HUMANS: A Monstrous History is available for preorder!
... and some upcoming book events.
Page proofs! Photo by Surekha Davies.
Hallo readers!
It’s been an intense few weeks: I’m doing book page proofs for Humans: A Monstrous History! In this book I ask: why do people make monsters, and what do monsters tell us about humanity? Monsters are central to how we think about the human condition, and how people have defined themselves in relation to everything from apes to zombies, and from ancient gods to E.T.
Humans: A Monstrous History is now available for preorders! The University of California Press production team has done a gorgeous job, and have been a pleasure to work with.
Ordering options:
The book is available worldwide wherever books are sold; just ask your preferred retailer to order it (if they have online ordering, the book should already be visible).
You can also order it via Bookshop.org, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Waterstones, or directly from the University of California Press - order links and more info about the book are here.
If you're based in U.S. or Canada, the University of California Press is offering a 30% preorder discount if you order directly from them. The code is UCPSAVE30 (click on UC Press on the page linked earlier, select UC Press from the dropdown menu, and then enter the code on the checkout page of the Indie Pubs website. For more detailed instructions visit a more recent newsletter here.)
If you’re based anywhere else, you can still get the discount if you contact UC Press’s international distributor, Wiley, directly (Phone: +44 (0) 1243 843291 or email customer@wiley.co.uk) and quote the discount code UCPSAVE30.
If you’re planning to buy the book anyway, it would be wonderful if you preorder it. Why?
ALL preordered books count towards the book’s first week sales figures. This magic number tells major retailers to stock the book.
Preorders improve a book’s discoverability online, which helps the book get more attention around pub date.
Vibrant early sales tells the publishing industry what folks want to read. That will really help with getting the next book deal to keep me writing All The Words!
Ways to support my writing for free
Not ready or able to preorder? There are free ways you can support my work. If you can do one of the following at this early stage, that would be super-helpful!
Tell folks about the book: friends, colleagues, students, neighbours, or family.
Ask your library to preorder the book. This could be a school, public, college, university, or club/society library.
Forward this newsletter to someone you know - perhaps someone who reads about history, science, or tech, a fan of sci-fi or fantasy, or someone entranced by all things peculiar wondrous, and unexpected?
Share this announcement on social media by clicking the share button below and clicking “Copy link.”
You can tag me on social media if you like:-
@drsurekhadavies.bsky.social on BlueSky
@surekhadavies on Instagram and Threads
@SurekhaDavies@historians.social on Mastodon, and
@SurekhaDavies on the thing once known as Twitter (where I share announcements about authors, their books, and book festivals but am otherwise inactive).
Advance praise
Here’s what some early readers had to say about Humans: A Monstrous History. I’m so grateful for their endorsements, which will go on the book’s cover.
"Surekha Davies turns the tables and looks at humankind through the burning eyes of the monsters it has created in its seemingly limitless effort to isolate otherness. A triumph of scholarship that is as erudite as it is entertaining."—Lindsey Fitzharris, New York Times–bestselling author of The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon's Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I
"To consider the monster is to consider what it means to be human, because it forces us to examine how we have prescribed those limits, whether in terms of race, sexuality, appearance, or capacities. So Davies's book could not be more timely or urgent. That it is constantly insightful, erudite, and entertaining makes it irresistible; I can imagine no more congenial way of arguing that, in the end, the monsters are us."—Philip Ball, author of The Book of Minds: How to Understand Ourselves and Other Beings, from Animals to AI to Aliens
"In a fascinating upending of the usual analysis of monsters, Davies focuses on the humans who perpetrate 'monstrification,' from scientists and sports doctors to pop stars and spiritual leaders. The monster here emerges less as a figure for identity than a metaphor for a cultural process, constantly under revision, that allows one group of humans to disavow the humanity of another. Thoughtful, wide-ranging, and fun."—Annalee Newitz, bestselling author of The Terraformers and Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age
"A marvel of fast-paced storytelling and rigorous historical analysis. Davies takes readers on a journey across space and time, carefully reconstructing centuries-old processes of monster-making with wit and aplomb. In the process, we learn that monster-makers have policed the boundaries of humanity out of ignorance, fear, and hate, producing forms of legal and social exclusion that we all live with today. But there is also a sense of hope suffused throughout the pages of this book: hope that with knowledge, bravery, and love, we can recognize the humanity in all of us and chart more inclusive, less frightful futures."—Tamara J. Walker, author of Beyond the Shores: A History of African Americans Abroad
Upcoming online and in-person events
A Monstrous Renaissance History for Our Times: a free online monster talk during Halloween week! Register here to join me at the Harvard University Renaissance Studies Seminar on Weds October 30 at 5pm EDT (click here to convert time zones - don’t forget that clocks change at different times in different places around then!).
Creative and Narrative Nonfiction: What, How, and Why: a webinar with me and Leah Redmond Chang, author of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist and Women’s Prize long-listed YOUNG QUEENS, on Weds October 2nd at 12 noon-1pm EDT (convert the time here), part of the Renaissance Society of America professional webinar series. This event is open to members of the society. Anyone can join the society here. You can register here for the webinar, which will also be available as a recording.
American Historical Association Annual Meeting, New York City, Jan 3-6, 2025.
Renaissance Society of America Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, March 20-22, 2025.
Additional in-person events in the US in March-April 2025 are in development.
My page proofs and index checking will be done in a couple of weeks, so normal service on this newsletter, including monstery content that didn’t make it into the book, will follow.
Thanks so much for reading this newsletter - and please consider sharing it or telling people about Humans: A Monstrous History!
Warmly,
Surekha
Humans: A Monstrous History: now available to preorder via Bookshop.org, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Waterstones, and more. From October 4, you can it directly from the University of California Press with a 30% preorder discount.
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You can also find me on www.surekhadavies.org,
BlueSky (@drsurekhadavies.bsky.social),
and Instagram/Threads (@surekhadavies).