Tag: Politics and History

Podcasts

Learned Patriots: An Interview

What were Ottomans talking about when they talked about science? In posing and answering that question (spoiler: they were talking about people), M. Alper Yalcinkaya’s new book Learned Patriots: Debating Science, State, and Society in the 19th-Century Ottoman Empire (University of Chicago Press, 2015) introduces the history of science as discussed and debated by nineteenth-century Turkish-speaking Muslim Ottomans in Istanbul. The book compellingly argues that these discussions and debates were … Continue reading Learned Patriots: An Interview

Unknown's avatarCarla Nappi
Podcasts

Visions of Science: An Interview

Jim Secord’s new book is both deeply enlightening and a pleasure to read. Visions of Science: Books and Readers at the Dawn of the Victorian Age (University of Chicago Press, 2014) is a fascinating exploration of books and their readers during a moment of intense transformation in British society. Secord brings us into a period of the nineteenth century when transformations in publishing and an expanded reading … Continue reading Visions of Science: An Interview

Unknown's avatarCarla Nappi
Podcasts

Shanghai Homes: An Interview

Jie Li’s new book Shanghai Homes: Palimpsests of Private Life (Columbia University Press, 2015) explores the history and culture of Shanghai alleyway homes by focusing on two physical spaces, both built in the early twentieth century by Japanese and British companies, and both located in the industrial Yangshupu district in the eastern part of what was the International Settlement in Shanghai. An old house, here, is a … Continue reading Shanghai Homes: An Interview

Unknown's avatarCarla Nappi
Podcasts

Savage Exchange: An Interview

Tamara Chin’s new book is awesome: it’s a tour de force and a must-read for anyone interested in early China, the history of economy, or inter-disciplinarity in the humanities. Focusing on the reign of Han Emperor Wu (r. 141-87 BCE), Savage Exchange carefully considers how this earliest period of expansion of China’s markets and frontiers inspired scholarly debates over the relationships of frontier, market, word, and world. … Continue reading Savage Exchange: An Interview

Unknown's avatarCarla Nappi
Podcasts

The Annals of King T’aejo: An Interview

Byonghyon Choi’s new book makes a key document of Korean and world history available in English in a volume that will be tremendously useful for both scholarship and teaching. The Annals of King T’aejo translates an important excerpt from The Veritable Records of the Choson Dynasty, a historical record that documents important events and historical developments from the first 472 years of the Choson period in Korean history, … Continue reading The Annals of King T’aejo: An Interview

Unknown's avatarCarla Nappi
Podcasts

Banking on the Body: An Interview

How did we come to think of spaces for the storage and circulation of body parts as “banks,” and what are the consequences of that history for the way we think about human bodies as property today? Kara W. Swanson’s wonderful new book traces the history of body banks in America from the nineteenth century to today, focusing especially on milk, blood, and sperm. We had … Continue reading Banking on the Body: An Interview

Unknown's avatarCarla Nappi
Podcasts

Life on Display: An Interview

In lucid prose that’s a real pleasure to read, Karen Rader and Victoria Cain’s new book chronicles a revolution in modern American science education and culture. Life on Display: Revolutionizing U. S. Museums of Science & Natural History in the Twentieth Century guides readers through a transformation in American science and nature museums as museums moved from a nineteenth-century focus on research and specimen collections to a twentieth-century emphasis on … Continue reading Life on Display: An Interview

Unknown's avatarCarla Nappi
Podcasts

Commercial Visions: An Interview

Dániel Margócsy’s beautiful new book explores the changing world of entrepreneurial science in the early modern Netherlands. Commercial Visions considers scientific knowledge as a commodity, looking carefully at how the growth of global trade in the Dutch Golden Age shaped anatomy and natural history as commercial practices. We had a chance to talk about it recently for the New Books in STS podcast, and you can find our conversation … Continue reading Commercial Visions: An Interview

Unknown's avatarCarla Nappi
Podcasts

Public Memory in Early China: An Interview

Ken Brashier’s wonderful new book, a must-read for scholars of Chinese studies, offers a history of identity and public memory in early China. We had a chance to talk about it for the New Books in East Asian Studies podcast, it was a lot of fun, and you can listen to the interview here. (Ken and I also talked about his previous – and also awesome – book … Continue reading Public Memory in Early China: An Interview

Unknown's avatarCarla Nappi
Podcasts

Bad Water: An Interview

Robert Stoltz’s fascinating book Bad Water explores the emergence of an environmental turn in modern Japan, guiding readers through the unfolding of successive eco-historical periods in Japan while charting the transformations of an “environmental unconscious” lying at the foundation of modern social and political thought. Robert and I had a chance to talk about it for the New Books in East Asian Studies podcast, and you can listen to our conversation here. Continue reading Bad Water: An Interview

Unknown's avatarCarla Nappi