December 22, 2011

American Force, by Richard Betts, Reviewed in Foreign Affairs

American Force: Dangers, Delusions, and Dilemmas in National , by Richard Betts recently received a serious and glowing review in Foreign Affairs: Betts describes himself as a Cold War hawk who became a post–Cold War dove. In this collection of...

December 21, 2011

Richard Betts on Francis Fukuyama, Samuel Huntington, and John Mearsheimer

Earlier this year, Richard Betts, author of American Force: Dangers, Delusions, and Dilemmas in National Security, wrote a much-discussed article in Foreign Affairs exploring the controversial visions of world politics put forth by Francis Fukuyama, Samuel Huntington, and John Mearsheimer....

December 21, 2011

Interview with Partha Chatterjee

“The non-scholarly and unstoppably influential book of all time for me is The Communist Manifesto. Even today, reading it gives me a thrill.”—Partha Chatterjee We have been fortunate enough to publish in the United States books from the great Indian...

December 20, 2011

North Korea: Analysis from Columbia University Press Authors

A variety of Columbia University Press authors have been asked to comment on recent events in North Korea, including Victor Cha coauthor of Nuclear North Korea: A Debate on Engagement Strategies, who appeared on PBS Newshour to discuss the death...

December 20, 2011

Richard Betts on How Defense Cuts Might Affect American Force

“I think we overestimate our soft power. Americans understandably like to think of themselves as a model for the world, as a society that other societies want to be like. To some extent, this is true, but we tend to...

December 20, 2011

New Book Tuesday: American Theatre and More

Our weekly list of new titles now available: American Theatre: History, Context, Form Theresa Saxon The Phantom of Chance: From Fortune to Randomness in Seventeenth-Century French Literature John D. Lyons Imagining the Cape Colony: History, Literature, and the South African...

December 19, 2011

Christopher Hitchens on Unanswerable Prayers

Last week brought the very sad news of Christopher Hitchens’s passing after a struggle with cancer. We were fortunate enough to have been able to include some of his writing in The Best American Magazine Writing series. In 2007, his...

December 19, 2011

Richard Betts on American Force

This week will be featuring American Force: Dangers, Delusions, and Dilemmas in National Security, by Richard Betts. In the book, Betts takes a skeptical look at the use of American force in the postwar era and analyzes, sometimes critically, the...

December 16, 2011

The Unfinished Greatest Grid

In conjunction with The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811-2011, edited by Hilary Ballon, The Museum of the City of New York in conjunction with their exhibit on the grid is also presenting The Unfinished Grid: Design Speculations...

December 15, 2011

13 Facts About the Greatest Grid: How a Plan from 1811 Allowed New York City to Grow

The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811-2011, edited by Hilary Ballon, recounts the history of the planning, implementation, and impact of the grid on New York City. Conceived as a plan that was both logical and a reflection...

December 14, 2011

Dean Starkman on the Limited Vision of News Gurus

Longform recently selected Dean Starkman’s Confidence Game: The Limited Vision of News Gurus, as one of the best articles for 2011 in media. Starkman’s article, which was published in the Columbia Journalism Review, and is now available as a digital...

December 14, 2011

Images from The Greatest Grid: Scenes of New York City Before and After the Grid

The Greatest Grid: The Master Plan of Manhattan, 1811-2011, edited by Hilary Ballon, contains a variety of different images and artifacts that offer a visual history of how the city changed as the grid evolved. Below are some images from...