New Books in American Studies

Interviews with Scholars of America about their New Books

Society & Culture
History
6076
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
6077
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
6078
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
6079
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
6080
Caroline Lee, et al., “Democratizing Inequaliti...
19 min
6081
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
6082
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
6083
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
6084
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
6085
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
6086
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
6087
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
6088
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
6089
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
6090
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
6091
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
6092
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
6093
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
6094
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
6095
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
6096
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
6097
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
6098
Doug McAdam and Karina Kloos, “Deeply Divided: ...
Doug McAdam and Karina Kloos are the authors of Deeply Divided: Racial Politics and Social Movements in Postwar America (Oxford University Press, 2014). McAdam is The Ray Lyman Wilbur Professor of Sociology at Stanford University and the former Directo...
25 min
6099
Colonel Ty Seidule, “West Point History of the ...
We’re very fortunate to be joined by the editor of The West Point History of the Civil War (Simon and Schuster, 2014), the Head of the History Department at the United States Military Academy, Colonel Ty Seidule. Unlike most surveys,
39 min
6100
Robert P. Burns, “Kafka’s Law: ‘The Trial’ and ...
Professor Robert P. Burns of Northwestern University School of Law offers an insightful critique of the modern American criminal justice system in his new work Kafka’s Law: ‘The Trial’ and American Criminal Justice (University of Chicago Press 2014).
64 min