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Barbara Stafford is a pioneering art historian whose research has long helped to bridge the divide between the humanities and cognitive sciences. In A Field Guide to a New Meta-Field, she marshals a distinguished group of thinkers to forge a ground-breaking dialogue between the emerging brain sciences, the liberal arts, and social sciences.

Stafford’s book examines meaning and mental function from this dual experimental perspective. The wide-ranging essays included here—from Frank Echenhofer’s foray into shamanist hallucinogenic visions to David Bashwiner’s analysis of emotion and danceability—develop a common language for implementing programmatic and institutional change. Demonstrating how formerly divided fields are converging around shared issues, A Field Guide to a New Meta-Field maps a high-level, crossdisciplinary adventure from one of our leading figures in visual studies.

A Manual of Aquatic Plants can be said to be a classic; it made the identification of aquatic plants in sterile as well as in flowering or fruiting condition as simple as possible, and covers a region from Minnesota to Missouri and eastward to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Virgina.

An eye-opening, unexpected year of animals' most intimate encounters.

It was a chance meeting with mating silverfish behind her bathroom cabinet that made biologist Julie Feinstein more curious about, well, the birds and the bees. How do other animals have sex? How do turtles do it? Or starfish without obvious sex organs? What about dangerous animals, like alligators? Or those historically associated with sex, like an oyster or a stork? What if all the animals that we see in zoos, TV ads, and children’s books, she wondered, had sex lives as seemingly strange as those of silverfish?

Feinstein’s humorous, accessible, and deeply researched text answers these and other questions on nature’s most surprising sexual behaviors, including firefly suitors bearing nutritious “nuptial gifts” and post-copulatory slug penis amputations. She raises an eyebrow at all the mammals—from goats to giraffes—that incorporate urine into courtship. She explains the complex interactions of amorous cockroaches and their equally complex genitalia. She laments that dyeing poison dart frog tadpoles sometimes commit cannibalism for a better shot at growing up and then, eventually, coupling up. In this little black book of animal sex, Feinstein guides readers through the year, drawing connections that illuminate the associations between animals’ mating behaviors and our monthly calendars. She details some animals’ peak bursts of activity, such as Atlantic white shrimp spawning in July, porcupines breeding in October, and bald eagles, decorators extraordinaires, working on their nests in December. Scorpions enter whimsically under the astrological sign of Scorpio in November, and when a holiday nears, she explains the mating nitty-gritty of species with deep cultural connections to a specific day, like New Year storks, Thanksgiving turkeys, or Christmas reindeer. Presenting a pair of animals for each month, Feinstein offers an entertaining and illuminating Noah’s ark and a year of wacky, unbelievable, truly wild sex.

Alaska Halibut History—the latest installment in James Mackovjak’s Alaska fisheries series—chronicles one of the grandest and most storied fisheries in the region. Author of Alaska Codfish Chronicle and Alaska Herring History, Mackovjak tells the story of the flatfish that has long been a favorite among chefs globally. A staple in the diet of many Native populations, the halibut has also played a key role in Indigenous mythology across the northern Pacific region. Tracing the evolution of Alaska’s halibut fishery over time, Mackovjak reveals the cultural, economic, and environmental impact of halibut fishing in Alaska and the fish’s vital role in commercial, sport, and subsistence fishing within the state.

Mackovjak considers the organization and chronology of halibut fishery as well as the various factors that have affected fishery management over the years, such as bycatch (the portion of commercial fishing catch that includes animals other than the target species), guided sportfishing, fishermen’s unionization, technological and environmental changes, and major world events. Through detailed analysis and exploration of government reports and fisheries publications, Alaska Halibut History offers a glimpse into the development of the modern-day halibut fishery and the nuances of and challenges behind providing the fish so often seen on a menu. It is an indispensable work for anyone interested in the halibut and fishing in the northern Pacific region.

A provocative exploration of the impact of the human sciences on literature, politics, and culture

The post-Darwinian theory of atavism forecasted obstacles to human progress in the reappearance of throwback physical or cultural traits after several generations of absence. In this original and stimulating work, Dana Seitler explores the ways in which modernity itself is an atavism, shaping a historical and theoretical account of its dramatic rise and impact on Western culture and imagination.