Letters & Science Bookshelf

Our virtual bookshelf features publications authored, translated, or edited by members of the L&S community. To submit a publication, please use this form or email lscomms@berkeley.edu. 

Looking for a specific title? Please use the search bar; responses will appear in the table below. Email lscomms@berkeley.edu with additional inquiries or requests.

Title Author Year Publication typesort ascending
Intoxicated: Race, Disability, and Chemical Intimacy across Empire Mel Y. Chen 2023 Book
Cheerfulness: A Literary and Cultural History Timothy Hampton 2022 Book
The Apollo Chronicles: Engineering America's First Moon Missions Brandon R. Brown 2019 Book
Unburied Lives The Historical Archaeology of Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Davis, Texas, 1869–1875 Laurie A. Wilkie 2021 Book
The Right of Sovereignty: Jean Bodin on the Sovereign State and the Law of Nations Daniel Lee 2021 Book

Asian American Histories of the United States

2022

An impressive new work about how major moments in Asian American history continue to influence the modern world.

In the first chapter, Choy, a professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley, connects anti-Asian violence during the Covid-19 pandemic to a history of...Read more about Asian American Histories of the United States

Afro-Atlantic Catholics: America's First Black Christians

2022

Black Christianity in America has long been studied as a blend of indigenous African and Protestant elements. Jeroen Dewulf redirects the conversation by focusing on the enduring legacy of seventeenth-century Afro-Atlantic Catholics in the broader history of African American Christianity. With...Read more about Afro-Atlantic Catholics: America's First Black Christians

Plotinus Ennead II.4: On Matter: Translation with an Introduction and Commentary

2022

In Ennead II.4 Plotinus investigates the question of what underlies the forms that constitute the contents of our minds and senses. Aristotle had called this substrate “matter,” and Stoic philosophers followed suit. With a critical review of their notions, and reference to...Read more about Plotinus Ennead II.4: On Matter: Translation with an Introduction and Commentary

The High Price of Freeways

2022

The High Price of Freeways consists of stories, most set in California, that explore the oddity of living in a place where freedom is touted, but its costs are often hidden: abortion, rape, and childbirth form the backdrop for several stories; a pan-sexual comic gets...Read more about The High Price of Freeways

The Cambridge Centenary Ulysses: The 1922 Text with Essays and Notes

2022

James Joyce's Ulysses is considered one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century. This new edition - published to celebrate the book's first publication - helps readers to understand the pleasures of this monumental work and to grapple with its challenges. Copiously equipped with...Read more about The Cambridge Centenary Ulysses: The 1922 Text with Essays and Notes

Women and Power in Africa: Aspiring, Campaigning, and Governing

2022

Women and Power in Africa: Aspiring, Campaigning, and Governing examines women's experiences in African politics as aspirants to public office, as candidates in election campaigns, and as elected representatives. Part I evaluates women's efforts to become party candidates in...Read more about Women and Power in Africa: Aspiring, Campaigning, and Governing

Back Stages: Essays Across Art, Performance, and the Social

2022

Shannon Jackson explores a range of disciplinary, institutional, and political puzzles that engage the social and aesthetic practice of performance in this collection of twenty essential essays spanning her career. Back Stagesstarts by considering the historical...Read more about Back Stages: Essays Across Art, Performance, and the Social

The Substance of Fiction Literary Objects in China, 1550-1775

2022

Do the portrayals of objects in literary texts represent historical evidence about the material culture of the past? Or are things in books more than things in the world? Sophie Volpp considers fictional objects of the late Ming and Qing that defy being read as illustrative of historical...Read more about The Substance of Fiction Literary Objects in China, 1550-1775

The Week: A History of the Unnatural Rhythms That Made Us Who We Are

2022

We take the seven-day week for granted, rarely asking what anchors it or what it does to us. Yet weeks are not dictated by the natural order. They are, in fact, an artificial construction of the modern world.

With meticulous archival research that draws on a wide array of sources—...Read more about The Week: A History of the Unnatural Rhythms That Made Us Who We Are

How the Clinic Made Gender: The Medical History of a Transformative Idea

2022

Today, a world without “gender” is hard to imagine. Gender is at the center of contentious political and social debates, shapes policy decisions, and informs our everyday lives. Its formulation, however, is lesser known: Gender was first used in clinical practice. This book tells the story...Read more about How the Clinic Made Gender: The Medical History of a Transformative Idea