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Bad for Democracy - A close-up

The-president-as-superhero myth promises all the democracy with none of the work. As such it teaches citizens to admire rule by strong individuals and to abjure the messy workings—disagreement, slow debates,...

Dana Nelson

Chicago 1890 - In a nutshell

This book is about the first skyscrapers in the world, those built in Chicago in the 1880s and 90s. The unprecedented sixteen-story buildings lining La Salle and Dearborn Streets gave...

Joanna Merwood-Salisbury

A History of America in 100 Maps - A close-up

The opening image of the book may take some readers by surprise: it does not include America at all because it was drawn before Europeans “discovered” the western hemisphere. After...

Susan Schulten

On Location in Cuba - The wide angle

In Cuba, the prominence of culture and its centrality to political and economic forces can surprise those unfamiliar with it. I recall one consulting trip early in this century, when...

Ann Marie Stock

GIANTS - In a nutshell

GIANTS: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln is a dual biography of the two preeminent self-made men in American history. Lincoln was born dirt poor, had less...

John Stauffer

Equipping James Bond - A close-up

For the average movie goer who thinks of James Bond as the secret agent with the gadgets, I would suggest Chapter 11 “Gadgets” This chapter works through Bond’s equipment film...

André Millard

Creating the Nazi Marketplace - The wide angle

This book emerged out of a sense of uncertainty as to how to understand the years that Gertrude Stein spent in Vichy, France, from 1940 through 1944.My previous book on...

S. Jonathan Wiesen

Power at Ground Zero - A close-up

Chapter 10 relates a particularly compelling episode of how the idea of integrating culture at Ground Zero exposed the tension inherent in accommodating the dual mandate to remember and rebuild.Many...

Lynne Sagalyn

The Merchant Houses of Mocha - A close-up

This book intervenes in one of the long-standing issues in Middle Eastern studies regarding the shape and analysis of the Arab city. Urban scholars agree that the conception of the...

Nancy Um

A Future in Ruins - The wide angle

While it is true that UNESCO status bestows a level of international prestige upon ancient sites, for archaeology as a discipline the organization means very little. World Heritage might offer...

Lynn Meskell

Starving for Justice - In a nutshell

Starving for Justice examines three hunger strikes that took place in the 1990s on university campuses. Twenty years ago, Chicana/o, Latina/o students at UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, and Stanford stopped...

Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval

Trading Locomotives - A close-up

I hope that they would take a moment to compare the photograph on page 186 with the locomotive photograph on page 187. Although the two locomotives appear very similar, there...

Naofumi Nakamura

A Global Green New Deal - A close-up

Many observers of economic policy enacted during the 2008-9 recession will have noted that some governments included many investments in energy efficiency, clean energy, waste management and other environmental improvements...

Edward B. Barbier

Pure Adulteration - In a nutshell

Pure Adulteration is about the origins of manufactured food. More centrally, it is about the struggles people had with the introduction of new foods in the later 1800s. The book...

Benjamin R. Cohen

The Death and Afterlife of Achilles - In a nutshell

In ancient myth, Achilles is killed by Paris as he tries to invade the gates of Troy. After being buried in a magnificent mound by the sea, his shade enjoys...

Jonathan S. Burgess

The Rise of Female Kings in Europe, 1300-1800 - The wide angle

I have tried to make this investigation extremely wide. The rarity of documented female rulers in large, well-organized states makes it necessary to find them wherever one can, and as...

E. William Monter

The Levant Express - In a nutshell

First, the book title, The Levant Express, is a metaphor representing the demands for human rights that raced across the Arab world like a high-speed train during the Arab uprisings...

Micheline R. Ishay

Frantic Panoramas - The wide angle

My book joins an ongoing debate about how we should think about reason.In recent decades, literary scholars have been somewhat skeptical about the high value nineteenth-century intellectuals placed on different...

Nancy Bentley

Breaking the Devil’s Pact - A close-up

Because the book presents an historical case study of U.S. v. IBT, it would best be approached chronologically.The Timeline (pages xix—xxi in the book) is a thumbnail overview of the...

James B. Jacobs

Music, Math, and Mind - In a nutshell

Music, Math, and Mind is written for musicians and music lovers, and will take them through a journey that uncovers the science of music and sound. Because artists and art...

David Sulzer

Naked City - In a nutshell

Are cities losing their soul? Stroll around the center of the world’s great cities, and you see the same gentrified neighborhoods, certified historic buildings, spectacular skyscrapers and new modern art...

Sharon Zukin

Human Trafficking - A close-up

Pages 112-138 are on the business of human trafficking.Organized crime, like all businesses is focused on making a profit, ensuring supply, and meeting demand. What sets an organized crime business...

Louise Shelley

Transforming Toxic Leaders - In a nutshell

In my new book Transforming Toxic Leaders I speak from behind closed corporate doors to provide a unique view into the dark side of leadership. Based on executive coaching and...

Alan Goldman

Animal Characters - The wide angle

The treatment of beasts in Renaissance literature tells us something about their evolving place in European culture more generally. It also tells us how early modern society understood the difference...

Bruce Thomas Boehrer

In Defense of Religious Moderation - The wide angle

I come to the question of religious belief as a scholar of literature and philosophy. And the Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges is a great influence for this work.As I...

William Egginton

What Is Mental Illness? - A close-up

In chapter one, I tell the story of how the recent controversy regarding the meaning of mental illness erupted.Chapter two addresses whether we are pathologizing everyday life. I focus on...

Richard J. McNally

Political Theology - In a nutshell

This is a small book about a large topic: politics as a practice of freedom. I attempt to turn political theory away from its obsessive concern with abstract norms of...

Paul W. Kahn

Timepass - In a nutshell

My book, Timepass, examines the lives of middle class young men in India who have spent long periods in education but cannot find secure salaried work.Joblessness growth is a major...

Craig Jeffrey

Human Trafficking - The wide angle

Human smuggling and trafficking have been among the fastest growing forms of transnational crime—because current world conditions have created increased imbalances of demand and supply. In addition, migration flows are...