New Books Network
Italian Studies
History February 26, 2021

Ruling Culture

Art Police, Tomb Robbers, and the Rise of Cultural Power in Italy

Fiona Greenland

Hosted by Jana Byars
Today we are joined by Fiona Greenland, Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, to talk about her new book, Ruling Culture: Art Police, Tomb Raiders, and the …

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Italian Studies February 19, 2021

The Photoromance

A Feminist Reading of Popular Culture

Paola Bonifazio

Hosted by Nicoletta Marini-Maio
Paola Bonifazio’s The Photoromance. A Feminist Reading of Popular Culture (MIT Press, 2020) is the first feminist reading of photoromances that examines both its industry and its fandom, arguing for …
History February 16, 2021

Forbidden Knowledge

Medicine, Science, and Censorship in Early Modern Italy

Hannah Marcus

Hosted by Jana Byars
Today we speak to Hannah Marcus, Assistant Professor in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, about her new monograph, Forbidden Knowledge: Medicine, Science …
Genocide Studies December 31, 2020

Genocide in Libya

Shar, a Hidden Colonial History

Ali Abdullatif Ahmida

Hosted by Jeff Bachman
This original research on the forgotten Libyan genocide specifically recovers the hidden history of the fascist Italian concentration camps (1929-1934) through the oral testimonies of Libyan survivors. Ali Abdullatif Ahmida's …
Italian Studies December 30, 2020

The Enemy in Italian Renaissance Epic

Images of Hostility from Dante to Tasso

Andrea Moudarres

Hosted by Gerry Milligan
In The Enemy in Italian Renaissance Epic: Images of Hostility from Dante to Tasso (University of Delaware Press, 2019), Andrea Moudarres examines influential works from the literary canon of the Italian …
History December 16, 2020

Venice's Secret Service

Organising Intelligence in the Renaissance

Ioanna Lordanou

Hosted by Jana Byars
Today we are here with Dr. Ioanna Iordanou, a Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management at Oxford Brookes University and an Honorary Researcher at the Centre for the Study of …
European Studies December 15, 2020

Project Europe

A History

Kiran Klaus Patel

Hosted by Tim Jones
Project Europe made waves when it was published in German in 2018 (CH Beck) and was soon translated into English as Project Europe: A History (Cambridge UP, 2020). A clue to …
Eastern European Studies December 14, 2020

Transnational Patriotism in the Mediterranean, 1800-1850

Stammering the Nation

Konstantina Zanou

Hosted by Vladislav Lilic
Konstantina Zanou is an Assistant Professor of Italian and Mediterranean Studies at Columbia University. Her captivating book Transnational Patriotism in the Mediterranean, 1800-1850: Stammering the Nation (Oxford University Press, 2018) …
History December 7, 2020

Rome Is Burning

Nero and the Fire That Ended a Dynasty

Anthony A. Barrett

Hosted by Mark Klobas
Ancient Rome had experienced many fires before 64 CE, yet none of the previous blazes proved as significant as the conflagration that swept through the city that year. In Rome Is …
Eastern European Studies December 2, 2020

The Fiume Crisis

Life in the Wake of the Habsburg Empire

Dominique Kirchner Reill

Hosted by Steven Seegel
The Fiume Crisis: Life in the Wake of the Habsburg Empire (Harvard UP, 2020) recasts what we know about the birth of fascism, the rise of nationalism, and the fall …
History November 18, 2020

Against the Avant-Garde

Pier Paolo Pasolini, Contemporary Art, and Neocapitalism

Ara H. Merjian

Hosted by Jana Byars
On this episode of New Books in History, Jana Byars talks with Ara Marjian, Professor of Italian and affiliate of the Institute of Fine Arts and the Department of Art …
History November 17, 2020

Forgotten Healers

Women and the Pursuit of Health in Late Renaissance Italy

Sharon T. Strocchia

Hosted by Jana Byars
On this episode of New Books in History, Jana Byars talks with Sharon Strocchia, Professor of History at Emory University. She is the author of Death and Ritual in Renaissance …
Italian Studies November 16, 2020

Italian Neorealism

A Cultural History

Charles L. Leavitt IV

Hosted by Ellen Nerenberg
In Italian Neorealism: A Cultural History (University of Toronto Press, 2020), Charles Leavitt steps back from the micro-histories focusing more narrowly on, for example, Italian cinema so as to weave …
European Studies November 2, 2020

Humanism and Empire

The Imperial Ideal in Fourteenth-Century Italy

Alexander Lee

Hosted by Jonathan Megerian
Renaissance humanists and the Holy Roman Empire haven’t mixed well in most scholarship. Humanists were supposed to be learned exponents of liberty. Often employed by Italian city-states, their civic pride …
European Studies October 19, 2020

The Invention of Papal History

Onofrio Panvinio between Renaissance and Catholic Reform

Stefan Bauer

Hosted by Crawford Gribben
Stefan Bauer has written an outstanding study of one of the most important Catholic historians in early modern Europe. Bauer, who has just taken up a new position teaching history …
Film September 25, 2020

The Divo and the Duce

Promoting Film Stardom and the Political Leadership in 1920s America

Giorgio Bertellini

Hosted by Ellen Nerenberg
In 1927, the Hollywood stars (and spouses), Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr stood outside their California home, arms raised in fascist salute. The photo’s caption, referencing the couple’s trip …
Art September 4, 2020

A Convert’s Tale

Art, Crime, and Jewish Apostasy in Renaissance Italy

Tamar Herzig

Hosted by Jana Byars
On this episode of New Books in History, Jana Byars talks with Tamar Herzig, Professor of History at Tel Aviv University, the Director of Tel Aviv University’s Morris E Curiel …
African Studies August 31, 2020

A Brief History of the Mediterranean

Jeremy Black

Hosted by Crawford Gribben
Jeremy Black, the prolific professor of history at Exeter University, has published A Brief History of the Mediterranean (Little Brown, 2020), to offer readers an overview of this sphere from …
European Studies August 31, 2020

The Perfect Fascist

A Story of Love, Power, and Morality in Mussolini’s Italy

Victoria de Grazia

Hosted by Craig Sorvillo
In her new book, The Perfect Fascist: A Story of Love, Power, and Morality in Mussolini’s Italy (Belknap Press), Dr. Victoria de Grazia takes the story of Attilio Teruzzi and …
Film August 26, 2020

Watching Sympathetic

Gomorrah and Beyond

Dana Renga

Hosted by Giancarlo Glombardi
In Watching Sympathetic Perpetrators on Italian Television: Gomorrah and Beyond (Palgrave MacMillan, 2019), Dana Renga offers the first comprehensive study of recent, popular Italian television. Building on work in American …