About Michael Vann

Michael G. Vann is a professor of world history at California State University, Sacramento. A specialist in imperialism and the Cold War in Southeast Asia, he is the author of The Great Hanoi Rat Hunt: Empires, Disease, and Modernity in French Colonial Vietnam (Oxford University Press, 2018). When he’s not reading or talking about new books with smart people, Mike can be found surfing in Santa Cruz, California.

Michael's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Michael:

Caroline Séquin, "Desiring Whiteness: A Racial History of Prostitution in France and Colonial Senegal, 1848-1950" (Cornell UP, 2024)

November 29, 2024

Desiring Whiteness

Caroline Séquin
Hosted by Michael Vann

Since the French Revolution of 1789, the absence of laws banning interracial marriages has served to reinforce two myths about modern France--first,…

Paul Peart-Smith, "Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States: A Graphic Interpretation" (Beacon Press, 2024)

September 15, 2024

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States

Paul Peart-Smith
Hosted by Michael Vann

As the author of a graphic history, I loved chatting with Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Paul Peart-Smith about the graphic interpretation of An Indigenous …