We invite you to browse our new 2011-2012 biology catalog at:
http://press.princeton.edu/catalogs/bio11.pdf

The catalog’s cover image is Pale-madibled Toucan (Pteroglossus erythropygius). The beautiful photo is by John Kricher, author of Tropical Ecology, one of the many great books featured in this year’s catalog.

Check out these favorites in new paperback editions:

The Origin Then and Now:
An Interpretive Guide to the Origin of Species
By David N. Reznick
With an introduction by Michael Ruse

How and Why Species Multiply:
The Radiation of Darwin’s Finches
By Peter R. Grant & B. Rosemary Grant

A Mathematical Nature Walk
By John A. Adam

Be on the lookout for these new and forthcoming titles (just to name a few):

Honeybee Democracy
By Thomas D. Seeley

Pollination and Floral Ecology
By Pat Willmer

Chemical Biomarkers in Aquatic Ecosystems
By Thomas S. Bianchi & Elizabeth A. Canuel

The Cryosphere
By Shawn J. Marshall

The Crossley ID Guide:
Eastern Birds
By Richard Crossley

The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs
By Gregory S. Paul

There are too many new and forthcoming titles to list here. You’re just going to have to check it out online: http://press.princeton.edu/catalogs/bio11.pdf

David Weintraub’s How Old is the Universe? offers a wonderfully sweeping history of humankind’s investigation of the universe, perfect for anyone interested in astronomy, no matter what level. Thanks to its accessible narrative and lucid explanations of scientific concepts throughout, Weintraub’s book is also excellently suited for use as a main or supplementary text in any introductory astronomy or astrophysics course.

Instructors will be interested to discover that How Old is the Universe? makes a number of unique offerings to the pedagogical literature:

Uses the idea of answering a single, fundamental question about the universe to help students place an enormous amount of basic astrophysical information into context. Each and every new idea and concept – e.g., radioactivity, parallax, the inverse square law, spectral lines, redshifts, the H-R diagram, variable stars, nuclear fusion, stellar evolution, degenerate matter, white dwarfs, supernovae, the big bang, the cosmic microwave background, the expanding universe, dark matter, dark energy, the accelerating universe – very clearly builds on the previous one and leads the reader closer to understanding the answer to the title question;

If you are an instructor and are interested in using How Old Is the Universe? in a course, you can request an examination copy for consideration by using our online form. Furthermore, you can find supplementary teaching materials at a dedicated site, created and maintained by the author:

• PowerPoint lectures, approximately one per chapter;
• Mathematical supplements, approximately one per chapter;
• Homework questions, approximately one set per chapter.

* Please note that these are not for sale or distributed by Princeton University Press; they are the personal creative work of the author, for use only for purposes of teaching.

Attention all birdwatchers! This week’s book giveaway is The Birdwatcher’s Companion to North American Birdlife by Christopher W. Leahy, with illustrations by Gordon Morrison. You don’t want to miss this giveaway—this wonderful book is only available in paper these days, but we’re giving away a cloth edition.

The Birdwatcher’s Companion to North American Birdlife is the quintessential A-Z guide. First published more than twenty years ago, this highly respected reference volume has been fully revised and updated. It captures the fundamental details as well as the immense fascination of North American bird life in a style that is authoritative, yet fresh, witty, and eminently readable.

Both a practical handbook for amateurs and a handy reference for seasoned birders, it provides accounts of the basic elements of birdlife, as well as a wealth of easy-to-access information on such subjects as bird physiology and anatomy, terms and jargon, name definitions and etymology, and ornithological groupings.

Readers will discover everything from the color of a dipper’s eggs (glossy, white, and unmarked) to the number of species of woodpeckers in the world (216). They will also find more than one hundred of the best-known and most colorful colloquial names for birds, alphabetized and briefly defined. Collective nouns relating to birdlife—for example, “an exaltation of larks”—are included in the “Nouns of Assemblage” section. Biographical sketches of persons responsible for describing or naming a significant number of North American species are also included, as well as handsome and accurate illustrations by Gordon Morrison. And for those who want to go beyond reading about their favorite birds and take to the great outdoors, the book offers still more useful information: descriptive entries on a selection of the best-known birdwatching spots of North America.

“A thousand-page A-to-Z guide to all things avian. Leahy clearly loves birds, and this affectionate yet scholarly work offers everything from terse definitions and simple descriptions to thoughtful and authoritative essays. . . . There is much here that will engage every level of birder.”—American Scientist

“This is a reference book for the ages that transcends mere North American use. . . . The entries are informative, easily assimilated, and also written with spirit, humor, and charm as well as authority.”—Henry T. Armistead, Bird Watcher’s Digest

The random draw for this book with be Friday 7/22 at 11 am EST. Be sure to “Like” us on Facebook if you haven’t already to be entered to win!

It’s easy to forget that much of the work publishers do continues after a book is “published” and hits the bookstores. This is particularly true of licensing foreign language rights to books. The sale of foreign rights- crucial for an author’s ideas to reach the largest possible audience- begins well before publication but continues for months and even years after original publication. It’s gratifying to see a book, when well received in the Anglophine world, continue to build an international audience and flourish. This past week saw two significant rights sales. Patricia Churchland’s Braintrust will be published in Korean by the Humanist Publishing Company (with previous deals for this book in Italian and Japanese), while Victor Davis Hanson’s Makers of Ancient Strategy will be published in Arabic.

PUP books also continued to get attention in Europe this week. Emma Rothschild’s book The Inner Life of Empires received warm reviews in The Scotsman and The Spectator.

In addition, on July 11th, I represented PUP at the Oxford University Humanities Research Showcase. David Willetts MP, Minister for Universities and Science, opened this event with a presentation on the central importance of the humanities. A number of Oxford academics then described their world leading research, while a distinguished group of scholars, including our European Advisory Board member Jonathan Bate, debated the value of the humanities. It was a very interesting afternoon, and an important reminder that a thriving humanities program is central to the mission of the university – and the university press.

By Al Bertrand

Publishing Director, Europe

I would buy books on a boat,
I would buy books in a church,
I would buy books in a barber shop or mill,
I would buy books in a castle on a hill.

Ok, enough with the Seuss already. But seriously, check out this great feature at Flavorwire on 10 Unconventional Bookstores and then let us know what your favorite book store is in the comments below.

Annalisa Crannell from Franklin & Marshall College on Vimeo.

Enjoy the video above and then check out Annalisa’s new op-ed on Inside Higher Ed. Viewpoints is a textbook that uses art to teach math and math to teach art. It grows out of a series of workshops Annalisa and her co-author Marc Frantz have given over the last decade. Learn more here.

Do we have Cranium Commandos running the show in our head? Robert Kurzban, author of Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite: Evolution and the Modular Mind tackles this and other questions in this fascinating TEDx talk sponsored and hosted by the Princeton Public Library.

FACT: Among the slaughtered remains found in the Drakensberg Mountains is a now-extinct giant buffalo Pelovoris antiquus, which weighed almost 2000 kilograms and whose modern-day (smaller) descendant is one of the most dangerous game animals in Africa (Milo1998).

A Cooperative Species:
Human Reciprocity and Its Evolution
by Samuel Bowles & Herbert Gintis

In A Cooperative Species, Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis—pioneers in the new experimental and evolutionary science of human behavior—show that the central issue is not why selfish people act generously, but instead how genetic and cultural evolution has produced a species in which substantial numbers make sacrifices to uphold ethical norms and to help even total strangers.

Using experimental, archaeological, genetic, and ethnographic data to calibrate models of the coevolution of genes and culture as well as prehistoric warfare and other forms of group competition, A Cooperative Species provides a compelling and novel account of how humans came to be moral and cooperative.

“Bowles and Gintis stress that cooperation among individuals who are only distantly related is a critical distinguishing feature of the human species. They argue forcefully that the best explanation for such cooperation is altruism. Many will dispute this claim, but it deserves serious consideration.”—Eric Maskin, Nobel Laureate in Economics

We invite you to read Chapter 1 here: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s9474.pdf

King Kong vs. Godzilla!

New York University, Stern School of Business prof and Princeton University Press author Matthew Richardson discussed his new book, with Viral Acharya, Stijn van Nieuwerburgh, and Lawrence J. White, GUARANTEED TO FAIL: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and teh Debacle of Mortgage Finance on the Emmy-winning program The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Check out the clip!

As reported by the BBC, an Oxford University residence hall has learned that one of its numerous religious paintings may be one of the Maestro’s originals. Needless to say, the painting has been relocated to the Ashmolean Museum until further notice. This is exciting news for the art world and for Renaissance scholars as the verdict is anxiously awaited.

For more on Michelangelo’s life and art, check out Michelangelo: A Life on Paper by Princeton professor Leonard Barkan.