Books

From the Reading List: Spring 2024

The Institute Letter, Spring 2024

This selection of books provides a peek into the treasure-trove of scholar publications from the Schools of Historical Studies and Social Science that have been promoted via the Institute’s social media channels in the past six months.

New York Times

What Communes and Other Radical Experiments in Living Together Reveal

June 09, 2023

“'Today’s future-positive writers critique our economies while largely seeming to ignore that anything might be amiss in our private lives,' writes [past Member in the School of Social Science] Kristen Ghodsee."

Publishers Weekly

For the Good of All: PW Talks with Kristen Ghodsee

March 10, 2023

An interview with Kristen Ghodsee, past Member in the School of Social Science (2006–07), on her new book Everyday Utopia.

Social Science

Horizon Work: At the Edges of Knowledge in an Age of Runaway Climate Change

A book by Adriana Petryna

Adriana Petryna, past Member (2003–04) and Visitor (2006) in the School of Social Science, has authored Horizon Work: At the Edges of Knowledge in an Age of Runaway Climate Change, offering a new perspective on the current climate crisis.

Social Science

Crisis Under Critique

Edited By Didier Fassin and Axel Honneth

James D. Wolfensohn Professor Didier Fassin and past Distinguished Visiting Professor Axel Honneth (2018–19) are the editors of Crisis Under Critique: How People Assess, Transform, and Respond to Critical Situations.

Public Books

Hiding in Plain Sight: Talking Aquifer Depletion with Lucas Bessire

March 16, 2022

"The Ogallala aquifer, one of the earth’s largest, extends from South Dakota to Texas and, today, supports one-sixth of the world’s grain production, even as it is quickly being drained to the point of collapse. Lucas Bessire’s Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains, which was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Award, is a story about the politics and livelihoods that have sustained this extraction."

Social Science

Pandemic Exposures

Edited by Didier Fassin and Marion Fourcade

Pandemic Exposures: Economy and Society in the Time of Coronavirus, a collection of essays on the COVID-19 pandemic and its reverberations, edited by James D. Wolfensohn Professor Didier Fassin and Visiting Professor Marion Fourcade (2019-20).

Historical Studies

Ellsworth Kelly: Volume Two, 1954-1958

A book by Yve-Alain Bois

Yve-Alain Bois, Professor in the School of Historical Studies, has completed volume two of his catalogue raisonné of American painter Ellsworth Kelly. Working with the artist’s estate, Bois has produced a thorough catalogue of the artist’s paintings, sculptures, and reliefs between the years 1954 and 1958, including high-quality reproductions of the art, history of ownership and exhibition, and bibliographic notes.

Black Perspectives @AAIHS

Fannie Lou Hamer’s Legacy: An Interview with Keisha N. Blain

September 27, 2021

Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America, by Social Science Member Keisha N. Blain will be published by Beacon Press on October 5, 2021. The book explores Hamer's ideas and political strategies, highlighting their relevance for tackling modern social issues including voter suppression, police violence, and economic inequality.

New York Times

The Dangers of Making War Less Dangerous

September 08, 2021

"Can we imagine, as Samuel Moyn puts it in 'Humane,' his smart and provocative new book, 'a future of war beyond killing'? It sounds like a worthy goal. Why wouldn’t less killing be anything but better?"

Read book critic Jennifer Szalai's review at the New York Times.