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Mendes, Alfred H.. Pitch Lake. London. 1934. Duckworth. Introduction by Aldous Huxley. 352 pages. hardcover.

FROM THE PUBLISHER -

PITCH LAKE is one of the early classics of modern Caribbean writing in English. It focuses on the life of Joe Da Costa, his rise from the ordinariness of shopkeeping into the upper reaches of the Portuguese community in Trinidad. It is the story of a man who deliberately and disastrously turns away from his inner self towards a life of glitter which turns to ash. The novel probes the society’s commercialism, snobbery, its materialistic values and prejudices - attitudes stemming from the insecurities and uncertainties of the colonial society of the Caribb ean in the 1930s. This reprint is published with an introduction by Kenneth Ramchand. ‘. . . powerfully written . . . The characterisation is brilliant, and the story flows with a grim inevitability that has its logical climax in the final tragedy which ends the hook.’ - Saturday Review (1934).

Alfred Hubert Mendes (18 November 1897-1991), novelist and short-story writer, was a leading member of the 1930s ‘Beacon group’ of writers (named after the literary magazine The Beacon) in Trinidad that included Albert Gomes, C. L. R. James and Ralph de Boissière. Mendes is best known as the author of two novels - PITCH LAKE (1934) and BLACK FAUNS (1935) - and for his short stories written during the 1920s and 1930s. He was ‘one of the first West Indian writers to set the pattern of emigration in the face of the lack of publishing houses and the small reading public in the West Indies.’ Born in Trinidad the eldest of six children in a Portuguese Creole family, Mendes was educated in Port of Spain until 1912, then at the age of 15 went to continue his studies in the United Kingdom. His hopes of going on to university there were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I. After briefly returning to Trinidad in 1915, against his father’s wishes he joined the Merchants' Contingents of Trinidad - whose purpose was to enroll and transport to England young men who wished to serve in the war ‘for King and Country’ - and sailed back to Britain. He served in the 1st Rifle Brigade, and fought for two years in Flanders, along the Belgian Front, and was awarded a Military Medal for distinguishing himself on the battlefield. Towards the end of the war, he accidentally inhaled the poisonous gas used as a weapon by the German army, and was sent back to Britain to recover. Mendes returned to Trinidad in 1919, and worked in his wealthy father's provisions business, while spending his spare time writing poetry and fiction, and in establishing contact with other writers, artists and scholars. In 1933 he went to New York, remaining there until 1940. While in the USA he joined literary salons and associated with writers including Richard Wright, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, William Saroyan, Benjamin Appel, Tom Wolfe, Malcolm Lowry and Ford Madox Ford. He went back to Trinidad again in 1940. Together with C. L. R. James, Mendes produced two issues of a pioneering literary magazine called Trinidad (Christmas 1929 and Easter 1930). Several of his stories appeared in The Beacon, the journal edited by Albert Gomes from March 1931 until November 1933. Mendes was quoted as saying in 1972: ‘James and I departed from the convention in the selection of our material, in the choice of a strange way of life, in the use of a new dialect. And these departures are still with our Caribbean successors.’ In all Mendes published about 60 short stories in magazines and journals in Trinidad, New York, London and Paris. His first novel Pitch Lake appeared in 1934, with an introduction by Aldous Huxley, and was followed by BLACK FAUNS in 1935. Both novels are significant in the history of literature from the Caribbean region and are landmarks in the establishment of social realism in the West Indian novel. In 1940, Mendes abandoned writing and worked in Trinidad's civil service, becoming General Manager of the Port Services Department. He was one of the foundering members of the United Front, a party with socialist leanings that participated in the 1946 general elections. After his retirement in 1972, he lived in Mallorca and Gran Canaria and ultimately settled in Barbados. In 1972 he was awarded an honorary D. Litt. by the University of the West Indies for his contribution to the development of West Indian literature. He began writing his autobiography in 1975 and his unfinished drafts were edited by Michèle Levy and published in 2002 by the University of the West Indies Press as THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ALFRED H. MENDES 1897-1991. Mendes and his wife Ellen both died in 1991 in Barbados and are buried together there in Christ Church Cemetery. Mendes married in October 1919, and had a son, Alfred John, the following year. His first wife, Jessie Rodriguez, died of pneumonia after only two years of marriage. A second marriage, a year later, ended in divorce in 1938. His third wife was Ellen Perachini, mother of his last two sons, Peter and Stephen. He is the grandfather of film director Sam Mendes.

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Gonzalez, Mario and Cook-Lynn, Elizabeth . The Politics Of Hallowed Ground: Wounded Knee and the Struggle For Indian. Urbana. 1998. University of Illinois Press. 9780252066696. 6 x 9. 448 pages. paperback. 

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This account of hope, anger, and the pursuit of honor centers around the efforts, beginning in 1985, of the Wounded Knee Survivors' Associations to obtain legal redress for the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. Interweaving entries from the diary of Oglala attorney Mario Gonzalez and historical commentary by Santee/Yankton writer Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, The Politics of Hallowed Ground traces the Survivors' Associations' struggle to secure from the U.S. government a formal apology and recognition of the massacre site as a National American Monument. Surveying both recent and historical events, Gonzalez and Cook-Lynn address critical issues of cultural bias and collective memory. Their observations expose not only the seemingly unbridgeable gap between white and Native cultures but also impassioned dialogue among various tribes affected by the Wounded Knee Massacre.

Elizabeth Cook-Lynn of the Crow Creek Sioux Nation is a writer, poet, and professor emerita of Native American studies at Eastern Washington University. Among her many honors is the Oyate Igluwitaya award given by Native university students in South Dakota to those who 'aid in the ability of The People to see clearly in the company of each other.'

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Fantasies Of The Master Race by Ward Churchill (edited by M. Annette Jaimes). Monroe. 1992. Common Courage Press. paperback. 304 pages. Published Simultaneously In Cloth. 0962883867.

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   Chosen an ‘Outstanding Book on the Subject of Human Rights in the United States’ by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights. In this volume of incisive essays, Ward Churchill looks at representations of American Indians in literature and film, delineating a history of cultural propaganda that has served to support the continued colonization of Native America. During each phase of the genocide of American Indians, the media has played a critical role in creating easily digestible stereotypes of Indians for popular consumption. Literature about Indians was first written and published in order to provoke and sanctify warfare against them. Later, the focus changed to enlisting public support for ‘civilizing the savages,’ stripping them of their culture and assimilating them into the dominant society. Now, in the final stages of cultural genocide, it is the appropriation and stereotyping of Native culture that establishes control over knowledge and truth. The primary means by which this is accomplished is through the powerful publishing and film industries. Whether they are the tragically doomed ‘noble savages’ walking into the sunset of Dances With Wolves or Carlos Castaneda's Don Juan, the exotic mythical Indians constitute no threat to the established order. Literature and art crafted by the dominant culture are an insidious political force, disinforming people who might otherwise develop a clearer understanding of indigenous struggles for justice and freedom. This book is offered to counter that deception, and to move people to take action on issues confronting American Indians today.

Ward LeRoy Churchill (born October 2, 1947) is an American author and political activist. He was a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1990 to 2007. The primary focus of his work is on the historical treatment of political dissenters and Native Americans by the United States government. His work features controversial and provocative views, written in a direct, often confrontational style. In January 2005, Churchill's work attracted publicity because of the widespread circulation of a 2001 essay, ‘On the Justice of Roosting Chickens‘. In the essay, he claimed that the September 11 attacks were a natural and unavoidable consequence of what he views as unlawful US policy, and he referred to the ‘technocratic corps’ working in the World Trade Center as ‘little Eichmanns‘. In March 2005 the University of Colorado began investigating allegations that Churchill had engaged in research misconduct; it reported in June 2006 that he had done so. Churchill was fired on July 24, 2007, leading to a claim by some scholars that he was fired because of the ‘Little Eichmanns’ comment. Churchill filed a lawsuit against the University of Colorado for unlawful termination of employment. In April 2009 a Denver jury found that Churchill was wrongly fired, awarding him $1 in damages. In July 2009, a District Court judge vacated the monetary award and declined Churchill's request to order his reinstatement, deciding the university has ‘quasi-judicial immunity’. In February 2010, Churchill appealed the judge's decision. In November 2010, the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld the lower-court's ruling. In September 10, 2012, the Colorado Supreme Court upheld the lower courts' decisions in favor of the University of Colorado. On April 1st, 2013, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

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Tropic Death by Eric Walrond. New York. 1926. Boni & Liveright. 283 pages.

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   TROPIC DEATH, Eric Walrond's most acclaimed work, consists of ten stories of inhumanity in the American tropics, especially white against black - or imperial power against impoverished native. In 'Subjection,' for example, a white marine shoots a black canal worker. Walrond also explores the effects of modern technology and exploitation on the Caribbean natural environment; 'The Palm Porch' describes the construction of the Panama Canal in terms of its causing 'the gradual death and destruction of the frontier post. ' Walrond writes in an impressionistic style that quickly shifts from one image to another. He depicts cultural impressions more than characters or plot yet illustrates the disorientation and alienation his characters experience. Considered an example of avant-garde writing, TROPIC DEATH has been praised by critics such as W. E. B. DuBois and Langston Hughes.

As part of the Collier African /American Library series:

Walrond, Eric. Tropic Death. New York. 1972. Collier/Macmillan. Collier African /American Library. 192 pages. paperback. 5525. 

FROM THE PUBLISHER -

THE CRUEL, SENSUAL WORLD OF TROPIC DEATH - From a lonely cabin in Guinea to the sizzling deck of a Honduras freighter, from the West Indies slums in Panama to the marl-diggers’ shacks in Barbados, Eric Walrond brilliantly etches a world in which tropic death is a way of life. Ten stark, realistic stories cut across the West Indies to Panama and the Isthmus Islands to recreate the black Caribbean experience, a transplanted African heritage flowering amidst an exotic new world of buckra johnnies, British whites, upstage blacks, Spanish senoritas, wordy West Indians, American Marines and Latin seamen. Tropic Death uniquely reflects the rhythm, religion, speech and manners of a world of droughts, malnutrition, exploitation, race hatred, folk myths, black magic and leprosy that destroy even as they create the tragic-hallucinatory tropic scenario. ERIC WALROND was born in Jamaica and came to this country in the twenties. He was a contemporary and friend of Arna Bontemps, Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance group writing at that time. He died in 1967.

Eric Walrond born in Georgetown, British Guiana, in 1898, was the son of a Barbadian mother and a Guyanese father. His first eight years were spent in Guiana. But his parents' marital difficulties led Walrond into an almost wayfaring existence. In 1906, his father abandoned Walrond and his mother. His mother moved the two of them to a small village in Barbados to live with their relatives. Walrond began his education in Barbados at St. Stephen's Boys' School, located in Black Rock. Around 1910, Walrond and his mother traveled in search of his father to the Panama Canal Zone, where thousands of west Indians and Guyanese were employed to dig the canal. Walrond and his mother never found his father and they made a home in Colon. It is in Colon where Walrond completed his public and secondary school education between 1913 and 1916. During his education in Colon, Walrond was exposed to the Spanish culture and became bilingual. Around this time he was trained as a secretary and stenographer, and acquired a job as a clerk in the Health Department of the Canal commission at Cristobal. Through the years 1916 and 1918 he began a journalistic career which he pursued while in the United States. Walrond worked as a general reporter, court reporter, and sportswriter for the Panama Star-Herald, 'the most important contemporaneous newspaper in the American tropics. ' Walrond was also associated with the Harlem Renaissance. In the early 1920s he published short stories in periodicals such as the Opportunity, Smart Set, and Vanity Fair. In 1923, he wrote 'On Being a Domestic,' 'Miss Kenny's Marriage,' 'The Stone Rebounds,' and 'The Stone Rebounds. ' Walrond's stories focused on a realistic presentation of racial situations in New York City. In 1924 he focused on a more impressionistic presentation of life in the American tropics. He did not return to the realistic form of writing until 1927, when he wrote 'City Love,' which is the last story he published before he left the United States. His works include - 'On Being Black' ; 'On being a Domestic,' 'Miss Kenny's Marriage,' 'The Stone Rebounds,' 'Cynthia Goes to the Prom,' 'The New Negro Faces America,' 'The Negro Exodus from the South' ; 'Vignettes of the Dusk,' 'The Black City' ; 'A Cholo Romance,' 'Imperator Africanus, Marcus Garvey: Menace or Promise?' ; Tropic Death ; 'City Love'.

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Phelpstead, Carl. An Introduction to the Sagas of Icelanders. Gainesville. 2020. University Press of Florida. 9780813066516. 5.5 x 8.5. 1 table, notes, bibliography, index. New Perspectives on Medieval Literature: A volume in the series New Perspectives on Medieval Literature: Authors and Traditions, edited by R. Barton Palmer and Tison Pugh. 224 pages. hardcover.

FROM THE PUBLISHER -

Combining an accessible approach with innovative scholarship, An Introduction to the Sagas of Icelanders provides up-to-date perspectives on a unique medieval literary genre that has fascinated the English-speaking world for more than two centuries. Carl Phelpstead deepens our understanding of Icelandic sagas through historical context, contemporary theory, and close readings. Phelpstead explores the origins and cultural setting of the genre, demonstrating the rich variety of oral and written source traditions that writers drew on to produce the sagas. He provides fresh, theoretically-informed discussions of major themes such as national identity, gender and sexuality, and nature and the supernatural, relating the Old Norse-Icelandic texts to questions addressed by postcolonial studies, feminist and queer theory, and ecocritism. He then presents readings of select individual sagas, pointing out how the genre's various source traditions and thematic concerns interact. Including an overview of the history of English translations that shows how they have been stimulated and shaped by ideas about identity, and featuring a glossary of people, places, and terms, this book is an essential resource for students of the literary form.

Carl Phelpstead teaches and researches Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English literature, related medieval literatures, and modern medievalism. He studied at the Universities of Sheffield and Oxford and have worked at Cardiff University since 1999. He is a Co-Deputy Head of School and the Subject Head for English Literature. Phelpstead was elected President of the Viking Society for Northern Research in June 2018. His books include Holy Vikings: Saints’ Lives in the Old Icelandic Kings’ Sagas (2007) and Tolkien and Wales: Language, Literature and Identity (2011), which won the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies in 2012. He co-edited Old Norse Made New: Essays on the Post-Medieval Reception of Old Norse Literature and Culture (2007) with David Clark, University of Leicester, and he edited Devra Kunin's translations of two medieval Latin texts, A History of Norway and the Passion and Miracles of the Blessed Óláfr (2001). Carl Phelpstead’s article-length studies of Old Norse-Icelandic sagas, Old English hagiography, Chaucer, and modern medievalist writers have appeared in edited books and in the following journals: Exemplaria, Leeds Studies in English, Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Northern Studies, Review of English Studies, Saga-Book, Scandinavian Studies, Tolkien Studies, and Viking and Medieval Scandinavia. He is co-editor of the publications of the Viking Society for Northern Research and one of the editors of its journal Saga-Book.

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Mitchison, Naomi . The Fourth Pig. Princeton. 2014. Princeton University Press. 9780691158952. With a new introduction by Marina Warner. 2 line illustrations. Oddly Modern Fairy Tales Jack Zipes, Series Editor. 247 pages. hardcover.  

FROM THE PUBLISHER -

The Fourth Pig, originally published in 1936, is a wide-ranging and fascinating collection of fairy tales, poems, and ballads. Droll and sad, spirited and apprehensive, The Fourth Pig reflects the hopes and forebodings of its era but also resonates with those of today. It is a testament to the talents of Naomi Mitchison (1897–1999), who was an irrepressible phenomenon—a significant Scottish political activist as well as a prolific author. Mitchison’s work, exemplified by the tales in this superb new edition, is stamped with her characteristic sharp wit, magical invention, and vivid political and social consciousness. Mitchison rewrites well-known stories such as ‘Hansel and Gretel’ and ‘The Little Mermaid,’ and she picks up the tune of a ballad with admiring fidelity to form, as in ‘Mairi MacLean and the Fairy Man.’ Her experimental approach is encapsulated in the title story, which is a dark departure from ‘The Three Little Pigs.’ And in the play Kate Crackernuts, the author dramatizes in charms and songs a struggle against the subterranean powers of fairies who abduct humans for their pleasure. Marina Warner, the celebrated scholar of fairy tales and fiction author, provides an insightful introduction that reveals why Mitchison’s writing remains significant. The Fourth Pig is a literary rediscovery, a pleasure that will reawaken interest in a remarkable writer and personality. ENDORSEMENTS: ‘At her best, Naomi Mitchison is forthright and witty, writes with brio and passion and lucidity, and conveys a huge appetite for life, for people, for new adventures, and for breaking through barriers.’--From the introduction by Marina Warner. ‘These stories are important—both within the literary tradition of the fairy tale, and more broadly, as fantasy stories exemplary in their imagining of real-world matters. Warner’s introduction to the collection strikes just the right note. A splendid reissue.’--Stephen Benson, University of East Anglia. ‘The Fourth Pig makes a relevant and interesting addition to the Oddly Modern Fairy Tales series. The collection embraces more than fairy tales in the strictest sense and includes playful references to Greek and Teutonic mythology as well as to Gaelic traditions. The introduction is informative and engaging.’--William Gray, director of the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales and Fantasy, University of Chichester. CONTENTS: Introduction by Marina Warner; The Fourth Pig; Omen of the Enemy; Frogs and Panthers; The Furies Dance in New York; Grand-daughter; The Fancy Pig; The Snow Maiden; Hansel and Gretel; Birmingham and the Allies; Soria Moria Castle; Kate Crackernuts; Adventure in the Debateable Land; Mairi MacLean and the Fairy Man; The Little Mermaiden; Pause in the Corrida; Brünnhilde's Journey down the Rhine; The Border Loving; Mirk, Mirk Night; Further Reading.

Naomi Mary Margaret Mitchison, (née Haldane; 1 November 1897 – 11 January 1999) was a Scottish novelist and poet. Often referred to as the doyenne of Scottish literature, she wrote over 90 books covering a wide range of genre including historical, science fiction, travelogue and autobiography. With her husband Gilbert Richard Mitchison becoming a life peer in 1964, she was also entitled to call herself Lady Mitchison, but never used the title herself. She was appointed CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in 1981. Following her father John Scott Haldane and elder brother J. B. S. Haldane, Naomi Mitchison initially pursued a scientific career. From 1908 she and her brother started investigating Mendelian genetics. Their publication in 1915 became the first demonstration of genetic linkage in mammals. But while a diploma student at Society of Oxford Home Students (later St Anne's College, Oxford), the First World War broke out that changed her interest to nursing. Her finest novel The Corn King and the Spring Queen (1931) is regarded by some as the best historical novel of the 20th century. Naomi Mitchison was a vocal feminist, particularly campaigning for birth control. We Have Been Warned (1935) is regarded as her most controversial work due to explicit sexuality. The book was rejected by leading publishers and ultimately censored. Marina Warner is a writer of fiction and cultural history who has published widely on fairy tales. Her books include From the Beast to the Blonde and Stranger Magic, winner of the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism. She is professor of literature, film, and theatre studies at the University of Essex and a fellow of All Souls, University of Oxford.

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Williams, Robert F.. Negroes With Guns. New York. 1962. Marzani & Munsell. 128 pages. paperback.  

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In Monroe, N. C., a Negro community organized armed self-defense against the racist violence of the Ku Klux Klan. This is the story of Monroe by its leader, ROBERT F. WILLIAMS. As prologue, the issues raised in Monroe are weighed by the novelist and scholar of abolitionism, MR. TRUMAN NELSON, and by the leader the non-violent resistance movement in America the REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Robert Franklin Williams (February 26, 1925 – October 15, 1996) was an American civil rights leader and author best known for serving as president of the Monroe, North Carolina chapter of the NAACP in the 1950s and into 1961. He succeeded in integrating the local public library and swimming pool in Monroe. At a time of high racial tension and official abuses, Williams promoted armed black self-defense in the United States. In addition, he helped gain support for gubernatorial pardons in 1959 for two young African-American boys who had received lengthy reformatory sentences in what was known as the Kissing Case of 1958. It generated national and international attention and criticism of the state. Williams obtained a charter from the National Rifle Association and set up a rifle club to defend blacks in Jonesboro from Ku Klux Klan or other attackers. The local chapter of the NAACP supported Freedom Riders who traveled to Monroe in the summer of 1961 in a test of integrating interstate buses. In August 1961 he and his wife left the United States for several years to avoid state charges for kidnapping related to actions during violence after the Riders had reached Monroe. These charges were dropped by the state when his trial opened in 1975 following his return. Williams identified as a Black Nationalist and lived in both Cuba and The People's Republic of China during his exile between 1961 and 1969. Williams' book Negroes with Guns (1962) has been reprinted many times, most recently in 2013. It details his experience with violent racism and his disagreement with the non-violent wing of the Civil Rights Movement. The text was widely influential; Black Panther Party founder Huey Newton cited it as a major inspiration.

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Aidt, Naja Marie. Rock, Paper, Scissors. Rochester. 2015. Open Letter. 9781940953168. Translated from the Danish by K. E. Semmel. 353 pages. paperback. Cover design by N. J. Furl.

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

"The emotions unleashed in this tale . . . are painfully universal. Yet you know exactly where in the universe you are. This is the hallmark of great short stories, from Chekhov's portraits of discontented Russians to Joyce's struggling Dubliners."--Radhika Jones, Time. Naja Marie Aidt's long-awaited first novel is a breathtaking page-turner and complex portrait of a man whose life slowly devolves into one of violence and jealousy. Rock, Paper, Scissors opens shortly after the death of Thomas and Jenny's criminal father. While trying to fix a toaster that he left behind, Thomas discovers a secret, setting into motion a series of events leading to the dissolution of his life, and plunging him into a dark, shadowy underworld of violence and betrayal. A gripping story written with a poet's sensibility and attention to language, Rock, Paper, Scissors showcases all of Aidt's gifts and will greatly expand the readership for one of Denmark's most decorated and beloved writers.

Naja Marie Aidt was born in Greenland on December 24, 1963, and raised in Copenhagen. She is the author of seven collections of poetry and five short story collections, including Baboon (Two Lines Press), which received the Nordic Council's Literature Prize and the Danish Critics Prize for Literature. Rock, Paper, Scissors is her first novel.

K. E. Semmel is a writer and translator whose work has appeared in Ontario Review, the Washington Post, and elsewhere. His translations include books by Karin Fossum, Erik Valeur, Jussi Adler-Olsen, and Simon Fruelund.

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Veblen, Thorstein. What Veblen Thought: Selections from the Writings of Thorstein Veblen. New York. 1936. Viking Press. . Edited by Wesley C. Mitchell. 503 pages. hardcover.

FROM THE PUBLISHER - 

‘A man in advance of his age, repudiated by his generation, may appear in historical perspective to have been the most authentic spokesman for what that generation was adding to culture.’ – From Dr. Mitchell’s Introduction. Thorstein Veblen represents the point in America's intellectual history at which Darwinism was brought into the backward science of economics. No man was better fitted temperamentally or better equipped in scholarship to perform this function. His economic heresies are notorious, but his reward lies in the speed with which, since his death, his ideas have grown into contemporaneity. An essay such as ‘The Case of America,’ written in 1923, is not only a profound explanation of the American small town, but is the equal of Main Street in its satirical trenchancy. This volume is for those who wish to refresh their knowledge of Veblen's teachings, who want to grasp in compact form his major contributions, and for those who do not yet know Veblen and do not choose to read ten or twelve separate volumes. Dr. Mitchell, one of Veblen's best-known pupils, has selected the clearest, most forceful expressions of Veblen's leading ideas: criticisms of orthodox economics in the light of other sciences; satiric studies of the leisure class and other effects of the money psychology; distinctions between pecuniary and industrial employments, between the business man and the engineer; the past of Europe and the future of America; perpetual world peace, and so on. The result might be called the essence of Veblenism.

Thorstein Bunde Veblen (born Torsten Bunde Veblen; July 30, 1857 – August 3, 1929) was an American economist and sociologist, and leader of the institutional economics movement. Veblen is credited for the main technical principle used by institutional economists, known as the Veblenian dichotomy. It is a distinction between what Veblen called 'institutions' and 'technology'. Besides his technical work, Veblen was a popular and witty critic of capitalism, as illustrated by his best-known book The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899). Veblen is famous in the history of economic thought for combining a Darwinian evolutionary perspective with his new institutionalist approach to economic analysis. He combined sociology with economics in his masterpiece, The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), where he argued that there was a fundamental split in society between those who make their way via exploitation and those who make their way via industry. In hunter-gatherer societies, this was the difference between the hunter and the gatherer in the tribe, but in feudalism, it became the difference between the landed gentry and the indentured servant. In society's progressively modernized forms, those with the power to exploit are known as the 'leisure class', defined by a commitment to demonstrations of idleness and a lack of productive economic activity. Veblen maintains that as societies mature, conspicuous leisure gives way to 'conspicuous consumption'. Both are performed to demonstrate wealth or mark social status. While Veblen was sympathetic to state ownership of industry, he did not support labor movements of the time. Scholars mostly disagree about the extent to which Veblen's views are compatible with Marxism, socialism, or anarchism. Veblen believed that technological developments would eventually lead to a socialist economy, but his views on socialism and the nature of the evolutionary process of economics differed sharply from Karl Marx's. While Marx saw socialism as the immediate precursor to communism and the ultimate goal for civilization to be achieved by the working class, Veblen saw socialism as an intermediate phase in an ongoing evolutionary process in society that would arise due to natural decay of the business enterprise system. As a leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, Veblen made sweeping attacks on production for profit, and the emphasis on the wasteful role of consumption for status found within many of his works greatly influenced socialist thinkers and engineers who sought a non-Marxist critique of capitalism. Wesley C. Mitchell was a disciple of Thorstein Veblen and a founder of the institutionalist school of which Veblen is considered the father.

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Ochiagha, Terri. Achebe and Friends at Umuahia: The Making of a Literary Elite. Rochester. 2018. Boydell & Brewer/James Currey. 9781847011961. 10 b/w illustrations. 216 pages. paperback. Front cover: School House 1945, Government College, Umuahia.

FROM THE PUBLISHER -

This is the first in-depth scholarly study of the literary awakening of the young intellectuals who became known as Nigeria’s “first-generation” writers in the post-colonial period. Terri Ochiagha’s research focuses on Chinua Achebe, Elechi Amadi, Chike Momah, Christopher Okigbo and Chukwuemeka Ike, and also discusses the experiences of Gabriel Okara, Ken Saro-Wiwa and I.C. Aniebo, in the context of their education in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s at Government College, Umuahia. The author provides fresh perspectives on Postcolonial and World literary processes, colonial education in British Africa, literary representations of colonialism and Chinua Achebe’s seminal position in African literature. She demonstrates how each of the writers used this very particular education to shape their own visions of the world in which they operated and examines the implications that this had for African literature as a whole.

TERRI OCHIAGHA holds one of the prestigious British Academy Newton International Fellowships (2014-16) hosted by the School of English, University of Sussex. She was previously a Senior Associate Member of St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford.