New Books in American Studies

Interviews with Scholars of America about their New Books

Society & Culture
History
5301
Amanda Carpenter, “Gaslighting America: Why We ...
CNN commentator Amanda Carpenter was an early conservative critic of Donald Trump when she was targeted in a smear campaign falsely accusing her of an extramarital affair with Trump’s 2016 Republican primary rival Sen. Ted Cruz. In her words,
41 min
5302
Gregory Snyder, “Skateboarding LA: Inside Profe...
Today we are joined by Gregory Snyder, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Baruch College, City University of New York (CUNY), and author of Skateboarding LA: Inside Professional Street Skateboarding (New York University Press, 2017).
60 min
5303
Matthew Karp, “This Vast Southern Empire: Slave...
Most people know that slavery was foundational to the economic development of the United States in the antebellum period. Fewer people are aware that slavery was also important for American foreign policy in the period.
66 min
5304
Stephen E. Strang, “God and Donald Trump” (Fron...
Those looking for deeper understanding of why the socially conservative, evangelical Christian community has been so loyal of Donald Trump will find answers in the book God and Donald Trump (Frontline, 2017).
50 min
5305
Mark Rifkin, “Beyond Settler Time: Temporal Sov...
Mark Rifkin’s Beyond Settler Time: Temporal Sovereignty and Indigenous Self-Determination (Duke University Press, 2017) engages fields including physics, phenomenology, native storytelling, and queer temporality.
1 min
5306
Sam Lebovic, “Free Speech and Unfree News: The ...
Appeals to “press freedom” can be heard from across the political spectrum. But what those appeals mean varies dramatically. Sam Lebovic, in his excellent new book, Free Speech and Unfree News: The Paradox of Press Freedom in America (Harvard Universit...
55 min
5307
Jesse Berrett, “Pigskin Nation: How the NFL Rem...
Today we are joined by Jesse Berrett, author of Pigskin Nation: How the NFL Remade American Politics (University of Illinois Press, 2018). Berrett is a high school history teacher at University High School in San Francisco.
52 min
5308
Nancy Mitchell, “Jimmy Carter in Africa: Race a...
Today we talked with Nancy Mitchell about her book Jimmy Carter in Africa: Race and the Cold War, published by Stanford University Press in 2016 as part of the Cold War International History Project Series.
47 min
5309
Jessica Elkind, “Aid Under Fire: Nation Buildin...
As any scholar of the Vietnam War can tell you, the field doesn’t lack for study: it’s one of the most-studied fields for both military and diplomatic historians. And yet, for all of the scholarly attention it has received,
56 min
5310
Jennifer Graber, “The Gods of Indian Country: R...
The American West has always been home to many deities, argues Jennifer Graber in The Gods of Indian Country: Religion and the Struggle for the American West (Oxford University Press, 2018). Graber, an associate professor of religious studies at the Un...
40 min
5311
Joseph Sciorra, “Built with Faith: Italian Amer...
Folklore scholar Joseph Sciorra is the Director for Academic and Cultural Programs at the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute in Queens College which is part of the City University of New York.  He’s also a Brooklyn-born and -raised Italian Ame...
61 min
5312
Jeremy M. Teigen, “Why Veterans Run: Military S...
Will the military background of Tulsi Gabbard and Tammy Duckworth lead them to a presidential nomination in 2020 or 2024? If the past is any guide, the answer is a strong maybe. More than half of presidential candidates across US political history have...
21 min
5313
Colin G. Calloway, “The Indian World of George ...
In this sweeping new biography, Colin G. Calloway, John Kimball Jr. 1943 Professor of History and Native American Studies at Dartmouth College, uses the prism of George Washington’s life to bring focus to the great Native leaders of his time—Shingas,
76 min
5314
Jason Linkins, “Schoolhouse Wreck: The Betsy De...
In Schoolhouse Wreck: The Betsy DeVos Story (Strong Arm Press, 2018), Jason Linkins delivers a searing critique of controversial Trump administration Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. The book tracks the DeVos family’s accumulation of wealth through ...
44 min
5315
Steven L. Ossad, “Omar Nelson Bradley: America’...
Steven L. Ossad joins New Books at Military History to talk about his award-winning biography, Omar Nelson Bradley: America’s GI General, 1893-1981 (University of Missouri Press, 2017).  Following the suggestion of his mentor, Martin Blumenson,
71 min
5316
Sarah Schulman, “Conflict is Not Abuse: Oversta...
Sarah Schulman’s Conflict is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2016) examines how accusations of harm are appropriated and deployed by powerful people, groups,
60 min
5317
David Wanczyk, “Beep: Inside the Unseen World o...
We all know baseball as one of America’s fondest pastimes, but did you know there’s a version of the sport designed specifically for the blind? It’s called Beep Ball, and the players, with the exception of the pitcher, are all visually impaired.
40 min
5318
Christy Ford Chapin, “Ensuring America’s Health...
Christy Ford Chapin, an associate professor of history at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, has written a history of the funding of America’s health care system: Ensuring America’s Health: The Public Creation of the Corporate Health Care Sy...
60 min
5319
Emilie Lucchesi, “Ugly Prey: An Innocent Woman ...
In her book, Ugly Prey: An Innocent Woman and the Death Sentence That Scandalized Jazz Age Chicago (Chicago Review Press, 2017), Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi presents the story of Sabella Nitti, an Italian immigrant arrested in 1923 an accused of murdering ...
60 min
5320
Harlan Ullman, “Anatomy of Failure: Why America...
Since 1945, the United States has lost every war it started. Why? A Vietnam War veteran, Tufts University Ph. D. and intimate of many of the leading figures in the American national security apparatus in the past forty-years, Dr.
66 min
5321
Lisa A. Lindsay, “Atlantic Bonds: A Nineteenth-...
The title of Lisa A. Lindsay’s book Atlantic Bonds: A Nineteenth-Century Odyssey from America to Africa (University of North Carolina Press, 2017),  invokes enduring family ties, as well as the connections between slavery, migration,
1 min
5322
Bhoomi Thakore, “South Asians on the U.S. Scree...
How does the portrayal of a character like Apu matter? What does the representation of South Asian TV characters tell us about society at large?  In her new book, South Asians on the U.S. Screen: Just Like Everyone Else? (Lexington Books, 2018),
36 min
5323
Averell Smith, “The Pitcher and the Dictator: S...
Today we are joined by Averell “Ace” Smith, The Pitcher and the Dictator: Satchel Paige’s Unlikely Season in the Dominican Republic (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). Smith is a political consultant and a lifelong baseball fan who became enamored wi...
50 min
5324
Keisha N. Blain, “Set the World on Fire: Black ...
Keisha N. Blain teaches African American and gender and women’s history at the University of Pittsburg. Her book Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom (University of Pennsylvania Press,
62 min
5325
Jonah Goldberg, “Suicide of the West” (Crown Fo...
In Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy (Crown Forum, 2018), conservative Jonah Goldberg argues that America’s foundation of democracy and capitalism is a “Mira...
52 min