Announcing the Columbia University Press Fall 2017 Catalog

We are proud to announce our catalog of new books coming in Fall 2017! In her introductory letter, Press Director Jennifer Crewe lays out her hopes for the books in the catalog and lists a few highlights:

Dear Readers,

This season’s catalogue puts forth the results of a remarkable effort by Columbia University Press authors to grapple with urgent global issues. With books tackling climate change, racial justice, national security, and social policy, as well as eye-catching original subjects—the alt-right, fracking, Lyme disease, the “corporate tomato,” and nonrealistic taxidermy—our authors stand out at the frontiers of scholarship.

Our titles this season showcase the University and its local and global presence. The fiftieth anniversary of the events of 1968 is approaching, and in A Time to Stir (p. 1), Paul Cronin presents remarkable recollections of the protests that shook Columbia’s campus and resonated worldwide. Turning to the present and its challenges, in The Sustainable City (p. 25), the Earth Institute’s Steven Cohen describes the policies that can make urban systems go green, especially relevant to Columbia’s position in a vibrant metropolis. Columbia’s Global Centers seek to facilitate international communication, and in Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly (p. 29), the Global Centers executive vice president Safwan M. Masri does just that through a personal account of Tunisia’s history.

Highlighting the best of European thought continues to be one of our core strengths, with a never-before-translated compendium of Roland Barthes’s correspondence (p. 6); Artaud the Moma (p. 7), Jacques Derrida’s virtuosic lecture on Antonin Artaud given at the Museum of Modern Art; and a philosophical new novel by Julia Kristeva, The Enchanted Clock (p. 8). Joining them are globe-spanning works of literature in translation, including Jun’ichirō Tanizaki’s metafictional mystery In Black and White (p. 9) and an exciting selection of new Russian Library titles (pp. 16-17). Annette Insdorf’s Cinematic Overtures (p. 22), a Leonard Hastings Schoff Lecture, turns our attention to a movie’s first minutes, and the Kenneth J. Arrow lecture series continues with Christan Gollier’s Ethical Asset Valuation and the Good Society (p. 41), which seeks a better way of directing investment toward the common good.

As remarkable as they are, the books on display in this catalogue would not exist without the efforts of our readers, partners, and the university community. Thank you for your support of our books and our mission.

Jennifer Crewe
Associate Provost and Director