# New Books ## Reconstructions in Middle East Economic History: Essays in Honor of Roger Owen ### *Edited By Don Babai* ![Book cover.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/wcfia/files/book_babai_alum_2024_border.png?itok=mHb50wjs) Despite the relative neglect of economic history in Middle Eastern studies, this book makes a case for its importance as a discipline of study. On the one hand, it shows promise in illuminating the economic base of historical trends and events; on the other, it can elucidate the historical foundations of economic continuity and change. The chapters employ an array of theoretical and methodological approaches and ultimately demonstrate how economics and history, along with political economy, complement each other in studying the Middle East. Among the substantive topics explored are the trajectories of the Arab Spring, institutional change and economic development in the early Ottoman Empire, the destructive effects of the reordering property rights in Iraq by the American-led occupation authority, the evolution of the political economy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the determinants of movements in the yields of Egyptian and Ottoman sovereign debt following political and economic crises in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. [*(Read more at Routledge)*](https://www.routledge.com/Reconstructions-in-Middle-East-Economic-History-Essays-in-Honor-of-Roger-Owen/Babai/p/book/9781032543895) Former Faculty Associate Don Babai is a lecturer and research associate at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University. ## Urban Power: Democracy and Inequality in São Paulo and Johannesburg ### *By Benjamin H. Bradlow* ![book_bradlow_alum_2024.jpeg](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/wcfia/files/book_bradlow_alum_2024.jpeg?itok=PC7JXmV7) For the first time in history, most people live in cities. One in seven are living in slums, the most excluded parts of cities, in which the basics of urban life—including adequate housing, accessible sanitation, and reliable transportation—are largely unavailable. Why are some cities more successful than others in reducing inequalities in the built environment? In *Urban Power*, Benjamin Bradlow explores this question, examining the effectiveness of urban governance in two “megacities” in young democracies: São Paulo, Brazil, and Johannesburg, South Africa. Both cities came out of periods of authoritarian rule with similarly high inequalities and similar policy priorities to lower them. And yet São Paulo has been far more successful than Johannesburg in improving access to basic urban goods. [*(Read more at Princeton University Press)*](https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691237121/urban-power) Former Postdoctoral Fellow Benjamin H. Bradlow is an assistant professor of sociology and international affairs at Princeton University. ## Landscape Fieldwork: How Engaging the World Can Change Design ### *By Gareth Doherty* ![book_doherty_corrected_dimensions.png](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/wcfia/files/book_doherty_corrected_dimensions.png?itok=3eUa_HR8) Landscape architecture is at a crossroads. The ability to draw upon interdisciplinary perspectives and generate insights from the combined vantage points of design, environmental studies, and the social sciences puts it in a prime position to address the most pressing issues of our time, such as climate change and social inequality. Its current reliance on digital and technological solutions, however, has increasingly caused landscape architects to lose sight of the ways in which humans actually use spaces. And while landscapes are designed all over the world, the discipline remains inordinately centered on the Global North. *Landscape Fieldwork* alters that long-standing paradigm through real-life examples that provide tools for practitioners to engage more deeply with multidimensional, diverse landscapes and the communities that create, live in, and use them. [*(Read more at University of Virginia Press)*](https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/10056/) Faculty Associate Gareth Doherty is an associate professor of landscape architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. ## Does Counter-Terrorism Work? ### *By Richard English* ![book_english_ac_2024.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/wcfia/files/book_english_ac_2024.jpg?itok=CldEZX5_) State responses to terrorism have shaped politics and society globally. But how far, and in what precise ways, has counter-terrorism actually succeeded? Based on the author's experience of studying terrorism and counter-terrorism for over three decades, *Does Counter-Terrorism Work?* offers an historically grounded, systematic, and expert interrogation of the effectiveness of state responses to terrorist violence. Previous analyses have too often tended to be polarized, simplistic, and short-termist; they have also lacked a comprehensive framework against which to properly assess the (in)efficacy of counter-terrorist efforts over time. [*(Read more at Oxford University Press)*](https://global.oup.com/academic/product/does-counter-terrorism-work-9780192843340?cc=us&lang=en&#) Advisory Committee Member Richard English is a professor of politics at Queen's University Belfast. ## Labors of Love: Gender, Capitalism, and Democracy in Modern Arab Thought ### *By Susanna Ferguson* ![book_ferguson_alum_2024.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/wcfia/files/book_ferguson_alum_2024.jpg?itok=Rble3D_S) How to raise a child became a central concern of intellectual debate from Cairo to Beirut over the course of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Intimately linked with discussions around capitalism and democracy, considerations about women, gender, and childrearing emerged as essential to modern social theory. Arab writers, particularly women, made sex, the body, and women's ethical labor central to fending off European imperial advances, instituting representative politics, and managing social order. [*(Read more at Stanford University Press)*](https://www.sup.org/books/middle-east-studies/labors-love) Former Academy Scholar Susanna Ferguson is an assistant professor of Middle East studies at Smith College. ## Soda Science: Making the World Safe for Coca-Cola ### *By Susan Greenhalgh* ![book_greenhalgh_2024.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/wcfia/files/book_greenhalgh_2024.jpg?itok=c0fG73Ux) *Soda Science* tells the story of how industry leader Coca-Cola mobilized allies in academia to create a soda-defense science that would protect profits by advocating exercise, not dietary restraint, as the priority solution to obesity, a view few experts accept. Anthropologist and science studies specialist Susan Greenhalgh discovers a hidden world of science-making—with distinctive organizations, social networks, knowledge-making practices, and ethical claims—dedicated to creating industry-friendly science and keeping it under wraps. By tracing the birth, maturation, death, and afterlife of the science they made, Greenhalgh shows how corporate science has managed to gain such a hold over our lives. [*(Read more at the University of Chicago Press)*](https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo221451790.html) Faculty Associate (emerita) Susan Greenhalgh is the John King and Wilma Cannon Fairbank Research Professor of Chinese Society at Harvard University. ## The 1946 General Strike in Senegal: The Sources of Militant Unionism ### *By Omar Guèye* ![book_gueye_wigh_alum_2024.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/wcfia/files/book_gueye_wigh_alum_2024.jpg?itok=ij1GsnLu) In January 1946, African workers launched the first general strike in French West Africa (AOF). It mobilized all categories of workers, from the public and private sectors, around the slogan "Equal pay for equal work". Largely unknown, it was fueled by new modes of organization, expression and mobilization and contributed, through its scope and resonance, to tracing the dominant figures of union and political mobilizations. Omar Gueye identifies the events, the colonial and union actors of the 1946 strike and, above all, the structures of colonial domination, which established regimes of inequality, domination and segregation. He pays attention to the demands of the workers who forcefully entered the colonial public sphere, forcing the authorities, public and private, to treat them as legitimate interlocutors. Reintroducing the human and psychological depth of the actors, he goes beyond testimony to place the witnesses at the center of the adventure and offers a historical sociology that sheds light on the relationships of the leaders of the union movement with the workers. He thus offers us a story that traces the history of the most significant strike of the French empire. [*(In French; read more at Editions Présence Africaine)*](https://www.presenceafricaine.com/histoire-politique-et-societe/2063-la-greve-generale-de-1946-au-senegal-9782708710382.html) Former Visiting Scholar Omar Guèye is a professor of history at Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar-Senegal. ## Struggling for Time: Environmental Governance and Agrarian Resistance in Israel/Palestine ### *By Natalia Gutkowski* ![book_gutkowski_alum_2024.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/wcfia/files/book_gutkowski_alum_2024.jpg?itok=eMceLT8Y) *Struggling for Time* examines how time is used as a mechanism of control by the Israeli state and a site of mundane resistance among Palestinian agriculture professionals. Natalia Gutkowski unpacks power structures to show how a settler society lays moral claim on indigenous time through agrarian environmental policies, science, technologies, landscapes, and bureaucracy. Shifting the analysis of Israel/Palestine from land and space to time, she offers new insight into the operation of power in agrarian environments and develops a contemporary framework to understand land and resource grabs under temporal justifications. [*(Read more at Stanford University Press)*](https://www.sup.org/books/middle-east-studies/struggling-time) Former Academy Scholar Natalia Gutkowski is a postdoctoral fellow at the Martin Buber Society of Fellows in the Humanities and Social Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. ## The Ancient Shore ### *By Paul J. Kosmin* ![book_kosmin_2024.jpeg](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/wcfia/files/book_kosmin_2024.jpeg?itok=SS2b-aKs) As we learn from *The Odyssey* and the Argonauts, Greek dramas frequently played out on a watery stage. In particular, antiquity’s key events and exchanges often occurred on coastlines. Yet the shore was not just a site of conquest and trade, ire and yearning. The seacoast was a singular kind of space and was integral to the cosmology of the Greeks and their neighbors. In *The Ancient Shore*, award-winning historian Paul Kosmin reveals the influence of the coast on the inner lives of the ancients: their political thought, scientific notions, artistic endeavors, and myths; their sense of wonder and of self. [*(Read more at Harvard University Press)*](https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674296244) Faculty Associate Paul J. Kosmin is the Philip J. King Professor of Ancient History at Harvard University. ## Race and Inequality in American Politics: An Imperfect Union ### *Coauthored by Taeku Lee* ![book_lee_2024.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/wcfia/files/book_lee_2024.jpg?itok=jV6ucvD8) Authored by three of the United States' best-known scholars on American politics, this undergraduate textbook argues that racial considerations are today—and have been since the nation's founding—central to understanding America's political system writ large. Drawing on decades of teaching experience and compelling original research, Hajnal, Hutchings, and Lee present an up-to-date and comprehensive survey of race's role in American democracy, spanning topics as wide-ranging as public opinion, voting behavior, media representation, criminal justice, social policy, and protest movements. The reader will examine the perspectives of multiple racial groups, learn how to bring empirical analysis to bear on deeply divided viewpoints, and debate solutions to the many problems of governance in an America that is polarized by party, riven by race, and divided by inequality. Chapters open with a vignette to introduce the core issues and conclude with discussion questions and annotated suggested readings. Full color photos, figures, and boxed features elaborate on and reinforce important themes. Instructor resources are available online. [*(Read more at Cambridge University Press)*](https://www.cambridge.org/highereducation/books/race-and-inequality-in-american-politics/47E557D5B01DFD3C14446FE9331F3362#overview) Faculty Associate Taeku Lee is the Bae Family Professor of Government at Harvard University. ## The Precariousness of Freedom: Slave Resistance as Experience, Process, and Representation ### *By Charmaine A. Nelson* ![book_nelson_alum_2024.png](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/wcfia/files/book_nelson_alum_2024.png?itok=yOjB4HxZ) *The Precariousness of Freedom: Slave Resistance as Experience, Process, and Representation* places familiar and overlooked aspects of slave resistance (rebellions, running away) in conversation with understudied elements such as psychological states, slave dress, and theatrical performance. The nine chapters explore slave resistance across three centuries (seventeenth to nineteenth) and four empires (British, Dutch, French, and Spanish), presenting innovative comparative research that challenges established narratives and raises new questions through analyses of histories, artwork, and cultural artifacts. Encompassing various enslaved populations and their free allies, the chapters incorporate the exploration of children, adults, women, men, groups, and individuals, African-born people, and black Creoles. Together, the contributors, comprising both established and emerging scholars, define resistance as not just outward activities and actions like a rebellion, mutiny, or the acts of fleeing from one’s enslavement, but as conscious and unconscious choices manifested in personal and political practices through dress, hairstyles, and adornment. [*(Read more at Captus Press)*](https://info.captus.com/catalogue?BookNumber=1443) Former William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies Charmaine A. Nelson is a Provost Professor of Art History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. ## What We Can't Burn ### *By Tom Osborn and Eve Driver* ![book_osborn_driver_alums_2024.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/wcfia/files/book_osborn_driver_alums_2024.jpg?itok=hLOXE3IE) When they met as juniors at Harvard, Kenyan clean energy entrepreneur Tom Osborn and American climate writer Eve Driver did not get along. While a trip to Kenya over winter break sparked an unlikely friendship, it was tested back on campus amid the college’s fossil fuel divestment campaign—which Eve joined, and Tom opposed. In fresh voices that are raw, funny, and lyrical, the two take turns telling the story of their rocky but transformative friendship, which gripped and changed both of their minds. *What We Can’t* *Burn* shines a spotlight on the chasm in first-hand experiences, tactics, and hopes between two people from vastly different backgrounds and circumstances on the sibling issues of climate change and renewable energy. The result is a poignant story of coming of age in a generation divided about how to save itself, and a testament to the power of humor and dialogue to bridge divides in the global climate movement. [*(Read more at Westwood Press)*](https://www.westwoodpress.com/our-books/p/what-we-cant-burn) Former Undergraduate Associate Tom Osborn is the cofounder and CEO of Shamiri Institute. Former Undergraduate Associate Eve Driver is a consultant and journalist with a focus on environmental justice and innovation. ## Semiconductor Sovereignty ### *Coauthored by Young-Sun Park* ![book_park_alum_2024.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/wcfia/files/book_park_alum_2024.jpg?itok=3SCFQz_3) Former Minister Young-Sun Park provides a glimpse into the seventy-year history of semiconductors and the current semiconductor world landscape, using the 'weaponization of semiconductors' and 'strategies of hegemonic nations' studied at Harvard Kennedy School in the United States as a framework. Crossing the boundaries of history, economy, diplomacy, and science, she points out the key factors that will determine the outcome of the semiconductor war, and very clearly shows the reality that the Republic of Korea is facing amidst the whale fight. [*(In Korean and in English; read more at Nanam)*](https://www.nanam.net/shop/book.php?ptype=view&prdcode=2401020002&catcode=11000000) Former Fellow Young Sun Park is a South Korean journalist-turned politician who previously served as the second Minister of SMEs and Startups under President Moon Jae-in. ## Empire of Purity: The History of Americans' Global War on Prostitution ### *By Eva Payne* ![book_payne_alum_2024.jpeg](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/wcfia/files/book_payne_alum_2024.jpeg?itok=lZHNEVLn) Between the 1870s and 1930s, American social reformers, working closely with the US government, transformed sexual vice into an international political and humanitarian concern. As these activists worked to eradicate prostitution and trafficking, they promoted sexual self-control for both men and women as a cornerstone of civilization and a basis of American exceptionalism. *Empire of Purity* traces the history of these efforts, showing how the policing and penalization of sexuality was used to justify American interventions around the world. [*(Read more at Princeton University Press)*](https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691256979/empire-of-purity) Former Graduate Student Associate Eve Payne is an assistant professor of history at the University of Mississippi. ## Chernobyl Roulette: War in the Nuclear Disaster Zone ### *By Serhii Plokhy* ![book_plokhy_2024.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/wcfia/files/book_plokhy_2024.jpg?itok=VGem7NuI) On February 24, 2022, the first day of Russia’s all-out attack on Ukraine, armored vehicles approached the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine. Russian occupation of the plant, which would last thirty-five days, had begun. Only the dedication and resolve of Ukrainian personnel, who were held hostage and worked shifts for weeks instead of days, spared the world a new Chernobyl accident. They had to make life-or-death decisions on cooperation or resistance, balancing loyalty to their families, their homeland, and innocent civilians in Ukraine and beyond who would suffer the consequences of a nuclear accident should it occur. The choices they made helped to save the world from another Chernobyl disaster. [*(Read more at W. W. Norton)*](https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324079415) Faculty Associate Serhii Plokhy is the Mykhailo S. Hrushevs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian History at Harvard University. ## Handbook of Social Infrastructure: Conceptual and Empirical Research Perspectives ### *Coedited by Anna-Theresa Renner* ![book_renner_alum_2024.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/wcfia/files/book_renner_alum_2024.jpg?itok=27VeHYJA) This timely handbook showcases cutting-edge empirical and theoretical social science research to shed light on the role, aims and functioning of social infrastructure (SI). Leading scholars present unique insights on topics such as healthcare, childcare, education, employment and SI for marginalized groups alongside cultural and recreational infrastructures. Ongoing global and regional crises have underscored the significance of SI services and facilities in enhancing individual well-being, social cohesion and equality. With this central tenet in mind, contributing authors challenge traditional views on public welfare systems throughout the handbook to take into account the climate, care and housing crises. They provide an in-depth examination of the concept of SI and how it relates to different strands of research such as welfare state analysis and urbanism, connecting the field with other emerging strands of conceptualizing socio-economic processes such as the foundational economy approach. [*(Read more at Edward Elgar Publishing)*](https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/handbook-of-social-infrastructure-9781800883123.html) Former Joseph A. Schumpeter Fellow Anna-Theresa Renner is an assistant professor at the Vienna University of Technology. ## A Century of Global Economic Crises: Monetary Policy in Search of An Anchor ### *By Lúcio Vinhas de Souza* ![book_vinhasdesouza_alum_2024.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/wcfia/files/book_vinhasdesouza_alum_2024.jpg?itok=nmLO7Caa) This book explores the end of the era of low inflation and stable price increases, known as “The Great Moderation,” and the impact this will have on monetary policy. The macroeconomic trends and economic policy issues observed within developed countries over the last seventy years are linked with the economic theory debates of the time to highlight how the current economic challenges came about. The limitations of past economic policies are highlighted to help create a new policy framework for an era defined by high inflation, low economic growth, large budget deficits, and increased private sector debt. [*(Read more at Palgrave Macmillan)*](https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-53460-7) Former Fellow Lúcio Vinhas de Souza is the director of the Economics Department and Chief Economist of BusinessEurope. ## More from this issue [### Fall 2024, Volume 39 Number 1 ](/publications/centerpiece/fall2024) ![Graphic of a large beige W and the words "Centerpiece" and issue information overlaid onto a darker beige background, next to a sepia-toned photo of a stucco building and doorframe with pigeons on the floor.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-05/Cover.png?itok=g8Ikep3B) [### Message from the Executive Director ](/publications/centerpiece/fall2024/executive-director) ![Headshot of Erin Goodman next to her name and title against gray background.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-05/goodman_erin_square_full_with-title.png?h=7d0147dd&itok=SEBskCwr) [### Of Note ](/publications/centerpiece/fall2024/of_note) ![Michele Lamont standing and smiling while holding flowers and receiving the award from another person.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/wcfia/files/kohli_prize_picture.png?itok=LT1Co0CP) [### Dispatches: Undergraduate Researchers in the Field ](/publications/centerpiece/fall2024/dispatches) ![A woman with long dyed braids is leaning out of a car and looking down the road toward a sunset.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/wcfia/files/dispatches_feature_-_image_only.png?itok=IpcAUlQT) [### Cope, Adapt, Thrive: Ensuring Our Shared Future on a Hot and Hostile Planet ](/publications/centerpiece/fall2024/feature_jodidi) ![Tjada D'Oyen McKenna and Melani Cammett are seated in leather chairs and smiling at someone in the audience (off camera).](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/wcfia/files/tocimages-jodidi-2630px.jpg?itok=X4Wohd5a) [### Weatherhead Research Cluster on Identity Politics ](/publications/centerpiece/fall2024/prog_gsnic) ![A group of people standing in rows on a platform, posing for a group photo in a conference setting.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/wcfia/files/researchgroups-wrcip-group-2630px.jpg?itok=FySEmczL) [### Student Programs ](/publications/centerpiece/fall2024/prog_student) ![Several Juster Fellow students pose with Kenneth Juster and his wife in a lobby.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-04/ResearchGroups-students-JusterLunch-2630px.jpg?itok=IqNMWaPd) [### Photo Gallery for Fall 2024 Centerpiece ](/publications/centerpiece/fall2024/photo_gallery) description [ More About Centerpiece arrow\_circle\_right ](https://prod-wcfia.drupalsites.harvard.edu/publications/centerpiece) See also:- [ Centerpiece: Fall 2024 ](/newsletter-issues/centerpiece-fall-2024)