New Books

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DAVID ABULAFIA
(Caius; Faculty of History)

The Discovery of Mankind: Atlantic Encounters in the Age of Columbus ($35, Yale University Press, April 2008). A Financial Times “Favourite Book” of 2008.

“Abulafia's narrative is as wide-ranging as the ships of those brutal years. He eloquently portrays the wonder of Europeans as they glimpsed new peoples and places, and shows brilliantly how they so often saw the new through preconceived categories. He explores the fated cultures of peoples from Atlantic islands and the Americas, and the result is accessible and illuminating.” - The Independent (UK)

“[A] penetrating historical analysis, one that casts fresh light on the whole sorry tale.... This is a fine book, a rare combination of careful scholarship and story-telling ability that breathes vivid life into the events of five centuries past.” – The Guardian (UK)  

The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time ($7.99, Random House). Adams (1952-2001) was the author of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

“A loving tribute to the author by his friends, who decided that the best way to salute his life and work was to collect some of the more unusual bits of it and let the world share the mind of a wonderfully talented man, with a unique viewpoint on almost everything...a fascinating collection of bits and pieces of a busy writer's life.” – Library Journal

LIAQUAT AHAMED
(Trinity)

Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World ($32.95, The Penguin Press, January 2009). A New York Times Notable Book of 2009. A Financial Times “Book of the Year” for 2009.

“Liaquat Ahamed’s Lords of Finance is supposed to be a history book about the economics of World War I and the Great Depression. But there is terrific prescience to be found in its portrait of times past. Mr. Ahamed, an investment manager who proves to be a writer of great verve and erudition, easily connects the dots between the economic crises that rocked the world during the years his book covers and the fiscal emergencies that beset us today. He does this winningly enough to make his book about an international monetary horror story seem like a labor of love.... Mr. Ahamed does a superlative job of explaining the ever-germane way the problems of one shyster, one bank, one treasury or one economy can set off repercussions all around the globe.” – The New York Times

DANIELLE ALLEN
(King's 1993)

Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship Since Brown v. Board of Education ($16.00, University of Chicago Press). Allen - classical scholar, MacArthur Fellow, UPS Foundation Professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies - offers a program for revitalizing democratic citizenry in America.

“Allen understands that democracy originates in the subjective dimension of everyday life, and she focuses on what she calls our ‘habit of citizenship’—the ways we often unconsciously regard and interact with fellow citizens.... [Her] focus on race is entirely appropriate.”— Boston Review

M.T. ANDERSON
(Peterhouse)

The Kingdom On The Waves: The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 2 ($22.99, Candlewick Press, October 2008). Ages 14 and up. The first volume of The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing: The Pox Party (2006) won a National Book Award for juvenile literature.

“It may be hard to conceive of making the claim about a young adult book, but I believe Octavian Nothing will someday be recognized as a novel of the first rank, the kind of monumental work Italo Calvino called ‘encyclopedic’ in the way it sweeps up history into a comprehensive and deeply textured pattern.” – Jerry Griswold in The New York Times Sunday Book Review

CHRISTOPHER ANDREW
(Corpus Christi)

[new!] Defend the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5 ($40, Knopf, November 2009)

"Mr. Andrew is no stranger to the secret world of Britain's intelligence community...[He] is used to reconciling the sensitivities of top-secret intelligence with the exigencies of providing a credible narrative.... Mr. Andrew has succeeded in producing a highly readable book that offers important new insights into MI5's operations over the past century." - The Wall Street Journal

"It will be enthusiastically scrutinised by historians, intelligence buffs and conspiracy theorists...[there are] anecdotes and operational details as gripping as any thriller." -Financial Times 

“….[A]s engrossing as any spy novel. In part, that's because Andrew, a professor of history at Cambridge, is this era's preeminent historian of espionage; in part, it's because he's one of those English academics in whom erudition and fluent clarity of style are happily conjoined.….Andrew's account of MI5's masterful deception operations reads like one of the multitude of spy novels they inspired.” – Los Angeles Times

A Financial Times “Book of the Year” for 2009

By Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin

The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB ($24, Basic Books). The first volume of a history of the postwar Soviet KGB, based on archives smuggled out of the former USSR by the late co-author, a highly placed dissident.

"The defection of KGB researcher Vasili Mitrokhin...was described by former Western and Russian spies...as one of the most extraordinary events in the intelligence game since the Soviet Union collapsed." - Washington Post

"Every page brims with the plots for a dozen movies and Robert Ludlum thrillers.... [N]o history of the last half of the Cold War can be written the same again." - Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Stranger than fiction...Aficionados of espionage will be rummaging through this enormously detailed book for years." - The New Republic

The World Was Going Our Way: The KGB and the Battle for the Third World ($19.95, Basic Books)  The second volume of a history of the postwar Soviet KGB, based on archives smuggled out of the former USSR by the late co-author, a highly placed dissident. The focus is on Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

"This illuminating book, co-authored by Christopher Andrew, our leading authority on the secret machinations of the Evil Empire... still has lessons for our present confused world scene." – The London Times

“Andrew's engaging, occasionally gossipy narrative provides new evidence of Soviet sponsorship of Latin American insurgencies and Palestinian terrorists, along with details of KGB spycraft and dirty tricks. The world-wide communist conspiracy he depicts was far from a juggernaut, but he sheds new light on the hidden history of the Cold War.” – Publishers Weekly

KWAME ANTHONY APPIAH
(Clare)

The Ethics of Identity ($22.95, Princeton University Press). The author teaches philosophy at Princeton.

“Wonderfully straightforward.” – The New York Review of Books

“Suave and persuasive.” – The New York Times

“A humane and optimistic vision, eloquently expressed.” – The New Republic

TERRI APTER
(Newnham)

What Do You Want From Me?  Learning to Get Along With In-Laws ($25.95, W.W. Norton, July 2009. American-born Apter is Senior Tutor at Newnham.

‘[B]ased on years of research, Cambridge University psychologist Terri Apter says it's now clear that this is primarily a woman-to-woman problem.... Apter says most in-law problems can be traced back to unspoken but conflicting expectations and assumptions.... Maybe she's not the world's best mother-in-law yet, but Apter's working on it.” – Newsweek.com
 

You Don't Really Know Me: Why Mothers and Daughters Fight and How Both Can Win ($13.95, paperback, W.W. Norton)

"Ongoing interaction between mother and daughter is key.... Apter offers a number of strategies to address common adolescent issues, such as complaints of a lack of freedom, concerns over physical appearance and irritability...a solid addition to the teen parenting genre." – Publishers Weekly

The Sister Knot: Why We Fight, Why We’re Jealous, and Why We’ll Love Each Other No Matter What ($15.95, W.W. Norton)

“Apter skillfully uncovers the complicated feelings inherent in sisterhood....  Highly recommended.” – Library Journal

DAVID ATTENBOROUGH
(Clare 1946) 

Life on Air: Memoirs of a Broadcaster ($37.95, Princeton University Press)

"[An] engaging and often amusing text." - Choice

"[T]ells the entertaining story of how he turned us all into armchair experts in natural history." - New Scientist

TASH AW
(Jesus)

The Harmony Silk Factory ($15, Riverhead)

“Malaysian-British Aw makes an impressive contribution to a literature for which Conrad and Maugham are famous in the story of an audacious, successful Malaysian businessman during World War II.... Via Aw's fast-moving prose and shimmering dialogue, which has an odd, affecting noirish manner, three different accounts of Johnny Lim and varying views of historic and personal reality unfold.” – Booklist

JAMES AXTELL
(Trinity)

The Making of Princeton University: From Woodrow Wilson to the Present ($35, Princeton University Press).  The author is Kenan Professor of Humanities at the College of William & Mary.

“Arguably the most readable account of Princeton ever written.” – Princeton Town Topics 

ANTHONY J. BADGER
(History; Clare)

FDR: The First Hundred Days ($23, Hill & Wang, May 2008). The author is Paul Mellon Professor of American History at Cambridge and Master of Clare College.

“A leading New Deal scholar summarizes and provides critical analysis of President Roosevelt's groundbreaking initial domestic and foreign initiatives.... The book's distinguishing feature is the interpretive light the author shines on FDR's political skills.” – Kirkus Reviews

New Deal/New South: An Anthony J. Badger Reader ($19.95, paperback, Univ. of Arkansas Press)

“No commentator on twentieth century America, especially the American South, writes more perceptively, or more engagingly, than Tony Badger. Viewing the United States from a British perspective, he matches an extraordinary command of his sources and a vivid style to a translatlantic angle of vision.” – Prof. William E. Leuchtenburg

TILLY BAGSHAWE
(St. John's 1993) 

Adored ($6.99, Grand Central)

"Glamour, fashion, gossip, scheming—they're all here in a page-turning debut.... This is one of those big, juicy summer beach reads—not too deep, just wildly entertaining." - Publishers Weekly

"An epic romance with ultraglamorous characters....the Hollywood setting and the volatile relationships will keep readers enthralled." - Booklist

BERNARD BAILYN
(Christ's)

To Begin the World Anew: The Genius and Ambiguities of the American Founders ($13.95, Vintage)

"A slim and handsome volume - a collection of what Bailyn calls 'sketches' on issues arising out of his lifework." - New York Times Book Review

"One of America's most discerning historians. His thinking is subtle. His style is forceful.... Throughout he retains a sense of wonder that those men in a clump of distant British provinces could have wrought a political system, a view of the world, that is so imaginative and enduring." - Los Angeles Times

SIMON BARON-COHEN
(Department of Psychiatry; Trinity)

The Essential Difference: Male And Female Brains And The Truth About Autism ($15.95, Basic Books)

“Should the title fail to express Baron-Cohen's certainty about gender differences, the Cambridge Univ. professor of psychology and psychiatry lays out his controversial thesis on page one: ‘The female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy. The male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems.’ Defending this bold view is a tough but engaging battle.... His copious evidence ranges from the anecdotal to the anthropological, and from the neurological to the case study.... Baron-Cohen offers curious lay readers a provocative discussion of male-female differences.” – Publishers Weekly

JOHN BARROW
(DAMTP; Clare Hall)

Cosmic Imagery: Key Images in the History of Science ($39.95, W.W. Norton, September 2008). The author, winner of the Templeton Prize in 2006, is professor of mathematical sciences and director of the Millennium Mathematics Project at Cambridge.

“[A] work of art...beautifully published.... Through dozens of short essays, each prompted by one of science’s visual creations, Barrow conducts his own personal tour of the universe.... [O]pen it almost anywhere and you will probably learn something new, or see it from a curious new angle.” – The New York Times Sunday Book Review

The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless and Endless ($15.95, Vintage). A lively history of the mathematical concept of infinity, through the ages, including the story of one scholar whom the study of infinity drove mad.

"Performing with his customary fluency and accessibility, Barrow imparts for general readers a feeling for the nub of thought about the mathematical, cosmic, ethical, and theological implications." – Booklist

The Constants of Nature: From Alpha to Omega – the Numbers That Encode the Deepest Secrets of the Universe ($26, Pantheon)

"A brief history of modern physics . . . a thoughtful survey of recent theory" – The Economist

CHRISTOPHER BAYLY & TIM HARPER
(Faculty of History, St. Catharine's and Faculty of History, Magdalene respectively)

Forgotten Wars: Freedom and Revolution in Southeast Asia ($35, Belknap Press). Bayly is Vere Harnsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History and a Professorial Fellow of St. Catharine’s. Harper is Senior Lecturer in History and a Fellow of Magdalene.

“An extremely well-researched, well-written book whose analysis and judgments command respect.... Their handling of the mass of material is superb and their narrative gripping. No one with connections to the region will want to miss this book.” – The Financial Times

"A work at once scholarly and panoramic.... Bayly and Harper's account is both vivid and authoritative. One of their great contributions lies in their stinging appraisal of the debacle [of the fall of Malaya and Singapore]....but Bayly and Harper, though plainly unsympathetic to Britain's imperialism, make clear that Japan's was incomparably worse." - The New York Times

MARY BEARD
(Faculty of Classics, Newnham) 

The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found ($26.95, Belknap Press, December 2008). A Financial Times “Favourite Book” of 2008. A New York Times Notable Book of 2009.

“In a grand synthesis, one of our most distinguished classicists relates all that we know-and don't know-about ancient Pompeii, devastated by a flood of lava and volcanic ash from Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79. Beard splendidly recreates the life and times of Pompeii in a work that is part archeology and part history.... She examines the full scope of life, from houses, occupations, government, food and wine to sex, and the baths, recreation and religion...Beard's tour de force takes the study of ancient history to a new level.” - Publishers Weekly

ANNA R. BEER

Milton: Poet, Pamphleteer, and Patriot ($34.99, Bloomsbury Press, August 2008)

“[A] loving tribute, a portrait of the poet in all his humanity.... Elegantly chronicles Milton's life from his precocious childhood (he read Greek and Latin when he was five) to his embattled support of Cromwell and his mature religious and political writings.” – Publishers Weekly

“Beer takes us on an educative and often inspiring journey through Milton's life and major works.... A well-researched, graceful account of the life of a literary giant.” – Kirkus Reviews

DUNCAN BELL
(Centre of International Studies, Christ’s)

The Idea of Greater Britain: Empire and the Future of World Order, 1860-1900 ($45, Princeton Univ. Press, August 2007). Joint winner of the 2008 Whitfield Book Prize (awarded annually to a scholar for his or her first book on a subject within the field of British history). Dr. Bell is Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Cambridge’s Center of International Studies and a Fellow of Christ’s.

“Historians of Britain's empire have increasingly revived such notions as 'Greater Britain' or 'the British World.' Some, like Niall Ferguson and Andrew Roberts, have used such terms as launch pads for absurdly ahistorical hymns to the unique virtues of the English-speaking peoples. Bell's book, as a serious investigation of how that language was developed in the Victorian era, is a quietly powerful corrective.” – The Independent

JAGDISH BHAGWATI
(St. John's 1954) 

In Defense of Globalization ($16.95, Oxford University Press).  The author is the Arthur Lehman Professor of Economics and professor of political science at Columbia University.

"An outstandingly effective book...the standard general-interest reference, the intelligent layman's handbook, on global economic integration." - The Economist

TAMI DAVIS BIDDLE
(St. John's 1981) 

Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare: The Evolution of British and American Ideas about Strategic Bombing, 1914-1945 ($27.95, Princeton University Press)

"Well written, full of nuance and detail, and solidly researched.  Biddle, Assistant Professor of History at Duke University, has done a thorough job of cutting through the thicket of contradictions and fantasies that surround the strategic bombing debate from 1914 to 1945." - Journal of Military History

TIM BLANNING
(Fellow, Sidney Sussex; Faculty of History)

The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648–1815 ($20, Penguin). From Westphalia to Waterloo.

“Splendid...a wonderful achievement.... A miracle of balancing and blending traditional political and diplomatic accounts with the newer fields of social, economic and intellectual history.” – Publishers Weekly

“Magisterial...very readable.” - Financial Times

HAROLD BLOOM
(Pembroke 1954)

Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Creative and Exemplary Minds ($19.95, Grand Central). A New York Times Notable Book, 2002.

"Although the book is a delight to read, its real value lies in the author's ability to provoke the reader into thinking about literature, genius, and related topics. No similar work discusses literary genius in this way or covers this many writers.” - Library Journal

JANE BOLGATZ
(Robinson 1985)

Talking Race in the Classroom ($21.95, Teachers College Press). Helps new and veteran teachers develop the knowledge, skills, and confidence needed to successfully address racial controversies in their classrooms. The author, a former high-school teacher, is an assistant professor at Fordham University's Graduate School of Education.

"This book offers practical strategies, ideas, and activities for teaching and learning about race and racism and, therefore, is highly recommended to all of us who teach in an increasingly multicultural America." - Teaching Theology and Religion

MALCOLM BOWIE
(Cambridge Professor and former Master, Christ's College)

Proust Among the Stars ($24, Columbia University Press)

"The best general study of Proust's 3,000-page work." - Times Literary Supplement

"Bowie can say more in three sentences than many a scholar in a belabored chapter.... This is critisicm motivated by intellectual joy, creatively sustained by felicities of expression." - Los Angeles Times

JAMES BOWMAN
(Pembroke)

Honor: A History ($25.95, Encounter Books)

“A brilliantly astringent accounting for the disappearance of honor as a normative standard of conduct in American society.” – Josiah Bunting III in The Wall Street Journal

PIERS BRENDON
(Churchill, Magdalene)

[new!] The Decline and Fall of the British Empire 1781-1997 ($20, Vintage, February 2010).  The author, a graduate of Magdalene College, Cambridge, is the former Keeper of the Churchill Archives Centre and a Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge.

"Starting with Cornwallis's surrender to Washington, Brendon moves from one continent to another, drawing on sources from official archives to Victorian memoirs.  The narrative is necessarily complex but always well informed, and entertaining digressions enliven the story." - The Sunday New York Times Book Review

MARTIN BROOKES

Extreme Measures: The Dark Vision and Bright Ideas of Francis Galton ($24.95, Bloomsbury). Galton (Trinity College), was the father of eugenics, the science, or pseudo-science, of "improving" the human race by selective breeding.

"This eccentric Victorian snob is one of the greatest forgotten scientists.... Brookes explores the mind of this polymath, illuminating how one man could both innovate modern genetics' most useful tools and completely misinterpret the results. Galton deserves his moment in the sun, and Brookes, with his respect for Galton's achievements and condemnation for his conclusions, is the right biographer to explain this controversial man.”—Publishers Weekly

“A clear-eyed look at a fascinating man who left an unmistakable-if mixed-stamp upon the world we live in.” – Kirkus Reviews

JANET BROWNE

Charles Darwin: The Power of Place Volume II of a Biography ($24.95, paperback, Princeton University Press). A New York Times Notable Book, 2002 and winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for biography. The first volume, Voyaging, is available in paperback ($24.95, Princeton University Press).

"When Browne published her first volume on the life of Darwin, she secured her reputation as the last word on the Victorian naturalist. Now she has published the much-anticipated second half, and it is more spellbinding than the first.... Her prose is elegant in its clarity of thought, her craftsmanship impeccable in the way it weaves a coherent whole from the innumerable threads of thought, experience and persona that comprised this colossal life.” – Publishers Weekly

“A richly detailed, vivid, and definitive portrait with not a word wasted: the best life of Charles Darwin in the modern literature.” – Kirkus Reviews

New Ideas from Dead CEOs: Lasting Lessons from the Corner Office (Collins, $26.95).  Buchholz is a commentator on public radio's "Marketplace Morning Edition."

Lives and lessons of innovative CEOs, from a former Harvard teacher, hedge-fund manager, and Broadway producer, author of New Ideas from Dead Economists (Plume, paperback, $16), which Library Journal called “an effective and entertaining introduction to economists and their ideas."

“Buchholz, with compelling and fast-reading narratives, drills to the core of each personality—and his or her business.” – Booklist  

BILL BUFORD
(King's)

Heat: An Amateur’s Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany ($14.95, Vintage).  A New York Times Notable Book, 2006.

“Terrific culinary writing...a wonderfully detailed and highly amusing book from the writer who once took an insider’s look at English soccer hooligans in Among the Thugs.” – Publishers Weekly

“A remarkable journey.” – New York Times Book Review

Listen to a radio interview with author Bill Buford (26 minutes).

FREDERICK BURKHARDT
(Clare Hall)

Editor, Charles Darwin: The Beagle Letters ($32, Cambridge University Press, October 2008)

Trying Leviathan: The Nineteenth-Century New York Court Case That Put the Whale on Trial and Challenged the Order of Nature ($29.95, Princeton University Press). The author, an associate professor of history at Princeton, earned an MPhil and PhD at Cambridge as a Marshall Scholar.

“It's science itself that was put on trial in 1818 in a dispute over a $75 inspection fee, as related in this fascinating account...Burnett's look at the trial and its fallout adds a historical dimension to debates caused by science's role in the legal sphere.” – Publishers Weekly

"Burnett describes the trial with the keen eye of an informed courtroom observer." – The Village Voice

“Riveting, one of those wonderful obscure microcosmic matters.” – The New York Times

“An unexpected page-turner.” – Nature

JANET BURROWAY
(Newnham 1958)

[new!] Bridge of Sand (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, March 2009)

“Burroway, the author of Writing Fiction, among the most widely used creative writing texts in the country, crafts memorable characters while challenging readers' assumptions about race, love, and family.”  - Library Journal

“It’s those ‘other hassles’[besides race] — family obligations, romantic love and self-fulfillment — that come through most convincingly, and memorably, in Burroway’s clever and compassionate prose.” – The New York Times

Embalming Mom: Essays in Life ($14.95, University of Iowa Press). Includes an essay on Sylvia Plath.  The author teaches English at Florida State University.

"Alternatively clever, humorous, lively, sad, and charming." - Library Journal

"[A] pithy essayist with an inner compass that steers her to the ambiguity at the heart of the human condition...she celebrates all the vicissitudes of womanhood with pride and drollery." - Booklist

 A.S. BYATT
(Newnham)

[new!] The Children's Book ($26.95, Knopf, October 2009). A Financial Times “Book of the Year” for 2009

"Brilliant...multilayered...bristling with life and invention.... A seductive book by an extraordinarily gifted writer.... All [the] characters connect in a tangled web, often erotic and frequently just this side of madness.... That Byatt marries this novel of ideas with such compelling characters testifies to her remarkable spinning energy.” - The Washington Post

"A tour de force.... In a dumbed-down world, what a pleasure it is to dive into the allusive, uncompromisingly erudite novels of A. S. Byatt.  In the end, The Children's Book brings to vivid life the often irreconcilable demands of being an artist and being a human being." – The Wall Street Journal

Little Black Book of Stories ($12.95, Vintage Paperback)

“With an accomplished balance of quotidian detail and eloquent flights of imagination, Byatt has crafted a powerful new collection.” – Publishers Weekly

“Byatt's stories are provoking and alarming, richly yet tautly rendered.... [She] has the sheer narrative skill to raise the hairs on the back of your neck and make your pulse race.” –The New York Times Book Review

The Blair Years: The Alastair Campbell Diaries ($35, Knopf). Campbell was Tony Blair’s Director of Communications from 1994 to 2003.

“Being at Blair's side...gives Campbell a priceless opportunity to see in action the great political figures of his time.... [A] a behind-the-scenes look at dramatic junctures in recent history.... [A] classic text of the you-are-there school of politics at work.... one of the most compelling reads of history in the raw.” - Los Angeles Times

PAUL CARTLEDGE
(Clare, Faculty of Classics)

[new!] Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities ($19.95, Oxford Univ. Press, November 2009)

"Cartledge, professor of Greek culture at the University of Cambridge, has created an intriguing overview of Greek history by providing synopses of 11 key city-states, each representing a different facet of Greek life and culture." -Publishers Weekly

Thermopylae: The Battle That Changed the World ($30, Overlook)

“A masterful account of the causes, preparations for and consequences of the three-day battle in 480 BC that claimed the lives of all 300 Spartan defenders of the eponymous pass and those of perhaps as many as 20,000 Persian invaders... A class in Western Civilization that both instructs and entertains.” - Kirkus Review

"Cartledge's knack for bringing history to life makes for an absorbing new biography of the legendary Greek leader." – Publishers Weekly

HELEN CASTOR
(Fellow in History, Sidney Sussex)

Blood and Roses: One Family’s Struggle and Triumph During England’s Tumultuous Wars of the Roses ($25.95, HarperCollins). Dr. Castor tells a tale, drawn from over a thousand documents that survived from the 14th century, of ordinary lives touched by dramatic events.

"Castor has brought the Paston family to life in an accessible and fluid narrative." - Library Journal

"Beautifully paced and splendidly retold, Castor’s tale... is popular history at its best." - Publishers Weekly

"A master of every weapon in the modern historian’s arsenal... Castor has made the whole century live again, in complex, sometimes comic, often touching style."- New York Times Book Review

BRIAN CATHCART

The Fly in the Cathedral: How a Group of Cambridge Scientists Won the International Race to Split the Atom ($25, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux). The story of John Cockroft (St. John's) and Ernest Walton (Trinity) splitting an atom of lithium at the Cavendish Lab in 1932, and winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1951.

"A superb account of the genesis of nuclear physics" – Publishers Weekly

Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism ($26.95, Bloomsbury USA)

“[R]epudiates some the theories championed by Thomas Friedman and other free marketers. Chang shows how South Korea, the country of his birth, managed to prosper by going against many of the economic prescriptions that ‘bad Samaritan’ rich countries demand in return for aid, such as rapid, large-scale trade liberalization.”—Bloomberg.com 

Peasant Pasts: History and Memory in Western India ($21.95, U. of California Press). The author is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine.

“ [A] significant contribution to a recovery of memories and voices of Indian peasants that do not find adequate expression in the traditional mode of history writing.”—The Hindu, Delhi

MICHAEL CHAUVIN
(Wolfson)

Hokuloa: The British 1874 Transit of Venus Expedition to Hawai'i ($26.95, Bishop Museum Press, Honolulu).  The author earned an MPhil in History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge in 1988.

"A fascinating examination of Britain and Hawai'i's connection in astronomical history."  

RON CHERNOW
(Pembroke 1970)

Alexander Hamilton ($35, Penguin Press).  Selected by The Economist as a "Book of the Year" in 2004.

"Moving and masterly...by far the best biography ever written about the man." - New York Times Book Review

CHRISTOPHER CLARK
(Fellow, St. Catharine’s; Faculty of History)

Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 ($35, Belknap). The author is a senior lecturer in modern European history at Cambridge and co-second-prizewinner, 2006 Wolfson History Prizes.

“Stately, authoritative...an exemplary job...a lively writer. Gently but insistently exposes the flaws in most of the received wisdom about his subject.... An illuminating, profoundly satisfying work of history, brightened by vivid character sketches of the principals in his drama.” - The New York Times

A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World ($29.95, Princeton University Press). The author is Chair of the Economics Department at the University of California, Davis.

“Brilliant.... Mr. Clark writes with disarming wit.... [A]ny book that is as bold, as fascinating, as conscientiously argued and as politically incorrect as this one demands to be read.... [F]ully as absorbing, as memorable and as well written as Mr. [Jared] Diamond’s remarkable bestseller [Guns, Germs, and Steel] deserves to be widely read.”—The Financial Times

PETER CLARKE
(Faculty of History; Trinity Hall)

[new!] Keynes: The Rise, Fall, and Return of the 20th Century’s Most Influential Economist ($20, Bloomsbury Press, October 2009). The author was Professor of Modern British History from 1991 to 2004 at Cambridge and Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, from 2000 to 2004. 

“...[B]rings the suave iconoclast to life in a succinct and balanced account.... Keynes in these pages proves a protean figure - a man with a taste for mischief-making and a willingness to change his mind, again and again.” – Bloomberg News 

JONATHAN CLEMENTS
(Emmanuel)

Funding Your Future: The Only Guide to Mutual Funds You’ll Ever Need (Grand Central, paperback, $11). The author wrote a weekly column about personal finance in The Wall Street Journal. He is also the author of 25 Myths You’ve Got to Avoid, If You Want to Manage Your Money Right: The New Rules for Financial Success (Fireside, paperback, $15.95).

TIM CLISSOLD
(Jesus)

Mr. China: A Memoir ($24.95, Harper Business)

"Lots of Western businessmen have China war stories, but only Tim Clissold has written this funny book." – Newsweek

"A wonderful read." – The Economist

 JONATHAN COE
(Trinity)

The Rain Before It Falls ($23.95, Knopf, March 2008)

“Coe articulates a fierce, emotional current whose sweep catches the reader and doesn't let go until the very end.” – Publishers Weekly

  “Jonathan Coe is a brilliant English novelist who isn't as well known here as he should be. If you've read his early work, you've discovered his manic inventiveness….A mordant political observer, Coe has written of the Thatcher and Blair years in The Rotters' Club and The Closed Circle; these are novels of panoramic sympathy as well as rude energy and satiric bite.  The Rain Before It Falls is different from all its predecessors….For the admiring reader, the question may be whether The Rain Before It Falls is a diversion for Jonathan Coe, or whether it quietly announces a new direction.” – The Washington Post

“Precise and considered, restrained but unblinking…[Coe’s] tensest and most affecting work.” —The Boston Globe

RICHARD COHEN
(Magdalene 1965)

By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions ($16, Modern Library)

“Cohen's enthusiastic history of the sword and of swordplay captures the adventure, romance, danger and intrigue that the weapon has represented throughout world history. The narrative contains superheroes, villains, underdogs, spies, alchemists, movie stars and champions.... For those with even a casual interest in fencing, Cohen's work will be a delightful read; he brings the daunting breadth of the history of the sword within easy reach of the curious.” – Publishers Weekly

The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History (Pantheon, $27.50). Biography of a globetrotting 18th-century travel writer. The author is a professor of history at Princeton.

“A dazzling performance of historical scholarship.... Brings the 18th century to life through the experiences of one remarkable woman.... A world in a book.... One of the 10 Best Books of 2007.” – The New York Times Book Review

SIR LEYCESTER COLTMAN
(Magdalene 1958)

The Real Fidel Castro (Yale University Press, $20).  Coltman was British Ambassador to Cuba from 1991 to 1994.

"A remarkably evenhanded and illuminating biography." – Booklist

ALISTAIR COOKE
(Jesus)

The American Home Front, 1941-42 ($24, Atlantic Monthly Press)

“Soon after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, Alistair Cooke, a reporter for the BBC, took to the road… crisscrossing the American continent from east to west and north to south …. In addition to being a broadcaster, Mr. Cooke was a print reporter, and a superb one, with a sharp, skeptical eye and a stylish pen. Both are on brilliant display here.” – The New York Times

JOHN CORNWELL
(Jesus; History & Philosophy of Science)

The Pontiff in Winter: Triumph and Conflict in the Reign of John Paul II ($24.95, Doubleday)

"Cornwell...dissects the record of John Paul II's pontificate with an informed, dispassionate and fully convincing authority." - The Washington Post 

ROGER CROWLEY
(Emmanuel)

Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World ($30, Random House, July 2008). Crowley is the author of 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West (2005). An Economist magazine "Book of the Year" for 2008.

“Masterfully synthesizing primary and secondary sources, he vividly reconstructs the great battles, Malta and Lepanto…and introduces the larger-than-life personalities that dominated council chambers and fields of battle.... Crowley recreates the fighting and the brutality in page-turning prose that never sacrifices accuracy for color.” – Publishers Weekly

MARCUS DANIEL
(Pembroke)

Scandal and Civility: Journalism and the Birth of American Democracy ($28.00, Oxford Univ. Press, December 2008).

The author, associate professor of American history at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, profiles “those whom he calls ‘the other founding fathers’-- the nervy newspaper editors who helped give the new nation its political character, for better or worse…..[H]e affirms their important place in the turbulent politics of the 1790s.”
- Columbia Journalism Review 

MIKE DASH
(Peterhouse)

[new!] The First Family: Terror, Extortion, Revenge, Murder, and the Birth of the American Mafia  ($27, Random House, August 2009).

"Decades before the Five Families emerged and more than half a century before Mario Puzo wrote The Godfather, Giuseppe Morello and his family controlled all manner of crime in New York City. Bestselling historian Dash presents an enthralling account of this little-known ‘boss of bosses'.... Dash depicts the balance between loyalty and betrayal as an ever-changing dance and nimbly catalogues the endless gruesome murders committed in the name of revenge and honor. Readers may think they know the mob, but Morello's ruthless rule makes even the fictional Tony Soprano look tame." - Publishers Weekly

"New Yorkers had heard about the Mafia before 1892, but Mike Dash makes a convincing case...that the modern notion of Italian organized crime was rooted in Giuseppe Morello's surreptitious arrival in the city that year from Sicily." - The New York Times

Satan’s Circus: Murder, Vice, Police Corruption, and New York’s Trial of the Century (Crown, $24.95).  True story of the only U.S. police officer to be sentenced to death.

“Engrossing, well-researched history … immerses readers in the corrupt hurly-burly that was old New York.” – Publishers Weekly

“In his chronicle of the crime, the trial, and the city, Dash paints an irresistible tableau that both fascinates and repels. This is a juicy but ultimately tragic tale that effectively captures a bygone era of a great city.” – Booklist

CHRISTOPHER DE HAMEL
(Donnelley Fellow Librarian of Corpus Christi College)

The Book: A History of the Bible ($27.97, Phaidon Press Inc.)

"In the 'unadulterated wow' category...a dazzling offering...by paleographist Christopher de Hamel, who served for a quarter century as the head of the Western Manuscripts department at Sotheby's in London." - Publishers Weekly

JARED DIAMOND
(Trinity)

Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail Or Succeed ($29.95, Viking). UCLA professor of geography, author of the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond examines the causes (both political and environmental) for the collapse of some of history's greatest civilizations, and what lessons those failures offer for the present day. A New York Times Notable Book, 2005.

"A complex historical web of how human communities either master their environments or become victims of them....He takes a lifetime of research and, in normal English (free of academic jargon), leads the reader painstakingly where the media and intellectual journals have often refused to go." – Washington Post

JULIAN DOWDESWELL
(Scott Polar Research Institute, Department of Geography)

By Julian Dowdeswell and Michael Hambrey

Islands of the Arctic ($38, Cambridge University Press)

"Islands of the Arctic is a beautifully illustrated and nicely written account of the varied island environments of the polar north....  Islands of the Arctic should be part of the required reading for all those interested in understanding the environmental and cultural threats facing the Arctic." - The Times Higher Education Supplement

"This is indeed a beautiful book, and worth buying for the illustrations alone...It is also informative, spanning a broad range of topics to give a comprehensive view of the environment and history of these fascinating islands." - Bulletin of the American Meterological Society

SUZANNE DOYLE-MORRIS
(Lucy Cavendish)

[new!] Beyond the Boys' Club: Achieving Career Success as a Woman Working in a Male Dominated Field ($22.99, Wit & Wisdom Press, June 2009). The author, a Washington-DC native, is a UK-based executive coach and specialist in helping companies retain and develop their female talent. She earned her Cambridge MPhil and PhD at Lucy Cavendish. 

JOHN S. DUFFIELD
(Trinity)

Over a Barrel: The Costs of U.S. Foreign Oil Dependence (Stanford University Press, $27.95, November 2007). The author, a professor of political science at Georgia State University, earned a B.A. at Cambridge as a Keasbey Scholar.

“Most in the U.S. would agree that American dependence on foreign oil, especially from countries hostile to the U.S. government, is an undesirable situation. Duffield…focuses on documenting the problems with this dependence and how to fix them.... Although Duffield is dubious about American intervention overseas, he does endorse American hegemony as a route to changing oil-related attitudes and policies worldwide.” – Publishers Weekly

"This timely volume is a valuable addition to the literature on world oil markets and particularly on the important issue of U.S. dependence on foreign oil and how the country should deal with it." - Choice

EAMON DUFFY
(Divinity, Magdalene)

Marking the Hours: English People and Their Prayers, 1240-1570 ($35, Yale)

“Enchanting and engaging...beguiling and authoritative...probably the most intimate glimpse possible into medieval social history....  His exploration of apparently new-found territory sweeps the reader onward in an excited journey of inquiry.” – Christopher de Hamel (Corpus Christi) in The New York Review of Books

SARAH DUNANT
(Newnham 1969)

[new!] Sacred Hearts: A Novel ($25, Random House, July 2009)

Sarah Dunant, who earned her BA in history at Cambridge, is the author of the international bestsellers The Birth of Venus (2004) and In the Company of the Courtesan (2007). Her earlier novels include three Hannah Wolfe crime thrillers, as well as Snowstorms in a Hot Climate, Transgressions, and Mapping the Edge.

“A cast of complex characters breathe new life into the classic star-crossed lovers trope while affording readers a look at a facet of Renaissance life beyond the far more common viscounts and courtesans. Dunant's an accomplished storyteller, and this is a rich and rewarding novel.” – Publishers Weekly

In the Company of the Courtesan: A Novel ($23.95, Random House)

“Lush and intellectually gripping.... This is a beautifully written and captivating work.” – Booklist

The Birth of Venus ($21.95, Random House). A novel of 15th-century Florence.

"Well-nigh impeccable." - Financial Times

“The author has a genius for peppering her narrative with little-known facts, and the deadpan dialogue lends a staccato verve to the swift-moving plot. Forget Baedeker and Vasari's Lives of the Artists. Dunant's vivid, gripping novel gives fresh life to a captivating age of glorious art and political turmoil.” – Publishers Weekly

“A beautifully written and captivating work.” – Booklist

FUCHSIA DUNLOP
(Magdalene)

Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China ($24.95, W. W. Norton & Company, April 2008)

“[B]oth an insightful, entertaining, scrupulously reported exploration of China’s foodways and a swashbuckling memoir studded with recipes.... [W]hat makes it a distinguished contribution to the literature of gastronomy is its demonstration, through one person’s intense experience, that food is not a mere reflection of culture but a potent shaper of cultural identity.” - The Sunday New York Times Book Review

TERRY EAGLETON
(Trinity 1961)

The Gatekeeper: A Memoir ($19.95, St. Martin's Press). The coming-of-age of an acclaimed, prolific writer and Marxist scholar at Cambridge.

"[A] hilarious, devastating little book...from one of Britain's most unapologetic old New Left thinkers...a hymn to the enduring power and pleasure of intellectual thought." – The New York Times Book Review

DAVID EDMONDS & JOHN EIDINOW

Wittgenstein's Poker: The Story of a Ten-Minute Argument Between Two Great Philosophers ($13.95,Harper Perennial). A New York Times Notable Book, 2002.

“In October 1946, philosopher Karl Popper arrived at Cambridge to lecture at a seminar hosted by his legendary colleague Ludwig Wittgenstein. It did not go well: the men began arguing, and eventually, Wittgenstein began waving a fire poker toward Popper. It lasted scarcely 10 minutes, yet the debate has turned into perhaps modern philosophy's most contentious encounter, largely because none of the eyewitnesses could agree on what happened.... Tightly constructed and extraordinarily well written, this is a marvelous blend of lay and academic scholarship. It has every chance of becoming a classic of its kind.” – Publishers Weekly

“What actually happened in this now-legendary clash, and how it reflects the development of philosophy and the times, is what Edmonds and Eidinow set out to discover.... [They] bring rich interpretation to the extraordinary incident.” – Booklist

JENNIFER EGAN
(St. John's)

The Keep ($23.95, Knopf). Egan, author of The Invisible Circus (1994) and Look at Me (2001), lives in Brooklyn, New York.  A New York Times Notable Book, 2006.

“Atmospheric and tense, this is a mesmerizing story.” – Booklist

“A work both prodigiously entertaining and profoundly moving.” – The New York Times Book Review

“The novel luxuriates in Wilkie Collins-style atmospherics.” – The New Yorker

MOHAMED EL-ERIAN
(Queens')

When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change ($27.95, McGraw-Hill, May 2008). Winner of the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. The author is co-CEO of the investment-management company PIMCO, and has also served as CEO of the firm that manages Harvard University’s $35 billion endowment. A Financial Times "Favourite Book" of 2008. An Economist magazine "Book of the Year" for 2008.

"Few people are as well positioned to understand markets as Mohamed El-Erian. He is almost unique in being able to attack the credit crisis from the perspectives of academic economist, policy official, investment banker and fund manager...Mr. El-Erian's insights are as valuable as ever." - Financial Times

RICHARD J. EVANS
(Faculty of History; Gonville & Caius)

[new!] The Third Reich at War ($40, Penguin Press, May 2009). The author has been named Regius Professor at Cambridge.  This is the final volume of a trilogy on the history of Nazi Germany.  A New York Times Notable Book of 2009.

Final volume of an acclaimed trilogy on the history of Nazi Germany, by Cambridge’s newly named Regius Professor of History.  “[M]ay well be not only the finest but also the most riveting account of that period….The story of Germany between its invasion of Poland in 1939 and its collapse in 1945 is a complex one. Its details have been reported in thousands of publications. In this book – the last in a magisterial trilogy covering the entire history of the Third Reich – Evans…brilliantly weaves together the diverse strands of the monumental evil at the heart of that story.” – The Sunday New York Times Book Review

“Masterful….Evans demonstrates a fluent style and a sweeping grasp of the Third Reich’s history and of the enormous historical literature….Evans narrates the Reich’s end in gripping fashion as the Allies closed in on Germany. Evans’s fellow historians as well as a broader public will read this work, not quite with pleasure, for there is little joy in this story, but with admiration for the author’s narrative powers.”―Publisher’s Weekly

The Coming of the Third Reich ($18, Penguin). The first in a three-volume history of Nazi Germany, from Cambridge’s Regius Professor of Modern History.

“Well-written and accessible.... Evans has accomplished his goal of writing a readable account of the origins of the Third Reich from the unification of Germany in 1871 to the establishment of the Nazi regime in 1933.” – The Washington Post

The Third Reich in Power ($20, Penguin)

"[A] major achievement.  No other recent synthetic history has quite the range and narrative power of Evans's work.” — Publishers Weekly

“A model of clarity and intelligence...Mr. Evans’s magisterial study should be on our shelves for a long time to come.” — The Economist

“[Evans’s] three-volume history...is shaping up to be a masterpiece. Fluidly narrated, tightly organized and comprehensive.” — The New York Times

PATRICIA FARA
(History and Philosophy of Science; Clare)

[new!] Science: A Four Thousand Year History ($34.95, Oxford Univ. Press, April 2009). The author is Senior Tutor at Clare.

"A true introduction.... [Fara] synthesizes an impressive amount of scholarship without overwhelming the reader with the usual scholarly apparatus. The book is unique for including non-Western sources, something that few books about the history of science for the nonspecialist do." - Library Journal

"Wide-ranging and provocative.... Ms Fara argues that there is no unique path to universal truth. Rather science progresses in fits and starts, with many avenues terminating as blind alleys." - The Economist

 Click here to view a short video with Patricia Fara.

Newton: The Making of Genius ($29.95, Columbia University Press)

"A scholarly but accessible social history." - Publishers Weekly

GRAHAM FARMELO

[new!] The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom ($29.95, Basic Books, August 2009). Paul Dirac (1902-1984) came to St. John's College, Cambridge, to do research in 1923 and spent most of his career there; he was Lucasian Professor of Mathematics from 1932 to 1969 when he moved to Florida.  He shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1933. A New York Times Notable Book of 2009.

“[B]oth wonderfully written…and a thought-provoking meditation on human achievement, limitations and the relations between the two…the most satisfying and memorable biography I have read in years.”—Louisa Gilder in the New York Times Sunday Book Review. 

"Farmelo proves himself a wizard at explaining the arcane aspects of particle physics. His great affection for his odd but brilliant subject shows on every page, giving Dirac the biography any great scientist deserves." - Publishers Weekly

"Paul Dirac was a giant of 20th-century physics, and this rich, satisfying biography does him justice.... [A] nuanced portrayal of an introverted eccentric who held his own in a small clique of revolutionary scientific geniuses." - Kirkus Reviews

SEBASTIAN FAULKS
(Emmanuel)

Devil May Care ($24.95, Doubleday, May 2008)

“Undaunted by the task of stepping into Ian Fleming’s shoes, Faulks [Birdsong, Charlotte Gray, Engleby] produced a fun follow-up to the James Bond novels a century after 007’s original creator was born.” – The Financial Times, which names it a “Favourite Book” for 2008.

Engleby (Doubleday, $24.95). From the author of Birdsong and Charlotte Gray, the Cambridge-educated protagonist of this new novel is a “pub-crawling, aesthetically sensitive sociopath.” – The New York Times Book Review

“Brilliant...seems like a page torn from Camus.... With artistry and skill, [Faulks] turns a would-be murder mystery into a meditation on consciousness.” – Washington Post Book World

JULIAN FELLOWES
(Magdalene)

[new!] Past Imperfect ($24.99, St. Martin's Press, September 2009).  Second novel from the Oscar-winning Gosford Park screenplay author.  

"Deservedly compared to Tom Wolfe, Fellowes, with his ability to document the aristocracy with a sociologist's eye, fashions intriguing narratives." - Publisher's Weekly

"Past Imperfect shows Mr. Fellowes's satirical talents to be undiminished....He offers a narrative crowded with incident and memorable ­characters." - The Wall Street Journal

Snobs ($13.95, St. Martin's)

"A merciless and hilarious sendup of snobbery and social jealousy, revealing the pettiness and self-absorption of both the envious and the envied." – Publishers Weekly

RICHARD FORTEY
(King's)

Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum ($27.50, Knopf, August 2008)

“Having spent his entire career as a paleontologist at London's Natural History Museum, Fortey is well positioned to explore all aspects of the institution.... Fortey offers a beautiful paean to the collections and articulately makes the case that museums are much more than mere spectacles to entertain and educate the public.” - Publishers Weekly

Earth: An Intimate History ($30, Knopf). The author of this geological history of the Earth is a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London.  Selected by The Economist as a "Book of the Year 2004".

"Mr. Fortey makes rocks almost come alive." - The New York Times

GERALD FRANK
(Trinity Hall 1946)

Gerry Frank's Where To Buy It, Find It, Eat It In New York, 2008-2009, 15th Edition ($19.95, Gerry's Frankly Speaking, September 2007). Since 1981, the best-selling comprehensive guide to New York City. A fourth-generation Oregonian, Frank earned bachelor's and master's degrees at Cambridge, returned to his family's retail business, and later served as chief of staff to US Senator Mark Hatfield.

MICHAEL FRAYN
(Emmanuel)

The Human Touch: Our Part in the Creation of a Universe ($14, Picador USA, January 2008)

“British playwright and novelist Frayn has nursed a serious interest in philosophy since studying it at Cambridge in the 1950s.... This bold, original spin on the role of the human imagination in the construction of reality reflects the same robust intellectual curiosity, keen powers of observation and ingenious sense of humor that characterize all his work.” – Publishers Weekly 

Spies ($14, Picador).  A New York Times Notable Book, 2002: "...the 10th novel by this master of the intellectual mystery."

“[T]his dark, nostalgic and bittersweet parable evokes the childhood escapades of an isolated and hapless young boy caught up in the uncertainties of wartime London in the early 1940s.... As it plays out to a surprising denouement, this enigmatic melodrama will keep readers' attention firmly in hand.... [T]hose who appreciate Frayn for the rigorous intelligence of his fiction will find him in fine form here.” – Publishers Weekly

JILL FREDSTON
(Darwin 1982)

Snowstruck: In the Grip of Avalanches ($24, Harcourt). Author of the acclaimed Rowing to Latitude: Journeys Along the Arctic's Edge, Alaska-based avalanche expert Fredston earned an MA in Polar Studies at Cambridge.

"Like a true scientist, Fredston loves her subject, finding it beautiful even in its most menacing and heartbreaking moments. Also a fine writer, she ably imparts her passion." – The New York Times

BENJAMIN FRIEDMAN
(King's 1966)

The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth ($35, Knopf). The author is the William Joseph Mayer Professor of Economics at Harvard.

"An impressive work: commanding, insistent, and meticulously researched." – The New York Times

"Thorough, historically detailed, accessible." – The Economist

Frost/Nixon, Behind the Scenes of the Nixon Interviews ($14.95, Harper Perennial). With Bob Zelnick.

Basis for the Tony Award-winning Broadway play, the inside story of how Frost pursued and secured the landmark Nixon interviews, one of the most dramatic television events ever broadcast.

STEPHEN FRY
(Queens')

The Ode Less Travelled: Unblocking the Poet Within ($25, Gotham)

Novelist and comedian Fry’s how-to for reading and writing poetry “is at once idiosyncratic and thoroughly traditional…yet still manages to be a smart, comprehensive guide to prosody.” – The New York Times Sunday Book Review

[new!] The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too ($15, Free Press, May 2009). The author, who was a Marshall Scholar at Cambridge, teaches at the University of Texas - Austin.

"Galbraith, noted economist and son of the late economist John Kenneth Galbraith, offers his views on the gap between conservative ideology and its use and abuse to cover up the George W. Bush administration's ‘Predator State,' which took advantage of the public sector and undermined public institutions for private profit....Not everyone will agree with Galbraith's progressive beliefs, but he offers an important perspective in this thought-provoking book written in plain English." - Booklist

PETER GALISON
(Churchill 1977)

Einstein's Clocks, Poincaré's Maps: Empires of Time ($23.95, Norton).  A New York Times Notable Book, 2003. The author, a professor at Harvard, was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1997.

"[P]art history, part science, part adventure, part biography, part meditation on the meaning of modernity.... In Galison's telling of science, the meters and wires and epoxy and solder come alive as characters, along with physicists, engineers, technicians and others.... Galison has unearthed fascinating material" – The New York Times

“Few books have ever made Einstein's work more accessible—or more engrossing—for general readers.” – Booklist

“Galison provides a unique and enlightening view on the origin of time as we know it in the modern age. - American Scientist

City of Laughter: Sex and Satire in Eighteenth-Century London (Walker, $45). The author is co-second-prizewinner, 2006 Wolfson History Prizes.

“Gatrell vividly demonstrates the maliciousness and ribaldry of Georgian London. What made Londoners laugh was less the polished wit of the literary salon than a combination of drunken frat-boy–style jokes, toilet humor and nasty political satire.” – Publishers Weekly

GILLIAN GILL
(New Hall/Murray Edwards)

[new!] We Two ($35, Ballantine, May 2009) The author has taught at Wellesley, Yale, and Harvard, and has written biographies of Florence Nightingale, Mary Baker Eddy, and Agatha Christie.  Here she chronicles the lives and marriage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (Chancellor of Cambridge University from 1847 until his death in 1861). 

“Ms. Gill's portrait of the marriage is a rounded one, sparkling with perception and insight….a valuable portrait of two remarkable people.” – The Wall Street Journal 

JAMES GLEICK

Isaac Newton ($22.95, Pantheon).  A New York Times Notable Book, 2003.

"Now the biography of choice for the interested layman." – The New York Times

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun ( Little, Brown, $24.99). Memoir and reportage about life in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe.

“A powerful narrative of grief and desperation, both personal and national.” – The New Yorker

“Hauntingly and beautifully written…a powerful and deeply affecting book.” – The New York Times

Jerusalem: City of Longing ($27.95, Harvard Univ. Press, May 2008)

“[A]n illuminating archeological, architectural and historical guide to Jerusalem's most important holy and secular sites from biblical times to the present...faces head-on the difficulty of telling the history of a place where every fact is contested by conflicting nationalist narratives.... A highly knowledgeable and beautifully written look at both the ‘heavenly’ and the ‘earthly’ Jerusalem.” – Publishers Weekly

How to Stage Greek Tragedy Today ($18, University of Chicago Press)

“As one would expect from Goldhill, author of a number of respected discussions of Greek tragedy, the sections on the individual plays are lucid and highly informative. There are also particularly important caveats for the theater practitioner.... However, it is not just the would-be practitioner who could benefit from reading this book: there are equally good nuggets for the seasoned scholar of Greek tragedy.” – Literary Review

WILLIAM B. GOULD IV
(Churchill, Past Fellow)

Diary of a Contraband: The Civil War Passage of a Black Sailor ($24.95, Stanford University Press). A former slave's daily record of his experiences as a free man, presented and edited by his great-grandson, a Stanford Law professor and former chair of the National Labor Relations Board.

"[Provides] modern readers with vivid insight into the life and thought of a man who overcame the degradations of slavery, actively sought his own freedom and fought to make it permanent, and in the end forged a new life as a full citizen....An unusual work, one of only three [Civil War] wartime diaries kept by black sailors." - Library Journal

GERMAINE GREER
(Newnham College)

[new!] Shakespeare's Wife (HarperCollins, $14.99, March 2009).

“[N]ow the book written by a brilliant student from Newnham, dreamed of by Virginia Woolf in the last century, exists: lively, rigorous, fiercely imagined.” -- Kate Roiphe in the New York Times.  “[An] excellent portrait of an early modern woman in all of her richness and complexity….Greer rescues [Anne] Hathaway from the graveyard of the forgotten wives of famous men and places her firmly within her own time and social context.”-- Library Journal

SUSANNA GREGORY
(Dr. Elizabeth Cruwys, Wolfson College)

[new!] A Vein of Deceit:  the Matthew Bartholomew Chronicles ($26.95, Little Brown, July 2009).

Fifteenth in a series of murder mysteries set in medieval Cambridge. The author, who earned her PhD at Cambridge, is an Institute Associate at the Scott Polar Research Institute. 

“[Protagonist Matthew] Bartholomew remains a credible and sympathetic amateur sleuth.”—Publishers Weekly 

A short-story murder mystery by Susanna Gregory set during the founding of Cambridge University in 1209 is available at www.admin.cam.ac.uk/news/special/downloads/bloody-beginnings.pdf.

THOM GUNN
(Trinity)

[new!] Selected Poems ($14, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, March 2009), edited by August Kleinzahler. Gunn (1929-2004) moved to San Francisco after Cambridge in the mid-1950s, taught writing at UC-Berkeley, and was named a MacArthur Fellow in 1993. 

“His total output ran well over 500 pages, almost all of which are well worth reading, and any selection was bound to have holes critics would cry over. It’s to the credit of this remarkable writer that those absences seem unimportant beside what is so rousingly present.” – Sunday New York Times Book Review

Hostile Intent: U.S. Covert Operations in Chile, 1964-1974 ($29.95, Potomac Books)

Reviewing Tim Weiner’s Legacy of Ashes: A History of the CIA, Cambridge espionage scholar Professor Christopher Andrew (Pembroke) wrote in the London Times:

“Waiting in the wings is a new generation of less polemical historians with a greater capacity for balanced interpretation of the CIA’s record. Due this month is an outstanding work by the young Canadian Kristian Gustafson, Hostile Intent, which lays to rest a number of myths about CIA operations in Chile. I recommend it as a corrective to Legacy of Ashes.”

JOHN GUY
(Clare)

[new!]  A Daughter’s Love: Thomas More and His Dearest Meg ($30, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, March 2009)

From Cambridge historian Guy, most recently a biographer of Mary Queen of Scots, portraits of Sir Thomas More, his eldest daughter Margaret [“Meg”], and his family, including adopted daughter Margaret Giggs. 

“[Guy’s] absorbing, thoroughly researched book does justice to two exemplary women – and reminds us that history is full of ironies.”
– Claire Tomalin, in The Sunday New York Times Book Review

"Using extensive sources, Guy provides unprecedented insight into this intense relationship [between More and daughter Margaret]….Guy reveals an invaluable perspective on Henry VIII's political and religious machinations…."
– Publishers Weekly

Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart ($16.95, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, November 2005)

This new biography by "one of the most distinguished scholars of the Tudor period" is "as enthralling as a detective story." - New York Times Book Review

"Guy's biography is a masterpiece of moderation that steadfastly avoids the lure of her scandalous reputation. Here is a life of Mary Stuart that painstakingly assembles all the surviving documentary evidence and scrupulously assesses it, weighing the false testimony of her enemies against the whitewashing of her friends." -- Lisa Jardine, in The Washington Post  

WILLIAM HAGUE

William Pitt the Younger ($35, Knopf). A biography of one of Pembroke College's most famous alumni (1759-1806), Britain's Prime Minister during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, written by the former Conservative Party leader.

"A first-class work of history; informative, well written and captivating." - Alistair Horne, The Times (UK)

JOHN R. HALE
(Trinity)

[new!]  Lords of the Sea: The Epic Story of the Athenian Navy and the Birth of Democracy  ($29.95, Viking, May 2009). The author, who earned his PhD at Cambridge in 1974, is director of liberal studies at the University of Louisville.

“Hale has enjoyed a career as an archaeologist, including underwater searches for ancient warships. Here he examines the origins, growth, and campaigns of the great Athenian fleet, which helped make Athens the most powerful polis in Greece for most of the fifth century BC….a well-written, stirring chronicle.”  - Booklist

“Lords of the Sea packs into a small volume a wide sweep of knowledge….tells an important story….well worth the read.” – Washington Times

"[A] novel and gripping way to approach a story that has been told many times before....Mr. Hale's simple but vigorous sentences prick up your ears from the first page." - The New York Times 

STEFAN HALPER
(Magdalene; Centre for International Studies) and Jonathan Clarke

The Silence of the Rational Center: Why American Foreign Policy Is Failing ($26.95, Basic Books). Indictment of U.S. foreign policy by conservative veterans of the Reagan White House.

"Why was there so little opposition to the Iraq gamble during the run-up to the invasion in 2002-03? Where, beyond the loony fringe, were the reasoned questions about the future of Iraq after ‘V-I Day'? How would the United States redeem a country of which it knew nothing? Why would a democracy stay the course in a place only remotely related to its core security? The authors describe that fiasco by squaring off against media, politicos and think tanks, both left and right." - The Washington Post

"[Halper and Clarke's] thoughtful, insightful work spans ideological and partisan differences, a rare phenomenon in these times.... The argument never has been put together so persuasively, so conclusively and so effectively." - The Washington Post

"America Alone is a sobering critique of U.S. foreign policy by two very serious conservatives. What makes their book so powerful is that their conclusion appears to be right." - Washington Times

S.J. HAMRICK

Deceiving the Deceivers: Kim Philby, Donald Maclean, and Guy Burgess (Yale Univ. Press, $29.95). New conclusions about the Cambridge Spies.

“Hamrick’s research has enabled him to show in a most convincing manner that the accepted accounts…are at best flawed, and often plain wrong.... A valuable book.” – New York Review of Books

“[Hamrick’s] subversive recasting of the Philby-Maclean-Burgess case will fascinate and challenge all those interested in Cold War history.” – Publishers Weekly

“Hamrick brings a thriller-writer's imagination to the otherwise familiar story, coupled with a very careful reading of the Venona material released over the past decade by the U.S. National Security Agency.” – Washington Post

CHRISTINA HARDYMENT
(Newnham)

Malory: The Life and Times of King Arthur’s Chronicler ($30, HarperCollins)

“Camelot echoes marvelously through Hardyment's biography, making palpable Malory's desire for valor and honor in his own time.” - Publishers Weekly

“More whirlwind history than biography, this is a book that old-time history buffs, who love battles and political machinations, should utterly adore.” – Booklist

The Ghost: A Novel ($26, Simon & Schuster). From the author of best-sellers Fatherland, Enigma, Archangel, Pompeii, and Imperium.

“Harris...hits one out of the park with this dark, paranoid thriller...nicely leavens his cynical tale with gallows humor, and even readers who anticipate the plot’s final twist will admire the author’s artistry in creating an intelligent page-turner that tackles serious issues.” – Publishers Weekly

JOHN HARWOOD
(St. John's)

The Ghost Writer (Harcourt, $25)

"A wonderful debut, evoking a century's worth of family history, by a multi-talented and artistically ambidextrous newcomer." - Kirkus Reviews

"The ghost stories at the heart of this book are lyrical, labyrinthine tales that feel simultaneously fresh and familiar, making this an atmospheric paranormal thriller with many surprises." - Booklist

"A first-class creeper, a literary ghost story in the Victorian tradition." - The Boston Globe

JOHN HATCHER
(Faculty of History, Corpus Christi)

The Black Death: An Intimate History ($27.50, Perseus Books/Da Capo Press). The author is Professor of Economic and Social History and chairman of the Faculty of History and senior Fellow of Corpus Christi. A Financial Times "Favourite Book" of 2008.

“In an experimental narrative for an academic historian—blending some fiction with solid facts—Hatcher, of Cambridge University, offers a ‘literary docudrama’ that looks at the lives of ordinary people during the Black Death that devastated Europe in the 1340s.... [T]his is a fine work that gives an intimate sense of the Black Death's horrors.” – Publishers Weekly

"This totally absorbing book presents the best account ever written about the worst event to have ever befallen the British Isles." - Simon Winchester in the New York Sun  

STEPHEN HAWKING & LEONARD MLODINOW
(Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Gonville & Caius; Trinity Hall)

A Briefer History of Time ($25, Bantam)

"The authors maintain the same wry, lively tone that made the original Brief History of Time such a delight. They close with a discussion of where physics ends and philosophy begins, 'Why does the universe exist at all?' They cannot provide the answer, but they do provide an immense amount of food for thought. Highly recommended." - Publishers Weekly

"May be the clearest introduction to physics ever.... an utterly engrossing read." - Booklist

The Debt Threat: How Debt is Destroying the Developing World ($13.95, CollinsBusiness). A passionate call for the cancellation of third-world debt.

"[Hertz] navigates this terrain with precision and clarity, presenting inspiring visions for change.... [Hertz's] eloquent call to action deserves the attention of every concerned citizen of our troubled world." - Publishers Weekly

"Fast becoming the central text of the antiglobalization movement." - Christian Science Monitor

"[Hertz] asserts that . . . free market capitalism has had dire social and political repercussions, although it has triumphed as the dominant world ideology and brought prosperity to many." -Publishers Weekly

Off-ramps and On-ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success (Harvard Business School Press, $29.95). Named one of the top ten business books of 2007 by the editors of Amazon.com.

“Looks at all areas of a constrictive work environment and offers intelligent solutions for reaching one's full potential within it.” – Publishers Weekly 

DOMINIC HIBBERD
(King's 1961)

Wilfred Owen: A New Biography ($30, Ivan R. Dee).  Owen was a celebrated War Poet (1893-1918) who was killed in battle a week before the Armistice.

"Enthralling reading" - The Financial Times

PENELOPE HOBHOUSE
(Girton 1948)

Gardens of Persia ($49.95, Kales Press). One of the world's foremost garden designers was captivated by what she saw on a Cambridge alumni trip to Iran.

"Hobhouse, a veteran garden historian and designer, elegantly explains the continuity of the aesthetic ideas that govern Persian gardens.... Her account, accompanied by Jerry Harpur's spectacular photography, spans more than two thousand years of design...." - The New Yorker

"[A] dazzling look at the evolution of a beautiful and peaceful tradition." - Publishers Weekly

TOM HOLLAND
(Queens')

[new!] The Forge of Christendom: The End of Days and the Epic Rise of the West ($30, Doubleday, May 2009)

“….[E]njoyable and exuberantly argued… combines sound scholarly credentials with a gift for storytelling on a magisterial scale.”  - The Economist

“Holland (Persian Fire) surveys the two and a half centuries between the fragmenting of Charlemagne's empire and the First Crusade, visiting milestones like the Norman conquest of England along with lesser invasions, raids, feudal vendettas, kidnappings and pope vs. antipope squabbles…. Holland's colorful, energetic narrative vividly captures the medieval mindset, while conveying the dynamism that underlay a seemingly static age.”  - Publishers Weekly

Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West ($27.50, Doubleday)

“Vibrant, bloodthirsty popular history, told with a rich sense of irony and irresistible narrative timing.” – The Telegraph

“[Holland] brings this tumultuous, epoch-making period dazzlingly to life, and makes the common reader familiar again with one of the most thrilling periods in world history.” – The Independent

 NICK HORNBY
(Jesus)

 [new!] Juliet, Naked: a Novel ($25.95, Riverhead/Penguin, September 2009).

 “Hornby returns to his roots – music, manic fandom, messy romance – in his funny and touching latest.” – Publishers Weekly.

“Hornby’s books are almost shamefully readable…. his characters are always richly, sympathetically drawn….The story is tinged with despair, and though the ending offers little by way of hope, its bittersweet ambiguity lends it maturity.”—The New Yorker.
 
Nick Hornby has also the screenplay for 2009 film “An Education,” which features actress Emma Thompson (Newnham).  The author was interviewed on NPR’s “Weekend Edition Sunday” in October 2009. 

Slam, ($19.99, Penguin USA, October 2007). Young adult fiction.

“[P]ortrait of a prickly and interesting boy who is forced to become, very quickly, a man...an agreeably casual and occasionally effervescent comedy of manners.” – New York Times

“Vintage Hornby: a witty trek inside the emotional life of the modern male.” – People

A Long Way Down ($24.95, Riverhead). The fourth novel from the author of About A Boy and High Fidelity.

"A brave and absorbing book." – Publishers Weekly

ALISTAIR HORNE
(Jesus)

La Belle France : A Short History ($30, Knopf). From the eminent English-language historian of France, author of Seven Ages of Paris (2002).

"A lifelong passion for the Gallic nation led Horne... to pen numerous books on the subject, including this lively, concise history that takes us from Julius Caesar right through the travails of President Jacques Chirac." - The Washington Post

"Comprehensive in coverage, fluid in presentation, and rendered in sprightly language." - Booklist

"Brilliant and entertaining...sure to delight Francophiles everywhere." - Publishers Weekly

"While politics informs and guides his presentation, this is by no means a political history. Each section includes fascinating insights into the social and cultural life of the age, fashions in clothing, architectural developments, leading personalities, and lifestyles of rich and poor alike." - Library Journal

ARIANNA HUFFINGTON
(Girton 1969)

Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption Are Undermining America ($14, Three Rivers Press ). Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington, who was president of the Cambridge Union Society, is a nationally syndicated columnist and TV commentator. She is founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post.

"[A] scathing indictment of the corporate and political culture that brought the 'new economy' '90s crashing down....a powerful book, brimming with wit and sulphurous satire that connects the dots among politicians, lobbyists and corporations, and demonstrates their destructive effect on the well-being of average Americans." - Publishers Weekly

On Becoming Fearless...in Love, Work, and Life ($12.99, Little Brown)

"Huffington ruminates on the cultivation of fearlessness in all aspects of a woman's life: body image, love, motherhood, work, money, illness and aging, with contributions from other fearless females like Nora Ephron and Diane Keaton...[T]he author's common-sense feminism is welcome in a sea of women's books dedicated solely to snagging a man...."-Publishers Weekly

"[S]urprisingly refreshing....a wide-ranging look at the challenges women face in family, faith, careers, and personal fulfillment to explore the rewards of facing up to fears and working steadily toward fearlessness." - Booklist

TED HUGHES
(Pembroke)

Selected Poems, 1957-1994 ($16, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux).  A New York Times Notable Book, 2002.

"Whether he wrote poems about the farm, or wild birds and animals, or birthday masques for Royal occasions, Hughes had the same spontaneity of craft which came from some inner joy in the ceremonial powers of poetry." -The Times Literary Supplement

"Hughes has a great spiritual imagination--he is truly a visionary and a modern primitive." - London Review of Books

COLIN HUMPHREYS
(Materials Science & Metallurgy; Selwyn)

The Miracles of Exodus: A Scientist's Discovery of the Extraordinary Natural Causes of the Biblical Stories ($24.95, HarperCollins)

"An unusual combination of homework, legwork and creativity." – Publishers Weekly

DAVID IGNATIUS
(King's) 

[new!] The Increment: A Novel ($26.95, W.W. Norton, May 2009)

The author, a prize-winning columnist for the Washington Post, has covered the Middle East and the CIA for more than twenty-five years. Listen to the author in an NPR interview.

“Ignatius floods his latest book with highlights of technology while exploring the dark heart of human betrayal with menacing ambiguity.” - Library Journal  

“[A] page-turner of the highest order.” - Publishers Weekly

Body of Lies (W.W. Norton, $24.95). Novel by a columnist for The Washington Post who has extensive reporting experience in the Middle East.

“A timely and plausible cautionary tale of schemes within schemes and morality compromised. It has vividly rendered locales, clever plotting, compelling characters, and a discomforting verisimilitude.” – Booklist

The Ivey Guide to Law School Admissions ($15, Harvest Books, 2005). The author, former dean of admissions at University of Chicago Law School, spent her junior year abroad at Cambridge and won the Newnham history prize.

CLIVE JAMES
(Pembroke)

As of This Writing ($35, Norton). Literary essays and reviews.

"An impressive body of work: tonic, entertaining, informative, intelligent." – The Wall Street Journal

SUSAN JAMES
(Darwin)

Catherine Parr: Henry VIII’s Last Love ($34.95, The History Press, January 2009). The author, an independent researcher and writer who lives in California, earned her PhD at Cambridge.

“[O]nce queen, Catherine blossoms before our eyes and so does this book… [A]bundantly sustains James’ purpose to demonstrate that Catherine was not the colourless and unimaginative person that previous historians have painted her…. [James] fills the spaces with such exactitude of scholarship that the account is altogether persuasive…” – The Spectator

LISA JARDINE
(Newnham)

[new!] Going Dutch: How England Plundered Holland's Glory ($18.99, Harper Perennial, September 2009)

"Jardine understands and appreciates her sources, and she writes exceptionally lively history. A pleasure to read...."  – Library Journal 

"Jardine meticulously studies the exchange of ideas between England and Holland, displaying an impressive ability to look at the bigger picture and tie together seemingly disparate strands of culture.... She leaves no stone unturned as she documents just how many significant figures from Holland held sway over English culture. Absorbing, enjoyable reading." – Kirkus Reviews 

PAM JENOFF
(Jesus)

Almost Home: A Novel ($25, Atria, February 2009).  "[A] cool, contemporary romantic thriller...Jennoff keeps the pace brisk and the plot tight... concluding with a jaw-dropping cliffhanger." - Publishers Weekly

"[T]his thriller delivers politics and plot..." - Kirkus Reviews

HUGH JOHNSON
(King's)

A Life Uncorked ($34.95, University of California Press)

"A loving but bittersweet look back at bottles he's emptied and the people and places that produced them. It's a world that he treasures, and that he fears is on the way out. . . .  He's a delightful writer who will make you hungry and thirsty, and the rare wine reviewer who can capture the essence of a bottle without resorting to winespeak." - Eric Asimov in The New York Times

"His memoir proceeds following broad categories of wine--bubbly, white, red and sweet--each chapter replete with memories of remarkable trips, vintages, vineyards and people. Johnson opens his notebooks and the oenophile's lifetime experience richly spills forth." - Publishers Weekly

JOINVILLE AND VILLEHARDOUIN: CHRONICLES OF THE CRUSADES
($16, Penguin Classics, March 2009)

Translated with an introduction and notes by Caroline Smith (Trinity Hall)

Originally composed in Old French, the two chronicles brought together here offer some of the most vivid and reliable accounts of the Crusades from a Western perspective. Villehardouin’s Conquest of Constantinople, distinguished by its simplicity and lucidity, recounts the controversial Fourth Crusade, which descended into an all-out attack on the Eastern Christians of Byzantium. In Life of Saint Louis, Joinville draws on his close attachment to King Louis IX of France to recall his campaigning in the Holy Land. Together these narratives comprise a fascinating window on events that, for all their remoteness, offer startling similarities to our own age.

MARTIN KENNETH JONES
(Archaeology; Peterhouse)

Feast: Why Humans Share Food ($24.95, Oxford Univ. Press, June 2008). The author is the George Pitt-Rivers Professor of Archaeological Science at Cambridge; the book has been awarded the “Food Book of the Year” prize by Britain’s Guild of Food Writers.

“A captivating narrative.” – Nature

“[A] smooth chronological narrative from the earliest evidence of hominid eating habits right up to a 20th-century TV dinner.” – Library Journal

TONY JUDT
(King's 1966)

Postwar: A History of Europe ($39.95, Penguin Press).  The author is Remarque Chair of European Studies at NYU.  A New York Times Notable Book, 2005.

"This is the best history we have of Europe in the postwar period and not likely to be surpassed for many years....  History writing at its very best." – Publishers Weekly

GEOFFREY KABASERVICE
(Jesus 1988)

The Guardians: Kingman Brewster, His Circle, and the Rise of the Liberal Establishment ($30, Henry Holt)

"This deftly woven portrait of Brewster and his close friends—McGeorge Bundy, Elliot Richardson, John Lindsay, Cyrus Vance, and Paul Moore—is among the most revealing books ever written about the liberal establishment." - The Atlantic Monthly 

JOSEPH KANON
(Trinity)

[new!] Stardust: A Novel ($27.99, Atria. September 2009).

“Gritty look at post-WWII Hollywood from Edgar-winner Kanon (Los Alamos,The Good German)…. Kanon perfectly balances action and introspection, while smoothly integrating such real-life figures as actress Paulette Goddard into the plot.” – Publishers Weekly.

“[Kanon] operates with an intelligence that briskly evokes the atmosphere of a vanished era." -- The New York Times Book Review.

"A delicious synthesis of menace and glamour, historical fact and rich imagination....Among the real movie people making appearances here is Paulette Goddard -- just one element of a perfect setting for a story in which nothing is obvious." -- The Seattle Times

CHRISTOPHER KELLY
(Corpus Christi, Faculty of Classics)

[new!] The End of Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall of the Roman Empire ($26.95, W.W.Norton, June 2009)

“Christopher Kelly, in his learned, fluent and often witty study of the great Hunnish leader, is too nuanced a historian to buy into the notion of his subject as merely a mindless thug; but nor does he go to the opposite extreme, and cast Attila as a misunderstood man of peace.” – Tom Holland, in the Telegraph (UK)

“Kelly's first-rate history provides a singularly fresh look at a fractious period in the life of ancient Rome.” – Publishers Weekly 

IAN KELLY
(Trinity Hall 1985)

Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Carême, the First Celebrity Chef ($26, Walker and Co.). The author is an actor who portrays Carême (1783-1832) in a one-man show, Off-Broadway.

"An engrossing story…a fine book." - Publishers Weekly

PASCAL KHOO THWE
(Gonville & Caius 1992)

From the Land of Green Ghosts ($13.99, Harper Perennial, 2003).  A memoir of youth in Burma and at Cambridge. A New York Times Notable Book, 2003.

“A heartbreaking tale, told with lyricism, affection and insight.” -- Publishers Weekly.

“A political statement as well as a poetic lament, the book is a true work of art.” -- Financial Times.

“The best memoir you will read this year.” -- San Francisco Chronicle. 

“Unique as much for the riveting story it tells as for the sublime way it is told.” -- Seattle Times.

“[A] writer of uncommon elegance and sensitivity -- New York Times Book Review.

DAVID KING
(Emmanuel 1998)

Finding Atlantis: A True Story of Genius, Madness, and an Extraordinary Quest for a Lost World ($23.00, Harmony). The story of 17th-century polymath Olof Rudbeck's quest to prove that he had found Atlantis -- in Sweden. The author teaches history at the University of Kentucky.

"King tells his tale with the pace and appeal of a classic whodunit." – Publishers Weekly

SIR DAVID KING & GABRIELLE WALKER
(Department of Chemistry, Downing; Queens')

The Hot Topic: What We Can Do About Global Warming ($14.00, Harvest Books). Prof. Sir David King, former chief scientific adviser to the British government, is Director of Research in the Dept. of Chemistry, Fellow of Queens’ and Former Master and Honorary Fellow of Downing (1995-2000).

“[An] excellent primer on arguably the most serious problem facing the world today...present[s] in concise layman’s language everything you wanted to know about global warming but were too depressed to ask.... Entertaining as well as deadly serious, this lucid book, which includes an appendix that dispels many myths about and misconceptions, explains in the clearest possible way why we should care about global warming and what we can do about it.” – Publishers Weekly

FRANK P. KING
(Pembroke 1970)

A Chronicle of World History: From 130,000 Years Ago to the Eve of AD 2000 ($59, University Press of America)

"As much fun to simply browse through, as it is informative." – Library Bookwatch

A comprehensive version of this book, in PDF format, is available here.

ANNETTE KOBAK
(Girton)

Joe's War: My Father Decoded ($16, Vintage Paperback). Biographer Kobak pierces the veil of secrecy surrounding her Czech father's experiences before and during World War II.

"Part memoir, part Joe's first-person narrative, part historical account, the book violates genre boundaries—but it is precisely this lack of affectedness, couched in graceful, perceptive writing, that makes it such an engrossing and informative work." - Publishers Weekly

JEAN HANFF KORELITZ
(Clare)

[new!] Admission ($24.99, Grand Central Publishing, April 2009).

Novel about an Ivy League admissions officer, by an alumna of Dartmouth and Clare, author of three previous novels and book of poetry. “Well-written, well-plotted and extremely satisfying, ‘Admission’ marks another step forward for a writer whose accomplishments grow more impressive with each book.” – Los Angeles Times

“[T]he novel gleams with acute insights into what most consider a deeply mysterious process.” – The New Yorker

The Malice Box ($25.95, Pegasus Books, September 2007). Apocalyptic thriller in the manner of The DaVinci Code, by a former Reuters journalist and bureau chief.

“The book is full of surprises and moves at a good lick.”—The Observer (UK)

LEWIS LAPHAM
(Magdalene 1956)

Gag Rule: On the Suppression of Dissent and the Stifling of Democracy ($19.95, Penguin Press).  The author is the editor of Harper's Magazine.

"Provocative and thoughtful…a lively political pamphlet written in the tradition of Thomas Paine's Common Sense." - The New York Times

STARLING LAWRENCE
(Pembroke 1965)

The Lightning Keeper (Harper Collins, $25.95). Historical fiction about pioneers of electrical energy in early 20th-century America.

“A deeply satisfying novel of love and electricity…not only a complex romantic tale, but also a grand story of science and American industry in the years before World War I....  Lawrence’s descriptive gifts are such that the history and science of electrical energy and turn-of-the-century manufacturing are given the power and fascination they must have held for people of that time. His writing is crisp, often beautiful.” – Washington Post Book World

DAVID LEAVITT

The Indian Clerk (Bloomsbury, $24.95, September 2007). Novel about the relationship between Cambridge mathematician G.H. Hardy (1877-1947; Trinity 1896) and his colleague / protégé S. Ramajunan (1887-1920), the first Indian to be elected a Fellow of Trinity College.

“Richly imagined.... Reading it offers the pleasure of escape into another world, along with the nagging feeling of familiarity that characterizes the best historical fiction.” – The New York Times Book Review

The End of Barbary Terror: America’s 1815 War against the Pirates of North Africa ($28, Oxford). The author, a lawyer in Baltimore, earned an M.Phil. in International Relations at Cambridge.

“A fascinating account of what popular historians now refer to as America’s first war against state-sponsored terrorism.” – Library Journal

“Leiner does an excellent job of describing the personalities involved and depicting the heated naval battles.” – Publishers Weekly

JENNIFER LIGHT
(Emmanuel)

SIR GEOFFREY LLOYD
(Emeritus Professor of Ancient Philosophy and Science, and Needham Research Institute)

The Ambitions of Curiosity: Understanding the World in Ancient Greece and China ($29.99, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2002).  Prof. Lloyd was Master of Darwin College from 1989 to 2000.  "Crisply written," says former Classics Faculty Chair Paul Cartledge.

“"G.E.R. Lloyd has produced an important work...recommended." -- Bryn Mawr Classical Review.

HUMPHREY E. D. LLOYD
(King's 1947)

While Memory Serves ($25.95, Beckham Publications Group).  A memoir of a Cambridge-trained pathologist, from English wartime boyhood to life and medical practice in Massachusetts and Texas. Dr. Lloyd is the brother of Professor Sir Geoffrey Lloyd.

JULIA LOVELL
(East Asia Institute, Queens’, Emmanuel)

The Great Wall: China Against the World, 1000 BC – 2000 AD ($25, Grove Press).  Dr. Lovell studied at Emmanuel and is a Fellow of Queens’ College.

“A supremely inviting entrée to the country.” – Booklist

ROBERT MACFARLANE
(Fellow, Emmanuel)

The Wild Places ($15, Penguin, June 2008). A New York Times Sunday Book Review Notable Book for 2008.

“In this eloquent travelogue, Macfarlane explores the last undomesticated landscapes in Britain and Ireland in a narration that blends history, memoir and meditation.... His striking prose not only evokes each locale's physicality in sensuous, deliberate detail, it glows with a reverence for nature in general and takes the reader on both a geographical and a philosophical journey, as mind-expanding as any of his wild places.” – Publishers Weekly

“[Macfarlane is] a naturalist who can unfurl a sentence — poetry, really — with the breathless ease of a master angler, a writer whose ideas and reach far transcend the physical region he explores.... The natural world swells with meaning through Macfarlane’s devoted observations, which can be both minutely detailed and vast in scope.” – The New York Times

Mountains of the Mind: Adventures in Reaching the Summit ($14.95, Vintage, 2004). A New York Times Notable Book for 2003. The author, a fellow of Emmanuel, is featured in CAM magazine, No. 39, Page 9.

"Wonderfully illuminating.... An exhilarating blend of scholarship and adventure, displaying dazzling erudition, acute powers of analysis, a finely honed sense of cultural history and a passionate sense of the author's engagement with his subject." —Los Angeles Times

“Fascinating stuff...a clever premise.... Goes back three centuries, showing how a few brainy opinion makers created the outdoor image.” —The New York Times Book Review

"A convincing book of historical evidence alongside his own oxygen-deprived experiences in an attempt to answer the age old question, 'Why climb the mountain?' " —San Francisco Chronicle

BEN MACINTYRE
(St. John's)

The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan ($25, Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

The London Times columnist tells the story of adventurer Josiah Harlan, in a "riveting, scrupulously researched book [which] should place this remarkable man where he rightfully belongs: in the pantheon of 19th-century American folk heroes." - New York Times Book Review

“While Macintyre is satisfyingly thorough in his attempt to solve this long-buried mystery, he is even better at recreating the texture of day-to-day life in rural, occupied France.” – Publishers Weekly

“The book has some surprising twists that include such pure examples of love, betrayal, honor, and sacrifice that it is easy to forget that the story is absolutely true.” – Library Journal

DAVID J.C. MACKAY
(Physics - Cavendish Laboratory)

Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air ($49.95, UIT Cambridge Ltd., February 2009)  Prof. MacKay takes a refreshing, unconventional, rational look at what can be done to promote sustainable energy, at personal, national, and global levels. 

"A tour de force...As a work of popular science it is exemplary...For anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the real problems involved [it] is the place to start."  —Economist.com

A Financial Times “Book of the Year” for 2009

BRENDA MADDOX

Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA ($15.99, Harper Perennial, 2003).  A biography of the enigmatic, controversial scientist (Newnham 1938).

“Rosalind Franklin never received due credit for the crucial role these played in the discovery of DNA's structure. In this sympathetic biography, Maddox argues that sexism, egotism and anti-Semitism conspired to marginalize a brilliant and uncompromising young scientist who, though disliked by some colleagues, was a warm and admired friend to many….Drawing on interviews, published records, and a trove of personal letters to and from Rosalind, Maddox takes pains to illuminate her subject as a gifted scientist and a complex woman….”—Publishers Weekly.

“[Maddox] shows a woman of fiery intellect and fierce independence whom some saw as haughty, though to family and close friends she was warm and devoted. Maddox displays a unique voice in recounting Franklin's story, using letters written to family and friends for much of the text. Her voice subtly draws us in while holding us at arm's length, much like Franklin herself. – Library Journal.

JOAO MAGUEIJO
(St. John's & Trinity)

Faster Than the Speed of Light: The Story of a Scientific Speculation ($26, Perseus)

"Welcome to the world of career science, disclosed here in all its flawed brilliance....  This book shows how science is done-and so easily can be undone." - Publishers Weekly

MICHAEL E. N. MAJERUS
(Genetics, Clare)

Sex Wars: Genes, Bacteria, and Biased Sex Ratios ($66, Princeton University Press, 2003)  The author, who was Professor of Genetics at Cambridge and Fellow of Clare College, was awarded a Pilkington Prize for Teaching Quality in 2009, posthumously.

"An excellent introduction to a rapidly developing discipline"— New Scientist

G.M. MALLIET
(St. Edmund's)

[new!] Death at the Alma Mater: a St. Just Mystery  ($14.95, Midnight Ink, January 2010).

“This third in the series is every bit as good as its predecessors. Longtime cozy fans will be reminded of Golden Age classics starring Dorothy Sayers' Harriet Vane and Edmund Crispin's Gervase Fen.”—Booklist

Death of a Cozy Writer: A St. Just Mystery ($13.50, Midnight Ink). Murder mystery, set in a snowbound Cambridgeshire manor house, by a journalist/copywriter who earned a Cambridge M.Phil. in 1987. 

“Fans of stylish English detective work will welcome Malliet’s droll debut.” – Publishers Weekly

“Malliet's debut combines devices from Christie and ‘Clue’ to keep you guessing until the dramatic denouement.” – Kirkus Reviews  

THOMAS MALLON
(St. Edmund's 1982)

Mrs. Paine's Garage and the Murder of John F. Kennedy ($13, paperback, Harvest/Harcourt)

A nonfiction account which gives the events of November 22, 1963 "an unexpected freshness." - The New York Times Book Review

MICHAEL MANDELBAUM
(King's)

Democracy's Good Name: The Rise and Risks of the World's Most Popular Form of Government ($15.95, PublicAffairs, August 2008). Mandelbaum is the Christian A. Herter Professor of American Foreign Policy at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and chair of the Department of American Foreign Policy.

“In this engaging treatise, Mandelbaum explains how the modern democratic fusion of popular sovereignty—i.e., majority rule—with individual liberty came to dominate the world's polities….a lucid, accessible blend of history, political science and sociology, with a wealth of fresh insights into the making of the contemporary world.” – Publishers Weekly

CHRISTOPHER MASON
(Girton 1980)

Art of the Steal: Inside the Sotheby's-Christie's Auction-House Scandal ($26.95, Putnam Penguin).  Mason writes for the New York Times and other publications.

"[A] lively, anecdote-packed saga…a chronicle of greed in the name of culture." - Publishers Weekly

ALEXANDER MASTERS
(St. Edmund's)

Stuart: A Life Backwards ($20, Delacorte). A moving biography of a street-person met by the author during his time at Cambridge. 

“Achieves a perfect balance of empathy and comedy.” – The New Yorker

“Raw, disturbing, and unsettling but also revelatory and life-affirming….A must-read book that is warmly funny, deeply moving, and utterly extraordinary.” – Booklist

Visit the NPR website to listen to a radio interview with author Alexander Masters (eight minutes) by clicking here.

TILAR J. MAZZEO
(Visiting Fellow, Pembroke)

The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It ($25.95, Collins, November 2008). The author is assistant professor of English at Colby College.

"An intoxicating business biography.... [T]he story of the woman who transformed a struggling family business into one of the great champagne houses of France. Told in a light and graceful style that is just right for its subject, The Widow Clicquot takes us on a journey from a well-stocked wine shop in the American Midwest to the dusty Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin company archives in Reims. It's a fascinating trip, made even more so by Ms. Mazzeo's charming cameo appearances as a kind of a tour guide." - The Wall Street Journal  

PHILIP MCFARLAND
(St. Catharine’s)

Loves of Harriet Beecher Stowe ($17, Grove Press, November 2008)

“[Stowe] was a member of a clan that produced other prominent and historically significant figures. McFarland offers interesting profiles of family members that reveal much about them as well as providing a useful snapshot of antebellum northern society….Harriet's public career is well known, but McFarland paints a touching portrait of her personal life, particularly regarding her 50-year marriage to Calvin Stowe.” – Booklist

CAPT. ALFRED S. MCLAREN
(Peterhouse)

Unknown Waters: A First-Hand Account of the Historic Under-Ice Survey of the Siberian Continental Shelf by USS Queenfish (SSN-651) (Univ. of Alabama Press, $29.95). The true-life tale of a Cold War spy mission under the North Pole in 1970. After retiring from the U.S. Navy, submarine skipper McLaren earned an MPhil in Polar Studies at Cambridge in 1982.

“[A] splendid adventure. Captain McLaren's spellbinding account of his unparalleled voyage into the unknown beneath the ice off Siberia constitutes a treasure house of knowledge never before conceived of a dark and forbidding part of the globe. Audacious as well as entertaining!” – Clive Cussler

JOHN MCPHEE
(Magdalene 1953)

Uncommon Carriers ($24, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux).  This is McPhee's 28th book, this time telling about encounters with various modes of transportation: 18-wheel trucks, coal trains, river barges, canoes, air-cargo planes, and the fascinating people who navigate them.  A New York Times Notable Book, 2006.

“McPhee imparts a sense of the special sociology within each transportation mode, drawing from readers both enlightenment and respect.” – Booklist

"A short personal encyclopedia of a wonderful annual fish...wrapped up in McPhee's usually intensely vivid prose."

“McPhee reaffirms his stature as a bold American original. His prose is rugged, straightforward and unassuming, and can be just as witty. This book sings like anglers' lines cast on the water.”--Publishers Weekly.

“McPhee is in great form here, as informative as always but also funny, unusually self-revealing, and quite passionate in his discussions of the dire effects dams have had on shad and rivers alike….” – Booklist.

CLAIRE MESSUD
(Jesus)

The Emperor's Children (Knopf, $25).  A New York Times Notable Book, 2006.

“A formally nimble novel of formidable scale…a masterly comedy of manners – an astute and poignant evocation of hobnobbing literati in the months before and immediately following September 11.” – The Sunday New York Times Book Review

"Tangy dialogue, provocative asides, glittering imagery, and nimble postulations build toward an electrifying and edifying conclusion." - Booklist

SIR CHRISTOPHER MEYER
(Peterhouse)

DC Confidential: The Controversial Memoirs of Britain’s Ambassador at the Time of 9/11 and the Iraq War ($29.95, Orion).  Recollections of the career diplomat who was UK ambassador in Washington from 1997 to 2003. 

“He tells a juicy tale.” – The Sunday Times (London)

"An important book about what it was like to be Britain's most senior and lustrous ambassador at a time when the Prime Minister enjoyed a direct line to the White House." - The Guardian (UK)

DIANE MIDDLEBROOK

Her Husband: Hughes and Plath, A Marriage ($25.95, Viking Press). New perspectives on poets Ted Hughes (Pembroke) and Sylvia Plath (Newnham).

"Astutely reasoned, fluidly written and developed with psychological acuity…sure to be the gold standard." – Publishers Weekly

CHINA MIÉVILLE
(Clare)

[new!] The City & The City ($26, Del Rey, May 2009)

“An excellent police procedural and a fascinating urban fantasy, this is essential reading for all mystery and fantasy fans.” – Booklist

“Miéville offers an outstanding take on police procedurals with this barely speculative novel. Through this exaggerated metaphor of segregation, Miéville skillfully examines the illusions people embrace to preserve their preferred social realities.” -- Publishers Weekly

”Evoking such writers as Franz Kafka and Mikhail Bulgakov, Mr. Miéville asks readers to make conceptual leaps and not to simply take flights of fancy.” – The Wall Street Journal 

DAMIAN MILLER
(Trinity)

SIMON MITTON
(St. Edmund's, Treasurer and Fellow; Churchill)

Conflict in the Cosmos: Fred Hoyle's Life in Science ($27.95, Joseph Henry Press). Biography of Sir Fred Hoyle (1915-2001; Emmanuel, St. John's; Plumian Professor of Astronomy), one of the towering figures in 20th-century cosmology.

“[T]he author's lively writing and extensive research bring to life this important figure in the development of modern astronomy." - Publishers Weekly.

ROBERT A. G. MONKS
(Trinity 1954)

Reel and Rout ($23.95, Brook Street Press). A novel about corporate greed and intrigue, by one of the world's leading shareholder activists.

"A tale well told." - The Economist.

ARUN MOTIANEY
(King's)

[new!] SuperCycles: The New Economic Force Transforming Global Markets and Investment Strategy ($27.95, McGraw Hill, January 2010)

The author, who studied at King’s, worked for Citigroup from 1987 to 2008. His positions included managing director and head of macroresearch and strategy in the company’s Global Wealth Management division.

BENNY MORRIS
(Trinity)

1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War ($32.50, Yale Univ. Press). The author, an Israeli historian, earned his PhD at Cambridge.

“The history of the 1948 war desperately needs to be told, since it's so barely understood or remembered and since so many of the issues that plague us today had their roots in that struggle.... No one is better suited to the task than Benny Morris.... Morris relates the story of his new book soberly and somberly, evenhandedly and exhaustively.” – The New York Times Sunday Book Review

MARK MOYAR
(St. John's)

[new!] A Question of Command: Counterinsurgency from the Civil War to Iraq ($30, Yale Univ. Press, October 2009). A wide-ranging history of counterinsurgency, from the Civil War and Reconstruction to Afghanistan and Iraq, that draws on the historical record and interviews with hundreds of counterinsurgency veterans, including top leaders in today’s armed forces.

“A Question of Command stands out because it reaches back quite far, and to unexpected destinations.” - Wilson Quarterly

Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965 ($32, Cambridge University Press). A Cambridge PhD’s revisionist history of America’s intervention in Vietnam.

“Thoroughly researched and richly informative…a valuable appraisal.” – Booklist

“An important book, a history that serves as a mirror to the present.”—The Wall Street Journal

The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma ($25, Farrar, Straus & Giroux). The author, who earned a Ph.D. at Cambridge in 1996, is the grandson of U.N. Secretary General U Thant.

“Part history, part memoir, part polemic, with a little travelogue thrown in…eloquently and mournfully recites the dismal history of the last half century and, in analyzing the country’s nascent democracy movement, holds out only the slimmest of hopes for a better future.” – The New York Times

IRENE NEMIROVSKY (Translated by SANDRA SMITH)
(Robinson)

Suite Française ($25, Knopf). Smith teaches French at Robinson. The author, a Russian-Jewish émigré, completed the two novellas which comprise this book about the 1940 Occupation of France before she died at Auschwitz in 1942; the manuscripts came to light only in the late 1990s. A New York Times Notable Book, 2006.

“An incomparable book… startling, steely etched sketches of both collaboration and resistance among people motivated by personal loyalties and grievances that date from before the war....  It is hard to imagine a reader who will not be wholly engrossed and moved by this book.” – Washington Post Book World

ROBERT NEWMAN
(Selwyn 1983)

The Fountain at the Center of the World ($14.95, Soft Skull Press)

"A sublimely frisky first novel [that] elegantly and angrily scorches a lot of earth." - The New York Times

ADAM NICOLSON
(Magdalene)

God's Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible ($13.95, Harper Perennial)

“Nicolson tells the KJB's story so well that his book may prove to be the KJB's indispensable companion for years to come.” – Booklist

Seize the Fire : Heroism, Duty, and the Battle of Trafalgar ($26.95, HarperCollins)

"Nicolson's exploration of Trafalgar embraces the psychology and values of the British naval officers and the corresponding mindsets of the French and Spanish officers....  Enlisting a creative range of sources including Romantic poets, Nicolson seeks out the sensibility that lies behind Nelson, finding in him and others an emotional authenticity that was both ambitious and socially anxious about status--which could be secured but by brutal victory. An incisively original analysis." - Booklist 

Seamanship: A Voyage along the Wild Coasts of the British Isles ($13.95, Harper Perennial). A stirring account of an often dangerous six-month sailing trip the author and a friend took through the treacherous waters off western Ireland and Scotland and to the Hebrides, Orkneys, and Faeroes.

DOUGLAS NORTHROP
(Emmanuel 1989)

Veiled Empire: Gender and Power in Stalinist Central Asia ($25.95, paperback, Cornell University Press). The author is Associate Professor of History and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Michigan.

"Few doubt that Central Asia labors under a Soviet legacy, but precisely what that legacy is remains elusive. Northrop goes a long way toward reconstructing a key piece of it: the history of the Bolsheviks' effort to uproot the old and impose the new on the Muslim population of Uzbekistan between 1917 and 1941."-Foreign Affairs

MICHAEL O'BRIEN
(Faculty of History; Fellow of Jesus; Trinity Hall 1966)

[new!] Mrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon ($27, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, March 2010). In the winter of 1815 Louisa Catherine Adams made a forty-day journey by carriage from St. Petersburg to Paris to reunite with her diplomat husband John Quincy Adams. Cambridge historian Michael O’Brien, winner of a Bancroft Prize in American History, reconstructs this dramatic tale, and explores Mrs. Adams’s life and place in the world.

“Innovatively and creatively told...bristles with insight into the era. Witty, informed, sophisticated, and moving; essential reading.” – Library Journal

“A wide-sweeping historical survey and original intellectual journey.” – Kirkus Reviews

“This compelling combination of biography, travelogue, and adventure does an admirable job resurrecting one of the many forgotten females in the annals of American history.” – Booklist  

Conjectures of Order: Intellectual Life and the American South, 1810-1860 (2 volumes, $85, University of North Carolina Press). Winner of a Bancroft Prize, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History. The lives, thoughts, and fortunes of antebellum Southern thinkers, placed in the larger tradition of American and European intellectual history.

"Breathtakingly grand...a work of lasting significance."- The Atlantic Monthly

ROBERT OLBY

[new!] Francis Crick: Hunter of Life's Secrets ($45, Cold Spring Laboratory Press, September 2009). Nobel Laureate Crick (1916-2004) earned his PhD at Caius and was an Honorary Fellow at Churchill; he spent much of his career at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA. Biographer Robert Olby is a research professor in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh.

JOSEPH O'NEILL
(Girton)

Netherland ($23.95, Pantheon). O’Neill was born in Ireland, raised mainly in Holland, educated in England; he read law at Cambridge, was a barrister in London, and has lived in New York since 1998. He has written previous novels and a family memoir, Blood-Dark Track (2001). A New York Times Sunday Book Review Notable Book for 2008. A Financial Times "Favourite Book" of 2008. Winner of the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, awarded by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation.

“[T]he wittiest, angriest, most exacting and most desolate work of fiction we’ve yet had about life in New York and London after the World Trade Center fell.... O’Neill seems incapable of composing a boring sentence or thinking an uninteresting thought..... Netherland has more life inside it than 10 very good novels.” – New York Times Sunday Book Review

“Joseph O’Neill’s stunning new novel, Netherland, provides a resonant meditation on the American Dream.... He captures [New York City]’s myriad moods, its anomalous neighborhoods jostling up against one another, its cacophony and stillness, its strivers, seekers, scam artists and scoundrels.” – Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times 

Blood-Dark Track: A Family History ($17.95, Granta paperback). A New York Times Notable Book for 2002.

“[A] compelling family history interwoven with the politics of World War II.... This is a voyage of self-exploration, a grandson coming to terms with family history previously forbidden.... [T]he journey is worth the price. O'Neill's adventures in genealogy and the interviews he pursued keep the reader drawn close.” – Library Journal

“[B]oth of O'Neill's grandfathers were imprisoned during World War II on suspicion that they had aided the German war effort. What was the truth to these allegations that so disrupted these families, then and later? O'Neill visits the personal landscapes of the two men: one from Ireland and the other from Turkey.... [T]heir lives thereafter were shrouded in a secrecy that took a deep toll on the family and served as testament to living ‘in extraordinarily hateful and hazardous places and times,’ one that required an understanding and forgiveness that both spurred and is a result of this book. The pleasures here are in the slow accretion of detail and awareness that allows O'Neill to create an abiding image of a two places during a moment in history.” – Kirkus Reviews

ONORA O'NEILL
(Newnham)

A Question of Trust: The BBC Reith Lectures 2002 ($15, Paperback, Cambridge University Press). The Principal of Newnham challenges current approaches to accountability, investigates sources of deception in our society, and re-examines questions of press freedom.

"Fascinating…both thoughtful and relevant." - The Telegraph

 HELEN OYEYEMI
(Corpus Christi 2003)

[new!] White is for Witching: A Novel  ($25, Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, June 2009). 

‘[A] neo-gothic tale revolving around Miranda and Eliot Silver, fraternal twins of Haitian descent raised in a British house haunted by generations of afflicted, displaced family members, including their mother….passionate and unusual….Unconventional, intoxicating and deeply disquieting….” – Publishers Weekly. 

“[A] challenging read laced with thought-provoking story lines that end, like Miranda’s fate, mysteriously.” – Booklist.

“[A] delightfully unconventional coming-of-age story….Oyeyemi clearly appreciates that some crimes… are so heinous that the conventions of realist fiction seem woefully inadequate to describe them. She makes us glad to suspend disbelief.” – New York Times Sunday Book Review.
 

The Opposite House (Nan A. Talese, $23.95). Second novel from this recent Cambridge graduate.

“The novel’s lyrical and stylistic experimentation speaks to Oyeyemi’s depth of talent.” – Publishers Weekly

“Displays the young writer's amazing sure-handedness that is far beyond her years.” – Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Guernica and Total War ($22.95, Harvard Univ. Press)

“[L]ooks at the history of and cultural response to the spread of airborne military assaults on civilians…a rich and engaging study….a slim book of considerable rewards.” – Bloomberg News

On Royalty: A Very Polite Inquiry into Some Strangely Related Families (Public Affairs, $26.95). Host of the BBC-TV’s “Newsnight” and “University Challenge.”

“Paxman proves a very knowledgeable and tartly entertaining guide to a magical realm that is stranger than fiction.” – Publishers Weekly

“Fascinating and amusing.”—The New York Times

JULIE PERIGO
(New Hall)

Winners in the Second Half: A Guide for Executives at the Top of their Game ($39.95, Jossey-Bass/Wiley, September 2008). Career guidance for executives over fifty, from an international executive-recruiting consultant.

“The book gains depth with chapters on government and society, organisations and individuals...finishing on a note of ‘Remaining a winner throughout’.... Perigo has filled a niche which is only going to become bigger.” – City A.M. (London)

Gods Behaving Badly: A Novel (Little, Brown, $23.99). The author of this first novel, about ancient Greek gods and goddesses surviving in modern-day London, read Archeology and Anthropology at Cambridge.

“A delightful debut…Fanciful, humorous and charming, this satire is as sweet as nectar.” – Publishers Weekly

“Phillips has an Olympian sense of absurdity, and there's enough ambrosial wit here to seduce most mortals for an afternoon or two on the divan.” – Washington Post Book World

SAM PICKERING
(St. Catharine's)

Indian Summer: Musings on the Gift of Life ($19.95, University of Missouri Press). Sam Pickering is best known as the inspiration for the teacher in the film Dead Poets Society.  He teaches English at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.

"Funny, painful, insightful, and sometimes surprising conclusions of a man who actually knows how to think – and who entices readers to join him." – Bill Tammeus, Kansas City Star

"Pedagogical advice couched in folksy language and peppered with personal anecdotes, tall tales and family stories." – Publishers Weekly

JOANNA PITMANN
(St. John's 1983)

On Blondes ($24.95, Bloomsbury USA)

This "history of blondes, from Greek times through the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages, the Italian Renaissance, the Victorian era and into the 20th century...proves once and for all: there is definitely more to blondes than meets the eye." - The New York Times

GEORGE PLIMPTON
(King's)

The Man in the Flying Lawn Chair, and Other Excursions and Observations, edited by Sarah Dudley Plimpton ($24.95, Random House). Essays and reportage from the founder of the Paris Review.

"A cocktail party of a book." – The New York Times

World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism ( $24.95, Doubleday, September 2007)

“An impassioned defense of President Bush’s foreign policy.... Podhoretz’s take-no-prisoners writing style will delight his partisans while infuriating his ideological opponents.”—Publishers Weekly

JOHN POLKINGHORNE
(Trinity, Queens')

Exploring Reality: The Intertwining of Science and Religion ($24, Yale University Press). Physicist and Anglican priest, Reverend Polkinghorne was President of Queens’ College from 1989 to 1996 and winner of the Templeton Prize in 2002.

“Balancing intellectual modesty with openness about his own Christian faith, Polkinghorne's reflections will engage both thoughtful believers and inquirers into issues of faith and reason.” - Publishers Weekly

JOHN POLLARD
(Trinity Hall)

Money and the Rise of the Modern Papacy: Financing the Vatican, 1850-1950 ($36.99, Cambridge University Press). Explores the transformation of the Vatican into a major financial power and the role money played in the development of the modern papacy. Dr. Pollard, a leading historian of the papacy, is College Archivist and Staff Fellow in History at Trinity Hall.

"This excellent book treats an important though neglected subject with care and sophistication. It deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the history of the Papacy." - The Catholic Historical Review

"Pollard has carried out extensive research for this study and has mined accessible archives in England, Italy, the Vatican, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the United States....On the basis of his thorough research, he is able to challenge a number of the interpretations of earlier writers on the subject. The book is well organized and well written and is enlivened by flashes of Pollard's droll sense of humor." -The International History Review

"Pollard has written an informed and thoughtful study that constitutes a significant advance over previous secondary scholarship." - Business History Review

SOPHIE ANNA POWELL
(Trinity 1998)

The Mushroom Man ($23.95, Putnam Penguin)

"...the spirit of the book is infectious, and Powell has done a fine job of casting her spell." - New York Times Book Review

"A charming debut...a touching comedy that explores childhood fantasies as well as messy adult truths about family relationships." - Publishers Weekly

PETER RABY
(Homerton 1958)

Alfred Russel Wallace: A Life ($24.95, Princeton University Press). A biography of the Victorian naturalist, contemporary of Darwin.

"With this marvelously readable biography of Alfred Russel Wallace, Raby has rescued that forgotten pioneer from oblivion.... In capturing the cross-grained complexities of this exceptional collector of beetles and birds, Raby gives readers a fascinating specimen of the most mysterious and unpredictable species of all." - Booklist

"Even by Victorian standards, Wallace was a titan of self-effacement.... If this well-researched and graceful biography doesn't solve the riddle of Wallace, it nicely conveys the riddle's many dimensions.... [Wallace was] a man, in short, who occasionally struck colleagues as a crackpot; and yet, in the end, a man who was in some ways more admirable than the much-admired Darwin." -- New York Times Book Review

DHOOLEKA S. RAJ
(Lucy Cavendish 1993)

Where Are You From? Middle-Class Migrants in the Modern World ($26.95, University of California Press). An examination of first- and second-generation middle-class South Asian families living in London. Raj is a Visiting Scholar in Women's Studies at Harvard, and was Smuts-Hinduja Fellow at the Center for South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge, and a Fellow-Commoner at Lucy Cavendish.

"An engagingly written, original, and wide-ranging approach to the study of an ethnic minority population." - Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

AHMED RASHID
(Fitzwilliam)

Descent into Chaos: How the War Against Islamic Extremism is Being Lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia ($27.95, Viking Penguin, May 2008). A Financial Times "Favourite Book" of 2008.

“With his unparalleled access to sources…Rashid is an authoritative guide to the region's politics and his is an insightful, at times explosive, indictment of the U.S. government's hand in the region's degeneration.” – Publishers Weekly

“[A] devastating analysis of the disintegration of…Pakistan into a haven of terrorists and Islamist extremists,” written by “the most outstanding independent journalist in Pakistan.” – Financial Times  

RICHARD REEVES

A Force of Nature: the Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford ($14.95, W.W. Norton, December 2008). Biography of the 1908 Nobel Prizewinner, as famous as Einstein in his day, who pioneered research into radioactivity at Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory.

“[T]his biography does an outstanding job of capturing the excitement and almost breathless pace of physics research in the 20th century's first four decades.” – Publishers Weekly

“In Richard Reeves's hands, Rutherford comes alive, a ruddy, genial man and a pivotal figure in scientific history.” – Booklist 

JOHN RAY
(Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies; Selwyn)

The Rosetta Stone and the Rebirth of Ancient Egypt (Harvard Univ. Press, $19.95). The author is Herbert Thompson Professor of Egyptology.

“A wonderful introduction not only to the Rosetta Stone and its story, but also to the growth and development of modern Egyptology.” - Publishers Weekly

“Evokes the process of rediscovery, succinctly capturing the story of the stone’s recovery and decipherment.” – The Washington Post  

DONALD RAYFIELD
(Magdalene 1960)

Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him ($17.95, Random House paperback). The author is a professor of Russian and Georgian at the University of London.

“Layered with subplots and striking vignettes and filled with voices (both the victims' cries for help and the commissars' orders for more killing), the horrid saga acquires texture, color and an immediacy that will mesmerize readers almost despite themselves. One marvels at the sheer mastery of craftsmanship that has made this relentlessly depressing, often repugnant material into such a compelling tale.” – Washington Post

SIR PROFESSOR MARTIN REES
(Astronomy; King's)

Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future in This Century – On Earth and Beyond ($25, Basic Books)

"The odds are no better than 50/50 that our species will survive to the end of the 21st century," says the Astronomer Royal.

DAVID REYNOLDS
(Faculty of History; Christ's)

[new!] America, Empire of Liberty: A New History of the United States ($35, Basic Books, October 2009)

“In an animated overview up to the present time, Cambridge historian Reynolds captures the sprawling chronicle of a nation forged from the fires of revolution, populated by immigrants and constantly evolving politically and culturally.... Readers will find Reynolds’s epic overview provocative and enjoyable.” – Publishers Weekly

“Concise...teeming...an evenhanded distillation of America's story from a singular outside observer.” – Kirkus Reviews

A Financial Times “Book of the Year” for 2009

Summits: Six Meetings That Shaped the Twentieth Century ($35, Basic Books)

“The author’s thorough mastery of his subject is reflected in the fluency and assurance of the writing.”—Publishers Weekly

“Lucid, authoritative.... Bound to please both specialists and general readers.” —Kirkus Reviews

"Awarded Britain's Wolfson History Prize, this highly readable book by Cambridge historian Reynolds supplies the backstory to Churchill's massive postwar publishing project: the epic The Second World War.... Packed with detail and vivid characterizations (but still clearly a scholarly, thoroughly researched work), it's a different take on one of the few men capable of both making history and writing it."- Publishers Weekly

"A fascinating piece of literary-historical detective work." - Sunday Times (London)

BEAU RIFFENBURGH
(Wolfson)

Shackleton's Forgotten Expedition: The Voyage of the Nimrod ($15.95, Bloomsbury USA). Featured in CAM Magazine No. 43.  The author earned a PhD at Cambridge and is currently on the staff at the Scott Polar Research Institute.

"For those who thrilled to the Endurance saga, Riffenburgh offers an equally gripping adventure, which laid the foundations of Shackleton's capacity for brilliant leadership under pressure."– Publishers Weekly

BRYAN MARK RIGG
(Darwin)

Rescued from the Reich : How One of Hitler's Soldiers Saved the Lubavitcher Rebbe ($26, Yale University Press)

"Describes high-ranking Nazis who, in a complicated series of actions, helped Rabbi Joseph Schneersohn, the esteemed head of the Hasidic Lubavitcher movement, escape to America in 1940. This is great material—the stuff of Hollywood films... a well-written and vital addition to the literature of Holocaust survivor studies." - Publishers Weekly

"A moving and multidimensional picture of a daring rescue during the Holocaust." - Booklist

DAVID RIGGS

The World of Christopher Marlowe ($30, Henry Holt). The brief, tempestuous life of the renowned Elizabethan playwright, a scholarship student at Corpus Christi.

"This study balances close literary readings with lucidly presented historical context to give us a portrait of a brilliant but volatile enigma who shunned convention in favor of risk and marginality." - Publishers Weekly

"[T]he best one-volume introduction to its subject's life and times. As his title suggests, Riggs supplements our paltry factual knowledge about Marlowe by describing his various milieux: Canterbury and Cambridge, the London theater scene, the world of religious and intellectual iconoclasm and, finally, the dark realm of terrorist plots and political assassination.... Christopher Marlowe is one of those figures about whom one wants to read everything written, and Riggs's book is now the best starting place." - Washington Post

ANDREW ROBERTS
(Gonville & Caius)

[new!] Masters and Commanders: How Four Titans Won the War in the West, 1941-1945 ($35, HarperCollins, May 2009)

"Roberts succeeds in deepening our understanding of the complex interactions between Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt (the ‘masters' of the title) and their senior military advisors (or ‘commanders'), Field Marshal Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and Gen. George C. Marshall, the United States Army chief of staff...." - The Sunday New York Times Book Review

"This is an important book which, in its layered references to Waterloo, the Crimea and the Somme, sees Mr. Roberts lay claim to the title of Britain's finest contemporary military historian." - The Economist

T. G. ROSENTHAL
(Pembroke 1956)

Sidney Nolan ($75, Thames & Hudson). 

"[T]he first survey of Nolan's work since his death.... [A] most welcome look at this compelling 20th-century artist." - Library Journal

ALAN ROSSITER
(Christ's 1975)

Dataset, Inc. ($12.95, IUniverse). A novel of corporate intrigue in the contemporary software industry.

Alan Rossiter holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Cambridge. He has lived and worked in Africa, England and North America, and for a time was president of a small engineering and software company.

SALMAN RUSHDIE
(King's)

The Enchantress of Florence ($26, Random House). Rushdie’s tenth novel is a tale of two cities: Machiavelli’s Florence and Akbar the Great’s capital of Mughal India. A Financial Times "Favourite Book" of 2008.

“[I]t is the hand of the master artist, past all explanation, that gives this book its glamour and power, its humour and shock, its verve, its glory. It is a wonderful tale, full of follies and enchantments. East meets West with a clash of cymbals and a burst of fireworks." - Ursula K. Le Guin in The Guardian

“The Enchantress of Florence is vintage Rushdie, and reminds us, in case we may have forgotten, that he can tell a story across East and West better than anyone else in the language." - Jerry Brotton in The Telegraph

Shalimar the Clown: A Novel ($14.95, Random House Paperbacks).  A New York Times Notable Book for 2005.

"One must congratulate Rushdie for having made artistic capital out of his own suffering, for the years he spent under police protection, hunted by zealots, have been poured into the novel in ways which ring hideously true....  A powerful parable about the willing and unwilling subversion of multiculturalism." – William T. Vollmann in Publishers Weekly

EDWARD RUTHERFURD
(Francis Whittle, Gonville & Caius 1968)

[new!] New York: The Novel ($30.00, Doubleday, November 2009).  The author lived in New York during the 1980s and 1990s.

“…[W]hat makes this novel so entertaining is the riotous, multilayered portrait of a whole metropolis. Rutherfurd offers the reader a chance to watch a rural outcrop grow into one of the world's greatest cities in a mere 350 years. He delivers magnificently on the challenge; it is hard to imagine any other writer combining such astonishing depth of research with the imagination and ingenuity to hold it all together.” – Washington Post

  “Like James Michener and Leon Uris, Rutherfurd does a magnificent job of packaging a crackling good yarn within a digestible overview of complex historical circumstances and events.” —Booklist
 

The Rebels of Ireland: The Dublin Saga ($28.95, Doubleday)

“Rutherford concludes his stirring Dublin Saga with a sweeping follow-up to his widely praised and popular The Princes of Ireland (2004).... Ambitious in scope, teeming with a huge cast of finely drawn and realized characters, and dripping with authentic historical detail, this lengthy but eminently readable narrative will satisfy the appetites of discerning historical fiction aficionados.” – Booklist

"A long, cozy read... a spellbinding tour of ancient Ireland."  - ALA Booklist

CAROL FISHER SALLER
(Newnham) 

[new!] The Subversive Copy Editor: Advice from Chicago (or, How to Negotiate Good Relationships with Your Writers, Your Colleagues, and Yourself) ($13, Univ. of Chicago Press, March 2009)

From the editor of The Chicago Manual of Style's monthly online Q&A. "Saller writes with wisdom and a great generosity of spirit in this singular survival guide to the copy editor's trade. . . . Saller's improbably fun text also makes a cagey introduction to the field….An ideal complement to any style guide: practical, relentlessly supportive and full of ed-head laughs." -- Publishers Weekly

“[A] wonderfully concise yet nuanced guide for the working (or would-be-working) copy editor.” – Booklist

 CHRISTOPHER SANDFORD
(Fitzwilliam 1974)

[new!] Imran Khan ($32.95, HarperCollins, September 2009)

Biography of the colorful Pakistani cricket-team captain turned political figure.  Sanford, who divides his time between Seattle and England, has written biographies of Eric Clapton, David Bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Keith Richards, Steve McQueen, Paul McCartney, and Roman Polanski.

IAN SANSOM
(Christ's 1989)

The Truth about Babies ($19.95, Granta Books), by a "Cambridge academic turned full-time father."  "Give this to friends as they come out of the maternity ward," says Jonathan Sale in CAM Magazine.

"While most books about babies are either manuals crammed with milestones and measurements or sentimental reflections on the nature of parenthood, The Truth about Babies is both honest and unique. It is written as a series of alphabetical meditations on every aspect of the first year of life-from the Apgar Test to zippers, and everthing in between. Sansom's own sharp and tender observations are juxtaposed with those of other thinkers and writers: Nabokov on the experience of pushing a pram, D. H. Lawrence on holding a sleeping child, Ted Hughes on nappies and other examples of the wise and bizarre from the Bible to history, literature, pop culture and folklore." - Word Power

CHARLES SAUMAREZ SMITH
(King's)

[new!] The National Gallery: A Short History ($24.95, Frances Lincoln, July 2009).  The author, who was director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, from 1994 and director of the National Gallery, London, from 2002 to 2007, is now chief executive of the Royal Academy of Arts.  

"Saumarez Smith is particularly good on the architectural history and neatly summarises each director's contribution. Detail is telling." – The Independent (London)

HELEN SCALES
(St. John's)

[new!] Poseidon's Steed: The Story of Seahorses, from Myth to Reality ($20, Gotham, August 2009)

"A true natural history book, covering all aspects of the seahorse's involvement in the world.... Scales is a marine biologist, and her fascination with the subject (she learned to scuba dive in order to observe this remarkable creature) shines through in her easy-to-read style and the way she uses the seahorse as a hook to discuss broader subjects...." -Library Journal

"Effectively examines the seahorse's chameleon qualities, as well as the phenomenon of males giving birth--the only such instance in the animal kingdom. The author is also adept at delineating the seahorse's alleged healing powers...makes a solid case for a rare and wondrous creature." - Kirkus

ALWYN SCARTH
(St. Catharine's)

[new!] Vesuvius: A Biography ($29.95, Princeton Univ. Press, August 2009)

"Scarth gives detailed accounts of each of the volcano's known eruptions, including the possible geological causes, remarkably precise (considering the large historical distance) analysis of lava and pyroclastic flow patterns, and the aftermath.... Readers interested in the earth sciences, antiquity or just a good read will find Scarth's book hard to put down." - Publishers Weekly

SIMON SCHAMA
(Christ's 1963)

 [new!] The American Future: A History  ($29.99, Ecco, May 2009)

“Schama's wide-ranging narratives wander between contemporary reportage and fluent, richly literate history. He's alive to irony and hypocrisy in the American story…but Schama is optimistic that the nation's perennial openness and complexity can see it through the storm clouds ahead.” - Publishers Weekly

“The author's fascination with and affection for the United States shines through, and he provides many engaging insights into the nation's past and future. Ambitious historical examination of what it means to be an American.” – Kirkus Reviews

“With eloquence, wit, passion, and irony, American Future traces the history of an idea: that of our national destiny. It's a rare event: a book by a non-American author that is, in the author's own words, ‘in love with’ the United States.” – Philadelphia Inquirer

Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves, and the American Revolution ($29.95, Ecco)

Winner of the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction.

“Schama once again gives his readers something rare: history that is both well told and well documented…Would that more historians wrote like this.” - Adam Hochschild in Publishers Weekly

Listen to an NPR radio interview with Simon Schama (7 minutes). 

Journals: 1952-2000 ($40, Penguin Press). Writings assembled by the historian’s sons (including Stephen, also a Peterhouse alumnus) after his death in February 2007.

“Schlesinger wrote formal history with sweep and passion and wit. Now he has given us a final gift: informal history with the same sweep, the same passion and the same wit.... It will be a long time before we see another collection of journals as rich, as fascinating and as illuminating as Schlesinger's.”—The Washington Post

STEPHEN C. SCHLESINGER
(Peterhouse 1965)

Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations: A Story of Superpowers, Secret Agents, Wartime Allies and Enemies, and Their Quest for a Peaceful World ($19.95, Basic Books). "A superb book", said Richard Holbrooke in the New York Times Book Review. Schlesinger is the son of historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. (Peterhouse 1938).

“Schlesinger… provides a masterful account of the drama acted out on the pressure-filled stage of San Francisco. He handles the complexities with ease and provides the reader with an engaging and thorough account.” – Publishers Weekly.

"[Schlesinger's] detailed account of the scheming, skullduggery and political horse-trading behind the creation of the UN is a timely reminder of what the organization's founders expected it to become.” The Economist

BEN SCHOTT
(Gonville & Caius)

Schott's Original Miscellany ($14.95, Bloomsbury Press)

"A charming bouquet of statistics, philosophy, and quirk....  It's hard to put the book down....  A window on the world that is hilarious, puzzling, and inspiring." – The Wall Street Journal

A Political Education: Coming of Age in Paris and New York (Melville House, $24.95). Memoir of an eminent book publisher.

“Schiffrin's coming-of-age story acts as a springboard for a series of vivid and insightful vignettes about political developments in the United States, the evolution of the left, and his own political maturation.” - Bookforum

Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution ($30, Metropolitan)

“Scores highly in unraveling not only her subject's complexities but those of his era.” - Publishers Weekly

“A well-balanced, evenly shaded portrait of the man and his motivations, mistakes, and achievements.” – Booklist

HUGH SEBAG-MONTEFIORE
(Magdalene 1974)

Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man ($35, Harvard)

“A narrative triumph. The author has brought together scores of personal accounts to impressive, moving effect.” – Max Hastings, Sunday Telegraph

“Both meticulous military history and a deeply moving testimony to the extraordinary personal bravery of individual soldiers.” – The Times (London)

“First-rate panoramic history....highly affecting.” – New York Times Book Review

“A complex yet accomplished military history of the WWII battle symbolic of British pluck.” – Booklist

SIMON SEBAG-MONTEFIORE
(Gonville & Caius 1984)

Young Stalin ($16.95, Vintage, October 2008)

“[A] meticulously researched, authoritative biography of Stalin’s early years...Montefiore has worked his way with a fine-toothed comb through previously unread archival material in Russia and in Georgia.... He successfully captures ‘the sheer weird singularity of the man’ and the lethal instincts that propelled him to the summit of power.” - The New York Times

“Montefiore enfolds even what is familiar about Stalin in a vivid narrative rich with new details and sensational revelations.” - The Washington Post

Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar ($30, Knopf)

"A British novelist and journalist, with access to previously secret private documents, presents a newly intimate portrait of the Soviet dictator who, despite the oceans of blood on his hands, was capable of tender, humane moments with family and friends." - New York Times Book Review

AMARTYA SEN
(Trinity)

The Argumentative Indian: Writings on Indian History, Culture and Identity ($26, Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Essays from the Nobel Laureate in Economics, Harvard professor, the first non-English Master of Trinity College.

"An intellectual tour de force from an economist who can lay equal claim to the designations of sociologist, historian, political analyst and moral philosopher. A rich and instructive book." - Washington Post Book World

"A bracing sweep through aspects of Indian culture, and a tempered analysis of highly charged disputes surrounding these subjects." - The Financial Times

In Tasmania ($32.50, Overlook)

“A fascinating and expansive history of the island, from its penal-colony origins, when it was known as Van Diemen's Land, to its present-day status as an Australian state.”—Booklist
 
“[A]n irresistible account of a mysterious and beautiful land.” – Library Journal

“Shakespeare's writing is transcendent -- readers will gain a deep understanding not only of Tasmania's history, but of the forces that have shaped its isolated peoples' nature.” – Publishers Weekly

"Brooding, introspective, deftly crafted…a moving story." - Washington Post Book World

"A powerful, ethereal love story set against the twisted politics of East Germany under communism....  A beautifully written, utterly compelling story of love and politics." – Booklist

SIMON SINGH
(Emmanuel)

Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe ($27.95, Fourth Estate/HarperCollins)

"Fast paced…hugely entertaining…a stirring tale of scientific adventure." – The New York Times

TOM ROB SMITH
(St. John's)

[new!] Child 44  ($7.99, Grand Central Publishing, April 2009).

“Set in the Soviet Union in 1953, this stellar debut from British author Smith offers appealing characters, a strong plot and authentic period detail….The evocation of the deadly cloud-cuckoo-land of Russia during Stalin's final days will remind many of Gorky Park and Darkness at Noon, but the novel remains Smith's alone, completely original and absolutely satisfying.” – Publishers Weekly

“Child 44 powerfully personalizes the Orwellian horrors of life in Stalin’s Russia. Almost every page echoes Hobbes’ description of the life of man: ‘nasty, brutish, and short.’ First-novelist Smith’s pacing is relentless; readers wanting to put the book down for a brief rest may find themselves persevering regardless. Expect the same kind of critical acclaim for this compelling tale that greeted the publication of Martin Cruz Smith’s Gorky Park (1981) more than 25 years ago.”—Booklist

ZADIE SMITH
(King's 1994)

[new!] Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays ($26.95, Penguin, November 2009)

“Smith (White Teeth; On Beauty) had a successful debut as a writer shortly after completing college; reading her essays, one understands why. Her examinations of a wide range of subjects confirm her writing talents with wit, candor, occasional self-deprecation, and insight.” – Library Journal.

“….[O]ffers the sort of insight that will not only enlighten fans but should provide plenty of illumination for anyone who appreciates fiction and words and the interplay between writer and reader as much as Smith plainly does….If she'd never written a novel, this collection alone would make me eager to read more of her work.” – Kirkus Reviews. 

On Beauty ($25.95, Penguin).  The latest novel by the author of the acclaimed White Teeth.  A finalist for Britain's Man Booker Prize.

"Wonderfully engaging, wonderfully observed…. a novel that is as affecting as it is entertaining, as provocative as it is humane." - Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times

“[H]er eagerly anticipated second novel is no sophomore slump. It is as bracingly intelligent and humorous as her first [White Teeth].—Booklist.

“[T]he novel's real pleasure lies in the masterfully crafted characters and the small insights that capture something so true of the world that they make the reader sit up in startled recognition.” – Library Journal.

“Intelligent. . . . exquisitely clever. . . . an ironic commentary about fame, mortality, and the triumph of image over reality.” -- Boston Globe.

[new!] Economic Misery and Crime Waves: the Second Great Depression and the Coming Crime Wave, and What We Can Do About It ($17.95, Sikyur Publications, July 2009). Severin L. Sorensen is president of Sikyur LLC, Gaithersburg, MD, a security management consulting company. He earned an MPhil in economics at Cambridge in 1988.

JANET SOSKICE
(Faculty of Divinity; Jesus)

[new!] The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels ($27.95, Knopf, August 2009). The story of how identical twin sisters Margaret and Agnes Smith, Cambridge residents, journeyed to St. Catherine’s Monastery in 1892 and discovered the earliest New Testament manuscripts. The author, a Canadian-born alumna of Cornell, is a University Reader in Philosophical Theology at Cambridge and Fellow of Jesus College.

"[B]y turns a rattling adventure yarn – thick with roving Bedouin and ancient tombs – and a testament to the power of perseverance." - The Washington Post

"You needn't follow a particular religion to become engrossed in this enthralling narrative...a tale of grand adventure and far-flung travels.... Soskice is so adept at making a rarefied subject accessible and vivid that the narrative seems almost cinematic.... Thanks to Soskice's compelling, well-researched book, these extraordinary women have been given the tribute they deserve." - Christian Science Monitor  

JONATHAN SPENCE
(Clare)

Return to Dragon Mountain: Memories of a Late Ming Man ($24.95, Viking, September 2007). Biography of 17th-century Chinese historian and essayist Zhang Dai.

“Spence has opened an unsuspected world…a magic-lantern realm lost until now and movingly retrieved.” – New York Times Book Review 

NIGEL SPIVEY
(Emmanuel 1977; Classics)

Songs on Bronze: The Greek Myths Made Real ($24, Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

"These are not the Greek myths you remember from school....  [Spivey's] racy retelling--in an artfully compressed single narrative--is a heroic feat in itself, suggesting that the songs of Orpheus are no less juicy than a season of The Sopranos. "- The New York Times

"[A] deft analysis of the rise and fall of the games at Olympia. . . an essential resource: always reliable and instructive, often entertaining." - Kirkus Reviews

PETER STANSKY
(King's 1953)

The First Day of the Blitz: September 7, 1940 ($45, Yale Univ. Press, November 2007)

“Terrorism comes in many forms, but when it comes from clear skies it is especially horrifying. Stansky (history, emeritus, Stanford Univ.) focuses on a single day in British history: September 7, 1940, the day the Germans began systematically bombing London.... [R]ecounts the numerous acts of courage and tenacity displayed by Londoners beginning on that first awful day.” – Library Journal

“In The First Day of the Blitz, the Stanford historian Peter Stansky fluently chronicles the day’s events, placing them in the wider context of Britain’s home front and the history of the Blitz.... By focusing on the opening of the struggle, the book illuminates the ironies, paradoxes, and unintended consequences that marked the Blitz—and reminds us that those elements always lie at the heart of history.” – Atlantic Monthly

Sassoon: The Worlds of Philip and Sybil (Yale University Press, $35). Sir Philip and his sister Sybil were two of the most glamorous and fascinating figures in 20th-century England. The author is a professor of history at Stanford University.

"Sir Philip Sassoon (1888-1939), a glamorous and well-known figure in Britain for the first four decades of the twentieth century, was the most eligible bachelor and the greatest host of his time. He attained prominence in the art world, high society and politics. In contrast, his sister Sybil (1894-1989) lived a more private life. Yet she was fascinating in her own right, marrying into the grandest level of the English aristocracy, restoring Houghton - formerly the house of Sir Robert Walpole - to magnificence and serving in the high command of the Women's Royal Naval Service during both world wars." - Biblio.com

DAVID STARKEY
(Fitzwilliam 1964)

Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII ($29.95, HarperCollins). Companion book to the PBS television program.  Also available is the author's earlier book on Tudor history, Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne ($14.95, Harper Perennial).

"A strong, entertaining and occasionally audacious interpretation." - Publishers Weekly

MARK STEVENS & ANNALYN SWAN
(Both King's 1974)

De Kooning: An American Master ($35, Knopf). A biography of the abstract-expressionist painter.  Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for biography.  A New York Times Notable Book, 2005.

"Sweeping, authoritative…remarkably lucid…smart and unflinching." - The New York Times

JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ
(Gonville & Caius 1966)

The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World's Most Prosperous Decade ($25.95, W.W. Norton). Stiglitz, now at Columbia, won the 2001 Nobel Prize in economic science.

"A powerful book written by a powerful intellect." - The New York Times

The Night Climbers: A Novel ($24, Simon Spotlight, September 2007). An awkward Cambridge first-year is lured into perilous pastimes.

“An amazingly accomplished debut.... The writing is elegant, the story decadent.” – The Observer (U.K.)

HEW STRACHAN
(Corpus Christi 1968)

The First World War ($29.95, Viking). The author is a Life Fellow at Corpus Christi and Professor of the History of War at All Souls College, Oxford.

"A splendid book." - Washington Post Book World

The Bloodless Revolution: A Cultural History of Vegetarianism From 1600 to Modern Times (W.W. Norton, $29.95)

“A masterful social and cultural history of a movement that changed the ways people think about the food they eat.” – Publishers Weekly

“Both scholarly and entertaining...a huge feast of ideas.” – Washington Post

SIR JOHN SULSTON & GEORGINA FERRY
(Pembroke 1960)

The Common Thread: A Story of Science, Politics, Ethics and the Human Genome ($24.95, Joseph Henry Press).  Sir John Sulston is a 2002 Nobel Prize co-winner.

“[Sulston] gives a firsthand account of the excitement, hard work, vision, and daring needed to move from worm biology to recommending sequencing of the human genome, while senior and influential colleagues argued vigorously against it. He speaks forcefully of the necessity of keeping the sequence public and freely available.”—Library Journal.

“This is a gripping insider's story of the Human Genome Project, revealing both the exciting science leading to it and the battle to keep the results, ‘the heritage of humanity,’ secure from control by private interests.” – New England Journal of Medicine.

DORON SWADE

The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer ($15, Penguin), investigates the troubles that plagued 19th century engineers as they tried to build the world's first computer.  Swade is a technology historian and Assistant Director of London's Science Museum.

“Swade's able account of this gifted scientist [Babbage], his cohorts and their curious endeavors enhances and broadens the growing body of literature on computer history….Swade's immersion in and love for Babbage's project comes through.”—Publishers Weekly.

“Babbage's story, set against the politics and science of the early Victorian age, is fascinating.”—Library Journal.

“Despite the lack of financial backing, Babbage kept working at his designs, and Swade's exemplary mediation of them for nontechnical readers will fascinate and inform anyone interested in the history of computers.” – Booklist.

JOHN SWENSON-WRIGHT
(Darwin)

Unequal Allies?: United States Security and Alliance Policy Toward Japan, 1945-1960 ($65, Stanford University Press). The author is Fuji Bank Lecturer in Modern Japanese Studies at Cambridge, and a Fellow of Darwin College.

"Unequal Allies is a thoughtful, well-researched, and provocative contribution to our understanding of how, in the wake of a disastrous war, two enemies forged a mutually beneficial and long-lasting relationship."—Journal of Japanese Studies.

"[T]his is a monumental task, but Swenson-Wright handles it with apparent ease, presenting his analysis and conclusions in a clear and readable manner... [The] reader is left with the sense that the USA did handle Japan well."—Asian Affairs.

"This important, well-written book fills a surprising lacuna in historical literature: there is relatively little available on the development of the bilateral security relationship during this important period"—CHOICE. "There occasionally comes a book of refreshing insight and discovery, a book that not just adds to the margin of scholarship but prods the reader to reconsider assumed wisdom. John Swenson-Wright of Cambridge University has written such a book."—Pacific Affairs

MICHAEL TANNER
(Corpus Christi 1955, Faculty of Philosophy, 1961-1997)

Wagner ($12.95, Princeton University Press)

"...A joy to read." - Opera News

"While no one would dispute Wagner's ranking among the most significant composers in the history of Western music, his works have been more fiercely attacked than those of any other composer. Alleged to be an unscrupulous womanizer and megalomaniac, undeniably a racist, Wagner's personal qualities and attitudes have often provoked, and continue to provoke, intense hostility that has translated into a mistrust and abhorrence of his music. In this fiery reassessment of one of the greatest composers in the history of opera, Tanner presents one of the most intelligent and controversial portraits of Wagner to emerge for many years." - Princeton University Press

NATHANIEL TARN
(King's 1946)

Selected Poems, 1950-2000 ($19.95, paperback, Wesleyan University Press). Tarn is Professor Emeritus of comparative literature at Rutgers, and now lives in New Mexico.

"Nathaniel Tarn's Selected Poems collects a half century's work from a life lived between disciplines and continents. An anthropologist turned poet, Tarn moves across an impressive range of myths and geographies in search of a poetry that can speak to the widest range of human concerns, engaging 'the heart of mankind beating from one end of a great city to another which is the whole earth now.' "- Rodney Koeneke from Small Press Traffic

GILLIAN TETT
(Clare)

[new!] Fool's Gold: How the Bold Dream of a Small Tribe at J. P. Morgan Was Corrupted by Wall Street Greed and Unleashed a Catastrophe ($26, Free Press, May 2009). The author, who oversees global market coverage for The Financial Times, earned a PhD in social anthropology at Cambridge.

"Ms. Tett was in the vanguard of those who foresaw the implosion in the credit markets. And in Fool's Gold she provides a densely detailed account of how complicated new kinds of derivatives (financial instruments whose value derives from an underlying asset), which had been intended to help control risk, became a means of amplifying it.... [S]he deftly explicates Wall Street dynamics.... Her book starkly illustrates the folly of using mathematical models to predict human behavior and the Las Vegas-like bet-making embraced by many bankers." - The New York Times

Click here to watch a video of author Gillian Tett.

A Financial Times “Book of the Year” for 2009

MARCEL THEROUX
(Clare 1986)

The Confessions of Mycroft Holmes ($14, Harvest Books)

"A magical novel...an engaging and enjoyable book." - Jonathan Sale in CAM Magazine.

CLAIRE TOMALIN
(Newnham 1980)

Thomas Hardy (Penguin Press, $35). The acclaimed biographer of Jane Austen and Samuel Pepys, Tomalin was awarded an honorary degree at Cambridge in June.

“A feat of distillation and mature judgment…[Tomalin] artfully presents Hardy in his intimate and social world, offering succinct and insightful readings of his work along the way.” - Publishers Weekly

ADAM TOOZE
(Fellow, Jesus; Faculty of History)

The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy (Viking, $32.95). The author is Winner of the 2006 Wolfson History Prize.

“Masterful…painstakingly researched, astonishingly erudite…not only uncovers new explanatory strands for the events that led to and ended the war, but smashes a gallery of preconceptions on the way.” – Financial Times

RICHARD BAXTER TOWNSHEAD
(Trinity)

A Tenderfoot in Colorado (Timberline Books/Univ. Press of Colorado, $24.95, December 2008)

In 1869, fresh from Cambridge, Townshend traveled to frontier Colorado and spent the next several years mining and ranching there before returning to England. He published this colorful memoir, now reprinted in paperback, in 1923.

“There is no shortage of rustlers, crooked gamblers and gunmen. Townshend provides first-hand accounts of Indian wars, environmental devastation, reborn Christians baptizing each other in the South Platte, and the demise of the once vast buffalo herds blanketing Colorado.... A bright, authentic eye-witness account of Colorado's rip-roaring past.” – The Denver Post

KATHLEEN TRACY

Sacha Baron Cohen: The Unauthorized Biography: From Cambridge to Kazakhstan ($13.95, St. Martin’s Press, December 2007)

The first biography of the comedic genius behind the characters Ali G. and Borat – an alumnus of Christ’s College.

“[A] fascinating account.” – Jonathan Sale, in CAM magazine

NICK TROUT
(Corpus Christi)

Tell Me Where It Hurts: A Day of Humor, Healing and Hope in My Life as an Animal Surgeon (Broadway Books, $22.95)

“This is the perfect gift for anyone considering becoming a veterinarian. Trout, a staff surgeon at Boston's Angell Animal Medical Center, has exactly the traits that any pet owner would wish to find in a vet: he's smart, sensitive, experienced, empathic and has an excellent sense of humor. He also happens to be an excellent writer.... [I]n some of the more heart-rending stories…Trout shows his sensitivity to the fact that in each case, the rewards and strength of the bonds with the animals in [pet-owners’] lives proved irresistible, irrepressible, and more than worth the risk.”—Publishers Weekly

HELEN TSE
(Newnham)

Sweet Mandarin: The Courageous True Story of Three Generations of Chinese Women and Their Journey from East to West ($23.95, St. Martin’s Press, July 2008). The author, who studied law at Cambridge, opened a Chinese restaurant in Manchester, England with her two sisters, just as their mother and their grandmother, an immigrant from Hong Kong, had done earlier.

“An easy-flowing tale that subsumes historical changes in personal histories, especially the plight of the author's grandmother.” – Kirkus Reviews  

HELEN VENDLER
(Magdalene)

Invisible Listeners : Lyric Intimacy in Herbert, Whitman, and Ashbery ($19.95, Princeton University Press). According to The New York Times, Harvard's Vendler, an honorary Fellow of Magdalene, is "widely considered to be the most influential poetry critic of the past half-century."

"Helen Vendler... has been writing about literature in lucid prose for more than 40 years. Her Invisible Listeners, a compact study of 'lyric intimacy' in three poets, demonstrates, if you have forgotten, some of the best reasons to read literary criticism." - The New York Times

DAN VYLETA
(Girton, King's)

Pavel & I: A Novel (Bloomsbury USA, $24.95)

“Vyleta's wily debut follows the exploits of an American GI, a German street urchin and an enigmatic prostitute as they struggle to survive both the cold and the looming Cold War.... Vyleta conjures a convincing postwar Berlin in all of its moral ambiguity.” – Publishers Weekly

“[P]lenty of plot (including a dead midget in a suitcase), a crowd of desperate characters (including a whore with a heart of tarnished gold) and an unusual narrative scheme—but most of all, it has atmosphere, a vividly rendered time and place: Berlin in the frigid winter of 1946-47, rubble, starvation and no brakes on anyone’s instinct for self-preservation.” – New York Observer

“[G]rotesque, sometimes funny, and completely chilling, a wonderful re-creation of the Europe of 1946. Dan Vyleta is a name to watch.” – Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Impressive....There is a lot to admire about Pavel & I. As a thriller, it is highly admirable. Like most mysteries, literary and cinematic, this one grows complex nearly to the point of irritation; but unlike most, this one is entirely logical, and every dead body is accounted for.... Readers in search of a good story will find one here.”— Denver Post

NICHOLAS WADE
(King's)

Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors ($24.95, Penguin). Wade is a science reporter for The New York Times.

“Highly recommended for readers interested in how DNA analysis is rewriting the history of mankind.” - Publishers Weekly

“Wade presents the science skillfully, with detail and complexity and without compromising clarity.” - Booklist

“A fascinating account of recent scientific findings. Wade is an especially skillful narrator and his recounting of the twists and turns of early human history is superb.” - The New York Review of Books

ROBIN WATERFIELD
(King's)

[new!] Why Socrates Died: Dispelling the Myths ($27.95, W.W. Norton, June 2009)  The author, who earned his PhD at Cambridge, has translated works of Aristotle, Herodotus, Plato, Plutarch, and Xenophon. 

“Of the many introductory studies on the Athenian judicial system, the trial of Socrates, the conflict between Athens and Sparta and the reasons that democracy gave way to oligarchy in Athens, this is among the clearest, most well-organized and most concise.” – Publishers Weekly

JAMES D. WATSON
(Clare 1952)

Genes, Girls, and Gamow: After the Double Helix ($26, Knopf). A New York Times Notable Book, 2002: "A priceless glimpse into the intellectual circle, and the campus co-ed distractions, that nurtured the revolutionary paradigm discovered by Watson and his collaborator Francis Crick (Caius 1950)."

"This classy memoir reads like a Who's Who of 20th-century science and picks up where the author left off in his classic book, The Double Helix. In 1953, Watson, then 25, and colleague Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA, a historic achievement that won them both the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Here Watson, who quickly became an icon for biology students worldwide, gives a detailed, journal-writer's account of the aftermath, recalling with subtle humor his younger self's professional and equally pressing amorous ambitions." - Publishers Weekly

DONALD WESLING
(Trinity Hall 1960)

Bakhtin and the Social Moorings of Poetry ($39.95, Bucknell University Press). The author, who teaches literature at the University of California, San Diego, applies the theories of Mikhail Bakhtin to poetry.

IAN WHYTE
(Ian Grant-Whyte; Pembroke)

A Dyslexic Doc’s Memoirs ($15.95, Zama Publishing, January 2008)

Overcoming severe dyslexia, South Africa-born Dr. Whyte earned medical degrees at Cambridge (unable to read, he says) and has practiced medicine in Montreal and Arizona.

"Banned in South Africa," says the author.

TOBY WILKINSON
(Downing, Christ's, Clare)

Lives of the Ancient Egyptians: Pharaohs, Queens, Courtiers and Commoners ($40, Thames & Hudson, November 2007). Cambridge Egyptologist Wilkinson has led groundbreaking archaeological expeditions in the Eastern Desert.

The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Ancient Egypt ($50, Thames & Hudson)

An extensive, generously illustrated single-volume dictionary of ancient Egypt -- an indispensable guide to the greatest civilization of the ancient world. All the major archaeological sites of Egypt and the Sudan are described and there is a separate entry for every king who ruled Egypt, from its birth as a state to its conquest by Alexander the Great. Famous pharaohs such as Ramesses and Tutankhamun are featured alongside lesser-known kings like Rudamun and Takelot. Other entries cover Ancient Egypt's most important queens and courtiers, deities, and major works of literature, as well as general cultural topics such as language and medicine. There are explanations of specialist terms used by Egyptologists—such as ankh, Badarian, and cippus—and of Egyptian civilization's distinctive features, including hieroglyphs and mummification.

"Modern scholars have tended to accept that the brilliant civilization of the pharaohs is the product of the rich agricultural surpluses of the Nile floodplain. But ancient rock carvings tell a different story, according to this illustrated treatise on ancient Egypt....  Wilkinson wears his erudition lightly and provides an engaging and clearly written guide to the arcana of pre-historic Egyptology. His book is an invigorating contribution to a vital historiographical debate." - Publishers Weekly

DAVID WILLCOCKS

A Life in Music: Conversations with David Willcocks and Friends, edited by William Owen ($32.95, Oxford Univ. Press, September 2008). Life story of the celebrated former Director of Music at King's College, Cambridge, from his childhood and time as an organ scholar at King's (matric. 1939).

Includes a CD with many of Sir David's famous recordings. "The conversations recorded in Owen's entertaining and illuminating book successfully convey the tremendous enthusiasm for all kinds of music-making that sustained Willcocks in these varied endeavours; it also communicates his profound musical wisdom, decency, and generosity of spirit.  This volume is not merely a fascinating account of a distinguised musical career; it is also, and perhaps more importantly, the story of a rich life lived through music." -Times Literary Supplement.

The Making of Victorian Values: Decency and Dissent in Britain, 1789-1837 (Penguin Press, $27.95)

“Stimulating cultural history…an insightful portrait of a culture war that's strongly reminiscent of modern-day America's.” – Publishers Weekly

“Mr.Wilson's aim, in which he succeeds triumphantly, is to bring to life the cultural texture of the time…an impressive achievement.” – The Economist

SIMON WINCHESTER

The Man Who Loved China: The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist Who Unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom ($27.95, HarperCollins). Timely new biography of Joseph Needham (1900-1995), biochemist, China scholar, longtime Fellow of Caius (Master 1966-1976), one of twentieth-century Cambridge’s most fascinating and eccentric personalities. Winchester (Oxon.) is the bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman (1998) and Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded (2003).

“In Winchester’s estimable hands, Needham’s story comes to life straightaway.... [He] plunges the reader into the action with hardly a break.” – Publishers Weekly 

JAMES WOOD
(Jesus)

How Fiction Works ($24, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, July 2008). A New York Times Sunday Book Review Notable Book for 2008. An Economist magazine "Book of the Year" for 2008.

“[An] eminently readable and thought-provoking treatise on the ways, whys and hows of writing and reading fiction.... Wood, now at the New Yorker and arguably the pre-eminent critic of contemporary English letters, accomplishes his mission of asking a critic's questions and offer[ing] a writer's answers with panache. This book is destined to be marked up, dog-eared and cherished.” – Publishers Weekly

N. T. WRIGHT
(former Fellow and Chaplain, Downing)

Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church ($24.95, HarperOne, February 2008). The author is the Anglican Bishop of Durham, England.

“His conclusions are both simple and world-shaking.... His prose, deep but not murky, is lightened by glints of humor.” – Library Journal

JOSHUA ZEITZ
(Pembroke)

Flapper: A Madcap Story of Sex, Style, Celebrity, and the Women Who Made America Modern ($24.95, Crown).  Dr. Zeitz (B.A. Swarthmore, A.M. and Ph.D. Brown) is a lecturer on American history and Fellow of Pembroke College at Cambridge; he is also a contributing editor at American Heritage magazine.

“An entertaining, well-researched and charmingly illustrated dissection of the 1920s flapper.” – Publishers Weekly

“Truly captures the chaotic spirit of the age.” – The New York Times

WARREN ZIMMERMANN
(King's 1956)

First Great Triumph: How Five Americans Made Their Country a Great Power ($30, Farrar, Straus & Giroux). A New York Times Notable Book, 2002.

"A career diplomat's brilliantly readable book on the Spanish American War and its aftermath."- The New York Times