New Books in American Studies

Interviews with Scholars of America about their New Books

Society & Culture
History
5701
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
5702
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
5703
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
5704
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
5705
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
5706
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
5707
LaShawn Harris, “Sex Workers, Psychics and Numb...
LaShawn Harris is an assistant professor of history at Michigan State University. Sex Workers, Psychics and Number Runners: Black Women in New York City’s Underground Economy, (University of Illinois Press,
53 min
5708
Michelle Markel, “Hillary Rodham Clinton: Some ...
Michelle Markel, an award-winning author and former journalist who has written for The Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times, talks about books she’s written about two strong and brave women Clara Lemlich and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
37 min
5709
Daniel Moran,”Creating Flannery O’Connor: Her C...
Daniel Moran’s Creating Flannery O’Connor: Her Critics, Her Publishers, Her Readers (University of Georgia Press, 2016) provides a compelling investigation of how O’Connor’s initial reputation of a Southern female writer over the years evolved into her...
43 min
5710
Heather Ann Thompson, “Blood in the Water: The ...
In 1971, prisoners took over Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York. The uprising followed a wave of protests in prisons and jails across the state and nation. Prisoners sought to draw public attention to years of mistreatment and abuse as th...
59 min
5711
Jeffrey Gurock, “The Jews of Harlem: The Rise, ...
In The Jews of Harlem: The Rise, Decline, and Revival of a Jewish Community (New York University Press, 2016), Jeffrey Gurock, Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University, returns to the neighborhood he studied in his first sch...
36 min
5712
James D. Boys, “Hillary Rising: The Politics, P...
James D. Boys is the author of Hillary Rising: The Politics, Persona, and Policies of a New American Dynasty (Biteback Publishing, 2016). Boys is an associate professor of international political studies at Richmond University.
18 min
5713
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
5714
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
5715
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
5716
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
5717
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
5718
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
5719
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
5720
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
5721
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
5722
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
5723
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
5724
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
5725
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