In the last decades of the 17th century, the feast of Christmas in Lutheran Germany underwent a major transformation when theologians and local governments waged an early modern "war on Christmas," discouraging riotous pageants and carnivalesque rituals in favor of more personal and internalized exp[...]

This book gives an account of the individual works of one of the greatest composers. The first volume of a two-volume study of the music of J. S. Bach covers the earlier part of his composing career, 1695-1717. By studying the music chronologically a coherent picture of the composer's creative dev[...]

Unravelling the debate about the Spanish nation and its identity in the new democracy, this book looks at the issue as both a historical debate and a contemporary political problem, particularly complex due to the legacy of the Francoist Dictatorship which deeply eroded the legitimacy of Spanish nat[...]

This book presents a study of interpreter-mediated interaction in New York City small claims courts, drawing on audio-recorded arbitration hearings and ethnographic fieldwork. Focusing on the language use of speakers of Haitian Creole, Polish, Russian, or Spanish, the study explores how these litiga[...]

The political and economic history of Latin America has been marked by great hopes and even greater disappointments. Despite abundant resources - and a history of productivity and wealth - in recent decades the region has fallen further and further behind developed nations, surpassed even by other d[...]

What really makes us who we are? This book shows that our identity does not lie in our genes, but in the connections between our brain cells - our own particular wiring, or 'connectomes'. It reveals the secrets of the brain, showing how our connectome makes each of us uniquely ourselves.[...]

Probabilistic robotics is a new and growing area in robotics, concerned with perception and control in the face of uncertainty. Building on the field of mathematical statistics, probabilistic robotics endows robots with a new level of robustness in real-world situations.This book introduces the read[...]

The Italian artist Caravaggio (1571-1610) had a profound impact on a wide range of baroque painters of Italian, French, Dutch, Flemish, and Spanish origin who resided in Rome either during his lifetime or immediately afterward. This title illustrates the notion of 'Caravaggism', showcasing 65 works[...]

Henry Walker was once a world-class magician, performing to sold-out shows in New York. But now he has been reduced to joining Musgrove's Chinese Circus (which at no point in its tour of the deep South has ever included a single Chinese person) as the shambling Negro Magician, whose dark black skin [...]