New Books Network
German Studies
Critical Theory May 5, 2021

Nietzsche, the Aristocratic Rebel

Intellectual Biography and Critical Balance-Sheet

Domenico Losurdo

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
The 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche stands among the canon’s most-cited figures, with aphorisms dotting texts on a variety of topics, and his name evokes strong responses from almost …

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Genocide Studies April 30, 2021

Dance on the Razor's Edge

Crime and Punishment in the Nazi Ghettos

Svenja Bethke

Hosted by Steven Seegel
The ghettos established by the Nazis in German-occupied Eastern Europe during the Second World War have mainly been seen as lawless spaces marked by brutality, tyranny, and the systematic murder …
Literary Studies April 28, 2021

Heidegger and His Jewish Reception

Daniel M. Herskowitz

Hosted by Britton Edelen
In this episode, I interview Daniel Herskowitz, Career Research Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, about his first book, Heidegger and His Jewish Reception (Cambridge University Press, 2020).   In the …
History April 28, 2021

Learning Empire

Globalization and the German Quest for World Status, 1875-1919

Erik Grimmer-Solem

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
The First World War marked the end point of a process of German globalization that began in the 1870s, well before Germany acquired a colonial empire or extensive overseas commercial …
History April 27, 2021

Strangling the Axis

The Fight for Control of the Mediterranean during the Second World War

Richard Hammond

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
In his new book, Strangling the Axis: The Fight for Control of the Mediterranean during the Second World War (Cambridge University Press, 2020) , Dr. Richard Hammond, Lecturer in War Studies …
History April 27, 2021

The Enlightenment

The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790

Ritchie Robertson

Hosted by Zachary McCulley
The Enlightenment: The Pursuit of Happiness, 1680-1790 (Harper, 2021) is a magisterial history that recasts the Enlightenment as a period not solely consumed with rationale and reason, but rather as a pursuit …
German Studies April 23, 2021

Taking Nazi Technology

Allied Exploitation of German Science after the Second World War

Douglas M. O'Reagan

Hosted by Craig Sorvillo
In his new book Taking Nazi Technology: Allied Exploitation of German Science After the Second World War (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019), Douglas O’Reagan describes how the Western Allies gathered teams …
History April 12, 2021

Mobilizing Black Germany

Afro-German Women and the Making of a Transnational Movement

Tiffany N. Florvil

Hosted by Jennifer Davis Cline
In this globe-spanning work, Florvil uncovers the manifold activities Black German women undertook in the 1980s and 1990s to resist and challenge racism, sexism, and homophobia at home and abroad …
History April 7, 2021

State Formation and Shared Sovereignty

The Holy Roman Empire and the Dutch Republic, 1488–1690

Christopher W. Close

Hosted by Jana Byars
Today on the New Books in History, a channel on the New Books Network, we’re here today with Christopher Close, Associate Professor of History at St. Joseph’s University in the …
History April 6, 2021

Vengeance and Retribution Are Mine

Community, the Holocaust, and Abba Kovner's Avengers

Dina Porat

Hosted by Yakir Englander
Vengeance and Retribution Are Mine: Community, the Holocaust, and Abba Kovner's Avengers (Pardes, 2019) is a book by Israeli historian Dina Porat on Nakam, a small group of Holocaust survivors …
Military History March 31, 2021

War of Shadows

Codebreakers, Spies, and the Secret Struggle to Drive the Nazis from the Middle East

Gershom Gorenberg

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
As World War II raged in North Africa, General Erwin Rommel was guided by an uncanny sense of his enemies' plans and weaknesses. In the summer of 1942, he led …
History March 31, 2021

Roundtable on Medieval Conspiracy Theories

Michael D. Bailey, Miri Rubin, and Sean Field

Hosted by Jana Byars
Join us today for a roundtable conversation with three leading medieval scholars about the phenomenon of conspiracy theories in history.  Michael D. Bailey, professor of history at Iowa State University …
German Studies March 24, 2021

Selling Weimar

German Public Diplomacy and the United States, 1918-1933

Elisabeth Piller

Hosted by Steven Seegel
In the decade after World War I, German-American relations improved swiftly. While resentment and bitterness ran high on both sides in 1919, Weimar Germany and the United States managed to …
German Studies March 19, 2021

Heavenly Fatherland

German Missionary Culture and Globalization in the Age of Empire

Jeremy Best

Hosted by Steven Seegel
Motivated by a theology that declared missionary work was independent of secular colonial pursuits, Protestant missionaries from Germany operated in ways that contradict current and prevailing interpretations of nineteenth-century missionary …
Intellectual History March 9, 2021

The Letters Of Rosa Luxemburg

Rosa Luxemburg

Hosted by Stephen Dozeman
Rosa Luxemburg occupies a complex place in our history partly because there are several different Rosa's one can find scattered across the world; the feminist activist, revolutionary Marxist, economist, journalist …
German Studies February 23, 2021

Diagnosing Dissent

Hysterics, Deserters, and Conscientious Objectors in Germany During World War One

Rebecca Ayako Bennette

Hosted by Michael O'Sullivan
Although physicians during World War I, and scholars since, have addressed the idea of disorders such as shell shock as inchoate flights into sickness by men unwilling to cope with …
German Studies February 11, 2021

Berlin

Jason Lutes

Hosted by Michael O'Sullivan
In his pathbreaking graphic novel, Berlin (Drawn and Quarterly, 2018), Jason Lutes creates a multifaceted exploration of urban life during the Weimar Republic.  The book contains a variety of mostly fictional …
German Studies February 3, 2021

Mobilizing Black Germany

Afro-German Women and the Making of a Transnational Movement

Tiffany N. Florvil

Hosted by Steven Seegel
In the 1980s and 1990s, Black German women began to play significant roles in challenging the discrimination in their own nation and abroad. Their grassroots organizing, writings, and political and …
History February 2, 2021

Rogue Empires

Contracts and Conmen in Europe's Scramble for Africa

Steven Press

Hosted by Vladislav Lilic
Steven Press is an Assistant Professor of History at Stanford University. His marvelous first book, Rogue Empires: Contracts and Conmen in Europe’s Scramble for Africa (Harvard University Press, 2017), is …
History January 29, 2021

Archeologies of Confession

Writing the German Reformation, 1517-2017

C. L. Johnson, D. M. Luebke, M. E. Plummer, and J. Spohnholz

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec
Carina Johnson is coeditor -- with David Luebke, Marjorie Elizabeth Plummer, and Jesse Spohnholz -- of Archeologies of Confession: Writing the German Reformation, 1517-2017 (Berghahn, 2019) and she is also the author …