New Books Network

New Books in History
Dean Itsuji Saranillio, “Unsustainable Empire: Alternative Histories of Hawai‘i Statehood” (Duke UP, 2018)
Dean Itsuji Saranillio
Unsustainable Empire
Alternative Histories of Hawai‘i Statehood
Duke University Press, 2018

New Books in American StudiesNew Books in Asian American StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Native American StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books Network August 19, 2019 Chris Patterson

In Unsustainable Empire: Alternative Histories of Hawai‘i Statehood (Duke University Press, 2018), Dean Itsuji Saranillio offers a bold challenge to conventional understandings of Hawai‘i’s admission as a U.S. state. Hawai‘i statehood is popularly remembered as a civil rights victory against racist claims that Hawai‘i was undeserving of statehood because it... Read More
Joshua D. Farrington, “Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP” (U Pennsylvania Press, 2016)
Joshua D. Farrington
Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP

University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016

New Books in African American StudiesNew Books in American StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Political ScienceNew Books in PoliticsNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books Network August 19, 2019 Ryan Tripp

Reflecting on his fifty-year effort to steer the Grand Old Party toward black voters, Memphis power broker George W. Lee declared, “Somebody had to stay in the Republican Party and fight.” As Joshua D. Farrington, Instructor in African & African-American Studies at Eastern Kentucky University, recounts in Black Republicans and... Read More
M. David Litwa, “How the Gospels Became History: Jesus and Mediterranean Myths” (Yale UP, 2019)
M. David Litwa
How the Gospels Became History
Jesus and Mediterranean Myths
Yale University Press, 2019

New Books in Biblical StudiesNew Books in Christian StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Intellectual HistoryNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in ReligionNew Books in Religion & FaithNew Books Network August 19, 2019 Jonathan Wright

Did the early Christians believe their myths? Like most ancient—and modern—people, early Christians made efforts to present their myths in the most believable ways. In How the Gospels Became History: Jesus and Mediterranean Myths (Yale University Press, 2019), M. David Litwa explores how and why what later became the four... Read More
Paul Finkelman, “Supreme Injustice: Slavery in the Nation’s Highest Court” (Harvard UP, 2018)
Paul Finkelman
Supreme Injustice
Slavery in the Nation’s Highest Court
Harvard University Press, 2018

New Books in African American StudiesNew Books in American StudiesNew Books in BiographyNew Books in HistoryNew Books in LawNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books Network August 19, 2019 Siobhan Barco

In this episode of the American Society for Legal History’s podcast Talking Legal History Siobhan talks with Paul Finkelman, President of Gratz College, about his book Supreme Injustice: Slavery in the Nation’s Highest Court (Harvard University Press, 2018). Finkelman is a specialist on the history of slavery and the law.... Read More
Max Oidtmann, “Forging the Golden Urn: The Qing Empire and the Politics of Reincarnation in Tibet” (Columbia UP, 2018)
Max Oidtmann
Forging the Golden Urn
The Qing Empire and the Politics of Reincarnation in Tibet
Columbia University Press, 2018

New Books in Buddhist StudiesNew Books in East Asian StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in ReligionNew Books in Religion & FaithNew Books Network August 19, 2019 Daigengna Duoer

In 1995, the People’s Republic of China resurrected the technology of the “Golden Urn,” a Qing-era tool which involves the identification of the reincarnations of prominent Tibetan Buddhist monks by drawing lots from a golden vessel. Why would the Chinese Communist Party revive this former ritual? What powers lie in... Read More
Matthew James, “Collecting Evolution: The Galapagos Expedition that Vindicated Darwin” (Oxford UP, 2017)
Matthew James
Collecting Evolution
The Galapagos Expedition that Vindicated Darwin
Oxford University Press, 2017

New Books in American StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in Science & TechnologyNew Books in Science, Technology, and SocietyNew Books Network August 16, 2019 Michael F. Robinson

Matthew James talks about the 1905 Galapagos Expedition organized by the California Academy of Sciences. James is a professor of geology at Sonoma State University. He is the author of Collecting Evolution: The Galapagos Expedition that Vindicated Darwin (Oxford University Press, 2017). In 1905, eight men from the California Academy... Read More
Martin T. Fromm, “Borderland Memories: Searching for Historical Identity in Post-Mao China” (Cambridge UP, 2019)
Martin T. Fromm
Borderland Memories
Searching for Historical Identity in Post-Mao China
Cambridge University Press, 2019

New Books in East Asian StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books Network August 16, 2019 Ed Pulford

With China’s northwestern and southern edges justifiably being sources of global attention at present, Martin Fromm’s Borderland Memories: Searching for Historical Identity in Post-Mao China (Cambridge University Press, 2019) has much light to shed on how the country’s ruling Communist Party refashioned its relationship with its frontiers at an earlier... Read More