Shows / New Books in American Studies
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. 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 American Studies
Francis M. Carroll, "America and the Making of an Independent Ireland: A History" (NYU Press, 2021)
On Easter Day 1916, more than a thousand Irishmen stormed Dublin city center, seizing the General Post Office building and reading the Proclamation for an…
New Books in American StudiesHow a California Electricity Utility Caused Deadly Wildfires
Journalist Katherine Blunt, who writes about renewable energy and utilities for the Wall Street Journal, talks about her new book, California Burning: The Fall…
- New Books in American Studies
Leslie Bow, "Racist Love: Asian Abstraction and the Pleasures of Fantasy" (Duke UP, 2022)
In Racist Love: Asian Abstraction and the Pleasures of Fantasy (Duke UP, 2022), Leslie Bow traces the ways in which Asian Americans become objects of anxiety…
- New Books in American Studies
M. V. Hood and Seth C. McKee, "Rural Republican Realignment in the Modern South: The Untold Story" (U South Carolina Press, 2022)
Beginning with the Dixiecrat Revolt of 1948 and extending through the 2020 election cycle, political scientists M.V. Hood III and Seth C. McKee trace the…
- New Books in American Studies
Ben Burgis, "Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters" (Zero Books, 2022)
In Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters (Zero Books, 2022), Ben Burgis reminds readers about what was best in…
- New Books in American Studies
Erin in the Morning: A Interview with Erin Reed, LGBTQ+ Activist and Substacker
Today I interview Erin Reed. Reed is an activist, public speaker, and writer across multiple platforms, including a Substack newsletter, all of which she…
- New Books in American Studies
Steven Hyden, "Long Road: Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack of a Generation" (Hachette Books, 2022)
Ever since Pearl Jam first blasted onto the Seattle grunge scene three decades ago with their debut album, Ten, they have sold 85M+ albums, performed for…
- New Books in American Studies
Where is the Left? The Rise and Decline of Social Democratic Movements
This week on International Horizons, David Abraham from the University of Miami discusses the origins of social democratic parties in Europe and the parallels…
- New Books in American Studies
Yu Tokunaga, "Transborder Los Angeles: An Unknown Transpacific History of Japanese-Mexican Relations" (U California Press, 2022)
Focusing on Los Angeles farmland during the years between the Immigration Act of 1924 and the Japanese Internment in 1942, Transborder Los Angeles: An Unknown…
- New Books in American Studies
Adam Elder, "New Kids in the World Cup: The Totally Late '80s and Early '90s Tale of the Team That Changed American Soccer Forever" (U Nebraska Press, 2022)
In 1990, though no one knew it then, a fearless group of players changed the sport of soccer in the United States forever. Young, bronzed, and mulleted, they…
- New Books in American Studies
Deep Cuts: Classic Rock and Hair Metal with Professor and Guitarist Jesse Kavadlo
Jesse Kavadlo is the classic “renaissance man” – literature and humanities professor, author of acclaimed books and articles, President of the Don DeLillo…
- New Books in American Studies
Emily Strasser, "Half-Life of a Secret: Reckoning with a Hidden History" (UP of Kentucky, 2023)
In 1942, the US government began construction on a sixty-thousand-acre planned community named Oak Ridge in a rural area west of Knoxville, Tennessee. Unmarked…
- New Books in American Studies
Gabriel Glickman, "US-Egypt Diplomacy Under Johnson: Nasser, Komer, and the Limits of Personal Diplomacy" (Bloombury, 2021)
What happens to policies when a president dies in office? Do they get replaced by the new president, or do advisers carry on with the status quo? In November…
- New Books in American Studies
Reclaiming a Lost Vision of Feminism: A Conversation with Erika Bachiochi
The overturning of Roe v. Wade has led to a flurry of commentary and wondering, "Where next?" But, it also begs deeper questions: what is the history of…
- New Books in American Studies
Richard Overy, "Blood and Ruins: The Last Imperial War, 1931-1945" (Viking, 2022)
Richard Overy sets out in Blood and Ruins: The Last Imperial War, 1931-1945 (Viking, 2022) to recast the way in which we view the Second World War and its…
- New Books in American Studies
H. Jefferson Powell, "The Practice of American Constitutional Law" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
What areas of our lives are governed by constitutional law? When asked about what constitutional law is, Americans tend to think of notable Supreme Court cases…
- New Books in American Studies
Michael Lawrence Dickinson, "Almost Dead: Slavery and Social Rebirth in the Black Urban Atlantic, 1680-1807" (U Georgia Press, 2022)
Beginning in the late seventeenth century and concluding with the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade, Almost Dead: Slavery and Social Rebirth in the Black…
- New Books in American Studies
Truth, Fiction, and Student Loan Forgiveness: A Conversation with Beth Akers
With the Biden Administration's student loan relief coming down the pike, Annika sits down with Dr. Beth Akers, a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise…
- New Books in American Studies
Clare Forstie, "Queering the Midwest: Forging LGBTQ Community" (NYU Press, 2022)
Drag shows that test the capacity of bars persist alongside wishes for stronger community among River City's LGBTQ population. In this examination of LGBTQ…
- New Books in American Studies
Derrick Darby, "A Realistic Blacktopia: Why We Must Unite to Fight" (Oxford UP, 2022)
In the United States, unjust disparities in things like income, opportunity, health, safety, and education tightly track racial categorizations of the US…
New Books in American StudiesInventing American Telecommunications
Historian Richard John, professor of journalism at Columbia University, talks about his book, Network Nation: Inventing American Telecommunications, with…
- New Books in American Studies
J. Brent Morris, "Dismal Freedom: A History of the Maroons of the Great Dismal Swamp" (UNC Press, 2022)
The massive and foreboding Great Dismal Swamp sprawls over 2,000 square miles and spills over parts of Virginia and North Carolina. From the early seventeenth…
- New Books in American Studies
Missing: Men at Work
Over six million prime-age men are neither working nor looking for work; America's low unemployment rate hides the fact that many men have dropped out of the…
- New Books in American Studies
Money or Meaning? A Discussion on Choice, Restlessness, and Higher Education
What kinds of tools do we need to make big decisions, and why aren't our universities training us to make them? Are universities doing students a disservice by…
New Books in American StudiesAbove the Veil: Beyond Segregationism and Assimilationism
The work of Ibram X. Kendi distinguishes between two forms of racism: segregationism and assimilationism. Segregationists argue that some groups are inferior…
New Books in American StudiesCollaborations between Cold War Scientists and Artists
Patrick McCray, Professor of History at University of California, Santa Barbara, talks about his book, Making Art Work: How Cold War Engineers and Artists…
- New Books in American Studies
Robin Bartram, "Stacked Decks: Building Inspectors and the Reproduction of Urban Inequality" (U Chicago Press, 2022)
Though we rarely see them at work, building inspectors have the power to significantly shape our lives through their discretionary decisions. The building…
- New Books in American Studies
Vona Groarke, "Hereafter: The Telling Life of Ellen O'Hara" (NYU Press, 2022)
Ellen O'Hara was a young immigrant from Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century who, with courage and resilience, made a life for herself in New York…
- New Books in American Studies
Zachary Shore, "This Is Not Who We Are: America’s Struggle Between Vengeance and Virtue" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
What kind of country is America? Zachary Shore tackles this polarizing question by spotlighting some of the most morally muddled matters of WWII. Should…
- New Books in American Studies
Anthony Reed, "Soundworks: Race, Sound, and Poetry in Production" (Duke UP, 2020)
In Soundworks: Race, Sound, and Poetry in Production (Duke UP, 2020), Anthony Reed argues that studying sound requires conceiving it as process and as work…
- New Books in American Studies
David S. Painter and Gregory Brew, "The Struggle for Iran: Oil, Autocracy, and the Cold War, 1951-1954" (UNC Press, 2023)
Beginning with the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry in spring 1951 and ending with its reversal following the overthrow of Prime Minister Mohammad…
- New Books in American Studies
Michael T. Rizzi, "Jesuit Colleges and Universities in the United States: A History" (Catholic U of America Press, 2022)
Jesuit Colleges and Universities in the United States: A History (Catholic University of America Press, 2022) provides a comprehensive history of Jesuit higher…
- New Books in American Studies
Elizabeth Kelly Gray, "Habit Forming: Drug Addiction in America, 1776-1914" (Oxford UP, 2023)
Habitual drug use in the United States is at least as old as the nation itself. Elizabeth Kelly Gray's book Habit Forming: Drug Addiction in America, 1776-1914…
- New Books in American Studies
Shaun M. Anderson, "The Black Athlete Revolt: The Sport Justice Movement in the Age Of #BlackLivesMatter" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023)
In the age of social media, athletes have a powerful influence like never before. Many Black athletes have used that power in positive ways, galvanizing their…
- New Books in American Studies
Stephen C. Finley, "In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam" (Duke UP, 2022)
With In and Out of This World: Material and Extraterrestrial Bodies in the Nation of Islam (Duke University Press, 2022), Stephen C. Finley, Inaugural Chair…
- New Books in American Studies
Eric Adler, "The Battle of the Classics: How a Nineteenth-Century Debate Can Save the Humanities Today" (Oxford UP, 2020)
These are troubling days for the humanities. In response, a recent proliferation of works defending the humanities has emerged. But, taken together, what are…
- New Books in American Studies
Frank Wolff, "Yiddish Revolutionaries in Migration: The Transnational History of the Jewish Labour Bund" (Haymarket Books, 2021)
Frank Wolff's ground-breaking Yiddish Revolutionaries in Migration: The Transnational History of the Jewish Labour Bund (Haymarket Books, 2021) investigates…
- New Books in American Studies
Kevin Munger, "Generation Gap: Why the Baby Boomers Still Dominate American Politics and Culture" (Columbia UP, 2022)
In Generation Gap: Why the Baby Boomers Still Dominate American Politics and Culture (Columbia UP, 2022), Kevin Munger marshals novel data and survey evidence…
- New Books in American Studies
Sheri Brenden, "Break Point: Two Minnesota Athletes and the Road to Title IX" (U Minnesota Press, 2022)
In Break Point: Two Minnesota Athletes and the Road to Title IX (University of Minnesota Press, 2022), Sheri Brenden examines how two teenage girls in…
- New Books in American Studies
Elizabeth Farfán-Santos, "Undocumented Motherhood: Conversations on Love, Trauma, and Border Crossing" (U Texas Press, 2022)
Claudia Garcia crossed the border because her toddler, Natalia, could not hear. Leaving behind everything she knew in Mexico, Claudia recounts the terror of…
- New Books in American Studies
Oline Eaton, "Finding Jackie: The Second Act of America's First Lady" (Diversion Books, 2023)
In her new book, Finding Jackie: A Life Reinvented (Diversion Books, 2023), scholar and writer Oline Eaton examines the story of an era's biggest "star of…
New Books in American StudiesThe History of Temp Work
Historian Louis Hyman, professor and director of the Institute of Workplace Studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, talks…
- New Books in American Studies
Gregory Pfitzer, "'Fame Is Not Just for the Fellas': Female Renown and the Childhood of Famous Americans Series" (U Massachusetts Press, 2022)
In “Fame is Not Just for the Fellas”: Female Renown and the Childhood of Famous Americans Series (University of Massachusetts Press, 2022), Gregory Pfitzer…
New Books in American StudiesClimate of Denial: Why Do Americans Doubt Climate Change?
Human-caused climate change is real and growing in impact. Yet many Americans see climate change as a belief that they can opt out of. Two belief structures…
New Books in American StudiesHow Universities Are Plundering Our Cities
Davarian L. Baldwin is a professor of American studies and founding director of the Smart Cities Lab at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. His latest book, In…
- New Books in American Studies
Amy Kohout, "Taking the Field: Soldiers, Nature, and Empire on American Frontiers" (U Nebraska Press, 2023)
The US military didn't just conquer its way across the US West and the Pacific - it also collected and categorized across these spaces too. In Taking the…
- New Books in American Studies
Dick Weissman, "Bob Dylan's New York: A Historic Guide" (SUNY Press, 2022)
New York has long been a city where people go to reinvent themselves. And since the dawn of the twentieth century, New York City’s Greenwich Village has been…
New Books in American StudiesProgressive Souls: Religion and the Pursuit of a Just Society (Part 2)
Religious people have played an important role in progressive politics in the US for its entire history. Contemporary leftists should look to build bridges and…
- New Books in American Studies
Adam Lajeunesse, "Lock, Stock, and Icebergs: A History of Canada's Arctic Maritime Sovereignty" (UBC Press, 2016)
In April 1988, after years of failed negotiations over the status of the Northwest Passage, Brian Mulroney gave Ronald Reagan a globe, pointed to the Arctic…
- New Books in American Studies
Helen Anne Curry, "Endangered Maize: Industrial Agriculture and the Crisis of Extinction" (U California Press, 2022)
In Endangered Maize: Industrial Agriculture and the Crisis of Extinction (U California Press, 2022), historian Helen Anne Curry investigates more than a…
New Books in American StudiesProgressive Souls: Religion and the Pursuit of a Just Society (Part 1)
Religious people have played an important role in progressive politics in the US for its entire history. Contemporary leftists should look to build bridges and…
- New Books in American Studies
Karyne E. Messina, "Resurgence of Global Populism: A Psychoanalytic Study of Projective Identification, Blame-Shifting and the Corruption of Democracy" (Routledge, 2022)
Resurgence of Global Populism: A Psychoanalytic Study of Projective Identification, Blame-Shifting and the Corruption of Democracy (Routledge, 2022) provides a…
- New Books in American Studies
Daniel F. Runde, "The American Imperative: Reclaiming Global Leadership through Soft Power" (Bombardier, 2023)
In The American Imperative: Reclaiming Global Leadership through Soft Power (Bombardier, 2023), Washington insider Daniel Runde makes the case for building a…
- New Books in American Studies
Drew Morton, "After Midnight: Watchmen After Watchmen" (U Mississippi Press, 2022)
Alan Moore’s and Dave Gibbons’s Watchmen fundamentally altered the perception of American comic books and remains one of the medium’s greatest hits. Launched…
- New Books in American Studies
Viola Franziska Müller, "Escape to the City: Fugitive Slaves in the Antebellum Urban South" (UNC Press, 2022)
In Escape to the City: Fugitive Slaves in the Antebellum Urban South (UNC Press, 2022), Viola Franziska Müller examines runaways who camouflaged themselves…
- New Books in American Studies
Emily A. Owens, "Consent in the Presence of Force: Sexual Violence and Black Women's Survival in Antebellum New Orleans" (UNC Press, 2023)
In histories of enslavement and in Black women's history, coercion looms large in any discussion of sex and sexuality. At a time when sexual violence against…
- New Books in American Studies
The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature
Today’s book is: The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature, which is the 2022 Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award Winner. The Diné Reader…
- New Books in American Studies
We Shall Overcome: Sister Thea Bowman and the Black Catholic Experience
Though we are all one—“there is neither Jew nor Greek,” St. Paul wrote to the Galatians—each of us brings a particular heritage to the mosaic of God’s…
- New Books in American Studies
Richard Aquila, "Rock & Roll in Kennedy's America: A Cultural History of the Early 1960s" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2022)
In the early 1960s, the nation was on track to fulfill its destiny in what was being called the American Century. Baby boomers and rock & roll shared the…
- New Books in American Studies
Robert Ovetz, "We the Elites: Why the US Constitution Serves the Few" (Pluto Press, 2022)
We have been ruled long enough. It is time to govern ourselves. If we are to get past the Constitution and all systems based on constitutions, we need to move…