Excellent Excerpts: Moments in Compelling Nonfiction

Doug Jones
  • 5.0 (2)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE

The world is full of great, contemporary nonfiction that non-academics rarely hear about. In this podcast, I read excerpts from contemporary nonfiction works in history, politics, art, literary analysis, theology, philosophy and more in the hope of teasing you into pursuing the whole book.

Episodes

  1. 03/29/2021

    Episode 6 -- Quartz Pulsations, Castle Sieging, Basics of Critical Race Theory, and Elephant Resting

    In this sixth episode, I read excerpts from the following texts: ·         *How We Got to Now: Six Innovation That Made the Modern World* by Steven Johnson ·         *Magna Carta: The Birth of Liberty* by Dan Jones ·         *Critical Race Theory: An Introduction* by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic ·         *Sitting with Elephants: Lessons in Humility from the African Bush* by Ronald Dulek

    35 min

  2. 02/27/2021

    Episode 5 -- Paranoia, Irony, Southern Triumph, and Wrestling with God

    In the fifth episode, I read excerpts from the following texts: *The United States of Paranoia: A Conspiracy Theory* by Jesse Walker*Ironic Life* by Richard Bernstein*How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America* by Heather Cox Richardson*Wrestling with the Divine: A Jewish Response to Suffering* by Shmuel Boteach

    43 min

  3. 02/13/2021

    Episode 4 -- Curiosity, Authoritarianism, Navajo hide out, Vodka Vodka

    Episode 4 In the fourth episode, I read excerpts from the following texts: *Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It,* by Ian Leslie – the ground of so much*Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism,* by Anne Applebaum – the need for simplicity in a complex world*Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West,* by Hampton Sides – hide-out on a New Mexico pillar*Vodka: A Global History,* by Patricia Herlihy – Russian aristocrats using vodka for social control

    41 min

  4. 01/29/2021

    Episode 3 -- First Crusading, Working Fascism, Poetic Voice, Hawaiian Plantations, Gen. Washington's grief

    In the third episode, I read excerpts from the following texts: *Armies of Heaven: The First Crusade and the Quest for Apocalypse,* by Jay Rubenstein – Christians out enemy-ing the enemy*How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them,* by Jason Stanley – the need for an epic past*Art of Voice: Poetic Principles and Practice,* by Tony Hoagland and Kay Cosgrove – creating a believable, human voice with the mind in motion*Strangers from a Different Short: A History of Asian Americans,* by Ronald Takaki –  Asian moves to Hawaiian plantations*1776,* by David McCullough – perhaps General Washington’s saddest letter

    40 min

  5. 01/15/2021

    Episode 2 -- Democracies failing, Ballpark, Douglass, Victoria, Moby

    In the second episode, I read excerpts from the following texts: *How Democracies Die* by Levitsky and Ziblatt -- here are the key signals for authoritarianism*Ballpark: Baseball in the American City* by Paul Goldberger --  finding space for Yankee Stadium*Frederick Douglass* by David Blight -- at the ten year anniversary of the assassination*Queen Victoria* by Lucy Worsley -- Albert's Christmas trees*Readings in Moby-Dick* -- "Meanings of the Sea" by William Hamilton -- water frees

    42 min

  6. 12/31/2020

    Episode 1 -- 1599, Reconstruction, Faraday, Watergate, Poetry

    In this first episode, I read excerpts from the following texts:  *A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare* by James Shapiro -- secretly setting-up The Globe*The Wars of Reconstruction* by Douglas Egerton -- violent losers*The Electric Life of Michael Faraday* by Alan Hirshfeld -- almost missing the transformer*Nixonland* by Rick Perlstein -- multiple burglaries*Why Poetry* by Matthew Zapruder -- taking your head off

    40 min
  • 6 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

The world is full of great, contemporary nonfiction that non-academics rarely hear about. In this podcast, I read excerpts from contemporary nonfiction works in history, politics, art, literary analysis, theology, philosophy and more in the hope of teasing you into pursuing the whole book.

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