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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10476
Erin D. Chapman, “Prove It On Me: New Negroes, ...
Whoever states the old adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words” grossly underestimates. So Erin D. Chapman shows in Prove It On Me: New Negroes, Sex, and Popular Culture in the 1920s (Oxford University Press, 2012).
72 min
10477
Jim Endersby, “Imperial Nature: Joseph Hooker a...
I love reading, I love reading history, and I especially love reading history books written by authors who understand how to tell a good story. In addition to being beautifully written, Imperial Nature: Joseph Hooker and the Practices of Victorian Scie...
67 min
10478
Gregory McNamee, “The Only One Living to Tell: ...
Late in 1872, as the United States sought to clear the newly incorporated Southwest of its indigenous inhabitants, a company under Capt. James Burns came upon an encampment of Kwevkepayas (a branch of Yavapais) sheltering in the shadow of rock overhang...
47 min
10479
Gail Hershatter, “The Gender of Memory: Rural W...
When I teach my course on gender, sexuality, and human rights, my students invariably want to talk about China’s one-child policy. They imagine living in a state where the government tells you how many children you can have – and they’re horrified.
74 min
10480
Xiaofei Tian, "Visionary Journeys: Travel Writi...
An interview with Xiaofei Tian
66 min
10481
Susan Harris, “God’s Arbiters: Americans and th...
Mark Twain called it “pious hypocrisies.” President McKinley called it “civilizing and Christianizing.” Both were referring to the U.S. annexation of the Philippines in 1899. Susan K. Harris‘ latest book, God’s Arbiters: Americans and the Philippines,
66 min
10482
Richard Sakwa, “The Crisis of Russian Democracy...
Richard Sakwa‘s new book, The Crisis of Russian Democracy: The Dual State, Factionalism, and the Medvedev Succession (Cambridge University Press, 2011), comes at a moment in Russian political history when uncertainty is once again in the headlines and ...
59 min
10483
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
10484
Melissa Caldwell, “Dacha Idylls: Living Organic...
Russians’ dachas are regularly mentioned in a sentence or two in newspaper articles about life in Russia, and many of who have visited the lands of the former Soviet Union have visited dachas. Yet, just as Russians themselves treat dachas as an escape,...
58 min
10485
E. Taylor Atkins, "Primitive Selves: Koreana in...
An interview with E. Taylor Atkins
54 min
10486
Hank Glassman, “The Face of JizÅ: Image and Cu...
In this episode, we talk with Prof. Hank Glassman who’s written a new book titled The Face of Jizo : Image and Cult in Medieval Japanese Buddhism (University of Hawaii Press, 2012). Jizo is a Buddhist Bodhisattva whose presence has become ubiquitous th...
55 min
10487
Helen Tilley, “Africa as a Living Laboratory: E...
Helen Tilley‘s new book Africa as a Living Laboratory: Empire, Development, and the Problem of Scientific Knowledge, 1870-1950 (University of Chicago Press, 2011) uncovers the surprising relationships that developed between science and empire as Britai...
64 min
10488
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
10489
Raymond Jonas, “The Battle of Adwa: African Vic...
Raymond Jonas‘ The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire (Harvard UP, 2011) places Menelik alongside Napoleon and other greatest strategists. The Ethiopian emperor carried out a brilliant maneuver across hundreds of miles,
34 min
10490
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
10491
Monica Black, “Death in Berlin: From Weimar to ...
Over 2.5 million Germans died as a result of World War I, or about 4% of the German population at the time. Somewhere between 7 and 9 million Germans died as a result of World War II, or between 8% to 11% of the German population at the time.* It’s...
65 min
10492
Anna Krylova, “Soviet Women in Combat: A Histor...
We’re all familiar with the film cliche of the little band of soldiers who in ordinary life never would have had met, but who learn to appreciate each other in the battles of World War II. All white, of course: African Americans would have to wait till...
82 min
10493
Rowan K. Flad, "Salt Production and Social Hier...
An interview with Rowan K. Flad
71 min
10494
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
10495
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
10496
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
10497
Karen Petrone, “The Great War in Russian Memory...
Historical studies on the European memory of World War I are, to put it mildly, voluminous. There are too many monographs to count on a myriad of subjects addressing the acts of remembrance and commemoration of the so-called war to end all wars.
53 min
10498
Peter Robb, “Richard Blechynden’s Calcutta Diar...
Richard Blechynden came to Calcutta in 1782 as a twenty two year old, and stayed there for the rest of his life, working as a surveyor and architect. From 1791 he maintained daily diaries, and it is these that Peter Robb has so magnificently re-worked ...
66 min
10499
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
10500
Tore Janson, “The History of Languages: An Intr...
It’s a sobering thought that, but for the spread of English, I wouldn’t be able to do these interviews. In particular, I don’t speak Swedish, and I’m not going to try to speak Latin to a world expert on the subject. Fortunately for my purposes,
52 min