I founded Beresta Books in 2015 to publish academic and popular non-fiction books that do not fit comfortably within traditional disciplinary boundaries. The main, but not exclusive, focus of this imprint is on Cliodynamics, a transdisciplinary area of research integrating cultural evolution, economic history/cliometrics, macrosociology, mathematical modeling of historical processes, and the analysis of historical databases.

My primary motivation in launching Beresta was the changing relationship between academic publishers and scholars, which became increasingly exploitative after 2000. At the same time the rapidly evolving landscape of publishing created an opportunity for small independent publishers to challenge the dominance of the big, traditional publishing houses.

Beresta Books employs a talented crew of specialists—copy-editors, type-setters, indexers, visual designers, graphic artists, and others—to publish professionally produced, quality print and online books at an affordable price.

In 2019 Beresta Books launched a new series that uses Seshat: Global History Databank to address Big Questions in human history. The first volume, Seshat History of the Axial Age, was published in December 2019, with two other volumes, Seshat History of Moralizing Religion and Seshat History of Human Sacrifice, soon to follow.

Peter Turchin

Publisher

About the name: ‘Beresta’ (birch bark in Russian) was used in medieval Russia as paper is used today to scribble notes for sending to a friend or business partner. The Beresta logo is styled after the Russian letter “B” as it was inscribed on a piece of birch bark with a few strokes of the stylus.