New Books Network
American Studies
Education November 30, 2020

Digital Divisions

How Schools Create Inequality in the Tech Era

Matthew H. Rafalow

Hosted by Trevor Mattea
In this episode, I speak with Matt Rafalow, about his book, Digital Divisions: How Schools Create Inequality in the Tech Era (University of Chicago Press, 2020). This book provides an …

Subscribe to

American Studies

on the NBN

RSS Spotify Stitcher Apple
Performing Arts November 30, 2020

Lot Six

A Memoir

David Adjmi

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Lot Six (Harper 2020) is a moving and hilarious memoir from playwright David Adjmi. The book traces Adjmi’s search for his identity, during which he becomes an observant yeshiva student …
Malcolm X and Black Nationalism November 30, 2020

Malcolm X

The FBI File

Clayborne Carson

Hosted by Kirk Meighoo
This is a Special Series on Malcolm X and Black Nationalism. We delve into the background of Malcolm X's action and thought in the context of Black Nationalism, correcting the …
Jewish Studies November 30, 2020

Yeshiva Days

Learning on the Lower East Side

Jonathan Boyarin

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
New York City's Lower East Side has witnessed a severe decline in its Jewish population in recent decades, yet every morning in the big room of the city's oldest yeshiva …
Political Science November 30, 2020

The Black Cabinet

The Untold Story of African Americans and Politics During the Age of Roosevelt

Jill Watts

Hosted by Susan Liebell
When did Black Americans move from stalwart party of Lincoln Republicans to dedicated New Deal Democrats? How did a group of self-organized Black economists, lawyers, sociologists, and journalists call out …
LGBTQ+ Studies November 27, 2020

Stand by Me

The Forgotten History of Gay Liberation

Jim Downs

Hosted by Morris Ardoin
Despite the tremendous gains of the LGBT movement in recent years, the history of gay life in this country remains poorly understood. According to conventional wisdom, gay liberation started with …
Communications November 27, 2020

Irony and Outrage

The Polarized Landscape of Rage, Fear, and Laughter in the United States

Dannagal Goldthwaite Young

Hosted by Lee Pierce
On this episode of the New Books Network, Dr. Lee Pierce (s/t) Dr. Dannagal Goldthwaite Young (s/h) about why liberals love satire and conservative love outrage and how the two …
Sports November 27, 2020

Our Last Season

A Writer, a Fan, a Friendship

Harvey Araton

Hosted by Paul Knepper
Harvey Araton’s new book Our Last Season: A Writer, a Fan, a Friendship (Penguin, 2020), reads like a mix between Tuesdays with Morrie and a sequel to his book When …
Islamic Studies November 27, 2020

Muslim Women's Rights

Contesting Liberal-Secular Sensibilities in Canada

Tabassum Fahim Ruby

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
Muslim Women’s Rights: Contesting Liberal-Secular Sensibilities in Canada (Routledge 2019) By Tabassum Fahim Ruby follows the legal debates and public discussions that surrounded the proposed shari‘ah tribunals in Canada from …
Sociology November 27, 2020

Essential Dads

The Inequalities and Politics of Fathering

Jennifer M. Randles

Hosted by Michael Johnston
In Essential Dads: The Inequalities and Politics of Fathering (University of California Press, 2020), sociologist Jennifer Randles shares the stories of more than 60 marginalized men as they sought to …
Sports November 25, 2020

ABC Sports

The Rise and Fall of Network Sports Television

Travis Vogan

Hosted by Keith Rathbone
Today we are joined by Travis Vogan, Associate Professor of Journalism and American Studies at the University of Iowa, and the author of ABC Sports: The Rise and Fall of …
Native American Studies November 24, 2020

We Do Not Want the Gates Closed Between Us

Native Networks and the Spread of the Ghost Dance

Justin Gage

Hosted by Annabel LaBrecque
Writing to U.S. President Grover Cleveland in 1888, Oglala Lakota leaders Little Wound, Young Man Afraid of His Horses, and Red Cloud insisted upon a simple yet significant demand to …
Political Science November 23, 2020

Four Threats

The Recurring Crises of American Democracy

Suzanne Mettler and Robert C. Lieberman

Hosted by Susan Liebell
The United States experienced race-baiting, polarization, executive overreach, and inequality before the presidency of Donald Trump. Does that political history demonstrate resilience – or vulnerability? Suzanne Mettler (John L. Senior …
Sociology November 23, 2020

The Mating Game

How Gender Still Shapes How We Date

Ellen Lamont

Hosted by Michael Johnston
Ellen Lamont's new book The Mating Game: How Gender Still Shapes How We Date (University of California Press, 2020) offers an in-depth analysis of how gender shapes dating practices. Despite enormous changes in …
Native American Studies November 20, 2020

Picturing Indians

Native Americans in Film, 1941-1960

Liza Black

Hosted by Annabel LaBrecque
Behind the braided wigs, buckskins, and excess bronzer that typified the mid-century "filmic Indian" lies a far richer, deeper history of Indigenous labor, survival, and agency. This history takes center …
African American Studies November 20, 2020

Bind Us Apart

How Enlightened Americans Invented Racial Segregation

Nicholas Guyatt

Hosted by Adam McNeil
Why did the Founding Fathers fail to include blacks and Indians in their cherished proposition that “all men are created equal”? Racism is the usual answer. Yet Nicholas Guyatt argues …
History November 19, 2020

Abraham Lincoln’s Statesmanship and the Limits of Liberal Democracy

Jon D. Schaff

Hosted by Hope J. Leman
There are so many Abraham Lincolns. There is the ruthless Lincoln willing to suspend habeas corpus and who, as president, presided over record levels of bloodshed on American soil. There …
Intellectual History November 19, 2020

No Future in This Country

The Prophetic Pessimism of Bishop Henry Mcneal Turner

Andre E. Johnson

Hosted by Hettie V. Williams
No Future in this Country: The Prophetic Pessimism of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner by Andre E. Johnson, an Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Media Studies at the University of Memphis …
History November 18, 2020

The Last Brahmin

Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. and the Making of the Cold War

Luke A. Nichter

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
Few have ever enjoyed the degree of foreign-policy influence and versatility that Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., the grand-son of Woodrow Wilson’s senatorial antagonist, did. In the postwar era, perhaps only …
Military History November 18, 2020

Small Boats and Daring Men

Maritime Raiding, Irregular Warfare, and the Early American Navy

Benjamin F. Armstrong

Hosted by Bob Wintermute
Two centuries before the daring exploits of Navy SEALs and Marine Raiders captured the public imagination, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps were already engaged in similarly perilous missions: raiding …