New Books in History

Marshall Poe

Episodes

Mentioned books

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Mar 22, 2026 • 55min

Danny Bate, "Why Q Needs U: A History of Our Letters and How We Use Them" (Bonnier Books, 2025)

Danny Bate, a linguist and writer who popularizes historical languages, walks through the surprising journeys of our letters. He teases stories like a possible inventor of G, why Q pairs with U, and how direction, shape and names shifted over centuries. Short, curious tales about silent E, soft C, evolving uppercase vs lowercase, and the late arrivals J and W make the alphabet feel alive.
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Mar 22, 2026 • 53min

Craig Perry, "Slavery and the Jews of Medieval Egypt: A History" (Princeton UP, 2026)

Craig Perry, an associate professor of medieval Middle Eastern and Jewish history, discusses slavery, law, and everyday life using the Cairo Geniza. He traces global slave networks and the intimate roles of enslaved people in kitchens and households. He examines legal categories, local markets and resale dynamics, manumission and integration, and how slavery shaped rituals like Passover.
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Mar 21, 2026 • 50min

Philip C. Almond, "Noah and the Flood in Western Thought" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

Philip C. Almond, Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, explores Noah as more than a biblical figure—shipbuilder, navigator, early scientist and cultural symbol. He traces how the flood story shaped geology, biology, racial ideas, ark-hunting, and modern climate anxieties. The conversation weaves secular receptions, scientific debates, and the story’s renewed role as a caution about human responsibility.
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Mar 21, 2026 • 55min

Santiago Muñoz-Arbeláez, "The New Kingdom of Granada: The Making and Unmaking of Spain's Atlantic Empire" (Duke UP, 2025)

Santiago Muñoz-Arbeláez, a historian of colonial Latin America and assistant professor at UT Austin, explores how the New Kingdom of Granada formed and faltered in the Northern Andes. He discusses contested conquest, Indigenous political and economic roles, archival recoveries like textiles and petitions, regional geographies, anti‑colonial coalitions, and the lasting legacies shaping modern Colombia.
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Mar 20, 2026 • 1h 53min

Timothy Manion, "Why Barbarossa Failed: Germany and Russia in the Second World War" (Helion, 2026)

Timothy Manion, author and archival researcher who reexamined German and Soviet records, presents a revisionist take on Operation Barbarossa. He explores archival discoveries, doctrinal continuities from the interwar period, and early German tactical setbacks. Short, sharp chapters probe planning disputes, Soviet adaptation, and why decision-making — not just terrain or weather — reshaped the campaign.
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Mar 20, 2026 • 1h 14min

Karima Moyer-Nocchi, "The Epic History of Macaroni and Cheese: From Ancient Rome to Modern America" (Columbia UP, 2026)

Karima Moyer-Nocchi, culinary historian and professor at the University of Siena, traces macaroni and cheese from ancient Roman tables to modern America. She explores Italian roots, medieval and Renaissance recipes, religious and social meanings, the dish’s rise through industrialization, and how Black cooks and mass producers shaped its American identity.
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Mar 19, 2026 • 1h 14min

Sunmin Kim, "The Unruly Facts of Race: The Politics of Knowledge Production in the Early Twentieth-Century Immigration Debate" (U Chicago Press, 2026)

Sunmin Kim, associate professor of sociology at Dartmouth who studies race and immigration, discusses the Dillingham Commission and early 20th-century knowledge production. He explores shifts from biological race theories to cultural and ethnic categories. He examines field research that complicated assumptions, debates over quotas and exclusion, and figures like Franz Boas and Yamato Ichihashi.
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Mar 18, 2026 • 1h 16min

A.J. Bauer, "Making the Liberal Media: How Conservatives Built a Movement Against The Press" (Columbia UP, 2026)

A.J. Bauer, assistant professor and historian of conservative media, discusses the origins of the “liberal media” idea and how conservatives built durable media criticism. He traces radio pioneers, FCC fights, tactics like leveraging the Fairness Doctrine, and the creation of imagined conservative communities. The conversation covers deregulation, the rise of talk radio, and implications for today’s media landscape.
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Mar 18, 2026 • 1h 3min

Kalpana Karunakaran, "A Woman of No Consequence: Memory, Letters and Resistance in Madras" (Context, 2026)

Kalpana Karunakaran, associate professor at IIT Madras and scholar of gender and development, digs into her grandmother Pankajam’s five-decade archive of letters, autofiction and autobiography. Short, vivid scenes explore desire, conjugal longing, friendship across cultures, caste and religion, and the tensions of writing intimately about family while doing rigorous scholarship.
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Mar 17, 2026 • 58min

H. S. Jones, "Liberal Worlds: James Bryce and the Democratic Intellect" (Princeton UP, 2025)

Stuart Jones, professor of intellectual history and author of Liberal Worlds, profiles James Bryce, a Victorian polymath who bridged academia, politics, and diplomacy. He traces Bryce’s Ulster-Scots formation, fights over university inclusion, transatlantic writings on American democracy, debates on race and segregation, and his role shaping international law and public opinion.

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