Marvin Mudrick, whom James Wolcott of Vanity Fair called “a one-man commando squad and independent operator, . . . ferocious, funny, and fearlessly honest,” introduces us to some of Anthony Trollope’s most successful and intriguing short stories. Mudrick emphasizes the importance of women in Trollope’s stories and novels, writing that what “distinguishes the short stories is an interest in the power of women so persistent and concentrated that sometimes it almost amounts to the whole story.” ePub and PDFs can be read on many different devices. Click here to learn how to send your downloaded ePub file to your Kindle.

Challenge to China draws attention to an underappreciated aspect of legal reforms in Taiwan: its 2009 abolition of labor camps for liumang, very loosely translated as “hooligans,” and asks how Taiwan’s experience might be relevant to its giant neighbor across the Taiwan Strait.

The Little Book of Mormon, a Berkshire Essential, offers coverage of topics such as church-state relations, environmental interests of the church, and the religions potential in future US social and political agendas.

This Is America: A Short History of the United States provides an introduction to US history and culture for students anywhere in the world, with extracts from important documents.

The Good Library Manual is a practical guide to transforming any public library—large and small, city and rural—by making every aspect of the library experience appealing and enjoyable, from the moment someone sees the building and walks in the door to the time when they check out.

Women and Leadership: History, Concepts, and Case Studies provides valuable research by experts on leadership and women’s history to help students and citizens who want a more nuanced explanation of what we know about women as leaders – and about how they have led in different fields, in different parts of the world, and in past centuries.

The Joy of Tippling is a toast to importance of drinking together, crafted by the ultimate tippler. Like Ray Oldenburg’s bestselling The Great Good Place, his new book is packed with factual information, humor and wit, personal insights, and sound sociological observations. The Joy of Tippling is a celebration of third places, and a call to community.

“Great news, tipplers! The killjoys, buzzcrushers, pinch-faced scolds, and puritans are WRONG. Knocking a couple back at the local bar is good for you. In The Joy of Tippling, sociologist and inveterate tippler Ray Oldenburg tells us why, backed up with solid research, indisputable facts and real news, all cheerfully served with dash and wit.” — John Tebeau, author of Bars, Taverns, and Dives New Yorkers Love

This Is China: The First 5,000 Years provides a framework for understanding China’s meteoric rise and the issues it faces today in little more than 100 pages.

Sewing Circles, Dime Suppers, and W. E. B. Du Bois: A History of the Clinton A. M. E. Zion Church offers fresh insight into a small New England church’s role in the national civil rights movement. This is the original edition. An updated edition is also available, with the title The African American Community in Rural New England: W. E. B. Du Bois and His Boyhood Church.

Asian Cuisines: Food Culture and History of Asia from Japan and China to Afghanistan and Turkey (A Berkshire Essential) is a compilation of expert-written articles on national and regional cuisines as well as agriculture, important foodstuffs, and social and economic issues throughout the world’s largest and most diverse continent.

If you’ve given up hope for planet Earth, the Armchair Environmentalist is the book to restore your faith. Focusing on what really matters – simple changes, and new habits – it shows that each of us can make a difference, even in only a few minutes a day.

The Souls of Black Folk is a founding text of the US civil rights movement, an inspiring work of literature and advocacy by a young man who drew on his own experience as a child in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, a teacher in the hills of Tennessee, a father grieving after the death of his baby son. It is a book compiled in haste but nonetheless a command performance. Du Bois’s concept of African American duality is, writes Henry Louis Gates Jr., his “most important gift to the Black literary tradition.”

Discover the surprising truths behind Jane Austen’s novels and how they continue to challenge societal norms. In Jane Austen’s Irony: Defense and Discovery, Marvin Mudrick delves into Austen’s use of irony and how it exposes the flaws of society. This book will open your eyes to the genius of Austen’s writing and how it still resonates in today’s world.

Rachel’s Roses is an introduction to the cycles of nature: a little girl learns how flowers bloom and fade and bloom again. It was published by Barefoot Books and recorded for BBC Radio, and later recorded for children during the  COVID-19 lockdown by a UK teacher.

“A stunning picture book for under-fives to treasure.”—The Times

“All the right elements are there: real characters, interesting information, delightful illustrations and a warm uncomplicated story which never forgets to keep the child’s feelings at the centre”—Montessori Education

The Waste Land and Other Poems is based on the 1922 edition produced by Leonard and Virginia Woolf, and includes translations of non-English passages. QIU Xiaolong’s foreword explains what Eliot’s poetry means to readers around the world. Karen Christensen’s afterword comments on the women connected with The Waste Land. Read it here.)

Knowing Women is a rollicking jubilee of voices crackling with life which never fail to captivate the hearts and minds of its audience. The characters are five women over 90 (one is Sophia Mumford, married to Lewis Mumford for 70 years, and introduced in Berkshire’s edition of The Story of Utopias), none of whom had met one another until the playwright decided to bring them together in a setting that blurs the line between a cosmic waiting room and modern day nursing home. They form alliances, clash, bond, banter and bicker, laugh, weep, joust and cavort their way through nearly half a collective millennium of living. Politics, religion, feminism, other women, sex, dead husbands and lovers, and what, if anything, lies waiting for them in the great beyond are just a few of the subjects they tackle. The play, a staged reading, is an ideal vehicle for older actresses who are finding that few if any, roles are being written for them. Performance time 90 minutes, no intermission. Script by Suzanne Logan and photographs by Barbara Wilbur. (Script available now; paperback and ebook editions forthcoming.)

Becoming a Dragon: Forty Chinese Proverbs, is a bilingual (English-Chinese) collection of proverbs, popular phrases, and two-part allegorical sayings, designed for self-study and classroom teaching. Each proverb comes with the story behind the proverb and its source in both English and Chinese, a literal translation, the figurative meaning, an English equivalent, a vocabulary list, and examples of how the proverb is used in modern written and spoken Chinese.

China Gold: China’s Quest for Global Power and Olympic Glory is first and foremost about the training, the determination, and the focus that make international competitions so exciting. But China Gold is also an excellent introduction to China and its people, with glorious full-color chapters about the history of sports in China (including women’s sports in ancient China), traditional physical activities like tai chi and wushu, and extreme and new sports. It puts into context the drama of China’s economic growth and social development, and the controversies surrounding the Games of 2008, making it also a valuable companion to the Winter Games of 2022.

The Berkshire Manual of Style for International Publishing is a unique repository of guidelines, rules, and exceptions to rules; meditations and asides on writing and word use; and publishing lore. Berkshire offers sage advice for anyone who cares about how we all use the written word to convey information and to communicate with one another.

Touchdown: An American Obsession is the first comprehensive guide to the history and culture of the sport, by some of the world’s leading sports scholars. The volume includes US high school and college football as well as professional football worldwide.

The man the Village Voice called “the Mickey Spillane of Belles Lettres” and the Washington Post called a “literary curmudgeon, randy iconoclast, and a delight” outdoes himself in his fifth book, an outrageous and virtuoso display of literary and historical portraiture.

A collection such as Books Are Not Life, But Then What Is? is an invitation to meet some of them. We meet heroes and monsters and plenty of people in between: Chaucer, Pepys, Rochester, Boswell, Jane Austen (and Anne Elliot), Dickens (and Pecksniff), Pushkin, Tolstoy, Kafka, Edmund Wilson, and many other novelists, scholars, and critics.

In On Culture and Literature Marvin Mudrick explores the work of major figures in a wide range of fields: literature, political and musical criticism, autobiography, the novel and science.

Visit beautiful Prince Edward Island, where Anne of Green Gables was set, in these stories of Summers Long Ago spent by a city boy who grew up to be a famous world historian. “Reminiscing about the profound lessons he learned during summers with his grandparents, McNeill shows how his experiences shaped him into the historian he is today…. Quite the unique and inspiring story.” Midwest Book Review

Invisible Poets: Afro-Americans of the Nineteenth Century brings into view over 130 other Black men and women who published poetry in America during the century between Phillis Wheatley and Paul Laurence Dunbar. The Berkshire Edition includes a foreword by Jaki Shelton Green, 9th Poet Laureate of North Carolina.

A thorough but compact and accessible text for undergraduates, professionals, and activists, written and edited by leading historians and social scientists who study homelessness. Hardcover, paperback, or ePDF stamped copy for individual use. Also available for Kindle.

Writing Great Tom is the journal T. S. Matthews kept as he worked on the first major biography of T. S. Eliot. It shows how he brought to light unknown women including Eliot’s first wife Vivien, and how the widow Valerie Eliot tried to repress the book. Read the foreword here.

Africa in World History, a Berkshire Essential, stresses Africa’s interrelatedness to other regions and cultures, from early trade routes, the arrival of Christianity and Islam, and the ramifications of colonialism to contemporary issues such as HIV/AIDS and apartheid that have thwarted Africa’s efforts to establish unity.

Big History, a Berkshire Essential, places the history of humanity and the Earth in the largest of contexts – that of the universe. Its interdisciplinary approach draws from diverse fields including archaeology, paleoanthropology, astronomy, and biology, and raises new questions about the future of our species and its relationship to the biosphere.

Religion and Belief Systems in World History, a Berkshire Essential, explores humanity’s desire for spiritual sustenance in prehistory. Based on archaeological evidence of gravesites dating to over 70,000 years ago, many neuroscientists believe humans are hard-wired to seek meaning through rites and ceremonies, myth and symbols, ideas and behaviors.

World Environmental History, a Berkshire Essential, explores how the biosphere is affected by human interventions such as climate change, deforestation, waste management, water and wind energy, population growth, and urbanization.

Environmental Law and Sustainability, a Berkshire Essential, introduces environmental regulations and agreements from around the world, with a focus on those with the most potential for international impact.

In Ecosystem Services for Sustainability, a Berkshire Essential, environmental scientists and ethicists explore the variety of benefits that ecosystems provide. The articles are written for the general reader interested in learning how nature provides for humankind, and how humankind can protect those valuable natural resources.

Business Strategies and Management for Sustainability, a Berkshire Essential, explores how a green economy can be created and sustained. Articles cover a wide variety of topics including “greenwashing,” local economies, and corporate social responsibility.

Energy Industries and Sustainability, a Berkshire Essential, covers the exploitation of energy resources—such as coal, petroleum, and wood—and the innovations that may provide the energy we need for a cleaner, safer, and more sustainable future.

Religion and Sustainability, a Berkshire Essential, explores the ties between humans and their environment across a wide range of perspectives: from Buddhism, Bahai, Hinduism, and Daoism to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, as well as those of indigenous traditions around the world.

Natural Resources for Sustainability, a Berkshire Essential, includes thirty-two articles covering the nature, extraction, and uses of today’s most important natural resources, concerns, and management approaches.

The Man in the Machine consists of new assessments of major writers and critics by the author of whose last book Roger Sale wrote: “T. S. Eliot was not so good a reviewer as Marvin Mudrick is.”

Eco Living is the essential handbook for green living today.  It contains all the information you need in a clear, easy-to-follow form, so that you can ensure your whole lifestyle is ecologically sound. In addition to practical recycling and  housecleaning guidelines,  Eco Living looks at ways to keep fit, the ecological impact of sports like golf and skiing, and important aspects of travel and leisure. Eco Living covers all aspects of a sustainable lifestyle. “We can make a difference – Karen Christensen’s book shows us how’ –Anita Roddick OBE, founder of The Body Shop

Mudrick Transcribed contains riveting and comical dialogue from transcripts made in the early 1980s of Marvin Mudrick’s classes and talks. “A one-man commando squad and independent operator, Marvin Mudrick was the most maverick literary critic of his time and ours—ferocious, funny, and fearlessly honest,” says James Wolcott of Vanity Fair.

Education in China, a Berkshire Essential, provides unique coverage about learning at all levels. China has the largest higher-education system in the world, and the Chinese are known worldwide as top students and scholars.

Art in World History, a Berkshire Essential, put readers in touch with art from the Paleolithic period and the millennium-long heyday of porcelain, to performance art of the postmodernist world.

World History Teaching in Asia is the first broad survey of the content and approaches used to teach world history in secondary schools and colleges in Asia.

The Encyclopedia of African and African-American Religions, the second volume in the acclaimed Religion and Society series, breaks fresh ground on the subject of African and African-American religion and its influence throughout the world.

Recipes from the Garden of Contentment is the first English translation of one of the world’s most famous books about food: a treatise, cookbook, and memoir by the Qing dynasty poet Yuan Mei 袁枚. This edition includes the original Chinese text and extensive, often amusing modern annotations. A compact English-only version is available as The Way of Eating.

The Encyclopedia of Fundamentalism is the third volume of the Religion & Society series. With A-Z coverage of fundamentalist movements and beliefs around the world, this work offers insights into Christian fundamentalist home life, the best-selling Left Behind books, the Taliban, concepts such as Dispensationalism, and much more. The encyclopedia’s emphasis is on Protestant fundamentalism in the United States, but, in a more international sense, the volume also covers conservative religious, social, and political movements in Islam, Judaism, and Hinduism.

The Encyclopedia of Religion and War provides authoritative information about the history of religious wars and violence around the world and across cultures. It does not examine religious teachings on love, ­compassion, or benevolent service. Instead, it provides authoritative ­historical and cross-cultural information that will help readers understand war and other forms of political violence in the major religions of the world.

The Encyclopedia of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity, the seventh volume in the Religion and Society series, explores the fastest growing movements in Christianity, with numbers second only to the Roman Catholic Church. While “peoples of the Spirit” have appeared throughout Christian history, their real growth has occurred over the past century. Because of their late emergence, they are the continuing subject of religious and social science research.

A gorgeous coffee table book showcasing an icon of American life, the public library. Heart of the Community: The Libraries We Love is a treasure trove of historical information, inspiring stories, and beautiful images. Join us in celebrating the libraries we love!

The Internet in China, a Berkshire Essential, provides much-needed context and historical background for the technological development that is transforming Chinese society and creating new conflicts and new opportunities.

The Encyclopedia of Millennialism and Millennial Movements, the first volume in the acclaimed Religion & Society series, covers 200 topics and movements – from Cargo Cults to the Anti-Christ – and offers a fresh, modern perspective on the role and importance of religion in society.

The Encyclopedia of Religious Freedom is the fourth volume of the acclaimed Religion & Society series.

The Berkshire Encyclopedia of Extreme Sports presents in one volume all that we know about extreme sports: the individualist, adventure-type sports such as bungee jumping, dirt biking, sky surfing, and rock climbing that are the fastest growing segment of the sports world.

Eminent Chinese of the Qing Period (1644-1911/2) is a revised edition of the 1943 standard reference work edited by Arthur Hummel, including more than 800 Qing dynasty individuals, converted to pinyin and updated for modern users. The introduction by Professor Pamela K. Crossley explains the history of this publication and its continuing relevance.

The Encyclopedia of Religious Rites, Rituals, and Festivals, the sixth volume in the acclaimed Religion and Society series, explores the complex and fascinating topic of religious rites, rituals, and festivals that have shaped and have been shaped by society throughout history and around the world.

The Encyclopedia of Religion, Communication, and Media, the eighth volume in the acclaimed Religion and Society series, explores all forms of religious communication worldwide and historically, with a special emphasis on oral and written forms of communication.

The Encyclopedia of Missions and Missionaries is the ninth and final volume of the acclaimed Religion and Society series, focusing on the historical impact of missions over the centuries.

Volume 5 of the Encyclopedia of Sustainability explores how we can preserve and restore habitats of all kinds.

Volume 1 of the Encyclopedia of Sustainability explores perspectives from world religions and philosophies.

Volume 2 of the Encyclopedia of Sustainability studies the intricate links between green business and sustainability.

Volume 3 of the Encyclopedia of Sustainability covers the many dimensions of international environmental law and politics.

Volume 4 of the Encyclopedia of Sustainability explores how human needs and desires, from sustenance and shelter to recreation and travel, have spurred the consumption of Earth’s material resources.

Volume 7 of the Encyclopedia of Sustainability examines sustainability in China, India, and East and Southeast Asia.

Volume 8 of the Encyclopedia of Sustainability examines sustainability from the South Pacific to the Americas.

Volume 9 of the Encyclopedia of Sustainability examines sustainability in Africa, Europe, and western Asia.

The final volume of the Encyclopedia of Sustainability includes essays from well-known thinkers, a directory of sustainability programs, and a master index.

Volume 4 of the Berkshire Dictionary of Chinese Biography is a stand-alone handbook of short biographies of key people in China since 1979. It is a companion to the first 3 volumes, which contain long-form essays by many of the world’s leading China scholars about key figures who have shaped, influenced, and transformed China over the millennia: emperors, politicians, poets, writers, artists, scientists, explorers and philosophers. This is the first time that such comprehensive collection has been available in English, produced by internationally recognized experts, and designed to satisfy the growing thirst for knowledge about China. “No biographical dictionary of China has successfully replaced Herbert Giles’s [1898] work until the new DCB. It’s about time!” –Benjamin Elman, Princeton University.

The Encyclopedia of Human Emotions is a unique work that uses a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approach.

Never before published in book form, Patterns of Global Terrorism: US Department of State Reports with Supplementary Documents and Statistics provides the most complete and authoritative historical data on terrorism around the globe.

Global Perspectives on the United States is a unique, nonpartisan survey, written by experts from around the world. It is the first general resource to explore the role and image of the United States from the viewpoints of the peoples and nations of the world. The 140 comprehensive and extensively annotated articles provide historical coverage and contemporary analysis—drawing on a wide range of sources, including nineteenth-century travel accounts, international treaties, newspaper stories from around the world, and popular music. Fascinating sidebars, illustrations, and statistical snapshots emphasize the countless influences that have shaped perceptions of the United States since its founding, and the broad coverage vividly sets out the complications and contradictions that are an essential part of global perceptions of the United States. The first two volumes consist of national surveys and histories, while the third consists of expert-written articles on specific themes in US foreign relations.

“A word of caution–US citizens should prepare to be both revered and insulted [when reading this book]. Not recommended reading for thin-skinned patriots; however, a great resource for academic, public, and high-school libraries.” —Booklist

The Encyclopedia of Human-Computer Interaction surveys the history of technologies that today pose grave social, environmental, and political questions. In dozens of essays written in the year Facebook was founded, the expert authors discuss the future of artificial intelligence, affective computing, augmented reality, and much more. They draw from engineering, anthropology, law, cognitive science, and philosophy to consider the benefits and risks ahead. This paperback edition is designed to provide students and professionals with essential technical background as well as much food for thought and discussion.

Lucid and authoritative, this work – called “the newest sporting bible” by The Times of London – covers every Olympic sport, obscure activities such as buzkashi and jousting, and indigenous games in dozens of nations. This set, the original Encyclopedia of World Sport developed for ABC-CLIO by Berkshire Publishing during its days as a book packager, is packed with everything you could possibly want to know about hundreds of sports. Along with detailed information on how sports are played around the world, the Encyclopedia of World Sport explores emotions and issues surrounding the sporting life and looks at sport as an essential part of the human experience. Readers will find fascinating entries on baseball and badminton, tennis and takraw, as well as on an incredible range of activities played around the globe from ancient times up to the present.

The Encyclopedia of Homelessness is the first systematic effort to organize and summarize what we know about this complex topic that impacts not only the homeless but all of society.

The three-volume International Encyclopedia of Women and Sports is the largest and most comprehensive work about women’s sports ever published. In 430 A-Z articles, leading scholars and specialists cover numerous sports and sports figures, as well as health issues such as eating disorders, nutrition and bone density, and social issues such as body image, gender equity and Title IX legislation (which mandates equity in school funding for women’s sports programs). A number of organizations contributed to this project, including the Women’s Sports Foundation, the International Working Group on Women and Sport, Amateur Athletic Foundation, and others. One of the American Library Association’s RUSA committee’s choice for Outstanding Reference Publications 2001. “A monumental undertaking, this encyclopedia covers women’s sports worldwide and throughout history…. This encyclopedia’s strengths lie in its unique, cross-cultural treatment of all subjects…. A scholarly resource for public libraries and schools at all levels, middle school through college.” —Library Journal.

The new Berkshire Encyclopedia of World Sport tackles the whole world of sport, from major professional sports and sporting events to community and youth sports. It expands on the previous edition, which The (London) Times called “the newest sporting bible.” Berkshire sports titles have been praised by GQ magazine, La Gazzetta dello Sport, and the UK bookmakers William Hill, and received awards from Choice, Library Journal, and Booklist. This edition begins with the origins of sport among prehistoric hunters and gatherers and extends to the global sports industry of the twenty-first century. It covers the business of sports—marketing, management, and ownership—as well as key social issues ranging from doping, racism, sexism, and youth participation, to performance enhancement and sports psychology.

The Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History is the first true encyclopedic reference on world history. It is designed to meet the needs of students, teachers, and scholars who seek to explore and understand the panorama of our shared history of humans. Anyone who loves history – including those who are making history today – will find this work an endless source of fascinating, thought-provoking coverage of events, people, patterns, and processes.