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ART AND DESIGN

- Symbolist Art in Context

By Michelle Facos, associate professor in the history of art, Indiana University. University of California Press, £38.95 and £17.95. ISBN 9780520254992 and 5821

Reaching back into Romanticism for Symbolism's origins, Facos argues that Symbolism enabled artists to confront an increasingly complex world: one to which pessimists responded with themes of decadence and degeneration and optimists with idealism and reform.

ECONOMICS

- The Value of Money

By Prabhat Patnaik, professor in the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Columbia University Press, £22.00. ISBN 9780231146760

Through a provocative critique of monetarism, Patnaik advances a revolutionary understanding of macroeconomics that highlights the "propertyist" position of Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes.

GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

- Bringing in the Future: Strategies for Farsightedness and Sustainability in Developing Countries

By William Ascher, Donald C. McKenna professor of government and economics, Claremont McKenna College. University of Chicago Press, £51.50 and £19.00. ISBN 9780226029160 and 9177

Ascher draws on research from psychology, economics and legal theory to suggest strategies to overcome obstacles to long-term planning in developing countries.

HISTORY

- Who Is Knowledgeable Is Strong: Science, Class, and the Formation of Modern Iranian Society, 1900-1950

By Cyrus Schayegh, assistant professor of Near Eastern studies, Princeton University. University of California Press, £29.95. ISBN 9780520254473

Schayegh examines the ways by which scientific knowledge allowed Iranian modernists to differentiate themselves from society and, at the same time, to intervene in it.

LAW

- Indigenous Rights

Edited by Anthony J. Connolly, lecturer in law, Australian National University. Ashgate, £150.00. ISBN 9780754624516

The papers in this collection address some of the philosophical and practical issues informing the discussion of indigenous rights over the past decade or so.

LITERATURE

- Transferred Illusions: Digital Technology and the Forms of Print

By Marilyn Deegan, director of research development, Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London, and Kathryn Sutherland, professor of bibliography and textual criticism, St Anne's College, University of Oxford. Ashgate, £55.00. ISBN 9780754670162

Despite the digital revolution, traditional print forms are still popular. The authors reconsider the electronic representation of text now and in the future.

POLITICS

- The Empire of Civilization: The Evolution of an Imperial Idea

By Brett Bowden, senior lecturer in politics, University of New South Wales. University of Chicago Press, £31.00. ISBN 9780226068145

From the Crusades through the colonial era to the war on terror, this book exposes "civilisation" as a stage-managed account of history that legitimises imperialism, uniformity and conformity to Western standards, culminating in a liberal-democratic global order.

SOCIAL SCIENCES

- Rethinking Expertise

By Harry Collins, distinguished research professor of sociology and director, Centre for the Study of Knowledge, Expertise and Science, Cardiff University, and Robert Evans, reader in sociology, Cardiff University. University of Chicago Press, £15.50. ISBN 9780226113616

The authors present a Periodic Table of Expertises based on the idea of tacit knowledge and then look at how some expertises are used to judge others, how laypeople judge between experts and how credentials are used to evaluate them.

Extra online listings

Art and design

American Art to 1900: A Documentary History

By Sarah Burns, Ruth N. Halls professor of fine arts, Indiana University, and John Davis, Alice Pratt Brown, professor of art, Smith College

University of California Press, £40.95

ISBN 9780520245266

Burns and Davis have assembled a variety of unknown, little-known or undervalued documents to convey the story of American art through the many voices of its contemporary practitioners, consumers and commentators.

Thomas Eakins and the Cultures of Modernity

By Alan C. Braddock, assistant professor of art history, Temple University

University of California Press, £29.95

ISBN 9780520255203

Braddock situates Philadelphia’s greatest realist painter in relation to the historical discourse of cultural difference and reveals that modern anthropological perceptions of “culture”, attributed to Eakins by many art historians, did not become current until after the artist’s death in 1916.

Economics

Sustainable Land Management in the Tropics: Explaining the Miracle

Edited by Kees Burger, associate professor of development economics, Wageningen University, and Fred Zaal, professor of social and behavioural sciences, University of Amsterdam

Ashgate, £60.00

ISBN 9780754644552

Bringing together case studies from Kenya, Benin, Cameroon and the Philippines, this volume provides an overview of the economics of natural resource management in tropical regions, at household and village level.

International Finance: Theory into Practice

By Piet Sercu, professor of international finance, Catholic University of Leuven

Princeton University Press, £39.95

ISBN 9780691136677

Combining practical knowledge, up-to-date theories and real-world applications, this textbook explores issues of valuation, funding and risk management and shows how theoretical applications can be brought into managerial practice.

History

Economists and Societies: Discipline and Profession in the United States, Britain, and France, 1890s to 1990s

By Marion Fourcade, assistant professor of sociology, University of California, Berkeley

Princeton University Press, £19.95

ISBN 9780691117607

Fourcade traces the history of economics in each country from the late 19th century to the present, demonstrating how each political, cultural and institutional context gave rise to a distinct professional and disciplinary configuration.

Ireland and the English World in the Late Middle Ages

Edited by Brendan Smith, reader in history, University of Bristol

Palgrave Macmillan, £50.00

ISBN 9780230542891

This volume examines issues such as frontier formation, colonial identities and connections with the wider world, and explores whether this period saw the bonds between the British Isles weaken, strengthen or simply alter.

Literature

The Word and Its Witness: The Spiritualization of American Realism

By Gregory S. Jackson, assistant professor of English and American studies at Rutgers University

University of Chicago Press, £55.00 and £20.00

ISBN 9780226390031 and 0048

Jackson shows how the homiletic tradition in Protestant sermons provided a foundation for the development of visual and literary realism, which was a key influence on realist authors that brought about the more secular forms of the movement we know today.

Pericles: A Sourcebook and Reader

By Stephen V. Tracy, director, Athens American School of Classical Studies, Ohio State University

University of California Press, £.95

ISBN 9780520256033

Tracy compiles and translates the scattered, elusive primary sources relating to Pericles, bringing Athens’ political atmosphere to life with archaeological evidence and the accounts of those close to Pericles, including Thucydides, Aristophanes, Herodotus, Protagoras, Sophocles, Lysias, Xenophon, Plato and Plutarch.

Music studies

Jewish Musical Modernism, Old and New

Edited by Philip V. Bohlman, Mary Werkman distinguished service professor of the humanities and of music, University of Chicago

University of Chicago Press, £24.00

ISBN 9780226063263

These essays tackle myriad issues raised by Sander Gilman’s opening salvo “Are Jews musical?” and trace the intersections of Jewish history and music from the late 19th century to the present.

Philosophy and theology

Violence: A Philosophical Anthology

By Vittorio Bufacchi, lecturer in philosophy, University College Cork

Palgrave Macmillan, £60.00 and £18.99

ISBN 9780230537705 and 7712

In this anthology of major philosophical contributions on the nature and justifiability of violence over the past hundred years, three basic questions are scrutinised: What is violence?, Is violence always wrong? and Can violence be justified?

Physics and astronomy

Stellar Spectral Classification

Edited by Richard Gray, professor of astronomy, Appalachian State University, and Christopher J. Corbally, associate professor of astronomy, University of Arizona

Princeton University Press, £59.95 and £38.95

ISBN 9780691125107 and 5114

This book introduces the astrophysics of spectroscopy, reviews the field of stellar astronomy, and shows how the well-tested methods of spectral classification are a powerful discovery tool for graduate students and researchers working in astronomy and astrophysics.

Politics

The Politics of Women’s Rights in Iran

By Arzoo Osanloo, assistant professor of anthropology, University of Washington

Princeton University Press, £40.95 and £13.50

ISBN 9780691135465 and 5472

Osanloo explores how Iranian women understand their rights. Her ethnographic study illustrates how women’s claims of rights emerge from a hybrid discourse that draws on both liberal individualism and Islamic ideals.

The Rights of Spring: A Memoir of Innocence Abroad

By David Kennedy, vice-president for international affairs, Brown University

Princeton University Press, £29.95 and £9.50

ISBN 9780691141374 and 1381

Kennedy tackles questions about the role and usefulness of human-rights workers with a combination of narrative drive and honesty. This is a tale of the bright sides and the dark sides of the humanitarian world built by good intentions.

Understanding International Relations

By Chris Brown, professor of international relations, London School of Economics, and Kirsten Ainley, lecturer in international relations, London School of Economics

Palgrave Macmillan, £60.00 and £22.99

ISBN 9780230213104 and 3111

This fourth edition provides an introduction to international relations theory. It has been updated throughout and has new chapters on agency, structure and the state in IR and the emerging shape of 21st-century international politics.

Social sciences

Whose Culture?: The Promise of Museums and the Debate over Antiquities

By James Cuno, president and director, Art Institute of Chicago

Princeton University Press, £14.95

ISBN 9780691133331

Cuno has assembled pre-eminent museum directors, curators and scholars to explain for themselves what is at stake in the controversy over who “owns” antiquities, aiming to dismiss the arguments of the museums’ critics.

Health at Older Ages: The Causes and Consequences of Declining Disability among the Elderly

Edited by David M. Cutler, Otto Eckstein professor of applied economics and dean for the social sciences, Harvard University, and David A. Wise, John F. Stambaugh professor of political economy, Harvard Kennedy School

University of Chicago Press, £79.50

ISBN 9780226132310

A team of economists analyses the foundations of disability decline, quantifies this phenomenon in economic terms, and proposes what might be done to accelerate future improvements in the health of our most elderly populations.

The Awkward Spaces of Fathering: Ecology, Power and Public Life

By Stuart C. Aitken, head of the department of geography, San Diego State University

Ashgate, £45.00

ISBN 9780754670056

Aitken weaves together theories of space, sexuality and political identity with the stories of fathers from a range of sources, including popular culture, and seeks to explore the spaces and movements of men-as-fathers.

It’s All for the Kids: Gender, Families, and Youth Sports

By Michael A. Messner, head of the department of sociology and gender studies, University of Southern California

University of California Press, £32.95

ISBN 9780520257085

Weaving together first-person interviews with his own experiences as a volunteer for his sons’ teams, Messner finds that despite the movement of girls into sports, gender boundaries and hierarchies still dominate, especially among the adults who run youth sports.

The Palgrave Handbook of Childhood Studies

Edited by Jens Qvortrup, professor of sociology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, William A. Corsaro, Robert H. Shaffer endowed chair in sociology, Indiana University, and Michael-Sebastian Honig, professor of social work, University of Luxembourg

Palgrave Macmillan, £95.00

ISBN 9780230532601

This reference work, with contributions from thinkers across a range of disciplines, is an guide to the study of children and childhood that also sets out future research agendas for the subject.