Books published by Cornell University Press

Exploring historical and cultural representations of the two Russian rulers as they shaped and reflected political shifts.

Andersson introduces readers to the development of the Icelandic sagas between 1180 and 1280, a crucial period that witnessed a gradual shift of emphasis from tales of adventure and personal distinction to the analysis of politics and history.

In this introduction to Hermeticism and its mythical founder, Florian Ebeling provides a concise overview of the Corpus Hermeticum and other writings attributed to Hermes, tracing their influence on Western thought from the ancient world to the present.

Stories of the missing offer profound insights into the tension between how political systems see us and how we see each other. In Missing, Jenny Edkins highlights stories from a range of circumstances that shed light on this critical tension.

There is a vast gulf between the public face of diplomacy and the opinions and actions that take place behind embassy doors. In At Home with the Diplomats, Iver B. Neumann offers unprecedented access to the inner workings of a foreign ministry.

Colby provides new insight into the role of transnational capital, labor migration, and racial nationalism in shaping U.S. expansion into Central America and the greater Caribbean.

A provocative and wide-ranging entree into the world of ancient Greek religion.

Updated edition of this "exciting narrative history of boxing" (The Nation).

Blum develops a historically grounded account of racism as the deeply morally charged notion it has become. He addresses the question whether people of color can be racist, defines types of racism, and identifies debased and inappropriate usages of the term.

"An intelligent and beautifully written examination of the 'melting pot' as taken up in the work of four modernist writers: Henry James, James Weldon Johnson, Willa Cather, and Gertrude Stein."-Christopher Douglas, University of Victoria

Verhoeven demonstrates that Karakozov's attempt on the life of Alexander II inaugurated a new form of modern terrorist political violence-the murder of a crowned ruler, conceived as a form of action and communication intended to catalyze revolution.

In Princes, Brokers, and Bureaucrats, the most thorough treatment of the political economy of Saudi Arabia to date, Steffen Hertog uncovers an untold history of how the elite rivalries and whims of half a century ago have shaped today's Saudi state.

In Taming Cannibals, Patrick Brantlinger unravels contradictions embedded in the racist and imperialist ideology of the British Empire. For many Victorians, the idea of taming cannibals or civilizing savages was oxymoronic: civilization was a goal that the nonwhite peoples of the world could not attain or, at best, could only approximate, yet...

Rudnyckyj's book challenges widespread assumptions about contemporary Islam by showing how moderate Muslims in Southeast Asia are reinterpreting Islam not to reject modernity but to create business practices conducive to globalization.

In this book, Miroslav Nincic outlines the efficacy of and the benefits that can flow from positive rather than negative engagement with "rogue" states.

Generously illustrated with examples of this imperialist iconography, Sessions's work connects a wide-ranging culture of empire to specific policies of colonization during a pivotal period in the genesis of modern France.

When insurgents take and hold territory, they can develop systems of governance that deliver public services to civilians under their control. This book reflects Zachariah Cherian Mampilly's extensive fieldwork in rebel-controlled areas.

An award-winning attempt to understand the logic of revolutionary terrorism.

In Asia's Flying Geese, Walter F. Hatch tackles the puzzle of Japan's paradoxically slow change during the economic crisis it faced in the 1990s. Why didn't the purportedly unstoppable pressures of globalization force a rapid and radical shift in...

Historians of early modern Europe have long stressed how new practices of diplomacy that emerged during the period transformed European politics. Fictions of Embassy is the first book to examine the cultural implications of the rise of modern...

Walter explains why Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, and Thailand-key targets and test cases of this international standards project-were placed under intense pressure to transform their domestic financial governance.

The brown recluse is a fascinating spider very well adapted to dwelling in houses and other buildings. It has become infamous throughout North America. In this book, Richard S. Vetter educates readers regarding the biology of the brown recluse spider and medical aspects of its bites.

Sweeping in scope and conceptually ambitious, this book tells a story of infrastructure and of global flows of money, goods, and people.

Corbett shows how the domestic fiction of novelists including Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Virginia Woolf reflected the shifting boundaries of "family" and even helped refine those borders.

Kimberly Marten shows why and how warlords undermine state sovereignty. Unlike the feudal lords of a previous era, warlords today are not state-builders. They thrive on illegality and rely on private militias for support.

Gavin challenges key elements of the widely accepted narrative about the history of the atomic age and the consequences of the nuclear revolution.

Hal Brands explains why grand strategy is a concept that is so alluring and so elusive to those who make American statecraft, exploring what grand strategy is, why it is so essential, and why it is so hard to get right.

Alfarabi (ca. 870-950) founded the great tradition of Aristotelian/Platonic political philosophy in medieval Islamic and Arabic culture. In this second volume of political writings, Charles E. Butterworth presents translations of Alfarabi's Political Regime and Summary of Plato's "Laws," accompanied by introductions that discuss the background...

Founded in 1927, Romania's Legion of the Archangel Michael was one of Europe's largest and longest-lived fascist social movements. In Holy Legionary Youth, Roland Clark draws on oral histories, memoirs, and substantial research in the archives of the Romanian secret police to provide the most comprehensive account of the Legion in English to...

Holly Allen explores popular and official narratives of forgotten manhood, fallen womanhood, and other social and moral archetypes during the Great Depression and the Second World War.