New Books in Iberian Studies

Our Lady of Guadalupe and Aztec True Myth

09 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It turns out that our familiar narrative of the Virgin of Guadalupe, when Mary appeared to Juan Diego in 1531 and left her image on his tilma, resemb...

Abigail Agresta, "The Keys to Bread and Wine: Faith, Nature, and Infrastructure in Late Medieval Valencia" (Cornell UP, 2022)

06 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How did medieval people think about the environments in which they lived?  In a world shaped by God, how did they treat environments marked by religi...

Roslyn Weiss, "Hasdai Crescas: Collected Writings" (Library of the Jewish People, 2023)

27 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Roslyn Weiss, editor of Hasdai Crescas: Collected Writings (Library of the Jewish People, 2023). Hasdai Crescas spent his life in ...

Dalia Kandiyoti, "The Converso's Return: Conversion and Sephardi History in Contemporary Literature and Culture" (Stanford UP, 2020)

14 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Five centuries after the forced conversion of Spanish and Portuguese Jews to Catholicism, stories of these conversos' descendants uncovering long-hidd...

Mariana-Cecilia Velazquez, "Cultural Representations of Piracy in England, Spain, and the Caribbean" (Routledge, 2023)

23 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Mariana-Cecilia Velazquez's book Cultural Representations of Piracy in England, Spain, and the Caribbean: Travelers, Traders, and Traitors, 1570 to ...

Kevin Passmore, "Fascism: A Very Short Introduction" (Oxford UP, 2014)

22 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What is fascism? Is it revolutionary? Or is it reactionary? Can it be both? Fascism is notoriously hard to define. How do we make sense of an ideology...

Elena Serrano, "Ladies of Honor and Merit. Gender, Useful Knowledge, and Politics in Enlightened Spain" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2022)

18 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode I interview Elena Serrano, a research member of the Project Cirgen at the Universitat de València and Ramón y Cajal researcher at th...

Javier Garcia Oliva and Helen Hall, "Constitutional Culture, Independence, and Rights: Insights from Quebec, Scotland, and Catalonia" (U Toronto Press, 2023)

17 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Constitutional Culture, Independence, and Rights: Insights from Quebec, Scotland, and Catalonia (University of Toronto Press, 2023), Dr. Javier G...

A. Katie Harris, "The Stolen Bones of St. John of Matha: Forgery, Theft, and Sainthood in the Seventeenth Century" (Pennsylvania State UP, 2023)

16 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On the night of March 18, 1655, two Spanish friars broke into a church to steal the bones of the founder of their religious institution, the Order of ...

Andrea Celli, "Dante and the Mediterranean Comedy: From Muslim Spain to Post-Colonial Italy" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022)

11 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Dante and the Mediterranean Comedy: From Muslim Spain to Post-Colonial Italy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), Andrea Celli explores the complex ways ...

Making Sense of the 2023 Spanish Election

11 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What were the key factors shaping the 2023 Spanish general election? How did the progressive government of Pedro Sánchez defy expectations and secure...

Edgar Garcia, "Emergency: Reading the Popol Vuh in a Time of Crisis" (U Chicago Press, 2022)

16 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s guest is Edgar Garcia. Garcia’s new book Emergency: Reading the Popol Vuh in a Time of Crisis (University of Chicago Press, 2022). Emer...

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...

Yanna Yannakakis, "Since Time Immemorial: Native Custom and Law in Colonial Mexico" (Duke UP, 2023)

04 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Since Time Immemorial: Native Custom and Law in Colonial Mexico (Duke UP, 2023), Yanna Yannakakis traces the invention of Native custom, a legal...

H. Norman Strickman, "The Secret of the Torah: A Translation of Abraham Ibn Ezra's Sefer Yesod Mora" (Kodesh Press, 2021)

30 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra is one of the most important Jewish personalities of all time. Aside from being a Bible commentator of great consequence, his w...

Journalism History in Macau: A Abelha da China in its 200 Years

26 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How did the first newspaper in Macau come into being? What was the first foreign language newspaper on Chinese soil about? How was the dynamic between...

Adam Jasienski, "Praying to Portraits: Audience, Identity, and the Inquisition in the Early Modern Hispanic World" (Penn State UP, 2023)

21 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Praying to Portraits: Audience, Identity, and Inquisition in the Early Modern Hispanic World (Penn State University Press, 2023), art historian Adam...

Yehuda Halper, "Jewish Socratic Questions in an Age Without Plato: Permitting and Forbidding Open-Inquiry in 12-15th Century Europe and North Africa" (Brill, 2021)

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Jewish Socratic Questions in an Age Without Plato: Permitting and Forbidding Open-Inquiry in 12-15th Century Europe and North Africa (Brill, 2021...

Eric Van Young, "Stormy Passage: Mexico from Colony to Republic, 1750-1850" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022)

27 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Stormy Passage: Mexico from Colony to Republic, 1750-1850 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022), Eric Van Young draws on four decades of extraordinary sc...

Yamin Levy, "The Mysticism of Andalusia: Exploring HaRambam's Mystical Tradition" (MHC Press, 2023)

23 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Yamin Levy's The Mysticism of Andalusia: Exploring HaRambam's Mystical Tradition (MHC Press, 2023) is a groundbreaking book that delves into the mys...

Stefan Rinke, "Conquistadors and Aztecs: A History of the Fall of Tenochtitlan" (Oxford UP, 2023)

22 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Five hundred years ago, a flotilla landed on the coast of Yucatán under the command of the Spanish conquistador Hérnan Cortés. While the official g...

David Tavárez, "Rethinking Zapotec Time: Cosmology, Ritual, and Resistance in Colonial Mexico" (U Texas Press, 2022)

05 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Professor David Tavárez, historian and linguistic anthropologist, is Professor of Anthropology and at Vassar College. He is a specialist in Nahuatl a...

The Singer Sewing Machine in Spain and Mexico: Multinational Business, Gender, and Technologies

26 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Historian Paula de la Cruz-Fernandez talks about her book, Gendered Capitalism: Sewing Machines and Multinational Business in Spain and Mexico, 1850-...

Felipe Valencia, "The Melancholy Void: Lyric and Masculinity in the Age of Góngora" (U Nebraska Press, 2021)

05 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On today’s episode on New Books Network, we're joined by Dr. Felipe Valencia, Associate Professor of Spanish in the World Languages and Cultures Dep...

Adrian Masters, "We, the King: Creating Royal Legislation in the Sixteenth-Century Spanish New World" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

03 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We, the King: Creating Royal Legislation in the Sixteenth-Century Spanish New World (Cambridge University Press, 2023) by Dr. Adrian Masters challeng...

Maurizio Isabella, "Southern Europe in the Age of Revolutions" (Princeton UP, 2023)

23 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After the turbulent years of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna’s attempt to guarantee peace and stability across Europe, a new revoluti...

Christoph Kalter, "Postcolonial People: The Return from Africa and the Remaking of Portugal " (Cambridge UP, 2022)

23 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the space of a few months in 1975, more than 500,000 Portuguese settlers fled their homes in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tomé and Princ...

Enrique Martino, "Touts: Recruiting Indentured Labor in the Gulf of Guinea" (de Gruyter, 2022)

20 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Touts: Recruiting Indentured Labor in the Gulf of Guinea (de Gruyter, 2022) is a historical account of the troubled formation of a colonial labor mar...

Nicole von Germeten, "Death in Old Mexico: The 1789 Dongo Murders and How They Shaped the History of a Nation" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

30 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In a Mexico City mansion on October 23, 1789, Don Joaquín Dongo and ten of his employees were brutally murdered by three killers armed with machetes....

Ângela Barreto Xavier, "Religion and Empire in Portuguese India: Conversion, Resistance, and the Making of Goa" (SUNY Press, 2022)

20 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How did the colonization of Goa in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries take place? How was it related to projects for the conversion of Goan colon...

Andrew D. Berns, "The Land Is Mine: Sephardi Jews and Bible Commentary in the Renaissance" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022)

02 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After their expulsion from Spain in 1492, Sephardi Jews such as Isaac Abravanel, Abraham Saba, and Isaac Arama wrote biblical commentaries that stress...

Jeffrey Herlihy-Mera, "Decolonizing American Spanish: Eurocentrism and the Limits of Foreignness in the Imperial Ecosystem" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2022)

04 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jeffrey joins the podcast to discuss the prevalence of English in the academic ecosystem and in research publishing. Jeffrey critiques the lackadaisic...

Geoffrey Parker and Colin Martin, "Armada: The Spanish Enterprise and England's Deliverance In 1588" (Yale UP, 2022)

03 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In July 1588 the Spanish Armada sailed from Corunna to conquer England. Three weeks later an English fireship attack in the Channel--and then a fierce...

Caroline Dodds Pennock, "On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe" (Knopf, 2023)

26 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On Savage Shores: How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe (Knopf, 2023) by Dr. Caroline Dodds Pennock presents a landmark work of narrative histor...

Jorge Marco and Gutmaro Gomez Bravo, "The Fabric of Fear: Building Franco's New Society in Spain, 1936-1950" (Liverpool UP, 2023)

12 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jorge Marco and Gutmaro Gomez Bravo's book The Fabric of Fear: Building Franco's New Society in Spain, 1936-1950  (Liverpool UP, 2023) deals compr...

Nicole von Germeten, "The Enlightened Patrolman: Early Law Enforcement in Mexico City" (U Nebraska Press, 2022)

31 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When late eighteenth-century New Spanish viceregal administrators installed public lamps in the streets of central Mexico City, they illuminated the b...

Mark A. Schneegurt, "Anthology of Religious Poetry from the Mexican Inquisition Trials of 16th-Century CryptoJews" (2020)

30 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A century after being expelled from Portugal, cryptoJews in Mexico, false converts to Christianity, could not speak of their beliefs for fear of becom...

Wolfgang P. Müller, "Marriage Litigation in the Western Church, 1215-1517" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

21 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Wolfgang Muller, Marriage Litigation in the Western Church, 1215- 1517 (Cambridge University Press, 2021). From the establishment of a coherent doc...

The Future of the European Left

20 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why is it so hard for left wing parties in the West to win elections? Some such as the UK Labour Party have headed to the centre. The history of Labou...

Holy Paradox and St. Teresa of Ávila: Mysticism in Sixteenth Century Spain

15 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Carlos Eire, author of The Life of Saint Teresa of Ávila: A Biography (2019) and professor of medieval and early modern European history and religion...

Miguel Valerio, "Sovereign Joy: Afro-Mexican Kings and Queens, 1539-1640" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

14 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sovereign Joy Afro-Mexican Kings and Queens, 1539-1640 (Cambridge University Press, 2022) explores the performance of festive black kings and queens ...

Hélène Jawhara Piñer, "Jews, Food, and Spain: The Oldest Medieval Spanish Cookbook and the Sephardic Culinary Heritage" (Academic Studies Press, 2022)

27 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Jews, Food, and Spain: The Oldest Medieval Spanish Cookbook and the Sephardic Culinary Heritage (Academic Studies Press, 2022), Hélène Jawhara ...

Noémie Ndiaye, "Scripts of Blackness: Early Modern Performance Culture and the Making of Race" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022)

21 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Scripts of Blackness: Early Modern Performance Culture and the Making of Race (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022) shows how the early modern mass media of ...

On Miguel de Cervantes' "Don Quixote"

16 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Don Quixote was written by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes. He wrote it in two parts. Part one was published in 1605, and part two ten years later,...

Rebecca Ingram, "Women's Work: How Culinary Cultures Shaped Modern Spain" (Vanderbilt UP, 2022)

16 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Sandie Holguín (Professor of History and Coeditor of the Journal of Women’s History, University of Oklahoma) speaks with Rebecca Ingram (Associa...

Cynthia Radding, "Bountiful Deserts: Sustaining Indigenous Worlds in Northern New Spain" (U Arizona Press, 2022)

16 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Common understandings drawn from biblical references, literature, and art portray deserts as barren places that are far from God and spiritual sustena...

Sandra Ott, "War, Judgment, And Memory In The Basque Borderlands, 1914-1945" (U Nevada Press, 2008)

07 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

During the first half of the twentieth century, the French Basque province of Xiberoa was a place of refuge, conflict, and foreign occupation. With th...

Cristina Civantos, "Jamón and Halal: Lessons in Tolerance from Rural Andalucía" (Amherst College Press, 2022)

05 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I interview Dr. Christina Civantos (University of Miami, FL, USA) about her open access book Jamón and Halal: Lessons in Tolerance ...

Jennifer Smith, "Women, Mysticism, and Hysteria in Fin-De-Siècle Spain" (Vanderbilt UP, 2021)

03 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Women, Mysticism, and Hysteria in Fin-De-Siècle Spain (Vanderbilt UP, 2021) argues that the reinterpretation of female mysticism as hysteria and nym...

Xabier Irujo and Queralt Solé, "Nazi Juggernaut in the Basque Country and Catalonia" (Center for Basque Studies, 2019)

28 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Xabier Irujo about his book (co-authored with Queralt Solé) Nazi Juggernaut in the Basque Country and Catalonia (Center for Bas...

Kwasi Konadu, "Many Black Women of this Fortress: Graça, Mónica and Adwoa, Three Enslaved Women of Portugal's African Empire" (Hurst, 2022)

28 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Kwasi Konadu's book Many Black Women of this Fortress: Graça, Mónica and Adwoa, Three Enslaved Women of Portugal's African Empire (Hurst, 2022) p...

Paul Barba, "Country of the Cursed and the Driven: Slavery and the Texas Borderlands" (U Nebraska Press, 2021)

22 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Most of what people think they know about Texas history is wrong, argues Bucknell University history professor Paul Barba in Country of the Cursed an...

Erin Alice Cowling, "Chocolate: How a New World Commodity Conquered Spanish Literature" (U Toronto Press, 2021)

21 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In terms of its popularity, as well as its production, chocolate was among the first foods to travel from the New World to Spain. Chocolate: How a Ne...

Sarah Ifft Decker, "The Fruit of Her Hands: Jewish and Christian Women's Work in Medieval Catalan Cities" (Pennsylvania State, 2022)

07 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the thriving urban economies of late thirteenth-century Catalonia, Jewish and Christian women labored to support their families and their communiti...

Mackenzie Cooley, "The Perfection of Nature: Animals, Breeding, and Race in the Renaissance" (U Chicago Press, 2022)

31 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Renaissance is celebrated for the belief that individuals could fashion themselves to greatness, but there is a dark undercurrent to this fêted e...

Ron E. Hassner, "Anatomy of Torture" (Cornell UP, 2022)

26 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Does torture "work?" Can controversial techniques such as waterboarding extract crucial and reliable intelligence? Since 9/11, this question has been ...

Thomas E. Burman et al., "The Sea in the Middle: The Mediterranean World, 650-1650" (U California Press, 2022)

21 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Sea in the Middle: The Mediterranean World, 650-1650 (U California Press, 2022) presents an original and revisionist narrative of the developmen...

Tyler Wentzell, "Not for King or Country: Edward Cecil-Smith, the Communist Party of Canada, and the Spanish Civil War" (U Toronto Press, 2019)

14 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Over two decades before the hard lines of the Cold War were drawn in North America, and long before any accurate information about what was happening ...

Carles Prado-Fonts, "Secondhand China: Spain, the East, and the Politics of Translation" (Northwestern UP, 2022)

07 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today I spoke with Carles Prado-Fonts on his recently published book Secondhand China: Spain, the East, and the Politics of Translation (Northweste...

Maria Berbara, "Sacrifice and Conversion in the Early Modern Atlantic World" (Harvard UP, 2022)

30 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When Europeans came to the American continent in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, they were confronted with what they perceived as sacrificial p...

David Carballo, "Collision of Worlds: A Deep History of the Fall of Aztec Mexico and the Forging of New Spain" (Oxford UP, 2020)

22 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mexico of five centuries ago was witness to one of the most momentous encounters between human societies, when a group of Spaniards led by Hernando Co...

Theodore McLauchlin, "Desertion: Trust and Mistrust in Civil Wars" (Cornell UP, 2020)

19 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Desertion: Trust and Mistrust in Civil Wars (Cornell UP, 2020) examines the personal and political factors behind soldiers' choices to stay in th...

Josep M. Fradera, "The Imperial Nation: Citizens and Subjects in the British, French, Spanish, and American Empires" (Princeton UP, 2018)

09 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How the legacy of monarchical empires shaped Britain, France, Spain, and the United States as they became liberal entities? Historians view the late e...

The Future of the Jesuits: A Discussion with Markus Friedrich

06 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After its founding in 1540 by an aristocrat turned spiritualist turned intellectual, Ignatius of Loyola, the Society of Jesus—or the Jesuits—estab...

The Future of the European Union: A Discussion with Luuk van Middelaar

30 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Brexit debate has been so all-consuming and filled with so much misinformation that many Brits and others can overlook some the challenges facing ...

Jeroen Dewulf, "Afro-Atlantic Catholics: America's First Black Christians" (U Notre Dame Press, 2022)

26 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Black Christianity in America has long been studied as a blend of indigenous African and Protestant elements. Jeroen Dewulf redirects the conversation...

Margarita R. Ochoa and Sara V. Guengerich, "Cacicas: The Indigenous Women Leaders of Spanish America, 1492-1825" (U Oklahoma Press, 2021)

26 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The term cacica was a Spanish linguistic invention, the female counterpart to caciques, the Arawak word for male indigenous leaders in Spanish America...

Keith Thomson, "Born to Be Hanged: The Epic Story of the Gentlemen Pirates Who Raided the South Seas, Rescued a Princess, and Stole a Fortune" (Little Brown, 2022)

13 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The year is 1680, in the heart of the Golden Age of Piracy, and more than three hundred daring, hardened pirates—a potent mix of low-life scallywags...

Nick Sharman, "Britain’s Informal Empire in Spain, 1830-1950: Free Trade, Protectionism and Military Power| (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021)

05 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Based on five years of archival research, Britain's Informal Empire in Spain, 1830-1950: Free Trade, Protectionism and Military Power offers a radica...

Christina Ramos, "Bedlam in the New World: A Mexican Madhouse in the Age of Enlightenment" (UNC Press, 2022)

01 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Bedlam in the New World: A Mexican Madhouse in the Age of Enlightenment (UNC Press, 2022), Cristina Ramos tells us the story of Mexico city’s o...

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, "Straits: Beyond the Myth of Magellan" (U California Press, 2022)

05 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

2019 marked the five-hundred year anniversary of the launch of Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage around the world–a milestone marked by commemorative sa...

Pandemic Perspectives 7: Covid 19 Political Lessons from Portugal

20 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this Pandemic Perspectives Podcast, Ideas Roadshow founder and host Howard Burton talks to Portuguese Member of Parliament and internationally ren...

Zoltán Biedermann, "(Dis)connected Empires: Imperial Portugal, Sri Lankan Diplomacy, and the Making of a Habsburg Conquest in Asia" (Oxford UP, 2019)

08 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

(Dis)connected Empires: Imperial Portugal, Sri Lankan Diplomacy, and the Making of a Habsburg Conquest in Asia (Oxford University Press, 2019) takes ...

Adrian Shubert, "The Sword of Luchana: Baldomero Espartero and the Making of Modern Spain, 1793–1879" (U Toronto Press, 2021)

07 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today I spoke to Prof. Adrian Shubert, professor of History at York University and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada about his book on the ninet...

Jared Staller, "Converging on Cannibals: Terrors of Slaving in Atlantic Africa, 1509-1670" (Ohio UP, 2019)

07 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Converging on Cannibals: Terrors of Slaving in Atlantic Africa, 1509-1670 (Ohio UP, 2019), Jared Staller tells the history of how the myth of can...

Shawn Michael Austin, "Colonial Kinship: Guaraní, Spaniards, and Africans in Paraguay" (U New Mexico Press, 2020)

07 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Colonial Kinship: Guaraní, Spaniards, and Africans in Paraguay (U New Mexico Press, 2020), historian Shawn Michael Austin traces the history of ...

Saptarishi Bandopadhyay, "All Is Well: Catastrophe and the Making of the Normal State" (Oxford UP, 2022)

18 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

All Is Well: Catastrophe and the Making of the Normal State (Oxford UP, 2022) attempts to answer one of the most urgent questions of our time: what i...

Albert A. Palacios, "Unlocking the Colonial Archive in Latin America"

09 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this new episode about Digital Humanities at the New Books Network podcast channel we talk about digital projects, the use of Machine Learning tech...

Racheli Haliva, "Isaac Polqar: A Jewish Philosopher or a Philosopher and a Jew? (Walter de Gruyter, 2020)

07 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

To date, scholars have skilfully discussed aspects of Polqar’s thought, and yet none of the existing studies offers a comprehensive examination that...

Edward Jones Corredera, "The Diplomatic Enlightenment: Spain, Europe, and the Age of Speculation" (Brill, 2021)

07 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Diplomatic Enlightenment: Spain, Europe, and the Age of Speculation (Brill, 2021) reconfigures the study of the origins of the Enlightenment in t...

Lu Ann Homza, "Village Infernos and Witches' Advocates: Witch-hunting in Navarre, 1608-1614" (Pennsylvania State UP, 2022)

02 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Today we talk to Lu Ann Homza about her new book, Village Infernos and Witches' Advocates: Witch-Hunting in Navarre, 1608-1614 (Penn State Press, 20...

Mauro José Caraccioli, "Writing the New World: The Politics of Natural History in the Early Spanish Empire" (U Florida Press, 2021)

21 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Is natural history a genre of political thought? What do we miss about the substance of political ideas when we ignore the study of nature? Writing ...

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...

Sylvia Sellers-Garcia, "The Woman on the Windowsill: A Tale of Mystery in Several Parts" (Yale UP, 2020)

02 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On the morning of July 1, 1800, a surveyor and mapmaker named Cayetano Díaz opened the window of his study in Guatemala City to find a horrific sight...

Jennifer Scheper Hughes, "The Church of the Dead: The Epidemic of 1576 and the Birth of Christianity in the Americas" (NYU Press, 2021)

31 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Church of the Dead: The Epidemic of 1576 and the Birth of Christianity in the Americas (NYU Press, 2021) tells the story of the founding of Amer...

Karlo Basta, "The Symbolic State: Minority Recognition, Majority Backlash, and Secession in Multinational Countries" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2021)

17 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In his new book, The Symbolic State: Minority Recognition, Majority Backlash, and Secession in Multinational Countries (McGill-Queen’s University ...

Martin Conway, "Western Europe’s Democratic Age: 1945-1968" (Princeton UP, 2021)

03 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What happened in the years following World War II to create a democratic revolution in the western half of Europe? In Western Europe’s Democratic A...

Koldo Casla, "Spain and Its Achilles' Heels: The Strong Foundations of a Country's Weaknesses" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021)

22 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In Spain and Its Achilles' Heels: The Strong Foundations of a Country's Weaknesses (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2021), Koldo Casla asks: Why w...

Luis Lobo-Guerrero et al., "Mapping, Connectivity, and the Making of European Empires" (Rowman and Littlefield, 2021)

22 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Luis Lobo-Guerrero is one of the three editors of this volume—Mapping, Connectivity, and the Making of European Empires—and one of the six contrib...

Anna McSweeney, "From Granada to Berlin: The Alhambra Cupola" (Kettler Verlag, 2020)

21 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Part of the series CAHIM Connecting Art Histories in the Museum, Anna McSweeney's book From Granada to Berlin: The Alhambra Cupola (Kettler Verlag, ...

Tibor Martí and Roberto Quiros Rosado, "Eagles Looking East and West: Dynasty, Ritual and Representation in Habsburg Hungary and Spain" (Brepols, 2021)

17 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The fifteen contributors to Eagles Looking East and West: Dynasty, Ritual and Representation in Habsburg Hungary and Spain (Brepols, 2021) describe ...

Gloria Maité Hernández, "Savoring God: Comparative Theopoetics" (Oxford UP, 2021)

16 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Gloria Maité Hernández's Savoring God: Comparative Theopoetics (Oxford UP, 2021) compares two mystical works central to the Christian Discalced Ca...

Vanesa Rodríguez-Galindo, "Madrid on the Move: Feeling Modern and Visually Aware in the Nineteenth Century" (Manchester UP, 2021)

13 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In her new book Madrid on the Move: Feeling Modern and Visually Aware in the Nineteenth Century (Manchester UP, 2021), Vanesa Rodríguez-Galindo exp...

Drew A. Thompson, "Filtering Histories: The Photographic Bureaucracy in Mozambique, 1960 to Recent Times" (U Michigan Press, 2021)

06 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Photographers and their images were critical to the making of Mozambique, first as a colony of Portugal and then as independent nation at war with apa...

Daniel C. Matt, "The Zohar" (Stanford UP, 2018)

17 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Emerging some seven hundred years ago in Spain, the Zohar is considered 'the great medieval compendium of mysticism, myth, and esoteric teaching' and ...

Clara A. B. Joseph, "Christianity in India: The Anti-Colonial Turn" (Routledge, 2020)

17 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

By studying the history and sources of the Thomas Christians of India, a community of pre-colonial Christian heritage, this book revisits the assumpti...

Paul Preston, "A People Betrayed: A History of Corruption, Political Incompetence and Social Division in Modern Spain" (Liveright, 2020)

08 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Sir Paul Preston’s A People Betrayed: A History of Corruption, Political Incompetence, and Social Division in Modern Spain (Liveright, 2020) is a ...

Teofilo Ruiz, “The Consolations of History” (Open Agenda, 2021)

26 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Consolations of History is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Teofilo Ruiz, Professor Emeritus of History at UCLA...

Luis Lobo-Guerrero et al., "Imaginaries of Connectivity: The Creation of Novel Spaces of Governance" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019)

12 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Imaginaries of Connectivity: The Creation of Novel Spaces of Governance (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019) addresses the problem of how the creation of nov...

Robert C. Schwaller, "African Maroons in Sixteenth-Century Panama: A History in Documents" (U Oklahoma Press, 2021)

08 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

From the 1520s through the 1580s, thousands of African slaves fled captivity in Spanish Panama and formed their own communities in the interior of the...