Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2024 -

Asylum between Nations is a timely book reminding readers that the plight of refugees is not a new problem--this reviewer could not put it down. What makes this volume different from other works in exile studies is how Polasky (Univ. of New Hampshire) focuses not only on the 18th and early 19th centuries, but also on more than just the stories of refugees. Valuably, she also paints vivid pictures of the cosmopolitan communities (e.g., Hamburg, Altona, and the Swiss cantons) that accepted refugees from revolutionary France, as well as from the revolutions of 1830 and 1848. Thus, readers learn about the different experiences of European exiles at the dawn of the modern era and of how much these experiences were shaped by factors such as social class, professional networks, cultural orientation and experiences, and political ideology. Correspondingly, readers also learn about the host communities and the segments of their populations that were accepting of or hostile to refugees, as well as the nature of the interactions that took place. Polasky has written a superb book that combines intellectual, cultural, and social history.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

This rich tome's lucid thinking and crisp writing flow through three core sections to form a road map of insightful advice for the doctoral history student's journey in writing a dissertation. Part 1, "Starting, Assessing, Organizing," explains historical method from topic ideation to research plan to source assessment. Part 2, "Writing, Analysing, Interpreting," shows how historians gaze into the past, interpreting primary evidence and prior histories to build a long-form history. Part 3, "Presenting, Completing and Moving Onwards," tells how historians' scholarly conversations via seminars and other venues provide feedback to refine the doctoral thesis pursuant to the oral dissertation defense (i.e., the viva). Two brief concluding sections cover professional historians' careers in academe and beyond, and how the authors' combined 70 years of experience as historians led to this shared reflection on becoming a historian. Additionally, Edwina Hannam's 19 inspiring color illustrations match chapter themes and add flare to this well-designed text. Related works that serve other audiences well include Zachary Schrag's broad The Princeton Guide to Historical Research (CH, Feb'22, 59-1541) for all researchers and Katherine Pickering Antonova's focused Essential Guide to Writing History Essays (2019) for BA and MA students. Becoming a Historian stands tall as the go-to history methods primer for Anglosphere PhD students.Summing Up: Essential. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.

Disruption enlarges and enhances readers' understanding of the end of the Cold War by emphasizing the global economic shifts and political impacts of the 1970s. With thorough research and clear explanation, De Groot (international studies, Indiana Univ. Bloomington) demonstrates why, by the late 1960s, the US and the USSR could no longer finance an international economic system founded on Cold War principles. The US dollar delinked from gold and was allowed to float in value, ending the Bretton Woods system. The USSR could no longer support its various satellites with various commodity exchanges that resulted in significantly less financial support for investment. The resulting crises in international political economy during the 1970s created strong incentives for the USSR and the US to change their approach from international welfare empires to something else. The US succeeded in shifting to a global hegemony based on international investment to pay for continued military superiority and increasing public debt. The failure of the USSR to achieve something similar with its welfare empire led to its hegemony weakening under the attractiveness of finance and investments from the West. Disruption should be mandatory reading for all needing a grounding in the dynamic changes of the 1970s that led directly to the end of the Cold War.Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.

Carroll (Univ. of York, UK), an award-winning historian and co-editor of the third volume of The Cambridge World History of Violence (2020), effectively challenges what he refers to as the "comfort history" of Steven Pinker's The Better Angels of Our Nature (CH, May'12, 49-5144), and the scholarship it inspired (p. 461). Carrol pushes back against Pinker's argument that violence has declined steadily over time. Through a unique, comparative examination of enmity--e.g., "a state or feeling of mutual opposition or hostility" (p. 1)--expressed by ordinary people living in Italy, German-speaking areas, France, and England, Carroll shows convincingly that in the period 1500-1700 interpersonal violence did not wane, was not suppressed by law, and was not contained by social control through changes brought by the Reformation. Violence of this sort was a sign of society railing against perceived injustices rather than an indication of an uncivil impulse. In revealing the degree of enmity-driven violence in early modern Europe, Carroll challenges readers to rethink their assumptions about the past and how they should characterize the birth of the modern age.Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.

In her introduction, Trower (emer., English literature, Univ. of Roehampton, UK) refers to "sound writing" as a condition in which "sound and writing are not opposed but work together" (p. 7). Spurred by advances in digital recording, storage, and retrieval, access to unmediated oral interviews (sound) expands while mediation (writing) lags. Having assessed this environment, Trower chronologically examines authors, incorporating information gathered from recorded interviews into prose and scholarship. This journey begins with Henry Mayhew; acknowledges contributions from the Federal Writers Project, Allan Nevins, and Studs Terkel; and draws illustrative examples from history, folklore, sociology, journalism, and ethnography. As this narrative reaches the last quarter of the 20th century, the projects cited facilitated Michael Frisch's concept of shared authority in which interviewees speak for themselves. Contemporary interview projects often embrace social activism, the underprivileged, Indigenous peoples, and populations oppressed by colonialism or tyranny. Trower appreciates these advances but cautions that mediation remains essential to provide users with accurate and balanced context and analysis. This book would be an excellent addition to libraries that collect or curate oral history and is a must-read for oral historians seeking grant funding.Summing Up: Essential. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.