Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$11.39 + shipping
Condition: Poor
Description: Spine is missing. Front cover and endpaper are detached. Foxing to a few pages. 394 pages. Full leather boards which are rubbed.
Seller: M and M Books, Barkway, HERTS, United Kingdom
Price: US$100.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: octavo, 57, [1], 28 pp., pamphlet, ex-library, handstamps on titlepage, some toning to text, else a good copy.
Seller: Michael Brown, Philadelphia, PA, U.S.A.
William Robertson. The History of America. Robert Desilver, 1822.
Price: US$200.00 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: 1822; Philadelphia; 2 volumes bound together; green cloth covered boards with gold titles; edges are lightly worn; corners bumped; Previous owner's name on ffep; front hinge is split at half title page; rear hinge is starting to split; pages are foxed otherwise clean; 8vo, 7 3/4" to 9 3/4" tall; paginated in 2 sections; folded map and plate laid in at the front
Seller: A Squared Books (Don Dewhirst), South Lyon, MI, U.S.A.
Price: US$275.00 + shipping
Description: "8vo., (8 5/8 x 5 4/8 inches). 2 folding engraved maps of southeast Asia (some offsetting, some minor spotting). Contemporary tree calf (hinges weak, extremities worn with minor loss). First American edition, first published in London in 1791. The last historical work of Robertson, prolific writer and Church of Scotland minister, who also wrote a history of America. "During the 1780s his attention gradually turned to India. He had broached the question of India's contact with the West in the opening chapter of the "History of America", and various personal contacts reinforced that interest. In the early years of the decade he was intent on securing military commissions for his sons James and David, and by 1783 both were serving in India. In addition, Robertson had contact with India hands such as Robert Orme, James Rennell, William Fullarton, and Sir John Macpherson. These personal connections, coupled with the opening of the trial of Warren Hastings in 1788 and the publication of John Logan's "Dissertation on the Government of Asia" (1787) and James Rennell's "Memoir of the Map of Hindoostan" (the latter, first published in 1783, was greatly admired by Robertson, who used its new 1788 edition), led him to write "An Historical Disquisition Concerning the Knowledge which the Ancients had of India" [as here], which Strahan, Cadell, and Balfour published in a single volume on 4 June 1791. The "Disquisition" falls into two main parts: the first two-thirds is a narrative of the commercial contacts India had with the outside world from ancient times to the sixteenth century; the remainder is a long appendix describing Indian culture. The narrative portion documents, gathers, and summarizes familiar but scattered material; the appendix is broadly descriptive and more innovative, following the pattern developed in the descriptive chapters of the "History of America". Robertson is especially intrigued by the apparent degree of cultural sophistication achieved by the Indians and its relation to the stadial theory of history with which he had been working. Although he concludes that Indian culture is in general not as sophisticated as it appears, he nevertheless closes his historical career with a typically liberal appeal: 'If I might presume to hope that the description which I have given of the manner and institutions of the people of India could contribute in the smallest degree, and with the most remote influence, to render their character more respectable, and their condition more happy, I shall close my literary labours with the satisfaction of thinking that I have not lived or written in vain' (Works, 11.334)" (Jeffrey R. Smitten for DNB online)."
Seller: Arader Galleries - AraderNYC, New York, NY, U.S.A.