New Books Network
French Studies
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast January 3, 2022

Western Europe’s Democratic Age

1945-1968

Martin Conway

Hosted by Mark Klobas
What happened in the years following World War II to create a democratic revolution in the western half of Europe? In Western Europe’s Democratic Age: 1945-1968 (Princeton UP, 2021), Martin …

French Studies

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Interviews with scholars of France about their new books.

Politics & Polemics December 20, 2021

Intolerable

Writings from Michel Foucault and the Prisons Information Group (1970-1980)

Edited by Kevin Thompson and Perry Zurn

Hosted by Kirk Meighoo
Intolerable: Writings from Michel Foucault and the Prisons Information Group (1970-1980) (University of Minnesota Press, 2021), edited by Kevin Thompson and Perry Zurn, is a groundbreaking collection of writings by Michel Foucault …
Intellectual History December 8, 2021

Crafting Enlightenment

Artisanal Histories and Transnational Networks

Jennifer Ferng and Lauren R. Cannady

Hosted by Alexandra Ortolja-Baird
A ground-breaking volume examining the transnational conditions of the European Enlightenment, Crafting Enlightenment: Artisanal Histories and Transnational Networks (Voltaire Foundation, 2021) argues that artisans of the long eighteenth-century on four different …
General History January 24, 2022

The Erotics of Grief

Emotions and the Construction of Privilege in the Medieval Mediterranean

Megan Moore

Hosted by Jana Byars
The Erotics of Grief: Emotions and the Construction of Privilege in the Medieval Mediterranean (Cornell UP, 2021) considers how emotions propagate power by exploring whose lives are grieved and what …
Catholic Studies January 20, 2022

Kindred Spirits

Friendship and Resistance at the Edges of Modern Catholicism

Brenna Moore

Hosted by Piotr Kosicki
In Kindred Spirits: Friendship and Resistance at the Edges of Modern Catholicism (University of Chicago Press, 2021), Brenna Moore takes us inside a global network of Catholic historians, theologians, poets …
French Studies January 14, 2022

Adventure Capital

Migration and the Making of an African Hub in Paris

Julie Kleinman

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi
Every day, hundreds of thousands of people move through the Gare du Nord train station in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, the largest train station in Europe. Julie Kleinman's Adventure Capital …
French Studies December 31, 2021

Pasteur's Empire

Bacteriology and Politics in France, Its Colonies, and the World

Aro Velmet

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi
Aro Velmet's Pasteur's Empire: Bacteriology in France, Its Colonies, and the World (Oxford UP, 2020) is a complex history of the Pasteur Institutes, a network of scientific laboratories established in France and throughout the French empire …
Interpretive Political and Social Science December 30, 2021

Empires of Vice

The Rise of Opium Prohibition Across Southeast Asia

Diana S. Kim

Hosted by Nick Cheesman
In Empires of Vice: The Rise of Opium Prohibition across Southeast Asia (Princeton University Press, 2020) Diana Kim situates the regulation of vice at the heart of colonial state building …
Psychoanalysis December 8, 2021

Louise Bourgeois, Freud's Daughter

Philip Larratt-Smith and Juliet Mitchell

Hosted by Isak de Vries
From 1952 to 1985, Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010) underwent extensive Freudian analysis that probed her family history, marriage, motherhood, and artistic ambition--and generated inspiration for her artwork. Examining the impact of …
General History December 3, 2021

When France Fell

The Vichy Crisis and the Fate of the Anglo-American Alliance

Michael S. Neiberg

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
According to US Secretary of War Henry Stimson, the "most shocking single event" of World War II was not the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but rather the fall of …
Intellectual History December 2, 2021

The Color of Equality

Race and Common Humanity in Enlightenment Thought

Devin J. Vartija

Hosted by Alexandra Ortolja-Baird
The Enlightenment is often either praised as the wellspring of modern egalitarianism or condemned as the cradle of scientific racism. How should we make sense of this paradox? The Color …
Southeast Asian Studies December 1, 2021

The First Vietnam War

Violence, Sovereignty, and the Fracture of the South, 1945-1956

Shawn F. McHale

Hosted by Patrick Jory
When people think of the “Vietnam War” they usually think of the hugely devastating and divisive conflict between North Vietnam and a United States-backed South Vietnam that finally ended in …
Intellectual History November 24, 2021

The Right of Sovereignty

Jean Bodin on the Sovereign State and the Law of Nations

Daniel Lee

Hosted by Tejas Parasher
Sovereignty is the vital organizing principle of modern international law. Daniel Lee's book The Right of Sovereignty: Jean Bodin on the Sovereign State and the Law of Nations (Oxford UP, 2021) …
General History November 17, 2021

To Kidnap a Pope

Napoleon and Pius VII

Ambrogio A. Caiani

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
In the wake of the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of France, and Pope Pius VII shared a common goal: to reconcile the Catholic church with the French state …
French Studies November 12, 2021

France

Emile Chabal

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi
An accessible and compelling read, Emile Chabal's France (Polity, 2020) is an overview of the nation's political history from 1940 right up to the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Organized thematically …
French Studies October 28, 2021

The Persian Mirror

French Reflections of the Safavid Empire in Early Modern France

Susan Mokhberi

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi
When I/we think about the early modern relationship between France and Persia, Montesquieu's 1721 Lettres persanes is a text that comes to mind immediately. Susan Mokhberi's The Persian Mirror: Reflections of the …
Jewish Studies October 25, 2021

Emmanuel Levinas's Talmudic Turn

Philosophy and Jewish Thought

Ethan Kleinberg

Hosted by Britton Edelen
In this episode, I interview Ethan Kleinberg, professor of history and letters at Wesleyan University, about his new book, Emmanuel Levinas’s Talmudic Turn: Philosophy and Jewish Thought, recently published by …
Environmental Studies October 25, 2021

Nomad's Land

Pastoralism and French Environmental Policy in the Nineteenth-Century Mediterranean World

Andrea E. Duffy

Hosted by Matthew Brown
Chronicling the retreat of mobile pastoralization from Mediterranean coastlines, Andrea Duffy's Nomad's Land: Pastoralism and French Environmental Policy in the Nineteenth-Century Mediterranean World (U Nebraska Press, 2019) investigates a mystery: where …
General History October 1, 2021

Deconstruction

An American Institution

Gregory Jones-Katz

Hosted by Ryan Tripp
The basic story of the rise, reign, and fall of deconstruction as a literary and philosophical groundswell is well known among scholars. In this intellectual history, Gregory Jones-Katz aims to …
General History September 29, 2021

Trading with the Enemy

Britain, France, and the 18th-Century Quest for a Peaceful World Order

John Shovlin

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
Britain and France waged war eight times in the century following the Glorious Revolution, a mutual antagonism long regarded as a "Second Hundred Years' War." Yet officials on both sides …