Ellen Prager and Dave Jones Encourage Readers, “Please, Ask Questions!”

From toddlers asking why they can’t eat the yellow snow to an adult inquiring if their coastal home will be underwater in a few years due to sea level rise, asking questions is essential to learning, to science, and to...

January 22, 2025

Robert E. Kirsch and Emily Ray on Be Prepared

How does someone escape the solitary fate of life in the bunker to instead meet collective problems together with their community? In Be Prepared: Doomsday Prepping in the United States, coauthors Robert Kirsch and Emily Ray trace political and cultural...

January 20, 2025

Is It Possible to Have a Disciplined White House with an Undisciplined President?

Matthew N. Beckmann

Donald Trump recently named Susie Wiles as his incoming White House chief of staff. Wiles proved herself a focused, organized campaign manager, and she intends to bring that manner and method to the White House: “My team and I will...

January 20, 2025

Lauren Coyle Rosen and Hannibal Lokumbe on Music, Life, and Liberation

For Hannibal Lokumbe, music is a profound source of spiritual liberation. A pathbreaking orchestral composer and visionary jazz musician, Lokumbe composes resonant works that give voice to the freedom struggle of the African diaspora, the broader African American experience, Indigenous...

December 16, 2024

Mike Harmon on The Financial Restructuring Tool Set

Many companies globally are saddled with excessive levels of debt. This can lead to financial distress. In The Financial Restructuring Tool Set: How to Fix Your Broken Balance Sheet, Mike Harmon provides an indispensable guide tailored for executives, business owners,...

December 9, 2024

Fourteen Books for Understanding Challenges to Freedom and Democracy

University presses play a vital role in publishing works that deepen our understanding of current events, particularly in areas such as democracy and the challenges it faces. By publishing books that foster critical scholarship and diverse philosophical perspectives, Columbia University...

December 4, 2024

Six Animal Tracks to Look for on Your Next Hike

Sharman Apt Russell

Imagine walking along a forested mountain trail and coming across footprints impressed in the dirt. You think, “Do they belong to a fox, a bobcat, or a coyote? What animal fits these marks on the ground?” Combining lyrical memoir with...

November 27, 2024

A Historical Roadmap to Understanding the United States’ Relationship with China

Thomas M. Larkin

How does one make sense of the relationship between the United States and China? Where should one even begin? China and the United States are the world’s two largest economies by a significant margin, and entangled ones at that. A...

November 18, 2024

Why Western Policy Makers Should Worry About Sanctions Inoculation

Agathe Demarais

In 1796 the British scientist Edward Jenner had a seemingly outlandish theory: he believed that catching mild cowpox rendered one immune to deadly smallpox. Jenner did not shy away from testing his assumption. He exposed an eight-year-old boy to cowpox...

November 14, 2024

Caelyn Cobb on Stepping UP for Turbulent Times

Making Sense of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

In Columbia University Press’s 130-plus year history, we’ve published countless books about the strife in the region, with many more on the way.

November 13, 2024

Miranda Martin on Stepping UP for Climate Science

Understanding Paleoclimatology, Climate Models, and Urban Planning

The climate crisis is a complex problem that affects all of us in myriad ways and requires a range of actions across governments, industries, and disciplines.

November 6, 2024

Lilit Žekulin Thwaites on Translating Crossing Waters by Luisa Etxenike

Lilit Žekulin Thwaites is an award-winning Australian literary translator of novels, short stories, poetry, and essays. Luisa Etxenike is an acclaimed author from the Basque Country whose works offer insightful, moving perspectives on unorthodox topics. They recently collaborated on an...