New Books in Performing Arts

Kevin Sanson, "Mobile Hollywood: Labor and the Geography of Production" (U California Press, 2024)

20 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What is the future of the film industry? In Mobile Hollywood Labor and the Geography of Production (U California Press, 2024), Kevin Sanson, Prof...

Ashawnta Jackson, "Soul-Folk" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

19 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Folk music of the 1960s and 1970s was a genre that was always shifting and expanding, yet somehow never found room for so many. In the sounds of soul-...

Peter C. Kunze, "Staging a Comeback: Broadway, Hollywood, and the Disney Renaissance" (Rutgers UP, 2023)

19 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 1980s, Walt Disney Productions was struggling, largely bolstered by the success of its theme parks. Within fifteen years, however, it had...

Brad Balukjian, "The Six Pack: On the Open Road in Search of Wrestlemania" (Hachette, 2024)

18 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2005, Brad Balukjian left his position as a magazine fact-checker to pursue a dream job: partner with his childhood hero, The Iron Sheik (whose rea...

Ora Horn Prouser et al., "Under One Tent: Circus, Judaism, and Bible" (Ben Yehuda Press, 2023)

14 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The study of Jewish text, over two millennia, has traditionally taken place in the Bet Midrash (the communal study hall), sitting at a table or desk. ...

Aviva Dove-Viebahn, "There She Goes Again: Gender, Power, and Knowledge in Contemporary Film and Television Franchises" (Rutgers UP, 2023)

10 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There She Goes Again: Gender, Power, and Knowledge in Contemporary Film and Television Franchises (Rutgers UP, 2023) interrogates the representation ...

John Withington, "A History of Fireworks from: Their Origins to the Present Day" (Reaktion, 2024)

08 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A History of Fireworks from: Their Origins to the Present Day (Reaktion, 2024) by John Withington illuminates the glittering history of fireworks, fr...

Natalie Wall, "Black Expression and White Generosity: A Theoretical Framework of Race" (Emerald Publishing, 2024)

07 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Black Expression and White Generosity: A Theoretical Framework of Race (Emerald Publishing, 2024), Dr. Natalie Wall takes readers on a journey th...

Serena Laiena, "The Theatre Couple in Early Modern Italy: Self-Fashioning and Mutual Marketing" (U Delaware Press, 2023)

05 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Serena Laiena joins Jana Byars to talk about her new book, The Theater Couple in Early Modern Italy: Self-Fashioning and Mutual Marketing (Universit...

Kristina Kolbe, "The Sound of Difference: Race, Class and the Politics of 'Diversity' in Classical Music" (Manchester UP, 2024)

05 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What is the future of classical music? In The Sound of Difference: Race, Class and the Politics of 'Diversity' in Classical Music (Manchester UP, 20...

Lynne B. Sagalyn, "Times Square Remade: The Dynamics of Urban Change" (MIT Press, 2023)

30 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What is it about Times Square that has inspired such attention for well over a century? And how is it that, despite its many changes of character, the...

Konrad Bercovici, "The Algonquin Round Table: 25 Years with the Legends Who Lunch" (SUNY Press, 2024)

28 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Konrad Bercovici's The Algonquin Round Table: 25 Years With the Legends Who Lunch (SUNY Press, 2024) is a previously unpublished manuscript explori...

Francesco Lotoro, "The Lost Music of the Holocaust: Bringing the Music of the Camps to the Ears of the World at Last" (Headline, 2024)

24 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Scores sewn into coat linings, instruments hidden in suitcases, sheet music stashed among dirty laundry, concertos written on discarded food wrappers ...

Jane Little Botkin, "The Pink Dress: A Memoir of a Reluctant Beauty Queen" (She Writes Press, 2024)

24 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Growing up in West Texas, Jane Little Botkin didn’t have designs on becoming a beauty queen. But not long after joining a pageant on a whim in colle...

Emily Carman, "Independent Stardom: Freelance Women in the Hollywood Studio System" (U Texas Press, 2016)

23 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

During the heyday of Hollywood’s studio system, stars were carefully cultivated and promoted, but at the price of their independence. This familiar ...

Lucy Weir, "Performance, Masculinity, and Self-Injury" (Routledge, 2024)

21 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Can self-harm be art? In Performance, Masculinity, and Self-Injury (Routledge, 2024), Lucy Weir, a Reader in History of Art at the University of E...

Sheri Chinen Biesen, "Through a Noir Lens: Adapting Film Noir Visual Style" (Columbia UP, 2024)

18 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Shadows. Smoke. Dark alleys. Rain-slicked city streets. These are iconic elements of film noir visual style. Long after its 1940s heyday, noir hallmar...

Salma Siddique, "Evacuee Cinema: Bombay and Lahore in Partition Transit, 1940–1960" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

14 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Evacuee Cinema: Bombay and Lahore in Partition Transit, 1940–1960 (Cambridge UP, 2022) offers a new history of the partition. Based on previously u...

Jennifer L. Lambe, "The Subject of Revolution: Between Political and Popular Culture in Cuba" (UNC Press, 2024)

13 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From television to travel bans, geopolitics to popular dance, The Subject of Revolution: Between Political and Popular Culture in Cuba (UNC Press, 2...

Grant Olwage, "Paul Robeson's Voices" (Oxford UP, 2023)

13 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Paul Robeson's Voices (Oxford UP, 2023) is a meditation on Robeson's singing, a study of the artist's life in song. Music historian Grant Olwage exa...

Steve Jones, "The Metamodern Slasher Film" (Edinburgh UP, 2024)

10 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It is commonly proposed that since the mid-2000s, the slasher subgenre has been dominated by unoriginal remakes of "classics". Consequently, most orig...

Trevor Boffone, "TikTok Broadway: Musical Theatre Fandom in the Digital Age" (Oxford UP, 2024)

08 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Are you a musical theatre fan who loves TikTok? Or are you curious about how this social media app has changed musical theatre fandom - and even the c...

Yiu Fai Chow et al., "It’s My Party: Tat Ming Pair and the Postcolonial Politics of Popular Music in Hong Kong" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024)

07 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It’s My Party: Tat Ming Pair and the Postcolonial Politics of Popular Music in Hong Kong (Palgrave Macmillan 2024) is unique in focusing on just o...

Tom Boniface-Webb, "Modern Music Masters: Oasis" (MMM, 2020)

07 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the first book in the Modern Music Masters series, Tom Boniface-Webb examines the Manchester band Modern Music Masters-Oasis (MMM, 2020). Founde...

Mark Blake, "Dreams: The Many Lives of Fleetwood Mac" (Pegasus Books, 2024)

06 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

An illuminating deep-dive into everything Fleetwood Mac--the songs, the rivalries, the successes, and the failures—Dreams: The Many Lives of Fleetwo...

John S. Garrison, "Red Hot + Blue" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

02 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

John Garrison's Red Hot + Blue (33 1/3 Series) (Bloomsbury, 2024)  is a meditation on music's capacity to find us, transform us, and help us make ...

Steven Watts, "Citizen Cowboy: Will Rogers and the American People" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

31 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Citizen Cowboy: Will Rogers and the American People (Cambridge UP, 2024) is a probing biography of one of America's most influential cultural figures...

Tarryn Li-Min Chun, "Revolutionary Stagecraft: Theater, Technology, and Politics in Modern China" (U Michigan Press, 2024), "Revolutionary Stagecraft: Theater, Technology, and Politics in Modern China" (U Michigan Press, 2024)

30 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Revolutionary Stagecraft: Theater, Technology, and Politics in Modern China (University of Michigan Press, 2024) offers a fascinating approach to m...

Randall Stephens, "The Devil’s Music: How Christians Inspired, Condemned, and Embraced Rock n’ Roll" (Harvard UP, 2018)

28 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

I was immediately drawn to the book The Devil’s Music by Dr. Randall Stephens, Associate Professor of British and American Studies at the University...

Sara Farrington, "A Trojan Woman Adapted from Euripides" (Broadway Play Publishing, 2024)

27 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In a flash of modern warfare (Ukraine? Afghanistan? Vietnam? Poland? Hiroshima? Israel? Gaza?), a mother loses her child. She becomes "A Trojan Woman,...

Christopher Brown, "Mapping Taiwanese Cinema, 2008-2020: Environments, Poetics, Practice" (Edinburgh UP, 2024)

27 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Accounting for the unique characteristics of Taiwan’s cinema from 2008 to 2020, Mapping Taiwanese Cinema, 2008-2020: Environments, Poetics, Practic...

Jennifer Ponce de León, "Another Aesthetics Is Possible: Arts of Rebellion in the Fourth World War" (Duke UP, 2021)

23 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Another Aesthetics Is Possible: Arts of Rebellion in the Fourth World War (Duke UP, 2021), Jennifer Ponce de León examines the roles that art c...

The Sounds of Silents

19 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What did going to the movies sound like back in the “silent film” era? The answer takes us on a strange journey through Vaudeville, roaming Chauta...

Laura S. Lieber, "Staging the Sacred: Performance in Late Ancient Liturgical Poetry" (Oxford UP, 2023)

19 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Staging the Sacred: Performance in Late Ancient Liturgical Poetry (Oxford UP, 2023) examines the importance of Christian, Jewish, and Samaritan litu...

Alonso Duralde, "Hollywood Pride: A Celebration of LGBTQ+ Representation and Perseverance in Film" (Running Press Adult, 2024)

14 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Film critic Alonso Duralde and I talk his new book, Hollywood Pride: A Celebration of LGBTQ+ Representation and Perseverance in Film (Running Press...

Marissa Nicosia, "Imagining Time in the English Chronicle Play: Historical Futures, 1590-1660" (Oxford UP, 2023)

11 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Imagining Time in the English Chronicle Play: Historical Futures, 1590-1660 (Oxford University Press, 2023) argues that dramatic narratives about mon...

Leslie Ramos, "Philanthropy in the Arts: A Game of Give and Take" (Lund Humphries, 2023)

11 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In an era where the financial stability of many arts organizations is increasingly precarious, arts philanthropy stands at a critical juncture. The re...

George Musgrave, "The England No One Cares About: Lyrics from Suburbia" (Goldsmiths Press, 2023)

10 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

An exploration of the much-derided English suburbs through rap music. There are many different Englands. From the much-romanticized rolling countrysid...

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

07 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

Jessica Roda, "For Women and Girls Only: Reshaping Jewish Orthodoxy Through the Arts in the Digital Age" (NYU Press, 2024)

06 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Mainstream portrayals of ultra-Orthodox religious women often frame their faith as oppressive: they are empowered only when they leave their community...

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

06 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

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

04 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

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

04 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

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

03 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

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

30 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

Robyn Hitchcock, "1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left" (Akashic Books, 2024)

27 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left (Akashic Books, 2024) explores how that pivotal slice of time tastes to a bright, obsessive-compulsive boy...

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

27 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

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

27 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

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

26 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

Miguel Escobar Varela, "Theater as Data: Computational Journeys Into Theater Research" (U Michigan Press, 2021)

24 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Theater As Data: Computational Journeys Into Theater Research (U Michigan Press, 2021), Miguel Escobar Varela explores the use of computational m...

Charles Barr, "British Cinema: a Very Short Introduction" (Oxford UP, 2022)

23 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Cinema has had a hugely influential role on global culture in the 20th century at multiple levels: social, political, and educational. The part of Bri...

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

23 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

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

22 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

Sarah Milton, "Ageing and New Intimacies: Gender, Sexuality and Temporality in an English Salsa Scene" (Manchester UP, 2024)

17 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The 'baby boom' generation, born between the 1940s and the 1960s, is often credited with pioneering new and creative ways of relating, doing intimacy ...

Emily Wilbourne, "Voice, Slavery, and Race in Seventeenth-Century Florence" (Oxford UP, 2023)

16 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Grounded in new archival research documenting a significant presence of foreign and racially-marked individuals in Medici Florence, Voice, Slavery, a...

Helen Freear-Papio and Candyce Crew Leonard, "The Theatre of Twenty-First Century Spain" (Vernon Press, 2022)

16 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The interview featured an in-depth dialogue about The Theatre of Twenty-First Century Spain (Vernon Press, 2022), a bilingual collection that examin...

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

16 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

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

15 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

Pamela Hutchinson, "The Red Shoes" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

14 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Endlessly fascinating, dark and bright, The Red Shoes (1948) employs every branch of the cinematic arts to sweep the audience off its feet, invigora...

AI and Music: The Future is Here (featuring "There I Ruined It")

13 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the UConn Popcast, and recently UConn’s Center for the Study of Popular Music hosted a panel discussion on Artificial Intelligence and the ...

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

12 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

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

Danielle Antoinette Hidalgo, "Dance Music Spaces: Clubs, Clubbers, and DJs Navigating Authenticity, Branding, and Commercialism" (Lexington, 2023)

12 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Dance Music Spaces: Clubs, Clubbers, and DJs Navigating Authenticity, Branding, and Commercialism (Lexington Books, 2022), Danielle Antoinette ...

Paul Rekret, "Take This Hammer: Work, Song, Crisis" (Goldsmiths Press, 2024)

10 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The emergence of the popular music industry in the early twentieth century not only drove a wedge between music production and consumption, it also un...

Ed Simon, "Devil's Contract: A History of the Faustian Bargain" (Melville House, 2024)

09 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From ancient times to the modern world, the idea of the Faustian bargain—the exchange of one’s soul in return for untold riches and power—has ex...

Breathing Together

08 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Working across and among languages, media, and art forms, Caroline Bergvall’s writing takes form as published poetic works and performance, frequen...

Jake Johnson, "The Possibility Machine: Music and Myth in Las Vegas" (U Illinois Press, 2023)

07 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Las Vegas is a place the American dream made; a city built in the middle of desert visited by millions of people every year hoping to make their dream...

Swapnil Rai, "Networked Bollywood: How Star Power Globalized Hindi Cinema" (Cambridge UP, 2024)

29 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Swapnil Rai’s book Networked Bollywood: How Star Power Globalized Hindi Cinema (Cambridge UP, 2024) brilliantly navigates the intricate landscapes...

Barbara Klinger, "Immortal Films: 'Casablanca' and the Afterlife of a Hollywood Classic" (U California Press, 2022)

27 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Casablanca is one of the most celebrated Hollywood films of all time, its iconic romance enshrined in collective memory across generations. Drawing f...

Ann Powers, "Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell" (Dey Street Books, 2024)

24 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

For decades, Joni Mitchell's life and music have enraptured listeners. One of the most celebrated artists of her generation, Mitchell has inspired cou...

Hank Willenbrink, "Performing for the Don: Theatres of Faith in the Age of Trump" (Routledge, 2024)

23 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From his overwhelming embrace by evangelicals and other people of faith to his championing of policies and conservative judicial candidates long sough...

Christopher T. Conner and David R. Dickens, "Electronic Dance Music: From Deviant Subculture to Culture Industry" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023)

23 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Electronic Dance Music: From Deviant Subculture to Culture Industry (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023) explores the subculture’s emergence as a deviant ...

Jennifer S. Clark, "Producing Feminism: Television Work in the Age of Women's Liberation" (U California Press, 2024)

21 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How have women resisted sexism in TV? In Producing Feminism: Television Work in the Age of Women’s Liberation (U California Press, 2024), Jennife...

Harry R. McCarthy, "Boy Actors in Early Modern England" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

17 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Boy Actors in Early Modern England: Skill and Stagecraft in the Theatre (Cambridge University Press, 2022) by Dr. Harry McCarthy provides a new appro...

Jared Stearns, "Pure: The Sexual Revolutions of Marilyn Chambers" (Headpress, 2024)

14 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Pure: The Sexual Revolutions of Marilyn Chambers (Headpress, 2024), Jared Stearns tells the untold story of the world's most famous X-rated s...

Laura Davis-Chanin and Liz Lamere, "Infinite Dreams: The Life of Alan Vega" (Backbeat Books, 2024)

11 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Infinite Dreams: The Life of Alan Vega (Backbeat, 2024) by Laura Davis-Chanin and Liz Lamere is the first biography on the life of Alan Vega, best k...

Timothy P. Storhoff, "Harmony and Normalization: US-Cuban Musical Diplomacy" (UP of Mississippi, 2020)

09 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Harmony and Normalization: US-Cuban Musical Diplomacy (University Press of Mississippi, 2020) explores the channels of musical exchange between Cuba...

Matthew D. Morrison, "Blacksound: Making Race and Popular Music in the United States" (U California Press, 2024)

05 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Blacksound: Making Race and Popular Music in the United States (U California Press, 2024) explores the sonic history of blackface minstrelsy and the ...

Tara López, "Chuco Punk: Sonic Insurgency in El Paso" (U Texas Press, 2024)

04 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tara López's Chuco Punk: Sonic Insurgency in El Paso (University of Texas Press, 2024), is an immersive study of the influential and predominantly...

Ramón Espejo, "The Catalonian Journey of American Drama 1909-2000: From Jimmy Valentine to The Vagina Monologues" (Legenda, 2024)

02 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ramón Espejo's book The Catalonian Journey of American Drama 1909-2000: From Jimmy Valentine to The Vagina Monologues (Legenda, 2024) delves into t...

Robert Phillip Kolker and Marsha Gordon, "Film, Form, and Culture" (Routledge, 2024)

30 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This fifth edition of Film, Form, and Culture (Routledge, 2024) offers a lively introduction to both the formal and cultural aspects of film. With ...

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...

Bodie A. Ashton, "The Pet Shop Boys and the Political: Queerness, Culture, Identity, and Society" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

28 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In The Pet Shop Boys and the Political: Queerness, Culture, Identity, and Society (Bloomsbury, 2024), editor Bodie Ashton compiles twelve essays ex...

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...

Nicholas Underwood, "Yiddish Paris: Staging Nation and Community in Interwar France" (Indiana UP, 2022)

21 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Nick Underwood's Yiddish Paris: Staging Nation and Community in Interwar Paris (Indiana University Press, 2022) is a captivating study of the cultur...

Rob Drew, "Unspooled: How the Cassette Made Music Shareable" (Duke UP, 2023)

20 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Well into the new millennium, the analog cassette tape continues to claw its way back from obsolescence. New cassette labels emerge from hipster encla...

James A. Cosby, "Rock Music, Authority and Western Culture, 1964-1980" (McFarland, 2024)

19 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The history of rock and roll music can be seen in a long arc of Western civilization's struggle for both greater individual expression and societal st...

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...

Douglas L. Reside, "Fixing the Musical: How Technologies Shaped the Broadway Repertory" (Oxford UP, 2023)

15 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Thousands of shows have opened on Broadway. Why do we remember some and not others? The musical theatre repertory is not composed of titles popular in...

Julia A. Cassiday, "Russian Style: Performing Gender, Power, and Putinism" (U Wisconsin Press, 2023)

14 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Russian Style: Performing Gender, Power, and Putinism (University of Wisconsin Press, 2023) provides a critical and nuanced analysis of the relation...

Alyxandra Vesey, "Extending Play: The Feminization of Collaborative Music Merchandise in the Early Twenty-First Century" (Oxford UP, 2023)

11 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Despite the hypervisibility of a constellation of female pop stars, the music business is structured around gender inequality. As a result, women in t...

Julia Havas, "Woman Up: Invoking Feminism in Quality Television" (Wayne State UP, 2022)

08 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

While American television has long relied on a strategic foregrounding of feminist politics to promote certain programming's cultural value, Woman Up...

Kristine Ohkubo and Kanariya Eiraku, "Talking About Rakugo 1: The Japanese Art of Storytelling" (2022)

07 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Rakugo is a live performance art that has penetrated the borders of Japan and continues to gain popularity overseas. The rakugo stage once dominated b...

Sydney Stern, "The Brothers Mankiewicz: Hope, Heartbreak, and Hollywood Classics" (U Mississippi Press, 2019)

05 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Herman J. (1897–1953) and Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909–1993) wrote, produced, and directed over 150 pictures. With Orson Welles, Herman wrote the sc...

Patrick Humphries, "Cleopatra and the Undoing of Hollywood: How One Film Almost Sunk the Studios" (History Press, 2023)

04 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The astonishing behind-the-scenes story of the 1963 film Cleopatra and how it changed the face of Hollywood makes it one of the most fabled films of...

Kristi Irene McKim, "Rushmore" (British Film Institute, 2023)

03 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Earning critical acclaim and commercial success upon its 1998 release, Rushmore-the sophomore film of American auteur Wes Anderson-quickly gained the...

Katie Gee Salisbury, "Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong" (Dutton, 2024)

02 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2022, the U.S. Mint released the first batch of its American Women Quarters series, celebrating the achievements of U.S. women throughout its histo...

Justin O’Connor, "Culture is Not an Industry: Reclaiming Art and Culture for the Common" (Manchester UP, 2024)

01 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

According to Dr. Justin O’Connor, culture is at the heart of what it means to be human. But twenty-five years ago, the British government rebranded...

Victoria Sparey, "Shakespeare's Adolescents: Age, Gender and the Body in Shakespearean Performance and Early Modern Culture" (Manchester UP, 2024)

30 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Shakespeare's Adolescents: Age, Gender and the Body in Shakespearean Performance and Early Modern Culture (Manchester UP, 2024) by Dr. Victoria Spar...

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...

Dana Gorzelany-Mostak, "Tracks on the Trail: Popular Music, Race, and the US Presidency" (U Michigan Press, 2023)

26 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From Bill Clinton playing his saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show to Barack Obama referencing Jay-Z's song "Dirt Off Your Shoulder," politicians have...