For music lovers who've always wanted to play guitar but have been put off by traditional guitar methods, these books get you playing right away without... having to pick through heavy theory and music-reading lessons first. Every book in the For Beginners series progresses from the very basics of buying your first instrument through the fundamentals of playing your favorite style of music. 48 pages each with enhanced CD.

Stories about postcolonial bandits in Mexico have circulated since the moment Mexico won its independence. Narratives have appeared or been discussed in... a wide variety of forms: novels, memoirs, travel accounts, newspaper articles, the graphic arts, social science literature, movies, ballads, and historical monographs. During the decades between independence and the Mexican Revolution, bandit narratives were integral to the broader national and class struggles between Mexicans and foreigners concerning the definition and creation of the Mexican nation-state.Bandit Nation is the first complete analysis of the cultural impact that banditry had on Mexico from the time of its independence to the Mexican Revolution. Chris Frazer focuses on the nature and role of foreign travel accounts, novels, and popular ballads, known as corridos, to analyze how and why Mexicans and Anglo-Saxon travelers created and used images of banditry to influence state formation, hegemony, and national identity. Narratives about banditry are linked to a social and political debate about “mexican-ness” and the nature of justice. Although considered a relic of the past, the Mexican bandit continues to cast a long shadow over the present, in the form of narco-traffickers, taxicab hijackers, and Zapatista guerrillas. Bandit Nation is an important contribution to the cultural and the general histories of postcolonial Mexico.

Why have some developing countries industrialized and become more prosperous rapidly while others have not? Focusing on South Korea, Brazil, India, and... Nigeria, this study compares the characteristics of fairly functioning states and explains why states in some parts of the developing world are more effective. It emphasizes the role of colonialism in leaving behind more or less effective states, and the relationship of these states with business and labor in helping explain comparative success in promoting economic progress.

The romantic fiction of pirates as swashbuckling marauders terrorizing the high seas has long eclipsed historical fact. Bandits at Sea offers a... long-overdue corrective to the mythology and the mystique which has plagued the study of pirates and served to deny them their rightful legitimacy as subjects of investigation. With essays by the foremost scholars on these countercultural "social bandits"as Lingua Franca recently dubbed themthis collection examines various aspects of the phenomenon in the three main areas where it occurred: the Caribbean/Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and East Asia. We come to understand who pirates were, as well as the socio-economic contexts under which they developed and flourished. Comparisons between various types of piracy illustrate differences in practice and purpose between pirates of different areas; social histories, including examinations of women pirates and their historical significance and circumstances, offer similar insight into the personal lives of pirates from diverse regions. Far from serving as dens of thieves, pirate ships were often highly regulated microcosms of democracy. The crews of pirate vessels knew that majority rule, racial equality and equitable division of spoils were crucial for their survival, marking them as significantly more liberal than national governments. Scholars, students and a general audience ever intrigued by talesand now truthsof piracy on the high seas will welcome Bandits at Sea.

After a narrow escape from the nasty O. O. Mary's clutches, Annyrose ventures forth to find her long-lost brother Lank in gold-digging territory. But... the journey is rough, bandits and fiends waiting for the traveler at every bend. Soon Annyrose runs into Joaquin Marieta, legendary bandit of the Gold Rush.This complete disaster, however, soon appears to be no less than a blessing for both! They can help each other out: Annyrose can teach Joaquin how to read so he will know where danger lies, and in turn he can make sure she's safe and fed. But in a time when corruption and greed are running wild, will their friendship be more than fool's gold?

Back in print, the groundbreaking classic on robber-rebels from "the best known living historian in the world" (The Times [London]). First published in... 1969, the now-classic Bandits inspired a whole new field of historical study and brought its author popular acclaim. Bandits transcend the label of criminals; they are robbers and outlaws elevated to the status of avengers and champions of social justice. Some, like Robin Hood, Rob Roy, and Jesse James, are famous throughout the world, the stuff of story and myth. Others, from Balkan haiduks and Indian dacoits to Brazilian congaceiros, are known only to their own countries' people. In his celebrated study of these fascinating figures, now updated with a new introduction, Eric Hobsbawm, "one of the few genuinely great historians of our century," according to the New Republic, spans four hundred years and four continents, setting these folk heroes against the ballads, legends, and films they have inspired. The result is "a dazzling historical squib, fizzing with ideas and strange stories" (The Guardian).

As good a rifle company as any in the world, Easy Company, 506th Airborne Division, U.S. Army, kept getting the tough assignments -- responsible for... everything from parachuting into France early D-Day morning to the capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden. In Band of Brothers, Ambrose tells of the men in this brave unit who fought, went hungry, froze, and died, a company that took 150 percent casualties and considered the Purple Heart a badge of office. Drawing on hours of interviews with survivors as well as the soldiers' journals and letters, Stephen Ambrose recounts the stories, often in the men's own words, of these American heroes.