Listen to Owen Bennett-Jones discuss the future of opinion polls with Mark Pack

New Books Network
NBN Book of the Day
Literary Studies May 20, 2022

How to Do Things with Dead People

History, Technology, and Temporality from Shakespeare to Warhol

Alice Dailey

Hosted by John Yargo
Alice Dailey’s How to Do Things with Dead People: History, Technology, and Temporality from Shakespeare to Warhol (Cornell University Press, 2022) is an exploration of Shakespeare’s chronicle plays through the theoretical rubric of modern technology. Dailey is Professor of English at Villanova University and is the author of the monograph The English Martyr from Reformation to Revolution (from Notre Dame Press). How to Do Things with Dead People is a …
American West May 19, 2022

Frontier Religion

The Mormon-American Contest for the Meaning of America, 1857-1907

Konden Smith Hansen

Hosted by Brady McCartney
In Frontier Religion: The Mormon-American Contest for the Meaning of America, 1857-1907 (U Utah Press, 2019) Konden Smith Hansen examines the dramatic influence these perceptions of the frontier had on …
Economics May 18, 2022

Streets of Gold

America's Untold Story of Immigrant Success

Ran Abramitzky and Leah Boustan

Hosted by Peter Lorentzen
Immigration is one of the most fraught, and possibly most misunderstood, topics in American social discourse—yet, in most cases, the things we believe about immigration are based largely on myth …
Media May 17, 2022

Disinformation

The Nature of Facts and Lies in the Post-Truth Era

Donald A. Barclay

Hosted by Marci Mazzarotto
Does the idea of a world in which facts mean nothing cause anxiety? Fear? Maybe even paranoia? Disinformation: The Nature of Facts and Lies in the Post-Truth Era (Rowman and …
Physics and Chemistry May 16, 2022

An Infinity of Worlds

Cosmic Inflation and the Beginning of the Universe

Will Kinney

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
In the beginning was the Big Bang: an unimaginably hot fire almost fourteen billion years ago in which the first elements were forged. The physical theory of the hot nascent …
Animal Studies May 13, 2022

Elephant Trails

A History of Animals and Cultures

Nigel Rothfels

Hosted by Marcela Hernandez
When looking at historic records of all kinds—from prehistoric cave drawings and ancient rock art in Africa and India, from poetic narrations of travelers to hunter memoirs and press stories …
Medicine May 12, 2022

The Cage of Days

Time and Temporal Experience in Prison

Michael G. Flaherty and K. C. Carceral

Hosted by Rachel Pagones
Prisons operate according to the clockwork logic of our criminal justice system: we punish people by making them “serve” time. The Cage of Days: Time and Temporal Experience in Prison …
Critical Theory May 11, 2022

Cancel Culture

A Critical Analysis

Eve Ng

Hosted by Louisa Hann
Eve Ng’s new book Cancel Culture: A Critical Analysis (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), examines the phenomenon of "cancel culture" from a critical media studies perspective, as both cancel practices (what people …
Middle Eastern Studies May 10, 2022

Jews and Palestinians in the Late Ottoman Era, 1908-1914

Claiming the Homeland

Louis Fishman

Hosted by Roberto Mazza
Uncovering a history buried by different nationalist narratives (Jewish, Israeli, Arab and Palestinian) the book by Louis Fishman looks at how the late Ottoman era set the stage for the …
Catholic Studies May 9, 2022

Catholics on the Barricades

Poland, France, and "Revolution," 1891-1956

Piotr H. Kosicki

Hosted by Brenna Moore
In Poland in the 1940s and '50s, a new kind of Catholic intended to remake European social and political life--not with guns, but French philosophy. Piotr H. Kosicki's book Catholics on …
East Asian Studies May 6, 2022

Dancing on Bones

History and Power in China, Russia and North Korea

Katie Stallard

Hosted by Ed Pulford
Present-day relations between ‘the West’ and each of China, Russia and North Korea are often fractious to say the least, yet today’s global atmosphere of menace or crisis just as …
African American Studies May 5, 2022

Elite Capture

How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (and Everything Else)

Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

Hosted by Brittney Edmonds
“Identity politics” is everywhere, polarizing discourse from the campaign trail to the classroom and amplifying antagonisms in the media, both online and off. But the compulsively referenced phrase bears little …
Music May 4, 2022

Move On Up

Chicago Soul Music and Black Cultural Power

Aaron Cohen

Hosted by Bradley Morgan
Curtis Mayfield. The Chi-Lites. Chaka Khan. Chicago’s place in the history of soul music is rock solid. But for Chicagoans, soul music in its heyday from the 1960s to the 1980s …
General History May 3, 2022

The Presidency of Donald J. Trump

A First Historical Assessment

Julian E. Zelizer

Hosted by Caleb Zakarin
The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment (Princeton University Press, 2022) presents a first draft of history by offering needed perspective on one of the nation's most divisive …
Political Science May 2, 2022

Nowhere to Run

Race, Gender, and Immigration in American Elections

Christian Dyogi Phillips

Hosted by Susan Liebell
Why has the underrepresentation of women and racial minorities in elected office proved so persistent in American politics? In Nowhere to Run: Race, Gender, and Immigration in American Elections (Oxford UP …
National Security April 29, 2022

Chinese Communist Espionage

An Intelligence Primer

Peter Mattis and Matthew Brazil

Hosted by John Sakellariadis
In Chinese Communist Espionage: An Intelligence Primer (Naval Institute Press, 2019), authors Mathew Brazil and Peter Mattis present an unprecedented look into the murky world of Chinese espionage. An introduction-cum-reference …
Women's History April 28, 2022

Building the Population Bomb

Emily Klancher Merchant

Hosted by Nicole Bourbonnais
Across the twentieth century, Earth's human population increased undeniably quickly, rising from 1.6 billion people in 1900 to 6.1 billion in 2000. As population grew, it also began to take …
Sports April 27, 2022

Hoops

A Cultural History of Basketball in America

Thomas Aiello

Hosted by Paul Knepper
From its early days as a sport to build “muscular Christianity” among young men flooding nineteenth-century cities to its position today as a global symbol of American culture, basketball has …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones April 26, 2022

The Future of Race

A Discussion with John McWhorter

John McWhorter

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
Race is the subject of passionate and increasingly angry debate. But amidst all the talk of unconscious bias it’s an area into which many fear to tread. In this podcast …
On Religion April 25, 2022

Sincerely Held

American Secularism and Its Believers

Charles Alistair McCrary

Hosted by Gregory Soden
"Sincerely held religious belief" is now a common phrase in discussions of American religious freedom, from opinions handed down by the US Supreme Court to local controversies. The "sincerity test" …