tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9087819603358428342024-03-18T03:05:31.471-05:00HEPPAS BooksNew books in History, Economics, Politics, Philosophy, Anthropology, and SociologyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6596125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-48129033086940758752024-03-18T03:05:00.001-05:002024-03-18T03:05:00.131-05:00"An Unholy Traffic"<p></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMfWH1AJXgukdcq8oQpV58B6pr2pEHNtTEpzJ9qmstj8eEguiAruZi6yVxNaaRCjbIjGym7LFw-N8PyW-8Aie87IV3h5KErkZmA6ZwPje8jHDRfqAtdICWSxGFO3uR28vMjb3Hg678nMwuLWMRo3f8CB6TudKg0nxOj7Pgdtbksic_L7D4lJbpYbop83Zc/s396/colby.webp" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="396" data-original-width="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMfWH1AJXgukdcq8oQpV58B6pr2pEHNtTEpzJ9qmstj8eEguiAruZi6yVxNaaRCjbIjGym7LFw-N8PyW-8Aie87IV3h5KErkZmA6ZwPje8jHDRfqAtdICWSxGFO3uR28vMjb3Hg678nMwuLWMRo3f8CB6TudKg0nxOj7Pgdtbksic_L7D4lJbpYbop83Zc/s320/colby.webp"/></a>New from Oxford University Press: <i>An Unholy Traffic: Slave Trading in the Civil War South</i> by <a href="https://history.olemiss.edu/robert-colby/" target="_blank">Robert K.D. Colby</a>.
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About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
The Confederate States of America was born in defense of slavery and, after a four-year struggle to become an independent slaveholding republic, died as emancipation dawned. Between Fort Sumter to Appomattox, Confederates bought and sold thousands African American men, women, and children. These transactions in humanity made the internal slave trade a cornerstone of Confederate society, a bulwark of the Rebel economy, and a central part of the experience of the Civil War for all inhabiting the American South.
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As <i>An Unholy Traffic</i> shows, slave trading helped Southerners survive and fight the Civil War, as well as to build the future for which they fought. They mitigated the crises the war spawned by buying and selling enslaved people, using this commerce to navigate food shortages, unsettled gender roles, the demands of military service, and other hardships on the homefront. Some Rebels speculated wildly in human property, investing in slaves to ward off inflation and to buy shares in the slaveholding nation they hoped to create. Others traded people to counter the advance of emancipation. Given its centrality to their nationhood, Confederates went to great lengths to prolong the slave trade, which, in turn, supported the Confederacy. For those held in slavery, the surviving slave trade dramatically shaped their pursuit of freedom, inserting a retrograde movement into some people's journeys toward liberty while inspiring others to make the risky decision to escape.
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Offering an original perspective on the intersections of slavery, capitalism, the Civil War, and emancipation, Robert K.D. Colby illuminates the place of the peculiar institution within the Confederate mind, the ways in which it underpinned the CSA's war effort, and its impact on those attempting to seize their freedom.
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--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-39505330677453458312024-03-17T03:05:00.001-05:002024-03-17T03:05:00.139-05:00"People's Diplomacy"<p></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiffy3IHBzlIj6Rv_jZTmL5c1KqishpuPekOOMHDjUjPdDqMXYE1fIMJnNiNZ_a9XNTG7dI-IZ3kDi80AZU6ia9J5tGHE_f3BUyUvICAbfs46iFriXyiRrSXH6qveo0QlQDz_6Z3_MsNjyTEulp60H158z_CL7WQH2bj3c_nsjOO6f-MlIHvF_7mKS9c8Xo/s425/Minami.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiffy3IHBzlIj6Rv_jZTmL5c1KqishpuPekOOMHDjUjPdDqMXYE1fIMJnNiNZ_a9XNTG7dI-IZ3kDi80AZU6ia9J5tGHE_f3BUyUvICAbfs46iFriXyiRrSXH6qveo0QlQDz_6Z3_MsNjyTEulp60H158z_CL7WQH2bj3c_nsjOO6f-MlIHvF_7mKS9c8Xo/s320/Minami.jpg"/></a>New from Cornell University Press: <i>People's Diplomacy: How Americans and Chinese Transformed US-China Relations during the Cold War</i> by Kazushi Minami.
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About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
In<i></i> People's Diplomacy<i>, Kazushi Minami shows how the American and Chinese people rebuilt US-China relations in the 1970s, a pivotal decade bookended by Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China and 1979 normalization of diplomatic relations.</i> Top policymakers in Washington and Beijing drew the blueprint for the new bilateral relationship, but the work of building it was left to a host of Americans and Chinese from all walks of life, who engaged in "people-to-people" exchanges. After two decades of estrangement and hostility caused by the Cold War, these people dramatically changed the nature of US-China relations. Americans reimagined China as a country of opportunities, irresistible because of its prodigious potential, while Chinese reinterpreted the United States as an agent of modernization, capable of enriching their country and rejuvenating their lives. Drawing on extensive research at two dozen archives in the United States and China, <i>People's Diplomacy</i> redefines contemporary US-China relations as a creation of the American and Chinese people.
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Kazushi Minami is Associate Professor at the Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University.
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--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-54230127301009123402024-03-16T03:05:00.001-05:002024-03-16T03:05:00.142-05:00"Hidden Wars"<p></p>New from Oxford University Press: <i>Hidden Wars: Gendered Political Violence in Asia's Civil Conflicts</i> by <a href="https://experts.griffith.edu.au/7371-sara-davies" target="_blank">Sara E. Davies</a> and <a href="https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/jacqui-true" target="_blank">Jacqui True</a>.
<br/><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF6_B1i5GqKMLmaRhnM5cjX9_z_xymLonkjKIH75ANBsVO8Og78RW-81qWj4xC3pS2GKmnuikZh821V0RjC-xMp_1-XmqZm_ql2HP9WbrfVbaTRzoqbC7In3dR0TiLjj2tgmU98sMnnSsKb8s05v477Z7t5SF9qncc5S7-2IiOlpP5_udkYZ7tx1CLrfzI/s425/davies.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF6_B1i5GqKMLmaRhnM5cjX9_z_xymLonkjKIH75ANBsVO8Og78RW-81qWj4xC3pS2GKmnuikZh821V0RjC-xMp_1-XmqZm_ql2HP9WbrfVbaTRzoqbC7In3dR0TiLjj2tgmU98sMnnSsKb8s05v477Z7t5SF9qncc5S7-2IiOlpP5_udkYZ7tx1CLrfzI/s320/davies.jpg"/></a><br/>
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) has always been a part of warfare. In Asia, testimonies of egregious rape and sexual violence extend back to the Rape of Nanjing, to the experience of the Korean comfort women in World War II, and to forced marriages and sexual slavery during the Cambodian genocide. The past two decades have yielded crucial new insights about SGBV, but scholars and researchers still struggle to explain why and when this violence occurs. A major problem is that incidences of SGBV are vastly underreported; reliable data is especially scarce in Asia, where demographic and health surveys are infrequent and national reporting systems are underdeveloped relative to other parts of the globe. Asia also has some of the most protracted conflicts in the world but the complexity of subnational conflicts in Asia often masks the gendered dimensions of violence.
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In <i>Hidden Wars</i>, Sara E. Davies and Jacqui True examine the relationship between reports of SGBV and structural gender inequality in three conflict-affected societies in Asia--Burma, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Based on extensive field research and an original dataset on conflict-related SGBV, Davies and True show how reporting is significantly constrained by a variety of factors, including normalized gendered violence as well as political dynamics affecting local civil society, humanitarian, and international organizations. They address the real-world limitations of data collection and argue that these constraints reinforce a culture of silence and impunity that perpetuates SGBV and permits governments to abrogate their responsibility for this violence. <i>Hidden Wars</i> breaks new methodological ground in showing that what we know about SGBV can be understood fully only if the politicized context of reporting SGBV and data collection is taken into consideration.
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--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-37822206152929926882024-03-15T03:05:00.001-05:002024-03-15T03:05:00.138-05:00"The Cybernetic Border"<p></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO79xunIQ1iJ6fHUhY7BeAmOziWzRoKp03HD2DE4hh7_fDrDzBc5jJQe9iCxEHGrJvxlwF9Cd2HIWxyyS_ZE7PfKcJk4x6MydT8x7mQ4hk-HBDT5To3uN_RtSSX7hMGSoo7QhepY3F7ltSxQJy7JGxIa7vSxslxehWEHPfEv5B8eiagDMOXq4_xV6MdJeZ/s425/Chaar%20L%C3%B3pez.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO79xunIQ1iJ6fHUhY7BeAmOziWzRoKp03HD2DE4hh7_fDrDzBc5jJQe9iCxEHGrJvxlwF9Cd2HIWxyyS_ZE7PfKcJk4x6MydT8x7mQ4hk-HBDT5To3uN_RtSSX7hMGSoo7QhepY3F7ltSxQJy7JGxIa7vSxslxehWEHPfEv5B8eiagDMOXq4_xV6MdJeZ/s320/Chaar%20L%C3%B3pez.jpg"/></a>New from Duke University Press: <i>The Cybernetic Border: Drones, Technology, and Intrusion</i> by Iván Chaar López.
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About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
In <i>The Cybernetic Border</i>, Iván Chaar López argues that the settler US nation requires the production and targeting of a racialized enemy that threatens the empire. The cybernetic border is organized through practices of data capture, storage, processing, circulation, and communication that police bodies and constitute the nation as a bounded, territorial space. Chaar López historicizes the US government’s use of border enforcement technologies on Mexicans, Arabs, and Muslims from the mid-twentieth century to the present, showing how data systems are presented as solutions to unauthorized border crossing. Contrary to enduring fantasies of the purported neutrality of drones, smart walls, artificial intelligence, and biometric technologies, the cybernetic border represents the consolidation of calculation and automation in the exercise of racialized violence. Chaar López draws on corporate, military, and government records, promotional documents and films, technical reports, news reporting, surveillance footage, and activist and artist practices. These materials reveal how logics of enmity are embedded into information infrastructures that shape border control and modern sovereignty.
</blockquote>
Visit <a href="https://www.ivanchaar.net/" target="_blank">Iván Chaar López's website</a>.
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--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-65749651954717300192024-03-14T03:05:00.001-05:002024-03-14T03:05:00.132-05:00"Disruption"<p></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZQh2Pbk-qQxzK3_0nt8Baxl7U4e3vJmOFIZQjRJQeQczfTQcFzpQ6bR0k_qZSotVE2ExVNziFRDzMgzTcMrDavbrfgUGOSpYwoNbH2TQREQrighGiUXA9ZKTydc8vL895Hs6upvKY5p-xPIUleZgp7CRWoOZJTlZAsY0DPuYDUXg2q4CMQjqwkWIAQYDD/s425/De%20Groot.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZQh2Pbk-qQxzK3_0nt8Baxl7U4e3vJmOFIZQjRJQeQczfTQcFzpQ6bR0k_qZSotVE2ExVNziFRDzMgzTcMrDavbrfgUGOSpYwoNbH2TQREQrighGiUXA9ZKTydc8vL895Hs6upvKY5p-xPIUleZgp7CRWoOZJTlZAsY0DPuYDUXg2q4CMQjqwkWIAQYDD/s320/De%20Groot.jpg"/></a>New from Cornell University Press: <i>Disruption: The Global Economic Shocks of the 1970s and the End of the Cold War</i> by <a href="https://intlstudies.indiana.edu/people/faculty/de-groot-michael.html" target="_blank">Michael De Groot</a>.
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About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
<i>In</i> Disruption<i>, Michael De Groot argues that the global economic upheaval of the 1970s was decisive in ending the Cold War.</i> Both the West and the Soviet bloc struggled with the slowdown of economic growth; chaos in the international monetary system; inflation; shocks in the commodities markets; and the emergence of offshore financial markets. The superpowers had previously disseminated resources to their allies to enhance their own national security, but the disappearance of postwar conditions during the 1970s forced Washington and Moscow to choose between promoting their own economic interests and supporting their partners in Europe and Asia.
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De Groot shows that new unexpected macroeconomic imbalances in global capitalism sustained the West during the following decade. Rather than a creditor nation and net exporter, as it had been during the postwar period, the United States became a net importer of capital and goods during the 1980s that helped fund public spending, stimulated economic activity, and lubricated the private sector. The United States could now live beyond its means and continue waging the Cold War, and its allies benefited from access to the booming US market and the strengthened US military umbrella. As <i>Disruption</i> demonstrates, a new symbiotic economic architecture powered the West, but the Eastern European regimes increasingly became a burden to the Soviet Union. They were drowning in debt, and the Kremlin no longer had the resources to rescue them.
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--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-28097582146945525312024-03-13T03:05:00.000-05:002024-03-13T03:05:00.126-05:00"A Nation Fermented"<p></p>New from Oxford University Press: <i>A Nation Fermented: Beer, Bavaria, and the Making of Modern Germany</i> by <a href="https://www.maxwell.syr.edu/directory/robert-terrell" target="_blank">Robert Shea Terrell</a>.
<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM_0gOxYAPWhCz9kzV_Vtgvj-3YM1FO-afBUYkSmG0vWtEFkYfXvmUCeEMuddLx1v7ZwjozmodrvyAafN7G1-Id8Yfr4KnKoX58hUkJ2TjIfx7KGqm95Z8OC_Z9OZ27165340l9vv92a025vHAsaf_pEnjGw-hG94O2B-4rA1ddgkGszjhonjMRjrNrWxN/s425/terrell.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM_0gOxYAPWhCz9kzV_Vtgvj-3YM1FO-afBUYkSmG0vWtEFkYfXvmUCeEMuddLx1v7ZwjozmodrvyAafN7G1-Id8Yfr4KnKoX58hUkJ2TjIfx7KGqm95Z8OC_Z9OZ27165340l9vv92a025vHAsaf_pEnjGw-hG94O2B-4rA1ddgkGszjhonjMRjrNrWxN/s320/terrell.jpg"/></a><br />
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
How did beer become one of the central commodities associated with the German nation? How did a little-known provincial production standard – the Reinheitsgebot, or Beer Purity Law – become a pillar of national consumer sentiments? How did the jovial, beer-drinking German become a fixture in the global imagination?
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While the connection between beer and Germany seems self-evident, <i>A Nation Fermented</i> reveals how it was produced through a strange brew of regional commercial and political pressures. Spanning from the late nineteenth century to the last decades of the twentieth, <i>A Nation Fermented</i> argues that the economic, regulatory, and cultural weight of Bavaria shaped the German nation in profound ways. Drawing on sources from over a dozen archives and repositories, Terrell weaves together subjects ranging from tax law to advertising, public health to European integration, and agriculture to global stereotypes.
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Offering a history of the Germany that Bavaria made over the twentieth century, <i>A Nation Fermented</i> eschews both sharp temporal divisions and a conventional focus on northern and industrial Germany. In so doing, Terrell offers a fresh take on the importance of provincial influences and the role of commodities and commerce in shaping the nation.
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--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-38996614555196114852024-03-12T03:05:00.001-05:002024-03-12T03:05:00.133-05:00"Sons, Daughters, and Sidewalk Psychotics"<p></p>New from the University of Chicago Press: <i>Sons, Daughters, and Sidewalk Psychotics: Mental Illness and Homelessness in Los Angeles</i> by Neil Gong.
<br/><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtxJr-ol7YthqlkTlkbVtlyo2OMoXTEsvG6DSVzYpafOT8rpBKiJniaMqNaPwfMRPRFNHHvfzjWWFjcESUYmhWBAU4FufkTALBpqYv_I7kwvyu1ncxFEE87wQeAagKeArKltsGKxhLRSEKkZqYX7tN5FzlSFIfshfmzqkFTVHlbQ9zOuAg7HItaGjPNWJC/s445/gong.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtxJr-ol7YthqlkTlkbVtlyo2OMoXTEsvG6DSVzYpafOT8rpBKiJniaMqNaPwfMRPRFNHHvfzjWWFjcESUYmhWBAU4FufkTALBpqYv_I7kwvyu1ncxFEE87wQeAagKeArKltsGKxhLRSEKkZqYX7tN5FzlSFIfshfmzqkFTVHlbQ9zOuAg7HItaGjPNWJC/s320/gong.jpg"/></a><br/>
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
<i>Sociologist Neil Gong explains why mental health treatment in Los Angeles rarely succeeds, for the rich, the poor, and everyone in between.</i>
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In 2022, Los Angeles became the US county with the largest population of unhoused people, drawing a stark contrast with the wealth on display in its opulent neighborhoods. In <i>Sons, Daughters, and Sidewalk Psychotics</i>, sociologist Neil Gong traces the divide between the haves and have-nots in the psychiatric treatment systems that shape the life trajectories of people living with serious mental illness. In the decades since the United States closed its mental hospitals in favor of non-institutional treatment, two drastically different forms of community psychiatric services have developed: public safety-net clinics focused on keeping patients housed and out of jail, and elite private care trying to push clients toward respectable futures.
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In Downtown Los Angeles, many people in psychiatric crisis only receive help after experiencing homelessness or arrests. Public providers engage in guerrilla social work to secure them housing and safety, but these programs are rarely able to deliver true rehabilitation for psychological distress and addiction. Patients are free to refuse treatment or use illegal drugs—so long as they do so away from public view.
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Across town in West LA or Malibu, wealthy people diagnosed with serious mental illness attend luxurious treatment centers. Programs may offer yoga and organic meals alongside personalized therapeutic treatments, but patients can feel trapped, as their families pay exorbitantly to surveil and “fix” them. Meanwhile, middle-class families—stymied by private insurers, unable to afford elite providers, and yet not poor enough to qualify for social services—struggle to find care at all.
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Gong’s findings raise uncomfortable questions about urban policy, family dynamics, and what it means to respect individual freedom. His comparative approach reminds us that every “sidewalk psychotic” is also a beloved relative and that the kinds of policies we support likely depend on whether we see those with mental illness as a public social problem or as somebody’s kin. At a time when many voters merely want streets cleared of “problem people,” Gong’s book helps us imagine a fundamentally different psychiatric system—one that will meet the needs of patients, families, and society at large.
</blockquote>
Visit <a href="https://www.neilgong.com/" target="_blank">Neil Gong's website</a>.
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--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-60453229054138735262024-03-11T03:05:00.001-05:002024-03-11T03:05:00.124-05:00"Before the Badge"<p></p>New from NYU Press: <i>Before the Badge: How Academy Training Shapes Police Violence</i> by Samantha J. Simon.
<br/><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZY9JqaWoErphcdQAYZaBIFAkyZD9dhSLs5BolsQ8Uf3auYoji00TJ0mrSj6OXs6ZsT7iB1F1_RlP4GPaMPlo5kdhrZoPdtFRPOsZPxu8n4-45X2x_rDsxm_yGOs7KYW0vfZnt-TNesUZLAmbxuZa-uZyCtTBOHCBWisMSpyfojCEZTtiF8n2yuKF7Y6hH/s425/simon.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZY9JqaWoErphcdQAYZaBIFAkyZD9dhSLs5BolsQ8Uf3auYoji00TJ0mrSj6OXs6ZsT7iB1F1_RlP4GPaMPlo5kdhrZoPdtFRPOsZPxu8n4-45X2x_rDsxm_yGOs7KYW0vfZnt-TNesUZLAmbxuZa-uZyCtTBOHCBWisMSpyfojCEZTtiF8n2yuKF7Y6hH/s320/simon.jpg"/></a><br/>
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
<i>An inside look at how police officers are trained to perpetuate state violence</i>
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Michael Brown. Philando Castile. George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. As the names of those killed by the police became cemented into public memory, the American public took to the streets in unprecedented numbers to mourn, organize, and demand changes to the current system of policing. In response, police departments across the country committed themselves to change, pledging to hire more women and people of color, incorporate diversity training, and instruct officers to verbally de-escalate interactions with the public.
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These reform efforts tend to rely on a “bad apple” argument, focusing the nature and scope of the problem on the behavior of specific individuals and rarely considering the broader organizational process that determines who is allowed to patrol the public and how they learn to do their jobs. In <i>Before the Badge</i>, Samantha J. Simon provides a firsthand look into how police officers are selected and trained, describing every stage of the process, including recruitment, classroom instruction, and tactical training.
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Simon spent a year at police academies participating in the training alongside cadets, giving her a visceral, hands-on understanding of how police training operates. Using rich and detailed examples, she reveals that the process does more than test a cadet’s physical or intellectual abilities. Instead, it socializes cadets into a system of state violence. As training progresses, cadets are expected to see themselves as warriors and to view Black and Latino/a members of the public as their enemies. Cadets who cannot or will not uphold this approach end up washing out. In <i>Before the Badge</i>, Simon explains how this training creates a context in which patterns of police violence persist and implores readers to re-envision the future of policing in the United States.
</blockquote>
Visit <a href="https://www.samanthajsimon.com/" target="_blank">Samantha J. Simon's website</a>.
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--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-45158334296155596842024-03-10T03:05:00.001-05:002024-03-10T03:05:00.135-05:00"The Dispersion of Power"<p></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOxsxHz013soiEve8ypUbbO1rzxqCOzJHfGfdGbu_ugqh5vxavWSzzYH2yfkoiQucVW2pW_k1mWff_ZTgqkDeLSPams7dK_Cwh3z5nQDtq9P4gWsoiVIV5vZOSO1CcSAT9z4cRLIKZnlWZF4OuIbW86PndALMcGg6K8613aJUApr2gNTQJohzQZ1AwPSTc/s425/bagg.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOxsxHz013soiEve8ypUbbO1rzxqCOzJHfGfdGbu_ugqh5vxavWSzzYH2yfkoiQucVW2pW_k1mWff_ZTgqkDeLSPams7dK_Cwh3z5nQDtq9P4gWsoiVIV5vZOSO1CcSAT9z4cRLIKZnlWZF4OuIbW86PndALMcGg6K8613aJUApr2gNTQJohzQZ1AwPSTc/s320/bagg.jpg"/></a>New from Oxford University Press: <i>The Dispersion of Power: A Critical Realist Theory of Democracy</i> by Samuel Ely Bagg.
<br/><br/>
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
<i>The Dispersion of Power</i> is an urgent call to rethink centuries of conventional wisdom about what democracy is, why it matters, and how to make it better. Drawing from history, social science, psychology, and critical theory, it explains why elections do not and cannot realize the classic ideal of popular rule, and why prevailing strategies of democratic reform often make things worse. Instead, Bagg argues, we should see democracy as a way of protecting public power from capture-an alternative vision that is at once more realistic and more inspiring.
<br/><br/>
Despite their many shortcomings, real-world elections do prevent the most extreme forms of tyranny, and are therefore indispensable. In dealing with the vast inequalities that remain, however, we cannot rely on standard solutions such as electoral reform, direct democracy, deliberation, and participatory governance. Instead, Bagg shows, protecting and enriching democracy requires addressing underlying inequalities of power directly. In part, this entails substantive policies attacking the advantages of wealthy elites. Even more crucially, deepening democracy requires the organization of oppositional, countervailing power among ordinary people. Neither task is easy, but historical precedents exist in both cases-and if democracy is to survive contemporary crises, leaders and citizens alike must find ways to revive and reinvent these essential democratic practices for the 21st century.
</blockquote>
Visit <a href="https://www.samuelbagg.com/" target="_blank">Samuel Bagg's website</a>.
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--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-19182025866904015132024-03-09T03:05:00.001-06:002024-03-09T03:05:00.149-06:00"Write like a Man"<p></p>New from Princeton University Press: <i>Write like a Man: Jewish Masculinity and the New York Intellectuals</i> by <a href="https://www.ou.edu/cas/history/people/faculty/ronnie-grinberg" target="_blank">Ronnie Grinberg</a>.
<br/><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiueVAi_-EIBb8H3STM5-s3dpDs9k91NEc0kZ2W02vU72P_fdWEvaIwB5y6uFpQmUH94Jhtad-0SMzeaO2xdHwtyN0mE2AwE1cztRvWbSkeBtG-c4efIqZhacMseo91C3_qPT-OLiK98s4G3CGkzqbZntQABwQEWdvSI7o6_UC39arbII2CsZ0wqLn61zQE/s425/grinberg.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiueVAi_-EIBb8H3STM5-s3dpDs9k91NEc0kZ2W02vU72P_fdWEvaIwB5y6uFpQmUH94Jhtad-0SMzeaO2xdHwtyN0mE2AwE1cztRvWbSkeBtG-c4efIqZhacMseo91C3_qPT-OLiK98s4G3CGkzqbZntQABwQEWdvSI7o6_UC39arbII2CsZ0wqLn61zQE/s320/grinberg.jpg"/></a><br/>
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
<i>How virility and Jewishness became hallmarks of postwar New York’s combative intellectual scene</i>
<br/><br/>
In the years following World War II, the New York intellectuals became some of the most renowned critics and writers in the country. Although mostly male and Jewish, this prominent group also included women and non-Jews. Yet all of its members embraced a secular Jewish machismo that became a defining characteristic of the contemporary experience. <i>Write like a Man</i> examines how the New York intellectuals shared a uniquely American conception of Jewish masculinity that prized verbal confrontation, polemical aggression, and an unflinching style of argumentation.
<br/><br/>
Ronnie Grinberg paints illuminating portraits of figures such as Norman Mailer, Hannah Arendt, Lionel and Diana Trilling, Mary McCarthy, Norman Podhoretz, Midge Decter, and Irving Howe. She describes how their construction of Jewish masculinity helped to propel the American Jew from outsider to insider even as they clashed over its meaning in a deeply anxious project of self-definition. Along the way, Grinberg sheds light on their fraught encounters with the most contentious issues and ideas of the day, from student radicalism and the civil rights movement to feminism, Freudianism, and neoconservatism.
<br/><br/>
A spellbinding chronicle of mid-century America, <i>Write like a Man</i> shows how a combative and intellectually grounded vision of Jewish manhood contributed to the masculinization of intellectual life and shaped some of the most important political and cultural debates of the postwar era.
</blockquote>
--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-40263582689390989072024-03-08T03:05:00.001-06:002024-03-08T03:05:00.133-06:00"The Fox Spirit, the Stone Maiden, and Other Transgender Histories from Late Imperial China"<p></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE6DKtn4qKlsaPJCoqj_t5VgGgoF6mF9nXHEcpaQEU3gbHOgUR2PD9_kyXtVXaf3NioUeRb-UqncUrx5JRvCCTWRN2UuqxQWmPG1JlfoIC8ZWp7FAtn91gC5aY0VaV2xIEsmBxKTep7g5rwUDhAFkERBI3anbr9yxyqgbtit2FevIykwEq-mv_HmSCsnl2/s445/sommer.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE6DKtn4qKlsaPJCoqj_t5VgGgoF6mF9nXHEcpaQEU3gbHOgUR2PD9_kyXtVXaf3NioUeRb-UqncUrx5JRvCCTWRN2UuqxQWmPG1JlfoIC8ZWp7FAtn91gC5aY0VaV2xIEsmBxKTep7g5rwUDhAFkERBI3anbr9yxyqgbtit2FevIykwEq-mv_HmSCsnl2/s320/sommer.jpg"/></a>New from Columbia University Press: <i>The Fox Spirit, the Stone Maiden, and Other Transgender Histories from Late Imperial China</i> by <a href="https://history.stanford.edu/people/matthew-sommer" target="_blank">Matthew H. Sommer</a>.
<br/><br/>
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
In imperial China, people moved away from the gender they were assigned at birth in different ways and for many reasons. Eunuchs, boy actresses, and clergy left behind normative gender roles defined by family and procreation. “Stone maidens”―women deemed physically incapable of vaginal intercourse―might depart from families or marriages to become Buddhist or Daoist nuns. Anatomical males who presented as women sometimes took a conventionally female occupation such as midwife, faith healer, or even medium to a fox spirit. Yet they were often punished harshly for the crime of “masquerading in women’s attire,” suspected of sexual predation, even when they had lived peacefully in their communities for many years.
<br/><br/>
Exploring these histories and many more, this book is a groundbreaking study of transgender lives and practices in late imperial China. Through close readings of court cases, as well as Ming and Qing fiction and nineteenth-century newspaper accounts, Matthew H. Sommer examines the social, legal, and cultural histories of gender crossing. He considers a range of transgender experiences, illuminating how certain forms of gender transgression were sanctioned in particular social contexts and penalized in others. Sommer scrutinizes the ways Qing legal authorities and literati writers represented and understood gender-nonconforming people and practices, contrasting official ideology with popular mentalities. An unprecedented account of China’s transgender histories, this book also sheds new light on a range of themes in Ming and Qing law, religion, medicine, literature, and culture.
</blockquote>
--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-43487956075926380152024-03-07T03:05:00.001-06:002024-03-07T03:05:00.138-06:00"The First Amerasians"<p></p>New from Oxford University Press: <i>The First Amerasians: Mixed Race Koreans from Camptowns to America</i> by Yuri W. Doolan.
<br/><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj41QHxh1zystS_XZRlen3XyAPd4iOae4enHkjhtbbNmDYPCj_4_1gfxvylgNWIpv7Mm8sOy_tFNJuCAnZmoGvjj7Z4D3JTT7Zt6X36b-M5Usm8YIZkwEiDWDyDWqM6Jb3mpG_-_-dwrgZqFlMKPlvkrRXgQb8pi-Yg0-hUNlDFuZz-nVMPJAWh2nGm1x1F/s425/doolan.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj41QHxh1zystS_XZRlen3XyAPd4iOae4enHkjhtbbNmDYPCj_4_1gfxvylgNWIpv7Mm8sOy_tFNJuCAnZmoGvjj7Z4D3JTT7Zt6X36b-M5Usm8YIZkwEiDWDyDWqM6Jb3mpG_-_-dwrgZqFlMKPlvkrRXgQb8pi-Yg0-hUNlDFuZz-nVMPJAWh2nGm1x1F/s320/doolan.jpg"/></a><br/>
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
During the 1950s, thousands of mixed race children were born to US servicemen and local Korean women in US-occupied South Korea. Assumed to be the progeny of camptown women--or military prostitutes--their presence created a major problem for the image of US democracy in the world at a time when the nation was vying for Cold War allegiances abroad. As mixed race children became a discernible population around US military encampments in South Korea, communists seized upon the image of those left behind by their GI fathers as evidence of US imperialism, irresponsibility, and immorality in the Third World. Aware of this and keen to redeem the image of America's intervention in Asia, US citizens spearheading the postwar recovery of recently war-torn South Korea embarked upon a campaign in US Congress to bring as many of these children home. By the early 1960s, American philanthropists, missionaries, and voluntary agencies had succeeded in constructing the figure of the abandoned and mistreated Amerasian orphan to lobby US Congress for the quick passage of intercountry adoption laws. They also gained the sympathies of American families, eager to welcome these racially different children into the intimate confines of their homes. Although the adoptions of Korean "Amerasian" children helped to promote an image of humanitarian rescue and Cold War racial liberalism in 1950s and 1960s America, there was one other problem: many of these children were not actually orphans, but had been living with their Korean mothers in the camptown communities surrounding US military bases prior to adoption. Their placements into American families relied upon dehumanizing constructions of these women as hardened prostitutes who did not even love their own children, South Korea as a backwards, racist society bent-up on Confucian tradition and pure bloodlines, and the United States as a welcoming home in an era of intense racial segregation.
<br/><br/>
<i>The First Amerasians</i> tells the powerful, oftentimes heartbreaking story of how Americans created and used the concept of the Amerasian to remove thousands of mixed race children from their Korean mothers to adoptive US homes during the 1950s and 1960s. In doing so, Yuri W. Doolan reveals how the Amerasian is not simply a mixed race person fathered by a US serviceman in Asia nor a racial term used to describe individuals with one American and one Asian parent like its popular definition suggests. Rather, the Amerasian is a Cold War construct whose rescue has been utilized to repudiate accusations of US imperialism and achieve sentimental victories in the aftermath of wars not quite won by the military. From such constructions, Americans lobbied Congress twice: first, in the 1950s to establish international adoption laws that would lead to the placement of hundreds of thousands of Korean children in the United States, then, later in the 1980s, when the plight of mixed race Koreans would be invoked again to argue for Amerasian immigration laws culminating in the migrations of tens of thousands of mixed race Vietnamese and their relatives.
<br/><br/>
Beyond Cold War historiography, this book also shows how in using the figure of the mistreated and abandoned Amerasian in need of rescue, Americans caused harm to actual people--mixed race Koreans and their mothers specifically--as children were placed into adoptive homes during an era where few regulations or safeguards existed to protect them from abuse, negligence, or racial hostilities in the US and many Korean mothers were coerced, both physically and monetarily, to relinquish their children to American authorities.
</blockquote>
Visit <a href="https://www.yuridoolan.com/" target="_blank">Yuri W. Doolan's website</a>.
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--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-68391207045020656922024-03-06T03:05:00.001-06:002024-03-06T03:05:00.135-06:00"Law, Order, and Empire"<p></p>New from Cornell University Press: <i>Law, Order, and Empire: Policing and Crime in Colonial Algeria, 1870–1954</i> by <a href="https://www.stfx.ca/faculty-staff/samuel-kalman" target="_blank">Samuel Kalman</a>.
<br/><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkqVFoVF5C_2J9GRDL8gtPRT4Ero4AcLdgj2pUtSJdJOPRK3zYjg3i3d-KS9EaKgZ112aoKrazSae3egMHoH6AinANfmFblZuy-DfQGImT5DRDRks76C4lpKT4ahpSe7jkN9B8dvoXbWwLfaCpcaSg1NdcaFEvJzLRMQchC8mbtGh0-sdwOSrl6AJWAw3W/s425/kalman.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkqVFoVF5C_2J9GRDL8gtPRT4Ero4AcLdgj2pUtSJdJOPRK3zYjg3i3d-KS9EaKgZ112aoKrazSae3egMHoH6AinANfmFblZuy-DfQGImT5DRDRks76C4lpKT4ahpSe7jkN9B8dvoXbWwLfaCpcaSg1NdcaFEvJzLRMQchC8mbtGh0-sdwOSrl6AJWAw3W/s320/kalman.jpg"/></a><br/>
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
<i>While much attention has focused on society, culture, and the military during the Algerian War of Independence,</i> Law, Order, and Empire <i>addresses a vital component of the empire that has been overlooked: policing.</i> Samuel Kalman examines a critical component of the construction and maintenance of a racial state by settlers in Algeria from 1870 onward, in which Arabs and Berbers were subjected to an ongoing campaign of symbolic, structural, and physical violence. The French administration encouraged this construct by expropriating resources and territory, exploiting cheap labor, and monopolizing government, all through the use of force.
<br/><br/>
Kalman provides a comprehensive overview of policing and crime in French Algeria, including the organizational challenges encountered by officers. Unlike the metropolitan variant, imperial policing was never a simple matter of law enforcement but instead engaged in the defense of racial hegemony and empire. Officers and gendarmes waged a constant struggle against escalating banditry, the assault and murder of settlers, and nationalist politics―anticolonial violence that rejected French rule. Thus, policing became synonymous with repression, and its brutal tactics foreshadowed the torture and murder used during the War of Independence. To understand the mechanics of empire, Kalman argues that it was the first line of defense for imperial hegemony.
<br/><br/>
<i>Law, Order, and Empire</i> outlines not only how failings in policing were responsible for decolonization in Algeria but also how torture, massacres, and quotidian colonial violence―introduced from the very beginning of French policing in Algeria―created state-directed aggression from 1870 onward.
</blockquote>
--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-79860659235229227182024-03-05T03:05:00.001-06:002024-03-05T03:05:00.148-06:00"Red Tape"<p></p>New from Stanford University Press: <i>Red Tape: Radio and Politics in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1969</i> by Rosamund Johnston.
<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUl3A65R1zbVM_afCpx7YpD2pZr8ta5mWZerJXzxkv2d-GoPQSigt1_LQVGEVVXWSs73TEyHJBO3jEOPFUnB3Q_8DTyjH-0CcV1OmBzg6iC_KeIAZPkXhhaJyIDKktocw2qD6UUIz_P48Y9RNOX9z9LIsfTCIKSYt2HMQs2I7yt60WM6yXgsww5dKLXQE2/s425/johnston.jpg" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="283" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUl3A65R1zbVM_afCpx7YpD2pZr8ta5mWZerJXzxkv2d-GoPQSigt1_LQVGEVVXWSs73TEyHJBO3jEOPFUnB3Q_8DTyjH-0CcV1OmBzg6iC_KeIAZPkXhhaJyIDKktocw2qD6UUIz_P48Y9RNOX9z9LIsfTCIKSYt2HMQs2I7yt60WM6yXgsww5dKLXQE2/w213-h320/johnston.jpg" width="192" /></a><br />
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
In socialist Eastern Europe, radio simultaneously produced state power and created the conditions for it to be challenged. As the dominant form of media in Czechoslovakia from 1945 until 1969, radio constituted a site of negotiation between Communist officials, broadcast journalists, and audiences. Listeners' feedback, captured in thousands of pieces of fan mail, shows how a non-democratic society established, stabilized, and reproduced itself. In <i>Red Tape</i>, historian Rosamund Johnston explores the dynamic between radio reporters and the listeners who liked and trusted them while recognizing that they produced both propaganda and entertainment. <i>Red Tape</i> rethinks Stalinism in Czechoslovakia—one of the states in which it was at its staunchest for longest—by showing how, even then, meaningful, multi-directional communication occurred between audiences and state-controlled media. It finds de-Stalinization's first traces not in secret speeches never intended for the ears of "ordinary" listeners, but instead in earlier, changing forms of radio address. And it traces the origins of the Prague Spring's discursive climate to the censored and monitored environment of the newsroom, long before the seismic year of 1968. Bringing together European history, media studies, cultural history, and sound studies, <i>Red Tape</i> shows how Czechs and Slovaks used radio technologies and institutions to negotiate questions of citizenship and rights.
</blockquote>
Visit <a href="https://www.rosamundjohnston.com/" target="_blank">Rosamund Johnston's website</a>.
<br /><br />
--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-10442344353274679602024-03-04T14:05:00.001-06:002024-03-04T14:05:00.132-06:00"Making the Presidency"<p></p>Coming September 5 from Oxford University Press: <i>Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic</i> by Lindsay M. Chervinsky.
<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPfuXiyQ56a4mjTvXaS9odpqlGns5KHn8iPWNoAqbe_U3FVHWPCFJJJ5Uiw9Kvsr7gV-A0iOkVGjGSduJNlrjr8pEZVbWNeHZffhh-V4AG2LNSn2YWSJk3xxD0d_428cdhBeqv8Eq9vK8fVrURCfCi0EoUiHTEbuT7QvspQEgR-JDT0mP1tfWvAk-1Envl/s761/Chervinsky.jpg" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="761" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPfuXiyQ56a4mjTvXaS9odpqlGns5KHn8iPWNoAqbe_U3FVHWPCFJJJ5Uiw9Kvsr7gV-A0iOkVGjGSduJNlrjr8pEZVbWNeHZffhh-V4AG2LNSn2YWSJk3xxD0d_428cdhBeqv8Eq9vK8fVrURCfCi0EoUiHTEbuT7QvspQEgR-JDT0mP1tfWvAk-1Envl/w210-h320/Chervinsky.jpg" width="210" /></a><br />
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
<i>An authoritative account of the second president of the United States that shows how John Adams's leadership and legacy defined the office for those who followed and ensured the survival of the American republic.</i>
<br /><br />
The United States of 1797 faced enormous challenges, provoked by enemies foreign and domestic. The father of the new nation, George Washington, left his vice president, John Adams, with relatively little guidance and impossible expectations to meet. Adams was confronted with intense partisan divides, debates over citizenship, fears of political violence, potential for foreign conflict with France and Britain, and a nation unsure that the presidency could even work without Washington at the helm.
<br /><br />
<i>Making the Presidency</i> is an authoritative exploration of the second US presidency, a period critical to the survival of the American republic. Through meticulous research and engaging prose, Lindsay Chervinsky illustrates the unique challenges faced by Adams and shows how he shaped the office for his successors. One of the most qualified presidents in American history, he had been a legislator, political theorist, diplomat, minister, and vice president--but he had never held an executive position. Instead, the quixiotic and stubborn Adams would rely on his ideas about executive power, the Constitution, politics, and the state of the world to navigate the hurdles of the position. He defended the presidency from his own often obstructionist cabinet, protected the nation from foreign attacks, and forged trust and dedication to election integrity and the peaceful transfer of power between parties, even though it cost him his political future.
<br /><br />
Offering a portrait of one of the most fascinating and influential periods in US history, <i>Making the Presidency</i> is a must-read for anyone interested in the evolution of the presidency and the creation of political norms and customs at the heart of the American republic.
</blockquote>
Visit <a href="https://www.lindsaychervinsky.com/" target="_blank">Lindsay M. Chervinsky's website</a>.
<br /><br />
--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-17128703001849134282024-03-04T03:05:00.001-06:002024-03-04T03:05:00.140-06:00"On Gaslighting"<p></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt0GVHPOX8srRM2jaeKi4pr9Tnzpfne3Uc-OCXmK3qiHJapaOLlu-Yf0AGRdL2V5OiwJUtrJfRU01t2Iy-QE05JbDyag79zzbLx2A-WBfuWdk3TcuZDtQBPFvLb8cB25_hMoVn9Rtwf0ge5QdvaCzGORYV-ZyXH2EE6QYymF4NM9B6k8vWgfZ4R6MUfRiU/s425/Abramson.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt0GVHPOX8srRM2jaeKi4pr9Tnzpfne3Uc-OCXmK3qiHJapaOLlu-Yf0AGRdL2V5OiwJUtrJfRU01t2Iy-QE05JbDyag79zzbLx2A-WBfuWdk3TcuZDtQBPFvLb8cB25_hMoVn9Rtwf0ge5QdvaCzGORYV-ZyXH2EE6QYymF4NM9B6k8vWgfZ4R6MUfRiU/s320/Abramson.jpg"/></a>New from Princeton University Press: <i>On Gaslighting</i> by <a href="https://philosophy.indiana.edu/directory/faculty/abramson-kate.html" target="_blank">Kate Abramson</a>.
<br/><br/>
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
<i>A philosopher examines the complicated phenomenon of gaslighting</i>
<br/><br/>
“Gaslighting” is suddenly in everyone’s vocabulary. It’s written about, talked about, tweeted about, even sung about (in “Gaslighting” by The Chicks). It’s become shorthand for being manipulated by someone who insists that up is down, hot is cold, dark is light—someone who isn’t just lying about such things, but trying to drive you crazy. The term has its origins in a 1944 film in which a husband does exactly that to his wife, his crazy-making efforts symbolized by the rise and fall of the gaslights in their home. In this timely and provocative book, Kate Abramson examines gaslighting from a philosophical perspective, investigating it as a distinctive moral phenomenon.
<br/><br/>
Gaslighting, Abramson writes, is best understood as a form of interpersonal interaction, a particular way of fundamentally undermining someone. The gaslighter, Abramson argues, aims to make his target experience herself as incapable of reasoning, perceiving, or reacting in ways that would allow her to form appropriate beliefs, perceptions, or emotions in the first place. He seeks not only to induce in her this unmoored sense of herself but also to make it a reality. Using examples and analysis, Abramson gives an account of gaslighting and its immorality, and argues that such a discussion can help us understand other aspects of social life—from racism and sexism to the structure of interpersonal trust.
</blockquote>
--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-30253747853295554252024-03-03T03:05:00.001-06:002024-03-03T03:05:00.132-06:00"Awkwardness: A Theory"<p></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL1sD-NZ7dZBj5_Qjh4-2S30pPb5zqZWS8ViXJMUJqajeOf26w9JCunPkn90ZZ1h4SfzboHPZl9qGMuAWdyj2PMf7KD1zxpwGjGnWjBhjrUHXxAxS7E9XtwiExQtzrUWIz5DX00rP0OUoBl-0ezBW5dKeSeYnssIJJ0gusu0BumwOhe_zISEIPiQb3v5vJ/s425/plakias.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL1sD-NZ7dZBj5_Qjh4-2S30pPb5zqZWS8ViXJMUJqajeOf26w9JCunPkn90ZZ1h4SfzboHPZl9qGMuAWdyj2PMf7KD1zxpwGjGnWjBhjrUHXxAxS7E9XtwiExQtzrUWIz5DX00rP0OUoBl-0ezBW5dKeSeYnssIJJ0gusu0BumwOhe_zISEIPiQb3v5vJ/s320/plakias.jpg"/></a>New from Oxford University Press: <i>Awkwardness: A Theory</i> by Alexandra Plakias.
<br/><br/>
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
<i>Awkwardness</i> offers an account of the psychology and philosophical significance of a ubiquitous social phenomenon. Our aversion to awkwardness mirrors our desire for inclusion. This explains its power to influence and silence us: as social creatures, we don't want to mark ourselves as outsiders. As a result, our fear of awkwardness inhibits critique and conversation, acting as an impediment to moral and social progress. Even the act of describing people as "awkward" exacerbates existing inequities, by consigning them to a social status that gives them less access to the social goods (knowledge, confidence, social esteem) needed to navigate potentially awkward situations.
<br/><br/>
<i>Awkwardness</i> discusses how we ostracize and punish those who fail to fit into existing social categories; how we all depend on--and are limited by--social scripts and norms for guidance; and how these norms frequently let us down when we need them. But awkwardness has a positive side: it can highlight opportunities for moral and social improvement, by revealing areas where our social norms and scripts fail to meet our needs or have yet to catch up with changing social and moral realities. Awkwardness ultimately underscores the conflict between our moral motivations and our desire for social approval and conformity.
</blockquote>
Visit <a href="https://www.alexplakias.com/" target="_blank">Alexandra Plakias's website</a>.
<br/><br/>
--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-77351827391150140532024-03-02T03:05:00.001-06:002024-03-02T03:05:00.132-06:00"The Geography of Injustice"<p></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWprhBF62bkYnQo5kbRwUNS-wIqiK0Oh88fH4w0nyFJyDvQnbLBkBX4EY641srEGS3xJGVahyPoGvTq6dAh83dar9A_bfPK317E7lfiw2zQ6FZ4wf0HqdMG9bCc3UDmmPyX2j8GBWhZdt6iT40UzEw489NmTa7mjAjbVcKF84U8moMUMgkvsCIE9SFoY-X/s425/kushner.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWprhBF62bkYnQo5kbRwUNS-wIqiK0Oh88fH4w0nyFJyDvQnbLBkBX4EY641srEGS3xJGVahyPoGvTq6dAh83dar9A_bfPK317E7lfiw2zQ6FZ4wf0HqdMG9bCc3UDmmPyX2j8GBWhZdt6iT40UzEw489NmTa7mjAjbVcKF84U8moMUMgkvsCIE9SFoY-X/s320/kushner.jpg"/></a>New from Cornell University Press: <i>The Geography of Injustice: East Asia's Battle between Memory and History</i> by Barak Kushner.
<br/><br/>
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
<i>In</i> The Geography of Injustice<i>, Barak Kushner argues that the war crimes tribunals in East Asia formed and cemented national divides that persist into the present day.</i> In 1946 the Allies convened the Tokyo Trial to prosecute Japanese wartime atrocities and Japan's empire. At its conclusion one of the judges voiced dissent, claiming that the justice found at Tokyo was only "the sham employment of a legal process for the satisfaction of a thirst for revenge."
<br/><br/>
War crimes tribunals, Kushner shows, allow for the history of the defeated to be heard. In contemporary East Asia a fierce battle between memory and history has consolidated political camps across this debate. The Tokyo Trial courtroom, as well as the thousands of other war crimes tribunals opened in about fifty venues across Asia, were legal stages where prosecution and defense curated facts and evidence to craft their story about World War Two. These narratives and counter narratives form the basis of postwar memory concerning Japan's imperial aims across the region. The archival record and the interpretation of court testimony together shape a competing set of histories for public consumption. <i>The Geography of Injustice</i> offers compelling evidence that despite the passage of seven decades since the end of the war, East Asia is more divided than united by history.
</blockquote>
Visit <a href="https://www.barakkushner.net/" target="_blank">Barak Kushner's website</a>.
<br/><br/>
--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-36788294009983407602024-03-01T03:05:00.001-06:002024-03-01T03:05:00.135-06:00"Dangerous Jokes"<p></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcMhguicav6Cttt3Ezr1muhLyBumpgd40DCUsry-DStILQiFWLK0VhA6-YCAWVZKyrarsM0enRHIdE5TxX3HEL4T-1-V_bJlLl7ief9DEBkwVLItrvpIk4oxwD4PpdHdFUOEC1a0i14vKBZaptgAuzLXsN4pXIE7LzSwdJHu9Gx2G8NIDkDmTmz9wrzymz/s595/Horisk.webp" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="391" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcMhguicav6Cttt3Ezr1muhLyBumpgd40DCUsry-DStILQiFWLK0VhA6-YCAWVZKyrarsM0enRHIdE5TxX3HEL4T-1-V_bJlLl7ief9DEBkwVLItrvpIk4oxwD4PpdHdFUOEC1a0i14vKBZaptgAuzLXsN4pXIE7LzSwdJHu9Gx2G8NIDkDmTmz9wrzymz/w210-h320/Horisk.webp" width="189" /></a>New from Oxford University Press: <i>Dangerous Jokes: How Racism and Sexism Weaponize Humor</i> by <a href="https://philosophy.missouri.edu/people/horisk">Claire Horisk</a>.
<br /><br />
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
People often get away with belittling others if they frame their speech as jokes-speech that would be condemned if stated seriously. "It's just a joke," they say. But what is different or special about joking? And if jokes about lawyers and politicians are morally acceptable, then what is wrong with joking about race or gender? Furthermore, if we may joke about a politician's shirts, may we joke about his weight? People who are targeted by demeaning jokes feel their impact but may not be able to pinpoint where the harm lies. <i>Dangerous Jokes</i> develops a novel, well-researched, and compelling argument that lays bare the power of demeaning jokes in ordinary conversations. Claire Horisk draws on her expertise in philosophy of language and on evidence from sociology, law and cognitive science to explain how the element of humor-so often used as a defence-makes jokes more potent than regular speech in communicating prejudice and reinforcing social hierarchies. She addresses the morality of telling, being amused by, and laughing at, derogatory jokes, and she gives a new account of listening that addresses the morality of listening to demeaning speech. She leaves us with no illusions about whether "it's just a joke" is an excuse for demeaning humor.
</blockquote>
--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-72850003737929458572024-02-29T03:05:00.001-06:002024-02-29T03:05:00.140-06:00"Democracy in Default"<p></p>Coming soon from Columbia University Press: <i>Democracy in Default: Finance and the Rise of Neoliberalism in America</i> by Brian Judge.
<br/><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1COVYLcH0kp7_wYtdcZj2wmEa82i6X6gD-vG1_geVSY05W9-i2ZMWyMmG4F1B83k1DAR-KBnnDmv6qoT5oB0IDBVeN_gi_IPJB6ld584w_W0YcNqKr-ETwLe7Nbb0betUE95uzD6T-WqrT2L5pDs_ZndhHRv7uJfnGYSyaZI4d_jlFMJurMxXEkULc6Ym/s425/judge.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1COVYLcH0kp7_wYtdcZj2wmEa82i6X6gD-vG1_geVSY05W9-i2ZMWyMmG4F1B83k1DAR-KBnnDmv6qoT5oB0IDBVeN_gi_IPJB6ld584w_W0YcNqKr-ETwLe7Nbb0betUE95uzD6T-WqrT2L5pDs_ZndhHRv7uJfnGYSyaZI4d_jlFMJurMxXEkULc6Ym/s320/judge.jpg"/></a><br/>
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
How did neoliberalism arise? Faced with the crises of the 1970s, a coalition of neoliberal intellectuals, conservative politicians, and business interests carried out a vast project of walling off the economy from democracy, ensuring the dominance of finance―or so the conventional story goes. <i>Democracy in Default</i> offers a new perspective on the birth of neoliberalism, showing that this common narrative confuses cause and effect. Financialization was not the offspring of deregulation but the mechanism that allowed neoliberalism to take root.
<br/><br/>
Brian Judge argues that financialization was a nearly spontaneous response to a crisis within liberalism. He examines how liberalism disavows the problem of distributive conflict, leaving it vulnerable when those conflicts erupt. When the postwar growth engine began to slow, finance promised a way out of the resulting political impasse, allowing liberal democracies to depoliticize questions of distribution and sustain the existing social and economic order. Elected officials were not simply captured or co-opted but willingly embraced financial solutions to their political problems. Unleashing the financial imperative to generate monetary returns, however, ushered in an all-encompassing transformation. Vivid case studies―the bankruptcy of Stockton, California; the investment strategy of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System; and the 2008 financial crisis―illustrate how the priorities of financial markets radically altered liberal democratic governance. Recasting the political and economic transformations of the past half century, <i>Democracy in Default</i> offers a bracing new account of the relationship between neoliberalism and financialization.
</blockquote>
Visit <a href="https://brianjudge.com/" target="_blank">Brian Judge's website</a>.
<br/><br/>
--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-33048044650044953002024-02-28T03:05:00.001-06:002024-02-28T03:05:00.131-06:00"The Rich Earth between Us"<p></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnd2-GbP603zQ71bAi15CKavbx3iw4Y-EDtri-8kcVluKDKzQl_7fOBFWn-5TQZfqEaBKk3k5ejoq_WC1v-52qt6K4_6sHwMy7YXHakoRiTHcYdsLt0A17M4ukCb3cAFWovw0-ZvYjnG_cCVXy1CVpIUN3nZddkgAKU0ukYD48c2b-4y_7gX5z_yrvsLwD/s445/johnson1.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="445" data-original-width="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnd2-GbP603zQ71bAi15CKavbx3iw4Y-EDtri-8kcVluKDKzQl_7fOBFWn-5TQZfqEaBKk3k5ejoq_WC1v-52qt6K4_6sHwMy7YXHakoRiTHcYdsLt0A17M4ukCb3cAFWovw0-ZvYjnG_cCVXy1CVpIUN3nZddkgAKU0ukYD48c2b-4y_7gX5z_yrvsLwD/s320/johnson1.jpg"/></a>New from The University of North Carolina Press: <i>The Rich Earth between Us: The Intimate Grounds of Race and Sexuality in the Atlantic World, 1770–1840</i> by <a href="https://cas.okstate.edu/department_of_english/faculty_profiles/shelby_johnson.html" target="_blank">Shelby Johnson</a>.
<br/><br/>
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
In this theory-rich study, Shelby Johnson analyzes the works of Black and Indigenous writers in the Atlantic World, examining how their literary production informs "modes of being" that confronted violent colonial times. Johnson particularly assesses how these authors connected to places—whether real or imagined—and how those connections enabled them to make worlds in spite of the violence of slavery and settler colonialism. Johnson engages with works written in a period engulfed by the extraordinary political and social upheavals of the Age of Revolution and Indian Removal, and these texts—which include not only sermons, life writing, and periodicals but also descriptions of embodied and oral knowledge, as well as material objects—register defiance to land removal and other forms of violence.
<br/><br/>
In studying writers of color during this era, Johnson probes the histories of their lived environment and of the earth itself—its limits, its finite resources, and its metaphoric mortality—in a way that offers new insights on what it means to imagine sustainable connections to the ground on which we walk.
</blockquote>
--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-21206042108121498262024-02-27T03:05:00.001-06:002024-02-27T03:05:00.131-06:00"Estranged Pioneers"<p></p>New from Oxford University Press: <i>Estranged Pioneers: Race, Faith, and Leadership in a Diverse World</i> by <a href="https://www.korielittleedwards.com/" target="_blank">Korie Little Edwards</a> and <a href="https://seaver.pepperdine.edu/academics/faculty/rebecca-kim/" target="_blank">Rebecca Y. Kim</a>.
<br/><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh6IBUdMICM9qscd9V49QT1rDa9f79LhBxk0YFkHurZU5HBatcnhK423NgTri6QLmh5mLmsSIG4W879Lsfx487AjtDYHze_LC4-83CaCPCpsjR8qGGIfQKlUkMaT6XqSSZuWYj_qbAD0Fi6zGwphuGy-pXVZLeri6wCVQH9GPu8B69AfNqruyQXxi-qvfI/s425/edwards.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh6IBUdMICM9qscd9V49QT1rDa9f79LhBxk0YFkHurZU5HBatcnhK423NgTri6QLmh5mLmsSIG4W879Lsfx487AjtDYHze_LC4-83CaCPCpsjR8qGGIfQKlUkMaT6XqSSZuWYj_qbAD0Fi6zGwphuGy-pXVZLeri6wCVQH9GPu8B69AfNqruyQXxi-qvfI/s320/edwards.jpg"/></a><br/>
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
Churches remain some of the most segregated spaces in the United States. In congregations that are multiracial, leadership can be a source of conflict. What does it mean for pastors of color to lead in multiracial spaces? Who are the pastors of color that serve as head clergy of multiracial congregations? What advantages do they have and what challenges do they encounter? How do they manage their role? How do their experiences compare to their white pastor counterparts who also head multiracial congregations?
<br/><br/>
Drawing on data from a nationally representative comparative study of multiracial congregations across the United States, including more than 100 in-depth interviews, <i>Estranged Pioneers</i> both answers these questions and discusses the broader implications for community leaders in multiracial contexts.
<br/><br/>
Korie Little Edwards and Rebecca Y. Kim make three primary arguments. First, pastors of color who lead multiracial congregations are estranged pioneers-they leave their familiar home churches to lead multiracial congregations, but often find themselves estranged from their old religious community as well as their new one. Second, compared to their white counterparts, they are better able to recognize pervasive white hegemony and also more easily cross cultural and racial boundaries, allowing them to reconcile norms from at least two cultures. Finally, Edwards and Kim argue that leaders of color can function as indispensable brokers who can bridge segregated racial networks. In a society that is increasingly diverse yet where segregation persists, they have the unique power and ability to function as bridges that connect otherwise segregated communities. <i>Estranged Pioneers</i> reveals how pastors of color are leading the way towards a more united multiracial future.
</blockquote>
--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-80861944153279488522024-02-26T03:05:00.001-06:002024-02-26T03:05:00.135-06:00"The Age of Revolutions"<p></p>New from Basic Books: <i>The Age of Revolutions: And the Generations Who Made It</i> by Nathan Perl-Rosenthal.
<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG2eoSc01bfTKv6NIVwEEU1OXkrUxfa68eBONCrWPUQtl1GGlxTpXPmIOY6oRut4sE1AhMyLfllYOh28eiBCRW4ECr5X55tWFk_0BkKnA_AtSfY2AxZ6Gci4lT8LF0bPx5y0s7wLSvELZkexW1OOnRKEQ5ep3e3riJieHuB74b3hv0qWJZL1WlhZDG1s-_/s1024/Perl-Rosenthal.webp" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="660" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG2eoSc01bfTKv6NIVwEEU1OXkrUxfa68eBONCrWPUQtl1GGlxTpXPmIOY6oRut4sE1AhMyLfllYOh28eiBCRW4ECr5X55tWFk_0BkKnA_AtSfY2AxZ6Gci4lT8LF0bPx5y0s7wLSvELZkexW1OOnRKEQ5ep3e3riJieHuB74b3hv0qWJZL1WlhZDG1s-_/w206-h320/Perl-Rosenthal.webp" width="206" /></a><br />
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
<i>A panoramic new history of the revolutionary decades between 1760 and 1825, from North America and Europe to Haiti and Spanish America, showing how progress and reaction went hand in hand</i>
<br /><br />
The revolutions that raged across Europe and the Americas over seven decades, from 1760 to 1825, created the modern world. Revolutionaries shattered empires, toppled social hierarchies, and birthed a world of republics. But old injustices lingered on and the powerful engines of revolutionary change created new and insidious forms of inequality.
<br /><br />
In <i>The Age of Revolutions</i>, historian Nathan Perl-Rosenthal offers the first narrative history of this entire era. Through a kaleidoscope of lives both familiar and unknown—from John Adams, Toussaint Louverture, and Napoleon to an ambitious French naturalist and a seditious Peruvian nun—he retells the revolutionary epic as a generational story. The first revolutionary generation, fired by radical ideas, struggled to slip the hierarchical bonds of the old order. Their failures molded a second generation, more adept at mass organizing but with an illiberal tint. The sweeping political transformations they accomplished after 1800 etched social and racial inequalities into the foundations of modern democracy.
<br /><br />
A breathtaking history spanning three continents, <i>The Age of Revolutions</i> uncovers how the period’s grand political transformations emerged across oceans and, slowly and unevenly, over generations.
</blockquote>
Learn <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/nathan-perl-rosenthal/the-age-of-revolutions/9781541603196/" target="_blank">more about <i>The Age of Revolutions</i></a> at the Basic Books website.
<br /><br /><a href="https://page99test.blogspot.com/2024/02/nathan-perl-rosenthals-age-of.html" target="_blank">
The Page 99 Test: <i>The Age of Revolutions</i></a>.
<br /><br />
--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-9993000838289872352024-02-25T03:05:00.002-06:002024-02-25T07:22:22.847-06:00"Seeking News, Making China"<p></p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaA-994Wb9AunkLP-Xk373IzxCOvAvRiYjnpOrr8FUTsbslJBOl8FsqB_TYnactnuPDd_U9QQG1JAIxaccvB2vm5u64MDX8KzGS8EblSYoyzgrJe4eF8lQVz6TjzEsK3pQCAbeDKTELTC0E39rYNy_Uc0M6GncbDpSAKZkGgXkEYQadINh1ftmIE_37hnX/s425/alekna.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaA-994Wb9AunkLP-Xk373IzxCOvAvRiYjnpOrr8FUTsbslJBOl8FsqB_TYnactnuPDd_U9QQG1JAIxaccvB2vm5u64MDX8KzGS8EblSYoyzgrJe4eF8lQVz6TjzEsK3pQCAbeDKTELTC0E39rYNy_Uc0M6GncbDpSAKZkGgXkEYQadINh1ftmIE_37hnX/s320/alekna.jpg"/></a>Coming soon from Stanford University Press: <i>Seeking News, Making China: Information, Technology, and the Emergence of Mass Society</i> by John Alekna.
<br/><br/>
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
Contemporary developments in communications technologies have overturned key aspects of the global political system and transformed the media landscape. Yet interlocking technological, informational, and political revolutions have occurred many times in the past. In China, radio first arrived in the winter of 1922-23, bursting into a world where communication was slow, disjointed, or non-existent. Less than ten percent of the population ever read newspapers. Just fifty years later, at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, news broadcasts reached hundreds of millions of people instantaneously, every day. How did Chinese citizens experience the rapid changes in information practices and political organization that occurred in this period? What was it like to live through a news revolution? John Alekna traces the history of news in twentieth century China to demonstrate how large structural changes in technology and politics were heard and felt. Scrutinizing the flow of news can reveal much about society and politics—illustrating who has power and why, and uncovering the connections between different regions, peoples, and social classes. Taking an innovative, holistic view of information practices, Alekna weaves together both rural and urban history to tell the story of rise of mass society through the lens of communication techniques and technology, showing how the news revolution fundamentally reordered the political geography of China.
</blockquote>
Visit <a href="https://www.johnalekna.com/" target="_blank">John Alekna's website</a>.
<br/><br/>
--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-908781960335842834.post-49205694377980861482024-02-24T07:05:00.001-06:002024-02-24T07:05:00.130-06:00"Empire of Rags and Bones"<p></p>New from Oxford University Press: <i>Empire of Rags and Bones: Waste and War in Nazi Germany</i> by <a href="https://live-sas-www-history.pantheon.sas.upenn.edu/node/13114" target="_blank">Anne Berg</a>.
<br/><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9PNPd7yOVu-u4xpzXZqWT_U4VsZR__EYNNn_hSGfXiX_ytWCuAZRK1nbvmpR_T_6Q8P3TxlrHrzXDOPQlTw72bCbDHQFn2lUimKokUHNx9UHVZ7WEyUgtpfDBtFJ-dDby9DP57-figGlfAG0m1TB_Sb-o9C98nGLms3LN1wuXXTBbw8fGOLZtoWxVYrKz/s425/berg.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9PNPd7yOVu-u4xpzXZqWT_U4VsZR__EYNNn_hSGfXiX_ytWCuAZRK1nbvmpR_T_6Q8P3TxlrHrzXDOPQlTw72bCbDHQFn2lUimKokUHNx9UHVZ7WEyUgtpfDBtFJ-dDby9DP57-figGlfAG0m1TB_Sb-o9C98nGLms3LN1wuXXTBbw8fGOLZtoWxVYrKz/s320/berg.jpg"/></a><br/>
About the book, from the publisher:
<blockquote>
Paper, bottles, metal scrap, kitchen garbage, rubber, hair, fat, rags, and bones--the Nazi empire demanded its population obsessively collect anything that could be reused or recycled. Entrepreneurs, policy makers, and ordinary citizens conjured up countless schemes to squeeze value from waste or invent new purposes for defunct or spent material, no matter the cost to people or the environment. As World War II dragged on, rescued loot--much of it waste--clogged transport routes and piled up in warehouses across Europe.
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Historicizing the much-championed ideal of zero waste, Anne Berg shows that the management of waste was central to the politics of war and to the genesis of genocide in the Nazi Germany. Destruction and recycling were part of an overarching strategy to redress raw material shortages, procure lebensraum, and cleanse the continent of Jews and others considered undesirable. Fostering cooperation between the administration, the party, the German Army, the SS, and industry, resource extending schemes obscured the crucial political role played by virtually all German citizens to whom salvaging, scrapping, and recycling were promoted as inherently virtuous and orderly behaviors. Throughout Nazi occupied-Europe, Jews, POWs, concentration camp inmates, and enemy civilians were forced to recycle the loot, discards, and debris of the Nazi race war. In the end, the materials that were fully exploited and the people who had been bled dry were cast aside, buried, burned, or left to rot. Nonetheless, waste reclamation did not have the power to win the war.
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Illuminating how the Nazis inverted the economy of value, rescuing discards and murdering people, <i>Empire of Rags and Bones</i> offers an original perspective on genocide, racial ideology, and World War II.
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--Marshal ZeringueUnknownnoreply@blogger.com