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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.

BooksJournals

    • Supporting Research Writing

      Roles and Challenges in Multilingual Settings
      • 1st Edition
      • Valerie Matarese
      • English
      Supporting Research Writing explores the range of services designed to facilitate academic writing and publication in English by non-native English-speaking (NNES) authors. It analyses the realities of offering services such as education, translation, editing and writing, and then considers the challenges and benefits that result when these boundaries are consciously blurred. It thus provides an opportunity for readers to reflect on their professional roles and the services that will best serve their clients’ needs. A recurring theme is, therefore, the interaction between language professional and client-author. The book offers insights into the opportunities and challenges presented by considering ourselves first and foremost as writing support professionals, differing in our primary approach (through teaching, translating, editing, writing, or a combination of those) but with a common goal. This view has major consequences for the training of professionals who support English-language publication by NNES academics and scientists. Supporting Research Writing will therefore be a stimulus to professional development for those who support English-language publication in real-life contexts and an important resource for those entering the profession.

    • Origins of Human Innovation and Creativity

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 16
      • Scott A. Elias
      • English
      Innovation and creativity are two of the key characteristics that distinguish cultural transmission from biological transmission. This book explores a number of questions concerning the nature and timing of the origins of human creativity. What were the driving factors in the development of new technologies? What caused the stasis in stone tool technological innovation in the Early Pleistocene? Were there specific regions and episodes of enhanced technological development, or did it occur at a steady pace where ancestral humans lived? The authors are archaeologists who address these questions, armed with data from ancient artefacts such as shell beads used as jewelry, primitive musical instruments, and sophisticated techniques required to fashion certain kinds of stone into tools. Providing ‘state of art’ discussions that step back from the usual archaeological publications that focus mainly on individual site discoveries, this book presents the full picture on how and why creativity in Middle to Late Pleistocene archeology/anthropol... evolved.

    • Comparative Osteology

      A Laboratory and Field Guide of Common North American Animals
      • 1st Edition
      • Bradley Adams + 1 more
      • English
      In the forensic context it is quite common for nonhuman bones to be confused with human remains and end up in the medical examiner or coroner system. It is also quite common for skeletal remains (both human and nonhuman) to be discovered in archaeological contexts. While the difference between human and nonhuman bones is often very striking, it can also be quite subtle. Fragmentation only compounds the problem. The ability to differentiate between human and nonhuman bones is dependent on the training of the analyst and the available reference and/or comparative material. Comparative Osteology is a photographic atlas of common North American animal bones designed for use as a laboratory and field guide by the forensic scientist or archaeologist. The intent of the guide is not to be inclusive of all animals, but rather to present some of the most common species which also have the highest likelihood of being potentially confused with human remains.

    • Philosophy of Complex Systems

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 10
      • English
      The domain of nonlinear dynamical systems and its mathematical underpinnings has been developing exponentially for a century, the last 35 years seeing an outpouring of new ideas and applications and a concomitant confluence with ideas of complex systems and their applications from irreversible thermodynamics. A few examples are in meteorology, ecological dynamics, and social and economic dynamics. These new ideas have profound implications for our understanding and practice in domains involving complexity, predictability and determinism, equilibrium, control, planning, individuality, responsibility and so on.Our intention is to draw together in this volume, we believe for the first time, a comprehensive picture of the manifold philosophically interesting impacts of recent developments in understanding nonlinear systems and the unique aspects of their complexity. The book will focus specifically on the philosophical concepts, principles, judgments and problems distinctly raised by work in the domain of complex nonlinear dynamical systems, especially in recent years.

    • The Ancient Human Occupation of Britain

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 14
      • Nick Ashton + 2 more
      • English
      The Ancient Human Occupation of Britain Project (AHOB) funded by the Leverhulme Trust began in 2001 and brought together researchers from a range of disciplines with the aim of investigating the record of human presence in Britain from the earliest occupation until the end of the last Ice Age, about 12,000 years ago. Study of changes in climate, landscape and biota over the last million years provides the environmental backdrop to understanding human presence and absence together with the development of new technologies. This book brings together the multidisciplinary work of the project. The chapters present the results of new fieldwork and research on old sites from museum collections using an array of new analytical techniques.

    • Semiconductors and the Information Revolution

      Magic Crystals that made IT Happen
      • 1st Edition
      • John W. Orton
      • English
      Semiconductors and the Information Revolution sets out to explain the development of modern electronic systems and devices from the viewpoint of the semiconductor materials (germanium, silicon, gallium arsenide and many others) which made them possible. It covers the scientific understanding of these materials and its intimate relationship with their technology and many applications. It began with Michael Faraday, took off in a big way with the invention of the transistor at Bell Labs in 1947 and is still burgeoning today. It is a story to match any artistic or engineering achievement of man and this is the first time it has been presented in a style suited to the non-specialist. It is written in a lively, non-mathematical style which brings out the excitement of discovery and the fascinating interplay between the demands of system pull and technological push. It also looks at the nature of some of the personal interactions which helped to shape the modern technological world. An introductory chapter illustrates just how dependent we are on modern electronic systems and explains the significance of semiconductors in their development. It also provides, in as painless a way as possible, a necessary understanding of semiconductor properties in relation to these applications. The second chapter takes up the historical account and ends with some important results emerging from the Second World War – including its effect on the organisation of scientific research. Chapter three describes the world-shaking discovery of the transistor and some of the early struggles to make it commercially viable, including the marketing of the first transistor radio. In chapter four we meet the integrated circuit which gave shape to much of our modern life in the form of the personal computer (and which gave rise to a famously long-running patent war!). Later chapters cover the application of compound semiconductors to light-emitting devices, such as LEDs and lasers, and light detecting devices such as photocells. We learn how these developments led to the invention of the CD player and DVD recorder, how other materials were applied to the development of sophisticated night vision equipment, fibre optical communications systems, solar photovoltaic panels and flat panel displays. Similarly, microwave techniques essential to our modern day love of mobile phoning are seen to depend on clever materials scientists who, not for the first time, "invented" new semiconductors with just the right properties. Altogether, it is an amazing story and one which deserves to be more widely known. Read this book and you will be rewarded with a much deeper understanding and appreciation of the technological revolution which shapes so many aspects of our lives.

    • Philosophy of Information

      • 1st Edition
      • English
      Information is a recognized fundamental notion across the sciences and humanities, which is crucial to understanding physical computation, communication, and human cognition. The Philosophy of Information brings together the most important perspectives on information. It includes major technical approaches, while also setting out the historical backgrounds of information as well as its contemporary role in many academic fields. Also, special unifying topics are high-lighted that play across many fields, while we also aim at identifying relevant themes for philosophical reflection. There is no established area yet of Philosophy of Information, and this Handbook can help shape one, making sure it is well grounded in scientific expertise. As a side benefit, a book like this can facilitate contacts and collaboration among diverse academic milieus sharing a common interest in information.

    • Erasmi Opera Omnia, V-6

      Christiani Matrimonii Institutio, Vidua Christiana
      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 6
      • A.G. Weiler + 1 more
      • English
      A volume of the Opera Omnia of Erasmus series, this title is comprised of two separate treatise translated into one volume. First, The Institution of Christian Matrimony (Basel, 1526) which was dedicated to Catherine of Aragon. In this work, Erasmus deals with the religious, moral and physical aspects of marriage, also discussing Canon law. Conservative theologians challenged in particular his liberal views on divorce. The second treatise, On the Christian Widow, was published in 1529, and in it Erasmus discusses not only Christian widowhood, but also virginity and marriage, dealing also with the education of women.

    • The Bioarchaeology of Metabolic Bone Disease

      • 1st Edition
      • Megan B. Brickley + 1 more
      • English
      The Bioarchaeology of Metabolic Bone Disease provides a comprehensive and invaluable source of information on this important group of diseases. It is an essential guide for those engaged in either basic recording or in-depth research on human remains from archaeological sites. The range of potential tools for investigating metabolic diseases of bone are far greater than for many other conditions, and building on clinical investigations, this book will consider gross, surface features visible using microscopic examination, histological and radiological features of bone, that can be used to help investigate metabolic bone diseases.

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Anthropology

Archaeology

Conservation

History

History and philosophy of science

Literature

Museology

Music

Philosophy

Religious studies

Visual arts