New Books Network Podcast

African Studies December 3, 2022

Decolonizing 1968

Transnational Student Activism in Tunis, Paris, and Dakar

Burleigh Hendrickson

Hosted by Elisa Prosperetti

Decolonizing 1968: Transnational Student Activism in Tunis, Paris, and Dakar (Cornell UP, 2022) explores how activists in 1968 transformed university campuses across Europe and North Africa into sites of contestation …

Diplomatic History December 1, 2022

The Nuclear Club

How America and the World Policed the Atom from Hiroshima to Vietnam

Jonathan R. Hunt

Hosted by Grant Golub

The Nuclear Club: How America and the World Policed the Atom from Hiroshima to Vietnam (Stanford UP, 2022) reveals how a coalition of powerful and developing states embraced global governance …

Economic and Business History November 30, 2022

Impunity and Capitalism

The Afterlives of European Financial Crises, 1690–1830

Trevor Jackson

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Whose fault are financial crises, and who is responsible for stopping them, or repairing the damage? Impunity and Capitalism: The Afterlives of European Financial Crises, 1690-1830 (Cambridge University Press, 2022) …

Writ Large November 29, 2022

On Frantz Fanon's "The Wretched of the Earth"

A Discussion with Manan Ahmed

Manan Ahmed

Hosted by Zachary Davis

In 1925, on the French occupied island of Martinique, one of the most prominent voices in post colonial theory was born, Frantz Fanon. He was born to parents of both …

Literary Studies November 28, 2022

Queer Velocities

Time, Sex, and Biopower on the Early Modern Stage

Jennifer Eun-Jung Row

Hosted by John Yargo

In a pathbreaking new book, today’s guest, Jennifer Eun-Jung Row, asks how delay and haste in early modern French theater subverts the temporality of heteronormative politics and sexuality. Professor Row …

Medieval History November 23, 2022

Scripting Justice in Late Medieval Europe

Legal Practice and Communication in the Law Courts of Utrecht, York and Paris

Frans Camphuijsen

Hosted by Jana Byars

Frans Camphuijsen explored records from the law courts of York, Paris, and Utrecht and used them as a base for Scripting Justice in Late Medieval Europe: Legal Practice and Communication in …

Writ Large November 22, 2022

On Michel Foucault's "Discipline and Punish"

A Discussion with Camille Robcis

Camille Robcis

Hosted by Zachary Davis

We moderns often tell ourselves a story that goes something like this: The past was barbaric, especially when it came to punishing criminals or persecuting minorities. Legal punishment used to …

International Horizons November 21, 2022

What is the Future of Populism?

A Discussion with Umut Korkut

Umut Korkut

Hosted by International Horizons

The world's wealthier countries have in recent years faced challenges from right-wing populist parties and movements that may rejuvenate origins from relatively far in the past, such as in the …

Catholic Studies November 17, 2022

Where Paralytics Walk and the Blind See

Stories of Sickness and Disability at the Juncture of Worlds

Mary Dunn

Hosted by Brenna Moore

In our age of biomedicine, society often treats sickness and disability as problems in need of solution. Phenomena of embodied difference, however, have not always been seen in terms of …

Recall This Book November 17, 2022

Ethnonationalism since 1973

A Discussion with Quinn Slobodian

Quinn Slobodian

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz

What’s the relationship between immigration, globalization and demographics? And what is woke particularism? John and Elizabeth turn for answers to Quinn Slobodian, professor of history at Wellesley College and author …

Military History November 16, 2022

Dying to Learn

Wartime Lessons from the Western Front

Michael A. Hunzeker

Hosted by Samuel Canter

In Dying to Learn: Wartime Lessons from the Western Front (Cornell UP, 2021), Michael Hunzeker develops a novel theory to explain how wartime militaries learn. He focuses on the Western …

Writ Large November 14, 2022

On Aimé Césaire's "Discourse on Colonialism"

A Discussion with Kaiama Glover

Kaiama Glover

Hosted by Zachary Davis

Aimé Césaire was born in 1913 on the island of Martinique, which was colonized by the French in the 1600s. He received a scholarship to complete his education in Paris …

Exchanges: A Cambridge UP Podcast November 10, 2022

The Lost Paratroopers of Normandy

A Story of Resistance, Courage, and Solidarity in a French Village

Stephen G. Rabe

Hosted by Mark Klobas

The fateful days and weeks surrounding 6 June 1944 have been extensively documented in histories of the Second World War, but less attention has been paid to the tremendous impact …

General History November 10, 2022

Napoleon at Peace

How to End a Revolution

William Doyle

Hosted by Charles Coutinho

The French Revolution facilitated the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, but after gaining power he knew that his first task was to end it. In this book William Doyle describes how …

Writ Large November 3, 2022

On Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "The Social Contract"

A Discussion with James Kloppenberg

James Kloppenberg

Hosted by Zachary Davis

The 18th century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau argued that humans are born good, but society corrupts them. He was unimpressed with the fixation on wealth that he saw in the French …

Novel Dialogue November 3, 2022

The Best Error You Can Make

Brent Hayes Edwards and Jean-Baptiste Naudy on Claude McKay

Brent Hayes Edwards and Jean-Baptiste Naudy

Hosted by Novel Dialogue

What can a French translator do with a novelist who writes brilliantly about the “confrontation between Englishes?” How can such a confrontation be made legible across the boundaries of language …

Writ Large October 25, 2022

On Simone de Beauvoir's "The Second Sex"

A Discussion with Toril Moi

Toril Moi

Hosted by Zachary Davis

In her diary, Simone de Beauvoir once wrote “I did not think of myself as a 'woman.' I was me.” Then, in 1949, de Beauvoir published The Second Sex, laying …

Medieval History October 21, 2022

The Sea in the Middle

The Mediterranean World, 650-1650

Thomas E. Burman, Brian A. Catlos, and Mark D. Meyerson

Hosted by Evan Zarkadas

The Sea in the Middle: The Mediterranean World, 650-1650 (U California Press, 2022) presents an original and revisionist narrative of the development of the medieval west from late antiquity to the …

Early Modern History October 21, 2022

The Creation of the French Royal Mistress

From Agnès Sorel to Madame Du Barry

Tracy Adams and Christine Adams

Hosted by Jana Byars

Kings throughout medieval and early modern Europe had extraconjugal sexual partners. Only in France, however, did the royal mistress become a quasi-institutionalized political position. This study explores the emergence and …

French Studies October 20, 2022

The Abbe Gregoire and the French Revolution

The Making of Modern Universalism

Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall

Hosted by Brigid Wallace

In this age of globalization, the eighteenth-century priest and abolitionist Henri Grégoire have often been called a man ahead of his time. An icon of anti-racism, a hero to people …