We start this week with The Loyal Republic: Traitors, Slaves and the Remaking of Citizenship in Civil War America by Erik Mathisen. Tom Lawrie welcomes a book which expertly brings the reader’s focus in and out of the national scale, concentrating alternately on the federal government before zooming in on Mississippi (no. 2276).
Next up is Migrants of the British Diaspora Since the 1960s. Stories From Modern Nomads by A. James Hammerton. Marie Ruiz believes this book’s most important contribution is the unveiling of new trends of migration with the emergence of transnational ‘citizens of the world’ (no. 2275).
Last but not least we have ANOTHER special issue, this time on Histories of Punishment, curated by Dr Katy Roscoe, Pearsall Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research. This features reviews of histories of punishment, published both as books and as digital resources. They showcase the diversity of criminal sentencing practices the state has deployed to punish and deter crime, reform criminals, and extract labour from convicts.