Twenty years ago, at the start of his monumental Conjectures of Order, Michael O’Brien suggested that ‘intellectual history is not a democratic venture,’ and was, therefore, ‘somewhat illegitimate in the modern discipline of history, which has made much of the moral importance of inclusiveness and equality.’[1] Rebecca Fraser’s Black Female Intellectuals in Nineteenth Century America:Continue reading “Black Female Intellectuals in Nineteenth Century America: Born to Bloom Unseen?”
Review Archives
The Story of Work: A New History of Humankind
‘We work because we have to, but also because we like it: from hunting-gathering more than 700,000 years ago to the present era of zoom meetings, humans have always worked to make the world around them serve their needs.’ This blurb thus captures the essence of Jan Lucassen’s The Story of Work: A New HistoryContinue reading “The Story of Work: A New History of Humankind”
Women Philosophers in Nineteenth-Century Britain
Petros Spanou reviews this ‘superb, absorbing, and thought-provoking work offering a major reassessment of nineteenth-century philosophy’.
Beyond the Wall: East Germany, 1949-1990
George Bodie reviews this ‘kaleidoscopic new vision’ of a vanished country.
Bathing at the Edge of the Roman Empire: Baths and Bathing Habits in the North-Western Corner of Continental Europe
Giacomo Savani reviews this investigation of the development, adoption, and adaptation of Roman baths in the northwestern regions of continental Europe, which significantly enhances our understanding of Roman baths and bathing in the periphery of the empire.
Gold and Swingler
Katrina Goldstone reviews two biographies of neglected writers, which demonstrate there is still much to be learned about the influence of writers, political commitment, and the 1930s on broader intellectual histories.
A Culture of Curiosity: Science in the Eighteenth-Century Home
Lucy J. Havard reviews an ‘immensely enjoyable and engaging’ look at scientific enquiry as it took place in the eighteenth-century home.
Winning Women’s Hearts and Minds: Selling Cold War Culture in the US and USSR
Thomas Ellis reviews Diana Cucuz’s book on women, gender, and the politics of selling U.S. consumer culture and domesticity during the early Cold War through “polite propaganda.”
The Politics of Biography in Africa: Borders, Margins, and Alternative Histories of Power
Rebecca Martin reviews this ‘important collection’ showing how biographical narratives can shed light on alternative, little known or under-researched aspects of state power in African politics.
Milk
Charlie Taverner reviews a ‘thorough and stimulating’ major exhibition exploring our relationship with milk and its place in global politics, society, and culture.