An unimpeachable classic work in political philosophy, intellectual and cultural history, and economics, "The Road to Serfdom" has inspired and infuriated politicians, scholars, and general readers for half a century. Originally published in 1944 -…
This narrative follows the lives of a group of transgendered prostitutes ("travestis" in Portuguese) in the Brazilian city Salvador. Travestis are males who, at an age as young as ten, adopt female names, clothing styles, hairstyles and linguistic p…
The conflict between science and religion seems indelible, even eternal. Surely two such divergent views of the universe have always been in fierce opposition? Actually, that's not the case, says Peter Harrison: our very concepts of science and reli…
The conflict between science and religion seems indelible, even eternal. Surely two such opposing views of the universe have always been in fierce opposition? Actually, that's not the case, says Peter Harrison: our very concepts of science and relig…
When it was first published in 1992, "The Beginnings of Western Science" was lauded as the first successful attempt to present a unified account of both ancient and medieval science in a single volume. Chronicling the development of scientific ideas…
Designed to help students learn how to think about research projects, this guide offers suggestions which cover four broad areas of social science: the creation of the "imagery" to guide research; methods of "sampling" to generate maximum variety in…
Economics is not a field that is known for good writing. Charts, yes. Sparkling prose, no. Except, that is, when it comes to Deirdre Nansen McCloskey. Her conversational and witty yet always clear style is a hallmark of her classic works of economic…
The "Nicomachean Ethics" is one of Aristotle's most widely read and influential works. Ideas central to ethics - that happiness is the end of human endeavor, that moral virtue is formed through action and habituation, and that good action requires p…
"The Nicomachean Ethics", along with its sequel, "the Politics", is Aristotle's most widely read and influential work. Ideas central to ethics - that happiness is the end of human endeavor, that moral virtue is formed through action and habituation,…
What do our clothes say about who we are or who we think we are? How does the way we dress communicate messages about our identity? Is the desire to be "in fashion" universal, or is it unique to Western culture? How do fashions change? These are jus…
"Art" has always been contested terrain, whether the object in question is a medieval tapestry or Duchamp's Fountain. But questions about the categories of "art" and "art history" acquired increased urgency during the 1970s, when new developments in…
Editing is an invisible art where the very best work goes undetected. Editors strive to create books that are enlightening, seamless, and pleasurable to read, all while giving credit to the author. This makes it all the more difficult to truly under…
Just as a traveler crossing a continent won't sense the curvature of the earth, one lifetime of reading can't grasp the largest patterns organizing literary history. This is the guiding premise behind Distant Horizons, which uses the scope of data n…
Scholars of politics have sought in recent years to make the discipline more hospitable to qualitative methods of research. Lauding the results of this effort and highlighting its potential for the future, "Political Ethnography" makes a compelling…
A life shared with pets brings many emotions. We feel love for our companions, certainly, and happiness at the thought that we re providing them with a safe, healthy life. But there s another emotion, less often acknowledged, that can be nearly as p…
In this work, Don Levine moves from the origins of systematic knowledge in ancient Greece to the present day in order to present an account that is at once a history of the social science enterprise and an introduction to the cornerstone works of We…
Are we deranged? The acclaimed Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh argues that future generations may well think so. How else to explain our imaginative failure in the face of global warming? In his first major book of nonfiction since In an Antique Land,…
"No one has done so much as Mr. Eliade to inform literature students in the West about 'primitive' and Oriental religions...Everyone who cares about the human adventure will find new information and new angles of vision."--Martin E. Marty, "New York…
Moving beyond the traditional boundaries of sociological investigation, Thomas J. Scheff brings together the study of communication and the social psychology of emotions to explore the microworld of thoughts, feelings, and moods. Drawing on striking…
How do we think? N. Katherine Hayles poses this question at the beginning of this bracing exploration of the idea that we think through, with, and alongside media. As the age of print passes and new technologies appear every day, this proposition ha…
"The Companion Species Manifesto" is about the implosion of nature and culture in the joint lives of dogs and people, who are bonded in "significant otherness". In all their historical complexity, Donna Haraway tells us, dogs matter. They are not su…
Who was Vivian Maier? Many people know her as the reclusive Chicago nanny who wandered the city for decades, constantly snapping photographs, which were unseen until they were discovered in a seemingly abandoned storage locker. They revealed her to…
Illuminates the creative moments of the major traditions from prehistoric times through classical Greece arguing that religious values and meaning grew with social and technological innovation
"The Greek magical papyri" is a collection of magical spells and formulas, hymns, and rituals from Greco-Roman Egypt, dating from the second century B.C. to the fifth century A.D.. A comprehensive text, this volume contains a fresh translation of th…
History carves its imprint on human lives for generations after. When we think of the radical changes that transformed America during the twentieth century, our minds most often snap to the fifties and sixties: the Civil Rights Movement, changing ge…
Folklorist Arnold van Gennep's masterwork, The Rites of Passage, has been a staple of anthropological education for more than a century. First published in French in 1909, and translated into English by the University of Chicago Press in 1960, this…
Ethnography centers on the culture of everyday life. So it is ironic that most scholars who do research on the intimate experiences of ordinary people write their books in a style that those people cannot understand. In recent years, the ethnographi…
Why must critics unmask and demystify literary works? Why do they believe that language is always withholding some truth, that the critic's task is to reveal the unsaid or repressed? In this book, Rita Felski examines critique, the dominant form of…
One of the most popular and widely read books of the Middle Ages, "Physiologus" contains allegories of beasts, stones, and trees both real and imaginary, infused by their anonymous author with the spirit of Christian moral and mystical teaching. Acc…
Paul Ricoeur has been hailed as one of the most important thinkers of the century. Oneself as Another, the clearest account of his "philosophical ethics," substantiates this position and lays the groundwork for a metaphysics of morals. Focusing on t…
"Of those who created the intellectual capital used to launch the enterprise of professional sociology, Georg Simmel was perhaps the most original and fecund. In search of a subject matter for sociology that would distinguish it from all other socia…
Time is the backdrop of historical inquiry, yet it is much more than a featureless setting for events. Different temporalities interact dynamically; sometimes they coexist tensely, sometimes they clash violently. In this innovative volume, editors D…
When Norman Maclean sent the manuscript of A River Runs through It to New York publishers, he received a slew of rejections. One editor, so the story goes, replied, "It has trees in it." Forty years later, the title novella is recognized as one of t…
For more than thirty years, Writing for Social Scientists has been a lifeboat for writers in all fields, from beginning students to published authors. It starts with a powerful reassurance: Academic writing is stressful, and even accomplished schola…
This radically original book argues for the power of ordinary language philosophy a tradition inaugurated by Ludwig Wittgenstein and J. L. Austin, and extended by Stanley Cavell to transform literary studies. In engaging and lucid prose, Toril Moi d…
More than a quarter million copies sold!A creative writer's shelf should hold at least three essential books: a dictionary, a style guide, and Writing Fiction. Janet Burroway's best-selling classic is the most widely used creative writing text in Am…
One of the most visited places in the world, Rome attracts millions of tourists each year to walk its storied streets and see famous sites like the Colosseum, St. Peter's Basilica, and the Trevi Fountain. Yet this ancient city's allure is due as muc…
What is the nature of place, and how does one undertake to write about it? To answer these questions, geographer and poet Tim Cresswell looks to Chicago's iconic Maxwell Street market area. Maxwell Street was for decades a place where people from al…
When Moral Politics was first published two decades ago, it redefined how Americans think and talk about politics through the lens of cognitive political psychology. Today, George Lakoff's classic text has become all the more relevant, as liberals a…
There are two kinds of knowledge law school teaches: legal rules on the one hand and tools for thinking about legal problems on the other. Although the tools are far more interesting and useful than the rules, they tend to be neglected in favor of o…
For most Americans the powerful ties between religion and nationalism in the Middle East are utterly foreign forces, profoundly tied to the regional histories of the people who live there. However, Adam H. Becker shows that Americans themselves - th…
This book describes the process of erecting the great cathedrals in the Gothic era. Since there are no contemporary accounts of the techniques used by medieval builders, this study explains the building equipment and falsework needed, the actual ope…
The Reagan and Thatcher revolutions. The collapse of Eastern Europe dramatically captured in the tearing down of the Berlin Wall. F. A. Hayek, grand old man of capitalism and founder of the classical liberal, free-market revival which ignited and i…
Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations was recognized as a landmark of human thought upon its publication in 1776. As the first scientific argument for the principles of political economy, it is the point of departure for all subsequent economic thought…
The relationship between government, virtue, and wealth has held a special fascination since Aristotle, and the importance of each frames policy debates today in both developed and developing countries. While it's clear that low-quality government i…
Contemporary productions on stage and film, and the development of theater studies, continue to draw new audiences to ancient Greek drama. With observations on all aspects of performance, this volume fills their need for a clear, concise account of…
For over a century, plant specialists worldwide have sought to transform healing plants from African countries into pharmaceuticals. And for equally as long, conflicts over these medicinal plants have endured. In Bitter Roots, Abena Dove Osseo-Asare…
The First World War was marked by an exceptional expansion in the use and production of military cartography. But World War II took things even further, employing maps, charts, reconnaissance, and the systematic recording and processing of geograph…
Anton Chekhov is revered as a boldly innovative playwright and short story writer - but he wrote more than just plays and stories. In "Alive in the Writing" - an intriguing hybrid of writing guide, biography, and literary analysis - anthropologist a…
Long a fruitful area of scrutiny for students of organizations, the study of institutions is undergoing a renaissance in contemporary social science. This volume offers, for the first time, both often-cited foundation works and the latest writings o…
A century that began with modernism sweeping across Europe is ending with a resurgence of religious beliefs and practices throughout the world. Wherever one looks today, from headlines about political turmoil in the Middle East to pop music and vide…
This text argues for the possibility of theological thinking in a postmodern secular milieu. Moving beyond the now familiar reiteration of postmodernity's losses - the death of God, the displacement of the self, the end of history, the closure of th…
