? = Review forthcoming
ARTS AND DESIGN
- Redefining Gender in American Impressionist Studio Paintings: Work Place/Domestic Space
By Kirstin Ringelberg, associate professor of art history, Elon University. Ashgate, £55.00. ISBN 9780754669210
Ringelberg contends that representations of studio paintings by artists such as William Merritt Chase and Mary Fairchild MacMonnies Low are at odds with standard perceptions of the images, their creators and the conceptualisation of gender in the 19th century. She rejects the approach that the false dichotomy of separate spheres is still dominant in interpretations of US and European Impressionism.
HISTORY
- Society in Early Modern England
By Phil Withington, lecturer in early modern history, University of Cambridge. Wiley, £55.00 and £16.99. ISBN 9780745641294 and 1300
This text traces the forgotten history of the phrase "early modern" to its coinage as a category of historical analysis by the Victorians. It also considers when and why words such as "modern" and "society" were first introduced into English in the 16th and 17th centuries.
- Langston Hughes and the South African Drum Generation: The Correspondence
Edited by Shane Graham, associate professor of English, Utah State University; and John Waters, associate instructor in the English department, Indiana University. Palgrave, £52.50. ISBN 9780230102934
The editors seek to present an account of the civil rights movement and the struggle to overthrow apartheid by combining previously unpublished correspondence between the poet Langston Hughes and South African writers in the 1950s and 1960s with commentary and criticism.
- Studies on the Formation of Christian Armenia
By Nina G. Garsoian, Gevork M. Avedissian professor emerita of Armenian history, Columbia University. Ashgate, £70.00. ISBN 9781409403661
The third collection of articles by Garsoian on early Armenian history and civilisation follows on from her earlier investigations into Iranian and Byzantine political, doctrinal and social influence on medieval Armenia. It considers inadequacies in recent historiography to suggest a more promising redirection in approaches to Armenian history and the formation of its national identity.
LAW
- Globalization of Criminal Justice
Edited by Michael Bohlander, professor in the Law School, Durham University. Ashgate, £170.00. ISBN 9780754628651
Demonstrating the importance of comparative criminal law research to the development of international criminal justice, this collection of essays investigates the founding, substantive and procedural aspects of international criminal law, as well as evaluating the effectiveness of the Rome Statute.
MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES
- ? Merchants of Culture
By John B. Thompson, professor of sociology, University of Cambridge. Wiley, £20.00. ISBN 9780745647869
In the first major investigation into trade publishing for more than 30 years, Thompson situates the current challenges facing the industry in a historical context as well as providing an analysis of the transformation of trade publishing in the US and Britain since the 1960s.
- Representing Death in the News: Journalism, Media and Mortality
By Folker Hanusch, lecturer in journalism, University of the Sunshine Coast. Palgrave, £50.00. ISBN 9780230230460
By tracing and synthesising existing research on the ways in which journalism deals with death, Hanusch provides an overview of the coverage of death in the news. Looking at the conditions of production, content and reception, he also analyses emerging trends in the representation of death online.
PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY
- Yearning to Belong: Discovering a New Religious Movement
By John Paul Healy, lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Charles Sturt University. Ashgate, £55.00. ISBN 9781409419419
By examining three areas of interest within new religious movements - insider perspectives, the sociology of religion and the helping professions - Healy explores insiders' encounters with the Indian guru-disciple yogic tradition, analysing their experiences of attraction, affiliation and disengagement.
- Spirituality and Social Work
By Beth R. Crisp, associate professor of social work, Deakin University. Ashgate, £50.00. ISBN 9780754677345
Crisp offers social workers suggestions for initiating conversations where spiritual values and beliefs could surface. She discusses how spirituality can be sensitively incorporated into social work practice by considering it as an aspect of lived experience.
POLITICS
- Peace Without Consensus: Power Sharing Politics in Northern Ireland
By Mary-Alice Clancy, research Fellow at the Centre for Ethno-Political Studies, University of Exeter. Ashgate, £55.00. ISBN 9780754678311
Clancy argues that critics who blame Northern Ireland's power-sharing institutions for the electoral triumph of political "extremes" in 2003 have not fully considered how the US, British and Irish governments contributed to the outcome. Her novel analysis features interviews with key US, British and Irish officials to demonstrate how the rise of Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party was not inevitable.
PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY
- Forensic Psychology
By Adrian J. Scott, research Fellow at the Sellenger Centre, Edith Cowan University. Palgrave, £9.99. ISBN 9780230249424
Scott's introduction to forensic psychology demonstrates how much the subject tells us about each step of the criminal process, from biological, social and cognitive theories of crime to eyewitness testimony and the penal system.
- Child Development
Edited by Barbara Maughan, professor of developmental psychopathology, King's College London; and Michael Little, director, Dartington Social Research Unit. Ashgate, £120.00. ISBN 9780754628835
This volume brings together key journal articles in the field of child development. It covers issues including the relative contribution of genetics and the environment, the way in which the brain rewires itself at critical points in child development, and the interplay between environmental influences and children's individual characteristics.
- Sport Psychology
By David Tod, lecturer in sport and exercise psychology, Aberystwyth University; Joanne Thatcher, senior lecturer of sport and exercise psychology, Aberystwyth University; and Rachel Rahman, lecturer in psychology, Aberystwyth University. Palgrave, £9.99. ISBN 9780230249875
The authors consider the psychological effects of sport on both the individual and the group. Looking at topics such as motivation, performance, mental health and leadership, they seek to provide a balanced and in-depth resource for students interested in learning more about the subject.
SOCIAL SCIENCES
- Economy and State
By Nina Bandelj, associate professor of sociology, University of California, Irvine; and Elizabeth Sowers, doctoral student, University of California, Irvine. Wiley, £50.00 and £15.99. ISBN 9780745644547 and 4554
Bringing together both classical and cutting-edge contemporary research in economic sociology, Bandelj and Sowers challenge prevailing ideologies regarding the benefits of self-regulating markets to suggest that states can never be divorced from the economy.
- Communism in Russia
By Richard Sakwa, professor of Russian and European politics, University of Kent. Palgrave, £15.99. ISBN 9780333606797
Sakwa provides an original analysis into tensions between the theory and practice of communism and the history of Russia in the 20th century. In doing so he seeks to provide students with a concise yet comprehensive overview of the rise and fall of communism and its interaction with the fate of the nation.