Books published by Rutgers University Press

A contribution to the history of the blues and of Afro-American culture in general. Writing from a black/feminist standpoint, Harrison shows the joys, trials, heartbreaks and enduring influence of such singers as Victoria Spivey and Alberta Hunter.

The book has the great advantage of placing the slave in the centre of the history not simply as a type of labour, but as an actor whose culture, actions and decisions influenced the operation of the system. Written with verve and grace for a general readership.

Considers the alignment of genetic science with commercial trends in genealogy, with legal and forensic developments, and with pharmaceutical innovation to examine how these trends lend renewed authority to biological understandings of race and history. Essays by scholars across a wide range of disciplines explore the emerging and often contested connections among race, DNA, and history.

Considers the alignment of genetic science with commercial trends in genealogy, with legal and forensic developments, and with pharmaceutical innovation to examine how these trends lend renewed authority to biological understandings of race and history. Essays by scholars across a wide range of disciplines explore the emerging and often contested connections among race, DNA, and history.

Examines the centrality of girlhood in shaping women's lives. Scholars study how age and gender, along with a multitude of other identities, work together to influence the historical experience. Spanning a broad time frame from 1750 to the present, thematically-arranged essays and case studies illuminate the various continuities and differences in girls' lives across culture and region.

Many Americans were surprised following the attacks of 9/11 at how easily the United States embraced torture as well as the supposedly lesser evil of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. Extraordinary rendition—sending people captured in the “war on terror” to nations long counted among the world’s worst human rights violators—hid from the public eye cruel and bloody interrogations. In Rendition to Torture, Alan W. Clarke explains how the United States adopted torture as a matter of official policy; how and why it turned to extraordinary rendition as a way to outsource more extreme, mutilating forms of torture; and outlines the steps the United States took to hide its abuses.

Presenting an overview of how human civilization has altered the face of the Earth, particularly by the destruction of forests, this book details the startling consequences of these actions. It provides compelling reasons for government officials, economic leaders, and the public to support efforts to save threatened and endangered plants.

The 21st century has ushered in a world at the atomic edge. This book explains that the abolition of nuclear weapons is both essential and achievable, and reveals what we need to do to make it a reality. It explores the possible verification measures, enforcement mechanisms, and governance structures of a nuclear weapon-free world.

Neurasthenic Nation investigates how the concept of neurasthenia, the ill effects of modern civilization such as insomnia or impotence, helped doctors and patients, men and women, and advertisers and consumers negotiate changes commonly associated with ï¿¿modernity.ï¿¿ Combining a survey of medical and popular literature on neurasthenia with original research into rare archives of personal letters, patient records, and corporate files, David Schuster charts the emergence of a ï¿¿neurasthenic nationï¿¿â€"a place where people saw their personal health as inextricably tied to the pitfalls and possibilities of a changing world.

Argues that the media have largely misrepresented the debate about modern masculinity and maleness. The author discusses Promise Keepers rallies, mythopoetic gatherings, white supremacists; accuses antifeminists as the real male bashers and questions the assertions that men suffer from domestic violence to the same degree as women.

The late 1990s and early 2000s witnessed a surge in the publication and popularity of autobiographical writings about childhood. Linking literary and cultural studies, Drawing on trauma and memory studies and theories of authorship and readership, this title offers commentary on the triumphs, trials, and tribulations that have shaped this genre.

Explores a tale of political corruption and repression and immigrants' struggles against dominant social codes of race, ethnicity, and class. This work tells the story of small lives merging into a movement for change and of the human struggle for freedom and dignity.

Presents a collection of representative historical texts that serve to trace and to illuminate the development of conceptions, policies, and treatments in public health from the dawn of Western civilization through the Progressive Era of the early twentieth century. This book provides annotated readings and biographical details.