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New Books in Medieval History

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: https://newbooksnetwork.substack.com/ Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky to learn about more our latest interviews: @newbooksnetwork

Peter Jan Margry, "The Miracle of Amsterdam: Biography of a Contested Devotion" (U Notre Dame, 2019)

66 hours 19 mins; July 31, 2019

Marko Geslani, "Rites of the God-King: Śānti and Ritual Change in Early Hinduism" (Oxford UP, 2018)

59 mins; July 16, 2019

Robert Louis Wilken, "Liberty in the Things of God: The Christian Origins of Religious Freedom" (Yale UP, 2019)

62 hours 49 mins; July 10, 2019

Caroline Boggis-Rolfe, "The Baltic Story: A Thousand Year History of Its Lands, Sea, and Peoples" (Amberley, 2019)

54 mins; July 08, 2019

Ashley Thompson, "Engendering the Buddhist State: Territory, Sovereignty and Sexual Difference in the Inventions of Angkor" (Routledge, 2016)

42 mins; July 04, 2019

Patton E. Burchett, "A Genealogy of Devotion: Bhakti, Tantra, Yoga, and Sufism in North India" (Columbia UP, 2019)

61 hours 58 mins; June 14, 2019

Mimi Hanaoka, "Authority and Identity in Medieval Islamic Historiography: Persian Histories from the Periphery" (Cambridge UP, 2017)

53 mins; May 31, 2019

Gregory Smits, "Maritime Ryukyu, 1050–1650" (U Hawaii Press, 2018)

65 hours 23 mins; May 20, 2019

Sheilagh Ogilvie, "The European Guilds: An Economic Analysis" (Princeton UP, 2019)

60 hours 29 mins; March 20, 2019

Margaret Arnold, "The Magdalene in the Reformation" (Harvard UP, 2018)

42 mins; March 20, 2019

Geraldine Heng, "The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages" (Cambridge UP, 2018)

61 hours 1 min; February 26, 2019

Benoît Majerus, "From the Middle Ages to Today: Experiences and Representations of Madness in Paris" (Parigramme, 2018)

35 mins; January 16, 2019

Matthew Gabriele, "Apocalypse and Reform from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages" (Routledge, 2018)

41 mins; December 21, 2018

Philip Lutgendorf, “The Epic of Ram” (Harvard University Press, 2016-)

64 hours 27 mins; November 02, 2018

Anand Taneja, “Jinnealogy: Time, Islam, and Ecological Thought in the Medieval Ruins of Delhi”

54 mins; October 31, 2018

Luis Cortest, “Philo’s Heirs: Moses Maimonides and Thomas Aquinas” (Academic Studies Press, 2017)

55 mins; September 18, 2018

Lev Weitz, “Between Christ and Caliph: Law, Marriage, and Christian Community in Early Islam” (U Pennsylvania Press, 2018)

65 hours 54 mins; September 04, 2018

Eve Krakowski, “Coming of Age in Medieval Egypt: Women’s Adolescence, Jewish Law, and Ordinary Culture” (Princeton UP, 2017)

56 mins; August 09, 2018

Irina Dumitrescu, “The Experience of Education in Anglo-Saxon Literature” (Cambridge UP, 2018)

52 mins; August 03, 2018

Sucharita Adluri, “Textual Authority in Classical Indian Thought: Ramanuja and the Vishnu Purana” (Routledge, 2014)

37 mins; August 02, 2018

Ata Anzali, “‘Mysticism’ in Iran: The Safavid Roots of a Modern Concept” (U South Carolina Press, 2017)

49 mins; July 20, 2018

Samuel England, “Medieval Empires and the Cultures of Competition: Literary Duels at Islamic and Christian Courts” (Edinburgh UP, 2017)

35 mins; June 13, 2018

Frances Kneupper, “The Empire at the End of Time: Identity and Reform in Late Medieval German Prophecy” (Oxford UP, 2016)

58 mins; June 11, 2018

Joshua Parens, “Leo Strauss and the Recovery of Medieval Political Philosophy” (U Rochester Press, 2016)

42 mins; April 13, 2018

Alexander Orwin, “Redefining the Muslim Community: Ethnicity, Religion, and Politics in the Thought of Alfarabi” (U Penn Press, 2017)

44 mins; March 19, 2018

Anna Andreeva, “Assembling Shinto: Buddhist Approaches to Kami Worship in Medieval Japan” (Harvard Asia Center, 2017)

39 mins; February 07, 2018

Bryan D. Lowe, “Ritualized Writing: Buddhist Practice and Scriptural Cultures in Ancient Japan” (U of Hawaii Press, 2017)

68 hours 10 mins; December 04, 2017

Hussein Fancy, “The Mercenary Mediterranean: Sovereignty, Religion, and Violence in the Medieval Crown of Aragon” (U of Chicago Press, 2016)

47 mins; August 12, 2017

Matthew Gillis, “Heresy and Dissent in the Carolingian Empire: The Case of Gottschalk of Orbais” (Oxford UP, 2017)

49 mins; July 26, 2017

David Matthews, “Medievalism: A Critical History” (Boydell and Brewer, 2017)

59 mins; July 06, 2017

David I. Shyovitz, “A Remembrance of His Wonders: Nature and the Supernatural” (U. Penn Press, 2017)

36 mins; June 26, 2017

Augustine’s “Confessions,” a new translation by Sarah Ruden (Modern Library, 2017)

63 hours 25 mins; June 01, 2017

Gregory Reichberg, “Thomas Aquinas on War and Peace” (Cambridge UP, 2017)

75 hours 44 mins; May 30, 2017

Yuval Harari, “Jewish Magic before the Rise of Kabbalah” (Wayne State UP, 2017)

37 mins; March 27, 2017

Nathan Hofer, “The Popularisation of Sufism in Ayyubid and Mamluk Egypt, 1173-1325” (Edinburgh UP, 2015)

47 mins; January 27, 2017

Surekha Davies, “Renaissance Ethnography and the Invention of the Human: New Worlds, Maps, and Monsters” (Cambridge UP, 2016)

58 mins; January 12, 2017

Gail Ashton, ed. “Medieval Afterlives in Contemporary Culture” (Bloomsbury Academic, 2015/2017)

33 mins; December 14, 2016

Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle, “The Art of the Bible: Illuminated Manuscripts from the Medieval World” (Thames and Hudson, 2016)

64 hours 57 mins; November 28, 2016

Andrew Cole, “The Birth of Theory” (U. of Chicago Press, 2014)

62 hours 4 mins; October 27, 2016

Christopher Woolgar, “The Culture of Food in England, 1200-1500” (Yale UP, 2016)

57 mins; September 30, 2016

Ahmed Ragab, “The Medieval Islamic Hospital: Medicine, Religion, Charity” (Cambridge UP, 2015)

34 mins; September 21, 2016

E.R. Truitt, “Medieval Robots: Mechanism, Magic, Nature, and Art” (U. of Pennsylvania Press, 2015)

54 mins; September 21, 2016

Neil Kent, “Crimea: A History” (Hurst/Oxford UP, 2016)

65 hours 45 mins; September 02, 2016

Paul M. Cobb, “The Race for Paradise: An Islamic History of the Crusades” (Oxford UP, 2014)

47 mins; July 25, 2016

John Freed, “Frederick Barbarossa: The Prince and the Myth” (Yale UP, 2016)

71 hours 3 mins; July 15, 2016

Aisha Geissinger, “Gender and the Construction of Exegetical Authority: A Rereading of the Classical Genre of Qur’an Commentary (Brill, 2015)

51 mins; July 12, 2016

Miranda Brown, “The Art of Medicine in Early China: The Ancient and Medieval Origins of a Modern Archive” (Cambridge UP, 2015)

52 mins; July 05, 2016

Jennifer Bain, “Hildegard of Bingen and Musical Reception: The Modern Revival of Medieval Composer” (Cambridge UP, 2015)

79 hours 28 mins; January 18, 2016

Zeki Saritoprak, “Islam’s Jesus” (University of Florida Press, 2015)

49 mins; December 17, 2015

Brian P. Copenhaver, “Magic in Western Culture: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment” (Cambridge UP, 2015 )

71 hours 34 mins; December 15, 2015

Karen Bauer, “Gender Hierarchy in the Qur’an: Medieval Interpretations, Modern Responses” (Cambridge UP, 2015)

55 mins; November 12, 2015

Kecia Ali, “The Lives of Muhammad” (Harvard UP, 2014)

49 mins; August 25, 2015

James Turner, “Philology: The Forgotten Origins of the Modern Humanities” (Princeton University Press, 2014)

64 hours 32 mins; August 10, 2015

Eugene N. Anderson, “Food and Environment in Early and Medieval China” (U of Pennsylvania Press, 2014)

60 hours 9 mins; March 15, 2015

Charlotte Eubanks, “Miracles of Book and Body: Buddhist Textual Culture and Medieval Japan (U of California Press, 2011)

71 hours 36 mins; February 06, 2015

Paul Copp, “The Body Incantatory: Spells and the Ritual Imagination in Medieval Chinese Buddhism” (Columbia UP, 2014)

57 mins; October 27, 2014

Eugene Y. Park, “A Family of No Prominence: The Descendants of Pak Tokhwa and the Birth of Modern Korea” (Stanford UP, 2014)

65 hours 9 mins; October 20, 2014

Mary-Jane Rubenstein, "Worlds Without End: The Many Lives of the Multiverse" (Columbia UP, 2014)

61 hours 36 mins; September 29, 2014

Ovamir Anjum, “Politics, Law, and Community in Islamic Thought: The Taymiyyan Moment” (Cambridge UP, 2012)

66 hours 57 mins; August 22, 2014

Christina Laffin, “Rewriting Medieval Japanese Women” (University of Hawaii Press, 2013)

64 hours 24 mins; July 15, 2014

Brian A. Catlos, “Muslims of Medieval Latin Christendom, c.1050-1614” (Cambridge UP, 2014)

60 hours 53 mins; July 08, 2014

Najam Haider, “The Origins of the Shia: Identity, Ritual, and Sacred Space in Eighth-Century Kufa” (Cambridge UP, 2011)

41 mins; May 23, 2014

Sarah Pessin, “Ibn Gabirol’s Theology of Desire: Matter and Method in Jewish Medieval Neoplatonism” (Cambridge UP, 2013)

76 hours 32 mins; February 15, 2014

Rebecca Williams, “Muhammad and the Supernatural: Medieval Arab Views” (Routledge, 2013)

71 hours 51 mins; February 03, 2014

David Spafford, “A Sense of Place: The Political Landscape in Late Medieval Japan” (Harvard University Asia Center, 2013)

73 hours 41 mins; January 07, 2014

Sarra Tlilli, “Animals in the Qur’an” (Cambridge UP, 2012)

60 hours 58 mins; October 17, 2013

Michael D. Bailey, “Fearful Spirits, Reasoned Follies: The Boundaries of Superstition in Late Medieval Europe” (Cornell University Press, 2013)

52 mins; August 05, 2013

Martha C. Howell, “Commerce Before Capitalism in Europe, 1300-1600” (Cambridge UP, 2010)

68 hours 53 mins; July 17, 2013

Kevin Gray Carr, “Plotting the Prince: Shotoku Cults and the Mapping of Medieval Japanese Buddhism” (University of Hawai’i Press, 2012)

67 hours 2 mins; February 06, 2013

Christopher I. Beckwith, “Warriors of the Cloisters: The Central Asian Origins of Science in the Medieval World (Princeton University Press, 2012)

81 hours 46 mins; January 22, 2013

Jack W. Chen, “The Poetics of Sovereignty: On Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty” (Harvard Yenching Institute, 2010)

71 hours 8 mins; December 13, 2012

Carl S. Yamamoto, “Vision and Violence: Lama Zhang and the Politics of Charisma in Twelfth-Century Tibet” (Brill, 2012)

67 hours 16 mins; October 24, 2012

Christopher Nugent, “Manifest in Words, Written on Paper: Producing and Circulating Poetry in Tang Dynasty China” (Harvard University Asia Center, 2010)

73 hours 48 mins; October 13, 2012

Ethan Segal, “Coins, Trade, and the State: Economic Growth in Early Medieval Japan” (Harvard University Asia Center, 2011)

61 hours 57 mins; July 02, 2012

Xiaofei Tian, "Visionary Journeys: Travel Writings from Early Medieval and Nineteenth-Century China" (Harvard UP, 2011)

66 hours 16 mins; May 23, 2012

Hank Glassman, “The Face of JizÅ: Image and Cult in Medieval Japanese Buddhism” (University of Hawai’i Press, 2012)

54 mins; May 10, 2012

Jay Rubenstein, “Armies of Heaven: The First Crusade and the Quest for Apocalypse” (Basic Books, 2011)

64 hours 12 mins; November 23, 2011

Robert Pasnau, “Metaphysical Themes: 1274-1671” (Oxford UP, 2011)

63 hours 58 mins; July 15, 2011

Joyce Salisbury, “The Beast Within: Animals in the Middle Ages” (Routledge, 2011)

60 hours 48 mins; January 21, 2011

Brett Whalen, “Dominion of God: Christendom and Apocalypse in the Middle Ages” (Harvard UP, 2009)

55 mins; September 18, 2009

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New Books in Medieval History

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