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British Studies
Architecture June 4, 2023

The Story of Follies

Architectures of Eccentricity

Celia Fisher

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Listen:
In The Story of Follies: Architectures of Eccentricity (Reaktion, 2023), Celia Fisher presents an amusing, informative guide to a fanciful and charming building, the folly. Are they frivolous or practical …

British Studies

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

MIT Press Podcast June 1, 2023

Teklife, Ghettoville, Eski

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

Dhanveer Singh Brar

Hosted by MIT Press
Listen:
Joy White, author of Terraformed, speaks with Dhanveer Singh Brar about his forthcoming book Teklife, Ghettoville, Eski, Teklife, Ghettoville, Eski argues that Black electronic dance music produces sonic ecologies of …
Economic and Business History May 31, 2023

International Business in Australia before World War One

Shaping a Multinational Economy

Simon Ville and David Merrett

Hosted by Paula De La Cruz-Fernández
Listen:
This episode features Professor Simon Ville talking about his latest book with David Merrett International Business in Australia Before World War One: Shaping a Multinational Economy (Palgrave MacMillan, 2022). This …
British Studies May 30, 2023

Friends of Israel

The Backlash Against Palestine Solidarity

Hilary Frances Aked

Hosted by Roberto Mazza
Is there such a thing as “the Israel lobby,” and how powerful is it really? Hilary Frances Aked's book Friends of Israel: The Backlash Against Palestine Solidarity (Verso, 2023) provides a forensically researched …
Military History May 29, 2023

How Britain Broke the World

War, Greed and Blunders from Kosovo to Afghanistan (1997-2021)

Arthur Snell

Hosted by Philip Blood
Arthur Snell's book How Britain Broke the World: War, Greed and Blunders from Kosovo to Afghanistan (1997-2021) (Canbury Press, 2022) critically assesses UK foreign policy over the past 25 years, from …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones May 29, 2023

The Future of Wales

A Discussion with Will Hayward

Will Hayward

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
Will Wales ever become an independent country? The UK’s other constituent parts – Scotland and Northern Ireland - seem more likely to breakaway: the Scots voted no to independence in …
Madison's Notes May 27, 2023

Strategy and Saratoga

A Conversation with Kevin Weddle

Kevin Weddle

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
At the Battle of Saratoga, the tide of the Revolutionary War turned in favor of unlikely victors: the American patriots. What were the major strategy elements at play in the …
Secularism May 26, 2023

Empire and Progress in the Victorian Secularist Movement

Imagining a Secular World

Patrick J. Corbeil

Hosted by Carrie Lynn Evans
Empire and Progress in the Victorian Secularist Movement: Imagining a Secular World (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) by Dr. Patrick Corbeil is the first extensive historical analysis of the relationship between empire …
Jewish Studies May 25, 2023

A Brilliant Commodity

Diamonds and Jews in a Modern Setting

Saskia Coenen Snyder

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
During the late nineteenth century, tens of thousands of diggers, prospectors, merchants, and dealers extracted and shipped over 50 million carats of diamonds from South Africa to London. The primary …
Popular Culture May 25, 2023

Rude Girls

Women in 2 Tone and One Step Beyond

Heather Augustyn

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In her latest book, Rude Girls: Women in 2 Tone and One Step Beyond (Sally Brown Publishing, 2023), Heather Augustyn explores the ska revival in the UK during the lates 1970s and 1980s …
MIT Press Podcast May 25, 2023

Black Film, British Cinema II

Clive Nwonka and Anamik Saha

Hosted by MIT Press
Clive Nwonka and Anamik Saha discuss their forthcoming book Black Film, British Cinema II (publishing in March with Goldsmiths Press), a book which brings together scholars, thinkers and practitioners to …
MIT Press Podcast May 24, 2023

The Place Is Here

The Work of Black Artists in 1980s Britain

Nick Aikens and Elizabeth Robles

Hosted by MIT Press
Nick Aikens and Elizabeth Robles discuss The Place Is Here (Sternberg Press, 2019) and the range of perspectives on black art in Thatcherite Britain offered by the collection of artworks …
Early Modern History May 24, 2023

Intelligence and Espionage in the English Republic C. 1600-60

Alan Marshall

Hosted by Crawford Gribben
Alan Marshall's book Intelligence and Espionage in the English Republic C. 1600-60 (Manchester UP, 2023) is a richly detailed account of the ideas and activities in the early-modern 'secret state' and its …
Military History May 23, 2023

Dünkirchen 1940

The German View of Dunkirk

Robert Kershaw

Hosted by Stephen Satkiewicz
The surprise success of the German offensive in the West that commenced on May 10, 1940 caught the Allies completely off-guard, and France would soon capitulate to the Germans in …
Madison's Notes May 21, 2023

The 10,000 Year Build-Up to Brexit

A Conversation with Ian Morris

Ian Morris

Hosted by Annika Nordquist
How did Britain become a global superpower? Historian and classicist Ian Morris thinks geography has a lot to do with it. Prof. Morris discusses his latest book, Geography is Destiny …
British Studies May 19, 2023

Eating the Empire

Food and Society in Eighteenth-Century Britain

Troy Bickham

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
When students gathered in a London coffeehouse and smoked tobacco; when Yorkshire women sipped sugar-infused tea; or when a Glasgow family ate a bowl of Indian curry, were they aware …
MIT Press Podcast May 19, 2023

Ithell Colquhoun

Genius of The Fern Loved Gully

Amy Hale

Hosted by MIT Press
Tai Shani (Turner Prize winning artist, educator and author of Our Fatal Magic) and Amy Hale (anthropologist, folklorist, and writer) discuss the work of artist, occultist and writer Ithell Colquhoun …
Disability Studies May 19, 2023

Colonising Disability

Impairment and Otherness Across Britain and Its Empire, c. 1800-1914

Esme Cleall

Hosted by Shu Wan
Colonising Disability: Impairment and Otherness Across Britain and Its Empire, c. 1800-1914 (Cambridge UP, 2022) explores the construction and treatment of disability across Britain and its empire from the nineteenth …
Medicine May 10, 2023

Emotions and Surgery in Britain, 1793-1912

Michael Brown

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
In this innovative analytical account of the place of emotion and embodiment in nineteenth-century British surgery, Michael Brown examines the changing emotional dynamics of surgical culture for both surgeons and …
Critical Theory May 5, 2023

Deadly and Slick

Sexual Modernity and the Making of Race

Sita Balani

Hosted by Louisa Hann
If race is increasingly understood to be socially constructed, why does it continue to seem like a physiological reality? In Deadly and Slick: Sexual Modernity and the Making of Race …