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About Christine Lamberson

Christine Lamberson is a historian. Her research and teaching focuses on 20th century U.S. political and cultural history. She’s currently working on a book manuscript about the role of violence in shaping U.S. political culture in the 1960s and 1970s.

NBN Episodes hosted by Christine:

General History November 2, 2022

Civil War by Other Means

America's Long and Unfinished Fight for Democracy

Jeremi Suri

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
In 1865, the Confederacy was defeated, but the military victory did not end the tensions of the war or signal acceptance of a new, more equal nation. In Civil War …
General History January 5, 2021

A Different Manifest Destiny

U. S. Southern Identity and Citizenship in Nineteenth-Century South America

Claire M. Wolnisty

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
The story of Manifest Destiny and the role of expansion in American slavery is dominated by the history of Western migration. In A Different Manifest Destiny: U.S. Southern Identity and …
General History May 27, 2020

Spiritual Socialists

Religion and the American Left

Vaneesa Cook

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
In this episode of the podcast, Vaneesa Cook discusses her new book Spiritual Socialists: Religion and the American Left (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019). The book shows that there is …
General History August 16, 2019

Jim Crow Capital

Women and Black Freedom Struggles in Washington, DC, 1920-1945

Mary-Elizabeth Murphy

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
Though women’s roles in the black freedom struggle remain under-acknowledged, scholars continue to make their importance clear. In her new book, Jim Crow Capital: Women and Black Freedom Struggles in …
General History April 25, 2019

Exposing Slavery

Photography, Human Bondage, and the Birth of Modern Visual Politics in America

Matthew Fox-Amato

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
Shortly after its introduction, photography transformed the ways Americans made political arguments using visual images. In the mid-19th century, photographs became key tools in debates surrounding slavery. Yet, photographs were …
General History April 9, 2019

Policing Los Angeles

Race, Resistance, and the Rise of the LAPD

Max Felker-Kantor

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
In recent years, the treatment of African Americans by police departments around the country has come under increased public scrutiny. As any student of the longer historical relationship between law …
General History February 5, 2019

Let the People See

The Story of Emmett Till

Elliott J. Gorn

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
The story of Emmett Till’s death at the hands of white Mississippians is well known. For many Americans, it highlights the racism of the Jim Crow South and was a …
General History December 4, 2018

The Men of Mobtown

Policing Baltimore in the Age of Slavery and Emancipation

Adam Malka

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
Criminal justice, policing, and mass incarceration have gained significant political attention recently, and the problems of these systems have drawn increasingly frequent calls for reform from the right and left …
General History August 6, 2018

Public vs. Private

The Early History of School Choice in America

Robert N. Gross

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
There are numerous political debates about education policy today, but some of the most heated surround vouchers, charter schools, and other questions about public funding and oversight of private …
General History July 30, 2018

Most of 14th Street Is Gone

The Washington, DC Riots of 1968

J. Samuel Walker

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
Fifty years ago, the United States, and many other societies, experienced one of the most turbulent years of the century. In 1968, Americans were deeply divided. The Vietnam War was …
General History June 15, 2018

The City That Ate Itself

Butte, Montana and Its Expanding Berkeley Pit

Brian James Leech

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
The plight of today's coal miners has gained significant attention in recent U.S. politics. As coal mining practices and technologies change in the United States, coal miners face job reductions …
General History March 13, 2018

Hannah Mary Tabbs and the Disembodied Torso

A Tale of Race, Sex, and Violence in America

Kali Nicole Gross

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
True crime is as popular as ever in our present moment. Both television and podcast series have gained critical praise and large audiences by exploring largely unknown individual crimes in …
General History March 5, 2018

The Eddie Cantor Story

A Jewish Life in Performance and Politics

David Weinstein

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
Eddie Cantor was once among the most popular performers in the United States. He was influential and innovative on stage, radio, and film from the early twentieth century though the …
General History February 7, 2018

American Mestizos, the Philippines, and the Malleability of Race, 1898-1961

Nicholas Trajano Molnar

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
In 1898, the United States took control of the Philippines from the Spanish. The U.S. then entered into a brutal war to make the Filipinos submit to the new colonial …
General History January 25, 2018

The Foundation of the CIA

Harry Truman, the Missouri Gang and the Origins of the Cold War

Richard E. Schroeder

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
The CIA is a well-known agency to say the least. It is a key part of the United States' national security apparatus and has been for the past 70 years …
General History September 15, 2017

No Mercy Here

Gender, Punishment, and the Making of Jim Crow Modernity

Sarah Haley

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
Recent popular and scholarly interest has highlighted the complex and brutal system of mass incarceration in the United States. Much of this interest has focused on recent developments while other …
General History September 11, 2017

Public Interests

Media Advocacy and Struggles Over U.S. Television

Allison Perlman

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
Since its infancy, television has played an important role in shaping U.S. values and the American sense of self. Social activists recognized this power immediately and, consequently, set about trying …
General History March 9, 2017

The Streets of San Francisco

Policing and the Creation of a Cosmopolitan Liberal Politics, 1950-1972

Christopher Lowen Agee

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
Policing tactics have recently been the subject of lively political debates and the target of protest groups like the Black Lives Matter movement. Police reform is not new, of course …
General History February 1, 2017

Convict Cowboys

The Untold History of the Texas Prison Rodeo

Mitchel Roth

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
For more than 50 years, Huntsville prison put on an annual rodeo throughout the month of October to entertain prisoners, locals, and visitors from across the nation. In his new …
General History November 1, 2016

Blood in the Water

The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy

Heather Ann Thompson

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
In 1971, prisoners took over Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York. The uprising followed a wave of protests in prisons and jails across the state and nation. Prisoners sought …
General History September 26, 2016

Making the White Man's West

Whiteness and the Creation of the American West

Jason Pierce

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
The West, particularly the mountain West of states like Colorado, Utah, Idaho, has long had an image as a land of white men. This image dates to the 19th century …
General History September 16, 2016

The Cotton Kings

Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleans

Barbara Hahn and Bruce Baker

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
With the recent economic collapse and rising income inequality, lessons drawn from turn-of-the century capitalism have become frequent. Pundits, policymakers, and others have looked to the era to find precursors …
General History August 25, 2016

The Fight for Local Control

Schools, Suburbs, and American Democracy

Campbell F. Scribner

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
Battles over school politics from curriculum to funding to voucher systems are key and contentious features of the political landscape today. Many of these familiar fights started in the 1970s …
General History May 9, 2016

Unruly Waters

A Social and Environmental History of the Brazos River

Kenna R. Archer

Hosted by Christine Lamberson
In Unruly Waters: A Social and Environmental History of the Brazos River (University of New Mexico, 2015), Kenna R. Archer examines the history of the Brazos river. The river, which …