New Books Network

About Michael F. Robinson

NBN Episodes hosted by Michael F.:

Science, Technology, and Society March 6, 2020

Fieldwork of Empire, 1840-1900

Intercultural Dynamics in the Production of British Expeditionary Literature

Adrian Wisnicki

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
Adrian Wisnicki talks about the British expeditionary literature of the late 1800s. Reading between the lines of Victorian travel accounts, Wisnicki sees outlines of a bigger story — local peoples …
Historical Fiction February 28, 2020

Starvation Shore

Laura Waterman

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
Laura Waterman talks about her novel, Starvation Shore (University of Wisconsin Press, 2019), which relies upon memoirs, letters, and diaries to reconstruct the life of the Greely Party as it …
Science, Technology, and Society February 21, 2020

Breaking the Chains of Gravity

The Story of Spaceflight Before NASA

Amy Shira Teitel

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
Amy Shira Teitel talks about Apollo and the community of people who are deeply attached to space history. Teitel is a spaceflight historian and the creator of the YouTube Channel …
Science, Technology, and Society February 14, 2020

Darwin’s Evolving Identity

Adventure, Ambition, and the Sin of Speculation

Alistair Sponsel

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
Dr. Alistair Sponsel talks about Darwin’s experiences on HMS Beagle and his early career as a naturalist. His close reading of Darwin’s journals and letters reveals insights about the man …
Science, Technology, and Society February 7, 2020

The Coldest Crucible

Arctic Exploration and American Culture

Michael Robinson

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
Radio host Kevin Fox interviews Michael F. Robinson about the history of American Arctic exploration, the subject of his book, The Coldest Crucible: Arctic Exploration and American Culture (University of …
Science, Technology, and Society January 31, 2020

Destined for the Stars

Faith, the Future, and America’s Final Frontier

Catherine Newell

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
Catherine Newell talks about the religious roots of the final frontier, focusing on the collaboration of artist Chesley Bonestell, science writer Willy Ley, and the NASA rocket engineer Wernher von …
Science, Technology, and Society January 24, 2020

Apollo in the Age of Aquarius

Neil Maher

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
Neil Maher talks about the social forces that shaped NASA in the 1960s and 70s, connecting the space race with the radical upheavals of the counterculture. Maher is a professor …
Science, Technology, and Society January 17, 2020

No Shadow of a Doubt

The 1919 Eclipse that Confirmed Einstein’s Theory of Relativity

Daniel Kennefick

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
Daniel Kennefick talks about resistance to relativity theory in the early twentieth century and the huge challenges that faced British astronomers who wanted to test the theory during the solar …
Gender Studies January 10, 2020

Women Wanderers and the Writing of Mobility, 1784–1814

Ingrid Horrocks

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
Ingrid Horrocks talks about the way women travelers, specifically women wanderers, are represented in late-eighteenth century literature, particularly in the work of women writers. Horrocks in an associate professor in …
Science, Technology, and Society January 3, 2020

Nature, Empire, And Nation

Explorations of the History of Science in the Iberian World

Jorge Canizares-Esguerra

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
In the late 1500s, the mines of Potosí –a mountain in southern Bolivia — produced 60% of the world’s silver. It was a place of great wealth and terrible suffering …
Science, Technology, and Society December 27, 2019

NASA in the World

Fifty Years of International Collaboration in Space

Angelina Callahan

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
Angelina Callahan talks about the Naval Research Laboratory’s Vanguard Project. While the launch of Vanguard 1 in 1958 was part of the Cold War “Space Race,” it also represented something …
Poetry December 20, 2019

A Basket of Flaming Ashes

Joyce Ashuntantang

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
Joyce Ashuntantang talks about her experiences as a traveler and a poet, from her childhood Cameroon to her years studying in Great Britain and the United States. Ashuntantang is a …
Art December 13, 2019

Sacramental Theology and the Decoration of Baptismal Fonts

Fran Altvater

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
Fran Altvater talks about the Medieval Pilgrimage, a practice that became central to Christian Europe in the early Middle Ages and evolved into the military pilgrimages of the Crusades in …
General History December 6, 2019

To Master the Boundless Sea

The US Navy, the Marine Environment, and the Cartography of Empire

Jason Smith

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
Jason Smith discusses the US Navy’s role in exploring and charting the ocean world. Smith is an assistant professor of history at Southern Connecticut State University. He’s the author of …
General History November 29, 2019

The Life of Margaret Alice Murray

A Woman’s Work in Archaeology

Kathleen Sheppard

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
After Napoleon occupied Egypt, Europeans became obsessed with the ancient cultures of the Nile. In Britain, the center of Egyptology research was University College London (UCL). At the heart of …
General History November 15, 2019

Vast Expanses

A History of the Oceans

Helen Rozwadowski

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
Helen Rozwadowski talks about the history of the oceans and how these oceans have shaped human history in profound ways. Rozwadowski is a professor of history at the University of …
General History November 8, 2019

Do You See Ice?

Inuit and Americans at Home and Away

Karen Routledge

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
In the 1800s, explorers and whalers returning home from the Arctic described a cold, desolate world, one that could swallow up expeditions without leaving a trace. But this did not …
General History November 1, 2019

Finding Franklin

The Untold Story of a 165-year Search

Russell Potter

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
In 1845, two British naval ships left England with 129 men in search of the Northwest Passage. They were never heard from again. The disappearance of the Franklin Expedition shocked …
General History October 25, 2019

One Long Night

A Global History of Concentration Camps

Andrea Pitzer

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
Andrea Pitzer talks about her book One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps (Little, Brown and Company, 2017), one of Smithsonian Magazine’s Ten Best History Books for 2017 …
Anthropology October 18, 2019

Into the Extreme

U.S. Environmental Systems and Politics Beyond Earth

Valerie Olson

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
Valerie Olson talks about why the idea of outer space as a “frontier” is giving way to one that frames it as a cosmic ecosystem. Olson is an associate professor …
General History October 11, 2019

Captain Cook Was Here

Maria Nugent

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
Maria Nugent talks about Aboriginal Australians' first encounter with Captain Cook at Botany Bay, a violent meeting that has come to represent the origin story of Australia’s colonization by Europeans …
General History October 4, 2019

Creatures of Cain

The Hunt for Human Nature in Cold War America

Erika Milam

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
Erika Milam talks about the scientific search for human nature, a project that captured the attention of paleontologists, anthropologists, and primatologists in the years after World War II. Milam is …
General History September 13, 2019

Wild Sea

A History of the Southern Ocean

Joy McCann

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
Joy McCann discusses the great circumpolar ocean that surrounds Antarctica. McCann is the author of Wild Sea: A History of the Southern Ocean (University of New South Wales Press, 2018) …
General History September 6, 2019

The Medieval Invention of Travel

Shayne Legassie

Hosted by Michael F. Robinson
Shayne Legassie talks about medieval travel, especially long distance travel, and the way it was feared, praised, and sometimes treated with suspicion. He also talks about the role the Middle …