Category: Politics

December 18, 2019

L. Benjamin Rolsky on Progressive Patriotism

“Although the religious right looms large in histories of the 1970s, the struggle over religion, politics and culture didn’t unfold only on the right. In this lively and engaging study, Rolsky shows how Norman Lear and People for the American...

December 11, 2019

How to Catch a War Criminal

“Extraordinary Justice is hands down the final verdict on the UN’s controversial ‘mixed tribunal.’ . . . Simply put, nobody knows more about the Khmer Rouge war crimes trials than Etcheson. This is a remarkable, three-dimensional study of the legally simple...

December 5, 2019

Book Excerpt! Allies of Convenience: A Theory of Bargaining in U.S. Foreign Policy

 “Standard bargaining theories are puzzled by the ability of allies that are not only weak but also distasteful to get so much advantage when dealing with the United States. In an important contribution, Evan N. Resnick shows that the...

December 4, 2019

Donald Trump and the Dangerous U.S. Addiction to “Allies of Convenience”

“Resnick’s Allies of Convenience is an incisive analysis of the role of alliances in U. S. foreign policy. This book will be of interest not only to international relations scholars but also to the current architects of American foreign policy. Coming at...

November 14, 2019

Book Excerpt! Pork Barrel Politics, by Andrew H. Sidman (chapter 3: An Electoral History of the Pork Barrel)

“A comprehensive and timely study, Pork Barrel Politics traces the history of distributive spending in Congress and its relation to Congressional elections at the primary and general election stages. Sidman finds that the effects of distributive benefits vary across parties, and can...

November 13, 2019

The Political Problem with Federal Investment in Infrastructure

“A comprehensive and timely study, Pork Barrel Politics traces the history of distributive spending in Congress and its relation to Congressional elections at the primary and general election stages. Sidman finds that the effects of distributive benefits vary across parties, and can...

November 6, 2019

Why Waterboarding Won’t Die

“In a gripping story about fear and loathing in Amboina, Adam Clulow probes a pivotal event in world history to offer fresh insights about the entanglements of European empires in Asia. Meticulously researched and engagingly told, Amboina, 1623 is that...

October 31, 2019

Book Excerpt! The Politics of Secularism (preface)

“Murat Akan has given us an incredibly thorough account of how ideas about secularism have traveled between France and Turkey and how to relate these ideas to broader understandings of the relation between religion and society. His sophisticated theoretical approach...

October 30, 2019

Q&A: Murat Akan on The Politics of Secularism

“Murat Akan has given us an incredibly thorough account of how ideas about secularism have traveled between France and Turkey and how to relate these ideas to broader understandings of the relation between religion and society. His sophisticated theoretical approach...

October 3, 2018

The New Superpower Rivalry

“This fascinating book expands our understanding of the functions of polarity in international politics and tells us a lot about the coming bipolar world. It is a pioneering work and a comprehensive study of contemporary China-U.S relations from a bipolar...

June 21, 2018

Iain MacKenzie on Resistance and the Politics of Truth: Foucault, Deleuze, Badiou

Today, we are honored to have a guest post by Iain MacKenzie, author of the forthcoming book Resistance and the Politics of Truth: Foucault, Deleuze, Badiou. MacKenzie is a co-director of the Centre for Critical Thought and a senior lecturer in politics at...

April 17, 2018

Trivia Tuesday: This Book Debuted in 1959, Launched a Career, and is Still in Print Today!

Columbia University Press closed the 1950s with the publication of Man, the State, and War — a book by Kenneth N. Waltz, a young political scientist who would go on to become one of the most highly-regarded figures in the field of...