By Rona Goffen (NHC Fellow, 1986–87) Goffen considers the church of Santa Croce, the Bardi Dossal, and Giotto’s cycle of Saint Francis both in relation to each other and in the context of the history and spirituality of the Franciscan order during its first century. The dossal is the visual equivalent of the writings of … Continued
By Orville Vernon Burton (NHC Fellow, 1994–95) Stunning in its breadth and conclusions, The Age of Lincoln is a fiercely original history of the five decades that pivoted around the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Abolishing slavery, the age's most extraordinary accomplishment, was not its most profound. The enduring legacy of the age of Lincoln was inscribing personal … Continued
By Edward V. Williams (NHC Fellow, 1980–81) This generously illustrated book records the story of Russia’s bells — the thousands of awe inspiring instruments that gave voice to the visual splendors of Russian Orthodoxy and to the political aspirations of the tsars.
By Theda Perdue (NHC Fellow, 2003–04) The Cherokees are one of the largest Indian tribes in the United States. They are often noted for establishing a republican form of government and an 84-character written alphabet to preserve their language. The Cherokees presents an accurate portrayal of the history and culture of these North American Indian peoples.
By Jack Goody (NHC Fellow, 1991–92) Jack Goody's new book takes as its theme the symbolic and transactional uses of flowers in secular life and religious ritual from ancient Egypt to modern times. He links the use of flowers to the rise of advanced systems of agriculture, the growth of social stratification, and the spread … Continued
By Joan Hinde Stewart (Trustee; NHC Fellow, 1982–83) ‘Women seem to be destined solely for our pleasure. When they no longer have that attraction, they have lost everything’ (letter from Diderot to Sophie Volland, 1762). How typical was this view of the ‘older woman’ in the eighteenth century? What was it like for women of … Continued
By Gary Macy (NHC Fellow, 2005–06) The Roman Catholic leadership still refuses to ordain women officially or even to recognize that women are capable of ordination. But is the widely held assumption that women have always been excluded from such roles historically accurate? In the early centuries of Christianity, ordination was the process and the … Continued
Edited by Matthew J. Smith (NHC Fellow, 2018–19) and Diana Paton From Miss Lou to Bob Marley and Usain Bolt to Kamala Harris, Jamaica has had an outsized reach in global mainstream culture. Yet many of its most important historical, cultural, and political events and aspects are largely unknown beyond the island. The Jamaica Reader presents a … Continued
By Bertram Wyatt-Brown (NHC Fellow, 1989–90; 1998–99) The Percys, one the most distinguished families in the South, are notable not only for their prominence in the political and economic development of the Mississippi Delta but also for their literary creativity. In The Literary Percys, noted historian Bertram Wyatt-Brown examines the role of gender and family history … Continued
By Patricia Clare Ingham (NHC Fellow, 2012–13) Despite the prodigious inventiveness of the Middle Ages, the era is often characterized as deeply suspicious of novelty. But if poets and philosophers urged caution about the new, Patricia Clare Ingham contends, their apprehension was less the result of a blind devotion to tradition than a response to … Continued