New Books in American Studies

Interviews with Scholars of America about their New Books

Society & Culture
History
5876
Chris Morgan, “The Comic Galaxy of Mystery Scie...
While there are many well known cult television shows still revered by fans, MST3K continues to have an incredibly large following with a thriving following 25 years after its final episode. Chris Morgan‘s book The Comic Galaxy of Mystery Science Theat...
52 min
5877
Kirt von Daacke, “Freedom Has a Face: Race, Ide...
In this podcast I talk to Kirt von Daacke about his 2012 work, Freedom Has a Face:Race, Identity, and Community in Jefferson’s Virginia (University of Virginia Press, 2012). Professor von Daacke is Associate Professor of History and Assistant Dean in t...
58 min
5878
Richard Kreitner, The Nation Almanac
The Nation magazine is one of America’s most distinguished journalistic enterprises featuring the writing and work of such notable people as Albert Einstein, Emma Goldman, Molly Ivins, I.F. Stone and Hunter S. Thompson.
16 min
5879
Carol Faulkner, “Lucretia Mott’s Heresy” (U Pen...
Carol Faulkner is Professor of History at Syracuse University. Her book Lucretia Mott’s Heresy: Abolition and Women’s Rights in Nineteenth-Century America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011) is a beautifully written biography of the abolitionist a...
62 min
5880
Louis DeSipio and Rodolfo de la Garza, “U.S. Im...
In this week’s podcast, we hear from an author and an editor. First, Louis DeSipio and Rodolfo de la Garza are authors of U.S. Immigration in the Twenty-First Century: Making Americans, Remaking America (Westview Press, 2015).
25 min
5881
Kathryn Cramer Brownell, “Showbiz Politics: Hol...
We are all aware how important professional movie makers are to modern campaigns. Many trace this importance to John F. Kennedy’s presidential victory in 1960. Yet, as Kathryn Cramer Brownell shows in her new book Showbiz Politics: Hollywood in America...
67 min
5882
Kimberly Phillips-Fein, “Invisible Hands: The B...
Today we’ll focus on the history of resistance to the New Deal. In her book Invisible Hands: The Businessmen’s Crusade Against the New Deal (W. W. Norton,2010), Kimberly Phillips-Fein details how many of the most prominent elites had their ideas and pr...
33 min
5883
Caroline Lee, et al., “Democratizing Inequaliti...
19 min
5884
Leigh Ann Wheeler, “How Sex Became a Civil Libe...
Leigh Ann Wheeler is professor of history at Binghamton University. Her book How Sex Became a Civil Liberty (Oxford University Press, 2013), examines the role of the American Civil Liberties Union in establishing sexual rights as grounded in the U.S.
66 min
5885
Leilah Danielson, “American Gandhi” (U Pennsylv...
Leilah Danielson is an Associate Professor of History at Northern Arizona University and author of American Gandhi: A.J. Muste and the History of Radicalism in the Twentieth Century (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014).
61 min
5886
Joan Kramer and David Heeley, “In the Company o...
There are a variety of great documentaries about famous films and film artists. Two of the most successful producers of these movies are Joan Kramer and David Heeley. Their book In the Company of Legends (Beaufort Books,
66 min
5887
Paula Kane, “Sister Thorn and Catholic Mysticis...
Sister Thorn and Catholic Mysticism in Modern America (UNC Press, 2013) is a detailed journey into the life of Margaret Reilly, an American Irish-Catholic from New York who entered the Convent of the Good Shepherd in 1921,
57 min
5888
Raluca Lucia Cimpean, “The JFK Image: Profiles ...
Even long after his death, President John F. Kennedy continues to be a popular figure. In addition to documentaries, his influence appears in television and film. In her book The JFK Image: Profiles in Docudrama (Rowman and Littlefield, 2014),
63 min
5889
Trygve Throntveit, “William James and the Quest...
William James (1842-1910) is one of the United States’ most far-reaching thinkers. His impact on philosophy, psychology, and religious studies is well documented, yet few scholars have considered James’ impact on the area of ethics and political though...
60 min
5890
Paula T. Connolly, “Slavery in American Childre...
The “peculiar institution” upon which the US nation was founded is still rich for examination.Perhaps this is why it is a subject to which 21st century authors continue to return. In this exploration of slavery, Paula T. Connolly,
50 min
5891
Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, “Classroom Wars: Lang...
The intersection between Spanish-bilingual education and sex education might not be immediately apparent. Yet, as Natalia Mehlman Petrzela shows in her new book, Classroom Wars: Language, Sex, and the Making of Modern Political Culture (Oxford Universi...
50 min
5892
Christopher J. Phillips, “The New Math: A Polit...
Christopher J. Phillips‘ new book is a political history of the “New Math,” a collection of curriculum reform projects in the 1950s & 1960s that were partially sponsored by the NSF and involved hundreds of mathematicians, teachers, professors,
66 min
5893
Emily Alice Katz, “Bringing Zion Home: Israel i...
World War Two and the establishment of the State of Israel significantly altered American Jewish attitudes toward Zionism. American Jews supported Israel during times of conflict, like the 1948 war. However,
52 min
5894
Christina Dunbar-Hester, “Low Power to the Peop...
For the past few decades a major focus has been how the Internet, and Internet associated new media, allows for greater social and political participation globally. There is no disputing that the Internet has allowed for more participation,
40 min
5895
Robert Putnam, “Our Kids: The American Dream in...
Robert Putnam is the author of Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis (Simon and Schuster, 2015). Putnam is the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University. He has written fourteen books including the best-seller,
30 min
5896
Joanna Kempner, “Not Tonight: Migraine and the ...
Migraine is real, and it is pervasive–at least 12% of Americans suffer some form of this spectrum disorder. Still, migraine remains a conflicted illness–people routinely dispute the legitimacy of both the experience and its sufferers.
52 min
5897
Dorothy Sue Cobble, Linda Gordon, Astrid Henry,...
Our guest today, Linda Gordon, is professor of history and humanities as New York University. Gordon and her co-authors Dorothy Sue Cobble and Astrid Henry have written Feminism Unfinished: A Short, Surprising History of American Women’s Movements (Liv...
69 min
5898
Wen Jin, “Pluralist Universalism: An Asian Amer...
Wen Jin’s book, Pluralist Universalism: An Asian Americanist Critique of U.S. and Chinese Multiculturalisms (Ohio State Press, 2012), compares histories and modes of multiculturalism in China and the United States.
42 min
5899
Michelle Nickerson, “Mothers of Conservatism: W...
Recently, historians have shown that the modern conservative movement is older and more complex than has often been assumed by either liberals or historians. Michelle Nickerson‘s book, Mothers of Conservatism: Women and the Postwar Right (Princeton Uni...
53 min
5900
Carolyn Finney, “Black Faces, White Spaces” (UN...
Geographer Carolyn Finney wrote Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors (University of North Carolina Press, 2014), out of a frustration with the dominant environmental discourse that,
82 min