To help celebrate Zombie Awareness Month, this week’s book giveaway is Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk among Us by John Quiggin. In the graveyard of economic ideology, dead ideas still stalk the land.

The recent financial crisis laid bare many of the assumptions behind market liberalism–the theory that market-based solutions are always best, regardless of the problem. For decades, their advocates dominated mainstream economics, and their influence created a system where an unthinking faith in markets led many to view speculative investments as fundamentally safe. The crisis seemed to have killed off these ideas, but they still live on in the minds of many–members of the public, commentators, politicians, economists, and even those charged with cleaning up the mess. In Zombie Economics, John Quiggin explains how these dead ideas still walk among us–and why we must find a way to kill them once and for all if we are to avoid an even bigger financial crisis in the future.

“Erroneous economic ideas resemble the living dead, writes John Quiggin in his smart new book Zombie Economics. They are dangerous yet impossible to kill. Even after a financial crisis buries them, they survive in our minds and can rise unbidden from the necropolis of ideology.”–James Pressley, Bloomberg News

“As well as exposing how these flawed ideas brought on the global crisis and how they live on, Quiggin offers his view on a new way forward in economic theory. It’s time to bury the zombie.”–Fiona Capp, The Age

For those of you who walk amongst us and have LIKED US on our Facebook Page, you are automatically entered in this week’s draw. If not and you want to be a part of our weekly draws, LIKE US.

Want to lurk more in Zombie Economics, then go to the Zombie Economics Facebook page.

Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk among Us by John Quiggin.

As a follow up to our earlier teaser for Antarctic Wildlife, here is another page spread from this unique new field guide.

You can read more about this book and purchase a copy here. See more images from the book here.

Congratulations to David R. Mayhew, author of Partisan Balance: Why Political Parties Don’t Kill the U.S. Constitutional System, which recently won the 2011 Leon D. Epstein Outstanding Book Award presented by the Political Organizations and Parties Section of the American Political Science Association.

According to the APSA website, the award “honors a book published in the last two calendar years that makes an outstanding contribution to research and scholarship on political organizations and parties.”

In Partisan Balance, Mayhew examines the unique electoral foundations of the presidency, Senate, and House of Representatives in order to provide a fresh understanding for the government’s success and longstanding vitality. Arguing that the system has developed a self-correcting impulse that leads each branch to pull back when it deviates too much from other branches, Mayhew contends that majoritarianism largely characterizes the American system. The wishes of the majority tend to nudge institutions back toward the median voter, as in the instances of legislative districting, House procedural reforms, and term limits for presidents and legislators.

David R. Mayhew is Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University. His books include Congress: The Electoral Connection, Divided We Govern, and Electoral Realignments.

Again, a warm congratulations to David Mayhew!

To read the Introduction to Partisan Balance, click here.

To see other recent award-winning PUP books, please Continued »

Don’t miss your chance to meet acclaimed birder and photographer, Richard Crossley! Richard will be at Labyrinth Books on May 21st in Princeton to present on his newest birding book, The Crossley ID Guide. By making identification easier, more accurate, and more fun than ever before, The Crossley ID Guide completely redefines how its users look at birds. Essential for all birders, it also promises to make new birders of many people who have despaired of using traditional guides.

Richard Crossley is an internationally acclaimed birder and photographer who has been birding since age 7 and who, by age 21, had hitchhiked more than 100,000 miles chasing birds across his native Britain and Europe. His love of the outdoors and his interest in teaching, design, and technology have shaped his unique vision for the future of birding and bird books. He is excited by the prospect of using new technologies to bring “reality birding” to a wide audience through many different media. He is a spokesperson for Nikon Sports Optics and coauthor of The Shorebird Guide, and lives with his wife and two daughters in Cape May, New Jersey.

Location: Labyrinth Books

Date: 122 Nassau Street, Princeton, NJ

Time: 3:00 p.m.

More Info: Here.

Hope to see you all there!

Our author and psychologist Nicholas Humphrey explored the purpose and meaning of consciousness in his new book SOUL DUST: The Magic of Consciousness on Wisconsin Public Radio’s terrific show Veronica Rueckert Show last Friday, May 13. They explore how consciousness is possible, what biological purpose it serves, And why we value it so highly in this absorbing interview.

As a follow up to our earlier teaser for Antarctic Wildlife, here is another page spread from this unique new field guide.

You can read more about this book and purchase a copy here. See more images from the book here.

Calling all birders! Don’t miss Cape MAYgration this year – a week long celebration of Spring Migration in Cape May! The festival begins May 18th and ends May 24th. At “North America’s favorite birding spot” there is truly something for everyone, from the novice to the seasoned naturalist. Amidst the indoor programs, workshops and field workshops, will be PUP’s very own Bill Boyle! Bill will be holding a program on his new book The Birds of New Jersey – an essential resource for birders, ornithologists, and nature enthusiasts interested in the birds of New Jersey and the greater surrounding region on Saturday, May 24th.

Location: Indoor Program

Date: Saturday, May 24th, 2011

Time: 3:30 pm – 4:15 pm

More Info: Here

Hope to see you all there!

This video was taped at Vanderbilt University as part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

Earlier videos in this series:
Part 1: http://press.princeton.edu/blog/?p=9307
Part 2: http://press.princeton.edu/blog/?p=10029
Part 3: http://press.princeton.edu/blog/?p=10033

Dr. Weintraub is author of How Old Is the Universe? You can read an excerpt of this book here.

As a follow up to our earlier teaser for Antarctic Wildlife, here is another page spread from this unique new field guide.

You can read more about this book and purchase a copy here. See more images from the book here.

As a follow up to our earlier teaser for Antarctic Wildlife, here is another page spread from this unique new field guide.

You can read more about this book and purchase a copy here. See more images from the book here.

Have a bad case of paraskevidekatriaphobia, or fear of Friday the 13th?

The 13th of a month will fall on a Friday more than any other day of the week. In a 400 year cycle, the 13th of the month will fall on Friday 688 times, just beating Wednesday and Sunday.
-Chapter 13, from the book:

Nonplussed!
Mathematical Proof of Implausible Ideas
by Julian Havil

Math–the application of reasonable logic to reasonable assumptions–usually produces reasonable results. But sometimes math generates astonishing paradoxes–conclusions that seem completely unreasonable or just plain impossible but that are nevertheless demonstrably true. Did you know that a losing sports team can become a winning one by adding worse players than its opponents? Or that cones can roll unaided uphill? In Nonplussed!–a delightfully eclectic collection of paradoxes from many different areas of math–popular-math writer Julian Havil reveals the math that shows the truth of these and many other unbelievable ideas.

We invite you to read the introduction online:
http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i8373.pdf

Available in paperback and e-book.

Also available by Julian Havil
Impossible?
Surprising Solutions to Counterintuitive Conundrums

As a follow up to our earlier teaser for Antarctic Wildlife, here is another page spread from this unique new field guide.

You can read more about this book and purchase a copy here.