New Books Network

Sarah Jaffe, "Work Won't Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone" (Bold Type Books, 2021)

25 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Work Won’t Love You Back: How Devotion to Our Jobs Keeps Us Exploited, Exhausted, and Alone (Bold Type Books, 2021), Sarah Jaffe argues that...

The Philosophy of Hope: On Immanence and Transcendence with R.J. Snell

25 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In this third episode of Season 5, I interview Dr. R.J. Snell, a visiting instructor at Princeton University, the director of academic programs at th...

Satya Shikha Chakraborty, "Colonial Caregivers: Ayahs and the Gendered History of Race and Caste in British India" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

25 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Colonial Caregivers: Ayahs and the Gendered History of Race and Caste in British India (Cambridge UP, 2025) offers a compelling cultural and social ...

James Lin, "The Global Vanguard: Agrarian Development and the Making of Modern Taiwan" (U California Press, 2025)

25 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What does it mean for a small state to imagine itself as a model for the developing world? And how were these visions of agrarian development received...

How Authoritarians Exploit Gender

25 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Gender is becoming a central battleground in contemporary authoritarian politics, but how do autocrats manipulate these debates to their own advantage...

On Trump as a “World Historical Individual” with author John B. Judis

25 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The philosopher G.W.F. Hegel “viewed history as consisting of stages punctuated by times of upheaval,” the author John B. Judis wrote in a recent...

Gijs Kruijtzer, "Justifying Transgression: Muslims, Christians, and the Law - 1200 to 1700" (de Gruyter, 2023)

25 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

How do people justify what others see as transgression? Taking that question to the Persian-Muslim and Latin-Christian worlds over the period 1200 to ...

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...

The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of Sholem Aleichem

24 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Novelist, playwright, journalist, essayist, and editor, Sholem Aleichem was one of the founding giants of modern Yiddish literature. The creator of a ...

Alan McDougall, "Dreams and Songs to Sing: A People's History of Liverpool FC from Shankly to Klopp" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

24 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Today we are joined by Alan McDougall, Professor of History at the University of Guelph, and the author of Dreams and Songs To Sing: A People’s His...

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...

Daniel Poppick, "The Copywriter" (Scribner, 2026)

24 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Daniel Poppick is a poet and novelist. He is the author of the poetry collections Fear of Description, selected for the National Poetry Series, and ...

Hsuan L Hsu, "Olfactory Worldmaking" (U Minnesota Press, 2026)

24 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Smell is a vital, if underappreciated, medium through which we inhabit and imagine the world. In Olfactory Worldmaking (University of Minnesota Pres...

Lucia Motolinia, "Unity through Particularism: How Electoral Reforms Influence Parties and Legislative Behavior" (Cambridge UP, 2026)

24 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Why do supposedly accountability-enhancing electoral reforms often fail in young democracies? How can legislators serve their constituents when partie...

Nana Osei-Opare, "Socialist De-Colony: Black and Soviet Entanglements in Ghana's Cold War" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

24 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Led by the charismatic Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana won its political independence from the United Kingdom in 1957. It precipitated both the dying spiral of c...

Esther Goldenberg, "Song of the Bluebird" (Row House, 2026)

24 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Much of history has revolved around the journeys, challenges, and relationships, of men, but Serrah, daughter of Asher describes the teachings of her ...

Jonathan Blackwood and Jasmina Tumbas, "Contemporary Art in the Post-Yugoslav Space" (Routledge, 2025)

24 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Contemporary Art in the Post-Yugoslav Space explores the production, discussion, and consumption of contemporary art across the post-Yugoslav region....

J. S. Nelson, "Business Ethics: What Everyone Needs to Know" (Oxford UP, 2021)

24 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The book places special emphasis on the relationship between corporations, managers, and shareholders. Drawing on Lynn Stout’s influential work on c...

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...

Prolepsis

23 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of High Theory, Gloria Fisk talks to Kim about Prolepsis. Defined by Gerard Genette in the 1970s, prolepsis is a flash forward, the op...

Ken Chitwood, "Borícua Muslims: Everyday Cosmopolitanism Among Puerto Rican Converts to Islam" (U Texas Press, 2025)

23 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Ken Chitwood's Borícua Muslims: Everyday Cosmopolitanism among Puerto Rican Converts to Islam (University of Texas Press, 2025), uses rich ethnog...

Andrew I. Port, "Germany" (Polity, 2025)

23 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. ...

Gist Books: How Print on Demand Creates New Possibilities for the Publishing Industry

23 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Today I’m speaking with Ramona Liberoff and Liz Fried, cofounders of the new publisher, Gist Books. Gist allows readers to pick the topics they want...

Susanne Vees-Gulani, 'Icon Dresden: Baroque City, Air War Symbol, Political Token" (U Michigan Press, 2026)

23 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Icon Dresden: Baroque City, Air War Symbol, Political Token (University of Michigan Press, 2026) by Dr. Susanne Vees-Gulani explores how memory and p...

The Jews in Poland-Lithuania and Russia: 1350 to the Present Day

23 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

For centuries, Poland and Russia formed the heartland of the Jewish world. Until World War II, this area was home to over forty percent of world Jewry...

Steven Pinker, "When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows...: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life" (Scribner, 2025)

23 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Common knowledge is necessary for coordination, for making arbitrary but complementary choices like driving on the right, using paper currency, and co...

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...

Martha Feldman, "Castrato Phantoms: Moreschi, Fellini, and the Sacred Vernacular in Rome" (Zone Books, 2026)

22 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Around 1830, opera houses stopped using castrati, and Rome and the Vatican became home to their glorious singing, engineered by surgery and intensive ...

Michael Mann Reconsidered: Ferrari and Manhunter

22 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the Pop Culture Professors, and in this show we start a series on the films of Michael Mann. Structured as a knock-out tournament, we set his e...

Janice Hadlow, "Rules of the Heart" (Henry Holt and Company, 2026)

22 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Janice Hadlow about her fascinating novel, Rules of the Heart (Henry Holt & Company, 2026). A ...

Stephen G. Brooks, "The Political Economy of Security" (Princeton UP, 2026)

22 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In his new book, The Political Economy of Security (Princeton University Press, 2026), Stephen Brooks provides a systematic empirical and theoretic...

The Vilna Gaon and the Making of Modern Judaism

22 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The beginnings of contemporary Jewry are often associated with Jewish figures in Western Europe such as Moses Mendelssohn. But in his book, The Geniu...

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 ...

Elizabeth Mitchell Elder, "Company Towns: Industry Power and the Historical Foundations of Public Mistrust" (U Chicago Press, 2026)

22 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Company Towns: Industry Power and the Historical Foundations of Public Mistrust (University of Chicago Press, 2026), Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell Elder...

Deirdre Flynn and Mary McGill eds., "Irish Digital Cultures: Identity, Contexts, Space" (Routledge, 2025)

22 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Irish Digital Cultures: Identity, Contexts, Space (Routledge, 2025) explores how questions of Ireland and Irishness are represented in online enviro...

A Year of Autocratization: Steep Declines in Democracy Registered in 2025 V-Dem Report

22 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

This week on Democracy Dialogues, host Rachel Beatty Riedl speaks with Kenneth Roberts and Paul Friesen, democracy experts at Cornell University, to u...

Craig Perry, "Slavery and the Jews of Medieval Egypt: A History" (Princeton UP, 2026)

21 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What did slavery actually look like in the everyday lives of Jews in the medieval Middle East? In this episode, Rabbi Marc Katz sits down with histori...

Danny Bate, "Why Q Needs U: A History of Our Letters and How We Use Them" (Bonnier Books, 2025)

21 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Every letter you’re reading right now has a fascinating story to tell, having been on a long linguistic, historical, political and social journey. T...

Doug Crandell, "Twenty-Two Cents an Hour: Disability Rights and the Fight to End Subminimum Wages" (Cornell UP, 2022)

21 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Twenty-Two Cents an Hour: Disability Rights and the Fight to End Subminimum Wages (Cornell UP, 2022), Doug Crandell uncovers the harsh...

Sean Bedell, "Shoebox" (Now or Never, 2025)

21 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with author and retired paramedic and fire captain, Sean Paul Bedell, about his novel, Shoebox (NoN ...

Mike Huguenor, "Elvis Is Dead, I'm Still Alive: The Story of Asian Man Records" (Clash, 2026)

21 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Sourced from over a hundred hours of interviews with musicians, producers, booking agents, label owners, writers, fans, employees, volunteers, friends...

Sidra Hamidi, "After Fission: Recognition and Contestation in the Atomic Age" (Cambridge UP, 2026)

21 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Nuclear status is typically treated as a stable feature of a state's capacity to possess, use, or build nuclear weapons. Challenging this view, After...

Santiago Muñoz-Arbeláez, "The New Kingdom of Granada: The Making and Unmaking of Spain's Atlantic Empire" (Duke UP, 2025)

21 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The New Kingdom of Granada: The Making and Unmaking of Spain's Atlantic Empire (Duke UP, 2025) tells the history of the making and unmaking of e...

Philip C. Almond, "Noah and the Flood in Western Thought" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

21 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In a world beset by climatic emergencies, the continuing resonance of the flood story is perhaps easy to understand. Whether in the tortured alpha mal...

Becca Voelcker, "Land Cinema in an Age of Extraction" (U California Press, 2025)

21 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Land Cinema in an Age of Extraction considers nonfiction filmmakers and film collectives whose work advances an understanding of land as a locus of s...

Lorena Sekwan Fontaine and Adam Muller eds., "The Erasure and Revitalization of Indigenous Cultures and Languages" A Special Issue of Genocide Studies International" (Vol 16, No 2)

21 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Lorena Sekwan Fontaine and Adam Muller, eds., The Erasure and Revitalization of Indigenous Cultures and Languages: A Special Issue of Genocide Studie...

Piergiorgio Di Giminiani et al. eds., "The Futures of Reparations in Latin America: Imagination, Translation, and Belonging" (Rutgers UP, 2026)

20 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Over the last thirty years, Latin America has undergone an unprecedented wave of reparations targeting victims of political violence during military r...

Karima Moyer-Nocchi, "The Epic History of Macaroni and Cheese: From Ancient Rome to Modern America" (Columbia UP, 2026)

20 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Today, macaroni and cheese is the ultimate comfort food, a staple of weeknight dinners, family gatherings, and Soul Food restaurants. Humble though th...

Imagining Independence; or, Why Does Rip Van Winkle Sleep Through the Revolution?

20 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Thursday, March 12—Inaugurating a series of programs to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, authors and scholars Micha...

Hiromi Ito, "The Thorn Puller" (Stone Bridge Press, 2022)

20 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Hiromi Ito author of The Thorn Puller (originally published in Japanese as Toge-nuki Jizo: Shin Sugamo Jizo engi) came to national attention in Ja...

Timothy Manion, "Why Barbarossa Failed: Germany and Russia in the Second World War" (Helion, 2026)

20 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Why did Operation Barbarossa fail? For more than eight decades, historians have offered one dominant answer: Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet U...

Alice Martin, "Westward Women" (St. Martins Press, 2026)

20 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

It starts with an itch.In homes across the country, women ages eighteen to thirty-five begin to slow down.Tired. Blank. Restless.Drawn to the Pacific ...

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:...

Paul Kohlbry, "Plots and Deeds: Agrarian Annihilation and the Fight for Land Justice in Palestine" (Stanford UP, 2026)

20 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The emancipatory potential and limits of land justice, when land is at once home, property, territory, and homeland. Peasant farming was once an inte...

Gods and the State: Environmental Change in the Blang Mountains, China

20 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What happens to the environment when the state enters previously self-governed villages in rural China? We explore this question in the Blang mountain...

Gabrielle Oliveira, "Now We Are Here: Family Migration, Children’s Education, and Dreams for a Better Life" (Stanford UP, 2025)

20 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Who gets to live a life with dignity? Each day, families around the world make the difficult decision to leave their homes in search of safety, stabil...

Sunmin Kim, "The Unruly Facts of Race: The Politics of Knowledge Production in the Early Twentieth-Century Immigration Debate" (U Chicago Press, 2026)

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when theories of racial hierarchies interact with reality? How are they contested, refuted and changed in light of that encounter? What r...

Miriam Ticktin, "Against Innocence: Undoing and Remaking the World" (U Chicago Press, 2025)

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In this timely and bold book, Against Innocence: Undoing and Remaking the World (U Chicago Press, 2025), Miriam Ticktin explores how a concept that...

Meg Merriet Wahlberg, "Chivalry in the Shadows" (Parkwood Manor Press, 2024)

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Medieval Brittany, with all its contradictions and complexities, comes alive in Meg Wahlberg’s Chivalry in the Shadows (Parkwood Manor Press, 2024...

 ⁠The Collective Cure: Upstream Solutions for Better Public Health⁠

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A powerful blend of deeply human stories and rigorous research, The Collective Cure: Upstream Solutions for Better Public Health (Beacon ...

Helmut Schuster and David Oxley, "Artificial Death of a Career: A Tale of Professional Obsolescence and How to Avoid It" (Practical Inspiration Publishing, 2025)

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

How do you advance your career when AI is rewriting the rules of success? As AI and automation revolutionize the global workforce, professionals ever...

Emma Chapman, "Radio Universe: How to Explore Space Without Leaving Earth" (Hachette UK, 2026)

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Radio Universe: How to Explore Space Without Leaving Earth (Hachette UK, 2026) award-winning astrophysicist Emma Chapman takes us on an electrif...

Charles G. Curtin, "Place-Based Solutions: The Power of Regenerative Thinking in the Face of Crisis" (JHU Press, 2026)

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Place-Based Solutions (JHU Press, 2026) offers a bold and practical response, charting a path toward what Charles G. Curtin calls "prosilience"—th...

Mahesh Rao, "Half Light" (Penguin Random House India, 2025)

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

On Sep. 6, 2018, India’s Supreme Court ruled that Section 377, a law that criminalized consensual homosexual activity, was unconstitutional, reversi...

Marc Chagall: Reflections of a Granddaughter

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Marc Chagall is widely recognized as the preeminent Jewish artist of the 20th century, but little is known of his work to preserve Jewish culture. ...

Ewa Debicka-Borek and Ofer Peres, "Routes, Patterns, Ideologies: Navigating Sacred Sites in India" (HASP, 2025)

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Hindu sacred geographies are shaped by interwoven webs of myth, ritual, and pilgrimage. Routes, Patterns, Ideologies: Navigating Sacred Sites in Indi...

Our Age of War: A Discussion with Author Robert Pape

18 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Pape, a political scientist at the University of Chicago, has been writing about war for decades, including in his book Bombing to Win: Air Po...

Daniel McClellan, "The Bible Says So: What We Get Right (and Wrong) About Scripture’s Most Controversial Issues" (St. Martin's Essentials, 2025)

18 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Bible is arguably the world’s most influential book, but do we really know what it says? Every day across social media and in homes, businesses,...

A.J. Bauer, "Making the Liberal Media: How Conservatives Built a Movement Against The Press" (Columbia UP, 2026)

18 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Making the Liberal Media: How Conservatives Built a Movement Against The Press (Columbia UP, 2026), A.J. Bauer examines the history of the idea o...

Kalpana Karunakaran, "A Woman of No Consequence: Memory, Letters and Resistance in Madras" (Context, 2026)

18 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In this intimate, yet simultaneously anthropological, exploration of the life of her maternal grandmother Pankajam (1911–2007), Kalpana Karunakaran ...

Christine Estima, "Letters to Kafka" (House of Anansi, 2025)

18 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Christine Estima about her novel, Letters to Kafka (House of Anansi, 2025).  A sweeping, trag...

Karen McNally ed., "Women in Hollywood's Dream Factory: Tales of Inequality, Abuse, and Resistance" (U Illinois Press, 2026)

18 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The #MeToo revelations put a twenty-first-century stamp on the age-old story of women’s mistreatment in Hollywood. In Women in Hollywood's Dream...

Lisa Nakamura, "The Inattention Economy: How Women of Color Built the Internet" (U Minnesota Press, 2026)

18 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Inattention Economy: How Women of Color Built the Internet (U Minnesota Press, 2026) by Dr. Lisa Nakamura challenges the widespread myth that the...

Pedro Thiago Ramos Bassoe, "Supernatural Japan: Izumi Kyoka and the Global Fantastic" (U Michigan Press, 2026)

18 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Supernatural Japan: Izumi Kyoka and the Global Fantastic  (U Michigan Press, 2026)examines the role of Japanese writer Izumi Kyōka (1873–1939)...

Robert J. Coplan, "The Joy of Solitude: How to Reconnect with Yourself in an Overconnected World" (Simon and Schuster, 2025)

18 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Solitude is part of the human experience. But just like other relationships, your relationship with solitude can be satisfying, intimate, and enhance ...

Andreas Malm and Wim Carton, "The Long Heat: Climate Politics When It’s Too Late" (Verso Books, 2025)

18 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A scathing critique of proposals to geoengineer our way out of climate disaster, by the bestselling authors of Overshoot The world is crossing the 1...

Abe Walker, "Reassembling the UAW: Insurgency, Contention, and the Struggle for Unionism in the American South" (Temple UP, 2026)

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When Volkswagen’s Chattanooga Assembly Plant opened in 2012, the United Auto Workers were excited by the golden opportunity to organize in the anti-...

Joseph Weiss, "Irreconcilable: Indigeneity and the Violence of Colonial Erasure in Contemporary Canada" (UNC Press, 2026)

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Since the early 2000s, the Canadian government has attempted reconciliation with Indigenous Nations through varied efforts: treaty processes, gover...

H. S. Jones, "Liberal Worlds: James Bryce and the Democratic Intellect" (Princeton UP, 2025)

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

James Bryce (1838–1922) was a leading figure in Britain’s Liberal Party and a distinguished historian, a versatile scholar-politician who moved se...

P. Thirumal and K. A. Nuaiman eds., "Inhabiting Technologies/Modernities: Media and Cultural Practices in South Asia" (Orient BlackSwan, 2025)

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Studies of forms of media have focused on either political or cultural histories of media. Political histories study media growth and literacy, and th...

Christopher Munn, "Penalties of Empire: Capital Trials in Colonial Hong Kong" (Hong Kong UP, 2025)

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Who bore the burdens of empire?  Christopher Munn's Penalties of Empire: Capital Trials in Colonial Hong Kong (Hong Kong UP, 2025) explores ho...

Sam Illingworth and Rachel Forsyth, "GenAI in Higher Education: Redefining Teaching and Learning" (Bloomsbury, 2026)

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

GenAI in Higher Education: Redefining Teaching and Learning (Bloomsbury, 2026) provides practical guidance for higher education professionals lookin...

Alex Powell, "Queering UK Refugee Law: Sexual Diversity and Asylum Administration" (Bristol UP, 2026)

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Utilizing critical legal methodologies, Alex Powell's Queering UK Refugee Law: Sexual Diversity and Asylum Administration (Bristol UP, 2026) gives...

Michael Mann Reconsidered: Thief and The Insider

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

It’s the Pop Culture Professors, and in this show we start a series on the films of Michael Mann. Structured as a knock-out tournament, we set his e...

Alistair Moffat, "Edinburgh: A New History" (Birlinn, 2024)

17 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

From prehistory to the present day, the story of Edinburgh is packed with incident and drama. As Scotland’s capital since 1437, the city has witness...

Eurie Dahn, "Snack" (Bloomsbury, 2026)

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In the hierarchy of foods, snacks are deemed trivial – perhaps even childish – especially in contrast to meals, which are seen as substantial and ...

Antwain K. Hunter, "A Precarious Balance: Firearms, Race, and Community in North Carolina, 1715-1865" (UNC Press, 2025)

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Spanning the 1720s through the end of the Civil War, A Precarious Balance: Firearms, Race, and Community in North Carolina, 1715-1865 (UNC Press, 20...

Entrepreneurial Work Ethic

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of High Theory, Saronik talks with Erik Baker about the Entrepreneurial Work Ethic. The dominant work ethic of our current moment, ...

Upper Caste Liberalism with Ravikant Kisana

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

This episode features a conversation with Ravikant Kisana, Dean of the School of Liberal Education and Languages at Galgotias University in India, abo...

A Star Is Born (1937)

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A Star Is Born has been filmed four times, but the first version is the best: a combination of Singin’ in the Rain and Death of a Salesman, D...

Courtney Humphries, "Climate Change and the Future of Boston" (Anthem Press, 2026)

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Like many of the world’s iconic coastal cities, Boston faces potentially severe impacts from climate change. Depending on global emissions, Boston c...

César A. Hidalgo, "The Infinite Alphabet: And the Laws of Knowledge" (Allen Lane, 2026)

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

We all understand that knowledge shapes the fate of business and the growth of nations, but few of us are aware of the principles that govern its moti...

Manuel Iris, "The Whole Earth Is a Garden of Monsters / Toda la Tierra Es Un Jardín de Monstruos" (U Arizona Press, 2026)

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

This award-winning bilingual collection intertwines the lives of a Renaissance painter and a modern migrant worker, offering a fresh perspective on ar...

Jake Nabel, "The Arsacids of Rome: Misunderstanding in Roman-Parthian Relations" (U California Press, 2025)

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

At the beginning of the common era, the two major imperial powers of the ancient Mediterranean and Near East were Rome and Parthia. In this  (open...

Jewface: “Yiddish” Dialect Songs of Tin Pan Alley

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

With his fake beard, putty nose, and thick Yiddish accent, the “stage Jew” was once a common character in vaudeville, part of a genre that mock...

E. and H. Heron, "Flaxman Low: Occult Detective" (MIT Press, 2026)

15 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Flaxman Low, literature’s first professional, full-time “occult detective”—that is, an intrepid investigator who deploys the scientific method...

Lauren M. MacLean, "Negotiating Power and Inequality in Ghana: Electricity and Citizenship as Reciprocity (Indiana UP, 2026)

15 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Ghana, much as in other parts of the Global South, postcolonial leaders aimed for industrial growth through the establishment of affordable hydroel...

Georgios Boudalis, "On the Edge: Endbands in the Bookbinding Traditions of the Eastern Mediterranean" (Legacy Press, 2022)

15 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

On the Edge: Endbands in the Bookbinding Traditions of the Eastern Mediterranean by Dr Giorgios Boudalis (Legacy Press, 2022). The term endbands de...

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...

Ethelene Whitmire, "The Remarkable Life of Reed Peggram" (Viking, 2026)

15 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

On the eve of World War II, a handsome young scholar arrived in Paris. The queer, Black son of a housecleaner, who had nevertheless been decorated in ...