Book Reviews

Charles M. Hudson (1932-2013) was Professor of Anthropology and History at the University of Georgia. A leading expert on Native American Studies, especially the American Southeast, he was best known for his work on Hernando de Soto's expeditions...

While granulated sugar was produced in India as early as the 6th century BCE, its usage for a long time remained limited to royalty or ceremonial purposes. It was not until the 13th century that sugar became a major commercial product throughout...

Eckart Frahm's Assyria: The Rise and Fall of the World's First Empire is a remarkable scholarly work and a masterful exploration of one of the most intriguing and influential civilizations of the ancient world. Through meticulous research...

“No Roman or Carthaginian could have dreamed in 264 that their states were about to embark on a twenty-four-year struggle which would involve huge casualties, still less that it would be the first of three wars between the two peoples” (65...

There are several versions of Atalanta's story in Greek mythology, and Jennifer Saint, known for writing mythology-based novels, chose to build her story around the most compelling elements that make for a very engaging story to a modern...

The plight of 16-year-old Jerome Amakusa, the supposed leader of the rebellion, and the rebels who accompanied him are at once instantly recognisable to contemporary readers, and yet they were alien, by design, to the populace of Edo Period...

In Since Time Immemorial, Emory University history professor Yanna Yannakakis explores the meaning of a specific word at a specific time – "custom" – and what it meant during Spain's rule over Mexico. As Spanish leaders sought to consolidate...

Healing with Poisons: Potent Medicines in Medieval China is a groundbreaking work delving into the realm of du, meaning toxic or poison, within Chinese pharmacy. Taking readers to China during the 3rd to 10th centuries, a crucial period for...

The first chapter acknowledges the impact that Roman literature had on European portrayals of Cleopatra as an immoral outsider. In the Renaissance and early modern period, writers and painters associated Cleopatra with foreignness, murderous...

Jessie Hewitt’s Institutionalizing Gender: Madness, the Family, and Psychiatric Power in Nineteenth-Century France ties together themes of French society, psychiatry, the family, and gender analysis into one seminal text. Hewitt works to...