NBN Book of the Day

NBN Book of the Day

episodes

One book selected daily from those published on the New Books Network.

Amy Schiller, "The Price of Humanity: How Philanthropy Went Wrong—And How to Fix It" (Melville House, 2023)

May 13, 2024

The Price of Humanity

Amy Schiller
Hosted by Brian Hamilton

Amy Schiller's The Price of Humanity: How Philanthropy Went Wrong—And How to Fix It (Melville House, 2023) makes an attempt to rescue philanthropy fro…

Pamela Aronson and Matthew R. Fleming, "Gender Revolution: How Electoral Politics and #MeToo are Reshaping Everyday Life" (Routledge, 2023)

May 12, 2024

Gender Revolution

Pamela Aronson and Matthew R. Fleming
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Gender Revolution: How Electoral Politics and #MeToo are Reshaping Everyday Life (Routledge, 2023) by Dr. Pamela Aronson and Matthew R. Fleming carefu…

Gina Sipley, "Just Here for the Comments: Lurking as Digital Literacy Practice" (Bristol UP, 2024)

May 11, 2024

Just Here for the Comments

Gina Sipley
Hosted by Michael LaMagna

We all sometimes ‘lurk’ in online spaces without posting or engaging, just reading the posts and comments. But neither reading nor lurking are ever pa…

Carl Zimmer, "Life's Edge: The Search For What it Means to be Alive" (Dutton, 2022)

May 10, 2024

Life's Edge

Carl Zimmer
Hosted by Renee Garfinkel

Carl Zimmer investigates one of the biggest questions of all: What is life? The answer seems obvious until you try to seriously answer it. Is the appl…

Jeremy Garlick, "Advantage China: Agent of Change in an Era of Global Disruption" (Bloomsbury, 2023)

May 9, 2024

Advantage China

Jeremy Garlick
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

China’s rise to global prominence is a pretty good contender for the most important world development in the past 30 years. But now the question is ho…

Marion R. Casey, "The Green Space: The Transformation of the Irish Image" (NYU Press, 2024)

May 8, 2024

The Green Space

Marion R. Casey
Hosted by Aidan Beatty

Marion Casey is a professor at Glucksman Ireland House at New York University where she also serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies. She has publ…

Eziaku Atuama Nwokocha, "Vodou en Vogue: Fashioning Black Divinities in Haiti and the United States" (UNC Press, 2023)

May 7, 2024

Vodou en Vogue

Eziaku Atuama Nwokocha
Hosted by Reighan Gillam

In Haitian Vodou, spirits impact Black practitioners' everyday lives, tightly connecting the sacred and the secular. As Eziaku Atuama Nwokocha reveals…

Rustam Alexander, "Gay Lives and ‘Aversion Therapy’ in Brezhnev’s Russia, 1964–1982" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023)

May 6, 2024

Gay Lives and ‘Aversion Therapy’ in Brezhnev’s Russia, 1964–1982

Rustam Alexander

Rustam Alexander's Gay Lives and 'Aversion Therapy' in Brezhnev's Russia, 1964-1982 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) examines the autobiographies and diarie…

Tanisha M. Fazal, "Military Medicine and the Hidden Costs of War" (Oxford UP, 2024)

May 5, 2024

Military Medicine and the Hidden Costs of War

Tanisha M. Fazal
Hosted by Lamis Abdelaaty

Decisions to go to war are often framed in cost-benefit terms, and typically such assessments do not factor in longer term costs. However, recent dram…

Mateo Jarquín, "The Sandinista Revolution: A Global Latin American History" (UNC Press, 2024)

May 4, 2024

The Sandinista Revolution

Mateo Jarquín
Hosted by Katie Coldiron

The Sandinista Revolution and its victory against the Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua gripped the United States and the world in the 1980s. But as so…

Illia Ponomarenko, "I Will Show You How It Was: The Story of Wartime Kyiv" (Bloomsbury, 2024)

May 3, 2024

I Will Show You How It Was

Illia Ponomarenko
Hosted by Tim Jones

The spring 2022 battle for Kyiv was "one of the most tragic – and the most bizarre – events in modern history," writes Illia Ponomarenko. "Outnumbered…

Katie Gee Salisbury, "Not Your China Doll: The Wild and Shimmering Life of Anna May Wong" (Dutton, 2024)

May 2, 2024

Not Your China Doll

Katie Gee Salisbury
Hosted by Nicholas Gordon

In 2022, the U.S. Mint released the first batch of its American Women Quarters series, celebrating the achievements of U.S. women throughout its histo…

J. P. Messina, "Private Censorship" (Oxford UP, 2024)

May 1, 2024

Private Censorship

J. P. Messina
Hosted by Robert Talisse

When we think of censorship, our minds might turn to state agencies exercising power to silence dissent. However, contemporary concerns about censors…

Markus Vinzent, "Resetting the Origins of Christianity: A New Theory of Sources and Beginnings" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

April 30, 2024

Resetting the Origins of Christianity

Markus Vinzent

How do we know what we know about the origins of the Christian religion? Neither its founder, nor the Apostles, nor Paul left any written accounts of …

Robert Gerwarth, "November 1918: The German Revolution" (Oxford UP, 2020)

April 29, 2024

November 1918

Robert Gerwarth
Hosted by Ryan Stackhouse

Was Weimar doomed from the outset? In November 1918: The German Revolution (Oxford University Press, 2020), Robert Gerwarth argues that this is the w…

David Pozen, "The Constitution of the War on Drugs" (Oxford UP, 2024)

April 28, 2024

The Constitution of the War on Drugs

David Pozen
Hosted by Emily Dufton

David Pozen is the Charles Keller Beekman Professor of Law at Columbia Law School and the author of the new book, The Constitution of the War on Drugs…

Leigh Gilmore, "The #MeToo Effect: What Happens When We Believe Women" (Columbia UP, 2023)

April 27, 2024

The #MeToo Effect

Leigh Gilmore
Hosted by Jane Scimeca

The #MeToo movement inspired millions to testify to the widespread experience of sexual violence. More broadly, it shifted the deeply ingrained respo…

Dana Gorzelany-Mostak, "Tracks on the Trail: Popular Music, Race, and the US Presidency" (U Michigan Press, 2023)

April 26, 2024

Tracks on the Trail

Dana Gorzelany-Mostak
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

From Bill Clinton playing his saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show to Barack Obama referencing Jay-Z's song "Dirt Off Your Shoulder," politicians have u…

Alexander Statman, "A Global Enlightenment: Western Progress and Chinese Science" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

April 25, 2024

A Global Enlightenment

Alexander Statman

Alexander Statman's book A Global Enlightenment: Western Progress and Chinese Science (U Chicago Press, 2023) is a revisionist history of the idea of …

Anu Bradford, "Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology" (Oxford UP, 2023)

April 24, 2024

Digital Empires

Anu Bradford
Hosted by Jake Chanenson

The global battle among the three dominant digital powers―the United States, China, and the European Union―is intensifying. All three regimes are raci…