By Title

Lamu: History, Society, and Family in an East African Port City
Romero, Patricia

Subject: Africa, Women's History

This book depicts the history of Lamu, once an important East African port city but now known as an unspoiled tourist destination and scenic location for Hollywood movies.

Records from both the distant past and the more recent period give …

More Information

Land of Enchanters: Egyptian Short Stories from the Earliest Times to the Present Day
Lewis, Bernard and Stanley Burstein, editors

Subject: Africa, World Literature, Middle East

Several civilizations have risen, flourished and fallen in the valley of the Nile, each with its own religion, language, culture, institutions and style of life. Yet beneath them all a certain basic unity persisted. In few fields can this continuity …

More Information

The Last Great Muslim Empires: History of the Muslim World
Kissling, Hans J. et al. (translated and adapted by F.R.C. Bagley)

Subject: Middle East, Religion, World History

“Islamic history feeds into world history … Islamic civilization became a global phenomenon, for example, in its capacity to receive and absorb culture from one end of the world and then pass it on to other parts of the world. …

More Information

The Latest Style: The Fashion Writing of Bianca Valmont and Economies of Domesticity
Davis, Kathleen E.

Subject: Europe, Latin America

From her base in Paris, Bianca Valmont reported fashion and cultural trends for Ultima Moda, a magazine published in Madrid and circulated throughout the Iberian Peninsula, Latin America and the Philippines from 1888 to 1898. Her column was at first …

More Information

Law and Society in Islam
Stewart, Devin J., Baber Johansen, and Amy Singer

Subject: Religion

This book covers significant themes explaining the practice of Islamic law.

The first essay treats taqiyyah (literally, “caution”), the concealment of one’s religion when to reveal it would incur danger, which is based on a Koranic passage. The author provides …

More Information

The Letters and Other Writings of Gustavus Vassa (Olaudah Equiano, the African): Documenting Abolition of the Slave Trade
Sapoznik, Karlee Anne, editor (foreword by Paul Lovejoy)

Subject: African Studies, Caribbean Studies, History of Slavery

Gustavus Vassa (alias Olaudah Equiano, the African) was on the vanguard of the anti-slavery movement in England at the end of the eighteenth century. He provided a voice for people of African descent in the British Atlantic world. His …

More Information

The Levant: A Fractured Mosaic
Harris, William

Subject: Middle East: Israel/Palestine/Levant, World History

One of the “10 Must-Read Books on the Evolution of Terrorism in the Middle East” — The Wall Street Journal

In the wake of the November terrorist attack in Paris, the Wall Street Journal asked several experts for book recommendations …

More Information

Libète: A Haiti Anthology
Arthur, Charles and Michael Dash, editors

Subject: Caribbean

Haiti’s dramatic history, pressing social problems, and rich culture make it one of the most fascinating nations in the Americas. This book aims to reflect some of Haiti’s extraordinary diversity through the best of writing. While many journalistic accounts are …

More Information

The Life and Times of General China: Mau Mau and the End of Empire in Kenya
Osborne, Myles (editor)

Subject: Colonial Africa, Eastern Africa and the Indian Ocean

An important addition to the corpus on Mau Mau, this book will be a wonderful asset in the classroom, and will be welcomed by all those interested in Africa’s modern history.” — David M. Anderson, Professor of African History, University …

More Information

Life in a Haitian Valley
Herskovits, Melville J. (introduction by Sidney W. Mintz)

Subject: Caribbean

This book is a precious document in the intellectual history of the black Americas. Its author was surely the first academically respectable white scholar to take seriously the cultural achievements of Afro-Americans, throughout the hemisphere. His influence is still keenly …

More Information

Lost Illusions: Latin America’s Struggle for Democracy, as Recounted by Its Leaders
Boeker, Paul

Subject: Latin America

This book opens and concludes with a critical appraisal of the durability of Latin American democracy and the role of the United States in this democratic revival by author Paul Boeker, a respected commentator on international events and a former …

More Information

The Lure of Antiquity and the Cult of the Machine: The Kunstkammer and the Evolution of Nature, Art and Technology
Bredekamp, Horst (introduction by Anthony T. Grafton; translated by Allison Brown)

Subject: Europe

Translated into six languages

The Kunstkammer was a programmatic display of art and oddities amassed by wealthy Europeans during the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. These nascent museums reflected the ambitions of such thinkers as Descartes, Locke, and Kepler …

More Information