Books published by Columbia University Press

One Up offers a pioneering empirical analysis of strategy in the video games industry to explain how it has gone from the fringe to the mainstream. Drawing on years of practical and academic experience in the interactive entertainment field, Joost van Dreunen analyzes how business model innovation has made the video game industry what it is today.

The adventures of Samak, a trickster-warrior hero of Persia's thousand-year-old oral storytelling tradition, are beloved in Iran. Translated from the original Persian by Freydoon Rassouli and adapted by Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner, this timeless masterwork can now be enjoyed by English-speaking readers.

Through a critical exploration of violence and the sacred, Ecce Humanitas recasts the fall of liberal humanism. Brad Evans offers a rich analysis of the changing nature of sacrificial violence, from its theological origins to the exhaustion of the victim in the contemporary world.

You and Your Profile blends social theory, philosophy, and cultural critique to unfold an exploration of the way we have come to experience the world. A deft and wide-ranging consideration of our era's identity crisis, this book provides vital clues on how to stay sane in a time of proliferating profiles.

In The Story of the Dinosaurs in 25 Discoveries, Donald R. Prothero tells the fascinating stories behind the most important fossil finds and the intrepid researchers who unearthed them. He weaves together the dramatic tales of dinosaur discoveries with what modern science now knows about the species to which they belong.

Japan's oldest surviving narrative, the eighth-century Kojiki, chronicles the mythical origins of its islands and their ruling dynasty through a diverse array of genealogies, tales, and songs that have helped to shape the modern nation's views of its ancient past. Gustav Heldt's engaging new translation of this revered classic aims to make the Kojiki accessible to contemporary readers while staying true to the distinctively dramatic and evocative appeal of the original's language. It conveys the rhythms that structure the Kojiki's animated style of storytelling and translates the names of its many people and places to clarify their significance within the narrative. An introduction, glossaries, maps, and bibliographies offer a wealth of additional information about Japan's earliest extant record of its history, literature, and religion.

This book details essential strategies to create more effective data visualizations. Jonathan Schwabish walks readers through the steps of creating better graphs and how to move beyond simple line, bar, and pie charts.

So You Want to Be a Neuroscientist? is a contemporary and engaging guide for aspiring neuroscientists of diverse backgrounds and interests. Ashley Juavinett provides a candid look at the field, offering practical guidance that explores everything from programming to personal stories.

John Dewey was America's greatest public philosopher. This book gathers the clearest and most powerful of Dewey's public writings and shows how they continue to speak to the challenges we face today.

The Closed Circle offers an unprecedented inside view into how one of the world's most influential Islamist groups operates. Lorenzo Vidino marshals unique interviews with prominent former members and associates of the Muslim Brotherhood in the West, shedding light on why and how people join and leave the organization.

The Power of And offers a new narrative about the nature of business, revealing the focus on responsibility and ethics that unites today's most influential ideas and companies. R. Edward Freeman, Kirsten E. Martin, and Bidhan L. Parmar detail an emerging business model built on five key concepts.

This translation presents the Analects in a revolutionary new format that, for the first time in any language, distinguishes the original words of the Master from the later sayings of his disciples and their followers, enabling readers to experience China's most influential philosophical work in its true historical, social, and political context.

Paolo Sorrentino has emerged as one of the most compelling figures in twenty-first-century European film. This book is a critical examination of Sorrentino's work, focusing on his emergence as a preeminent transnational auteur.

The Death of Vazir-Mukhtar, a novel by Yury Tynyanov, a leading figure of the Russian formalist school, describes the final year in the life of Alexander Griboedov, the author of the comedy Woe from Wit. As ambassador to Persia, Griboedov was savagely murdered in Tehran in 1829 in an attack on the Russian embassy.

Aaron Y. Zelin uncovers the history of Tunisian involvement in the jihadi movement and offers an in-depth examination of the reasons why so many Tunisians became drawn to jihadism following the 2011 revolution. Your Sons Are at Your Service is a meticulously researched account that challenges simplified views of jihadism's appeal and success.

Merger Masters presents revealing profiles of monumentally successful merger investors based on exclusive interviews with some of the greatest minds to practice the art of arbitrage. Told in lively, accessible prose, it is an incomparable set of stories with plenty of unfiltered lessons from the best managers of our time.

James Overholser approaches cognitive therapy through the interactive dialogues of Socrates, aiming to reduce the gap between theory and practice. Clinicians and students will appreciate the flexibility and creativity that underlie effective psychotherapy sessions when guided by the Socratic method as an innovative approach to self-exploration.

Matthew Powers analyzes the growing role NGOs play in shaping-and sometimes directly producing-international news. Through an unprecedented glimpse into NGOs' newsmaking efforts, Powers portrays the possibilities and limits of NGOs as media makers, with important implications for the intersections of journalism and advocacy.

A great movie's first few minutes provide the key to the rest of the film. In Cinematic Overtures, Annette Insdorf discusses the opening sequence, inviting viewers to turn first impressions into deeper understanding of cinematic technique. She offers a series of revelatory readings of individual films by some of cinema's leading directors.

This book explains the ideas and practice of Chinese medicine from its beginnings in antiquity to today. Paul U. Unschuld describes medicine's close connection with politics and society, bringing together texts, techniques, and worldviews to understand changing Chinese attitudes toward healing and the significance of traditional medicine today.

Siddharth Kara demonstrates the scope of modern slavery and its role in global supply chains to offer a concrete path toward its abolition. This searing expose-including revelatory interviews with both the enslaved and their oppressors-documents one of humanity's greatest wrongs and lays out the framework to eradicate it.

Crafting an engrossing journey from the Pennsylvania oil fields of the 1860s to today's Middle East, Crude Volatility shows how past periods of stability and volatility in oil prices help us understand the new boom-bust era. Robert McNally explains how oil became so central to our world and why it is subject to such extreme price fluctuations.

Examines the attraction between abuser and victim which results in disorders and dangerous attractions on both sides, considering the typical personalities involved in patterns of neglect.

"Notes for a lecture course and seminar at Collaege de France (1976-1977)"-- T.p

Henkin explores the influential but little-noticed role reading played in New York City's public life between 1825 and 1865. The "ubiquitous urban texts"--from newspapers to paper money, from street signs to handbills--became both indispensable urban guides and apt symbols for a new kind of public life that emerged first in New York.

During the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906 to 1911 a variety of forces played key roles in overthrowing a repressive regime. Afary sheds new light on the role of ordinary citizens and peasantry, the status of Iranian women, and the multifaceted structure of Iranian society.

Hiratsuka Raicho (1886-1971) was the most influential figure in the early women's movement in Japan. This autobiography describes her childhood, early youth, and subsequent rebellion against the strict social codes of the time.

In the late twelfth century, Japanese people called the transitional period in which they were living the "age of warriors." This book provides an account of the religious, intellectual, and literary practices of medieval Japan in order to reveal the era's own cultural creativity and enormous economic potential.