Wasps, and their unsung contributions to the ecosystem February 27, 2021 The sting. Pain is what we associate with the word “wasp,” because our definition of wasp is far too narrow. Read More
Emma Rothschild on An Infinite History February 24, 2021 Marie Aymard was an illiterate widow who lived in the provincial town of Angoulême in southwestern France, a place where seemingly nothing ever happened. Yet, in 1764, she made her fleeting mark on the historical record. Read More
Ridding ourselves of a demagogue: What the ancient Greeks would have thought of impeachment February 23, 2021 In 471 BCE, the politician and renowned general Themistocles was exiled from Athens for ten years by a vote of some six thousand Athenians. Read More
An interview with Jeff Deutsch February 19, 2021 We’re thrilled to welcome Jeff Deutsch to the Princeton University Press Board of Trustees. Recently our sales rep Lanora Haradon chatted with Jeff about bookselling, the challenges of the past year, and the key role bookstores play in communities. Read More
The surprising partnership of art and data February 18, 2021 In the mid-1960s, the renowned art historian Jules Prown was jeered. He was presenting new research at the annual meeting of the College Art Association, the principal professional art historical association. Read More
George Washington’s disillusionment February 15, 2021 Today is Presidents Day, a holiday established in the late nineteenth century to celebrate the greatest of America’s founders, George Washington. By the end of his life Washington himself was hardly in a celebratory mood when he reflected on the state of the country. Read More
Celebrating women in STEM February 11, 2021 International Day of Women and Girls in Science marks an opportunity to celebrate the brilliant women whose ideas have graced our bookshelves and touched our minds. Read More
Nicola Suthor on Bravura February 05, 2021 The painterly style known as bravura emerged in sixteenth-century Venice and spread throughout Europe during the seventeenth century. While earlier artistic movements presented a polished image of the artist by downplaying the creative process, bravura celebrated a painter’s distinct materials, virtuosic execution, and theatrical showmanship. Read More
White freedom invades the US Capitol February 03, 2021 On January 6, 2021 a violent mob numbering several thousand individuals invaded the United States Capitol Building in Washington DC, seeking not only to physically attack and even murder members of Congress but more generally to impose by force the reelection of President Donald Trump and thus to overthrow the lawfully elected American government. Read More
Sherlock Holmes and the history of information January 28, 2021 Over Christmas week I reread Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. I had first read them as a child, working slowly through a worn red volume that contained them all. Read More
Jeremy DeSilva on A Most Interesting Problem January 22, 2021 On February 24, 1871 Charles Darwin published The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex, a follow-up to his most famous book On the Origin of Species. Read More
MLK Day reflections on diversifying publishing January 17, 2021 Publishing itself is an act of mutuality, a series of symbiotic relationships ranging from idea and page, to author and publisher, to bookseller and reader. The garments we create—books—are shaped by current knowledge, imagination, and tools, and are also often cloaked by or interwoven with fabrics of history. Read More
Translating science: The real work of forensic scientists January 16, 2021 When I tell people about my new book about forensic scientists, Blood, Powder and Residue: How Crime Labs Translate Evidence into Proof, they usually think about popular TV shows such as “CSI.” But there’s a gap between the public image of scientists and what scientists do, and this gap matters. Read More
Material unfurling, digital scrolling, urban strolling, c. 1830–now January 14, 2021 The companion website, developed with support from Princeton University Press’s Global Equity Grant, supplements The Place of Many Moods: Udaipur’s Painted Lands and India’s Eighteenth Century. While taking the book to broader audiences, the website features objects published and studied for the first time in-depth. Read More
How Each Line Appears | some loose leaves January 04, 2021 Rain in Plural is the much-anticipated fourth collection of poetry by Fiona Sze-Lorrain, who has been praised by The Rumpus as “a master of musicality and enlightening allusions.” In the wholly original world of these poems, Sze-Lorrain addresses both private narratives and the overexposed discourse of the polis, using silence and montage, lyric and antilyric, to envision what she calls “creating between liberties.” Read More
