New Books Network

Recent Interviews
Ben Merriman, “Conservative Innovators: How States Are Challenging Federal Power” (U Chicago Press, 2019)
Ben Merriman
Conservative Innovators
How States Are Challenging Federal Power
University of Chicago Press, 2019

New Books in American StudiesNew Books in LawNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Political ScienceNew Books in PoliticsNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in Public PolicyNew Books Network June 14, 2019 Heath Brown

Expansion of federal power has typically come with the consent of states, often eager to receive the funding tied to new policy priorities. Not so any more, as some states have famously rejected funding for Medicaid expansion. Was the case of Medicaid and Obamacare an aberration or part of a... Read More
PJ Capelotti, “Adventures in Archaeology: The Wreck of the Orca II and Other Explorations” (U Florida Press, 2018)
PJ Capelotti
Adventures in Archaeology
The Wreck of the Orca II and Other Explorations
University Press of Florida, 2018

New Books in AnthropologyNew Books in ArchaeologyNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books Network June 14, 2019 Michael F. Robinson

Anthropologist PJ Capelotti discusses the role of exploration archaeology in understanding the Pacific voyage of Kon-Tiki, the Arctic airship expeditions of Walter Wellman, and the fate of Orca II, a fishing boat used in the film Jaws. Capelotti is a professor of anthropology at Penn State Abington. He is the... Read More
Sara K. Eskridge, “Rube Tube: CBS and Rural Comedy in the Sixties” (U Missouri Press, 2019)
Sara K. Eskridge
Rube Tube
CBS and Rural Comedy in the Sixties
University of Missouri Press, 2019

New Books in American StudiesNew Books in Arts & LettersNew Books in CommunicationsNew Books in FilmNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in Popular CultureNew Books Network June 14, 2019 Nathan Bierma

The television comedies of the 1960s set in the American South epitomize American innocence. But in their original historical, social, and commercial context, their portrayals of southern life and their omissions of political events and people of color raise questions about how these television programs have been embraced, then and... Read More
Katherine M. Marino, “Feminism for the Americas: The Making of an International Human Rights Movement” (UNC Press, 2019)
Katherine M. Marino
Feminism for the Americas
The Making of an International Human Rights Movement
University of North Carolina Press, 2019

New Books in Caribbean StudiesNew Books in Gender StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Intellectual HistoryNew Books in Latin American StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books Network June 14, 2019 Lilian Calles Barger

Katherine M. Marino is an assistant professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles. Feminism for the Americas: The Making of an International Human Rights Movement (University of North Carolina Press, 2019) follows the many Latin American and Caribbean women in the first half of the century who... Read More
Patton E. Burchett, “A Genealogy of Devotion: Bhakti, Tantra, Yoga, and Sufism in North India” (Columbia UP, 2019)
Patton E. Burchett
A Genealogy of Devotion
Bhakti, Tantra, Yoga, and Sufism in North India
Columbia University Press, 2019

New Books in Hindu StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Islamic StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in ReligionNew Books in Religion & FaithNew Books in South Asian StudiesNew Books Network June 14, 2019 Raj Balkaran

How distinct is Indian devotionalism from other strands of Indian religiosity? Is devotionalism necessarily at odds with asceticism in the Hindu world? What about the common contrasting of Hindu devotionalism as ‘religion’ with tantra as ‘black magic’? Patton E. Burchett‘s new book A Genealogy of Devotion: Bhakti, Tantra, Yoga, and... Read More
Mark Peterson, “The City-State of Boston: The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic Power” (Princeton UP, 2019)
Mark Peterson
The City-State of Boston
The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic Power
Princeton University Press, 2019

New Books in American StudiesNew Books in British StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Intellectual HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in World AffairsNew Books Network June 14, 2019 Ryan Tripp

In the vaunted annals of America’s founding, Boston has long been held up as an exemplary “city upon a hill” and the “cradle of liberty” for an independent United States. Wresting this iconic urban center from these misleading, tired clichés, The City-State of Boston: The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic... Read More
A. Nilsen, K. Nielsen, A. Vaidya, “Indian Democracy: Origins, Trajectories, Contestations” (Pluto Press, 2019)
A. Nilsen, K. Nielsen, A. Vaidya, eds.
Indian Democracy
Origins, Trajectories, Contestations
Pluto Press, 2019

New Books in Critical TheoryNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Political ScienceNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in South Asian StudiesNew Books Network June 14, 2019 Madhuri Karak

More than 70 years after its founding, with Narendra Modi’s authoritarian Hindu nationalists in government, is the dream of Indian democracy still alive and well? Indian Democracy: Origins, Trajectories, Contestations (Pluto Press, 2019), a prescient collection of essays, dialogues and commentary from scholars, activists and journalists, tries to come up with answers.... Read More