Books released during the week of February 18, 2019
Following the Wild Bees
The Craft and Science of Bee Hunting
Thomas D. Seeley
Following the Wild Bees is a delightful foray into the pastime of bee hunting, an exhilarating outdoor activity that used to be practiced widely but which few people know about today. Weaving informative discussions of bee biology with colorful anecdotes, personal insights, and beautiful photos, Thomas Seeley describes the history and science behind this lost pastime and how anyone can do it.
Paperback | 2019
eBook available
Chasing Innovation
Making Entrepreneurial Citizens in Modern India
Lilly Irani
"Chasing Innovation challenges dominant discourses and practices enacted in the name of innovation in contemporary India. Irani is an exemplary scholar who combines original research with careful attention to a range of relevant literature. Written with sophistication, nuance, critical insight, and compassion, this book will be a significant contribution across multiple fields."—Lucy Suchman, Lancaster University
Hardcover | 2019
Paperback | 2019
eBook available
Markets, Games, and Strategic Behavior
An Introduction to Experimental Economics (Second Edition)
Charles A. Holt
"Charlie Holt has been at the very forefront in bringing experiments into the mainstream of economic research and, especially, in using experiments to teach economics. This book will give undergraduates or masters students a chance to learn from a pioneering experimenter and a master teacher."—Alvin Roth, Stanford University
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
Philosophy of Physics
Quantum Theory
Tim Maudlin
"Tim Maudlin is one of the world’s leading experts on the philosophy of physics, and he has a gift for digging deeply into foundations and explaining clearly what is there. This excellent book will be very valuable to students first encountering the philosophy of quantum mechanics. Maudlin’s strategy of introducing the subject through eight experiments is itself worth the price of admission."—Sean Carroll, California Institute of Technology
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
Relativity
The Special and the General Theory - 100th Anniversary Edition
Albert Einstein
With commentaries and background material by Hanoch Gutfreund and Jürgen Renn
"This new edition of Einstein’s popular presentation of both special and general relativity is a joy to read. Over the past hundred years, relativity has been brought to the public in many forms—magazines, books, documentaries—but there’s nothing quite like being guided through one of the most profound scientific insights of all time by the master himself."—Brian Greene, Columbia University
Paperback | 2019
eBook available
To End All Wars, New Edition
Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order
Thomas J. Knock
With a new preface by the author
"Thomas Knock brings Woodrow Wilson, America's most misunderstood president, into the light and shows why he remains one of our greatest. Wilson was the first president to foresee a path to peace and no leader after him has yet found a better way."—Elizabeth Cobbs, author of American Umpire
Paperback | 2019
eBook available
Books released during the week of February 11, 2019
Eva Palmer Sikelianos
A Life in Ruins
Artemis Leontis
"This is an important, inspired, and frequently riveting book. Artemis Leontis’s sophisticated storytelling is no small part of what makes it such a dynamic and successful biography."—Emily Greenwood, Yale University
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
Evidence for Hope
Making Human Rights Work in the 21st Century
Kathryn Sikkink
"[Sikkink] effectively demonstrates what has been done in the past, giving doubters and pessimists reason to hope about what can be done in the future. From a scholarly activist, a solid and encouraging piece of research on the status of human rights around the world."—Kirkus
Hardcover | 2017
Paperback | 2019
eBook available
The Plaid Model
(AMS-198)
Richard Evan Schwartz
Outer billiards provides a toy model for planetary motion and exhibits intricate and mysterious behavior even for seemingly simple examples. It is a dynamical system in which a particle in the plane moves around the outside of a convex shape according to a scheme that is reminiscent of ordinary billiards. The Plaid Model, which is a self-contained sequel to Richard Schwartz’s Outer Billiards on Kites, provides a combinatorial model for orbits of outer billiards on kites.
Hardcover | 2019
Paperback | 2019
eBook available
Revolutionizing the Sciences
European Knowledge in Transition, 1500-1700 Third Edition
Peter Dear
"Succinct, well-organized, and clearly written, this is an excellent account of the intellectual transformation of our understanding of the natural world between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries."—Paula Findlen, Stanford University
Paperback | 2019
Saint Patrick Retold
The Legend and History of Ireland's Patron Saint
Roy Flechner
"This superb and stylishly executed work does a splendid job of surveying the life of Patrick, ending with a helpful overview of later developments of the saint in popular culture. Filling a gap, this impressive work will be gratefully received by historians of late antiquity and early medieval Britain and Ireland, and Celticists, not to mention a large body of general readers."—Mark Williams, author of Ireland’s Immortals
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
audiobook available
A Thirst for Empire
How Tea Shaped the Modern World
Erika Rappaport
"[Rappaport] tells with authority how tea and the culture of tea drinking has influenced the greater history of the British Empire and the British-influenced world beyond. . . . [Her] description of the ways in which tea has been marketed over the years is entirely absorbing."—Simon Winchester, New York Times Book Review
Hardcover | 2017
Paperback | 2019
eBook available
Time in Ecology
A Theoretical Framework [MPB 61]
Eric Post
"Post’s book makes a significant contribution both as a compendium of some of his long-term data and a presentation of some novel perspectives on phenology."—David William Inouye, coauthor of Techniques for Pollination Biologists
Hardcover | 2019
Paperback | 2019
eBook available
Books released during the week of February 4, 2019
The Moral Nexus
R. Jay Wallace
"The Moral Nexus impressively develops and defends a distinctive view of the essential nature of moral obligation. This ambitious and sophisticated book makes a novel and significant contribution."—Sarah Stroud, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
On Freedom
Cass R. Sunstein
"This slip of a book can be quickly read, but puts forth important concepts. Its ideas will stay with readers a long time."—Publishers Weekly
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
How Global Currencies Work
Past, Present, and Future
Barry Eichengreen, Arnaud Mehl, and Livia Chiţu
"The authors conclude that the euro, in particular, will play a more consequential role in international reserves relative to the US dollar, while China’s renminbi will be slower to achieve acceptance."—Ian McLennan, Spear's Magazine
Hardcover | 2017
Paperback | 2019
eBook available
Origins of the Kabbalah
Gershom Scholem
With a new foreword by David Biale. Edited by R. J. Zwi Werblowsky. Translated by Allan Arkush.
"No great textual scholar, no master of philology and historical criticism commands a technique at once more scrupulously attentive to its object and more instinctive with the writer’s voice [than Scholem]. That voice reaches out and grabs the layman."—George Steiner, New Yorker
Paperback | 2019
eBook available
Books released during the week of January 28, 2019
Austerity
When It Works and When It Doesn't
Alberto Alesina, Carlo Favero and Francesco Giavazzi
"Austerityi is a superb guidebook for policymakers and academic researchers alike. Drawing on the latest academic research and policy experiments, it provides an encyclopedic account of the likely effects of fiscal consolidations on economic outcomes and how those effects might vary according to circumstances."—Valerie A. Ramey, University of California, San Diego
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
How to Keep Your Cool
An Ancient Guide to Anger Management
Seneca
selected, translated, and introduced by James Romm
"Few have written more eloquently and profoundly on the perils of anger than Seneca and few have translated him better than James Romm."—Ryan Holiday, coauthor of The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
The Papers of Thomas Jefferson:
Retirement Series, Volume 15
1 September 1819 to 31 May 1820
Thomas Jefferson
Edited by J. Jefferson Looney
The 618 documents in this volume span 1 September 1819 to 31 May 1820. Jefferson suffers from a “colic,” recovery from which requires extensive rest and medication. He spends much time dealing with the immediate effects of the $20,000 addition to his debts resulting from his endorsement of notes for the bankrupt Wilson Cary Nicholas. Jefferson begins to correspond with his carpenter, the enslaved John Hemmings, as Hemmings undertakes maintenance and construction work at Poplar Forest. . . .
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
The Secular Enlightenment
Margaret C. Jacob
"Sweeping, original, and erudite. Jacob’s lucidly written book exhibits a command of the source materials that few scholars can ever hope to aspire to, let alone attain."—Darrin M. McMahon, author of Happiness: A History
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
Weil's Conjecture for Function Fields
Volume I (AMS-199)
Dennis Gaitsgory and Jacob Lurie
A central concern of number theory is the study of local-to-global principles, which describe the behavior of a global field K in terms of the behavior of various completions of K. This book looks at a specific example of a local-to-global principle: Weil’s conjecture on the Tamagawa number of a semisimple algebraic group G over K. In the case where K is the function field of an algebraic curve X, this conjecture counts the number of G-bundles on X (global information) in terms of the reduction of G at the points of X (local information). The goal of this book is to give a conceptual proof of Weil’s conjecture, based on the geometry of the moduli stack of G-bundles.
Hardcover | 2019
Paperback | 2019
eBook available
Why Nationalism
Yael Tamir
Foreword by Dani Rodrik
"[Tamir] pits nationalism against globalism and finds the former preferable. . . . Not a defense of Trumpian politics but a measured explanation of why the American populace was so receptive to both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders."—Kirkus
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
Books released during the week of January 21, 2019
99 Variations on a Proof
Philip Ording
"According to Molière there are many ways to declare love. It could be ‘Belle Marquise, vos beaux yeux me font mourir d’amour,’ or ‘D’amour mourir me font, belle Marquise, vos beaux yeux,’ or ‘Vos yeux beaux d’amour me font, belle Marquise, mourir.’ Molière only lists five variations and skips the 115 remaining possibilities. Philip Ording proposes a poetic transposition of mathematics. Starting with an easy theorem from high school, he offers 99 variations on the same theme, 99 different proofs of the same fact, 99 love declarations to mathematics."—Étienne Ghys, CNRS - École normale supérieure de Lyon
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
Eyes on China
An Intermediate-Advanced Reader of Modern Chinese
Chih-p’ing Chou, Jincheng Liu, and Xin Zou
Eyes on China is the ideal textbook for students entering the third year of a four-year course of Chinese language study and those who are ready to move from an intermediate to advanced level. Bridging the gap between informal spoken Chinese and more formal written Chinese, this textbook presents an on-the-ground perspective of what a visitor to China today might see and experience.
Hardcover | 2019
Paperback | 2019
eBook available
Making Motherhood Work
How Women Manage Careers and Caregiving
Caitlyn Collins
"Collins, a sociology professor, draws on interviews with working mothers in four different countries in this evenhanded, discerning exploration of work-family balance. Organizing her research by country, Collins finds that balance requires a harmonious confluence of workplace accommodations, government policies, and supportive cultural attitudes. . . . Collins suggests that policies must be passed in packages, rather than piecemeal—for example, making sure that daycare is available for children at the age when parental leave ends—to be most useful. This study, whose comparative approach illuminates how cultural norms affect policies and economic results, is intelligent, thought-provoking, and clarifying."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
The Promise and Peril of Credit
What a Forgotten Legend about Jews and Finance Tells Us about the Making of European Commercial Society
Francesca Trivellato
"This book is a veritable tour de force. Trivellato turns a seemingly simple question about the genesis and propagation of an erroneous legend about Jews into a deeply researched and fascinating interrogation of the complex relationship between ideas, their authors and contexts, and social fears about markets."—Regina Grafe, author of Distant Tyranny: Markets, Power, and Backwardness in Spain, 1650–1800
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
Why Not Default?
The Political Economy of Sovereign Debt
Jerome Roos
“This is a fascinating and timely book! It gives us a whole new perspective on the global debt crises since the 1980s. To understand why countries grind through under duress and the power of finance, we need to understand why struggling borrowers don’t give up. Why do have-less countries continue to borrow despite the massive transfers to have-more countries and investors? This book offers brilliant insights.”—Jeremy Adelman, Princeton University
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
Zen and Japanese Culture
Daisetz T. Suzuki
With an introduction by Richard M. Jaffe
"As one turns the pages of this delightful book, one seems to catch intimations of how and why certain aspects of the 'spirit of Zen' are making themselves felt in America today".—New York Times
Paperback | 2019
eBook available
Books released during the week of January 14, 2019
Below the Surface
Talking with Teens about Race, Ethnicity, and Identity
Deborah Rivas-Drake and Adriana J. Umaña-Taylor
"This is essential reading for all who wish to understand how to help adolescents navigate the critical developmental task of identity formation in our diverse society. Below the Surface is a beacon of intergroup empathy and understanding, providing tangible strategies for thoughtful engagement in complicated but crucial conversations with young people."—Carola Suárez-Orozco, coauthor of Learning a New Land
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
Democracy and Prosperity
Reinventing Capitalism through a Turbulent Century
Torben Iversen and David Soskice
"This is an impressive, bracing, and agenda-setting book. Democracy and Prosperity is a landmark work in comparative political economy."—Paul Pierson, coauthor of American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
The Discrete Charm of the Machine
Why the World Became Digital
Ken Steiglitz
"Well written and well organized, The Discrete Charm of the Machine discusses the transition from analog to digital both in technology and in the way we approach problems in computing. With an expansive scope that ranges from low-level physics to high-level questions about the limitations of computation, this is a welcome book in the field."—Lance Fortnow, author of The Golden Ticket
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
Empires of the Weak
The Real Story of European Expansion and the Creation of the New World Order
J. C. Sharman
"One of the shibboleths of traditional explanations for the rise of the West has been an emphasis on early modern European military prowess. Empires of the Weak effectively takes this argument apart, and brings to light its hopelessly Eurocentric blinders. J. C. Sharman has written an excellent, important, and much-overdue book that will change your thinking about the early modern world."—Sven Beckert, Harvard University
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
Explain Me This
Creativity, Competition, and the Partial Productivity of Constructions
Adele E. Goldberg
"Explain Me This reveals Adele Goldberg as the most exciting figure to arrive on the linguistics scene since Noam Chomsky changed everything back in the 1960s. And it has to be said that her version of construction grammar is a good deal more elegant, robust, and psychologically realistic than transformational grammar ever was."—Chris Knight, author of Decoding Chomsky: Science and Revolutionary Politics
Hardcover | 2019
Paperback | 2019
eBook available
Final Matters
Selected Poems, 2004-2010
Szilárd Borbély
Translated by Ottilie Mulzet
"Szilárd Borbély's life’s work is as significant as it is tragic. He was a poet—a great poet—who shatters us."—László Krasznahorkai, winner of the Man Booker International Prize
Hardcover | 2019
Paperback | 2019
eBook available
The Greek Experience of India
From Alexander to the Indo-Greeks
Richard Stoneman
"Clear and accessible, this book explores aspects of the Greek experience in India, from recorded encounters to artistic and cultural manifestations. With insightful and much-needed commentary, The Greek Experience of India is a significant contribution to the field, not least because it is the best modern introduction to Megasthenes."—Sushma Jansari, British Museum
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
How to Think about War
An Ancient Guide to Foreign Policy
Thucydides
Speeches from The History of the Peloponnesian War
Selected, translated, and introduced by Johanna Hanink
"This slim, elegant book punches well above its weight, with striking, lucid translations of key speeches from Thucydides’s History of the Peloponnesian War. The artfully curated ancient texts within these pages speak with prescience and complexity to the precarious moment in which we now live. Johanna Hanink’s How to Think about War is essential reading for anyone who wishes to know how great military powers fall, democracies implode, and empires end."—Bryan Doerries, author of The Theater of War: What Ancient Greek Tragedies Can Teach Us Today
Hardcover | 2019
The Interrogation Rooms of the Korean War
The Untold History
Monica Kim
"Compelling. . . . A specific, targeted, and nuanced exploration of how the Korean War and Cold War-era battlefield moved inside and became a new ‘struggle of political legitimacy waged within human psyches, souls, and desires.’"—Kirkus
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
Iran Rising
The Survival and Future of the Islamic Republic
Amin Saikal
"Scholarly portrait of a nation that resists easy categorization—and containment. . . . Useful reading for students of contemporary geopolitics, in which Iran has proven a constant, often destabilizing presence."—Kirkus
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
Love, Money, and Parenting
How Economics Explains the Way We Raise Our Kids
Matthias Doepke and Fabrizio Zilibotti
"Love, Money, and Parenting presents a fascinating, insightful analysis of the origins and consequences of different parenting styles over time and place. Doepke and Zilibotti explain how and why parents shape child preferences and skills to adapt their offspring to the anticipated social and economic realities facing them as adults. The authors creatively use basic economic theory to integrate and interpret a vast body of evidence from multiple disciplines. This ambitious, well-argued book carefully examines how families influence the social and economic fortunes of their children."—James J. Heckman, Nobel Laureate in Economics
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
The Sense of Reality
Studies in Ideas and Their History
Isaiah Berlin
Edited by Henry Hardy
With a new foreword by Timothy Snyder
"Berlin may be erudite, but he is not academic. He addresses his essays to the general reader, and he speaks with such infectious energy that he sweeps us up and carries us with him into territory that had seemed inaccessible. He becomes everyman’s guide to everything exciting in the history of ideas."—Robert Darnton, New York Review of Books
Paperback | 2019
The Story of Silver
How the White Metal Shaped America and the Modern World
William L. Silber
"Deeply researched and authoritative. . . . A well-informed history of silver's allure."—Kirkus
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
Weeping for Dido
The Classics in the Medieval Classroom
Marjorie Curry Woods
"Weeping for Dido is an important, groundbreaking book that shows that classical Latin texts were as foundational as biblical ones in medieval elementary classrooms and were copiously learned by boys throughout Europe, despite or indeed because of their ancient heroic content and frequent focus on women wronged by men. This book should appeal to a broad audience of scholars interested in oral-literate cultures, medieval and early modern education, the classical tradition, rhetoric, early humanism and Renaissance literature, and the history of the book."—Mary Carruthers, New York University
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available
Worldmaking after Empire
The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination
Adom Getachew
"Worldmaking after Empire is a breathtaking achievement on the history and theory of global justice. Anticolonialism, it turns out, mattered not for its emphatic nationalism so much as for its subaltern cosmopolitanism. The resources of the traditions Adom Getachew pioneeringly reconstructs are far from being exhausted even today."—Samuel Moyn, Yale University
Hardcover | 2019
eBook available