New Books Network
African American Studies
Performing Arts April 19, 2021

Owed

Joshua Bennett

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Owed (Penguin, 2020) is the second collection of poems by Dr. Joshua Bennett, poet, professor, and artist. This volume is a wide-ranging, celebratory book focused on what Bennett calls "the Black quotidian," …

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Critical Theory April 16, 2021

Redlining Culture

A Data History of Racial Inequality and Postwar Fiction

Richard Jean So

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
What is the story of race in American fiction? In Redlining Culture: A Data History of Racial Inequality and Postwar Fiction (Columbia University Press, 2020), Richard Jean So, an assistant professor of …
History April 12, 2021

Monumental

Oscar Dunn and His Radical Fight in Reconstruction Louisiana

Brian K. Mitchell, Barrington S. Edwards and Nick Weldon

Hosted by Michael Vann
Dr. Brian K. Mitchell describes Reconstruction as the most misunderstood period in American history. In the Jim Crow era, there was a concerted effort to reverse the achievements of African …
Politics & Society April 9, 2021

Debating the Drug War

Race, Politics, and Media in the War on Drugs Debate

Michael Rosino

Hosted by Rachel Stuart
Since President Nixon coined the phrase, the "War on Drugs" has presented an important change in how people view and discuss criminal justice practices and drug laws. The term evokes …
American West April 9, 2021

Rodeo as Refuge, Rodeo as Rebellion

Gender, Race, and Identity in the American Rodeo

Elyssa Ford

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann
Imagine a rodeo rider atop a bucking bronco, hat in hand, straining to remain astride. Is the rider in your mind's eye white? Is the person male? Popular imaginings and high …
Literary Studies April 8, 2021

Laughing to Keep from Dying

African American Satire in the Twenty-First Century

Danielle Fuentes Morgan

Hosted by Reighan Gillam
The election of Barack Obama propelled the idea of a post-racial United States, or that the country had moved beyond race as a defining feature of social difference and beyond …
Political Science April 8, 2021

America's Peacemakers

The Community Relations Service and Civil Rights

Bertram Levine and Grande Lum

Hosted by Lilly Goren
The Community Relations Service (CRS) came into being alongside the Voting Rights Act—as part of the Act itself. And this organization was integrated into the Voting Rights Act in 196 …
Anthropology April 6, 2021

Anthropology and Radical Humanism

Native and African American Narratives and the Myth of Race

Jack Glazier

Hosted by Alex Golub
Paul Radin was one of the founding generation of American cultural anthropologists: A student of Franz Boas,  and famed ethnographer of the Winnebago. Yet little is known about Radin's life. A leftist who was …
In Conversation: An OUP Podcast April 1, 2021

The Movement

The African American Struggle for Civil Rights

Thomas C. Holt

Hosted by Marshall Poe
The civil rights movement was among the most important historical developments of the twentieth century and one of the most remarkable mass movements in American history. Not only did it …
Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight April 1, 2021

A Black Women's History of the United States

Daina Ramey Berry and Kali Nicole Gross

Hosted by Dan Hill
Today I talked to Kali Nicole Gross about her new book (co-authored with Daina Ramey Berry) A Black Women's History of the United States (Beacon Press, 2020).This episode covers a litany of instances …
Political Science April 1, 2021

African American Political Thought

A Collected History

Melvin L. Rogers and Jack Turner

Hosted by Lilly Goren
Political theorists Melvin Rogers and Jack “Chip” Turner have produced a truly magisterial edited volume centering the work by African American thinkers over the past centuries. With thirty contributed chapters …
Christian Studies March 30, 2021

Christian Citizens

Reading the Bible in Black and White in the Postemancipation South

Elizabeth L. Jemison

Hosted by Crawford Gribben
Elizabeth L. Jemison, who teaches American religious history at Clemson University, South Carolina, has written an outstanding new book, Christian Citizens: Reading the Bible in Black and White in the Post-Emancipation South (University …
World Affairs March 29, 2021

Trouble of the World

Slavery and Empire in the Age of Capital

Zach Sell

Hosted by Geoffrey Gordon
The middle decades of the 19th century witnessed the expansion of slavery and white settlement and dispossession of Indigenous lands west of the Mississippi River, the abolition of slavery in …
African American Studies March 26, 2021

The Case of the Slave-Child, Med

Free Soil in Antislavery Boston

Karen Woods Weierman

Hosted by Jerrad Pacatte
In 1836, an enslaved six-year-old girl named Med was brought to Boston by a woman from New Orleans who claimed her as property. Learning of the girl's arrival in the …
Performing Arts March 26, 2021

Playing Changes

Jazz for the New Century

Nate Chinen

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Nate Chinen's Playing Changes: Jazz for the New Century (Vintage, 2019) is an essential guide to 21st century jazz. Named a best book of the year by NPR, GQ, Billboard …
Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight March 25, 2021

Memphis Mayhem

A Story of the Music That Shook Up the World

David A. Less

Hosted by Dan Hill
Today I talked to David A. Lees about his book Memphis Mayhem: A Story of the Music That Shook Up the World (ECW Press, 2020) David Less has studied Memphis music for …
African American Studies March 23, 2021

Shelter in a Time of Storm

How Black Colleges Fostered Generations of Leadership and Activism

Jelani M. Favors

Hosted by Amanda Joyce Hall
Shelter in A Time of Storm: How Black Colleges Fostered Generations of Leadership and Activism (University of North Carolina Press, 2020) by Dr. Jelani Favors fills the “missing pages” of history by …
History March 22, 2021

As If She Were Free

A Collective Biography of Women and Emancipation in the Americas

Erica Ball and Tatiana Seijas

Hosted by Lisette Varon Carvajal
Edited by Drs. Erica Ball, Tatiana Seijas, and Terri L. Snyder, As if She Were Free (Cambridge University Press, 2020) is a collective biography of African and African-descended women across …
African American Studies March 16, 2021

Sentient Flesh

Thinking in Disorder, Poiesis in Black

R. A. Judy

Hosted by Britton Edelen
In this episode, I interview R.A. Judy, professor of Critical and Cultural Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, about his book Sentient Flesh: Thinking in Disorder, Poiēsis in Black, which …
In Conversation: An OUP Podcast March 15, 2021

The Cause of Freedom

A Concise History of African Americans

Jonathan S. Holloway

Hosted by Marshall Poe
What does it mean to be an American? The story of the African American past demonstrates the difficulty of answering this seemingly simple question. If being "American" means living in …