New Books Network

Jewish Studies May 27, 2022

The Venice Ghetto

A Memory Space That Travels

Chiara Camarda, Amanda K. Sharick, and Katharine G. Trostel

Hosted by Amber Nickell

The Venice Ghetto was founded in 1516 by the Venetian government as a segregated area of the city in which Jews were compelled to live. The world's first ghetto and …

Critical Theory May 27, 2022

Heritage and Nationalism

Understanding Populism through Big Data

Chiara Bonacchi

Hosted by Dave O'Brien

What are the connections between the past and modern politics? In Heritage and Nationalism: Understanding Populism through Big Data (UCL Press, 2022), Chiara Bonacchi, a Chancellor's Fellow in Heritage, Text …

Art April 20, 2022

The Invention of Norman Visual Culture

Art, Politics, and Dynastic Ambition

Lisa Reilly

Hosted by Tanja Tolar

In The Invention of Norman Visual Culture: Art, Politics, and Dynastic Ambition (Cambridge UP, 2020), Lisa Reilly establishes a new interpretive paradigm for the eleventh and twelfth-century art and architecture …

Food April 15, 2022

Feeding Fascism

The Politics of Women's Food Work

Diana Garvin

Hosted by Nathan Hopson

Diana Garvin’s Feeding Fascism: The Politics of Women's Food Work (U Toronto Press, 2022) is an expansive and multifaceted look at women’s food work in Fascist Italy. From less-explored archives …

On Religion April 6, 2022

New Rome

The Empire in the East

Paul Stephenson

Hosted by Gregory Soden

As modern empires rise and fall, ancient Rome becomes ever more significant. We yearn for Rome's power but fear Rome's ruin--will we turn out like the Romans, we wonder, or …

Ancient History April 4, 2022

Julius Caesar and the Roman People

Robert Morstein-Marx

Hosted by Mark Klobas

Julius Caesar was no aspiring autocrat seeking to realize the imperial future but an unusually successful republican leader who was measured against the Republic's traditions and its greatest heroes of …

Jewish Studies February 14, 2022

Invisible Enlighteners

The Jewish Merchants of Modena, from the Renaissance to the Emancipation

Federica Francesconi

Hosted by James Nadel

In her recent book on the Jewish community of Modena in Italy, Federica Francesconi tells a tale of contradictions. Segregated to the city’s ghetto in the 17th century, the Jewish …

Art February 4, 2022

Destinations in Mind

Portraying Places on the Roman Empire's Souvenirs

Kimberly Cassibry

Hosted by Tanja Tolar

In Destinations in Mind: Portraying Places on the Roman Empire's Souvenirs (Oxford UP, 2021), Kimberly Cassibry asks how objects depicting different sites helped Romans understand their vast empire. At a …

Ancient History February 2, 2022

A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum

Murder in Ancient Rome

Emma Southon

Hosted by Zalman Newfield

In Ancient Rome, all the best stories have one thing in common—murder. Romulus killed Remus to found the city, Caesar was assassinated to save the Republic. Caligula was butchered in …

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast January 14, 2022

Ravenna

Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe

Judith Herrin

Hosted by Mark Klobas

At the end of the fourth century, as the power of Rome faded and Constantinople became the seat of empire, a new capital city was rising in the West. Here …

Architecture January 7, 2022

Architecture and the Senses in the Italian Renaissance

The Varieties of Architectural Experience

David Karmon

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer

Architecture and the Senses in the Italian Renaissance: The Varieties of Architectural Experience (Cambridge UP, 2021) is the first study of Renaissance architecture as an immersive, multisensory experience that combines …

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 …

Early Modern History December 24, 2021

The Dragoman Renaissance

Diplomatic Interpreters and the Routes of Orientalism

E. Natalie Rothman

Hosted by Ian Hathaway

The Dragoman Renaissance: Diplomatic Interpreters and the Routes of Orientalism (Cornell UP, 2021) is a fascinating study of a crucial early modern cadre of "go-betweens:" the Istanbul-based diplomatic translator-interpreters, known …

Ideas Roadshow Podcast November 30, 2021

Herculaneum Uncovered

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill

Hosted by Howard Burton

Herculaneum Uncovered is based on an in-depth filmed conversation between Howard Burton and Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, Director of Research and Honorary Professor of Roman Studies in the Faculty of Classics at …

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 …

Italian Studies November 16, 2021

Early Modern Aristotle

On the Making and Unmaking of Authority

Eva Del Soldato

Hosted by Gerry Milligan

Today we speak with Eva Del Soldato about her new book on how the authority of Aristotle was reinscribed and challenged during the early modern period. In his Nicomachean Ethics …

Language November 5, 2021

Editorial Bodies

Perfection and Rejection in Ancient Rhetoric and Poetics

Michele Kennerly

Hosted by Lee Pierce

Though typically considered oral cultures, ancient Greece and Rome also boasted textual cultures, enabled by efforts to perfect, publish, and preserve both new and old writing. In Editorial Bodies: Perfection and …

Biography November 2, 2021

Galeazzo Ciano

The Fascist Pretender

Tobias Hof

Hosted by Mark Klobas

He was the son of a prominent politician, Benito Mussolini’s son-in-law, and viewed by many as the Duce’s likely successor, only to die before a fascist firing squad near the …

Italian Studies October 11, 2021

Court and Its Critics

Anti-Court Sentiments in Early Modern Italy

Paola Ugolini

Hosted by Gerry Milligan

The fashionable and decorous men whom we recognize in portraits and letters from the Italian Renaissance penned some of the most scathing critiques of the courts in which they served …

General History September 15, 2021

A Fake Saint and the Real Church

The Story of a Forgery in Seventeenth-Century Naples

Stefania Tutino

Hosted by Jana Byars

Stefania Tutino, Professor and Peter Reill Chair in European History at UCLA talks about her new book, A Fake Saint and the True Church: the Story of a Forgery in …