Published this week

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE

- Lizards in an Evolutionary Tree: Ecology and Adaptive Radiation of Anoles

By Jonathan B. Losos, professor of organismic and evolutionary biology, Harvard University. University of California Press, £52.00. ISBN 9780520255913

Losos illustrates how different scientific approaches to the questions of adaptation and diversification can be integrated and examines evolutionary and ecological questions.

- Fireflies, Honey, and Silk

By Gilbert Waldbauer, emeritus professor of entomology, University of Illinois. University of California Press, £17.95. ISBN 9780520258839

Exploring the myriad ways insects have enriched our lives, Waldbauer describes how many of the products insects have given us are made, how they were discovered and how they have been used throughout time and across cultures.

EDUCATION

- Posh Talk: Language and Identity in Higher Education

By Sian Preece, senior lecturer in education, University of Westminster. Palgrave Macmillan, £50.00. ISBN 9780230573987

A study of a group of multilingual first-year undergraduate students from widening participation backgrounds at a university in London. All were taking an academic writing programme set up to improve student retention during the transition into higher education.

LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS

- Codes of the Underworld: How Criminals Communicate

By Diego Gambetta, professor of sociology and official fellow, Nuffield College, Oxford. Princeton University Press, £24.95. ISBN 9780691119373

Gambetta ranges from ancient Rome to the gangs of modern Japan, from the prisons of Western countries to terrorist and paedophile rings, to explain how despite constraints on communication, many criminals successfully stay in business.

- A History of Charisma

By John Potts, associate professor in media, Macquarie University. Palgrave Macmillan, £19.99. ISBN 9780230551534

This book traces the history of the word "charisma" and the various meanings assigned to it, from its 1st-century origins in Christian theology to its manifestations in 21st-century politics and culture.

LITERATURE

- Conflict, Power and Multitude in Machiavelli and Spinoza: Tumult and Indignation

By Filippo Del Lucchese, adjunct professor and visiting researcher in English and comparative literary studies, Occidental College. Continuum, £65.00. ISBN 9781441150622

Del Lucchese studies the relationship between Machiavelli's and Spinoza's political philosophies, from a perspective that combines the philosophical, the historical and the political.

PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

- Free Will and Continental Philosophy: The Death without Meaning

By David Edward Rose, lecturer in philosophical studies, Newcastle University. Continuum, £65.00. ISBN 9781847060990

Rose explores free will and self-determination in the continental philosophical tradition and argues that continental philosophy offers a viable alternative to the hegemonic scientific approach taken by analytic philosophy.

POLITICS

- Misinterpreting Modern Russia: Western Views of Putin and His Presidency

By Bruno S. Sergi, contract professor in political economy and international economics, University of Messina. Continuum, £75.00. ISBN 97808264724

Sergi argues that a close examination of the hard realities that conditioned Putin's policies and responses is essential to understanding how Putin's presidency has been viewed in Russia.