New Books in Biography & Memoir
Episodes
Phil Rosenzweig, "Reginald Rose and the Journey of 12 Angry Men" (Fordham UP, 2021)
11 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Phil Rosenzweig's Reginald Rose and the Journey of 12 Angry Men (Fordham Press, 2021) is the first biography of a great television writer, and the s...
Christina Lane, "Phantom Lady: Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock" (Chicago Review Press, 2020)
07 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A platinum beauty with an ugly secret; a tall, dark, and handsome husband with murder in his eyes; starkly lit interiors that may or may not include t...
Ranae Lenor Hanson, "Watershed: Attending to Body and Earth in Distress" (U Minnesota Press, 2021)
05 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ranea Lenor Hanson's Watershed: Attending to Body and Earth in Distress (U Minnesota Press, 2021) weaves a narrative that captures life on the wate...
William Souder, "Mad at the World: A Life of John Steinbeck" (Norton, 2020)
01 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The first full-length biography of America's most celebrated novelist of the Great Depression to appear in a quarter century, Mad at the World illum...
Antonio Tomas, "Amlicar Cabral: The Life of a Reluctant Nationalist" (Oxford UP, 2020)
29 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Amilcar Cabral was one of the most significant African nationalists of his generation. Born in the Cape Verde Islands, Cabral led the African Party fo...
Jonathan Rees, "The Chemistry of Fear: Harvey Wiley's Fight for Pure Food" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2021)
28 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Though trained as a medical doctor, chemist Harvey Wiley spent most of his professional life advocating for "pure food"—food free of both adulterant...
Vanilla Beer and Allenna Leonard, "Stafford Beer the Father of Management Cybernetics" (2019)
27 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode I am in conversation with artist and author Vanilla Beer about her 2019 book Stafford Beer: The Father of Management Cybernetics. Wh...
Grace C. Huang, "Chiang Kai-Shek's Politics of Shame: Leadership, Legacy, and National Identity in China" (Harvard UP, 2021)
24 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Once a powerful figure who reversed the disintegration of China and steered the country to Allied victory in World War II, Chiang Kai-shek fled into e...
Kusumita P. Pedersen, "The Philosophy of Sri Chinmoy: Love and Transformation" (Lexington, 2021)
22 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This podcast interviews Kusumita Pedersen on the first book-length study of the thought of Sri Chinmoy (1931-2007) and his teaching of a dynamic spir...
Daniel Gibbs, "A Tattoo on my Brain: A Neurologist's Personal Battle against Alzheimer's Disease" (Cambridge UP, 2021)
22 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Daniel Gibbs is one of 50 million people worldwide with an Alzheimer's disease diagnosis. Unlike most patients with Alzheimer's, however, Dr Gibbs ...
Peter Richardson, "American Prophet: The Life and Work of Carey McWilliams" (U California Press, 2019)
20 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Historian Kevin Starr described Carey McWilliams as "the finest nonfiction writer on California—ever" and "the state's most astute political observ...
Paul Shankman, "Margaret Mead" (Berghahn Books, 2021)
17 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Tracing Mead’s career as an ethnographer, as the early voice of public anthropology, and as a public figure, this elegantly written biography links ...
Susan James, “Exploring Spinoza” (Open Agenda, 2021)
16 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Exploring Spinoza is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Susan James, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck, University ...
Luke Epplin, "Our Team: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball" (Flatiron Books, 2021)
16 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In July 1947, not even three months after Jackie Robinson debuted on the Brooklyn Dodgers, snapping the color line that had segregated Major League Ba...
Sylvana Tomaselli, "Wollstonecraft: Philosophy, Passion, and Politics" (Princeton UP, 2020)
15 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, first published in 1792, is a work of enduring relevance in women’s rights advocacy. ...
Henry Hardy: Capturing Genius: Editing Isaiah Berlin
15 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Howard talks to Henry Hardy, Fellow of Wolfson College, University of Oxford, and the author of In Search of Isaiah Berlin: A Literary Adventure abo...
Noah Hurowitz, "El Chapo: The Untold Story of the World's Most Infamous Drug Lord" (Atria Books, 2021)
15 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
"El Chapo. The Untold Story of the World's Most Infamous Drug Lord" (Atria Books, 2021) is a stunning investigation of the life and legend of Mexican ...
Covering Donald Trump: A Conversation with Allen Salkin
14 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What's it like to cover Donald Trump? In this episode, veteran American journalist Allen Salkin explains. For over three decades, Salkin has writt...
Shen Yang, "More Than One Child: Memoirs of an Illegal Daughter" (Balestier Press, 2021)
13 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
'I broke a law simply by being born.' In the late 1980s, Shen Yang was born during the fiercest years of China's One-Child Policy. As the second daugh...
Thomas Aiello, "The Life and Times of Louis Lomax: The Art of Deliberate Disunity" (Duke UP, 2021)
10 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In The Life and Times of Louis Lomax: The Art of Deliberate Disunity (Duke University Press, 2021), Thomas Aiello traces the complicated and fasci...
Mary Gauthier, "Saved by a Song: The Art and Healing Power of Songwriting" (St. Martin's Essentials, 2021)
10 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Gauthier was twelve years old when she was given her Aunt Jenny’s old guitar and taught herself to play with a Mel Bay basic guitar workbook. M...
Edmund Richardson, "Alexandria: The Quest for the Lost City Beneath the Mountains" (Bloomsbury, 2021)
09 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The story of Alexander the Great has inspired conquerors and would-be conquerors throughout history. Alexander’s sweep through the Middle East and C...
Henry Reynolds and Nicholas Clements, "Tongerlongeter: First Nations Leader and Tasmanian War Hero" (NewSouth, 2021)
06 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nicholas, today's guest, explains Australia has no war hero more impressive than Tongerlongeter. Leader of the Oyster Bay nation of south-east Tasman...
Robin Wallace: Inspired By Beethoven
01 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Baylor University musicologist and the author of Hearing Beethoven Robin Wallace chats with Howard about the magic of Beethoven, weaving personal sent...
Danny Adeno Abebe, "From Africa To Zion" (Miskal, 2021)
31 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1984, in an unprecedented act of brotherhood, Israel airlifted thousands of persecuted and starving Ethiopian Jews from Africa to Israel. They had ...
Joy Porter, "Trauma, Primitivism and the First World War: The Making of Frank Prewett" (Bloomsbury, 2021)
30 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In Trauma, Primitivism and the First World War: The Making of Frank Prewett (Bloomsbury Academic, 2021), Joy Porter examines the extraordinary lif...
Christopher Gehrz, "Charles Lindbergh: A Religious Biography of America's Most Infamous Pilot" (William B. Eerdmans, 2021)
25 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The narrative surrounding Charles Lindbergh's life has been as varying and complex as the man himself. Once best known as an aviator--the first to com...
A Brief Look at the Life and Times of Fyodor Dostoevsky
25 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The rich and complex prose of the celebrated Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky provides a detailed look at the fabric of European literary and social d...
Sara Reguer, "Winston S. Churchill and the Shaping of the Middle East, 1919-1922" (Academic Studies Press, 2020)
24 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In what ways was the course of twentieth-century Middle Eastern history shaped by the immediate post-World War I years at the dawn of the Mandatory Pe...
Grace M. Cho, "Tastes Like War: A Memoir" (Feminist Press, 2021)
18 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The US military camptowns were established shortly after the Second World War in 1945, appropriating the Japanese comfort stations. The Korean governm...
Adam Henig, "Watergate's Forgotten Hero: Frank Wills, Night Watchman" (McFarland, 2021)
18 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book, Watergate's Forgotten Hero: Frank Wills, Night-Watchman (McFarland & Co., 2021), Adam Henig sheds new light on a widely forgotten ...
Samantha Barbas, "The Rise and Fall of Morris Ernst, Free Speech Renegade" (U Chicago Press, 2021)
13 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Over the course of a long and successful legal career, Morris Ernst established himself as one of Americas foremost civil libertarians. Yet his advoca...
Kevin McGruder, "Philip Payton: The Father of Black Harlem" (Columbia UP, 2021)
13 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What was Harlem before its Renaissance, and how did it come to be? In Philip Payton: The Father of Black Harlem (Columbia University Press, 2021), h...
Patricia O’Brien, "Tautai: Sāmoa, World History, and the Life of Ta’isi O.F. Nelson" (U Hawaii Press, 2017)
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In Tautai: Sāmoa, World History, and the Life of Ta’isi O.F. Nelson (University of Hawai’i Press, 2017), O’Brien chronicles the life of a man...
Buzzy Kerbox, "Making Waves" (Legacy Isle Publishing, 2019)
11 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Who is the most interesting man in the world? The guy from the Dos Equis beer ads? Nope, it’s Buzzy Kerbox. This haole kid from O’ahu, Hawai’i b...
Tiffany A. Sippial, "Celia Sánchez Manduley: The Life and Legacy of a Cuban Revolutionary" (UNC Press, 2020)
06 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I sat down with Dr. Tiffany Sippial to talk about her latest book, Celia Sanchez Manduley: The Life and Legacy of a Cuban Revolutionary (University ...
Greg Larson, "Clubbie: A Minor League Baseball Memoir" (U Nebraska Press, 2021)
03 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today we are joined by Greg Larson, author of Clubbie: A Minor League Baseball Memoir (University of Nebraska, 2021). In Clubbie, Larson shares his...
Julie Rodgers, "Outlove: A Queer Christian Survival Story" (Broadleaf Books, 2021)
03 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Outlove: A Queer Christian Survival Story, written by Julie Rodgers was published in 2021 by Broadleaf Books Publishing Inc. In this honest and vulner...
Daryl R. Ireland, "John Song: Modern Chinese Christianity and the Making of a New Man" (Baylor UP, 2020)
02 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dubbed the "Billy Sunday of China" for the staggering number of people he led to Christ, John Song has captured the imagination of generations of read...
Supriya Gandhi, "The Emperor Who Never Was: Dara Shukoh in Mughal India" (Harvard UP, 2020)
30 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In her magnificent and lyrical new book, The Emperor Who Never Was: Dara Shukoh in Mughal India (Harvard UP, 2020), Supriya Gandhi reorients and add...
Kevin McGruder, "Philip Payton: The Father of Black Harlem" (Columbia UP, 2021)
29 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Kevin McGruder about his new book Philip Payton: The Father of Black Harlem (Columbia UP, 2021) In a moment of hope, even faith, ...
Christopher J. Lee, "Kwame Anthony Appiah" (Routledge, 2021)
28 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Kwame Anthony Appiah is among the most respected philosophers and thinkers of his generation. In Kwame Anthony Appiah (Routledge, 2021), Christophe...
Daniel Shapiro, "The Thin Ledge: A Husband’s Memoir of Love, Trauma, and Unexpected Circumstances" (Greenleaf, 2021)
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Daniel Shapiro was a successful attorney in his early forties when his wife, Susan, suffered a brain bleed and a diagnosis that her future was uncerta...
Moshe Halbertal, "Nahmanides: Law and Mysticism" (Yale UP, 2020)
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Rabbi Moses ben Nahman (1194–1270), known in English as Nahmanides and by the acronym the Ramban, was one of the most creative kabbalists, one of th...
Michal Kšiňan, "Milan Rastislav Štefánik: The Slovak National Hero and Co-Founder of Czechoslovakia" (Routledge, 2021)
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Michal Kšiňan’s Milan Rastislav Štefánik: The Slovak National Hero and Co-Founder of Czechoslovakia is the first scientific biography of Mil...
Jack Green and Ros Henry, "Olga Tufnell’s 'Perfect Journey': Letters and Photographs of an Archaeologist in the Levant and Mediterranean" (UCL Press, 2021)
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Olga Tufnell (1905–85) was a British archaeologist working in Egypt, Cyprus, and Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s, a period often described as a gol...
Andre E. Johnson, "No Future in This Country: The Prophetic Pessimism of Bishop Henry Mcneal Turner" (U Mississippi Press, 2020)
26 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
No Future in This Country: The Prophetic Pessimism of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner (U Mississippi Press, 2020) is a history of the career of Bishop He...
Meryl Altman, "Beauvoir in Time" (Brill, 2020)
23 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Meryl Altman's new book Beauvoir in Time, published by Brill Rodopi Press (2020), situates Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex (1949) in its histo...
Ken Ellingwood, "First to Fall: Elijah Lovejoy and the Fight for a Free Press in the Age of Slavery" (Pegasus Books, 2021)
16 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In First to Fall: Elijah Lovejoy and the Fight for a Free Press in the Age of Slavery (Pegasus Books, 2021), Ken Ellingwood takes readers back to t...
Kate Kennedy, "Dweller in Shadows: A Life of Ivor Gurney" (Princeton UP, 2021)
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The First World War poet and composer Ivor Gurney (1890–1937) spent the last fifteen years of his life confined in a Kent mental hospital befor...
What Can Wittgenstein Teach Us About Raising Our Kids?: A Discussion with Ryan Ruby
13 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ryan Ruby is a writer and translator from Los Angeles, California. His fiction and criticism have appeared in The New York Review of Books, The Paris...
Lyle D. Bierma, "Font of Pardon and New Life: John Calvin and the Efficacy of Baptism" (Oxford UP, 2021)
07 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Lyle D. Bierma's Font of Pardon and New Life: John Calvin and the Efficacy of Baptism (Oxford UP, 2021) is a study of the historical development and...
Krys Malcolm Belc, "The Natural Mother of the Child: A Memoir of Nonbinary Parenthood" (Counterpoint, 2021)
05 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This year, transgender liberation is at the forefront of Pride Month discourse, with a staggering number of conservative, religious, and gender critic...
Frank Burke et al., "A Companion to Federico Fellini" (Wiley-Blackwell, 2020)
05 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Federico Fellini’s distinct style delighted generations of film viewers and inspired filmmakers and artists around the world. In Fellini’s Films ...
Susan Eisenhower, "How Ike Led: The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions" (Thomas Dunne, 2020)
05 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Few people have made decisions as momentous as Eisenhower, nor has one person had to make such a varied range of them. From D-Day to Little Rock, from...
Matthew S. Gordon, "Ahmad ibn Tulun: Governor of Abbasid Egypt, 868–884" (Oneworld Academic, 2021)
25 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ahmad Ibn Tulun: Governor of Abbasid Egypt, 868-884 (Oneworld Academic, 2021), by Matthew S. Gordon (Miami University (Ohio)) is an innovative look...
Edward G. Longacre, "Unsung Hero of Gettysburg: The Story of Union General David McMurtrie Gregg" (U Nebraska Press, 2021)
24 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Edward G. Longacre about his new book Unsung Hero of Gettysburg: The Story of Union General David McMurtrie Gregg (University of N...
Katherine K. Preston, "George Frederick Bristow" (U Illinois Press, 2020)
24 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
George Frederick Bristow, born in 1825, was a significant musical figure in the United States from the 1850s until his death in 1898. Now, almost one ...
R. Ward Holder, "John Calvin in Context" (Cambridge UP, 2019)
23 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
John Calvin in Context (Cambridge UP, 2019) offers a comprehensive overview of Calvin's world. Including essays from social, cultural, feminist, and...
Zachary Karabell, "Inside Money: Brown Brothers Harriman and the American Way of Power" (Penguin, 2021)
22 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 1800 a Belfast linen merchant named Alexander Brown emigrated with his wife and eldest son to Baltimore. Today his family’s name lives on in the ...
Richard Thompson, "Beeswing: Losing My Way and Finding My Voice 1967-1975" (Algonquin Books, 2021)
21 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Thompson's Beeswing: Losing My Way and Finding My Voice 1967-1975 (Algonquin Books, 2021) gives fans of his music a tale as rollicking and e...
Vernadette Vicuña Gonzalez, "Empire's Mistress, Starring Isabel Rosario Cooper" (Duke UP, 2021)
17 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Isabel Rosario Cooper, if mentioned at all by mainstream history books, is often a salacious footnote: the young Filipino mistress of General Douglas ...
Mark Mordue, "Boy On Fire: The Young Nick Cave" (HarperCollins, 2020)
16 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Boy On Fire: The Young Nick Cave (HarperCollins, 2020) is the first volume of a long-awaited, near-mythical biography of Nick Cave by award-winning w...
Alexander Nemerov, "Fierce Poise: Helen Frankenthaler and 1950s New York" (Penguin Press, 2021)
14 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
At the dawn of the 1950s, a promising and dedicated young painter named Helen Frankenthaler, fresh out of college, moved back home to New York City to...
Peter C. Mancall, "The Trials of Thomas Morton" (Yale UP, 2019)
14 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Every good story needs a villain, and some of the early chroniclers of the pilgrim and puritan settlements found all they needed for this type of char...
Bob Kuska and Archie Clark, "Shake and Bake: The Life and Times of NBA Great Archie Clark" (U Nebraska Press, 2021)
14 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Shake and Bake is the story of Archie Clark, one of the top playmaking guards in the 1970s pre-merger NBA. While not one of the game’s most recogni...
Elizabeth A. Povinelli, "The Inheritance" (Duke UP, 2021)
09 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Elizabeth A. Povinelli’s inheritance was passed down not through blood or soil but through a framed map of Trentino, Alto Adige—the region where f...
Mary D. Garrard, "Artemisia Gentileschi and Feminism in Early Modern Europe" (Reaktion Books, 2020)
08 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Artemisia Gentileschi is by far the most famous woman artist of the premodern era. Her art addressed issues that resonate today, such as sexual violen...
Bethany Hicok, "Elizabeth Bishop and the Literary Archive" (Lever Press, 2020)
08 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What more can we learn about legendary American writer Elizabeth Bishop (1911-79), dubbed by Bethany Hicok “the most stunning poet of the twentieth...
Nelson Johnson, "Darrow's Nightmare: The Forgotten Story of America's Most Famous Trial Lawyer" (Rosetta Books, 2021)
03 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Nelson Johnson about his new book Darrow's Nightmare: The Forgotten Story of America's Most Famous Trial Lawyer (Rosetta Books, 2...
Michael E. Lynch, "Edward M. Almond and the US Army: From the 92nd Infantry Division to the X Corps" (U Kentucky Press, 2019)
02 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Edward M. Almond belonged to the generation of US Army officers who came of age during World War I and then ascended to senior command positions duri...
Julia Laite, "The Disappearance of Lydia Harvey: A true story of sex, crime and the meaning of justice" (Profile Books, 2021)
31 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Lydia Harvey was meant to disappear. She was young and working class; she'd walked the streets, worked in brothels, and had no money of her own. In 19...
Pamela Hamilton, "Lady Be Good: The Life and Times of Dorothy Hale" (Koehler Books, 2021)
28 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The name of Dorothy Hale is not well known these days. In the 1920s, she enjoyed a career on Broadway as a dancer, including in a leading role with Fr...
Danielle Geller, "Dog Flowers: A Memoir" (One World, 2021)
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Not long ago, the only resource for uncovering our familial pasts was to consult libraries and archives, combing old newspapers for birth announcement...
Christiane Tietz, "Karl Barth: A Life in Conflict" (Oxford UP, 2021)
26 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From the beginning of his career, Swiss theologian Karl Barth (1886-1968) was often in conflict with the spirit of his times. While during the First W...
Blake Scott Ball, "Charlie Brown's America: The Popular Politics of Peanuts" (Oxford UP, 2021)
25 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Despite—or because of—its huge popular culture status, Peanuts enabled cartoonist Charles Schulz to offer political commentary on the most controv...
Ronald C. White, "Lincoln in Private: What His Most Personal Reflections Tell Us About Our Greatest President" (Random House, 2021)
25 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From the New York Times bestselling author of A. Lincoln and American Ulysses, a revelatory glimpse into the mind and soul of our sixteenth preside...
Vanessa Carlisle, "Take Me with You" (Running Wild, 2021)
21 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Vanessa Carlisle about her new book Take Me with You (Running Wild, 2021). Kindred Powell's youth is marked by a secret that her ...
Michelle Chaplin Sanchez, "Calvin and the Resignification of the World: Creation, Incarnation, and the Problem of Political Theology in the 1559 'Institutes'" (Cambridge UP, 2019)
21 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
John Calvin's 1559 Institutes takes the reader on a journey that ends not in the celestial city but rather an ordinary, terrestrial city with all th...
Mehr Afshan Farooqi, "Ghalib: a Wilderness at My Doorstep: A Critical Biography" (Allen Lane, 2021)
20 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mirza Ghalib is one of the most celebrated poets in the Urdu literary canon. Yet, at the time, Ghalib was prolific in both Urdu and Persian. His outpu...
Jay Lockenour, "Dragonslayer: The Legend of Erich Ludendorff in the Weimar Republic and Third Reich" (Cornell UP, 2021)
19 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Erich Ludendorff is a contentious figure in military history. Focused, energetic, and hailing from humble origins, Ludendorff rose through the ranks o...
David Hardin, "Standpipe: Delivering Water in Flint" (Belt, 2021)
17 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A brief, elegant memoir of the author's work as a Red Cross volunteer delivering emergency water to residents of Flint, Michigan, Standpipe sets the...
Harry Freedman, "Reason to Believe: The Controversial Life of Rabbi Louis Jacobs" (Bloomsbury, 2021)
17 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Louis Jacobs was Britain's most gifted Jewish scholar. A Talmudic genius, outstanding teacher and accomplished author, cultured and easy-going, he was...
Richard Toye, "Winston Churchill: A Life in the News" (Oxford UP, 2020)
14 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Before Winston Churchill made history, he made news. To a great extent, the news made him too. If it was his own efforts that made him a hero, it was ...
Ayesha S. Chaudhry, "The Colour of God" (OneWorld, 2021)
14 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In today’s episode, we speak with Ayesha Chaudhry about her new book, The Colour of God (Oneworld Publications, 2021). The book describes Chaudh...
Dave Seminara, "Footsteps of Federer: A Fan’s Pilgrimage Across 7 Swiss Cantons in 10 Acts" (Post Hill Press, 2021)
13 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Dave Seminara about his book Footsteps of Federer: A Fan’s Pilgrimage Across 7 Swiss Cantons in 10 Acts (Post Hill Press, 2021)...
Kathleen Collins, "From Rabbit Ears to the Rabbit Hole: A Life with Television" (UP of Mississippi, 2021)
13 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In her new book From Rabbit Ears to the Rabbit Hole: A Life with Television (University of Mississippi Press, 2021) TV scholar and fan Kathleen C...
Jordana M. Saggese, "The Jean-Michel Basquiat Reader" (U California Press, 2021)
12 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In The Jean-Michel Basquiat Reader (University of California Press, 2021), Jordana Moore Saggese provides the first comprehensive sourcebook on the ...
Meggan Watterson, "Mary Magdalene Revealed: The First Apostle, Her Feminist Gospel & the Christianity We Haven't Tried Yet" (Hay House, 2019)
11 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In her rich book, Mary Magdalene Revealed: The First Apostle, The Feminist Gospel, and the Christianity We Haven’t Tried Yet (Hay House, 2019), M...
David Weill, "Exhale: Hope, Healing, and a Life in Transplant" (Post Hill Press, 2021)
11 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Exhale: Hope, Healing, and a Life in Transplant (Post Hill Press, 2021) is the riveting memoir of a top transplant doctor who rode the emotional roll...
Mira Sucharov, "Borders and Belonging: A Memoir" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020)
11 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mira Sucharov’s new book, Borders and Belonging: A Memoir (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020), is a work that takes seriously the feminist adage that the “...
Alison M. Parker, "Unceasing Militant: The Life of Mary Church Terrell" (UNC Press, 2020)
10 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Alison M. Parker’s new book Unceasing Militant: The Life of Mary Church Terrell (University of North Carolina Press, 2020) explores the life o...
Oksana Rosenblum et al., "Quiet Spiders of the Hidden Soul: Mykola (Nik) Bazhan’s Early Experimental Poetry" (Academic Studies Press, 2020)
05 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Quiet Spiders of the Hidden Soul: Mykola (Nik) Bazhan’s Early Experimental Poetry (Academic Studies Press, 2020) presents a collection of early wor...
Anthropologist Wade Davis Discusses His Life and Work
05 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
"… I am an axe; And my son a handle, soon; To be shaping again, model; And tool, craft of culture; How we go on." - Gary Snyder, Axe Handles (1...
Domenico Losurdo, "Nietzsche, the Aristocratic Rebel: Intellectual Biography and Critical Balance-Sheet" (Haymarket Books, 2021)
05 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche stands among the canon’s most-cited figures, with aphorisms dotting texts on a variety of to...
Adam Hochschild, "Rebel Cinderella: From Rags to Riches to Radical, the Epic Journey of Rose Pastor Stokes" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020)
04 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the political ferment of early twentieth century New York City, when socialists and reformers battled sweatshops, and writers and artists thought a...
Hari Ziyad, "Black Boy Out of Time: A Memoir" (Little a, 2021)
27 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
One of nineteen children in a blended family, Hari Ziyad was raised by a Hindu Hare Kṛṣṇa mother and a Muslim father. Through reframing their ow...
Brent D. Ziarnick, "To Rule the Skies: General Thomas S. Power and the Rise of Strategic Air Command in the Cold War" (US Naval Institute Press, 2021)
27 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A sadist. A madman. A sociopath seduced by the terrible allure of nuclear weapons. These are but a few of the pejoratives commonly used to describe Un...
Jarvis R. Givens, "Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching" (Harvard UP, 2021)
26 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to New Books in African American Studies, a channel on the New Books Network. I am your host, Adam McNeil. On today’s podcast, I am intervie...
Andrew Maraniss, "Singled Out: The True Story of Glenn Burke" (Philomel Books, 2021)
23 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On October 2nd, 1977, Glenn Burke, outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers, made history without even swinging a bat. When his teammate Dusty Baker hit...