New Books in Western European Studies

Burkhard Bilger, "Fatherland: A Memoir of War, Conscience, and Family Secrets" (Random House, 2023)

08 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A New Yorker staff writer investigates his grandfather, a Nazi Party Chief, in this “unflinching, gorgeously written, and deeply moving exploration ...

Hannah Carlson, "Pockets: An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close" (Algonquin Books, 2023)

06 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It’s a subject that stirs up plenty of passion: Why do men’s clothes have so many pockets and women’s so few? In her captivating book Pockets: ...

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...

Guy Miron, "Space and Time Under Persecution: The German-Jewish Experience in the Third Reich" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

06 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The rapid and radical transformations of the Nazi Era challenged the ways German Jews experienced space and time, two of the most fundamental characte...

Christopher A. Whatley and Joanna Hambly, "Salt: Scotland's Newest Oldest Industry" (Birlinn, 2023)

05 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Salt is a vital commodity. For many centuries it sustained life for Scots as seasoning for a diet dominated by grains (mainly oats), and for preservat...

Hilary French, "Ballroom: A People’s History of Dancing" (Reaktion Books, 2022)

05 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the early twentieth century, American ragtime and the Parisian tango fuelled a dancing craze in Britain. Public ballrooms were built throughout the...

Genealogies of Modernity Episode 1: Climbing the Mountains of Modernity

05 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We all know many stories about how modernity came about. But what does it mean to be “modern”? This episode comes at the question through the test...

Simon Joyce, "LGBT Victorians: Sexuality and Gender in the Nineteenth-Century Archives" (Oxford UP, 2022)

05 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It has been decades since Michel Foucault urged us to rethink "the repressive hypothesis" and see new forms of sexual discourse as coming into being i...

The Future of the State: A Discussion with Graeme Garrard

04 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Reagan-Thatcher neoliberal era started the retreat of the state. Privatisation and deregulation meant power was handed over to corporations and ma...

Anna M. Grzymała-Busse, "Sacred Foundations: The Religious and Medieval Roots of the European State" (Princeton UP, 2023)

03 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Sacred Foundations: The Religious and Medieval Roots of the European State (Princeton University Press, 2023), political scientist Anna Grzymała...

Daniel Jütte, "Transparency: The Material History of an Idea" (Yale UP, 2023)

01 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Transparency is a mantra of our day. It is key to the Western understanding of a liberal society. We expect transparency from, for instance, political...

D. L. d'Avray, "The Power of Protocol: Diplomatics and the Dynamics of Papal Government, c. 400-c.1600" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Power of Protocol: Diplomatics and the Dynamics of Papal Government, c. 400 – c.1600 (Cambridge University Press, 2023) by Dr. David d’Avray ...

Poppy Corbett et al., "Creative Histories of Witchcraft: France, 1790–1940" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How can researchers study magic without destroying its mystery? Drawing on a collaborative project between the playwright Dr. Poppy Corbett, the poet ...

Sandra Destradi, "Reluctance in World Politics: Why States Fail to Act Decisively" (Bristol UP, 2023)

30 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why do international actors, including powerful states, often fail to develop clear foreign policies and instead adopt indecisive, ‘muddling-through...

Jürgen Zimmerer, "Memory Wars: New German Historical Consciousness" (Reclam Verlag, 2023)

29 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Erinnerungskämpfe: Neues deutsches Geschichtsbewusstsein (Ditzingen: Reclam, 2023) is a new, provocative volume on German memory cultures and poli...

Charles S. Maier, "The Project-State and Its Rivals: A New History of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries" (Harvard UP, 2023)

29 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We thought we knew the story of the twentieth century. For many in the West, after the two world conflicts and the long cold war, the verdict was clea...

Richard Schoch, "Shakespeare’s House: A Window onto his Life and Legacy" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

29 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the wide realm of Shakespeare worship, the house in Stratford-upon-Avon where William Shakespeare was born in 1564 – known colloquially as the 'B...

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 ...

G. H. Bennett, "The War for England's Shores: S-Boats and the Fight Against British Coastal Convoys" (US Naval Institute Press, 2023)

27 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The War for England's Shores: S-Boats and the Fight Against British Coastal Convoys (US Naval Institute Press, 2023) by Dr. G. H. Bennett examines th...

Peter Bellerby, "The Globemakers: The Curious Story of an Ancient Craft" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

27 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Bellerby is the founder of Bellerby & Co. Globemakers, the world's only truly bespoke makers of globes. His team of skilled craftspeople make ex...

E. T. Dailey, "Radegund: The Trials and Triumphs of a Merovingian Queen" (Oxford UP, 2023)

26 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A princess born to the Thuringian royal house. A captive in war, forced to marry the Frankish king who killed her family. A queen, who renounced her p...

Tabitha Stanmore, "Love Spells and Lost Treasure: Service Magic in England from the Later Middle Ages to the Early Modern Era" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

24 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Magic is ubiquitous across the world and throughout history. Yet if witchcraft is acknowledged as a persistent presence in the medieval and early mode...

Jenny Benham, "International Law in Europe, 700–1200" (Manchester UP, 2022)

24 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Was there international law in the Middle Ages? Using treaties as its main source, International Law in Europe, 700-1200 (Manchester University Pres...

Sarah E. Stoller, "Inventing the Working Parent: Work, Gender, and Feminism in Neoliberal Britain" (MIT Press, 2023)

24 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah E. Stoller, Inventing the Working Parent: Work, Gender, and Feminism in Neoliberal Britain (MIT Press, 2023) is the first historical examinati...

Ruth Dalton, "Living in Houses: A Personal History English Domestic Architecture" (Lund Humphries, 2022)

22 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Living in Houses: A Personal History of English Domestic Architecture (Lund Humphries, 2022), Dr. Ruth Dalton presents a rich and rewarding histo...

Ina Rupprecht, ed., "Persecution, Collaboration, Resistance: Music in the ‘Reichskommissariat Norwegen’ (1940–45)" (Waxmann Verlag, 2020)

21 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Germany invaded Norway on 9 April 1940, the long lasting bilateral relations changed fundamentally. Immediately, the administration of the ‘Rei...

Amy Harris, "Being Single in Georgian England: Families, Households, and the Unmarried" (Oxford UP, 2023)

21 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Being Single in Georgian England: Families, Households, and the Unmarried (Oxford University Press, 2023) by Dr. Amy Harris is the first book-length ...

Joe Lane, "Networks, Innovation, and Knowledge: the North Staffordshire Potteries, 1750-1851" (U of London, 2023)

20 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the industrial district of the North Staffordshire Potteries dominated the British earthenware industr...

Lidia Katia C. Manzo, "Gentrification and Diversity: Rebranding Milan's Chinatown" (Springer, 2023)

20 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lidia Katia C. Manzo's book Gentrification and Diversity: Rebranding Milan's Chinatown (Springer, 2023) examines lived experiences of making, inhab...

Andrew Brandel, "Moving Words: Literature, Memory, and Migration in Berlin" (U Toronto Press, 2023)

19 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Berlin has re-emerged as a global city in large part thanks to its reputation as a literary city –...

Christopher Lazarski, "Lord Acton for Our Time" (Northern Illinois UP, 2023)

18 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Extracting lessons for our current age, Christopher Lazarski focuses on liberty--how Acton understood it, what he thought was its foundation and neces...

Matthew F. Jordan, "Danger Sound Klaxon!: The Horn That Changed History" (U Virginia Press, 2023)

17 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Danger Sound Klaxon!:The Horn That Changed History (University of Virginia Press, 2023) reveals the untold story of the Klaxon automobile horn, one o...

Jonathan Greenaway, "Theology, Horror and Fiction: A Reading of the Gothic Nineteenth Century" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

15 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When one thinks of your typical horror movie and it’s usual imagery, a number of tropes may come forward. Graveyards behind old cathedrals, crucifix...

Rebecca Hardie, "Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, and Women in Tenth-Century England" (Medieval Institute Publications, 2021)

14 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Æthelflæd (c. 870–918), political leader, military strategist, and administrator of law, is one of the most important ruling women in English hist...

Emma R. Jones, "Being as Relation in Luce Irigaray" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)

13 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Many scholars have struggled with Irigaray’s focus on sexuate difference, in particular with her claim that it is “ontological,” wondering if th...

Don Hollway, "Battle for the Island Kingdom: The Struggle for England's Destiny 1000-1066" (Osprey, 2023)

12 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In a saga reminiscent of Game of Thrones and Battle for the Island Kingdom: The Struggle for England's Destiny 1000-1066 (Osprey, 2023) reveals t...

Clive Young, "Unlocking Scots: The Secret Life of the Scots Language" (Luath Press, 2023)

12 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Unlocking Scots: The Secret Life of the Scots Language (Luath, 2023), Dr. Clive Young sets out to uncover the secret life of Scots – the centur...

Elizabeth DeYoung, "Power, Politics and Territory in the ‘New Northern Ireland’" (Liverpool UP, 2023)

11 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the wake of the Good Friday Agreement, the redevelopment of the former Girdwood Army Barracks in North Belfast was hailed as a ‘symbol of hope’...

Barry Reay and Nina Attwood, "Dirty Books: Erotic Fiction and the Avant-garde in Mid-century Paris and New York" (Manchester UP, 2023)

10 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From the 1930s to the 1970s, in New York and in Paris, daring publishers and writers were producing banned pornographic literature. The books were wri...

Writing the History of Money and Monetary Policy

08 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What do the histories of currency and monetary policy tell us about societies at large, political structures, and cultures? Ekaterina Pravilova and ...

Helen Fry, "Women in Intelligence: The Hidden History of Two World Wars" (Yale UP, 2023)

07 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From the twentieth century onward, women took on an extraordinary range of roles in intelligence, defying the conventions of their time. Across both w...

Vicki Howard, ed., "A Cultural History of Shopping in the Modern Age" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

07 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, I talk to Vicki Howard and Sarah Elvins, both contributors to Volume 6 of the anthology A Cultural History of Shopping. Jon Stobart...

Rory Coulter, "Housing and Life Course Dynamics: Changing Lives, Places and Inequalities" (Policy Press, 2023)

06 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Deepening inequalities and wider processes of demographic, economic, and social change are altering how people across the Global North move between ho...

Jan Selling, "Romani Liberation: A Northern Perspective on Emancipatory Struggles and Progress" (Central European UP, 2022)

05 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Well-known for his work in Critical Romani Studies, Jan Selling talks with Lavinia Stan about his latest book. Centered on Scandinavia, Romani Liber...

Michael Custodis, "Music and Resistance: Cultural Defense During the German Occupation of Norway 1940-45" (Waxmann Verlag, 2021)

02 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The role of music during the German occupation of Norway (1940-45) proves to be an exceptional case for cultural opposition in a dictatorship. Few fam...

Jennifer Saltzstein, "Song, Landscape, and Identity in Medieval Northern France: Toward an Environmental History" (Oxford UP, 2023)

01 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Song, Landscape, and Identity in Medieval Northern France: Toward an Environmental History (Oxford University Press, 2023) investigates how northern ...

Joseph Brady and Paul Ferguson, "Dublin: Mapping the City" (Birlinn, 2023)

31 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Maps are essential tools in finding our way around, but they also tell stories and are great depositories of information. Until the twentieth century ...

Leonie Hannan, "A Culture of Curiosity: Science in the Eighteenth-Century Home" (Manchester UP, 2023)

30 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Leonie Hannan's book Culture of Curiosity: Science in the Eighteenth Century Home (Manchester University Press, 2023) explores the practice of scie...

Utsa Mukherjee, "Race, Class, Parenting and Children's Leisure: Children's Leisurescapes and Parenting Cultures in Middle-Class British Indian Families" (Policy Press, 2022)

29 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Children's leisure lives are changing, with increasing dominance of organised activities and screen-based leisure. These shifts have reconfigured pare...

Simone Varriale, "Coloniality and Meritocracy in Unequal EU Migrations: Intersecting Inequalities in Post-2008 Italian Migration" (Bristol UP, 2023)

29 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How do migrants make sense of migration? In Coloniality and Meritocracy in unequal EU migrations: Intersecting Inequalities in Post-2008 Italian Migr...

Chet Van Duzer, "Frames That Speak: Cartouches on Early Modern Maps" (Brill, 2023)

29 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Frames That Speak: Cartouches on Early Modern Maps (Brill, 2023) is the first systematic exploration of cartographic cartouches, the decorated fram...

Adam Bisno, "Big Business and the Crisis of German Democracy: Liberalism and the Grand Hotels of Berlin, 1875-1933" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

28 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Through the colorful world of Berlin’s grand hotels, this book charts a new history of German liberalism and explores the changing relationships amo...

Trenton W. Holliday, "Cro-Magnon: The Story of the Last Ice Age People of Europe" (Columbia UP, 2023)

23 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

During the Last Ice Age, Europe was a cold, dry place teeming with mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, reindeer, bison, cave bears, cave hyenas, and cave l...

Sebastian Huebel, "Fighter, Worker, and Family Man: German-Jewish Men and Their Gendered Experiences in Nazi Germany, 1933–1941" (U Toronto Press, 2022)

23 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When the Nazis came to power, they used various strategies to expel German Jews from social, cultural, and economic life. Fighter, Worker, and Family...

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 ...

Rosie Harte, "The Royal Wardrobe: Peek into the Wardrobes of History's Most Fashionable Royals" (Headline, 2023)

22 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Fashion for the royal family has long been one of their most powerful weapons. Every item of their clothing is imbued with meaning, history and majest...

Sonja K. Pieck, "Mnemonic Ecologies: Memory and Nature Conservation along the Former Iron Curtain" (MIT Press, 2023)

22 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The first book-length scholarly treatment of Germany's largest conservation project, the Green Belt, Mnemonic Ecologies: Memory and Nature Conservati...

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...

Grant H. Kester, "The Sovereign Self: Aesthetic Autonomy from the Enlightenment to the Avant-Garde" (Duke UP, 2023)

21 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In The Sovereign Self: Aesthetic Autonomy from the Enlightenment to the Avant-Garde (Duke UP, 2023), Grant Kester examines the evolving discourse of...

Corry Cropper and Seth Whidden, "Velocipedomania: A Cultural History of the Velocipede in France" (Bucknell UP, 2022)

21 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by Corry Cropper, a Professor of French at Brigham Young University, and one of two authors, alongside Seth Whidden, of Velociped...

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...

Livia Arndal Woods, "Pregnancy in the Victorian Novel" (Ohio State UP, 2023)

18 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Pregnancy in the Victorian Novel (Ohio State University Press, 2023), Livia Arndal Woods traces the connections between literary treatments of pr...

Christopher Phillips, "Civilian Specialists at War: Britain's Transport Experts and the First World War" (U London Press, 2020)

17 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

World War I was the first great general conflict to be fought between highly industrial societies able to manufacture and transport immense quantities...

Onyeka Nubia, "England’s Other Countrymen: Black Tudor Society" (Bloomsbury, 2019)

17 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Tudor period remains a source of timeless fascination, with endless novels, TV programmes and films depicting the period in myriad ways. And yet o...

Tom Gallagher, "Europe's Leadership Famine: Portraits of Defiance and Decay 1950-2022" (Scotview, 2023)

16 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Tom Gallagher about his new book Europe's Leadership Famine: Portraits of Defiance and Decay 1950-2022 (Scotview, 2023). Represe...

Branko Milanovic, "Visions of Inequality: From the French Revolution to the End of the Cold War" (Harvard UP, 2023)

16 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"How do you see income distribution in your time, and how and why do you expect it to change?" That is the question Branko Milanovic imagines posing t...

Michael Taylor, "The Interest: How the British Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery" (Bodley Head, 2021)

15 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1807, Parliament outlawed the slave trade in the British Empire, but for the next quarter of a century, despite heroic and bloody rebellions, more ...

Anne Duggan, "The Lost Princess: Women Writers and the History of Classic Fairy Tales" (Reaktion Books, 2023)

14 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In The Lost Princess: Women Writers and the History of Classic Fairy Tales (Reaktion, 2023), Dr. Anne Duggan presents a recovery of the lost, plucky...

Jana Randow and Alessandro Speciale, "Mario Draghi, the Craftsman: The True Story of the Man Who Saved the Euro" (Rizzoli, 2019)

14 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"Within our mandate, the [European Central Bank] is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will be enough". With tho...

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...

The History of Liberalism: A Conversation with Alan Kahan ‘80

10 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What is liberalism, and what thinkers shaped it? Does it take a stance on moral and religious issues? What is its relationship with nationalism and po...

Julian Goodare and Martha McGill, "The Supernatural in Early Modern Scotland" (Manchester UP, 2023)

09 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Julian Goodare and Martha McGill's edited volume The Supernatural in Early Modern Scotland (Manchester UP, 2023) is about other worlds and the super...

Books in Early Modern Europe

07 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

If you are reading this, it’s probably hard—nearly impossible—to imagine a world without writing—without print, books, newspapers, signs, graf...

Benjamin Savill, "England and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages: Papal Privileges in European Perspective, C. 680-1073" (Oxford UP, 2023)

06 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

England and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages: Papal Privileges in European Perspective, c. 680-1073 (Oxford University Press, 2023) by Dr. Benjami...

Laura Gowing, "Ingenious Trade: Women and Work in Seventeenth-Century London" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

05 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ingenious Trade: Women and Work in Seventeenth-Century London (Cambridge University Press, 2021) by Dr. Laura Gowing recovers the intricate stories o...

Ole Kristian Grimnes, "Norway in the Second World War: Politics, Society and Conflict" (Bloombury, 2022)

04 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Covering political, military, economic and social history, Norway in the Second World War: Politics, Society and Conflict (Bloombury, 2020) is the m...

Kristin Semmens, "Under the Swastika in Nazi Germany" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Under the Swastika in Nazi Germany (Bloomsbury, 2023) begins in flames in 1933 with Adolf Hitler taking power and ends in the ashes of total defeat i...

Claudine Chavannes-Mazel and Linda Ijpelaar, "The Green Middle Ages: The Depiction and Use of Plants in the Western World 600-1600" (Amsterdam UP, 2023)

02 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How 'green' were people in late antiquity and the Middle Ages? Unlike today, the nature around them was approached with faith, trust and care. The pop...

Derk Venema, "Supreme Courts Under Nazi Occupation" (Amsterdam UP, 2022)

01 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Derk Venema's edited volume Supreme Courts Under Nazi Occupation (Amsterdam UP, 2022) is the first extensive treatment of leading judicial institut...

Michelle Karnes, "Medieval Marvels and Fictions in the Latin West and Islamic World" (U Chicago Press, 2022)

30 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Marvels like enchanted rings and sorcerers’ stones were topics of fascination in the Middle Ages, not only in romance and travel literature but also...

Martina Mampieri, "Living Under the Evil Pope: The Hebrew Chronicle of Pope Paul IV by Benjamin Neḥemiah Ben Elnathan from Civitanova Marche (Brill, 2019)

30 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Living under the Evil Pope (Brill, 2019), Martina Mampieri presents the Hebrew Chronicle of Pope Paul IV, written in the second half of the six...

Sirpa Salenius, "An Abolitionist Abroad: Sarah Parker Remond in Cosmopolitan Europe" (U Massachusetts Press, 2016)

27 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sarah Parker Remond (1826–1894) left the free black community of Salem, Massachusetts, where she was born, to become one of the first women to trave...

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 ...

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...

Damani Partridge, "Blackness As a Universal Claim: Holocaust Heritage, Noncitizen Futures, and Black Power in Berlin" (U California Press, 2022)

24 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this bold and provocative new book, Blackness as a Universal Claim: Holocaust Heritage, Noncitizen Futures, and Black Power in Berlin (University...

Tracy Rutler, "Queering the Enlightenment: Kinship and Gender in Eighteenth-Century French Literature" (Oxford UP/Liverpool UP, 2021)

23 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tracy Rutler's Queering the Enlightenment: Kinship and Gender in Eighteenth-Century French Literature (Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenmen...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Rachel Chrastil, "Bismarck's War: The Franco-Prussian War and the Making of Modern Europe" (Basic Book, 2023)

17 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Among the conflicts that convulsed Europe during the nineteenth century, none was more startling and consequential than the Franco-Prussian War of 187...

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...

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

15 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 ...

Jacob Abell, "Spiritual and Material Boundaries in Old French Verse: Contemplating the Walls of the Earthly Paradise" (Medieval Institute Publications, 2023)

14 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Earthly Paradise was a vibrant symbol at the heart of medieval Christian geographies of the cosmos. As humanity’s primal home now lost through t...

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...

Matthew McManus, "The Political Right and Equality: Turning Back the Tide of Egalitarian Modernity" (Routledge, 2023)

13 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

McManus presents an intellectual history of the conservative and reactionary tradition, stretching from Aristotle and Filmer to Alexander Dugin and Pa...

Neil Tarrant, "Defining Nature's Limits: The Roman Inquisition and the Boundaries of Science" (U Chicago Press, 2022)

13 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Neil Tarrant challenges conventional thinking by looking at the longer history of censorship, considering a five-hundred-year continuity of goals and ...

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...