Author: Berghahn Books

“Why is marking a book indespensible to reading it?”

“Why is marking a book indespensible to reading it? First, it keeps you awake — not merely conscious, but wide awake. Second, reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in wordes, spoken or written…Third, writing your reactions down helps you to remember the thoughts of the author…Marking a book is literally an expression of your differences or your agreements with the author, It is the highest respect you can pay him.” Mortimer Adler, How to Read a Book

Quotation of the Week

Happy Bastille Day- A Brief History of the Holiday and French Revolution Resources from Berghahn

Most national days celebrate about what you would expect a national day to celebrate. Some, like the national days of the United States, Albania, and Haiti mark the signing of a declaration of independence from a colonial power. Other countries, like much of Africa, choose to remember the day the colonial power actually left. Countries like Germany and Italy celebrate unification. Others are a little quirkier, like Austria which celebrates its declaration of neutrality and Luxembourg which honors the Grand Duke’s birthday. A handful of countries such as the United Kingdom and Denmark have no national holiday. But few countries can top France for the sheer coolness of their national day which commemorates the day an angry mob stormed a prison. Continue reading “Happy Bastille Day- A Brief History of the Holiday and French Revolution Resources from Berghahn” →

New to Berghahn Journals- European Comic Art

The release of the July 2012 issue of European Comic Art has been a big deal around our offices because it marks the journal’s relaunch as a Berghahn title. Published in partnership with the American Bande Dessinée Society and the International Bande Dessinée Society, it is the first English-language journal devoted to European graphic novels and comic strips.  Continue reading “New to Berghahn Journals- European Comic Art” →

Get to Know Berghahn: Young Lee

Get to Know Berghahn is a recurring interview feature that introduces the hardworking people behind the scenes at Berghahn. This week’s subject is Marketing Manager Young Lee.

1. How long have you been at Berghahn? What did you do before that?
I’m  newbie! I’ve been at Berghahn for a little over 2 months.  Previously, I worked as an Email Marketing Manager at a higher-ed company called Collegebound Network  and I also worked as an account  manager specializing in the Library Market at Barnes & Noble.

2. What do you read when you aren’t reading Berghahn books?
Mostly fiction but the last book I read was a non-fiction title called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and it was fantastic! The next book on my list is The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides.  I also read  the Harry Potter series once a year. I know, it’s a sickness.

3. What’s a skill or talent you have that no one at the office knows about?
It’s more of a hobby, but I do like to bake. Unfortunately, I don’t do it much during the summer due to the heat that the oven radiates in my tiny Brooklyn kitchen/living room.

4. Where would you want to live if you could move the Berghahn offices anywhere? Why?
Somewhere by an ocean and mountains. I would say Mid-Coast Maine. Seafood is essential in my life and access to nature activities like hiking and skiing would be great! The longer I live in the city, the more I fantasize about moving to the country.

5. What’s your favorite thing about working at Berghahn?
I love that Berghahn is a small office. Everyone here works really hard and truly cares about the quality of their work. It has been a very easy transition for me since everyone has been so nice and helpful. The short commute isn’t bad either!

Gender, Sports, and Culture: The Victorians and Us

Graduate school ruins your ability to view anything related to your topic of study with an unacademic eye. This is fine if your topic doesn’t come up every day like, say, Byzantine art, but when you choose something that crops up often, like the influence of American music on Continental youth culture in the 1950s, it means you’ll be mentally revising your thesis every time you hear “Johnny B. Goode.” I’m reminded of this phenomenon every Olympiad because I wrote my master’s thesis on sports in Nazi Germany, using the party’s sports policy up until the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a window into their ideas about race and its intersection with political priorities before the war. The fast-approaching 2012 Olympics already have me mentally revising my thesis (something I’m sure I’ll be doing on my death bed), but the most recent issue of our journal Critical Survey has me wondering if I didn’t miss an altogether more interesting topic- sports and gender. Continue reading “Gender, Sports, and Culture: The Victorians and Us” →

Girls and Dolls: A Note on Images from the Latest Issue of Girlhood Studies

One of Mandrona's dolls, made when she was 8.

Most of my work deals with text, so it was a bit of a treat when I opened up the files for the latest Girlhood Studies and found them chock full of images of dolls. This journal covers many themes related to the challenges and dangers facing girls all over the world – it’s always such a pleasure to work on but I was particularly excited to see an issue that also speaks to the creative and serious play of girlhood. Dolls, needless to say, are cultural artefacts and reflect the society that makes them as well as the girls who play with them: an American Girl doll capturing an immigrant Jewish girlhood essentially whitewashed of tenements and the memory of pogroms; nineteenth-century paper dolls embodying both moral tales and fashion plates; Barbie and her Dream House reflecting the dimensions of modern architecture. All three of these examples are mediated by commercial culture and present tensions between cultural constructs and individual play. Continue reading “Girls and Dolls: A Note on Images from the Latest Issue of Girlhood Studies” →

Get to Know Berghahn- Ben Parker

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 Executive Ben Parker.

1. How long have you been at Berghahn? What did you do before that?
I have been at Berghahn for almost 2 years, it will be my second anniversary here at the end of August. Before that I was at The History Press, based in Stroud.

2. What do you read when you aren’t reading Berghahn books?
Almost exclusively poetry. Mainly contemporary poets, but also people like Yeats and Eliot. I have also started to read my own work in public, at various Oxford venues, as can be seen in the photo.

3. What’s a skill or talent you have that no one at the office knows about?
In my spare time I write poetry, and have published in a number of UK magazines, but people in the office know about that because I drag them along to the readings I do! No one in the office has seen me climb though, and that is my hobby of choice after poetry.

4. Where would you want to live if you could move the Berghahn offices anywhere? Why?
I currently live on the same road as the Berghahn office, so if the office moved my commute would be significantly longer. That said, I’d be happy somewhere warmer and with some decent rocks to climb. The middle of England is not very good for either of those things.

5. What’s your favorite thing about working at Berghahn?
Because the office is quite small I feel that I know everyone here far more than I would at a larger company, which makes the atmosphere an enjoyable one to work in, and I have a real sense of involvement with the books we publish.