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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6326
Anita M. Harris, “Ithaca Diaries: Coming of Age...
Sex, Drugs and Rock n’ Roll. That’s the stereotypical view of the 1960s. But in her memoir, Ithaca Diaries, Coming of Age in the 1960s (Cambridge Common Press, 2014), journalist and writer Anita M. Harris tells a more nuanced story about her tumultuous...
35 min
6327
Kyle Mattes and David Redlawsk, “The Positive C...
Kyle Mattes and David Redlawsk are the authors of The Positive Case for Negative Campaigning (University of Chicago Press, 2014). Mattes is assistant professor of political science at Florida International University; Redlawsk is professor of political...
17 min
6328
Sally G. McMillen, “Lucy Stone: An Unapologetic...
Sally G. McMillen is the Mary Reynolds Babcock professor of history at Davidson College. In her book Lucy Stone: An Unapologetic Life (Oxford University Press, 2015) McMillen has given us a rich biography of the life and times of the abolitionist and w...
64 min
6329
Geraldo L. Cadava, “Standing on Common Ground: ...
Due in large part to sensationalist representations in contemporary media and politics, the U.S.-Mexico border is popularly understood as a space of illegal activity defined by threats of foreign intrusion including: undocumented migration,
68 min
6330
Jenifer Van Vleck, “Empire of the Air: Aviation...
[Re-posted with permission from Who Makes Cents?] Today’s guest discusses the history of aviation and how this provides a lens to interpret the history of capitalism and U.S. foreign relations across the twentieth century. Amongst other topics,
35 min
6331
Dave Itzkoff, “Mad as Hell: The Making of Netwo...
Clearly prophetic, “Network” was a controversial film that was reviled by television studios and networks, yet became one of the best films of its time. Dave Itzkoff, culture reporter for The New York Times,
62 min
6332
Michael G. Miller, “Subsidizing Democracy: How ...
With a 2016 presidential election likely to cost several billions dollars, is there any way to prevent money from completely overwhelming US politics? Public financing of campaigns has offered one solution and is the focus of Michael G.
20 min
6333
Sophia Z. Lee, “The Workplace Constitution from...
Americans believe they have a number of protections on the job, which are common in other democracies (free speech and privacy, defense against capricious firing, etc.). They are wrong. And in her fascinating new book The Workplace Constitution from th...
75 min
6334
Josh Kun, “To Live and Dine in L.A.: Menus and ...
This book is a ton of fun. To Live and Dine in L.A.: Menus and the Making of the Modern City (Angel City Press) taps the deep and colorful collection of Southern California restaurant menus archived by the Los Angeles Public Library. Author Josh Kun,
50 min
6335
Nicholas R. Parrillo, “Against the Profit Motiv...
In this podcast I discuss Profit Motive: The Salary Revolution in American Government, 1780-1940 (Yale University Press, 2013) with author Nicholas R. Parrillo, professor of law at Yale University. Parrillo’s book was winner of the 2014 Law and Society...
61 min
6336
Kevin M. Schultz, “Buckley and Mailer: The Diff...
In Buckley and Mailer: The Difficult Friendship that Shaped the Sixties (W.W. Norton, 2015), Kevin M. Schultz has given us a lively and colorful narrative history that captures the character of two complex men and the times in which they lived.
67 min
6337
Richard Kreitner, “The Almanac: 150 Years of Th...
Helen Keller, Franz Kafka and Silent Cal Coolidge appear in this week’s Almanac, a blog to celebrate the 150thanniversary of The Nation, America’s oldest magazine. Nation archivist Richard Kreitner is featuring an event from every day of the year and h...
17 min
6338
Greg Barnhisel, “Cold War Modernists: Art, Lite...
Greg Barnhisel‘s new book, Cold War Modernists: Art, Literature, and American Cultural Diplomacy (Columbia UP, 2015) examines how modernism was defanged, re-packaged, and resold during the Cold War. Barnhisel,
57 min
6339
Paul Seydor, “The Authentic Death and Contentio...
Sam Peckinpah’s career as a writer and director was also filled with controversies, but his reputation has not diminished, more than thirty years after his last film. Paul Seydor began in academics before becoming a highly regarded film editor who knew...
67 min
6340
Michael Gould-Wartofsky, “The Occupiers: The Ma...
Michael Gould-Wartofsky is the author of The Occupiers: The Making of the 99 Percent Movement (Oxford University Press, 2015). He is a PhD candidate in Sociology at New York University. There has been a lot written about the Occupy Wall Street movement...
17 min
6341
Miriam Pawel, “The Crusades of Cesar Chavez” (B...
Cesar Chavez founded a labor union. Launched a movement. And inspired a generation. Two Decades after his death, Chavez remains the most significant Latino figure in U.S. history.” So reads the inside flap ofMiriam Pawel’s new biography The Crusades of...
71 min
6342
Beatrix Hoffman, “Health Care for Some: Rights ...
Disputes over the definitions or legality of ‘rights’ and ‘rationing’ in their various guises have animated much of the debate around the United States Affordable Care Act. Many legislators and vocal members of their constituency have strong conviction...
54 min
6343
Greg Siegel, “Forensic Media: Reconstructing Ac...
Greg Siegel‘s new book is a wonderfully engaging and meticulously researched account of a dual tendency in modern technological life: treating forensic knowledge of accident causation as a key to solving the accident,
65 min
6344
James D. Boys, “Clinton’s Grand Strategy: U.S. ...
How should we look back at President Bill Clinton’s foreign policy legacy? As muddled? Visionary? Or simply uninspired? To answer these questions, James D. Boys has just written Clinton’s Grand Strategy: U.S.
34 min
6345
Richard Kreitner, The Nation Almanac (4)
When Star Wars opened in 1977, Robert Hatch, film reviewer for The Nation magazine, wrote that it “belongs in the sub-basement, or interstellar comic-strip school of science fiction, Terry and the Pirates with astro-drive.
20 min
6346
Julian E. Zelizer, “The Fierce Urgency of Now: ...
In recent decades, as Democrats and Republicans have grown more and more polarized ideologically, and gridlock has becoming increasingly standard in Congress, there has been a noticeable pining for the good old days when bipartisanship was common,
53 min
6347
Kevin M. Kruse, “One Nation Under God: How Corp...
Kevin M. Kruse is professor of history at Princeton University and author of One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America (Basic Books, 2015). Kruse argues that the idea that America was always a “Christian nation” dates from ...
55 min
6348
Alex Ogg, “Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit for Rotti...
Discussions of punk tend to focus on groups, like the Ramones, Sex Pistols, The Clash, and the punk scenes of New York, London, and Los Angeles. Punk, however, was a broader musical cultural movement and sprung up in multiple locations.
32 min
6349
Nancy Shoemaker, “Native American Whalemen and ...
For as long as Herman Melville’s Moby Dick has been a staple of the American literary canon, one element often goes unnoticed. The ship commanded by the monomanacial Ahab on his quest to slay the great white whale is named the Pequod,
59 min
6350
Lawrence Jacobs, “Who Governs? Presidents, Publ...
Lawrence Jacobs is the author (with James Druckman) of Who Governs? Presidents, Public Opinion, and Manipulation (University of Chicago Press, 2015). Jacobs is the Walter F. and Joan Mondale Chair for Political Studies at the Humphrey School of Public ...
22 min