By Steven F. Lawson (NHC Fellow, 1987–88) This book is a history of the black civil rights movement in the United States, ranging from A. Philip Randolph’s threatened march on Washington on the eve of American entry into World War II to Jesse Jackson’s stirring presidential bids in the 1980s. The author describes the major … Continued
By Gail Minault (NHC Fellow, 1987–88) Giere is utterly persuasive in arguing that to criticize the Enlightenment ideal is not to criticize science itself, and that to defend science one need not defend the Enlightenment ideal. Science without Laws thus stakes out a middle ground in these debates by showing us how science can be … Continued
By Sandra E. Greene (NHC Fellow, 2007–08; 2014–15) In this groundbreaking book, Sandra E. Greene explores the lives of three prominent West African slave owners during the age of abolition. These first-published biographies reveal personal and political accomplishments and concerns, economic interests, religious beliefs, and responses to colonial rule in an attempt to understand why … Continued
By Tatiana Seijas (NHC Fellow, 2016–17) Spanish Dollars and Sister Republics traces the linked history of the new nations of Mexico and the United States from the 1770s to the 1860s. Tatiana Seijas and Jake Frederick highlight the common challenges facing both countries in their early decades of independence by exploring the creation of coin money. … Continued
By Ann Douglas (NHC Fellow, 1978–79) Terrible Honesty is the biography of a decade, a portrait of the soul of a generation – based on the lives and work of more than a hundred men and women. In a strikingly original interpretation that brings the Jazz Age to life in a wholly new way, Ann … Continued
By Susannah Heschel (NHC Fellow, 1997–98) Was Jesus a Nazi? During the Third Reich, German Protestant theologians, motivated by racism and tapping into traditional Christian anti-Semitism, redefined Jesus as an Aryan and Christianity as a religion at war with Judaism. In 1939, these theologians established the Institute for the Study and Eradication of Jewish Influence … Continued
By Anupama Rao (NHC Fellow, 2008–09) This innovative work of historical anthropology explores how India's Dalits, or ex-untouchables, transformed themselves from stigmatized subjects into citizens. Anupama Rao's account challenges standard thinking on caste as either a vestige of precolonial society or an artifact of colonial governance. Focusing on western India in the colonial and postcolonial … Continued
By Henry S. Turner (NHC Fellow, 2010–11) The Corporate Commonwealth traces the evolution of corporations during the English Renaissance and explores the many types of corporations that once flourished. Along the way, the book offers important insights into our own definitions of fiction, politics, and value. Henry S. Turner uses the resources of economic and political … Continued
By Alan Brinkley (Trustee; NHC Fellow, 1988–89) The End of Reform is a study of ideas and of the people who shaped them: Franklin Roosevelt, Henry Wallace, Harold Ickes, Henry Morgenthau, Jesse Jones, Tommy Corcoran, Leon Henderson, Marriner Eccles, Thurman Arnold, Alvin Hansen. It chronicles a critical moment in the history of modern American politics, … Continued
By Roger Chickering (NHC Fellow, 2004–05) In deference to the principle that total war requires total history, Roger Chickering traces the all-embracing impact of the First World War on life in the German city of Freiburg. His book shows how the war took over every facet of life in the city, from industrial production to … Continued