Published this week

? = Review forthcoming

ARCHAEOLOGY

- Archaeology as Political Action

By Randall McGuire, professor of anthropology, Binghamton University

University of California Press, £38.95 and £17.95

ISBN 9780520254909 and 4909

This book builds on the history of archaeological theory and Marxist dialectical theory to show how archaeologists can use their craft to evaluate interpretations of the real world, construct meaningful histories for communities and challenge the persistent legacies of colonialism and class struggle.

ART

- Educating Artists for the Future: Learning at the Intersections of Art, Science, Technology, and Culture

Edited by Mel Alexenberg, professor of art and Jewish thought, University College of Judea and Samaria in Ariel, and Emunah College in Jerusalem

Intellect Books, £29.95

ISBN 9781841501918

Some of the world's most innovative thinkers in the arts offer fresh directions for educating artists and designers for a post-digital future.

- Picasso and Apollinaire: The Persistence of Memory

By Peter Read, chair and professor of French, University of Kent

University of California Press, £29.95

ISBN 9780520243613

An examination of the creative interaction and fraternal complicity between the artist and the poet, as reflected in such works as Picasso's polymorphous portraits of Apollinaire and his 1907 drawings for Apollinaire's Bestiary poems.

COMPUTER SCIENCE

- Digital Dice: Computational Solutions to Practical Probability Problems

By Paul J. Nahin, professor of electrical and computer science, University of New Hampshire

Princeton University Press, £16.95

ISBN 9780691126982

Nahin aims to show how to get answers to difficult probability problems without having to solve complicated mathematical equations, challenging readers to solve problems from determining the odds of coin-flipping games to figuring out the behaviour of lifts.

FILM STUDIES

- Hong Kong New Wave Cinema (1978-2000)

By Pak Tong Cheuk, head and associate professor of the department of cinema and television, Hong Kong Baptist University

Intellect Books, £19.95

ISBN 9781841501482

Tong presents a comprehensive picture of the films made in this vibrant era and the complexity of issues they tackle, such as East-West conflict, colonial politics, the struggle of women in a modern Asian city and identity crisis.

LAW

- Marx and Law

Edited by Susan Easton, reader in law, Brunel University

Ashgate, £145.00

ISBN 97807546326

This collection of classic articles affirms Marx's continuing relevance to modern debates on the role of law, addressing issues including justice and injustice, the critique of liberal legalism, the ideological nature of law and international human rights law.

- ? The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State

By Noah Feldman, professor of law, Harvard Law School

Princeton University Press, £13.50

ISBN 9780691120454

Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of sharia - the law of the traditional Islamic state - in the modern Muslim world.

- ? Patent Failure: How Judges, Bureaucrats, and Lawyers Put Innovators at Risk

By James Bessen, part-time lecturer in law, and Michael J. Meurer, Michaels faculty research scholar and professor of law, Boston University

Princeton University Press, £17.95

ISBN 9780691134918

A look at the economic performance of patents, asking whether they work well as property rights, and, if not, what institutional and legal reforms are required to make the system more effective.

LITERATURE

- Worshipping Walt: The Whitman Disciples

By Michael Robertson, professor of English, College of New Jersey

Princeton University Press, £16.95

ISBN 9780691128085

This is claimed to be the first book on the Whitman disciples - the fascinating, eclectic group of 19th-century men and women who regarded him not simply as a poet but as a religious prophet.

MATHEMATICS

- Algebraic Curves over a Finite Field

By J. W. P. Hirschfeld, professor of mathematical sciences, University of Sussex, G. Korchmaros, professor of mathematics, University of Basilicata, and F. Torres, professor of mathematics, University of Campinas

Princeton University Press, £50.00

ISBN 9780691096797

The authors seek to provide an introduction to the theory of algebraic curves over a finite field, a subject that has applications in areas such as finite geometry, number theory, error-correcting codes and cryptology.

PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

- The Essential Writings of Mahatma Gandhi

Edited by Judith M. Brown, Beit professor of the history of the British Commonwealth, University of Oxford

Oxford University Press, £10.99

ISBN 9780192807205

This new selection of Gandhi's writings demonstrates how his thinking was truly radical, dealing with problems from the roots upwards: in the lives of individuals, of societies and of political structures.

- Patriotism: Philosophical and Political Perspectives

Edited by Igor Primoratz, associate professor of ethical issues in political violence and state sovereignty, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, University of Melbourne, and Aleksandar Pavkovic, associate professor in the department of politics and international relations, Macquarie University

Ashgate, £55.00

ISBN 9780754671220

This collection of new essays by philosophers and political theorists engages with a wide range of conceptual, moral and political questions raised by the current revival of patriotism. It examines both similarities and differences between patriotism and nationalism, and considers the proposal of Habermas and others to disconnect the two.

POLITICS

- Beyond Regionalism? Regional Cooperation, Regionalism and Regionalization in the Middle East

Edited by Cilja Harders, professor of Oriental politics, Freie Universitat Berlin, and Matteo Legrenzi, lecturer in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa

Ashgate, £55.00

ISBN 9780754649939

This volume offers refined theoretical models and approaches that are attuned to the new dynamics and contradictions of a range of regionalist projects in the contemporary Middle East.

SOCIAL SCIENCES

- The Sociology of Zygmunt Bauman: Challenges and Critique

Edited by Michael Hviid Jacobsen, lecturer in sociology, Aalborg University and Poul Poder, adjunct professor of sociology, University of Copenhagen

Ashgate, £55.00

ISBN 9780754670605, £55.00

This collection introduces and critically appraises Bauman's contributions to sociology, illuminating how he challenges conventional wisdom in the field, concluding with an original contribution by Bauman about himself.

- Domesticating the World: African Consumerism and the Genealogies of Globalization

By Jeremy Prestholdt, assistant professor of history, University of California, Santa Cruz

University of California Press, £35.00 and £14.95

ISBN 9780520254244 and 4237

This book offers a compelling new perspective on global interconnectivity in the 19th century, examining East African consumers' changing desires for material goods from around the world in an era of sweeping social and economic change.

- Cop in the Hood: My Year Policing Baltimore's Eastern District

By Peter Moskos, assistant professor of law, police science and criminal justice administration, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Princeton University Press, £14.95

ISBN 9780691126555

An insider's story of what it is really like to be a police officer on the front line of the war on drugs, providing a window into this world that outsiders never see: the thriving drug corners, the nerve-rattling patrols and the heartbreaking failure of the 911 emergency services line.