Recent Award Winners

Hiroshi Kitamura’s Screening Enlightenment: Hollywood and the Cultural Reconstruction of Defeated Japan has won the Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies Book Prize

Serguei Alex. Oushakine’s The Patriotism of Despair: Nation, War, and Loss in Russia is the winner of the Award for Best Book in Literature and Culture given by the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages

My Imaginary Illness: A Journey into Uncertainty and Prejudice in Medical Diagnosis has placed first in ranking for the Consumer Health category of the 2011 American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year awards

Kenneth J. Ruoff’s Imperial Japan at Its Zenith: The Wartime Celebration of the Empire’s 2,600th Anniversary is a finalist for the Oregon Book Award given by Literary Arts

Rachael A. Woldoff’s White Flight/Black Flight: The Dynamics of Racial Change in an American Neighborhood is a finalist for the North Central Sociological Association Scholarly Achievement Award

New releases

Recent arrivals in our warehouse include:

Hard Interests, Soft Illusions: Southeast Asia and American Power by Natasha Hamilton-Hart
Outlaw Rhetoric: Figuring Vernacular Eloquence in Shakespeare’s England by Jenny C. Mann
At Home with the Diplomats: Inside a European Foreign Ministry by Iver B. Neumann

Cornell University Press author Michael McFaul named Ambassador to Russia

Michael McFaul, author of Russia’s Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin, has been named the U.S. Ambassador to Russia. From Voice of America: US Instates New Ambassador to Russia

Alvin Plantinga in the New York Times

In the December 13, 2011, New York Times, Jennifer Schuessler profiled the Cornell University Press author Alvin Plantinga. Schuessler writes, “And even philosophers who reject his theism say his arguments for the basic rationality of belief, laid out in books like Warranted Christian Belief and God and Other Minds, constitute an important contribution that every student of epistemology would be expected to know.” Read the whole profile here: Philosopher Sticks Up for God

Lovesick Japan reviewed in the Japan Times

In the January 8, 2012, edition of the Japan Times, Jeff Kingston reviews Lovesick Japan: Sex | Marriage | Romance | Law by Mark D. West. Kingston writes:

“Nobody else explores the law in Japan quite like Mark West, bringing it to life and close to home. Lovesick Japan is an entertaining and insightful examination of the courts, pulling eye-popping gems from judges’ opinions that speak volumes about their proclivity for peeping, prodding, moralizing and otherwise creeping into the bedroom in adjudicating marriage, divorce, rape, stalking and pornography.”

Read the whole review here: Holding court on warped ideas of sex and love

In the Words of E. B. White in the Barnes and Noble Review

Adam Kirsch reviewed In the Words of E. B. White, edited by Martha White on December 27 at the Barnes and Noble Review, writing, “In the Words of E. B. White offers a perfect introduction, or reintroduction, to a writer truly in the American grain.” Read the whole review here.

Failure by Design named one of the best political books of 2011 by “The Fix”

The Washington Post blog “The Fix” included Failure by Design by Josh Bivens on a list of the best political books of 2011.

New release

A recent arrival in our warehouse:

The Shadow of the Past: Reputation and Military Alliances before the First World War by Gregory D. Miller

Remembering Vaclav Havel

The greatly respected politician and writer Vaclav Havel, who died on December 18, was the author of a Cornell University Press book. We published Paul Wilson’s translation of Havel’s play The Beggar’s Opera in 2001. At the time, Milos Forman wrote, “Anyone who wants to know why it is so easy for powerful people to abuse their fellow men should read this book.”

Alex Ross recommends Guillaume de Machaut: Secretary, Poet, Musician

On his must-read blog The Rest is Noise, music critic Alex Ross lists Guillaume de Machaut: Secretary, Poet, Musician by Elizabeth Eva Leach as one of his notable music books of 2011: Apex 2011