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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:

General History November 4, 2023

The Great Defiance

How the World Took on the British Empire

David Veevers

Hosted by Michael Vann
The story of the British Empire is a familiar one: Britain came, it saw, it conquered, forging a glorious world empire upon which the sun never set. In fact, far …
General History October 18, 2023

The Faculty Lounge

A Cocktail Guide for Academics

Philipp Stelzel

Hosted by Michael Vann
The life of a scholar is stressful. The best way to muddle through is with a stiff drink. Balancing teaching, research, and service more than merits a cocktail at the …
General History October 3, 2023

Extremely Online

The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet

Taylor Lorenz

Hosted by Michael Vann
Listen:
Acclaimed Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz presents a groundbreaking social history of the internet—revealing how online influence and the creators who amass it have reshaped our world, online and off …
General History October 3, 2023

A Man of Two Faces

A Memoir, a History, a Memorial

Viet Thanh Nguyen

Hosted by Michael Vann
Listen:
With insight, humor, formal invention, and lyricism, in A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2023), Viet Thanh Nguyen rewinds the film of his …
General History September 14, 2023

The Golden Voice

The Ballad of Cambodian Rock's Lost Queen

Gregory Cahill

Hosted by Michael Vann
The Golden Voice: The Ballad of Cambodian Rock's Lost Queen (Life Drawn, 2023) is very well-researched graphic novel based on the life of beloved Cambodian singer Ros Serey Sothea, whose …
General History September 8, 2023

The English GI

World War II Graphic Memoir of a Yorkshire Schoolboy's Adventures in the United States and Europe

Jonathan Sandler

Hosted by Michael Vann
Listen:
Jonathan Sandler’s The English GI: World War II Graphic Memoir of a Yorkshire Schoolboy’s Adventures in the United States and Europe, is an adaptation of his grandfather’s 1994 war memoir …
General History August 13, 2023

Between War and the State

Civil Society in South Vietnam, 1954-1975

Van Nguyen-Marshall

Hosted by Michael Vann
The history of South Vietnam (1954-1975) is in the midst of a major revision. Historians such as Van Nguyen-Marshall are rejecting old clichés of corruption and subservience to the United …
General History July 26, 2023

Hong Kong Media and Asia's Cold War

Po-Shek Fu

Hosted by Michael Vann
Listen:
British Hong Kong was a historical anomaly in the Cold War. It experienced no "hot war" or organized movement for independence, and yet it was a key battlefield of Asia's …
General History July 19, 2023

Late-Colonial French Cinema

Filming the Algerian War of Independence

Mani Sharpe

Hosted by Michael Vann
Listen:
In Late-Colonial French Cinema: Filming the Algerian War of Independence, Mani Sharpe peploys the term “late-colonial” to describe (mostly) French films made during, and in response to, the Algerian War …
General History May 23, 2023

Postcolonial People

The Return from Africa and the Remaking of Portugal

Christoph Kalter

Hosted by Michael Vann
In the space of a few months in 1975, more than 500,000 Portuguese settlers fled their homes in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tomé and Principe, and East Timor and “returned” …
General History May 15, 2023

Khmer Nationalist

Sơn Ngc Thành, the CIA, and the Transformation of Cambodia

Matthew Jagel

Hosted by Michael Vann
Khmer Nationalist: Sơn Ngc Thành, the CIA, and the Transformation of Cambodia (Northern Illinois UP, 2023) is a political history of Cambodia from World War II until 1975, examining the …
General History May 12, 2023

Contracting Freedom

Race, Empire, and U.S. Guestworker Programs

Maria L. Quintana

Hosted by Michael Vann
Contracting Freedom: Race, Empire, and U.S. Guestworker Programs (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022) explores the origins of twentieth-century U.S. guestworker programs from Mexico and the Caribbean. It investigates these government-sponsored programs …
General History April 30, 2023

A History of Plague in Java, 1911-1942

Maurits Bastiaan Meerwijk

Hosted by Michael Vann
I was very excited to chat with Maurits Bastiaan Meerwijk as we share some obsessions, namely rats and plague in colonial Southeast Asia. His A History of Plague in Java …
Journalism April 13, 2023

Reports from Hell

Chas Smith

Hosted by Michael Vann
While now a prominent and controversial surf journalist, Chas Smith started his career as a war correspondent in the Middle East. Obsessed with Joan Didion, but really working in the …
General History April 12, 2023

Sinobabble

A Podcast about Modern Chinese History

Edi Obiakpani-Reid

Hosted by Michael Vann
I got to chat with Dr. Edi Obiakpani-Reid about Sinobabble, her podcast series on 20th century Chinese history. In this series she offers an informed and engaging survey of China …
General History March 31, 2023

Under the Banner of King Death

Pirates of the Atlantic, a Graphic Novel

David Lester and Marcus Rediker

Hosted by Michael Vann
Under the Banner of King Death: Pirates of the Atlantic, A Graphic Novel (Beacon Press, 2023) is a comic adaptation of Rediker’s now classic 2004 Villains of all Nation: Atlantic Pirates in …
General History February 4, 2023

Empire and Catastrophe

Decolonization and Environmental Disaster in North Africa and Mediterranean France since 1954

Spencer D. Segalla

Hosted by Michael Vann
Spencer Segalla’s Empire and Catastrophe: Decolonization and Environmental Disaster in North Africa and Mediterranean France since 1954 (U Nebraska Press, 2021) explores natural and anthropogenic disasters during the years of decolonization …
Digital Humanities January 22, 2023

Podcast Series: Hell on Earth

The 30 Years War and the Violent Birth of Capitalism

Chris Wade and Matt Christman

Hosted by Michael Vann
Hell on Earth: The 30 Years War and the Violent Birth of Capitalism is a new 10-part series from the creators of Hell of Presidents — one of Entertainment Weekly’s …
General History December 24, 2022

Postcolonialism and Migration in French Comics

Mark McKinney

Hosted by Michael Vann
Regarded as the “9th Art”, French bande desinée have a much longer history of serious socio-political engagement than American comics. Since the Algerian War (1954–62), postcolonialism, migration, anti-racism are major …
General History December 10, 2022

The Galactic Vietnam

Technology, Modernization, and Empire in George Lucas’s Star Wars

Daniel Immerwahr

Hosted by Michael Vann
In this episode I got to chat about two of my favorite things: the history of imperialism and Star Wars with Daniel Immerwahr, Professor of History at Northwestern University. Our …
General History November 21, 2022

Escaping Slavery

A Documentary History of Native American Runaways in British North America

Antonio T. Bly

Hosted by Michael Vann
Antonio T. Bly had collected and edited hundreds of advertisements offering a reward for enslaved Native Americans who run away from their masters. Escaping Slavery: A Documentary History of Native …
General History October 10, 2022

Ghost Stories for the End of the World

A History Podcast about Conspiracies

Matt

Hosted by Michael Vann
Let’s face it. It’s tough to talk about some things. Even things that are really important… like the individuals and institutions running the world in the shadows. Nothing will ruin …
General History September 30, 2022

Armed Citizens

The Road from Ancient Rome to the Second Amendment

Noah Shusterman

Hosted by Michael Vann
Although much has changed in the United States since the eighteenth century, our framework for gun laws still largely relies on the Second Amendment and the patterns that emerged in …
General History August 16, 2022

Road to Nowhere

What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation

Paris Marx

Hosted by Michael Vann
In Road to Nowhere: What Silicon Valley Gets Wrong about the Future of Transportation (Verso, 2022), Paris Marx identifies two convergent forces in the 20th century: the growth of the climate …