Pearson (history, U. of North Carolina, Asheville) explores the generally forgotten public and private accounts of America's early 19th century legal scholars, noting that these authors had a unique v
"'Liberty' and its role in the American Founding has been wrapped in so many veils of modern analyses, politics, social conflicts, morality, and hindsight that the only way for us to more fully recove
Blending architectural and social history with the necessity—and the passion—for food, this engaging new book attempts to understand the development of the American house by viewing it through one ve
Previous critical histories of the magazine National Geographic have assumed a passive readership in their criticisms of the magazine's role in the "manufacture of consent," but Hawkins (U. of North T
In an era before affordable travel, National Geographic not only served as the first glimpse of countless other worlds for its readers, but it helped them confront sweeping historical change. There wa
In the tradition of the Law and Literature movement, Krueger (English, Marquette U.) discusses the relevance of literary history to feminist jurisprudence in the areas of legal precedent, agency, test
In this methodologically innovative work, Kodesh (history, U. of Wisconsin at Madison) explores the history of Buganda (an African kingdom lying on the northern shores of Lake Victoria in present-day
Bushell (English and creative writing, Lancaster U., England) focuses on the literary text before it becomes a completed work of art: the draft materials that embody text as process. Generally, she sa
The role the rural South and its plantation system played in the secession of the Confederate states is well established, but historian Frank Towers contends that we should look just as closely at the
Hammond (history, Purdue U. Calumet) shifts his study of early American slavery away from political centers such as Philadelphia and Washington and into the west of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Mississipp
The essayists whose work is collected here -- historians, anthropologists, and political scientists -- bring their diverse disciplinary perspectives to bear on various forms of violence that have plag
In the wake of World War II, the Nazi genocide of European Jews has come to stand for "the unspeakable," posing crucial challenges to the representation of suffering, the articulation of identity, and
To say that the Holocaust or the African-American experience with slavery is "unspeakable," notes Mandel (English, U. of Rhode Island), is to partake of a "rhetorical invocation of the limits of langu
In Ethnic American Literature: Comparing Chicano, Jewish, and African American Writing, Dean J. Franco offers a comparative approach to ethnic literature that begins by accounting for the intrinsic hi
Levine (English, U. of Wisconsin, Madison) examines the use of narrative suspense in the Victorian novel. She contends that far from being merely sensational, the mysteries of many plotted texts were
"Edsall's survey begins three hundred years ago in northwestern Europe, when homosexual subcultures recognizably similar to those of our own era began to emerge, and it follows their surprisingly dive
Joyce (English, College of William and Mary) looks at how novelists, journalists, sociologists, and government investigators mapped 19th-century London. Among her topics are criminal subcultures in th
Essays examine the electoral, social, and political implications of the controversial presidential election of 1800 and the electoral impasse that forced a House vote to determine the winner.
Despite the ridicule of reviewers, Marie Corelli (1855-1924) was the most popular novelist of her time. Federico (English, James Madison University) points out the creative, combative and contradictor
Since the 1950s David Apter and Carl Rosenberg have been among the leading American scholars in African Studies. In this volume they, along with other major specialists in the field, explore the new c
Black Cosmopolitans examines the lives and thought of three extraordinary black men—Jacobus Capitein, Jean-Baptiste Belley, and John Marrant—who traveled extensively throughout the eighteenth-century
From Jonathan Swift to Washington Irving, those looking to propose and justify exceptions to social and political norms turned to Cervantes’s notoriously mad comic hero as a model. A World of Disorde
Victorian England: a Jesuit priest writes of wrestling with God at night, limbs entangled; an Anglican sister begs Jesus, her divine lover, to end her aching anticipation of their union; a clergyman e
Cradock, the product of more than twenty years of research by Jeffrey Butler, is a vivid history of a middle-sized South African town in the years when segregation gradually emerged, preceding the rap
The Illiberal Imagination offers a synthetic, historical formalist account of how—and to what end—U.S. novels from the late eighteenth century to the mid-1850s represented economic inequality and radi
The Illiberal Imagination offers a synthetic, historical formalist account of how—and to what end—U.S. novels from the late eighteenth century to the mid-1850s represented economic inequality and radi
A lavishly illustrated manuscript from the eighteenth century now being published for the first time, Thomas Hammond's memoirs are a major discovery. Hammond was a self-educated but remarkably gifted
In the mid-eighteenth century, many British authors and literary critics anxiously claimed that poetry was in crisis. These writers complained that modern poets plagiarized classical authors as well a
Before the establishment of modern law schools in the nineteenth century, people prepared for a career at the bar by “reading law.” No group of Virginians or early Americans was as dependent on boo
Building on Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten's definition of aesthetics as "the science of sensuous cognition" and the writings of early European aestheticians (Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schiller, Charles
Featuring a moment in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century England before the disciplinary divisions that we inherit today were established,Empiricist Devotions recovers a kind of empiricist
As part of the contemporary reassessment of trauma that goes beyond Freudian psychoanalysis, Laurie Vickroy theorizes trauma in the context of psychological, literary, and cultural criticism. Focusing
In Voters’ Verdicts, Chris Bonneau and Damon Cann address contemporary concerns with judicial elections by investigating factors that influence voters’ decisions in the election of state supreme court
Citing the issue of clerical celibacy as a point of uncompromising conflict throughout the Enlightenment, revolutionary, and post-revolutionary eras, Cage notes reflections in modern political thought
In recent years, and in light of U.S. attempts to project power in the world, the presidency of Woodrow Wilson has been more commonly invoked than ever before. Yet "Wilsonianism" has often been distor
The calamitous impacts of climate change that are beginning to be felt around the world today expose the inextricability of human and natural histories. Arguing for a more complex account of such cala
The calamitous impacts of climate change that are beginning to be felt around the world today expose the inextricability of human and natural histories. Arguing for a more complex account of such cala
"This book recounts how forward-looking Southern boosters, entrepreneurs, and architects in St. Augustine, Richmond, and Atlanta carefully crafted usable pasts to promote sectional reconciliation and
Whether acting as a military officer or civilian officeholder, George Washington did not possess a reputation for glad handing, easy confidences, or even much warmth. His greatest attributes as a comm
From the popular legend of Pocahontas to the Civil War soap opera Gone with the Wind to countless sculpted heads of George Washington that adorn homes and museums, whole industries have emerged to fee
