Western European Studies

Western European Studies

episodes

Interviews with scholars of Western Europe about their new books.

Felipe Fernández-Armesto and Manuel Lucena Giraldo, "How the Spanish Empire Was Built: A 400 Year History" (Reaktion, 2024)

April 16, 2024

How the Spanish Empire Was Built

Felipe Fernández-Armesto and Manuel Lucena Giraldo
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Sixteenth-century Spain was small, poor, disunited and sparsely populated. Yet the Spaniards and their allies built the largest empire the world had e…

Kerry Wallach, "Traces of a Jewish Artist: The Lost Life and Work of Rahel Szalit" (Penn State UP, 2024)

April 16, 2024

Traces of a Jewish Artist

Kerry Wallach
Hosted by Paul Lerner

Graphic artist, illustrator, painter, and cartoonist Rahel Szalit (1888-1942) was among the best-known Jewish women artists in Weimar Berlin. But afte…

Miriam Piilonen, "Theorizing Music Evolution: Darwin, Spencer, and the Limits of the Human" (Oxford UP, 2024)

April 15, 2024

Theorizing Music Evolution

Miriam Piilonen
Hosted by Nathan Smith

What did historical evolutionists such as Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer have to say about music? What role did music play in their evolutionary t…

Kevin Lambert, "Symbols and Things: Material Mathematics in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2021)

April 15, 2024

Symbols and Things

Kevin Lambert
Hosted by Cory Brunson

The stereotype of the solitary mathematician is widespread, but practicing users and producers of mathematics know well that our work depends heavily …

Grazia Ting Deng, "Chinese Espresso: Contested Race and Convivial Space in Contemporary Italy" (Princeton UP, 2024)

April 14, 2024

Chinese Espresso

Grazia Ting Deng
Hosted by Shu Wan

Why and how local coffee bars in Italy--those distinctively Italian social and cultural spaces--have been increasingly managed by Chinese baristas sin…

Aidan Beatty and Dan O'Brien, "Irish Questions and Jewish Questions: Crossovers in Culture" (Syracuse UP, 2018)

April 12, 2024

Irish Questions and Jewish Questions

Aidan Beatty and Dan O'Brien
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

The Irish and the Jews are two of the classic outliers of modern Europe. Both struggled with their lack of formal political sovereignty in the ninetee…

Seamus O'Malley, "Irish Culture and 'The People': Populism and Its Discontents" (Oxford UP, 2022)

April 11, 2024

Irish Culture and 'The People'

Seamus O'Malley
Hosted by Aidan Beatty

Seamus O’Malley is an associate professor at Yeshiva University. His first book was Making History New: Modernism and Historical Narrative (Oxford Uni…

Hume, the Epicureans, and the Origins of Liberalism: A Conversation with Aaron Zubia

April 10, 2024

Hume, the Epicureans, and the Origins of Liberalism

Aaron Alexander Zubia
Hosted by Annika Nordquist

Enlightenment philosopher David Hume enjoyed a tremendous influence on intellectual history. What did Hume believe, why was it so controversial at the…

Robert M. Jarvis, "Gambling Under the Swastika: Casinos, Horse Racing, Lotteries, and Other Forms of Betting in Nazi Germany" (Carolina Academic Press, 2019)

April 9, 2024

Gambling Under the Swastika

Robert M. Jarvis
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Although much has been written about the Nazis, one aspect of their rule has been all but overlooked: gambling. While philosophically opposed to gambl…

Tzafrir Barzilay, "Poisoned Wells: Accusations, Persecution, and Minorities in Medieval Europe, 1321-1422" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022)

April 8, 2024

Poisoned Wells

Tzafrir Barzilay
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Between 1348 and 1350, Jews throughout Europe were accused of having caused the spread of the Black Death by poisoning the wells from which the entire…

Elizabeth Coggeshall, "On Amistà: Negotiating Friendship in Dante’s Italy" (U Toronto Press, 2023)

April 8, 2024

On Amistà

Elizabeth Coggeshall
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Although we often think of friendship today as an indisputable value of human social life, for thinkers and writers across late mediaeval Christian so…

Adele Oliver, "Deeping It: Colonialism, Culture & Criminalisation of UK Drill" (404 Ink, 2023)

April 7, 2024

Deeping It

Adele Oliver
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Deeping It: Colonialism, Culture & Criminalisation of UK Drill (404 Ink, 2023) by Adèle Oliver shines a critical light on UK drill and its fraught rel…

Claudio Ferlan, "The Jesuits: A Thematic History" (Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2023)

April 6, 2024

The Jesuits

Claudio Ferlan
Hosted by Roberto Mazza

In The Jesuits: A Thematic History (Institute of Jesuit Sources, 2023), Claudio Ferlan provides an exploration of the tradition of the Society of Jesu…

Sarah Horowitz, "The Red Widow: The Scandal That Shook Paris and the Woman Behind It All" (Sourcebooks, 2022)

April 5, 2024

The Red Widow

Sarah Horowitz
Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi

Sex. Lies. Murder. Sarah Horowitz's The Red Widow: The Scandal that Shook Paris and the Woman Behind It All (Sourcebooks, 2022) is a book I literally …

Leah Broad, "Quartet: How Four Women Changed the Musical World" (Faber & Faber, 2023)

April 5, 2024

Quartet

Leah Broad
Hosted by Joseph Edwards

This is a story of four composers whose careers, lives and loves as women working in 20th century Britain have since been largely forgotten. Dr Leah …

Stefanos Geroulanos, "The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins" (Liveright, 2024)

April 3, 2024

The Invention of Prehistory

Stefanos Geroulanos
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Books about the origins of humanity dominate bestseller lists, while national newspapers present breathless accounts of new archaeological findings an…

Marie de Vignerot, Richelieu's Forgotten Advisor and Heiress: A Conversation with Bronwen McShea

April 2, 2024

Marie de Vignerot, Richelieu's Forgotten Advisor and Heiress

Bronwen McShea
Hosted by Annika Nordquist

Despite being one of the most influential women of 17th century France, Marie de Vignerot has been largely forgotten. The niece, heiress, and advisor …

Paola Tartakoff, "Between Christian and Jew: Conversion and Inquisition in the Crown of Aragon, 1250-1391" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2012)

April 2, 2024

Between Christian and Jew

Paola Tartakoff
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

In 1341 in Aragon, a Jewish convert to Christianity was sentenced to death, only to be pulled from the burning stake and into a formal religious inter…

W. B. Allen, "Montesquieu's 'The Spirit of the Laws': A Critical Edition" (Anthem Press, 2023)

March 31, 2024

Montesquieu's 'The Spirit of the Laws'

W. B. Allen
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

The Spirit of the Laws not only systematizes the foundational ideas of “separation of powers” and “balances and checks,” it provides the decisive resp…

Oliver Wunsch, "A Delicate Matter: Art, Fragility, and Consumption in Eighteenth-Century France" (Penn State UP, 2024)

March 31, 2024

A Delicate Matter

Oliver Wunsch
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Eighteenth-century France witnessed an unprecedented proliferation of materially unstable art, from oil paintings that cracked within years of their c…