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Law May 27, 2022

Race, Crime, and Policing in the Jim Crow South

African Americans and Law Enforcement in Birmingham, Memphis, and New Orleans, 1920–1945

Brandon T. Jett

Hosted by Jane Richards
In this groundbreaking work, Professor Brandon T. Jett unearths how police departments evolved with the urbanization of the Jim Crow South, to target African Americans through a variety of mechanisms of control and violence, such as violent interactions, unjust arrests, and the enforcement of segregation laws and customs. Race, Crime, and Policing in the Jim Crow South, published by Louisiana State University in July 2021, provides explanation and context to show the way …
Literary Studies May 26, 2022

Song of Ourselves

Walt Whitman and the Fight for Democracy

Mark Edmundson

Hosted by Jon Najarian
Walt Whitman knew a great deal about democracy that we don’t. Most of that knowledge is concentrated in one stunning poem, Song of Myself. In Song of Ourselves: Walt Whitman and …
World Affairs May 25, 2022

Tomorrow's People

The Future of Humanity in Ten Numbers

Paul Morland

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
The great forces of population change – the balance of births, deaths and migrations – have made the world what it is today. They have determined which countries are superpowers …
The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones May 24, 2022

The Future of Neoliberalism

A Conversation with Gary Gerstle

Gary Gerstle

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones
The word neoliberalism is often used more as an insult than a description of a set of beliefs. And people can be rather hazy about the beliefs it refers to …
Human Rights May 23, 2022

China and the International Human Rights Regime

1982–2017

Rana Siu Inboden

Hosted by Nicholas Bequelin
In China and the International Human Rights Regime (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Rana Siu Inboden examines the evolution of China’s posture towards the U.N. human rights system since the early …
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 …
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 …