Kevin Grant, associate professor of history, Exploration in the Age of Empire, 1750-1953 (Facts on File, Inc., August 2004).
Focusing on the 18th through the 20th centuries, this reference provides full coverage of European exploration and imperial expansion in Africa and Asia. Three major themes -- motive, the influence of changing ideas on the conduct and understanding of exploration, and the impact of exploration on the politics of the European empires -- are integrated into seven chapters and an epilogue. Grant's book examines the way in which all the great explorers who served the European empires of the modern era became popular celebrities, unlike their predecessors, and illustrates the roles of explorers as propagandists.Ê(General editors of this book are John Bowman and Maurice Isserman, professor of history.)
Maurice Isserman, professor of history, Across America: The Lewis & Clark Expedition (Facts on File, Inc., September 2004).
In 2003, Americans began celebrating the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition (1803-1806), a journey of discovery that proved a seminal moment in the history of the exploration of the North American continent. With full coverage of the events leading to the Corps of Discovery's formation and its gripping adventures to the Pacific and back, Isserman's text details the explorers' travels and trials. Tracing the various stages of their journey, it chronicles important factors and discusses everything from the founding of the exploration to the fates of the explorers.
Leslie Norton, associate professor of dance, Léonide Massine and the 20th Century Ballet (McFarland and Co., Inc., 2004).
Norton provides a biography of Léonide Massine, the great Russian choreographer arguably the most important figure in modernist ballet in the 1930s. The book offers a detailed analysis of his major ballets, including those for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and American Ballet Theatre. According to the publisher, "The work integrates biographical study with an examination of Massine's works from an array of perspectives. By examining the music and composers, set design and literary sources, it places the work in the larger context of the dance, opera, major visual art movements, literature and theater of the period."
