Natalie Zemon Davis Book order

Exploring the dynamic relationship between scholarship and political sentiment during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this narrative delves into significant achievements and profound disappointments. It provides a unique lens on how intellectual pursuits were influenced by the prevailing political climate of the era, offering insights into the complexities of this historical period.

Acclaimed historian Natalie Zemon Davis's accessible and dramatic biography was widely hailed as a masterpiece and tells the story of Leo Africanus, a sixteenth-century Moroccan who embodies the rich and complex exchanges between Europe and Africa during the Renaissance.

The civil rights movement’s most prominent leaders, Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) and Malcolm X (1925–1965), represent two wings of the revolt against racism: nonviolent resistance and revolution "by any means necessary." This volume presents the two leaders’ relationship to the civil rights movement beyond a simplified dualism. A rich selection of speeches, essays, and excerpts from Malcolm X’s autobiography and King’s sermons shows the breadth and range of each man’s philosophy, demonstrating their differences, similarities, and evolution over time. Organized into six topical groups, the documents allow students to compare the leaders’ views on subjects including integration, the American dream, means of struggle, and opposing racial philosophies. An interpretive introductory essay, chronology, selected bibliography, document headnotes, and questions for consideration provide further pedagogical support.

Must a gift be given freely? How can we distinguish a gift from a bribe? Are gifts integral to human relations, or do they lose significance when the market prices every exchange? These questions shape our understanding of social relations, both historical and contemporary. In her exploration of gift-giving in early modern France, Natalie Zemon Davis illustrates how gift exchange is vital for comprehending alliances and conflicts in family life, economic relations, politics, and religion. From royal gifts to beggars' alms, she investigates the modes and meanings of gift-giving throughout sixteenth-century French society. This leads to a novel perspective on gifts—what Davis terms "the gift register"—as a lasting aspect of social relations over time. Gift-giving can foster friendship or incite disputes, blending the voluntary with the obligatory, and ranging from bribery to genuine generosity. By examining gifts through ethnographic sources like archives and letters, as well as cultural lenses such as literature and ethics, Davis argues that coercive elements in family life and politics, rather than market competition, disrupted the gift system. This thought-provoking work suggests that understanding the significance of gifts can enhance our social interactions today.

A medieval French author considers why so many philosophers, speakers, and poets malign women, and defends feminine character, behavior, and accomplishments

The clever peasant Arnaud du Tilh had almost persuaded the learned judges at the Parlement of Toulouse when, on a summer’s day in 1560, a man swaggered into the court on a wooden leg, denounced Arnaud, and reestablished his claim to the identity, property, and wife of Martin Guerre. The astonishing case captured the imagination of the continent. Told and retold over the centuries, the story of Martin Guerre became a legend, still remembered in the Pyrenean village where the impostor was executed more than 400 years ago.Now a noted historian, who served as consultant for a new French film on Martin Guerre, has searched archives and lawbooks to add new dimensions to a tale already abundant in mysteries: we are led to ponder how a common man could become an impostor in the sixteenth century, why Bertrande de Rols, an honorable peasant woman, would accept such a man as her husband, and why lawyers, poets, and men of letters like Montaigne became so fascinated with the episode.