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Middle Eastern Studies December 3, 2022

Agents of the Hidden Imam

Forging Twelver Shi‘ism, 850-950 CE

Edmund Hayes

Hosted by Adam Bobeck
In 874 CE, the eleventh Imam died, and the Imami community splintered. The institutions of the Imamate were maintained by the dead Imam's agents, who asserted they were in contact …

General History

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Interviews with historians about their new books.

African Studies December 3, 2022

Decolonizing 1968

Transnational Student Activism in Tunis, Paris, and Dakar

Burleigh Hendrickson

Hosted by Elisa Prosperetti
Decolonizing 1968: Transnational Student Activism in Tunis, Paris, and Dakar (Cornell UP, 2022) explores how activists in 1968 transformed university campuses across Europe and North Africa into sites of contestation …
Art December 3, 2022

Foreshadowed

Malevich’s "Black Square" and Its Precursors

Andrew Spira

Hosted by Allison Leigh
When Kasimir’s Malevich’s Black Square was produced in 1915, no one had ever seen anything like it before. And yet it does have precedents. In fact, over the previous five …
Scholarly Communication December 3, 2022

Absent Presences in the Colonial Archive

Dealing with the Berlin Sound Archive's Acoustic Legacies

Irene Hilden

Hosted by Jen Hoyer
Dealing with the colonial archive entails acknowledging the inability to know everything, accounting for the archive’s limited and incomplete condition. Dealing with the colonial archive is not merely about stories …
Iberian Studies December 3, 2022

Women, Mysticism, and Hysteria in Fin-De-Siècle Spain

Jennifer Smith

Hosted by Carmen Gomez-Galisteo
Women, Mysticism, and Hysteria in Fin-De-Siècle Spain (Vanderbilt UP, 2021) argues that the reinterpretation of female mysticism as hysteria and nymphomania in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Spain was …
High Theory December 2, 2022

Civil Disobedience

A Discussion with Eraldo Souza dos Santos

Eraldo Souza dos Santos

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
Eraldo Souza dos Santos talks about the invention of civil disobedience as a form of political action around the world, and the need for its redefinition to describe activism present …
East Asian Studies December 2, 2022

Fragile Cargo

The World War II Race to Save the Treasures of China's Forbidden City

Adam Brookes

Hosted by Ed Pulford
The two parallel Palace Museums in Beijing and Taiwan, and their separate collections of thousands of precious artworks and artifacts from imperial times, reflects a key moment in the 1940s …
American West December 2, 2022

West Side Rising

How San Antonio's 1921 Flood Devastated a City and Sparked a Latino Environmental Justice Movement

Char Miller

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann
On September 9, 1921, a tropical storm raged above San Antonio, Texas. The rain that night flooded the city's many waterways, distributing unequal destruction throughout its many neighborhoods. For the whiter …
Military History December 1, 2022

The Wandering Army

The Campaigns That Transformed the British Way of War

Huw J. Davies

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
In The Wandering Army: The Campaigns that Transformed the British Way of War (Yale University Press, 2022), Dr. Huw J. Davies presents a compelling history of the British Army in …
Asian Review of Books December 1, 2022

The Sassoons

The Great Global Merchants and the Making of an Empire

Joseph Sassoon

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
The Sassoons were one of the great merchant families of the nineteenth century, alongside such names as the Jardines, the Mathesons, and the Swires. They dominated the India-China opium trade …
Diplomatic History December 1, 2022

The Nuclear Club

How America and the World Policed the Atom from Hiroshima to Vietnam

Jonathan R. Hunt

Hosted by Grant Golub
The Nuclear Club: How America and the World Policed the Atom from Hiroshima to Vietnam (Stanford UP, 2022) reveals how a coalition of powerful and developing states embraced global governance …
American Studies November 30, 2022

Heaven on the Hudson

Mansions, Monuments, and Marvels of Riverside Park

Stephanie Azzarone

Hosted by Robert Snyder
On the west side of Manhattan, Riverside Park winds between the banks of the Hudson River and the elegant housing of Riverside Drive. In her new book Heaven on the …
Medieval History November 30, 2022

The Invention of Byzantium in Early Modern Europe

Nathanael Aschenbrenner and Jake Ransohoff

Hosted by Evan Zarkadas
A gulf of centuries separates the Byzantine Empire from the academic field of Byzantine studies. The Invention of Byzantium in Early Modern Europe offers a new approach to the history …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones November 30, 2022

The Future of Xi and China

A Discussion with Sue Lin Wong

Sue Lin Wong

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
What will a Chinese-dominated world look like? And since Xi Jin Ping will probably rule China for life, what does he want to do; what does he believe in and …
Economic and Business History November 30, 2022

Impunity and Capitalism

The Afterlives of European Financial Crises, 1690–1830

Trevor Jackson

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Whose fault are financial crises, and who is responsible for stopping them, or repairing the damage? Impunity and Capitalism: The Afterlives of European Financial Crises, 1690-1830 (Cambridge University Press, 2022) …
Ukrainian Studies November 30, 2022

Ukraine, Food and History

Olena Braichenko, Maryna Hrymych, Ihor Lylo, and Vitaly Reznichenko

Hosted by Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed
Ukraine: Food and History (O. Braichenko, 2020) tells about the past and present of Ukrainian cuisine. It includes recipes of dishes that everyone can cook and local products, which together present …
Japanese Studies November 30, 2022

Overseas Shinto Shrines

Religion, Secularity and the Japanese Empire

Karli Shimizu

Hosted by Raditya Nuradi
Through extensive use of primary resources and fieldwork, Karli Shimizu's book Overseas Shinto Shrines: Religion, Secularity and the Japanese Empire (Bloomsbury, 2022) examines overseas Shinto shrines and their complex role in …
Catholic Studies November 29, 2022

Christian Anarchist

Ammon Hennacy, A Life on the Catholic Left

William Marling

Hosted by Jackson Reinhardt
Ammon Hennacy was arrested over thirty times for opposing US entry in World War 1. Later, when he refused to pay taxes that support war, he lost his wife and …
East Asian Studies November 29, 2022

The Politics of Time in China and Japan

Back to the Future

Viren Murthy

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
Drawing on a wide range of texts and using an interdisciplinary approach, The Politics of Time in China and Japan: Back to the Future (Routledge, 2022) by Viren Murthy shows …
Japanese Studies November 29, 2022

Blind in Early Modern Japan

Wei Yu Wayne Tan

Hosted by Jingyi Li
While the loss of sight—whether in early modern Japan or now—may be understood as a disability, blind people in the Tokugawa period (1600–1868) could thrive because of disability. The blind …