Women’s Studies Books to Look Forward to in April

Happy Women’s History Month! In this blog post we’re highlighting the forthcoming Women’s History titles that will be publishing in April.

Throughout the month we’ve been posting reading lists and excerpts of Women’s History Titles on the blog. Be sure to browse previous post’s, check out books in our Gender and American Culture series, and learn more about our new Black Women’s History series.

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The Demands of Justice: Enslaved Women, Capital Crime, and Clemency in Early Virginia by Tamika Y. Nunley

On Sale: 4/4/2023

Award-winning historian Tamika Y. Nunley has unearthed the stories of enslaved Black women charged by their owners with poisoning, theft, murder, infanticide, and arson.

“This brave, important study poses haunting questions about the legal system during slavery. Through detail that is both rich and harrowing, Tamika Nunley uses the capital cases of enslaved Black women and girls to show how their alleged crimes challenged immoral laws and exposed the fictitious nature of justice in America. It will profoundly shape future histories of race, gender, and carceral regimes.”—Kali Gross, author of Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso and co-author of A Black Women’s History of the United States

Fit Citizens: A History of Black Women’s Exercise from Post-Reconstruction to Postwar America by Ava Purkiss

On Sale: 4/11/2023

The first historical study of Black women’s exercise, Ava Purkiss reveals that physical activity was not merely a path to self-improvement but also a means to expand notions of Black citizenship.

“Fit Citizens arrives at a moment when historians are asking new questions about Black women’s beauty culture, activism, and intra-racial class politics. Purkiss provides a sophisticated analysis of Black women’s citizenship and body politics that makes for an exciting, deeply researched, and important book.”—Erica L. Ball, author of Madam C.J. Walker: The Making of an American Icon

White Gloves, Black Nation: Women, Citizenship, and Political Wayfaring in Haiti by Grace Sanders Johnson

On Sale: 4/11/2023

This ambitious transnational history considers Haitian women’s political life during and after the United States occupation of Haiti (1915–34).

“Sanders Johnson’s meticulous research, attentive reading, and beautiful prose take readers on a journey through the political thought and activism of the Haitian women who sought to carve spaces for themselves within and beyond the nation.”–Annette Joseph-Gabriel, Duke University

Ybor City: Crucible of the Latina South by Sarah McNamara

On Sale: 4/11/23

Historian Sarah McNamara tells the story of immigrant and U.S.-born Latinas/os who fought for survival across generations and against the backdrop of a reconstructed southern order.

“Ybor City is poised to make valuable contributions to women’s history, labor history, urban history, and Latinx history. Through McNamara’s focus on Cuban women laborers and organizers at the end of the nineteenth century and in the first half of the twentieth, we learn valuable lessons about three generations of Americans in a southern city.”—Perla M. Gurrero, University of Maryland