Princeton UP Ideas Podcast
New Books Network
A series of interviews with authors of new books from Princeton University Press
Episodes
Mentioned books
Mar 9, 2015 • 47min
Udi Greenberg, “The Weimar Century: German Emigres and the Ideological Foundation of the Cold War” (Princeton UP, 2015)
American policymakers and scholars alike have looked to the rapid transformation of Germany, specifically West Germany, from a defeated Nazi state into a thriving democracy as one of the most successful postwar reconstructions of the twentieth century. Scholars have variously credited an influential U.S. occupation or Germans’ own revulsion at...
Mar 2, 2015 • 1h 8min
Seana Shiffrin, “Speech Matters: On Lying, Morality, and the Law” (Princeton UP, 2014)
It is generally accepted that lying is morally prohibited. But theorists divide over the nature of lying’s wrongness, and thus there is disagreement over when the prohibition might be outweighed by competing moral norms.There is also widespread agreement over the idea that promises made under conditions of coercion or duress...
Jan 13, 2015 • 57min
Kenneth Prewitt, “What Is Your Race?: The Census and Our Flawed Efforts to Classify Americans” (Princeton UP, 2013)
The US Census has been an important American institution for over 220 years. Since 1790, the US population has been counted and compiled, important figures when tabulating representation and electoral votes. The Census has also captured the racial make-up of the US and has become a powerful public policy tool...
Nov 28, 2014 • 1h 28min
Henry Nau, “Conservative Internationalism: Armed Diplomacy under Jefferson, Reagan, Truman, and Polk” (Princeton UP, 2013)
The recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have raised important questions about the future direction of U.S. foreign policy and how Americans can best exercise power abroad in the coming years. Commentators have not shied away from offering advice. Some defend the record of the George W. Bush administration and...
Nov 27, 2014 • 41min
Jacob N. Shapiro, “The Terrorist’s Dilemma: Managing Violent Covert Organizations” (Princeton UP, 2013)
Jacob N. Shapiro‘s The Terrorist’s Dilemma: Managing Violent Covert Organizations (Princeton University Press, 2013) is a welcome addition to a field that sometimes depicts terrorist activity as an unfamiliar, idiosyncratic phenomenon. Shapiro convincingly argues that, far from being alien to our everyday experience, many terrorist organizations must necessarily deal with...
Nov 5, 2014 • 43min
Michael Cook, “Ancient Religions, Modern Politics: The Islamic Case in Comparative Perspective” (Princeton UP, 2014)
Michael Cook, a widely-respected historian and scholar of Islam begins his book with a question that everyone seems to be asking these days: is Islam uniquely violent or uniquely political? Why does Islam seem to play a larger role in contemporary politics than other religions? The answers that are provided...
Nov 3, 2014 • 1h 15min
Angela Stent, “The Limits of Partnership: U.S.-Russian Relations in the Twentieth-First Century” (Princeton UP, 2014)
In 2005, the Comedy Central Network aired an episode of “South Park” in which one of the characters asked if any “Third World” countries other than Russia had the ability to fly a whale to the moon. During a press conference that took place two years later, Russian President Vladimir...
Oct 15, 2014 • 51min
Colin Adams, “Zombies and Calculus” (Princeton UP, 2014)
The book discussed in this interview is Zombies and Calculus (Princeton University Press, 2014) by Colin Adams. This is a truly unique book; a novel written in the first-person by the survivor of a zombie apocalypse who has managed to make it that far thanks to his knowledge of calculus. The...
Oct 15, 2014 • 1h 7min
Stephen Yablo, “Aboutness” (Princeton UP, 2014 )
A day after Stephen Yablo bought his daughter Zina ice cream for her birthday, Zina complained, “You never take me for ice cream any more.” Yablo initially responded that this was obviously false. But Yablo, who is professor of philosophy and linguistics at MIT, also noticed something interesting: that Zina...
Oct 9, 2014 • 1h 6min
Adam Ewing, “The Age Of Garvey: How A Jamaican Activist Created A Mass Movement And Changed Global Black Politics” (Princeton UP, 2014)
Adam Ewing acknowledges the enduring, if reductive, image of Garveyism – “the parades and shipping lines and colonization schemes” – in its early, Harlem-based incarnation, but focuses The Age Of Garvey: How A Jamaican Activist Created A Mass Movement And Changed Global Black Politics (Princeton University Press, 2014) on tracing the...
