The extraordinary story of African American composer Edmond Dede, raised in antebellum New Orleans, and his remarkable career in France In 1855, Edmond Dede, a free black composer from New Orleans, emigrated to Paris. There he trained with France's best classical musicians and went on to spend thirty-six years in Bordeaux leading the city's most popular orchestras. How did this African American, raised in the biggest slave market in the United States, come to compose ballets for one of the best theaters outside of Paris and gain recognition as one of Bordeaux's most popular orchestra leaders? Beginning with his birth in antebellum New Orleans in 1827 and ending with his death in Paris in 1901, Sally McKee vividly recounts the life of this extraordinary man. From the Crescent City to the City of Light and on to the raucous music halls of Bordeaux, this intimate narrative history brings to life the lost world of exiles and travelers in a rapidly modernizing world that threatened to leave the most vulnerable behind.

Uncommon Dominion Venetian Crete and the Myth of Ethnic Purity Sally McKee "Sally McKee's magisterial book on the character of Venetian dominion in fourteenth-century Crete contributes immensely to our understanding of that neglected subject. Moreover, the book is a thought-provoking examination of this specific case history in relation to the origins and nature of Western colonialism."--"International History Review" From 1211 until its loss to the Ottomans in 1669, the Greek island we know as Crete was the Venetian colony of Candia. Ruled by a paid civil service fully accountable to the Venetian Senate, Candia was distinct from nearly every other colony of the medieval period for the unprecedented degree to which the colonial power was involved in its governance. Yet, for Sally McKee, the importance of the Cretan colony only begins with the anomalous manner of the Venetian state's rule. "Uncommon Dominion" tells the story of Venetian Crete, the home of two recognizably distinct ethnic communities, the Latins and the Greeks. The application of Venetian law to the colony made it possible for the colonial power to create and maintain a fiction of ethnic distinctness. The Greeks were subordinate to the Latins economically, politically, and juridically, yet within a century of Venetian colonization, the ethnic differences between Latin and Greek Cretans in daily material life were significantly blurred. Members of the groups intermarried, many of them learned each other's language, and some even chose to worship by the rites of the other's church. Holding up ample evidence of acculturation and miscegenation by the colony's inhabitants, McKee uncovers the colonial forces that promoted the persistence of ethnic labeling despite the lack of any clear demarcation between the two predominant communities. As McKee argues, the concept of ethnic identity was largely determined by gender, religion, and social status, especially by the Latin and Greek elites in their complex and frequently antagonistic social relationships. Drawing expertly from notarial and court records, as well as legislative and literary sources, "Uncommon Dominion" offers a unique study of ethnicity in the medieval and early modern periods. Students and scholars in medieval, colonial, and postcolonial studies will find much of use in studying this remarkable colonial experiment. Sally McKee is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Davis. The Middle Ages Series 2000 288 pages 6 x 9 19 tables ISBN 978-0-8122-3562-3 Cloth $47.50s 31.00 World Rights History Short copy: Crete was a Venetian colony from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century.

Intimidated by the thought of taking Western civ? You may be in for a pleasant surprise because THE GLOBAL WEST isn't a typical Western civ textbook. Developed by authors who've spent years helping a diverse range of students understand history, the book uses stories of ordinary people and their impact on history, along with stunning images and maps that make the subject interesting. You'll also have lots of help learning concepts with learning objectives, an easy-reading narrative and a clear message that helps you "get" the origins of today's interconnected world.

Intimidated by the thought of taking Western civ? You may be in for a pleasant surprise because THE GLOBAL WEST isn't a typical Western civ textbook. Developed by authors who've spent years helping a diverse range of students understand history, the book uses stories of ordinary people and their impact on history, along with stunning images and maps that make the subject interesting. You'll also have lots of help learning concepts with learning objectives, an easy-reading narrative and a clear message that helps you "get" the origins of today's interconnected world.