New Books in History

Marshall Poe

Episodes

Mentioned books

undefined
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.
undefined
Mar 16, 2026 • 50min

Antwain K. Hunter, "A Precarious Balance: Firearms, Race, and Community in North Carolina, 1715-1865" (UNC Press, 2025)

Antwain K. Hunter, historian of slavery and freedom in the Carolinas and author of A Precarious Balance, explores how free and enslaved Black North Carolinians accessed and used firearms from 1715–1865. He traces everyday armed life—from hunting and labor to defense and resistance. He also examines laws, petitions, imagery, and how wartime pressures reshaped armed labor and rights.
undefined
Mar 15, 2026 • 53min

Foster Chamberlin, "Uncivil Guard: Policing, Military Culture, and the Coming of the Spanish Civil War" (Louisiana State UP, 2025)

Foster Chamberlin, assistant teaching professor and historian of Spanish history and author of Uncivil Guard. He traces the Civil Guard’s militarized origins and cult of honor. Short cases reveal how local policing escalated national violence. The conversation ends with reflections on militarization, policing culture, and future research.
undefined
Mar 15, 2026 • 29min

Ethelene Whitmire, "The Remarkable Life of Reed Peggram" (Viking, 2026)

Ethelene Whitmire, historian and professor of African American Studies, unveils the life of Reed Peggram, a queer Black scholar who built a daring life in Europe before and during WWII. She discusses archival discovery, Reed’s vibrant letters and relationships, his wartime capture and escape, and the challenges of reconstructing hidden Black lives. The conversation highlights visuals, adaptation potential, and future research on African Americans in Denmark.
undefined
Mar 14, 2026 • 45min

Marianna Dudley, "Electric Wind: An Energy History of Modern Britain by Marianna Dudley" (Manchester UP, 2025)

Marianna Dudley, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Humanities and author of Electric Wind, traces Britain's wind history from industrial tinkering to offshore ambitions. She discusses meteorology and testing in places like Orkney. She contrasts state-led experiments with grassroots projects, charts privatization and market shifts, and probes political, cultural and ecological debates around wind power.
undefined
Mar 14, 2026 • 1h 8min

Manuela Ceballos, "Between Dung and Blood: Purity, Sainthood, and Power in the Early Modern Western Mediterranean" (U California Press, 2025)

Manuela Ceballos, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, compares saints across sixteenth-century Iberia and Morocco. She traces conversations about blood, dung, purity, and conversion across Spanish and Arabic sources. Short segments explore gendered bleeding, tanneries and urban waste, ritual uses of blood, and how embodiment shapes claims to sanctity and social power.
undefined
Mar 13, 2026 • 50min

Jessica Clarke, "A New History of Ancient Roman Theatre" (Liverpool UP, 2025)

Jessica Clarke, a historian-archaeologist who mapped theatre ruins and visual artefacts, challenges the idea that early theatre in Italy was driven by Rome. She highlights archaeological evidence from third–second century BCE Italian cities, theatre-temple complexes, and how Pompey and Augustus later reshaped theatrical identity. Clarke also discusses methodology, catalogues, and when to call something 'Roman' theatre.
undefined
Mar 13, 2026 • 1h 44min

Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra and Adrian Masters, "The Radical Spanish Empire: How Paperwork Politics Remade the New World" (Harvard UP, 2026)

A deep dive into how petitions, synods, and everyday paperwork became tools of political change in the Spanish New World. Stories of litigation, forum shopping, and lawfare show commoners shaping royal decrees. Discussion of translators, women as litigants, vernacular skepticism, and visual codices highlights surprising centers of power and archival politics.
undefined
Mar 12, 2026 • 1h 2min

Kim Bowes, "Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent" (Princeton UP, 2025)

Kim Bowes, professor of archaeology and ancient history who studies non-elite Roman lives. She explores how ordinary Romans hustled to survive: mixed incomes, women’s textile work, child labor, and fragile savings. Archaeology and texts reveal consumption, markets, and bodily evidence of intense labor. The conversation links ancient survival strategies to modern precarity.
undefined
Mar 12, 2026 • 36min

Michelle Adams, "The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North" (FSG Press, 2025)

Michelle Adams, a law professor and Detroit scholar, tells the story of Milliken v. Bradley and the fight over metropolitan school integration. She traces housing segregation, Judge Roth’s metropolitan remedy, and how Nixon-era Supreme Court shifts halted cross-border solutions. Conversations touch on local leaders, surprising alliances, and policy paths toward more integrated schools.

The AI-powered Podcast Player

Save insights by tapping your headphones, chat with episodes, discover the best highlights - and more!
App store bannerPlay store banner
 Get the app