New Books in American Studies

Interviews with Scholars of America about their New Books

Society & Culture
History
4901
Seth Archer, “Sharks Upon the Land: Colonialism...
In Sharks Upon the Land: Colonialism, Indigenous Health, and Culture in Hawai’i, 1778-1855 (Cambridge University Press, 2018), Utah State University Assistant Professor of History Seth Archer traces the cultural impact of disease and health problems in...
85 min
4902
D. G. Surdam and M. J. Haupert, “The Age of Rut...
Today we are joined by David George Surdam, co-author with Michael J. Haupert of the book The Age of Ruth and Landis: The Economics of Baseball during the Roaring Twenties (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). In this work,
50 min
4903
Harold Morales, “Latino and Muslim in America: ...
Harold Morales, an associate professor of Religion at Morgan State University, is the author of the momentous new book, Latino and Muslim in America: Race, Religion, and the Making of a New Minority (Oxford University Press, 2018).
44 min
4904
Louis Warren, “God’s Red Son: The Ghost Dance R...
Historians and other writers often portray the Ghost Dance religious movement and massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 as endings, the final gasps of armed Native resistance and their older ways of life. This interpretation is backwards for several reasons...
77 min
4905
Millington W. Bergeson-Lockwood, “Race Over Par...
Boston’s political culture is most known within the frame of antebellum political struggles over the institution of slavery. What about Reconstruction and post-Reconstruction era Black Bostonian politics though? That story is made clear by the Dr.
47 min
4906
Samira Mehta, “Beyond Chrismukkah: The Christia...
With rates of interfaith marriage steadily increasing since the middle of the twentieth century, interfaith families have become a permanent and significant feature of the religious landscape in the United States. In her recent book,
55 min
4907
Sarah E. Igo, “The Known Citizen: A History of ...
Sarah E. Igo is an associate professor of history at Vanderbilt University and the author of The Known Citizen: A History of Privacy in Modern America (Harvard University Press, 2018). Igo provides a legal and social history of the idea of privacy and ...
54 min
4908
Peter James Hudson, “Bankers and Empire: How Wa...
Histories of banking and finance aren’t particularly well-known for being riveting, adventurous reads: they tend to be technical at the expense of being strongly narrative-driven. Peter James Hudson’s Bankers and Empire: How Wall Street Colonized the C...
62 min
4909
Michele Margolis, “From Politics to the Pews: H...
On this American Political Science Association special podcast, we welcome a special guest host – and former guest of the podcast – Andy Lewis. In addition to his recent book, The Rights Turn in Conservative Christian Politics,
21 min
4910
Skip Desjardin, “September 1918: War, Plague, a...
Today we are joined by Skip Desjardin, author of the book September 1918: War, Plague, and the World Series (Regnery History, 2018). In this work, which blends sports and history together, Desjardin looks at the historic and turbulent events of Septemb...
69 min
4911
Joanna Dyl, “Seismic City: An Environmental His...
In Seismic City: An Environmental History of San Francisco’s 1906 Earthquake (University of Washington Press, 2017), Joanna Dyl documents the course and effects of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake and subsequent fire that destroyed significant portions of ...
74 min
4912
Tessa Fontaine, “The Electric Woman: A Memoir i...
Who doesn’t remember their first trip to the county fair? The greasy hotdogs and popcorn and cotton candy. The lights and sounds of the seemingly endless games and rides and shows on the midway. But maybe most of all,
47 min
4913
Melani McAlister, “The Kingdom of God Has No Bo...
Melani McAlister’s The Kingdom of God Has No Borders (Oxford University Press, 2018) is a global history of evangelicals since 1945 and focuses on the complexities and contradictions that encompass the modern evangelical movement in the U.S.
58 min
4914
William D. Bryan, “The Price of Permanence: Nat...
Southern capitalists of the postbellum era have been called many things, but never conservationists. Until now. Environmental historian William D. Bryan has written a brilliantly disorienting reassessment of the South’s economic development in the peri...
54 min
4915
James P. Leary, “Folksongs of Another America: ...
Folksongs of Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, 1937–1946 (University of Wisconsin Press) first appeared in 2015 when it comprised of a hardback book, five CDs, and one DVD. It went on to win the “Best Historical Research in Folk...
52 min
4916
Ben Epstein, “The Only Constant is Change: Tech...
Ben Epstein’s new book, The Only Constant is Change: Technology, Political Communication, and Innovation over Time (Oxford University Press, 2018), traces communication changes and innovations in the United States from the time of the Founding to the p...
44 min
4917
Ana Raquel Minian, “Undocumented Lives: The Unt...
In the 1970s, the Mexican government acted to alleviate rural unemployment by supporting the migration of able-bodied men. Millions crossed into the United States to find work that would help them survive as well as sustain their families in Mexico.
61 min
4918
Brian Abrams, “Obama: An Oral History, 2009-201...
Brian Abrams interviewed more than 100 people – Democrats, Republicans, cabinet officials, White House aides, campaign operatives, congresspeople and activists – to piece together a comprehensive oral history of the Barack Obama presidency,
43 min
4919
Beth Macy, “Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the...
“Appalachia was among the first places where the malaise of opioid pills hit the nation in the mid-1990s, ensnaring coal miners, loggers, furniture makers, and their kids.” This is how journalist Beth Macy premises her new book, Dopesick: Dealers,
31 min
4920
Jenny Hale Pulispher, “Swindler Sachem: The Ame...
In Swindler Sachem: The American Indian Who Sold His Birthright, Dropped Out of Harvard, and Conned the King of England (Yale University Press, 2018), Brigham Young University Associate Professor Jenny Hale Pulispher demonstrates that Indians, too,
66 min
4921
Lily Wong, “Transpacific Attachments: Sex Work,...
Lily Wong‘s Transpacific Attachments: Sex Work, Media Networks, and Affective Histories of Chineseness (Columbia University Press, 2018) traces the genealogy of the Chinese sex worker as a figure who manifests throughout the 20th century in moments of ...
48 min
4922
Mary E. Stuckey, “Political Vocabularies: FDR, ...
Mary E. Stuckey’s new book, Political Vocabularies: FDR, The Clergy Letters, and the Elements of Political Argument (Michigan State University Press, 2018), is a fascinating and engaging investigation of an early period during the Roosevelt Administrat...
49 min
4923
Lessie B. Branch, “Optimism at All Costs: Black...
Optimism at All Costs: Black Attitudes, Activism, and Advancement in Obama’s America (University of  Massachusetts Press, 2018) takes as its point of departure and central preoccupation the notion of “paradoxical ebullience,” by which author Lessie B.
45 min
4924
Paul Offit, “Bad Advice: Or Why Celebrities, Po...
You should never trust celebrities, politicians, or activists for health information. Why? Because they are not scientists! Scientists often cannot compete with celebrities when it comes to charm or evoking emotion.
49 min
4925
Judith Weisenfeld, “New World A-Coming: Black R...
A wave of religious leaders in black communities in the early twentieth-century insisted that so-called Negroes were, in reality, Ethiopian Hebrews, Asiatic Muslims, or a raceless children of God. In New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identi...
65 min