New Books in American Studies

Paul Koudounaris, "Faithful Unto Death: Pet Cemeteries, Animal Graves, and Eternal Devotion" (Thames & Hudson, 2024)

09 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Losing a pet has always been a unique kind of pain. No set rituals exist to help provide closure when pets die, there are no readily shared passages f...

Paul Volcker: “The only number that works is zero”

09 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

More than any other global institution, the US Federal Reserve’s decisions and communications drive capital markets and alter financial conditions e...

Jonathan Butler, "Join the Conspiracy: How a Brooklyn Eccentric Got Lost on the Right, Infiltrated the Left and Brought Down the Biggest Bombing Network in New York" (Fordham UP, 2024)

09 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the shadow of recent turmoil, Join the Conspiracy: How a Brooklyn Eccentric Got Lost on the Right, Infiltrated the Left and Brought Down the Bigge...

Daniel Kahneman’s Forgotten Legacy: Investigating Exxon-Funded Psychological Research

09 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After the unprecedented Exxon Valdez oil spill, a jury of ordinary Alaskans decided that Exxon had to be punished. However, Exxon fought back against ...

Samuel C. Heilman and Mucahit Bilici, "Following Similar Paths: What American Jews and Muslims Can Learn from One Another" (U California Press, 2024)

09 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Two academics, one Jewish and one Muslim, come together to show how much their faiths have in common—particularly in America. This book provides a b...

Neoliberalism and the University, Part 2

09 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is the Global Media & Communication podcast series. This podcast is a multimodal project powered by the Center for Advanced Research in Global Co...

Laura Zurowski et al., "City Steps of Pittsburgh: A History & Guide" (History Press, 2024)

08 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Pittsburgh, the elevation varies wildly, fluctuating 660 feet from highest to lowest points throughout the area and making it one of the hilliest c...

Arthur Burns: “The smartest guy in the room”

08 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

More than any other global institution, the US Federal Reserve’s decisions and communications drive capital markets and alter financial conditions e...

Nora Stone, "How Documentaries Went Mainstream: A History, 1960-2022" (Oxford UP, 2023)

08 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How Documentaries Went Mainstream: A History, 1960-2022 (Oxford University Press, 2023) provides a more comprehensive and meaningful periodization of...

Samuel Ely Bagg, "The Dispersion of Power: A Critical Realist Theory of Democracy" (Oxford UP, 2023)

07 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This year, many countries around the world, including most of the world's most populous democracies, have consequential nation-wide elections. In many...

Bill Martin: “Truman looked at him and said: ‘Traitor’”

07 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

More than any other global institution, the US Federal Reserve’s decisions and communications drive capital markets and alter financial conditions e...

Melissa Fitzgerald and Mary McCormack, "What's Next: A Backstage Pass to The West Wing, Its Cast and Crew, and Its Enduring Legacy of Service" (Dutton, 2024)

07 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Twenty-five years ago, The West Wing premiered to great acclaim. This book is a behind-the-scenes look into the creation and legacy of the series,...

The Role of Psychoanalytic Mechanisms of Defense; What They Are and How They Work

07 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Using one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s major ideas as a springboard for their discussion, “The truth will set you free,” the host and co-host...

Tore C. Olsson, "Red Dead's History: A Video Game, an Obsession, and America's Violent Past" (St. Martin's Press, 2024)

06 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption II, set in 1911 and 1899, are the most-played American history video games since The Oregon Trail. Beloved...

Franz Nicolay, "Band People: Life and Work in Popular Music" (U Texas Press, 2024)

06 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A close look at the lives of working musicians who aren't the center of their stage. Secret (and not-so-secret) weapons, side-of-the-stagers, rhythm a...

Emily Cousens, "Trans Feminist Epistemologies in the US Second Wave" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)

06 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why do "second wave" and "trans feminism" rarely get considered together? Challenging the idea that trans feminism is antagonistic to, or arrived afte...

Alexandra Popoff, "Ayn Rand: Writing a Gospel of Success" (Yale UP, 2024)

06 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ayn Rand is a provocative and polarizing figure. Strongly pro-capitalist and anti-communist, Rand was a dogmatic preacher of her moral philosophy. Bas...

Marriner Eccles: Reform “may not have happened in 1935 if Eccles hadn't been there”

06 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

More than any other global institution, the US Federal Reserve’s decisions and communications drive capital markets and alter financial conditions e...

Race, Gender, and the 2024 Presidential Election Cycle

05 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Vice President Kamala Harris is poised to become the Democratic Party’s nominee for president. The path to this nomination and the generation electi...

Katherine Hempstead, "Uncovered: The Story of Insurance in America" (Oxford UP, 2023)

05 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Historically, the insurance industry in America has been fragmented. As a result, there have been debates and conflicts over the proper roles of feder...

Anne Gray Fischer, "The Streets Belong to Us: Sex, Race, and Police Power from Segregation to Gentrification" (UNC Press, 2022)

05 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Anne Gray Fischer speaks about her path to and through research, including how sex workers informed her analysis of policing and state violence, the...

Gregory A. Daddis, "Pulp Vietnam: War and Gender in Cold War Men’s Adventure Magazines" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

05 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In his compelling evaluation of Cold War popular culture, Pulp Vietnam: War and Gender in Cold War Men’s Adventure Magazines (Cambridge UP, 2020), G...

Petra Goedde, "The Politics of Peace: A Global Cold War History" (Oxford UP, 2019)

04 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier histories of the Cold War haven’t exactly been charitable toward the peace activists and pacifists who led peace initiatives. Pacifists in t...

Nadirah Simmons, "First Things First: Hip-Hop Ladies Who Changed the Game" (Twelve, 2024)

04 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This enlightening book reframes the history of hip-hop—and this time, women are given credit for all their trailblazing achievements that have left ...

Yiman Wang, "To Be an Actress: Labor and Performance in Anna May Wong's Cross-Media World" (U California Press, 2024)

04 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Between 1919 and 1961, pioneering Chinese American actress Anna May Wong established an enduring legacy that encompassed cinema, theatre, radio, and A...

Kate Hext, "Wilde in the Dream Factory: Decadence and the American Movies" (Oxford UP, 2024)

03 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Hollywood is haunted by the ghost of playwright and novelist Oscar Wilde. Wilde in the Dream Factory: Decadence and the American Movies (Oxford Univ...

Nik Ribianszky, "Generations of Freedom: Gender, Movement, and Violence in Natchez, 1779-1865" (U Georgia Press, 2021)

03 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Generations of Freedom: Gender, Movement, and Violence in Natchez, 1779-1865 (U Georgia Press, 2021), Nik Ribianszky employs the lenses of gender...

Susan Stryker, "When Monsters Speak: A Susan Stryker Reader" (Duke UP, 2024)

03 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Susan Stryker is a foundational figure in trans studies. When Monsters Speak: A Susan Stryker Reader (Duke UP, 2024) showcases the development of St...

Neoliberalism and the University, Part 1

02 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is the Global Media & Communication podcast series. This podcast is a multimodal project powered by the Center for Advanced Research in Global Co...

Mitchel P. Roth and Mahmut Cengiz, "Murder by Mail: A Global History of the Letter Bomb" (Reaktion Books, 2024)

02 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Murder by Mail: A Global History of the Letter Bomb (Reaktion, 2024) by Dr. Mitchel P. Roth and Dr. Mahmut Cengiz unfolds the gripping history of wea...

Edward Kaplan, "The End of Victory: Prevailing in the Thermonuclear Age" (Cornell UP, 2022)

02 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Waging and winning a nuclear war have been called “thinking about the unthinkable” but that’s exactly what Edward Kaplan and I discussed in our ...

Robert Baker, "Making Modern Medical Ethics: How African Americans, Anti-Nazis, Bureaucrats, Feminists, Veterans, and Whistleblowing Moralists Created Bioethics" (MIT Press, 2024)

02 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The little-known stories of the people responsible for what we know today as modern medical ethics. In Making Modern Medical Ethics: How African Amer...

Shaul Magid on the Jewish Radicalism of Meir Kahane (JP, Eugene Sheppard)

01 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For Kahane, the greatest enemy of the Jews was not the black nationalist, the greatest enemy of the Jews was not the Arabs. The greatest enemy of the ...

Pawel Armada, "Humanism As Realism: Three Essays Concerning the Thought of Paul Elmer More and Irving Babbitt" (St. Augustine's Press, 2023)

31 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Originally published in Polish in 2019 by The Lethe Foundation, Humanism As Realism: Three Essays Concerning the Thought of Paul Elmer More and Irvin...

Jessica S. Henry, "Smoke But No Fire: Convicting the Innocent of Crimes that Never Happened" (U California Press, 2021)

31 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jessica Henry's Smoke But No Fire: Convicting the Innocent of Crimes that Never Happened (U California Press, 2021) explores a shocking but all-too...

Stephen J. Pyne, "Pyrocene Park: A Journey Into the Fire History of Yosemite National Park" (U Arizona Press, 2023)

30 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How is Yosemite National Park a microcosm for our warming, fire-driven, world?  Arizona State University emeritus professor Stephen Pyne answers that...

Jim Higgins, "Sweet, Wild and Vicious: Listening to Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground" (Trouser Press, 2024)

30 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From the time he began recording with the Velvet Underground in the 1960s until his death in 2013, Lou Reed released nearly 50 original albums. In Sw...

Christopher T. Fan, "Asian American Fiction After 1965: Transnational Fantasies of Economic Mobility" (Columbia UP, 2024)

29 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

After the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act loosened discriminatory restrictions, people from Northeast Asian countries such as South Korea, Taiwan...

David Pozen, "The Constitution of the War on Drugs" (Oxford UP, 2024)

29 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The U.S. government's decades-long "war on drugs" is increasingly recognized as a moral travesty as well as a policy failure. The criminalization of s...

Laura Yares, "Jewish Sunday Schools: Teaching Religion in Nineteenth-Century America" (NYU Press, 2023)

28 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The earliest Jewish Sunday schools were female-led, growing from one school in Philadelphia established by Rebecca Gratz in 1838 to an entire system t...

Prithi Kanakamedala, "Brooklynites: The Remarkable Story of the Free Black Communities that Shaped a Borough" (NYU Press, 2024)

28 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Meet the Black Brooklynites who defined New York City's most populous borough through their search for social justice. Before it was a borough, Brookl...

Musa al-Gharbi, "We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of a New Elite" (Princeton UP, 2024)

28 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How a new "woke" elite uses the language of social justice to gain more power and status--without helping the marginalized and disadvantaged. Society ...

Sheila Curran Bernard, "Bring Judgment Day: Reclaiming Lead Belly's Truths from Jim Crow's Lies" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

28 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Known worldwide as Lead Belly, Huddie Ledbetter (1889-1949) is an American icon whose influence on modern music was tremendous - as was, according to ...

Kathleen Loock, "Hollywood Remaking: How Film Remakes, Sequels, and Franchises Shape Industry and Culture" (U California Press, 2024)

27 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From the inception of cinema to today’s franchise era, remaking has always been a motor of ongoing film production. Hollywood Remaking: How Film Re...

Derek Taira, "Forward without Fear: Native Hawaiians and American Education in Territorial Hawai'i, 1900-1941" (U Nebraska Press, 2024)

27 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

During Hawai‘i’s territorial period (1900–1959), Native Hawaiians resisted assimilation by refusing to replace Native culture, identity, and his...

Lindsay Goss, "F*ck The Army!: How Soldiers and Civilians Staged the GI Movement to End the Vietnam War" (NYU Press, 2024)

27 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

F*ck The Army! How Soldiers and Civilians Staged the GI Movement to End the Vietnam War (NYU Press, 2024) offers a comprehensive history of the FTA, ...

Miriam Eve Mora, "Carrying a Big Schtick: Jewish Acculturation and Masculinity in the Twentieth Century" (Wayne State UP, 2024)

27 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For twentieth-century Jewish immigrants and their children attempting to gain full access to American society, performative masculinity was a tool of ...

Rosemary Pennington, "Pop Islam: Seeing American Muslims in Popular Media" (Indiana UP, 2024)

26 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As Muslim American representation becomes more prominent in popular culture, how are they continued to be portrayed?  Rosemary Pennington's new boo...

Jonathan Branfman, "Millennial Jewish Stars: Navigating Racial Antisemitism, Masculinity, and White Supremacy" (NYU Press, 2024)

26 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jewish stars have longed faced pressure to downplay Jewish identity for fear of alienating wider audiences. But unexpectedly, since the 2000s, many mi...

40 Years of Purple Rain: What to Make of the Movie/Album in 2024

25 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the UConn Popcast, and Purple Rain, Prince’s semi-autobiographical, semi-concert film, hit cinemas 40 years ago this week. The movie followed...

Postscript: Changing Dynamics in the Presidential Race, 2024

25 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Republican Party held its nominating convention a week ago in Milwaukee, formally nominating former President Donald Trump as the standard-bearer ...

Steven Powell, "Love Me Fierce In Danger: The Life of James Ellroy" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

25 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Love Me Fierce In Danger: The Life of James Ellroy (Bloomsbury, 2023) is the story of James Ellroy, one of the most provocative and singular figures ...

Ben Kaplan and Danny Parkins, "Pipeline to the Pros: How D3 Small-College Nobodies Rose to Rule the NBA" (Triumph Books, 2024)

24 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to Ben Kaplan about his new book (co-authored with Danny Parkins) Pipeline to the Pros: How D3 Small-College Nobodies Rose to Rule t...

Quantifying the American Mind: George Gallup, and the Promise of Political Polling

24 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Early pollsters thought they had the psychological tools to quantify American mind, thereby enabling a truly democratic polity that would be governed ...

Steven K. Bailey, "Target Hong Kong: A True Story of U.S. Navy Pilots at War" (Osprey, 2024)

23 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In January 1945, the final year of the Pacific War, Japanese-held Hong Kong became the site of coordinated attacks by the U.S. Navy on Japanese warshi...

Patrick McKelvey, "Disability Works: Performance After Rehabilitation" (NYU Press, 2024)

23 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1967, the US government funded the National Theatre of the Deaf, a groundbreaking rehabilitation initiative employing deaf actors. This project ali...

Kevin Mattson, "We're Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America" (Oxford UP, 2020)

22 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In his new book, We're Not Here to Entertain: Punk Rock, Ronald Reagan, and the Real Culture War of 1980s America (Oxford UP, 2020), Kevin Mattson d...

Lisandro Perez, “Sugar, Cigars and Revolution: The Making of Cuban New York” (NYU Press, 2018)

22 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A new book reveals an incredible slice of Cuban-American history that’s been all but forgotten until now. Lisandro Perez‘s Sugar, Cigars and Rev...

David E. Kaiser, “The Road to Dallas: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy” (Harvard UP, 2008)

22 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There are some topics that historians know not to touch. They are just too hot (or too cold). The assassination of JFK is one of them. Most scholars w...

Gavriel D. Rosenfeld and Janet Ward, "Fascism in America: Past and Present" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

22 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Has fascism arrived in America?  In Fascism in America: Past and Present (Cambridge UP, 2023), Gavriel D. Rosenfeld and Janet Ward have gathered ex...

Steve Gillon, “The Kennedy Assassination: 24 Hours After” (Basic Books, 2009)

21 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

You could fill a large library with books about JFK’s assassination. We’ve even touched on the subject here. The topic of the transfer of power fr...

Arie Perliger, "American Zealots: Inside Right-Wing Domestic Terrorism" (Columbia UP, 2020)

21 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In an unsettling time in American history, the outbreak of right-wing violence is among the most disturbing developments. In recent years, attacks ori...

Tiffany Gill, "To Turn the Whole World Over: Black Women and Internationalism" (U Illinois Press, 2019)

21 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Black women undertook an energetic and unprecedented engagement with internationalism from the late nineteenth century to the 1970s. In many cases, th...

Francine Banner, "Beyond Complicity: Why We Blame Each Other Instead of Systems" (U California Press, 2024)

21 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Beyond Complicity: Why We Blame Each Other Instead of Systems (University of California Press, 2024) by Dr. Francine Banner is a fascinating cultural...

Donald L. Miller, "Vicksburg: Grant’s Campaign that Broke the Confederacy" (Simon and Schuster, 2019)

21 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Vicksburg: Grant’s Campaign that Broke the Confederacy (Simon & Schuster, 2019), Donald L. Miller explains in great detail how Grant ultimately s...

Breanne Fahs, "Burn It Down: Feminist Manifestos for the Revolution" (Verso, 2020)

21 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Burn It Down: Feminist Manifestos for the Revolution (Verso, 2020), Breanne Fahs has curated a comprehensive collection of feminist manifestos from t...

Ujju Aggarwal, "Unsettling Choice: Race, Rights, and the Partitioning of Public Education" (U Minnesota Press, 2024)

20 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What do universal rights to public goods like education mean when codified as individual, private choices? Is the “problem” of school choice actua...

Pekka Hämäläinen, "Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power" (Yale UP, 2019)

20 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The names of Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, and Crazy Horse are often readily recognized among many Americans. Yet the longer, dynamic history of the Lakota...

Matt Stoller, "Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy" (Simon & Schuster, 2020)

20 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy (Simon & Schuster, 2019), Matt Stoller explains how authoritarianism and populism ...

Michael J. Douma, "The Slow Death of Slavery in Dutch New York: A Cultural, Economic, and Demographic History, 1700-1827" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

20 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Original and deeply researched, The Slow Death of Slavery in Dutch New York: A Cultural, Economic, and Demographic History, 1700-1827 (Cambridge Un...

Sören Schoppmeier, "Playing American: Open-World Videogames and the Reproduction of American Culture" (De Gruyter, 2023)

19 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Videogames have always depicted representations of American culture, but how exactly they feed back into this culture is less obvious. Advocating an a...

Hamilton Nolan, "The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor" (Hachette Books, 2024)

19 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Inequality is America's biggest problem. Unions are the single strongest tool that working people have to fix it. Organized labor has been in decline ...

Diana P. Parsell, "Eliza Scidmore: The Trailblazing Journalist Behind Washington's Cherry Trees" (Oxford UP, 2023)

18 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Eliza Scidmore (1856-1928) was a journalist, a world traveler, a writer, an amateur photographer, the first female board member of the National Geogra...

Freeman's Challenge: The Murder That Shook America's Original Prison for Profit

18 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today’s book is: Freeman’s Challenge: The Murder That Shook America’s Original Prison for Profit (U Chicago Press, 2024), by Dr. Robin Bernste...

Kevin Loughran, "Parks for Profit: Selling Nature in the City" (Columbia UP, 2022)

18 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A new kind of city park has emerged in the early twenty-first century. Postindustrial parks transform the derelict remnants of an urban past into dist...

Thomas Zeller, "Consuming Landscapes: What We See When We Drive and Why It Matters" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2022)

17 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What we see through our windshields reflects ideas about our national identity, consumerism, and infrastructure. For better or worse, windshields have...

Michael Willrich, "American Anarchy: The Epic Struggle between Immigrant Radicals and the US Government at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century" (Basic Books, 2023)

16 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the early twentieth century, anarchists like Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman championed a radical vision of a world without states, laws, or pri...

Melissa E. Anderson, "Inland Empire" (Fireflies Press, 2021)

16 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

"A woman in trouble" In her monograph Inland Empire (Fireflies Press, 2021), film critic Melissa Anderson explores meaning (or the impossibility the...

James Mallery, "City of Vice: Transience and San Francisco's Urban History, 1848-1917" (U Nebraska Press, 2024)

16 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

San Francisco began its American life as a city largely made up of transient men, arriving from afar to participate in the gold rush and various atte...

Jacob Lee, "Masters of the Middle Waters: Indian Nations and Colonial Ambitions Along the Mississippi" (Harvard UP, 2019)

16 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

America’s waterways were once the superhighways of travel and communication. Coursing through a central line across the landscape, with tributaries ...

Charly Palmer and Karida Brown, "The New Brownies' Book: A Love Letter to Black Families" (Chronicle Books, 2023)

15 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1920, W. E. B. Du Bois and the NAACP founders published The Brownies’ Book: A Monthly Magazine for Children of the Sun. A century later, The Ne...

Emily J. Lordi, "The Meaning of Soul: Black Music and Resilience Since the 1960s" (Duke UP, 2020)

15 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Soul is one of those concepts that is often evoked, but rarely satisfactorily defined. In The Meaning of Soul: Black Music and Resilience Since the 19...

Jill A. Fisher, "Adverse Events: Race, Inequality, and the Testing of New Pharmaceuticals" (NYU Press, 2020)

15 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine that you volunteer for the clinical trial of an experimental drug. The only direct benefit of participating is that you will receive up to $5,...

Kevin Leo Nadal, "Queering Law and Order: LGBTQ Communities and the Criminal Justice System" (Lexington Book, 2020)

14 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Throughout US history, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people have been pathologized, victimized, and criminalized. Reports of ...

Mark Peterson, "The City-State of Boston: The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic Power" (Princeton UP, 2019)

14 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the vaunted annals of America’s founding, Boston has long been held up as an exemplary “city upon a hill” and the “cradle of liberty” for...

Mónica A. Jiménez, "Making Never-Never Land: Race and Law in the Creation of Puerto Rico" (UNC Press, 2024)

14 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Myths about the powers held by the United States are often supported by the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, which derives its logic from the interp...

Kristin J. Jacobson, "The American Adrenaline Narrative" (U Georgia Press, 2020)

14 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Kristin J. Jacobson In her new book, The American Adrenaline Narrative (University of Georgia Press), Kristin Jacobson considers the nature of peril...

Walaa Quisay, "Neo-Traditionalism in Islam in the West" (Edinburgh UP, 2023)

12 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this very exciting book that I couldn’t put down - Neo-Traditionalism in Islam in the West: Orthodoxy, Spirituality, and Politics (Edinburgh U...

Heidi Honeycutt, "I Spit on Your Celluloid: The History of Women Directing Horror Movies" (Headpress, 2024)

12 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

I Spit On Your Celluloid: The History of Women Directing Horror Movies (Headpress, 2024) by Heidi Honeycutt is the first book-length history of fema...

Tea Krulos, "American Madness: The Story of the Phantom Patriot and How Conspiracy Theories Hijacked American Consciousness" (Feral House, 2020)

12 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The mainstream news media struggles to understand the power of social media. In contrast, conspiracy advocates, malicious political movements, and eve...

Maya Pagni Barak, "The Slow Violence of Immigration Court: Procedural Justice on Trial" (NYU Press, 2023)

11 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Each year, hundreds of thousands of migrants are moved through immigration court. With a national backlog surpassing one million cases, court hearings...

Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism—and What Comes Next

11 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Watching the footage of the January 6 insurrection, Professor Bradley Onishi wondered: If I hadn't left evangelicalism, would I have been there? Toda...

Theresa McCulla, "Insatiable City: Food and Race in New Orleans" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

11 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A history of food in the Crescent City that explores race, power, social status, and labor. In Insatiable City: Food and Race in New Orleans (U Chic...

William Gow, "Performing Chinatown: Hollywood, Tourism, and the Making of a Chinese American Community" (Stanford UP, 2024)

10 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This episode features a conversation with Dr. William Gow on his recently published book, Performing Chinatown: Hollywood, Tourism, and the Making of...

Kellie Carter Jackson, "We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance" (Seal Press, 2024)

10 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Black resistance to white supremacy is often reduced to a simple binary, between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolence and Malcolm X’s “by an...

Premal Dharia et al., "Dismantling Mass Incarceration: A Handbook for Change" (FSG Originals, 2024)

09 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In recent years, a searching national conversation has called attention to the social and racial injustices that define America’s criminal system. T...

David Alff, "The Northeast Corridor: The Trains, the People, the History, the Region" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

09 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Traversed by thousands of trains and millions of riders, the Northeast Corridor might be America’s most famous railway, but its influence goes far b...

Neil J. Young, "Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

09 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right (U Chicago Press, 2024) is a fascinating and engaging historical tour of those who were gay and a...

Natasha L. Mikles, "Shattered Grief: How the Pandemic Transformed the Spirituality of Death in America" (Columbia UP, 2024)

08 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The COVID-19 pandemic left millions grieving their loved ones without the consolation of traditional ways of mourning. Patients were admitted to hospi...

Jonathan Tran, "Asian Americans and the Spirit of Racial Capitalism" (Oxford UP, 2021)

07 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Any serious consideration of Asian American life forces us to reframe the way we talk about racism and antiracism. There are two contemporary approach...