American South

American South

episodes

Interviews with scholars of the American South about their new books.

Max Fraser, "Hillbilly Highway: The Transappalachian Migration and the Making of a White Working Class" (Princeton UP, 2023)

March 20, 2024

Hillbilly Highway

Max Fraser
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Over the first two-thirds of the twentieth century, as many as eight million whites left the economically depressed southern countryside and migrated …

Whitney Nell Stewart, "This Is Our Home: Slavery and Struggle on Southern Plantations" (UNC Press, 2023)

March 15, 2024

This Is Our Home

Whitney Nell Stewart
Hosted by Katrina Anderson

The cultural memory of plantations in the Old South has long been clouded by myth. A recent reckoning with the centrality of slavery to the US nationa…

Jonathan W. White, "Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023)

March 15, 2024

Shipwrecked

Jonathan W. White

In Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023), historian Jonathan…

Thomas Mareite, "Conditional Freedom: Free Soil and Fugitive Slaves from the U.S. South to Mexico's Northeast, 1803-1861" (Brill, 2024)

March 13, 2024

Conditional Freedom

Thomas Mareite
Hosted by Katrina Anderson

While the literature on slave flight in nineteenth-century North America has commonly focused on fugitive slaves escaping to the U.S. North and Canada…

Sean M. Kelley, "American Slavers: Merchants, Mariners, and the Transatlantic Commerce in Captives, 1644-1865" (Yale UP, 2023)

March 10, 2024

American Slavers

Sean M. Kelley
Hosted by Katrina Anderson

A total of 305,000 enslaved Africans arrived in the New World aboard American vessels over a span of two hundred years as American merchants and marin…

Ilyon Woo, "Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom" (Simon and Schuster, 2023)

March 9, 2024

Master Slave Husband Wife

Ilyon Woo
Hosted by Katrina Anderson

Ilyon Woo's Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom (Simon and Schuster, 2023) tells the remarkable true story of Ellen and…

Edda Fields-Black, "Combee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War" (Oxford UP, 2023)

March 7, 2024

Combee

Edda Fields-Black
Hosted by Katrina Anderson

Most Americans know of Harriet Tubman's legendary life: escaping enslavement in 1849, she led more than 60 others out of bondage via the Underground R…

Kristine M. McCusker, "Just Enough to Put Him Away Decent: Death Care, Life Extension, and the Making of a Healthier South, 1900-1955" (U Illinois Press, 2023)

March 2, 2024

Just Enough to Put Him Away Decent

Kristine M. McCusker
Hosted by Julie Rugg

Kristine M. McCusker's book Just Enough to Put Him Away Decent: Death Care, Life Extension, and the Making of a Healthier South, 1900-1955 (U Illinois…

Neema Avashia, "Another Appalachia: Coming Up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place" (West Virginia UP, 2022)

February 25, 2024

Another Appalachia

Neema Avashia
Hosted by Julia Lee

Neema Avashia is the daughter of Indian immigrants and was born and raised in southern West Virginia. She has been an educator and activist in the Bos…

Matthew Fox-Amato, "Exposing Slavery: Photography, Human Bondage, and the Birth of Modern Visual Politics in America" (Oxford UP, 2019)

February 24, 2024

Exposing Slavery

Matthew Fox-Amato

Shortly after its introduction, photography transformed the ways Americans made political arguments using visual images. In the mid-19th century, phot…

Gregory D. Smithers, "Native Southerners: Indigenous History from Origins to Removal" (U Oklahoma Press, 2019)

February 23, 2024

Native Southerners

Gregory D. Smithers
Hosted by Colin Mustful

In his book, Native Southerners: Indigenous History from Origins to Removal (University of Oklahoma Press, 2019), Dr. Gregory D. Smithers effectively …

Norman Hill and Velma Murphy Hill, "Climbing the Rough Side of the Mountain: The Extraordinary Story of Love, Civil Rights, and Labor Activism" (Regalo Press, 2023)

February 17, 2024

Climbing the Rough Side of the Mountain

Norman Hill and Velma Murphy Hill
Hosted by Thomas Discenna

The remarkable story of a couple who came together during the civil rights movement and made fighting for equality and civil and workers' rights their…

Jeanne Theoharis, "The Strange Careers of the Jim Crow North: Segregation and Struggle outside of the South" (NYU Press, 2019)

February 12, 2024

The Strange Careers of the Jim Crow North

Jeanne Theoharis
Hosted by Beth Harpaz

In this New Books Network/Gotham Center for NYC History podcast, guest host Beth Harpaz, editor of the City University of New York website SUM, interv…

Todd Mildfelt and David D. Schafer, "Abolitionist of the Most Dangerous Kind: James Montgomery and His War on Slavery" (U Oklahoma Press, 2023)

February 5, 2024

Abolitionist of the Most Dangerous Kind

Todd Mildfelt and David D. Schafer
Hosted by Deidre Tyler

A controversial character largely known (as depicted in the movie Glory) as a Union colonel who led Black soldiers in the Civil War, James Montgomery …

Elizabeth Varon, "Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South" (Simon & Schuster, 2023)

February 4, 2024

Longstreet

Elizabeth Varon
Hosted by Deidre Tyler

An authoritative biography of the controversial Confederate general, who later embraced Reconstruction and became an outcast in the South. It was the…

Ethel Morgan Smith, "Path to Grace: Reimagining the Civil Rights Movement" (UP of Mississippi, 2023)

January 26, 2024

Path to Grace

Ethel Morgan Smith

The civil rights movement is often defined narrowly, relegated to the 1950s and 1960s, and populated by such colossal figures as Martin Luther King Jr…

Joseph C. Russo, "Hard Luck and Heavy Rain: The Ecology of Stories in Southeast Texas" (Duke UP, 2022)

January 21, 2024

Hard Luck and Heavy Rain

Joseph C. Russo
Hosted by Armanc Yildiz

In Hard Luck and Heavy Rain: The Ecology of Stories in Southeast Texas (Duke UP, 2023), Joseph C. Russo takes readers into the everyday lives of the r…

Scott Gac, "Born in Blood: Violence and the Making of America" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

January 18, 2024

Born in Blood

Scott Gac
Hosted by Mark Klobas

Scott Gac's Born in Blood: Violence and the Making of America (Cambridge UP, 2023) investigates one of history's most violent undertakings: The United…

Bradley R. Clampitt, "Lost Causes: Confederate Demobilization and the Making of Veteran Identity" (LSU Press, 2022)

January 18, 2024

Lost Causes

Bradley R. Clampitt
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Lost Causes: Confederate Demobilization and the Making of Veteran Identity (LSU Press, 2022) by Dr. Bradley R. Clampitt is a groundbreaking analysis o…

Aimee Loiselle, "Beyond Norma Rae: How Puerto Rican and Southern White Women Fought for a Place in the American Working Class" (UNC Press, 2023)

January 17, 2024

Beyond Norma Rae

Aimee Loiselle
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

In the late 1970s, Hollywood producers took the published biography of Crystal Lee Sutton, a white southern textile worker, and transformed it into a …