Skip to main content

Books in Arts and humanities

Elsevier's Arts and Humanities titles encompass a rich spectrum of scholarship that explores human culture, history, philosophy, and creative expression. These works offer deep insights into language, literature, visual arts, and critical theory, supporting the academic community in understanding diverse perspectives and cultural legacies. Designed for scholars, educators, and students, this collection bridges classic studies with contemporary issues, fostering a deeper appreciation and knowledge of the human experience.

    • Technology, the University and the Community

      A Study of the Regional Role of Engineering Colleges
      • 1st Edition
      • George Bugliarello + 1 more
      • English
      Technology, the University and the Community: A Study of the Regional Role of Engineering Colleges focuses on the regional role of engineering colleges and suggests some mechanisms for increasing the interaction between the universities, or their colleges of engineering, and the local region. The study examines the problem of not effectively tapping the potential of state universities to bring applied science to the service of state governments. Comprised of four chapters, this book begins with an overview of the engineering college and its environments, together with its two main resources: human beings and information. Traditional views on the roles of engineering colleges are considered, and their impacts on regional development are examined. The next chapter deals with dimensions and models for the various roles of the engineering college and how the activities of the people of the college, including faculty and students, constitute the main areas of impact upon the region. The obstacles that must be overcome to increase the regional involvement of engineering colleges are then discussed by thinking of the university in terms of human and information resources. The final chapter describes some mechanisms for increasing the regional involvement of engineering colleges. This monograph will be of interest to university administrators, local government officials, and educational policymakers.
    • The Social Impact of Computers

      • 1st Edition
      • Richard S. Rosenberg
      • English
      The Social Impact of Computers should be read as a guide to the social implications of current and future applications of computers. Among the basic themes presented are the following: the changing nature of work in response to technological innovation as well as the threat to jobs; personal freedom in the machine age as manifested by challenges to privacy, dignity, and work; the relationship between advances in computer and communications technology and the possibility of increased centralization of authority; and the emergence and influence of artificial intelligence and its role in decision-making, especially in military applications. The book begins with background and historical information on computers and technology. Separate chapters then cover major applications: business, medicine, education, government; major social issues, including crime, privacy, work; and new technologies and problems: industry regulation, electronic funds transfer systems, international competition, national industrial policies, robotics and industrial automation, productivity, the information society, videotex. The final chapter discusses issues associated with ethics and professionalism. The material presented should be accessible to most university students who have had an introductory course in computer science. Self taught or sufficiently motivated individuals who have gained an understanding of how computers operate should also profit from this book. Especially useful are backgrounds in sociology, economics, history, political science, or philosophy.
    • Studies in American Historical Demography

      Studies in Population
      • 1st Edition
      • Maris A. Vinovskis
      • English
      Studies in American Historical Demography is a collection of the best studies in American historical demography. The book discusses some methodological and conceptual considerations in the trends in American historical demography; the demographic history of colonial New England; and the marital migration in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the colonial and early federal periods. The text also describes the historical trends in parental power and marriage patterns in Hingham, Massachusetts; the use of demographic data that are, or may be, retrieved from colonial New England gravestones; and the mortality rates and trends in Massachusetts, Massachusetts. The estimates of the vital rates of the United States black population during the 19th century; the two-parent household; as well as the differential fertility in Madison County, New York, 1865 are also considered. The book further tackles the socioeconomic determinants of interstate fertility differentials in the United States in 1850 and 1860; cohorts of native born Massachusetts women, 1830-1920; and the demographic change and the life cycle of American families. Historians, demographers, anthropologists, economists, and sociologists will find the book invaluable.
    • Radio Emission of the Sun and Planets

      International Series of Monographs in Natural Philosophy
      • 1st Edition
      • V. V. Zheleznyakov
      • J. S. Hey
      • English
      International Series of Monographs in Natural Philosophy, Volume 25: Radio Emission of the Sun and Planets presents the origin of the radio emission of the planets. This book examines the outstanding triumphs achieved by radio astronomy of the solar system. Comprised of 10 chapters, this volume begins with an overview of the physical conditions in the upper layers of the Sun, the Moon, and the planets. This text then examines the three characteristics of radio emission, namely, the frequency spectrum, the polarization, and the angular spectrum. Other chapters consider the measurements of the intensity of the solar radio emission, which indicate the existence of a lower limit. This book discusses as well the complex phenomena of the sporadic solar radio emission. The final chapter deals with the theory of the radio emission of Venus. This monograph is a valuable resource for radio astronomers and astrophysicists who are interested in the state of investigations in galactic radio astronomy.
    • Natural Hazards and Public Choice

      The State and Local Politics of Hazard Mitigation
      • 1st Edition
      • Peter H. Rossi + 2 more
      • Peter H. Rossi
      • English
      Natural Hazards and Public Choice: The State and Local Politics of Hazard Mitigation presents a research project that emerged from a concern for estimating the balance of support versus opposition to prospective social policies that aim to reduce the risks of damage or injuries from major natural hazard events via the regulation of land use and establishment of building and occupancy standards in high-risk areas. The volume begins with an overview of the research project and the main findings. Separate chapters describe the study design; assess the views of politically influential people regarding the seriousness of natural hazards; measure the support for federal disaster policies; and consider public opinion on hazards-mitigation issues in California. Subsequent chapters cover the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP); patterns of activity, influence, and power among key positions and groups in local communities with respect to issues involving disasters; and hazard mitigation activities at the state level.
    • The Kibbutz

      A New Way of Life
      • 1st Edition
      • Dan Leon
      • English
      The Kibbutz: A New Way of Life is an introduction to the Kibbutz Artzi Hashomer Hatzair, the largest of the four national federations of kibbutzim (communal settlements) in Israel. The Kibbutzim are Israel’s most effective contribution to the millenary messianic promise of justice and peace. This book is composed of three parts encompassing 13 chapters. Part I focuses on the foundation of the Kibbutz movement. Part II deals first with the interdependence of functions in the Kibbutz society. This part also looks into the socio-economic basis of Kibbutz, and the issues of democracy, equality, incentives, and education. Part III provides a perspective of the Kibbutz movement and its influence in other forms of society. This book will prove useful to historians and researchers.
    • Psychotherapy and the Behavioral Sciences

      Contributions of the Biological, Psychological, Social and Philosophic Fields to Psychotherapeutic Theory and Process
      • 1st Edition
      • Lewis R. Wolberg
      • English
      Psychotherapy and the Behavioral Sciences discusses the techniques used in neurophysiological analysis. It defines the neuronal building blocks. The book provides a detailed examination of the brain. This is followed by a discussion of the function of cerebral cortex. A chapter of the text focuses on biochemical interactions including neuropharmacology and psychopharmacology. The volume defines such terms as genetics, behavior genetics, and ethology. This is followed by a discussion on the conditioning of neural circuits. Another chapter is devoted on the examination of stress and adaptation. Ontogenetic maturation, developmental, and personality theories are explored analytically. The development of personality is the focus of fourth chapter. Concepts such as learning theory, learning principles, and psychoanalytic theory are fully explained. Cultural anthropology is the subject of the tenth chapter. While cybernetics is discuss in the eleventh chapter of the book. The book will provide useful information to psychologists, psychoanalysts, students, and researchers in the field of psychology.
    • The Impact of International Economic Disturbances on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

      Transmission and Response
      • 1st Edition
      • Egon Neuberger + 1 more
      • English
      The Impact of International Economic Disturbances on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe: Transmission and Response focuses on the transmission of economic disturbances to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, as well as the policy responses of both to such disturbances. Topics covered include external inflation, balance of trade, and resource allocation, along with the impact of the world economic crisis on intra-CMEA trade. This book is comprised of 16 chapters and begins with an overview of major international economic disturbances during the first half of the 1970s and their transmission to the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. The following chapters examine the adjustment made by East European economies to external disturbances; external inflation, balance of trade, and resource allocation in small centrally planned economies; whether the Soviet Union was affected by the international economic disturbances of the 1970s; and the relationship between foreign trade and the Soviet economy. The transmission of international disturbances to Yugoslavia, Hungary, and Poland and the responses of each country are also discussed. The final chapter assesses how the energy crisis and Western ""stagflation"" have affected the nature of Soviet-East European political relations in the years 1956-1973. This monograph will be of interest to economists and economic policymakers.
    • Synchytrium

      • 1st Edition
      • John S. Karling
      • English
      Synchytrium presents all data and information relevant to the identification, classification, and phylogeny of species of Synchytrium. Following a brief introduction to the genus, general descriptions and illustrations of the life cycles of the subgenera are given at the beginning of the monograph for the purpose of acquainting the reader with an over-all view of the types of development which occur in Synchytrium. Then follow chapters on the cytology, sexuality, and host reaction. The major portion of the monograph is then devoted to a description of the genus, keys to the subgenera and the fully known species in each subgenus, and descriptions of the individual species. The description of the species is followed by chapters on phylogeny, hosts, and geographical distribution of Synchytrium. Although this monograph is directed primarily to graduate and research students in mycology, and particularly in the field of chytridiology, botanists, and biologists in general will also find it useful. The discussions of host and cellular reactions to infection, host range and host specificity, as well as the extensive bibliography on the Synchytrium-wart disease to potatoes should appeal especially to parasitologists and phytopathologists.
    • Politics as Symbolic Action

      Mass Arousal and Quiescence
      • 1st Edition
      • Murray Edelman
      • English
      Politics as Symbolic Action: Mass Arousal and Quiescence deals with the dynamics of development of political threats related to political behavior. The book discusses the conditions under which the dynamics related to political behavior are the prior causes of political arousal, violence, and quiescence. The text examines the influence of governmental activity on people's beliefs and perceptions—how non-empirical cognitions become the resistant basis of change. The text also examines how the individual phenomenon and the group phenomenon become linked through symbol formation and myths. The book discusses emotion as a catalyst of political ritual and political violence as inferred from Theodore Sarbin's role theory. The use of metaphors, language forms, and mass tensions can all be social-psychological and political processes that can lead to political arousal or quiescence. The book also explains major violent disturbances as having patterns reflective of organization, disorganization, or by leadership example; the book notes the popular notion that the organization or the leader's direction starts or worsens the violence as very simplistic. The book then proposes that political perceptions and beliefs are changeable and that phenomenological perceptions of specific groups of people can identify which political behavior are systematic. The text is suitable for political analysts, political scientists, sociologists, and educators involved in group psychology and analyses.