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General History
British Studies August 10, 2022

Built on the Ruins of Empire

British Military Assistance and African Independence

Blake Whitaker

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
During the Cold War, the British government oversaw the transition to independence of dozens of colonies. Often the most challenging aspect of this transition was the creation of a national …

General History

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Interviews with historians about their new books.

Environmental Studies August 10, 2022

The Great Acceleration

An Environmental History of the Anthropocene since 1945

J. R. McNeill and Peter Engelke

Hosted by Brady McCartney
The Earth has entered a new age—the Anthropocene—in which humans are the most powerful influence on global ecology. Since the mid-twentieth century, the accelerating pace of energy use, greenhouse gas …
Film August 10, 2022

Competing with Idiots

Herman and Joe Mankiewicz, a Dual Portrait

Nick Davis

Hosted by Daniel Moran
A fascinating, complex dual biography of Hollywood's most dazzling—and famous—brothers, and a dark, riveting portrait of competition, love, and enmity that ultimately undid them both. One most famous for having …
Drugs, Addiction and Recovery August 10, 2022

Heroin

An Illustrated History

Susan C. Boyd

Hosted by Jay Shifman
Dr. Susan Boyd is a scholar/activist and Distinguished Professor emerita at the University of Victoria. Her research examines a variety of topics related to the history of drug prohibition and …
General History August 10, 2022

Feminism's Empire

Carolyn J. Eichner

Hosted by Michael Vann
Feminism's Empire (Cornell UP, 2022) investigates the complex relationships between imperialisms and feminisms in the late nineteenth century and demonstrates the challenge of conceptualizing "pro-imperialist" and "anti-imperialist" as binary positions …
American West August 10, 2022

Visions of Nature

How Landscape Photography Shaped Settler Colonialism

Jarrod Hore

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann
During the early years of photography, settlers around the Pacific World were fascinated with the landscapes of the places they conquered. According to Dr. Jarrod Hore, a postdoctoral researcher and …
Environmental Studies August 9, 2022

Encountering Water in Early Modern Europe and Beyond

Redefining the Universe Through Natural Philosophy, Religious Reformations, and Sea Voyaging

Lindsay Starkey

Hosted by Aspen Brown
What is holding the oceans back from entirely flooding the earth? While a twenty-first century thinker may approach the answer to this question within a framework of gravity and geologic deep-time, Lindsay Starkey …
Medicine August 9, 2022

Building Schools, Making Doctors

Architecture and the Modern American Physician

Katherine L. Carroll

Hosted by Rachel Pagones
In the late nineteenth century, medical educators intent on transforming American physicians into scientifically trained, elite professionals recognized the value of medical school design for their reform efforts. Between 189 …
East Asian Studies August 9, 2022

Opportunity in Crisis

Cantonese Migrants and the State in Late Qing China

Steven B. Miles

Hosted by Huiying Chen
Opportunity in Crisis: Cantonese Migrants and the State in Late Qing China (Harvard UP, 2021) explores the history of late Qing Cantonese migration along the West River basin during war and …
General History August 9, 2022

The Literacy Myth

Cultural Integration and Social Structure in the Nineteenth Century

Harvey J. Graff

Hosted by Nathan Moore
Harvey Graff's pioneering study presents a new and original interpretation of the place of literacy in nineteenth-century society and culture. Based upon an intensive comparative historical analysis, employing both qualitative …
Interpretive Political and Social Science August 9, 2022

Mobilizing in Uncertainty

Collective Identities and War in Abkhazia

Anastasia Shesterinina

Hosted by Nick Cheesman
Anastasia Shesterinina begins Mobilizing in Uncertainty: Collective Identities and War in Abkhazia (Cornell University Press, 2021) with an account of Georgian troops crossing into eastern Abkhazia, in the Southern Caucasus …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast August 8, 2022

Sonorous Desert

What Deep Listening Taught Early Christian Monks—and What It Can Teach Us

Kim Haines-Eitzen

Hosted by Mark Klobas
For the hermits and communal monks of antiquity, the desert was a place to flee the cacophony of ordinary life in order to hear and contemplate the voice of God …
African American Studies August 8, 2022

Riding Jane Crow

African American Women on the American Railroad

Miriam Thaggert

Hosted by Deidre Tyler
Miriam Thaggert illuminates the stories of African American women as passengers and as workers on the nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century railroad. As Jim Crow laws became more prevalent and forced Black …
French Studies August 8, 2022

Toxique

Enquête sur les essais nucléaires français en Polynésie

Sébastien Philippe and Tomas Statius

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi
What happens when you bring together an important collection of previously secret archival documents dealing with France's nuclear detonations in the Pacific from 1966 to 1996, a nuclear scientist, and …
Diplomatic History August 8, 2022

China's European Headquarters

Switzerland and China During the Cold War

Ariane Knüsel

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
During the Cold War, the People's Republic of China used Switzerland as headquarters for its economic, political, intelligence, and cultural networks in Europe. Based on extensive research in Western and …
Popular Culture August 8, 2022

A Woman's Place Is in the Brewhouse

A Forgotten History of Alewives, Brewsters, Witches, and Ceos

Tara Nurin

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
Tara Nurin explores women in all aspects of the brewing industry in A Women's Place is in the Brewhouse (Chicago Review Press, 2021). Women have brewed beer throughout most of human history. Their …
Film August 8, 2022

Hollywood Sports Movies and the American Dream

Grant Wiedenfeld

Hosted by Annie Berke
Through the heart of Hollywood cinema runs a surprising current of progressive politics. Sports movies, a genre that has flourished since the mid-seventies, evoke the American dream and represent the …
Jewish Studies August 8, 2022

The Idea of 'Israel' in Second Temple Judaism

A New Theory of People, Exile, and Israelite Identity

Jason A. Staples

Hosted by Michael Morales
How did the concept of Israel impact early Jewish apocalyptic hopes of restoration? How diverse was Israelite identity in antiquity? Tune in as we talk with Jason A. Staples about …
Military History August 5, 2022

The Castle

A History

John Goodall

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
In The Castle: A History (Yale University Press, 2022) Dr. John Goodall presents a vibrant history of the castle in Britain, from the early Middle Ages to the present day …
Japanese Studies August 5, 2022

Middlemen of Modernity

Local Elites and Agricultural Development in Meiji Japan

Christopher Craig

Hosted by Ran Zwigenberg
Christopher Craig’s Middlemen of Modernity: Local Elites and Agricultural Development in Meiji Japan (U Hawaii Press, 2021) is a thoroughly research and engaging study of the role of local elites …