46 books like Shadow of the New Deal

By Josh Shepperd,

Here are 46 books that Shadow of the New Deal fans have personally recommended if you like Shadow of the New Deal. Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms

Asheesh Siddique Author Of The Archive of Empire: Knowledge, Conquest, and the Making of the Early Modern British World

From my list on understand the history of data.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been fascinated by information technology since I was a child–whether in the form of books, libraries, computers, or cell phones! Living through a massive expansion in the volume of data, I believe it is essential to study the long history of information to make sense of our current data-driven times–which is why I became a historian of data, which I teach and write about full time. Here are some of the most informative and insightful books that have helped me make sense of our issues, ranging from information overload and artificial intelligence to privacy and data justice.

Asheesh's book list on understand the history of data

Asheesh Siddique Why did Asheesh love this book?

Finding yourself overwhelmed, confused, or just plain curious about artificial intelligence?

Then this is the book for you! Wiggins and Jones provide a lucid, comprehensive overview of how we arrived at our current data-saturated times and how artificial intelligence emerged from the political climate of the Cold War as one attempt in a longer history of the ties between political power and information.

I found myself constantly surprised and enlightened by the history of data sketched out by Wiggins and Jones!

By Chris Wiggins, Matthew L. Jones,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked How Data Happened as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From facial recognition-capable of checking us onto flights or identifying undocumented residents-to automated decision systems that inform everything from who gets loans to who receives bail, each of us moves through a world determined by data-empowered algorithms. But these technologies didn't just appear: they are part of a history that goes back centuries, from the birth of eugenics in Victorian Britain to the development of Google search.

Expanding on the popular course they created at Columbia University, Chris Wiggins and Matthew Jones illuminate the ways in which data has long been used as a tool and a weapon in arguing…


Book cover of The Information Master: Jean-Baptiste Colbert's Secret State Intelligence System

Asheesh Siddique Author Of The Archive of Empire: Knowledge, Conquest, and the Making of the Early Modern British World

From my list on understand the history of data.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been fascinated by information technology since I was a child–whether in the form of books, libraries, computers, or cell phones! Living through a massive expansion in the volume of data, I believe it is essential to study the long history of information to make sense of our current data-driven times–which is why I became a historian of data, which I teach and write about full time. Here are some of the most informative and insightful books that have helped me make sense of our issues, ranging from information overload and artificial intelligence to privacy and data justice.

Asheesh's book list on understand the history of data

Asheesh Siddique Why did Asheesh love this book?

How and why do states keep secrets? Soll provides powerful and, at times, surprising answers to this question by turning to the absolutist governments of early modern Europe, and specifically the administrator Jean-Baptiste Colbert.

As the key minister of state under King Louis XIV, Colbert built a powerful system of information collection and control that, in many ways, anticipated the modern national security state. If you want to make sense of government collection of data and state secrecy today, Soll’s book is a must-read.

By Jacob Soll,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Information Master as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Jean-Baptiste Colbert saw governance of the state not as the inherent ability of the king, but as a form of mechanical mastery of subjects such as medieval legal history, physics, navigation, and the price lists of nails, sails, and gunpowder. In The Information Master, Jacob Soll shows how the legacy of Colbert's encyclopedic tradition lies at the very center of the rise of the modern state.

This innovative book argues that Colbert's practice of collecting knowledge originated in Renaissance Italy, where merchants recognized the power to be gained from merging scholarship and trade. By connecting historical literatures-archives, libraries, merchant techniques,…


Book cover of The Specter of the Archive: Political Practice and the Information State in Early Modern Britain

Asheesh Siddique Author Of The Archive of Empire: Knowledge, Conquest, and the Making of the Early Modern British World

From my list on understand the history of data.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been fascinated by information technology since I was a child–whether in the form of books, libraries, computers, or cell phones! Living through a massive expansion in the volume of data, I believe it is essential to study the long history of information to make sense of our current data-driven times–which is why I became a historian of data, which I teach and write about full time. Here are some of the most informative and insightful books that have helped me make sense of our issues, ranging from information overload and artificial intelligence to privacy and data justice.

Asheesh's book list on understand the history of data

Asheesh Siddique Why did Asheesh love this book?

Today, archives are places where we go to research and learn about the past. But as Popper’s fascinating book shows, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, governments used archives like we use computers and databases today as facilities for storing information they considered immediately relevant to solving political problems.

Just like we use computers today, governments mobilized archives to collect, organize, and redeploy information to advance their specific policy objectives. While the early modern world might seem quite distant from our own, Popper shows us that the problem of using information to exert political power is a very old one.  

By Nicholas Popper,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Specter of the Archive as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An exploration of the proliferation of paper in early modern Britain and its far-reaching effects on politics and society.

We are used to thinking of ourselves as living in a time when more information is more available than ever before. In The Specter of the Archive, Nicholas Popper shows that earlier eras had to grapple with the same problem-how to deal with too much information at their fingertips.

He reveals that early modern Britain was a society newly drowning in paper, a light and durable technology whose spread allowed statesmen to record drafts, memoranda, and other ephemera that might otherwise…


Book cover of Age of Emergency: Living with Violence at the End of the British Empire

Asheesh Siddique Author Of The Archive of Empire: Knowledge, Conquest, and the Making of the Early Modern British World

From my list on understand the history of data.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been fascinated by information technology since I was a child–whether in the form of books, libraries, computers, or cell phones! Living through a massive expansion in the volume of data, I believe it is essential to study the long history of information to make sense of our current data-driven times–which is why I became a historian of data, which I teach and write about full time. Here are some of the most informative and insightful books that have helped me make sense of our issues, ranging from information overload and artificial intelligence to privacy and data justice.

Asheesh's book list on understand the history of data

Asheesh Siddique Why did Asheesh love this book?

How do citizens learn to accept violence perpetuated by their own governments? Answering this profoundly relevant and timely question lies at the heart of Linstrum’s book–and data lies at the crux of the answer. He shows how, despite massive amounts of data about colonial violence circulating in postwar Britain, British people found ways to accommodate and justify that violence.

This book is a sobering challenge to the belief that better information produces better and more empathetic societies, showing that the connection between knowledge and enlightened behavior is not nearly as straightforward as we may want to believe. 

By Erik Linstrum,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Age of Emergency as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An eye-opening account of how violence was experienced not just on the frontlines of colonial terror but at home in imperial Britain.

When uprisings against colonial rule broke out across the world after 1945, Britain responded with overwhelming and brutal force. Although this period has conventionally been dubbed "postwar," it was punctuated by a succession of hard-fought, long-running conflicts that were geographically diffuse, morally ambiguous, and impervious to neat endings or declarations of victory. Ruthless counterinsurgencies in Malaya, Kenya, and Cyprus rippled through British society, molding a home front defined not by the mass mobilization of resources, but by sentiments…


Book cover of Made Possible By...: The Death of Public Broadcasting in the United States

Lisa Napoli Author Of Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR

From my list on National Public Radio and how it all works.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a career journalist who has worked in print, online, on the radio and on television, I’ve long been intrigued by the influence of mass media and the vast technological changes in how information is transmitted that have occurred over the course of my career. Burnt out from the daily deadlines and transformed by a chance to work in the Kingdom of Bhutan, I began writing books and gravitate toward the “origin stories” of influential US entities.

Lisa's book list on National Public Radio and how it all works

Lisa Napoli Why did Lisa love this book?

For a critical look at the financial structure of public broadcasting and its intricacies as and after it became a powerhouse, Ledbetter's book can't be beat. I just wish he'd update it! Few people understand how public radio in particular is financed. Having written a book about the great philanthropist Joan Kroc and her landmark gift to NPR when she died, I found this book particularly illuminating. Anyone who gives to the pledge drives should read this.

By James Ledbetter,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Made Possible By... as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Made Possible By...is an engrossing history of public broadcasting, from its initial idealist attempt to reshape the vast wasteland of television, to its current lamentable state - safe, consistently mediocre, and as dependent on corporate financing as its commercial counterparts.


Book cover of NPR: The Trials and Triumphs of National Public Radio

Lisa Napoli Author Of Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR

From my list on National Public Radio and how it all works.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a career journalist who has worked in print, online, on the radio and on television, I’ve long been intrigued by the influence of mass media and the vast technological changes in how information is transmitted that have occurred over the course of my career. Burnt out from the daily deadlines and transformed by a chance to work in the Kingdom of Bhutan, I began writing books and gravitate toward the “origin stories” of influential US entities.

Lisa's book list on National Public Radio and how it all works

Lisa Napoli Why did Lisa love this book?

Millions of people love and tune in to public radio every day. But how many people understand how public radio works, or how it got to where it is today? When it was first chartered in 1970, it wasn't clear NPR would work-or exactly how. For years, it struggled to find an audience—in part because of the technological limitations of the network and the emerging FM medium. McCauley interviewed early luminaries in public radio to construct this terrific look at its early years.

By Michael McCauley,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked NPR as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The people who shaped America's public broadcasting system thought it should be "a civilized voice in a civilized community"-a clear alternative to commercial broadcasting. This book tells the story of how NPR has tried to embody this idea. Michael P. McCauley describes NPR's evolution from virtual obscurity in the early 1970s, when it was riddled with difficulties-political battles, unseasoned leadership, funding problems-to a first-rate broadcast organization. The book draws on a wealth of primary evidence, including fifty-seven interviews with people who have been central to the NPR story, and it places the network within the historical context of the wider…


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Book cover of Talk: NPR's Susan Stamberg Considers All Things

Lisa Napoli Author Of Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR

From my list on National Public Radio and how it all works.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a career journalist who has worked in print, online, on the radio and on television, I’ve long been intrigued by the influence of mass media and the vast technological changes in how information is transmitted that have occurred over the course of my career. Burnt out from the daily deadlines and transformed by a chance to work in the Kingdom of Bhutan, I began writing books and gravitate toward the “origin stories” of influential US entities.

Lisa's book list on National Public Radio and how it all works

Lisa Napoli Why did Lisa love this book?

Stamberg is a pioneer broadcaster, whom Mitchell appointed to host a nightly newscast and as someone who worked in public radio back when it was called "educational broadcasting." Read this book of annotated transcripts of some of her best interviews and see why she got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for putting public radio on the proverbial map. Bonus: Linda Wertheimer's Listening to America, derived from her years as host of ATC, and long-time Morning Edition host Bob Edwards’ memoir, A Life in the Box.

By Susan Stamberg,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Talk as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.


Book cover of Listener Supported: The Culture and History of Public Radio

Lisa Napoli Author Of Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR

From my list on National Public Radio and how it all works.

Why am I passionate about this?

As a career journalist who has worked in print, online, on the radio and on television, I’ve long been intrigued by the influence of mass media and the vast technological changes in how information is transmitted that have occurred over the course of my career. Burnt out from the daily deadlines and transformed by a chance to work in the Kingdom of Bhutan, I began writing books and gravitate toward the “origin stories” of influential US entities.

Lisa's book list on National Public Radio and how it all works

Lisa Napoli Why did Lisa love this book?

Mitchell was the first person hired by NPR when it was first charted in 1970. He was appointed its first producer after the first initial, scattered year of production of its first news program, All Things Considered, which debuted in May, 1971. This is an excellent survey of the early years from the perch of a behind-the-scenes insider and offers to clues about how the network developed.

By Jack W. Mitchell,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Listener Supported as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Public radio stands as a valued national institution, one whose fans and listeners actively support it with their time and their money. In this new history of this important aspect of American culture, author Jack W. Mitchell looks at the dreams that inspired those who created it, the all-too- human realities that grew out of those dreams, and the criticism they incurred from both sides of the political spectrum. As National Public Radio's very first employee, and the first producer of its legendary All Things Considered, Mitchell tells the story of public radio from the point of view of an…


Book cover of Radio Girls

Raven West Author Of Red Wine for Breakfast

From my list on strong women who succeed in a male-dominated world.

Why am I passionate about this?

In my freshman year at the University of Missouri-Columbia I started out as a journalism major. I joined Sigma Kappa where I met my “sister” Anne who worked at KBIA. I worked with her the rest of that year. Back home in Ellenville, NY, I convinced the station manager to hire me. I was the very first female radio announcer and engineer to work at the station. When my best friend was killed in a tragic accident, I needed to heal my loss by using the only method I knew would help; writing. Combining my experiences and passion for radio I wrote Red Wine for Breakfast to honor her memory.

Raven's book list on strong women who succeed in a male-dominated world

Raven West Why did Raven love this book?

Stories about women in radio are few and I was thrilled to find Radio Girls. Although it’s fiction, there is a real sense that the author did their research combining fact with fiction in the very early days of the BBC. In 1926, American-born Maisie Musgrave meets the challenges of rising from a secretary in a predominated male industry to become an unexpected heroine at a time when very few women were given the chance.  

By Sarah-Jane Stratford,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Radio Girls as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Great War is over, and change is in the air, in this novel that brings to life the exciting days of early British radio…and one woman who finds her voice while working alongside the brilliant women and men of the BBC.
 
London, 1926. American-raised Maisie Musgrave is thrilled to land a job as a secretary at the upstart British Broadcasting Corporation, whose use of radio—still new, strange, and electrifying—is captivating the nation. But the hectic pace, smart young staff, and intimidating bosses only add to Maisie’s insecurity.
 
Soon, she is seduced by the work—gaining confidence as she arranges broadcasts…


Book cover of Groucho Marx, Master Detective

Michael Bradley Author Of Dead Air: A Novel of Suspense

From my list on first in a suspense or mystery series.

Why am I passionate about this?

I fell in love with the mystery genre at a young age, starting with Donald J. Sobol's Encyclopedia Brown series. It didn't take long to graduate to the likes of Sherlock Holmes, particularly once PBS began broadcasting the series with Jeremy Brett in the titular role. Over the years, my passion for mystery and suspense stories has branched out into numerous sub-genres and a variety of classics from such superb authors like Agatha Christie, Leslie Charteris, P. D. James, and Charles Todd. As much as I enjoy individual mystery and suspense novels, I enjoy even more a series with a cast of characters that I can follow from book to book. 

Michael's book list on first in a suspense or mystery series

Michael Bradley Why did Michael love this book?

I've been a huge fan of the Marx Brothers for many years. So, when I found a book that featured Groucho Marx as an amateur detective, I jumped on it. This, the first in a six-book series, is a treat to anyone who is a fan of the golden age of Hollywood. It is a cavalcade of famous names from the era of black and white films. Goulart does a tremendous job balancing a mysterious plotline with the lighthearted fun that you'd expect from a novel featuring Groucho Marx. And I'm happy to report that Goulart captures the essence of Groucho perfectly. The book, as well as the series, is a terrific tribute to one of Hollywood comedy geniuses. And it's a damn good mystery as well.

By Ron Goulart,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Groucho Marx, Master Detective as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

To stay busy between movies, Groucho Marx agrees to act in a radio serial, but before the first episode can even be aired, his beautiful co-star is found dead, and he becomes determined to find her killer.


Book cover of How Data Happened: A History from the Age of Reason to the Age of Algorithms
Book cover of The Information Master: Jean-Baptiste Colbert's Secret State Intelligence System
Book cover of The Specter of the Archive: Political Practice and the Information State in Early Modern Britain

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