From the 1500s up until the dawn of World War I, horses played an imperative role in modern warfare, contributing their share to the rise and fall of nations. The enduring quote from Shakespeare's Richard III (1593), "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!" speaks to the abiding image of cavalry embedded in the cultural memory of the West. Riding to Arms: A History of Horsemanship and Mounted Warfare is Charles Caramello's thorough examination of the evolution of horsemanship and cavalry over the centuries. He follows how the debate between 'art and utility' in horsemanship caused a shift from the formal - equitation and manege dressage face=Calibri>- to the practical - namely mounted warfare. He also addresses the advent of mechanized warfare that led to the end of horse cavalry. In addition to practical history, Caramello engages with selected primary and secondary texts on horsemanship, from early works like Thomas Blundeville's The Arte of Ryding and Breakinge Greate Horses (1660) to Louis A. DiMarco's War Horse: A History of the Military Horse and Rider (2008), discussing the ways these works shaped horsemanship and calvary practices both in in their own time and throughout history. Melding together history and historiography, Riding to Arms: A History of Horsemanship and Mounted Warfare is a captivating work celebrating one of man's most constant companions in both war and peace.

Focusing on biographical portraiture, Charles Caramello argues that Henry James and Gertrude Stein performed biographical acts in two senses of the phrase: they wrote biography, but as a cover for autobiography. Constructing literary genealogies while creating original literary forms, they used their biographical portraits of precursors and contemporaries to portray themselves as exemplary modern artists. Caramello advances this argument through close readings of four works that explore themes of artistry and influence and that experiment with forms of biographical portraiture: James's early biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne and his much later group biography, William Wetmore Story and His Friends, and Stein's celebrated Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas and her largely forgotten Four in America, which comprises biographies of Ulysses S. Grant, Wilbur Wright, Henry James, and George Washington. The first comparative study of these two great expatriate writers, Henry James, Gertrude Stein, and the Biographical Act addresses questions of art, influence, and literary culture by analyzing important biographical portraits that themselves address the same questions. 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.