Shows / New Books in Politics and Polemics
New Books in Politics and Polemics
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. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: newbooksnetwork.com Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox: https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/…
Episodes
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Campaigning, Parties and the Digital in Contemporary Politics
Politics, parties and campaigning are all changing. AI, digital tools and the rapid spread of messages all mean that the conduct and content of politics are…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Nicholas Freudenberg, "Fighting for New York: Activism for Health and Social Justice Since The 1960s" (Columbia UP, 2026)
Today I'm speaking with Nicholas Freudenberg, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Public Health at the CUNY School of Public Health. We are discussing his…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Molly Crabapple, "Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund" (Random House, 2026)
Molly Crabapple joins Michael Stauch to discuss the history of the Jewish Labor Bund, the subject of her new book, Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Anna Terwiel offers A Moment of No to the Prison-Industrial Complex (JP)
Punishment makes nobody safer, imprisonment only impoverishes us as a society. And yet, we lock up our own, more and more for worse and worse reasons. What…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Thomas Paine at the Semiquincentennial: A Conversation with Gregory Claeys
Thomas Paine: Collected Writings (Princeton University Press, 2026) is the first major new edition of Paine’s works, bringing together all his writings in six…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Kate Bayliss, "Privatising Humanity: How Our Essential Human Needs Became Financial Assets" (Manchester UP, 2026)
Privatising Humanity: How Our Essential Human Needs Became Financial Assets (Manchester UP, 2026) is the latest book from Dr Kate Bayliss, a Senior Research…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Bryan Alexander, "Peak Higher Ed: How to Survive the Looming Academic Crisis" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2026)
Over the past decade, American colleges and universities have seen enrollment decline, campuses close, programs cut, faculty and staff laid off, and public…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Ranita Ray, "Slow Violence: Confronting Dark Truths in the American Classroom" (St. Martin's Press, 2025)
A powerful exposé of the American public education system's indifference toward marginalized children and the "slow violence" that fashions schools into…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
John K. Roth, "Saving the American Dream: Meditations for Dark Times" (Wipf and Stock, 2026)
The American Dream at its best is an ethical ideal and a moral compass. If respected and sustained, it can guide the United States through Trump 2.0. Anchored…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Why Democracy’s Troubles Should Come as No Surprise
Why have so many democracies become more polarized, unstable, and vulnerable to authoritarianism? And why did so many political observers fail to see it…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Robin Dembroff, "Real Men on Top: How Patriarchy Shapes Our Reality" (Oxford UP, 2026)
In Real Men on Top: How Patriarchy Shapes Our Reality (Oxford University Press, 2026), Robin Dembroff shows us that we don't just live in a patriarchal world…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Blair LM Kelley, "Black Freedom: A Visual History of Juneteenth and Emancipation Days" (Black Dog & Leventhal, 2026)
Black Freedom: A Visual History of Juneteenth and Emancipation Days (Black Dog & Leventhal, 2026) is the first fully illustrated history of Juneteenth and…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Steven Segal, "Mandela’s Leadership Legacy: Emotional and Existential Wisdom" (Routledge, 2026)
In Mandela’s Leadership Legacy: Emotional and Existential Wisdom (Routledge, 2026) Steven Segal explores Nelson Mandela’s extraordinary ability to lead through…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Derek R. Peterson, "A Popular History of Idi Amin's Uganda" (Yale UP, 2025)
Idi Amin ruled Uganda between 1971 and 1979, inflicting tremendous violence on the people of the country. How did Amin's regime survive for eight calamitous…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Curtis Dozier, "The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate" (Yale UP, 2026)
Curtis Dozier's The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate (Yale University Press, 2026) explores how white…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
AI, Algocracy, and Democracy's Challenging Road Ahead with Andrew Sorota
Like many people, I've been following the developments of AI, testing out new models and following the deluge of news stories about the fight for supremacy…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Margaret O’Mara on the Clintons, Tech, and Memory
We were joined by Professor Margaret O’Mara of the University of Washington, who had a front row seat to the Clinton campaign and went on to become an expert…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
The Diasporic Hindu Right with Savera
This episode features a conversation with Prachi and Ram, organizers with Savera, a multiracial, interfaith, anti-caste coalition of Indian Americans and…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Michael Brownstein et al., "Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change" (MIT Press, 2025)
A novel and scientific approach to creating transformative social change—and the surprising ways that each of us can help make a real difference. Changing the…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Geraldine Fela, "Critical Care: Nurses on the Frontline of Australia's AIDS Crisis" (UNSW Press, 2024)
The claim that real change is enabled by grassroots, community-based movements might seem a distant ideal, but Dr Geraldine Fela shows such assertions are far…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Andrew Demshuk, "The Filthiest Village in Europe: Grassroots Ecology and the Collapse of East Germany" (Cornell UP, 2026)
The Filthiest Village in Europe: Grassroots Ecology and the Collapse of East Germany (Cornell University Press, 2026) traces how a community shrouded by…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Gary Hoover, "Ladder or Lottery: Economic Promises and the Reality of Who Gets Ahead" (U California Press, 2026)
In Ladder or Lottery: Economic Promises and the Reality of Who Gets Ahead (University of California Press, 2026), Gary Hoover asks the reader a simple…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Paige Towers, "What They Stole: A Familicide Rooted in Intercountry Adoption" (U Iowa Press, 2026)
In 1955, following the devastation of the Korean War, Bertha and Harry Holt made headlines for adopting eight Korean children. Driven by evangelical…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Shefalee Vasudev, "Stories We Wear: Status, Spectacle and the Politics of Appearance" (Westland Non-Fiction, 2025)
Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, is known for his outfits. Since rising to become India’s head of government in 2014, photographers and journalists have…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Franziska Sittig and Noam Petri, "Intellectual Self-Destruction: How the West Gambles Away Its Future" (Ibidem Press, 2025)
In my recent conversation with Sittig, we explored her co-authored book Intellectual Self-Destruction: How the West Gambles Away Its Future (Ibidem Press…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Billionaire Backlash: Can It Help Save Democracy?
This week on Democracy Dialogues, host Maya Tudor speaks with her colleague and fellow political scientist Pepper Culpepper about his new book Billionaire…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Stuart Schrader, "Blue Power: How Police Organized to Serve and Protect Themselves" (Basic Books, 2026)
In America today, police enjoy unmatched power. On the streets, officers employ violence at their own discretion. Behind closed doors, they are even more…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Shyam Ranganathan, "Moral Philosophy and De-Colonialism: The Irrationality of Oppression" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2026)
Why have moral philosophers largely ignored colonialism? In Moral Philosophy and De-Colonialism: The Irrationality of Oppression (Bloomsbury Academic, 2026)…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Steven W. Thrasher, "The Overseer Class: A Manifesto" (Amistad, 2026)
“The poor, of whatever color, do not trust the law and certainly have no reason to, and God knows we didn't. ‘If you must call a cop,’ we said in those days…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Carlos Martins, "Fascism: Beyond Hitler and Mussolini" (Desassossego, 2022)
Carlos Martins joins the New Books Network to discuss his book Fascism: Beyond Hitler and Mussolini (Desassossego, 2022) (in Portuguese Fascismos: Para Além…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Inken Von Borzyskowski and Felicity Vabulas, "Exit from International Organizations: Costly Negotiation for Institutional Change” (Cambridge UP, 2025)
Why do states exit international organizations (IOs)? How often does exit from IOs – including voluntary withdrawal and forced suspension – occur? What are the…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Beyond Minorities: Power, Identity, and Conflict in the Middle East
Helen Haas speaks with political scientist Sean Lee about the changing relationship between majorities and minorities in the Middle East, the collapse of the…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Robin Andersen, "The Complicit Lens: US Media Coverage of Israel's Genocide in Gaza" (OR Books, 2026)
Robin Andersen's latest book, The Complicit Lens: US Media Coverage of Israel's Genocide in Gaza (OR Books, 2026), is a forensic and unflinching examination…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Are We Entering An Arms Race in Outer Space?
This week on International Horizons, RBI interim director Eli Karetny interviewed Mallory Stewart, Chief Executive Officer of the Council on Strategic Risks…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Steffen Mau et al., "The Trigger Points: Inequality and Political Polarization in Contemporary Society" (Policy Press, 2026)
Today’s political debates are fiercely polarized. But looking beyond the headlines, The Trigger Points: Inequality and Political Polarization in Contemporary…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Fighting for a Foothold: How Government and Markets Undermine Black Middle-Class Suburbia
Prince George’s County, Maryland, is a suburban jurisdiction in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and is home to the highest concentration of Black…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Odd Arne Westad, "The Coming Storm: Power, Conflict, and Warnings from History" (Henry Holt and Co, 2026)
From a renowned Yale historian comes a chilling look at the looming threat of the next Great Power war and the urgent interventions necessary to avoid it in…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Jeremy Harding's Analogue Africa: Notes on the Anti-Colonial Imagination
Jeremy Harding has long been one of the premier essayists and journalists of our day. Elegant, committed and free of cant, Harding's writing has often appeared…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
What Does the American Presidency Mean?
Coming in the thick of the second Trump term, What Does the American Presidency Mean? The Need for Interpretation in Presidency Studies is a timely and…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Alana Lentin, "The New Racial Regime: Recalibrations of White Supremacy" (Pluto Books, 2025)
The New Racial Regime begins by interrogating the backlash against critical race theory and explains how the so-called war on woke can be used against…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Russell McCutcheon, "Manufacturing Religion: The Discourse on Sui Generis Religion and the Politics of Nostalgia, second edition" (Oxford UP, 2026)
First published in 1997, Manufacturing Religion was a controversial book because it critiqued a widely adopted style of scholarship that presumes that religion…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Daniel Gross, "Unions of Our Own: Eight Building Blocks to Change Work and the World" (Haymarket, 2026)
My guest today, Daniel Gross, comes to NBN to discuss his new book Unions of Our Own: Eight Building Blocks to Change Work and the World (Haymarket, 2026)…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
William I. Robinson, "Epochal Crisis: The Exhaustion of Global Capitalism" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
Epochal Crisis: The Exhaustion of Global Capitalism (Cambridge UP, 2025) is the most recent book from Professor William Robinson, Distinguished Professor of…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Francisco Martínez, "The Future of Hiding: Secrecy, Infrastructure, and Ecological Memory in Estonia's Siberia" (Cornell UP, 2025)
How can lives and things that are rendered invisible be crucial to identity, politics, and the future? Drawing on experimental ethnographic research in…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Trevor Jackson, "The Insatiable Machine: How Capitalism Conquered the World" (Norton, 2026)
How did an economic system that was the result of largely uncoordinated and unplanned individual decisions come to dominate our modern world? This is the core…
New Books in Politics and PolemicsRugged Individualism
In this special student edition of High Theory, Andrew Bennett, Jo Hoffman, Kai North, and Ally Sullivan tell us about Rugged Individualism, a concept they…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
A Shakeup Is Coming for the Nation-State: A Conversation with Stephen Sims
Stephen Sims’ New Atlantis essay examines how emerging technologies are reshaping the structure and authority of the modern nation-state. He argues that…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Assessing Global Democratic Health Amidst a Growing Shadow of Autocracy
This week on Democracy Dialogues, host Maya Tudor speaks with two democracy experts at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Freedom House to…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Caste and Race: Ambedkar and King with the Ambedkar King Study Circle
This episode features S. Karthikeyan and S. Subbulakshmi, the Convenor and Secretary of the Ambedkar King Study Circle, an anti-caste organization based in…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Oil and Militancy in Nigeria: A Conversation with Noo Saro-Wiwa
Noo Saro-Wiwa is an author and journalist. Born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and raised in England, she attended King's College London and Columbia University in…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Nikki Luke, "Electric Life: Utility Regulation and the Fight for Energy Democracy" (MIT Press, 2026)
Electric Life: Utility Regulation and the Fight for Energy Democracy (MIT Press, 2026) by Dr. Nikki Luke traces the intertwined history of Atlanta’s racialized…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Sarah Jaffe, "From the Ashes: Grief and Transformation in a World on Fire" (Bold Type Books, 2024)
From the author of Work Won't Love You Back, a stirring examination of how collective grief can ignite powerful change. Our era is one of significant and…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
The Information State: How is the State Surveilling and Manipulating us These Days?
In this episode of International Horizons, RBI Acting Director Eli Karetny interviews Jacob Siegel, writer, Army veteran, and author of The Information State…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
David Blumenthal and James A. Morone, "Whiplash: From the Battle for Obamacare to the War on Science" (Yale UP, 2026)
For nearly a century, every Democratic president—and many Republicans—entered office promising to restructure America’s health care system. Barack Obama…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Ladder or Lottery? Gary Hoover on the Consequences of Broken Economic Promises
Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Gary Hoover about his new book, Ladder or Lottery: Economic Promises and the Reality of Who Gets Ahead (University…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Myung-jin Han with Nicolas Levi, "I Was a North Korean Diplomat: Inside the Secret World of Pyongyang's Foreign Service" (Independently Published, 2026)
Nicolas Levi is a researcher at the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He has authored numerous books related…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
169* Hannah Arendt on Oases (JP)
Our Recall This Buck series began by speaking with Christine Desan of Harvard Law School about how key ideas—and the actual currency, physical coins and bills—…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Alisa Kessel, "Rape Fantasies: Rape Culture and the Persistence of Sexual Violence" (Oxford UP, 2025)
Political theorist Alisa Kessel (University of Puget Sound) has an important and impressive new book, Rape Fantasies: Rape Culture and the Persistence of…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Daniel A. Bell, "Why Ancient Chinese Political Thought Matters: Four Dialogues on China’s Past, Present, and Future" (Princeton UP, 2026)
Daniel A. Bell joins the podcast to discuss his new book, Why Ancient Chinese Political Thought Matters: Four Dialogues on China’s Past, Present, and Future…
- New Books in Politics and Polemics
Lia Kent, "The Unruly Dead: Spirits, Memory, and State Formation in Timor-Leste" (U Wisconsin Press, 2024)
“What might it mean to take the dead seriously as political actors?” asks Lia Kent in this exciting new contribution to critical human rights scholarship The…