The editors of the Imprensa de História Contemporânea [Contemporary History Press] have announced that two new books are to be published soon.

The first of these books, O processo civilizacional da tourada: guerreiros, cortesãos, profissionais e…bárbaros? [The civilization process of bullfighting: warriors, courtiers, professionals and … barbarians?], written by Fernando Ampudia de Haro, challenges conventional wisdom about bullfighting. Starting with Norbert Elias, Fernando Ampudia de Haro explains how the bullfighting civilized itself, from the Middle Ages to the present day.

On the other hand, Matheus Serva Pereira addresses the history of “batuques” (a term that covers a variety of musical practices and types of performance produced by Africans and/or Afro-descendants) in “Grandiosos batuques”: tensões, arranjos e experiências coloniais em Moçambique (1890-1940) [“Grandiosos batuques”: tensions, arrangements, and colonial experiences in Mozambique (1890-1940)], in an account of tensions, resistance, and colonial arrangements among African populations and the powers that subordinated them in the first decades of the 20th century.

Both authors are foreign nationals working in Portugal: Fernando Ampudia de Haro has a PhD in Sociology from the Complutense University of Madrid, is a researcher at CIES-IUL, and a professor at the European University, in Lisbon; Matheus Serva Pereira received a doctorate in Social History of Africa from the State University of Campinas and is a researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon.

The Imprensa de História Contemporânea is the publishing project of the Institute of Contemporary History and has a call for publications permanently open. Thus far, it has published three books: A Banca ao Serviço do Povo”:Política e Economia Durante o PREC (1974-75) [“Banks at the Service of the People”: Politics and Economy During PREC (1974-75)], by Ricardo Noronha; Uma Dramaturgia da Violência: Os Filmes de João Canijo [A Dramaturgy of Violence: The films of João Canijo], by Daniel Ribas; and O Império e a Constituição Colonial Portuguesa (1914-1974) [The Empire and the Portuguese Colonial Constitution (1914-1974)], by António Duarte Silva. All three are available, in open access, on the publisher’s website.