Duke University Press: A Field-Defining Publisher Turns 100!
Introduction
The history of publishing at Duke University reaches back to the Trinity College years. In 1901, history professor John Spencer Bassett founded the journal South Atlantic Quarterly, which tackled—not without controversy—issues of race in the South. The Trinity College Press was founded in 1921 and published its first book in 1922. From its inception, the Press was a pioneer: one of the first university presses in the South.
After Trinity College became Duke University, the Press became Duke University press in 1926. The university trustees formally approved President William Preston Few’s recommendation that “the Duke University Press shall be the agency of the University for the publication of books, monographs, and periodicals which shall bear the imprint of the University and for which the University is financially liable” (Approved Minutes of the Board of Trustees, January 25, 1926)
Duke University Press published an average of twelve books per year during its first fifty years, largely focusing on the fields of history, literary studies, sociology, and political science, although its most successful books were in medicine. The Compleat Pediatrician by Wilburt Cornell Davison, the founding dean of Duke University School of Medicine, sold over 100,000 copies in seven editions starting in 1934, and John B. Cahoon's Formulating X-Ray Techniques sold approximately 50,000 copies over nine editions between 1949 and 1979. (See case on opposite wall for more on Davison)
Duke University Press developed many of its current areas of strength in the late 1980s and early 1990s, during the humanities renaissance at Duke. In this period, the university invested heavily in its humanities departments, transforming them into top-tier departments through strategic hiring, including such luminaries as Stanley Fish, Fredric Jameson, Toril Moi, Janice Radway, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and Jane Tompkins. This era fostered the burgeoning of critical theory, queer theory, and cultural studies around the world, and Duke was often at the center of international academic debates. The Press took this opportunity for expansion and played an important role in the flourishing humanities at Duke as interdisciplinary scholarship became a focus of the Press’s catalog. Almost 80 percent of the more than 4,500 Duke University Press books in print were published in the past twenty-five years, many of them focusing on the humanities.
First printed copy of the South Atlantic Quarterly, January 1902.
John B. Cahoon, Cahoon's Formulating X-Ray Techniques (1961)
What is a university press and why are university presses essential to the university?
Almost all large research universities have their own presses. Unlike commercial publishing houses, which look for the profit potential of ideas, university presses are focused on the dissemination of expert, peer-reviewed writing and scholarship. Scholarship published by a university press has been vetted by experts and contributes to the university’s mission to support research, learning, and engagement. In addition to undergoing peer review, every publication from Duke University Press has been approved by an editorial board composed of Duke University faculty members.
When you read a university press book, you can expect that it reflects the best current thinking in any particular area, making these books ideal for teaching and research. Facts and reliable evidence matter to university presses, and scholars partner with these presses to disseminate their important new research. Although some of the books university presses publish are for specialists, the knowledge base in these books informs the general public in myriad ways, from reporters interviewing the authors to museums and other cultural organizations citing the books as inspiration. Because university presses prioritize publishing research instead of printing for profit like other publishing houses, academic researchers have a larger voice in the reading community.
Duke University Press catalog, 1926, 1970, and 2026.
Supporting New Ideas and Authors
In the humanities and interpretive social sciences, publishing a book is often essential for tenure and promotion. Typically, for Research 1 tier institutions, one book is required for tenure (and the job title “Associate Professor”) and a second book is required to be granted full professorship. Duke University Press is proud to publish approximately fifty “first books” by junior scholars each year. That means that each decade, the Press supports approximately five hundred professors in achieving tenure.
Across the decades, Duke University Press has developed a reputation for publishing bold new ideas. Indeed, some of its most successful books have been written by first-time authors generating exciting new scholarship. Over the past five years, two of the Press’s top sellers have been books by first-time authors: Max Liboiron’s Pollution Is Colonialism (2021) and Shannen Dee Williams’s Subversive Habits (2022).
Shannen Dee Williams, Subversive Habits (2022)
Shannen Dee Williams, image courtesy of the author
Max Liboiron, Pollution Is Colonialism (2021)
Max Liboiron, image courtesy of the author
Excellence in Publishing First-Time Authors
Duke University Press is known for a rigorous peer-review process and careful attention to all aspects of book development and publication. As a result, Duke University Press books often have a wide reach and receive accolades in their areas of focus. Here is a sample of four “first book” prizes in a wide range of fields and Duke University Press’s standing compared with that of other university presses.
Top Prizes
Many flagship associations for scholarly disciplines have specialized prizes, run by sections of the associations, as well as major prizes for an entire field. Here, below, is a sample of the major prizes for some of the disciplines in which Duke University Press publishes.
Global Reach in English
Reaching a global audience has become much easier over the past thirty years because of electronic publications. Duke University Press sells e-books and e-journals individually as well as through subject collections and packages.
Global Reach in Translation
In addition to a large English-language readership, the Press also licenses many books to be published in local languages around the world. To date, Duke University Press books have been translated into fifty-four languages in ninety-five countries.
Global Reach
Shown here are examples of five recent best-selling books in translation.
Key publications by Duke faculty in the 1980s and 1990s, during the humanities renaissance at Duke
Orrin Pilkey
Duke University Press’s collaboration with Orrin H. Pilkey (1934–2024), James B. Duke Professor of Earth and Ocean Sciences, spanned nearly four decades. A prolific author, Pilkey wrote twelve books for the Press and edited the series “Living with the Shore.”
Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H. Mamiya,The Black Church in the African American Experience(1990)
With nearly 50,000 print copies sold, The Black Church in the African American Experience was the first Press book to receive a front-page review in the New York Times Book Review. This monumental text is the largest nongovernmental study of urban and rural African American churches ever undertaken. Based on a ten-year research initiative, it draws on interviews with more than 1,800 Black clergy. C. Eric Lincoln was an influential African American scholar, poet, minister, and social activist and was a distinguished professor of religion and culture at Duke University from 1976 to 1993.
Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (1990)
Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism is Fredric Jameson’s most influential work and the Press’s best-selling single-edition book, selling more than 70,000 print copies since its publication in 1990. (X-Ray Techniques and The Compleat Pediatrician are the Press’s two best-selling books across multiple editions.) The New York Times, in its 2024 obituary, called Jameson “one of the world’s leading literary theorists for over 40 years.” Jameson joined Duke’s Program in Literature in 1985 and was instrumental in transforming the university into an internationally recognized hub for the humanities.
Stanley Fish, Doing What Comes Naturally: Change, Rhetoric, and the Practice of Theory in Literary and Legal Studies (1989)
Stanley Fish was chair of the Duke English department from 1986 to 1992 and director of Duke University Press from 1994 to 1998. He and his wife, feminist literary scholar Jane Tompkins, were part of the humanities renaissance at Duke. Along with Fred Jameson, he took the lead in convincing the administration that improving the Press was a core part of making Duke a top-ranked university.
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Tendencies (1993)
As a preeminent voice and foundational figure in queer theory, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick was central in building that area of publication for the Press, through her own books and founding of “Series Q.” In its 2009 obituary, The Nation called her a “brilliant, inimitable and explosive intellectual.” Sedgwick served as an English professor at Duke University from 1988 to 1997, establishing the university as a leading institution for gender and sexuality studies.
The Latin America and World Readers
Duke University Press’s Latin American studies list has been recognized for its intellectual rigor and interdisciplinary innovation for nearly a century. Among the first books Duke University Press published were Latin America history monographs, including the 1926 book Church and State in Mexico, 1822–1857, by Wilfrid Hardy Callcott. Many of the Press’s early Latin American studies books were focused on history and political science, later growing to include anthropology, sociology, media studies, and cultural studies. The “Latin America Readers” series, which later expanded to become the “World Reader” series, has been taken up widely by scholars, students, and travelers. The series is edited by Duke professor of cultural anthropology and history Orin Starn and Robin Kirk, faculty co-chair of the Duke Human Rights Center.
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