? = Review forthcoming
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
?Six-Legged Soldiers: Using Insects as Weapons of War
By Jeffrey A. Lockwood, professor of natural sciences and humanities, University of Wyoming. Oxford University Press, £14.99. ISBN 9780195333053
Lockwood offers a portrait of the many weirdly creative, truly frightening and, ultimately, powerful ways in which insects have been used as weapons of war, terror and torture.
BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT
- Trade Unions in a Neoliberal World: British Trade Unions under New Labour
Edited by Gary Daniels, lecturer in employment relations, Keele University and John McIlroy, professor of employment relations, Keele University. Routledge, £65.00. ISBN 9780415426633
This is the first text to cover in detail the experience of trade unions during the new Labour administrations. It locates the Blair and Brown governments in neoliberal theory, discusses economic and employment policies, examines the response of unions and assesses their prospects as boom once more turns to bust.
HISTORY
- The Romance of China: Excursions to China in US Culture, 1776-1876
By John Rogers Haddad, assistant professor of American studies and literature, Pennsylvania State University. Columbia University Press, £35.50. ISBN 9780231130943
Through an examination of museums, panoramic paintings, ceramics, tea advertisements, travelogues, missionary accounts, children's literature and world fairs, Haddad counters the idea that imperialist domination and racial prejudice eclipsed cultural exchange between Asia and the West between 1776 and 1876.
- Sumner Welles, Postwar Planning, and the Quest for a New World Order, 1937-1943
By Christopher D. O'Sullivan, fellow, Centre for International Studies, London School of Economics. Columbia University Press, £29.50. ISBN 9780231142588
In exploring the worldview of Sumner Welles, who became one of Franklin D. Roosevelt's chief foreign policy advisers until Welles' tragic and scandalous resignation in the autumn of 1943, O'Sullivan portrays an official coldly hostile to all European powers, allies and enemies alike.
- Pastoralist Landscapes and Social Interaction in Bronze Age Eurasia
By Michael D. Frachetti, assistant professor of anthropology, Washington University in St Louis. University of California Press, £26.95. ISBN 9780520256897
Offering a fresh archaeological interpretation, this work reconceptualises the Bronze Age prehistory of the vast Eurasian steppe during one of the most formative periods of human history.
- Heroes and Cowards: The Social Face of War
By Dora L. Costa, professor of economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Matthew E. Kahn, professor of economics, University of California, Los Angeles. Princeton University Press, £16.95. ISBN 9780691137049
Using the life histories of more than 40,000 soldiers in the American Civil War, Costa and Kahn uncover the vivid stories, social influences and crucial networks that influenced soldiers' lives both during and after the war.
LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS
- Linguistic Changes in Post-Communist Eastern Europe and Eurasia
Edited by Ernest Andrews, visiting scholar, Russian and East European Institute, Indiana University. Columbia University Press, £29.50. ISBN 9780880336314
Written by distinguished scholars, the case studies in this volume focus on the language policies and linguistic developments in post-communist Eastern Europe and Eurasia and the impact of globalisation, democratisation and technological advancements on their languages.
LAW
- Mental Illness, Medicine and Law
Edited by Martin Lyon Levine, professor of psychiatry and the behavioural sciences, University of Southern California. Ashgate, £150.00. ISBN 9780754621218
This collection brings together the seminal papers written on the nexus between mental illness, its treatment and its relationship to the law. The volume also provides an introduction that summarises the area and the relevance of the articles chosen.
- A Dual Approach to Ocean Governance: The Cases of Zonal and Integrated Management in International Law of the Sea
By Yoshifumi Tanaka, senior lecturer in law, University of Westminster. Ashgate, £65.00. ISBN 9780754671701
Tanaka addresses the validity and limits of zonal and integrated management approaches to ocean governance in law of the sea.
- The Human Contribution: Unsafe Acts, Accidents and Heroic Recoveries
By James Reason, emeritus professor of psychology, University of Manchester. Ashgate, £60.00 and £19.95. ISBN 9780754674009 and 4023
Drawing its material from a variety of hazardous domains, the emphasis of this book is placed on healthcare reflecting Reason's focus on patient safety.
MATHEMATICS
- Classifying Spaces of Degenerating Polarized Hodge Structures
By Kazuya Kato, professor of mathematics, Kyoto University and Sampei Usui, professor of mathematics, Osaka University. Princeton University Press, £46.95. ISBN 9780691138213
In 1970, Phillip Griffiths envisaged that points at infinity could be added to the classifying space D of polarised Hodge structures. In this book, Kato and Usui realise this dream by creating a logarithmic Hodge theory.
PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY
- Nature and Landscape: An Introduction to Environmental Aesthetics
By Allen Carlson, professor emeritus of philosophy, University of Alberta. Columbia University Press, £43.95 and £14.50. ISBN 9780231140409 and 0416
Carlson examines how to aesthetically appreciate a variety of urban and rural landscapes and concludes with a discussion of whether there is, in general, a correct way to experience the environment aesthetically.
POLITICS
- Egypt after Mubarak: Liberalism, Islam, and Democracy in the Arab World
By Bruce K. Rutherford, assistant professor of political science, Colgate University. Princeton University Press, £19.95. ISBN 9780691136653
Rutherford demonstrates that both secular and Islamist opponents of Egypt's autocratic regime are navigating a middle path that may result in a uniquely Islamic form of liberalism and, perhaps, democracy.
- The Crisis of American Foreign Policy: Wilsonianism in the Twenty-first Century
By G. John Ikenberry, professor of politics and international affairs, Princeton University. Princeton University Press, £14.95. ISBN 9780691139692
Addressing current events in the context of historical policies, this book considers America's position on the global stage and what future directions may be possible for the nation.
SOCIAL SCIENCES
- The Crisis of Social Democratic Trade Unionism in Western Europe: The Search for Alternatives
By Martin Upchurch, professor of international employment relations, Middlesex University, Graham Taylor, reader in sociology, University of the West of England and Andrew Mathers, visiting lecturer in sociology, University of the West of England. Ashgate, £55.00. ISBN 9780754670537
Examining the experience of Sweden, Germany, Britain and France, this volume explores the historical rise and fall of social democratic trade unionism and probes the policy and practice of the European Trade Union Confederation.
- Social Work and Migration: Immigrant and Refugee Settlement and Integration
By Kathleen Valtonen, senior lecturer in social work, University of the West Indies. Ashgate, £55.00. ISBN 9780754671947
This book aims to fill a gap in the social work literature by providing scholars, practitioners and students with a critical knowledge base that will strengthen their ability to engage with issues of immigration and integration and to open up options for effective practice with growing numbers of immigrant and refugee clients.