Congratulations to Hilary Matfess (@HilaryMatfess) in getting such a positive review of her book, Women and the War on Boko Haram, in The Economist this week. The review literally said that she “adeptly dismantles stereotypes and myths in her new book” which is 💯 truth.
When we chatted with Hilary last week in Episode 36, she had a lot of book recommendations. It actually took us a while to get her full list together and ready to share with you.
Like every good doctoral student, Hilary started her list with some good ol’ political science texts: Milan Svolik’s book The Politics of Authoritarian Rule, which Matfess says does a good job of unpacking typologies of authoritarianism. Second is Dan Ziblatt’s book, Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy, and she pointed in particular to Chapter 9 because it does a great job of unpacking the inability of conservative parties in Germany to resist grassroots radicalizing forces and the process by which that lead to Hitler.
Diving into some more feminist texts, Hilary recommended everyone’s favorite ugly-cry-in-public read, Hillary Clinton’s book What Happened. She also recommended Her Body and Other Parties: Stories, by Carmen Maria Machado, which is a “breathtaking” collection of short stories on femininity.
And here are the rest of the books Hilary recommended:
- Rebel Rulers: Insurgent Governance and Civilian Life during War by Zachariah Mampilly.
- State of Rebellion: Violence and Intervention in the Central African Republic by Louisa Lombard.
- Bush Wives and Girl Soldiers: Women’s Lives Through War and Peace in Sierra Leone by Chris Coulter.
- Sex and World Peace by
- Women and Power in Postconflict Africa by
