July 21, 2009

Walter Cronkite and Fred Friendly — a post by Ralph Engelman

The following is a post by Ralph Engelman, author of Friendlyvision: Fred Friendly and the Rise and Fall of Television Journalism. Walter Cronkite’s recent death prompted thoughts about the complex relationship between the great anchor and Fred Friendly. The mixed...

July 20, 2009

Portraits from the Cambodian genocide — Peter Maguire

The current legal proceedings against Khmer Rouge leaders is once again bringing to light the regime’s horrible atrocities. One of the most powerful archives from the Cambodian genocide are the photographs from the Tuol Sleng Prison. In an essay on...

July 20, 2009

Stephen Burt's advice to authors

Of course we’re very fortunate to have wonderful authors to work with at Columbia University Press but that might not be the case for all publishers. Over at his always-interesting blog Close Calls with Nonsense, poet and critic Stephen Burt,...

July 17, 2009

The People's Daily Online on How East Asians View Democracy

Needless to say, it’s not every day that one of our books gets mentioned in The People’s Daily, published by the government of China, so we thought their article Social stability spells well-being for commonality, was worth mentioning. The article...

July 17, 2009

Summer reading recommendations from PRI’s The World

Looking for a good summer novel that goes beyond your conventional beach reading? Well, Bill Marx from PRI’s The World offers four recommendations of fiction in translation. The list includes The Halfway House, by Guillermo Rosales, In the United States...

July 16, 2009

On Russia with an open mind — Stephen Cohen

In a wide-ranging essay on thew Web site Rorotoko, Stephen Cohen discusses his recently published work Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War. While Cohen has been called upon in recent days to discuss Obama...

July 15, 2009

Kim Yong describes his time in a North Korean labor camp

Kim Yong, author of the just published, Long Road Home, was recently interviewed by the Australian Broadcasting Company about his time spent as a prisoner at the infamous North Korean labor camp 14 and the atrocities he witnessed there. Listen...

July 14, 2009

James Millward tells us what's been happening in Xinjiang

Recently BBC Radio interviewed James Millward, author of Eurasian Crossroads, on the ongoing situation in Xinjiang, China. Xinjiang province in China is home to a large Uighur minority population – ethnic Turkic Muslims – who the government says are radical...

July 10, 2009

Interview with John Balcom, Translator of "There’s Nothing I Can Do When I Think of You Late at Night"

We had meant to post this earlier but PRI’s The World recently interview John Balcom, the translator of the just-published There’s Nothing I Can Do When I Think of You Late at Night by Chinese writer Cao Naiqian. You can...

July 10, 2009

Lisa Keller Recounts Her Brief Encounter with Robert McNamara aka "The Guy with Slickum in His Hair"

Lisa Keller is the author of Triumph of Order: Democracy and Public Space in New York and London and is associate professor at Purchase College, State University of New York. In the following post, which is cross-posted at History News...

July 9, 2009

Farzana Shaikh Has Tea with The Economist

Farzana Shaikh, author of Making Sense of Pakistan recently appeared on The Economist‘s series Tea with the Economist to talk about her book, Pakistan, India, Islam, and the army.

July 9, 2009

Southern Fried Molecular Gastronomy

Noted French chef and chemist (and inspiration to Keanu Reeves), is coming to North Carolina for a unique collaboration between him and folk musicians Al Petteway and Amy White. The program, entitled Note-by-Note Cuisine will be held at Mars Hill...