Front Table Newsletter 1/28/26
On this week’s Front Table, follow the long legacy of the warrior monks of the Baltic Crusade, reframe Japan's role in the search for celestial knowledge, and enjoy a debut story collection about underdogs at a crossroads. Then, trace the rise and fall of the studio that gave us Joy Division and New Order and immerse yourself in poetry of myth and psychoanalysis. Find these titles and more at semcoop.com.
The Black Cross: A History of the Baltic Crusades
(Yale University Press)
Aleksander Pluskowski
Between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, crusading armies unleashed a relentless holy war against the last pagan societies in northern Europe, particularly in the Baltic Sea region. Led by Catholic rulers, churchmen, and, most importantly of all, the warrior monks of the Teutonic Order, they sought to expand Christendom through conquest and conversion. In the process they forged a new world with a profound legacy that resonates into the present.
Aleksander Pluskowski traces the broader story of the Baltic Crusades. Pluskowski explores how the construction of castles and towns, and the introduction of new languages, technology, monetary economies, and religion transformed the conquered societies. Moving through the years, we see how the history of the crusades was reinvented in the twentieth century to serve nationalist aims, including those of the Third Reich. This is a fascinating study that provides a fresh look at the impact of centuries of religious warfare across northern Europe.
The Islands and the Stars: A History of Japan's Space Programs
(Stanford University Press)
Subodhana Wijeyeratne
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is among the six largest national space agencies in the world, along with China's CNSA, US's NASA, and Russia's Roscosmos. JAXA's budget is more than $1 billion USD--bigger than France or Germany individually, and more than that of Italy, India, Canada, and the UK combined. And yet, Japan's significant contributions have largely been absent in the history of space exploration, and space exploration largely absent in the history of technology in Japan. The Islands and the Stars corrects this conspicuous oversight. Through meticulous archival research in Japanese and anglophone archives, Subodhana Wijeyeratne examines the history of Japan's space exploration efforts over nearly a century.
Wijeyeratne traces the evolution of Japan's space program from its early origins in the 1920s, through the postwar period of rapid technological innovation, to the consolidation of its various institutional elements into JAXA in 2003. He situates Japan's space programs within the broader history of the country's postwar recovery, economic growth, and cultural identity, while also considering their place within global trends in space exploration. Through this narrative, Wijeyeratne not only illuminates Japan's centrality to the global history of science and technology, but also offers insights into the future of global space exploration, emphasizing the importance of diverse voices and perspectives in the quest to understand our place in the cosmos.
Guatemalan Rhapsody
(Ecco Press)
Jared Lemus
Ranging from a custodian at an underfunded college to a medicine man living in a temple dedicated to San Simon, the patron saint of alcohol and cigarettes, the characters in these stories find themselves at defining moments in their lives, where sacrifices may be required of them, by them, or for them.
In "Saint Dismas," four orphaned brothers pose as part of a construction crew, stopping cars along the highway and robbing anyone foolish enough to hit the brakes. In "Heart Sleeves," two wannabe tattoo artists take part in a contest, where one of them hopes to win not only first place but also the heart of his best friend's girlfriend. And, in "Fight Sounds," a character who fancies himself a Don Juan is swept up in the commotion of an American film crew shooting a movie in his tiny town, until the economic and sexual politics of the place are turned on their head.
Across this collection, Lemus's characters test their loyalty to family, community, and country, illuminating the ties that both connect us and constrain us. Guatemalan Rhapsody explores how we journey from the circumstances that we are forged by, and whether the ability to change our fortunes lies in our own hands or in those of another. Revealing the places where beauty, desperation, love, violence, and hope exist simultaneously, Jared Lemus's debut establishes him as a major new voice in the form.
Shadowplayers: The Rise and Fall of Factory Records
(Faber)
James Nice
In 1978, a "Factory for Sale" sign gave Alan Erasmus and Tony Wilson a name for their fledgling Manchester club night. Though they couldn't have known it at the time, this was the launch of one of the most significant musical and cultural legacies of the late twentieth century. The club's electrifying live scene soon translated to vinyl, and Factory Records went on to become the most innovative and celebrated record label of the next thirty years.
Always breaking new musical ground, Factory introduced the listening public to bands such as Joy Division, whose Unknown Pleasures was the label's first album release, New Order, Durutti Column and Happy Mondays. Propelled onwards by the inspirational cultural entrepreneur, Tony Wilson, Factory always sought new ways to energise the popular consciousness.
Now fully revised and expanded with a new chapter, Shadowplayers is the most complete, authoritative and thoroughly researched account of how a group of provincial anarchists and entrepreneurs saw off bankers, journalists and gun-toting gangsters to create the most influential record label of modern times. Based on both archive and contemporary sources, the book tells the full story of Factory's heroic struggles, its complex web of inventive, idiosyncratic and tragic personalities, and ultimately, the acclaimed and much-loved music it produced.
The Near and Distant World
(Tin House)
Bianca Stone
In her latest, brilliant collection, Bianca Stone continues to explore and interrogate the full spectrum of life, from an unexpectedly intimate conversation with an internet technician in Brooklyn, to a deep dive into Greek mythology, psychoanalysis, and modern philosophy. "I am thinking of what it means to be alive in this world," Stone muses, "I want to get it not right but near." With her signature incisive perspective, Stone debates the paradoxes of finding one's own self amid parenthood, global change, and the constant press of mortality.
In these fifty-one poems, Stone seamlessly ties together allusions to Jordan Peele's Nope, Rilke's elegies, and other cultural touchstones to arrive at new revelations. With fluidity and wryness, she brings readers to the brink of psychic wounds, operatic dramas, and strange dreams, with a fresh narrative in the rich mytho-poetic tradition.
The Camera at War
(Ilex Press)
Hilary Roberts
It is said that the camera never lies. But in the arena of war photography, its truth is subject to extreme distortion.
Drawing on an incredible archive of historic and contemporary imagery, former Imperial War Museum photo curator Hilary Roberts charts over 170 years of photographic manipulation in the causes of national morale, subterfuge and control of the winning narrative.
From the American civil war to the conflict in Gaza and Ukraine, this book delves into the to the practices of both professional and amateur conflict photographers - exploring the hows and whys of image distortion. By examining the consequences, Hilary also contemplates their enduring impact on our understanding of history, providing a nuanced perspective on the intricate interplay between images, truth, and the complexities of war.
Ever Since We Small
(Ig Publishing)
Celeste Mohammed
Written in a blend of Standard English and several flavors of Trinidad kriol, Ever Since We Small follows the bloodline of a young woman, Jayanti, following her decision to become a girmitiya, an indentured laborer in the Caribbean. The generational after-effects of this decision are seen in the lives of Jayanti's grandson, Lall, who seeks to escape the rural village where he was born, but instead becomes seduced and corrupted by urban life, and his son, Shiva, who is forced to take a child-bride, Salma, but never recovers from the guilt. Heartache then follows for their three children, who must each find a way to accept and yet move past their parents' failed example.
Along the journey of these ten interconnected stories, the alchemy necessary to turn the family's inheritance of pain into a "generation of gold" requires intervention by the living and dead, the "real" and the mythical, the mundane and the magical, the secular and the sacred.