New Books Network

About Marshall Poe

Marshall Poe has done a lot of things, some of them good.

Marshall Poe is the founder and editor of the New Books Network. He can be reached at marshallpoe@newbooksnetwork.com.

NBN Episodes hosted by Marshall:

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast July 15, 2021

Émigrés

French Words That Turned English

Richard Scholar

Hosted by Marshall Poe
English has borrowed more words from French than from any other modern foreign language. French words and phrases—such as à la mode, ennui, naïveté and caprice—lend English a certain je-ne-sais-quoi …
World Affairs July 2, 2021

High Conflict

Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out

Amanda Ripley

Hosted by Marshall Poe
What’s the greatest crisis facing America today? — Racism and hate crimes, exploding government debt, climate change, or the mess at the border? It may be none of these. America …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast July 1, 2021

What Do the Ancients Have to Teach Us?

A Discussion to with Rob Tempio

Rob Tempio

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Today I talked to Rob Tempio, the editor of a wonderful collection of books from Princeton University Press called "Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers." The series presents the timeless and timely ideas …
In Conversation: An OUP Podcast July 1, 2021

Joseph Smith for President

The Prophet, the Assassins, and the Fight for American Religious Freedom

Spencer W. McBride

Hosted by Marshall Poe
By the election year of 1844, Joseph Smith, the controversial founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, had amassed a national following of some 25,000 believers. Nearly …
In Conversation: An OUP Podcast June 15, 2021

The Chiefs Now in This City

Indians and the Urban Frontier in Early America

Colin Calloway

Hosted by Marshall Poe
During the years of the Early Republic, prominent Native leaders regularly traveled to American cities--Albany, Boston, Charleston, Philadelphia, Montreal, Quebec, New York, and New Orleans--primarily on diplomatic or trade business …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast June 15, 2021

Taken for Granted

The Remarkable Power of the Unremarkable

Eviatar Zerubavel

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Why is the term "openly gay" so widely used but "openly straight" is not? What are the unspoken assumptions behind terms like "male nurse," "working mom," and "white trash"? Offering …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast June 1, 2021

Things Fall Together

A Guide to the New Materials Revolution

Skylar Tibbits

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Things in life tend to fall apart. Cars break down. Buildings fall into disrepair. Personal items deteriorate. Yet today’s researchers are exploiting newly understood properties of matter to program materials …
In Conversation: An OUP Podcast June 1, 2021

Newspaper Confessions

A History of Advice Columns in a Pre-Internet Age

Julie Golia

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Julie Golia's new book Newspaper Confessions: A History of Advice Columns in a Pre-Internet Age (Oxford UP, 2021) chronicles the history of the newspaper advice column, a genre that has shaped …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast May 17, 2021

After Callimachus

Poems

Stephanie Burt

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Callimachus may be the best-kept secret in all of ancient poetry. Loved and admired by later Romans and Greeks, his funny, sexy, generous, thoughtful, learned, sometimes elaborate, and always articulate …
In Conversation: An OUP Podcast May 17, 2021

On the Fringe

Where Science Meets Pseudoscience

Michael D. Gordin

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Everyone has heard of the term "pseudoscience", typically used to describe something that looks like science, but is somehow false, misleading, or unproven. Many would be able to agree on …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast May 3, 2021

For the Many

American Feminists and the Global Fight for Democratic Equality

Dorothy Sue Cobble

Hosted by Marshall Poe
For the Many: American Feminists and the Global Fight for Democratic Equality (Princeton University Press, 2021) presents an inspiring look at how US women and their global allies pushed the nation and …
In Conversation: An OUP Podcast May 3, 2021

Love Lives

From Cinderella to Frozen

Carol Dyhouse

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Cinderella stories captured the imagination of girls in the 1950s, when dreams of meeting the right man could seem like a happy ending, a solution to life's problems. But over …
In Conversation: An OUP Podcast April 15, 2021

The Hidden History of Coined Words

Ralph Keyes

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Successful word-coinages--those that stay in currency for a good long time--tend to conceal their beginnings. We take them at face value and rarely when and where they were first minted …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast April 15, 2021

Can We Fix Social Media?

A Discussion with Christopher A. Bail

Christopher A. Bail

Hosted by Marshall Poe
In an era of increasing social isolation, platforms like Facebook and Twitter are among the most important tools we have to understand each other. We use social media as a …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast April 1, 2021

The Water Crisis on the High Plains

A Discussion with Lucas Bessire

Lucas Bessire

Hosted by Marshall Poe
The Ogallala aquifer has nourished life on the American Great Plains for millennia. But less than a century of unsustainable irrigation farming has taxed much of the aquifer beyond repair …
In Conversation: An OUP Podcast April 1, 2021

The Movement

The African American Struggle for Civil Rights

Thomas C. Holt

Hosted by Marshall Poe
The civil rights movement was among the most important historical developments of the twentieth century and one of the most remarkable mass movements in American history. Not only did it …
In Conversation: An OUP Podcast March 15, 2021

The Cause of Freedom

A Concise History of African Americans

Jonathan S. Holloway

Hosted by Marshall Poe
What does it mean to be an American? The story of the African American past demonstrates the difficulty of answering this seemingly simple question. If being "American" means living in …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast March 15, 2021

Dying from Despair in the USA

A Discussion with Anne Case

Anne Case

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Life expectancy in the United States has recently fallen for three years in a row—a reversal not seen since 1918 or in any other wealthy nation in modern times. In …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast March 1, 2021

The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer

A Discussion with Marion Turner

Marion Turner

Hosted by Marshall Poe
More than any other canonical English writer, Geoffrey Chaucer lived and worked at the centre of political life—yet his poems are anything but conventional. Edgy, complicated, and often dark, they …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast February 15, 2021

How Discrimination Haunts Western Democracy

A Discussion with Michael Hanchard

Michael G. Hanchard

Hosted by Marshall Poe
As right-wing nationalism and authoritarian populism gain momentum across the world, liberals, and even some conservatives, worry that democratic principles are under threat. In The Spectre of Race: How Discrimination …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast February 1, 2021

White Freedom

The Racial History of an Idea

Tyler Stovall

Hosted by Marshall Poe
The era of the Enlightenment, which gave rise to our modern conceptions of freedom and democracy, was also the height of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. America, a nation founded on …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast February 1, 2021

The Idea of Freedom and Race

A Discussion with Tyler Stovall

Tyler Stovall

Hosted by Marshall Poe
The era of the Enlightenment, which gave rise to our modern conceptions of freedom and democracy, was also the height of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. America, a nation founded on …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast January 15, 2021

Who was Francisco Goya?

A Discussion with Janis Tomlinson

Janis Tomlinson

Hosted by Marshall Poe
The life of Francisco Goya (1746–1828) coincided with an age of transformation in Spanish history that brought upheavals in the country’s politics and at the court which Goya served, changes …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast January 4, 2021

Can we Bring Extinct Species Back?

A Conversation with Beth Shapiro

Beth Shapiro

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Could extinct species, like mammoths and passenger pigeons, be brought back to life? The science says yes. In How to Clone a Mammoth: The Science of De-Extinction (Princeton UP, 2020), Beth Shapiro …