News & Events

"Leonard's study of unparalleled political repression is both comprehensive and engrossing. For over sixty years, mass surveillance, sustained persecution, and frequent imprisonment were all used to silence American communists and, more broadly, cripple left-wing activism. Essential reading for students of American political history." - Phillip Deery, author of Red Apple: Communism and McCarthyism in Cold War New York

“A captivating book overall with plenty of interesting facts about the instruments, the people and essentially the tunes. Gaddy [and] Giddens . . . have done a fantastic job tracking down as much information as possible. Included in the book are plenty of drawings and early artwork, giving a feel for the times. Now that it has been fetched, we can all read about it, and those talented ones among us can play it."—Americana UK

“A detailed account of a dramatic transformation of what seemed to be a hopeless institution. The story of ‘Hippocratic’ policing that Chief Thomson built in Camden is essential for all those who would protect democracy under the rule of law.”—Lawrence W. Sherman, Wolfson Professor of Criminology Emeritus at the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge and CEO of Benchmark Cambridge, a global police reform company

“With his lyrical biographies of mystics, activists, rabble-rousers, singers, trailblazers, and outlaws, Gary Paul Nabhan places the desert at the center of the ongoing struggle against colonialism, racism, and capitalism. He celebrates the spiritual and social gains of thinkers and dreamers who go ‘against the American grain.’” - Catherine Keyser, author of Artificial Color: Modern Food and Racial Fictions

The 2025 BAAS Postgraduate Symposium is taking place on November 26th as a hybrid event at Teesside University. You can register for the event on EventBrite. If you are a BAAS member, you can get a discount on your fee by visiting the member area and using the discount code. The programme is now available for download.

"Written in uncommonly clear and direct prose, this book addresses a central issue in public administration—whether fundamental change is possible in complicated bureaucratic and political settings—and convincingly shows when and why it was or was not achieved at NYC's Human Resources Administration" -Lawrence M. Mead III, author of Government Matters Examines efforts across six decades to respond to poverty, joblessness, and homelessness through the establishment and periodic restructuring of the city's Human Resources Administration and related social welfare agencies.