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About Grant Kleiser

R. Grant Kleiser is a Ph.D. candidate in the Columbia University History Department. His dissertation researches the development of the free-port system in the eighteenth-century Caribbean, investigating the rationale for such moves towards “free trade” and the impact these policies had on subsequent philosophers, policy-makers, and revolutionaries in the Atlantic world.

Grant's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Grant:

Caribbean Studies May 30, 2022

Engendering Islands

Sexuality, Reproduction, and Violence in the Early French Caribbean

Ashley M. Williard

Hosted by Grant Kleiser
In Engendering Islands: Sexuality, Reproduction, and Violence in the Early French Caribbean (University of Nebraska Press, 2021), Dr. Ashley M. Williard demonstrates how problematics of gender played a central role in defining …
British Studies April 19, 2022

Freedom Seekers

Escaping from Slavery in Restoration London

Simon Peter Newman

Hosted by Grant Kleiser
Freedom Seekers: Escaping from Slavery in Restoration London (University of London Press, 2022) by Professor Simon P. Newman reveals the hidden stories of enslaved and bound people who attempted to escape …
General History August 23, 2021

The Jews of Eighteenth-Century Jamaica

Stanley Mirvis

Hosted by Grant Kleiser
Stanley Mirvis' The Jews of Eighteenth-Century Jamaica: A Testamentary History of a Diaspora in Transition (Yale University Press, 2020) offers an in-depth look at the Portuguese Jews of Jamaica and their connections …
General History May 26, 2021

Military Medicine and the Making of Race

Life and Death in the West India Regiments, 1795–1874

Tim Lockley

Hosted by Grant Kleiser
Military Medicine and the Making of Race: Life and Death in the West India Regiments (Cambridge University Press, 2020) by Tim Lockley demonstrates how Britain's black soldiers helped shape attitudes towards race …
General History March 12, 2021

Islanders and Empire

Smuggling and Political Defiance in Hispaniola, 1580–1690

Juan José Ponce Vázquez

Hosted by Grant Kleiser
Dr. Juan José Ponce Vázquez's new book, Islanders and Empire: Smuggling and Political Defiance in Hispaniola, 1580-1690 (Cambridge UP, 2020) tracks the importance of smuggling to the society, economy, and politics of the island …
General History January 18, 2021

Stargazing in the Atomic Age

Anne Goldman

Hosted by Grant Kleiser
During World War II, with apocalypse imminent, a group of well-known Jewish artists and scientists sidestepped despair by challenging themselves to solve some of the most difficult questions posed by …
General History November 24, 2020

In a Sea of Empires

Networks and Crossings in the Revolutionary Caribbean

Jeppe Mulich

Hosted by Grant Kleiser
Jeppe Mulich's new book, In A Sea of Empires: Networks and Crossings in the Revolutionary Caribbean (Cambridge University Press, 2020) highlights the revolutionary fervor, political turmoil, conflict, and chaos in …
General History October 16, 2020

Where Caciques and Mapmakers Met

Border Making in Eighteenth-Century South America

Jeffrey Alan Erbig Jr.

Hosted by Grant Kleiser
In his new book, Where Caciques and Mapmakers Met: Border Making in Eighteenth-Century South America (UNC Press, 2020), Dr. Jeffrey Erbig charts the interplay between imperial and indigenous spatial imaginaries …
General History September 11, 2020

Economistes and the Reinvention of Empire

France in the Americas and Africa c. 1750-1802

Pernille Røge

Hosted by Grant Kleiser
In her new book, Economistes and the Reinvention of Empire: France in the Americas and Africa, c. 1750-1802 (Cambridge UP, 2020), Dr. Pernille Røge charts the confluence and reciprocal impacts …
General History July 27, 2020

The Smell of Slavery

Olfactory Racism and the Atlantic World

Andrew Kettler

Hosted by Grant Kleiser
In his new book, The Smell of Slavery: Olfactory Racism and the Atlantic World (Cambridge University Press, 2020), Dr. Andrew Kettler charts the impact that smell had on the making …