Continuum Publishing Group

Out of the shadows; the life of Lucy, Countess of Bedford.

The countess was a patron of the arts, educated, charming, and one of the most important female courtiers during the reign of James I. Lawson, who is not further identified, narratives the glittering public life and less glamorous private life of Lucy Harrington (1581-1627). (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The palimpsest; literature, criticism, theory.

In 1845, palimpsest was transformed from a technical term used by paleographers into a metaphor that spread quickly across disciplines and might now be used by anyone who notices more than the surface of a phenomenon. Dillon (contemporary fiction, U. of St. Andrews, Scotland) examines many creative, critical, and theoretical texts in which the palimpsest has figured since then in order to investigate its structure, logic, and place in modern thought. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Pedagogy and the university; critical theory and practice.

McLean (education, U. of Oxford) makes good use of Freire and other modern thinkers about education in this eminently readable and often moving call for better efforts at creating a cohesive pedagogy for higher education that takes advantage of the its students' eventual roles in society. McLean applies critical theory to the possibilities for a university pedagogy, examines socio-historical options and constraints, and argues for close assessment of pedagogic quality, given the stakes and risks. She explains how pedagogy applies to justice and vice versa, the resource that is student experience in the development of communicative reason, the intellectualization of university teaching and student learning, the development of an environment for critical pedagogy, and the close ties between pedagogy and justice in society. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Perspectives of quality in adult learning.

Although formal learning is fast becoming an important element in all stages of modern life, researchers have largely avoided considering anything but accredited outcomes. Consultant and researcher Boshier provides a detailed analysis of the factors that influence perceptions of quality in adult learning from theory and method to what adults bring to the experience. He covers the reasons for the dearth of research in this element of adult education, how adults deal with the new standard of lifelong learners, how values and standards figure in perceptions of quality in adult education, what research shows about the perceptions of students and instructors, and what this research implies about future studies. Boshier provides a number of ideas about tailoring courses to suit adult learners, methods to assess course quality and sample student and instructor questionnaires. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Perspectives on educational management and leadership; syllables of recorded time.

Bell (emeritus education, U. of Leicester) took early retirement (2006) specifically in order to assemble and update this collection of articles, most reprinted, reflecting and reflecting on his four decades in educational management and leadership. Many of them develop an argument about alternative approaches that are being or might be adopted to cope with increasing demands being placed on people who work in education. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Philosophy of exaggeration.

To ensure that others can grasp our ideas, we exaggerate. We may believe we are communicating objectively, but such experts as Arendt argue that we always exaggerate, which is a distinct problem when we attempt to clarify such philosophical questions as the existence and extent of limits. García Düttmann (philosophy and visual culture, Goldsmiths College, U. of London) closely examines the role of exaggeration and its effects in concepts, practices and the creation and destruction of a lifeline. He analyzes its role in philosophy, in the development of trust and enlightenment, and in irony. He locates exaggeration within the variable contexts of infinity, the finite being that is politics, and the enigma that is guilt, and examines its role in factuality, trauma, self-evidence, institution and art. He closes with a particular interesting chapter on how exaggeration builds and then razes the events of one's life. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The philosophy of history; an introduction.

Day takes a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to the practice of history, giving full due to leading schools of thought, particularly the Bayesian. He closely describes the rules of historical reasoning and the process of reasoning from the evidence, ten turns to describing the practice of history as a science, complete with abstractions and laws, causation, and theory, showing how theories combine and evolve in practice. He examines the process of interpretation, including the elements of feeling and thought, actions, reasons and norms, and describes interpretation's transition to discourse in terms of subject, object and narrative. In some of the most interesting chapters he compares truth and reality, analyzing the forces of correspondence to reality and anti-realism, finishing with a review of facets of underdetermination. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Philosophies of research into higher education.

Frustrated in their efforts to reform the relationship between research, practice, and policy in higher education, Brown (healthcare communication, De Montfort U.) and Baker (social sciences, U. of Wales-Bangor) make their case to the academic community at large. Among the issues they identify and analyze are positivism and realism, knowledge in and of education, and evidence-based practice in higher education. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Plato; a guide for the perplexed.

For non-specialist readers, Press describes how to read and understand Plato's dialogues, considering the texts from three sides: within their linguistic, historical, and intellectual contexts, in their entirety, and viewing the passages as parts of the whole work. He addresses what causes perplexity in the dialogues: their form, types of argumentation used, mixture of play and seriousness, and use of fables, myths, stories, irony, and paradox. Anonymity and Plato's philosophy are then examined, as well as Plato's vision, with practical steps for reading the dialogues, followed by brief summaries of some of them. An introductory section on his life and works and their historical contexts is provided, followed by a chapter on their interpretation in history. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Platonism, music and the listener's share.

In a critical engagement with the New Musicology and other debates in recent philosophy of music, Norris (philosophy, Cardiff U., Wales) proposes a qualified Platonist approach. This approach, he explains, respects the relative autonomy of musical works as objects that may even reflect ideal forms, but also leaves room for the phenomenology of musical experience, in that their existence depends on human perceptual and cognitive response. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Plato's stepping stones; degrees of moral virtue.

Cormack has revised his 1999 Ph.D. dissertation in philosophy at the University of Kansas, Virtue, Knowledge, and Happiness in Plato's Early and Middle Dialogues. In it he discusses the Greek philosopher's views of the relationship between knowledge and virtue, focusing on his distinction between different types of knowledge, opinion, and virtue. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Pleasure in Aristotle's ethics.

Seeking to cut through the impasse in dialogues over Aristotle's account of desire and pleasure in his ethics, Weinman (philosophy, St. John's College, Maryland) takes a new approach in closely studying Aristotle's take in the human (but not merely human) good. Weinman finds that our reaching toward pleasure is good, and good by nature; to understand this we must understand the virtues as unified and the good of the Nicomachean Ethics as both a human and divine good. Through this he understand that we must understand the reasoning and desiring parts of the soul as boon companions. He compares pleasure and the good in the physical writings, uniting the human and cosmological good, and the same in the ethical writings, concluding with commentary on the wholeness of pleasure and the good. In the process he is both articulate and convincing as well as surprisingly accessible. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Popper, objectivity, and the growth of knowledge.

British philosopher Karl Popper (1902-94) provides the best framework for answering all epistemological, metaphysical, political, linguistic, and ethical questions concerning objectivity, contends Sceski (philosophy, Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary and humanities, Villanova U., US). He considers his account of rationality and philosophical methodology, his treatment of particular problems in the philosophy of science and cosmology, his arguments for an objective social order, and morals and ethics. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Primary ICT and the foundation subjects.

Williams (recently deceased) and Easingwood, teacher trainers from Britain's Anglia Ruskin University, show the non-specialist primary teacher how and why to use information and communication technology in the classroom. The authors describe how to plan, prepare, and deliver lessons using various kinds of software, hand-held devices, electronic whiteboards, and CD-ROMs in the context of teaching design and technology, art, geography, history, music, foreign languages, and physical education. References, websites, and UK suppliers are listed for each subject area. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Producing & the theatre business; working in the theatre.

Long presents a selection of excerpts from the transcripts archive of the American Theatre Wing Working in the Theatre seminar programs, in which panel discussions held at various theaters around New York City provide audiences an opportunity to hear directly from artists and administrators about the creation of theater. Designed for students and general readers interested in theater, the text includes excerpts from the past three decades in which a variety of producers and the many people with whom producers work comment on what a producer is, getting a project started, financial challenges, marketing, touring out of town, revivals, unions, Broadway and off-Broadway, not-for-profit and regional theaters, and critics. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Psychology and the teacher, 8th ed.

Child (educational psychology emeritus, U. of Leeds) examines the diverse elements of learning and development, updating this edition to include new regulations and praxis. He begins with development, explaining the parts of the brain and nervous system, and the development of attention, perception, concept formulation, cognitive development, language, literacy, and ability to understand and use numbers. He gives leading theories of learning and practice, with an emphasis on behavioral theories, then tackles learning and memory, human motivation, individual differences (including information on the gifted and talented and those with special educational needs), personality and learning, teaching styles and psychology in the choice to become a teacher. He applies these basics to the practice of classroom and curriculum management and assessment, closing with advice on educational research and test design. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Rachmaninoff; life, works, recordings. (reprint, 2005)

In this paperback edition of the award-winning 2005 biography of Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), a UK musicologist focuses more on the music of this influential Russian pianist, composer, and conductor than on his private life. Harrison points out that beyond the famed "Rach 3" piano concerto, his Romantic symphonies and choral music have been gaining in appreciation. Despite Rachmaninoff's avoidance of modern composers, the author contends that he was influenced by jazz after emigrating to America. The book includes musical examples, chronological and classified lists of his works, a discography, and bibliography. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The reading and transformation of Isaiah in Luke-Acts.

Mallen (discipleship education, Uniting Church Centre for Theology and Ministry, Australia) examines how the gospel writer understood, used, and altered the prophecies of the Old Testament author. After establishing that there is enough Isaiah in Luke to warrant a study, he reviews the view of Isaiah in late second temple Judaism, the interpretive framework of Luke-Acts, how Luke transforms the Isaianic vision, and Luke's use by Mark and Matthew in comparison to Luke. The study is a revision and expansion of his doctoral dissertation at the London School of Theology in 2006. T&T Clark is an imprint of Continuum. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Recalling London; literature and history in the work of Peter Ackroyd and Iain Sinclair.

Murray (English, U. College, London) conducts a comparative analysis of the worlds of two very different writers, particularly that portion of the world called "London since 1979." He maintains the Londons of Ackroyd and Sinclair contain parallels and are strongly linked, apparently beneath the unsuspecting notice of academics. Further, he argues that although both writers use radical narrative practices to challenge dominant historical discourse, London still remains to set broad issues such as cultural history, government appropriation of historical narratives and debates about the relationship of literature and the city. He re-reads Sinclair's anti-narrative, Ackroyd's hermetic sphere of biographical literary history, material history in Sinclair's historiography, Sinclair's materialist historiography, and the results of material history, commodification, and obfuscation. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The reception of Blake in the Orient.

Clark (visiting professor, Tokyo University) and Suzuki (English, University of Tokyo) note that, although William Blake never traveled outside England, his imagination roamed the world. The articles in this book are by scholars from both East and West. Some suggest oriental and African influences on Blake's work, both poetry and art. Others trace the lesser-known influence his work had on artists in early twentieth-century Japan. Blake, the individual genius, was able to resonate in individual artists and poets in a totally different culture. As the Afterward suggests, these new views of Blake can reveal a great deal about societal preconceptions. The essays may change the way scholars think of Blake and his world. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The reception of Jane Austen and Walter Scott; a comparative longitudinal study.

Jane Austen and Walter Scott have been continually read and reprinted from their first publications to the present day, although Austen's popularity has grown exponentially and Scott's fell at the turn of the 20th century. Bautz (English, U. of Keele, UK) presents a comparative study of their popularity, including both critical and popular response and drawing from publishers' relaunches, sales, reviews, and library catalogues as well as private comments in letters and diaries and later media reception. The book maps the long-run reception to each author, explaining literary tastes and their determinants, while also displaying the broader culture that gave both authors two centuries of loyalty. The study is presented chronologically, with further subsections including reviews, critical responses, and personal reactions. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The reception of Sir Walter Scott in Europe.

Editor Pittock (literature, Manchester) presents extensive critical essays on the reception of Sir Walter Scott, organized by region and including French, Spanish, Catalan, German, Hungarian, Czech, Polish, Russian, Slovene, and the Nordic countries. Scott's writing influenced Balzac, Dostoevsky, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Dumas, and Pushkin among many others; a separate section of essays also examines Scott's presence in art and opera. The essays on the novel cover Scott's impact on European translation, fiction, and culture from 1814 to the present. This book is intended for advanced students and scholars of 19th-century literature, particularly Romanticism, and is a volume in the Athlone Critical Traditions Series on the receptions of British authors in Europe. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The reception of W.B. Yeats in Europe.

Mostly continental European scholars of English literature survey the reception of work by Irish poet and playwright Yeats (1865-1939) in their various countries, some focusing on particular periods of time. Among them are the Dutch-language Low Countries; lands of desire in Catalonia, Galicia, and the Basque country 1920-36; the Hungarian of the West; and his reception in Croatia. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The reception S.T. Coleridge in Europe.

This collection, part of the Athlone Critical Traditions series, charts the reception and popularization of Coleridge's work throughout Europe from the beginning of his publishing career into the 20th century. The introductory essay notes that despite his reputation and considerable influence on writers such Thomas Carlyle, Matthew Arnold, and T.S. Eliot, his work did not enjoy the popularity one would expect in Britain, even after his death. The reason, however, was fairly mundane. It had taken an extraordinarily long time to get all of his work into print, and Coleridge himself was slow to publish his work. The volume also explores the reception his work received in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Russia, and the Czech Republic. It also describes the history of illustrations and translations of his work, and just as importantly, much of the criticism he received during his lifetime and after for "borrowing" from other authors, his uneven output, and a host of personal issues. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Religious diversity and the American experience; a theological approach.

A joint product of participants in a Winter 2006 seminar directed by Tilley in the U. of Dayton's graduate theology program, this text traces the new patterns in Christian theology of religions. Coverage includes an overview of the concept of "sited theology," that all theology is constructed in particular locations; relevant factors in the cultural site; prescribed religious principles for constructing a mainstream Christian theology on a specific site (the U.S. context); classic inclusivism; contemporary inclusivism; the pluralist approaches; a nonfoundationalist approach — "particularism" — focusing on the issue of the opposing truth claims of diverse religious traditions; the practice of comparative theology; and the practice of multiple religious belonging. In a concluding chapter the authors assess how well the varied approaches treat the central issues of religious diversity. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Research and gender.

Jones and Barron (both: early childhood studies, Manchester Metropolitan U.) are not demonstrating yet again how gender discrimination continues to haunt academic fields. Rather, they explore how diverging from mainstream thinking about gender affects the approach to research, its practice, and the conclusions drawn from it. They draw on their own experiences and that of the research respondents. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Research methods for the social sciences.

Focusing on both social and behavioral sciences, this handbook explains difficult issues and concepts for the experienced practitioner while remaining accessible enough for novice researchers. It describes approaches to social research and provides solid advice about quality in terms of methodology, theories and location and relates those elements to the roles and responsibility of the researcher. It than describes the value and limits of qualitative approaches, including observation, interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, and reviews of literature and other secondary sources, then gives a step-by-step guide to quantitative methods. It closes with instructions and advice on presenting and reporting research, an extensive list of references and glossary and appendices that include a list of procedures for establishing reliability. The result is compact, accessible, and very useful as a first-contact resource. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Rethinking universities; the social functions of higher education.

Baker (social sciences, U. of Wales-Bangor) and Brown (health and life sciences, De Montfort U.) explain how universities in the industrial world are changing from institutions of higher education into agents for social change and promoting human welfare, and in many cases into training schools for corporate employers They explore philosophical ways to think about the changes and their ramifications. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)