New Books in History
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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8801
Matt K. Lewis, “Too Dumb to Fail: How the GOP W...
Political commentator Matt K. Lewis warns his fellow conservatives that their movement is going off the rails in Too Dumb to Fail: How the GOP Went from the Party of Reagan to the Party of Trump (Hachette, 2016). Lewis chafes at the populist,
42 min
8802
Daniel Livesay, “Children of Uncertain Fortune:...
Many were wealthy, but others were destitute. Many traveled to Britain to be educated, some returned to Jamaica, others went to India to seek careers and fortunes. They were members of families, with all of the struggle, drama,
50 min
8803
Robert Darnton, “A Literary Tour de France: The...
Five decades ago, a young scholar named Robert Darnton followed up on a footnote that took him to the archives of the “Typographical Society of Neuchatel”(S.T.N.) in Switzerland, not far from the French border. Many years,
59 min
8804
Valerie Kivelson and Ronald Suny, “Russia’s Emp...
Names can be deceiving. Americans call the area where Moscow’s writ runs “Russia.” But the official name of this place is the “Russian Federation.” Federation of what, you ask? Well, there are a lot of people who live in “Russia” who are in important s...
74 min
8805
Adriana M. Brodsky, “Sephardi, Jewish, Argentin...
How do immigrant populations navigate between ancestral ties and connections to their new homes? How do their plural histories create layered identities, and how do those identities change over time? Adriana M. Brodsky, Professor of History at St.
59 min
8806
Tatyana V. Bakhmetyeva, “Mother of the Church” ...
In Mother of the Church: Sofia Svechina, the Salon, and the Politics of Catholicism in Nineteenth-Century Russia and France (Northern Illinois University Press, 2016), Tatyana V. Bakhmetyeva explores an influential figure in the history of Russian Cath...
51 min
8807
Marian Wilson Kimber, “The Elocutionists: Women...
Although largely forgotten today, elocution was a popular form of domestic and professional entertainment from the late nineteenth century until around World War II. Elocution is the dramatic reading of poetry, adapted plays,
51 min
8808
Matthew Clavin, “Aiming for Pensacola: Fugitive...
We all know that most runaway African-American slaves fled north in pursuit of freedom. Most, but not all. Some also fled to Pensacola, a city located in (of all places) the Deep South. In his excellent book Aiming for Pensacola: Fugitive Slaves on the...
62 min
8809
Didem Havlioglu, “Mihri Hatun: Performance, Gen...
Mihri Hatun: Performance, Gender-Bending, and Subversion in Ottoman Intellectual History (Syracuse University Press, 2017) by Didem Havlioglu is at once an intellectual history and biography of sorts of Mihri Hatun, a fifteenth century Ottoman poet.
30 min
8810
Christina Twomey, “The Battle Within: POWs in P...
In her new book, The Battle Within: POWs in Postwar Australia (NewSouth Books, 2018), Christina Twomey, Professor of History at Monash University, explores the “battle within,” the individual and collective challenge of rehabilitating Australian prison...
15 min
8811
Kali Nicole Gross, “Hannah Mary Tabbs and the D...
True crime is as popular as ever in our present moment. Both television and podcast series have gained critical praise and large audiences by exploring largely unknown individual crimes in depth and using them to consider broader questions surrounding ...
55 min
8812
Richard Candida Smith, “Improvised Continent: P...
Richard Candida Smith’s new book Improvised Continent: Pan-American and Cultural Exchange (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), offers a richly detailed cultural history of pan-Americanism and how it was propagated among elites and popular audience...
56 min
8813
Yair Mintzker, “The Many Deaths of Jew Suss: Th...
Joseph Suss Oppenheimer became the “court Jew” of Carl Alexander, Duke of Wurttemberg in 1733. When Carl Alexander died, Oppenheimer was put on trial and condemned to death for his “misdeeds,” and on February 4, 1738,
51 min
8814
Christine Arce, “Mexico’s Nobodies: The Cultura...
In Mexico’s Nobodies: The Cultural Legacy of the Soldadera and Afro-Mexican Women (SUNY Press, 2017), Christine Arce rightfully stresses that these two figures have greatly influenced Mexico’s national identity, arts, and popular culture. However,
77 min
8815
Christine E. Evans, “Between Truth and Time: A ...
In Between Truth and Time: A History of Soviet Central Television (Yale University Press, 2016), Christine E. Evans reveals that Soviet television in the Brezhnev era was anything but boring. Whether producing music shows such as Little Blue Flame,
57 min
8816
Peter A. Kopp, “Hoptopia: A World of Agricultur...
Environmental historian Peter A. Kopp‘s book Hoptopia: A World of Agriculture and Beer in Oregon’s Willamette Valley (University of California Press, 2016) examines the fascinating history of a very special plant: the hop.
51 min
8817
Elizabeth Catte, “What You Are Getting Wrong Ab...
There is an alarming tendency to paint some topics with a broad brush, allowing for easy understanding, but losing the proper nuance that avoids stereotype. In her book, What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia (Belt Publishing, 2018),
56 min
8818
James Reston, Jr., “A Rift in the Earth: Art, ...
My students don’t remember Vietnam. That’s hard to believe, for someone born in 1968. But it’s true, nonetheless. High school history courses rarely make it past World War Two. The Cold War and the Berlin Wall are mysteries. And Vietnam,
57 min
8819
James Chappel, “Catholic Modern: The Challenge ...
In 1900 the Catholic Church stood staunchly against religious freedom and the secular state. By the 1960s, that position was reversed and Catholics began advocating for particularly Catholic forms of modernity. How did this happen?
52 min
8820
Cynthia Baker, “Jew” (Rutgers UP, 2017)
What is the significance of Jew? How has this word come to have such varied and charged meanings? Who has (and has not) used it, and why? Cynthia Baker explores these questions and more in her new book Jew,
67 min
8821
Christopher Oldstone-Moore, “Of Beard and Men: ...
Throughout Western history the clean-shaven face has been the default style. However, the ideal of the cleanly-shaven face has been challenged across time in Western society. Facial hair is a symbol of masculinity and the sculpting of facial hair allow...
31 min
8822
Dan Healey, “Russian Homophobia from Stalin to ...
In 2013, when the Russian State Duma passed a law banning the propaganda of non-traditional sexual relationships to minors, some rushed to boycott Russian vodka. In Russian Homophobia from Stalin to Sochi (Bloomsbury, 2017),
55 min
8823
Sterling Murray, “The Career of an Eighteenth-C...
Though he never enjoyed the fame of his contemporaries Mozart and Haydn, Antonio Rosetti was a successful composer whose works received a wide audience. In his book, The Career of an Eighteenth-Century Kapellmeister: The Life and Music of Antonio Roset...
52 min
8824
Brandi Denison, “Ute Land Religion in the Ameri...
Land is central in the construction of identity for many communities. For Ute Native Americans the meaning of a twelve million acre homeland in western Colorado is intricately linked to the various ways they understand their heritage and future.
60 min
8825
David Weinstein, “The Eddie Cantor Story: A Jew...
Eddie Cantor was once among the most popular performers in the United States. He was influential and innovative on stage, radio, and film from the early twentieth century though the early 1960s. He is not widely known today, however,
59 min