Letter from the editor:

It is with great pleasure that, on behalf of my colleagues at Columbia University Press, I introduce this year’s sociology catalog. These are interesting times in the wider world. With our sociology publishing at Columbia we hope to help you understand it. The books in this catalog exemplify the quality of scholarship that we prize, and they reflect the interdisciplinary and thematic approach that we take to publishing.

There are a few titles in this year’s catalog that I want to briefly highlight. To quote Clayton Childress, “Measuring Culture is the canonical text we have been waiting for in the sociology of culture.” We introduce the series Society and the Environment with Rebecca Elliott’s Underwater, which considers what loss as a result of climate change should mean and Super Polluters by Don Grant, Andrew Jorgenson, and Wesley Longhofer investigates what can be done about the energy sector’s vast carbon emissions. Emily Erickson’s Trade and Nation and Henning Hillmann’s The Corsairs of Saint-Malo are our latest in The Middle Range series, and both consider the origins of capitalism. There are many other authors and subjects that are not to be missed, including Tania Jenkins on status in the medical profession, Meghan Elizabeth Kallman on the Peace Corp, Alvaro Santana-Acuna on the publication of a canonical novel, and Aaron Passell on historic preservation.

This is a great group of books and there is much to come. We look forward to continuing to share this intellectually engaging journey with you. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Eric I. Schwartz, Ph.D. Editorial Director