New Books in American Studies

Interviews with Scholars of America about their New Books

Society & Culture
History
5451
Linda Grover, “Onigamiising: Seasons of an Ojib...
Onigamiising is the Ojibwemowin word for Duluth and the surrounding area. In this book of fifty warm, wise and witty essays, Linda LeGarde Grover tells the story of the four seasons of life, from Ziigwan (Spring) to Biboon (Winter),
43 min
5452
Malcolm Harris, “Kids These Days: Human Capital...
Every young generation inspires a host of comparisons—usually negative ones—with older generations. Whether preceding a criticism or punctuating one, “kids these days” is a common utterance. Perhaps because of the ubiquity of the internet and their hea...
42 min
5453
Richard Carwardine, “Lincoln’s Sense of Humor” ...
For many people today, the name Abraham Lincoln conjures up a mental image of a solemn but kindly statesman. Yet to his contemporaries, one of Lincoln’s defining traits was his humor, which he deployed to great effect throughout his career.
62 min
5454
Seth Barrett Tillman on the Foreign Emoluments ...
Seth Barrett Tillman, an instructor in the Department of Law at Maynooth University in Ireland, is one of the few scholars to have researched and written about the history of the Foreign Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Prof.
47 min
5455
Franz Rickaby, et al., “Pinery Boys: Songs and ...
Gretchen Dykstra‘s career to date has been both impressive and wide-ranging. She was the founding President of the Times Square Alliance, the former Commissioner of the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs, and the founding President of the 9/11 Memorial...
62 min
5456
Andrew McKevitt, “Consuming Japan: Popular Cult...
In Consuming Japan: Popular Culture and the Globalizing of 1980s America (UNC Press, 2017), Andrew McKevitt explores the intense and ultimately fleeting moment in 1980s America when the future looked Japanese.
40 min
5457
Stewart Patrick, “The Sovereignty Wars: Reconci...
The Sovereignty Wars: Reconciling America with the World (Brookings Institution Press, 2017) is an important and in depth study of American interaction with the intricate concept of Sovereignty, from the Founding Fathers to Donald Trump.
64 min
5458
Mark Rozell and Clyde Wilcox, “God at the Grass...
In the wake of the Alabama Senate election in December, 2017, attention has been drawn to the intersection of religion and politics. This is the subject of God at the Grassroots 2016: The Christian Right in American Politics (Rowman and Littlefield,
18 min
5459
David J. Carlson, “Imagining Sovereignty: Self-...
Sovereignty is a key concept in Native American and Indigenous Studies, but its also a term that is understood in multiple ways. Working across the boundaries of legal and literary theory, David J. Carlson‘s Imagining Sovereignty: Self-Determination in...
58 min
5460
Jonathan R. Wynn, “Music/City: American Festiva...
A city in its original state is arbitrary and has no meaning. The act of placemaking is a multifaceted process in the planning, designing, and management of public spaces. The social construction of meaning is a process that capitalizes on the assets,
32 min
5461
Judith Schindler and Judy Seldin-Cohen, “Rechar...
In their new book Recharging Judaism: How Civic Engagement is Good For Synagogues, Jews and America (Central Conference of American Rabbis, 2017), Rabbi Judith Schindler and Judy Seldin-Cohen argue that social action and Jewish action go hand-in-hand.
52 min
5462
Elizabeth McRae, “Mothers of Massive Resistance...
Much attention has been drawn to the role of white women in the recent Alabama senate election and the earlier election of Donald J. Trump as president. Today’s racial and gender politics have long historic roots, according to Elizabeth McRae,
22 min
5463
Alice Echols, “Shortfall: Family Secrets, Finan...
Alice Echols is a professor of history and the Barbra Streisand Chair of Contemporary Gender Studies at the University of Southern California. In her book Shortfall: Family Secrets, Financial Collapse and a Hidden History of American Banking (New Press...
60 min
5464
Kay Wright Lewis, “A Curse upon the Nation: Rac...
In her new book, A Curse upon the Nation: Race, Freedom, and Extermination in America and the Atlantic World (University of Georgia Press, 2017), Howard University’s Kay Wright Lewis chronicles the history of white and black perspectives on the idea of...
63 min
5465
Chelsea Schelly, “Dwelling in Resistance: Livin...
Technology is a form of material culture and is a human activity. The way in which humans view technology is a social construction in which people use social processes of interpretation and negotiation. The mundane rituals that humans carry out when in...
32 min
5466
Stephen Cushman, “Belligerent Muse: Five Northe...
How do we use words to tease out the “real” that history strives to capture? Listen to my conversation with Stephen Cushman, as we consider the historian’s art through Cushman’s book, Belligerent Muse: Five Northern Writers and How They Shaped Our Unde...
59 min
5467
Corey D. Fields, “Black Elephants in the Room: ...
What is it about Black Republicans that makes them fodder for comedy? How do Black Republicans view their participation in their political group? Corey D. Fields answers these questions and more in his new book,
53 min
5468
Frank Baumgartner, et al., “Deadly Justice: A S...
In 1976, the US Supreme Court ruled in Gregg v. Georgia that the death penalty was constitutional if it complied with certain provisions designed to ensure that it was reserved for the ‘worst of the worst.’ The 1976 decision ushered in the ‘modern’ per...
18 min
5469
Scott Kaufman, “Ambition, Pragmatism, and Party...
Catapulted into the Oval Office by an unusual set of circumstances, Gerald Ford remains a unique figure in American presidential history. In Ambition, Pragmatism, and Party: A Political Biography of Gerald R. Ford (University Press of Kansas, 2017),
63 min
5470
Ashley D. Farmer, “Remaking Black Power: How Bl...
Black Power was one of the most iconic movements of the twentieth century. Recent documentary treatments like The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 in 2011 and The Black Panthers: Vanguards of the Revolution in 2015 brought the Panthers into the households...
61 min
5471
Paul Hensler, “The New Boys of Summer: Baseball...
Today we are joined by Paul Hensler, author of the book The New Boys of Summer: Baseball’s Radical Transformation in the Late Sixties (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017). Paul is a baseball historian and a member of the Society for American Baseball Researc...
59 min
5472
Sam White, “A Cold Welcome: The Little Ice Age ...
Sam White’s brand new book A Cold Welcome: The Little Ice Age and Europe’s Encounter with North America (Harvard University Press, 2017) turns the tales we learned in grade school about early European colonization of North America upside-down.
52 min
5473
Jonathan W. White, “Midnight in America: Darkne...
What were the dreams of the Civil War? Find out by listening to my conversation with Jonathan White about his new book Midnight in America: Darkness, Sleep, and Dreams during the Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 2017). Jonathan W.
57 min
5474
Brett L. Abrams, “Terry Bradshaw: From Super Bo...
Today we are joined by Brett L. Abrams, author of the book Terry Bradshaw: From Super Bowl Champion to Television Personality (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017). It is part of a series called Sports Icons and Issues in Popular Culture. Abrams,
45 min
5475
Patrick Breen, “The Land Shall be Deluged in Bl...
How did African-American slaves react to slavery? What factors, particularly religion, might shape those reactions, even making them violent? Patrick Breen, in his carefully researched and cogently written The Land Shall be Deluged in Blood: A New Hist...
60 min