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Intellectual History
African American Studies October 1, 2023

Black Female Intellectuals in 19th Century America

Born to Bloom Unseen?

Rebecca J. Fraser

Hosted by Katrina Anderson
Drawing on letters, personal testimony, works of art, novels, and historic Black newspapers, this book is an interdisciplinary exploration of Black women’s contributions to the intellectual life of nineteenth-century America …

Intellectual History

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Interviews with intellectual historians about their new books.

Literary Studies October 1, 2023

Workshops of Empire

Stegner, Engle, and American Creative Writing During the Cold War

Eric Bennett

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
During and just after World War II, an influential group of American writers and intellectuals projected a vision for literature that would save the free world. Novels, stories, plays, and …
General History September 30, 2023

Political Disappointment

A Cultural History from Reconstruction to the AIDS Crisis

Sara Marcus

Hosted by Deidre Tyler
Moving from the aftermath of Reconstruction through the AIDS crisis, a new cultural history of the United States shows how artists, intellectuals, and activists turned political disappointment--the unfulfilled desire for …
Medieval History September 30, 2023

Medieval Marvels and Fictions in the Latin West and Islamic World

Michelle Karnes

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
Marvels like enchanted rings and sorcerers’ stones were topics of fascination in the Middle Ages, not only in romance and travel literature but also in the period’s philosophical writing. Rather …
Literary Studies September 30, 2023

Possible Knowledge

The Literary Forms of Early Modern Science

Debapriya Sarkar

Hosted by John Yargo
Debapriya Sarkar’s new book, titled Possible Knowledge: The Literary Forms of Early Modern Science (U Pennsylvania Press, 2023) is a study of how poets and philosophers took up the “the possible” as …
Christian Studies September 29, 2023

Kierkegaard and the Changelessness of God

A Modern Defense of Classical Immutability

Craig A. Hefner

Hosted by Jackson Reinhardt
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Danish theologian and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard was not afraid to express his opinions. Living amid what he perceived to be a culturally lukewarm Christianity, he was often critical of his …
Indian Religions September 28, 2023

Local Selfhood, Global Turns

Akshay Kumar Dutta and Bengali Intellectual History in the Nineteenth Century

Sumit Chakrabarti

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
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Sumit Chakrabarti's book Local Selfhood, Global Turns: Akshay Kumar Dutta and Public Culture in Nineteenth-Century Bengal (Cambridge UP, 2023) examines the works of Akshay Kumar Dutta (1820-1886), who can be seen as …
History of Science September 27, 2023

Pseudoscience

A Very Short Introduction

Michael D. Gordin

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
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Everyone has heard of the term "pseudoscience," typically used to describe something that looks like science, but is somehow false, misleading, or unproven. Many would be able to agree on …
British Studies September 27, 2023

The Year that Shaped the Victorian Age

Lives, Loves and Letters of 1845

Michael Wheeler

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
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What was special about 1845 and why does it deserve particular scrutiny? In The Year that Shaped the Victorian Age: Lives, Loves and Letters of 1845 (Cambridge UP, 2022), one …
Madison's Notes September 26, 2023

Bargaining for Democracy

A Conversation with Josiah Ober on Ancients and Moderns

Josiah Ober

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
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Amidst increasing acrimony and political strain, many worry that democratic governance has an expiration date. To answer these concerns, Josiah Ober looks to the ancients. Here, he discusses his recent …
Biblical Studies September 26, 2023

Roman Self-Representation and the Lukan Kingdom of God

Michael Kochenash

Hosted by Rob Heaton
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Michael Kochenash published his revised dissertation from Claremont School of Theology as Roman Self-Representation and the Lukan Kingdom of God (Lexington Books/Fortress Academic) in 2020. A student of Dennis R …
Russian and Eurasian Studies September 26, 2023

Wonder Confronts Certainty

Russian Writers on the Timeless Questions and Why Their Answers Matter

Gary Saul Morson

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
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A noted literary scholar traverses the Russian canon, exploring how realists, idealists, and revolutionaries debated good and evil, moral responsibility, and freedom. Since the age of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov …
Environmental Studies September 25, 2023

Thoreau's Religion

Walden Woods, Social Justice, and the Politics of Asceticism

Alda Balthrop-Lewis

Hosted by Ilana Maymind
Balthrop-Lewis's Thoreau's Religion: Walden Woods, Social Justice, and the Politics of Asceticism (Cambridge UP, 2021) presents a ground-breaking interpretation of Henry David Thoreau's most famous book, Walden. Rather than treating …
Biography September 25, 2023

Walter Lippmann

American Skeptic, American Pastor

Mark Thomas Edwards

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
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Walter Lippmann was arguably the most recognized and respected political journalist of the twentieth century. His "Today and Tomorrow" columns attracted a global readership of well over ten million. Lippmann …
French Studies September 23, 2023

Queering the Enlightenment

Kinship and Gender in Eighteenth-Century French Literature

Tracy Rutler

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi
Tracy Rutler's Queering the Enlightenment: Kinship and Gender in Eighteenth-Century French Literature (Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment, Liverpool UP, 2021) explores the imaginaries of novels and plays from the "liminal" period …
British Studies September 21, 2023

The Happiness of the British Working Class

Jamie Bronstein

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
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For working-class life writers in nineteenth century Britain, happiness was a multifaceted emotion: a concept that could describe experiences of hedonic pleasure, foster and deepen social relationships, drive individuals to …
Philosophy September 20, 2023

Vatsyayana's Commentary on the Nyaya-Sutra

A Guide

Matthew R. Dasti

Hosted by Malcolm Keating
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In Vatsyayana's Commentary on the Nyaya-Sutra: A Guide (Oxford University Press, 2023), Matthew Dasti unpacks a canonical classical Indian text, the Nyayabhasya, while simultaneously demonstrating its relevance to contemporary philosophy …
Intellectual History September 19, 2023

Moral Relativism and Pluralism

David B. Wong

Hosted by Jessica Zu
Today I talked to David B. Wong about his book Moral Relativism and Pluralism (Cambridge UP, 2023). The argument for metaethical relativism--the view that there is no single true or most …
Literary Studies September 18, 2023

The Romantic Rhetoric of Accumulation

Lenora Hanson

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
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Lenora Hanson's The Romantic Rhetoric of Accumulation (Stanford UP, 2022) provides an account of the long arc of dispossession from the British Romantic period to today. Lenora Hanson glimpses histories …
Intellectual History September 17, 2023

Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna)

A Very Short Introduction

Peter Adamson

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
Peter Adamson's book Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna): a Very Short Introduction (Oxford UP, 2023) provides an introduction to the most important philosopher of the Islamic world, Ibn Sīnā, often known in English …