New Books in Intellectual History
Episodes
Peter Hill, "Prophet of Reason: Science, Religion and the Origins of the Modern Middle East" (Oneworld Academic, 2024)
26 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Peter Hill about his new book Prophet of Reason: Science, Religion and the Origins of the Modern Middle East (Oneworld Academic, ...
Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī and Abū ʿAlī Miskawayh, "The Philosopher Responds: An Intellectual Correspondence from the Tenth Century" (NYU Press, 2019/22)
26 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to James Montgomery, one of the translators of The Philosopher Responds: An Intellectual Correspondence from the Tenth Century, two ...
Shuchi Kapila, "Postmemory and the Partition of India: Learning to Remember" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2024)
24 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Shuchi Kapila, Postmemory and the Partition of India: Learning to Remember (Palgrave MacMillan, 2024) Dr. Shuchi Kapila, Professor of English at Gri...
Matthijs Lok, "Europe Against Revolution: Conservatism, Enlightenment, and the Making of the Past" (Oxford UP, 2023)
24 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Contemporary Europe seems to be divided between progressive cosmopolitans sympathetic to the European Union and the ideals of the Enlightenment, and c...
Adrian Johnston, "Infinite Greed: The Inhuman Selfishness of Capital" (Columbia UP, 2024)
22 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Marxism and psychoanalysis have a rich and complicated relationship to one another, with countless figures and books written on the possible intersect...
Stephanie DeGooyer, "Before Borders: A Legal and Literary History of Naturalization" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2022)
22 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How can the novel be a way to understand the development of nation-state borders? An important work in the intersections of law, literature, history,...
Malcolm Schofield, "How Plato Writes: Perspectives and Problems" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
21 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Plato is a philosophical writer of unusual and ingenious versatility. His works engage in argument but are also full of allegory, imagery, myth, parad...
Nathaniel Gray Sutanto and Cory Brock, "T&T Clark Handbook of Neo-Calvinism" (T&T Clark, 2023)
19 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
T&T Clark Handbook of Neo-Calvinism (T&T Clark, 2023) comprehensively demonstrates neo-Calvinism's unique contribution to theology and Christian phil...
Aziz Rana, "The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them" (U Chicago Press, 2024)
19 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In a pathbreaking retelling of the American experience, Aziz Rana shows that today’s reverential constitutional culture is a distinctively twentieth...
Paulina Rowinska, "Mapmatics: How We Navigate the World Through Numbers" (Pan Macmillan, 2024)
19 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How does a delivery driver distribute hundreds of packages in a single working day? Why does remote Alaska have such a large airport? Where should we ...
Nietzsche Now! With Glenn Wallis
18 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nietzsche Now! Now? Really, you might ask. Isn’t he dead already? The Great Immoralist on the vital issues of our time. Hmm, how is that you might a...
Tahera Qutbuddin, trans., "Nahj al-Balāghah: The Wisdom and Eloquence of ʿAlī" (Brill, 2024)
17 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nahj al-Balagha is among the most powerful, consequential, and linguistically brilliant masterpieces of Arabic and of Islamic thought and literature....
Madman in the White House?
16 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Did Woodrow Wilson's daddy issues cause World War II? And what might this teach us about our contemporary political plight? Jordan Osserman talks with...
Todd H. Weir, "Red Secularism: Socialism and Secularist Culture in Germany 1890 to 1933" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
16 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Red Secularism: Socialism and Secularist Culture in Germany 1890 to 1933 (Cambridge UP, 2023) is the first substantive investigation into one of the ...
Robert D. Heaton, "The Shepherd of Hermas As Scriptura Non Grata: From Popularity in Early Christianity to Exclusion from the New Testament Canon" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023)
16 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Composed within the first Christian century by a Roman named Hermas, the Shepherd remains a mysterious and underestimated book to scholars and laype...
Gordon C. Chang, "Revolution and Witchcraft: The Code of Ideology in Unsettled Times" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)
14 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ideas influence people. In particular, extremely well-developed sets of ideas shape individuals, groups, and societies in far-reaching ways. In Revol...
Cory C. Brock and Nathaniel Gray Sutanto, "Neo-Calvinism: A Theological Introduction" (Lexham Press, 2023)
14 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Discover the rich theology of Neo-Calvinism. Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck sparked a theological tradition in the Netherlands that came to be know...
Benjamin Breen, "Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science" (Grand Central, 2024)
14 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Benjamin Breen about his book Tripping on Utopia: Margaret Mead, the Cold War, and the Troubled Birth of Psychedelic Science (Gra...
Christopher William England, "Land and Liberty: Henry George and the Crafting of Modern Liberalism" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2023)
14 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Henry George’s Progress and Poverty was one of the best-selling books of the 19th century, and his ideas were taken up by by powerful figures as d...
Gale L. Kenny, "Christian Imperial Feminism: White Protestant Women and the Consecration of Empire" (NYU Press, 2024)
13 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Amidst the global instability of the early twentieth century, white Christian American women embraced the idea of an “empire of Christ” that was r...
Matthew Robertson, "Puruṣa: Personhood in Ancient India" (Oxford UP, 2024)
13 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Personhood is central to the worldview of ancient India. Across voluminous texts and diverse traditions, the subject of the puruṣa, the Sanskrit te...
Carl Elliott, "The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No" (Norton, 2024)
12 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No (Norton, 2024) is an intellectual inquiry into the moral struggle ...
Peter Bergamin, "The Making of the Israeli Far-Right: Abba Ahimeir and Zionist Ideology” (I. B. Tauris, 2019)
10 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Bergamin’s, new book, The Making of the Israeli Far-Right: Abba Ahimeir and Zionist Ideology (I. B. Tauris, 2019), is an intellectual biograph...
Cameron J. Buckner, "From Deep Learning to Rational Machines" (Oxford UP, 2023)
10 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Artificial intelligence started with programmed computers, where programmers would manually program human expert knowledge into the systems. In sharp ...
Catherine Michael Chin, "Life: The Natural History of an Early Christian Universe" (U California Press, 2024)
09 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A vivid and intimate glimpse of ancient life under the sway of cosmic and spiritual forces that the modern world has forgotten. Life: The Natural Hist...
Jason Read, "The Double Shift: Spinoza and Marx on the Politics of Work" (Verso, 2024)
08 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Even as the rewards of work decline and its demands on us increase, many people double-down on their commitment to wage slavery – working harder, do...
Joseph A. Skloot, "First Impressions: Sefer Hasidim and Early Modern Hebrew Printing" (Brandeis UP, 2023)
08 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Joseph A. Skloot joins Jana Byars to talk about his new book, First Impressions: Sefer hasimdim and Early Modern Hebrew Printing (Brandeis UP, 2023...
Alan H. McGowan, "The Political Activism of Anthropologist Franz Boas, Citizen Scientist" (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2024)
07 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Alan McGowan delves into Franz Boas’s dual identity as both a scientist and a political activist, shedding light on how his work transcended academi...
Citizen Soldiers, Republican Virtues, and the Roman Way of War
06 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How was the Roman way of war unique, and what were the virtues that defined the Roman Republic? Are there lessons for modern Republics from the Roman ...
Glenn Dynner, "The Light of Learning: Hasidism in Poland on the Eve of the Holocaust" (Oxford UP, 2024)
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In The Light of Learning: Hasidism in Poland on the Eve of the Holocaust (Oxford University Press, 2024), Glenn Dynner tells the story of an unexpec...
Nicholas Tampio, ed., "Democracy and Education" (Columbia UP, 2024)
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
John Dewey's Democracy and Education (1916) transformed how people around the world view the purposes of schooling. This new edition makes Dewey's...
Linda Hopkins and Steven Kuchuck, eds., "Diary of a Fallen Psychoanalyst: The Work Books of Masud Khan 1967-1972" (Karnac, 2022)
03 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Masud Khan (1924-1989), was an eminent and, ultimately, scandalous British psychoanalyst who trained and practised in London during an important perio...
The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present
02 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Eric Kandel was born in Vienna in 1929. In 1938 he and his family fled to Brooklyn, where he attended the Yeshiva of Flatbush. He studied history and ...
Claire Weeda, "Ethnicity in Medieval Europe 950-1250: Medicine, Power and Religion" (Boydell and Brewer, 2021)
02 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Students in twelfth-century Paris held slanging matches, branding the English drunkards, the Germans madmen and the French as arrogant. On Crusade, ar...
Matthew Kadane, "The Enlightenment and Original Sin" (U Chicago Press, 2024)
01 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Matthew Kadane, Professor of History at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, talks about his just new book, The Enlightenment and Original Sin (Univer...
Daniel Matt et al., "The Zohar: Pritzker Edition" (Stanford UP, 2004-2017)
29 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sefer ha-Zohar (The Book of Radiance) has amazed readers ever since it emerged in Spain over seven hundred years ago. Written in a lyrical Aramaic, t...
David S. Richeson, "Tales of Impossibility: The 2000-Year Quest to Solve the Mathematical Problems of Antiquity" (Princeton UP, 2019)
28 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
David S. Richeson's book Tales of Impossibility: The 2000-Year Quest to Solve the Mathematical Problems of Antiquity (Princeton University Press, 2019...
Chris Haufe, "Do the Humanities Create Knowledge?" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
28 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There is in certain circles a widely held belief that the only proper kind of knowledge is scientific knowledge. This belief often runs parallel to th...
Vartan Matiossian, "The Politics of Naming the Armenian Genocide: Language, History and 'Medz Yeghern'" (Bloomsbury, 2021)
28 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Politics of Naming the Armenian Genocide: Language, History and 'Medz Yeghern' (Bloomsbury, 2021) explores the genealogy of the concept of 'Medz ...
Eileen M. Hunt, "The First Last Man: Mary Shelley and the Postapocalyptic Imagination" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2024)
28 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The First Last Man: Mary Shelley and the Postapocalyptic Imagination (U Pennsylvania Press, 2024) is the concluding text in political theorist Eilee...
Adi Mahalel, "The Radical Isaac: I. L. Peretz and the Rise of Jewish Socialism" (SUNY Press, 2023)
26 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In The Radical Isaac: I. L. Peretz and the Rise of Jewish Socialism (SUNY Press, 2023), Adi Mahalel presents Yiddish and Hebrew writer I. L. Peretz ...
Jesse McCarthy, "The Blue Period: Black Writing in the Early Cold War" (U Chicago Press, 2024)
26 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
‘The result is that, at the present time, the world is at an impasse.’ In 1956, Aimé Césaire pronounced the world to be at an impasse while reno...
Nicholas Taylor-Collins, "Shakespeare, Memory, and Modern Irish Literature" (Manchester UP, 2022)
24 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this interview, Dr. Nicholas Taylor-Collins discusses his most recent book Shakespeare, Memory, and Modern Irish Literature (Manchester UP, 2022...
Bernardo Kastrup, "Analytic Idealism in a Nutshell: A Straightforward Summary of the 21st Century's Only Plausible Metaphysics" (Iff Books, 2024)
24 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Is reality more than the material? Raj Balkaran holds a fascinating interview with philosopher Bernardo Kastrup on this topic. At the vanguard of th...
Stephen Phillips, "The Metaphysics of Meditation: Sri Aurobindo and Adi-Sakara on the Isa Upanisad" (Bloombury, 2024)
23 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In The Metaphysics of Meditation: Sri Aurobindo and Adi-Sakara on the Isa Upanisad (Bloombury, 2024), Stephen Phillips focuses on one of the most i...
Christine Abigail L. Tan, "Freedom's Frailty: Self-Realization in the Neo-Daoist Philosophy of Guo Xiang's Zhuangzhi" (SUNY Press, 2024)
21 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Christine Tan argues that the most fruitful way to read the Zhuangzi, if one is seeking political and ethical insight, is through the Jin Dynasty com...
Jason A. Kerr, "Milton's Theological Process: Reading de Doctrina Christiana and Paradise Lost" (Oxford UP, 2023)
21 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This volume proposes a method for reading Milton's De Doctrina Christiana as an artifact of his process of theological thinking rather than as a rep...
Assaf Tamari, "God as Patient: The Medical Discourse of Lurianic Kabbalah" (Magnes Press, 2023)
20 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In a broken world, in which even God Himself is in a state of deep crisis, what is required in order to mend the rupture? How can one heal God and His...
Daniel R. Schwartz, "Ancient Jewish Historians and the German Reich: Seven Studies" (de Gruyter, 2024)
19 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Apart from an opening survey of modern study of ancient Jewish history, which emphasizes the foundational role of German-Jewish scholars, the studies ...
Todd Mcgowan, "Embracing Alienation: Why We Shouldn't Try to Find Ourselves" (Repeater, 2024)
18 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The left views alienation as something to be resisted or overcome, but could it actually form the basis of our emancipation? We often think of our exi...
Shakespeare in America
18 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
James Shapiro spoke at the Institute in 2014 about Shakespeare in America, the anthology he edited for the Library of America. He is the Larry Miller...
Wei Wu, "Esoteric Buddhism in China: Engaging Japanese and Tibetan Traditions, 1912–1949" (Columbia UP, 2023)
17 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
During the Republican period (1912–1949) and after, many Chinese Buddhists sought inspiration from non-Chinese Buddhist traditions, showing a partic...
Ambereen Dadabhoy, "Shakespeare Through Islamic Worlds" (Routledge, 2023)
17 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Shakespeare through Islamic Worlds (Routledge, 2024) investigates the peculiar absence of Islam and Muslims from Shakespeare’s canon. While many of...
Kunal M. Parker, "The Turn to Process: American Legal, Political, and Economic Thought, 1870-1970" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
16 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In The Turn to Process: American Legal, Political, and Economic Thought, 1870-1970 (Cambridge University Press, 2023), Kunal M. Parker explores the...
Sari Nusseibeh, "Avicenna's Al-Shifā': Oriental Philosophy" (Routledge, 2018)
16 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sari Nusseibeh's book Avicenna's Al-Shifā': Oriental Philosophy (Routledge, 2018) deals with the philosophy of Ibn Sina - Avicenna as he was known...
Jennifer Dorothy Lee, "Anxiety Aesthetics: Maoist Legacies in China, 1978-1985" (U California Press, 2024)
16 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Today I had the great pleasure of talking to Associate Professor Jennifer Dorothy Lee on her new book, Anxiety Aesthetics: Maoist Legacies in China, ...
Christopher Tounsel, "Bounds of Blackness: African Americans, Sudan, and the Politics of Solidarity" (Cornell UP, 2024)
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher Tounsel's book Bounds of Blackness: African Americans, Sudan, and the Politics of Solidarity (Cornell UP, 2024) explores the history of ...
Lauren Horn Griffin, "Fabricating Founders in Early Modern England: History, Rhetoric, and the Origins of Christianity" (Brill, 2023)
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Fabricating Founders in Early Modern England: History, Rhetoric, and the Origins of Christianity (Brill, 2023) argues that in order to understand na...
Sony Coráñez Bolton, "Crip Colony: Mestizaje, US Imperialism, and the Queer Politics of Disability in the Philippines" (Duke UP, 2023)
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In Crip Colony: Mestizaje, US Imperialism, and the Queer Politics of Disability in the Philippines (Duke UP, 2023), Sony Coráñez Bolton examines t...
Inhuman
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of High Theory, Rasheed Tazudeen tells us about the inhuman. The inhuman offers a way of moving beyond the legacies of humanism and ac...
Liliana Doganova, "Discounting the Future: The Ascendancy of a Political Technology" (Princeton UP, 2024)
14 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Forest fires, droughts, and rising sea levels beg a nagging question: have we lost our capacity to act on the future? Dr. Liliana Doganova’s book D...
Siân E. Grønlie, "The Old Testament in Medieval Icelandic Texts: Translation, Exegesis and Storytelling" (Boydell & Brewer, 2024)
13 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The historical narratives of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible have much in common with Icelandic saga literature: both are invested in origins and genea...
Cecily N. Zander, "The Army under Fire: The Politics of Antimilitarism in the Civil War Era" (LSU Press, 2024)
12 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Cecily N. Zander’s The Army under Fire: The Politics of Antimilitarism in the Civil War Era (LSU Press, 2024) is a pathbreaking study focusing on...
Yasmine Ramadan, "Space in Modern Egyptian Fiction" (Edinburgh UP, 2021)
12 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1960s Egypt, a group of writers exploded onto the literary scene, transforming the aesthetic landscape. Yasmine Ramadan’s Space in Modern Egypti...
Y. Tzvi Langermann, "Before Maimonides: A New Philosophical Dialogue in Hebrew" (Brill, 2023)
11 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
All can agree that the achievement of Moses Maimonides (d. 1204) set the standard for subsequent works of "Jewish philosophy". But just what were the ...
Mark Dooley, "Roger Scruton: The Philosopher on Dover Beach" (Bloomsbury, 2024)
09 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Roger Scruton was one of the outstanding British philosophers of the post-war years. Why then was he at best ignored and at worst reviled? In Roger S...
Sean Griffin, "The Liturgical Past in Byzantium and Early Rus" (Cambridge UP, 2019)
07 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Sean Griffin's book, The Liturgical Past in Byzantium and Early Rus (Cambridge UP, 2019), takes on the question of the source materials for the...
Rustam Alexander, "Gay Lives and ‘Aversion Therapy’ in Brezhnev’s Russia, 1964–1982" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023)
06 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rustam Alexander's Gay Lives and 'Aversion Therapy' in Brezhnev's Russia, 1964-1982 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) examines the autobiographies and dia...
Richard M. Jaffe, "Seeking Sakyamuni: South Asia in the Formation of Modern Japanese Buddhism" (U Chicago Press, 2019)
05 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Though fascinated with the land of their tradition’s birth, virtually no Japanese Buddhists visited the Indian subcontinent before the nineteenth ce...
Francesca Trivellato, "The Promise and Peril of Credit: What a Forgotten Legend about Jews and Finance Tells Us about the Making of European Commercial Society" (Princeton UP, 2019)
05 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 1647, the French author Étienne Cleirac asserted in his book Les us, et coustumes de la mer that the credit instruments known as bills of exchange...
Zahra Ayubi, "Gendered Morality: Classical Islamic Ethics of the Self, Family, and Society" (Columbia UP, 2019)
04 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How are notions of justice and equality constructed in Islamic virtue ethics (akhlaq)? How are Islamic virtue ethics gendered, despite their venture i...
Shu Yang, "Untamed Shrews: Negotiating New Womanhood in Modern China" (Cornell UP, 2023)
02 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you are familiar with traditional Chinese literature, you have likely come across the figure of the “shrew,” a morally threatening woman who is...
Nietzsche Now! with Glenn Wallis
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What would Nietzsche say… about today’s divisive issues and debates? I spoke with Glenn Wallis, author of the new book, Nietzsche Now!, on how th...
Renée Bergland, "Natural Magic: Emily Dickinson, Charles Darwin, and the Dawn of Modern Science" (Princeton UP, 2024)
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Emily Dickinson and Charles Darwin were born at a time when the science of studying the natural world was known as natural philosophy, a pastime for p...
Jaume Aurell, "What Is a Classic in History?: The Making of a Historical Canon" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
30 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What is a classic in historical writing? How do we explain the continued interest in certain historical texts, even when their accounts and interpreta...
Christopher Cameron, "Black Freethinkers: A History of African American Secularism" (Northwestern UP, 2019)
29 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Black Freethinkers: A History of African American Secularism (Northwestern University Press, 2019) by Christopher Cameron, an Associate Professor of h...
Ariella Aisha Azoulay, "Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism" (Verso, 2019)
28 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Ariella Aisha Azoulay argues that the institutions that make our world, from archives and museums to ideas of sovereignty and human rights to history ...
Kristin M. Franseen, "Imagining Musical Pasts: The Queer Literary Musicology of Vernon Lee, Rosa Newmarch, and Edward Prime-Stevenson" (Clemson UP, 2023)
27 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Imagining Musical Pasts: the Queer Literary Musicology of Vernon Lee, Rosa Newmarch, and Edward Prime-Stevenson (Clemson University Press, 2023) by K...
Stefanos Geroulanos on "The Invention of Prehistory"
26 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What does it mean to be human? What do we know about the true history of humankind? In this episode, I spoke with historian and NYU professor Stefanos...
Alexander Statman, "A Global Enlightenment: Western Progress and Chinese Science" (U Chicago Press, 2023)
25 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Alexander Statman's book A Global Enlightenment: Western Progress and Chinese Science (U Chicago Press, 2023) is a revisionist history of the idea ...
Crawford Gribben, "J. N. Darby and the Roots of Dispensationalism" (Oxford UP, 2024)
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
J.N. Darby and the Roots of Dispensationalism (Oxford University Press, 2024) describes the work of one of the most important and under-studied theo...
Michael Scott and Michael Collins, "Christian Shakespeare?: A Collection of Essays on Shakespeare in His Christian Context" (Vernon Press, 2022)
23 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The enigma of William Shakespeare's religious beliefs has long tantalized scholars and enthusiasts alike. Vernon Press's latest publication, Christia...
Gary S. Cross, "Free Time: The History of an Elusive Ideal" (NYU Press, 2024)
23 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Free time, one of life’s most precious things, often feels unfulfilling. But why? And how did leisure activities transition from strolling in the pa...
Nora E. H. Parr, "Novel Palestine: Nation Through the Works of Ibrahim Nasrallah" (U California Press, 2023)
23 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Palestinian writing imagines the nation, not as a nation-in-waiting but as a living, changing structure that joins people, place, and time into a dist...
Steven Nadler, "Spinoza: A Life" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
22 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) was one of the most important philosophers of all time; he was also one of the most radical and controversial. The story ...
On the History and Evolution of Zionism
22 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On today's episode of the New Books Network, we are privileged to have Professor Arie Dubnov joining us for an in-depth discussion on the multifacet...
Vaia Touna and Richard Newton, "Fieldnotes in the Critical Study of Religion: Revisiting Classical Theorists" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
21 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Fieldnotes in the Critical Study of Religion: Revisiting Classical Theorists (Bloomsbury, 2023) introduces students to the so-called classics of the...
Debby Koren, "Responsa in a Historical Context: A View of Post-Expulsion Spanish-Portuguese Jewish Communities Through 16th- And 17th-Century Responsa" (Academic Studies Press, 2023)
18 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Debby Koren's book Responsa in a Historical Context: A View of Post-Expulsion Spanish-Portuguese Jewish Communities Through 16th- And 17th-Century R...
Plutarch as Philosopher and Political Thinker: A Conversation with Hugh Liebert
18 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Plutarch is one of history's most influential authors: his insights were foundational to thinkers ranging from William Shakespeare to Alexander Hamilt...
Thor Rydin, "The Works and Times of Johan Huizinga (1872-1945): Writing History in the Age of Collapse" (Amsterdam UP, 2023)
17 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Thor Rydin joins to talk about his new book, The Works and Times of Johan Huizinga (1872- 1945): Writing History in the Age of Collapse (Amsterdam U...
D. J. Taylor, "Who Is Big Brother?: A Reader's Guide to George Orwell" (Yale UP, 2024)
17 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An intellectual who hated intellectuals, a socialist who didn't trust the state--our foremost political essayist and author of Animal Farm and Nine...
Miriam Piilonen, "Theorizing Music Evolution: Darwin, Spencer, and the Limits of the Human" (Oxford UP, 2024)
15 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What did historical evolutionists such as Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer have to say about music? What role did music play in their evolutionary t...
Betty Milan, "Analyzed by Lacan: A Personal Account" (Bloomsbury, 2023)
15 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Analyzed by Lacan: A Personal Account (Bloomsbury, 2023) brings together the first English translations of Why Lacan, Betty Milan's memoir of her a...
Kevin Lambert, "Symbols and Things: Material Mathematics in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2021)
15 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The stereotype of the solitary mathematician is widespread, but practicing users and producers of mathematics know well that our work depends heavily ...
Melvin L. Rogers, "The Darkened Light of Faith: Race, Democracy, and Freedom in African American Political Thought" (Princeton UP, 2023)
15 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Political Theorist Melvin L. Rogers has a deep and rich new book delving into the work of a host of different African American political thinkers. But...
R. J. Boutelle, "The Race for America: Black Internationalism in the Age of Manifest Destiny" (UNC Press, 2023)
13 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As Manifest Destiny took hold in the national consciousness, what did it mean for African Americans who were excluded from its ambitions for an expand...
Seamus O'Malley, "Irish Culture and 'The People': Populism and Its Discontents" (Oxford UP, 2022)
11 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Seamus O’Malley is an associate professor at Yeshiva University. His first book was Making History New: Modernism and Historical Narrative (Oxford...
Hume, the Epicureans, and the Origins of Liberalism
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Enlightenment philosopher David Hume enjoyed a tremendous influence on intellectual history. What did Hume believe, why was it so controversial at the...
Eric Hoffer's "The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements" (1951)
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A stevedore on the San Francisco docks in the 1940s, who eventually taught at the University of California at Berkeley, Eric Hoffer wrote philosophica...
Charles William Johns, "Hegel and Speculative Realism" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023)
10 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hegel and Speculative Realism (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023) has two main objectives. Firstly, to assess the speculative realist formulations of the rea...