Category: Author Interview

October 9, 2019

Q&A: Ariel Rogers on On the Screen

“There is no other book remotely like this. On the Screen is original in the material it unearths and discusses, offering an innovative history of film and technology. It strikes an easy balance between big ideas and focused analysis, addressing...

October 2, 2019

Q&A: Ulbe Bosma on The Making of a Periphery

“The incorporation of Island Southeast Asia into the global capitalist economy was not one homogenizing process, as scholars from Immanuel Wallerstein to Daron Acemoğlu would have it. Instead, local demographic, social, and political conditions determined the emergence of a variety...

September 19, 2019

Q&A: Olivier Wierviorka on The Resistance in Western Europe, 1940-1945

“Olivier Wieviorka treats the resistance in Western Europe as a multinational coalition. Anglo-Americans supplied arms and funding to resistance groups on the continent, and Resistance movements in turn aided in the Allied war effort. It was part tug-of-war, résistants striving to maintain...

August 28, 2019

Q&A: Marian Schwartz on The Man Who Couldn’t Die

“Darkly sardonic . . . . oddly timely, for there are all sorts of understated hints about voter fraud, graft, payoffs, and the endless promises of politicians who have no intention of keeping them. It is also deftly constructed, portraying...

August 20, 2019

Q&A: Howard Goldblatt on Translating Literary Works and the Fiction of Wang Anyi

“Wang Anyi is one of the most critically acclaimed writers in the Chinese-speaking world.” ~Francine Prose, New York Times Book Review   Today’s Women in Translation Month featured title is Wang Anyi’s Fu Ping, translated by Howard Goldblatt. Fu Ping follows...

August 13, 2019

Q&A: Dexter R. Voisin on Race-Related Violence in the United States

“Voisin powerfully shows that the violence that Chicago’s black youth experience is rooted in the nation as a whole. He untangles these complex systems and offers clear and effective solutions. This book will be illuminating for scholars, policy makers, and...

August 13, 2019

Q&A: Gergana Ivanova on Unbinding The Pillow Book: The Many Lives of a Japanese Classic

“Ivanova elucidates the complex reception of [The Pillow Book] as an ongoing dialogue between the irretrievable past and the dynamic present. I cannot think of a better match between a scholar and her subject. It is a dazzling accomplishment.” ~Paul...

June 5, 2019

Q&A: Patrick Bergemann on Judge Thy Neighbor

“Social scientists neglect negative interpersonal ties. While lab experiments on the willing assumption of malevolent authority open a window on this topic, Bergemann is the first to examine betrayal and denunciation to the authorities in natural settings, and to theorize...

May 9, 2019

How Relevant is Mother’s Day to Modern Parenting?

With Mother’s Day is this weekend, you might pose the question, “How is mother’s day relevant to parenting today?” Recently Dr. Shani Orgad, author of Heading Home: Motherhood, Work, and the Failed Promise of Equality met with the London School of...

April 26, 2019

Q&A: Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim on Thomas Berry: A Biography

“A warm celebration of an environmentalist whose ideas are increasingly relevant.” ~ Kirkus Reviews Thomas Berry (1914–2009) was one of the twentieth century’s most prescient and profound thinkers. The first biography of Berry, this book illuminates his remarkable vision and...

April 24, 2019

Q&A: Benjamin I. Cook on Drought: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

“Cook’s tome is a first-principles, comprehensive, and up-to-date exposition of drought, including its drivers and consequences, by a major player working at the cutting edge of interdisciplinary science. The book is perfectly organized, written, and illustrated, with the early chapters...

April 17, 2019

Q&A: Hunter Vaughan on Hollywood’s Dirtiest Secret

“In Vaughan’s deft readings of multiple films and their production apparatuses, film theory and analysis also become “updated” into a cutting-edge discipline. Hollywood’s Dirtiest Secret is an essential book in ecocinema and ecomedia studies and an important contribution to ecomaterialism within cultural...