Published this week

July 10, 2008

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

- Principles of Snow Hydrology

By David R. DeWalle, professor emeritus of forest hydrology, Pennsylvania State University. Cambridge University Press, £75.00. ISBN 9780521823623

This book describes the factors that control the accumulation, melting and runoff of water from seasonal snowpacks, addressing not only the principles governing snow in the hydrologic cycle, but the latest applications of remote sensing.

FOOD STUDIES

- Grape vs. Grain: A Historical, Technological, and Social Comparison of Wine and Beer

By Charles Bamforth, Anheuser-Busch endowed professor of brewing science, University of California, Davis. Cambridge University Press, £16.99. ISBN 9780521849371

Charles Bamforth explores several paradoxes involving beer and wine, paying special attention to the culture surrounding each. He argues that beer can be just as grown-up and worldly as wine, and is part of a healthy, mature lifestyle.

HISTORY

- The Crisis of Imprisonment: Protest, Politics, and the Making of the American Penal State, 1776-1941

By Rebecca M. McLennan, associate professor of history, University of California, Berkeley. Cambridge University Press, £40.00 and £19.99. ISBN 9780521830966 and 7834

The author covers the periods of deep instability, popular protest and political crisis characteristic of early American prisons, detailing the debate surrounding prison reform.

LITERATURE

- Enacting Englishness in the Victorian Period: Colonialism and the Politics of Performance

By Angelia Poon, assistant professor in the department of English language and literature, Nanyang Technological University. Ashgate, £50.00. ISBN 9780754658481

Poon examines the ways in which British colonial authority in the 19th century was predicated on its being rendered in ways that were recognisably "English", focusing on the strategies used to perform English subjectivity during the time of the British Empire.

MATHEMATICS

- A Primer of Infinitesimal Analysis

By John L. Bell, professor of philosophy and adjunct professor of mathematics, University of Western Ontario. Cambridge University Press, £30.00. ISBN 9780521887182

In this new edition, basic calculus is presented through the use of a rigorous, axiomatically formulated concept of "zero-square", or "nilpotent" infinitesimal - that is, a quantity so small that its square and all higher powers can be set, literally, to zero.

PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

- Liturgy and Architecture: From the Early Church to the Middle Ages

By Allan Doig, chaplain, tutor for graduates, fellow of Lady Margaret Hall and member of the faculty of theology, University of Oxford. Ashgate, £55.00 and £15.99. ISBN 97807546524 and 48

Doig explores the interrelationship of liturgy and architecture from the early Church to the close of the Middle Ages, taking into account social, economic, technical, theological and artistic factors.

POLITICS

- The Pact

By Steve M. Gillon, Carol E. Young professor and dean of the Honors College, University of Oklahoma. Oxford University Press, £13.99. ISBN 97801953281

This is an account of two of America's most influential leaders - Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich - detailing both their differences and striking similarities, and highlighting the profound impact that the turbulent 1960s had on their personal and political lives.

THEATRE STUDIES

- The Oxford Companion to the American Musical

By Thomas S. Hischak, professor of theatre history and criticism, State University of New York College at Cortland. Oxford University Press, £19.99. ISBN 9780195335330

With more than 2,000 entries, this book offers a wealth of information on musicals, choreographers composers and performers.


Economics

- India: The Emerging Giant

By Arvind Panagariya, professor of economics and Jagdish Bhagwati professor of Indian political economy, Columbia University

Oxford University Press, £21.99

ISBN 9780195315035

Panagariya addresses the subject of India’s rapid growth, documenting the unprecedented surge and examining the issues arising from it.

Engineering

- An Introduction to Genetic Engineering

By Desmond S. T. Nicholl, associate dean in the School of Engineering and Science, University of the West of Scotland

Cambridge University Press, £60.00 and £24.99

ISBN 9780521850063 and 615211

In this third edition textbook, it is recognised that a sound grasp of basic principles is vital in any introduction to genetic engineering. Therefore, the book retains its focus on the fundamental principles used in gene manipulation.

-l Computational Continuum Mechanics

By Ahmed A. Shabana, Richard and Loan Hill professor of engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago

Cambridge University Press, £60.00

ISBN 9780521885690

This book presents the nonlinear theory of continuum mechanics and demonstrates its use in developing nonlinear computer formulations for large displacement dynamic analysis.

History

- Law, Marriage, and Society in the Later Middle Ages: Arguments about Marriage in Five Courts

By Charles Donahue Jr, Paul A. Freund professor of law, Harvard University

Cambridge University Press, £80.00

ISBN 9780521877282

This is a study of marriage litigation (with some reference

to sexual offences) in the archiepiscopal court of York (1300-1500) and the episcopal courts of Ely (1374-1381), Paris (1384-1387), Cambrai (1438-1453), and Brussels (1448-1459).

- ‘The Affairs of Others’: The Diaries of Francis Place, 1825-1836

Edited by James A. Jaffe, professor of history, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater

Cambridge University Press, £45.00

ISBN 9780521883412

Never before published, the diary of one of Britain’s most important political actors of the late 18th and early 19th centuries will be accessible to political, social and cultural historians of the period as well as anyone interested in the mental and moral world of the early 19th century.

- Heirs, Kin, and Creditors in Renaissance Florence

By Thomas Kuehn, professor and department chair of history and geography, Clemson University

Cambridge University Press, £45.00

ISBN 9780521882347

This study, based on Florentine repudiations of inheritance, reveals that inheritance was not simply an automatic process where the recipients were passive, if grateful, but that it was a complex process that could be drawn out for years.

- The Long Morning of Medieval Europe: New Directions in Early Medieval Studies

Edited by Jennifer R. Davis, Caltech-Huntington Mellon postdoctoral instructor in history, California Institute of Technology, and Michael McCormick, professor of history, Harvard University

Ashgate, £60.00

ISBN 9780754662549

From ancient biomolecules to quantitative studies of thousands of medieval manuscripts, via field archaeology and the literary and visual sophistication of early medieval writers and artists, the essays in this collection aim to illuminate the vitality of research into the early Middle Ages.

Literature

- Thomas Hardy’s ‘Poetical Matter’ Notebook Edited by Michael Millgate, emeritus professor of English, University of Toronto, and Pamela Dalziel, associate professor of English, University of British Columbia

Oxford University Press, £19.99

ISBN 9780199228492

This is an annotated edition of a previously unpublished and almost unknown Hardy notebook, one of the very few to have survived, biographically significant because of its preservation of personal notes from old pocketbooks subsequently destroyed.

- Love Itself

By Hélène Cixous, emeritus professor of literature, Université de Paris VIII

Polity, £45.00 and £14.99

ISBN 9780745639888 and 9895

Cixous’s writer-narrator advances far into a labyrinth of passions long ago delivered and yet still arriving through the mail, through letters and literature – in other words, the poetry of the post.

- Native Shakespeares: Indigenous Appropriations on a Global Stage

Edited by Craig Dionne, associate professor of English, Eastern Michigan University, and Parmita Kapadia, assistant professor of English, Northern Kentucky University

Ashgate, £55.00

ISBN 9780754662969

Explored in this essay collection are the ways in which Shakespeare is rewritten, reinscribed and translated to fit within the local traditions, values and languages of the world’s various communities and cultures.

- Life Writing in Reformation Europe: Lives of Reformers by Friends, Disciples and Foes

By Irena Backus, professor of Reformation history and ecclesiastical Latin, University of Geneva

Ashgate, £55.00

ISBN 9780754660552

This study brings to light a largely neglected genre of Reformation literature, namely the lives of various reformers written after their death by contemporaries. It raises intriguing questions about the role of the individual, as well as the influence of classical and humanist traditions.

Music

- Nicholas Maw: Odyssey

By Kenneth Gloag, senior lecturer in music, Cardiff University

Ashgate, £35.00

ISBN 9780754638551

In this book, Gloag provides a detailed discussion of Nicholas Maw’s musical identity and reputation as a contemporary composer in relation to romanticism, modernism and postmodernism.

Philosophy and theology

- Religion and the Individual: Belief, Practice, Identity

Edited by Abby Day, research fellow in anthropology, University of Sussex

Ashgate, £50.00

ISBN 9780754661221

This book draws together authors from around the world to explore belief, practice and identity, using original case studies and other work firmly placed in the empirical, and discussing what religious belief means to the individual.

Politics

- America Transformed: Sixty Years of Revolutionary Change, 1941-2001

By Richard M. Abrams, professor of the graduate school, University of California, Berkeley

Cambridge University Press, £16.99

ISBN 9780521722117

This book examines the period 1941-2001, during which time the character of American life changed rapidly, culminating in the shattering of the liberal democratic coalition.

- After Bush: The Case for Continuity in American Foreign Policy

By Timothy J. Lynch, senior lecturer in US foreign policy, Institute for the Study of the Americas, School of Advanced Study, University of London, and Robert S. Singh, professor of politics, Birkbeck, University of London

Cambridge University Press, £20.00

ISBN 9780521880046

In their provocative account, Lynch and Singh argue that George W. Bush’s policy should be placed within the mainstream of the American foreign policy tradition. Further, they suggest that there will, and should, be continuity in US foreign policy from his presidency to those of his successors.

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