‘Tis the season for giving—and we’re feeling very generous today! We’re hosting 2 book giveaways next week, one on our main PUP Facebook page, and the other on our Princeton Birds and Natural History Facebook page. 1 winner from each page will be selected Thursday, December 22 at noon. All you have to do is “like” our Facebook pages and you’ll be entered to win! Here are the details:

On our main PUP Facebook page, the winner will get to choose a prize from 3 of our bestsellers: On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt, Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn’t Buy Presents for the Holidays by Joel Waldfogel, and Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk among Us by John Quiggin. The choice is yours! Just be sure to “like” us by next Thursday at noon!

Over on our Princeton Birds and Natural History Facebook page, we’re giving away a copy of The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds by Richard Crossley. This stunningly illustrated book from acclaimed birder and photographer Richard Crossley revolutionizes field guide design by providing the first real-life approach to identification. “Like” this page by Thursday at noon if you haven’t already to win!

Good luck, and Happy Holidays from Princeton University Press!

According to an AP article, protesters in NY were urged to “dress up as corporate zombies and eat Monopoly money to let financial workers ‘see us reflecting the metaphor of their actions.’” What, they ran out of brains?

For a take on real Zombie Economics, read John Quiggin’s book (or at least this excerpt).

FACT: “In the years before 1981 (the end of the Volcker recession) recessions in the United States were relatively frequent, about one every five years. The National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) committee defined nine recessions between 1945 and 1981, two of which (those of the early 1970s and the double-dip recession of 1980-1981) were both long and severe. By contrast, the period from 1981 to 2007 was one of long expansions and short recessions. In the entire period, there were only two recessions, in 1990-91 and 2001, and each lasted only eight months.”

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.

Zombie Economics takes the reader through the origins, consequences, and implosion of a system of ideas whose time has come and gone. These beliefs—that deregulation had conquered the financial cycle, that markets were always the best judge of value, that policies designed to benefit the rich made everyone better off—brought us to the brink of disaster once before, and their persistent hold on many threatens to do so again. Because these ideas will never die unless there is an alternative, Zombie Economics also looks ahead at what could replace market liberalism, arguing that a simple return to traditional Keynesian economics and the politics of the welfare state will not be enough—either to kill dead ideas, or prevent future crises.

“Entertaining and thought-provoking. . . . [W]orks as a good summary for non-specialists of how the economics debate has developed.”—Philip Coggan, Economist

“Quiggin is a writer of great verve who marshals some powerful evidence.”—Financial Times (FT Critics Pick 2010)

We invite you to read the Introduction here: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i9270.pdf

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.

Contrary to what you may imagine the more appropriate month… the Zombie Research Society has assigned the month of May (not October) to celebrate Zombie Awareness. The reason? According to the ZRS, “[m]any films important to the evolution of the modern zombie are set in the month of May, from the original Night of the Living Dead, 1968, to the well received Dawn of The Dead remake of 2004.” Plus, Spring “naturally brings with it a sense of renewal and hopefulness,” praising May as “the perfect month to emphasize continued vigilance in the face of the coming zombie pandemic.” And while October may be marked with the tradition of Halloween – zombies in general, and the threat that they tend to embody, are not connected with the holiday as some may believe. So, to celebrate, check out two of our favorite Zombie books:

(1)Theories of International Politics and Zombies by Daniel W. Drezner
Correcting the zombie gap in international relations thinking and addressing the genuine but publicly unacknowledged fear of the dead rising from the grave, Theories of International Politics and Zombies presents political tactics and strategies accessible enough for any zombie to digest.
Read the Introduction.

(2) Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk Among Us by John Quiggin
Zombie Economics takes the reader through the origins, consequences, and implosion of a system of ideas whose time has come and gone. These beliefs–that deregulation had conquered the financial cycle, that markets were always the best judge of value, that policies designed to benefit the rich made everyone better off–brought us to the brink of disaster once before, and their persistent hold on many threatens to do so again. Because these ideas will never die unless there is an alternative, Zombie Economics also looks ahead at what could replace market liberalism, arguing that a simple return to traditional Keynesian economics and the politics of the welfare state will not be enough–either to kill dead ideas, or prevent future crises.
Read the Introduction.

FYI: Supporters of Zombie Awareness Month sport a gray ribbon to signify “the undead shadows that lurk behind our modern light of day. From May 1 through May 31, concerned citizens take this small step to acknowledge the coming danger.”

Enjoy Zombie Awareness Month, all!

Five Princeton books were recently featured in Financial Times‘ Nonfiction Round-Up for 2010! Here’s what FT had to say about them:

Business & Economics

	Banking on the Future: The Fall and Rise of Central Banking, by Howard Davies and David Green The best assessment yet of the role played by the leading western central banks – the US Federal Reserve, the ECB and the Bank of England – in the run-up to the financial crisis and beyond, from two former insiders at the top level of UK policymaking.
	Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk Among Us, by John Quiggin A critical look, from a left-leaning perspective, at some of the defining intellectual fashions of the past three decades. Quiggin is a writer of great verve who marshals some powerful evidence.
	Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy, by Raghuram G Rajan A high-powered yet accessible analysis of the financial crisis and its aftermath, Fault Lines was awarded the FT/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year. Rajan, a University of Chicago economist, was one of the few who warned that the crisis was coming and his book fizzes with striking and thought-provoking ideas.

Science & Environment

Honeybee Democracy, by Thomas D Seeley The year’s most enchanting science book. Seeley, biology professor at Cornell University, distils the insights of 40 years studying and keeping bees. He focuses on the astonishing “democratic” process that takes place when a swarm of thousands of bees leaves an overcrowded hive to find a new home: how scouts evaluate potential sites and advertise their merits, how a final choice is made, and how the swarm navigates to its new nest.

Sport

Gaming the World: How Sports Are Reshaping Global Politics and Culture, by Andrei S Markovits and Lars Rensmann A very readable guide to the recent globalisation of sport by academics who understand both US and European sports. Packed with examples, from David Beckham to Kobe Bryant, the book explores the tension between sport’s globalisation and the fact that most teams still arouse the greatest emotions in their local areas.

Definitely a great year of non-fiction books! Congratulations to all authors mentioned!

Continued »

Over at Crooked Timber Zombie Economics author John Quiggin writes:

I’ve been living with the text of Zombie Economics for a long time and the cover art came out a while back. But now I finally have my hands on a physical copy of the book, and it’s surprising what a difference the real object makes. My immediate reaction was to open it with dread, sure that some terrible error would jump out at me, but that didn’t happen (no doubt the reviewers will find them, but that’s their job).

With that out of the road, I’ve been filled with irrational confidence. “Surely”, I think, “even the most jaded traveller, passing this book on the airport bookstall, will feel impelled to buy it”. No doubt, this optimistic glow won’t survive the arrival of actual sales figures, but I’m enjoying it while it lasts.

While some of his commentators aren’t sure his book would be stocked in an airport bookstore because he’s not “Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin or Ann Coulter,” here’s hoping Quiggin’s right!

Harvard Book Store shows some love to Princeton University Press titles The Whites of Their Eyes: The Tea Party’s Revolution and the Battle over American History by Jill Lepore and Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk among Us by John Quiggin. Check out this display from their front window.

Watch this great bloggingheads discussion about why social scientists seem to gravitate toward zombies, as opposed to cyborgs for example.

Further evidence that the zombies are among us? If you had searched for the term zombie on Princeton University Press’s web site prior to the summer of 2010, you would have found exactly 0 hits. Now, however, a quick keyword search discovers 3 books:

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

Theories of International Politics and Zombies by Daniel W. Drezner (mentioned in the bloggingheads segment above)

The Best Writing on Mathematics: 2010 edited by Mircea Pitici (one of the essays is Samuel Arbesman on the epidemiology of the undead in zombie flicks)

Without a doubt, one of our most hotly anticipated titles of this fall is Zombie Economics: How Dead Ideas Still Walk Among Us. In this new book, fittingly scheduled for a Halloween release date, Australian economist John Quiggin combines a comprehensive explanation of the “dead ideas” that must be eradicated in order to avoid another financial crisis with our fascination with the living dead, producing a magnetic page-turner.

Zombie Economics‘s lighthearted yet grave message is not only apparent in his writing – it literally spans from cover to cover. As you can see on the right (click all images to enlarge), the synthesis of humor and severity of the content is represented perfectly by the cover design, and many of you have asked us via the Zombie Economics Facebook Page who is responsible for this incredible cover. Well, you’re about to find out.

Here at PUP, we have a very talented production department, and our book designers are the crème de la crème – Junior Book Designer Karl Spurzem and Illustration Manager Dimitri Karetnikov worked in tandem on this project to create the awesome (and gruesome) cover you see before you. We asked them a few questions about how this cover came to life (note: while Karl said that he would avoid “cheesey jokes about ‘bringing it to life,’ I couldn’t help myself)

Read more after the jump!

We’re launching our Fall 2010 list this week with our sales conference. We invite you to be the first to checkout our new catalog online. http://press.princeton.edu/catalogs/F10trade.html Also available in PDF format: http://press.princeton.edu/catalogs/F10Seasonal.pdf