New This Week: October 1
It’s New Books Tuesday and from a graphic history of reconstruction in DC to a new Reacting to the Past game book, we have an exciting list of new titles publishing today. Browse this week’s new books below and be sure to sign up for our monthly enews for updates on everything new each month.
Freedom Was in Sight!: A Graphic History of Reconstruction in the Washington, D.C., Region by Kate Masur, Elizabeth Clarke
“Engaging reading for all ages . . . . Recalling this earlier time of profound social division in America’s history, Masur and Clarke’s collaboration celebrates the men and women who battled the forces of white supremacy to gain their rightful place as citizen.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Freedom Was in Sight is a revelation. Kate Masur’s exceptional scholarship combined with Liz Clarke’s virtuosic illustrations bring the history of Reconstruction to life with color, texture, and humanity. Never has Reconstruction been rendered in such a dynamic way. No longer is the history an abstraction. Here it leaps from the page. It breathes. It speaks. It haunts. It quakes. I can’t stop thinking about this book.”—Clint Smith, author of How the Word Is Passed
Brown Women Have Everything: Essays on (Dis)comfort and Delight by Sayantani Dasgupta
“Witty, thoughtful reading . . . . As she explores issues of race, culture, and gender, Dasgupta’s lively, intelligent book celebrates the “honor and dignity” of embracing the discomforts of the transnational life, which offers the unexpected rewards and delights of the unfamiliar.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Perceptive and personal . . . . Dasgupta has a talent for finding the profound in the everyday.”—Publishers Weekly
Queering Kinship in the Mormon Cosmos by Taylor G. Petrey
“Petrey teases out the way the Mormon cosmos is profoundly queer, and the ways in which patriarchal, cis-normative, and assimilationist forces have suppressed and subverted that queerness. Academics, queer and trans Mormon activists, and their allies will find Petrey’s innovative intertwining of desire and kinship provocative.”—Melissa M. Wilcox, University of California–Riverside
“Taylor Petrey’s argument placing kinship at the core of Mormon theology is innovative, deeply considered, and compelling. This book will stretch and challenge a wide variety of readers.”—Patrick Q. Mason, Utah State University
Constantine and the Council of Nicaea, Second Edition: Defining Orthodoxy and Heresy in Christianity, 325 CE by David E. Henderson
Before Constantine rose to power as the Roman emperor, the empire followed polytheistic beliefs. Any deviation from this tradition, particularly embracing Christianity, was met with severe punishment including imprisonment, torture, and execution. Christians were especially targeted as their faith was considered a “cult” at the time. However, after Constantine embraced Christianity, there was a significant shift. In 325 CE, Constantine summoned early Christian leaders to Nicaea (modern-day İznik in Turkey) to deliberate on matters pertaining to the governance and doctrines of a unified Christian church This gathering aimed to establish a single, cohesive, and catholic church that would unify the Roman world under one dominant religion.
In the game, students immerse themselves in the theological debates that defined the challenges and disagreements within the church leadership, addressing fundamental aspects of Christian beliefs. Can the bishops assembled at the council resolve these issues, or will the church face division or dissolution? The outcome of this conference holds the power to shape the trajectory of Christianity for centuries to come.
Piedmont Plantation: The Bennehan-Cameron Family and Lands in North Carolina by Jean Bradley Anderson
Distributed for Preservation Durham