New Books in American Studies

Interviews with Scholars of America about their New Books

Society & Culture
History
5601
Gretchen Buggeln, “The Suburban Church: Moderni...
After World War II, America’s religious denominations spent billions on church architecture as they spread into the suburbs. Gretchen Buggeln’s latest monograph, The Suburban Church: Modernism and Community in Postwar America (University of Minnesota,
60 min
5602
Amani Willett, “Amani Willett: Disquiet” (Damia...
Amani Willett: Disquiet by Amani Willett, is published by Damiani Factory (2013), with an afterward by Marvin Heiferman, 128 pages. “Disquiet’s cinematic look suggests the palpable spaces in which Willett pondered both the depth and fragility of social...
41 min
5603
Jane Eppinga, “Henry Ossian Flipper: West Point...
The remarkable story of Henry Ossian Flipper, a young man born into slavery on the eve of the Civil War, and his struggle for recognition left its mark on our nations history. Through extensive research of military documents, court records, appeals,
34 min
5604
Sarah Jaffe, “Necessary Trouble: Americans in R...
Sarah Jaffe has written Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt (Nation Books, 2016). Jaffe is a Nation Institute fellow and an independent journalist. Over the last few years, several authors on the podcast have discussed the growth of the Tea Party,
20 min
5605
Larrie Ferreiro, “Brothers at Arms: Independenc...
Was the War for American Independence really about American independence? It depends on who you ask. In his new book, Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It (Knopf, 2016),
62 min
5606
Anthony M. Petro, “After the Wrath of God: AIDS...
Emerging in the 1980s, the AIDS epidemic was not just a public health crisis. It was a moral crisis too, argues Anthony M. Petro in his new book, After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion (Oxford University Press, 2015).
50 min
5607
Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby, “Enduring Truths: Sojou...
Runaway slave Sojourner Truth gained fame in the nineteenth century as an abolitionist, feminist, and orator and earned a living partly by selling photographic carte de visite portraits of herself at lectures and by mail. Cartes de visite,
36 min
5608
Heath Brown, “Immigrants and Electoral Politics...
Why do nonprofits representing immigrants participate (or choose not to participate) in electoral politics, and what forms does their participation take? In his new book, Immigrants and Electoral Politics: Nonprofit Organizing in a Time of Demographic ...
48 min
5609
Marc R. Blackburn, “Interpreting American Milit...
Our guest for this interview combines his academic expertise in American military history with his professional experience as an employee of the National Park Service. Marc Blackburn is the author of Interpreting American Military History at Museums an...
64 min
5610
Karen Tani, “States of Dependency: Welfare, Rig...
What new can there be to say about the New Deal? Perhaps more than you think. Join us as Karen Tani talks about her new book, States of Dependency: Welfare, Rights and American Governance, 1935-1972 (Cambridge University Press, 2016),
46 min
5611
James Alexander Dun, “Dangerous Neighbors: Maki...
James Alexander Dun is an assistant professor of history at Princeton University. His book Dangerous Neighbors: Making the Haitian Revolution in Early America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016) provides a detailed examination of how the Haitian R...
57 min
5612
Corey D. Fields, “Black Elephants in the Room: ...
The 2016 election cycle will be remembered as one for the history books. Many people are left asking questions as to what happened to lead to such an expected outcome, while still others are left wondering after such a tumultuous and divisive campaign ...
30 min
5613
Vicki Lens, “Poor Justice: How the Poor Fare in...
It’s been said that for poor and low-income Americans, the law is all over. Join us for a conversation with Vicki Lens, who, in Poor Justice: How the Poor Fare in Court (Oxford University Press, 2015), shows us how vulnerable populations interact with ...
43 min
5614
Leon Wildes, “John Lennon vs The U.S.A.: The In...
Leon Wildes is the author of John Lennon vs The U.S.A.: The Inside Story of the Most Bitterly Contested and Influential Deportation Case in United States History (Ankerwycke 2016). Wildes is an immigration attorney and the founder partner of Wildes & W...
15 min
5615
Byrd Williams, “Proof: Photographs from Four Ge...
Proof: Photographs from Four Generations of a Texas Family by Byrd Williams, with text by Byrd Williams IV, forward by Roy Flukinger and afterword by Anne Wilkes Tucker, is published by the University of North Texas Press, (2016). 224 pages.
49 min
5616
Tevi Troy, “Shall We Wake the President?: Two C...
What happens during a presidential transition should a disaster occur? Who is in charge of addressing the 3am phone call, the outgoing or incoming administration? Tevi Troy is the author of Shall We Wake the President?
18 min
5617
Christopher Faricy, “Welfare for the Wealthy: P...
Christopher Faricy makes a return visit to New Books Network for Part II of a conversation about Welfare for the Wealthy: Parties, Social Spending, and Inequality in the United States (Cambridge University Press, 2016) and the ways in which the U.S.
53 min
5618
Daniel Hatcher, “The Poverty Industry: The Expl...
American social welfare programs are rife with fraud — but its not the kind of fraud most people think of. Daniel Hatcher, Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore, in The Poverty Industry: The Exploitation of America’s Most Vulnerable Citizens ...
50 min
5619
Orna Ophir, “On the Borderland of Madness: Psyc...
When it comes to the history of psychoanalysis and psychiatry in the United States, to paraphrase Luce Irigaray, one never stirs without the other. While Freud sent Theodore Reik across the ocean to promote lay analysis, A.A. Brill,
60 min
5620
Jennifer Glaser, “Borrowed Voices: Writing and ...
In Borrowed Voices: Writing and Racial Ventriloquism in the Jewish American Imagination (Rutgers University Press, 2016), Jennifer Glaser, Associate Professor of English and comparative literature and an affiliate faculty member in Judaic studies and w...
23 min
5621
J. Kevin Corder and Christina Wolbrecht, “Count...
On the eve of the 2016 election, it is worth reflecting on the history of women’s voting. Up to this weighty task is a new book by J. Kevin Corder and Christina Wolbrecht. They are the authors of Counting Women’s Ballots: Female Voters from Suffrage th...
23 min
5622
Alison N. Novak, “Media, Millennials, and Polit...
The millennial generation (those born from 1980 through the beginning of the 21st century) now comprises the largest voting bloc in the American electorate. In Media, Millennials, and Politics: The Coming of Age of the Next Political Generation (Lexing...
27 min
5623
Susan Greenbaum, “Blaming the Poor: The Long Sh...
Patrick Moynihan’s Report on the Negro Family was a seminal document in Great Society-era racial politics and public policy. Join us as we talk with Susan Greenbaum about her new book, Blaming the Poor: The Long Shadow of the Moynihan Report on Cruel I...
53 min
5624
Heidi Czerwiec, “Sweet/Crude: A Bakken Boom Cyc...
  With a genre-bending hybridity that Czerwiec is well-known for, Sweet/Crude: A Bakken Boom Cycle (Gazing Grain Press, 2016) takes the structure of a heroic crown of sonnets and retrofits it for the prose poem and lyric essay.
12 min
5625
Roy Guzman, “Restored Mural for Orlando/Mural R...
After the enormity of our loss had been calculated, Guzman started writing. Drawn to the page to process his grief and to understand in the best way poets know how, through their art. This chapbook does more than encapsulate the memory of a community,
15 min