New Books in British Studies

Maxine Berg and Pat Hudson, "Slavery, Capitalism and the Industrial Revolution" (Polity, 2023)

04 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In their remarkable new book Slavery, Capitalism, and the Industrial Revolution (Polity, 2023), Professor Maxine Berg and Professor Pat Hudson “fo...

Adrian Chastain Weimer, "A Constitutional Culture: New England and the Struggle Against Arbitrary Rule in the Restoration Empire" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2023)

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In A Constitutional Culture: New England and the Struggle Against Arbitrary Rule in the Restoration Empire (U Pennsylvania Press, 2023), Adrian Cha...

Boyd Cothran and Adrian Shubert, "The Edwin Fox: How an Ordinary Sailing Ship Connected the World in the Age of Globalization, 1850-1914" (UNC Press, 2024)

02 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It began as a small, slow, and unadorned sailing vessel—in a word, ordinary. Later, it was a weary workhorse in the age of steam. But the story of t...

Thula Simpson, "History of South Africa: From 1902 to the Present" (Oxford UP, 2022)

02 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

South Africa was born in war, has been cursed by crises and ruptures, and today stands on a precipice once again. Thula Simpson's History of South A...

Melanie Williams, "A Taste of Honey" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

01 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What makes a film a classic? In A Taste of Honey (Bloomsbury, 2023), published as part of the BFI Film Classics series, Melanie Williams, a Profes...

Jared Davidson, "Blood and Dirt: Prison Labour and the Making of New Zealand" (Bridget Williams Books, 2023)

28 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Picture, for a minute, every artwork of colonial New Zealand you can think of. Now add a chain gang. Hard-labour men guarded by other men with guns. M...

Debapriya Sarkar, "Possible Knowledge: The Literary Forms of Early Modern Science" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2023)

27 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Debapriya Sarkar’s new book, titled Possible Knowledge: The Literary Forms of Early Modern Science (U Pennsylvania Press, 2023) is a study of ho...

Michael Wheeler, "The Year that Shaped the Victorian Age: Lives, Loves and Letters of 1845" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

27 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What was special about 1845 and why does it deserve particular scrutiny? In The Year that Shaped the Victorian Age: Lives, Loves and Letters of 1845 ...

Nigel Biggar, "Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning" (William Collins, 2023)

25 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet empire in 1989, many believed that we had arrived at the 'End of History' - that the global dominance of ...

Debra Ramsay, "Archives of War: Technology, Emotion, and History" (Routledge, 2023)

24 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Archives of War: Technology, Emotion and History (Routledge, 2023) offers a comparative analysis of British Army Unit War Diaries in the two World W...

Jamie Bronstein, "The Happiness of the British Working Class" (Stanford UP, 2023)

21 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For working-class life writers in nineteenth century Britain, happiness was a multifaceted emotion: a concept that could describe experiences of hedon...

David Simpson, "Engaging Violence: Civility and the Reach of Literature" (Stanford UP, 2022)

19 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Recent thinking has resuscitated civility as an important paradigm for engaging with a violence that must be deemed endemic to our lives. But, while i...

Erik Linstrum, "Age of Emergency: Living with Violence at the End of the British Empire" (Oxford UP, 2023)

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When uprisings against colonial rule broke out across the world after 1945, Britain responded with overwhelming and brutal force. Although this period...

Lenora Hanson, "The Romantic Rhetoric of Accumulation" (Stanford UP, 2022)

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lenora Hanson's The Romantic Rhetoric of Accumulation (Stanford UP, 2022) provides an account of the long arc of dispossession from the British Rom...

Ian Patel, "We're Here Because You Were There: Immigration and the End of Empire" (Verso, 2021)

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What are the origins of the hostile environment against immigrants in the UK? In We’re Here Because You Were There: Immigration and the End of Empi...

Deanne Williams, "Girl Culture in the Middle Ages and Renaissance: Performance and Pedagogy" (Arden Shakespeare, 2023)

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Deanne Williams's newest book, Girl Culture in the Middle Ages and Renaissance: Performance and Pedagogy (Bloombury, 2023), is a groundbreaking stud...

Oscar Webber, "Negotiating Relief and Freedom: Responses to Disaster in the British Caribbean, 1812-1907" (Manchester UP, 2023)

17 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Negotiating Relief and Freedom: Responses to Disaster in the British Caribbean, 1812-1907 (Manchester University Press, 2023) by Dr. Oscar Webber is ...

John O'Donovan, "An Introduction to the Irish Civil War" (Mercier Press, 2022)

16 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

During the Irish Civil War, events of late 1922 and early 1923 together with waves of 'dishonourable' killings created poisoned relations between Repu...

Joshua Ehrlich, "The East India Company and the Politics of Knowledge" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

16 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The East India Company is remembered as the world's most powerful, not to say notorious, corporation. But for many of its advocates from the 1770s to ...

Charlotte Lydia Riley, "Imperial Island: A History of Empire in Modern Britain " (Penguin, 2023)

15 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Can Britain escape from being a nation trapped in its past? In Imperial Island: A History of Empire in Modern Britain (Penguin, 2023), Charlotte Ly...

Rebecca Kingston, "Plutarch's Prism: Classical Reception and Public Humanism in France and England, 1500–1800" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

14 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Throughout the early modern period, political theorists in France and England drew on the works of Plutarch to offer advice to kings and princes. Eliz...

Jo Shaw and Ben Fletcher-Watson, "The Art of Being Dangerous: Exploring Women and Danger through Creative Expression" (Leuven UP, 2021)

13 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The idea that women are dangerous - individually or collectively - runs throughout history and across cultures. Behind this label lies a significant s...

A Better Way to Buy Books

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Bookshop.org is an online book retailer that donates more than 80% of its profits to independent bookstores. Launched in 2020, Bookshop.org has alre...

Jacob Bloomfield, "Drag: A British History" (U California Press, 2023)

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Drag: A British History (University of California Press, 2023) is a groundbreaking study of the sustained popularity and changing forms of male drag ...

Religion and Politics in the Lord of the Rings

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

J.R.R. Tolkien's masterwork The Lord of the Rings delighted so many of us as children, yet it and its vast body of accompanying work, such as the S...

Guillemette Crouzet, "Inventing the Middle East: Britain and the Persian Gulf in the Age of Global Imperialism" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2022)

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The “Middle East” has long been an indispensable and ubiquitous term in discussing world affairs, yet its history remains curiously underexplored....

Padraic X. Scanlan, "Slave Empire: How Slavery Built Modern Britain" (Robinson, 2021)

11 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The British empire, in sentimental myth, was more free, more just and more fair than its rivals. But this claim that the British empire was 'free' and...

Alistair Moffat, "War Paths: Walking in the Shadows of the Clans" (Birlinn, 2023)

10 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In War Paths: Walking in the Shadows of the Clans (Birlinn, 2023), acclaimed historian Alistair Moffat sets off in the footsteps of the Highland cla...

Peter Good, "The East India Company in Persia: Trade and Cultural Exchange in the Eighteenth Century" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

10 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1747, the city of Kerman in Persia burned amidst chaos, destruction and death perpetrated by the city's own overlord, Nader Shah. After the violent...

L. M. Ratnapalan, "Robert Louis Stevenson and the Pacific: The Transformation of Global Christianity" (Edinburgh UP, 2023)

09 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How does Robert Louis Stevenson’s engagement with Pacific Islands cultures demonstrate processes of inculturation and the transformation of global C...

Teresa Michals, "Lame Captains and Left-Handed Admirals: Amputee Officers in Nelson's Navy" (U Virginia Press, 2021)

09 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The well-known Admiral Horatio Nelson fought all of his most historically significant battles after he lost his right arm and the sight in one eye. Wi...

Jonathan Sandler, "The English GI: World War II Graphic Memoir of a Yorkshire Schoolboy's Adventures in the United States and Europe" (2022)

08 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jonathan Sandler’s The English GI: World War II Graphic Memoir of a Yorkshire Schoolboy’s Adventures in the United States and Europe, is an adapt...

Oliver Crisp and Daniel J. Hill, eds., "Reason in the Service of Faith: Collected Essays of Paul Helm" (Routledge, 2023)

08 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Paul Helm is a distinguished philosopher, with particular interests in the philosophy of religion. His work covers some of the most important aspects ...

Clive Moore, "Making Mala: Malaita in Solomon Islands, 1870s–1930s" (Australia National UP, 2017)

07 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Malaita is one of the major islands in the Solomons Archipelago and has the largest population in the Solomon Islands nation. Its people have an undes...

Steven Veerapen, "The Wisest Fool: The Life of James VI and I" (Birlinn, 2023)

07 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

James VI and I has long endured a mixed reputation. To many, he is the homosexual King, the inveterate witch-roaster, the smelly sovereign who never w...

Peter Foster, "What Went Wrong with Brexit? And What We Can Do about It" (Canongate, 2023)

07 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s been over three years since the UK withdrew from the EU and no one – not even the most ardent Brexiter – thinks it has gone well so far. De...

Taylor Cowdery, "Matter and Making in Early English Poetry: Literary Production from Chaucer to Sidney" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

06 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Is the raw material of literature the paper, ink, vellum, paphyrus, and increasingly electronic data that it is inscribed on? Or is the stuff of liter...

James Newlin and James W. Stone, "New Psychoanalytic Readings of Shakespeare: Cool Reason and Seething Brains" (Routledge, 2023)

06 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Richard Waugaman is an emeritus supervising and training analyst at the Washington Baltimore Center for Psychoanalysis. He is also a well-respect...

Andrew Hesketh, "Escape to Gwrych Castle: A Jewish Refugee Story" (U of Wales Press, 2023)

04 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1939, a number of German Jewish refugee children, brought over on the Kindertransport, found themselves in Abergele, North Wales. Their temporary n...

Kimberly Mair, "The Biopolitics of Care in Second World War Britain" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

03 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

During the crisis of the Second World War in Britain, official Air Raid Precautions made the management of daily life a moral obligation of civil defe...

The Future of the NHS: A Discussion with Gavin Francis

03 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The British National Health Service - free for all - used to be the envy of the world. But today the NHS is malfunctioning. More and more people are r...

Peter K. Andersson, "Fool: In Search of Henry VIII's Closest Man" (Princeton UP, 2023)

02 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The first biography of Henry VIII’s court fool William Somer, a legendary entertainer and one of the most intriguing figures of the Tudor age In som...

Aaron Kunin, "Character as Form" (Bloomsbury, 2019)

01 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s guest is Aaron Kunin, Professor of English at Pomona College. We will discuss two books Aaron published in 2019: the first is Character as ...

Una McIlvenna, "Singing the News of Death: Execution Ballads in Europe 1500-1900" (Oxford UP, 2022)

31 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Across Europe, from the dawn of print until the early twentieth century, the news of crime and criminals' public executions was printed in song form o...

Jeremy Black, "Why the Industrial Revolution Happened in Britain" (Amberley Publishing, 2023)

26 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Jeremy Black about his new book Why the Industrial Revolution Happened in Britain (Amberley Publishing, 2023). Britain's key impo...

Lawrence Goldman, "Victorians and Numbers: Statistics and Society in Nineteenth Century Britain" (Oxford UP, 2022)

25 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A defining feature of nineteenth-century Britain was its fascination with statistics. The processes that made Victorian society, including the growth ...

Samrat Choudhury, "Northeast India: A Political History" (Oxford UP, 2023)

24 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For much of the past three months, the northeastern Indian state of Manipur—nestled right up against the border with Myanmar—has been the site of ...

Stephanie Barczewski, "How the Country House Became English (Reaktion, 2023)

23 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How the Country House Became English (Reaktion, 2023) by Dr. Stephanie Barczewski is an exploration of the evolution of the quintessentially English ...

Thomas Simpson, "The Frontier in British India: Space, Science, and Power in the Nineteenth Century" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

22 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In The Frontier in British India: Space, Science, and Power in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge UP, 2021), Thomas Simpson provides an innovative a...

Peter Moore, "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness: Britain and the American Dream (1740–1776)" ( FSG, 2023)

20 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The most famous phrase in American history once looked quite different. "The preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness" was how Thom...

Tanya Evans, "Family History, Historical Consciousness and Citizenship: A New Social History" (Bloomsbury, 2021)

20 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Family history is one of the most widely practiced forms of public history around the globe, especially in settler migrant nations like Australia and ...

Laura R. Kremmel, "Romantic Medicine and the Gothic Imagination: Morbid Anatomies" (U Wales Press, 2022)

20 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Romantic Medicine and the Gothic Imagination: Morbid Anatomies (U Wales Press, 2022) demonstrates a little-studied crossover between the Gothic imagi...

Conor Lucey, "House and Home in Georgian Ireland: Spaces and Cultures of Domestic Life" (Four Courts Press, 2022)

19 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Conor Lucey's book House and Home in Georgian Ireland: Spaces and Cultures of Domestic Life (Four Courts Press, 2022) explores the everyday characte...

Diane Purkiss, "English Food: A Social History of England Told Through the Food on Its Tables (William Collins, 2022)

18 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A rich and indulgent history, English Food: A Social History of England Told Through the Food on Its Tables (William Collins, 2022) by Dr. Diane Pur...

Nicholas Hoover Wilson, "Modernity's Corruption: Empire and Morality in the Making of British India" (Columbia UP, 2023)

17 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Robert Clive, the man who established Company rule in India was hauled in front of Parliament to answer for crimes of corruption, he allegedly re...

Al Coppola, "The Theater of Experiment: Staging Natural Philosophy in Eighteenth-Century Britain" (Oxford UP, 2016)

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The first book-length study of the relationship between science and theater during the long eighteenth century in Britain, The Theater of Experiment:...

Anthony Seldon and Raymond Newell, "Johnson at 10: The Inside Story" (Atlantic Books, 2023)

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After his dramatic rise to power in the summer of 2019 amid the Brexit deadlock, Boris Johnson presided over the most turbulent period of British hist...

Jeremy Black, "Smollett's Britain" (St. Augustine's Press, 2022)

14 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Smollett's Britain (St. Augustine's Press, 2022), acclaimed British historian Jeremy Black examines the layers of craft and insight in Tobias Sm...

Simon Mills, "A Commerce of Knowledge: Trade, Religion, and Scholarship Between England and the Ottoman Empire, 1600-1760" (Oxford UP, 2020)

13 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Simon Mills' book A Commerce of Knowledge: Trade, Religion, and Scholarship Between England and the Ottoman Empire, 1600-1760 (Oxford UP, 2020) tell...

Phillip Reid, "A Boston Schooner in the Royal Navy, 1768-1772: Commerce and Conflict in Maritime British America" (Boydell Press, 2023)

10 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The small Boston-built schooner Sultana served as a customs-enforcement interceptor on the North American eastern seaboard in the period leading up to...

Vaudine England, "Fortune's Bazaar: The Making of Hong Kong" (Scribner, 2023)

10 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The legacy of the businessmen who built Hong Kong are all over the city. Bankers work in Chater House—named after Paul Chater, the Armenian business...

Michael Roper, "Afterlives of War: A Descendants' History" (Manchester UP, 2023)

09 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Afterlives of War: A Descendants' History (Manchester University Press, 2023) by Dr. Michael Roper documents the lives and historical pursuits of the...

Daniel Foliard, "The Violence of Colonial Photography" (Manchester UP, 2022)

08 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The late nineteenth century witnessed a rapid increase in colonial conflicts throughout the French and British empires. It was also the period in whic...

Philip Roscoe, "How to Build a Stock Exchange: The Past, Present and Future of Finance" (Bristol UP, 2023)

07 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why does the financial sector matter? In How to Build a Stock Exchange: The Past, Present and Future of Finance (Bristol UP, 2023), Philip Roscoe, ...

Sharon Thompson, "Quiet Revolutionaries: The Married Women's Association and Family Law" (Hart Publishing, 2022)

06 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This book tells the untold story of the Married Women's Association. Unlike more conventional histories of family law, which focus on legal actors, it...

Andy Cowan, "B-Side: Pop History Via Its Greatest B-Sides, 1917-2017" (Headpress, 2023)

04 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In his new book B-Sides: Pop History Via Its Greatest B-Sides, 1917-2017 (Headpress, 2023), Andy Cowan explores a century of music b-sides. Pop m...

Share and Share Alike: Researching Sibling Relationships in Eighteenth-Century England

03 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What defines the complicated relationship between brothers and sisters—is it lineage? Love? Obligation? Friendship? Need? And why did so many parent...

James B. Conroy, "The Devils Will Get No Rest: FDR, Churchill, and the Plan That Won the War" (Simon and Schuster, 2023)

02 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Devils Will Get No Rest: FDR, Churchill, and the Plan That Won the War (Simon and Schuster, 2023) is a character-driven account of the Casablanca...

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

01 Aug 2023

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 ...

Diya Gupta, "India in the Second World War: An Emotional History" (Oxford UP, 2023)

31 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1940s India, revolutionary and nationalistic feeling surged against colonial subjecthood and imperial war. Two-and-a-half million men from undivide...

Ben Highmore, "In Good Taste: How Britain's Middle Classes Found Their Style" (Manchester UP, 2023)

31 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How did the rise of consumerism impact Britain? In In Good Taste: How Britain's Middle Classes Found Their Style (Manchester UP, 2023), Ben Highmor...

Finola O'Kane, "Landscape Design and Revolution in Ireland and the United States, 1688-1815" (Paul Mellon Centre, 2023)

30 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Landscape Design and Revolution in Ireland and the United States, 1688-1815 (Yale University Press, 2023) by Dr. Finola O’Kane explores how revolut...

Jonathan R. Topham, "Reading the Book of Nature: How Eight Best Sellers Reconnected Christianity and the Sciences on the Eve of the Victorian Age" (U Chicago Press, 2022)

29 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Charles Darwin returned to Britain from the Beagle voyage in 1836, the most talked-about scientific books of the day were the Bridgewater Treatis...

Tom Young, "Unmaking the East India Company: British Art and Political Reform in Colonial India, c. 1813-1858" (Paul Mellon Centre, 2023)

29 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Unmaking the East India Company: British Art and Political Reform in Colonial India, c. 1813-1858 (Paul Mellon Centre, 2023) by Dr. Tom Young illumin...

The Intellectual Life of Edmund Burke

28 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In April 2014, David Bromwich spoke at the Institute about his forthcoming book, The Intellectual Life of Edmund Burke: From the Sublime and Beautifu...

Lucy Moffat Kaufman, "A People’s Reformation: Building the English Church in the Elizabethan Parish" (McGill-Queen's Press, 2023)

27 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In A People’s Reformation: Building the English Church in the Elizabethan Parish (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2023) by Dr. Lucy Moffat Kauf...

Po-Shek Fu, "Hong Kong Media and Asia's Cold War" (Oxford UP, 2023)

26 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

British Hong Kong was a historical anomaly in the Cold War. It experienced no "hot war" or organized movement for independence, and yet it was a key b...

Kathleen Lubey, "What Pornography Knows: Sex and Social Protest Since the Eighteenth Century" (Stanford UP, 2022)

24 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kathleen Lubey,'s book What Pornography Knows: Sex and Social Protest Since the Eighteenth Century (Stanford UP, 2022) offers a new history of porno...

Rich Deakin, "Grebo!: The Loud & Lousy Story of Gaye Bykers on Acid and Crazyhead" (Headpress, 2021)

23 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Grebo! The Loud & Lousy Story of Gaye Bikers on Acid and Crazyhead (Headpress, 2021) Rich Deakin explores West Midlands 1980s, home to heavy met...

"Companionable Thinking: Spenser With..." Spencer Studies, Volume 37 (2023)

21 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Volume 37 of Spenser Studies is a special issue on the theme of “Companionable Thinking: Spenser With.” As guest editors of this collection of e...

Callie Wilkinson, "Empire of Influence: The East India Company and the Making of Indirect Rule" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

14 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Indirect rule is widely considered as a defining feature of the nineteenth and twentieth century British Empire but its divisive earlier history remai...

Leslie Turnberg, "Mandate: The Palestine Crucible, 1919-1939" (Vallentine Mitchell, 2021)

12 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The twenty years between the World Wars saw remarkable changes in the Middle East. In Palestine, Britain struggled to maintain its Mandatory Authority...

Joseph Sassoon, "The Sassoons: The Great Global Merchants and the Making of an Empire" (Pantheon, 2022)

12 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Joseph Sassoon about his book The Sassoons: The Great Global Merchants and the Making of an Empire (Pantheon, 2022) They were one...

Jacqueline Kinghan, "Lawyers, Networks and Progressive Social Change: Lawyers Changing Lives" (Bloomsbury, 2021)

11 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Written by a lawyer who works at the intersection between legal education and practice in access to justice and human rights, this book locates, descr...

Katherine Giuffre, "Outrage: The Arts and the Creation of Modernity" (Stanford UP, 2023)

10 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A cultural revolution in England, France, and the United States beginning during the time of the industrial and political revolutions helped usher in ...

Kevin Killeen, "The Unknowable in Early Modern Thought: Natural Philosophy and the Poetics of the Ineffable" (Stanford UP, 2023)

09 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s guest is Kevin Killeen whose new monograph, The Unknowable in Early Modern Thought: Natural Philosophy and the Poetics of the Ineffable, ha...

James Crossland, "The Rise of Devils: Fear and the Origins of Terrorism" (Manchester UP, 2023)

06 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the dying light of the nineteenth century, the world came to know and fear terrorism. Much like today, this was a time of progress and dread, in wh...

Peter Stansky, "The Socialist Patriot: George Orwell and War" (Stanford UP, 2023)

04 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Few English writers wielded a pen so sharply as George Orwell, the quintessential political writer of the twentieth century. His literary output at on...

Adhaar Noor Desai, "Blotted Lines: Early Modern English Literature and the Poetics of Discomposition" (Cornell UP, 2023)

04 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Almost every student that will enroll in a college Shakespeare course can expect two things. Students will have to engage with the style and themes of...

Katie Kadue, "Domestic Georgic: Labors of Preservation from Rabelais to Milton" (U Chicago Press, 2021)

03 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Many early modern humanists would balk at the proposition that what they did amounted to housework. They were far more likely to reach for the heroic ...

Malcolm F. Purinton, "Globalization in a Glass: The Rise of Pilsner Beer through Technology, Taste and Empire" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

03 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Globalization in a Glass: The Rise of Pilsner Beer through Technology, Taste and Empire (Bloomsbury, 2023) by Dr. Malcolm Purinton charts the spread ...

Greg A. Salazar, "Calvinist Conformity in Post-Reformation England: The Theology and Career of Daniel Featley" (Oxford UP, 2022)

01 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Calvinist Conformity in Post-Reformation England: The Theology and Career of Daniel Featley (Oxford UP, 2022) is the first modern full-scale examinat...

All for Nothing: Hamlet's Negativity

29 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A specter is haunting philosophy—the specter of Hamlet. Why is this? Wherefore? What should we do? Entering from stage left: the philosopher's Hamle...

Daniel R. Smith, "The Fall and Rise of the English Upper Class: Houses, Kinship and Capital Since 1945" (Manchester UP, 2023)

28 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Who are the English upper class? In The Fall and Rise of the English Upper Class: Houses, Kinship and Capital Since 1945 (Manchester UP, 2023) Dani...

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

26 Jun 2023

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...

Svetlana Kochkina, "Frances Burney’s 'Evelina': The Book, its History, and its Paratext" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023)

25 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Evelina, the first novel by Frances Burney, published in 1778, enjoys lasting popularity among the reading public. Tracing its publication history thr...

Yvette Taylor, "Working-Class Queers: Time, Place, and Politics" (Pluto Press, 2022)

24 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What is the relationship between class and sexuality? In Working-Class Queers: Time, Place and Politics (Pluto Press, 2023), Yvette Taylor, Profes...

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

22 Jun 2023

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...

David Cressy, "Shipwrecks and the Bounty of the Sea" (Oxford UP, 2022)

21 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shipwrecks and the Bounty of the Sea (Oxford University Press, 2022), Dr. David Cressy is a work of social history examining community relationships,...

The Environmental Unconscious

20 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Steven Swarbrick talks about poetic engagement with nature in the work of early modern poets ​​Edmund Spenser, Walter Ralegh, Andrew Marvell, and ...