New Books Network

About Albert Zambone

NBN Episodes hosted by Albert:

Chinese Studies November 21, 2019

Blood Letters

The Untold Story of Lin Zhao, a Martyr in Mao's China

Lian Xi

Hosted by Albert Zambone
In 1960, a poet and journalist named Lin Zhao was arrested by the Communist Party of China and sent to prison for re-education. Years before, she had –at approximately the …
Popular Culture November 14, 2019

Before the Refrigerator

How We Used to Get Ice

Jonathan Rees

Hosted by Albert Zambone
Frederic Tudor was the “Ice King” of early nineteenth-century America. It was Tudor who realized that ice, harvested from New England ponds and rivers could be shipped to the Caribbean …
Literary Studies November 7, 2019

Dixie Bohemia

A French Quarter Circle in the 1920s

John Shelton Reed

Hosted by Albert Zambone
John Shelton Reed, William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor of sociology (emeritus) at the University of North Carolina, has been observing the South for decades. This week he and Al Zambone …
American Studies October 31, 2019

Up the Trail

How Texas Cowboys Herded Longhorns and Became an American Icon

Timothy Lehman

Hosted by Albert Zambone
In 1866, a sixteen year old cowboy—the name was literal in his case—named J.M. Daugherty bought 1,000 cattle, hired five cowboys, and headed north for Missouri. In Indian Territory, he …
Food October 24, 2019

Cuisine and Empire

Cooking in World History

Rachel Laudan

Hosted by Albert Zambone
With Al Zambone this week is Rachel Laudan, author of the fascinating Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History (University of California Press, 2015). Once a historian of science and …
American Studies October 17, 2019

The Lost Region

Toward a Revival of Midwestern History

Jon K. Lauck

Hosted by Albert Zambone
The guest this week on Historically Thinking is Jon Lauck. He’s the author of The Lost Region: Toward a Revival of Midwestern History (University of Iowa Press, 2013), which is …
American Studies October 10, 2019

Wanamaker’s Temple

The Business of Religion in an Iconic Department Store

Nicole C. Kirk

Hosted by Albert Zambone
"On Christmas Eve, 1911, John Wanamaker stood in the middle of his elaborately decorated department store building in Philadelphia as shoppers milled around him picking up last minute Christmas presents …
Popular Culture July 24, 2019

From Main Street to Mall

The Rise and Fall of the American Department Store

Vicki Howard

Hosted by Albert Zambone
This week we take a break from fun and games to talk about business and consumerism–which, to be sure, is for some people also fun and games. As Vicki Howard …
Food July 17, 2019

Bourbon Justice

How Whiskey Law Shaped America

Brian Haara

Hosted by Albert Zambone
Bourbon whiskey has been around since nearly the beginning of the United States. Given that longevity, it has been part of the corporate law of the United States since the …
Art July 10, 2019

Object Lessons

How Nineteenth-Century Americans Learned to Make Sense of the Material World

Sarah Anne Carter

Hosted by Albert Zambone
The metaphor “object lesson” is a familiar one, still in everyday use. But what exactly does the metaphor refer to? In her book Object Lessons: How Nineteenth-Century Americans Learned to …
European Studies July 3, 2019

Petrarch's War

Florence and the Black Death in Context

William Caferro

Hosted by Albert Zambone
In 1349 the City-Republic of Florence had just endured a horrific epidemic of bubonic plague, that contagion that became known as the Black Death. Nevertheless, despite the effects upon both …
Art June 26, 2019

Treasures Afoot

Shoe Stories from the Georgian Era

Kimberly Alexander

Hosted by Albert Zambone
“Fashion is universal,” writes my guest Kimberly Alexander in her book Treasures Afoot: Shoe Stories from the Georgian Era (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018), “enabling historians across time, place, and …