Tomaz Jardim

Tomaz Jardim, The Mauthausen Trial : American Military Justice in Germany. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012.
The Mauthausen Trial is a masterful study of one of the many Dachau trials organized by the American military after the Second World War to address Nazi war crimes arising from the incarceration and murder of civilians. Thoroughly documented, systematically presented, and compelling to read, The Mauthausen Trial strikes
a deft balance between exposing the intricate details of legal procedure and precedent and representing the very human motivations and reactions of prosecutors, camp survivors, and the accused. The current controversy over the constitutional validity of trial by military commission for the detainees at Guantanamo Bay only makes this book all the more timely and relevant.

Honourable Mention
Jeremy Brown, City versus Countryside in Mao’s China: Negotiating the Divide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
In City versus Countryside in Mao’s China, Jeremy Brown presents a series of meticulously researched case studies of villages and enterprises in the region southeast of Beijing to overturn the received history of the first three decades of the People’s Republic of China. Brown argues that, while Mao Zedong may have led his revolution from the countryside, he built the state and economy of the People’s Republic by subordinating agriculture to industry and protecting the cities at any cost. Brown is particularly to be commended for his success in connecting local case studies to a larger revision of China’s Communist revolution.