As we head into Memorial Day weekend to honor our fallen soldiers, it’s also useful to remember that peace can and does break out, and adversaries can and do become allies.  Charles Kupchan was at the New America Foundation earlier this week to talk about How Enemies Become Friends, which Steve Clemons calls “one of the most important books I have read.” Watch the full interview below:

You can also watch video from his event here:

The co-authors of Portfolios of the Poor, Daryl Collins, Jonathan Morduch, Stuart Rutherford and Orlanda Ruthven, will be joined by MicroSave’s Graham Wright for a two-day virtual conference on June 8 and 9. Click through to MicroSave’s site to register for the conference and register to participate in these discussions.

Day 1: Understanding How Poor People Manage their Money – Lessons from “Portfolios of the Poor”
Day 2: Designing Financial Services for the Poor – Lessons from “Portfolios of the Poor”

As a reminder, Portfolios of the Poor is an amazing book that combines on-the-ground research with deep analysis to answer questions like “how do the poor spend the limited funds they earn?”, “how do they save?”, and most importantly, “how can we help them do it better?”. We will release a paperback early next year, but the hardcover is still available.

There’s a cheat sheet for the conference after the jump (though you really should pick up a copy of the book)

As Ben Wildavsky recounts in his book The Great Brain Race: How Global Universities are Reshaping the World, dramatic shifts in the scholarly gravitational field have taken place throughout history. The latest such major reorientation came in the wake of the Second World War, when the centre of western academia shifted from Germany to the United States….Last year, the number of foreigners studying in the United States stood at 672,000 – a new record. And yet, as Wildavsky attests, another profound shift in the world’s academic market is already under way.

Click through to read the complete review.

Another Princeton University Press author honored by the Sociology of Culture Section of the American Sociological Association this year is Chandra Mukerji, whose Impossible Engineering: Technology and Territoriality on the Canal du Midi received and Honorable Mention, 2010 Mary Douglas Prize for Best Book.  We would like to offer her a hearty congratulations!

According to the ASA, “The Culture Section generates lively intellectual exchange about a range of issues, from the sociology of the arts, to political culture, to identity construction, to studies of religion and science.”

More information on the Mary Douglas Prize for Best Book can be found here.

For a complete list of recent Princeton University Press award-winning books, please click here.

I hope you will check out this neat debate taking place at Science magazine. In a first for them, they are offering a preview of a print review on their web site and hosting a debate with the author and the authors of the books reviewed (unfortunately none of Princeton’s titles are included, but I’ll post a list of “also of interest” books after the jump). The subject is climate change and will no doubt attract impassioned voices from both sides, so read up on the article and the issue, and then head over to Science’s site to voice your own opinion.

Thanks to Jason Boog @ GalleyCat for drawing our attention to the BEA tweet of the day.

Harold Underdown, Children’s Book Editor, tweeted these immortal words yesterday:

“After two hours of pushing through the crowds at #bea10, I have reached a simple conclusion: print book publishing is far from dead.”

‘Nuff said.

For more floor show fun (and Rick Springfield sightings) check out my post-Memorial Day Book Expo retrospective next week…

BookExpo America , the publishing industry’s meeting place is in full swing at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York.  Get your good walking shoes on, and stop by our exhibit booth (No. 3726).  Many new and forthcoming titles to check out including;

Zombie Economics
How Dead Ideas Still Walk among Us
By John Quiggin

The Squam Lake Report
Fixing the Financial System
By Kenneth R. French, Martin N. Baily, John Y. Campbell, John H. Cochrane, Douglas W. Diamond, Darrell Duffie, Anil K Kashyap, Frederic S. Mishkin, Raghuram G. Rajan, David S. Scharfstein, Robert J. Shiller, Hyun Song Shin, Matthew J. Slaughter, Jeremy C. Stein, and René M. Stulz

Create Dangerously
The Immigrant Artist at Work
By Edwidge Danticat

Many congratulations to Princeton University Press author Marion Fourcade, whose Economists and Societies: Discipline and Profession in the United States, Britain, and France, 1890s to 1900s recently won the 2010 Mary Douglas Prize for Best Book!

The award is presented by the Sociology of Culture Section of the American Sociological Association, whose purpose is to “encourage development of this perspective through the organized interchange of ideas and research.The Section on Culture considers material products, ideas, and symbolic means and their relation to social behavior.” More information on Fourcade’s award can be found here.

Economists and Societies: Discipline and Profession in the United States, Britain, and France, 1890s to 1900s has also been chosen as one of CHOICE magazine‘s Outstanding Academic Titles, 2009.

For a full list of recent Princeton University Press award-winning books, please click here.

Before you send that congratulatory email our way, we didn’t make the list.  I know.  It’s a cryin’ shame that such PUP hits like Delete and Scroogenomics weren’t destined for eternal book trailer glory but perhaps it’s a blessing that we weren’t instantly christened with snark, either.

You be the judge and visit Melville House Publishing for the complete list of winners (and losers.)  Ouch.

IMO, Safran Foer is hardly the worst I’ve seen.   No matter what you think of his writing, his on camera persona is charming!  He has a certain earnest pubnik appeal that is less fauxhemian than you’d think. (FYI: I’ve retired the term hipster and have embraced the new “it” word, fauxhemian.  It’s 2010, people.  Join me.)

Bookish self-awareness works in Safran Foer’s favor, though I’ve gotta hand it to Dennis Cass (below) and his savvy publicity/marketing team for their stealth genius.  They win the keys to the book trailer kingdom with this pitch perfect send-up of what is fast becoming a camp sector of our esteemed publishing industry:

“That book I wrote a year ago is out again.” –classic.  I’m stealing that one for my next email blast!

Check out new and forthcoming titles in our birds & natural history catalog and in the new biology catalog.

The Biology 2010-2011 catalog includes titles on behavior, ecology, evolution, mathematical biology, ocean science and general interest.
Find the biology catalog online here:
http://bit.ly/cAcrJH

Our new Birds & Natural History catalog covers the globe on guides and offers a diverse crop of new titles from dinosaurs to seeds.
Check out the new Birds & Natural History catalog online:
http://bit.ly/b4NOIo

Some good-natured gambling has been occurring on the grounds of Princeton University Press.  Many American sports enthusiasts often forget the passion of hockey fans, so to celebrate the 2010 NHL playoffs, religion/anthropology editor and Montreal Canadiens fanatic Fred Appel made yours truly (me!, Director of Publicity) and die-hard Philadelphia Flyers fan a non-monetary (hey, we work in publishing!) bet.  If the Flyers won, Fred would have to wear my Flyers jersey the entire day.  If the Canadiens won, I would wear their sweater.  Well, as many watched last night, Philly ended the dreams and aspirations of many Canadians by ousting the Habs from the finals.  The Philadelphia Flyers will meet the Chicago Blackhawks for the right to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup.  Here are some pics of Fred sporting the colors of his mortal enemy. 

We would like to congratulate Princeton University Press author Matthew Hindman for winning the 2009 Award for Social and Ethical Relevance in Communications Policy Research presented by the Donald McGannon Communications Research Center! According to this announcement, Hindman’s book The Myth of Digital Democracy most outstandingly addresses the communications policy issues that occurred in 2009.

Earlier this year, The Myth of Digital Democracy also won the 2010 Goldsmith Book Prize.

More information on Hindman’s achievement as well as information on nominations for   the 2010 Award for Social and Ethical Relevance In Communications Policy Research can be found here.