University of Chicago Press

Arthur Bahr · University of Chicago Press · 2025

In this book, Bahr explores the four poems and 12 illustrations of the "Pearl-Manuscript," the only surviving medieval copy of two of the best-known Middle English poems: "Pearl" and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." He explores how the physical manuscript enhances our perception of the poetry, drawing on recent technological advances that show it to be a more complex piece of material, visual, and textual art than previously understood. By connecting the manuscript's construction to the text's intricate language, Bahr suggests new ways to understand the power of poetry.

Jonathan Gruber · University of Chicago Press · 2025

As formal long-term care becomes unaffordable for seniors in many countries, public systems and unpaid caregivers increasingly bear the burden of supporting the world's aging population. "Long-Term Care around the World" is a comparative analysis of long-term care in 10 wealthy countries that considers the social costs of both formal and informal care -which is critical, given that informal unpaid care is estimated to account for one-third of all long-term care spending.

David Thesmar · University of Chicago Press · 2025

Two economists examine the interplay between our desire to be good, the personal costs of being good, and the point at which people abandon goodness due to its costs. Aided by the results of two surveys, they find that the answers to modern moral dilemmas are economic, and often highly predictable. Our values may guide us, but we are also forced to consider economic costs to settle decisions.

Susan Solomon · University of Chicago Press · 2024

We solved planet-threatening problems before, Solomon argues, and we can do it again. She knows firsthand what those solutions entail, as she gained international fame as the leader of a 1986 expedition to Antarctica, making discoveries that were key to healing the damaged ozone layer. She saw a path from scientific and public awareness to political engagement, international agreement, industry involvement, and effective action. Solomon connects this triumph to the stories of other past environmental victories - against ozone depletion, smog, pesticides, and lead - to extract the essential elements of what makes change possible.

Lerna Ekmekcioglu · University of Chicago Press · 2023

In her chapter, Ekmekcioglu contends that the Treaty of Lausanne, which followed the first world war, is an often-overlooked event of great historical significance for Armenians. The treaty became the "birth certificate" of modern Turkey, but there was no redress for Armenians. The chapter uses new research to reconstruct the dynamics of the treaty negotiations, illuminating both Armenians' struggles as well as the international community's struggles to deliver consistent support for multiethnic, multireligious states.

Heather Hendershot · University of Chicago Press · 2022

Hendershot revisits TV coverage of the 1968 Democratic convention - the street violence and the tumultuous convention itself, where Black citizens challenged southern delegations that had excluded them, anti-Vietnam delegates sought to change the party's war policy, and journalists and delegates were bullied by Daley's security forces and party leaders. Hendershot reveals the convention as a pivotal moment in American political history when a mistaken notion of "liberal media bias" became mainstreamed and nationalized.

Caley Horan · University of Chicago Press · 2021

Horan shows that "the rise and dissemination of neoliberal values ... were the result of a project to unsocialize risk, shrinking the state's commitment to providing support." This has had the effect of laying burdens on people who are often the least capable of bearing them.

David Kaiser · University of Chicago Press · 2020

Kaiser introduces readers to iconic episodes in physicists' still-unfolding quest to understand space, time, and matter. He explores moments of discovery and debate among the minds of Albert Einstein, Erwin Schrödinger, Stephen Hawking, and many more who have indelibly shaped our understanding of nature as they've tried to make sense of a messy world.