New Books in American Studies

Interviews with Scholars of America about their New Books

Society & Culture
History
5326
Richard Rubin, “Back Over There” (St. Martin’s ...
The majority of the books we profile on New Books in Military History are traditional research narratives, monographs written by historians and authors seeking to present a particular campaign, organization, battle, or individual in detail.
87 min
5327
Ilana Gershon, “Down and Out in the New Economy...
Labor markets are not what they used to be, as Ilana Gershon argues in Down and Out in the New Economy: How People Find (or Don’t Find) Work Today (University of Chicago Press, 2017). Job seekers are increasingly being taught that they need to sell the...
42 min
5328
Tanya Ann Kennedy, “Historicizing Post-Discours...
Tanya Ann Kennedy‘s book, Historicizing Post-Discourses: Postfeminism and Postracialism in United States Culture (SUNY Press, 2017), is a complex and important exploration of our collective understanding of questions of racial and gender equality,
71 min
5329
Rosalind Rosenberg, “Jane Crow: The Life of Pau...
Rosalind Rosenberg‘s book Jane Crow: The Life of Pauli Murray (Oxford University Press, 2017) is a multi-layered and rich biography of Pauli Murray, an activist, lawyer and Episcopal priest whose life intersected with the most significant civil and hum...
60 min
5330
Naoko Wake, “Private Practices: Harry Stack Sul...
The influential yet controversial psychiatrist, Harry Stack Sullivan was pioneering in his treatment of schizophrenia however the way he lived privately did not always correspond to the theoretical ideas he espoused publicly.
56 min
5331
Heather Silber Mohamed, “The New Americans? Imm...
The New Americans? Immigration, Protest, and The Politics of Latino Identity (University Press of Kansas, 2017) by Heather Silber Mohamed weaves together a number of different strands within the discipline of Political Science in context of the diverse...
47 min
5332
Justin Gest, “The New Minority: White Working C...
In our era of economic instability, rising inequality, and widespread immigration, complaints about fairness and life chances are coming from an interesting source: white people, specifically members of the working class.
39 min
5333
Maria Montoya, et. al, eds. “Global Americans: ...
America’s national experience and collective history have always been subject to transnational forces and affected by global events and conditions. In recognition of this reality, the textbook Global Americans: A History of the United States (Cengage,
46 min
5334
Donna M. Cassidy, Elizabeth Finch, and Randall ...
Marsden Hartley’s Maine (Yale University Press, 2017), published to accompany a major exhibition of his work organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Colby College Museum of Art, traces the artist’s complex relationship to his native state.
43 min
5335
Claire D. Clark, “The Recovery Revolution” (Col...
Before the 1960s, doctors were generally in control of the treatment of drug addicts. And that made a certain sense, because drug addicts had something that looked a lot like a disease or mental illness. The trouble was that doctors had no effective wa...
64 min
5336
Riki Wilchins, “TRANS/gressive: How Transgender...
Before Transgender actors entered popular culture, and before the “T” was included in LGBT, Transgender activism was a small and marginalized movement. However, though courage and perseverance, Transgender rights began to enter the public consciousness...
53 min
5337
Jon Kukla, “Patrick Henry: Champion of Liberty”...
To remember Patrick Henry for his defiant declaration “Give me liberty or give me death!” is to overlook a long career spent as an advocate for the rights of Americans, first as colonists and then as citizens.
56 min
5338
Victor Tan Chen, “Cut Loose: Jobless and Hopele...
We are nearly a decade removed from the start of the Great Recession, and many indicators show that the economy is doing relatively well. But during this economic catastrophe, a significant number of people faced long-term unemployment,
58 min
5339
Sophie Egan, “Devoured: How What We Eat Defines...
In Devoured: How What We Eat Defines Who We Are (William Morrow Books, 2017), food writer and Culinary Institute of America program director Sophie Egan takes readers on an eye-opening journey through the American food psyche,
52 min
5340
Nathan Kalmoe and David Kinder, “Neither Libera...
Nathan Kalmoe and Donald Kinder are the authors of Neither Liberal or Conservative: Ideological Innocence in the American Public (University of Chicago Press, 2017). Kalmoe is an assistant professor of political communication at Louisiana State Univers...
18 min
5341
Leigh Fought, “Women in the World of Frederick ...
Leigh Fought is an assistant professor of history at Le Moyne College. Her book Women in the World of Frederick Douglass (Oxford University Press, 2017) offers a detailed and rich portrait of Frederick Douglass’ private and public life and his many rel...
59 min
5342
Patty Farmer, “Playboy Laughs: The Comedy, Come...
In her new book, Playboy Laughs: The Comedy, Comedians, and Cartoons of Playboy (Beaufort Books, 2017), Patty Farmer examines the relationship between Hugh Hefner’s Playboy empire and some of the most influential comedians and cartoonists of the past 5...
51 min
5343
Max Krochmal, “Blue Texas: The Making of a Mult...
Blue Texas: The Making of a Multiracial Democratic Coalition in the Civil Rights Era (University of North Carolina Press, 2016) is about the “other” Texas, not the state known for its cowboy conservatism, but a mid-twentieth-century hotbed of community...
53 min
5344
Brexit, Trump, & Democracy with Thom Brooks
An interview with Thom Brooks
36 min
5345
Kiran Klaus Patel, “The New Deal: A Global Hist...
There are as many New Deals as there are books on the subject. Yet only recently have historians begun to dig into the international dimensions of the New Deal. Kiran Klaus Patel is one of those historians, and his book,
50 min
5346
Robert M. Browning Jr., “Lincoln’s Trident: The...
Though the U.S. Navy’s blockade of the Confederacy has not received the attention devoted to the bloody campaigns on land, it was an important contributor to the Union’s victory in the Civil War. In Lincoln’s Trident: The West Gulf Blockading Squadron ...
52 min
5347
Melvin R. Adams, “Atomic Geography: A Personal ...
In May, a tunnel filled with radioactive waste collapsed at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state, making international news. This incident highlighted the costs and challenges of cleaning up this deactivated nuclear facility,
58 min
5348
William Davenport Mercer, “Diminishing the Bill...
William Davenport Mercer‘s Diminishing the Bill of Rights: Barron v. Baltimore and the Foundations of American Liberty (University of Oklahoma Press, 2017) argues that if we want to understand how Americans in the early Republic viewed the sources of t...
41 min
5349
David R. Mayhew, “The Imprint of Congress” (Yal...
This week on the podcast we have a true political science legend. David R. Mayhew is the author of such political science greats as Congress: The Electoral Connection, Divided We Govern, and Partisan Balance.
14 min
5350
Thomas Hazlett, “The Political Spectrum: The Tu...
What better way to explore the history of media regulation than to go on a journey with the former chief economist of the FCC? Prior to introduction of the Federal Radio Commission in 1927, the radio spectrum was in chaos.
44 min