The biology of people in the past is a rapidly expanding field of historical study. Our capacity to understand the biology of historical populations is experiencing remarkable developments on both theoretical and analytical fronts.
Human Biology and History weaves together the fields of biology, archaeology, and anthropology in an exchange of methods and theoretical perspectives that exemplify the interaction between human biology and history. The book presents methods developed for the analysis of biological material that can be applied to historical specimens to reveal the lifestyles...

Disease is an ever-present threat faced by all human societies. Today, this concept has become an influential area of study known as the global burden of disease, which encompasses contemporary health concerns such as the economic costs of disease, the societal impact of illness in developing nations, and infectious diseases resulting from lifestyle exposures. Before we can ease this global burden, it is essential to establish an accurate view of the current status of human health and disease around the world.
Addressing key areas that reflect our understanding of disease, The Changing...

A review of the most important areas of the biochemistry of herbicide action. The introductory chapter begins with the field of herbicide discovery, followed by chapters dealing with the herbicidal inhibition of photosynthesis, carotenoid biosynthesis, lipid biosynthesis, and amino acid biosynthesis. The metabolism of herbicides is discussed with particular reference to the formation of toxic components from non-toxic chemicals, and also the inactivation of toxic chemicals as a basis for selectivity. The final chapters are concerned with mechanisms of herbicide resistance in plants and the...

This book contains six sets of lectures by internationally respected researchers on the statistical physics of crystal growth. The emphasis in the papers is on a description of underlying mechanisms and elaboration of simple models that provide a transparent physical picture. Viewed from a novel vantage point, they cover not only very recent developments in the phenomena of shape and growth, but also reflect on old problems that have not always received the attention they deserve. Contributors include P. Nozieres, C. Caroli, B. Caroli, B. Roulet, J.S. Langer, Y. Pomeau, M. Ben Amar, L....

Bundu is an anomaly among the precolonial Muslim states of West Africa. Founded during the jihads which swept the savannah in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it developed a pragmatic policy, unique in the midst of fundamentalist, theocratic Muslim states. Located in the Upper Senegal and with access to the Upper Gambia, Bundu played a critical role in regional commerce and production and reacted quickly to the stimulus of European trade. Drawing on a wide range of sources both oral and documentary, Arabic, English and French, Dr. Gomez provides the first full account of Bundu's...

Over 70% of the population in industrialized nations live in cities; in the next decade so will most of the world's entire population. This volume examines the impact of urban living on human health and biology. Cities pose numerous and diverse social and biological challenges to human populations. These challenges bear little resemblance to the forces that molded human biology throughout millions of years of evolution. Urban populations in industrialized nations have distinctive patterns of behavior, social stratification, stress, infectious disease, diet, activity, and exposure to...

Dekker traces the American historical novel from its origins in the early 1800s to the beginning of World War II, examining the genre's connections with Enlightenment and Romantic theories of history, the rise of literary regionalism, the ambitions of Romantic writers to revive the epic and romance, changing gender roles, and individual authors' troubled responses to the modern era's great revolutionary and imperialistic conflicts. Though concerned with the historical romance's development, Dekker devotes most of this book to new readings of major texts by James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel...