New Faculty Books

Books

Four History Department professors,Timothy Alborn, Amanda Wunder, Duane Tananbaum and Robyn Spencer, have recently published new monographs. Please click here for a full list of faculty books.

In All That Glittered: Britain's Most Precious Metal from Adam Smith to the Gold Rush, Prof. Timothy Alborn explores the cultural meanings of the metal that lay at the foundation of British  currency, credit and trade between the early 18th century and World War One. Focusing on the period between the 1770s and the gold rushes in the miid-19th century, Alborn reveals how Britons claimed to be more interested than their European and colonial counterparts in using gold as money rather than adornment—while at the same time finding numerous exceptions to this rule, in their military uniforms, their taste for antique relics, and their royal family.

In Baroque Seville: Sacred Art in a Century of Crisis, Prof. Amanda Wunder tells the art history of Spain's most prosperous city during the seventeenth century, a period of economic decline, social conflict, and natural disaster. She argues that the city's elites responded to these crises with an outpouring of patronage for religious art and architecture, much of which endures today as a lasting legacy of Golden-Age Spain. The book is published by Penn State University Press; Read more about the book.

In Herbert H. Lehman: A Political Biography, Prof. Duane Tananbaum tells the story of Lehman College's namesake, who served New York as a governor and senator from the 1930s through the 1950s. Besides uncovering Lehman's interactions with politicians in Albany and Washington, in which he fought for immigration and civil rights reform, Tananbaum explores his important international humanitarian work on behalf of World War Two refugees. The book is pubished by the SUNY Press; Read more about the book, and see a review from the New York Times.

In The Revolution Has Come: Black Power, Gender, and the Black Panther Party in Oakland, Prof. Robyn Spencer provides a detailed portrait of the rank and file membership of the Black Panther Party in its Oakland epicenter between 1966 and 1982, focusing on its internal politics, international alliances, struggles against FBI surveillance, and the important role played by women in shaping its stance on community organization and armed resistance. The book is published by Duke University Press; Read more about the book.