Books released during the week of Nov. 26, 2018
Evolution's Bite
A Story of Teeth, Diet, and Human Origins
Peter S. Ungar
"From the start, Mr. Ungar places the evolutionary changes of teeth within the history of scientific discovery. Researchers and their methods have as much presence as the facts they discovered and the hypotheses they developed, providing readers with a short course on the deep science of dental anatomy."--Brian Switek, Wall Street Journal
Hardcover | 2018
Paperback | 2017
eBook available
Data Visualization
A Practical Introduction
Kieran Healy
“Finally! A data visualization guide that is simultaneously practical and elegant. Healy combines the beauty and insight of Tufte with the concrete helpfulness of Stack Exchange. Data Visualization is brimming with insights into how quantitative analysts can use visualization as a tool for understanding and communication. A must-read for anyone who works with data.”—Elizabeth Bruch, University of Michigan
Hardcover | 2018
Paperback | 2018
eBook available
In the Land of a Thousand Gods
A History of Asia Minor in the Ancient World
Christian Marek
In collaboration with Peter Frei
Translated by Steven Rendall
"An expansive, formidable work of scholarship that should prove indispensable to students of the Near East."--Publishers Weekly
Hardcover | 2016
Paperback | 2018
eBook available
Fraud
An American History from Barnum to Madoff
Edward J. Balleisen
"Balleisen's lucid, engagingly written mix of institutional and legal history, behavioral economics, and entertaining anecdotes illuminates this land of bilk and money."--Publishers Weekly
Paperback | 2018
eBook available
Failing in the Field
What We Can Learn When Field Research Goes Wrong
Dean Karlan & Jacob Appel
"Highly recommended."--Karen Shook, Times Higher Education
Hardcover | 2016
Paperback | 2018
eBook available
Village Atheists
How America's Unbelievers Made Their Way in a Godly Nation
Leigh Eric Schmidt
"This well-written and lively text will be of interest to both scholars and more general readers with an interest in American irreligion."--Publishers Weekly
Hardcover | 2017
Paperback | 2018
eBook available
The New Ecology
Rethinking a Science for the Anthropocene
Oswald J. Schmitz
"Featuring novel ideas communicated clearly, this book is likely to have broad appeal. . . . The book proposes that humans integrate themselves and their activity into a natural ecological niche, striving to control their impact on the natural environment by understanding and engineering their place in it. . . . The New Ecology is persuasive in its argument that conscientious stewardship is more productive than an attempt to separate humans from the environment completely. . . . Conversational in tone, non-ecologists will comprehend the book easily, and ecologists will be interested in the fresh concepts."--Foreword
Hardcover | 2016
Paperback | 2018
eBook available
Books released during the week of Nov. 19, 2018
The Miraculous Flying House of Loreto
Spreading Catholicism in the Early Modern World
Karin Vélez
"Through close examination of the Catholic devotion known as ‘Our Lady of Loreto’ and its spread from Europe to various locations in the Americas, this wonderful and moving book offers a compelling case that Catholicism’s expansion was not just accomplished by force, but much more often occurred through the agency of people who survived chaotic events and accidental journeys."—Diana Walsh Pasulka, author of Heaven Can Wait
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
Newton the Alchemist
Science, Enigma, and the Quest for Nature's "Secret Fire"
William R. Newman
"Newton the Alchemist is a tour de force proving beyond any doubt Newton’s extraordinary debt to ‘chymistry,’ the alchemical art of analysis and synthesis. A magnificent achievement, this book stands as the definitive treatment of Newton on alchemy."—Jed Z. Buchwald, coauthor of Newton and the Origin of Civilization
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
Viruses as Complex Adaptive Systems
Ricard Solé and Santiago F. Elena
"This book demonstrates how viruses, besides being fascinating organisms, can provide experimental tests and case studies for many of the evolutionary processes that are important to biologists."—Lin Chao, University of California, San Diego
Paperback | 2018
eBook available
Walter Kaufmann
Philosopher, Humanist, Heretic
Stanley Corngold
"Luminous biography."--Kirkus
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
A Well-Ordered Thing
Dmitrii Mendeleev and the Shadow of the Periodic Table Revised Edition
Michael D. Gordin
"Fascinating."—Publishers Weekly
Paperback | 2018
eBook available
When All Else Fails
The Ethics of Resistance to State Injustice
Jason Brennan
"A superb book. Brennan clearly and convincingly defends the radical idea that ordinary citizens may use force against injustice perpetrated by government officials, just as they would against fellow citizens."—Christopher Heath Wellman, Washington University in St. Louis
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
The Winding Road to the Welfare State
Economic Insecurity and Social Welfare Policy in Britain
George R. Boyer
"The Winding Road to the Welfare State represents a major contribution to the study of more than a century of British social and economic history, and has important implications for the debates on contemporary welfare and redistribution policy in the West."—Stanley Engerman, professor emeritus, University of Rochester
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
Books released during the week of Nov. 12, 2018
The Best Writing on Mathematics 2018
Edited by Mircea Pitici
"A variety of thoroughly accessible works that tie abstract math to the real world. . . . [G]ives readers an entertaining look at the odd, the amusing, and the utilitarian without requiring any more than a readerly curiosity."—Publishers Weekly
Paperback | 2018
eBook available
Contested Tastes
Foie Gras and the Politics of Food
Michaela DeSoucey
"In Contested Tastes, we find not just detailed case studies, but an overview of contemporary food politics which challenges assertions about what we have on our plates and why it matters."—George Berridge, Times Literary Supplement
Paperback | 2018
Hardcover | 2016
eBook available
Epistemology
Ernest Sosa
"Ambitious."—Choice
Paperback | 2018
Hardcover | 2017
eBook available
Feeding Gotham
The Political Economy and Geography of Food in New York, 1790–1860
Gergely Baics
"Baics carefully and methodically examines the causes and effects of economic and political forces that have changed the access of food distributions in New York City. . . . This valuable book provides the necessary background to better understand current circumstances."—Choice
Paperback | 2018
Hardcover | 2017
eBook available
The Flood Year 1927
A Cultural History
Susan Scott Parrish
"Using vivid explanations of key literary and musical works complemented by contemporary illustrations, Parrish . . . successfully demonstrates that the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 left a lasting, modernizing cultural imprint. . . . A thoughtful comparison of 1927's events to 2005's Hurricane Katrina aftermath highlights continuing issues concerning the manipulation of natural flood controls and its effect on impoverished, low-lying neighborhoods. Throughout, Parrish successfully and eloquently captures the sense of humanity and personal loss among the million refugees whose experiences gave rise to artistic efforts and environmental issues that continue to resonate."—Publishers Weekly
Paperback | 2018
Hardcover | 2017
eBook available
A Fraught Embrace
The Romance and Reality of AIDS Altruism in Africa
Ann Swidler & Susan Cotts Watkins
"A concise, insightful work, and its contribution extends well beyond its immediate context of AIDS altruism in Malawi."—Brad Crofford, African Studies Quarterly
Paperback | 2018
Hardcover | 2017
eBook available
Gods and Robots
Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology
Adrienne Mayor
"In her new book, Gods and Robots, Adrienne Mayor draws comparisons between mythical androids and ancient robots and the AI of today. . . . Through detailed storytelling and careful analysis of popular myths, Mayor urges readers to consider lessons learned from these stories as we set about creating a new world with AI. . . . Wonderful storytelling, thorough research, and impressive expertise."—Sarah Olson, Science
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
The Golden Rhinoceros
Histories of the African Middle Ages
François-Xavier Fauvelle
"Fauvelle offers a brilliant riposte to how little we know about precolonial Africa: approach it from the perspective of global history. African history has never felt more alive. If I were a historian of Africa, this is the book that I would like to have written."—Timothy Brook, author of Vermeer’s Hat and Mr. Selden’s Map of China
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
Ireland's Immortals
A History of the Gods of Irish Myth
Mark Williams
"[A] fascinating history and in Mark Williams's Ireland’s Immortals it has found a magnificent historian. Williams . . . is equally at home in the arcana of Old Irish texts and modern English-language writing, and it is this range of erudition that has allowed him to write the first full overview of the long twilight of the Irish gods. Ireland’s Immortals is not just a history of their afterlife—it deserves to be seen as itself a part of that history."—Fintan O’Toole, New York Review of Books
Paperback | 2018
Hardcover | 2016
eBook available
John Adams and the Fear of American Oligarchy
Luke Mayville
"A needed examination of Adams's political thought on wealth-based aristocracy or oligarchy."—Choice
Paperback | 2018
Hardcover | 2016
eBook available
Leaks, Hacks, and Scandals
Arab Culture in the Digital Age
Tarek El-Ariss
"Through riveting examples ranging from anonymous hackers targeting the Lebanese government to renegade Saudi Twitter users, El-Ariss provides a compelling look at the links between contemporary Arabic literary production and the culture of scandal. Leaks, Hacks, and Scandals is required reading for anyone seeking to understand contemporary Arab culture in the digital age."—Brian T. Edwards, author of After the American Century: The Ends of U.S. Culture in the Middle East
Paperback | 2018
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
The Making of the Medieval Middle East
Religion, Society, and Simple Believers
Jack Tannous
"In this strikingly original book, Jack Tannous has delivered a frontal assault on traditional assumptions about early Islam. His absorbing and persuasive exercise in microhistory focuses on the lived experience of ordinary people and presents us with a continuing Christian Middle East until at least the eleventh century."—Averil Cameron, University of Oxford
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
The Manhattan Nobody Knows
An Urban Walking Guide
William B. Helmreich
"What makes this book so appealing, besides the people you’ll meet, is that it’s not just for tourists. The Manhattan Nobody Knows is written for inquisitive New Yorkers, too."—Sam Roberts, New York Times
Paperback | 2018
eBook available
Scurvy
The Disease of Discovery
Jonathan Lamb
With a coda written by James May and Fiona Harrison
"Lamb's work is a virtuoso set of variations around his theme. . . . If readers take Lamb on his own terms, and appreciate his wide-ranging approach, they will find much of interest."—Anne Crowther, Times Literary Supplement
Paperback | 2018
Hardcover | 2016
eBook available
A Short History of German Philosophy
Vittorio Hösle
Translated by Steven Rendall
"Vittorio Hösle wrote this book for general readers and he has succeeded. I have rarely encountered such lucid and forceful explanations of complex philosophical arguments; the discussions of Hegel and Heidegger are exemplary."—Chad Wellmon, University of Virginia
Paperback | 2018
Hardcover | 2016
eBook available
Books released during the week of Nov. 5, 2018
How to Fall Slower Than Gravity
And Other Everyday (and Not So Everyday) Uses of Mathematics and Physical Reasoning
Paul J. Nahin
"A fascinating tour de force of a variety of problems covering pure and applied mathematics, physics, and engineering that will keep your mind busy for days. You'll encounter lots of surprises, a healthy dose of challenging math, and many historical episodes told here for the first time. Highly recommended!"—Eli Maor, author of To Infinity and Beyond
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
The Life of Walatta-Petros
A Seventeenth-Century Biography of an African Woman, Concise Edition
Translated and edited by Wendy Laura Belcher and Michael Kleiner
Written by Galawdewos
"By 2050, Africans will constitute around a third of the world’s Christian population, roughly a billion people, and over a hundred million of those will live in Ethiopia. As we confront that new reality, the need to rediscover those African cultural and spiritual roots becomes imperative. The story of Walatta-Petros is a wonderful contribution to this task."—Philip Jenkins, Books & Culture
Paperback | 2018
eBook available
A People's Constitution
The Everyday Life of Law in the Indian Republic
Rohit De
"This book offers genuinely original insights into the transformation of India’s Constitution into a living reality of social and economic life. Its emphasis on the role of ordinary citizens, and civil society organizations, provides a fascinating perspective ignored in standard accounts focusing on the statecraft of political elites in New Delhi."—Bruce Ackerman, Yale University
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
Quantum Many-Body Physics in a Nutshell
Edward Shuryak
"Shuryak’s book is a truly unique contribution to the many-body textbook literature. It employs modern ideas of path integrals and renormalization to provide a unified perspective on many different systems and problems."—Willem H. Dickhoff, Washington University in St. Louis
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
Where Economics Went Wrong
Chicago's Abandonment of Classical Liberalism
David Colander and Craig Freedman
"By 2050, Africans will constitute around a third of the world’s Christian population, roughly a billion people, and over a hundred million of those will live in Ethiopia. As we confront that new reality, the need to rediscover those African cultural and spiritual roots becomes imperative. The story of Walatta-Petros is a wonderful contribution to this task."—Philip Jenkins, Books & Culture
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
Books released during the week of Oct. 29, 2018
American Jesuits and the World
How an Embattled Religious Order Made Modern Catholicism Global
John T. McGreevy
"McGreevy's deeply researched work sheds significant light on the European Jesuits' role in shaping modern America."—Publishers Weekly
Paperback | 2018
Hardcover | 2016
eBook available
As a City on a Hill
The Story of America's Most Famous Lay Sermon
Daniel T. Rodgers
"[Daniel Rodgers] argues that the comparison of America to a city on a hill that politicians often use, quoting from John Winthrop’s 1630 lay sermon ‘Model of Christian Charity,’ is not true to the sermon’s original sentiment and distorts the historical legacy of the passage. . . . It wasn’t until Cold War–era writers and thinkers revisited the ‘Model’ in search of evidence of America’s universal nature (ignoring the text’s historical context) that it regained popularity. Through a winding, enthralling timeline, Rodgers successfully illuminates the strange history of ‘a text that we think we know so well that we barely know it at all.’"—Publishers Weekly
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
Journalists between Hitler and Adenauer
From Inner Emigration to the Moral Reconstruction of West Germany
Volker R. Berghahn
"This major historical work focuses on the careers of three exemplary journalists, and looks at the evolution of West German journalism and of Hamburg as a journalistic metropolis. Journalists between Hitler and Adenauer reminds us of the enormous influence once exerted by newspapers and magazines and makes an original contribution to our understanding of the roots of the modern Federal Republic."—David E. Barclay, executive director of the German Studies Association
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
Just Giving
Why Philanthropy Is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better
Rob Reich
"Surveying philanthropy from ancient Athens to the modern-day Rockefeller Foundation, and political philosophers from John Stuart Mill to John Rawls, Stanford political science professor Reich . . . mounts a wide-ranging critique of charity and the government preferments that subsidize it. . . . A lucid, thought-provoking analysis of the public impact of charity."—Publishers Weekly
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
Making Up Your Own Mind
Thinking Effectively through Creative Puzzle-Solving
Edward B. Burger
"We often claim that education should not just teach facts; it should help us learn how to think clearly. Making Up Your Own Mind is a book that takes that goal seriously. It is brilliantly constructed, clearly written, and fun."—William C. Powers Jr., former President of the University of Texas, Austin
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
The Myth of the Eternal Return
Cosmos and History
Mircea Eliade
Translated from the French by Willard R. Trask.
With an introduction by Jonathan Z. Smith.
Luminous, profound and extremely stimulating. . . . This is an essay which everyone interested in the history of religion and in the mentality of ancient man will have to read. It is difficult to speak too highly of it.—Review of Religion
Paperback | 2018
Uneven Centuries
Economic Development of Turkey since 1820
Şevket Pamuk
"The story of the economy and institutions of the Turkish Republic is often told as if there was a sharp rupture with the Ottoman era. The reality is much more complex, with many lines of continuity and the long shadow of the Ottoman past shaping many aspects of Turkish economic and political development. There is no better source that exposits these continuities and explains in what ways Turkey has changed and in what ways it has remained trapped by its past than this erudite, well-researched book. A must-read for anybody interested in Turkish economic history and the general institutional and economic problems of the developing world."—Daron Acemoglu, coauthor of Why Nations Fail
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
Books released during the week of Oct. 22, 2018
Bankers and Bolsheviks
International Finance and the Russian Revolution
Hassan Malik
"A highly readable tale of one of history’s biggest booms and busts, with valuable perspective for contemporary investors."—Emmanuel Roman, CEO, PIMCO
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
The Calculus Gallery
Masterpieces from Newton to Lebesgue
William Dunham
With a new preface by the author
"The Calculus Gallery is a wonderful book. The style is inviting; the explanations are clear and accessible…. Mathematicians, scientists, and historians alike can learn much that is interesting, much that is mathematically significant, and a good deal that is both."—Judith V. Grabiner, Science
Paperback | 2018
eBook available
The Correspondence of Henry D. Thoreau
Volume 2: 1849-1856
Henry D. Thoreau
Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth, with Elizabeth Hall Witherell and Lihong Xie
This is the second volume in the first full-scale scholarly edition of Thoreau’s correspondence in more than half a century. When completed, the edition’s three volumes will include every extant letter written or received by Thoreau—in all, almost 650 letters, roughly 150 more than in any previous edition, including dozens that have never before been published.
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
Dark Commerce
How a New Illicit Economy Is Threatening Our Future
Louise I. Shelley
"Dark Commerce tells a gripping tale of how the exponential growth of illicit trade is risking human and planetary well-being. Shelley documents the mechanisms of illicit trade and helps us understand how it is causing an explosion in environmental crime and contributing to the world’s sixth extinction. Revealing the sordid underbelly of a globalized trading system, this book is a must-read for all who are concerned with our collective future."—Frances Beinecke, former president of the Natural Resources Defense Council
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
Digital Renaissance
What Data and Economics Tell Us about the Future of Popular Culture
Joel Waldfogel
"Is it the best of times or the worst of times for the entertainment industry? It depends on whether you ask the producers or the consumers. Distilling knowledge gleaned from years of research, Joel Waldfogel digs into this question with gusto and comes up with a definitive answer for all."—Hal R. Varian, Chief Economist, Google
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
The Final Act
The Helsinki Accords and the Transformation of the Cold War
Michael Cotey Morgan
"The Final Act is a masterpiece. Michael Cotey Morgan tells a complex story with a novelist’s attention to narrative and a historian’s depth and scope. This will be, I am confident, the definitive work on the most important development in international relations of the postwar period."—Philip Bobbitt, author of The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace, and the Course of History
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
Fugitive Democracy
And Other Essays
Sheldon S. Wolin
Edited by Nicholas Xenos
"These essays are stunning. No one speaks for democracy as Wolin does."—Anne Norton, author of On the Muslim Question
Paperback | 2018
Hardcover | 2016
eBook available
The Genome Factor
What the Social Genomics Revolution Reveals about Ourselves, Our History, and the Future
Dalton Conley & Jason Fletcher
"A fresh look at the nature vs. nurture debate. . . . Illuminating."—Kirkus
Paperback | 2018
Hardcover | 2017
eBook available
Gulls Simplified
A Comparative Approach to Identification
Pete Dunne and Kevin T. Karlson
"Dunne and Karlson’s beautiful and engaging book fills a need and will be much appreciated by the birding community."—Dennis Paulson, author of Shorebirds of North America
Paperback | 2018
eBook available
How to Walk on Water and Climb up Walls
Animal Movement and the Robots of the Future
David L. Hu
"I recommend this book to all interested in biology and nature-inspired engineering. They will learn much and be marvelously entertained."—Bert Hölldobler, coauthor of The Ants
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
Masters of Craft
Old Jobs in the New Urban Economy
Richard E. Ocejo
"A sociologist walks in a bar . . . and discovers the soul of a new economy . . . Mr. Ocejo has a good eye and ear. He has talked to a lot of people. And his book is full of acutely heard and closely observed details."—William L. Hamilton, Wall Street Journal
Paperback | 2018
Hardcover | 2017
eBook available
Moved to Tears
Rethinking the Art of the Sentimental in the United States
Rebecca Bedell
"An important contribution to American art history, Moved to Tears focuses our attention on a hugely critical element—the sentimental—that dominated the production and reception of art until the success of modernist art around 1900. Beautifully written, Bedell’s case is well-made and irrefutable, and stands as a correction to our tendencies to disregard or devalue the emotional elements of nineteenth-century art." —Bruce Robertson, author of Marsden Hartley
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
The Power of Networks
Six Principles That Connect Our Lives
Christopher G. Brinton & Mung Chiang
"Authoritative but accessible. . . . Pitched perfectly at the reader with a background in technology who's interested in finding out more about the principles that underpin so much of daily life. . . . This isn’t a superficial book though, and the easily grasped comparisons lead on to an in-depth treatment, though without the maths of a full-blown text book."—Dominic Lenton, Engineering and Technology
Paperback | 2018
Hardcover | 2016
eBook available
The Real Planet of the Apes
A New Story of Human Origins
David R. Begun
"[The Real Planet of the Apes] is enthralling, making accessible an absolutely critical period of human evolution and scientific debates surrounding the interpretation of its evidence—including [Begun's] own controversial thesis."—Steven Mithen, New York Review of Books
Paperback | 2018
Hardcover | 2015
eBook available
Restoration
The Fall of Napoleon in the Course of European Art, 1812-1820
Thomas Crow
"A major scholarly achievement and an exhilarating read, Restoration provides an absorbing narrative about European art during and after the fall of the Napoleonic Empire. With a wealth of fresh interpretations, this extraordinarily wide-ranging, authoritative, and concise book gives us a new understanding of art under the Restoration as uniquely unstable, provisional, and mobile."—Bridget Alsdorf, Princeton University
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
Setting the People Free
The Story of Democracy, Second Edition
John Dunn
With a new preface and conclusion
"A marvellously rich book."—David Marquand, New Statesman
Paperback | 2018
eBook available
Smack-Bam, or The Art of Governing Men
Political Fairy Tales of Édouard Laboulaye
Translated and edited by Jack Zipes
"In this collection, Jack Zipes, the most important fairy-tale scholar of his generation, revives the considerable work of nineteenth-century French jurist and politician Édouard Laboulaye, whose fairy tales have not been previously anthologized, much less republished or critically studied. This latest discovery is a welcome one, and Zipes’s translations of the tales are extremely well done."—Domna C. Stanton, coeditor of Enchanted Eloquence: Fairy Tales by Seventeenth-Century French Women Writers
Paperback | 2018
eBook available
Theology and the Scientific Imagination
From the Middle Ages to the Seventeenth Century, Second Edition
Amos Funkenstein
With a foreword by Jonathan Sheehan
"A bold study of ideas . . . bristling with insight and perceptive reinterpretation of familiar episodes in the history of natural philosophy." —David C. Lindberg, Journal of the History of Medicine
Paperback | 2018
eBook available
To Cast the First Stone
The Transmission of a Gospel Story
Jennifer Knust and Tommy Wasserman
"Brilliantly conceived, massively researched, and convincingly argued, Knust and Wasserman’s wide-ranging analysis of the pericope adulterae is a milestone in the field of textual studies, destined to be the definitive account for a generation."—Bart D. Ehrman, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Hardcover | 2018
eBook available
Workers' Tales
Socialist Fairy Tales, Fables, and Allegories from Great Britain
Edited by Michael Rosen
"This is a wonderful and wonder-filled collection, which testifies not only to the breadth of the human imagination but also to the enduring importance of my favourite virtue, hope. There couldn’t be a better time to bring these stories back into print. We need them more than ever."—Philip Pullman
Paperback | 2018
eBook available