Books published by Yale University Press

An authoritative study of Gego, whose distinctive modernist practice sits at the intersection of architecture, design, and the visual arts

This new biography by prizewinning Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson tells the extraordinary story of Ramesses II's dramatic reign and enduring legacy, restoring Ramesses the Great to his rightful place as a major figure in ancient history.

The rise and fall of one of America's first Black sports celebrities

Why some of the most vulnerable communities in Europe, from independent cities to new monarchies, welcomed refugees during the Age of Revolutions and prospered

How herbaria illuminate the past and future of plant science

James Davey tells the story of the Royal Navy across the tumultuous 1790s, showing how it became a political battleground for radical ideas. Davey reveals how sailors organized riots, strikes, petitions, and mutinies, which prompted a cynical, even brutal, response from the government?and places the navy at the center of Britain's age of revolution.

One hundred treasures of Japanese art are presented in this sumptuous volume, drawn from the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Dating from Neolithic times to today, with particular emphasis on the Edo and Meiji periods, the works range from architecture and paintings to prints, ceramics, lacquer, textiles, and metalwork.

A new look at French Orientalism's influence on the art of the American West, showing how aesthetics and ideology jointly informed approaches to colonialism and expansion during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in both France and the United States

Two acclaimed South African artists offer a cross-generational dialogue on history, memory, and the power of self-narration

In this intimate history of the extraordinary Black Plague pandemic that swept through the British Isles in 1665, Evelyn Lord focuses on the plague’s effects on smaller towns, where every death was a singular blow affecting the entire community. Lord’s fascinating reconstruction of life during plague times presents the personal experiences of a wide range of individuals, from historical notables Samuel Pepys and Isaac Newton to common folk who tilled the land and ran the shops. She brings this dark era to vivid life through stories of loss and survival from those who grieved, those who fled, and those who hid to await their fate.  

An eclectic selection of twentieth-century artwork from the collection of legendary curator and museum director Walter Hopps, some with personal reminiscences by the artists themselves

Illuminating three centuries of European artistry and ingenuity, this volume in The Met’s acclaimed How to Read series provides a wide-ranging exploration of decorative arts from British writing tables to Russian snuffboxes

Culture is a defining aspect of what it means to be human. Defining culture and pinpointing its role in our lives is not, however, so straightforward. Terry Eagleton, one of our foremost literary and cultural critics, is uniquely poised to take on the challenge. In this keenly analytical and acerbically funny book, he explores how culture and our conceptualizations of it have evolved over the last two centuries-from rarified sphere to humble practices, and from a bulwark against industrialism's encroaches to present-day capitalism's most profitable export. Ranging over art and literature as well as philosophy and anthropology, and major but somewhat "e;unfashionable"e; thinkers like Johann Gottfried Herder and Edmund Burke as well as T. S. Eliot, Matthew Arnold, Raymond Williams, and Oscar Wilde, Eagleton provides a cogent overview of culture set firmly in its historical and theoretical contexts, illuminating its collusion with colonialism, nationalism, the decline of religion, and the rise of and rule over the "e;uncultured"e; masses. Eagleton also examines culture today, lambasting the commodification and co-option of a force that, properly understood, is a vital means for us to cultivate and enrich our social lives, and can even provide the impetus to transform civil society.