Published this week

ART AND DESIGN

- Louis H. Sullivan and a 19th-Century Poetics of Naturalized Architecture

By Lauren S. Weingarden, associate professor of art history, Florida State University. Ashgate, £65.00. ISBN 9780754663089

By giving equal weight to Louis Sullivan's writings and designs, Weingarden reveals his eloquent articulation of 19th-century romantic practices - literary, linguistic, aesthetic, spiritual and nationalistic.

- Re-Reading Leonardo: The Treatise on Painting across Europe, 1550-1900

Edited by Claire Farago, professor of Renaissance art, history and culture, University of Colorado at Boulder. Ashgate, £65.00. ISBN 9780754665328

This volume examines the historical reception of Leonardo's Treatise on Painting in a cross-cultural framework that represents the first attempt to chart the influence of the work, dealing specifically with the reception and influence of the artist's ideas.

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

- Statistical Mechanics of Cellular Systems and Processes

Edited by Muhammad H. Zaman, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, University of Texas at Austin. Cambridge University Press, £45.00. ISBN 9780521886086

This book integrates understanding from the molecular to the cellular and multicellular level in a quantitative framework that will benefit a wide audience engaged in biological, biochemical, biophysical and clinical research.

COMPUTER SCIENCE

- Multiagent Systems: Algorithmic, Game-Theoretic, and Logical Foundations

By Yoav Shoham, professor of computer science, Stanford University and Kevin Leyton-Brown, assistant professor of computer science, University of British Columbia. Cambridge University Press, £35.00. ISBN 9780521899437

This overview of the field offers a computer science perspective, but also draws on ideas from game theory, economics, operations research, logic, philosophy and linguistics.

FILM STUDIES

- Mysterious Skin: Male Bodies in Contemporary Cinema

Edited by Santiago Fouz-Hernandez, lecturer in Spanish cinema, Durham University. I.B. Tauris, £16.99. ISBN 9781845118310

An international array of experts explore the treatment of masculinity and the male body in the cinemas of Africa, Australia, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, North America, Spain, Taiwan and Vietnam, as well as Hollywood.

HISTORY

- The Cave of Fontechevade: Recent Excavations and their Paleoanthropological Implications

By Philip G. Chase, senior research scientist in European archaeology, University of Pennsylvania, Andre Debenath, professor and director of research, Universite de Perpignan, Harold L. Dibble, professor of anthropology, University of Pennsylvania and Shannon P. McPherron, research scientist in archaeology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Cambridge University Press, £50.00. ISBN 9780521898447

This summary of the discoveries made during the course of excavations at the Palaeolithic cave site of Fontechevade, France, between 1994 and 1998, addresses major problems raised by earlier excavations at the site from 1937 to 1954.

- The Political Economy of the Dutch Republic

Edited by Oscar Gelderblom, postdoctoral fellow in economic and social history, Utrecht University. Ashgate, £65.00. ISBN 9780754661597

This volume builds on earlier scholarship and new evidence to tackle two issues: the effect of political revolution on property rights and public finance, and the ability of the nation to renegotiate issues of taxation and government borrowing in changing political circumstances.

LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS

- The Cambridge Handbook of Child Language

Edited by Edith L. Bavin, adjunct professor in psychological science, La Trobe University. Cambridge University Press, £90.00. ISBN 9780521883375

Bavin brings together the world's foremost researchers to provide a one-stop resource for the study of language acquisition and development. The Handbook is grouped into five thematic sections and organised by topic.

LITERATURE

- Literature and Dance in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Jane Austen to the New Woman

By Cheryl A. Wilson, assistant professor of English, Indiana University. Cambridge University Press, £50.00. ISBN 9780521519090

Wilson includes analyses of works by Austen, Thackeray, Eliot and Trollope, as well as material from 19th-century dance manuals to show how dance provided a vehicle through which writers could convey social commentary and cultural critique on issues such as gender, social mobility and nationalism.

- The Cambridge Introduction to Edith Wharton

By Pamela Knights, senior lecturer in English studies, Durham University. Cambridge University Press, £35.00 and £11.99. ISBN 9780521867658 and 687195

This book provides a stimulating introduction to Wharton's life and writings, to help map her work for new readers and to encourage more detailed exploration of her texts and contexts.

MATHEMATICS

- Linear and Nonlinear Optimization

By Igor Griva, assistant professor in mathematical, computational and data sciences, Stephen G. Nash, associate dean, School of Information Technology and Engineering and Ariela Sofer, professor and chair in systems engineering and operational research, all at George Mason University. Cambridge University Press, £61.00. ISBN 9780898716610

Griva, Nash and Sofer provide an introduction to the applications, theory and algorithms of linear and nonlinear optimisation, with emphasis on practical aspects. They discuss modern algorithms, as well as the influence of theory on the interpretation of solutions or on the design of software.

MEDICINE

- Essential Clinical Immunology

Edited by John B. Zabriskie, associate professor of immunology, Rockefeller University. Cambridge University Press, £75.00 and £35.00. ISBN 9780521516815 and 704892

This book focuses on the clinical disease-state level of immunology, beginning with the basic concepts and then detailing the immunological aspects of various disease states involving major organs of the body.

MUSIC STUDIES

- Music and the Myth of Arcadia in Renaissance Italy

By Giuseppe Gerbino, associate professor of music, Columbia University. Cambridge University Press, £65.00. ISBN 9780521899567

Gerbino outlines how Renaissance culture strove to keep the idea of utopia alive and demonstrates how music played a fundamental role in the construction and preservation of this collective illusion.

- The Irishness of Irish Music

By John O'Flynn, senior lecturer in music, St Patrick's College, Dublin City University. Ashgate, £55.00. ISBN 9780754657149

O'Flynn brings together material from a range of sources to highlight how government organisations, musicians, academics and commercial companies are concerned with and seek to use a particular notion of Irish musical identity.

- Heavy Metal Music in Britain

Edited by Gerd Bayer, senior lecturer in English, University of Erlangen. Ashgate, £50.00. ISBN 9780754664239

The individual chapter authors approach British heavy metal from a textual perspective, providing critical analyses of the politics and ideology behind the lyrics, images and performances.

PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

- God in Postliberal Perspective: Between Realism and Non-Realism

By Robert Andrew Cathey, professor of theology, McCormick Theological Seminary. Ashgate, £55.00. ISBN 9780754616801

This book presents an introduction to the doctrine and concept of God in contemporary philosophy and theology, exploring how some theologians and philosophers dare to speak of God as "real" in our sceptical, pluralistic and interfaith age.

- The Qur'an, Morality, and Critical Reason: The Essential Muhammad Shahrur

Edited, translated and introduced by Andreas Christmann, senior lecturer in contemporary Islam, University of Manchester. Brill, EUR80.00. ISBN 9789004171039; ISSN 1385-3376

This book presents the work and ideas of the Syrian writer Shahrur to the English-speaking world. Shahrur is often described as the "Martin Luther of Islam", and he offers a reading of Islam that aims to counter the influences of religious fundamentalism and radical politics.

PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

- Discovering the Expanding Universe

By Harry Nussbaumer, professor of astronomy, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and Lydia Bieri, assistant professor in mathematics, Harvard University. Cambridge University Press, £30.00. ISBN 9780521514842

Nussbaumer and Bieri chart the history of one of the major discoveries of astronomy - the expanding universe, exploring the theory's development in the early 20th century, from Einstein, through to Lemaitre, Hubble and Humason.

- Dynamics of Self-Organized and Self-Assembled Structures

By Rashmi C. Desai, emeritus professor of physics, University of Toronto and Raymond Kapral, professor of chemistry, University of Toronto. Cambridge University Press, £40.00. ISBN 9780521883610

Physical and biological systems driven out of equilibrium may spontaneously evolve to form spatial structures. In some systems, molecular constituents may self-assemble to produce complex ordered structures. This book describes how such pattern formation processes occur and how they can be modelled.

- Finding the Big Bang

Edited by P. James E. Peebles, Albert Einstein professor of science emeritus, Princeton University, Lyman A. Page, Henry DeWolf Smyth professor of physics, Princeton University and Bruce Partridge, professor of astronomy, Haverford College. Cambridge University Press, £40.00. ISBN 9780521519823

The story of the discovery and exploration of the cosmic microwave background radiation in the 1960s is recalled for the first time in this collection of 44 essays by eminent scientists who pioneered the work.

POLITICS

- Party Discipline and Parliamentary Politics

By Christopher J. Kam, assistant professor of political science, University of British Columbia. Cambridge University Press, £50.00. ISBN 9780521518291

Kam demonstrates how incentives for MPs to dissent from their parties have been amplified by a process of partisan dealignment that has created electorates of non-partisan voters who reward shows of political independence.

- The Cultural Politics of Human Rights

By Kate Nash, reader in sociology, Goldsmiths, University of London. Cambridge University Press, £45.00 and £17.99. ISBN 9780521853521 and 618670

Nash uses an innovative methodology to map the emergent intermestic human rights field within the US and UK and to investigate detailed case studies of the cultural politics of human rights.

SOCIAL SCIENCES

- Understanding Children's Social Care: Politics, Policy and Practice

By Nick Frost, professor of social work, Leeds Metropolitan University and Nigel Parton, NSPCC professor in applied childhood studies, University of Huddersfield. Sage, £19.99. ISBN 9781412923507

This book aims to bridge the gap between theory, policy and practice, and analyses the historical and political changes in the children's services since 1948. It provides a critical review of the main service areas, including safeguarding and child protection.

- Doing Your Social Science Dissertation

By Judith Burnett, associate head, School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies, University of East London. Sage, £16.99. ISBN 9781412931137

Burnett demonstrates how to turn dissertation ideas into a well-designed and executed research project. The book features a variety of case studies as well as student focus points.

Extra online listings

History

Women Religious Leaders in Japan’s Christian Century, 1549-1650 By Haruko Nawata Ward, assistant professor of church history, Columbia Theological Seminary Ashgate, £65.00 ISBN 9780754664789 Ward aims to fill a lacuna in the historiography of Christianity in Japan by analysing the experience of nuns, witches, catechists and sisters in 16th-century Japan, bringing to light how these women utilised resources from their traditional religions to new Christian adaptations and specific religio-social issues.

Gender and Rural Modernity: Farm Women and the Politics of Labor in Germany, 1871-1933 By Elizabeth B. Jones, associate professor of history, Department of History, Colorado State University Ashgate, £55.00 ISBN 9780754664994 Jones explores how and why women’s productive, reproductive and symbolic roles on family farms became important in the eyes of contemporary observers and how German farm women themselves shaped debates over agricultural labour and the nation’s future before, during and after the First World War.

The American West By Karen R. Jones, director of American studies and lecturer in American history, University of Kent and John Wills, lecturer in American history, University of Kent Edinburgh University Press, £75.00 and £24.99 ISBN 9780748622528 and 2511 This is an introduction to the history of the American West offers a new approach to viewing the Western past, covering the key themes and debates in Western history as well as competing academic discourses.

American Culture in the 1920s By Susan Currell, senior lecturer in American literature, University of Sussex Edinburgh University Press, £60.00 and £17.99 ISBN 9780748625222 and 5215 Currell introduces the major cultural and intellectual trends of the decade by introducing and assessing the development of the primary cultural forms of fiction, poetry and drama, music and performance, film and radio, and visual art and design.

Literature

The Cambridge Introduction to J.?M. Coetzee By Dominic Head, professor in modern English literature, University of Nottingham Cambridge University Press, £35.00 and £11.99 ISBN 9780521867474 and 687096 This up-to-date survey of Coetzee’s fiction and context sees a discussion of all of his fiction, along with serious attention given to the brooding presence of the political situation in South Africa during the first part of his career.

The Shakespearean Stage By Andrew Gurr, emeritus professor of English, University of Reading Cambridge University Press, £45.00 and £17.99 ISBN 9780521509817 and 729666 This fourth edition is thoroughly revised and updated and contains fresh materials about how specific plays by Shakespeare were first staged. It provides new information about the companies that staged them and their playhouses.

The Birth of Mankind: Otherwise Named, The Woman’s Book Edited by Elaine Hobby, professor of English and drama, Loughborough University Ashgate, £60.00 ISBN 9780754638186 For this annotated edition of the 1560 text, Hobby has modernised the spelling and included notes tracing the development of the book from its German origins and showing how early-modern ideas about the reproductive process combined ancient, medieval, and contemporary ideas.

J.?G. Ballard’s Surrealist Imagination: Spectacular Authorship By Jeannette Baxter, senior lecturer in English and writing, Anglia Ruskin University Ashgate, £55.00 ISBN 9780754662679 Baxter makes the case that J.?G. Ballard’s fiction must be read within the framework of Surrealism, arguing for a radical revisioning of Ballard that takes account of the political and ethical dimensions of his work.

The Politics of Gender in Anthony Trollope’s Novels: New Readings for the Twenty-First Century Edited by Margaret Markwick, honorary fellow in English, University of Exeter, Deborah Denenholz Morse, associate professor of English, College of William and Mary and Regenia Gagnier, professor of English, University of Exeter Ashgate, £55.00 ISBN 9780754663898 This collection brings together established critics and exciting new voices and offers readings of Trollope that recognise and repay his importance as source material for scholars working in diverse fields of literary and cultural studies.

Reason and Religion in Clarissa: Samuel Richardson and ‘the Famous Mr. Norris, of Bemerton’ By E. Derek Taylor, associate professor of English, Longwood University Ashgate, £55.00 ISBN 9780754665311 Taylor departs from traditional Lockean readings of Clarissa and offers a new interpretation informed by the writings of Locke’s first critic, John Norris, whose philosophical and religious ideas provide the rhetorical grounding for Richardson’s book.

Music studies

Ritual and Music of North China, Volume 2: Shaanbei By Stephen Jones, research associate in music, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Ashgate, £55.00 ISBN 9780754665908 Jones gives an impression of music-making in daily life in the poor mountainous region of Shaanbei, northwest China, conveying some of the diverse musical activities there from pop music to the life-cycle and calendrical ceremonies of poor mountain villages.

As Heard on TV: Popular Music in Advertising By Bethany Klein, lecturer in media industries, University of Leeds Ashgate, £55.00 ISBN 9780754666653 As Heard on TV explores the gap between the limited academic research conducted on popular music in advertising and the countless popular assessments insisting on the cultural significance of the practice.

Heavy Metal Music in Britain Edited by Gerd Bayer, senior lecturer in English, University of Erlangen Ashgate, £50.00 ISBN 9780754664239 The individual chapter authors approach British heavy metal from a textual perspective, providing critical analyses of the politics and ideology behind the lyrics, images and performances.