Recent Reviews
While we are primarily an academic publisher, many of our books are also of interest to a general readership. This is reflected in the outstanding reviews our books receive in the general media as a well as in specialist journals.
Many of these are open access – wherever they’re available you can read the full reviews by clicking the publications’ names below!
Science in the Twentieth Century and Beyond
by Jon Agar
"Global in scope and fresh in approach, this monumental history lays out the evolution of science during a tumultuous century."
Nature
"Agar has abstracted and made manageable a range of rich and informed analysis. Anyone who thinks seriously about science will find it a very useful source."
The Economist
A Social History of Knowledge II
by Peter Burke
"A glittering cabinet of intellectual curiosities, a systematic study of the collecting, analysing, disseminating, story, accessing, using and losing of knowledge in the western world from the mid-18th century to the 'information overload' of today ... Within this treasure chest there beats an endearingly human heart; one warms to an exemplary scholar who expresses the earnest hope that readers will not feel that I have contributed to information overload as well as discussing it."
History Today
Why Love Hurts
by Eva Illouz
"A significant achievement, a major analysis of love and an important contribution to sociology. It deserves to have a wide readership wherever love is."
The Australian
The New Scramble for Africa
by Padraig Carmody
"The single most useful book I have ever read about the continent."
Metro Eirann
Scandal and Silence
by Robert Entman
"This is the definitive work on political scandal manipulation in the modern American press and it deserves the attention of every concerned citizen of this country. Highly recommended."
Literary Aficionado
Hitler, Mussolini and the Vatican
by Emma Fattorini
"Simply put, this is the most thorough and best documented study yet to appear on Pius XI."
America Magazine
Raphael
by Antonio Forcellino
"Antonio Forcellino has now celebrated Raphael's life and career by writing this ebullient book, elegantly translated by Lucinda Byatt ... [Forcellino] is ingenious and fastidious in describing Raphael's works, and his book will give pleasure to those coming to them for the first time; it even highlights a few things connoisseurs may have missed."
Literary Review
Why Some Politicians are More Dangerous than Others
by James Gilligan
"Gilligan offers far more than a statistical argument. In Republican ideology, dependence is associated with dishonour and shame. Gilligan offers a compelling model of how this ethic triggers intolerable feelings of being discounted, disrepected, or 'dissed' that issue in violence."
Times Literary Supplement
Climate Wars
by Harald Welzer
"An absolutely essential read."
Morning Star
Coltan
by Michael Nest
"Both a convenient reference source for the statistics in the first chapter and also extremely handy for reading at leisure. 10/10."
Materials World
Music and Politics
by John Street
"Dives into this world of power, influence and catchy choruses with gusto; a great book. Readable, provocative and incredibly informative, Street walks the tightrope between academic and fan."
R2 Magazine / Rock'n'Reel
Understanding Development
by Paul Hopper
"An academic book that does not read like one. It introduces a key concept of global affairs to the non-expert reader in a jargon-free and complete fashion."
Global Journal
Internal Colonization
by Alexander Etkind
"Internal Colonization might be said to inject postcolonial theory into Russian studies. This, however, would be to understate the case. Etkind has confirmed what Russianists have suspected for a while without quite being able to prove the point: that Russia's peculiarly vocal subalterns have at least as much to bring to 'Western' cultural theory as they stand to gain from it."
Times Literary Supplement
