The first book to fully chronicle the struggles and triumphs of African American athletes in the Modern Olympic summer games. In the modern Olympic Games, from 1896 through the present, African American athletes have sought to honor themselves, their race, and their nation on the global stage. But even as these incredible athletes have served to promote visions of racial harmony in the supposedly-apolitical Olympic setting, many have also bravely used the games as a means to bring attention to racial disparities in their country and around the world. In Black Mercuries: African American Athletes, Race, and the Modern Olympic Games, David K. Wiggins, Kevin B. Witherspoon, and Mark Dyreson explore in detail the varied experiences of African American athletes, specifically in the summer games. They examine the lives and careers of such luminaries as Jesse Owens, Rafer Johnson, Wilma Rudolph, Florence Griffith-Joyner, Michael Johnson, and Simone Biles, but also many African American Olympians who have garnered relatively little attention and whose names have largely been lost from historical memory. In recounting the stories of these Black Olympians, Black Mercuries makes clear that their superior athletic skills did not always shield them from the racial tropes and insensitivity spewed by fellow athletes, the media, spectators, and many others. Yet, in part because of the struggles they faced, African American Olympians have been extraordinarily important symbolically throughout Olympic history, serving as role models to future Black athletes and often putting their careers on the line to speak out against enduring racial inequality and discriminatory practices in all walks of life.

Professor Ntongela Masilela (1948–2020) is recognised as one of South Africa’s most eminent scholars, and his highly respected and meticulous contributions to local and global intellectual discourse, most significantly via his historical archive, offer essential insights into disciplines such as literature, film, arts, and political and intellectual history.

The book comprises essays by Masilela; each of which is prefaced by an introduction by the volume editor. The essays contain Masilela’s most significant writings and illuminate the essence and breadth of his gifted mastery of the aforementioned disciplines; a mastery that he deployed in service of elucidating both the intellectual contributions of others – most notably the members of the New African Movement – and the interconnectedness of people, body politics, events and ideologies across time and space. In this way, the book befittingly presents Masilela as a widely read and travelled scholar, who scoured the national archive to unpack the most intricate aspects of our history and its interconnectedness with the history of the world.

The essays further showcase Masilela’s historico-biographical approach in their exploration of three key periods: the diaspora (exile), the interregnum, and post-apartheid South Africa, as well as offer us an advanced understanding of the locus that drove the works of others, such as Bernard M. Magubane, H.I.E. Dhlomo and Nadine Gordimer.

In so doing, Masilela brings to life both prominent and lesser-known African intellectuals by engaging with their archives in a manner that empowers the reader to appreciate also the value of biographical sketches. His treatment of race, language, culture and indeed literature itself is not just theoretic but verges on the dramatic, and thereby he gives these paths of inquiry both life and contemporaneity. Further, there is an ongoing debate in contemporary Africa about “what is South African literature”, “what is national liberation” and “what are the markers of a successful post-colonial state”. The book will enrich these debates, which are sometimes stylised and conducted without historical context.

The transdisciplinary nature of the book enables it to serve as reference material across various disciplines in the global south and the global north Therefore, itt will be of interest to readers of political and intellectual history, cultural (arts and film) studies, literature, political science and diaspora studies.

'Majestic, ambitious' Literary Review ____________________________________ We are endlessly fascinated by the French. We are fascinated by their way of life, their creativity and sophistication, and even their insistence that they are exceptional. But how did France become the country it is today, and what really sets it apart? Historian Peter Watson sets out to answer these questions in this dazzling history of France, taking us from the seventeenth century to the present day through the nation's most influential thinkers. He opens the doors to the Renaissance salons that brought together poets, philosophers and scientists, and tells the forgotten stories of the extraordinary women who ran these institutions, fostering a culture of stylish intellectualism unmatched anywhere else in the world. It's a story that takes us into Bohemian cafes and cabarets, into chic Parisian high culture via French philosophies of food, fashion and sex, and through two explosive revolutions. The French Mind is a history propelled by the writers, revolutionaries and painters who loved, inspired and rivalled one another over four hundred years. It documents the shaping of a nation whose global influence, in art, culture and politics, cannot be overstated. __________________________________________ 'An encyclopaedic celebration of French intellectuals refusing to give up on universal principles, while remaining slim, bringing up well-behaved children and falling in love at every opportunity' The Times 'An engaging movement through time towards France's recent reckonings with extremism, exceptionalism and empire' TLS

What happens when career ambition begins to clash with a commitment to religious and personal values? In Bylines and Blessings, award-winning author Judy Gruen shares how she resolved these two seemingly conflicting drives.

As a young, secular woman determined to succeed as a writer, she learns to turn rejection and obstacles into steps toward professional excellence. Along the way, she also becomes a powerful voice for traditional Jewish values, understanding that words create worlds. Discovering the surprising impact of her writing on readers of all ages and across many faiths, she ultimately finds the blessings in the bylines.

This heartfelt, compelling memoir traces Judy's path in building not only a career but a purposeful life. Filled with humor and depth, this book will feel like having a heart-to-heart talk with an old friend.

Revealing the lives of migrant couples and transnational households, this book explores the dark side of the history of migration in Argentina during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Using court records, censuses, personal correspondence and a series of case studies, Maria Bjerg offers a portrayal of the emotional dynamics of transnational marital bonds and intimate relationships stretched across continents. Using microhistories and case studies, this book shows how migration affected marital bonds with loneliness, betrayal, fear and frustration. Focusing primarily on the emotional lives of Italian and Spanish migrants, this book explores bigamy, infidelity, adultery, domestic violence and murder within official and unofficial unions. It reveals the complexities of obligation, financial hardship, sacrifice and distance that came with migration, and explores how shame, jealousy, vengeance and disobedience led to the breaking of marital ties. Against a backdrop of changing cultural contexts Bjerg examines the emotional languages and practices used by adulterous women against their offended husbands, to justify domestic violence and as a defence against homicide. Demonstrating how migration was a powerful catalyst of change in emotional lives and in evolving social standards, Emotions and Migration in Early Twentieth-century Argentina reveals intimate and disordered lives at a time when female obedience and male honour were not only paramount, but exacerbated by distance and displacement.