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Although much has been written on international crises, the literature suffers from a lack of historical depth, and a proliferation of competing theoretical frameworks. Through case studies drawing on the rich historical experience of crisis diplomacy, James Richardson offers an integrated analysis based on a critical assessment of the main theoretical approaches. Due weight is given to systemic and structural factors, but also to the specific historical factors of each case, and to theories which do not presuppose rationality as well as those which do. Crisis diplomacy the major political choices made by decision makers, and their strategies, judgments and misjudgments - is found to play a crucial role in each of the case studies. This broad historical inquiry is especially timely when the ending of the Cold War has removed the settled parameters within which the superpowers conducted their crisis diplomacy.

Take it from author W. James Richardson, there are plenty of Significant African American Achievements and Contributions that you have never heard. He discusses many of them in his educational and uplifting book Hardly Inferior Nor a Burden to America, where he opens a new door to teaching African American history. Readers will enjoy his fresh approach on the events and people that have been overlooked in traditional history books. His book is rich with chapters that acknowledge African American achievements and reveal that several former U.S. presidents had black ancestry. Hardly Inferior serves as a prideful resource for African Americans and is an enlightenment for all Americans. This is Richardson’s first published non-fiction work. He is also the author of four race-themed novels. His book The Ballroom Dancing Capers was adapted into a stage play, Misbegotten is being promoted for a movie, and his novel The Ghost of Emmett Till is a perennial favorite with readers. His novels can be reviewed and purchased at his website

Richardson's recent critical success has created fresh interest in his older out-of-print work.

National Book Award Finalist Book of the Year honors from Publishers Weekly "As if hurled from a pitching mound, James Richardson's aphorisms and images approach the reader like fastballs, only to curve at the last second, painting the corners of the reader's mind with wisdom and delight. In By the Numbers Richardson dips into an expansive repertoire of approaches and shows excellent command, as he illuminates the commute between the ordinary and the mystical." —National Book Award finalist, Judges' Citation “[O]ne of America’s most distinctive contemporary poets…a powerful and moving body of work that in its intimacy and philosophical naturalism is unique in contemporary American poetry.” —Boston Review “James Richardson’s Interglacial, a poetry finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, is like a beautiful river, under the thin surface of which rushes an intensely felt life and a never quite lost yearning to belong.” —NewPages “James Richardson’s poetry is…unusual, quirky, personal, and profound.” —The Threepenny Review “James Richardson is…a poet who earned his reputation as a master of imagery and concision.” —The Christian Science Monitor James Richardson is the author of six books of poetry and two critical studies. His poems appear frequently in The New Yorker, Slate, and Paris Review. He is a professor of English and creative writing at Princeton University.

Classic meets contemporary in James Richardson’s ninth collection. Writers from Bashō to Hardy, from Merwin to Porchia, inspire meditations on everything from artichokes to cosmology that somehow morph into fables of limitation and desire. This “new poetry made the old way” takes seriously the task of lightening and illuminating our experience, and especially, of distilling it. As Richardson writes, “The road not taken also would have gotten me home.” More than sixty poems of ten lines or fewer, and two sequences of Richardson’s trademark aphorisms and “ten-second essays,” are set alongside surging lyric meditations and odes. For Now celebrates nows of every length, from the sweep of cosmic evolution, to the span of a life, to the glint of dew on a cold shovel.

"For James Richardson, poetry is serious and speculative play for both intellect and imagination… [He] makes familiar scenes strange enough to provoke new and startling insights."—National Book Award Judges "James Richardson is . . . a poet who earned his reputation as a master of imagery and concision."—The Christian Science Monitor "[O]ne of America's most distinctive contemporary poets . . . a powerful and moving body of work that in its intimacy and philosophical naturalism is unique in contemporary American poetry."—Boston Review "James Richardson's poetry is . . . unusual, quirky, personal, and profound."—The Threepenny Review In this seriously playful new collection, James Richardson enters into underused and forgotten places in our emotional spectrum to revive lost feelings. His breathtaking skill with aphorisms open portals of new perspective to refresh us with their humor and make the familiar reinvigorated with the blessedly strange. From "Big Scenes": And what was King Kong ever going to do with Fay Wray, or Jessica Lange, but climb, climb, climb and get shot down? No wonder Gulliver's amiably chatting with that six-inch woman in his palm. Desire's huge, there's really nowhere to put it in this small world that it will stay put: might as well just talk… James Richardson is the author of six books of poetry, including By the Numbers, which was a National Book Award finalist, and his poems appear regularly in The New Yorker. He is a professor of English and creative writing at Princeton University and lives in New Jersey.

This is the first comprehensive biography of Willie Brown, one of California's most enduring and controversial politicians. Audacious, driven, talented—Brown has dominated California politics longer and more completely than any other public figure. James Richardson, a senior writer for The Sacramento Bee, takes us from Brown's childhood, through his years as Speaker of the State Assembly, to his election as San Francisco's mayor. Along the way we get a riveting, behind-the-scenes account of three decades of California politics. This is the first comprehensive biography of Willie Brown, one of California's most enduring and controversial politicians. Audacious, driven, talented—Brown has dominated California politics longer and more completely than any other public figure. James