April 14, 2021

Race and the History of Capitalism

By Destin Jenkins and Justin C. Leroy

In 1983, Cedric J. Robinson popularized the term “racial capitalism,” referring to the way that the violent dispossessions inherent to capital accumulation operate by creating, leveraging, and intensifying racial distinctions. But he did not invent the term. It first cohered...

April 14, 2021

Capitalism and the Economic Lives of Enslaved People

By Justene Hill Edwards

In 1805, one of enslaved peoples’ greatest fears came true for a man named Charles Ball. His enslaver sold the thirty-year-old to a slave trader bound for the Carolinas and Georgia, far from his family in Maryland. Ball was funneled...

April 14, 2021

Browse Our OAH 2021 Virtual Exhibit Booth with Stephen Wesley

I am delighted to present the 2021 Columbia University Press new books in American history. The titles featured here demonstrate the vibrancy of Columbia University Press’s program as we continue a long tradition of publishing top scholarship in the field. The...

April 5, 2021

Not Doing Global Fieldwork (At Least Not Right Now)

By Jesse Driscoll

Many graduate students imagine their comparative advantage will be original data collection. Fieldwork, in this idealized conception, provides an opportunity to (try to) break free of the rigid, sometimes cruel, hierarchical status structures imposed by the ivory tower in a...

April 5, 2021

Q&A: Erin M. Kearns and Joseph K. Young on Tortured Logic

Experts in the intelligence community say that torture is ineffective. Yet much of the public appears unconvinced: surveys show that nearly half of Americans think that torture can be acceptable for counterterrorism purposes. In this Q&A, Erin M. Kearns and...

April 5, 2021

Browse Our ISA 2021 Virtual Exhibit Booth with Caelyn Cobb

Hello, and welcome to the second annual (and hopefully the last) Columbia University Press International Studies Association Virtual Exhibit Booth! I’m Caelyn Cobb, the editor for global and international politics, coming to you live from my apartment in Queens, New...

March 29, 2021

Q&A: Kathleen Cummins on Herstories on Screen

Kathleen Cummins is a film professor in the Faculty of Animation, Arts, and Design at Sheridan College. She is also a filmmaker whose work has been broadcast and screened internationally. In this Q&A she discusses her new book Herstories on...

March 22, 2021

Browse Our AAS Virtual Exhibit Booth and Our Asian Studies Catalog

Asian studies is a major focus at Columbia University Press, and all of us who would usually be at the Association for Asian Studies Conference this week are disappointed not to be meeting you in person. We’ve highlighted a small...

March 22, 2021

Eric Schluessel in Conversation with David Brophy about Xinjiang History

Columbia University Press has published two groundbreaking new books on Xinjiang history, David Brophy’s In Remembrance of the Saints: The Rise and Fall of an Inner Asian Sufi Dynasty and Eric Schluessel’s Land of Strangers: The Civilizing Project in Qing...

March 22, 2021

Early Photography in China

By Shengqing Wu

Chinese poetry, painting, and calligraphy have a long history of interaction and harmonious integration. But in the nineteenth century, photography was introduced into China: what happened when the brush encountered the shutter? In Photo Poetics, I explore the dynamics of...

March 22, 2021

Introducing ASIA SHORTS: Small Volumes with a Big Message: Strong Scholarship for a Wide Audience

By Bill Tsutsui, Asia Shorts series editor and Jon Wilson, AAS Publications Manager

In our information-saturated lives, there is much to appreciate in the expression of important, timely, and complex ideas in forms that are focused, clear, and concise. Brevity need not signify superficiality nor suggest any lack of ambition or effort. As...

March 17, 2021

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020): The Villain We Deserve and the Hero We Need?

By Terence McSweeney and Rebecca Cohen

Arriving at the end of a year in which cinemas around the globe had spent much of the time with their doors closed,  Patty Jenkins’s Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) was one of only a few American superhero films even released...