September 6, 2013

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. As designers show...

September 6, 2013

Bridges Too Far? Peter Rabins on What Causality Can Tell Us About Bridge Collapses

“A correct causal analysis is much more than assigning blame. It provides guidance for preventing future failures and can drive the accumulation of new knowledge.”—Peter Rabins We conclude our week-long feature on Peter Rabins’s The Why of Things: Causality in...

September 5, 2013

Peter Rabins: "Widespread Power Failures: Programmatic and Emergent Causality"

This week our featured book is The Why of Things: Causality in Science, Medicine, and Life, by Peter Rabins. This is the fifth article in a series of six articles by Peter Rabins. And, don’t forget to enter our book...

September 5, 2013

Peter Rabins: Douthat, Pinker and "Scientism"

“[Steven] Pinker has failed to recognize the limits of empirical scientific reasoning, just as those who rely predominantly on ecclesiastic or empathic reasoning mistakenly reject scientific results because they do not fit with their values.”—Peter Rabins This week our featured...

September 5, 2013

Donald Prothero at Skylight Books to Talk About Abominable Science! & More Good News About the Book

A scientist discussing his great new book at a great bookstore equals, not surprisingly, a great author event. That is the equation in play tonight as Donald Prothero coauthor of Abominable Science!: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous...

September 4, 2013

Peter Rabins: "Three-Facet Model of Causality"

This week our featured book is The Why of Things: Causality in Science, Medicine, and Life, by Peter Rabins. Today, we are featuring another article by Peter Rabins on his unique three facet model approach to causality. And, don’t forget...

September 4, 2013

Abominable Science! Erich Fromm, Immigration in NYC and more Author Events for September

From coast-to-coast, we’ve got a great lineup of author of events for September, beginning with Daniel Loxton and Donald Prothero discussing their book Abominable Science!: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids at Sklylight Books in Los Angeles...

September 3, 2013

Peter Rabins on Causality and Evolution

“That a construct described 150 years ago is still so central to scientific thinking on the matter is a tribute to Darwin’s genius and, more importantly, evidence of the power of the proposal that he made.”—Peter Rabins This week our...

September 3, 2013

New Book Tuesday: The European Masses, A Japanese Classic, and Sufi Bodies

Our weekly list of new books: Crowds and Democracy: The Idea and Image of the Masses from Revolution to Fascism Stefan Jonsson The Tale of Genji: Translation, Canonization, and World Literature Michael Emmerich Sufi Bodies: Religion and Society in Medieval...

August 30, 2013

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. Wednesday, August 28th,...

August 30, 2013

An Interview with Adam Arvidsson and Nicolai Peitersen

As we continue our week-long feature of The Ethical Economy: Rebuilding Value After the Crisis, by Adam Arvidsson and Nicolai Peitersen, we look to the authors’ interview with Zoe Romano at Digicult as they discuss the ideas of productive publics,...

August 29, 2013

Marc Lynch and Erica Chenoweth on U.S. Military Intervention in Syria

“But Obama has actually learned the real lessons of Iraq, the risks and costs, to America and to the world, of poorly conceived interventions abroad that never go quite as promised.”—Marc Lynch on possible U.S. military intervention in Syria As...