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Books published by publisher Stanford University Press

  • Confessions

    Saint Augustine, Henry Chadwick

    Paperback (Oxford University Press, Feb. 15, 2009)
    In his own day the dominant personality of the Western Church, Augustine of Hippo today stands as perhaps the greatest thinker of Christian antiquity, and his Confessions is one of the great works of Western literature. In this intensely personal narrative, Augustine relates his rare ascent from a humble Algerian farm to the edge of the corridors of power at the imperial court in Milan, his struggle against the domination of his sexual nature, his renunciation of secular ambition and marriage, and the recovery of the faith his mother Monica had taught him during his childhood. Now, Henry Chadwick, an eminent scholar of early Christianity, has given us the first new English translation in thirty years of this classic spiritual journey. Chadwick renders the details of Augustine's conversion in clear, modern English. We witness the future saint's fascination with astrology and with the Manichees, and then follow him through scepticism and disillusion with pagan myths until he finally reaches Christian faith. There are brilliant philosophical musings about Platonism and the nature of God, and touching portraits of Augustine's beloved mother, of St. Ambrose of Milan, and of other early Christians like Victorinus, who gave up a distinguished career as a rhetorician to adopt the orthodox faith. Augustine's concerns are often strikingly contemporary, yet his work contains many references and allusions that are easily understood only with background information about the ancient social and intellectual setting. To make The Confessions accessible to contemporary readers, Chadwick provides the most complete and informative notes of any recent translation, and includes an introduction to establish the context. The religious and philosophical value of The Confessions is unquestionable--now modern readers will have easier access to St. Augustine's deeply personal meditations. Chadwick's lucid translation and helpful introduction clear the way for a new experience of this classic.About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
  • Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps: How to Thrive in Complexity

    Jennifer Garvey Berger

    Paperback (Stanford University Press, Jan. 29, 2019)
    Author and consultant Jennifer Garvey Berger has worked with all types of leaders―from top executives at Google to nonprofit directors who are trying to make a dent in social change. She hears a version of the same plea from every client in nearly every sector around the world: "I know that complexity and uncertainty are testing my instincts, but I don't know which to trust. Is there some way to know what to do when I can't know what's next?" Her newest work is an answer to this plea. Using her background in adult development, complexity theories, and leadership consultancy, Garvey Berger discerns five pernicious and pervasive "mind traps" to frame the book. These are: the desire for simple stories, our sense that we are right, our desire to get along with others in our group, our fixation with control, and our constant quest to protect and defend our egos. In addition to understanding why these natural impulses steer us wrong in a fast-moving world, leaders will get powerful questions and approaches that help them escape these patterns.
  • American Horizons: U.S. History in a Global Context, Volume II: Since 1865

    Michael Schaller, Robert Schulzinger, Janette Thomas Greenwood, Andrew Kirk, Sarah J. Purcell, Aaron Sheehan-Dean, John Bezis-Selfa, Christina Snyder

    Paperback (Oxford University Press, Sept. 15, 2017)
    American Horizons, Third Edition, presents the traditional narrative of U.S. history in a global context. The authors use the frequent movement of people, goods, and ideas into, out of, and within America's borders as a framework. This unique approach provides a fully integrated global perspective that seamlessly contextualizes American events within the wider world. The authors, all acclaimed scholars in their specialties, use their individual strengths to provide students with a balanced and inclusive account of U.S. history.Presented in two volumes for maximum flexibility, American Horizons, Third Edition, illustrates the relevance of U.S. history to American students by centering on the matrix of issues that dominate their lives. These touchstone themes include population movements and growth, the evolving definition of citizenship, cultural change and continuity, people's relationship to and impact upon the environment, political and ideological contests and their consequences, and Americans' five centuries of engagement with regional, national, and global institutions, forces, and events. In addition, this beautifully designed, full-color book features hundreds of photos and images and more than 100 maps.
  • American Horizons: U.S. History in a Global Context, Volume I

    Michael Schaller, Janette Thomas Greenwood, Andrew Kirk, Sarah J. Purcell, Aaron Sheehan-Dean, Christina Snyder

    Paperback (Oxford University Press, Sept. 15, 2017)
    American Horizons, Third Edition, presents the traditional narrative of U.S. history in a global context. The authors use the frequent movement of people, goods, and ideas into, out of, and within America's borders as a framework. This unique approach provides a fully integrated global perspective that seamlessly contextualizes American events within the wider world. The authors, all acclaimed scholars in their specialties, use their individual strengths to provide students with a balanced and inclusive account of U.S. history.Presented in two volumes for maximum flexibility, American Horizons, Third Edition, illustrates the relevance of U.S. history to American students by centering on the matrix of issues that dominate their lives. These touchstone themes include population movements and growth, the evolving definition of citizenship, cultural change and continuity, people's relationship to and impact upon the environment, political and ideological contests and their consequences, and Americans' five centuries of engagement with regional, national, and global institutions, forces, and events. In addition, this beautifully designed, full-color book features hundreds of photos and images and more than 100 maps.
  • Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era

    James M. McPherson

    Paperback (Oxford University Press, Dec. 11, 2003)
    Filled with fresh interpretations and information, puncturing old myths and challenging new ones, Battle Cry of Freedom will unquestionably become the standard one-volume history of the Civil War.James McPherson's fast-paced narrative fully integrates the political, social, and military events that crowded the two decades from the outbreak of one war in Mexico to the ending of another at Appomattox. Packed with drama and analytical insight, the book vividly recounts the momentous episodes that preceded the Civil War--the Dred Scott decision, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry--and then moves into a masterful chronicle of the war itself--the battles, the strategic maneuvering on both sides, the politics, and the personalities. Particularly notable are McPherson's new views on such matters as the slavery expansion issue in the 1850s, the origins of the Republican Party, the causes of secession, internal dissent and anti-war opposition in the North and the South, and the reasons for the Union's victory.The book's title refers to the sentiments that informed both the Northern and Southern views of the conflict: the South seceded in the name of that freedom of self-determination and self-government for which their fathers had fought in 1776, while the North stood fast in defense of the Union founded by those fathers as the bulwark of American liberty. Eventually, the North had to grapple with the underlying cause of the war--slavery--and adopt a policy of emancipation as a second war aim. This "new birth of freedom," as Lincoln called it, constitutes the proudest legacy of America's bloodiest conflict.This authoritative volume makes sense of that vast and confusing "second American Revolution" we call the Civil War, a war that transformed a nation and expanded our heritage of liberty.
  • The Battle of Midway

    Craig L. Symonds

    Paperback (Oxford University Press, Usa, Sept. 1, 2013)
    There are few moments in American history in which the course of events tipped so suddenly and so dramatically as at the Battle of Midway. At dawn of June 4, 1942, a rampaging Japanese navy ruled the Pacific. By sunset, their vaunted carrier force, the Kido Butai, had been sunk and their grip on the Pacific had been loosened forever. In this absolutely riveting account of a key moment in the history of World War Ii, leading naval historian Craig L. Symonds paints an unforgettable portrait of ingenuity, courage, and sacrifice. Symonds begins with the arrival of Admiral Chester A. Nimitz at Pearl Harbor after the devastating Japanese attack, and describes the key events leading to the climactic battle, including both Coral Sea the first battle in history against opposing carrier forces and Jimmy Doolittle's daring raid of Tokyo. He focuses throughout on the people involved, offering telling portraits of Admirals Nimitz, Halsey, Spruance and numerous other Americans, as well as the leading Japanese figures, including the poker loving Admiral Yamamoto. Symonds' account of the battle itself is masterful, weaving together the many disparate threads of attack attacks which failed in the early going that ultimately created a five minute window in which three of the four Japanese carriers were mortally wounded, changing the course of the Pacific war in an eye blink.
  • Do Morals Matter?: Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump

    Joseph S. Nye

    Hardcover (Oxford University Press, Jan. 2, 2020)
    Americans constantly make moral judgments about presidents and foreign policy. Unfortunately, many of these assessments are poorly thought through. A president is either praised for the moral clarity of his statements or judged solely on the results of their actions. In Do Morals Matter?, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., one of the world's leading scholars of international relations, provides a concise yet penetrating analysis of the role of ethics in US foreign policy during the American era after 1945. Nye works through each presidency from FDR to Trump and scores their foreign policy on three ethical dimensions of their intentions, the means they used, and the consequences of their decisions. Alongside this, he also evaluates their leadership qualities, elaborating on which approaches work and which ones do not. Regardless of a president's policy preference, Nye shows that each one was not fully constrained by the structure of the system and actually had choices. He further notes the important ethical consequences of non-actions, such as Truman's willingness to accept stalemate in Korea rather than use nuclear weapons.Since we so often apply moral reasoning to foreign policy, Nye suggests how to do it better. Most importantly, presidents need to factor in both the political context and the availability of resources when deciding how to implement an ethical policy-especially in a future international system that presents not only great power competition from China and Russia, but a host of transnational threats: the illegal drug trade, infectious diseases, terrorism, cybercrime, and climate change.
  • Crime and Punishment

    Fyodor Dostoevsky, Sarah J. Young, Nicolas Pasternak Slater

    Hardcover (Oxford University Press, Nov. 12, 2017)
    "One death, in exchange for thousands of lives - it's simple arithmetic!"A new translation of Dostoevsky's epic masterpiece, Crime and Punishment (1866). The impoverished student Raskolnikov decides to free himself from debt by killing an old moneylender, an act he sees as elevating himself above conventional morality. Like Napoleon he will assert his will and his crime will be justified by its elimination of "vermin" for the sake of the greater good. But Raskolnikov is torn apart by fear, guilt, and a growing conscience under the influence of his love for Sonya. Meanwhile the police detective Porfiry is on his trail. It is a powerfully psychological novel, in which the St Petersburg setting, Dostoevsky's own circumstances, and contemporary social problems all play their part.
  • A Brief History of Neoliberalism

    David Harvey

    Paperback (Oxford University Press, Jan. 18, 2007)
    Neoliberalism--the doctrine that market exchange is an ethic in itself, capable of acting as a guide for all human action--has become dominant in both thought and practice throughout much of the world since 1970 or so. Writing for a wide audience, David Harvey, author of The New Imperialism and The Condition of Postmodernity, here tells the political-economic story of where neoliberalization came from and how it proliferated on the world stage. Through critical engagement with this history, he constructs a framework, not only for analyzing the political and economic dangers that now surround us, but also for assessing the prospects for the more socially just alternatives being advocated by many oppositional movements.
  • A History of US: The First Americans: Prehistory-1600 A History of US Book One

    Joy Hakim

    Paperback (Oxford University Press, Feb. 1, 2007)
    Recommended by the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy as an exemplary informational text.Thousands of years--way before Christopher Columbus set sail--wandering tribes of hunters made their way from Asia across the Bering land bridge to North America. They didn't know it, but they had discovered a New World. The First Americans is a fascinating re-creation of pre-Columbian Native American life, and it's an adventure of a lifetime! Hunt seals with the Inuit; harvest corn on a cliff-top mesa; hunt the mighty buffalo; and set sail with Leif Erickson, Columbus, and all the early great explorers--Cabot, Balboa, Ponce de Leon, Cortes, Henry the Navigator, and more--in this brilliantly told story of America before it was America.About the Series:Master storyteller Joy Hakim has excited millions of young minds with the great drama of American history in her award-winning series A History of US. Recommended by the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy as an exemplary informational text, A History of US weaves together exciting stories that bring American history to life. Hailed by reviewers, historians, educators, and parents for its exciting, thought-provoking narrative, the books have been recognized as a break-through tool in teaching history and critical reading skills to young people. In ten books that span from Prehistory to the 21st century, young people will never think of American history as boring again.
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  • A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction

    Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein, Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King, Shlomo Angel

    Hardcover (Oxford University Press, March 15, 1977)
    You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to work with your neighbors to improve your town and neighborhood; you can use it to design an office, or a workshop, or a public building. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction. After a ten-year silence, Christopher Alexander and his colleagues at the Center for Environmental Structure are now publishing a major statement in the form of three books which will, in their words, "lay the basis for an entirely new approach to architecture, building and planning, which will we hope replace existing ideas and practices entirely." The three books are The Timeless Way of Building, The Oregon Experiment, and this book, A Pattern Language. At the core of these books is the idea that people should design for themselves their own houses, streets, and communities. This idea may be radical (it implies a radical transformation of the architectural profession) but it comes simply from the observation that most of the wonderful places of the world were not made by architects but by the people. At the core of the books, too, is the point that in designing their environments people always rely on certain "languages," which, like the languages we speak, allow them to articulate and communicate an infinite variety of designs within a forma system which gives them coherence. This book provides a language of this kind. It will enable a person to make a design for almost any kind of building, or any part of the built environment. "Patterns," the units of this language, are answers to design problems (How high should a window sill be? How many stories should a building have? How much space in a neighborhood should be devoted to grass and trees?). More than 250 of the patterns in this pattern language are given: each consists of a problem statement, a discussion of the problem with an illustration, and a solution. As the authors say in their introduction, many of the patterns are archetypal, so deeply rooted in the nature of things that it seemly likely that they will be a part of human nature, and human action, as much in five hundred years as they are today.
  • By the People: Debating American Government

    James Morone, Rogan Kersh

    Paperback (Oxford University Press, Jan. 2, 2017)
    The past two years have been anything but "politics as usual" in the United States.By The People, Third Edition, reflects the dynamism of American government and politics with new teaching and learning tools that prepare students to ENGAGE, THINK, and DEBATE now more than ever before.In a storytelling approach that weaves contemporary examples together with historical context, By the People: Debating American Government, Third Edition, explores the themes and ideas that drive the great debates in American government and politics. It introduces students to big questions like Who governs? How does our system of government work? What does government do? and Who are we? By challenging students with these questions, the text gets them to think about, engage with, and debate the merits of U.S. government and politics.