Interview Adam Sutcliffe on What Are Jews For? July 02, 2020 What is the purpose of Jews in the world? The Bible singles out the Jews as God鈥檚 鈥渃hosen people,鈥� but the significance of this special status has been understood in many different ways over the centuries.聽 Read More
Reading List Be Enchanted July 01, 2020 The imaginative and often dangerous world of fairy tales spins common human experience in a way that feels strangely vital. Read More
Video A brush with nature: Alexander von Humboldt and Frederic Church June 30, 2020 What made Alexander von Humboldt a superstar in the 1800s was聽Cosmos, his global best-selling, multi-volume series on his scientific observations and international travels. Read More
Essay Fighting the deportation machine June 24, 2020 Javier Garc铆a Bautista had not been at his station for long on May 17 when someone in the carpentry department of the suburban-Los Angeles shoe factory where he worked yelled out, 鈥淭he migra is here!鈥� Read More
Essay All at sea: The maritime lives of the ancient Phoenicians June 23, 2020 The Phoenicians were, according to one ancient scholar, 鈥榯he first to plough the sea鈥�. The little ports of the Bronze Age Levant, including Tyre, Sidon, and Byblos, lay between the great empires of Egypt, Anatolia, and Mesopotamia. Read More
Essay What the world needs now June 23, 2020 This spring I waited聽out months of聽coronavirus lockdown in Montreal. Heightened isolation has meant many things. In my life, at least, one rather banal outcome is more email forwards. Read More
Essay A belief in meritocracy is not only false: it鈥檚 bad for you June 22, 2020 Meritocracy has become a leading social ideal. Politicians across the ideological spectrum continually return to the theme that the rewards of life鈥攎oney, power, jobs, university admission鈥攕hould be distributed according to skill and effort. Read More
Essay Keep cool and keep writing June 21, 2020 Editors, amongst many other tasks, are daily faced with the challenge of persuading or pressuring authors to write or finish books. When COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home orders went into effect and I found myself, in addition to being an editor, also suddenly a home-schooling teacher, little did I know that those skills might be transferable. Read More
Essay By Design | The 2020 AUPresses Book, Jacket, and Journal Show June 18, 2020 A book鈥檚 design communicates to readers before the book even has a chance to. It tells us something essential. The most successful book design goes a step further: it compels us to hold the book in our hands for a little while, turn it over, leaf through it, and admire its form. Read More
Interview Erica McAlpine on The Poet鈥檚 Mistake June 17, 2020 Keats mixed up Cortez and Balboa. Heaney misremembered the name of one of Wordsworth鈥檚 lakes. Poetry鈥攅ven by the greats鈥攊s rife with mistakes. Read More
Essay Masada: A heroic last stand against Rome June 17, 2020 Two thousand years ago, 967 Jewish men, women, and children reportedly chose to take their own lives rather than suffer enslavement or death at the hands of the Roman army. Read More
Essay Do we have the government we need for the problem of the century? June 16, 2020 Orlando might be America鈥檚 tourist epicenter, and it鈥檚 working mightily to reopen. But it鈥檚 one thing to open the doors. It鈥檚 quite another to convince people to travel and walk through. Read More
Reading List Readings on anti-racism, social justice, and inequity June 11, 2020 We are devastated by the crimes against humanity caused by systemic racism. As a scholarly publisher, we have a responsibility to change the narrative of human experience through peer-reviewed books, and the collaborations and knowledge that empower them. 聽 Read More
Essay Recording audiobooks under lockdown June 11, 2020 When lockdown began to take effect in March 2020, publishers and authors across the world had to make rapid adjustments to our plans for our books, not only to keep publishing, but also to keep our colleagues and partners safe and healthy. Read More
Essay Why is Einstein still so alive? June 10, 2020 In the title of his keynote address at a conference to investigate Einstein鈥檚 impact on science, culture, and the public-political discourse at the dawn of the twenty-first century, Gerald Holton, a pioneer of Einstein scholarship in the historical and philosophical context, asked why Einstein is still so alive. Read More
