Brookings Press Blog

Allied Social Science Associations 2008 Convention

The Brookings Press joined several thousand participants in New Orleans at the 2008 convention of the American Economic Association/Allied Social Science Associations (AEA/ASSA), America’s largest congregation of academic and professional economists. In between multiple feedings of crawfish etouffee, jambalaya, and piping hot gumbo, we managed to display our newest books in business and economics as well as meeting with some current and potential future authors.

BIP representatives Chris Kelaher and Jaime Fearer were very excited at the prospect of traveling to warmer climes in early January. Much to their chagrin, however, the Big Easy was nearly as cold as Washington when we landed. Who gets frostbite in Louisiana?! Fortunately, things warmed up as the week progressed. The city was packed, as the New Orleans tourism officials managed to sneak the ASSA convention in between the Sugar Bowl (between Georgia and Hawaii) and the BCS National Championship football game between Ohio State and Louisiana State. Bourbon Street was a sea of scarlet and gray as Buckeye fans poured into the Delta: “Toto, we’re not in Columbus anymore!” (They weren’t nearly as happy a few days later: LSU prevailed, 38–24.)

Our most popular title at ASSA was Yegor Gaidar’s Collapse of an Empire: Lessons for Modern Russia. Tied for second were Opportunity 08, edited by Michael O'Hanlon, and Cliff Winston’s Government Failure vs. Market Failure.

Panel topics that captured people’s attention included expert discussions of the subprime crisis, climate change, the economics of national defense, and post-Katrina recovery. Among the speakers commanding large audiences were Paul Krugman, Jamie Galbraith, Joseph Stiglitz, Alan Blinder, and Robert Shiller.

Next year’s ASSA convention will be held January 3–5 in San Francisco. If economics is your bailiwick, maybe we’ll see you in the Bay Area.

- Learn more about ASSA.

- Check out the titles that were popular at ASSA:

• Collapse of an Empire by Yegor Gaidar.
  
• Opportunity 08, edited by Michael O'Hanlon.
  
• Government Failure vs. Market Failure by Cliff Winston.

'Tis the Season

Regional Fall Trade Shows Modify Programs

For years now Brookings Press has participated, through our independent sales representatives, in a majority of the regional book association fall trade shows, including: Great Lakes Booksellers Association (GLBA), Midwest Booksellers Association (MBA), Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association (MPIBA), New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA), Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA), and Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA).

This year, we’re excited to be attending NAIBA in Baltimore alongside our sales rep—we’ll be in booth #521, so stop by and say hi! While we couldn’t miss out on an opportunity so close to home, we are also looking forward to the new program NAIBA is introducing, which in essence transforms the trade show format to a booksellers’ sales conference. It seems that the regional booksellers associations were collectively revamping and Publishers Weekly recently noted some of the program metamorphoses occurring this fall:

Among the changes happening this year are Mountains and Plains' inclusion of editors as speakers; Great Lakes having a movable feast with reps instead of authors; North Atlantic creating a sales conference model; and the Southern region's shift in trade show hours that might allow for one fewer hotel night for attendees.

The regional shows provide a local focus in addition to a more intimate setting for networking than BookExpo America, and this year’s evolution is an exciting milestone in independent bookselling.

- Learn more about PNBA in Portland, OR, September 19-21.

- Learn more about GLBA in Schaumburg, IL, September 28-30.

- Learn more about MPIBA in Denver, CO, September 27-30.

- Learn more about MBA in Minneapolis, MN, October 5-7.

- Learn more about NCIBA in Oakland, CA, October 5-7.

- Learn more about NAIBA in Baltimore, MD, October 14-15 – and visit us in booth #521!

(Illustration by Calef Brown/Salon)

Political Scientists Run Amok in the Windy City

Brookings Press displays new books at American Political Science Association convention

Over Labor Day weekend, the Brookings Press joined 7,000 other participants at the annual convention of the American Political Science Association. We proudly displayed our newest materials in American and comparative politics, public policy and administration, and international relations while enjoying the pleasures of late summer in beautiful Chicago.

In addition to exhibiting, we met with a number of scholars to discuss possible manuscripts or, in several cases, projects that are already well underway and will soon be Brookings books. We even found time to party a little—our annual reception was a big hit.

Among our most popular titles at APSA were Blindside, edited by Francis Fukuyama and A Matter of Faith: Religion in the 2004 Presidential Election, edited by David Campbell of Notre Dame.

Next year’s APSA convention will be held August 28 through the 31st, in Boston.

- Learn more about APSA.

- Check out another report on APSA 2007 from an acquisitions editor at Penn Press.

Benjamin E. Lippincott Award

Brookings scholar Anthony Downs to be honored by APSA

Brookings scholar Anthony Downs will be awarded the Benjamin E. Lippincott Award at the American Political Science Association (APSA) annual meeting in Chicago next week. Downs will receive this award for his book, An Economic Theory of Democracy, which was published by Harper and Brothers in 1957. According to APSA, the award recognizes “a work of exceptional quality by a living political theorist that is still considered significant after a time span of at least 15 years since the original date of publication.”

Downs is the author or editor of several popular Brookings books, including the landmark Stuck in Traffic (1992), and the updated Still Stuck in Traffic (2004), as well as Growth Management and Affordable Housing (2004).

The Brookings Press will be exhibiting at APSA from August 30 to September 2. Visit us at booths 306, 308, and 310, where we’ll feature over 200 titles.

- Read APSA’s 2007 awards announcement.

- Learn more about Still Stuck in Traffic.

- Learn more about Growth Management and Affordable Housing.

- Learn more about APSA.

The Results Are In: Climate Change Tops the Charts

Our “issues election” at BookExpo America 2007 focused on the issues that most concern this year’s attendees

This year at BookExpo America, we polled the attendees about which issues were most important to them. In keeping with the idea of the forthcoming book Opportunity 08: Independent Ideas for America’s Next President, the poll focused the discussion on today’s pertinent issues rather than the presidential candidates and their views. Members of the Press whittled the 26 topics presented in Opportunity 08 down to 5: climate change, health care, homeland security, immigration, and Iraq.

Our booth at BEA had five canisters, each labeled with one of the five topics. Attendees were asked to place a marble in the canister for the issue that was of most importance to them; this type of voting eliminated the possibly partisan stance of the voter and solely measured the amount of interest in the topic itself. Climate change, the winner of our marble poll, received 31.55% percent of the votes, beating out Iraq by 3 percentage points. Health care came in third with 26.13% of the votes. Surprisingly (to us, at least), immigration received just 7.82% of the votes and homeland security garnered only 6.04%.

The goal of our issues election was to focus on the issues that matter to voters in this unusually wide-open presidential election. The results indicate substantial interest in more dialogue on climate change, the situation in Iraq, and the health care system.

Citizens are clearly saying they want to hear more from candidates about the issues and less about partisan politics. Opportunity 08 aims to help presidential candidates and the public focus on critical issues facing the nation, providing ideas, policy forums, and information on a broad range of domestic and foreign policy questions.

- Learn more about Opportunity 08, the book.

- Learn more about Opportunity 08, the project.

- Learn more about BookExpo America.