Cornell University Press imprint: 972 books
Murder Most Russian
True Crime and Punishment in Late Imperial Russia
Language: English
Release Date: December 15, 2009
How a society defines crimes and prosecutes criminals illuminates its cultural values, social norms, and political expectations. In Murder Most Russian, Louise McReynolds draws on a fascinating series of murders and subsequent trials that took place in the wake of the 1864 legal reforms enacted by...
For Fear of an Elective King
George Washington and the Presidential Title Controversy of 1789
Language: English
Release Date: September 8, 2014
In the spring of 1789, within weeks of the establishment of the new federal government based on the U.S. Constitution, the Senate and House of Representatives fell into dispute regarding how to address the president. Congress, the press, and individuals debated more than thirty titles, many of which...
by Marcus Tullius Cicero
Language: English
Release Date: July 28, 2016
Language: English
Release Date: July 28, 2016
Benjamin Patrick Newton’s translation of Cicero’s On Duties is the most complete edition of a text that has been considered a source of moral authority throughout classical, medieval, and modern times. Marcus Tullius Cicero was a preeminent Roman statesman, orator, and philosopher who introduced...
The Myth of Ethnic War
Serbia and Croatia in the 1990s
Language: English
Release Date: December 15, 2009
"The wars in Bosnia-Herzegovina and in neighboring Croatia and Kosovo grabbed the attention of the western world not only because of their ferocity and their geographic location, but also because of their timing. This violence erupted at the exact moment when the cold war confrontation was drawing...
The Universe Unraveling
American Foreign Policy in Cold War Laos
Language: English
Release Date: May 15, 2012
During the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, Laos was positioned to become a major front in the Cold War. Yet American policymakers ultimately chose to resist communism in neighboring South Vietnam instead. Two generations of historians have explained this decision by citing logistical considerations....
Warlords
Strong-arm Brokers in Weak States
Language: English
Release Date: June 12, 2012
Warlords are individuals who control small territories within weak states, using a combination of force and patronage. In this book, Kimberly Marten shows why and how warlords undermine state sovereignty. Unlike the feudal lords of a previous era, warlords today are not state-builders. Instead they...
The Enlightenment of Cadwallader Colden
Empire, Science, and Intellectual Culture in British New York
Language: English
Release Date: April 12, 2016
Was there a conservative Enlightenment? Could a self-proclaimed man of learning and progressive science also have been an agent of monarchy and reaction? Cadwallader Colden (1688–1776), an educated Scottish emigrant and powerful colonial politician, was at the forefront of American intellectual...
The French Republic
History, Values, Debates
Language: English
Release Date: December 15, 2009
In this invaluable reference work, the world’s foremost authorities on France’s political, social, cultural, and intellectual history explore the history and meaning of the French Republic and the challenges it has faced. Founded in 1792, the French Republic has been defined and redefined by a...
The Death of Tolstoy
Russia on the Eve, Astapovo Station, 1910
Language: English
Release Date: December 15, 2009
In the middle of the night of October 28, 1910, Leo Tolstoy, the most famous man in Russia, vanished. A secular saint revered for his literary genius, pacificism, and dedication to the earth and the poor, Tolstoy had left his home in secret to embark on a final journey. His disappearance immediately...
Clara Schumann
The Artist and the Woman
Language: English
Release Date: December 15, 2009
This absorbing and award-winning biography tells the story of the tragedies and triumphs of Clara Wieck Schumann (1819–1896), a musician of remarkable achievements. At once artist, composer, editor, teacher, wife, and mother of eight children, she was an important force in the musical world of her...
Reckoning with the Imagination
Wittgenstein and the Aesthetics of Literary Experience
Language: English
Release Date: July 22, 2015
Much current theorizing about literature involves efforts to renew our sense of aesthetic values in reading. Such is the case with new formalism as well as recent appeals to the notion of "surface reading." While sympathetic to these efforts, Charles Altieri believes they ultimately fall short because...
Pythagoras
His Life, Teaching, and Influence
Language: English
Release Date: November 11, 2011
One of the most important mathematical theorems is named after Pythagoras of Samos, but this semi-mythical Greek sage has more to offer than formulas. He is said to have discovered the numerical nature of the basic consonances and transposed the musical proportions to the cosmos, postulating a "harmony...
Thinking in Time
An Introduction to Henri Bergson
Language: English
Release Date: December 15, 2009
"In recent years, we have grown accustomed to philosophical language that is intensely self-conscious and rhetorically thick, often tragic in tone. It is enlivening to read Bergson, who exerts so little rhetorical pressure while exacting such a substantial effort of thought.... Bergson's texts teach...
The Anxiety of Freedom
Imagination and Individuality in Locke's Political Thought
Language: English
Release Date: March 15, 2018
The enduring appeal of liberalism lies in its commitment to the idea that human beings have a "natural" potential to live as free and equal individuals. The realization of this potential, however, is not a matter of nature, but requires that people be molded by a complex constellation of political...