New Books in Western European Studies
Episodes
Gerben Zaagsma, “Jewish Volunteers, the International Brigades and the Spanish Civil War” (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017)
24 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In Jewish Volunteers, the International Brigades and the Spanish Civil War (Bloomsbury Academic, 2017), Gerben Zaagsma, Senior researcher at the centr...
Did the Protestant Reformation Have to Happen?
21 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In the second podcast of Arguing History, historians Peter Marshall and Alec Ryrie address the question of whether the Protestant Reformation, an even...
Jennifer T. Roberts, “The Plague of War: Athens, Sparta, and the Struggle for Ancient Greece” (Oxford UP, 2017)
16 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The Peloponnesian War was one of the first subjects of historical inquiry, and one that has been the subject of many works ever since Thucydides wrote...
Patrick N. Hunt, “Hannibal” (Simon and Schuster, 2017)
13 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In 218 BCE, the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca launched an invasion of Italy designed to bring the Roman Republic to its knees. Yet for all of hi...
Raul Coronado, “A World Not to Come: A History of Latino Writing and Print Culture” (Harvard UP, 2013)
13 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In A World Not to Come: A History of Latino Writing and Print Culture (Harvard University Press 2013) Dr. Raul Coronado provides an intellectual histo...
Alexia Yates, “Selling Paris: Property and Commercial Culture in the Fin-de-siecle Capital” (Harvard UP, 2015)
12 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
What comes to mind when you think of Paris in the nineteenth century? For me, its revolutionary politics, the circulation of increasing numbers of peo...
Pooyan Tamimi Arab, “Amplifying Islam in the European Soundscape” (Bloomsbury, 2017)
08 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In mid-March, Europeans observed the Dutch national elections with intense interest. Onlookers believed that a victory of the Party for Freedom led by...
Brigitte Le Normand, “Designing Tito’s Capital: Urban Planning, Modernism, and Socialism in Belgrade” (U. Pittsburgh Press, 2014)
08 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
NB: An earlier version of this podcast has been replaced with a new file in which the the technical problems of the first were corrected. -NBn, 7/11/1...
David Matthews, “Medievalism: A Critical History” (Boydell and Brewer, 2017)
06 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
A revealing exploration of representative modes of medievalism, Medievalism: A Critical History (Boydell & Brewer; hardcover 2015, paperback 2017), by...
Steven Seegel, “Mapping Europe’s Borderlands: Russian Cartography in the Age of Empire” (U. of Chicago Press, 2012)
05 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Since the publication of this book five years ago, Steven Seegel has become a leading authority on map-making in the Russian Empire with particular ex...
David I. Shyovitz, “A Remembrance of His Wonders: Nature and the Supernatural” (U. Penn Press, 2017)
26 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In A Remembrance of His Wonders: Nature and the Supernatural in Medieval Ashkenaz (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), David I. Shyovitz, Associa...
Bruno Perreau, “Queer Theory: The French Response” (Stanford UP, 2016)
02 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
At once wonderfully clear and bursting with complexity, the title of Bruno Perreau‘s book, Queer Theory: The French Response (Stanford University Pr...
Ana Miskovska Kajevska, “Feminist Activism at War: Belgrade and Zagreb Feminists in the 1990s” (Routledge, 2017)
01 Jun 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In Feminist Activism at War: Belgrade and Zagreb Feminists in the 1990s (Routledge, 2017), Macedonian researcher, peace-worker, and activist Ana Misko...
Linda Heywood, “Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen” (Harvard University Press, 2017)
19 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In the capital of the African nation of Angola today stands a statue to Njinga, the 17th century queen of the Ndongo and Matamba kingdoms. Its presenc...
Julie Gottlieb, “‘Guilty Women’: Foreign Policy and Appeasement in Inter-War Britain” (Palgrave Macmilan, 2015)
18 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Historically, foreign policy has been seen as a sphere shaped and determined by the concerns of men alone. In ‘Guilty Women’: Foreign Policy and A...
Steve Dunn, “Securing the Narrow Sea: The Dover Patrol, 1914-1918” (Seaforth/US Naval Institute, 2017)
15 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Most accounts about the naval battles of the First World War focus upon the stalemate between the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet, ...
Jeanette Jouili, “Pious Practice and Secular Constraints: Women in the Islamic Revival in Europe” (Stanford UP, 2016)
15 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Jeanette Jouili‘s fascinating new book Pious Practice and Secular Constraints: Women in the Islamic Revival in Europe (Stanford University Press, 20...
Lotta Bjorklund Larsen,”Shaping Taxpayers: Values in Action at the Swedish Tax Agency” (Berghahn Books, 2017)
02 May 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How do you make taxpayers comply? Lotta Bjorklund Larsen‘s ethnography, Shaping Taxpayers: Values in Action at the Swedish Tax Agency (Berghahn Boo...
Samuele F.S. Pardini, “In the Name of the Mother: Italian Americans, African Americans, and Modernity from Booker T. Washington to Bruce Springsteen” (Dartmouth, 2017)
26 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In the Name of the Mother: Italian Americans, African Americans, and Modernity from Booker T. Washington to Bruce Springsteen (Dartmouth, 2017) emphas...
Timothy D. Walker, “Teach Like Finland: 33 Simple Strategies for Joyful Classrooms” (W. W. Norton, 2017)
12 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, I speak with Tim Walker, the author of Teach Like Finland: 33 Simple Strategies for Joyful Classrooms (W. W. Norton & Company, 2017)....
Anna Harwell Celenza, “Jazz Italian Style: From its Origins in New Orleans to Fascist Italy and Sinatra” (Cambridge UP, 2017)
10 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In her new book, Jazz Italian Style: From its Origins in New Orleans to Fascist Italy and Sinatra (Cambridge University Press, 2017), Anna Harwell Cel...
Alec Ryrie, “Protestants: The Faith that Made the Modern World” (Viking, 2017)
07 Apr 2017
Contributed by Lukas
500 years ago, a German monk and professor named Martin Luther started a well-intentioned movement to reform “the Church” (Jesus founded only one,...
Holly Hurlburt, “Daughter of Venice: Caterina Corner, Queen of Cyprus and Woman of the Renaissance” (Yale UP, 2015)
30 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Caterina Corner lived a life that was composed of a mixture of adventure, power, and tragedy. The daughter of a Venetian patrician and merchant, she w...
Raz Chen-Morris, “Measuring Shadows: Kepler’s Optics of Invisibility” (Penn State UP, 2016)
29 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Raz Chen-Morris‘s new book traces a significant and surprising notion through the work of Johannes Kepler: in order to account for real physical mot...
Kate Murphy, “Behind the Wireless: A History of Early Women at the BBC” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)
22 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
From the early days of the BBC in 1922, women were everywhere in the broadcasting company’s offices. They were absent, however, argues Dr. Kate Murp...
Michael E. Stewart, “The Soldier’s Life: Martial Virtues and Manly Romanitas In the Early Byzantine Empire” (Kismet Press, 2016)
22 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The prowess of the Roman empire was imbued with courage and militarism. Symbolised by the combative male soldier, Michael Edward Stewart‘s tool of h...
Meredith K. Ray, “Margherita Sarrocchi’s Letters to Galileo: Astronomy, Astrology, and Poetics in 17th-Century Italy” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016)
13 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Meredith K. Ray’s new book contextualizes and translates a range of seventeenth-century letters, mostly between Margherita Sarrocchi (1560-1617) and...
Mark Braude, “Making Monte Carlo: A History of Speculation and Spectacle” (Simon and Schuster, 2016)
09 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Mark Braude’s Making Monte Carlo: A History of Speculation and Spectacle (Simon and Schuster, 2016) tells the captivating story of the rise of Monte...
Elana Shapira, “Style and Seduction: Jewish Patrons, Architecture, and Design in Fin de Siecle Vienna” (Brandeis UP, 2016)
02 Mar 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In Style and Seduction: Jewish Patrons, Architecture, and Design in Fin de Siecle Vienna (Brandeis University Press, 2016), Elana Shapira, Lecturer at...
Jeroen Dewulf, “The Pinkster King and the King of Kongo: The Forgotten History of America’s Dutch-Owned Slaves” (U. Press of Mississippi, 2016)
27 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The Pinkster King and the King of Kongo: The Forgotten History of America’s Dutch-Owned Slaves (University Press of Mississippi, 2016) presents the ...
Ryan Vieira, “Time and Politics: Parliament and the Culture of Modernity in Nineteenth-Century Britain and the British World” (Oxford UP, 2015)
24 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
How did the idea of time change during the nineteenth century? In Time and Politics: Parliament and the Culture of Modernity in Nineteenth-Century Bri...
Matthew James Crawford, “The Andean Wonder Drug: Cinchona Bark and Imperial Science in the Spanish Atlantic, 1630-1800” (U. Pittsburgh Press, 2016)
23 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Matthew James Crawford’s new book is a fascinating history of an object that was central to the history of science, technology, and medicine in the ...
Mark Glickman, “Stolen Words: The Nazi Plunder of Jewish Books” (The Jewish Publication Society, 2016)
17 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In Stolen Words: The Nazi Plunder of Jewish Books (The Jewish Publication Society, 2016), Rabbi Mark Glickman, of Temple Bnai Tikvah in Calgary, exami...
Noah Lederman, “A World Erased: A Grandson’s Search for His Family’s Holocaust Secrets” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017)
01 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Part detective story, part travelogue, Noah Lederman decided to write A World Erased: A Grandson’s Search for his Family’s Holocaust Secrets (Rowm...
Stephen Brockmann, “The Writers’ State: Constructing East German Literature, 1945-1959” (Camden House, 2015)
27 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Stephen Brockmann’s The Writers’ State: Constructing East German Literature, 1945-1959 (Camden House, 2015) introduces readers to a specific atmos...
Surekha Davies, “Renaissance Ethnography and the Invention of the Human: New Worlds, Maps, and Monsters” (Cambridge UP, 2016)
12 Jan 2017
Contributed by Lukas
You find a lot of strange things on late medieval and “Age of Discovery” era maps. Of course there are weird beasts of every sort: dragons, griffi...
Devin Naar, “Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece” (Stanford UP, 2016)
19 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece (Stanford University Press, 2016) Devin Naar delves deep into the archives to produce...
Richard Griffiths, “What Did You Do During the War? The Last Throes of British Pro-Nazi Right, 1940-1945” (Routledge, 2016)
18 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
During the mid- to late 1930s, a small but socially prominent group of right-wing Britons took a public stance in support of the Nazi regime in German...
Paul Benneworth et al., “The Impact and Future of Arts and Humanities Research” (Palgrave, 2016)
13 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
What is the future for Arts and Humanities in Europe? The podcast discusses these questions with Paul Benneworth, one of the authors, along with Magnu...
Larrie Ferreiro, “Brothers at Arms: Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It” (Knopf, 2016)
02 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Was the War for American Independence really about American independence? It depends on who you ask. In his new book, Brothers at Arms: American Inde...
Benjamin Martin, “The Nazi-Fascist New Order for European Culture” (Harvard UP, 2016)
29 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Benjamin Martin’s The Nazi-Fascist New Order for European Culture (Harvard University Press, 2016) examines the attempt by Nazi Germany and Fascist ...
Federica Goffi, “Time Matter(s): Invention and Reimagination in Built Conservation” (Routledge, 2013)
23 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Assistant Professor Federica Goffi fills a blind spot in current architectural theory and practice with this book, Time Matter(s): Invention and Re-Im...
Coll Thrush, “Indigenous London: Native Travelers at the Heart of Empire” (Yale UP, 2016)
18 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Scholars have long treated cities as spaces in which indigenous people have little presence and less significance. This notion that urbanity and indig...
James Kloppenberg, “Toward Democracy: The Struggle for Self-Rule in European and American Thought” (Oxford UP, 2016)
21 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
James Kloppenberg is the Charles Warren Professor of American history at Harvard University. Toward Democracy: The Struggle for Self-Rule in European ...
Kelly Watson, “Insatiable Appetites: Imperial Encounters with Cannibals in the North Atlantic World” (NYU Press, 2015)
11 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Kelly Watson’s Insatiable Appetites: Imperial Encounters with Cannibals in the North Atlantic World (New York University Press, 2015) explores the h...
Stevphen Shukaitis, “The Composition of Movements to Come: Aesthetics and Cultural Labor after the Avant-Garde” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016)
05 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
How is the notion of the avant-garde in art relevant today? What can contemporary social movements learn from the Situationists? What is the meaning o...
Richard Bourke, “Empire and Revolution: The Political Life of Edmund Burke” (Princeton UP, 2015)
30 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Bourke, Professor in the History of Political Thought in the School of History at Queen Mary University of London, began developing his histor...
Megan C. Thomas, “Orientalists, Propagandists, and Ilustrados: Filipino Scholarship and the End of Spanish Colonialism” (U. of Minnesota Press, 2012 )
30 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In Orientalists, Propagandists and Ilustrados: Filipino Scholarship and the End of Spanish Colonialism (University of Minnesota Press, 2012), Megan Th...
Stuart Elden “Foucault’s Last Decade” (Polity Press, 2016)
21 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Why did Michel Foucault radically recast the project of The History of Sexuality? How did he work collaboratively? What was the influence of Antiquity...
Carsten Schapkow, “Role Model and Countermodel: The Golden Age of Iberian Jewry and German Jewish Culture during the Era of Emancipation” (Lexington Books, 2015)
19 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Why were German Jews so fascinated by Iberian Sephardic history? In Role Model and Countermodel: The Golden Age of Iberian Jewry and German Jewish Cul...
Sarah Abrevaya Stein, “Extraterritorial Dreams: European Citizenship, Sephardi Jews, and the Ottoman Twentieth Century” (U. of Chicago Press, 2016)
19 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah Abrevaya Stein’s rich new book, Extraterritorial Dreams: European Citizenship, Sephardi Jews, and the Ottoman Twentieth Century (University of...
Jessica Greenberg , “After the Revolution: Youth, Democracy, and the Politics of Disappointment in Serbia” (Stanford University Press, 2014)
12 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Jessica Greenberg’s After the Revolution: Youth, Democracy, and the Politics of Disappointment in Serbia (Stanford University Press, 2014) explores ...
Caroline Ford, “Natural Interests: The Contest over Environment in Modern France” (Harvard UP, 2016)
12 Sep 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Caroline Ford’s Natural Interests: The Contest over Environment in Modern France (Harvard University Press, 2016) explores the roots of French envir...
Emile Chabal, “A Divided Republic: Nation, State and Citizenship in Contemporary France” (Cambridge UP, 2015)
24 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Emile Chabal’s A Divided Republic: Nation, State and Citizenship in Contemporary France (Cambridge University Press, 2015) is an in-depth analysis o...
Anders Ingram, “Writing the Ottomans: Turkish History in Early Modern England” (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2015)
22 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
You read a lot about “Orientalism,” that is, the often odd ways in which Westerners tried to understand predominantly Middle Eastern peoples and c...
Todd Green, “The Fear of Islam: An Introduction to Islamophobia in the West” (Fortress Press, 2015)
17 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Islamophobia, both as a term and concept, has a storied and complicated history, and understanding its many layers in our current historical moment re...
Peter Trawny, “Heidegger and the Myth of a Jewish World Conspiracy” (U. of Chicago Press, 2015)
15 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In Heidegger and the Myth of a Jewish World Conspiracy (University of Chicago Press, 2015), Peter Trawny, professor of philosophy and founder and dire...
Kieko Matteson, “Forests in Revolutionary France: Conservation, Community, and Conflict, 1669-1848” (Cambridge UP, 2015)
03 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Kieko Matteson’s Forests in Revolutionary France: Conservation, Community, and Conflict, 1669-1848 (Cambridge University Press, 2015) is an impressi...
Jack Jacobs, “The Frankfurt School, Jewish Lives, and Antisemitism” (Cambridge UP, 2015)
02 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In The Frankfurt School, Jewish Lives, and Antisemitism (Cambridge University Press, 2015), Jack Jacobs, Professor of Political Science at John Jay Co...
Paul M. Cobb, “The Race for Paradise: An Islamic History of the Crusades” (Oxford UP, 2014)
25 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The Crusades loom large in contemporary popular consciousness. However, our public understanding has largely been informed from a western perspective,...
Mitchell Yockelson, “Forty-Seven Days: How Pershing’s Warriors Came of Age to Defeat the German Army in WWI” (NAL Caliber, 2016)
25 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In Forty-Seven Days: How Pershing’s Warriors Came of Age to Defeat the German Army in World War I (NAL Caliber, 2016), National Archives historian a...
John Freed, “Frederick Barbarossa: The Prince and the Myth” (Yale UP, 2016)
15 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
For all of his importance as a medieval ruler, there are surprisingly few biographies in English of the German emperor Frederick Barbarossa (c. 1122-1...
Vanessa Ogle, “The Global Transformation of Time: 1870-1950” (Harvard UP, 2015)
13 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
From the 1880s onward, Beirut-based calendars and almanacs were in high demand as they packaged at least four different calendars into one, including:...
Daniel Jutte, “The Age of Secrecy: Jews, Christians, and the Economy of Secrets, 1400-1800” (Yale UP, 2015)
12 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In his expansive The Age of Secrecy: Jews, Christians, and the Economy of Secrets, 1400-1800 (Yale University Press, 2015), Daniel Jutte suggests new ...
Jessa Crispin, “The Dead Ladies Project: Exiles, Expats, and Ex-Countries” (U. of Chicago Press, 2015)
01 Jul 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Biography is a genre of largely unexamined power: a literary field that preserves stories of lived lives and, through them, perpetuates notions that t...
Ethan Katz, “The Burdens of Brotherhood: Jews and Muslims from North Africa to France” (Harvard UP, 2015)
28 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In The Burdens of Brotherhood: Jews and Muslims from North Africa to France (Harvard University Press, 2015), Ethan Katz examines and interrogates Jew...
Ayten Gundogdu, “Rightlessness in an Age of Rights: Hannah Arendt and the Contemporary Struggles of Migrants” (Oxford UP, 2015)
26 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
How does one “rethink and revise the key concepts of Hannah Arendt’s political theory in light of the struggles of asylum seekers, refugees, and u...
Sven-Erik Rose, “Jewish Philosophical Politics in Germany, 1789-1848” (Brandeis UP, 2014)
20 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In Jewish Philosophical Politics in Germany, 1789-1848 (Brandeis University Press, 2014), Sven-Erik Rose, Associate Professor of German at the Univers...
Ana Foteva, “Do the Balkans Begin in Vienna? The Geopolitical and Imaginary Borders Between the Balkans and Europe” (Peter Lang, 2014)
19 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Starting with Metternich’s declaration that the Balkans begin at Rennweg (a street in the Third District of Vienna), Ana Foteva draws on novels, pla...
Stefan Ihrig, “Justifying Genocide: Germany and the Armenians from Bismarck to Hitler” (Harvard UP, 2016)
18 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
At least twice in past interview descriptions I’ve used the famous phrase attributed to Hitler: “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation ...
Kenyon Zimmer, “Immigrants Against the State” (U of Illinois Press, 2015)
16 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In Immigrants Against the State: Yiddish and Italian Anarchism in America (University of Illinois, 2015), Kenyon Zimmer, Assistant Professor of Histor...
Jeremy Ahearne, “Government through Culture and the Contemporary French Right” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)
08 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
How did two right wing presidents use culture to govern France? In Government through Culture and the Contemporary French Right (Palgrave Macmillan, 2...
Daniel Tilles, “British Fascist Antisemitism and Jewish Responses, 1932-1940” (Bloomsburg, 2015)
06 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In British Fascist Antisemitism and Jewish Responses, 1932-1940 (Bloomsbury, 2015), Daniel Tilles, Assistant Professor of History at the Pedagogical U...
Kristin Ross, “Communal Luxury: The Political Imaginary of the Paris Commune” (Verso, 2015)
28 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
One hundred and forty-five years ago this week, the French state massacred thousands of its own people during the semaine sanglante (bloody week) of t...
Todd Endelman, “Leaving the Jewish Fold: Conversion and Radical Assimilation in Modern Jewish History” (Princeton UP, 2015)
23 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In Leaving the Jewish Fold: Conversion and Radical Assimilation in Modern Jewish History (Princeton University Press, 2015), Todd Endelman looks acros...
Nicole Rudolph, “At Home in Postwar France: Modern Mass Housing and the Right to Comfort” (Berghahn Books, 2015)
17 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Nicole Rudolph‘s At Home in Postwar France: Modern Mass Housing and the Right to Comfort (Berghahn Books, 2015) contributes to a growing body of sch...
Michael Broer, “Napoleon: Soldier of Destiny” (Pegasus, 2015)
13 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Most biographers writing about the life and achievements of Napoleon Bonaparte have focused on his dramatic personality or his military campaigns. In ...
Ayesha Ramachandran, “Worldmakers: Global Imagining in Early Modern Europe” (U of Chicago Press, 2015)
11 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
At what point does the world end? More importantly, how did this idea of a whole, unified world emerge to begin with? In Worldmakers: Global Imagining...
Robert Holub, “Nietzsche’s Jewish Problem: Between Anti-Semitism and Anti-Judaism” (Princeton UP, 2016)
09 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In Nietzsche’s Jewish Problem: Between Anti-Semitism and Anti-Judaism (Princeton University Press, 2016), Robert Holub, Ohio Eminent Scholar and Pro...
Ingrid Carlberg, “Raoul Wallenberg: The Biography” (MacLehose Press, 2016)
04 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
What makes a person? What makes an act heroic? And what determines a person’s fate? These are the questions driving the narrative in Ingrid Carlberg...
John M. Efron, “German Jewry and the Allure of the Sephardic” (Princeton UP, 2016)
29 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In German Jewry and the Allure of the Sephardic (Princeton University Press, 2016), John M. Efron, Koret Professor of Jewish History at the University...
Michael Goebel, “Anti-Imperial Metropolis: Interwar Paris and the Seeds of Third World Nationalism” (Cambridge UP, 2015)
28 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Goebel‘s Anti-Imperial Metropolis: Interwar Paris and the Seeds of Third World Nationalism (Cambridge University Press, 2015) thinks globall...
Seth Kimmel, “Parables of Coercion: Conversion and Knowledge at the End of Islamic Spain” (U of Chicago Press, 2015)
08 Apr 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In his path clearing new book, Parables of Coercion: Conversion and Knowledge at the End of Islamic Spain (University of Chicago Press, 2015), Seth Ki...
Suzanne Brown-Fleming, “Nazi Persecution and Postwar Repercussions” (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016)
31 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Suzanne Brown-Fleming suggests that most people think the archives of the International Tracing Service is largely a list of names and addresses. I wa...
Daniella Doron, “Jewish Youth and Identity in Postwar France: Rebuilding Family and Nation” (Indiana UP, 2015)
21 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In Jewish Youth and Identity in Postwar France: Rebuilding Family and Nation (Indiana UP, 2015), Daniella Doron, Lecturer in Holocaust and Genocide St...
Robert Priest, “The Gospel According to Renan: Reading, Writing, and Religion in Nineteenth-Century France” (Oxford UP, 2014)
10 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Priest‘s The Gospel According to Renan: Reading, Writing, and Religion in Nineteenth-Century France (Oxford University Press, 2014) is a fasc...
James Nott, “Going to the Palais: A Social and Cultural History of Dancing and Dance Halls in Britain, 1918-1960” (Oxford UP, 2016)
02 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book Going to the Palais: A Social and Cultural History of Dancing and Dance Halls in Britain, 1918-1960 (Oxford University Press, 2016), c...
Kennetta H. Perry, “London is the Place for Me: Black Britons, Citizenship, and the Politics of Race (Oxford UP, 2015)
02 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Between the late 1940s and the early 1960s, hundreds of thousands of people from the British Commonwealth migrated the United Kingdom with plans to se...
Justin E. H. Smith, “Nature, Human Nature, and Human Difference: Race in Early Modern Philosophy” (Princeton UP, 2015)
02 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Justin E. H. Smith‘s new book is a fascinating historical ontology of notions of racial difference in the work of early modern European writers. Nat...
Stefan Ihrig, “Ataturk in the Nazi Imagination” (Harvard UP, 2014)
24 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In Ataturk in the Nazi Imagination (Harvard University Press, 2014), historian Stefan Ihrig examines the history of Mustafa Kemal and Republican Turke...
Caroline Shaw, “Britannia’s Embrace: Modern Humanitarianism and the Imperial Origins of Refugee Relief” (Oxford UP, 2015)
16 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Published in October 2015, Caroline Shaw‘s timely new book, Britannia’s Embrace: Modern Humanitarianism and the Imperial Origins of Refugee Relief...
Carin Berkowitz, “Charles Bell and the Anatomy of Reform” (University of Chicago Press, 2015)
16 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Carin Berkowitz‘s new book takes readers into the world of nineteenth century London to explore the landscape of medicine and surgery along with Cha...
Timothy Snyder, “Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning” (Tim Duggan Books, 2015)
28 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
It’s rare when an academic historian breaks through and becomes a central part of the contemporary cultural conversation. Timothy Snyder does just ...
Nicholas Walton, “Genoa, ‘La Superba’: The Rise and Fall of a Merchant Pirate Superpower” (Hurst, 2015)
19 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Italians have a reputation for being rather, well, ineffectual. Everyone ‘knows’ that Italian trains don’t run on time unless Italy is ruled by ...
Erik Linstrum, “Ruling Minds: Psychology in the British Empire” (Harvard UP, 2016)
30 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In Ruling Minds: Psychology in the British Empire (Harvard University Press, 2016), Erik Linstrum examines how the field of psychology was employed in...
Elizabeth M. Williams, “The Politics of Race in Britain and South Africa” (I. B. Tauris, 2015)
18 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In 1951 a West-Indian seaman was killed in Cape Town by two white policemen. His murder had initiated protests and demonstrations in the Caribbean and...
Sarah Maza, “Violette Noziere: A Story of Murder in 1930s Paris” (U. of California Press, 2012)
18 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
On August 21, 1933, the teenaged Violette Noziere attempted to kill both her parents. At first, seemingly so clearcut, the case ultimately came to be...
Peter Thorsheim, “Waste into Weapons: Recycling in Britain during the Second World War” (Cambridge UP, 2015)
17 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In Waste into Weapons: Recycling in Britain during the Second World War (Cambridge University Press 2015), Peter Thorsheim explores the role of waste ...
Brian P. Copenhaver, “Magic in Western Culture: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment” (Cambridge UP, 2015 )
15 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Belief in magic was pervasive in Greco-Roman times, persisted through the Renaissance, and then fell off the map of intellectual respectability in the...
Kim Wunschmann, “Before Auschwitz: Jewish Prisoners in the Prewar Concentration Camps” (Harvard University Press 2015)
12 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In Before Auschwitz: Jewish Prisoners in the Prewar Concentration Camps (Harvard University Press, 2015), Kim Wunschmann, DAAD Lecturer in Modern Euro...