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Press Director Peter Dougherty reflects on our October book releases

October 1, 2012 by

October brings with it the next big wave of Princeton University Press fall titles.

First and foremost among a promising flurry of new books are a couple of recently released titles by acclaimed authors: Jill Lepore’s The Story of America: Essays on Origins, and James Scott’s Two Cheers for Anarchism. Lepore has written several prize-winning national best-sellers and is well-known to readers of The New Yorker as their history columnist. The essays collected here reveal the ways history is told, taught, used to create the story of America. Scott is author of two of the most widely-read works in social science, Seeing Like a State and Weapons of the Weak (both from Yale University Press). In Two Cheers for Anarchism, he examines the positive sides and outcomes of anarchy. We are also delighted to see the first copies of Robert Geddes’s book, Fit: An Architect’s Manifesto, which is a major new statement about the purpose and aesthetics of architecture. Fans of these writers will not be disappointed with these timely books for general readers.

And our more specialized books also provide much to intrigue and inform readers. First among a new cluster of October offerings in the social sciences, celebrated Stanford economist David Kreps returns to PUP with Microeconomic Foundations I: Choice and Competitive Markets. Having helped reshape the field of economic theory with his 1990 PUP book, A Course in Microeconomic Theory, a best-selling economic textbook, Kreps’s new Princeton book will appeal to economists and students alike all over the world.

Two vitally important October entries come from the familiar PUP field of physics: William Bialek’s recently released Biophysics: Searching for Principles, and later this month, Eric Heller’s Why You Hear What You Hear: An Experiential Approach to Sound, Music, and Psychoacoustics. Both books are stellar contributions to their respective fields and should quickly become the first choice of physicists teaching courses in each respective area.

From our history and reference lists, a duo of extremely timely titles that speak directly to political headlines all over the world also appears this month. Europe and the Islamic World: A History by John Tolan, Gilles Veinstein, and Henry Laurens, tells the story of how Muslims and Europeans have interacted from the Middle Ages until today, making the point that only by understanding the past can we truly appreciate present events. And later in the month, we will be publishing the long-awaited Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought, the first reference book of its kind documenting ideas, institutions, and leading thinkers and actors in the Islamic world from its origins to today.

Thanks to the continuing efforts of editor Diana Buchwald and her team at the Einstein Papers Project, we are pleased to present the 13th volume in The Collected Papers of Albert Einstein. This landmark book covers Einstein’s writing and correspondence from January 1922 through March 1923, documenting Einstein’s first trip to the Far East and revealing the consequences of his relatively new-found celebrity status.

October also welcomes two new titles from our series, The Lives of the Great Religious Books, Ronald Hendel’s The Book of Genesis: A Biography, and J.J. Collins’s The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Biography. This brings the total published titles in the series to seven with a dozen more planned in the coming years. The format of the series, biographies of religious books, allows the authors to explore the surprising origins and movements of these books through history, culture, and religion, whether addressing origin stories of The Bible or the controversies surrounding the discovery and translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Thanks to my colleagues for delivering these (and all the other) excellent new Princeton books with style and spirit.

Peter J Dougherty
Director

Filed Under: Princeton, Publishing, Twitter

Heads will roll… in Princeton, NJ

July 30, 2012 by

A quick peek out the Princeton University Press publicity offices reveals this sight:

Hidden beneath these sheets are three of the heads from the Princeton University Art Museum’s new installation of Ai Weiwei’s “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads”. If the labels are to be believed, this truck holds “Rat”, “Horse”, and “Pig”. The heads are quite literally rolling down Shapiro Walk on their way to installation on Scudder Plaza.

We are doubly excited for this exhibit as we are also producing a new volume of substantial and provocative quotes from Ai Weiwei. We will soon post details of this book on our web site.

Filed Under: Art and Architecture, Princeton, Princeton University Press

Robert Shiller and FINANCE AND THE GOOD SOCIETY at the Princeton Public Library this Thursday evening

April 23, 2012 by

If you are in the Princeton area this Thursday, April 26, come hear Yale economist Robert Shiller discuss his new book FINANCE AND THE GOOD SOCIETY at the Princeton Public Library.  The event starts at 7:00 PM sharp, followed by a Q&A.  Shiller, co-creator of the influential S&P/Case-Shiller housing index and New York Times columnist, makes a strong case for finance as a force for good in our society.

Filed Under: Economics, Events, Finance, Princeton, Twitter

Unlocking the Gates… at elite universities

April 18, 2012 by

Inside Higher Ed reports today that “Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor have teamed up with a for-profit company to offer free versions of their coveted courses this year to online audiences. By doing so, they join a growing group of top-tier universities that are embracing massively open online courses, or MOOCs, as the logical extension of elite higher education in an increasingly online, global landscape.”

Coursera is not the first attempt by elite universities to break into online education, but hopefully it will fare better than its fore-bearers Fathom and AllLearn, two collaborative fee-based education programs that ultimately failed (and coincidentally are profiled in the definitive study of online courseware at elite universities–Unlocking the Gates by Taylor Walsh, on behalf of Ithaka S+R).

So, what lessons could these early programs offer to Coursera? As the Fathom project demonstrates, blurring the lines between not-for-profit and for-profit partners can be difficult as revealed by Walsh’s interview with Ann Kirschner.

Kirschner admits that in retrospect there were inherent contradictions in Fathom’s approach, which had roots in both the for-profit and not-for-profit camps. “Fathom always had a bit of confusion in its mission because we had the really lofty mission of educating the world, but on the other hand Columbia was . . . judging us on our ability to be self-sustaining rather quickly—and you can’t have it both ways,” she said. “We could have been selfsustaining more quickly if we would have sold just anything on the site, but if we had sold just anything on the site we wouldn’t have been proper stewards of Columbia’s brand and its intellectual property.”

Another lesson from Unlocking the Gates‘s AllLearn case-study? Keep it simple:

AllLearn’s central organization’s vision for course development also diverged somewhat from those of the campuses. Bernstein explained that the on-campus technology shops that produced much of the AllLearn content were naturally interested “in looking at pedagogy for online teaching” and wanted to experiment with innovative—and often expensive—uses of multimedia in course development. But AllLearn’s central office preferred to keep it simple and develop courses cheaply, because these inexpensive courses had demonstrated the greatest market success. Bernstein said of the Iraq course: “it cost us nothing to develop that, $5,000 or $10,000, yet that was the one that could attract the most students.” He also said that “a creative writing course that was extremely low tech, where you spend nothing on bells and whistles or recorded lectures or anything” was one of AllLearn’s most popular offerings. Tristram Wyatt of Oxford agreed, saying that surveys demonstrated that the simple courses based on a book with online discussions worked better than flashy courses.

One of the most important lessons has already been incorporated into Coursera. As the IHE reports, the courses will be free. Both AllLearn and Fathom were fee-based models — something that many credit for their ultimate failure:

Gary Bisbee, online education market analyst at Lehman Brothers, speculated in 2003 that Fathom lacked a sufficient market because “working adults trying to advance their careers don’t care about Shakespeare”—at least not enough to pay for courses at a level that could support the endeavor. It is perhaps no coincidence that many of the online courseware programs from elite universities that followed would be offered to the public at no charge, based on a perception that, when it comes to noncredit-bearing enrichment courses offered online, free is closer to the price the market will bear.

But perhaps the most important issue will be credentials. Will students want to take courses — even Ivy League courses — if they don’t ultimately have a certificate or some documentation to show for it? In the introduction to Unlocking the Gates, Walsh that what most students want out of an online education is the credential, but there are numerous obstacles to overcome:

We also know that it is the certificate or degree associated with completing a course of study that, in the minds of many, is what is really valuable (and thus marketable). Yet highly selective colleges and universities such as MIT have never seriously considered going down this “credentialing” path. The reasons are both understandable and straightforward. Universities such as MIT believe that the educational value that they offer to their carefully chosen students derives in large part from the on-campus and in-person setting in which teaching and research take place. They do not want to undercut this value proposition by giving “MIT credit” for a very different online offering that, in their view, would not be of “MIT quality.” Presenting some of their own on-campus courses in a strictly online mode could also compromise their ability to compete with other elite universities for the very best students—many of whom expect face-to-face contact with professors and regular in-class interactions with talented peers.

So, how will Coursera address this obstacle? The IHE reports that the credential issue is still very much up in the air:

None of the universities will offer formal credit through the courses they put online through Coursera. However, several might give students the opportunity to earn certificates bearing the names of both the universities and the company. There is no formal credentialing mechanism currently in place, but some university officials indicated that tangibly recognizing the achievements of non-enrolled learners is a goal.

To learn more about online courseware and the various success and failures that have occurred in recent decades, pick up a copy of Taylor Walsh’s Unlocking the Gates.

Filed Under: Education, Princeton, Twitter

A Glimpse Inside Princeton University Press’s Boardroom

March 22, 2012 by

The Lippincott Boardroom at Princeton University Press, photo courtesy of Mike Volk.

Filed Under: Princeton, Princeton University Press, Publishing, Twitter

Peter J. Dougherty profiled in Princeton Magazine

March 19, 2012 by

Peter J. Dougherty, the Director of Princeton University Press, has been profiled in Princeton Magazine. The interviewer, Ellen Gilbert, quizzes Peter about the role of university presses, his experiences at Princeton University Press, and the future of books.

Peter, who began working at the Press as a senior economics editor in 1992 and was appointed Director in 2005, names Robert J. Shiller as a particularly influential PUP author:

There are many authors whom I’m particularly proud to have published, perhaps the most prominent of them being Yale economist Robert Shiller. In 2000, we published Shiller’s Irrational Exuberance, the book widely credited for having predicted the bursting of the stock market bubble. This spring we will be publishing Bob’s new book, Finance and the Good Society, in which he lays out the terms of a healthy and constructive relationship between Wall Street and a thriving market democracy. 

Read the rest of the Princeton Magazine interview here for other fascinating tidbits about the relationship between the Press and the University and whether we give Princeton faculty preferential treatment when it comes to publication, whether Peter owns an e-Reader and how he uses it, and the robustness of our e-publishing program.

Filed Under: Economics, Princeton, Princeton University Press, Publishing, Twitter, University Press

This Week’s Book Giveaway

March 12, 2012 by

On Wednesday, March 14 we’re celebrating Albert Einstein’s birthday and Pi Day—two very big events in Princeton! Einstein lived in Princeton for over 20 years, so to honor his big day we’re giving away a copy of a book of his quotations:

The Ultimate Quotable Einstein
Collected and edited by Alice Calaprice
With a foreword by Freeman Dyson

Here is the definitive new edition of the hugely popular collection of Einstein quotations that has sold tens of thousands of copies worldwide and been translated into twenty-five languages.

The Ultimate Quotable Einstein features 400 additional quotes, bringing the total to roughly 1,600 in all. This ultimate edition includes new sections—”On and to Children,” “On Race and Prejudice,” and “Einstein’s Verses: A Small Selection”—as well as a chronology of Einstein’s life and accomplishments, Freeman Dyson’s authoritative foreword, and new commentary by Alice Calaprice.

In The Ultimate Quotable Einstein, readers will also find quotes by others about Einstein along with quotes attributed to him. Every quotation in this informative and entertaining collection is fully documented, and Calaprice has carefully selected new photographs and cartoons to introduce each section.

-Features 400 additional quotations

-Contains roughly 1,600 quotations in all

-Includes new sections on children, race and prejudice, and Einstein’s poetry

-Provides new commentary

-Beautifully illustrated

-The most comprehensive collection of Einstein quotes ever published

Praise for previous editions: “All of us who lack Einstein’s intellectual and spiritual gifts owe a debt of gratitude to Princeton University Press for having humanized him in this innovative way.”—Timothy Ferris, New York Times Book Review

We invite you to read Chapter 1 here: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s9268.pdf

The random draw for this book with be Friday 3/16 at 3 pm EST. Be sure to like us on Facebook if you haven’t already to be entered to win!

Filed Under: Book Giveaway, History, history of science, Jewish Studies, Mathematics, Philosophy of Science, Physics, Pi Day, Princeton, Reference

Margot Canaday’s “The Straight State” wins the 2012 Order of the Coif Biennial Book Award

January 19, 2012 by

Margot Canaday’s brilliant book The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America has won the 2012 Order of the Coif Biennial Book Award.

 “The Order of the Coif is an honorary scholastic society the purpose of which is to encourage excellence in legal education by fostering a spirit of careful study, recognizing those who as law students attained a high grade of scholarship, and honoring those who as lawyers, judges and teachers attained high distinction for their scholarly or professional accomplishments.”

 This is Margot Canaday’s SEVENTH award for The Straight State. Some of the other accolades include the 2011 John Boswell Prize, the 2010 Cromwell Book Prize, the Lora Romero First Book Publication Prize, the Gladys M. Kammerer Award, and the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT Studies.

Filed Under: American History, Awards, Books To Add To Your Reading List, Law, Political Theory, Princeton, Prizes, Twitter

Is there a bias against college applications from Asian students?

December 5, 2011 by

The Associated Press (via NPR) is reporting that some college applicants are deliberately not checking Asian on their applications in hopes that this will increase their chance at getting a fatter envelope in the spring.

The AP report cites one student saying:

“I didn’t want to put ‘Asian’ down,” Olmstead says, “because my mom told me there’s discrimination against Asians in the application process.”

The report also quoets Kara Miller, a former admissions office reader at Yale, who said “it often felt like Asians were held to a higher standard”

“Asian kids know that when you look at the average SAT for the school, they need to add 50 or 100 to it. If you’re Asian, that’s what you’ll need to get in,” says Miller, now an English professor at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.

 So what gives? Is there truth lurking behind these anecdotes? Well–and this is where PUP’s interest is piqued–the AP article notes:

 Asian students have higher average SAT scores than any other group, including whites. A study by Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade examined applicants to top colleges from 1997, when the maximum SAT score was 1600 (today it’s 2400). Espenshade found that Asian-Americans needed a 1550 SAT to have an equal chance of getting into an elite college as white students with a 1410 or black students with an 1100.

 This research was actually published in a PUP book called No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal: Race and Class in Elite College Admission and Campus Life by Thomas J. Espenshade & Alexandria Walton Radford (a free excerpt here: http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s9072.pdf). The book just recently won the 2011 Pierre Bourdieu Book Award, Sociology of Education Section, American Sociological Association and you can read an earlier article that Tom and Alexandria wrote for the PUP Blog that answers the question “How International Are U.S. Colleges?”.

Filed Under: Education, Princeton, Sociology, Twitter

Maurizio Viroli speaks publicly about Berlusconi in the days following his resignation

November 18, 2011 by

Earlier this week, Maurizio Viroli was invited to speak at the Program in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University. We arranged this event months and months ago, but recent events being what they are, this talk suddenly took on greater importance. Watch the video here to listen to Maurizio discuss Berlusconi’s Italy and the ideas that he further develops in his PUP book, The Liberty of Servants, about Berlusconi operating a pseudo-Royal Court of courtiers eager to please in return for economic and political favors.

Filed Under: History, In the News, International Relations, Political Science, Princeton, Twitter

Thomas J. Sargent wins the 2011 Nobel Prize in Economics!

October 12, 2011 by

PUP author Thomas J. Sargent, along with Princeton economist Christopher A. Sims, has been awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Sargent, a professor at New York University, is a visiting professor at Princeton University this fall and has co-authored two books published by Princeton University Press: “The Big Problem of Small Change” with François R. Velde (2003), and “Robustness” with Lars Peter Hansen (2007).

According to the Nobel Prize website, Sargent and Sims received the award “for their empirical research on cause and effect in the macroeconomy.” An article on the Princeton University website expands on this:

Sims and Sargent were honored with the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for their work in answering “questions regarding the causal relationship between economic policy and different macroeconomic variables such as GDP (gross domestic product), inflation, employment and investments.”

“Economic-policy decisions are influenced by expectations about developments in the private sector,” the Nobel announcement said. “The laureates’ methods can be applied to identify these causal relationships and explain the role of expectations. This makes it possible to ascertain the effects of unexpected policy measures as well as systematic policy shifts.”

Read more about Sargent’s work at a blog from The Economist, or watch Sargent and Sims participate in a news conference at Princeton University.

Filed Under: Awards, Economics, In the News, Princeton, Princeton University Press, Prizes, Twitter

Go read this if you care about education

September 16, 2011 by

The Newark Star Ledger published a great feature on Howard Wainer and his book Uneducated Guesses yesterday (“Christie misses the mark on grading teachers, author says“). Robert Braun correctly notes that Wainer is concerned that tests are being improperly used to evaluate teachers. These “Value-Added Models” of evaluation fall into the broad category of misuses statistics, of which Braun notes:

Wainer’s book contains funny riffs on the misuse of statistics. A study, for example, on the most dangerous profession based on age at death. Want to guess? Student. Think about it — students who die do so at a young age so, obviously, they have the lowest life expectancy.

But that hardly makes studying a dangerous profession; it makes the clumsy use of statistics dangerous to believe.

Although New Jersey Governor Chris Christie recently announced a new VAM program of teacher evaluation that will rely on 50% traditional evaluation methods and 50% testing scores, the Governor’s office declined to comment for Braun’s article. But Braun writes:

The state Department of Education issued a statement saying it was using student performance measures in 10 pilot districts “before rolling out statewide in 2012.’’

It said such measures would be used in only “50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation.” “We believe that teachers should never be evaluated on a single consideration such as test scores, much less a single test, but on multiple measures of student learning.”

Wainer is skeptical of the new initiative, saying  that if you’ve already decided to roll-out a program, a year-long pilot program will be “worthless at testing the viability of the whole enterprise.’’

This article grabbed the attention of another Governor — well a former Governor that is. Gov. David Paterson will speak with Wainer on his afternoon drive show on WOR radio this coming Monday. Tune in during the 4:00 PM hour if you are in the listening area.

Filed Under: Education, Mathematics, Princeton, Twitter
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