Intellectual History

Intellectual History

episodes

Interviews with intellectual historians about their new books.

Heidegger in Ruins

July 13, 2026

Heidegger in Ruins

Richard Wolin
Hosted by YIVO Institute

Martin Heidegger’s sympathies for the conservative revolution and National Socialism have long been well known. As the rector of the University of Fre…

Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach, "Freedom to Know: Creating Community with Ambedkar, Du Bois, Iqbal, Ramabai and Tagore" (Edinburgh UP, 2025)

July 10, 2026

Freedom to Know

Monika Kirloskar-Steinbach
Hosted by Jessica Zu

Freedom to Know: Creating Community with Ambedkar, Du Bois, Iqbal, Ramabai and Tagore (Edinburgh University Press, 2025) asks how a (world) community …

A. G. Hopkins, "The Land Where Nothing Works: How Britain Lost the Plot" (Princeton UP, 2026)

July 9, 2026

The Land Where Nothing Works

A. G. Hopkins
Hosted by Thomas Kingston

What has happened to Britain? As drivers on its roads can attest, it is the pothole capital of Europe. Once-beautiful towns now feature peeling paint,…

Katherine Krauss, "Exemplarity and Allusion in Macrobius' Saturnalia" (Oxford UP, 2026)

July 6, 2026

Exemplarity and Allusion in Macrobius' Saturnalia

Katherine Krauss
Hosted by Michael Motia

Exemplarity and Allusion in Macrobius' Saturnalia (Oxford UP, 2026) offers a new framework for interpreting interactions with classical source materia…

Gajendran Ayyathurai, "Tamil Buddhism and Brahminism in Modern India: Deep Resistance Against Caste" (Oxford UP, 2026)

July 4, 2026

Tamil Buddhism and Brahminism in Modern India

Gajendran Ayyathurai
Hosted by Sanjukta Poddar

Tamil Buddhism and Brahminism in Modern India: Deep Resistance Against Caste (Oxford University Press, 2026) explores Tamil Buddhism in modern India, …

Rosa Campbell, "The Book That Taught the World to Orgasm and Then Disappeared: Shere Hite and the Hite Report" (Melville House, 2026)

July 2, 2026

The Book That Taught the World to Orgasm and Then Disappeared

Rosa Campbell
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Despite being one of the leading thinkers of the second wave feminist movement, today Shere Hite is little known, little written about, and, unsurpris…

Thy Will Be Done: George Washington's Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory

July 2, 2026

Thy Will Be Done

John Garrison Marks

In Thy Will Be Done: George Washington's Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory (UNC Press, 2026), historian John Garrison Marks tells th…

Thomas Paine at the Semiquincentennial: A Conversation with Gregory Claeys

July 1, 2026

Thomas Paine at the Semiquincentennial

Gregory Claeys
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

Thomas Paine: Collected Writings (Princeton University Press, 2026) is the first major new edition of Paine’s works, bringing together all his writing…

S5E11 The Once and Future Republic: On Cicero, Locke, and the Making of America with Michael C. Hawley

July 1, 2026

The Once and Future Republic

Michael C. Hawley
Hosted by Ryan Shinkel

In preparation for the 250th anniversary of America’s founding, it would be wise to look back at the ancient thinkers and writers who helped inspire …

Andy Byford, "Science of the Child in Late Imperial and Early Soviet Russia" (Oxford UP, 2020)

June 27, 2026

Science of the Child in Late Imperial and Early Soviet Russia

Andy Byford
Hosted by Polina Popova

Between the 1880s and the 1930s, children became the focus of unprecedented scientific and professional interest in modernizing societies worldwide, i…

Charles J. Stivale, "Unfolding the Deleuze Seminars, 1970–1987: Summaries and Commentary" (Edinburgh UP, 2025)

June 25, 2026

Unfolding the Deleuze Seminars, 1970-1987

Charles J. Stivale
Hosted by Nathan Smith

From the inside flap: “A rich resource of Deleuze’s research that is unavailable in his published writing Includes summaries of 216 seminar sessio…

Hilary R. Buxton, "Disabled Empire: The Colonial Body in First World War Britain" (U Chicago Press, 2026)

June 23, 2026

Disabled Empire

Hilary R. Buxton

Disabled Empire: The Colonial Body in First World War Britain (U Chicago Press, 2026) examines how imperial precedents and racial ideologies shaped th…

Catherine Fletcher, "The Firearm Revolution: From Renaissance Italy to the European Empires" (Princeton UP, 2026)

June 23, 2026

The Firearm Revolution

Catherine Fletcher

In Renaissance Italy, the gun was not only a tool of war but also a desirable object, a luxury item carried at court. Guns were in use on the battlefi…

Jonathan Daly, "The Man Who Knew Russia: Richard Pipes, Humanist and Cold Warrior" (Stanford UP, 2025)

June 21, 2026

The Man Who Knew Russia

Jonathan Daly
Hosted by Erika Monahan

He’s been called the man academics love to hate. One time, when the author disclosed that he worked with Pipes, the colleague responded, “I will forgi…

Alexander Vandewalle, "Characters and Characterization in Mythological Video Games" (Bloomsbury, 2026)

June 18, 2026

Characters and Characterization in Mythological Video Games

Alexander Vandewalle

The first book-length study on mythology reception in video games, Characters and Characterization in Mythological Video Games (Bloomsbury, 2026) exam…

Legacy of the Ancient Greeks: On Classical and Modern Democracy with Josiah Ober

June 17, 2026

Legacy of the Ancient Greeks

Josiah Ober
Hosted by Ryan Shinkel

American democracy is in a period of crisis, so it seems natural to look back to its origins. So here in Episode 10 of Season 5, I interview Professor…

Pamela Walker Laird, "Self-Made: The Stories that Forged an American Myth" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

June 14, 2026

Self-Made

Pamela Walker Laird

"Self-Made" success is now an American badge of honor that rewards individualist ambitions while it hammers against community obligations. Yet, four c…

Marinus De Jong, "A Church for a Secular World: The Development of Klaas Schilder's Ecclesiology" (Brill, 2025)

June 14, 2026

A Church for a Secular World

Marinus De Jong
Hosted by Michael Shaw

The relationship between the Church and the world has been a subject of debate since the Church's earliest days. In ⁠A Church for a Secular World: The…

Curtis Dozier, "The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate" (Yale UP, 2026)

June 13, 2026

The White Pedestal

Curtis Dozier

Curtis Dozier's The White Pedestal: How White Nationalists Use Ancient Greece and Rome to Justify Hate (Yale University Press, 2026) explores how whit…

Manasicha Akepiyapornchai, "Surrender to God Across Languages: Multilingual Intellectual History of Premodern India" (Oxford UP, 2026)

June 11, 2026

Surrender to God Across Languages

Manasicha Akepiyapornchai
Hosted by Raj Balkaran

Surrender to God Across Languages: Multilingual Intellectual History of Premodern India (Oxford UP, 2026) explores the role of languages in the intell…