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. Edited by Xóchitl Flores-Marcial, Moisés García Guzmán, Felipe H. Lopez, George Aaron Broadwell, Alejandra Dubcovsky, May Helena Plumb, Mike Zarafonetis, and Brook Danielle Lillehaugen. 2021. Open access.

Caseidyneën Saën, which means “learning together” in Zapotec (a family of languages indigenous to Oaxaca, Mexico) is a fantastic resource for learning about the Zapotec language and people and offers a way to expand and preserve knowledge of the language by Zapotec speakers and learners for future generations.

Caseidyneën Saën is an online open access pedagogical resource that complements the Ticha project, a digital explorer for a corpus of Colonial Zapotec texts. Caseidyneën Saën is available in both English and Spanish and like the original , was written and developed by a large collaborative team made up of both Zapotec and non-Indigenous individuals from academic and non-academic backgrounds. Zapotec people are one of the intended audiences of this resource along with high school and undergraduate students, and advocacy for Zapotec history, language, and culture is woven throughout.

Chapter titles include “Colonial Documents and Archives,” “Reading an Interlinear Analysis,” and “Twitter and Zapotec Language Activism,” giving a sense of the range of historical, linguistic, and contemporary cultural topics addressed. Each chapter includes a useful introduction, teaching summary, and answer key. The lessons include videos, images, and links to relevant content within the Ticha website, including guidance on how to help with transcription of Ticha’s colonial era documents. Instructors could use selected chapters or the entire resource, depending on the nature of their course. This source will be most useful for high school and university libraries and any public libraries serving Zapotec communities.

Rebecca Lloyd, Temple University

. Edited by Jane E. Calvert. Vol. 1. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2020. 528 pp. $45 hardcover (ISBN: 9781644531839). $45 e-book (ISBN: 9781644531846).

Dickinson was a figure of immense importance in the period of the American Revolution and Early Republic as a writer who popularized resistance to parliamentary taxation in the colonies and as a drafter of the Articles of Confederation. He also served in many capacities, including "president," in the early state governments of Pennsylvania and Delaware. Although his public writings have been collected before, this is the first time all of his papers as a lawyer and public servant, as well as some of his letters, have been published—most for the first time in any format. As our understanding of the complexities of this period continues to grow, this detailed account of a leader of moderate inclinations will be invaluable to scholars seeking a variety of perspectives. Two volumes have been published to date, covering 1751–1763. Contents include letters from and to Dickinson, legal briefs, petitions to officials, and drafts of essays on law and empire which foreshadow his later thinking. The contents are edited to preserve formatting, amendments, and strikethroughs in the typesetting, and each document is thoroughly annotated with contextual information to supply the reader with a thorough understanding of the matters at hand.

Stephen Knowlton, Princeton University

. Edited by Michael Shally-Jensen. Ipswich, MA: Salem Press, 2020. 2 vols. 600 pp. $295 hardcover (ISBN: 9781642653977).

The United States and the Middle East have had a complex and sometimes turbulent relationship and this volume of Defining Documents works to provide insight into that relationship through historical documents. This two-volume set is broken into five distinct parts that covers the history from the late 1700s to modern day and includes items from the evolution of Islam, colonialism, 9/11, and the Arab Spring. The sources that are discussed in the set include political debates, newspaper and magazine articles, political speeches, and book excerpts and are all considered to be critical to defining the relationship between the US and the Middle East.

This two-volume set is beneficial for bringing together sources and context for any student or researcher that is beginning their studies on the relationship between the US and the Middle East. This is accomplished by giving each item a summary overview, placing it within its temporal context, explaining who authored the document, and suggesting further readings to add more context and provide more depth to the topic the item discusses.

This set is recommended for academic libraries and for those professors teaching political science or history courses related to the relationship between these two areas of the world.

Kathryn New, Mississippi State University

. Edited by Thomas J. Davis and Brenda M. Brock. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2021. 243 pp. $97 hardcover (ISBN: 9781440855566).

The transformative outpouring of African American cultural creations and ideas in the early 20th century, which came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance, was actually known as the “New Negro Renaissance” at the time. And while Harlem was the epicenter of this movement, it was actually occurring in Black communities throughout the United States and spanned the first three decades of the 1900s until slowed by the Great Depression. The New Negro Renaissance was more than a cultural phenomenon, it was a historical period where Black Americans began to assert their views and presence in new ways in American society.

While there are many collections of the cultural products of the Harlem Renaissance, this primary source reader brings together magazine stories, newspaper articles, and other texts that provide political, economic, and sociological context to this historical period. The documents were selected to showcase the viewpoints of ordinary Black people as well as the intellectual and cultural elite. The book’s editors provide a valuable introduction to the historical period, as well as useful introductions to each of the thematic chapters (“The New Negro at War,” “The New Negro Woman,” etc.). There is also a brief introduction to each primary source itself, providing rich contextual information to help readers make use of this vast collection of brief documents and excerpts. There are suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter. Any student of African American history in this period will find this a useful set of documents for understanding the origins and development of what came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance. Highly recommended for university libraries.

Rebecca Lloyd, Temple University

. Edited by Nicholas Vincent. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021. 7 vols. 4225 pp. $125 hardcover per vol. (ISBN: 9780198738213).

This remarkable work is the culmination of decades of work by Vincent and his predecessor, Jim Holt, who painstakingly tracked down every document Henry II ever issued from 286 archives across England and Normandy. It contains the full Latin or French text (with notes expanding on abbreviated words) of every known document emanating from the crown during Henry's reign. There are also entries for documents referred to in other texts that are now lost. Most of these have never been published; at best, many of the entries have been calendared. Scholars of medieval England now have a rich and deep corpus of texts that should provide many new insights into the administration of Henry’s kingdom and the social and political history of the era.

Stephen Knowlton, Princeton University

. Written by Sean W. Anthony. Oakland: University of California Press, 2020. 304 pp. $32.95 hardcover (ISBN: 9780520340411). $32.95 e-book (ISBN: 9780520974524).

This monograph examines early documents relating to the life of the historical Muhammad. The author includes translations, descriptions, and analyses of many of the documents, which range from inscriptions to papyrus fragments to letters. Many are incredibly brief or truncated. Without this book many of these documents would be inaccessible to most scholars.

This book focuses on the sīrah-maghāzī tradition, an early Arabic genre examining the life of the Prophet. Extant sīrah-maghāzī documents date from 150 to 250 years after the death of Muhammad. The book contextualizes these writings amongst other religious texts of Late Antiquity. Throughout the volume, the author addresses the difficulty of using these documents as historical sources. He argues for their value where past scholars have overlooked them. The stated intention of this book is to reinvigorate interest in research using these documents rather than to create a biography of Muhammad.

Recommended for graduate students and other researchers.

Sarah Meisch-Lacombe, SUNY Delhi

. Edited by Peter Jones and Steven King. Oxford: Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 2021. 400 pp. $130 hardcover (ISBN: 9780197266816).

Navigating the Old English Poor Law compiles correspondence from those seeking financial relief in Kirkby Lonsdale parish (northwest England) in the early 19th century. This type of correspondence is not unusual, but an expansive collection of letters is unique because the almost 600 letters included in this volume were written by only 20 families from the Old Poor Law for England and Wales. With some families writing over 40 letters, this collection of documents provides an insight into the needs of the families and the techniques the writers used to illustrate the direness of their situations.

This volume is arranged by the families who corresponded with the parish. Letters were written by the families or those pleading for assistance on behalf of the families. The completeness of the correspondence by family is a strength of this source. The introduction provides important contextual information that explains the importance of the source. The straightforward design and organization are strengths of the title.

This resource is recommended for academic libraries.

Jennifer Brannock, The University of Southern Mississippi

. Edited by George Gilbert. New York: Routledge, 2020. 284 pp. $160 hardcover (ISBN: 9780815394969).

Reading Russian Sources contributes to the study of Russian history not by being a guide to archival repositories nor by being a source guide, but instead by looking at methodological problems within Russian history and by using different types of sources. The book is broken up into two different parts, the first focusing on context and approaches while the second part focuses on the variety of sources and how they can be interpreted. It is the second section that looks outside the bounds of traditional archival sources and looks at items such as maps, art, prison literature, and film and television. The sources that are discussed throughout the chapters of the guide are a mix of translated and original sources and are used to reflect major discussions within the study of Russian history.

Overall, the guide forces readers to think about how to approach traditional and non-traditional sources in a respectful and thought-provoking way. It also serves as a reminder to make sure all research is done within the context of the time of the resources and to do one’s best to refrain from introducing ideology into the discussion unless it is the ideology of the time.

Reading Russian Sources is part of the larger series Routledge Guides to Historical Sources and is designed to introduce students to a variety of sources that are used by historians. This resource is recommended for academic libraries, for researchers starting their work in Russian history, and for use in the classrooms of undergraduate and beginning graduate students in Russian history.

Kathryn New, Mississippi State University

. Written by Dale W. Tomich, Reinaldo Funes Monzote, Carlos Venegas Fornias, and Rafael de Bivar Marquese. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2021. 176 pp. $29.95 paperback (ISBN: 9781469663128). $95 hardcover (ISBN: 9781469663111). $24.99 e-book (ISBN: 9781469663135).

This volume brings together landscape images, including art works, maps, and photographs, from the era of enslavement in the Americas. It explores these works as culturally and politically charged objects. It challenges the reader to think critically about how and why images are created; what is not shown in many of the images in this book is just as important as what is shown.

With a focus on three distinct geographic areas (the Mississippi Delta, Cuba, and Brazil), this work describes how landscapes played a role in the development of plantation culture and how the practice of enslavement had its own effect on the environment. The format and writing style of this book will be suitable for many readers. It offers readers a great example of how historians use primary sources other than textual documents to examine history.

Recommended for academic and public libraries.

Sarah Meisch-Lacombe, SUNY Delhi

. Edited by Rob McFarland, Georg Spitaler, and Ingo Zechner. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2020. 773 pp. $49.95 paperback (ISBN: 9781640140677). $120 hardcover (ISBN: 9781571133557). $24.99 e-book (ISBN: 9781787446106).

Red Vienna refers to a fifteen-year period (1919-1934) when the Social Democratic Workers’ Party of Austria (SDAP) maintained continuous control of the Vienna Municipal Council. Reflecting a shift in interest from the individual to the collective, the period saw a flourishing of artistic and scientific achievements that served society at large. “The highest goal became access to education and culture for everyone” (6), according to the editors’ introduction. The Red Vienna Sourcebook reproduces nearly 300 primary sources, translated into English, that document many aspects of social, cultural, intellectual, and political life during this period. The editors make clear that their goal was to demonstrate, through these myriad sources, that the period was not an inevitable march from one war to the next and that Red Vienna still has lessons to teach us about addressing social ills.

The book is an outgrowth of the International Research Network BTWH (Berkeley/Tübingen/Vienna/Harvard), an intellectual collaboration over twenty years old. Nearly everyone involved in putting the sourcebook together has or has had some affiliation with BTWH. Individual scholars composed contextual introductions to each of the thirty-six chapters and brief introductions to all of the primary sources. An excellent chronology and indices of subjects and persons help readers locate relevant sources and make sense of the complicated history of Red Vienna. Faculty will undoubtedly find sections of the book useful in their teaching and student researchers will benefit from the extensive document list and the translated texts.

Scott P. Libson, Indiana University Bloomington

. Edited by Elena Marushiakova and Vesselin Popov. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2021. 1068 pp. $170 hardcover (9783506705181). Open access e-book (ISBN: 9783657705184).

Roma Voices in History examines primary sources relating to the civic emancipation of Roma in Central, Southeastern, and Eastern Europe from the 19th century to World War II. This book expands on the limited resources about the Roma, which often center on anti-Roma legislation. An emphasis of this sourcebook is to provide sources that focus on the often-overlooked voices of the Roma.

The book is divided by the countries where the civic emancipation movement was strong and where the bulk of the featured documents were found. The holdings are particularly strong for the USSR, Romania, and Bulgaria. An initial chapter provides an overview of the birth of the Roma emancipation movement as illustrated by primary sources. All sources are provided in the original language, which changes based on country of origin, or the type of document. Documents in the Romani language are found across all countries. Immediately following the original text is an English translation with related comments and notes providing additional context and addressing the significance of the document. The conclusion beautifully summarizes the importance of the sourcebook, and the extensive bibliography provides additional sources for consultation.

This resource is recommended for academic libraries and professors teaching social movements or Roma history.

Jennifer Brannock, The University of Southern Mississippi

. Edited by Christina H. Lee and Ricardo Padrón. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2020. 249 pp. $120 hardcover (ISBN: 9789463720649).

The Spanish Pacific, 1521-1815: A Reader of Primary Sources grew out of a 2018 conference. “Each participant was asked to pick a text that illuminated a vital area of contemporary research, to transcribe, edit, and translate it, and to provide a general introduction” (11). The result is a book that informs readers of the current state of the field through a wide variety of primary sources. Unlike earlier conceptions of the Spanish Pacific, which largely focused on Spanish colonialism in the Philippines, recent scholarship on the Spanish Pacific is more closely connected to global history and the documents and discussion in this book reflect that fact. Many of the documents had never previously been translated into English and some of the most well-known documents (from Magellan’s voyage, for instance) were consciously left out. The time period covered begins shortly before the Spanish colonization of the Philippines and ends near the conclusion of the Manila galleon trade route that connected Asia with the Americas for more than two centuries.

Each chapter starts with an abstract that introduces the author, the piece of writing, and the document’s significance. A list of keywords helps frame the chapter. Contributors to the edition also composed lengthier introductions that provide extensive context for each chapter. Translations are well-done and include footnotes. Finally, a bibliography at the end of each chapter offers sources for further reading. The Spanish Pacific, 1521-1815 will mainly benefit professors looking for a primary source reader or undergraduate student researchers who lack the language skills to read the sources in the original.

Scott P. Libson, Indiana University Bloomington