Published this week

? = Review forthcoming

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

- ?The Earwig's Tail: A Modern Bestiary of Multi-legged Legends

By May R. Berenbaum, professor and head of the department of entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Harvard University Press, £17.95. ISBN 9780674035409

Throughout the Middle Ages, bestiaries presented people with descriptions of rare and unusual animals, typically paired with a moral or religious lesson. Berenbaum and illustrator Jay Hosler draw on the powerful cultural symbols of these antiquated books to create a bestiary of the insect world.

GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

- Geographers: Biobibliographical Studies, Volume 28

By Charles Withers, professor of historical geography, University of Edinburgh, and Hayden Lorimer, senior lecturer in the department of geographical and earth sciences, University of Glasgow. Continuum, £90.00. ISBN 9780826437525

The ten essays in Volume 28 of this reference series cover early modern geography, political geography (and the politics of geography) in Denmark, Hungary and Japan, and a range of geographical practitioners from all over the world.

HISTORY

- The Quotable Abigail Adams

Edited by John P. Kaminski, director, Center for the Study of the American Constitution, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Harvard University Press, £19.95. ISBN 9780674035324

Selected and arranged by topic, the quotations in this volume provide an introduction to the thought and character of America's "founding mother". They are accompanied by a biographical introduction, source notes, chronology and a comprehensive index.

LITERATURE

- America's Experts: Race and the Fictions of Sociology

By Cynthia H. Tolentino, assistant professor of English, University of Oregon. University of Minnesota Press, $22.50. ISBN 9780816651108

Challenging conventional accounts of US ethnic literature rooted in 1960s and 1970s social movements, Tolentino sees this work as emerging from a political climate in which arguments about the integration of racial minorities and the moral legitimacy of US international leadership are intertwined.

MUSIC STUDIES

- The Ashgate Research Companion to Experimental Music

Edited by James Saunders, senior lecturer in music, Bath Spa University. Ashgate, £75.00. ISBN 9780754662822

The Ashgate Research Companion to Experimental Music reflects recent developments by providing examples of current thinking and presenting case studies that document the work of contemporary figures.

PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

- Honoring Elders: Aging, Authority, and Ojibwe Religion

By Michael D. McNally, associate professor of religion, Carleton College. Columbia University Press, £20.50. ISBN 9780231145039

Using archival and ethnographic research, McNally follows the making of Ojibwe eldership, showing that deference to older women and men is part of a fuller moral, aesthetic and cosmological vision connected to the ongoing circle of life, a tradition of authority that has been crucial to surviving colonisation.

POLITICS

- The Science of War: Defense Budgeting, Military Technology, Logistics, and Combat Outcomes

By Michael E. O'Hanlon, senior fellow in national security policy, Brookings Institution. Princeton University Press, £24.95. ISBN 9780691137025

O'Hanlon aims to provide students with an introduction to the subject of how the US military spends its money, chooses tactics and allocates its resources, and the implications this may have for national defence and the economy.