New Books in Western European Studies
Episodes
European Jews in the 21st Century
18 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What is the status of Jews in Europe in the 21st century? How do they maintain vital communities? Do they desire to remain in Europe? To remain Jewish...
Marinus De Jong, "A Church for a Secular World: The Development of Klaas Schilder's Ecclesiology" (Brill, 2025)
14 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The relationship between the Church and the world has been a subject of debate since the Church's earliest days. In A Church for a Secular World: ...
Curtis Dozier, "The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate" (Yale UP, 2026)
13 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Curtis Dozier's The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate (Yale University Press, 2026) explores how ...
Jake Dyble, "Managing Maritime Risk in Early Modern Europe: General Average in Law and Practice in Seventeenth-Century Tuscany" (Boydell Press, 2025)
12 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Commercial seafaring, both dangerous and with large amounts of capital at stake, was the source of the risk-management institutions that still under...
Don Thomas Deere, "The Invention of Order: On the Coloniality of Space" (Duke UP, 2026)
11 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In The Invention of Order: On the Coloniality of Space (Duke University Press, 2026), Don Thomas Deere retraces the colonial origins of s...
Tania Sengupta and Stuart King eds., "Reclaiming Colonial Architecture" (Routledge, 2024)
09 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Reclaiming Colonial Architecture (Routledge, 2024) explores the built inheritance of colonialism and considers how architects, heritage practition...
Matti Friedman, "Out of the Sky: Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europe" (Spiegel & Grau, 2026)
09 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Was it one of the war’s most memorable feats of valor or an act of desperation, even madness? In Out of the Sky: Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europ...
Brexit Britain: 10 Years on from the Referendum
09 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Anniversaries provide opportunities to take stock and reflect. It is now ten years since voters in the United Kingdom cast their ballots in a referend...
Stephen C.E. Hopkins, "Translating hell: Vernacular theology and apocrypha in the medieval North Sea" (Manchester UP, 2026)
08 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In the Middle Ages, hell was useful because it was vaguely defined. Canonical scriptures scarcely mention hell, leaving much to the imaginations of e...
Sarah M. Cushman et al eds., "The Routledge Handbook to Auschwitz-Birkenau" (Routledge, 2026)
07 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Routledge Handbook to Auschwitz-Birkenau (Routledge, 2026) examines Auschwitz-Birkenau as both a site and a symbol of Nazi genocide. Scholars fr...
Radio ReOrient S14:10: Muslims in the Neoliberal Era, with William Barylo, hosted by Salman Sayyid and Amina Easat-Daas
05 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode hosts Salman Sayyid and Amina Easat-Daas were joined by William Barylo to discuss his most recent book ‘Muslims in the Neoliberal Er...
Steven Nadler, "Spinoza, Atheist" (Princeton UP, 2026)
02 Jun 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In 1656, a young Amsterdam merchant was excommunicated by his Portuguese-Jewish community in the harshest terms it had ever used. Baruch Spinoza was ...
David Petruccelli, "A Scourge of Humanity: The Origins of Interpol and the End of Empire in Central and Eastern Europe" (Oxford UP, 2025)
31 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
As the First World War came to a chaotic end, Europeans feared that a wave of crime and anarchy would sweep across their continent. The upheavals of t...
Andrew Demshuk, "The Filthiest Village in Europe: Grassroots Ecology and the Collapse of East Germany" (Cornell UP, 2026)
30 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Filthiest Village in Europe: Grassroots Ecology and the Collapse of East Germany (Cornell University Press, 2026) traces how a community shroud...
Christopher S. Celenza, "The Evolution of Western Thought: Volume 1, From the Ancient World to Late Antiquity" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
27 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A rich and immersive reinterpretation of the history of Western thought, The Evolution of Western Thought: Volume 1, From the Ancient World to Late A...
Timothy McCall, "Making the Renaissance Man: Masculinity in the Courts of Renaissance Italy" (Reaktion Books, 2023)
25 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Looking beyond the marble elegance of Michelangelo's David, the pugnacious, passionate, and--crucially--important story of Renaissance manhood. Timo...
Jason S. Spicer, "Co-Operative Enterprise in Comparative Perspective: Exceptionally Un-American?" (Oxford UP, 2024)
24 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Co-operative enterprises, which are democratically owned and governed by their workers, customers, or suppliers, have long captured the imagination of...
John Waddell, "The Celtic World: A History" (Four Courts Press, 2026)
23 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
At the dawn of history the Celts occupied a vast swathe of Europe from Ireland in the west to lands south of the Black Sea in Asia Minor. The study of...
Ruth Balint, "Destination Elsewhere: Displaced Persons and Their Quest to Leave Postwar Europe" (Cornell UP, 2021)
22 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this unique “history from below," Destination Elsewhere: Displaced Persons and Their Quest to Leave Postwar Europe (Cornell University Press,...
Radio ReOrient 14:8: Dutch Islamophobia and Muslim Exceptionalism, with Martijn de Koning, hosted by Marchella Ward and Amina Easat-Daas
22 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode Chella Ward and Amina Easat-Daas spoke with Dr Martijn de Koning about the nature of Islamophobia in the Netherlands and how this sits...
Matthew L. Reznicek, "Tales of Health: Illness, Disability, and Citizenship in the Romantic National Tale" (Liverpool UP, 2026)
21 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Tales of Health: Illness, Disability, and Citizenship in the Romantic National Tale (Liverpool UP, 2026) is about the way the Romantic National Ta...
Hugo Drochon, "Elites and Democracy" (Princeton UP, 2026)
20 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A central paradox of democracies is that they are always ruled by elites. What can democracy mean in this context? Today, it is often said that a po...
Brett Neilson, "The Rest and the West: Capital and Power in a Multipolar World" (Verso, 2024)
20 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
At the heart of the fiercest international conflicts is the struggle for the future of globalization. In the wake of a pandemic that tested econom...
Denise Z. Davidson, "Surviving Revolution: Bourgeois Lives and Letters" (Cornell UP, 2025)
19 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Denise Z. Davidson joins Jana Byars to talk about Surviving Revolution: Bourgeois Lives and Letters (Cornell UP, 2025). The book explores how two ...
Radio ReOrient S14:7: Surveilling Muslimness in Denmark, with Amani Hassani, hosted by Claudia Radiven and Amina Easat-Daas
15 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode hosts Claudia Radiven and Amina Easat-Daas were joined by Amani Hassani, to discuss her most recent work around Islamophobia and Musli...
James Q. Whitman, "Masters of Slaves to Lords of Lands: The Transformation of Ownership in the Western World" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
04 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Today we think of land as the paradigmatic example of property, while in the past, the paradigmatic example was often a slave. In this seminal work...
Sophie Rose, "Intimacy and Social (Dis)Order in Dutch Colonial Expansion: Regulating Sex, Marriage, and Family Life, 1600–1800" (Brill, 2025)
04 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Explosive sexual scandals, bitter domestic conflicts, and dramatic changes in fortune. Sex, marriage, and family life were matters of enormous consequ...
Paola De Santo, "The Ambassador and the Courtesan: Political Bodies in Renaissance Italy" (U Delaware Press, 2026)
02 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Paola de Santo joins Jana Byars to talk about her new book, The Ambassador and the Courtesan: Political Bodies in Renaissance Italy (U Delaware Pres...
D. Vance Smith, "Atlas’s Bones: The African Foundations of Europe" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
02 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A major new look at Africa’s influence on European culture and how colonization remade Africa in the image of a medieval Europe.Virgil. Chaucer. ...
Anthony Kaldellis, "1453: The Conquest and Tragedy of Constantinople" (Oxford UP, 2026)
01 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A detailed account of the siege and fall of Constantinople in 1453, a watershed year that closed the book, once and for all, on the Roman Empir...
The British General Election of 2024: A Conversation with Robert Ford and Paula Surridge
27 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Why and how did Labour win the 2024 election? In The British General Election of 2024 Robert Ford, a Professor of Politics at the University of Man...
Justin Bailey, "An Anthropology of Wandering: How Adventure Can Alleviate a Fearful Culture" (2026)
25 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In a culture saturated by speed, safety protocols, and mediated fear, what might we rediscover by walking or hiking slowly into the unknown? In this ...
Tiffany Jo Werth, "The Lithic Imagination from More to Milton" (Oxford UP, 2024)
25 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Lithic Imagination from More to Milton (Oxford University Press, 2024) by Dr. Tiffany Jo Werth explores how stones, rocks, and the broader minera...
Vin Nardizzi, "Marvellous Vegetables in the English Renaissance" (U Toronto Press, 2025)
24 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
John Gerard’s natural history of plants, The Herball (1597), is considered a failure in the history of science. Despite this reputation, it has endu...
Mattie Fitch, "The People, the Workers, and the Citizens: Antifascist Cultures and the Popular Front in France, 1934–1939" (Routledge, 2025)
24 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Today we are joined by Mattie Fitch, Associate Professor at Marymount University and author of The People, The Workers and the Citizens: Antifascist ...
Drew Flanagan, "From Occupation to Integration: Recivilizing the French Zone of Post-Nazi Germany, 1945-1955" (LSU Press, 2026)
22 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
After the collapse of the National Socialist regime in May 1945, France became one of four principal occupying powers in a defeated Germany. Within th...
Berardino Palumbo, "Where Saints Show Respect: Mafia, Modernity, and Rituals of Power" (Berghahn Books, 2026)
22 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Where Saints Show Respect: Mafia, Modernity, and Rituals of Power is an anthropological exploration of how authority is produced not only through vio...
Penny Roberts, "Huguenot Networks: Truth and Secrecy in Sixteenth-Century Europe" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
17 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Huguenot Networks: Truth and Secrecy in Sixteenth-Century Europe (Cambridge UP, 2025), Penny Robert's latest book, takes us into the world ...
Audrey Borowski, "Leibniz in His World: The Making of a Savant" (Princeton UP, 2026)
17 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Described by Voltaire as “perhaps a man of the most universal learning in Europe,” Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) is often portrayed as a...
Elias V. Messinas, "Synagogues of Greece: A Study of Synagogues in Macedonia and Thrace" (Bloch Publishing, 2011)
13 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Across Greece, once-thriving Jewish communities stood for more than two thousand years. From the Romaniote Jews of Ioannina to the great Sephardic cen...
David Potter, "Master of Rome: A Life of Julius Caesar" (Oxford UP, 2025)
11 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
By any measure, Julius Caesar is one of the most significant and famous figures in Roman history. Self-identified as a "popular" politician, he advoc...
Pavel Brunssen, "The Making of 'Jew Clubs': Performing Jewishness and Antisemitism in European Football and Fan Cultures" (Indiana UP, 2025)
09 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Today we are joined by Pavel Brunssen, a Research Associate and Alfred Landecker Lecturer at the Research Center on Antigypsyism at Heidelberg Univers...
Karen L. Bowen and Dirk Imhof, "The Burgeoning European Print Trade: The Distribution of Prints Via the Plantin-Moretus Press of Antwerp" (Harvey Miller, 2025)
08 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Karen L. Bowen and Dirk Imhof join Jana Byars to talk about their new book, The Burgeoning European Print Trade: The Distribution of Prints Via the P...
Andrew Thomas Park, "Sarah Wambaugh and the Plebiscite: The Turbulent History of a Democratic Alternative to War" (Cambridge UP, 2026)
07 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In Sarah Wambaugh and the Plebiscite: The Turbulent History of a Democratic Alternative to War (Cambridge UP, 2026) Dr. Andrew Park tells the story ...
Dominik Berrens, "Naming New Things and Concepts in Early Modern Science: The Case of Natural History" (Cambridge UP, 2026)
06 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Naming new discoveries is central to science, and for centuries, Latin dominated this process. The resulting terminology still shapes modern science, ...
Marta Lorimer, "Europe As Ideological Resource: European Integration and Far Right Legitimation in France and Italy" (Oxford UP, 2024)
05 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
How did the far right go from illegitimate fringe to contender for public office, and did Europe have anything to do with it? Europe As Ideological R...
Wout Saelens, "Fossil Consumerism: Energy, Ecology and Everyday Life in the Early Modern Low Countries" (Leuven UP, 2026)
04 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Fossil Consumerism: Energy, Ecology and Everyday Life in the Early Modern Low Countries (Leuven UP, 2026) by Dr. Wout Saelens explores how the homes ...
Avner Greif et al., "Two Paths to Prosperity: Culture and Institutions in Europe and China, 1000–2000" (Princeton UP, 2025)
02 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
It’s one of the biggest questions in economic history: How did a richer, more advanced China fall behind Europe? Why was Europe the home of the Indu...
Arthur W. Gullachsen, "The Defeat and Attrition of the 12. SS-Panzerdivision Hitlerjugend: Volume II: Operations Martlet, Epsom, Windsor and Charnwood 11 June-12 July 1944" (Casemate, 2026)
31 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Following the Normandy landings, Rommel rushed Heeresgruppe B reserves towards the coast in order to crush the bridgehead and drive the Allied forc...
Elisheva Baumgarten, "Beyond the Elite: Everyday Jewish Lives in Medieval Northern Europe" (Cornell UP, 2026)
28 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What can we learn about Jewish history when we stop focusing on great rabbis and turn instead to ordinary people? In this episode, Rabbi Marc Katz spe...
Colloquies on European Civil Procedure: A Conversation with Marco de Benito
28 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
This volume brings law to life through a free and lively dialogue on the new Model European Rules of Civil Procedure. In it, some of Europe's leading ...
Joanna Siekiera ed., "NATO Stability Policing: Beneficial Tool in Filling the Security Gap and Establishing the Rule of Law, and a Safe and Secure Environment" (NATO Stability Policing Centre Of Excellence, 2024)
25 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Since the end of the Cold War and the resurgence of great power competition on the world stage, NATO has been in a period of transition to adapting to...
Claire Goldstein, "Sun King's Cosmos: Comets and the Cultural Imagination of Seventeenth-Century France" (Northwestern UP, 2025)
24 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In the Sun King's Cosmos: Comets and the Cultural Imagination of Seventeenth-Century France (Northwestern University Press 2025) explores the rela...
Steffan Blayney, "Health and Efficiency: Fatigue, the Science of Work, and the Making of the Working-Class Body" (Activist Studies of Science, 2022)
23 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Our guest today is Steffan Blayney, the author of Health & Efficiency: Fatigue, the Science of Work, and the Making of the Working-Class Body. In H...
David Bather Woods, "Arthur Schopenhauer: The Life and Thought of Philosophy's Greatest Pessimist" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
23 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Arthur Schopenhauer: The Life and Thought of Philosophy’s Greatest Pessimist by David Bather Woods An engaging biography of one of the most influe...
Orsi Husz, "Bankminded: Banks As Intimate Agents of Everyday Life in Welfare State Sweden" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2025)
22 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In today’s world, it is almost impossible to go through the day without interacting with a bank—whether through a salary payment, a debit card, a ...
Andrew I. Port, "Germany" (Polity, 2025)
22 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Few countries are more haunted by the darker aspects of their history than Germany. Nazi crimes continue to cast a long shadow at home and abroad. ...
Maria A. Sanchez, "Deference and Divergence in Regional Human Rights Courts" (Cornell UP, 2026)
20 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In Deference and Divergence in Regional Human Rights Courts (Cornell UP, 2026), Dr. Maria A. Sanchez tackles a central tension in global governance:...
Alec Ryrie, "The Age of Hitler and How We Will Survive It" (Reaktion, 2025)
15 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Examining everything from popular novels to politics, an investigation of persistent fascination with Nazis—and where it might take us. We live in ...
Foster Chamberlin, "Uncivil Guard: Policing, Military Culture, and the Coming of the Spanish Civil War" (Louisiana State UP, 2025)
15 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In Uncivil Guard: Policing, Military Culture, and the Coming of the Spanish Civil War (Louisiana State UP, 2025), Foster Chamberlin evaluates the r...
Tristan J. Rogers, "Conservatism, Past and Present: A Philosophical Introduction" (Routledge, 2025)
14 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In Conservatism, Past and Present: A Philosophical Introduction (Routledge, 2025), Tristan J. Rogers argues that philosophical conservati...
Jessica Clarke, "A New History of Ancient Roman Theatre" (Liverpool UP, 2025)
13 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
"Roman theatre" is a term often used to describe the theatre of ancient Italy during the second and third century BCE. Plautus and Terence are referre...
Kim Bowes, "Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent" (Princeton UP, 2025)
12 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The story of ancient Rome is predominantly one of great men with great fortunes. Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent (Princ...
Rosella Cappella Zielinski and Paul Poast, "Wheat at War: Allied Economic Cooperation in the Great War" (Oxford UP, 2025)
03 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The battlefields were not the only places that threatened death during World War I. As conflict raged on and supply lines tightened, the allied powers...
Todd H. Weir and Lieke Wijnia, eds., "The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Heritage in Contemporary Europe" (Bloomsbury, 2025)
23 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The open access Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Heritage in Contemporary Europe (Bloomsbury, 2025) offers readers a state-of-the-art guide to th...
Good and Bad Palm Oil: Food Security, Paradigm Shift and Stakeholder Negotiations in Indonesia and the EU
20 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Entangled in a nexus of commerce, industry, food security, and environmental concerns, palm oil has become a prominent topic of controversy and debate...
How Corporate Lobbyists are Capturing EU Institutions
16 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Brussels is full of lobbyists. Over decades, big companies have been using their financial might not only to influence EU policies but even to shape h...
Manchán Magan, "Thirty-Two Words for Field: Lost Words of the Irish Landscape" (Chelsea Green, 2026)
11 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Most people associate Britain and Ireland with the English language, a vast, sprawling linguistic tree with roots in Latin, French, and German, and br...
A. Bagliani and N, Şenocak, "A People's Church: Medieval Italy and Christianity, 1050-1300" (Cornell UP, 2023)
07 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A People's Church brings together a distinguished international group of historians to provide a sweeping introduction to Christian religious life and...
Jacqueline Riding, "Hard Streets: Working-Class Lives in Charlie Chaplin’s London" (Profile Books, 2025)
05 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to the hard streets: working-class London in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in Hard Streets: Working-Class Lives in Charl...
164 Maurice Samuels: Jewish Assimilation, Integration and the Dreyfus Affair (JP)
05 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to the condition of Jews in Christian Europe, France was long known as the haven and heartland of integration and of toleration. And yet...
Andrew Billing, "Animal Rhetoric and Natural Science in Eighteenth-century Liberal Political Writing" (Routledge, 2023)
04 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Animal Rhetoric and Natural Science in Eighteenth-century Liberal Political Writing: Political Zoologies of the French Enlightenment (Routledge, 202...
David McCrone, "Changing Scotland: Society, Politics and Identity" (Edinburgh UP, 2025)
03 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Scotland is a nation that has undergone significant changes over the last 50 years or so. This is, of course, true of much of the Western world but, a...
Peter H. Wilson, "Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples Since 1500" (Harvard UP, 2023)
31 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
German military history is typically viewed as an inexorable march to the rise of Prussia and the two world wars, the road paved by militarism and the...
Peter Stansky, "The Socialist Patriot: George Orwell and War" (Stanford UP, 2023)
31 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Few English writers wielded a pen so sharply as George Orwell, the quintessential political writer of the twentieth century. His literary output at on...
Tom Menger, "The Colonial Way of War: Violence and Colonial Warfare in the British, German and Dutch Empires, c. 1890-1914" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
30 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The violence of colonial wars between 1890 and 1914 is often thought to have been uniquely shaped by the nature of each of the European empires. The ...
Bram de Maeyer, "Building for Belgium: Belgian Embassies in a Globalising World (1945-2020)" (Leuven UP, 2025)
28 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Embassy buildings are the most tangible evidence of a state’s diplomatic presence abroad. State authorities have invested in the architectural conce...
Erika Quinn, "This Horrible Uncertainty: A German Woman Writes War, 1939-1948" (Berghahn Books, 2024)
25 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Through the diaries and personal papers of a German woman, Vera Conrad, This Horrible Uncertainty: A German Woman Writes War, 1939-1948 (Berghahn Bo...
Christian Raffensperger, "Authorship, Worldview, and Identity in Medieval Europe" (Routledge, 2022)
24 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What did medieval authors know about their world? Were they parochial and focused on just their monastery, town, or kingdom? Or were they aware of the...
Alison Rowlands, "Witchcraft Narratives in Germany: Rothenburg, 1561-1652" (Manchester UP, 2026)
21 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Alison Rowlands, professor of Early Modern European History at the University of Essex, joins Jana Byars to talk about her classic book, Witchcraft N...
Sara Petrosillo, "Hawking Women: Falconry, Gender, and Control in Medieval Literary Culture" (Ohio State UP, 2023)
19 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Fantastic and informative talk with Sara Petrosillo of the University of Evansville about her new book, Hawking Women: Falconry, Gender, and Control ...
Jorge Marco and Gutmaro Gomez Bravo, "The Fabric of Fear: Building Franco's New Society in Spain, 1936-1950" (Liverpool UP, 2023)
18 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Jorge Marco and Gutmaro Gomez Bravo's book The Fabric of Fear: Building Franco's New Society in Spain, 1936-1950 (Liverpool UP, 2023) deals compr...
Jamie Kreiner, "The Wandering Mind: What Medieval Monks Tell Us About Distraction" (Liveright, 2023)
18 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The Wandering Mind: What Medieval Monks Tell Us About Distraction (Liveright, 2023) by Dr. Jamie Kreiner presents a revelatory account of how Christi...
Elwin Hofman et al. eds., "The Business of Pleasure: A History of Paid Sex in the Heart of Europe" (Leuven UP, 2022)
17 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Elwin Hofman joins Jana Byars to talk about the volume he edited with Magaly Rodríguez García & Pieter Vanhees, The Business of Pleasure: A History...
Anna Sergi, "How to Recognize the Mafia Abroad: Critical Notes on ‘ndrangheta Mobility" (Policy Press, 2025)
12 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The influence and spread of clans and families within the ‘ndrangheta - the Calabrian mafia - is international yet recognising their activities is n...
Sheiba Kian Kaufman, "Persian Paradigms in Early Modern English Drama" (Oxford UP, 2025)
11 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Persian Paradigms in Early Modern English Drama examines the concept of early modern globality and the development of European toleration discourse t...
Amitav Acharya, "The Once and Future World Order: Why Global Civilization Will Survive the Decline of the West" (Hachette UK, 2025)
10 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Since the dawn of the twenty-first century, the West has been in crisis. Social unrest, political polarization, and the rise of other great powers—e...
Rachel Midura, "Postal Intelligence: The Tassis Family and Communications Revolution in Early Modern Europe" (Cornell UP, 2025)
10 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Rachel Midura joins Jana Byars to talk about Postal Intelligence: The Tassis Family and Communications Revolution in Early Modern Europe (Cornell UP...
Jürgen Zimmerer, "Memory Wars: New German Historical Consciousness" (Reclam Verlag, 2023)
09 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Erinnerungskämpfe: Neues deutsches Geschichtsbewusstsein (Ditzingen: Reclam, 2023) is a new, provocative volume on German memory cultures and poli...
Moritz Föllmer, "The Quest for Individual Freedom: A Twentieth-Century European History" (Cambridge UP, 2025)
09 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What does it mean to see oneself as free? And how can this freedom be attained in times of conflict and social upheaval? In this ambitious study, Mori...
John Samuel Harpham, "Intellectual Origins of American Slavery: English Ideas in the Early Modern Atlantic World" (Harvard UP, 2025)
09 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The period from 1550 to 1700 was critical in the development of slavery across the English Atlantic world. During this time, English discourse about s...
Stuart Carroll, "Enmity and Violence in Early Modern Europe" (Cambridge UP, 2023)
08 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Stuart Carroll's Enmity and Violence in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2023) transforms our understanding of Europe between 1500 ...
Jessica Kelly and Neal Shasore, "Reconstruction: Architecture, Society and the Aftermath of the First World War" (Bloomsbury, 2024)
07 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Reconstruction explores the impact of the First World War on the built environment - examining the immediate effects and aftermath of the Great War o...
Matt Dawson, "The Political Durkheim: Sociology, Socialism, Legacies" (Routledge, 2023)
06 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Matt Dawson's The Political Durkheim: Sociology, Socialism, Legacies (Routledge, 2023) presents Durkheim as an important political sociologist, ins...
D. J. Taylor, "Orwell: The New Life" (Pegasus Books, 2023)
05 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A fascinating exploration of George Orwell--and his body of work--by an award-winning Orwellian biographer and scholar, presenting the author anew to ...
Andrew S. Curran, "Biography of a Dangerous Idea: A New History of Race from Louis XIV to Thomas Jefferson" (Other Press, 2026)
04 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
An engaging investigation of how 13 key Enlightenment figures shaped the concept of race, from the acclaimed author of Diderot and the Art of Thinking...
Susan McCready, "Commemorative Acts: French Theatre and the Memory of the Great War" (U Toronto Press, 2025)
03 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Drawing on memory studies and theatrical history, Commemorative Acts: French Theatre and the Memory of the Great War (University of Toronto Press, ...
Richard Wolin, "Heidegger in Ruins: Between Philosophy and Ideology" (Yale UP, 2023)
02 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What does it mean when a radical understanding of National Socialism is inextricably embedded in the work of the twentieth century's most important ph...
Hans Kundnani, "Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project" (Oxford UP, 2023)
01 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
"Today’s 'pro-Europeans' would be horrified at the suggestion that their idea of Europe had anything to do with whiteness. In fact, many would find ...
Amit Varshizky, "The Metaphysics of Race: Science and Faith in the Nazi Worldview" (Taylor & Francis, 2024)
31 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Metaphysics of Race seeks to reframe debates on the conflicting scientific and spiritual traditions that underpinned the Nazi worldview, showing ...