The End of Engagement

David M. McCourt

In The End of Engagement, David M. McCourt traces the intense personal, professional, and policy struggles over China and Russia in U.S. foreign policy since 1989. Drawing on 200 original interviews with America's China and Russia experts—from former policymakers and diplomats to prominent think tankers and academics—McCourt chronicles the rise and recent fall of "engagement" with Beijing and Moscow.

Riding Like the Wind

Iris Jamahl Dunkle

In "Riding Like the Wind," renowned biographer Iris Jamahl Dunkle revives the groundbreaking voice of Sanora Babb. Dunkle follows Babb from her impoverished childhood in eastern Colorado to California. There, she befriended the era's literati, including Ray Bradbury and Ralph Ellison; entered into an illegal marriage; and was blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee. It was Babb's field notes and oral histories of migrant farmworkers that Steinbeck relied on to write his novel. "Riding Like the Wind" reminds us with fresh awareness that the stories we know—and who tells them—can change the way we remember history.

Hidden in Plain Sight

Fiamma Montezemolo

For Professor Fiamma Montezemolo, as for Fred Murdock, this rite of passage is a break and a crossing: a break from anthropology’s traditional forms of expression and a crossing into the realm of visual art.  Hidden in Plain Sight is an auto-anthology carefully curated to reveal the rich tapestry of Montezemolo’s diverse work.

Without Exception

Pam Houston

Pam Houston illuminates the interconnected histories of abortion in the United States and in her own life during the decades when Roe v. Wade was the law of the land. Houston guides us through the shifting landscapes of politics, the law, and self-determination in a country where access to medical care and the power to determine your own destiny are increasingly—and once again—dependent on geography and circumstance.

Trust in the Land

Beth Rose Middleton Manning

Beth Rose Middleton examines new and innovative ideas concerning Native land conservancies, providing advice on land trusts, collaborations, and conservation groups. Increasingly, tribes are working to protect their access to culturally important lands by collaborating with Native and non- Native conservation movements.

Creating Our Own

Zoila S Mendoza

In "Creating Our Own," anthropologist Zoila S. Mendoza explores the early-twentieth-century development of the “folkloric arts”—particularly music, dance, and drama—in Cuzco, Peru, revealing the central role that these expressive practices played in shaping ethnic and regional identities.

Shaping Society Through Dance

Zoila S Mendoza

During the patron saint fiesta in the Andean town of San Jerónimo, Peru, crowds gather at sunset in the town square, eagerly awaiting the entrance of the colorful dance troupes, or comparsas. With their masks, music, and surprising interpretations of contemporary events, the comparsas of the Cusco region are the focus of this multifaceted work.

The Book of Yokai

Michael Dylan Foster and Shinonome Kijin

Perched on a tall bookshelf between mythology and folklore texts in Michael Dylan Foster’s office sits a green statuette, its mouth agape and hiding its eyes behind webbed fingers. Foster is an author, anthology editor and the host of a mini-series about “yōkai” for The Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK).

Kernels of Resistance

Liza Grandia

Liza Grandia chronicles how diverse coalitions in Mexico and Guatemala have defended their sacred maize against corporate threats to privatize it. Rather than just "voting with their forks" like the consumer-driven US food movement, Mesoamerican farmers and their allies have voted with their feet through direct action.

Nat Turner, Black Prophet

Anthony E. Kaye with Gregory P. Downs

Nat Turner, Black Prophet is the fullest recounting to date of Turner’s uprising, and the first that takes his divine visions seriously. The book traces their emergence from the world of nineteenth-century Methodism, with its revivals, camp meetings, interracial churches and Black preachers.