x

Fifteen Eighty Four

Academic perspectives from Cambridge University Press

Menu

Changing My Mind about Language Policy

When I first started studying language policy, I thought I knew where it came from, how it worked, and why it mattered. In my view at the time, language policy was about national politicians trying to...

Katherine S. Flowers | 13 Mar 2024

The Truth About Energy is the truth about change.

A quick Internet search reveals various Truth About books: on nutrition, cancer, Covid, vinyl records, lies, …, to name a few. But whose truth should we believe, learn about, or invest precious time...

John K. White | 8 Mar 2024

Myths and Open Questions of Quantum Mechanics

After a hundred years, the field of quantum mechanics still has much to cause us to ponder. Nevertheless, science has progressed, and we know more than we used to know.  Among the things that have...

David W, Snoke | 8 Mar 2024

We should “rethink corruption”

Have we reached a plateau in our understanding of corruption? I believe so. It’s time to push the boundaries of this discourse, moving what is currently at the periphery of the debate to the forefront...

Lucio Picci | 28 Feb 2024

A Practical Guide to Discussing What Matters Most with Seriously Ill Patients

Navigating Communication with Seriously Ill Patients, Balancing Honesty with Empathy and Hope – The VitalTalk Method is a book written for all clinicians who want to communicate better with seriously...

Elise C. Carey, Gordon J. Wood, Holly B. Yang | 28 Feb 2024

Aztecs: Image and Reality

When I tell anyone what I study, people (even sometimes other academics) think it’s weird, distasteful, or just arcane. If the Indigenous population of the Americas is often seen as an “other,”...

Susan Kellogg | 28 Feb 2024

The Limits of Electoral Democracy: Recovering a Lost Chapter of Anti-Colonialism

In February 1946, the Indian nationalist leader Narendra Deva (1889-1956), who had just spent three long years being held in prison at Ahmednagar Fort by British authorities, published a short essay on...

Tejas Parasher | 27 Feb 2024

Rousseau and Democracy

2024 promises to be a year of decision for democracies worldwide, with important elections scheduled in Taiwan, Venezuela, Mexico, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Several of these elections...

David Lay Williams, Matthew W. Maguire | 26 Feb 2024

To Understand Large Language Models We Need to Go Back to the Basics

Arthur C. Clarke famously stated that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” Most of us have experienced this law with respect to the latest iterations of large language...

Mihai Surdeanu, Marco Antonio Valenzuela-Escárcega | 22 Feb 2024

Two Soviet Humorists’ Extraordinary American Road Trip

A page from the “Negroes” installment of Ilf and Petrov’s “American Photographs” showing a smiling young dancer; a man on the banks of the Mississippi River in New Orleans; and the marquee...

Lisa A. Kirschenbaum | 22 Feb 2024

Obesity unpacked: a journey into complexity

Most people have some dissatisfaction or concern about body weight, fatness, or obesity, either personally or professionally. I wrote ’Understanding Obesity’ out of a dissatisfaction with the dominant...

Stanley Ulijaszek | 15 Feb 2024

WHAT’S CHANGED FOR UK UNIVERSITY MENTAL HEALTH?

As I wrote my book Improving University Mental Health, the commonest question people asked was ‘who is the intended audience?’  If you are reading these words, then the answer is ‘you...

Jane Morris | 14 Feb 2024