Expansion Books

This is part of a bigger program of research. Much of this can be found at www.ConsumerPsychology.com. Other insights can be found in long, boring journal articles, such as


Wansink, Brian and Michael L. Ray (1996), "Advertising Strategies to Increase Usage Frequency," Journal of Marketing, 60:1 (January), 31-46.

This is possibly the best history written of the origins of the Spanish-American War. Ernest May utilizes a very wide range of sources to produce the first international history of the crisis of 1898. May's versatility is unparalleled: he masters the details of American domestic politics, the geopolitical aims of the powers and the intra-cabinet intrigues that determined European policy. The outcome is to set an American story in a broad international context so that the reader may fully understand just what 1898 meant for America, Spain, and Europe as a whole.

This is a truly indispensable work of history.

This is a masterful book that combines intellectual history and geography in a way that has not been done before, shining a new light on the issues of Russian identity and the interrelationship between exploration, conquest and nationalism.

At the center of Bassin's work is the region around the Amur River. The Amur, closed to the Russians since the late seventeenth century, attracted intense interest in Russia throughout the later part of Nicholas I's regime, but especially in the aftermath of the country's defeat in the Crimean War. Wild, unsubstantiated exaggerations fueled this "Amur euphoria." The conquest and settlement of the Amur came to be seen as a national imperative, compensation for humiliation elsewhere. Amidst this frenzy, eager promoters who had never set their eyes on the Amur tagged the river as the "Siberian Mississippi," hoping that it would do for Siberia--and indeed for Russia as a whole--what the Mississippi did for the United States. They attached great hopes to this river. The waters of the Amur were to cleanse Russia's wounds, and redeem her in her newly-asserted eastern destiny. Yet the euphoria proved fleeting. Not long after the Russians reconquered the Amur, the realities confounded the hopes.

Although the Amur region is at the center of Bassin's book, its real subject, as the title indicates, are the "visions" of that object-region. These visions are the reflections of the visionaries, and become in certain ways "self-portraits" (p. 274), to use the author's own apt metaphor that indicates a methodological affinity to other recent works, most notably Yuri Slezkine's _Arctic Mirrors_. Whether as "mirrors" or as "self-portraits," these visions reveal far more about the visionaries than the envisioned. The "Amur euphoria" of the 1850s reflected the desperate desire of the Russian visionaries, in the wake of the Crimean War debacle, to both turn away from a Europe that "spurned" them and wounded their national pride and, at the same time, reaffirm their own Europeanness as effective "civilizers" of the east. These are complicated, sometimes conflicting visions of an "imagined" region, but Bassin skillfully steers us through them one at a time with the exuberance of a Huck Finn sailing on his raft down the Mississippi. In the process, he produces a work that will be indispensable for anyone grappling with the hisitorical issues of Russia's imperial visions.

The aurhor is a historian with the British Ministry of Defense so this is a semi-official history. In the late thirties the RAF started a program to expand the production capabilities of the British aircraft industry to cope with the needs of the anticipated war. This book describes how this program was handled. The only criticism one might make is that the lenngth of the book is too short (283 pages) to completely cover such a large subject.

Insurgent Cuba tracks the transformation of racial and gendered narratives of the revolution from the abolition of slavery to the war of independence. In this fascinating and pathbreaking book, Professor Ferrer reveals that, with the emergence of late 19th century Cuban nationalism, narratives of race, slavery, and the place of black people in the revolution shift dramatically. Through the voices of leaders like Jose Marti, black insurgents were constructed as color-blind patriots committed to the liberation of Cuba, not slaves and ex-slaves attempting to overthrow the regime of slavery and demand equal rights. Black people were transformed in these three decades from a problem and threat to the republic to the symbols of Cuban nationalism's commitment to multiracial democracy. Anti-racism became a weapon in the hands of Cuban revolutionaries in their battle against Spain, which changed the status of black insurgents, put them on a pedestal in a way, and made their stories fundamental to the narrative of the new republic--one that is colorblind and willing to incorporate everyone as long as they are patriots. For blacks and mulattoes, this discourse gave them a platform to complain about racism in the ranks of the army, in everyday life, everywhere. On the other hand, the ellision of racism in the discourse of Cuban nationalism and the celebration of multiracial republicanism was often used against critics of racism in Cuba. "To speak of race, then," Ferrer writes, "was to challenge the depth of racial and national unity." Any attempts to mobilize on the basis of racial solidarity was then dismissed as divisive and unpatriotic. By reconstructing these different narratives in the context of specific revolts and campaigns, Ferrer offers us a stunning alternative narrative of the struggle for Cuban Independence. Insurgent Cuba is perhaps the best book available on race and Cuba.

The Lewis & Clark-edition by the University of Nebraska is milestone not only for the US historiography, but also for booklovers, wether if the are Americans or not!

Collaboratively written by Kevin Bourassa and Joe Varnell, Just Married: Gay Marriage And The Expansion Of Human Rights is an informed and informative analysis of a ground breaking event in culture and society -- the expansion of the concept of matrimony to include same sex couples. When the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto issued marriage licenses to and married two same-sex couples in January of 2001, it offered a revolutionary precedent in human rights and the power of the state to dictate who may and may not marry. Challenges to the same-sex marriage are expected to proceed to the Supreme Court of Canada, and the result could well change human history. An amazing study of political struggles, featuring an inset section of color photographs and a witty eye for detail, Just Married is a solid and eminently readable addition to Gay and Lesbian Studies supplemental reading lists and reference collections.

Justin's Epitome is one of our five major classical sources on Alexander the Great, but he never made it into an English translation until the publication of this book by Yardley and Heckel. That alone makes it unique.

Justin's account itself is brief (about 30 pages in print) but Heckel's excellent commentary makes up the remaining 200 pages of this publication. For everyone seriously interested in Alexander Heckel's superb commentary is a 'must have'.

This shouldn't be the first book you should buy about Alexander. But once you have read Bosworth, Green or Hammond, once you have tasted the original accounts of Arrian or Curtius - this is your next step on the ladder of true in dept analysis.

Justin's Epitome is one of our five major classical sources on Alexander the Great, but he never made it into an English translation until the publication of this book by Yardley and Heckel. That alone makes it unique.

Justin's account itself is brief (about 30 pages in print) but Heckel's excellent commentary makes up the remaining 200 pages of this publication. For everyone seriously interested in Alexander Heckel's superb commentary is a 'must have'.

This shouldn't be the first book you should buy about Alexander. But once you have read Bosworth, Green or Hammond, once you have tasted the original accounts of Arrian or Curtius - this is your next step on the ladder of true in dept analysis.

Buyers beware!!! You cannot possess this book and stay the same. Say good bye to Struggling, Faking It, and Barely Making It...

This book is a great buy!!!! It's a 4-in1. This Life changing book has:
*12 Spiritual Keys
*Mediations & Confessions
*Prayer for Salvation
*A Personal Journal

The introduction alone was really powerful. This Prophetic Message from God came at the right time in my life. I am now ready (for real ready) to start living a Maximized Life.

Dr Sonya uncovers the schemes the enemy has used to keep us blind. I should have known that I would be going through Deliverance Service while reading this book. (smile)

Strong holds will be destroyed. Any root that is not like God will be forced to be uprooted so that the Living Word and Revelation of God can be planted....

Dr. Sonya really is a devil buster... Be Blessed!!!!!

PS. Somebody should have told me before I got a revelation!!!!