New Books in History

Michael R. Fischbach, "I Did It for My Country: Sirhan Sirhan, Palestine, and the Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy" (Columbia UP, 2026)

Glenn Peers, "Strange and Familiar History of Byzantine Art: Interpretation, Risk, and Empathy" (ARC Humanities Press, 2026)

Katherine Grandjean, "Kingdom of Devils: A Tale of Murder in the Shadow of the American Revolution" (Random House, 2026)

The American Revolution’s aftermath fostered a volatile social environment where the pursuit of prosperity often turned violent. Kingdom of Devils examines the notorious, largely forgotten murder spree of brothers Willie and Micaijah Harp in late 18th-century Kentucky and Tennessee. These killings, which claimed approx...

Pablo F. Gomez, "Bloody Numbers: The Early Atlantic Slave Trade and the Invention of Modern Corporeality" (U Chicago Press, 2026)

The early Atlantic slave trade established a foundational grammar for modern quantification, transforming human bodies into calculable units for taxation, risk assessment, and profit maximization. Historian Pablo Gomez, author of Bloody Numbers, details how Spanish colonial officials standardized the measurement of ens...

Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann, "Pierogi: An American Story of Polish Food" (Columbia UP, 2026)

Christina E. Firpo, "Beauty and the Nation: Women, Culture, and the National Image in Interwar Vietnam" (Columbia UP, 2025)

Interwar Vietnam experienced a rapid transformation in beauty culture as women moved away from traditional, sequestered roles toward modern, expressive identities. Christina Firpo, author of Beauty and the Nation, examines how fashion, cosmetics, and physical culture became contested sites for negotiating Vietnamese mo...

Darinee Alagirisamy, "Sober State: Origins of Alcohol Prohibition in India" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

Lily Geismer on the Democratic Party in the 1990s

Giuseppe Motta, "Jewish Refugees and the International Community Between the Two World Wars: Beyond the State" (Routledge, 2026)

Mehmet Çelik, "Empire and Nation in the City: Rusçuk from Ottoman Rule to Bulgarian Statehood" (Syracuse UP, 2026)

Ulices Piña, "Rebellious Citizens: Social Upheaval and Democracy in Revolutionary Mexico (U Nebraska Press, 2026)

Ciara Breathnach, "Absence in the Archives" (Cambridge UP, 2026)

Isabela Seong Leong Quintana, "Urban Borderlands: Multiracial Histories and Gendered Borders in Los Angeles" (UNC Press, 2026)

The historical intersection of Chinese and Mexican communities in Los Angeles between the 1870s and 1930s reveals how racialization as "foreigners" shaped urban segregation and daily life. Dr. Isabela Seong Leong Quintana argues that borders function beyond geopolitical lines, manifesting in everyday spatial practices ...

Charles Lachman, "They Shall Not See the Dawn: The Manhunt for the Third Reich's Most Wanted" (Diversion Books, 2026)

Gavin Healy, "A Guide to Mao’s China: Showing the Nation to Foreign Guests" (Cornell UP, 2026)

Patrick Griffin, "The Age of Atlantic Revolution: The Fall and Rise of a Connected World" (Yale UP, 2023)

Ashish Koul, "Reinventing Caste: Islam and Hierarchy in Late Colonial India" (Stanford UP, 2026)

Claudia Verhoeven, "Love and Terror: The Helter-Skelter History of the Manson Murders" (Verso, 2026)

Sara McDougall, "Justice for Jehanne: The Tale of a Medieval Survivor" (Princeton UP, 2026)

Mélanie Lamotte, "By Flesh and Toil: How Sex, Race, and Labor Shaped the Early French Empire" (Harvard UP, 2026)