Princeton UP Ideas Podcast
Episodes
John Stillwell, "The Story of Proof: Logic and the History of Mathematics" (Princeton UP, 2022)
31 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Story of Proof: Logic and the History of Mathematics (Princeton UP, 2022) investigates the evolution of the concept of proof--one of the most sig...
Money or Meaning? A Discussion on Choice and Restlessness with Ben and Jenna Storey
25 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What kinds of tools do we need to make big decisions, and why aren't our universities training us to make them? Are universities doing students a diss...
Leslie A. Geddes, "Watermarks: Leonardo Da Vinci and the Mastery of Nature" (Princeton UP, 2020)
17 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Formless, mutable, transparent: the element of water posed major challenges for the visual artists of the Renaissance. To the engineers of the era, wa...
Kimberly Kay Hoang, "Spiderweb Capitalism: How Global Elites Exploit Frontier Markets" (Princeton UP, 2022)
17 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 2015, the anonymous leak of the Panama Papers brought to light millions of financial and legal documents exposing how the superrich hide their mone...
M. D. Usher, ed. "How to Say No: An Ancient Guide to the Art of Cynicism" (Princeton UP, 2022)
14 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Cynics were ancient Greek philosophers who stood athwart the flood of society's material excess, unexamined conventions, and even norms of politen...
Jenny C. Mann, "The Trials of Orpheus: Poetry, Science, and the Early Modern Sublime" (Princeton UP, 2021)
03 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s guest is Jenny Mann, who has a new book titled The Trials of Orpheus: Poetry, Science, and the Early Modern Sublime (Princeton University ...
Christopher Goscha, "The Road to Dien Bien Phu: A History of the First War for Vietnam" (Princeton UP, 2022)
03 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Vietnamese victory over the French forces at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, which ended almost a century of French colonial rule in Indochina, is one of t...
Peter J. Kalliney, "The Aesthetic Cold War: Decolonization and Global Literature" (Princeton UP, 2022)
26 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How did superpower competition and the cold war affect writers in the decolonizing world? In The Aesthetic Cold War: Decolonization and Global Litera...
James Belich, "The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe" (Princeton UP, 2022)
23 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1346, a catastrophic plague beset Europe and its neighbours. The Black Death was a human tragedy that abruptly halved entire populations and caused...
Olivier Zunz, "The Man Who Understood Democracy: The Life of Alexis de Tocqueville" (Princeton UP, 2022)
21 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In 1831, at the age of twenty-five, Alexis de Tocqueville made his fateful journey to America, where he observed the thrilling reality of a functionin...
John Peter DiIulio, "Completely Free: The Moral and Political Vision of John Stuart Mill" (Princeton UP, 2022)
21 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As we emerge from a period of government-mandated lockdowns and as threats to free speech multiply, we would be wise to re-engage with the work of a s...
Karen Hunger Parshall, "The New Era in American Mathematics, 1920–1950" (Princeton UP, 2022)
12 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In The New Era in Mathematics, 1920-1950 (Princeton University Press, 2022) Karen Parshall explores the institutional, financial, social, and politi...
The Future of the Jesuits: A Discussion with Markus Friedrich
06 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After its founding in 1540 by an aristocrat turned spiritualist turned intellectual, Ignatius of Loyola, the Society of Jesus—or the Jesuits—estab...
Justin Grimmer et al., "Text as Data: A New Framework for Machine Learning and the Social Sciences" (Princeton UP, 2022)
05 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
From social media posts and text messages to digital government documents and archives, researchers are bombarded with a deluge of text reflecting the...
88 Underwater Eye: Margaret Cohen explores the Film Aquatic
01 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Margaret Cohen joins John to discuss The Underwater Eye, which explores "How the Movie Camera Opened the Depths and Unleashed New Realms of Fantasy....
Emily Michelson, "Catholic Spectacle and Rome's Jews: Early Modern Conversion and Resistance" (Princeton UP, 2022)
29 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Starting in the sixteenth century, Jews in Rome were forced, every Saturday, to attend a hostile sermon aimed at their conversion. Harshly policed, th...
Ann Blair et al., "Information: A Historical Companion" (Princeton UP, 2021)
23 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Information is everywhere. We live in an “Information” Society. We can get more of it faster, quicker, and in more different shapes and sizes than...
Gene Andrew Jarrett, "Paul Laurence Dunbar: The Life and Times of a Caged Bird" (Princeton UP, 2022)
22 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A major poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) was one of the first African American writers to garner international recognition in the wake of emanci...
Helen Pfeifer, "Empire of Salons: Conquest and Community in Early Modern Ottoman Lands" (Princeton UP, 2022)
11 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It’s the sixteenth century, and the Ottoman Empire has just defeated the Mamluk Sultanate, conquering Damascus and Cairo, important centers of Arab ...
Kim Haines-Eitzen, "Sonorous Desert: What Deep Listening Taught Early Christian Monks—and What It Can Teach Us" (Princeton UP, 2022)
08 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For the hermits and communal monks of antiquity, the desert was a place to flee the cacophony of ordinary life in order to hear and contemplate the vo...
Michael J. Hathaway, "What a Mushroom Lives For: Matsutake and the Worlds They Make" (Princeton UP, 2022)
08 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What a Mushroom Lives For: Matsutake and the Worlds They Make (Princeton University Press, 2022) by Dr. Michael Hathaway pushes today’s mushroom ...
Didac Queralt, "Pawned States: State Building in the Era of International Finance" (Princeton UP, 2022)
28 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How foreign lending weakens emerging nations In the nineteenth century, many developing countries turned to the credit houses of Europe for sovereign ...
Christof Dejung et al., "The Global Bourgeoisie: The Rise of the Middle Classes in the Age of Empire" (Princeton UP, 2019)
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
While the nineteenth century has been described as the golden age of the European bourgeoisie, the emergence of the middle class and bourgeois culture...
Daniel M. Davis, "The Secret Body: How the New Science of the Human Body Is Changing the Way We Live" (Princeton UP, 2022)
01 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine knowing years in advance whether you are likely to get cancer or having a personalized understanding of your individual genes, organs, and cel...
Adrienne Mayor, "Flying Snakes and Griffin Claws: And Other Classical Myths, Historical Oddities, and Scientific Curiosities" (Princeton UP, 2022)
24 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Adrienne Mayor is renowned for exploring the borders of history, science, archaeology, anthropology, and popular knowledge to find historical realitie...
Max Holleran, "Yes to the City: Millennials and the Fight for Affordable Housing" (Princeton UP, 2022)
22 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The exorbitant costs of urban housing and the widening gap in income inequality are fueling a combative new movement in cities around the world. A gro...
Edwin Amenta and Neal Caren, "Rough Draft of History: A Century of US Social Movements in the News" (Princeton UP, 2022)
21 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Rough Draft of History: A Century of US Social Movements in the News (Princeton UP, 2022) offers a new view of U.S. social movement history across th...
Jerry Z. Muller, "Professor of Apocalypse: The Many Lives of Jacob Taubes" (Princeton UP, 2022)
20 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Genius or Charlatan? This is the story of Jacob Taubes, the controversial Jewish thinker whose tortured path led him into the heart of twentieth-centu...
Sergei Guriev and Daniel Treisman, "Spin Dictators: The Changing Face of Tyranny in the 21st Century" (Princeton UP, 2022)
17 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Hitler, Stalin, and Mao ruled through violence, fear, and ideology. But in recent decades a new breed of media-savvy strongmen has been redesigning au...
Juwen Zhang, "The Dragon Daughter and Other Lin Lan Fairy Tales" (Princeton UP, 2022)
16 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Dragon Daughter and Other Lin Lan Fairy Tales (Princeton University Press, 2022) by Dr. Juwen Zhang brings together forty-two magical Chinese tal...
Martin Williams, "When the Sahara Was Green: How Our Greatest Desert Came to Be" (Princeton UP, 2021)
10 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the world, equal in size to China or the United States. Yet, this arid expanse was once a verdant, pleasant la...
Evan Lieberman, "Until We Have Won Our Liberty: South Africa After Apartheid" (Princeton UP, 2022)
01 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
At a time when many democracies are under strain around the world, Until We Have Won Our Liberty: South Africa After Apartheid (Princeton UP, 2022) ...
Akshya Saxena, "Vernacular English: Reading the Anglophone in Postcolonial India" (Princeton UP, 2022)
23 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Against a groundswell of critiques of global English, Vernacular English: Reading the Anglophone in Postcolonial India (Princeton UP, 2022) argues ...
Jim Al-Khalili, "The Joy of Science" (Princeton UP, 2022)
19 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today’s world is unpredictable and full of contradictions, and navigating its complexities while trying to make the best decisions is far from easy....
Heba Gowayed, "Refuge: How the State Shapes Human Potential" (Princeton UP, 2022)
18 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
As the world confronts the largest refugee crisis since World War II, wealthy countries are being called upon to open their doors to the displaced, wi...
David M. Peña-Guzmán, "When Animals Dream: The Hidden World of Animal Consciousness" (Princeton UP, 2022)
17 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Are humans the only dreamers on Earth? What goes on in the minds of animals when they sleep? When Animals Dream: The Hidden World of Animal Conscious...
Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, "Maria Theresa: The Habsburg Empress in Her Time" (Princeton UP, 2022)
04 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Maria Theresa (1717–1780) was once the most powerful woman in Europe. At the age of twenty-three, she ascended to the throne of the Habsburg Empire,...
Julian E. Zelizer, "The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment" (Princeton UP, 2022)
03 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment (Princeton University Press, 2022) presents a first draft of history by offering ne...
Hana Videen, "The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English" (Princeton UP, 2022)
02 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Old English is the language you think you know until you actually hear or see it. Unlike Shakespearean English or even Chaucer’s Middle English, Old...
Pamela Hieronymi, "Freedom, Resentment, and the Metaphysics of Morals" (Princeton UP, 2020)
21 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
An innovative reassessment of philosopher P. F. Strawson's influential "Freedom and Resentment" P. F. Strawson was one of the most important philosoph...
Simon Armitage, "A Vertical Art: On Poetry" (Princeton UP, 2022)
15 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In A Vertical Art: On Poetry (Princeton UP, 2022), acclaimed poet Simon Armitage takes a refreshingly common-sense approach to an art form that can ...
Owen Flanagan, "How to Do Things with Emotions: The Morality of Anger and Shame across Cultures" (Princeton UP, 2021)
13 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How to Do Things with Emotions: The Morality of Anger and Shame across Cultures (Princeton UP, 2021) is an expansive look at how culture shapes our ...
Erin Metz McDonnell, "Patchwork Leviathan: Pockets of Bureaucratic Effectiveness in Developing States" (Princeton UP, 2020)
12 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Corruption and ineffectiveness are often expected of public servants in developing countries. However, some groups within these states are distinctly ...
Elisabeth Anderson, "Agents of Reform: Child Labor and the Origins of the Welfare State" (Princeton UP, 2021)
11 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The beginnings of the modern welfare state are often traced to the late nineteenth-century labor movement and to policymakers’ efforts to appeal to ...
Jason K. Stearns, "The War That Doesn't Say Its Name: The Unending Conflict in the Congo" (Princeton UP, 2022)
08 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Well into its third decade, the military conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been dubbed a "forever war"--a perpetual cycle of war, c...
Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake, "Restarting the Future: How to Fix the Intangible Economy" (Princeton UP, 2022)
05 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The past two decades have witnessed sluggish economic growth, mounting inequality, dysfunctional competition, and a host of other ills that have left ...
Nomi M. Stolzenberg and David N. Myers, "American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York" (Princeton UP, 2021)
05 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York (Princeton University Press, 2022), Nomi Stolzenberg and David ...
Zeynep Pamuk, "Politics and Expertise: How to Use Science in a Democratic Society" (Princeton UP, 2021)
05 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Our ability to act on some of the most pressing issues of our time, from pandemics and climate change to artificial intelligence and nuclear weapons, ...
Jeff Deutsch, "In Praise of Good Bookstores" (Princeton UP, 2022)
05 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In In Praise of Good Bookstores (Princeton University Press, 2022), Jeff Deutsch, the director of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores in Chicago, aims to...
All About Birds: A Series of Regional Field Guides from Princeton University Press
01 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The All About Birds Regional Field-Guide Series brings birding enthusiasts the best information from the renowned Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s web...
Natasha Iskander, "Does Skill Make Us Human?: Migrant Workers in 21st-Century Qatar and Beyond" (Princeton UP, 2021)
21 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Skill—specifically the distinction between the “skilled” and “unskilled”—is generally defined as a measure of ability and training, but D...
Andrew Rudalevige, "By Executive Order: Bureaucratic Management and the Limits of Presidential Power" (Princeton UP, 2021)
17 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Andrew Rudalevige, the Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government at Bowdoin College, has a new book that examines the processes that transpires in...
Silvia M. Lindtner, "Prototype Nation: China and the Contested Promise of Innovation" (Princeton UP, 2020)
10 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Prototype Nation: China and the Contested Promise of Innovation (Princeton University Press, 2020) reveals how a growing distrust in Western models o...
Daniel Chirot, "You Say You Want a Revolution?: Radical Idealism and Its Tragic Consequences" (Princeton UP, 2020)
07 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why have so many of the iconic revolutions of modern times ended in bloody tragedies? And what lessons can be drawn from these failures today, in a wo...
Carolyn Chen, "Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley" (Princeton UP, 2022)
03 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Silicon Valley is known for its lavish perks, intense work culture, and spiritual gurus. Work Pray Code: When Work Becomes Religion in Silicon Valley...
Kei Hiruta, "Hannah Arendt and Isaiah Berlin: Freedom, Politics and Humanity" (Princeton UP, 2021)
28 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Two of the most iconic thinkers of the twentieth century, Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) and Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) fundamentally disagreed on central i...
Kristina Wilson, "Mid-Century Modernism and the American Body: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Power in Design" (Princeton UP, 2021)
22 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the world of interior design, mid-century Modernism has left an indelible mark still seen and felt today in countless open-concept floor plans and ...
Raghuveer Parthasarathy, "So Simple a Beginning: How Four Physical Principles Shape Our Living World" (Princeton UP, 2022)
15 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The form and function of a sprinting cheetah are quite unlike those of a rooted tree. A human being is very different from a bacterium or a zebra. The...
Elizabeth Anderson, "Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don't Talk about It) (Princeton UP, 2019)
07 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
One in four American workers says their workplace is a "dictatorship." Yet that number almost certainly would be higher if we recognized employers for...
Walter R. Tschinkel, "Ant Architecture: The Wonder, Beauty, and Science of Underground Nests" (Princeton UP, 2021)
02 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Walter Tschinkel has spent much of his career investigating the hidden subterranean realm of ant nests. This wonderfully illustrated book takes you in...
Nomi M. Stolzenberg and David N. Myers, "American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New York" (Princeton UP, 2022)
01 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Settled in the mid-1970s by a small contingent of Hasidic families, Kiryas Joel is an American town with few parallels in Jewish history—but many pr...
Andrew Porwancher, "The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton" (Princeton UP, 2021)
26 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton (Princeton UP, 2021), Andrew Porwancher debunks a string of myths about the origins of this founding fathe...
Judith Herrin, "Ravenna: Capital of Empire, Crucible of Europe" (Princeton UP, 2020)
14 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
At the end of the fourth century, as the power of Rome faded and Constantinople became the seat of empire, a new capital city was rising in the West. ...
Ross Carroll, "Uncivil Mirth: Ridicule in Enlightenment Britain" (Princeton UP, 2021)
06 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Political Theorist Ross Carroll takes the reader through Enlightenment conversations about the use of ridicule and laughter in politics and political ...
The January 6th Capitol Insurrection One Year On: A Discussion of the Far Right with Cynthia Miller-Idriss
06 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Hate crimes. Misinformation and conspiracy theories. Foiled white-supremacist plots. The signs of growing far-right extremism are all around us, and c...
Martin Conway, "Western Europe’s Democratic Age: 1945-1968" (Princeton UP, 2021)
03 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What happened in the years following World War II to create a democratic revolution in the western half of Europe? In Western Europe’s Democratic A...
Michael Cholbi, "Grief: A Philosophical Guide" (Princeton UP, 2022)
31 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We think of grief as a normal response to the death of a loved one. We’re familiar with the so-called “five stages” of grief. Grief seems as an ...
Diana S. Kim, "Empires of Vice: The Rise of Opium Prohibition Across Southeast Asia" (Princeton UP, 2020)
30 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In Empires of Vice: The Rise of Opium Prohibition across Southeast Asia (Princeton University Press, 2020) Diana Kim situates the regulation of vi...
Noah Weisbord, "The Crime of Aggression: The Quest for Justice in an Age of Drones, Cyberattacks, Insurgents, and Autocrats" (Princeton UP, 2019)
24 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
On July 17, 2018, starting an unjust war became a prosecutable international crime alongside genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Instea...
Luke Glanville, "Sharing Responsibility: The History and Future of Protection from Atrocities" (Princeton UP, 2021)
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The idea that states share a responsibility to shield people everywhere from atrocities is presently under threat. Despite some early twenty-first cen...
Joanne W. Golann, "Scripting the Moves: Culture and Control in a "No-Excuses" Charter School" (Princeton UP, 2021)
17 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ethnographer and sociologist Joanne Golann spent 18 months observing the day-to-day life of students and teachers in a “no-excuses” charter school...
"Bambi" isn't about what you think it's about: Jack Zipes explains
15 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Most of us think we know the story of Bambi—but do we? The Original Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest (Princeton UP, 2022) is an all-new, i...
Jason Lyall, "Divided Armies: Inequality and Battlefield Performance in Modern War" (Princeton UP, 2020)
14 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Why do some armies fare better than others on the battlefield? In Divided Armies: Inequality and Battlefield Performance in Modern War (Princeton UP...
Michael Rodríguez-Muñiz, "Figures of the Future: Latino Civil Rights and the Politics of Demographic Change" (Princeton UP, 2021)
06 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Figures of the Future: Latino Civil Rights and the Politics of Demographic Change (Princeton UP, 2021) examines the “contemporary population polit...
Joseph C. Ewoodzie, "Getting Something to Eat in Jackson: Race, Class, and Food in the American South" (Princeton UP, 2021)
01 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Getting Something to Eat in Jackson (Princeton Press, 2021) uses food—what people eat and how—to explore the interaction of race and class in the...
Noah Isenberg ed., Shelley Frisch, trans., "Billy Wilder on Assignment: Dispatches from Weimar Berlin and Interwar Vienna" (Princeton UP, 2021)
01 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Before Billy Wilder became the screenwriter and director of iconic films like Sunset Boulevard and Some Like It Hot, he worked as a freelance repor...
Margaret D. Jacobs, "After One Hundred Winters: In Search of Reconciliation on America's Stolen Lands" (Princeton UP, 2021)
29 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After One Hundred Winters: In Search of Reconciliation on America's Stolen Lands (Princeton UP, 2021) confronts the harsh truth that the United State...
Melissa Macauley, "Distant Shores: Colonial Encounters on China's Maritime Frontier" (Princeton UP, 2021)
24 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
“The Europeans raise all the cattle, but the Chinese get all the milk.” This joke, told in colonial Singapore, was indicative of the importance of...
Dennis C. Rasmussen, "Fears of a Setting Sun: The Disillusionment of America's Founders" (Princeton UP, 2021)
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Americans conjure the image of the signing of the Constitution of the United States, they often think about the various paintings that depict the...
Naomi Oreskes, "Why Trust Science?" (Princeton UP, 2021)
15 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Do doctors really know what they are talking about when they tell us vaccines are safe? Should we take climate experts at their word when they warn us...
Jennifer Carlson, "Policing the Second Amendment: Guns, Law Enforcement, and the Politics of Race" (Princeton UP, 2020)
08 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Americans talk about guns, they often use terms like “gun rights” or “gun control.” They also tend to separate gun politics and the polit...
Matthew J. Lacombe, "Firepower: How the NRA Turned Gun Owners Into a Political Force" (Princeton UP, 2021)
03 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Firepower: How the NRA Turned Gun Owners into a Political Force (Princeton, 2021) explores the scope and power of one of America’s most influential...
Steven Nadler and Lawrence Shapiro, "When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People: How Philosophy Can Save Us from Ourselves" (Princeton UP, 2021)
01 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
There is an epidemic of bad thinking in the world today. An alarming number of people are embracing crazy, even dangerous ideas. They believe that vac...
Peter S. Ungar, "Evolution's Bite: A Story of Teeth, Diet, and Human Origins" (Princeton UP, 2018)
01 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Whether we realize it or not, we carry in our mouths the legacy of our evolution. Our teeth are like living fossils that can be studied and compared t...
Elizabeth Carolyn Miller, "Extraction Ecologies and the Literature of the Long Exhaustion" (Princeton UP, 2021)
15 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The 1830s to the 1930s saw the rise of large-scale industrial mining in the British imperial world. Elizabeth Carolyn Miller examines how literature o...
Claudia Goldin, "Career and Family: Women’s Century-Long Journey toward Equity" (Princeton UP, 2021)
15 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A century ago, it was a given that a woman with a college degree had to choose between having a career and a family. Today, there are more female coll...
Terence Renaud, "New Lefts: The Making of a Radical Tradition" (Princeton UP, 2021)
13 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1960s, the radical youth of Western Europe’s New Left rebelled against the democratic welfare state and their parents’ antiquated politics ...
Gábor Ágoston, "The Last Muslim Conquest: The Ottoman Empire and Its Wars in Europe" (Princeton UP, 2021)
13 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The image of the Ottoman Turks and their interaction with the Christian West, has undergone many changes in the past: from William Gladstone's famous ...
Deanna Marcum and Roger C. Schonfeld, "Along Came Google: A History of Library Digitization" (Princeton UP, 2021)
07 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When Google announced that it planned to digitize books to make the world's knowledge accessible to all, questions were raised about the roles and res...
Mark Atwood Lawrence, "The End of Ambition: The United States and the Third World in the Vietnam Era" (Princeton UP, 2021)
06 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Histories of the Vietnam War are not in short supply. In U.S. history, it ranks alongside the Civil War and World War Two in terms of author coverag...
Jonathan Marks, "Let's Be Reasonable: A Conservative Case for Liberal Education" (Princeton UP, 2021)
04 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Do we really need universities and colleges anymore? Have they become too politicized? Many conservatives have started to write off American academia....
Kyle Harper, "Plagues upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History" (Princeton UP, 2021)
01 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Kyle Harper's book Plagues upon the Earth: Disease and the Course of Human History (Princeton UP, 2021) is a monumental history of humans and their ...
Samuel Gershman, "What Makes Us Smart: The Computational Logic of Human Cognition" (Princeton UP, 2021)
28 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
At the heart of human intelligence rests a fundamental puzzle: How are we incredibly smart and stupid at the same time? No existing machine can match ...
Shannon Mattern, "A City Is Not a Computer: Other Urban Intelligences" (Princeton UP, 2021)
24 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Computational models of urbanism—smart cities that use data-driven planning and algorithmic administration—promise to deliver new urban efficienci...
Rob Dunn and Monica Sanchez, "Delicious: The Evolution of Flavor and How It Made Us Human" (Princeton UP, 2021)
23 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nature, it has been said, invites us to eat by appetite and rewards by flavor. But what exactly are flavors? Why are some so pleasing while others are...
Athena Aktipis, "The Cheating Cell: How Evolution Helps Us Understand and Treat Cancer" (Princeton UP, 2020)
22 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When we think of the forces driving cancer, we don’t necessarily think of evolution. But evolution and cancer are closely linked because the histori...
Princeton UP's "Pedia" Series: Beautiful, Short Books About Big, Important Subjects
17 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Robert Kirk, the publisher of Princeton University Press's "Pedia" book series. Encyclopedic in nature and miniature in form, the...
Sylvana Tomaselli, "Wollstonecraft: Philosophy, Passion, and Politics" (Princeton UP, 2020)
15 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, first published in 1792, is a work of enduring relevance in women’s rights advocacy. ...
Caitlin Petre, "All the News That’s Fit to Click: How Metrics Are Transforming the Work of Journalists" (Princeton UP, 2021)
10 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past 15 years, journalism has experienced a rapid proliferation of data about online reader behavior in the form of web metrics. These newsro...
H. Glenn Penny, "In Humboldt's Shadow: A Tragic History of German Ethnology" (Princeton UP, 2021)
06 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Berlin Ethnological Museum is one of the world's largest and most important anthropological museums, housing more than a half million objects coll...