New Scholarly Books by History Department Faculty

New scholarly books by History Department faculty

Beginning where most histories of the Vietnam War end, Invisible
Enemies examines the relationship between the United States and
Vietnam following the American pullout in 1975. Drawing on a broad
range of sources, Edwin Martini shows how the United States continued to wage war on Vietnam "by other means" for another twenty-five years. In addition to imposing an extensive program of economic sanctions, the United States opposed Vietnam's membership in the United Nations, supported the Cambodians, including the Khmer Rouge, in their decade-long war with the Vietnamese, and insisted that Vietnam provide a "full accounting" of American MIAs before diplomatic relations could be established. Martini reinforces his assessment of American diplomacy with an analysis of the "cultural front"—the movies, myths, memorials, and other phenomena that supported continuing hostility toward Vietnam while silencing opposing views of the war and its legacies, arguing that the "American War on Vietnam" was as much a battle for the cultural memory of the war within the United States as it was a lengthy economic, political, and diplomatic campaign to punish a former adversary. For More information on Martini's book see University of Massachusetts Press.

Ambitious in its historical scope and its broad range of topics, Tied to the Great Packing Machine tells the dramatic story of meatpacking’s enormous effects on the economics, culture, and environment of the Midwest over the past century and a half. Wilson Warren situates the history of the industry in both its urban and its rural settings—moving from the huge stockyards of Chicago and Kansas City to today’s smaller meatpacking communities—and thus presents a complete portrayal of meatpacking’s place within the larger agro-industrial landscape. For more information on Warren's book see University of Iowa Press.

Gender in Transition book cover Gender in Transition analyzes profound changes in the discourse and practice of gender in German-speaking Europe during the late Enlightenment, ca. 1750-1830. Marion W. Gray collaborated with Ulrike Gleixner of the Herzog-August Library in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, to convene an interdisciplinary cast of scholars from both sides of the Atlantic in order to produce the book. The researchers use multiple lenses to assess these transformations, including law, urban politics, marriage, religion, art, literature, natural science, fashion, and personal relationships. See http://www.press.umich.edu/titleDetailDesc.do?id=94882

The History of How the Spaniards Arrived in Peru, by Titu Cusi Yupanqui, an Inca who wrote a history of his father's dealings with Francisco Pizarro at the time they arrived in Cuzco, the Inca capital, has just been published by Hackett Publishing Company. Catherine Julien prepared the edition from the original manuscript held at the Escorial in Spain, translated it into English and wrote the introduction. The book is available in both paper and hardcover.

Mitch Kachun has co-edited, with literary scholar William L. Andrews, an edition of Julia C. Collins's The Curse of Caste; or The Slave Bride. The volume contains Collins's 1865 serialized novel and her collected essays. The editors' Introduction introduces modern readers to this previously unknown African American author and provides extensive discussion of her work’s literary and historical significance. For more information see Oxford University Press and also http://www.wmich.edu/wmu/news/2006/12/043.html.