July 31, 2009

Health care for the Blue Dogs — Jacob Hacker

Earlier this week, Jacob Hacker, editor of Health at Risk: America’s Health System—And How to Heal It, wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post on the “Blue Dog” Democrats’ apprehension about Obama’s health care plan. Hacker argues that while the...

July 30, 2009

James Millward revisits the Urumchi unrest

In an essay for the Web site China Beat, James Millward, author of Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang, examines the recent violence earlier this month in the western Chinese city of Urumchi and the disputed claims about what caused...

July 29, 2009

Acts of Conscience and the history of radical pacifism in the United States

Speaking of titles (see below), the excellent blog Religion in American History has been looking at two books with the same title: Acts of Conscience. More precisely, there has been essays about Columbia’s Acts of Conscience: Christian Nonviolence and Modern...

July 29, 2009

Well Titled, Well Covered features There’s Nothing I Can Do When I Think of You Late at Night

The New Yorker‘s blog The Book Bench recently featured Cao Naiqian’s There’s Nothing I Can Do When I Think of You Late at Night in their “Well Titled, Well Covered” feature. Here’s how they explain their criteria for their well...

July 28, 2009

The Los Angeles Times on Fitzgerald and Hemingway: Work and Days

July 28, 2009

Adressing the ideological confusion at the heart of Pakistan

On the Web site Rorotoko, Farzana Shaikh, author of Making Sense of Pakistan, explains the main arguments of her book and the ways in which they challenge conventional interpretations Pakistani politics and history. (For more on Shaikh’s book, which has...

July 27, 2009

Q & A with Seth Kunin, author of Juggling Identities

The following is an interview with Seth Kunin, author of Juggling Identities: Identity and Authenticity among the Crypto-Jews. Seth Kunin will be discussing the book tomorrow at 7 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center in Albuquerque. Q: What is crypto-Judaism?...

July 27, 2009

Only local business can end global poverty — R. Glenn Hubbard

In Friday’s Financial Times R. Glenn Hubbard, co-author of the forthcoming The Aid Trap: Hard Truths About Ending Poverty, argues that poor nations need a new Marshall plan that helps stimulate local businesses. As Hubbard points out the original Marshall...

July 27, 2009

Notice about CUP Web site

We are in the process of updating our shopping cart and are currently not accepting any Web site orders. Our new shopping cart will be installed on August 1 at which point we will once again be accepting orders. We...

July 24, 2009

"At the moment there are few grounds for optimism." — Farzana Shaikh on Pakistan

“Pakistan differs from other countries in that its ideological confusion has bred dangerous consequences that go well beyond the frontier of the state. Until the country clarifies its relationship with Islam, it cannot be expected to do more in the...

July 23, 2009

More perspectives on the health care crisis

What do social scientists have to contribute to the continuing debate about the health care crisis? In Health at Risk: America’s Ailing Health System—And How to Heal It, edited by Jacob Hacker, sociologists, economists, political scientists, and legal scholars examine...

July 22, 2009

Houston Baker on the arrest of Henry Louis Gates

The following post is by Houston Baker, Distinguished University Professor at Vanderbilt University and the author of many books, most recently Betrayal: How Black Intellectuals Have Abandoned the Ideals of the Civil Rights Era. The surreal arrest of Professor Henry...