Books published by Harvard University Press

Enquiry into Plants and De Causis Plantarum by Theophrastus (c. 370-c. 285 BCE) are a counterpart to Aristotle's zoological work and the most important botanical work of antiquity now extant. In the former Theophrastus classifies and describes. His On Odours and Weather Signs are minor treatises.

Futurists are certain that humanlike AI is on the horizon, but in fact engineers have no idea how to program human reasoning. AI reasons from statistical correlations across data sets, while common sense is based heavily on conjecture. Erik Larson argues that hyping existing methods will only hold us back from developing truly humanlike AI.

The letters of Pliny the Younger (c. 61-c. 112 CE), a polished social document of his times, include descriptions of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE and the earliest pagan accounts of Christians. The Panegyricus is an expanded, published version of Pliny's oration of thanks to the Emperor Trajan in 100 CE.

Children's Chances urges a shift from focusing on survival to targeting children's full and healthy development. Drawing on comparative data on policies in 190 countries designed to combat poverty, discrimination, child labor, illiteracy, and child marriage, Heymann and McNeill tell what works to ensure equal opportunities for all children.

The R¿jy¿bhi¿eka Manual for the Coronation of King B¿rendra of Nepal contains the only extensive coronation manual available for a Hindu king. Long regarded as highly secret, it can now be presented, after the abolition of the monarchy in its entirety in 2008. This manual was checked and signed by the royal priests and religious advisors.

Inked is a social history of common soldiers of the Song dynasty, most of whom would have been recognized by their tattooed bodies. Overlooked in the historical record, tattoos were an indelible aspect of the Song world, and their ubiquity was tied to the rise of the penal-military complex, a vast system for social control, warfare, and labor.

Histories of remote islands around Japan are usually told through the prism of territorial disputes. In contrast, Takahiro Yamamoto contends that the transformation of the islands from ambiguous border zones emerged out of multilateral power relations. Demarcating Japan shows the crucial role of nonstate actors in formulating a territory.

The Cold War was an era of surprising connections between American and Czech literary cultures. Major writers met behind the Iron Curtain, while others smuggled, translated, and adapted works from the other side. Brian K. Goodman explores the artistic and political consequences, arguing that the movement of literature inspired new forms of dissent.

Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, Volume 112 includes Olga Levaniouk, "The Dreams of Bar¿in and Penelope"; Paul K. Hosle, "Bacchylides' Theseus and Vergil's Aristaeus"; Vayos Liapis, "Arion and the Dolphin: Apollo Delphinios and Maritime Networks in Herodotus"; and other new essays on Greek and Roman Classics.

The New Biology argues that mechanical reductionism, though helpful in answering many biological questions, cannot on its own explain complex biological systems. Promoting a more holistic approach, the authors contend that both mechanistic and organicist views are invaluable frameworks for understanding life.

Widely regarded as the Shakespeare of Persia, Bahram Beyzaie remains largely unknown to the English-speaking world. Naqqali Trilogy blends traditional Iranian storytelling with contemporary philosophy and technique in a cycle of mythological revisionism. This volume presents a pinnacle of world drama for the first time in English translation.

Amidst conflicting information and personal experiences, how can someone distinguish between truth and falsehood? Criteria of Truth: Representations of Truth and Falsehood in Hellenistic Poetry tackles this fundamental question through a study of five Hellenistic poems by Aratus, Nicander, Callimachus, Apollonius of Rhodes, and Lycophron.

Vietnam focuses on how the country's governance shapes its politics, economy, social development, and international relations, as well as on the reforms required if it is to become a sustainable and modern high-income nation in the coming decades. This book features work by scholars from Vietnam, North America, and Europe.

Vietnam focuses on how the country¿s governance shapes its politics, economy, social development, and international relations, as well as on the reforms required if it is to become a sustainable and modern high-income nation in the coming decades. This book features work by scholars from Vietnam, North America, and Europe.

The essays in Literary History in and beyond China examine the anthological histories that shape the concept of a particular genre, the interpretive positions that impel our aesthetic judgments, the conceptual categories that determine how literary history is framed, and the history of literary historiography itself.

Reconstructing the philosophical project of William James, Alexis Dianda deploys a concept of experience that avoids both foundationalist epistemology and an account of the subject rooted in immediately given objects of consciousness. In doing so, Dianda rethinks the role of experience as well as the aims and resources of pragmatic philosophy.

Zongyuan Zoe Liu provides the first in-depth examination of sovereign funds in China. Under President Xi, the state has become an aggressive financier, using sovereign funds at home and abroad to secure allies and influence, boost strategic industries like semiconductors and fintech, and pick winners among domestic businesses and multinationals.