New Books in Science, Technology, and Society

The Science of Science: A Discussion with Aaron Clauset

26 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to this interview of Aaron Clauset, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder and in the BioFrontiers Institute. ...

Vincanne Adams, "Glyphosate and the Swirl: An Agroindustrial Chemical on the Move" (Duke UP, 2023)

25 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Vincanne Adams's book Glyphosate and the Swirl: An Agroindustrial Chemical on the Move (Duke UP, 2023) is part of a broader trend in anthropology th...

US History in 15 Foods: A Conversation with Anna Zeide

24 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Anna Zeide, Associate Professor of History at Virginia Tech, talks about her book, US History in 15 Foods (Bloomsbury, 2023), with Peoples & Things ...

Yi-Tang Lin, "Statistics and the Language of Global Health: Institutions and Experts in China, Taiwan, and the World, 1917-1960" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

21 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Yi-Tang Lin received her BA in sociology at National Taiwan University and MA in MA Interdisciplinary Practices of Humanities and Social Sciences, Éc...

Usha Raman and Sumana Kasturi, "Childscape, Mediascape: Children and Media in India" (Orient BlackSwan, 2023)

21 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Children are considered to be a group of special interest by media scholars and advocates, especially because they are seen as a vulnerable group whos...

Heidi Hausse, "The Malleable Body: Surgeons, Artisans, and Amputees in Early Modern Germany" (Manchester UP, 2023)

21 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Heide Hausse's book The Malleable Body: Surgeons, Artisans, and Amputees in Early Modern Germany (Manchester University Press, 2023) uses amputatio...

Aaron A. Reed, "50 Years of Text Games: From Oregon Trail to AI Dungeon" (2023)

19 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

50 Years of Text Games: From Oregon Trail to A.I. Dungeon is an extensively researched book chronicling the first half-century of interactive fiction...

Lin Zhang, "The Labor of Reinvention: Entrepreneurship in the Chinese Digital Economy" (Columbia UP, 2023)

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Hello, world! This is the Global Media & Communication podcast series. In this episode, our host Jing Wang discusses the book The Labor of Reinvent...

African American Women on the American Railroad: A Conversation with Miriam Thaggert

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Miriam Thaggert, Professor of English at the University of Buffalo, talks about her book, Riding Jane Crow: African American Women on the American Ra...

Juliet Schor, "After the Gig: How the Sharing Economy Got Hijacked and How to Win It Back" (U California Press, 2021)

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When the "sharing economy" launched a decade ago, proponents claimed that it would transform the experience of work--giving earners flexibility, auton...

Victoria Lee, "The Arts of the Microbial World: Fermentation Science in Twentieth-Century Japan" (U Chicago Press, 2021)

16 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Victoria Lee’s The Arts of the Microbial World: Fermentation Science in Twentieth-Century Japan (U Chicago Press, 2021) is an in-depth exploration...

Jenna Grant, "Fixing the Image: Ultrasound and the Visuality of Care in Phnom Penh" (U Washington Press, 2022)

15 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Jenna Grant is a cultural anthropologist from the University of Washington and author of Fixing the Image: Ultrasound and the Visuality of Care in Ph...

Janna Levin, "How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space" (Princeton UP, 2023)

15 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Is the universe infinite or just really big? With this question, cosmologist Janna Levin announces the central theme of this book, which established h...

Tom Mustill, "How to Speak Whale: A Voyage into the Future of Animal Communication" (Grand Central Publishing, 2022)

13 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What if animals and humans could speak to one another? Tom Mustill—the nature documentarian who went viral when a thirty‑ton humpback whale breach...

Randall Patnode, "The Synchronized Society: Time and Control From Broadcasting to the Internet" (Rutgers UP, 2023)

12 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Synchronized Society: Time and Control From Broadcasting to the Internet (Rutgers University Press, 2023) by Dr. Randall Patnode traces the histo...

Palo Alto: A Conversation with Malcolm Harris

10 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This is the second Peoples & Things episode featuring a guest host. In this case, it is M. R. “Mols” Sauter, an assistant professor of information...

Quinn Eastman, "The Woman Who Couldn't Wake Up: Hypersomnia and the Science of Sleepiness" (Columbia UP, 2023)

07 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sleep was taking over Anna's life. Despite multiple alarm clocks and powerful stimulants, the young Atlanta lawyer could sleep for thirty or even fift...

Simon N. Whitney, "From Oversight to Overkill: Inside the Broken System That Blocks Medical Breakthroughs--And How We Can Fix It" (Rivertowns Books, 2023)

04 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Medical research saves lives-yet all too often, it is thwarted by a review system supposed to safeguard patients that instead creates needless delays ...

The War on Learning: Gaining Ground in the Digital University

01 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Behind the lectern stands the professor, deploying course management systems, online quizzes, wireless clickers, PowerPoint slides, podcasts, and plag...

The Marketplace of Attention: How Audiences Take Shape in a Digital Age

30 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Feature films, television shows, homemade videos, tweets, blogs, and breaking news: digital media offer an always-accessible, apparently inexhaustible...

Mary Beltrán, "Latino TV: A History" (NYU Press, 2022)

29 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, our host Lucila Rozas discusses the book Latino TV: A History (2022) by Mary Beltrán. You’ll hear about: A brief trajectory ...

Helle Porsdam, "Science as a Cultural Human Right" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022)

28 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The human right to science, outlined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and repeated in the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, So...

Nicholas Dagen Bloom, "The Great American Transit Disaster: A Century of Austerity, Auto-Centric Planning, and White Flight" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

27 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Many a scholar and policy analyst has lamented American dependence on cars and the corresponding lack of federal investment in public transportation t...

The Singer Sewing Machine in Spain and Mexico: Multinational Business, Gender, and Technologies

26 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Historian Paula de la Cruz-Fernandez talks about her book, Gendered Capitalism: Sewing Machines and Multinational Business in Spain and Mexico, 1850-...

Josh Shepperd, "Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting" (U Illinois Press, 2023)

26 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Despite uncertain beginnings, public broadcasting emerged as a noncommercial media industry that transformed American culture. In Shadow of the New D...

Metadata

25 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When "metadata" became breaking news, appearing in stories about surveillance by the National Security Agency, many members of the public encountered ...

Brian Cummings, "Bibliophobia: The End and the Beginning of the Book" (Oxford UP, 2022)

25 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Bibliophobia: The End and the Beginning of the Book (Oxford UP, 2022) is a book about material books, how they are cared for, and how they are damage...

Tom Higham, "The World Before Us: The New Science Behind Our Human Origins" (Yale UP, 2021)

24 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Fifty thousand years ago, Homo sapiens was not the only species of humans in the world. There were also Neanderthals in what is now Europe, the Near...

Make it New: A History of Silicon Valley Design

24 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

California's Silicon Valley is home to the greatest concentration of designers in the world: corporate design offices at flagship technology companies...

Reading the Comments: Likers, Haters, and Manipulators at the Bottom of the Web

23 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Online comment can be informative or misleading, entertaining or maddening. Haters and manipulators often seem to monopolize the conversation. Some co...

Andrew Jones, "How Kant Matters for Biology: A Philosophical History" (U Wales Press, 2023)

23 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Kant denied biology the status of a proper science, yet his account of the organism profoundly influenced a range of intellectual disciplines.  Andre...

Works of Game: On the Aesthetics of Games and Art

22 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Games and art have intersected at least since the early twentieth century, as can be seen in the Surrealists' use of Exquisite Corpse and other games,...

James Hannam, "The Globe: How the Earth Became Round" (Reaktion Books, 2023)

22 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In The Globe: How the Earth Became Round (Reaktion, 2023), Dr. James Hannam presents a history of how we came to know that the earth is round, rathe...

Catherine Carstairs, "The Smile Gap: A History of Oral Health and Social Inequality" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2022)

22 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As recently as fifty years ago most people expected to lose their teeth as they aged. Few children benefited from braces to straighten their teeth, an...

Lars de Wildt, "The Pop Theology of Videogames: Producing and Playing with Religion" (Amsterdam UP, 2023)

22 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Young people in the West are more likely to encounter religion in videogames than in places of worship like churches, mosques or temples. Lars de Wild...

John L. Rudolph, "Why We Teach Science (and Why We Should)" (Oxford UP, 2023)

21 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today I talked to John L. Rudolph about his book Why We Teach Science (and Why We Should) (Oxford UP, 2023). Few people question the importance of ...

The Future of Venture Capitalists: A Discussion with Sebastian Mallaby

20 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

By providing capital to back the ideas and efforts of others, venture capitalists can make absurd amounts of money. But there is another way of lookin...

David A. Banks, "The City Authentic: How the Attention Economy Builds Urban America" (U California Press, 2023)

19 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The City Authentic: How the Attention Economy Builds Urban America (U California Press, 2023) is the first book to explore how our cities gentrify b...

The History of the American Shopping Mall and Its Cultures

19 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Writer and design critic Alexandra Lange talks about her book, Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Shopping Mall (Bloombury, 2023), w...

Benjamin Schultz-Figueroa, "The Celluloid Specimen: Moving Image Research into Animal Life" (U California Press, 2023)

18 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In The Celluloid Specimen: Moving Image Research into Animal Life (U of California Press, 2023), Benjamín Schultz‑Figueroa examines rarely seen b...

Chris Manias, "The Age of Mammals: Nature, Development, and Paleontology in the Long Nineteenth Century" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2023)

17 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When people today hear "paleontology," they immediately think of dinosaurs. But for much of the history of the discipline, dramatic demonstrations of ...

Brett Brehm, "Kaleidophonic Modernity: Transatlantic Sound, Technology, and Literature" (Fordham UP, 2023)

16 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What stories remain hidden behind one of the most significant inventions of the nineteenth century? Kaleidophonic Modernity: Transatlantic Sound, Tec...

Chris Impey, "Worlds Without End: Exoplanets, Habitability, and the Future of Humanity" (MIT Press, 2023)

16 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The science of finding habitable planets beyond our solar system and the prospects for establishing human civilization away from our ever-less-habitab...

The Electro-Library with Jared Green (EF, JP)

15 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Way back in 2019, Elizabeth and John were already thinking about collaboration. Here they speak with Jared Green and explore The Electro-Library, a...

Simon Sharpe, "Five Times Faster: Rethinking the Science, Economics, and Diplomacy of Climate Change" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

14 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We need to act five times faster to avoid dangerous climate change. As Greenland melts, Australia burns, and greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise...

Peter Baldwin, "Athena Unbound: Why and How Scholarly Knowledge Should Be Free for All" (MIT Press, 2023)

14 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A clear-eyed examination of the open access movement: past history, current conflicts, and future possibilities. Open access (OA) could one day put th...

Doctor Ex Machina: AI in Medicine and its Pitfalls

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Could an artificial intelligence diagnosis what ails you? Medical futurists offer a techno-utopian vision of perfect personalized risk assessments, di...

The Future of Politicized Narratives: A Discussion with Andreas Krieg

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The word "narrative" is now so frequently heard that some think it over used. Perhaps its ubiquity results from it being so relevant – what used to ...

J. P. Daughton, "In the Forest of No Joy: The Congo-Océan Railroad and the Tragedy of French Colonialism" (Norton, 2021)

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

J. P. Daughton's In the Forest of No Joy: The Congo-Océan Railroad and the Tragedy of French Colonialism (W. W. Norton, 2021) examines the complex...

Stephen G. Gross, "Energy and Power: Germany in the Age of Oil, Atoms, and Climate Change" (Oxford UP, 2023)

13 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Since the 1990s, Germany has embarked on a daring campaign to restructure its energy system around renewable power, sparking a global revolution in so...

Payal Arora et al., "Feminist Futures of Work: Reimagining Labour in the Digital Economy" (Amsterdam UP, 2023)

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The future of work is at the centre of debates related to the emerging digital society. Concerns range from the inclusion, equity, and dignity of thos...

Red Team Blues and the Social Dimensions of Technology

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is a first for the Peoples & Things podcast: it features a guest host. It is something you will be seeing more of in the future. Guest ho...

Zhouxiang Lu, "A History of Competitive Gaming" (Routledge, 2022)

12 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Competitive gaming, or esports - referring to competitive tournaments of video games among both casual gamers and professional players - began in the ...

Brendan Keogh, "The Videogame Industry Does Not Exist: Why We Should Think Beyond Commercial Game Production" (MIT Press, 2023)

11 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The videogame industry, we're invariably told, is a multibillion-dollar, high-tech business conducted by large corporations in certain North American,...

Drone: Remote Control Warfare

10 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Drone Warfare is the first comprehensive analysis of one of the fastest growing--and most secretive--fronts in global conflict: the rise of robot war...

Amanda L. Van Lanen, "The Washington Apple: Orchards and the Development of Industrial Agriculture" (U Oklahoma Press, 2022)

09 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the nineteenth century, most American farms had a small orchard or at least a few fruit-bearing trees. People grew their own apple trees or purchas...

Lawrence Freedman, "Command: The Politics of Military Operations from Korea to Ukraine" (Oxford UP, 2022)

08 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Command in war is about forging effective strategies and implementing them, making sure that orders are appropriate, well-communicated, and then obeye...

Athene Donald, "Not Just for the Boys: Why We Need More Women in Science" (Oxford UP, 2023)

07 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why are girls discouraged from doing science? Why do so many promising women leave science in early and mid-career? Why do women not prosper in the sc...

Amy Brady, "Ice: From Mixed Drinks to Skating Rinks--a Cool History of a Hot Commodity" (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2023)

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ice is everywhere: in gas stations, in restaurants, in hospitals, in our homes. Americans think nothing of dropping a few ice cubes into tall glasses ...

Erik J. Dahl, "The COVID-19 Intelligence Failure: Why Warning Was Not Enough" (Georgetown UP, 2023)

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Epidemiologists and national security agencies warned for years about the potential for a deadly pandemic, but in the end global surveillance and warn...

The History of 19th-Century Quarantine Politics: A Conversation with David S. Barnes

05 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

David S. Barnes, Associate Professor of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania, talks about his book, Lazaretto: How Phil...

Orit Halpern and Robert Mitchell, "The Smartness Mandate" (MIT Press, 2023)

04 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Over the last half century, "smartness"—the drive for ubiquitous computing—has become a mandate: a new mode of managing and governing politics, ec...

Jen Ross, "Digital Futures for Learning: Speculative Methods and Pedagogies" (Routledge, 2022)

04 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What is the future of education? In Digital Futures for Learning: Speculative Methods and Pedagogies (Routledge, 2022), Jen Ross, a senior lecturer...

Gender and Equality in Art and Exploration

03 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Featured episode from Between Art and Science, a new podcast from Leonardo. This episode, hosted by Erica Hruby, features a conversation between two a...

Elizabeth Reddy, "¡Alerta!: Engineering on Shaky Ground" (MIT Press, 2023)

02 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Sistema de Alerta Sísmica Mexicano is the world’s oldest public earthquake early warning system. Given the unpredictability of earthquakes, the...

Amber Knight and Joshua Miller, "Prenatal Genetic Testing, Abortion, and Disability Justice" (Oxford UP, 2023)

01 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The routinization of non-invasive prenatal genetic testing (NIPT) raises urgent questions about disability rights and reproductive justice. Supporters...

Orly Lobel, "The Equality Machine: Harnessing Digital Technology for a Brighter, More Inclusive Future" (PublicAffairs, 2022)

31 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The fear of algorithmic decision-making and surveillance capitalism dominate today's tech policy discussions. But instead of simply criticizing big da...

Tatiana Carayannis and Thomas G. Weiss, "The 'Third' United Nations: How a Knowledge Ecology Helps the UN Think" (Oxford UP, 2021)

31 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tatiana Carayannis and Thomas G. Weiss' book The "Third" United Nations: How a Knowledge Ecology Helps the UN Think (Oxford UP, 2021) is about the T...

John D. Aber, "Less Heat, More Light: A Guided Tour of Weather, Climate, and Climate Change" (Yale UP, 2023)

29 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Climate change is one of the most hotly contested environmental topics of our day. To answer criticisms and synthesize available information, scientis...

Jaime Green, "The Possibility of Life: Science, Imagination and Our Vision of the Cosmos" (Hanover Square Press, 2023)

29 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode we talk to Jaime Green about her superb cultural and scientific exploration of alien life and the cosmos. It examines how the poss...

Lawrence H. White, "Better Money: Gold, Fiat, or Bitcoin?" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

28 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The recent rise of dollar, pound, and euro inflation rates has rekindled the debate over potential alternative monies, particularly gold and Bitcoin. ...

Kenneth Mondschein, "On Time: A History of Western Timekeeping" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2020)

26 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Western culture has been obsessed with regulating society by the precise, accurate measurement of time since the Middle Ages. In On Time: A History o...

Amanda Parrish Morgan, "Stroller" (Bloomsbury, 2022)

24 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Among the many things expectant parents are told to buy, none is a more visible symbol of status and parenting philosophy than a stroller. Although it...

Party

24 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sheila Liming talks about the party, social gatherings that occasion joy and dread and various emotions in between. The party is both a pause and an a...

After the Pill: A Conversation with Mary Eberstadt

23 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The pill has rocked our society to its core: but have we fully examined all its repercussions? Influential author and essayist Mary Eberstadt thinks w...

Natalie Koch, "Arid Empire: The Entangled Fates of Arizona and Arabia" (Verso, 2023)

22 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The iconic deserts of the American southwest could not have been colonized and settled without the help of desert experts from the Middle East. For ex...

Stefan Lorenz Sorgner, "We Have Always Been Cyborgs: Digital Data, Gene Technologies, and an Ethics of Transhumanism" (Bristol UP, 2023)

21 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The concept of transhumanism emerged in the middle of the 20th century, and has influenced discussions around AI, brain–computer interfaces, genetic...

James Poskett, "Horizons: The Global Origins of Modern Science" (Mariner Books, 2022)

21 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Horizons: A Global History of Science (Mariner Books, 2022), James Poskett, Associate Professor in the History of Science and Technology at the U...

Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, "Split and Splice: A Phenomenology of Experimentation" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

20 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In Split & Splice: A Phenomenology of Experimentation (University of Chicago Press, 2023), Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, director emeritus at the Max Plan...

The Future of the Human Heart: A Discussion with Vincent M. Figueredo

19 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Long considered the most important of all organs, the human heart has fascinated artists and scientists alike. Listen to cardiologist Vincent Figuered...

America & Democracy Ep. 4: George Zarkadakis on Digital Liberalism

19 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Around the world, liberal democracies are in crisis. Citizens have lost faith in their government; right-wing nationalist movements frame the politica...

Meredith Broussard, "More than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech" (MIT Press, 2023)

18 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The word "glitch" implies an incidental error, as easy to patch up as it is to identify. But what if racism, sexism, and ableism aren't just bugs in m...

America & Democracy Ep. 2: Jonathan M. Berman on Anti-Vaxxers

18 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this series of interviews from The MIT Press Podcast, we'll be drawing on the research of various authors to reflect on some of the issues shaping...

Misinformed: The Covid Lab Leak Theory and the Politics of Misinformation

17 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The COVID-19 lab leak theory went from being dismissed as mere misinformation, to now a credible matter of debate amongst media, scientific, and intel...

Michelle R. Warren, "Holy Digital Grail: A Medieval Book on the Internet" (Stanford UP, 2022)

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Medieval books that survive today have been through a lot: singed by fire, mottled by mold, eaten by insects, annotated by readers, cut into fragments...

Sarah Atkinson and Helen W. Kennedy, "Secret Cinema and the Immersive Experience Industry" (Manchester UP, 2022)

13 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What is the future of media? In Secret Cinema and the Immersive Experience Industry (Manchester UP, 2022), Sarah Atkinson, a Professor of Screen Me...

Anne Kaun and Fredrik Stiernstedt, "Prison Media: Incarceration and the Infrastructures of Work and Technology" (MIT Press, 2023)

13 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Prisons are not typically known for cutting-edge media technologies. Yet from photography in the nineteenth century to AI-enhanced tracking cameras to...

Pharmacological Histories Ep. 1: Nancy D. Campbell on Naloxone

12 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Drawing on interviews with approximately sixty advocates, drug users, former users, friends, families, witnesses, clinicians, and scientists; Nancy D....

Mark Carrigan and Lambros Fatsis, "The Public and Their Platforms: Public Sociology in an Era of Social Media" (Bristol UP, 2021)

12 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As social media is increasingly becoming a standard feature of sociological practice, this timely book The Public and Their Platforms: Public Sociolo...

The Politicization of Science: A Conversation with Dorian Abbot, Anna Krylov, David Romps, and Bernhardt Trout

11 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How are hiring and admissions decisions made in the hard sciences if not by merit? What are the risks of allowing science to be politicized? Professor...

Karen Schrier, "We the Gamers: How Games Teach Ethics and Civics" (Oxford UP, 2021)

11 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Ethics and civics have always mattered, but perhaps they matter now more than ever before. Recently, with the rise of online teaching and movements li...

Hasok Chang, "Realism for Realistic People: A New Pragmatist Philosophy of Science (Cambridge UP, 2022)

10 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For a certain kind of standard realist, science aims at getting the absolute truth about the universe. For Hasok Chang, this view is unrealistic becau...

Michael Brown, "Emotions and Surgery in Britain, 1793-1912" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

10 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this innovative analytical account of the place of emotion and embodiment in nineteenth-century British surgery, Michael Brown examines the changin...

Henry Grabar, "Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World" (Penguin, 2023)

09 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Parking, quite literally, has a death grip on America: each year a handful of Americans are tragically killed by their fellow citizens over parking sp...

Nina Hall, "Transnational Advocacy in the Digital Era: Think Global, Act Local" (Oxford UP, 2022)

08 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Transnational Advocacy in the Digital Era (Oxford UP, 2022) explores the role of digital advocacy organizations, a major new addition to the interna...

Barbara Penner et al., "Extinct: A Compendium of Obsolete Objects" (Reaktion Books, 2021)

08 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

So-called extinct objects are those that were imagined but were never in use, or that existed but are now unused—superseded, unfashionable, or simpl...

Jason C. Cash and Craig T. Olsen, "The World of Final Fantasy VII: Essays on the Game and Its Legacy" (McFarland, 2023)

07 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Final Fantasy VII altered the course of video game history when it was released in 1997 on Sony's PlayStation system. It converted the Japanese role-p...

Sarrah Kassem, "Work and Alienation in the Platform Economy: Amazon and the Power of Organization" (Bristol UP, 2023)

06 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How have platforms transforming the world of work? In Work and Alienation in the Platform Economy: Amazon and the Power of Organisation (Bristol UP,...

Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson, "Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity" (PublicAffairs, 2023)

05 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity (PublicAffairs, 2023) is a groundbreaking work by bestselling authors ...

Eva Haifa Giraud, "What Comes After Entanglement?: Activism, Anthropocentrism, and an Ethics of Exclusion" (Duke UP, 2019)

05 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

By foregrounding the ways that human existence is bound together with the lives of other entities, contemporary cultural theorists have sought to move...