New Books Network
500 episodes listed below
Slow scholarship across Europe's contested pasts.
New Books in Western European Studies pairs scholars with recently published research on Europe's histories, cultures, institutions, and political arguments. Its conversations are patient and book-centered, giving guests room to explain sources, methods, controversies, and the lived stakes behind specialized work.
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New Books in Western European Studies is a scholarly interview show organized around serious books and the questions they raise about Europe. Its center of gravity is the long conversation. Episodes give authors time to describe where a project came from, which sources mattered, and how a focused case opens onto wider histories of politics, culture, religion, commerce, ecology, and memory. The range is broad but not random. One episode follows Elias V. Messinas into the history and restoration of synagogues in Greece, where Romaniot and Sephardi traditions sit within a complex multicultural past. Another lets David Potter reconsider Julius Caesar by looking not only at the celebrated episodes but also at the inconvenient early experiences that later reputation-making tends to omit. Pavel Brunssen's work brings the discussion into European football, where Jewishness, antisemitism, fan identity, Bayern fans, club memory, and the Qatar sponsorship controversy become part of a larger argument about tradition and politics. Karen L. Bowen and Dirk Imhof turn Antwerp's Plantin-Moretus press into a window on books, prints, merchants, distribution networks, and the unexpected evidence preserved in business records. Other recent conversations point toward plebiscites, early modern scientific naming, far-right uses of European integration in France and Italy, and fossil consumerism in the early modern Low Countries. The show is not built for quick takes. It is patient, source-minded, and comfortable with specialized vocabulary. Questions often frame the historical setting before moving into the author's claim. Guests frequently carry long stretches, which gives the episodes the texture of a seminar rather than a magazine segment. That can make the show demanding, but it also makes it unusually generous to the actual practice of scholarship. It is strongest when a guest turns a narrow source, building, match-day banner, or institutional record into a story about power, belonging, and historical change. Listeners looking for compressed summaries may find it slow. Listeners who enjoy watching an argument take shape will find a deep catalogue of European studies in motion.
Made for: For listeners who enjoy academic history, European politics, cultural memory, book history, architectural heritage, and seminar-style interviews. It suits patient readers who prefer careful evidence over quick narrative polish.
What sets it apart: The show stands out by letting specialized researchers stay close to their sources, from synagogue restorations and print records to football banners and fossil-fuel consumption. Its breadth comes through individual books rather than topical punditry.
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: @newbooksnetworkSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Book-centered conversations turn specialized European research into clear accounts of how scholars find evidence, test interpretations, and explain contested institutions.
New Books in Western European Studies lets substantial books set the agenda, then uses academic interviews to make their arguments, evidence, and methods easier to follow.
From Caesar's omissions to football's contested identities, your reading list acquires footnotes and consequences.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A careful look at Greek synagogue architecture, restoration, and the traditions preserved in historic buildings.
Elias V. Messinas traces a clear path from a magazine article at an AIA conference to years of work on the study and restoration of synagogues in Greece, with Samuel Gruber's Eastern Europe scholarship helping set that direction.
A steady look at how Caesar built authority through service, skill, and careful self-presentation.
Potter's discussion of Julius Caesar is at its best when it shows how Caesar built authority through military service, public speech, money, reputation, and the way he presented himself.
A careful football conversation that finds politics in club identity, not just on the pitch.
Pavel Brunssen treats football fandom as a serious lens on Jewishness, antisemitism, and club identity in European football. The talk keeps returning to Bayern Munich, where banners, membership meetings, and criticism of Qatar sponsorship become evidence in a broader argument…
An archive-led look at Plantin, Antwerp, and the business of moving prints.
The episode stays with Christopher Plantin, his press, and the Antwerp print trade, with shipping, merchants, and archival records doing most of the work.
A clear look at European civil procedure harmonization, from ELI-Unidroit rules to a Socratic frame.
Marco de Benito's conversation keeps its focus on a real fault line in European civil procedure: how to harmonize rules without sanding away national traditions.
A careful tour of religion becoming heritage, practice, and public conversation.
This conversation treats a scholarly handbook on religion and heritage in contemporary Europe, with the clearest thread being how religion is lived through culture, ritual, stories, and public practice.
A grounded history conversation that makes Chaplin's London feel lived in.
Jacqueline Riding's discussion of Hard Streets works best when it stays with the daily pressures of Charlie Chaplin's London: work, drink, family strain, and the hard math of working class life. The episode does not wander far from the book, and that keeps it grounded.
Phoebe Judge narrates true crime history and interviews the authors who uncovered it.
Dramatized deep dives into American history, from the Galveston hurricane to Harper Lee's Mockingbird.
Dana Schwartz narrates the violent lives of monarchs, warlords, and queens.
Tracy Wilson and Holly Frey narrate overlooked history, from Courbet's realism to IUD regulation.
Mike Duncan narrates Rome's full history solo, from Aeneas to Romulus Augustulus's exile in 476.
Elias V.
Caesar's early career was selectively remembered.
Keith Rathbone speaks with Dr.
Christopher Plantin is still partly hard to pin down.
This episode features an interview with Dr.
This episode features an interview with Dr.
This episode features an interview with Marta Lorimer about her book examining how far-right movements in France and Italy use European integration as an ideological resource for political legitimation.
An academic interview discussing a new book on the history of fossil fuel consumption in the early modern Low Countries.
This episode features an interview with Guido Tabellini about his book 'Two Paths to Prosperity', which examines why Europe industrialized before China by comparing their institutions of cooperation.
An academic interview discussing a book about the defeat and attrition of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend in World War II.
An interview with historian Elisheva Baumgarten about her book on everyday Jewish lives in medieval Northern Europe.
Civil procedure becomes a question of form.
This episode features an interview with Dr.
An academic interview series where scholars discuss their recently published research, with this episode featuring a book on 17th-century French culture and comets.
An interview with Stephan Blaney about his book on the history of health and efficiency in the British working class from 1870 to 1939.
An interview with Dr.
An academic interview with a scholar discussing their recently published history book.
An academic interview podcast where scholars discuss their recently published research with an expert host.
This episode features an interview with Dr.
This episode features an interview with Foster Chamberlin about his book 'Uncivil Guard: Policing, Military Culture, and the Coming of the Spanish Civil War', exploring historical perspectives on policing and military influences leading up to the conflict.
An interview with historian Alec Ryrie about his book on surviving the age of Hitler.
This episode features an interview with Dr.
An interview with Dr.
This episode features an interview with archaeologist Kim Bowes about her book 'Surviving Rome: The Economic Lives of the Ninety Percent,' which examines the economic realities of ordinary people in ancient Rome.
This episode features an interview with authors Rosella Cappella Zielinski and Paul Poast about their book 'Wheat at War: Allied Economic Cooperation in the Great War', exploring how Allied powers collaborated on wheat supply during World War I.
Religion gets easier to talk about when it is treated as culture.
An academic interview discussing the controversy and stakeholder dynamics of palm oil production in Indonesia and the EU.
An interview with Kenneth Haar about corporate lobbying in the European Union and its impact on democracy.
An academic interview podcast where scholars discuss their recently published research with another expert.
An academic interview discussing a new book on medieval Italian Christianity, part of the New Books Network.
An academic interview about a new book exploring Jewish immigrant integration and assimilation in France and Western Europe.
Alcohol sits near the center of the hardship Jacqueline describes.
An academic interview podcast where scholars discuss their recently published research in Western European studies.
An academic interview discussing a new book on Scottish society, politics, and identity.
An academic interview series where scholars discuss their recently published research, with this episode featuring a conversation about a book on recognizing the mafia abroad.