American & Canadian History

A sweeping retelling of American religious history, showing how religion has enhanced and hindered human flourishing from the Ice Age to the Information Age Until now, the standard narrative of American religious history has begun with English settlers in Jamestown or Plymouth and remained predominantly Protestant and Atlantic. Driven by his strong sense of the historical and moral shortcomings of...

Countering the chorus of anti-immigrant voices that have grown increasingly loud in the current political moment, No One Is Illegal exposes the racism of anti-immigration vigilantes and puts a human face on the immigrants who risk their lives to cross the border to work in the United States. This second edition has a new introduction to frame the analysis of...

An anthropologist uncovers how "great coffee" depends not just on taste, but also on a complex system of values worked out among farmers, roasters, and consumers. What justifies the steep prices commanded by small-batch, high-end Third Wave coffees? Making Better Coffee explores this question, looking at highland coffee farmers in Guatemala and their relationship to the trends that dictate what...

An artist and writer whose charming and inventive works are at once modest and ambitious, Joe Brainard was one of the most distinctive figures on New York City's vibrant cultural scene in the 1960s and 1970s. Widely known for his influential experimental memoir, I Remember, Brainard worked in a variety of forms, from New York School–aligned poetry to Pop Art–adjacent...

This engaging exploration of the Maya pantheon introduces readers to the complex stories of Mesoamerican divinity through the stunning carvings, ceramics, and metalwork of the Classic period. Lives of the Gods explores how ancient Maya peoples gave bodily form to the divine and explains the cosmological underpinnings of some of the greatest creative achievements of Maya civilization. Focusing on the...

"[A] learned and thoughtful portrayal of the history of race relations in America…authoritative and highly readable…[An] impressive work." -Randall Kennedy, The Nation "This comprehensive history…reminds us that the fight for justice requires our constant vigilance." -Ibram X. Kendi "Remarkable for the breadth and depth of its historical and legal analysis…makes an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the US Supreme...

From two distinguished experts on election law, an alarming look at how the American presidency could be stolen—by entirely legal means. Even in the fast and loose world of the Trump White House, the idea that a couple of thousand disorganised protestors storming the U.S. Capitol might actually prevent a presidential succession was farfetched. There are, however, perfectly legal ways...

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. How Hip Hop Became Hit Pop examines the programming practices at commercial radio stations in the 1980s and early 1990s to uncover how the radio industry facilitated hip hop's introduction into the musical mainstream. Constructed primarily...

Exploring art made in Latin America during the 1930s and 1940s, Hemispheric Integration argues that Latin America’s position within a global economic order was crucial to how art from that region was produced, collected, and understood. Niko Vicario analyzes art’s relation to shifting trade patterns, geopolitical realignments, and industrialization to suggest that it was in this specific era that the...

This in-depth look at the remarkable alkaline-glazed stoneware from Edgefield, South Carolina, recentres the development of Southern pottery traditions around enslaved and free Black potters working in the mid-nineteenth century. The publication brings together more than 60 rarely seen works, including figural face jugs and slip-decorated pottery by known and unknown makers. Among the most remarkable works featured are masterpieces...

A groundbreaking publication on the Caribbean-born French Neoclassical painter Guillaume Lethière and his extraordinary, yet largely unexamined career Born in the French colony of Guadeloupe, Guillaume Lethière (1760–1832) was a key figure in the history of art during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The son of a formerly enslaved woman of colour and a white government official and...

How is it that Americans are more obsessed with exercise than ever, and yet also unhealthier? Fit Nation explains how we got here and imagines how we might create a more inclusive, stronger future. If a shared American creed still exists, it’s a belief that exercise is integral to a life well lived. A century ago, working out was a...

Tired of handwringing reports about "lost" and "disappearing" New York? These dispatches show a different side of the city—resilient and flourishing despite the naysayers and high rent. Like a modern-day Joseph Mitchell, Cometbus visits projectionists studying Chinese in their booths, prophets whose pulpits are illegal sublets, and personal assistants who rule the roost once their bosses are out of sight....

The untold story of Chicago's pivotal role as a country and folk music capital. Chicago is revered as a musical breeding ground, having launched major figures like blues legend Muddy Waters, gospel soul icon Mavis Staples, hip-hop firebrand Kanye West, and the jazz-rock band that shares its name with the city. Far less known, however, is the vital role Chicago...

A nuanced look at how the Museum of Modern Art’s carefully curated treatment of Latin American architecture promoted U.S. political, economic, and cultural interests. In the interwar period and immediately following World War II, the U.S. government promoted the vision of a modern, progressive, and democratic Latin America and worked to cast the region as a partner in the fight...

An informed and practical road map for controlling disinformation, embracing free speech, saving American elections, and protecting democracy “Hasen puts forth a number of solid recommendations on how to combat disinformation.”—Richard Stengel, New York Times “Hasen has written an extraordinary, thorough and fair examination of the impact of misinformation on democracy.”—Jeff Kosseff, Lawfare What can be done consistent with the...

From the vital voice of Elijah Anderson, Black in White Space sheds fresh light on the dire persistence of racial discrimination in our country. A birder strolling in Central Park. A college student lounging on a university quad. Two men sitting in a coffee shop. Perfectly ordinary actions in ordinary settings—and yet, they sparked jarring and inflammatory responses that involved...

A New York Times Bestseller! This new and updated edition finally proves the shocking identity of the Black Dahlia killer—and the police corruption that concealed it for so long. In 1947, the brutal, sadistic murder of a beautiful young woman named Elizabeth Short led to the largest manhunt in LA history. The killer teased and taunted the police and public...

In Becoming Belle da Costa Greene: A Visionary Librarian through Her Letters, Deborah Parker chronicles the making and empowerment of a female connoisseur, curator, and library director in a world where such positions were held by men. Belle da Costa Greene (1879–1950) was Pierpont Morgan's personal librarian (1908–1913) and the first Director of the Morgan Library (1924–1948). She was also...

Drawing on vivid contemporary accounts, this is a fascinating exploration of how and why the Revolutionary War descended into a brutal existential struggle. This engrossing history of the Revolutionary War conclusively shows that those caught up in it believed they had nothing to lose by fighting without regard for the rules of so-called “civilized warfare.” The clarion call to arms...

An incisive history of the venture-capital industry.-New Yorker An excellent and original economic history of venture capital.-Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution A detailed, fact-filled account of America's most celebrated moneymen.-New Republic Extremely interesting, readable, and informative. Tom Nicholas tells you most everything you ever wanted to know about the history of venture capital, from the financing of the whaling industry to...

"Even in these dismal times, genuinely important books do occasionally make their appearance. While Tomorrow, the World is not a long book, it is a tour de force."-Andrew J. Bacevich, The Nation "Stephen Wertheim isn't only a great historian of American foreign policy. He uses history to offer a critique of American foreign policy that Americans desperately need now."-Peter Beinart,...

A brilliant blend of graphic and literary narration and a lovely work of art in itself. — Kirkus, STARRED Review Rendered in gorgeously carved wood blocks and buffeted with historical supplemental material, John Vasquez Mejias's The Puerto Rican War tells the story of the 1950 insurrection on the island that resulted in 38 deaths and a failed assassination attempt against...

Rethinking the causes and consequences of Britain’s default on its First World War debts to the United States of America The Long Shadow of Default focuses on an important but neglected example of sovereign default between two of the wealthiest and most powerful democracies in modern history. The United Kingdom accrued considerable financial debts to the United States during and...

Strangeness abounds in every corner of the United States—read all about it in this entertaining compendium of real-life stories! Americans may think of themselves as the most normal people in the world, but that assumption will be turned on its head when you dig into the contents of Strange USA. From political scandals and dumb crooks to oddball roadside attractions...

“A stunning atlas of the present and future.” — Rebecca Solnit, author of several books including Infinite Cities: A Trilogy of Atlases—San Francisco, New Orleans, New York This immersive portal to islands around the world highlights the impacts of sea level rise and shimmers with hopeful solutions to combat it. Atlases are being redrawn as islands are disappearing. What does...

The leading U.S. expert on abortion law charts the many meanings associated with Roe v. Wade during its fifty-year history. "Ziegler sets a brisk pace but delivers substantial depth. . . . A must-read for those seeking to understand what comes next."—Publishers Weekly What explains the insistent pull of Roe v. Wade? Abortion law expert Mary Ziegler argues that the...

A rediscovery of patriotism as a virtue in line with the core values of democracy in an extremist age "Like you perhaps, I still regard myself as an extremely patriotic person. Which is why I so admired [this book]. . . . It explained my emotion to me, as it might yours to you."—David Brooks, New York Times "Smith superbly...

Winner of the Littleton-Griswold Prize Winner of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award Winner of the Order of the Coif Award Winner of the David J. Langum Sr. Prize in American Legal History Winner of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Book Prize A Smithsonian Best History Book of the Year "With insights ranging from the joy of the open road...

The next phase of the war over reproduction in America What's next for the battle over abortion? Mary Ziegler argues that simply undoing Roe v. Wade has never been the endpoint for the anti-abortion movement. Since the 1960s, the larger goal has been to secure recognition of fetuses and embryos as persons under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,...

A leading expert on foreign policy reveals how tensions between America, NATO, and Russia transformed geopolitics in a Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2021 “Sarotte has the receipts, as it were: her authoritative tale draws on thousands of memos, letters, briefs, and other once secret documents—including many that have never been published before—which both fill in and complicate settled narratives...

An in-depth exploration of social media and emergent technology that details the inner workings of modern propaganda Until recently, propaganda was a top-down, elite-only system of communication control used largely by state actors. Today, as Samuel Woolley argues, social media has democratised propaganda, allowing nearly anyone to launch a fairly sophisticated, computationally enhanced, propaganda campaign. Woolley shows how social media,...

In his best-selling book The Color of Law, Richard Rothstein demolished the de facto segregation myth that black and white Americans live separately by choice, providing "the most forceful argument ever published on how federal, state, and local governments gave rise to the reinforced neighborhood segregation" (William Julius Wilson). This landmark work—through its nearly one million copies sold—has helped to...

The remarkable story of how confession became a defining rite for American Catholics—and then, beginning in the 1970s, all but disappeared. For generations, American Catholics went faithfully to confession, admitting their sins to a priest and accepting through him God's forgiveness. The sacrament served as a distinctive marker of Catholic identity, shaping parishioners' views of their relationship to God, their...

How is it that Americans are more obsessed with exercise than ever, and yet also unhealthier? Fit Nation explains how we got here and imagines how we might create a more inclusive, stronger future. If a shared American creed still exists, it's a belief that exercise is integral to a life well-lived. A century ago, working out was the activity...

A renowned political philosopher updates his classic book on the American political tradition to address the perils democracy confronts today. The 1990s were a heady time. The Cold War had ended, and America’s version of liberal capitalism seemed triumphant. And yet, amid the peace and prosperity, anxieties about the project of self-government could be glimpsed beneath the surface. So argued...

The comprehensive critical biography of silent-screen star Marion Davies, who fittingly referred to herself as "the captain of my soul." From Marion Davies's humble days in Brooklyn to her rise to fame alongside press baron William Randolph Hearst, the public life story of the film star plays like a modern fairy tale shaped by gossip columnists, fan magazines, biopics, and...

Bad Law, a New York Times bestseller by Elie Mystal, offers a brilliant takedown of ten shocking pieces of legislation that continue to perpetuate hate, racial bias, injustice, and inequality today. This is an urgent yet hopeful read for our current political climate. Mystal is described as a grassroots legal superhero, with a superpower of explaining to the masses, in...

The law is nature. The law is only a word for what has a right to happen. When the law is wrong it's because it's unnatural, but in this case it is natural and a river will drown you if you buck it now. Let her go. And bless her. Set among Italian-Americans on the Brooklyn waterfront, A View from...

The dramatic events of 2020—the presidential election, the COVID-19 pandemic, protests for racial justice—affected every corner of American life. What did these events mean for the residents of small towns and cities that are often overlooked by national newspapers? How do local stories change when they are told by journalists with roots in these communities? And what is lost as...

For the past eight decades, we have lived in “the American Century” – a period during which the US has enjoyed unrivalled power – be it political, economic or military - on the global stage. Born on the cusp of this new era, Joseph S. Nye Jr. has spent a lifetime illuminating our understanding of the changing contours of American...

A thorough and groundbreaking addition to our understanding of the RFK assassination based on newly released police reports and government documents. In A Lie Too Big to Fail, longtime Kennedy researcher (of both JFK and RFK) Lisa Pease lays out, in meticulous detail, how witnesses with evidence of conspiracy were silenced by the Los Angeles Police Department; how evidence was...

Old houses share their secrets only if they survive. Trading the corporate ladder for a stepladder, Lee McColgan commits to preserving the ramshackle Loring House, built in 1702, using period materials and methods and on a holiday deadline. But his enchantment withers as he discovers the massive repairs it needs. A small kitchen fix reveals that the structure's rotten frame...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER An NPR Best Book of the Year In this spectacular, newsmaking exposé that has the entertainment industry abuzz and on its heels, Vanity Fair's Maureen Ryan blows the lid off patterns of harassment and bias in Hollywood, the grassroots reforms underway, and the labour and activist revolutions that recent scandals have...

Why do people choose the life of an artist, and what happens when they find themselves barely scraping by? Why does New York City, even in an era of hypergentrification, still beckon to aspiring artists as a place to make art and remake yourself? Art Monster takes readers to the margins of the professional art world, populated by unseen artists...

Every town has a haunted place, but few roads carry the weight of legend like Missouri's Zombie Road. For generations, people have whispered about widows in white, maniacs crouched in shacks, soldiers marching where no wars were fought, children laughing in the trees, and lights that hover and vanish with a will of their own. But Zombie Road is more...

When the Moment Chose Me: The Day ISIS Came to Garland, TX recounts the harrowing events of May 3, 2015, when an ISIS-inspired attack turned a peaceful evening in Garland, Texas, into a scene of chaos. The book draws on first-hand accounts, investigative records, and expert analysis to detail how two radicalised individuals attempted to wreak havoc during a cartoon...

An "unsparing, erudite, and incisive" (Jelani Cobb, staff writer, The New Yorker) reframing of the past and present of Black resistance—both nonviolent and violent—to white supremacy. Named a Best Book of 2024 by Smithsonian, Kirkus, Chicago Review of Books, and Emancipator Black resistance to white supremacy is often reduced to a simple binary, between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s nonviolence...

The powerful, untold story of the 1950 revolution in Puerto Rico, and the long history of U.S. intervention in the island.

The death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers in 2020 reignited a passionate nationwide debate over Confederate memorials and flags as symbols of white supremacy in our public landscape. Controversies about Confederate monuments, however, have overshadowed more consequential battles over Civil War memory taking place in American politics, popular culture, and civil society today. Integrating the...

The #1 New York Times bestseller from David McCullough, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize — the dramatic story-behind-the-story about the courageous brothers who taught the world how to fly — Wilbur and Orville Wright. On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two brothers — bicycle mechanics from Dayton, Ohio — changed history. But...

The list of American war correspondents who covered the European Theater of Operations during the Second World War is a veritable Who’s Who of American literary and journalistic greats of the Twentieth Century. Between them, the reporters, photographers, novelists, and film makers listed above have amassed two Nobel Prizes, three Pulitzer Prizes, four Presidential Medals of Freedom, two Academy Awards,...

From the Bridegrooms and Giants to the Mets and Yankees, discover 136 years of epic clashes that made the Subway Series a legendary rivalry. For nearly thirty years, the modern-day tradition of the Subway Series has featured epic moments and iconic players squaring off to capture ultimate New York baseball bragging rights. With origins predating the advent of Gotham City’s...

We have been here before. In this timely and revealing #1 New York Times betseller, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham helps us understand the present moment in American politics and life by looking back at critical times in our history when hope overcame division and fear. #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER . Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham helps us understand...

After George H. W. Bush lost his re-election bid to Bill Clinton in 1992, John Robert Greene’s verdict on the 41st president of the United States was that he “brought no discredit to the office” and “was both patient and prudent. . . mak [ing] few mistakes.” In the years since the release of Greene’s profile of the senior Bush,...

Mountain Men were the principal figures of the fur trade era, one of the most interesting, dramatic, and truly significant phases of the history of the American trans-Mississippi West during the first half of the 19th Century. These men were of all types—some were fugitives from law and civilisation, others were the best in rugged manhood; some were heroic, some...

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Wager comes a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction “with all the pace and excitement of a movie thriller” (The New York Times) that unravels the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century—the story of the legendary British explorer who ventured into the Amazon jungle...

Exploring archaeological sites and materials that uncover the history of the Bay State over four centuriesMassachusetts’s rich tapestry of people, places, and events has long been researched by historical archaeologists. Through archaeological sites and materials that document pivotal moments as well as lesser-known parts of the state’s history, this book chronicles the diverse story of the commonwealth from the seventeenth...

Exploring archaeological sites and materials that uncover the history of the Bay State over four centuriesMassachusetts’s rich tapestry of people, places, and events has long been researched by historical archaeologists. Through archaeological sites and materials that document pivotal moments as well as lesser-known parts of the state’s history, this book chronicles the diverse story of the commonwealth from the seventeenth...

Redrawing the map and resetting the clock of the Age of Revolutions In 2015, Bryan Banks and Cindy Ermus launched AgeofRevolutions.com, a site offering critical reconsideration of the foundational concept of revolution and centered on three key questions: What was the Age of Revolutions? Where was the Age of Revolutions? And are we still living in an Age of Revolutions?...

An authoritative assessment of the early American republic through the lens of gender What does it mean to study early American history through gender? The essays in this collection, written by the best emerging and established historians in the field, bring together women's history with masculinity studies to showcase the transformative impact of gender history on our understanding of the...

The shut-down of Omaha, Nebraska's Franklin Community Federal Credit Union, raided by federal agencies in November 1988, sent shock waves all the way to Washington, D.C. $40 million was missing. The credit union's manager: Republican Party activist Lawrence E. "Larry" King, Jr., behind whose rise to fame and riches stood powerful figures in Nebraska politics and business, and in the...

Understanding overlooked dimensions of the Cuban Revolution and its impact on the global left in the 1960s and beyondThis volume reconsiders revolutionary Cuba’s global influence by shifting the focus from high-level political leaders to perspectives traditionally sidelined, offering new insights into how everyday lives, family dynamics, and notions of gender and sexuality impacted revolutionary transformation. Its expansive scope uncovers ties...

In 1822, Black Charlestonians attempted to overthrow slavery. They were exposed before they could strike, and many were tried and executed in what has come to be known as the Denmark Vesey Affair. Take Freedom reinterprets these events on the basis of new evidence and methods. James O'Neil Spady narrates the roles of a variety of Black men and women,...

In Rogue States, Matthew A. Frakes reveals the connection between US national security strategy at the end of the Cold War and the beginning of the War on Terror. Throughout a series of crises from 1981 to 1991, the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush recognized that emerging threats to global security – terrorism, regional aggression, weapons...

Protest and Pedagogy traces how, and in what ways, high school teachers and students sustained and propelled the Black freedom struggle in Charlottesville, Virginia. It centres the relationship between protest and pedagogy within classrooms and the surrounding community of Charlottesville. The story spotlights the resistance of Black teachers and students in the American high school throughout the nation during the...

Political Thinkers for Our Time explains the principles that are foundational to the Anglo-American political tradition by looking at leading thinkers and statesmen who wrote about them. In discussing each thinker, William T. Reddinger introduces such principles as the rule of law, property rights, religious liberty, and limited government. Throughout, Reddinger shows how these figures can inform our thinking about...

Containing over 1200 photographs and detailed line drawings from which one can design and build directly, National Park Style is a valuable reference for preservationists, historians, designers, and homeowners. Albert Good provided plans for the construction of cabins, lodges, hotels, fireplaces, boat houses, furniture, fixtures, and more. Initially developed as a teaching tool for designers in the 1930s, this book...

In Millions of Gifts for the Gods, Jonathan E. Reyman chronicles a remarkable thirty-four-year applied anthropology initiative that bridged ancient traditions with contemporary conservation challenges. From 1982 to 2015, the Feather Distribution Project addressed the critical need for macaw, parrot, and wild turkey feathers essential to Pueblo religious practices, directly supporting their constitutional right to freedom of religion. Grounded in...

At the end of the nineteenth century, William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal glorified cubanas as "the most feminine and simple women in the world." Ever since, the stereotype of Cuban femininity as chaste and dutiful has informed Cubans' racial, social, and ethnic identity in the dominant American imagination, and this gendered and deracialized narrative has taken different forms and...

Previously unpublished, Land! unites John Crowe Ransom's poetic sensibilities with his argument for an agrarian economy as an alternative to capitalism.In Land!, the accomplished poet and scholar John Crowe Ransom, leading member of the Southern Agrarian movement, examines economics at the height of the Great Depression. Long thought to have been burned by its author after he failed to find...

Unique among presidents’ wives, Lady Bird Johnson was not only one of the leading environmentalists of the twentieth century, she also redefined the institution of First Lady. In this first book in an innovative new series, Lewis Gould shows why Mrs. Johnson ranks with Eleanor Roosevelt as a significant innovator of the First Lady role. Building upon his much admired...

A treasury of poetry and prose from an unsung trailblazer of Black literature Lucia M. Pitts ( 1904-1973) was an African American writer and Army veteran whose story has never been told. Her poetry, including love lyrics of striking sensuality and honesty, was admired by Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Dorothy West. Her work first appeared during the Harlem Renaissance,...

The rise of Donald Trump may have shocked Americans, but it should not have surprised them. His anti-democratic movement is the culmination of a decades-long breakdown of U.S. institutions. The same blindness to U.S. decline—particularly the loss of economic stability for the majority of the population and opportunity-hoarding by the few—is reflected in an unwillingness to accept that authoritarianism can...

Soon to be a major motion picture starring Golden Globe-winner Taraji P. Henson and Academy Award-winners Octavia Spencer and Kevin Costner. Set against the backdrop of the Jim Crow South and the civil rights movement, the never-before-told true story of NASA's African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America's space programme — and whose contributions have been unheralded,...

Health as Property shows how responses to racism can be predatory, harmful, and dangerous to poor people of colour. Nic Ramos examines a Black-led academic medical centre known as King-Drew that was built in response to the 1965 Watts Uprising. Forged by the political willingness of white voters to experiment with anti-poverty programmes in poor neighbourhoods of colour, the health...

In this classic account of the American revolution, Pauline Maier traces the step-by-step process through which the extra-legal institutions of the colonial resistance movement assumed authority from the British. She follows the American Whigs as they moved by stages from the organized resistance of the Stamp Act crisis of 1765 through the non-importation associations of the late 1760s to the...

In this major new history of the Continental Army’s Grand Forage of 1778, award-winning military historian Ricardo A. Herrera uncovers what daily life was like for soldiers during the darkest and coldest days of the American Revolution: the Valley Forge winter. Here, the army launched its largest and riskiest operation—not a bloody battle against British forces but a campaign to...

A definitive history of the United States' recovery from the Great Depression—and the New Deal's true part in it. FDR's New Deal has long enjoyed a special place in American history and policy—both because it redefined the government's fundamental responsibilities and because Roosevelt's "bold experimentation" represented a type of policymaking many would like to see repeated. But "the thing about...

Examining the early debates in the United States over how best to educate the constituents of the new nation. When the founding fathers of the United States inaugurated a system of government that was unprecedented in the modern world, they knew that a functioning democracy required an educated electorate capable of making rational decisions. But who would validate the information...