Intellectual History

Intellectual History

episodes

Interviews with intellectual historians about their new books.

Thor Rydin, "The Works and Times of Johan Huizinga (1872-1945): Writing History in the Age of Collapse" (Amsterdam UP, 2023)

April 17, 2024

The Works and Times of Johan Huizinga (1872-1945)

Thor Rydin
Hosted by Jana Byars

Thor Rydin joins to talk about his new book, The Works and Times of Johan Huizinga (1872- 1945): Writing History in the Age of Collapse (Amsterdam UP,…

D. J. Taylor, "Who Is Big Brother?: A Reader's Guide to George Orwell" (Yale UP, 2024)

April 17, 2024

Who Is Big Brother?

D. J. Taylor
Hosted by Charles Coutinho

An intellectual who hated intellectuals, a socialist who didn't trust the state--our foremost political essayist and author of Animal Farm and Ninetee…

Melvin L. Rogers, "The Darkened Light of Faith: Race, Democracy, and Freedom in African American Political Thought" (Princeton UP, 2023)

April 15, 2024

The Darkened Light of Faith

Melvin L. Rogers
Hosted by Lilly Goren

Political Theorist Melvin L. Rogers has a deep and rich new book delving into the work of a host of different African American political thinkers. But…

Kevin Lambert, "Symbols and Things: Material Mathematics in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2021)

April 15, 2024

Symbols and Things

Kevin Lambert
Hosted by Cory Brunson

The stereotype of the solitary mathematician is widespread, but practicing users and producers of mathematics know well that our work depends heavily …

Betty Milan, "Analyzed by Lacan: A Personal Account" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

April 15, 2024

Analyzed by Lacan

Betty Milan
Hosted by Matthew Pieknik

Analyzed by Lacan: A Personal Account (Bloomsbury, 2023) brings together the first English translations of Why Lacan, Betty Milan's memoir of her anal…

Miriam Piilonen, "Theorizing Music Evolution: Darwin, Spencer, and the Limits of the Human" (Oxford UP, 2024)

April 15, 2024

Theorizing Music Evolution

Miriam Piilonen
Hosted by Nathan Smith

What did historical evolutionists such as Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer have to say about music? What role did music play in their evolutionary t…

R. J. Boutelle, "The Race for America: Black Internationalism in the Age of Manifest Destiny" (UNC Press, 2023)

April 13, 2024

The Race for America

R. J. Boutelle

As Manifest Destiny took hold in the national consciousness, what did it mean for African Americans who were excluded from its ambitions for an expand…

Seamus O'Malley, "Irish Culture and 'The People': Populism and Its Discontents" (Oxford UP, 2022)

April 11, 2024

Irish Culture and 'The People'

Seamus O'Malley
Hosted by Aidan Beatty

Seamus O’Malley is an associate professor at Yeshiva University. His first book was Making History New: Modernism and Historical Narrative (Oxford Uni…

Hume, the Epicureans, and the Origins of Liberalism: A Conversation with Aaron Zubia

April 10, 2024

Hume, the Epicureans, and the Origins of Liberalism

Aaron Alexander Zubia
Hosted by Annika Nordquist

Enlightenment philosopher David Hume enjoyed a tremendous influence on intellectual history. What did Hume believe, why was it so controversial at the…

Eric Hoffer's "The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements" (1951): A Discussion with Jay Garfinkel

April 10, 2024

Eric Hoffer's "The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements" (1951)

Eric Hoffer
Hosted by Renee Garfinkel

A stevedore on the San Francisco docks in the 1940s, who eventually taught at the University of California at Berkeley, Eric Hoffer wrote philosophi…

Charles William Johns, "Hegel and Speculative Realism" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023)

April 10, 2024

Hegel and Speculative Realism

Charles William Johns
Hosted by Adam Bobeck

Hegel and Speculative Realism (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023) has two main objectives. Firstly, to assess the speculative realist formulations of the real …

Matthew Robertson, "Puruṣa: Personhood in Ancient India" (Oxford UP, 2024)

April 9, 2024

Puruṣa

Matthew I. Robertson
Hosted by Malcolm Keating

The concept of the puruṣa, or person, is implicated in a wide range of ancient texts throughout the Indian subcontinent. In Puruṣa: Personhood in Anci…

James McElvenny, "A History of Modern Linguistics: From the Beginnings to World War II" (Edinburgh UP, 2024)

April 9, 2024

A History of Modern Linguistics

James McElvenny
Hosted by Ingrid Piller

Ingrid Piller speaks with James McElvenny about his new book A History of Modern Linguistics: From the Beginnings to World War II (Edinburgh UP, 2024)…

Eric Calderwood, "On Earth Or in Poems: The Many Lives of Al-Andalus" (Harvard UP, 2023)

April 8, 2024

On Earth Or in Poems

Eric Calderwood
Hosted by Tugrul Mende

During the Middle Ages, the Iberian Peninsula was home not to Spain and Portugal but rather to al-Andalus. Ruled by a succession of Islamic dynasties,…

Christopher Michael Blakley, "Empire of Brutality: Enslaved People and Animals in the British Atlantic World" (Louisiana State UP, 2023)

April 8, 2024

Empire of Brutality

Christopher Michael Blakley
Hosted by Susan Liebell

Historians of early America, slavery, early African American history, the history of science, and environmental history have interrogated the complex …

Enactivism, Embodiment, and the Gorier Stuff with Marilyn Stendera

April 7, 2024

Enactivism, Embodiment, and the Gorier Stuff

Marilyn Stendera
Hosted by Pat McConville

In this episode Pat speaks with Dr Marilyn Stendera, co-author (with Emily Hughes) of Heidegger’s Alternative History of Time (Routledge, 2024). Dr S…

Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, "The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market" (Bloomsbury. 2023)

April 5, 2024

The Big Myth

Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway

In their bestselling book Merchants of Doubt, Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway revealed the origins of climate change denial. Now, in The Big Myth: Ho…

Stefanos Geroulanos, "The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins" (Liveright, 2024)

April 3, 2024

The Invention of Prehistory

Stefanos Geroulanos
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings an…

Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, "Merits of the Plague" (Penguin, 2023)

April 2, 2024

Merits of the Plague

Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani

Six hundred years ago, the author of this landmark work of history and religious thought—an esteemed judge, poet, and scholar in Cairo—survived the bu…

Alexej Lochmatow, "Public Knowledge in Cold War Poland: Scholarly Battles and the Clash of Virtues, 1945–1956" (Routledge, 2023)

April 1, 2024

Public Knowledge in Cold War Poland

Alexej Lochmatow
Hosted by Meghan Cochran

In the years after World War II, Polish scholars and scientists faced a complex and deeply personal political reality, the result of a long and violen…