Published this week

BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

- Women Speaking Up: Getting and Using Turns in Workplace Meetings

By Cecilia E. Ford, professor of English, University of Wisconsin

Palgrave, £50.00. ISBN 9781403987228

Ford rejects popular notions of gender difference and deficiency in women's language, using analysis of interaction to counter negative myths and focusing on skills required by men and women alike to contribute to meetings.

CLASSICS

- The Cambridge Companion to Greek Mythology

Edited by Roger Woodard, Andrew V. V. Raymond professor of the classics, State University of New York, Buffalo

Cambridge University Press, £50.00 and £18.99. ISBN 9780521845205 and 607261

Woodard brings together a group of scholars of classical myth for a thorough treatment of Greek mythology, guiding the reader through all aspects of the tradition and its influence around the world.

- Dante and the Making of a Modern Author

By Albert Russell Ascoli, Terrill distinguished professor of Italian studies, University of California, Berkeley

Cambridge University Press, £55.00. ISBN 9780521882361

Ascoli traces the metamorphosis of Dante Alighieri - minor Florentine aristocrat, political activist and exile, amateur philosopher and theologian, daring experimental poet - into Dante, author of the Divine Comedy and key figure in the cultural canon of the West.

EDUCATION

- Your Dissertation in Education

By Nicholas Walliman, senior lecturer and researcher, OISD Technology, Oxford Brookes University, and Scott Buckler, senior lecturer, BA education, University of Worcester

Sage, £55.00 and £15.99. ISBN 9781412946223 and 46230

Walliman and Buckler provide a systematic, practical approach to dissertation and project writing for students in education. There are practical examples, summary sections and additional references.

FILM STUDIES

- Stalinist Cinema and the Production of History: Museum of the Revolution

By Evgeny Dobrenko, professor of Russian studies, University of Sheffield

Edinburgh University Press, £60.00. ISBN 9780748634453

An exploration of how Stalinist cinema worked with time, the past and memory as well as an examination of its role in the production of history, mechanisms of transfer and what is located between history and the past.

GENERAL SCIENCE

- The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing

Edited by Richard Dawkins, Charles Simonyi chair in the public understanding of science, University of Oxford

Oxford University Press, £20.00. ISBN 9780199216802

With this collection Dawkins aims to capture the poetry and excitement of communicating scientific understanding and effort from 1900 to today; it includes entries from a range of scientists.

- Contraception: A History

By Robert Jutte, head, Institute of Medicine, Robert Bosch Foundation, and professor of modern history, Stuttgart University

Polity, £60.00 and £19.99. ISBN 97807456304 and 11

Jutte looks at contraception from the ancient world to the present day, considering modern methods alongside alternative methods such as the use of herbal potions and vaginal pessaries, the castration of young boys and the enforced sterilisation of men and women.

- Flower Hunters

By Mary Gribbin and John Gribbin, visiting research fellows, University of Sussex

Oxford University Press, £18.99. ISBN 9780192807182

Mary and John Gribbin combine science, history, biography and adventure to tell the stories of the overlapping lives of 11 botanical explorers who set out to investigate the far corners of the globe and collect exotic plants to advance the new science of botany.

GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

- Global Environmental History: 10,000 BC to AD 2000

By Ian G. Simmons, professor of geography, Durham University

Edinburgh University Press, £65.00 and £24.99. ISBN 9780748621590 and 1583

Simmons examines the major phases of human technological evolution in the past 12,000 years and looks at the ways in which they have been deployed to change the natural world.

- Environmental Microbiology: From Genomes to Biogeochemistry

By Eugene Madsen, associate professor of microbiology, Cornell University

Blackwell, £39.99. ISBN 9781405136471

This inquiry-driven text presents an up-to-date understanding of the emerging field of environmental microbiology, with an emphasis on real-world habitats and selective pressures experienced by naturally occurring microorganisms.

HISTORY

- Slave Systems: Ancient and Modern

Edited by Enrico del Lago, lecturer in American history, National University of Ireland, Galway, and Constantina Katsari, lecturer in ancient history, University of Leicester

Cambridge University Press, £55.00. ISBN 9780521881838

An edited collection that charts the rise and fall of forms of slave labour in the ancient Mediterranean and in the modern Atlantic, employing the methodology of comparative history and dealing with different approaches to historical comparison.

- War and Peace in Ancient and Medieval History

Edited by Philip de Souza, lecturer in classics, University College Dublin, and John France, professor of history, University of Wales, Swansea

Cambridge University Press, £55.00. ISBN 9780521817035

A study of the ideas and practices involved in the making and breaking of peace treaties and truces from Classical Greece to the time of the Crusades, featuring essays from specialists on war and peace in ancient and medieval history.

- (J) Worlds at War: The 2,500 Year Struggle between East and West

By Anthony Pagden, professor of history and political science, University of California, Los Angeles

Oxford University Press, £20.00. ISBN 9780199237432

Pagden shows how the antagonism between East and West predates the birth of Islam and Christianity and highlights the links between a series of conflicts over 2,500 years that have previously been treated only in isolation.

- American Culture in the 1940s

By Jacqueline Foertsch, assistant professor of English, University of North Texas

Edinburgh University Press, £50.00 and £16.99. ISBN 9780748624133 and 4126

An exploration of the major cultural forms of 1940s America; music and radio; film and theatre; serious and popular visual arts; and key texts, trends and figures, from Native Son to Citizen Kane, from Hiroshima to McCarthyism, and from Dr Seuss to Bob Hope.

LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS

- New Zealand English

By Jennifer Hay, associate professor of linguistics, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, Margaret McLagan, visiting fellow, University of Amsterdam, and Elizabeth Gordon, associate professor of linguistics, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Edinburgh University Press, £50.00 and £16.99. ISBN 9780748625307 and 5291

A description of English as it is spoken in New Zealand, which is said to be not only the youngest variety of the language but the only instance where there is recorded evidence of its entire history.

LITERATURE

- The Collected Letters of Joseph Conrad

Edited by Laurence Davies, honorary senior research fellow in English Literature, University of Glasgow, and visiting professor of comparative literature, Dartmouth College

Cambridge University Press, £725.00. ISBN 9780521881906

This nine-volume set offers the complete letters of Joseph Conrad, starting with his earliest letters to his imprisoned father through letters he penned in his adult careers at sea and as a writer, and those disclosing his experiences as lover, husband, friend and parent.

- Science and Sensation in Romantic Poetry

By Noel Jackson, associate professor of literature, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cambridge University Press, £50.00. ISBN 9780521869379

Jackson sheds new light on Romantic efforts to define how art is experienced in relation to the newly emerging sciences of the mind and shows the continued relevance of these ideas to our own habits of cultural and historical criticism today.

- (J) Collected Critical Writings: Geoffrey Hill

Edited by Kenneth Haynes, associate professor of comparative literature, Brown University

Oxford University Press, £25.00. ISBN 9780199208470

This book gathers more than 40 years of published criticism, in a revised final form, and also adds much new work from the emeritus professor of literature and religion at Boston University.

MATHEMATICS

- An Introduction to Contact Topology

By Hansjorg Geiges, professor of mathematics, University of Cologne

Cambridge University Press, £45.00. ISBN 9780521865852

Geiges' text on contact topology is the first comprehensive introduction to the subject, including recent striking applications in geometric and differential topology, and serves as an introduction to the subject for graduate students and as a reference for researchers.

- Complex Topological K-Theory

By Efton Park, professor of mathematics, Texas Christian University

Cambridge University Press, £38.00. ISBN 9780521856348

Topological K-theory is a key tool in topology, differential geometry and index theory, and this contemporary introduction is for graduate students new to the subject. No background in algebraic topology is assumed.

MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES

- The African Press, Civic Cynicism and Democracy

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

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 also among the general populace.

PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY

- Ethics and Criminal Justice: An Introduction

By John Kleinig, professor of philosophy in the department of law and police science, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Cambridge University Press, £45.00 and £15.99. ISBN 9780521864206 and 682831

A look at the main ethical questions that confront the criminal justice system and those who work within it, especially police officers, prosecutors, defence lawyers, judges, juries and prison officers.

- (J) Easeful Death: Is There a Case for Assisted Suicide?

By Mary Warnock, life peer and member of the House of Lords Select Committee on Euthanasia, and Elisabeth Macdonald, consultant emeritus, Guy's Hospital, London

Oxford University Press, £12.99. ISBN 9780199539901

Warnock and Macdonald set out in straightforward terms the main arguments for and against the legalisation of assisted suicide and euthanasia, exploring the philosophical and ethical views on both sides of the debate.

- Ratzinger's Faith: The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI

By Tracey Rowland, dean and associate professor in philosophy, John Paul II Institute

Oxford University Press, £12.99. ISBN 9780199207404

A general introduction to the theology of Pope Benedict XVI, including his approach to issues in moral and political theology, ecclesiology, liturgy, interpretations of the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the theology of history.

- (J) Peter: New Testament Guides

By David G. Horrell, professor of New Testament studies, University of Exeter

Continuum, £45.00 and £14.99. ISBN 9780567031693 and 9780567031686

Horrell offers a concise and accessible introduction to 1 Peter, providing an assessment of the range of scholarly views on topics, with guidance for further reading and research.

PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY

- Symmetry and Condensed Matter Physics: A Computational Approach

By Michael El-Batanouny, professor of physics, Boston University, and Frederick Wooten, professor of engineering applied science emeritus, University of California, Davis, until his death in 2004

Cambridge University Press, £55.00. ISBN 9780521828451

This book blends three topics in physics - symmetry, condensed matter physics and computational methods - and adopts a computational approach to the application of group theoretical techniques to solving symmetry-related problems.

- The Oxford Companion to Cosmology

Edited by Andrew Liddle, professor of astrophysics, University of Sussex, and Jon Loveday, senior lecturer in astronomy, University of Sussex

Oxford University Press, £45.00. ISBN 9780198608585

An encyclopaedic overview of cosmology, with more than 350 entries encompassing both theoretical ideas and the various types of observational evidence.

POLITICS

- Democratic Piety: Complexity, Conflict and Violence

By Adrian Little, associate professor of political science, University of Melbourne

Edinburgh University Press, £45.00. ISBN 9780748633654

This book presents an analysis of democratic theory, focusing on the prevalence of pious discourses of democracy in contemporary politics, and contends that it is vital to understand the inevitable failure of democratic politics.

- Small States in Global Affairs: The Foreign Policies of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)

By Jacqueline Anne Braveboy-Wagner, professor of international relations, City University of New York

Palgrave, £42.50. ISBN 9781403980014

A theoretically grounded account of diplomatic developments in the Caribbean. This edition includes attention to the changed global setting, updated theoretical developments in foreign policy and the inclusion of Haiti and Suriname.

- Social Protection for the Poor and Poorest: Concepts, Policies and Politics

Edited by Armando Barrientos, senior research fellow, Brookes World Poverty Institute, University of Manchester, and David Hulme, professor in development studies, University of Manchester

Palgrave, £45.00. ISBN 9780230525306

This collection examines the political processes shaping the formulation of social protection policies; compares the key conceptual frameworks available; and provides a comparative discussion of the policies focused on the poor and the poorest.

SOCIAL SCIENCES

- Horizontal Inequalities and Conflict: Understanding Group Violence in Multiethnic Societies

Edited by Frances Stewart, director, Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity, University of Oxford

Palgrave, £55.00. ISBN 9780230516809

Drawing on quantitative and qualitative research, this book shows that horizontal inequalities, including political, social, economic and cultural dimensions among religious groups, are an important catalyst of violent conflicts in multiethnic societies.

- Ambiguity and Sexuality: A Theory of Sexual Identity

By William Wilkerson, assistant professor of philosophy, University of Alabama in Huntsville

Palgrave, £42.50. ISBN 9781403980113

Wilkerson offers a new account of the formation of sexual identity, coined "emerged fusion", which is said to avoid the traps of the essentialism versus constructivism debate and offer a viable third alternative.

SPORTS STUDIES

- The SAGE Dictionary of Sports Studies

By Dominic Malcolm, senior lecturer in the sociology of sport, University of Loughborough

Sage, £19.99. ISBN 9781412907354

Each entry provides a basic definition, a guide to research themes and an account of the relevance of the concept in understanding sport.

See www.timeshighereducation.co.uk for more listings.