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About James West
Historian of race, media and business in the modern United States and Black diaspora. Author of "Ebony Magazine and Lerone Bennett Jr.: Popular Black History in Postwar America" (Illinois, 2020)
James's website
NBN Episodes hosted by James:
African American Studies
January 8, 2021
The Scholar and the Struggle
Lawrence Reddick's Crusade for Black History and Black Power
David A. Varel
Hosted by James West
One of the most notable African American intellectuals of his generation, Lawrence Reddick helped to spearhead the early Black history movement, served as the second curator of the Schomburg Library …
Literary Studies
November 9, 2020
That Middle World
Race, Performance, and the Politics of Passing
Julia S. Charles
Hosted by James West
In this chronologically and thematically ambitious study of racial passing literature, Julia Charles highlights how mixed-race subjects invent cultural spaces for themselves—a place she terms that middle world. Charles, an …
African American Studies
September 2, 2020
Ten Days in Harlem
Fidel Castro and the Making of the 1960s
Simon Hall
Hosted by James West
In his new book Ten Days in Harlem: Fidel Castro and the Making of the 1960s (Faber, 2020), Simon Hall, a Professor of Modern History at the University of Leeds …
Photography
August 13, 2020
Troublemakers
Chicago Freedom Struggles Through the Lens of Art Shay
Erik Gellman
Hosted by James West
James West speaks with Erik Gellman, an associate professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, about his new book Troublemakers: Chicago Freedom Struggles Through the …
African American Studies
July 15, 2020
Louis Austin and the Carolina Times
A Life in the Long Black Freedom Struggle
Jerry Gershenhorn
Hosted by James West
James West speaks with Jerry Gershenhorn, Julius L. Chambers Professor of History at North Carolina Central University, about Louis Austin and the Carolina Times: A Life in the Long Black …
African American Studies
June 11, 2020
Free The Land
The Republic of New Afrika and the Pursuit of a Black Nation-State
Edward Onaci
Hosted by James West
On March 31, 1968, over 500 Black nationalists convened in Detroit to begin the process of securing independence from the United States. Many concluded that Black Americans' best-remaining hope for …
African American Studies
October 30, 2019
The Fire Is Upon Us
James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America
Nicholas Buccola
Hosted by James West
Nicholas Buccola’s new book, The Fire Is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America (Princeton University Press, 2019), uses the iconic debate …
African American Studies
October 23, 2019
Represented
The Black Imagemakers Who Reimagined American Citizenship
Brenna Wynn Greer
Hosted by James West
Brenna Wynn Greer’s new study Represented: The Black Imagemakers Who Reimagined American Citizenship (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019), provides a fascinating look at a trio of black imagemakers – publisher …
African American Studies
September 19, 2019
The Grapevine of the Black South
The Scott Newspaper Syndicate in the Generation before the Civil Rights Movement
Thomas Aiello
Hosted by James West
In the summer of 1928, William Alexander Scott began a small four-page weekly with the help of his brother Cornelius. By 1932 the Atlanta World had become a daily paper …
Architecture
February 25, 2019
The Black Skyscraper
Architecture and the Perception of Race
Adrienne Brown
Hosted by James West
Adrienne Brown joins the New Books Network this week to talk about her fascinating 2017 book, The Black Skyscraper: Architecture and the Perception of Race (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2017) …
African American Studies
March 22, 2017
Eye on the Struggle
Ethel Payne, the First Lady of the Black Press
James McGrath Morris
Hosted by James West
In his acclaimed biography Eye on the Struggle: Ethel Payne, the First Lady of the Black Press (Amistad, Reprint Edition, 2017), James McGrath Morris explores the fascinating life of pioneering …
African American Studies
March 13, 2017
Blood at the Root
A Racial Cleansing in America
Patrick Phillips
Hosted by James West
This episode of New Books in African American Studies covers Patrick Phillips' powerful new book Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America (W.W. Norton and Company, 2016) At …