New Books in American Studies

Interviews with Scholars of America about their New Books

Society & Culture
History
5576
Suja A. Thomas, “The Missing American Jury: Res...
Suja A. Thomas, a professor of law at the University of Illinois College of Law, has written The Missing American Jury: Restoring the Fundamental Constitutional Role of the Criminal, Civil, and Grand Juries (Cambridge University Press,
42 min
5577
Kate Partridge, “Intended American Dictionary” ...
We commonly think of Walt Whitman as the great American poet, the gray-bearded bard who captures the democratic music of our country with, as he called it, his “barbaric yawp.” And, sure enough, Whitman thought of himself this way.
46 min
5578
Michael Copperman, “Teacher: Two Years in the M...
Anyone who has spent time in a school as an adult probably knows how hard it is for teachers to leave their work when they come home every night. There always seems to be more work for them to do, along with inordinate responsibility and a sense that e...
41 min
5579
Robert Matzen, “Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the ...
Jimmy Stewart has a well-deserved reputation as one of the major stars of the classic film era. Yet his life was greatly affected by his experiences as a bomber pilot in World War II. Robert Matzen, author of the book,
64 min
5580
Matthew Dallek, “Defenseless Under the Night: T...
Matthew Dallek is the author of Defenseless Under the Night: The Roosevelt Years and the Origins of Homeland Security (Oxford University Press, 2016). Dallek is associate professor of political management at The George Washington University.
26 min
5581
Matthew MacWilliams, “The Rise of Trump: Americ...
NB: Because Amherst College Press is open-access, this book is available free for download here. Just when I thought I had a pretty good handle on the ways and means of American politics, Donald Trump “happened.
48 min
5582
James Kloppenberg, “Toward Democracy: The Strug...
James Kloppenberg is the Charles Warren Professor of American history at Harvard University. Toward Democracy: The Struggle for Self-Rule in European and American Thought (Oxford University Press, 2016) offers a detailed and sweeping intellectual histo...
66 min
5583
April Dammann, “Corita Kent: Art and Soul: The ...
Sister Mary Corita, IHM (1918-1986), was a beloved artist and teacher whose role as the rebel nun continues to inspire contemporary audiences. Corita joined the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1936 when she was just eighteen years old,
41 min
5584
Caroline Winterer, “American Enlightenments: Pu...
Caroline Winterer is the Anthony P. Meier Family Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University. American Enlightenments: Pursuing Happiness in the Age of Reason (Yale University Press, 2016) gives us a glimpse into how eighteenth-century Americans...
60 min
5585
Nicholson Baker, “Substitute: Going to School w...
Parents often wonder what their children do at school all day. How different is it from what they remember years ago? Teachers often hear similar questions from their friends. Is it like what they imagine? If these adults could really understand,
24 min
5586
Patricia Strach, “Hiding Politics in Plain Sigh...
For Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we hear from Patricia Strach, the author of Hiding Politics in Plain Sight: Cause Marketing, Corporate Influence, and Breast Cancer Policymaking (Oxford University Press, 2016).
19 min
5587
Fred Amram, “We’re in America Now: A Survivor’s...
In this lively memoir, We’re In America Now: A Survivor’s Stories (Holy Cow! Press, 2016), Fred Amram offers a series of stories documenting his childhood in 1930s Germany through his coming-of-age in New York City,
31 min
5588
Debbie Levy, “I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Ma...
Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has spent a lifetime disagreeing with inequality, arguing against unfair treatment, and standing up for what’s right for people everywhere. I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark (Simon and Schuster,
41 min
5589
Thomas Aiello, “The Battle for the Souls of Bla...
Thomas Aiello is associate professor of history and African American studies at Valdosta State University. In The Battle for the Souls of Black Folk: W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, and the Debate that Shaped the Course of Civil Rights (ABC-CLIO,...
43 min
5590
Lucas Graves, “Deciding What’s True: The Rise o...
In a fragmented media world where anyone can speak, professional journalists are no longer the “gatekeepers” who decide what the public will see and hear. Instead, citizens are barraged with claims, assertions and innuendo that have not been subjected ...
53 min
5591
Gail Hornstein, “To Redeem One Person Is to Red...
The life of the German-born, pioneering American psychoanalyst, Frieda Fromm-Reichmann, is intriguing enough in itself, but in the biography, To Redeem One Person Is to Redeem the World: The Life of Frieda Fromm-Reichmann (Other Books, 2005),
57 min
5592
John Prados, “Storm Over Leyte: The Philippine ...
Narratives of the Pacific War frequently examine the 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf from the operational perspective, focusing on the desperate actions of the US Seventh Fleets escort carriers, Task Unit 77.4.3 (“Taffy 3”) against the much larger Japanese C...
52 min
5593
Kelly Watson, “Insatiable Appetites: Imperial E...
Kelly Watson’s Insatiable Appetites: Imperial Encounters with Cannibals in the North Atlantic World (New York University Press, 2015) explores the history of the New World through the lens of the cannibal myth.
59 min
5594
John Owens, “Confessions of a Bad Teacher: The ...
As you spend more time working in one role, organization, or field, it can become easy to lose perspective on how your work is similar or different from that being done by people in other positions, places, and industries.
36 min
5595
Frances Lee, “Insecure Majorities: Congress and...
Frances Lee is the author of Insecure Majorities: Congress and the Perpetual Campaign (University of Chicago Press, 2016). Lee is professor in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland. For much of the 20th century,
19 min
5596
Kristen Case, “Abdication: Emily Dickinson’s Fa...
Emily Dickinson is no ordinary poet. Her intelligent and profound work inspires a fierce attachment in those who love it. I know this first-hand. My wife began reading Dickinson soon after we first met and took to the poems so deeply that,
45 min
5597
Daniel Amsterdam, “Roaring Metropolis: Business...
On the podcast this week is Daniel Amsterdam, author of Roaring Metropolis: Businessmen’s Campaign for a Civic Welfare State (Penn Press, 2016). He is assistant professor in the School of History and Sociology at Georgia Institute of Technology.
16 min
5598
Rory Dickson, “Living Sufism in North America: ...
Rory Dickson’s Living Sufism in North America: Between Tradition and Transformation (SUNY Press, 2015) is the first monograph in English to focus on Sufism in North America. On this note, Dickson takes a risk by marking himself as a trendsetter in this...
58 min
5599
David Ensminger, “The Politics of Punk: Protest...
Punk has long been viewed as a subculture of anger, disruption, and alternative political and lifestyle choices. In The Politics of Punk: Protest and Revolt from the Streets (Rowman and Littlefield, 2016) David Ensminger examines the various ways in wh...
56 min
5600
Monika McDermott, “Masculinity, Femininity, and...
With the 2016 presidential election in full swing and rhetoric surrounding each candidate becoming more polarized, how does gender impact the way that people behave politically? Monika McDermott in her new book Masculinity, Femininity,
62 min