Published this week

ANTHROPOLOGY

• Postcolonial Disorders

Edited by Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good, professor of social medicine, Harvard University; Sandra Teresa Hyde, associate professor in the departments of anthropology and social studies of medicine, McGill University; Sarah Pinto, assistant professor of anthropology, Tufts University; and Byron J. Good, professor of medical anthropology, Harvard University

University of California Press, £38.95 and £16.95. ISBN 9780520252233 and 2240

These essays reflect on the nature of subjectivity in the diverse places where anthropologists are currently working, including Morocco, China and Ireland.

ARCHAEOLOGY

• The Archaeology of Ethnogenesis: Race and Sexuality in Colonial San Francisco

By Barbara L. Voss, assistant professor of anthropology, Stanford University

University of California Press, £26.95. ISBN 9780520244924

Voss's archaeological research at the Presidio of San Francisco forms the basis for this work that throws light on the origins of the Californios, a community of military settlers who forged an identity on the northwest edge of Spanish North America.

BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

• Can Latin America Compete? Confronting the Challenges of Globalization

Edited by Jerry Haar, professor of management and international business and associate director, Knight Ridder Centre for excellence in management, Florida International University; and John Price

Palgrave, £42.50. ISBN 9781403975430

The contributors identify ten factors that most influence the competitiveness of Latin American nations and will shape their economic futures, and consider the macroeconomic and trade reforms of the 1990s.

CLASSICS

• The Cambridge Companion to Greek Mythology

By Roger Woodard, Andrew V.V. Raymond professor of the classics and professor of linguistics, University of Buffalo

Cambridge University Press, £50 and £18.99. ISBN 9780521845205 and 607261

Woodard brings together a group of scholars of classical myth to provide an account of all aspects of Greek mythology, the ancient mythic tradition and its influence around the world.

• Lectura Dantis: Purgatorio - A Canto-by-Canto Commentary

Edited by Allen Mandlebaum, W. R. Kenan Jr professor of humanities, Wake Forest University, and professor of the history of literary criticism, University of Turin; Anthony Oldcorn, professor and chair of Italian studies, Brown University; and Charles Ross, professor of English and comparative literature, Purdue University

University of California Press, £35.00 and £16.95. ISBN 9780520250550, and 101

This collection of commentaries on the first part of Dante's Divine Comedy consists of commissioned essays, one for each canto, by international scholar-critics.

CULTURAL STUDIES

• From Impressionism to Anime: Japan as Fantasy and Fan Cult in the Mind of the West

By Susan Napier, professor in Asian studies, University of Texas at Austin

Palgrave, £42.50 and £9.99. ISBN 9781403962133 and 2140

Napier takes a look at anime fans and the place they occupy, both in terms of subculture in Japan and America and in relation to Western perceptions of Japan since the late 1800s.

ECONOMICS

• Institutional Change and Economic Behaviour

Edited by Janos Kornai, Allie S. Freed professor of economics emeritus, Harvard University, and permanent fellow emeritus, Collegium Budapest; Laszlo Matyas, head of the department of economics, Central European University; and Gerard Roland, professor of economics and political science, University of California, Berkeley

Palgrave, £65.00. ISBN 9780230546981

This book examines the transition process for the eight newest members of the European Union and the growth taking place in China. It also offers a historical perspective on the causes of Middle East economic underdevelopment and discusses how much of the neoclassical paradigm is refuted by evidence produced by experimental economics in recent years. Engineering

• Control Techniques for Complex Networks

By Sean Meyn, professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Cambridge University Press, £45.00. ISBN 9780521884419

Interconnectedness has consequences. This book aims to provide the tools and philosophy needed to build network models detailed enough to capture essential dynamics but simple enough to expose the structure of effective control solutions and to clarify analysis. Meyn puts particular emphasis on visualisation techniques and provides a range of exercises.

ENGLISH LITERATURE

• William Faulkner: A Literary Life

By David Rampton, professor of English, University of Ottawa

Palgrave, £45.00. ISBN 9781403946805

Rampton defines the contours of an intriguing literary career, arguing that its development is so striking and its longevity so impressive that it is possible to think of serial Faulkners, each one worth studying as part of a composite portrait.

• New Perspectives on Contemporary Chinese Poetry

By Christopher Lupke, assistant professor of comparative literature, Washington State University

Palgrave, £40.00. ISBN 9781403976079

This book brings together fresh research from experts on contemporary Chinese poetry, traditionally one of the genres most neglected by scholars in English. This volume offers treatments of many of the most important Chinese poets of the modern age.

• Le Gothic: Influences and Appropriations in Europe and America

By Avril Horner, professor of English, Kingston University; and Sue Zlosnik, head of the English department, Manchester Metropolitan University

Palgrave, £50.00. ISBN 9780230517646

Horner and Zlosnik provide a rebuttal of the idea that Gothic fiction is mainly an Anglo-American phenomenon. By charting numerous influences and appropriations, they show how Gothic writing flourished by crossing national and linguistic boundaries.

• Desire and Gender in the Sonnet Tradition

By Natasha Distiller, senior lecturer in the department of English, University of Cape Town

Palgrave, £45.00. ISBN 9780230535633

This new study explores the poetic tradition of the love sonnet sequence in English as written by women. Distiller contributes to the debate about gender and subjectivity by taking the subject of the sonnet as an analogue for the Lacanian subject.

GENERAL SCIENCE

• DNA: Promise and Peril

By Linda L. McCabe, adjunct associate professor of human genetics and paediatrics, University of California, Los Angeles; and Edward R.B. McCabe, professor of paediatrics and human genetics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles

University of California Press, £23.95. ISBN 9780520251878

This book gives the background information for understanding how genetics affects our everyday lives, including recent discoveries, and explores the associated ethical, legal and social issues.

GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

• Darkening Peaks: Glacier Retreat, Science, and Society

Edited by Ben Orlove, professor of environmental science and policy, University of California, Davis; Ellen Wiegandt, lecturer, Graduate Institute for International Studies, Geneva; and Brian H. Luckman, professor of geography, University of Western Ontario

University of California Press, £26.95. ISBN 9780520253056

This book brings together contributors from five continents to discuss the ways that scientists have observed and modelled glaciers, and it outlines how climate change is altering their size and distribution.

HISTORY

• The Historiography of Genocide

Edited by Dan Stone, professor of modern European history, Royal Holloway, University of London

Palgrave, £85.00. ISBN 9781403992192

This is the first book to offer an overview of the discipline as a whole with leading scholars offering analyses of complex themes, approaches and explanations, drawn from literature that is often obscure or inaccessible.

• Reconfiguring Chinese Nationalism: How the Qing Frontier and its Indigenes Became Chinese

By James Leibold, lecturer in Asian studies, La Trobe University

Palgrave, £42.50. ISBN 9781403974792

In what is claimed to be the first full-length treatment of ethnic and national identity in early 20th-century China, Leibold traces the political and cultural strategies employed in the process of incorporating the inhabitants of the last Qing dynasty into a new national community.

• The Magna Carta Manifesto: Liberties and Commons for All

By Peter Linebaugh, professor of history, University of Toledo

University of California Press, £14.95. ISBN 9780520247260

Linebaugh draws on primary sources to construct a history of the Great Charter, demonstrating how today these ancient rights are repeatedly laid aside amid privatisation and lust for power.

• A History of Palestine: From the Ottoman Conquest to the Founding of the State of Israel

By Gudrun Kramer, professor of Islamic studies, Free University Berlin

Princeton University Press, £19.95. ISBN 9780691118970

Starting with the prebiblical and biblical roots of Palestine, Kramer examines the meanings ascribed to the land in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions, paying special attention to social and economic factors.

LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS

• Analyzing Linguistic Data

By Harald Baayen, professor of linguistics, University of Alberta

Cambridge University Press, £55.00 and £19.99. ISBN 9780521882590 and 709187

Baayen introduces the basic principles and methods of statistical analysis for linguists with a non-mathematical background.

LAW

• Interpreting Hong Kong's Basic Law: The Struggle for Coherence

Edited by Hualing Fu, associate professor of law, University of Hong Kong; Lison Harris, assistant research officer, Centre for Comparative and Public Law, University of Hong Kong; and Simon Young, associate professor in law, University of Hong Kong

Palgrave, £40.00. ISBN 9780230600416

This book aims to aid understanding of approaches to constitutional law in the mainland and allow comparison with the practices in Hong Kong and internationally.

NURSING STUDIES

• Leadership in Health Care

By Jill Barr, principal lecturer in nursing and midwifery, De Montfort University; and Lesley L. Dowding, visiting lecturer, Coventry University

Sage, £60.00 and £19.99. ISBN 9781412920674 and 0681

Barr and Dowding identify the breadth of leadership theory students can apply to their own clinical practice while also raising their awareness of the need for innovation.

PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

• The African Diaspora and the Study of Religion

Edited by Theodore Lewis Trost, associate professor in religious studies, University of Alabama

Palgrave, £40.00. ISBN 9781403977861

This text engages a variety of conversations in the study of religion and in African diaspora studies, including the construction of racial identity in diverse national settings; new religious movements and nationalism; alternative religious narratives in the diaspora; literature read through the lens of diaspora; transatlantic culture; and the role of the scholar and scholarship in the construction of religious and political meaning.

PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

• Galactic Dynamics: Second Edition

By James Binney, professor of physics, University of Oxford; and Scott Tremaine, Richard Black professor of astrophysics, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University

Princeton University Press, £65.00 and £35.00. ISBN 9780691130262 and 09

This edition has been revised to reflect the latest advances in the field. New topics covered include black holes in stellar systems, linear stability and response theory, and galaxy formation in the cosmological context.

POLITICS

• The African Press, Civic Cynicism and Democracy

By Minabere Ibelema, associate professor of communication studies, University of Alabama

Palgrave, £42.50. ISBN 9781403982018

This book explores the thesis that civic cynicism in African countries is a major obstacle to the consolidation of democracy and that the African press should address the problem not just among leaders, but among the general population.

• Small States in Global Affairs: The Foreign Policies of the Caribbean Community

By Jacqueline Anne Braveboy-Wagner, professor in political science, City College of New York

Palgrave, £42.50. ISBN 9781403980014

Braveboy-Wagner provides an account of diplomatic developments in the Caribbean.

• American Government

By Kenneth Dautrich, associate professor of political science, University of Connecticut; and David Yalof, associate professor of political science, University of Connecticut

Wadsworth, £35.00. ISBN 9780155050730

This text offers an introduction to American government and politics explored through three essential, integrated perspectives: historical, popular and global.

• Controlling Governments

By Jose Maria Maravall Herrero and Ignacio Sanchez-Cuenca, both directors, Juan March Institute

Cambridge University Press, £45.00 and £18.99. ISBN 9780521884105 and 711104

This book uses comparative analysis to identify, among other things, how much information voters must have to select a politician for office, whether parties in power can help voters to control their governments, and how different institutional arrangements influence voters' control.

• Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire

By Wendy Brown, professor of political science, University of California, Berkeley

Princeton University Press, £11.95. ISBN 9780691136219

Brown looks at contexts as different as the War on Terror and campaigns for gay rights to trace the operation of tolerance in contemporary struggles over identity, citizenship and civilisation.

SOCIAL STUDIES

• Regulating Vice: Misguided Prohibitions and Realistic Controls

By James Leitzel, director of public policy studies, University of Chicago College

Cambridge University Press, £45.00 and £17.99. ISBN 9780521880466 and 706605

Leitzel focuses on public policy towards traditional vices such as alcohol, nicotine, drugs, gambling and commercial sex. He explains why vice prohibitions are generally misguided, and also describes the dangers of unfettered access to alcohol, cocaine or heroin.

• Sociology of Law

By Mathieu Deflem, associate professor of sociology, University of South Carolina

Cambridge University Press, £55.00 and £19.99. ISBN 9780521857253 and 673921

Deflem reviews major accomplishments in the field and reveals the value of the multiple ways in which sociologists study the social structures and processes of law, discussing both historical and contemporary issues.

• Diasporas

By Stephane Dufoix, associate professor of sociology, University of Paris X-Nanterre

University of California Press, £32.95 and £12.95. ISBN 9780520253599 and 3605

Dufoix incorporates case studies to illustrate key concepts, to offer an overview on current thinking and to reassess the value of the term diaspora for readers today.

THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE STUDIES

• Performing the Body in Irish Theatre

By Bernadette Sweeney, lecturer in drama and theatre studies, University College Cork

Palgrave, £45.00. ISBN 9781403997098

Sweeney offers original readings of some well-known and several lesser known texts while emphasising the complex interweaving of text and performance in the emergence of new Irish theatre practices.

• National Theatres in a Changing Europe

Edited by S. E. Wilmer, associate professor in drama, Trinity College Dublin

Palgrave, £50.00. ISBN 9780230521094

These essays address the historic and contemporary roles of national theatres in Europe and the changing artistic, social, political and economic circumstances that have created a crisis for their modern role as cultural flagships.