Books & ideas

Was New Orleans Caribbean?

Andy Cabot — 2020-04-20T07:00:00Z

Until recently, the history of French colonial New Orleans was treated as an exception. Writing a total social history of 18^th Century New Orleans, Cécile Vidal offers to reframe it as a Caribbean outpost of the French Empire rather than as a North American frontier town.

Contagion, a Cultural History

Neil Davie — 2020-03-16T08:00:00Z

Recurring typhus outbreaks among the poor in the 18^th century reinforced the belief that plebeian bodies were in a constant state of putrefaction. Adopting a longue durée approach, Rotten Bodies offers a stimulating study of medical discourse on epidemic disease in the “long” 18^th century.

Collectors, Dealers and Artists

Marion Amblard — 2020-02-06T08:33:54Z

Being the capital of the arts in western Europe in the 18^th century, Rome was also an important centre for art dealing. An innovative, interdisciplinary approach allows to investigate different aspects of this particular art market in the age of the Grand Tour.

Philip Roth's Counterlives

Benjamin Balint — 2014-05-05T07:00:00Z

Just one year after Philip Roth's announcement that he was retiring from fiction making, Claudia Roth Pierpoint's Roth Unbound offers a review of his long and versatile career as a writer of subversive fictions and American counterlives.

On Board The Slave Ship

Ivan Jablonka — 2013-12-12T08:00:00Z

The slave ship was a central institution of slave trade and slavery, as well as a place of extreme violence and suffering. Its ghost still haunts America today through the persistence of racism and inequalities.