“Language is different from every other subject you’ll ever study, because language is a part of everything you’ll ever study,” David Crystal writes in A Little Book of Language, now available in paperback. Written to appeal to readers in their early teens and late 50s alike, Crystal’s book is a
Follow @yaleSCIbooks What with the tents that have been pitched in parks all over the country and the slogans to be found on everything from Twitter feeds to t-shirts, it is starting to seem like everything in America is occupied. Yet for those of us far from Wall Street, the
Melissa Harris-Perry must be busy. A professor of political science at Tulane University, a columnist for The Nation, and frequent guest and host on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show, she has spent the last few months giving interviews—on everything from her take on the new movie The Help to her politics—in
Follow @yaleSCIbooks The newest 3@2 Interview brings Terry Lecturers Nancy Ellen Abrams and Joel R. Primack, authors of The New Universe and the Human Future, to discuss the new scientific picture of the universe and its meaning for our lives, societies, and long-term future as a species. Yale University
Follow @yaleSCIbooks Sarah Underwood— I assume that this week, the halls of elementary schools across America have been decorated with Pilgrim men and women, whose shiny buckles and white aprons were cut cleanly from construction paper. I don’t remember ever drawing stains or smudges on my Pilgrims’ clothing as a
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but if David Margolick’s new book Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock is any indication, a thousand is a low estimate. While the book itself only runs 320 pages, since its September release date, many pages more have been
Follow @yaleSCIbooks Growing up, many of us were taught that our left brain was the source of reason and logic, while our right brain ruled over imagination and creativity. However, according to prominent psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist, this is not the whole truth. In a video recently posted on the website
Michal Raz-Russo, Curatorial Assistant in the Department of Photography at the Art Institute of Chicago and editor of the new book The Three Graces, has offered us a behind-the-scenes look at some of the detective work that went into this ambitious project, which investigates the cultural influences that shaped women’s
Follow @yaleSCIbooks Sharon McGrayne’s The Theory That Would Not Die is the story about a statistical method of analysis that almost wasn’t. Created by the Reverend Thomas Bayes and further molded by scientist Pierre-Simon Laplace, Bayes’ theorem is a statistical analysis method for probability that takes an initial guess or
Follow @yaleSCIbooks A self-published book encourages parents to employ corporal punishment to tragic effect, the New York Times reported Monday. The book, To Train Up a Child, is the work of Tennessee preacher Michael Pearl and his wife Debi, and includes recommendations on how to use “the rod” to make