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New Books Series: Q&A with Clifton Crais about ‘The Killing Age’


Dr. Clifton Crais, Professor of History, has published his most recent book, The Killing Age: How Violence Made the Modern World, with the University of Chicago Press. Crais foregrounds the role and significance of violence in the development of global capitalism from 1750 to the early 1900s, arguing that the period commonly described as the Anthropocene should, instead, best be understood as the Mortecene, or killing age. During this age, he writes, the new “ease and profitability of killing created a disturbing network of global connections and economies, eliminating tens of millions of people and sparking an environmental crisis that remains the most urgent catastrophe facing the world today.”

South African Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee offered the following praise for Crais’s book: “Synoptic in its reach, overwhelming in its detail, The Killing Age leaves one feeling like Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver, who came to prefer the company of peaceable horses to membership of humankind.”

In the Q&A below, Crais gives us a glimpse into the making of the monograph as part of the History Department’s New Books series.

Books are produced over years if not decades. Give us a sense for the lifespan of this book, from initial idea to final edits.

In some respects, The Killing Age returned me to questions I have been interested in since graduate school in the mid-1980s when books by scholars like Immanuel Wallerstein, Eric Wolf and others called attention to the importance of understanding the world economy and the development of capitalism. But it was only about a decade ago when I decided it was time to undertake a new project, partly inspired by a graduate course Mark Ravina and I taught on comparative empire. I became convinced that the literature on the Anthropocene was inadequate or at least incomplete and that, more generally, we had a poor understanding of the role of violence in the development of capitalism and the making of our contemporary world of planetary peril.

The research, writing and publication took about eight years. There was a lot of climate science and environmental history I had to first learn, and I had to decide on which archives I would delve into. I spent lots of time in England, but also many places across the United States. So, it took longer to research and write than previous books. Plus, The Killing Age is hefty, over 700 pages long, plus an associated website, thekillingage.com.


What was the research process like?

The Killing Age was by far the most difficult project I have undertaken. I had never done research in the histories of South America, Asia, and especially the United States. I also relied on multiple databases, some massive. The total amount of data I have stored and used for the project is more than 1 terabyte, in other words more than a million pages. One of the biggest challenges was how to navigate all the material while producing a book that is narratively driven and accessible to the general public. I ended up going through more than a dozen drafts.

Are you partial to a particular chapter or section?

I was originally trained in the history of Africa, so the chapters covering this part of the world had a certain familiarity; not so with other regions, including the United States. I am partial to the section “The American Ways of Killing” that explores the hunting of whales, beaver, and bison and its connections to economic change and the emergence of the US as a global power. Just learning about the entwined histories of humans and non-humans was fascinating, especially as I wrote some of these chapters during COVID-19.

How does this project align with your broad research agenda (past, present, or future)?

The Killing Age is both a kind of culmination and a departure. I have been thinking about many of the issues I explore for decades. At the same time, the project has convinced me of the importance of writing a global history of the twentieth century, about the possibilities of human progress and how these possibilities were so often subverted. In my next project I will be returning to the issue of violence and especially the redemocratization of the means of destruction, particularly after 1945.

by emoryhistorydept

History Alumni Evans and Kim Featured in Emory’s 40 Under Forty

Each year Emory’s 40 Under Forty program features a group of innovative alumni creating positive change throughout the world. The 2025 cohort includes two former history majors doing remarkable work in business, law, and academia: Jeremy Evans (09C) and Matthew Kim (10C, 10G).

Read profiles of Evans and Kim published by the Emory 40 Under Forty program below, and browse all the members of this year’s outstanding cohort.

Jeremy Evans 09C is a partner in the Financial Restructuring Group at Paul Hastings LLP, where he advises some of the world’s largest asset managers and hedge funds. He structures complex financing transactions and restructurings across industries and asset classes, approaching challenging situations with creativity and strategic insight to achieve successful outcomes for his clients. Evans studied history and religion and was deeply engaged in campus life.

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A student-athlete, he was a four-year member and three-year captain of the Men’s Golf Team, served on the Varsity Athletic Committee, and was recognized as a Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association All-America Scholar Athlete and University Athletic Association All-Academic honoree. He went on to earn a law degree, graduating magna cum laude from the University of Miami School of Law.

Jeremy has been recognized as a New York Metro Super Lawyers Rising Star, named to the Best Lawyers Ones to Watch list, and honored with the Turnarounds and Workouts “Outstanding Young Restructuring Lawyers” award in 2024. 

His time at Emory instilled in him the discipline, perspective, and drive that continue to guide his professional and personal success.

Matthew Kim (10C 10G) is an assistant professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he combines his passions for research, teaching, and public service to shape the development of the law. His scholarship, which focuses on criminal law and civil procedure, has appeared in leading law reviews, including The Ohio State Law Journal, Florida Law Review, and Texas A&M Law Review.

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His academic journey began at Emory College, where he majored in international studies and history, building a strong foundation that informed his graduate and professional studies in law, international relations, political science, and statistics.

Through his teaching and research, Kim continues to explore complex legal questions while mentoring a new generation of lawyers and scholars.

by emoryhistorydept

Emory Magazine Features Pulitzer-Winning ‘COMBEE’ by Fields-Black


Emory Magazine has published a feature of Dr. Edda L. Fields-Black’s most recent book, COMBEE: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War. The book won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in History and the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize and was a finalist for the James Rawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians. COMBEE offers the first detailed account of the dramatic campaign to free nearly 800 enslaved people led by Harriet Tubman on the Combahee River in South Carolina in 1863. Fields-Black is herself a descendant of one of the participants in the raid.

Read more about COMBEE and Fields-Black’s extraordinary and varied work, along with the feature in Emory Magazine: “The Civil War Raid That History Almost Forgot.”

Fields-Black received her undergraduate degree in history and English from Emory and her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. She is Professor of History at Carnegie Mellon University.

by emoryhistorydept

Anderson Analyzes Fate of Voting Rights Act at Supreme Court


Dr. Carol Anderson, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of African American Studies, recently offered analysis on MSNBC about the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming review of the Voting Rights Act. Along with Slate senior writer Mark Joseph Stern and The Crystal Ball editor-in-chief Larry Sabato, Anderson discusses the likely effects of further weakening the landmark legislation, including for the 2026 midterm elections.

Anderson is the author of many books, including One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression is Destroying our Democracy (Bloomsbury, 2018) and The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America (Bloomsbury, 2021). Dr. Anderson is affiliated faculty in Emory’s History Department.

Find the MSNBC discussion here.

by emoryhistorydept

Major Hannah Lo Finalist for U.S. State Department Critical Language Program


In the summer of 2025 third-year History major Hannah Lo was a finalist for the U.S. State Department’s Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) program. The program supports U.S. citizens to develop foreign language and cultural fluencies through intensive summer training abroad. Lo, who is also minoring in quantitative social sciences, was among only four Emory students accepted for 2025. When the Chinese language program she was planning to attend at China’s Dalian University of Technology was cancelled, Lo pivoted to serve as an immigration intern with Asian Americans Advancing Justice and conducted research with Dr. Yami Rodriguez, Assistant Professor, and Dr. Chris Suh, Associate Professor. Read more about the 2025 Emory CLS cohort here.

by emoryhistorydept

Students Win Departamental Clio Prizes for Historical Research


The History Department annually awards its Clio Prizes to the best paper in a Freshman History Seminar and the best research paper in a junior or senior History Colloquium. This year, we are pleased to recognize outstanding work by Emma Rose Ceklosky and William Wainwright.

Ceklosky received the prize for the best paper written in a freshman seminar for her work, “From Exotic Blossoms to Budding Women in Science.” Ceklosky completed this paper in Dr. Judith Miller`s spring 2025 freshman seminar “The World of Jane Austen.” About the course, she writes: “I loved the stories I discovered about horticulture and how it empowered 19th-century women. Dr. Miller’s class brought history to life for me. I recommend her to everyone and am honored that she nominated me for this prize.” Ceklosky plans to double-major in English and Creative Writing and Psychology.

Spring 2025 graduate William Wainwright received the prize for the best research paper written in a history junior/senior colloquium for his work “Recentering the Black Sea,” which he completed in Dr. Michelle Armstrong-Partida`s course “Europe: Merchants-Pirates and the Slave Trade.” Wainwright graduated summa cum laude with a BA in International Relations (highest honors) and History in the spring 2025. Reflecting on the prize and his experience as a major, he writes: “Thank you so much for this. I am honored and grateful to receive this prize. The Emory history department, and Dr. Armstrong-Partida’s class in particular, have been hugely important for my academic development. I look forward to continuing to stay in touch with the professors and staff who have made it possible. Thank you again.”

by emoryhistorydept

‘Since Time Immemorial’ Wins Conference on Latin American History’s Kline Prize


Congratulations to Dr. Yanna Yannakakis, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of History and Department Chair, on winning the Howard F. Cline Memorial Prize from the Conference on Latin American History for her latest book, Since Time Immemorial: Native Custom and Law in Colonial Mexico (Duke University Press, 2023). The Klein prize is awarded biennially to the book or article in English, German, or a Romance language judged to make the most significant contribution to the history of Indians in Latin America. Since Time Immemorial has received two other major awards: the 2024 Friedrich Katz Prize from the American Historical Association and the 2024 Peter Gonville Stein Book Award from the American Society for Legal History. Her first book, The Art of Being In-Between: Native Intermediaries, Indian Identity, and Local Rule in Colonial Oaxaca (Duke University Press, 2008), also won the Klein prize. Find the abstract of Since Time Immemorial below, and read the Open Access version of the book (made possible via Emory’s TOME initiative) here.

In Since Time Immemorial Yanna Yannakakis traces the invention of Native custom, a legal category that Indigenous litigants used in disputes over marriage, self-governance, land, and labor in colonial Mexico. She outlines how, in the hands of Native litigants, the European category of custom—social practice that through time takes on the normative power of law—acquired local meaning and changed over time. Yannakakis analyzes sources ranging from missionary and Inquisition records to Native pictorial histories, royal surveys, and Spanish and Native-language court and notarial documents. By encompassing historical actors who have been traditionally marginalized from legal histories and highlighting spaces outside the courts like Native communities, parishes, and missionary schools, she shows how imperial legal orders were not just imposed from above but also built on the ground through translation and implementation of legal concepts and procedures. Yannakakis argues that, ultimately, Indigenous claims to custom, which on the surface aimed to conserve the past, provided a means to contend with historical change and produce new rights for the future.

by emoryhistorydept

Graduate Student Alejandro Guardado Wins AHA Beveridge Grant


Doctoral student Alejandro Guardado won the Albert J. Beveridge grant from the American Historical Association for his research project, “Reimagining Community: Indigenous Organizing in Mexico’s Neoliberal Turn, 1968–2000.” Guardado’s dissertation centers on Self Determination Movements in Zapotec and Mixe communities in the Sierra Norte of the Mexican state of Oaxaca. He analyzes how Indigenous intellectuals and activists developed networks with micro-regional political coalitions, anthropologists, liberation theologians, and NGOs as a means of renegotiating their relationship to the Mexican government and market forces.

The Beveridge grants support research in the history of the Western Hemisphere, and Guardado was among just 15 graduate students nationwide selected for the prize. Dr. Yanna Yannakis, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of History and Department Chair, serves as Guardado’s dissertation advisor.

by emoryhistorydept

History Major Lucia Alexeyev Traces the Lasting Health Effects of U.S. Occupation in Vieques, Puerto Rico


In the summer of 2025, Emory College senior Lucia Alexeyev conducted research about the relationship between U.S. Naval occupation and residents’ health and access to healthcare on the island of Vieques in Puerto Rico. Alexeyev’s project, titled “Military Occupation and Changing Healthcare Landscapes: Vieques and the U.S. Navy, 1941-2003,” was funded by the History Department’s Cuttino Scholarship for Independent Research Abroad.

While in the field, Alexeyev observed the effects of the Trump administration’s rescission of research grants through the Environmental Protection Agency. She chronicled the on-the-ground consequences of – and responses to – those cuts in a piece for Nueve Millones, “Vieques’ health investigator seeks funding after EPA’s cancellation: ‘This is just a rock on the road.‘”

Alexeyev is a History major and Global Health, Culture and Society minor. Dr. Jeffrey Lesser, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of History, serves as her thesis adviser. Read an excerpt from the Nueve Millones piece below and find the full article here.

“Even with how politics has changed in the EPA, Estrada Martinez remains hopeful for the study’s completion. She’s inspired by the Viequense community’s 63-year struggle to remove the Navy from the island, plus an additional 20-year battle to obtain funding for VASAC in the first place. ‘This is just a rock on the road, and we will figure out together how to get rid of it and move forward, right?‘”

by emoryhistorydept

Christopher Snyder (PhD, ’94) Named William L. Giles Distinguished Professor at MSU

MSU President Mark E. Keenum is pictured with William L. Giles Distinguished Professor Christopher Snyder, center, and MSU Provost and Executive Vice President David Shaw. PHOTO: Emily Grace McCall | MSU Public Affairs

Dr. Christopher Snyder, a 1994 graduate of the Emory History doctoral program with a concentration in medieval history, has been named a William L. Giles Distinguished Professor at Mississippi State University. The Giles professorships award outstanding research, teaching, and service and are among the highest honors given to faculty at MSU.

Snyder is a professor of history and director of British studies in the Judy and Bobby Shackouls Honors College at MSU, where he served as the college’s founding dean. He has authored ten books and numerous articles in the fields of archaeology, history, literary criticism, ethics, and medieval studies. His most recent book is Hobbit Virtues: Rediscovering Virtue Ethics through J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings (New York and London: Pegasus/ Simon & Schuster, 2020).

Snyder’s graduate work at Emory was advised by Tom Burns and Steve White.