Princeton UP Ideas Podcast

01:03:50

The Study: The Inner Life of Renaissance Libraries...

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast ·

2026/10/06

With the advent of print in the fifteenth century, Europe’s cultural elite assembled personal libraries as refuges from persecutions and pandemics. Andrew Hui tells the remarkable story of the Renaissance studiolo—a “little studio”—and reveals how these spaces dedicated to self-cultivation became both a remedy and a poison for the soul.Blending fresh, insightful readings of literary and visual works with engaging accounts of his life as an insatiable bookworm, Hui traces how humanists from

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00:55:52

Great Power Diplomacy: The Skill of Statecraft from...

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast ·

2026/09/29

Great Power Diplomacy. The Skill of Statecraft from Attila the Hun to Kissinger(Princeton UP, 2025) is acaptivating history of diplomacy—and an urgent reminder of why we need to revive its lost arts to survive in a dangerous era of great power competition. From the beginning of time, human societies have found themselves confronted by enemies too numerous or ferocious to defeat solely by force of arms. In these dramatic moments, wise leaders have turned to diplomacy to rearrange the gameboard in

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00:56:32

Driven to Their Knees: Humiliation in Contemporary...

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast ·

2026/09/25

Humiliation pervades our politics, from images of stripped Palestinian men in Gaza to mocking chants at MAGA rallies. It suffuses pictures and videos, speaks through bodies as well as words, and is expressed by those with too much power as well as by those with too little. In Driven to Their Knees, Roxanne Euben takes readers from conflicts in the Arabic-speaking world to America’s divided public square, advancing a theory of humiliation rooted in the ways people articulate and enact it. Euben

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00:56:40

Arthur der Weduwen, "The Last Invasion of England:...

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast ·

2026/09/22

In popular accounts of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the autocratic Catholic King James II was ousted by his subjects and replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary Stuart, wife of James’s nephew, the Dutch William III of Orange. Devoted to her husband, Mary would not accept the crown alone, and so William and Mary were crowned together, securing a smooth dynastic succession. The Last Invasion of England: 1688 and the Dutch Armada (Princeton UP, 2026) recounts the forgotten campaign that carried

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01:01:59

Joshua Specht, "Property Values: The Rise and Fall of...

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast ·

2026/09/21

As affordability crises once limited to coastal cities have spread across the broader United States, the history of home and land ownership has never been more relevant. In Property Values: The Rise and Fall of the American Homeowner (Princeton University Press, September 2026), Dr. Joshua Specht traces how ownership has challenged the nation’s politics and promise from the founding to the present day. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection

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00:55:46

Laura Portwood-Stacer, "The Book Proposal Book: A...

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast ·

2026/09/17

Whether you’re hoping to publish your first book or you’re a seasoned author with an unfinished proposal languishing on your hard drive, The Book Proposal Book provides honest and invaluable advice on how to overcome common sticking points and get your book published. It also shows why a well-conceived proposal can help lead to an outstanding book. The Book Proposal Book cuts through the mystery and guides you through the process of crafting a compelling proposal and pitching it to university

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00:58:39

James C. Nieh, "The Language of Bees" (Princeton UP,...

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast ·

2026/09/14

With senses that often seem alien to us, bees navigate complex decisions about where to find food, when to fight or flee, and how to work together.The Language of Bees(Princeton University Press, 2026) invites readers into the hidden world of bee communication, a realm where creatures less than an inch long use scent, vibration, movement, and sound to cooperate, share information, and survive.Drawing on decades of groundbreaking fieldwork, Dr. James Nieh sheds light on the remarkable signals that

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00:38:51

Mark Peterson, "The Making and Breaking of the...

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast ·

2026/09/14

Edward Blum interviews Mark Peterson on his new book The Making and Breaking of the American Constitution: A Thousand-Year History.The American Revolution occurred at a time when Britain’s constitutional order failed to adapt to the extraordinary growth of its colonies. The framers designed an American constitution to succeed where Britain’s had faltered, planning for continuous population and territorial expansion that would eventually cross the continent. Yet by the end of the nineteenth century,

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53:20

William G. Howell and Terry M. Moe, "Trajectory of...

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast ·

2026/09/10

Political Scientists William Howell and Terry Moe have a new book out that explores how the United States constitutional system has given way to the establishment of a kind of strongman presidency, disconnected in many ways from the constraints designed to keep the American president from becoming autocratic or dictatorial.Trajectory of Power: The Rise of the Strongman Presidency(Princeton UP, 2025)traces the expansion of the administrative state in the United States, which transpired during much of

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74:08

Sara McDougall, "Justice for Jehanne: The Tale of a...

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast ·

2026/09/07

In the winter of 1472, the city of Dijon, France, became the stage for a remarkable legal drama. On the mayor’s orders, an investigator named Jaques Borestel went door-to-door questioning his neighbors about an alleged sexual assault—and about the victim’s history and place in the community. At the center of Jaques’s inquiry was a woman named Jehanne, who took the unusual step of making a criminal complaint in an age when victims of sexual violence did so at their own peril.Justice for Jehanne: The

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69:06

Violaine Roussel, "Data-Driven Hollywood: The New...

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast ·

2026/09/07

In Hollywood today, thousands of data specialists work for streaming video platforms, playing a role not just in distribution and marketing but also in decisions about content and production. InData-Driven Hollywood: The New Data Professionals in the Age of Streaming(Princeton UP, 2026), Violaine Roussel examines the emergence of this new category of professionals at the heart of the Hollywood dream factory. Roussel shows how the rise of data and algorithm specialists has transformed organizations

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61:52

Jonathan Quong, "Political Philosophy: The Puzzle of...

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast ·

2026/09/03

Can laws be unjust and yet remain, in some sense, morally legitimate? InPolitical Philosophy: The Puzzle of Legitimate Injustice(Princeton UP, 2026), Jonathan Quong considers central issues in political philosophy through the lens of this single question. He explores and evaluates recent influential work on this topic and then proposes a novel approach of his own. The puzzle at the heart of his account is the phenomenon of legitimate injustice—laws and policies that are substantively unjust yet may

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59:12

The Grant Writing Guide: A Road Map for Scholars

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast ·

2026/09/03

The Grant Writing Guide: A Road Map forScholars(Princeton UP, 2023)is an essential handbook for writing fundable grants. This easy-to-use guide features writing samples, a glossary of important terms, answers common questions, and explains pitfalls to avoid. Dr. Betty Lai focuses on skills that are universal to all grant writers, not just specific skills for one type of grant or funder. She explains how to craft phenomenal pitches and align them with your values, structure timelines and drafts,

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54:48

An Honest Death: Life's End and Humanist Funerals...

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast ·

2026/08/28

A fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at non-religious funerals in contemporary London,An Honest Death:Life's End and Humanist Funerals(Princeton UP, 2026)is an intimate and moving ethnographic account of funerals for people who don’t believe in God or an afterlife. Focusing on secular funeral celebrants of the British Humanist Association (now called Humanists UK), the book examines how their ritual work is geared toward helping realize a secular world. There is a strong ethical commitment behind

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46:18

Yuri Pines, "China's Aristocratic Age: Politics and...

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast ·

2026/08/27

The Springs-and-Autumns period is a strange period in Chinese history. Coming after the decline of the Zhou, and before the famous Warring States Period, this period of Chinese history features a large number of small states with no powerful hegemon, no strong sense of the mandate of heaven, rules of chivalry that wouldn’t seem out of place in medieval Europe, and roles passed down through lineage–and not awarded on the basis of merit.Historian Yuri Pines calls this period China’s "aristocratic

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50:51

Paul Johnson, "Challenging Inequalities: How We Got...

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast ·

2026/08/26

There is a widespread sense throughout the developed world that progress towards a better society has stalled. Many countries, including the UK, have experienced persistent economic stagnation accompanied by declining trust in institutions. Governments are struggling to respond not only to traditional economic problems but also to newer challenges posed by climate change, migration and technological change. Challenging Inequalities: How We Got Stuck and Where We Go Next(Princeton University

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26:51

How to Write a Book Proposal and Make Your Manuscript...

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast ·

2026/08/26

Are you a scholar sitting on a manuscript that you think could be a book — but you have no idea where to start? In this episode of The Publishing Playbook, host Sarah Russo sits down with Laura Portwood-Stacer, founder of Manuscript Works and author of two books about academic publishing: “The Book Proposal Book” and “Make Your Manuscript Work.” Laura shares what pulled her out of academia and into editorial consulting, and why “publish or perish” no longer guarantees the payoff it once promised

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31:51

David Helvarg, "Forest of the Sea: The Remarkable...

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast ·

2026/08/26

In a matter of decades, a spectacular cold-water paradise thirty million years in the making is succumbing to warming oceans. Kelp forests are largely out of sight, hidden under the ocean’s surface, yet they are one of Earth’s most wondrous and underappreciated marine habitats. It’s an ethereal light-infused realm of sharks, otters, eels, sea stars, crabs, rockfish, and myriad other species vital to a functioning ocean and the countless coastal communities that make their living from the

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45:24

Arturo Chang, "A New World of Revolutions: Popular...

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast ·

2026/08/20

InA New World of Revolutions: Popular Imaginations and Movements Across the Americas(Princeton UP, 2026), Arturo Chang reconstructs the histories, politics, and legacies of the Age of Revolutions (c. 1770-1850) from the vantage point of popular movements in the Americas. Challenging narratives that center the nation-state, Chang emphasizes the hemispheric politics, practices, and cultural production that connected revolutionary movements from the United States to Argentina. He draws on marching

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51:34

Bordering On Indifference: Immigration Agents...

Princeton UP Ideas Podcast ·

2026/08/13

Immigration agents have a frontline view of the racial, economic, and legal inequalities that undocumented migration reflects—and yet most agents do not think of the role their jobs play in those inequalities. Instead, they consider themselves law enforcers, trained to confine their work strictly to crime control and security. InBordering on Indifference: Immigration Agents Negotiating Race and Morality(Princeton UP, 2025), Dr. Irene Vega offers an original, detailed analysis of the rationales that

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