What We Are Reading Today: Embattled Europe: A Progressive Alternative

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Updated 02 October 2021
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What We Are Reading Today: Embattled Europe: A Progressive Alternative

Author: Konrad H. Jarausch

Is the European Union in decline? Recent history, from the debt and migration crises to Brexit, has led many observers to argue that the EU’s best days are behind it. Over the past decade, right-wing populists have come to power in Poland, Hungary, and beyond—many of them winning elections using strident anti-EU rhetoric. At the same time, Russia poses a continuing military threat, and the rise of Asia has challenged the EU’s economic power. But in Embattled Europe, renowned European historian Konrad Jarausch counters the prevailing pessimistic narrative of European obsolescence with a rousing yet realistic defense of the continent—one grounded in a fresh account of its post–1989 history and an intimate understanding of its twentieth-century horrors.
An engaging narrative and probing analysis, Embattled Europe tells the story of how the EU emerged as a model of democratic governance and balanced economic growth, adapting to changing times while retaining its value system. The book describes the EU’s admirable approach to the environment, social welfare, immigration, and global competitiveness. And it presents underappreciated European success stories—including Denmark’s transition to a green economy, Sweden’s restructuring of its welfare state, and Poland’s economic miracle.


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Deadly Force’

Updated 03 June 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Deadly Force’

Authors: Tom S. Clark, Adam N. Glynn, & Michael Leo Owens 

Police shootings in America spark outrage and protest and raise questions about police use of lethal force. Yet despite the attention given to high-profile shootings, it is extremely difficult to draw wider conclusions about the frequency and outcomes of police gunfire because there is no systematic and centralized source of information on these incidents.

This pioneering book draws on original data, compiled by the authors, to examine police shootings, both fatal and non-fatal, in hundreds of American cities. 


What We Are Reading Today: ‘Volcanoes: Crucibles of Change’

Updated 02 June 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Volcanoes: Crucibles of Change’

Author: Richard V. Fisher

“Volcanoes: Crucibles of Change” explores the science and mystery of volcanoes. The author chronicles not only their geologic behavior but also their profound effect on human life.

The book covers the surprisingly large variety of volcanoes, the subtle to conspicuous signs preceding their eruptions, and their far-reaching atmospheric consequences, according to a review on goodreads.com.

Tourists will find their scientific curiosity whetted by this informative and entertaining book.


What We Are Reading Today: Myanmar’s Enemy Within by Francis Wade

Updated 01 June 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: Myanmar’s Enemy Within by Francis Wade

In 2012, violence between Buddhists and Muslims erupted in western Myanmar, pointing to a growing divide between religious communities that before had received little attention from the outside world.

In this gripping and deeply reported account, Francis Wade explores how the manipulation of identities by an anxious ruling elite has laid the foundations for mass violence, and how, in Myanmar’s case, some of the most respected voices for democracy have turned on the minorities at a time when the majority of citizens are beginning to experience freedoms unseen for half a century.


What We Are Reading Today: The Fetters of Rhyme

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Updated 31 May 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: The Fetters of Rhyme

  • “The Fetters of Rhyme” traces this dynamic history of rhyme from the 1590s through the 1670s

Author: Rebecca M. Rush

In his 1668 preface to Paradise Lost, John Milton rejected the use of rhyme, portraying himself as a revolutionary freeing English verse from “the troublesome and modern bondage of Riming.” 

Milton, however, was not initiating a new line of thought — English poets had been debating about rhyme and its connections to liberty, freedom, and constraint since Queen Elizabeth’s reign.

“The Fetters of Rhyme” traces this dynamic history of rhyme from the 1590s through the 1670s. Rebecca Rush uncovers the associations early modern readers attached to rhyming forms.

 


What We Are Reading Today: Desert Edens

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Updated 30 May 2025
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What We Are Reading Today: Desert Edens

  • Lehmann examines some of the most ambitious climate-engineering projects to emerge in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Author: Philipp Lehmann

From the 1870s to the mid-20th century, European explorers, climatologists, colonial officials, and planners were avidly interested in large-scale projects that might actively alter the climate. Uncovering this history, “Desert Edens” looks at how arid environments and an increasing anxiety about climate in the colonial world shaped this upsurge in ideas about climate engineering.

From notions about the transformation of deserts into forests to Nazi plans to influence the climates of war-torn areas, Philipp Lehmann puts the early climate change debate in its environmental, intellectual, and political context, and considers the ways this legacy reverberates in the present climate crisis.

Lehmann examines some of the most ambitious climate-engineering projects to emerge in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Confronted with the Sahara in the 1870s, the French developed concepts for a flooding project that would lead to the creation of a man-made Sahara Sea.