American Studies

American Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of America about their new books.

Rachel Gordan, "Postwar Stories: How Books Made Judaism American" (Oxford UP, 2024)

March 18, 2024

Postwar Stories

Rachel Gordan
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The period immediately following World War II was an era of dramatic transformation for Jews in America. At the start of the 1940s, President Roosevel…

Xaq Frohlich on the History of Food Labeling

March 18, 2024

Xaq Frohlich on the History of Food Labeling

Xaq Frohlich
Hosted by Lee Vinsel

Peoples & Things host Lee Vinsel talks with Xaq Frolich, Associate Professor of History at Auburn University, about his new book, From Label to Table:…

Andrew J. Kirkendall, "Hemispheric Alliances: Liberal Democrats and Cold War Latin America" (UNC Press, 2022)

March 16, 2024

Hemispheric Alliances

Andrew J. Kirkendall
Hosted by Ethan Fredrick

Hemispheric foreign policy has waxed and waned since the Mexican War, and the Cold War presented both extraordinary promises and dangerous threats to …

Lisa Messeri, "In the Land of the Unreal: Virtual and Other Realities in Los Angeles" (Duke UP, 2024)

March 16, 2024

In the Land of the Unreal

Lisa Messeri
Hosted by Noopur Raval

In the mid-2010s, a passionate community of Los Angeles-based storytellers, media artists, and tech innovators formed around virtual reality (VR), bel…

John O’Connor, "The Secret History of Bigfoot: Field Notes on a North American Monster" (Sourcebooks, 2024)

March 16, 2024

The Secret History of Bigfoot

John O’Connor
Hosted by Daniel Moran

Bigfoot is an instantly recognizable figure. Through the decades, this elusive primate has been featured in movies and books, on coffee mugs, beer koo…

Ellen E. Jones, "Screen Deep: How Film and TV Can Solve Racism and Save the World" (Faber and Faber, 2024)

March 16, 2024

Screen Deep

Ellen E. Jones
Hosted by Dave O'Brien

Why does race matter in film and TV? In Screen Deep: How Film and TV Can Solve Racism and Save the World (Faber and Faber, 2024), Ellen E. Jones, a jo…

Myisha Cherry, "Failures of Forgiveness: What We Get Wrong and How to Do Better" (Princeton UP, 2023)

March 15, 2024

Failures of Forgiveness

Myisha Cherry
Hosted by N'Kosi Oates

From religion to popular culture, institutions and people have shaped how we conceive forgiveness. Myisha Cherry, associate professor of philosophy, a…

Whitney Nell Stewart, "This Is Our Home: Slavery and Struggle on Southern Plantations" (UNC Press, 2023)

March 15, 2024

This Is Our Home

Whitney Nell Stewart
Hosted by Katrina Anderson

The cultural memory of plantations in the Old South has long been clouded by myth. A recent reckoning with the centrality of slavery to the US nationa…

Jonathan W. White, "Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023)

March 15, 2024

Shipwrecked

Jonathan W. White

In Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023), historian Jonathan…

Foster Care, Family, and Social Class: A Conversation with Rob Henderson

March 14, 2024

Foster Care, Family, and Social Class

Rob Henderson
Hosted by Annika Nordquist

Robert Kim Henderson, a recently-minted psychology PhD from Cambridge and prominent essayist, had a troubled childhood. A victim of child abuse, he wa…

Secret Harvests: A Hidden Story of Separation and the Resilience of a Family Farm

March 14, 2024

Secret Harvests

David Mas Masumoto

Today’s book is: Secret Harvests: A Hidden Story of Separation and the Resilience of a Family Farm (Red Hen Press, 2023), by David Mas Masumoto. In hi…

Thomas Mareite, "Conditional Freedom: Free Soil and Fugitive Slaves from the U.S. South to Mexico's Northeast, 1803-1861" (Brill, 2024)

March 13, 2024

Conditional Freedom

Thomas Mareite
Hosted by Katrina Anderson

While the literature on slave flight in nineteenth-century North America has commonly focused on fugitive slaves escaping to the U.S. North and Canada…

Janine Giordano Drake, "The Gospel of Church: How Mainline Protestants Vilified Christian Socialism and Fractured the Labor Movement" (Oxford UP, 2023)

March 13, 2024

The Gospel of Church

Janine Giordano Drake
Hosted by Matt Simmons

In 1908, Unitarian pastor Bertrand Thompson observed the momentous growth of the labor movement with alarm. "Socialism," he wrote, "has become a disti…

Korey Garibaldi, "Impermanent Blackness: The Making and Unmaking of Interracial Literary Culture in Modern America" (Princeton UP, 2023)

March 13, 2024

Impermanent Blackness

Korey Garibaldi

In Impermanent Blackness: The Making and Unmaking of Interracial Literary Culture in Modern America (Princeton UP, 2023), Korey Garibaldi explores int…

Judith Tick, "Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song" (Norton, 2023)

March 12, 2024

Becoming Ella Fitzgerald

Judith Tick
Hosted by Kristen Turner

Ella Fitzgerald (1917–1996) was one of America’s greatest musicians. In this major biography, Becoming Ella Fitzgerald: The Jazz Singer who Transforme…

Sharon D. Wright Austin, "Political Black Girl Magic: The Elections and Governance of Black Female Mayors" (Temple UP, 2023)

March 11, 2024

Political Black Girl Magic

Sharon D. Wright Austin
Hosted by Deidre Tyler

Political Black Girl Magic: The Elections and Governance of Black Female Mayors (Temple UP, 2023) explores black women's experiences as mayors in Amer…

Flora Lu and Emily Murai, "Critical Campus Sustainabilities: Bridging Social Justice and the Environment in Higher Education" (Springer, 2023)

March 11, 2024

Critical Campus Sustainabilities

Flora Lu and Emily Murai

In response to student demands reflecting the urgency of societal and ecological problems, universities are making a burgeoning effort to infuse envir…

Reading Taylor Swift as a Cultural and Political Text

March 11, 2024

Reading Taylor Swift as a Cultural and Political Text

Hosted by UConn PopCast

It’s the UConn Popcast, and Taylor Swift is by some measures the most popular person on the planet. Her periodic reinventions set the mass cultural te…

Amy Paeth, "The American Poet Laureate" A History of U.S. Poetry and the State" (Columbia UP, 2023)

March 11, 2024

The American Poet Laureate

Amy Paeth
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The American Poet Laureate: A History of U.S. Poetry and the State (Columbia University Press, 2023) by Dr. Amy Paeth shows how the state has been the…

David Savran, "Tell It to the World: The Broadway Musical Abroad" (Oxford UP, 2024)

March 11, 2024

Tell It to the World

David Savran
Hosted by Pete Kunze

Tell It to the World: The Broadway Musical Abroad (Oxford UP, 2024) offers a look at how the Broadway musical travels the world, influencing and even …