Click over to The Monkey Cage to read Farrell’s complete post on Princeton Readings in American Politics, edited by Richard M. Valelly, and then head to Matthew Yglesias’s blog to see what he has to say–”an extremely useful American Politics 101 (or maybe more like 201)”.

C-SPAN taped the panel: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/293144-4&showFullAbstract=1

From their site: Authors talked about their books about battling oppression. They responded to questions from members of the audience. Marla Stone moderated. The panelists were: Phillip Kearney, Under the Blue Flag: My Mission in Kosovo (Phoenix Books; March 30, 2010); Richard Reeves, Daring Young Men: The Heroism and Triumph of the Berlin Airlift – June 1948 – May 1949 (Simon & Schuster; January 5, 2010); and Geoffrey Robinson, “If You Leave Us Here, We Will Die”: How Genocide Was Stopped in East Timor (Princeton University Press; November 16, 2009). “Rising Above Oppression” was an 11:00 a.m. PT history panel of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in Haines 39 on the UCLA campus on Saturday, April 24, 2010.

As part of our Math Awareness Month celebrations we asked Dr. Andrew Gelman how his interest in sports has had influence on his career in statistical mathematics.  Although Dr. Gelman noted that he was often picked last in gym class, he continues to be a fan of sports and his credentials in academia certainly make up for his lack of athleticism. Dr. Gelman is currently a Mathematics Professor at Columbia University. His statistical expertise has won him various awards such as the Outstanding Statistical Application award from the American Statistical Association, the award for best article published in the American Political Science Review, and the Council of Presidents of Statistical Societies award for outstanding contributions by a person under the age of 40. He is also the author of Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do.

Mark A. R. Kleiman, author of WHEN BRUTE FORCE FAILS: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment is in Seattle for a power tour of the city’s criminal justice system, and to weigh in on the most important qualifications for King County’s new police chief. As the Seattle Times reported yesterday, Kleiman advises: “Ask every candidate his goals as police chief. If reducing crime is not number one, go to the next candidate.” Kleiman was invited to Seattle at the request of City Council Member Tim Burgess to speak at a Town Hall Event on Thursday, April 22, on his provocative views on reducing crime and punishment. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that Kleiman told the crowd at Town Hall last night: “If the criminal justice system were a parent, we’d regard it as both neglectful and abusive.”

Jerry Muller, author of Capitalism and the Jews, will make a presentation on his book at the Kansas City Public Library on May 4th. For more details, visit the library site.

Event details:

Date/Time:   May 4, 2010, 6:30pm

Location: Central Library, 14 W. 10th St.

About the event:
Muller will explain why the Jewish experience with capitalism has been so important and complex, as well as ambivalent.

Drawing on economic, social, political, and intellectual history from medieval Europe through contemporary America and Israel, Capitalism and the Jews examines the ways in which thinking about capitalism and thinking about the Jews have gone hand in hand and why anti-capitalism and anti-Semitism have frequently been linked.

Copies of Capitalism and the Jews will be available for sale, and Muller will sign copies purchased during the event.

Admission is free. A 6 p.m. reception precedes the events. Click here or call 816.701.3407 to RSVP.

As a part of our Math Awareness Month celebrations we talked with Dr. Mason Porter about how his initial interest in baseball led him into a career in Mathematics.  Porter received his doctorate from Cornell University in 2002 and currently teaches courses in applied mathematics at the University of Oxford.

The answer after the jump.

Please come out to hear about strings, branes, and all things weird and quantum mechanic-y from the physicist on the frontlines of string theory and Princeton prof Steven Gubser.  He will be discussing his neat new book THE LITTLE BOOK OF STRING THEORY for you New Yorker’s at NYC’s Book Culture, near Columbia University, tonight at 7:00 PM.  Hope you bing lots of questions and a curious mind!

As part of our Math Awareness Month celebrations we asked Mathematics Professor, Dr. Tim Chartier, about how he incorporates his love for soccer and other sports with his passion for mathematics. Chartier is a professor at Davidson College where he specializes in numerical analysis and partial differential equations, and even taught a class on how to produce mathematical brackets for March Madness. He has been recognized by the Mathematical Association of America in 2007 when he received the Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning College or University Mathematics Faculty Member.

The Barnes and Noble Review has quietly become a terrific force for book reviews. We were lucky enough to have some of our own titles featured there in recent months and the articles are always insightful and written by top-notch contributors. We’re happy to hear of this new partnership with Salon.com. Here’s what Kerry Lauerman at Salon had to say:

We’re proud to announce a new content-sharing relationship with the Barnes & Noble Review, Barnes & Noble’s online arts and books magazine. We’ve long admired the thoughtful reviews and essays that appear on B&N Review, and look forward to them appearing in the Salon Books section, supplementing the definitive takes from our own Laura Miller, and Salon staff essays and interviews. As part of the partnership, selected pieces from Salon will in turn appear on B&N Review; Salon will also be exclusively using Barnes & Noble as the place we link to when we think readers may want to purchase a book. Our first piece is a review of a new biography of the fascinating Muriel Spark by Maud Newton, one of our favorite writers on books. Enjoy!

For a great event summary and to watch a video of Thomas Barfield’s panel at The Wilson Center last week, please visit their site.

The panel convened to discuss how political legitimacy can be established in Afghanistan. According to the event summary, Barfield identified key “half-truths” about Afghanistan that have mis-informed foreign policy in recent years:

• One is that the country has never been conquered by outsiders. (Barfield clarifies that the entire country has not been conquered, but desirable regions, particularly urban centers, have not fared so well)
• The second is that Afghanistan is “a land of unending insurgencies.” (Barfield asserts that Afghanistan had no insurgencies until the first Anglo-Afghan war)
• The third is that Afghan rulers gain legitimacy through the approval of loya jirgas—large gatherings of political and tribal leaders and other important figures in Afghan society (Barfield noted that Afghanistan leaders traditionally don’t seek “the consent of the governed.” Instead he say leadership credentials are proven by “showing you’re a ruler, not by asking to be a ruler.”)

Watch the video and then grab a copy of Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History to learn more.

“The big question today when we talk about the function of liberal democracy and the challenge posed by orthodox belief (in Europe that now means Islam rather than Christianity). The big challenge is is to what extent those who take this religious view of politics, this redemptive view of politics, and have a strong belief in absolute truth–to what extent they will be able to compromise enough to become fully functioning citizens of modern democracy,” states Ian Buruma in this talk taped at the Buffett Center at Northwestern University.

View the video of his talk here and then grab a copy of Taming the Gods to read more of Ian’s thoughts on the tangled web of religion and democracy in the United States, Europe, and Asia.