The Bagg Translations: Sophocles's The Oedipus Cycle

“Robert Bagg’s renditions of the Oedipus plays are closer to the Greek, in their rhetorical power, precision of image, rhythm, pace and tone, than any other versions I know.”
—Richard P. Martin, Stanford University

These wonderful new translations of Sophocles’s Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Kolonos, and Antigone—together known as The Oedipus Cycle—by award-winning poet and playwright Robert Bagg bring these dynamic works to a new generation of students.

Sophocles’s three great masterpieces dramatize the inexplicable animosity directed at three generations of Thebes’ royal family by Apollo, the inscrutable god who terrifies and deceives his victims into acts of incest, betrayal, and kin murder. These fifth-century BCE family dramas—Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Kolonos, and Antigone—are fraught with horrific crises, confrontations, and excruciating choices, all of which still rivet theatergoers and readers in the 21st century.

Bagg’s translations are modern in idiom while faithful to the Greek. They preserve the complexity of Sophocles’ characters and their dialogue (whether searingly raw, subtly inflected, or infused with humor) and render Sophocles’ choral odes in resonant poetry. The three plays of The Oedipus Cycle, already proven stageworthy, refresh and clarify Sophocles’s narratives for a new generation about to discover timeless sources of pleasure and illumination in classical Greek drama.

If you would like to consider The Oedipus Cycle (paperback, 9780062119995, $14.99) for one of your classes, please request a complimentary copy by filling out our promotion response form.

And, please visit The Complete Sophocles—where you'll find teaching and background materials from Robert Bagg and his co-translator of The Complete Works of Sophocles, James Scully.

New Edition: GETTING FROM COLLEGE TO CAREER by Lindsey Pollak

Recent college graduates are facing one of the most competitive job markets in history. In Getting from College to Career, Lindsey Pollak, career expert and global spokesperson for LinkedIn, gives students 101 must-do things to build a great résumé and gain experience.

In the newly revised edition of Getting from College to Career, Ms. Pollak shows students how to succeed in the real work by using social media on the job hunt, making every networking event a success, standing out in a competitive job market, and avoiding the biggest mistakes in career prep and job hunting.

Ms. Pollak's recent speaking engagements have brought her to colleges across the country--including Amherst College, Columbia University, MIT, Northwestern University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Texas. For more information about booking Ms. Pollak at your college, please contact our speakers bureau.

Meanwhile, take a look at Getting from College to Career now!

Stanley Fish on HOW TO WRITE A SENTENCE (And How to Read One)

Already adopted in hardcover in colleges from California to Connecticut—How to Write a Sentence by Stanley Fish will be available in paperback for the fall semester. (paperback, 9780061840531, $14.99, 8/7/2012)

Stanley Fish, a New York Times columnist and professor, has long been an aficionado of language “I am always on the lookout for sentences that take your breath away, for sentences that make you say,‘Isn’t that something?’ or ‘What a sentence!’” Like a seasoned sportscaster, Fish marvels at the adeptness of finely crafted sentences and breaks them down into digestible morsels, giving students an instant play-by-play.

Stanley Fish’s vibrant analysis takes students on a literary tour of great writers throughout history—from William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and Henry James to Martin Luther King, Jr., Antonin Scalia, and Elmore Leonard. How to Write a Sentence is both a spirited love letter to the written word and a key to understanding how great writing works.

In The Financial Times, Adam Haslett called How to Write a Sentence, “Both deeper and more democratic than The Elements of Style.” And, the praise continues:

“The fun comes from the examples cited throughout: John Updike, Jane Austen . . . all are cited throughout.”—Washington Post

“This splendid little volume describes how the shape of a sentence controls its meaning.”—Boston Globe

If you would like to consider How to Write a Sentence for fall adoption, please request a complimentary copy of the hardcover (9780061840548) now by filling out our promotion response form.

Please remember to take a look at our instructor's guide for How to Write a Sentence.

Now in Paperback: AMERICAN UPRISING by Daniel Rasmussen

Here's a book that got a lot of attention in our booth at this year's American Historical Association conference: Daniel Rasmussen’s American Uprising: The Untold Story of America’s Largest Slave Revolt tells long-neglected story of the 1811 slave rebellion in New Orleans. No North American slave uprising—not Gabriel Prosser, not Denmark Vesey, not Nat Turner—has rivaled the scale of this rebellion either in terms of the number of the slaves involved or in terms of the number who were killed. Over 100 slaves were slaughtered by federal troops and French planters, who then sought to write the event out of history and prevent the spread of the slaves’ revolutionary philosophy. With the Haitian Revolution a recent memory and the War of 1812 looming on the horizon, the revolt had epic consequences for America.

Through original research, Daniel Rasmussen offers a window into the young expansionist country, illuminating the early history of New Orleans and providing new insight into the path to the Civil War, and the slave revolutionaries who fought and died for justice and the hope of freedom.

Eric Foner said, “All those interested in the history of American slavery and its relationship to the larger American experience find themselves in Dan Rasmussen’s debt because of this deeply researched, vividly written, and highly original account of the largest slave revolt in the nineteenth-century United States, which took place in Louisiana in 1811. That memory of this dramatic uprising was so long suppressed is a comment on how uncomfortable the reality of slave rebellion makes Americans. Thanks to Rasmussen we now have the full story of this dramatic moment in the struggle for freedom in this country.”

If you would like to consider American Uprising (paperback, 9780061995224, $15.99) for one of your classes, please request a complimentary copy by filling out our promotion response form.

What is America's number one concern in the polls? UNEMPLOYMENT

In Where Did the Jobs Go—and How Do We Get Them Back?, Scott Bittle, executive editor of the Public Agenda Online, and cowriter Jean Johnson provide students with an entertaining, easy-to-read nonpartisan primer on the nation’s jobs crisis.

Currently, the political discussion about jobs is a morass of posturing, blame and ideology. Where Did the Jobs Go—and How Do We Get Them Back? is a basic guide to the jobs issue written specifically for those who aren’t economists, financiers, or policy wonks working for think tanks. It’s designed to help students sift through the political rhetoric for context and clarification—and it shares some ideas that aren’t being raised by politicians, but which could be crucial to turning the U.S. jobs picture around.

While the topic is serious, solving it doesn’t have to be. Featuring chapters entitled “Has America Lost Its Mojo?”and “Just the Facts, Ma’am,”this book is anything but dry. By applying the same winning approach they used to irreverently explain the federal budget crisis in Where Does the Money Go?, Bittle and Johnson will use pop culture to help define the fundamental concepts that shape the varying economic and jobs proposals. They cover proposals from the political left, right, and center—balancing the budget, cutting taxes, cutting bureaucracy, reviving manufacturing, improving education, starting a major national infrastructure project, closing the gap between rich and poor—and try to help students understand risks, costs, and trade-offs associated with each of them as ways to create jobs. They also offer an in-depth look at the truths and lies frequently thrown around about jobs and technology, globalization, immigration, Baby Boomers, and more.

To consider for course adoption, you may examine Where Did the Jobs Go—and How Do We Get Them Back? (paperback, $16.99, 9780061715662) in print format by filling out our online promotion response form or you may request a Digital Review Copy.

A Tough Subject Made Easier: THE CARTOON GUIDE TO CALCULUS

In The Cartoon Guide to Calculus, Larry Gonick, master cartoonist and former Harvard calculus instructor, offers a complete and up-to-date illustrated course in college-level calculus. Using graphics and humor to lighten what is frequently a tough subject for your students, Gonick teaches all of the course essentials, including functions, limits, derivatives, and integrals, with numerous examples, and applications.

Plus, each chapter includes helpful problem sets, designed to help students cement the lessons learned in each section.

The Cartoon Guide to Calculus has already been given the stamp of approval by educators:

"I always thought that there are no magic tricks that use calculus. Larry Gonick proves me wrong. His book is correct, clear and interesting. It is filled with magical insights into this most beautiful subject."—Persi Diaconis, Professor of Mathematics, Stanford University

“How do you humanize calculus and bring its equations and concepts to life? Larry Gonick’s clever and delightful answer is to have characters talking, commenting, and joking—all while rigorously teaching equations and concepts and indicating calculus’s utility. It’s a remarkable accomplishment—and a lot of fun.”—Lisa Randall, Professor of Physics, Harvard University, and author of Knocking on Heaven's Door

“Gonick is to graphical expositions of advanced materials as Newton or Leibniz is to calculus. The difference is that Gonick has no rival.”—Xiao-Li Meng, Whipple V. N. Jones Professor of Statistics and Department Chair, Harvard University

You can take a look at some of The Cartoon Guide to Calculus (paperback, 9780061689093, $18.99) here or you may request a complimentary examination copy by filling out our promotion response form.

And, of course, don't forget The Cartoon Guide to Physics and The Cartoon Guide to Statistics—both by Larry Gonick.

Think Better. Live Better.

New Year. New you? Let French superstar philosopher Luc Ferry give your 2012 a book as he explains how the history of philosophy can teach you how to live a better life. Thomas Cathcut & Daniel Klein, authors of Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar, call Ferry’s A Brief History of Thought: A Philosophical Guide to Living “a fine introduction to philosophy and its fundamental relevance to living a meaningful life—for everyone from the man in the Acropolis to the man in the street.”

From the timeless wisdom of the ancient Greeks to Christianity, the Enlightenment, existentialism, and postmodernism, Luc Ferry’s brilliantly and accessibly explains the enduring teachings of philosophy—including its profound relevance to modern daily life and its essential role in achieving happiness and living a meaningful life.

Need more philosophy? Take a look at our philosophy catalog.