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
Wendy Simonds, "Hospital Land USA: Sociological Adventures in Medicalization" (Routledge, 2016)
In Hospital Land USA: Sociological Adventures in Medicalization (Routledge, 2016), Wendy Simonds analyzes the wide-reaching powers of medicalization: the…
- New Books in American Studies
Gregory Sholette, "The Art of Activism and the Activism of Art" (Lund Humphries, 2021)
Since the global financial crash of 2008, artists have become increasingly engaged in a wide range of cultural activism targeted against capitalism, political…
- New Books in American Studies
Julia Scheeres and Allison Gilbert, "Listen, World!: How the Intrepid Elsie Robinson Became America's Most-Read Woman" (Seal Press, 2022)
Together, bestselling author Julia Scheeres and award-winning journalist Allison Gilbert have written Listen, World!: How the Intrepid Elsie Robinson Became…
- New Books in American Studies
Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt, "Franz Boas: The Emergence of the Anthropologist" (U Nebraska Press, 2019)
Franz Boas is remembered today as one of the most important figures in the history of anthropology. In the United States, he is widely created with creating…
- New Books in American Studies
Ana Y. Ramos-Zayas and Mérida M. Rúa, "Critical Dialogues in Latinx Studies: A Reader" (NYU Press, 2021)
Latinx Studies has long been overdue for a revamp – a different orientation to the questions with which we concern ourselves. Critical Dialogues in Latinx…
New Books in American StudiesOn F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby"
“America” means something different to everyone. American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald published The Great Gatsby, his account of the roaring twenties, the…
- New Books in American Studies
Andrew Bomback, "Long Days, Short Years: A Cultural History of Modern Parenting" (MIT Press, 2022)
When did "parenting" become a verb? Why is it so hard to parent, and so rife with the possibility of failure? Sitcom families of the past--the Cleavers, the…
- New Books in American Studies
Catherine Lester, "Horror Films for Children: Fear and Pleasure in American Cinema" (Bloomsbury, 2021)
Children and horror are often thought to be an incompatible meeting of audience and genre, beset by concerns that children will be corrupted or harmed through…
- New Books in American Studies
Doug Greene, "Failure of Vision: Michael Harrington and the Limits of Democratic Socialism" (Zero Books, 2022)
The Democratic Socialists of America have exploded in the last few years, going from just a couple thousand members to close to a hundred thousand. This was…
- New Books in American Studies
Yarimar Bonilla ed. et al., "Trouillot Remixed: The Michel-Rolph Trouillot Reader" (Duke UP, 2021)
Throughout his career, the internationally renowned Haitian anthropologist Michel-Rolph Trouillot unsettled key concepts in anthropology, history, postcolonial…
- New Books in American Studies
Charles L. Chavis Jr., "The Silent Shore: The Lynching of Matthew Williams and the Politics of Racism in the Free State" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2022)
On December 4, 1931, a mob of white men in Salisbury, Maryland, lynched and set ablaze a twenty-three-year-old Black man named Matthew Williams. His gruesome…
- New Books in American Studies
Keri Blakinger, "Corrections in Ink: A Memoir" (St. Martin's Press, 2022)
Corrections in Ink (St. Martin's Press, 2022) is an electric and unforgettable memoir about a young woman's journey-from the ice rink, to addiction and a…
- New Books in American Studies
Olúfemi Táíwò, "Against Decolonization: Taking African Agency Seriously" (Hurst, 2022)
Decolonisation has lost its way. Originally a struggle to escape the West’s direct political and economic control, it has become a catch-all idea, often for…
- New Books in American Studies
Patrick O. Cohrs, "The New Atlantic Order: The Transformation of International Politics, 1860-1933" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
The New Atlantic Order: The Transformation of International Politics, 1860-1933 (Cambridge UP, 2022) elucidates a momentous transformation process that changed…
- New Books in American Studies
David Enrich, "Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice" (Mariner Books, 2022)
In his acclaimed #1 bestseller Dark Towers, David Enrich presented the never-before-told saga of how Deutsche Bank became the global face of financial…
- New Books in American Studies
It’s The End Of The World As We Know It
Last episode we discussed films about how a nuclear war would start, particularly the insane logic of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). In this episode we…
- New Books in American Studies
Jon Krampner, "Ernest Lehman: The Sweet Smell of Success" (UP of Kentucky, 2022)
A Hollywood screenwriting and movie-making icon, Ernest Lehman penned some of the most memorable scenes to ever grace the silver screen. Hailed by Vanity Fair…
- New Books in American Studies
Michael R. Gordon, "Degrade and Destroy: The Inside Story of the War Against the Islamic State, from Barack Obama to Donald Trump" (FSG, 2022)
In Degrade and Destroy: The Inside Story of the War Against the Islamic State, from Barack Obama to Donald Trump (FSG, 2022), Wall Street Journal national…
- New Books in American Studies
Olivier Zunz, "The Man Who Understood Democracy: The Life of Alexis de Tocqueville" (Princeton UP, 2022)
In 1831, at the age of twenty-five, Alexis de Tocqueville made his fateful journey to America, where he observed the thrilling reality of a functioning…
- New Books in American Studies
Abby L. Goode, "Agrotopias: An American Literary History of Sustainability" (UNC Press, 2022)
In this book, Abby L. Goode reveals the foundations of American environmentalism and its enduring connections to racism, eugenics, and agrarian ideals…
- New Books in American Studies
John M. Curatola, "Autumn of Our Discontent: Fall 1949 and the Crises in American National Security" (US Naval Institute Press, 2022)
In the Fall of 1949, a series of international events shattered the notion that the United States would return to its traditional small peacetime military…
- New Books in American Studies
Kenneth H. Kolb, "Retail Inequality: Reframing the Food Desert Debate" (U California Press, 2021)
Retail Inequality: Reframing the Food Desert Debate (U California Press, 2021) examines the failure of recent efforts to improve Americans' diets by increasing…
- New Books in American Studies
Nancy Fraser, "Cannibal Capitalism: How our System is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet and What We Can Do About It" (Verso, 2022)
Capital is currently cannibalizing every sphere of life–guzzling wealth from nature and racialized populations, sucking up our ability to care for each other…
- New Books in American Studies
Randall Balmer, "Passion Plays: How Religion Shaped Sports in North America" (UNC Press, 2022)
Randall Balmer was a late convert to sports talk radio, but he quickly became addicted, just like millions of other devoted American sports fans. As a…
- New Books in American Studies
Stevie Van Zandt, "Unrequited Infatuations: A Memoir" (Hachette Books, 2022)
What story begins in a bedroom in suburban New Jersey in the early '60s, unfolds on some of the country's largest stages, and then ranges across the globe…
- New Books in American Studies
Timothy Paul Bowman, "You Will Never Be One of Us: A Teacher, a Texas Town, and the Rural Roots of Radical Conservatism" (U of Oklahoma Press, 2022)
As the 1974 school year began, Wayne Woodward was a beloved high school teacher in a rural Texas town. By the following spring, he was embroiled in a local…
- New Books in American Studies
Brian D. Bunk, "From Football to Soccer: The Early History of the Beautiful Game in the United States" (U Illinois Press, 2021)
Across North America, native peoples and colonists alike played a variety of kicking games long before soccer's emergence in the late 1800s. Brian D. Bunk…
- New Books in American Studies
Emily Bingham, "My Old Kentucky Home: The Astonishing Life and Reckoning of an Iconic American Song" (Knopf, 2022)
Any song as old and as familiar as “My Old Kentucky Home” is bound to have accrued many different meanings and an interesting history. Emily Bingham’s book, My…
- New Books in American Studies
Raúl Pérez, "The Souls of White Jokes: How Racist Humor Fuels White Supremacy" (Stanford UP, 2022)
Having a "good" sense of humor generally means being able to take a joke without getting offended—laughing even at a taboo thought or at another's expense. The…
- New Books in American Studies
Tod Gitlin on the Recovery of American Ideals
In this episode from the Institute’s Vault, we hear from Tod Gitlin. Gitlin was president of the Students for a Democratic Society, and went on to become a…
- New Books in American Studies
Aria S. Halliday, "Buy Black: How Black Women Transformed US Pop Culture" (U Illinois Press, 2022)
Buy Black: How Black Women Transformed US Pop Culture (U Illinois Press, 2022) examines the role American Black women play in Black consumption in the US and…
- New Books in American Studies
Chris Belcher, "Pretty Baby: A Memoir" (Simon and Schuster, 2022)
"The dominatrix is the id of American femininity. She says the words that we all wish we could say when we find ourselves frozen in the presence of men. No is…
- New Books in American Studies
Michael O. Johnston, "Community Media Representations of Place and Identity at Tug Fest" (Lexington Books, 2022)
Community Media Representations of Place and Identity at Tug Fest (Lexington Books, 2022) explores an annual interstate tug-of-war between two small towns…
- New Books in American Studies
Mohamed Adhikari, "Destroying to Replace: Settler Genocides of Indigenous Peoples" (Hackett, 2022)
Today I talked to Dr. Mohamed Adhikari about his book Destroying to Replace: Settler Genocides of Indigenous Peoples (Hackett, 2022). "This book explores…
- New Books in American Studies
Paul Russell Semendinger, "The Least Among Them: 29 Players, Their Brief Moments in the Big Leagues, and a Unique History of the New York Yankees" (Artemesia, 2021)
The Least Among Them: 29 Players, Their Brief Moments in the Big Leagues, and a Unique History of the New York Yankees (Artemesia, 2021) is a most special…
- New Books in American Studies
Steve Adelman, "Nocturnal Admissions: A Nightlife Memoir" (Santa Monica Press, 2022)
In Nocturnal Admissions: Behind the Scenes at Tunnel, Limelight, Avalon, and Other Legendary Nightclubs (Santa Monica Press, 2022), nightclub director Steve…
- New Books in American Studies
David Crow, "The Pale-Faced Lie: A True Story" (Sandra Jonas Publishing, 2019)
A violent ex-con forces his son to commit crimes in this unforgettable memoir about family and survival. Growing up on the Navajo Indian Reservation, David…
- New Books in American Studies
A MAD, MAD, World
The world lived under the shadow of the acronym MAD for forty years. Mutually Assured Destruction was no laughing matter, but Stanley Kubrick thought dark…
- New Books in American Studies
Brad Snyder, "Democratic Justice: Felix Frankfurter, the Supreme Court, and the Making of the Liberal Establishment" (Norton, 2022)
The conventional wisdom about Felix Frankfurter--Harvard law professor and Supreme Court justice--is that he struggled to fill the seat once held by Oliver…
- New Books in American Studies
Bruce J. Dierenfield and David A. Gerber, "Disability Rights and Religious Liberty in Education: The Story Behind Zobrest V. Catalina Foothills School District" (U Illinois Press, 2020)
In 1988, Sandi and Larry Zobrest sued a suburban Tucson, Arizona, school district that had denied their hearing-impaired son a taxpayer-funded interpreter in…
- New Books in American Studies
Christin Essin, "Working Backstage: A Cultural History and Ethnography of Technical Theater Labor" (U Michigan Press, 2021)
Working Backstage: A Cultural History and Ethnography of Technical Theater Labor (University of Michigan Press, 2021) by Dr. Christin Essin illuminates the…
- New Books in American Studies
Carl A. Brasseaux and Donald W. Davis, "Asian-Cajun Fusion: Shrimp from the Bay to the Bayou" (UP of Mississippi, 2022)
Shrimp is easily America’s favorite seafood, but its very popularity is the wellspring of problems that threaten the shrimp industry’s existence. Asian-Cajun…
- New Books in American Studies
Derek H. Alderman et al., "Remembering Enslavement: Reassembling the Southern Plantation Museum" (U Georgia Press, 2022)
Remembering Enslavement: Reassembling the Southern Plantation Museum (U Georgia Press, 2022) explores plantation museums as sites for contesting and reforming…
- New Books in American Studies
Ellie D. Hernández et al., "Transmovimientos: Latinx Queer Migrations, Bodies, and Spaces" (U Nebraska Press, 2021)
Edited by Ellie D. Hernandez, Eddy Francisco Alvarez Jr., and Magda García, Transmovimientos: Latinx Queer Migrations, Bodies, and Space (University of…
- New Books in American Studies
Esther Wright, "Rockstar Games and American History: Promotional Materials and the Construction of Authenticity" (de Gruyter, 2022)
For two decades, Rockstar Games have been making games that interrogate and represent the idea of America, past and present. Commercially successful…
- New Books in American Studies
Ethan Czuy Levine, "Rape by the Numbers: Producing and Contesting Scientific Knowledge about Sexual Violence" (Rutgers UP, 2021)
Science plays a substantial, though under-acknowledged, role in shaping popular understandings of rape. Statistical figures like “1 in 4 women have experienced…
- New Books in American Studies
On "The Book of Mormon"
In 1827 a young farmer named Joseph Smith was visited by an angel. The angel led him to a hillside where he uncovered a set of ancient gold plates written in…
- New Books in American Studies
The Future of American Decline: A Conversation with Jed Esty
The UK spent decades in its the post imperial phase trying to work out how it should think of itself and align itself in the world - a debate that Brexit…
- New Books in American Studies
Danielle J. Lindemann, "True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us" (FSG, 2022)
Why is reality TV important? In True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us (FSG, 2022), Danielle J. Lindemann, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Lehigh…
- New Books in American Studies
Karen Hunger Parshall, "The New Era in American Mathematics, 1920–1950" (Princeton UP, 2022)
In The New Era in Mathematics, 1920-1950 (Princeton University Press, 2022) Karen Parshall explores the institutional, financial, social, and political forces…
- New Books in American Studies
Jodi Skipper, "Behind the Big House: Reconciling Slavery, Race, and Heritage in the U.S. South" (U Iowa Press, 2022)
When residents and tourists visit sites of slavery, whose stories are told? All too often the lives of slaveowners are centered, obscuring the lives of…
- New Books in American Studies
Josep M. Fradera, "The Imperial Nation: Citizens and Subjects in the British, French, Spanish, and American Empires" (Princeton UP, 2018)
How the legacy of monarchical empires shaped Britain, France, Spain, and the United States as they became liberal entities? Historians view the late eighteenth…
- New Books in American Studies
Pew Research Center: Analyzing the Evangelical Right
You’ve seen hilarious videos of the evangelicals for Trump. You might be inclined to ignore them, mock their excesses, or dismiss their threat. But the…
- New Books in American Studies
Eric A. Posner, "How Antitrust Failed Workers" (Oxford UP, 2021)
Today I talked to Eric Posner about his book How Antitrust Failed Workers (Oxford UP, 2021). When anti-trust cases are brought forward, typically they involve…
- New Books in American Studies
William C. Kirby, "Empires of Ideas: Creating the Modern University from Germany to America to China" (Harvard UP, 2022)
Earlier this month, U.S. President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act, a bill purportedly meant to revive U.S. dominance in research and development…
- New Books in American Studies
Marissa R. Moss, "Her Country: How the Women of Country Music Became the Success They Were Never Supposed to Be" (Henry Holt, 2022)
It was only two decades ago, but, for the women of country music, 1999 seems like an entirely different universe. With Shania Twain, country's biggest award…
- New Books in American Studies
Michael O'Hanlon, "The Art of War in an Age of Peace: U.S. Grand Strategy and Resolute Restraint" (Yale UP, 2021)
In The Art of War in an Age of Peace: U.S. Grand Strategy and Resolute Restraint (Yale University Press, 2021) Dr. Michael O’Hanlon presents an informed modern…
- New Books in American Studies
Ugo Corte, "Dangerous Fun: The Social Lives of Big Wave Surfers" (U Chicago Press, 2022)
Straight from the beaches of Hawaii comes an exciting new ethnography of a community of big-wave surfers. Oahu’s Waimea Bay attracts the world’s best big wave…
- New Books in American Studies
Who Can You Trust?
Can you imagine living in a society that is ostensibly a democracy but secret forces are working behind the scenes to manipulate events? What if our…
- New Books in American Studies
Allyson P. Brantley, "Brewing a Boycott: How a Grassroots Coalition Fought Coors and Remade American Consumer Activism" (UNC Press, 2021)
Before the craft beer revolution, Coors was a hot commodity. Impossible to find outside a few states in the West, the beer had a level of "cool" that only…