Books

What do we really know about the experience of migrants at the border between Italy and France, the hazards they encounter, repression they endure, and the assistance they receive? These critical questions are addressed in Exile: Chronicle of the Border, a book by Didier Fassin, James D. Wolfensohn Professor in the School of Social Science, and Anne-Claire Defossez, Visitor in the School.

In August 2024, the Institute’s Historical Studies - Social Science Library (HS-SS) received a gift that sparked a host of connections to be made between old and new titles in the library’s holdings: a copy of Old English Studies and its Scandinavian Practitioners: Nationalism, Aesthetics, and Spirituality in the Nordic Countries, 1733–2023, sent by its author Robert E. Bjork, Member (2004–05) in the School of Historical Studies.

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.

After the COVID-19 pandemic saw public health erupt into the world’s consciousness, Didier Fassin, James D. Wolfensohn Professor in the School of Social Science, gave a series of lectures at the Collège de France in Paris proposing a new analysis of the moral and political issues at stake in the practice of public health. The lectures have been published by Polity Press in a book titled The Worlds of Public Health: Anthropological Excursions.

While some people were baking sourdough bread during the pandemic, Kristen Ghodsee, Member (2006–07) in the School of Social Science, studied utopian communities. In this interview, she discusses the resulting book, Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life, and her efforts to engage a non-academic audience through her writing and even TikTok!

The diplomat and historian George F. Kennan, Faculty (1956–74) in the School of Historical Studies, is the subject of a "clear-eyed, and compelling" biography written by Member (2009–10) and Director's Visitor (2011) Frank Costigliola.

Yve-Alain Bois, Professor Emeritus in the School of Historical Studies, has published An Oblique Autobiography, a collection of essays and reminiscences, with no place press.

The life and work of renowned scientist, visionary, and iconoclast Freeman Dyson, who spent most of his career at the Institute for Advanced Study, is the focus of a new book edited by American physicist and historian of science David Kaiser.

Animating the Antique: Sculptural Encounter in the Age of Aesthetic Theory, a pioneering work of eighteenth and nineteenth century art history, has been published by Penn State University Press. Sarah Betzer, a Member and former Visitor (2014–15, 2016) in the School of Historical Studies, wrote the book during her time at the Institute, culminating in the groundbreaking and widely-acclaimed text that spans a century-and-a-half and offers new account of the distinctively modern allure of the antique.

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.