NBN Book of the Day

NBN Book of the Day

episodes

One book selected daily from those published on the New Books Network.

Inquisition for Blood: The Making of a Black Female Serial Killer in the Jim Crow South with Lauren Nicole Henley (LSU Press, 2026)

October 13, 2026

Inquisition for Blood

Lauren Nicole Henley
Hosted by Sullivan Summer

For three years in the early 1900s, a serial killer zigzagged across the rice belt region of the United States, using an everyday ax to slaughter Blac…

Civil Societies, Uncivil States: Government Repression of NGOs with Suparna Chaudhry (Cornell UP, 2026)

October 12, 2026

Civil Societies, Uncivil States

Suparna Chaudhry

Why would a government bother to go after groups that carry no weapons and hold no power? Suparna Chaudhry argues that the answer says a lot about whe…

Green Thinking: Unlearning Outdated Ideas in Science, Economics and Politics with Natalie Bennett (Routledge, 2026)

October 10, 2026

Green Thinking

Natalie Bennett
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Green Thinking: Unlearning Outdated Ideas in Science, Economics and Politics (Routledge, 2026) is about unlearning, discarding damaging, outdated idea…

The Technocratic International: Experts and the Making of a World from Nowhere with Jan Eijking (Oxford UP, 2026)

October 9, 2026

The Technocratic International

Jan Eijking
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Most international organisations today-from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to the World Health Organisation-present themselves as techn…

The Biggest Lie: The Prehistory of American Fascism, 1818-1915

October 8, 2026

The Biggest Lie

Joseph Kelly

When American fascists suddenly goose-stepped down Main Street in the 1930s, fascism was seen by the rest of the country as a terrifying and radical n…

Learning Under Algorithmic Conditions with Elizabeth de Freitas, Matthew X. Curinga, and Ezekiel J. Dixon-Román (U Minnesota Press, 2026)

October 7, 2026

Learning Under Algorithmic Conditions

Elizabeth de Freitas, Matthew X. Curinga, Ezekiel J. Dixon-Román and P. Taylor Webb eds.
Hosted by Shreya Urvashi

What does it mean to learn when algorithms increasingly shape how knowledge is produced, organized, and interpreted? Editors Elizabeth de Freitas, Mat…

Conspiracy: The History of a Political Obsession with Nicolas Guilhot (Harvard UP, 2026)

October 6, 2026

Conspiracy

Nicolas Guilhot
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Pundits, scholars, and the general public alike have argued that conspiratorial thinking is the greatest threat to liberal democracy. In Conspiracy: T…

Racist by Design: Two Centuries of U.S. Immigration Control with Kelly Lytle Hernández (Norton, 2026)

October 3, 2026

Racist by Design

Kelly Lytle Hernández
Hosted by Michael Stauch

Kelly Lytle Hernández joins Michael Stauch to discuss how the US immigration system has always been “racist by design.” Many Americans’ understanding …

Strong State, Weak Links: Eugenics and the Southern Politics of Welfare with Anna Krome-Lukens (UNC Press, 2026)

September 30, 2026

Strong State, Weak Links

Anna Krome-Lukens
Hosted by Ariel Schnee

In the early twentieth century, most US states established eugenics programs to improve the human race through selective breeding. North Carolina ran …

Smuggling Law: Unsettled Sovereignties in Turkey's Kurdish Borderlands with Fırat Bozçalı (Stanford UP, 2025)

September 29, 2026

Smuggling Law

Fırat Bozçalı
Hosted by Armanc Yildiz

The Kurdish-populated Wan/Van Province is a major smuggling hub between Turkey and Iran. Kurdish smugglers cross this 180-mile-long land border, trans…

The Player and the Played: From Gamed Capitalism to 21st-Century Fascism with Max Haiven (MIT Press, 2026)

September 28, 2026

The Player and the Played

Max Haiven

A provocative examination of the ways our economy has been rigged by financialization, and the importance of games to our dangerous political moment. …

Wastelands and Wonderlands: Utopias and Dystopias in Film and Literature with Matthew Leggatt (SUNY Press, 2026)

September 27, 2026

Wastelands and Wonderlands

Matthew Leggatt
Hosted by Luca Trenta

Wastelands and Wonderlands: Utopias and Dystopias in Film and Literature with Matthew Leggatt (SUNY Press, 2026) is an edited collection exploring uto…

Power Surge: Conglomerate Hollywood and the Studio System's Last Hurrah with Thomas Schatz (U California Press, 2026)

September 26, 2026

Power Surge

Thomas Schatz
Hosted by Pete Kunze

Thomas Schatz returns us to an era when a newly enriched movie industry rediscovered its creative energy, and indie went mainstream without losing its…

Climate Hegemony: Confronting the Politics of Environmental Impasse with Laurie Parsons (LSE Press, 2026)

September 26, 2026

Climate Hegemony

Laurie Parsons

Climate action is at an impasse. Its political opponents are stronger than ever, its advocates powerless. Almost every major government and corporatio…

Driven to Their Knees: Humiliation in Contemporary Politics with Roxanne L. Euben (Princeton UP, 2025)

September 25, 2026

Driven to Their Knees

Roxanne L. Euben

Humiliation pervades our politics, from images of stripped Palestinian men in Gaza to mocking chants at MAGA rallies. It suffuses pictures and videos,…

Marion Nestle and Lisa Sutherland, "Sugar Coated: Unboxing the Hidden Forces Shaping America's Favorite Breakfast Food" (U California Press, 2026)

September 24, 2026

Sugar Coated

Marion Nestle and Lisa Sutherland
Hosted by Kelly Spivey

In Sugar Coated: Unboxing the Hidden Forces Shaping America's Favorite Breakfast Food (U California Press, 2026), world-renowned food politics expert …

Tess Chakkalakal, "A Matter of Complexion: The Life and Fictions of Charles W. Chesnutt" (St. Martin's Press, 2025)

September 23, 2026

A Matter of Complexion

Tess Chakkalakal
Hosted by Raymond Williams

In A Matter of Complexion: The Life and Fictions of Charles W. Chesnutt (St. Martin's Press, 2025), Tess Chakkalakal gives readers the first comprehen…

Ehsan Dehghan, "The Discursive-Digital Link: Antagonism and Polarisation in Digital Spaces" (Routledge, 2025)

September 22, 2026

The Discursive-Digital Link

Ehsan Dehghan
Hosted by Pete Kunze

We are in a state of crisis. Democracy is under threat, authoritarian politics are on the rise, and digital media—once heralded as emancipatory techno…

Eileen Luhr, "Golden States: How California Religion Went from Cautionary Tale to Global Brand" (U California Press, 2024)

September 21, 2026

Golden States

Eileen Luhr
Hosted by Stephen Hausmann

Since the beginning of European colonization, the sun-drenched land of California has always attracted dreamers and schemers. Whether it was Spanish m…

Pablo F. Gomez, "Bloody Numbers: The Early Atlantic Slave Trade and the Invention of Modern Corporeality" (U Chicago Press, 2026)

September 20, 2026

Bloody Numbers

Pablo F. Gomez
Hosted by Amisah Bakuri

In my conversation with Professor Pablo F. Gómez about his new book, Bloody Numbers: The Early Atlantic Slave Trade and the Invention of Modern Corpor…