Cornell University Press

07/28/2025

Architecture can be a mirror of power, identity, and resistance.

ARCHITECTURE IN OCEANIA, edited by Michael Falser, explores the overlooked architectural legacies of the South Pacific from 1840 to 1970. Going beyond British and French colonial narratives, this book highlights para-colonial and postcolonial entanglements — including rare insight into German influence — through case studies of buildings, cities, and cultural shifts.

If you’re interested in how history lives on through space and structure, this is essential reading.



Discover the book here:

Para-colonial, colonial, and postcolonial entanglements in South Pacific architectureKnowledge of colonial architecture in the South Pacific remains sparse, with often-overlooked connections to para-colonial...

07/25/2025

The Middle Ages were never just about kings, knights, and castles.

URBAN WOMEN by Chanelle Delameillieure, Andrea Bardyn, and Jelle Haemers uncovers the real stories of women in the medieval Low Countries—women who ran businesses, led protests, shaped communities, and made their voices heard.

This book brings to life a vibrant world where women weren’t on the margins—they were at the center.



Rediscover the past through their eyes:

Exploring women's stories of work, protest, and power in the medieval Low CountriesThe Middle Ages—a time often cast as a dark period when violence reigned and men dominated society. Women, as the...

07/24/2025

What happens when cultures read each other’s stories?

READING ACROSS CULTURES by Caroline Gruenbaum takes you into the world of medieval Ashkenaz, where Jewish writers translated stories of King Arthur, Aesop, and Alexander the Great into Hebrew.

This wasn’t religious literature. It was something new—entertaining, surprising, and shared across faiths.

Step into a world where Jewish and Christian cultures met on the page.



Discover more here:

Reading across Cultures explores a body of innovative Jewish literary works from the Middle Ages. In late twelfth- and thirteenth-century Ashkenaz—the Jewish communities in northern France, Germany,...

07/23/2025

What happens when a writer’s work inspires you… but their politics make you pause?

READING FAITHFULLY by Lindsay Ceballos explores how Russian critics of the Silver Age wrestled with that question as they reimagined Dostoevsky for a new era of political upheaval and religious renewal.

This book brings together literary, intellectual, and theater history to reveal how complex reading can be, especially when the stakes feel personal.

Dostoevsky’s work still challenges readers today.



Learn more here:

Reading Faithfully reveals how Russian critics of the Silver Age (the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries) reread and remade Fyodor Dostoevsky for their era of religious renewal amid a broader...

07/22/2025

AUTHOR EVENT: Thursday (7/24) at 2 pm at the Chautauqua Institution with Claudia Strauss, author of What Work Means: Beyond the Puritan Work Ethic

See this book: https://ow.ly/xJji50WtBFG

Event info: https://ow.ly/qJpu50WtBFF

07/22/2025

From heartbreak to healing, Michael Ansara's THE HARD WORK OF HOPE reminds us that hope isn't just wishful thinking— it's a daily choice and a powerful force for change.



Available now: https://ow.ly/eS0r50WtwzY

07/22/2025

For more than four decades, Bulgaria’s forced labor camps were hidden from the world and buried in silence.

UNSILENCING by Lilia Topouzova brings these hidden histories to light, revealing the brutal system that targeted dissent, punished minorities, and left lasting scars on Bulgarian society.

Drawing on survivor stories and decades of research, this powerful book uncovers the truth that was never supposed to be told.



Discover the untold story here:

Unsilencing provides the first comprehensive study of Bulgaria's forced-labor camps, a network of repression that operated throughout the communist era from 1945 to 1989. Lilia Topouzova uncovers the...

07/21/2025

The Jet Age sold the image of freedom and progress. But for women working in the skies, it also brought objectification and new battles for dignity.

WOMEN AND THE JET AGE by Phil Tiemeyer uncovers the global story of stewardesses who pushed back, from the Cold War West to the postcolonial Global South.

It is a history of aviation, politics, and feminism woven together at 30,000 feet.

Curious what really happened behind the glamour?



Get your copy here:

Women and the Jet Age is a global history of postwar aviation that examines how states nurtured airlines for competing political and economic goals during the Cold War. While previous histories almost...

07/18/2025

What if the survival of the global economy depended on… friendships?

BANKERS' TRUST by Aditi Sahasrabuddhe reveals the hidden world of central bankers, where trust, familiarity, and personal relationships decide how financial crises unfold.

Forget what you thought you knew about economics. Behind closed doors, it’s not just policies or numbers that matter. It’s the human connections that can make or break the system.

Curious who really holds the power?



Read more here:

In Bankers' Trust, Aditi Sahasrabuddhe reveals a crucial element behind the resolution of global financial crises: trust between central bank leaders. Central bank cooperation during global financial...

07/17/2025

Not all history hides in the shadows. Sometimes it’s right there… in the classifieds.

BETWEEN THE SHEETS by Hannah Frydman uncovers how Belle Époque Paris turned newspapers into hidden spaces for q***r lives, sexual exploration, and connection beyond society’s strict rules.

In an age obsessed with control, the press became both a playground and a battleground. The story echoes into our digital world today.

Curious what was hidden between the lines?

***r

Grab your copy here:

Between the Sheets reveals a space, hidden in plain sight in Third Republican Paris, where deviant sexualities and lives could be experimented with and financed, despite republican attempts at growing...

07/16/2025

Congrats to Michael Ansara, author of THE HARD WORK OF HOPE, on a successful book launch event last night at Harvard Book Store!

His book takes you into the heady days of 1960s and 1970s activism, chronicling the hopes and strategies of the young people who created the movements that rocked the country.

See his book: https://ow.ly/LU0w50WqQwj

https://ow.ly/YSnE50WqQwp

Congrats to Michael on a successful book launch last night at Harvard Book Store - it was packed! Stand room only!

07/16/2025

What if space was never supposed to be a battlefield?

THE PROVINCE OF ALL MANKIND by Stephen Buono uncovers the surprising, often forgotten history of how leaders across the world fought to make outer space a sanctuary beyond politics and warfare.

Amid Cold War tensions and rivalries, there was also hope. Hope that the stars could unite rather than divide.

This book reveals how space became a symbol of diplomacy, restraint, and possibility. And what that means for us today.



Curious? Grab your copy here:

The Province of All Mankind is the story of a powerful idea about the cosmos. Born in the science-fiction literature of the nineteenth century and maturing in the Age of Apollo, this idea held that...