Vasari’s
Words: The “Lives of the Artists” as a History of Ideas in the Italian
Renaissance
Cambridge University Press, Sept. 2018
By Douglas Biow, professor, Departments of French and Italian, and History
Vasari’s Words places the Lives of the Artists within the context of the modern discipline of intellectual history by exploring — through an analysis of key words — how this foundational book of art history is designed to address from beginning to end a variety of compelling ideas circulating in late Renaissance Italy.
Staged: Show Trials, Political Theater, and the Aesthetics of Judgment
Columbia University Press, Sept. 2018
By Minou Arjomand, assistant professor, Department of English
Theater requires artifice; justice demands truth. Are these demands as irreconcilable as the pejorative term “show trial” suggests? Drawing on a rich archive of postwar German and American courtroom dramas, Staged weaves theater history and political philosophy into a powerful and timely case for the importance of theaters as public institutions.
Preserving German Texan Identity: The Reminiscences of William A. Trenckmann, 1859-1935
Texas A&M University Press, Sept. 2018
Co-edited by Walter L. Buenger, professor, Department of History; and Walter D. Kamphoefner
The annotated autobiographical writings of William A. Trenckmann show how a member of the state Legislature and a German-language newspaper editor preserved the German language and culture through the struggle over prohibition, the tumult of World War I and the assaults of the Ku Klux Klan.
Sexuality and Slavery: Reclaiming Intimate Histories in the Americas
University of Georgia Press, Oct. 2018
Edited by Daina Ramey Berry, professor, Departments of History, and African and African Diaspora Studies; and Leslie M. Harris
Sexuality and Slavery places sexuality at the center of slavery studies in the Americas, examining consensual sexual intimacy and expression within slave communities as well as sexual relationships across lines of race, status and power. Contributors explore sexuality as a tool of control, exploitation and repression and as an expression of autonomy, resistance and defiance.
From Psychology to Morality
Oxford University Press, Oct. 2018
By John Deigh, professor, Department of Philosophy and School of Law
These essays belong to the tradition of naturalism in ethics and are arranged to follow the lead of Aristotle and Hume. The collection of 12 essays includes three that advance a new and controversial theory of punishment.
Race and Cultural Practice in Popular Culture
Rutgers University Press, Oct. 2018
Edited by Domino Renee Perez, associate professor, Departments of English and Mexican American and Latina/o Studies; and Rachel González-Martin, assistant professor, Department Mexican American and Latina/o Studies
Rather than reaffirm static conceptions of identity, authenticity, or conventional interpretations of stereotypes, these essays bridge the intertextual gap between theories of community enactment and cultural representation, focusing on race as an ideological reality.
Rhetoric as a Posthuman Practice
The Ohio State University Press, Oct. 2018
By Casey Boyle, assistant professor, Department of Rhetoric and Writing
Rhetoric as a Posthuman Practice proposes rhetorical activity be understood as an embodied, material practice. Its guiding proposition is that a posthuman rhetorical orientation helps us understand how information technologies organize and exercise bodies at various levels of scale that are irreducible to those authorized solely through a humanist paradigm.
The Oxford Handbook of American Women’s and Gender History
Oxford University Press, Oct. 2018
Co-edited by Lisa Materson, alumna, Plan II; with chapter contributions by Diana Ramey Berry, professor, Department of History and Nakia Parker, doctoral student, Department of History
This book takes the reader throughout history, discussing the roles of women and how gender shaped culture and politics in North America. The Handbook includes a pathbreaking chapter on nineteenth slavery co-authored by UT Austin history professor Diana Ramey Berry and UT Austin doctoral student Nakia Parker.
Heirs of the Founders: The Epic Rivalry of Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster
Doubleday, Nov. 2018
By H.W. Brands, professor, Department of History
Brands tells the story of how America’s second generation of political giants — Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster — battled to complete the unfinished work of the Founding Fathers and determine the shape of American democracy.
Confronting Underground Justice: Reinventing Plea Bargaining for Effective Criminal Justice Reform
Rowman and Littlefield, Nov. 2018
By William R. Kelly, professor, Department of Sociology; and Robert Pitman
Confronting Underground Justice examines plea negotiation, criminal prosecution, public defense and pretrial justice systems and identifies a variety of problems and concerns with each. Kelly and Pitman offer ways to fundamentally reinvent plea negotiation, pretrial decision making, criminal prosecution and public defense to effectively reduce recidivism and save money.
Indispensable Reading: 1,001 Books from ‘The Arabian Nights’ to Zola
I.B. Tauris, a division of Bloomsbury Publishing, Nov. 2018
By Wm. Roger Louis, director of British Studies and professor, Departments of History and Middle Eastern Studies
This project stems from a 150-book recommended reading list for students in the College of Liberal Arts. The other 851 books described in this volume are Louis’ own “indispensable” recommendations — works he deems as readable, distinctive, important and influential, including classics and recent works.
The Clinician’s Guide to Anxiety Sensitivity Treatment and Assessment
Academic Press, Nov. 2018
Edited by Jasper Smits, professor, Department of Psychology and Dell Medical School; Michael Otto; Mark Powers, research associate professor, Department of Psychology and Dell Medical School; and Scarlett Baird, graduate student and research assistant, Department of Psychology
Evidence-based strategies for clinicians looking to treat, assess and better understand anxiety sensitivity in their patients are examined in this book, which delivers detailed guidance on the theoretical background and empirical support for anxiety sensitivity treatment methods, assessment strategies, and how clinicians can best prepare for sessions with their clients.