Welcome to Debate this Book, a blog forum dedicated to discussion, debate and examination.  My name is Michael Gentile and I am the Director of Academic Marketing at Random House.  My colleagues and I could not be more excited about the potential for this new project but we must say upfront: the success of this endeavor lays completely at your fingertips. 

We’ve asked leading authors published by Random House—many of whom are your colleagues—to write brief essays taking a position on an issue in academe or in the wider world, positions further explored in more detail in the author’s book.  We then invite you, the academic reader, to respond to the author’s piece—to agree, to disagree, to share your own thoughts and experiences.  Authors will then reply to the responses, creating a conversation around important topics of our day.

Our team is committed to working with our authors to develop provocative and interesting essays, and we’ll regularly update the site to keep the conversation going but the debate, and thus this site, will only work with your involvement.

So dig in, post a comment and help make this a site worth reading.