Pickering & Chatto
Anglo-Spanish rivalry in colonial south-east America, 1650-1725.
The series "Empires in Perspective" publishes diverse monographs that focus on particular aspects of empire as well as those addressing wider questions of imperial history. This volume "...tells the story of the contest between Spanish Florida and English Carolina during the period in which that rivalry was at its height in influencing events in the region," states the author in his introduction. He continues with explication of the importance of this early period of English-Spanish interaction and the relative lack of previous attention to these interactions, which he corrects with this detailed investigation. The book is largely based on Grady's dissertation prepared at the College of William & Mary, Virginia). (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Federal banking in Brazil; policies and competitive advantages.
The author explains: "This is a study of how federal banks helped bring Brazil out of underdevelopment, military rule and monetary chaos by providing policy options for adjustment, reform and social inclusion...[helping] buffer shocks, induce reform reach the bankless and manage the economy." Von Mettenheim prepared this work at the Getulio Vargas Foundation Sao Paulo Business School, and the U. of Oxford Center for Brazilian Studies. He offers thorough analysis in five chapters beginning with discussion of government banking theory and then looking closely at the particulars in Brazil. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The theatre of empire; frontier performances in America, 1750-1860.
"Historians and literary scholars have marked the beginning of an association between the theatre and the rising market economy as early as the Elizabethan period in England," states the author in his introduction. Harvey's interest is in how the elements of frontier culture — as expressed in various kinds of theater — are also the elements of imperialist culture. His study demonstrates that the theater of early settlers and indigenous peoples is an enlightening means of exploring embedded cultural forces that drive activities of the US government today. This book is based on Harvey's U. of Kansas dissertation. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
William Godwin and the theatre.
Godwin (1756-1836) was widely known and admired for his political treatises, novels, essays, biographies, and children's books. But not his plays. O'Shaughnessy (politics and international relations, Oxford U.) looks at the tragedies he wrote that were received tepidly and soon forgotten. A major concern of the study is to place the plays in the context of Godwin's writing about theater generally and tragedy in particular. He discusses Godwin and London's theatrical world; "the link between the literary class of mankind and the uninstructed:" St Dunstan and Caleb Williams; spectacle and anti-spectacle in Antonio and St Leon; and conversation and spectacle in Abbas, Faulkner, and Fleetwood. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
