New Books Network
Italian Studies
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 …

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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 …
Literary Studies August 21, 2020

Dante’s Bones

How a Poet Invented Italy

Guy Raffa

Hosted by Jana Byars
On this episode of New Books in History, Jana Byars talks with Guy Raffa, Associate Professor of Italian Studies at UT Austin, about his new book, Dante’s Bones: How a …
European Studies August 18, 2020

A Renaissance of Violence

Homicide in Early Modern Italy

Colin Rose

Hosted by Jana Byars
On this episode of New Books in History, Jana Byars talks with Colin Rose, Assistant Professor of History at Brock University in St. Catherine’s, Ontario, Canada, about his new book …
Film August 4, 2020

The Cinema of Paolo Sorrentino

Commitment to Style

Russell J. A. Kilbourn

Hosted by Nicoletta Marini-Maio
Russell J. A. Kilbourn’s The Cinema of Paolo Sorrentino: Commitment to Style (Wallflower Press, 2020) is the first comprehensive study published in the English-speaking world on one of the most …
European Studies July 27, 2020

In Search of the Romans

James Renshaw

Hosted by Jennifer Eremeeva
James Renshaw modestly describes his interactive textbook, In Search of the Romans (Bloomsbury, 2019) as an attempt to bring his high school readers to a “base camp on Mount Everest …
European Studies July 21, 2020

Abolitionism and the Persistence of Slavery in Italian States 1750–1850

Giulia Bonazza

Hosted by Alexandra Ortolja-Baird
Abolitionism and the Persistence of Slavery in Italian States 1750–1850 (Palgrave MacMillian, 2019) offers a pioneering study of slavery in the Italian states. Documenting previously unstudied cases of slavery in …
American Studies July 10, 2020

Lord High Executioner

The Legendary Mafia Boss Albert Anastasia

Frank Dimatteo

Hosted by Mark Klobas
Though not as well known today as many of his contemporaries, few American mob bosses were as feared as Albert Anastasia. As head of “Murder Inc.”, Anastasia presided over the …
Art July 7, 2020

Michelangelo’s Inner Anatomies

Christian Kleinbub

Hosted by Allison Leigh
In Michelangelo’s Inner Anatomies (Penn State University Press), Christian Kleinbub challenges the notion that Michelangelo, renowned for his magnificent portrayals of the human body, was merely concerned with “superficial” anatomy—that …
European Studies June 16, 2020

The Venetian Discovery of America

Geographic Imagination and Print Culture in the Age of Encounters

Elizabeth Horodowich

Hosted by Jana Byars
In this episode Jana Byars speaks with Elizabeth Horodowich, Professor of History at New Mexico State University, about her new book, The Venetian Discovery of America: Geographic Imagination and Print …
Italian Studies June 9, 2020

Soviet Signoras

Personal and Collective Transformations in Eastern European Migration

Martina Cvajner

Hosted by Jana Byars
Jana Byars talks with Martina Cvajner, Assistant Professor of Sociology in the Department of Psychology and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Trento, about her new book, Soviet Signoras: Personal …
Literature May 12, 2020

How Fires End

Marco Rafalà

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb
In a sad but loving tribute to his Sicilian-Italian heritage, Marco Rafala’s debut novel How Fires End (Little A, 2019) centers on the haunting legacy of WWII on the people …