New Books This Week

Happy Tuesday! On this New Book Tuesday we’re highlighting four new titles that are on sale today, wherever books are sold.

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Medicine, Science, and Making Race in Civil War America by Leslie A. Schwalm

Drawing on archives of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, recollections of Civil War soldiers and medical workers, and testimonies from Black Americans, Leslie A. Schwalm exposes the racist ideas and practices that shaped wartime medicine and science. Painstakingly researched and accessibly written, this book helps readers understand the persistence of anti-Black racism and health disparities during and after the war.

“Schwalm persuasively shows how deeply entrenched racism in Northern medical institutions led to profound inequalities in the treatment of African Americans in both military and civilian settings. This intellectually provocative and prodigiously researched book deserves a wide audience.”—Vanessa Northington Gamble, The George Washington University

Indigenous Civil Society in Latin America: Collective Action in the Digital Age by Pascal Lupien

Over the past decade, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile have been buffeted by intensive transformations. Political scientist Pascal Lupien here reveals how Indigenous political activists responded to these changes as part of their long, ongoing struggles for equal citizenship rights and economic and political power.

“A fascinating read filled with rich empirical data from over a decade of field work. Engaging and accessibly written, this exceptional contribution will have broad appeal to those interested in Indigenous politics and social movements alike.”—Roberta Rice, The New Politics of Protest: Indigenous Mobilization in Latin America’s Neoliberal Era

Seeing Things: Technologies of Vision and the Making of Mormonism by Mason Kamana Allred

In this theoretically rich work, Mason Kamana Allred unearths the ways Mormons have employed a wide range of technologies to translate events, beliefs, anxieties, and hopes into reproducible experiences that contribute to the growth of their religious systems of meaning.

“Allred articulates in this ambitious entry some fascinating connections between Latter-day Saint theology, technology, and identity formation . . . . Deeply conversant in critical theory, the author establishes inventive arguments supported by examples that convincingly show the range of media’s power to change culture. Scholars of religion or media will find much to consider.”—Publishers Weekly

Seattle in Coalition: Multiracial Alliances, Labor Politics, and Transnational Activism in the Pacific Northwest, 1970–1999 by Diana K. Johnson

This insightful history takes readers beyond the Battle in Seattle and offers a wider view of the organizing campaigns that marked the last half of the twentieth century. Narrating the rise of multiracial coalition building in the Pacific Northwest from the 1970s to the 1990s, Diana K. Johnson shows how activists from Seattle’s Black, Indigenous, Chicano, and Asian American communities traversed racial, regional, and national boundaries to counter racism, economic inequality, and perceptions of invisibility.

“Seattle in Coalition is a pathbreaking study of multiethnic coalitions struggling for civil rights and social justice in the American West. It is a prototype for future such studies and an inspiration for today’s struggle to preserve American democracy.”—Mario T. García, University of California, Santa Barbara