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Five Questions with Alexander Wood, author of “Building the Metropolis”

Between the 1880s and the 1930s, New York City experienced explosive growth as nearly a million buildings, dozens of bridges and tunnels, hundreds of miles of subway lines, and thousands of miles of streets were erected to meet the needs of an ever-swelling population. In his book Building the Metropolis, Alexander Wood

Read an Interview with Poet and Translator Aaron Coleman

To celebrate new Phoenix Poets books, we’re introducing Phoenix editors, poets, and translators through a series of short interviews. Here, we spoke with poet and translator Aaron Coleman, whose new translated bilingual edition of Afro-Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén’s The Great Zoo has recently published. In this interview, he discusses his

Read an Excerpt from “Yet Another Costume Party Debacle” by Ingrid A. Nelson

Drawing on interviews and archival research, Yet Another Costume Party Debacle shows how colleges both contest and reproduce racialized systems of power. Sociologist Ingrid A. Nelson juxtaposes how students and administrators discuss race with how they behave in the aftermath of racially charged campus controversies. Nelson shows how the underlying campus structures

Read an Excerpt from “The Politics of Utopia” by Arnaud Orain

Published this summer, The Politics of Utopia is a fascinating retelling of the first banking and financial collapse in eighteenth-century France. This week, we’re sharing a short excerpt from the book’s introduction. Since the end of the seventeenth century, utopians, theologians, travelers, economists, and what Daniel Defoe called projectors—individuals who

Read an Excerpt from Cave of My Ancestors

In her new book, Cave of My Ancestors, Kirin Narayan offers a reflective exploration of family stories that reveal the rich history of a seventh-century Buddhist shrine. In this excerpt, we share a snippet from the book’s introduction. Joining Palms at Ellora My father always loved a far-fetched story. He

Five Questions with Christian Warren, author of “Starved for Light”

Rickets, a childhood disorder that causes soft and misshapen bones, transformed from an ancient but infrequent threat to a common scourge during the Industrial Revolution, as malnutrition and insufficient exposure to sunlight led to severe cases of rickets across Europe and the United States. By the late 1800s, it was

A Reading List of Journal Articles that #StepUp to Face Present Challenges

The Journals Division of the University of Chicago Press publishes more than 90 journals covering subjects from the humanities to the life sciences and historical periods from antiquity to the cutting edge of the contemporary. Within this broad portfolio, many of the journal’s editors work to amplify scholarship that enriches

How to Celebrate “Go to an Art Museum Day”

November 9 is “Go to an Art Museum Day,” and we’re celebrating by highlighting some fantastic exhibitions currently on view at museums around the US and Canada. Can’t make it to the shows? Learn more about these exhibitions and their subjects from wherever you are with corresponding books from UCP

Five Questions with David E. Campbell and Christina Wolbrecht, coauthors of “See Jane Run: How Women Politicians Matter for Young People”

Ahead of the 2024 Presidential Election, today’s politics reflect one of the most polarized ideological landscapes in US history and, as a result, America’s democratic identity is increasingly fractured. So how then do young citizens relate to and find hope within such a divided system? From Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris

Read an Excerpt from “Blue” by Rachel Louise Moran

Today, October 10 marks World Mental Health Day— a day for raising awareness of mental health issues and mobilizing efforts in support of mental well-being. In celebration of this very important day, we’re pleased to share an excerpt from Rachel Louise Moran’s new book Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression

Read an Excerpt from “The Pandemic Workplace”

In The Pandemic Workplace, anthropologist Ilana Gershon turns her attention to the US workplace and how it changed—and changed us—during the pandemic. In this excerpt, we share a snippet from the book’s introduction. Introduction At some point in the week of March 9, 2020, people’s daily lives in the United States

Read an Excerpt from “Partisan Nation: The Dangerous New Logic of American Politics in a Nationalized Era” by Paul Pierson and Eric Schickler

As Americans digest the first—and possibly last—Presidential Debate, many questions now loom even larger than before concerning the future of American democracy. Today’s politics reflect one of the most polarized ideological landscapes in our nation’s history—one where national politics subsume and transform local politics. The result: American democracy finds itself

Read an Interview with Poet Jonathan Thirkield, author of “Infinity Pool”

Continuing our series of interviews with the poets in our Phoenix Poets series, we’re happy to feature Jonathan Thirkield, whose new collection, Infinity Pool, publishes this month. Jonathan discusses a range or influences and methodologies that impact his work—from coding languages and AI to grief and chronic illness. He invites

5 Questions with Meredith McKittrick, author of “Green Lands for White Men”

In 1918, South Africa’s climate seemed to be drying up. White farmers claimed that rainfall was dwindling, but government experts insisted that the rains weren’t disappearing; the land, long susceptible to periodic drought, had been further degraded by settler farmers’ agricultural practices—an explanation that white South Africans rejected. So when

What to Read for National Dog Day

As we wrap up the dog days of summer, we are excited to mark one last, very different sort of dog day before the arrival of autumn: National Dog Day on August 26. To celebrate National Dog Day this year, we have put together a reading list of books new

The University Betrayed: The Lost Promise of the 1960s, a Guest Post from Ellen Schrecker 

In  The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s, Ellen Schrecker illuminates how American universities’ explosive growth intersected with the turmoil of the 1960s, fomenting an unprecedented crisis where dissent over racial inequality and the Vietnam War erupted into direct action. Torn by internal power struggles and demonized by conservative

What to Read for Women in Translation Month

In honor of Women in Translation Month, we are pleased to share this exciting list of recent books from the University of Chicago Press and our marketing distribution client publishers that evidence the evocative power of women’s writing from around the globe. From The University of Chicago Press Slashing Sounds