New Books in British Studies

Samantha Ellis, "Always Carry Salt: A Memoir of Preserving Language and Culture" (Pegasus Books, 2026)

17 Jun 2026

Contributed by Lukas

I had the privilege of speaking with writer Samantha Ellis about her deeply moving new book, Always Carry Salt: A Memoir of Preserving Language and Cu...

How Does the Second-Hand Book Business Really Work? with WeBuyBooks Co-Founder Mike Lane

12 Jun 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Today I’m speaking with Mike Lane, Managing Director and co-founder of WeBuyBooks about the economics of the second-hand book business. WeBuyBooks i...

Brexit Britain: 10 Years on from the Referendum

09 Jun 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Anniversaries provide opportunities to take stock and reflect. It is now ten years since voters in the United Kingdom cast their ballots in a referend...

Stephen C.E. Hopkins, "⁠Translating hell: Vernacular theology and apocrypha in the medieval North Sea"⁠ (Manchester UP, 2026)

08 Jun 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In the Middle Ages, hell was useful because it was vaguely defined. Canonical scriptures scarcely mention hell, leaving much to the imaginations of e...

Ashok Malhotra, "Imperial Science, the Organic Movement and the Path to Shangri La, 1900-1969" (UCL Press, 2026)

06 Jun 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Imperial Science, the Organic Movement and the Path to Shangri La, 1900-1969 (UCL Press, 2026) is a global history project that examines the diffus...

Radio ReOrient S14:10: Muslims in the Neoliberal Era, with William Barylo, hosted by Salman Sayyid and Amina Easat-Daas

05 Jun 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode hosts Salman Sayyid and Amina Easat-Daas were joined by William Barylo to discuss his most recent book ‘Muslims in the Neoliberal Er...

Lewis Ryder, "Connoisseurs and conmen: The contest for cultural authority in early twentieth-century Britain" (Manchester UP, 2026)

05 Jun 2026

Contributed by Lukas

⁠Connoisseurs and conmen: The contest for cultural authority in early twentieth-century Britain⁠ (Manchester University Press, 2026) by Dr. Lewis...

Alex Law, "The Roots of Sociology: Scottish Enlightenment and the Civilising Process" (Routledge, 2026)

02 Jun 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment have often been claimed for sociology. But, what does it mean to say these thinkers were sociologists, or...

The Predictable Shock of Brexit: Cultural Dissonance and the Rise of Populism with Iain Quinn

01 Jun 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Was Brexit really a sudden, populist shock, or was the writing on the wall for decades? This week on International Horizons, Eli Karetny sits down wi...

Gregory Kenicer, "Scottish Plant Names: An A–Z" (Birlinn, 2026)

29 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Names are incredibly powerful things and are a crucial part of the way we see and classify the world around us. Plant names are especially fascinating...

Laura Tisdall, "We Have Come to Be Destroyed: Growing Up in Cold War Britain" (Yale UP, 2026)

27 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What was life like for young people in twentieth century Britain? In We Have Come to Be Destroyed: Growing Up in Cold War Britain (Yale University...

Judith Hill, "Gothic: Building Castles in Post-Union Ireland" (Four Courts Press, 2026)

27 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Castles speak. Especially in an age when they are no longer necessary. The Act of Union of 1800, which brought Ireland into closer association with B...

John Waddell, "The Celtic World: A History" (Four Courts Press, 2026)

23 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

At the dawn of history the Celts occupied a vast swathe of Europe from Ireland in the west to lands south of the Black Sea in Asia Minor. The study of...

Matthew L. Reznicek, "Tales of Health: Illness, Disability, and Citizenship in the Romantic National Tale" (Liverpool UP, 2026)

21 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Tales of Health: Illness, Disability, and Citizenship in the Romantic National Tale (Liverpool UP, 2026) is about the way the Romantic National Ta...

Marissa Nicosia, "Shakespeare in the Kitchen" (Routledge, 2026)

19 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Audiences and scholars alike have long remarked that Shakespeare’s poems and plays record the pleasures and perils of the table. Shakespeare in the...

Eloise Moss, "The Secret Life of the Hotel: Sex, Crime and Protest in British Guesthouses Since 1918" (Bloomsbury, 2026)

17 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Hotels represent nations, hosting visiting monarchs, politicians, and diplomats. Hotels underpin global networks of travel and communication, on which...

Sumita Mukherjee, "Imperial Footprints: A History of South Asian Child Migrants in Britain" (Hurst, 2026)

11 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Between 1857 and 1947, over 28 million Indians left the subcontinent to live, work and study elsewhere. Today, India has the largest diaspora in the w...

Julia Stephens, "Worldly Afterlives: Tracing Family Trails Between India and Empire" (Princeton UP, 2025)

07 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The British Empire covered much of the world during the 19th century–and each time someone moved through it, they left a paper trail in their wake. ...

Lucy Stewart, "The Japanese Garden: Ella Christie and Cowden" (Birlinn, 2026)

07 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

As detailed in The Japanese Garden: Ella Christie and Cowden (Birlinn, 2026) by Lucy Stewart, at the turn of the twentieth century, Scottish adventu...

Michelle P. Brown, "Illumino: A History of Medieval Britain in Twelve Illuminated Manuscripts" (Reaktion, 2025)

03 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The history of medieval Britain through twelve remarkable illuminated manuscripts. Illumino: A History of Medieval Britain in Twelve Illuminated Manu...

D. Vance Smith, "Atlas’s Bones: The African Foundations of Europe" (U Chicago Press, 2025)

02 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A major new look at Africa’s influence on European culture and how colonization remade Africa in the image of a medieval Europe.Virgil. Chaucer. ...

Charles W. A. Prior, "Treaty Ground: Diplomacy and the Politics of Sovereignty, from Roanoke to the Republic" (U Nebraska Press, 2026)

01 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Treaty Ground: Diplomacy and the Politics of Sovereignty, from Roanoke to the Republic (U Nebraska Press, 2026), Professor Charles W. A. Prior of...

Radio ReOrient 14:5: Racial Justice, Human Rights and Surveillance, with Alba Kapoor, hosted by Claudia Radiven and Amina Easat-Daas

01 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode Claudia Radiven and Amina Easat-Daas were joined by Alba Kapoor. Kapoor is the racial justice lead at Amnesty International UK and pre...

Rhea Rahman, "Racializing the Ummah: Muslim Humanitarians Beyond Black, Brown, and White" (U Minnesota Press, 2026)

29 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Racializing the Ummah: Muslim Humanitarians Beyond Black, Brown and White (U Minnesota Press, 2026) is an ethnography of Islamic Relief (IR), the ...

David Womersley, "Thinking Through Shakespeare" (Princeton UP, 2026)

28 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In the eighteenth century, Samuel Johnson famously argued that Shakespeare is enduringly popular because he “is above all writers, at least above al...

The British General Election of 2024: A Conversation with Robert Ford and Paula Surridge

27 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Why and how did Labour win the 2024 election? In The British General Election of 2024 Robert Ford, a Professor of Politics at the University of Man...

Tiffany Jo Werth, "The Lithic Imagination from More to Milton" (Oxford UP, 2024)

25 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Lithic Imagination from More to Milton (Oxford University Press, 2024) by Dr. Tiffany Jo Werth explores how stones, rocks, and the broader minera...

Vin Nardizzi, "Marvellous Vegetables in the English Renaissance" (U Toronto Press, 2025)

24 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

John Gerard’s natural history of plants, The Herball (1597), is considered a failure in the history of science. Despite this reputation, it has endu...

Radio ReOrient 14:4: The Coconut Trial with Marieha Hussain, hosted by Fatima Rajina and Stephen Lawrence Research Centre

24 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, Dr Fatima Rajina is joined by Marieha Hussain to talk about her experience of the Coconuts trial. A case that saw the political activ...

Penny Roberts, "Huguenot Networks: Truth and Secrecy in Sixteenth-Century Europe" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

17 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Huguenot Networks: Truth and Secrecy in Sixteenth-Century Europe (Cambridge UP, 2025), Penny Robert's latest book, takes us into the world ...

Gwyneth Lonergan, "Borders, Citizenship, and Pregnancy: Migrant Women’s Experiences of Pregnancy and Maternity Care in the UK" (Bristol UP, 2025)

16 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Using the analytical framework of reproductive justice, Borders, Citizenship, and Pregnancy: Migrant Women’s Experiences of Pregnancy and Maternity...

Rory Naismith, "Offa: King of the Mercians" (Yale UP, 2026)

14 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Offa: King of the Mercians (Yale UP, 2026), Professor Rory Naismith presents an authoritative biography of Offa of Mercia, revealing his importan...

Donald Sassoon, "Revolutions: A New History" (Verso Books, 2025)

14 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Revolutions: A New History (Verso Books, 2025) is a sparkling account of political upheaval and the power of history. We think of revolutions in ter...

Paul Robichaud, "Stories of the Stones: Imagining Prehistory in Britain, Ireland and Brittany" (Reaktion, 2026)

13 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Stories of the Stones: Imagining Prehistory in Britain, Ireland and Brittany (Reaktion, 2026) by Dr. Paul Robichaud explores how ancient monuments –...

Kim Embrey, "Coca and the Victorians: From Botanical Curiosity to Regulated Drug, 1835–1912" (Transcript Publishing, 2025)

12 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The South American coca plant was established in 19th-century Britain as a medical product before it became a globally restricted drug. Drawing on bot...

Pavel Brunssen, "The Making of 'Jew Clubs': Performing Jewishness and Antisemitism in European Football and Fan Cultures" (Indiana UP, 2025)

09 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by Pavel Brunssen, a Research Associate and Alfred Landecker Lecturer at the Research Center on Antigypsyism at Heidelberg Univers...

Christine Grandy, "Race on Screen: Audience Racism in Twentieth-Century Britain" (Cambridge UP, 2026)

04 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What is the role of television in the history of the UK? In Race on Screen: Audience Racism in Twentieth-Century Britain (Cambridge UP, 2026) Chris...

Katherine Harvey, "The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living" (Reaktion, 2026)

01 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

We often think of medieval medicine as strange, unhygienic and unscientific, but The Medieval Guide to Healthy Living (Reaktion, 2026) by Dr. Kather...

Arthur W. Gullachsen, "The Defeat and Attrition of the 12. SS-Panzerdivision Hitlerjugend: Volume II: Operations Martlet, Epsom, Windsor and Charnwood 11 June-12 July 1944" (Casemate, 2026)

31 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Following the Normandy landings, Rommel rushed Heeresgruppe B reserves towards the coast in order to crush the bridgehead and drive the Allied forc...

Mark Pennington, "Foucault and Liberal Political Economy: Power, Knowledge, and Freedom" (Oxford UP, 2025)

30 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Foucault and Liberal Political Economy: Power, Knowledge, and Freedom by Mark Pennington This highly original and innovative book is the first to co...

Megan Peiser, "British Women Novelists and the Review Periodical" (JHU Press, 2026)

28 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

At the turn of the nineteenth century, British women novelists were publishing more fiction than their male counterparts, yet their place in literary ...

John Kuhn, "Making Pagans: Theatrical Practice and Comparative Religion in Early Modern England" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2024)

27 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s guest, John Kuhn, is the author of Making Pagans: Theatrical Practice and Comparative Religion in Early Modern England (U Pennsylvania Pr...

Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra, "Veins of Influence: Colonial Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in Early Photographs and Collections" (Neptune Publications, 2023)

27 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Veins of Influence: Colonial Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in early Photographs and Collections by Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra (Neptune Publications, 2023) i...

Satya Shikha Chakraborty, "Colonial Caregivers: Ayahs and the Gendered History of Race and Caste in British India" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

25 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Colonial Caregivers: Ayahs and the Gendered History of Race and Caste in British India (Cambridge UP, 2025) offers a compelling cultural and social ...

Alan McDougall, "Dreams and Songs to Sing: A People's History of Liverpool FC from Shankly to Klopp" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

24 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by Alan McDougall, Professor of History at the University of Guelph, and the author of Dreams and Songs To Sing: A People’s His...

Steffan Blayney, "Health and Efficiency: Fatigue, the Science of Work, and the Making of the Working-Class Body" (Activist Studies of Science, 2022)

23 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Our guest today is Steffan Blayney, the author of Health & Efficiency: Fatigue, the Science of Work, and the Making of the Working-Class Body. In H...

David Bather Woods, "Arthur Schopenhauer: The Life and Thought of Philosophy's Greatest Pessimist" (U Chicago Press, 2025)

23 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Arthur Schopenhauer: The Life and Thought of Philosophy’s Greatest Pessimist by David Bather Woods An engaging biography of one of the most influe...

Katharine Gerbner, "Archival Irruptions: Constructing Religion and Criminalizing Obeah in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica" (Duke UP, 2025)

23 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In 1760, following the largest slave revolt in the eighteenth-century British Empire, the Afro-Caribbean word Obeah first appeared in British coloni...

Alex Powell, "Queering UK Refugee Law: Sexual Diversity and Asylum Administration" (Bristol UP, 2026)

18 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Utilizing critical legal methodologies, Alex Powell's Queering UK Refugee Law: Sexual Diversity and Asylum Administration (Bristol UP, 2026) gives...

Christopher Munn, "Penalties of Empire: Capital Trials in Colonial Hong Kong" (Hong Kong UP, 2025)

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Who bore the burdens of empire?  Christopher Munn's Penalties of Empire: Capital Trials in Colonial Hong Kong (Hong Kong UP, 2025) explores ho...

Alistair Moffat, "Edinburgh: A New History" (Birlinn, 2024)

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

From prehistory to the present day, the story of Edinburgh is packed with incident and drama. As Scotland’s capital since 1437, the city has witness...

E. and H. Heron, "Flaxman Low: Occult Detective" (MIT Press, 2026)

15 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Flaxman Low, literature’s first professional, full-time “occult detective”—that is, an intrepid investigator who deploys the scientific method...

Tristan J. Rogers, "Conservatism, Past and Present: A Philosophical Introduction" (Routledge, 2025)

14 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Conservatism, Past and Present: A Philosophical Introduction (Routledge, 2025), Tristan J. Rogers argues that philosophical conservati...

Marianna Dudley, "Electric Wind: An Energy History of Modern Britain by Marianna Dudley" (Manchester UP, 2025)

14 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Electric Wind: An Energy History of Modern Britain by Marianna Dudley (Manchester University Press, 2025) is a cutting-edge history of wind power in...

Wendy Brown, "States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity" (Princeton UP, 2025)

12 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A sympathetic critique that attempts to free Left politics from its own snares, States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity (Princeton Un...

Jon Stobart, "Life in the Georgian Parsonage: Morals, Material Goods and the English Clergy" (Bloomsbury, 2025)

11 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

An innovative approach in the field of material culture and consumption studies, Life in the Georgian Parsonage: Morals, Material Goods and the Engli...

Michael Bycroft, "Gems and the New Science: Matter and Value in the Scientific Revolution" (U Chicago Press, 2026)

11 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Gems and the New Science: Matter and Value in the Scientific Revolution (U Chicago Press, 2026), Dr. Michael Bycroft argues that gems were connec...

Mattie Armstrong-Price, "Respectability on the Line: Gender, Race, and Labor along British and Colonial Indian Railways" (U California Press, 2026)

07 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Respectability on the Line: Gender, Race, and Labor along British and Colonial Indian Railways (U California Press, 2026) by Dr. Mattie Armstrong-Pri...

Lucy Lavers et al.," Adventurous Vents: A Journey through the Ventilation Shafts of Britain" (Penguin, 2025)

06 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

At the heart of the modern world lie ventilation shafts. We may not notice them, but wherever there are tunnels, sewers, mines, car parks and energy s...

The Vet at the End of the Earth: Adventures with Animals in the South Atlantic

05 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The role of a resident vet in the remote islands of the Falklands, St. Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha encompasses many wonderful complexities...

Eleanor Gordon et al., "Working-Class Courtship, Marriage, and Divorce in Scotland, 1855–1939" (Oxford UP, 2025)

05 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Working-Class Courtship, Marriage, and Divorce in Scotland, 1855–1939 (Oxford UP, 2025) by Professor Eleanor Gordon, Professor Katie Barclay, and D...

Lorraine Grimes, "Single Mothers in Twentieth-century Ireland and Britain: Pregnancy, Migration and Institutionalization" (Bloomsbury, 2025)

04 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Throughout the twentieth century, many women in Ireland and Britain endured shame and institutionalisation for becoming pregnant outside of marriage. ...

Richard Vinen, "The Last Titians: How Churchill and De Gaulle Saved Their Nations and Transformed the World" (Simon & Schuster, 2026)

04 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A compelling dual biography of Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle that shines new light on two of the greatest figures of the 20th century.Winsto...

Leah Astbury, "Making Babies in Early Modern England" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

26 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Leah Astbury's new book, Making Babies in Early Modern England (Cambridge UP, 2025), explores the ideals and realities that governed generation ...

Lynda Nead, "British Blonde: Women, Desire and the Image in Post-War Britain" (Yale UP, 2025)

22 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1950s, American glamour swept into a war-torn Britain as part of a broader transatlantic exchange of culture and commodities. But in this proce...

Ray Yep, "Man in a Hurry: Murray MacLehose and Colonial Autonomy in Hong Kong" (Hong Kong UP, 2024)

20 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Man in a Hurry: Murray MacLehose and Colonial Autonomy in Hong Kong (Hong Kong UP, 2024), Ray Yep explores the latest available archival mater...

Sara Pennell & Jon Stobart, "Auctions and the Consumption of Second-Hand Goods in Georgian England" (Bloomsbury, 2026)

17 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Auctions and the Consumption of Second-Hand Goods in Georgian England (Bloomsbury, 2026) by Dr. Sara Pennell & Professor Jon Stobart provides the fir...

Lynneth Miller Renberg, "Women, Dance and Parish Religion in England, 1300-1640: Negotiating the Steps of Faith" (Boydell & Brewer, 2022)

14 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Women, Dance and Parish Religion in England, 1300-1640: Negotiating the Steps of Faith (Boydell & Brewer, 2022) Dr. Lynneth Miller Renberg pre...

Bridget Salmon and Andrew Godley, "The Making of the Modern Supermarket: Self-Service Adoption in British Food Retailing, 1950-1975" (Oxford UP, 2025)

12 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What seems mundane today—walking into a supermarket, picking up goods, and paying at a checkout—was once a radical experiment. In our latest New B...

Manchán Magan, "Thirty-Two Words for Field: Lost Words of the Irish Landscape" (Chelsea Green, 2026)

11 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Most people associate Britain and Ireland with the English language, a vast, sprawling linguistic tree with roots in Latin, French, and German, and br...

Claire Nicolas, "Une si longue course: Sport, genre, et citoyenneté au Ghana et en Côte d’Ivoire (années 1900-1970)" (Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2024)

11 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by Claire Nicolas, a chercheuse du Fonds National Suisse at Basel University, a holder of a prestigious Ambizione Research Grant, ...

Tom Bolton, "Atomic Albion: Journeys Around Britain’s Nuclear Power Stations" (Strange Attractor, 2025)

11 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The United Kingdom has sixteen nuclear power stations. Most go under the radar, but their presence is enormous, both physically and culturally. They d...

Marc Mierowsky, "A Spy Amongst Us: Daniel Defoe's Secret Service and the Plot to End Scottish Independence" (Yale UP, 2026)

10 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In 1706, Edinburgh was on the brink of a popular uprising. Men and women took to the streets to protest the planned union with England, fearing the en...

Ian Smith, "Black Shakespeare: Reading and Misreading Race" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

07 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Black Shakespeare: Reading and Misreading Race (Cambridge University Press, 2022), Ian Smith urges readers of Othello, The Merchant of Venice, ...

Leslie James, "The Moving Word: How the West African and Caribbean Press Shaped Black Political Thought, 1935-1960" (Harvard UP, 2025)

06 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1930s and 1940s, amid intensifying anticolonial activism across the British Empire, dozens of new West African and Caribbean newspapers printed...

Jacqueline Riding, "Hard Streets: Working-Class Lives in Charlie Chaplin’s London" (Profile Books, 2025)

05 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to the hard streets: working-class London in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in Hard Streets: Working-Class Lives in Charl...

David McCrone, "Changing Scotland: Society, Politics and Identity" (Edinburgh UP, 2025)

03 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Scotland is a nation that has undergone significant changes over the last 50 years or so. This is, of course, true of much of the Western world but, a...

Tom Menger, "The Colonial Way of War: Violence and Colonial Warfare in the British, German and Dutch Empires, c. 1890-1914" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

30 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The violence of colonial wars between 1890 and 1914 is often thought to have been uniquely shaped by the nature of each of the European empires. The ...

Iain Jackson et. al., "Architecture, Empire, and Trade: The United Africa Company" (Bloomsbury, 2025)

28 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Architecture, Empire, and Trade: The United Africa Company (Bloomsbury, 2025) pieces together a new architectural history of West Africa from the...

Olivia Weisser, "The Dreaded Pox: Sex and Disease in Early Modern London" (Cambridge UP, 2026)

28 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, venereal disease, or the 'pox,' was a dreaded diagnosis throughout Europe. Its ghastly marks, along with ...

Jeremy Black, "Britain's Imperial Histories (St. Augustine's Press, 2025)

28 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Military historian Jeremy Black continues his review of the global context of martial conflict and spatial conquest into the modern era (16th-20th cen...

Karin Wulf, "Lineage: Genealogy and the Power of Connection in Early America" (Oxford UP, 2025)

27 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In eighteenth-century America, genealogy was more than a simple record of family ties—it was a powerful force that shaped society. Lineage: Genealo...

Gershom Gorenberg, "War of Shadows: Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East" (Public Affairs, 2021)

26 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

As World War II raged in North Africa, General Erwin Rommel was guided by an uncanny sense of his enemies' plans and weaknesses. In the summer of 1942...

Simon Devereaux, "Execution, State and Society in England, 1660–1900" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

25 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Execution, State and Society in England, 1660–1900 (Cambridge UP, 2023) by Dr. Simon Devereaux provides the first comprehensive account of executio...

Kellen Hoxworth, "Transoceanic Blackface: Empire, Race, Performance" (Northwestern UP, 2024)

20 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Transoceanic Blackface: Empire, Race, Performance (Northwestern UP, 2024) Dr. Kellen Hoxworth presents a sweeping history of racialized performan...

Duncan Kelly, "Worlds of Wartime: The First World War and the Reconstruction of Modern Politics" (Oxford UP, 2025)

19 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Worlds of Wartime: The First World War and the Reconstruction of Modern Politics (Oxford University Press, 2025) by Duncan Kelly is a new intellectu...

Catherine Clarke, "A History of England in 25 Poems" (Penguin, 2025)

17 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

This is the history of England told in a new way: glimpsed through twenty-five remarkable poems written down between the eighth century and today, whi...

Reena Goldthree, "Democracy’s Foot Soldiers: World War I and the Politics of Empire in the Greater Caribbean" (Princeton UP, 2025)

16 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Following the outbreak of World War I, tens of thousands of men from the British Caribbean volunteered as soldiers to fight on behalf of the British E...

Zoë McGee, "Courting Disaster: Reading Between the Lines of the Regency Novel" (Manchester UP, 2025)

15 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What do #MeToo and Jane Austen have in common? More than you might think. Ever since the novel was invented, women have used it as a platform for sha...

Sam Fullerton, "Sexual Politics in Revolutionary England" (Manchester UP, 2026)

15 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Samuel Fullerton joins Jana Byars to talk about Sexual Politics in Revolutionary England (Manchester UP 2024) to celebrate its paperback release. I...

John Samuel Harpham, "Intellectual Origins of American Slavery: English Ideas in the Early Modern Atlantic World" (Harvard UP, 2025)

09 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The period from 1550 to 1700 was critical in the development of slavery across the English Atlantic world. During this time, English discourse about s...

Sheiba Kian Kaufman, "Persian Paradigms in Early Modern English Drama" (Oxford UP, 2025)

08 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Persian Paradigms in Early Modern English Drama examines the concept of early modern globality and the development of European toleration discourse t...

Jessica Kelly and Neal Shasore, "Reconstruction: Architecture, Society and the Aftermath of the First World War" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

07 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Reconstruction explores the impact of the First World War on the built environment - examining the immediate effects and aftermath of the Great War o...

Stuart Carroll, "Enmity and Violence in Early Modern Europe" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

05 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Stuart Carroll's Enmity and Violence in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2023) transforms our understanding of Europe between 1500 ...

Philip J. Stern, "Empire, Incorporated: The Corporations That Built British Colonialism" (Harvard UP, 2023)

04 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Philip Stern places the corporation―more than the Crown―at the heart of British colonialism, arguing that companies built and governed global empi...

D. J. Taylor, "Orwell: The New Life" (Pegasus Books, 2023)

03 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A fascinating exploration of George Orwell--and his body of work--by an award-winning Orwellian biographer and scholar, presenting the author anew to ...

J. Barton Scott, "Slandering the Sacred: Blasphemy Law and Religious Affect in Colonial India" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

02 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Why is religion today so often associated with giving and taking offense? To answer this question, Slandering the Sacred: Blasphemy Law and Religious...

Kerry Brown, "The Great Reversal: Britain, China and the 400-Year Contest for Power" (Yale UP, 2024)

01 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In the sixteenth century, Queen Elizabeth I tried to send several letters to her Chinese counterpart, the Wan Li Emperor. The letters tried to ask the...

Andy Cowan, "B-Side: A Flipsided History of Pop" (Headpress, 2023)

30 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In his new book B-Sides: A Flipsided History of Pop (Headpress, 2023), Andy Cowan explores a century of music b-sides. Pop music would be a diffe...

Alastair McClure, "Trials of Sovereignty: Mercy, Violence, and the Making of Criminal Law in British India, 1857-1922" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

27 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Trials of Sovereignty: Mercy, Violence, and the Making of Criminal Law in British India, 1857-1922 (Cambridge UP, 2024) offers the first legal histo...