New Books Network

French Studies August 8, 2022

Toxique

Enquête sur les essais nucléaires français en Polynésie

Sébastien Philippe and Tomas Statius

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi

What happens when you bring together an important collection of previously secret archival documents dealing with France's nuclear detonations in the Pacific from 1966 to 1996, a nuclear scientist, and …

General History August 5, 2022

The Memory of Colonialism in Britain and France

The Sins of Silence

Itay Lotem

Hosted by Michael Vann

In The Memory of Colonialism in Britain and France: The Sins of Silence (Palgrave MacMillan, 2021), Itay Lotem explores the remembering of empire in Britain and France. By comparing these two former …

History of Science August 4, 2022

Minerva's French Sisters

Women of Science in Enlightenment France

Nina Rattner Gelbart

Hosted by Victor Monnin

In Minerva’s French Sisters: Women of Science in Enlightenment France (Yale University Press, 2021), Nina Gelbart, Professor of History and Anita Johnson Wand Professor of Women’s Studies at Occidental College …

Literary Studies August 3, 2022

Interwar Itineraries

Authenticity in Anglophone and French Travel Writing

Emily O. Wittman

Hosted by Nathan Moore

How people traveled, and how people wrote about travel, changed in the interwar years. Novel technologies eased travel conditions, breeding new iterations of the colonizing gaze. The sense that another …

Writ Large August 2, 2022

On Jules Verne's "Around the World in 80 Days"

A Discussion with Joyce Chaplin

Joyce Chaplin

Hosted by Zachary Davis

When French author Jules Verne wrote Around the World in 80 Days in the late 1800s, scheduled global travel was practically science fiction, and 80 days seemed impossibly fast. But …

French Studies July 29, 2022

The Military Enlightenment

War and Culture in the French Empire from Louis XIV to Napoleon

Christy Pichichero

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi

Covering the pivotal period from the mid-seventeenth century through the era of the French Revolution, Christy Pichichero's The Military Enlightenment: War and Culture in the French Empire from Louis XIV to Napoleon (Cornell …

American Studies July 27, 2022

Instruments of Empire

Colonial Elites and U.S. Governance in Early National Louisiana, 1803–1815

Michael K. Beauchamp

Hosted by Deidre Tyler

M. K. Beauchamp's Instruments of Empire: Colonial Elites and U.S. Governance in Early National Louisiana, 1803–1815 (LSU Press, 2021) examines the challenges that resulted from U.S. territorial expansion through the …

Gender Studies July 27, 2022

How to Be Authentic

Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment

Skye Cleary

Hosted by Lilian Calles Barger

Skye C. Cleary is a philosopher, writer and university teacher. In her new book How to Be Authentic: Simone de Beauvoir and the Quest for Fulfillment (St. Martin’s Press, 2022) …

Early Modern History July 18, 2022

Laughing Histories

From the Renaissance Man to the Woman of Wit

Joy Wiltenburg

Hosted by Elspeth Currie

Joy Wiltenburg's book Laughing Histories: From the Renaissance Man to the Woman of Wit (Routledge, 2022) breaks new ground by exploring moments of laughter in early modern Europe, showing how laughter was …

General History July 15, 2022

The Politics of Imperial Memory in France, 1850–1900

Christina B. Carroll

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In The Politics of Imperial Memory in France, 1850–1900 (Cornell University Press, 2022), Dr. Christina Carroll highlights the connections between domestic political struggles and overseas imperial structures. She explains how …

General History July 14, 2022

Debating the Woman Question in the French Third Republic, 1870-1920

Karen Offen

Hosted by Michael Vann

While it is an overused cliché, France is indeed a land of contrasts, famous for its paradoxes. In French political history, the most startling may be the progressive policies of …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …