New Books Network

About Lachlan Summers

eccentric billionaire

NBN Episodes hosted by Lachlan:

Anthropology November 4, 2020

The Book of Unconformities

Speculations on Lost Time

Hugh Raffles

Hosted by Lachlan Summers
At once an examination of geology, a biography of monuments, and a meditation on the connection between personal loss and massive loss, Hugh Raffles’ The Book of Unconformities: Speculations on Lost Time (Pantheon Books, 2020) is a truly beguiling book. Moving through Manhattan marble, Norwegian “blubberstone”, extra-terrestrial meteorites, and several other geological forms, Raffles uses the geological concept of “unconformity” to examine those historical moments where time seems to have …
Poetry August 5, 2020

Bomb Children

Life in the Former Battlefields of Laos

Leah Zani

Hosted by Lachlan Summers
In this episode, I talk with Dr. Leah Zani, a public anthropologist and poet based in California, about her truly wonderful book Bomb Children: Life in the Former Battlefields of …
Caribbean Studies August 4, 2020

There is No More Haiti

Between Life and Death in Port-au-Prince

Greg Beckett

Hosted by Lachlan Summers
In today’s episode, I talk with Dr. Greg Beckett, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Western University, about his richly grounded book There is No More Haiti: Between Life and Death …
African American Studies July 17, 2020

From Boas to Black Power

Racism, Liberalism and American Anthropology

Mark D. Anderson

Hosted by Lachlan Summers
Mark Anderson’s From Boas to Black Power: Racism, Liberalism and American Anthropology (Stanford University Press) is at once a story about US anthropology and US liberalism from the 1930s to …