Cambridge U. Pr.

Asian voices in a postcolonial age; Vietnam, India and beyond.

With her central focus on the lives of Vietnamese scientists, academics, and other educated "moderns" of Hanoi, Bayly (historical anthropology, Cambridge U., UK) offers a comparative look at the contrasting intelligentsia worlds of Vietnam and India. She explores her subjects' personal lives and family narratives in order to understand how the personal, the intimate, and the emotional are impacted by the legacy of colonial and socialist systems. A major theme of the work is the role of mobility in the life trajectories of the intelligentsia. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Assessment, equity, and opportunity to learn.

This collection of 12 articles inspired by discussions sponsored by the Spencer Foundation, presents the views of both supporters and opponents of standardized testing as a part of teaching and learning. Looking though the lens of how such testing relates to the concept of the "opportunity to learn" (OTL), contributors use approaches ranging from the sociological to the sociocultural in such topics as the lessons learned from individual assessment of students with disabilities, inclusion of problem solving skills and the resulting implications for assessment, assessment and relative OTL in game-like learning, issues of structure and scale in assessment, and professional learning and its relationship to assessment and accountability. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Catastrophe and contention in rural China; Mao's Great Leap famine and the origins of righteous resistance in Da Fo Village.

In 1959 the Chinese government took a "Great Leap Forward," collectivizing rural farms for greater productivity. It was meant to provide food for both the farmers and the growing number of people working in industry. However, the project backfired. Officials overstated production amounts in order to make quotas or to impress their superiors. Collectivization went against thousands of years of family-centered life. Respectful protests went unheeded and strident ones were firmly suppressed. The result was a famine in which some thirty million people died. Thaxton, who is chairman of the East Asian Studies Program at Brandeis University, spent several years studying this glitch in Chairman Mao's program. This book, the first of two on the subject, focuses on one town, Da Fo. Thaxton interviewed inhabitants along with researching documentary evidence. He spoke with people who had endured the famine years and those born afterwards in order to understand how the experience had entered into the town's sense of itself and its feeling toward the government. Relating the experiences of one small town personalizes the suffering and also the way in which people coped. While Thaxton is interested in the politics of the situation, this work encompasses all areas of life for the citizens of Da Fo. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Embodied grounding; social, cognitive, affective, and neuroscientific approaches.

Twelve contributions are arranged in sections on embodied language and concepts, embodiment of social cognition and relationships, and embodiment and affect. Editors Semin (Utrecht U.) and Smith (Indiana U.) provide an introductory essay introducing the topic, including the core idea: "that nervous systems evolved for the adaptive control of action — not for abstract cogitation...." In their endeavor to understand relations of the human body to thought, language use, emotion, and social relationships, the scholars look closely at topics that include the brain embodiment of category-specific semantic memory circuits, the embodiment of power and communalism in space and bodily contact, and the spawning of a self-regulatory model of bodily feedback effects, among others. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Equality law for an enlarged Europe; understanding the Article 13 directives.

Despite a slow start in the 1950s, when member states did not seem to recognize the diversity expanding within their borders, the European Community has made steady progress in supporting equal treatment and the elimination of discrimination on the basis of sex, race, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation and belief. With the inclusion of Article 13 into the European Community Treaty, member states have a full set of policies against which they can compare domestic laws and make informed judgments. This collection of 11 papers gives the contexts and frameworks associated with Article 13 along with specifics on how the article relates to matters of sex equality, anti-racism, religion and belief, disability, age and sexual orientation. Papers analyze the evolution and current contexts of the article, the relation of concepts of human rights to European equity law, and the influence of demographics and social change on matters of equity. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Europe and the making of England, 1660-1760.

Many historians view early modern England as a time of increasing isolation and xenophobia. Claydon (history, University of Wales, Bangor) takes exception to this assumption. He argues that the English saw themselves as part of the international Protestant Reformation and also of Christendom as a whole. He notes the popularity of travel guides in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century and how they formed an English sense of place in Europe. He then gets into the thornier issues of the internal constitutional struggles in England and the external wars that led to the establishment of the British Empire. Claydon feels that religious identity was a key factor in the relationship of England and the other European countries, without it they would never have preferred a German-speaking Protestant over a Catholic Stuart as king. This theory is interesting and controversial and should provoke lively debate in the academic community. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Everyday politics of the world economy.

Noting that conventional works on international political economy typically focus on hegemony, trade and financial flows, and international institutions, Hobson (politics and international relations, U. of Sheffield, UK) and Seabrooke (International Center for Business and Politics, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark) have instead focused this work on the influence of everyday actions on the international political economy, having defined everyday actions as "acts by those who are subordinate within a broader power relationship but, whether through negotiation, resistance or nonresistance, either incrementally or suddenly, shape, constitute and transform the political and economic environment around and beyond them." They present ten chapters discussing "defiance agency," the US labor movement, and the global geography of capitalism; the utilization of transnational advocacy networks by Filipino workers in Japan in order to extend the capacity to organize at a regional level; the role of offshore tax havens in challenging the tax practices regime of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; Japan's "mimetic challenge" to the Chinese international tribute system; the production of Asian modernization through "hybridized mimicry" of the West; everyday domestic social wants and their influence on the foreign financial policies of England in the late 19th century and the United States of 1945; the influence of small investors in the US and the UK on the global financial system through the shift from "defined benefit" to "defined contribution" pension systems; and the influence of the everyday practices of the Chirathivat family on their retail empire in Thailand and consequently Thai modernization. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

An executive's guide to information technology; principles, business models, and terminology.

This reference defines about 200 terms in information technology for non-technical managers and executives and graduate students in business and technology management. Terms include computer-related process methodologies and technology-related laws in the US and UK. Along with definitions, an overview is given, with descriptions of the major advantages and disadvantages of the technology, and business value propositions. Examples of terms: anti-virus software, HTML, virtual organization, Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and spam. Plant teaches business administration at the U. of Miami, and Murrell teaches computer engineering there. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The family in early modern England.

The editors of this study on the family in England from 1500 to 1800 have chosen to honor the work of noted historian and teacher, Anthony Fletcher. Many of the authors were his colleagues and students. However, Berry (early modern history, University of Newcastle upon Tyne) and Foyster (history, Clare College, Cambridge) frame this collection by the thirtieth anniversary of the publication of Lawrence Stone's Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500-1800. While Stone was an early advocate for the study of family history, his work was severely flawed. Each essay begins with a point made by Stone that the author refutes. The work as a whole reflects recent research in family history, often using sources that are often ignored, such as broadsides and ballads. It is made clear that the concept of the family differed according to status, gender and stage of life. Articles note the various roles that women played, even as family partners in crime. The role of men in family life is also reassessed, their position as fathers and their regret when marriages produced no children. The introduction gives an excellent historiography of the field. The editors also remind the reader that the conclusions of the authors are only for England and that a good comparative international study has still to be written. The essays in this volume are all excellent, well researched and well written. They provide a comparative base for scholars of other times and places as well as a different viewpoint for those interested in the history of Early Modern England. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The feminist avant-garde; transatlantic encounters of the early twentieth century.

It is popular to view early twentieth-century feminism as a united party, all striving hand in hand for the right to vote. DeLap (history, Cambridge University) dispels this rosy image and concentrates on the most radical of the feminists in both England and America. She points out that these women often traveled across the Atlantic and were in communication. DeLap looks at the avant-garde movement according to the attitudes of its advocates on various subjects, such as motherhood, individualism, politics and, eventually, World War I. Women such as Rebecca West and Virginia Woolf are profiled as are the Pankhursts and Margaret Sanger. The book ends with the announcement, in 1919, that the movement had now passed to the stage of "post-feminism," which might be a surprise to those who thought it was invented in the 1990s. This is an interesting, well-researched look at a vocal force in the women's movement. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Forms of responsibility in international criminal law.

This volume focuses on the law of individual criminal responsibility applied in international criminal law, with a review of the specific forms. The jurisprudence of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda are the focus of the book, with every trial and appeal judgment and interlocutory jurisprudence surveyed, up to the beginning of December 2006. It examines the law of the tribunals from the perspective of the international criminal law practitioner. Also covered are other tribunals such as the law of Nuremberg, Tokyo, Sierra Leone, East Timor, Iraq, and Cambodia, and the provisions of the instruments of the International Criminal Court. Boas et al. are criminal lawyers and legal officers at the ICTY. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

God vs. the gavel; religion and the rule of law. (reprint, 2005)

Americans are much too complacent about the rising power of religion in politics and law, warns Hamilton, because religion is very often not the least bit beneficent, or even harmless. First she looks at examples of religious individuals and institutions being granted legal permission to harm others in such areas as children, marriage, schools, land use, and discrimination. Then she reviews the history and doctrine behind the rule that religious entities must adhere to duly enacted laws. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Governing after crisis; the politics of investigation, accountability and learning.

Some of the crises considered induce only accountability, examples of which include the Bush administration and Hurricane Katrina, the 3/11 attacks in Madrid, and the dutroux and dioxin crisis in Belgium. Others induce policy change and learning, such as the 1975 Stockholm embassy seizure, the Challenger disaster, and the 9/11 Commission. The contributing social scientists are generally from the countries they discuss. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The great naval game; Britain and Germany in the age of empire.

In the decades before World War I, Britain and Germany were engaged in open competition for the biggest and most technologically advanced navy. In what was described as a "cult of the navy," participants built power and strengthened identity through such royal rituals as fleet reviews and ship launches along with other traditional activities that involved thousands of awed spectators. Rüger (history, Birkbeck College, U. of London) closely examines the entertainment provided by the navies and the ways in which they expressed relative power and claims to the sea by the two nations, they ways in which foreign and domestic concerns were interlinked and expressed in the grand show, how such events influenced the mass media and consumer interests, and how that same media and army of consumers collided with politics and international relations. Well-illustrated with period photographs. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Hegel's Phenomenology of spirit; an introduction.

Of all the topics needing clarification around the difficult but important work, Krasnoff (philosophy, College of Charleston) limits himself to what it can be said to attempt and to accomplish as an argument. He writes for the inexperienced but philosophically interested student, typically advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate, and typically in a course that considers Hegel with contemporary German idealists, particularly Kant. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Heirs, kin, and creditors in Renaissance Florence.

Kuehn (history, Clemson U.) finds from his research in the period's records of repudiation of inheritance that heirs could get out from under a patrimony or exercise a familial or persona strategy by sending the estate on to another. Along Kuehn describes the complex ways of kinship in Renaissance Florence and how they applied to family succession and the laws of succession and repudiation as well as the obligations of those who conferred estates through death and those who were supposed to received them. In a fascinating series of case studies and examples he shows how repudiation related to household wealth, the general practice of inheritance, and familial or legal disputes, and, of course, power. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Human development in the twenty-first century; visionary ideas from systems scientists.

Twenty-seven international non-mathematical biological and social scientists contribute 24 essays bringing a dynamic systems perspective to the issue of how to enhance and foster human development throughout the life course, and offering a novel way of thinking about and solving some of the major hindrances to human development in the world today, including poverty, violence, neglect, disease, and crises in families. The text contains contributions from many different disciplines including psychology, biology, anthropology, primatology, education, and sociology, written in nontechnical language, in which the authors explain how their own unique interpretation of the dynamic systems approach constitutes a new way of thinking in the field, and how it contrasts with older methods and concepts. For policy makers, students, scholars, and researchers. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Human rights and structural adjustment.

Abouharb (political science, Louisiana State University) and Cingranelli (political science, Binghamton University SUNY) argue that the 1981 Structural Adjustment Program mandated by the International Monetary Fund was directly responsible for numerous human rights violations. The intention was to privilege private enterprise and release funds in developing countries for civic improvements. Instead the program led to exploitation of the work force, a suppression of unionism, sanctioned police brutality and a diminished respect for human dignity. The authors make a strong case for their conclusions, particularly because they note areas in which the Structural Adjustment Program has had a positive effect. Unfortunately, these are in the minority. This is a rigorous study that should be required reading by those who form economic policy. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

An introduction to Africana philosophy.

Gordon (philosophy, religion, and Judaic studies; Temple U., Philadelphia) sets out the fundamentals of the field, which emerged as a distinct academic discipline out of the philosophical debates of the 1970s and 1980s, and has experienced growth among professional philosophers over the past two decades. His topics include classic foundations of the 18th and 19th centuries, Anna Julila Cooper and the problem of value, Cedric Robinson's anthropology of Marxism, and African critiques of invention. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

An introduction to the International Criminal Court, 3d ed.

Schabas (human rights law, National U. of Ireland) begins his introduction to the International Criminal Court by providing a brief history of the evolution of its principles since the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials at the close of World War II through to its becoming operational and dealing with war crimes in Uganda and the Congo. He then offers chapters discussing the Court's jurisdiction, the means by which jurisdiction is triggered, admissibility of cases, general principles of criminal law, investigation and pre-trial procedure, trial and appeal, punishment, victim participation and concerns, and the structure and administration of the Court. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Inventing Vietnam; the United States and state building, 1954-1968.

Mistaken assumptions that the United States was in some manner defending an already existing state in South Vietnam has helped mask what policy-makers at the time understood all along — that the United States was engaged in a massive state-building enterprise that was doomed to failure by its own logic. So argues Carter (history, Drew U.) as he reviews the history of this aspect of the US involvement in Vietnam, from the initiation of the Michigan State University Vietnam Advisory Group in the mid-1950s through to 1968. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)