Month: June 2012

Behind the Cover: The Improbable Story of the Image on the Cover of Holocaust Survivors

Behind the Cover is an occasional series on book covers and the stories that accompany them.

Cover images: the all-important marketing tool that can perfectly capture the content and feel of a book—or cause people to glance over it, bored. Some images we toil over, going back and forth between options because co-editors disagree, we disagree, or the perfect image remains elusive despite our perseverance. Then there are the no-brainers when the authors have pre-picked images that work perfectly and after the original design is chosen the image hardly gets a second thought.

Holocaust Survivors by Dalia Ofer, Françoise S. Ouzan, and Judy Tydor Baumel-Schwartz was one of the latter. The editors had a number of images they found at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. In image after image of expectant, haunting faces of liberated concentration camp prisoners, their eyes shone with a glint of freedom. After everything, they still had some hope for life. Perfect.

A few months later when it was time to publish the book, we faced a typical scramble to get a high resolution picture with proper permissions and then the book was off to press! It was the end of the year and as I headed upstate for the holidays, the only things on my mind were those sugar plums.

But then four months later, I found an excited email in my junk mail box. It was a woman asking about the image on the cover of Holocaust Survivors. Continue reading “Behind the Cover: The Improbable Story of the Image on the Cover of Holocaust Survivors” →

Get to Know Berghahn- Abby Major

Get to Know Berghahn is a recurring interview feature that introduces the hardworking people behind the scenes at Berghahn. This week’s subject is Publicity and Marketing Associate Abby Major.

Q: How long have you been at Berghahn? What did you do before that?
A: It’s hard to believe, but I’m celebrating my one year anniversary at Berghahn this month! I started working here about two weeks after graduating from Wesleyan University in May 2011. I had just received my BA in Wesleyan’s College of Social Sciences program when I moved to New York and joined the company. It was quite an adventure and a lot of change all at once, but I was warmly welcomed by everyone in the office, despite being the youngest and newest member of the team!

Q: What do you read when you aren’t reading Berghahn books?
A: Unsurprisingly, I do a lot of reading, and my taste in books is pretty eclectic – I’m happy to switch from historical fiction to a biography to science fiction and fantasy depending on my mood (I keep a running list of what I want to read, so I always have a few suggestions as soon as I finish something). After studying history, economics, and political science in school, I’m still enjoying the freedom to read mostly fiction in my spare time. I’ve also been trying to take advantage of the free digitized classics, and that’s helped me try some new things I probably wouldn’t have otherwise picked up.

Q: What’s a skill or talent you have that no one at the office knows about?
A; Well, the office already knows how good I am at brewing a strong pot of coffee in the morning, so that’s not much of a secret…. I guess I need to take up an instrument or learn to juggle by the next interview.

Q: Where would you want to live if you could move the Berghahn offices anywhere? Why?
A: It’s no secret at Berghahn that this country girl is still not sure how she feels about the hustle and bustle of New York City (though I really can’t complain with our new Brooklyn location – Trees! Water!), so I think I’d suggest we relocate somewhere a bit more rural. Maybe we could open a satellite office in dairy country in central Pennsylvania where I grew up. Farm fresh milk for our morning coffee… who wouldn’t want that?

Q: What’s your favorite thing about working at Berghahn?
A: The Berghahn Books family is made up of wonderful people, and I feel really lucky to work with them every day. Everyone here is really passionate and dedicated to what we do, and I think that shows in the quality of what we produce. Because of our size, it is truly a collaborative process, and you are able to see exactly how all the pieces come together and how impossible it would be without each contribution. Of course, my co-workers would probably prefer if the office weren’t small enough for me to holler questions to them instead of sending an email!

Hot Off the Presses- New Book Releases

Recent Releases from Berghahn Books:
Ambiguous Pleasures: Sexuality and Middle-Class Self-Perceptions in Nairobi, by Rachel Spronk
Collaborators Collaborating: Counterparts in Anthropological Knowledge and International Research Relations, edited by Monica Konrad
Conversion and the Politics of Religion in Early Modern Germany, edited by David M. Luebke, Jared Poley, Daniel C. Riley, and Warren Sabean
Cultures of Colour: Visual, Material, Textual, edited by Chris Horrocks
Czechs, Germans, Jews: National Identity and the Jews of Bohemia, by Kate?ina ?apková, translated by Derek and Marzia Paton
Dark Trophies: Hunting and the Enemy Body in Modern War, by Simon Harrison
Marginal at the Center: The Life Story of a Public Sociologist, by Baruch Kimmerling, translated by Diana Kimmerling
Moving Subjects, Moving Objects: Transnationalism, Cultural Production and Emotions, edited by Maruška Svašek
Postcolonial Migrants and Identity Politics: Europe, Russia, Japan, and the United States in Comparison, edited by Ulbe Bosma, Jan Lucassen, Gert Oostindie
Walls, Borders, Boundaries: Spatial and Cultural Practices in Europe, edited by Marc Silberman, Karen E. Till, and Janet Ward

New to Berghahn Journals- Cambridge Anthropology

Among the most recent new journal releases, one title stands out as being especially significant- Cambridge Anthropology, Volume 30, Issue 1. This issue marks the relaunch of the journal, which had been an in-house production of the Cambridge University Department of Social Anthropology, as a Berghahn Journal. The relaunch represents both a continuation of and break with the journal’s past. Continue reading “New to Berghahn Journals- Cambridge Anthropology” →

Hot Off the Presses- New Journal Releases


Recent Journal Releases from Berghahn:
Anthropology in Action, Volume 19, Issue 1– Spring 2012
Asia Pacific World, Volume 3, Issue 1– Spring 2012
Cambridge Anthropology, Volume 30, Issue 1– Spring 2012
French Politics, Culture and Society, Volume 30, Issue 1– Spring 2012
German Politics and Society, Volume 30, Issue 1– Spring 2012
Israel Studies Review, Volume 27, Issue 1– Summer 2012
Projections, Volume 6, Issue 1– Summer 2012
Sibirica, Volume 11, Issue 1– Spring 2012
Theoria, Volume 60, Number 131– June 2012
Transfers, Volume 2, Issue 1– Spring 2012

Moving In

Since 2002, Berghahn Books made its home on Wall Street. Well, not Wall Street exactly, but close enough for Occupy Wall Street, which set up camp across from our offices and close enough that all the good lunch spots were too expensive for anyone not eating on an expense account. As of this March, however, we now work in Dumbo, Brooklyn.

If you’re unfamiliar with the neighborhood, you may be asking yourself, where is Dumbo and why does it have such a horrible name?

Continue reading “Moving In” →

Making Social Science Research Relevant

I recently attended the Applied Anthropology meeting in Baltimore, MD. Surrounded by a colorful collection of scholars, activists, practitioners, policy makers, and researchers within academia but also those who have found their calling in the private sectors or NGOs (whether through preference or frankly lack of jobs in academia), the mantras of making anthropology accessible to a broader public on the one hand as well as enacting policy change through research results on the other, ran deep. This could be said for many a discipline where the wish for scholars to reach a larger audience is a common theme yet it is faced with so many challenges. I should note that I make the distinction here between informing an audience with the intent purpose of enabling change (in perspectives, policies, or priorities) and the “general reader”, a type of potentially lucrative yet high risk nebulous readership that sends many salivating publishers (unfortunately with university presses often leading the charge) hurtling over the cliffs of trade publishing to splatter down below on the rocks of high returns and watery scholarship. Continue reading “Making Social Science Research Relevant” →

Welcome to the Berghahn Books Blog!

The year 2012 marks a number of exciting milestones for Berghahn Books. Not only do we enter our 18th year since Marion published our first two books in 1994 (Uniting Germany and Imperial Germany), but we also started the year with a much-anticipated move for our New York offices from lower Manhattan across the East river to DUMBO, Brooklyn.  We’re now well settled in – just a few final walls to paint and then there’s that minor plumbing issue with the kitchenette sink….but we’re otherwise enjoying the gentle rumble of the trains crossing the Manhattan bridge and lunch breaks on the waterfront next to the carousel. Continue reading “Welcome to the Berghahn Books Blog!” →