New Books Network
British Studies
History November 27, 2020

The English Republican Exiles in Europe during the Restoration

Gaby Mahlberg

Hosted by Ryan Tripp
The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in 1660 changed the lives of English republicans for good. Despite the Declaration of Breda, where Charles II promised to forgive those who had …

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History November 23, 2020

George III

Madness and Majesty

Jeremy Black

Hosted by Crawford Gribben
King of Britain for sixty years and the last king of what would become the United States, George III inspired both hatred and loyalty and is now best known for …
Sociology November 20, 2020

Can Music Make You Sick?: Measuring the Price of Musical Ambition

Sally Anne Gross and George Musgrave

Hosted by Michael Johnston
It is often assumed that creative people are prone to psychological instability, and that this explains apparent associations between cultural production and mental health problems. In their detailed study of …
Critical Theory November 20, 2020

The Crisis of the Meritocracy

Britain's Transition to Mass Education Since the Second World War

Peter Mandler

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
How did public demand shape education in the 20th century? In The Crisis of the Meritocracy: Britain’s Transition to Mass Education since the Second World War (Oxford UP, 2020), Peter …
History November 13, 2020

Ireland in the Virginian Sea

Colonialism in the British Atlantic

Audrey J. Horning

Hosted by Jonathan Megerian
In Ireland in the Virginian Sea: Colonialism in the British Atlantic (University of North Carolina Press, 2017), Audrey Horning revisits the fraught connections between Ireland and colonial Virginia. Both modern …
Christian Studies November 13, 2020

The Life and Times of Samuel Prideaux Tregelles

A Forgotten Scholar

Timothy C. F. Stunt

Hosted by Crawford Gribben
For the sixty years in which he has made a distinguished contribution to the religious history of the nineteenth century, Timothy Stunt has been working on the life and times …
Indian Ocean World November 12, 2020

Waves Across the South

A New History of Revolution and Empire

Sujit Sivasundaram

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
In Waves Across the South: A New History of Revolution and Empire (William Collins, 2020), Sujit Sivasundaram brings together far-flung archives across the world and the best new academic research …
History November 11, 2020

Counsel and Command in Early Modern English Thought

Joanne Paul

Hosted by Ryan Tripp
While it has often been recognized that counsel formed an essential part of the political discourse in early modern England, the precise role that it occupied in the development of …
Christian Studies November 11, 2020

Grace and Freedom

William Perkins and the Early Modern Reformed Understanding of Free Choice and Divine Grace

Richard Muller

Hosted by Crawford Gribben
No-one has done more than Richard A. Muller to shape our approach to early modern historical theology. His earlier work, and most especially the four volumes of his Post-Reformation Reformed …
British Studies November 9, 2020

The Bloody Flag

Mutiny in the Age of Atlantic Revolution

Niklas Frykman

Hosted by Mark Klobas
The 1790s were a decade of turmoil and strife across the West. With the French Revolution, a new era of wars began that invoked the language of equal rights. In …
British Studies November 6, 2020

Women in British Buddhism

Commitment, Connection, Community

Caroline Starkey

Hosted by Olivia Porter
Based on detailed ethnographic research, this book explores the varied experiences of women who have converted to Buddhism in contemporary Britain and analyses the implications of their experiences for understanding …
African American Studies November 6, 2020

Between Fitness and Death

Disability and Slavery in the Caribbean

Stefanie Hunt-Kennedy

Hosted by Adam McNeil
Long before the English became involved in the African slave trade, they imagined Africans as monstrous and deformed beings. The English drew on pre-existing European ideas about monstrosity and deformity …
Music November 6, 2020

Harnessing Harmony

Music, Power, and Politics in the United States, 1788-1865

Billy Coleman

Hosted by Sam Backer
CAN you hear the people sing? Political music is often understood as the property of the commoners, used as a potent (and noisy) weapon against the interests of the powerful …
American Studies November 4, 2020

Settling the Good Land

Governance and Promotion in John Winthrop’s New England

Agnès Delahaye

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
Agnès Delahaye’s new book, Settling the Good Land: Governance and Promotion in John Winthrop’s New England (Brill, 2020), is the story of John Winthrop’s tenure as governor of the Massachusetts …
African Studies November 2, 2020

Nigeria and World War II

Colonialism, Empire, and Global Conflict

Chima J. Korieh

Hosted by Paul Bjerk
Reading the petitions that resident of colonial Nigeria submitted to the government during World War II, Marquette University historian, Prof. Chima J. Korieh found a unique source for African political …
Literary Studies November 2, 2020

Doubtful Readers

Print, Poetry and the Reading Public in Early Modern England

Erin A. McCarthy

Hosted by Crawford Gribben
Erin McCarthy, who teaches digital humanities at Newcastle University, Australia, has just published a fabulous new book about the ways in which the printing of poetry impacted upon the reading …
Indian Ocean World November 2, 2020

Cracks in the Dome

Fractured Histories of Empire in the Zanzibar Museum, 1897-1964

Sarah Longair

Hosted by Alison Bennett
As one of the most monumental and recognisable landmarks from Zanzibar’s years as a British Protectorate, the distinctive domed building of the Zanzibar Museum (also known as the Beit al-Amani …
American Studies October 30, 2020

The Churchill Complex

The Curse of Being Special, from Winston and FDR to Trump and Brexit

Ian Buruma

Hosted by Kirk Meighoo
From one of its keenest observers, The Churchill Complex: The Curse of Being Special, from Winston and FDR to Trump and Brexit (Penguin Press) is a brilliant, witty journey through …
British Studies October 30, 2020

The Lockhart Plot

Love Betrayal, Assassination and Counter-Revolution in Lenin's Russia

Jonathan Schneer

Hosted by Daniel Peris
History in the making can be messy. As a tale told years later by historians, it is usually a clean narrative, with a beginning, a middle, and a mostly logical …
British Studies October 28, 2020

Brexitland

Identity, Diversity and the Reshaping of British Politics

Maria Sobolewska and Robert Ford

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
What are the identity conflicts that define contemporary society? In Brexitland: Identity, Diversity and the Reshaping of British Politics (Cambridge UP, 2020) Maria Sobolewska and Robert Ford, professors of politics …