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British Studies
Recall This Book August 18, 2022

Mike Leigh In Focus (JP)

Mike Leigh

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
In nearly 50 years of filmmaking, British director Mike Leigh has ranged from comic portrayals of ordinary life amid the social breakdowns of Thatcher’s Britain (Life is Sweet, High Hopes) …

British Studies

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Interviews with scholars of the United Kingdom about their new books.

Writ Large August 17, 2022

On T. E. Lawrence's "Seven Pillars of Wisdom"

A Discussion with Charles Stang

Charles Stang

Hosted by Zachary Davis
Lawrence of Arabia has become one of the most well known films in the world. It inspired Steven Spielberg to become a filmmaker and President Barack Obama considers it one …
Irish Studies August 17, 2022

Beyond Exclusion

Intersections of Ethnicity, Sex, and Society Under English Law in Medieval Ireland

Stephen Hewer

Hosted by Margaret Smith
Beyond Exclusion: Intersections of Ethnicity, Sex, and Society Under English Law in Medieval Ireland (Brepols, 2022) offers a fresh look at the legal status of minorities in English Ireland. Through …
Caribbean Studies August 16, 2022

Island on Fire

The Revolt That Ended Slavery in the British Empire

Tom Zoellner

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
For five horrific weeks after Christmas in 1831, Jamaica was convulsed by an uprising of its enslaved people. What started as a peaceful labor strike quickly turned into a full-blown …
British Studies August 15, 2022

The Game Is Afoot

The Enduring World of Sherlock Holmes

Jeremy Black

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
Fans of Sherlock Holmes will delight to investigate Victorian England, a world where crimes large and small abound and where dark corners and well-lit drawing rooms alike hide villainy.  In The …
British Studies August 11, 2022

British Rail

A New History

Christian Wolmar

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
You think you know British Rail. But you don't know the whole story. Now, award-winning writer Christian Wolmar provides a new perspective on national loss in a time of privatisation …
British Studies August 10, 2022

Built on the Ruins of Empire

British Military Assistance and African Independence

Blake Whitaker

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
During the Cold War, the British government oversaw the transition to independence of dozens of colonies. Often the most challenging aspect of this transition was the creation of a national …
Literary Studies August 8, 2022

Decolonising the Conrad Canon

Alice M. Kelly

Hosted by Gargi Binju
With the pressing work of decolonising our reading lists gaining traction in UK higher educational contexts, Decolonising the Conrad Canon (Liverpool UP, 2022) shows how those author-Gods most associated with …
Critical Theory August 8, 2022

The Cruel Optimism of Racial Justice

Nasar Meer

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
Why are societies still not offering racial equality? In The Cruel Optimism of Racial Justice (Policy Press, 2022), Nasar Meer, a professor of Race, Identity and Citizenship in the School of …
General History August 5, 2022

The Last Witches of England

A Tragedy of Sorcery and Superstition

John Callow

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
On the morning of Thursday 29 June 1682, a magpie came rasping, rapping and tapping at the window of a prosperous Devon merchant. Frightened by its appearance, his servants and …
Military History August 5, 2022

The Castle

A History

John Goodall

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
In The Castle: A History (Yale University Press, 2022) Dr. John Goodall presents a vibrant history of the castle in Britain, from the early Middle Ages to the present day …
General History August 5, 2022

The Memory of Colonialism in Britain and France

The Sins of Silence

Itay Lotem

Hosted by Michael Vann
In The Memory of Colonialism in Britain and France: The Sins of Silence (Palgrave MacMillan, 2021), Itay Lotem explores the remembering of empire in Britain and France. By comparing these two former …
Literary Studies August 3, 2022

The Obsolete Empire

Untimely Belonging in Twentieth-Century British Literature

Philip Tsang

Hosted by Gargi Binju
Modernist literature at the end of the British empire challenges conventional notions of homeland, heritage, and community. The waning British empire left behind an abundance of material relics and an …
Writ Large August 3, 2022

On Thomas of Monmouth's "The Life and Passion of William of Norwich"

A Discussion with Rowan Dorin

Rowan Dorin

Hosted by Zachary Davis
There is only one surviving copy of The Life and Passion of William of Norwich, but its story continues to haunt us. When 12th-century monk Thomas of Monmouth learned of …
Literary Studies August 3, 2022

Interwar Itineraries

Authenticity in Anglophone and French Travel Writing

Emily O. Wittman

Hosted by Nathan Moore
How people traveled, and how people wrote about travel, changed in the interwar years. Novel technologies eased travel conditions, breeding new iterations of the colonizing gaze. The sense that another …
General History August 2, 2022

The King's Peace

Law and Order in the British Empire

Lisa Ford

Hosted by Vladislav Lilic
Dr. Lisa Ford, Professor of History at the University of New South Wales, is the author of prize-winning monographs and a luminary in the field of global legal history. Her new …
Genocide Studies August 2, 2022

British Responses to Genocide

The British Foreign Office and Humanitarianism in the Ottoman Empire, 1918-1923

Amy E. Grubb and Elisabeth Hope Murray

Hosted by Kelly McFall
When I was an undergrad, the chronology of World War One was simple. The war began in August of 1914 and ended in November of 1918. Now, of course, we know it's …
Think About It August 2, 2022

Anne Fernald on Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway"

Book Talk 54

Anne Fernald

Hosted by Uli Baer
Halfway through Mrs Dalloway, Septimus Smith mutters to himself: "Communication is health; communication is happiness, communication.” It’s easy to write off his message that communication is vital for human existence …
Japanese Studies August 1, 2022

Eavesdropping on the Emperor

Interrogators and Codebreakers in Britain's War With Japan

Peter Kornicki

Hosted by Jingyi Li
When Japanese signals were decoded at Bletchley Park, who translated them into English? When Japanese soldiers were taken as prisoners of war, who interrogated them? When Japanese maps and plans …
General History July 29, 2022

Cornwallis

Soldier and Statesman in a Revolutionary World

Richard Middleton

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
Charles, First Marquis of Cornwallis (1738-1805), was a leading figure in late eighteenth-century Britain. His career spanned the American War of Independence, Irish Union, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the …