SUP History

SUP History http://www.sup.org/rss/history.xml The latest titles from Stanford University Press en-us Copyright 2008 Stanford University Press webmaster@www.sup.org (Webmaster) Ends of Enlightenment Ends of Enlightenment John Bender "For some critics, the genre of collected essays does not flatter: it highlights the repetition and limitations of their analytic procedures. For John Bender, however, it's a showcase for his remarkable mix of conceptual flexibility and archival precision. Bender at his best is our best index to the extraordinary efflorescence of eighteenth-century studies at the turn into the new millennium. His work has transformed our understanding of the emergence of the novel from fluctuating fields of 'fact' and 'fiction,' the fate and ongoing power of rhetoric within shifting social and communication systems, and the reconstituting of knowledge into its modern forms and organization. The understanding of Enlightenment that emerges from these essays—and from the cross-currents generated by their being published together—provides that historical moment with an unprecedented purchase on the present. Bender's oeuvre is—in its accuracy and usefulness—an essential handbook for those of us who care about the legacy of Enlightenment."—Clifford Siskin, New York University "John Bender's writing on enlightenment culture has been a major inspiration for many years. Many of these essays are classics, and all repay close attention. Whether writing about anatomy or hypothesis, Hume's sentences or game theory in Laclos, Bender combines formal, socio-historical, and visual analysis into a unique wellspring for work in eighteenth-century studies. The collection is a real boon for the field and should be on the shelf of every one of its scholars."—Jonathan Kramnick, Rutgers University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=1711">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Ends of Enlightenment explores three realms of eighteenth-century European innovation that remain active in the twenty-first century: the realist novel, philosophical thought, and the physical sciences, especially human anatomy. The European Enlightenment was a state of being, a personal stance, and an orientation to the world. Ways of probing experience and knowledge in the novel and in the visual arts were interleaved with methods of experimentation in science and philosophy. This book's fresh perspective considers the novel as an art but also as a force in thinking. The critical distance afforded by a view back across the centuries allows Bender to redefine such novelists as Defoe, Fielding, Goldsmith, Godwin, and Laclos by placing them along philosophers and scientists like Newton, Locke, and Hume but also alongside engravings by Hogarth and by anatomist William Hunter. His book probes the kinship among realism, hypothesis, and scientific fact, defining in the process the rhetorical basis of public communication during the Enlightenment. John Bender is Jean G. and Morris M. Doyle Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies at Stanford University and a former Director of the Stanford Humanities Center. His books include Imagining the Penitentiary (winner of the 1987 Gottschalk Prize) and, with Michael Marrinan, of Regimes of Description (2005) and The Culture of Diagram (2010). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=1711 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=1711 Silencing the Sea: Secular Rhythms in Palestinian Poetry Silencing the Sea: Secular Rhythms in Palestinian Poetry Khaled Furani "This is a wonderful ethnography of contemporary Arabic poetry. Khaled Furani has made a significant contribution to a relatively neglected territory in the study of the secular. Silencing the Sea enlarges our understanding of the way modern pressures and seductions have led to the undermining of older sensibilities and the formation of new, and of how this process is reflected in Arabic poetry. This not simply a book for literary specialists, but for anyone interested in thinking about the different dimensions of secular experience."—Talal Asad, City University of New York "Silencing the Sea is good news: It ironically speaks of the redemptive power of the human word, as fractured as it can be, as opposed to the Divine word's overwhelming power. It engages the battle for secularism that Arab poets, in particular, are leading, as it is for them, and their societies, an existential and crucial issue. Furani follows their meandering poems, and thoughts, through strengths and imperfections, while answering implicitly Hölderlin's famous question: 'What are poets for in these destitute times?' by seemingly saying that by changing themselves these poets do change the world, at least by making chinks in the wall."—Etel Adnan, author of Master of the Eclipse and Sitt Marie Rose "Furani's illuminating conversations with contemporary Palestinian poets connect us to their differing understandings of their art and its changing forms. He locates these expressive choices in an analysis of secular currents and with respect to the predicaments of Arab life in Israel and under occupation."—Brinkley Messick, Columbia University "Khaled Furani's detailed and scholarly study takes us to the unattainable heart of poetry, whatever its category, out of which comes magical beauty."—Maryse Conde, Columbia University, author of Segu and Victoire: My Mother's Mother <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=10544">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Silencing the Sea follows Palestinian poets' debates about their craft as they traverse multiple and competing realities of secularism and religion, expulsion and occupation, art, politics, immortality, death, fame, and obscurity. Khaled Furani takes his reader down ancient roads and across military checkpoints to join the poets' worlds and engage with the rhythms of their lifelong journeys in Islamic and Arabic history, language, and verse. This excursion offers newfound understandings of how today's secular age goes far beyond doctrine, to inhabit our very senses, imbuing all that we see, hear, feel, and say. Poetry, the traditional repository of Arab history, has become the preeminent medium of Palestinian memory in exile. In probing poets' writings, this work investigates how struggles over poetic form can host larger struggles over authority, knowledge, language, and freedom. It reveals a very intimate and venerated world, entwining art, intellect, and politics, narrating previously untold stories of a highly stereotyped people. Khaled Furani is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Tel-Aviv University. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=10544 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=10544 After La Dolce Vita: A Cultural Prehistory of Berlusconi's Italy After La Dolce Vita: A Cultural Prehistory of Berlusconi's Italy Alessia Ricciardi "There is no sweetness, lightness, weakness, or softness in Ricciardi's indictment, but hard facts and bitter truths piled up to heavy conclusions: Italy's intellectual life is the very culprit of a historical process of progressive civic and social degeneration that has led to the catastrophe that many have called Berlusconi's Italy. A very courageous book."—Roberto M. Dainotto Duke University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21786">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> This book chronicles the demise of the supposedly leftist Italian cultural establishment during the long 1980s. During that time, the nation's literary and intellectual vanguard managed to lose the prominence handed it after the end of World War II and the defeat of Fascism. What emerged instead was a uniquely Italian brand of cultural capital that deliberately avoided any critical questioning of the prevailing order. Ricciardi criticizes the development of this new hegemonic arrangement in film, literature, philosophy, and art criticism. She focuses on several turning points: Fellini's futile, late-career critique of Berlusconi-style commercial television, Calvino's late turn to reactionary belletrism, Vattimo's nihilist and conservative responses to French poststructuralism, and Bonito Oliva's movement of art commodification, Transavanguardia. Alessia Ricciardi is Associate Professor of Italian Studies at Northwestern University. Her book, The Ends of Mourning: Psychoanalysis, Literature, Film (Stanford, 2003), won the MLA's 2004 Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21786 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21786 A City Consumed: Urban Commerce, the Cairo Fire, and the Politics of Decolonization in Egypt A City Consumed: Urban Commerce, the Cairo Fire, and the Politics of Decolonization in Egypt Nancy Y. Reynolds "Sixty years before Egypt's Tahrir Square exploded in protest against Hosni Mubarak, Cairo burst into revolution with the great fire of 1952. This book gives a vivid new explanation for how ordinary Egyptians turned shopping and commerce into politics. More broadly, its story opens a fresh perspective on the economic and cultural changes that so profoundly reshaped the Middle East in the mid-20th century."—Elizabeth F. Thompson, University of Virginia "This pathbreaking study, theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich, explores the ways in which twentieth-century Egyptians' consumption practices helped shape their identities and their politics. Its treatment of consumption as a spatial practice opens new intellectual vistas, and it is a must-read for anyone interested in modern Egypt or in the politics of consumption and urban space."—Zachary Lockman, New York University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20614">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Though now remembered as an act of anti-colonial protest leading to the Egyptian military coup of 1952, the Cairo Fire that burned through downtown stores and businesses appeared to many at the time as an act of urban self-destruction and national suicide. The logic behind this latter view has now been largely lost. Offering a revised history, Nancy Reynolds looks to the decades leading up to the fire to show that the lines between foreign and native in city space and commercial merchandise were never so starkly drawn. Consumer goods occupied an uneasy place on anti-colonial agendas for decades in Egypt before the great Cairo Fire. Nationalist leaders frequently railed against commerce as a form of colonial captivity, yet simultaneously expanded local production and consumption to anchor a newly independent economy. Close examination of struggles over dress and shopping reveals that nationhood coalesced informally from the conflicts and collaboration of consumers "from below" as well as more institutional and prescriptive mandates. Nancy Y. Reynolds is Assistant Professor of History at Washington University in St. Louis. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20614 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20614 The Holocaust in Italian Culture, 1944–2010 The Holocaust in Italian Culture, 1944–2010 Robert S. C. Gordon "This outstanding book fills a critical gap in the literature and has profound significance for the study of Italy and for the memory of the Holocaust."—Marla Stone, Occidental College "Gordon has written an important book on memorialization of the Shoah for Italians and non-Italians alike."—R.J.B. Bosworth, Jesus College, University of Oxford "This book will change the way the relationship between the Holocaust and Italy is understood. Through the use of a wide range of materials, Robert Gordon analyses the tortuous and complicated ways in which the Shoah was narrated, remembered, misunderstood, forgotten, and then rediscovered. This is a fascinating story, told here with great elegance, verve, and passion, but also with scrupulous attention to detail. Essential reading for all students, researchers and historians working on post-war Italy."—John Foot, University College London <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=18010">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> The Holocaust in Italian Culture, 1944–2010 is the first major study of how postwar Italy confronted, or failed to confront, the Holocaust. Fascist Italy was the model for Nazi Germany, and Mussolini was Hitler's prime ally in the Second World War. But Italy also became a theater of war and a victim of Nazi persecution after 1943, as resistance, collaboration, and civil war raged. Many thousands of Italians—Jews and others—were deported to concentration camps throughout Europe. After the war, Italian culture produced a vast array of stories, images, and debate through which it came to terms with the Holocaust's difficult legacy. Gordon probes a rich range of cultural material as he paints a picture of this shared encounter with the darkest moment of twentieth-century history. His book explores aspects of Italian national identity and memory, offering a new model for analyzing the interactions between national and international images of the Holocaust. Robert S. C. Gordon is Professor of Modern Italian Culture at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College. His most recent books are A Difficult Modernity: An Introduction to Twentieth-Century Italian Literature (2005); and Bicycle Thieves (2008). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=18010 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=18010 The Premise of Fidelity: Science, Visuality, and Representing the Real in Nineteenth-Century Japan The Premise of Fidelity: Science, Visuality, and Representing the Real in Nineteenth-Century Japan Maki Fukuoka "This highly original work opens a window into the world of early Japanese botanical drawings, ink-rubbings, woodblock prints, and modern photography to show the dynamic connections between art, science, and medicine in nineteenth-century Japan."—Ann Jannetta, Professor Emerita of Japanese History, University of Pittsburgh "A major contribution to visual and intellectual studies of nineteenth-century Japan."—Luke Gartlan, Lecturer in the History of Photography, University of St. Andrews "The Premise of Fidelity analyzes a field that has barely been considered in Western-language materials before, but the text does not, on this account, restrict itself to an introductory treatment. Rather, it leads the reader at once into serious and important topics relating to truth and the ability of scholars to grasp, and then to represent, this. Its particularizing features lie in the author considering an area in which results are crucial, namely medicine, and a time when the stabilizing pillars of Japanese intellectual life were starting to shake, through contact with Europe."—Timon Screech, Professor of the History of Art, SOAS, University of London <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20941">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> The Premise of Fidelity puts forward a new history of Japanese visuality through an examination of the discourses and practices surrounding the nineteenth century transposition of "the real" in the decades before photography was introduced. This intellectual history is informed by a careful examination of a network of local scholars—from physicians to farmers to bureaucrats—known as Shohyaku-sha. In their archival materials, these scholars used the term shashin (which would, years later, come to signify "photography" in Japanese) in a wide variety of medical, botanical, and pictorial practices. These scholars pursued questions of the relationship between what they observed and what they believed they knew, in the process investigating scientific ideas and practices by obsessively naming and classifying, and then rendering through highly accurate illustration, the objects of their study. This book is an exploration of the process by which the Shohyaku-sha shaped the concept of shashin. As such, it disrupts the dominant narratives of photography, art, and science in Japan, providing a prehistory of Japanese photography that requires the accepted history of the discipline to be rewritten. Maki Fukuoka is assistant professor of Japanese Humanities in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Michigan. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20941 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20941 Opera and the City: The Politics of Culture in Beijing, 1770-1900 Opera and the City: The Politics of Culture in Beijing, 1770-1900 Andrea S. Goldman "Goldman's study of Peking opera is thorough, convincing, and fascinating. It will be required reading for scholars of Chinese theater, late imperial culture, Qing history, and gender studies. The scholarship is as good as it gets."—Catherine Swatek, University of British Columbia <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=11454">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> In late imperial China, opera was an integral part of life and culture, shared across the social hierarchy. Opera transmitted ideas about the self, family, society, and politics over time and space. The Qing capital of Beijing attracted a diverse array of opera genres and audiences and, by extension, served as a hub for the diffusion of cultural values via performance. It is in this context that historian Andrea S. Goldman harnesses opera as a lens through which to examine urban cultural history. Her meticulous yet playful account takes up the multiplicity of opera types that proliferated at the time, exploring them as contested sites through which the Qing court and commercial playhouses negotiated influence and control over the social and moral order. Opera performance refracted ethnic tensions and discontent among literati, blurred lines between public and private life, and offered a stage—literally and figuratively—on which to act out gender and class transgressions. By examining opera in Qing Beijing, this work illuminates how the state and various urban constituencies partook of opera and manipulated it to their own ends. Given Beijing's political influence, Goldman's analysis of opera and its tensions in the capital also sheds light on empire-wide transformations underway at the time. Andrea S. Goldman is an Assistant Professor of History at University of California, Los Angeles. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=11454 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=11454 Henry Ford's War on Jews and the Legal Battle Against Hate Speech Henry Ford's War on Jews and the Legal Battle Against Hate Speech Victoria Saker Woeste "It is not often that I read a book that is as important, well-researched, and well-written as Henry Ford's War. This volume, based upon primary sources that have for the most part never been examined before, brilliantly recreates the legal struggle against Ford's Dearborn Independent and underscores its larger significance. Anyone interested in Henry Ford, in antisemitism, or in legal battles against hate speech will want to read this book."—Jonathan D. Sarna, Brandeis University "Victoria Saker Woeste gives us great courtroom drama and captures an important historical moment. This will be the definitive work on Henry Ford and his confrontation by American Jews. Woeste not only presents and explains what was at stake on the basis of significant new evidence, she brings to her analysis the legal expertise to exploit a whole body of secondary literature that most historians are simply unable to evaluate."—Richard S. Levy, University of Illinois at Chicago <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20243">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Henry Ford is remembered in American lore as the ultimate entrepreneur—the man who invented assembly-line manufacturing and made automobiles affordable. Largely forgotten is his side career as a publisher of antisemitic propaganda. This is the story of Ford's ownership of the Dearborn Independent, his involvement in the defamatory articles it ran, and the two Jewish lawyers, Aaron Sapiro and Louis Marshall, who each tried to stop Ford's war. In 1927, the case of Sapiro v. Ford transfixed the nation. In order to end the embarrassing litigation, Ford apologized for the one thing he would never have lost on in court: the offense of hate speech. Using never-before-discovered evidence from archives and private family collections, this study reveals the depth of Ford's involvement in every aspect of this case and explains why Jewish civil rights lawyers and religious leaders were deeply divided over how to handle Ford. Victoria Saker Woeste is Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation in Chicago and has had teaching appointments at Indiana University-Indianapolis, Northwestern University, and Amherst College. Her first book was awarded the Law and Society Association's J. Willard Hurst Prize. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20243 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20243 Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years, Volume 3: Light and Shadows, 1910–1916 Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years, Volume 3: Light and Shadows, 1910–1916 Edited by Candace Falk "Candace Falk's project . . . is a major contribution to the history of anarchism and its place in the broader left . . . The introductions, notes, and directories are encyclopedic. Candace Falk's tireless and meticulous work as Goldman's biographer and archivist are evident on every page."—Rebecca Hill, Against the Current "A work of scholarship and a labor of love . . . The care taken in the introduction is repeated throughout."—E. Broidy, CHOICE "These documents speak to important questions of our own times. The American reading public can be grateful to Falk and her collaborators."—Nancy Marie Robertson, Documentary Editing <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21071">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Emma Goldman could not have known that the years from 1910 to 1916 would be her most prolific, perhaps the most celebrated period in her entire life, both then and now. Reveling in love and in anarchy, cushioned by a time of comparative tolerance for challenging ideas and interest in the new, Goldman blossomed as a political theorist, author, orator, and internationalist. The circles of her influence rippled away from the predominantly immigrant radical culture of New York City's Lower East Side and moved into a broader milieu of bohemians and radical intellectuals. With a remarkable ability to articulate the wrongs of a country permeated by brutal labor violence and dire poverty—accentuated by unprecedented wealth—Goldman sought to incite the public either to take action or to empathize with those who did. This volume's primary sources include a remarkable selection of letters, newspaper reportage, government surveillance documents, essays and speeches, photographs, and lecture bills, all paired with detailed scholarly annotation. In addition, the volume is prefaced by a narrative and analytical essay by Candace Falk. Candace Falk is the founding editor and director of the Emma Goldman Papers project. She is the author of Love, Anarchy, and Emma Goldman (1984), named New York Times Notable Biography of the Year, and is also a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow. Barry Pateman is the associate editor of the Emma Goldman Papers, curator of the Kate Sharpley Library, and editor of Chomsky on Anarchism (2005). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21071 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21071 Barricades and Banners: The Revolution of 1905 and the Transformation of Warsaw Jewry Barricades and Banners: The Revolution of 1905 and the Transformation of Warsaw Jewry Scott Ury "Scott Ury is one of the brightest and most gifted of the younger historians of Jewish Eastern Europe. His new book on Jewish Warsaw is full of fresh perspectives that show the important impact of urbanization on the development of Polish Jewry."—Samuel Kassow, Trinity College <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=17360">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> This book examines the intersection of urban society and modern politics among Jews in turn of the century Warsaw, Europe's largest Jewish center at the time. By focusing on the tumultuous events surrounding the Revolution of 1905, Barricades and Banners argues that the metropolitanization of Jewish life led to a need for new forms of community and belonging, and that the ensuing search for collective and individual order gave birth to the new institutions, organizations, and practices that would define modern Jewish society and politics for the remainder of the twentieth century. Scott Ury is Senior Lecturer in Tel Aviv University's Department of Jewish History, where he also serves as head of the Stephen Roth Center for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and Racism. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=17360 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=17360 Hip Figures: A Literary History of the Democratic Party Hip Figures: A Literary History of the Democratic Party Michael F. Szalay "This bold and ingenious book gives us the hipster's racial background, but also a crucial glimpse into how cultural politics matter to politics in the weightiest and most straightforward sense."—Bruce Robbins, Columbia University "This impressive examination of racial ventriloquism and shape shifting in the postwar U.S. novel explains—through a series of often brilliant readings—how the 'hip fetish' mediated contradictions between capital and labor. Szalay has produced a compelling and creative theoretical model for examining base-superstructure relations, one that has ramifications for projects beyond the one undertaken here. This is a provocative and persuasive project, to which attention must be paid."—Barbara Foley, Rutgers University "Michael Szalay's tandem tale of the post-World War II U.S. novel and Democratic Party radically illuminates—indeed rewrites—the story of both. This is literary history at its finest: densely researched, methodologically allusive, hip to the pith and nerve, and sometimes slag, of writers taking the measure of the republic."—Eric Lott, University of Virginia <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21077">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Hip Figures dramatically alters our understanding of the postwar American novel by showing how it mobilized fantasies of black style on behalf of the Democratic Party. Fascinated by jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll, novelists such as Norman Mailer, Ralph Ellison, John Updike, and Joan Didion turned to hip culture to negotiate the voter realignments then reshaping national politics. Figuratively transporting white professionals and managers into the skins of African Americans, these novelists and many others insisted on their own importance to the ambitions of a party dependent on coalition-building but not fully committed to integration. Arbiters of hip for readers who weren't, they effectively branded and marketed the liberalism of their moment—and ours. Michael Szalay is Professor of English at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of New Deal Modernism (2000). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21077 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21077 "We Are Now the True Spaniards": Sovereignty, Revolution, Independence, and the Emergence of the Federal Republic of Mexico, 1808–1824 "We Are Now the True Spaniards": Sovereignty, Revolution, Independence, and the Emergence of the Federal Republic of Mexico, 1808–1824 Jaime E. Rodríguez O. "This book will truly constitute a landmark study in the historiography of Mexico. Its revisionist position will change our view of Spain and the process of independence in its trans-Atlantic realms. Rodríguez shifts the entire independence process in Mexico back in time to the 1808–1812 period, exiles structuralist inevitability, and assumes open fields of political information and decision-making."—Eric Van Young, University of California, San Diego "Rodríguez, the living soul of the revisionist revolution in the study of Latin American independence, demonstrates that the story of Mexican independence is the story of a transatlantic political revolution that, as a byproduct, produced separation between Mexico and Spain. The portrayal of independence as a transformative process not necessarily directed against a 'motherland' is sure to to inspire also historians of other countries that experienced similar revolutions, such as the USA."—Tamar Herzog, Stanford University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20778">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> This book is a radical reinterpretation of the process that led to Mexican independence in 1821—one that emphasizes Mexico's continuity with Spanish political culture. During its final decades under Spanish rule, New Spain was the most populous, richest, and most developed part of the worldwide Spanish Monarchy, and most novohispanos (people of New Spain) believed that their religious, social, economic, and political ties to the Monarchy made union preferable to separation. Neither the American nor the French Revolution convinced the novohispanos to sever ties with the Spanish Monarchy; nor did the Hidalgo Revolt of September 1810 and subsequent insurgencies cause Mexican independence. It was Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808 that led to the Hispanic Constitution of 1812. When the government in Spain rejected those new constituted arrangements, Mexico declared independence. The Mexican Constitution of 1824 affirms both the new state's independence and its continuance of Spanish political culture. Jaime E. Rodríguez O. is Research Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Irvine, where he was Director of Latin American Studies and Dean of Graduate Studies and Research. He was the founder and editor of the journal Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos and has published numerous works in English and in Spanish. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20778 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20778 In the Wake of War: Democratization and Internal Armed Conflict in Latin America In the Wake of War: Democratization and Internal Armed Conflict in Latin America Edited by Cynthia J. Arnson "This book is invaluable and there is a need for it. It is important to try to assess the longer-term legacy of civil war in Latin America."—Cynthia McClintock, George Washington University "The authors pull together rich and detailed insights from the most remote corners of Latin America, which are complemented by comparative analyses and regional perspectives."—David Shirk, University of San Diego <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21413">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> In the Wake of War assesses the consequences of civil war for democratization in Latin America, focusing on questions of state capacity. Contributors focus on seven countries—Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru—where state weakness fostered conflict and the task of state reconstruction presents multiple challenges. In addition to case studies, the book explores cross-cutting themes including the role of the international community in supporting peace, the explosion of post-war criminal and social violence, and the value of truth and historical clarification. This book completes a fifteen-year project, "Program on Comparative Peace Processes in Latin America," which also led to the 1999 publication of the book Comparative Peace Processes in Latin America. Cynthia J. Arnson is director of the Latin American Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21413 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21413 Juridical Humanity: A Colonial History Juridical Humanity: A Colonial History Samera Esmeir "Samera Esmeir delivers an extremely compelling and smart interweaving of time, legality, and postcolonialism. Juridical Humanity is an innovative tool for those working in legal and postcolonial theory and represents a major leap forward in postcolonial thinking."—Keally McBride, University of San Francisco "This brilliant new study provides a broad and persuasive genealogy of juridical humanity in colonial Egypt. In a work of immensely creative theorization and superb historical scholarship, Esmeir radically rethinks the relationship between modern law, the human, and violence, challenging the ascendancy of narratives in which the human is always chained to the law. This book will be essential reading for historians, and scholars in Colonial/Postcolonial Studies and Political and Legal theory alike."—Omnia El Shakry, University of California, Davis Juridical Humanity: A Colonial History is an impressive work of scholarship—original, soundly argued, and thought provoking. Although existing histories of law distinguish between colonial and pre-colonial periods, Esmeir argues persuasively against the distinction, insisting that essential aspects of the latter can only be understood by examining how the former construed and dealt with it. This book helps the reader to formulate questions about the history of law and society in the Middle East that have not been raised in this way before. It deserves to be widely read by everyone interested in the Middle East."—Talal Asad, CUNY Graduate Center, author of Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=16425">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> In colonial Egypt, the state introduced legal reforms that claimed to liberate Egyptians from the inhumanity of pre-colonial rule and elevate them to the status of human beings. These legal reforms intersected with a new historical consciousness that distinguished freedom from force and the human from the pre-human, endowing modern law with the power to accomplish but never truly secure this transition. Samera Esmeir offers a historical and theoretical account of the colonizing operations of modern law in Egypt. Investigating the law, both on the books and in practice, she underscores the centrality of the "human" to Egyptian legal and colonial history and argues that the production of "juridical humanity" was a constitutive force of colonial rule and subjugation. This original contribution queries long-held assumptions about the entanglement of law, humanity, violence, and nature, and thereby develops a new reading of the history of colonialism. Samera Esmeir is Assistant Professor of Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=16425 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=16425 New Babylonians: A History of Jews in Modern Iraq New Babylonians: A History of Jews in Modern Iraq Orit Bashkin "Orit Bashkin's riveting new book is, without doubt, the first attempt at providing a full portrait of the rise and fall of the Baghdadi Jewish community in the course of the eventful 20th Century. The book is based on rich documentation, memoirs, communal, and school records. Bashkin's narrative is a shining example of solid scholarship and, at the same time, a coherent account of the vicissitudes of the modern history of a dynamic Arab-Jewish community the like of which is no more in evidence."—Sasson Somekh, author of Baghdad, Yesterday (2007) "This remarkable book examines the tragic modern history of the oldest and most deeply rooted Jewish community in the Arab world. Bashkin succeeds in avoiding the many pitfalls which confront an author dealing with such a charged topic by deploying empathy, careful historical analysis and great rigor. This book should be welcomed by all those who seek to free themselves of the blinders imposed by different varieties of extreme nationalism, and as such should be welcomed by scholars everywhere."—Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20419">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Although Iraqi Jews saw themselves as Iraqi patriots, their community—which had existed in Iraq for more than 2,500 years—was displaced following the establishment of the state of Israel. New Babylonians chronicles the lives of these Jews, their urban Arab culture, and their hopes for a democratic nation-state. It studies their ideas about Judaism, Islam, secularism, modernity, and reform, focusing on Iraqi Jews who internalized narratives of Arab and Iraqi nationalisms and on those who turned to communism in the 1940s. As the book reveals, the ultimate displacement of this community was not the result of a perpetual persecution on the part of their Iraqi compatriots, but rather the outcome of misguided state policies during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Sadly, from a dominant mood of coexistence, friendship, and partnership, the impossibility of Arab-Jewish coexistence became the prevailing narrative in the region—and the dominant narrative we have come to know today. Orit Bashkin is Associate Professor of Modern Middle East History at the University of Chicago. She is the author of The Other Iraq: Pluralism and Culture in Hashemite Iraq (Stanford, 2008). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20419 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20419 Violence, Coercion, and State-Making in Twentieth-Century Mexico: The Other Half of the Centaur Violence, Coercion, and State-Making in Twentieth-Century Mexico: The Other Half of the Centaur Edited by Wil G. Pansters "Through nuanced, cross-disciplinary perspectives on violence, this volume considerably advances our understanding of Mexico's contemporary crises. In particular, it shows that chronic violence is not the result of state failure in Mexico, but rather is deeply embedded in historical processes of post-revolutionary state formation."—Ben Fallaw, Colby College "This book's greatest contribution is to show how violence in modern-day Mexico has undergone a fundamental change. No longer a state against rebels, instead we have the mayhem and coercion of a huge collection of private actors—narcos, gangs, and police, to name only the most obvious—that have filled the void left by a downsized state."—Terry Rugeley, University of Oklahoma <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=16863">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Mexico is currently undergoing a crisis of violence and insecurity that poses serious threats to democratic transition and rule of law. This is the first book to put these developments in the context of post-revolutionary state-making in Mexico and to show that violence in Mexico is not the result of state failure, but of state-making. While most accounts of politics and the state in recent decades have emphasized processes of transition, institutional conflict resolution, and neo-liberal reform, this volume lays out the increasingly important role of violence and coercion by a range of state and non-state armed actors. Moreover, by going beyond the immediate concerns of contemporary Mexico, this volume pushes us to rethink longterm processes of state-making and recast influential interpretations of the so-called golden years of PRI rule. Violence, Coercion, and State-Making in Twentieth-Century Mexico demonstrates that received wisdom has long prevented the concerted and systematic study of violence and coercion in state-making, not only during the last decades, but throughout the post-revolutionary period. The Mexican state was built much more on violence and coercion than has been acknowledged—until now. Wil G. Pansters is Professor of Latin American Studies and Director of the Mexican Studies Centre at the University of Groningen. He is also Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Utrecht University. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=16863 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=16863 Romantic Nationalism in Eastern Europe: Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian Political Imaginations Romantic Nationalism in Eastern Europe: Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian Political Imaginations Serhiy Bilenky "Serhiy Bilenky greatly enriches our understanding of Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian political imaginations by examining them during their formative period, the age of Romantic nationalism. With a nuanced use of mental geography (mapping imagined communities) and idioms of nationality (representing imagined communities), he distils the complex and contradictory visions held by intellectuals who took part in a Polish-Russian-Ukrainian encounter in the 1830s and 40s, when modern nations were forming in Eastern Europe. Through his judicious choice of voices and his emphasis on the dynamic interchange of the period, Bilenky broadens our vision beyond the bounds of more standard and static treatments of national ideologies."—Frank E. Sysyn, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21003">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> This book explores the political imagination of Eastern Europe in the 1830s and 1840s, when Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian intellectuals came to identify themselves as belonging to communities known as nations or nationalities. Bilenky approaches this topic from a transnational perspective, revealing the ways in which modern Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian nationalities were formed and refashioned through the challenges they presented to one another, both as neighboring communities and as minorities within a given community. Further, all three nations defined themselves as a result of their interactions with the Russian and Austrian empires. Fueled by the Romantic search for national roots, they developed a number of separate yet often overlapping and inclusive senses of national identity, thereby producing myriad versions of Russianness, Polishness, and Ukrainianness. Serhiy Bilenky is Term Assistant Professor of History, Columbia University, and a Fellow at the Chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Toronto. His Mykhailo Maksymovych and Educational Practices in Right-Bank Ukraine in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century was published in Ukrainian in 1999. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21003 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21003 The Revolt of the Whip The Revolt of the Whip Joseph L. Love "This is a solid contribution to our understanding of color, class, and politics in Brazil's Old Republic, with clear implications for the ongoing debate on such matters in present-day Brazil. Because of the quality of the writing and the scholarship, it will become an enduring reference, one with potential to inspire continued work on class and political repression."—Jeffrey D. Needell, University of Florida "In this compact book, there is both a big and insightful argument about the stakes in Brazilian politics across the twentieth century and an important and original contribution to understanding the transition in Brazilian politics during the Old Republic."—Dain Borges, University of Chicago <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21019">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> This short book brings to life a unique and spectacular set of events in Latin American history. In November 1910, shortly after the inauguration of Brazilian President Hermes da Fonseca, ordinary sailors killed several officers and seized control of several new combat vessels, including two of the most powerful battleships ever produced, and commenced bombing Rio de Janeiro. The mutineers, led by an Afro-Brazilian and mostly black themselves, demanded increased rights—above all the abolition of flogging in the Brazilian navy, the last Western navy to tolerate it. This form of torture was closely associated in the sailors' minds with slavery, which had only been prohibited in Brazil in 1888. These events and the scandals that followed initiated a sustained debate about the role of race and class in Brazilian society and the extent to which Brazil could claim to be a modern nation. The commemoration of the centenary of the mutiny in 2010 saw the country still divided about the meaning of the Revolt of the Whip. Joseph L. Love directs the Lemann Institute of Brazilian Studies at the University of Illinois, where he is Professor Emeritus of History and Director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. He is the author of three previous books published by Stanford University Press. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21019 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21019 Sephardism: Spanish Jewish History and the Modern Literary Imagination Sephardism: Spanish Jewish History and the Modern Literary Imagination Edited by Yael Halevi-Wise "This book offers a fresh and creative take on the ways that modern authors have imagined Sephardic Jews or employed the trope of Sepharad in order to advance various political, moral, or literary projects. Sephardism's geographical and thematic range and its unique approach will make the theme of Sepharad relevant to a wide-ranging group of scholars not otherwise engaged in Sephardic or even Jewish Studies—a true feat."—Julia Phillips Cohen, Vanderbilt University "Sephardism: Spanish Jewish History & the Modern Literary Imagination is a tour-de-force in the study of Jews as 'other' in the modern literary consciousness. So much time has been spent in the West studying the image of Ashkenaz in both Western Jewish and non-Jewish letters that the constant presence of Sepharad has been underestimated or ignored. The double Jewish other—Oriental, mysterious, more authentic, representing the utopian moment when Jews, Muslims and Christians lived symbiotically together—comes to be the gold standard by which Jews and non-Jews come to imagine both Jewish modernity and Jewish history, even today. An important addition to every library."—Sander L. Gilman, Emory University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20707">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> In this book, Sephardism is defined not as an expression of Sephardic identity but as a politicized literary metaphor. Since the nineteenth century, this metaphor has occurred with extraordinary frequency in works by authors from a variety of ethnicities, religions, and nationalities in Europe, the Americas, North Africa, Israel, and even India. Sephardism asks why Gentile and Jewish writers and cultural figures have chosen to draw upon the medieval Sephardic experience to express their concerns about dissidents and minorities in modern nations? To what extent does their use of Sephardism overlap with other politicized discourses such as orientalism, hispanism, and medievalism, which also emerged from a clash between authoritarian, progressive, and romantic ideologies? This book brings a new approach to Sephardic Studies by situating it at a crossroads between Jewish Studies and Hispanic Studies in ways that enhance our appreciation of how historical fiction and political history have shaped, and were shaped by, historical attitudes toward Jews and their representation. Yael Halevi-Wise is Associate Professor of English and Jewish Studies at McGill University. She is the author of Interactive Fictions: Scenes of Storytelling in the Novel (2003). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20707 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20707 Reading Colonial Japan: Text, Context, and Critique Reading Colonial Japan: Text, Context, and Critique Edited by Michele M. Mason and Helen J.S. Lee "Reading Colonial Japan is a splendid collection of colonial writings in translation, paired with critical essays that address historical and theoretical concerns in original and engaging ways. It is an exceptional achievement and a truly important addition to cultural studies, Asian studies, history, and the study of colonialism/postcolonialism, migration, and translation."—Sabine Frühstück, Professor of Modern Japanese Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=12345">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> By any measure, Japan's modern empire was formidable. The only major non-western colonial power in the 20th century, Japan controlled a vast area of Asia and numerous archipelagos in the Pacific Ocean. The massive extraction of resources and extensive cultural assimilation policies radically impacted the lives of millions of Asians and Micronesians, and the political, economic, and cultural ramifications of this era are still felt today. The Japanese empire lasted from 1869-1945. During this time, how was the Japanese imperial project understood, imagined, and lived? Reading Colonial Japan is a unique anthology that aims to deepen knowledge of Japanese colonialism(s) by providing an eclectic selection of translated Japanese primary sources and analytical essays that illuminate Japan's many and varied colonial projects. The primary documents highlight how central cultural production and dissemination were to the colonial effort, while accentuating the myriad ways colonialism permeated every facet of life. The variety of genres the explored includes legal documents, children's literature, cookbooks, serialized comics, and literary texts by well-known authors of the time. These cultural works, produced by a broad spectrum of "ordinary" Japanese citizens (a housewife in Manchuria, settlers in Korea, manga artists and fiction writers in mainland Japan, and so on), functioned effectively to reinforce the official policies that controlled and violated the lives of the colonized throughout Japan's empire. By making available and analyzing a wide-range of sources that represent "media" during the Japanese colonial period, Reading Colonial Japan draws attention to the powerful role that language and imagination played in producing the material realities of Japanese colonialism. Michele M. Mason is assistant professor of Japanese literature at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is also the co-producer and interpreter for the short documentary film Witness to Hiroshima (2010). Helen J.S. Lee is an assistant professor of Japanese studies at the Underwood International College, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=12345 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=12345 After Empire: The Conceptual Transformation of the Chinese State, 1885-1924 After Empire: The Conceptual Transformation of the Chinese State, 1885-1924 Peter Zarrow "This is a deeply researched and intellectually ambitious work. Zarrow speaks with the authoritative and convincing voice of one who knows his subject deeply and has thought long and hard about the issues."—Henrietta Harrison, Harvard University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21568">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> From 1885–1924, China underwent a period of acute political struggle and cultural change, brought on by a radical change in thought: after over 2,000 years of monarchical rule, the Chinese people stopped believing in the emperor. These forty years saw the collapse of Confucian political orthodoxy and the struggle among competing definitions of modern citizenship and the state. What made it possible to suddenly imagine a world without the emperor? After Empire traces the formation of the modern Chinese idea of the state through the radical reform programs of the late Qing (1885–1911), the Revolution of 1911, and the first years of the Republic through the final expulsion of the last emperor of the Qing from the Forbidden City in 1924. It contributes to longstanding debates on modern Chinese nationalism by highlighting the evolving ideas of major political thinkers and the views reflected in the general political culture. Zarrow uses a wide range of sources to show how "statism" became a hegemonic discourse that continues to shape China today. Essential to this process were the notions of citizenship and sovereignty, which were consciously adopted and modified from Western discourses on legal theory and international state practices on the basis of Chinese needs and understandings. This text provides fresh interpretations and keen insights into China's pivotal transition from dynasty to republic. Peter Zarrow is Research Fellow at the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, in Taiwan. His research focuses on modern Chinese cultural history, with a special interest in intellectual change, scholarship, and historiography. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21568 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21568 Divided Memory: French Recollections of World War II from the Liberation to the Present Divided Memory: French Recollections of World War II from the Liberation to the Present Olivier Wieviorka Translated by George Holoch "America's sense of nation is very strong today. French feelings about France and Frenchness, Wieviorka very successfully explains, are much more introspective and divided. This learned, pithy book is the best treatment I have seen of the phases through which France's memory of the Second World War has traveled to reach its current, complicated, and debilitated form. Americans reading this book in the disconcerting context of politically divisive memories of Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan will unfortunately find much food for thought."—Patrice Higonnet, Harvard University "This excellent book is the first to tackle the multiple, overlapping, and conflicting memories of all aspects of wartime France: the fall of France, Vichy, the Occupation, the deportations, the Resistance, the purges, the trials and amnesties. Wieviorka weaves in rich and revealing comparisons with other countries and takes on the question of whom the French republic was to honor: French people in compulsory service for the German army? Jewish victims? Raoul Salan, at once Resistance hero and leader of a terrorist organization during the Algerian War?"—Eric T. Jennings, University of Toronto <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20867">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> France's experience of World War II was not primarily one of armed conflict, but rather of occupation, collaboration, resistance, and persecution. Since the end of the war, France has struggled with how to understand and remember that experience. In Divided Memory, Olivier Wieviorka recounts the role that the memory of the Occupation and the Resistance has played in shaping the sense of the past held by various segments of French society. He explores the way in which memory can focus political and social conflict. Each administration since the war has taken a different approach to responding to these memories and has attempted to steer public opinion through them. Charles de Gaulle tried to overwrite Vichy's collaboration by promoting the story of a French military victory over Germany. Others focused on memorializing victims or attempted to forget this painful time altogether. Wieviorka shows that, disparate as they are, none of these approaches have worked, and France remains divided by its memories of resistance and collaboration. Olivier Wieviorka is Professor at the Institute of Political Social Sciences of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan. His books previously published in English include: Normandy. The Landings to the Liberation of Paris (2008) and Orphans of the Republic? The Nation's Legislators in Vichy France (2009). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20867 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20867 Transformative Beauty: Art Museums in Industrial Britain Transformative Beauty: Art Museums in Industrial Britain Amy Woodson-Boulton "This is a splendid study of museum building in the great provincial cites of England: Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool. It is striking how different each city was. Woodson-Boulton provides illuminating insights into the relationship of culture and power, set within intriguging stories. The author enters deeply into the minds of the Victorians, making clear how they operated in a different universe from that of the 21st century. Yet at the same time, she provides much illumination for the burgeoning field of museum studies."—Peter Stansky, Stanford University "This book provides an important new view of the development of art galleries in three industrial cities: Birmingham, Manchester, and Liverpool. Woodson-Boulton uses the nineteenth-century debates about the purposes of art to examine closely the reformers' belief that art museums could help counteract the moral and aesthetic problems of industrial society. This book will add significantly to the literature on museums, art, culture, and urban development."—Anne Rodrick, Wofford College <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20284">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Why did British industrial cities build art museums? By exploring the histories of the municipal art museums in Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester, Transformative Beauty examines the underlying logic of the Victorian art museum movement. These museums attempted to create a space free from the moral and physical ugliness of industrial capitalism. Deeply engaged with the social criticism of John Ruskin, reformers created a new, prominent urban institution, a domesticated public space that not only aimed to provide refuge from the corrosive effects of industrial society but also provided a remarkably unified secular alternative to traditional religion. Woodson-Boulton raises provocative questions about the meaning and use of art in relation to artistic practice, urban development, social justice, education, and class. In today's context of global austerity and shrinking government support of public cultural institutions, this book is a timely consideration of arts policy and purposes in modern society. Amy Woodson-Boulton is Associate Professor of Modern British and Irish History at Loyola Marymount University. She is co-editor, with Minsoo Kang, of Visions of the Industrial Age, 1830–1914 (2008). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20284 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20284 Writing Mexican History Writing Mexican History Eric Van Young "I read Eric Van Young's book with great pleasure. His voice is the most distinctive of any of our top colonialists, and his authority in the field is indisputable."—Margaret Chowning, University of California at Berkeley "Van Young is one of the two or three preeminent thinkers in the Mexican and Latin American field whose essays are of such pioneering and enduring value to warrant this kind of greatest hits collection. Not only does he cross fields and disciplines and integrate northern and southern intellectual currents, his essays are a pleasure to read and constitute a rare combination of analytical bite, erudition, and playfulness."—Gilbert M. Joseph, Yale University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=18117">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> This collection brings together a group of important and influential essays on Mexican history and historiography by Eric Van Young, a leading scholar in the field. The essays, several of which appear here in English for the first time, are primarily historiographical; that is, they address the ways in which separate historical literatures have developed over time. They cover a wide range of topics: the historiography of the colonial and nineteenth-century Mexican and Latin American countryside; historical writing in English on the history of colonial Mexico; British, American, and Mexican historical writing on the Mexican Independence movement; the methodology of regional and cultural history; and the relationship of cultural to economic history. Some of the essays have been and will continue to be controversial, while others—for example, those on studies of the Mexican hacienda since 1980, on the theory and method of regional history, and on the "new cultural history" of Mexico—are widely considered classics of the genre. Eric Van Young is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego. His works include The Other Rebellion: Popular Violence, Ideology, and the Struggle for Mexican Independence, 1810–1821 (Stanford University Press, 2001; recipient of the Bolton-Johnson Prize). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=18117 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=18117 Totalitarianism and Political Religion: An Intellectual History Totalitarianism and Political Religion: An Intellectual History A. James Gregor "A. James Gregor is indisputably the foremost authority on totalitarian philosophy and practice in the English-speaking world (at least). This magisterial book will add to that reputation: there are few scholars, if any, who could produce a work of such panoramic sweep. Further, Gregor makes the most imaginative linkages between ideas and phenomena that previously might have seemed unrelated. His provocative insights will attract much attention."—Anthony James Joes, Saint Joseph's University "In this impressive work of scholarship A. James Gregor shows that the totalitarian twins, communism and fascism, are not at all what they claim to be—secular and atheistic ideologies—but thinly disguised 'political religions' arising from their common source in the militant intellectual milieu that Marxism engendered."—Carl Linden, Emeritus, The George Washington University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21872">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> The totalitarian systems that arose in the twentieth century presented themselves as secular. Yet, as A. James Gregor argues in this book, they themselves functioned as religions. He presents an intellectual history of the rise of these political religions, tracing a set of ideas that include belief that a certain text contains impeccable truths; notions of infallible, charismatic leadership; and the promise of human redemption through strict obedience, selfless sacrifice, total dedication, and unremitting labor. Gregor provides unique insight into the variants of Marxism, Fascism, and National Socialism that dominated our immediate past. He explores the seeds of totalitarianism as secular faith in the nineteenth-century ideologies of Ludwig Feuerbach, Moses Hess, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Giuseppe Mazzini, and Richard Wagner. He follows the growth of those seeds as the twentieth century became host to Leninism and Stalinism, Italian Fascism, and German National Socialism—each a totalitarian institution and a political religion. A. James Gregor is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and Adjunct Professor at the Marine Corps University at Quantico, Virginia. He is author of thirty books, most recently Marxism, Fascism, and Totalitarianism: Chapters in the Intellectual History of Radicalism (Stanford 2008). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21872 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21872 Making the Chinese Mexican: Global Migration, Localism, and Exclusion in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands Making the Chinese Mexican: Global Migration, Localism, and Exclusion in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands Grace Peña Delgado "This path-breaking history is a probing analysis of the interconnected worlds that the Chinese in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands created, inhabited, and sometimes contested. Making the Chinese Mexican is a stunning example of borderlands history."—Erika Lee, University of Minnesota "Delgado gives new life to the argument that the U.S.-Mexico borderlands were diverse and unpredictable. Her attentiveness to the commonalities and differences in the U.S. and Mexico, as well as the historical possibilities and tragedies, will make this required reading for all social historians of the region."—Katherine Benton-Cohen, Georgetown University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=9775">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Making the Chinese Mexican is the first book to examine the Chinese diaspora in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. It presents a fresh perspective on immigration, nationalism, and racism through the experiences of Chinese migrants in the region during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Navigating the interlocking global and local systems of migration that underlay Chinese borderlands communities, the author situates the often-paradoxical existence of these communities within the turbulence of exclusionary nationalisms. The world of Chinese fronterizos (borderlanders) was shaped by the convergence of trans-Pacific networks and local arrangements: against a backdrop of national unrest in Mexico and in the era of exclusionary immigration policies in the United States, Chinese fronterizos carved out vibrant, enduring communities that provided a buffer against virulent Sinophobia. This book challenges us to reexamine the complexities of nation-making, identity formation, and the meaning of citizenship. It represents an essential contribution to our understanding of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Grace Peña Delgado is Assistant Professor of History at The Pennsylvania State University. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=9775 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=9775 Networks in Tropical Medicine: Internationalism, Colonialism, and the Rise of a Medical Specialty, 1890–1930 Networks in Tropical Medicine: Internationalism, Colonialism, and the Rise of a Medical Specialty, 1890–1930 Deborah J. Neill "Neill's cutting-edge work opens up significant new perspectives on the relationship among different colonial powers, international politics, and the management of disease, on the one hand; and, on the other, the particular role played by medicine in the construction of racialized identities in the modern era."—Alice Conklin, The Ohio State University "Deborah Neill makes an important and original argument about the interplay of nationalism and internationalism in the European colonial project. In emphasizing the internationalism of colonialism, Networks in Tropical Medicine shows how the rise of international organizations continued significant aspects of the formal colonial rule that they also displaced."—Andrew Zimmerman, George Washington University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=11368">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Networks in Tropical Medicine explores how European doctors and scientists worked together across borders to establish the new field of tropical medicine in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The book shows that this transnational collaboration in a context of European colonialism, scientific discovery, and internationalism shaped the character of the new medical specialty. Even in an era of intense competition among European states, practitioners of tropical medicine created a transnational scientific community through which they influenced each other and the health care that was introduced to the tropical world. One of the most important developments in the shaping of tropical medicine as a specialty was the major sleeping sickness epidemic that spread across sub-Saharan Africa at the turn of the century. The book describes how scientists and doctors collaborated across borders to control, contain, and find a treatment for the disease. It demonstrates that these medical specialists' shared notions of "Europeanness," rooted in common beliefs about scientific, technological, and racial superiority, led them to establish a colonial medical practice in Africa that sometimes oppressed the same people it was created to help. Deborah Neill is Assistant Professor of History at York University. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=11368 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=11368 Building Colonial Cities of God: Mendicant Orders and Urban Culture in New Spain Building Colonial Cities of God: Mendicant Orders and Urban Culture in New Spain Karen Melvin "Deep in primary research and offering a strikingly original interpretation of the role of mendicant orders at the generative heart of Mexico itself, Melvin's study ought to be consulted by all serious students of New Spain for the foreseeable future."—Kenneth Mills, University of Toronto <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20050">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> This book tracks New Spain's mendicant orders past their so-called golden age of missions into the ensuing centuries and demonstrates that they had equally crucial roles in what Melvin terms the "spiritual consolidation" of cities. Beginning in the late sixteenth century, cities became home to the majority of friars and to the orders' wealthiest houses, and mendicants became deeply embedded in urban social and cultural life. Friars ministered to urban residents of all races and social standings and engaged in traditional mendicant activities, serving as preachers, confessors, spiritual directors, alms collectors, educators, scholars, and sponsors of charitable works. Each order brought to this work a distinct identity that informed people's beliefs and shaped variations in the practice of Catholicism. Contrary to prevailing views, mendicant orders flourished during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and even the eighteenth-century reforms that ended this era were not as devastating as has been assumed.Even in the face of new institutional challenges, the demand for their services continued through the end of the colonial period, demonstrating the continued vitality of baroque piety. Karen Melvin is Assistant Professor of History at Bates College. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20050 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20050 Occupying Power: Sex Workers and Servicemen in Postwar Japan Occupying Power: Sex Workers and Servicemen in Postwar Japan Sarah Kovner "Sarah Kovner has written a path-breaking work of Japanese history using a broad range of sources from Japanese, American, and British Commonwealth archives. This book will serve as the base line for studies in the history of sex work in postwar Japan for many years to come. Beyond that, it is an important study of women's history, sexuality, and military occupation in the twentieth century, and should be of interest to scholars in these fields worldwide."—William Johnston, Wesleyan University "Rich, theoretically-informed, and based on extensive archival research in several countries, Sarah Kovner's study sheds new light on a hitherto unexplored aspect of the Allied occupation of Japan—its sexual politics."—Vera Mackie, University of Wollongong, and author of Feminism in Modern Japan: Citizenship, Embodiment and Sexuality "This thorough and authoritative study enables the reader to gain a fresh understanding not only of the interactions between Japanese women and postwar occupying forces but also of the nation's view of itself at a time when Japan—despite its persistent reluctance to embrace interracial individuals—was concerned about its 'moral' standing in the international community."—Akira Iriye, Harvard University "Sarah Kovner has tackled a delicate subject with tact, thoughtfulness, and academic rigor. Her important book will be of great interest not just to specialists in Japanese history, but to anyone interested in the consequences of war, occupation, and indeed human relations across cultures."—Ian Buruma, Henry R. Luce Professor of Democracy, Human Rights, and Journalism, Bard College <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21270">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> The year was 1945. Hundreds of thousands of Allied troops poured into war-torn Japan and spread throughout the country, altering both the built environment and the country's psychological landscape. The effect of this influx on the local population did not lessen in the years following the war's end. In fact, the presence of foreign servicemen also heightened the visibility of certain others, particularly panpan—streetwalkers—who were objects of their desire. Occupying Power shows how intimate histories and international relations are interconnected in ways scholars have only begun to explore. Although sex workers became symbols of Japan's diminished status, by earning scarce dollars they helped jump-start economic recovery. But sex workers who catered to servicemen were nonetheless a frequent target. They were blamed for increases in venereal disease. They were charged with diluting the Japanese race by producing mixed-race offspring. In 1956, Japan passed its first national law against prostitution. Though empowered female legislators had joined with conservatives in this effort to reform and rehabilitate, the law produced an unanticipated effect. By ending a centuries-old tradition of sex work regulation, it made sex workers less visible and more vulnerable. This probing history reveals an important but underexplored aspect of the Japanese occupation and its effect on gender and society. It seeks to shift the terms of debate on a number of controversies, including Japan's history of forced sexual slavery, rape accusations against U.S. servicemen, opposition to U.S. overseas bases, and sexual trafficking. Sarah Kovner is Assistant Professor of History and Asian Studies at the University of Florida. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21270 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21270 Theater of State: Parliament and Political Culture in Early Stuart England Theater of State: Parliament and Political Culture in Early Stuart England Chris R. Kyle "Kyle frames the demotics, theatrics, and staging of parliamentary speech in terms of the history of communication. No account of early modern politics will be complete without reference to the murmuring, hissing, shouting, and silences that this books reveals."—David Cressy, The Ohio State University "Kyle will wake everyone up. He has an inspired idea of setting parliamentary history firmly within contemporary political culture, arguably the most influential mode of scholarly analysis in the period. This book could well transform the field."—Thomas Cogswell, University of California, Riverside <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=7783">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> This book chronicles the expansion and creation of new public spheres in and around Parliament in the early Stuart period. It focuses on two closely interconnected narratives: the changing nature of communication and discourse within parliamentary chambers and the interaction of Parliament with the wider world of political dialogue and the dissemination of information. Concentrating on the rapidly changing practices of Parliament in print culture, rhetorical strategy, and lobbying during the 1620s, this book demonstrates that Parliament not only moved toward the center stage of politics but also became the center of the post-Reformation public sphere. Theater of State begins by examining the noise of politics inside Parliament, arguing that the House of Commons increasingly became a place of noisy, hotly contested speech. It then turns to the material conditions of note-taking in Parliament and how and the public became aware of parliamentary debates. The book concludes by examining practices of lobbying, intersections of the public with Parliament within Westminster Palace, and Parliament's expanding print culture. The author argues overall that the Crown dispensed with Parliament because it was too powerful and too popular. Chris R. Kyle is Associate Professor of History at Syracuse University. He is the editor ofParliament, Politics and Elections (2001) and The Oxford Works of Francis Bacon, Vol VII: Legal and Political Writings 1613–1626 (forthcoming). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=7783 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=7783 Nelly Sachs, Flight and Metamorphosis: An Illustrated Biography Nelly Sachs, Flight and Metamorphosis: An Illustrated Biography Aris Fioretos Translated by Tomas Tranæus "For some years the time has been ripe for a literary biography of Nelly Sachs. Now these thorough, thoughtful, deeply studied pages, enlivened by remarkable images, should become a definitive source. Along with her close comrade Paul Celan, though not wholly like him, Sachs draws us into a molten history we forget at our peril."—John Felstiner, author of Translating Neruda: The Way to Macchu Picchu, Paul Celan: Poet, Survivor, Jew, and Can Poetry Save the Earth? A Field Guide to Nature Poems <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20748">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> This richly illustrated biography is the first book in English to chronicle the life of Nelly Sachs (1891–1970), recipient of the 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature. The book follows Sachs from her secluded years in Berlin as the only child of assimilated German Jews, through her last-minute flight from the Nazis in 1940, to her exile in "peaceful Sweden"—a time of poverty and isolation, but also of growing fame. Enriched by over 300 images of Sachs's manuscripts, photographs, and possessions, Flight and Metamorphosis not only offers detailed insights into the contexts of Sachs's formation as a writer, but also looks at themes of trauma and testimony in her central works. Aris Fioretos draws upon many previously unknown manuscripts, documents, medical records, and photos to produce the first reliably detailed narratives of Sachs's foundational experiences: her teenage years when she experienced the unrequited love later designated as the source for her entire oeuvre; her involvement with the Jewish Cultural League—seven years marked by mounting terror but also by her first public recognition as a writer; and her exposure to the radical Modernism of Swedish poetry in the 1940s. The book further describes the years of public recognition, addresses the paranoia that marked Sachs's final decade, and scrutinizes her close but complicated friendship with Paul Celan. An interview with Sachs's dear friend Margaretha Holmqvist provides touching insights into both her life in the 1960s and the events leading up to the Nobel Prize. Throughout, the book emphasizes the singularity of Sachs's accomplishments as a writer and the exemplarity of her existential situation—as a woman, as an exile, and—as she herself said—"a battleground." A professor of Aesthetics at Södertörn University in Stockholm, Sweden, Aris Fioretos was educated at Stockholm and Yale Universities. The recipient of numerous prizes and fellowships, most recently from the Swedish Academy and All Souls College, Oxford, he has published several novels and book-length essays and has rendered the works of Paul Auster, Friedrich Hölderlin, and Vladimir Nabokov into Swedish. His latest, award-winning novel is entitled The Last Greek (2009). Fioretos is also the general editor of the first commented edition of the complete works of Nelly Sachs in German. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20748 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20748 Royal Censorship of Books in Eighteenth-Century France Royal Censorship of Books in Eighteenth-Century France Raymond Birn "Birn's new study is an invaluable contribution to [his] impressive corpus. It offers richly documented insight into the complex mental world of Enlightenment-era censors, along with a compelling account of how the government managed their work, and in the effort, ended up encapsulating so many of the key paradoxes of modernization in the eighteenth century."—H-France <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=17802">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Today, we are inclined to believe that intellectual freedom has no greater adversary than the censor. In eighteenth-century France, the matter was more complicated. Royal censors envisioned themselves not as fulfilling a mission of state-sponsored repression but rather as guiding the literary traffic of the Enlightenment. By awarding pre-publication and pre-distribution approvals, royal censors sought to insulate authors and publishers from the scandal of post-publication condemnation by parliaments, the police, or the Church. Less official authorizations were also awarded. Though censors did delete words and phrases from manuscripts and sometimes rejected manuscripts altogether, the liberal use of tacit permissions and conditional approvals resulted in the publication and circulation of books that, under a less flexible system, might never have seen the light of day. In essence, eighteenth-century French censors served as cultural intermediaries who bore responsibility for expanding public awareness of the progressive thought of their time. Raymond Birn is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Oregon. His most recent books are Forging Rousseau: Print, Commerce and Cultural Manipulation in the Late Enlightenment (2001) and Crisis, Absolutism, Revolution: Europe and the World, 1648-1789 (2005). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=17802 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=17802 Nationalists Who Feared the Nation: Adriatic Multi-Nationalism in Habsburg Dalmatia, Trieste, and Venice Nationalists Who Feared the Nation: Adriatic Multi-Nationalism in Habsburg Dalmatia, Trieste, and Venice Dominique Kirchner Reill "Dominique Reill presents an extremely sophisticated and subtle theoretical argument about the relationship between nationalism and pluralism, and does so in a way that is both novel and clear. One need not be independently interested in the Adriatic (as I, admittedly, happen to be) in order to recognize the importance of this manuscript's contribution to the study of nationalism."—Alison Frank, Harvard University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20101">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> We can often learn as much from political movements that failed as from those that achieved their goals. Nationalists Who Feared the Nation looks at one such frustrated movement: a group of community leaders and writers in Venice, Trieste, and Dalmatia during the 1830s, 40s, and 50s who proposed the creation of a multinational zone surrounding the Adriatic Sea. At the time, the lands of the Adriatic formed a maritime community whose people spoke different languages and practiced different faiths but identified themselves as belonging to a single region of the Hapsburg Empire. While these activists hoped that nationhood could be used to strengthen cultural bonds, they also feared nationalism's homogenizing effects and its potential for violence. This book demonstrates that not all nationalisms attempted to create homogeneous, single-language, -religion, or -ethnicity nations. Moreover, in treating the Adriatic lands as one unit, this book serves as a correction to "national" histories that impose our modern view of nationhood on what was a multinational region. Dominique Kirchner Reill is Assistant Professor of Modern European History at the University of Miami. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20101 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20101 The Hierarchies of Slavery in Santos, Brazil, 1822–1888 The Hierarchies of Slavery in Santos, Brazil, 1822–1888 Ian Read "This book offers a unique perspective on slavery in nineteenth-century Brazil. As a work of historical demography that spans most of the nineteenth century, The Hierarchies of Slavery in Santos, Brazil, 1822–1888 is an ambitious study. It offers the most comprehensive view of a discrete, urban Brazilian slave population yet to be produced and is a very important contribution to the history of slavery, not only in Brazil but also in comparative perspective."—Linda Lewin, University of California, Berkeley "This impressively and, indeed, massively researched study is the first to demonstrate, systematically and in depth, that how slaves exercised their agency often depended in part on who owned them and how they were employed. It is a pioneering work, standing out for its analysis of urban slavery from multiple angles and for its use of such a wide variety of sources."—B.J. Barickman, University of Arizona <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=18049">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Despite the inherent brutality of slavery, some slaves could find small but important opportunities to act decisively. The Hierarchies of Slavery in Santos, Brazil, 1822–1888 explores such moments of opportunity and resistance in Santos, a Southeastern township in Imperial Brazil. It argues that slavery in Brazil was hierarchical: slaves' fleeting chances to form families, work jobs that would not kill or maim, avoid debilitating diseases, or find a (legal or illegal) pathway out of slavery were highly influenced by their demographic background and their owners' social position. By tracing the lives of slaves and owners through multiple records, the author is able to show that the cruelties that slaves faced were not equally shared. One important implication is that internal stratification likely helped perpetuate slavery because there was the belief, however illusionary, that escaping captivity was not necessary for social mobility. Ian Read is Assistant Professor of Latin American Studies at Soka University of America. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=18049 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=18049 Chinese Chicago: Race, Transnational Migration, and Community Since 1870 Chinese Chicago: Race, Transnational Migration, and Community Since 1870 Huping Ling "A unique and valuable study, sure to deepen our understanding of extra-national migratory studies in the development of modernity."—John Kuo Wei Tchen, New York University & Museum of Chinese in America "Huping Ling, a prolific and leading scholar of Chinese America, gives us yet another refreshingly exciting book. An excellent community study, it offers fascinating stories about various aspects of Chinese America life in the community, ranging from food, laundry-shop work, school life, and family life in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Chicago. The book situates these stories in larger contexts, specially the Chinese American transnational world, providing extraordinary insights into the connection between the local and the global. It also connects the past to the present by taking an in-depth look at the post-war forces that have transformed and continue to transform Chinese Chicago."—Yong Chen, author of Chinese San Francisco, 1850-1943: A Trans-Pacific Community "An insightful interpretation of Chinese community as an integral part of a multiethnic Chicago, Ling's book is a landmark addition to the growing Chinese American transnational historiography."—Haiming Liu, author of The Transnational History of a Chinese Family <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20872">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Numerous studies have documented the transnational experiences and local activities of Chinese immigrants in California and New York in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Less is known about the vibrant Chinese American community that developed at the same time in Chicago. In this sweeping account, Huping Ling offers the first comprehensive history of Chinese in Chicago, beginning with the arrival of the pioneering Moy brothers in the 1870s and continuing to the present. Ling focuses on how race, transnational migration, and community have defined Chinese in Chicago. Drawing upon archival documents in English and Chinese, she charts how Chinese made a place for themselves among the multiethnic neighborhoods of Chicago, cultivating friendships with local authorities and consciously avoiding racial conflicts. Ling takes readers through the decades, exploring evolving family structures and relationships, the development of community organizations, and the operation of transnational businesses. She pays particular attention to the influential role of Chinese in Chicago's academic and intellectual communities and to the complex and conflicting relationships among today's more dispersed Chinese Americans in Chicago. Huping Ling is Professor of History at Truman State University and Executive Editor for the Journal of Asian American Studies. She has published eleven books and over one hundred articles. Most recently, she coedited Asian American History and Culture: An Encyclopedia (2010). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20872 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20872 Pledges of Jewish Allegiance: Conversion, Law, and Policymaking in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Orthodox Responsa Pledges of Jewish Allegiance: Conversion, Law, and Policymaking in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Orthodox Responsa David Ellenson and Daniel Gordis "This is a concise, timely, and well-researched survey of modern Jewish conversion law, and the politics that underlie it. By tracing a wide range of Jewish legal decisions in different countries over two centuries, Ellenson and Gordis underscore the importance of context and biography in the shaping of Jewish law. They explain the diversity of Orthodox opinion concerning the acceptance of converts, and clarify how the whole process of rabbinic decision-making works. A miracle of compression and clarity, this book provides the background for policies affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands of Jews and would-be Jews throughout the world."—Jonathan D. Sarna, Brandeis University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=21014">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Since the late 1700s, when the Jewish community ceased to be a semiautonomous political unit in Western Europe and the United States and individual Jews became integrated—culturally, socially, and politically—into broader society, questions surrounding Jewish status and identity have occupied a prominent and contentious place in Jewish legal discourse. This book examines a wide array of legal opinions written by nineteenth- and twentieth-century orthodox rabbis in Europe, the United States, and Israel. It argues that these rabbis' divergent positions—based on the same legal precedents—demonstrate that they were doing more than delivering legal opinions. Instead, they were crafting public policy for Jewish society in response to Jews' social and political interactions as equals with the non-Jewish persons in whose midst they dwelled. Pledges of Jewish Allegiance prefaces its analysis of modern opinions with a discussion of the classical Jewish sources upon which they draw. David Ellenson, President and I. H. and Anna Grancell Professor of Jewish Religious Thought at Hebrew Union College–Jewish institute of Religion, is a distinguished rabbi, scholar, and leader of the Reform Movement. Daniel Gordis is President of the Shalem Foundation and Senior Fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. He is a columnist for the Jerusalem Post and a frequent contributor to the New York Times and was the founding dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the University of Judaism. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21014 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=21014 A Jewish Voice from Ottoman Salonica: The Ladino Memoir of Sa'adi Besalel a-Levi A Jewish Voice from Ottoman Salonica: The Ladino Memoir of Sa'adi Besalel a-Levi Edited by Aron Rodrigue and Sarah Abrevaya Stein; Translation, Transliteration, and Glossary by Isaac Jerusalmi "We must be grateful to the two editors and the translator of this memoir for bringing a rare document back to life. Surviving the near-annihilation and dispersion of the Jews of Salonica over the last hundred years, this precious historical source offers a passionate portrait of the struggle between traditionalist and modernizing forces within the late-nineteenth-century Sephardic world. It is a gripping read and will advance the scholarly agenda of Sephardic studies."—Francesca Trivellato, Yale University "Sa'adi Besalel a-Levi was a man who found himself at the threshold of momentous changes that would all but swallow everything that was familiar to him in the early decades of the twentieth century. Yet, rather than meditating nostalgically about a world that was fast disappearing, Sa'adi embraced change with enthusiasm. He hoped that the future that was dawning would be free of the shackles of tradition that held him and the Jewish community of Salonica back. His unusual conviction about the power of progress, his efforts to make intellectual sense of the transformations that surround him, his repeated clashes with those who held power over him, and his repeated disappointments make this an exceptionally engaging book. Aron Rodrigue, Sarah Abrevaya Stein, and Isaac Jerusalmi have done a marvelous job of translating, editing, and making accessible this uniquely valuable source. Their work enriches our understanding of the life of the Jewish communities in and around Salonica and beyond in the second half of the nineteenth century in a profound way."—Resat Kasaba, University of Washington "How marvelous to have the first known memoir in Ladino so beautifully translated and explicated. Sa'adi, an Ottoman Jew, astute observer, and person of diverse accomplishments, lived through the better part of the long 19th century. His invaluable memoir, completed before the cataclysmic events of World War I and collapse of the Ottoman Empire, documents a world already in flux. The beauty of this memoir is the vividness with which Sa'adi conveys the very experience of change as someone who not only witnessed it but also lived and felt it. The reader can hear his voice and visualize what he describes in such telling detail. This is a book to read for the sheer pleasure of it and an accessible way to engage students new to the history of Ottoman Jews."—Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, New York University <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=18553">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> This book presents for the first time the complete text of the earliest known Ladino-language memoir, transliterated from the original script, translated into English, and introduced and explicated by the editors. The memoirist, Sa'adi Besalel a-Levi (1820–1903), wrote about Ottoman Jews' daily life at a time when the long-ascendant fabric of Ottoman society was just beginning to unravel. His vivid portrayal of life in Salonica, a major port in the Ottoman Levant with a majority-Jewish population, thus provides a unique window into a way of life before it disappeared as a result of profound political and social changes and the World Wars. Sa'adi was himself a prominent journalist and publisher, one of the most significant creators of modern Sephardic print culture. He was also a rebel, accusing the Jewish leadership of Salonica of being corrupt, abusive, and fanatical; that leadership, in turn, excommunicated him from the Jewish community. The experience of excommunication pervades Sa'adi's memoir, which documents a world that its author was himself actively involved in changing. At Stanford University, Aron Rodrigue is Charles Michael Professor in Jewish History and Culture, Professor of History, Anthony P. Meier Family Professor in the Humanities, and Director of the Stanford Humanities Center. Sarah Abrevaya Stein is Professor of History and Maurice Amado Chair in Sephardic Studies at UCLA. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=18553 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=18553 America's Corporate Art: The Studio Authorship of Hollywood Motion Pictures America's Corporate Art: The Studio Authorship of Hollywood Motion Pictures Jerome Christensen "This highly original and engaging study makes a significant contribution to American film history and to film and media theory, particularly media industry studies. No other author has analyzed studio authorship with the depth, care, and complexity that Christensen exhibits here, nor has such an argument been supported with close readings of individual films."—Thomas Schatz, University of Texas at Austin <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20203">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Contrary to theories of single person authorship, America's Corporate Art argues that the corporate studio is the author of Hollywood motion pictures, both during the classical era of the studio system and beyond, when studios became players in global dramas staged by massive entertainment conglomerates. Hollywood movies are examples of a commodity that, until the digital age, was rare: a self-advertising artifact that markets the studio's brand in the very act of consumption. The book covers the history of corporate authorship through the antithetical visions of two of the most dominant Hollywood studios, Warner Bros. and MGM. During the classical era, these studios promoted their brands as competing social visions in strategically significant pictures such as MGM's Singin' in the Rain and Warner's The Fountainhead. Christensen follows the studios' divergent fates as MGM declined into a valuable and portable logo, while Warner Bros. employed Batman, JFK, and You've Got Mail to seal deals that made it the biggest entertainment corporation in the world. The book concludes with an analysis of the Disney-Pixar merger and the first two Toy Story movies in light of the recent judicial extension of constitutional rights of the corporate person. Jerome Christensen is Professor of English at the University of California at Irvine. His most recent book is Romanticism at the End of History (2000). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20203 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20203 Marigold: The Lost Chance for Peace in Vietnam Marigold: The Lost Chance for Peace in Vietnam James G. Hershberg "This is a superb piece of scholarship, a study that will make a major contribution to our understanding of the Vietnam War in general and the Marigold peace initiative in particular. The research base is simply astounding and what is more, Hershberg shows a marvelous ability to take this mass of material and render it into a gripping and powerful narrative. Marigold: The Lost Chance for Peace in Vietnam is history-writing at its best—evocative, elegant, well-organized, deeply researched, and authoritative."—Fredrik Logevall, Cornell University, author of Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam "The book will be, I believe, a blockbuster addition to the scholarship of the Vietnam War and, more generally, to Cold War history. Hershberg has produced a remarkably engaging study, a novelesque work of non-fiction that succeeds brilliantly in evoking the feel of 1966 Saigon, Hanoi, Warsaw, Austin, and Washington, It will rank among the finest and most ambitious examples of the 'new Cold War history' and be nothing less than a model for historians and graduate students of how to conduct research in international history and how to weave research drawn from multiple nations into a compelling narrative."—Mark Atwood Lawrence, University of Texas at Austin, author of The Vietnam War: A Concise International History and Assuming the Burden: Europe and the American Commitment to War in Vietnam "This is a well-written, in-depth look at the facts of a controversial and convoluted peace effort that could have significantly altered the course of the Vietnam War." —Publisher's Weekly "Hershberg has done remarkable work, piecing together the Marigold story from newly available Soviet documents, D'Orlandi's journals, and numerous interviews. He has calmed oceans of detail into a graceful narrative, an important work for Vietnam-era and Cold War historians."—Karl Helicher, Library Journal "A thoughtful and well-reasoned study, Marigold: The Lost Chance for Peace in Vietnam is highly recommended especially for American military history shelves."—Midwest Book Review <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20877">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Marigold presents the first rigorously documented, in-depth story of one of the Vietnam War's last great mysteries: the secret Polish-Italian peace initiative, codenamed "Marigold," that sought to end the war, or at least to open direct talks between Washington and Hanoi, in 1966. The initiative failed, the war dragged on for another seven years, and this episode sank into history as an unresolved controversy. Antiwar critics claimed Johnson had bungled (or, worse, deliberately sabotaged) a breakthrough by bombing Hanoi on the eve of a planned historic secret US-North Vietnamese encounter in Warsaw. Conversely, LBJ and top aides angrily insisted there was no "missed opportunity," Poland never had authority to arrange direct talks, and Hanoi was not ready to negotiate. Conventional wisdom echoes the view that Washington and Hanoi were so dug in that no real opportunity existed. This book uses new evidence from long hidden communist sources to show that Warsaw was authorized by Hanoi to open direct contacts and that Hanoi had committed to entering talks with Washington. It reveals LBJ's personal role in bombing Hanoi at a pivotal moment, disregarding the pleas of both the Poles and his own senior advisors. The historical implications of missing this opportunity are immense: Washington did not enter negotiations with Hanoi until more than two years and many thousands of lives later, and then in far less auspicious circumstances. James Hershberg is Associate Professor of History and International Affairs at George Washington University. He was the founding director of the Wilson Center's Cold War International History Project and author of James B. Conant: Harvard to Hiroshima and the Making of the Nuclear Age (Stanford University Press, 1995). http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20877 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20877 Cleansing Honor with Blood: Masculinity, Violence, and Power in the Backlands of Northeast Brazil, 1845–1889 Cleansing Honor with Blood: Masculinity, Violence, and Power in the Backlands of Northeast Brazil, 1845–1889 Martha S. Santos "Santos presents a very important revisionist analysis of patriarchy and male violence in the Brazilian northeast. She historicizes the construction of masculinity and gender norms in the Brazilian rural interior, rejecting stereotypes of sertanejos as inherently violent. Instead, she shows how male identities based on personal courage and the willingness to use violence were linked to socio-economic constraints and discusses how both changed over time. She also explores the historical agency of women within a context of economic scarcity and gender inequality."—Judy Bieber, University of New Mexico <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=11360">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> This book offers a critical reinterpretation of male violence, patriarchy, and machismo in rural Latin America. It focuses on the lives of lower-class men and women, known as sertanejo/as, in the hinterlands of the northeastern Brazilian province of Ceará between 1845 and 1889. Challenging the widely accepted depiction of sertanejos as conditioned to violence by nature, culture, and climate, Santos argues that their concern with maintaining an honorable manly reputation and the use of violence were historically contingent strategies employed to resolve conflicts over scant resources and to establish power over women and other men. She also traces a shift in the functioning of patriarchy that coincided with changes in the material fortunes of sertanejo families. As economic dislocation, environmental calamity, and family separation led to greater female autonomy and an erosion of patriarchal authority in the home, public—and often violent—enforcement of male power maintained patriarchal order in these communities. Martha S. Santos is Assistant Professor of Latin American History at the University of Akron. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=11360 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=11360 Julian Bell: From Bloomsbury to the Spanish Civil War Julian Bell: From Bloomsbury to the Spanish Civil War Peter Stansky and William Abrahams "An intergenerational conversation, between the younger and the older Peter Stansky, as well as between Julian Bell and his elders in the Bloomsbury Group. A new Julian Bell emerges—even franker about his physical and emotional needs, even more frustrated by claustrophobic England—which makes more telling and inevitable his spectacular end on the battlefields of Spain. A beautiful, tragic book."—Peter Mandler, University of Cambridge "Peter Stansky's revised and expanded biography of Julian Bell is a valuable addition to our knowledge of early twentieth-century English culture. It should be illuminating not just for Bloomsbury enthusiasts but also for those interested in English attitudes toward sexuality, China, and the Spanish Civil War."—S. P. Rosenbaum <center><a href="http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=20606">To buy this book or view bibliographic details, click here.</a></center> Julian Bell explores the life of a younger member, and sole poet, of the Bloomsbury Group, the most important community of British writers and intellectuals in the twentieth century, which includes Virginia Woolf (Julian's aunt), E. M. Forster, the economist John Maynard Keynes, and the art critic Roger Fry. This biography draws upon the expanding archives on Bloomsbury to present Julian's life more completely and more personally than has been done previously. It is an intense and profound exploration of personal, sexual, intellectual, political, and literary life in England between the two world wars. Through Julian, the book provides important insights on Virginia Woolf, his mother Vanessa Bell, and other members of the Bloomsbury Group. Taking us from London to China to Spain during its civil war, the book is also the ultimately heartbreaking story of one young man's life. Peter Stansky and William Abrahams wrote four books together, including Journey to the Frontier, a study of John Cornford and Julian Bell. The late William Abrahams went on to be one of the most distinguished editors of the century; Peter Stansky became Frances and Charles Field Professor of History at Stanford University. http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20606 http://www.sup.org/rss/book_rss.cgi?id=20606