Hot Off the Presses – New Journal Releases for July

Anthropology of the Middle East
Volume 8, Issue 2
This issue was an open-theme issue but, amazingly, all the articles are concerned in one way or other with ethnicity.

Focaal
Voume 2014, Issue 69
This special issue is titled Seeds—Grown, Governed, and Contested.

Introducing: FocaalBlog
The blog aims to accelerate and intensify anthropological conversations beyond what a regular academic journal can do, and to make them more widely, globally, and swiftly available.

Historical Reflections
Volume 40, Issue 2
This special issue is titled Religion(s) and the Enlightenment.

Nature and Culture
Volume 9, Issue 2
This special issue is comprised of articles presented at the first conference of the Energy & Society network, held with the support of the European Sociological Association at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, in March 2012.

Theoria
Volume 61, Issue 139
This issue covers a range of topics.

Transfers
Volume 4, Issue 2
This issue sheds new light on transitions in forms of personal transportation. All of the articles in this issue are concerned in some way with the dynamics of social change and urban form as shapers of mobility.

World Breastfeeding Week

World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) is an annual celebration which is held yearly from 1st to 7th of August in more than 120 countries.

Being organized by WABA, WHO and UNICEF, the goal is to promote exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life which yields tremendous health benefits, providing critical nutrients, protection from deadly diseases such as pneumonia and fostering growth. To learn more please visit www.worldbreastfeedingweek.org

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Berghahn is delighted to present some of its relevant titles:

 

Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality Series

Understanding the complex and multifaceted issue of human reproduction has been, and remains, of great interest both to academics and practitioners. This series includes studies by specialists in the field of social, cultural, medical, and biological anthropology, medical demography, psychology, and development studies.

 

forthcoming!
Volume 26

NIGHTTIME BREASTFEEDING
An American Cultural Dilemma
Cecilia Tomori Continue reading “World Breastfeeding Week” →

A Vehicle for Ideas

Vehicles: Cars, Canoes and other Metaphors of Moral Imagination, edited by David Lipset and Richard Handler, offers insight into the vehicle as an object that can move not only people, but also ideas. Following, the editors weigh in on the metaphor of the vehicle in contemporary culture.

 

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Take a moment to consider these three vehicle images, of two boats and cars:

 

Continue reading “A Vehicle for Ideas” →

Today In History

Born on July 30, 1863, Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. Although Ford did not invent the automobile or the assembly line, he developed and manufactured the models of automobiles that converted its use from an expensive curiosity into a practical transport that middle class Americans could afford. His global vision resulted in many technical and business innovations which greatly impacted the context of the twentieth century.

 

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” – Henry Ford

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Berghahn is happy to present some relevant titles in the area of transportation and industrial development:

 

forthcoming!

ATLANTIC AUTOMOBILISM
The Emergence and Persistence of the Car, 1895-1940
Gijs Mom

Volume 1, Explorations in Mobility Series

Continue reading “Today In History” →

Giving a Voice: Sharing Work of the Late Willem Assies

Renowned Dutch anthropologist Willem Assies’ lifework was a study of Latin American politics. Up to his unexpected death in 2010, Assies had made strides in bringing awareness to the situations of the downtrodden, those considered “voiceless.” In Dignity for the Voiceless: Willem Assies’s Anthropological Work in Context, editors Ton Salman, Salvador Marti i Puig, and Gemma van der Haar have given the political anthropologist his own voice once again. Following, the editors provide further insight into their recently published volume.

 

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In 2010, Willem Assies, an astute and prolific Latin Americanist and political anthropologist, died unexpectedly, at the age of 55. The book launched today brings together some of his finest writing. Assies would always gave central stage to the collective and multi-layered actor and not the system — but he would constantly do so within the context of restrictions, pressures, conditioning factors and contradictions, to provide the actor with a real setting of operation.

Continue reading “Giving a Voice: Sharing Work of the Late Willem Assies” →

Q&A for Democratic Theory: An Interdisciplinary Journal

Democratic TheoryBerghahn is pleased to announce the launch of an exciting new journal in 2014, Democratic Theory – An Interdisciplinary Journal. The first issue has been published this month!

Democratic Theory is a peer-reviewed journal that encourages philosophical and interdisciplinary contributions which critically explore democratic theory – in all its forms. Below is the transcript of an electronic interview between the Berghahn blog editor and the journal’s editors, Mark Chou and Jean-Paul Gagnon.

Continue reading “Q&A for Democratic Theory: An Interdisciplinary Journal” →

A Swiss Interpretation of the American Park

The Swiss National Park is a re-figuring of the American National Park, but with an emphasis on science. This idea of a scientific park is the focus of Patrick Kupper’s Creating Wilderness: A Transnational History of the Swiss National Park, published this month. Below, read an excerpt from the author’s Turku Book Prize-winning book.

 

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Today’s national parks differ vastly around the globe, not only in appearance but also in purpose: they shall protect biodiversity, landscape, or wilderness and serve for tourism, edification, or research. The term “national park” provides a common denominator for all this diversity, yet the denominator itself is indistinct. How shall one cope with this irritating complexity?

 

Continue reading “A Swiss Interpretation of the American Park” →

War, Occupation, and Empire: Interview with Guest Editor Jean Elisabeth Pedersen

 

Historical ReflectionsThis is the fourth in a series of posts dedicated to celebrating the 40th volume of our journal Historical Reflections/Reflexions Historiques.

 

A recent issue of Historical Reflections/Réflexions historiques is devoted to the special topic of “War, Occupation, and Empire in France and Germany.” This post is the transcript of an electronic interview between Berghahn blog editor Lorna Field and the Guest Editor of this special issue, Jean Elisabeth Pedersen.

Continue reading “War, Occupation, and Empire: Interview with Guest Editor Jean Elisabeth Pedersen” →

The Wounds of our Warriors

Just because one cannot see wounds does not mean they are not there. Pamela Moss and Michael J. Prince analyze war-derived psychological trauma in their co-authored volume, Weary Warriors: Power, Knowledge, and the Invisible Wounds of Soldiers. Following, the authors share their personal backgrounds and further insight into their volume.

 

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How were you drawn to the topic of invisible wounds of combatants?

 

Michael J. Prince: In a personal way, my interest in the subject of weary warriors comes from being the son of a Second World War veteran. My father served in the Royal Canadian Air Force overseas as flying officer, wireless operator and air gunner, so I grew up in a family in which these topics were, at times, discussed. In a professional way, my work on developments in welfare states highlighted the significant place of wars, soldiers, and veterans in the struggles around the formation of social programs.

Continue reading “The Wounds of our Warriors” →