Each month, the editors of the Oxford African American Studies Center provide insights into black history and culture by offering specially commissioned featured essays, photo collections, and a selected list of articles to further guide the reader. The August 2006 report explores the people and musical styles that influenced the development of hip hop. Twice [...]

By Anatoly Liberman
Many words resemble mushrooms growing on a tree stump: they
do not have common roots but are still related.  I will use few examples, because if you have seen one, you
have seen them all.  Nothing is
known about the origin of cub, which
surfaced in English texts only in 1530 (that is, surprisingly late).  It may [...]

“As daylight slowly returned and the wind eased during the morning of Tuesday, August 25, survivors emerged, stunned, from the debris. Some wept, some were stoic, and many were so dazed they did not recognize their profoundly altered surroundings. In many places, little but rubble stretched as far as the eye could see. What [...]

Dallol, Ethiopia
Coordinates: 14° 14 N | 40° 18 E
Elevation: -157 feet (-48 meters)
If beating the heat is your goal, then Death Valley, California–the
hottest location in the United States–might be one spot to avoid in late August. Dallol, Ethiopia is another. A small settlement in the state of Afar near the Eritrean [...]

Below is an excerpt from the preface of The Accidental Investment Banker.

Each month, the editors of the Oxford African American Studies Center provide insights into black history and culture by offering specially commissioned featured essays, photo collections, and a selected list of articles to further guide the reader. The August 2006 report explores the people and musical styles that influenced the development of hip hop. Twice [...]

Oxford University Press congratulates Terence Tao on his prodigious accomplishment, winning the Fields Medal. The Fields Medal, which is named after Canadian mathematician John Charles Fields and awarded by the International Mathematical Union every four years, is the most prestigious international prize a mathematician can receive. Tao, who was born in Adelaide, Austrailia and now [...]

Mount Cuba was the home of Lammot du Pont Copeland and his wife Pamela from 1937 until her death in 2001. They sited their Georgian house (Victorin and Samuel Homsey, architects) atop one of Delaware’s highest hills with magnificent views across steep hills and deep valleys of the Eastern American Piedmont, to the Delaware river [...]

OUP Staff:
How did you come to write this book?
Jonathan Knee:
Over the years as an investment banker and a business school teacher, two related phenomena have always struck me. First, how little the general public understands what investment bankers actually do. Even other professionals and clients who deal with investment bankers often find the bankers’ role [...]

Each month, the editors of the Oxford African American Studies Center provide insights into black history and culture by offering specially commissioned featured essays, photo collections, and a selected list of articles to further guide the reader. The August 2006 report explores the people and musical styles that influenced the development of hip hop. Twice [...]