Princeton University Press Blog
Mind over chatter since 1905
May is finally here and with it comes some spring time weather here in Princeton and the end of the semester for me. Around the world and throughout history, people have spent May 1st doing mainly one of two things: protesting or celebrating.
Today around the world laborers are spending the day protesting for labor rights. From France to Bangladesh, protestors celebrate international workers’ day by marching through the streets. In the United States there are also many protests and marches, but specifically there are many immigration labor rights rallies happening today.
In more recent years, May Day has been a day for immigration reform rallies. Today, immigrants and their allies protest throughout the country including in the San Jose, California area where in 2006 there were historic rallies that called for immigration reform. Read up about labor and immigration in this country:
Labor Rights Are Civil Rights: Mexican American Workers in Twentieth-Century America by Zaragosa Vargas
In 1937, Mexican workers were among the strikers and supporters beaten, arrested, and murdered by Chicago policemen in the now infamous Republic Steel Mill Strike. Using this event as a springboard, Zaragosa Vargas embarks on the first full-scale history of the Mexican-American labor movement in twentieth-century America. Absorbing and meticulously researched, Labor Rights Are Civil Rightspaints a multifaceted portrait of the complexities and contours of the Mexican American struggle for equality from the 1930s to the postwar era.
Drawing on extensive archival research, Vargas focuses on the large Mexican American communities in Texas, Colorado, and California. As he explains, the Great Depression heightened the struggles of Spanish speaking blue-collar workers, and employers began to define citizenship to exclude Mexicans from political rights and erect barriers to resistance. Mexican Americans faced hostility and repatriation.
The mounting strife resulted in strikes by Mexican fruit and vegetable farmers. This collective action, combined with involvement in the Communist party, led Mexican workers to unionize. Vargas carefully illustrates how union mobilization in agriculture, tobacco, garment, and other industries became an important vehicle for achieving Mexican American labor and civil rights.
He details how interracial unionism proved successful in cross-border alliances, in fighting discriminatory hiring practices, in building local unions, in mobilizing against fascism and in fighting brutal racism. No longer willing to accept their inferior status, a rising Mexican American grassroots movement would utilize direct action to achieve equality.
Others celebrate the more medieval side of Mayday complete with dancing, music, and may poles. In many of Shakespeare’s works like A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Mayday is seen to be a guiding force for the play. C.L Barber discusses the importance of Mayday in all of Shakespeare’s comedies in this book of literary criticism:
Shakespeare’s Festive Comedy: A Study of Dramatic Form and Its Relation to Social Custom by C. L. Barber, with a new foreword by Stephen Greenblatt
In this classic work, acclaimed Shakespeare critic C. L. Barber argues that Elizabethan seasonal festivals such as May Day and Twelfth Night are the key to understanding Shakespeare’s comedies. Brilliantly interweaving anthropology, social history, and literary criticism, Barber traces the inward journey–psychological, bodily, spiritual–of the comedies: from confusion, raucous laughter, aching desire, and aggression, to harmony. Revealing the interplay between social custom and dramatic form, the book shows how the Elizabethan antithesis between everyday and holiday comes to life in the comedies’ combination of seriousness and levity.
So whether you are marching in a parade or dancing around a may pole, or even just spending the day outside in the sun, happy Mayday!
This week we have a couple of PUP books for any prospective Hogwarts student seeking placement in the Hufflepuff house. Hufflepuffs don’t really get too much attention; their only notable student was Cedric Diggory who was killed by He-Who-Can’t-Be-Named. Yet, Hufflepuffs value hard work, patience, loyalty, and fair play making them interested in some of our books about art and overall well-being.
1. No Joke: Making Jewish Humor by Ruth Wisse- This book is a perfect balance of scholarly and funny.
Humor is the most celebrated of all Jewish responses to modernity. In this book, Ruth Wisse evokes and applauds the genius of spontaneous Jewish joking–as well as the brilliance of comic masterworks by writers like Heinrich Heine, Sholem Aleichem, Isaac Babel, S. Y. Agnon, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Philip Roth. At the same time, Wisse draws attention to the precarious conditions that have called Jewish humor into being–and the price it may exact from its practitioners and audience.
Wisse broadly traces modern Jewish humor around the world, teasing out its implications as she explores memorable and telling examples from German, Yiddish, English, Russian, and Hebrew. Among other topics, the book looks at how Jewish humor channeled Jewish learning and wordsmanship into new avenues of creativity, brought relief to liberal non-Jews in repressive societies, and enriched popular culture in the United States.
Even as it invites readers to consider the pleasures and profits of Jewish humor, the book asks difficult but fascinating questions: Can the excess and extreme self-ridicule of Jewish humor go too far and backfire in the process? And is “leave ‘em laughing” the wisest motto for a people that others have intended to sweep off the stage of history?
2. The Importance of Being Civil: The Struggle for Political Decency by John A. Hall- Knowing of Hufflepuffs’ desire for cooperation, they would probably praise this book and recommend it to those at the Ministry of Magic.
Civility is desirable and possible, but can this fragile ideal be guaranteed? The Importance of Being Civil offers the most comprehensive look at the nature and advantages of civility, throughout history and in our world today. Esteemed sociologist John Hall expands our understanding of civility as related to larger social forces–including revolution, imperialism, capitalism, nationalism, and war–and the ways that such elements limit the potential for civility. Combining wide-ranging historical and comparative evidence with social and moral theory, Hall examines how the nature of civility has fluctuated in the last three centuries, how it became lost, and how it was reestablished in the twentieth century following the two world wars. He also considers why civility is currently breaking down and what can be done to mitigate this threat.
Paying particular attention to the importance of individualism, of rules allowing people to create their own identities, Hall offers a composite definition of civility. He focuses on the nature of agreeing to differ over many issues, the significance of fashion and consumption, the benefits of inclusive politics on the nature of identity, the greater ability of the United States in integrating immigrants in comparison to Europe, and the conditions likely to assure peace in international affairs. Hall factors in those who are opposed to civility, and the various methods with which states have destroyed civil and cooperative relations in society.
3. Why Philanthropy Matters: How the Wealthy Give, and What it Means for Our Economic Well-Being by Zoltan Acs- I could see a Hufflepuff doing good magical deeds for others and this book shows the necessity of such deeds as philanthropy.
Philanthropy has long been a distinctive feature of American culture, but its crucial role in the economic well-being of the nation–and the world–has remained largely unexplored. Why Philanthropy Matters takes an in-depth look at philanthropy as an underappreciated force in capitalism, measures its critical influence on the free-market system, and demonstrates how American philanthropy could serve as a model for the productive reinvestment of wealth in other countries. Factoring in philanthropic cycles that help balance the economy, Zoltan Acs offers a richer picture of capitalism, and a more accurate backdrop for considering policies that would promote the capitalist system for the good of all.
Examining the dynamics of American-style capitalism since the eighteenth century, Acs argues that philanthropy achieves three critical outcomes. It deals with the question of what to do with wealth–keep it, tax it, or give it away. It complements government in creating public goods. And, by focusing on education, science, and medicine, philanthropy has a positive effect on economic growth and productivity. Acs describes how individuals such as Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Carnegie, Bill Gates, and Oprah Winfrey have used their wealth to establish institutions and promote knowledge, and Acs shows how philanthropy has given an edge to capitalism by promoting vital forces–like university research–necessary for technological innovation, economic equality, and economic security. Philanthropy also serves as a guide for countries with less flexible capitalist institutions, and Acs makes the case for a larger, global philanthropic culture.
4. A Glossary of Chickens: Poems by Gary Whitehead- For some lighter reading, Hufflepuffs would certainly enjoy this collection of poetry.
With skillful rhetoric and tempered lyricism, the poems in A Glossary of Chickens explore, in part, the struggle to understand the world through the symbolism of words. Like the hens of the title poem, Gary J. Whitehead’s lyrics root around in the earth searching for sustenance, cluck rather than crow, and possess a humble majesty.
Confronting subjects such as moral depravity, nature’s indifference, aging, illness, death, the tenacity of spirit, and the possibility of joy, the poems in this collection are accessible and controlled, musical and meditative, imagistic and richly figurative. They are informed by history, literature, and a deep interest in the natural world, touching on a wide range of subjects, from the Civil War and whale ships, to animals and insects. Two poems present biblical narratives, the story of Lot’s wife and an imagining of Noah in his old age. Other poems nod to favorite authors: one poem is in the voice of the character Babo, from Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno, while another is a kind of prequel to Emily Dickinson’s “She rose to His Requirement.”
As inventive as they are observant, these memorable lyrics strive for revelation and provide their own revelations.
Now that all four Hogwarts houses have their respective required reading lists, which house do you belong in?
This week we have a couple of PUP books for any prospective Hogwarts student seeking placement in the Slytherin house. These students certainly get a bad rap for being evil with alum like Draco Malfoy and Lord Voldemort- oops, I said his name! However, I think the more redeeming quality of these students is that they are fierce in their quest for power. What would a Slytherin read?
1. How to Run a Country: An Ancient Guide for Modern Leaders ed. Philip Freeman- Cicero’s ancient advice could help them climb to the top.
Marcus Cicero, Rome’s greatest statesman and orator, was elected to the Roman Republic’s highest office at a time when his beloved country was threatened by power-hungry politicians, dire economic troubles, foreign turmoil, and political parties that refused to work together. Sound familiar? Cicero’s letters, speeches, and other writings are filled with timeless wisdom and practical insight about how to solve these and other problems of leadership and politics. How to Run a Country collects the best of these writings to provide an entertaining, common sense guide for modern leaders and citizens. This brief book, a sequel to How to Win an Election, gathers Cicero’s most perceptive thoughts on topics such as leadership, corruption, the balance of power, taxes, war, immigration, and the importance of compromise. These writings have influenced great leaders–including America’s Founding Fathers–for two thousand years, and they are just as instructive today as when they were first written.
Organized by topic and featuring lively new translations, the book also includes an introduction, headnotes, a glossary, suggestions for further reading, and an appendix containing the original Latin texts. The result is an enlightening introduction to some of the most enduring political wisdom of all time.
2. Human Capitalism: How Economic Growth Has Made Us Smarter–and More Unequal by Brink Lindsey- Lindsey explains the growing class divide and how the rich get richer and the poor are trapped in a life of poorness… though the more evil Slytherins may want to keep it this way.
What explains the growing class divide between the well educated and everybody else? Noted author Brink Lindsey, a senior scholar at the Kauffman Foundation, argues that it’s because economic expansion is creating an increasingly complex world in which only a minority with the right knowledge and skills–the right “human capital”–reap the majority of the economic rewards. The complexity of today’s economy is not only making these lucky elites richer–it is also making them smarter. As the economy makes ever-greater demands on their minds, the successful are making ever-greater investments in education and other ways of increasing their human capital, expanding their cognitive skills and leading them to still higher levels of success. But unfortunately, even as the rich are securely riding this virtuous cycle, the poor are trapped in a vicious one, as a lack of human capital leads to family breakdown, unemployment, dysfunction, and further erosion of knowledge and skills. In this brief, clear, and forthright eBook original, Lindsey shows how economic growth is creating unprecedented levels of human capital–and suggests how the huge benefits of this development can be spread beyond those who are already enjoying its rewards.
3. Niccolò Machiavelli: An Intellectual Biography by Corrado Vivanti, Trans. by Simon MacMichael- This is the biography of the man behind The Prince which was about how a prince’s aims such as glory and survival can justify the immoral means to get those ends. (Okay, so maybe I think Slytherins are a bit corrupt…)
This is a colorful, comprehensive, and authoritative introduction to the life and work of the author of The Prince–Florentine statesman, writer, and political philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527). Corrado Vivanti, who was one of the world’s leading Machiavelli scholars, provides an unparalleled intellectual biography that demonstrates the close connections between Machiavelli’s thought and his changing fortunes during the tumultuous Florentine republic and his subsequent exile. Vivanti’s concise account covers not only Machiavelli’s most famous works–The Prince, The Discourses, The Florentine Histories, and The Art of War–but also his letters, poetry, and comic dramas. While setting Machiavelli’s life against a dramatic backdrop of war, crisis, and diplomatic intrigue, the book also paints a vivid human portrait of the man.
Vivanti’s narrative breaks Machiavelli’s life into three parts: his career in a variety of government and diplomatic posts in the Florentine republic between 1494 and 1512, when the Medici returned from exile, seized power, and removed Machiavelli from office; the pivotal first part of his subsequent exile, when he formulated his most influential ideas and wrote The Prince; and the final decade of his life, when, having returned to Florence, he wrote The Art of War, The Florentine Histories, the satirical play The Mandrake, and other works. Along the way, the biography presents unmatched accounts of many intensely debated topics, including the precise nature of Machiavelli’s cultural and intellectual background, his republicanism, his political and personal relationship to the Medici, and his ideas about religion.
Keep coming back to get your reading list for your Hogwarts house!
Today at Harvard, four of the university’s best experts on leadership will discuss presidential leadership and the rise of American power during the JFK Jr. Forum at 6 pm. The event is open to the public. Among them is Joseph Nye, author of the forthcoming book Presidential Leadership and the Creation of the American Era. Don’t miss out on this exciting event!
The lineup for the forum:
Joseph S. Nye, Jr.: University Distinguished Service Professor; Nye, who coined the term “soft power,” is one of the nation’s most influential analysts of the nature and applications of power. A former HKS dean, Nye also has held senior roles in the Pentagon, and was chairman of the National Intelligence Council.
Graham Allison: director of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs; Douglas Dillon Professor of Government; founding dean of the modern Kennedy School; assistant secretary of defense in the Clinton Administration, and a Pentagon advisor in the Reagan Administration. Allison has studied presidential decision-making from Kennedy’s handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis to Obama’s decision to launch the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Nancy F. Koehn: The James E. Robison Professor of Business Administrationat Harvard Business School; Koehn studies effective leadership, with a special focus on entrepreneurial leadership, and how leaders craft lives of purpose, worth and impact. She has written several books on leadership; her next book explores the lessons from six leaders’ journeys, including that of Abraham Lincoln.
Moderator David Gergen: Co-Director of the Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership and HKS Professor of Public Service, has served at the right hand of four presidents from both parties; he knows how presidents exercise power. He is also a leading journalist and senior political analyst for CNN. He is the author of Eyewitness to Power: the Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton.
For more information on the event: http://forum.iop.harvard.edu/content/presidential-leadership-and-rise-american-power
Top 3 Nightmares of my life:
Princeton author Daniel Drezner penned an essay for the Wall Street Journal about our fascination with zombies. With all the recent movies and television shows about zombies, Drezner tries to pinpoint some possible reasons why we’re so enamored with these flesh-eating monsters.
And because a zombiepocalypse is (probably) possible, Drezner applies zombie-mania to international politics to show what the political world will look like on the eve of the end of the world in his book Theories of International Politics and Zombies. Thanks to Drezner, we can sleep soundly knowing that our political infrastructure will probably pass the war-on-zombies test. So at least I’m not afraid of that.
Theories of International Politics and Zombies by Daniel W. Drezner
What would happen to international politics if the dead rose from the grave and started to eat the living? Daniel Drezner’s groundbreaking book answers the question that other international relations scholars have been too scared to ask. Addressing timely issues with analytical bite, Drezner looks at how well-known theories from international relations might be applied to a war with zombies. Exploring the plots of popular zombie films, songs, and books, Theories of International Politics and Zombies predicts realistic scenarios for the political stage in the face of a zombie threat and considers how valid–or how rotten–such scenarios might be.
Drezner boldly lurches into the breach and “stress tests” the ways that different approaches to world politics would explain policy responses to the living dead. He examines the most prominent international relations theories–including realism, liberalism, constructivism, neoconservatism, and bureaucratic politics–and decomposes their predictions. He digs into prominent zombie films and novels, such as Night of the Living Dead and World War Z, to see where essential theories hold up and where they would stumble and fall. Drezner argues that by thinking about outside-of-the-box threats we get a cognitive grip on what former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously referred to as the “unknown unknowns” in international security.
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.
This week we have a couple of PUP books for any prospective Hogwarts student seeking placement in the Gryffindor house. What would a Gryffindor read? Or more specifically, what would Harry Potter read? Since Gryffindors value bravery, nerve, and chivalry, their required reading list would consist of books that highlight ethics, combat, and democracy. I’m sure “The Chosen One” would choose these books:
1. The Bankers’ New Clothes: What’s Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It by Anat Admati & Martin Hellwig- Gryffindors natural tendency to fix problems would draw them to Admati and Hellwig’s new book.
What is wrong with today’s banking system? The past few years have shown that risks in banking can impose significant costs on the economy. Many claim, however, that a safer banking system would require sacrificing lending and economic growth. The Bankers’ New Clothes examines this claim and the narratives used by bankers, politicians, and regulators to rationalize the lack of reform, exposing them as invalid.
Admati and Hellwig argue we can have a safer and healthier banking system without sacrificing any of the benefits of the system, and at essentially no cost to society. They show that banks are as fragile as they are not because they must be, but because they want to be–and they get away with it. Whereas this situation benefits bankers, it distorts the economy and exposes the public to unnecessary risks. Weak regulation and ineffective enforcement allowed the buildup of risks that ushered in the financial crisis of 2007-2009. Much can be done to create a better system and prevent crises. Yet the lessons from the crisis have not been learned.
Admati and Hellwig seek to engage the broader public in the debate by cutting through the jargon of banking, clearing the fog of confusion, and presenting the issues in simple and accessible terms.
2. Presidential Leadership and the Creation of the American Era by Joseph Nye- Their natural born leadership qualities also make Nye’s book a good choice in learning more about past leaders.
This book examines the foreign policy decisions of the presidents who presided over the most critical phases of America’s rise to world primacy in the twentieth century, and assesses the effectiveness and ethics of their choices. Joseph Nye, who was ranked as one of Foreign Policy magazine’s 100 Top Global Thinkers, reveals how some presidents tried with varying success to forge a new international order while others sought to manage America’s existing position. Taking readers from Theodore Roosevelt’s bid to insert America into the global balance of power to George H. W. Bush’s Gulf War in the early 1990s, Nye compares how Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson responded to America’s growing power and failed in their attempts to create a new order. He looks at Franklin D. Roosevelt’s efforts to escape isolationism before World War II, and at Harry Truman’s successful transformation of Roosevelt’s grand strategy into a permanent overseas presence of American troops at the dawn of the Cold War. He describes Dwight Eisenhower’s crucial role in consolidating containment, and compares the roles of Ronald Reagan and Bush in ending the Cold War and establishing the unipolar world in which American power reached its zenith.
The book shows how transformational presidents like Wilson and Reagan changed how America sees the world, but argues that transactional presidents like Eisenhower and the elder Bush were sometimes more effective and ethical. It also draws important lessons for today’s uncertain world, in which presidential decision making is more critical than ever.
3. The Leaderless Economy: Why the World Economic System Fell Apart and How to Fix It by Peter Temin and David Vines- Gryffindor do-gooders should read this to find out how they can be the leaders in this financial crisis.
The Leaderless Economy reveals why international financial cooperation is the only solution to today’s global economic crisis. In this timely and important book, Peter Temin and David Vines argue that our current predicament is a catastrophe rivaled only by the Great Depression. Taking an in-depth look at the history of both, they explain what went wrong and why, and demonstrate why international leadership is needed to restore prosperity and prevent future crises.
Temin and Vines argue that the financial collapse of the 1930s was an “end-of-regime crisis” in which the economic leader of the nineteenth century, Great Britain, found itself unable to stem international panic as countries abandoned the gold standard. They trace how John Maynard Keynes struggled for years to identify the causes of the Great Depression, and draw valuable lessons from his intellectual journey. Today we are in the midst of a similar crisis, one in which the regime that led the world economy in the twentieth century–that of the United States–is ending. Temin and Vines show how America emerged from World War II as an economic and military powerhouse, but how deregulation and a lax attitude toward international monetary flows left the nation incapable of reining in an overleveraged financial sector and powerless to contain the 2008 financial panic. Fixed exchange rates in Europe and Asia have exacerbated the problem.
4. Making War at Fort Hood:Life and Uncertainty in a Military Community by Kenneth MacLeish- Their interest in combat will bring them to this book about life in a military community.
Making War at Fort Hood offers an illuminating look at war through the daily lives of the people whose job it is to produce it. Kenneth MacLeish conducted a year of intensive fieldwork among soldiers and their families at and around the US Army’s Fort Hood in central Texas. He shows how war’s reach extends far beyond the battlefield into military communities where violence is as routine, boring, and normal as it is shocking and traumatic.
Fort Hood is one of the largest military installations in the world, and many of the 55,000 personnel based there have served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. MacLeish provides intimate portraits of Fort Hood’s soldiers and those closest to them, drawing on numerous in-depth interviews and diverse ethnographic material. He explores the exceptional position that soldiers occupy in relation to violence–not only trained to fight and kill, but placed deliberately in harm’s way and offered up to die. The death and destruction of war happen to soldiers on purpose. MacLeish interweaves gripping narrative with critical theory and anthropological analysis to vividly describe this unique condition of vulnerability. Along the way, he sheds new light on the dynamics of military family life, stereotypes of veterans, what it means for civilians to say “thank you” to soldiers, and other questions about the sometimes ordinary, sometimes agonizing labor of making war.
Keep coming back to get your reading list for your Hogwarts house!
In celebration of the new printings of works by Isaiah Berlin, here is a “Throwback Thursday” image of the old jacket art from Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas. It was first published by Princeton in 2001 and the new edition will be available May 2013!
In this collection of essays, Berlin explains the importance of dissenters in the history of ideas. The history of ideas is a field of research that deals with the expression and change of human ideas over time. As a scholar in the history of ideas himself, Berlin’s essays in Against the Current have been heralded as luminous and rich.
In this particular volume of essays, Berlin examined figures who have had a significant influence on modern ideas, but were seen as relatively ridiculous in their own times. Among the essays in the collection, Berlin discusses ‘The Originality of Machiavelli’. Machiavelli’s most popular work The Prince was extremely controversial when it was published in the 1500s. While many at the time thought that his ideas concerning power and princedom were unconventional and even a bit ridiculous, The Prince had significant influence on later philosophical and political work.
For further reading while you are waiting for the new edition of Against the Current, PUP recently published an intellectual biography on Machiavelli:
Niccolò Machiavelli: An Intellectual Biography
by Corrado Vivanti, Translated by Simon MacMichael
Check out the Princeton Isaiah Berlin Facebook Page for more updates and information about all the new editions of Berlin’s works.
Ten years ago today, on March 20, 2003, the United States led an invasion of Iraq. Among several other issues, the human toll on both sides and the exponential cost of the war has been the subject of critical discussion since troops invaded Iraqi borders. After the Iraq War’s official end and the last American forces withdrew on December 15, 2011, eight years, eight months, three weeks and four days later, many questions remain regarding the serious effects of war. Today, we’ve compiled a reading list of various books that discuss the many aspects of the Iraq War. Reflect, remember, read.
War Stories: The Causes and Consequences of Public Views of War
Matthew A. Baum & Tim J. Groeling
Read Chapter 1
Baum and Groeling take an in-depth look at media coverage, elite rhetoric, and public opinion during the Iraq war and other U.S. conflicts abroad. They trace how traditional and new media select stories, how elites frame and sometimes even distort events, and how these dynamics shape public opinion over the course of a conflict.
Striking First: Preemption and Prevention in International Conflict
Michael W. Doyle, Edited and introduced by Stephen Macedo
Read Chapter 1
Tackling one of the most controversial policy issues of the post-September 11 world, Michael Doyle argues that neither the Bush Doctrine nor customary international law is capable of adequately responding to the pressing security threats of our times.
What They Think of Us: International Perceptions of the United States since 9/11
Edited by David Farber
Read Chapter 1
A remarkable group of writers from the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and Latin America describe the world’s profoundly ambivalent attitudes toward the United States–before and since 9/11.
What We Owe Iraq: War and the Ethics of Nation Building
Noah Feldman
Here’s the Introduction
“[P]art theoretical treatise, part political analysis, part memoir–Noah Feldman . . . makes the case that when the United States invaded Iraq, it not only toppled a tyrant but also undertook a ‘trusteeship’ on behalf of the Iraqi people.”–New York Times Book Review
Paying the Human Costs of War: American Public Opinion and Casualties in Military Conflicts
Christopher Gelpi, Peter D. Feaver & Jason Reifler
Read Chapter 1
Providing a wealth of new evidence about American attitudes toward military conflict, this book offers insights into a controversial, timely, and ongoing national discussion.
Making War at Fort Hood: Life and Uncertainty in a Military Community
Kenneth T. MacLeish
Here’s the Introduction
Making War at Fort Hood offers an illuminating look at war through the daily lives of the people whose job it is to produce it. Kenneth MacLeish conducted a year of intensive fieldwork among soldiers and their families at and around the US Army’s Fort Hood in central Texas. He shows how war’s reach extends far beyond the battlefield into military communities where violence is as routine, boring, and normal as it is shocking and traumatic.
A Necessary Engagement: Reinventing America’s Relations with the Muslim World
Emile Nakhleh
Read Chapter 1
The CIA’s former point man on Islam makes a vigorous case for a renewal of American public diplomacy in the Muslim world. Offering a unique balance between in-depth analysis, personal memoir, and foreign policy remedies, the book injects much-needed wisdom into the public discussion of long-term U.S.-Muslim relations.
The Science of War: Defense Budgeting, Military Technology, Logistics, and Combat Outcomes
Michael E. O’Hanlon
Here’s the Introduction
O’Hanlon explains how the military budget works, how the military assesses and deploys new technology, develops strategy and fights wars, handles the logistics of stationing and moving troops and equipment around the world, and models and evaluates battlefield outcomes.
My Life Is a Weapon: A Modern History of Suicide Bombing
Christoph Reuter
Here’s the Introduction
“Against the violent Manichean rhetoric of the times, and its brute interventionism, Reuter offers a counter-narrative: suicide attacks in Israel-Palestine will stop when Israel withdraws from the Occupied Territories; more generally across the region, the West should keep out.”–Jacqueline Rose, London Review of Books
The Presidency of George W. Bush: A First Historical Assessment
Edited by Julian E. Zelizer
Read Chapter 1
Each chapter tackles some important aspect of Bush’s administration–such as presidential power, law, the war on terror, the Iraq invasion, economic policy, and religion–and helps readers understand why Bush made the decisions he did. History will be the ultimate judge of Bush’s legacy, and the assessment begins with this book.
![j9929[1]](http://blog.press.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/j99291.gif)
What is wrong with today’s banking system? The past few years have shown that risks in banking can impose significant costs on the economy. Many claim, however, that a safer banking system would require sacrificing lending and economic growth. The Bankers’ New Clothes examines this claim and the narratives used by bankers, politicians, and regulators to rationalize the lack of reform, exposing them as invalid. Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig argue we can have a safer and healthier banking system without sacrificing any of the benefits of the system, and at essentially no cost to society.
Learn more about it from Anat Admati’s interview from NPR’s Morning Edition:
http://n.pr/YwxWQK
Anat Admati argues that banks carry too much debt and have too little equity.
We invite you to read a book excerpt at npr.org at:
http://n.pr/16xGA8Q
The Bankers’ New Clothes:
What’s Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It
by Anat Admati & Martin Hellwig
“Crucial . . .”–Jim Surowiecki, NewYorker.com
“Ms. Admati and Mr. Hellwig, top-notch academic financial economists, do understand the complexities of banking, and they helpfully slice through the bankers’ self-serving nonsense. Demolishing these fallacies is the central point of The Bankers’ New Clothes.”–John Cochrane, Wall Street Journal
We also invite you to try your luck and enter for a chance to win a copy of The Bankers’ New Clothes: What’s Wrong with Banking & What to Do about It at Goodreads:
http://bit.ly/ZNAI66
At Goodreads, enter for a chance to win Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age by W. Bernard Carlson.
This major biography sheds new light on Tesla’s visionary approach to invention and the business strategies behind his most important technological breakthroughs.
Enter by May 28, 2013 for a chance to win!
Good luck!
These are the best-selling books for the past week.
![j9925[1]](http://blog.press.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/j99251.gif) |
The Battle of Bretton Woods: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White, and the Making of a New World Order by Benn Steil |
![j9929[1]](http://blog.press.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/j992911.gif) |
The Bankers’ New Clothes: What’s Wrong with Banking and What to Do about It by Anat Admati & Martin Hellwig |
 |
The Crossley ID Guide: Raptors by Richard Crossley, Jerry Liguori, & Brian Sullivan |
 |
The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking by Edward B. Burger & Michael Starbird |
![j10053[1]](http://press.princeton.edu/images/j10053.gif) |
Higher Education in the Digital Age by William G. Bowen |
 |
Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O. Hirschman by Jeremy Adelman |
 |
The Golden Ticket: P, NP, and the Search for the Impossible by Lance Fortnow |
 |
On Bullshit by Harry G. Frankfurt |
 |
Einstein Gravity in a Nutshell by A. Zee |
 |
Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age by W. Bernard Carlson |
![j9924[1]](http://blog.press.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/j99241.gif)
![j9843[1]](http://blog.press.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/j98431.gif)
![j9817[1]](http://blog.press.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/j98171.gif)
![j9816[1]](http://blog.press.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/j98161.gif)
