New Books Network
Biography
Biography July 29, 2021

Philip Payton

The Father of Black Harlem

Kevin McGruder

Hosted by Dan Hill
Today I talked to Kevin McGruder about his new book Philip Payton: The Father of Black Harlem (Columbia UP, 2021) In a moment of hope, even faith, African-Americans inspired by Booker T …

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African Studies July 28, 2021

Kwame Anthony Appiah

Christopher J. Lee

Hosted by Esperanza Brizuela-Garcia
Kwame Anthony Appiah is among the most respected philosophers and thinkers of his generation. In Kwame Anthony Appiah (Routledge, 2021), Christopher Lee introduces the reader not only to the contributions …
Eastern European Studies July 27, 2021

Milan Rastislav Štefánik

The Slovak National Hero and Co-Founder of Czechoslovakia

Michal Kšiňan

Hosted by Leslie Waters
Michal Kšiňan’s Milan Rastislav Štefánik: The Slovak National Hero and Co-Founder of Czechoslovakia is the first scientific biography of Milan Rastislav Štefánik (1880–1919) that is focused on analyzing the process …
Jewish Studies July 27, 2021

Nahmanides

Law and Mysticism

Moshe Halbertal

Hosted by Michael Morales
Rabbi Moses ben Nahman (1194–1270), known in English as Nahmanides and by the acronym the Ramban, was one of the most creative kabbalists, one of the deepest and most original …
Archaeology July 27, 2021

Olga Tufnell’s 'Perfect Journey'

Letters and Photographs of an Archaeologist in the Levant and Mediterranean

John D.M. Green and Ros Henry

Hosted by Samuel Pfister
Olga Tufnell (1905–85) was a British archaeologist working in Egypt, Cyprus, and Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s, a period often described as a golden age of archaeological discovery. Tufnell …
Literature July 27, 2021

The Thin Ledge

A Husband’s Memoir of Love, Trauma, and Unexpected Circumstances

Daniel Shapiro

Hosted by G. P. Gottlieb
Daniel Shapiro was a successful attorney in his early forties when his wife, Susan, suffered a brain bleed and a diagnosis that her future was uncertain. Stunned, and with three …
Language July 26, 2021

No Future in This Country

The Prophetic Pessimism of Bishop Henry Mcneal Turner

Andre E. Johnson

Hosted by Lee Pierce
No Future in This Country: The Prophetic Pessimism of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner (U Mississippi Press, 2020) is a history of the career of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner (1834–1915), specifically focusing …
Gender Studies July 23, 2021

Beauvoir in Time

Meryl Altman

Hosted by Lilian Calles Barger
Meryl Altman's new book Beauvoir in Time, published by Brill Rodopi Press (2020), situates Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex (1949) in its historical context and responds to criticism that …
Journalism July 16, 2021

First to Fall

Elijah Lovejoy and the Fight for a Free Press in the Age of Slavery

Ken Ellingwood

Hosted by Jenna Spinelle
In First to Fall: Elijah Lovejoy and the Fight for a Free Press in the Age of Slavery (Pegasus Books, 2021), Ken Ellingwood takes readers back to the first true test of the …
Literary Studies July 15, 2021

Dweller in Shadows

A Life of Ivor Gurney

Kate Kennedy

Hosted by Duncan McCargo
The First World War poet and composer Ivor Gurney (1890–1937) spent the last fifteen years of his life confined in a Kent mental hospital before dying prematurely of tuberculosis. How good was Gurney's war poetry …
Cover Story July 13, 2021

What Can Wittgenstein Teach Us About Raising Our Kids?

A Discussion with Ryan Ruby

Ryan Ruby

Hosted by Agata Popeda
Ryan Ruby is a writer and translator from Los Angeles, California. His fiction and criticism have appeared in The New York Review of Books, The Paris Review Daily, Conjunctions, n+1 …
Biography July 5, 2021

How Ike Led

The Principles Behind Eisenhower's Biggest Decisions

Susan Eisenhower

Hosted by Colin Miller
Few people have made decisions as momentous as Eisenhower, nor has one person had to make such a varied range of them. From D-Day to Little Rock, from the Korean …
Literature July 5, 2021

The Natural Mother of the Child

A Memoir of Nonbinary Parenthood

Krys Malcolm Belc

Hosted by Zoe Bossiere
This year, transgender liberation is at the forefront of Pride Month discourse, with a staggering number of conservative, religious, and gender critical-backed bills challenging trans people’s rights to use public …
Middle Eastern Studies June 25, 2021

Ahmad ibn Tulun

Governor of Abbasid Egypt, 868–884

Matthew S. Gordon

Hosted by Christopher Rose
Ahmad Ibn Tulun: Governor of Abbasid Egypt, 868-884 (Oneworld Academic, 2021), by Matthew S. Gordon (Miami University (Ohio)) is an innovative look at the Abbasid governor of Egypt from …
Music June 24, 2021

George Frederick Bristow

Katherine K. Preston

Hosted by Kristen Turner
George Frederick Bristow, born in 1825, was a significant musical figure in the United States from the 1850s until his death in 1898. Now, almost one hundred years after his …
Biography June 24, 2021

Unsung Hero of Gettysburg

The Story of Union General David McMurtrie Gregg

Edward G. Longacre

Hosted by Dan Hill
Today I talked to Edward G. Longacre about his new book Unsung Hero of Gettysburg: The Story of Union General David McMurtrie Gregg (University of Nebraska Press, 2021). On the 3rd …
Christian Studies June 23, 2021

John Calvin in Context

R. Ward Holder

Hosted by Zachary McCulley
John Calvin in Context (Cambridge UP, 2019) offers a comprehensive overview of Calvin's world. Including essays from social, cultural, feminist, and intellectual historians, each specially commissioned for this volume, the book …
General History June 22, 2021

Inside Money

Brown Brothers Harriman and the American Way of Power

Zachary Karabell

Hosted by Mark Klobas
In 1800 a Belfast linen merchant named Alexander Brown emigrated with his wife and eldest son to Baltimore. Today his family’s name lives on in the investment firm Brown Brothers …
Performing Arts June 21, 2021

Beeswing

Losing My Way and Finding My Voice 1967-1975

Richard Thompson

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Richard Thompson's Beeswing: Losing My Way and Finding My Voice 1967-1975 (Algonquin Books, 2021) gives fans of his music a tale as rollicking and entertaining as the reels and ballads he …
Art June 18, 2021

The Late Works of J. M. W. Turner

The Artist and His Critics

Samuel Smiles

Hosted by Allison Leigh
The paintings and drawings Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) produced from 1835 to his death are seen by many as his most audacious and compelling work, a highly personal final …