Podcasts about republic america

Nostalgia for the 1980s is in the air. From Stranger Things to the relaunch of 80s franchises like Top Gun, the American entertainment industry casts the period as an age of simpler things, clearer dichotomies, and less technology. Yet not all was simple. The 1980s were the heyday of the Cold War. They were the decade of rapid social change, of deregulation and selfish consumption, of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. They were also the decade when a new technology swept the world, setting the stage for our all-too-digital present. A lot has been written about the rise of video in the United States, the format wars, the impact it had on the entertainment industry, on personal entertainment consumption habits, and new business models. But the rise of video was not a uniquely American phenomenon, nor was the American experience normative. In fact, wherever the new technology arrived, from the US, to the Middle East, to Eastern Europe, it reshaped social and business practices, as well as government responses to it, in ways that reflected the political, social, and economic arrangements of each space. Johnny Walker's Rewind, Replay: Britain and the Video Boom, 1972-1992 (Edinburgh UP, 2022) tells the story of Britain's vide boom in the 1980s by focusing on the first video distributors who took chances on a wide range of films, from documentaries, to horror, to kids entertainment, in order to attract consumer interest. The new video shops that mushroomed across Britain turned video rental into a common practice among the public. Soon, despite a crushing recession, more and more industry players started to invest into what media at the time was dismissing as a mere ‘plaything.' Rewind, Replay chronicles the idiosyncratic ways in which British distributors and store owners navigated various local political and economic pressures including piracy, the infamous video nasties moral panic and the government crackdown on the industry, as well as the corporate expansion of the industry which, by the end of the decade, eliminated independent distributors, and turned the pre-recorded videocassette from morally questionable enterprise into a staple of high street retail. Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Teaching Professor of American Studies at Miami University of Ohio. Her book, Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination, came out in 2022. Twitter: @OanaGodyKenw. Oana's webpage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nostalgia for the 1980s is in the air. From Stranger Things to the relaunch of 80s franchises like Top Gun, the American entertainment industry casts the period as an age of simpler things, clearer dichotomies, and less technology. Yet not all was simple. The 1980s were the heyday of the Cold War. They were the decade of rapid social change, of deregulation and selfish consumption, of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. They were also the decade when a new technology swept the world, setting the stage for our all-too-digital present. A lot has been written about the rise of video in the United States, the format wars, the impact it had on the entertainment industry, on personal entertainment consumption habits, and new business models. But the rise of video was not a uniquely American phenomenon, nor was the American experience normative. In fact, wherever the new technology arrived, from the US, to the Middle East, to Eastern Europe, it reshaped social and business practices, as well as government responses to it, in ways that reflected the political, social, and economic arrangements of each space. Johnny Walker's Rewind, Replay: Britain and the Video Boom, 1972-1992 (Edinburgh UP, 2022) tells the story of Britain's vide boom in the 1980s by focusing on the first video distributors who took chances on a wide range of films, from documentaries, to horror, to kids entertainment, in order to attract consumer interest. The new video shops that mushroomed across Britain turned video rental into a common practice among the public. Soon, despite a crushing recession, more and more industry players started to invest into what media at the time was dismissing as a mere ‘plaything.' Rewind, Replay chronicles the idiosyncratic ways in which British distributors and store owners navigated various local political and economic pressures including piracy, the infamous video nasties moral panic and the government crackdown on the industry, as well as the corporate expansion of the industry which, by the end of the decade, eliminated independent distributors, and turned the pre-recorded videocassette from morally questionable enterprise into a staple of high street retail. Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Teaching Professor of American Studies at Miami University of Ohio. Her book, Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination, came out in 2022. Twitter: @OanaGodyKenw. Oana's webpage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-technology-and-society

Nostalgia for the 1980s is in the air. From Stranger Things to the relaunch of 80s franchises like Top Gun, the American entertainment industry casts the period as an age of simpler things, clearer dichotomies, and less technology. Yet not all was simple. The 1980s were the heyday of the Cold War. They were the decade of rapid social change, of deregulation and selfish consumption, of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. They were also the decade when a new technology swept the world, setting the stage for our all-too-digital present. A lot has been written about the rise of video in the United States, the format wars, the impact it had on the entertainment industry, on personal entertainment consumption habits, and new business models. But the rise of video was not a uniquely American phenomenon, nor was the American experience normative. In fact, wherever the new technology arrived, from the US, to the Middle East, to Eastern Europe, it reshaped social and business practices, as well as government responses to it, in ways that reflected the political, social, and economic arrangements of each space. Johnny Walker's Rewind, Replay: Britain and the Video Boom, 1972-1992 (Edinburgh UP, 2022) tells the story of Britain's vide boom in the 1980s by focusing on the first video distributors who took chances on a wide range of films, from documentaries, to horror, to kids entertainment, in order to attract consumer interest. The new video shops that mushroomed across Britain turned video rental into a common practice among the public. Soon, despite a crushing recession, more and more industry players started to invest into what media at the time was dismissing as a mere ‘plaything.' Rewind, Replay chronicles the idiosyncratic ways in which British distributors and store owners navigated various local political and economic pressures including piracy, the infamous video nasties moral panic and the government crackdown on the industry, as well as the corporate expansion of the industry which, by the end of the decade, eliminated independent distributors, and turned the pre-recorded videocassette from morally questionable enterprise into a staple of high street retail. Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Teaching Professor of American Studies at Miami University of Ohio. Her book, Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination, came out in 2022. Twitter: @OanaGodyKenw. Oana's webpage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/communications

Nostalgia for the 1980s is in the air. From Stranger Things to the relaunch of 80s franchises like Top Gun, the American entertainment industry casts the period as an age of simpler things, clearer dichotomies, and less technology. Yet not all was simple. The 1980s were the heyday of the Cold War. They were the decade of rapid social change, of deregulation and selfish consumption, of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. They were also the decade when a new technology swept the world, setting the stage for our all-too-digital present. A lot has been written about the rise of video in the United States, the format wars, the impact it had on the entertainment industry, on personal entertainment consumption habits, and new business models. But the rise of video was not a uniquely American phenomenon, nor was the American experience normative. In fact, wherever the new technology arrived, from the US, to the Middle East, to Eastern Europe, it reshaped social and business practices, as well as government responses to it, in ways that reflected the political, social, and economic arrangements of each space. Johnny Walker's Rewind, Replay: Britain and the Video Boom, 1972-1992 (Edinburgh UP, 2022) tells the story of Britain's vide boom in the 1980s by focusing on the first video distributors who took chances on a wide range of films, from documentaries, to horror, to kids entertainment, in order to attract consumer interest. The new video shops that mushroomed across Britain turned video rental into a common practice among the public. Soon, despite a crushing recession, more and more industry players started to invest into what media at the time was dismissing as a mere ‘plaything.' Rewind, Replay chronicles the idiosyncratic ways in which British distributors and store owners navigated various local political and economic pressures including piracy, the infamous video nasties moral panic and the government crackdown on the industry, as well as the corporate expansion of the industry which, by the end of the decade, eliminated independent distributors, and turned the pre-recorded videocassette from morally questionable enterprise into a staple of high street retail. Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Teaching Professor of American Studies at Miami University of Ohio. Her book, Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination, came out in 2022. Twitter: @OanaGodyKenw. Oana's webpage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/technology

Nostalgia for the 1980s is in the air. From Stranger Things to the relaunch of 80s franchises like Top Gun, the American entertainment industry casts the period as an age of simpler things, clearer dichotomies, and less technology. Yet not all was simple. The 1980s were the heyday of the Cold War. They were the decade of rapid social change, of deregulation and selfish consumption, of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. They were also the decade when a new technology swept the world, setting the stage for our all-too-digital present. A lot has been written about the rise of video in the United States, the format wars, the impact it had on the entertainment industry, on personal entertainment consumption habits, and new business models. But the rise of video was not a uniquely American phenomenon, nor was the American experience normative. In fact, wherever the new technology arrived, from the US, to the Middle East, to Eastern Europe, it reshaped social and business practices, as well as government responses to it, in ways that reflected the political, social, and economic arrangements of each space. Johnny Walker's Rewind, Replay: Britain and the Video Boom, 1972-1992 (Edinburgh UP, 2022) tells the story of Britain's vide boom in the 1980s by focusing on the first video distributors who took chances on a wide range of films, from documentaries, to horror, to kids entertainment, in order to attract consumer interest. The new video shops that mushroomed across Britain turned video rental into a common practice among the public. Soon, despite a crushing recession, more and more industry players started to invest into what media at the time was dismissing as a mere ‘plaything.' Rewind, Replay chronicles the idiosyncratic ways in which British distributors and store owners navigated various local political and economic pressures including piracy, the infamous video nasties moral panic and the government crackdown on the industry, as well as the corporate expansion of the industry which, by the end of the decade, eliminated independent distributors, and turned the pre-recorded videocassette from morally questionable enterprise into a staple of high street retail. Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Teaching Professor of American Studies at Miami University of Ohio. Her book, Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination, came out in 2022. Twitter: @OanaGodyKenw. Oana's webpage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/popular-culture

Nostalgia for the 1980s is in the air. From Stranger Things to the relaunch of 80s franchises like Top Gun, the American entertainment industry casts the period as an age of simpler things, clearer dichotomies, and less technology. Yet not all was simple. The 1980s were the heyday of the Cold War. They were the decade of rapid social change, of deregulation and selfish consumption, of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. They were also the decade when a new technology swept the world, setting the stage for our all-too-digital present. A lot has been written about the rise of video in the United States, the format wars, the impact it had on the entertainment industry, on personal entertainment consumption habits, and new business models. But the rise of video was not a uniquely American phenomenon, nor was the American experience normative. In fact, wherever the new technology arrived, from the US, to the Middle East, to Eastern Europe, it reshaped social and business practices, as well as government responses to it, in ways that reflected the political, social, and economic arrangements of each space. Johnny Walker's Rewind, Replay: Britain and the Video Boom, 1972-1992 (Edinburgh UP, 2022) tells the story of Britain's vide boom in the 1980s by focusing on the first video distributors who took chances on a wide range of films, from documentaries, to horror, to kids entertainment, in order to attract consumer interest. The new video shops that mushroomed across Britain turned video rental into a common practice among the public. Soon, despite a crushing recession, more and more industry players started to invest into what media at the time was dismissing as a mere ‘plaything.' Rewind, Replay chronicles the idiosyncratic ways in which British distributors and store owners navigated various local political and economic pressures including piracy, the infamous video nasties moral panic and the government crackdown on the industry, as well as the corporate expansion of the industry which, by the end of the decade, eliminated independent distributors, and turned the pre-recorded videocassette from morally questionable enterprise into a staple of high street retail. Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Teaching Professor of American Studies at Miami University of Ohio. Her book, Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination, came out in 2022. Twitter: @OanaGodyKenw. Oana's webpage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/european-studies

Nostalgia for the 1980s is in the air. From Stranger Things to the relaunch of 80s franchises like Top Gun, the American entertainment industry casts the period as an age of simpler things, clearer dichotomies, and less technology. Yet not all was simple. The 1980s were the heyday of the Cold War. They were the decade of rapid social change, of deregulation and selfish consumption, of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. They were also the decade when a new technology swept the world, setting the stage for our all-too-digital present. A lot has been written about the rise of video in the United States, the format wars, the impact it had on the entertainment industry, on personal entertainment consumption habits, and new business models. But the rise of video was not a uniquely American phenomenon, nor was the American experience normative. In fact, wherever the new technology arrived, from the US, to the Middle East, to Eastern Europe, it reshaped social and business practices, as well as government responses to it, in ways that reflected the political, social, and economic arrangements of each space. Johnny Walker's Rewind, Replay: Britain and the Video Boom, 1972-1992 (Edinburgh UP, 2022) tells the story of Britain's vide boom in the 1980s by focusing on the first video distributors who took chances on a wide range of films, from documentaries, to horror, to kids entertainment, in order to attract consumer interest. The new video shops that mushroomed across Britain turned video rental into a common practice among the public. Soon, despite a crushing recession, more and more industry players started to invest into what media at the time was dismissing as a mere ‘plaything.' Rewind, Replay chronicles the idiosyncratic ways in which British distributors and store owners navigated various local political and economic pressures including piracy, the infamous video nasties moral panic and the government crackdown on the industry, as well as the corporate expansion of the industry which, by the end of the decade, eliminated independent distributors, and turned the pre-recorded videocassette from morally questionable enterprise into a staple of high street retail. Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Teaching Professor of American Studies at Miami University of Ohio. Her book, Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination, came out in 2022. Twitter: @OanaGodyKenw. Oana's webpage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/british-studies

Nostalgia for the 1980s is in the air. From Stranger Things to the relaunch of 80s franchises like Top Gun, the American entertainment industry casts the period as an age of simpler things, clearer dichotomies, and less technology. Yet not all was simple. The 1980s were the heyday of the Cold War. They were the decade of rapid social change, of deregulation and selfish consumption, of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. They were also the decade when a new technology swept the world, setting the stage for our all-too-digital present. A lot has been written about the rise of video in the United States, the format wars, the impact it had on the entertainment industry, on personal entertainment consumption habits, and new business models. But the rise of video was not a uniquely American phenomenon, nor was the American experience normative. In fact, wherever the new technology arrived, from the US, to the Middle East, to Eastern Europe, it reshaped social and business practices, as well as government responses to it, in ways that reflected the political, social, and economic arrangements of each space. Johnny Walker's Rewind, Replay: Britain and the Video Boom, 1972-1992 (Edinburgh UP, 2022) tells the story of Britain's vide boom in the 1980s by focusing on the first video distributors who took chances on a wide range of films, from documentaries, to horror, to kids entertainment, in order to attract consumer interest. The new video shops that mushroomed across Britain turned video rental into a common practice among the public. Soon, despite a crushing recession, more and more industry players started to invest into what media at the time was dismissing as a mere ‘plaything.' Rewind, Replay chronicles the idiosyncratic ways in which British distributors and store owners navigated various local political and economic pressures including piracy, the infamous video nasties moral panic and the government crackdown on the industry, as well as the corporate expansion of the industry which, by the end of the decade, eliminated independent distributors, and turned the pre-recorded videocassette from morally questionable enterprise into a staple of high street retail. Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Teaching Professor of American Studies at Miami University of Ohio. Her book, Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination, came out in 2022. Twitter: @OanaGodyKenw. Oana's webpage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/film

Nostalgia for the 1980s is in the air. From Stranger Things to the relaunch of 80s franchises like Top Gun, the American entertainment industry casts the period as an age of simpler things, clearer dichotomies, and less technology. Yet not all was simple. The 1980s were the heyday of the Cold War. They were the decade of rapid social change, of deregulation and selfish consumption, of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. They were also the decade when a new technology swept the world, setting the stage for our all-too-digital present. A lot has been written about the rise of video in the United States, the format wars, the impact it had on the entertainment industry, on personal entertainment consumption habits, and new business models. But the rise of video was not a uniquely American phenomenon, nor was the American experience normative. In fact, wherever the new technology arrived, from the US, to the Middle East, to Eastern Europe, it reshaped social and business practices, as well as government responses to it, in ways that reflected the political, social, and economic arrangements of each space. Johnny Walker's Rewind, Replay: Britain and the Video Boom, 1972-1992 (Edinburgh UP, 2022) tells the story of Britain's vide boom in the 1980s by focusing on the first video distributors who took chances on a wide range of films, from documentaries, to horror, to kids entertainment, in order to attract consumer interest. The new video shops that mushroomed across Britain turned video rental into a common practice among the public. Soon, despite a crushing recession, more and more industry players started to invest into what media at the time was dismissing as a mere ‘plaything.' Rewind, Replay chronicles the idiosyncratic ways in which British distributors and store owners navigated various local political and economic pressures including piracy, the infamous video nasties moral panic and the government crackdown on the industry, as well as the corporate expansion of the industry which, by the end of the decade, eliminated independent distributors, and turned the pre-recorded videocassette from morally questionable enterprise into a staple of high street retail. Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Teaching Professor of American Studies at Miami University of Ohio. Her book, Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination, came out in 2022. Twitter: @OanaGodyKenw. Oana's webpage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Nostalgia for the 1980s is in the air. From Stranger Things to the relaunch of 80s franchises like Top Gun, the American entertainment industry casts the period as an age of simpler things, clearer dichotomies, and less technology. Yet not all was simple. The 1980s were the heyday of the Cold War. They were the decade of rapid social change, of deregulation and selfish consumption, of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. They were also the decade when a new technology swept the world, setting the stage for our all-too-digital present. A lot has been written about the rise of video in the United States, the format wars, the impact it had on the entertainment industry, on personal entertainment consumption habits, and new business models. But the rise of video was not a uniquely American phenomenon, nor was the American experience normative. In fact, wherever the new technology arrived, from the US, to the Middle East, to Eastern Europe, it reshaped social and business practices, as well as government responses to it, in ways that reflected the political, social, and economic arrangements of each space. Johnny Walker's Rewind, Replay: Britain and the Video Boom, 1972-1992 (Edinburgh UP, 2022) tells the story of Britain's vide boom in the 1980s by focusing on the first video distributors who took chances on a wide range of films, from documentaries, to horror, to kids entertainment, in order to attract consumer interest. The new video shops that mushroomed across Britain turned video rental into a common practice among the public. Soon, despite a crushing recession, more and more industry players started to invest into what media at the time was dismissing as a mere ‘plaything.' Rewind, Replay chronicles the idiosyncratic ways in which British distributors and store owners navigated various local political and economic pressures including piracy, the infamous video nasties moral panic and the government crackdown on the industry, as well as the corporate expansion of the industry which, by the end of the decade, eliminated independent distributors, and turned the pre-recorded videocassette from morally questionable enterprise into a staple of high street retail. Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Teaching Professor of American Studies at Miami University of Ohio. Her book, Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination, came out in 2022. Twitter: @OanaGodyKenw. Oana's webpage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

One of Wayne's most passionate rants ever on the corrupt Banana Republic America has become

Over two decades before the hard lines of the Cold War were drawn in North America, and long before any accurate information about what was happening in the Soviet Union became available to the general public, communism appeared to many a viable alternative to the shortcomings of imperialism and of Western liberal capitalism. In an increasingly interconnected world whose old poles of geopolitical power were shifting, people everywhere grappled with the economic hardships of the Great Depression. It was an era of almost palpable disenchantment with existing paradigms and a global search for new ones. In North America, Canada found itself at the interface of two ideological spaces. On the one hand, it was part of the British world and was shaped by its institutions and political structures; on the other, it was exposed to the global appeal of communist ideas, either imported from Europe or home-grown.  About 1700 Canadians were ready to risk their lives and go fight into a war that was not for their king, nor for their country, but in defense of an idea: the Civil War in Spain. This nominally Canadian unit – the Mackenzie-Papineau battalion –was coordinated by the Canadian Communist party and became part of the International Brigades in Spain. The volunteers that formed it joined the conflict despite the fact that the Canadian government was determined to keep Canada out of the war.  Not for King or Country: Edward Cecil-Smith, the Communist Party of Canada, and the Spanish Civil War (U Toronto Press, 2019) tells the story of the Mackenzie-Papineau battalion through the fascinating biography of its commander, Edward Cecil-Smith. Born to missionary parents in China, Cecil-Smith gravitated towards left-wing radical politics in the 1920s, after his move to Canada, and joined the Communist Canadian party in 1931. His eventual involvement in the war in Spain was motivated not by traditional patriotism, but by a strong belief that global fascism had to be stopped. Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Teaching Professor of American Studies at Miami University of Ohio. Her book, Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination, came out in 2022. Twitter: @OanaGodyKenw. Oana's webpage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over two decades before the hard lines of the Cold War were drawn in North America, and long before any accurate information about what was happening in the Soviet Union became available to the general public, communism appeared to many a viable alternative to the shortcomings of imperialism and of Western liberal capitalism. In an increasingly interconnected world whose old poles of geopolitical power were shifting, people everywhere grappled with the economic hardships of the Great Depression. It was an era of almost palpable disenchantment with existing paradigms and a global search for new ones. In North America, Canada found itself at the interface of two ideological spaces. On the one hand, it was part of the British world and was shaped by its institutions and political structures; on the other, it was exposed to the global appeal of communist ideas, either imported from Europe or home-grown.  About 1700 Canadians were ready to risk their lives and go fight into a war that was not for their king, nor for their country, but in defense of an idea: the Civil War in Spain. This nominally Canadian unit – the Mackenzie-Papineau battalion –was coordinated by the Canadian Communist party and became part of the International Brigades in Spain. The volunteers that formed it joined the conflict despite the fact that the Canadian government was determined to keep Canada out of the war.  Not for King or Country: Edward Cecil-Smith, the Communist Party of Canada, and the Spanish Civil War (U Toronto Press, 2019) tells the story of the Mackenzie-Papineau battalion through the fascinating biography of its commander, Edward Cecil-Smith. Born to missionary parents in China, Cecil-Smith gravitated towards left-wing radical politics in the 1920s, after his move to Canada, and joined the Communist Canadian party in 1931. His eventual involvement in the war in Spain was motivated not by traditional patriotism, but by a strong belief that global fascism had to be stopped. Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Teaching Professor of American Studies at Miami University of Ohio. Her book, Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination, came out in 2022. Twitter: @OanaGodyKenw. Oana's webpage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/military-history

Over two decades before the hard lines of the Cold War were drawn in North America, and long before any accurate information about what was happening in the Soviet Union became available to the general public, communism appeared to many a viable alternative to the shortcomings of imperialism and of Western liberal capitalism. In an increasingly interconnected world whose old poles of geopolitical power were shifting, people everywhere grappled with the economic hardships of the Great Depression. It was an era of almost palpable disenchantment with existing paradigms and a global search for new ones. In North America, Canada found itself at the interface of two ideological spaces. On the one hand, it was part of the British world and was shaped by its institutions and political structures; on the other, it was exposed to the global appeal of communist ideas, either imported from Europe or home-grown.  About 1700 Canadians were ready to risk their lives and go fight into a war that was not for their king, nor for their country, but in defense of an idea: the Civil War in Spain. This nominally Canadian unit – the Mackenzie-Papineau battalion –was coordinated by the Canadian Communist party and became part of the International Brigades in Spain. The volunteers that formed it joined the conflict despite the fact that the Canadian government was determined to keep Canada out of the war.  Not for King or Country: Edward Cecil-Smith, the Communist Party of Canada, and the Spanish Civil War (U Toronto Press, 2019) tells the story of the Mackenzie-Papineau battalion through the fascinating biography of its commander, Edward Cecil-Smith. Born to missionary parents in China, Cecil-Smith gravitated towards left-wing radical politics in the 1920s, after his move to Canada, and joined the Communist Canadian party in 1931. His eventual involvement in the war in Spain was motivated not by traditional patriotism, but by a strong belief that global fascism had to be stopped. Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Teaching Professor of American Studies at Miami University of Ohio. Her book, Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination, came out in 2022. Twitter: @OanaGodyKenw. Oana's webpage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Over two decades before the hard lines of the Cold War were drawn in North America, and long before any accurate information about what was happening in the Soviet Union became available to the general public, communism appeared to many a viable alternative to the shortcomings of imperialism and of Western liberal capitalism. In an increasingly interconnected world whose old poles of geopolitical power were shifting, people everywhere grappled with the economic hardships of the Great Depression. It was an era of almost palpable disenchantment with existing paradigms and a global search for new ones. In North America, Canada found itself at the interface of two ideological spaces. On the one hand, it was part of the British world and was shaped by its institutions and political structures; on the other, it was exposed to the global appeal of communist ideas, either imported from Europe or home-grown.  About 1700 Canadians were ready to risk their lives and go fight into a war that was not for their king, nor for their country, but in defense of an idea: the Civil War in Spain. This nominally Canadian unit – the Mackenzie-Papineau battalion –was coordinated by the Canadian Communist party and became part of the International Brigades in Spain. The volunteers that formed it joined the conflict despite the fact that the Canadian government was determined to keep Canada out of the war.  Not for King or Country: Edward Cecil-Smith, the Communist Party of Canada, and the Spanish Civil War (U Toronto Press, 2019) tells the story of the Mackenzie-Papineau battalion through the fascinating biography of its commander, Edward Cecil-Smith. Born to missionary parents in China, Cecil-Smith gravitated towards left-wing radical politics in the 1920s, after his move to Canada, and joined the Communist Canadian party in 1931. His eventual involvement in the war in Spain was motivated not by traditional patriotism, but by a strong belief that global fascism had to be stopped. Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Teaching Professor of American Studies at Miami University of Ohio. Her book, Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination, came out in 2022. Twitter: @OanaGodyKenw. Oana's webpage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Ronald Reagan's hagiography has created an entire mythology around the 40th president of the US; anticommunism and the fight against the ‘Evil Empire' are the central tropes of the Reagan story to this day. The culmination of this narrative arc is the collapse of the Soviet Union, an event which is still routinely attributed to Reagan and, particularly in conservative circles, and hailed as the ultimate validation of American political models and of American values. But the historical reality of the 1980s was far from ideologically monolithic. Andrew Hunt's We Begin Bombing in Five Minutes: Late Cold War Culture in the Age of Reagan (University of Massachusetts Press, 2022) paints a nuanced picture of the complex social and cultural landscape of the United States during Reagan's two terms. The country was in turmoil, bitterly divided over the meaning of its recent past (from nostalgia for the 1950s to the trauma of the Vietnam War) and over the direction of its future. It was rocked by street protests fueled by a rebirth of activism comparable to that of the 1960s. It witnessed the rise of fringe conspiracy theories, of popular opposition to U.S. involvement in Central America, and of widespread anxieties over nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Hunt's book captures, in fascinating detail, the enormous pushback to the anticommunist rhetoric of the Reagan regime from citizens, activists, and artists, and the role that American popular culture—from music, to television, to film— played in reflecting, and sometimes influencing, the dynamics of the age. Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Associate Teaching Professor of American Studies at Miami University of Ohio. Her book, Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination, came out in 2022. Twitter: @OanaGodyKenw. Oana's webpage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ronald Reagan's hagiography has created an entire mythology around the 40th president of the US; anticommunism and the fight against the ‘Evil Empire' are the central tropes of the Reagan story to this day. The culmination of this narrative arc is the collapse of the Soviet Union, an event which is still routinely attributed to Reagan and, particularly in conservative circles, and hailed as the ultimate validation of American political models and of American values. But the historical reality of the 1980s was far from ideologically monolithic. Andrew Hunt's We Begin Bombing in Five Minutes: Late Cold War Culture in the Age of Reagan (University of Massachusetts Press, 2022) paints a nuanced picture of the complex social and cultural landscape of the United States during Reagan's two terms. The country was in turmoil, bitterly divided over the meaning of its recent past (from nostalgia for the 1950s to the trauma of the Vietnam War) and over the direction of its future. It was rocked by street protests fueled by a rebirth of activism comparable to that of the 1960s. It witnessed the rise of fringe conspiracy theories, of popular opposition to U.S. involvement in Central America, and of widespread anxieties over nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Hunt's book captures, in fascinating detail, the enormous pushback to the anticommunist rhetoric of the Reagan regime from citizens, activists, and artists, and the role that American popular culture—from music, to television, to film— played in reflecting, and sometimes influencing, the dynamics of the age. Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Associate Teaching Professor of American Studies at Miami University of Ohio. Her book, Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination, came out in 2022. Twitter: @OanaGodyKenw. Oana's webpage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Ronald Reagan's hagiography has created an entire mythology around the 40th president of the US; anticommunism and the fight against the ‘Evil Empire' are the central tropes of the Reagan story to this day. The culmination of this narrative arc is the collapse of the Soviet Union, an event which is still routinely attributed to Reagan and, particularly in conservative circles, and hailed as the ultimate validation of American political models and of American values. But the historical reality of the 1980s was far from ideologically monolithic. Andrew Hunt's We Begin Bombing in Five Minutes: Late Cold War Culture in the Age of Reagan (University of Massachusetts Press, 2022) paints a nuanced picture of the complex social and cultural landscape of the United States during Reagan's two terms. The country was in turmoil, bitterly divided over the meaning of its recent past (from nostalgia for the 1950s to the trauma of the Vietnam War) and over the direction of its future. It was rocked by street protests fueled by a rebirth of activism comparable to that of the 1960s. It witnessed the rise of fringe conspiracy theories, of popular opposition to U.S. involvement in Central America, and of widespread anxieties over nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Hunt's book captures, in fascinating detail, the enormous pushback to the anticommunist rhetoric of the Reagan regime from citizens, activists, and artists, and the role that American popular culture—from music, to television, to film— played in reflecting, and sometimes influencing, the dynamics of the age. Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Associate Teaching Professor of American Studies at Miami University of Ohio. Her book, Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination, came out in 2022. Twitter: @OanaGodyKenw. Oana's webpage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

Ronald Reagan's hagiography has created an entire mythology around the 40th president of the US; anticommunism and the fight against the ‘Evil Empire' are the central tropes of the Reagan story to this day. The culmination of this narrative arc is the collapse of the Soviet Union, an event which is still routinely attributed to Reagan and, particularly in conservative circles, and hailed as the ultimate validation of American political models and of American values. But the historical reality of the 1980s was far from ideologically monolithic. Andrew Hunt's We Begin Bombing in Five Minutes: Late Cold War Culture in the Age of Reagan (University of Massachusetts Press, 2022) paints a nuanced picture of the complex social and cultural landscape of the United States during Reagan's two terms. The country was in turmoil, bitterly divided over the meaning of its recent past (from nostalgia for the 1950s to the trauma of the Vietnam War) and over the direction of its future. It was rocked by street protests fueled by a rebirth of activism comparable to that of the 1960s. It witnessed the rise of fringe conspiracy theories, of popular opposition to U.S. involvement in Central America, and of widespread anxieties over nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Hunt's book captures, in fascinating detail, the enormous pushback to the anticommunist rhetoric of the Reagan regime from citizens, activists, and artists, and the role that American popular culture—from music, to television, to film— played in reflecting, and sometimes influencing, the dynamics of the age. Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Associate Teaching Professor of American Studies at Miami University of Ohio. Her book, Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination, came out in 2022. Twitter: @OanaGodyKenw. Oana's webpage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

We don't think of Canada as a republic. Even in its modern and vibrantly multi-cultural form, there is something monarchical about the place. The Queen appears on every coin, on the $20 bill, and pretty often in portrait form, placed over the home team's net in hockey rinks from coast to coast. Politically, Canada's status as a constitutional monarchy shapes a collective identity that prizes political moderation, consensus, and that strives for egalitarian values. But there was a time when Canada might have taken a republican turn. Between 1837 and 1867 – a period bracketed by rebellion and Confederation – a group of writers debated the virtues of American-style republican government versus British constitutional monarchy. In these discussions, American culture and political institutions were a dominant frame of reference. In Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination (Lexington, 2022), Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy employs three Anglophone authors – John Richardson, Susanna Moodie and Thomas Chandler Haliburton - as a lens that helps us to understand a period of possible political futures as states formed in the wake of revolution, and Canada defined itself in contrast to its southern neighbor. About the author: Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Global & Intercultural Studies at Miami University (Ohio). See also: “Canada has long feared the chaos of US Politics”, The Conversation (8 March 2022)  About the host: Charles Prior is Head of the School of Humanities and Reader in History at the University of Hull (UK). He co-leads the Treatied Spaces Research Group. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

We don't think of Canada as a republic. Even in its modern and vibrantly multi-cultural form, there is something monarchical about the place. The Queen appears on every coin, on the $20 bill, and pretty often in portrait form, placed over the home team's net in hockey rinks from coast to coast. Politically, Canada's status as a constitutional monarchy shapes a collective identity that prizes political moderation, consensus, and that strives for egalitarian values. But there was a time when Canada might have taken a republican turn. Between 1837 and 1867 – a period bracketed by rebellion and Confederation – a group of writers debated the virtues of American-style republican government versus British constitutional monarchy. In these discussions, American culture and political institutions were a dominant frame of reference. In Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination (Lexington, 2022), Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy employs three Anglophone authors – John Richardson, Susanna Moodie and Thomas Chandler Haliburton - as a lens that helps us to understand a period of possible political futures as states formed in the wake of revolution, and Canada defined itself in contrast to its southern neighbor. About the author: Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Global & Intercultural Studies at Miami University (Ohio). See also: “Canada has long feared the chaos of US Politics”, The Conversation (8 March 2022)  About the host: Charles Prior is Head of the School of Humanities and Reader in History at the University of Hull (UK). He co-leads the Treatied Spaces Research Group. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/british-studies

We don't think of Canada as a republic. Even in its modern and vibrantly multi-cultural form, there is something monarchical about the place. The Queen appears on every coin, on the $20 bill, and pretty often in portrait form, placed over the home team's net in hockey rinks from coast to coast. Politically, Canada's status as a constitutional monarchy shapes a collective identity that prizes political moderation, consensus, and that strives for egalitarian values. But there was a time when Canada might have taken a republican turn. Between 1837 and 1867 – a period bracketed by rebellion and Confederation – a group of writers debated the virtues of American-style republican government versus British constitutional monarchy. In these discussions, American culture and political institutions were a dominant frame of reference. In Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination (Lexington, 2022), Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy employs three Anglophone authors – John Richardson, Susanna Moodie and Thomas Chandler Haliburton - as a lens that helps us to understand a period of possible political futures as states formed in the wake of revolution, and Canada defined itself in contrast to its southern neighbor. About the author: Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Global & Intercultural Studies at Miami University (Ohio). See also: “Canada has long feared the chaos of US Politics”, The Conversation (8 March 2022)  About the host: Charles Prior is Head of the School of Humanities and Reader in History at the University of Hull (UK). He co-leads the Treatied Spaces Research Group. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

We don't think of Canada as a republic. Even in its modern and vibrantly multi-cultural form, there is something monarchical about the place. The Queen appears on every coin, on the $20 bill, and pretty often in portrait form, placed over the home team's net in hockey rinks from coast to coast. Politically, Canada's status as a constitutional monarchy shapes a collective identity that prizes political moderation, consensus, and that strives for egalitarian values. But there was a time when Canada might have taken a republican turn. Between 1837 and 1867 – a period bracketed by rebellion and Confederation – a group of writers debated the virtues of American-style republican government versus British constitutional monarchy. In these discussions, American culture and political institutions were a dominant frame of reference. In Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination (Lexington, 2022), Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy employs three Anglophone authors – John Richardson, Susanna Moodie and Thomas Chandler Haliburton - as a lens that helps us to understand a period of possible political futures as states formed in the wake of revolution, and Canada defined itself in contrast to its southern neighbor. About the author: Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Global & Intercultural Studies at Miami University (Ohio). See also: “Canada has long feared the chaos of US Politics”, The Conversation (8 March 2022)  About the host: Charles Prior is Head of the School of Humanities and Reader in History at the University of Hull (UK). He co-leads the Treatied Spaces Research Group. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

We don't think of Canada as a republic. Even in its modern and vibrantly multi-cultural form, there is something monarchical about the place. The Queen appears on every coin, on the $20 bill, and pretty often in portrait form, placed over the home team's net in hockey rinks from coast to coast. Politically, Canada's status as a constitutional monarchy shapes a collective identity that prizes political moderation, consensus, and that strives for egalitarian values. But there was a time when Canada might have taken a republican turn. Between 1837 and 1867 – a period bracketed by rebellion and Confederation – a group of writers debated the virtues of American-style republican government versus British constitutional monarchy. In these discussions, American culture and political institutions were a dominant frame of reference. In Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination (Lexington, 2022), Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy employs three Anglophone authors – John Richardson, Susanna Moodie and Thomas Chandler Haliburton - as a lens that helps us to understand a period of possible political futures as states formed in the wake of revolution, and Canada defined itself in contrast to its southern neighbor. About the author: Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Global & Intercultural Studies at Miami University (Ohio). See also: “Canada has long feared the chaos of US Politics”, The Conversation (8 March 2022)  About the host: Charles Prior is Head of the School of Humanities and Reader in History at the University of Hull (UK). He co-leads the Treatied Spaces Research Group. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

We don't think of Canada as a republic. Even in its modern and vibrantly multi-cultural form, there is something monarchical about the place. The Queen appears on every coin, on the $20 bill, and pretty often in portrait form, placed over the home team's net in hockey rinks from coast to coast. Politically, Canada's status as a constitutional monarchy shapes a collective identity that prizes political moderation, consensus, and that strives for egalitarian values. But there was a time when Canada might have taken a republican turn. Between 1837 and 1867 – a period bracketed by rebellion and Confederation – a group of writers debated the virtues of American-style republican government versus British constitutional monarchy. In these discussions, American culture and political institutions were a dominant frame of reference. In Between Empire and Republic: America in the Colonial Canadian Imagination (Lexington, 2022), Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy employs three Anglophone authors – John Richardson, Susanna Moodie and Thomas Chandler Haliburton - as a lens that helps us to understand a period of possible political futures as states formed in the wake of revolution, and Canada defined itself in contrast to its southern neighbor. About the author: Oana Godeanu-Kenworthy is Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Global & Intercultural Studies at Miami University (Ohio). See also: “Canada has long feared the chaos of US Politics”, The Conversation (8 March 2022)  About the host: Charles Prior is Head of the School of Humanities and Reader in History at the University of Hull (UK). He co-leads the Treatied Spaces Research Group. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network