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Bess Ralegh

The previously untold remarkable life of Bess Ralegh, the woman behind Sir Walter Ralegh and ahead of her time. From the start of her liaison with Sir Walter Ralegh, Beth Throckmorton, maid of honour to Queen Elizabeth I, was thrown into the dangerous and violent political world of Elizabethan England. Overlooked by the court and high society, dismissed with no rights as a woman in a fiercely male establishment, Bess Ralegh was forced to play for high stakes.
Bess' acute intelligence and commercial acumen ensured her survival. Indeed, so great was her success that two monarchs, Elizabeth I and James I, felt threatened by and indeed sought to destroy her. However Bess' success in her pursuit of power and wealth and her struggle for justice did not come without a price: her own imprisonment and interrogation, banishment and destitution, and the loss of her husband and two of her three children. Her ultimate triumph over adversity is an extraordinarily dramatic and compelling story, and until now, untold. Twice from scratch, Bess Ralegh rebuilt her fortune, taking on her enemies with a courage and resilience that makes her a woman as remarkable today as she was in her own time. Bess Ralegh is here brought to life by Anna Beer in a perceptive and enjoyable biography.
Bess: The Life of Lady Raleigh, Wife to Sir Walter by Anna Beer
ISBN: 1841195421

Helen Rand Parish: Bartolome de las Casas

Bartolome de las Casas (1484-1566) is the key to the quincentenary debate--should we celebrate or should we weep? His was the main cry against the tragic fate of the Indians, the main cry for reform. Until now, he has been known only from incomplete sources.
This book begins his rediscovery in 1992. Helen Rand Parish's introduction shows that Bartolome de Las Casas was barely 18 when he came to America in 1502, spending the next decade as a planter in the West Indies. Bartolome de Las Casas befriended the natives, but saw them cruelly massacred and exploited by conquistadors. In 1514 the mounting shock turned him into a defender of the Indians from then until his death at 82. As a priest-colonist, a Dominican friar, a bishop, he fought at court in the New World for their full human rights, using his first book, The Only Way, to great effect.
The earliest version produced a papal encyclical on behalf of the Indians, the second motivated an emperor to issue laws protecting them, the third taught a generation of Spanish scholars. Sullivan's translation of The Only Way to Draw All People to a Living Faith lets us hear Bartolome de Las Casas in full at last. The familiar horrors and denunciations are all there, but so is a gentle voice filled with compassion and yearning for peace. For centuries, the treatise influenced mission theory and practice in many lands; modern writers studied its misiology and its relation to his own mission experiment. But this new version - the lost opening reconstructed, the massive proof texts banished, the original form restored - reveals the doctrine that guided Bartolome de Las Casas' career.
In it, he pleads for the way of Christ: evangelization by peaceful charity and respect not by "fire and the sword." Sullivan has given us a brilliant rendering of the powerful central version Fray Bartolome composed at Oaxaca in 1539 to change the conscience of Christendom. The work makes the same appeal to conscience today.
Helen Rand Parish, linguist and social justice scholar who poured her considerable energy and intellect into promoting the works of a 16th century Spanish activist priest, died 1n April 2005. Helen Rand Parish was 92 and had lived in Berkeley since the 1930s.
Bartolome de Las Casas: The Only Way by Helen Rand Parish
ISBN: 0809103672

Invisible Heart

In this brilliant new book, MacArthur Award-winning economist Nancy Folbre reveals startling truths about our society and how much importance we actually place on family values.
Most economists share Adam Smith's confidence that the invisible hand of the market transforms selfish behavior into benefits for all. But Nancy Folbre challenges this confidence. In a pioneering reevaluation of the competitive market, she explains why the invisible hand, if it reaches too far, can undermine the "invisible heart- the values of love, reciprocity, and obligation on which our families and communities depend.
The Invisible Heart addresses an often-neglected yet basic problem in our society: blancing economic pursuits with care for others, particularly children, the elderly, and the infirm. Historically, most societies guaranteed care by maintaining strict limits on women's freedom. But as these limits give way and society is increasingly dominated by the market, we need to develop more democratic and egalitarian rules for sharing care responsibilities.
Economically, it should be worthwhile to take responsibility not only for ourselves, but for those who depend on us, including the children whom we expect to, in the future, keep our society going.
Written in a lively, personal style flavored by Molly lvins as well as John Kenneth Galbraith, The Invisible Heart reinterprets policy issues such as welfare reform, school finance, and progressive taxation, and confronts the challenges of globalization, outlining strategies for developing an economic system that rewards both individual achievment and care for others.
The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values by Nancy Folbre
ISBN: 1565847474

Mary, Queen of Scots

Since 1969 Antonia Fraser has written many acclaimed historical works which have been international bestsellers and is the recipient of many literary awards, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. These include the biographies Cromwell: Our Chief of Men and King Charles II and the history Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot. Three highly praised books focus on women in history: The Weaker Vessel: Women's Lot in Seventeenth-Century England, The Warrior Queens, and The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Her most recent book was Marie Antoinette. Antonia Fraser is editor of the series Kings and Queens of England. Antonia Fraser is married to the playwright Harold Pinter and lives in London. Fraser writes in a fashion that is enjoyable and easy to understand. I found it hard to put this book down and I hope Antonia Fraser writes more books like this one.
Mary, Queen of Scots by Antonia Fraser
ISBN: 038531129X