Princeton UP Ideas Podcast
Episodes
Tim Maudlin, “Philosophy of Physics: Space and Time” (Princeton UP, 2012)
17 Sep 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Tim Maudlin‘s Philosophy of Physics: Space and Time (Princeton University Press, 2012) is a clear, approachable, and engaging introduction to the ph...
Joshua Legg, “Introduction to Modern Dance Techniques” (Princeton Book Company, 2011)
27 Aug 2013
Contributed by Lukas
I can still remember being an undergraduate student, going from dance class to dance class and working as hard as I could each day. In the midst of al...
Joseph Nye, “Presidential Leadership and the Creation of the American Era” (Princeton UP, 2013)
19 Aug 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Joseph Nye‘s latest book is Presidential Leadership and the Creation of the American Era (Princeton University Press, 2013). Professor Nye is Univer...
William G. Howell (with David Brent), “Thinking about the Presidency: The Primacy of Power” (Princeton UP, 2013)
29 Jul 2013
Contributed by Lukas
William G. Howell (with David Brent) is the author of the new book Thinking about the Presidency: The Primacy of Power (Princeton UP, 2013). Howell is...
Michael Laffan, “The Makings of Indonesian Islam: Orientalism and the Narration of a Sufi Past” (Princeton UP, 2011)
22 Jul 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Indonesia is often highlighted as having the right kind of Islam, ‘moderate’ and ‘peaceful.’ Whether that remains true (if it ever was a reali...
John O. McGinnis, “Accelerating Democracy: Transforming Governance Through Technology” (Princeton UP, 2013)
10 Jul 2013
Contributed by Lukas
The advent of very powerful computers and the Internet have not “changed everything,” but it has created a new communications context within which...
Daniel Stedman Jones, “Masters of the Universe: Hayek, Friedman, and the Birth of Neoliberal Politics” (Princeton UP, 2012)
20 May 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Daniel Stedman Jones is the author of Masters of the Universe: Hayek, Friedman, and the Birth of Neoliberal Politics (Princeton University Press, 2012...
Lance Fortnow, “The Golden Ticket: P, NP, and the Search for the Impossible” (Princeton UP, 2013))
02 Apr 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Today we’ll be discussing Lance Fortnow‘s bookThe Golden Ticket:P, NP, and the Search for the Impossible (Princeton University Press, 2013).The bo...
Landon Storrs, “The Second Red Scare and the Unmaking of the New Deal Left” (Princeton UP, 2012)
04 Feb 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Most people who listen to this podcast will have heard of Joseph McCarthy and HUAC (The House Committee on Un-American Activities). His activities and...
Christopher I. Beckwith, “Warriors of the Cloisters: The Central Asian Origins of Science in the Medieval World (Princeton UP, 2012)
22 Jan 2013
Contributed by Lukas
In Warriors of the Cloisters: The Central Asian Origins of Science in the Medieval World (Princeton University Press, 2012), Christopher I. Beckwith g...
Richard J. Smith, “The I Ching: A Biography” (Princeton UP, 2012)
16 Jan 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Texts have lives. They grow, travel, transform, fade, and are reborn into new and other lives. In The I Ching: A Biography (Princeton University Press...
Brian Leiter, “Why Tolerate Religion?” (Princeton UP, 2013)
03 Jan 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Religious conviction enjoys a privileged status in our society.This is perhaps most apparent in legal contexts, where religious conviction is often gi...
Corey Brettschneider, “When the State Speaks, What Should it Say? How Democracies can Protect Expression and Promote Equality” (Princeton UP, 2012)
26 Nov 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Liberal democracies are in the business of protecting individuals and their rights. Central among these are the rights to free expression, freedom of ...
Jamie Kelly, “Framing Democracy: A Behavioral Approach to Democratic Theory” (Princeton UP, 2012)
31 Oct 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Plato famously argued that democracy is nearly the worst form of government because citizens are decidedly unwise. Many styles of democratic theory ha...
Hugh Urban, “The Church of Scientology: A History of a New Religion” (Princeton UP, 2011)
27 Sep 2012
Contributed by Lukas
What is religion? Who gets to define it? Why is defining something a religion such an important endeavor? What exactly is at stake in determining the ...
Igor Marjanovic, “Marina City: Bertrand Goldberg’s Urban Vision” (Princeton Architectural Press, 2010)
24 Jun 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Anyone who has visited downtown Chicago will remember seeing the dazzling round towers of Bertrand Goldberg’s Marina City on the north bank of the r...
Stephen Collier, “Post-Soviet Social: Neoliberalism, Social Modernity, Biopolitics” (Princeton UP, 2011)
20 Jun 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Pipes matter. That’s right: pipes. Anyone who has spent time in Russia knows that the hulkish cylinders that snake throughout its cities are the lif...
Lynn Stout, “Cultivating Conscience: How Good Laws Make Good People” (Princeton UP, 2010)
22 Feb 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Lynn Stout‘s pathbreaking book Cultivating Conscience:How Good Laws Make Good People (Princeton University Press, 2010) represents a much-needed up...
Andrei Markovits, “Gaming the World: How Sports Are Shaping Global Politics and Culture” (Princeton UP, 2010)
22 Nov 2011
Contributed by Lukas
“We live in the age of globalization, with the interconnection of markets, technology, and cultures making the world a smaller place.” Sure.Tell t...
Troy Jollimore, “Love’s Vision” (Princeton UP, 2011)
15 Oct 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Love – being loved and loving in the way two otherwise unrelated persons can be – is a kind of experience that just about everyone values intrinsi...
Jason Brennan, “The Ethics of Voting” (Princeton UP, 2011)
30 Sep 2011
Contributed by Lukas
It is commonly held that citizens in a democratic society have a civic duty to participate in the processes of collective self-government. Often, this...
Steven Barnes, “Death and Redemption: The Gulag and the Shaping of Soviet Society” (Princeton UP, 2011)
23 Sep 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Most Westerners know about the Gulag (aka “Chief Administration of Corrective Labor Camps and Colonies”) thanks to Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s eloq...
Elizabeth Anderson, “The Imperative of Integration” (Princeton UP, 2010)
01 Sep 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Demographic data show that the United States is a heavily segregated society, especially when it comes to relations among African-Americans and whites...
Tamara Metz, “Untying the Knot: Marriage, the State, and the Case for Their Divorce” (Princeton UP, 2010)
04 Aug 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Marriage is at the center of some of our fiercest political debates. Here are some recent developments regarding marriage in the United States. Earlie...
Konrad H. Jarausch, “Reluctant Accomplice: A Wehrmacht Soldier’s Letters from the Eastern Front” (Princeton UP, 2011)
12 Jul 2011
Contributed by Lukas
Konrad H. Jarausch, whose varied and important works on German history have been required reading for scholars for several decades, has published Relu...
Michael Kevaak, “Becoming Yellow: A Short History of Racial Thinking” (Princeton UP, 2011)
12 Jul 2011
Contributed by Lukas
In the course of his concise and clearly written new book Becoming Yellow: A Short History of Racial Thinking (Princeton University Press, 2011), Mich...
Francesco Duina, “Winning: Reflections on an American Obsession” (Princeton UP, 2010)
17 Apr 2011
Contributed by Lukas
“Winning is everything” is such a common phrase that we rarely question where it comes from and why we apply it to everyday experiences. One ca...
Dan Drezner, “Theories of International Politics and Zombies” (Princeton UP, 2011)
03 Apr 2011
Contributed by Lukas
International theorists like to game out every possible scenario. What would happen if you applied their methodology to dealing with the fictional pub...
Louis Hyman, “Debtor Nation: The History of America in Red Ink” (Princeton UP, 2011)
04 Mar 2011
Contributed by Lukas
I remember clearly the day I was offered my first credit card. It was in Berkeley, CA in 1985. I was walking on Sproul Plaza and I saw a booth manned ...
David Farber, “The Rise and Fall of Modern American Conservatism” (Princeton UP, 2010)
05 Nov 2010
Contributed by Lukas
I think that many smart people, particularly on the Left, make a really ill-considered assumption, to wit, that “Republican” means “Conservative...
Norman Naimark, “Stalin’s Genocides” (Princeton UP, 2010)
24 Sep 2010
Contributed by Lukas
Absolutely no one doubts that Stalin murdered millions of people in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. His ruthless campaign of “dekulakization,” his pit...
Jerry Muller, “Capitalism and the Jews” (Princeton UP, 2010)
25 Jun 2010
Contributed by Lukas
I confess I was attracted to this book by the title: Capitalism and the Jews (Princeton, 2010). Capitalism is a touchy subject; Jews are a touchy subj...
Audrey Kurth Cronin, “How Terrorism Ends: Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns” (Princeton UP, 2010)
28 May 2010
Contributed by Lukas
It’s one thing to say that the study of history is “relevant” to contemporary problems; it’s another to demonstrate it. In How Terrorism Ends:...
Carl Bon Tempo, “Americans at the Gates: The United States and Refugees during the Cold War” (Princeton UP, 2008)
12 Feb 2009
Contributed by Lukas
My Midwestern high school was pretty typical. There were freaks, geeks, jocks, drama-types. Some were white. And some were black. All were recognizabl...