New Books Network

New Books in African Studies
Alanna O’Malley, “The Diplomacy of Decolonisation: America, Britain, and the United Nations during the Congo Crisis, 1960-1964” (Manchester UP, 2020)
Alanna O’Malley
The Diplomacy of Decolonisation
America, Britain, and the United Nations during the Congo Crisis, 1960-1964
Manchester University Press, 2020

New Books in African StudiesNew Books in American StudiesNew Books in British StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in World AffairsNew Books Network June 26, 2020 Dexter Fergie

In the summer of 1960, the Republic of the Congo won its independence from Belgium. Only one week later, however, Belgium had already dispatched paratroopers into the country and the Congolese government was appealing to the United Nations to intervene and protect Congolese sovereignty. The ensuing crisis, as Alanna O’Malley... Read More
Steven J. L. Taylor, “Exiles, Entrepreneurs, and Educators: African Americans in Ghana” (SUNY Press, 2019)
Steven J. L. Taylor
Exiles, Entrepreneurs, and Educators
African Americans in Ghana
SUNY Press, 2019

New Books in African American StudiesNew Books in African StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Political ScienceNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in World Affairs June 24, 2020 Sharika Crawford

African Americans have a long history of emigration. In Exiles, Entrepreneurs, and Educators: African Americans in Ghana, Steven J. L. Taylor explores the second wave of African American exiles or repatriates to Ghana in post-1980s. Unlike the first wave of emigrants during the Kwame Nkrumah years (1957-1966), Taylor argues that... Read More
Ken O. Opalo, “Legislative Development in Africa: Politics and Postcolonial Legacies” (Cambridge UP, 2019)
Ken O. Opalo
Legislative Development in Africa
Politics and Postcolonial Legacies
Cambridge University Press, 2019

New Books in African StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in LawNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Political ScienceNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books Network June 19, 2020 Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia

Legislative Development in Africa: Politics and Postcolonial Legacies (Cambridge University Press, 2019) examines the development of African legislatures from their colonial origins through independence, autocracy and the transition to multi-party rule. In it, Ken Ochieng’ Opalo seeks to explain the different trajectories that African legislatures have taken, why some have... Read More
Lynn M. Thomas, “Beneath the Surface: A Transnational History of Skin Lighteners” (Duke UP, 2020)
Lynn M. Thomas
Beneath the Surface
A Transnational History of Skin Lighteners
Duke University Press, 2020

New Books in African American StudiesNew Books in African StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in Science & TechnologyNew Books in Science, Technology, and SocietyNew Books Network June 15, 2020 Dr. Elisa Prosperetti

By 2024, global sales of skin lighteners are projected to reach more than $30 billion. Despite the planetary scale of its use, skin lightening remains a controversial cosmetic practice. Lynn M. Thomas’ new book, Beneath the Surface: A Transnational History of Skin Lighteners (Duke University Press, 2020), investigates what she... Read More
Neil Roberts on How Ideas Become Books in Africana and AfroAm Studies
Neil Roberts
Neil Roberts on How Ideas Become Books in Africana and AfroAm Studies
A Discussion with Adam McNeil
New Books Network, 2020

New Books in African American StudiesNew Books in African StudiesNew Books in EducationNew Books in Intellectual HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in PoliticsNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books Network June 9, 2020 Adam McNeil

Where do good ideas come from? How does an idea go from creation to a research project? How is historical research done? And how does research find its way into a finished book? And what impact can a book have? Today, I discuss these topics and more with my colleague... Read More
Mauro Nobili, “Sultan, Caliph, and the Renewer of the Faith” (Cambridge UP, 2020)
Mauro Nobili
Sultan, Caliph, and the Renewer of the Faith
Ahmad Lobbo, the Tārīkh al-fattāsh and the Making of an Islamic State in West Africa
Cambridge University Press, 2020

New Books in African StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Islamic StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in ReligionNew Books in Religion & FaithNew Books Network June 9, 2020 Madina Thiam

In the early 19th century, on the floodplain of the Niger river’s inland delta in West Africa (present-day Mali), the Caliphate of Ḥamdallāhi emerged. The new State, locally known as the Maasina Diina, sought to consolidate its dominance over Fulani, Bamanan, and Arma military and political elites, as well as... Read More
Joyce E. Leader, “From Hope to Horror: Diplomacy and the Making of the Rwanda Genocide” (Potomac Books, 2020)
Joyce E. Leader
From Hope to Horror
Diplomacy and the Making of the Rwanda Genocide
Potomac Books, 2020

New Books in African StudiesNew Books in Genocide StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in National SecurityNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in World Affairs June 5, 2020 Kelly McFall

Earlier this year the world marked the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide.  An occasion for mourning and reflection also offered a chance to reflect on the state of research about the genocide. Among the many books that were published in the past year, Joyce E. Leader‘s new book From Hope... Read More
Kathryn M. De Luna, “Collecting Food, Collecting People: Subsistence and Society in Central Africa” (Yale UP, 2016)
Kathryn M. De Luna
Collecting Food, Collecting People
Subsistence and Society in Central Africa
Yale University Press, 2019

New Books in African StudiesNew Books in AnthropologyNew Books in ArchaeologyNew Books in Arts & LettersNew Books in FoodNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books Network June 4, 2020 Paul Bjerk

In Collecting Food, Collecting People: Subsistence and Society in Central Africa (Yale University Press, 2016), Kathryn M. De Luna documents the evolving meanings borne in the collection of wild foods for an agricultural people in south central Africa around the turn of the first millennium. It is a history of everyday life... Read More
Frank Wilderson III, “Afropessimism” (Liveright, 2020)
Frank Wilderson III
Afropessimism

Liveright, 2020

New Books in African American StudiesNew Books in African StudiesNew Books in Critical TheoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Political ScienceNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books Network June 3, 2020 Susan Liebell

How should we understand the pervasiveness – and virulence – of anti-Black violence in the United State? Why and how is anti-Black racism different from other forms of racism? How does it permeate our moral and political ideals? Frank Wilderson III combines memoir and works of political theory, critical theory,... Read More

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