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ECONOMICS

- Bonfire of Illusions: The Twin Crises of the Liberal World

By Alex Callinicos, professor of European studies, King's College London. Polity, £45.00 and £14.99. ISBN 9780745648750 and 8767

By tracing the credit crunch that developed in 2007-08 to the protracted crisis of overaccumulation that has ruled global capitalism since the late 1960s, Callinicos aims to demonstrate that the market will not resolve the world's problems and reviews the alternatives to capitalism.

EDUCATION

- Low-Income Students and the Perpetuation of Inequality: Higher Education in America

By Gary A. Berg, dean of extended education, California State University Channel Islands. Ashgate, £55.00. ISBN 9781409401544

Berg draws on quantitative and qualitative data to provide an exploration into the impact of college upon American society. Looking at who benefits from public higher education, he covers areas including social capital, opportunity, funding and access.

LAW

- International Criminal Justice and the Politics of Compliance

By Christopher K. Lamont, postdoctoral research fellow, University of Ulster. Ashgate, £55.00. ISBN 9780754679653

Lamont examines how international criminal justice institutions deal with conflict and post-conflict situations, exploring both the domestic politics of war-crimes indictments, and efforts by external actors to induce compliance outcomes.

- The Limits of Criminal Law: A Comparative Analysis of Approaches to Legal Theorizing

By Carl Constantin Lauterwein, doctoral candidate, Faculty of Law, Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich. Ashgate, £50.00. ISBN 9780754679462

Comparing the civil and common approaches to law, Lauterwein focuses on the Australian and German models in his analysis of the forms of conduct the state may legitimately make criminal.

- Shari'a as Discourse: Legal Traditions and the Encounter with Europe

Edited by Jurgen S. Nielsen, professor of Islamic studies, and Lisbet Christoffersen, professor in law and religion, University of Copenhagen. Ashgate, £60.00. ISBN 9780754679554

Investigating some of the issues surrounding Muslim communities in Europe, this volume seeks to provide a reference for exploring how Muslims and non-Muslims view sharia, and looks at ways the European legal systems can accommodate Muslim customs.

LITERATURE

- The Improbability of Othello: Rhetorical Anthropology and Shakespearean Selfhood

By Joel B. Altman, emeritus professor of English, University of California, Berkeley. University of Chicago Press, £34.00. ISBN 9780226016108

Focusing on Shakespeare's tragedy Othello, Altman investigates the poet and playwright's representation of the self, examining his shaping of audience response and the relationship of actors to his texts.

MEDICINE

- Abjectly Boundless: Boundaries, Bodies and Health Work

Edited by Trudy Rudge, professor of nursing, University of Sydney, and Dave Holmes, professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa. Ashgate, £60.00. ISBN 9780754679103

This text examines case studies from around the world, employing the work of Julia Kristeva as it seeks to expose and highlight the impact of health professionals' attitudes towards abject bodies.

PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

- The Promise of Salvation

By Martin Riesebrodt, professor of sociology, University of Chicago. University of Chicago Press, £26.00. ISBN 9780226713915

Riesebrodt seeks to define religion as a universal concept by analysing practices across a range of traditions. He examines religious holidays, conversion stories, prophetic visions and life-cycle events to argue that the promise of averting misfortune means religion will remain a part of our civilisation.

- The Pathologies of Individual Freedom: Hegel's Social Theory

By Axel Honneth, professor of social philosophy, J.W. Goethe University. Princeton University Press, £20.95. ISBN 9780691118062

This account sees Honneth argue that Hegel's theory is an alternative to the reigning liberal notions of social justice, claiming that the German philosopher's work contains an account of the psychological damage caused by placing too much emphasis on personal and moral freedom.

POLITICS

- African Political Thought

By Guy Martin, visiting associate professor, University of Virginia. Palgrave Macmillan, £42.50 and £13.99. ISBN 9781403966339 and 6346

Focusing on individual political thinkers, Martin provides an examination into areas such as African nationalism, socialism, populism and Marxism. He concludes with contemporary perspectives on democracy, development and the African state.

- Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism

By Sheldon Wolin, emeritus professor of politics, Princeton University. Princeton University Press, £13.95. ISBN 9780691145891

Wolin's study of democracy in the US portrays a country that has transformed into a "managed democracy". Examining the myths and myth-making behind current political decision-making, Wolin suggests that American citizens are becoming politically uninterested and submissive and that their leaders are increasingly keen to maintain this trend.

- Religion in American Politics: A Short History

By Frank Lambert, professor of history, Purdue University. Princeton University Press, £12.95. ISBN 9780691146133

Lambert's historical account of the relations between religion and politics leads him to conclude that faith within the political fray consistently becomes sectarian and partisan; he also demonstrates how religious agendas are frequently mixed with non-religious ones.

PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY

- Birthing a Mother: The Surrogate Body and the Pregnant Self

By Elly Teman, research fellow, Center for the Integration of Genetic Healthcare Technologies, University of Pennsylvania. University of California Press, £14.95. ISBN 9780520259645

Drawing on anthropological fieldwork among Jewish Israeli women, Teman traces the processes by which surrogates relinquish any maternal claim to a baby, revealing the lasting bond they create with the intended mother.

- Social Psychology and Everyday Life

By Darrin Hodgetts, associate professor in social psychology, Ottilie Stolte, lecturer in the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Linda Waimarie Nikora, director of the Maori and Psychology Research Unit, Cate Curtis, lecturer in social psychology, all at the University of Waikato, Neil Drew, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences, University of Notre Dame Fremantle, and Christopher Sonn, senior lecturer in the School of Psychology, Victoria University. Palgrave Macmillan, £28.50. ISBN 9780230217959

Using illustrative scenarios based on daily events, this textbook situates social psychology within the broader social sciences, with an emphasis on scholarship on media, place, health, justice, indigeneity, immigration and social change.

SOCIAL SCIENCES

- Commemoration and Bloody Sunday: Pathways of Memory

By Brian Conway, lecturer in the department of sociology, National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Palgrave Macmillan, £50.00. ISBN 9780230228887

Conway examines the commemoration of Bloody Sunday, looking at how and why the event is remembered and how this has changed over time. Drawing on the use of empirical data, he aims to provide new insights into the debate on collective memory.

- The Rise of China and the Capitalist World Order

Edited by Li Xing, associate professor and senior researcher, Aalborg University. Ashgate, £55.00. ISBN 9780754679134

Charting China's rise within global society and politics, this book intends to provide an analysis of the outcomes of the communist state's transformation, looking at the complexities and underlying dynamics brought about by its ascendancy.