New Books in History

When George Washington led the United States to victory in the American Revolution, he did so in collaboration with seventy-three other men who served as major and brigadier generals in the Continental Army over the course of the war. In Washington’s Revolutionary War Generals (University of Oklahoma Press, 2019), Stephen R. Taaffe describes the roles these commanders played and their contributions to the war effort. As Taaffe explains, while there were plenty of men in the colonies at the start of the war with combat experience, there was no professional military tradition among the colonial leadership. With appointments determined by the Continental Congress, selection occurred from the ranks of the social elite with considerable attention given to political considerations. Though Washington possessed no formal power to name generals, the Continental Congress often deferred to his recommendations, and thanks to his ability to recognize talent a number of men were promoted who made notable contributions to the revolutionary cause. As Taaffe demonstrates, while some won glory and others commanded in obscurity, in the end their combined leadership played a vital role in winning the colonies their independence.

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Monsoon Islam: Trade and Faith on the Medieval Malabar Coast (Cambridge University Press, 2019) by Sebastian Prange provides a fascinating window into the Muslim world of the medieval (12-16th century) Malabar Coast and the development of Islam that was defined by significant trade networks. Prange conceptualizes this particular development of Muslim communities on the Malabar Coast as Monsoon Islam. Subverting any notions that Islam developed systematically or through organized political efforts, the book uses the history of the pepper trade across the Indian Ocean to map spatial developments, such as of mosques and ports, and the early Muslim trading communities who inhabited these realms. We have before us a global history of Monsoon Islam that utilizes trade networks to capture far more complex cross-cultural exchanges that included kinship, religious, textual, Sufi, and political networks. The latter dynamics led to instances of negotiated establishment of legal and religious codes, as well as familial and economic ties. For instance, the book highlights how legal norms or religious practices became localized and translated to a new context by minority Muslims within a predominately Hindu society, such as in mosque architecture or marriage practices. Prange’s detailed study asks us to think of both global and local processes that led to the formation of a cosmopolitan and transoceanic Monsoon Islam and thus complicates how we study the spread of Islam across diverse regions in South Asia, and the vital role of traders, scholars, and saints. The study’s deep engagement with diverse historical sources, and its beautifully written analysis, makes it an accessible and critical read for scholars interested in the world of Islam in the Indian Ocean and South Asia, as well as Islamic economics, politics, and history broadly.

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Andrew Roberts is one of our most distinguished biographers and historians, and the author of the magisterial work, Churchill: Walking with Destiny (2018). Today we talk to Andrew about his most recent work, Leadership in War: Lessons From Those Who Made History (Allen Lane, 2019). With chapters on such individuals as Napoleon, Nelson, Churchill, Hitler, Stalin, Marshall, de Gaulle, Eisenhower, and Thatcher, the book considers the importance of historical thinking and awareness, the varying significance of religious faith, and the driving insistence of notions of self-respect, pride and honor, before building a paradigm for the study of leadership that opens up the central questions of the mini-biographies it collects. This outstanding contribution identifies significant new themes in its collective biography of some of those individuals who, for good or ill, have done most to shape the modern world.

Crawford Gribben is a professor of history at Queen’s University Belfast. His research interests focus on the history of puritanism and evangelicalism, and he is the author most recently of John Owen and English Puritanism (Oxford University Press, 2016). 

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Raul Hilberg was a giant in the field of Genocide and Holocaust Studies. Frequently cited as the founder of the field in the United States, Hilberg wrote, taught, and mentored for decades. In a series of influential books, he scouted out the terrain, mapped events, people and personalities, and offered lenses through which to view our field of study. His students and mentees embarked on their own journeys and, in their own ways, set an agenda we continue to pursue today.

In German Railroads, Jewish Souls: The Reichsbahn, Bureaucracy, and the Final Solution (Berghahn Books, 2019), Christopher Browning and Peter Hayes offer an assessment and appreciation of Hilberg’s work. The book explains some of Hilberg’s most influential ideas by focusing on his research on the German Railroad system. Browning and Hayes reprints Hilberg’s work, show how his interpretations shaped the field, and assess how recent research has followed on and nuanced Hilberg’s conclusions. And they reprint a variety of documents that illustrate Hilberg’s analysis. Students will find it immensely valuable. But everyone will benefit from revisiting some of the most important early work in Holocaust studies. It is a fitting tribute to a great scholar.

Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. He’s the author of four modules in the Reacting to the Past series, including The Needs of Others: Human Rights, International Organizations and Intervention in Rwanda, 1994, published by W. W. Norton Press.

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Andrew Roberts is one of our most distinguished biographers and historians, and the author of the magisterial work, Churchill: Walking with Destiny (2018). Today we talk to Andrew about his most recent work, Leadership in War: Lessons From Those Who Made History (Allen Lane, 2019). With chapters on such individuals as Napoleon, Nelson, Churchill, Hitler, Stalin, Marshall, de Gaulle, Eisenhower, and Thatcher, the book considers the importance of historical thinking and awareness, the varying significance of religious faith, and the driving insistence of notions of self-respect, pride and honor, before building a paradigm for the study of leadership that opens up the central questions of the mini-biographies it collects. This outstanding contribution identifies significant new themes in its collective biography of some of those individuals who, for good or ill, have done most to shape the modern world.

Crawford Gribben is a professor of history at Queen’s University Belfast. His research interests focus on the history of puritanism and evangelicalism, and he is the author most recently of John Owen and English Puritanism (Oxford University Press, 2016). 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Monsoon Islam: Trade and Faith on the Medieval Malabar Coast (Cambridge University Press, 2019) by Sebastian Prange provides a fascinating window into the Muslim world of the medieval (12-16th century) Malabar Coast and the development of Islam that was defined by significant trade networks. Prange conceptualizes this particular development of Muslim communities on the Malabar Coast as Monsoon Islam. Subverting any notions that Islam developed systematically or through organized political efforts, the book uses the history of the pepper trade across the Indian Ocean to map spatial developments, such as of mosques and ports, and the early Muslim trading communities who inhabited these realms. We have before us a global history of Monsoon Islam that utilizes trade networks to capture far more complex cross-cultural exchanges that included kinship, religious, textual, Sufi, and political networks. The latter dynamics led to instances of negotiated establishment of legal and religious codes, as well as familial and economic ties. For instance, the book highlights how legal norms or religious practices became localized and translated to a new context by minority Muslims within a predominately Hindu society, such as in mosque architecture or marriage practices. Prange’s detailed study asks us to think of both global and local processes that led to the formation of a cosmopolitan and transoceanic Monsoon Islam and thus complicates how we study the spread of Islam across diverse regions in South Asia, and the vital role of traders, scholars, and saints. The study’s deep engagement with diverse historical sources, and its beautifully written analysis, makes it an accessible and critical read for scholars interested in the world of Islam in the Indian Ocean and South Asia, as well as Islamic economics, politics, and history broadly.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

When George Washington led the United States to victory in the American Revolution, he did so in collaboration with seventy-three other men who served as major and brigadier generals in the Continental Army over the course of the war. In Washington’s Revolutionary War Generals (University of Oklahoma Press, 2019), Stephen R. Taaffe describes the roles these commanders played and their contributions to the war effort. As Taaffe explains, while there were plenty of men in the colonies at the start of the war with combat experience, there was no professional military tradition among the colonial leadership. With appointments determined by the Continental Congress, selection occurred from the ranks of the social elite with considerable attention given to political considerations. Though Washington possessed no formal power to name generals, the Continental Congress often deferred to his recommendations, and thanks to his ability to recognize talent a number of men were promoted who made notable contributions to the revolutionary cause. As Taaffe demonstrates, while some won glory and others commanded in obscurity, in the end their combined leadership played a vital role in winning the colonies their independence.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Raul Hilberg was a giant in the field of Genocide and Holocaust Studies. Frequently cited as the founder of the field in the United States, Hilberg wrote, taught, and mentored for decades. In a series of influential books, he scouted out the terrain, mapped events, people and personalities, and offered lenses through which to view our field of study. His students and mentees embarked on their own journeys and, in their own ways, set an agenda we continue to pursue today.

In German Railroads, Jewish Souls: The Reichsbahn, Bureaucracy, and the Final Solution (Berghahn Books, 2019), Christopher Browning and Peter Hayes offer an assessment and appreciation of Hilberg’s work. The book explains some of Hilberg’s most influential ideas by focusing on his research on the German Railroad system. Browning and Hayes reprints Hilberg’s work, show how his interpretations shaped the field, and assess how recent research has followed on and nuanced Hilberg’s conclusions. And they reprint a variety of documents that illustrate Hilberg’s analysis. Students will find it immensely valuable. But everyone will benefit from revisiting some of the most important early work in Holocaust studies. It is a fitting tribute to a great scholar.

Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. He’s the author of four modules in the Reacting to the Past series, including The Needs of Others: Human Rights, International Organizations and Intervention in Rwanda, 1994, published by W. W. Norton Press.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

“My greatest adventure was undoubtedly Proust. What is there left to write after that?” This is what Virginia Woolf said, full of admiration -- and envy, too. Delve into Marcel Proust in this conversation with Caroline Weber, author of Proust's Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-Siecle Paris (Knopf, 2019), who has not only read the masterpiece In Search of Lost Time, all 3000 pages and 1.25 million gorgeous, supple and utterly brilliantly composed words (several times), but who has also done the painstaking research to find out who were the real-life people on whom Proust modeled some of the most memorable characters in his sprawling book. The Duchess of Guermantes, a figure of enormous intrigue in the novel, was one of the first manifestations of celebrity culture in the modern age, presaging today's influencers who are known for being known.

Don't read Proust, the wonderfully wise Alain de Botton's counsel notwithstanding, to change your life (be wary of such temptation and be careful what you wish for). For life cannot be changed but must be lived. But read Proust to live your life now deepened by his startling insights into the human condition.

Uli Baer is a professor at New York University. He is also the host of the excellent podcast "Think About It"

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“My greatest adventure was undoubtedly Proust. What is there left to write after that?” This is what Virginia Woolf said, full of admiration -- and envy, too. Delve into Marcel Proust in this conversation with Caroline Weber, author of Proust's Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-Siecle Paris (Knopf, 2019), who has not only read the masterpiece In Search of Lost Time, all 3000 pages and 1.25 million gorgeous, supple and utterly brilliantly composed words (several times), but who has also done the painstaking research to find out who were the real-life people on whom Proust modeled some of the most memorable characters in his sprawling book. The Duchess of Guermantes, a figure of enormous intrigue in the novel, was one of the first manifestations of celebrity culture in the modern age, presaging today's influencers who are known for being known.

Don't read Proust, the wonderfully wise Alain de Botton's counsel notwithstanding, to change your life (be wary of such temptation and be careful what you wish for). For life cannot be changed but must be lived. But read Proust to live your life now deepened by his startling insights into the human condition.

Uli Baer is a professor at New York University. He is also the host of the excellent podcast "Think About It"

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history