Compiled by Nina C. Ayoub

ANTHROPOLOGY

Blue Jeans: The Art of the Ordinary by Daniel Miller and Sophie Woodward (University of California Press; 169 pages; $60 hardcover, $24.95 paperback). Explores the appeal of the ordinary in an ethnographic study of the wearing of blue jeans by immigrants and others in a highly diverse North London neighborhood.

Modernizing Medicine in Zimbabwe: HIV/AIDS and Traditional Healers by David S. Simmons (Vanderbilt University Press; 224 pages; $55). Examines the responses to AIDS of n'anga, or traditional healers, in the capital city of Harare.

The Politics of Heritage Management in Mali: From Unesco to Djenne by Charlotte Joy (Left Coast Press; 233 pages; $89). Examines the ambivalence experienced by residents of Djenne, a mud-brick town that has been preserved as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Yanantin and Masintin in the Andean World: Complementary Dualism in Modern Peru by Hillary S. Web (University of New Mexico Press; 206 pages; $45). Combines scholarly and personal perspectives in a study of the indigenous Andean idea of complementary opposites; documents the author's experience of a ceremony involving the mescaline-bearing San Pedro cactus.

ARCHAEOLOGY

Land of the Tejas: Native American Identity and Interaction in Texas A.D. 1300 to 1700 by John Wesley Arnn III (University of Texas Press; 300 pages; $55). Combines archaeological, historical, environmental, and ethnographic perspectives in a study of mobile foragers and sedentary agriculturalists during the Toyah phase in Texas.

ART AND ARCHITECTURE

Diane Arbus's 1960s: Auguries of Experience by Frederick Gross (University of Minnesota Press; 264 pages; $75 hardcover, $24.95 paperback). Explores Arbus's work in relation to the decade's art, literature, photographic portraiture, theory, and social currents.

Grand Themes: Emanuel Leutze, "Washington Crossing the Delaware," and American History Painting by Jochen Wierich (Penn State University Press; 240 pages; $69.95). Describes how Leutze's work, first exhibited in New York in 1851, was a touchstone for debates over history painting at a time of intense sectionalism.

Hakuho Sculpture by Donald F. McCallum (University of Washington Press; 128 pages; $50). A study of Japanese Buddhist icons from circa AD 650 to 710.

BUSINESS

Gurus and Oracles: The Marketing of Information by Miklos Sarvary (MIT Press; 176 pages; $30). Discusses Google, Bloomberg, Moody's, and other companies whose core business is to market information.

CLASSICAL STUDIES

The Age of Titans: The Rise and Fall of the Great Hellenistic Navies by William M. Murray (Oxford University Press; 356 pages; $45). Traces the evolution of naval warfare after the death (323 BC) of Alexander, including his successors' production of warships as long as 400 feet and carrying as many as 4,000 rowers and 3,000 marines.

What Did the Romans Know? An Inquiry Into Science and Worldmaking by Daryn Lehoux (University of Chicago Press; 275 pages; $45). Documents the Romans' extensive knowledge of the natural world and sets their views in wider philosophical, political, and rhetorical contexts.

COMMUNICATION

Swift Viewing: The Popular Life of Subliminal Influence by Charles R. Acland (Duke University Press; 336 pages; $89.95 hardcover, $24.95 paperback). Describes how an obscure concept from experimental psychology came to figure in concerns about manipulation by advertising and other media.

TV Critics and Popular Culture: A History of British Television Criticism by Paul Rixon (I.B. Tauris, distributed by Palgrave Macmillan; 270 pages; $96). A study of criticism of the media over the past 60 years, including by such figures as Raymond Williams, Dennis Potter, and Clive James.

CULTURAL STUDIES

Creativity and Its Discontents: China's Creative Industries and Intellectual Property Rights Offenses by Laikwan Pang (Duke University Press; 320 pages; $89.95 hardcover, $24.95 paperback). Discusses both China's IPR-compliant industries and its pattern of copyright violations.

Martial Arts as Embodied Knowledge: Asian Traditions in a Transnational World edited by D.S. Farrer and John Whalen Bridge (State University of New York Press; 249 pages; $75). Writings on such topics as the training of perception in Javanese martial arts, and body, masculinity, and representation in Chinese martial-arts films.

People's Pornography: Sex and Surveillance on the Chinese Internet by Katrien Jacobs (Intellect Books, distributed by University of Chicago Press; 203 pages; $25). A study of sexual and civil rebellion among Chinese "netizens," both on the mainland and in the looser cyberculture of Hong Kong.

ECONOMICS

Cashing in Across the Golden Triangle: Thailand's Northern Border Trade With China, Laos, and Myanmar by Thein Swe and Paul Chambers (Mekong Press, distributed by University of Washington Press; 192 pages; $25). Topics include new economic corridors in the border region, as well as an influx of Chinese investment and tourism.

Getting It Wrong: How Faulty Monetary Statistics Undermine the Fed, the Financial System, and the Economy by William A. Barnett (MIT Press; 322 pages; $70 hardcover, $35 paperback). Links the origins of the financial crisis to erroneous risk assessments grounded in inadequate data as well as flawed approaches to economic measurement.

EDUCATION

International Practices in Special Education: Debates and Challenges edited by Margret A. Winzer and Kas Mazurek (Gallaudet University Press; 319 pages; $85). Includes research from Australia, Britain, Canada, China, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Nigeria, Pakistan, Poland, South Korea, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Blue Ridge Commons: Environmental Activism and Forest History in Western North Carolina by Kathryn Newfont (University of Georgia Press; 400 pages; $69.95 hardcover, $26.95 paperback). Traces the history of what is termed "commons environmentalism" among residents of the Blue Ridge.

FILM STUDIES

China on Film: A Century of Exploration, Confrontation, and Controversy by Paul G. Pickowicz (Rowman & Littlefield; 364 pages; $85). A history of Chinese filmmaking since the "Shanghai twenties."

Gender Meets Genre in Postwar Cinemas edited by Christine Gledhill (University of Illinois Press; 274 pages; $85 hardcover, $30 paperback). Writings on such topics as gender in John Woo's Hong Kong and Hollywood movies, and gender and genre subversion in the films of John Waters.

Revisioning Europe: The Films of John Berger and Alain Tanner by Jerry White (University of Calgary Press, distributed by Michigan State University Press; 243 pages; US$34.95). A study of collaborations between the British novelist and the Swiss filmmaker, includingThe Salamander and Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000.

White Gypsies: Race and Stardom in Spanish Musicals by Eva Woods Peiro (University of Minnesota Press; 337 pages; $75 hardcover, $25 paperback). Explores anxieties about race in Spanish folkloric musical films of the 1940s and 50s.

GAY AND LESBIAN STUDIES

Queer Retrosexualities: The Politics of Reparative Return by Nishant Shahani (Lehigh University Press; 171 pages; $65). Explores a narrative return to the 1950s in such works as Samuel Delany's The Motion of Light in Water, Todd Haynes's Far From Heaven, and Sarah Schulman's Shimmer.

GENDER STUDIES

Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys From the Girls in America by Jo B. Paoletti (Indiana University Press; 184 pages; $25). Documents shifts in color as a marker of gender in children's clothes since the 19th century.

GEOGRAPHY

Everyday Environmentalism: Creating an Urban Political Ecology by Alex Loftus (University of Minnesota Press; 165 pages; $75 hardcover, $25 paperback). Draws on Marx, Gramsci, Lukacs, and other theorists in a discussion of struggles over water resources in informal settlements in Durban, South Africa, and insurgent art activists in London.

HISTORY

Africa in Translation: A History of Colonial Linguistics in Germany and Beyond, 1814-1945 by Sarah Pugach (University of Michigan Press; 320 pages; $80). Describes how the missionary and later academic study of African languages figured in German "racialist" thought.

After Freedom Summer: How Race Realigned Mississippi Politics, 1965-1986 by Chris Danielson (University Press of Florida; 294 pages; $69.95). Discusses continued white resistance to black voting rights into the 1980s; other topics include divisions among black activists that limited black electoral gains.

Algeria: France's Undeclared War by Martin Evans (Oxford University Press; 457 pages; $35). Draws on previously classified sources in a study of the origins, events, and legacy of France's eight-year colonial war against Algerian nationalists; focuses on January 1956 to May 1957 as a defining period.

Arc of Empire: America's Wars in Asia From the Philippines to Vietnam by Michael H. Hunt and Steven I. Levine (University of North Carolina Press; 360 pages; $35). Discusses the Philippines, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam as four phases in a U.S. bid for regional dominance; draws parallels with today's involvement in the Middle East.

The Bride of Christ Goes to Hell: Metaphor and Embodiment in the Lives of Pious Women, 200-1500 by Dyan Elliott (University of Pennsylvania Press; 466 pages; $59.95). Traces the changing nature, and eroticization, of the notion of the sponsa Christi, particularly in relation to female mystics.

Building Colonial Cities of God: Mendicant Orders and Urban Culture in New Spain by Karen Melvin (Stanford University Press; 365 pages; $65). Discusses the role of Dominicans, Franciscans, and other orders in creating Catholic towns in colonial Mexico.

Elusive Destiny: The Political Vocation of John Napier Turner by Paul Litt (University of British Columbia Press; 536 pages; US$43.95). A biography of the Canadian Liberal Party leader (b. 1929).

Environment, Health, and History edited by Virginia Berridge and Martin Gorsky (Palgrave Macmillan; 297 pages; $85). Topics include housing and health in early modern London, environment and disease in famine-era Ireland, and the impact of global climate change on human health.

The Fantasy of Feminist History by Joan Wallach Scott (Duke University Press; 187 pages; $79.95 hardcover, $22.95 paperback). New and previously published writings that explore the value of psychoanalytical concepts for feminist historical analysis.

From Slave to State Legislator: John W.E. Thomas, Illinois' First African American Lawmaker by David A. Joens (Southern Illinois University Press; 304 pages; $34.95). Explores divisions in Chicago's black community through a biography of the Alabama-born Illinois Republican (circa 1847-99), who served three terms in the state legislature.

Gendered Money: Financial Organization in Women's Movements, 1880-1933 by Pernilla Jonsson and Silke Neunsinger (Berghahn Books; 260 pages; $110). A study of the financial strategies of Sweden's first middle-class and socialist women's movements, with comparative discussion of movements in Germany, England, and Canada.

Letters From a War Bird: The World War I Correspondence of Elliott White Springs edited by David K. Vaughan (University of South Carolina Press; 358 pages; $39.95). Documents the experiences of one of the top five American "flying aces," who flew for both British and U.S. forces.

The National Road and the Difficult Path to Sustainable National Investment by Theodore Sky (University of Delaware Press; 293 pages; $75). A study of the first federally financed interstate highway, which was originally authorized by Thomas Jefferson in 1806 and connected Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois in a 600-mile span.

The Wehrmacht Retreats: Fighting a Lost War, 1943 by Robert M. Citino (University Press of Kansas; 428 pages; $34.95). A study of the German army on the defensive.

The World War I Memoirs of Robert P. Patterson: A Captain in the Great War edited by J. Garry Clifford (University of Tennessee Press; 136 pages; $32). Documents the formative experiences of an American officer who went on to become the Undersecretary of War under Franklin D. Roosevelt and Secretary of War under Harry Truman.

INTELLECTUAL HISTORY

Totalitarianism and Political Religion: An Intellectual History by A. James Gregor (Stanford University Press; 320 pages; $65). Discusses variants of Marxism, Fascism, and National Socialism as political religions.

LAW

Human Rights: The Commons and the Collective by Laura Westra (University of British Columbia Press; 392 pages; US$99). An environmentalist critique of the privileging of the individual over the collective in international human-rights law.

Troubling Sex: Towards a Legal Theory of Sexual Integrity by Elaine Craig (University of British Columbia Press; 220 pages; US$94). Combines feminist and queer theory in a study of the Supreme Court of Canada's approach to sexuality.

LINGUISTICS

Approaches to Gender and Spoken Classroom Discourse by Helen Sauntson (Palgrave Macmillan; 233 pages; $85). Examines gender inequality in the school environment through a linguistic analysis of student-to-student talk in a British secondary school.

LITERATURE

The Art of Avaz and Mohammad Reza Shajarian: Foundations and Contexts by Rob Simms and Amir Koushkani (Anthem Press; 307 pages; $80). Discusses avaz, or the singing of classical Persian poetry, through the life and work of a famous contemporary performer.

As If: Modern Enchantment and the Literary Prehistory of Virtual Reality by Michael Saler (Oxford University Press; 283 pages; $99 hardcover, $27.95 paperback). Focuses on Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories, Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, and Tolkien's Middle-Earth in a study of precursors to today's online, communally enjoyed imaginary worlds.

Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance: A Portrait in Black and White by Emily Bernard (Yale University Press; 358 pages; $30). A study of the controversial white author and critic who championed black authors of the Harlem Renaissance, and whose novel Nigger Heaven was praised by Langston Hughes and damned by W.E.B. DuBois.

Critical Conditions: Illness and Disability in Francophone African and Caribbean Women's Writing by Julie Nack Ngue (Lexington Books; 196 pages; $60). Focuses on writings by Marie Chauvet, Myriam Warner-Vieyra, Maryse Conde, Ken Bugul, Fama Diagne Sene, Fatou Diome, and Bessora.

Cuba's Wild East: A Literary Geography of Oriente by Peter Hulme (Liverpool University Press, distributed by University of Chicago Press; 455 pages; $120). Juxtaposes authors and eight places in a literary history of Cuba with a focus on the eastern region of Oriente.

Globalectics: Theory and the Politics of Knowing by Ngugi wa Thiong'o (Columbia University Press; 104 pages; $22.50). Topics include the politics of language in postcolonial African writing.

Gothic Science Fiction, 1980-2010 edited by Sara Wasson and Emily Alder (Liverpool University Press, distributed by University of Chicago Press; 219 pages; $95). Essays on Stephen R. Donaldson's Gap cycle and other examples of Gothic sci-fi in literature, film, graphic novels, and trading-card games.

John Neal and Nineteenth-Century American Literature and Culture edited by Edward Watts and David J. Carlson (Bucknell University Press; 319 pages; $85). Writings on the American novelist, editor, critic, and reformer; topics include his 1828 historical novel on the Salem witch trials, Rachel Dyer, and its assault on the concept of precedent.

The Modern Art of Influence and the Spectacle of Oscar Wilde by S.I. Salamensky (Palgrave Macmillan; 210 pages; $85). Topics include how Salome reflects constructs of the Jew and the hysteric in Wilde's era.

The Music of Verse: Metrical Experiment in Nineteenth-Century Poetry by Joseph Phelan (Palgrave Macmillan; 225 pages; $85). Analyzes works by such poets as Southey, Barrett Browning, Whitman, Coventry Patmore, Hopkins, and Alice Meynell.

New Testaments: Cognition, Closure, and the Figural Logic of the Sequel, 1660-1740 by Michael Austin (University of Delaware Press; 161 pages; $60). Explores the ambiguity of closure in sequels written during the period to four major works of literature: Paradise Lost, The Pilgrim's Progress, Robinson Crusoe, and Pamela.

Outlaw Rhetoric: Figuring Vernacular Eloquence in Shakespeare's England by Jenny C. Mann (Cornell University Press; 264 pages; $45). Considers how literature of the period reflected tensions over the desire to elevate English to the status of Latin or Greek.

Recesses of the Mind: Aesthetics in the Work of Guðbergur Bergsson by Birna Bjarnadottir (McGill-Queen's University Press; 320 pages; US$95). A critical study of the Icelandic poet and novelist that sets his work in dialogue with Plotinus, Augustine, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, and Blanchot.

Resurrection From the Underground: Feodor Dostoevsky by Rene Girard, edited and translated by James G. Williams (Michigan State University Press; 120 pages; $24.95). Translation of the French scholar's study of the Russian writer's Notes From the Underground.

Science, Politics, and Friendship in the Works of Thomas Lovell Beddoes by Ute Berns (University of Delaware Press; 351 pages; $90). A study of "Death's Jest-Book" and other writings by the 19th-century English scientist, poet, dramatist, and radical who lived in exile in Germany.

Visions of Empire in Colonial Spanish American Ekphrastic Writing by Kathryn M. Mayers (Bucknell University Press; 164 pages; $65). A study of written renderings of the visual in works by three Spanish American Creoles: Hernando Dominguez Camargo, Juan de Espinosa Medrano, and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz.

The Writings of Eusebio Chacon translated and edited by A. Gabriel Melendez and Francisco A. Lomeli (University of New Mexico Press; 273 pages; $45). Edition of writings in fiction and other genres by the New Mexico author (1869-1948).

MATHEMATICS

Frechet Differentiability of Lipschitz Functions and Porous Sets in Banach Spaces by Joram Lindenstrauss, David Preiss, and Jaroslav Tiser (Princeton University Press; 425 pages; $165 hardcover, $75 paperback). Offers a bridge between descriptive set theory and the classical topic of existence of derivatives of vector-valued Lipschitz functions.

MUSIC

The Ellington Century by David Schiff (University of California Press; 319 pages; $34.95). Sets the composer, pianist, and band leader at the center of a study of 20th-century music, with additional discussion of figures from Debussy to Billie Holiday to Brian Wilson.

Racial Uplift and American Music, 1878-1943 by Lawrence Schenbeck (University Press of Mississippi; 304 pages; $60). A study of racial uplift ideology and its role in African-Americans' embrace of classical music after Reconstruction.

PHILOSOPHY

Art's Emotions: Ethics, Expression, and Aesthetic Experience by Damien Freeman (McGill-Queen's University Press; 212 pages; US$95 hardcover, US$27.95 paperback). A study of art's engagement with the emotions, as well as its ethical role in human flourishing.

Infinite Autonomy: The Divided Individual in the Political Thought of G.W.F. Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche by Jeffrey Church (Penn State University Press; 296 pages; $64.95). Develops a concept of the "historical individual."

Regimens of the Mind: Boyle, Locke, and the Early Modern "Cultura Animi" Tradition by Sorana Corneanu (University of Chicago Press; 308 pages; $50). Links 17th-century experimental philosophy in England to an ancient tradition of cultivating and curing the mind.

Tropes of Transport: Hegel and Emotion by Katrin Pahl (Northwestern University Press; 296 pages; $79.95 hardcover, $32.95 paperback). Draws on the German philosopher in a study of the role of mediation, including manipulation and sympathy, in emotionality.

POLITICAL SCIENCE

Canada and the Changing Arctic: Sovereignty, Security, and Stewardship by Franklyn Griffiths, Rob Huebert, and P. Whitney Lackenbauer (Wilfrid Laurier University Press; 310 pages; US$34.95). Writings on such topics as Canada's need to better engage the United States, Russia, and Europe on the Arctic, and the possibilities of an external conflict involving the region.

Democracy Despite Itself: Why a System That Shouldn't Work at All Works So Well by Danny Oppenheimer and Mike Edwards (MIT Press; 245 pages; $24.95). Combines the perspectives of a psychologist and a political scientist in a study of why democracy works despite often flawed elections; topics include the psychological pressures brought to bear on citizens and politicians.

Good Fences, Bad Neighbors: Border Fixity and International Conflict by Boaz Atzili (University of Chicago Press; 292 pages; $90 hardcover, $30 paperback). Argues that the norm of border fixity combined with the presence of weak states tends to promote and exacerbate state conflict.

The Great Powers Versus the Hegemon by Ehsan M. Ahrari (Palgrave Macmillan; 266 pages; $85). Argues that while China may come to lead in economic might, the United States will remain the world's lone superpower in the coming years.

The Making of the Presidential Candidates, 2012 edited by William G. Mayer and Jonathan Bernstein (Rowman & Littlefield; 241 pages; $85 hardcover, $29.95 paperback). Topics include nominations in the post-public-funding era, digital media and campaigns, television coverage, and the Tea Party.

The "Other" Karen in Myanmar: Ethnic Minorities and the Struggle Without Arms by Ardeth Maung Thawnghmung (Lexington Books; 199 pages; $60). Draws on interviews with people who are pursuing non-violent strategies to further their interests, despite their sharing the minority ethnicity of groups engaged in armed resistance against the state.

The Tea Party: Three Principles by Elizabeth Price Foley (Cambridge University Press; 238 pages; $25). Identifies three core principles that bind the Tea Party movement: limited government, unapologetic U.S. sovereignty, and constitutional originalism; considers how they are applied to such issues as immigration, health-care reform, internationalism, and the war on terror.

RELIGION

City of 201 Gods: Ile-Ife in Time, Space, and the Imagination by Jacob K. Olupona (University of California Press; 334 pages; $65 hardcover, $29.95 paperback). Traces the changing fortunes of a center of Yoruba religious life in southwest Nigeria.

Dreams and Visions in Islamic Societies edited by Ozgen Felek and Alexander D. Knysh (State University of New York Press; 318 pages; $80). Essays on the significance of dreams for Muslims and Muslim communities from the pre-modern period to the present.

Equality, Freedom, and Religion by Roger Trigg (Oxford University Press; 184 pages; $49.95). Considers how competing demands of religious freedom and social equality affect practice in Europe and the United States.

The Mormon People: The Making of an American Faith by Matthew Bowman (Random House; 328 pages; $26). Traces the evolution of the Mormonism from a radical movement with links to Christian socialism to one of the fastest growing religions today.

The Path of Mercy: The Life of Catherine McAuley by Mary C. Sullivan (Catholic University of America Press; 500 pages; $49.95). A biography of the Dublin woman (circa 1778-1841) who founded the Sisters of Mercy, an order known for its ministry to the poor.

SOCIOLOGY

Living Faith: Everyday Religion and Mothers in Poverty by Susan Crawford Sullivan (University of Chicago Press; 287 pages; $26). Draws on 45 in-depth interviews with women of varied racial and ethnic backgrounds living in poverty in and around Boston, and with 15 pastors who minister in poor neighborhoods.

Sex for Life: From Virginity to Viagra, How Sexuality Changes Throughout Our Lives edited by Laura M. Carpenter and John DeLamater (New York University Press; 363 pages; $79 hardcover, $27 paperback). Research on sexuality across the life span; topics include sex in the first year of college, and aging and ageism among gay men and lesbians.

Standing on Both Feet: Voices of Older Mixed-Race Americans by Cathy J. Tashiro (Paradigm Publishers; 160 pages; $99). Examines the experiences of people of mixed African-American/white and Asian-American/white ancestry born between 1902 and 1951 and living in the San Francisco Bay area.

THEATER

Spectacular Performances: Essays on Theatre, Imagery, Books, and Selves in Early Modern England by Stephen Orgel (Manchester University Press, distributed by Palgrave Macmillan; 283 pages; $80). New and previously published writings on such topics as Shakespeare, Jonson, and Renaissance costume.

Wild and Dangerous Performances: Animals, Emotions, Circus by Peta Tait (Palgrave Macmillan; 229 pages; $80). Explores audiences' anthropomorphizing of trained animal performers in the late 19th and 20th-century circus.