New Books Network

About Mark Klobas

NBN Episodes hosted by Mark:

General History September 10, 2021

The International Brigades

Fascism, Freedom and the Spanish Civil War

Giles Tremlett

Hosted by Mark Klobas
When civil war broke out in Spain in 1936, tens of thousands of young men and women from across the world flocked there to fight against the Nationalist uprising. Though …
General History September 7, 2021

Teaching Machines

The History of Personalized Learning

Audrey Watters

Hosted by Mark Klobas
Contrary to the claims of many of today’s advocates of computerized instruction and online learning, efforts to use technology to improve the education process are hardly new. In Teaching Machines: The …
General History August 23, 2021

The Full Employment Horizon in 20th-Century America

The Movement for Economic Democracy

Michael Dennis

Hosted by Mark Klobas
One of the unfulfilled goals of the American left during the 1930s was that of an economy in which every American would enjoy the opportunity for gainful employment. In The Full …
Biography August 13, 2021

The Rise and Fall of Morris Ernst, Free Speech Renegade

Samantha Barbas

Hosted by Mark Klobas
Over the course of a long and successful legal career, Morris Ernst established himself as one of Americas foremost civil libertarians. Yet his advocacy of free speech – an advocacy …
General History August 6, 2021

The Dope

The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade

Benjamin T. Smith

Hosted by Mark Klobas
For over a century Mexico has been embroiled in a drug war dictated by the demands of their neighbor to the north. In The Dope: The Real History of the …
General History July 6, 2021

Empire Ascendant

The British World, Race, and the Rise of Japan, 1894-1914

Cees Heere

Hosted by Mark Klobas
In signing an alliance with Japan in 1902 Great Britain sought to strengthen its position in eastern Asia and the Pacific Ocean. Yet this relationship was not a bilateral one …
General History June 22, 2021

Inside Money

Brown Brothers Harriman and the American Way of Power

Zachary Karabell

Hosted by Mark Klobas
In 1800 a Belfast linen merchant named Alexander Brown emigrated with his wife and eldest son to Baltimore. Today his family’s name lives on in the investment firm Brown Brothers …
General History June 17, 2021

New Crusade

The Royal Navy and British Navalism, 1884-1914

Bradley Cesario

Hosted by Mark Klobas
In the years leading up to the First World War, a loose combination of serving naval officers, journalists, and politicians in Great Britain orchestrated a wave of support for the …
General History June 7, 2021

The Constitution of Knowledge

A Defense of Truth

Jonathan Rauch

Hosted by Mark Klobas
In recent years Americans have experienced a range of assaults upon the truth. In The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth (Brookings Institution Press, 2021), Jonathan Rauch describes the …
General History June 4, 2021

The Ever-Changing Past

Why All History Is Revisionist History

James M. Banner, Jr.

Hosted by Mark Klobas
In recent years the phrase “revisionist history” has emerged as a label for politically-correct reexaminations of an unalterable understanding of our past. As James M. Banner, Jr. demonstrates in his …
General History June 3, 2021

Socialism As a Secular Creed

A Modern Global History

Andrei Znamenski

Hosted by Mark Klobas
The predominantly secular focus of socialism can often obscure the parts of its ideology that reflect the elements it inherited from Western religious thinking. In Socialism as a Secular Creed …
General History May 24, 2021

Restricted Data

The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States

Alex Wellerstein

Hosted by Mark Klobas
Given the obsession with information and secrecy in today’s world, it can be difficult to imagine a time when governments held few secrets and worried little about what information …
General History April 30, 2021

The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

A Photographic History

Karlos K. Hill

Hosted by Mark Klobas
On the evening of May 31, 1921, thousands of white Oklahomans assaulted the Greenwood District of the city of Tulsa. In what would come to be known as the Tulsa …
General History April 28, 2021

American Women's Suffrage

Voices from the Long Struggle for the Vote, 1776-1965

Susan Ware

Hosted by Mark Klobas
The ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which granted women the right to vote nationwide, was the culmination of a long and oftentimes contentious …
Biography April 20, 2021

The Girl Who Dared to Defy

Jane Street and the Rebel Maids of Denver

Jane Little Botkin

Hosted by Mark Klobas
In 1916, hundreds of local female household workers attempted to establish a union in Denver. The organizer behind the effort was Jane Street, a remarkable 29-year-old woman who, as Jane …
General History April 9, 2021

Resisting Independence

Popular Loyalism in the Revolutionary British Atlantic

Brad A. Jones

Hosted by Mark Klobas
The American Revolution has traditionally been presented as one of the thirteen colonies standing up to a tyrannical empire. Not only does this gloss over the involvement of the thousands …
General History March 23, 2021

New York's War of 1812

Politics, Society, and Combat

Richard V. Barbuto

Hosted by Mark Klobas
From its use as a staging ground for invasions of Canada to the blockading of its ports, New York found itself at the forefront of America’s war with Great Britain …
Biography March 12, 2021

William Still

The Underground Railroad and the Angel at Philadelphia

William C. Kashatus

Hosted by Mark Klobas
William Still looms large in the history of the Underground Railroad, both for his role coordinating the Eastern Line and the records he maintained of the fugitives he saved. In …
Biography March 1, 2021

The Afterlife of Anne Boleyn

Representations of Anne Boleyn in Fiction and on the Screen

Stephanie Russo

Hosted by Mark Klobas
In the centuries since her execution in 1536, Anne Boleyn’s presence in Western culture has grown to extraordinary proportions. In The Afterlife of Anne Boleyn: Representations of Anne Boleyn in …
Biography February 16, 2021

Vera Rubin

A Life

Jacqueline Mitton and Simon Mitton

Hosted by Mark Klobas
Few astronomers in the 20th century did as much to expand our understanding of the universe as Vera Rubin. To tell her remarkable story in their biography Vera Rubin: A …
General History February 11, 2021

Inca Apocalypse

The Spanish Conquest and the Transformation of the Andean World

R. Alan Covey

Hosted by Mark Klobas
The arrival in 1532 of a small group of Spanish conquistadores at the Andean town of Cajamarca launched one of the most dramatic – and often misunderstood – events in …
General History February 2, 2021

Hotel London

How Victorian Commercial Hospitality Shaped a Nation and Its Stories

Barbara Black

Hosted by Mark Klobas
During the nineteenth century, the grand hotel emerged as a vital part of London life. Originally catering to elite visitors needing a place to stay in the short term, they …
Biography January 22, 2021

Poet of Revolution

The Making of John Milton

Nicholas McDowell

Hosted by Mark Klobas
Decades before he wrote his epic work Paradise Lost, John Milton was an active republican and polemicist. How Milton came to espouse such radical views is just one of the …
Biography January 4, 2021

Before the Sidewalk Ended

A Walk with Shel Silverstein

Anthony Valerio

Hosted by Mark Klobas
Anthony Valerio's Before the Sidewalk Ended: A Walk with Shel Silverstein (Daisy H. Productions, 2020) is a startling portrait of the great writer of children's books, songs and plays Shel Silverstein. What …