The triumphant rise of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte over his Republican opponents has been the central theme of most narrative accounts of mid-nineteenth-century France, while resistance to the coup d'etat generally has been neglected.
Balancing respect for religious conviction and the values of liberal democracy is a daunting challenge for judges and lawmakers, particularly when religious groups seek exemption from laws that govern others.
A history of the Ottoman incorporation of Arab lands that shows how gentlemanly salons shaped culture, society, and governanceHistorians have typically linked Ottoman imperial cohesion in the sixteenth century to the bureaucracy or the sultan's court.
A necessary reckoning with America's troubled history of injustice to Indigenous peopleAfter One Hundred Winters confronts the harsh truth that the United States was founded on the violent dispossession of Indigenous people and asks what reconciliation might mean in light of this haunted history.
A history of celebrity from Byron to BeckhamLove it or hate it, celebrity is one of the dominant features of modern life-and one of the least understood.
As waves of epidemic disease swept the Philippines in the late nineteenth century, some colonial physicians began to fear that the indigenous population would be wiped out.
A comprehensive and accessible account of the life and thought of Judaism's most celebrated philosopherMaimonides was the greatest Jewish philosopher and legal scholar of the medieval period, a towering figure who has had a profound and lasting influence on Jewish law, philosophy, and religious consciousness.
One week after the infamous June 1876 Battle of the Little Big Horn, when news of the defeat of General George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry troops reached the American public, Sitting Bull became the most wanted hostile Indian in America.
A groundbreaking look at how group expectations unify Black Americans in their support of the Democratic partyBlack Americans are by far the most unified racial group in American electoral politics, with 80 to 90 percent identifying as Democrats-a surprising figure given that nearly a third now also identify as ideologically conservative, up from less than 10 percent in the 1970s.
The definitive biography of a leading twentieth-century French writerA leading exponent of the nouveau roman, Nathalie Sarraute (1900-1999) was also one of France's most cosmopolitan literary figures, and her life was bound up with the intellectual and political ferment of twentieth-century Europe.
Why modern and contemporary artand art conservationcan't be understood without taking account of the revolutionary impact of plasticsModern and contemporary art wouldn't exist without the invention of plastics.
The impact of technology-enhanced mass death in the twentieth century, argues Zachary Braiterman, has profoundly affected the future shape of religious thought.
Emilio Gentile, an internationally renowned authority on fascism and totalitarianism, argues that politics over the past two centuries has often taken on the features of religion, claiming as its own the prerogative of defining the fundamental purpose and meaning of human life.
In Jewish Questions, Matt Goldish introduces English readers to the history and culture of the Sephardic dispersion through an exploration of forty-three responsa--questions about Jewish law that Jews asked leading rabbis, and the rabbis' responses.
Turkey has leapt to international prominence as an economic and political powerhouse under its elected Muslim government, and is looked on by many as a model for other Muslim countries in the wake of the Arab Spring.
As settlements and civilization moved West to follow the lure of mineral wealth and the trade of the Santa Fe Trail, prostitution grew and flourished within the mining camps, small towns, and cities of the nineteenth-century Southwest.
The first comprehensive history of the pietistic movement that shaped modern JudaismThis is the first comprehensive history of the pietistic movement that shaped modern Judaism.
How Enlightenment Europe rediscovered its identity by measuring itself against the great civilizations of AsiaDuring the long eighteenth century, Europe's travelers, scholars, and intellectuals looked to Asia in a spirit of puzzlement, irony, and openness.
A major new history of the century-long debate over what a Jewish state should beMany Zionists who advocated the creation of a Jewish state envisioned a nation like any other.
A richly nuanced cultural history of the Great Mississippi floodThe Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, which covered nearly thirty thousand square miles across seven states, was the most destructive river flood in U.
Late at night around the campfires, Seminole children safely tucked into mosquito nets used to listen to the elders retelling the old stories and legends.
Many Americans wish to believe that the United States, founded in religious tolerance, has gradually and naturally established a secular public sphere that is equally tolerant of all religions--or none.
How Jewish responses during the Holocaust shed new light on the dynamics of genocide and political violenceFocusing on the choices and actions of Jews during the Holocaust, Ordinary Jews examines the different patterns of behavior of civilians targeted by mass violence.
In this reprint of a classic Indian Captivity Narrative from the 19th century, Nelson Lee recounts his adventures and his narrow escape from the Comanches in tales nearly too tall to be true.
How the kibbutz movement thrived despite its inherent economic contradictions and why it eventually declinedThe kibbutz is a social experiment in collective living that challenges traditional economic theory.
A history of modern European cultural pluralism, its current crisis, and its uncertain futureIn 2010, the leaders of Germany, Britain, and France each declared that multiculturalism had failed in their countries.
Every time you chew a stick of Juicy Fruit, eat a hamburger, slip on a nylon, plug your phone into a wall socket, flick on a TV, withdraw money from an ATM, lick an ice-cream cone, switch on a computer, ride an escalator, play a DVR, watch a movie about dinosaurs, or pop a tranquilizer, you're doing something that originated at a world's fair or trade expo.
Why the pursuit of state recognition by seemingly marginal religious groups in Egypt and elsewhere is a devotional practiceOver the past decade alone, religious communities around the world have demanded state recognition, exemption, accommodation, or protection.
While it's mindboggling to fathom anyone labeling a war ';splendid,' a high-ranking American official used that term to describe the Spanish-American War in 1898.
Moving portraits of seventeen independent women who helped make Arizona what it is todayRemarkable Arizona Women profiles the lives of seventeen of the state's most fascinating figureswomen from across Arizona, from many different backgrounds, and from various walks of life.
