University Press Roundup
Welcome to our weekly roundup of the best posts from the blogs of academic publishers! As always, if you particularly enjoy something or think that we missed an important post, please let us know in the comments.
Do words matter? And if so, how do they shape our world? In this Cambridge University Press post titled Language of Contention, Sidney Tarrow discovers that “new words for contention diffuse across social and territorial boundaries, they affect how people behave as well as how they describe what they do. Take the recent evolution of the term ‘occupy’: it not only described what a group of protesters did near Wall Street in 2011; it also inspired people around the United States and abroad to imitate what they had done, to innovate new forms of occupation, and to force the concept of ‘the 99 percent’ onto the political agenda.”
Enjoy watching Sherlock Holmes and his unique detective skills? Oxford University Press published a post by James O’s Brien, author of The Scientific Sherlock Holmes. Brien writes an interesting take on the methods of detection used in Sherlock Holmes, ranging from fingerprint evidence to handwriting to footprints and even dogs.
Remember the Chilean Coup of 1973? Duke University Press published a post to mark the 40th anniversary the coup that took place on Sept 11th, 1973. “Before 9/11 (2001), September 11 was remembered most often as the day of the Chilean coup of 1973. Today marks the fortieth anniversary of that day. On September 11, 1973, Chile’s three armies launched an attack on the government of President Salvador Allende, the first democratically-elected socialist president of Chile.”
MIT Press talks about a new age of protest in two rising economies, namely Brazil and Turkey, in their post titled Turkey and Brazil: A New Age of Protest?. What do protests in both countries have in common. New age communication. “An ocean apart, what did the protests in Brazil have in common with the outcry in Turkey? Thanks to Twitter, Facebook, and other online platforms, which enable speedy communication at very low costs, potential allies were reached and mobilized quickly.”
Trouble saving money? American Management Association published an article titled Savings Account Survival Guide, written by author Jeff Rose. He offers advice and key steps such as finding the best interest rate and properly managing your savings.
Penn State Press published an article about the book “Magic in the Cloister” by Sophie Page. “During the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, a group of monks with occult interests donated what became a remarkable collection of more than thirty magic texts to the library of the Benedictine abbey of St. Augustine’s in Canterbury. Analysis of their manuscripts and the monastic environment in which they lived suggests that they were a coherent group with shared aims and interests whose occult studies were stimulated by their religious vocation and protected by the relatively enclosed environment of the abbey.”
Thanks again for reading this week’s roundup! Have a great weekend, and leave any thoughts in the comments!
