You are here: Home / Archives for Princeton University Press / PUP Europe

Paul Seabright “On Lying, Risk-Taking and the Implosion of the Euro” – The Princeton in Europe annual lecture

April 2, 2012 by

The launch of the Euro was a promise of prosperity made by Europe’s political élites to the citizens of the Euro area. But it has gone badly and dangerously wrong. Why? Much has been written about the causes of the Euro crisis and much ink spilt on trying to assign blame among the active participants in the drama: financiers, politicians, regulators, central bankers.

In this lecture Paul Seabright asks a different question: why did the rest of us play along? The active participants needed our money, our bank deposits, our votes – our trust, in short – in order to construct the Euro project. Trust in the project, like trust in the financial system and in many of the projects of modern democracy, required us to deploy psychological capacities that proved quite inadequate to the task.

Behavioural economics and neuroscience are starting to illuminate just why we have such difficulty evaluating complex financial promises like those made by the founders of the Euro project. In particular we have an evolved tendency to deal in dichotomies – such as risk/safety and truth/lies – that are quite unsuited to the continuous gradations of the modern economic landscape. Drawing on a wide range of sources, from neuroscientific experiments to air accident reports, Seabright brings home to us how much our collective illusions contributed to a major financial disaster with potentially serious consequences for democracy in Europe.

Paul Seabright is professor of economics at the Toulouse School of Economics. He has been a fellow of All Souls College, University of Oxford, and Churchill College, University of Cambridge. ‘The Company of Strangers: A Natural History of Economic Life (Revised Edition) was published by Princeton in 2010 and his new book ‘The War of the Sexes: How Conflict and Cooperation Have Shaped Men and Women from Prehistory to the Present’ will be published on 14 May 2012.

The lecture takes place on 18 April 2012 in the Great Hall at Goodenough College from 6.30pm.

For further information, or to register for the event, please contact princeton_publicity@pupress.co.uk.

Filed Under: Banking, Economics, Events, Finance, PUP Europe, Twitter Tagged With:

Michael Ross in the UK

March 7, 2012 by

Michael Ross whose new book, ‘The Oil Curse: How Petroleum Wealth Shapes the Development of Nations’, is published on 19 March will be visiting London later this month. He will be delivering one of the King’s Lectures in Ethics, organised jointly by The School of Law and the European Centre for Energy and Resource Security (EUCERS). The talk will be on 19 March from 6 – 8pm at the Safra Lecture Theatre, Kings College London, Strand Campus, London WC2R 2LS . The talk is unticketed and open to all.

Filed Under: Economics, Events, International Relations, International Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, PUP Europe, Twitter, World History

Riding the airwaves with Diaconis, Rajan, and Scheffer, and an update from the European Advisory Board

February 20, 2012 by

Here in the UK we’ve been treated to a number of radio appearances from PUP authors in recent weeks:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Persi Diaconis, Stanford Professor of Statistics and Mathematics and co-author of the hugely entertaining Magical Mathematics, provided BBC Radio 4’s More or Less listeners with a special Christmas treat when he dropped in on Tim Harford to discuss the maths behind the magic. Listen again to the interview via the BBC iPlayer.

Welcoming in the new year, we tuned in to an episode of BBC Radio 4′s Analysis to hear Raghuram Rajan take part in the debate over society’s increasing moral aversion to the exploits of the ‘super-rich’. Catch up on-line here to listen to the Chicaco Booth Professor of Economics, and author of Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy, share his thoughts on bonuses and bail-outs.

At the end of last month, David Scheffer was interviewed by Matthew Sweet for BBC Radio 3’s Night Waves. Scheffer was appointed by President Clinton as the first U.S. ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, and led American initiatives on war crimes tribunals during the 1990s. His new book, All the Missing Souls, provides a detailed personal account of investigations into such attrocities as the killing fields of Sierra Leone and the Rwandan genocide. To hear his account of all that led to bringing those responsible to justice, listen on-line here:

We’ve also tuned in to hear European Advisory Board members Rana Mitter and Margaret MacMillan take to the airwaves. Last week saw two important anniversaries of events in world history: the 70th aniversary of the fall of Singapore (15th February 1942) and the 40th anniversary of President Nixon’s visit to meet Mao in China (17th February 1972). On Wednesday, Rana Mitter, Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China (Oxford), was welcomed on to BBC Radio 4′s Today programme to discuss the lasting impact of the event described by Winston Churchill as the “largest capitulation in British history”.  On Friday morning, Margaret MacMillan, Professor of International History (Oxford), joined Lord Charles Powell, also on Today, to reflect on Nixon’s visit to China and discuss its influence upon the United States’ relationship with China today.

A few more announcements from the European Advisory Board: our congratulations go out to Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church at the University of Oxford, who received a knighthood from Her Majesty, the Queen, for his services to scholarship in the 2012 New Year Honours list.  Secondly, we send our warmest regards to Ann Mroz, former Editor in Chief of the Times Higher Education, who is now stepping up to the role of Digital Publishing Director of the TSL Group.

Filed Under: Princeton University Press, PUP Europe

Avner de-Shalit to discuss ‘The Spirit of Cities’ at three events in the UK

February 17, 2012 by

 

Princeton University Press author Avner de-Shalit will be speaking at three events in the UK next week. On Monday 20th February he will be discussing what makes cities tick at Jewish Book Week with Barbara Mann, chaired by Ziona Strelitz. On Tuesday 21st, Professor de-Shalit will be giving a lunchtime talk at The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) and discussing why cultivating the distinctive ‘spirit of cities’ is the best antidote to global homogenisation. Finally, on the evening of 21st February, he will be in Bristol, discussing cities with Sunder Katwala at a Bristol Festival of Ideas event. These talks all tie into Avner de-Shalit’s book, The Spirit of Cities, which is co-authored by Daniel A. Bell and was recently published by Princeton University Press.

The talks at Jewish Book Week and the RSA will be recorded and made available online. Please follow the links for more information.

 

Filed Under: Debates, Events, Jewish Studies, PUP Europe, Sociology, Uncategorized, United Kingdom, World History

President Obama’s reading list

February 3, 2012 by

Princeton author Larry Bartels’ ‘Unequal Democracy’ appears on a list of books that President Obama is known to have read in recent years according to this article in The Daily Telegraph.

Filed Under: Political Science, Princeton University Press, PUP Europe, Twitter, United Kingdom

PUP Takes Paris

February 1, 2012 by

This just in — a display of our beautiful Collected Works of C.G. Jung series has been spotted at Librarie Galignani in Paris, which was the first bookshop for English-speakers on the European continent! If you find yourself strolling down the rue de Rivoli any time soon, pop in and have a look for yourself. If Paris is not in your near future, check out some of the lovely past window displays on the bookstore’s website!

“It all depends on how we look at things, and not how they are in themselves.”

– Carl Jung


Filed Under: Mind, Princeton University Press, Psychology, PUP Europe, Twitter

Paul Seabright, “On Lying, Risk-Taking and the Implosion of the Euro”

January 27, 2012 by

 

We are delighted to announce that Professor Paul Seabright will deliver the second annual Princeton University Press in Europe lecture during the London Book Fair.

This year’s lecture, which marks our annual celebration of the Princeton University Press European Advisory Board, will take place on Wednesday 18th April at Goodenough College in London, under the title: “On Lying, Risk-Taking and the Implosion of the Euro”.

Paul Seabright is Professor of Economics at the University of Toulouse, and the author of two PUP books: The Company of Strangers (2nd edition, 2010) and The War of the Sexes (forthcoming, May 2012).

For more information on this event and how to attend, please contact Hannah Paul.

Filed Under: Economics, Events, PUP Europe, United Kingdom

Robert Frank and Sheldon Garon are interviewed for Vox EU

January 13, 2012 by

Robert Frank, author of The Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition, and the Common Good and Sheldon Garon, author of Beyond Our Means: Why America Spends While the World Saves were both interviewed for the Vox EU podcast recently.

Robert Frank’s interview is available to listen to here

Sheldon Garon’s interview is available to listen to here

We hope you enjoy them!

Filed Under: Economics, Pod/Vodcast, PUP Europe, Twitter

When was Medieval philosophy?

December 2, 2011 by

On Wednesday night, philosopher John Marenbon gave his inaugural lecture as Honorary Professor of Medieval Philosophy at the University of Cambridge.  Marenbon is also Senior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, and is preparing a book for PUP on Pagans and Philosophers from Augustine to Leibniz.

In his lecture, Professor Marenbon argued against the usual chronological division, according to which there was a period of ‘medieval philosophy’ corresponding roughly to the Middle Ages.  In a highly entertaining and wide ranging talk, Marenbon suggested that the title of his lecture – “When was medieval philosophy”? – could be answered in five ways – a) during the middle ages, b) who cares, c) never, d) now or e) AD 200-1700.

Filed Under: Philosophy, PUP Europe, Twitter

From economics to poetry

November 15, 2011 by

Our PUP Europe week ended with attending a wonderful celebration of Clutag Press, a small independent publisher of poetry established by our Advisory Board member Andrew McNeillie. Clutag has published Seamus Heaney and Geoffrey Hill; and at t the Bodleian Library in Oxford a group of celebrated poets, including Tom Paulin and the former poet laureate Andrew Motion, read from work which had originally appeared in Clutag in honour of its tenth anniversary.

Filed Under: PUP Europe, Twitter, United Kingdom

Robert Frank’s book tour in London, Day 3

November 11, 2011 by

On Day 3 of his London tour, Robert Frank, author of The Darwin Economy, recorded an episode of the BBC Radio 4 Analysis program before a live audience of more than 400 at the London School of Economics.

Hosted by Paul Mason, BBC Economics editor, Analysis has an audience of more than 1 million, and the live crowd was filled with luminaries of the London political scene, including “Blue Labour” architect Maurice Glassman and FT commentator Samuel Brittan.  The program will air on Monday (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006r4vz).

Filed Under: Economics, PUP Europe, Twitter, United Kingdom

Robert Frank’s book tour in London, Day 1

November 8, 2011 by

Robert Frank began his London tour today with an appearance on CNBC Europe’s Squawk Box and lunch at the Financial Times with a group of senior journalists, including columnist Martin Wolf and Economics leader writer, Martin Sandbu. At the FT, Frank discussed the recent Congressional Budget Office report which showed that the US now has one of the lowest rates of social mobility on the world and an alarming level of inequality. Frank argued for progressive measures to reduce this inequality, including a new consumption tax to redirect income toward savings and investment.

 

Source: Congressional Budget Office, http://cbo.gov/ftpdocs/124xx/doc12485/10-25-HouseholdIncome.pdf.

(hat tip to Take the 5th)

Filed Under: Economics, PUP Europe, Twitter, United Kingdom
«Older Posts
Newer Posts»