151. [Wolff, Kurt, H.] / [Durkheim, Emile] Mestrovic, Stjepan G.

The Coming Fin de Siècle – An Application of Durkheim’s Sociology to Modernity and Postmodernism [with Letter].

London/New York, Routledge, 1991. 8°. XIV, 232 pages. Original Hardcover with original dustjacket in protective collector’s mylar. Excellent condition. This book comes from the personal library of Kurt H. Wolff. Typed Letter Signed by author Stjepan G. Mestrovic to sociologist Kurt H. Wolff from the year 1991, loosely inserted. Mestrovic writes to Wolff in his letter: “It seems that you and I share some similar concerns about Sociology’s role in a world that seems to be on the brink of disaster, as well as an openness to pessimism as a counter-balance to boosterish optimism.” Mestrovic continues by consoling Wolff about the death of his wife and then talks about a meeting with american philosopher and sociologist David Riesman in which they talked about the role of the USA in the war with Iraq [First Gulf War]. He continues to say that “It seems that many of his [Riesman’s] observations on US foreign policy and mar-making tactics in his ‘Abundance for What ?’ still apply”.

152. [Zinn, Howard] Hershey, John.

Hiroshima [Howard Zinn’s personal copy with his name signed in full to the endpaper, markings in the text and some comments in Zinn’s hand inside the rear cover].

New York, Bantam Books, 1965. 10.6 cm x 17.7 cm. 117 pages. Original Softcover. Very Poor condition. Tears to last few pages. Pages heavily tanned. Contains blue ink markings by influential Anti-War Historian Howard Zinn. This book would have been extremely personal to him and it is telling that he marked the part of the text on page 61 in which a Hospital in Hiroshima was invaded by patients who scolded doctors, sleeping from exhaustion, into helping them. Zinn, an army veteran of World War II, would have known the cost of war and especially would have been able to imagine the cost of nuclear war.