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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.

    • Computer-Mediated Communication Systems

      Status and Evaluation
      • 1st Edition
      • Elaine B. Kerr + 1 more
      • Peter R. Monge
      • English
      Computer-Mediated Communication Systems: Status and Evaluation synthesizes current knowledge about computerized conferencing systems, electronic mail, and office information-communic... systems. It should be of interest both to students and researchers studying this new form of electronic communication and to organizations that are planning the installation of electronic mail or other computer-mediated communication systems and that need to be aware of the information gleaned from the studies presented here. The book is organized into four main sections, focusing on the following issues: (1) What are the important considerations in designing software or choosing a system from the many available options and capabilities? (2) What factors determine whether such systems are likely to be accepted or rejected? (3) What are the likely impacts of such systems upon the individuals, groups, and organizations which use them? It is not the economic costs and benefits, but the social problems and ""payoffs"" in the form of enhanced performance and organizational efficiency that should be the main considerations in deciding whether or not to use a computer-mediated communication system. (4) Given the conditional nature of many of the possible impacts, no system should be implemented without formal evaluation and feedback from users to guide the implementation. The major kinds of evaluational strategies that have been successfully employed are described in this book.
    • Elements of the Natural Movement of Population

      • 1st Edition
      • Egon Vielrose
      • English
      Elements of the Natural Movement of Population deals with the study of statistical and demographic problems. The book contains chapters that explain the nature and quality of statistical sources, the degree of their reliability and the results that may be expected; the structure of population by sex, age and marital status; and the three main elements of the natural movement of population: marriages (and divorces), births, and deaths. Demographers, statisticians, sociologists, researchers, and students will find the book very insightful.
    • The Politics of Inflation

      A Comparative Analysis
      • 1st Edition
      • Richard Medley
      • English
      The Politics of Inflation: A Comparative Analysis is a collection of papers that covers the inflation trend of various countries. The emphasis of this title is on the domestic and international causes of each country's level and duration of inflation. The text first covers the aspects of the interplay among economic and political systems and processes, and then proceeds to tackling the politics of inflation in historical perspective. Next, the selection talks about the transatlantic aspects of inflation, along with the inflation fighting in Britain, Italy, and Portugal. The book also details the politics of inflation in the U.S. and the inflation policy in Germany. Chapter 7 tackles the inflation and politics in U.K., while Chapter 8 covers the political causes and effects of Argentine inflammation. The last chapter deals with inflation and democratic transition in Spain. The book will be of great use to economists, political scientists, and individuals concerned with the global economy.
    • The Process of Stratification

      Trends and Analyses
      • 1st Edition
      • Robert M. Hauser + 1 more
      • H. H. Winsborough
      • English
      The Process of Stratification: Trends and Analyses discusses the conceptual scheme developed by Blau and Duncan. The book elaborates Blau and Duncan's description and analysis of socioencomic inequality, stratification, and inequality of opportunity in American society during the early 1960s. The authors review the assumptions and methods; they point to a different direction from the widely held assumption that occupational socioeconomic status is the primary determinant to mobility. They also use the Alphabetical Index as the basis for better collection method on data relating to occupation, industry and class of worker. As regards occupational mobility, the authors note that such mobility is limited by the depletion of occupational groups that higher-status occupations have sourced from. They also point that American society is homogenous in the sense of the determinants of socioeconomic achievements can exert influence. The authors then discuss an exercise in theory construction of intergenerational transmission of income. They conclude that income mobility is similar to occupational or educational mobility; to be more precise, they note that empirical evidence should be gathered. This book can prove useful for economists, sociologists, policy makers, as well as academicians involved in societal studies.
    • Psychopathia Sexualis

      A Medico-Forensic Study
      • 1st Edition
      • Richard Von Krafft-Ebing
      • English
      Psychopathia Sexualis: A Medico-forensic Study, Twelfth Edition deals with the psychology of deviant sexual behavior. The book discusses the psychology and the physiology of sexual life including anthropological conditions such as Gynecomasty. The author describes general pathology including anesthesia sexualis (absence of sexual feeling), hyperesthesia (abnormally increased sexual desire), paraesthesia (perversion), masochism, sadism, fetishism, and antipathic sexuality. The author also examines homosexuality (as abnormal congenital manifestation), effimination, and androgyny. Special pathology includes the manifestations of abnormal sexual life in various forms and states of mental disturbance. The author discusses dementia, epilepsy, periodic insanity, nymphomania, and satyriasis. He also addresses pathological sexuality and its legal aspects that cover acts of rape, murder with rape, sodomy, cultivated pederasty, lesbian love, incest, necrophilia, or immoral acts on persons under care. The book also contains some case histories that illustrate such deviant sexual behavior. This book can interest behavioral scientists, psychiatrists, psychologists, students and professors in the sciences of human sexuality and behavior.
    • Poverty and Policy in American History

      • 1st Edition
      • Michael B. Katz
      • Charles Tilly + 1 more
      • English
      Poverty and Policy in American History is about people who needed help in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is about the ways in which the perception of poverty and other forms of dependence affected the development of public programs and the conduct of voluntary reform. It also about the ways in which people have written about welfare. The book contains three chapters and opens with a description of the life and death of a poor family in early twentieth-century Philadelphia based on case records. It attempts to show many of the themes in the lives of the poor through the close analysis of one extended example. The second chapter moves back in time and consists of four case studies drawn from the project's empirical research. The first case study takes up the history of a neglected institution, the poorhouse. The second case reports on a survey of the causes of pauperism undertaken by the New York Board of State Charities in the mid-1870s. The third case analyzes a sample of the seven special schedules of the 1880 U.S. census, which enumerated the ""defective, dependent, and delinquent"" population. The final case uses a register of tramps from various places in New York State during the mid-1870s to assess the relation between popular images of tramps and what appeared to be their actual characteristics. The third chapter uses the results of the project's research and other recent work on related topics to examine American historical writing about dependence as a field and offers a sympathetic critique.
    • Political Language

      Words That Succeed and Policies That Fail
      • 1st Edition
      • Murray Edelman
      • English
      Political Language: Words That Succeed and Policies That Fail deals with chronic inequalities of a smaller portion of the population getting more. The book discusses the persistence of poverty and greater inequalities in a democratic society such as the United States. The text reviews the chronic problems and the various beliefs found in American society, and also notes the general acceptance of the large differences in the quality of life of the people, which includes political power and autonomy. The book then defines perception of the political spectator and explains the linguistic generation of assumptions (taking for granted), linguistic reconstruction of facts (cover-ups), and the linguistic segmentation of politics (distinct from ordinary world). The text then emphasizes the language of inquiry, of authority, of participation, and of resistance as leading to free inquiry and experimentation or political loyalty. The selection can prove beneficial for political students, economists, educators, sociologists, and members of ministerial affairs related to population and economics.
    • The Economic Consequences of Slowing Population Growth

      • 1st Edition
      • Thomas J. Espenshade + 1 more
      • English
      The Economic Consequences of Slowing Population Growth is a collection of papers dealing with the economic implications of a sustained low fertility rate on an industrialized country. The book reviews the situation prevailing in the United States including the country's demographic trends and prospects. The text also presents the uncertainties, the unknown, and the known economic consequences of low fertility as analyzed from previous generations. One paper examines the lessons that can be learned from a zero population growth in Europe by comparing theory and reality. This paper expounds on the social and economic effects while transitioning to a zero growth rate. Other papers examine the inter-relationships between unemployment, inflation, and economic policy. These papers also give recommendations to cut unemployment levels without causing inflation in the process. Other papers discuss social security and other needs of an aging population. One paper examines rising concerns over population movements in times of slower U.S. population growth; the author cites data reflecting migration trends and population declines in several metropolitan areas. The text can prove useful for sociologists, social workers, public health services officers, and public economists.
    • Going North

      Migration of Blacks and Whites from the South, 1900—1950
      • 1st Edition
      • Neil Fligstein
      • Peter H. Rossi
      • English
      Going North: Migration of Blacks and Whites from the South, 1900—1950 discusses the historical, demographic, sociological, and economic reasons for black and white migrations. The book explains the transition from a rural, extractive economy to an urban, industrial and service economy, with emphasis on the effects on the Southern rural population. After the Civil War, emerging business concerns became politically and economically significant, making the South a source for needed resources. 1930 was a defining year. Before 1930, migration reflected the growth and contraction of cotton agriculture in the South. After 1930, the transition from a tenant, labor-intensive cotton agriculture economy to a capitalist machine-driven economy caused the black and white migration to the north. American development was not a simple process—it shows how northern business interests defeated southern planters. This transformation has created a permanent underclass in society that can be found in the cities of the South, North, and Midwest regions of America today. Sociologists, economists, academicians doing sociological research, and students of U.S. history can benefit from reading the book.
    • Differences in Visual Perception

      The Individual Eye
      • 1st Edition
      • Jules Davidoff
      • English
      Differences in Visual Perception: The Individual Eye examines the differences in visual perception that can occur in various circumstances when observers perceive the “same” event. More specifically, the book considers the distinction between “what happens when a person looks at the world directly and when he sits with his eyes closed and thinks.” This book is organized into five chapters and begins with an overview of differences in perception that are in operation for only a short time, emphasizing the distinction between short and long-term effects and at what point “short” becomes “long.” The reader is then introduced to the development of perception, touching on topics such as the nature-nurture issue, visual acuity and visual discrimination, color-vision, space perception, and attentional processes. The ambiguity of the stimulus is also discussed, along with the perceptual theory known as “transactionalism,” how the visual world is interpreted, and the nature of the input to the visual system. The theme that runs throughout this work is the fact that the same external input does not necessarily bring about in all of us the same perception. This book will prove useful to students as well as established researchers interested in visual perception and cognition.