December 20, 2012

Andrew Smith on How Beverages Have Changed American History (He Also Talks About Tuna)

Earlier this fall, Andrew Smith talked about his book Drinking History: Fifteen Turning Points in the Making of American Beverages at a special event sponsored by the Culinary Historians of Chicago. In the talk, Smith considers why Americans drink what...

December 20, 2012

Siddharth Kara Interviewed in The Economist

The Economist blog Feast and Famine: Demography and Development recently interviewed Siddharth Kara about his new book Bonded Labor: Tackling the System of Slavery in South Asia . In the interview Kara explains how people become trapped and exploited in...

December 19, 2012

Beer — Another Turning Point from "Drinking History"

Yesterday, we posted on the history of youth drinks from Andrew Smith’s Drinking History: Fifteen Turning Points in the Making of American Beverages. Today, we turn to the more adult beer, which skyrocketed in popularity in the 1840s thanks in...

December 19, 2012

The Making of Lee Boyd Malvo Selected as Best Book of 2012

Writing for The Atlantic, Andrew Cohen named The Making of Lee Boyd Malvo: The D.C. Sniper , by Carmeta Albarus and Jonathan H. Mack, as one of The Best 2012 Books About Justice. Here’s what Andrew Cohen wrote about the...

December 18, 2012

The History of Youth Drinks from Kool-Aid to Red Bull — A Turning Point in America's Drinking History

For much of American history kids drank what their parents did, including alcohol, which was sometimes diluted and sometimes not. Beginning in the 1920s beverage-makers began producing and marketing drinks to kids. In the chapter “Youth Beverages” from his new...

December 18, 2012

New Book Tuesday: Investing, Reforming Democracies, and More!

Our weekly list of new titles from Columbia University Press and Columbia Business School Publishing: The Most Important Thing Illuminated: Uncommon Sense for the Thoughtful Investor Howard Marks Investing: The Last Liberal Art, Second Edition Robert Hagstrom Reforming Democracies: Six...

December 17, 2012

Mike Chasar — Jingle All the Way: Saint Nick and the Poetry of Santa's Ring Toss

In the following post, Mike Chasar, author of Everyday Reading: Poetry and Popular Culture in Modern America, explores the ways in which a poem related to a Coca-Cola holiday promotion exposes how the commercial and non-commercial aspects of the holidays...

December 14, 2012

University Press Roundup

Our weekly roundup of the best posts from the blogs of academic publishers.

December 14, 2012

Key Moments in Peanut Butter History via Jon Krampner's "Creamy and Crunchy"

In the appendix to Creamy and Crunchy: An Informal History of Peanut Butter, the All-American Food, Jon Krampner offers a timeline of the history of peanut butter. Here are some key moments from that timeline: 1894: George Bayle allegedly begins...

December 13, 2012

Listen to The Marathons, Watch Peanut Butter Being Made

On the website for the book Creamy and Crunchy: An Informal History of Peanut Butter, the All-American Food, Jon Krampner includes some links to various songs about peanut butter and peanuts. We could hardly resist posting a video here as...

December 13, 2012

VIDEO: Interview with Andrew Nathan, author of China's Search for Security

The following video is an interview with Andrew Nathan coauthor (with Andrew Scobell) of China’s Search for Security. The interview was done with China File, a project of the Center on US-China Relations at the Asia Society. (Apologies for the...

December 12, 2012

Interview with Jon Krampner, author of Creamy and Crunchy

The following is an interview with Jon Krampner, author of Creamy and Crunchy: An Informal History of Peanut Butter, the All-American Food. Question: Why did you write a book about the history of peanut butter? Jon Krampner: My first two...