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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
On W. E. B. DuBois' "The Souls of Black Folk"
Nearly 40 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, American writer, sociologist and civil rights activist W. E. B. DuBois shed light on Black life…
- New Books in American Studies
Paris Marx, "Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation" (Verso, 2022)
In Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation (Verso, 2022), Paris Marx identifies two convergent forces in the 20th…
- New Books in American Studies
Plague Robbers--Nothing Spreads Like Greed: The Pandemic Profiteers Who Made the Crisis Worse
Has the pandemic taught us anything? As we look forward and imagine what the future might look like, we like to think ‘next time will be different.’ But, if we…
- New Books in American Studies
Christopher Witko, "Hijacking the Agenda: Economic Power and Political Influence" (Russell Sage Foundation, 2021)
How do competing interests shape public policy? Why are the economic interests and priorities of lower-, working-, and middle-class Americans often neglected…
- New Books in American Studies
Don’t Look Left: A Discussion with David Sirota, writer of "Don't Look Up"
Why does the democratic establishment always avoid turning left, even when it might mean a political win? Gordon asks David Sirota. Sirota is behind the…
- New Books in American Studies
John Morton, "Celebrate Winter: An Olympian's Stories of a Life in Nordic Skiing" (Morton Trails, 2020)
Celebrate Winter: An Olympian's Stories of a Life in Nordic Skiing (Morton Trails, 2020) by John Morton is a wonderful look back at experiences and lessons…
- New Books in American Studies
Marika Cifor, "Viral Cultures: Activist Archiving in the Age of AIDS" (U Minnesota Press, 2022)
Serving as a vital supplement to the existing scholarship on AIDS activism of the 1980s and 1990s, Viral Cultures: Activist Archiving in the Age of AIDS (U…
New Books in American StudiesOn Frederick Douglass
When Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in 1818, it was illegal for him to learn the alphabet. Slave masters feared the power of a literate slave, so…
- New Books in American Studies
Christopher M. Reali, "Music and Mystique in Muscle Shoals" (U Illinois Press, 2022)
The forceful music that rolled out of Muscle Shoals in the 1960s and 1970s shaped hits by everyone from Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin to the Rolling…
- New Books in American Studies
Hans G. Myers, "The Lion of Round Top: The Life and Military Service of Brigadier General Strong Vincent in the American Civil War" (Casemate, 2022)
Hans G. Myers' book The Lion of Round Top: The Life and Military Service of Brigadier General Strong Vincent in the American Civil War (Casemate, 2022)…
- New Books in American Studies
Jeremy Black, "A Brief History of the Atlantic" (Robinson, 2022)
The Atlantic has borne witness to major historic events that have drastically shaped humanity with each crossing of its path. In A Brief History of the…
- New Books in American Studies
Lindy S. F. Hern, "Single Payer Healthcare Reform: Grassroots Mobilization and the Turn Against Establishment Politics in the Medicare for All Movement" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020)
In Single Payer Healthcare Reform: Grassroots Mobilization and the Turn Against Establishment Politics in the Medicare for All Movement (Palgrave Macmillan…
- New Books in American Studies
Rebecca Weeks, "History by HBO: Televising the American Past" (UP of Kentucky, 2022)
The television industry is changing, and with it, the small screen's potential to engage in debate and present valuable representations of American history…
- New Books in American Studies
Jamie Ducharme, "Big Vape: The Incendiary Rise of Juul" (Henry Holt, 2021)
It began with a smoke break. James Monsees and Adam Bowen were two ambitious graduate students at Stanford, and in between puffs after class they dreamed of a…
- New Books in American Studies
Jane Juffer, "Millennial Feminism at Work: Bridging Theory and Practice" (Cornell UP, 2021)
In Millennial Feminism at Work: Bridging Theory and Practice (Cornell UP, 2021), volume editor Jane Juffer brings together recently graduated students from…
- New Books in American Studies
Jordan Denari Duffner, "Islamophobia: What Christians Should Know (and Do) about Anti-Muslim Discrimination" (Orbis, 2021)
Jordan Denari Duffner is an author and scholar of Muslim-Christian relations, interreligious dialogue, and Islamophobia. Jordan is currently pursuing a PhD in…
- New Books in American Studies
Saladin Ambar, "Stars and Shadows: The Politics of Interracial Friendship from Jefferson to Obama" (Oxford UP, 2022)
Slavery and its lingering remnants remain a plague on the United States, continuing to foster animosity between races that hinders the understanding and…
- New Books in American Studies
Simone White, "Or, on Being the Other Woman" (Duke UP, 2022)
In or, on being the other woman (Duke UP, 2022), Simone White considers the dynamics of contemporary black feminist life. Throughout this book-length poem…
- New Books in American Studies
Andrew Bacevich and Daniel A. Sjursen, "Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America's Forever Wars" (Metropolitan Books, 2022)
Compiled by New York Times bestselling author Andrew Bacevich and retired army officer Danny A. Sjursen, Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America’s…
- New Books in American Studies
Jeffrey S. Sutton, "Who Decides?: States As Laboratories of Constitutional Experimentation" (Oxford UP, 2021)
Everything in law and politics, including individual rights, comes back to divisions of power and the evergreen question: Who decides? Who wins the disputes of…
- New Books in American Studies
Michael Elliott, "Have a Little Faith: The John Hiatt Story" (Chicago Review Press, 2021)
A journey through an artist's quest for success, deep dive into substance abuse, family tragedy, and ultimate triumph. By the mid-1980s, singer-songwriter John…
- New Books in American Studies
Nick Davis, "Competing with Idiots: Herman and Joe Mankiewicz, a Dual Portrait" (Knopf, 2021)
A fascinating, complex dual biography of Hollywood's most dazzling—and famous—brothers, and a dark, riveting portrait of competition, love, and enmity that…
- New Books in American Studies
On Walter Lippmann's "Public Opinion"
What is the role of the press in a democracy? For nearly a century, scholars, media critics, and politicians have debated this question—in a large part thanks…
- New Books in American Studies
Sara Farrington, "The Lost Conversation: Interviews with an Enduring Avant-Garde" (53rd State Press, 2021)
Sara Farrington's The Lost Conversation: Interviews with an Enduring Avant-Garde (53rd State Press, 2021) is a collection of interviews with a host of…
- New Books in American Studies
Harvey J. Graff, "The Literacy Myth: Cultural Integration and Social Structure in the Nineteenth Century" (Transaction, 1991)
Harvey Graff's pioneering study presents a new and original interpretation of the place of literacy in nineteenth-century society and culture. Based upon an…
- New Books in American Studies
Katherine L. Carroll, "Building Schools, Making Doctors: Architecture and the Modern American Physician" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2022)
In the late nineteenth century, medical educators intent on transforming American physicians into scientifically trained, elite professionals recognized the…
- New Books in American Studies
On Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God"
Zora Neale Hurston was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance, but her novels didn’t conform to the style of her contemporaries. As a result, her work…
- New Books in American Studies
The Future of Political Anger: A Conversation with Mark Blyth
Trump’s voters. The yellow jackets in France. Putin’s base in Russia. The Brexiteers. One thing all these groups have in common is anger – anger at being left…
- New Books in American Studies
Grant Wiedenfeld, "Hollywood Sports Movies and the American Dream" (Oxford UP, 2022)
Through the heart of Hollywood cinema runs a surprising current of progressive politics. Sports movies, a genre that has flourished since the mid-seventies…
- New Books in American Studies
January 6th and the Myth of the Mob: The Pervasive Power of Crowd Theory
This week, we’re showcasing some of our favourite past episodes of Darts and Letters themed around “Activism & Academia”. Today’s episode originally aired a…
- New Books in American Studies
Miriam Thaggert, "Riding Jane Crow: African American Women on the American Railroad" (U Illinois Press, 2022)
Miriam Thaggert illuminates the stories of African American women as passengers and as workers on the nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century railroad. As Jim…
- New Books in American Studies
Nasar Meer, "The Cruel Optimism of Racial Justice" (Policy Press, 2022)
Why are societies still not offering racial equality? In The Cruel Optimism of Racial Justice (Policy Press, 2022), Nasar Meer, a professor of Race, Identity…
- New Books in American Studies
On "Black Elk Speaks"
In many ways, Black Elk and John Neihardt lived very different lives. Black Elk was an Oglala Lakota holy man. Neihartd was a European-American literary…
- New Books in American Studies
American Chernobyl, Part 2: The Most Poisonous Place in the USA
Hanford is the most-polluted place in America. In our last episode, you heard about the nuclear plant's largely-forgotten history--how it poisoned the people…
- New Books in American Studies
Daniel T. Fleming, "Living the Dream: The Contested History of Martin Luther King Jr. Day" (UNC Press, 2022)
Living the Dream: The Contested History of Martin Luther King Jr. Day (UNC Press, 2022) tells the history behind the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr…
- New Books in American Studies
Jason Stacy, "Spoon River America: Edgar Lee Masters and the Myth of the American Small Town" (U Illinois Press, 2021)
A literary and cultural milestone, Spoon River Anthology captured an idea of the rural Midwest that became a bedrock myth of life in small-town America. Jason…
New Books in American StudiesOn Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass"
“These United States are themselves the greatest poem.” When Walt Whitman wrote this line, he was an unknown Brooklyn newspaper man. But his work would…
- New Books in American Studies
86 Dana Stevens on Buster Keaton (JP EF)
Dana Stevens joins Elizabeth and John to discuss Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema and the Invention of the Twentieth Century. Her fantastic new…
- New Books in American Studies
America's Chernobyl, Part 1: Living in a Poison Town
In this episode of Cited: What it means to live in a place where your home can give you cancer. Richland, Washington is a company town that sprang up almost…
- New Books in American Studies
Corey Robin, "The Enigma of Clarence Thomas" (Metropolitan Books, 2019)
Most people can tell you two things about Clarence Thomas: Anita Hill accused him of sexual harassment, and he almost never speaks from the bench. Here are…
- New Books in American Studies
Craig L. Symonds, "Nimitz at War: Command Leadership from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay" (Oxford UP, 2022)
Only days after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt tapped Chester W. Nimitz to assume command of the Pacific Fleet. Nimitz was…
- New Books in American Studies
Victoria Reyes, "Academic Outsider: Stories of Exclusion and Hope" (Stanford UP, 2022)
In Academic Outsider: Stories of Exclusion and Hope (Stanford University Press, 2022), sociologist Victoria Reyes combines her personal experiences with…
- New Books in American Studies
Charlie Jeffries, "Teenage Dreams: Girlhood Sexualities in the U.S. Culture Wars" (Rutgers UP, 2022)
Utilizing a breadth of archival sources from activists, artists, and policymakers, Charlie Jeffries' Teenage Dreams: Girlhood Sexualities in the U.S. Culture…
- New Books in American Studies
Ethan W. Ris, "Other People's Colleges: The Origins of American Higher Education Reform" (U Chicago Press, 2022)
For well over one hundred years, people have been attempting to make American colleges and universities more efficient and more accountable. Indeed, Ethan Ris…
- New Books in American Studies
Juan Pablo Scarfi and David M. K. Sheinin, "The New Pan-Americanism and the Structuring of Inter-American Relations" (Routledge, 2022)
In The New Pan-Americanism and the Structuring of Inter-American Relations (Routledge, 2022), David Sheinin and Juan Pablo Scarfi bring together articles that…
- New Books in American Studies
Lindsay Pérez Huber and Susana M. Muñoz, "Why They Hate Us: How Racist Rhetoric Impacts Education" (Teachers College Press, 2021)
Why They Hate Us: How Racist Rhetoric Impacts Education (Teachers College Press, 2021) examines how racist political rhetoric has created damaging and…
- New Books in American Studies
Matt Stoller, "Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy" (Simon & Schuster, 2020)
In Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy (Simon & Schuster, 2019), Matt Stoller explains how authoritarianism and populism have…
- New Books in American Studies
The Revolution Will Not Be Streamed: The Intellectual Culture of Twitch Streamers
It was billed as “the biggest event in the history of the terminally online.” A debate: socialism vs. capitalism. On your left side, the esteemed Marxist…
- New Books in American Studies
Emily O. Wittman, "Interwar Itineraries: Authenticity in Anglophone and French Travel Writing" (Amherst College Press, 2022)
How people traveled, and how people wrote about travel, changed in the interwar years. Novel technologies eased travel conditions, breeding new iterations of…
- New Books in American Studies
Lisa Ford, "The King's Peace: Law and Order in the British Empire" (Harvard UP, 2021)
Dr. Lisa Ford, Professor of History at the University of New South Wales, is the author of prize-winning monographs and a luminary in the field of global legal…
- New Books in American Studies
Megan Threlkeld, "Citizens of the World: U. S. Women and Global Government" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022)
In Citizens of the World: U.S. Women and Global Government (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022), Megan Threlkeld profiles nine American women in the first…
- New Books in American Studies
Socialise the Series of Tubes: Toward a Democratic Internet
Recently a major outage took nearly a third of Canada offline. No phone, no internet… even access to 911 got shut down in some places. So why does one company…
- New Books in American Studies
Alan John Ainsworth, "Sight Readings: Photographers and American Jazz, 1900-1960" (Intellect, 2022)
Alan John Ainsworth's book Sight Readings: Photographers and American Jazz, 1900-1960 (Intellect, 2022) explores the work of a wide range of American…
- New Books in American Studies
Daniel Laurison, "Producing Politics: Inside the Exclusive Campaign World Where the Privileged Few Shape Politics for All of Us" (Beacon Press, 2022)
Who runs American politics? In Producing Politics: Inside the Exclusive Campaign World Where the Privileged Few Shape Politics for All of Us (Beacon Press…
- New Books in American Studies
John M. Shaw, "Following the Drums: African American Fife and Drum Music in Tennessee" (UP of Mississippi, 2022)
Following the Drums: African American Fife and Drum Music in Tennessee (University Press of Mississippi, 2022) is an epic history of a little-known African…
- New Books in American Studies
Mark Solovey, "Social Science for What? Battles over Public Funding for the 'Other Sciences' at the National Science Foundation" (MIT Press, 2020)
This is part two of a two part interview. Mark Solovey’s ‘Social Science for What?’ is essential reading for anyone in either the history of science policy or…
- New Books in American Studies
Will Jawando, "My Seven Black Fathers: A Young Activist's Memoir of Race, Family, and the Mentors Who Made Him Whole" (FSG, 2022)
Will Jawando tells a deeply affirmative story of hope and respect for men of color at a time when Black men are routinely stigmatized. As a boy growing up…
- New Books in American Studies
Hawa Allan, "Insurrection: Rebellion, Civil Rights, and the Paradoxical State of Black Citizenship" (Norton, 2022)
The little-known and under-studied 1807 Insurrection Act was passed to give the president the ability to deploy federal military forces to fend off lawlessness…
- New Books in American Studies
Paisley Currah, "Sex Is as Sex Does: Governing Transgender Identity" (NYU Press, 2022)
Every government agency in the United States, from Homeland Security to Departments of Motor Vehicles, has the authority to make its own rules for sex…
- New Books in American Studies
Peter H. Wood, "Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 Through the Stono Rebellion" (Norton, 1996)
Welcome to New Books in African American Studies, a podcast channel on the New Books Network. I am your host, Adam Xavier McNeil. Today’s podcast is special…