New Books Network
History
History March 2, 2021

Calhoun

American Heretic

Robert Elder

Hosted by Lane Davis
In Calhoun: American Heretic (Basic Books, 2021), historian Robert Elder documents the life and thought of one of America's most controversial statesman, John C. Calhoun. A congressman, a vice president, and …

Subscribe to

History

on the NBN

RSS Spotify Stitcher Apple
American West March 2, 2021

The Port of Missing Men

Billy Gohl, Labor, and Brutal Times in the Pacific Northwest

Aaron Goings

Hosted by Ryan Tate
In the early twentieth century so many dead bodies surfaced in the rivers around Aberdeen, Washington, that they were nicknamed the "floater fleet." When Billy Gohl (1873-1927), a powerful union …
History March 2, 2021

The Dutch in the Early Modern World

A History of a Global Power

David Onnekink and Gijs Rommelse

Hosted by Jana Byars
David Onnekink, professor of early modern history at the University of Utrecht discusses his latest book, the delightful, The Dutch in the Early Modern World: History of a Global Power …
Christian Studies March 2, 2021

Duty and Destiny

The Life and Faith of Winston Churchill

Gary Scott Smith

Hosted by Zachary McCulley
Though Churchill harbored intellectual doubts about Christianity throughout his life, he nevertheless valued it greatly and drew on its resources, especially in the crucible of war. In Duty and Destiny …
Central Asian Studies March 2, 2021

The Russian Conquest of Central Asia

A Study in Imperial Expansion, 1814–1914

Alexander Morrison

Hosted by Nicholas Seay
Alexander Morrison’s study of the conquest of Central Asia offers new perspectives on a topic long obscured by misleading grand narratives. Based on years of research in several countries, The Russian …
History March 2, 2021

Strategic Imaginations

Women and the Gender of Sovereignty in European Culture

Anke Gilleir and Aude Defurne

Hosted by Jana Byars
This episode of New Books in History features an interview with Anke Gilleir, professor of Modern German Literature at KU Leuven, about her new edited volume, Strategic Imaginations: Women and the …
Indian Religions March 2, 2021

Yoga in Jainism

Christopher Chapple

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Jaina Studies is a relatively new and rapidly expanding field of inquiry for scholars of Indian religion and philosophy. In Jainism, "yoga" carries many meanings, and this book explores the …
Military History March 2, 2021

Robert E. Lee and Me

A Southerner's Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause

Ty Seidule

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
Almost right after the guns fell silent, a counter-factual and ultimately pernicious narrative of the Civil War took shape that proved to be one of the longest lasting and most …
Political Science March 1, 2021

The Eagles of Heart Mountain

A True Story of Football, Incarceration and Resistance in World War II America

Bradford Pearson

Hosted by Susan Liebell
Many scholars have interrogated the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese-Americans during WWII – with an eye to understanding the particular type of racism that allowed the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast March 1, 2021

The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer

A Discussion with Marion Turner

Marion Turner

Hosted by Marshall Poe
More than any other canonical English writer, Geoffrey Chaucer lived and worked at the centre of political life—yet his poems are anything but conventional. Edgy, complicated, and often dark, they …
Popular Culture March 1, 2021

Damaged

Musicality and Race in Early American Punk

Evan Rapport

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Damaged: Musicality and Race in Early American Punk (University Press of Mississippi, 2020) is the first book-length portrait of punk as a musical style with an emphasis on how punk developed …
Biography March 1, 2021

The Afterlife of Anne Boleyn

Representations of Anne Boleyn in Fiction and on the Screen

Stephanie Russo

Hosted by Mark Klobas
In the centuries since her execution in 1536, Anne Boleyn’s presence in Western culture has grown to extraordinary proportions. In The Afterlife of Anne Boleyn: Representations of Anne Boleyn in …
History February 26, 2021

Pirating and Publishing

The Book Trade in the Age of Enlightenment

Robert Darnton

Hosted by Zachary McCulley
In the late-18th century, a group of publishers in what historian Robert Darnton calls the "Fertile Crescent" — countries located along the French border, stretching from Holland to Switzerland — …
East Asian Studies February 26, 2021

The Sea and the Sacred in Japan

Aspects of Maritime Religion

Fabio Rambelli

Hosted by Daigengna Duoer
In The Sea and the Sacred in Japan: Aspects of Maritime Religion (Bloomsbury 2018), Fabio Rambelli invites various fifteen scholars of Japanese religions to reflect on a well taken-for-granted fact: although the sea …
South Asian Studies February 26, 2021

Rethinking Markets in Modern India

Embedded Exchange and Contested Jurisdiction

A. Gandhi, B. Harriss-White, D. E. Haynes and S. Schwecke

Hosted by Saronik Bosu
Modern markets and exchange, compared with other social and political spheres, are seen through technical abstractions. This intellectual compartmentalization has political consequences: if capitalism operates through arcane, objective, and rational …
History February 26, 2021

Ruling Culture

Art Police, Tomb Robbers, and the Rise of Cultural Power in Italy

Fiona Greenland

Hosted by Jana Byars
Today we are joined by Fiona Greenland, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, to talk about her new book, Ruling Culture: Art Police, Tomb Raiders, and the …
Asian Review of Books February 25, 2021

Bombay Hustle

Making Movies in a Colonial City

Debashree Mukherjee

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
In 1935, the writer Baburao Patel writes the following about Bombay’s film industry: “In India, with financing conditions still precarious, the professional film distributor thrives. . . . He comes …
Critical Theory February 24, 2021

Penguin Books and Political Change

Britain's Meritocratic Moment, 1937–1988

Dean Blackburn

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
Why do books and publishing matter to the contemporary history of Britain? In Penguin Books and Political Change: Britain's Meritocratic Moment, 1937–1988 (Manchester UP, 2020), Dean Blackburn, a Lecturer in Modern …
Indian Religions February 24, 2021

Education and Modernity in Colonial Punjab

Khalsa College, the Sikh Tradition and the Webs of Knowledge, 1880-1947

Michale P. Brunner

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Michael P. Brunner's Education and Modernity in Colonial Punjab: Khalsa College, the Sikh Tradition and the Webs of Knowledge, 1880-1947 (Palgrave, 2020) explores the localisation of modernity in late colonial India.  As a …
East Asian Studies February 24, 2021

Buddhism after Mao

Negotiations, Continuities, and Reinventions

Zhe Ji, Gareth Fisher, André Laliberté

Hosted by Daigengna Duoer
With over 100 million followers, Buddhism in the People's Republic of China now fosters the largest community in the world of individuals who self-identify as Buddhists. Although Buddhism was harshly persecuted …