Littman Library: Jewish Cultural Studies Series

As part of its forthcoming title release in summer 2015, the ACLS Humanities E-Book (HEB) collection will feature the first five installments of the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization's Jewish Cultural Studies series. These titles, edited by Simon J. Bronner, focus on the concept of Jewish identity as perceived by both Jews and non-Jews, exploring the cultural dimensions of concepts such as homeland and diaspora, assimilation and separation; as well as cultural institutions like the media, museums, schools and synagogues; and examining these from both religious and secular perspectives. The series is published by the Littman Library of Jewish Civilization for the Jewish Section of the American Folklore Society, one of the 31 learned societies that work with HEB on collection development.

The Littman Library is a respected leader in Jewish Studies titles; 28 volumes of its ongoing series Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry are currently already available as part of the HEB collection.

New on HEB: Oplontis Villa A (“of Poppaea”) at Torre Annunziata, Italy

ACLS Humanites E-Book (HEB) is pleased to announce its recent release of Oplontis Villa A (“of Poppaea”) at Torre Annunziata, Italy, Volume 1: The Ancient Setting and Modern Rediscovery, edited by John R. Clarke and Nayla K. Muntasser. This is the first of four volumes devoted to the archaeological discoveries made at the Villa A site at Oplontis (Torre Annunziata, Italy). The Oplontis Project is an initiative operating under the direction of Clarke and Michael L. Thomas of the University of Texas at Austin, in collaboration with the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici per Pompei, Ercolano e Stabia, as well as an international team of scholars working in multiple disciplines.

This first volume includes essays by Elaine K. Gazda; Lorenzo Fergola; Vincenzo Marasco; Giovanni Di Maio; Massimo Ricciard; Kathryn Gleason; Gaetano Di Pasquale, Daniela Moser, Emilia Allevato and Oliver Nelle; Elda Russo Ermolli and Erwan Messager; and Clarke; topics covered range from architecture to geology to ancient flora and fauna of the region, as well as an overview of on-site discoveries in chronological order from the end of the sixteenth century through the present.

The extensive research that gave rise to this publication also includes a navigable, three-dimensional virtual model of Villa A at Oplontis assembled by the Project team at the University of Texas and the King’s Visualisation Lab, King’s College, London, which will be available online in the near future. HEB will eventually incorporate this model into the publication.

HEB Partners with ASEEES (Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies)

The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) recently joined the list of learned societies who provide title recommendations to help build the ACLS Humanities E-Book (HEB) collection. 

Established in 1948, ASEEES is the leading international organization dedicated to the advancement of knowledge about Central Asia, the Caucasus, Russia and Eastern Europe in regional and global context. ASEEES supports teaching, research and publication and has cultivated the field’s intellectual landscape for over fifty years through its chief publication, Slavic Review; its annual convention; its book prizes and its organizational newsletter.

HEB currently works directly with thirty-one of the American Council of Learned Societies's constituent member organizations to grow its title list. (See a list of all participating societies here.) We greatly value these collaborations that help ensure our offerings include works of enduring value in their fields, as well as reflecting new trends and interests in scholarly research.

HEB at ALA Midwinter 2015

HEB will again be an exhibitor at the upcoming American Library Association Midwinter Meeting, this time taking place in Chicago, January 30-February 3, 2015.

We're excited to meet with our subscribers and prospective subscribers to let everyone know what's new and what to expect in 2015. Write to us at info@hebook.org to schedule an appointment, or simply stop by Booth 4923. We look forward to your visit!

To register for ALA Midwinter, please visit the official website.

HEB Top-Selling Handheld Editions

HEB is pleased to be able to offer a subset of titles from our online collection in a downloadable/ mobile format. We've recently analyzed our sales data for the latest royalty period, covering the first half of 2014, and present the results below.

Far outpacing all other titles is James McPherson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, selling more than 500 copies for the period in question. (McPherson's Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution is also available as an HEB handheld edition.)

Here are our current top ten handheld bestsellers:

1. James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom (1989)
2. James C. Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (1985)
3. Sarah B. Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity (1995)
4. Ann P. McClintock, Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest (1995)
5. Walter A. McDougall,  The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age (1995)
6. Ida Pruitt, A Daughter of Han: The Autobiography of a Chinese Working Woman (1945)
7. James M. McPherson, Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution (1991)
8. Valentin Y. Mudimbe, The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Order of Knowledge (1988)
9. R. W. Southern, The Making of the Middle Ages (1953)
10. Lawrence Stone, The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800 (1977)

The books are available from a number of online retailers. More information about our handheld program can be found here: http://humanitiesebook.org/the-collection/handheld-editions.html.

Fall Meetings: Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, History of Science Society

This fall, ACLS Humanities E-Book (HEB) will be an exhibitor at two society meetings.

We will be at the 2014 Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR) Annual Meeting, taking place October 31-November 1 at the JW Marriott Indianapolis in Indianapolis, IN. The meeting will be held jointly with the Religious Research Association and the Mormon Social Science Association. Details and registration information can be found on the SSSR website: http://www.sssrweb.org.

We will also be exhibiting at the 2014 History of Science Society (HSS) meeting, taking place on November 6-9, 2014, at the Westin Michigan Avenue Hotel in Chicago, IL. (HSS is a constituent society of ACLS.) The meeting will be held jointly with the Philosophy of Science Association. More details about the meeting can be found here: hssonline.org/meetings/2014-hss-annual-meeting.

Subscribers planning to attend either event and those interested in learning more about our resource are encouraged to reach out to Lee Walton, who will be representing HEB, at lwalton@hebook.org.

HEB's Top Ten Titles for January 2014-June 2014

HEB is pleased to once again publish our list of top-hit titles, which this time covers the first half of 2014. These represent the titles most frequently accessed by our subscribers during this period, often reflecting course adoptions.

While a number of titles noted below have appeared on this list consistently over the years (e.g., Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Clifford Geertz's The Interpretation of Cultures, and Henry Jenkins's Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide), we are also seeing several new entries. These include: John K. Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800; E. J. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality; and Paul S. Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft.

This implies a continued interest in the subjects of nationalism, colonialism, race and racism, and religion, to name a few—a trend that HEB has been observing over the course of the last few semesters.

1. Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (Verso, 2006)
2. Jenkins, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide (New York University Press, 2006)
3. Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays (Basic Books, 1973)
4. Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War (Pantheon, 1993)
5. Richter, Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early American (Harvard University Press, 2003)
6. Thornton, Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800 (Cambridge University Press, 1998)
7. Ngai, Impossible Subjects: Illegal Aliens and the Making of Modern America (Princeton University Press, 2004)
8. Brown, Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn (University of California Press, 1991)
9. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism Since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality (Cambridge University Press, 1992)
10. Boyer and Nissenbaum, Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft (Harvard University Press, 1974)