New Books in American Studies
Episodes
Andy Cowan, "B-Side: Pop History Via Its Greatest B-Sides, 1917-2017" (Headpress, 2023)
04 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book B-Sides: Pop History Via Its Greatest B-Sides, 1917-2017 (Headpress, 2023), Andy Cowan explores a century of music b-sides. Pop m...
Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey, "Cross-Border Cosmopolitans: The Making of a Pan-African North America" (UNC Press, 2023)
04 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Twentieth-century African American history cannot be told without accounting for the significant influence of Pan-African thought, just as the story o...
Elizabeth Carpenter-Song, "Families on the Edge: Experiences of Homelessness and Care in Rural New England" (MIT Press, 2023)
04 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An intimate account of rural New England families living on the edge of homelessness, as well as the practices and policies of care that fail them. F...
Tamara J. Walker, "Beyond the Shores: A History of African Americans Abroad" (Crown, 2023)
04 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Part historical exploration, part travel memoir, Beyond the Shores: A History of African Americans Abroad (Crown, 2023) reveals poignant histories o...
Joshua Cohen’s "The Netanyahus" (JP, Eugene Sheppard)
03 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
n this episode (originally aired by our partner Novel Dialogue) John and his Brandeis colleague Eugene Sheppard speak with Joshua Cohen about T...
Olivier Burtin, "A Nation of Veterans: War, Citizenship, and the Welfare State in Modern America" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022)
03 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In examining how the veterans' movement inscribed martial citizenship onto American law, politics, and culture, A Nation of Veterans: War, Citizensh...
Marketing the Moon: The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program
03 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In July 1969, ninety-four percent of American televisions were tuned to coverage of Apollo 11's mission to the moon. How did space exploration, once t...
Thurka Sangaramoorthy, "Landscapes of Care: Immigration and Health in Rural America" (UNC Press, 2023)
03 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Landscapes of Care: Immigration and Health in Rural America (UNC Press, 2023) examines the ways immigrants, mainly from Latin America and the Caribbe...
Jill L. Newmark, "Without Concealment, Without Compromise: The Courageous Lives of Black Civil War Surgeons" (Southern Illinois UP, 2023)
03 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Of some twelve thousand Union Civil War surgeons, only fourteen were Black men. This book is the first-ever comprehensive exploration of their lives a...
Colleen M. Grogan, "Grow and Hide: The History of America's Health Care State" (Oxford UP, 2023)
02 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A sweeping history of the American health care state that reveals the public has been intentionally misled about the true role of government. The US g...
Nicholas Lemann, "Transaction Man: The Rise of the Deal and the Decline of the American Dream" (FSG, 2019)
02 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Nicholas Lemann is a staff writer at the New Yorker and a professor of journalism at Columbia. He is the author of four books, the most recent of whic...
James B. Conroy, "The Devils Will Get No Rest: FDR, Churchill, and the Plan That Won the War" (Simon and Schuster, 2023)
02 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Devils Will Get No Rest: FDR, Churchill, and the Plan That Won the War (Simon and Schuster, 2023) is a character-driven account of the Casablanca...
Kathryn Cramer Brownell, "24/7 Politics: Cable Television and the Fragmenting of America from Watergate to Fox News" (Princeton UP, 2023)
01 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As television began to overtake the political landscape in the 1960s, network broadcast companies, bolstered by powerful lobbying interests, dominated...
Talking Clarence Thomas: A Conversation with Amul Thapar
01 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As the last few months of landmark Supreme Court decisions have showcased, Clarence Thomas is one of the most important men in America. To wrap up our...
Blair Kelley, "Black Folk: The Roots of the Black Working Class" (LIveright, 2023)
31 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the United States, the stoicism and importance of the “working class” is part of the national myth. The term is often used to conjure the contr...
Powering American Farms: A Conversation with Richard Hirsh
31 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Hirsh, Professor of History at Virginia Tech, talks about his book, Powering American Farms: The Overlooked Origins of Rural Electrification ...
Adom Getachew and Jennifer Pitts eds. "W. E. B. Du Bois: International Thought" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
30 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
W. E. B. Du Bois was one of the most significant American political thinkers of the twentieth century. This volume collects 24 of his essays and speec...
Phil Klay, "Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War" (Penguin, 2022)
30 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When Phil Klay left the Marines a decade ago after serving as an officer in Iraq, he found himself a part of the community of veterans who have no cho...
Manfred B. Steger and Ravi K. Roy, "Neoliberalism: A Very Short Introduction" (Oxford UP, 2021)
30 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Anchored in the principles of free-market economics, neoliberalism emerged in the 1990s as the world's most dominant economic paradigm. It has been as...
Matthew Bentley and John D. Bloom, "The Imperial Gridiron: Manhood, Civilization, and Football at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School" (U Nebraska Press, 2022)
30 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Imperial Gridiron: Manhood, Civilization, and Football at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School (University of Nebraska Press, 2022) examines th...
Rob Eschmann,, "When the Hood Comes Off: Racism and Resistance in the Digital Age" (U California Press, 2023)
29 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From cell phone footage of police killing unarmed Black people to leaked racist messages and even comments from friends and family on social media, on...
Benjamin Studebaker, "The Chronic Crisis of American Democracy: The Way Is Shut" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023)
28 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Benjamin Studebaker about his new book The Chronic Crisis of American Democracy: The Way Is Shut (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023) Ameri...
Stephen C. Taysom, "Like a Fiery Meteor: The Life of Joseph F. Smith" (U of Utah Press, 2023)
28 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Joseph F. Smith was born in 1838 to Hyrum Smith and Mary Fielding Smith. Six years later both his father and his uncle, Joseph Smith Jr., the founding...
Erica Abrams Locklear, "Appalachia on the Table: Representing Mountain Food and People" (U Georgia Press, 2023)
28 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When her mother passed along a cookbook made and assembled by her grandmother, Erica Abrams Locklear thought she knew what to expect. But rather than ...
Richard N. Langlois, "The Corporation and the Twentieth Century: The History of American Business Enterprise" (Princeton UP, 2023)
27 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The twentieth century was the managerial century in the United States. An organizational transformation, from entrepreneurial to managerial capitalism...
When Did We See You a Stranger and Welcome You? (with Ben Metcalf)
27 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The poor have always been with us, even in a rich country and a prosperous time. I ask Ben Metcalf, former Secretary of Housing and Community Developm...
Michael J. Seth, "Korea at War: Conflicts That Shaped the World" (Tuttle Publishing, 2023)
27 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Korean War “ended” exactly fifty years ago at Panmunjom. On July 27, 1953, United States and United Nations commanders on one side, and the No...
Héctor Tobar, "Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of 'Latino'" (MCD, 2023)
26 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Writing Latinos, from Public Books, features interviews with Latino (a/x/e) authors. We discuss their books and how their writing contributes to the e...
Penelope Ingram, "Imperiled Whiteness: How Hollywood and Media Make Race in 'Postracial' America" (UP of Mississippi, 2023)
26 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Imperiled Whiteness: How Hollywood and Media Make Race in "Postracial" America (University Press of Mississippi, 2023), Penelope Ingram examines ...
Michelle Dowd, "Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult--A Memoir" (Algonquin, 2023)
26 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s book is: Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult, published by Algonquin Books, and written by Michelle Dowd. Forager is a memoi...
Syed Ali and Margaret M. Chin, "The Peer Effect: How Your Peers Shape Who You Are and Who You Will Become" (NYU Press, 2023)
26 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, parents across America have asked their kids, “If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you?” The answer is, “Duh, yes.” Peers,...
Rebecca Sharpless, "Grain and Fire: A History of Baking in the American South" (UNC Press, 2022)
25 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
While a luscious layer cake may exemplify the towering glory of southern baking, like everything about the American South, baking is far more complica...
Nicole Evelina, "America's Forgotten Suffragists: Virginia and Francis Minor" (Two Dot Books, 2023)
25 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After being forgotten for nearly 130 years, the “Mother of Suffrage in Missouri” and her husband are finally taking their rightful place in histor...
Andrew Quilty, "August in Kabul: America's Last Days in Afghanistan" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
24 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Told through the eyes of witnesses to the fall of Kabul, Walkley award-winning journalist Andrew Quilty's debut publication offers a remarkable recor...
US History in 15 Foods: A Conversation with Anna Zeide
24 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Anna Zeide, Associate Professor of History at Virginia Tech, talks about her book, US History in 15 Foods (Bloomsbury, 2023), with Peoples & Things ...
Postscript: Is it Unconstitutional to Take Guns Away from Domestic Abusers?
24 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Supreme Court recently wrapped up their term – and announced that they will hear a very controversial case about domestic abuse, the power of Co...
John M. Findlay, "The Mobilized American West, 1940-2000" (U Nebraska Press, 2023)
24 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
At the end of the 1930s, the West was in peril. A cultural and economic backwater, the Great Depression had all-but wiped out the extractive industri...
Howard Fishman, "To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse" (Dutton, 2023)
22 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Howard Fishman's To Anyone Who Ever Asks: The Life, Music, and Mystery of Connie Converse (Dutton, 2023) is a fascinating hybrid biography that weav...
Scott A. Mitchell, "The Making of American Buddhism" (Oxford UP, 2023)
21 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Scott A. Mitchell is the Dean of Students and Faculty Affairs and holds the Yoshitaka Tamai Professorial Chair at the Institute of Buddhist Studies in...
William Wei, "Becoming Colorado: The Centennial State in 100 Objects" (UP of Colorado, 2021)
20 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Becoming Colorado: The Centennial State in 100 Objects (UP of Colorado, 2021), historian William Wei paints a vivid portrait of Colorado history ...
Miranda Corcoran, "Witchcraft and Adolescence in American Popular Culture: Teen Witches" (U Wales Press, 2022)
19 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Witchcraft and Adolescence in American Popular Culture: Teen Witches (University of Wales Press, 2022) by Miranda Corcoran is a study in teenage wit...
Ariane Chebel d'Appollonia, "Violent America: The Dynamics of Identity Politics in a Multiracial Society" (Cornell UP, 2023)
18 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Violent America: The Dynamics of Identity Politics in a Multiracial Society (Cornell University Press, 2023), Dr. Ariane Chebel d'Appollonia coun...
Mere Natural Law: A Conversation with Hadley Arkes
18 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What is natural law, and what does it have to do with originalism? Why does the Right defend religion yet so often struggle to define it? Next up in o...
Brendan O'Brien, "Homesick: Why Housing Is Unaffordable and How We Can Change It" (Chicago Review Press, 2023)
18 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Nobody who sits in traffic on Sedona, Arizona's main stretch or stands shoulder-to-shoulder in its many souvenir shops would call it a ghost town. Nei...
Nick Witham, "Popularizing the Past: Historians, Publishers, and Readers in Postwar America" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
18 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this lively and far-reaching text, Nick Witham (University College London) tells the stories of five postwar historians who changed the way ordina...
Ben Nadler, "The Jewish Deli: An Illustrated Guide to the Chosen Food" (Chronicle Books, 2023)
18 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Beloved culinary and cultural institutions, Jewish delis are wonderlands of amazing flavors and great food—bright, buttery, briny, sweet, fatty, sal...
Victor Luckerson, "Built from the Fire: The Epic Story of Tulsa's Greenwood District, America's Black Wall Street" (Random House, 2023)
17 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When Ed Goodwin moved with his parents to Greenwood, Tulsa, in 1914, his family joined a growing community on the cusp of becoming a national center o...
Michele Meek, "Consent Culture and Teen Films: Adolescent Sexuality in US Movies" (Indiana UP, 2023)
17 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Teen films of the 1980s were notorious for treating consent as irrelevant, with scenes of boys spying in girls' locker rooms and tricking girls into s...
African American Women on the American Railroad: A Conversation with Miriam Thaggert
17 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Miriam Thaggert, Professor of English at the University of Buffalo, talks about her book, Riding Jane Crow: African American Women on the American Ra...
Jessica D. Klanderud, "Struggle for the Street: Social Networks and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Pittsburgh" (UNC Press, 2023)
17 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Cities are nothing without the streets—the arteries through which goods, people, and ideas flow. Neighborhood by neighborhood, block by block, the c...
Kelly Ross, "Slavery, Surveillance and Genre in Antebellum United States Literature" (Oxford UP, 2022)
16 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Slavery, Surveillance and Genre in Antebellum United States Literature (Oxford UP, 2022) argues for the existence of deep, often unexamined, intercon...
Brianna Holt, "In Our Shoes: On Being a Young Black Woman in Not-So 'Post-Racial' America" (Plume Books, 2023)
16 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Part memoir, part cultural critique, In Our Shoes: On Being a Young Black Woman in Not-So 'Post-Racial' America (Plume Books, 2023) uses pop culture...
Jon Michaud, "Last Call at Coogan's: The Life and Death of a Neighborhood Bar" (St. Martin's Press, 2023)
16 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The uniquely inspiring story of a beloved neighborhood bar that united the communities it served. Coogan’s Bar and Restaurant opened in New York Cit...
Vivian Nun Halloran, "Caribbean American Narratives of Belonging" (Ohio State UP, 2023)
16 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Caribbean American Narratives of Belonging (Ohio State University Press, 2023), Vivian Nun Halloran analyzes memoirs, picture books, comic book...
Samuel Issacharoff, "Democracy Unmoored: Populism and the Corruption of Popular Sovereignty" (Oxford UP, 2023)
15 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The 2016 election of Donald Trump focused people's minds on populism, and most of the attention paid to the subject since has been on the threat it po...
Sara Moslener, "Virgin Nation: Sexual Purity and American Adolescence" (Oxford UP, 2015)
15 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
First taking hold of the American cultural imagination in the 1990s, the sexual purity movement of contemporary evangelicalism has since received cons...
Stephen Bright and James Kwak, "The Fear of Too Much Justice: Race, Poverty, and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts" (The New Press, 2023)
15 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Glenn Ford, a Black man, spent thirty years on Louisiana’s death row for a crime he did not commit. He was released in 2014—and given twenty dolla...
Nikki M. Taylor, "Brooding over Bloody Revenge: Enslaved Women's Lethal Resistance" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
15 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From the colonial through the antebellum era, enslaved women in the US used lethal force as the ultimate form of resistance. By amplifying their voice...
Julie Carr, "Mud, Blood, and Ghosts: Populism, Eugenics, and Spiritualism in the American West" (U Nebraska Press, 2023)
14 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Mud, Blood, and Ghosts: Populism, Eugenics, and Spiritualism in the American West (U Nebraska Press, 2023), University of Colorado poet and Engl...
Sofya Aptekar, "Green Card Soldier: Between Model Immigrant and Security Threat" (MIT Press, 2023)
14 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
While the popular image of the US military is one of citizen soldiers protecting their country, the reality is that nearly 5 percent of all first-time...
Dana Rubin, "Speaking While Female: 75 Extraordinary Speeches by American Women" (RealClear, 2023)
13 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From Dr. Painter restoring the words of Sojourner Truth’s original speech, to VP-candidate Kamala Harris enduring through repeated interruptions at ...
Nour Halabi, "Radical Hospitality: American Policy, Media, and Immigration" (Rutgers UP, 2022)
13 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How should we understand contemporary migration policy? In Radical Hospitality: American Policy, Media, and Immigration (Rutgers UP, 2022), Nour Ha...
Phoebe Ho et al., "Diversity and the Transition to Adulthood in America" (U California Press, 2022)
12 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How do children and adolescents transition to adulthood in today’s America? How have American society’s entrenching economic inequality and increa...
Randall Patnode, "The Synchronized Society: Time and Control From Broadcasting to the Internet" (Rutgers UP, 2023)
12 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Synchronized Society: Time and Control From Broadcasting to the Internet (Rutgers University Press, 2023) by Dr. Randall Patnode traces the histo...
Methadone and Covid-19
12 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Helen Redmond is a Harlem-based documentary filmmaker, journalist, licensed clinical social worker, and professor at NYU. As senior editor and a multi...
Francis L. Sampson, "Look Out Below!: A Story of the Airborne by a Paratrooper Padre" (Catholic U of America Press, 2023)
11 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A veteran of the Second World War and the Korean War, Francis L. Sampson was a real-life hero whose exploits inspired one of the most famous war films...
Eliot Borenstein, "Marvel Comics in The 1970s: The World Inside Your Head" (Cornell UP, 2023)
11 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
I am excited to welcome Eliot Borenstein to the podcast today to discuss his new monograph, Marvel Comics in the 1970s: The World Inside Your Head, p...
Emily Flitter, "The White Wall: How Big Finance Bankrupts Black America" (Atria/One Signal Publishers, 2022)
11 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2018, Emily Flitter received a tip that Morgan Stanley had fired a Black employee without cause. Flitter had been searching for a way to investigat...
Katherine Giuffre, "Outrage: The Arts and the Creation of Modernity" (Stanford UP, 2023)
10 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A cultural revolution in England, France, and the United States beginning during the time of the industrial and political revolutions helped usher in ...
Morgan L. W. Hazelton and Rachael K. Hinkle, "Persuading the Supreme Court: The Significance of Briefs in Judicial Decision-Making" (UP Kansas, 2022)
10 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Each June in the United States, scholars, journalists, law makers, law enforcers, lawyers, and members of the public wait for the announcement of majo...
Jason Chang et al., "The Cargo Rebellion: Those Who Chose Freedom" (PM Press, 2022)
09 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Cargo Rebellion: Those Who Chose Freedom (PM Press, 2022) tells a true story of mutiny on the high seas in which four hundred indentured Chinese ...
Brent Cebul, "Illusions of Progress: Business, Poverty, and Liberalism in the American Century" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2023)
09 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Today, the word "neoliberal" is used to describe an epochal shift toward market-oriented governance begun in the 1970s. Yet the roots of many of neoli...
Tina Shrestha, "Surviving the Sanctuary City: Asylum-Seeking Work in Nepali New York" (U Washington Press, 2023)
09 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past several decades, the vibrant, multiethnic borough of Queens has seen growth in the community of Nepali migrants, many of whom are naviga...
Keisha Ray, "Black Health: The Social, Political, and Cultural Determinants of Black People's Health" (Oxford UP, 2023)
08 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Why do American Black people generally have worse health than American White people? To answer this question, Keisha Ray's book Black Health: The Soc...
Studying the Pipeline to Politics for Women
06 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When we teach about how women go into politics, how are we looking for the places and ways that women get involved? Are we giving enough consideration...
Kristina Horn Sheeler and Karrin Vasby Anderson, "Woman President: Confronting Postfeminist Political Culture" (Texas A&M Press, 2013)
06 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Kristina Horn Sheeler and Karrin Vasby Anderson have each worked on and researched questions of gender, leadership, executive positions, and popular c...
Thomas A. Castillo, "Working in the Magic City: Moral Economy in Early Twentieth-Century Miami" (U Illinois Press, 2022)
06 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the early twentieth century, Miami cultivated an image of itself as a destination for leisure and sunshine free from labor strife. In Working in ...
Greg Berman and Aubrey Fox, "Gradual: The Case for Incremental Change in a Radical Age" (Oxford UP, 2023)
05 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Many experts believe that we are at a fulcrum moment in history, a time that demands radical shifts in thinking and policymaking. Calls for bold chang...
Ben Terris, "The Big Break: The Gamblers, Party Animals, and True Believers Trying to Win in Washington While America Loses Its Mind" (Twelve, 2023)
05 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Big Break: The Gamblers, Party Animals, and True Believers Trying to Win in Washington While America Loses Its Mind (Twelve, 2023) investigates...
Glen W. Olson and Terry Lee Brussel-Rogers, "Fifty Years of Polyamory in America: A Guided Tour of a Growing Movement" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022)
04 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Fifty Years of Polyamory in America: A Guided Tour of a Growing Movement (Rowman & Littlefield, 2022) is unique among the many books about polyamory ...
Jennifer Caplan, "Funny, You Don't Look Funny: Judaism and Humor from the Silent Generation to Millennials" (Wayne State UP, 2023)
04 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this comprehensive approach to Jewish humor focused on the relationship between humor and American Jewish practice, Jennifer Caplan calls us to ado...
Jack Metzgar, "Bridging the Divide: Working-Class Culture in a Middle-Class Society" (ILR Press, 2021)
03 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Bridging the Divide: Working-Class Culture in a Middle-Class Society (ILR Press, 2021), Jack Metzgar attempts to determine the differences betwee...
Sarah L. Hall, "Sown in the Stars: Planting by the Signs" (UP of Kentucky, 2023)
03 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to p...
The Supreme Court's Past, Present, and Future: A Conversation with John Yoo
03 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It has been a momentous few weeks for the Supreme Court. What better time to discuss the Court's history and future? We are therefore launching our "S...
G. Edward White, "Law in American History, Volume III: 1930-2000" (Oxford UP, 2019)
02 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
For nearly two decades the renowned legal historian G. Edward White has been writing a multi-volume history of law in America. In his third and conc...
Katherine C. Mooney, "Isaac Murphy: The Rise and Fall of a Black Jockey" (Yale UP, 2023)
02 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Isaac Murphy, born enslaved in 1861, still reigns as one of the greatest jockeys in American history. Black jockeys like Murphy were at the top of the...
John Kaag and Jonathan van Belle, "Henry at Work: Thoreau on Making a Living" (Princeton UP, 2023)
01 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Henry at Work: Thoreau on Making a Living (Princeton UP, 2023) invites readers to rethink how we work today by exploring an aspect of Henry David Th...
Michael O'Hanlon, "Military History for the Modern Strategist: America's Major Wars Since 1861" (Brookings, 2023)
01 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The recent conclusion to the war in Afghanistan — America’s longest and one of its most frustrating — serves as a vivid reminder of the unpredic...
Samuel Helfont, "Iraq Against the World: Saddam, America, and the Post-Cold War Order" (Oxford UP, 2023)
30 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The move away from post-Cold War unipolarity and the rise of revisionist states like Russia and China pose a rapidly escalating and confounding threat...
Mary Beltrán, "Latino TV: A History" (NYU Press, 2022)
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, our host Lucila Rozas discusses the book Latino TV: A History (2022) by Mary Beltrán. You’ll hear about: A brief trajectory ...
Danielle Allen, "Justice by Means of Democracy" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Danielle Allen, the James Bryant Conant University Professor and the Director of the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, ha...
Jack Schneider and Jennifer Berkshire, "A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School" (The New Press, 2023)
28 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Across the U.S., state legislatures-often under the cover of darkness, and usually in spite of public opposition-are passing bills that channel public...
David E. Kelly, "First Fights in Fallujah: Marines During Operation Vigilant Resolve, in Iraq, April 2004" (Casemate, 2023)
28 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In March 2004, the unprovoked ambush killing and desecration of the bodies of American civilian security contractors in Fallujah, Iraq, caused the Nat...
Eileen V. Wallis, "California and the Politics of Disability, 1850–1970" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)
28 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Eileen V. Wallis' book California and the Politics of Disability, 1850–1970 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) explores the political, legal, medical, and...
Nicholas Dagen Bloom, "The Great American Transit Disaster: A Century of Austerity, Auto-Centric Planning, and White Flight" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
27 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Many a scholar and policy analyst has lamented American dependence on cars and the corresponding lack of federal investment in public transportation t...
Sara Salman, "The Shaming State: How the U.S. Treats Citizens in Need" (NYU Press, 2023)
27 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Shaming State: How the U.S. Treats Citizens in Need (NYU Press, 2023) argues that Americans have been abandoned by a government that has relinqui...
James Zarsadiaz, "Resisting Change in Suburbia: Asian Immigrants and Frontier Nostalgia in L.A." (U California Press, 2022)
27 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we discuss how myths of suburbia, the American West, and the American Dream informed regional planning, suburban design, and ideas ab...
Philip A. Wallach, "Why Congress" (Oxford UP, 2023)
27 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
To achieve legitimate self-government in America's extended Republic, the U.S. Constitution depends on Congress harmonizing the country's factions thr...
Stephen Vladeck, "The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic" (Basic Books, 2023)
26 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Many people are familiar with the United States Supreme Court’s merit docket. Each case follows detailed and professional proceedings that include f...
Josh Shepperd, "Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting" (U Illinois Press, 2023)
26 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Despite uncertain beginnings, public broadcasting emerged as a noncommercial media industry that transformed American culture. In Shadow of the New D...