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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 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 …
General History August 10, 2022

Feminism's Empire

Carolyn J. Eichner

Hosted by Michael Vann
Feminism's Empire (Cornell UP, 2022) investigates the complex relationships between imperialisms and feminisms in the late nineteenth century and demonstrates the challenge of conceptualizing "pro-imperialist" and "anti-imperialist" as binary positions …
General History August 5, 2022

The Memory of Colonialism in Britain and France

The Sins of Silence

Itay Lotem

Hosted by Michael Vann
In The Memory of Colonialism in Britain and France: The Sins of Silence (Palgrave MacMillan, 2021), Itay Lotem explores the remembering of empire in Britain and France. By comparing these two former …
General History July 14, 2022

Debating the Woman Question in the French Third Republic, 1870-1920

Karen Offen

Hosted by Michael Vann
While it is an overused cliché, France is indeed a land of contrasts, famous for its paradoxes. In French political history, the most startling may be the progressive policies of …
General History July 8, 2022

Vaccine: The Human Story

A Chat with Historian and Podcaster Annie Kelly

Annie Kelly

Hosted by Michael Vann
“Vaccine: The Human Story” is a podcast and video series that tells the story of the global fight against smallpox, from its earliest history as a folk demon, to the …
General History April 15, 2022

World War II in Southeast Asia

Economy and Society under Japanese Occupation

Gregg Huff

Hosted by Michael Vann
To say that World War II and Southeast Asia: Economy and Society under Japanese Occupation (Cambridge University Press, 2020) is an impressive achievement is a huge understatement. Based on years of …
General History March 24, 2022

Breathe

A Life in Flow

Rickson Gracie and Peter Maguire

Hosted by Michael Vann
Rickson Gracie is one of the most fascinating professional athletes in the world. It is not hyperbole to call him a "living legend". A scion of a famed family of professional …
General History February 10, 2022

One Man's Terrorist

A Political History of the IRA

Daniel Finn

Hosted by Michael Vann
When most people think of the Irish Republican Army, they naturally think of terrorism. But what of the political context that led to some 10,000 Irish nationalists to take up …
General History February 2, 2022

Citizen Cash

The Political Life and Times of Johnny Cash

Michael Stewart Foley

Hosted by Michael Vann
Johnny Cash famously declared himself to be “The Man in Black”. He sang that he dressed in a “somber tone” for “the poor and the beaten down, livin' in the …
General History November 23, 2021

Hinge Points

A Podcast about Historical Contingency

Matt Christman and Daniel Bessner

Hosted by Michael Vann
How do we balance the importance of individual human agency with our understanding of larger socio-economic structures? How do we explore crucial “what ifs” in history? How do we make …