New Books in American Studies

Interviews with Scholars of America about their New Books

Society & Culture
History
5851
Scott Meinke, “Leadership Organizations in the ...
Scott Meinke has just published Leadership Organizations in the House of Representatives: Party Participation and Partisan Politics (University of Michigan Press, 2016). He is associate professor of political science at Bucknell University.
20 min
5852
Thomas Knock, “Rise of a Prairie Statesman: The...
George McGovern is largely remembered today for his dramatic loss to Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential campaign, yet he enjoyed a long career characterized by many remarkable achievements. In Rise of a Prairie Statesman: The Life and Times of Geor...
75 min
5853
Kenyon Zimmer, “Immigrants Against the State” (...
In Immigrants Against the State: Yiddish and Italian Anarchism in America (University of Illinois, 2015), Kenyon Zimmer, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Texas, Arlington, examines the anarchist movements and ideas of immigrants to t...
39 min
5854
Sandow Birk, “American Qur’an” (Liveright, 2015)
Could the Qur’an–understood, according to Muslims, as the verbatim word of God in Arabic–acquire a nationality? Specifically, could it be American? And written in English? Contemporary visual artist Sandow Birk’s American Qur’an (Liveright,
52 min
5855
Gabriel Mendes, “Under the Strain of Color: Har...
In his 1948 essay, “Harlem is Nowhere,” Ralph Ellison decried the psychological disparity between formal equality and discrimination faced by Blacks after the Great Migration as leaving “even the most balanced Negro open to anxiety.
101 min
5856
Edlie Wong, “Racial Reconstruction: Black Inclu...
The dialectical configuration of black inclusion/Chinese exclusion is at the center of Edlie Wong‘s book Racial Reconstruction: Black Inclusion, Chinese Exclusion, and the Fictions of Citizenship (New York University Press, 2015).
69 min
5857
John Brian King, “Nude Reagan” (Spurl Editions,...
Nude Reagan (Spurl Editions, 2016) is John Brian King’s second book of photography. His first book, LAX: Photographs of Los Angeles 1980-84, was published by Spurl Editions in 2015. For his most recent book,
46 min
5858
Steve Kemper, “A Splendid Savage: The Restless ...
In A Splendid Savage: The Restless Life of Frederick Russell Burnham (W. W. Norton, 2016), freelance journalist Steve Kemper details the adventurous, wandering life of the man who later inspired the creation of the Boy Scouts.
30 min
5859
Saskia Coenen Snyder, “Building a Public Judais...
In Building a Public Judaism: Synagogues and Jewish Identity in Nineteenth-Century Europe (Harvard University Press, 2013), Saskia Coenen Snyder, Associate Professor of History at the University of South Carolina,
8 min
5860
Yago Colas, “Ball Don’t Lie! Myth, Genealogy an...
Leading up to this year’s NBA Finals, sports media outlets offered their take on the most important storylines of the series between the Cavaliers and Warriors. Who will claim his place as the game’s greatest current player,
54 min
5861
Karl Jacoby, “The Strange Career of William Ell...
To his contemporaries in Gilded Age Manhattan, Guillermo Eliseo was a fantastically wealthy Mexican, the proud owner of a luxury apartment overlooking Central Park, a busy Wall Street office, and scores of mines and haciendas in Mexico.
63 min
5862
Meredith Conroy, “Masculinity, Media, and the A...
Meredith Conroy is the author of Masculinity, Media, and the American Presidency (Palgrave MacMillan, 2015). Conroy is assistant professor of Political Science at California State University, San Bernardino. Joining the conversation is Lilly Goren,
30 min
5863
Eid Mohamed, “Arab Occidentalism: Images of Ame...
Edward Said’s 1978 book, Orientalism, dramatically shifted how people think about the production of knowledge and representations of the Other. His ideas have been championed and critiqued with dozens of books expanding his work on the construction of ...
53 min
5864
Roger Daniels, “Franklin D. Roosevelt: Road to ...
For all that has been written about Franklin Delano Roosevelt, many misconceptions about the man and his achievements continue to persist. Roger Daniels seeks to correct these in a new two-volume biography of the 32nd president, Franklin D.
56 min
5865
Laurent Dubois, “The Banjo: America’s African I...
Most scholars of popular music use songs, artists, and clubs as the key texts and sites in their exploration of the social, cultural, political, and economic effects of music. Laurent Dubois‘ new book looks at the history of an instrument, the banjo,
42 min
5866
Alfred Frankowski, “The Post-Racial Limits of M...
How are cultural practices that suggest social inclusion at the root of marginalizing social suffering? In The Post-Racial Limits of Memorialization: Towards a Political Sense of Mourning (Lexington Books, 2015), Alfred Frankowski,
43 min
5867
Jason Bivins, “Spirits Rejoice! Jazz and Americ...
Jazz is often dubbed the greatest American original art form. This claim might be difficult to contend. But a close exploration of the folks who created, listened, and participated in jazz environments can also tell us lot about the religious history o...
2 min
5868
Dianne Ashton, “Hanukkah in America: A History”...
In Hanukkah in America: A History (New York University Press, 2013), Dianne Ashton, professor of Religion Studies at Rowan University, delves into the history of Hanukkah in the United States to illuminate how successive generations of American Jews us...
34 min
5869
Daniel E. Dawes, “150 Years of ObamaCare” (John...
Daniel E. Dawes has written 150 Years of ObamaCare (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016). Dawes is the executive director of health policy and external affairs at Morehouse School of Medicine and a lecturer within Morehouse’s Satcher Health Leadership...
22 min
5870
Adam Ferziger, “Beyond Sectarianism: The Realig...
In Beyond Sectarianism: The Realignment of American Orthodox Judaism (Wayne State University Press, 2015), Adam Ferziger, S.R. Hirsch Chair for Research of the Torah with Derekh Erez Movement at Bar-Ilan University,
34 min
5871
Jonathon S. Kahn and Vincent W. Lloyd, editors,...
Jonathon S. Kahn is an associate professor of religion at Vassar College. He is co-editor with Vincent W. Lloyd of a collection of essays entitled Race and Secularism in America (Columbia University Press, 2016).
58 min
5872
Todd Endelman, “Leaving the Jewish Fold: Conver...
In Leaving the Jewish Fold: Conversion and Radical Assimilation in Modern Jewish History (Princeton University Press, 2015), Todd Endelman looks across three centuries and on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean to examine the history of Jews who decided t...
38 min
5873
Brooke Hauser, “Enter Helen: The Invention of H...
“Women’s history, if they had any, consisted in their being beautiful enough to become events in male lives,” the feminist academic Carolyn R. Heilbrun noted in a series of 1997 lectures, suggesting the need for new narratives and new ways of writing w...
46 min
5874
Ken Light, “Whats Going On? 1969 -1974” (Lighte...
What’s Going On? 1969 -1974 (Lighted Square Media, 2015) is Ken Light‘s ninth book. Ken started his professional life as a photojournalist at his college newspaper in 1969 and has developed a career as a documentary photographer who tells stories about...
44 min
5875
Ira Lit, “The Bus Kids: Children’s Experiences ...
Many of us are familiar with the court-mandated bussing programs created in an effort to achieve school desegregation in the 1960s and 1970s. Far fewer of us realize there were also voluntary transfer programs that were crafted in out-of-court settleme...
64 min