Published this week

EDUCATION

- Scottish Education: Beyond Devolution

By Tom Bryce, professor of education, University of Strathclyde, and Walter Humes, research professor of education, University of the West of Scotland. Edinburgh University Press, £.99. ISBN 9780748625932

Featuring 40 new authors, this third edition contains fresh, forthright and informed commentary on every aspect of Scottish education and aims to be essential reading for anyone concerned to know how education works in Scotland.

GENERAL SCIENCE

- The Morality of Embryo Use

By Louis M. Guenin, lecturer in ethics in science, Harvard University. Cambridge University Press, £45.00 and £15.99. ISBN 9780521872690 and 6948

Guenin argues that it is morally permissible to decline intrauterine transfer of an embryo formed outside the body, and that from this permission and the duty of beneficence, there follows a consensus justification for using donated embryos in service of humanitarian ends.

HISTORY

- Buying for the Home: Shopping for the Domestic from the Seventeenth Century to the Present

Edited by David Hussey, senior lecturer in history, University of Wolverhampton, and Margaret Ponsonby, senior lecturer in history, University of Wolverhampton. Ashgate, £55.00. ISBN 9780754658078

This book examines how the strategies of retailers were both arbitrated by and negotiated through the actions and desires of the homemaker as consumer, and is organised around four key themes - retail arenas and the everyday; identity and lifestyle; fashioning domestic space; and cultural practice.

LITERATURE

- Gender and the Garden in Early Modern English Literature

By Jennifer Munroe, assistant professor of English and women's studies, University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Ashgate, £45.00. ISBN 9780754658269

An investigation into early modern gardens, gender and writing, this study considers not only published literary representations of gardens, but also actual garden landscapes and unpublished evidence of everyday gardening practice.

MATHEMATICS

- An Introduction to Lie Groups and Lie Algebras

By Alexander Kirillov, associate professor of mathematics, State University of New York at Stony Brook. Cambridge University Press, £40.00. ISBN 9780521889698

This is a contemporary introduction to the subject of Lie groups and algebras that emphasises the main concepts of the proofs and outlines the necessary technical details, allowing the material to be conveyed concisely.

MUSIC

- Orientalism and Representations of Music in the Nineteenth-Century British Popular Arts

By Claire Mabilat, PhD candidate in music, Durham University. Ashgate, £55.00. ISBN 9780754659624

This book explores issues of orientalism, otherness, gender and sexuality that arise in British representations of non-European musicians during the 19th century, using a theoretical framework of orientalism as a form of othering to analyse primary source materials.

PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

- Fundamentals of Plasma Physics

By Paul M. Bellan, professor of applied physics, California Institute of Technology. Cambridge University Press, £40.00. ISBN 9780521528009

This explanation of plasmas is relevant to diverse plasma applications such as controlled fusion, astrophysical plasmas, solar physics, magnetospheric plasmas, and plasma thrusters.

History

The Impact of the European Reformation: Princes, Clergy and People Edited by Bridget Heal, lecturer in history, University of St Andrews, and Ole Grell, lecturer in history, The Open University Ashgate, £60.00 ISBN 9780754662129

These essays present new research from historians of politics, of the church and of belief. Their geographical scope ranges from Scotland and England via France and Germany to Transylvania, chronologically spanning from the 1520s to the 1690s.

The Naval Miscellany: Volume VII Edited by Susan Rose, associate lecturer at The Open University Ashgate, £65.00 ISBN 9780754664314

This seventh volume contains documents that range in date from the late 13th century to the Korean War. They illustrate the many different ways in which the naval forces of the crown have served the realm.

Doctrine and Reform in the British Cavalry 1880-1918 By Stephen Badsey, reader in conflict studies, University of Wolverhampton Ashgate, £60.00 ISBN 9780754664673

Stephen Badsey investigates a major doctrinal controversy: what the role and tactics of horsed soldiers were to be in the face of increasing firepower and demands placed on them by the expansion of mass armies in the Boer War and the First World War.

Henrietta Maria: Piety, Politics and Patronage Edited by Erin Griffey, senior lecturer in art history, University of Auckland Ashgate, £55.00 ISBN 9780754664208

Thoroughly interdisciplinary in scope, this collection reconsiders Queen Henrietta Maria and her multifaceted roles and responsibilities, ranging from her patronage of performing and visual arts to her sentiments at the outbreak of the English Civil War.

Literature

Ben Jonson, Volpone and the Gunpowder Plot By Richard Dutton, distinguished professor of English literature, Ohio State University Cambridge University Press, £50.00 ISBN 9780521879545

Richard Dutton outlines the circumstances in which Ben Jonson’s Volpone was written, and its close links with the Gunpowder Plot, and includes photographic reproductions of the opening pages of the 1607 text, setting the context for the modern reader.

Diderot’s Part By Andrew H. Clark, assistant professor of French and literary studies, Fordham University Ashgate, £55.00 ISBN 9780754654384

Andrew Clark proposes a comprehensive interpretation of Diderot’s entire literary, philosophical and scientific oeuvre as the locus of a fundamental reconceptualisation of the relation of part to whole.

Literature and Heresy in the Age of Chaucer By Andrew Cole, assistant professor of English, University of Georgia Cambridge University Press, £50.00 ISBN 9780521887915

This study demonstrates how English literature was fundamentally shaped by the heresy of John Wyclif and his followers, including Geoffrey Chaucer, William Langland, John Clanvowe, Margery Kempe, Thomas Hoccleve and John Lydgate.

Mathematics

Groups, Graphs and Trees: An Introduction to the Geometry of Infinite Groups By John Meier, professor of mathematics, Lafayette College Cambridge University Press, £55.00 and £19.99 ISBN 9780521895453 and 719773

This book presents the modern, geometric approach to group theory, and covers a variety of topics, including group actions, the construction of Cayley graphs, and connections to formal language theory and geometry.

Philosophy and theology

An Introduction to Chinese Philosophy By Karyn L. Lai, senior lecturer in philosophy, University of New South Wales Cambridge University Press, £45.00 and £17.99 ISBN 9780521846462 and 608923

This introductory textbook to early Chinese philosophy covers a range of philosophical traditions which arose during the Spring and Autumn (722–476 BCE) and Warring States (475–221 BCE) periods in China, including Confucianism, Mohism, Daoism, and Legalism.

Politics

Moral Limit and Possibility in World Politics Edited by Richard M. Price, associate professor of politics, University of British Columbia Cambridge University Press, £45.00 and £17.99 ISBN 9780521888165 and 716208

This volume gathers constructivist scholars to explore the issue of moral limit and possibility in global political dilemmas, examining pressing ethical challenges such as sanctions, humanitarian intervention and torture.

Psychology and psychiatry

Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment in Mental Health Edited by Sonia Johnson, reader in social and community psychiatry, Justin Needle, research fellow, City University and Graham Thornicroft, professor of community psychiatry, King’s College London Cambridge University Press, £29.99 ISBN 9780521678759

This book describes the evidence for the effectiveness of crisis resolution and home treatment teams, the principles underpinning them, how to set up and organise them, how patients should be assessed and what types of care teams should offer.

Social sciences

A Historical Sociology of Childhood: Developmental Thinking, Categorization and Graphic Visualization By André Turmel, professor of sociology, Université Laval Cambridge University Press, £55.00 and £19.99 ISBN 9780521879774 and 705639

Using historical accounts from Britain, the USA and France, Turmel studies how historical sequential development and statistical reasoning have led to a concept of what constitutes a “normal” child and resulted in a form of standardisation by which we monitor children.

Questioning Qualitative Inquiry: Critical Essays By Martyn Hammersley, professor in educational and social research, Open University Sage, £22.99 ISBN 9781412935159

In these essays Martyn Hammersley argues that, in important respects, qualitative inquiry has not lived up to the claims originally made on its behalf, and that more recent developments have worsened the situation.