New Books with Miranda Melcher
Episodes
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 ...
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...
Roma Agrawal, "Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way)" (Norton, 2023)
19 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Smartphones, skyscrapers, spacecraft. Modern technology seems mind-bogglingly complex. But beneath the surface, it can be beautifully simple. In Nuts...
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...
Jieun Kiaer, "Emoji Speak: Communication and Behaviours on Social Media" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
16 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Emoji Speak: Communication and Behaviours on Social Media (Bloomsbury, 2023) by Dr. Jieun Kiaer provides an in-depth discussion of emoji use in a glo...
Boaventura de Sousa Santos, "From the Pandemic to Utopia: The Future Begins Now" (Routledge, 2023)
11 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The coronavirus pandemic forces us to rethink our contemporaneity. It has brought to the surface dimensions of human fragility that partially contradi...
Keren Winterford et al., "Reframing Aid: A Strengths-Based Approach for International Development" (Practical Action, 2023)
10 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The practice of international development continues to change as more is understood about what works. A shift from a deficit or problem-solving approa...
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...
Benjamin Meiches, "Nonhuman Humanitarians: Animal Interventions in Global Politics" (U Minnesota Press, 2023)
07 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Both critical and mainstream scholarly work on humanitarianism have largely been framed from anthropocentric perspectives highlighting humanity as the...
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...
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...
Melissa Gatter, "Time and Power in Azraq Refugee Camp: A Nine-to-Five Emergency" (American University in Cairo Press, 2023)
28 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Azraq refugee camp, built in 2014 and host to forty thousand refugees, is one of two official humanitarian refugee camps for Syrian refugees in Jordan...
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...
Brigitte Buettner, "The Mineral and the Visual: Precious Stones in Medieval Secular Culture" (Penn State UP, 2022)
23 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Opulent jewelled objects ranked among the most highly valued works of art in the European Middle Ages. At the same time, precious stones prompted soph...
Sheila Miyoshi Jager, "The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia" (Harvard UP, 2023)
23 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Sheila Miyoshi Jager presents dramatic new telling of the dawn of modern East Asia, placing Korea at the center of a transformed world order wroug...
Penny M. Von Eschen, "Paradoxes of Nostalgia: Cold War Triumphalism and Global Disorder Since 1989" (Duke UP, 2022)
19 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Paradoxes of Nostalgia: Cold War Triumphalism and Global Disorder since 1989 (Duke University Press, 2022) Dr. Penny M. Von Eschen offers a sweep...
Ariane Chebel d'Appollonia, "Violent America: The Dynamics of Identity Politics in a Multiracial Society" (Cornell UP, 2023)
18 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Violent America: The Dynamics of Identity Politics in a Multiracial Society (Cornell University Press, 2023), Dr. Ariane Chebel d'Appollonia coun...
Meg Bernhard, "Wine" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
15 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Meg Bernhard about her new book Wine (Bloomsbury, 2023). Agricultural product and cultural commodity, drink of ritual and drink of...
Randall Patnode, "The Synchronized Society: Time and Control From Broadcasting to the Internet" (Rutgers UP, 2023)
12 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Synchronized Society: Time and Control From Broadcasting to the Internet (Rutgers University Press, 2023) by Dr. Randall Patnode traces the histo...
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 ...
Rebecca Scharbach Wollenberg, "The Closed Book: How the Rabbis Taught the Jews (Not) to Read the Bible" (Princeton UP, 2023)
08 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Early Judaism is often described as the religion of the book par excellence—a movement built around the study of the Bible and steeped in a culture ...
Dinah Hannaford, "Aid and the Help: International Development and the Transnational Extraction of Care" (Stanford UP, 2023)
07 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Hiring domestic workers is a routine part of the expat development lifestyle. Whether working for the United Nations, governmental aid agencies, or NG...
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 ...
Samuel Helfont, "Iraq Against the World: Saddam, America, and the Post-Cold War Order" (Oxford UP, 2023)
30 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The move away from post-Cold War unipolarity and the rise of revisionist states like Russia and China pose a rapidly escalating and confounding threat...
Mark Harrison, "Secret Leviathan: Secrecy and State Capacity under Soviet Communism" (Stanford UP, 2023)
28 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Soviet Union was one of the most secretive states that ever existed. Defended by a complex apparatus of rules and checks administered by the secre...
Ngaire Naffine, "Criminal Law and the Man Problem" (Bloomsbury, 2020)
23 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Men have always dominated the most basic precepts of the criminal legal world – its norms, its priorities and its character. Men have been the regul...
James Hannam, "The Globe: How the Earth Became Round" (Reaktion Books, 2023)
22 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In The Globe: How the Earth Became Round (Reaktion, 2023), Dr. James Hannam presents a history of how we came to know that the earth is round, rathe...
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,...
Nicole Wegner, "Martialling Peace: How the Peacekeeper Myth Legitimises Warfare" (Edinburgh UP, 2023)
18 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Martialling Peace: How the Peacekeeper Myth Legitimises Warfare (Edinburgh University Press, 2023) by Dr. Nicole Wegner is not a book about peacekeep...
Margot Tudor, "Blue Helmet Bureaucrats: United Nations Peacekeeping and the Reinvention of Colonialism, 1945–1971" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
17 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Blue Helmet Bureaucrats: United Nations Peacekeeping and the Reinvention of Colonialism, 1945–1971 (Cambridge University Press, 2023) by Dr. Margot...
Vera Keller, "The Interlopers: Early Stuart Projects and the Undisciplining of Knowledge" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2023)
17 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Many accounts of the scientific revolution portray it as a time when scientists disciplined knowledge by first disciplining their own behavior. Accord...
Robert Aldrich and Andreas Stucki, "The Colonial World: A History of European Empires, 1780s to the Present" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
12 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Colonial World: A History of European Empires, 1780s to the Present (Bloomsbury, 2023) by Dr. Robert Aldrich and Dr. Andreas Stucki provides the ...
Celia Fisher, "The Story of Follies: Architectures of Eccentricity" (Reaktion Books, 2022)
04 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In The Story of Follies: Architectures of Eccentricity (Reaktion, 2023), Celia Fisher presents an amusing, informative guide to a fanciful and charm...
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...
Yang Va Lor, "Unequal Choices: How Social Class Shapes Where High-Achieving Students Apply to College" (Rutgers UP, 2023)
30 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
High-achieving students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to end up at less selective institutions compared to their so...
Naoíse Mac Sweeney, "The West: A New History of an Old Idea" (Dutton, 2023)
27 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Naoíse Mac Sweeney presents a radical new account of how the idea of the West has shaped our history, told through the stories of fourteen fascin...
Saskia Coenen Snyder, "A Brilliant Commodity: Diamonds and Jews in a Modern Setting" (Oxford UP, 2022)
25 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
During the late nineteenth century, tens of thousands of diggers, prospectors, merchants, and dealers extracted and shipped over 50 million carats of ...
Robert F. Trager and Joslyn N. Barnhart, "The Suffragist Peace: How Women's Votes Lead to Fewer Wars" (Oxford UP, 2022)
25 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the modern age, some parts of the world are experiencing a long peace. Nuclear weapons, capitalism and the widespread adoption of democratic instit...
Rosamond McKitterick, "Rome and the Invention of the Papacy: The Liber Pontificalis" (Cambridge UP, 2020)
23 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The remarkable, and permanently influential, papal history known as the Liber pontificalis shaped perceptions and the memory of Rome, the popes, and t...
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...
Natalie Koch, "Arid Empire: The Entangled Fates of Arizona and Arabia" (Verso, 2023)
22 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The iconic deserts of the American southwest could not have been colonized and settled without the help of desert experts from the Middle East. For ex...
Claire Provost and Matt Kennard, "Silent Coup: How Corporations Overthrew Democracy" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
17 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As European empires crumbled in the 20th century, the power structures that had dominated the world for centuries were up for renegotiation. Yet inste...
Victoria Bateman, "Naked Feminism: Breaking the Cult of Female Modesty" (Polity Press, 2023)
16 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Is it right that, despite the promises of feminism, women’s bodies remain at the mercy of state, society and religion? Should a scantily clad woman,...
Aarie Glas, "Practicing Peace: Conflict Management in Southeast Asia and South America" (Oxford UP, 2022)
15 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Southeast Asia and South America are regions made up of largely illiberal states lacking stabilizing great powers or collective identities. But despit...
Allison Christine Meier, "Grave" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
14 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Grave (Bloomsbury, 2023) by Allison C. Meier takes a ground-level view of how burial sites have transformed over time and how they continue to change...
Naomi McDougall Jones, "The Wrong Kind of Women: Inside Our Revolution to Dismantle the Gods of Hollywood" (Beacon, 2020)
12 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Wrong Kind of Women: Inside Our Revolution to Dismantle the Gods of Hollywood (Beacon, 2020) by Naomi McDougall Jones is a brutally honest look a...
Leah Phillips, "Female Heroes in Young Adult Fantasy Fiction: Reframing Myths of Adolescent Girlhood" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
11 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The heroic romance is one of the West's most enduring narratives, found everywhere, from religion and myth to blockbuster films and young adult litera...
Britta K. Ager, "The Scent of Ancient Magic" (U Michigan Press, 2022)
10 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Magic was a fundamental part of the Greco-Roman world. Curses, erotic spells, healing charms, divination, and other supernatural methods of trying to ...
Felix Flicker, "The Magick of Physics: Uncovering the Fantastical Phenomena in Everyday Life" (Simon and Schuster, 2023)
02 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
If you were to present the feats of modern science to someone from the past, those feats would surely be considered magic. In The Magick of Physics: ...
Tim Clarkson, "A Mighty Fleet and the King's Power: The Isle of Man, AD 400 To 1265" (John Donald, 2023)
02 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Situated in the middle of the Irish Sea, the Isle of Man is like a stepping-stone between the lands that surround it. In medieval times, it played an ...
Elizabeth Elbourne, "Empire, Kinship and Violence: Family Histories, Indigenous Rights and the Making of Settler Colonialism, 1770-1842" (Cambridge UP., 2022)
21 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Empire, Kinship and Violence: Family Histories, Indigenous Rights and the Making of Settler Colonialism, 1770-1842 (Cambridge University Press, 2022)...
Kathryn Cornell Dolan, "Breakfast Cereal: A Global History" (Reaktion Books, 2023)
19 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Breakfast Cereal: A Global History (Reaktion, 2023) by Dr. Kathryn Dolan presents the long, distinguished and surprising history of breakfast cereal....
Barbara Sjoholm, "From Lapland to Sápmi: Collecting and Returning Sámi Craft and Culture" (U Minnesota Press, 2023)
19 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Material objects—things made, used, and treasured—tell the story of a people and place. So it is for the Indigenous Sámi living in Norway, Sweden...
Charles Read, "Calming the Storms: The Carry Trade, the Banking School and British Financial Crises Since 1825" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023)
17 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Calming the Storms: The Carry Trade, the Banking School and British Financial Crises Since 1825 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) by Dr. Charles Read expose...
Lachlan McNamee, "Settling for Less: Why States Colonize and Why They Stop" (Princeton UP, 2023)
12 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past few centuries, vast areas of the world have been violently colonized by settlers. But why did states like Australia and the United State...
John Miller, "The Heart of the Forest: Why Woods Matter" (British LIbrary, 2022)
12 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Heart of the Forest: Why Woods Matter (British Library, 2022) looks at threats to forest life across the globe. Dr. John Miller draws on literatu...
Michelle McSweeney, "OK" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
11 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"OK" as a word accepts proposals, describes the world as satisfactory (but not good), provides conversational momentum, or even agrees (or disagrees)....
Kate Strasdin, "The Dress Diary: Secrets from a Victorian Woman’s Wardrobe" (Pegasus Books, 2023)
10 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Dress Diary: Secrets from a Victorian Woman’s Wardrobe (Penguin, 2023) by Dr. Kate Strasdin presents the hidden fabric of a Victorian woman's l...
Antero Garcia, "All through the Town: The School Bus as Educational Technology" (U Minnesota Press, 2023)
06 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Everyone knows the yellow school bus. It’s been invisible and also omnipresent for a century. Dr. Antero Garcia shows how the U.S. school bus, its f...
Sara Rich, "Mushroom" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
25 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
They are the things we step on without noticing and the largest organisms on Earth. They are symbols of inexplicable growth and excruciating misery. T...
Chrisanthi Giotis, "Borderland: Decolonizing the Words of War" (Oxford UP, 2022)
20 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Every two seconds a person is displaced, caught in one of the more than 40 active conflicts around the world that show no sign of ending. Since 1994, ...
Alexis James, "Unsung: Not All Heroes Wear Kits" (Pitch Publishing, 2023)
20 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Unsung: Not all Heroes Wear Kits (Pitch Publishing, 2022) by Alexis James introduces the sports stars you don't know, telling the stories you can't m...
Chris Alden and Alvaro Mendez, "China and Latin America: Development, Agency and Geopolitics" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
19 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
China's role as an economic powerhouse in Latin America is reshaping a region on the cusp of development and change. Since the turn of the century, bi...
John Miller, "The Philosophy of Tattoos" (British Library, 2021)
17 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Philosophy of Tattoos (British Library, 2021) by Dr. John Miller presents an impressively broad yet personal account, exploring tattooing as a un...
Mary Flanagan and Mikael Jakobsson, "Playing Oppression: The Legacy of Conquest and Empire in Colonialist Board Games" (MIT Press, 2023)
16 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Playing Oppression: The Legacy of Conquest and Empire in Colonialist Board Games (MIT Press, 2023) by Dr. Mary Flanagan & Dr. Mikael Jakobsson is a s...
Mareike Schomerus, "Lives Amid Violence: Transforming Development in the Wake of Conflict" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
15 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Violent conflict and its aftermath are pressing problems, particularly for international development initiatives. However, the results of development ...
Richard Thompson Ford, "Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History" (Simon & Schuster, 2021)
11 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dress codes are as old as clothing itself. For centuries, clothing has been a wearable status symbol; fashion, a weapon in struggles for social change...
Jamie Kreiner, "The Wandering Mind: What Medieval Monks Tell Us About Distraction" (Liveright, 2023)
08 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Wandering Mind: What Medieval Monks Tell Us About Distraction (Liveright, 2023) by Dr. Jamie Kreiner presents a revelatory account of how Christi...
Elizabeth T. Hurren, "Hidden Histories of the Dead: Disputed Bodies in Modern British Medical Research" (Cambridge UP, 2021)
03 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Hidden Histories of the Dead: Disputed Bodies in Modern British Medical Research (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Dr. Elizabeth T. Hurren maps...
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...
Amanda Podany, "Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East" (Oxford UP, 2022)
25 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Weavers, Scribes, and Kings: A New History of the Ancient Near East (Oxford University Press, 2022), a sweeping history of the ancient Near East,...
Nicolai Jørgensgaard Graakjær, "The Sounds of Spectators at Football" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
25 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The sounds of spectators at football (soccer) are often highlighted – by spectators, tourists, commentators, journalists, scholars, media producers,...
Azzan Yadin-Israel, "Temptation Transformed: The Story of How the Forbidden Fruit Became an Apple" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
20 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Temptation Transformed: The Story of How the Forbidden Fruit Became an Apple (University of Chicago Press, 2023) by Dr. Azzan Yadin-Israel presents a...
Zoe Adams, "The Legal Concept of Work" (Oxford UP, 2022)
19 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"Why do we think about some practices as work, and not others? Why do we classify certain capacities as economically valuable skills, and others as in...
Lisa Hajjar, "The War in Court: Inside the Long Fight Against Torture" (U California Press, 2022)
18 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The War in Court: Inside the Long Fight against Torture (University of California Press, 2022) by Dr. Lisa Hajjar examines how hundreds of lawyers mo...
Laura Janet Feller, "Being Indigenous in Jim Crow Virginia: Powhatan People and the Color Line" (U Oklahoma Press, 2022)
17 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Spanning a century of fraught history, Being Indigenous in Jim Crow Virginia: Powhatan People and the Color Line (University of Oklahoma Press, 2022...
Kevin Blackburn, "The Comfort Women of Singapore in History and Memory" (National U of Singapore Press, 2022)
17 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"Comfort women" or ianfu is the euphemism used by the Japanese military for the women they compelled to do sex work in the Second World War. The role ...
Sarah Kunz, "Expatriate: Following a Migration Category" (Manchester UP, 2023)
15 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Who are expatriates? How do they differ from other migrants? And why should we care about such distinctions? Expatriate: Following a Migration Catego...
John Goodlad, "The Salt Roads: How Fish Made a Culture" (Birlinn, 2022)
10 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Salt Roads: How Fish Made a Culture (Birlinn, 2022) by John Goodlad is the extraordinary story of how salt fish from Shetland became one of the s...
Rowan Dorin, "No Return: Jews, Christian Usurers, and the Spread of Mass Expulsion in Medieval Europe" (Princeton UP, 2023)
05 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Beginning in the twelfth century, Jewish moneylenders increasingly found themselves in the crosshairs of European authorities, who denounced the evils...
Francesca Sobande and layla-roxanne hill. "Black Oot Here: Black Lives in Scotland" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
27 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What does it mean to be Black in Scotland today? How are notions of nationhood, Scottishness, and Britishness implicated in this? Why is it important ...
Justin Gregg, "If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity" (Little, Brown, 2022)
26 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What if human intelligence is actually more of a liability than a gift? After all, the animal kingdom, in all its diversity, gets by just fine without...
Antonia Witt, "Undoing Coups: The African Union and Post-coup Intervention in Madagascar" (Zed Books, 2020)
11 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Since the beginnings of independence, a number of African nations have been plagued by repeated coup d'états. Within the African Union (AU), there ha...
Lior Lehrs, "Unofficial Peace Diplomacy: Private Peace Entrepreneurs in Conflict Resolution Processes" (Manchester UP, 2022)
08 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Unofficial Peace Diplomacy: Private Peace Entrepreneurs in Conflict Resolution Processes (Manchester University Press, 2022) by Dr. Lior Lehrs analys...
Karma Ben-Johanan, "Jacob’s Younger Brother: Christian-Jewish Relations after Vatican II" (Harvard UP, 2022)
20 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jacob’s Younger Brother: Christian-Jewish Relations after Vatican II (Harvard University Press, 2022) by Dr. Karma Ben-Johanan presents a revealing...
Carl Griffin, "The Politics of Hunger: Protest, Poverty and Policy in England, 1750-1840" (Manchester UP, 2020)
19 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were supposedly the period in which the threat of famine lifted for the peoples of England. But hunger r...
Jane Tynan, "Trench Coat" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
19 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Object Lessons is a Bloomsbury series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. This interview focuses on Trenc...
Hester Barron, "The Social World of the School: Education and Community in Interwar London" (Manchester UP, 2022)
18 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Social World of the School: Education and Community in Interwar London (Manchester UP, 2022) shows why the study of schooling matters to the his...
Sarah Zukerman Daly, "Violent Victors: Why Bloodstained Parties Win Postwar Elections" (Princeton UP, 2022)
18 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
One of the great puzzles of electoral politics is how parties that commit mass atrocities in war often win the support of victimized populations to es...
Janet I. Lewis, "How Insurgency Begins: Rebel Group Formation in Uganda and Beyond" (Cambridge UP, 2020)
06 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How and why do rebel groups initially form? Prevailing scholarship has attributed the emergence of armed rebellion to the explosion of pre-mobilized p...
Hettie Judah, "Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones" (Penguin, 2022)
05 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Inspired by the lapidaries of the ancient world, Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones (John Murray/Penguin, 2022) by Hettie Judah is a beautifully...
John Delury, "Agents of Subversion: The Fate of John T. Downey and the CIA's Covert War in China" (Cornell UP, 2022)
04 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Agents of Subversion: The Fate of John T. Downey and the CIA's Covert War in China (Cornell University Press, 2022) by Dr. John Delury reconstructs t...
Huw J. Davies, "The Wandering Army: The Campaigns That Transformed the British Way of War" (Yale UP, 2022)
01 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In The Wandering Army: The Campaigns that Transformed the British Way of War (Yale University Press, 2022), Dr. Huw J. Davies presents a compelling ...
Trevor Jackson, "Impunity and Capitalism: The Afterlives of European Financial Crises, 1690-1830" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
30 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Whose fault are financial crises, and who is responsible for stopping them, or repairing the damage? Impunity and Capitalism: The Afterlives of Europ...
Michael A. Verney, "A Great and Rising Nation: Naval Exploration and Global Empire in the Early US Republic" (U Chicago Press, 2022)
23 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A Great and Rising Nation: Naval Exploration and Global Empire in the Early US Republic (University of Chicago Press, 2022) by Dr. Michael A. Verney ...
Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow, "Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We'll Win Them Back" (Beacon Press, 2022)
23 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Corporate concentration has breached the stratosphere, as have corporate profits. An ever-expanding constellation of industries are now monopolies (wh...
Lyndsie Bourgon, "Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America's Woods" (Little, Brown Spark, 2022)
22 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There's a strong chance that chair you are sitting on was made from stolen lumber. In Tree Thieves: Crime And Survival In North America's Woods (Lit...
Caroline Roope, "The History of the London Underground Map" (Pen and Sword Transport, 2022)
18 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Few transportation maps can boast the pedigree that London’s iconic ‘Tube’ map can. Sported on t-shirts, keyrings, duvet covers, and most recent...
Benjamin de Carvalho and Halvard Leira, "The Sea and International Relations" (Manchester UP, 2022)
16 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
While the world's oceans cover more than seventy percent of its surface, the sea has largely vanished as an object of enquiry in International Relatio...
Christopher Marquis and Kunyuan Qiao, "Mao and Markets: The Communist Roots of Chinese Enterprise" (Yale UP, 2022)
15 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mao and Markets: The Communist Roots of Chinese Enterprise (Yale University Press, 2022) by Dr. Christopher Marquis & Dr. Kunyuan Qiao presents a tho...