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African American Studies November 25, 2022

New Growth

The Art and Texture of Black Hair

Jasmine Nichole Cobb

Hosted by Mickell Carter
From Frederick Douglass to Angela Davis, “natural hair” has been associated with the Black freedom struggle. In New Growth: The Art and Texture of Black Hair (Duke UP, 2022), Jasmine …

General History

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Interviews with historians about their new books.

African American Studies November 25, 2022

The Education of Betsey Stockton

An Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom

Gregory Nobles

Hosted by Katrina Anderson
The life of Betsey Stockton (ca. 1798–1865) is a remarkable story of a Black woman’s journey from slavery to emancipation, from antebellum New Jersey to the Hawai‘ian Islands, and from …
British Studies November 25, 2022

Under Fire

Black Britain in Wartime 1939-45

Stephen Bourne

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
In Under Fire: Black Britain in Wartime 1939-45 (The History Press, 2020), Stephen Bourne tells the whole story of Britain's black community during World War II. On the home front, civilians …
African American Studies November 25, 2022

Love, Activism, and the Respectable Life of Alice Dunbar-Nelson

Tara T. Green

Hosted by Adam McNeil
Born in New Orleans in 1875 to a mother who was formerly enslaved and a father of questionable identity, Alice Dunbar-Nelson was a pioneering activist, writer, suffragist, and educator. Until …
Christian Studies November 25, 2022

Ringleaders of Redemption

How Medieval Dance Became Sacred

Kathryn Dickason

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
In popular thought, Christianity is often figured as being opposed to dance. Conventional scholarship traces this controversy back to the Middle Ages. Historical sources, however, suggest that medieval dance was a …
Military History November 25, 2022

The Military and the Market

Jennifer Mittelstadt and Mark R. Wilson

Hosted by Alex Beckstrand
Throughout its history, the U.S. military has worked in close connection to market-based institutions and structures. It has run systems of free and unfree labor, taken over private sector firms …
Genocide Studies November 25, 2022

Anthropological Witness

Lessons from the Khmer Rouge Tribunal

Alexander Laban Hinton

Hosted by Jeff Bachman
Anthropological Witness: Lessons from the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (Cornell UP, 2022) tells the story of Alexander Laban Hinton's encounter with an accused architect of genocide and, more broadly, Hinton's attempt …
Film November 25, 2022

Truly, Madly

Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, and the Romance of the Century

Stephen Galloway

Hosted by Daniel Moran
A sweeping and heartbreaking Hollywood biography about the passionate, turbulent marriage of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. In 1934, a friend brought fledgling actress Vivien Leigh to see Theatre …
Irish Studies November 24, 2022

Charles Owen O'Conor, the O'Conor Don

Landlordism, Liberal Catholicism and Unionism in Nineteenth-Century Ireland

Aidan Enright

Hosted by Aidan Beatty
Aidan Enright holds a PhD in History from Queen’s University Belfast and is an Associate Researcher and Part-Time Lecturer in History at Leeds Beckett University, where he teaches Modern British …
Asian Review of Books November 24, 2022

Himalaya

Exploring the Roof of the World

John Keay

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
“History has not been kind to Himalaya,” writes historian and travel writer John Keay in his latest book Himalaya: Exploring the Roof of the World (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2022). The region …
Medicine November 24, 2022

Masters of Health

Racial Science and Slavery in US Medical Schools

Christopher Willoughby

Hosted by Claire Clark
Medical science in antebellum America was organized around a paradox: it presumed African Americans to be less than human yet still human enough to be viable as experimental subjects, as …
Indian Religions November 24, 2022

Wonders and Rarities

The Marvelous Book That Traveled the World and Mapped the Cosmos

Travis Zadeh

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
During the thirteenth century, the Persian naturalist and judge Zakariyyāʾ Qazwīnī authored what became one of the most influential works of natural history in the world: Wonders and Rarities. Exploring …
Russian and Eurasian Studies November 24, 2022

Russia and the Dutch Republic, 1566–1725

A Forgotten Friendship

Kees Boterbloem

Hosted by Erika Monahan
Once upon a time, it was said that Russia was isolated and ignorant until Peter the Great opened Russia to the West and ushered in modernization. While Tsar Peter I …
Film November 24, 2022

Billy Wilder

Dancing on the Edge

Joseph McBride

Hosted by Morteza Hajizadeh
The director and cowriter of some of the world's most iconic films―including Double Indemnity, Sunset Blvd., Some Like It Hot, and The Apartment―Billy Wilder earned acclaim as American cinema's greatest …
Sports November 24, 2022

The NBA in Black and White

The Memoir of a Trailblazing NBA Player and Coach

Ray Scott with Charley Rosen

Hosted by Paul Knepper
“There’s a basic insecurity with Black guys my size,” Scott writes. “We can’t hide and everybody turns to stare when we walk down the street. … Whites believe that their …
Japanese Studies November 24, 2022

Outcasts of Empire

Japan's Rule on Taiwan's "Savage Border," 1874-1945

Paul D. Barclay

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
Outcasts of Empire: Japan’s Rule on Taiwan’s “Savage Border,” 1874-1945 (University of California Press, 2018) by Paul D. Barclay unveils the causes and consequences of capitalism’s failure to “batter down …
African American Studies November 23, 2022

Black Bodies, White Gold

Art, Cotton, and Commerce in the Atlantic World

Anna Arabindan-Kesson

Hosted by Adam McNeil
In Black Bodies, White Gold: Art, Cotton, and Commerce in the Atlantic World (Duke UP, 2021), Anna Arabindan-Kesson uses cotton, a commodity central to the slave trade and colonialism, as …
Popular Culture November 23, 2022

Lawrence Tierney

Hollywood's Real-Life Tough Guy

Burt Kearns

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In his latest book, Lawrence Tierney: Hollywood's Real-Life Tough Guy (The University of Kentucky Press, 2022) Burt Kearns explores the life of actor Lawrence Tierney (1919-2002) whose natural swagger and gruff disposition …
Jewish Studies November 23, 2022

A Ukrainian Chapter

A Jewish Aid Worker’s Memoir Of Sorrow

Eli Gumener (trans. Michael Eli Nutkiewicz)

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Today I talked to Michael Eli Nutkiewicz about his translation A Ukrainian Chapter: A Jewish Aid Worker’s Memoir Of Sorrow (Slavica, 2022).  Eli Gumener’s 1921 Yiddish memoir, A Ukrainian Chapter, is …
Intellectual History November 23, 2022

The Books that Made the European Enlightenment

A History in 12 Case Studies

Gary Kates

Hosted by Zalman Newfield
In The Books that Made the European Enlightenment: A History in 12 Case Studies (‎Bloomsbury Academic, 2022), Gary Kates looks at the multifaceted significance of bestsellers from the time. Kates …