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Fifteen Eighty Four

Academic perspectives from Cambridge University Press

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Forgotten Songs

Jubilee Singers of Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, early 1870s. Photograph by James Wallace Black for the American Missionary Association. Library of Congress. The fourth track on Bob Dylan’s...

Ross Cole | 6 Mar 2026

Lost Plots

When is interruption an art form? Short answer: the eighteenth-century novel. Interrupting another speaker gets a bad rap: common charges lodged against listeners who jump the queue maintain that interrupters...

Katherine G. Charles | 6 Mar 2026

Naming nature in the early modern period

Everyone who discovers a new species nowadays has the right to name it. This name has to conform to rather intricate rules established by international professional associations. These conventions can...

Dominik Berrens | 6 Mar 2026

Augustine’s Theology of Justification by Faith

Other than Paul, no writer has had greater influence on the theology of justification than Augustine. In the preface to his Latin works, Martin Luther famously narrated his discovery of the justifying...

Christopher R. Mooney | 6 Mar 2026

The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Dance Music

Though associated with nighttime dance parties and clubs, electronic dance music has saturated many aspects of contemporary culture. We hear it in adverts and shops. Even some restaurants employ a DJ...

Hillegonda C Rietveld, Toby Young | 5 Mar 2026

Saints as Divine Evidence

This book brings together two vibrant academic discourses that have rarely interacted beforehand: religious epistemology and comparative hagiography. Inspired by Austin Farrer’s provocative claim that...

Robert MacSwain | 4 Mar 2026

The most famous building in Nashville is….the Parthenon?

Nashville is often associated with music; it is home to the Grand Ole Opry and claims to have the most recording studios of any American city. But its most iconic building may be a full-scale replica...

Elizabeth R. Macaulay | 4 Mar 2026

Taxing People: Yesterday Versus Today

At the turn of the century, Charles Kingson, a respected academic, tax practitioner, and government official, observed that in the old days people sold you clothes face to face in downtown department...

Tsilly Dagan, Ruth Mason | 3 Mar 2026

Beyond Tools and Bones: Why Archaeology Needs a Paradigm Shift to Understand Our Ancestors

In the last few decades, archaeology has undergone a technological revolution. From high-resolution LiDAR to advanced radiocarbon dating and ancient DNA analysis, our “toolbox” has never been...

Manuel Dominguez-Rodrigo | 3 Mar 2026

Treading gingerly

In Thomas Johnson’s updated 1636 edition of John Gerard’s The Herball, or Generall Historie of Plantes, there is an image comparing the ‘true’ and ‘feigned’ figures of ginger. Johnson explains...

Alice Wickenden | 3 Mar 2026

Language Rules!: Secrets of a Uniquely Human Ability

We all use language every day: not only to communicate thoughts and ideas to other people, but also for our internal monologue and, some might argue, for organizing thought. But what are the inner workings...

Asya M. Pereltsvaig | 2 Mar 2026

The State of Nature: Historical Fable, Haunting Future

If the last year of geopolitical upheaval has taught us anything, it is that the international order is far more fragile than we cared to imagine. When established alliances like NATO fracture under the...

Christopher Watkin | 27 Feb 2026