Colourful carved and decorated totem poles, beautiful beaded soft supple moccasins, fully beaded dresses and accessories, the deer dancer, the Bear Clan Hat, sky messages making material offerings to the spirits for guidance, bentwood boxes, chests, masks and canoes from British Columbia decorated with swirling symmetrical colourful pattern carvings, porcupine quills, birch bark and sweet grass used by the Ojibwe (also known as Chippewa) keep North American native traditional art alive. Here are garments of great celebrated leaders such as the shirt of Crazy Horse to pictures of Indians of All Tribes protesting at Alcatraz about their rights and properties, all about Indian and American education and the drive for justice and political recognition which led to new confrontations at Wounded Knee and Washington, DC. This magnificent celebration of Native American cultures and civilisations combines a wide-ranging text by scholars, writers and readers from tribes like the Standing Rock Sioux and Mohawk and Cherokee and Maya and many more, exploring the profound meaning of ceremonial life and its intimate connections with the land. There is a poignant chronicle of the impact of Indian boarding schools on Native families and cultures, the activist days of the 1970s and poems by Louise Erdrich and others and eloquent examples of a literary renaissance. 320 full page gorgeous colour illustrations depicting wondrous examples of indigenous cultures. 336pp in very large softback, 22.86 x 30cm, originally published in 2004 to commemorate the opening of the Museum of the American Indian.

This magnificent book is a collaboration between The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The National Gallery London. It gives a detailed chronology of Cole's life, retracing his travels as documented in his journals, letters and sketchbooks and discussions of over 70 works demonstrating his major contribution to the history of Western art. You may not have heard of him and we certainly hadn't at Bibliophile, but on a recent buying trip with US suppliers we fell in love with the gentle colours and scenes of this talented landscape artist. This book is a major re-examination of the father of the Hudson River School in relation to his European roots and travels. Thomas Cole (1801-1848) is celebrated as the greatest American landscape artist of his generation. Previous scholarship has emphasised the American aspects of his identity, and never before has the British-born artist been presented as an international figure. This special large monograph emphasises his travels in England and Italy 1829 to 1832 and his crucial interactions with such painters as Turner and Constable. The tome explores his renowned paintings The Oxbow (1836) and The Course of Empire cycle (1834-36) together with magnificent oils on canvas like Titan's Goblet of 1833, View of Florence from San Miniato 1837, his chalk drawings from the Acropolis in Athens and closer to his home a distant view of Niagara Falls with a moody sky and tranquil waters and two figures on a ravine which appear to be Native American Indians. Another mountain landscape is his scene from The Last of the Mohicans novel which the artist painted. As a teenager in Chorley, Lancashire, Cole worked as an engraver on the woodblocks used to apply patterns to calico, which explains his appreciation of colour. Technical comparisons are made throughout with paint samples mounted in cross sections from the Oxbow and the Consummation of Empire magnified, a look at paint techniques and materials, the influence of industrial England where Cole was born (near Manchester), and the influence of Turner is made in comparison throughout the book, complete with gorgeous colour images. Combining Cole's passion for the American wilderness and his horror of the industrial revolution in Britain, this led him to create works that offer a distinctive even dissident response to the economic and political rise of the United States, and the ecological changes then underway. 254 colour illustrations. 288 huge pages, 24.9 x 28.2cm.

Written by the host of BBC2's Villages by the Sea, here is a charming and unexpected journey through the quirks of England's villages throughout the ages. Dr Ben Robinson is an expert archaeologist, and we join him visiting villages from prehistoric to Roman to medieval times, all the way to today's modern, urban villages. We discover how landowners, governments and communities have shaped villages and why village greens, pubs and village halls exist, and the real meaning behind the names like Bunny, Yelling, Lover, Great Snoring and Slaughter. Entirely new villages are still being built today, but when did the first villages appear and why is this form of settlement so enduring and endearing? This is a compelling hefty tome studying archaeology, history and architecture, and at once a thoughtful, and enlightening look at our oldest homes and extraordinary heritage. There are amazing aerial images such as RAF Alconbury with its Cold War runway gradually disappearing as a new type of village is born with industrial parks, housing developments, schools, greens and a cricket pitch. Or we see the beautiful brickwork of the terraced houses in Cromford, Derbyshire, built by Richard Arkwright in 1776-77 to house his textile workers, alongside other colour photographs of late 15th century small bricks laid in English bond, and a 19th century gault brick wall in Flemish bond of various colours. Hugely entertaining, 421pp, many colour plates.