Listen to Owen Bennett-Jones discuss the future of opinion polls with Mark Pack

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British Studies
Critical Theory May 27, 2022

Heritage and Nationalism

Understanding Populism through Big Data

Chiara Bonacchi

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
What are the connections between the past and modern politics? In Heritage and Nationalism: Understanding Populism through Big Data (UCL Press, 2022), Chiara Bonacchi, a Chancellor's Fellow in Heritage, Text …

British Studies

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

African Studies May 26, 2022

'Dignity of Labour' for African Leaders

The Formation of Education Policy in the British Colonial Office and Achimota School

Shoko Yamada

Hosted by Elisa Prosperetti
The Prince of Wales College, Achimota School, opened in 1927 north of Accra in the Gold Coast (Ghana). Achimota was to be a ‘model’ school—but a model of what, exactly …
Early Modern History May 26, 2022

The Dissolution of the Monasteries

A New History

James Clark

Hosted by Jonathan Megerian
In a mere four years, England’s monastic tradition—one of the richest in all of Europe—came to an end. The Dissolution of the Monasteries, as it’s come to be known, stands …
Critical Theory May 25, 2022

British Black and Asian Shakespeareans, 1966-2018

Integrating Shakespeare

Jami Rogers

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
What is the hidden history of performers of colour in in British theatre? In British Black and Asian Shakespeareans: Integrating Shakespeare, 1966–2018 (Arden Shakespeare, 2022), Jami Rogers, an honorary fellow at Department …
General History May 25, 2022

An Empire Transformed

Remolding Bodies and Landscapes in the Restoration Atlantic

Kate Luce Mulry

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
When Charles II ascended the English throne in 1660 after two decades of civil war, he was confronted with domestic disarray and a sprawling empire in chaos. His government sought …
Military History May 23, 2022

Maladies of Empire

How Colonialism, Slavery, and War Transformed Medicine

Jim Downs

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Most stories of medical progress come with ready-made heroes. John Snow traced the origins of London's 1854 cholera outbreak to a water pump, leading to the birth of epidemiology. Florence …
South Asian Studies May 23, 2022

Vernacular English

Reading the Anglophone in Postcolonial India

Akshya Saxena

Hosted by Saronik Bosu
Against a groundswell of critiques of global English, Vernacular English: Reading the Anglophone in Postcolonial India (Princeton UP, 2022) argues that literary studies are yet to confront the true political import …
Literary Studies May 20, 2022

How to Do Things with Dead People

History, Technology, and Temporality from Shakespeare to Warhol

Alice Dailey

Hosted by John Yargo
Alice Dailey’s How to Do Things with Dead People: History, Technology, and Temporality from Shakespeare to Warhol (Cornell University Press, 2022) is an exploration of Shakespeare’s chronicle plays through the …
Media May 20, 2022

Race, Culture and Media

Anamik Saha

Hosted by Gummo Clare
In Race, Culture and Media (Sage, 2021), Anamik Saha provides an account of the role that media plays in both circulating and shaping ideas about race and racism in the …
Critical Theory May 18, 2022

Held in Contempt

What's Wrong with the House of Commons?

Hannah White

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
What is the future for the House of Commons? In Held in Contempt: What’s Wrong with the House of Commons? (Manchester UP, 2022), Hannah White, Deputy Director of the Institute for Government …
General History May 17, 2022

Blood and Bronze

The British Empire and the Sack of Benin

Paddy Docherty

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
The Benin Bronzes are among the British Museum’s most prized possessions. Celebrated for their great beauty, they embody the history, myth and artistry of the ancient Kingdom of Benin, once …
General History May 16, 2022

High Minds

The Victorians and the Birth of Modern Britain

Simon Heffer

Hosted by Albert Zambone
Britain in the 1840s should have been, observes Simon Heffer, a time of great social improvement. Instead it was a country that was beset by poverty, unrest, assassination attempts on …
Medicine May 13, 2022

Difference and Disease

Medicine, Race, and the Eighteenth-Century British Empire

Suman Seth

Hosted by Rachel Pagones
Before the nineteenth century, travelers who left Britain for the Americas, West Africa, India and elsewhere encountered a medical conundrum: why did they fall ill when they arrived, and why …
Indian Ocean World May 11, 2022

Dockside Reading

Hydrocolonialism and the Custom House

Isabel Hofmeyr

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
In Dockside Reading: Hydrocolonialism and the Custom House (Duke University Press, 2022), Isabel Hofmeyr traces the relationships among print culture, colonialism, and the ocean through the institution of the British …
Policing, Incarceration, and Reform May 9, 2022

Deep Deception

The Story of the Spycop Network, by the Women Who Uncovered the Shocking Truth

Helen Steel et al.

Hosted by Catriona Gold
In Deep Deception: The Story of the Spycop Network, by the Women Who Uncovered the Shocking Truth (Ebury, 2022), five women discuss their experiences of being manipulated into serious long-term …
Critical Theory May 6, 2022

Teklife, Ghettoville, Eski

The Sonic Ecologies of Black Music in the Early 21st Century

Dhanveer Singh Brar

Hosted by Gummo Clare
Teklife, Ghettoville, Eski: The Sonic Ecologies of Black Music in the Early 21st Century (Goldsmiths Press, 2021) uses three Black electronic musics – footwork, grime, and the work of the …
Law May 6, 2022

Indelible City

Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong

Louisa Lim

Hosted by Jane Richards
In this timely book, award-winning journalist and longtime Hong Konger, Louisa Lim, weaves together Hong Kong's fraught political and social history with her own first hand account of the spirit …
British Studies May 5, 2022

Britain Alone

How a Decade of Conflict Remade the Nation

Liam Stanley

Hosted by Lia Paradis
In his new and fascinating book, Britain Alone: How a Decade of Conflict Remade the Nation (Manchester UP, 2022), Dr. Liam Stanley explores how, over the past decade or so …
German Studies May 4, 2022

Afropolitan Encounters

Literature and Activism in London and Berlin

Anna von Rath

Hosted by Nicole Coleman
Afropolitan Encounters: Literature and Activism in London and Berlin (Peter Lang, 2022), the first book in the new series “Imagining Black Europe,” explores what Afropolitanism does. Mobile people of African …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones May 3, 2022

The Future of Statues

A Conversation with Alex Von Tunzelmann

Alex Von Tunzelmann

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
What are the rights and wrongs of toppling statues? Sometimes everyone agrees it’s a good idea. After the second world war, for example, the defeat of fascism meant that all …