New Books Network

New Books in History
Karl Gerth, “Unending Capitalism: How Consumerism Negated China’s Communist Revolution” (Cambridge UP, 2020)
Karl Gerth
Unending Capitalism
How Consumerism Negated China's Communist Revolution
Cambridge University Press, 2020

New Books in Critical TheoryNew Books in East Asian StudiesNew Books in EconomicsNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in SociologyNew Books Network September 25, 2020 Sarah Bramao-Ramos

Karl Gerth’s new book, Unending Capitalism: How Consumerism Negated China’s Communist Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2020) details how the state created brands, promoted and advertised particular products, set up department stores, and facilitated the promotion of certain luxury consumer products (notably wristwatches, bicycles, and sewing machines)—all in the Mao era. Though... Read More
François-Xavier Fauvelle, “The Golden Rhinoceros: Histories of the African Middle Ages” (Princeton UP, 2018)
François-Xavier Fauvelle
The Golden Rhinoceros
Histories of the African Middle Ages
Princeton University Press, 2018

NBN Special SeriesNew Books in African StudiesNew Books in ArchaeologyNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books NetworkPrinceton UP Ideas Podcast September 25, 2020 Elisa Prosperetti

What are the African Middle Ages? A place, certainly, and a time period, evidently. But also a “documentary regime,” argues François-Xavier Fauvelle. How do we reconstruct these centuries of the African past in the face of a daunting lack of sources? In thirty-four thoughtful vignettes, Fauvelle takes us along for... Read More
Donald Ostrowski, “Who Wrote That?: Authorship Controversies from Moses to Sholokhov” (NIUP, 2020)
Donald Ostrowski
Who Wrote That?
Authorship Controversies from Moses to Sholokhov
Northern Illinois University Press, 2020

New Books in Arts & LettersNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Intellectual HistoryNew Books in Literary StudiesNew Books in Politics & Society September 25, 2020 Aaron Weinacht

Who Wrote That?: Authorship Controversies from Moses to Sholokhov (Northern Illinois University Press) is Harvard historian Donald Ostrowski’s sustained reflection on what we can learn from comparison of authorship controversies. Ostrowski covers nine different cases of disputed authorship, from the Shakespeare canon, to the letters between the Russian Prince Kurbskii... Read More
Gregory A. Daddis, “Pulp Vietnam: War and Gender in Cold War Men’s Adventure Magazines” (Cambridge UP, 2020)
Gregory A. Daddis
Pulp Vietnam
War and Gender in Cold War Men’s Adventure Magazines
Cambridge University Press, 2020

New Books in Arts & LettersNew Books in Gender StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in JournalismNew Books in Military HistoryNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in Popular CultureNew Books Network September 25, 2020 Rebekah Buchanan

In his compelling evaluation of Cold War popular culture, Pulp Vietnam: War and Gender in Cold War Men’s Adventure Magazines (Cambridge UP, 2020), Gregory Daddis explores how men’s adventure magazines helped shape the attitudes of young, working-class Americans, the same men who fought and served in the long and bitter... Read More
Giorgio Bertellini, “The Divo and the Duce: Promoting Film Stardom and the Political Leadership in 1920s America” (U California Press, 2019)
Giorgio Bertellini
The Divo and the Duce
Promoting Film Stardom and the Political Leadership in 1920s America
University of California Press, 2019

New Books in American StudiesNew Books in Arts & LettersNew Books in FilmNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Italian StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books Network September 25, 2020 Ellen Nerenberg

In 1927, the Hollywood stars (and spouses), Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr stood outside their California home, arms raised in fascist salute. The photo’s caption, referencing the couple’s trip to Rome the previous year, informs fans that the couple “greet guests at their beach camp in true Italian style.”... Read More
Lorenz M. Lüthi, “Cold Wars: Asia, the Middle East, Europe” (Cambridge UP, 2020)
Lorenz M. Lüthi
Cold Wars
Asia, the Middle East, Europe
Cambridge University Press, 2020

New Books in East Asian StudiesNew Books in European StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Middle Eastern StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in World AffairsNew Books Network September 25, 2020 Charles Coutinho

What was the Cold War that shook world politics for the second half of the twentieth century? Standard narratives focus on Soviet-American rivalry as if the superpowers were the exclusive driving forces of the international system. Lorenz M. Lüthi, Associate Professor of History at McGill University in his new book Cold... Read More
Chhaya Goswami, “Globalization Before Its Time: The Gujarati Merchants from Kachchh” (PRH India, 2016)
Chhaya Goswami
Globalization Before Its Time
The Gujarati Merchants from Kachchh
PRH India, 2016

New Books in African StudiesNew Books in EconomicsNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in South Asian StudiesNew Books in the Indian Ocean World September 24, 2020 Ahmed Yaqoub AlMaazmi

Chhaya Goswami’s Globalization Before Its Time: The Gujarati Merchants from Kachchh (Penguin Random House India) asks: How did the Kachchhi traders build on the Gujarat Advantage? In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, during the dying days of the Mughal empire, merchants from Kachchh established a flourishing overseas trade. Building... Read More
Stephanie Newell, “Histories of Dirt: Media and Urban Life in Colonial and Postcolonial Lagos” (Duke UP, 2019)
Stephanie Newell
Histories of Dirt
Media and Urban Life in Colonial and Postcolonial Lagos
Duke University Press, 2019

New Books in African StudiesNew Books in AnthropologyNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Political ScienceNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in Sociology September 24, 2020 Susan Liebell

Stephanie Newell, Professor of English at Yale University, came to this project, which explores the concept of “dirt” and how this idea is used and applied to people and spaces, in a rather indirect way, having read the memoirs and journals of merchant traders – particularly the white British traders... Read More
James L. Nolan, Jr., “Atomic Doctors: Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age” (Harvard UP, 2020)
James L. Nolan, Jr.
Atomic Doctors
Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age
Harvard University Press, 2020

New Books in American StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in MedicineNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in Science & TechnologyNew Books in Science, Technology, and SocietyNew Books Network September 24, 2020 Claire Clark

After his father died, James L. Nolan, Jr., took possession of a box of private family materials. To his surprise, the small secret archive contained a treasure trove of information about his grandfather’s role as a doctor in the Manhattan Project. Dr. Nolan, it turned out, had been a significant figure.... Read More
Alison Games, “Inventing the English Massacre: Amboyna in History and Memory” (Oxford UP, 2020
Alison Games
Inventing the English Massacre
Amboyna in History and Memory
Oxford University Press, 2020

New Books in British StudiesNew Books in European StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Intellectual HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books Network September 24, 2020 Ryan Tripp

My Lai, Wounded Knee, Sandy Hook: the place names evoke grief and horror, each the site of a massacre. Massacres-the mass slaughter of people-might seem as old as time, but the word itself is not. It worked its way into the English language in the late sixteenth century, and ultimately... Read More

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