Series in Periods & Styles
Books in Periods & Styles
Archiving an Epidemic
Honorable Mention, 2021 Latinx Studies Section Outstanding Book Award, given by the Latin American Studies Association Winner, 2020 Latino Book Awards in the LGBTQ+ Themed Section Finalist, 2019 Lambda Literary Award in LGBTQ Studies Critically reimagines Chicanx art, unmasking its queer afterlife Emboldened by the boom in art, fashion, music, and retail culture in 1980s Los Angeles, the iconoclasts of queer Aztlán—as Robb Hernández terms the group of artists who emerged from East LA, Orange County, and other parts of Southern California during this period—developed a new vernacular with which to read the city in bloom. Tracing this important but understudied body of work, Archiving an Epidemic catalogs a queer retelling of the Chicana and Chicano art movement, from its origins in the 1960s, to the AIDS crisis and the destruction it wrought in the 1980s, and onto the remnants and legacies of these artists in the current moment. Hernández offers a vocabulary for this multi-modal avant-garde—one that contests the heteromasculinity and ocular surveillance visited upon it by the larger Chicanx community, as well as the formally straight conditions of traditional archive-building, museum institutions, and the art world writ large. With a focus on works by Mundo Meza (1955–85), Teddy Sandoval (1949–1995), and Joey Terrill (1955– ), and with appearances by Laura Aguilar, David Hockney, Robert Mapplethorpe, and even Eddie Murphy, Archiving an Epidemic composes a complex picture of queer Chicanx avant-gardisms. With over sixty images—many of which are published here for the first time—Hernández’s work excavates this archive to question not what Chicanx art is, but what it could have been.
Inspired by Art: Fall of a Giant
How did the masters of art imagine the aftermath of David’s victory over Goliath? This collection depicts the celebration in the land, the love of Saul’s daughter, Michal, and David’s narrow escape from the reach of her father’s assassins. These amazing sculptures, paintings, etchings, and manuscripts inspired the author to write The David Chronicles, an epic historical fiction trilogy with a modern twist. Besides being an artist and an architect, she taught art history and curated this collection to analyze the contrasts between various artistic viewpoints. This collection is arranged not by artist, nor by artistic style or era, but rather moment-by-moment following the biblical story, as imagined by Ghiberti, Guercino, Caravaggio, Filippo Lippi, Gustave Doré, Rembrandt, and Chagall, to name but a few. ★★★★★ "Well-chosen comments and quotes lead the reader to watch how generations have viewed this triumph and mystery." Scroll up and get Inspired by Art: Fall of a Giant now!
Inspired by Art: Rise to Power
How did the masters of art imagine the decline of the House of Saul and David’s rise to the throne? This collection follows the most iconic figure in history and the beginning of his reign in a stormy era. These amazing sculptures, paintings, etchings, and manuscripts inspired the author to write The David Chronicles, an epic historical fiction trilogy with a modern twist. Besides being an artist and an architect, she taught art history and curated this collection to analyze the contrasts between various artistic viewpoints. This collection is arranged not by artist, nor by artistic style or era, but rather moment-by-moment following the biblical story, as imagined by Rembrandt, Ivan Schwebel, James Tissot, Rubens, William Blake, Gustave Doré, and Vallotton, to name but a few. ★★★★★ "These masterpieces (many of which I had never seen before) added greatly to my enjoyment of the series.” Scroll up and get Inspired by Art: Rise to Power now!
Inspired by Art: The Edge of Revolt
How did the masters of art imagine the rape of David’s daughter, Tamar, by her half-brother Amnon? This collection depicts the assassination of Amnon at the hands of her brother, followed by Absalom’s revolt, trying to topple David from his throne. These amazing sculptures, paintings, etchings, and manuscripts inspired the author to write The David Chronicles, an epic historical fiction trilogy with a modern twist. Besides being an artist and an architect, she taught art history and curated this collection to analyze the contrasts between various artistic viewpoints. This collection is arranged not by artist, nor by artistic style or era, but rather moment-by-moment following the biblical story, as imagined by Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Chagall, Frederic Lord Leighton and Jan Steen, to name but a few. ★★★★★ "One of the most complete collections of art from ancient through renaissance to contemporary in drawings, paintings, sculptures, etchings." Scroll up and get Inspired by Art: The Edge of Revolt now!
Inspired by Art: The Last Concubine
How did the masters of art imagine King David and his last concubine, Abishag? This collection brings her to life and conjures the rivalry between his sons, their bitter revolts against him, and the final transition of power to his chosen heir, ensuring his lasting legacy. These amazing sculptures, paintings, etchings, and manuscripts inspired the author to write The David Chronicles, an epic historical fiction trilogy with a modern twist. Besides being an artist and an architect, she taught art history and curated this collection to analyze the contrasts between various artistic viewpoints. This collection is arranged not by artist, nor by artistic style or era, but rather moment-by-moment following the biblical story, as featured by Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Chagall, Picasso, and Jan Steen to name but a few. ★★★★★ "Poznansky's selection of master-artist renditions spans centuries and cultures. Doing so lets readers appreciate the David story's contribution to the aesthetic history of Western culture." Scroll up and get Inspired by Art: The Last Concubine now!
Machiavelli
New York Times bestselling author Ross King’s biography Machiavelli is “a convincing portrait of one of the most misunderstood thinkers of all time.”* The author of The Prince —his controversial handbook on power, which is one of the most influential books ever written—Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) was no prince himself. Born to an established middle-class family, Machiavelli worked as a courtier and diplomat for the Republic of Florence and enjoyed some small fame in his time as the author of bawdy plays and poems. In this discerning biography, Ross King rescues Machiavelli’s legacy from caricature, detailing the vibrant political and social context that influenced his thought and underscoring the humanity of one of history’s finest political thinkers. “Provides a strong sense of the history of both the man and his times and a nice introduction to Machiavelli’s writings. Moreover, like one of Machiavelli’s bawdy plays, it is a riveting and exhilarating read, full of salacious details and brisk prose.” — Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) “An engaging, revealing biography and a vivid portrait of a city-state in turmoil.” — Financial Times
This Explains Everything
Drawn from the cutting-edge frontiers of science, This Explains Everything will revolutionize your understanding of the world. What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation? This is the question John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org ("The world's smartest website"— The Guardian ), posed to the world's most influential minds. Flowing from the horizons of physics, economics, psychology, neuroscience, and more, This Explains Everything presents 150 of the most surprising and brilliant theories of the way of our minds, societies, and universe work. Jared Diamond on biological electricity • Nassim Nicholas Taleb on positive stress • Steven Pinker on the deep genetic roots of human conflict • Richard Dawkins on pattern recognition • Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek on simplicity • Lisa Randall on the Higgs mechanism • BRIAN Eno on the limits of intuition • Richard Thaler on the power of commitment • V. S. Ramachandran on the "neural code" of consciousness • Nobel Prize winner ERIC KANDEL on the power of psychotherapy • Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on "Lord Acton's Dictum" • Lawrence M. Krauss on the unification of electricity and magnetism • plus contributions by Martin J. Rees • Kevin Kelly • Clay Shirky • Daniel C. Dennett • Sherry Turkle • Philip Zimbardo • Lee Smolin • Rebecca Newberger Goldstein • Seth Lloyd • Stewart Brand • George Dyson • Matt Ridley