Conspiracy theories are everywhere in post-war American culture. From postmodern novels to The X-Files and from gangsta rap to feminist polemic, there is a widespread suspicion that sinister forces are conspiring to take control of our national destiny, our minds, and even our bodies. Conspiracy explanations can no longer be dismissed as the paranoid delusions of far-right crackpots. Indeed, they have become a necessary response to a risky and increasingly globalized world, in whi...

Invested examines the perennial and nefarious appeal of financial advice manuals.Who hasn't wished for a surefire formula for riches and a ticket to the good life? For three centuries, investment advisers of all kinds, legit and otherwise, have guaranteed that they alone can illuminate the golden pathway to prosperity—despite strong evidence to the contrary. In fact, too often, they are singing a siren song of devastation. And yet we keep listening.

Casting a modern light on memories and artifacts of the Civil WarIn December 2021, a copper box filled with artifacts that had been buried beneath the statue of Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, for 134 years was opened with great ceremony. Newspaper articles from 1887 had dubbed these mementos of Lee and life in the capital during and after the Civil War “cornerstone contributions.”In The Buried Cause, historians, curators, p...

This study examines the factors influencing the changes in teaching assessment at the higher education level and studies the range of techniques and methods available to the assessor. It evaluates the effectiveness of certain methods and discusses their implementation.

Dan Curran is a rookie journalist newly recruited from university to the Castlebridge Gazette, a struggling provincial newspaper owned by distinguished Fleet Street veteran, Jack Marston. Although sad to have moved away from home Dan relishes his newfound freedom, away from his father’s disapproval of his new career.Dan’s first assignment is to investigate why the Castlebridge District Council have inexplicably reversed a decision to sell council-owned land known locally as Abbott’...

In recent years, money, finance, and the economy have emerged as central topics in literary studies. The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Economics explains the innovative critical methods that scholars have developed to explore the economic concerns of texts ranging from the medieval period to the present. Across seventeen chapters by field-leading experts, the book highlights how, throughout literary history, economic matters have intersected with crucial topics including race, gend...

Taking a global and interdisciplinary approach, the Routledge Handbook of Conspiracy Theories provides a comprehensive overview of conspiracy theories as an important social, cultural and political phenomenon in contemporary life.This handbook provides the most complete analysis of the phenomenon to date. It analyses conspiracy theories from a variety of perspectives, using both qualitative and quantitative methods. It maps out the key debates, and includes chapters on the...

How can universities ensure that they are preparing their students for today's competitive job market?This book tackles the highly topical subject of graduate underemployment with insight and clarity. The authors argue the case for more sophisticated research into employability with passion and vision, discussing how employability-friendly curricula can be developed, even in subjects which have less obvious vocational relevance.The rapid growth of higher education over the pa...

This book provides an elementary introduction to the subject of quantum optics, the study of the quantum mechanical nature of light and its interaction with matter. The presentation is almost entirely concerned with the quantized electromagnetic field. Topics covered include single-mode field quantization in a cavity, quantization of multimode fields, quantum phase, coherent states, quasi-probability distribution in phase space, atom-field interactions, the Jaynes-Cummings model, quantum c...

America’s fascination with the stock market dates back to the Gilded Age.Winner of the BAAS Book Prize of the British Association of American StudiesAmericans pay famously close attention to “the market,” obsessively watching trends, patterns, and swings and looking for clues in every fluctuation. In Reading the Market, Peter Knight explores the Gilded Age origins and development of this peculiar interest. He tracks the historic shift in market ope...

This book offers a comprehensive and detailed summary of our knowledge and understanding of glaciers and sets them within a global environment context. The text explains the significance both of recent advances in glaciology, and of teh many research problms that remain to be solved. The accessible style adopted in the text facilitates a clear understanding of glaciers and the role they play in global issues such as environmental change, geoorphology and hydrology. The use of complex mathe...

The theme of this book is the teaching and learning of the humanities in the primary years. While it dwells on the National Curriculum, it also examines issues of current international concern, drawing upon international research literature.