The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language is one of the publishing phenomena of recent times. Rarely has a book so packed with accurate and well researched factual information been so widely read and popularly acclaimed. It has played a key role in the spread of general interest in language matters, generating further publications and broadcasting events for an avid audience. Its First Edition appeared in hardback in 1995 and a revised paperback in 1997. There have been numerous subsequent updated reprintings; but this Second Edition now presents an overhaul of the subject for a new...

Christopher Nowlin examines expert evidence in North American obscenity trials and reveals how little consensus there is among those who purport to know best about the nature of artistic representation, human sexuality, and the psychological and behavioural effects of reading, writing, or watching explicit sexual narratives and imagery. He demonstrates that these communities of experts are divided on such questions as: Can a novel or film be both high art and obscene? and Is the world of heterosexual pornography categorically different from the worlds of gay and lesbian pornography? He...