The life of Benedict Arnold, the American Revolutionary War general who attempted to surrender West Point to the British in 1780, didn't end after he betrayed his American compatriots. In the newly formed United States, he was condemned as a conspirator and in Britain, he was suspected of the same. He quickly left America, spent a short time in London, and largely operated in Canada and the Caribbean as a smuggler, a mercenary and a pariah. Although much has been written about Arnold's famous fall from grace, this book is the story of a charismatic man of vaulting ambition. With new research and photographs, it delves into his last twenty years. Arnold remains fascinating as a toppled hero and a flagrant traitor. Another American general wrote in the 1780s that Arnold "never does anything by halves"; indeed, he lived on a big scale. This study documents each of the various points of the globe where the restless Arnold operated and lived, pursuing wealth, status, and redemption.

Earrings can talk of mourning a dead king, supporting a revolution, or resisting an emperor. They have carried the message that a proper Victorian believed in Darwin, and that a woman invited a lover to her bed. Raid the jewelry boxes of the glamorous, legendary, and everyday chic women alike. See what earrings they have worn, when, and why, in ways that bespeak their way of life and personality, and how jewelry carries family and cultural heritage with style. Looking at earrings as tiny sculptures, here are details about gems, settings, and fixtures. Lavishly illustrated with over 300 images of jewelry ranging from the Byzantine era to the contemporary artisan, the styles of design, relationships to dress, portraiture and symbolism, and other aspects of adornment are elaborated upon. With research-based anecdotes and her own life in earrings, the author tells a story that will engage anyone interested in celebrities, monarchies, and the barely recorded lives of women of the past, and, of course, anyone who loves beautiful jewelry.

Originally knit as underwear, the sweater is a practical garment with homely beginnings and has evolved as a fashion statement. This book traces the sweater's 300-year history as an aesthetic and craft object, telling the story of its materials and construction, national traditions, fads and fashion, and accessories. Learn about the panoply of yarns, Nordic patterns, buttons, vintage collars, runway designs, manufacturing, and today's explorations of form, structure, and material. No matter how far we have come technologically, there is something fundamental in the art of hand craft. This book expertly guides readers full circle through the inception of the hand knit to the advancement of technology and back to knitting with natural fibers.

Explore fashion history with legs at center stage-from the dawn of civilization through current-day trends. This book examines society's role in moving hemlines and in shaping "legcentric" traditions throughout history. What has changed or stayed the same in the course of fashion eras? How have legs appeared in dance, sport, performance, pageantry, and conventional or outre outfits? Find out how athletics, depictions in literature and art, and motifs in advertising and films reflect our changing times. Discover the styles, attitudes, customs, sex appeal, socially acceptable postures and walks, and more in this comprehensive view of leg fashions through the ages. Enjoy fashions from the waist down through 319 striking images explained in their historical context.

One of the preeminent natural philosophers of the Enlightenment, Benjamin Thompson started out as a farm boy with a practical turn of mind. His inventions and scientific explorations include the Rumford fireplace, insulated clothing, the thermos, convection ovens, double boilers, double-paned glass and an improved sloop. Successful in world affairs, he was knighted by King George III and became a Count of the Holy Roman Emperor. Thompson was popular with women - so much so that his personal life eclipsed his achievements. While British spy in the colonies, he had an affair with the wife of Boston printer Isaiah Thompson. In London, he had a fling with the wife of a doctor who would be in the first man to balloon across the English Channel. He fathered a child by the court mistress of the Prince Elector and had affairs with several other German noblewomen. He wrote that his first marriage, to a New England minister's daughter, made his career, and called his second wife, the widow of the French chemist Lavoisier, a ""female dragon."" Drawing on Thompson's correspondence and diaries, this book examines his friendships and romantic relationships.

Aaron Burr - Revolutionary War hero, third vice president of the United States and a controversial figure of the early republic - was tried and acquitted of treason charges in 1807, and thereafter departed for self-imposed exile in Europe, his political career in ruins. Adrift in Paris for 15 months, he led a marginal existence on the run from creditors and the courts, getting by on handouts. While other Americans in Paris enjoyed official status that insulated them from life in the capital, Burr dreamed up fruitless schemes and pawned his possessions, yet remained in high spirits, enjoying Parisian theater and cafes. He shopped, flirted, paid for sex and associated with friends old and new while gathering the resolve to return to America. Burr's Paris journal is a rare item, with only 250 unexpurgated copies printed in 1903. In it he relates his fascinating stories and describes Parisian life at the height of Napoleon's power. Drawing on Burr's journal and other sources, this book provides a self-portrait of the down-and-out Founding Father abroad.

This enlightening narrative takes a look at the wedding night-its origins, history, customs, cultural expressions, and fictional representations through the ages. Though just outside of public view, the wedding night is loaded with expectation and consequence. The Wedding Night: A Popular History is an entertaining, accessible, touching, and humorous volume that looks at the previously unexplored topic of wedding history "between the sheets." Covering a kaleidoscopic array of cultural expressions, this unique study zooms in on what's quintessential and shares insights into the history of intimacy through the ages. The book traces the formalization of the wedding night in the ancient Near East and classical world, provides many examples of historically significant unions in European and American history, and describes the lively variety of traditions leading up to the present. Spicing their narrative with many piquant quotes from contemporary sources, the authors explore the rich cultural context for the wedding night-processions, royal rituals, apparel, food-related traditions, and pranks-throughout Europe and America in the 19th and 20th centuries. Separate chapters examine sex guides, jokes, and the bed as a special conjugal space. 15 paintings, illustrations, sculptures, and cartoons that depict aspects of the wedding night throughout history Numerous texts and quotations from primary sources that underscore historical practices and mores An appendix of movies that feature important wedding nights

Employees of both sexes share the work environment, and a mishandled office romance can be disastrous for love, a life partnership, or a career. Avoid the pitfalls of love-at-work-from the corner office to the online "friend"-with this 21st-century guide. The typical workplace offers constant opportunities for face-to-face communication and social interaction. Individuals within a work environment have common experiences, share the same frustrations or feelings, and can easily garner details about one another from simple observation and casual conversation. It is not surprising that workplace romances happen so frequently, making it a topic of great interest to far more individuals than those who work in Human Resources departments. Finding Love from 9 to 5: Trade Secrets of Office Romance is not about workplace misbehavior. It's about love relationships that begin-and sometimes end-on company time, regardless of whether these individuals work in the same physical environment or not. Powerful emotions can and do ignite via a virtual connection as easily as in an actual shared workplace environment-real relationships spark in either context. This book is for anyone who has fallen in or out of love in the workplace, the single person who is dreaming of or on the brink of an office romance, and colleagues and supervisors who must learn to live and work among those involved in "in-house" relationships. Reveals original data from 774 adults who completed an online survey and interviews with 70 people who have experienced an office romance Provides a roadmap for navigating the brave new world of office romance that specifies the etiquette of workplace relationships and addresses issues involving email, text messages, Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter Contains chapters with compelling content such as "What HE is Thinking," "When the Office Romance Becomes Sexual," "Dating up and Down the Ranks," and "Marry Your Office Love?" Describes office policies, including love contracts

This book provides a roadmap—based on interviews with women who have been there—on how to transition from a relationship that did not work to one that is a joyous, loving, and intimate experience with a new partner. Finding a partner and maintaining a relationship are important emotional issues for most women—issues that become even more complicated in the aftermath of a love that ends. When I Fall in Love Again: New Study on Finding and Keeping the Love of Your Life helps women in this situation navigate the tricky terrain between breaking up and starting over in a practical, empathetic, and forthright way. When I Fall in Love Again is filled with candid insights and advice about sex, dating, expectations, and life with, without, and in between partners. It is based on an unprecedented Internet survey of over 400 women answering specific questions about their experiences, plus 70 in-depth personal interviews—60 women, 10 men—conducted by coauthor Jane Merrill. What these people have to say will give guidance and hope to women facing similar situations. The book also includes 10 self tests and 12 relationship tests to help women assess themselves on a range of personal and interpersonal issues.

A couture of the risque evolved on a bridge of fashion from Paris nightclubs to Las Vegas casinos. A one-time writer for sexy magazines and on style, the author, with contributions from many experts on topics from Paris to feathers and sequins explores that entertainment story, and the hedonism behind it. For over a century, France exported costumes and millinery, as well as whole productions from the Moulin Rouge, the Lido, and Folies Bergere in Paris to the United States and the world. French has meant luxury, sexuality and fashion. In large part, the concept of glamour itself was founded in what French courtesans and French burlesque performers wore in Paris. Where did the costume typifying showgirls originate and from what? Whereas fashion implies change, the iconic showgirl costume stabilized into feathers, sparkle and revealing clothes by 1910. A tall pretty girl wearing a headdress, nude core with spangles, high heels, and dramatic makeup came to be a Gallic symbol. She performed a role of the dissimulation of sexual availability with now venerable features. She was the fizz on intoxication with no hangover, and by the 1920s, the trademark of Hollywood musicals. More recently, while showgirls are an endangered species, the scanty French cabaret clothes have translated into today's day, sport and evening clothes.