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PODCAST

New Books in British Studies

This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network. The New Books Network is an academic audio library dedicated to public education. In each episode you will hear scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert in their field. Discover our 150+ channels and browse our 28,000+ episodes on our website: ⁠newbooksnetwork.com⁠ Subscribe to our free weekly Substack newsletter to get informative, engaging content straight to your inbox:

society & culture

All Episodes

37:29

Malcolm Murfett, "Eden's Alternative to Appeasement:...

New Books in British Studies ·

2026/08/26

As Foreign Secretary in Neville Chamberlain's Cabinet in 1937, Eden didn't believe in appeasing the German and Italian dictatorships or the militaristic Japanese regime. Instead, he wanted to confront their aggression head on. Faced with growing Japanese assertiveness, including the launching of an undeclared war on China in July 1937, Eden appealed to the US for help. He believed sending an Anglo-American naval force to the Western Pacific would demonstrate that the democracies were not

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52:13

Speech and the City

New Books in British Studies ·

2026/08/26

In this episode of theLanguage on the MovePodcast, Ingrid Piller speaks withYaron Matrasabout his new bookSpeech and the City. In this timely book, Yaron shows that cities can provide an important counter-weight to political polarization by forging civic identities that embrace diversity. The book traces the emergence of a city language narrative that embraces and celebrates multilingualism and helps forge a civic identity. He critiques linguaphobic discourses at a national level that regard

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50:51

Paul Johnson, "Challenging Inequalities: How We Got...

New Books in British Studies ·

2026/08/26

There is a widespread sense throughout the developed world that progress towards a better society has stalled. Many countries, including the UK, have experienced persistent economic stagnation accompanied by declining trust in institutions. Governments are struggling to respond not only to traditional economic problems but also to newer challenges posed by climate change, migration and technological change. Challenging Inequalities: How We Got Stuck and Where We Go Next(Princeton University

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40:13

Ian Bradley, "Liquid Faith: Scotland's Sacred and...

New Books in British Studies ·

2026/08/22

Since time immemorial, water has been a major theme in myth, religionand folklore throughout the world. With its 12,000-mile coastline, as well as a plethora of rivers and lochs, Scotland is a particularly rewarding place in which to explore the spiritual dimensions of what is both the most commonplace and yet the most mysterious of all chemical compounds. Liquid Faith: Scotland's Sacred and Supernatural Waters (Birlinn, 2026) by Ian Bradley is a journey from healing wells, springs, river

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64:43

Roderick Beaton, "Europe: A New History" (Allen Lane,...

New Books in British Studies ·

2026/08/19

What do we talk about when we talk about Europe? Is it defined by geography? Or is it politics, or shared culture? In Europe: A New History(Allen Lane, 2026), award-winning historian Roderick Beaton tells the story of Europe as never before—as the history of an idea, and a collective identity. Since its dramatic birth in ancient Greece, 'Europe' has been defined, and redefined, by its people. Through this powerful lens, and with the narrative drive and scope of a novelist, Beaton deftly

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59:50

Utathya Chattopadhyaya, "Ganja Matters: Empire and...

New Books in British Studies ·

2026/08/19

Ganja is the popular name in Hindustani, Bengali, and other South Asian languages for intoxicating substances produced from the plant species Cannabis sativa L. Starting in the eighteenth century, British India's colonial administrators sought ways to systematically tax and govern how ganja circulated from the farms of peasant families in rural Bengal to pipes, plates, and cups elsewhere in the subcontinent. Ganja Matters: Empire and the Pursuits of Cannabis in British India (University of

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62:57

Amy Blakeway, "War and Governance in Scotland,...

New Books in British Studies ·

2026/08/19

Drawing from local archives alongside national and international records,War and Governance in Scotland, 1543-1559: Destruction, Reconstruction and Reform(Edinburgh UP, 2026) by Dr. Amy Blakeway argues that warfare was the defining feature of government and politics in Scotland for the two decades following the death of James V. It demonstrates that beyond the direct effects of invasion, the need to raise unprecedented taxation, as well as warfare’s secondary consequences, such as plague and price

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45:39

Karène Sanchez Summerer and Sary Zananiri eds.,...

New Books in British Studies ·

2026/08/17

In this episode, host Andrea Talabér (CEU Press) talks with Karène Sanchez Summerer and Sary Zananiri, the editors ofPalestine in Transition: Frank Scholten's Visual Archive of the British Mandate Period. They discuss who Frank Scholten was, the breadth and depth of the images he took in Palestine, and the archival holdings themselves. You can browse Frank Scholten’s imageshere. Follow theCity Sarha Instagramaccount to be updated on when the app exploring Jerusalem’s modern cultural history will

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62:20

Elizabeth Tynan, "Nuclear Archipelago: Secrets, Power...

New Books in British Studies ·

2026/08/16

Nuclear Archipelago: Secrets, Power and the Biggest Atomic Blast in Australia (NewSouth, 2026)tells the shocking story of the two British atomic weapons test series held at Western Australia's Monte Bello Islands in 1952 and 1956. Operation Hurricane and Operation Mosaic took place at a rugged archipelago 100 kilometres off the Pilbara coast, and each of the three bombs sent fallout over vast distances across the country. One of the tests, Mosaic G2 in June 1956, the largest nuclear weapon

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61:30

Daniel Majchrowicz, "A Journey to Mecca and London:...

New Books in British Studies ·

2026/08/10

Descended from Mughal nobility, Akhtar al-Nisa Begum Nawab Sarbuland Jung grew up in Hyderabad in southern India, where she lived a quiet, private, and privileged life at the heart of the state's royal court. In 1896, at the age of 20, she married Nawab Muhammad Hamidullah Khan Sarbuland Jung, a prominent lawyer and the scion of a leading Muslimreformist movement. In 1909, the wealthy couple embarked on a four-month journey through the Middle East and Europe, performing the hajj in Mecca and

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47:56

Caro Pirri, "Colonial Failure and Theatrical Form in...

New Books in British Studies ·

2026/08/10

Today’s guest, Caro Pirri, is the author ofColonial Failure and Theatrical Form in Early Modern England: Stages of Unsettlement(Oxford University Press, 2025). This book explores how early modern colonial travel writing informed the London theater’s spatial and placemaking conventions. It suggests that what the stage found most compelling about narratives of colonial settlement was their failure to claim interpretive control over unfamiliar places and people. The book goes on to link colonial

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65:47

Edward T. G. Anderson, "Hindu Nationalism in the...

New Books in British Studies ·

2026/08/08

Hindu nationalism is transforming India as an increasingly dominant ideology and political force. But it is also a global phenomenon, with sections of India’s vast and influential diaspora drawn to, or actively supporting, right-wing Hindu nationalism. Indians overseas can be seen as an important, even inextricable, aspect of the movement. This is not a new dynamic—diasporic Hindutva has grown over many decades. Hindu Nationalism in the Indian Diaspora: Transnational Politics and British

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39:47

Emma Parker, "Life Writing and the End of Empire:...

New Books in British Studies ·

2026/08/07

Life Writing and the End of Empire: Homecoming in Autobiographical Narratives(Bloomsbury Academic, 2024) examines how autobiographical writing reflects the psychological and cultural afterlives of the British Empire. Rather than treating decolonization as a completed historical moment, Emma Parker shows how empire continues to haunt personal memory, identity, and ideas of home. Through close readings of memoirs and autobiographical texts by writers such as Penelope Lively, J. G. Ballard, Doris

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38:00

Steven Veerapen, "Overlord: A New History of the Life...

New Books in British Studies ·

2026/08/06

Henry VIII is England’s most famous king. He is simultaneously the virtuous Renaissance prince gone wrong, the psychopathic, paranoid tyrant, the religious disruptor and the much-married glutton.Overlord: The Life and Reign of Henry VIII(Birlinn, 2026) is a groundbreaking study of Henry’s life examines and destroys many of the long-repeated myths about this complex monarch: he was not particularly gluttonous, not particularly prudish, and not particularly messy in his religious changes. Nor did he

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0:00

Chasing Freedom: Coming of Age at the End of Empire...

New Books in British Studies ·

2026/08/05

"In my home country, they call me a 'bornfree'." Simukai Chigudu was born in Zimbabwe, two years after the end of its bitter war of liberation - a war in which his father had fought. This is the story of his childhood journey through the chaos of that new country's birth to Britain, where he arrived alone, a teenager, burning with ambition but utterly lost in ways he had yet even to discover. Told with astonishing insight, his memoir describes the drama of his quest to belong and to succeed, and how

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39:42

Brent Elliott and Roger Bowdler, "The British...

New Books in British Studies ·

2026/08/03

Roger Bowdler and Brent Elliott’s The British Cemetery: Architecture, Landscape, Sculpture, published by Historic England (2026), traces the history of the cemetery from the 17th century to the present day. The cemetery emerged as a new landscape form in the 19thcentury in Britain but had deep roots in earlier churchyard practices and in fashionable garden landscape design. Cemeteries very quickly became a locus for the monumental expression of loss, family identity and social standing. The

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57:51

Elizabeth Darling, "Palace of the Ether: Broadcasting...

New Books in British Studies ·

2026/08/03

Palace of the Ether: Broadcasting House and the Architecture of the BBC, 1922–1932 (Lund Humphries, 2026) by Dr. Elizabeth Darling is about the architecture and design of broadcasting in the 1920s and 1930s, examining the buildings which the BBC occupied in its founding decades, with a particular focus on Broadcasting House in London. It argues that these environments were as constitutive of the Corporation’s identity as the programmes and people that they housed. Borrowing from the

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30:11

Nabi Sahak, "Anglo-Afghan Power and Politics,...

New Books in British Studies ·

2026/07/31

Inthis episode of New Books Network, I speak with Nabi Sahak about his book, Anglo-Afghan Power and Politics, 1893–1947: The Durand Line Unmasked(Palgrave Macmillan, 2025). Anglo-Afghan Power and Politics revisits one of the most contested borders in the modern world. The roughly 2,640-kilometre line drawn in 1893 by Mortimer Durand and Amir Abdur Rahman Khan, which today divides Pashtun communities between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Sahak's central argument is that the historical purpose

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62:56

Meredith Gamer, "City of the Gallows: Art and...

New Books in British Studies ·

2026/07/28

City of the Gallows: Art and Execution in Eighteenth-Century London(Yale UP, 2026) uncovers the complex and often unexpected connections between eighteenth-century London’s sites of punishment and its spaces of art-making, instruction, and display. Drawing together a wide range of images, objects, and texts – from popular woodcuts and anatomical sculptures to moral tracts and dictionaries of slang – it offers new readings of works by major artists, such as William Hogarth, Johan Zoffany, and Joseph

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76:32

Claire Hubbard-Hall, "Her Secret Service: The...

New Books in British Studies ·

2026/07/27

Since the inception of the Secret Service Bureau back in 1909, women have worked at the very heart of British secret intelligence - yet their contributions have been all but written out of history. Now, drawing on private and previously-classified documents, leading historian Claire Hubbard-Hall brings their gripping true stories to life inHer Secret Service: The Forgotten Women of British Intelligence(Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2024).From encoding orders and decrypting enemy messages to penning

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623 results

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