New Books with Miranda Melcher
Episodes
Georgia Henley, "Reimagining the Past in the Borderlands of Medieval England and Wales" (Oxford UP, 2024)
01 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Challenging the standard view that England emerged as a dominant power and Wales faded into obscurity after Edward I's conquest in 1282, Reimagining ...
Dariusz Wojcik et al., "Atlas of Finance: Mapping the Global Story of Money" (Yale UP, 2024)
31 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
From the emergence of money in the ancient world to today’s interconnected landscape of high-frequency trading and cryptocurrency, the story of fina...
Friederike Baer, "Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War" (Oxford UP, 2022)
30 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Between 1776 and 1783, Britain hired an estimated 30,000 German soldiers to fight in its war against the Americans. Collectively known as Hessians, th...
Nat Reeve, "Earlyfate" (Cipher Press, 2024)
24 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Pip Property is no stranger to disaster. Typically, they’ve got a plan, but now Dallyangle’s favourite dandy & part-time criminal is locked in the...
Wilko Graf von Hardenberg, "Sea Level: A History" (U Chicago Press, 2024)
21 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
News reports warn of rising sea levels spurred by climate change. Waters inch ever higher, disrupting delicate ecosystems and threatening island and c...
E. L. Gaston, "Illusions of Control: Dilemmas in Managing U.S. Proxy Forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria" (Columbia UP, 2024)
19 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over the last two decades, the United States has supported a range of militias, rebels, and other armed groups in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. Critic...
Michael J. Alarid, "Hispano Bastion: New Mexican Power in the Age of Manifest Destiny, 1837-1860" (U New Mexico Press, 2022)
19 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In Hispano Bastion: New Mexican Power in the Age of Manifest Destiny, 1837-1860 (University of New Mexico Press, 2023), historian Dr. Michael J. Ala...
Peter C. Kunze, "Staging a Comeback: Broadway, Hollywood, and the Disney Renaissance" (Rutgers UP, 2023)
19 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the early 1980s, Walt Disney Productions was struggling, largely bolstered by the success of its theme parks. Within fifteen years, however, it had...
Anne Higonnet, "Liberty Equality Fashion: The Women Who Styled the French Revolution" (Norton, 2024)
18 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Joséphine Bonaparte, future Empress of France; Térézia Tallien, the most beautiful woman in Europe; and Juliette Récamier, muse of intellectuals, ...
Jennifer Chudy, "Some White Folks: The Interracial Politics of Sympathy, Suffering, and Solidarity" (U Chicago Press, 2024)
18 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There is racial inequality in America, and some people are distressed over it while others are not. Some White Folks: The Interracial Politics of Sym...
Corey Ross, "Liquid Empire: Water and Power in the Colonial World" (Princeton UP, 2024)
17 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a handful of powerful European states controlled more than a third of the land surface of the planet. These...
Alastair Bonnett, "40 Maps That Will Change How You See the World" (Ivy Press, 2024)
16 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
40 Maps That Will Change How You See the World (Ivy Press, 2024) by Dr. Alistair Bonnett is a meticulously curated selection of 40 maps that spans th...
Meghana Joshi, "Children are Everywhere: Conspicuous Reproduction and Childlessness in Reunified Berlin" (Berghahn, 2024)
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Children are Everywhere: Conspicuous Reproduction and Childlessness in Reunified Berlin (Berghahn Books, 2024) by Dr. Meghana Joshi engages with how ...
Rochelle Gurstein, "Written in Water: The Ephemeral Life of the Classic in Art" (Yale UP, 2024)
13 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Is there such a thing as a timeless classic? More than a decade ago, Dr. Rochelle Gurstein set out to explore and establish a solid foundation for the...
Wes Marshall, "Killed by a Traffic Engineer: Shattering the Delusion That Science Underlies Our Transportation System" (Island Press, 2024)
12 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the US we are nearing four million road deaths since we began counting them in 1899. The numbers are getting worse in recent years, yet we continue...
Virginia Nicholson, "All the Rage: Power, Pain, Pleasure: Stories from the Frontline of Beauty 1860-1960" (Pegasus Books, 2024)
11 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In All the Rage: Power, Pain, Pleasure: Stories from the Frontline of Beauty 1860-1960 (Pegasus Book, 2024) richly detailed account, Virginia Nichol...
Risa Cromer, "Conceiving Christian America: Embryo Adoption and Reproductive Politics" (NYU Press, 2023)
09 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1997, a group of white pro-life evangelical Christians in the United States created the nation’s first embryo adoption program to “save” the ...
John Withington, "A History of Fireworks from: Their Origins to the Present Day" (Reaktion, 2024)
08 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A History of Fireworks from: Their Origins to the Present Day (Reaktion, 2024) by John Withington illuminates the glittering history of fireworks, fr...
Natalie Wall, "Black Expression and White Generosity: A Theoretical Framework of Race" (Emerald Publishing, 2024)
07 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In Black Expression and White Generosity: A Theoretical Framework of Race (Emerald Publishing, 2024), Dr. Natalie Wall takes readers on a journey th...
Marco Bastos, "Brexit, Tweeted: Polarization and Social Media Manipulation" (Bristol UP, 2024)
06 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dissecting 45 million tweets from the period that followed the Brexit referendum, Brexit, Tweeted: Polarization and Social Media Manipulation (Brist...
Iris Jamahl Dunkle, "Riding Like the Wind: The Life of Sanora Babb" (U California Press, 2024)
06 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1939, when John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath was published, it became an instant bestseller and a prevailing narrative in the nation's collect...
Neil Vickers and Derek Bolton, "Being Ill: On Sickness, Care and Abandonment" (Reaktion Books, 2024)
05 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A serious illness often changes the way others see us. Few, if any, relationships remain the same. The sick become more dependent on partners and fami...
Emma Hinds, "The Knowing" (Bedford Square Publishers, 2024)
04 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the slums of 19th-century New York. A tattooed mystic fights for her life. Her survival hangs on the turn of a tarot card. Powerful, intoxicating a...
Gerald Sim, "Screening Big Data: Films That Shape Our Algorithmic Literacy" (Routledge, 2024)
03 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Screening Big Data: Films that Shape Our Algorithmic Literacy (Routledge, 2024) examines the influence of key films on public understanding of big da...
Christian Wolmar, "The Liberation Line: The Untold Story of How American Engineering and Ingenuity Won World War II" (Hachette, 2024)
02 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
They certainly were not soldiers, yet they suddenly found themselves in uniform, in a foreign land. But, as locomotive drivers, track-workers, conduct...
Lynne B. Sagalyn, "Times Square Remade: The Dynamics of Urban Change" (MIT Press, 2023)
30 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What is it about Times Square that has inspired such attention for well over a century? And how is it that, despite its many changes of character, the...
Jonathan Maskit, "Bicycle" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
29 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
These days the bicycle often appears as an interloper in a world constructed for cars. An almost miraculous 19th-century contraption, the bicycle prom...
Inger Sigrun Bredkjær Brodey, "Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2024)
28 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How did Jane Austen become a cultural icon for fairy-tale endings when her own books end in ways that are rushed, ironic, and reluctant to satisfy rea...
Courtney Ann Irby, "Guiding God's Marriage: Faith and Social Change in Premarital Counseling" (NYU Press, 2024)
27 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It is well-known that the institution of marriage has changed dramatically in the past few decades. However, very little research has focused on the r...
Ian Williams, "Vampire State: The Rise and Fall of the Chinese Economy (Birlinn, 2024)
27 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
State capitalism. Socialism with Chinese characteristics. A socialist market economy. There have been numerous descriptions of the Chinese economy. Ho...
Alessandra Russo, "A New Antiquity: Art and Humanity as Universal, 1400-1600" (Penn State UP, 2024)
26 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We tend to think of sixteenth-century European artistic theory as separate from the artworks displayed in the non-European sections of museums. In A ...
Joseph Harley, "At Home with the Poor: Consumer Behaviour and Material Culture in England, c.1650-1850" (Manchester UP, 2024)
25 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At Home with the Poor: Consumer Behaviour and Material Culture in England, c.1650-1850 (Manchester UP, 2024) by Dr. Joseph Harley opens the doors to...
Steve Tibble, "Crusader Criminals: The Knights Who Went Rogue in the Holy Land" (Yale UP, 2024)
24 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In Crusader Criminals: The Knights Who Went Rogue in the Holy Land (Yale University Press, 2024), Dr. Steve Tibble presents a vivid new history of t...
Francis Stevens, "The Heads of Cerberus and Other Stories" (MIT Press, 2024)
23 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When three people in Philadelphia inhale dust developed by a scientist who has discovered parallel universes, they are transported into an interdimens...
F. J. Watson, "Lies of the Flesh" (Polygon, 2024)
23 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When evil stalks the land, who can you trust? Autumn 1314. In the aftermath of the Scottish victory at the Battle of Bannockburn, the villagers of War...
Andreas E. Feldmann, "Repertoires of Terrorism: Organizational Identity and Violence in Colombia's Civil War" (Columbia UP, 2024)
22 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Why do armed groups employ terrorism in markedly different ways during civil wars? Drawing on more than a decade of fieldwork, Dr. Andreas E. Feldmann...
Amir Alexander, "Liberty's Grid: A Founding Father, a Mathematical Dreamland, and the Shaping of America" (U Chicago Press, 2024)
21 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Seen from an airplane, much of the United States appears to be a gridded land of startling uniformity. Perpendicular streets and rectangular fields, a...
Felia Allum, "Women of the Mafia: Power and Influence in the Neapolitan Camorra" (Cornell UP, 2024)
21 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Women of the Mafia: Power and Influence in the Neapolitan Camorra (Cornell UP, 2024) by Dr. Felia Allum dives into the Neapolitan criminal underworl...
David Kroening Seitz, "A Different Trek: Radical Geographies of Deep Space Nine" (U Nebraska Press, 2023)
20 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A different kind of Star Trek television series debuted in 1993. Deep Space Nine was set not on a starship but a space station near a postcolonial pla...
Beng Huat Chua, "Public Subsidy, Private Accumulation: The Political Economy of Singapore's Public Housing" (NUS Press, 2024)
19 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The achievement of Singapore’s national public housing program is impressive by any standard. Within a year of its first election victory in 1959, t...
Jack Margolin, "The Wagner Group: Inside Russia’s Mercenary Army" (Reaktion Books, 2024)
19 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Wagner Group: Inside Russia’s Mercenary Army (Reaktion, 2024) exposes the history and the future of the Wagner Group, Russia’s notorious and ...
Zrinka Stahuljak, "Fixers: Agency, Translation, and the Early Global History of Literature" (U Chicago Press, 2024)
18 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In Fixers: Agency, Translation, and the Early Global History of Literature (University of Chicago Press, 2024), Dr. Zrinka Stahuljak challenges scho...
Wendy Ugolini, "Wales in England, 1914-1945: A Social, Cultural, and Military History" (Oxford UP, 2024)
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
At the beginning of the twentieth century, for many English men and women of Welsh origin the idea of being in some part 'Welsh' reaffirmed their own ...
John Schofield, "Wicked Problems for Archaeologists: Heritage as Transformative Practice" (Oxford UP, 2024)
15 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
'Wicked Problems' are those problems facing the planet and its inhabitants, present and future, which are hard (if not impossible) to resolve and for ...
Theodore Papakostas, "How to Fit All of Ancient Greece in an Elevator" (William Collins, 2024)
14 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Two strangers meet in a trapped elevator. One is an archaeologist, the other isn’t. A simple question, ‘What do you do?’, becomes the springboar...
Lynn M. Tesser, "Rethinking the End of Empire: Nationalism, State Formation, and Great Power Politics" (Stanford UP, 2024)
13 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Why did a nation-state order emerge when nationalist activism was usually an elitist pursuit in the age of empire? Ordinary inhabitants and even most ...
Isaac Nakhimovsky, "The Holy Alliance: Liberalism and the Politics of Federation" (Princeton UP, 2024)
12 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Holy Alliance is now most familiar as a label for conspiratorial reaction. In The Holy Alliance: Liberalism and the Politics of Federation (Prin...
Aaron M. Hyman, "Rubens in Repeat: The Logic of the Copy in Colonial Latin America" (Getty, 2021)
03 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) never crossed the Atlantic himself, but his impact in colonial Latin America was profound. Prints made after the Flemi...
Henry H. Work, "Wood, Whiskey and Wine: A History of Barrels"(Reaktion Books, 2024)
01 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Barrels – we rarely acknowledge their importance, but without them we would be missing out on some of the world’s finest wines and spirits. For ov...
Manuela Moschella, "Unexpected Revolutionaries: How Central Banks Made and Unmade Economic Orthodoxy" (Cornell UP, 2024)
01 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In Unexpected Revolutionaries: How Central Banks Made and Unmade Economic Orthodoxy (Cornell University Press, 2024), Dr. Manuela Moschella investig...
Constance L. Kirker and Mary Newman, "Mango: A Global History" (Reaktion Books, 2024)
31 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Mango: A Global History (Reaktion, 2024) by Constance L. Kirker & Dr Mary Newman is a beautifully illustrated book that takes us on a tour through th...
John V. Pavlik, "Journalism and the Metaverse" (Anthem Press, 2024)
30 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Journalism has been in a state of disruption since the development of the Internet. The Metaverse, or what some describe as the future of the Internet...
Ronnie Grinberg, "Write like a Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals" (Princeton UP, 2024)
30 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the years following World War II, the New York intellectuals became some of the most renowned critics and writers in the country. Although mostly m...
Mark Valeri, "The Opening of the Protestant Mind: How Anglo-American Protestants Embraced Religious Liberty" (Oxford UP, 2023)
29 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
During the mid-seventeenth century, Anglo-American Protestants described Native American ceremonies as savage devilry, Islamic teaching as violent chi...
Robin E. Möser, "Disarming Apartheid: The End of South Africa's Nuclear Weapons Programme and Accession to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, 1968–1991" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
26 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
South Africa remains the only state that developed a nuclear weapons capability, but ultimately decided to dismantle existing weapons and abandon the ...
Gary Mucciaroni, "Answers to the Labour Question: Industrial Relations and the State in the Anglophone World, 1880–1945" (U Toronto Press, 2024)
24 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Since the mid-nineteenth century, public officials, reformers, journalists, and other elites have referred to “the labour question.” The labour qu...
Bessie N. Rigakos and Wesley R. Bishop, "Liberating Fat Bodies: Social Media Censorship and Body Size Activism" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024)
23 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Using a multidisciplinary and intersectional approach, Liberating Fat Bodies: Social Media Censorship and Body Size Activism (Palgrave Macmillan, 20...
Christopher Beckman, "Twist in the Tail: How the Humble Anchovy Flavoured Western Cuisine" (Hurst, 2024)
23 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A Twist in the Tail: How the Humble Anchovy Flavoured Western Cuisine (Hurst, 2024) by Christopher Beckman takes readers on a tantalising voyage thro...
Ren Pepitone, "Brotherhood of Barristers: A Cultural History of the British Legal Profession, 1840–1940" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
22 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How did ideas of masculinity shape the British legal profession and the wider expectations of the white-collar professional? Brotherhood of Barrister...
Oliver Volckart, "The Silver Empire: How Germany Created Its First Common Currency" (Oxford UP, 2024)
21 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The problems that gave rise to the widespread desire to introduce a common currency were myriad. While trade was able to cope with-and even to benefit...
Angela Geck, "The Power to Persuade: Strategic Arguing at the World Trade Organization" (U Toronto Press, 2024)
20 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Power to Persuade: Strategic Arguing at the World Trade Organization (University of Toronto Press, 2024) by Dr. Angela Geck provides an innovativ...
Stephanie L Canizales, "Sin Padres, Ni Papeles: Unaccompanied Migrant Youth Coming of Age in the United States" (U California Press, 2024)
18 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Each year, thousands of youth endure harrowing unaccompanied and undocumented migrations across Central America and Mexico to the United States in pur...
Shaun S. Yates, "Over-Efficiency in the Lower Criminal Courts: Understanding a Key Problem and How to Fix it" (Policy Press, 2024)
17 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In our pursuit of efficiency in the lower criminal courts, have we lost sight of quality justice? Through the critical examination of original stenogr...
Isabel Bramsen, "The Micro-Sociology of Peace and Conflict" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
17 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How do micro-interactions of resistance, fighting and dialogue shape larger patterns of peace and conflict? How can nonviolent resistance, conflict tr...
Farshid Emami, "Isfahan: Architecture and Urban Experience in Early Modern Iran" (Penn State UP, 2024)
17 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A vibrant urban settlement from mediaeval times and the royal seat of the Safavid dynasty, the city of Isfahan emerged as a great metropolis during th...
Abbey Stockstill, "Marrakesh and the Mountains: Landscape, Urban Planning, and Identity in the Medieval Maghrib" (Penn State UP, 2024)
16 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Over the course of the Almoravid (1040–1147) and Almohad (1121–1269) dynasties, mediaeval Marrakesh evolved from an informal military encampment i...
Miguel Montalva Barba, "White Supremacy and Racism in Progressive America: Race, Place, and Space" (Policy Press, 2024)
14 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
White Supremacy and Racism in Progressive America: Race, Place, and Space (Policy Press, 2024) examines the connections between race, place, and spac...
Tehila Sasson, "The Solidarity Economy: Nonprofits and the Making of Neoliberalism after Empire" (Princeton UP, 2024)
14 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After India gained independence in 1947, Britain reinvented its role in the global economy through nongovernmental aid organisations. Utilising existi...
Heather Murray, "Asylum Ways of Seeing: Psychiatric Patients, American Thought and Culture" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022)
13 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Asylum Ways of Seeing: Psychiatric Patients, American Thought and Culture (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021) by Dr. Heather Murray is a cultura...
Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece, "Movies Under the Influence" (U Minnesota Press, 2024)
13 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Movies under the Influence (University of Minnesota Press, 2024) by Dr. Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece charts the entangled histories of moviegoing and ...
Sara J. Charles, "The Medieval Scriptorium: Making Books in the Middle Ages" (Reaktion Books, 2024)
12 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Medieval Scriptorium: Making Books in the Middle Ages (Reaktion, 2024) by Sara J. Charles takes the reader on an immersive journey through mediae...
Aimee Louise Middlemiss, "Invisible Labours: The Reproductive Politics of Second Trimester Pregnancy Loss in England" (Berghahn Books, 2024)
12 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tracing women’s experiences of miscarriage and termination for foetal anomaly in the second trimester, before legal viability, shows how such events...
Eric Hoyt, "Ink-Stained Hollywood: The Triumph of American Cinema’s Trade Press" (U California Press, 2022)
11 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For the first half of the twentieth century, no American industry boasted a more motley and prolific trade press than the movie business—a cutthroat...
Marissa Nicosia, "Imagining Time in the English Chronicle Play: Historical Futures, 1590-1660" (Oxford UP, 2023)
11 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Imagining Time in the English Chronicle Play: Historical Futures, 1590-1660 (Oxford University Press, 2023) argues that dramatic narratives about mon...
Catherine Boone, "Inequality and Political Cleavage in Africa: Regionalism by Design" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
10 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Inequality and Political Cleavage in Africa: Regionalism by Design (Cambridge University Press, 2024) by Dr. Catherine Boone integrates African count...
Jonathan Butler, "Join the Conspiracy: How a Brooklyn Eccentric Got Lost on the Right, Infiltrated the Left and Brought Down the Biggest Bombing Network in New York" (Fordham UP, 2024)
09 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the shadow of recent turmoil, Join the Conspiracy: How a Brooklyn Eccentric Got Lost on the Right, Infiltrated the Left and Brought Down the Bigge...
Paul Koudounaris, "Faithful Unto Death: Pet Cemeteries, Animal Graves, and Eternal Devotion" (Thames & Hudson, 2024)
09 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Losing a pet has always been a unique kind of pain. No set rituals exist to help provide closure when pets die, there are no readily shared passages f...
Andrew Denning, "Automotive Empire: How Cars and Roads Fueled European Colonialism in Africa" (Cornell UP, 2024)
07 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In Automotive Empire: How Cars and Roads Fueled European Colonialism in Africa (Cornell University Press, 2024), Dr. Andrew Denning uncovers how roa...
Edward Shanks, "The People of the Ruins" (MIT Press, 2024)
06 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In The People of the Ruins (originally published in 1920), Edward Shanks imagines England in the not-so-distant future as a neo mediaeval society wh...
Tore C. Olsson, "Red Dead's History: A Video Game, an Obsession, and America's Violent Past" (St. Martin's Press, 2024)
06 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption II, set in 1911 and 1899, are the most-played American history video games since The Oregon Trail. Beloved...
Yiman Wang, "To Be an Actress: Labor and Performance in Anna May Wong's Cross-Media World" (U California Press, 2024)
04 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Between 1919 and 1961, pioneering Chinese American actress Anna May Wong established an enduring legacy that encompassed cinema, theatre, radio, and A...
Kate Hext, "Wilde in the Dream Factory: Decadence and the American Movies" (Oxford UP, 2024)
03 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hollywood is haunted by the ghost of playwright and novelist Oscar Wilde. Wilde in the Dream Factory: Decadence and the American Movies (Oxford Univ...
Rachel M. Scott, "Recasting Islamic Law: Religion and the Nation State in Egyptian Constitution Making" (Cornell UP, 2021)
03 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
By examining the intersection of Islamic law, state law, religion, and culture in the Egyptian nation-building process, Recasting Islamic Law: Religi...
Elena Borisova, "Paradoxes of Migration in Tajikistan: Locating the Good Life" (UCL Press, 2024)
02 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Paradoxes of Migration in Tajikistan: Locating the Good Life (UCL Press, 2024) by Dr. Elena Borisova is the first ethnographic monograph on migratio...
Mitchel P. Roth and Mahmut Cengiz, "Murder by Mail: A Global History of the Letter Bomb" (Reaktion Books, 2024)
02 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Murder by Mail: A Global History of the Letter Bomb (Reaktion, 2024) by Dr. Mitchel P. Roth and Dr. Mahmut Cengiz unfolds the gripping history of wea...
Richard D. Oram, "Where Men No More May Reap Or Sow: The Little Ice Age: Scotland 1400-1850" (Birlinn, 2024)
30 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Drawing together the evidence of archaeology, palaeoecology, climate history and the historical record, this first environmental history of Scotland e...
Kristie Flannery, "Piracy and the Making of the Spanish Pacific World" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2024)
28 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Piracy and the Making of the Spanish Pacific World (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2024) offers a new interpretation of Spanish colonial rule in t...
Austin Knuppe, "Surviving the Islamic State: Contention, Cooperation, and Neutrality in Wartime Iraq" (Columbia UP, 2024)
26 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How did ordinary Iraqis survive the occupation of their communities by the Islamic State? How did they decide whether to stay or flee, to cooperate or...
Ebony Nilsson, "Displaced Comrades: Politics and Surveillance in the Lives of Soviet Refugees in the West" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
24 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Displaced Comrades: Politics and Surveillance in the Lives of Soviet Refugees in the West (Bloomsbury, 2023) by Dr. Ebony Nilsson explores the lives ...
Kirsten Moore-Sheeley, "Nothing But Nets: A Biography of Global Health Science and Its Objects" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2023)
24 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Distributed to millions of people annually across Africa and the global south, insecticide-treated bed nets have become a cornerstone of malaria contr...
Nancy M. Bradbury, "Rival Wisdoms: Reading Proverbs in the Canterbury Tales" (Penn State UP, 2024)
23 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this elegantly written study Rival Wisdoms: Reading Proverbs in the Canterbury Tales (Penn State University Press, 2024), Dr. Nancy Mason Bradbur...
Francine Banner, "Beyond Complicity: Why We Blame Each Other Instead of Systems" (U California Press, 2024)
21 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Beyond Complicity: Why We Blame Each Other Instead of Systems (University of California Press, 2024) by Dr. Francine Banner is a fascinating cultural...
Eric Reinders, "Reading Tolkien in Chinese: Religion, Fantasy and Translation" (Bloomsbury, 2024)
20 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Approaching translations of Tolkien's works as stories in their own right, Reading Tolkien in Chinese: Religion, Fantasy and Translation (Bloomsbury...
Alessandra Montalbano, "Ransom Kidnapping in Italy: Crime, Memory, and Violence" (U Toronto Press, 2023)
19 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For over thirty years, modern Italy was plagued by ransom kidnappings perpetrated by bandits and organised crime syndicates. Nearly 700 men, women, an...
Michelle Moffat, "Scottish Society in the Second World War: Tradition, Tension, Transformation" (Edinburgh UP, 2023)
19 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Surprisingly little is known about Scottish experiences of the Second World War. Scottish Society in the Second World War (Edinburgh University Pres...
Kevin Loughran, "Parks for Profit: Selling Nature in the City" (Columbia UP, 2022)
18 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A new kind of city park has emerged in the early twenty-first century. Postindustrial parks transform the derelict remnants of an urban past into dist...
Nuria Silleras-Fernandez, "The Politics of Emotion: Love, Grief, and Madness in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia" (Cornell UP, 2024)
17 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Politics of Emotion: Love, Grief, and Madness in Medieval and Early Modern Iberia (Cornell University Press, 2024) by Dr. Nuria Silleras-Fernande...
Sarah Milton, "Ageing and New Intimacies: Gender, Sexuality and Temporality in an English Salsa Scene" (Manchester UP, 2024)
17 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The 'baby boom' generation, born between the 1940s and the 1960s, is often credited with pioneering new and creative ways of relating, doing intimacy ...
Rebecca Scharbach Wollenberg, "The Abrahamic Vernacular" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Contemporary thought typically places a strong emphasis on the exclusive and competitive nature of Abrahamic monotheisms. This instinct is certainly b...
Emily Wilbourne, "Voice, Slavery, and Race in Seventeenth-Century Florence" (Oxford UP, 2023)
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Grounded in new archival research documenting a significant presence of foreign and racially-marked individuals in Medici Florence, Voice, Slavery, a...