New Books in American Studies
Episodes
Julie A. Turnock, "The Empire of Effects: Industrial Light and Magic and the Rendering of Realism" (U Texas Press, 2022)
26 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Just about every major film now comes to us with an assist from digital effects. The results are obvious in superhero fantasies, yet dramas like Roma...
Jeroen Dewulf, "Afro-Atlantic Catholics: America's First Black Christians" (U Notre Dame Press, 2022)
26 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Black Christianity in America has long been studied as a blend of indigenous African and Protestant elements. Jeroen Dewulf redirects the conversation...
Paul Adler, "No Globalization Without Representation: U.S. Activists and World Inequality" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2021)
26 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Adler's No Globalization Without Representation: U.S. Activists and World Inequality (U Pennsylvania Press, 2021) is a history of the hardwork...
Michael Sidney Fosberg, "Nobody Wants to Talk about It: Race, Identity, and the Difficulties in Forging Meaningful Conversations" (Incognito, 2020)
25 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Nobody Wants to Talk About It: Race, Identity, and the Difficulties in Forging Meaningful Conversations (Incognito, 2020), Michael Sidney Fosber...
Michael J. Altman, "Hinduism in America: An Introduction" (Routledge, 2022)
25 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Hinduism in America: An Introduction (Routledge, 2022) is a concise introduction to the long history of religion in the encounter between America an...
Jennifer C. Lucas and Christopher J. Galdieri, "Polarization and Political Party Factions in the 2020 Election" (Lexington, 2022)
25 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The 2020 presidential election has cast a long shadow over American politics. Much of the decorum, propriety, and cordiality of the political world wa...
Ben Rhodes, "After the Fall: Being American in the World We've Made" (Random House, 2021)
24 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ben Rhodes visited dozens of countries, meeting with politicians and activists confronting the same nationalism and authoritarianism that are tearing ...
Monica De La Torre, "Feminista Frequencies: Community Building through Radio in the Yakima Valley" (U Washington Press, 2022)
24 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Beginning in the 1970s Chicana and Chicano organizers turned to community radio broadcasting to educate, entertain, and uplift Mexican American listen...
Alicia Gutierrez-Romine, "From Back Alley to the Border: Criminal Abortion in California, 1920-1969" (U Nebraska Press, 2020)
24 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Before 1973's landmark Roe v. Wade decision, abortion in California was illegal for both doctors performing and women seeking the procedure. In From ...
Gamify Everything: Turning Work Into Play . . . for Better and for Worse
24 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Setting goals for the new year? Learning a language? Going for a run? Delivering food? Picking packages off a warehouse shelf for delivery? There’s ...
Philip Nash, "Clare Boothe Luce: American Renaissance Woman" (Routledge, 2022)
23 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Philip Nash's book Clare Boothe Luce: American Renaissance Woman (Routledge, 2022) is a concise and highly readable political biography that examine...
Reality TV
23 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of High Theory, Olivia Stowell speaks with Saronik about Reality TV. In the episode she talks about the genesis of the genre in Candi...
Stu Halpern, "Esther in America" (Maddig, 2020)
23 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Book of Esther has inspired and impacted the American project since its very inception. Rabbis and ethicists, abolitionists and artists, preachers...
The Future of Q Anon: A Discussion with Sophia Moskalenko
23 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Conspiracy theories are not new – but with globalisation and digital media they are perhaps more powerful than ever – and one of the most absurd a...
Autumn Womack, "The Matter of Black Living: The Aesthetic Experiment of Racial Data, 1880-1930" (U Chicago Press, 2022)
22 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As the nineteenth century came to a close and questions concerning the future of African American life reached a fever pitch, many social scientists a...
Postscript: How the Supreme Court Overturned a Century-Old Gun Law…and Changed American Jurisprudence
22 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s Postscript (a special series that allows scholars to comment on pressing contemporary issues) focuses on the US Supreme Court and the Seco...
Moral Kombat: How Mortal Kombat Caused Moral Outrage
22 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
You can learn much about a media and political culture by examining when it panics, and who it panics about. And we’ve always panicked about video g...
Gene Andrew Jarrett, "Paul Laurence Dunbar: The Life and Times of a Caged Bird" (Princeton UP, 2022)
22 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A major poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) was one of the first African American writers to garner international recognition in the wake of emanci...
Jamil W. Drake, "To Know the Soul of a People: Religion, Race, and the Making of Southern Folk" (Oxford UP, 2022)
22 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
To Know the Soul of a People: Religion, Race, and the Making of Southern Folk (Oxford UP, 2022) is a history of religion and race in the agricultural...
Andrew Dubbins, "Into Enemy Waters: A World War II Story of the Demolition Divers Who Became the Navy SEALs" (Diversion Books, 2022)
19 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
With echoes of Unbroken; the derring-do and bravado of The Right Stuff; and the battle-forged camaraderie of Band of Brothers, Andrew Dubbins' book...
The Journal of Higher Education in Prison
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: How both of today’s guests became involved in higher education in prison. Why t...
Antonio C. Cuyler, "Access, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Cultural Organizations: Insights from the Careers of Executive Opera Managers of Color in the US" (Routledge, 2020)
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Where are the success stories for people of color in opera? In Access, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Cultural Organizations: Insights from the ...
Cynthia E. Orozco, "Pioneer of Mexican-American Civil Rights: Alonso S. Perales" (Arte Publico Press, 2020)
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Tiffany speaks with Professor Cynthia Orozco about her new book, Pioneer of Mexican-American Civil Rights: Alonso S. Perales, publis...
The Pavilion: When Canadians First Had to Confront the Country’s Genocidal Story
18 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Expo 1967 was the centrepiece of Canada’s 100th birthday. Amid the crowds and the pageantry, one building stood out: The Indians of Canada Pavilion....
Samuel Evan Milner, "Robbing Peter to Pay Paul: Power, Profits, and Productivity in Modern America" (Yale UP, 2021)
17 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Concentrated market power and the weakened sway of corporate stakeholders over management have emerged as leading concerns of American political econo...
Amy Von Lintel and Bonnie Roos, "Three Women Artists: Expanding Abstract Expressionism in the American West" (Texas A&M UP, 2022)
17 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Offering a fresh perspective on the influence of the American southwest—and particularly West Texas—on the New York art world of the 1950s, Three...
Julius B. Fleming Jr., "Black Patience: Performance, Civil Rights, and the Unfinished Project of Emancipation" (NYU Press, 2022)
17 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“Freedom, Now!” This rallying cry became the most iconic phrase of the Civil Rights Movement, challenging the persistent command that Black people...
Canada’s Dumbest Public Intellectual: Darts and Letters’ Most Coveted Award
17 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Canada’s intellectual culture is now like a barren soil that struggles to give life to even the simplest flora. They’re just not that smart. We ma...
Plague Robbers--Nothing Spreads Like Greed: The Pandemic Profiteers Who Made the Crisis Worse
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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.’...
Paris Marx, "Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation" (Verso, 2022)
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation (Verso, 2022), Paris Marx identifies two convergent forces in...
Lisa Uperesa, "Gridiron Capital: How American Football Became a Samoan Game" (Duke UP, 2022)
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Since the 1970s, a “Polynesian Pipeline” has brought football players from American Sāmoa to Hawaii and the mainland United States to play at the...
On W. E. B. DuBois' "The Souls of Black Folk"
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Nearly 40 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, American writer, sociologist and civil rights activist W. E. B. DuBois shed light on B...
Max Foran, "The Subjugation of Canadian Wildlife: Failures of Principle and Policy" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2018)
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Hardly a day goes by without news of the extinction or endangerment of yet another animal species, followed by urgent but largely unheeded calls for a...
Christopher Witko, "Hijacking the Agenda: Economic Power and Political Influence" (Russell Sage Foundation, 2021)
15 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How do competing interests shape public policy? Why are the economic interests and priorities of lower-, working-, and middle-class Americans often ne...
Don’t Look Left: A Discussion with David Sirota, writer of "Don't Look Up"
15 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why does the democratic establishment always avoid turning left, even when it might mean a political win? Gordon asks David Sirota. Sirota is behind t...
On Frederick Douglass
15 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 slav...
John Morton, "Celebrate Winter: An Olympian's Stories of a Life in Nordic Skiing" (Morton Trails, 2020)
15 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 l...
Marika Cifor, "Viral Cultures: Activist Archiving in the Age of AIDS" (U Minnesota Press, 2022)
15 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 A...
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)
12 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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, 20...
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)
12 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Single Payer Healthcare Reform: Grassroots Mobilization and the Turn Against Establishment Politics in the Medicare for All Movement (Palgrave Ma...
Jeremy Black, "A Brief History of the Atlantic" (Robinson, 2022)
12 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 t...
Rebecca Weeks, "History by HBO: Televising the American Past" (UP of Kentucky, 2022)
12 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The television industry is changing, and with it, the small screen's potential to engage in debate and present valuable representations of American hi...
Christopher M. Reali, "Music and Mystique in Muscle Shoals" (U Illinois Press, 2022)
12 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 Roll...
Jordan Denari Duffner, "Islamophobia: What Christians Should Know (and Do) about Anti-Muslim Discrimination" (Orbis, 2021)
11 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jordan Denari Duffner is an author and scholar of Muslim-Christian relations, interreligious dialogue, and Islamophobia. Jordan is currently pursuing ...
Jane Juffer, "Millennial Feminism at Work: Bridging Theory and Practice" (Cornell UP, 2021)
11 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Millennial Feminism at Work: Bridging Theory and Practice (Cornell UP, 2021), volume editor Jane Juffer brings together recently graduated studen...
Saladin Ambar, "Stars and Shadows: The Politics of Interracial Friendship from Jefferson to Obama" (Oxford UP, 2022)
11 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Slavery and its lingering remnants remain a plague on the United States, continuing to foster animosity between races that hinders the understanding a...
Simone White, "Or, on Being the Other Woman" (Duke UP, 2022)
11 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In or, on being the other woman (Duke UP, 2022), Simone White considers the dynamics of contemporary black feminist life. Throughout this book-lengt...
Jamie Ducharme, "Big Vape: The Incendiary Rise of Juul" (Henry Holt, 2021)
11 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 drea...
Andrew Bacevich and Daniel A. Sjursen, "Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against America's Forever Wars" (Metropolitan Books, 2022)
10 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Compiled by New York Times bestselling author Andrew Bacevich and retired army officer Danny A. Sjursen, Paths of Dissent: Soldiers Speak Out Against...
Michael Elliott, "Have a Little Faith: The John Hiatt Story" (Chicago Review Press, 2021)
10 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A journey through an artist's quest for success, deep dive into substance abuse, family tragedy, and ultimate triumph. By the mid-1980s, singer-songwr...
Sara Farrington, "The Lost Conversation: Interviews with an Enduring Avant-Garde" (53rd State Press, 2021)
10 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sara Farrington's The Lost Conversation: Interviews with an Enduring Avant-Garde (53rd State Press, 2021) is a collection of interviews with a host ...
Jeffrey S. Sutton, "Who Decides?: States As Laboratories of Constitutional Experimentation" (Oxford UP, 2021)
10 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Everything in law and politics, including individual rights, comes back to divisions of power and the evergreen question: Who decides? Who wins the di...
On Walter Lippmann's "Public Opinion"
10 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 p...
Nick Davis, "Competing with Idiots: Herman and Joe Mankiewicz, a Dual Portrait" (Knopf, 2021)
10 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A fascinating, complex dual biography of Hollywood's most dazzling—and famous—brothers, and a dark, riveting portrait of competition, love, and en...
Katherine L. Carroll, "Building Schools, Making Doctors: Architecture and the Modern American Physician" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2022)
09 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the late nineteenth century, medical educators intent on transforming American physicians into scientifically trained, elite professionals recogniz...
Harvey J. Graff, "The Literacy Myth: Cultural Integration and Social Structure in the Nineteenth Century" (Transaction, 1991)
09 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Harvey Graff's pioneering study presents a new and original interpretation of the place of literacy in nineteenth-century society and culture. Based u...
On Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God"
09 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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,...
The Future of Political Anger: A Conversation with Mark Blyth
09 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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...
On "Black Elk Speaks"
08 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 litera...
Miriam Thaggert, "Riding Jane Crow: African American Women on the American Railroad" (U Illinois Press, 2022)
08 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Miriam Thaggert illuminates the stories of African American women as passengers and as workers on the nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century railroad...
Nasar Meer, "The Cruel Optimism of Racial Justice" (Policy Press, 2022)
08 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why are societies still not offering racial equality? In The Cruel Optimism of Racial Justice (Policy Press, 2022), Nasar Meer, a professor of Rac...
Grant Wiedenfeld, "Hollywood Sports Movies and the American Dream" (Oxford UP, 2022)
08 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Through the heart of Hollywood cinema runs a surprising current of progressive politics. Sports movies, a genre that has flourished since the mid-seve...
January 6th and the Myth of the Mob: The Pervasive Power of Crowd Theory
08 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we’re showcasing some of our favourite past episodes of Darts and Letters themed around “Activism & Academia”. Today’s episode orig...
Jason Stacy, "Spoon River America: Edgar Lee Masters and the Myth of the American Small Town" (U Illinois Press, 2021)
05 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 Amer...
On Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass"
05 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
“These United States are themselves the greatest poem.” When Walt Whitman wrote this line, he was an unknown Brooklyn newspaper man. But his work ...
American Chernobyl, Part 2: The Most Poisonous Place in the USA
05 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Daniel T. Fleming, "Living the Dream: The Contested History of Martin Luther King Jr. Day" (UNC Press, 2022)
05 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Living the Dream: The Contested History of Martin Luther King Jr. Day (UNC Press, 2022) tells the history behind the establishment of Martin Luther K...
Corey Robin, "The Enigma of Clarence Thomas" (Metropolitan Books, 2019)
04 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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. Her...
Craig L. Symonds, "Nimitz at War: Command Leadership from Pearl Harbor to Tokyo Bay" (Oxford UP, 2022)
04 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Only days after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt tapped Chester W. Nimitz to assume command of the Pacific Fleet. N...
America's Chernobyl, Part 1: Living in a Poison Town
04 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
86 Dana Stevens on Buster Keaton (JP EF)
04 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dana Stevens joins Elizabeth and John to discuss Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema and the Invention of the Twentieth Century. Her fanta...
Victoria Reyes, "Academic Outsider: Stories of Exclusion and Hope" (Stanford UP, 2022)
04 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Academic Outsider: Stories of Exclusion and Hope (Stanford University Press, 2022), sociologist Victoria Reyes combines her personal experiences...
The Revolution Will Not Be Streamed: The Intellectual Culture of Twitch Streamers
03 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Charlie Jeffries, "Teenage Dreams: Girlhood Sexualities in the U.S. Culture Wars" (Rutgers UP, 2022)
03 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Utilizing a breadth of archival sources from activists, artists, and policymakers, Charlie Jeffries' Teenage Dreams: Girlhood Sexualities in the U.S....
Matt Stoller, "Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy" (Simon & Schuster, 2020)
03 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy (Simon & Schuster, 2019), Matt Stoller explains how authoritarianism and populism ...
Juan Pablo Scarfi and David M. K. Sheinin, "The New Pan-Americanism and the Structuring of Inter-American Relations" (Routledge, 2022)
03 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In The New Pan-Americanism and the Structuring of Inter-American Relations (Routledge, 2022), David Sheinin and Juan Pablo Scarfi bring together art...
Ethan W. Ris, "Other People's Colleges: The Origins of American Higher Education Reform" (U Chicago Press, 2022)
03 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For well over one hundred years, people have been attempting to make American colleges and universities more efficient and more accountable. Indeed, E...
Lindsay Pérez Huber and Susana M. Muñoz, "Why They Hate Us: How Racist Rhetoric Impacts Education" (Teachers College Press, 2021)
03 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why They Hate Us: How Racist Rhetoric Impacts Education (Teachers College Press, 2021) examines how racist political rhetoric has created damaging an...
Emily O. Wittman, "Interwar Itineraries: Authenticity in Anglophone and French Travel Writing" (Amherst College Press, 2022)
03 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How people traveled, and how people wrote about travel, changed in the interwar years. Novel technologies eased travel conditions, breeding new iterat...
Lisa Ford, "The King's Peace: Law and Order in the British Empire" (Harvard UP, 2021)
02 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 gl...
Socialise the Series of Tubes: Toward a Democratic Internet
02 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 o...
Megan Threlkeld, "Citizens of the World: U. S. Women and Global Government" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022)
02 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Citizens of the World: U.S. Women and Global Government (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022), Megan Threlkeld profiles nine American women in...
Daniel Laurison, "Producing Politics: Inside the Exclusive Campaign World Where the Privileged Few Shape Politics for All of Us" (Beacon Press, 2022)
01 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Who runs American politics? In Producing Politics: Inside the Exclusive Campaign World Where the Privileged Few Shape Politics for All of Us (Beacon...
Will Jawando, "My Seven Black Fathers: A Young Activist's Memoir of Race, Family, and the Mentors Who Made Him Whole" (FSG, 2022)
01 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 growin...
Alan John Ainsworth, "Sight Readings: Photographers and American Jazz, 1900-1960" (Intellect, 2022)
01 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Alan John Ainsworth's book Sight Readings: Photographers and American Jazz, 1900-1960 (Intellect, 2022) explores the work of a wide range of America...
Mark Solovey, "Social Science for What? Battles over Public Funding for the 'Other Sciences' at the National Science Foundation" (MIT Press, 2020)
01 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 sc...
John M. Shaw, "Following the Drums: African American Fife and Drum Music in Tennessee" (UP of Mississippi, 2022)
01 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Following the Drums: African American Fife and Drum Music in Tennessee (University Press of Mississippi, 2022) is an epic history of a little-kno...
Hawa Allan, "Insurrection: Rebellion, Civil Rights, and the Paradoxical State of Black Citizenship" (Norton, 2022)
29 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 la...
Paisley Currah, "Sex Is as Sex Does: Governing Transgender Identity" (NYU Press, 2022)
29 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Peter H. Wood, "Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 Through the Stono Rebellion" (Norton, 1996)
29 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Richard Middleton, "Cornwallis: Soldier and Statesman in a Revolutionary World" (Yale UP, 2022)
29 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Charles, First Marquis of Cornwallis (1738-1805), was a leading figure in late eighteenth-century Britain. His career spanned the American War of Inde...
Elisabeth R. Anker, "Ugly Freedom" (Duke UP, 2022)
28 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Freedom is often considered the cornerstone of the American political project. The 1776 revolutionaries declared it an inalienable right that could ne...
The Battle of Buxton: Saving a Lighthouse in the Era of Climate Change
28 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
If you tuned in to our “ideas in strange places” themed programming last week, you would have heard an episode of Darts and Letters’ predecessor...
Anthony Abraham Jack, "The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students" (Harvard UP, 2019)
28 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Ivy League looks different than it used to. College presidents and deans of admission have opened their doors—and their coffers—to support a m...
Michael John Witgen, "Seeing Red: Indigenous Land, American Expansion, and the Political Economy of Plunder in North America" (UNC Press, 2021)
28 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Against long odds, the Anishinaabeg resisted removal, retaining much of their land in the Old Northwest—what’s now Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnes...
Christof Dejung et al., "The Global Bourgeoisie: The Rise of the Middle Classes in the Age of Empire" (Princeton UP, 2019)
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
While the nineteenth century has been described as the golden age of the European bourgeoisie, the emergence of the middle class and bourgeois culture...
Thomas S. Kidd, "Benjamin Franklin: The Religious Life of a Founding Father" (Yale UP, 2017)
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Renowned as a printer, scientist, and diplomat, Benjamin Franklin also published more works on religious topics than any other eighteenth-century Amer...
Michael K. Beauchamp, "Instruments of Empire: Colonial Elites and U.S. Governance in Early National Louisiana, 1803–1815" (LSU Press, 2021)
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
M. K. Beauchamp's Instruments of Empire: Colonial Elites and U.S. Governance in Early National Louisiana, 1803–1815 (LSU Press, 2021) examines the...
Robert W. Tomlinson, "The Influence of Foreign Wars on U.S. Domestic Military Policy: The Case of the Yom Kippur War" (Lexington, 2022)
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How do military organizations learn? Robert W. Tomlinson's book The Influence of Foreign Wars on U.S. Domestic Military Policy (Lexington, 2022) cov...
Koch Block My Campus: How Big Money Corrupts Academia
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why is so much right-wing money being funnelled at such a furious pace into universities across the US? Libertarian-minded billionaires like the Kochs...