Recent Books OLD

"The Lancashire witch trials of 1612 are the most famous in English history, and now probably the most intensely studied. It is very much to Philip Almond's credit that he manages to find fresh and interesting suggestions to make about them, from a new and close reading of the records. ...This is history at its most vivid: a consistently exciting read." --Ronald Hutton, University of Bristol

Philip C. Almond, The Lancashire Witches: A Chronicle of Sorcery and Death on Pendle Hill (I.B. Taurus, 2012).

"Simon During is one of the most original, intelligent, unpredictable literary critics currently writing in the English language. Sentence by elegant sentence, one generally learns more from him than from almost anyone else I can think of." --Bruce Robbins, Columbia University

Simon During, Against Democracy: Literary Experience in the Era of Emancipations (Fordham University Press, 2012).

The first systematic presentation and assessment of the groundbreaking journal Cahiers pour l'Analyse. Contributions by Alain Badiou, Étienne Balibar, Edward Baring, Jacques Bouveresse, Yves Duroux, Alain Grosrichard, Peter Hallward, Adrian Johnston, Serge Leclaire, Patrice Maniglier, Tracy McNulty, Jacques-Alain Miller, Jean-Claude Milner, Knox Peden, Jacques Rancière, François Regnault, and Slavoj Žižek.

Peter Hallward and Knox Peden (eds), Concept and Form, vol. 1: Selections from Cahiers pour l'Analyse; vol. 2: Interviews and Essays on Cahiers pour l'Analyse (Verso, 2012).

“Gary Ianziti’s book is the first devoted to all of Leonardo Bruni’s historical writings—not only the most celebrated Florentine Histories, but ancient and modern biographies as well as essays on ancient history. The result is an admirable book in intellectual history that will be indispensable for Renaissance scholarship.” --Riccardo Fubini, University of Florence

Gary Ianziti, Writing History in Renaissance Italy: Leonardo Bruni and Uses of the Past (Harvard University Press, 2012).

"This is an invaluable addition to regional studies of witchcraft in early modern Europe, bringing important recent Polish-language research into contact with interpretations and styles of inquiry currently being developed for other parts of Europe." --Stuart Clark, Journal of Ecclesiastical Studies

Michael Ostling, Between the Devil and the Host: Imagining Witchcraft in Early Modern Poland (Oxford University Press, 2011).

"...this book deserves much credit for making light of little-known and complex debates, and for demonstrating how great a variety of methodological standpoints is hidden behind the 'Whig' label under which most of the historians it studies have usually been grouped." --Nathalie Richard, The British Journal for the History of Science

Ian Hesketh, The Science of History in Victorian Britain: Making the Past Speak (Pickering & Chatto, 2011).

“A refreshing reflection on that old word, ‘science,’ that has risen to mean so much. Wrestling with Nature is indispensable for clarifying the many different things people throughout history meant when they tried to make sense of nature and of themselves.” --Pietro Corsi, University of Oxford

Peter Harrison, Ronald L. Numbers, and Michael H. Shank (eds), Wrestling with Nature: From Omens to Science (University of Chicago Press, 2011).

“A pleasure to read, this well-written book offers many thoughtful and provocative reflections on anatomy and exhibition and will appeal to a wide range of scholars concerned with disability, culture, and medical history.” --Maria Frawley, George Washington University

Elizabeth Stephens, Anatomy as a Spectacle: Public Exhibitions of the Body from 1700 to the Present (Liverpool University Press, 2011).

"Frigidity: An Intellectual History is the first rigorous analysis of the way that ideas about sexual coldness in women changed over time. ... This book is a bold, revisionist history that is based on an original and meticulous exploration of theories of female desire. It is essential reading not only for people interested in sexuality, but in gender history, the history of medicine and psychology, and the wider history of ideas."--John H. Arnold, Joanna Burke and Sean Brady (series editors)

Peter Cryle and Alison Moore, Frigidity: An Intellectual History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).

"Philip C. Almond is to be thanked for providing the in-depth study of Reginald Scot’s Discoverie which was very much needed. His book will be essential reading for all those with a serious interest in the history of witchcraft in England." --James Sharpe, Professor of Early Modern History

Philip C. Almond, England's First Demonologist: Reginald Scot and 'The Discoverie of Witchcraft' (I.B. Tauris, 2011).

Rather than recycling general theories of the ideological role of law in European colonization, the contributions to this volume focus on the historical interaction between law and politics in British colonial contexts in order to clarify how European legal doctrines and institutions were actually transmitted, negotiated and modified in the concrete circumstances of frontier polities.

Shaunnagh Dorsett and Ian Hunter (eds), Law and Politics in Britsh Colonial Thought: Transposition of Empire (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).

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