American Studies

American Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of America about their new books.

Rose Miron, "Indigenous Archival Activism: Mohican Interventions in Public History and Memory" (U Minnesota Press, 2024)

April 18, 2024

Indigenous Archival Activism

Rose Miron
Hosted by Jen Hoyer

The past several decades have seen a massive shift in debates over who owns and has the right to tell Native American history and stories. For centuri…

Eve Golden, "Strictly Dynamite: The Sensational Life of Lupe Velez" (UP of Kentucky, 2023)

April 17, 2024

Strictly Dynamite

Eve Golden

Before Salma Hayek, Eva Longoria, and Penelope Cruz, there was Lupe Velez―one of the first Latin-American stars to sweep past the xenophobia of old Ho…

Jerry Grillo, "Big Cat: The Life of Baseball Hall of Famer Johnny Mize" (U Nebraska Press, 2024)

April 17, 2024

Big Cat

Jerry Grillo
Hosted by Paul Knepper

Johnny Mize was one of the greatest hitters in baseball’s golden age of great hitters. Born and raised in tiny Demorest, Georgia, in the northeast Geo…

Richard Olsen-Harbich, "Sun, Sea, Soil, Wine: Winemaking on the North Fork of Long Island" (SUNY Press, 2024)

April 17, 2024

Sun, Sea, Soil, Wine

Richard Olsen-Harbich
Hosted by Laura Goldberg

With his new book Sun, Sea, Soil, Wine: Winemaking on the North Fork of Long Island (SUNY Press, 2024), Richard Olsen-Harbich, Long Island's longest-t…

Jorell Meléndez-Badillo, "Puerto Rico: A National History" (Princeton UP, 2024)

April 16, 2024

Puerto Rico

Jorell Meléndez-Badillo
Hosted by Mark Klobas

Puerto Rico is a Spanish-speaking territory of the United States with a history shaped by conquest and resistance. For centuries, Puerto Ricans have c…

Steven Ujifusa, "The Last Ships from Hamburg: Business, Rivalry, and the Race to Save Russia's Jews on the Eve of World War I" (HarperCollins, 2023)

April 15, 2024

The Last Ships from Hamburg

Steven Ujifusa
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Over thirty years, from 1890 to 1921, 2.5 million Jews, fleeing discrimination and violence in their homelands of Eastern Europe, arrived in the Unite…

Ieva Jusionyte, "Exit Wounds: How America's Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border" (U California Press, 2024)

April 15, 2024

Exit Wounds

Ieva Jusionyte
Hosted by Reighan Gillam

American guns have entangled the lives of people on both sides of the US-Mexico border in a vicious circle of violence. After treating wounded migrant…

Melvin L. Rogers, "The Darkened Light of Faith: Race, Democracy, and Freedom in African American Political Thought" (Princeton UP, 2023)

April 15, 2024

The Darkened Light of Faith

Melvin L. Rogers
Hosted by Lilly Goren

Political Theorist Melvin L. Rogers has a deep and rich new book delving into the work of a host of different African American political thinkers. But…

Joseph H. Holland, "Make Your Own History: Timeless Truths from Black American Trailblazers" (Dafina, 2023)

April 14, 2024

Make Your Own History

Joseph H. Holland
Hosted by Deidre Tyler

One hundred and twenty Black leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs share their wisdom and experience across the centuries in Make Your Own History: T…

Jeremy Black, "The Atlantic Slave Trade in World History" (Routledge, 2015)

April 14, 2024

The Atlantic Slave Trade in World History

Jeremy Black
Hosted by Charles Coutinho

In The Atlantic Slave Trade in World History (Routledge, 2015), Jeremy Black presents a compact yet comprehensive survey of slavery and its impact on …

Seth D. Kaplan, "Fragile Neighborhoods: Repairing American Society, One Zip Code at a Time" (Little, Brown Spark, 2023)

April 14, 2024

Fragile Neighborhoods

Seth D. Kaplan
Hosted by Renee Garfinkel

The neighborhoods we live in impact our lives in so many ways: they determine who we know, what resources and opportunities we have access to, the qua…

Stewart Lawrence Sinclair, "Space Rover" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

April 13, 2024

Space Rover

Stewart Lawrence Sinclair
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In 1971, the first lunar rover arrived on the moon. The design became an icon of American ingenuity and the adventurous spirit and vision many equated…

R. J. Boutelle, "The Race for America: Black Internationalism in the Age of Manifest Destiny" (UNC Press, 2023)

April 13, 2024

The Race for America

R. J. Boutelle

As Manifest Destiny took hold in the national consciousness, what did it mean for African Americans who were excluded from its ambitions for an expand…

Paul Williams, "The US Graphic Novel" (Edinburgh UP, 2022)

April 12, 2024

The US Graphic Novel

Paul Williams
Hosted by Elizabeth Woock

This book analyses the way that changes in the comics industry, book trade and webcomics distribution have shaped the publication of long-form comics.…

Tana Jean Welch, "Advancing Medical Posthumanism Through Twenty-First Century American Poetry" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2024)

April 10, 2024

Advancing Medical Posthumanism Through Twenty-First Century American Poetry

Tana Jean Welch
Hosted by Victoria Lupascu

Advancing Medical Posthumanism Through Twenty-First Century American Poetry (Palgrave MacMillan, 2024) places contemporary poetics in dialogue with po…

Shardé M. Davis, "Being Black in the Ivory: Truth-Telling about Racism in Higher Education" (UNC Press, 2024)

April 9, 2024

Being Black in the Ivory

Shardé M. Davis
Hosted by Deidre Tyler

When Sharde M. Davis turned to social media during the summer of racial reckoning in 2020, she meant only to share how racism against Black people aff…

Benoît Crucifix, "Drawing from the Archives: Comics Memory in the Contemporary Graphic Novel" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

April 8, 2024

Drawing from the Archives

Benoît Crucifix
Hosted by Elizabeth Woock

Following Art Spiegelman's declaration that 'the future of comics is in the past, Drawing from the Archives: Comics Memory in the Contemporary Graphic…

Steve Mentz, "Sailing without Ahab: Ecopoetic Travels" (Fordham UP, 2024)

April 8, 2024

Sailing without Ahab

Steve Mentz
Hosted by John Yargo

When I decided to try my hand at interviewing authors for the New Books Network, one of my dream guests was Steve Mentz. Steve’s work in the environme…

Christopher Michael Blakley, "Empire of Brutality: Enslaved People and Animals in the British Atlantic World" (Louisiana State UP, 2023)

April 8, 2024

Empire of Brutality

Christopher Michael Blakley
Hosted by Susan Liebell

Historians of early America, slavery, early African American history, the history of science, and environmental history have interrogated the complex …

Sandra Fox, "The Jews of Summer: Summer Camp and Jewish Culture in Postwar America" (Stanford UP, 2023)

April 6, 2024

The Jews of Summer

Sandra Fox
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In the decades directly following the Holocaust, American Jewish leaders anxiously debated how to preserve and produce what they considered authentic …