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African American Studies
Critical Theory March 27, 2023

Fear of a Black Republic

Haiti and the Birth of Black Internationalism in the United States

Leslie M. Alexander

Hosted by Anna Lindner
The emergence of Haiti as a sovereign Black nation lit a beacon of hope for Black people throughout the African diaspora. Leslie M. Alexander's study reveals the untold story of …

African American Studies

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Interviews with scholars of African America about their new books.

Military History March 26, 2023

Black Cloud Rising

A Novel

David Wright Faladé

Hosted by AJ Woodhams
By fall of 1863, Union forces had taken control of Tidewater Virginia, and established a toehold in eastern North Carolina, including along the Outer Banks. Thousands of freed slaves and …
Women's History March 23, 2023

Goldwater Girls to Reagan Women

Gender, Georgia, and the Growth of the New Right

Robin M. Morris

Hosted by Jane Scimeca
Goldwater Girls to Reagan Women: Gender, Georgia, and the Growth of the New Right (U Georgia Press, 2022) is a statewide study of women’s part in the history of conservatism …
African Studies March 22, 2023

Five Hundred African Voices

A Catalog of Published Accounts by Africans Enslaved in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, 1586-1936

Aaron Spencer Fogleman and Robert Hanserd

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
The importance of published accounts by African slave ship survivors is well-known but not their existence in large numbers. Fogleman and Hanserd catalog nearly five hundred discrete accounts and more …
Military History March 21, 2023

Liberty Is Sweet

The Hidden History of the American Revolution

Woody Holton

Hosted by AJ Woodhams
A “deeply researched and bracing retelling” (Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian) of the American Revolution, showing how the Founders were influenced by overlooked Americans—women, Native Americans, African Americans, and religious …
African American Studies March 21, 2023

Driving the Green Book

A Road Trip Through the Living History of Black Resistance

Alvin Hall

Hosted by Nicole Trujillo-Pagan
For countless Americans, the open road has long been a place where dangers lurk. In the era of Jim Crow, Black travelers encountered locked doors, hostile police, and potentially violent …
Literary Studies March 18, 2023

James Baldwin’s Turkish Decade

Erotics of Exile

Magdalena J. Zaborowska

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
Between 1961 and 1971 James Baldwin spent extended periods of time in Turkey, where he worked on some of his most important books. In this first in-depth exploration of Baldwin’s …
African American Studies March 17, 2023

It's Always Been Ours

Rewriting the Story of Black Women's Bodies

Jessica Wilson

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
In It's Always Been Ours: Rewriting the Story of Black Women's Bodies (Hachette Go, 2023) eating disorder specialist and storyteller Jessica Wilson challenges us to rethink what having a "good" …
African American Studies March 15, 2023

Samuel Ringgold Ward

A Life of Struggle

R. J. M. Blackett

Hosted by Omari Averette-Phillips
Born on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Samuel Ringgold Ward (1817–c. 1869) escaped enslavement and would become a leading figure in the struggle for Black freedom, citizenship, and equality. He …
Peoples & Things March 13, 2023

Traveling Black, A Story of Race and Resistance

A Conversation with Mia Bay

Mia Bay

Hosted by Lee Vinsel
Mia Bay, the Roy F. and Jeannette P. Nichols Chair in American History at the University of Pennsylvania, talks about her book Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance …
African American Studies March 13, 2023

Freedom Seekers

Fugitive Slaves in North America, 1800–1860

Damian Alan Pargas

Hosted by Katrina Anderson
In Freedom Seekers: Fugitive Slaves in North America, 1800–1860 (Cambridge UP, 2021), Damian Alan Pargas introduces a new conceptualization of 'spaces of freedom' for fugitive slaves in North America between …
African American Studies March 12, 2023

Rewriting Citizenship

Women, Race, and Nineteenth-Century Print Culture

Susan J. Stanfield

Hosted by Katrina Anderson
Rewriting Citizenship: Women, Race, and Nineteenth-Century Print Culture (U Georgia Press, 2022) provides an interdisciplinary approach to antebellum citizenship. Interpreting citizenship, particularly how citizenship intersects with race and gender, is …
Music March 11, 2023

Sportin' Life

John W. Bubbles, an American Classic

Brian Harker

Hosted by Kristen Turner
John W. Bubbles was an actor, singer, comedian, and most importantly, a dancer. Born in 1902, Bubbles was an innovator in the jazz tap style and half of the great …
African American Studies March 11, 2023

"My Faith in the Constitution Is Whole"

Barbara Jordan and the Politics of Scriptures

Robin L. Owens

Hosted by Deidre Tyler
US Congresswoman Barbara Jordan is well-known as an interpreter and defender of the Constitution, particularly through her landmark speech during Richard Nixon's 1974 impeachment hearings. However, before she developed faith …
Sports March 11, 2023

Black Ball

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Spencer Haywood, and the Generation That Saved the Soul of the NBA

Theresa Runstedtler

Hosted by Paul Knepper
Against a backdrop of ongoing resistance to racial desegregation and strident calls for Black Power, the NBA in the 1970s embodied the nation’s imagined descent into disorder. A new generation …
Caribbean Studies March 9, 2023

Errol Walton Barrow and the Postwar Transformation of Barbados

The Late Colonial Period

Hilbourne A. Watson

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Beginning in the 1920s, Barbadians and other British West Indians began organizing politically in an international environment that was marked by a severe capitalist economic and financial crisis that intensified …
Caribbean Studies March 6, 2023

The Silver Women

How Black Women's Labor Made the Panama Canal

Joan Flores-Villalobos

Hosted by Nicole Ramsey
In The Silver Women: How Black Women's Labor Made the Panama Canal (U Pennsylvania Press, 2023), Joan Flores-Villalobos argues that Black West Indian women made the canal construction possible by …
Critical Theory March 5, 2023

The Racial Code

Tales of Resistance and Survival

Nicola Rollock

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
Why do racial inequalities persist? In The Racial Code: Tales of Resistance and Survival (Penguin, 2023), Nicola Rollock, a Professor of Social Policy & Race at King’s College London, examines the often …
African American Studies March 5, 2023

Violent Utopia

Dispossession and Black Restoration in Tulsa

Jovan Scott Lewis

Hosted by Omari Averette-Phillips
In Violent Utopia: Dispossession and Black Restoration in Tulsa (Duke UP, 2022), Jovan Scott Lewis retells the history and afterlife of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, from the post-Reconstruction migration …
Caribbean Studies March 4, 2023

Errol Walton Barrow and the Postwar Transformation of Barbados

The Independence Period, 1966-1976

Hilbourne A. Watson

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Hilbourne A. Watson's Errol Walton Barrow and the Postwar Transformation of Barbados: The Independence Period, 1966-1976 (U West Indies Press, 2020) is the companion volume to Errol Walton Barrow and the Postwar …