New Books in American Studies

Interviews with Scholars of America about their New Books

Society & Culture
History
5226
Japonica Brown-Saracino, “How Places Make Us: N...
Many of us move to a new place at some point in our lives for a variety of reasons: for a job, to be with a partner, to attend school, for a change of scenery, to retire. When we have a choice, we consider a host of place characteristics to...
49 min
5227
Natasha Zaretsky, “Radiation Nation: Three Mile...
What if modern conservatism is less a reaction to environmentalism than a mutation of it? Historian Natasha Zaretsky’s latest book, Radiation Nation: Three Mile Island and the Political Transformation of the 1970s (Columbia University Press, 2018),
60 min
5228
Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, “Politics at Work: ...
Alexander Hertel-Fernandez is the author of Politics at Work: How Companies Turn Their Workers into Lobbyists (Oxford University Press, 2018). He is an assistant professor of political science at Columbia University.
22 min
5229
David A. Hollinger, “Protestants Abroad: How Mi...
David A. Hollinger‘s Protestants Abroad: How Missionaries Tried to Change the World and Changed America (Princeton University Press, 2017) offers a history of how American missionaries, their children, and associates shaped U.S.
55 min
5230
Jimmy Patino, “Raza Si, Migra No: Chicano Movem...
As immigration from Mexico to the United States grew through the 1970s and 1980s, the Border Patrol, police, and other state agents exerted increasing violence against ethnic Mexicans in San Diego’s volatile border region. In response,
56 min
5231
Chad Montrie, “The Myth of Silent Spring: Rethi...
Uncle Tom’s Cabin didn’t start the Civil War and Silent Spring didn’t start the environmental movement. In The Myth of Silent Spring: Rethinking the Origins of American Environmentalism (University of California Press, 2018),
47 min
5232
Carl Cannon, “On This Date: From the Pilgrims t...
Five days a week, Carl Cannon writes the Morning Note newsletter for Real Clear Politics, and includes a historical vignette about something in American history that happened on that date. Now he’s turned his daily vocation into a book.
40 min
5233
Amy Bass, “One Goal: A Coach, A Team, and the G...
Today we are joined by Amy Bass, author of the book One Goal: A Coach, A Team, and the Game that Brought a Divided Town Together (Hachette Books, 2018). This is the fourth book for Bass, who is director of the honors program and a professor of history ...
36 min
5234
Mikaela M. Adams, “Who Belongs?: Race, Resource...
“Native American” is unique among American racial categories in defining not just social status or historical lineage, but also an individual’s relationship to state and federal governments. In Who Belongs?: Race, Resources,
44 min
5235
Jeanine Kraybill, “Unconventional, Partisan, an...
In Unconventional, Partisan, and Polarizing Rhetoric: How the 2016 Election Shaped the Way Candidates Strategize, Engage, and Communicate (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017), Jeanine Kraybill, assistant professor of political science at Cal State University...
20 min
5236
Julian Lim, “Porous Borders: Multiracial Migrat...
With the railroad’s arrival in the late nineteenth century, immigrants of all colors rushed to the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, transforming the region into a booming international hub of economic and human activity. Following the stream of Mexican,
44 min
5237
Frederick L. Brown, “The City is More Than Huma...
Not all city dwellers are bipedal, according to Frederick L. Brown, author of The City is More Than Human: An Animal History of Seattle (University of Washington Press, 2016). The history of Seattle, and all cities,
37 min
5238
David Rapp, “Tinker to Evers to Chance: The Chi...
Today we are joined by David Rapp, author of the book Tinker to Evers to Chance: The Chicago Cubs and the Dawn of Modern America (University of Chicago Press, 2018). Rapp spent 30 years as a journalist in the Washington. D.C.,
53 min
5239
Dahlia Schweitzer, “Going Viral: Zombies, Virus...
Everyone loves a good conspiracy theory as we prep for the zombie apocalypse. In her new book Going Viral: Zombies, Viruses, and the End of the World (Rutgers University Press, 2018), Dahlia Schweitzer brings them together as she explores the outbreak ...
64 min
5240
Natchee Blu Barnd, “Native Space: Geographic St...
In Native Space: Geographic Strategies to Unsettle Settler Colonialism (Oregon State University Press, 2017), Natchee Blu Barnd examines how Indigenous populations create space and geographies through naming, signage, cultural practices,
57 min
5241
Vanda Krefft, “The Man Who Made the Movies: The...
When you hear “Twentieth Century Fox,” I doubt you know where the source of “Fox” in the name. In her book, The Man Who Made the Movies: The Meteoric Rise and Tragic Fall of William Fox (Harper, 2017), Vanda Krefft presents a detailed biography of one ...
63 min
5242
Molly Ladd-Taylor, “Fixing the Poor: Eugenic St...
Eugenic sterilization is usually associated with Nazi horrors before and during World War II. But, as Dr. Molly Ladd-Taylor reminds us, it was also practiced in the United States. In her new book Fixing the Poor: Eugenic Sterilization and Child Welfare...
48 min
5243
Joshua Zeitz, “Building the Great Society: Insi...
How did President Lyndon Johnson engineer one of the biggest bursts of liberal legislation in American history? And did his vision of a Great Society successfully alleviate poverty and reduce inequality? In Building the Great Society: Inside Lyndon Joh...
43 min
5244
Chad Alan Goldberg, “Modernity and the Jews in ...
In his new book, Modernity and the Jews in Western Social Thought (University of Chicago Press, 2017), Chad Alan Goldberg looks at how social thinkers from Karl Marx, to Emile Durkheim, to Robert Park mobilized ideas and ideologies about Jews to concep...
51 min
5245
J. Michael Butler, “Beyond Integration: The Bla...
Historians have long debated when the Black Freedom Struggle began and when it ended. Most point to the King years, 1955-1968. In his excellent book Beyond Integration: The Black Freedom Struggle in Escambia County, Florida 1960-1980 (UNC Press,
53 min
5246
Christopher B. Patterson, “Transitive Cultures:...
Christopher B. Patterson‘s book Transitive Cultures: Anglophone Literature of the Transpacific (Rutgers University Press, 2018) reads English-language literary production from Southeast Asia and its diasporas in North America to recognize and reveal di...
46 min
5247
Deondra Rose, “Citizens by Degree: Higher Educa...
Deondra Rose has written Citizens by Degree: Higher Education Policy and the Changing Gender Dynamics of American Citizenship (Oxford University Press, 2018). She is an assistant professor of public policy and political science at Duke University.
24 min
5248
David Grann, “Killers of the Flower Moon: The O...
In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, the Osage rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions, and sent their children to study in Europe.
29 min
5249
Urmi Engineer Willoughby, “Yellow Fever, Race, ...
A disease cannot be fully understood unless considered in its environmental context. That conviction drives Yellow Fever, Race, and Ecology in Nineteeth-Century New Orleans (LSU Press, 2017) by historian Urmi Engineer Willoughby.
40 min
5250
Sean Sherman, “The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitc...
Chef Sean Sherman, Oglala Lakota and originally from Pine Ridge Reservation, has become one of the most important voices in the Indigenous foods revitalization movement. By researching in the archives, visiting elders,
28 min