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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6726
Kathryn Lofton, “Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon” ...
In December of 2011, Oprah Winfrey appeared on The Dr. Oz Show to talk about her new big plans and her inspirations for the future. Oprah replied, “For me at this particular time in my life I recognize that everything is about moving closer to that whi...
76 min
6727
Ellen F. Brown and John Wiley, Jr., “Margaret M...
Much ink has been spilled in telling the story of the making of Gone With the Wind– be it the book, the movie, or the subsequent musicals and merchandise. So it’s not only refreshing but downright commendable that in their biography,
36 min
6728
Stephanie Coontz, “The Way We Never Were: Ameri...
“My mother was a saint.” ” In my time, we pulled ourselves up by our own bootstraps.” “A man’s home is his castle.” “The home is the foundation of society.” These are just some of the romantic catchphrases that are commonly recited by those who claim t...
45 min
6729
Vershawn Young, “From Bourgeois to Boojie: Blac...
What does it mean to be black? In From Bourgeois to Boojie: Black Middle-Class Performances (Wayne State University Press, 2011) editor Vershawn Ashanti Young and assistant editor Bridget Harris Tsemo ask the more accurate question: what does it mean t...
52 min
6730
Matthew Dennis, “Seneca Possessed: Indians, Wit...
The birth of the American republic produced immense and existential challenges to Native people in proximity to the fledgling nation. Perhaps none faced a greater predicament than the Six Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (popularly known as the...
59 min
6731
Manning Marable, “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvent...
Nearly 50 years after his death, Malcolm X remains a controversial figure. An 8th grade dropout (he ditched school when a white teacher told him it was unrealistic for a black kid to dream of being a lawyer),
29 min
6732
Paul Dickson, “Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest ...
Mention the name Bill Veeck to a baseball fan and what will likely come to mind is the back-and-white image of three-foot, seven-inch Eddie Gaedel at the plate of a Major League game, swimming in his St. Louis Browns uniform,
61 min
6733
Robert K. Fitts, “Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, E...
There are three Americans in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. One is Horace Wilson, the professor of English who brought his students outside for a game in 1872, thus introducing baseball to Japan. Another is Wally Yonamine,
59 min
6734
Jen Huntley, “The Making of Yosemite: James Mas...
I used to hike in and around Yosemite National Park. To me (and I imagine thousands of other visitors), Yosemite was the embodiment of “nature,” something grand, pristine, and, well “natural.” Of course there is a sense in which that is true: Yosemite ...
67 min
6735
Matthew Delmont, “The Nicest Kids in Town: Amer...
Matthew Delmont‘s The Nicest Kids in Town: American Bandstand, Rock ‘n’ Roll, and the Struggle for Civil Rights in 1950s Philadelphia (University of California Press, 2012) weaves a fascinating narrative in which the content of a popular television sho...
57 min
6736
Matt Grossmann, “The Not-So-Special Interests: ...
Matt Grossmann, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University, has authored the recently released book, The Not-So-Special Interests: Interest Groups, Public Representation, and American Governance (Stanford University Press,
29 min
6737
Sally Pipes, “The Pipes Plan: The Top Ten Ways ...
In her new book, The Pipes Plan: The Top Ten Ways to Dismantle and Replace Obamacare (Regnery Publishing, 2012), Sally C. Pipes, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Pacific Research Institute, argues that the Obama health care law will make ou...
35 min
6738
Will Hermes, “Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: F...
“New York City tends to erase its history, endlessly reinventing itself: that is its way, ” writes Will Hermes on the final page of his book Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York that Changed Music Forever (Faber and Faber, 2011).
70 min
6739
Leslie Brody, “Irrepressible: The Life and Time...
For years, biographers have been fascinated by the Mitfords, a quiet aristocratic British family with six beautiful daughters, nearly all of them famous for their controversial and stylish lives. There’s Nancy,
51 min
6740
Heather Munro Prescott, “The Morning After: A H...
What would a Presidential campaign be without a good dose of reproductive politics? To be sure, many of us are surprised to see contraception, and not just abortion, called into question – but maybe that’s because the intensity of abortion politics has...
42 min
6741
Elizabeth West, “African Spirituality in Black ...
Elizabeth West has written an insightful study about the presence of African spirituality in the autobiographies, poetry, speeches and novels of African American women, ranging from Phylis Wheatley to Harriet Wilson to Zora Neale Hurston.
44 min
6742
Nicholas Evan Sarantakes, “Dropping the Torch: ...
As a young, patriotic American, I was torn by the boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. On the one hand, I knew already as an eleven-year-old, long before Ronald Reagan had uttered the phrase, that the Soviet Union was the Evil Empire.
61 min
6743
Karen Abbott, “American Rose: A Nation Laid Bar...
As a whole, the genre of biography trends towards linear narratives–wherein the events of a subject’s life are tracked in the order that they occurred. This makes sense, as it’s how we live our lives, but there are advantages that come with non-linear ...
37 min
6744
William Kuhn, “Reading Jackie: Her Autobiograph...
Nearly twenty years after the death of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, biographers are not only continuing to tell her story but finding provocative new ways to do so. In particular, a big bravo to William Kuhn for considering the former First Lady in a co...
47 min
6745
Robert Pielke, “Rock Music in American Culture:...
If, as John Lennon reportedly stated, “Before Elvis there was nothing,” then after Elvis there had to be something, right? That something, argues Robert Pielke in Rock Music in American Culture: The Sounds of Revolution, 2nd Edition (McFarland, 2012),
59 min
6746
Noam Scheiber, “The Escape Artists: How Obama’s...
In his new book, The Escape Artists: How Obama’s Team Fumbled the Recovery (Simon & Schuster, 2012), Noam Scheiber, Senior Editor of The New Republic, presents a behind the scenes look at the members of President Obama’s economics team and their attemp...
39 min
6747
Jorg Muth, “Command Culture: Officer Education ...
This week we’re continuing our focus on the Second World War, as our guest author, Jorg Muth, chats about his recent book Command Culture: Officer Education in the U.S. Army and the German Armed Forces, 1901-1940,
76 min
6748
Cherene Sherrard-Johnson, “Dorothy West’s Parad...
One lesson that the ever-present trickster figure in African American folklore teaches is how to use signifying to protect one’s intimate self. A challenge of writing Dorothy West’s life is getting beyond the masks she presents before the ever-prying g...
69 min
6749
Mia Bay, “To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of...
I can’t remember when I first saw one of those horrible photographs of a lynching, with crowds of white people, kids included, laughing and pointing at the mangled black body hanging from a tree. I do know that such images were part of my childhood men...
74 min
6750
Lynn Stout, “Cultivating Conscience: How Good L...
Lynn Stout‘s pathbreaking book Cultivating Conscience:How Good Laws Make Good People (Princeton University Press, 2010) represents a much-needed update to the discipline of law and economics. Using current social science and discarding threadbare premi...
57 min