Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2015 - Social & Behavioral Sciences — History, Geography & Area Studies — Asian and Asian American Studies

Downs (CUNY) has written an important book challenging assumptions about the postCivil War era and the ways in which historians define wartime and peacetime.  He contends that Lees surrender at Appomattox did not bring peace, but rather a second phase of waran insurgency and war of occupation that did not end until 1871.  Downs problematizes the idea of reconstruction.  Whatever accomplishments came in that eracivil rights, a national definition of citizenshipcame as a result of military force rather than deliberative politics.  Challenging scholars who argue that too few Union troops for a meaningful occupation remained in the postwar South, Downs demonstrates through impressive research that there was actually a significant military presence, both numerically and geographically.  But even this presence had its limits, and outside the pale, terrorists and violence plagued the South.  By framing the period as an occupation and insurgency, the author has done much to reveal the violent, contested, and contingent nature of the postCivil War US.  Required reading for scholars of the Civil War era.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

Many Americans and all history buffs are familiar with the Lafayette Escadrille of WW I, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade of the Spanish Civil War, and the Eagle Squadrons and Flying Tigers of WW II, if not through books, then certainly through movies.  Emmy-winning former public broadcasting producer, reporter, and writer Dickon attempts to tell the story of the important contribution made by tens of thousands of Americans serving in these conflicts in foreign forces before the US declarations of war.  Few know that 120 Americans drove ambulances at the height of the fighting in Verdun, two of whom received the French Croix de Guerre.  The author's contribution is that he has gathered together information formerly available only in newspaper and magazine articles scattered over a century.  His documentation, excellent bibliography, good index, and well-chosen photographs are all assets, and a lucid and terse writing style makes this an easy, enjoyable read.  No other book covers this topic.  Consequently, it will find a place in all graduate university libraries and colleges with strong history and political science programs.  Community colleges will find this a desirable but not essential work.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate libraries and above.

This is a very timely (indeed, almost overdue), comprehensive examination of Hawaiian resistance movements and efforts by Natives and their allies to reject the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 and the US's illegal annexation of the Hawaiian Islands in 1897.  The editors aim to historicize and mobilize efforts to regain Indigenous control of land and rights to self-determination in culture, language, and sovereignty.  In addition to an informative general introduction by Goodyear-Kaopua (political science, Univ. Hawaii at Mnoa), one of the books coeditors, there are individual chapters written by academic experts in Hawaiian politics, history, ethnic studies, law, and anthropology.  Many further contributions, biographical portraits, and photo illustrations represent the experiences and voices of ordinary citizens and activists who have struggled for decades and generations to regain access to their homes, gardens, and sacred sites.  The collection of essays is particularly impressive for its intermingling of information on historical processes, ongoing economic and ownership debates (including controversies associated with biocolonialism), and prospects for future mobilization and legal/policy victories against illegal occupation and misappropriation of the Hawaiian Islands.  Quite eye opening, especially for mainlanders, colonizers, and their descendants.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

This is the best book on the famous civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer and one of the better books on the civil rights movement in general.  A scholar of rhetoric, Brooks focuses closely on the content and context of Hamers public addresses, often employing the terminology of that discipline, which will particularly appeal to scholars in that field.  Beyond that, however, Brooks and her collaborator, Davis Houck, who together coedited the 2011 compilation The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer, the single best primary source anthology available for studying the grassroots sharecropper activist turned warrior, provide a wealth of detailed local history and a close analysis of Hamers life.  This includes the most extensive and perceptive coverage available of her early years prior to joining the movement as well as the struggles, tragedies, and difficulties of Hamer's later years.  In short, the work combines the best of archival research (and appropriate reference to the secondary historical literature on the freedom movement in Mississippi) and rhetorical analysis, ultimately successfully recovering "Hamers symbolic legacy by recovering her agency and intellect and demonstrating how her iconic status worked toward and against her activist purposes.  For all scholarly libraries. Summing Up: Essential. Most levels/libraries.

Phillipss pioneering study (CH, Dec75) has been significantly expanded and revised, and it deserves close attention from readers of Native American, California, and western history interested in patterns of military and cultural resistance and accommodation from the late 18th century forward.  This foundational history now considers the period from the Civil War into the early 20th century, reevaluates earlier arguments in the light of scholarship published since 1975, and analyzes historical actors who did not appear in the first version.  The scope is broader, the research is more prodigious, and new maps and visuals deepen the argument of the original narrative.  In short, this important text will continue to serve as a touchstone for both scholars and general readers interested in race relations on the West Coast.Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.

In this books opening sentence, Barnhisel (English, Duquesne Univ.) describes the decade-long process of writing it as "one of the great pleasures of [his] life."  The book's readers will be similarly pleased, as the author has produced an exquisite, intricate, and satisfying study that combines copious archival research with a thoughtful expansion of existing scholarship on the propagandistic use of art during the Cold War.  He chronicles the US government's rhetorical transformation of modernism from an aesthetic philosophy that was perceived as alien to or even hostile toward middlebrow American values into one that could be mobilized during the Cold War as an innate expression of American individualism (and in stark contrast to Soviet totalitarianism).  The book's introduction and opening chapter provide a helpful overview of the salient cultural history.  Each of the subsequent five chapters traces a specific instance (among them, the "Advancing American Art" traveling exhibit and Encounter magazine) of the practical repurposing of modern art in the service of "American cultural diplomacy" during the Cold War.  This clever, engaging work supplements and augments such precursors as Nicholas Cull'sThe Cold War and the United States Information Agency (CH, Jun'09, 46-5802).Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

This is a welcome addition to the ongoing discussions in the increasingly sophisticated literature that explores the applicability, extent, and lasting significance of genocide in North America.  Avoiding the hyperbole and polemic found in some considerations of the subject, editors Woolford, Benvenuto, and Hinton have assembled a well-rounded, balanced collection, bringing together case studies from the US and Canada to provide ample regional variation.  Contributors consider ecological, political, economic, and cultural aspects of genocide in Native North America.  They rightly stress the centrality of settler colonialism to ethnic cleansing, assimilation, and related atrocities while arguing for a systematic understanding of genocide that refuses to reduce it to a series of disconnected and unfortunate episodes.  Though many of the studies use a historical lens, the collection makes clear the continuing impacts of genocidal projects, highlighting ongoing marginalization, dehumanization, exploitation, and trauma.  The editors deserve praise for the comparative dimensions of the volume, which look across time and space in North America and rightly anchor their project in the emerging field of critical genocide studies.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

This well-written narrative history offers much to both historians and general readers.  An impressive act of recovery, journalist Burroughs book brings to life the largely hidden and often forgotten age of underground leftist revolutionary violence in the 1970s US.  Throughout that decade and into the 1980s, the six groups described here robbed banks, detonated bombs, killed police, and staged prison breaks, all in the service of an unrealizable revolution.  Despite this lack of achievement, these groups were menacing and frustrating to authorities such as the FBI, which was illegally aggressive but largely ineffectual in pursuit.  Burrough unearths new information, especially from personal interviews, about the better-known groups here, such as the Weather Underground (the first and largest) and the Symbionese Liberation Army (Patty Hearsts kidnappers), while giving unprecedented attention to others who have never been the subject of a major book or article, such as the Black Liberation Army.  The other groups presented are the FALN, the United Freedom Front, and the Family.  Burrough writes with novelistic detail and real suspense as he tells stories from the perspectives of both the revolutionaries and the authorities.  An impressive popular history of interest to specialists too.Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.

This new work by some of the leading scholars on the states history is a replacement of sorts for the 1988 AGuide to the History of Texas (CH, Jun88), which was a volume of bibliographic and primary-source references for all things related to the states history.  The editors note in the books introduction that the Internets advent has made commentary on primary sources unnecessary, so this new book, essential reading for scholars interested in Texas history, is an anthology of bibliographic essays only.  Subjects covered include eight topical essays ranging from the historiographies of Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and Texas women to urban history.  The volume also includes seven chronological essays that examine the historiographies of Texas during the Spanish, Mexican, and Republic periods; antebellum Texas; and Texas during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, to name a few.  In all, the essays encompass all of the major developments in the literature on Texas history since the publication of the initial volume in 1988.  As such, this is an indispensable resource for professional scholars and graduate students; no historiographical stone is left unturned.  This book will find a ready home on the shelves of Texas historians for the foreseeable future. Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

This joint work by three leading feminist scholars provides an overview of the three major phases of the 20th-century fight for womens rights that started in the post-suffrage era and has culminated in modern third-wave feminism.  The authors approach emphasizes the continuities between these eras, demonstrating that feminism survived during periods when traditional historians claim it languished; it also shows that feminism has never been monolithic but instead has incorporated strands focusing on labor politics, civil rights for minorities, and cultural issues.  Each section evenhandedly evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the womens movement it details, not elevating one period as superior to the rest or dismissing it as useless because of its failings.  Cobble (Rutgers), Gordon (NYU), and Henry (Grinnell College) write in distinctive voices, but all balance analysis and the need for detail with brevity.  This book does not require an extensive background in the subject matter and is one of the best introductions to the topic this reviewer has encountered.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

The richness of sources from the founding years of the US has fueled historical studies on a wide range of subjects.  Still, there are overlooked topics.  Bartoloni-Tuazon, a visiting scholar at the First Federal Congress Project in Washington, DC, addresses one of them in this study of the heated debate over attaching an honorific title to a US president.  The author establishes that the question of title was more than just a political fight between the two houses of Congress; it was an issue being argued throughout the nation in the months before Washingtons inauguration.  Her well-crafted study provides a solid footing to understanding why Congress chose not to attach a title.  Although not a tome (six chapters and 165 pages of text), this is a first-rate scholarly work.  The text supports the fact that the author has diligently researched the use of titles within the US during this period.  Her research is also responsible for her deep knowledge of the national debate over a presidential title.  Helpful to scholars and advanced students will be the 56 pages of notes and the 16-page bibliography.  A mandatory acquisition for four-year institutions and major public libraries.Summing Up: Essential. Most public and academic levels/libraries.

A new book from Eric Foner (Columbia) is always news, and this one has all of the features that readers have come to associate with its author: wide-ranging research, readable prose, and convincing arguments.  Foners subject, the Underground Railroad, is one of the most popular in US history today, probably because it is a happy example of black and white people working together to advance justice.  While acknowledging that much of the legend that grew up around the Underground Railroad after the Civil War (e.g., heroic white conductors aiding passive, terrified runaway blacks) needs revision, Foner also argues that some revisionists have gone too far in denying the existence of any organized network of abolitionists who aided fugitive slaves.  The focus is New York City.  Using a Record of Fugitives kept by abolitionist editor Sydney H. Gay in the 1850s, Foner finds a small group of black and white abolitionists who worked together to move slaves through New York to Canada.  The author does not attempt national coverage, so this is not the definitive work on the Underground Railroad.  But it is among the best.Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.

Snape (Anglican studies, Durham Univ., UK) has written a massive and thorough study on the role that religion played in the US armed services during WW II.  Surprisingly, given the enormity of the war, few studies have addressed this issue.  The author cuts a middle path between those who bathed the greatest generation as singularly devout, and critics who claim that religion played a minimal role.  The US before the war experienced sluggish church attendance and growing pacifist sentiment, but the war seemed to reinvigorate interest in religion and church attendance spiked dramatically.  The relationship between religion and the war was complicated and raised constitutional questions, such as whether the government should pay for chaplains.  Snape argues that both troops and commanders alike encouraged the presence of clergy and they played a valuable but varied role, depending on whether they served in the army or the navy.  The author points out that non-Christian religions were underrepresented in the chaplaincy, but unlike the armed forces, the chaplaincy was not racially segregated.  Snape also discusses other issues such as reconciling religion with killing in war.  In conclusion, this book challenges thinking not only about the US experience in WW II but also about the relationship between religion and civic life.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

Though in England family history is a respectable field of historical inquiry, the same has not been the case in the US, which is regrettable.  Based on family history, Tucher's book exhibits both the seriousness and depth of inquiry as, say, political history, and is far more readable than most scholarly studies.  That Tucher (communication, Columbia Journalism School) chooses stories about family ancestors dating back as far as Jamestown (if counting only direct ancestors, that would encompass 4,096 people) belies her true purpose, which, as she writes in her introduction, is to employ documented colonial and US social and cultural history "as a foil" to test her ancestors' (and a few others') histories, particularly their stories.  The author was intrepid in her archival research into primary sources, and her footnotes reveal this effort and also cite authoritative scholarly historical works.  Though Tucher is skeptical in analyzing many of her ancestors' stories, she stays focused on how all stories contain the kernel of historical truth.  Because Tucher revels in journalistic and playful prose, the book is an exquisite readso much so that this reviewer fears readers will consider it more a book of fascinating stories than the historical exposition that it is.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

Franciscan friar Junípero Serra devoted 34 years to evangelizing the indigenous communities of New Spain (Mexico) and the Californias from 1750 through 1784.  Despite a prominent post as a theology professor in Mallorca, Serra elected to depart his homeland for a ministry devoted to American Indians.  In 1769, Serra entered California, and from that point forward, his complicated legacy was reframed in a complex of contradictions and epic struggles on the edge of empire.  What is known of Serra comes from surviving letters, reports, and biographies rendered in the Spanish language.  It is precisely these primary source documents that effectively chronicle what Beebe and Senkewicz have cogently identified as the extraordinary life, unswerving commitments, and, ultimately, the social and spiritual transformation of this zealous, 18th-century Mallorcan missionary.  Unlike other scholarly treatments that vacillate between vilifying or praising Serra and the California missions, Santa Clara University professors Beebe (literature) and Senkewicz (history) have created an evenhanded, truly momentous scholarly contribution and produced a beautifully crafted, eminently readable narrative that will assuredly stand the often withering, contentious, and unapologetic test of time.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

The editors enlisted scholars recognized for important research in their fields.  The result is a thoughtful and informative multidisciplinary volume marked by an unusually elevated level of chapters that document the nature and significance of the Hispanic presence in Florida from the early 16th century to the present.  Following a valuable interpretive introduction, seven chapters focus on Florida under Spain, starting with Ponce de León's 1513 voyage to the region.  Five chapters explore art; music; Puerto Ricans in Florida; the racial, cultural, and class divisions in Miami; and the participation and influence of Cuban émigrés in state and presidential politics in the modern world.  The books prose soars in Karen Racines fascinating "Fireworks over Fernandina: The Atlantic Dimension of the Amelia Island Episode, 1817" and Richard L. Kagans "The Old World in the New:  Florida Discovers the Arts of Spain, 1885-1930."  The topics will make the volume attractive to general readers, especially those in Florida, as well as to specialists.  Rich notes that often include scholarly commentary add to the collections value.  Academic libraries, major public libraries, and all public libraries in Florida should purchase this book.Summing Up: Essential. All academic and large public libraries.

This prodigiously researched and deftly argued book breaks new ground in Lincoln scholarship.  From his early days in politics through his tumultuous presidency, Lincoln developed close if not always easy relations with editors in Illinois and such media titans as the New York troika of James Gordon Bennett, Horace Greeley, and Henry Raymond.  No politician of his era more effectively utilized the media to parry opponents or motivate supporters.  Lincolns patience with the editors he patronized, counseled, and, on various occasions, outmaneuvered was extraordinary.  Forbearing of political attacks on himself or his party, Lincoln as president proved less willing to tolerate commentary that belittled the troops or sought to subvert the Union cause.  Holzer does not soft-pedal the ongoing suppression of anti-Republican and anti-war presses, though he suggests Lincoln was one step removed from most of such measures.  He also emphasizes that the opposition press had its full say during the 1864 presidential campaign.  This epic-scale work, replete with vivid contemporary quotes and insightful commentary on the symbiosis between journalists and politicians in Lincolns US, is the most full-bodied account now available of Lincolns practical genius in shaping public opinion.Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.

This collection is a monumental contribution to Malcolm X studies in particular and to Africana studies in general.  Following the introductory chapter by the coeditors, who locate the roots of Malcolm in Michigan and link this to his development of race consciousness, identity, and community "across the black world,"  Abdul Alkalimat theorizes the paradigmatic significance of studying the "agency" of Malcolm X.  The book is truly exemplary, as the subtitle states, because it avoids attempting a biography and offers instead the theoretical, methodological, practical, and cultural implications of its iconic subject, emphasizing that the work of Malcolm continues as the work of educating the masses, just as he himself was clearly a product of his own education starting in Michigan.  The concluding chapter by editor Edozie on Malcolm Xs homecoming to Africa serves as a reminder that the discipline of Africana studies is overdue for globalization, perhaps by adding the missing "a" to the names of the prestigious African studies institutes and centers across Africa and the rest of the world, reflecting Malcolms "worldview."Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.

Jordan (Gettysburg College) provides an eye-opening analysis of how Union soldiers battled with their wounds, both physical and emotional, after the Civil War.  This topic has received little historical attention given the veterans status as the conflicts heroic victors and the respect bestowed upon them by their home population.  Jordan elucidates on the wide spectrum of challenges that awaited these veterans as they reintegrated back into society.  Many had problems with the pensions system; others dealt with wartime amputations or variations of posttraumatic psychological stress.  Still others struggled with just securing the necessities of life and found a primary source of assistance with fellow veterans with the Grand Army of the Republic, which served as a de facto welfare institution for former soldiers.  The books well-constructed prose is undergirded by impeccable primary source research; the endnotes are nearly as long as the narrative itself.  Although Jordans assessment of veterans does lack perspective on just how universal these issues were with the entire body of Union veterans, this monograph is most certainly a trailblazing work on the topic and insightful to similar issues in todays civil-military relations.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

Foley (Southern Methodist Univ.) writes a general history of Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants in the US that is both academic and highly readable.  He argues that in spite of the cycles of anti-immigrant hysteria and endemic racism ethnic Mexicans face in the US, the reality is that Mexican people have been part of the countrys story since well before there even was a US.  The author examines the experiences of Spanish and then Mexican peoples in what is now the US from the 1500s to the present.  He also looks at the broader forces of assimilation that have both Americanized Mexicans and Mexicanized Americans (of all ethnic backgrounds), even as that assimilation has spread across the border.  Foley argues that from its inception, the US has always been a multicultural and multilingual society, in spite of the traditional resistance to acknowledge it, and his work effectively demonstrates the role that ethnic Mexicans have played in shaping that society.  Overall, the quality of scholarship and ease of reading make this work a great option for undergraduates or resource for general readers.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All public, general, and undergraduate collections.

Green (Univ. of Las Vegas) offers a wonderfully readable survey of the Silver State, beginning with the standard survey-style state chronicle of Nevada during the pre-contact period.  Nevada was something of a lost land in the North American Southwest; it was inhabited by Native Americans, but Spaniards, Mexicans, and Americans largely ignored the arid region until the time of the US Civil War.  Nevadans soon discovered silver, making the famous Comstock Lode a magnet that drew people to the region but also setting in place the standard "boom and bust" cycles common to places with great mineral wealth.  Fiercely independent of the federal government, Nevada progressives addressed a host of issues during the early 20th century, while federal development and the legal status of gaming set Nevada apart for the rest of the 20th century.  What emerges from Green's narrative is a picture of multiple Nevadas: Las Vegas, its surrounding environs, and the rest of the state.  Readers interested in a comprehensive, well-written overview of Nevada history need look no further.  Although light on analysis, this is a rich historical narrative that will introduce the uninitiated to the state's history and serve as a valuable guide for historians already working with Nevada's dynamic past.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

Historian Landis (Tarleton State Univ.) has written a vigorous, convincing study of the Northern wing of the Democratic Party during the sectional crisis of the 1850s.  Taking issue with much of the historiography of the eras national politics, Landis argues that the Northern Democrats, rather than being hostages to the Southern proslavery wing of the party, were actually that wings willing and eager collaborators.  They worked diligently and tirelessly to purge their partisan ranks of antislavery sentiment and members and, most significantly, developed and enunciated a heretofore unrecognized antidemocratic doctrine of minority rule that received national imprimatur during James Buchanans presidency.  As he painstakingly reconstructs the partisan landscape throughout the North, Landis demonstrates that these ideological strains informed the partys every action in the 1850s.  In doing so, he highlights the role played by key [N]orthern men with [S}outhern loyalties, such as Indianas Jesse Bright and New Yorks Daniel Dickinson, in constructing the supremacy of the Slave Power.  Based on an astounding array of archival research, Landiss bold argument is a necessary corrective to the extant literature.  A must-read for Civil War-era scholars.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

Rockefeller left an imprint in many fields, including business enterprise, government, philanthropy, and politics.  A lifelong admirer of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who first lured him into public service at the national level, Rockefeller viewed governance in Rooseveltian terms, as a lever to advance Americans quality of life.  Serving four terms as governor of New York, Rockefeller forged an unprecedented, if mixed, recordinfrastructure built, the revamping of higher education, new approaches to welfare and health policies, and much more, including his transformation of New York states capitol complex.  He accomplished it all increasingly through fiscal gimmicks and heavy taxation.  The key prizethe presidencyeluded Rockefeller, owing to his repeated missteps and a Republican Party increasingly resistant to Rockefellers brand of pragmatic activism.  Smith has sifted through an enormous body of sources, seemingly leaving no stone unturned.  He has masterfully limned Rockefellers world.  This is a three-dimensional work, critical yet judicious, chockablock with vivid quotes and apt characterizations of Rockefeller, his associates, and his adversaries.  It stands as one of the premier political biographies yet published in this century.Summing Up: Essential. All public and academic libraries.

Poverty Point was the largest city in North America from 1100700 BCE.  The World Heritage site in northeastern Louisiana near the Mississippi River is the largest created by any hunter-gatherer society and was the nexus of a trade contact complex stretching southward to Florida and northward to central Missouri.  Archaeologist Greenlee (Univ. of Louisiana at Monroe) and photographer Ellerbe have designed a charming, informative narrative describing what is known about Poverty Point and offer musing impressions of the little-known site.  Although the book targets general readers, the archaeological content is exceptionally well presented.  Alternating chapters convey the sense of awe felt by an observer with the more prosaic narration of research results.  Topics include information about the physical artifacts of hunting and fishing, trade, tools, decorative objects, and Poverty Point's unique physical layout.  Photographs, a glossary, and references complete a well-conceived presentation in this gem.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

This excellent, transnational history of California's Imperial Valley and the Mexicali Valley of northern Mexico will be of great interest to historians of the border region, agricultural labor, environmental history, immigration, and race relations from 1900 to 1940.  It is the most sustained and in-depth historical analysis of that region of North America published to date.  The account of the "taming" of the desert, the "marshaling" of the Colorado River, eliminating pests such as grasshoppers and prairie dogs, and managing Native American, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, and South Asian workers is handled with great care.  Andrés (Univ. of North Carolina, Charlotte) delved deeply into local and regional archives and worked with a wide range of historical sources to develop a significantly new set of arguments about this area.  The voices and aspirations of working-class people are well represented in his chapters, as are the dominant politics of early-20th-century racism.  The author explains in an afterword that a better understanding of the region's history might help policy makers approach the area's most difficult contemporary challenges.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

In this extraordinary collection of essays and images, the authors ask challenging questions about regional identity, national history, and the place of Native peoples in contemporary culture.  The volume is dedicated at the most basic level to the presence of Sauk leader Black Hawk in the US today.  Photographic essays, dedicated in turn to Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois, document his imprint and importance, capturing the numerous places and businesses named for him as well as memorials and tourist sites associated with him across the upper Midwest.  At a deeper level, particularly in the accompanying seven essays, the authors encourage readers to rethink the past and present, emphasizing the centrality of indigenous narratives and voices, too often edited out or overlooked in mainstream accounts of history, culture, and community.  In the process, Brown (visiting professor, American Indian and Native studies, Iowa) and Kanouse (art history, Iowa) raise deep and disturbing questions about the foundations of the US.  Of particular note, they prompt readers to think about the appropriation of culture and land, the dispossession of Native nations, and the continued misrecognition of American Indians.  Throughout, the authors provide an approachable account of settler colonialism and meaningful pathways to engage it.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

Orleck (Michigan), well-respected author ofStorming Caesars Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty (CH, Jun'06, 43-6212) andCommon Sense and a Little Fire: Women and Working-Class Politics in the United States, 19001965 (CH, Dec'95, 33-2338), here produces an extremely engaging history of the US womens movement from its 19th-century roots to the present.  She briefly addresses activism before 1920 in one chapter, but this is enough to set the stage for a history of feminism.  Orleck covers the periods between the waves when nothing allegedly happened by looking at the unglamorous hard work needed to bring about real change.  She devotes chapters to the conservative 1950s and flashy 1960s and 1970s and to a backlash against feminism; she also looks at radical feminism, lesbian feminists, and current activism.  Treatment of Native American feminism is rare to see.  The introduction, which addresses the wave metaphor and the frightening f-word, is a must read for undergraduates.  Orlecks emphasis on varieties of feminismlabor, civil rights, mother, radical, lesbianmakes this highly readable book especially useful for academics as well as a pleasure for general readers.Summing Up: Essential. All public and academic levels/libraries.

Ekberg (emer., history, Illinois State Univ.) and Person (English, St. Louis Community College) seek to correct what they see as one of the worst fallacies of scholarship surrounding the settlement of St. Louisthe importance placed on the roles of Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau.  For students of historiography, this is a classic scholarly who done it.  Through incredibly thorough archival research, Ekberg and Person are able to paint a more accurate picture of the actions of prominent officials in the settlement of St. Louis.  Their research reveals a lesser-known figure in the citys early history, who, according to archival sources, was a central figure in the French settlement: Louis St. Ange de Bellerive, a military commandant responsible for many of the policies and decisions that allowed St. Louis to prosper.  As interesting as Bellerives role are the historiographic decisions, traceable to the early 20th century, that resulted in his diminution in the story of St. Louiss development.  Ekberg and Persons thorough, well-researched monograph illustrates a more complete picture of the settlement of St. Louis than previously available.  Combined with Robert Michael MorrisseysEmpire by Collaboration (2015,Choice review forthcoming), this book marks a significant advancement in the history of French colonization in Illinois.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.

This synthesis of sorts on the historiography of Texas women is one of the most important contributions to Texas historiography in recent years; especially notable is the editors use of contributions on particular women who are important yet have remained understudied by historians.  The essay authors include noted historians Juliana Barr and Jean Stuntz, who analyze womens lives in Indian and Spanish Texas.  Gabriela Gonzálezs essay on Jovita Idar illuminates how a Tejana activist took a more conservative approach in her advocacy for la raza during the early 20th century, while Nancy Bakers study of Hermine Tobolowsky shows how a feminist used the language of states rights and limited government to advocate for womens suffrage.  Other essays tackle such diverse subjects as cowgirls in post-WW II Texas; womens education during the antebellum period; Latinas in 20th-century Dallas; and biographies of prominent women who broke down gender barriers, such as Mae C. Jemison, the first African American woman to serve as an astronaut in NASA.  The three editors are to be commended: there is not a single weak essay, and all of the contributions are analytical yet written in an engaging and readable style.  Indispensable for anyone interested in the history of the Lone Star State.Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.

This delightful book is the first survey of Texas urban history.  Exemplifying academic history at its finest, McComb (Colorado State Univ.) has written an exhaustive history and a first-rate synthesis of a vast literature.  He begins by providing a brief summary of Texas history until the establishment of independence in 1836.  Next, the author moves to the dirt road frontier: Texas cities and towns during the remainder of the 19th century.  McComb covers a wide swath of urban space in this second section, ranging from the 19th-century hub of San Antonio to German settlements in central Texas, coastal ports, and railroad towns.  Section 3 takes readers through the modernizing urban spaces of early-20th-century Texas, including such places as oil towns and cities during such iconic times as the Great Depression and WW II.  Finally, McComb offers readers a taste of life in modern Texas cities.  Although a few chapters are regrettably short and will leave some readers wanting more, this book will find a ready audience with scholars and an interested lay public alike.Summing Up: Essential. All public and academic levels/libraries.

Baptists formidable work reveals how, between the Revolution and the Civil War, slave cotton production became the beating heart of the US economy, linking North and South with European finance.  Slaves not only raised cotton to feed textile mills and serve as a critical market for factory-produced clothing and tools but also became a source of credit and wealth that flowed across the Atlantic and around the country.  Baptist (Cornell) also shows how the slave labor camps that produced cotton were neither backward nor unproductive, but extremely efficient capitalist enterprises that tortured and manipulated African Americans to squeeze maximum labor without compensation.  In addition to smashing paradigms about antebellum slavery, the book features evocative explorations of how African Americans developed a common culture despite the individual and family devastation inflicted by enslavers. In the final chapters, the author offers a useful interpretation of how sectional conflict emerged and intensified after 1840 despite a half-century of shared support for cotton slavery.  The book gained wide notice after a hail of mocking tweets forcedTheEconomist to withdraw an anonymous review, but it should gain fame for its trailblazing substance and style.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

Historian Baptist (Cornell) provides a vibrantly and powerfully written survey of the economic powerhouse combination of slavery and cotton and their centrality to the rapid growth of the US economy from the Revolution to the Civil War.  Slavery had a pervasive influence in shaping society, culture, politics, finance, and international trade as the number of enslaved people and their productivity continued to increase.  Drawing upon impressive archival research, slave narratives, and newspaper accounts, Baptists vignettes vividly portray enslaved peoples lives, work, and culture.  He depicts the dehumanizing slave trade from the upper South to the expanding cotton regions in the southeast and then southwest as Native Americans were pushed from that region.  Baptist masterfully presents slaveholders efforts to maximize cotton production though mental and physical torture and the financial methods used to purchase more slaves and land.  Though some believed slavery was inefficient, the expansion of land and production belies this notion: this economic juggernaut accelerated US capitalism as it supplied cotton to New England and British textile mills and dominated world trade in this commodity.  This study should prompt scholars to reconsider the importance of slavery to US development in the antebellum period.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

This marvelously written volume will not be the final word on Reconstruction.  Given the divisive interpretations of the meaning of the US post-Appomattox, there may never be a final word.  Summers (Univ. of Kentucky) narrates a compelling story, arguing that if Reconstruction is thought to be the fulfillment of the expectations of the warnamely, the preservation of the unionit succeeded.  And given that with the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation the war definitively included the abolition of slavery, Reconstruction succeeded through passage and grudging acceptance of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.  Providing coverage to the political atrocities and corruption associated with Redemption, the author invites readers to recognize genuine accomplishments by Republican-dominated and military-backed Southern regimes, even as there was unquestionable resistance from Republicans and Democrats alike to fulfilling the promise of equality.  Importantly, the book puts Reconstruction into a larger context, including the depression after the 1873 crash, the debates over US expansionism in the aftermath of the Alaska purchase, and the wars against Native Americans that would not end until Wounded Knee.  Thoroughly documented and grounded in primary and secondary sources, this is a welcome addition to the literature.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic levels/libraries.

Amid the deluge of commemorations of the Civil Wars sesquicentennial, one might reasonably ask if there really is a need for another collection of essays on Abraham Lincoln and his wartime presidency.  Fortunately, this collection actually breaks some new scholarly ground and is a worthy contribution to the literature on this era.  Engle has assembled an impressive cast of contributors, a whos who of Lincoln and Civil War scholars who weigh in on a wide range of topics.  The collection has three parts: Lincolns War and the Peoples Contest, The War beyond the White House, and The Visible Hand of Leadership at Home and Abroad.  All nine essays are high quality, but particularly noteworthy are J. Matthew Gallmans examination of Lincoln as a pedagogue of citizenship during the war, Mark E. Neelys challenge to the myth surrounding habeas corpus, and Kate Masurs fascinating discussion of emancipation in Washington, DC, as a reflection of the larger struggle over freedom and its meanings during this era.  Scholarly yet accessible for the interested public, this collection will be read with profit by students of the Lincoln presidency and Civil War era.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries.

Canadian public historian Tomchuk's approach to a study of the North American Italian anarchist movement is reasonable: a transnational focus yields insights otherwise obscured by traditional state-centered studies.  Unfortunately, the discussion, limited to evidence from only six cities (Sault Ste. Marie, Toronto, Windsor, Detroit, New York City, and Newark), somewhat attenuates the benefits of this approach.  This aside, no previous monograph has focused on Italian migrant anarchists, and Tomchuk has made a valuable contribution to both labor history and sociology.  After an introduction in which he skillfully (and evenhandedly) surveys the varieties of Italian anarchism, he makes a solid argument that Italian anarchism in its North American home mobilized resources (for declaring strikes, fleeing persecution, or combating deportations), forged an identity, and created a vibrant (but male-dominated) subculture, primarily because of its members ability to move across intellectual (through newspapers and journals) or physical borders.  The narrative regarding the struggle for the hearts and minds of the urban community within so many of the little Italies, waged between the pro-Fascist Italian consulate (after 1922) and its left-wing opponents (including anarchists), is fascinating.  Hopefully, subsequent studies will build upon the solid foundation established here.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic levels/libraries.

When Americans think of early European exploration in California, they tend to think of Spanish travelers and settlers, but Russians visited and settled among the peoples in northern California between 1806 and 1841.  They established trading posts with Native communities and as a result, many Russian merchants insightfully observed Miwok and Pomo life before it was ruined by Anglo-American settlers searching for gold.  Several Russian travelers, like Baron Ferdinand Petrovich von Wrangel (1796-1870) and Ilia G. Voznesenskii (1816-71), were superb ethnographic collectors and produced unequaled pictorial, material culture, and documentary records, as well as wrote travelogues and kept diaries of their trips.  These documents have waited for years to be analyzed.  Unfortunately, Western scholars have had little access due to international politics and Russian museum access restrictions.  Luckily, Hudson (d. 1985) and Bates (formerly, Yosemite Museum) made the multiyear effort and produced a definitive manuscript of these collections and documents, which editors Blackburn and Johnson have enhanced for publication.  The wealth of detailed, reliable information is now available for Native communities, graduate students, and scholars.  A beautiful, well-crafted, and richly illustrated book that should be required reading for anyone interested in Native California and its interactions with European explorers, merchants, and settlers.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All public and academic levels/libraries.

During the first two decades of the 20th century, African Americans moved to Harlem in upper Manhattan in a massive migration.  Even after they constituted the largest percentage of the local population, African Americans faced and battled the same perpetual discrimination they endured in their previous neighborhoods.  Historian King (College of Wooster) demonstrates in his excellent study that during the New Negro era, especially between WW I and the beginning of the Great Depression, blacks in Harlem vigorously fought for their community rights against the tremendous odds of white discrimination.  As King convincingly argues, activism in Harlem based around local issues challenged various manifestations of racial injustice and raised the racial and political consciousness of the black community.  Through such issues as housing and police brutality, King makes a strong case that the New Negro era in Harlem was the springboard for a more precise period of protest and a stronger black political culture in the following decades.  A must for those interested in urban civil rights and race in the 20th-century US.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.