Books
Three different books by CMC professors showcase their expertise, while offering three distinct ways of looking at the upcoming presidential election in November.
Jack Pitney serves up a provocative point-of-view; while Jon Shields and co-author Stephanie Muravchik share what they learned traveling to working-class communities in three states, and Ken Miller analyzes national politics by examining the rivalry between “Red-Republican Texas” and “Blue-Democratic California.”
Inspired by conversations she was having in May about police brutality and killings of Black Americans, Sobechukwu (Sobé) Uwajeh ’22 knew she had to take action. On the lookout for literature to educate others about racism, she posted to her Instagram account a “starter kit” of recommended books about how to be an anti-racist.
Hailey Wilson ’22 saw Uwajeh’s post and immediately and enthusiastically texted her with another idea - they should start an anti-racist book club at CMC.
Ibram X. Kendi would like to banish the term “not racist” from our vocabulary. The historian, scholar, and writer said it is important for people challenging inequities to actively become antiracist and not merely “not racist.” The reason, he said, is that progenitors of racist ideas have always self-identified their ideas as “not racist.”
How much does the average American actually know about Mexico, our neighbor to the south? Beyond geography, how entwined are Mexico and the U.S., policy-wise? To answer, do you first need to understand Mexico’s political environment? The questions might sound daunting, but a new book by Roderic Camp, Philip M. McKenna Professor of the Pacific Rim at CMC, answers them fully.
UPDATE 12/16: Read the Foreign Affairs review of Russia's Path Toward Enlightenment.
The Marc Raeff Book Prize has been awarded to Gary M. Hamburg, Otho M. Behr Professor of the History of Ideas at CMC, for his book Russia’s Path toward Enlightenment: Faith, Politics, and Reason, 1500-1801.
Prof. Minxin Pei's new book, China’s Crony Capitalism: The Dynamics of Regime Decay (Harvard University Press) received a positive review in The Economist.
Prof. Lee Skinner's new text, Gender and the Rhetoric of Modernity in Spanish America, 1850–1910, looks at how 19th-century Spanish American writers re-imagined gender roles, modernization, and national identity during Spanish America’s uneven transition toward modernity.
It’s not often that an author writes what may come to be considered a seminal work. But that’s what Gary Hamburg, Otho M. Behr Professor of the History of Ideas at CMC, has done with his new book: Russia’s Path toward Enlightenment: Faith, Politics, and Reason, 1500-1801.
Published by Yale University Press in June, the book offers an in-depth examination of every important Russian thinker and their ideas regarding faith, politics and reason over a period of three centuries.