The beginning of a new academic year lends itself to the exploration of wonderful new academic titles. Math students will find a wealth of new and historical information in Al-Khwarizmi: The Beginnings of Algebra (Saqi Books). Those more inclined towards the social sciences will enjoy exploring the Makers of the Modern World series (Haus Publishing), which presents biographies of the world leaders involved in the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Red (Theatre Communications Group), a Tony Award–winning play about the artist Mark Rothko, will appeal to students of theater and fine arts alike. And for an escape from the toil of academia, The Twin (Archipelago Books), the 2010 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award–winning novel, is sure to resonate with all readers. Academics are sure to find something enlightening on this list of Consortium titles!
Featured Titles
The Twin
Named a "Best Adult Book for High School Students 2009" by School Library Journal
"Gerbrand Bakker's writing is fabulously clear, so clear that each sentence leaves a rippling wake."—Los Angeles Times
When his twin brother dies in a car accident, Helmer is obliged to return from university life to take over his brother's role on the small family farm, resigning himself to spending the rest of his days with his head under a cow. Ostensibly a novel about the canals, the green fields, and the unrelenting flatness of the Dutch countryside, The Twin ultimately opens itself to the possibility or impossibility of taking life into one's own hands. It chronicles a way of life that has resisted modernity and is culturally apart, yet is riven with longing. The Twin is Gerbrand Bakker's first novel, and was awarded the 2010 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Translator David Colmer is a two-time winner of the David Reid Poetry Translation Prize.
The Twin | Gerbrand Bakker; Translated by David Colmer | Archipelago Books | Fiction | 9780980033021 | April 2009 | Trade Cloth | $25.00
The Last Genet
"A beautiful book, painting the dark side of Jean Genet: those moments that are the most fascinating about a writer."—Bernard-Henri Levy, Le Point
During the last eighteen years of his life (1968–86), Jean Genet was preoccupied with the struggles of the disenfranchised and displaced: among them the Black Panthers, the Baader-Meinhof, and the Palestinians. Hadrien Laroche's book is a careful philosophical and historical reading of acts and thoughts of various political movements in the seventies and the eighties all over the world, and of Genet's experiences and writings. Along with considering Genet's insights, failures, and critique of humanism, this is also the first book to address the issues of Genet's relation to Israel, Jews, and anti-Semitism. This book is critically relevant to readers interested in the questions surrounding ethical and political writing today. Laroche was born in Paris; he completed his doctorate under Jacques Derrida, who considered him "one of the most talented and original thinkers of his generation"
The Last Genet | Hadrien Laroche; Translated by David Homel | Arsenal Pulp Press | Biography & Autobiography | 9781551523651 | September 2010 | Trade Paper | $19.95
Making the Future: The Unipolar Imperial Moment
"Unwavering political contrarian Noam Chomsky smart-bombs the U.S. military's global Interventions (City Lights). Shock and awe!"—Vanity Fair
Making the Future presents more than thirty concise and persuasively argued commentaries on US politics and policies, written between 2007 and 2010 for The New York Times Syndicate, but rarely published by major media in the United States. Noam Chomsky takes on a wide range of hot-button issues, including the ongoing financial crisis, Barak Obama's presidency, the legacy of George Bush, the limits of the two-party system, the long-term consequences of financial deregulation, the threat posed by nuclear Iran, the war in Afghanistan, oil, Israel–Palestine, Iraq, North Korea, Somalia, Mexico, corporate power, and the future of American politics. Laced throughout his critiques are expressions of commitment to democracy and the power of popular struggles. Making the Future offers fierce, accessible, timely, gloves-off political writing by one of America's foremost intellectual and political dissidents.
Making the Future: The Unipolar Imperial Moment | Noam Chomsky | City Lights Publishers | Political Science | 9780872865372 | October 2010 | Trade Paper | $15.95
Thinking in Indian: A John Mohawk Reader
Thinking in Indian: A John Mohawk Reader presents the Native perception of philosopher-thinker-activist John Mohawk (Sotsisowah). Mohawk's intellectual approach is keenly universal while founded in the practice of his ancient longhouse culture. These essays, produced and published over thirty years, are prescient in the prophetic tradition yet thoroughly current. They reflect consistent engagement in Native events and issues and deliver a profoundly indigenous analysis of modern existence. Native sovereignty, cultural roots and worldview, land and treaty rights, globalization impacts and mitigation, spiritual formulations, and fundamental human wisdom coalesce to provide a genuinely indigenous perspective on current events. Editor José Barreiro collaborated with Mohawk on numerous indigenous human rights and community building campaigns for ten years and is currently a member of the Taino Nation of the Antilles.
Thinking in Indian: A John Mohawk Reader | Edited by José Barreiro | Fulcrum Publishing | Literary Collections | 9781555917388 | October 2010 | Trade Paper | $19.95
A History of the American Worker
"Pre-eminent among historians of labor history."—Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
"A broad panorama in brilliant prose."—American Historical Review
In these groundbreaking works of labor history, two influential eras, 1920–1933 and 1933–1941, are revolutionized and vividly narrated. Classics of American labor history, these two texts divulge a time of wrenching hardships and great victories, when industrial trade unionism, working-class power, and socialism became the rallying cry for millions in the working fields, mills, mines, and factories of America. With introductions by Frances Fox Piven.
The Lean Years: A History of the American Worker, 1920-1933 | Irving Bernstein; Introduction by Frances Fox Piven | Haymarket Books | History / Political Science | 9781608460632 | April 2010 | Trade Paper | $22.00
The Turbulent Years: A History of the American Worker, 1933-1941 | Irving Bernstein; Introduction by Frances Fox Piven | Haymarket Books | History / Political Science | 9781608460649 | April 2010 | Trade Paper | $24.00
Makers of the Modern World Series
Makers of the Modern World is a groundbreaking series of innovative biographies telling the personal stories of the men who tried to create "the peace to end all war." This comprehensive thirty-two-volume series offers an unparalleled, panoramic view of the Paris Peace Conference at a critical turning point in modern history, exposing the full extent of the legacy which continues to influence the global politics of the 21st century.
Makers of the Modern World Series | Haus Publishing | History | Trade Cloth | $19.95
Discovering the Ottomans
"Lyrical yet careful, this introduction to the Ottoman reality will soon become a classic of popular history-writing."—T.J. Winter, University of Cambridge
What was the significance of the Ottoman Empire? What kind of lives did people live? What does the Ottoman Empire mean to us today? Discovering the Ottomans reflects on the life, legacy, and relevance of the Ottomans. Author Ilber Ortayli is a leading expert on the Ottomans and a professor of history at the universities of Galatasaray and Bilkent.
Discovering the Ottomans | Ilber Ortayli | Kube Publishing Ltd| History | 9781847740083 | April 2010 | Trade Paper Original | $16.50
No-Nonsense Guides
With these plain-speaking, jargon-free pocket guides to topical global issues you get history, context and easy-to-read analysis — all in fewer than 150 pages. Topics in the series include human rights, climate change, democracy, the United Nations, and the arms trade, among many others.
No-Nonsense Guides | New Internationalist Press | Trade Paper | $13.95
Ocean Sur Imprint
From resistance to colonial exploitation to the struggle against neoliberalism today, Latin America has always led the defense of national sovereignty and independence. The new century has brought renewed optimism among Latin American nations pursuing a path of progressive social, political, and economic development. Ocean Sur is the sister publishing project to Ocean Press, aiming to expand Ocean Press' list of Spanish language titles.
Ocean Sur Imprint | Ocean Press
Homage to Americans: Mile-high Meditations, Close Readings, and Time-Spanning Speculations
In her latest collection of essays and lectures, Homage to Americans, Eva Brann explores the roots and essence of our American ways. Inspired by her flight's late departure from the Denver airport, Brann examines how each of us lives with ourselves and how we live together—and put up with one another. She examines two famous political documents that have shaped American self-understanding: James Madison's "Memorial and Remonstrance" and Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. "Paradox of Obedience," a lecture Brann delivered at the Air Force Academy, considers the puzzling character of obedience in a country dedicated to liberty. Finally, the concluding essay, "The Empire of the Sun and the West," describes a human type whose fulfillment Brann sees in the American character.
Homage to Americans | Eva Brann | Paul Dry Books | Philosophy | 9781589880627 | August 2010 | Trade Paper | $19.95
Al-Khwarizmi: The Beginnings of Algebra
Al-Khwarizmi's Algebra (Kitab al-Jabr wa-al-muqabala), written around 820, was the first scientific text in history to systematically present algebra as a mathematical discipline that is independent of geometry and arithmetic. Roshdi Rashed, senior director of research at the Centre National de la Recherche Sientifique in Paris, has produced the first Arabic critical edition of Al-Khwarizmi's work, containing an annotated translation into English, an introductory essay, and extensive commentaries on the text.
Al-Khwarizmi: The Beginnings of Algebra | Edited and translated by Roshdi Rashed | Saqi Books | Mathematics | 9780863564307 | July 2010 | Trade Cloth | $100.00
Red
A moving and compelling account of one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century, Mark Rothko, whose struggle to accept his growing riches and praise became his ultimate undoing. Red won six awards at the 2010 Tony Awards, including Best Play and Best Direction of a Play.
Red | John Logan | Theatre Communications Group | Drama | 9781840029444 | September 2010 | Trade Paper | $18.95
Introducing Series
The Introducing series has—in the almost two decades that Totem has been publishing it—become hugely renowned among college students and general readers alike, and it has sold three million copies worldwide. Each book is written by an expert in the field and illustrated by a leading graphic artist. Succinct but authoritative, clever yet genuinely enjoyable, there are few rivals to these books when you need to get your head around some of the most challenging concepts humans have come up with. You can find out more, and connect with the series, at www.introducingbooks.com.
Introducing Series | Totem Books | Trade Paper | $9.95