Capturing Kahanamoku: How a Surfing Legend and a Scientific Obsession Redefined Race and Culture

By Michael Rossi, Associate Professor in the Department of History and the College

Duke Kahanamoku brought modern surfing to the world. But while the Hawaiian Olympian and surfing legend was making history, he also became the object of a scientist’s obsession. Paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn, president of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, took a surfing lesson with Kahanamoku during a trip to Hawaii in 1920. Osborn, an ardent eugenicist, saw Indigenous Hawaiians—and Duke Kahanamoku and his brother David in particular—as perfect examples of the “pure racial type” he wanted to study and preserve. Michael Rossi details how Osborn’s obsession, and the events it sparked, changed the conversation about race, culture, science, and what makes us human.

Jesus Springs: Evangelical Capitalism and the Fate of an American City

By William J. Schultz, Assistant Professor in the Divinity School and the College

More than any other military-dependent city, Colorado Springs, Colorado, courted evangelical institutions after World War II. William J. Schultz takes the city, sometimes called the “Evangelical Vatican” or “Jesus Springs,” as a case study to understand how American evangelicalism evolved over the 20th century. Established at a time when Christianity and American nationalism were seen as inseparable, the market-driven evangelical organizations in Colorado Springs worked to enforce and preserve a specific Cold War–era ideology grounded in the belief that there are invisible forces working to harm American society that must be fended off. Benefiting from postwar defense spending, Colorado Springs became the organizational center of American evangelicalism. But, Schultz argues, as the evangelical movement shifted focus in the 1990s from saving souls to securing political and economic power, tensions formed in the city. Understanding Colorado Springs’ history, he explains, can help shed light on Christian nationalism today.

The Winner’s Curse: Behavioral Economics Anomalies, Then and Now

By Richard H. Thaler, Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Behavioral Science and Economics, and Alex O. Imas, Roger L. and Rachel M. Goetz Professor of Behavioral Science, Economics, and Applied AI and Vasiliou Faculty Scholar at Chicago Booth

Almost 40 years ago, Richard H. Thaler’s Anomalies column in the Journal of Economic Perspectives introduced readers to behavioral economics. Today Thaler revisits this body of work with Alex O. Imas. Each chapter of The Winner’s Curse opens with an anomaly from the original series; from there, the authors provide updates to the case studies, assess how the findings have held up, and discuss how the field of behavioral economics has changed over the past three decades. Aimed at economics novices and experts alike, the book shows that though much has changed, these stories of human behavior have enduring relevance and can help readers better understand their own decision-making and the choices of others.

Poetry After Barbarism: The Invention of Motherless Tongues and Resistance to Fascism

By Jennifer Scappettone, Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature and the College

Increased urbanization and mobility in early 20th-century Europe caused languages to collide. But even as many people experienced multifaceted linguistic environments, fascist movements promoted a myth of pure national languages and sought to eradicate foreign words and neologisms. Jennifer Scappettone reads the work of several World War II and postwar avant-garde poets who broke down linguistic systems through the use of multiple languages, fragmented syntax, and awkward or ungrammatical structures. Scappettone argues that these poetic experiments tapped into the reality of 20th-century linguistic experience and, in doing so, exposed and countered the fascist myth of pure mother tongues. By defying linguistic boundaries, she writes, these authors fostered a kind of citizenship in literature that transcended borders. Turning to the present day, she shows how contemporary authors have built upon this legacy to create space for international kinship.