Mindbird Maps & books | homePhilosophy & Religion · History & Geography · Travel Literature · Nature & Science · Vegetarian Cooking · Health & Healing · Public Radio Authors · Poetry · World Literature · Literary Anthologies · Non-English Languages
History & Geography
 |
This is a very small sampling of what we have available. This section also includes biographies of persons from many of these areas.
For maps of these areas, see International Travel Maps.
General Works
Gideon Sjoberg, The Preindustrial City: Past and Present“Ostensibly this is a book about cities. Yet it is much more, for through the medium of the preindustrial-urban center I have sought to analyze the structure of preindustrial civilized societies. In turn we seek in the preindustrial city and its society, now retreating from the world scene, a standard for measuring—and, consequently, understanding—the impact of industrial-urbanization, a truly revolutionary force in this the twentieth century.”
The Free Press, 1965. 352 pages, about 5 x 8 inches, paperback. New, remainder.
Item #385. Shipping weight: 1.4 lbs. Publisher’s price: $14.95. Your price: $4.00
Africa 
Philip Gourevitch, We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories From Rwanda
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.
Picador USA, 1999. 355 pages, about 5½ x 8¼ inches, paperback. New.
Item #270. Shipping weight: 1.4 lbs. Publisher's price: $15.00. Your price: $13.50
AmericasUSA
Paula Gunn Allen and Lee Francis III, Linda Hogan, Simon Ortiz, Carter Revard, and Ray A. Young Bear, Columbus and Beyond: Views from Native Americans“How shall people of conscience, knowing our history, live today? This is the awkward practical question implicit in this volume of thoughtful essays by six highly respected Native American writers. As they address the European occupation of America, a recurrent theme emerges: a sadness for opportunities lost—a personal sadness for the loss of their cultures and people, and a broader sadness for opportunities lost to entire nations in that failed chance for partnership. They also affirm those lost opportunities that can still be regained, those that await or diligent efforts to create a better world and a more just society.”
Southwest Parks and Monuments Association, 1992. 62 pages, about 7 x 9 inches, paperback. New.
Item #490. Shipping weight: 0.7 lb. Publisher’s price: $7.95. Your price: $7.15
Edward Everett Dale, Cow CountryThis book developed out of the author's intensive economic study of the cattle industry in the West from 1865 to 1924, but is written in a more popular style with anecdotes on the colorful characters of the time.
Condition: This ex-library copy was originally a paperback rebound as a hardback for library use. The cover has light wear at the edges, moderate at corners, including a small tear at the top of the spine; faces rubbed and lightly stained, library label glued to base of spine. Page edges lightly soiled, stamped with library name, date, and DISCARD. First few pages and back endpapers with typical library marks and stamps; pages otherwise in very good condition, free from marks; a few pages with inconspicuous stains. Binding cocked.
Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965. Cloth. No Jacket. About 4½ x 7½ inches. 1976 printing. 258 pages, illus. Used.
Item# HB1611. Shipping weight: 1.0 lb. Your price: $4.50
Leonard Dinnerstein and Frederic Cople Jaher (editors), The Aliens: A History of Ethnic Minorities in AmericaCondition: Good. College bookstore price stamped inside front cover. Minor wear on edges, some smudges.
Published by Prentice Hall, 1970. About 6 x 9¼ inches, paperback. Used.
Item #HB1. Shipping weight: 1.6 lbs. Your price: $3.00
Lawrence D. Sundberg, Dinétah: An Early History of the Navajo PeopleA “sympathetic history of a great people who depended on their tenacity and creative adaptability to survive troubled times. . . . This book with its extensive archival illustrations and photographs weaves a complex and understandable story in which Navajos changed the future of the Southwest United States.”
The author has (perhaps unfortunately!) added a few of his own line drawings, which are reminiscent of junior high school level artistry. The text, though indeed interesting, is also written at about the same grade level.
Sunstone Press, 1995. 94 pages, illus., paperback, about 8½ x 11 inches. New.
Item #445. Shipping weight: 1.0 lb. Publisher’s price: $12.95. Your price: $11.65
AsiaChina
Gretel Ehrlich, Questions of Heaven: The Chinese Journeys of an American Buddhist The author of The Solace of Open Spaces, a Buddhist, makes a pilgrimage to climb Emei Shan, in Sichuan Province, and one of China's four sacred Buddhist mountains. She visits Buddhist lamas who had once been in hiding from the onslaughts of the Cultural Revolution, and also visits a panda refuge to ponder the fate of these iconic mammals.
Beacon Press, 1997. 128 pages, about 5-3/4 x 8½ inches, hardcover. New, remainder.
Item #ABE287. Shipping weight: 1.0 lb. Cover price: $20.00. Your price: $5.00
India
Jad Adams & Phillip Whitehead, The Dynasty: The Nehru-Gandhi Story "based on diaries, letters, contemporary journalistic accounts, new research and exclusive interviews . . . The Dynasty traces the rise of the family from 1857 through India's independence in 1948, and on through the ill-fated reigns of Indira and Rajiv Gandhi."
TV Books, 1997. 532 pages, about 6¼ x 9¼ hardcover. New, remainder.
Item # ABE1232. Shipping weight: 1.8 lbs. Publisher's price: $27.00. Your price: $7.00
Japan
Edward Behr, Hirohito: Behind the Myth Upon his ascendance to the throne of Japan, the Emperor Hirohito chose an official name meaning "peace and enlightenment": Showa. "But this crisply written and superbly documented biography gives us a darker and more complex Hirihito . . . [and reveals] 'a shrewd and skillful manipulator' who adeptly rode the tiger of Japanese militarism, monitored the early conduct of the war, and then insulated himself from the war's consequences."
Vintage, 1990. 437 pages, about 5¼ x 8 inches, paperback. Used.
Item #ABE1457. Shipping weight: 1.4 lbs. Cover price: $14.95. Your price: $5.00
John David Morley, Pictures From the Water Trade: Adventures of a Westerner in Japan The author "came to Japan to work and study, already well versed in the Japanese language, though not in its nearly indefinable subtleties. His chance meeting in a Tokyo cabaret with Ichimonji, an exuberant and witty hedonist, gave him his true entree into Japanese life. For three years, with Ichimonji as his ebullient guide, Morley explored Japan's demimonde and learned the mysteries of 'the water trade'—a Japanese expression for all those establishments devoted to the uninhibited pursuit of pleasure, both alcoholic and sexual, that exist marginally within the law but lie outside of 'respectable' life. It was in a bar in a xenophobic village outside Tokyo that Morley found the beautiful and mysterious Mariko . . . . "
Atlantic Monthly Press, 1985. 259 pages, about 5-3/4 x 8½ inches, hardcover. Used, good condition: Library discard. Dust jacket protected in plastic, typical library labels and stamps inside and on edges. May be some pencil underlining.
Item #HB1608. Shipping weight: 1.5 lbs. Cover price: $16.95. Your price: $4.50
Nepal
Jeff Greenwald, Shopping for Buddhas The story of the author's obsessive search for the perfect Buddha statue in Kathmandu. But "he discovers more than he bargained for . . . and his souvenir-hunting turns into an ironic metaphor for the clash of between spiritual riches and material greed. Politics, religion and serious shopping collide in Jeff Greenwald's witty, thought-provoking account of his experiences in Nepal."
Lonely Planet, 1996 (first published 1990). 198 pages, about 5 x 7-3/4 inches, paperback. New.
Item #332. Shipping weight: 0.8 lb. Publisher's price: $10.95. Your price: $9.85
Pakistan
Karin Mittmann and Zafar Ihsan, Culture Shock! Pakistan "An informative guide to living in Pakistan. It provides an entertaining crash course which will help you settle in Pakistan and do business with the Pakistani people."
Graphic Arts Center Publishing, 1991. 222 pages, about 5 x 7-3/4 inches, paperback. Used, very good condition.
Item #ABE850. Shipping weight: 0.8 lb. Cover price: $10.95. Your price: $5.50
Australia, New Zealand & the South PacificAustralia
Jill Ker Conway, The Road from Coorain An autobiography of growing up Australian, by the woman who eventually became the first female president of Smith College.
Vintage, 1990. 238 pages, about 5¼ x 8 inches, paperback. Used, very good condition.
Item #JKCRC13. Shipping weight: 0.8 lb. Cover price: $10.00. Your price: $5.00
Robert Hughes, The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding "A brilliant and enduring achievement. . . . This enthralling account of Australia's tragic origins is history of the highest order, combining thorough research with vivid narrative and thoughtful assessment."–Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
I had trouble making it through this book. The first several chapters were interesting and exciting. Then, because the author goes on (and on) in such detail, he treats different aspects of Australian convict life in different chapters, and this means that you are continually revisiting the same time period again and again, which I found tedious. If the story of Australia is of interest to you, I recommend you read the first third or so of the book while you can still enjoy it, then skip around to those chapters which deal with aspects of particular interest to you (and you'll certainly want to conclude with the last chapter, which tells of the abolition of the convict transportation system). Treat the unread portions as a reference work, something you'll read if you need further detail on a special topic, but not something you read through.
Vintage, 1988. 688 pages, abot 5¼ x 8 inches, paperback. Used. Very good condition.
Item #RHFS13. Shipping weight: 2.0 lbs. Cover price: $12.95. Your price: $6.50
Walter Lord, Incredible VictoryA detailed and engaging account of the Battle of Midway in June 1942, when a greatly outnumbered and inexperienced American fleet obliterated much of the Japanese fleet which had had hopes of crippling US sea power and bringing a peace settlement favorable to Japanese ambitions. Includes 16 pages of b&w photos.
Pocket Books, 1968, 1st printing; 306 pages, paperback, about 4 x 7 inches. Used: Good condition, cover with light wear at edges, pages yellowing but clean and unmarked.
Item #LORD-IV. Shipping weight: 0.7 lb. Your price: $2.50
Middle-East & North AfricaSaudi Arabia
Carl R. Raswan, Black Tents of Arabia (My Life Among the Bedouins) "A classic account of life in the Arabian Desert."
"During the course of numerous visits over a 22-year period, from 1912 to 1934, Carl Raswan embraced nomadism, living among a tribe of Bedouins, 7,000 tents and 350,000 camels strong."
Hungry Mind Press, 1998 (first published 1935). 206 pages, about 5 x 7-3/4 inches, paperback. New.
Item #256. Shipping weight: 0.9 lb. Publisher's price: $14.00. Your price: $12.60
Polar Regions: The Arctic and Antarctic
Roland Huntford, The Last Place on Earth: Scott and Amundsen's Race to the South Pole, Revised and Updated. "A remarkably vivid picture of the agonies and feuds, as well as joys, of polar exploration . . . a fascinating book."–The New York Times
Modern Library, 1999 (originally published 1979). 588 pages, about 5¼ x 8 inches, paperback. New.
Item #404. Shipping weight: 1.7 lbs. Publisher's price: $14.95. Your price: $13.45
Will Steger with Paul Schurke, North to the Pole "A first-person account of the 1986 dog-sled expedition to the North Pole, the first to reach the North Pole without resupply since Robert E. Peary in 1909."
Times Books, 1987. 339 pages, about 6½ x 9½ inches, hardcover. Used, very good condition.
Item #ABE43. Shipping weight: 2.0 lbs. Cover price: $19.95. Your price: $10.00
Sea Adventures 
David Hays and Daniel Hays, My Old Man and the Sea: A Father and Son Sail Around Cape Horn "Some fathers and sons go fishing together. Some play baseball. David and Daniel Hays decided to sail in a tiny boat 17,000 miles to the bottom of the world and back. This is their story."
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1995. 223 pages, about 5¼ x 8-3/4 inches, hardcover. New, remainder.
Item #240. Shipping weight: 1.2 lbs. Cover price: $19.95. Your price: $5.00
David Miller, The Wreck of the Isabella "It began when one ship was wrecked on the remote and (at that time) totally deserted Falkland Islands due to the incompetence of its drunken master. Then two ships came to the rescue of the castaways, one British and one American, a situation which was complicated by the outbreak of the War of 1812 between the two countries. The adventures that befell the people of those three ships contains a greater mix of high courage and base cowardice, honesty and skulduggery, good luck and misfortune, and surprising twists than any novelist would dare to include in one book. . . . This story, full of action and unexpected turns, is one of the most exciting to come out of the period, not least because it describes life at the start of the nineteenth century as it really was."
Naval Institute Press, 1995. 259 pages, about 6½ x 9½ inches, hardcover. Used, very good condition.
Item #ABE416. Shipping weight: 1.7 lbs. Publisher's price: $27.95. Your price: $14.00
Glyn Williams, The Prize of All the Oceans: The Dramatic True Story of Commodore Anson’s Voyage Round the World and How He Seized the Spanish Treasure Galleon“In 1740, in the first year of war with Spain, Commodore George Anson set sail with a squadron of six British warships. His secret mission . . . was to size the legendary Spanish galleon on her yearly voyage from Acalpulco to Manila laden with Peruvian silver, ‘the prize of all the oceans.’ It was to be a four-year litany of hardship, disaster, mutiny, and heroism. Only one vessel, the flagship Centurion, achieved its goal; the others were wrecked, scuttled, or forced back in tatters. Of more than 1,900 crewmen, almost 1,400 perished of disease or starvation. . . . Anson’s voyage would change not only his life, but also the course of naval history. Glyn Williams tells the full story for the first time in a book that will rivet historians and armchair survivalists alike.”
Viking, 2000. 264 pages, illus., about 6½ inches wide x 9½ inches tall, hardcover. New, remainder; copy has lightly bumped corners, dust jacket is wrinkled on back.
Item #323. Shipping weight: 1.7 lbs. Publisher’s price: $27.95. Your price: $6.50
Original content copyright © Lee Dittmann of Mindbird Maps & Books.
Images may be copyright © by the creator of the items depicted. Essential ordering details, including phone, fax, mail, and online options, shipping fees and delivery times, returns, special orders, privacy policy, and more are described on the How to Order page. |