Pay in installments of $5.00 with
,
and
Shipping Estimate
USA
- USA
- CAN
- USA
- CAN
Ships within 48 hours · Estimated delivery Aug 30 - Sep 4
Promo Codes Available:
For Your Every Summer RSVP, with Code: SUMMER15
Description
Something to DeclareJulia Alvarez has suitcases full of history (public and private), trunks full of insights into what it means to be a Latina in the United States, bags full of literary wisdom. "Los Angeles Times" From the internationally acclaimed author of the bestselling novels "In the Time of the Butterflies" and "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents "comes a rich and revealing work of nonfiction capturing the life and mind of an artist as she knits together the
Julia Alvarez has suitcases full of history (public and private), trunks full of insights into what it means to be a Latina in the United States, bags full of literary wisdom. "Los Angeles Times" From the internationally acclaimed author of the bestselling novels "In the Time of the Butterflies" and "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents "comes a rich and revealing work of nonfiction capturing the life and mind of an artist as she knits together the dual themes of coming to America and becoming a writer. The twenty-four confessional, evocative essays that make up "Something to Declare" are divided into two parts. Customs includes Alvarez s memories of her family s life in the Dominican Republic, fleeing from Trujillo s dictatorship, and arriving in America when she was ten years old. She examines the effects of exile--surviving the shock of New York City life; yearning to fit in; training her tongue (and her mind) to speak English; and watching the Miss America pageant for clues about American-style beauty. The second half, Declarations, celebrates her passion for words and the writing life. She lets us watch as she struggles with her art--searching for a subject for her next novel, confronting her characters, facing her family s anger when she invades their privacy, reflecting on the writers who influenced her, and continually honing her craft. The winner of the National Medal of Arts for her extraordinary storytelling, Julia Alvarez here offers essays that are an inspiring gift to readers and writers everywhere. This beautiful collection of essays . . . traces a process of personal reconciliation with insight, humor, and quiet power. "San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle" Reading Julia Alvarez s new collection of essays is like curling up with a glass of wine in one hand and the phone in the other, listening to a bighearted, wisecracking friend share the hard-earned wisdom about family, identity, and the art of writing. "People""Shipping Notes
- Free Standard Shipping on $100+ Orders to the USA.
- Except Preorder products are shipped in 48 hours.
- Delivery to the USA:
- Standard Shipping : 3-10 business days
- If time is of the essence, please consider selecting expedited delivery for faster service.
Exchange/Return Notes
- We offer a 30-day return/exchange service after receiving.
- Final sale items are not eligible for returns or exchanges.
- To process your return/exchange, please contact us at [email protected]
- Please click here for more details>>> Return & Exchange Policy
4.5 ★★★★★
Based on 25 reviews
Sort
Product Reviews
★★★★★ 5
Well researched, disturbing, engaging.
Format: Paperback
I was amazed at how indepth and involved this history was. Very interesting, engaging and also very disturbing.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2026
★★★★★ 4
Good For History Lovers
I doubt anyone who does not want to read a true historical book with a lot of facts but not as exciting as a non-fiction novel will enjoy this. I liked it because I learned a lot of things about New York that I was really surprised to read. Seems my beloved New York had a pretty bloody, violent history towards slaves and Catholics and some others the leaders and people did not like. I didn't realize the punishments of the day were just as bad, if not worse, than those of the Salem Witch hunt days. Beware, some of the content may turn your stomach.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2014
★★★★★ 5
Search for Scapegoats
Format: Hardcover
Jill Lepore's "New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan" is a valuable and admirable examination of one of the darkest episodes in New York's history: the so-called slave rebellion of 1741 and the brutal vengeance that was extracted. Professor Lepore's painstaking research confronts the reader with a terrible conclusion: even the most respectable of people in society will consent to the deaths of human beings, based on even the tiniest shreds of evidence.
Focusing primarily on the actions of Daniel Horsmanden, the City's Recorder, Lepore provides the reader with a background on the attitudes of New York's whites toward their slaves. She makes clear that Gotham was neither the first nor only city to have witnessed slave uprisings. (It had suffered a similar uprising a couple of decades earlier.) But the events of 1741 were unique for several reasons:
--the shifting finger-pointing at various groups;
--the inconsistency of Mary Burton's testimony, which essentially was the case against several slaves;and
--Horsmanden's bizarre behavior toward Mary Burton.
Admittedly, I've only superficially studied this dark time in New York's history, so I was shocked to learn that there were actually several "conspiracies": the Negro Plot, Hughson's Plot, the Spanish Plot, the Roman Plot, etc. Each plot was hatched depending on who confessed to what. Worst of all, the white population of New York--fueled by racism, xenophobia, paranoia, and, not the least of all, bloodlust--went right along with it. And, with the exception of an intriguing anonymous letter from Massachussetts, it seems the rest of the colonies went along with it, too. While Horsmanden is just short of villified in this book, he is not alone in his culpability.
Professor Lapore's "New York Burning" will disturb many readers. The accounts of the slaves and the few whites burning, hanging, begging, and praying are graphic and heartbreaking. Still, this in an incredibly important book for anyone interested in the history of our nation and/or the all-too-tragic fragility of race relations in America. For this, Professor Lapore deserves our appreciation
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2006
★★★★★ 5
Spectacular Albeit Unknown History of Race Relations
Format: Hardcover
This is a great piece of historiography about something few know about at all --- slavery in New York City in the 18th century. How about a slave "rebellion" in New York City, how about more people burned at the stake than in the Salem witchcraft trials, how about dark byways and highways of old New York, barely transformed from its days as New Amsterdam, dark plots in dank places, shrill frightened tyrants overreacting with bloody retribution, burned ruins of an early African American village in Central Park?
One cannot make up this stuff, it is too real so it must be history at its best.
And written by one of our premier authors of history, a woman who makes our history live in The New Yorker to the acclaim of many, and yet whose best book, this one, is still too little known.
If you appreciate Harry Truman's remark that the only new thing under the Sun is the history you haven't read, then this is one to curl up with and marvel at; a great way to spend a rainy day or a dark night.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2010
★★★★★ 4
Good, but not great.
Format: Paperback
Kudos to Lepore for delving into an important, little known subject, which she does better than most historians. At times, however, I think she felt the need to put every little piece of information she got into the book. It was way too long. Some good research, but she has done better. Still, worth checking out. I like to think I know American history, but I know nothing about this awful chapter.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2019