Last year I published a short essay in the journal Tang Studies, occasioned by the publication of Valerie Hansen’s wonderful The Silk Road: A New History. The piece attempted to situate Hansen’s book within a broader consideration of contemporary research (and, importantly, teaching!) on Silk Road studies. You can find the issue in which the essay was published here. If you’d like to read it and can’t … Continue reading Recycling History: An Essay
Craig Clunas’s new book is a wonderfully and productively revisionist account of Ming history and its artifacts. Screen of Kings emphasizes the importance of members of the Ming imperial clan (i.e., those who were NOT emperors) and their courts as sites of cultural innovation, production, and reproduction, and of Ming kings as producers, collectors, and patrons of the arts. You can listen to our conversation about it here. Continue reading Screen of Kings: An Interview
I recently had the pleasure of talking with Dave Spafford about his great new book on the production of space (all kinds of space!) in late medieval Japan. It was great fun, and you can listen to our conversation about it here. Continue reading A Sense of Place: An Interview
Timothy Brook’s beautifully written new book explores the secrets of a map in the Bodleian Library of Oxford University. I recently had the pleasure of talking with Tim about it for New Books in History, and you can find our conversation here. Continue reading Mr. Selden’s Map of China: An Interview
Sunil Amrith and I recently had the chance to talk about his fascinating new book on the (environmental, political, cultural, social) history of the Bay of Bengal in the maritime world. It’s great work, it was a pleasure to talk about it, and you can find our conversation here. Continue reading Crossing the Bay of Bengal: An Interview
David Novak and I recently talked about his awesome new book on noise, Japan, music, and global circulation. It’s a thoughtful study and a pleasure to read, and you can listen to our conversation about it here. Continue reading Japanoise: An Interview
It was a pleasure to talk with Conevery Bolton Valencius about her new book on the making and forgetting of knowledge surrounding a series of earthquakes that rocked the Mississippi Valley in the 19th century. It’s a great story about the history of early American science, with particularly awesome footnotes, and you can find our conversation here. Continue reading The Lost History of the New Madrid Earthquakes: An Interview
Bill Clancey’s great new book explores the nature of exploration itself, in the context of a rich ethnographic study of the scientists and engineers of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) missions. It was a pleasure to talk with him, and you can find our conversation here. Continue reading Working on Mars: An Interview
Tim Maudlin and I talked about his new introduction to the philosophy of physics, a wonderfully approachable book that blends historical and philosophical approaches and focuses on fundamental notions of space and time. You can find our conversation here. Continue reading Philosophy of Physics: An Interview
Aaron S. Moore and I recently talked about his new book on technology, empire, and Japan’s wartime era. It’s a fascinating study, and you can listen to our conversation about it here. Continue reading Constructing East Asia: An Interview
Carla Nappi 