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

New Books Network
Western European Studies
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 …

Western European Studies

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Interviews with scholars of Western Europe about their new books.

French Studies May 18, 2022

The Paris Commune

A Brief History

Carolyn J. Eichner

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi
Carolyn Eichner's new book, The Paris Commune: A Brief History (Rutgers University Press, 2022) was published on March 18th, the anniversary of the eruption of Paris Commune of 1871. In this accessible …
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 …
European Politics May 16, 2022

The Political Philosophy of the European City

From Polis, Through City-State, to Megalopolis?

Ferenc Hörcher

Hosted by Stephen Satkiewicz
To many the city might seem simply a large urban area to live within, but it actually forms an important political concept and community that has been influential throughout European …
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 …
Animal Studies May 13, 2022

Elephant Trails

A History of Animals and Cultures

Nigel Rothfels

Hosted by Marcela Hernandez
When looking at historic records of all kinds—from prehistoric cave drawings and ancient rock art in Africa and India, from poetic narrations of travelers to hunter memoirs and press stories …
Music May 11, 2022

From Servant to Savant

Musical Privilege, Property, and the French Revolution

Rebecca Dowd Geoffroy-Schwinden

Hosted by Kristen Turner
Today’s copyright laws are predicated on the idea that music is intellectual property; a commodity that has value to its creator and to its publisher. But, how did that concept …
Art May 10, 2022

The Problem with Museums

A Conversation with Georgina Adam and Nizan Shaked

Georgina Adam and Nizan Shaked

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
In the past few years, museums of contemporary art have come under a fair deal of scrutiny. Pressures from groups such as Decoloinise This Space or the oxycontin scandal have …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones May 10, 2022

The Future of Opinion Polls

A Conversation with Mark Pack

Mark Pack

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
As the culture wars intensify, it seems that all sources of neutral authority get challenged and that includes opinion polls. Accusations about bias and unreliability fly around and yet everyone …
Catholic Studies May 9, 2022

Catholics on the Barricades

Poland, France, and "Revolution," 1891-1956

Piotr H. Kosicki

Hosted by Brenna Moore
In Poland in the 1940s and '50s, a new kind of Catholic intended to remake European social and political life--not with guns, but French philosophy. Piotr H. Kosicki's book Catholics on …
General History May 9, 2022

Athens

City of Wisdom

Bruce Clark

Hosted by Albert Zambone
In 510 BC, an obscure Greek city located literally on a backwater revolted against its tyrant. This was not extraordinary; such things happened regularly in the many Greek city-states. What …
General History May 6, 2022

The Seventh Member State

Algeria, France, and the European Community

Megan Brown

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
In The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community (Harvard University Press, 2022), Dr. Megan Brown details the surprising story of how Algeria joined and then left the …
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 …
Asian Review of Books May 5, 2022

Straits

Beyond the Myth of Magellan

Felipe Fernandez-Armesto

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
2019 marked the five-hundred year anniversary of the launch of Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage around the world–a milestone marked by commemorative sailings, museum exhibitions, and a joint submission from Spain and …
General History May 4, 2022

Maria Theresa

The Habsburg Empress in Her Time

Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
Maria Theresa (1717–1780) was once the most powerful woman in Europe. At the age of twenty-three, she ascended to the throne of the Habsburg Empire, a far-flung realm composed of …
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 …
Grinnell College: Authors and Artists May 3, 2022

Otto Dix and the First World War

Grotesque Humor, Camaraderie and Remembrance

Michael Mackenzie

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Otto Dix fought in the First World War for the better part of four years before becoming one of the most important artists of the Weimar era. Marked by the …
Women's History May 3, 2022

Transforming Girls

The Work of Nineteenth-Century Adolescence

Julie Pfeiffer

Hosted by Renee Garris
Transforming Girls: The Work of Nineteenth-Century Adolescence (UP of Mississippi, 2021) explores the paradox of the nineteenth-century girls’ book. On the one hand, early novels for adolescent girls rely on gender …
British Studies May 3, 2022

For King and Country

The British Monarchy and the First World War

Heather Jones

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
For King and Country: The British Monarchy and the First World War (Cambridge UP, 2021) is a ground-breaking history of the British monarchy in the First World War and of …
Jewish Studies May 2, 2022

Fighter, Worker, and Family Man

German-Jewish Men and Their Gendered Experiences in Nazi Germany, 1933-1941

Sebastian Huebel

Hosted by Amber Nickell
When the Nazis came to power, they used various strategies to expel German Jews from social, cultural, and economic life. Fighter, Worker, and Family Man (U Toronto Press, 2022) focuses …