New Books in History

New Books in History


Latest Episodes

Barbara Hahn and Bruce Baker, "The Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleans" (Oxford UP, 2015)
September 17, 2016

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 to an unregulated market, corrupt banker...

James Carl Nelson, "I Will Hold: The Story of USMC Legend Clifton B. Cates, From Belleau Wood to Victory in the Great War" (NAL, 2016)
September 17, 2016

Best remembered as the nineteenth commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, Clifton B. Cates began his long and distinguished military career as a second lieutenant in World War I. In I Will Hold: The Story of USMC Legend Clifton B. Cates, From Belleau Wood...

Fleming Rutledge, "The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ" (Eerdmans, 2015)
September 14, 2016

On this program, I talk with Fleming Rutledge about her new book, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ (Eerdmans, 2015), and the themes and motifs surrounding the topic in the history of biblical interpretation. While theologians an...

David M. Krueger, "Myths of the Rune Stone: Viking Martyrs and the Birthplace of America" (U. of Minnesota Press, 2015)
September 14, 2016

What do our myths say about us? Why do we choose to believe stories that have been disproven by science? In Myths of the Rune Stone: Viking Martyrs and the Birthplace of America (University of Minnesota Press, 2015), David M. Krueger takes an in-depth ...

Holly Allen, "Forgotten Men and Fallen Women: The Cultural Politics of New Deal Narratives" (Cornell UP, 2015)
September 14, 2016

In Forgotten Men and Fallen Women: The Cultural Politics of New Deal Narratives (Cornell University Press, 2015), Holly Allen offers a fascinating analysis of how notions of race, gender, sexuality and citizenship were challenged and defined during the...

Mireya Loza, "Defiant Braceros: How Migrant Workers Fought for Racial, Sexual, and Political Freedom" (UNC Press, 2016)
September 13, 2016

Mireya Loza's Defiant Braceros How Migrant Workers Fought for Racial, Sexual, and Political Freedom (University of North Carolina Press, 2016) sheds new light on the private lives of migrant men who participated in the Bracero Program (1942-1964), a bi...

Caroline Ford, "Natural Interests: The Contest over Environment in Modern France" (Harvard UP, 2016)
September 13, 2016

Caroline Ford's Natural Interests: The Contest over Environment in Modern France (Harvard University Press, 2016) explores the roots of French environmental consciousness in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Far from being a product of the postw...

Jessica Greenberg , "After the Revolution: Youth, Democracy, and the Politics of Disappointment in Serbia" (Stanford University Press, 2014)
September 13, 2016

Jessica Greenberg's After the Revolution: Youth, Democracy, and the Politics of Disappointment in Serbia (Stanford University Press, 2014) explores a dual tension at work in Serbia in the early 2000s. She reveals young people's disappointment in what t...

Liam Brockey, "The Visitor: Andre Palmeiro and the Jesuits in Asia" (Harvard UP, 2014)
September 11, 2016

The transmission of a religion closely connected to a particular culture into a very different religious and cultural environment is a difficult act of translation in which a balance must be struck between remaining true to doctrine while understanding...

Jon Stobart and Mark Rothery, "The Country House: Material Culture and Consumption" (Oxford UP, 2016)
September 11, 2016

During the 18th century English country houses served an important function in their society as stages for the display of the status and power of the landed aristocracy. As Jon Stobart and Mark Rothery demonstrate in The Country House: Material Culture...