New Books in American Studies

This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field.

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Society & Culture
History
5751
Joan Maya Mazelis, “Surviving Poverty: Creating...
A number of recent events (the Great Recession, Occupy Wall Street, the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign) have brought inequality and poverty into national conversation. In an age of economic uncertainty and a declining social safety net,
52 min
5752
Elizabeth Hayes Alvarez, “The Valiant Woman: Th...
When people think of the Virgin Mary in terms of American religious history, there is a tendency to focus on opposition. For instance, Catholic devotion to Mary on the one side, and Protestant critique of that devotion on the other side. However,
61 min
5753
Garrison Nelson, “John William McCormack: A Pol...
John William McCormack served as Speaker of the House of Representatives throughout most of the 1960s, during which time he shepherded the legislation of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society program through the chamber.
73 min
5754
Travis Linnemann, “Meth Wars: Police, Media, Po...
If all you knew about methamphetamines came from popular culture (“Breaking Bad”) or government anti-drug campaigns (“Faces of Meth”), then you’d probably think that the typical meth user was a unemployed, rail thin degenerate with bad acne,
55 min
5755
Nancy Wang Yuen, “Reel Inequality: Hollywood Ac...
How can we challenge the way film and television represents the world around us? In Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism (Rutgers University Press, 2017) Nancy Wan Yuen, and Associate Professor of Sociology at Biola University,
36 min
5756
Molly Worthen, “Apostles of Reason: The Crisis ...
Beginning with a network of reformed figures that orbited around Billy Graham, from J. Howard Pew’s money to Carl Henry’s passion for cultural esteem, Molly Worthen’s Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism (Oxford Univer...
66 min
5757
Stephen F. Knott and Tony Williams, “Washington...
In Washington and Hamilton: The Alliance that Forged America (Sourcebooks, 2015), authors Stephen F. Knott and Tony Williams explore the relationship between George Washington and Alexander Hamilton over the course of three distinct periods where their...
28 min
5758
Patrick Phillips, “Blood at the Root: A Racial ...
This episode of New Books in African American Studies covers Patrick Phillips’ powerful new book Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America (W.W. Norton and Company, 2016) At the turn of the twentieth century, Forsyth County in Georgia,
47 min
5759
Christopher Lowen Agee, “The Streets of San Fra...
Policing tactics have recently been the subject of lively political debates and the target of protest groups like the Black Lives Matter movement. Police reform is not new, of course. The 1950s and 1960s, in fact,
66 min
5760
Tyina Steptoe, “Houston Bound: Culture and Colo...
What do you know about Houston, Texas? That Houston is the fourth largest city in the United States? That Houston was the home of the 2016 NCAA Final Four in basketball and the home of the NFL’s Super Bowl LI in 2017?
44 min
5761
Paul Harvey, “Bounds of Their Habitation: Race ...
Paul Harvey is a professor of history at the University of Colorado. His book Bounds of Their Habitation: Race and Religion in American History (Rowman and Littlefield, 2017) provides an accessible and expansive narrative of the relationship between ra...
57 min
5762
Deborah Lipstadt, “Holocaust: An American Under...
In her most recent book, Holocaust: An American Understanding (Rutgers University Press), Deborah Lipstadt reviews and analyzes the emergence of Holocaust scholarship in the academy, and Holocaust consciousness in the American public,
37 min
5763
Leilah Danielson, “American Gandhi: A.J. Muste ...
During a life that stretched from the Progressive era to the 1960s, A. J. Muste dedicated himself to fighting against war and the exploitation of working Americans. In American Gandhi: A. J. Muste and the History of Radicalism in the Twentieth Century ...
65 min
5764
Michael S. Neiberg, “The Path to War: How the F...
In The Path to War: How the First World War Created Modern America (Oxford University Press, 2016), acclaimed historian Michael Neiberg examines the background of war fever in the United States between 1914 to 1917 to present a new interpretation on th...
42 min
5765
Benjamin Schreier, “The Impossible Jew: Identit...
What is Jewish about Jewish American literature? While the imaginative possibilities are numerous many scholars approach literary products with an established notion of a Jewish identity before they reach their subjects.
44 min
5766
Jeroen Dewulf, “The Pinkster King and the King ...
The Pinkster King and the King of Kongo: The Forgotten History of America’s Dutch-Owned Slaves (University Press of Mississippi, 2016) presents the history of the nation’s forgotten Dutch slave community and free Dutch-speaking African Americans from s...
58 min
5767
Maria G. Rewakowicz, “Literature, Exile, Alteri...
In Literature, Exile, Alterity: The New York Group of Ukrainian Poets (Academic Studies Press, 2014), Maria G. Rewakowicz explores a unique collaboration of the poets residing in the United States and writing poetry in the Ukrainian language.
61 min
5768
Kathleen Dolan, “When Does Gender Matter? Women...
Does sex play a determinative role in political contests? Recognising the dual political realities of voters holding gender stereotypes and female candidates achieving electoral success, Kathleen Dolan’s innovative book When Does Gender Matter?
44 min
5769
Harris Beider, “White Working-Class Voices: Mul...
Harris Beider is the author of White Working-Class Voices: Multiculturalism, Community-Building, and Change (Policy Press, 2015). Beider is chair in Community Cohesion at the Center for Trust, Peace, and Social Relations, Coventry University, UK,
22 min
5770
Mical Raz, “What’s Wrong with the Poor: Psychia...
In What’s Wrong with the Poor: Psychiatry, Race, and the War on Poverty (University of North Carolina Press, 2016), Mical Raz offers a deep dive into the theoretical roots of the Head Start program, and offers a fascinating story of unexpected policy o...
36 min
5771
David Curtis Skaggs, “William Henry Harrison an...
Though best remembered today for his brief tenure as the ninth president of the United States, William Henry Harrison’s most significant contribution to American history was his service as a general in the War of 1812.
55 min
5772
Tamar Carroll, “Mobilizing New York: AIDS, Anti...
Tamar Carroll is an Assistant Professor of History at Rochester Institute of Technology and the Program Director for Digital Humanities and Social Sciences. Her book, Mobilizing New York: AIDS, Antipoverty and Feminist Activism (University of North Car...
74 min
5773
Nancy Weiss Malkiel, ‘Keep the Damned Women Out...
Within the context of the social upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s, elite institutions of higher education began to feel pressure to open their doors to women. In ‘Keep the Damned Women Out’: The Struggle for Coeducation (Princeton University Press,
42 min
5774
Anna Law, “The Immigration Battle in American C...
With public debate about immigration law and policy at a peak, Anna Law is on the podcast this week to discuss her book The Immigration Battle in American Courts (Cambridge University Press, 2014) which came out in paperback in 2014.
17 min
5775
Richard Etulain, “The Life and Legends of Calam...
Calamity Jane was a celebrity of the 19th century American West, yet the woman portrayed in the newspapers and dime novels was one very different from the actual person. In The Life and Legends of Calamity Jane (University of Oklahoma Press, 2014),
57 min