Listen to Owen Bennett-Jones discuss the future of opinion polls with Mark Pack

New Books Network
Medieval History
Asian Review of Books May 26, 2022

China Through European Eyes: 800 Years of Cultural and Intellectual Encounter

Kerry Brown and Gemma Chenger Deng

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Europeans have been writing about China for centuries–ever since The Travels of Marco Polo described it as a faraway and mystical kingdom. European thinkers like Voltaire and Montesquieu used China …

Medieval History

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Interviews with scholars of medieval history about their new books.

Japanese Studies May 20, 2022

Cultural Imprints

War and Memory in the Samurai Age

Elizabeth Oyler and Katherine Saltzman-Li

Hosted by Jingyi Li
Elizabeth Oyler and Katherine Saltzman-Li's book Cultural Imprints: War and Memory in the Samurai Age (Cornell UP, 2022) draws on literary works, artifacts, performing arts, and documents that were created by …
Indian Religions May 19, 2022

Constructing Kanchi

City of Infinite Temples

Emma Natalya Stein

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Emma Natalya Stein's book Constructing Kanchi: City of Infinite Temples (Amsterdam UP, 2021) traces the emergence of the South Indian city of Kanchi as a major royal capital and multireligious pilgrimage destination …
European Politics May 16, 2022

The Political Philosophy of the European City

From Polis, Through City-State, to Megalopolis?

Ferenc Hörcher

Hosted by Stephen Satkiewicz
To many the city might seem simply a large urban area to live within, but it actually forms an important political concept and community that has been influential throughout European …
Indian Ocean World May 12, 2022

Islamic Law in Circulation

Shafi'i Texts Across the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean

Mahmood Kooria

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
Analyzing the spread and survival of Islamic legal ideas and commentaries in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean littorals, Islamic Law in Circulation: Shafi'i Texts across the Indian Ocean …
Japanese Studies May 4, 2022

A Bowl for a Coin

A Commodity History of Japanese Tea

William Wayne Farris

Hosted by Jingyi Li
A Bowl for a Coin: A Commodity History of Japanese Tea (U Hawaii Press, 2019) is the first book in any language to describe and analyze the history of all Japanese …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast May 2, 2022

The Wordhord

Daily Life in Old English

Hana Videen

Hosted by Mark Klobas
Old English is the language you think you know until you actually hear or see it. Unlike Shakespearean English or even Chaucer’s Middle English, Old English—the language of Beowulf—defies comprehension …
Art April 20, 2022

The Invention of Norman Visual Culture

Art, Politics, and Dynastic Ambition

Lisa Reilly

Hosted by Tanja Tolar
In The Invention of Norman Visual Culture: Art, Politics, and Dynastic Ambition (Cambridge UP, 2020), Lisa Reilly establishes a new interpretive paradigm for the eleventh and twelfth-century art and architecture …
Islamic Studies April 18, 2022

The Words of the Imams

Al-Shaykh Al-Saduq and the Development of Twelver Shi'i Hadith Literature

George Warner

Hosted by Adam Bobeck
Ibn Babawayh – also known as al-Shaykh al-Saduq – was a prominent Twelver Shi'i scholar of hadith. Writing within the first century after the vanishing of the twelfth imam, al-Saduq …
SSEAC Stories April 14, 2022

Greater Angkor and Global Urbanism

Roland Fletcher

Hosted by Natali Pearson
Cambodia is home to Angkor, one of the most important archaeological sites of Southeast Asia. Greater Angkor, the capital of the Khmer Empire, was a low-density city covered about a …
Jewish Studies April 13, 2022

The Commentators' Bible

The Rubin JPS Miqra'ot Gedolot

Michael Carasik

Hosted by Michael Morales
The biblical commentaries known as Miqra’ot Gedolot have inspired and educated generations of Hebrew readers. Now, with the five volumes of the acclaimed English edition of Miqra’ot Gedolot, The Commentators' Bible—Genesis …
General History April 12, 2022

Wasteland with Words

A Social History of Iceland

Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon

Hosted by Jana Byars
Today we talk to Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon about Wasteland with Words (Reaktion, 2010) and about microhistory as a method. Iceland is an enigmatic island country marked by contradiction: it’s a part of …
Critical Theory April 12, 2022

Science, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition

Retracing the Origins of Conflict

James C. Ungureanu

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
The story of the “conflict thesis” between science and religion—the notion of perennial conflict or warfare between the two—is part of our modern self-understanding. As the story goes, John William …
Christian Studies April 12, 2022

The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis

How Great Books Shaped a Great Mind

Jason M. Baxter

Hosted by Jackson Reinhardt
Many readers know Lewis as an author of fiction and fantasy literature, including the Chronicles of Narnia and the Space Trilogy. Others know him for his books in apologetics, including …
On Religion April 12, 2022

On St. Francis of Assisi, Sultan Malik al-Kamil, and the Crusades

A Discussion with Paul Moses

Paul Moses

Hosted by Gregory Soden
Paul Moses, former Newsday city editor and senior religion writer, is a professor of journalism at Brooklyn College and the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. He …
Anthropology April 11, 2022

Rethinking the Andes-Amazonia Divide

A Cross-Disciplinary Exploration

Adrian J Pearce, Paul Heggarty, and David G. Beresford-Jones

Hosted by Gustavo Gutiérrez Suárez
Nowhere on Earth is there an ecological transformation so swift and so extreme as between the snow line of the high Andes and the tropical rainforest of Amazonia. Because of …
General History April 1, 2022

Standing on Holy Ground in the Middle Ages

Lucy Donkin

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Dr. Lucy Donkin’s Standing on Holy Ground in the Middle Ages (Cornell University Press, 2022) illuminates how the floor surface shaped the ways in which people in Medieval Western Europe …
General History March 29, 2022

Before the West

The Rise and Fall of Eastern World Orders

Ayşe Zarakol

Hosted by Vladislav Lilic
Ayse Zarakol, Professor of International Relations at the University of Cambridge, is the author of Before the West: The Rise and Fall of Eastern World Orders (Cambridge University Press, 2022). Before the West …
Russian and Eurasian Studies March 29, 2022

Witchcraft in Russia and Ukraine, 1000-1900

A Sourcebook

Valerie A. Kivelson and Christine D. Worobec

Hosted by Steven Seegel
This sourcebook provides the first systematic overview of witchcraft laws and trials in Russia and Ukraine from medieval times to the late nineteenth century. Witchcraft in Russia and Ukraine (Northern …
Art March 25, 2022

Mongol Court Dress, Identity Formation, and Global Exchange

Eiren L. Shea

Hosted by Tanja Tolar
The Mongol period (1206-1368) marked a major turning point of exchange - culturally, politically, and artistically - across Eurasia. The wide-ranging international exchange that occurred during the Mongol period is …