February, 2011 - Columbia University Press Blog

February 28, 2011

Do Mayors Matter? A review of "America's Mayor" and "Ed Koch and the Rebuilding of New York City"

In The New Republic, Edward Glaeser, reviews three recent books on New York City that explore the city’s postwar politics, finances, and efforts at urban renewal. The books discussed include America’s Mayor: John V. Lindsay and the Reinvention of...

February 25, 2011

Columbia University Press Online Access (CUPOLA)

Visitors to the Columbia University Press site will notice that many of our titles in social work, business, and economics, now include a button that allows you to access the book on Columbia University Press Online Access (CUPOLA). As...

February 24, 2011

Interview with Norma Lang, author of Group Work Practice to Advance Social Competence

The following is an interview with Norma Lang, author of Group Work Practice to Advance Social Competence: A Specialized Methodology for Social Work. Q: To what readership is the book addressed? Norma Lang.: The book is intended for use by...

February 23, 2011

Martin Murphy, author of "Somalia the New Barbary," on the Newshour

In the wake of the most recent incident of hijacking by Somali pirates, PBS’s Newshour interviewed Martin Murphy, author of Somalia, the New Barbary?: Piracy and Islam in the Horn of Africa and Small Boats, Weak States, Dirty Money: Piracy...

February 22, 2011

New Book Tuesday — Paul Offit and Antonio Gramsci

Books now available: Vaccines and Your Child: Separating Fact from Fiction Paul A. Offit, MD, FAAP and Charlotte A. Moser Prison Notebooks: Three Volume Set Antonio Gramsci; translated by Joseph A. Buttigieg Ottomans Into Europeans: State and Institution-Building in South...

February 18, 2011

Roland Barthes Concludes The Preparation of the Novel

Fittingly, our last excerpt from Barthes’s extraordinary lecture series will be his final words from his session of February 23, 1980). (For other excerpts from The Preparation of the Novel, click here, here, here, and here.) Thus, what I’m waiting...

February 18, 2011

Olivier Roy on Egypt and the New Arab World

Olivier Roy, most recently the author of Holy Ignorance: When Religion and Culture Part Ways, has written two pieces on events in the Arab world that have been widely cited and offer a counter-perspective to Western coverage. In his piece...

February 17, 2011

Roland Barthes on the Literary Hero — The Preparation of the Novel

“It’s this Figure—or this Power—of the literary Hero that’s dying out today”—Roland Barthes In his lecture of February 16, 1980, Roland Barthes considers literature’s relationship to the world. In this particular excerpt he discusses the concept of literary heroism and...

February 16, 2011

Roland Barthes on The Hope of Writing — The Preparation of the Novel

In his lecture of December 1, 1979, Roland Barthes discusses “The Work as Will,” and in this excerpt he talks about the hope of Writing. (For other excerpts from The Preparation of the Novel, click here and here.) The...

February 16, 2011

Avner Cohen Discusses The Worst-Kept Secret: Israel's Bargain with the Bomb

The following is a recent interview with Avner Cohen, author of The Worst-Kept Secret: Israel’s Bargain with the Bomb on Conversations with History:

February 15, 2011

Roland Barthes on Writing and the Vita Nova — From The Preparation of the Novel

Continuing our feature on The Preparation of the Novel, by Roland Barthes, we have posted an excerpt from the first session. The lecture series began shortly after the death of Barthes’s mother, which inspired to some extent his decision to...