New Books in Western European Studies

Through the diaries and personal papers of a German woman, Vera Conrad, This Horrible Uncertainty: A German Woman Writes War, 1939-1948 (Berghahn Books, 2024) documents her wartime experiences and deepens our understanding of the complex experiences of trauma and grief that National Socialist supporters experienced. Building on scholarship about mourning and widowhood that largely focuses on state policies and public discourses, This Horrible Uncertainty provides an interpretive framework of people’s perceptions of events and their capacity to respond to them. Using a history of emotions approach, Erika Quinn establishes that keeping the diary allowed Conrad to develop different selves in response to her responsibilities, fear, and grief after her husband was declared missing in 1943.Deep Acharya is a PhD student and a George L. Mosse fellow of Modern European Cultural History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison working on the history of fatherhood in 20th century Germany.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies

Christian Raffensperger, Kenneth E. Ray Chair in Humanities and scholar of medieval Eastern Europe. He explores how medieval authors imagined worlds beyond their towns and kingdoms. Short takes look at eastern Europe’s place in medieval narratives, imagined geographies, mercantile perspectives like Marco Polo’s, and how texts create identity and space.

Alison Rowlands, professor of Early Modern European History at the University of Essex, joins Jana Byars to talk about her classic book, Witchcraft Narratives in Germany, Rothenberg, 1561- 1652, out Manchester UP 2003. This conversation took place on the occasion of a new edition, this time a paperback release, in January 2026 Witchcraft Narratives in Germany: Rothenburg, 1561-1652 (Manchester UP, 2026). This meticulously-researched book relies on copious, detailed archival documents concerning people accused of witchcraft in  the German city of Rothenburg ob der Tauber between 1561 and 1652. This city experienced a very restrained pattern of witch-trials and just one execution for witchcraft during that time, unlike some other places in German lands and Europe more broadly. This book explores the social and psychological conflicts that lay behind the making of accusations and confessions of witchcraft and offers insights into other areas of early modern life, such as experiences of and beliefs about communal conflict, magic, motherhood, childhood and illness. It also includes analysis on the role of gender. Find the open source of the original edition here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies

Fantastic and informative talk with Sara Petrosillo of the University of Evansville about her new book, Hawking Women: Falconry, Gender, and Control in Medieval Literary Culture (Ohio State University Press, 2023). Listen all the way to the end for a great description of the process of hunting with birds! While critical discourse about falconry metaphors in premodern literature is dominated by depictions of women as unruly birds in need of taming, women in the Middle Ages claimed the symbol of a hawking woman on their personal seals, trained and flew hawks, and wrote and read poetic texts featuring female falconers. Sara Petrosillo's Hawking Women demonstrates how cultural literacy in the art of falconry mapped, for medieval readers, onto poetry and challenged patriarchal control. Examining texts written by, for, or about women, Hawking Women uncovers literary forms that arise from representations of avian and female bodies. Readings from Sir Orfeo, Chrétien de Troyes, Guillaume de Machaut, Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, and hawking manuals, among others, show how female characters are paired with their hawks not to assert dominance over the animal but instead to recraft the stand-in of falcon for woman as falcon with woman. In the avian hierarchy female hawks have always been the default, the dominant, and thus these medieval interspecies models contain lessons about how women resisted a culture of training and control through a feminist poetics of the falconry practice.Jana Byars is the Academic Director of Netherlands: International Perspectives on Sexuality and Gender. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies

Jorge Marco, a historian and co-author of *The Fabric of Fear*, dives into the chilling aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. He reveals how Franco's regime utilized mass repression and military trials to build a totalitarian state. The Catholic Church played a crucial role, categorizing individuals and reinforcing fear through societal denunciations. Marco discusses the brutal conditions in prisons and the long-term impact of surveillance on released prisoners. His insights into everyday violence and community fractures provide a haunting look at this dark chapter in history.

In this insightful discussion, Jamie Kreiner, a history professor at the University of Georgia, delves into the lives of medieval monks and their battle against distraction. She reveals that these early monastics faced challenges eerily similar to our own and developed innovative strategies to maintain focus. Kreiner highlights the significance of community support, bodily practices, and even the design of books in this quest. She also emphasizes how their experiences can inform our modern approaches to managing attention and navigating distractions.

Elwin Hofman joins Jana Byars to talk about the volume he edited with Magaly Rodríguez García & Pieter Vanhees, The Business of Pleasure: A History of Paid Sex in the Heart of Europe (Leuven UP, 2022). In 2022, the Belgian parliament made a landmark decision by approving the decriminalisation of sex work. This move positioned the small nation as the first country in Europe - and the second globally - to abandon the hypocrisy of tolerance. Yet this was not the first time paid sex in Belgium gained international notoriety. The bathhouses of the fifteenth-century 'frows of Flanders' were well-known throughout Europe. In the nineteenth century, Belgium faced international outrage as the alleged epicentre of white slavery. Although Belgians were then accused of forcing white women into prostitution, they were also free to include any suspect women in the prostitution registers of colonial Congo. Throughout the First and Second World Wars, both allied and German soldiers sought relief in Belgian brothels. The Business of Pleasure presents the compelling life stories of sex workers and their interactions with authorities, clients and pimps. Pushing beyond stereotypes, this history of commercial sex offers a nuanced understanding of the difficulties and opportunities associated with paid sex for women, men and trans persons past and present. Contributors: Elwin Hofman (Utrecht University), Magaly Rodríguez García (KU Leuven), Pieter Vanhees (former researcher KU Leuven), Jelle Haemers (KU Leuven), Amandine Lauro (Université libre de Bruxelles), Maarten Loopmans (KU Leuven), Ilias Loopmans (MA history student at University of Antwerp), Sonia Verstappen (former sex worker). English translation of 'Seks voor geld. Een geschiedenis van prostitutie in België', Elwin Hofman, Magaly Rodríguez García & Pieter Vanhees (red.), (Amsterdam: Prometheus, 2022) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies

Matthijs Lok, a Senior Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Amsterdam, dives into his book exploring conservatism and Enlightenment. He traces the historical 'decline of Europe' trope to its political roots in the 18th century. Lok defines 'historical Europeanism' and profiles counter-revolutionaries like François-Xavier de Fela, highlighting their paradoxical use of Enlightenment tools. He discusses nationalism's evolution and the Vienna Order as a peace project, all while offering cautionary insights on today's political polarization.

Professor Anna Sergi, a criminologist from Calabria, dives deep into the complexities of recognizing the ‘ndrangheta abroad. She discusses the mafia's transnational behaviors and challenges stereotypes linking ethnicity to criminality. Anna critiques the biases in law enforcement methods, emphasizing the significance of kinship and reputation in mafia structures. She shares practical tools for identifying organized crime members without bias and explores how values of honor are passed through generations. This enlightening conversation sheds light on the ever-evolving nature of organized crime.

Sheiba Kian Kaufman, Assistant Professor of English at Saddleback College and expert on Shakespeare and Persian culture, delves into her book on early modern English drama. She explores how Persian monarchs reflect concepts of cosmopolitanism and hospitality in literature. Kaufman discusses theatrical hospitality, interprets Edgar in *King Lear* as embodying Persian ethics, and analyzes Elizabethan plays that illustrate intercultural marriages and tolerance under Persian influence. Her unique perspective reimagines the narratives of tolerance and diversity in the Renaissance.