Tony Rothman offers a primer on the science of the big bang and the questions we still can't answer about the origins of the universe. Enlisting thoughtful analogies and a step-by-step approach, Rothman guides readers through dark matter, dark energy, quantum gravity, and other topics at-and beyond-the cutting edge of cosmology.

Peter Brown presents a history of Roman society in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th centuries. He interprets the changes in social patterns and religious thought in an attempt to break away from conventional modern images of the period.

Stories pervade our daily lives, from human interest news items, to a business strategy, to daydreams between chores. Stories are what we use to make sense of the world. But how does this work? This text examines this pervasive human habit and suggests ways to think about how we use stories.

Representations in visual arts and fiction play an important part in our lives and culture. Walton presents a theory of the nature of representation, which shows its many varieties and explains its importance. His analysis is illustrated with examples from film, art, literature and theatre.

The great Russian psychologist L. S. Vygotsky has long been recognized as a pioneer in developmental psychology. But his theory of development has never been well understood in the West. Mind in Society corrects much of this misunderstanding. Carefully edited by a group of outstanding Vygotsky scholars, the book presents a unique selection of Vygotsky's important essays.

A leading interpreter of modernity argues that our culture of limitless self-fulfillment is making millions mentally ill. Training her analytic eye on manic depression and schizophrenia, Liah Greenfeld, in the culminating volume of her trilogy on nationalism, traces these dysfunctions to society's overburdening demands for self-realization.

On November 29, 1864, over 150 Native Americans, mostly women, children, and elderly, were slaughtered in one of the most infamous cases of state-sponsored violence in U.S. history. Kelman examines how generations of Americans have struggled with the question of whether the nation's crimes, as well as its achievements, should be memorialized.

Mondegreen tells the story of a refugee from Ukraine's Donbas region who has escaped to Kyiv at the onset of the Ukrainian-Russian war. Written in beautiful, experimental style, the novel shows how people-and cities-are capable of radical transformation and how this, in turn, affects their interpersonal relations and cultural identification.