The Columbia University Press history and political science lists are both broadly shaped by a focus on the construction, spread, memory, contemporary reevaluations, and political and social relations of modernity.
In history we are interested in acquiring titles in international and world history that illuminate contemporary issues of globalization. We particularly welcome manuscripts derived from research done in the archives of more than one country. In the field of American history we are interested in works that offer innovative perspectives on the impact the U.S. has had on world history and how the legacy of that impact continues to effect the present. We also are looking to acquire innovative works that explore the ways race has shaped modernity in different contexts, times, and circumstances and how race continues to construct and regulate social and political hierarchies worldwide. Recent titles that bear on these themes include The Fire by Jörg Friedrich, Secularism Confronts Islam by Olivier Roy, Reclaiming the Enlightenment by Stephen Bronner, The Case for Islamo-Christian Civilization by Richard Bulliet, The Education of Booker T. Washington by Michael West, The Republic in Print by Trish Loughran, The Politics of Inequality by Michael Thompson, and Britain in Iraq by Peter Sluglett.
We have recently inaugurated two new book series as a way to help focus and develop our list in these areas of history. They are the Cultures of History series edited by Nicholas Dirks and Columbia Studies in International and Global History edited by Matthew Connelly and Adam McKeown.
In the field of International Relations and Security Studies we are interested in titles bearing on the question of contemporary U.S. power and its role in constructing or disrupting international stability and order. We seek titles written by academic experts that are of direct and timely relevance not only to other scholars but to policymakers, journalists, opinion-leaders, and the concerned general reader. In Political Science we have recently focused our list on a historical approach to the development of political thought and philosophy. We do this from a conviction that the meanings of ideas about politics cannot be understood apart from a study of the historical moment out of which they arise and the historical context and set of practices surrounding their use whenever they are used to legitimize acts of power in the name of justice or necessity. We have inaugurated a new book series through which to develop this approach to the history of political thought and titled it Columbia Studies in Political Thought / Political History. This series is under the editorial direction of Dick Howard.
Recent titles that illustrate our focus in International Relations, Security Studies, and Political Science include Enemies of Intelligence by Richard Betts, Russian Foreign Policy in the 21st Century edited by Robert Legvold, Buying Military Transformation by Peter Dombrowski and Eugene Gholz, Democracy Past and Future by Pierre Rosanvallon, The Specter of Democracy by Dick Howard, Complications by Claude Lefort, The Administration of Torture by Jameel Jaffer and Amrit Singh, The Present as History by Nermeen Shaikh, and Facing Death in Cambodia by Peter Maguire.
Our Middle East Studies list is designed to publish crucial scholarship concerning both the present and the past that illuminates the present conflicts now being played out so destructively and perilously throughout the region. The focus of the list is on work that explores both the underlying sources of conflict and accounts of the interplay on the ground of local and international interests and dynamics. Recent titles we have published include Globalizing Islam by Olivier Roy, Inventing Iraq by Toby Dodge, Records of Dispossession, and Jewish Property Claims Against Arab Countries by Michael Fischbach, The Ethical Soundscape by Charles Hirschkind, Clash of Identities by Baruch Kimmerling, Notes from the Minefield by Irene Gendzier, A Possible Peace Between Israel and Palestine by Menachem Klein, Shi’ite Lebanon by Roschanack Shaery-Eisenlohr, and Nakba edited by Ahmad H. Sa’di and Lila Abu-Lughod.
Return to List of Editors
