Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2024 -

Numerous books concerning the religious lives of soldiers have appeared over the last several years. These works often concentrate on the experience of the Great War, a natural development in light of the historical importance of the Generation of 1914. God on the Western Front is a valuable contribution to this growing historical literature. While the book covers much of the same ground as earlier studies, Byrnes (emer., Oklahoma State Univ.) also delves into some important subjects often overlooked. Most obvious in this regard is his comparative analysis, which covers soldiers' experiences across multiple military theaters and among numerous nationalities. Further, the text deals with the Jewish experience on the front lines, with Byrnes providing a thoughtful overview of the ways in which the warring states attempted to promote solidarity between Christians and Jews, an often-overlooked subject given the specter of anti-Semitism that haunts the historiography concerning the Generation of 1914. Byrnes demonstrates a mastery of the sources available in several languages, and his prose is straightforward and enjoyable to read. This, coupled with the numerous carefully chosen illustrations throughout the text, assures that God on the Western Front will reach a wide audience, both among scholars and non-experts.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.

This massive interpretive survey of the production of coins and their uses in the early Middle Ages is focused mostly on northwest Europe. Though the economy of that period and region may have been poor compared to the Roman past and the late medieval future, it was nonetheless a monetized economy. Naismith (Univ. of Cambridge, UK) discusses how the gold and silver used for coinage was obtained from mining, placer sifting, the reuse of jewelry or ornamental vessels, and the reminting of other coins. Minting could constitute large and elaborate operations or comprise just a handful of smiths who struck coins occasionally. Coins' content and sizes varied regionally and over time. People at all socioeconomic levels used coins. Beyond their use in commerce, coins allowed the elite to bolster political support, pay for military expenses, and distribute alms. Non-elites sold crops for coins and paid their rents, taxes, and tithes with them. Even slaves purchased their freedom with coins. This book is dense but clearly written and boasts an extensive bibliography. Naismith's interpretations modify or supplant many standard views, indicating points that still require additional investigation. This is necessary reading for specialists.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.

One of the seminal episodes in world history was the 15th- and 16th-century Portuguese discovery of and expansion into Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The historiography of the period, written mostly by Portuguese scholars, often portrayed this history as a series of celebrated events led by heroic personalities whose successes furthered Portugal's achievements and greatness. Questioning this formidable historiography, Newitt (formerly, King's College London, UK) de-emphasizes these traditional portrayals and places the discoveries within the context of the European Renaissance and the less recognized parallel rise of comparable empires in Asia. Newitt envisions this history not as a series of dramatic enterprises but as a continuation of patterns already in process in both parts of the world. Written in a readable style, this volume shows the history as a collaborative effort between already famous discoverers and an often ignored, supporting cast of crews, soldiers, women, Sephardic Jews, and African captives. As the author suggests, the Portuguese discoveries were important for establishing commercial and cultural networks between rising world powers in the East and the West. This volume is an appreciated addition to the author's recent publications reinterpreting the international Portuguese historical experience.Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers through faculty.

Typical scholarship on the various monarchs of Europe during the medieval to early modern period usually concentrates on the male monarchs and their political dealings. Silleras-Fernandez (Spanish and Portuguese, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder) goes well beyond that, however, focusing her study on three royal women: Isabel of Portugal (1428-96), Isabel of Aragon (1470-98), and Juana of Castile (1479-1555). Beyond recounting these women's individual biographies, "this book focuses on broader questions relating to how these women and their observers contributed to and participated in the development ... of notions of grief, love, excess, mental instability, and melancholy" during the period. As the author notes, "for royal women the emotional and political were inextricably bound," prompting her to delve deeper into the emotional and psychological side of power politics. Drawing on extensive primary and secondary research materials, Silleras-Fernandez presents an insightful portrayal of these three women and investigates how major crises, such as the deaths of their spouses, impacted their emotional states and, more importantly, their perceived fitness to rule as a result. She produces an excellent psychological and historical study that offers a new and enlightening analysis.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.

Just as guides once accompanied visitors on their ascent, Brewer (emer., California Institute of Technology; Harvard Univ.) takes readers on an intellectual exploration of Mount Vesuvius, producing many fascinating perspectives of its 18th- and 19th-century history. An opening chapter uses the visitors' book from the way station to explore demographic data of those who visited the volcano. Subsequent chapters use travel and scientific literature, newspaper articles, letters, images, theatrical performances, and public exhibits to show how people of differing backgrounds, education, and locales (domestic and international) interacted with Vesuvius and each other. Those interested in the history of tourism, Romanticism, the development of new sciences (e.g., geology, mineralogy, vulcanology), art and theater, the archaeology of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and the politics of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies will be richly rewarded by this intellectual journey. Unlike early visitors who sometimes struggled in their climb, readers will move, almost effortlessly, in their travels through the primary and secondary literature thanks to Brewer's scholarly insights and clear prose. A conclusion urges readers to view the intertwined and changing relationship between the volcano and humanity as one in which the latter remains inside of, not above and apart from, nature.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.