New Books Network

New Books in History
Gina Anne Tam, “Dialect and Nationalism in China, 1860-1960” (Cambridge UP, 2020)
Gina Anne Tam
Dialect and Nationalism in China, 1860-1960

Cambridge University Press, 2020

New Books in East Asian StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in LanguageNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Political ScienceNew Books in Politics & Society July 7, 2020 Ed Pulford

The question of how a state decides what its official language is going to be, or indeed whether it even needs one, is never simple, and this may be particularly true of China which covers a continental landmass encompassing multitude of different language families and groups. Indeed, what is even... Read More
Jean Halley, “Horse Crazy: Girls and the Lives of Horses” (U Georgia Press, 2019)
Jean Halley
Horse Crazy
Girls and the Lives of Horses
University of Georgia Press, 2019

New Books in Gender StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in SociologyNew Books Network July 7, 2020 Jana Byars

Today Jana Byars talks to Jean Halley, Professor of Sociology at the College of Staten Island and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York about her new book Horse Crazy: Girls and the Lives of Horses (University of Georgia Press, 2019). Part memoir, part heavy-hitting theoretical exploration,... Read More
Greg Mitchell, “The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood—and America—Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” (The New Press, 2020)
Greg Mitchell
The Beginning or the End
How Hollywood—and America—Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
The New Press, 2020

New Books in American StudiesNew Books in Arts & LettersNew Books in FilmNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Military HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in Science & TechnologyNew Books in Science, Technology, and SocietyNew Books Network July 7, 2020 Joel Tscherne

Soon after atomic bombs exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, MGM set out to make a movie studio chief Louis B. Mayer called “the most important story” he would ever film: a big budget dramatization of the Manhattan Project and the invention and use of the revolutionary new weapon.... Read More
Kara Moskowitz, “Seeing Like A Citizen: Decolonization, Development and the Making of Kenya, 1945-1980” (Ohio UP, 2019)
Kara Moskowitz
Seeing Like A Citizen
Decolonization, Development and the Making of Kenya, 1945-1980
Ohio University Press, 2019

New Books in African StudiesNew Books in British StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Political ScienceNew Books in Politics & Society July 7, 2020 Susan Thomson

Kara Moskowitz, Assistant Professor of African History as the University of Missouri-St. Louis. has written a terrific book, Seeing Like A Citizen: Decolonization, Development and the Making of Kenya, 1945-1980 (Ohio University Press, 2019). Kara’s book is rigorously researched and beautifully written. She draws on both archival and life history... Read More
Nicole Myers Turner, “Soul Liberty: The Evolution of Black Religious Politics in Postemancipation Virginia” (UNC Press, 2020)
Nicole Myers Turner
Soul Liberty
The Evolution of Black Religious Politics in Postemancipation Virginia
University of North Carolina Press, 2020

New Books in African American StudiesNew Books in American StudiesNew Books in Christian StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Political ScienceNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in Religion & FaithNew Books Network July 6, 2020 Susan Liebell

In her nuanced case study of postemanciaption Virginia, Nicole Myers Turner, (Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Yale University) challenges assumptions regarding the intersection between black religion and politics in this “signal moment of political and cultural transformation in the African-American experience.”  Using traditional archival records from churches, political institutions... Read More
Hope M. Harrison, “After the Berlin Wall: Memory and the Making of the New Germany, 1989 to the Present” (Cambridge UP, 2019)
Hope M. Harrison
After the Berlin Wall
Memory and the Making of the New Germany, 1989 to the Present
Cambridge University Press, 2019

New Books in Eastern European StudiesNew Books in European StudiesNew Books in German StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books Network July 6, 2020 Craig Sorvillo

In her new book, After the Berlin Wall: Memory and the Making of the New Germany, 1989 to the Present (Cambridge University Press, 2019), Hope M. Harrison, examines the history and meaning of the Berlin Wall. Drawing on an extensive range of archival sources and interviews, this book profiles key... Read More
Kendra Preston Leonard, “Music for the Kingdom of Shadows: Cinema Accompaniment in the Age of Spiritualism” (Humanities Commons, 2010)
Kendra Preston Leonard
Music for the Kingdom of Shadows
Cinema Accompaniment in the Age of Spiritualism
Humanities Commons, 2010

New Books in Arts & LettersNew Books in FilmNew Books in HistoryNew Books in MusicNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in Popular CultureNew Books in Sound Studies July 6, 2020 Kristen Turner

We might call movies made before the advent of the talkies in 1927 silent films—but for the audience, they were certainly not silent. Live orchestras and solo instrumentalists accompanied early movies, adding evocative music drawn from pre-existent and newly composed sources. Kendra Preston Leonard, author of Music for the Kingdom... Read More
David Shimer, “Rigged: America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral Interference” (Knopf, 2020)
David Shimer
Rigged
America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of Covert Electoral Interference
Knopf, 2020

New Books in American StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in National SecurityNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Political ScienceNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in Russian and Eurasian StudiesNew Books Network July 6, 2020 Daniel Peris

“The guard is tired.” With that simple phrase, the newly installed Bolshevik regime in Russia dismissed the duly elected Constituent Assembly in January 1918. And, one might say, so started Russia’s century-long interference in elections and electoral outcomes. In his new book Rigged: America, Russia, and One Hundred Years of... Read More
Allison Bigelow, “Mining Language: Racial Thinking, Indigenous Knowledge, and Colonial Metallurgy in the Early Modern Iberian World” (UNC Press 2020)
Allison Bigelow
Mining Language
Racial Thinking, Indigenous Knowledge, and Colonial Metallurgy in the Early Modern Iberian World
University of North Carolina Press, 2020

New Books in European StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Latin American StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in Science & TechnologyNew Books in Science, Technology, and SocietyNew Books Network July 6, 2020 Lance C. Thurner

Historians of Latin America have long appreciated the central role of mining and metallurgy in the region. The Spanish Empire in particular was created for and founded upon the mining and coining of silver ore from its colonies. Our knowledge about this vital industry, however, remains invariably tethered to the... Read More

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