Yale Press Log

MotherTalk calls The Working Woman's Pregnancy Book "an invaluable resource"

In the wake of Mother's Day last Sunday, women who plan to continue working during pregnancy will benefit from reading Marjorie Greenfield's The Working Woman's Pregnancy Book, writes MotherTalk.com. The website quotes one of its reviewers as saying: "until now I have not found a comprehensive, easy to read, enjoyable book on the subject....There are more questions answered on this subject in the book than I honestly thought possible." And Mindy Rhiger, reviewing the book for Library Journal, calls the book a "unique, practical resource for working women during their pregnancy." You can read the full review here.

And The Wall Street Journal's blog The Juggle quotes the The Working Woman's Pregnancy Book on the issue of getting parental leave from a company and the different policies various companies adopt concerning leave. You can read the post here. But it is not just for future moms that this book will be useful. Newsweek magazine's Tip Sheet section recently covered the challenge women face when they want to hold a part-time job after having a baby. Dr. Greenfield, an authority on life and work balance for pregnant women and mothers, advises "working whole days—but fewer of them. With half days, “the work drags into the afternoon, and you never get out,” she says." The article is available on this link.

Recently Dr. Greenfield appeared on Cleveland's WCPO (ABC) News, where she was interviewed by Alicia Booth on her book. ABC News Now’s Tim Johnson also did a live interview with Dr. Greenfield, which you can watch here.

The only authoritative guide specifically for pregnant working women, The Working Woman's Pregnancy Book addresses all the subjects one expects to find in a comprehensive book on pregnancy plus issues of special concern to wage-earning women. Is my workplace safe for my developing baby? When should I tell my employer that I am expecting? What laws protect me if I must take medical leave? Answers to all these and more. Make sure you also visit Dr. Greenfield's blog, which was ranked among the top academic medical and health blogs by Online Nursing Degree Directory.

New York Magazine calls Superheroes a "genuinely cool book"

New York Magazine got their hands on an advance copy of Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy by Harold Koda and Andrew Bolton. They decided to do an early preview of the exhibition, which premiered at the Met this past Wednesday.

New York Magazine called Superheroes a "genuinely cool book," and found it an eye-opening companion to the opening gala gossip: "For all the jokes one can make about the gala's red carpet being graced with celebrities awkwardly decked out in Catwoman leather or Captain America capes (per hostess Anna Wintour's request that attendees take the theme seriously), a look at what's actually being shown at the exhibit is rather illuminating." Read the entire preview here.

And the blog mblankier.com reviewed Superheroes, noting the "very provocative and interesting parallel" between superheroes and fashion. "All the essays, costumes, and clothing in the book," the blogger writes, "are really fantastic and really inspiring." Read the full review here.

Featuring designers including John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Jean Paul Gaultier, and many more, this innovative book examines how the style of superheroes’ dress has influenced street wear and high fashion.

Israel's Independence and Churchill's Zionism

As Israel, and its millions of supporters world-wide, celebrate its 60th birthday, few realize the important role that Winston Churchill played in the establishment of the State of Israel and the shaping of the modern Middle East.

Michael Makovsky’s groundbreaking Churchill’s Promised Land, brings this and much more to light in his careful and nuanced examination of Churchill’s complex relationship with Zionism.

In exploring Churchill’s evolving and ultimately romantic interest in Zionism, Makovsky offers a fresh, more complete and revealing understanding of this great statesman’s worldview. 

Churchill’s Promised Land won the National Jewish Book Award for History (2007) and was a finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature (2008).

Read an excerpt, or view the table of contents. Click here to listen to an interview with Michael Makovsky on the Yale Press Podcast.

Morris's 1948 is a critics' favorite

Under the spotlight of the 60th anniversary of Israeli independence, Benny Morris's recent book, 1948, is a praised as a shining example.

Last Sunday’s New York Times Book Review features David Margolick's review, saying: "Morris relates the story of his new book soberly and somberly, evenhandedly and exhaustively."

The May 5th issue of The New Yorker hit newsstands on Monday with a feature piece by David Remnick. This piece on Israeli history centers around Morris and the publication of 1948, calling it "a commanding, superbly documented, and fair-minded study of the events that, in the wake of the Holocaust, gave a sovereign home to one people and dispossessed another."

Last Monday, David Holahan reviewed the book for the Hartford Courant. 1948, he said, is "a richly detailed and thoroughly researched primer.... A compelling 'aha' book, 1948 brings order to complex, little-understood subjects." He went on to compliment Morris on his "vivid narrative prose and masterly analysis."

Canada's National Post began running excerpts from 1948 on May 5, and will run a total of 5 installments. Read the second and third installments.

Solove interview on NYT Freakonomics blog

Annika Mengisen of the New York Times' Freakonomics blog sat down with another Yale Press author, Daniel Solove. They talked about Solove's new book, The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet, and why even those with "virtually no online footprint" should be concerned about their internet reputation. Read the entire interview here.

Other bloggers have picked up this interview. The Tree of Knowledge said that internet reputation is "going to be an interesting area in coming years." And at the Nudges blog, authors Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein emphasized Solove's point about nudges and choice architecture in social networking sites. Thaler and Sunstein themselves have written about this issue in their book, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.

Click here to listen to another interview with Solove on the Yale Press Podcast. Visit Solove's website or read his blog Concurring Opinions. And click here to see Daniel Solove discuss his book as part of Google's Authors@Google speaker series.

Live chats with Zittrain and Speth!

Do you have any questions for Jonathan Zittrain about the future of the Internet? Well, thanks to the Internet, you can ask him today in a live chat with Network World from 2PM to 3PM. You can start posting your questions now, or just check back at 2 to hear Zittrain answer other people's questions.

Network World, in a recent feature on his book, lauded Zittrain's "thought-provoking ideas about the trade-off between convenience and innovation on the Internet." Read the entire review, or click here to read more about the book, including excerpts and the table of contents. Also, click here to watch videos of Zittrain fielding interesting questions on current events and trends at bigthink.com.

And tomorrow at 3 PM, washingtonpost.com will host a live chat with James Gustave Speth, author of The Bridge at the Edge of the World. You can begin submitting questions here.

The Bridge at the Edge of the World was reviewed in the Green section of the Washington Post. They said that Speth, who has "long been prominent in the environmental movement," gives "an extremely probing and thoughtful diagnosis of the root causes of planetary distress." Read the entire review here. Or read an excerpt from the book itself.

Thaler and Sunstein, nudging across America

Yale Press authors Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein have received a lot of press and praise for their newest book, Nudge. For those of you who want to hear what the authors themselves have to say, here are some opportunities:

• PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley will have Thaler on air for tonight's show (Friday 4/25). Click here to check your local listings, or here for more information on the program.
• On May 1 in Washington D.C., the CATO Institute will host a talk for Thaler, Sunstein, and a commentator at 12:00 PM.
• On May 16, Thaler and Sunstein will come to Chicago for the GSB Management Conference at the University of Chicago. They will be speaking at 1:00 PM.
• At the Google offices in San Francisco, Thaler and Sunstein will be giving a talk about their book at 1:00 PM on May 29.
• Thaler will be in Miami on June 8th to give a talk about Nudge.
• Sunstein will return to Washington D.C. on June 27th at 7 PM to discuss the book at the bookstore Politics & Prose.

If you just can't wait until Thaler and Sunstein come to town, then listen to Cass Sunstein discuss libertarian paternalism on the Glenn and Helen Show, a podcast broadcast through Politics Central via PajamasMedia.

You can also check out their website, www.nudges.org, for news, announcements and to send your own nudge suggestions to the authors.

Speth's Bridge brings together diverse thinkers

Gus Speth, author of The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability, has been praised by a wide range of readers.

A Christian writer from Read the Spirit called Speth's ideas "a sign of hope." A philosopher of social science at ChangingSociety lauded Speth's "very powerful analysis," while comparing his ideas to those of the Dalai Lama. The writer at Kale for Sale wrote that Speth "is bursting at the seams with information and urgency." And Andrew Revkin on his DotEarth New York Times blog mentioned that The Bridge at the Edge of the World is on his reading table. And a review from the Yale Daily News noted that Speth's book makes "an argument supported from professionals from several different disciplines."

To hear what Speth himself has to say about his ideas, here's a video of Speth's April 22 appearance on OnPoint.

"During today's OnPoint, Speth, a former chair of the Council on Environmental Quality and founder of both the Natural Resources Defense Council and the World Resources Institute, explains why he is unhappy with the current state of environmentalism. He also gauges the changing level of interest in environmental issues on college campuses throughout the country."

View this video here while you still can--It will only be on the site for the next six months.

Click here to listen to an interview with Gus Speth on the Yale Press Podcast.

Yale University Press celebrates Earth Day

The Yale Press website now features a special page for Earth Day, with a selection of key environmental titles for individuals and for businesses. From recent publications like Gus Speth's The Bridge at the Edge of the World, to some of our bestsellers like Daniel C. Esty and Andrew S. Winston's Green to Gold, Yale University Press continues to publish groundbreaking work in the field of environmental studies. Click here for an extensive list of titles.

For more new and feature backlist titles in environmental history, conservation biology and the life sciences, please see our online Science catalog.

Thaler and Sunstein on newsprint, airwaves, and blogs

Journalists across the web are giving a nudge--I mean, a nod--to Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, authors of Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.

Thaler and Sunstein wrote an op-ed for the Boston Globe, discussing the importance of behavioral economics in policymaking. The Wall Street Journal's Real Time Economics blog pointed their readers towards that article in the Globe.

Newsweek's story Dieting for Dollars began with an anecdote from Thaler and Sunstein's Nudge about two economics grads who gambled on their weight.

On Thursday, while Sunstein guest-blogged for The Volokh Conspiracy in a post titled "Give More Tomorrow and Choice Architecture," Thaler spoke on The Leonard Lopate Show about "How to Choose Wisely." You can download Thaler's segment, or listen with the audio player below.

This week is...

National Library Week! In honor of the bibliofest, here are some Yale Press titles about libraries, perfect for your own library.

The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel

USA Today says that this book is "for readers who take books seriously." They found it to be a "rewarding" read. Read the entire review here.

Inspired by the process of creating a library for his fifteenth-century home near the Loire, in France, Alberto Manguel, the acclaimed writer on books and reading, has taken up the subject of libraries. “Libraries,” he says, “have always seemed to me pleasantly mad places, and for as long as I can remember I’ve been seduced by their labyrinthine logic.” In this personal, deliberately unsystematic, and wide-ranging book, he offers a captivating meditation on the meaning of libraries.

Libraries in the Ancient World, by Lionel Casson

This delightful book tells the story of ancient libraries from their very beginnings, when “books” were clay tablets and writing was a new phenomenon. Renowned classicist Lionel Casson takes us on a lively tour from the royal libraries of the ancient Near East, through the private and public libraries of Greece and Rome, down to the first Christian monastic libraries. Casson explains what books were acquired and how, who read them, how they were organized, and more.

Speth brings together governors to fight climate change

U.S. Governors and top environmental officials will meet tomorrow here at Yale University to exchange ideas on how states and the federal government can combat global warming and develop a strategy for future action.

The gathering, organized in part by Yale Press author Gus Speth, will also celebrate the centennial of President Theodore Roosevelt’s landmark 1908 Conference of Governors, which launched the modern conservation movement, planted the seed for the National Parks System, and inspired significant state efforts to protect land.

Dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and author of The Bridge at the Edge of the World, Speth collaborated with other Yale organizations and state officials to commemorate that landmark 1908 conference. Last night at 8pm, Speth introduced keynote speakers Theodore Roosevelt IV and Gifford Pinchot III, the descendants of the original organizers of that 1908 conference.

The author of Red Sky at Morning would be the first to agree that we are in deep environmental trouble, but he offers hope that there is still time to avert global catastrophe. Gus Speth explores a wide variety of promising and even radical ideas for transforming modern capitalism so as to protect and restore the natural world.

For more information on this conference, click here. To keep on top of more of Speth's events, visit the author's website Bridge At the Edge of the World.com.

Click here to listen to an interview with Gus Speth on the Yale Press Podcast.

Zittrain causes web-wide discussion

Jonathan Zittrain, author of The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It, has sparked a web-wide debate with his ideas. Here is some of the news Zittrain is getting, in addition to those mentioned in the last post:

• Andy Oram glossed and mused on Zittrain's book for O'Reilly Radar, adding that his thoughts "show how much meat [The Future of the Internet] provides for analysis and discussion."
• Washington Post's technology blog Post I.T. covered a talk Zittrain gave at Google's Washington offices.
• Mark Jones of the Reuters Editors blog reported on the Berkman Centre’s Media:Republic program, at which Zittrain spoke.
• The Information Technology section of the Chronicle of Higher Education interviewed Zittrain, who discussed the possibilities of a terrorist attack on cyberspace or an "iPatriot Act."
• Tony Curzon Price at openDemocracy traced the political science ideas behind Zittrain's book, eventually comparing Zittrain to Aristotle.

Additionally, after the jump is a YouTube video Zittrain's talk at the Tribeca Grand in NYC in preview of his book.

Visit the author's website at www.jz.org. Read and comment on the entire book online at Yale Books Unbound.

New York Times bloggers "Freaking" out for Nudge

On the Freakonomics blog at the New York Times, Annika Mengisen admitted that she and fellow-blogger Steven Levitt can't stop reading Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. The Freakonomics team invited Thaler and Sunstein for a Q&A, which can be read here.

This interview follows Levitt's enthusiastic review for Nudge a few days ago. Levitt, one of the authors behind the book Freakonomics, was just too eager to share Nudge with his readers--even before finishing it.

"I’m halfway through it," says Levitt. "And this is a book I love."

He goes on to say, "Picking and choosing a few examples can’t convey what is most surprising about the book: it is really fun to read. Academics aren’t supposed to be able to write this well."

In the comments section, Freakonomics readers have shared Levitt's and Mengisen's excitement:

"You’ve nudged me. I’m going to go buy the book now," posted Charles D.

"I can’t wait to get this book!" JP agreed.

Read an excerpt from the book, view the table of contents, or check out the Nudges blog.

Yale Press unveils new website for Centennial

In celebration of the Yale University Press Centennial (1908-2008), we are proud to launch our brand new Centennial website.

Visit here to find a message from Yale Press Director John Donatich; a brief history of the Press's first 100 years; highlights from the Press’s bestselling, prize-winning, and seminal works; news about upcoming celebrations, exhibitions and media events; and more.

Books on the beauty of nature and the nature of humanity

Two reviews of Yale Press titles appeared in the April 17th edition of the New York Review of Books.

Andrew Butterfield reviewed Poussin and Nature: Arcadian Visions, edited by Pierre Rosenberg and Keith Christiansen. Butterfield praises the "ravishingly beautiful exhibition, ... one that attempts to renew our understanding of the artist." He particularly admires the essay by Willibald Sauerländer, calling it "brilliant." Read the entire review here.

This beautiful catalogue presents the first in-depth examination of Poussin’s landscapes. Featured here are more than 40 paintings, ranging from the artist’s early Venetian-inspired pastorals to his grandly structured and austere works, designed as metaphors or allegories for the processes of nature. Also included are approximately 60 drawings and essays by internationally renowned scholars who examine the painter’s visual, literary, and philosophical influences as well as his relationships with his patrons and his place in the art-historical canon.

Zittrain's internet popularity cannot be stopped

Network World featured Yale Press author and "bona fide member of the digiterati" Jonathan Zittrain in a review titled "How the iPhone is killing the 'Net." This review of Zittrain's new book, The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It, has quickly made its way across the web. Macworld reprinted the article, and from there it was dugg and is being picked up by bloggers at Alejandro@Oxford, The iPhone Low Down, Steve's Unofficial Blog, and elsewhere.

Additionally, StopBadware.org blogged on an interview with Zittrain that appeared in the Management section of Computerworld.

North Korean radios that are altered to receive only the official stations. Cars that listen in on their owners’ conversations. Digital video recorders ordered to self-destruct in viewers’ homes thanks to a lawsuit against the manufacturer thousands of miles away. Zittrain’s extraordinary book pieces together the engine that has catapulted the Internet ecosystem into the prominence it has today—and explains that it is sputtering precisely because of its runaway success. With the unwitting help of consumers, the Internet is on a path to a lockdown, a closing off of opportunities and innovation.

Visit the author's website at www.jz.org. Read and comment on the entire book online at Yale Books Unbound.

Hartford Courant profiles Brent and YUP's digital Stalin archive

The Hartford Courant profiled Jonathan Brent, editorial director of Yale Press' Annals of Communism Project, and interviewed him about the Press's $1.3 million Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant to develop a digital documentary edition of Stalin's Personal Archive.

After sharing a story of Stalin's correspondences with director Sergei Eisenstein and novelist Upton Sinclair, the Courant said, "It is documents like the dispatch to Sinclair that distinguish Yale's Stalin archive." Read the entire article here.

The article in the Courant was picked up by the History News Network, as well as by RussiaTrek and cafe historia, who said, "This is surely what the web was designed to do. If only other institutions would follow suit."

The digitization of Stalin's Personal Archive is a new initiative of Yale University Press' acclaimed Annals of Communism series, begun in 1992.  The digitized documents from this archive will become the basis for future scholarly research, while expediting traditional book publications on topics of great importance in understanding Soviet and twentieth-century world history.

Heckscher's Creating Central Park discusses the creation of recreation

The New York Sun and the New York Observer, both running pieces on Creating Central Park by
Morrison H. Heckscher, have decided to emphasize different parts of the story: one real estate, the other art.

The Real Estate section of the New York Observer contained a Q&A with Heckscher about the book.  Heckscher begins, "I would like to start by saying that the whole issue of the park has to do with open space in Manhattan. Central Park is, shall we say, the conclusion of 50 years of political machinations of how to provide, for the city and Manhattan, open space mostly for health reasons—for air and space for the health of the public, and recreation." Read the entire interview here.

And the New York Sun ran a piece, "Creating Central Park," in their Arts section, with Heckscher discussing the great minds behind the creation of Central Park.

The year 2008 marks the 150th anniversary of the design of Central Park, the first and arguably the most famous of America’s urban landscape parks. In October 1857 the new park’s board of commissioners announced a public design competition, and the following April the imaginative yet practicable “Greensward” plan submitted by Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted was selected.

This book tells the fascinating story of how an extraordinary work of public art emerged from the crucible of New York City politics. From William Cullen Bryant’s 1844 editorial calling for “a pleasure ground of shade and recreation” to the completion of construction in 1870, the history of Central Park is an urban epic––a tale not only of animosity, political intrigue, and desire but also of idealism, sacrifice, and genius.

NYT on professions and recessions: Sennett and Fraser

Writing for the New York Times Book Review, Lewis Hyde reviewed The Craftsman by Richard Sennett. He explains the book's ideas, saying that he enjoyed "the companionship of its inquiring intelligence." Hyde goes on to tell the readers, "There is much to learn here." Read the entire review here.

Defining craftsmanship far more broadly than "skilled manual labor," Richard Sennett maintains that the computer programmer, the doctor, the artist, and even the parent and citizen engage in a craftsman's work. Craftsmanship names the basic human impulse to do a job well for its own sake, says the author, and good craftsmanship involves developing skills and focusing on the work rather than ourselves. In this thought-provoking book, one of our most distinguished public intellectuals explores the work of craftsmen past and present, identifies deep connections between material consciousness and ethical values, and challenges received ideas about what constitutes good work in today’s world.

Click here to listen to an interview with Richard Sennett on the Yale Press Podcast. View the table of contents, or read an excerpt from The Craftsman.

In an article on Wall Street-bound graduates and their nervousness about the recession, Louise Story of the New York Times asked Yale Press author Steve Fraser. Fraser, author of Wall Street: America's Dream Palace, also teaches an undergraduate seminar on Wall Street at the University of Pennsylvania.

In the beginning of the semester, Mr. Fraser noticed that students seemed to think the housing crisis was unrelated to their goals in finance and was caused mostly by irresponsible borrowers. But after the collapse of Bear Sterns, he said, they had "a great deal more sympathy for people who have already been affected by this crisis.

"There’s a sense in the class now that things are more worrying, that this may affect them."

Read the entire New York Times article here. Click here to listen to an interview with Fraser on the Yale Press Podcast.

Thaler and Sunstein, sharing their nudge knowledge

A wealth of excitement has surrounded Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, authors of Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness.

• In "Getting it right on the money," an article on financial literacy in The Economist, Richard Thaler advises on how to improve Americans' financial literacy.
• The New Republic "Easy Does It" by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein consider how to make lazy people do the right thing.  (Article available for subscribers only.)
• In an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times, "Designing better choices," Thaler and Sunstein discuss their idea of liberatarian paternalism and its impact upon society.
• In his Boston Globe article "When shove comes to push," Drake Bennett assesses the flurry of ideas around libertarian paternalism.
• In "Lured Toward the Right Choice," Barbara Kiviat of Time Magazine writes about Thaler and Sunstein's "new approach to public policy that takes into account the odd realities of human behavior."

Visit Nudges.org for news, announcements and to send your own nudge suggestions to the authors. Click here for an extended question & answer discussion with the authors.

After the jump are a list of stops on their tour across the United States to discuss Nudge.

Parsi and Kurlantzick shortlisted for Arthur Ross Book Award

The Council on Foreign Relations announced the shortlist for the 2008 Arthur Ross Book Award. Among the 5 prestigious international affairs books chosen, two spots were given to Yale Press authors.

Joshua Kurlantzick was chosen for Charm Offensive: How China’s Soft Power is Transforming the World. The Council consider his book an "insightful assessment of Beijing’s new diplomacy that has altered the political landscape in Southeast Asia and far beyond, changing the dynamics of China’s relationships with other countries."

The Council chose Trita Parsi for Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran and the United States, calling his book "a unique and important dissection of the complicated triangular relations that continue to shape the future of the Middle East."

The Arthur Ross Book Award is a significant award for a book on international affairs. It was endowed by Arthur Ross in 2001 to honor non-fiction works, in English or translation, that merit special attention for bringing forth new information that changes our understanding of events or problems, developing analytical approaches that allow new and different insights into critical issues, or providing new ideas that help resolve foreign policy problems.

Parsi on Huffington Post: Breaking the US-Iran Stalemate

Writing on The Huffington Post, Trita Parsi, author of Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel, Iran, and the United States and president of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), discusses the upcoming NIAC conference, "Breaking the US-Iran Stalemate: Reassessing the Nuclear Strategy in the Wake of the Majles Elections." Parsi begins:

When it comes to Iran, President Bush has all but banged the drums of war. In fact, when faced with the question of Iran's nuclear file, it's been talk of sanctions or war, but nothing else -- even though sanctions have gotten us nowhere.

On April 8, the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) will host foreign policy A-listers, Congressional members and staff, key academics and accredited media to discuss another option on Capitol Hill: a multinational enrichment facility inside Iran, coupled with direct and comprehensive talks with Tehran.

Read the entire article here. For more information on the conference, including a schedule and making reservations, click here.

Speth appears on radio with high frequency

Radio stations across the country are interviewing James Gustave Speth about his new book The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability.

On Monday morning, Speth could be heard on Focus 580 with David Inge (WILL Illinois Public Radio). Hear that interview in RealAudio format here, or in MP3 here.

Monday evening, Speth appeared on At Issue with Ben Merens (Wisconsin Public Radio). That interview can be found here in RealAudio format.

Speth's upcoming radio appearances stretch from coast to coast. See the list after the jump.

Remembering Dith Pran

Dith Pran, author of Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields: Memoirs by Survivors, passed away on Sunday in New Brunswick, N.J, as reported in the New York Times. He was a photojournalist for the New York Times and founder of the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project.

This extraordinary book contains eyewitness accounts of life in Cambodia during Pol Pot's genocidal Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979, accounts written by survivors who were children at the time. The book has been put together by Pran, whose own experiences in Cambodia were so graphically portrayed in the film The Killing Fields.

The testimonies related here bear poignant witness to the slaughter the Khmer Rouge inflicted on the Cambodian people. The contributors—most of them now in the United States and pictured in photographs that accompany their stories—report on life in Democratic Kampuchea as seen through children's eyes. They speak of their bewilderment and pain as Khmer Rouge cadres tore their families apart, subjected them to harsh brainwashing, drove them from their homes to work in forced-labor camps, and executed captives in front of them. Their stories tell of suffering and the loss of innocence, the struggle to survive against all odds, and the ultimate triumph of the human spirit.

Click here to read the entire New York Times obituary.

Two Yale Press authors to talk on NPR today

Tune your dials to NPR from 11-noon EST today and you're bound to hear one of our Yale Press authors share their expertise.

James Gustave Speth, author of The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability, will talk to Diane Rehm about the effect of American-style consumer capitalism upon the environment. To learn more about his appearance on The Diane Rehm Show, click here.

The author of Red Sky at Morning would be the first to agree that we are in deep environmental trouble, but he offers hope that there is still time to avert global catastrophe. Gus Speth explores a wide variety of promising and even radical ideas for transforming modern capitalism so as to protect and restore the natural world.

Or you can hear Josh Ozersky, author of The Hamburger: A History and online food editor for New York Magazine. Ozersky will discuss the juicy story of America's favorite sandwich live on WBUR's On Point. For more information, click here.

A lively and entertaining history of the hamburger and why it is no mere sandwich in America, but an icon. Josh Ozersky uncovers an array of facts and stories about the hamburger’s evolution and chronicles how the burger has reflected—and even shaped—American business and culture.