John HigginsonCollective Violence and the Agrarian Origins of South African Apartheid, 1900-1948

March 26, 2015

John Higginson, professor of history at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, is an acclaimed authority on South Africa and comparative labor politics, his two main fields of interest. Higginson’s latest work Collective Violence and the Agrarian Origins of South African Apartheid, 1900-1948 (Cambridge University Press, 2014) paints a comprehensive and captivating picture of the devastating […]

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Marla R. MillerBetsy Ross and the Making of America

March 26, 2015

Marla R. Miller’s, Betsy Ross and the Making of America (St. Martin’s Press, 2011) provides readers deep insight into the life of Betsy Ross who grew up in a politically turbulent period in America.  Previously to to this publication there was very little known about Betsy Ross besides the often-repeated tale that she was the maker of the […]

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Bruce Laurie Rebels in Paradise: Sketches of Northampton Abolitionists

March 26, 2015

In our historical recollection, the American public tends to generalize about the north and the south in the years leading up to the civil war. In our minds, the north was abolitionist, and the south was a monolith for the preservation of slavery. Among this culture of broad generalizations, professor of history at the University […]

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Ervin StaubOvercoming Evil: Genocide, Violent Conflict and Terrorism

March 14, 2015

After "Schindler's List," it became customary for my students, and I, to repeat the slogan "Never Again."  We did so seriously, with solemn expressions on our faces and intensity in our voices. But, if I'm being honest, I also uttered this slogan with some trepidation.  For, while I believed absolutely in the necessity of such […]

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Christian Appy American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity

March 11, 2015

As the younger generation replaces the old, the wounds our nation felt during the immediate years after the Vietnam war are slowly healing. Author, Christian Appy argues that perhaps the Vietnam War is more present in every day politics than the nation is willing to admit. In his book, American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our […]

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Andrew DonsonYouth in the Fatherless Land: War Pedagogy, Nationalism, and Authority in Germany, 1914-1918

February 4, 2015

[Cross-posted from New Books in History] I was a little kid during the Vietnam War. It was on the news all the time, and besides my uncle was fighting there. I followed it closely, or as closely as a little kid can. I never thought for a moment that "we" could lose. "We" were a great […]

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Stephen R. PlattAutumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War

February 4, 2015

[Cross-posted from New Books in East Asian Studies] Stephen R. Platt’s new book is a beautifully written and intricately textured account of the bloodiest civil war of all time. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War (Vintage Books, 2012) is a deeply international history of the Taiping Civil […]

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Olga GershensonThe Phantom Holocaust: Soviet Cinema and Jewish Catastrophe

February 4, 2015

[Cross-posted from New Books in Jewish Studies] Fifty years of Holocaust screenplays and films –largely unknown, killed by censors, and buried in dusty archives – come to life in Olga Gershenson’s The Phantom Holocaust: Soviet Cinema and Jewish Catastrophe (Rutgers UP, 2013). As she ventures across three continents to uncover the stories behind these films, we follow her adventures, […]

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Jesse RhodesAn Education in Politics: The Origin and Evolution of No Child Left Behind

February 4, 2015

[Cross-posted from New Books in Political Science] Jesse Rhodes' book An Education in Politics: The Origin and Evolution of No Child Left Behind (Cornell University Press, 2012). The book synthesizes nearly forty years of US political history. It tells the story of the development and passage of the No Child Left Behind law by George W. Bush. The book builds […]

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José Angel HernándezMexican American Colonization during the Nineteenth Century: A History of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands

February 4, 2015

[Cross-posted from New Books in History] Americans talk a lot about the flow of Mexican immigrants across their southern border. To some that flow is seen as patently illegal and dangerous. To others it's seen as unstoppable and essential for the functioning of the U.S. economy. Everyone agrees that something must be done about it though, […]

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