New Books Network

New Books in Arts & Letters
Jinhua Dai (ed. Lisa Rofel), “After the Post-Cold War: The Future of Chinese History” (Duke UP, 2018)
Jinhua Dai (ed. Lisa Rofel)
After the Post-Cold War
The Future of Chinese History
Duke University Press, 2018

New Books in Arts & LettersNew Books in Critical TheoryNew Books in East Asian StudiesNew Books in FilmNew Books in Gender StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books Network May 23, 2019  Ed Pulford

Although not all that well known to English-speaking audiences, cultural critic and Peking University professor Jinhua Dai’s incisive commentaries and critiques of contemporary Chinese life have elevated her to something akin to ‘rock star’ status in China itself. As Lisa Rofel discusses in this podcast, and in her introduction to... Read More
Sally Wen Mao, “Oculus” (Graywolf Press, 2019)
Sally Wen Mao
Oculus

Graywolf Press, 2019

New Books in Arts & LettersNew Books in Asian American StudiesNew Books in LiteratureNew Books in PoetryNew Books Network May 22, 2019 Andrea Blythe

In Oculus (Graywolf Press, 2019), Sally Wen Mao explores exile not just as a matter of distance and displacement, but as a migration through time and a reckoning with technology. The title poem follows a girl in Shanghai who uploaded her suicide onto Instagram. Other poems cross into animated worlds,... Read More
Lisa Blee and Jean M. O’Brien, “Monumental Mobility: The Memory Work of Massasoit” (UNC Press, 2019)
Lisa Blee and Jean M. O'Brien
Monumental Mobility
The Memory Work of Massasoit
The University of North Carolina Press, 2019

New Books in American StudiesNew Books in ArtNew Books in Arts & LettersNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Native American StudiesNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books Network May 22, 2019 Ryan Tripp

Installed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1921 to commemorate the tercentenary of the landing of the Pilgrims, Cyrus Dallin’s statue Massasoit was intended to memorialize the Pokanoket Massasoit (leader) as a welcoming diplomat and participant in the mythical first Thanksgiving. But after the statue’s unveiling, Massasoit began to move and proliferate... Read More
Hilary Plum, “Watchfires” (Rescue Press, 2016)
Hilary Plum
Watchfires

Rescue Press, 2016

New Books in American StudiesNew Books in Arts & LettersNew Books in LiteratureNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books Network May 21, 2019 Eric LeMay

Today, I speak with Hilary Plum. She’s the author of Watchfires (Rescue Press, 2016), which isn’t so much a book as an exploratory biopsy of our body politic and our collective psyche. Plum examines our moment at the cellular level—whether that’s a cancerous cell or a terrorist cell—with the aim... Read More
Jerry T. Watkins III, “Queering the Redneck Riviera: Sexuality and the Rise of Florida Tourism” (UP of Florida, 2018)
Jerry T. Watkins III
Queering the Redneck Riviera
Sexuality and the Rise of Florida Tourism
University Press of Florida, 2018

New Books in American StudiesNew Books in Arts & LettersNew Books in Gender StudiesNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in Popular CultureNew Books in SociologyNew Books Network May 21, 2019 Isabel Machado

As the title suggests, Jerry T. Watkins III’s Queering the Redneck Riviera: Sexuality and the Rise of Florida Tourism (University Press of Florida, 2018) re-queers this North Florida tourist destination showing how people who defied gender and sexual normalcy found their space in the “Sunshine State” after the Second World... Read More
Nico Slate, “Gandhi’s Search for the Perfect Diet: Eating with the World in Mind” (U Washington Press, 2019)
Nico Slate
Gandhi's Search for the Perfect Diet
Eating with the World in Mind
University of Washington Press, 2019

New Books in Arts & LettersNew Books in BiographyNew Books in FoodNew Books in HistoryNew Books in Peoples & PlacesNew Books in Politics & SocietyNew Books in South Asian StudiesNew Books in Spiritual Practice and MindfulnessNew Books Network May 17, 2019 Carrie Tippen

In this this interview, Carrie Tippen talks with Nico Slate, professor of history at Carnegie Mellon University, about the intersections between diet, spirituality, health, and politics for one of the world’s most famous nonviolent political activists, Mahatma Gandhi. Dr. Slate, who researches anti-racist activism in the United States and India,... Read More