Video Archive

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Watch Harvard University Press authors discuss their books, series editors describe their projects, and designers explain the book production process.

Collapse 2013

Jacket: River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom, by Walter Johnson, from Harvard University Press

Walter Johnson places the Cotton Kingdom at the center of worldwide webs of exchange and exploitation in River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom

River of Dark Dreams: Slavery and Empire in the Cotton Kingdom
Jacket: American Umpire, by Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman, from Harvard University Press

In American Umpire, Elizabeth Cobbs Hoffman offers a powerful new framework for assessing America’s role in the world

American Umpire

Collapse 2012

Jacket: The Rise of China vs. the Logic of Strategy, by Edward N. Luttwak, from Harvard University Press

Edward N. Luttwak questions the common conception of China’s inexorable ascent, as laid out in The Rise of China vs. the Logic of Strategy

The Rise of China vs. the Logic of Strategy
Jacket: Planet Without Apes, by Craig B. Stanford, from Harvard University Press

Craig B. Stanford describes the threats facing the great apes, our closest primate relatives, and the tragic prospect of a Planet Without Apes

Planet Without Apes
Jacket: Underdogs: The Making of the Modern Marine Corps, by Aaron B. O’Connell, from Harvard University Press

In Underdogs: The Making of the Modern Marine Corps, Aaron B. O’Connell outlines how a strong sense of identity has enabled the Corps to exert a powerful influence on American politics and culture

Underdogs: The Making of the Modern Marine Corps
Jacket: Triumphs of Experience: The Men of the Harvard Grant Study, by George E. Vaillant, from Harvard University Press

George E. Vaillant discusses Triumphs of Experience: The Men of the Harvard Grant Study, which details the late-life findings of the the longest longitudinal study of human development ever undertaken

Triumphs of Experience: The Men of the Harvard Grant Study
Jacket: The Verdict of Battle: The Law of Victory and the Making of Modern War, by James Q. Whitman, from Harvard University Press

James Q. Whitman explains his argument in The Verdict of Battle: The Law of Victory and the Making of Modern War—that the unbridled bloodshed of pitched battle actually served to contain the violence of war

The Verdict of Battle: The Law of Victory and the Making of Modern War
Jacket: Measurement, by Paul Lockhart, from Harvard University Press

Paul Lockhart, author of Measurement, discusses the pleasures and frustrations—but mostly the pleasures—of doing math

Measurement
Jacket: London: A History in Verse, edited by Mark Ford, from Harvard University Press

Editor Mark Ford describes the process of collecting the most evocative, representative, and iconic poetry about London for London: A History in Verse

London: A History in Verse
Jacket: Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer, by Kenneth W. Mack, from Harvard University Press

Kenneth W. Mack, author of Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer, describes the paradox of being expected to represent one’s race while also standing apart from it

Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer
Jacket: The Short American Century: A Postmortem, edited by Andrew J. Bacevich, from Harvard University Press

Editor Andrew J. Bacevich describes the impetus behind The Short American Century: A Postmortem, a new collection of essays on the age of reputed American preeminence

The Short American Century: A Postmortem
Jacket: Among the Powers of the Earth: The American Revolution and the Making of a New World Empire, by Eliga H. Gould, from Harvard University Press

Eliga H. Gould presents his argument in Among the Powers of the Earth: The American Revolution and the Making of a New World Empire—that the founding of the United States was a bid for inclusion in the community of nations as it existed in 1776

Among the Powers of the Earth: The American Revolution and the Making of a New World Empire
Jacket: Dictionary of American Regional English, a project of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, published by Harvard University Press

Joan Houston Hall, Chief Editor of the Dictionary of American Regional English, and Erin McKean, founder of Wordnik, explain the history and significance of this authoritative record of American English

The Dictionary of American Regional English
Jacket: Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times, by Robin D.G. Kelley, from Harvard University Press

Robin D.G. Kelley describes how Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times, a collective biography of four jazz musicians from the U.S. and Africa, helps us to understand how musical convergences and crossings altered the politics and culture of both continents

Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in Revolutionary Times
Jacket: Freedom Papers: An Atlantic Odyssey in the Age of Emancipation, by Rebecca J. Scott and Jean M. Hébrard, from Harvard University Press

Rebecca J. Scott outlines the multigenerational quest for freedom and respect that she presents with co-author Jean M. Hébrard in Freedom Papers: An Atlantic Odyssey in the Age of Emancipation

Freedom Papers: An Atlantic Odyssey in the Age of Emancipation
Jacket: An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization, by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, from Harvard University Press

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak explains the radical reorientation in her thinking presented in An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization, her new collection of essays on theory, translation, Marxism, gender, and world literature

An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalization

Collapse 2011

Jacket: The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire, by Raymond Jonas, from Harvard University Press

Raymond Jonas explains the global historical significance of Ethiopia’s defeat of Italy in 1896, as detailed in The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire

The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire
Jacket: Becoming Dickens: The Invention of a Novelist, by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst, from Harvard University Press

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst describes his new biography of Charles Dickens, Becoming Dickens: The Invention of a Novelist, as a “zero-to-hero” story

Jacket: The Harvard Sampler: Liberal Education for the Twenty-First Century, edited by Jennifer M. Shephard, Stephen M. Kosslyn, and Evelynn M. Hammonds, from Harvard University Press

Evelynn M. Hammonds, Dean of Harvard College, explains the impetus for The Harvard Sampler: Liberal Education for the Twenty-First Century, a collection of essays on topics at the forefront of academia

The Harvard Sampler: Liberal Education for the Twenty-First Century
Jacket: American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era, by David W. Blight, from Harvard University Press

David W. Blight describes American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era, his study of four American writers grappling with the memory of the Civil War during the American Centennial

American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era
Jacket: Invasion of the Body: Revolutions in Surgery, by Nicholas L. Tilney, from Harvard University Press

Nicholas L. Tilney discusses Invasion of the Body: Revolutions in Surgery, in which he details surgery’s advance from the dangerous province of itinerant practitioners to a highly specialized discipline practiced in over 85,000 elective procedures each weekday in modern American hospitals

Invasion of the Body: Revolutions in Surgery
Jacket: Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China, by Ezra F. Vogel, from Harvard University Press

Ezra F. Vogel discusses Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China and the challenges Deng faced after taking his position as China’s pre-eminent leader

Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China
Jacket: Reasoning from Race: Feminism, Law, and the Civil Rights Revolution, by Serena Mayeri, from Harvard University Press

Serena Mayeri, author of Reasoning from Race: Feminism, Law, and the Civil Rights Revolution, describes how feminists borrowed rhetoric and legal arguments from the civil rights movement in the 1960s and ’70s

Reasoning from Race: Feminism, Law, and the Civil Rights Revolution
Jacket: Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong, by Brandon L. Garrett, from Harvard University Press

Brandon L. Garrett describes in Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong how DNA exonerations have shattered confidence in the criminal justice system by examining cases in which we have convicted the innocent and let the guilty walk free

Convicting the Innocent: Where Criminal Prosecutions Go Wrong
Jacket: Capitalizing on Crisis: The Political Origins of the Rise of Finance, by Greta R. Krippner, from Harvard University Press

Greta R. Krippner discusses Capitalizing on Crisis: The Political Origins of the Rise of Finance, in which she argues that the financialization of the U.S. economy was the largely inadvertent result of policymakers’ unwillingness to confront distributional crises

Capitalizing on Crisis: The Political Origins of the Rise of Finance
Jacket: Shi’ism: A Religion of Protest, by Hamid Dabashi, from Harvard University Press

In Shi’ism: A Religion of Protest, Hamid Dabashi explains the soul of Shi’ism as a religion of protest—successful only when in a warring position, and losing its legitimacy when in power

Shi’ism: A Religion of Protest
Jacket: The Offensive Internet: Speech, Privacy, and Reputation, edited by Saul Levmore and Martha C. Nussbaum, from Harvard University Press

Martha C. Nussbaum and Saul Levmore, co-authors of The Offensive Internet: Speech, Privacy, and Reputation, discuss the abuses made possible by the anonymity, freedom from liability, and lack of oversight that currently characterize the Internet

The Offensive Internet: Speech, Privacy, and Reputation
Jacket: The Evolution of the Human Head, by Daniel E. Lieberman, from Harvard University Press

Daniel E. Lieberman describes some of the research included in The Evolution of the Human Head that will permanently change the study of human evolution and carry widespread ramifications for thinking about other branches of evolutionary biology

The Evolution of the Human Head

Collapse 2010

Jacket: How Many Friends Does One Person Need?: Dunbar’s Number and Other Evolutionary Quirks, by Robin Dunbar, from Harvard University Press

Tim Jones, Director of Design and Production at Harvard University Press, discusses his jacket design process for Robin Dunbar’s eclectic collection of essays, How Many Friends Does One Person Need?: Dunbar’s Number and Other Evolutionary Quirks

How Many Friends Does One Person Need?: Dunbar’s Number and Other Evolutionary Quirks
Jacket: The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume III: From the “Age of Discovery” to the Age of Abolition, Part 1: Artists of the Renaissance and Baroque, edited by David Bindman and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., from Harvard University Press

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., co-editor of the Image of the Black in Western Art series, explains the history of this monumental research project and photo archive

The Image of the Black in Western Art
Jacket: Pride and Prejudice: An Annotated Edition, by Jane Austen, edited by Patricia Meyer Spacks, from Harvard University Press

An inside look at the design and production of HUP’s new annotated edition of Jane Austen’s classic novel, Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice: An Annotated Edition
Jacket: Roosevelt’s Purge: How FDR Fought to Change the Democratic Party, by Susan Dunn, from Harvard University Press

Tim Jones, Director of Design and Production at Harvard University Press, discusses his jacket design process for Susan Dunn’s study of FDR’s unprecedented battle to drive his foes out of his party, Roosevelt’s Purge: How FDR Fought to Change the Democratic Party

Roosevelt’s Purge: How FDR Fought to Change the Democratic Party
Jacket: Facing Catastrophe: Environmental Action for a Post-Katrina World, by Robert R.M. Verchick, from Harvard University Press

Robert R.M. Verchick outlines his prescriptions for better protecting our environment and communities from disasters, as detailed in Facing Catastrophe: Environmental Action for a Post-Katrina World

Facing Catastrophe: Environmental Action for a Post-Katrina World
Jacket: Saturday Is for Funerals, by Unity Dow and Max Essex, from Harvard University Press

In Saturday Is for Funerals, Unity Dow and Max Essex show—in true-life stories of loss and quiet heroism, activism and scientific initiatives—how the experiences of battling HIV/AIDS in Botswana offer practical lessons along with the critical element of hope

Saturday Is for Funerals
Jacket: The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America, by Khalil Gibran Muhammad, from Harvard University Press

Khalil Gibran Muhammad discusses The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America, his disentangling of crime as a fact of the urban experience from crime as a theory of race in American history

The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime, and the Making of Modern Urban America

Collapse 2009

Jacket: A New Literary History of America, edited by Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors, from Harvard University Press

Lindsay Waters, Executive Editor for the Humanities at Harvard University Press, describes A New Literary History of America, edited by Greil Marcus and Werner Sollors—a collection of more than two hundred original essays that presents a new, kaleidoscopic view of what “Made in America” means

A New Literary History of America
Jacket: Sharks and Rays of Australia, Second Edition, by Peter R. Last and John D. Stevens, from Harvard University Press

Peter R. Last and John D. Stevens introduce the new edition of Sharks and Rays of Australia, their catalog of the greatest diversity of sharks and rays on Earth

Sharks and Rays of Australia, Second Edition
Jacket: Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being, by Esther M. Sternberg, M.D., from Harvard University Press

Esther M. Sternberg, M.D., immerses us in the discoveries that have revealed a complicated working relationship between the senses, the emotions, and the immune system, in Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being

Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being
Jacket: Fresh: A Perishable History, by Susanne Freidberg, from Harvard University Press

Susanne Freidberg discusses Fresh: A Perishable History, in which she explains the curious story of the quality we call freshness

Fresh: A Perishable History

Collapse 2008

Jacket: The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found, by Mary Beard, from Harvard University Press

Mary Beard makes sense of the remains of Pompeii, offering us the big picture of the inhabitants of the lost city, in The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found

The Fires of Vesuvius: Pompeii Lost and Found
Jacket: Your Spirits Walk Beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion, by Barbara Dianne Savage, from Harvard University Press

Barbara Dianne Savage describes Your Spirits Walk Beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion, her history of African American religion as the story of a powerful but ambivalent Christian legacy in African American life

Your Spirits Walk Beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion
Jacket: Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War, by Thomas G. Andrews, from Harvard University Press

Thomas G. Andrews discusses Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War, his award-winning study of the 1914 Ludlow Massacre and the “Great Coalfield War”

Killing for Coal: America’s Deadliest Labor War

Collapse Earlier

Jacket: 1812: War with America, by Jon Latimer, from Harvard University Press

The late Jon Latimer describes 1812: War with America, the first complete history of the War of 1812 to be written from a British perspective

1812: War with America
Jacket: Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, by David W. Blight, from Harvard University Press

David W. Blight discusses Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory and how a nation chose healing over justice

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Celebrating 100 Years of Excellence in Publishing: Harvard University Press Centennial, 1913-2013 [Picture of birthday cake]