New Books in American Studies

Interviews with Scholars of America about their New Books

Society & Culture
History
5926
Alan Sepinwall, “The Revolution Was Televised” ...
What do Tony Soprano and Archie Bunker have in common? Alan Sepinwall, longtime TV writer and critic, knows that the 1970s comedic bigot and 2000s Jersey mob boss are not as different as we may think. Both broke new ground in TV and made viewers sit up...
29 min
5927
James Davis, “Eric Walrond: A Life in the Harle...
This terrific book follows the itinerary of Eric Walrond’s peripatetic life. Born in Guyana in 1898, Walrond lived in Barbados, Panama, New York, Paris, London. As a writer and sharp observer of those around him,
46 min
5928
Mark R. Stoll, “Inherit the Holy Mountain: Reli...
Mark R. Stoll is associate professor of history and Director of Environmental Studies at Texas Tech University. His book Inherit the Holy Mountain: Religion and the Rise of American Environmentalism (Oxford University Press,
64 min
5929
Eric Rauchway, “The Money Makers: How Roosevelt...
We’ve been hearing a lot about economist John Maynard Keynes’ midcentury economic plans for the U.S. since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008. Are the measures that Keynes and FDR took to combat the Depression in 2008 relevant to the present...
44 min
5930
Nikhil Goyal, “Schools on Trial: How Freedom an...
There is no shortage of talk about our public schools being broken. Some critics say we need to embrace a reform agenda that includes more standardized testing and a longer school day for students and performance pay and an end to tenure for teachers.
51 min
5931
Jessica Parr, “Inventing George Whitefield: Rac...
George Whitefield was a complex man driven by a simple idea, the new birth that brought salvation. Because of such passion, Whitefield received both enthusiastic support, preaching to audiences numbering in the thousands,
55 min
5932
Shai Held, “Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of...
In Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence (Indiana University Press, 2013), Shai Held, Co-Founder, Dean and Chair in Jewish Thought at Mechon Hadar, offers a sympathetic, yet critical, examination of the thought of this influential mid-twent...
29 min
5933
Richard L. Hasen, “Plutocrats United: Campaign ...
Richard L. Hasen has written Plutocrats United: Campaign Money, the Supreme Court, and the Distortion of American Elections (Yale University Press, 2016). Hasen is Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of California,
21 min
5934
Shana Kushner Gadarian and Bethany Albertson, “...
Shana Kushner Gadarian and Bethany Albertson are the authors of Anxious Politics: Democratic Citizenship in a Threatening World (Cambridge UP, 2015). Gadarian is assistant professor of political science at Syracuse University; Albertson is assistant pr...
23 min
5935
Keren R. McGinity, “Marrying Out: Jewish Men, I...
In Marrying Out: Jewish Men, Intermarriage, and Fatherhood (Indiana University Press, 2014), Keren R. McGinity, founding director of the Love and Tradition Institute and a Research Associate at Brandeis University,
30 min
5936
Julie Des Jardins, “Walter Camp: Football and t...
In anticipation of Super Bowl 50, Sports Illustrated and WIRED magazines teamed up to speculate about the state of football fifty years from now, at the time of Super Bowl 100. Of course, the big question that arises when considering the future of the ...
54 min
5937
Samuel Moyn, “Christian Human Rights” (U of Pen...
Samuel Moyn is Professor of Law and History at Harvard University. In Christian Human Rights University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015), Moyn provides a historical intervention in our understanding of how the idea of human rights in the mid-twentieth cent...
60 min
5938
Cindy R. Lobel, “Urban Appetites: Food and Cult...
New York City’s growth, from colonial outpost to the center of the gastronomic world is artfully crafted by Cindy R. Lobel, Assistant Professor of History at Lehman College and the CUNY Graduate Center, in her tome Urban Appetites: Food & Culture in Ni...
53 min
5939
Marc Simon Rodriguez, “Rethinking the Chicano M...
In Rethinking the Chicano Movement (Routledge, 2015), Marc Simon Rodriguez surveys some of the most recent scholarship on the Chicana/o Civil Rights Movement, situating the struggle within the broader context of the 1960s and 1970s,
65 min
5940
Adam Sheingate, “Building a Business of Politic...
Adam Sheingate has written Building a Business of Politics: The Rise of Political Consulting and the Transformation of American Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2016). Sheingate is associate professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University...
20 min
5941
Jessica Martucci, “Back to the Breast: Natural ...
Jessica Martucci‘s fascinating new book traces the emergence, rise, and continued practice of breastfeeding in America in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Back to the Breast: Natural Motherhood and Breastfeeding in America (University of Chica...
62 min
5942
Lisong Liu, “Chinese Student Migration and Sele...
Lisong Liu‘s thoughtful new book is an important and insightful read for any of us who are currently engaged in conversations about supporting the increasing numbers of international students in the North American academy.
68 min
5943
Maris Kreisman, “Slaughterhouse 90210: Where Gr...
The concept sounds simple: Maris Kreizman‘s Slaughterhouse 90210: Where Great Books Meet Pop Culture (Flatiron Books, 2015), based on her popular Tumblr, pairs up classic celebrity and television images with relevant quotes from literature.
36 min
5944
Michael Schwalbe, “Michael Schwalbe Rigging The...
In his new book Rigging The Game: How Inequality is Reproduced in Everyday Life (Oxford University Press, 2014), Michael Schwalbe identifies the roots of inequality in the appearance of economic surplus as human societies transitioned from communal hun...
53 min
5945
Patrick Hagopian, “American Immunity: War Crime...
After World War II, the newly formed United Nations and what might be called a global community of nations that included the United States, worked to create a more extensive code of international law. The urge stemmed from the events of World War II,
63 min
5946
Deepa Iyer, “We Too Sing America: South Asian, ...
Deepa Iyer is the author of We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future (The New Press, 2015). Iyer is Senior Fellow at Center for Social Inclusion and was Executive Director of South Asian Americans...
18 min
5947
George Cotkin, “Feast of Excess: A Cultural His...
George Cotkin is an emeritus professor of history at California Polytechnic State University. In his book Feast of Excess: A Cultural History of the New Sensibility (Oxford University Press, 2015) he has given us cultural criticism through a set of pro...
53 min
5948
Adam J. Powell, “Irenaeus, Joseph Smith and God...
At first glance, second-century bishop Irenaeus of Lyon and Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints don’t seem to have much in common. After all, Irenaeus saw himself as defending orthodoxy against innovation,
67 min
5949
Ulla Berg, “Mobile Selves: Race, Migration, and...
Ulla Berg’s new book Mobile Selves: Race, Migration, and Belonging in Peru and the U.S. (New York University Press, 2015) highlights the deeply historical and central role of migration as a strategy for social mobility,
71 min
5950
Aisha Durham, “Home With Hip Hop Feminism” (Pet...
Is hip hop defined by its artists or by its audience? In Home With Hip Hop Feminism, Aisha Durham returns hip hop scholarship to its roots by engaging in an ethnographic and autoethnographic approach to studying hip hop.
40 min