"States of Solidarity"

New from Oxford University Press: States of Solidarity: How to Build a Society by Barbara Prainsack.

About the book, from the publisher:

States of Solidarity: How to Build a Society makes the urgent case that solidarity is not a relic of the past but a foundational pillar for building just, democratic, and sustainable futures. While contemporary societies have invested heavily in debates about justice and institutional reform, they often overlook the social glue that binds people together in everyday life: solidarity. Without it, democratic legitimacy weakens, trust frays, and the collective capacity to act on shared problems-such as climate change, economic inequality, or the governance of digital technologies-gets lost.

This timely and original monograph reclaims solidarity as a dynamic and generative social force. It explores how practices of mutual support, rooted in shared experiences and goals, can restore trust and cohesion in fragmented societies. Rather than reducing solidarity to charity or moral duty, it understands it as a deeply political practice that empowers people to shape their collective lives.

Bringing conceptual clarity and empirical insight to bear, States of Solidarity addresses three of the defining challenges of our time-environmental crisis, democratic erosion in economic governance, and digital transformations with the proliferation of artificial intelligence-through the lens of solidaristic institutions and relationships. It shows how hegemonic narratives and technocratic complexity often obstruct collective action, but also how grassroots movements and inclusive practices can reinvigorate democratic life.

The book ends with a powerful vision of the 'good state' in the 21st century-one that nurtures solidaristic ties, prioritises care and economic justice, and equips societies to thrive in conditions of uncertainty. States of Solidarity invites readers to engage in a bold reimagining of what our political and economic systems could become, and why we must act together to build them.

Visit Barbara Prainsack's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Born Again Queer"

New from Princeton University Press: Born Again Queer: A History of Evangelical Gay Activism and the Making of Antigay Christianity by William Stell.

About the book, from the publisher:

A groundbreaking history of evangelicalism and homosexuality in the United States

Evangelicals claim that their opposition to homosexuality is an inherent feature of their faith, rooted in their unchanging beliefs about the Bible. Most scholars, journalists, and observers have accepted this account; in Born Again Queer, William Stell upends it. Arguing that the antigay majority in evangelicalism has been less dominant and more vulnerable than previously thought, Stell describes a network of authors, ministers, and professors—all veterans of major evangelical institutions—who worked in the 1970s and 1980s to persuade Christians that their churches should affirm the relationships and ministries of gay and lesbian members. By the late 1970s, some even thought that these activists might shape the future of evangelicalism.

Of course, that speculation proved mistaken, and the antigay evangelical majority eventually overpowered the gay-affirming minority. Stell’s history of the rise and fall of evangelical gay activism shines a light on this largely forgotten chapter in American evangelicalism. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews, Stell documents the work of four prominent activists: the founder of a predominantly LGBTQ+ denomination called the Metropolitan Community Churches, the leader of a gay advocacy organization called Evangelicals Concerned, and the evangelical feminist coauthors of the influential book Is the Homosexual My Neighbor? By recovering the successes of evangelical gay activists and the struggles of their opponents, Stell’s account transforms how we think about evangelicalism, how we talk about the culture wars, and how we approach both religion in queer movements and queer activism in religious movements.

Visit William Stell's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Koreatown, NYC"

New from NYU Press: Koreatown, NYC: The Consumption of a Transnational Brand by Jinwon Kim.

About the book, from the publisher:

How Manhattan's Koreatown functions as a new ethnic enclave

In the past decade, Korean entertainment has gained global recognition, with Korean movies and TV shows winning Oscars and Emmys, and K-Pop groups becoming wildly popular. In Manhattan, Koreatown has become a popular destination for both locals and tourists, drawing them in with its bars, restaurants, and day spas. Jinwon Kim argues that Manhattan’s Koreatown has become a new type of ethnic enclave, what she dubs a “transclave.” This commercialized ethnic space exists solely for consumption, leisure, and entertainment, and has been shaped by South Korea's nation-branding strategy, new economic and cultural strategies, patterns in Korean migration, and shifts in tourism and urban policies in New York City.

Kim posits that for many consumers in Koreatown, especially those who are not of Korean descent, the space has become a commercialized place where transnational culture meets the diverse racial and ethnic mosaic of New York City. Kim emphasizes how the space functions to "brand Korea" as a space to "consume ethnicity," reflecting the landscape of South Korea’s consumer culture through the physical appearance of buildings and stores and the inclusion of franchise brands. Ultimately, Koreatown, NYC is a fascinating exploration of the intersection of authenticity, ethnicity, and identity in the heart of New York’s midtown.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Man Behind the Cane"

New from Oxford University Press: The Man Behind the Cane: Preston Brooks, Political Violence, and the Road to the Civil War by Paul Quigley.

About the book, from the publisher:

A new perspective on the life of the US politician best known for the infamous assault that paved the bloody road to the Civil War.

In 1856, South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks assaulted Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the US Capitol, defending his family's honor and the rights of slaveholders. In beating Sumner unconscious, Brooks fueled a nationwide clash over slavery that ended in civil war.

Southern historian Paul Quigley brings Brooks to life more vividly than ever before, revealing how his personal struggles shaped the fateful decision to attack Sumner. Raised in the slaveholding culture of honor and scarred by missed opportunities for glory in the Mexican-American War, Brooks came to believe in the redemptive power of violence. Blending intimate personal history with wide-ranging analysis of political debates, Quigley uses Brooks's life to examine the deeper currents propelling the United States to the brink of destruction. Brooks's story reveals the increasingly fraught relationship between words and violence: When did words such as "liar" or "coward" justify duels? Did abolitionists' verbal attacks on slaveholders warrant physical retaliation? How did the way Americans talked about violence affect the likelihood that it would occur? With the caning, Brooks sparked an ominous national debate over the righteousness of bloodshed in a polarized nation.

Examining enduring issues of masculinity, honor, and free speech, The Man Behind the Cane shows how words and violent behavior became perilously entangled in the fight over slavery and casts new light on the origins of the Civil War-and the ongoing dangers of political violence in our own time.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Security Through Cooperation"

New from Stanford University Press: Security Through Cooperation: Space, Nuclear Weapons, and US-Russia Relations after the Cold War by Rose Gottemoeller.

About the book, from the publisher:

Russian officials and experts often voice the view that the United States was hell-bent on undermining, even destroying Russia during the turbulent period of the Soviet breakup thirty years ago. The primary US goal, in this telling, was to expand NATO to Russia's borders to isolate and threaten the Russian state. Rose Gottemoeller, drawing from the historical record and her own professional experience, refutes this notion. Gottemoeller argues that, to the contrary, successive American presidents were convinced that deep cooperation with Russia is essential to international security and stability. This conviction was born during the George H. W. Bush administration and took definitive shape during the administration of Bill Clinton, when he and his Russian counterpart, Boris Yeltsin agreed to develop technological cooperation that would be useful to both countries. George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin carried the conviction further, and the two countries made enormous strides on cooperation in outer space, counterterrorism, and nuclear energy over the next twenty years. While today is starkly different from the 1990s, Gottemoeller takes the lessons learned and considers what it would take—when Russia exits its horrific adventure in Ukraine and atones for the damage it has done—to resume cooperation for the sake of global security.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Drugs, Race, and the Politics of Modern Slavery Law"

New from Oxford University Press: Drugs, Race, and the Politics of Modern Slavery Law: When Enemies Become Victims by Insa Lee Koch.

About the book, from the publisher:

As the Black Lives Matter movement highlights the legacies of transatlantic slavery and racial empire, the British state has launched a new moral crusade: the fight against 'modern slavery'. Enshrined in the Modern Slavery Act 2015, this agenda no longer treats modern slavery solely as a transnational crime but also as a domestic threat occurring within Britain's borders. Today, the most frequently identified 'slaves' are boys and young men from the country's deindustrialised working-class and multi-racial neighbourhoods. Once criminalised under the 'war on gangs', they are now reframed as victims of 'criminal exploitation' and 'trafficking' in regional drug distribution networks known as 'county lines'.

Drugs, Race and the Politics of Modern Slavery Law examines what happens when communities once viewed as enemies of the system are redefined as legal victims. Grounded in the lived experiences of young drug dealers and their families—voices rarely heard in law—Insa Lee Koch reveals how state protection often functions as a form of control. Across policing, government offices, and courtrooms, efforts to protect the vulnerable ignore the structural dispossession and state racism that these communities face. Koch powerfully shows how family members who advocate for their children not only face bureaucratic hurdles but also find themselves silenced—even criminalized—for trying to make alternative stories heard.

Drugs, Race and the Politics of Modern Slavery Law argues that the modern slavery agenda is far from an unqualified good. As the law expands its definition of victimhood, it simultaneously strengthens the state's punitive powers, deepens racial injustice amidst a deepening socio-economic crisis, and revives colonial logics of redemption. These logics recast Black and racialised working-class communities as both 'slaves' and their 'masters'—reviving a powerful enemy within, and with devastating consequences for those targeted and their families. Urgent and innovative, this book is a must-read for academics, lawyers, practitioners, and activists seeking to understand how imperial legacies remain central to policies that claim to further progressive and social justice agendas.

Visit Insa Lee Koch's website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Fear of the False"

New from Cornell University Press: Fear of the False: Forensic Science and the Law of Crime in Colonial South Asia by Mitra Sharafi.

About the book, from the publisher:

Fear of the False uncovers colonial South Asia's critical role in the development of forensic science. Around 1900, the government of British India created a web of institutions for the scientific detection of crime. Driven by anxieties about "native mendacity," newly minted forensic analysts focused on uncovering faked evidence planted by South Asians. These experts, joining toxicologists known as "chemical examiners," were supposed to extract objective, scientific truth in the service of British justice. But in trying to counteract the presumed tendency of colonized peoples to lie, the system enabled widespread misconduct by state experts, increasing the risk of wrongful convictions of South Asian defendants.

Through scrupulously documented legal cases, Mitra Sharafi reveals that colonial dynamics put special pressure on the relationship between truth and justice. Examining falsity on both sides of the law through the use of testing to (mis)identify poisons, blood, and spermatozoa, as well as debates over adversarialism and inquisitorialism in the colonial courtroom, Fear of the False explores advances in forensic science and shortcuts in criminal procedure against the backdrop of colonial mistrust.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Out of This Strife Will Come Freedom"

New from The University of North Carolina Press: Out of This Strife Will Come Freedom: Free People of Color and the Fight for Equal Rights in the Civil War Era by Warren Eugene Milteer Jr.

About the book, from the publisher:

Free people of color were both architects of equal rights and active participants in the Civil War, on and off the battlefield. Their unique status as already free persons before emancipation shaped their experiences of military service, political activism, and community life in ways distinct from those newly freed from slavery and affected how they navigated the pursuit of equal rights.

In this groundbreaking work, Warren Eugene Milteer Jr. brings the stories of free people of color to the forefront, revealing that freedom was not simply the absence of enslavement but a powerful foundation of identity, rights, and belonging. Their determined struggles and strategies before, during, and after the war helped redefine what it meant to be a citizen in a nation grappling with democracy and equality. Through military service, vital civilian roles, and political advocacy, free people of color stood at the heart of the nation’s most transformative conflict. Centering their voices and histories, Out of This Strife Will Come Freedom shows how their sacrifices and strategies helped forge America’s path toward justice, reshaping our understanding of freedom and their enduring legacy in the national story.

Visit Warren Eugene Milteer Jr.'s website.

--Marshal Zeringue

"The Race for Universal Monarchy"

New from Columbia University Press: The Race for Universal Monarchy: Apocalypticism and the Ottoman–Habsburg Rivalry in the Sixteenth-Century Mediterranean by Ebru Turan.

About the book, from the publisher:

The early sixteenth century saw the rise of two Mediterranean empires―the Christian Habsburgs, based in Spain and Austria, and the Muslim Ottomans, centered in the Balkans and Anatolia―with strikingly similar ambitions. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500–1558) and Sultan Süleyman (1495–1566) each pursued grand universalist visions, seeking to unite Islam and Christendom under a universal monarchy that would resolve wars and conflicts, dissolve religious divisions, and usher in an age of peace, unity, and justice.

Drawing on a wide range of Ottoman and European sources, Ebru Turan explores the emergence of these empires and the early phase of their rivalry within the broader Mediterranean world. She argues that the late medieval crusading movement, which aimed to conquer Islamic lands and convert Muslims to Christianity, was infused with apocalyptic and messianic expectations in both the Latin West and the Ottoman Empire. While Charles V was hailed as a prophesied figure destined to conquer the Islamic East and restore the ancient Roman Empire, Süleyman contested these claims by positioning himself as the rightful heir to the Roman Caesars. Like his rival, he embraced a messianic identity, aspiring to conquer Christendom and unite the world under Islamic rule.

Innovative in its approach and provocative in its conclusions, The Race for Universal Monarchy transcends traditional East and West dichotomies, highlighting both empires’ efforts to build a global community of peace and harmony.

--Marshal Zeringue

"Worse than War"

New from Princeton University Press: Worse than War: The Global Costs of Violence by Anke Hoeffler and James D. Fearon.

About the book, from the publisher:

An empirically powerful account of why interpersonal violence across the globe exacts a far greater cumulative cost on society than war and terrorism combined

Civil wars, interstate wars, and terrorism receive a great deal of media and policy attention, for good reasons. By contrast, the major forms of interpersonal violence—homicide, intimate partner violence, and severe physical punishment of children—generally have a much lower profile.

In Worse than War, Anke Hoeffler and James Fearon assemble and analyze the data on the global prevalence and costs of collective and interpersonal violence. They show that interpersonal violence is vastly more widespread and imposes far greater societal costs than collective violence. Wars tend to be concentrated in a small number of countries, and often relatively small areas within them. By contrast, almost all countries have rates of homicide and nonfatal assault, particularly of women and children, that far exceed the global average rates of death and injury in wars and terrorism.

Hoeffler and Fearon argue that high rates of interpersonal violence are not simply fixed by culture or other structural factors. Evidence from a host of program evaluations, natural experiments, and longer-term social movements make it clear that rates of homicide, intimate partner violence, and severe physical punishment of children can be reduced if they are effectively targeted. Interventions that promote peace in civil war–torn countries are also possible, but the opportunities are few and increasingly far between. Drawing on ideas and methods from many fields—economics, political science, public health, psychology, sociology, and others—the authors show that money and policy efforts directed toward reducing interpersonal violence thus merit higher priority both within countries and by international donors.

--Marshal Zeringue