Books published by Yale University Press

Tells the story of the veils' and headscarves' resurgence, from Egypt through Saudi Arabia and into the West, suggesting a portrait of contemporary Islam.

Born in Syria in 1930, Adonis is one of the most celebrated poets of the Arabic-speaking world. His poems have earned international acclaim, and his influence on Arabic literature has been likened to that of T S Eliot's on English-language verse. This title presents a comprehensive survey of Adonis' work.

Explores the analogies between computing machines and the living human brain. This title shows that the brain operates both digitally and analogically, but also has its own unique statistical language.

Features two towering figures in the field of health care policy analysis who reflect in a collection of essays published in the wake of President Obama's health care reform. This book includes their writings on the future of Medicare; universal health insurance; conflicts of interest among physicians, regulators, and patients; and other topics.

Europe is, in world terms, a relatively minor peninsula attached to the Eurasian land mass, yet it became one of the most innovative regions on the planet. This title sees Europe not in terms of states and shifting land boundaries, but as a geographical niche particularly favoured in facing many seas.

A stunning celebration of the architect's residential masterpieces

In this immensely readable and thoroughly researched book, Tarek Osman explores what has happened to the biggest Arab nation since President Nasser took control of the country in 1954. This new edition takes events up to summer 2013, looking at how Egypt has become increasingly divided under its new Islamist government.

Since the 1950s, China and India have been locked in a monumental battle for geopolitical supremacy. Chinese interest in the ethnic insurgencies in northeastern India, the still unresolved issue of the McMahon Line, the border established by the British imperial government, and competition for strategic access to the Indian Ocean have given rise to tense gamesmanship, political intrigue, and rivalry between the two Asian giants. Former Far Eastern Economic Review correspondent Bertil Lintner has drawn from his extensive personal interviews with insurgency leaders and civilians in remote tribal areas in northeastern India, newly declassified intelligence reports, and his many years of firsthand experience in Asia to chronicle this ongoing struggle. His history of the "e;Great Game East"e; is the first significant account of a regional conflict which has led to open warfare on several occasions, most notably the Sino-India border war of 1962, and will have a major impact on global affairs in the decades ahead.

Presents the history of the bicycle, an invention that precipitated nothing short of a social revolution. This book recounts a story replete with disputed patents, brilliant inventions, and missed opportunities. It shows us why the bicycle captured the public's imagination and the myriad ways it has reshaped our world.

"I am trying to find out why a subject does look so marvelous, and trying to make that sensation manifest on a flat surface."-Euan Uglow

Addresses questions such as: Why do we find ourselves returning to certain pictures time and again? What is it we are looking for? And how does our understanding of an image change over time?

A selection of Leonardo da Vinci's writings on painting. Martin Kemp and Margaret Walker have edited material not only from his so-called "Treatise on Painting" but also from his surviving manuscripts and from other primary sources.

Written over a seven-year period to Charles V of Spain, Hernan Cortes's letters provide a narrative account of the conquest of Mexico from the founding of the coastal town of Veracruz until Cortes's journey to Honduras in 1525. The two introductions set the letters in context.

A summary of mediaeval aesthetic ideas, by Italian novelist and playwright Umberto Eco. Juxtaposing theology and science, poetry and mysticism, Eco explores the relationship that existed between the aesthetic theories and the artistic experience and practice of mediaeval culture.

Surveys the theoretical foundations and practical application of Jung's work on psychic processes and forces.

This illustrated book provides an overview of Islamic art and architecture during a time that witnessed the formation of a new artistic culture and its first, medieval, flowering in the vast area from the Atlantic to India.

A recreation of the spiritual life of ancient Mesopotamia demonstrating that the roots of Western civilization lie in the ancient Near East "A brilliant presentation of Mesopotamian religion from the inside, backed at every point by meticulous scholarship and persistent adherence to original texts. . . . A classic in its field."--Religious Studies Review "The Treasures of Darkness is the culmination of a lifetime's work, an attempt to summarize and recreate the spiritual life of Ancient Mesopotamia. Jacobsen has succeeded brilliantly. . . . His vast experience shows through every page of this unique book, through the vivid, new translations resulting from years of careful research. Everyone interested in early Mesopotamia, whether specialist, student, or complete layman, should read this book. . . . It is, quite simply, authoritative, based on a vast experience of the ancient Mesopotamian mind, and very well written in the bargain."--Brian M. Fagan, History "Professor Jacobsen is an authority on Sumerian life and society, but he is above all a philologist of rare sensibility. The Treasures of Darkness is almost entirely devoted to textual evidence, the more gritty sources of archaeological knowledge being seldom mentioned. He introduces many new translations which are much finer than previous versions. . . . Simply to read this poetry and the author's sympathetic commentary is a pleasure and a revelation. Professor Jacobsen accepts the premise that all religion springs from man's experience of a power not of this world, a mysterious 'Wholly Other.' This numinous power cannot be described in terms of worldly experience but only in allusive 'metaphors' that serve as a means of communication in religious teaching and thought. . . . As a literary work combining sensibility, imagination and scholarship, this book is near perfection."--Jacquetta Hawkes, The London Sunday Times "A fascinating book. The general reader cannot fail to admire the translated passages of Sumerian poetry with which it abounds, especially those illustrating the Dumuzi-Inanna cycle of courtship, wedding and lament for the god's untimely death. Many of these (though not all) are new even to the specialist and will repay close study."--B.O.R. Gurney, Times Literary Supplement

The extraordinary story of the Bible in England from approximately the fourth century, and its later translation into English in Britain and America up to the 21st century. It charts the profound impact successive versions of the Bible have had on the people and communities that read them.

Written by one of the world's leading authorities on medieval textiles and illustrated with many lovely colour reproductions, The Unicorn Tapestries traces the origins of the tapestries as well as possible interpretations of their symbolic meaning. This is an essential book for any lover of medieval art and textiles.

The authoritative edition of Franklin's autobiography, now with a new foreword by the eminent Franklin scholar Edmund S. Morgan

The story of the sixteenth-century’s epic contest for the spice trade, which propelled European maritime exploration and conquest across Asia and the Pacific

An enchanting and joyous exploration of life and creativity at the geographical edges of the modern world