New Books in History

This is a consistently good podcast in which historian Marshall Poe (University of Iowa) conducts in-depth (usually an hour or so) discussions with other historians about their recent books. One of the things I enjoy about each podcast is that the author is invited to give a brief precis of their education and intellectual history. You can find it on iTunes or here.


Some specific recommendations:

Jerry Muller, Capitalism and the Jews

Heather Cox Richardson, Wounded Knee: Party Politics and the Road to an American Massacre

P. Bingham and J. Souza, Death From a Distance and the Birth of a Humane Universe

Hilary Earl, The Nuremberg SS-Einsatzgruppen Trial, 1945-1958: Atrocity, Law, and History

Jared Diamond and James A. Robinson, Natural Experiments of History

Benjamin Binstock, Vermeer’s Family Secrets: Genius, Discovery, and the Unknown Apprentice

Mark Bradley and Marilyn Young, Making Sense of the Vietnam Wars

Jennifer Burns, Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right

Peter Fritzsche, Life and Death in the Third Reich

Thomas Wheatland, The Frankfurt School in Exile

James Banner, Jr. and John Gillis, Becoming Historians

Yuma Totani, The Tokyo War Crimes Trials: The Pursuit of Justice in the Wake of World War II

James Mann, The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War

Gregory Cochran, The 10,000 Year Explosion: How Civilization Accelerated Human Evolution (To Poe's credit, his head did not explode during this interview.)

Mark Mazower, Hitler’s Empire: Nazi Rule in Occupied Europe

There are many more, but that's probably enough for now. I listen to these at the gym or while running or in the car. In case Marshall Poe reads this, thanks for many stimulating and enjoyable hours.