New Books Network

Art June 15, 2022

L' Origine

The Secret Life of the World's Most Erotic Masterpiece

Lilianne Milgrom

Hosted by Pallavi Joshi

Today I talked to Lilianne Milgrom about L' Origine: The Secret Life of the World's Most Erotic Masterpiece (Girl Friday Books, 2021). In 1866, maverick French artist Gustave Courbet painted one of the …

Biography June 10, 2022

Jean Jaurès

The Inner Life of Social Democracy

Geoffrey Kurtz

Hosted by Zalman Newfield

Jean Jaurès was a towering intellectual and political leader of the democratic Left at the turn of the twentieth century, but he is little remembered today outside of France, and …

Early Modern History June 10, 2022

Storied Places

Pilgrim Shrines, Nature, and History in Early Modern France

Virginia Reinburg

Hosted by Elspeth Currie

Today I talked to Virginia Reinburg about her book Storied Places: Pilgrim Shrines, Nature, and History in Early Modern France (Cambridge UP, 2019). Pilgrim shrines were places of healing, holiness, and truth …

Film June 3, 2022

The Red Years of Cahiers Du Cinéma (1968-1973)

Daniel Fairfax

Hosted by Annie Berke

The uprising which shook France in May 1968 also had a revolutionary effect on the country's most prominent film journal. Under editors Jean-Louis Comolli and Jean Narboni, Cahiers du cinéma …

Art June 2, 2022

Courbet's Landscapes

The Origins of Modern Painting

Paul Galvez

Hosted by Allison Leigh

Between 1862 and 1866 Gustave Courbet embarked on a series of sensuous landscape paintings that would later inspire the likes of Monet, Pissarro, and Cézanne. This series has long been …

Caribbean Studies May 30, 2022

Engendering Islands

Sexuality, Reproduction, and Violence in the Early French Caribbean

Ashley M. Williard

Hosted by Grant Kleiser

In Engendering Islands: Sexuality, Reproduction, and Violence in the Early French Caribbean (University of Nebraska Press, 2021), Dr. Ashley M. Williard demonstrates how problematics of gender played a central role in defining …

French Studies May 26, 2022

The Anthropological Turn

French Political Thought After 1968

Jacob Collins

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi

Jacob Collins's The Anthropological Turn: French Political Through After 1968 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020) examines some of the most important currents in French intellectual life through the 1970s. In the …

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 …

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 …

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 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 …

Women's History May 2, 2022

Mutinous Women

How French Convicts Became Founding Mothers of the Gulf Coast

Joan DeJean

Hosted by Deidre Tyler

In 1719, a ship named La Mutine (the mutinous woman), sailed from the French port of Le Havre, bound for the Mississippi. It was loaded with urgently needed goods for …

French Studies April 25, 2022

The Spirit of French Capitalism

Economic Theology in the Age of Enlightenment

Charly Coleman

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi

Charly Coleman's latest book, The Spirit of French Capitalism: Economic Theology in the Age of Enlightenment (Stanford University Press, 2021) is at once a history of ideas, the economy, religion, and material …

Art April 20, 2022

The Invention of Norman Visual Culture

Art, Politics, and Dynastic Ambition

Lisa Reilly

Hosted by Tanja Tolar

In The Invention of Norman Visual Culture: Art, Politics, and Dynastic Ambition (Cambridge UP, 2020), Lisa Reilly establishes a new interpretive paradigm for the eleventh and twelfth-century art and architecture …

Caribbean Studies April 11, 2022

Haiti Fights Back

The Life and Legacy of Charlemagne Péralte

Yveline Alexis

Hosted by Alejandra Bronfman

Haiti Fights Back: The Life and Legacy of Charlemagne Péralte (Rutgers University Press, 2021), by Yveline Alexis is the first US study of the politician and caco leader (guerrilla fighter) who …

Economic and Business History April 11, 2022

Agents of Reform

Child Labor and the Origins of the Welfare State

Elisabeth Anderson

Hosted by Javier Mejia

The beginnings of the modern welfare state are often traced to the late nineteenth-century labor movement and to policymakers’ efforts to appeal to working-class voters. But in Agents of Reform …

Critical Theory April 8, 2022

At the Risk of Thinking

An Intellectual Biography of Julia Kristeva

Alice Jardine

Hosted by August Baker

At the Risk of Thinking: An Intellectual Biography of Julia Kristeva (Bloomsbury, 2020) is the first biography of Julia Kristeva--one of the most celebrated intellectuals in the world. Alice Jardine …

Music April 6, 2022

The Creative Labor of Music Patronage in Interwar France

Louis K. Epstein

Hosted by Kristen Turner

Patronage has long been an important topic of study in musicology, but is much more likely to be one that specialists in medieval or renaissance music research. In The Creative …

Southeast Asian Studies April 1, 2022

Disunion

Anticommunist Nationalism and the Making of the Republic of Vietnam

Nu-Anh Tran

Hosted by Patrick Jory

Art March 31, 2022

Surrealist Sabotage and the War on Work

Abigail Susik

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez

According to the definition offered by Tate on the occasion of the exhibition Surrealism Without Borders, Surrealism “aims to revolutionise human experience. It balances a rational vision of life with …