New Books Network
American South
African American Studies February 23, 2021

Women's War

Fighting and Surviving the Civil War

Stephanie Mccurry

Hosted by Jerrad Pacatte
In Women's War: Fighting and Surviving the Civil War (Harvard UP, 2019), the award-winning author of Confederate Reckoning challenges the idea that women are outside of war, through a trio of dramatic …

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Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight February 11, 2021

Bluegrass Ambassadors

The McLain Family Band in Appalachia and the World

Paul O. Jenkins

Hosted by Dan Hill
Today I talked to Paul O. Jenkins about his book Bluegrass Ambassadors: The McLain Family Band in Appalachia and the World (West Virginia UP, 2020). This episode covers a band that defies …
Science, Technology, and Society February 5, 2021

Jim Crow Sociology

The Black and Southern Roots of American Sociology

Earl Wright, II

Hosted by Chad Valasek
Jim Crow Sociology: The Black and Southern Roots of American Sociology (U Cincinnati Press, 2020) is an extraordinary new volume that examines the origin, development, and significance of Black Sociology through the …
Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight January 21, 2021

The Saddest Words

William Faulkner's Civil War

Michael Gorra

Hosted by Dan Hill
Today I talked to Michael Gorra about his new book The Saddest Words: William Faulkner's Civil War (Liveright, 2020). This episode touches on two of William Faulkner’s novels in particular: The Sound and …
Celebration Studies January 19, 2021

City of a Million Dreams

A History of New Orleans at Year 300

Jason Berry

Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen
In City of a Million Dreams: A History of New Orleans at Year 300 (University of North Carolina Press, 2018), Jason Berry delivers a history of New Orleans at its tricentennial. Beyond …
LGBTQ+ Studies January 18, 2021

Live At Jackson Station

Music, Community, and Tragedy in a Southern Blues Bar

Daniel M. Harrison

Hosted by Morris Ardoin
The smoke was thick, the music was loud, and the beer was flowing. In the fast-and-loose 1980s, Jackson Station Rhythm & Blues Club in Hodges, South Carolina, was a festive …
Dan Hill's EQ Spotlight January 14, 2021

Soul Full of Coal Dust

The True Story of an Epic Battle for Justice

Chris Hamby

Hosted by Dan Hill
Today I talked to Chris Hamby about his book Soul Full of Coal Dust: The True Story of an Epic Battle for Justice (Little Brown, 2020). Hamby looks into why there has …
History January 5, 2021

A Different Manifest Destiny

U. S. Southern Identity and Citizenship in Nineteenth-Century South America

Claire M. Wolnisty

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
The story of Manifest Destiny and the role of expansion in American slavery is dominated by the history of Western migration. In A Different Manifest Destiny: U.S. Southern Identity and …
Medicine December 29, 2020

Pure America

Eugenics and the Making of Modern Virginia

Elizabeth Catte

Hosted by Claire Clark
Between 1927 and 1979, more than 8,000 people were involuntarily sterilized in five hospitals across the state of Virginia. From this plain and terrible fact springs Elizabeth Catte's Pure America …
LGBTQ+ Studies December 28, 2020

Queer Voices of the South

Year in Review

John Marszalek, Pip Gordon and Morris Ardoin

Hosted by Morris Ardoin
In this final episode of 2020, New Books Network hosts and fellow authors take a look back at the evolution of their podcast Queer Voices of the South, recount their …
LGBTQ+ Studies December 22, 2020

The Lonely Letters

Ashon T. Crawley

Hosted by John Marszalek
In The Lonely Letters (Duke UP, 2020), A tells Moth: “Writing about and thinking with joy is what sustains me, daily. It nourishes me. I do not write about joy primarily because …
Folklore December 4, 2020

When They Blew the Levee

Race, Politics, and Community in Pinhook, Missouri

David Todd Lawrence and Elaine J. Lawless

Hosted by Nancy Yan
The town of Pinhook in Missouri was founded in the 1940s by southern Black farmers who were looking for land that they could purchase and own in the face of …
Biography December 1, 2020

The Life of William Faulkner

This Alarming Paradox, 1935-1962

Carl Rollyson

Hosted by Mark Klobas
By 1935 William Faulkner was well established as an author of critically praised novels, yet the low volume of his sales forced him to seek work in Hollywood. As Carl …
LGBTQ+ Studies November 17, 2020

Gay Faulkner

Uncovering a Homosexual Presence in Yoknapatawpha and Beyond

Phillip Gordon

Hosted by Morris Ardoin
The life and works of William Faulkner have generated numerous biographical studies exploring how Faulkner understood southern history, race, his relationship to art, and his place in the canons of …
LGBTQ+ Studies October 19, 2020

Stone Motel

Memoirs of a Cajun Boy

Morris Ardoin

Hosted by John Marszalek
In the summers of the early 1970s, Morris Ardoin and his siblings helped run their family's roadside motel in a hot, buggy, bayou town in Cajun Louisiana. The stifling, sticky …
American Studies October 2, 2020

Basket Diplomacy

Leadership, Alliance-Building, and Resilience among the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, 1884-1984

Denise E. Bates

Hosted by David Dry
Before the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana became one of the state’s top private employers—with its vast landholdings and economic enterprises—they lived well below the poverty line and lacked any clear …
African American Studies September 10, 2020

Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865-1968

Boris Heersink and Jeffery A. Jenkins

Hosted by Lilly Goren
Prior to the 1960s, Democrats were seen as having a lock on the South in national and local electoral politics, while Republicans had strengths in other parts of the country …
Gender Studies September 2, 2020

Coming Out of the Magnolia Closet

Same-Sex Couples in Mississippi

John F. Marszalek III

Hosted by Christopher Babits
In Coming Out of the Magnolia Closet: Same-Sex Couples in Mississippi (University of Mississippi Press, 2020), John F. Marszalek III shares conversations with same-sex couples living in small-town and rural …
American South August 21, 2020

Redefining the Immigrant South

Indian and Pakistani Immigration to Houston During the Cold War

Uzma Quraishi

Hosted by Allison Leigh
In Redefining the Immigrant South: Indian and Pakistani Immigration to Houston During the Cold War (University of North Carolina Press), Uzma Quraishi (Sam Houston State University) follows the Cold War-era …
American Studies August 18, 2020

Union

The Struggle to Forge the Story of United States Nationhood

Colin Woodard

Hosted by Diana De Pasquale
Colin Woodard's new book Union: The Struggle to Forge the Story of United States Nationhood (Viking, 2020) tells the story of the struggle to create a national myth for the …