Books published by Yale University Press

A landmark survey of the wide-ranging practice of one of the twentieth century’s most innovative artists

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

An account of the emergence of creative nonfiction, written by the “godfather” of the genre

A journey through Europe’s old towns, exploring why we treasure them—but also what they hide about a continent’s fraught history  “[A] fascinating chronicle.”—Benjamin Balint, Wall Street Journal   Historic quarters in cities and towns across the middle of Europe were devastated during the Second World War—some, like those of Warsaw and Frankfurt, had to be rebuilt almost completely. They are now centers of peace and civility that attract millions of tourists, but the stories they tell about places, peoples, and nations are selective. They are never the whole story.   These old towns and their turbulent histories have been key sites in Europe’s ongoing theater of politics and war. Exploring seven old towns, from Frankfurt and Prague to Vilnius in Lithuania, the acclaimed writer Marek Kohn examines how they have been used since the Second World War to conceal political tensions and reinforce certain versions of history.   Uncovering hidden stories behind these old and old-seeming façades, Kohn offers us a new understanding of the politics of European history-making—showing how our visits to old towns could promote belonging over exclusion, and empathy over indifference.

A career-spanning examination of the work of Robert Bergman and its place within the history of American art

An exploration of contemporary African masquerade that reveals its cultural contexts, artistic innovations, and intersection with museum collection practices

An exploration of the rich history of printmaking at Cleveland’s Karamu House, a center of Black arts, culture, and community since 1915

James C. Scott reframes rivers as alive and dynamic, revealing the consequences of treating them as resources for our profit

Examining the Italian artist’s career-long exploration of the human figure, this book offers new perspectives on the history of postwar and contemporary art

A novel of art, desire, and time lost and regained, by Nobel Prize winner Patrick Modiano

A fascinating and moving history of the British and German war dead buried on enemy soil in the two world wars

A sweeping study of sexual assault trials in the Jim Crow South, detailing the racial and economic inequities of rape law and the resistance of ordinary women

Why the crisis of Christianity has become a crisis for democracy

An unprecedented examination of the underexplored late work of the iconic American modernist

Historian Sarah E. Bond retells the traditional story of Ancient Rome, revealing how groups of ancient workers unified, connected, and protested as they helped build an empire

How the U.S. policy of competition with China is detrimental to democracy, peace, and prosperity—and how a saner approach is possible

The enduring legacy of the nineteenth-century struggle for Black literacy in the American South

The first-ever biography of the ultra-radical thinker Robert Wedderburn, from his native Jamaica to metropole London, by an award-winning historian

A deep dive into the importance of daily communication and how we can harness its power to create a better life