New Books in History

Marshall Poe

Episodes

Mentioned books

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5 snips
May 13, 2026 • 37min

Benjamin Robert Siegel, "Markets of Pain: Opium, Capitalism, and the Global History of Painkillers" (Oxford UP, 2026)

Benjamin Robert Siegel, historian and Boston University associate professor who studies commodity chains, discusses his book on the global history of licit opium. He traces poppy cultivation from India, Turkey, and Tasmania to labs and clinics. Conversations cover how states, science, and trade shaped painkillers, divergent national paths, and contemporary supply and policy risks.
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May 12, 2026 • 56min

Wil Haygood, "The War within a War: The Black Struggle in Vietnam and at Home" (Knopf, 2026)

Wil Haygood, award-winning journalist and author of nonfiction on African American history, discusses Black soldiers' experiences in Vietnam. He traces integration and racism inside the military. He profiles POWs, nurses, and logistics officers. He highlights Agent Orange whistleblowing, monuments and memory, and the music and culture that shaped veterans' lives.
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May 12, 2026 • 0sec

Es-pranza Humphrey, "Act Black: Posters from Black American Stage & Screen" (Poster House Museum, 2026)

Es-pranza Humphrey, Assistant Curator of Collections at Poster House Museum who researches Black theater and film material culture. She shares how oversized posters preserve performances and lost films. She recounts rare finds like a six-foot Williams & Walker poster, the ethics of showing blackface artifacts, and how marketing ‘‘All Colored’’ casts and race films shaped Black performance history.
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May 11, 2026 • 56min

Holly EJ Black, "The Story of Printmaking: A Global History of Art" (Yale UPs, 2026)

Holly E.J. Black, a journalist and printmaker turned author, explores the global history of printmaking. She traces prints from the Diamond Sutra through Renaissance guilds, Japanese censorship, Mexican political collectives, South African resistance, and modern digital shifts. Short, vivid stories reveal how prints shaped art, commerce, and politics across cultures.
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May 11, 2026 • 1h 11min

Angus Burgin on the Rise of the Internet

Angus Burgin, Associate Professor of History at Johns Hopkins, traces the intellectual history of the Internet and 1990s politics. He recalls early online life, discusses techno-optimism versus hardware limits, and examines Al Gore's tech rhetoric. The conversation contrasts libertarian and communal visions of the web and considers how 1990s hopes unraveled into later critique.
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May 10, 2026 • 37min

Shannon McKenna Schmidt, "You Can't Catch Us: Lady Bird Johnson’s Trailblazing 1964 Campaign Train and the Women Who Rode With Her" (Sourcebooks, 2026)

Shannon McKenna Schmidt, author and historian of First Ladies, explores Lady Bird Johnson’s bold 1964 whistle-stop train tour and the women who ran it. She recounts the risky Southern strategy, tailored speeches, tense heckler encounters, media aboard the train, and the tight bonds formed during the 1,682-mile journey. The story highlights women-led political work and its lasting resonance for voting and civil rights.
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May 9, 2026 • 4min

Mark Peterson, "The Making and Breaking of the American Constitution: A Thousand-Year History" (Princeton UP, 2026)

Mark Peterson, Edmund S. Morgan Professor of History at Yale and scholar of early American history, explains how medieval land systems shaped the U.S. constitutional order. He traces expansion, dispossession of Indigenous peoples, and how industrialization, representation imbalances, and fiscal changes pushed the 1787 framework to breaking point. He urges planned constitutional renovation for modern challenges.
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May 8, 2026 • 3min

Julia Bowes, "Every Man's Home a Castle: Parental Rights and the Makings of Modern Conservatism" (Princeton UP, 2026)

Dr. Julia Bowes, a gender historian who studies parental rights and public health, traces how nineteenth‑century fights over compulsory schooling, vaccination, and child labor coalesced into a national parental rights movement. She discusses how schools and vaccine mandates became flashpoints, how white paternal authority shaped the rhetoric, and the diverse coalitions that united around anti‑statist claims.
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May 7, 2026 • 45min

Julia Stephens, "Worldly Afterlives: Tracing Family Trails Between India and Empire" (Princeton UP, 2025)

Julia Stephens, associate professor of history at Rutgers and author of Worldly Afterlives, draws on archives and family lore to trace Indian migrants across the 19th and 20th centuries. She follows figures like Thamboosamy Pillai, Jambai, and sailor John Muhammad. Listens to archival traces, funerals, legal records, photographs, and genealogies to rethink migration, memory, and imperial afterlives.
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May 6, 2026 • 28min

Odd Arne Westad, "The Coming Storm: Power, Conflict, and Warnings from History" (Henry Holt and Co, 2026)

Odd Arne Westad, Elihu Professor of History and Public Affairs at Yale and Cold War specialist, opens a warning about rising Great Power rivalry. He compares today to pre-1914 multipolarity. He discusses dangers of catastrophic Great Power wars, parallels between past and present powers, nationalism and populism, and how failing to integrate rising powers risks global escalation.

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