Western European Studies

Western European Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of Western Europe about their new books.

Javier Samper Vendrell, "The Seduction of Youth: Print Culture and Homosexual Rights in the Weimar Republic" (U Toronto Press, 2020)

May 6, 2024

The Seduction of Youth

Javier Samper Vendrell

The Weimar Republic is well-known for its gay rights movement and recent scholarship has demonstrated some of its contradictory elements. In his recen…

Francesca Trivellato, "The Promise and Peril of Credit" (Princeton UP, 2019)

May 5, 2024

Promise and Peril of Credit

Francesca Trivellato
Hosted by Mark Klobas

In 1647, the French author Étienne Cleirac asserted in his book Les us, et coustumes de la mer that the credit instruments known as bills of exchange …

Michael Gilson, "Behind the Privet Hedge: Richard Sudell, the Suburban Garden and the Beautification of Britain" (Reaktion Books, 2024)

May 3, 2024

Behind the Privet Hedge

Michael Gilson
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Britain is a nation of gardeners; the suburban garden, with its roses and privet hedges, is widely admired and copied across the world. But it is litt…

Céline Bessière and Sibylle Gollac, "The Gender of Capital: How Families Perpetuate Wealth Inequality" (Harvard UP, 2023)

May 3, 2024

The Gender of Capital

Céline Bessière and Sibylle Gollac

In many countries, property law grants equal rights to men and women. Why, then, do women still accumulate less wealth than men? Combining quantitativ…

Victoria Sparey, "Shakespeare's Adolescents: Age, Gender and the Body in Shakespearean Performance and Early Modern Culture" (Manchester UP, 2024)

April 30, 2024

Shakespeare's Adolescents

Victoria Sparey
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Shakespeare's Adolescents: Age, Gender and the Body in Shakespearean Performance and Early Modern Culture (Manchester UP, 2024) by Dr. Victoria Sparey…

Éric Fassin, "State Anti-Intellectualism and the Politics of Gender and Race: Illiberal France and Beyond" (CEU Press, 2024)

April 30, 2024

State Anti-Intellectualism and the Politics of Gender and Race

Éric Fassin
Hosted by CEU Press

In this episode of the CEU Press Podcast, host Andrea Talabér (CEU Press/CEU Review of Books) sat down with Éric Fassin (Université Paris 8) to discus…

Robert Gerwarth, "November 1918: The German Revolution" (Oxford UP, 2020)

April 29, 2024

November 1918

Robert Gerwarth
Hosted by Ryan Stackhouse

Was Weimar doomed from the outset? In November 1918: The German Revolution (Oxford University Press, 2020), Robert Gerwarth argues that this is the w…

Sheilagh Ogilvie, "The European Guilds: An Economic Analysis" (Princeton UP, 2019)

April 29, 2024

The European Guilds

Sheilagh Ogilvie
Hosted by Mark Klobas

Guilds were prominent in medieval and early modern Europe, but their economic role has seldom been studied. In The European Guilds: An Economic Analys…

George R. Boyer, "The Winding Road to the Welfare State: Economic Insecurity and Social Welfare Policy in Britain" (Princeton UP, 2019)

April 29, 2024

The Winding Road to the Welfare State

George R. Boyer
Hosted by Mark Klobas

The creation of the postwar welfare state in Great Britain did not represent the logical progression of governmental policy over a period of generatio…

Adrian Tinniswood, "Noble Ambitions: The Fall and Rise of the Post-War Country House" (Basic Books, 2021)

April 28, 2024

Noble Ambitions

Adrian Tinniswood
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

As the sun set slowly on the British Empire in the years after the Second World War, the nation's stately homes were in crisis. Tottering under the we…

Sarah A. Bendall, "Shaping Femininity: Foundation Garments, the Body and Women in Early Modern England" (Bloomsbury, 2021)

April 28, 2024

Shaping Femininity

Sarah A. Bendall
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In sixteenth and seventeenth-century England, the female silhouette underwent a dramatic change. This very structured form, created using garments cal…

Stefanos Geroulanos on "The Invention of Prehistory"

April 26, 2024

Stefanos Geroulanos on "The Invention of Prehistory"

Stefanos Geroulanos
Hosted by Uli Baer

What does it mean to be human? What do we know about the true history of humankind? In this episode, I spoke with historian and NYU professor Stefanos…

Nicholas Popper, "The Specter of the Archive: Political Practice and the Information State in Early Modern Britain" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

April 26, 2024

The Specter of the Archive

Nicholas Popper
Hosted by Jen Hoyer

We are used to thinking of ourselves as living in a time when more information is more available than ever before. In The Specter of the Archive: Poli…

Alexander Statman, "A Global Enlightenment: Western Progress and Chinese Science" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

April 25, 2024

A Global Enlightenment

Alexander Statman

Alexander Statman's book A Global Enlightenment: Western Progress and Chinese Science (U Chicago Press, 2023) is a revisionist history of the idea of …

Crawford Gribben, "J. N. Darby and the Roots of Dispensationalism" (Oxford UP, 2024)

April 24, 2024

J. N. Darby and the Roots of Dispensationalism

Crawford Gribben
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

J.N. Darby and the Roots of Dispensationalism (Oxford University Press, 2024) describes the work of one of the most important and under-studied theolo…

Geoff Eley, "Nazism as Fascism: Violence, Ideology, and the Ground of Consent in Germany 1930-1945" (Routledge, 2013)

April 24, 2024

Nazism as Fascism

Geoff Eley
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Offering a dynamic and wide-ranging examination of the key issues at the heart of the study of German Fascism, Nazism as Fascism: Violence, Ideology, …

Jane Hamlett and Julie-Marie Strange, "Pet Revolution: Animals and the Making of Modern British Life" (Reaktion Books, 2023)

April 23, 2024

Pet Revolution

Jane Hamlett and Julie-Marie Strange

Pet Revolution: Animals and the Making of Modern British Life (Reaktion Books, 2023) tracks the British love affair with pets over the last two centur…

Michael Scott and Michael Collins, "Christian Shakespeare?: A Collection of Essays on Shakespeare in His Christian Context" (Vernon Press, 2022)

April 23, 2024

Christian Shakespeare

Michael Scott and Michael Collins
Hosted by Dessy Vassileva

The enigma of William Shakespeare's religious beliefs has long tantalized scholars and enthusiasts alike. Vernon Press's latest publication, Christian…

Julie Peakman, "Libertine London: Sex in the Eighteenth-Century Metropolis" (Reaktion, 2024)

April 22, 2024

Libertine London

Julie Peakman
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Libertine London: Sex in the Eighteenth-Century Metropolis (Reaktion, 2024) by Dr. Julie Peakman investigates the sex lives of women from 1680 to 1830…

John Tolan, "England's Jews: Finance, Violence, and the Crown in the Thirteenth Century" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2023)

April 22, 2024

England's Jews

John Tolan
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In 1290, Jews were expelled from England and subsequently largely expunged from English historical memory. Yet for two centuries they occupied importa…