History Books

Book SynopsisA comprehensive overview of the Berber-speaking peoples. From the first appearance of humans in the Maghreb, through the rise of the formidable Berber kingdoms of Numidia and Mauretania, the book traces the origins of the distinct characteristics of these disparate and segmented people.Trade Review"Brett and Fentress have produced a remarkable study of the Berber-speaking peoples of North Africa that is both scholarly and highly readable." American Journal of Archaeology. "Fentress and Brett combine their efforts to produce a well-rounded history of the Berbers ... a solid introduction for English-speaking students at all levels." CHOICE. 'Here at long last is a decent and thoroughly worthwhile general book on Berbers.' Journal of North African StudiesTable of ContentsList of Plates x List of Figures xii List of Maps xiv Series Editors' Preface xv Preface xvii Introduction 1 1. Berbers in Antiquity 10 2. The Empire and the Other: Romans and Berbers 50 3. The Unification of North Africa by Islam 81 4. The Arabization of North Africa 120 5. The Wheel of State 154 6. Pastoral Berbers: Nomads, Slaves and Saints 200 7. The Society and its Habitat 231 8. Berbers and Berberism 271 Notes 283 Bibliography 319 Index 340

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Book SynopsisThis volume draws on literary and archaeological evidence to reconstruct the Goths' dramatic history, and to explore the meaning of Gothic identity at different moments and in different contexts. It is divided into three parts, corresponding to the three main phases in Gothic historyTrade Review"...a volume of central importance on the place of the Goths in early European history and a fine contribution to the study of the transformation of Europe after Rome." Times Literary Supplement, January 1998. "... an excellent introduction to the student" Archaeological Review from CambridgeTable of ContentsList of Plates. List of Figures. Preface. Abbreviations. Acknowledgements. 1. The Gothic Problem. Part I: In Search of the Goths:. 2. From the Baltic to the Black Sea. 3. The Fourth Century Kingdoms. Part II: Goths, Huns and Romans:. 4. The Hunnic Revolution. 5. Goths and Romans: Remaking the Gothic World. 6. The Transformation of the Goths 376-476. Part III: The Kingdoms of the Goths:. 7. The First Gothic Successor State. 8. Ostrogothic Italy: Kingdom and Empire. 9. Sixth Century Crises and Beyond. 10. Symbols, Mechanisms, and Continuities. Appendix 1: Procopius and the Gothic Elite. Appendix 2: Non-Goths in the Army of Totila. Bibliography. 1. Primary Sources. 2. Secondary Sources. 3. The Wielbark and Cernjachov Cultures. Index.

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Book SynopsisThis is a history of the Huns in Europe from their first attacks on the Goths north of the Black Sea to the collapse of their central European empire after the death of the legendary Attila.Table of ContentsIntroduction. 1. Sources. 2. The History of the Huns Before Attila. 3. Hun Society Before Attila. 4. The Victories of Attila. 5. Peace on the Danube Frontier. 6. The Defeats of Attila. 7. Hun Society Under Attila. 8. Roman Foreign Policy and the Huns. 9. Conclusion. Appendixes:. A: The Songs of the Huns. B: The Causes of the War of 441. C: Valips. D: The Campaign of 441-3. E: Chronological Note on the Years 449-50. F: The Site of Attila's Headquarters. G: The Alleged Gothic Names of the Huns. Afterword by Peter Heather. Further Reading. Index.

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Book SynopsisThis history of the great heretical movements of the middle ages provides an account of the dissent and protests made against the Medieval churches of Rome and Byzantium. It examines the origins and nature of these heresies, and how medieval churchmen grappled with deviation.Table of ContentsPart I: The Beginnings. 1. The Problem with Heresy. 2. The Revival of Heresy in the West: The Eleventh Century. Part II: The Twelfth Century. 3. Orthodox Reform and Heresy. 4. Heretical Preachers and the Rise of Catharism. 5. The Waldensians and the Deepening Crisis. Part III: Heresy and the Church. 6. The Counter-Attack: Innocent III to Innocent IV. 7. The Cathars. 8. The Waldensians After the Conference of Bergamo. 9. Tension and Insecurity: Gregory X to John XXII. 10. Inquisition and Abuse. 11. Spiritual Franciscans and Heretical Joachimites. Part IV: Evangelical Heresy in the Late Middle Ages. 12. Church and Society: Benedict XII to Eugenius IV. 13. John Wycliff. 14. The English Lollards. 15. The Bohemian Reform Movement. 16. Politics and Hussitism, 1409-1419. 17. Success and Failure: From the Defenestration to the Agreement at Jihlava. 18. The Unitas Fratum and the Development of Confessions. 19. Medieval Heresy and the Reformation. 20. Heresy and Reform.

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Book SynopsisThis book provides a radical reassessment of Europe from the late-tenth to the early-13th centuries. Professor Moore argues that the period witnessed the first true revolution in European society, characterized by a transformation in the economy, in family structures, and in the sources of power.Trade Review"This is a remarkable book... it can function as a synthesis of the best studies for upper-division undergraduates or graduate students. It is so well researched and argued that even though it asks the reader to accept yet one more period as revolutionary, it is entirely convincing." History: Reviews of New Books "A volume which is consistently intelligent and stimulating, not least because it draws on the insights of social anthropology and of other periods and places in history than its own ... it is the essence of a good book that it should open the reader's mind and sharpen his arguments. By that token this is assuredly a good book." Ecclesiastical HistoryTable of ContentsList of Maps and Figures. Series Editor's Preface. Preface. Introduction. Part I: The Approach of the Millennium:. 1. Glad confident morning. 2. The Faithful People. 3. The Gifts of the Saints. 4. An Age of Miracles. Part II: The Powerful and the Poor:. 5. The Urban Revolution. 6. The Crisis of the Carolingian Regime. 7. The End of Affluence. 8. The Shaping of an Agrarian Economy. 9. The Little Community. Part III: Sex and the Social Order:. 10. Family, Land and Power. 11. Vying in Good Works. 12. Chastity, Property and Obedience. 13. Incest, Matrimony and Chivalry. 14. Brothers in Christ. 15. Apostacy and Betrayal. Part IV: The Ruling Culture:. 16. The Highest Learning. 17. The Giant' s Shoulders. 18. New monarchy, new men. 19. Courts and Courtiers. 20. A Governing Passion. 21. Doubt, Hesitation and Pain. Part V: Order Restored:. 22. Pious and Inflexible Severity. 23. The Pursuit of Monopoly. 24. The Community of the Faithful. 25. Exporting the Revolution. 26. The Europe of the New Regime. Table od Dates. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

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Book SynopsisThe third edition of this successful text has been revised to include a new chapter on the politics of the Second World War, and to reflect recent developments in research into the period. Third edition of this insightful survey of changes in British politics Now extended to cover the politics of the Second World War and the election of 1945 Extensively revised in the light of recent research Looks at the Labour Party''s evolution into a national rather than sectional party Includes updated suggestions for further reading Trade Review"Is to be welcomed. This is a textbook of a superior sort as Pugh disavows the attempt to be a neutral assessor of the work of others and imposes his own interpretation upon the period. This leads to a clearer understanding of events." History Today - of the previous edition "A commanding synthesis ... succeeds brilliantly in finding the right voice to explain what matters now." London Review of Books - of the previous edition "Excellent book, by far the best of its kind on this period ... impressively lucid and consistent ... a remarkable book which will stimulate teachers as well as students for years to come." Society for the Study of Labour History Bulletin - of the previous editionTable of ContentsList of Tables viii List of Illustrations x Preface xi Part One 1867–1900 1 1 Party and Participation 1867–1900 3 Voting and Non-voting 4 Electoral Practice and Malpractice 10 The Rise of the Party Activist 14 Party, Parliament and the ‘Independent Member’ 17 2 The Evolution of the Gladstonian Liberal Party 1867–1895 22 Liberalism, Reform and Religion 23 The Building Blocks of Liberalism 25 The Programme versus the Single Issue 30 1886: The Radicalization of the Party 35 3 The Conservative Revival 1874–1900 42 The Impact of Middle-class Conservatism 44 Organizing the Democracy 48 Tradition and Change 51 Salisbury and Liberal Unionism 54 The State and Social Reform 59 4 The Social Roots of Political Change in Late Victorian Britain 65 Trends and Issues 66 Rural Radicalism 70 Working-class Politics and Socialists 73 Women, Politics and Labour 78 Working-class Conservatism, Empire and Patriotism 80 The Lower Middle Class 86 Part Two 1895–1914 89 5 The Edwardian Crises 1895–1914 91 The Waning of Radicalism 91 Liberal Imperialism 96 ‘National Efficiency’ and Tariff Reform 99 The Crisis of Conservatism 103 6 Edwardian Progressivism 107 Origins of the New Liberalism 107 The Politics of the Pact 1903–1914 115 Edwardian Labourism 123 The Workers and State Welfare 129 7 The Electoral Struggle 1906–1914 130 The Containment of Labour 131 The Franchise Factor 135 Regional Political Culture 138 The Unions, MacDonald and the Pact 1911–1914 141 Part Three 1914–1920s 147 8 The Impact of the Great War on British Politics 149 The Disintegration of the Progressive Alliance 1914–1916 151 Lloyd George and the Conservatives 1916–1918 153 Labour’s Change of Course 158 The Coupon Election of 1918 161 9 Patriotism, Ideology and the State in the Great War 165 Laissez-faire and Interventionism 166 Labour’s Socialist Commitment and the Liberal Inheritance 168 The Working Class, the State and Patriotism 171 Conservatism, Capitalism and the State 1914–1922 173 Part Four 1918–1945 179 10 The Elevation of Labour and the Restoration of Party Politics 1918–1931 181 The Fragmentation of the Coalition 181 The New Strategy 1922 183 Baldwin and Normality 1923 186 MacDonaldism and Socialism 188 The Rise and Fall of the Second Labour Government 194 11 Origins of the Conservative Electoral Hegemony 1918–1931 199 The Impact of the Electoral System 199 The Conservatives and the Constituencies 203 Labour’s Grass Roots 1918–1929 207 Women in Inter-war Politics 211 The General Strike and the Realignment of the Working Class 213 The Election of 1931 220 12 From the National Government to the Popular Front 1931–1939 222 The National Government and Liberal Toryism 222 The Threat from the British Union of Fascists 229 Labour, Socialism and Keynesianism 233 The Left, Rearmament and Public Opinion 235 The General Election of 1935 238 Labour and the Popular Front 1936–1939 240 13 The Politics of the ‘People’s War’ 1939–1945 243 The Churchill Coalition 243 Public Opinion and the Swing to the Left 247 Consensus Politics 249 The Labour Landslide of 1945 251 Conclusions 255 Notes 258 Guide to Further Reading 267 Index 283

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Book SynopsisPompey the Great was one of the most important military commanders and politicians in the history of the Roman republic. This biography provides a historical background essential for understanding Pompey's career. It gives readers a look inside the political and military world of ancient Rome and at one of the characters that shaped its destiny.Trade Review"Displays a high degree of expertise and professional competence . . . an important contribution to the understanding of the late Republic and a valuable tool for future researchers." History "An authoritative volume which is likely for many years to remain essential reading for students of the Late Republic. . . highly recommended." Greece and Rome "The new edition makes this volume one of the most ready references on this subject in English, and the chronological table and the glossary are exemplary for a biography on a Roman topic. Seager's work has stood the test of time and will continue to do so." Bryn Mawr Classical ReviewTable of ContentsPreface. Abbreviations. List of maps. Introduction: The Historical Background from the Gracchi to Sulla. 1. Cn. Pomepeius Strabo. 2. Pompeius, Cinna and Sulla. 3. The Rise to the Consulship. 4. The Commands Against the Pirates and Mithradates. 5. Pompeius in the East. 6. Rome in the Absence of Pompeius. 7. The Return of Pomepius. 8. The Consulship of Caesar. 9. The Exile of Cicero. 10. The Conference of Luca. 11. The Second Consulship and the Growth of Anarchy. 12. The Third Consulship and the Approach of Civil War. 13. The Civil War. 14. Conclusion. Afterword. Appendix 1 The Chronology of Caesar's Legation in 59. Appendix 2 The Terminal Date of Caesar's Gallic Command. Select Bibliography. Chronological table. Glossary. Index.

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Book Synopsis* Important study of women and power in medieval England. * Sets biographical study of two early English queens in social and political context. * Draws on latest research in womena s and feminist history as anthropology. * Provides insights into structure of medieval rule. .Trade ReviewThere is much learning, originality and, indeed, entertainment in Pauline Stafford's Queen Emma and Queen Edith...This book develops a most interesting subject with learning and insight which illuminate the period as a whole." (English Historical Review) "It provides fascinating insights into medieval family structures, the manipulation of saints' cults, the nature of royal estates and patronage, to name but a few of its themes. Anyone who wants to understand the power structures of the early Middle Ages will want to read it." (History) "The stories of Queen Emma and Queen Edith are satisfyingly rich in the telling in Pauline Stafford's latest book, Queen Emma and Queen Edith. The sources which provide these riches are varied and Stafford's use of them masterly." (Parergon) "Readable and learned, it is an admirable illustration of the way in which gender studies may be used to enrich understanding of the whole history of a period." (Times Higher Education Supplement) "It will become an indispensable tool on undergraduate courses dealing with gender, power and politics in the middle ages ... It also represents a clear, elegantly written and meticulously documented contribution to the study of the eleventh (and tenth) century in England." (Gender and History) "(Stafford) has used her two queens to suggest a great deal, not only about queens and court politics in eleventh-century England but also about the society and politics of a whole period of west European history." (Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford: The Brown Book)Table of ContentsList of Figures. Preface. Acknowledgements. Part I: The Stories. . Prologue. 1. Emma and Edith in the Narratives of the Eleventh Century. 2. Emma's and Edith's Narratives. Part II: The Structures. . 3. The Faces of the Queen. 4. Family: Structures and Ideals. 5. Household, Land and Patronage. 6. Queen and Queenship. 7. The Fluctuating Power of the Queen: Witnessing and Identities. Part III: The Lives. . 8. Emma. 9. Edith. Appendix I The Lands and Revenues of Edith in Domesday Book. Appendix II Emma's and Edith's Household Followers. Appendix III Genealogical Tables. Bibliography. Index.

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Book SynopsisA book on the study of history by G R Elton, it makes a major contribution to the question 'What is history?'. It sets out Elton's experience in the study, writing and teaching of history. It includes an which assesses the book's relationship to Elton's work, and its impact on the historical profession and its lessons for historians.Table of ContentsPreface. 1. Purpose. The Present Debate. Autonomy. Kinds. Rivals. Purpose. 2. Research. The Possibility of Historical Truth. Facts and Methods. The Sources. Evidence and Criticism. Imagination. 3. Writing. Controls. Patterns and Bias. Style. Audience. Categories. Length. Analysis and Narrative. 4. Teaching. Undergraduate Teaching: What?. Undergraduate Teaching: How?. The Graduate Student. Afterword. (Richard J. Evans). Notes. Index.

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Book SynopsisIn the late 18th century German-speaking Europe was a patchwork of undeveloped principalities. Yet by the early 20th century, unified Germany had become the most powerful state in Europe. This book tells the story of this transformation weaving together political, social and cultural history.Trade Review‘David Blackbourn is one of the brightest of a younger generation of Anglo-American scholars whose work has transformed the historiography of modern Germany over the past two decades.' Times Higher Education Supplement ‘Here is contemporary historical scholarship at its best. Witty, modest about historical generalizations, but ever willing to introduce revisionism, Blackbourn demonstrates how to write thought-provoking and persuasive prose.' German Studies Review ‘It is elegant, thought-provoking, informative and entertaining, summarizing a formidable body of literature and offering new interpretations of it. Everyone, from undergraduates to experts in the field, and beyond the walls of academia to the educated general reader . . . can read [this book] with profit and pleasure.' Central European HistoryTable of ContentsList of Maps. List of Tables. List of Figures. List of Plates. Preface to the First Edition. Preface to the Second Edition. Acknowledgements. Prologue: Germany in the Late Eighteenth Century. Part I: The Age of Revolutions, 1789–1848:. 1 In the Shadow of France. 2 Germany in Transition. 3 The Revolutions of 1848–9. Part II: The Age of Progress:. 4 Economy and Society Transformed. 5 From Reaction to Unification. 6 Progress and its Discontents. Part III: The Age of Modernity, 1880–1914:. 7 ‘Made in Germany': A New Economic Order. 8 Society and Culture. 9 The Old Politics and the New. Epilogue: Germany at War, 1914–18. Notes. Selected Bibliography of English Language Works. Index.

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Book SynopsisA History of the Hellenistic World provides a new, authoritative account of the period following the reign of Alexander the Great. With clear narration and extensive documentation, the book explains the highly complex political history of the Hellenistic period.Trade Review“One thing long lacking in the English-speaking world has been the in-depth, full political narrative … .This … is what Errington's book provides. The author has a sharp eye for intrigue, a gift for interpreting recalcitrant inscriptions, and a clear, brisk prose style. His command of the sources and the by now vast scholarship is masterly. As a result, his text will be equally invaluable—a rare achievement-for students and fellow scholars. Highly recommended.” (Choice Reviews, December 2008) "The author, emeritus professor of ancient history at the University of Marburg, highlights the relationships between Greek city-states and Macedonian monarchies." (Times Higher Education Supplement) Table of ContentsList of Illustrations viii List of Maps ix Preface x List of Abbreviations xi Introduction 1 Part I the Making of the Hellenistic World 11 1 First Steps 13 I From Babylon to Triparadeisos 13 II Kassander and Polyperchon 21 III Antigonos 28 2 Consolidation 36 I Seleukos 36 II Lysimachos 39 III Ptolemy 40 IV Kassander and Europe 45 3 From Ipsos to Koroupedion 51 I After Ipsos 51 II Demetrios as King of the Macedonians 54 III Asia Minor 56 IV Towards War – Again 59 4 The Structure of Power 63 I The New Kings 63 II Land Distributions and City Foundations 68 III Regional Government 75 Part II the Hellenistic World in Action 77 5 Europe after Koroupedion 79 I Keraunos and the Celtic Invasion 80 II the Rise of the Aitolian League and Delphi 82 III Pyrrhos and Antigonos Gonatas 85 IV Antigonos Gonatas and the Chremonidean War 87 V Aitolia and Achaia 90 VI the Leagues Expand 93 VII Antigonos Doson 96 VIII Retrospect 103 6 Asia 111 I The Structure of Empire 112 II Antiochos I “soter” 114 III the Middle Years 119 IV Power and Government 126 7 Egypt 143 I Founding Ptolemaic Rule 143 II New and Old 147 III Alexandria and Ptolemais 151 IV Ruler Cult 154 V External Possessions 157 Part Iii the Challenge of Rome 163 8 Clouds in the West 165 I Egypt 165 II Seleukid Asia 171 III Europe 181 9 Storm in the Balkans 191 I Intermezzo 192 II Romans in the Balkans 203 III Antiochos Iii 214 10 Symploke 221 I Asia 221 II Europe 237 Part Iv Rome in the Hellenistic World 247 11 Europe 249 I Macedonia 249 II Achaia 250 III Athens 253 12 Egypt and Asia 256 I The “Sixth Syrian War” 257 II Western Asia Minor 260 13 The End of the Seleukids 267 I Antiochos Iv 268 II the Dynasty Collapses 272 III Terminal Cancer 275 14 Central and Eastern Anatolia 279 I Anatolia Becomes Hellenistic 280 II the “first Mithridatic War” 282 III Anatolia Becomes Roman 287 15 Egypt Becomes Roman 290 I Ptolemy VI “Philometor” 292 II Ptolemy Viii “euergetes” Ii 295 III Woman Power 299 IV Kleopatra “philopator” and the End of Ptolemaic Egypt 305 16 Epilogue 309 Select Bibliography 316 Royal Dynasties 320 Index 324

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Book SynopsisThe Pacific Profiles series presents the most accurate WWII profiles of aircraft which served in the South Pacific theatre.Volume Seven covers the Douglas C-47, including numerous derivatives such as the C-53, R4D and DC-3. This was the most universal aircraft type to appear in the South Pacific and was deployed from day one to the cessation of hostilities. It was utilised by every military organisation including eighteen Fifth and Thirteenth Air Force USAAF squadrons, and also by the USN, USMC, RAAF, RNZAF, RAF and Dutch Air Force.Most profiles are presented for the first time, alongside a full explanation of the markings. Frequent trading of airframes between units resulted in wide-ranging heraldry, unit markings and nose art. In particular until now there has been a paucity of information about the markings of Thirteenth Air Force C-47s and USMC R4Ds, a gap largely filled by this volume. This volume illustrates the development of unit markings from the first commandeered DC-3 airlinTrade ReviewIt all makes for a superb reference book for the modeler and enthusiast and well worth the price of admission. I very much like this series and look forward to each new volume. Most highly recommended. * Modelling Madness 07/09/2022 *One impressive feature of the book is the series of drawings, which provide accurate drawings showing the engine and cargo door arrangements for each variant, with photos in many cases accompanying the drawings, verifying the markings provided. * IPMS/USA 16/11/2022 *

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Book SynopsisThe Pacific Profiles series presents the most accurate WWII profiles of Allied and Japanese aircraft which served throughout the Australia, New Guinea and Solomons theatres. This Volume 15 covers the B-26 and US Navy JM Marauder series which served in these theatres from their first delivery to Australia in April 1942 until the war's end.

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Book SynopsisSouth Pacific Air War Volume Four chronicles aerial warfare in the South Pacific in the critical period between 19 June and 8 September 1942. It can be read alone or as a continuation of the first three volumes that spanned the first six months of the Pacific War, culminating in the Battle of the Coral Sea.Trade Review…came away with a new appreciation for how the air war was fought in this theatre. * Wargames Illustrated 08/11/2021 *...another outstanding contribution to a full understanding of aerial warfare in the theater, skillfully integrating information from the Allied perspective with less familiar material from the Japanese point of view. […] Recommended. * Stone & Stone *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1 Overview Chapter 2 Night Raids: Regional Operations 19-30 June Chapter 3 Independence Day: Regional Operations 1-7 July Chapter 4 The Lull Before the Storm: Regional Operations 8-20 July Chapter 5 Buna Landing: New Guinea 21-31 July Chapter 6 Target Townsville: Solomons & North Queensland 21 July–1 August Chapter 7 150 Bombers Destroyed! New Guinea 1-8 August Chapter 8 D-Day: The Solomons 1–8 August Chapter 9 Prelude: Milne Bay 4-22 August Chapter 10 Buna Resupplied: New Guinea 9-22 August Chapter 11 Emergency: Milne Bay 23 August - 8 September Chapter 12 Tainan Ku Annihilated! New Guinea 23 August – 8 September Chapter 13 Conclusion Appendix 1 Allied Aircraft Losses & Fatalities Appendix 2 Japanese Aircraft Losses & Fatalities Appendix 3 Cumulative Losses Sources Index

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Book SynopsisPacific Profiles Volume Two illustrates, by unit, Japanese Army Air Force (JAAF) bomber and other supporting aircraft types operating in New Guinea and the Solomons from December 1942 to April 1944.Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1 JAAF Bombers and Support Types in the South Pacific Chapter 2 Technical Notes Chapter 3 The 7th Hiko Sentai Chapter 4 The 14th Hiko Sentai Chapter 5 The 26th Hiko Sentai Chapter 6 The 34th Hiko Sentai Chapter 7 The 45th Hiko Sentai Chapter 8 The 60th Hiko Sentai Chapter 9 The 61st Hiko Sentai Chapter 10 The 75th Hiko Sentai Chapter 11 The 208th Hiko Sentai Chapter 12 Headquarters and Command Units Chapter 13 Reconnaissance Units Chapter 14 Transport and Liaison Units Sources Index

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Book SynopsisPacific Profiles Volume Three illustrates, by squadron, USAAF Fifth Air Force and RAAF Douglas A-20 series medium bombers operating in New Guinea from July 1942 to the end of 1944.

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Book SynopsisVolume Five of this series chronicles aerial warfare primarily in the New Guinea theatre in the critical period between September and December 1942. It can be read alone or as a continuation of the previous four volumes which span the first nine months of the Pacific War.By early September the strategic picture in the theatre had changed markedly within just six weeks. From their new Buna beachhead the Japanese Army commenced a Papuan mountain campaign which threatened the Allied bastion of Port Moresby. Meanwhile the battle for Guadalcanal was raging, with the outcome of the wider Pacific War in the balance.Against this background a strengthened US Fifth Air Force took the fight to the IJA with direct air support. While this was being conducted by P-39s, P-40Es, A-20As and B-25s, raids by B-17s against Rabaul aided US forces in the neighbouring Solomons. RAAF Beaufighters, Beauforts, Bostons and Hudsons also contributed substantially to these efforts.At Rabaul a wide variety of fresh Trade ReviewThis series is literally the most comprehensive and well researched publications on the air campaigns in the South Pacific during World War Two. You will find no finer set of books with amount of detail, selection of photographs, or use of artwork than this series. * Aviation Enthusiast Book Club *...tells of plane-by-plane missions, with losses and combat results, all the while comparing and contrasting both sides' accounts for an accurate depiction of losses. * The Historical Miniatures Gaming Society 02/11/2022 *

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Book SynopsisIn this book, accompany Sonal Ved on a journey of taste through the various timelines across the Indian subcontinent. We go from the banks of the Indus in 1900 bc to the great kingdoms of the north many centuries later; from the time of the Mauryansto when the Mughal Sultanate reigned supreme. Meet the Europeans merchants desperate to trade in Indian treasures, be it the deep-blue indigo or the pricey pepper.On this trip discover answers to such questions as What are the origins of chutney or of the fruit punch, and how are they connected to India? Who taught us how to make ladi pav and kebabs, and how did the Burmese khow suey land up on the wedding menus of Marwaris?

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Book SynopsisFrom Sarah Bradford, the best-selling author of George VI, Elizabeth and Diana, the definitive biography of Queen Elizabeth II, now celebrating the Platinum Jubilee -- her 70th year on the throneElizabeth II has lived through the Abdication, the Blitz and World War Two, the sex and spy scandals of the swinging sixties, the Cold War and the nuclear threat, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and a global pandemic. She has known 14 US Presidents including JFK, Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump, and other world leaders like President Mandela and Pope John XXII. Her Prime Ministers have ranged from Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher to Boris Johnson. Her own family experiences, a mixture of happiness and crisis, weddings and divorces, and, in the case of Diana, violent death, have been lived in the glare of tabloid headlines. More than 2 billion people watched the wedding of her grandson Prince William to Catherine Middleton in 2010 shortly before

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Book SynopsisFrom the bestselling author of The English comes Empire, Jeremy Paxman''s history of the British Empire accompanied by a flagship 5-part BBC TV series, for readers of Simon Schama and Andrew Marr.The influence of the British Empire is everywhere, from the very existence of the United Kingdom to the ethnic composition of our cities. It affects everything, from Prime Ministers'' decisions to send troops to war to the adventurers we admire. From the sports we think we''re good at to the architecture of our buildings; the way we travel to the way we trade; the hopeless losers we will on, and the food we hunger for, the empire is never very far away.In this acute and witty analysis, Jeremy Paxman goes to the very heart of empire. As he describes the selection process for colonial officers (''intended to weed out the cad, the feeble and the too clever'') the importance of sport, the sweating domestic life of the colonial officer''s wife (''the challenge with

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Book SynopsisOne of the most famous accounts of living under the Nazi regime of World War II comes from the diary of a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl, Anne Frank. Today, The Diary of a Young Girl has sold over 25 million copies world-wide; this is the definitive edition released to mark the 70th anniversary of the day the diary begins. ''12 June 1942: I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support''The Diary of a Young Girl is one of the most celebrated and enduring books of the last century. Tens of millions have read it since it was first published in 1947 and it remains a deeply admired testament to the indestructible nature of the human spirit.This definitive edition restores thirty per cent if the original manuscript, which was deleted from the original edition. It reveals Anne as a teenage girl who fretted about and tried to cope withTrade ReviewA modern classic . . . Anne's diary tells a story that is true, memorable, important and strongly personalized . . . compelling reading * The Times *Rings down the decades as the most moving testament to the persecution of innocence * Daily Mail *

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Book SynopsisTakes readers on a tour of London's most formative age - the age of love, sex, intellect, art, great ambition and fantastic ruin. This book is about the Georgians who called London their home, from dukes and artists to rent boys and hot air balloonists meeting dog-nappers and life-models along the way.Trade ReviewJam-packed with unusual insights and facts about Georgian London. A great read from a talented new historian * Independent *Inglis writes colourfully and engagingly, and offers plenty of odd facts and amusing vignettes * Economist *Full of neat character portraits and engaging plots * Financial Times *Pacy, superbly researched. The real sparkle lies in its relentless cavalcade of insightful anecdotes . . . There's much to treasure here * Londonist *Read and be amazed by a city you thought you knew -- Jonathan Foyle, World Monuments FundFun, fast and factual . . . Lucy Inglis offers, without breaking stride, a delicious panorama of people, quiddities and oddities * Evening Standard *Inglis has a good ear for the outlandish, the farcical, the bizarre and the macabre. A wonderful popular history of Hanoverian London * London Historians *The Georgians had enough scandal and drama going on to fill a dozen tabloid papers. The rather-fit Lucy Inglis crams it all into this startling book which will have you pining for a taste of those debauched days * Sunday Sport *From the Great Fire in 1666 and the covering of the old 'Ditch' where the Fleet river once ran, to the creation of Westminster Bridge, the British Museum and the National Gallery, Lucy Inglis gives us an entertaining romp through well-known parts of London * Who Do You Think You Are? *Lucy Inglis leaves no stone unturned, no coffeehouse unvisited and no dark alley unexplored . . . a dazzling tapestry of 18th-century London life emerges. Lively, engaging, fascinating, humorous * BBC History *[An] engaging and industrious survey of life in Georgian London * TLS *Reading Lucy Inglis's brisk, astringent and highly amusing tour around various quarters of Hanoverian London on Boxing Day is the ideal antidote to the excesses of Christmas and will keep you snugly entertained in your armchair for hours * History Today, 'Books of the Year' *Anyone who is interested in history and our great capital city will be gripped by Georgian London. This book is full of enjoyable nuggets * Soane Magazine *Inglis describes a city that was just beginning to become modern, with all its colourful high and low life * Journal of the Islington Archaeology & History Society *

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Book SynopsisThe first and only successful slave revolution in the Americas began in 1791 when brutally exploited slaves rose up against their masters on Saint-Domingue. Dubois weaves the stories of slaves, free people of African descent, wealthy whites, and French administrators into an unforgettable tale of insurrection, war, heroism, and victory.Trade ReviewA stern and brilliant new book… The Haitian Revolution, in all its ugliness and brutality, was the response of the oppressed, indentured and enslaved to their unjust condition. And it is this whirling and chaotic world that Dubois so vividly brings to life in Avengers of the New World and so accurately deconstructs… Dubois starts this book about war with chapters about love, death, books and graveyards. His discussions of interracial love affairs and the attitudes of slaves both toward death among slaves and toward death among masters are riveting and eloquent. Indeed, Dubois’ literary sensibility informs the book from start to finish, so that at its beginning as well as its end, the reader feels as if the story must be fiction, yet it is not… Dubois calls Haiti a nation ‘founded on ashes,’ and he has written splendidly about the fires, both political and cultural, that lit up the land during the days of revolution and that are still, in a sense, burning today. -- Amy Wilentz * Los Angeles Times Book Review *[A] sinuous and stirring account of ‘the largest slave revolt in the history of the world, and the only one that succeeded.’ -- John Leonard * Harper’s *Laurent Dubois’s patient study offers a valuable glimpse into the complexities of the creation of modern Haiti that supplants the usual commonplaces on this ‘first black republic.’ -- Nick Caistor * Times Literary Supplement *There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of books about the Haitian Revolution, but only a handful are indispensable. Avengers of the New World joins that select company. A powerful narrative informed by the latest research, it digs beneath ready-made notions—whether of purely heroic rebels or of implacable caste hatreds—to bring to light the forging of new identities and new ideals. -- Robin Blackburn * The Nation *In this exhaustively researched and valuable account, Laurent Dubois, a history professor at Michigan State, looks back to the founding of Haiti… Dubois, writing in an accessible style and with a wide-ranging focus, has done an impressive job depicting the tumultuous founding of Haiti. Readers wanting to place the Caribbean nation’s current struggles in a larger historical context will find Dubois an eminently worthwhile resource. -- Chuck Leddy * Christian Science Monitor *Avengers of the New World weaves the experiences and stories of slaves, free Blacks, wealthy whites, and French administrators into an unforgettable tale of insurrection, war, heroism, and victory. Laurent Dubois examines the actions of the famous leaders of the revolt such as Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, but also of lesser-known men and women caught up in the violent and tumultuous events. Dubois establishes the Haitian Revolution, which is often misunderstood or forgotten, as a foundational moment in the history of democracy and of human rights… Avengers of the New World can help us put the current situation in Haiti in context, explain the reasons behind the violence, and give us an idea of what the future might hold. * Caribbean Life *How well Dubois wears the mantle of this exciting area of study. His engaging analysis of the social forces at play in Saint Domingue (now Haiti) at the turn of the nineteenth century reveals this conflict to be of wider significance than we may previously have thought… Dubois’s masterful grasp of the ‘contorted human relationships’ that define the period renders his study infinitely relevant to our global society… With his help, we may yet come to understand the far-reaching impact of this amazing revolution and the true meaning of Haiti’s beloved motto: L’Union fait la force. -- Patti M. Marxsen * French Review *In Avengers of the New World, Laurent Dubois has crafted a nuanced yet highly readable narrative of the Haitian Revolution… It is a welcome addition to the growing literature on the revolutionary Atlantic World. Readers new to the Haitian Revolution will especially benefit from Dubois’s lucid explanation of an enormously complex period. -- Yvonne Fabella * New West Indian Guide *For those who wish to recall the dramatic events that led to the creation of the world’s first black republic and the Western Hemisphere’s second independent nation, I would strongly recommend Laurent Dubois’s Avengers of the New World… The story of Haitian independence is well known and has been told many times before, but Dubois’s vigorous text brings the story to vibrant new life. The battles, personalities, and complex sociopolitical turmoil brought about in Haiti and elsewhere in the world, especially the slave-owning American South, are recalled with a depth and passion that makes this an invigorating work of historical writing. -- Phil Hall * New York Resident *Readers unfamiliar with the history of Haiti will find this thoughtful, gracefully written book an eye-opening account of the complexities of the Haitian revolution. -- Milton Berman * Salem Press Online *This wonderfully readable account is a timely reminder of the perils and sacrifices that marked Haiti’s revolutionary path, resulting in only the second independent nation of this hemisphere. Dubois rightfully emphasizes the impact of French revolutionary principles (i.e., the Rights of Man) on the Haitian rebel slaves, as well as the inextricable influence of French politics on the fate of its Caribbean colony, highlighted by the power struggles between Napoleon and Louverture. The author’s insights about the nature of solidarity, trust, and leadership among the slaves, as well as the organization of insurgents across the colony, are well worth recalling, especially in this fateful year. -- R. M. Delson * Choice *What Laurent Dubois has achieved is a synthesis of the most current research in a strikingly accessible and appealing presentation, be it to experts or to general readers unfamiliar with the subject. Avengers of the New World is more than likely to become the new standard work in English on one of the most under-reported events in the history of the Western Hemisphere. -- Madison Smartt Bell, author of All Souls Rising and Master of the CrossroadsBy abolishing slavery and granting citizenship to all men, the Haitian Revolution fulfilled the ideals of the Age of Democratic Revolution in a way that France, the United States, and other nations were not yet ready to accept. Dubois demonstrates the revolutionary determination of enslaved Caribbean- and African-born people and captures the voices of key actors including Toussaint Louverture, individual slaves, free people of color, rival black generals, and white women. This is a story that needs to be told in the engaging yet scholarly voice that Dubois achieves. -- John Garrigus, Professor of History, Jacksonville UniversityBrilliantly conceived, beautifully rendered, Laurent Dubois’s narrative places the Haitian Revolution at the center of the Age of Revolutions—one of three that shook the world—challenging in the process the stubborn academic myopia that divides the history of Europe from its colonies, and whites from blacks. -- Thomas Holt, author of The Problem of Race in the 21st CenturyThe course of the Haitian Revolution was as checkered as the storyline of an Italian opera. Laurent Dubois wisely and eloquently reduces that complexity to understandable proportions. He shows how the revolutionary leadership evolved over time, both defining its own objectives and winning its battles along the way. With care and good judgment, Dubois builds for us a compelling picture of the emergent consciousness of the slaves. His distinctive contribution is to bring to life one of the most significant events in modern political history, an event that has been deliberately misrepresented for the past two centuries. -- Sidney Mintz, author of Caribbean Transformations and Sweetness and PowerAvengers of the New World is a luminous model for the history of revolution, for a ‘people’s’ history of freedom, and, not least, for a history that is truly Atlantic in scope. At once original, deeply learned, and gracefully written, Dubois’s achievement is worthy of its great lineage: that of C. L. R. James and Aime Cesaire. -- James C. Scott, author of Domination and the Arts of Resistance and Weapons of the WeakTable of ContentsPrologue 1. Specters of Saint-Domingue 2. Fermentation 3. Inheritance 4. Fire in the Cane 5. New World 6. Defiance 7. Liberty's Land 8. The Opening 9. Power 10. Enemies of Liberty 11. Territory 12. The Tree of Liberty 13. Those Who Die Epilogue: Out of the Ashes Notes Index

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Book SynopsisRonald Numbers has recruited the leading scholars in this new history of science to ­puncture the myths, from Galileo’s incarceration to Darwin’s deathbed conversion to Einstein’s belief in a personal God who “didn’t play dice with the universe.” Each chapter in Galileo Goes to Jail shows how much we have to gain by seeing beyond the myths.Trade ReviewAn illuminating study of the relationship between science and religion...This book features the contributions of a team of 25 scholars that includes agnostics, atheists, and Christians. Their collective objective is to dispel the "hoary myths" of the supposedly bellicose relationship between religion and science. Readers will be fascinated by the evidence that for advocating Copernicanism, Galileo was not imprisoned (as commonly thought) but interrogated--albeit under the threat of torture--and set up in an apartment. Other misconceptions concern the connection between Darwinian thought and Nazi biology, Einstein's belief in God, and Islam's alleged hostility toward scientific enquiry. -- C. Brian Smith * Library Journal *A revealing book...Using "myth" in the popular sense, to mean falsehood, Galileo Goes to Jail debunks widespread misconceptions. -- Douglas Todd * Vancouver Sun *A splendid book. -- Christopher Howse * Daily Telegraph *As a collection, these myth-busting arguments work to soften the wedge responsible for the schism between science and religion. The topics and writing style will appeal to all readers, but students of science and religion should consider this essential reading. -- J. A. Hewlett * Choice *Informative and thought-provoking reading. -- Ernan McMullin * The Tablet *The volume's careful organization and execution reveal the kind of planning and teamwork absent from too many edited collections, but which have come to be expected from Numbers...Each chapter of Galileo Goes to Jail begins with two or three epigraphs that clearly convict scholarly and popular literature of perpetuating the myth in question. Most authors then explore the nuances of the myth, its origin, complexity, and longevity, before telling the "rest of the story." -- Mark A. Kalthoff * First Things *The authors necessarily spend the bulk of their time debunking attacks on religion in the name of science, but they also clear the muddy waters left behind when pro-religion forces try to obscure the scientific record...As Numbers points out in his introduction, fewer than half of the contributors are religious believers at all; and of those, there are only two evangelicals, one Catholic, and one Jew. In other words, they have no axe to grind, and their only agenda is to set the historical record straight. Given all of the polemics published today, this is a breath of fresh air. -- Ryan T. Anderson * Weekly Standard *[Ronald L. Numbers] is a religious agnostic whose scholarship on the history of American religion and science is marked by meticulous accuracy and impartiality...[This book was written] with ordinary readers, not specialists, in mind, making this a truly rare book: where else can you find such authoritative scholarship delivered so accessibly and fairly on such an important subject? -- Edward B. Davis * belief.net *Table of Contents* Contents * Acknowledgments * Introduction Ronald L. Numbers * Myth 1. That the Rise of Christianity Was Responsible for the Demise of Ancient Science David C. Lindberg * Myth 2. That the Medieval Christian Church Suppressed the Growth of Science Michael H. Shank * Myth 3. That Medieval Christians Taught That the Earth Was Flat Lesley B. Cormack * Myth 4. That Medieval Islamic Culture Was Inhospitable to Science S. Nomanul Haq * Myth 5. That the Medieval Church Prohibited Human Dissection Katharine Park * Myth 6. That the Copernican System Demoted Humans from the Center of the Cosmos Dennis R. Danielson * Myth 7. That Giordano Bruno Was the First Martyr of Modern Science Jole Shackelford * Myth 8. That Galileo Was Imprisoned and Tortured for Advocating Copernicanism Maurice A. Finocchiaro * Myth 9. That Christianity Gave Birth to Modern Science Noah Efron * Myth 10. That the Scientific Revolution Liberated Science from Religion Margaret J. Osler * Myth 11. That Catholics Did Not Contribute to the Scientific Revolution Lawrence Principe * Myth 12. That Rene Descartes Originated the Mind-Body Distinction Peter Harrison * Myth 13. That Isaac Newton's Mechanistic Cosmology Eliminated the Need for God Edward Davis * Myth 14. That the Church Denounced Anesthesia in Childbirth on Biblical Grounds Rennie B. Schoepflin * Myth 15. That the Theory of Organic Evolution Is Based on Circular Reasoning Nicolaas A. Rupke * Myth 16. That Evolution Destroyed Charles Darwin's Faith in Christianity--until He Reconverted on His Deathbed James Moore * Myth 17. That Huxley Defeated Wilberforce in Their Debate over Evolution and Religion David N. Livingstone * Myth 18. That Darwin Destroyed Natural Theology Jon H. Roberts * Myth 19. That Darwin and Haeckel Were Complicit in Nazi Biology Robert J. Richards * Myth 20. That the Scopes Trial Ended in Defeat for Antievolutionism Edward J. Larson * Myth 21. That Einstein Believed in a Personal God Matthew Stanley * Myth 22. That Quantum Physics Demonstrated the Doctrine of Free Will Daniel P. Thurs * Myth 23. That "Intelligent Design" Represents a Scientific Challenge to Evolution Michael Ruse * Myth 24. That Creationism Is a Uniquely American Phenomenon Ronald L. Numbers * Myth 25. That Modern Science Has Secularized Western Culture John Hedley Brooke * Notes * List of Contributors * Index

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Book SynopsisThis book is a broad, interpretive account of Byzantine strategy, intelligence, and diplomacy over the course of eight centuries that will appeal to scholars, classicists, military history buffs, and professional soldiers.Trade ReviewThe Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire is written with a profound knowledge of the field, a thorough mastery of the sources and secondary literature, and a lively and engaging style that both specialists and general readers will appreciate. -- Peter B. Golden, Rutgers UniversityEdward Luttwak makes a persuasive, well-documented argument that the Byzantines--given the continuity of their institutions, their sense of a historical mission, and their own manuals on statecraft and warfare--had a coherent strategy that enabled them to preserve an empire shielded by few geographical barriers and surrounded by a host of hostile neighbors. -- Eric McGeer, author of Sowing the Dragon's Teeth: Byzantine Warfare in the Tenth CenturyOne of America's leading strategic minds...The traditional stereotype of the Byzantine Empire, established by Edward Gibbon in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, has undergone considerable revision of late, thanks to a renaissance of Byzantine studies, to which Edward Luttwak has now made an important contribution. Luttwak had long promised a sequel to Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire covering the Roman Empire in the East from the fourth through the fifteenth centuries, and finally it is here. -- Stuart Koehl * Weekly Standard *This book is good history as well as being an insightful commentary on strategy...American soldiers and diplomats who helped turn enemies into allies in creating the Sunni Awakening in Iraq will recognize and empathize with what the Eastern Romans did for centuries. This is a timely and relevant work...Luttwak does an excellent job of describing the intelligence system of the Eastern empire, from its tactical use of scouting and patrolling to its strategic use of spies and double agents in the courts of its enemies...Luttwak does a great service in giving us a readable account of how the Byzantines managed national-security strategy in a way that should be useful to contemporary soldiers and civilian policymakers. It is also a very good read. -- Gary Anderson * Washington Times *Luttwak tells his story well. He is especially good on fine detail. Whether describing the lethal "composite reflex bow" used by Hun archers or the complex but surprisingly efficient Byzantine tax system, he is both vivid and exact...Though no Hun bows survive, Luttwak's meticulous descriptions convey their deadly efficiency. It is through such details that a modern reader captures some sense of the sheer terror that those ancient raiders inspired. Even on obscure theological matters, such as the wrangles over "monotheletism"--the proposition that Christ had two natures, human and divine, united by a single will--he is refreshingly lucid...Notwithstanding its erudition, this is an impassioned book, and all the better for that...Historically remote as they are, the Byzantines may have something to teach Americans about long-term survival. -- Eric Ormsby * Wall Street Journal *If there's a single overriding lesson for Americans from Byzantium in Luttwak's fine and definitive work, it is that we ought to make use of Byzantine methods so that we may never be in Byzantine straits. -- Joshua Trevino * New Ledger *Nothing Luttwak writes is uninteresting...His ventures into the military history of antiquity and the Middle Ages are unlike the work of academic historians and equally unlike the superficial surveys produced by journalists for the general public. Thanks to his polyglot reading, his many scholarly contacts and his opinionated style, he succeeds wondrously in reaching both specialists and the public...If the practicality of what he suggests is less than obvious in any given contemporary crisis, the historical analysis which has brought him to his conclusions is exciting, challenging and erudite. It is rare and refreshing to find such deep research on a great empire of the past deployed so eloquently for the guidance of the beleaguered governments of the present. -- Glen Bowersock * London Review of Books *When students of grand strategy search the past for lessons, rarely do they look to the Byzantine Empire. Luttwak, who wrote a well-regarded history of the grand strategy of ancient Rome, thinks this is a mistake. In this exhaustive study, he shows how the rulers of the eastern half of the late Roman Empire were the true masters of the craft. Although the Byzantine Empire occupied a more vulnerable geographic position than its western counterpart, it lasted almost 1,000 years longer. Luttwak argues that the Byzantines survived by relying less on brute military power and more on allies, diplomacy, and the containment of their enemies. They were able, he claims, "to generate disproportionate power from whatever military strength could be mustered, by combining it with the art of persuasion, guided by superior information." The book makes this argument through fascinating chapters on religion and statecraft, envoys, dynastic marriages, and the Byzantine art of war, as well as through evocative details about weapons, military tactics, and taxes. Although the Byzantine Empire did not have a foreign minister, intelligence agencies, or theories of "smart power," it certainly acted as if it did. -- G. John Ikenberry * Foreign Affairs *The volume's grand sweep is appealing. It unpicks the hard-nosed considerations underpinning the Byzantine complexities of the strategies that permitted the eastern Empire to outlast its western counterpart by almost a millennium, introducing key diplomatic factors such as Christianity, prestige and marriage, surveying the tradition of Byzantine military analysis, and highlighting the issues at the heart of Byzantine survival. -- Michael Whitby * Times Literary Supplement *Table of Contents* List of Maps * Preface * I. The Invention of Byzantine Strategy *1. Attila and the Crisis of Empire *2. The Emergence of the New Strategy * II. Byzantine Diplomacy: The Myth and the Methods *3. Envoys *4. Religion and Statecraft *5. The Uses of Imperial Prestige *6. Dynastic Marriages *7. The Geography of Power *8. Bulghars and Bulgarians *9. The Muslim Arabs and Turks * III. The Byzantine Art of War *10. The Classical Inheritance *11. The Strategikon of Maurikios *12. After the Strategikon *13. Leo VI and NavalWarfare *14. The Tenth-Century Military Renaissance *15. Strategic Maneuver: Herakleios Defeats Persia * Conclusion: Grand Strategy and the Byzantine "Operational Code" * Appendix: Was Strategy Feasible in Byzantine Times? * Emperors from Constantine I to Constantine XI * Glossary * Notes * Works Cited * Index of Names * General Index

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Book SynopsisTuck traces the black freedom struggle in all its diversity, from the first years of freedom during the Civil War to President Obama's inauguration. We Ain't What We Ought explores the dynamic relationships between those seeking new freedoms and those looking to preserve racial hierarchies, and between grassroots activists and national leaders.Trade ReviewTuck is one of the very best historians of the civil rights movement. His remarkable account of the long civil rights movement across the nation is brilliantly written and impeccably researched. No other account brings to light grass-roots struggles in so many parts of the country. -- Tony Badger, Professor of American History, Cambridge UniversityRichly detailed, brimming with insight, and marvelously accessible, Stephen Tuck's fast-paced account of African Americans' obdurate fight for equality and justice is the most exciting account of the modern black freedom struggle I have ever read. Consistently attentive to the experiences of ordinary colored folk as well as the actions of race leaders like Marcus Garvey and Martin Luther King and rightly insistent on the need to connect the northern and southern struggles, it sets new standards for scholars of the civil rights movement and the wider—much wider—history of black protest in the United States. -- Robert Cook, author of Sweet Land of Liberty?: African-American Struggle for Civil Rights in the 20th CenturyFrom Frederick Douglass and Henry M. Turner to Barack Obama and Chuck D, from Redemption to Katrina, it's all here—the incredible resiliency and resourcefulness of women and men determined to endure and to overcome. An extraordinary odyssey, captured vividly and imaginatively by Tuck, in which the black voice is heard loudly and clearly. -- Leon F. Litwack, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Trouble in Mind: Black ,Southerners in the Age of Jim CrowTuck delivers a riveting, challenging, and beautifully rendered interpretation of the black freedom movement that tells a powerful and compelling story—one that refuses to reduce black folk to mythic heroes or tragic victims. An essential introduction for anyone who wants to understand the last century and a half, the era of America's greatest revolutions. -- Robin D.G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American OriginalFresh in conception and assured in execution, this wonderfully rich history of the African American experience weaves graphic human stories of ordinary black people into the larger sweep of political and social change. Written with flair, colour, and sensitivity, it confirms Tuck as a leading historian of American race. -- Richard Carwardine, Lincoln Prize–winning author of Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and PowerWe Ain't What We Ought To Be is a provocative and important book that deftly probes both the certainties and the ambiguities of the unending struggles of everyday people for social justice and an end to racism. -- Darlene Clark Hine, Former President, the Organization of American Historians, and the Southern Historical AssociationTuck's is the best single volume history of the long civil rights movement—at once remarkably thorough and admirably concise, richly detailed and strongly argued. Drawing on a rich vein of scholarship in numerous fields, he has produced a new synthesis for a new generation. -- Bruce J. Schulman, author of The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society, and PoliticsIn this sweeping and absorbing history of black activism, Tuck highlights the achievements of community organizing from the mid-19th century to Barack Obama's dexterous grassroots campaign for the presidency. Tuck argues that there is no one black protest movement or agenda and casts his net over 150 years of black political engagement to reel in untold stories and unsung heroes. He is particularly attentive to the first 20 years of the 20th century, which saw protest, empowerment, and the rise of galvanizing figures from Marcus Garvey to boxer Jack Johnson. While the civil rights movement of the 1960s has become emblematic in the chronology of black history, according to Tuck, it does not define the ongoing fight for social justice and freedom among blacks in America. With rich detail and a strong narrative, Tuck fills in gaps in the story, from the lesser known backroom dealings of Booker T. Washington to the noble efforts on behalf of black women by Anna Julia Cooper. * Publishers Weekly *A multitude of black experiences have contributed to the complexity and diversity of the civil rights struggle beyond the iconic portrayals of the movement. Historian Tuck juxtaposes local versus national, southern versus northern, violent versus nonviolent, wartime versus peacetime, secular versus religious, separatist versus integrationist, and other polarities. Tuck profiles famous and obscure African Americans who have struggled for human and civil rights since slavery. Along with Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, W. E. B. DuBois, and others, he profiles Robert Smalls, an enslaved assistant to a captain in the Confederate navy, who sailed the ship to freedom while the white crew and captain slept, and Fanny Peck, a black Detroit housewife who launched a boycott in 1930 of businesses that didn't hire blacks. He chronicles struggles of black feminists, gays and lesbians, environmentalists, and others who don't often make the pages of the history books. In this well-researched volume, Tuck details protests large and small, individual and organized, from Emancipation to the election of Barack Obama. -- Vanessa Bush * Booklist *Oxford University lecturer Stephen Tuck's We Ain't What We Ought To Be is a collection of voices that document our struggle for equality in America from the Reconstruction era until now. It's all here--the great speeches and moments--but it's the nod to the common woman and man that lifts this narrative a notch above similar titles. -- Patrik Henry Bass * Essence *We Ain't What We Ought To Be is an astounding exercise in synthesis, bringing together the past decade of research on the African-American experience. To scholars of southern and black history, what Tuck calls "revelations" will be anything but. However, most Americans are still under the spell of the genre's first generation, with its neat divisions between North and South, violent and nonviolent, and civil rights and Black Power. Tuck's book could change that. -- Clay Risen * Bookforum *Besides its success a riveting piece of narrative writing, Stephen Tuck's account of "the long civil rights movement" is an excellent reminder about the complexities of history...Tuck, a British scholar who lectures on American history at Oxford, has carried out wide-ranging research and written with a fresh approach that enlivens the many sub-themes woven into the whole. From his angle across the waters, his story is as sobering as it is captivating. -- Mark Knoll * Books & Culture *Stephen Tuck has written what must be the most comprehensive history of the civil rights movement that you'll find in a single volume...Stephen Tuck has successfully tackled and tamed a beast of a topic. The writing is crisp and clear yet poetic in its way. There is so much documented information that filler is unnecessary, which makes this history of a complex, multi-century process as readable as any page-turner. We Ain't What We Ought To Be belongs in the classroom and on students' reading lists, but it also fits into the personal library as a reference and a reminder of how the conviction and determination of individuals can lead to world-changing unity. -- Deborah Adams * Curled Up with a Good Book *Masterly...From Reconstruction through the election of President Barack Obama, from the blues through hip-hop, from strikes by black longshoremen in New Orleans in 1867 to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Tuck recounts the efforts of blacks to obtain full American citizenship without discarding their cultural heritage. Pluralism, more than integration, characterizes this monumental and tragic history...This book is comprehensive, balanced, and readable. It stands as the best interpretive volume of the black freedom struggle since 1865. -- Steven F. Lawson * Journal of American History *

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Book SynopsisHuman rights offer a vision of international justice that idealistic millions hold dear. Yet the very concept on which the movement is based became familiar only a few decades ago when it profoundly reshaped our hopes for an improved humanity. This book elevates that extraordinary transformation to center stage.Trade ReviewA most welcome book, The Last Utopia is a clear-eyed account of the origins of "human rights": the best we have. -- Tony Judt, author of Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945The triumph of The Last Utopia is that it restores historical nuance, skepticism and context to a concept that, in the past 30 years, has played a large role in world affairs. -- Brendan Simms * Wall Street Journal *Administer[s] electroshock therapy to a field imprisoned by its own Whiggishness. -- Benjamin Nathans * New York Review of Books *In his erudite new book, The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History, Samuel Moyn...argues that it was only in the 1970s, when other utopian ideologies—socialism, anti-colonialism, and anti-communism—fell by the wayside that human rights assumed its stature as the ultimate moral arbiter of international conduct. -- Jordan Michael Smith * Slate *[H]ighly successful and endlessly controversial… In the place of celebratory treatments of a centuries-long, relentless progression of human rights, Moyn proposed a radically new paradigm… The Last Utopia threw shots across the bow of myriad scholarly camps, from political science to anthropology, sociology to philosophy; its impact reverberated far beyond the academy… The Last Utopia was one of those rare and brilliant books that compelled readers to reexamine their most cherished beliefs. It fundamentally changed the tone and tenor of human rights history, vaulting Moyn into the ranks of the country’s leading public intellectuals. -- Patrick William Kelly * Los Angeles Review of Books *In this profound, important, and utterly original book, Moyn demonstrates how human rights constituted a new moral horizon and language of politics as it emerged in the last generation, a novel and fragile achievement on the wreckage of earlier dreams. A must read. -- Nikhil Pal Singh, author of Black is a CountryWith unparalleled clarity and originality, Moyn's hard-hitting, radically revisionist, and persuasive history of human rights provides a bracing historical reconstruction with which scholars, activists, lawyers and anyone interested in the fate of the human rights movement today will have to grapple. -- Mark Mazower, author of No Enchanted Palace: The End of Imperialism and the Ideological Origins of the United NationsThe Last Utopia is the most important work on the history of human rights yet to have been written. Moyn's search for origins reads like a great detective story as he carefully sifts the evidence of where and when human rights displaced alternative political ideals. -- Paul Kahn, Yale UniversityHuman rights have always been with us--or so their most zealous supporters would have us believe. With surgical precision and forensic tenacity, Moyn reveals how recent and how contingent was the birth of human rights and how fraught has been its passage from 1970s antipolitics to present-day political program. -- David Armitage, author of The Declaration of Independence: A Global HistoryAnyone who truly cares about human rights should confront this bracing account. -- Jan-Werner Müller, Princeton UniversityThe way the phrase human rights is bandied about it sounds like an age-old concept. In fact, it was coined in English in the 1940s. Samuel Moyn examines the myths of its historical roots; most explicitly, the conflation of human rights with the revolutionary French and American concepts of droits de l'homme. The latter implies "a politics of citizenship at home"; the former "a politics of suffering abroad." His book teases out the legal and moral implications of this difference, using country-specific and international examples, in a way that leaves little hiding space for the self-serving usages of foreign ministers, supranational institutions and pollyannaish charities. -- Miriam Cosic * The Australian *Moyn has written an interesting and thought-provoking book which will annoy all the right people. -- Jonathan Sumption * Literary Review *It is not hard to imagine how impatient Bentham would have been with the notion of "human rights" that has grown so prominent over the past few decades. Samuel Moyn's The Last Utopia provides a succinct narrative of how that idea came to occupy the centre stage of so much international political discourse and activism. But the book also challenges the hegemony of human-rights-speak in ways that are nearly as combative as Bentham's polemical flights, though far more subtle and telling...There is a power and elegance to this book that my survey of it cannot convey. Over it hangs the question of whether the notion of human rights may still have a future, or if some other set of aspirations will take its place. Moyn stops well short of speculation. But it is a problem some activist or philosopher (or both) may yet pose in a way we cannot now imagine. -- Scott McLemee * The National *[A] brilliant and bracing new book...Richly researched and powerfully argued, this volume will be the starting point for future discussions of where human rights have been, why they look like they do, and how to think about them down the road. -- Yehudah Mirsky * Democracy Journal *Moyn argues that the origins of human rights are not in the places historians have traditionally looked--the French Revolution or postwar idealism--but in more recent developments...In refocusing our attention on the near history of human rights, The Last Utopia asks new and fertile questions...As Moyn points out, human rights, as never before, provide a framework for engaging with the lives of others. The events we associate with this development--1789, 1948, or the 1970s--influence our view of the present. Moyn has written the perfect history of human rights for the post-Bush era. -- Matt Moore * Dissent *As Samuel Moyn reminds us in The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History, it is really just a few decades since human rights became the world's preferred vocabulary for talking about justice. In dating the birth of human rights, as an ideology and a movement, to the mid-1970s, Moyn is deliberately bucking a trend...Moyn argues convincingly, however, these attempts to create a "usable past" for human rights, well-intended though they are, actually distort the truth. To understand the real strengths and limitations of the idea of human rights, he argues, it is necessary to see it not as an ancient tradition but as "the last utopia" which emerged "in an age when other, previously more appealing utopias died."...The Last Utopia will shed important light on the actual history of our new global faith. -- Adam Kirsch * Barnes and Noble Review *[A] brilliantly illuminating book...Moyn's account of the utopian origins of the contemporary human-rights movement is impressively worked out and largely convincing...Human rights are not the last utopia--just the one we must presently live with. The pursuit of the impossible is too much a part of the modern Western tradition ever to be truly renounced. The idea that utopianism will disappear is itself a utopian dream. The most that can be hoped for is that the piety which surrounds human rights will be tempered from time to time with a little skeptical doubt. It is hard to think of a better start than Moyn's seminal study -- John Gray * National Interest *[A] provocatively revisionist history. -- G. John Ikenberry * Foreign Affairs *Moyn is a highly intelligent, markedly astute commentator. No possible viewpoint eludes his vigilance. He gives the impression of being suave in nature and comprehensive in awareness. This book, as a result, is a bravura performance by a leading light in an apparently crowded and busy field. -- Bradley Winterton * Taipei Times *There is a sense in which the conception of human rights that Moyn documents in this important book is already obsolete. Many of the worst human rights violations of recent years have not been perpetrated by sovereign states. Instead, they are the work of non-state actors: terrorists, militias, or simply criminal gangs...Moyn's contribution is to prove that human rights are not a fixed truth awaiting discovery, but rather an ideology subject to periodic renovation. If the idea of human rights is to survive, it must help us meet the challenges of our own time. Otherwise, it will join other utopian ideologies as the relics of the twentieth century. -- Samuel Goldman * New Criterion *Myth-busting. * Times Higher Education *[Moyn] argues elegantly and forcefully that the dominance of the nation-state in rights thinking made it impossible for the creators of the UN, the protagonists of the Cold War, and the participants in decolonization to conceptualize a world built on individual rights. This view emerged only in the 1970s, creating an entirely new, morality-based utopianism that was unimaginable until previously existing utopian notions no longer seemed plausible. The book, a triumph of originality, scholarship, concision, and bold conceptualization, has a superb bibliographical essay and will be wonderful to teach. A genuinely thrilling account of the modern history of human rights. -- S. N. Katz * Choice *The Last Utopia supplies a detailed, subtle, and in many ways convincing account of the human-rights "surge." Moyn's case for a 1970s turning-point is a strong one and occupies the best chapters in the book. -- Robin Blackburn * New Left Review *Samuel Moyn's book is an erudite and impressive intellectual history, portraying the core principle of contemporary human rights--that individual rights transcend state sovereignty--as a strikingly recent invention. Moyn shows that this moral conception contradicts many of the ostensible roots from which conventional accounts see human rights growing...Moyn's reassessment is groundbreaking and insightful. -- Clifford Bob * American Historical Review *Moyn's revisionist history is an argument for looking at the concept of human rights as a fairly new phenomenon, dating to the 1970s. While discounting the idea's role in shaping society in earlier centuries, he provides a great primer on the evolution of a revolutionary idea. -- Gal Beckerman * The Week *Samuel Moyn's The Last Utopia is a major contribution to the history of twentieth-century human rights, but at the same time a salutary inquiry into the tensions between the rights of citizens as members of sovereign nation-states and the post-national or extra-national rights claims of humans. Moyn has produced a rich, fertile and challenging study of the modern history of rights...Moyn has shown that the history of human rights was a precarious, contingent, protracted and uneven development...If natural rights died as a consequence of secularization, can human rights decline with the erosion of Western liberalism and the securitization of the modern state? With the rise and fall of utopian dreams, academic opinions about the prospects of human rights may differ--however, from now on taking rights seriously means reading Moyn seriously. -- Bryan S. Turner * Contemporary Sociology *

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Book SynopsisShows how the collective purposes and meanings that had framed social debate became unhinged and uncertain. This title offers a reinterpretation of the ways in which the decades surrounding the 1980s changed America. It explains how structures of power came to seem less important than market choice and fluid selves.Trade ReviewAge of Fracture is an extraordinary book—an engrossing story of the new age of markets, a new kind of history of ideas, traversing the frontiers between intellectual, political and public words, and a brilliant explanation of contemporary public life. -- Emma Rothschild, author of Economic Sentiments: Adam Smith, Condorcet, and the EnlightenmentWith verve and fierce intelligence, Age of Fracture captures jagged truths about fluid thought, temporal upsets, and confrontations with fear. I could not put it down. -- Ira Katznelson, author of When Affirmative Action Was WhiteRodgers ranges deftly and expertly from Judith Butler to Jerry Falwell, exploring the fragmentation of American social thought in every conceivable arena. Age of Fracture is an indispensable guide to where we have been, and where—if anywhere—we might be going. -- Jackson Lears, Editor, RaritanThe most wide-ranging and ambitious interpretation of late-twentieth century American intellectual history available. -- James Kloppenberg, author of Reading ObamaRodgers offers a series of penetrating soundings into the social thought of the end of the twentieth century. He considers the recasting of terms in economic theory, the reconceptualizations of power in social theory, the attacks on "essentialism" in race and gender theory, and the diminished notions of obligation in political theory. Finally, he stresses our own curious encounters with the disaggregated past, via glib interpretations that impart an "increasingly malleable, flexible, and porous" quality to history...Again and again in the dominant modes of thought in these years, Rodgers finds institutions, identities, social bonds, and even history itself thinning out and coming apart. -- Robert Westbrook * Bookforum *While Rodgers' narrative about the right is fascinating, none of it is terribly surprising: Defending the prerogatives of corporations and the wealthy, in new and novel ways, is what conservatives do. Age of Fracture provokes by showing that just as conservatives were marshaling their intellectual and philanthropic forces for what New Right gladiator Paul Weyrich called "a war of ideology...a war of ideas, it's a war about our way of life," liberals and progressives themselves "fractured" instead...Rodgers acknowledges both the long, shameful history of oppression as well as the thrilling cultural and political ferment that fractured the left into separate, sometimes warring mini-caucuses. But the book makes it clear that those fissures left liberalism without the ideology or rhetoric to combat the language of choice, markets and freedom that replaced social responsibility in the Reagan years. -- Joan Walsh * Salon *Rodgers offers a challenging interdisciplinary overview of the last quarter of the 20th century...The great value of this book is that the major contentious issues of our time are discussed within a historic and intellectual framework...Rodgers's work may not enter the vernacular like David Riesman's The Lonely Crowd, but it's a similarly seminal look at the way we live (and govern) now. -- Thomas A. Karel * Library Journal *Rodgers has a knack for characterizing and assessing ideas without reducing them to their strictly polemical dimensions. But he also conveys the urgency and consequence of intellectual debate: the sense that it has stakes...Age of Fracture provides a frequently insightful narrative of recent public intellectual life in this country—and also some understanding of its precarious situation now. -- Scott McLemee * The National *A blend of commentary and contextualization, admirably judicious. Rodgers is an excellent anatomist. His forte is clarity. Once in a while, he delivers himself of an opinion that seems positively clairvoyant. -- Alex Danchev * Times Higher Education *I live in a different country than the one into which I was born in 1942. I have never been quite able to pinpoint exactly what makes it so different. More than any other book I've read in recent years, Age of Fracture, by the Princeton historian Daniel T. Rodgers, has helped me to discover and to understand that difference...His ability to explain complex ideas—the Coase theorem comes to mind—is exemplary. He is unapologetic about treating intellectuals, and even academics, as producers of ideas worth taking seriously. He has the ability, unusual for historians of our day, to engage directly in current debates and to write with the clarity of a future observer of these same events. Intellectual history is never that easy to do. An intellectual history of our own time is even harder to pull off. Rodgers has done it and done it well. Perhaps, then, this book will have the happy effect of bringing to an end the trends it brings to light. Rodgers writes about our descent into thinking small because he wants us to once again think big—or so I read between his lines. If more thinkers wrote books like this, the country in which I live may once again resemble the one in which I was born. How sweet that would be. -- Alan Wolfe * New Republic online *[An] important and well-written book...Age of Fracture helps us understand how the recent past set the terms for our current attempts to see society whole and conceive of an agenda for its future...[Rodgers] is a master of his craft; and this book, in which he takes history into the near present, shows what this mastery looks like in practice...Rodgers's diagnostic survey of the most local and recent turn in the modern cycle of integration and disaggregation is essential reading for thinking about what is to come. -- Samuel Moyn * Dissent *In The Age of Fracture, Daniel Rodgers offers an elegant, often eloquent, history of intellectual life in the last quarter of the twentieth century. -- Lisa Szefel * History News Network *Age of Fracture dazzles as it moves from cultural history to political philosophy, Michel Foucault to John Rawls. -- John T. McGreevy * Commonweal *It is hard to think of a work of American intellectual history, written in the last quarter of a century, that is more accomplished or more likely to remain permanently influential. -- Michael O'Brien * Times Literary Supplement *An evocative meditation on the last 25 years of the 20th century…Rodgers describes the sources driving the dissolution of an overarching American ideal…Speaks in heart-rending ways to our current world. -- Jonathan Holloway * Chronicle of Higher Education *

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Book SynopsisSociologist Robert Wuthnow notes remarkable similarities in the social conditions surrounding three of the greatest challenges to the status quo in the development of modern societyâthe Protestant Reformation, the Enlightenment, and the rise of Marxist socialism.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA gripping study of white power…It is impossible to read the book without recalling more recent events…The book’s explosive thesis: that the white power movement ...emerged as a radical reaction to the [Vietnam] war…It is a breathtaking argument, one that treats foreign policy as the impetus for a movement that most people view through the lens of domestic racism…It’s a stunning indictment of official culpability, and Belew constructs her case with forensic care. In doing so, she shows that, while racism is ever with us, policy choices ranging from local police strategies to the furthest reaches of foreign policy create the space for white power to flourish. * New York Times *Compelling…Meticulously researched and powerfully argued, Belew’s book isn’t only a definitive history of white-racist violence in late-20th-century America, but also a rigorous meditation on the relationship between American militarism abroad and extremism at home…The power of Belew’s book comes, in part, from the fact that it reveals a story about white-racist violence that we should all already know. * The Nation *Superbly comprehensive…supplants all journalistic accounts of America’s resurgent white supremacism. -- Pankaj Mishra * The Guardian *Fascinating…Belew connects seemingly disparate events like the killings at Greensboro, the persecution of Vietnamese fishers in Texas in the early 1980s, and the siege at Ruby Ridge. She shows how hatred of the federal government, fears of communism, and racism all combined in white-power ideology and explains why our responses to the movement have long been woefully inadequate. * Slate *A gorgeously rendered account of the white power movement in this country that reveals its symbiotic character, one that both feeds on mainstream angst and stimulates it to new heights. * Los Angeles Review of Books *An engrossing and comprehensive history of the white power movement in America, highlighting its racism, antigovernment hostility, and terrorist tactics…Belew presents a convincing case that white power rhetoric and activism continue to influence mainstream U.S. politics. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *Belew…counters the treatment of white terrorists as ‘lone wolves’ by tracing the contours of an organized white power movement that connected radical white extremists from Greensboro, North Carolina, to Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and from Waco, Texas, to Oklahoma City…Belew does the hard work of restoring those connections, revealing how white supremacists built a coalition of rural survivalists, urban skinheads, and anti-Semitic Christian Identity believers. * Los Angeles Review of Books *An essential reference book for our times. -- Rachel Maddow * Rachel Maddow Show *This is a work of fierce intelligence. Belew shows how white power activists used their view of the Vietnam War to advance every element of their reactionary agenda and to justify domestic terrorism. A book of signal importance and urgency, it provides a haunting vantage point on contemporary American political culture. -- Nancy MacLean, author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for AmericaBring the War Home is a tour de force. An utterly engrossing and piercingly argued history that tracks how the seismic aftershocks of the Vietnam War gave rise to a white power movement whose toxic admixture of violent bigotry, antigovernmental hostility, and racial terrorism helped set the stage for Waco, the Oklahoma City bombing, and, yes, the presidency of Donald Trump. -- Junot DíazThis is a troubling book for many reasons, not just because of the scope of the white power network it reveals…[It] raises questions about how the elements of United States culture that valorize violence and draw ready distinctions between the deserving ‘us’ and the less deserving ‘them’ ...contribute to mass shootings…Belew treats the trajectory of white power victimhood as a shift from attacks on the other to a declaration of war against the federal government. * Jotwell *Fascinating and riveting... that archive is truly incredible. -- Soledad O’Brien * Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien *Belew…traces the origins of the white power movement to the aftermath of the Vietnam War. She examines how various racist groups—skinheads, Klansmen, white separatists, neo-Nazis, militiamen, and others—united under a common banner and took the movement in a violent and revolutionary direction…Belew also argues that the anti-government sentiment created by the Vietnam War helped consolidate and radicalize the white power movement in ways we haven’t fully understood. -- Sean Illing * Vox *Kathleen Belew’s vital new book begins in the belly of a Huey helicopter somewhere over South Vietnam. From there she follows with unflinching honesty the violence that violence begat, from the tiny cadre of veterans who decided to bring the war home through Ruby Ridge and Waco to the horror of the Oklahoma City terrorist attack. Over the years I’ve read any number of exemplary histories. Never have I read a more courageous one. -- Kevin Boyle, author of Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz AgeAn engaging account of how and why the modern white power movement emerged from 1975 to 1995…[Belew] offers an unprecedented level of detail, engaging deeply with developments that other authors typically gloss over…Bring the War Home is an excellent resource for anyone interested in the history of America’s white power movement. * Reason *A smart and powerfully argued book about the way that the Vietnam War in particular reshaped white power in the United States… It’s really fascinating. -- Nicole Hemmer * Past Present *The connection between hate groups and the military is not new… Bring the War Home charts the path of radical white supremacists from the end of the Vietnam War to the 1995 bombing of a Federal government building in Oklahoma City. * CBS News *Examine[s] how romantic public narratives have been deployed to suppress collective memory of the violence that underwrites white supremacy. * Times Literary Supplement *An unquestionably powerful, well-researched and must-read addition to the post-2016 upsurge in analysis and investigation of the foundations of modern fascism. Anyone seeking to understand the origins of the modern far right in the U.S. should include this work at the top of their reading list. -- Ryan Smith * Truthout *Alarming and meticulously researched. -- Wajahat Ali * NYR Daily *This necessary work reminds readers that white violence—on behalf of, and against, the state—has a long and deep history. * Library Journal *In this major work of scholarly synthesis, Kathleen Belew uses letters, ephemera and ‘zines’ as well as newspaper reports and official documents to reconstruct a dark chapter in American history that has chilling echoes for today. * Times Higher Education *Bring the War Home is a fascinating account of right-wing white power extremists in the United States. Kathleen Belew illuminates this history through staggeringly broad research. A compelling and sometimes shocking read, it is an outstanding contribution to the history of violence. -- Mary L. Dudziak, author of War Time: An Idea, Its History, Its ConsequencesIf you weren’t afraid of the violent white power movement before reading [this], you will be when you’re done…Belew details fifty years of energetic racist organizing and violent acts…A ringing call to recognize the extent of the threat, in order to better organize an effective response. -- Micol Seigel * American Historical Review *For those who wish to make sense of the enduring ‘catastrophic ricochet of the Vietnam War’ as well as recent events in places like Charlottesville, Belew’s Bring the War Home is required reading. -- Keira Williams * PopMatters *Invaluable to understanding our current political moment. -- Angela E. Hubler * Against the Current *A carefully written book that argues that violent white-supremacist groups were mobilized by the Vietnam War and the Cold War more generally to undertake an armed campaign in the service of their anticommunist, White supremacist goals…Belew’s work suggests that armed violence by militant movements is a far more enduring and deep-rooted part of American politics than conventional understandings admit. -- Paul Musgrave * Systemic Organization *

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Book SynopsisAfter fifty years of posing and answering daring historical questions, Richard Bulliet tackles an array of topics as diverse as the origin of civilization, the Big BangBig Crunch theory of Islamic history, the Muslim South, counterfactual history, future political events, and future interpretations of the 20th century in his imaginative essays.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewMühlhahn chronicles reforms, revolutions, and wars through the lens of institutions, often rebutting Western impressions, such as the view of Chinese bureaucracy as monolithic. He also warns against thinking of China’s economic success as proof of a unique path without contextualizing it in historical specifics. * New Yorker *A major achievement…It is written with clarity and humanity, and draws clearly on a wide range of recent scholarship…Mühlhahn’s book can be recommended in the highest terms. -- Rana Mitter * American Historical Review *Innovative and fresh…Mühlhahn’s skillful presentation will make this book a highly popular one. -- David Buck * H-Net Reviews *Mühlhahn offers a detailed, balanced survey of the history of modern China, from the rise of the Qing in the early 17th century to the dawn of the Xi administration in 2012… A masterful synthesis. * Choice *A truly important book. Not since Fairbank have we seen such a masterful sweep of traditional, modern, and contemporary history of China thoroughly grounded in Chinese materials and perspectives but eloquently addressed to the interests and concerns of an English-reading public. Mühlhahn’s narrative will help people anywhere in the world make sense of the China they must deal with today. -- Timothy Cheek, author of The Intellectual in Modern Chinese HistoryMühlhahn is one of the world’s leading historians of modern China. A scholar of breadth and depth across disciplines, he has written a compelling narrative of China’s great last empire, the Qing, and of the revolutions and republics that have struggled to succeed it. This thoughtful, probing interpretation is a worthy successor to the famous histories of Fairbank and Spence and will be read by all students and scholars of modern China. -- William C. Kirby, coauthor of Can China Lead?A remarkable accomplishment. Unlike an earlier generation of scholarship, Making China Modern does not treat China’s contemporary transformation as a postscript. It accepts China as a major and active player in the world, places China at the center of an interconnected and global network of engagement, links domestic politics to international dynamics, and seeks to approach China on its own terms. -- Wen-hsin Yeh, author of Shanghai SplendorAt last we have a serious introduction to modern China in which the Chinese are the principal architects of their history, drawing upon the ideas and symbols embedded in their own cultural contexts and normative traditions to create distinctive institutions responsive to the crises and opportunities they have encountered. Anyone wanting to understand the importance of contemporary China for our global future should read this important book. -- R. Bin Wong, coauthor of Before and Beyond Divergence

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Book SynopsisLegal Lessons examines how China's party-state attempted to motivate ordinary citizens to learn laws during the Mao period. Archival records, advice manuals, and colorful propaganda materials reveal how official attempts to promote correct understanding of laws intersected with the interpretations and practical experiences of the people.Trade ReviewWhile the book is focused on China’s two most important urban centers, Altehenger’s careful work in the Beijing and Shanghai archives, complemented by local gazetteers and restricted internal documents, rewards readers with a multilayered depiction of cultural work in the PRC. -- Brian DeMare * China Journal *This terrific book makes a significant contribution to the understanding of propaganda in China as well as to the fields of law, politics and history of the PRC…Altehenger’s analysis contributes mightily to our understanding of the period that she examines, but also is useful in appreciating the dilemmas of law in China today. -- Pitman B. Potter * China Quarterly *A thorough and accessible account of a very complex and important topic, and it deserves wide readership. The book will prove especially helpful for researchers interested in the PRC legal system, Chinese legal history, China’s governance capacity, and its state-society relations. -- Ji Li * China Review International *Drawing upon abundant archival records, internal reports, newspapers, and posters, Altehenger offers a fresh look into the CCP’s campaigns of disseminating legal knowledge. Her vivid accounts not only demonstrate the significant role of mass legal education in China’s socialist governance, but also disclose the complex dynamics between party leaders, propaganda officials, state and private publishers, and cultural workers in various campaigns. -- Weiting Guo * Pacific Affairs *A pioneering account of how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) endeavored to use legal propaganda to mold ideological consciousness and valorize the disparate phases of its revolution between 1949 and 1989…Altehenger has filled a key gap in the literature on the PRC legal system with an engaging, richly sourced study that bridges multiple fields of scholarship…Her book will appeal to historians of modern China, culture, and law, as well as to observers of the contemporary PRC, and that is an exceptional feat. -- Glenn Tiffert * Law and History Review *Exhaustively researched and methodologically innovative, Legal Lessons is a must-read not only for PRC historians but also for legal historians of China and elsewhere. It redresses a glaring paucity of scholarship in an important field and provides a deeply textured narrative of the continued tussle between state and society over the varied meanings of law. By crossing important epochal divides, it also places China’s ongoing legal reforms in their proper historical context to demonstrate how they were not exclusively inventions of the post-Mao government seeking to rebuild its political legitimacy and rejoin the global economy. -- Philip Thai * PRC History Review *An important work for scholars interested in the cultural dimensions of the law, Maoist-era mass political campaigns, and the comparative study of socialist states. -- Joshua Hill * Twentieth-Century China *When it seized power in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party abolished the modern legal codes of the Republican era and created ‘socialist law’ for the new People’s Republic. Altehenger places the Chinese experience firmly within the world of the ‘socialist brother countries.’ This is not a book about rule by law, but the story of rule by propaganda. Going far beyond legal history, it is a compelling study of the enduring political culture of a regime that still argues today that it need not abide by its own constitution. -- William C. Kirby, T. M. Chang Professor of China Studies and Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration, Harvard UniversityA major scholarly accomplishment, Legal Lessons masterfully details how the Chinese state over forty years spread knowledge about law. By providing an extraordinarily deft portrayal of the deep internal conceptual and practical tensions that the party-state encountered in endeavoring to use law as a governing instrument, and the intricate ways in which China’s populace received and understood those messages, Altehenger shows that creating law for a new China was far more complex an undertaking than had previously been presumed. -- William Alford, Henry L. Stimson Professor, Harvard Law SchoolThis is a beautifully researched and illuminating study of how the Chinese communist state has struggled to popularize laws since the 1950s through campaigns around the Marriage Laws, various drafts of the constitution, and more general legal awareness. It demonstrates the importance of law to the communist state throughout its history and the crucial role of culture and the media in how law has been understood. -- Henrietta Harrison, Professor of Modern Chinese Studies, University of Oxford China CentreLegal Lessons links the practice of legal education in the early PRC to the larger international project of socialist lawmaking, and raises new questions about the relationship between legal propaganda, legal ‘reform,’ and the quest for new kinds of legal polities in the late twentieth century and beyond. Altehenger’s masterful study provides a critical foundation for understanding the Chinese path to that contested condition we call rule of law. -- Madeleine Zelin, Dean Lung Professor of Chinese Studies, Columbia UniversityWith its wide-ranging implications, Legal Lessons is worth learning! It presents a whole new way to comprehend radical attempts made by the Chinese state to inculcate legal knowledge among the people—and thereby transform society—at pivotal moments in China’s recent past. -- Karl Gerth, Hsiu Endowed Chair in Chinese Studies and Professor of History, University of California, San Diego

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewBrilliant…groundbreaking…Brown’s profound analysis and revolutionary vision of the Age of Slave War—from the too-often overlooked Tacky’s Revolt to the better-known Haitian Revolution—gives us an original view of the birth of modern freedom in the New World. -- Cornel WestBrown’s brilliant analysis reveals how slave rebellions across the Americas depended upon experienced combatants captured in African conflicts and then sold to Europeans, refuting the canard that slave traders gathered their victims randomly. While tracing the relationships between African warfare and uprisings in the Americas, Brown offers beautifully written portraits of those who survived the crushing forces of colonial imperialism and fought for freedom. Above all else, this astute and comprehensive book is about agency. -- Henry Louis Gates, Jr.A sobering read for contemporary audiences in countries engaged in forever wars, reminding us how easily and arbitrarily the edges of empire, and its evils, can fade from or focus our vision. It is also a useful reminder that the distinction between victory and defeat, when it comes to insurgencies, is often fleeting: Tacky may have lost his battle, but the enslaved did eventually win the war. -- Casey Cep * New Yorker *Brown derives not only a story of the insurrection, but ‘a martial geography of Atlantic slavery,’ vividly demonstrating how warfare shaped every aspect of bondage…Forty years after Tacky’s defeat, new arrivals from Africa were still hearing about the daring rebels who upended the island. -- Julian Lucas * Harper’s *Outstanding…Brown has produced one of the best treatments of slavery ever written. -- Steve Hahn * Boston Review *A powerful account of the slave rebellion that took place in Jamaica in 1760 situates it in the context of an era of conflict and argues that slavery was itself a ‘state of war.’ * The Guardian *A phenomenally insightful and compelling book on both the brutality of British colonialism and the desire for freedom. -- Brad Evans * Los Angeles Review of Books *Virtuosic…A revelation, and a true heir to The Black Jacobins and The Common Wind…Through prodigious and imaginative work with the archives, or, rather, with their absences—namely, of the voices of the enslaved—Brown shows that, although slavers tried to unmoor the enslaved from their homes and communities, language and culture, and sense of self, the connections between various African communities and the diaspora endured despite the violence of the plantation regime. -- Laleh Khalili * New Statesman *[A] revealing history…Readers interested in the era will find much of value in this exhaustive portrait of the rebellion’s origins and ramifications. * Publishers Weekly *Brown’s reframing of slavery as war allows us to better understand enslaved people as soldiers, diplomats, sailors, and community leaders dedicated to Black freedom (both then and now). Specifically, Brown’s book shows how—within the broader war—enslaved men, women, and children defended themselves and even counterattacked…Will undoubtedly shape generations of scholarship to come. -- Julia Gaffield * Public Books *[A] careful reconstruction of an understudied footnote in Jamaican history. -- Alex Colville * The Spectator *Intricately mapping each of the linked but local uprisings across Jamaica and relating them to tides in the global struggle, Brown demonstrates how the rebels applied strategic concepts mastered in wars an ocean away…He shows how they acted on motives and opportunities as global and complex as those of the military officers and planter militias who moved to contain and kill them…A tour de force of research, theory, and historical imagination that transforms anonymous laboring slaves into actors of tragic majesty in an intricate conflict. -- Christopher Moore * Literary Review of Canada *A compelling account…By connecting the Jamaica insurgencies to larger intra-imperial wars, especially the War of Jenkin’s Ear and the Seven Years’ War, Tacky’s Revolt makes slavery and the violence it produced inseparable from broader military conflicts…Impressively original and painstakingly researched. -- Christine Walker * H-Net Reviews *This is a magnificent piece of historical scholarship. Just as the rebels found pathways up into the steep hills overlooking the plains where enslavers trembled and sugar cane burned, Tacky’s Revolt finds new perspectives on resistance, warfare, culture-making, social death—and social life-after-death. -- Edward E. Baptist * Black Scholar *Brown has produced the most detailed and insightful account to date of Tacky’s Revolt. By framing it through the wide-angle lens of imperial, Diasporic, and Atlantic historical forces converging in Jamaica during the Seven Years’ War and the zoom lens of colonial, local, parish, and plantation dynamics, the reader gets a detailed and personalized account of how enslavement functioned as a deadly and destructive act of war, and, just as importantly, of how resistance to slavery required a creative war to imagine if a different world was (and remains) possible. -- Matt D. Childs * Journal of Early American History *Extraordinary…This well-written, beautifully illustrated, and incredibly well-researched book points the way forward toward a new cartography linking Europe, Africa, and the Americas and toward the future study of slave revolts and resistance. -- Gad Heuman * New West Indian Guide *This lively, sophisticated book proves that Vincent Brown is one of the most creative historians writing anywhere in the world today about the African Diaspora. Tacky’s Revolt is destined to become a classic work on the long, deep struggle against slavery from below. -- Marcus Rediker, author of The Slave Ship: A Human HistoryThe men and women who took up arms to fight against their enslavement across Jamaica in 1760 have long needed a historian. In Vincent Brown’s Tacky’s Revolt they have received their due. Combining precision with attention to the big picture, Brown weaves together stories of alliances, solidarities, and divisions, from St. Mary’s parish in the North of Jamaica, to the ships of the Atlantic ocean, to the forests of the Gold Coast. Brown’s superb archival work and sensitive historical reconstruction enable us to rethink the participants in the revolt as soldiers engaged in a war; a war against the unending, pervasive everyday violence that was slavery itself. -- Diana PatonIn Tacky’s Revolt, Vincent Brown has mapped an innovative history and geography linking power and resistance across Africa, America, and Europe. He demonstrates that slavery was—is—a state of war. -- Catherine Hall, author of Macaulay and Son: Architects of Imperial BritainA masterful interpretation of the roots and routes of revolutionary action and of the inevitable response of African-Jamaican men and women to the violence of the racist and brutal British imperial project which rendered slavery a perpetual state of war. -- Verene A. Shepherd, author of Livestock, Sugar and Slavery: Contested Terrain in Colonial JamaicaThe problem of understanding slave revolts is not why they were relatively few compared to the obvious difficulties of slave life, but why they happened at all. Vincent Brown has successfully worked out this rebellion by treating it as if it were a war, waged by ex-soldiers, chafing at their imprisonment, and looking for an avenue for freedom. Brown’s skillful linking of Tacky’s War to its African and Jamaican roots is an important venture in reconstructing the African Diaspora’s past. -- John Thornton, author of A Cultural History of the Atlantic World, 1250–1820Tacky’s Revolt reveals a truly transatlantic eighteenth-century world of resistance and warfare. Reframing a story often told from the perspective of European colonizers and American planters, Brown successfully places African soldiers at the core of the narrative. A truly masterful piece. -- Manuel Barcia, author of West African Warfare in Bahia and Cuba: Soldier Slaves in the Atlantic World, 1807–1844Adds a new dimension to the study of Atlantic history that centers African people and forces readers to reckon with the primacy of violence in the creation and sustenance of Atlantic networks of trade, migration, and empire. It will surely be widely used by scholars and students of the history of the Caribbean, Atlantic world, and African diaspora. -- Rebecca Shumway * H-Net Reviews *Groundbreaking and will undoubtedly affect several different fields of study…Brown’s argument for viewing the insurrections of 1760–61 as acts of war is extraordinary, transforming our thinking on violence within bondage from isolated events to a connected series of battles and engagements in this centuries-long transatlantic war against human bondage. -- Seth Whitty * H-Net Reviews *Brown at once provides what is surely the authoritative account of the 1760–1761 Jamaican uprising and makes a compelling case for recasting this and other such conflicts as fully-realized instances of Atlantic warfare…Brown makes his case magnificently. -- Ryan Hanley * Eighteenth-Century Studies *Fascinating…A pathbreaking Atlantic analysis of the tricontinental wars that devastated West Africa and extended all the way to Jamaica. Its brilliant reconstruction of West African societies and their importance in the making of the prerevolutionary Greater Caribbean represents a historiographical turning point. -- Aline Helg * Atlantic Studies *A finely crafted account of the micro and macro politics of slave resistance that will inform work in this field for some time to come. -- Christer Petley * Slavery & Abolition *Unbiased and first-rate scholarship. -- Fouad M. Mami * Protest *Innovative and insightful, introducing readers to new ways of thinking about slave revolts and the Atlantic history of slavery…His cartographic methodology successfully poses exciting and thought-provoking questions that certainly expand how we understand slave revolt as a slave war…Has far-reaching implications for scholars of slavery, empire, and resistance and will prove to be of great value to a wide range of scholars. -- Clifton E. Sorrell III * Labour *A must read for scholars and students. While this work focuses on Tacky’s Revolt, the larger scope of the work connects and highlights the warfare that spread across the British Empire during the eighteenth century. -- Jarvis L. Hargrove * North Carolina HIstorical Review *

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Book SynopsisAttilio Teruzzi, Mussolini’s commander of the Black Shirts, exemplified fascism’s obsession with male strength. Through the story of his broken marriage to a young Jewish American opera star, Victoria de Grazia explores the cult of masculinity on which the New Rome was to be built, revealing the seductive appeal of fascism.Trade Review[A] fascinating book on the Fascist years, and particularly its social mores…Teruzzi was indeed the perfect Fascist: disciplined, unscrupulous, brutish, fanatically loyal to Mussolini… The brilliance of de Grazia’s book lies in the way that she has made a page-turner of Teruzzi’s chaotic life, while providing a scholarly and engrossing portrait of the two decades of Fascist rule. -- Caroline Moorhead * Wall Street Journal *[A] captivating investigation into the trials and tribulations of Attilio Teruzzi—one of Benito Mussolini’s most trusted high-ranking officials…A work of serious historical research by one of the great historians of Italian history…Not unlike the popular thrillers on Netflix in its suspense and surprises, but this story is told with a scholar’s eye in reading, analyzing, and interpreting archival documents, and a historian’s experience in placing it all within the context of Mussolini’s Italy. -- Aliza Wong * Los Angeles Review of Books *On the question of contemporary fascism, and the debate between those who see in Trump & Co its resurgence and those who do not, few writers have matched Victoria de Grazia for coolness of observation and depth of insight…A singular work that chronicles the life of Attilio Teruzzi, an army officer who became commander of the Blackshirts under Il Duce. Through the story of Teruzzi’s marriage to Lilliana Weinman, an American-Jewish opera singer, de Grazia has produced a masterwork on the nature of fascist politics and culture. -- Gavin Jacobson * New Statesman *The book’s appeal goes well beyond its diligent scrutiny of life under Fascism…There is the perverse pleasure of checking off its foreshadowing of our own recent moment: the sleaze, the incompetence, the militias, the cynical embrace of religion, the gilded son-in-law…And there is the elemental satisfaction of the story itself, which progresses like a classic war novel, private passions unfolding against a backdrop of steadily escalating public strife, in settings ranging from New York to Addis Ababa, boudoirs to battlefields, silk-lined music rooms to colonial churches palisaded by shards of exploded poison gas canisters. -- James Lasdun * London Review of Books *Explore[s] toxic masculinity and the contradictory relationship between the public roles and private lives of Fascist elites. -- Gigliola Sulis * Times Literary Supplement *[A] pioneering work… It examines the hypocrisies of totalitarian leaders and the contradictions inherent in the regimes they build…One of the lessons of De Grazia’s epic microhistory is that to truly understand dictatorships, we need to understand the aspirations, behaviors, and vanities of those just beneath the leaders in the hierarchy and the role they play in advancing the goals of the totalitarian state. -- Amy King * H-Net Reviews *Engaging, well-written, and thoroughly researched…The Perfect Fascist has contemporary political relevance, as ultra-nationalist politics have gained traction in several western democracies. -- Eric Martone * New York Journal of Books *As solid an explanation as any work I have read about the lure of Fascism in a stressed society, the type of people most subject to that lure, and how a totalitarian regime takes hold in a nation…Definitely a biography for our times. It helps us understand how and why business and religious leaders, and other elite sectors in Italy, embraced Fascism, and appeared to do so out of an inordinate fear of anything approaching ‘socialism.’ -- Mitchell J. Freedman * San Diego Jewish World *This dive into the first half of the last century purifies us of many ills—including the idea of a ‘fascist temperament’ or ‘authoritarian personality.’ De Grazia sets out to show how ‘fascists are made, not born’: how the ‘decent man’ she takes as her subject wound up leading gangs of thugs and collaborating with the SS…The story De Grazia tells us is emblematic of a certain age, although its plot couldn’t have been dreamed up even by Hollywood’s most twisted screenwriters. -- Marco D’Eramo * Sidecar *Reveals how ideology corrupts the truth, how untrammeled ambition destroys the soul, and how the vanity of white male supremacy distorts emotion, making even love a matter of state. Mussolini’s concept of a virile, nationalist, all-conquering New Man continues to hold a terrifying grip over political and personal thought today, just as it did for Attilio Teruzzi nearly a century ago. De Grazia sheds welcome light on the mystery of why some women, who practically always lose out, also sign up. -- Sonia Purnell, author of A Woman of No ImportanceThis is a perfect book! Original, thoughtful, and timely, The Perfect Fascist beautifully exposes the homogeneity of fascist aspirations and reveals the personal conflicts and paradoxes these aspirations bring with them, including for fascists themselves. Its two entwined narratives—one political and public, the other personal and private—perfectly complement one another and help us understand why the personal is political for those who insist on reshaping people and society. -- Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in TehranThe Perfect Fascist is an original and important book. It tells a dramatic story, based on rich documentation, and delivers a probing analysis of the fascist ‘strong man.’ De Grazia’s attention to Teruzzi’s private life, his behavior as suitor and husband, deepens and enriches our understanding of the nature of leadership in Mussolini’s regime and of masculinity, virility, and honor in Italian fascist culture. -- Robert O. Paxton, author of The Anatomy of FascismTakes us into the dark and complicated heart of Italian fascism... An extraordinary story that illuminates the ways in which the all-consuming nature of fascism distorted Italian society and destroyed the lives of individuals. I could not put it down. -- Margaret MacMillan, author of Paris 1919A fascinating exploration of Italian fascism through the career and intimate relationships of Attilio Teruzzi (1882–1950), one of Benito Mussolini’s closest allies…Offers both incisive scholarship and juicy biographical details. * Publishers Weekly *Offers uncommonly remarkable insights into Fascism, Mussolini and his regime, and culture and society more generally. * Choice *A deeply researched…book, [and] an innovative approach to the character and development of Italian Fascism…[de Grazia] offers a multifaceted portrait of Fascist Italy. -- Anthony L. Cardoza * Journal of Modern History *

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Book SynopsisWhat will it take to make humanity a spacefaring species? The usual: good reasons and good planning. Christopher Wanjek explores the practical motivations for striking out into the far reaches of the solar system and the realities of the challenge. And he introduces us to the scientists and entrepreneurs who are already tackling that challenge.Trade ReviewNerdily engaging (and often funny)…Technology and science fiction enthusiasts will find much here to delight them, as Wanjek goes into rich detail on rocketry and propulsion methods, including skyhooks and railguns to fling things into orbit, or maglev trains running around manmade orbital rings…He is a sensible skeptic, yet also convinced that, in the long run, our destiny is among the stars. * The Guardian *Wanjek’s analysis of the commercial approach to space exploration adds an important perspective to the conversation about our future in space. * Science *If the events of this year have had you daydreaming about abandoning the planet entirely, [Spacefarers] is a geekily pleasurable survey of the practicalities and challenges…This book should be given to all prospective space cadets. * The Telegraph *A fascinating read for anyone interested in the practicalities of living away from Earth, and describes just how engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs are planning to expand humanity’s horizons. -- Paul Sutherland * BBC Sky at Night *Engagingly readable…[A] delightful book. -- Michael D. Gordin * Los Angeles Review of Books *Of interest to anyone curious about space travel and the (possible) human colonization of outer space. -- M. A. Orthofer * Complete Review *Wanjek takes an optimistic look towards humanity’s future in space—not only on the Moon and Mars, but also on the asteroids and beyond…The great thing about this book is its balance between optimism and realism, between respect and frivolity. -- Mark Williamson * E&T *Charts the way to an intriguing, not-too-distant future…Though the childlike wonder that took ahold of Americans during the Apollo era seems gone, Spacefarers suggests that a future in space is within reach, inspiring wonder in an age of skepticism. * Foreword Reviews *A welcome and timely addition to synoptic views of the future of human space exploration…Offers a solid basis to inform what is becoming an increasingly vital debate on the use and international deployment of space technologies. -- Lewis Pinault * Observatory *Drawing on the science and history of space exploration, Wanjek paints scenes of future human activity across the solar system. -- Maria Temming * Science News *Wanjek walks the reader through a realistic, scientific description of how humans could live enduringly in space in his engaging and informative book. -- Lt. Col. Christopher Mulder * Strategic Studies Quarterly *Wanjek's engaging style makes this a must-read for space enthusiasts, and for anyone who ponders our place in the universe. * Choice *Wanjek addresses the challenges and possibilities of living in space in this inquisitive work…[He] opens up many intriguing possibilities in this wide-ranging survey. * Publishers Weekly *This book offers a witty yet in-depth exploration of the prospects for human habitation beyond Earth. Christopher Wanjek takes us on a bones-to-brain tour of human anatomy and psychology under extreme living conditions, from orbit around Earth to the far reaches of the solar system. Spacefarers is accessible, authoritative, and in the end, inspiring. -- Richard Panek, author of The Trouble with Gravity: Solving the Mystery Beneath Our FeetIs our solar system the new frontier? In Spacefarers, you’ll learn about a range of obstacles that make it more daunting to explore space than sea or sky. And yet, as Wanjek notes, we seem up for the challenge. -- David Brin, astrophysicist and author of Existence and The PostmanSeamlessly blending biology and astrophysics with practical considerations, Wanjek humorously separates science fact from science fiction to illustrate the hazards and possible uses of space travel. A must-read. -- Lynn Cominsky, Sonoma State UniversityWanjek gives readers a detailed and pragmatic look at living in space. Spacefarers explores not only the science and technology behind space travel, but also the economic, legal, and psychological challenges that await us. -- Isaac Arthur, host of Science & Futurism with Isaac ArthurSpacefarers delves into the past, present, and future of space exploration in a way that really lets you picture what’s possible, in all its mind-boggling glory. -- Maren Hunsberger, science communicatorSpacefarers is the best book I’ve read on space exploration since Isaac Asimov. When I came of age in the 1960s, talk of colonizing the moon and Mars was as common as it was inspiring. But as the decades pass, it seems to be a goal that is still ten years away—and always will be. Why? As Christopher Wanjek reveals in this captivating read, the obstacles multiply, politically and scientifically, but that doesn’t mean that we cannot overcome them. -- Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine and author of The Moral Arc and Heavens on Earth

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Book SynopsisBefore the Communists came to power, China lay broken. Today it is a global force, but its leaders are haunted by the past. Sulmaan Wasif Khan chronicles the grand strategies that have sought to protect China from aggression and ensure it would never again experience the powerlessness of the late Qing and Republican eras.Trade ReviewWritten with verve and insight, this will become the go-to book for anyone interested in the foundations of China’s grand strategy under Communist rule. -- Odd Arne Westad, author of The Cold War: A World HistoryKhan’s brilliant analysis will help policymakers understand the critical rise of China in the twenty-first century. He has written the essential guidebook to the evolution of China’s strategy—crucial if we are to avoid conflict with this emerging superpower. -- Admiral James Stavridis, U.S. Navy (Ret.), former Supreme Allied Commander of NATOHaunted by Chaos is an ambitious and masterful study. In seeking to crack the ‘operational code’ of successive Chinese leaders, Khan argues that they all have been deeply driven by a profound sense of national insecurity. His book is a useful reminder that for all of China’s apparent strengths today, its fragilities and insecurities continue—a paradox worth watching as Beijing becomes a world power. -- David Shambaugh, author of China’s FutureBy emphasizing geography, Khan has unraveled the mystery of Chinese grand strategy, showing why insecurity lies at the root of Chinese power projection. A wise and seasoned book; readers will not find a shrewder analysis as to why the Chinese act as they do. -- Robert D. Kaplan, author of The Revenge of Geography[A] fine survey of Chinese grand strategy. -- Richard Aldous * American Interest *The foreign policy cognoscenti in Washington have spent the past three years in a collective China reckoning, based in part on the presumption that China’s foreign policy has radically changed. Khan argues that since before the People’s Republic of China’s founding, Chinese rulers have held remarkably consistent objectives, even as their definition of security has expanded. -- Mira Rapp-Hooper * War on the Rocks *An authoritative treatment of Chinese statecraft since Mao Zedong…Given China’s outsize presence on the world stage, Khan’s insights into the underlying rationale of its leadership will afford his own effort an audience beyond the field of international relations. * Publishers Weekly *Useful for decision-makers who might not understand that Beijing’s grand strategy is structural and firm and will not be charmed away or pared back by trade deals. * Choice *An outstanding contribution to our understanding of that most urgent of contemporary geopolitical questions: what does China want? Khan shows that Chinese grand strategy has always been a blend of ideology and pragmatism—sometimes skillful, sometimes careless, but always crucial to understanding global history and politics. -- Rana Mitter, author of Forgotten Ally: China’s World War II, 1937–1945

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Book SynopsisIn the bone rooms of the Smithsonian Institution and other museums in the late nineteenth century, a scientific revolution was unfolding, as collectors engaged in a global competition to recover the best human skeletons, mummies, fossils. Study of these remains led to the discrediting of racial theory and the search for human origins and evolution.Trade Review[A] remarkable examination of scientific racism, biological anthropology, and the mission of medical museums. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *In exquisite detail, propelled by the captivating life stories of a diverse array of scientists and institutions, and backed by extensive archival research, Bone Rooms narrates the rise and fall of racial science in America, embodied in the imperial expropriation of people’s bones. This complicated and engrossing story is filled with unexpected twists and significant implications for the history of anthropology, the history of science and medicine, museum studies, the cultural and intellectual history of race in the United States, and American intellectual history more generally. -- Matthew Dennis, author of Seneca PossessedHow did our museums become great storehouses of human remains? What have we learned from the skulls and bones of unburied dead? By following the careers of such figures as enigmatic physical anthropologist Aleš Hrdlička, Samuel Redman’s Bone Rooms chases answers to these questions through shifting ideas about race, anatomy, anthropology, and archaeology and helps explain recent ethical standards for the collection and display of human dead. -- Ann Fabian, author of The Skull CollectorsBone Rooms details the nascent views of racial science that evolved in U.S. natural history, anthropological, and medical museums. These debates spilled into public museum spaces, arraying human bodies in sometimes controversial, even macabre, exhibits. Redman effectively portrays the remarkable personalities behind them, particularly pitting the prickly Aleš Hrdlička at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., against ally-turned-rival Franz Boas at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. -- David Hurst Thomas * Nature *Bone Rooms is a beautifully written, meticulously documented analysis of the little-known history of scientists, human remains, and museum visitors…We could not ask for a better introduction to a sometimes shameful chapter in our scientific past, driven by curiosity and greed, as well as scientific enquiry. Both the general reader and any scholar working on human remains will enjoy this important book. -- Brian Fagan * Current World Archeology *Bone Rooms is an engaging and lively book…[Redman] brings his characters alive, complete with egos and petty jealousies. But more, he encourages us to consider the changing values of human remains in museum collections and their role as the material basis for the disciplinary history of physical anthropology. Bone Rooms will hopefully appeal not only to historians of U.S. science and museums but also to a wider audience interested in the provenance of public collections. -- Samuel J. M. M. Alberti * British Journal for the History of Science *Provides much-needed foundation of the relationship between museums and Native Americans. -- Brian Wolly * Smithsonian.com *Bone Rooms is an accessible piece of public history that can be appreciated by a general audience as well as scholars of the history of science…This book provides a contextualized history of the creation of a particularly unique phenomenon in the Western history of scientific tradition. -- James T. Watson * Public Historian *Redman’s volume offers a glimpse of the personalities and the cultural contexts that have been involved in the exploration of human remains as indicators of characteristics of human diversity—from the flawed construction of ‘race’ to current understanding of our evolutionary history. So long as bone rooms continue to exist, anthropologists and the general public must be aware of the reasons why they came into being and why they continue to exist. -- Joe Watkins * Journal of Anthropological Research *In this remarkably powerful work, which everyone in the museum field should read and that will certainly have a much wider audience, Redman reveals the history of how systemic institutionalized racism that utilized human remains as core content for exhibitions, as well as the storerooms, evolved. In addition to the overall content, one feature that makes this a landmark work is that the author never relies on broad generalizations. Rather, he brings to life details and historical actors and sifts through the complexity, enabling an easily understood story to emerge. This is much more than an institutional history. -- T. Maxwell-Long * Choice *Redman delivers an informative narrative. -- Adam Kuper * Times Literary Supplement *Will more than likely serve as a vital book for anthropologists and historians for years to come…The task of repatriating and creating a narrative that acknowledges the wrongdoing of our academic forebears is the first step in a very long journey towards justice. Redman’s Bone Rooms is necessary reading for scholars interested in the history of anthropology and ethical representation of cultures and individuals in museums, and can be a springboard for future research and discussion on these topics. -- Benjamin L. Locke * Fwd: Museums *Redman’s Bone Rooms is detailed yet wide-ranging, thought-provoking, and highly readable. It represents a valuable contribution to the histories of American museums, anthropology, and race, building on the work of such scholars as George Stocking and Steven Conn, while complementing the recent work of David Hurst Thomas and Ann Fabian. -- Noriko Aso * American Historical Review *Bone Rooms sheds new light on the complicated relationship between collecting and exhibiting…Books like these will inspire other historians of the human sciences—other allies—to go digging in museum archives and storerooms. One never knows what might be waiting there. -- Phil Loring * Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences *While Bone Rooms would be a valuable addition to any course in the history of science, or of race and U.S. culture, I would especially recommend it for scholars and students in museum studies, anthropology, and archaeology, who are still grappling with the ethical quandaries Redman’s historical account underscores. -- Melissa N. Stein * Journal of American Ethnic History *Bone Rooms raises a wealth of new questions by bringing to light this unusual corporeal history of interactions among Native Americans, white Americans, and African Americans at the turn of the nineteenth century. -- Catherine Molineux * Journal of American History *This finely researched and engagingly written work provides a much-needed addition to the literature on the history of race in science, as well as histories of physical anthropology, collecting, and museums. -- Courtney E. Thompson * Canadian Journal of History *An original and valuable examination of the history of the collecting and exhibiting of human remains. -- Julia E. Liss * History *

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisFrom the Alien Friends Act to the Cold War and the War on Terror, the US has used ideological exclusions and deportations to suppress freedom of speech and association of foreigners depicted as threatening to national security. Julia Rose Kraut provides the first history of the tensions between immigration law and the First Amendment.Trade ReviewSuspicion of foreigners goes back to the earliest days of the republic…Kraut traces how different ideologies would be considered intolerably dangerous according to the dominant fears of a given era. Anarchism gave way to communism; communism gave way to Islamic radicalism. -- Jennifer Szalai * New York Times *Excellent…Generate[s] important insights into…questions about the history of deportation and removal of foreign-born residents from and by the United States…A magisterial and well-written account…A gripping, expansive story that traces the consequences of suspicions of ‘un-American’ ideologies and loyalties in federal jurisprudence from the War of 1812 through the still-raging War on Terror. -- Rachel Ida Buff * Journal of Interdisciplinary History *[Kraut’s] careful archival work is impressive…This book is engaging and well suited for undergraduate or graduate legal history courses, immigration and ethnicity courses, or as selected readings for either US history survey. -- Erika Weidemann Bravo * Journal of American Ethnic History *Julia Rose Kraut, in Threat of Dissent, seeks to capture those dissenting and opposing voices in her excellent history of the ‘ideological exclusion’ of persons who held unorthodox beliefs…Her close analysis yields a superb study of gatekeeping in action. -- Lucy E. Salyer * Reviews in American History *Kraut is a gifted narrator…Threat of Dissent is highly recommended to all readers concerned with U.S. immigration policy and how it has and still relates to matters of free speech and free association. -- Olaf Stieglitz * American Studies *A must-read for those who care about immigration or the First Amendment. In clear and lively prose, Kraut charts how noncitizens are doubly vulnerable under American law: treated with suspicion as strangers, and subject to expulsion based on their political beliefs. Along the way, she forces us to reckon with a deeply troubling reality: freedom of speech has not been available for everyone. -- Robert L. Tsai, author of America’s Forgotten ConstitutionsI opened these pages skeptically, and then could not put them down. Threat of Dissent tells the rich and instructive history of efforts to protect America’s borders, first by legislation that excluded unwanted people, and then by legal and judicial challenges to those with unwelcome ideas and beliefs. An essential book for all concerned with US immigration policy and with the free expression of ideas inside and outside the nation. -- Alice Kessler-Harris, author of A Difficult Woman: The Challenging Life and Times of Lillian HellmanAn eye-opening and powerfully written book. Julia Rose Kraut demonstrates that though the methods and technologies used by the government to suppress political dissent in the United States have changed over the generations, the fear of radicals—and the association of foreigners with radicalism—has remained constant. Every politically engaged citizen will be riveted by this history of the architects of political suppression and the legal challenges launched by those who sought to protect core American values of freedom of speech and association. -- María Cristina García, author of The Refugee Challenge in Post–Cold War AmericaThis is an original, comprehensive history of one of the most pervasive and insidious forms of political repression in the United States—one few Americans know anything about. In a rich narrative spanning more than two centuries, gifted legal historian Julia Rose Kraut reveals how federal authorities routinely barred foreign dissidents who hoped to mingle freely with the public in the ‘land of the free.’ -- Michael Kazin, author of War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914–1918

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Book SynopsisOn the centennial of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, Tony Saich offers the definitive history of the CCP’s rise and rule. The party has suffered self-inflicted wounds yet thrived thanks to its flexibility. Looking ahead, Saich assesses how the CCP is adapting to global leadership and the expectations of China’s growing middle class.Trade ReviewThere is arguably no organization in the world today that is more important to understand than the CCP…Saich’s [book] provides a comprehensive narrative of the CCP from its inception to this day…He is meticulous in his research and descriptions. -- Martin Laflamme * Los Angeles Review of Books *One of the best and clearest treatments of the subject to date…Tony Saich walks us through the myriad transformations the Party and its members have been through: from rebels to survivalists, revolutionaries to crushers of rebellion, and finally to socialist capitalists. With clarity and attention to detail…this is a truly authoritative text on one of the most successful political parties in history. -- Alec Ash * The Wire China *An extremely lucid, insightful history of the Chinese Communist Party. Saich’s readable narrative takes the CCP from its origins as a tiny group of revolutionaries in Shanghai a century ago to the powerful, repressive rulers of a world power today. From Rebel to Ruler should stand as an authoritative account of the party’s development. -- James Mann, author of The China FantasyThe Chinese Communist Party is one of the most important, yet least understood, political organizations in the world today. Saich has produced a superb interpretation of the party for its hundredth anniversary. From Rebel to Ruler is both deep and nuanced in the account of its history, and incisive on the unique combination in the party under Xi Jinping of ideology, pragmatism, and sheer brute force. -- Rana Mitter, author of China’s Good WarThe definitive, candid, and absorbing history of a political organization that counts 90 million members and indisputably rules as America’s most powerful rival. Drawing on priceless contacts made in China over decades, Saich describes how ideological underpinnings, ruthless campaigns, and the ‘coercing of conformity’ pushed the CCP through revolutionary zeal to its current all-powerful position. A vital account, based on magnificent research, that shows the party as a colossal, relentless, and enduring machine. -- Jane Perlez, former Beijing Bureau Chief, New York TimesAn unpretentious, humane, and deeply informed history of the Chinese Communist Party. Saich, whose considerable time in China adds depth and understanding to this excellent book, offers a clear narrative that does justice to the earlier history as well as present concerns. This will be our most reliable account of the history of the CCP for a generation. -- Timothy Cheek, author of The Intellectual in Modern Chinese HistorySaich is a surehanded and deeply knowledgeable guide in this highly accessible tour of the entire sweep of the Chinese Communist Party’s century-long history. While the party now projects a self-image of unity, competence, and strength, Saich recounts a narrative replete with internal strife, uncertainty, and deep-seated insecurity. His reflections on the future of the party, and China, are sobering. -- Andrew G. Walder, author of China Under MaoA sweeping history of the Chinese Communist Party, from its fledgling urban beginnings in 1921 Shanghai to today…Offers key insights into how the party survived the collapse of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe and the steep challenges facing current leader Xi Jinping. This exhaustive, well-informed chronicle sheds light on one of the world’s most consequential political institutions. * Publishers Weekly *Gives a broad overview of the main characters, movements, and ideologies that have shaped the CCP… Saich provides a different angle by focusing on the inner workings, strategy, and personalities of the Chinese Communist Party…Presents the Party, in all its complexity, on its own terms. Saich is not simply offering commentary from an outside point of view, he is attempting to give readers the tools to access the CCP as they see themselves. * ChinaSource *If you were to travel back in time to 1921 and predict that the Communist Party of China would rule over the world’s second-largest economy 100 years later, no one would believe you. In this definitive primer, Tony Saich explains how the impossible came true. -- Yuen Yuen Ang * Project Syndicate *

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