Books published by Cambridge University Press

Dartington Hall was a social experiment of kaleidoscopic vitality, set up in Devon in 1925 by a fabulously wealthy American heiress, Dorothy Elmhirst (nee Whitney), and her Yorkshire-born husband, Leonard. It quickly achieved international fame with its progressive school, craft production and wide-ranging artistic endeavours. Dartington was a residential community of students, teachers, farmers, artists and craftsmen committed to revivifying life in the countryside. It was also a socio-cultural laboratory, where many of the most brilliant interwar minds came to test out their ideas about art, society, spirituality and rural regeneration. To this day, Dartington Hall remains a symbol of countercultural experimentation and a centre for arts, ecology and social justice. Practical Utopia presents a compelling portrait of a group of people trying to live out their ideals, set within an international framework, and demonstrates Dartington's tangled affinities with other unity-seeking projects across Britain and in India and America.

Survivors tells the harrowing story of life in Warsaw under Nazi occupation. As the epicenter of Polish resistance, Warsaw was subjected to violent persecution, the ghettoization of the city's Jewish community, the suppression of multiple uprisings, and an avalanche of restrictions that killed hundreds of thousands and destroyed countless lives. In this study into the unique brutality of wartime Warsaw, Jadwiga Biskupska traces how Nazi Germany set out to dismantle the Polish nation and state for long-term occupation by targeting its intelligentsia. She explores how myriad resistance projects emerged within the intelligentsia who were bent on maintaining national traditions and rebuilding a Polish state. In contrast to other studies on the Holocaust and Second World War, this book focuses on Polish behavior and explains who was in a position to contest the occupation or collaborate with it, while answering lingering questions and addressing controversies about the Nazi empire and the Holocaust in Eastern Europe.

This book traces the transformation of the belief systems that shaped life in ancient Near Eastern communities, from prehistoric times until the advent of religious monotheism in the Levant during the first millennium BCE. It offers new insights into the symbolic value embodied in the religious materiality produced in the ancient Near East.

The first comprehensive, comparative study of the 'Jewish Councils' in the Netherlands, Belgium and France during Nazi rule. In the postwar period, there was extensive focus on these organisations' controversial role as facilitators of the Holocaust. They were seen as instruments of Nazi oppression, aiding the process of isolating and deporting the Jews they were ostensibly representing. As a result, they have chiefly been remembered as forms of collaboration. Using a wide range of sources including personal testimonies, diaries, administrative documents and trial records, Laurien Vastenhout demonstrates that the nature of the Nazi regime, and its outlook on these bodies, was far more complex. She sets the conduct of the Councils' leaders in their prewar and wartime social and situational contexts and provides a thorough understanding of their personal contacts with the Germans and clandestine organisations. Between Community and Collaboration reveals what German intentions with these organisations were during the course of the occupation, and allows for a deeper understanding of the different ways in which the Holocaust unfolded in each of these countries.

"This text for MBA students and industry professionals explores key Web3 concepts such as blockchain, DeFi, tokenomics, and smart contracts, demystifying the technology behind NFTs and DAOs and the complex regulatory landscape. It is ideal for readers seeking to stay on top of emerging trends in the digital economy"--

The widespread and increasing use of carbon nanotubes in scientific and engineering research and their incorporation into manufactured goods has urged an assessment of the risks and hazards associated with exposure to them. The field of nanotoxicology studies the toxicology of nanoparticles such as carbon nanotubes and has become a major growth area aimed towards risk assessment of nanoparticles. Compiled by a team of leading experts at the forefront of research, this is the first book dedicated to the toxicology of carbon nanotubes. It provides state-of-the-science information on how and why they are so potentially dangerous if breathed in, including their similarities to asbestos. The book examines various aspects of carbon nanotubes, from their manufacture and aerodynamic behaviour to their effects at molecular level in the lungs. It is invaluable to the many groups involved with research in this area, as well as to regulators and risk assessors.

Henry Charles Lea's comprehensive three-volume history of the medieval Inquisition, first published in 1888, was firmly based on primary sources. Lea was convinced that the Inquisition was not arbitrarily devised and implemented but was an inevitable consequence of forces that were dominant in thirteenth-century Christian society. In order to give as full a picture of the Inquisition as possible he examines the jurisprudence of the period. In Volume 1 he presents background information, giving a general account of the Catholic Church in the twelfth century and exploring the events that prompted the Church to set up the Inquisition. He explains the prevalent medieval understanding of the roles of the Church and government in society, and looks at medieval concepts of the relationships between individuals and the Church, the government, one another, and God. Lea shows how these views formed the basis of the Inquisition's structure, organization and processes.

The Relations between Ancient Russia and Scandinavia, first published in 1877, by the Danish philologist, Vilhelm Thomsen (1842-1927), contains Thomsen's three lectures on the origins of the Russian state. The lectures were given at the Taylor Institution, Oxford, in May 1876. The first lecture covers the ethnic background of ancient Russia and its earliest political institutions and the second and third lectures investigate Russia's Scandinavian origins. Thomsen demonstrated and explored the interlinked histories of Russia and Scandinavia by comparative examinations of Russian and the Scandinavian languages. By this analysis, Thomsen was able to demonstrate the importance of the Scandinavian element in the earliest origins of Russian culture, identity, political institutions and language. The work is an outstanding piece of philological investigation and a key text in early Russian cultural, linguistic and political history. It continues to be relevant to the advanced student of Russian language and early Russian history.

The British explorer Sir Richard F. Burton (1821-90) was a colourful and often controversial character. A talented linguist and keen ethnologist, he first gained celebrity for his adventurous 1853 trip to Mecca, conducted under the disguise of a pilgrim. He remains famous for his translation (with the British orientalist Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot) of The Kama Sutra (1883), a daring enterprise in the context of the Victorian society. First published in 1861, this book is an account of Burton's 1860 trip to Salt Lake City. It offers a geographical and ethnological study of Utah that focuses on the Mormon church. In the course of his research, Burton was able to meet the Mormon prophet Brigham Young, leader of the Latter-Day Saints and founder of Salt Lake City. Burton describes various Mormon customs, showing particular interest in polygamy, which he treats with critical distance and his characteristic sense of humour.

This is a comprehensive and fully documented study of Chinese bureaucracy during the Han period, when many of the basic lines of Chinese government practice were laid down. It is also more detailed and wider in scope than similar works on other periods of Chinese history. The book covers the time from 202 BC to AD 9 and from AD 25 to 189, analysing and describing the central and local administrations, the army, official salaries, civil service recruitment and power in government. Professor Bielenstein translates all Chinese official titles and includes alphabetical lists of these titles with their English and Chinese equivalents. Thus his book will serve both as a description for the names of offices at every level of government. The book will be of interest to all scholars of Chinese history, as well as to experts in other fields of institutional history, government and political science.

The Growth of the Manor (1905) is one of the key works of the eminent expatriate Russian jurist, Paul Vinogradoff (1854-1925). Expanding on his Oxford lectures, this book attempts to re-establish coherence within English medieval history after the critiques of scholars including Frederic Maitland had supposedly obscured the historical narrative. Tracing the evolution of the manor, Vinogradoff demonstrates how feudal law and tenurial relationships evolved out of more primitive systems of male descent. He claims there was demonstrable progress from a system of communal action and responsibility to one of personal rights and subjection that can be traced through what he calls the 'Celtic', 'Old English' and 'Feudal' periods. The latter system was secured in the Norman Conquest of 1066, although the former continued to exist underneath it. Of particular interest to those studying the Domesday Book, this is also an important text for medievalists and legal historians.

Agnes Mary Clerke (1842-1907) first published A Popular History of Astronomy in 1885. The work was received with widespread acclaim and brought Clerke an international reputation as a science writer. The History surveys the progress made in the field of astronomy during the nineteenth century. It is split chronologically into two parts, dealing with the first and the second half of the century. Part 1 focuses on the career of the astronomer William Herschel (1738-1822) and the development of sidereal astronomy; part 2 deals with the discovery of spectrum analysis and the progress of knowledge about sun spots and the magnetic disturbances which cause them. Clerke's work, a classic example of Victorian popular scientific literature, stands alongside Grant's earlier History of Astronomy in its success in popularising the subject. The work is important today for scholars researching the history of the discipline and its place in educated Victorian society.

The Home Life of Sir David Brewster, originally published in 1869, records the remarkable life of inventor, physicist, mathematician and astronomer, Sir David Brewster (1781-1868). Written by his daughter, Mrs Margaret M. Gordon, the book is aimed at a non-academic audience, and details the extraordinary life and work of this amazing scientist, who began his studies at Edinburgh University at the age of just twelve, and who is best known for his invention of the kaleidoscope and of the apparatus that initially formed the structure of the core of the lighthouse, and thus his work on the polarization of light. Mrs. Gordon cites Brewster's many activities, including the publication of over 2,000 scientific papers, though she stresses that she has written about her father as the man, and not the scientist. The book will appeal to anyone interested in the life and career of this undoubtedly brilliant Scotsman.

Written in 1877 by the French journalist Amédée Guillemin, this work appeared on British bookshelves at a time of intense interest in space, the solar system and stars. In the same year, Schiaparelli made his infamous 'discovery' of Martian canals, whetting the public's appetite for all things astronomical. Guillemin's account of comets was equally ambitious and, ultimately, more valuable. His subjects range from comet superstitions in Renaissance Italy to an accessible explanation of their orbits, constitution and brilliance. As James Glaisher notes in his Preface, 'there is no work that at all occupies the ground covered' by Guillemin. The author's imaginative prose, exemplified by his description of comets as 'long disowned stars', was translated sympathetically by Glaisher. Accompanied by eighty-five striking illustrations, including Halley's Comet as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry, The World of Comets provides a fascinating insight into both astronomy and nineteenth-century scientific enquiry.

Friederike Hauffe (1801-1829) suffered throughout her short lifetime from severe spasms and nervous fevers, and in her semi-conscious state she allegedly saw spectres and spoke and wrote predictions in an unknown, 'innate' language. When physically well, Hauffe could communicate with spectres of the dead, and created a complex diagram of circles to explain the nervous energy of a person and its changes throughout the year. The flow of consciousness and one's waking state in the spirit world, or 'sun sphere', was individual and seasonal. After continued illness, she was finally taken into the care of Dr Justinus Kerner for the last few years of her life. His use of magnetic treatment apparently gave her some relief, and she was able to use her 'spiritual sight' to aid others. Kerner's 1829 account of her life, depicting a woman with unusual psychic gifts, was published in English translation in 1845.

William Arthur Cornaby (1860-1921) was born in London and educated at the School of Mines before training as a Methodist minister. In 1885 Cornaby was sent as a missionary to Wuhan, central China, and A String of Chinese Peach-Stones (1895) was inspired by his experiences. Cornaby explains that his title suggests that the reader possesses 'a collection of desiccated tales, legends, and the like, picked up here and there along the highways and byways of China'. Cornaby's work covers the period 1849-1867, and discusses the major episodes of the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) as well as providing a detailed account of village life in central China, with its farm work, foods, festivals, customs and rituals that remains of interest to anthropologists and historians today. Cornaby's aim was to educate his English readers and to interest them in the culture that so dominated his own life and work.

Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton (1786-1845) was a committed social reformer throughout his life and became involved with the abolition of slavery during his time as an MP, taking over the leadership of the abolition movement in the British House of Commons after William Wilberforce retired in 1825. Following the abolition of slavery in Britain and its colonies in 1833, and his loss of his Parliamentary seat in 1837, Buxton concerned himself with the slave trade along the African coast still perpetrated by Africans, Arabs and the Portuguese. The results of his research and conclusions were originally published in 1839, and demonstrate the extent to which slave trading still existed, and its human cost in mortality and misery, despite attempts at policing by the British navy. Buxton explores the theory that the key to complete abolition is a change in market economics to eliminate the need for African slave labour.