New Books Network

About Bruce Wark

NBN Episodes hosted by Bruce:

American Studies October 28, 2020

Democracy Without Journalism?

Confronting the Misinformation Society

Victor Pickard

Hosted by Bruce Wark
"Few freedoms in the United States are as cherished as freedom of the press." So begins Chapter One of Democracy Without Journalism?: Confronting the Misinformation Society (Oxford University Press, 2020) …
Critical Theory June 15, 2016

The Servant State

Overseeing Capital Accumulation in Canada

Geoffrey McCormack and Thom Workman

Hosted by Bruce Wark
Two Canadian political science professors contend that the grotesque inequities of the capitalist system feed hatred, nourish misogyny, promote chronic dispossession and wreak havoc on the environment. In their new …
World Affairs February 24, 2016

This Changes Everything

Capitalism vs. The Climate

Naomi Klein

Hosted by Bruce Wark
The Canadian author and journalist Naomi Klein says right-wing conservatives who deny the reality of global warming are correct about the revolutionary implications of climate change. In her new book …
American Studies August 13, 2015

The Nation

A Biography

D. D. Guttenplan

Hosted by Bruce Wark
The Nation magazine turned 150 this year, a striking achievement for a publication that is firmly on the left of the political spectrum. It was founded in 1865 just months …
American Studies June 20, 2015

Ithaca Diaries

Coming of Age in the 1960s

Anita M. Harris

Hosted by Bruce Wark
Sex, Drugs and Rock n' Roll. That's the stereotypical view of the 1960s. But in her memoir, Ithaca Diaries, Coming of Age in the 1960s (Cambridge Common Press, 2014), journalist …
American Studies June 2, 2015

The Almanac

150 Years of the Nation (5)

Richard Kreitner, ed.

Hosted by Bruce Wark
Helen Keller, Franz Kafka and Silent Cal Coolidge appear in this week's Almanac, a blog to celebrate the 150thanniversary of The Nation, America's oldest magazine. Nation archivist Richard Kreitner is …
American Studies May 22, 2015

The Almanac

150 Years of The Nation (4)

Richard Kreitner, ed.

Hosted by Bruce Wark
When Star Wars opened in 1977, Robert Hatch, film reviewer for The Nation magazine, wrote that it "belongs in the sub-basement, or interstellar comic-strip school of science fiction, Terry and …
American Studies May 18, 2015

The Almanac

150 Years of The Nation (3)

Richard Kreitner, ed.

Hosted by Bruce Wark
The Nation magazine, a beacon of the cultural and political left, is celebrating 150 years of publishing. As part of its celebration, it's publishing a daily blog called The Almanac …
American Studies May 10, 2015

The Almanac

150 Years of The Nation (2)

Richard Kreitner, ed.

Hosted by Bruce Wark
The Nation magazine is one of America's most distinguished journalistic enterprises featuring the writing and work of such notable people as Calvin Trillin, Noam Chomsky, Jessica Mitford, James Baldwin and …
American Studies April 27, 2015

American Conspiracy Theories

Joseph E. Uscinski and Joseph M. Parent

Hosted by Bruce Wark
"Conspiracy theories are neither the vile excrescence of puny minds nor the telltale symptom of a sick society. They are the ineradicable stuff of politics."That's a quotation from American Conspiracy …
American Studies April 15, 2015

The Almanac

150 Years of The Nation

Richard Kreitner, ed.

Hosted by Bruce Wark
The Nation magazine is one of America's most distinguished journalistic enterprises featuring the writing and work of such notable people as Albert Einstein, Emma Goldman, Molly Ivins, I.F. Stone and …
American Studies March 10, 2015

What I Learned About Politics

Inside the Rise-and Collapse-of Nova Scotia's NDP Government

Graham Steele

Hosted by Bruce Wark
Political debate in western democracies such as in Canada, the U.S. and Britain has become empty theatre, full of rhetorical flourishes with little meaning for citizens, according to a new …
American Studies February 9, 2015

The Making of Global Capitalism

The Political Economy of American Empire

Sam Gindin and Leo Panitch

Hosted by Bruce Wark
Two Canadian socialist thinkers have published a new book on the successes and failures, the crises, contradictions and conflicts in present-day capitalism. In The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political …
Communications November 17, 2014

Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion (Second Edition)

Randal Marlin

Hosted by Bruce Wark
It's been 100 years since the start of the First World War, a conflict that cost millions of lives. In his recently revised book, Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion …
Journalism October 6, 2014

Reclaiming the Commons for the Common Good

A Memoir and Manifesto

Heather Menzies

Hosted by Bruce Wark
The Canadian author and scholar, Heather Menzies, has written a book about the journey she took to the highlands of Scotland in search of her ancestral roots. In Reclaiming the …
American Studies September 22, 2014

Constructing Neoliberalism

Economic Transformation in Anglo-American Democracies

Jonathan Swarts

Hosted by Bruce Wark
The new book, Constructing Neoliberalism: Economic Transformation in Anglo-American Democracies (University of Toronto Press, 2013) shows how political elites in Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Canada successfully introduced radically new …
American Studies September 11, 2014

Equal As Citizens

The Tumultuous and Troubled History of a Great Canadian Idea

Richard Starr

Hosted by Bruce Wark
"We are not half a dozen provinces. We are one great Dominion," Canada's first Prime Minister, John A. Macdonald proudly declared. More than a century later, Canada has 10 provinces …
Poetry August 19, 2014

Origins

Darryl Whetter

Hosted by Bruce Wark
In his new book of poems, Origins (Palimpsest Press, 2012), the Canadian writer Darryl Whetter uses metaphor to excavate the links between pre-historic life, extinction, evolution and modern-day sex. In …
Geography August 5, 2014

The Living Beach

Life, Death and Politics where the Land Meets the Sea

Silver Donald Cameron

Hosted by Bruce Wark
The acclaimed Canadian author Silver Donald Cameron writes that the idea for his newly reissued book, The Living Beach: Life, Death and Politics where the Land Meets the Sea (Red …
Gender and Sexuality April 16, 2012

The Morning After

A History of Emergency Contraception in the United States

Heather Munro Prescott

Hosted by Bruce Wark
What would a Presidential campaign be without a good dose of reproductive politics? To be sure, many of us are surprised to see contraception, and not just abortion, called into …