Faculty Books

View a selection of recently published books by Department of History faculty.

Book cover for A Continent Erupts

A Continent Erupts: Decolonization, Civil War, and Massacre in Postwar Asia, 1945–1955

History's Ronald Spector provides, for the first time, a comprehensive military history and analysis of conflicts that swept Asia following World War II.

Book cover of The Keys to Bread and Wine

The Keys to Bread and Wine: Faith, Nature, and Infrastructure in Late Medieval Valencia

How did medieval people think about the environments in which they lived? In a world shaped by God, how did they treat environments marked by religious difference?

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Chained to History: Slavery and US Foreign Relations to 1865

In Chained to History, Steven J. Brady places slavery at the center of the story of America's place in the world in the years prior to the Civil War.

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Land of Strangers: The Civilizing Project in Qing Central Asia

 Land of Strangers is a moving account of late Qing efforts to assimilate the “Musulmans,” or Uyghurs, in China’s newly established Xinjiang province. Shifting deftly between theoretical analysis...

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Reproduction Reconceived: Family Making and the Limits of Choice after Roe v. Wade

In this new and timely history, Assistant Professor of History Sarah Matthiesen shows how the effects of incarceration, for-profit healthcare, disease, and poverty...

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Ruling the Savage Periphery: Frontier Governance and the Making of the Modern State

Associate Professor of History Benjamin Hopkins makes a provocative case that “failed states” along the periphery of today’s international system are the intended result of...

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After the Berlin Wall: Memory and the Making of the New Germany, 1989 to the Present

Drawing on an extensive range of archival sources and interviews, Professor of History and International Affairs Hope Harrison's book profiles key memory activists who have...

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Ghetto: The History of a Word

Professor of History Daniel Schwartz tracks the evolution of the word 'Ghetto' and offers a fascinating account of the changing nuances of this slippery term, from its...

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African Americans and Africa: A New History

Nemata Blyden, professor of history and international affairs, presents an introduction to the relationship between African Americans and Africa.

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Spinoza's Challenge to Jewish Thought: Writings on His Life, Philosophy, and Legacy

Daniel Schwartz, associate professor of history, examines the Jewish response to Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza, the controversial 17th-century philosopher.