New Books Network
Celebration Studies
Performing Arts October 26, 2020

Radical Ritual

How Burning Man Changed the World

Neil Shister

Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen
Written from Neil Shister’s perspective as a journalist, student of American culture, and six-time participant in Burning Man, Radical Ritual: How Burning Man Changed the World (Counterpoint, 2019) presents the …

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Music September 29, 2020

Everyone Loves Live Music

A Theory of Performance Institutions

Fabian Holt

Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen
In Everyone Loves Live Music: A Theory of Performance Institutions (University of Chicago Press), Fabian Holt shows how festivals and other institutions of musical performance have evolved in recent decades …
Folklore September 17, 2020

Public Performances

Studies in the Carnivalesque and Ritualesque

Jack Santino

Hosted by Isabel Machado
Public Performances: Studies in the Carnivalesque and Ritualesque (University Press of Colorado) offers a deep and wide-ranging exploration of relationships among genres of public performance and of the underlying political …
American Studies August 19, 2020

Unfair Labor?

American Indians and the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago

David R. B. Beck

Hosted by Stephen Hausmann
The 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition was in many ways the crowning event of the nineteenth century United States. Held in Chicago, the metropolis of the West, and visited by tens …
Performing Arts August 10, 2020

New Orleans Carnival Balls

The Secret Side of Mardi Gras, 1870-1920

Jennifer Atkins

Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen
In New Orleans Carnival Balls: The Secret Side of Mardi Gras, 1870-1920 (LSU Press, 2017), Dr. Jennifer Atkins draws back the curtain on the origin of the exclusive Mardi Gras …
American Studies July 29, 2020

Newest Born of Nations

European Nationalist Movements and the Making of the Confederacy

Ann Tucker

Hosted by Christopher Babits
From the earliest stirrings of southern nationalism to the defeat of the Confederacy, analysis of European nationalist movements played a critical role in how southerners thought about their new southern …
American Studies June 18, 2020

The Commemoration of Women in the United States

Remembering Women in Public Space

Teresa Bergman

Hosted by Lee Pierce
On this episode of the New Books Network, Lee Pierce (s/t) interviews Teresa Bergman of the University of the Pacific on The Commemoration of Women in the United States: Remembering …
American Studies June 11, 2020

Southern Decadence in New Orleans

Howard Philips Smith

Hosted by Isabel Machado
Almost a year ago, on my second interview for this podcast, I talked to Howard Philips Smith about Unveiling the Muse: The Lost History of Gay Carnival in New Orleans …
American Studies June 10, 2020

The Loud Minority

Why Protests Matter in American Democracy

Daniel Q. Gillion

Hosted by Lilly Goren
Political Scientist Daniel Q. Gillion’s new book, The Loud Minority: Why Protests Matter in American Democracy (Princeton University Press, 2020) is an incredibly topical and important analysis of the connection …
American Studies October 28, 2019

This Land Is Their Land

The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving

David J. Silverman

Hosted by Annabel G. LaBrecque
What really happened at “the first Thanksgiving”? In This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving (Bloomsbury, 2019), historian David J. Silverman …
African American Studies October 25, 2019

You Can’t Eat Freedom

Southerners and Social Justice after the Civil Rights Movement

Greta de Jong

Hosted by Beth English
Professor Greta de Jong of the University of Nevada, Reno, discusses her book, You Can’t Eat Freedom: Southerners and Social Justice after the Civil Rights Movement (University of North Carolina …
South Asian Studies August 21, 2019

The Neighborhood of Gods

The Sacred and the Visible at the Margins of Mumbai

William Elison

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
William Elison's The Neighborhood of Gods: The Sacred and the Visible at the Margins of Mumbai (University of Chicago Press, 2018) explores how slum residents, tribal people, and members of …
Popular Culture July 30, 2019

Unveiling the Muse

The Lost History of Gay Carnival in New Orleans

Howard Philips Smith

Hosted by Isabel Machado
Howard Philips Smith has been investigating and writing about the gay history of New Orleans for over two decades. Raised on a small farm in rural Southern Mississippi, he studied …
Folklore May 7, 2019

Black Lives Matter and Music

Protest, Intervention, Reflection

Fernando Orejuela and Stephanie Shonekan, eds.

Hosted by Rachel Hopkin
Music has always been integral to the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, with songs such as Kendrick Lamar’s "Alright," J. Cole’s "Be Free," D’Angelo and the Vanguard's …
American Studies May 6, 2019

The New American Judaism

How Jews Practice Their Religion Today

Jack Wertheimer

Hosted by Lindsey Jackson
Countless sociological studies and surveys present a rather bleak picture of religion and religious engagement in the United States. Attendance at worship services remains very low and approximately one quarter …
World Affairs April 8, 2019

Why Social Movements Matter

An Introduction

Laurence Cox

Hosted by Felipe Gonzalez Santos
In his book Why Social Movements Matter: An Introduction (Rowman and Littlefield, 2018), Senior Lecturer Laurence Cox, from Maynooth University, highlights how social movements have shaped the world we live …
South Asian Studies February 13, 2019

Nine Nights of the Goddess

The Navaratri Festival in South Asia

Caleb Simmons, Moumita Sen, and Hillary Peter Rodrigues, eds.

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Nine Nights of the Goddess: The Navaratri Festival in South Asia (SUNY Press, 2018), edited by Caleb Simmons, Moumita Sen, and Hillary Peter Rodrigues, is a diverse collection of cutting-edge …
European Studies September 5, 2018

Robespierre and the Festival of the Supreme Being

The Search for a Republican Morality

Jonathan Smyth

Hosted by Beth Mauldin
In his speech delivered to the National Convention on 18 Floréal (May 7, 1794), Maximilien Robespierre shocked his listeners as he attacked the proponents of atheism and dechristianization in the …
Critical Theory June 28, 2018

The Emotions of Protests

James M. Jasper

Hosted by Felipe Gonzalez Santos
How do emotions affect participation in protests, and in politics more generally? In The Emotions of Protests (University of Chicago Press, 2018), James M. Jasper develops a solid critique to …
Art June 28, 2018

Performance Action

The Politics of Art Activism

Paula Serafini

Hosted by Dave O'Brien
How can art change the world? In Performance Action: The Politics of Art Activism (Routledge, 2018), Paula Serafini, a Research Associate at the University of Leicester's CAMEo Research Institute for …