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Each year, our faculty members publish numerous groundbreaking books in all subfields of history. A few of them are selected for "Best Books of the Year" lists in various publications. Here are this year's inclusions:
![Journeys of the Mind, a memoir by Peter Brown](/sites/g/files/toruqf5351/files/styles/freeform_750w/public/2023-06/brown-journeys-mind.jpeg?itok=0xlSk0MP)
Journeys of the Mind: A Life in History
By Peter Brown
"Journeys of the Mind: A Life in History" (Princeton University Press) is included in History Today’s Books of the Year 2023 and the Times Literary Supplement’s Best Books of the Year 2023. TLS critic Richard Davenport-Hines calls it, “The most exciting book that I have read this century … immaculately written, radiant with wisdom, generous, grateful and gladdening.” Brown is the Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History, Emeritus.
![Queer Career: Sexuality and Work in Modern America by Margot Canaday](/sites/g/files/toruqf5351/files/styles/freeform_750w/public/canaday-queer-careers-250.png?itok=eNT4aZzu)
Queer Career: Sexuality and Work in Modern America
"Queer Career: Sexuality and Work in Modern America" (Princeton University Press) is included in The Chronicle for Higher Education's Best Scholarly Books of 2023. "[I]t operates in a category all its own," writes Chronicle contributor Lily Geismer. "This is the rare academic book that brought tears to my eyes thanks to its poignancy, rather than out of boredom." Margot Canaday is the Dodge Professor of History.
![Seven Crashes: The Economic Crises That Shaped Globalization by Harold James](/sites/g/files/toruqf5351/files/styles/freeform_750w/public/2023-04/james-seven-crises.jpeg?itok=u_21g5kQ)
Seven Crashes: The Economic Crises That Shaped Globalization
By Harold James
"Seven Crashes: The Economic Crises That Shaped Globalization" (Yale University Press) is included in the Financial Times Best Books of 2023 - Economic. James is the Claude and Lore Kelly Professor in European Studies, and professor of history and international affairs. His exploration of economic crises from the mid-1800s through the COVID lockdowns makes for a “fascinating book,” writes Financial Times critic Martin Wolf.
![How Data Happened](/sites/g/files/toruqf5351/files/styles/freeform_750w/public/2023-08/jones-how-data-happened.jpeg?itok=uRIBgP_g)
How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms
“How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms” (W.W. Norton), by Matthew Jones, co-authored with Chris Wiggins, is included in The New Yorker Best Books 2023, which calls it a “fascinating history of data science" and note, "[b]y the beginning of the twenty-first century ... 'data science,' which had been just one tool with which to produce knowledge and became, in many quarters, the only tool.” Jones is the Smith Family Professor of History.
![The Ruble a Political History by Ekaterina Pravilova](/sites/g/files/toruqf5351/files/styles/freeform_750w/public/2023-04/pravilova-the-ruble.jpeg?itok=Rkxnjy2p)
The Ruble: A Political History
“The Ruble: A Political History” (Oxford University Press) is included in History Today’s Books of the Year 2023. “[T]his is how economic history should be done,” writes Pravilova’s Princeton colleague Peter Brown. Pravilova is the Rosengarten Chair of Modern and Contemporary History, professor of history, and director of PIIRS’ Program in Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies.
Read a Q&A with her about the book on the Humanities Council website.
![The Life and Death of States by Natasha Wheatley](/sites/g/files/toruqf5351/files/styles/freeform_750w/public/2023-04/wheatley-life-death-states.jpeg?itok=PhIPe5io)
The Life and Death of States: Central Europe and the Transformation of Modern Sovereignty
“The Life and Death of States: Central Europe and the Transformation of Modern Sovereignty” (Princeton University Press) is included in the New Statesman Books of the Year 2023 and Just Security Year-End Book Recommendations 2023, an online forum based at New York University’s School of Law. New Statesman critic Quinn Slobodian recommends it for addressing one of the “most urgent” questions of our times: “who gets to claim what patch of the Earth and why.” Wheatley is an assistant professor of history.