https://www.plunkettlakepress.com/

Plunkett Lake Press, Lexington, MA (2025)

09/02/2025

Our latest eBook is Isadora: A Sensational Life by Peter Kurth (https://plunkettlakepress.com/isadora)

“How to make sense of this immense, complicated, beautiful and grotesque life? Many have tried: the Isadora Duncan literature is a tidal wave of loving reminiscence, obfuscation, self-glorification, infighting and supposition by those who knew her... And now there is Peter Kurth, sardonic yet appreciative, neither adoring nor denigrating... He has stylishly synthesized the literature to give us the fullest and most coherent account of the life to date.” — Robert Gottlieb, New York Times Book Review

“Peter Kurth has done a heroic job recreating this charismatic, complicated and ultimately deeply tragic figure, born in the heyday of the railroads and dead before the Great Depression. Isadora: A Sensational Life will likely become the standard biography. Kurth seems to have read everything that has been written about her; and while he lets critics, scholars and (most valuably) those who saw her dance sum up the evanescent Duncan artistry, he gives us the woman herself.” — Tim Page, Washington Post Book World

“[A] luminous portrait, aglow with the details of Duncan’s life and times. Mining the rich lode of Duncan sources — her own writings, recollections of her contemporaries and press coverage of the day — Kurth presents as complete a picture of the dance pioneer and proto-feminist as is possible. Although only a few minutes of Duncan’s dancing have been preserved on film, the vivid descriptions found here will conjure up moving images of one of the most original figures in dance history.” — Library Journal

07/23/2025

Our newest eBook is the fascinating The Change in the European Balance of Power, 1938-1939: The Path to Ruin by Williamson Murray (https://plunkettlakepress.com/cebp), which documents how Western Europe was as unprepared for, and blind to the risks of, war by Hi**er in the 1930s as it is now vis-à-vis Putin. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose...

“A thoroughly documented study of the years of Hi**er's triumph — which the author sees as anything but inevitable. He emphasizes Germany's economic difficulties — lack of raw materials and foreign exchange — and sees an objectively weak but strong-willed Germany challenge a strong but weak-willed West, with the British always relying on a worst case analysis of their military strength and a best case analysis of Hi**er's intentions. An important study that in many ways returns to an earlier view that the West would have been in a better position to fight a war in 1938 than in 1939, that appeasement promoted what its proponents most feared: German aggression leading to protracted war. The author bolsters a familiar thesis with new evidence and great zeal.” — Foreign Affairs

“Professor Murray... [has] mastered an impressive range of archival and published sources (discussed in a trenchant bibliographical essay)... [and] advances a robust, revisionist thesis. By a careful correlation of the economics of German rearmament with Hi**er's foreign policy and strategy between 1933 and 1939, he makes a strong case that right up to the outbreak of war Germany was much less thoroughly prepared for a major war than most of her contemporary opponents imagined, or than most historians have realized since... Hi**er began a wholesale effort at rearmament from the moment he became Chancellor. Although this rearmament programme was immense, when compared to other European states, it was severely handicapped by Germany's heavy dependence on imported raw materials, insufficient foreign credit and shortage of skilled labour... The occupation of the Sudetenland brought few economic advantages, but the seizure of the remainder of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 yielded an enormous benefit in raw materials, industrial resources, and immediately available guns, ammunition, and tanks... this scholarly and powerfully argued study will not be easily brushed aside: in particular all future students of the subject will have to grapple with Professor Murray's analysis of Germany's economic problems and military deficiencies.” — The English Historical Review

07/09/2025

Pierre S. du Pont and the Making of the Modern Corporation by Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. and Stephen Salsbury is now an eBook: https://plunkettlakepress.com/psdp

“[An] admirable biography... The book is well‐written, piques the reader’s curiosity to keep going, and is well‐documented.” — The New York Times

“[A] splendid piece of business history... Chandler and Salsbury’s history of du Pont represents a major contribution... as business history [the book] is superb. What is involved in transforming a small firm into a corporate giant? That is the central question and the authors have provided an excellent analytical answer.” — Antitrust Bulletin

“Alfred Chandler is the world master of institutional business history... a first-class company and entrepreneurial history.” — David S. Landes, Economic History Association’s EH.net

“[An] interesting book... fascinating reading as a study in business decision-making... definitely an important work... a major contribution to business and economic history, as well as required reading for all concerned with twentieth-century American history.” — The Journal of Economic History

“Pierre du Pont was the prime mover in the evolution of the DuPont and General Motors companies into two of the biggest of big businesses in early twentieth-century America. This painstakingly crafted study describes with commanding scholarship what du Pont did and how... he did it... This massive, at times microscopic, but always purposeful and controlled study is indispensable to an understanding of the coming of big business to modern America.” — The American Historical Review

07/09/2025

From the Danube to the Yalu by General Mark W. Clark is now an eBook (https://plunkettlakepress.com/dy)

“[A] frank, instructive and, on the whole, well-written account of the problems, both military and political, which faced General Mark Clark between May 1952, when he was appointed Commander of United Nations Forces in Korea, and the signing of the armistice in July 1953... the book is... a combination of military prowess, honesty of purpose, and considerable political sagacity.” — International Affairs

“General Clark firmly believes that ‘we could have obtained better truce terms quicker, shortened the war and saved lives if we had got tough sooner.’ His book explains why he thought so and gives as well detailed accounts of the prisoner of war controversy, truce negotiations, relations with President Syngman Rhee, and other matters of administration... the honest opinions of a good soldier who obeyed orders even when they were contrary to his deepest convictions.” — International Journal

07/07/2025

Hi**er’s Germany: The N**i Background to War written in 1939 by constitutional scholar Karl Loewenstein, who had fled Germany in 1933 and taught political theory, the history of government, and international and comparative law at Amherst College, is now an eBook: https://plunkettlakepress.com/hge

“So far, no book has been published which contains in so narrow a compass so many-indeed practically all-essential facts concerning the structure of N**i Germany and the organization of N**i activities in the various branches of public life. A great deal about the constitution and governmental institutions, the organization of national economy, labor, education, religion, the professions, and an especially brilliant chapter on the party, will be found in this outline, which is all the more impressive by its strict adherence to the sober and cool statement of facts.” — The American Political Science Review

“[A] highly reliable book on National-Socialist Germany... the most authoritative study written so far on the constitutional structure of the Third Reich and its operation. The author, a constitutional lawyer by training, is one of the few really qualified scholars whose words must be regarded irreproachable in a field of modern government where prejudice and predilections easily lead to immature presentation.” — California Law Review

“We can recommend this book as the most succinct and up-to-date analysis of the Third Reich and its structure. In 176 small pages are summarized not only the most important features of the political institutions and the methods of domination but also the results of their application.” — The Review of Politics

06/09/2025

Our latest eBook is Countercoup: The Struggle for the Control of Iran by Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. (https://plunkettlakepress.com/cco)

“With the publication of this exciting story, told well and in detail, there is little mystery left about the overthrow of Mohammed Mossadeq in 1953. Not just the CIA but the Shah himself, key Iranians, and the support the Shah then had in the armed forces and the populace made success possible. At the center of planning (from 1951) and operations was Kermit Roosevelt, acting with the backing of the highest officials of the U.S. and the British governments. Although the Americans assumed that Mossadeq had become an ally or instrument of the Russians, the book provides no new evidence on the Soviet role.” — Foreign Affairs

“Roosevelt recounts his previous experiences in Iran with the OSS, and then runs through the details of the coup with a heavy concentration on individual personalities — consistently depicting Mossadegh and his allies as morally or physically weak, while pro-Shah types are invariably strong... Roosevelt and his operatives fanned the flames of the pro-Shah forces while coordinating the military-backed dismissal of Mossadegh. The moral is that if the CIA is going to overthrow a government, it should make sure of the support of the population and — oh yes, the military.” — Kirkus

06/08/2025

Just out in eBook form is My First Love Affair and Other Stories by Sholom Aleichem (translated from the Yiddish by Curt Leviant), https://plunkettlakepress.com/mfla, to complement his autobiography From the Fair https://plunkettlakepress.com/ftf

The 20 selections in this volume include some of Sholom Aleichem’s finest tales, including “Progress in Kasrilevke,” “Summer Romances,” “Birth,” “There’s No Dead,” “Someone to Envy,” “Three Widows,” “Homesick,” “On America,” “A Home Away from Home," “To the Hot Springs,” and the title story “My First Love Affair”.

06/07/2025

Rosemary Stevens's In Sickness and In Wealth: American Hospitals in the Twentieth Century https://plunkettlakepress.com/isaiw complements our earlier e-publication of Charles E. Rosenberg's The Care of Strangers: The Rise of America’s Hospital System https://plunkettlakepress.com/tcos.

American hospitals are a unique combination of public and private institutions that are at once charities and businesses, social welfare institutions and icons of US science, wealth, and technical achievement. In Sickness and in Wealth helps us understand this huge and often contradictory “industry” and shows that throughout this century the voluntary not-for-profit hospitals have been profit-maximizing enterprises, even though they have viewed themselves as charities serving the community.

“[A] fascinating, panoramic survey of the evolution of the American hospital system in the twentieth century... Stevens brilliantly views the hospital as a prism of the values and mores of society... She sees the stratification of the hospital population into private, semi-private, and charity patients as a manifestation of the social stratifications of American society... Stevens has written a profoundly important book. Together with The Care of Strangers (1987) by Charles Rosenberg, In Sickness and in Wealth provides a masterful overview of the development of the American hospital system. These two outstanding books complement each other neatly. The Care of Strangers examines the creation of the system from 1850 to the 1920s; In Sickness and in Wealth traces events once the system was in place through the present. Rosenberg’s book is an unusually well crafted piece of social and cultural history; the present book is written to a much greater degree from the standpoint of political science, and it also carries more implications for present-day policy issues. Ambitiously conceived, superbly executed, and rich in detail, interpretation, and insight, In Sickness and in Wealth is a major work of scholarship that will influence discussion of the health care system for years to come. It has all the makings of a classic.”― Reviews in American History

“This book is beautifully written... and is must reading for anyone involved in the current debate on health policy. It will also make delightful reading for those who merely wish to view the shifting social and economic climate in modern America, as seen from the perspective of the hospital.” ― New England Journal of Medicine

“[S]uperbly researched, and rendered in an engaging style that combines the policy analyst’s breadth with the historian’s fine sense of detail.” — New York Times

“[A]n ambitious and impressive survey of a medical-care system that deserves to be called an industry.” — Los Angeles Times

“The book is encyclopedic in its analysis as well as in its detail; it can be read as a fascinating history of twentieth-century medicine, as a powerful analysis of contemporary social policy, and as an exploration of American values.” — Isis

“[A] masterful picture of the emergence of the hospital and its role in American society.” — Science

06/06/2025

New from Plunkett Lake Press: Empire: William S. Paley and the Making of CBS by Lewis J. Paper (https://plunkettlakepress.com/empire)

A detailed exploration of how Bill Paley (1901-1990) took a fledgling radio network in 1927 and built it into one of the major media empires of the 20th century.

“Born in Chicago, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, William Paley first encountered broadcasting in its infancy while placing radio advertising for his father’s cigar company. In 1928, at 26, he bought a controlling interest in what soon became the Columbia Broadcasting System... Balanced, well researched and highly readable, the biography provides a portrait of an American businessman and his leadership of an enterprise that has transformed national life. Never an innovator, Paley built CBS out of shrewd bargaining, heavy investment and good timing... A charming, driven man of exquisite personal taste, he focused above all on programming, where quality was important but high ratings essential... This deserves a high place among the essential books on TV.” — Publishers Weekly

“... the most penetrating biographical look thus far at a complex man whose CBS boots are still firmly on.” — Washington Post

“Paper’s book is an anecdotal delight and a starter kit for understanding the American phenomenon that is television.” — Chicago Tribune

“... straightforward and compelling...” — Los Angeles Times

06/06/2025

Adventures of a White-Collar Man by Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. in collaboration with Boyden Sparkes is now an eBook: https://plunkettlakepress.com/awcm

“Alfred Sloan’s Adventures of a White-Collar Man was published in 1940. Much has happened in the intervening decades... One might be forgiven for wondering whether a book written so long ago has anything to offer the modern reader...

Such skepticism would be mistaken.

Adventures is... an epic saga, a rags-to-riches story of a group of plucky eccentrics who, on fire for opportunity, began by building horseless carriages in backyards and toolsheds and ended up — to their own surprise as much as anyone’s — creating a manufacturing juggernaut that dominated the global economy for half a century. Sloan stumbled into the automobile industry when it was still possible to know everybody, and into his recollections walk a cast of characters the modern consumer knows only as brands but who Sloan reminds us were first of all men: Henry Ford, Walter Chrysler, Dave Buick, the Dodge Brothers, Eli Olds. It’s a fun ride, an insider’s peek into the chaotic, rickety, wholly improbable beginnings of a new industry before anyone knew what the automobile would become or what it would mean for the world...

In corporate boardrooms across the country, business executives and investors speak reverently to one another of something called the shareholder theory of value...

Alfred Sloan thought differently. The view he articulates in... his story of the automobile industry, is that a business is only incidentally an investment and that only a banker could view it in such terms. In Sloan’s telling, a business is something quite different. A business is a cooperative social enterprise that is there to solve problems...

A second, equally refreshing, piece of Sloan’s theory of the corporation involves its implications about what corporate management should be. Because the corporation exists to solve problems and because problems are solved by human ingenuity, it follows that the well-functioning corporation should be structured to maximize invention, initiative, and imagination.” — Introduction to the 2025 eBook edition by Adam F. Falk, President, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

“For Alfred P. Sloan, top man in General Motors, to call himself a white-collar man, just like that, may savor a bit of understatement. It gives somewhat the sound of an American success story in the Horatio Alger style, which this book is not intended to be. Yet, as you read the hard facts of the growth of the automotive industry to giant proportions with incredible speed, it comes home to you that it is Horatio Alger, after all.” — Henry James Forman, The New York Times

04/27/2025

New eBook: George S. Messersmith: Diplomat of Democracy by Jesse H. Stiller (https://plunkettlakepress.com/gsm)

George Strausser Messersmith (1883-1960) was a favorite of FDR and the quintessential New Deal diplomat. A voluble, courageous, and indefatigable man, his remarkable career took him to ten posts on three continents. Figuring prominently in European and Latin American policy, his influence also reached the State Department. His life was a crusade for political and economic democracy both at home and abroad.

“It may well be that only diplomatic historians recall the name of George Messersmith today; but Jesse Stiller’s fine biography explains why this strong-minded and tempestuous diplomat made such a mark on his times. This cogent, judicious and readable account of one of the century’s noted diplomatic professionals illuminates the rise of the United States as a world power.” — Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

“[A] very readable and vastly informative volume... An excellent study of the life and the often controversial career of George S. Messersmith, it also illuminates the inner workings of the State Department, especially during the 1920s and 1930s, and United States foreign policy, especially toward Latin America in the 1940s... Messersmith was consul general in Berlin when Adolf Hi**er came to power, minister in Vienna when Engelbert Dollfuss was assassinated, and assistant secretary of state when World War II began. He served as ambassador to Cuba when Fulgencio Batista was first elected president, to Mexico in wartime, and to Argentina in the early days of Juan Perón. A recounting of his activities and a reading of his voluminous dispatches (to the dismay of friend and foe alike, Messersmith was given to writing thirty- and forty-page memoranda) touches critical points on large chunks of the history of two tumultuous decades... an engrossing account that provides a judicious assessment of a man whose perspicacious anti-N**i dispatches from Berlin were widely praised, but who also predicted the early downfall of the Hi**er government, and whose alleged coddling of the 'fascist' Perón was damned by colleagues and the press, but who laid the foundation for whatever successes United States policy may have had in Argentina. Messersmith emerges from these pages as a man with a consistent vision of the future and of America’s role, which he sought to implement with astonishing energy, and as a hard-headed pragmatist. But he also appears as a hotheaded ‘climber’ who managed to antagonize most of his colleagues in the foreign policy establishment at one time or another... [a] fine study.” — The Journal of American History

04/01/2025

Our new eBook is the biography of Margherita Sarfatti, Il Duce’s Other Woman by Philip V. Cannistraro and Brian R. Sullivan (https://plunkettlakepress.com/sarfatti).

“[A] well-informed account of the woman behind Mussolini’s rise to power... Margherita Sarfatti, an art critic and daughter of an influential Venetian Jewish family... became known as his ‘inspiratrice,’ directing his reading (Proudhon and Machiavelli, among others), bolstering his belief in his greatness, and helping him to mold his vision of a new Roman Empire. Though an ardent socialist, Sarfatti supported Italian involvement in WWI, an action that got her expelled from the Socialist Party. After the war, she and Mussolini worked together to forge the Fascist Party from two unlikely allies, the nationalists and socialists, and watched their creation grow to power, nourished by conditions of mass unemployment, street-fighting, and demagoguery given credibility by electoral success. Sarfatti, the authors contend, had ‘a far more flexible and inventive political imagination’ than Mussolini, and she was a central figure during these formative years — yet her affair with the dictator, and her influence, waned during the early 30’s. In 1938, in the face of Il Duce’s growing anti-Semitism, Sarfatti fled to Argentina with two suitcases full of jewels and modern art, treasures that she later parlayed into a position as one of the most important art collectors of the mid-century. She died in Italy in 1961... hers is a remarkable, sometimes tragic, tale.” — Kirkus

“This long, detailed and deeply researched book... becomes less of a biography than an account of the development of Mussolini’s ideas, but with a new and original slant, never before explored... Margherita Sarfatti was a victim of her own making, corrupted by sexual obsession and a drive for power.” — The New York Times

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