The first six novels in the New York Times bestselling Lorien Legacies series are included in this collection:I Am Number Four: The book that started it all . . . Nine of us came here. We look like you. We talk like you. We live among you. But we are not you. We can do things you dream of doing. We have powers you dream of having. We are stronger and faster than anything you have ever seen. Our plan was to grow, and train, and become strong, and become one, and fight them. But they found us and started hunting us first. I am next.The Power of Six: I've seen him on the news. Followed the stories about what happened in Ohio. There are six of us left. We're hiding, blending in, avoiding contact with one another . . . but our Legacies are developing, and soon we'll be equipped to fight. Is John Number Four, and is his appearance the sign I've been waiting forAnd what about Number Five and SixI am Number Seven. One of six still alive.And I'm ready to fight.The Rise of Nine: In order to save our world and their own, John and Nine must join forces with Six and Seven who have been battling the Mogadorians in Spain, and who are now trying to locate Number Eight in India.The Fall of Five: When the Garde receive a sign from Number Five—a crop circle in the shape of a Lorien symbol—they know they are close to being reunited. But could it be a trapTime is running out, and the only thing they know for certain is that they have to get to Five before it's too late.The Revenge of Seven: The Garde have suffered an unbearable loss. Number Five has betrayed them. Eight is gone forever. Ella has been kidnapped. The others are now scattered. The Garde are broken and divided once again, but they will not be defeated. As long as one still stands, the battle for Earth's survival is not lost.The Fate of Ten: The sixth and penultimate book in the series! For years the Garde have fought the Mogadorians in secret. Now all of that has changed. The invasion has begun. The Garde are stretched thin, fighting this war on many fronts. The only chance they have is to take out the Mogadorian leader once and for all—but his fate is now irrevocably tied with Ella's. They can't destroy one without the other. But if the Garde can't find another way to stop the Mogs, humanity will suffer the same fate as the Loric: annihilation.

Human Communication Technology

Perfect for fans of Maeve Binchy' - Candis Welcome to Blossom Street – where dreams come true For the first time all of the Blossom Street series in one bundle! The ultimate indulgence of Debbie Macomber’s bestselling Blossom Street novels. Including: The Shop on Blossom Street, A Good Yarn, Susannah’s Garden, Christmas in Seattle, Back on Blossom Street, Twenty Wishes, Summer on Blossom Street, Hannah’s List, A Turn in the Road and Thursdays at Eight. Make time for friends. Make time for Debbie Macomber.

As explorers and scientists have known for decades, the Neotropics harbor a fantastic array of our planet's mammalian diversity, from capybaras and capuchins to maned wolves and mouse opossums to sloths and sakis. This biological bounty can be attributed partly to the striking diversity of Neotropical landscapes and climates and partly to a series of continental connections that permitted intermittent faunal exchanges with Africa, Antarctica, Australia, and North America. Thus, to comprehend the development of modern Neotropical mammal faunas requires not only mastery of the Neotropics' substantial diversity, but also knowledge of mammalian lineages and landscapes dating back to the Mesozoic.Bones, Clones, and Biomes offers just that-an exploration of the development and relationships of the modern mammal fauna through a series of studies that encompass the last 100 million years and both Central and South America. This work serves as a complement to more taxonomically driven works, providing for readers the long geologic and biogeographic contexts that undergird the abundance and diversity of Neotropical mammals. Rather than documenting diversity or distribution, this collection traverses the patterns that the distributions and relationships across mammal species convey, bringing together for the first time geology, paleobiology, systematics, mammalogy, and biogeography. Of critical importance is the book's utility for current conservation and management programs, part of a rapidly rising conservation paleobiology initiative.

Understanding the challenges of corporate governance is central to our comprehension of the economic dynamics driving corporations today. Among the most important institutions in capitalism today, corporations and joint-stock companies had their origins in Europe during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. And as they became more prevalent, the issue of internal governance became more pressing. At stake-and very much contested-was the allocation of rights and obligations among shareholders, directors, and managers.This comprehensive account of the development of corporate governance in Britain and Ireland during its earliest stages highlights the role of political factors in shaping the evolution of corporate governance as well as the important debates that arose about the division of authority and responsibility. Political and economic institutions confronted similar issues, including the need for transparency and accountability in decision making and the roles of electors and the elected, and this book emphasizes how political institutions-from election procedures to assemblies to annual reporting-therefore provided apt models upon which companies drew readily. Filling a gap in the literature on early corporate economy, this book provides insight into the origins of many ongoing modern debates.

From Sara Shepard, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Pretty Little Liars books, comes a riveting new series about secrets, lies, and killer consequences. Separated at birth, twin sisters Emma Paxton and Sutton Mercer never had a chance to meet. And now they never will. Someone murdered Sutton and forced Emma into taking her place. Sutton can only watch from beyond the grave as Emma tries to figure out who killed her—and why. But as Emma digs deeper, the girls discover that the truth may be far more terrible than they'd ever imagined—and the killer may be a lot closer to home….This collection contains all six Lying Game novels, plus two digital original novellas, The First Lie and True Lies.

Vampires! Love! Danger! Suspicion! Dark secrets! Nobody does it better than L.J. Smith. This collection brings together six books, the two story arcs following the original wildly popular Vampire Diaries series that spawned the hit TV show. In The Vampire Diaries: The Return, darkness is infiltrating the peaceful town of Fell's Church and invading the minds of young girls. A demon has come to town, and his powers threaten the whole world. Worse still, it causes the very dangerous vampire Damon to turn on his brother, on the citizens of Fell's Church, and on Elena herself.The dark, romantic saga of Elena and the two vampire brothers who love her continues in as The Vampire Diaries: The Hunters Elena, Stefan and Damon must face the dangerous creatures being drawn to Fell's Church.Includes:The Vampire Diaries: The Return: NightfallThe Vampire Diaries: The Return: Shadow SoulsThe Vampire Diaries: The Return: MidnightThe Vampire Diaries: The Hunters: PhantomThe Vampire Diaries: The Hunters: MoonsongThe Vampire Diaries: The Hunters: Destiny Rising

In Rosewood, majestic estates sprawl for acres, and Tiffany toggle bracelets dangle from every girl's wrist. But not all that glitters is gold, and the town harbors secrets darker than anyone could imagine—like the truth about what really happened the night Alison DiLaurentis went missing. . . . Sara Shepard's #1 New York Times bestselling Pretty Little Liars series is the inspiration for the hit ABC Family original TV show. This collection contains the first eight novels in the series, plus a sneak peek at The Perfectionists, the first book in a brand-new Sara Shepard series!Includes:Pretty Little LiarsPretty Little Liars #2: FlawlessPretty Little Liars #3: PerfectPretty Little Liars #4: UnbelievablePretty Little Liars #5: WickedPretty Little Liars #6: KillerPretty Little Liars #7: HeartlessPretty Little Liars #8: Wanted

With global demand for energy poised to increase by more than half in the next three decades, the supply of safe, reliable, and reasonably priced gas and oil will continue to be of fundamental importance to modern economies. Central to this supply are the pipelines that transport this energy. And while the fundamental economics of the major pipeline networks are the same, the differences in their ownership, commercial development, and operation can provide insight into the workings of market institutions in various nations.?Drawing on a century of the world's experience with gas and oil pipelines, this book illustrates the importance of economics in explaining the evolution of pipeline politics in various countries. It demonstrates that institutional differences influence ownership and regulation, while rents and consumer pricing depend on the size and diversity of existing markets, the depth of regulatory institutions, and the historical structure of the pipeline businesses themselves. The history of pipelines is also rife with social conflict, and Makholm explains how and when institutions in a variety of countries have controlled pipeline behavior-either through economic regulation or government ownership-in the public interest.

Ancient Perspectives encompasses a vast arc of space and time-Western Asia to North Africa and Europe from the third millennium BCE to the fifth century CE-to explore mapmaking and worldviews in the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. In each society, maps served as critical economic, political, and personal tools, but there was little consistency in how and why they were made. Much like today, maps in antiquity meant very different things to different people.Ancient Perspectives presents an ambitious, fresh overview of cartography and its uses. The seven chapters range from broad-based analyses of mapping in Mesopotamia and Egypt to a close focus on Ptolemy's ideas for drawing a world map based on the theories of his Greek predecessors at Alexandria. The remarkable accuracy of Mesopotamian city-plans is revealed, as is the creation of maps by Romans to support the proud claim that their emperor's rule was global in its reach. By probing the instruments and techniques of both Greek and Roman surveyors, one chapter seeks to uncover how their extraordinary planning of roads, aqueducts, and tunnels was achieved.?Even though none of these civilizations devised the means to measure time or distance with precision, they still conceptualized their surroundings, natural and man-made, near and far, and felt the urge to record them by inventive means that this absorbing volume reinterprets and compares.

In 1986, gifted animator John Lasseter, technology guru Ed Catmull, and visionary Steve Jobs founded Pixar Animation Studios. Their goal: create a computer animated feature, despite predictions that it could never be done. An unprecedented catalog of blockbuster films later, the studio is honoring its history in this deluxe volume. From its fledgling days under George Lucas to ten demanding years creating Toy Story to the merger with Disney, each milestone is vibrantly detailed. Interviews with Pixar directors, producers, animators, voice talent, and industry insiders, as well as concept art, storyboards, and snapshots illuminate a history that is both definitive and enthralling.

《大脑传》内容简介：我们的感觉和身体活动的指令来自何方，情绪、意识、学习与记忆等认知活动的居所又在哪里？自有文字记载起，人类对这些问题就从未停止过好奇。漫漫几千年来，我们对这些问题的认识从朴素、粗浅的心灵中心观，走到了精细、深入的脑中心观。脑，这个“已知宇宙中*复杂的物体”，吸引了人类历史上很多聪颖的头脑去破解它的秘密。 在认识脑工作机制的过程中，人类一直在使用各种隐喻，这些隐喻无一不受技术、时代以及人类当时对脑认知水平的限制，在完成自己的历史使命后会被新的隐喻所取代。在《大脑传》中，作者马修·科布以脑的隐喻为切入点，介绍了人类脑的认识史上一个又一个里程碑，以及那些做出伟大发现的科学家。从心智源自心脏的观点到把脑视作机器的机械观，从电与神经活动的关系到神经系统的神经元学说，从神经信号如何表征信息到脑功能的局域化定位与分散式分布之争，从把脑看作一成不变的电路到把脑视作一个具有可塑性的网络，作者历数了人类对脑认识的曲折演进历程，讲述了脑科学研究对计算机、人工智能等领域的诞生和发展产生的深远影响，勾勒出了一部群星闪耀、波澜壮阔的科学史诗。 《逆龄大脑：保持大脑年轻敏锐的新科学》内容简介：我们都会变老，大脑也一样，大脑的生长在24岁这个年轻得令人惊讶的年龄开始减速，但这并不意味着它会失去敏锐度，而且不同的认知技能可以在不同的年龄达到顶 峰。在你的一生中，不论你的年龄或获取资源的途径如何，大脑都可以持续不断地得到加强。 经外科医生古普塔通过几十年的临床医学和持续研究指出，我们在任何年龄都可以改善并拥有一个更好的大脑。作者依据脑科学、神经学、病理学近30年的研究，揭示了大脑衰老和认知能力下降的原因。通过对比全球脑健康理事会近百名专家的 神研究报告数据库中的方法，提出从运动、营养、休息、社交联系、提高大脑可塑性几个方向来科学优化大脑。当你把大脑放在第 一位时，其他关乎健康方面的东西也就迎刃而解了。没有健康的大脑，你甚至无法做出健康的决定。 生活习惯比你的基因更能影响你大脑的命运。患痴呆的人正在逐渐年轻化。大脑衰退是可以预防和进行早期干预的，本书为读者提供了一个可立即实践的12周大脑强化计划，在日常生活中启动你的“敏锐大脑”程序，用简单且科学的方法修复大脑，提升脑力。健康的大脑不仅会带来健康的身体、体重、心脏等，还会带来更强的自信、更坚实的财务未来。 《我们如何看见，又如何思考》内容简介：这是一本从视觉神经生物学角度介绍人类视觉认知的科普读物，讨论的主题是我们无比重要的眼睛，以及我们的视觉。作者为领域内具有开创性研究的专家，现就职于哈佛大学医学院。 我们为何总是说“眼见为实”，背后有什么科学原理吗？我们每一天睁开眼就在接收来自外界的信息，那我们的眼睛究竟是如何承载这个世界的信息的，又是如何传递到我们的大脑的？人人都说眼睛是心灵和灵魂的窗户，这又是为什么？ 在人群中要找一张熟悉的脸是再简单不过的事，我们习以为常。但是人类是怎么办到这件事的，这是科学界的重要谜题。我们大脑的运作有三分之一与视觉相关。基本上科学家要讲清处人类是如何看见感知人事物，背后牵连到人类独有的认知本能。 哈佛大学医学院特聘教授、眼科学家及脑神经科学家理查德·马斯兰在本书中试图以科学的角度来解释人类如何透过双眼与大脑去感知、学习与记忆。这本书涵盖的主题很广，从光线射到视网膜，到脑部的神经网络如何把光线承载的讯息转化成人脑可以辨识与运用的知识，到计算机计算法要具有什么样的功能我们才能称为“人工智能”，以及我们在回忆过去时为什么会呈现出一种第三人视角……在这本书里都有了专业的学术解答。 《大脑修复术》内容简介：无法长时间集中注意力； 感觉无缘由地坐立不安； 以前*喜欢的事现在提不起兴趣； 记忆力越来越差； 明知道该出门社交，却找各种借口宅在家里； 长时间玩游戏或刷手机； 外出期间总担心家门没锁、炉火未关； 凌晨两点，却辗转反侧，毫无睡意； …… 缺乏专注力、焦虑、抑郁、记性变差、社交恐惧、成瘾、强迫症、失眠……现代社会中几乎每个人都会受到各种各样心理和精神问题的困扰。如何识别自己的心理和精神问题，如何应对快节奏生活带来的压力和成长中必经的心理困境，如何在适应社会的过程中保持心理健康，并拥有满意的学习和工作表现，本书作者——耶鲁大学精神医学博士后姚乃琳——给出了答案。 这本书将帮助你了解焦虑、抑郁、强迫症、拖延、社交恐惧、失眠等困扰你的精神症状，页将让你了解专注力、记忆力、创造力等大脑认知功能的底层规律。通过深度阅读本书，你将知道如何正确应对生活中的压力、情绪和认知方面的困扰，如何通过掌握正确的思维和生活习惯来提升学习和工作表现。这本书可以让你学会如何随时地修复大脑，从而拥有更具“免疫力”的强壮大脑，游刃有余地应对人生中层出不穷的挑战。 《创新大脑》内容简介：新的想法、概念和技能是如何产生的？ 社会和文化的变迁会如何影响我们的认知方式？ 数字革命将如何催生伟大的创意文化？ 人工智能、虚拟现实技术的发展和聚变革命，会在哪些方面改变我们的大脑处理信息的方式？ 了解人脑处理新奇事物的机制以及培养创新型大脑的方法，成为当前对我们每个人来讲都很重要的问题。 作者基于大量的新研究成果，提出了自己对“创造力”的看法：创造力是一个衍生性概念，不应该被理解为一种单一的属性，也不是与某一组狭隘的神经结构直接相关，它虽然在一 定程度上跟前额也皮质和右半脑有关，但它总体上是由一系列神经过程决定的，而且，它不能用简单的生物学术语来定义，而是和人类整体的历史和文化息息相关，和集体创作、知识积累息息相关。 尤其作者提出的“创造性火花”的产生机制，对广大读者具有重要的参考意义。 《大脑帝国》内容简介：我们为什么会有不同的人格？ 学习和记忆的方式有何不同？ 男人和女人的方向感为何不同？ 喜怒哀乐与大脑有什么关系？ 听莫扎特的音乐就能变聪明吗? 你的大脑让你成为你自己。是大脑让你得以与其他人沟通，从简单的寒暄交流，到理解别人说的是“反话”或“话里有话”，都靠它。大脑也赋予你不同的感受和个性。大脑会记得童年发生的事，会学习，会恋爱，也会解读复杂的模式。然而大脑也可能会诱使你做出错误的选择，还会对依赖成瘾给出奖励。了解大脑的运作方式将为你提供**可能。 喜怒哀乐、学习、考试、天才、智力、记忆、感性、理性、情感、恋爱、自我、人格、方位感、个性、情绪、失忆、自恋、抑郁、人格障碍、精神疾病、癫痫、被洗脑、GPS依赖症、拖延症、压力、焦虑、恐惧、失恋、失眠、头型、头围、大脑与AI、一心多用、多任务处理、胎教、音乐对大脑的魔力、品尝味道、饮食与大脑、盐糖脂肪与大脑、健脑食品、上瘾、咖啡对大脑的作用、香烟与大脑、酒精与大脑、大麻上瘾、气味与大脑、现实与感知、声音与大脑、视觉与大脑…….360°*透视大脑，揭开人格、记忆、情绪、智商等的奥秘；从日常生活习惯入手，轻松挖掘大脑潜能，充分释放大脑价值。 《健康基因的开关》内容简介：每个人体内都有一种古老的机制，它可以消除有害物质，启动脂肪燃烧，并保护我们的细胞免于功能失调或癌变—它被称为“自噬”。当自噬开启时，一系列复杂的操作不仅可以帮我们延缓衰老过程，还可以从整体上优化生物功能，使我们远离各种疾病，拥有健康与长寿。这是身体中生命终 极开关。 我们如何才能积极激活这个开关呢？ 我们应该多久禁食一次，每次禁食多久？ 哪些食物会促进自噬，哪些食物会降低自噬？ 多少运动量和什么类型的运动是合适的？ 间歇性禁食、蛋白质循环和生酮饮食之间的* 佳平衡点是什么？ 这本书基于大量科学研究解答了上述问题，内容既专业又浅显易懂，有助于我们掌握身心健康之道。 《记忆的革命》内容简介：《记忆的革命》一书，揭示了在学习和记忆过程中，大脑接受和处理声音、文字、图像三种信息时形成学习链，但唯有图像记忆才是高 效学习和记忆的秘密。 学习的本质是透过文字把握图像，我们的大脑在储存记忆时青睐的就是图像。记忆效率高、容易形成长期有效的记忆，且能摆脱“艾宾浩斯遗忘曲线”规律的记忆方式就是尽可能地把信息资料构建为图像。而这种构建的能力可以通过一系列科学有效的方法来练习和得到：画图记忆法、联想记忆法、定桩法、左右脑针对性训练等。读完本书，就可以系统地了解记忆力提升的方法，并有效地运用到学习和工作之中去。 《脑机革命：引领未来的新科技新产业》内容简介：畅想一下，如果你能用大脑来控制电脑……比如在电脑屏上打字，或者是用意识操控机械臂完成各种动作……这些电影大片描绘的科幻场景，现在看来已经是基于“脑机接口”的合理设想。 那么，脑机接口是什么？目前进展如何？实践中有哪些应用？它如何革新我们的思考、工作和生活方式？屡获大奖的发明家谭乐在书中讲述了脑机结合领域令人兴奋的新兴技术，包括无创性手术工具、大脑探测工具、大脑增强工具、可供医疗工作者使用的工具，以及消费者可用的工具。书中也分享了一些令人难以置信的真实故事，一些人的生活因为这些先进技术的发明而发生了改变。 这本书激情而不失科学地讲解了大脑增强技术可能给人类带来的影响和变革，还不失客观和冷静地提出了其可能带来的技术可及性、数据隐私、数据使用权、法律和伦理道德等一系列社会问题，有助于我们进一步了解大脑的运作方式，预见未来的无限可能性。 《管理敏感》内容简介：精神科医生超过一万次咨询访谈的观察总结 脑科学和精神医学在敏感与创伤心理治疗上的深层应用 敏感的人摆脱焦虑，调整精力值，理清人际关系的实用方法 很多人都被自己的敏感性格深深困扰，它让我们情绪大起大落，内心戏十/足，畏惧社交，缺乏自信，容易有罪恶感，过度内耗，总是讨好迎合他人，察言观色，但又经常不被理解，被人认为“想太多”“玻璃心”“矫情多疑”，严重的还会发展成抑郁。 《管理敏感》这本开创性的书，通过完整严谨的脑科学和精神医学理论体系告诉我们，敏感是可以管理的。一个人性格敏感，说明他的精力没有用在恰当的地方，而且消耗速度比普通人快。敏感还和过去的某些心理创伤有关，需要我们勇敢正视。 在这本书中，全教授通过特别挑选的40个案例和16条法则，告诉我们如何管理敏感，善用敏感。书中所附诊断表和图表，如“抑郁症筛查对照表”“忧虑清单”“人际关系列表”“压力量表”等，帮助读者检查自己的状态，对生活中的多余之人，无益之事做个清理，及时断舍离，以避免继续耗损精力。同时作者还针对敏感之人的典型症状，给出了个性化、差异化、有针对性的心理处/方。 我是一名大学附属医院精神科的医生，在诊疗室里接待了上万名病人，倾听他们的故事，所有故事的中心都有一个内核——一颗高度敏感的心。 我还遇到过一些人，他们并非我的病人，在各自领域取得了卓越的成就，我惊讶地发现他们当中绝大部分也是高敏感的人，饱受敏感之苦。如果说他们和那些病人有区别，那就是他们已经掌握了管理自己敏感情绪的方法。 ——全弘镇（本书作者） 《认识脑电波》内容简介：思维的边界在哪里 你真的了解自己吗？ 这是一本揭开人类思想之谜的书。 大脑是产生人类思想的器官，20世纪初期，对脑电波的检测是神经科学史上的重要进展之一。然而，人们对脑电波的意义甚至脑科学都知之甚少。那些位于神经科学领域的塔尖的科学家都在做什么？R?道格拉斯?菲尔茨博士的这本书带你一探究竟。我们随着博士的视角深入人体精密和高级的装置——大脑，了解思想的产生；深入梦境，了解记忆和遗忘的机制；去看看我们是如何学习的；以及在现代医学中，脑科学如何应用在疾病治疗中…… 疯狂的企业家将人机互动提上议事日程，在这本书中，我们将看到这些实验室的理论如何走进市场，那些曾经出现在科幻电影里的场景究竟离我们还有多远。 《决策大脑》内容简介：要想提升判断力、预测力、领导力，从哪里下手？ 主导人类行为的动机、意图、计划、远见、人格等从何而来？ 就像企业、*、管弦乐队一样，大脑同样有自己的领导者，这个角色属于额叶。额叶在整个大脑内执行极其高级、复杂的功能，在所有人类行为的成功与失败中扮演着关键角色。如果大脑的其他部位受损，就可能造成语言、记忆、感知或运动能力的丧失。而一旦额叶受损，患者所丧失的便不只是某种特质，而是整个心智、人格的核心！ 该书讨论了与额叶密切相关的几种心理品质，还讨论了一些有趣的问题，如男人与女人的差别、社会责任、注意力、衰老和精神疾病等。 作者完整解析了“人格因素”的大脑机制，并指出，认知训练可以有效地提升脑力，抵抗自然或病态衰老导致的记忆力衰退等。

With this collection of all twelve novels in Flat Stanley's Worldwide Adventures, readers will soar through unforgettable adventure, witness friendship at its best, and learn tons of fun facts about the place Stanley visits! And for parents and teachers, each Flat Stanley book is aligned to the Common Core State Standards, including multicultural adventure, plot and character development story elements, and compare and contrast.Includes:#1: The Mount Rushmore Calamity#2: The Great Egyptian Grave Robbery#3: The Japanese Ninja Surprise#4: The Intrepid Canadian Expedition#5: The Amazing Mexican Secret#6: The African Safari Discovery#7: The Flying Chinese Wonders#8: The Australian Boomerang Bonanza#9: The US Capital Commotion#10: Showdown at the Alamo#11: Framed in France#12: Escape to California

The Western discovery of Japanese paintings at nineteenth-century world's fairs and export shops catapulted Japanese art to new levels of international popularity. With that popularity, however, came criticism, as Western writers began to lament a perceived end to pure Japanese art and a rise in westernized cultural hybrids. The Japanese response: nihonga, a traditional style of painting that reframed existing techniques to distinguish them from Western artistic conventions.?Making Modern Japanese-Style Painting?explores the visual characteristics and social functions of nihonga and traces its relationship to the past, its viewers, and emerging notions of the modern Japanese state.Chelsea Foxwell sheds light on interlinked trends in Japanese nationalist discourse, government art policy, American and European commentary on Japanese art, and the demands of export. The seminal artist Kano Hogai (1828-88) is one telling example: originally a painter for the shogun, his art eventually evolved into novel, eerie images meant to satisfy both Japanese and Western audiences. Rather than simply absorbing Western approaches, nihonga as practiced by Hogai and others broke with pre-Meiji painting even as it worked to neutralize the rupture.By arguing that fundamental changes to audience expectations led to the emergence of nihonga-a traditional interpretation of Japanese art for a contemporary, international market-Making Modern Japanese-Style Painting?offers a fresh look at an important aspect of Japan's development into a modern nation.

On museum visits, we pass by beautiful, well-preserved vases from ancient Greece-but how often do we understand what the images on them depictIn Image and Myth, Luca Giuliani tells the stories behind the pictures, exploring how artists of antiquity had to determine which motifs or historical and mythic events to use to tell an underlying story while also keeping in mind the tastes and expectations of paying clients.?Covering the range of Greek style and its growth between the early Archaic and Hellenistic periods, Giuliani describes the intellectual, social, and artistic contexts in which the images were created. He reveals that developments in Greek vase painting were driven as much by the times as they were by tradition-the better-known the story, the less leeway the artists had in interpreting it. As literary culture transformed from an oral tradition, in which stories were always in flux, to the stability of written texts, the images produced by artists eventually became nothing more than illustrations of canonical works. At once a work of cultural and art history, Image and Myth builds a new way of understanding the visual culture of ancient Greece.

If you told a woman her sex had a shared, long-lived history with weasels, she might deck you. But those familiar with mythology know better: that the connection between women and weasels is an ancient and favorable one, based in the Greek myth of a midwife who tricked the gods to ease Heracles's birth-and was turned into a weasel by Hera as punishment. Following this story as it is retold over centuries in literature and art,?Women and Weasels?takes us on a journey through mythology and ancient belief, revising our understanding of myth, heroism, and the status of women and animals in Western culture. ?Maurizio Bettini recounts and analyzes a variety of key literary and visual moments that highlight the weasel's many attributes. We learn of its legendary sexual and childbearing habits and symbolic association with witchcraft and midwifery, its role as a domestic pet favored by women, and its ability to slip in and out of tight spaces. The weasel, Bettini reveals, is present at many unexpected moments in human history, assisting women in labor and thwarting enemies who might plot their ruin. With a parade of symbolic associations between weasels and women-witches, prostitutes, midwives, sisters-in-law, brides, mothers, and heroes-Bettini brings to life one of the most venerable and enduring myths of Western culture.

State capitals are an indelible part of the American psyche, spatial representations of state power and national identity. Learning them by heart is a rite of passage in grade school, a pedagogical exercise that emphasizes the importance of committing place-names to memory. But geographers have yet to analyze state capitals in any depth. In American Capitals, Christian Montes takes us on a well-researched journey across America-from Augusta to Sacramento, Albany to Baton Rouge-shedding light along the way on the historical circumstances that led to their appointment, their success or failure, and their evolution over time.?While all state capitals have a number of characteristics in common-as symbols of the state, as embodiments of political power and decision making, as public spaces with private interests-Monts does not interpret them through a single lens, in large part because of the differences in their spatial and historical evolutionary patterns. Some have remained small, while others have evolved into bustling metropolises, and Monts explores the dynamics of change and growth. All but eleven state capitals were established in the nineteenth century, thirty-five before 1861, but, rather astonishingly, only eight of the fifty states have maintained their original capitals. Despite their revered status as the most monumental and historical cities in America, capitals come from surprisingly humble beginnings, often plagued by instability, conflict, hostility, and corruption. Monts reminds us of the period in which they came about, "e;an era of pioneer and idealized territorial vision,"e; coupled with a still-evolving American citizenry and democracy.

The vast savannas and great migrations of the Serengeti conjure impressions of a harmonious and balanced ecosystem. But in reality, the history of the Serengeti is rife with battles between human and non-human nature. In the 1890s and several times since, the cattle virus rinderpest-at last vanquished in 2008-devastated both domesticated and wild ungulate populations, as well as the lives of humans and other animals who depended on them. In the 1920s, tourists armed with the world's most expensive hunting gear filled the grasslands. And in recent years, violence in Tanzania has threatened one of the most successful long-term ecological research centers in history.Serengeti IV, the latest installment in a long-standing series on the region's ecology and biodiversity, explores the role of our species as a source of both discord and balance in Serengeti ecosystem dynamics. Through chapters charting the complexities of infectious disease transmission across populations, agricultural expansion, and the many challenges of managing this ecosystem today, this book shows how the people and landscapes surrounding crucial protected areas like Serengeti National Park can and must contribute to Serengeti conservation. In order to succeed, conservation efforts must also focus on the welfare of indigenous peoples, allowing them both to sustain their agricultural practices and to benefit from the natural resources provided by protected areas-an undertaking that will require the strengthening of government and education systems and, as such, will present one of the greatest conservation challenges of the next century.

Between 1777 and 1816, botanical expeditions crisscrossed the vast Spanish empire in an ambitious project to survey the flora of much of the Americas, the Caribbean, and the Philippines. While these voyages produced written texts and compiled collections of specimens, they dedicated an overwhelming proportion of their resources and energy to the creation of visual materials. European and American naturalists and artists collaborated to manufacture a staggering total of more than 12,000 botanical illustrations. Yet these images have remained largely overlooked-until now.In this lavishly illustrated volume, Daniela Bleichmar gives this archive its due, finding in these botanical images a window into the worlds of Enlightenment science, visual culture, and empire. Through innovative interdisciplinary scholarship that bridges the histories of science, visual culture, and the Hispanic world, Bleichmar uses these images to trace two related histories: the little-known history of scientific expeditions in the Hispanic Enlightenment and the history of visual evidence in both science and administration in the early modern Spanish empire. As Bleichmar shows, in the Spanish empire visual epistemology operated not only in scientific contexts but also as part of an imperial apparatus that had a long-established tradition of deploying visual evidence for administrative purposes.

Studies on the Abuse and Decline of Reason is a series of fascinating essays on the study of social phenomena. How to best and most accurately study social interactions has long been debated intensely, and there are two main approaches: the positivists, who ignore intent and belief and draw on methods based in the sciences; and the nonpositivists, who argue that opinions and ideas drive action and are central to understanding social behavior. F. A. Hayek's opposition to the positivists and their claims to scientific rigor and certainty in the study of human behavior is a running theme of this important book.Hayek argues that the vast number of elements whose interactions create social structures and institutions make it unlikely that social science can predict precise outcomes. Instead, he contends, we should strive to simply understand the principles by which phenomena are produced. For Hayek this modesty of aspirations went hand in hand with his concern over widespread enthusiasm for economic planning. As a result, these essays are relevant to ongoing debates within the social sciences and to discussion about the role government can and should play in the economy.

The Sciences of the Soul is the first attempt to explain the development of the disciplinary conception of psychology from its appearance in the late sixteenth century to its redefinition at the end of the seventeenth and its emergence as an institutionalized field in the eighteenth. Fernando Vidal traces this development through university courses and textbooks, encyclopedias, and nonacademic books, as well as through various histories of psychology.?Vidal reveals that psychology existed before the eighteenth century essentially as a "e;physics of the soul,"e; and it belonged as much to natural philosophy as to Christian anthropology. It remained so until the eighteenth century, when the "e;science of the soul"e; became the "e;science of the mind."e; Vidal demonstrates that this Enlightenment refashioning took place within a Christian framework, and he explores how the preservation of the Christian idea of the soul was essential to the development of the science. Not only were most psychologists convinced that an empirical science of the soul was compatible with Christian faith; their perception that psychology preserved the soul also helped to elevate its rank as an empirical science. Broad-ranging and impeccably researched, this book will be of wide importance in the history and philosophy of psychology, the history of the human sciences more generally, and in the social and intellectual history of eighteenth-century Europe.