We will be attending the AHA 2018 Meeting!

We are delighted to inform you that we will be attending the 2018 AHA Annual Meeting in Washington DC, January 4-7, 2018. Please stop by Booth #413 to browse our latest selection of books at discounted prices and pick up free journal samples.

If you can’t attend, get a 25% discount on all History titles on our website with code AHA18. Browse our newly published interactive online History 2018 catalog or use the new enhanced subject searching features­ for a complete listing of all published and forthcoming titles.

We hope to see you in Washington DC!

Below is a preview of some of our newest releases on display:

 


THE PARTICIPANTS
The Men of the Wannsee Conference
Edited by Hans-Christian Jasch and Christoph Kreutzmüller
Translated from the German by Charlotte Kreutzmüller-Hughes and Jane Paulick

 

On 20 January 1942, fifteen senior German government officials attended a short meeting in Berlin to discuss the deportation and murder of the Jews of Nazi-occupied Europe. Despite lasting less than two hours, the Wannsee Conference is today understood as a signal episode in the history of the Holocaust, exemplifying the labor division and bureaucratization that made the “Final Solution” possible. Yet while the conference itself has been exhaustively researched, many of its attendees remain relatively obscure. Combining accessible prose with scholarly rigor, The Participants presents fascinating profiles of the all-too-human men who implemented some of the most inhuman acts in history.

Read Introduction: The Participants: The Men of the Wannsee Conference

 

THE NANKING ATROCITY, 1937-1938
Complicating the Picture
Edited by Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi

 

“A refreshingly candid response to Japanese scholarship that denies or minimizes the attack on Nanking in order to advance contemporary jingoistic politics … Highly recommended.” · Choice

First published in 2007, The Nanking Atrocity remains an essential resource for understanding the massacre committed by Japanese soldiers in Nanking, China during the winter of 1937-38. Through a series of deeply considered and empirically rigorous essays, it provides a far more complex and nuanced perspective than that found in works like Iris Chang’s bestselling The Rape of Nanking. It systematically reveals the flaws and exaggerations in Chang’s book while deflating the self-exculpatory narratives that persist in Japan even today. This second edition includes an extensive new introduction by the editor reflecting on the historiographical developments of the last decade, in advance of the 80th anniversary of the massacre.

Read Introduction: Iris Chang Reassessed: A Polemical Introduction to the Second Edition

 

CONFLICT, DOMINATION, AND VIOLENCE
Episodes in Mexican Social History
Carlos Illades
Translated by Philip Daniels

NEW SERIES: Volume 2, Studies in Latin American and Spanish History

 

“Unequivocally, a very timely work that expands the understanding of Mexico’s social history…Highly recommended.” • Choice

Conflict, domination, violence—in this wide-ranging, briskly narrated volume from acclaimed Mexican historian Carlos Illades, these three phenomena register the pulse of a diverse, but inequitable and discriminatory, social order. Drawing on rich and varied historical sources, Illades guides the reader through seven signal episodes in Mexican social history, from rebellions under Porfirio Díaz’s dictatorship to the cycles of violence that have plagued the country’s deep south to the recent emergence of neo-anarchist movements. Taken together, they comprise a mosaic history of power and resistance, with artisans, rural communities, revolutionaries, students, and ordinary people confronting the forces of domination and transforming Mexican society.

Read Chapter 1. The Historiography of Social Movements

 

BETWEEN EMPIRE AND CONTINENT
British Foreign Policy before the First World War
Andreas Rose
Translated from the German by Rona Johnston
Foreword by Sir Christopher Clark, author of Sleepwalkers

Volume 5,  Studies in British and Imperial History

 

Prior to World War I, Britain was at the center of global relations, utilizing tactics of diplomacy as it broke through the old alliances of European states. Historians have regularly interpreted these efforts as a reaction to the aggressive foreign policy of the German Empire. However, as Between Empire and Continent demonstrates, British foreign policy was in fact driven by a nexus of intra-British, continental and imperial motivations. Recreating the often heated public sphere of London at the turn of the twentieth century, this groundbreaking study carefully tracks the alliances, conflicts, and political maneuvering from which British foreign and security policy were born.

Read Introduction

 

WORLD WAR I AND THE JEWS
Conflict and Transformation in Europe, the Middle East, and America
Edited by Marsha L. Rozenblit and Jonathan Karp

 

World War I utterly transformed the lives of Jews around the world: it allowed them to display their patriotism, to dispel antisemitic myths about Jewish cowardice, and to fight for Jewish rights. Yet Jews also suffered as refugees and deportees, at times catastrophically. And in the aftermath of the war, the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy and the Russian and Ottoman Empires with a system of nation-states confronted Jews with a new set of challenges. This book provides a fascinating survey of the ways in which Jewish communities participated in and were changed by the Great War, focusing on the dramatic circumstances they faced in Europe, North America, and the Middle East during and after the conflict.

Read Introduction: On the Significance of World War I and the Jews

 

EASTERN EUROPE UNMAPPED
Beyond Borders and Peripheries
Edited by Irene Kacandes and Yuliya Komska

 

Arguably more than any other region, the area known as Eastern Europe has been defined by its location on the map. Yet its inhabitants, from statesmen to literati and from cultural-economic elites to the poorest emigrants, have consistently forged or fathomed links to distant lands, populations, and intellectual traditions. Through a series of inventive cultural and historical explorations, Eastern Europe Unmapped dispenses with scholars’ long-time preoccupation with national and regional borders, instead raising provocative questions about the area’s non-contiguous—and frequently global or extraterritorial—entanglements.

Read Introduction: A Discontiguous Eastern Europe

 

FASCISM WITHOUT BORDERS
Transnational Connections and Cooperation between Movements and Regimes in Europe from 1918 to 1945
Edited by Arnd Bauerkämper and Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe

 

It is one of the great ironies of the history of fascism that, despite their fascination with ultra-nationalism, its adherents understood themselves as members of a transnational political movement. While a true “Fascist International” has never been established, European fascists shared common goals and sentiments as well as similar worldviews. They also drew on each other for support and motivation, even though relations among them were not free from misunderstandings and conflicts. Through a series of fascinating case studies, this expansive collection examines fascism’s transnational dimension, from the movements inspired by the early example of Fascist Italy to the international antifascist organizations that emerged in subsequent years.

Read Introduction: Fascism without Borders. Transnational Connections and Cooperation between Movements and Regimes in Europe, 1918 – 1945

 

THE MIRROR OF THE MEDIEVAL
An Anthropology of the Western Historical Imagination
K. Patrick Fazioli

Volume 29,  Making Sense of History

 

Since its invention by Renaissance humanists, the myth of the “Middle Ages” has held a uniquely important place in the Western historical imagination. Whether envisioned as an era of lost simplicity or a barbaric nightmare, the medieval past has always served as a mirror for modernity. This book gives an eye-opening account of the ways various political and intellectual projects—from nationalism to the discipline of anthropology—have appropriated the Middle Ages for their own ends. Deploying an interdisciplinary toolkit, author K. Patrick Fazioli grounds his analysis in contemporary struggles over power and identity in the Eastern Alps, while also considering the broader implications for scholarly research and public memory.

Read Introduction

 

THE ABSENT JEWS
Kurt Forstreuter and the Historiography of Medieval Prussia
Cordelia Hess

 

For nearly a century, it has been a commonplace of Central European history that there were no Jews in medieval Prussia—the result, supposedly, of the ruling Teutonic Order’s attempts to create a purely Christian crusader’s state. In this groundbreaking historical investigation, however, medievalist Cordelia Hess demonstrates the very weak foundations upon which that assumption rests. In exacting detail, she traces this narrative to the work of a single, minor Nazi-era historian, revealing it to be ideologically compromised work that badly mishandles its evidence. By combining new medieval scholarship with a biographical and historiographical exploration grounded in the 20th century, The Absent Jews spans remote eras while offering a fascinating account of the construction of historical knowledge.

Read Introduction

 

RETHINKING HOLOCAUST JUSTICE
Essays across Disciplines
Edited by Norman J. W. Goda

 

Since the end of World War II, the ongoing efforts aimed at criminal prosecution, restitution, and other forms of justice in the wake of the Holocaust have constituted one of the most significant episodes in the history of human rights and international law. As such, they have attracted sustained attention from historians and legal scholars. This edited collection substantially enlarges the topical and disciplinary scope of this burgeoning field, exploring such varied subjects as literary analysis of Hannah Arendt’s work, the restitution case for Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze, and the ritualistic aspects of criminal trials.

 


NEW IN PAPERBACK

 

COMRADES OF COLOR
East Germany in the Cold War World
Edited by Quinn Slobodian

Volume 15, Protest, Culture & Society

 

“The chapters in the edited volume provide nuanced cases of East German idealism and the limitations of its practice, which belied a variety of racial prejudices and tensions… the interdisciplinary and extended geographic scope of this edited volume successfully furthers a number of interrelated fields relating to the role of the GDR and the socialist world in the Cold War, race and their continuing legacies.” · Journal of Contemporary History

Read Introduction

 

FINAL SALE IN BERLIN
The Destruction of Jewish Commercial Activity, 1930-1945
Christoph Kreutzmüller
Translated from the German by Jane Paulick and Jefferson Chase

 

“Christoph Kreutzmüller’s book is vigorously researched, elegantly structured and well-written, and succeeds in providing new information on a subject already exhaustively studied, namely ‘Aryanization’ and the destruction of business, that extends beyond the borders of Berlin.” · H-Net

Read Introduction

 

THE ANATOMY OF MURDER
Ethical Transgressions and Anatomical Science during the Third Reich
Sabine Hildebrandt
Foreword by William E. Seidelman

 

The Anatomy of Murder itself is comprehensive, fully documented in scores of primary and secondary sources, and carefully places its findings in the context of previous historical research on the history of medicine in Germany before, during and after the Third Reich. There are extensive chapter notes and bibliographies to many archival and published sources.” · German History Review

Read Introduction

 

THE DEVIL’S RICHES
A Modern History of Greed
Jared Poley

Volume 11,  Spektrum: Publications of the German Studies Association

 

“…a thought-provoking study of a subject that is too often taken for granted, rather than subjected to critical examination.” • Financial Times

A seeming constant in the history of capitalism, greed has nonetheless undergone considerable transformations over the last five hundred years. This multilayered account offers a fresh take on an old topic, arguing that greed was experienced as a moral phenomenon and deployed to make sense of an unjust world. Focusing specifically on the interrelated themes of religion, economics, and health—each of which sought to study and channel the power of financial desire—Jared Poley shows how evolving ideas about greed became formative elements of the modern experience.

Read Introduction

 

THE SPIRIT OF THE LAWS
The Plunder of Wealth in the Armenian Genocide
Taner Akçam and Umit Kurt
Translated by Aram Arkun

Volume 21, War and Genocide

 

“This book is a valuable addition to filling the gaps of our understanding of genocide and helps readers navigate complex terrain in the case study presented… I recommend this book as a case study to be included in graduate level courses. In addition to its thorough review of the questionable statecraft of genocidal states, it is a reminder of the merits of engaged scholarship. Akçam and Kurt, by sharing their research as an act of solidarity with citizens who continue to challenge state restraints and master narratives based on genocide, make a contribution to the ongoing process of crafting a just society.” · Histoire Sociale/Social History

Read Introduction


FORTHCOMING

 

THE WARS OF YESTERDAY
The Balkan Wars and the Emergence of Modern Military Conflict, 1912-13
Edited by Katrin Boeckh and Sabine Rutar

 

Though persistently overshadowed by the Great War in historical memory, the two Balkan conflicts of 1912–1913 were among the most consequential of the early twentieth century. By pitting the states of Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Montenegro against a diminished Ottoman Empire—and subsequently against one another—they anticipated many of the horrors of twentieth-century warfare even as they produced the tense regional politics that helped spark World War I. Bringing together an international group of scholars, this volume applies the social and cultural insights of the “new military history” to revisit this critical episode with a central focus on the experiences of both combatants and civilians during wartime.

 

THE WITNESS AS OBJECT
Video Testimony in Memorial Museums
Steffi de Jong

Volume 10,  Museums and Collections

 

In recent years, historical witnessing has emerged as a category of “museum object.” Audiovisual recordings of interviews with individuals remembering events of historical importance are now integral to the collections and research activities of museums. They have also become important components in narrative and exhibition design strategies. With a focus on Holocaust museums, this study scrutinizes for the first time the new global phenomenon of the “musealization” of the witness to history, exploring the processes, prerequisites, and consequences of the transformation of video testimonies into exhibits.

 

PARALLEL LIVES REVISITED
Mediterranean Guest Workers and their Families at Work and in the Neighbourhood, 1960-1980
Jozefien De Bock
Foreword by Leo Lucassen

 

Originally coined in 2001 in a report on racial tensions in the United Kingdom, the concept of “parallel lives” has become familiar in the European discourse on immigrant integration. There, it refers to what is perceived as the segregation of immigrant populations from the rest of society. However, the historical roots of this presumed segregation are rarely the focus of discussion. Combining quantitative analysis, archival research, and over one hundred oral history interviews, Parallel Lives Revisited explores the lives of immigrants from six Mediterranean countries in a postwar Belgian city to provide a fascinating account of how their experiences of integration have changed at work and in their neighborhoods across two decades.


Berghahn Journals

 

MSHe-n

Browse all our history journals on our website!

Access the following articles until Dec. 31:

German Politics and Society
“We Must Talk about Cologne”: Race, Gender, and Reconfigurations of “Europe”

 

Sibirica
Patterns of Evenki Mobility in Eastern Siberia

 

Transfers
Migration as a Response to Internal Colonialism in Brazil