Princeton Shorts series launches with five eBook-only selections from five top-selling PUP books (publication date: November 9, 2011)

Who? The Princeton Shorts series is the brainchild of Princeton University Press Associate Marketing Director, Leslie Nangle, and the first five entries feature works from recent Princeton authors like economists Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, honeybee biologist Thomas Seeley, fossil fuel expert Kenneth Deffeyes, as well as perennial favorites, Henry David Thoreau and Carl von Clausewitz.

What? Princeton Shorts are brief selections excerpted from influential Princeton University Press publications produced exclusively in eBook format. They are selected with the firm belief that while the original work remains an important and enduring product, sometimes we can all benefit from a quick take on a topic worthy of a longer book.

Where? Available on all leading eReaders.

When? Official launch is November 9, 2011.

Why? Short Takes, Big Ideas. Or, as Press Director Peter Dougherty puts it, “Joining content from some of Princeton’s most celebrated published titles with the genius of rapid, online delivery, the first wave of Princeton Shorts will provide readers everywhere with new access to the ideas contained in one of scholarly publishing’s most distinguished lists. Everything old—from our recent and remote past—is new again with Princeton Shorts.”

So these are eBook exclusive chapters selected from previously published full-length PUP books? Precisely. In a world where every second counts, how better to stay up-to-speed on current events and digest the kernels of wisdom from great works of the past? Princeton Shorts enables you to be an instant expert in a world where information is everywhere but quality is at a premium.

• THE SECOND GREAT CONTRACTION (e-ISBN 1400841127/$4.99) from Reinhart and Rogoff’s  This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly
• Gold Medal Winner, 2011 Arthur Ross Book Award, Council on Foreign Relations
• Winner of the 2010 TIAA-CREF Paul A. Samuelson Award

THIS TIME IS DIFFERENT hardly needs an introduction.  It is the definitive history of financial crises, including the recent subprime meltdown.

• ON VICTORY AND DEFEAT (e-ISBN 1400841151/$3.99) from Clausewitz’s ON WAR (translated by Michael Eliot Howard and Peter Paret)

ON WAR first appeared in 1832 and remains the most significant attempt in Western history to understand war.

• THE FUTURE OF FOSSIL FUELS (e-ISBN 1400841135/$2.99) from Deffeyes’s Hubbert’s Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage

From the leading book on the limits of our oil supply, this selection forecasts what the alternatives to fossil fuels are likely to be.

• ON READING (e-ISBN 1400841143/$1.99) from Thoreau’s WALDEN

A slightly cheeky selection from that American classic which decried the evils of technology and championed the simple gift of reading.

• THE FIVE HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE HONEYBEES (And What  We Can Learn From Them) (e-ISBN 140084116X/$2.99) from Seeley’s HONEYBEE DEMOCRACY Learn how honeybees work together to make important decisions for the hive.

These brief chapters are the perfect companion pieces to the full-length works but the beauty is, they also stand on their own. There are more Princeton Shorts already in the works so stay tuned as we continue to wade into the waters of eBook exclusives! The first five entries in the Princeton Shorts series will be available on Wednesday, November 9.