New Books Network Podcast

High Theory April 1, 2022

Welcome to High Theory!

Kim Adams and Soronik Bosu

Welcome to High Theory! High Theory is a podcast in which we get high on the substance of theory. And we ask the three standard questions, to each other, and …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Intellectual History November 23, 2022

Liberal Freedom

Pluralism, Polarization, and Politics

Eric MacGilvray

Hosted by Keith Krueger

The liberalism that is defended here is therefore itself an object of political contestation, and not just the background against which such contestation takes place. If we can look to …

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 …

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 …

Religion November 23, 2022

The Secular Imaginary

Gandhi, Nehru and the Idea(s) of India

Sushmita Nath

Hosted by Tiatemsu Longkumer

Political Science November 22, 2022

The Modern Presidency

Six Debates That Define the Institution

Michael Genovese

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

The Modern Presidency: Six Debates That Define the Institution (Columbia University Press, 2022) is a concisely written book that helps makes sense of the most powerful office in America. Michael frames …

Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas with Renee Garfinkel November 22, 2022

Seek and Hide

The Tangled History of the Right to Privacy

Amy Gajda

Hosted by Renee Garfinkel

Should everyone have privacy in their personal lives? Can privacy exist in a public place? Is there a right to be left alone, even in the United States? The battle …

Intellectual History November 22, 2022

Pray for Brother Alexander

Translated by Octavian Gabor

Constantin Noica

Hosted by Adrian Guiu

Constantin Noica's (1909-1987) Pray for Brother Alexander (Punctum Books, 2018; translated by Octavian Gabor) is a meditation on responsibility, freedom, and forgiveness. On the surface, the book describes events and people from …

Writ Large November 22, 2022

On Michel Foucault's "Discipline and Punish"

A Discussion with Camille Robcis

Camille Robcis

Hosted by Zachary Davis

We moderns often tell ourselves a story that goes something like this: The past was barbaric, especially when it came to punishing criminals or persecuting minorities. Legal punishment used to …

Genocide Studies November 22, 2022

Genocide

Key Themes

Donald Bloxham and A. Dirk Moses

Hosted by Kelly McFall

Donald Bloxham and Dirk Moses have offered us a unique opportunity--a chance to see authors and editors in conversation with each other and themselves about the state and nature of …

Philosophy November 21, 2022

The Tattvasaṃgraha Of Śāntarakṣita

Selected Metaphysical Chapters

Charles Goodman

Hosted by Malcolm Keating

The Tattvasaṃgraha of Śāntarakṣita: Selected Metaphysical Chapters (Oxford University Press, 2022) collects excerpts from a massive encyclopedic work of the late period of Buddhism in India. Translator Charles Goodman has …

African Studies November 21, 2022

Social Justice at Apartheid's Dawn

African Women Intellectuals and the Quest to Save the Nation

Dawne Y. Curry

Hosted by Amanda Joyce Hall

Dawne Y. Curry’s Social Justice at Apartheid’s Dawn: African Women Intellectuals and the Quest to Save the Nation (Palgrave MacMillan, 2022), which examines the role of African women in the conversation …

Middle Eastern Studies November 21, 2022

Assyrians in Modern Iraq

Negotiating Political and Cultural Space

Alda Benjamen

Hosted by Roberto Mazza

Today I talked to Alda Benjamen about his book Assyrians in Modern Iraq: Negotiating Political and Cultural Space (Cambridge UP, 2021) Examining the relationship between a strengthened Iraqi state under the Baʿth …

On Religion November 21, 2022

The Magi

Who They Were, How They've Been Remembered, and Why They Still Fascinate

Eric Vanden Eykel

Hosted by Gregory Soden

George Tyrrell insisted that the quest for the historical Jesus was no more than scholars staring into a well to see their own reflections staring back. Jesus is the mirror …

Irish Studies November 18, 2022

Learning behind Bars

How IRA Prisoners Shaped the Peace Process in Ireland

Dieter Reinisch

Hosted by Aidan Beatty

Dieter Reinisch is a Government of Ireland Irish Research Council Fellow in the School of Political Science and Sociology, University of Galway, and an Adjunct Professor in International Relations at …

Critical Theory November 18, 2022

Abolish the Family

A Manifesto for Care and Liberation

Sophie Lewis

Hosted by Oana Uiorean

What if family were not the only place you might hope to feel safe, loved, cared for and accepted? What if we could do better than the family? We need …

Writ Large November 18, 2022

On Sigmund Freud's "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality"

A Discussion with George Paul Meiu

George Paul Meiu

Hosted by Zachary Davis

Sigmund Freud is probably best known as the founder of psychoanalysis. In his clinical practice, he established theories on how the human psyche develops and behaves, and his 1905 text …