Togo Books

Togo Under Imperial Germany, 1884-1914

Arthur J. Knoll

List Price: $10.95 By: Hoover Institution Press,U.S. Amazon Marketplace: 2 new & used starting at $25.00

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African Vodun: Art, Psychology, and Power

Suzanne Preston Blier

List Price: $60.00 By: University Of Chicago Press Amazon Marketplace: 7 new & used starting at $19.99

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Beads, bones, rags, straw, leather, pottery, fur, feathers and blood—these are the raw materials of vodun artworks. The power of these images lies not only in their aesthetic, and counter-aesthetic, appeal but also in their psychological and emotional effect. As objects of fury and force, these works are intended to protect and empower people and cultures that have long been oppressed.

In this first major study of its kind, Suzanne Preston Blier examines the artworks of the contemporary vodun cultures of southern Benin and Togo in West Africa as well as the related voudou traditions of Haiti, New Orleans, and historic Salem, Massachusetts. Blier employs a variety of theoretically sophisticated psychological, anthropological, and art historical approaches to explore the contrasts inherent in the vodun arts—commoners versus royalty, popular versus elite, "low" art versus "high." She examines the relation between art and the slave trade, the psychological dynamics of artistic expression, the significance of the body in sculptural expression, and indigenous perceptions of the psyche.

Throughout, Blier pushes African art history to a new height of cultural awareness that recognizes the complexity of traditional African societies as it acknowledges the role of social power in shaping aesthetics and meaning generally. This book will be of critical importance not only to those concerned with African, African American, and Caribbean art, but also to anthropologists, African diaspora scholars, students of comparative religion and comparative psychology, and anyone fascinated by the traditions of voudou and vodun.

"An extraordinary tour de force."—Choice

"Extraordinarily detailed....Blier's examination of the entire, often mysterious history of vodun is...in a word, definitive."—Booklist

"A serious study that concentrates on the hidden power of objects and the meaning behind that potency is long overdue. Welcome Susan Blier's African Vodun....Certainly a must for...those concerned with the psychology of art."—Janet L. Stanley, Art Documentation

"[Blier] is usually sensitive to the need to resist imposing Western artistic values and academic methodologies inappropriately upon such art. But she offers the reader a gift even more precious; she offers rare insights into how various art forms—sculpture and home architecture in particular—yield meanings for the African users of such art.—Norman Weinstein, Boston Book Review

Three Military Leaders: Heihachiro Togo, Isoroku Yamamoto, Tomoyuki Yamashita (Kodansha Biographies)

Edwin Palmer Hoyt

List Price: $10.00 By: Kodansha Amer Inc Amazon Marketplace: 10 new & used starting at $6.49

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 1.0 of 5

Don't buy this 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I have studied the book about admiral Yonai. So what I tell here is only about that. But for me it is enough. If you take his book about Yamamoto: "Yamamoto: the man who planned Pearl Harbor" (New York 1990) you will find that what Yamamoto did in the one book about becoming (vice-)minister of Naval Affairs, in the other Yonai did. Most facts about Yonai in "Tree Military Leaders" are wrong. And a lot about Yamamoto too! That was enough for me to lay down the book and keep it that way.

Editorial Review:

This work is a triple biography of the principal figures in modern Japanese military history. It includes their victories, and the militaristic distortions of bushido that doomed the nation to years of totalitarianism and war.

Togo And The Rise Of Japanese Sea Power

Edwin A. Falk

Amazon Price: $34.95 List Price: $34.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Scholar's Bookshelf Amazon Marketplace: 2 new & used starting at $34.95

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Editorial Review:

A still-indispensable study of the role of sea power in modern Japanese history, with special perspectives on the character of Admiral of the Fleet Count Togo and the close identification of his spirit and the spirit of Japan. The work traces Japanese naval thought back to Perry's time and forward through all the major actions at the Yalu, the Pescadores and Formosa, Port Arthur, the Yellow Sea, and Tsushima, documenting the growth of Japanese naval power, Togo's central role in strategy and technology, and the coming to international naval power of Japan as the twentieth century dawned. First published in 1936, the work includes the author's warning about the "hand-writing on the wall" represented by Japan's emergence at Tsushima. Reprint edition. 2006: 520 pages, illustrated. Softcover. (Scholar's Bookshelf)

What museums for Africa?: Heritage in the future : Benin, Ghana, Togo, November 18-23, 1991 : proceedings of the Encounters

By: International Council of Museums Amazon Marketplace: 1 new & used starting at $12.00

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Tales From A Charmed Life: A Balinese Painter Reminisces

Hildred Geertz, Ida Bagus Made Togog

Amazon Price: $59.00 List Price: $59.00 Usually ships in 4 to 5 weeks By: University of Hawaii Press Amazon Marketplace: 11 new & used starting at $37.04

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Editorial Review:

Tales from a Charmed Life is the last in a trilogy of works by Hildred Geertz exploring the complexity of Balinese history, religion, and society. A landmark study by one of the most distinguished anthropologists of Indonesia, it centers around the stories and paintings of Ida Bagus Madé Togog (1913–1989), an artist and ritual specialist who played a significant role in the history of Balinese ethnography. In the 1930s, Togog was central to Mead and Bateson’s pioneering studies of "Balinese character" and came under the influence of expatriate artists Walter Spies and Rudolf Bonnet to emerge as a major representative of the Batuan style of painting. Togog’s art and anecdotal stories of his most memorable life experiences are here interwoven with Geertz’s illuminating commentary to construct an innovative framework for understanding Balinese culture.

Togog shares stories of his early life, relating dilemmas from his childhood and youth. Growing up in the wake of Dutch colonization, he came into contact with new languages, customs, and economic opportunities that presented him with puzzling and poignant experiences. He tells of his association with Spies and Bonnet and later Mead and Bateson and his role in the creation of a genre of painting for which Bali is now famous. This is a view of Bali from the inside—a vivid, highly personal look at a world where spirits, ancestors, and sorcerers have the power to intervene in one’s life. According to Togog, who narrowly escaped death numerous times, his was indeed a "charmed life."

As an experiment in ethnographic research and writing and a contribution to our knowledge of Balinese art and tradition, Tales from a Charmed Life will be of great interest to historians, art historians, anthropologists, and anyone with a serious interest in Balinese studies.

Keitai Togoku ocho no shotai: Kaya Tohoku ocho fukkatsu no nazo

Yuji Seki

By: Sanichi Shobo Amazon Marketplace: 2 new & used starting at $52.90

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African Majesty: The Textile Art of the Ashanti and Ewe

Peter Adler, Nicholas Barnard

List Price: $29.95 By: Thames & Hudson Amazon Marketplace: 10 new & used starting at $39.95

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African Majesty - The Glorious Weaving of West Africa 5 out of 5 stars.
27 of 27 people found this review helpful.

African Majesty is the historical study of the weaving practiced by two separate West African tribes. Inhabiting the present day countries of Ghana and Togo, the weaving traditions of the Ashanti and Ewe have been traced from the writings of the European explorers of the 15th century.Their seemingly simple process is called "strip weaving". Strip weaving is the art of hand weaving narrow(3"-5")strips which are later hand sewn together into larger pieces to make the wearing cloth of both men and women. Intensely laborious but extremely portable, these combined strips are referred to in the West as "kente" cloth, a mixture of color and pattern which has been imitated in fabric prints. The team of Adler and Barnard, a textile scholar and a writer, has produced a magnificent collaboration which showcases this art. 131 color illustrations,including many full page plates, reveal the native use of intricate patterning and a wide range of colors. Each example is numbered and the patterns contained therein are named by their tribal name, translation, explanation of uses by particular segments of society and their place of origin. The pictured cloths are really incredible. Before reading this book I had dismissed this type of cloth as a hodgepodge of simple plain weave thrown together like a crazy quilt. Seeing the multitude of patterns and reading about the fine silk and cotton yarns employed has given me an appreciation for this painstaking craft. Barnard and Adler have compiled a wonderful book, enhanced by maps of the region, a glossary of African terms and a bibliography. Though even in the face of Western influence the simple everyday strip cloth material continues to be purchased and worn, it is the specially commissioned designs which are disappearing. Hopefully this book will attract a wide audience and stimulate demand by private collectors for this awesome handweaving.

Smugglers Secessionists & Loyal Citizens: On The Ghana-Togo Frontier (Western African Studies)

Paul Nugent

Amazon Price: $24.95 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 2 to 3 weeks By: Ohio University Press Amazon Marketplace: 11 new & used starting at $24.90

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Editorial Review:

This is the first integrated history of the Ghana-Togo borderlands. The current border is usually regarded as a classically arbitrary European construct, resisted by Ewe irredentism. Paul Nugent challenges this conventional wisdom, contending that whatever the origins of partition, border peoples quickly became knowing and active participants in the shaping of this international boundary. This book straddles the conventional divide between social and political history. It offers a reconstruction of a long-range history of smuggling and a reappraisal of Ewe identity. It should be of interest to African historians, political scientists, anthropologists, comparative borderlands scholars and others concerned with issues of criminality, identity and the state.

The Togo Name in History

Ancestry.com

Amazon Price: $29.95 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Ancestry.com

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Editorial Review:

This book is part of the Our Name in History series, a collection of fascinating facts and statistics, alongside short historical commentary, created to tell the story of previous generations who have shared this name. The information in this book is a compendium of research and data pulled from census records, military records, ships' logs, immigrant and port records, as well as other reputable sources. Topics include:

• Name Meaning and Origin
• Immigration Patterns and Census Detail
• Family Lifestyles
• Military Service History
• Comprehensive Source Guide, for future research

Plus, the "Discover Your Family" section provides tools and guidance on how you can get started learning more about your own family history.

About the Series
Nearly 300,000 titles are currently available in the Our Name in History series, compiled from Billions of records by the world's largest online resource of family history, Ancestry.com.