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Summer is a great time to catch up on reading. Books from more than a dozen Duke authors offer insight on a range of topics – from gratitude for everyday life to the antislavery writings of Henry David Thoreau. Below is a roundup of some of the most recently published and soon-to-be-out titles.

Many of the books, including new editions of previous titles, can be found on the “Duke Authors” display shelves near the circulation desk in Perkins Library. Some are available as e-books for quick download. Most can also be purchased through the Gothic Bookshop.

[If you are a member of the Duke faculty or staff who will be publishing a book of interest to a general audience, send us a message at dukenews@duke.edu along with your publisher's brief description.]

Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie:  (Convergent Books) February 2023

Formatted like a prayer book, this book by Bowler, associate professor of American religious history at the Divinity School, and Richie, executive director of the Everything Happens Initiative, offers creative, faith-based blessings that center on gratitude and hope while acknowledging our real, messy lives.

William H. Chafe:  (Oxford University Press) Aug. 1, 2023

Chafe, Alice Mary Baldwin Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History, traces the progression of Black activism from the end of the Civil War through the 20th century and illustrates how history can and should inform contemporary social justice movements.

Phil Cook:  (Oxford University Press) Feb. 2023

Phil Cook, ITT/Terry Sanford Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Public Policy Studies, provides a detailed look at statistics behind gun violence and the practical ways in which policymakers can implement changes to protect both police and the citizens they serve.  

William Darity Jr.:  (University of California Press) May 2023

Darity, professor of public policy, African and African American studies, and economics is one of three editors who also are members of the Reparations Planning Committee. The book crystallizes the rationale for reparations and offers guidance for building and implementing a reparations program.

Esther Gabara:  (The University of Chicago Press) December 2022

A professor in the departments of Romance Studies and Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Gabara examines how contemporary art produced across the Americas has reacted to the rise of neoliberal regimes – focusing on the role of fiction in daily politics.

Jennifer M. Groh, Scott Huettel and Leonard White:����(Oxford Press) March 2023

Groh and Huettel, professors of psychology and neuroscience, and White, associate professor of neurology, were among the five editors of this textbook, which demonstrates the relevance of neuroscience to those exploring the field – undergraduates and current and future medical school students.����

Rick H. Hoyle:  (Guilford Press) February 2023

Hoyle, professor of psychology and neuroscience, is the editor of this book, which provides readers with a one-stop resource on structural equation modeling from leading methodologists. The second edition is revised and offers 23 new chapters.

Timur Kuran:  (Cambridge University Press) July 2023

Kuran, professor of economics and political science, and Gorter Family professor of Islamic Studies, explores the lasting political effects of the Middle East's lengthy exposure to Islamic law. He suggests that Islam's rich history carries within it the seeds of liberalization on many fronts and that the Middle East has already established certain prerequisites for a liberal order. 

Mbaye Lo:  (The University of North Carolina Press) August 2023

Lo, associate professor of the practice of Asian and Middle Eastern studies and international comparative studies, is a co-author of this book that examines the writings of Muslim scholar Omar ibn Said. Said spent more than fifty years enslaved in the North Carolina household of James Owen, brother of Governor John Owen. 

Adam Mestyan:  (Princeton University Press) August 8, 2023

Mestyan, associate professor of history, researches and teaches the history of empires and subordinated states in the Arabic-speaking world. In this book, he argues that post-Ottoman Arab political orders were not, as many historians believe, products of European colonialism but of the process of “recycling empire.”

Kathy Alexis Psomiades:  (Oxford Press) July 2023

An associate professor of English, Psomiades provides a fresh take on the novel’s traditional marriage plot, re-evaluates the Victorian anthropology of marriage, and supplies a new genealogy for feminist theory and theories of sexuality.

Jedediah Britton-Purdy:  (The Norton Library) Aug. 15, 2023

Britton-Purdy, a law professor, is the editor of the Norton Library edition of the complete text of the 1906 edition of Walden and a selection of Thoreau’s most famous antislavery writings. In his introduction, Britton-Purdy offers historical and biographical context for Thoreau’s writings and prepares readers to engage with his spiritual and activist reflections on a modern life freely lived.

C. Kavin Rowe:  (Eerdmans), June 2023

Rowe, the George Washington Ivey Distinguished Professor of New Testament at the Divinity School, reflects on the shaping of Christian leaders for the flourishing of their communities. This is the first of three volumes of essays.

Bill Seaman:  February 2023 

The book is a print retrospective of the work of media artist, researcher, and professor of art, art history and visual studies Bill Seaman. The retrospective covers nearly five decades of creative work, beginning with photographs Seaman took in 1975 as an undergraduate student at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).

Phillip Stern:  (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press) May 2023

Breaking from traditional histories in which corporations support the dirty work of sovereign states in exchange for commercial monopolies, Stern, associate professor of history, argues that corporations took the lead in global expansion and administration. Read more on the

Brent Strawn:  (Eerdmans) May 2023

Strawn, D. Moody Smith Distinguished Professor of Old Testament and professor of law, offers 18 of his most provocative essays on the nature of God – encompassing close readings of Scripture and biblical-theological argument.

Michael Tomasello:  (Penguin Random House) Sept. 2022

Tomasello, James F. Bonk Distinguished Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience, outlines four main types of psychological agency and describes them in evolutionary order of emergence – first with ancient vertebrates, then ancient mammals, followed by ancient great apes and ending with ancient humans.