Books published by Yale University Press

"Cancellation, scapegoating, raving on Twitter. How did the Internet, which began as a place for open thought and exchange, become a forum for cruelty and judgment? Can a whole culture become mentally ill? How do we understand and respond to this problem? Mark Edmundson views contemporary culture and discourse through Freud's concept of the super-ego, the moralistic and frequently irrational inner judge. The poet William Blake was attuned to this "dark pressure of self-condemnation," and Nietzsche knew its power as well. One way to mitigate (temporarily) the self-judgment of the super-ego is to aim it outward instead, judging and even punishing others for supposed infractions. Naturally these targets fight back, resulting in a cascade of bitterness and even hatred. Edmundson traces the destructive passion of the super-ego on politics, race, gender, class, education, and more, drawing on psychological studies, classroom experience, and the work of Adam Phillips and Slavoj }i~ek. Edmundson proposes ways to manage the super-ego and even to transform it into an affirmative power"--

Tracing the global history of the Sassoon family, entrepreneurs and patrons of remarkable art and architecture, from Baghdad to Mumbai, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and London

The beautifully written first biography of one of the world's finest twentieth-century poets

Delves into the clothing of one of the world's great authors based on her surviving garments and 161 letters, offering intimate insight into her life and times

A timely and compelling argument for a revitalized and restructured global politics

A thought-provoking exploration of the loss of civilizations and communities, offering compelling stories of abandoned places, the important events and fascinating characters that punctuate their history, and lessons we can learn from them today

An extensively researched, comprehensive biography of Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, one of the twentieth century's most powerful and controversial figures

A sweeping exploration of the shaping role of animal skins in written culture and human imagination over three millennia

An in-depth examination of the law and geopolitics of China's maritime disputes and their implications for the rules of the international law of the sea

The rediscovery of a pivotal figure in Black history and his importance and influence in the struggle against slavery and discrimination

A groundbreaking account of the Secret Gospel of Mark, one of the most hotly debated documents in Christian history

A masterful deciphering of an extraordinary art object, illuminating some of the biggest questions of the eighteenth century

This thought-provoking book traces the science of invisibility from its sci-fi origins in the nineteenth-century writings of authors such as H. G. Wells and Fitz James O'Brien to modern stealth technology, invisibility cloaks, and metamaterials. Physicist Gregory J. Gbur explores the history of invisibility and its diverse science and technology connections.

The most complete picture to date of the moral worlds of the political left and right and how their different views relate to specific political issues

A spirited dive into the life and career of a performer, writer, and director who dominated twentieth-century American comedy

A wide-ranging illustrated history of transparency as told through the evolution of the glass window

This is the first major biography, now available in English, of Martin Heidegger (1889?1976) in many years. Drawing on previously untapped sources, Guillaume Payen presents a balanced portrait of the German philosopher's life, from his upbringing in an uncompromising Catholic family to his membership in the Nazi Party and beyond.

A profound and genre-defying work of literature about love, death, and illness from one of Portugal's most celebrated writers

An exploration of Maimonides, the medieval philosopher, physician, and religious thinker, author of The Guide of the Perplexed, from one of the world's foremost bibliophiles

An examination of what algorithmic polarization means for society and how conservative elites use media literacy tactics to spread propaganda

How the United States was created-a complex and surprising story of patriots, Indigenous peoples, loyalists, visionaries and scoundrels

A wonderfully engaging, accessible introduction to war, from ancient times to the present and into the future

The first truly global history of work, an upbeat assessment from the age of the hunter-gatherer to the present day

An informed modern plan for post-2020 American foreign policy that avoids the opposing dangers of retrenchment and overextension

Your voice as biometric data, and how marketers are using it to manipulate you

The experiences of two families-one in seventeenth-century Holland, the other in America today-and how they coped when a family member changed religions