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Johann Cornies, the Mennonites, and Russian Colonialism in Southern Ukraine (Tsarist and Soviet Mennonite Studies)
by John R. StaplesIn the late eighteenth century, the Russian Empire opened the grasslands of southern Ukraine to agricultural settlement by new colonists, among them Prussian Mennonites. Mennonite colonization was one aspect of the empire’s consolidation and modernization of its multi-ethnic territory. In the colony of Molochnaia, the dominant personality of the early nineteenth century was Johann Cornies (1789–1848), a hard-driving modernizer and intimate of senior Russian officials whose papers provide unique access into events in Ukraine in this era. Johann Cornies, the Mennonites, and Russian Colonialism in Southern Ukraine uses the life story of Johann Cornies to explore how colonial subjects interacted with Russian imperial policy. The book reveals how tsarist imperial policy shifted toward Russification in the 1830s and 1840s and became increasingly intolerant of ethnocultural and ethnoreligious minorities. It shows that Russia employed the Mennonite settlement as a colonial laboratory of modernity, and that the Mennonites were among Russia’s most economically productive subjects. This microhistory illuminates the role of Johann Cornies as a mediator between the empire and the Mennonite colonists, and it ultimately aims to bring light to the history of nineteenth-century Russia and Ukraine.
Johann Gutenberg: the Inventor of Printing
by Victor ScholdererThis short book draws on legal documents surviving from the 15th century, in an attempt to piece together information about the life of the inventor of the printing press. When all is said and done, however, very little can actually be known about Gutenberg's life.
Johann Jakob Moser and the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation
by Mack WalkerAs the most learned and eminent public lawyer in Germany, a busy administrator, and a prolific writer, Moser (1701-85) lived and breathed the political order. His correspondence, memoranda, and manuscript autobiography reflect the intricate day-to-day operations of the empire, and his fascinating life is a microcosm of the life and style of the empire itself. The biography provided a comprehensive picture of the empire between the Thirty Years War and the revolutionary era.Originally published 1981.A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.
Johann Scheibe: Organ Builder in Leipzig at the Time of Bach
by Lynn Edwards ButlerIn his nearly forty-year career, Johann Scheibe became Leipzig's most renowned organ builder and one of the late Baroque's masters of the craft. Johann Sebastian Bach and Johann Kuhnau considered Scheibe a valued colleague. Organists and civic leaders shared their high opinion, for Scheibe built or rebuilt every one of the city's organs. Drawing on extensive research and previously untapped archival materials, Lynn Edwards Butler explores Scheibe's professional relationships and the full range of his projects. These assignments included the three-manual organ for St. Paul’s Church, renovations of the organs in the important churches of St. Thomas and St. Nicholas, and the lone surviving example of Scheibe's craft, a small organ in the nearby village of Zschortau. Viewing Scheibe within the context of the era, Butler illuminates the music scene of Bach's time as she follows the life of a gifted craftsman and his essential work on an instrument that anchored religious musical practice and community.
Johann Sebastian Bach
by Rick MarschallTwo-and-a-half centuries after his death, the complex life of composer Johann Sebastian Bach continues to fascinate. Bach's colorful life was anchored in his belief that "music has been ordered by God's Spirit"?so much so that he began each composition by scrawling Jesu, juva (Jesus, help me) at the top of a blank page and concluded each with S.D.G. (short for Soli Deo Gloria, to God alone be the glory). Through the eyes of noted music and culture writer Rick Marschall, the intensely personal yet boldly public faith that earned Bach the nickname "The Fifth Evangelist" takes on fresh meaning. From a survey of Bach's family and its deep Christian roots to a behind-the-scenes look at how he crafted his masterpieces, this book paints a picture of an astonishing figure and his relationship with his God.Marschall brings Bach's enduring music and influence to the postmodern world and to all who would draw inspiration from his relentless pursuit of divinely ordained creativity.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Life and Work
by Martin Geck John HargravesGeck (musicology, Dortmund U., Germany) provides a study of Johann Sebastian Bach's life and music. He traces the career path the composer followed, from his early education to role as Kapellmeister of the St. Thomas Church in Leipzig and director of the collegium musicum. He then reserves half of the volume for an examination of Bach's music by genre, analyzing individual pieces and groups of vocal and instrumental works, and ends with brief discussions of specific topics such as Bach as a Christian, rhetoric and symbolism, proportion and numerical relations in his music, and theological research. The book has been translated from the German version by Hargraves (German language and literature, Yale U. and Connecticut College). Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician
by Christoph WolffPublished on the 250th anniversary of the composer's death, this life history portrays Bach as the human being that he was, while bringing to bear all the advances gained in the last half-century of Bach scholarship. Wolff (professor of music, and dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Harvard U.) demonstrates the intimate connection between the composer's life and his music, showing how Bach's superb inventiveness pervaded his career as musician, composer, performer, scholar, and teacher. He also provides a look at Bach's life and his surroundings, as well as how he fit into the broader context of the institutions, traditions, and influences of his time. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Johanna Beyer
by Amy C. BealComposer Johanna Beyer's fascinating body of music and enigmatic life story constitute an important chapter in American music history. As a hard-working German émigré piano teacher and accompanist living in and around New York City during the New Deal era, she composed plentiful music for piano, percussion ensemble, chamber groups, choir, band, and orchestra. A one-time student of Ruth Crawford, Charles Seeger, and Henry Cowell, Beyer was an ultramodernist, and an active member of a community that included now-better-known composers and musicians. Only one of her works was published and only one recorded during her lifetime. But contemporary musicians who play Beyer's compositions are intrigued by her originality. Amy C. Beal chronicles Beyer's life from her early participation in New York's contemporary music scene through her performances at the Federal Music Project's Composers' Forum-Laboratory concerts to her unfortunate early death in 1944. This book is a portrait of a passionate and creative woman underestimated by her music community even as she tirelessly applied her gifts with compositional rigor. The first book-length study of the composer's life and music, Johanna Beyer reclaims a uniquely innovative artist and body of work for a new generation.
Johannes Brahms
by Jan SwaffordAn illuminating new biography of one of the most beloved of all composers, published on the hundredth anniversary of his death, brilliantly written by a finalist for the 1996 National Book Critics Circle Award. Johannes Brahms has consistently eluded his biographers. Throughout his life, he attempted to erase traces of himself, wanting his music to be his sole legacy. Now, in this masterful book, Jan Swafford, critically acclaimed as both biographer and composer, takes a fresh look at Brahms, giving us for the first time a fully realized portrait of the man who created the magnificent music. Brahms was a man with many friends and no intimates, who experienced triumphs few artists achieve in their lifetime. Yet he lived with a relentless loneliness and a growing fatalism about the future of music and the world. The Brahms that emerges from these pages is not the bearded eminence of previous biographies but rather a fascinating assemblage of contradictions. Brought up in poverty, he was forced to play the piano in the brothels of Hamburg, where he met with both mental and physical abuse. At the same time, he was the golden boy of his teachers, who found themselves in awe of a stupendous talent: a miraculous young composer and pianist, poised between the emotionalism of the Romantics and the rigors of the composers he worshipped--Bach, Mozart, Beethoven. In 1853, Robert Schumann proclaimed the twenty-year-old Brahms the savior of German music. Brahms spent the rest of his days trying to live up to that prophecy, ever fearful of proving unworthy of his musical inheritance. We find here more of Brahms's words, his daily life and joys and sorrows, than in any other biography. With novelistic grace, Swafford shows us a warm-blooded but guarded genius who hid behind jokes and prickliness, rudeness and intractability with his friends as well as his enemies, but who was also a witty drinking companion and a consummate careerist skillfully courting the powerful. This is a book rich in secondary characters as well, including Robert Schumann, declining into madness as he hailed the advent of a new genius; Clara Schumann, the towering pianist, tormented personality, and great love of Brahms's life; Josef Joachim, the brilliant, self-lacerating violinist; the extraordinary musical amateur Elisabet von Herzogenberg, on whose exacting criticism Brahms relied; Brahms's rival and shadow, the malevolent genius Richard Wagner; and Eduard Hanslick, enemy of Wagner and apostle of Brahms, at once the most powerful and most wrongheaded music critic of his time. Among the characters in the book are two great cities: the stolid North German harbor town of Hamburg where Johannes grew up, which later spurned him; and glittering, fickle, music-mad Vienna, where Brahms the self-proclaimed vagabond finally settled, to find his sweetest triumphs and his most bitter failures. Unique to this book is the way in which musical scholarship and biography are combined: in a style refreshingly free of pretentiousness, Jan Swafford takes us deep into the music--from the grandeur of the First Symphony and the intricacies of the chamber work to the sorrow of the German Requiem--allowing us to hear these familiar works in new and often surprising ways. This is a clear-eyed study of a remarkable man and a vivid portrait of an era in transition. Ultimately, Johannes Brahms is the story of a great, backward-looking artist who inspired musical revolutionaries of the following generations, yet who was no less a prophet of the darkness and violence of our century. A biographical masterpiece at once wholly original and definitive.From the Hardcover edition.
Johannes Gutenberg: Inventor Of The Printing Press (Signature Lives Series)
by Fran Rees Frank Romano Rosemary G. PalmerA biography profiling the life of Johannes Gutenberg, a man from the Renaissance era who is best known for developing the printing press that took the place of the time-consuming method of copying books by hand. <P><P>Gutenberg's greatest accomplishment was the printing of a Latin Bible -- the Gutenberg Bible, as it came to be known. His name became forever linked to this magnificent masterpiece and to the printing press that transformed the world.
Johannes Kepler (SparkNotes Biography Guide)
by SparkNotesJohannes Kepler (SparkNotes Biography Guide) Making the reading experience fun! SparkNotes Biography Guides examine the lives of historical luminaries, from Alexander the Great to Virginia Woolf. Each biography guide includes:An examination of the historical context in which the person lived A summary of the person&’s life and achievements A glossary of important terms, people, and events An in-depth look at the key epochs in the person&’s career Study questions and essay topics A review test Suggestions for further reading Whether you&’re a student of history or just a student cramming for a history exam, SparkNotes Biography guides are a reliable, thorough, and readable resource.
Johannes Kepler: Giant of Faith and Science (Sower Ser.sower Series Biographies)
by John Hudson TinerA bibliography of the German astronomer who discovered three laws of planetary motion.
Johannes Kepler: Life and Letters
by Carola BaumgardtJohannes Kepler: Life and Letters was written as a biography of Johannes Kepler using his own letters. The letters extend over a period of time from 1596 to 1631 bringing to the reader Keplers' personality rather than his scientific achievements. The book represents his youth and years of apprenticeship, marriage and First scholarly achievements, the imperial mathematics at the Court in Prague, the Difficult Years in Linz and the Oddessy of the last four years incompassing 1948 to 1951.
Johannes Kepler: Life and Letters
by Carola BaumgardtWith an introduction by Albert Einstein: The collected letters of the Renaissance astronomer who discovered the laws of planetary motion. Astronomer and mathematician Johannes Kepler made major contributions to the Scientific Revolution of the seventeenth century. While his achievements are well-documented elsewhere, this volume of his personal correspondence offers a rare window into the life of a man who pursued knowledge through a dangerous and turbulent period of history. Spanning more than thirty years, from 1596 to the end of his life, Kepler&’s letters reveal the internal conflicts of a devout Protestant who nevertheless opposed many pronouncements of the Church, an eminent man of science who was also swayed by astrology, and a contemporary of Galileo who served three succeeding Holy Roman Emperors.
Johannes Vermeer: Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists
by Mike VeneziaA biography of Johannes Vermeer. An overview of the life and work of the seventeenth-century Dutch painter, famous for creating realistic scenes of everyday life.
John
by Cynthia LennonCynthia and John Lennon's relationship spanned ten crucial years of the Beatles phenomenon. But as well as new insight into the Beatles years, Cynthia has a compelling personal story of marriage, motherhood and the man who was to become the most idolised and admired of all the Beatles.Cynthia is candid about the cruel and the loving sides of John. She tells of the end of their marriage and the beginning of his relationship with Yoko Ono in more detail than ever before, and reveals the many difficulties estrangement from John - and then his death - brought for herself and Julian. Cynthia is a remarkable survivor and this is her extraordinary story and unique insight into a man loved and idolised all over the world.
John
by Cynthia LennonCynthia and John Lennon's relationship spanned ten crucial years of the Beatles phenomenon. But as well as new insight into the Beatles years, Cynthia has a compelling personal story of marriage, motherhood and the man who was to become the most idolised and admired of all the Beatles.Cynthia is candid about the cruel and the loving sides of John. She tells of the end of their marriage and the beginning of his relationship with Yoko Ono in more detail than ever before, and reveals the many difficulties estrangement from John - and then his death - brought for herself and Julian. Cynthia is a remarkable survivor and this is her extraordinary story and unique insight into a man loved and idolised all over the world.
John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs
by Ian Leslie*INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*"We think we know everything, but author Ian Leslie proves otherwise. His new book, 'John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs,' is, astonishingly, one of the few to offer a detailed narrative of John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s partnership. And it’s a revelation." ―Los Angeles Times"It is stunning to follow Leslie’s insights into how far and fast John and Paul traveled, how profound their preternatural alliance was, and how epic their heroic journey. I’m sorry John isn’t here to read this book. I hope if Paul does read it he feels the depth of appreciation and gratitude and intelligence it contains." ―The New York TimesJohn Lennon and Paul McCartney knew each other for twenty-three years, from 1957 to 1980. This book is the myth-shattering biography of a relationship that changed the cultural history of the world.The Beatles shook the world to its core in the 1960’s and, to this day, new generations continue to fall in love with their songs and their story. At the heart of this phenomenon lies the dynamic between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Few other musical partnerships have been rooted in such a deep, intense and complicated personal relationship. John and Paul’s relationship was defined by its complexity: compulsive, tender and tempestuous; full of longing, riven by jealousy. Like the band, their relationship was always in motion, never in equilibrium for long. John & Paul traces its twists and turns and reveals how these shifts manifested themselves in the music. The two of them shared a private language, rooted in the stories, comedy and songs they both loved as teenagers, and later, in the lyrics of Beatles songs.In John & Paul, acclaimed writer Ian Leslie uses the songs they wrote to trace the shared journey of these two compelling men before, during, and after The Beatles. Drawing on recently released footage and recordings, Leslie offers us an intimate and insightful new look at two of the greatest icons in music history, and rich insights into the nature of creativity, collaboration, and human intimacy.
John A. Brown's, Kerr's & Halliburton's: Where Oklahoma City Loved to Shop (Landmarks)
by Larry Johnson Ajax DelveckiDepartment stores John A. Brown's, Kerr's and Halliburton's ruled supreme in Oklahoma City. From "lucky penny" giveaways to defying blue laws, the three big department stores did whatever it took to entertain and entice. The stunning display windows of Kerr's downtown once lured shoppers inside, but the closing of Halliburton's in 1961 signaled the final days of downtown shopping. Adoption fairs and civil rights sit-ins at Brown's wove the store into the social fabric of the city. Authors Ajax Delvecki and Larry Johnson chronicle the stories, history and memories of the best of Oklahoma City shopping.
John A. MacDonald: The Young Politician, The Old Chieftain (Rich: Reprints In Canadian History Ser.)
by Donald Creighton Donald Wright Peter WaiteFirst published in 1952 and 1955, John A. Macdonald: The Young Politician, The Old Chieftain remains a classic in Canadian arts and letters. Described as the greatest biography ever written in Canada, it earned Donald Creighton two Governor General's Awards. In 2013, the Toronto Review of Books recommended it to anyone who wished to become a better Canadian. In this book, Creighton examines the public and private lives of Canada’s first prime minister, his victories and defeats as well as his joys and pains. A gifted writer, Creighton takes the reader back in time, to the nineteenth century, the road to Confederation, and the building of the railway. Along the way, he visits Kingston, Quebec, Charlottetown, Ottawa, and London, following his hero from a few rooms above his father’s shop in Kingston to the corridors of power in England, including the magnificent Highclere Castle where much of the British North America Act was written. This edition includes a new introduction by Creighton's biographer, Donald Wright, and by Peter Waite, Creighton's very first doctoral student.
John A. Macdonald: Canada's First Prime Minister
by Ged MartinA biography of Canada’s first prime minister, a legendary political strategist who helped found a new nation in 1867. Shocked by Canada’s 1837 rebellions, John A. Macdonald sought to build alliances and avoid future conflicts. Thanks to financial worries and an alcohol problem, he almost quit politics in 1864. The challenge of building Confederation harnessed his skills, and in 1867 he became the country’s first prime minister. As "Sir John A.," he drove the Dominion’s westward expansion, rapidly incorporating the Prairies and British Columbia before a railway contract scandal unseated him in 1873. He conquered his drinking problem and rebuilt the Conservative Party to regain power in 1878. The centrepiece of his protectionist National Policy was the transcontinental railway, but a western uprising in 1885 was followed by the controversial execution of rebel leader Louis Riel. Although dominant nationally, Macdonald often cut ethical corners to resist the formidable challenge of the Ontario Liberals in his own province. John A. Macdonald created Canada, but this popular hero had many flaws.
John Adams
by David McCulloughThe Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling biography of America&’s founding father and second president that was the basis for the acclaimed HBO series, brilliantly told by master historian David McCullough.In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous life journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution; who rose to become the second president of the United States and saved the country from blundering into an unnecessary war; who was learned beyond all but a few and regarded by some as “out of his senses”; and whose marriage to the wise and valiant Abigail Adams is one of the moving love stories in American history. This is history on a grand scale—a book about politics and war and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship, and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, John Adams is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived.
John Adams
by Meryl Henderson Jan AdkinsDear Reader: The Childhood of Famous Americans series, seventy years old in 2002, chronicles the early years of famous American men and women in an accessible manner. Each book is faithful in spirit to the values and experiences that influenced the person¹s development. History is fleshed out with fictionalized details, and conversations have been added to make the stories come alive to today¹s reader, but every reasonable effort has been made to make the stories consistent with the events, ethics, and character of their subjects. These books reaffirm the importance of our American heritage. We hope you learn to love the heroes and heroines who helped shape this great country. And by doing so, we hope you also develop a lasting love for the nation that gave them the opportunity to make their dreams come true. It will do the same for you. Happy Reading! The Editors
John Adams (American Presidents Ser.)
by Anne Burleighman for the ages. John Adams, philosopher of the Revolution and early America, and participant in many of the major events of that period, strove to fi nd universal patterns in the lives of all men. His life and ideas are as pertinent to our time as they were to his own. We still ponder the nature of the unbreakable bond between liberty and law. As did Adams, we question how to relate the goal of freedom to the authority necessary in political society.
John Adams (SparkNotes Biography Guide)
by SparkNotesJohn Adams (SparkNotes Biography Guide) Making the reading experience fun! SparkNotes Biography Guides examine the lives of historical luminaries, from Alexander the Great to Virginia Woolf. Each biography guide includes:An examination of the historical context in which the person lived A summary of the person&’s life and achievements A glossary of important terms, people, and events An in-depth look at the key epochs in the person&’s career Study questions and essay topics A review test Suggestions for further reading Whether you&’re a student of history or just a student cramming for a history exam, SparkNotes Biography guides are a reliable, thorough, and readable resource.