New Books Network

General History August 16, 2022

Building States

The United Nations, Development, and Decolonization, 1945–1965

Eva-Maria Muschik

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Postwar multilateral cooperation is often viewed as an attempt to overcome the limitations of the nation-state system. However, in 1945, when the United Nations was founded, large parts of the …

Literary Studies August 2, 2022

Free Indirect

The Novel in a Postfictional Age

Timothy Bewes

Hosted by Iqra Shagufta Cheema

What is the purpose of a novel? What purpose or logic do literary critics assign to a novel? How has the novel changed? What does that mean for its readers …

Biography June 24, 2022

German, Jew, Muslim, Gay

The Life and Times of Hugo Marcus

Marc David Baer

Hosted by Armanc Yildiz

Hugo Marcus (1880–1966) was a man of many names and many identities. Born a German Jew, he converted to Islam and took the name Hamid, becoming one of the most …

Sociology June 20, 2022

The Urbanization of People

The Politics of Development, Labor Markets, and Schooling in the Chinese City

Eli Friedman

Hosted by Michael Johnston

Amid a vast influx of rural migrants into urban areas, China has allowed cities wide latitude in providing education and other social services. While millions of people have been welcomed …

East Asian Studies June 15, 2022

The Musha Incident

A Reader on the Indigenous Uprising in Colonial Taiwan

Michael Berry

Hosted by Li-Ping Chen

On October 27, 1930, members of six Taiwanese indigenous groups ambushed the Japanese attendees of an athletic competition at the Musha Elementary School, killing 134. The uprising came as a …

Journalism June 13, 2022

Not Exactly Lying

Fake News and Fake Journalism in American History

Andie Tucher

Hosted by Jenna Spinelle

Long before the current preoccupation with “fake news,” American newspapers routinely ran stories that were not quite, strictly speaking, true. Today, a firm boundary between fact and fakery is a …

Film June 6, 2022

Alluring Monsters

The Pontianak and Cinemas of Decolonization

Rosalind Galt

Hosted by Jules O'Dwyer

In Alluring Monsters: The Pontianak and Cinemas of Decolonization (Columbia University Press, 2021), film scholar Rosalind Galt offers a cinematic exploration of the pontianak, a female vampire ghost whose origins …

The Future of . . . with Owen Bennett-Jones May 31, 2022

The Future of the Brain

A Conversation with Daniel Graham

Daniel Graham

Hosted by Owen Bennett-Jones

When people describe the brain they often compare it to a computer. In fact, the metaphor of the brain as a computer has defined the field for decades now. And …

Chinese Studies May 19, 2022

Fixing Landscape

A Techno-Poetic History of China’s Three Gorges

Corey Byrnes

Hosted by Julia Keblinska

Corey Byrnes’ Fixing Landscape: A Techno-Poetic History of China’s Three Gorges (Columbia University Press, 2019) is a work of considerable historical and disciplinary depth. Byrnes brings together the Tang dynasty …

Critical Theory May 19, 2022

Universality and Identity Politics

Todd McGowan

Hosted by Reuben Niewenhuis

The great political ideas and movements of the modern world were founded on a promise of universal emancipation. But in recent decades, much of the Left has grown suspicious of …

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 …

Anthropology May 9, 2022

The Sound of Salvation

Voice, Gender, and the Sufi Mediascape in China

Guangtian Ha

Hosted by Irene Promodh

The Jahriyya Sufis—a primarily Sinophone order of Naqshbandiyya Sufism in northwestern China—inhabit a unique religious soundscape. The hallmark of their spiritual practice is the “loud” (jahr) remembrance of God in …

Film April 8, 2022

Hollywood and Israel

A History

Tony Shaw and Giora Goodman

Hosted by Nathan Abrams

From Frank Sinatra’s early pro-Zionist rallying to Steven Spielberg’s present-day peacemaking, Hollywood has long enjoyed a “special relationship” with Israel. This book offers a groundbreaking account of this relationship, both …

Performing Arts April 6, 2022

A Revolution in Three Acts

The Radical Vaudeville of Bert Williams, Eva Tanguay, and Julian Eltinge

David Hajdu and John Carey

Hosted by Andy Boyd

Too often, vaudeville is seen from the perspective of its decline: it is the corny, messy art form that predated the book musical, or that gave us Chaplin, Keaton, and …

Literary Studies March 29, 2022

Literature in Motion

Translating Multilingualism Across the Americas

Ellen Jones

Hosted by Jennifer Lee

In Literature in Motion: Translating Multilingualism Across the Americas (Columbia University Press, 2022), Ellen C. Jones centers not just translation but multilingualism as both an artistic practice and scholarly lens through which to examine …

East Asian Studies March 22, 2022

The Profits of Nature

Colonial Development and the Quest for Resources in Nineteenth-Century China

Peter B. Lavelle

Hosted by Zachary Lowell

In The Profits of Nature: Colonial Development and the Quest for Resources in Nineteenth-Century China (Columbia UP, 2020), Peter Lavelle offers a fascinating narrative history of natural resource development in …

East Asian Studies March 21, 2022

A Companion to the Story of the Stone

A Chapter-By-Chapter Guide

Susan Chan Egan and Pai Hsien-yung

Hosted by Linshan Jiang

A Companion to The Story of the Stone: A Chapter-by-Chapter Guide (Columbia UP, 2021), co-authored by Susan Chan Egan and Pai Hsien-yung (Columbia University Press, 2021), is a straightforward guide to …

Gender Studies March 11, 2022

An Empire of Touch

Women's Political Labor and the Fabrication of East Bengal

Poulomi Saha

Hosted by Ann Choi

Can subalterns speak? Now an iconic question from a prominent postcolonial studies scholar Gayatri Spivak, the question interrogates the in-built assumption about the locatable agency in an individual. Postcolonial studies …

Science March 10, 2022

Racism, Not Race

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

Joseph L. Graves and Alan H. Goodman

Hosted by Adam Bobeck

The science on race is clear. Common categories like “Black,” “white,” and “Asian” do not represent genetic differences among groups. But if race is a pernicious fiction according to natural …

Chinese Studies March 8, 2022

Internationalist Aesthetics

China and Early Soviet Culture

Edward Tyerman