Newman's account of the rise of nationalism in eighteenth-century England fills a much-needed void in the otherwise teeming body of work about nationhood and national identity. Although Newman's book appeared several years ago, it remains one of the few works to really address English nationalism in the century and to take into account its many manifestations in literature, politics, and culture. Newman writes with a clarity and liveliness that will appeal to the interested lay reader as well as the seasoned professional scholar, a talent often sadly lacking from modern critical and theoretical works. Amateur and professional students of English history and culture will all find something to appreciate in this study, but those interested in literature and culture will be especially pleased, since most scholarly work about English nationalism and literature has to date chosen to focus on poetry rather than the novel (Howard Weinbrot's Britannia's Issue is a good example). I have found Newman's book not only enlightening, but entertaining to read, and I encourage others to add this valuable study to their personal scholarly libraries.

I bought it with great expectations, I read it in dismay, I was disappointed with the lack of information. It's nothing more than a printed format for the author's collection of quilts, with no relationship to what's really "out there"....yikes, my educated guesses would make better reading! I had it a week, and then gave it away to someone who likes looking at pictures.

Great photos - nice quilts. That is, unfortunately all I can say good about the book, and there are a lot of better buys out there with nice quilt photos. These self-appointed "experts" have added little to the body of available information on vintage quilts. If these three are appraising quilts then I wonder about the program that sponsors them due to the fact that book is full of inaccuracies. Discussion on how they arrived at the values (and many are questionable) is lacking which would be nice seeing that is their area of "expertise". It is almost like they pulled the numbers from a hat. The book does little to promote the credibility of the author's and certainly isn't the publisher's best effort, it's just a pretty price guide that unfortunately like all price guides was out of date the day it was released.

First the pros: lots of quality photos, covering a wide variety of patterns and eras.
Cons: basically, this book needs to be titled just "Vintage Quilts". The "Collecting, Dating, and Preserving" material is limited to just 4 pages at the beg. of the book. The rest of the volume is a "Value Guide", with a short description under each quilt photo, a notation as to "excellent condition", "fair condition" etc, and a dollar value estimate. The problem here is that nowhere in the book do they state their definition of what they consider to be good, excellent, etc. There's no excuse for this--both Aug and Newman are listed as judges in the book bios--defining their terms should have been covered in the opening pages. Without that, it makes their appraisals pretty much useless to the reader. (The photos are not large enough to show the quilt's condition.)
The other thing I thought was odd is that they don't compare individual quilts. I.e. show us two twin-size Bowtie quilts and explain [what they're worth.] In other words, show us how to appraise and value individual quilts. Which IS the whole point of the book, according to the title anyway. (Dang it, now I'm annoyed all over again!)
Needless to say, I'm returning my copy.