January 21, 2009

Marc Lynch's Four Suggestions for the Obama Administration

Marc Lynch, author of Voices of the New Arab Public: Iraq, al-Jazeera, and Middle East Politics Today, offers four suggestions to the Obama administration on his blog now hosted on the Foreign Policy Web site: 1. Give the order to...

January 21, 2009

UPfront at the Seminary Co-op Bookstore

Lately, the Seminary Co-op Bookstores, located in Chicago, has been receiving a lot of attention as the Obama’s bookstore of choice. Of course for those interested in scholarly books or books in general, the Seminary Co-op is well-known for being...

January 21, 2009

Leonard Cassuto Nominated for an Edgar

Congratulations to Leonard Cassuto for his Edgar nomination in the category of Best Critical Work / Biography for Hard-Boiled Sentimentality: The Secret History of American Crime Stories. The Edgars are an annual award selected by the Mystery Writers of America...

January 20, 2009

Inauguration 2009

HELLO GOODBYE Both images are from All the Art That’s Fit to Print (And Some That Wasn’t): Inside the New York Times Op-ed Page by Jerelle Kraus. Watch a video for the book for more images from the book and...

January 16, 2009

Columbia University Press Outstanding Academic Titles from 2008

Every year, Choice subject editors single out for recognition the most significant print and electronic works reviewed in Choice during the previous calendar year. This prestigious list of publications reflects the best in scholarly titles and attracts extraordinary attention from...

January 15, 2009

The China Beat's 10 Best Books About Chinese Women in 2008

The China Beat has a very interesting list of the best books from 2008 on Chinese women, including two titles from Columbia University Press: The Song of Everlasting Sorrow by Wang Anyi; translated by Michael Berry and Susan Chan Egan...

January 14, 2009

Wired on The Scientific Way of Warfare

On Danger Room, a national security blog on Wired, Michael A. Innes, director of The Complex Terrain Laboratory, reviews and praises Antoine Bousquet’s The Scientific Way of Warfare: Order and Chaos on the Battlefields of Modernity. Innes argues that Bousquet’s...

January 13, 2009

Paul Offit Confronts the Antivaccine Crusade

Today’s New York Times had an article about Dr. Paul Offit’s new book Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure, and the frequently heated debate about the possible link between autism and vaccines. Dr....

January 12, 2009

More Interviews with Siddharth Kara

Interest in Siddharth Kara’s Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery continues as he travels the country discussing his book, his first-hand experience talking to victims, and how an economic perspective can help us better understand the sex trafficking...

January 12, 2009

Post-Convention Wrap-Ups — Philosophy

There seems to have been less coverage of the American Philosophical Association‘s meeting than some of the other academic conventions but below are a few dispatches from the meeting. Like the other conventions concerns about a shrinking job market were...

January 9, 2009

Is “Thirdhand Tobacco Smoke” a Valid Scientific Concept or a Public Relations Gimmick? — A Post from Geoffrey Kabat

Geoffrey Kabat is the author of Hyping Health Risks: Environmental Hazards in Daily Life and the Science of Epidemiology. “There are enough scientifically documented harmful effects of exposure to cigarette smoke without concocting catchy but uninformative concepts that, while likely...

January 8, 2009

Baseball in the Depression — Breaking the Slump

Yesterday’s New York Times quoted Charles Alexander, author of Breaking the Slump: Baseball in the Depression Era, in their article on how baseball was affected by the Great Depression. Needless to say, attendance was down, players’ salaries were cut, and...