Feeding the Ghosts by Fred D'Aguiar

This book is a historicization of the Zong disaster. While its perspective shifts among several of the participations, the most memorable character is Mintah, the woman who climbs back aboard the ship after being thrown over. The book explores what happens when we commodify the human body--the abuses and indignities that humans are willing to perpetrate on one another in the name of getting a good return on an investment. It also explores the role of literacy and the power it confers.

Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth

This book combines a number of stories. While a mutiny on a slave ship is perhaps the key event in the story; the vast majority of the narrative focuses on the experiences of two English characters: Erasmus Kemp, the son of the man who outfitted the ship, and his cousin Paris, a disgraced doctor who sails with the voyage. The book explores kinds of possibility: How cruel can humans be to each other? What are the costs of disappointment? What possible satisfactions can we obtain from revenge? Is it possible for a group of people, one set of whom tried to sell the other set into slavery, and who speak many different languages, to live together in harmony? altogether it makes a fascinating story. Winner of the 1992 Booker Prize with The English Patient.

Specters of the Atlantic: Finance Capital, Slavery, and the Philosophy of History by Ian Baucom

This monograph creates an archive out of absence, specifically the absence of a response to Granville Sharp's letter to the Lords Commissioners protesting the court decision to treat the events on the Zong (that is, the captain's decision to throw 133 slaves overboard in order to conserve water supplies) as an insurance case rather than murder. Baucom looks at the way the Zong case has echoed through history (in politics, art, literature, and philosophy), how it reflects the growth of a system of finance capital that not only treats people as objects, but as objects whose loss can always already be theoretically present insofar as they can be insured, and how it shows us the intersections between a trans-Atlantic slave economy and modern systems of capital. The book is theoretical and dense. It draws connections between Benjamin's Arcades project and Arrighi's models of cycles in addition to drawing on theorists as diverse as Adam Smith and Slavoj Zizek. The contents of Granville Sharp's letter (and indeed, a straightforward account of the Zong case) are delayed and secondary to meditations on the ethical implications of how we understand history and of the connections between the trans-Atlantic slave trade and finance capitalism. While there are parts of the book that seemed opaque to me, its overall argument was eloquent and persuasive.

The Novel and the Sea by Margaret Cohen

This monograph contends that fictions of the sea constitute a traveling, adventure genre that begins in the modern era with Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. This genre challenges our dominant accounts of the formation of the novel: Cohen insists that we account for the sea adventure narratives of writers such as Defoe and Smollett, even though the adventure genre has been critically neglected. After Smollett, the number of sea fictions wane until the subject is adopted by James Fenimore Cooper. In part this decline may be the result of the incredible, but true, tales that were happening on the world's oceans. Like the previously mentioned authors, though, Cooper is not famous for his sea fictions (The Pilot and Red Rover) but his Leatherstocking Tales. These American sea stories became popular just at the moment that the craft of seafaring became obsolete, replaced by mechanical inventions (such as accurate clocks to measure longitude). Thus Herman Melville, Victor Hugo, and Joseph Conrad had the opportunity to use their sea stories to focus on other kinds of craft at the margins. Jules Verne, on the other hand, took the exploration of frontiers beyond what people were actually experiencing to what they could only imagine. Thus, Cohen contends, sea fictions are the root of today's science fiction. I found this book to be ambitious, but thoroughly researched, and I was ultimately persuaded by Cohen's readings and her contextualizations, that we ought to pay more attention to sea fictions as a genre. I thought her description of the mariner's craft in the first chapter was particularly useful.

The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss

This book is much more than the biography of General Alex Dumas (today best known as the father of Alexandre Dumas, author of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers, among many other novels). It provides a lot of context for General Dumas's life and times--including the French colony of St. Domingue, the French Revolution, and the rise of Napoleon. The book makes two arguments: that General Alex Dumas achieved remarkable success, especially given the prejudices and hardships he had to overcome--and so should be more widely remembered; and that Alexandre Dumas, the novelist, based several of his literary works, including The Count of Monte Cristo, on his father's life. I found both claims well substantiated in the biography. I enjoyed the tone, which not only detailed the general's life and helped readers with the history surrounding that time and place, but also gave a personal account of researching the biography and teasing out the relevant details (including an incident of sanctioned safe breaking!). The narrator of the audiobook had a clear and enjoyable voice. All in all, a great book to listen to.

Sup with the Devil by Barbara Hamilton

In this mystery Abigail Adams gets drawn into mysterious circumstances at Harvard which center around a document whose contents are hidden by the Arabic script used to write it, a collection of books owned by a pirate that may have fallen into the wrong hands, and that pirate's hidden treasure. It seemed to take a while for this mystery to really get going, but it all came together nicely in the end. Hamilton continues to write excellent historical fiction.

New York Intellect: A History of Intellectual Life in New York City from 1750 to the Beginnings of Our Own Time by Thomas Bender

This book gives a comprehensive intellectual history of New York City. Bender contends that intellectual life in New York has always been different from Europe--so if we look for European structures, we'll be disappointed. Instead, he traces three types of intellectual involvement: civil, literary, and academic. He contends none of these structures has been completely successful in developing intellectual life, and that a city that could embrace all three would be ideal. In this book, Bender thinks a lot about the relations between intellectual life and democratic society, ultimately contending that intellectual life has to be open to all and a vibrant part of city culture for the optimal situation. I found this book very diligent in providing convincing evidence to support its arguments. The three trends are very clearly defined, but the book could trace their relationships to each other a little more clearly.

A Marked Man by Barbara Hamilton

This mystery features the sleuthing skills of Abigail Adams, who must come up with the true murderer of an arrogant Crown official when one of her husband's friends is falsely accused. Henry Knox, in love with the woman the official was trying to marry and a Son of Liberty, if he gave evidence against other traitors in return for his life, could condemn John Adams and many of his friends. The book does a good job with the historical fiction aspects of the story--and I think especially good with imagining Adams's character in the context of her time. I also liked the mystery plot, which was clever, and relied on techniques and observations available in 18th century life. While there were some clear clues pointing towards the solution, it may be one of those mysteries where the answer is a bit too complex, but not so much so that it would put me off reading other books by this author.

"A fair match, by Jupiter!": Language, Performance, and Struggle in Richardson's Clarissa by Allison Marie Murphy

This thesis insists we read Richardson's Clarissa not just for its words, but for the unwritten languages--such as gestures and clothing--in which the characters also communicate. By paying attention to these details, Murphy argues, the struggle between Lovelace and Clarissa is not so one-sided. I liked this approach: it accounts for Clarissa's agency (and the reader's interest in her) far better than other accounts that see her as a passive tool of her foes (both her family and Lovelace).

The Confusion by Neal Stephenson

This book contains more of the same careful attention to detail, plot, character, and history which marked Quicksilver, but it also does much more to suggest the overall arc of the plot--where things are headed. This clarity could come from the fact that I've already read one book setting things up, but I appreciated it. I loved the gold-theft plot--it worked particularly well between the two interwoven books (writ large, the story of Jack and the story of Eliza). I'm looking forward to the third book in this trilogy.

James Madison: A Biography by Ralph Ketcham

This biography gives a thorough account of Madison's life from his birth to his death. It covers matters both personal and political with a thorough approach: it has all the necessary background to make sense of the political events and it covers not only Madison's opinions and actions but also the philosophical basis for his actions. The book quotes heavily from Madison's letters and writings. My biggest problem was with its organization: it lumped all his personal affairs (most notably his marriage to Dolley Payne Todd and his retirement to Monticello during John Adams's terms as president) into one chapter that didn't fit entirely chronologically. Otherwise this book offers a thorough and entertaining view of Madison's life.

Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson

This book presents a complex and intriguing portrait of the Royal Society around the time of its founding, mixed with adventures in European politics and espionage. Some of the characters (particularly Eliza) are really compelling, and it's a treat to see the great minds of the Royal Society in action. There's a lot of attention to cryptography, mathematics, and science in this book, which I enjoy. If anything, it's lacking a clear plot: there are elements to various stories that play out very clearly, but overall, I'm not quite sure where this story is headed. I'm willing to give the second and third books a chance, though.

The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon

This book sends Jamie and Lord John on an adventure to Ireland, to deal with the remnants of the Jacobite cause. The pacing in this book was much stronger than several of the recent books that focus on Jamie and Claire. I enjoyed the adventures of the characters, and I liked the ambiguity about loyalties that the book introduced (Jamie has effectually sworn off the Jacobite cause because he knows it can only end in failure). There was a nice twist at the end that wasn't fully resolved to my satisfaction, but all in all, a very enjoyable read.

Phantasmagoria: Spirit Visions, Metaphor, and Media into the Twenty-First Century by Marina Warner

This book investigates representations of the spirit and the supernatural, starting early but really hitting its stride around the early eighteenth century and continuing into the twenty-first century. It considers representations of the self and a spiritual presence in material (wax, cloud, photographs, film) and immaterial (ether, air, ectoplasm) forms. The book casts a wide-ranging net to gather its evidence--we see examples drawn from art, literature, material culture, and many other places. Generally it argues that despite our increasing understanding of the processes in the world and our increasing secularization, we still need, perhaps more than ever, representations of spirit. I thought the last chapter, on zombies, was particularly effective. The book had a refreshing tone--it treats moments of spiritualism (like knocking, expulsion of ectoplasm, etc.) as moments to be studied for their interpretative value, not as phenomena to be definitively proven or disproven.

Arthur Mervyn by Charles Brockden Brown

This book recreates the complicated story of Arthur Mervyn, a young man from the country who comes to Philadelphia and immediately finds himself embroiled in its corruption--first commercial and then physical. I am particularly interested in the ways that Haiti simmers below the surface of this novel. While the plot is hard to follow at first, by untwisting it the reader discovers the full extent to which the slave trade supports enterprise in early America.

Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade by Diana Gabaldon

In this book Lord John Grey investigates the death of his father (which happened a long time ago), looking to clear his father of charges that he had been a Jacobite sympathizer and traitor. His mother remarries, and although he gains a stepbrother who at first glance appears to be in perfect sympathy with him, he learns exactly how far he can trust his family. Again, I found the historical detail to be much more compelling than the mystery plot.

Lord John and the Private Matter by Diana Gabaldon

This book features Lord John Grey, a minor character in Gabaldon's Outlander series, faced with two dilemmas that initially seem unrelated: he discovers the man who is engaged to his cousin has a venereal disease and he's asked to investigate the murder of a soldier who may be a spy for the French. As Lord John investigates and ponders what to do, it becomes clear that the mysteries are linked. This book is better at the historical fiction side of things than the mystery side of things.

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe

While this novel is still an early specimen of the form--there are no chapters, for example--I quite enjoyed this book. While Moll says she's repented of her early behavior, she still has made the most of it (despite incest, time in prison, and the rest). I found myself intrigued by how easily she let go of her children (who generally aren't named, and usually are foisted off on someone else to raise) and by the presence of America (the colonies) which play a surprisingly large part in the novel.

An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon

This book shares its virtues and faults with many of the previous books in the series. I felt like the plot arcs weren't clearly defined and worked towards cliffhangers rather than resolution.

The New History in an Old Museum: Creating the Past at Colonial Williamsburg by Richard Handler and Eric Gable

This book contends that even as Colonial Williamsburg has adopted social history as its mode of presentation of the past--which entails embracing the dirt of the past and acknowledging that history changes not so much because of the discovery of new facts as because of the appearance of new people interpreting it--it does not fully follow out on the principles that this social history approach would suggest (for example, in job mobility, in relative pay scale, and in creative and unique interpretations of the past). I found the book easy to follow in its argument and enlightening in its scope. I really enjoyed seeing the behind-the-scenes picture of Williamsburg, even if I'm not quite so radically critical of the enterprise.