New Books in American Studies

Sara Matthiesen, "Reproduction Reconceived: Family Making and the Limits of Choice After Roe V. Wade" (UC Press, 2021)

16 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We tend to associate Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that decriminalized abortion in 1973, with the choice not to have children. But ...

Vânia Penha-Lopes, "The Presidential Elections of Trump and Bolsonaro, Whiteness, and the Nation" (Lexington Books, 2021)

16 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Presidential Elections of Trump and Bolsonaro, Whiteness, and the Nation (Lexington Books, 2021) is a sociological analysis of the similarities b...

Michael Marmur and David Ellenson, "American Jewish Thought Since 1934: Writings on Identity, Engagement, and Belief" (Brandeis UP, 2020)

16 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mordecai Kaplan’s Judaism as a Civilization was first published in 1934. The editors of American Jewish Thought Since 1934: Writings on Identity,...

Kate Henley Averett, "The Homeschool Choice: Parents and the Privatization of Education" (NYU Press, 2021)

16 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Homeschooling has skyrocketed in popularity in the United States: in 2019, a record-breaking 2.5 million children were being homeschooled, within an i...

Rachel Marie-Crane Williams, "Elegy for Mary Turner: An Illustrated Account of a Lynching" (Verso, 2021)

15 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In late May 1918 in Valdosta, Georgia, ten Black men and one Black woman—Mary Turner, eight months pregnant at the time—were lynched and tortured ...

Christopher Chávez, "The Sound of Exclusion: NPR and the Latinx Public" (U Arizona Press, 2021)

15 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How is power enacted in everyday broadcast practices? National Public Radio has a “rhetoric of impartiality” but this obscures the ideological wor...

In Science We Trust?: An insider Conversation with Health Policy Reporter, Fran Kritz

15 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Americans are deeply polarized on many issues, including science and medicine. Where once was widespread agreement, today the differences are sharp: o...

Max Krochmal and Todd Moye, "Civil Rights in Black and Brown: Histories of Resistance and Struggle in Texas" (U Texas Press, 2021)

14 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Max Krochmal and Todd Moye’s Civil Rights in Black and Brown: Histories of Resistance and Struggle in Texas (University of Texas Press, 2021) is a...

Rachel Pagones, "Acupuncture as Revolution: Suffering, Liberation, and Love" (Brevis, 2021)

14 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Many in the global West have heard something about acupuncture as a treatment for pain relief; they may even have learned of its use in treating opioi...

Eric Protzer and Paul Summerville, "Reclaiming Populism: How Economic Fairness Can Win Back Disenchanted Voters" (Polity Press, 2022)

14 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I spoke with Eric Protzer (Harvard University) and Paul Summerville (University of Victoria) about their great new book: Reclaiming Populism: How Eco...

Eric Herschthal, "The Science of Abolition: How Slaveholders Became the Enemies of Progress" (Yale UP, 2021)

11 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the context of slavery, science is usually associated with slaveholders' scientific justifications of racism. But abolitionists were equally adept ...

Molly P. Rozum, "Grasslands Grown: Creating Place on the U.S. Northern Plains and Canadian Prairies" (U Nebraska Press, 2021)

11 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Grasslands Grown: Creating Place on the U.S. Northern Plains and Canadian Rockies (University of Nebraska Press, 2021), Molly P. Rozum explores t...

David S. Roh, "Minor Transpacific: Triangulating American, Japanese, and Korean Fictions" (Stanford UP, 2021)

11 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Minor Transpacific: Triangulating American, Japanese, and Korean Fictions (Stanford University Press, 2021), David S. Roh brings Asian Americanis...

J. M. West, "Madame Bessie Jones: Her Life and Times" (Local History Press, 2021)

10 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In J. M. West's Madame Bessie Jones: Her Life and Times (Local History Press, 2021), Jones emerges from the shadows of Carlisle (PA) history, first ...

A Conversation with the Director of the Emerson Prison Initiative

10 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: The Emerson College Prison Initiative The Bard Prison Initiative How students ap...

Kevin Coe and Joshua M. Scacco, "The Ubiquitous Presidency: Presidential Communication and Digital Democracy in Tumultuous Times" (Oxford UP, 2021)

10 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Ubiquitous Presidency: Presidential Communication and Digital Democracy in Tumultuous Times (Oxford UP, 2021) is part of the Oxford Studies in D...

Jonathan W. White, "A House Built by Slaves: African American Visitors to the Lincoln White House" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022)

10 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jonathan W. White, associate professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University, has authored a book that reveals the personability of Ab...

Katie Rios, "This Is America: Race, Gender, and Politics in America's Musical Landscape" (Lexington Books, 2021)

09 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

“This is America”: Race Gender and Politics in America’s Musical Landscape by Katie Rios (Lexington Books, 2021) examines an eclectic mix of di...

Rebecca S. Natow, "Reexamining the Federal Role in Higher Education: Politics and Policymaking in the Postsecondary Sector" (Teachers College Press, 2022)

09 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Rebecca S. Natow's book Reexamining the Federal Role in Higher Education: Politics and Policymaking in the Postsecondary Sector (Teachers College Pr...

Michele Alacevich, "Albert O. Hirschman: An Intellectual Biography" (Columbia UP, 2021)

09 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Despite the virtually unanimous agreement about his importance, describing Hirschman’s legacy and influence on others is not an easy task— arguabl...

Sydney A. Halpern, "Dangerous Medicine: The Story Behind Human Experiments with Hepatitis" (Yale UP, 2021)

09 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

From 1942 through 1972, American biomedical researchers deliberately infected people with hepatitis. Government-sponsored researchers were attempting ...

Bruce Iglauer and Patrick A. Roberts, "Bitten by the Blues: The Alligator Records Story" (U Chicago Press, 2018)

08 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It’s time for The Blues! In Bitten by the Blues: The Alligator Records Story (University of Chicago Press, 2018), Alligator Records president and ...

Claudine Kuradusenge-McLeod, "Narratives of Victimhood and Perpetration: The Struggle of Bosnian and Rwandan Diaspora Communities in the United States" (Peter Lang, 2021)

08 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The labels of victim and perpetrator in the aftermath of genocide have shaped the stories of pain and reconstructions for many of the Bosnian and Rwan...

Nathaniel L. Moir, "Number One Realist: Bernard Fall and Vietnamese Revolutionary Warfare" (Oxford UP, 2021)

08 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Number One Realist: Bernard Fall and Vietnamese Revolutionary Warfare (Oxford UP, 2021), Dr. Nathaniel L. Moir studies the thought of this overlo...

Jonathan Fenderson, "Building the Black Arts Movement: Hoyt Fuller and the Cultural Politics of the 1960s" (U Illinois Press, 2019)

07 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Building the Black Arts Movement: Hoyt Fuller and the Cultural Politics of the 1960s (U Illinois Press, 2019) explores the history of the Black Arts ...

Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern, "Homelessness is a Housing Problem: How Structural Factors Explain U.S. Patterns" (U California Press, 2022)

07 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Homelessness is a Housing Problem: How Structural Factors Explain U.S. Patterns (U California Press, 2022), Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern...

Micah Alpaugh, "Friends of Freedom: The Rise of Social Movements in the Age of Atlantic Revolutions" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

07 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As the old cliché goes, “there must have been something in the water.” A new book by historian Micah Alpaugh, Friends of Freedom: The Rise of So...

Simon Topping, "Northern Ireland, the United States and the Second World War" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

04 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Northern Ireland, the United States and the Second World War (Bloomsbury, 2022), Dr. Simon Topping analyses the American military presence in Nor...

Frank Andre Guridy, "The Sports Revolution: How Texas Changed the Culture of American Athletics" (U Texas Press, 2021)

03 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When I was a teenager, I spent entirely too much time at the Pontiac Silverdome watching the Detroit Pistons play basketball. In all the games I watc...

3.1 On Being Unmoored: Chang-rae Lee Charts Fiction with Anne Anlin Cheng

03 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Season three of Novel Dialogue launches in partnership with Public Books and introduces some fresh new voices into the mix. John and Aarthi welcome ...

Charles Vidich, "Germs at Bay: Politics, Public Health, and American Quarantine" (Praeger, 2021)

03 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"Quarantine, as an invention of man, is the most primitive and universal instrument of defense against contagious disease epidemics. Almost universall...

Gregory Samantha Rosenthal, "Living Queer History: Remembrance and Belonging in a Southern City" (UNC Press, 2021)

03 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Queer history is a living practice. Talk to any group of LGBTQ people today, and they will not agree on what story should be told. Many people desire ...

Karen Jaime, "The Queer Nuyorican: Racialized Sexualities and Aesthetics in Loisaida" (NYU Press, 2021)

03 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In The Queer Nuyorican: Racialized Sexualities and Aesthetics in Losaida (NYU Press, 2021), Karen Jaime argues that the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe has al...

74 George Kalogeris on Words and Places

03 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

John and Elizabeth had the marvelous fortune to talk with George Kalogeris about his new book Winthropos (LSU Press, 2021). The title comes from the...

Kenneth Anderson, "Strychnine and Gold: The Untold History of Addiction Treatment in the United States" (2021)

02 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Kenneth Anderson is the author of Strychnine and Gold, a two-volume history of the “untold story of addiction treatment in the United States.” An...

Robin G. Isserles, "The Costs of Completion: Student Success in Community College" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2021)

02 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

America’s community colleges are facing a completion crisis. The college-going experience of too many students is interrupted, lengthening their tim...

Paul Gowder, "The Rule of Law in the United States: An Unfinished Project of Black Liberation" (Hart Publishing, 2021)

02 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In The Rule of Law in the United States: An Unfinished Project of Black Liberation (Hart, 2021), Dr. Paul Gowder focuses on examining the ideals of ...

Michael Stewart Foley, "Citizen Cash: The Political Life and Times of Johnny Cash" (Basic Books, 2021)

02 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Johnny Cash famously declared himself to be “The Man in Black”. He sang that he dressed in a “somber tone” for “the poor and the beaten down...

Ada Ferrer, "Cuba: An American History" (Scribner, 2021)

02 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

“No country is ever just one thing.” In her new book Cuba: An American History (Scribner, 2021), NYU historian Ada Ferrer shows this again and a...

Nomi M. Stolzenberg and David N. Myers, "American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York" (Princeton UP, 2022)

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Settled in the mid-1970s by a small contingent of Hasidic families, Kiryas Joel is an American town with few parallels in Jewish history—but many pr...

Barbara Trish and William J. Menner, "Inside the Bubble: Campaigns, Caucuses, and the Future of the Presidential Nomination Process" (Routledge, 2021)

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today I had the pleasure of talking to Barbara Trish, professor of political science at Grinnell College, about her new book (co-authored with William...

Jane Lilly López, "Unauthorized Love: Mixed-Citizenship Couples Negotiating Intimacy, Immigration, and the State" (Stanford UP, 2021)

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For mixed-citizenship couples, getting married is the easy part. The US Supreme Court has confirmed the universal civil right to marry, guaranteeing e...

Baker A. Rogers, "King of Hearts: Drag Kings in the American South" (Rutgers UP, 2021)

31 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of the Queer Voices of the South podcast, John Marszalek interviews author Baker A. Rogers about their research on drag kings in the S...

Keith Wailoo, "Pushing Cool: Big Tobacco, Racial Marketing, and the Untold Story of the Menthol Cigarette" (U Chicago Press, 2021)

31 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Police put Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold for selling cigarettes on a New York City street corner. George Floyd was killed by police outside a store...

Sunny Xiang, "Tonal Intelligence: The Aesthetics of Asian Inscrutability During the Long Cold War" (Columbia UP, 2020)

31 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Tonal Intelligence: The Aesthetics of Asian Inscrutability During the Long Cold War (Columbia University Press, 2020), Sunny Xiang reads the arc...

Kerry L. Haynie et al., "Race, Gender, and Political Representation: Toward a More Intersectional Approach" (Oxford UP, 2020)

31 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How do gender and race interact to affect the election, behavior, and impact of all individuals – raced women and gendered minorities alike? Accordi...

Carla Yanni, "The Architecture of Madness: Insane Asylums in the United States" (U Minnesota Press, 2007)

28 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Elaborately conceived, grandly constructed insane asylums—ranging in appearance from classical temples to Gothic castles—were once a common sight ...

Tyler D. Parry, "Jumping the Broom: The Surprising Multicultural Origins of a Black Wedding Ritual" (UNC Press, 2020)

28 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Jumping the Broom: The Surprising Multicultural Origins of a Black Wedding Ritual (UNC Press, 2020), Tyler D. Parry untangles the convoluted hist...

Midori Yamamura, "Yayoi Kusama: Inventing the Singular" (MIT Press, 2015)

28 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Midori Yamamura’s Yayoi Kusama: Inventing the Singular (MIT Press, 2015) is an in-depth examination of the famed artist’s early years in Japan a...

Paulette F. C. Steeves, "The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere" (U Nebraska Press, 2021)

27 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Indigenous Paleolithic of the Western Hemisphere (U Nebraska Press, 2021) is a reclaimed history of the deep past of Indigenous people in North a...

Language Bias: The Last Back Door of Discrimination in America?

27 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Hear Dr. Rosina Lippi-Green talk about some of her shocking findings on language discrimination and bias on campus. Lippi-Green and Avi discuss her bo...

Kirsten W. Larson, "A True Wonder: The Comic Book Hero Who Changed Everything" (Clarion Books, 2021)

27 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Kirsten Williams Lawson used to work with rocket scientists at NASA. Now she writes books for curious kids. Kirsten is the author of the picture book ...

Fay A. Yarbrough, "Choctaw Confederates: The American Civil War in Indian Country" (UNC Press, 2021)

26 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When the Choctaw Nation was forcibly resettled in Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma in the 1830s, it was joined by enslaved Black people—the ...

Andrew Porwancher, "The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton" (Princeton UP, 2021)

26 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton (Princeton UP, 2021), Andrew Porwancher debunks a string of myths about the origins of this founding fathe...

Linda Greenhouse, "Justice on the Brink: The Death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Rise of Amy Coney Barrett, and Twelve Months That Transformed the Supreme Court" (Random House, 2021)

26 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

At the end of the Supreme Court's 2019-20 term, the center was holding. The predictions that the court would move irrevocably to the far right hadn't ...

Benjamin Holtzman, "The Long Crisis: New York City and the Path to Neoliberalism" (Oxford UP, 2021)

25 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1960s and 1970s, New York City was beset by a host of fiscal and social crises wrought by white flight, federal and state disinvestment, and a ...

Howard Philips Smith, "A Sojourn in Paradise: Jack Robinson in 1950s New Orleans" (UP of Mississippi, 2020)

24 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jack Robinson made his name as a much-sought-after fashion and celebrity photographer during the 1960s and early 1970s, and his work is well documente...

Jason Lustig, "A Time to Gather: Archives and the Control of Jewish Culture" (Oxford UP, 2021)

24 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How do people link the past to the present, marking continuity in the face of the fundamental discontinuities of history? A Time to Gather: Archives ...

Kristin Waters, "Maria W. Stewart and the Roots of Black Political Thought" (U Mississippi Press, 2021)

21 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Kristin Waters' book Maria W. Stewart and the Roots of Black Political Thought (U Mississippi Press, 2021) tells a crucial, almost-forgotten story o...

Sarah Jane Cervenak, "Black Gathering: Art, Ecology, Ungiven Life" (Duke UP, 2021)

21 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Black Gathering: Art, Ecology, Ungiven Life (Duke UP, 2021), Dr. Sarah Jane Cervenak engages with Black artists and writers who create alternati...

Dana Polan, "Dreams of Flight: 'The Great Escape' in American Film and Culture" (U California Press, 2021)

21 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Caught on film, the iconic jump of escaped POW Virgil Hilts (Steve McQueen) over an imposing barbed wire fence on a stolen motorcycle has become an un...

Esther De Dauw and Daniel J. Connell, "Toxic Masculinity: Mapping the Monstrous in Our Heroes" (UP of Mississippi, 2020)

20 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Scholars Esther De Dauw and Daniel J. Connell have assembled an array of chapters that explore the idea of masculinity in the realm of contemporary he...

Terri Givens, "Radical Empathy: Finding a Path to Bridging Racial Divides" (Policy Press, 2021)

19 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Structural racism has impacted the lives of African Americans in the United States since before the country’s founding. Although the country has mad...

Colin Jerolmack, "Up to Heaven and Down to Hell: Fracking, Freedom, and Community in an American Town" (Princeton UP, 2021)

19 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Up to Heaven and Down to Hell (Princeton UP, 2021) is a vivid and sometimes heartbreaking account of what happens when one of the most momentous deci...

Traci Brynne Voyles, "The Settler Sea: California's Salton Sea and the Consequences of Colonialism" (U Nebraska Press, 2021)

19 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Salton Sea is a kaleidoscope. To some people, it's a waste land, a place of death only suitable for a dumping ground. For others, it's a clarion c...

Matt Carlson et al., "News After Trump: Journalism's Crisis of Relevance in a Changed Media Culture" (Oxford UP, 2021)

19 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Political scientists have argued that Donald Trump exacerbated long-simmering changes in polarization, populism, and other aspects of politics. In the...

Marion Thompson, "The Marion Thompson Wright Reader" (Rutgers UP, 2021)

18 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Marion Thompson Wright Reader, edited by Graham Russell Gao Hodges, the George Dorland Langdon, Jr. Professor of History and Africana and Latin A...

Suzanne Cope, "Power Hungry: Women of the Black Panther Party and Freedom Summer and Their Fight to Feed a Movement" (Lawrence Hill Books, 2021)

17 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Suzanne Cope about her new book Power Hungry: Women of the Black Panther Party and Freedom Summer and Their Fight to Feed a Moveme...

Mercy Romero, "Toward Camden" (Duke UP, 2021)

17 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Toward Camden (Duke UP, 2021), Mercy Romero writes about the relationships that make and sustain the largely African American and Puerto Rican Cr...

Ronald Beiner, "Dangerous Minds: Nietzsche, Heidegger, and the Return of the Far Right" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2018)

14 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall and demise of the Soviet Union, prominent Western thinkers began to suggest that liberal democracy had triumphed...

Vivian Kirkfield, "Making Their Voices Heard: The Inspiring Friendship of Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe" (Little Bee Books, 2020)

13 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Vivian Kirkfield about her book Making Their Voices Heard: The Inspiring Friendship of Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe (Little...

Peter A. Swenson, "Disorder: A History of Reform, Reaction, and Money in American Medicine" (Yale UP, 2021)

12 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Tracing the dramatic conflicts both inside organized medicine and between the medical profession and the larger society over quality, equality, and ec...

Andrew J. Kunka, "The Life and Comics of Howard Cruse: Taking Risks in the Service of Truth" (Rutgers UP, 2021)

12 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of QUEER VOICES OF THE SOUTH, I talk with ANDREW J. KUNKA, who is a professor of English and division chair at the University of South...

Philip J. Deloria, "Becoming Mary Sully: Toward an American Indian Abstract" (U Washington Press, 2019)

10 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mary Sully was many things: a Dakota woman, an artist, and an American living through a heyday of early celebrity culture in the United States. All o...

Carol J. Oja and Charles Garrett, "Sounding Together: Collaborative Perspectives on U. S. Music in the 21st Century" (U Michigan Press, 2021)

07 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Edited by Charles Hiroshi Garrett and Carol J. Oja, Sounding Together: Collaborative Perspectives on U.S. Music in the Twenty-21st Century (Univer...

Amy C. Sullivan, "Opioid Reckoning: Love, Loss, and Redemption in the Rehab State" (U Minnesota Press, 2021)

07 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Amy C. Sullivan explores the complexity of America’s opioid epidemic through firsthand accounts of people grappling with the reverberating effects o...

Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, "Dressed for Freedom: The Fashionable Politics of American Feminism" (U Illinois Press, 2021)

07 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Dressed for Freedom: The Fashionable Politics of American Feminism (University of Illinois Press, 2021), Einav Rabinovitch-Fox examines how cl...

The January 6th Capitol Insurrection One Year On: A Discussion of the Far Right with Cynthia Miller-Idriss

06 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Hate crimes. Misinformation and conspiracy theories. Foiled white-supremacist plots. The signs of growing far-right extremism are all around us, and c...

Warren E. Milteer Jr., "North Carolina's Free People of Color, 1715-1885" (LSU Press, 2020)

05 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, Siobhan talks with Warren Eugene Milteer, Jr. about his book North Carolina’s Free People of Color, 1715-1885 (LSU Press, 2020)....

Rosa Hawkins and Steve Bergsman, "Chapel of Love: The Story of New Orleans Girl Group the Dixie Cups" (UP of Mississippi, 2021)

05 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1963, sisters Barbara Ann and Rosa Hawkins and their cousin Joan Marie Johnson traveled from the segregated South to New York City under the auspic...

Michael Muhammad Knight, "Metaphysical Africa: Truth and Blackness in the Ansaru Allah Community" (Pennsylvania State UP, 2020)

05 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Ansaru Allah Community, also known as the Nubian Islamic Hebrews (AAC/NIH) and later the Nuwaubians, is a deeply significant and controversial Afr...

Sonia Hernández and John Morán González, "Reverberations of Racial Violence: Critical Reflections on the History of the Border" (U Texas Press, 2021)

04 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the wake of protests and marches for racial and gender justice in the twenty-first century, scholars have located and argued that racial violence h...

Robert A. Gross, "The Transcendentalists and Their World" (FSG, 2021)

04 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In The Transcendentalists and Their World (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021), Robert A. Gross offers a fresh view of the thinkers whose outsize imp...

Sarah J. Purcell, "Spectacle of Grief: Public Funerals and Memory in the Civil War Era" (UNC Press, 2022)

03 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Spectacle of Grief: Public Funerals and Memory in the Civil War Era (UNC Press, 2022) examines how the public funerals of major figures from the Civ...

Alison Hope Alkon, "A Recipe for Gentrification: Food, Power, and Resistance in the City" (NYU Press, 2020)

31 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

A Recipe for Gentrification: Food, Power, and Resistance in the City (NYU Press, 2020), edited by Alison Hope Alkon, Yuki Kato, and Joshua Sbicca, i...

Seth David Radwell, "American Schism: How the Two Enlightenments Hold the Secret to Healing our Nation" (Greenleaf, 2021)

29 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Why are Americans so angry? American Schism: How the Two Enlightenments Hold the Secret to Healing our Nation (Greenleaf, 2021) explores history to...

Andrew Roberts, "The Last King of America: The Misunderstood Reign of George III" (Viking, 2021)

29 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Most Americans dismiss George III as a buffoon--a heartless and terrible monarch with few, if any, redeeming qualities. The best-known modern interpre...

Patricia Gándara and Jongyeon Ee, "Schools Under Siege: The Impact of Immigration Enforcement on Educational Equity" (Harvard Education Press, 2021)

27 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Much has been reported and discussed about the hotly debated issue of immigration enforcement, yet a question is still to be explored: What is the imp...

Susan J. Pearson, "The Birth Certificate: An American History" (UNC Press, 2021)

27 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For many Americans, the birth certificate is a mundane piece of paper, unearthed from deep storage when applying for a driver’s license, verifying i...

Joseph J. Ellis, "The Cause: The American Revolution and Its Discontents, 1773-1783" (Liveright, 2021)

27 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In one of the most “exciting and engaging” (Gordon S. Wood) histories of the American founding in decades, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Jose...

Farha Bano Ternikar, "Intersectionality in the Muslim South Asian-American Middle Class" (Lexington Books, 2021)

24 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Intersectionality in the Muslim South Asian-American Middle Class: Lifestyle Consumption beyond Halal and Hijab (Lexington Books, 2021), wherein ...

Winfrey Harris, "The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America" (Berrett-Koehler, 2021)

24 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the second edition of her book, The Sisters Are Alright: Changing the Broken Narrative of Black Women in America (Berrett-Koehler, 2021), Tamara ...

Albert Samaha, "Concepcion: An Immigrant Family's Fortunes" (Penguin, 2021)

23 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

One of the first members of Albert Samaha’s family introduced in his memoir Concepcion: An Immigrant Family’s Fortunes (Riverhead Books, 2021) ...

Shannon Bontrager, "Death at the Edges of Empire: Fallen Soldiers, Cultural Memory, and the Making of an American Nation, 1863-1921" (U Nebraska Press, 2020)

23 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Hundreds of thousands of individuals perished in the epic conflict of the American Civil War. As battles raged and the specter of death and dying hung...

Ethan Blue, "The Deportation Express: A History of America Through Forced Removal" (U California Press, 2021)

23 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Deportation Express: A History of America Through Forced Removal (University of California Press, 2021) details the history of the United Stat...

Carolyn Eastman, "The Strange Genius of Mr. O.: The World of the United States' First Forgotten Celebrity" (UNC Press, 2021)

23 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Strange Genius of Mr. O.: The World of the United States' First Forgotten Celebrity (Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture an...

John C. Putman, "Boosting a New West: Pacific Coast Expositions, 1905-1916" (Washington State UP, 2020)

23 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Inspired by Chicago’s successful 1893 World Columbian Exposition, the cities of Portland, Seattle, San Diego, and San Francisco all held fairs betwe...

Seth Barrett Tillman, "What Oath (if any) did Jacob Henry take in 1809?: Deconstructing the Historical Myths"

23 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Seth Barrett Tillman, an associate professor of law at Maynooth University in Ireland, has written two revisionist articles about an incident from 180...

Paul Kidder, "Minoru Yamasaki and the Fragility of Architecture" (Routledge, 2021)

22 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Few figures in the American arts have stories richer in irony than does architect Minoru Yamasaki. While his twin towers of New York’s World Trade C...

Mary Talusan, "Instruments of Empire: Filipino Musicians, Black Soldiers, and Military Band Music During US Colonization of the Philippines" (UP of Mississippi, 2021)

20 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Instruments of Empire: Filipino Musicians, Black Soldiers, and Military Band Music during US Colonization of the Philippines published in 2021 by the...