Bold Ideas, Essential Reading since 1936.

Rutgers University Press is dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge for a wide range of readers. The Press reflects and extends the University’s core mission of research, instruction, and service. They enhance the work of their authors through exceptional publications that shape critical issues, spark debate, and enrich teaching. Core subjects include: film and media studies, sociology, anthropology, education, history, health, history of medicine, human rights, urban studies, criminal justice, Jewish studies, American studies, women's, gender, and sexuality studies, LGBTQ, Latino/a, Asian and African studies, as well as books about New York, New Jersey, and the region.

Rutgers also distributes books published by Bucknell University Press.

Showing 81-120 of 2,557 items.

Intelligent Action

A History of Artistic Research, Aesthetic Experience, and Artists in Academia

Rutgers University Press

Intelligent Action: A History of Artistic Research, Aesthetic Experience, and Artists in Academia explores how conceptual and performance artists of the long 1960s developed oppositional practices within and alongside the American university, an institution that registers the priorities of capitalism, technological change, and social justice movements in intensified ways.

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Home Is Where Your Politics Are

Queer Activism in the U.S. South and South Africa

Rutgers University Press

Home Is Where Your Politics Are is a vivid consideration of queer and trans activism in the US South and South Africa, situated in their own contexts and international narratives about those contexts. The book traverses international borders as boldly as the activists present in the text declare these spaces home.

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Get Involved!

Stories of Bahamian Civil Society

Rutgers University Press

Using the Caribbean as a rich site of observance and concentrating on the island nation-state of The Bahamas, Get Involved! uncovers the hidden and under-documented practices of “philanthropy from below.” Williams-Pulfer shows the long history and continued significance of civil society and philanthropic engagement in The Bahamas, the circum-Caribbean, and the wider African Diaspora.

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Feeling Democracy

Emotional Politics in the New Millennium

Rutgers University Press

The contributors to Feeling Democracy examine how both reactionary and progressive politics in the twenty-first century are driven largely by emotional appeals to the public. These essays cover everything from immigrants’ rights movements to white nationalist rallies to show how solidarities forged around gender, race, and sexuality become catalysts for a passionate democratic politics.

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Cruel Destiny and The White Negress

Two Novels by Cléante Desgraves Valcin

Rutgers University Press

Cruel Destiny (Cruelle Destinée) and The White Negress (La Blanche Négresse) are the first and second novels published by a Haitian woman, Cléante ValcinTranslated to English now for the first time by Jeanne Jégousso, these novels offer an incisive perspective on the fate, romance, and reversals of characters in Haiti, the Pearl of the Antilles, during the 1920s and 1930s.

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Cruel Destiny and The White Negress

Two Novels by Cléante Desgraves Valcin

Rutgers University Press

Cruel Destiny (Cruelle Destinée) and The White Negress (La Blanche Négresse) are the first and second novels published by a Haitian woman, Cléante ValcinTranslated to English now for the first time by Jeanne Jégousso, these novels offer an incisive perspective on the fate, romance, and reversals of characters in Haiti, the Pearl of the Antilles, during the 1920s and 1930s.

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Criminalized Lives

HIV and Legal Violence

Rutgers University Press

Criminalized Lives profiles people charged in Canada with the crime of not disclosing their HIV-positive status to sex partners. Examining how criminalization disproportionately punishes poor, Black and Indigenous people, gay men, and women in Canada, Alexander McClelland investigates the consequences of criminalizing illness, which results in people being subjected to state violence rather than treated with care.
 

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Brotherhood University

Black Men's Friendships and the Transition to Adulthood

Rutgers University Press

In Brotherhood University, Brandon A. Jackson examines how a group of collegiate Black men form an emotion culture characterized by vulnerability, loyalty, and trust, which facilitated the creation of brotherhood. This enduring bond provided the men with the necessary social support to navigate the precarity of the transition to adulthood and gendered racism both during and after college.
 

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American Anti-Pastoral

Brookside, New Jersey and the Garden State of Philip Roth

Rutgers University Press

Combining literary analysis with historical research, Thomas Gustafson examines how Philip Roth’s acclaimed 1997 novel American Pastoral draws upon the history of Brookside, New Jersey as its model for the fictional hamlet of Old Rimrock. American Anti-Pastoral peels back myths about the bucolic Garden State countryside to reveal deep fissures within the heart of American democracy.

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The Specter and the Speculative

Afterlives and Archives in the African Diaspora

Rutgers University Press

The Specter and the Speculative examines how historical subjects and texts within the African Diaspora are re-fashioned, re-animated, and re-articulated, as well as parodied, nostalgized, and defamiliarized. The essays, by emergent and established scholars, explore how “living” archives circulate and haunt the popular imagination, engendering afterlives and liberating prior narratives from their original context.

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The Specter and the Speculative

Afterlives and Archives in the African Diaspora

Rutgers University Press

The Specter and the Speculative examines how historical subjects and texts within the African Diaspora are re-fashioned, re-animated, and re-articulated, as well as parodied, nostalgized, and defamiliarized. The essays, by emergent and established scholars, explore how “living” archives circulate and haunt the popular imagination, engendering afterlives and liberating prior narratives from their original context.

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Wake

Why the Battle over Diverse Public Schools Still Matters

Rutgers University Press

Wake: Why the Battle Over Diverse Public Schools Still Matters tells the story of the aftermath of the 2009 Wake County school board election in favor of "neighborhood schools," including the fierce public debate that ensued during school board meetings and in the pages of the local newspaper, and the groundswell of community support that voted in a pro-diversity school board in 2011. What was at stake in those years was the fundamental direction of the largest school district in North Carolina and the 14th largest in the U.S. Would it maintain a commitment to diverse schools, and if so, how would it balance that commitment with various competing interests and demands? Through hundreds of published opinion articles and several in depth interviews with community leaders, Wake examines the substance of that debate and explores the community’s vision for public education.

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The United States and the Armenian Genocide

History, Memory, Politics

Rutgers University Press

This is the first book to examine how and why the United States refused to officially acknowledge the 1915-17 Armenian Genocide until the early 2020s. Drawing from congressional records, rare newspapers, and interviews with lobbyists and decision-makers, historian Julien Zarifian reveals how genocide recognition became such a complex, politically sensitive issue.

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The Other Jersey Shore

Life on the Delaware River

Rutgers University Press

The Other Jersey Shore takes readers on a personal tour of the New Jersey portion of the Delaware River and its surroundings, from the archeological remnants of the former King of Spain’s mansion to waterfalls where bears and foxes frolic. Combining history and nature writing, it shares engrossing stories and surprising facts about a river that is both the backbone and lifeblood of the Garden State. 

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Surviving Alex

A Mother’s Story of Love, Loss, and Addiction

Rutgers University Press

Patricia Roos was a professor of sociology at Rutgers University when she lost her 25-year-old son Alex to a heroin overdose. Turning her grief into action, she began to research the social factors and institutional failures that contributed to his death. Surviving Alex tells her moving story while describing a more compassionate approach that would provide proper care to substance users and reduce addiction.

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Meltdown Expected

Crisis, Disorder, and Upheaval at the end of the 1970s

Rutgers University Press

Meltdown Expected tells the story of how, both domestically and internationally, 1978 and 1979 saw a series of catastrophes that shook America’s confidence and hurtled the nation into the final phase of the Cold War. Covering everything from the Three Mile Island disaster to the Iran hostage crisis, it is a vivid portrait of a tumultuous time. 

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Jewish Education

Rutgers University Press

Jewish education has been dominated by two concerns: What ought to be taught? And what is the best way to teach it?  This book upends the conventional approaches by asking a different question: How do people learn to engage in Jewish life?
 

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Governing Maya Communities and Lands in Belize

Indigenous Rights, Markets, and Sovereignties

Rutgers University Press

In Belize, conservation NGOs push for wildlife sanctuaries to protect endangered ecosystems. State actors authorize timber extraction to generate revenue for debt repayment. Maya communities, dispossessed by state and NGO strategies, pursue claims for Indigenous rights to lands. This book explores the conflicting forms of governance that emerge as these trajectories intersect.

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Global Film Color

The Monopack Revolution at Midcentury

Rutgers University Press

Global Film Color: The Monopack Revolution at Midcentury explores color filmmaking around the world during the mid-century era when color came to dominate global film production. As Eastmancolor, Agfacolor, Fujicolor and other film stocks became broadly available and affordable, national film industries increasingly converted to color, transforming the look and feel of global cinema.

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Global Film Color

The Monopack Revolution at Midcentury

Rutgers University Press

Global Film Color: The Monopack Revolution at Midcentury explores color filmmaking around the world during the mid-century era when color came to dominate global film production. As Eastmancolor, Agfacolor, Fujicolor and other film stocks became broadly available and affordable, national film industries increasingly converted to color, transforming the look and feel of global cinema.

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Beaches, Bays, and Barrens

A Natural History of the Jersey Shore

Rutgers University Press

Biologist Eric G. Bolen introduces readers to the natural wonders of the Jersey Shore, taking them on a guided tour of its unique ecology and fascinating history. You’ll learn about everything from sand dunes to salt marshes, from blueberry patches to cranberry bogs, and from ship wrecks to shark attacks. 

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At the Glacier’s Edge

A Natural History of Long Island from the Narrows to Montauk Point

Rutgers University Press

Combining science writing, environmental history, and first-hand accounts from a longtime resident, At the Glacier’s Edge offers a unique narrative natural history of Long Island. It tells the story of how its habitats evolved, how humans radically degraded its landscape, and how community activists are restoring the land and preserving the species who depend on it. 

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Notes from Home

Edited by Jonna McKone
Rutgers University Press

This beautifully illustrated volume weaves together personal stories, photographs, drawings, poems of students who have experienced insecurity during childhood into a tapestry of memories about the meaning of home.

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To Keep the Republic

Thinking, Talking, and Acting Like a Democratic Citizen

Rutgers University Press

American democracy has reached an inflection point. This book is a wake-up call about the heavy responsibilities that come with being a citizen in a participatory democracy. It describes the many ways that individuals can make a difference on both local and national levels—and explains why they matter.

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The Cinema of Yakov Protazanov

Rutgers University Press

Yakov Protazanov was the most prolific Russian director of the silent era whose works enjoyed consistent popularity with audiences as he adapted to the Russian Revolution and, later, the transition to sound. This first career-length study in English argues that he pursued a unique artistic vision that reflected his ambivalent position within Soviet culture of the revolutionary era.

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The Caravaggio Syndrome

A Novel

Rutgers University Press

Headstrong art historian Leyla is expecting a baby with feckless computer technician Pablo. There’s only one problem: she can’t stand him. And one more problem: her student Michael wants Pablo for himself. But when the writings by utopian philosopher Tommaso Campanella unlocks the secret of a painting and a mystical gateway to 17th-century Naples, Leyla and Michael embark on a voyage of self-discovery in search of a new life.

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Life, Brazen and Garish

A Tale of Three Women

By Dacia Maraini; Translated by Elvira G. Di Fabio; Foreword by Sara Teardo
Rutgers University Press

This fresh take on the epistolary novel tells the story of a family through the disparate perspectives of a teenage daughter writing in her diary, a mother composing letters, and a grandmother speaking into a recorder. In turns heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny, it is a triumph of voice and style from one of Italy’s most renowned writers.

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Creating the Hudson River Park

Environmental and Community Activism, Politics, and Greed

Rutgers University Press

Former Hudson River Park Conservancy president Tom Fox offers an insider’s look at the park’s expansion and the conflicts it has spawned among community activists, local politicians, and private developers. Explaining how the park’s current problems might be surmounted, he provides a model for future urban planners. 
 

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China's Left-Behind Children

Caretaking, Parenting, and Struggles

Rutgers University Press

Paying special attention to the seventy million children left behind by internal migrants in rural China, this book investigates the role of parental migration and the left-behind status of their children in shaping family dynamics and the children’s general wellbeing, including school performance, delinquency, resilience, feelings of ambiguous loss, and other psychological problems.

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Born of War in Colombia

Reproductive Violence and Memories of Absence

Rutgers University Press

Born of War in Colombia examines how a past-oriented and harm-centered model of transitional justice has converged with a restricted notion of gendered victimhood and the patriarchal politics of reproduction to render the bodies of people born of conflict-related sexual violence unintelligible to those seeking to understand and address the consequences of war in Colombia.
 

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A Nation of Family and Friends?

Sport and the Leisure Cultures of British Asian Girls and Women

Rutgers University Press

In A Nation of Family and Friends sociologist Aarti Ratna interrogates sport and leisure cultures as a site of common culture. Ratna portrays and analyses the vagaries of British Asian-ness and examines the intersections of class, caste, age, generation, gender, and sexuality, providing a rich and critical exploration of British Asian women's sport and leisure choices, pleasures, and lived realities.

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Politicizing Islam in Austria

The Far-Right Impact in the Twenty-First Century

Rutgers University Press

Politicizing Islam in Austria is a comprehensive examination of the influence of the far right on the Austrian political landscape and the impact its anti-Muslim agenda has had in a country whose longstanding state recognition of the Muslim community dates to as early as 1912.

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Glory

The Gospel of Judas, A Novel

By Giuseppe Berto; Translated by Gregory Conti; Foreword by Alessandro Vettori
Rutgers University Press

In Glory, Judas Iscariot finally tells his side of the story. From his perspective, Jesus is the betrayer, while Judas himself brought humanity a chance at redemption. Through Judas’s searing tortured monologues, this late masterpiece from one of Italy’s greatest writers investigates deep questions about the nature of faith, rebellion, fate, and free will.
 

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Messianic Zionism in the Digital Age

Jews, Noahides, and the Third Temple Imaginary

Rutgers University Press

In this groundbreaking ethnographic study of the transnational Third Temple and Children of Noah movements, Messianic Zionism in the Digital Age highlights the intimate effects of political theologies in motion, new forms of digital missionizing, and the birth of a new Judaic faith. 
 

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Making History Move

Five Principles of the Historical Film

Rutgers University Press

Making History Move builds upon decades of scholarship investigating history in visual culture, proposing a methodology of five principles to analyze history in moving images in the digital age, charting a path to understand the form of history with the most significant impact on public perceptions of the past.

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Funny Boy

The Richard Hunt Biography

Rutgers University Press

This biography tells the story of Muppet performer Richard Hunt, who created a colorful range of characters on The Muppet Show, Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock, and crammed an extraordinary career into only 40 years of life. Funny Boy is about a man who used humor, joy and resilience to adapt to life’s surprises while entertaining millions. 

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Christianity and Comics

Stories We Tell about Heaven and Hell

Rutgers University Press

This book presents an 80-year history of how the comics industry has drawn inspiration from biblical imagery, stories, and themes. Charting how comics have both reflected and influenced Americans’ changing attitudes towards religion, it includes underground comix, books from Christian publishers, and a vast array of DC, Marvel, and Dark Horse titles, from Hellboy to Preacher.   

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Born in the U.S.A.

Bruce Springsteen in American Life, 3rd edition, Revised and Expanded

Rutgers University Press

Pioneering the field of Springsteen scholarship when it first appeared in 1997, Born in the U.S.A. remains one of the definitive studies of Springsteen’s work and its impact on American culture. This fully revised third edition addresses Springsteen’s evolving attitudes toward politics, religion, masculinity, and racial justice in the 21st century. 

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Queer Newark

Stories of Resistance, Love, and Community

Edited by Whitney Strub; Epilogue by Zenzele Isoke
Rutgers University Press

Queer Newark charts an alternate history of LGBTQ life in America where working-class people of color are the central actors. Uncovering the sites and people of Newark’s queer past in bars, discos, ballrooms, and churches, these essays reveal how violence, poverty, and homophobia could never suppress joy, resistance, love, and desire.

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Queer Newark

Stories of Resistance, Love, and Community

Edited by Whitney Strub; Epilogue by Zenzele Isoke
Rutgers University Press

Queer Newark charts an alternate history of LGBTQ life in America where working-class people of color are the central actors. Uncovering the sites and people of Newark’s queer past in bars, discos, ballrooms, and churches, these essays reveal how violence, poverty, and homophobia could never suppress joy, resistance, love, and desire.

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