Published this week

ARTS AND DESIGN

- Between Art and Anthropology: Contemporary Ethnographic Practice

By Arnd Schneider, professor of social anthropology, University of Oslo; and Christopher Wright, lecturer in anthropology, Goldsmiths, University of London. Berg, £55.00 and £17.99. ISBN 9781847885012 and 5005

Considering work by artists such as Marcus Coates, Cameron Jamie and Mohini Chandra, this text seeks to present novel arguments for considering contemporary art and anthropology in terms of fieldwork practice, encouraging artists and anthropologists to learn directly from one another.

- The Japanese House: Material Culture in the Modern Home

By Inge Maria Daniels, lecturer in social anthropology, University of Oxford. Berg, £60.00 and £19.99. ISBN 9781845205164 and 5171

Daniels investigates how highly private domestic lives are lived in Japan. Examining the living quarters of the Japanese, she looks into every aspect of the home and daily life, from decoration, display, furniture and the tatami mat to eating, sleeping, gift-giving, recycling and worship.

- Oral and print cultures in Ireland, 1600-1900

Edited by Marc Caball, director, Humanities Institute and Graduate School in Arts and Celtic Studies, University College Dublin; and Andrew Carpenter, emeritus professor of English, University College Dublin. Four Courts Press, £55.00. ISBN 9781846821950

Essays by leading experts examine the interchange between written and verbal cultures in Ireland from the 17th century to the beginning of the 19th century. It represents an attempt to start a dialogue in Irish, but also in the wider scholarly community, on this interchange and their effect on Irish culture.

BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT STUDIES

- New Issues in Financial and Credit Markets

Edited by Franco Fiordelisi, professor in banking and finance, University of Rome III; Philip Molyneux, head of Bangor Business School, Bangor University; and Daniele Previati, professor in banking and finance, University of Rome III. Palgrave, £65.00. ISBN 97802305447

Covering the themes of the financial crises, credit activity, capital markets and risk management, this collection of papers aims to offer contemporary insight into key trends impacting on the global financial sector post-crisis. It highlights new policy and research areas affecting banks and other financial institutions.

HISTORY

- Surviving Hitler's War: Family Life in Germany, 1939-48

By Hester Vaizey, postdoctoral researcher, Alfred Toepfer Stiftung. Palgrave, £55.00 and £18.99. ISBN 9780230251489 and 1496

By looking at tales from mothers, fathers and children, Vaizey seeks to recreate the experience of family life in Nazi Germany. Drawing on a range of sources including the last letters of doomed soldiers at Stalingrad and diaries kept by women struggling to keep their families alive in cities under attack, she considers family life under the most difficult of conditions.

- The Primacy of Foreign Policy in British History, 1660-2000: How Strategic Concerns Shaped Modern Britain

Edited by William Mulligan, lecturer in modern history, University College Dublin; and Brendan Simms, professor of the history of European international relations, University of Cambridge. Palgrave, £65.00. ISBN 9780230574724

This volume considers the ways the nation rallied when faced with challenges such as strategic threats and war. It also investigates how developments in the constitution, state, public sphere and economy were often a response to foreign policy issues from the Restoration to the rise of New Labour in the late 20th century.

LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS

- An English-Irish Lexicon of Scientific and Technological Space-related Terminology

By Susan McKenna Lawlor, professor emeritus, National University of Ireland, Maynooth; and Damien O Muiri, formerly senior lecturer in modern Irish, National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Four Courts Press, £24.95. ISBN 9781846822698

Featuring over 3,500 astronautical terms, this lexicon provides an alphabetic list in English as well as its Irish translation. This stand-alone edition is based on a 20-language lexicon prepared by the International Academy of Astronautics on its 50th anniversary this year, and offers background information into the organisation's work to develop a multilingual lexicon of space-related terminology.

- From the Viking Word-hoard: A Dictionary of Scandinavian Words in the Languages of Britain and Ireland

By Diarmaid O Muirithe, former professor of literature, University College Dublin. Four Courts Press, £50.00. ISBN 9781846821738

O Muirithe provides a glossary of words in the British and Irish language that owe their heritage to the raiders and merchants of Scandinavia. The words listed show the lasting linguistic heritage of the Danes who settled in the North East of England, and the Norse who gradually populated the coasts of Ireland, northern Scotland and the Isle of Man in the 9th century.

PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

- Re-thinking the Cogito: Naturalism, Reason and the Venture of Thought

By Christopher Norris, distinguished research professor in philosophy, Cardiff University. Continuum, £65.00. ISBN 9781441171542

Norris combines a naturalistic and rationalist perspective in considering issues relating to the philosophy of mind. He provides various detailed proposals for bringing the two approaches into a mutually enhancing, reciprocally provocative relationship.

- Plato and Sex

By Stella Sandford, principal lecturer in philosophy, Middlesex University. Wiley, £55.00 and £16.99. ISBN 9780745626406 and 6413

Sandford takes critical readings of theories regarding sex and "sexuation" in Freud and Lacan, and relates them to Plato's writings. By doing so she questions society's assumptions about sex and explains how they have coloured our understanding of Plato.

- How to Stop Living and Start Worrying: Conversations with Carl Cederstrom

By Simon Critchley, professor of philosophy, New School University; and Carl Cederstrom. Wiley, £40.00 and £12.99. ISBN 9780745650388 and 0395

This book offers an intimate portrait of Critchley, examining his thought via a series of extended conversations focused on the themes of death, love, humour and authenticity. It tackles the question of "how to live" by forcing us to explore our troubled relationship with death.

- Further Adventures of the Dialectic of Sex: Critical Essays on Shulamith Firestone

By Mandy Merck, professor of media arts, Royal Holloway, University of London; and Stella Sandford, principal lecturer in modern European philosophy, Middlesex University. Palgrave, £55.00. ISBN 9780230100299

Featuring 11 essays from scholars of varying disciplines, this text addresses the argument, reception and implications of Firestone's The Dialectic of Sex, making a compelling case for its contemporary salience.

POLITICS

- The Politics of Race and Ethnicity in the United States: Americanization, De-Americanization, and Racialized Ethnic Groups

By Sherrow O. Pinder, assistant professor of political science and multicultural and gender studies, California State University. Palgrave, £52.50. ISBN 9780230613560

Pinder observes and analyses Americanisation, de-Americanisation and racialised ethnic groups in the US to consider the questions: who is an American, and what constitutes American identity and culture?

SOCIAL SCIENCES

- Women in the Middle East and North Africa: Change and Continuity

By Elhum Haghighat-Sordellini, assistant professor, Lehman College, City University of New York. Palgrave, £55.00. ISBN 9780230103504

Exploring the complexity of women's social status in the Middle East and North Africa area, Haghighat-Sordellini seeks to fill the void in existing literature by providing a comprehensive portrait of the status of females from a theoretical and socio-demographic perspective. Her study debunks common assumptions regarding the economic, cultural and demographic transformations in the region.