Frankfurt Book Fair is traditionally a very fruitful and interesting venture for the international rights team at PUP, and this year was no exception. The Fair was buzzing with news of a forthcoming book by Robert Shiller - a book on how finance could be a force for good – which is a topic that [...]
Continued »Princeton Shorts series launches with five eBook-only selections from five top-selling PUP books (publication date: November 9, 2011)
Who? The Princeton Shorts series is the brainchild of Princeton University Press Associate Marketing Director, Leslie Nangle, and the first five entries feature works from recent Princeton authors like economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, honeybee biologist Thomas Seeley, fossil fuel expert Kenneth Deffeyes, as well as perennial favorites, Henry David Thoreau and Carl von Clausewitz.
What? Princeton Shorts are brief selections excerpted from influential Princeton University Press publications produced exclusively in eBook format. They are selected with the firm belief that while the original work remains an important and enduring product, sometimes we can all benefit from a quick take on a topic worthy of a longer book.
Where? Available on all leading eReaders.
When? Official launch is November 9, 2011.
Why? Short Takes, Big Ideas. Or, as Press Director Peter Dougherty puts it, “Joining content from some of Princeton’s most celebrated published titles with the genius of rapid, online delivery, the first wave of Princeton Shorts will provide readers everywhere with new access to the ideas contained in one of scholarly publishing’s most distinguished lists. Everything old—from our recent and remote past—is new again with Princeton Shorts.”
So these are eBook exclusive chapters selected from previously published full-length PUP books? Precisely. In a world where every second counts, how better to stay up-to-speed on current events and digest the kernels of wisdom great works of the past? Princeton Shorts enables you to be an instant expert in a world where information is everywhere but quality is at a premium.
THIS TIME IS DIFFERENT hardly needs an introduction. It is the definitive history of financial crises, including the recent subprime meltdown.
ON WAR first appeared in 1832 and remains the most significant attempt in Western history to understand war.
From the leading book on the limits of our oil supply, this selection forecasts what the alternatives to fossil fuels are likely to be.
A slightly cheeky selection from that American classic which decried the evils of technology and championed the simple gift of reading.
These brief chapters are the perfect companion pieces to the full-length works but the beauty is, they also stand on their own. There are more Princeton Shorts already in the works so stay tuned as we continue to wade into the waters of eBook exclusives! The first five entries in the Princeton Shorts series will be available on Wednesday, November 9.
Continued »Congratulations to PUP author Mark Valeri, whose book “Heavenly Merchandize: How Religion Shaped Commerce in Puritan America” has been awarded the 2011 Philip Schaff Prize from the American Society of Church History. The prize recognizes “the best book published in the two previous calendar years, originating in the North American scholarly community, which presents original research on [...]
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You missed it? Don’t feel too bad — it’s really quick, but you can see Richard in two flashes to a Nikon ad in a magazine.
If anyone happens to find a screen shot of Richard’s .2 seconds on screen, send it along so I can post it (jessica_pellien@press.princeton.edu).
So, the movie did fairly lackluster business at the box office this weekend, but it seems many of my birding friends did get out to see it. Here are some of the early reviews (watch out for spoilers on these sites).
Birdbooker Report: http://birdbookerreport.blogspot.com/2011/10/big-year-movie.html
The Birdchick: http://www.birdchick.com/wp/2011/10/the-big-year-movie-review/
Birding Is Fun: http://www.birdingisfun.com/2011/10/review-big-year-movie.html
10,000 Birds: http://10000birds.com/the-big-year-review.htm
Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Round Robin: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/roundrobin/2011/10/15/the-big-year-our-movie-review/
Mon@rch’s Nature Blog: http://monarchbfly.com/2011/10/15/birdwatchers-movie-review-the-big-year/
ABA’s Jeff Gordon: http://blog.aba.org/2011/10/the-big-year-time-to-dance.html (which is more of a call to arms, but an effective and well-aimed call to arms — let’s make hay while the sun is shining).
We’re back with another giveaway! This week’s winner will receive a copy of Magical Mathematics by Persi Diaconis & Ron Graham, along with a Magical Mathematics deck of cards to practice your magic tricks!
Magical Mathematics: The Mathematical Ideas that Animate Great Magic Tricks
by Persi Diaconis & Ron Graham, with a foreword by Martin Gardner
Is there a recipe for creating a vibrant, economically viable arts community? (Take two profitable artists, add in one art dealer, one gallery, a splash of music, and hefty rent breaks, and voila, a new arts community.)
The reality is that the arts can be engines of economic growth — look at areas like SoHo, Venice Beach or Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood — and so it isn’t too surprising that the National Endowment of the Arts is throwing its hat in the ring to create the next big place.
In this article “Where do Bohemians Come From?”, USC Urban Planning professor Elizabeth Currid explores the folly of one-size fits all arts spending — apparently Kevin Costner was wrong, if you build it, they might not come, they may just stay where they are. She describes a more organic process of identifying where art is already happening, why it works in that location, and how it can be further supported. Using terrific historical examples (she looks at how trends toward larger art necessitated the use of certain types of buildings — buildings found in SoHo — and contributed to the growth of the neighborhood), she makes a compelling case for a new form of arts spending for growth.
We published Elizabeth’s book The Warhol Economy in 2007, but this new debate has certainly brought its arguments about arts and urban planning to the fore again. Read Chapter 1 here: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s8758.pdf
Continued »Read a terrific profile on Persi Diaconis from the Chronicle Review that begins more like a fantastic, coming of age novel: “Persi Diaconis’s unlikely scholarly career in mathematics began with a disappearing act.”
He was 14 years old and obsessed with magic, spending much of his free time in or around Tannen’s Magic Store, on Times Square, where sleight-of-hand masters regularly gathered to show off tricks and to gossip. There, one of the most influential magicians of the past century, a card maestro named Dai Vernon, saw Diaconis’s prodigious trick dealing and invited the young man to leave New York and join him on the road.
Diaconis vanished from his regular life, dropping out of school and cutting ties with his family. “I packed a little bag—I took some decks of cards and some socks,” remembers Diaconis, now 66 with unruly tufts of white hair, in his office at Stanford University, where he is a professor of mathematics and statistics.
Where do Diaconis’s travels take him? While it may not be too surprising to discover that he grew up to be a renowned magician, it may be slightly more surprising to learn that he ended up being a well-respected mathematician and professor. However, as Diaconis explains — a love of mathematics was a natural outgrowth of his passion for magic. Read the complete profile here: http://wiredcampus.chronicle.com/article/The-Magical-Mind-of-Persi/129404/
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Shumeet Baluja’s novel The Silicon Jungle has received some exciting press this month. Claire Packham’s review at Significance Magazine offers a brief overview of the book, praising Baluja’s accessible approach to the importance of data protection on the internet:
The fundamental point [of the novel] remains clear – that the internet contains a wealth of information on almost every aspect of every part of the lives of a vast proportion of the world’s population. This is a level of personal information that has never before been available, and the potential, either for good or for bad, is endless.
In the Financial Times, contributing editor John Lloyd explores the mysterious world of cyber-hacking and “cybercrime” and questions why these issues are largely untroubling to the collective, “public” imagination of Americans. He mentions The Silicon Jungle as one of the only modern cybercrime novels, praising how Baluja dramatizes the issue:
Baluja illustrates well the obsessive nature of advanced internet work, where the huge banks of information to which Ubatoo/Google has access can be manipulated to produce intimate profiles on almost everything and everyone.
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FACT: “Earth is a planet with a radius of about 6,000 km, moving around the sun once a year in an orbit that is almost circular, although not precisely so. Its farthest distance from the sun, or aphelion, is about 152 million km, and its closest distance, perihelion, is about 147 million km.”
Climate and the Oceans
by Geoffrey K. Vallis
The oceans exert a vital moderating influence on the Earth’s climate system. They provide inertia to the global climate, essentially acting as the pacemaker of climate variability and change, and they provide heat to high latitudes, keeping them habitable. Climate and the Oceans offers a short, self-contained introduction to the subject. This illustrated primer begins by briefly describing the world’s climate system and ocean circulation and goes on to explain the important ways that the oceans influence climate. Topics covered include the oceans’ effects on the seasons, heat transport between equator and pole, climate variability, and global warming. The book also features a glossary of terms, suggestions for further reading, and easy-to-follow mathematical treatments.
Climate and the Oceans is the first place to turn to get the essential facts about this crucial aspect of the Earth’s climate system. Ideal for students and nonspecialists alike, this primer offers the most concise and up-to-date overview of the subject available.
“Readers interested in understanding how the ocean influences climate have had to choose between journalistic, grossly oversimplified accounts and the very technical professional literature. Geoffrey Vallis has now successfully filled that gap with a clear explanation of the ways in which the ocean is both influenced by and influences global climate.”—Carl Wunsch, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“In this crystal-clear little book, Geoffrey Vallis masterfully explains the basics of physical oceanography and the role of the oceans in the climate system. He writes for those conversant with some university-level mathematics and physics, but whose knowledge of the oceans and climate is limited. The book moves smoothly from fundamental principles to topics of current research interest, including natural climate variability, such as El Niño, and the daunting challenge of man-made climate change, or global warming.”—Richard Somerville, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
We invite you to read Chapter 1 here: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s9636.pdf
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Was Charles Darwin the true founder of economics? Can understanding evolutionary biology lead to better tax policies and greater investment in the most productive sectors of the economy? Cornell economist Professor Robert H. Frank argues for Darwin’s foundational role.
In a wide ranging and provocative talk on Monday at Merton College, Oxford, in honour of the PUP European Advisory Board, Frank suggested that Darwin had a fundamental insight which is crucial for understanding the modern economy – that unbridled competition often leads to arms races that do harm to society.
Two members of the board gave lively responses to Frank’s talk. Economist and Financial Times columnist John Kay demonstrated how Darwin’s concept of reproductive fitness provides powerful insights lacking in both the behavioural and standard approaches to economics. Biologist Sunetra Gupta described how Frank’s analysis of arms races produced by economic competition matches the insights of evolutionary biology. If unchecked, both competitions can lead to the “grotesque” – whether the gargantuan antlers of the Irish elk which led to their extinction, or the 20,000 square foot homes of today’s investment bankers.
It was a truly exciting interdisciplinary discussion and a fitting tribute to the work of our European Advisory Board.
Al Bertrand
Publishing Director, Europe
PUP author Thomas J. Sargent, along with Princeton economist Christopher A. Sims, has been awarded the 2011 Nobel 
Prize in Economic Sciences. Sargent, a professor at New York University, is a visiting professor at Princeton University this fall and has co-authored two books with PUP: “The Big Problem of Small Change” with François R. Velde (2003), and “Robustness” with Lars Peter Hansen (2007).
The authors of the new textbook Engineering Dynamics: A Comprehensive Introduction have written a short Primer to the notation used in their book. The notation differs from that used in the traditional suite of introductory texts (Meriam, Bedford & Fowler, Hibbeler, Beer & Johnson), but this more sophisticated notation is necessary because, as Kasdin explains, this textbook is more comprehensive than anything else currently available. Much of the material that requires this notation, such as multiple frames or three-dimensional rigid body rotation, are not covered in other textbooks.
Kasdin notes that the goal of the primer is threefold: “to show that the notation serves a specific purpose and has pedagogical value, to show that it is not as extensive and different as people think (i.e., it can be categorized into a small number of elements), and that we did not invent it, but rather followed common practice, adopting it from many sources, and merely tried to make it more consistent, systematic, and clear.”
He also emphasizes that there are other more complete and advanced books that have adopted some variation of the notation used in Engineering Dynamics, so there are precedents already in place for their decision to utilize this notation.
You can download the primer here.
Continued »Featuring commentary and interviews from Princeton University Press authors, the PUP Blog is a highly respected, timely and indispensable source for learning, understanding and reflection.
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March Mathness
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