- Keyword = british empire
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WILLIAM KNOX: The Life and Thought of an Eighteenth Century Imperialist
Edition: First printing.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 1977. dj. Hardcover first edition - The first full-scale biography of the man who was provost marshall of Georgia from 1757 to 1762 and Undersecretary of State in the American Dept of the British government from 1770 to 1782. Notes, bibliography and index. 264 pp. ISBN: 0-292-790074.
Condition: Very good in a good dust jacket (Slight water damage to upper edge of text block, tear and associated creasing on front cover of dj.)
Book ID: 8638More details Price: $17.50 -
TOURNAMENT OF SHADOWS
Edition: First US printing.
New York: Scribner's, (1978.) dj. Hardcover first edition - Novel of a young officer in Queen Victoria's army - settings range from St. Petersburg in Russia to Simla in India, to Peking and to the Gobi Desert. 309 pp. ISBN: 0-684-161486.
Condition: Near fine in near fine dust jacket.
Book ID: 48177More details Price: $16.00 -
TOURNAMENT OF SHADOWS
Edition: First US printing.
New York: Scribner's, (1978.) dj. Hardcover first edition - Novel of a young officer in Queen Victoria's army - settings range from St. Petersburg in Russia to Simla in India, to Peking and to the Gobi Desert. 309 pp. ISBN: 0-684-161486.
Condition: Very good in very good dust jacket (hint of spine slant, price-clipped.)
Book ID: 7598More details Price: $10.00 -
THE WINSHAW LEGACY or WHAT A CARVE UP.
Edition: First US printing.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995. dj. Hardcover first edition - His fourth novel, but his first to be published in the US, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1994. "A postmodern detective story, a scathing send-up of the rapacious eighties, a macabre Gothic -- all rolled up in a bravura tragicomic entertainment. The Winshaw family, as their official biographer is warned by old Mortimer Winshaw himself, is the meanest, greediest, cruellest bunch of backstabbing penny-pinching bastards who ever crawled across the face of the earth." Basis for the BBC series "What a Carve Up." 498 pp. ISBN: 0-679433856.
Condition: Fine in fine dust jacket (appears unread.)
Book ID: 68064More details Price: $21.50 -
SINEWS OF EMPIRE: A Short History of British Slavery.
Edition: First printing.
London: Temple Smith, 1974. dj. Hardcover first edition - Extensive notes, index. 413 pages. ISBN: 0-8511-7064x.
Condition: Fine in near fine dust jacket (one closed tear on back cover.)
Book ID: 19033More details Price: $45.00 -
SLAVERY AND HUMAN PROGRESS.
Edition: First printing.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1984. dj. Hardcover first edition - A survey of slavery and emancipation throughout world history, from antiquity to the modern era - divided into three sections - How Progress led to the Europeans' Enslavement of Africans, Redeeming Christianity's Reptutations, and Abolishing Slavery and Civilizing the World - this book discusses the concept that slavery was considered part of progress and the transition from white slaves to black slaves; the emancipation movements and the on-going debate over modern slavery in the United States. Davis has won many prices - the Pulitzer, the National Book Award, the Bancroft - for his thought-provoking works on slavery. Notes, index. 374 pp. ISBN: 0-195034392.
Condition: Ex-library with the usual markings, but overall tight and clean in a near fine dj.
Book ID: 34744More details Price: $12.00 -
BEHIND GOD'S BACK.
Edition: 3rd printing (just one month after the first)
London: Victor Gollancz, Ltd., 1940. Hardcover - A coast-to-coast trip across Africa from Dar-es-Salaam in Tanganyika to Duala in the French Cameroons. Photographs. Double page map. 448 pp.
Condition: Very good overall in black cloth (severe toning to the pages, some rubbing to the lettering on the spine, prev owner's name, but still a tight and sturdy copy)
Book ID: 58822More details Price: $13.50 -
A VERY PUKKA MURDER: The First Maharajah Mystery.
Edition: First US printing.
Scottsdale, AZ: Poisoned Pen Press, (2016) dj. Hardcover first edition - Set in 1909 in "the tiny princely state of Rajpore, Indian comic book writer Gaind's first novel is both a satisfying locked-room mystery and a keenly observed comedy of manners." (PW). The first book in a planned trilogy, this presents a scathing portrait of British Raj - with its appalling racism and indolence - while still letting the legacy of Sikander's ancestors represent India's glorious past. 328 pp. ISBN: 978-1464206436.
Condition: Fine in fine dust jacket (a new copy.)
Book ID: 72191More details Price: $21.50 -
THE AFRICAN DREAM.
Edition: First US printing.
New York: Putnam, (1970.) dj. Hardcover first edition - 'From Cape to Cairo the Epic Adventure of the Conquest of Africa.' Photographs, bibliography, index. 314 pp.
Condition: Ex-library with markings and significant reading wear, but in a very good dj.
Book ID: 31667More details Price: $8.00 -
STARS & STRIPES TRIUMPHANT.
Edition: First printing.
Condition: Fine in a fine dust jacket (as new.)
Book ID: 69543More details Price: $40.00 -
STARS & STRIPES IN PERIL.
Edition: First printing.
New York: Del Rey / Ballantine, (2000) dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - The second book in his alternative history series based during the Civil War - "at the dawn of the U.S. Civil War, Britain itself committed an act of war by seizing a U.S. packet ship. In retaliation, the Confederate States rejoined the Union and took up arms against England." Now England is massing on the Mexican border with plans to invade Texas, and a war weary Lincoln has sent Grant to the border. " SIGNED on the title page. Illustrations by Angela Tomlinson. List of characters. 322 pp. ISBN: 0-345409353.
Condition: Fine in a fine dust jacket (as new.)
Book ID: 69558More details Price: $40.00 -
THE MULBERRY EMPIRE or The Two Virtuous Journeys of The Amir Dost Mohammed Khan.
Edition: First US printing.
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. dj. Hardcover first edition - Highly praised historical novel by this author who was selected by Granta as one of the best young British novelists. "In the spring of 1839, some fifty thousand British forces entered Afghanistan with 'the full pomp of Empire,' possessed of the certainty that they would replace the Amir with someone less hostile toward their ally, the King of the Punjab. Three years later, a single British horseman rode out of the Afghan mountains into India - the sole survivor of the original vast contingent." Includes a glossary, list of characters and bibliography. 486 pp. ISBN: 0-375414886.
Condition: Near fine in near fine dust jacket (corners slightly bumped)
Book ID: 74785More details Price: $18.00 -
AMONG MALAY PIRATES: A Tale of Adventure and Peril.
Edition: Early reprint.
New York: A. L. Burt, (ca 1900). Hardcover - A very attractive edition - in addition to the title story, this book contains five other shorter stories: Bears and Dacotts, The Paternosters, A Pipe of Mystery, White-Faced Dick and A Brush With the Chinese. Illustrated. "Among Malay Pirates" was only published as a serial in the UK. 295 pp plus 26 pp of advertisements.
Condition: Near fine in illustrated blue-green boards with drawings on the front cover and spine in black, red and white and a gilt panel for the title on the spine. Tinted edges. A tight, straight copy, supple pages, uncommon in this condition.
Book ID: 39724More details Price: $35.00 -
A JOURNAL OF THE DISASTERS IN AFGHANISTAN, 1841-2
Edition: 8th thousand.
Condition: Good overall in full leather (approximately one inch missing from the top of the spine.) This copy is of unusual interest since it was from the library of the Earl of Ellenborough, who was the Governor General of India during the time when these events took place, and who was sent to India to "restore peace to Asia" but the whole term of his office was occupied in war. On his arrival there the news that greeted him was that of the massacre of Kabul. Bookplate of Ellenborough on front pastedown, with his hand-written name above it. Stamp citing "Earl of Ellenborough's heirlooms. Book No 12" below it.
Book ID: 66204More details Price: $300.00 -
MY LIFE AND TIMES: Octave Nine 1946-1953.
Edition: First printing.
London: Chatto & Windus, 1970. dj. Hardcover first edition - The ninth volume of his ten volume autobiography. This begins with Mackenzie at age sixty-three, travelling to every battleground between Tunis and Hong Kong where the Indian Army had fought, in preparation for a book on the history of India's achievements during World War II. Photographs. Eight appendices. 325 pp. ISBN: 0-701115777.
Condition: Very good in very good dust jacket. (underlining - some in pencil and some in ink- affecting some of the first 80 pages of the book, dj is price-clipped.) Rather hard-to-find.
Book ID: 40176More details Price: $20.00 -
THE CHAOS OF EMPIRE: The British Raj and the Conquest of India.
Edition: Advance Reading Copy (trade paperback format. )
New York: Public Affairs / Perseus Books, (2016). First edition - A "dramatic revisionist history, [which] upends the carefully sanitized image of unity, order, and success to reveal an empire rooted far more in violence than in virtue, far more in chaos than in control. . . the Raj's institutions-from law courts to railway lines-were designed to protect British power without benefiting the people they ruled. This self-serving and careless governance resulted in an impoverished people and a stifled society, not a glorious Indian empire." Notes, bibliography. 549 pp.
Condition: Fine in glossy illustrated wrappers.
Book ID: 71640More details Price: $21.50 -
THE SPUR OF PRIDE.
Edition: First US printing.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1937. Hardcover first edition - Adventure novel by the author best known for the classic 'Beau Geste,' set on the Afghan frontier in pre-Mutiny British India. Originally published in the UK under the title 'Man of a Ghost.'
Condition: Very good in blue cloth with red lettering (spine faded, a hint of spine slant.)
Book ID: 55574More details Price: $30.00