Weekly Book List, November 4, 2016

ANTHROPOLOGY

The Fabric of Indigeneity: Ainu Identity, Gender, and Settler Colonialism in Japan by ann-elise lewallen (SAR Press/University of New Mexico Press; 289 pages; $49.95). Combines ethnographic and archival and museum research in a study of how Ainu women construct Ainu identity through craftwork in cloth.

For Love of the Prophet: An Ethnography of Sudan’s Islamic State by Noah Salomon (Princeton University Press; 242 pages; $75 hardcover, $29.95 paperback). Examines politics, aesthetics, and epistemology in an ethnographic study of how Islam has been embodied in the Republic of Sudan’s experiment as an Islamic state.

Mixtec Evangelicals: Globalization, Migration, and Religious Change in a Oaxacan Indigenous Group by Mary I. O’Connor (University Press of Colorado; 136 pages; $70). Examines the impact of economic migration and religious conversion on four Mixtec communities in Oaxaca, Mexico.

ARCHAEOLOGY

Historical Archaeology in the Cortez Mining District: Under the Nevada Giant by Erich Obermayr and Robert W. McQueen (University of Nevada Press; 224 pages; $39.95). Documents daily life in a active mining district from 1863 to World War II.

ART AND ARCHITECTURE

Camera Orientalis: Reflections on Photography of the Middle East by Ali Behdad (University of Chicago Press; 208 pages; $90 hardcover, $30 paperback). Examines the significance of the Middle East for the history of photography both as a vehicle for the Orientalist and imperialist vision and in terms of local practices with the new medium.

Marshall Plan Modernism: Italian Postwar Abstraction and the Beginnings of Autonomia by Jaleh Mansoor (Duke University Press; 279 pages; $94.95 hardcover, $25.95 paperback). Focuses on the work of Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri, and Piero Manzoni in a study of Italian postwar art, the break from fascist futurist styles and resistance to American hegemony.

The Rule of Logistics: Walmart and the Architecture of Fulfillment by Jesse LeCavalier (University of Minnesota Press; 279 pages; $105 hardcover, $30 paperback). Examines the built environment, from architecture to technical systems, of the world’s largest retailer.

BIOLOGY

Chance in Evolution edited by Grant Ramsey and Charles H. Pence (University of Chicago Press; 359 pages; $45 paperback). Writings by biologists, philosophers of science, and historians of science on such topics as chance in Darwin’s early theories and in Darwinian theory today, distinguishing selection from drift in evolutionary change, and evolving reconstructed ancient proteins in extant organisms.

CLASSICAL STUDIES

Aristotle Re-Interpreted: New Findings on Seven Hundred Years of the Ancient Commentators edited by Richard Sorabji (Bloomsbury Academic; 673 pages; $206). New and previously published essays on commentators on Aristotle, beginning with Andronicus of Rhodes in the first century BC.

COMMUNICATION

Telemodernities: Television and Transforming Lives in Asia edited by Tania Lewis, Fran Martin, and Wanning Sun (Duke University Press; 328 pages; $94.95 hardcover, $25.95 paperback). A study of “lifestyle television” in China, India, Taiwan, and Singapore that draws on interviews with viewers and TV professionals.

CRIMINOLOGY

Behind the Walls: Inmates and Correctional Officers on the State of Canadian Prisons by Michael Weinrath (University of British Columbia Press; 328 pages; US$99). Applies Erving Goffman’s “frame theory” in a study of both inmate and CO perceptions in both federal and provincial prisons.

Stop and Frisk: The Use and Abuse of a Controversial Policing Tactic by Michael D. White and Henry F. Fradella (New York University Press; 253 pages; $30). Examines the history, law, and controversy surrounding the police strategy known as stop and frisk, including an argument for when its use can be justified; focuses on New York, with additional discussion of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, and other cities.

23/7: Pelican Bay Prison and the Rise of Long-Term Solitary Confinement by Keramet Reiter (Yale University Press; 302 pages; $32.50). Focuses on a supermax state prison in California as an extreme offender in what has become the routine use of solitary confinement, extending sometimes for years or even decades.

CULTURAL STUDIES

Biocultural Creatures: Toward a New Theory of the Human by Samantha Frost (Duke University Press; 203 pages; $79.95 hardcover, $22.95 paperback). Combines perspectives from feminist and political theory, as well as biology, to develop a view of humans as biocultural creatures.

The Minor Gesture by Erin Manning (Duke University Press; 277 pages; $89.95 hardcover, $24.95 paperback). Explores such topics as autistic perception.

Object-Oriented Feminism edited by Katherine Behar (University of Minnesota Press; 280 pages; $94.50 hardcover, $27 paperback). Essays on such topics as “bioart,” allure and abjection, and the female body as fetish object in Lolita subculture.

Ubuntu Strategies: Constructing Spaces of Belonging in Contemporary South African Culture by Hanneke Stuit (Palgrave Macmillan; 240 pages; $99.99). Discusses literature, cartoons, photography, and other realms in a study of how the concept of ubuntu, often defined as humanity toward others, is shaped and reshaped in and outside South Africa.

DANCE

Dancing Boys: High School Males in Dance by Zihao Li (University of Toronto Press; 192 pages; US$65 hardcover, US$27.95 paperback). Traces the experiences of 62 boys taking dance classes in a public high school in Toronto.

Trisha Brown: Choreography as Visual Art by Susan Rosenberg (Wesleyan University Press, distributed by University Press of New England; 407 pages; $110 hardcover, $34.95 paperback). Focuses on the first half of the five-decade career of the American visual artist and choreographer (b. 1936).

ECONOMICS

Reclaiming the Atmospheric Commons: The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and a New Model of Emissions Trading by Leigh Raymond (MIT Press; 235 pages; $70 hardcover, $35 paperback). A study of a program initiated in 2008 in which 10 northeastern states forced polluters to pay the public for their emissions.

EDUCATION

Charter Schools at the Crossroads: Predicaments, Paradoxes, Possibilities by Chester E. Finn Jr., Bruno V. Manno, and Brandon L. Wright (Harvard Education Press; 278 pages; $62 hardcover, $31 paperback). Combines qualitative and quantitative perspectives in a history and evaluation of charter schools since the 1990s, including unresolved and unanticipated problems.

City Kids: Transforming Racial Baggage by Maria Kromidas (Rutgers University Press; 208 pages; $70 hardcover, $27.95 paperback). Explores the cosmopolitan worldviews of fifth graders in one of New York City’s most diverse schools.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Everyday Exposure: Indigenous Mobilization and Environmental Justice in Canada’s Chemical Valley by Sarah Marie Wiebe (University of British Columbia Press; 256 pages; US$99). Discusses the effects on the Aamjiwnaang First Nation of a concentration of chemical manufacturing near the Ontario-Michigan border.

The Rise of the American Conservation Movement: Power, Privilege, and Environmental Protection by Dorceta E. Taylor (Duke University Press; 486 pages; $104.95 hardcover, $29.95 paperback). Topics include the movement’s growth as a manifestation of elites’ turning away from disorderly cities.

FILM STUDIES

Cinema’s Bodily Illusions: Flying, Floating, and Hallucinating by Scott C. Richmond (University of Minnesota Press; 264 pages; $84.50 hardcover, $27 paperback). Links mainstream and avant-garde, experimental cinema in a study of film’s ability to evoke perceptual and bodily illusions in viewers.

Descended From Hercules: Biopolitics and the Muscled Male Body on Screen by Robert A. Rushing (Indiana University Press; 210 pages; $75 hardcover, $26 paperback). Explores the idealized male body in sword-and-sandal movies from Cabiria (1914) to 300 (2006).

New York City and the Hollywood Musical by Martha Shearer (Palgrave Macmillan; 230 pages; $99). Discusses 42nd Street, Swing Time, Cover Girl, On the Town, The Band Wagon, Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, and other films in a study of how New York City shaped the genre of the Hollywood musical, and in turn, how the genre shaped depictions of the city.

Pixar’s America: The Re-Animation of American Myths and Symbols by Dietmar Meinel (Palgrave Macmillan; 240 pages; $99.99). Examines the politics and motifs of Toy Story, Wall-E, and other films from the animation studio; topics include the American Dream in Ratatouille, and liberal consensus in Monsters Inc.

GAY AND LESBIAN STUDIES

The Disappearing L: Erasure of Lesbian Spaces and Culture by Bonnie J. Morris (State University of New York Press; 247 pages; $80). Combines scholarly and personal approaches in a study of lesbian cultural spaces, including women’s bookstores, music festivals, and support environments.

GEOGRAPHY

Food and Power in Hawai’i: Visions of Food Democracy edited by Aya Hirata Kimura and Krisnawati Suryanata (University of Hawai’i Press; 224 pages; $45). Writings by geographers and other scholars on such topics as food security in Hawai’i, the emergence of the islands’ seed corn industry, and female organic farmers.

HISTORY

Bonds of Wool: The Pallium and Papal Power in the Middle Ages by Steven A. Schoenig (Catholic University of America Press; 544 pages; $75). Discusses a woolen liturgical vestment that, when gifted by medieval popes to far-flung bishops, was an instrument of papal power and connection.

Bones around My Neck: The Life and Exile of a Prince Provocateur by Tamara Loos (Cornell University Press; 240 pages; $39.95). Traces the life of Prince Prisdang Chumsai (1852-1935), who served as then-Siam’s first diplomat to Europe, was hounded by rumors of corruption, treason, and sexual immorality, then went into exile and resurfaced as a Buddhist monk in Ceylon.

Capturing Hill 70: Canada’s Forgotten Battle of the First World War edited by Douglas E. Delaney and Serge Marc Durflinger (University of British Columbia Press; 332 pages; US$37.95). Writings on Canadian forces’ costly capture of terrain just north of Lens, France, in an August 1917 battle in which they withstood 21 German counter-attacks and suffered some 5,400 casualties.

Driven from Home: North Carolina’s Civil War Refugee Crisis by David Silkenat (University of Georgia Press; 264 pages; $49.95). Focuses on the movement or displacement of enslaved African-Americans, white Unionists, pro-Confederate whites, and young women.

The Electrifying Fall of Rainbow City: Spectacle and Assassination at the 1901 World’s Fair by Margaret Creighton (W.W. Norton & Company; 332 pages; $28.95). Sets the assassination of President McKinley against the wider tumult of Buffalo’s Pan-American Exposition.

The Face of Britain: A History of the Nation Through Its Portraits by Simon Schama (Oxford University Press; 603 pages; $39.95). Uses paintings, drawings, photographs, and other works from London’s National Portrait Gallery to examine Britain’s history through images of the famous and unknown.

Gathering to Save a Nation: Lincoln and the Union’s War Governors by Stephen D. Engle (University of North Carolina Press; 725 pages; $49.95). Argues that the relationship between Union state governors and the Lincoln administration was more collaborative and proactive than traditionally thought.

Henry Ware Lawton: Union Infantryman, Frontier Soldier, Charismatic Warrior by Michael E. Shay (University of Missouri Press; 322 pages; $29.95). A biography of the U.S. Army soldier, who gained national fame as the man who led the effort to capture Geronimo, and who later died as the highest ranking officer to be killed in the Philippine War.

Homecomings: The Belated Return of Japan’s Lost Soldiers by Yoshikuni Igarashi (Columbia University Press; 302 pages; $35). Examines the experiences and media coverage of six men who, stranded on islands or held in Siberian POW camps, were among Japanese soldiers who didn’t return home until years or even decades after war’s end.

Imperial Plots: Women, Land, and the Spadework of British Colonialism on the Canadian Prairies by Sarah Carter (University of Manitoba Press, distributed by Michigan State University Press; 480 pages; US$34.95). Examines the different ways British women acquired land in 19th-century Canada.

Inside the Clinton White House: An Oral History by Russell L. Riley (Oxford University Press; 441 pages; $29.95). Draws on material from 400 hours of recorded interviews with more than 60 former officials.

The Jews of Harlem: The Rise, Decline, and Revival of a Jewish Community by Jeffrey S. Gurock (New York University Press; 292 pages; $35). Traces the history of Jews in the New York district, which for a time had the second largest Jewish community in America.

Literature as History: Autobiography, Testimonio, and the Novel in the Chicano and Latino Experience by Mario T. Garcia (University of Arizona Press; 190 pages; $55). Discusses the three genres’ value as sources for Chicano and Latino historiography.

Murder, Inc., and the Moral Life: Gangsters and Gangbusters in La Guardia’s New York by Robert Weldon Whalen (Fordham University Press; 269 pages; $29.95). Examines the crimes, 1941 trial, and cultural afterlife of gangsters from Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood who were dubbed by the press Murder Inc.; juxtaposes their story against multiple approaches in moral theory.

Occupied Vicksburg by Bradley R. Clampitt (Louisiana State University Press; 304 pages; $48). A study of life in the Mississippi city after capture by Union forces.

Sound the Trumpet, Beat the Drums: Horse-Mounted Bands of the U.S. Army, 1820-1940 by Bruce P. Gleason (University of Oklahoma Press; 249 pages; $32.95). A history of horse-mounted musicians in the U.S. Army and their service in settings from parades to the battlefield.

Summon Only the Brave! Commanders, Soldiers, and Chaplains at Gettysburg by John W. Brinsfield Jr. (Mercer University Press; 203 pages; $35). Documents the experiences of both Union and Confederate Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish chaplains at the battle; draws on memoirs, journals, and diaries, including previously unpublished material.

The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution by John Oller (Da Capo Press; 288 pages; $26.99). Traces the life of the American revolutionary who pioneered guerrilla warfare against the British.

JOURNALISM

Journalism Re-examined: Digital Challenges and Professional Orientations (Lessons from Northern Europe) edited by Martin Eide, Helle Sjovaag, and Leif Ove Larsen (Intellect Books, distributed by University of Chicago Press; 215 pages; $50). Topics include algorithms as new objects of journalism, and the mediatization of politics across news beats.

LAW

China and Islam: The Prophet, the Party, and Law by Matthew S. Erie (Cambridge University Press; 472 pages; $40). Draws on fieldwork in Linxia in a study of how Hui clerics, Communist Party cadres, female educators, and others reconcile Islamic and socialist law.

Misreading Law, Misreading Democracy by Victoria Nourse (Harvard University Press; 259 pages; $45). Criticizes law schools, lawyers, and jurists for a lack of understanding on how Congress makes law; develops a reverse-engineering approach termed legislative decision theory.

LITERATURE

Cormac McCarthy’s Literary Evolution: Editors, Agents, and the Crafting of a Prolific American Author by Daniel Robert King (University of Tennessee Press; 232 pages; $42). Draws on McCarthy’s papers, as well as those of his Random House editor Albert Erskine to explore the compositional and publication process of several of his major novels.

Ezra Pound in the Present: Essays on Pound’s Contemporaneity edited by Paul Stasi and Josephine Park (Bloomsbury Academic; 251 pages; $110). Essays on the poet’s contemporary relevance, including, for example, imagining his response to globalization and digital culture.

Guilty Thing: A Life of Thomas De Quincey by Frances Wilson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 397 pages; $30). A study of the English Romantic writer as obsessive; topics include the view of two of his preoccupations, Wordsworth and Coleridge, in his On Murder as One of the Fine Arts.

Hard Times: A Novel of Liberals and Radicals in 1860s Russia by Vasily Sleptsov, translated by Michael R. Katz (University of Pittsburgh Press; 193 pages; $17.95). First English translation of the Russian activist and writer’s 1865 novella on life in the countryside after the abolition of serfdom.

How Bad Writing Destroyed the World: Ayn Rand and the Literary Origins of the Financial Crisis by Adam Weiner (Bloomsbury Academic; 250 pages; $19.95). Links the deregulatory policies of the former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan to Ayn Rand’s Objectivism in such works as Atlas Shrugged, and, in turn, back to Russian writer Nikolai Chernyshevsky’s What Is to Be Done (1863).

Imagining Kashmir: Emplotment and Colonialism by Patrick Colm Hogan (University of Nebraska Press; 277 pages; $60). Offers a cognitive perspective on literary and cinematic depictions of Kashmir, a territory that has been under dispute since India’s 1947 partition.

Kafka: The Early Years by Reiner Stach, translated by Shelley Frisch (Princeton University Press; 564 pages; $35). Translation of the third and final volume of a German biography of the Czech writer, with the publication of the early years last because of delayed access to materials controlled by the estate of Max Brod.

Literature and Criminal Justice in Antebellum America by Carl Ostrowski (University of Massachusetts Press; 256 pages; $90 hardcover, $29.95 paperback). A study of discourse on criminal justice and criminality during the period and its impact on writers from Nathaniel Hawthorne to the inmate poet Christian Meadows.

The Muckers: A Narrative of the Crapshooters Club by William Osborne Dapping, edited by Woody Register (Syracuse University Press; 288 pages; $59.95 hardcover, $24.95 paperback). First publication of a fictionalized autobiography that recounts the rough immigrant childhood of its author in late 19th-century New York, written when the former “slum mucker” was bound for Harvard.

On Company Time: American Modernism in the Big Magazines by Donal Harris (Columbia University Press; 304 pages; $60). Examines modernism’s evolution within mass print culture through a study of Cather, Du Bois, Fauset, Agee, Eliot, and Hemingway as they shaped the “house style” of popular magazines.

Orion on the Dunes: A Biography of Henry Beston by Daniel G. Payne (David R. Godine; 391 pages; $29.95). Traces the life of the Massachuetts-born author and naturalist (1888-1968), whose The Outermost House is considered a classic of literary nature writing.

Race and the Totalitarian Century: Geopolitics in the Black Literary Imagination by Vaughn Rasberry (Harvard University Press; 488 pages; $45). Documents how W.E.B. Du Bois, Richard Wright, Shirley Graham, and other black writers developed an independent geopolitical critique; topics include their engagement with the 1956 Suez Crisis.

Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin (Liveright; 607 pages; $35). A biography of “The Lottery” writer (1916-65) that sets her in the American gothic tradition and explores the darkness in her own life that shaped her work in “domestic horror.”

Zombiescapes and Phantom Zones: Ecocriticism and the Liminal from “Invisible Man” to “The Walking Dead” by Lee Rozelle (University of Alabama Press; 160 pages; $44.95). Examines monstrous depictions of ruined and toxified environments in literature from 1950 to 2015.

MUSIC

Artistic Citizenship: Artistry, Social Responsibility, and Ethical Practice edited by David J. Elliott, Marissa Silverman, and Wayne D. Bowman (Oxford University Press; 588 pages; $125 hardcover, $45 paperback). Writings by scholars and others in music, dance, theater, film, and other realms.

John Lewis and the Challenge of “Real” Black Music by Christopher Coady (University of Michigan Press; 254 pages; $80 hardcover, $39.95 paperback). A study of Lewis’s Modern String Quartet and the 1950s jazz-classical hybrid known as Third Stream.

Making New Music in Cold War Poland: The Warsaw Autumn Festival, 1956-1968 by Lisa Jakelski (University of California Press; 272 pages; $65). A study of an important site for East-West cultural exchange during the Cold War.

Russian Music at Home and Abroad: New Essays by Richard Taruskin (University of California Press; 543 pages; $85 hardcover, $34.95 paperback). Topics include Stravinsky, musicians of the post-Revolutionary diaspora, and whether there is a “Russia abroad” in music.

Schoenberg’s Models for Beginners in Composition edited by Gordon Root (Oxford University Press; 231 pages; $99). Edition, with commentary, of pedagogical writings by the Austrian composer; includes his corrections to the original manuscript.

Yodeling and Meaning in American Music by Timoth E. Wise (University Press of Mississippi; 272 pages; $65). Explores issues of class, gender, and aesthetics in a study of yodeling from its European origins to its incorporation into various American music genres; topics include its presence then expulsion from classical music.

PHILOSOPHY

Alasdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, and the Demise of Naturalism: Reunifying Political Theory and Social Science by Jason Blakely (University of Notre Dame Press; 154 pages; $35). Describes how both thinkers have offered an alternative to scientism via new humanisms that champion creative agency.

Freedom from the Free Will: On Kafka’s Laughter by Dimitris Vardoulakis (State University of New York Press; 190 pages; $80). Explores the political significance of laughter in a study that argues that freedom in Kafka is freedom from the free will; topics include how the short stories “A Hunger Artist” and “A Report to an Academy” highlight an ethical parallel in Kafka with Spinoza and Levinas.

Nietzsche’s Journey to Sorrento: Genesis of the Philosophy of the Free Spirit by Paolo D’Iorio, translated by Sylvia Mae Gorelick (University of Chicago Press; 168 pages; $35). Documents the impact of an 1876 trip to southern Italy on the German philosopher’s life and thought.

Self-Realization Through Confucian Learning: A Contemporary Reconstruction of Xunzi’s Ethics by Siufu Tang (State University of New York Press; 183 pages; $80). Discusses the thought of the Chinese philosopher (born circa 310 BC) in relation to the modern idea of self-realization.

Tolerance Among the Virtues by John R. Bowlin (Princeton University Press; 265 pages; $39.50). Draws on Paul, Aquinas, and Wittgenstein in a study that defends tolerance as a virtue, explores its complexities, and distinguishes it from forbearance.

Toppling the Melting Pot: Immigration and Multiculturalism in American Pragmatism by Jose-Antonio Orosco (Indiana University Press; 156 pages; $70 hardcover, $25 paperback). Draws on the writings of John Dewey, W E.B. Du Bois, Louis Adamic, Josiah Royce, Jane Addams, and Cesar Chavez.

Transcendence and the Concrete: Selected Writings by Jean Wahl, edited by Alan D. Schrift and Ian Alexander Moore (Fordham University Press; 272 pages; $125 hardcover, $35 paperback). Includes previously untranslated writings by the French philosopher (1887-1974).

POLITICAL SCIENCE

Arab Fall: How the Muslim Brotherhood Won and Lost Egypt in 891 Days by Eric Trager (Georgetown University Press; 296 pages; $32.95). Argues that the attributes that led to the Brotherhood’s initial success in the wake of the Arab Spring were also responsible for its downfall.

Behind the Facade: Elections Under Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia by Lee Morgenbesser (State University of New York Press; 274 pages; $95). Focuses on Cambodia, Myanmar, and Singapore in a study of how why authoritarian regimes bother to hold elections.

Bosnia’s Paralysed Peace by Christopher Bennett (Oxford University Press; 388 pages; $75 hardcover, $35 paperback). Examines political, social, and economic paralysis in Bosnia-Herzegovina more than two decades after the Dayton Accords, and the threat of renewed ethnic violence.

Centrifugal Empire: Central-Local Relations in China by Jae Ho Chung (Columbia University Press; 216 pages; $60). Draws parallels between Beijing today and China’s past dynasties in a study of the central government’s methods of keeping control of a vast and diverse nation.

Citizens’ Wealth: Why (and How) Sovereign Funds Should be Managed by the People for the People by Angela Cummine (Yale University Press; 280 pages; $35). Examines the management of state-owned investment funds in various nations; includes a comparison, for example, of Britain’s and Norway’s respective use of oil revenues.

Waging War: The Clash Between Presidents and Congress, 1776 to ISIS by David J. Barron (Simon & Schuster; 560 pages; $30). Documents the efforts of America’s wartime presidents to exercise executive power over the conduct of warfare without overtly overstepping Congress.

POPULAR CULTURE

“El Eternauta,” “Daytripper,” and Beyond: Graphic Narrative in Argentina and Brazil by David William Foster (University of Texas Press; 158 pages; $85 hardcover, $24.95 paperback). Compares the role of graphic narrative in both countries; focuses on a 1950s serial of extraterrestrial invasion by Argentine Hector Oesterheld and a 2010 work by the Brazilians Fabio Moon and Gabriel Ba.

PUBLIC POLICY

Care, Cooperation, and Activism in Canada’s Northern Social Economy edited by Frances Abele and Chris Southcott (University of Alberta Press; 237 pages; US$24.95). Offers case studies of economic cooperatives and other grassroots institutions in communities across Labrador, Nunatsiavut, Nunavik, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, and Yukon.

RELIGION

Beyond the Qur’an: Early Ismaili Ta’wil and the Secrets of the Prophets by David Hollenberg (University of South Carolina Press; 192 pages; $44.99). A study of ta’wil, an allegorical form of interpretation in Ismaili Shia Islam; examines the motivations behind its extension beyond the Qur’an to interpretations of Jewish, Christian, and Greek philosophical texts.

Europe After Wyclif edited by J. Patrick Hornbeck II and Michael van Dussen (Fordham University Press; 313 pages; $55). Focuses on England and Bohemia in essays on Wycliffism, Lollardy, Hussitism and related religious controversies in the late medieval period.

Negotiating Power in Ezra-Nehemiah by Donna Laird (Society of Biblical Literature; 403 pages; $75.95 hardcover, $55.95 paperback). Draws on the theories of Pierre Bourdieu in a study of how the two biblical books reflect tensions in Jerusalem over the repatriation of exiles.

On Being and Cognition: Ordinatio 1.3 by John Duns Scotus, edited and translated by John van den Bercken (Fordham University Press; 298 pages; $65). First complete English translation of the work by the medieval philosopher and theologian.

The Prince of This World by Adam Kotsko (Stanford University Press; 224 pages; $75 hardcover, $22.95 paperback). Explores the genealogy of the devil in biblical tradition, as well as his uses in theology in relation to the problem of evil.

RHETORIC

Infertility: Tracing the History of a Transformative Term by Robin E. Jensen (Penn State University Press; 225 pages; $69.95 hardcover, $29.95 paperback). Draws on oral histories, physician-patient correspondence, and the popular and scientific press in a rhetorical-historical study of changing perceptions of infertility.

SOCIOLOGY

Love and Intimacy in Online Cross-Cultural Relationships: The Power of Imagination by Wilasinee Pananakhonsab (Palgrave Macmillan; 187 pages; $99.99). Focuses on relationships between Thai women and Western men.

The Race Whisperer: Barack Obama and the Political Uses of Race by Melanye T. Price (New York University Press; 203 pages; $89 hardcover, $27 paperback). Examines the president’s strategic use of racial rhetoric both on the campaign trail and during his presidency.

THEATER

Post-Conflict Performance, Film and Visual Arts: Cities of Memory edited by Des O’Rawe and Mark Phelan (Palgrave Macmillan; 314 pages; $95). Discusses cinema, public art, and other realms in a discussion of depictions of past conflict in such cities as Berlin, Belfast, Bilbao, Beirut, Derry, Skopje, Sarajevo, Tunis, Johannesburg and Harare.

Women in the Shadows: Gender, Puppets, and the Power of Tradition in Bali by Jennifer Goodlander (Ohio University Press; 216 pages; $65 hardcover, $29.95 paperback). Combines scholarly and personal perspectives in a study of women who have begun to train and perform in the traditional male role of puppeteer in Bali’s shadow puppetry tradition.

URBAN STUDIES

The Death and Life of the Single-Family House: Lessons from Vancouver on Building a Livable City by Nathanael Lauster (Temple University Press; 262 pages; $94.50 hardcover, $34.95 paperback). Examines the history and impact of the Canadian city’s shift away from single-family homes for most residents.