January 14, 2011

Olivier Roy Talks to the New Humanist about Holy Ignorance

“The more you believe the less you know – or the less you want to know [and that] is the exact definition of holy ignorance.”—Olivier Roy The above quote comes from a recent interview with the New Humanist and Olivier...

January 13, 2011

New York City Mayors and Snow

Having recently published biographies of New York City mayors—America’s Mayor: John V. Lindsay and the Reinvention of New York and Ed Koch and the Rebuilding of New York City—we’ve been following Mayor Bloomberg’s recent battles with snow storms. While the...

January 12, 2011

Clare Palmer on Animal Ethics in Context

In a fascinating essay published in Rorotoko, Clare Palmer recently wrote about the aims and arguments of her new book Animal Ethics in Context . As the title of her book suggests, Palmer is interested in exploring the argument that...

January 11, 2011

New Book Tuesday

The following books are now available: Clio Wired: The Future of the Past in the Digital Age Roy Rosenzweig Workers, Unions, and Global Capitalism: Lessons from India Rohini Hensman Beyond the Final Score: The Politics of Sport in Asia (new...

January 10, 2011

Barthes after Barthes — Sylvère Lotringer on The Preparation of the Novel

In the current issue of Frieze Sylvère Lotringer offers an uncommonly perceptive and thoughtful assessment of Roland Barthes’s life’s work and his attempt to prepare for and write a novel after the death of his mother. Barthes’s thoughts about writing...

January 7, 2011

Columbia University Press Outstanding Academic Titles for 2010 from Choice

Congratulations to the 10 books named as Choice Outstanding Academic Titles for 2010! Every year, Choice subject editors single out for recognition the most significant print and electronic works reviewed in Choice during the previous calendar year. Appearing annually in...

January 6, 2011

Dan Rather recommends "My Life with the Taliban"

On the facebook page for his program Dan Rather Reports, Dan Rather himself recommended My Life with the Taliban, by Abdul Salam Zaeef. Here’s what Rather wrote about the book: Have just read My Life With the Taliban, by Abdul...

January 6, 2011

Guobin Yang: On the Persistence of Online Activism in China

Tonight Guobin Yang, author of The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online will be part of a panel discussion on China’s new media landscape at the Asia Society. The event coincides with the paperback edition of The...

January 5, 2011

J. P. Singh Takes The Page 99 Test

J. P. Singh, author of Globalized Arts: The Entertainment Economy and Cultural Identity, recently took the page 99 test as a way to describe some of the central themes of his book. Here are some excerpts from his essay for...

January 5, 2011

Agamben, Badiou, Nancy, Ranciere, Zizek — New Book Tuesday (Wednesday Edition)

We were on vacation last week, so here are books from the past two weeks that are now available. From Agamben & Co. to the paperback reprint of The Late Age of Print, here are some new books to kick...

January 4, 2011

Interview with Stephen Penman, author of Accounting for Value

Q. What’s an extroverted accountant? A. One who looks at your shoes while he is talking to you instead of his own. The above joke comes from a recent interview on Ideas at Work with Stephen Penman, author of the...

December 22, 2010

Hillary Chute, Lynda Barry, Ben Katchor and Others on the Art of the Graphic Novel

Earlier this month Hillary Chute, author of Graphic Women: Life Narratives and Contemporary Comics participated on a panel at the Philoctetes Center with Lynda Barry, N.C. Christopher Couch, Ben Katchor, and Françoise Mouly on the art of the graphic novel....