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About Zeb Larson

Zeb Larson is a recent graduate of The Ohio State University with a PhD in History. His research deals with the anti-apartheid movement in the United States. To suggest a recent title or to contact him, please send an e-mail to zeb.larson@gmail.com.

NBN Episodes hosted by Zeb:

General History July 25, 2023

African Activists in a Decolonising World

The Making of an Anticolonial Culture, 1952-1966

Ismay Milford

Hosted by Zeb Larson
Listen:
As wars of liberation in Africa and Asia shook the post-war world, a cohort of activists from East and Central Africa, specifically the region encompassing present-day Malawi, Zambia, Uganda and …
General History March 16, 2022

Before the Religious Right

Liberal Protestants, Human Rights, and the Polarization of the United States

Gene Zubovich

Hosted by Zeb Larson
The study of the religious right has in many ways overshadowed other strands of U.S. religious history in the 20th century. This is owed in no small part to …
General History October 6, 2021

The End of Ambition

The United States and the Third World in the Vietnam Era

Mark Atwood Lawrence

Hosted by Zeb Larson
Histories of the Vietnam War are not in short supply. In U.S. history, it ranks alongside the Civil War and World War Two in terms of author coverage. The aftermath of the war …
General History September 29, 2021

Amlicar Cabral

The Life of a Reluctant Nationalist

Antonio Tomas

Hosted by Zeb Larson
Amilcar Cabral was one of the most significant African nationalists of his generation. Born in the Cape Verde Islands, Cabral led the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and …
General History February 2, 2021

First Class Passengers on a Sinking Ship

Elite Politics and the Decline of Great Powers

Richard Lachmann

Hosted by Zeb Larson
Being a great power almost seems to invite discussion of decline: whether you are declining, what can be done to prevent or arrest it, and what the consequences of …
General History December 3, 2020

For Might and Right

Cold War Defense Spending and the Remaking of American Democracy

Michael Brenes

Hosted by Zeb Larson
Donald Trump campaigned on a great many things in 2016, but one of the issues he used to criticize Democrats was their role in supporting sequestration and cuts to …
General History March 30, 2020

The Movement and the Middle East

How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Divided the American Left

Michael Fischbach

Hosted by Zeb Larson
One of the most divisive international issues in American politics today is over Israel and Palestine. The close ties between Israel and the United States are very strong and see …
General History February 19, 2020

The White House and White Africa

Presidential Policy Toward Rhodesia During the UDI Era, 1965-1979

Eddie Michel

Hosted by Zeb Larson
The Rhodesian Unilateral Declaration of Independence was one of the last crises of formal imperialism. British settlers in present-day Zimbabwe, then known as Rhodesia, refused to accept demands from London …
Education January 30, 2020

Going Alt-Ac

A Guide to Alternative Academic Careers

Kathryn E. Linder, Kevin Kelly, Thomas J. Tobin

Hosted by Zeb Larson
If you’re a grad student facing the ugly reality of finding a tenure-track job, you could easily be forgiven for thinking about a career change. However, if you’ve spent the …
General History December 23, 2019

The Myth of Triumphalism

Rethinking President Reagan's Cold War Legacy

Beth Fischer

Hosted by Zeb Larson
Every time that I teach any portion of a course dealing with Ronald Reagan and the end of the Cold War, I gird myself for the inevitable myth-busting that I’m …
General History December 20, 2019

To Begin The World Over Again

How the American Revolution Devastated the Globe

Matthew Lockwood

Hosted by Zeb Larson
Growing up as an American, you’re bound to be all-but-suffused with triumphalist histories of the American Revolution. Those histories might have a tough of the Hegelian to them, asserting that …
General History November 7, 2019

Global Development

A Cold War History

Sara Lorenzini

Hosted by Zeb Larson
As Dr. Sara Lorenzini points out in her new book Global Development: A Cold War History (Princeton University Press, 2019), the idea of economic development was a relatively novel one …
General History October 21, 2019

Dag Hammarskjöld, the United Nations, and the Decolonisation of Africa

Henning Melber

Hosted by Zeb Larson
Dag Hammarskjold was such a dynamic secretary-general that for years, the motto about him was simply “Leave it to Dag.” Only the second person to hold that post when he …
General History July 29, 2019

Globalizing Morocco

Transnational Activism and the Postcolonial State

David Stenner

Hosted by Zeb Larson
The story of Morocco’s independence struggle against France and Spain is a complicated one. Because it occurred around the same time of the long-running war for independence in Algeria, it …
General History July 5, 2019

The Politics of Peace

A Global Cold War History

Petra Goedde

Hosted by Zeb Larson
Earlier histories of the Cold War haven’t exactly been charitable toward the peace activists and pacifists who led peace initiatives. Pacifists in the United States were either simplistic and naïve …
General History May 21, 2019

Gateway State

Hawai’i and the Cultural Transformation of American Empire

Sarah Miller-Davenport

Hosted by Zeb Larson
One of my talking points when hanging out with my fellow diplomatic historians is the painful absence of scholarship on Hawaii. Too many political histories treat Hawaii’s statehood as a …
General History April 15, 2019

Foreign Intervention in Africa after the Cold War

Sovereignty, Responsibility, and the War on Terror

Dr. Elizabeth Schmidt

Hosted by Zeb Larson
Of all the blank spots in the mental maps of many Americans, Africa is one of the largest. Informed by a number of misconceptions and popular myths, knowledge of the …
General History March 12, 2019

Lord Cornwallis is Dead

The Struggle for Democracy in the United States and India

Nico Slate

Hosted by Zeb Larson
In the twenty-first century, India and the United States are two closely connected states. Some of this is economic, and with it comes a concern that jobs in the United …
General History March 7, 2019

How to Hide an Empire

The History of the Greater United States

Daniel Immerwahr

Hosted by Zeb Larson
“Is America an Empire?” is a popular question for pundits and historians, likely because it sets off such a provocative debate. All too often, however, people use empire simply because …
General History January 4, 2019

Black Power and Palestine

Transnational Countries of Color

Michael Fischbach

Hosted by Zeb Larson
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the great animating foreign policy issues of the twenty-first century, one that provokes fierce divisions across the world. In the United States, the issue …
General History December 17, 2018

Dust Bowls of Empire

Imperialism, Environmental Politics, and the Injustice of 'Green' Capitalism

Hannah Holleman

Hosted by Zeb Larson
None of the climate news that we’re getting is good right now, especially now that a number of governments are reversing or failing to meet commitments they made as part …
General History October 31, 2018

The South of the Mind

American Imaginings of White Southernness, 1960–1980

Zachary Lechner

Hosted by Zeb Larson
When talking about the American South in the second half of the twentieth century, popular discourse tended to fall into one of three camps (on occasion, two might coexist simultaneously) …
General History October 2, 2018

The Global Interior

Mineral Frontiers and American Power

Megan Black

Hosted by Zeb Larson
Of all of the departments of the U.S. government you might expect to be implicated in the exercise of imperialism, the Department of the Interior might not be the first …
General History September 25, 2018

Winning Our Freedoms Together

African Americans and Apartheid, 1945–1960

Nicholas Grant

Hosted by Zeb Larson
The links between African Americans and the global struggle for decolonization, particularly in Africa are well-documented. Facing similar kinds of repression that were rooted in systemic racism and the denial …