New Books Network Podcast

Economics December 8, 2022

The Federal Reserve

A New History

Robert L. Hetzel

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

In The Federal Reserve: A New History (University of Chicago Press, 2022), Robert Hetzel draws on a 43-year career as an economist in the central bank to trace the influence of …

African American Studies December 8, 2022

The Matter of Black Living

The Aesthetic Experiment of Racial Data, 1880–1930

Autumn Womack

Hosted by Laura Stark

Autumn Womack is a professor of English and of African American Studies at Princeton University. Her new book, The Matter of Black Living: The Aesthetic Experiment of Racial Data, 1880–193 …

Science, Technology, and Society December 8, 2022

Democracy's Data

The Hidden Stories in the U.S. Census and How to Read Them

Dan Bouk

Hosted by Laura Stark

Dan Bouk is a writer, professor, and cultural historian of quantification, or as Bouk puts it, the history all fascinating things “shrouded in the cloak of borningness.” In Bouk’s book …

Music December 8, 2022

An American Singing Heritage

Songs from the British-Irish-American Oral Tradition as Recorded in the Early Twentieth Century

Norm Cohen, Carson Cohen, and Anne Dhu McLucas

Hosted by Kristen Turner

The Music of the United States of America Series of musical editions is a monumental undertaking funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities with financial and organizational support from …

General History December 8, 2022

Realigners

Partisan Hacks, Political Visionaries, and the Struggle to Rule American Democracy

Timothy Shenk

Hosted by Sean Byrnes

These days it seems that nobody is satisfied with American democracy. Critics across the ideological spectrum warn that the country is heading toward catastrophe but also complain that nothing seems …

Catholic Studies December 7, 2022

Teaching in Black and White

The Sisters of St. Joseph in the American South

Barbara E. Mattick

Hosted by Allison Isidore

Teaching in Black and White: The Sisters of St. Joseph in the American South (Catholic University of America Press, 2022) discusses the work of the Sisters of St. Joseph of …

American South December 7, 2022

The Life of Elreta Melton Alexander

Activism within the Courts

Virginia L. Summey

Hosted by Brandon Jett

Virginia L. Summey's book The Life of Elreta Melton Alexander: Activism within the Courts (U Georgia Press, 2022) explores the life and contributions of groundbreaking attorney, Elreta Melton Alexander Ralston (1919–98) …

American West December 7, 2022

Cheap Land Colorado

Off-Gridders at America's Edge

Ted Conover

Hosted by Daniel Moran

Today I talked to Ted Conover, author of Cheap Land Colorado: Off-Gridders at America's Edge (Knopf, 2022) In May 2017, Conover went to Colorado to explore firsthand a rural way of …

African American Studies December 6, 2022

Bodies Out of Place

Theorizing Anti-Blackness in U.S. Society

Barbara Harris Combs

Hosted by Omari Averette-Phillips

Bodies Out of Place: Theorizing Anti-Blackness in U.S. Society (U Georgia Press, 2022) asserts that anti-Black racism is not better than it used to be; it is just performed in …

NYIH Conversations December 5, 2022

Dirty Work

Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America

Eyal Press

Hosted by New York Institute for the Humanities

In the episode of Conversations from the Institute, we hear from Eyal Press, who is the author of Absolute Convictions: My Father, a City, and the Conflict that Divided America …

Writ Large December 5, 2022

On James Baldwin's "The Fire Next Time"

A Discussion with Josef Sorett

Josef Sorett

Hosted by Zachary Davis

The writer and activist James Baldwin grew up in a majority white America that saw white American lives as standard and universal, and Black American lives as different and particular …

Women's History December 5, 2022

Skirts

Fashioning Modern Femininity in the Twentieth Century

Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell

Hosted by Jane Scimeca

While the story of women’s liberation has often been framed by the growing acceptance of pants over the twentieth century, the most important and influential female fashions of the era …

Military History December 4, 2022

Agents of Subversion

The Fate of John T. Downey and the CIA's Covert War in China

John Delury

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Agents of Subversion: The Fate of John T. Downey and the CIA's Covert War in China (Cornell University Press, 2022) by Dr. John Delury reconstructs the remarkable story of a …

Education December 4, 2022

Indentured Students

How Government-Guaranteed Loans Left Generations Drowning in College Debt

Elizabeth Tandy Shermer

Hosted by Thomas Discenna

It didn't always take thirty years to pay off the cost of a bachelor's degree. In Indentured Students: How Government-Guaranteed Loans Left Generations Drowning in College Debt (Harvard UP, 2021), Elizabeth Tandy …

Film December 4, 2022

Comedy Against Work

Utopian Longing in Dystopian Times

Madeline Lane-McKinley

Hosted by Annie Berke

Comedy is so frequently the topic of cultural dialogue, but it is rarely taken seriously as an object of study. Comedy Against Work: Utopian Longing in Dystopian Times (Common Notions …

American West December 2, 2022

West Side Rising

How San Antonio's 1921 Flood Devastated a City and Sparked a Latino Environmental Justice Movement

Char Miller

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann

On September 9, 1921, a tropical storm raged above San Antonio, Texas. The rain that night flooded the city's many waterways, distributing unequal destruction throughout its many neighborhoods. For the whiter …

Diplomatic History December 1, 2022

The Nuclear Club

How America and the World Policed the Atom from Hiroshima to Vietnam

Jonathan R. Hunt

Hosted by Grant Golub

The Nuclear Club: How America and the World Policed the Atom from Hiroshima to Vietnam (Stanford UP, 2022) reveals how a coalition of powerful and developing states embraced global governance …

Writ Large December 1, 2022

On John Rawl's "A Theory of Justice"

A Discussion with Michele Moody-Adams

Michele Moody-Adams

Hosted by Zachary Davis

How do you create a fair society? Who deserves to rule? What rights do citizens have? How are those rights protected? What does it mean to act morally within society …

American Studies November 30, 2022

Heaven on the Hudson

Mansions, Monuments, and Marvels of Riverside Park

Stephanie Azzarone

Hosted by Robert Snyder

On the west side of Manhattan, Riverside Park winds between the banks of the Hudson River and the elegant housing of Riverside Drive. In her new book Heaven on the …

Catholic Studies November 29, 2022

Christian Anarchist

Ammon Hennacy, A Life on the Catholic Left

William Marling

Hosted by Jackson Reinhardt

Ammon Hennacy was arrested over thirty times for opposing US entry in World War 1. Later, when he refused to pay taxes that support war, he lost his wife and …