About Miranda Melcher

I completed my PhD in Defense Studies at King's College London, where I researched how to negotiate and implement peace treaties. My book is forthcoming in 2024 from Bloomsbury: Securing Peace in Angola and Mozambique. Prior to my PhD, I earned an MA in Intelligence and International Security from the Department of War Studies at King's College London and a BA in Political Science from Yale University.

On the New Books Network, I tend to interview authors of books that seek to interrogate and subvert preconceptions about elements of history that have either been neglected in scholarship, or authors who are analysing history through a novel lens.

Dr. Miranda Melcher (Ph.D., Defense Studies, Kings College, London) studies post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with deep analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars.

Miranda's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Miranda:

Rachel Gordan, "Postwar Stories: How Books Made Judaism American" (Oxford UP, 2024)

March 18, 2024

Postwar Stories

Rachel Gordan
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The period immediately following World War II was an era of dramatic transformation for Jews in America. At the start of the 1940s, President Roosevel…

Caitlin Davies, "Private Inquiries: The Secret History of Female Sleuths" (The History Press, 2023)

March 17, 2024

Private Inquiries

Caitlin Davies
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Dismissed as ‘Mrs Sherlock Holmes’ or amateurish Miss Marples, mocked as private dicks or honey trappers, they have been investigating crime since the…

Stephanie Chasin, "British Jews and Imperial Service: Nationalism, Pan-Islamism and Zionism in Mandate Palestine and Colonial India" (I. B. Tauris, 2023)

March 17, 2024

British Jews and Imperial Service

Stephanie Chasin
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In the wake of the devastating WWI, three Jews headed the most valuable territory in the British Empire in addition to a strategically important new a…

Ada Maria Kuskowski, "Vernacular Law; Writing and the Reinvention of Customary Law in Medieval France" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

March 16, 2024

Vernacular Law

Ada Maria Kuskowski
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Custom was fundamental to mediaeval legal practice. Whether in a property dispute or a trial for murder, the aggrieved and accused would go to lay cou…

Ruth A. Morgan, "Climate Change and International History: Climate Diplomacy in the Global North and South Since 1950" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

March 16, 2024

Climate Change and International History

Ruth A. Morgan
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Exploring how climate change has configured the international arena since the 1950s, Climate Change and International History: Negotiating Science, Gl…

Nick Jones, "Gooey Media: Screen Entertainment and the Graphic User Interface" (Edinburgh UP, 2023)

March 15, 2024

Gooey Media

Nick Jones
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The Graphic User Interface, or GUI, is the adhesive centre of today’s screen entertainment web. From films and television to apps and videogames, it h…

Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, "The Inhumans and Other Stories: A Selection of Bengali Science Fiction" (MIT Press, 2024)

March 13, 2024

The Inhumans and Other Stories

Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Kalpavigyan—science fiction written to excite Bengali speakers about science, as well as to persuade them to evolve beyond the limitations of religion…

Piotr Florczyk, "Swimming Pool" (Bloombury, 2024)

March 12, 2024

Swimming Pool

Piotr Florczyk
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

This instalment of the Object Lessons series focuses on the Swimming Pool (Bloomsbury, 2024). The book explores the pool as a place where humans seek…

Rebecca Rego Barry, "The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells" (Post Hill Press, 2024)

March 12, 2024

The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells

Rebecca Rego Barry
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells: Investigations into a Forgotten Mystery Author (PostHill Press, 2024) by Rebecca Rego Barry is the first biography of …

Amy Paeth, "The American Poet Laureate" A History of U.S. Poetry and the State" (Columbia UP, 2023)

March 11, 2024

The American Poet Laureate

Amy Paeth
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The American Poet Laureate: A History of U.S. Poetry and the State (Columbia University Press, 2023) by Dr. Amy Paeth shows how the state has been the…

Jad Adams, "Decadent Women: Yellow Book Lives" (Reaktion Books, 2023)

March 10, 2024

Decadent Women

Jad Adams
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Decadent Women: Yellow Book Lives (Reaktion, 2023) by Jad Adams chronicles the vibrant and passionate women who wrote for the 1890s journal The Yellow…

Jacqueline Kennelly, "Burnt by Democracy: Youth, Inequality, and the Erosion of Civic Life" (U Toronto Press, 2023)

March 9, 2024

Burnt by Democracy

Jacqueline Kennelly
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Burnt by Democracy: Youth, Inequality, and the Erosion of Civic Life (University of Toronto Press, 2023) by Dr. Jacqueline Kennelly traces the politic…

Hsuan L. Hsu, "Air Conditioning" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

March 8, 2024

Air Conditioning

Hsuan L. Hsu
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Air conditioning aspires to be unnoticed. Yet, by manipulating the air around us, it quietly conditions the baseline conditions of our physical, menta…

Mike Duggan, "All Mapped Out: How Maps Shape Us" (Reaktion Books, 2024)

March 7, 2024

All Mapped Out

Mike Duggan
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Maps go far beyond just showing us where things are located. All Mapped Out: How Maps Shape Us (Reaktion, 2024) by Dr. Mike Duggan is an exploration o…

Diego Javier Luis, "The First Asians in the Americas: A Transpacific History" (Harvard UP, 2024)

March 5, 2024

The First Asians in the Americas

Diego Javier Luis
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Between 1565 and 1815, the so-called Manila galleons enjoyed a near-complete monopoly on transpacific trade between Spain’s Asian and American colonie…

Joanna Crosby, "Apples and Orchards Since the Eighteenth Century: Material Innovation and Cultural Tradition" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

March 5, 2024

Apples and Orchards Since the Eighteenth Century

Joanna Crosby
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Showing how the history of the apple goes far beyond the orchard and into the social, cultural and technological developments of Britain and the USA, …

Noah L. Nathan, "The Scarce State: Inequality and Political Power in the Hinterland" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

March 3, 2024

The Scarce State

Noah L. Nathan
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

States are often minimally present in the rural periphery. Yet a limited presence does not mean a limited impact. Isolated state actions in regions wh…

Jennifer Evans, "Men's Sexual Health in Early Modern England" (Amsterdam UP, 2023)

March 2, 2024

Men's Sexual Health in Early Modern England

Jennifer Evans
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

How did men cope with sexual health issues in early modern England? In Men's Sexual Health in Early Modern England (Amsterdam University Press, 2023),…

Christian R. Burset, "An Empire of Laws: Legal Pluralism in British Colonial Policy" (Yale UP, 2023)

February 29, 2024

An Empire of Laws

Christian R. Burset
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In An Empire of Laws: Legal Pluralism in British Colonial Policy (Yale University Press, 2023), Dr. Christian R. Burset presents a compelling reexamin…

Carol Beggy, "Pencil" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

February 28, 2024

Pencil

Carol Beggy
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

A cylinder of baked graphite and clay in a wood case, the pencil creates as it is being destroyed. To love a pencil is to use it, to sharpen it, and t…

Obert Bernard Mlambo, "Land Expropriation in Ancient Rome and Contemporary Zimbabwe: Veterans, Masculinity and War" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

February 27, 2024

Land Expropriation in Ancient Rome and Contemporary Zimbabwe

Obert Bernard Mlambo
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

In this highly original book Land Expropriation in Ancient Rome and Contemporary Zimbabwe: Veterans, Masculinity and War (Bloomsbury, 2022), Dr. Obert…

Harry Turtledove, "Wages of Sin" (Caezik SF & Fantasy, 2024)

February 26, 2024

Wages of Sin

Harry Turtledove
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

What if HIV started spreading in the early 1500s rather than the late 1900s? Without modern medicine, anybody who catches HIV is going to die. In Wage…

Angela Wanhalla, "Of Love and War: Pacific Brides of World War II" (U Nebraska Press, 2023)

February 25, 2024

Of Love and War

Angela Wanhalla
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Between 1942 and 1945 more than two million servicemen occupied the southern Pacific theater, the majority of whom were Americans in service with the …

Christopher J. Devine, "I’m Here to Ask for Your Vote: How Presidential Campaign Visits Influence Voters" (Columbia UP, 2023)

February 24, 2024

I’m Here to Ask for Your Vote

Christopher J. Devine
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

During presidential campaigns, candidates crisscross the country nonstop—visiting swing states, their home turf, and enemy territory. But do all those…