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Book Review: Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
About Our Book Categories
Not sure which category to find the rare or historical book you're seeking? Here's a description of the literary treasures you'll find in our various book categories.
Colonial America (1607-1800) Includes the history of North America from the period of first European settlement in 1607 to the Federal Period of American History in the eighteen hundreds. The focus is on the development of the English colonies, but includes the Spanish and French presence in what is now the continental United States and touching on island colonies of the Carribbean Sea.
Areas of interest: The Thirteen Colonies, cultural development, slavery,
Indian relations, politics, religion, Spanish Florida, French colonies
in the Great Lakes region, Mississippi
Valley and La Louisiane.
Canada (1608-1800) Canadian history is unique because of its cultural diversity. French and English colonists have each made a contribution to Canada's past. Canadian history has always been closely associated with that of the United States, specifically during the Colonial period of both countries.
Topics include: Quebec, The French Regime, Montreal, The Fur Trade, Slavery,
United Empire Loyalists, Acadia, Louisbourg, the Quebec Act of 1774, and
The War of 1812.
New York (1609-1800) founded first by the Dutch in 1609, and then passing to English control in 1664, New York, has an important developmental history, influenced by French contact from Canada, New England to the east, the Iroquois Confederacy on its western frontier, and Pennsylvania and New Jersey to the south. The Mohawk and Hudson Rivers were Of major importance to the development of settlement and trade in the Colonial period and later.
Subjects in this category are: The Hudson Valley, the Fur Trade, Dutch Stone houses, Indian relations, Dutch court records and marriage registries, Sir William Johnson, the Albany Congress of 1754, Governor George Clinton, the Livingston and Van Rensselaer families.
Military History includes works on the classical wars of Greece and Rome, Medieval and Rennaissance warfare, the European wars of the 17th and 18th centuries up to and including the wars of the 20th century.
Individual studies of the great captains include Gustav Adolphus, the Duke of Marlborough, Frederick the Great, and Napoleon Boneparte.
American Revolution (1775-1781), fought by the original thirteen colonies against Great Britain until independence was won from the mother country.
Subjects in this category are: the Burgoyne Campaign and battle of Saratoga, General George Washington, The Loyalists, War on the Frontier, Lord Cornwallis and the Southern Campaign, generalship and tactics, Butler's Rangers, Unit histories, Forts Ticonderoga and Niagara.
French and Indian War (1755-1763) fought between France and Great Britain for the mastery of North America. France was defeated at the Battle of Quebec in 1759. French and English colonists served as auxiliary troops and opposed each other frequently in this long and often brutal conflict.
Subjects in this section include: Fort Carillon, the Marquis de Montcalm, General James Wolfe, Major Robert Rogers and his Rangers, the Iroquis League, the Braddock Expedition, the Fort William Henry Massacre, the Louisbourg Campaign (1758), the Abercromby Expedition (1758), General Jeffrey Amherst, and the Siege of Fort Niagara.
American Civil War (1861-1865), the War Between the States, out of which the burning issues of Slavery and States Rights were settled by the defeat of the Confederate States in 1865. This was the bloodiest conflict in American history which has defined the United States to this day.
Topics include: the Confederate Navy, Civil War Generals, Unit histories, the battles of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville, leadership and tactics, General Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Abolitionism and Slavery, Abraham Lincoln, and President Jefferson Davis.
Vietnam War (1964-1973) The country of Vietnam was involved in a war of independence against its colonial ruler, France from 1946 to 1954, when it was divided between north and south. A communist, nationalist regime ruled North Vietnam; and a weak fledgling democracy was in place in the southern Republic of Vietnam. Civil war soon ensued in the south. The United States became directly involved, sending troops in 1965. After eight years of unrelenting conflict with no clear victory in sight, the United States withdrew its forces in 1973. Two years later the south fell to North Vietnam.
Topics in this selection include: The first Indo-Chinese War, Dien Bien Phu, the U.S. intervention, military biographies, period literature, campaign and unit histories, journalistic accounts, generalship and tactics, North and South Vietnamese military accounts, the Tet offensive, and the anti-war movement.
Medieval History (800 A.D.-1400 A.D.) This period begins at the decline of the Roman Empire, and ends at the beginning of the Renaissance in Europe.
Topics of interest include: The Crusades, The Hundred Year's War, Gothic
Churches, Medieval Kingship, Byzantine Empire, Muslim Spain, and the Holy
Roman Empire.
European History (800 A.D.-1400 A.D.) This period begins at the decline of the Roman Empire, and ends at the beginning of the Renaissance in Europe. Topics of interest include: The Crusades, The Hundred Year's War, Gothic Architecture, Medieval Kingship, Byzantine Empire, Muslim Spain, and the Holy Roman Empire.
Celtic
(Celtica) (500 B.C. to 52 B.C.) The earliest known Celtic culture appeared
in
Central Europe during the Bronze Age (800 B.C). The highwater mark of
the later Celts was the La Tene culture (500 A.D.), which appeared in
Western Europe. Celtic culture existed in the British Isles into the modern
period.
This section includes works on the Iron Age Celtic art and archaeology,
Celtic contact with classical Greece and Rome, Roman histories on Celtic
Gaul, Hillforts of Northern France, Iron Age Celtic tribal society, and
the collapse of European Celtic society and culture.
Ireland (500 A.D. to the modern era) One of the Celtic fringe countries of the British Isles.
Works in this section comprise: Irish Annals, Genealogical Tracts, Mythological
Sagas, Irish Text Society publications, Irish language studies, early
Irish art, Elizabethan and Cromwellian Ireland, and modern Irish history.
Scotland (Iron Age through the modern era) A country of the Celtic fringe, it was settled by Celtic people at an early time. Scotland was a kingdom in the Middle Ages, whose principle adversary has always been its southern neighbor, England, until the uniting of the two kingdoms in 1715.
Topics in this section include: Iron Age hisory and archeology, The Picts
and their culture, the early Scottish kingdom of Dalriada, the Viking
period, the Kingdom and Lordship of the Isles (Innse Gall), the Highland
Clans, Robert the Bruce, the Stuart Kings, the Jacobite Rebellions, the
Marquis of Montrose and Scottish culture.
England and Wales (50 B.C. to the present era) Wales is traditionally a Celtic country. England also has Celtic roots, but her later history is dominated by the Anglo-Saxon, Viking and Norman peoples who ruled her in turn. This section begins with the British Iron Age and continues through Georgian England.
Titles include: Iron Age Hillforts, the Celtic Tribes of Britain, Insular Celtic Art, the Arthurian Age, Welsh Tribal Society and Laws, Anglo-Saxon England, the Norman Conquest, Later Medieval England, the Tudor, Stuart and Georgian Periods.
Architecture and Transportation includes works from the 17th through the 20th century, dealing primarily with North America. Topics are the White Pine series, architecture of Colonial America, Canadian architecture, Spanish Colonial architecture, maritime history and shipbuilding, canal and railway histories, steamboats on the inland waters of the United States, and early aviation.
Language Studies includes dictionaries, grammars, reference works on English, Latin, and other languages.
Literature includes selected fiction, poetry, plays, essays, and critical works.
Biography includes eminent men and women of historical and literary interest.
Historiography is the craft of writing history, in this case, American and European history in particular. History writing goes through successive periods of review by new generations of writers.
Some of the topics in this section are: Historical determinism, the Annales School of France, the American Frontier Thesis, and the Nationalist, Imperial, and Progressive Schools of American History.
Native AmericansNative Americans (First Contact to the modern era.) This category represents the Indian Nations of North America representing the United States and Canada. In Canada the aboriginal nations are known as the First Peoples. This section includes reports and descriptions of native contact by early explorers and travelers, French missionary accounts, The Fur trade, the New England Indian wars, captivity histories, the Iroquois Confederacy, the First Peoples of Canada, Indians of the Southeast United States, and later American Native history.
Black History (also Black Studies) In the United States the writing of Black History began in the middle of the 19th Century, and has continued to the present.
Some of the topics include, the history of the Middle Passage, slave revolts, literature, essays, slave narratives, such as the memoirs of Nat Turner, and Black-Native American relations.
Women's Studies is the academic interdisciplinary study of women and their issues.
Some of the topics in this area include psychology, medicine, sociology, political activism, fiction, gender studies, sexuality, history, women in the workplace and home.
Spirituality covers the range of formal religions to the occult and comprises things of the Spirit.
Topics in this area are: the history of religion, Christianity, Judaism,
Islam, Buddhism, mysticism, alchemy, neo-paganism, Hinduism, and the Occult.
Ephemera,
Pamphlets & Brochures This is the category of transient literature:
Brochures, Pamplets and Tracts of small press runs. Things of interest
in the short term on a broad range of subjects. It also contains letters
and autographs of particular interest.
Miscellaneous includes titles of unusual interest which cannot be placed in any pre-existing categories.