Arts & Culture

In print

Books by Yale authors

James Madison
Basic Books, $26.99
Richard Brookhiser '77

"If men were angels, no government would be necessary," wrote James Madison. But they're not, and Madison, the fourth US president, created much of the machinery of the new nation's government. "We pay much less attention to James Madison, Father of Politics, than to James Madison, Father of the Constitution," comments Brookhiser, who gives both aspects of this brilliant leader their due in this lively biography.

 

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do and How to Change It
Random House, $28
Charles Duhigg '97

"All our life," wrote pioneer psychology researcher William James in 1892, "is but a mass of habits." Only in the past 20 years have scientists peered into the brain and learned "how habits work—and more important, how they change," notes Duhigg. The New York Times investigative journalist explores the habits of individuals, companies and organizations, and societies, and shows how scientific insights are being used to swap bad habits for good ones.

 

The Keats Brothers: The Life of John and George
Belknap/Harvard University Press, $35
Denise Gigante '87

In the summer of 1818, George Keats, the Romantic poet's younger brother, succumbed to the "emigration fever" that gripped England and boarded a ship bound for America. "While John delved into the dark ravines of human consciousness," writes Gigante, "George made his way past wolves, black bears, wild pigs, and catfish weighing as much as humans." She follows the "bifurcated paths" of the brothers and explores how John turned the experience of losing a brother to a faraway continent into sublime verse.

 

Marriage Confidential: The Post-Romantic Age of Workhorse Wives, Royal Children, Undersexed Spouses, and Rebel Couples Who Are Rewriting the Rules
Harper, $25.99
Pamela Haag '95PhD

Withered passion, boredom, lack of connection: such, according to historian Haag, is the state of millions of twenty-first-century unions. In a sweeping look at modern marriage, Haag examines why so many couples suffer from ecstasy-deficit disorder and settle into a lifelong pattern of melancholy. She also profiles those rebels attempting to have more than semi-happiness.

 

The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin
Oxford University Press, $29.95
Corey Robin '99PhD

Conservative thought, argues Robin, "really does speak to and for people who have lost something," be it "a landed estate or the privileges of white skin." The political scientist presents 11 essays examining, in broad historical context and from a probing, often critical point of view, the thinking of some prominent US conservatives and behind some prominent US conservative issues, including national security and the Lavender Scare. As Robin sees it, conservatism—in essence "the party of the loser"—has been, in this country, an "overwhelming success."

 

The Roof at the Bottom of the World: Discovering the Transantarctic Mountains 
Yale University Press, $29.95
Edmund Stump '72M

Antarctica is far more than ice, snow, and dancing penguins. The frozen continent is also home to a vast mountain range, first spotted by British explorer James Clark Ross in 1841. Over the past 40 years, geologist Stump has studied this remarkable area where "silence abides." Stump's beautiful book, illustrated with vintage maps and many of his photographs, combines history, science, adventure, and even a little skinny dipping.

 

More Books by Yale Authors

Eric Alterman ’86 and Kevin Mattson
The Cause: The Fight for American Liberalism From Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama
Viking, $29.95

Alex Berenson ’94
The Shadow Patrol
Putnam Books, $26.95

Emily Bernard ’89, ’98PhD
Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance: A Portrait in Black and White
Yale University Press, $30

Catherine A. Brekus ’93PhD and W. Clark Gilpin
American Christianities: A History of Dominance and Diversity
University of North Carolina Press, $34.95

Jon T. Coleman ’03PhD
Here Lies Hugh Glass: A Mountain Man, a Bear, and the Rise of the American Nation
Hill and Wang, $28

T. A. Corbi ’74
Charlie Chan Meets Tom Swifty: No Adverb Could Limit, Modify, or Qualify What Happened Next
CreateSpace, $7.99

John Donatich, Director, Yale University Press
The Variations: A Novel
Henry Holt and Company, $25

Cara Elliott ’73, ’74MFA
Too Wicked to Wed (Lord of Midnight)
Forever Books, $7.99

Jed Esty ’91
Unseasonable Youth: Modernism, Colonialism, and the Fiction of Development
Oxford University Press, $49.95

Robert J. Flanagan ’63
The Perilous Life of Symphony Orchestras: Artistic Triumphs and Economic Challenges
Yale University Press, $50

Bob Frisch ’83
Who’s In the Room? How Great Leaders Structure and Manage the Teams Around Them
Jossey-Bass, $29.95

Matthew Gerber ’03MBA
Bastards: Politics, Family, and Law in Early Modern France
Oxford University Press, $74

Ishvarchandra Vidyasagar (Brian A. Hatcher ’84MDiv, translator)
Hindu Widow Marriage: An Epochal Work on Social Reform from Colonial India
Columbia University Press, $70

M. G. Lord ’77
The Accidental Feminist: How Elizabeth Taylor Raised Our Consciousness and We Were Too Distracted By Her Beauty to Notice
Walker and Company, $22

Kenneth Lawing Penegar ’62LLM
The Political Trial of Benjamin Franklin: A Prelude to the American Revolution
Algora Publishing, $33.95

Eileen Pollack ’78
Breaking and Entering: A Novel
Four Way Books, $18.95

Elizabeth A. Povinelli ’91PhD
Economies of Abandonment: Social Belonging and Endurance in Late Liberalism
Duke University Press, $22.95

Lawrence N. Powell ’76PhD
The Accidental City: Improvising New Orleans
 Harvard University Press $29.95

Anne M. Rademacher ’05PhD
Reigning the River: Urban Ecologies and Political Transformation in Kathmandu
Duke University Press, $22.95

Robert B. Santulli ’69
The Alzheimer’s Family: Helping Caregivers Cope
Norton Books, $29.95

Hillel Schwartz ’74PhD
Making Noise: From Babel to the Big Bang and Beyond
Zone Books, $38.95

Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick ’75PhD
The Weather in Proust
Duke University Press, $23.95

Gordon M. Shepard, Professor of Neurobiology
Neurogastronomy: How the Brain Creates Flavor and Why it Matters
Columbia University Press, $24.95

Jed Handelsman Shugerman ’96, ’08PhD
The People’s Courts: Pursuing Judicial Independence in America
Harvard University Press, $35

Lee Smith ’59, Leonard Wolfe ’58, and Stephen Buckles
Easy Economics: A Visual Guide to What You Need to Know
Wiley, $27.95

Sergio Troncoso ’87, ’92MPhil
Crossing Borders: Personal Essays
Arte Publico Press, $16.95

Sergio Troncoso ’87, ’92MPhil
From This Wicked Patch of Dust
University of Arizona Press, $14

Autsin Troy ’92, ’95
The Very Hungry City: Urban Energy Efficiency and the Economic Fate of Cities
Yale University Press, $28

Harlow Giles Unger ’53
Lion of Liberty: Patrick Henry and the Call to a New Nation
Da Capo Press, $17.5

Mark Weisberg ’65 and Jean Koh Peters, the Sol Goldman Clinical Professor of Law
A Teacher’s Reflection Book: Exercises, Stories, Invitations
Carolina Academic Press, $30

Jeff Wheelwright ’69
The Wandering Gene and the Indian Princess: Race, Religion, and DNA
Norton Books, $26.95

Nye Wright ’96
Things to Do in a Retirement Home Trailer Park… When You’re 29 and Unemployed
Myriad Editions, £24.99

Marvin Zonis ’58, Dan Lefkovitz, Sam Wilkin, and Joseph Yackley
Risk Rules: How Local Politics Threaten the Global Economy
B2 Books, $19.95

 

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