. Each chapter profiles a different writer including Frances Burney, Ann Radcliffe, Charlotte Lennox, Charlotte Smith, Hannah More, Elizabeth Inchbald, Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi, and Maria Edgeworth—and recounts Romney’s experience reading them, finding rare copies of their works, and drawing on connections between their words and Austen’s. Romney collects the once-famed works of these forgotten writers, physically recreating Austen’s bookshelf and making a convincing case for why these books should be placed back on the to-be-read pile of all book lovers today. Jane Austen’s Bookshelf will encourage you to look beyond assigned reading lists, question who decides what belongs there, and build your very own collection of favorite novels. ...more
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Format: Print book

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Availability: 100 copies available, 6086 people requesting

Giveaway dates: Mar 03 - Mar 24, 2025

Countries available: U.S.