New Books Network Podcast

Military History November 25, 2023

American Visions

The United States, 1800-1860

Edward L. Ayers

Hosted by AJ Woodhams

American Visions: The United States, 1800-1860 (Norton, 2023) is a revealing history of the formative period when voices of dissent and innovation defied power and created visions of America still resonant …

Native American Studies November 15, 2023

Remapping Sovereignty

Decolonization and Self-Determination in North American Indigenous Political Thought

David Myer Temin

Hosted by Lachlan McNamee

Accounts of decolonization routinely neglect Indigenous societies in North America and Australasia, yet Native communities have made unique contributions to anticolonial thought and activism. David Myer Temin's book Remapping Sovereignty: Decolonization …

Native American Studies November 14, 2023

Understanding and Teaching Native American History

Kristofer Ray and Brady DeSanti

Hosted by Ryan Tripp

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Understanding and Teaching Native American History (University of Wisconsin Press, 2023), co-edited by Kristofer Ray and Brady DeSanti, is a timely and urgently needed remedy to a long-standing gap in history instruction …

Anthropology November 11, 2023

Pilgrimage to Broken Mountain

Nahua Sacred Journeys in Mexico's Huasteca Veracruzana

Alan R. Sandstrom and Pamela Effrein Sandstrom

Hosted by Nathan Moore

An ethnographic study based on decades of field research, Pilgrimage to Broken Mountain: Nahua Sacred Journeys in Mexico's Huasteca Veracruzana (UP of Colorado, 2023) explores five sacred journeys to the …

General History November 4, 2023

The Great Defiance

How the World Took on the British Empire

David Veevers

Hosted by Michael Vann

The story of the British Empire is a familiar one: Britain came, it saw, it conquered, forging a glorious world empire upon which the sun never set. In fact, far …

Irish Studies October 28, 2023

Indian, Black and Irish

Indigenous Nations, African Peoples, European Invasions, 1492-1790

James V. Fenelon

Hosted by Aidan Beatty

In this interview James Fenelon discusses his new book entitled Indian, Black and Irish: Indigenous Nations, African Peoples, European Invasions, 1492-1790, recently published with Routledge (2023). The book traces 50 …

Military History October 14, 2023

Gallop Toward the Sun

Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison's Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation

Peter Stark

Hosted by AJ Woodhams

The conquest of Indigenous land in the eastern United States through corrupt treaties and genocidal violence laid the groundwork for the conquest of the American West. In Gallop Toward the …

American South October 13, 2023

Talking Back

Native Women and the Making of the Early South

Alejandra Dubcovsky

Hosted by Brandon Jett

Historian Alejandra Dubcovsky tells a story of war, slavery, loss, remembrance, and the women whose resilience and resistance transformed the colonial South. In exploring their lives she rewrites early American …

Academic Life October 12, 2023

Indigenous DC

A Conversation with Elizabeth Rule

Elizabeth Rule

Hosted by Christina Gessler

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Today’s book is Indigenous DC: Native Peoples and the Nation’s First Capital (Georgetown UP, 2023), by Dr. Elizabeth Rule, which is the first and fullest account of the suppressed history and …

General History October 9, 2023

The Republic Shall be Kept Clean

How Settler Colonial Violence Shaped Antileft Repression

Tariq D. Khan

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

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The Republic Will Be Kept Clean: How Settler Colonial Violence Shaped Antileft Repression (University of Illinois Press, 2023) by Dr. Tariq D. Khan examines the long relationship between America’s colonising …

Academic Life September 21, 2023

A Calm and Normal Heart: Stories

Chelsea T. Hicks

Hosted by Christina Gessler

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Today’s book is A Calm and Normal Heart: Stories (The Unnamed Press, 2022) by Chelsea T. Hicks. The heroes of A Calm and Normal Heart are modern-day adventurers—seeking out new places to …

Literary Studies September 16, 2023

Emergency

Reading the Popol Vuh in a Time of Crisis

Edgar Garcia

Hosted by John Yargo

Today’s guest is Edgar Garcia. Garcia’s new book Emergency: Reading the Popol Vuh in a Time of Crisis (University of Chicago Press, 2022). Emergency takes nine words—“birds,” “wealth,” “caves,” “television,” …

Mobilities and Methods August 25, 2023

Space-Time Colonialism

Alaska's Indigenous and Asian Entanglements

Juliana Hu Pegues

Hosted by Alize Arıcan

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As the enduring "last frontier," Alaska proves an indispensable context for examining the form and function of American colonialism, particularly in the shift from western continental expansion to global empire …

American West August 18, 2023

Peace and Friendship

An Alternative History of the American West

Stephen Aron

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann

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The history of the American West has typically been told in one of two ways: as triumph, or as tragedy. Stephen Aron, accomplished scholar of the West, Professor Emeritus at UCLA, and …

American West August 6, 2023

The Foundations of Glen Canyon Dam

Infrastructures of Dispossession on the Colorado Plateau

Erika Marie Bsumek

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann

The Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River provides electricity for some forty million people, and is one of the largest sources of water in the American West. It is also …

Sports July 30, 2023

The Imperial Gridiron

Manhood, Civilization, and Football at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School

Matthew Bentley and John D. Bloom

Hosted by Bennett Koerber

The Imperial Gridiron: Manhood, Civilization, and Football at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School (University of Nebraska Press, 2022) examines the competing versions of manhood at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School …

Military History July 22, 2023

Conquistadors and Aztecs

A History of the Fall of Tenochtitlan

Stefan Rinke

Hosted by AJ Woodhams

Five hundred years ago, a flotilla landed on the coast of Yucatán under the command of the Spanish conquistador Hérnan Cortés. While the official goal of the expedition was to …

Geography July 8, 2023

Quinoa

Food Politics and Agrarian Life in the Andean Highlands

Linda J. Seligmann

Hosted by Stentor Danielson

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Quinoa's new status as a superfood has altered the economic fortunes of Quechua farmers in the Andean highlands. Linda J. Seligmann journeys to the Huanoquite region of Peru to track …

Early Modern History July 5, 2023

Rethinking Zapotec Time

Cosmology, Ritual, and Resistance in Colonial Mexico

David Tavárez

Hosted by Krzysztof Odyniec

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Professor David Tavárez, historian and linguistic anthropologist, is Professor of Anthropology and at Vassar College. He is a specialist in Nahuatl and Zapotec texts, the study of Mesoamerican religions and …

American West June 23, 2023

California, a Slave State

Jean Pfaelzer

Hosted by Shu Wan

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California owes its origins and sunny prosperity to slavery. Spanish invaders captured Indigenous people to build the chain of Catholic missions. Russian otter hunters shipped Alaska Natives--the first slaves transported …