Inspired by the process of creating a library for his fifteenth-century home near the Loire, in France, Alberto Manguel, the acclaimed writer on books and reading, has taken up the subject of libraries. “Libraries,” he says, “have always seemed to me pleasantly mad places, and for as long as I can remember I’ve been seduced by their labyrinthine logic.” In this personal, deliberately unsystematic, and wide-ranging book, he offers a cap...

Defining craftsmanship far more broadly than “skilled manual labor,” Richard Sennett maintains that the computer programmer, the doctor, the artist, and even the parent and citizen engage in a craftsman’s work. Craftsmanship names the basic human impulse to do a job well for its own sake, says the author, and good craftsmanship involves developing skills and focusing on the work rather than ourselves. In this thought-provoking book, one of our mos...

The author of Red Sky at Morning would be the first to agree that we are in deep environmental trouble, but he offers hope that there is still time to avert global catastrophe. Gus Speth explores a wide variety of promising and even radical ideas for transforming modern capitalism so as to protect and restore the natural world.

Every day we make decisions on topics ranging from the personal investments we select to the schools we pick for our children to the foods we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, as authors Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein astutely observe, we don’t always choose well. The reason, the authors explain, is that we all are susceptible to cognitive biases and blunders that make us human, fallible, and prone to error.

Every day we make decisions on topics ranging from the personal investments we select to the schools we pick for our children to the foods we eat to the causes we champion. Unfortunately, as authors Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein astutely observe, we don’t always choose well. The reason, the authors explain, is that we all are susceptible to cognitive biases and blunders that make us human, fallible, and prone to error.

Most corporations experience revenue and profit plateaus or declines at some point. Why? And why are only 20 percent able to resume growth? This book analyzes the performance of more than 600 top companies to discover why stalls happen and how they can be remedied or avoided. The authors conclude that most stalls are avoidable and offer a wealth of practical advice, including red flag warnings that signal an impending stall.

North Korean radios that are altered to receive only the official stations. Cars that listen in on their owners’ conversations. Digital video recorders ordered to self-destruct in viewers’ homes thanks to a lawsuit against the manufacturer thousands of miles away. Jonathan Zittrain’s extraordinary book pieces together the engine that has catapulted the Internet ecosystem into the prominence it has today—and explains that it is sputtering pre...

A groundbreaking biography focusing on the young Napoleon and his improbable rise to power. Debunking many of the myths that Napoleon himself promulgated as an early manipulator of the media, Dwyer’s book sheds new light on Napoleon’s inner life and character, and on the twisting path that led from his boyhood in Corsica to the coup that gave him leadership of France at the age of thirty.

This unprecedented reference work systematically represents the history and culture of Eastern European Jews from their first settlement in the region to the present day. More than 1,800 alphabetical entries encompass a vast range of topics, including religion, folklore, politics, art, music, theater, language and literature, places, organizations, intellectual movements, and important figures. The two-volume set also features more than 1,000 illustrations and 55 m...

Drawing on a huge Nazi archive created to identify Jewish converts to Christianity as far back as the seventeenth century, this compelling book explores the lives of Jews in Berlin from 1645 to 1833. The book considers the Jewish experience in German society and provides a nuanced view of the various motivations behind the decision to convert.

This book is the culmination of more than three decades of meticulous historiographic research on Nazi Germany by one of the period’s most distinguished historians. The volume brings together the most important and influential aspects of Ian Kershaw’s research on the Holocaust for the first time. The writings are arranged in three sections—Hitler and the Final Solution, popular opinion and the Jews in Nazi Germany, and the Final Solution in histor...

Seizing the Hungarian throne at fifteen, the effervescent Matthias Corvinus reigned long (1459-1490) and extraordinarily well. This book is the first in English to tell the gripping story of the Raven King and of the fate of his fabled 2000-volume library. Dispersed across Europe after his death, the king’s exquisite volumes have been pursued with fervor for centuries.

This remarkable book brings the wives of Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, and Auguste Rodin out of obscurity for the first time. Through unprecedented research, Ruth Butler is now able to tell the stories of Hortense, Camille, and Rose, and how their unique roles as wives and models enriched the quality of their husbands’ artistic endeavors.

The Second Crusade (1145-1149) was an extraordinarily bold, but largely unsuccessful, attempt to defeat “unbelievers” in the Holy Land, Iberia, and northeastern Europe. This definitive book casts new light on the origins, planning, and execution of the Second Crusade, uncovering its profound impact on both Europe and the Middle East.

Remembered today mainly for a question he never uttered (“Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”), Henry Morton Stanley was in truth a brilliant adventurer who overcame a nightmarish childhood to become Africa’s greatest explorer. Drawing on previously closed archives, this grand and colorful biography presents the first accurate picture of Stanley and his extraordinary achievements.

A magnificent survey of the rich and varied arts in Latin America from 1492 to the end of the colonial era.

This book scrutinizes a wide range of artistic responses to the Spanish Civil War to illuminate the relation between art and politics during a period of social crisis. Through the works of Miró, Dalí, Caballero, Masson, and Picasso the author investigates how Surrealism served to bridge the divide between political thought and political act.

This major new study of one of the most internationally celebrated artists of the 18th century considers the artist’s pictorial strategies, significant contributions to portraiture, and role as a woman in shaping European visual culture.

Americans are profoundly divided over same-sex marriage, and now that gay civil unions and marriages are legal in some states, the debates have become increasingly vitriolic. In this book Andrew Koppelman draws on legal precedent to suggest workable and humane legal solutions to the problems that arise when gay couples cross state borders.

Featuring never-before-seen family diaries and photographs, this book examines Hesse’s artistic achievement in sculpture within the historical context of her life.

BREAKING NEWS FROM YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS

(From Library Journal's Academic Newswire)

March 13 -- In testimony today before the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, Jim Rettig, president-elect, American Library Association (ALA) and University Librarian, University of Richmond, piled on the criticism of the closures of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) libraries and suggested the agency do much better to understand and respond to the end users' needs. . . . While the move to digitization can be costly and complicated, he said, "the bottom line is that libraries still need skilled professionals to a) assist users, b) organize Internet access, c) determine the best way to make the information available to those users, and d) assure that digitization projects adhere to standards." Also, he noted, "Librarians are also needed to design the interfaces," suggesting there should be customized interfaces for scientists, teachers and students, and for the general public.

Read the full article from Library Journal.

January 8 -- Yale University Press is pleased to announce that it has received a $1.3 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to develop a digital documentary edition of Stalin’s Personal Archive.

The digitization of Stalin’s Personal Archive is a new initiative of Yale University Press’s acclaimed Annals of Communism series, begun in 1992. The digitized documents from this archive will become the basis for future scholarly research, while expediting traditional book publications on topics of great importance in understanding Soviet and twentieth-century world history. Scholars worldwide will be able to investigate the rare primary source materials and documents contained in this archive without having to travel to Moscow where the archive is held and will be able to communicate their findings instantaneously online. The archive contains significant new materials relating to Stalin’s political life and death: documents concerning foreign policy with Germany before World War II; Stalin’s communications with Nikolai Yezhov, head of the NKDV during the Great Purges; Stalin’s directives to the Politburo after World War II; material illuminating his relations with Western intellectuals and political leaders, including Franklin D. Roosevelt; and his private notations concerning Lenin, Trotsky, Bukharin, and other Soviet leaders. It also contains inestimably important materials from Stalin’s library.

The Press also intends to enable transcription, translation, and scholarly annotation of these materials to be done online by Press authors and researchers using a specially designed publishing platform. To ensure the continued high scholarly credibility of the project, the approval process for the Digital Stalin Archive will be as rigorous as for volumes published in the Annals of Communism series and will be conducted in the same manner: vetting will be done by the Scholarly Editorial Committee for the Annals of Communism series, through Yale University Press’s own scholarly review procedure, and by the Executive Editor for Annals of Communism. Once approved, the fully transcribed, translated, and annotated documents will be published online. The Press envisions that online availability will occur gradually over the period of the project. A fully digitized version of all documents contained within this archive should be available to scholars via the World Wide Web by 2012.

John Donatich, Director, Yale University Press, said, “Taken together, these materials will provide the last great missing piece in understanding the engine of Soviet influence in the twentieth century—Stalin and his legacy. The digitization of Stalin’s Personal Archive will facilitate important new research in Soviet studies as well as the creation of a living, growing, and continually evolving body of scholarship that will take advantage of new innovation and technologies.”

Download the full press release

(From Library Journal's Academic Newswire)

September 27 -- Librarians, get ready: the Institute for the Future of the Book (IF:book) has launched its latest "networked" book venture, and this one is just crying out for your participation. Siva Vaidhyanathan, author, professor of media studies and law at the University of Virginia, and an IF:book fellow will literally write his next book, The Googlization of Everything in public, on the web, via a blog that will serve "as a public journal and workshop space." Eventually, the posts will comprise the book. Vaidhyanathan, a well-known figure among librarians, explains that the book will be "a critical interpretation of the actions and intentions" behind Google.

Read the full article from Library Journal.

Washington,DC -- On Saturday, July 28 at 12 pm, CSPAN Book TV will air the program from last months' 2007 ALA Anuual Meeting, "The Best of the Best from the University Presses." The "Best of the Best" program, which features five librarians discussing their top picks from university presses, was orginally presented June 24th at the Washington Convention Center, in Washington, DC.
Click here for Book TV's scheduled line up.

In a recent article called "A Hipper Crowd of Shushers", (New York Times, July 8, 2007), Kara Jesella says,“a new type of librarian is emerging -- the kind that, according to the Web site Librarian Avengers, is “looking to put the 'hep cat' in cataloguing."

The article continues, “How did such a nerdy profession become cool — aside from the fact that a certain amount of nerdiness is now cool? Many young librarians and library professors said that the work is no longer just about books but also about organizing and connecting people with information, including music and movies.

And though many librarians say that they, like nurses or priests, are called to the profession, they also say the job is stable, intellectually stimulating and can have reasonable hours...

But some librarians have found the job can be at odds with their outside cultural interests. “I went to see a band a few weeks ago with old co-workers and turned to one and said ‘Is it just me or is this really, really loud?’ ” said Ms. Klein, the former publicist. Her friend, she said, “laughed and said, ‘You have librarian ears now.’ ”

New York, NY--This year's Book Expo America closed successfully with numerous panel presentations and trend spotting in the publishing business. The panel session "How Libraries Buy: Librarians Reveal Their Method for Collection Development" offered many insights into the habits of the 16,000 libraries across the country, how they are re-evaluating their function in the community, and fullfulling reader interest.

This discussion between publishers and librarians brought up several talking points from the panelists: (excerpted from an article on ShelfAwareness.com)

--Libraries have a significant impact on categories where sales typically aren't high, such as first novels and genre fiction.

-- Being in touch with popular culture is crucial for librarians, because books featured on TV shows and radio programs and in magazines and newspapers often drive requests.

-- Libraries should use their websites to share information such as book reviews, what book clubs are reading and hot titles of the week.

-- Publishers might want to consider adding libraries to author tours and sending sales reps to call on collection development librarians.

-- Many libraries have reading advisors, a key person to receieve information about new and forthcoming titles.

Washington,DC --Four books by Yale University Press have been selected by the Association of American University Presses (AAUP) as "The Best of the Best: Books You Should Know About." They include The Horse in Art, by John Baskett, Chinese Sculpture, by Angela Falco Howard, et al, An A-Z of Type Designers, by Neil Macmillan, and Why Arendt Matters, by Elisabeth Young-Bruehl. These books, along with several other "Best of the Best" titles, will be presented as a special program in part with the 2007 American Library Association's Annual Conference in Washington, DC.  This recognition is to help launch the 17th edition University Press Books Selected for Public and Secondary School Libraries and assist in collection planning. The "Best of the Best" program is scheduled for Sunday, June 24th from 1:30-3:30 at the Washington Convention Center, Room 204B.

FALL 2008	FALL 2008 ART		SPRING 2008	SPRING 2008 ART