Announcing the first publication in English of Pierre Briant’s classic short history of Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Persian empire, from the Mediterranean to Central Asia. Eschewing a conventional biographical focus, this is the only book in any language that sets the rise of Alexander’s short-lived empire within the broad context of ancient Near Eastern history under Achaemenid Persian rule, as well as against Alexander’s Macedonian background. As a renowned historian of both the Macedonians and the Persians, Briant is uniquely able to assess Alexander’s significance from the viewpoint of both the conquerors and the conquered, and to trace what changed and what stayed the same as Alexander and the Hellenistic world gained ascendancy over Darius’s Persia.

For this translation, Briant has written a new foreword and conclusion, updated the main text and the thematic annotated bibliography, and added a substantial appendix in which he assesses the current state of scholarship on Alexander and suggests some directions for future research. More than ever, this masterful work provides an original and important perspective on Alexander and his empire.

Read the introduction online at:
http://bit.ly/diViFP

Alexander the Great and His Empire:
A Short Introduction
Pierre Briant
Translated by Amélie Kuhrt

Why do so many gamblers risk it all when they know the odds of winning are against them? Why do they believe dice are “hot” in a winning streak? Why do we expect heads on a coin toss after several flips have turned up tails? What’s Luck Got to Do with It? takes a lively and eye-opening look at the mathematics, history, and psychology of gambling to reveal the most widely held misconceptions about luck. It exposes the hazards of feeling lucky, and uses the mathematics of predictable outcomes to show when our chances of winning are actually good.

The introduction is now online:  http://bit.ly/acJjDT

What’s Luck Got to Do with It?
The History, Mathematics, and Psychology of the Gambler’s Illusion
By Joseph Mazur

Are the humanities an important component of education? Stanley Fish believes so… Martha Nussbaum’s NOT FOR PROFIT was discussed in his recent post on the New York Times Opinionator blog. In Canada’s Globe and Mail, John Allemang interviewed Professor Nussbaum about vital importance of humanities. On the other side of the fence, Edward T. Oakes discusses the new book, and Gary Saul Morson’s recent review in The New Criterion, on the First Things blog.

Be a part of the conversation, and pick up your copy of NOT FOR PROFIT.

Patricia Cohen interviewed Samuel Heilman, co-author with Menachem Friedman of THE REBBE, in today’s New York Times. Today is the sixteenth anniversary of the death of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, and his life and legacy are still the source of much inspiration and conversation. Gary Rosenblatt wrote an article in New York Jewish Week about the life and work of the Rebbe, and discusses the book, as well. Finally, Tablet Magazine posted a brief review of the book as part of their “On the Bookshelf” feature.

Check out the authors’ website here.

Our next book giveaway is Garden Insects of North America: The Ultimate Guide to Backyard Bugs by Whitney Cranshaw.  If you follow us on Facebook, you are automatically entered to win. The random drawing takes place this Friday.

Follow us on Facebook at http://bit.ly/a5d6db

“If you’ve ever wondered what’s eating your garden besides yourself and the woodchuck, this is the book for you. I know that sometime this summer I will carry a bug of some sort into the house to identify it in this volume. And I know that I’ll lose at least an hour looking at photographs of all the other bugs that might lie hidden in the herbage.” -Verlyn Klinkenborg, New York Times Book Review

Garden Insects of North America:
The Ultimate Guide to Backyard Bugs
By Whitney Cranshaw

The Rebbe:
The Life and Afterlife of Menachem Mendel Schneerson
By Samuel Heilman & Menachem Friedman
Chapter one now online: http://bit.ly/aILcs7

The Rebbe tracks Schneerson’s remarkable life from his birth in Russia, to his student days in Berlin and Paris, to his rise to global renown in New York, where he developed and preached his powerful spiritual message from the group’s gothic mansion in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. This compelling book demonstrates how Schneerson’s embrace of traditionalism and American-style modernity made him uniquely suited to his messianic mission.

Although it seems like financial disaster books are all the rage in publishing nowadays, Raghuram (Raghu, for short) Rajan enters the fray with a different kind of book.  Instead of what when wrong, Raghu shows us in his brilliant new book FAULT LINES: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy that our still vulnerable system his serious cracks that could cause another major financial earthquake.  John Richardson gets Raghu’s arguments right in his review of the book on Esquire.com.  Also, check out a review of the book in The Economist.  If you notice, reviewed with FAULT LINES is another book by a PUP author, Philippe Legrain (Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them).

*An iPhone App Store Selection of the Month, May 2009*

Princeton, NJ – Princeton University Press and Flat Earth Studio are pleased to announce the newest version of the popular iPhone Application, Yi Jing, now available from the iPhone App store.  This major update for Yi Jing App will include new features and improved book content for additional purchase, including Princeton University Press’s all-time bestselling edition of The I Ching, or Book of Changes, edited by Richard Wilhelm and translated by Cary F. Baynes.  The New York Times says, “Princeton’s Bollingen [is] still regarded as the best and most authentic by I Ching aficionados.”

Yi Jing is the definitive mobile version of The I Ching, or Book of Changes, done the way it was meant to be experienced.  Ancient meets modern as one of the oldest books written is re re-crafted to take advantage of the unique features of your mobile device.  The updated App contains all of the features you need, including a question oracle, an integrated journal, and the book’s text in multiple translations and interpretations. The complete Wilhelm/Baynes text is provided for the first time in interactive readings.

Are fights really contagious? If one person punches another in a crowded bar, will the situation evolve until everyone is hitting everyone around them? According to Randall Collins, this is a particularly silly myth.  In fact, the typical response of bystanders when a fight breaks out in a crowded place is to back away to a safe distance and watch, or react with unease and horror. Read Violence: A Micro-sociological Theory by Randall Collins to learn more about how violence really happens.  Chapter one online.

This fall brings the major series relaunch of the prestigious Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets, now under the editorship of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and New Yorker Poetry Editor Paul Muldoon. Muldoon sat down with the Princeton Tiger earlier this year for their series “Discussions in Contemporary Poetry,” in which the Princeton professor discussed the profound linguistic styling of Ke$ha’s “Tik, Tok”:

The Huffington Post gives their take on the critique here.

Fortunately, the first book in the series, Kathleen Graber’s The Eternal City, combines high (Shakespeare and Walter Benjamin) and not-so-high (Johnny Depp and Target) culture in ways that serious lovers of poetry can really enjoy. Read the full series description here.

Here we are at a critical juncture for the future of soccer in America and the game’s broader cultural significance beyond its currently well-established place of being an appreciated recreational activity for millions of youngsters. Much will depend on the American players’ ability to advance deep in the world’s most watched sports event (2 billion people watched the final game in 2006). Success at the World Cup will capture the imagination of soccer fans and thus enhance the American game’s legitimacy both here and abroad.

Attaining this will have a number of beneficial implications each of which would be important by itself. But as a package, the long-term results of such a positive outcome might truly become a game changer on many an important level of quotidian lives.

What are these beneficial implications? How are quotidian lives going to be changed? Click over to Huffington Post and read the complete article from the authors of Gaming the World then tune in on Saturday to cheer as the U.S. national team takes the field against England!

Last week, a three day conference on the idea of Gross National Happiness took place in Vermont. While Derek Bok was not in attendance, his book was apparently much-discussed. Here in this post at the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, they say it much better than I ever could:

Lest you think this conversation is reserved for people living in, or about to move back to, mountainous kingdoms like Bhutan or Vermont, I should note that hovering over the gathering was the publication of Derek Bok’s new book The Politics of Happiness: What Government Can Learn from the New Research on Well-Being.

When the former President of Harvard believes that the findings of scientific research into Happiness are clear enough and significant enough that we should base public policy on them, you know the idea has moved beyond aging hippies and frustrated idealists. Might it be heading for the mainstream?

What do you think? Is happiness as a goal of politics too far-flung? Is it becoming more mainstream?

Read the intro to The Politics of Happiness here: http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9107.html