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:

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 …
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 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 …
Digital Humanities November 18, 2020

Historical Atlas of Hasidism

Marcin Wodziński and Waldemar Spallek

Hosted by Marshall Poe
The Historical Atlas of Hasidism (Princeton UP, 2018) is the first cartographic reference book on one of the modern era’s most vibrant and important mystical movements. Featuring seventy-four large-format maps …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast November 16, 2020

Conspiracy Theories are More Dangerous Than Ever

A Discussion with Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum

Nancy L. Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Conspiracy theories are as old as politics. But conspiracists today have introduced something new—conspiracy without theory. And the new conspiracism has moved from the fringes to the heart of government …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast November 12, 2020

College Presidents and the Struggle for Integration

A Conversation with Eddie R. Cole

Eddie R. Cole

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Some of America's most pressing civil rights issues--desegregation, equal educational and employment opportunities, housing discrimination, and free speech--have been closely intertwined with higher education institutions. Although it is commonly known …
Scholarly Communication November 9, 2020

The Work and Value of University Presses

A Discussion with Niko Pfund

Niko Pfund

Hosted by Marshall Poe
What do university presses do? And how do they contributed to public discourse? November 9 is the beginning of University Press Week, and today I had the honor of talking …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast November 2, 2020

Conservatism is Always Evolving

A Discussion with Edmund Fawcett

Edmund Fawcett

Hosted by Marshall Poe
For two hundred years, conservatism has defied its reputation as a backward-looking creed by confronting and adapting to liberal modernity. By doing so, the Right has won long periods of …
African American Studies October 15, 2020

Why are Blacks Democrats?

An Interview with Ismail K. White and Chryl N. Laird

Ismail K. White and Chryl N. Laird

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Black Americans are by far the most unified racial group in American electoral politics, with 80 to 90 percent identifying as Democrats—a surprising figure given that nearly a third now …
A Podcast Series about Polymath Robert Eisler August 31, 2020

A Very Square Peg

A Discussion with Brian Collins

Dr. Brian Collins

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Today I talked with Dr. Brian Collins, the creator of "A Very Square Peg." We talked about: --How he discovered Eilser in a used bookstore in Ann Arbor --How he …
German Studies April 22, 2020

Learning From Franz L. Neumann

Law, Theory and the Brute Facts of Political Life

David Kettler and Thomas Wheatland

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Franz Neumann was a member of a generation that saw the end of the Kaiserreich and the beginnings of a democratic republic carried by the labor movement. In Neumann's case …
Education April 13, 2020

A Discussion with Kelly McFall about Using 'Reacting to the Past' in the College Classroom

Kelly McFall

Hosted by Marshall Poe
How best to teach history and, for that matter any social science subject, to college students? The traditional answer has been to lecture them. Given that the typical length of …
Architecture April 10, 2020

Age-Inclusive Public Space

Kristian Ly Serena

Hosted by Marshall Poe
Public spaces tend to over-represent facilities and spatial design for the young and the middle-aged, whereas elderly citizens are all too often neglected by contemporary urban design practice. Dominique Hauderowicz …