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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6926
Adrian Burgos, Jr., “Cuban Star: How One Negro-...
The integration of baseball is most often cast in terms of black and white, but biographer Adrian Burgos, Jr.— a professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign– is out to change that. In his new biography,
53 min
6927
Mike Allen and Evan Thomas, “The Right Fights B...
In his new book, The Right Fights Back (Random House, 2011), Mike Allen, the chief White House correspondent for Politico and author of Robert F. Kennedyand The War Lovers, provides a detailed analysis of the early parts of the 2012 presidential electi...
26 min
6928
Jafari S. Allen, “!Venceremos?: The Erotics of ...
Jafari S. Allen‘s !Venceremos?: The Erotics of Black Self-Making in Cuba (Duke University Press, 2011) is a meticulously researched and exquisitely theorized ethnography that begins with a queer speculation of the revolutionary inevitable. That is,
66 min
6929
Kevin Avery, “Everything is an Afterthought: Th...
Paul Nelson, the Rolling Stone writer and Mercury Records A & R guy who signed the New York Dolls, is quoted in Kevin Avery‘s Everything is an Afterthought: The Life and Writings of Paul Nelson (Fantagraphics, 2011) as saying,
58 min
6930
Randy Roberts, “Joe Louis: Hard Times Man” (Yal...
“I’m sure if it wasn’t for Joe Louis,” acknowledged Jackie Robinson, “the color line in baseball would not have been broken for another ten years.” To Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis was an inspiration and an idol.
56 min
6931
Hayes Peter Mauro, “The Art of Americanization ...
Anyone who’s turned on the television in the past several decades is familiar with the ubiquitous before-and-after picture. On the left, your present state: undesirable, out of shape, balding perhaps. Add ingredient X – maybe a fad diet or a hair trans...
50 min
6932
Keith Gilyard, “True to the Language Game: Afri...
In the preface to this book, Keith Gilyard describes his career as 30 years of roaming the areas of rhetoric, composition, sociolinguistics, creative writing, applied linguistics, education theory, literary study, history,
55 min
6933
Jean H. Baker, “Margaret Sanger: A Life of Pass...
Forty-five years after her death, the reproductive rights activist Margaret Sanger remains a polarizing figure. Conservatives attack her social liberalism while liberals shy away from her perceived advocacy of eugenics and her supposed socialist tenden...
63 min
6934
Tim Groseclose, “Left Turn: How Liberal Media B...
In his new book, Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind (St. Martin’s Press, 2011), Tim Groseclose, Marvin Hoffenberg Professor of American Politics at UCLA, discusses his quantitative measurements of political bias in the America...
47 min
6935
Michael Matheny, “Carrying the War to the Enemy...
Ask many military historians about the origins of American operational art and many will place it sometime after the Second World War. Conventional wisdom has long held that the American military only developed a rough understanding of operations – the...
53 min
6936
Phil Kerpen, “Democracy Denied: How Obama is Ig...
In his new book, Democracy Denied: How Obama is Ignoring You and Bypassing Congress to Radically Transform America – and How to Stop Him (BenBella Books, 2011), Phil Kerpen, vice president for policy at Americans for Prosperity and columnist at FoxNews...
47 min
6937
Alice Bag, “Violence Girl: East L.A. Rage to Ho...
I saw “The Decline of Western Civilization,” Penelope Spheeris’s film documenting the late seventies punk scene in Los Angeles, when it was first released in 1981/82. Performances by the “popular” bands like Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, X,
61 min
6938
Kariann Akemi Yokota, “Unbecoming British: How ...
The founding fathers–and mothers, sons and daughters–were British. Sort of. It’s true that they were subjects of the British crown, and that they looked, talked, acted and had the tastes of folks in London. But they were always different.
60 min
6939
Ellen Lewin, “Gay Fatherhood: Narratives of Fam...
When anthropologist Ellen Lewin gave a preliminary report on her research on gay fathers, a member of the audience asked how she could write about such “yucky people.” Yes, that’s the technical anthropological term for same-sex attracted men who parent...
62 min
6940
Naomi Schaefer Riley, “The Faculty Lounges: And...
In her new book The Faculty Lounges: And Other Reasons Why You Won’t Get The College Education You Pay For (Ivan R. Dee, 2011), Naomi Schaefer Riley, former Wall Street Journal editor and affiliate scholar at the Institute for American Values,
41 min
6941
Jerald Walker, “Street Shadows: A Memoir of Rac...
Jerald Walker‘s critical autobiography, Street Shadows: A Memoir of Race, Rebellion, and Redemption (Bantam, 2010), is a sheer pleasure to read. A book-length series of vignettes, reflections that alternate between his present life (he’s currently an E...
61 min
6942
Roberto Avant-Mier, “Rock the Nation: Latin/o ...
In Rock the Nation: Latin/o Identites and the Latin Rock Diaspora (Continuum, 2010), Roberto Avant-Mier challenges the traditional historical notion of rock and roll and rock being the result of the converging of white and African-American musics only....
56 min
6943
Kitty Kelley, “Oprah: A Biography” (Three River...
When she emerged triumphant in a legal battle with the Texas beef industry, Oprah Winfrey took to the steps of the Amarillo court house and declared: “Free speech rocks!” She was likely a little less enthusiastic about the First Amendment following the...
53 min
6944
Erica Prussing, “White Man’s Water: The Politic...
For the past half century, Alcoholics Anonymous and its 12-step recovery program has been the dominant method for treating alcohol abuse in the United States. Reservation communities have been no exception.
48 min
6945
Colin Woodward, “American Nations: A History of...
Europeans like to say that “America” (aka the “United States”) is not a nation. They are right and wrong. It’s true that Americans come from all over the place, unlike, say, Germans. Just ask an American where she comes from.
75 min
6946
Charles J. Shields, “And So It Goes. Kurt Vonne...
The public image of Kurt Vonnegut is that of a crusty, irascible old man. Someone with whom one would want to drink, but never ever fall in love. The Vonnegut we meet in Charles J. Shields’s insightful new biography, And So It Goes.
49 min
6947
Daniel Sharfstein, “The Invisible line: Three A...
Daniel Sharfstein‘s The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White (Penguin Press, 2011) is the latest and perhaps best book in the growing genre of neo-passing narratives.
57 min
6948
David Feith, “Teaching America: The Case for Ci...
In his new book, Teaching America: The Case for Civic Education (Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2011), David Feith, Chairman of the Civic Education Initiative and assistant editor at The Wall Street Journal,
45 min
6949
Jorge Iber, “Latinos in U.S. Sport: A History o...
The 107th World Series is underway, with the St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers vying for the championship of Major League Baseball. The Cardinals’ star, Albert Pujols, has already entered the record books,
65 min
6950
Sean Wilentz, “Bob Dylan in America” (Doubleday...
From carrier of the folk torch to electric rebel, lyrical genius to literary thief, white-faced minstrel to born-again Christian-Jewish singer of Christmas carols, Bob Dylan is an enigmatic giant of American popular music.
62 min