New Books Network
History
Buddhist Studies June 25, 2021

Worldly Saviors and Imperial Authority in Medieval Chinese Buddhism

April D. Hughes

Hosted by Natasha Heller
What is the relationship between Buddhism and politics? How might Buddhism be realized in this world? And how might Buddhist texts help legitimate new rulers? These questions are ably addressed …

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Law June 25, 2021

Lawmaking Under Pressure

International Humanitarian Law and Internal Armed Conflict

Giovanni Mantilla

Hosted by Yi Ning Chang
Giovanni Mantilla’s new book, Lawmaking under Pressure: International Humanitarian Law and Internal Armed Conflict (Cornell University Press, 2020), traces the origins and development of the international humanitarian treaty rules that …
Jewish Studies June 25, 2021

Polacos in Argentina

Polish Jews, Interwar Migration, and the Emergence of Transatlantic Jewish Culture

Mariusz Kalczewiak

Hosted by Max Kaiser
In Polacos in Argentina: Polish Jews, Interwar Migration, and the Emergence of Transatlantic Jewish Culture (University of Alabama Press, 2020), Dr. Mariusz Kałczewiak, senior research associate and lecturer in the …
Performing Arts June 25, 2021

From Aphra Behn to Fun Home

A Cultural History of Feminist Theater

Carey Purcell

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Theatre has long been considered a feminine interest for which women consistently purchase the majority of tickets, while the shows they are seeing typically are written and brought to the …
LGBTQ+ Studies June 25, 2021

The Lexington Six

Lesbian and Gay Resistance in 1970s America

Josephine Donovan

Hosted by John Marszalek
On September 23, 1970, a group of antiwar activists staged a robbery at a bank in Massachusetts, during which a police officer was killed. While the three men who participated …
Celebration Studies June 25, 2021

Rituality and Social (Dis)Order

The Historical Anthropology of Popular Carnival in Europe

Alessandro Testa

Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen
Rituality and Social (Dis)Order: The Historical Anthropology of Popular Carnival in Europe (Routledge, 2020) is the first comparative historical anthropology of popular European Carnival in the English language, with a focus on its …
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 …
History June 24, 2021

The Road Less Traveled

The Secret Battle to End the Great War, 1916-1917

Philip Zelikow

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
During a pivotal few months in the middle of the First World War all sides-Germany, Britain, and America-believed the war could be concluded. Peace at the end of 1916 would …
Asian American Studies June 24, 2021

Mahjong

A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture

Annelise Heinz

Hosted by Ian Shin
Mahjong: many have played the game, but few are familiar with its rich and complex history. In Mahjong: A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture (Oxford University Press …
History June 24, 2021

Legions of Pigs in the Early Medieval West

Jamie Kreiner

Hosted by Jana Byars
On this episode of New Books in History, Jamie Kreiner, Associate Professor of History at the University of Georgia, talks about her new book, Legions of Pigs in the Early …
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 …
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 …
Middle Eastern Studies June 24, 2021

Brokers of Faith, Brokers of Empire

Armenians and the Politics of Reform in the Ottoman Empire

Richard Antaramian

Hosted by Deren Ertas
In today's program, I speak with Richard E. Antaramian about his recent monograph, Brokers of Faith, Brokers of Empire: Armenians and the Politics of Reform in the Ottoman Empire (Stanford University Press, 2020).  …
Russian and Eurasian Studies June 24, 2021

Flowers Through Concrete

Explorations in Soviet Hippieland

Juliane Fürst

Hosted by Amanda Jeanne Swain
Flowers Through Concrete: Explorations in Soviet Hippieland (Oxford University Press, 2021) is the first chronological history of Soviet hippies, tracing their beginnings in the 1960s through the movement’s maturity and ritualization in the 1970s …
Asian Review of Books June 24, 2021

Indians

A Brief History of a Civilization

Namit Arora

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
We can sometimes forget that “India”—or the idea of a single unified entity—is not a very old concept. Indian history is complicated and convoluted: different societies, polities and cultures rise …
History June 23, 2021

Nothing Happened

A History

Susan Crane

Hosted by Jana Byars
The past is what happened. History is what we remember and write about that past, the narratives we craft to make sense out of our memories and their sources. But …
History June 23, 2021

Justifying Revolution

The Early American Clergy and Political Resistance

Gary Lee Steward

Hosted by Zachary McCulley
Gary Lee Steward's Justifying Revolution: The Early American Clergy and Political Resistance (Oxford University Press, 2021) explores the patriot clergymen's arguments for the legitimacy of political resistance to the British in …
Eastern European Studies June 23, 2021

Prague

Belonging in the Modern City

Chad Bryant

Hosted by Steven Seegel
What does it mean to belong somewhere? For many of Prague's inhabitants, belonging has been linked to the nation, embodied in the capital city. Grandiose medieval buildings and monuments to …
History June 23, 2021

Stalin's War

A New History of World War II

Sean McMeekin

Hosted by Charles Coutinho
World War II endures in the popular imagination as a heroic struggle between good and evil, with villainous Hitler driving its events. But Hitler was not in power when the …
African American Studies June 22, 2021

Sailing to Freedom

Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad

Timothy D. Walker

Hosted by N'Kosi Oates
More than 70 percent of the 103 pre-Emancipation slave narratives acknowledged using waterways as their method for escaping enslavement. However, much of the scholarship on the Underground Railroad has centered …