What We Are Reading Today: Pink: The History of a Color

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Updated 20 October 2024
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What We Are Reading Today: Pink: The History of a Color

Author: Michel Pastoureau 

Pink has such powerful associations today that it’s hard to imagine the color could ever have meant anything different. But it’s only since the introduction of the Barbie doll in 1959 that pink has become decisively feminized.

Indeed, in the 18th century, pink was frequently masculine, and the color has signified many things beyond gender over the course of its long history.

In this richly illustrated book, Michel Pastoureau, a celebrated authority on the history of colors, presents a fascinating visual, social, and cultural history of pink in the West, from antiquity to today.


What We Are Reading Today: Laws of the Land

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Updated 09 January 2026
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What We Are Reading Today: Laws of the Land

  • Employing archives from Mainland China and Taiwan that have only recently become available, this is the first book to document fengshui’s invocations in Chinese law during the Qing dynasty

Author: Tristan G. Brow

Today the term fengshui, which literally means “wind and water,” is recognized around the world. Yet few know exactly what it means, let alone its fascinating history. In “Laws of the Land,” Tristan Brown tells the story of the important roles — especially legal ones — played by fengshui in Chinese society during China’s last imperial dynasty, the Manchu Qing (1644–1912).

Employing archives from Mainland China and Taiwan that have only recently become available, this is the first book to document fengshui’s invocations in Chinese law during the Qing dynasty.