Books published by Princeton University Press

"How eighteenth-century literature depended on misinterpretation--and how this still shapes the way we read. Reading It Wrong is a new history of eighteenth-century English literature that explores what has been everywhere evident but rarely talked about: the misunderstanding, muddle and confusion of readers of the past when they first met the uniquely elusive writings of the period. Abigail Williams uses the marginal marks and jottings of these readers to show that flawed interpretation has its own history--and its own important role to play--in understanding how, why and what we read. Focusing on the first half of the eighteenth century, the golden age of satire, Reading It Wrong tells how a combination of changing readerships and fantastically tricky literature created the perfect grounds for puzzlement and partial comprehension. Through the lens of a history of imperfect reading, we see that many of the period's major works--by writers including Daniel Defoe, Eliza Haywood, Mary Wortley Montagu, Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift--both generated and depended upon widespread misreading. Being foxed by a satire, coded fiction or allegory was, like Wordle or the cryptic crossword, a form of entertainment, and perhaps a group sport. Rather than worrying that we don't have all the answers, we should instead recognize the cultural importance of not knowing"--

"This book that shows how ancient poets broke the silence of literary gender norms to express their own voices, and thus illuminating long neglected discussions of gender in the ancient world. In How Women Became Poets, Emily Hauser provides a startling new history of classical literature that redefines the canon as a constant struggle to be heard through, and sometimes despite, gender. By bringing together recent studies in ancient authorship, gender, and performativity, Hauser offers gendered lens to issues of voice and identity in classical literature and poetry. What emerges from this is a new literary history that reframes the authors of classical literature as both enforcing and exploring gender, and shows for the first time how women broke the silence of gender norms around literary production to express their own voices. By revisiting traditional assumptions about the canon of Greek literature, and highlighting the articulated construction of masculinity in Greek poetic texts, the book places ancient women poets back onto center stage as principal actors in the drama of the debate around what it means to create poetry. Much of the importance of this work is adding in female authors to the history of Greek literature, both well-known and marginal, while demonstrating how the idea of the author was born in the battleground of gender"--

New perspectives on early globalisms from objects and imagesTales Things Tell offers new perspectives on histories of connectivity between Africa, Asia, and Europe in the period before the Mongol conquests of the thirteenth century. Reflected in objects and materials whose circulation and reception defined aesthetic, economic, and technological networks that existed outside established political and sectarian boundaries, many of these histories are not documented in the written sources on which historians usually rely. Tales Things Tell charts bold new directions in art history, making a compelling case for the archival value of mobile artifacts and images in reconstructing the past. In this beautifully illustrated book, Finbarr Barry Flood and Beate Fricke present six illuminating case studies from the sixth to the thirteenth centuries to show how portable objects mediated the mobility of concepts, iconographies, and techniques. The case studies range from metalwork to stone reliefs, manuscript paintings, and objects using natural materials such as coconut and rock crystal. Whether as booty, commodities, gifts, or souvenirs, many of the objects discussed in Tales Things Tell functioned as sources of aesthetic, iconographic, or technical knowledge in the lands in which they came to rest. Remapping the histories of exchange between medieval Islam and Christendom, from Europe to the Indian Ocean, Tales Things Tell ventures beyond standard narratives drawn from written archival records to demonstrate the value of objects and images as documents of early globalisms.

A definitive scholarly edition of the correspondence and papers of Thomas JeffersonJefferson continues his pattern of returning home to Monticello for the summer months. He makes a brief visit to Poplar Forest in Bedford County to plan the development of that property. James Hubbard, a young enslaved worker at Monticello, escapes but is captured in Fairfax County. Another slave who has fled, James Hemings, rejects efforts to persuade him to return and disappears. Receiving news of the end of the conflict with Tripoli, Jefferson states that although it is "a small war in fact, it is big in principle." He devotes much of his attention to relations with Spain. He considers alliance with Great Britain to force a resolution with Spain, then chooses instead to negotiate with France for the purchase of Florida and settlement of matters in dispute with Spain. He drafts bills to organize the militia by age and create a naval militia. Specimens sent by Lewis and Clark arrive. Jefferson calculates that the United States has recently acquired cessions of well over 9 million acres of land from Native Americans. He meets with visiting Creek leaders. Answering a query, Jefferson states that Patrick Henry was "the greatest orator that ever lived" but "avaritious & rotten hearted."

"How the drug war transformed American political culture"--

"Liberty and Equality is the first English translation of the last lecture delivered at the Colláege de France by Raymond Aron, one of the most influential political and social thinkers of the twentieth century. In this important work, the most prominent French liberal intellectual of the Cold War era presents his views on the core values of liberal democracy: liberty and equality. At the same time, he provides an ideal introduction to key aspects of his thought. Ranging from Soviet ideology to Watergate, Aron reflects on root concepts of democracy and representative government, articulates a notion of liberty or freedom as equal right as distinct from equal outcome, and discusses different kinds of liberties: personal, political, religious, and social. In search of a common truth or at least a common good, and analyzing what he perceives as the crisis of liberal democracies, Aron opens a space for reexamining the relation between liberty and equality." -- Amazon.

How a visionary university and foundation president tackled some of the thorniest problems facing higher educationAs provost and then president of Princeton University, William G. Bowen (1933-2016) took on the biggest and most complex challenges confronting higher education: cost disease, inclusion, affirmative action, college access, and college completion. Later, as president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, he took his vision for higher education-and the strategies for accomplishing that vision-to a larger arena. Along the way, he wrote a series of influential books, including the widely read The Shape of the River (coauthored with Derek Bok), which documented the success of policies designed to increase racial diversity at elite institutions. In Changing the Game, drawing on deep archival research and hundreds of interviews, Nancy Weiss Malkiel argues that Bowen was the most consequential higher education leader of his generation. Bowen, who became Princeton's president in 1972 at the age of 38, worked to shore up the university's financial stability, implement coeducation, and create a more inclusive institution. Breaking through the traditional Ivy League demographics of white, Protestant, and male, he embraced equal access in admissions for women and men and actively sought to enroll Black, Hispanic, and Asian American students. To "increase the intellectual muscle of the faculty," he used targeted recruiting and enforced higher scholarly standards. In 1988, Bowen moved on to Mellon, where, among many other accomplishments, he developed digital research tools, most notably JSTOR, and promoted racial diversity through the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship. Attacking problems with tenacity, insight, and deep knowledge, Bowen showed the world of higher education how a visionary leader can transform an institution.

The essential guide to successful ecological research-now updated and expandedMost books and courses in ecology cover facts and concepts but don't explain how to actually do ecological research. How to Do Ecology provides nuts-and-bolts advice on organizing and conducting a successful research program. This one-of-a-kind book explains how to choose a research question and answer it through manipulative experiments and systematic observations. Because science is a social endeavor, the book provides strategies for working with other people, including professors and collaborators. It suggests effective ways to communicate your findings in the form of journal articles, oral presentations, posters, and grant and research proposals. The book also includes ideas to help you identify your goals, organize a season of fieldwork, and deal with negative results. In short, it makes explicit many of the unspoken assumptions behind doing good research in ecology and provides an invaluable resource for meaningful conversations between ecologists.This second edition of How to Do Ecology features new sections on conducting and analyzing observational surveys, job hunting, and becoming a more creative researcher, as well as updated sections on statistical analyses.

"When Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992, he was surrounded by advisors with radical ideas about everything from economic management to health care reform to labor relations to social policy. With the White House and Congress under full Democratic control, a new, more equitable vision of American capitalism seemed possible-even likely. And indeed, over the course of the 1990s, the economy performed remarkably well, real wages rose, and unemployment was at a 25-year low. In a 2001 book, Alan Blinder and Janet Yellen would term it "The Fabulous Decade." And yet today, Clinton's 8 years in office are seen by those on the left as a monumental failure, with these short-term gains achieved thanks to a full-sale capitulation to the neoliberal ideology of the right, which brought with it financial deregulation, privatization of government services, and the growth of class inequalities. In this comprehensive and sweeping political history of the 1990s, Nelson Lichtenstein considers why the Clinton White House ended up embracing neoliberalism so fully, despite the array of other options available-options being championed by those around Clinton, and sometimes even Clinton itself. Exploring the major issues of the time-deficit politics, NAFTA, labor relations, tech regulation, mass incarceration, and more-Lichtenstein reveals an "intellectual history of an economy that wasn't," and explores why neoliberalism was cemented into the US's economic and financial system by the end of Clinton's term in office"--

"This book is intended as a graduate-level textbook and professional reference on the physical oceanography of the continental shelf and slope. Defined as water deeper than about three meters and shallower than a kilometer, this region of the ocean is important for a variety of scientific and practical reasons, from its high biological productivity and role in distributing outflows from the continents to its heavy usage in transportation and recreation. In recent years, research on the coastal ocean has expanded as the study of both short- and long-term anthropogenic change has become increasingly urgent. Yet there is no comprehensive treatment of the dynamics of this critical region. The book covers a range of topics involving currents and water properties, including turbulent boundary layers, wind driving, tides, buoyancy currents, waves, instabilities, and connections with the open, deep ocean. Brink's approach-informed by over a decade teaching the corresponding course in Woods Hole/MIT's joint program-centers on the dynamics of particular processes and combinations of processes, but also includes copious observational examples. Intended to be accessible to graduate students in a range of oceanographic specialties, the book assumes 2-3 years of university-level math and at least an introductory course in quantitative physical oceanography"--

"A groundbreaking history of digital design from the nineteenth century to todayDigital design has emerged as perhaps the most dynamic force in society, occupying a fluid, experimental space where product design intersects with art, film, business, engineering, theater, music, and artificial intelligence. Stephen Eskilson traces the history of digital design from its precursors in the nineteenth century to its technological and cultural ascendency today, providing a multifaceted account of a digital revolution that touches all aspects of our lives.We live in a time when silicon processors, miniaturization, and CAD-enhanced 3D design have transformed the tangible world of cars and coffee makers as well as the screen world on our phones, computers, and game systems. Eskilson provides invaluable historical perspective to help readers better understand how digital design has become such a vibrant feature of the contemporary landscape. Along the way, he paints compelling portraits of key innovators behind this transformation, from foundational figures such as Marshall McLuhan, Nam June Paik, and April Greiman to those mapping new frontiers, such as Sepandar Kamvar, Jeanne Gang, Karim Rashid, Neri Oxman, and Jony Ive.Bringing together an unprecedented array of sources on digital design, this comprehensive and richly illustrated book reveals how many of the digital practices we think of as the cutting-edge actually originated in the analog age and how the history of digital design is as much about our changing relationship to forms as the forms themselves"--

A full-color photographic guide to these captivating and challenging birdsThis is the essential identification guide to the terns, noddies, and skimmers of North America. Covering every species and featuring hundreds of high-quality color images, this book is the ideal companion for anyone interested in this charismatic but sometimes challenging group of seabirds. Detailed species accounts describe the size of each bird as it appears in the field along with structure, behavior, flight style, vocalizations, subspecies, and North American and worldwide ranges. An incisive introduction lays out a remarkably simple approach to identification that focuses on key elements and addresses how to avoid getting bogged down in the variability of appearance. This state-of-the-art guide also provides additional in-depth coverage of the two most challenging groups of terns, Sterna terns and crested terns, aiding field identification while also highlighting the beauty and elegance of these marvelous seabirds. Features more than 325 stunning color photos, with side-by-side comparisons of similar species throughoutIncludes detailed captions for each image that describe age and key identification traitsCovers 19 species found in North America, including the most frequent vagrantsPresents a unique, simplified approach to field identificationExplains the fundamentals of molts, plumages, and hybridizationProvides in-depth coverage of Sterna terns and crested terns

Teesdale's Special Flora is an exceptional book written by the renowned author, Margaret E. Bradshaw. This masterpiece was published in 2023 by Princeton University Press, adding yet another remarkable work to their collection. The book delves into the unique flora of Teesdale, offering readers a fascinating journey through its diverse and special plant life. Bradshaw's adept writing style and comprehensive research make this book a must-read for nature enthusiasts and botany scholars alike. The author's deep understanding of the subject matter is evident in her detailed descriptions and insightful observations. As you turn the pages of this book, you will find yourself immersed in the enchanting world of Teesdale's flora. Don't miss out on this enriching literary experience. Grab your copy of Teesdale's Special Flora today!

A beautifully illustrated photographic identification guide to the common marine fish found around Britain and Ireland—ideal for divers, snorkellers, and natural history enthusiastsFish are a colourful and important part of inshore marine life, much admired by divers and snorkellers. But it can be difficult to accurately identify and record these quick-moving animals underwater. This authoritative, beautifully illustrated photographic guide offers a practical, easy-to-use approach for identifying the fish species commonly seen in the waters around Britain and Ireland, as well as a few vagrant and interesting rare species. The book’s concise text explains how fish can be identified underwater, and is accompanied by numerous photographs of each species in its natural environment and diagrams illustrating key features. The book also clearly indicates the cases when underwater species identification is more difficult. Published in association with the UK’s Marine Conservation Society, the book makes an invaluable addition to the series of marine photographic titles of Seasearch, a species recording project for volunteer sports divers.Features individual descriptions of more than 150 species, with information on size, depth range, habitat and distribution in the Seasearch guide icon formatIllustrates every species in its natural underwater environmentEmphasises key identification features and possible confusion speciesIncludes a “confidence guide” distinguishing between easily recognisable species and those requiring closer examinationFeatures longer sections highlighting interesting species, behaviours and other topicsProvides information on protected species, taxonomy, shifting distributions and conservation status

A captivating historical look at the cultural and artistic significance of shells in early modern EuropeAmong nature's most artful creations, shells have long inspired the curiosity and passion of artisans, artists, collectors, and thinkers. Conchophilia delves into the intimate relationship between shells and people, offering an unprecedented account of the early modern era, when the influx of exotic shells to Europe fueled their study and representation as never before. From elaborate nautilus cups and shell-encrusted grottoes to delicate miniatures, this richly illustrated book reveals how the love of shells intersected not only with the rise of natural history and global trade but also with philosophical inquiry, issues of race and gender, and the ascent of art-historical connoisseurship.Shells circulated at the nexus of commerce and intellectual pursuit, suggesting new ways of thinking about relationships between Europe and the rest of the world. The authors focus on northern Europe, where the interest and trade in shells had its greatest impact on the visual arts. They consider how shells were perceived as exotic objects, the role of shells in courtly collections, their place in still-life tableaus, and the connections between their forms and those of the human body. They examine how artists gilded, carved, etched, and inked shells to evoke the permeable boundary between art and nature. These interactions with shells shaped the ways that early modern individuals perceived their relation to the natural world, and their endeavors in art and the acquisition of knowledge.Spanning painting and print to architecture and the decorative arts, Conchophilia uncovers the fascinating ways that shells were circulated, depicted, collected, and valued during a time of remarkable global change.

Presents the history of Catholic political thinking from the French Revolution to the present day. This title investigates the church's response to liberal democracy, a political system for which the church was utterly unprepared.

Is China's growth sustainable, or has China relied too much on investment, which is subject to diminishing returns, and not enough on technological change? Dealing with the relation between investment, finance, and growth in China, this book dismisses this concern.

"The idea that Christianity started as a clandestine movement among the poor is a widely accepted notion. Yet it is one of many myths that must be discarded if we are to understand just how a tiny messianic movement on the edge of the Roman Empire became the dominant faith of Western civilization. In a fast-paced, highly readable book that addresses beliefs as well as historical facts, Rodney Stark brings a sociologist's perspective to bear on the puzzle behind the success of early Christianity. He comes equipped not only with the logic and methods of social science but also with insights gathered firsthand into why people convert and how new religious groups recruit members. He digs deep into the historical evidence on many issues-such as the social background of converts, the mission to the Jews, the status of women in the church, the role of martyrdom-to provide a vivid and unconventional account of early Christianity"--

The forgotten story of the nineteenth-century freethinkers and twentieth-century humanists who tried to build their own secular religionIn The Church of Saint Thomas Paine, Leigh Eric Schmidt tells the surprising story of how freethinking liberals in nineteenth-century America promoted a secular religion of humanity centered on the deistic revolutionary Thomas Paine (1737-1809) and how their descendants eventually became embroiled in the culture wars of the late twentieth century.After Paine's remains were stolen from his grave in New Rochelle, New York, and shipped to England in 1819, the reverence of his American disciples took a material turn in a long search for his relics. Paine's birthday was always a red-letter day for these believers in democratic cosmopolitanism and philanthropic benevolence, but they expanded their program to include a broader array of rites and ceremonies, particularly funerals free of Christian supervision. They also worked to establish their own churches and congregations in which to practice their religion of secularism.All of these activities raised serious questions about the very definition of religion and whether it included nontheistic fellowships and humanistic associations-a dispute that erupted again in the second half of the twentieth century. As right-wing Christians came to see secular humanism as the most dangerous religion imaginable, small communities of religious humanists, the heirs of Paine's followers, were swept up in new battles about religion's public contours and secularism's moral perils.An engrossing account of an important but little-known chapter in American history, The Church of Saint Thomas Paine reveals why the lines between religion and secularism are often much blurrier than we imagine.

Why have Russian generals acquired an important political position since the Soviet Union's collapse while at the same time the effectiveness of their forces has deteriorated? Why have there been no radical defense reforms in Russia since the end of the cold war, even though they were high on the agenda of the country's new president in 2000? Democratic Breakdown and the Decline of the Russian Military explains these puzzles as it paints a comprehensive portrait of Russian military politics. Zoltan Barany identifies three formative moments that gave rise to the Russian dilemma. The first was Gorbachev's decision to invite military participation in Soviet politics. The second was when Yeltsin acquiesced to a new political system that gave generals a legitimate political presence. The third was when Putin not only failed to press for needed military reforms but elevated numerous high-ranking officers to prominent positions in the federal administration. Included here are Barany's insightful analysis of crisis management following the sinking of the Kursk submarine, a systematic comparison of the Soviet/Russian armed forces in 1985 and the present, and compelling accounts of the army's political role, the elusive defense reform, and the relationship between politicians and generals. Barany offers a rare look at the world of contemporary military politics in an increasingly authoritarian state. Destined to become a classic in post-Soviet studies, this book reminds us of the importance of the separation of powers as a means to safeguard democracy.

From two of the world's leading authorities on dogs, an imaginative journey into a future of dogs without peopleWhat would happen to dogs if humans simply disappeared? Would dogs be able to survive on their own without us? A Dog's World imagines a posthuman future for dogs, revealing how dogs would survive-and possibly even thrive-and explaining how this new and revolutionary perspective can guide how we interact with dogs now.Drawing on biology, ecology, and the latest findings on the lives and behavior of dogs and their wild relatives, Jessica Pierce and Marc Bekoff-two of today's most innovative thinkers about dogs-explore who dogs might become without direct human intervention into breeding, arranged playdates at the dog park, regular feedings, and veterinary care. Pierce and Bekoff show how dogs are quick learners who are highly adaptable and opportunistic, and they offer compelling evidence that dogs already do survive on their own-and could do so in a world without us.Challenging the notion that dogs would be helpless without their human counterparts, A Dog's World enables us to understand these independent and remarkably intelligent animals on their own terms.

"Nearly one hundred years after the Great Depression, Dorothea Lange's indelible photographs remain vivid in our collective memory as the face of unemployment. Her portraits showed down and out men waiting in breadlines and the desperation of families living through the trauma of job loss. Though evocative, however, these pictures don't look much like today's unemployed. Instead of male laborers in breadlines or relief camps, today we see men and women in equal numbers, manual laborers and high-flying executives, high school graduates alongside those with college degrees. The one truth about unemployment held constant between then and now is the anxiety and disquiet Lange captioned, "The Toll of Uncertainty." Ten years ago, we had our own devastating recession, during which one out of every six workers reported a job loss. The lesson we carried from it into the following decade was that all workers are at heightened risk for job loss and its accompanying uncertainty. Although media outlets dubbed the Great Recession of 2007-2009 a "man-cession" because men's job losses were double women's at first, women experienced greater job loss after the so-called "conclusion" of the recession and recovered jobs at a slower rate than men. Women also appeared to face greater economic consequences of job loss: they were more likely than men to experience hunger and deprivation. These trends bring us to the first puzzle at the heart of this book: do women and men experience job loss and its effects differently? Using in-depth interviews from 100 people from rural and urban counties in Pennsylvania, Sarah Damaske investigates how men and women of different classes lose jobs, experience the economic and social ramifications of their unemployment in their own lives and their family life, and begin to search for work again. She argues that many of ways we have thought about unemployment are either incomplete (like the breadline) or just plain wrong"--

This textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to the theory and practice of validated numerics, an emerging new field that combines the strengths of scientific computing and pure mathematics. In numerous fields ranging from pharmaceutics and engineering to weather prediction and robotics, fast and precise computations are essential. Based on the theory of set-valued analysis, a new suite of numerical methods is developed, producing efficient and reliable solvers for numerous problems in nonlinear analysis. Validated numerics yields rigorous computations that can find all possible solutions to a problem while taking into account all possible sources of error--fast, and with guaranteed accuracy. Validated Numerics offers a self-contained primer on the subject, guiding readers from the basics to more advanced concepts and techniques. This book is an essential resource for those entering this fast-developing field, and it is also the ideal textbook for graduate students and advanced undergraduates needing an accessible introduction to the subject. Validated Numerics features many examples, exercises, and computer labs using MATLAB/C++, as well as detailed appendixes and an extensive bibliography for further reading. Provides a comprehensive, self-contained introduction to validated numerics Requires no advanced mathematics or programming skills Features many examples, exercises, and computer labs Includes code snippets that illustrate implementation Suitable as a textbook for graduate students and advanced undergraduates