Books published by Yale University Press

A bold new account of the state of globalization today—and what its collapse might mean for the world economy

Tracing the surge in creativity and transformations in culture and the arts during one of history’s most tumultuous decades  Boom: Art and Design in the 1940s looks at the complex shifts in technology and the arts, including music, film, and fashion, that surged in a tumultuous decade. Despite restrictions and hardships, the visual arts flourished, with some artists addressing political concerns in their work and others moving into abstraction. War disrupted the fashion industry in Paris, allowing New York to become a competitive center. Furniture design made creative use of technological advances. The movement of artists during the war years and afterward catalyzed the exchange of ideas and created more diverse artistic communities.   Essays by leading figures in their respective fields show how wartime restrictions impacted world economies and the innovative solutions found by creative communities, examine Hollywood of the 1940s and its ability to unite international audiences, explore the ways clothing and textiles were shaped by the rapid changes of the era, and discuss how musicians played a vital role at this moment in history and helped shape the sounds of today. Interviews with contemporary figures, such as jazz artist Christian McBride and filmmaker Ken Burns, reflect on the impact of the 1940s on their respective fields. Including paintings by Lee Krasner, Horace Pippin, and Jackson Pollock, photographs by Margaret Bourke-White and Weegee, furniture by George Nakashima, jewelry by Alexander Calder, poetry by Anna Akhmatova, and apparel by Elsa Schiaparelli, the book covers the transformational responses to a volatile time across the spectrum of artistic practice.   Distributed for the Philadelphia Museum of Art  Exhibition Schedule:  Philadelphia Museum of Art (April 12–September 1, 2025)

The remarkable untold story of Shakespeare's first theatre - the playhouse before the Globe In 1576, in a muddy field in Shoreditch, James Burbage erected London's first purpose-built commercial playhouse. A place of high culture and quick profit, run by cunning dreamers, the Theatre for the first time offered London's players the chance to control what they staged. At a time when playgoing was held to be close to a sin, this entertainment factory was a flashpoint for controversy - but would also become Shakespeare's first theatre, where he learned to ply his trade before his company moved to the Globe.   Through the life of this little-known playhouse, Daniel Swift tells the story of how Shakespeare became Shakespeare, and the Elizabethan stage began to flourish. Introducing us to the businessmen who dreamed up the Theatre, the carpenters who built it, the preachers who hated it, and the actors who performed upon its small stage, The Dream Factory recreates the world that produced Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream - and the audiences who first saw them.

The creative and collaborative history of vanguard printmaking studio and publisher Brand X

The life, dramatic reign, and enduring legacy of the pharaoh Ramesses the Great, with lessons for the present, from internationally acclaimed Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson

An exploration of a powerful voice in contemporary art whose works distill art history, philosophy, and world events

The stranger-than-fiction story of the Enlightenment visionaries who discovered the unexpected effects of inhaling nitrous oxide   At the Pneumatic Institution in Bristol, England, founded in the closing years of the eighteenth century, dramatic experiments with gases precipitated not only a revolution in scientific medicine but also in the history of ideas. Guided by the energy of maverick doctor Thomas Beddoes, the institution was both laboratory and hospital—the first example of a modern medical research institution. But when its members discovered the mind-altering properties of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, their experiments devolved into a pioneering exploration of consciousness with far-reaching and unforeseen effects.   This riveting book is the first to tell the story of Dr. Beddoes and the brilliant circle who surrounded him: Erasmus Darwin, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey, who supported his ideas; James Watt, who designed and built his laboratory; Thomas Wedgwood, who funded it; and the dazzling young chemistry assistant, Humphry Davy, who identified nitrous oxide and tested it on himself, with spectacular results. Medical historian Mike Jay charts the chaotic rise and fall of the institution in this fast-paced account, and reveals its crucial influence—on modern drug culture, attitudes toward objective and subjective knowledge, the development of anesthetic surgery, and the birth of the Romantic movement.

"This publications highlights the Alex Katz Foundation Collection, of over 150 works, at the Portland Museum of Art. The collection includes artists with strong ties to the state of Maine, leading figures in American modernism, a strong core of work by some of today's rising artists, and major figures in the global contemporary art sphere. This book also includes selected essays by the artists"--