James B. Nardi on The Hidden Company That Trees Keep February 15, 2023 You can tell a lot about a tree from the company it keeps. James Nardi guides you through the innermost unseen world that trees share with a wondrous array of creatures. Read More
Data Driven February 15, 2023 Long-haul truckers are the backbone of the American economy, transporting goods under grueling conditions and immense economic pressure. Truckers have long valued the day-to-day independence of their work, sharing a strong occupational identity rooted in a tradition of autonomy. Read More
Words for the Heart February 14, 2023 Words for the Heart is a captivating treasury of emotion terms drawn from some of India’s earliest classical languages. Read More
Helen Sword on Writing with Pleasure February 13, 2023 Writing should be a pleasurable challenge, not a painful chore. Writing with Pleasure empowers academic, professional, and creative writers to reframe their negative emotions about writing and reclaim their positive ones. Read More
What the Thunder Said February 07, 2023 When T. S. Eliot published The Waste Land in 1922, it put the thirty-four-year-old author on a path to worldwide fame and the Nobel Prize. “But,” as Jed Rasula writes, “The Waste Land is not only a poem: it names an event, like a tornado or an earthquake. Read More
Sandy Baum and Michael McPherson on Campus Economics February 05, 2023 Campus Economics provides college and university administrators, trustees, and faculty with an essential understanding of how college finances actually work. Read More
Thoreau and the business of distraction February 04, 2023 In his early years, the writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau was a restless young man with a romantic temperament, casting about for a way to make a living without giving up his freedom. Read More
Batman’s holy grotto: The psychic resurrection of Bruce Conner February 02, 2023 Bohemian San Francisco gained a new gathering place in 1960 when the deep-pocketed aspiring painter Billie Jahrmarkt and his wife Joan decided to found a gallery for the benefit of their artistic and literary friends. Two such, artist Bruce Conner and poet/playwright Michael McClure, took the project in hand. Read More
Roland Betancourt on White: The History of a Color February 02, 2023 Moving away from those who might wish to find a universal symbolism or archetypal truth in a color, Michel Pastoureau’s The History of a Color series has sought to understand color as first and foremost a social phenomenon, one with historically grounded realities and effects. Read More
What does it mean to resist surveillance? January 28, 2023 If you talk to a long-haul trucker about why they chose their occupation, there’s a high likelihood they’ll mention autonomy and freedom—that they didn’t want someone looking over their shoulder all the time. Read More
The long past of seaweeds January 27, 2023 Algae are one of life’s most diverse and least appreciated groups, and their rise—and the story of how seaweeds evolved within them—offer a key with which to unlock some of life’s most intricate secrets. Read More
David Drewry on The Land Beneath the Ice January 25, 2023 For some years I had felt need to produce a coherent story about the “big science” project to map the ice thickness of Antarctica and the land that lies beneath. This is truly the last place on Earth to be surveyed. Read More
Betty S. Lai on The Grant Writing Guide January 24, 2023 Grant funding can be a major determinant of promotion and tenure at colleges and universities, yet many scholars receive no training in the crucial skill of grant writing. Read More
Yes, the Chinese care about the Western classics January 24, 2023 Much as in Europe and the US, the ancient Greeks live on in China through their works—at least, recently so. Over the past century, the philosophical and political texts of western antiquity, especially those of classical Athens, have sparked the interest of Chinese intellectuals, journalists, reformers, and nationalists. Read More
Listen in: How the Universe Got Its Spots January 20, 2023 Is the universe infinite or just really big? With this question, cosmologist Janna Levin announces the central theme of this book, which established her as one of the most direct, unorthodox, and creative voices in contemporary science. Read More