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Economic and Business History
Economic and Business History June 23, 2022

Why We Fight

The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace

Christopher Blattman

Hosted by Javier Mejia
In Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace (Viking, 2022), Chris Blattman explains the five reasons why conflict (rarely) blooms into war, and how to interrupt that deadly …

Economic and Business History

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Interviews with scholars of economic and business history about their new books.

The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones June 21, 2022

The Future of Public Opinion

A Conversation with Susan Herbst

Susan Herbst

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
Politicians and corporations cannot only measure public opinion but also manipulate and create it. And they have been doing so since the 1930s when serious polling began. And as Professor …
Biology and Evolution June 20, 2022

The Silken Thread

Five Insects and Their Impacts on Human History

Robert N. Wiedenmann and J. Ray Fisher

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Insects are seldom mentioned in discussions surrounding human history, yet they have dramatically impacted today's societies. The Silken Thread: Five Insects and Their Impacts on Human History (Oxford UP, 2021) …
Sociology June 15, 2022

Gamer Nation

Video Games and American Culture

John Wills

Hosted by Rudolf Thomas Inderst
In 1975, design engineer Dave Nutting completed work on a new arcade machine. A version of Taito's Western Gun, a recent Japanese arcade machine, Nutting's Gun Fight depicted a classic …
Economics June 15, 2022

The Sharing Economy

Its Pitfalls and Promises

Michael Munger

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Transactions have always taken place. For hundreds of years that 'place' was a market or, more recently, a shopping mall. But in the past two decades these physical locations have …
Anthropology June 15, 2022

Coconut Colonialism

Workers and the Globalization of Samoa

Holger Droessler

Hosted by Alex Golub
In Coconut Colonialism: Workers and the Globalization of Samoa (Harvard UP, 2022), Holger Droessler provides a novel history of the impact of globalization on Sāmoa and vice versa. Using a …
Japanese Studies June 13, 2022

Designing Modern Japan

Sarah Teasley

Hosted by Nathan Hopson
Sarah Teasley's Designing Modern Japan (Reaktion, 2022) unpicks the history of Japanese design from the mid-nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth, focusing on continuities and disruptions within communities and practices …
German Studies June 13, 2022

Nazi Billionaires

The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties

David de Jong

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
In Nazi Billionnaires: The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties (HarperCollins, 2022), journalist David de Jong presents a groundbreaking investigation of how the Nazis helped German tycoons make billions off …
High Theory June 13, 2022

Deindustrialization

A Discussion with Gabriel Winant

Gabriel Winant

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
Gabriel Winant talks with Kim about the decline of the industrial working class and the rise of the health care industry. Gabriel is an assistant professor of History at the …
Economic and Business History June 9, 2022

How the World Became Rich

The Historical Origins of Economic Growth

Mark Koyama and Jared Rubin

Hosted by Javier Mejia
Most humans are significantly richer than their ancestors. Humanity gained nearly all of its wealth in the last two centuries. How did this come to pass?  In How the World Became …
High Theory June 8, 2022

Modernization

An interview with Varsha Venkatasubramanian

Varsha Venkatasubramanian

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
Varsha Venkatasubramanian discusses the many trajectories of modernization as a theoretical concept. She focuses mainly on the history of development in the US and in India, through the cold war …
Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel June 6, 2022

Red Carpet

Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy

Erich Schwartzel

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel
From trade to technology to military might, competition between the United States and China dominates the foreign policy landscape. But this battle for global influence is also playing out in …
Art June 3, 2022

When Art Isn’t Real

The World's Most Controversial Objects under Investigation

Andrew Shortland and Patrick Degryse

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
In When Art Isn’t Real: The World's Most Controversial Objects under Investigation (Leuven University Press, 2022), Dr. Andrew Shortland and Dr. Patrick Degryse examine how an initially valueless object becomes …
Middle Eastern Studies June 3, 2022

The Unsettled Plain

An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier

Chris Gratien

Hosted by Deren Ertas
In this episode, I talk to Chris Gratien, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Virginia, about his new book, The Unsettled Plain: An Environmental History of the Late Ottoman Frontier (Stanford University Press …
Japanese Studies June 2, 2022

Dream Super-Express

A Cultural History of the World's First Bullet Train

Jessamyn Abel

Hosted by Nathan Hopson
Jessamyn Abel’s Dream Super-Express: A Cultural History of the World’s First Bullet Train (Stanford UP, 2022) is a history of Japan’s famous super-express (shinkansen) and “the bullet train imaginary.” …
African American Studies June 2, 2022

Dreaming the Present

Time, Aesthetics, and the Black Cooperative Movement

Irvin J. Hunt

Hosted by Brittney Edmonds
In their darkest hours over the course of the twentieth century, W. E. B. Du Bois, Ella Baker, George Schuyler, and Fannie Lou Hamer gathered hundreds across the United States …
Southeast Asian Studies June 1, 2022

Colonizing Animals

Interspecies Empire in Myanmar

Jonathan Saha

Hosted by Patrick Jory
Colonial Myanmar was teeming with animals, both wild and domesticated. Yet few histories have devoted close attention to the importance of animals to British colonial rule in Myanmar. Jonathan Saha’s …
Economic and Business History June 1, 2022

Streets of Gold

America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success

Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan

Hosted by Javier Mejia
In Streets of Gold: America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success (PublicAffairs, 2022), Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan reveal the true story of immigration and the American economy, debunking myths perpetuated by the media …
Economic and Business History May 31, 2022

Sovereign Debt Diplomacies

Rethinking Sovereign Debt from Colonial Empires to Hegemony

Pierre Penet and Juan Flores Zendejas

Hosted by Javier Mejia
Pierre Penet and Juan Flores Zendejas' book Sovereign Debt Diplomacies: Rethinking Sovereign Debt from Colonial Empires to Hegemony (Oxford UP. 2021) aims to revisit the meaning of sovereign debt in relation to …
Economic and Business History May 31, 2022

Building a Housewife's Paradise

Gender, Politics, and American Grocery Stores in the Twentieth Century

Tracey Deutsch

Hosted by Paula De La Cruz-Fernández
The title of the book that we are introducing today is Building a Housewife's Paradise Gender, Politics, and American Grocery Stores in the Twentieth Century. This is not a new …