The Johns Hopkins Symposia in Comparative History – Serie

These ten essays constitute "a distinctive contribution to the enticing but treacherous domain of a comparative history. (The book) succeeds because it is written by qualified scholars who address a delimited, manageable subject" ("American Historical Review").

Reveals the change in Western man's conception and acceptance of death as evidenced in customs, literature, and art since medieval times.

Just as they aspired to revive the Greek and Roman past, so the humanist scholars of the Renaissance sought to retrieve the early Christian era. Among the most fully studied figures of Christian antiquity was Saint Jerome. Eugene Rice's award-winning book traces the saint's changing images and fortunes from 1300 to 1600 and charts how culture-- popular and elite, secular and sacred, pietistic and scholarly-- celebrated those aspects of Jerome's life that best suited its own purposes.

This history deals with the twenty-year period between 1880 and 1900, when virtually all of Africa was seized and occupied by the Imperial Powers of Europe. Eurocentric points of view have dominated the study of this era, but in this book, one of Africa's leading historians reinterprets the colonial experiences from the perspective of the colonized.

Eminent French social historian Georges Duby identifies the twelfth century as a crucial turning point in the development of the institution of marriage in Western civilization. His study of medieval marriage is a worthy successor to the exploration of social attitudes begun by Philippe Aries and continued by Fernand Braudel.

On May 15, 1862, U.S. General Benjamin Butler, commander of occupied New Orleans, ordered that any woman who publicly insulted Union soldiers be subject to prosecution as a prostitute. Not all nineteenth-century women, Butler learned, felt their place was in the home. As his order implies, women were governed by an unwritten code of public conduct, appeared on public streets, spoke out on public issues, and were subjects of public policy. In "Women in Public" noted historian Mary P. Ryan examines each of these issues as it affected women in New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco. Contrary to current perceptions, Ryan contends, nineteenth-century women appeared in public in a variety of roles. They took part in civic ceremonies, from Independence Day celebrations to ethnic festivals. Whether they sonsorted in parks designed for "ladies" or in the increasingly regulated haunts of prostitutes, their place in the everyday life of the streets became more segregated and distinct. Denied access to the voting booth, they practiced "outdoor politics," waving handkerchiefs at rallies--and wielding brickbats in riots.Exploring little-noted aspects of nineteenth-century political discourse, Ryan shows how gender and sexual imagery in public language changed as the century progressed. She analyzes the construction of boundaries between private and public spheres and examines the American political system's failure to accommodate difference within democratic order.

The book as the subject of a distinct historical discipline dates from the landmark publication of L'Apparition du livre by Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin in 1958. In this further contribution to his pathbreaking work with Febvre, eminent French historian Henri-Jean Martin explores the role of the book and book industry in early modern France. Martin begins with a sweeping look at the revolutionary role played by the new technology of printing in Europe of the Renaissance and Reformation. Shifting the focus to France, he then examines the political implications of publishing in the reign of Francis I, including such topics as the founding of royal and university libraries, the role of church-state relations, Richelieu's cultural program, and censorship. In revealing case studies of Rouen and Grenoble, Martin pinpoints precisely which books were sold and to which social groups, and explains why the initially successful printers of Rouen were eventually forced out of business by the Parisian courts.Martin also casts a discerning eye on early graphic design-from the first illustrated "coffee table" books purchased by the newly rich to the invention of the paragraph to facilitate reading. And he shows how attempts by the French government to suppress and control publication were eventually thwarted by free market forces from Amsterdam and Neufchatel. This is a book that will be of interest to those who study the history of the book, intellectual history of early modern Europe, and the relation between politics and ideas.

The distinguished historian C. R. Boxer devoted years of research and reflection on European expansion overseas into the Americas and Asia. In The Church Militant and Iberian Expansion, 1440-1770, his analytical survey of the role of the Portuguese and Spanish missionaries of the Roman Catholic Church in the overseas expansion of the Iberian powers, he finds that the lasting results vary enormously. "They range,"he writes, "from enduring mass conversions in some regions, of which sixteenth-century New Spain is the prime example, to the total failure in other countries, such as Cambodia, where the number of indigenous converts could be counted on two hands." Considering the church as "a human as well as a divine institution,"the author focuses on four types of organizational problems: relations between the regular and the secular clergy; the mission as a frontier institution in many climes and many cultures; the close and inseparable connection between Cross and Crown; and the role of the Inquisition overseas.Boxer finds that "the mere survival of these Christian minorities through the vicissitudes of over three centuries is a tribute to the work of the dedicated missionaries of the Church Militant in times past."

In Port Cities and Intruders, historian Michael Pearson explores the role of port cities and their orientation, relations between the coast and the interior, the place of the coast in the world economy, and the impact of the Portuguese in the early modern period.

In the past half century scholars have downplayed the significance of Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492), called "the Magnificent," as a patron of the arts. Less wealthy than his grandfather Cosimo, the argument goes, Lorenzo was far more interested in collecting ancient objects of art than in commissioning contemporary art or architecture. His earlier reputation as a patron was said to be largely a construct of humanist exaggeration and partisan deference. Although some recent studies have taken issue with this view, no synthesis of Lorenzo as art patron and art lover has yet emerged. In Lorenzo de' Medici and the Art of Magnificence historian F. W. Kent offers a new look at Lorenzo's relationship to the arts, aesthetics, collecting, and building-especially in the context of his role as the political boss ( maestro della bottega) of republican Florence and a leading player in Renaissance Italian diplomacy. As a result of this approach, which pays careful attention to the events of his short but dramatic life, a radically new chronology of Lorenzo's activities as an art patron emerges, revealing them to have been more extensive and creative than previously thought.Kent's Lorenzo was broadly interested in the arts and supported efforts to beautify Florence and the many Medici lands and palaces. His expertise was well regarded by guildsmen and artists, who often turned to him for advice as well as for patronage. Lorenzo himself was educated in the arts by such men, and Kent explores his aesthetic education and taste, taking into account what is known of Lorenzo's patronage of music and manuscripts, and of his own creative work as a major Quattrocento poet. Richly illustrated with photographs of Medici landmarks by Ralph Lieberman, Lorenzo de' Medici and the Art of Magnificence offers a masterful portrait of Lorenzo as a man whose achievements might have rivaled his grandfather's had he not died so young.

In the past half century, numerous scholars have downplayed the Renaissance contribution of Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent. They say that compared to his grandfather Cosimo, Lorenzo was not so magnificent. Historian F. W. Kent seeks to correct this view by examining Lorenzo's interest in art, aesthetics, collecting, and building. Kent finds that Lorenzo indeed had a cultural and artistic vision, which he applied to many aspects of his private and public lives, witness his interest in public buildings, urban design, and the construction of various Medici palaces. His expertise was well-regarded by gildsmen and artists who often turned to him for advice as much as for patronage. Supplementing the text are new photographs by Ralph Lieberman, commissioned by the author.