New Books Network

Faith, Family, and Flag: Branson Entertainment and the Idea of America (University of Chicago Press, 2025) examines the history of Branson, Missouri’s entertainment industry within the context of America’s culture wars. The book explores how Branson became a major center for live performance rooted in patriotism, Christianity, and family centered values, attracting millions of visitors each year. Professor Joanna Dee Das shows how Branson represents more than lighthearted entertainment. Through its music, shows, humor, and tourism industry, the city offers audiences a vision of the American Dream centered on the “three Fs” — faith, family, and flag. While supporters view these values as universal and deeply American, critics often associate them with modern political conservatism. The book explores how Branson became a powerful cultural and political symbol in debates about national identity, religion, class, entertainment, and American values.

Key Ideas:

The book explores how faith, patriotism, and family centered entertainment shaped Branson’s popularity of more than just an entertainment town.

Reflects how entertainment can reflect deeper cultural and political beliefs within society.

Examines tensions between urban and rural America and how different groups viewed Branson.

Critics sometimes viewed Branson as politically conservative, while supporters viewed it as authentic, nostalgic, patriotic, and values driven.

The book highlights how entertainment, comedy, and audience experiences create emotional connection and community, much like social media culture today.

One of the most interesting ideas from the discussion was that
entertainment is never just entertainment. The music, performances,
humor, patriotism, and storytelling found in places like Branson can
reveal what people value, fear, believe, and hope for as a country. The conversation also highlighted how audiences often seek spaces where they feel emotionally connected, culturally understood, and spiritually grounded. Branson became one of those places for many Americans. 

Joanna Dee Das is associate professor of performing arts at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the author of the award-winning book Katherine Dunham: Dance and the African Diaspora.

Angela Marie Hutchinson is the author of “Create Your Yes! When You
Keep Hearing No,” named a Forbes No. 4 book to advance your career. She is a podcast host for New Books Network, where she leads conversations for the neuroscience and Christianity channels. Hutchinson is also a talent and intellectual property executive, former social media professor and BBC commentator. She resides in Los Angeles with her husband and three children.
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How did black suits become so ubiquitous? Why has men's business clothing been so plain for the last 250 years? How did a style adopted by the Founding Fathers to differentiate themselves from European contemporaries become the dominant style for men around the globe?

Suitable: The Sartorial Revolution and the Fashioning of Modern Men (Oxford University Press, 2026) traces the shift from the colorful, flamboyant attire of the eighteenth century to the plain dark suit of the nineteenth century, characterizing this style evolution as a "Sartorial Revolution." In this book, American historian and costume designer Chloe Chapin traces the evolution of masculine style from the American Revolution through the Civil War and shows how men's suits shaped relationships of gender and power. Drawing on a wealth of visual and written sources, she shows how the plainness of suits symbolized new ideals of rationality and democracy and played a crucial role in framing the lasting identity and authority of American men. This richly illustrated book analyzes fashion history's impact on gender dynamics and emphasizes the dynamic relationships between bodies, clothing, and personal identity.

Suitable demonstrates the significance of fashion beyond mere appearance, illustrating the key role modern men's suits have played in shaping the modern world.

Chloe Chapin holds a PhD in American Studies from Harvard University and master's degrees in fashion and textile studies from the Fashion Institute of Technology and costume design from the Yale School of Drama. She has taught fashion history, costume design, gender studies, and anthropology. As a costume designer for over twenty years, her credits include Broadway musicals, opera, and Shakespeare. She works at Harvard University and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Caleb Zakarin is CEO and Publisher of the New Books Network.
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Regenerative design is a way of building that heals our planet and
our communities by halting biodiversity loss, reversing climate change, and improving social equity. Over the last decade, the nonprofit design practice MASS has proven that we can yield positive social, environmental, and economic results through a series of projects in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Seeking Abundance: Design, Ecology and a Flourishing Planet (Axio, 2026) argues for reducing the harm our building activities wage in our environments and that we can—and must—help people and the planet thrive together. The proof? MASS's projects represent a coherent and replicable philosophy that responds to local ecologies and transforms lives. This groundbreaking new book, co-edited by Sierra Bainbridge and Alan Ricks, examines how the power of multidisciplinary collaboration, regenerative practices, and community engagement can actively contribute to a healthier, more harmonious world.

The evidence of these works can be found in three case studies, focusing on The Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture, The Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, and The Ilima Primary School.
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In this episode, we are delighted to be joined by educator and researcher Associate Professor Remy Low to explore what cultural competence and culturally responsive teaching looks like in the classroom. He is committed to furthering culturally responsive education across schools, higher education, arts and cultural institutions, as well as community organisations. As a previous high school teacher, now published academic and lecturer, Remy chats to us about what “good teaching” is, and that cultural competence in the classroom is grounded in self-awareness, care, and responsiveness.

This episode is hosted by Dr. Pooja Mittal Biswas. Pooja Mittal Biswas is an Academic Facilitator at the National Centre for Cultural Competence and an award-winning educator and author. She is the author of ten books of fiction, poetry and non-fiction. Her ninth book, Hunger and Predation (Cordite Books, 2023) was shortlisted for the 2024 NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and her tenth book, The Maker of Garlands, was published by Vagabond Press in 2024.

Produced by: Adubi Plange, Dr Amy McHugh, Sarah Mashman

Podcast Artwork: Zein Arif

Resources

You can learn more about Associate Professor Remy Lowe through his University of Sydney Academic Research Profile.

Below are some of Remy’s works discussed in this episode of the Cultural Competence Collective:


Book: Low, R. (2021). The Mind and Teachers in the Classroom: Exploring Definitions of Mindfulness. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.


Book: Low, R. (2023). Learning to stop: mindfulness meditation as anti-violence pedagogy. Online: Palgrave Macmillan/Springer.


Edited Books: Low, R., Egan, S., Bell, A. (2024). Using social theory in higher education. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan

Mental Health Support Services:

For University of Sydney staff: CONVERGE

Converge offers multiple dedicated helplines for specialist services:

All staff: 1300 687 327

First Nations helpline: 1300 287 432

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Youth and Student Helpline: 1300 687 399

Spiritual and Pastoral Care Helpline: 1300 772 435

www.convergeinternational.com.au

Wellmob – social, emotional and cultural wellbeing resources for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

https://wellmob.org.au/

24-hour crisis hotlines

13 Yarn

Beyond Blue

LifeLine:

NSW Mental Health Line

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In 1806, when Meriwether Lewis and William Clark return from their
journey—having led the Corps of Discovery across eight thousand miles of rapids, mountains, forests, and ravines—they bring an incredible tale starring themselves as courageous explorers, skilled survivalists, underrated scientists, and peaceful ambassadors. While there is truth in those descriptions, there is also distortion.

From one of the most exciting new historians to emerge in the past decade, This Vast Enterprise: A New History of Lewis & Clark (Simon & Schuster, 2026) offers a novel take on the expedition: a gripping narrative that draws on lost documents, stunning analysis, and Native perspectives. Craig Fehrman spent five years visiting more than thirty archives, interviewing more than a hundred sources, and collecting oral history passed down over centuries. He came to see that the success of Lewis and Clark depended on much more than just Lewis and Clark. We all know Sacajawea, and some of us know York, the Black man Clark enslaved. But here we meet John Ordway, a working-class soldier who fought grizzlies and towed the captains’ hulking barge. We hear from Wolf Calf, a Blackfoot teenager
who watched his friend die in a battle with Lewis and his men.

Each chapter moves to a different person’s point of view, describing
their desires and contradictions. We see Thomas Jefferson operating in an age of bitter partisan unrest—his secret political maneuvers to fund the expedition, revealed here for the first time, are a case study in presidential power. We witness the strategy and strength of Black
Buffalo, completely upending our understanding of Lakota-American
diplomacy. York, in his chapters, finds ways to wield power and make
choices in an era that didn’t allow him much of either. Clark is not a
folksy Kentuckian but a student of the Enlightenment. (Fehrman
discovered his college notebook; no previous biographer even realized that he went to college.) Lewis is someone willing to sacrifice everything for his country and his mentor, Jefferson.

In the end, the captains are men who needed help—from Sacajawea, from the Corps, and from each other. Mile after mile, the expedition pushes on through hailstorms and flash floods, frostbite and infections, rattlesnakes and rabid wolves, with the Spanish cavalry in fierce pursuit. Fehrman balances the story’s adventure with the humanity of its protagonists. The result is a thrilling reminder that even the most familiar moments in history can still surprise us.

Craig Fehrman is a journalist and historian. He lives in Indiana with his wife and children.

Raymond Williams, PhD is a political scientist, blogger, and book
club administrator with an interest in American History and Politics.
You can find Raymond on Instagram, Threads, and Twitter at @rtwilliams16
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