One of the best parts of returning from a trip is finding books that you had pre-ordered and promptly forgotten. Nancy Isenberg has become even more recently with her sharp (if somewhat overstated) critiques of the Hamilton musical, but she’s always been one of the wisest commentators on American political and social history; I’m quite excited to dig into her history of “white trash.”
I had the privilege of meeting Caitlin Fitz at a Kinder colloquium last year, where we workshopped the final chapter of her new book. It was very good, and her recent Journal of American History article on nationalism and the War of 1812 was also wonderful. I expect nothing less from this book, and it’s especially relevant to me given its relation to my manuscript on early American nationalism. This is a great time to be working on the Age of Revolutions, which I’ve blogged about a couple times this year.
I don’t know much about Wendy Warren and her new book on colonial New England’s connection to slavery, but I’m sure it will help further the recent drive to demonstrate how deeply enmeshed slavery was in early America. I’m sure Bill O’Reilly will love it.
I’m especially glad to see all three books published by trade presses. A good sign, methinks.
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