July Classic of the Month: 400 years of America

Grilling, fireworks, eating watermelon, and sunbathing are all traditional activities many Americans have been taking part in at various Fourth of July parties around the country. Cosimo is wishing the United States of America a big old HBD to with our July Classic of the Month 400 years of America: Her Discovery, History, Achievements and Politics by Georgie D. Runyan.

First published in 1892 by The New Era Company, 400 Years of America: Her Discovery, History, Achievements, and Politics was originally a supplement to a prohibitionist political magazine, published by the same company, titled The Question. 

Chapter 1 starts with U.S. history that predates Columbus, leading up to all the major points in American history until 1892 and the book's publication. Contents include Columbus' discovery of America in 1492 and other early settlements, the Massachusetts Bay pilgrims, the establishment of the Federation and the states, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and all accompanying presidencies and political parties. 

A comprehensive, if biased, history if ever there was one, 400 Years of America should interest any true history buff. 

About the Author
Mrs. Georgie D. Runyan was a women's news editor in Springfield, OH, the same city in which 400 Years of America, her only book, and The Question, a political prohibitionist magazine, were published.

November Series of the Month: Modern Democracies by Viscount James Bryce

After a very stressful and heated election year, all of us at Cosimo are slowing down and giving thanks for democracy with our November Series of the Month, Modern Democracies by British historian Viscount James Bryce.

This 1921 study of democracy in action, presented in two volumes, is not only an important examination of the state of the free world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it's a vital reminder, as democracy continues to struggle to fruition around the globe, of history as an ongoing story.

Volume I covers the definition and historical evolution of democracy, the theoretical foundations of democracy, democracy as it interacts with education and religion, the press in a democracy, and democracy at work in the ancient republic of Athens, in Spanish America, and in France, Switzerland, and Canada.

Volume II covers the decline of legislatures, the executive in a democracy, democracy and foreign policy, the judiciary, the relation of central to local government, the money power in politics, democracy compared with other forms of government, the future of democracy, and democracy at work in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.

About the Author

British historian Viscount James Bryce (1838–1922) attended the University of Glasgow and Trinity College, Oxford. He is best known for his scholarship of the Holy Roman Empire. His popular works include Studies in History and Jurisprudence (1901) and Studies in Contemporary Biography (1903).

Cosimo offers the full set by individual volume at leading online bookstores or as a full set in paperback. This series is perfect for anyone who enjoys historical literature, or anyone who has an interest in politics, government, or past elections. If you are interested in purchasing the full set, please contact us.

The paperback retail price for this set is $59.98, but now our price is $49.99 (you save $9.99 or 16%)

"The Roosevelts: An Intimate History" comes to PBS

The fourteen hour documentary film, "The Roosevelts: An Intimate History," began on PBS on September 14th and will continue for seven episodes. Each episode gives viewers an intense overview of the lives of  Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt from unknown stories and facts, to deeply researched fresh takes on famous happenings and events, this film is sure to delight any history buff.

Beginning with Theodore Roosevelt’s birth in 1858, the episodes (from documentary filmmaker Ken Burns) cover both the political and private lives of the three relatives, covering elections, economic struggles, wars, family births and deaths, as well as their bravery, vision, and courage in both personal and public spheres, ending with Eleanor’s death in 1962. This documentary is the first of its kind to combine all three individual stories and histories of the three most predominant Roosevelts into one single narrative and to do so in such great detail, thoroughness, and depth.

If viewers wish to supplement the documentary watching or to learn more about the Roosevelts, Cosimo offers a robust collection of titles by Theodore Roosevelt, including: The Strenuous Life: Essays and Addresses, Theodore Roosevelt's Ranch Life and the Hunting Trail, Theodore Roosevelt's Letters to His Children, America and the World War, and A Book-Lovers Holidays in the Open.

Please visit our website to view all of our books written by Theodore Roosevelt, or visit our reports and history sections to learn more about the politics and the past events of that time. To watch full episodes of "The Roosevelts: an Intimate History," please visit the film's section on PBS.

September Book of the Month: Classroom Struggles by Transitions

This September, Cosimo is celebrating Classroom Struggles as its book of the month. This eye-opening work, originally published by Transitions and TOL Chalkboard, provides a collection of news and feature articles written by young journalists in Eastern Europe and the Balkans, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Russia. Each informative article exposes the political and socio-cultural issues that hinder educational growth and prosperity in these regions. In these days after the recent annexation of Crimea and with the ongoing conflict in Eastern-Ukraine, this collection offers insight in this region with essays such as "Talking Past Another: Students in Crimea can learn in a variety of languages. Most choose Russian", "Running in Place: Despite Efforts to distance itself from Soviet times, the Ukrainian education system can't kick its old habits" and " A Terrible Thing to Waste: Education in Russia is becoming another tool of the ruling party."

 
Cosimo B2B

Classroom Struggles: Education Reporting and Analysis from Transitions offers compelling insight into the classrooms of multiple areas around the world. This collection is a fascinating source for anyone interested in political issues, educational reform, and/or the mentioned regions.

About Transitions:

Transitions is a nonprofit organization established to strengthen the professionalism, independence and impact of the news media in the post-communist countries of Europe and the former Soviet Union. Based in Prague, the organization does this through a combination of journalism and media training programs, and the publication of Transitions Online (www.tol.org) magazine.

Cosimo is proud to offer Classroom Struggles in paperback at leading online bookstores including Barnes & Noble (paperback) and Amazon (paperback).

Cosimo B2B is Cosimo's services unit, that offers publishing services to organizations such as Transitions, who are considering setting up their own publishing company, in order to reach worldwide readership and enhance their brand name. We welcome those organizations and institutions that are aligned with Cosimo's mission of creating a smarter and more sustainable society by connecting people with valuable ideas. If your organization wants to know more about the benefits of having its own imprint and is interested in working with us to create such an imprint, please visit our private imprint page.

May Series of the Month: The Works of Thomas Jefferson

Cosimo is celebrating one of our most influential American politicians with our May Series of the Month, The Works of Thomas Jefferson by Paul Leicester Ford.

 Few men stand with as towering a stature in the annals of American legend as Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826). Author of the Declaration of Independence and third president of the United States, he ranks as one of the most significant of the United States' Founding Fathers, his political philosophies continuing to impact the nation to this day. 

In the late 19th century American biographer Paul Leicester Ford (1865-1902) assembled this collection of Jefferson's most important, most influential, and most revealing writings. This replica of the 12-volume "Federal Edition" of 1904 is considered a masterpiece of historical scholarship, praised for its attention to detail as well as its objective dispassion toward its subject. 


Cosimo offers this 12 volume series by individual volume at leading online bookstores or as a full set in hardcover or paperback, especially of interest to politicians, collectors, who like to expand their personal library, or professional librarians. If you are interested in purchasing the full set, please contact us.

Discover:

• drafts of the Declaration of Independence 
• notes on rules for the Continental Congress 
• drafts of numerous bills 
• correspondence to George Washington 
• papers including "Opinion on Foreign Debt," "Report on Western Lands," 
• letters from 1789-1792 to such persons as James Madison, John Jay, Marquis De Lafayette, Colonel Henry Lee
• and much more!

The hardcover retail list price for this series: $359.88, but now:our price: $289.99  (you save $70 or a 20 percent discount)

The paperback retail list price for this series: $215.88, but now: our price: $169.99 (you save $46 or a 22 percent discount)

May Book of the Month: Uncivil Liberties

Uncivil Liberties: Deconstructing Libertarianism, edited by Georgia Kelly and with a Foreword from Hazel Henderson (founder of Ethical Markets Media), is Cosimo's Book of the Month for May. Uncivil Liberties is an expansion on a pamphlet released in 2012 from Praxis Peace Institute responding to the film Thrive. Contributors* from Praxis expound on the arguments made in the pamphlet, which carefully and concisely laid out the problems inherent in libertarian philosophy and why it is so appealing to today's society. Uncivil Liberties is essential reading for those invested in modern politics, and they will find that the book makes a compelling case against the tenants of libertarianism. By demonstrating the untruths promoted within libertarian culture, they outline how concerned citizens can avoid and refute common myths spread by extreme right-wing ideologies.

Hazel Henderson writes in the Foreword, "The authors of Uncivil Liberties de-mystify the social and cultural myths and religious beliefs that underpin the still prevailing economic fundamentalism that drove corporate executives, Wall Street traders, central bankers, and compliant politicians into denial... This book and the deeply insightful perspectives of its co-authors help us understand how all these travesties could have happened and why they are still occurring... I hope Uncivil Liberties reaches the widest possible audience... The world's people await our culture's maturation from adolescence to more responsible global citizenship--beyond individual human rights to our universal human responsibilities as in the Earth Charter--matching our new challenges in this Solar Age of the Anthropocene."


Uncivil Liberties is available from most online bookstores. Praxis Peace Institute is a non-profit peace education organization based in Sonoma, California, dedicated to deep inquiry, creative problem solving, and informed civic participation. Since its founding in 2001, Praxis Peace Institute programs have addressed the most relevant social challenges of our time, from communication and conflict transformation, to politics and propaganda, to the economy.



*Ben Boyce, Nick Colby, Gus diZerega, Julianne Maurseth, and Barry Spector

Series of the Month: A History of the American People

"Washington felt very keenly the sharp power of the hot criticism to which his course towards France had subjected him. It was a heady current to stem. Unmeasured abuse beat upon him. He seemed for a little the leader of a party, and of a minority party at that, instead of the leader of the nation. He was made to seem for a time nothing but a Federalist, the head of a party which meant to make the federal government the people’s master and then use its mastery to serve England, whom they hated, and to humiliate France, whom they loved."
                 —from Chapter III: “A Nation in the Making”


Cosimo is celebrating American patriotism with our March Series of the Month, A History of the American People, by Woodrow Wilson.

A History of the American People is a five-volume history of the United States and the American people, reflecting many of Wilson's policies and ideas that he later brought to his candidacy and presidency. Our series is a beautiful replica of the 1902 first edition featuring all the original halftone illustrations.




About the author: 

Before he served as the 28th President of the United States, from 1913 to 1921, before he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919, Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) was a lawyer and an academic: a university professor of history and politics, and president of Princeton University. It was during his tenure at Princeton that he penned this five-volume history of the United States, and it reflects many of the biases he later brought to national politics, from racial prejudice to anti-immigration attitudes. In Volume III, Wilson delves into the expansion of the United States in the early 19th century in the western frontiers, tells the story of the founding and development of the federal government in the first quarter century of its existence, and explores contentious tariff matters and other divisive issues that challenged the new nation in its early years. Appendices feature the full text of the 1783 Treaty of Peace with England, the 1787 ordinance for the government of the Northwest Territory, the 1787 Constitution of the United States, the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 and 1799, and the Virginia Resolutions of 1798.

Cosimo offers Wilson's impressive series by individual volume at various online bookstores or as a full set in hardcover or paperback, especially of interest to collectors, readers who like to expand their personal library or professional librarians. If you are interested in purchasing the full set, please contact us.

The hardcover retail list price for the series is $154.95, but now:our price: $119.99  (you save $35 or a 22 percent discount)
The paperback retail list price: $64.95, but now: our price: $49.99 (you save $15 or a 23 percent discount)