New Books with Miranda Melcher

New Books with Miranda Melcher

episodes

A special series of interviews hosted by Dr. Miranda Melcher.

Rod Phillips, "Cats: A History" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2026)

July 13, 2026

Cats

Rod Phillips
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

For more than 10,000 years, cats have prowled at the edges of human life. But, starting only a few decades ago, hundreds of millions of them bec…

Sara Farhan, "Medical Education and the Making of Iraqi Doctors, 1869–1959" (Edinburgh UP, 2025)

July 12, 2026

Medical Education and the Making of Iraqi Doctors, 1869–1959

Sara Farhan
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Medical Education and the Making of Iraqi Doctors, 1869–1959 (Edinburgh University Press, 2025) by Dr. Sara Farhan offers a rigorous social and cu…

Amélie Junqua and Geoffrey Day, "Too Good to Waste: Recycling Paper in the Eighteenth Century" (Bodleian Library, 2026)

July 11, 2026

Too Good to Waste

Amélie Junqua and Geoffrey Day
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Paper was a precious commodity in the eighteenth century: every sheet was made by hand. There was therefore a significant market in recycling su…

Ali Fard, "Grounding the Cloud: Urbanism in the Shadow of Data" (U Minnesota Press, 2026)

July 10, 2026

Grounding the Cloud

Ali Fard
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Since the 1990s, technologists have promoted a vision of the “cloud” as a shapeless and intangible entity. Grounding the Cloud: Urbanism in the Shadow…

Gregg Andrews, "Shoe Workers in Hannibal, Missouri: The Rise and Fall of Manufacturing in America’s Hometown, 1890–1970" (LSU Press, 2026)

July 8, 2026

Shoe Workers in Hannibal, Missouri

Gregg Andrews
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In Shoe Workers in Hannibal, Missouri: The Rise and Fall of Manufacturing in America’s Hometown, 1890–1970 (LSU Press, 2026), Dr. Gregg Andrews examin…

Meena Khandelwal, "Cookstove Chronicles: Social Life of a Women's Technology in India" (U Arizona Press, 2026)

July 8, 2026

Cookstove Chronicles

Meena Khandelwal
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Stove improvers have been designing and promoting “clean” or “efficient” biomass cookstoves in India since the 1940s and have been frustrated to …

Roberta J. Magnusson, "Urban Infrastructure in Medieval England: Sustainability and Resilience" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2026)

July 8, 2026

Urban Infrastructure in Medieval England

Roberta J. Magnusson
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In the bustling market towns and growing cities of medieval England between 1200 and 1600, public works were the lifelines of urban society. In …

Martina Baradel, "21st Century Yakuza: Death of Japanese Organised Crime" (Oxford UP, 2026)

July 5, 2026

21st Century Yakuza

Martina Baradel
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Once dominant and institutionalised, the Yakuza, one of Japan's best known criminal organisations, is now shrinking under the combined pressure of…

Sadiah Qureshi, "Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction" (Penguin, 2025)

July 4, 2026

Vanished

Sadiah Qureshi
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Anyone alive today is among a tiny fraction of the once living: over 90% of species that ever existed are now extinct. How did we come to think of…

Tyler Girard, "Financial Inclusion: How an Idea Became a Global Agenda" (Stanford UP, 2026)

July 4, 2026

Financial Inclusion

Tyler Girard
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The number of people in the world with a bank account or money service provider increased by 2 billion over the past decade. This phenomenon ref…

Xian Aubin Wang, "Islam and Maoism in Southern Yunnan: State Violence and Resistance, 1949–2024" (Cornell UP, 2026)

July 3, 2026

Islam and Maoism in Southern Yunnan

Xian Aubin Wang
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Islam and Maoism in Southern Yunnan: State Violence and Resistance, 1949–2024 (Cornell University Press, 2026) by Dr. Xian Aubin Wang investigates …

Bjørn Berge, "Smell: The Tale of a Fading Sense" (Reaktion Books, 2026)

July 3, 2026

Smell

Bjørn Berge
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The sense of smell is often linked to the dark, the antisocial, the primitive—the very opposite of modernity and progress. Today we live in an a…

Rosa Campbell, "The Book That Taught the World to Orgasm and Then Disappeared: Shere Hite and the Hite Report" (Melville House, 2026)

July 2, 2026

The Book That Taught the World to Orgasm and Then Disappeared

Rosa Campbell
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Despite being one of the leading thinkers of the second wave feminist movement, today Shere Hite is little known, little written about, and, unsurpris…

Kate Dannies, "Conscripting Breadwinner Soldiers in the Late Ottoman Empire: Family, Law and War" (Edinburgh UP, 2026)

July 1, 2026

Conscripting Breadwinner Soldiers in the Late Ottoman Empire

Kate Dannies
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Conscripting Breadwinner Soldiers in the Late Ottoman Empire: Family, Law and War (Edinburgh UP, 2026) by Dr. Kate Dannies examines the gender and fam…

Peter Ross, "Insatiable Appetites: Eating Out in Georgian London" (Bodleian Library, 2026)

July 1, 2026

Insatiable Appetites

Peter Ross
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In ⁠Insatiable Appetites: Eating Out in Georgian London⁠ (Bodleian Library, 2026) by Dr. Peter Ross, step into the kitchens, streets and chop houses…

Nancy Micklewright, "Fashion in Late Ottoman Istanbul: Photography and Identity in a Global City" (Bloomsbury, 2026)

June 30, 2026

Fashion in Late Ottoman Istanbul

Nancy Micklewright
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Over the 19th century, the women of Istanbul gradually transformed their appearance, adopting European dress and new modes of self-fashioning, includi…

John Wills, "Doom Town, USA: The Nevada Test Site As Ground Zero of 1950s American Culture" (UP of Kansas, 2026)

June 30, 2026

Doom Town, USA

John Wills
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In March 1953 and May 1955, government officials—including the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA), the US Department of Defense, and the Atom…

Dallas Liddle, "News Machines: The Systems of Daily Journalism in Britain, 1785–1885" (Oxford UP, 2026)

June 29, 2026

News Machines

Dallas Liddle
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

British daily newspapers transformed rapidly at the turn of the nineteenth century, ballooning in size and radically reorganizing staffing and p…

Shawn William Miller, "Dream Road to Pan America: A Century in Pursuit of the World's Longest Highway" (U California Press, 2026)

June 29, 2026

Dream Road to Pan America

Shawn William Miller
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

A century after the Pan-American Highway was first conceived, its story remains largely unknown—even to the hundreds of motorists who annually attempt…

Cleo Nisse, "Venetian Canvas and the Transformation of Painting" (Princeton UP, 2026)

June 26, 2026

Venetian Canvas and the Transformation of Painting

Cleo Nisse
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Between the fifteenth and early seventeenth centuries, European painting underwent a profound transformation as artists increasingly painted on …