In his first book, Australian singer-songwriter Robert Forster takes readers on an idiosyncratic journey through the past and present of popular music: from Bob Dylan to Cat Power, from AC/DC to Nana Mouskouri, from The Saints to Franz Ferdinand.With 30 years experience as a recording artist and performer and an undimmed love of popular music, Forster’s observations about his fellow artists balance the enthusiasm of a fan with an insider’s authority. He is that rar...

‘A comic odyssey, a crime thriller and a nuts-and-bolts account of making art. Not bad for one book!’ PAUL KELLY‘Completely marvellous! Couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. You’ll swear he wrote it just for you. Ain’t no world in which Robert effing Forster missed his calling, but, damn, the bloke was born to write books.’ TRENT DALTONIt’s 1991, and Australian singer-songwriters Mick Woods and Drew Lovelock – 'tall and skinny, rock-star-wre...

First published in 1997, this is the first of two volumes. It looks at the process of European expansion which brought into contact societies and cultures across the world which had been initially alien to one another. Conflict, and violent conflict, was one aspect of this interaction, but accommodation, mutual adaptation, and institutional and behavioural synthesis were also present though often biased in favour of European norms. The intent of this book is to avoid treating ’colonization...

First published in 1997, this volume looks at the process of European expansion which brought into contact societies and cultures across the world which had been initially alien to one another. Conflict was one aspect of this interaction, but accommodation, mutual adaptation, and institutional and behavioural synthesis were also present though often biased in favour of European norms. The intent of this book is to avoid treating ’colonization’, ’dominance’ and exploitation’ as the only foc...

Originally published in 1960. This is a regional study of the nobility of Toulouse in the eighteenth century. The complex notion of class and the peculiarities of each region in France during the Ancien Régime make it difficult for historians to render a general portrait of the provincial French aristocracy. This study describes the economic interests and investments of noblemen in Toulouse. Some of their activities follow the classic pattern of "seigniorial reaction" and thus illustrate i...

Originally published in 1980. A social historian of modern France, Robert Forster discovered a series of father-to-son letters that presented an unusual opportunity to trace in human terms the impact of institutions and cultural norms on eighteenth-century French society. From these letters and other family papers, Forster reconstructed a family biography of the Deponts of La Rochelle over four generations. Their story affords new insights into the workings of institutions—economic, religi...

Originally published in 1971. In The House of Saulx-Tavanes: Versailles and Burgundy, 1700–1830, Professor Robert Forster examines the noble family of Saulx-Tavanes from the reign of Louis XIV to the Restoration. He provides readers with an account of a single aristocratic family's relationship to the changing political culture of the eighteenth century. Forster explores how an old aristocratic family promoted itself in the royal court, how the Saulx-Tavanes managed their estate r...

Healthy Running Step by Step will help runners of all ages and abilities understand why running injuries occur, how to prevent them, and how to speed up recovery. Injuries plague the majority of runners, wrecking training plans and cutting running careers short by decades, but they are not inevitable. Authors Robert Forster, P.T., and Roy M. Wallack explain that nearly all running injuries can be rehabilitated quicker and even avoided altogether with the right training, strengthen...

Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together to pick up a “full empty,” something goes wrong. And the news he gets from his girlfriend upon his return makes it inevitable th...

The Paradise Men's Softball League has wrapped up another game, and Chief of Police Jesse Stone is lingering in the parking lot with his teammates, drinking beer, swapping stories of double plays and beautiful women in the late-summer twilight. But then someone makes a horrifying discovery at a nearby lake: At the water's edge, facedown, is something that used to be a girl.The local cops haven't seen anything like this, but Jesse's L.A. past has made him all too familiar with float...

Matthew Scudder is finally leading a comfortable life, one of stability and respectability— even the New York streets don't look so mean anymore. He's married to a woman he loves, and wonder of wonders, he's actually gotten around to becoming an officially licensed private investigator. Then all hell breaks loose. Matthew' s best friend from Hell's Kitchen asks for his help, and Scudder' s world is suddenly turned upside down once again. Instead of a beautiful world where old neighborhoods...

After a holiday trip to the Big Apple, Midnight Louie, a hard-boiled, hairy-chested, 19-pound black tomcat detective, returns home to death on the Nile. Two battling Egyptian barges outside the Oasis hotel cause a dead body to rise to the surface. The soggy victim is well known to Temple Barr— Louie's redheaded, high-heeled human companion— and her two best beaux both have reasons to want him dead. Maybe by finding out which one is the killer, Temple can finally choose between handsome hot...