New Books in African American Studies

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Society & Culture
History
1676
Ted A. Smith, “Weird John Brown: Divine Violenc...
People living in the modern west generally have no problem criticizing religiously-justified violence. It’s therefore always interesting when I discuss John Brown, a man who legitimized anti-slavery violence Biblically.
72 min
1677
Philip A. Wallach, “To The Edge: Legality, Legi...
Philip A. Wallach is the author of To The Edge: Legality, Legitimacy, and the Responses to the 2008 Financial Crisis (Brookings Institution Press, 2015). Wallach is a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution.
25 min
1678
Akinyele Omowale Umoja, “We Will Shoot Back: Ar...
The historiography of the southern Civil Rights Movement has long focused on the tactic of non-violence. With only a few notable exceptions, most scholarship locates the use of armed self-defense and other forms of armed resistance in northern cities w...
50 min
1679
Andrew Hartman, “The War for the Soul of Americ...
Andrew Hartman is associate professor of history at Illinois State University. His book A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars (University of Chicago Press, 2015) provides a whirlwind tour through the most salient debates of what ...
70 min
1680
Rory Carroll, “Comandante: Hugo Chavez’s Venezu...
Historically, Venezuela is known as one of the most stable Latin American nations of the twentieth century. The subsequent discovery of oil transformed Venezuela into a petrostate. Yet wealth inequality dramatically increased.
2 min
1681
Charis Thompson, “Good Science: The Ethical Cho...
Charis Thompson‘s Good Science: The Ethical Choreography of Stem Cell Research (MIT Press, 2013) is an important book. Good Science explores the “ethical choreography” of the consolidation of human embryonic stem cell research in the first decade of th...
72 min
1682
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
1683
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
1684
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
1685
Michelle Ann Stephens, “Skin Acts: Race, Psycho...
Why would Bert Williams, famous African-American vaudeville performer of the early twentieth century, feel it necessary to apply burnt cork blackface make-up to his already dark skin, in order to emphasize “blackness”?
54 min
1686
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
1687
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
1688
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
1689
Mariana Candido, “An African Slaving Port and t...
Mariana Candido‘s book An African Slaving Port and the Atlantic World. Benguela and its Hinterland (Cambridge University Press, 2013) is a powerful and moving exploration of the history and development of the port of Benguela.
58 min
1690
Kirt von Daacke, “Freedom Has a Face: Race, Ide...
In this podcast I talk to Kirt von Daacke about his 2012 work, Freedom Has a Face:Race, Identity, and Community in Jefferson’s Virginia (University of Virginia Press, 2012). Professor von Daacke is Associate Professor of History and Assistant Dean in t...
58 min
1691
Paula T. Connolly, “Slavery in American Childre...
The “peculiar institution” upon which the US nation was founded is still rich for examination.Perhaps this is why it is a subject to which 21st century authors continue to return. In this exploration of slavery, Paula T. Connolly,
50 min
1692
Carolyn Finney, “Black Faces, White Spaces” (UN...
Geographer Carolyn Finney wrote Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the Relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors (University of North Carolina Press, 2014), out of a frustration with the dominant environmental discourse that,
82 min
1693
Doug McAdam and Karina Kloos, “Deeply Divided: ...
Doug McAdam and Karina Kloos are the authors of Deeply Divided: Racial Politics and Social Movements in Postwar America (Oxford University Press, 2014). McAdam is The Ray Lyman Wilbur Professor of Sociology at Stanford University and the former Directo...
25 min
1694
Kaeten Mistry, “The United States, Italy, and t...
In the annals of cold war history Italy is rarely seen as a crucial locale.  In his stimulating new book, The United States, Italy, and the Origins of Cold War: Waging Political Warfare (Cambridge University Press, 2014),
95 min
1695
David Krugler, “1919, The Year of Racial Violen...
In 1919, The Year of Racial Violence: How African Americans Fought Back (Cambridge University Press, 2014), David Krugler chronicles the origins and development of ten major race riots that took place in the United States during that year.
61 min
1696
Randy J. Sparks, “Where the Negroes Are Masters...
A kind of biography of the town of Annamaboe, a major slave trading port on Africa’s Gold Coast, Randy J. Sparks‘s book Where the Negroes Are Masters: An African Port in the Era of the Slave Trade (Harvard University Press,
59 min
1697
Sarah Mayorga-Gallo, “Behind the White Picket F...
Sarah Mayorga-Gallo is the author of Behind the White Picket Fence: Power and Privilege in a Multiethnic Neighborhood (UNC Press 2014). She is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Cincinnati. We are joined by a guest podcaster,
19 min
1698
Jeff Smith, “Ferguson in Black and White” (Kind...
Jeff Smith is the author of Ferguson in Black and White (Kindle Single, 2014). Smith is assistant professor of political science at The New School’s Milano Graduate School. Smith writes this book from a position of academic and personal expertise.
22 min
1699
Dick Lehr, “The Birth of a Nation” (PublicAffai...
Many books on film discuss the artistic aspects of movies, often as they relate to social and political events that affected the filmmakers. In his book The Birth of a Nation: How a Legendary Filmmaker and a Crusading Editor Reignited America’s Civil W...
50 min
1700
Jason Sokol, “All Eyes Are Upon Us: Race and Po...
When it came to race relations, the post-World War Two North was different — better — than the South. Or so white people in the northeast told themselves. While Jason Sokol argues that there was a real basis for what he calls the “northern mystique,
59 min