Published this week

Biological sciences

Barrel Cortex

By Kevin Fox, professor of biosciences, Cardiff University Cambridge University Press, £75.00 ISBN 9780521852173 Fox explores three main aspects of the barrel cortex – development, sensory processing and plasticity – and describes the development of barrel cortex within the context of general issues in developmental research.

Classics

The Rape of Troy: Evolution, Violence and the World of Homer By Jonathan Gottschall, adjunct assistant professor of English, Washington and Jefferson College Cambridge University Press, £50.00 and £17.99 ISBN 9780521870382 and 690478 Gottschall analyses Homeric conflict from the perspective of modern evolutionary biology, attributing its intensity to a shortage of available young women. Biological theory is used to explore the sources of Homeric conflict, and Homeric society is the subject of a bio-anthropological case study of why men fight.

Computer sciences

Analysis of Evolutionary Processes: The Adaptive Dynamics Approach and Its Applications By Fabio Dercole, assistant professor, department of electronics and information, and Sergio Rinaldi, professor of system theory, Politecnico di Milano Princeton University Press, £38.95 ISBN 9780691120065 This is a quantitative modelling approach that explicitly links evolutionary changes to demographic ones to show how the canonical equation can answer questions of paramount interest in biology, engineering and the social sciences, especially economics.

Economics

Pop Finance: Investment Clubs and the New Investor Populism By Brooke Harrington, research fellow, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies Princeton University Press, £17.95 ISBN 9780691128320 This book follows the trajectory of the rise in stock investment involving nearly half of the American population via the rise of investment clubs, through which millions of people across the socioeconomic spectrum became investors for the first time.

English literature

Romanticism and the Painful Pleasures of Modern Life By Andrea K. Henderson, associate professor of English, University of California, Irvine Cambridge University Press, £50.00 ISBN 9780521884020 Henderson provides a social and historical account of psychological states represented in Romantic literature, making use of ideas from art history and including considerable research on 18th and 19th-century consumerism.

History

The Culture of Giving: Informal Support and Gift-Exchange in Early Modern England By Ilana Krausman Ben-Amos, lecturer in history, Ben Gurion University of the Negev Cambridge University Press, £55.00 ISBN 9780521867238 This account of practices of giving and support within social networks and associations in early modern England challenges the assumption that personal obligations and informal giving declined in the transition from medieval to modern times.

The Politics of Gender in Colonial Korea: Education, Labor, and Health, 1910-1945 By Theodore Jun Yoo, associate professor of history, University of Hawaii University of California Press, £29.95 ISBN 9780520252882 This study examines how the concept of “Korean woman” underwent a radical transformation, showing that as women moved out of traditional spheres to occupy new positions outside the home, they encountered the pervasive control of the state.

Law

International Law on the Left: Revisiting Marxist Legacies Edited by Susan Marks, professor of public international law, King’s College London Cambridge University Press, £55.00 ISBN 9780521882552 Marks presents a sustained and groundbreaking exploration of the pertinence of Marxist ideas, concepts and analytical practices for international legal inquiry from many different angles.

Mathematics

Combinatorial Games: Tic-Tac-Toe Theory By József Beck, professor of mathematics, Rutgers University Cambridge University Press, £85.00 ISBN 9780521461009 Beck shows readers how to escape from the combinatorial chaos via the fake probabilistic method, a game-theoretic adaptation of the probabilistic method in combinatorics, and determines exact results about infinite classes of many games.

Media and communication studies

The Politics of Media Policy

By Des Freedman, senior lecturer in communications and cultural studies, Goldsmiths, University of London Polity, £55.00 and £16.99 ISBN 9780745628417 and 8424 Freedman provides a critical perspective on the dynamics of media policy in the US and UK and offers a comprehensive guide to some of the major points of debate in the media today.

Philosophy and theology

Nature, Aesthetics and Environmentalism:

From Beauty to Duty

Edited by Allen Carlson, professor of philosophy, University of Alberta, and Sheila Lintott, assistant professor of philosophy, Appalachian State University Columbia University Press, £47.00 ISBN 9780231138864 This book addresses the complex relationships between aesthetic appreciation and environmental issues, emphasising the valuable contribution that environmental aesthetics can make to environmentalism.

Physics and astronomy

Photonic Crystals: Molding the Flow of Light

By John D. Joannopoulos, Francis Wright Davis professor of physics, Steven G. Johnson, assistant professor of applied mathematics, Joshua N.

Winn, assistant professor of physics, and Robert D. Meade, former research scientist – all at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Princeton University Press, £44.95 ISBN 9780691124568 Starting from Maxwell’s equations and Fourier analysis, the authors develop the theoretical tools of photonics using principles of linear algebra and symmetry, emphasising analogies with traditional solid-state physics and quantum theory.

Politics

Electronic Elections: The Perils and Promises of Digital Democracy By R. Michael Alvarez, professor of political science, California Institute of Technology, and Thad E. Hall, assistant professor of political science, University of Utah Princeton University Press, £17.95 ISBN 9780691125176 Alvarez and Hall aim to cut through the media spin to assess the advantages and risks associated with different ways of casting ballots and show how e-voting could be the future of American democracy.

Psychology and psychiatry

Society and Psychosis

Edited by Craig Morgan, senior lecturer in psychiatric research, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London, Kwame McKenzie, professor of mental health and society, University of Central Lancashire, and Paul Fearon, senior lecturer in psychiatric research, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London Cambridge University Press, £35.00 ISBN 9780521689595 This text reviews issues in psychosis from an international perspective, laying the foundations for a new understanding of the psychotic disorders, with profound implications for health policy and clinical practice.

Compulsive Acts: A Psychiatrist’s Tales of Ritual and Obsession

By Elias Aboujaoude, clinical assistant professor in psychiatry and behavioural science, Stanford University University of California Press, £14.95 ISBN 9780520255678 Aboujaoude, an expert on obsessive compulsive disorder and behavioural addictions, tells stories inspired by memorable patients he has treated, taking the reader from initial contact through the stages of the doctor-patient relationship.

Business and Management

Managing and Organizations: An Introduction to Theory and Practice

By Stewart R. Clegg, professor and director of the Innovative Collaborations Alliances and Networks Research Centre; Martin Kornberger, senior lecturer in the School of Management and the School of Design; and Tyrone Pitsis, lecturer and senior research associate with the Innovative Collaborations Alliances and Networks Research Centre, all at University of Technology, Sydney

Sage, £32.99

ISBN 9781412948784

This fully revised and updated second edition relates theory to practice at every step to equip students with an understanding of how to apply organisational behaviour ideas in the real world.

Doing Business Research: A Guide to Theory and Practice

By Nick Lee, research convenor and senior lecturer in marketing at Aston University, and Ian Lings, senior lecturer in marketing at the University of Technology, Sydney

Sage, £32.99

ISBN 9781412948784

This book addresses the research project as a whole and provides essential detail of philosophical and theoretical matters that are crucial to conceptualising the nature of methodology. It also serves as a pragmatic guide to why and how things are important.

Organization Theory

By Ann Cunliffe, visiting professor in management at the University of Strathclyde

Sage, £14.99

ISBN 9781847871770

This accessible introduction helps readers to extend their understanding of theories and make the connection between them and organisational practice.

Computer sciences

Calendrical Calculations: Third Edition

By Nachum Dershowitz, professor of computer science at Tel Aviv University, and Edward M. Reingold, professor of computer science at Illinois Institute of Technology

Cambridge University Press, £45.00 and £17.99

ISBN 9780521885409 and 702386

This work frames the calendars of the world in a completely algorithmic form. Easy conversion among these calendars is a by-product of the approach, as is the determination of secular and religious holidays.

Economics

The Econometric Modelling of Financial Time Series: Third Edition

By Terence C. Mills, professor of applied statistics and econometrics at Loughborough University, and Raphael M. Markellos, assistant professor of quantitative finance at the Athens University of Economics and Business

Cambridge University Press, £65.00 and £25.99

ISBN 9780521883818 and 710091

This textbook offers detailed coverage of the latest research techniques and findings relating to the empirical analysis of financial markets. It contains a wealth of new material reflecting the developments of the past decade.

Monetary Policy, Inflation and the Business Cycle: An Introduction to the new Keynesian Framework

By Jordi Galí, Centre for Research in International Economics senior researcher at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Princeton University Press, £29.95

ISBN 9780691133164

Galí explores issues pertaining to the design of monetary policy and analyses several extensions of the baseline model, allowing for cost-push shocks, nominal wage rigidities and open-economy factors.

History

The Sino-Soviet Split: Cold War in the Communist World

By Lorenz M. Lüthi, assistant professor in history at McGill University

Princeton University Press, £38.95 and £16.95

ISBN 9780691129341 and 35908

Using a wide array of archival and documentary sources from three continents, Lüthi presents a detailed account of Sino-Soviet political relations in the 1950s and 1960s, exploring how Chinese domestic politics shaped Sino-Soviet relations.

Mathematics

Statistics Using SPSS: An Intergrative Approach

By Sharon Lawner Weinberg, professor of quantative methods and psychology at New York University, and Sarah Knapp Abramowitz, associate professor in the department of mathematics and computer science at Drew University

Cambridge University Press, £75.00

ISBN 9780521899222

This textbook emphasises conceptual understanding through an exploration of underlying mathematical principles and real-world applications. It uses the same real data sets repeatedly throughout the text to create a more cohesive presentation.

Medicine

Operating Department Practice A-Z: Second Edition

By Tom Williams, senior lecturer in operating department practice education, and Brian Smith, senior lecturer in postgraduate operating department practice at Edge Hill University

Cambridge University Press, £35.00

ISBN 9780521710213

Each entry in this second edition has been updated and contains both a short definition and a more detailed description of the term or procedure, with supporting information to give the reader a deeper understanding of the field.

Philsophy and theology

An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion

By Michael J. Marshall, Arthur and Katherine Shadek professor of the humanities at Franklin and Marshall College, and Michael Rea, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame

Cambridge University Press, £45.00 and £15.99

ISBN 9780521853699 and 619554

The authors provide a broad overview of the topics at the forefront of discussion in contemporary philosophy of religion. Prominent views and arguments from historical and contemporary authors are discussed and analysed.

Politics

Television, Power, and the Public in Russia

By Ellen Mickiewicz, James R. Shepley professor of public policy studies and political science at Duke University

Cambridge University Press, £45.00 and £15.99

ISBN 9780521888561 and 716758

Using focus group research and new developments in cognitive theory, Mickiewicz unveils a profound mismatch between the complacent assumption of Russian leaders that the country will absorb their messages, and the viewers on the other side of the screen

Psychology and psychiatry

Ethno-psychopharmacology: Advances in Current Practice

By Chee H. Ng, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Melbourne; Keh-Ming Lin, professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, Bruce Singh, professor of psychiatry at the University of Melbourne, and Edmond Chiu, honorary professorial fellow in the department of psychiatry at the University of Melbourne

Cambridge University Press, £55

ISBN 9780521873635

This book covers all the important factors that explain how and why drug treatments used in psychiatry affect individuals and ethnic groups differently, considering biological, social, cultural and environmental factors.

The Normal Personality: A New Way of Thinking about People

By Steven Reiss, professor of psychology at Ohio State University

Cambridge University Press, £19.99

ISBN 9780521881067

Reiss shows how normal motives underlie many personality and relationship problems. Calling for greater understanding and tolerance of all kinds of personalities, Reiss applies his theory of motivation and leadership, human development, relationships and counselling.

Thinking as Communicating: Human Development, the Growth of Discourses, and Mathematizing

By Anna Sfard, professor of mathematics education at the University of Haifa and Lappan-Phillips-Fitzgerald professor of mathematics education at Michigan State University

Cambridge University Press, £55.00

ISBN 9780521867375

This book attempts to change thinking about thinking. The author believes that many long-standing, seemingly irresolvable quandaries about human development originate in ambiguities of the existing discourses on thinking.

Social Sciences

Sketch for a Self Analysis

By Pierre Bourdieu, director of the Centre de Sociologie Européenne until his death in 2002.

Polity, £40.00 and £14.99

ISBN 9780745635262 and 59

Bourdieu recounts and analyses the trajectory that led him from the peasant world of Béarn, through sometimes painful years as a lycée boarder, and as a conscript in the Algerian War, to the pinnacle of the French intellectual and academic world.

The Bachelors’ Ball

By Pierre Bourdieu, director of the Centre de Sociologie Européenne until his death in 2002.

Polity, £50.00 and £14.99

ISBN 9780745630946 and 0953

This book brings together three major articles on the enforced bachelorhood of eldest sons in traditional French rural society with an introduction that presents them as stages through which one can follow the development of Bourdieu’s theory of practice.

Class and Stratification

By Rosemary Crompton, director of research in sociology at City University London

Polity, £55.00 and £17.99

ISBN 9780745638690 and 8706

This third edition has been extensively revised, incorporating discussions of contemporary economic and social change. It includes discussions of political and economic neoliberalism and its impacts as well as developments in social theory.

Saving the Modern Soul: Therapy, Emotions, and the Culture of Self Help

By Eva Illouz, professor of sociology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

University of California Press, £32.95 and £12.95

ISBN 9780520224469 and 53735

Illouz examines the profound impact of therapeutic discourse on our lives and on our contemporary notions of identity, plumbing today’s cultural moment to understand how and why psychology has secured its place at the core of modern identity.

Researching Social Life: Third Edition

By Nigel Gilbert, professor of sociology at the University of Surrey

Sage, £24.99

ISBN 9781412946629

This textbook covers the whole range of methods from quantitative to qualitative in a down-to-earth and unthreatening manner. This third edition has been fully revised and updated to reflect the latest advances.

Disability on Equal Terms

Edited by John Swain, chair of disability and inclusion at the University of Northumbria, and Sally French

Sage, £19.99

ISBN 9781412919883

This collection of writings aims to challenge traditional notions of disability, offering a multidisciplinary approach to disability studies, incorporating perspectives from a wide range of health and social care services.