Brown University students use Claude Lévi-Strauss’s Tristes Tropiques in Principles of Cultural Anthropology

By: Matthew Gutmann, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Brown University My students are hard put to recall another writer, let alone an intellectual giant like Claude Lévi-Strauss, who inveighs against the dangers of literacy, as he does in Tristes Tropiques. It is a great discussion starter. By turns travelogue and scholarly treatise on disappearing cultures

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Do You Teach Performing Arts?

You can search for books across this discipline through our course lists, which cover Dance, Acting Styles, Introduction to Theatre, History of Theatre, Theatre Appreciation, Special Topics, and more. Here is a small selection of the books available:   Dance Acting Styles Introduction to Theatre History of Theatre   Theatre Appreciation   Special Topics  

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Titles for Japanese Culture Day

For Japanese Culture Day, we are sharing titles that celebrate the country’s art, history, and culture. From titles about the history of Japan to classic and modern Japanese literature—ranging from women’s voices and historical, sociological, or religious perspectives—this collection provides an array of perspectives about Japanese culture.

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FROM THE PAGE: An excerpt from Cat Bohannon’s Eve

In this myth-busting, eye-opening landmark account of how humans evolved, Cat Bohannon offers a paradigm shift in our thinking about what the female body is, how it came to be, and how this evolution still shapes all our lives today.   Chapter 1 Milk No sooner had the notion of the Flood subsided, Than a

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A Monthly Update from Penguin Classics: Spooky Edition

Because what you read matters.   Subscribe to the Penguin Classics Newsletter here.   Greetings and welcome to the publisher’s office for a brief visit into the world of Penguin Classics where our editorial team shares some insight into our daily lives through classics. Meet us over socials where we post our newest titles and highlights from our 2,000+ title

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FROM THE PAGE: An excerpt from Shohini Ghose’s Her Space, Her Time

Women physicists and astronomers from around the world have transformed science and society, but the critical roles they played in their fields are not always well-sung. Her Space, Her Time, authored by award-winning quantum physicist Shohini Ghose, brings together the stories of these remarkable women to celebrate their indelible scientific contributions.   Have you ever

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The Author of The Blue Sweater on Our Interconnected World and Combatting Poverty Worldwide

Contributed by Jacqueline Novogratz, author of The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World. Chronicling her first stumbling efforts as a young idealist to understand global poverty and find powerful new ways of tackling it through the creation of the trailblazing organization she runs today, this book is a

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Check out these Halloween inspired horror titles

In celebration of the Halloween season, we are sharing horror titles and books that are aligned with the themes of the holiday: the sometimes unknown and scary creatures, witches, and ghosts. From Edith Wharton’s classic ghost stories and popular novels like Frankenstein and Dracula that are commonly celebrated today, in literature courses and beyond, to

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FROM THE PAGE: An excerpt from Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt’s Tyranny of the Minority

From the authors of How Democracies Die, Tyranny of the Minority is a call to reform our antiquated political institutions before it’s too late. It’s a daunting task, but we have remade our country before—most notably, after the Civil War and during the Progressive Era. And now we are at a crossroads: America will either become

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Breaking Through Author Katalin Karikó Awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Long before the search for a COVID-19 vaccine, the visionary, Hungarian-born biochemist Katalin Karikó knew that an ephemeral and underappreciated molecule called messenger RNA could change the world. Karikó worked for more than three decades at her lab bench, in the single-minded pursuit of a breakthrough that would confirm her hunch: that mRNA could transform ordinary cells into tiny factories

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Translating to Plain Language, an Important Part of Disability Equity

By Julia Watts Belser Image credit: Mohamed Hassan Ever since I began writing Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole, I knew I wanted to craft a plain language version. The book brings disability culture into conversation with Jewish and Christian traditions, inviting readers to explore how disability insights can transform

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FROM THE PAGE: An excerpt from Temple Grandin’s Visual Thinking

A quarter of a century after her memoir, Thinking in Pictures, forever changed how the world understood autism, Temple Grandin transforms our awareness of the different ways our brains are wired. In Visual Thinking, she proposes new approaches to educating, parenting, employing, and collaborating with visual thinkers.   One What Is Visual Thinking? When I

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