Category: History

September 29, 2021

Presidential Pardons: A History of Healing Divisions Through Reconciliation

By Graham G. Dodds

Before the assault on the Capitol nine months ago, the question of how to deal with a domestic rebellion probably struck most Americans as an antiquarian hypothetical. After all, aside from the Civil War, the country hasn’t had much experience with...

September 1, 2021

National Translation Month 2021! A Celebration of Diverse Voices

By Olivia Treynor

Welcome to National Translation Month 2021! Founded eight years ago, National Translation Month is an annual celebration of global literature. This September, we are excited to present an eclectic mix of books. Ranging from a beloved Persian epic to a...

July 26, 2021

The Complicated Legacy of Black Patriotism

By Justene Hill Edwards

Black people have been in the United States since before its founding. Though they have fought in every major military conflict in American history, African Americans have engaged in an uphill battle to force this nation to uphold the lofty...

June 17, 2021

Challenged Friendships in Challenging Times

From the Introduction to U.S. Strategy in the Asian Century

By Abraham Denmark

As the twenty-first century seems to be dominated by great power competition between China and the United States, everyone wonders whether war will come and how to avoid it. In U.S. Strategy in the Asian Century: Empowering Allies and Partners,...

June 17, 2021

Camp Century in a Changing Arctic

By Kristian H. Nielsen and Henry Nielsen

When Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken paid an official visit to the Kingdom of Denmark on May 16–20, 2021, he engaged with ministers from the Danish, Faroese, and Greenlandic governments. We know that they discussed bilateral ties and joint...

June 17, 2021

Which Way for the Biden/Blinken World Liberal Order?

By Leon Fink

In the spring 2017, Antony Blinken, then a resident fellow at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, taught a seminar on America’s role in the world. Against a background of growing doubt among many Americans about the advantages of...

June 17, 2021

Browse Our SHAFR 2021 Virtual Exhibit Booth with Stephen Wesley

Hello there, I’m Stephen Wesley, the American history editor at Columbia University Press. Since the coronavirus pandemic has canceled most of the spring conferences—the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations annual program included—we are mounting virtual book exhibits on...

June 1, 2021

Transtopia: A Keyword for Our Century

By Howard Chiang

My first attempt to bring together Chinese studies and transgender studies dates to a conference I organized in 2009. That conference resulted in an edited volume called Transgender China (2012). Not long after the book appeared, I discovered that my...

April 14, 2021

Race and the History of Capitalism

By Destin Jenkins and Justin C. Leroy

In 1983, Cedric J. Robinson popularized the term “racial capitalism,” referring to the way that the violent dispossessions inherent to capital accumulation operate by creating, leveraging, and intensifying racial distinctions. But he did not invent the term. It first cohered...

April 14, 2021

Capitalism and the Economic Lives of Enslaved People

By Justene Hill Edwards

In 1805, one of enslaved peoples’ greatest fears came true for a man named Charles Ball. His enslaver sold the thirty-year-old to a slave trader bound for the Carolinas and Georgia, far from his family in Maryland. Ball was funneled...

April 14, 2021

Browse Our OAH 2021 Virtual Exhibit Booth with Stephen Wesley

I am delighted to present the 2021 Columbia University Press new books in American history. The titles featured here demonstrate the vibrancy of Columbia University Press’s program as we continue a long tradition of publishing top scholarship in the field. The...

April 5, 2021

Browse Our ISA 2021 Virtual Exhibit Booth with Caelyn Cobb

Hello, and welcome to the second annual (and hopefully the last) Columbia University Press International Studies Association Virtual Exhibit Booth! I’m Caelyn Cobb, the editor for global and international politics, coming to you live from my apartment in Queens, New...