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German Studies
Art October 4, 2022

The Metabolic Museum

Clementine Deliss

Hosted by Holiday Powers
In The Metabolic Museum (Hatje Cantz, 2020), Clémentine Deliss, a curator, researcher, and former director of the Frankfurt Weltkulturen Museum, explores possible functions for anthropological museums in a postcolonial culture …

German Studies

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Interviews with scholars of Germany about their new books.

Jewish Studies October 3, 2022

The Romanian Orthodox Church and the Holocaust

Ion Popa

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
In 1930, about 750,000 Jews called Romania home. At the end of World War II, approximately half of them survived. Only recently, after the fall of Communism, are details of …
German Studies October 3, 2022

Shadowland

The Story of Germany Told by Its Prisoners

Sarah Colvin

Hosted by Nicholas Misukanis
Shadowland: The Story of Germany Told by Its Prisoners (Reaktion Books, 2022) is a history of modern Germany told not through the lives of its leaders, but its lawbreakers. As Nelson Mandela said, “a nation …
Medieval History September 30, 2022

Royal Childhood and Child Kingship

Boy Kings in England, Scotland, France and Germany, c. 1050–1262

Emily Joan Ward

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Royal Childhood and Child Kingship: Boy Kings in England, Scotland, France and Germany, c. 1050–1262 (Cambridge University Press, 2022) refines adult-focused perspectives on medieval rulership. Dr. Emily Joan Ward exposes …
German Studies September 21, 2022

Environing Empire

Nature, Infrastructure and the Making of German Southwest Africa

Martin Kalb

Hosted by Eric Grube
German ambitions to transform Southwest Africa in the early part of the twentieth century were futile and resulted in the widespread death and suffering of indigenous populations. For years colonists …
Eastern European Studies September 20, 2022

Capitalism in Chaos

How the Business Elites of Europe Prospered in the Era of the Great War

Máté Rigó

Hosted by Roland Clark
Capitalism in Chaos: How the Business Elites of Europe Prospered in the Era of the Great War (Cornell UP, 2022) explores an often-overlooked consequence and paradox of the First World …
German Studies September 14, 2022

Sustainable Utopias

The Art and Politics of Hope in Germany

Jennifer L. Allen

Hosted by Paul Lerner
By most accounts, the twentieth century was not kind to utopian thought. The violence of two world wars, Cold War anxieties, and a widespread sense of crisis after the 197 …
Think About It September 12, 2022

Courtney B. Hodrick and Amir Eshel on Hannah Arendt's "Rachel Varnhagen: The Life of a Jewish Woman"

Book Talk 55

Courtney Blair Hodrick and Amir Eshel

Hosted by Uli Baer
Hannah Arendt said that she had one life-long “best friend.” That was Rachel Varnhagen, a Jewish woman who lived in Enlightenment-era Berlin around 1800 and died 73 years before Arendt …
Asian Review of Books September 8, 2022

Empires of Ideas

Creating the Modern University from Germany to America to China

William C. Kirby

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Earlier this month, U.S. President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS and Science Act, a bill purportedly meant to revive U.S. dominance in research and development. “We used to rank number …
Writ Large September 7, 2022

On Immanuel Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason"

A Discussion with Michael Rosen

Michael Rosen

Hosted by Zachary Davis
Scottish philosopher David Hume thought that rationalism didn’t work at all. German philosopher Immanuel Kant thought rationalism didn’t work by itself. Critique of Pure Reason, the first in a three-part …
Politics & Polemics September 1, 2022

The Summer of Theory

History of a Rebellion, 1960-1990

Philipp Felsch

Hosted by Kirk Meighoo
'Theory' - a magical glow has emanated from this word since the sixties. Theory was more than just a succession of ideas: it was an article of faith, a claim …
Military History September 1, 2022

Coalition Strategy and the End of the First World War

The Supreme War Council and War Planning, 1917–1918

Meighen McCrae

Hosted by Alex Beckstrand
When the Germans requested an armistice in October 1918, it was a shock to the Allied political and military leadership. They had been expecting, and planning for, the war to …
Writ Large August 31, 2022

On Johann Friedrich von Schiller’s "Letters on the Aesthetic Education of Man"

A Discussion with Doris Sommer

Doris Sommer

Hosted by Zachary Davis
Play is an essential part of childhood. But according to German philosopher Johann Friedrich von Schiller’s treatise “On the Aesthetic Education of Man,” play was a key part of adulthood …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones August 30, 2022

The Future of the European Union

A Discussion with Luuk van Middelaar

Luuk van Middelaar

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
The Brexit debate has been so all-consuming and filled with so much misinformation that many Brits and others can overlook some the challenges facing the European Union itself. Looked at …
Economic and Business History August 29, 2022

France and Germany in the South China Sea, c. 1840-1930

Maritime Competition and Imperial Power

Bert Becker

Hosted by Ghassan Moazzin
France and Germany in the South China Sea, c. 1840-1930 Maritime Competition and Imperial Power (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) explores imperial power and the transnational encounters of shipowners and merchants in the South …
Intellectual History August 22, 2022

Cassirer and Heidegger in Davos

The Philosophical Arguments

Simon Truwant

Hosted by Thomas Discenna
The 1929 encounter between Ernst Cassirer and Martin Heidegger in Davos, Switzerland is considered one of the most important intellectual debates of the twentieth century and a founding moment of …
German Studies August 16, 2022

Berlin Contemporary

Architecture and Politics After 1990

Julia Walker

Hosted by Lea Greenberg
For years following reunification, Berlin was the largest construction site in Europe, with striking new architecture proliferating throughout the city in the 1990s and early 2000s. Among the most visible …
Intellectual History August 15, 2022

Warspeak

Nietzsche's Victory Over Nihilism

Hosted by David Kunsman
On this episode we have Michael Grenke (St. John's College) who wrote the introduction to Lise Van Boxel's Warspeak: Nietzsche's Victory Over Nihilism (Political Animal Press, 2020). A comprehensive interpretation of Nietzsche's …
General History July 28, 2022

Culture from the Slums

Punk Rock in East and West Germany

Jeff Hayton

Hosted by Ran Zwigenberg
Jeff Hayton's book Culture from the Slums: Punk Rock in East and West Germany (Oxford UP, 2022) is a cultural history of punk in Germany. The manuscript tracks “the advent and …
German Studies July 27, 2022

Prevail until the Bitter End

Germans in the Waning Years of World War II

Alexandra Lohse

Hosted by Lea Greenberg
In Prevail until the Bitter End: Germans in the Waning Years of World War II (Cornell UP, 2021), Alexandra Lohse explores the gossip and innuendo, the dissonant reactions and perceptions …