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2013

Dr. Stone's New Book on Comparative Revolutions Published with Cambridge Press

Stone

Cambridge University Press has announced the publication in November 2013 of The Anatomy of Revolution Revisited: A Comparative Analysis of England, France, and Russia.  This is the latest book by Dr. Bailey Stone, longtime Professor of European History & International Affairs at the University of Houston.

This 530-page study aims to update a classic of comparative revolutionary analysis, Crane Brinton’s 1938 synthesis The Anatomy of Revolution.   It invokes the latest research and theoretical writing in history, political science, and political sociology to compare and contrast, in their successive phases, the English Revolution of 1640-60, the French Revolution of 1789-99, and the Russian Revolution of 1917-29.  Venturing beyond both Marxian “class” analysis and “revisionist” stresses on short-term, fortuitous factors in revolutionary causation and process, this book seeks ways to reconcile state-centered or “structuralist” explanations of the three major European upheavals with “postmodernist” accounts playing up the centrality of human agency, discourse, ideology, mentalities, and political culture.

Jack A. Goldstone, the Virginia E. and John T. Hazel, Jr. Professor of Public Policy and Eminent Scholar at George Mason University, has described The Anatomy of Revolution Revisited as “an outstanding book, a worthy sequel to Crane Brinton.”

The History Department congratulates Dr. Stone on his latest accomplishment.

 

Dr. Ittmann Publishes New Book on Population and Race in the British Empire

Ittmann

Dr. Karl Ittmann's new book, A Problem of Great Importance: Population, Race, and Power in the British Empire, 1918-1973, was published in the Berkeley Series in British Studies at the University of California Press in September 2013.

In this study, Ittmann traces British imperial efforts to engage metropolitan activists who could improve its knowledge of colonial demography and design programs to influence colonial population trends. While imperial population control failed to achieve its goals, British institutions and experts would be central to the development of postcolonial population programs.

The History Department congratulates Dr. Ittmann on his latest accomplishment.

Dr. Schafer Publishes New Book on the History of American Health Care

Schafer

Dr. James A. Schafer, Jr.'s new book, The Business of Private Medical Practice: Doctors. Specialization, and Urban Change in Philadelphia, 1900-1940 was published with Rutgers University Press in December 2013.

Dr. Schafer's book is a timely and important study that sheds light on the current state of the American health care system.  Using the case of early twentieth-century Philadelphia, the birthplace of American medicine, he shows how, with few financial incentives to locate in poor areas and with an increasingly competitive market, Philadelphia doctors clustered in central business districts and affluent suburbs.  This led to limited practices and decreased access to primary care, particularly in light of growing urbanization.  

One reviewer states that "Schafer offers a compelling study of some of the roots of today’s health-care woes . . . This rich social and economic history re-frames our understanding of a crucial period in American medicine."

The History Department congratulates Dr. Schafer on his latest accomplishment.

Dr. San Miguel Publishes New Book on Chicana/o Educational Activism

San Miguel

Dr. Guadalupe San Miguel, Jr. recently published Chicana/o Struggles for Education: Activism in the Community with Texas A & M University Press. In this book, San Miguel provides a nuanced overview and analysis of Chicana/o educational activism from 1960 to the present. Much of the history of Mexican American educational reform efforts has focused on campaigns to eliminate discrimination in public schools. However, as San Miguel Jr. demonstrates in this book, the story is much broader and more varied than that. While activists certainly challenged discrimination in the years after 1960, they also worked for specific public school reforms that met their varied academic needs and sought private and community-based schooling opportunities. The profusion of strategies has not erased patterns of de facto segregation and unequal academic achievement, he concludes, but it has played a key role in expanding educational opportunities. These actions also have extended and diversified the historic struggle for education waged by Mexican American activists in the first half of the 20th century. San Miguel’s important study offers enhanced insight into the quest for equal educational opportunity to new generations of students.

The Department of History Faculty congratulates Dr. San Miguel on the publication of this timely and important new book.

Dr. Decker Publishes New Book in the History of American Psychiatry

Decker Making DSMIII

Dr. Hannah S. Decker recently published The Making of DSM-III: A Diagnostic Manual’s Conquest of American Psychiatry with Oxford University Press.  Dr. Decker is a cultural historian of psychiatry and psychoanalysis.  Her new book deals with a revolutionary psychiatric diagnostic manual (the DSM) that dramatically changed the way most psychiatrists conceptualized mental disorders.  The focus shifted away from thinking about what causes mental disorders to just describing their symptoms.  The psychoanalytic view of mental disorders was eliminated.  The manual had far-reaching effects on American society as well, inaugurating a time when a DSM diagnosis could influence decisions of mental health professionals, patient advocacy groups, health insurance companies, lawyers, judges, prison officials, school administrators and teachers, guidance counselors, labor officials, employers, legislators, grant giving bodies, and media organizations.  Decker’s book is based on American Psychiatric Association archives never before used and has been called “magisterial” and a “landmark” by advance reviewers.

The Department of History Faculty congratulates Dr. Decker on the publication of this important new study.

Dr. Young Publishes New Studies of World War II, U.S. Presidency

Dr. Nancy Beck Young recently published Why We Fight: Congress and the Politics of World War II with the University Press of Kansas.  This book examines how moderates in Congress sided with liberals to make economic reforms from the New Deal permanent but worked with conservatives to thwart efforts for social justice reform during the World War II years.  Young also reveals just how important moderates are to successful governance.  The book shifts focus from a presidency-centered narrative of political history to a Congress-centered one, revising the literature of American political development at midcentury.

Dr. Young's six volume Encyclopedia of the U.S. Presidency was also published recently with Facts on File, a leading publisher of reference material.  Dr. Young was the editor for this project, the most comprehensive reference source available on the U.S. presidency.  One volume contains thematic essays about various aspects of the presidency, including diplomacy, party politics, relations with the press, and relations with Congress among other topics.  The remaining five volumes have lengthy chapters exploring the biographies and administrative histories of each of the nation's forty-four presidents along with a series of innovative essays defining major events and issues from each administration.

The Department of History Faculty congratulates Dr. Young on the publication of these important new works.

 

Dr. Milanesio Publishes Book on Consumer Culture in Argentina

Milanesio photo

Dr. Natalia Milanesio’s book, Workers Go Shopping in Argentina: The Rise of Popular Consumer Culture, was published by the University of New Mexico Press in February 2013.

Workers Go Shopping in Argentina shows the exceptional cultural and social visibility of low-income consumers in postwar Peronist Argentina along with their unprecedented economic and political influence. The book’s central premise is that working-class consumers shaped a new commercial ethos, transformed gender relations and social identities, and redefined the role of the state.  Milanesio's book is praised as "a must read for all historians of modern Argentina and for anyone interested in consumption and consumerism throughout Latin America.”

The Department of History Faculty congratulates Dr. Milanesio on the publication of this important new work.


Spring 2013 Faculty & Graduate Student Research Colloquium Schedule Announced

The University of Houston History Department, in conjunction with the Zeta Kappa Chapter of Phi Alpha Theta, the International Honor Society in History, announces the schedule of the Faculty and Graduate Student Research Colloquium meetings for the Spring 2013 semester.  Unless otherwise posted, all meetings will take place in Room 549 in Agnes Arnold Hall.  All members of the UH community, as well as members of the general public, are invited to attend these sessions featuring the research of faculty and graduate students in history at the University of Houston.

The schedule is as follows:

Thursday, February 28:
3:00 - 4:30PM
Eric McDonald, “Call to Farms: Military Men in the Planter Elite of Seventeenth Century Barbados”
Dan LeClair, “Supervising a Revolution: The Ordnance Select Committee, Private Inventors, and Military Technology in 19th-Century England”

Thursday, March 28:
3:00 - 4:30PM
Charlotte Whatley, “Temporalities Be Taken: Edward III, John Grandisson, and
the Fight for the Benefices of Exeter”
Stephanie Weiss, “Secure Prosperity and Freedom: The Legacy of
Madame C. J. Walker through Children’s Literature”
 

ThursdayApril 25:
3:00 - 4:30PM
Dr. Kairn Klieman, “The Uses and Abuses of Race/Ethnicity: U.S. Oil Companies
and their Operations in Africa, 1950-1980”

Any questions concerning the Graduate Research Colloquium can be addressed to Dr. Bailey Stone, Phi Alpha Theta faculty advisor, at 713-743-3115, or at bstone@uh.edu


Dr. Holt Earns Place on Notable Book Lists

Two books by Dr. Frank Holt have earned spots on notable book lists.  Into the Land of Bones: Alexander the Great in Afghanistan (University of California Press, 2005; new ed. 2012) was named as one of the five best books on guerrilla insurgencies in an article published in the Wall Street Journal.  His most recent book, Lost World of the Golden King: In Search of Ancient Afghanistan (University of California Press, 2012) was selected for "Books of the Year" for 2012 by the London Times Literary Supplement.  

Dr. Holt is one of the world’s leading authorities on Alexander the Great, Hellenistic Asia, and new research methodologies such as Cognitive Numismatics.

The history department congratulates Dr. Holt on his most recent honors.