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Humanities & Social SciencesApril 2024Downward spiral
Collapsing public standards and how to restore them
by John Bowers
The Johnson era will be remembered for a series of scandals that severely eroded trust in the British government. From questionable PPE tenders and public appointments to the 'partygate' fiasco, every aspect of public life seemed tainted. How did this downward spiral begin, and what can be done to reverse it? In this eye-opening book, veteran KC John Bowers presents a fearless examination of the decline in ethical standards before, during and after the Johnson government. He focuses on the institutions responsible for holding the government accountable, exposing how they have been bypassed by prime ministers determined to impose their agenda. Through interviews with political insiders, Bowers provides analysis of scandals such as partygate, Greensill and the revolving door with the private sector. He shines a light on a culture of favouritism, where standards are upheld based on little more than the assumption those in power can be trusted to behave. Rishi Sunak entered Number 10 on the promise of restoring integrity, but it is clear major problems remain. Confronting the failings of the current system, Downward spiral presents concrete proposals for creating an alternative that is more transparent and accountable.
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Geography & the EnvironmentMarch 2022Plants for Soil Regeneration
An Illustrated Guide
by Sally Pinhey, Margaret Tebbs
This book is a comprehensive, beautifully illustrated colour guide to the plants which farmers, growers and gardeners can use to improve soil structure and restore fertility without the use and expense of agrichemicals. Information based on the latest research is given on how to use soil conditioning plants to avoid soil degradation, restore soil quality and help clean polluted land. There are 11 chapters: 1 to 6 cover soil health, nitrogen fixation, green manures and herbal leys, bacteria and other microorganisms, phytoremediators and soil mycorrhiza (plant-fungal symbiosis). Chapter 7 has plant illustrations, with climate range and soil types, along with their soil conditioning properties and each plant is presented with a comprehensive description opposite a detailed illustration, in full colour. Chapters 8 to 10 examine soil stabilisers, weeds and invasive plants, and hedges and trees and the final chapter, contains 5 case studies with the most recent data, followed by an appendix and glossary. The book allows the reader to identify the plants they need quickly and find the information necessary to begin implementation of soil regeneration.
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Science & MathematicsMarch 2022Encyclopedia of Scale Insect Pests
by Takumasa Kondo, Gillian Watson
Scale insects feed on plant juices and can easily be transported to new countries on live plants. They sometimes become invasive pests, costing billions of dollars in damage to crops worldwide annually, and farmers try to control them with toxic pesticides, risking environmental damage. Fortunately, scale insects are highly susceptible to control by natural enemies so biological control is possible. They have unique genetic systems, unusual metamorphosis, a broad spectrum of essential symbionts, and some are sources of commercial products like red dyes, shellac and wax. There is, therefore, wide interest in these unusual, destructive, beneficial, and abundant insects. The Encyclopedia of Scale Insect Pests is the most comprehensive work on worldwide scale insect pests, providing detailed coverage of the most important species (230 species in 26 families, 36% of the species known). Advice is provided on collection, preservation, slide-mounting, vouchering, and labelling of specimens, fully illustrated with colour photographs, diagrams and drawings. Pest species are presented in two informal groups of families, the 'primitive' Archaeococcids followed by the more 'advanced' Neococcids, covered in phylogenetic order. Each family is illustrated and diagnosed based on features of live and slide-mounted specimens, with information on numbers of genera and species, main hosts, distribution, and biology. For the important pest species, coverage includes information on the morphology of live and slide-mounted specimens, common names, principal synonyms, geographical distribution, plant hosts, plant damage and economic impact, reproductive biology, dispersal, and management strategies including biological, cultural and chemical control, sterile insect techniques, regulatory control, early warning systems and field monitoring. An additional complete list of scale insect pests worldwide is provided, comprising 642 species in 28 scale insect families (about 8% of the 8396 species of living scales known), with information on plant hosts, geographical distribution and validation sources. Beneficial uses of scale insects as sources of red dyes, natural resins and waxes, as agents for invasive weed control. The importance of their honeydew to bees for making honey, and as a food source to other animals, are included. Academic researchers, students, entomologists, pest management officials in agribusiness or government including plant quarantine identifiers, extensionists, farmers, field scientists and ecologists will all benefit from this book.
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Geography & the EnvironmentSeptember 2019Soil Carbon
Science, Management and Policy for Multiple Benefits
by Steven A Banwart, Elke Noellemeyer, Eleanor Milne
This book brings together the essential evidence and policy opportunities regarding the global importance of soil carbon for sustaining Earth's life support system for humanity. Covering the science and policy background for this important natural resource, it describes land management options that improve soil carbon status and therefore increase the benefits that humans derive from the environment. Written by renowned global experts, it is the principal output from a SCOPE rapid assessment process project.
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Science & MathematicsNovember 2020Techniques for Work with Plant and Soil Nematodes
by Roland N Perry, David J Hunt, Sergei A Subbotin
Techniques for Work with Plant and Soil Nematodes is an up-to-date, comprehensive book covering the practicalities of working with and studying soil and plant nematodes. Written by an international team of experts, this book is highly illustrated and provides thorough coverage of methods whilst allowing for relevant information to be located quickly. It includes the fundamental traditional techniques and new methodologies, covering: sampling; extraction; estimating numbers; handling, fixing, staining, mounting; culturing techniques; figure preparation, measurement and image processing; electron microscopy techniques; behavioural and physiological assays; and cytogenetic, biochemical and molecular biology techniques. This book is an essential resource for anyone involved in plant nematology needing to refer to a readily available methodology standard, including students of nematology and parasitology, university lecturers and researchers, diagnostic laboratories, and quarantine and advisory service personnel. It provides a much needed compendium of the spectrum of information needed to work with these microscopic organisms.
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Literature & Literary StudiesApril 2023Charles Dickens and Georgina Hogarth
A curious and enduring relationship
by Christine Skelton
Charles Dickens called his sister-in-law Georgina Hogarth his 'best and truest friend'. Georgina saw Dickens as much more than a friend. They lived together for twenty-eight years, during which time their relationship constantly changed. The sister of his wife Catherine, the sharp and witty Georgina moved into the Dickens home aged fifteen. What began as a father-daughter relationship blossomed into a genuine rapport, but their easy relations were fractured when Dickens had a mid-life crisis and determined to rid himself of Catherine. Georgina's refusal to leave Dickens and his desire for her to remain in his household led to rumours of an affair and even illegitimate children. He left her the equivalent of almost £1 million and all his personal papers in his will. Georgina's commitment to Dickens was unwavering but it is far from clear what he did to deserve such loyalty. There were several occasions when he misused her in order to protect his public reputation. Why did Georgina betray her once much-loved sister? Why did she fall out with her family and risk her reputation in order to stay with Dickens? And why did the Dickenses' daughter Katey say it was 'the greatest mistake ever' to invite a sister-in-law to live with a family?
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FictionDirt and Stars
by Ahmad Lufti
How do you imagine the Arabs before Islam? People who drink alcohol, milk goats, and fight each other for trivial reasons? Or perhaps you imagine them ignorant in an environment of darkness and sand? In this short story collection, Ahmad Lufti presents a fresh picture of the Arabian Peninsula before Islam, its legends and poets, its kings and its oral traditions. Inspired by the storytelling form of Scheherazade in “One Thousand and One Nights”—in which one narrator tells a story about another narrator, and another—as well as traditional Arab tales, Lufti’s stories explore and exalt Arab history and culture as well as larger themes of love, weakness, and power. Commentary from the Author: I am trying to reintroduce prose in Arab stories, as an attempt to praise authors whose books were highly underestimated. These works of art were deeply criticized for focusing on the pre-Islamic era or for adopting a classical rigid style. It is crucial to revive Arab stories, this pristine and rich field that would never fail to exist, even if all authors were to perish. This has proven of importance in modern stories, which are the reflection of the contemporary human. How can we refute modern stereotypes, if Arab literature is absent from today’s books?
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October 1992Technische Polymer-Blends. PC-ABS-Blends, PC-PBT-Blends, PPE-Blends
Kunststoff-Handbuch 3/2. Technische Thermoplaste
by Herausgegeben von Becker, Gerhard W.; Herausgegeben von Braun, Dietrich; Herausgegeben von Bottenbruch, Ludwig
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Historical fictionMERCURIA
by Michael Römling
Rome, 1570: gazette writer Michelangelo moves in as a tenant with rich courtesan Mercuria. During an illicit excavation he comes across a strange skeleton and uncovers a scandal, in which a former contract killer, now cardinal, plays the lead a leading role – together with Mercuria herself, who carries a terrible secret around with her. Michael Römling carries us off into the splendid, chaotic, unholy Rome of the Renaissance popes and their courtesans. Strong women, unscrupulous men, intrigues, seduction and violence – an all-consuming reading trip.
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Literature & Literary StudiesJune 2001Bakhtin and cultural theory
Second edition
by Ken Hirschkop, David Shepherd
An important collection of essays which treats Bakhtin as a provocative theorist whose work must be tested, explored and compared with the work of others. Contributors assess Bakhtin's contribution to difficult issues of colonialism, feminism, reception theory and theories of the body, amongst others. New articles explore the origins, previously unacknowledged, of Bakhtin's theory of language and provide a vivid account of the dramatic scandal surrounding Bakhtin's thesis on Rabelais. Contains dramatic new material, drawn from post-perestroika sources, which demythologizes the image of this important writer. A new bibliographical essay and introduction bring the English-language reader up-to-date with the progress of Bakhtin studies in Russia. ;
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Humanities & Social SciencesJanuary 2017The divorce of King Lothar and Queen Theutberga
Hincmar of Rheims's De divortio
by Rachel Stone, Charles West
In the mid-ninth century, Francia was rocked by the first royal divorce scandal of the Middle Ages: the attempt by King Lothar II of Lotharingia to rid himself of his queen, Theutberga and remarry. Even 'women in their weaving sheds' were allegedly gossiping about the lurid accusations made. Kings and bishops from neighbouring kingdoms, and several popes, were gradually drawn into a crisis affecting the fate of an entire kingdom. This is the first professionally published translation of a key source for this extraordinary episode: Archbishop Hincmar of Rheims's De divortio Lotharii regis et Theutbergae reginae. This text offers eye-opening insight both on the political wrangling of the time and on early medieval attitudes towards magic, penance, gender, the ordeal, marriage, sodomy, the role of bishops, and kingship.The translation includes a substantial introduction and annotations, putting the case into its early medieval context and explaining Hincmar's sometimes-dubious methods of argument.
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Literature & Literary StudiesJune 2012Moliere: L'imposteur de 1667
A critical edition
by Robert McBride
This book is the second part of an important experimental trilogy in text archaeology of all the various ideas about the 1664 and later versions. Tartuffe ou L'Imposteur, (Tartuffe or the Hypocrite), is Molière's most famous play and was first performed at Versailles in 1664. It attacked religious hypocrisy and as a result caused much scandal and was then banned. Tartuffe means 'hypocrite' especially one who shows affected religious piety and exaggeratedly feigns virtue. Revised versions of Tartuffe were performed at various times between 1667 and 1669. McBride provides a reconstruction of the 1667 version in this book. McBride's work is meticulous and nuanced and he provides a scholarly reconstruction of one of Molière's masterpieces. ;
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Humanities & Social SciencesFebruary 2017Welsh missionaries and British imperialism
The Empire of Clouds in north-east India
by Andrew May
In 1841, the Welsh sent their first missionary, Thomas Jones, to evangelise the tribal peoples of the Khasi Hills of north-east India. This book follows Jones from rural Wales to Cherrapunji, the wettest place on earth and now one of the most Christianised parts of India. As colonised colonisers, the Welsh were to have a profound impact on the culture and beliefs of the Khasis. The book also foregrounds broader political, scientific, racial and military ideologies that mobilised the Khasi Hills into an interconnected network of imperial control. Its themes are universal: crises of authority, the loneliness of geographical isolation, sexual scandal, greed and exploitation, personal and institutional dogma, individual and group morality. Written by a direct descendant of Thomas Jones, it makes a significant contribution in orienting the scholarship of imperialism to a much-neglected corner of India, and will appeal to students of the British imperial experience more broadly.
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Humanities & Social SciencesApril 2009Food, risk and politics
Scare, scandal and crisis - insights into the risk politics of food safety
by Ed Randall
This is a book about the risk politics of food safety. Food-related risks regularly grab the headlines in ways that threaten reasoned debate and obstruct sensible policy making. In this book, Ed Randall explains why this is the case. He goes on to make the case for a properly informed and fully open public debate about food safety issues. He argues that this is the true antidote to the politics of scare, scandal and crisis. The book skilfully weaves together the many different threads of food safety and risk politics and offers a particularly rewarding read for academics and students in the fields of politics and media studies. It will also appeal to scholars from other disciplines, particularly social psychology and the food sciences. The book is a lively and exceptionally readable account of food safety and risk politics that will engage policy makers and the general reader. It promises to help us all manage food safety issues more intelligently and successfully. ;
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Humanities & Social SciencesApril 2008Political passions
Gender, the family and political argument in England, 1680–1714
by Rachel Weil, Peter Lake, Anthony Milton, Jason Peacey, Alexandra Gajda
Ideas about marriage, gender and the family were central to political debate in late Stuart England. Newly available in paperback, this book shows how political argument became an arena in which the proper relations between men and women, parents and children, public and private were defined and contested. Using sources that range from high political theory to scurrilous lampoons, she considers public debates about succession, resistance and divorce. Weil examines the allegedly fraudulent birth of the Prince of Wales in 1688, the uses to which Williamite propagandists put the image of the paradoxically sovereign but obedient Mary II, anxieties about the influence of bedchamber women on Queen Anne, the political self-image of the notorious Duchess of Marlborough, the relationship of feminism and Tory ideology in the polemical writings of Mary Astell and the scandal novels of Delariviere Manley. Solidly grounded in current historical scholarship, but written in an engaging manner accessible to non-specialists, this book will interest students of literature, gender studies, political culture and political theory as well as historians. ;
