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9781009618328
Hardback
AUD $48.95 / NZD $52.95 Available January 2026
Roger Kreuz, University of
Memphis
Strikingly Similar Plagiarism and Appropriation from Chaucer to Chatbots
Psychology
About
Plagiarism and appropriation are hot topics when they appear in the news. A politician copies a section of a speech, a section of music sounds familiar, the plot of a novel follows the same pattern as an older story, a piece of scientific research is attributed to the wrong researcher… The list is endless. Allegations and convictions of such incidents can easily ruin a career and inspire gossip. People report worrying about unconsciously appropriating someone else’s work. But why do people plagiarise? How many claims of unconscious plagiarism are truthful? How is plagiarism detected, and what are the outcomes for the perpetrators and victims? Strikingly Similar uncovers the deeper psychology behind this controversial human behavior, as well as a cultural history that is far wider and more interesting than sensationalised news stories.
Key Features
• Shares a demystified look at the psychology and legality of appropriation, conscious plagiarism and unconscious plagiarism
• Provides a historical review of plagiarism and appropriation, showing how attitudes about these behaviors have shifted over time
• Highlights how plagiarism is a cultural construct that has evolved due to changing notions of intellectual propert
About the Author
‘In this book, Kreuz offers a breezy account of actual, suspected, or accidental plagiarism. Featuring examples drawn from literature, music, and politics, Kreuz gives example after example of plagiarism-and some copyright infringements too-by writers who are famous, infamous, or essentially unknown.’
Dennis Baron, author of You Can’t Always Say What You Want
9781009662475
Paperback
AUD $32.95 / NZD $35.95
Available January 2026
Mark Z. Jacobson, Stanford University
Key Features
• Lays out the framework for how to solve the climate, air pollution and energy security problems of our times; including an honest analysis of what we should not be doing
• Provides up-to-date information on the technologies available now to solve these problems
• Provides suggestions on what individual communities, states and countries can do to solve these problems
• Discusses the policies needed and the cost benefits, land requirements, health benefits and climate benefits of a transition to wind, solar, and water sources of energy
Still No Miracles Needed
How Today’s Technology Can Save Our Climate and Clean Our Air
Earth and environmental science
About
What if we don’t need ‘miracle technologies’ to solve the climate problem? What if the technologies we need are already available? And what if we can use those existing technologies to ensure reliable electricity, heat supplies, and energy security? In a revised and updated edition of his award-winning climate bestseller, No Miracles Needed, the world’s premier thinker on energy futures and one of the world’s 100 most impactful people in the world in 2023, Mark Z. Jacobson reveals how nations, communities, and individuals can solve the climate crisis most effectively, while simultaneously eliminating air pollution and providing energy security. Mark explains how existing technologies can harness, store, and transmit energy from wind, water, and solar sources to ensure reliable electricity and heat supplies. It includes new, cutting-edge technologies, additional new real-life case studies about the solutions, and additional references. Written for everyone who cares about the future of our planet, this book advises individuals, policymakers, communities, and nations about what they can do to solve the problems identified, and the economic, health, and climate benefits of the solutions.
Advance Praise
‘The Stanford University academic has a compelling pitch: the world can rapidly get 100% of its energy from renewable sources with, as the title of his new book says, ‘no miracles needed’.’
The Guardian
‘… the argument is convincing and optimistic. Readers looking to rebut criticism about green energy will find this a great help.’
Publishers Weekly
9781009350594
Hardback
AUD $51.95 / NZD $56.95
Available January 2026
David R. Shumway, Carnegie Mellon University
Key Features
• Provides a comprehensive source for understanding Leonard Cohen’s work and its contexts
• Includes well-written and entertaining essays about Cohen’s music and writing
• Offers a comprehensive account of this singer, songwriter, poet, and star
The World of Leonard Cohen
About
Leonard Cohen’s artistic career is unique. Most poets and novelists do not become rock stars. No other rock star’s career peaked in their eighth decade as Leonard Cohen’s did. Cohen’s popularity is still growing five years after his death. In The World of Leonard Cohen, a team of international scholars and writers explore the various dimensions of the artist’s life, work, persona, and legacy to offer an authoritative and accessible summation of Cohen’s extraordinary career. His relation to key themes and topics – Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Zen and the East, the Folk tradition, Rock and roll, Canadian and World literature, film –are all addressed. The World of Leonard Cohen offers a comprehensive, uniquely informed and wholly fresh account of this iconic songwriter and artist, whose singular voice has permanently altered our cultural landscape.
About the Author
David R. Shumway is Professor of English, and Literary and Cultural Studies. He wrote Rock Star: The Making of Musical Icons from Elvis to Springsteen (2014), and contributed to The World of Bob Dylan (2021), The Cambridge Companion to Bob Dylan, and The Cambridge Companion to the The Singer-Songwriter
9781009466578 Hardback
AUD $43.95 / NZD $47.95
Available February 2026
Evan Selinger, Rochester Institute of Technology
Albert Fox Cahn, Surveillance Technology Oversight Project
Move Slow and Upgrade
The Power of Incremental Innovation
About
For far too long, tech titans peddled promises of disruptive innovation - fabricating benefits and minimizing harms. The promise of quick and easy fixes overpowered a growing chorus of critical voices, driving a sea of private and public investments into increasingly dangerous, misguided, and doomed forms of disruption, with the public paying the price. But what’s the alternative? Upgrades - evidence-based, incremental change. Instead of continuing to invest in untested, highrisk innovations, constantly chasing outsized returns, upgraders seek a more proven path to proportional progress. This book dives deep into some of the most disastrous innovations of recent years - the metaverse, cryptocurrency, home surveillance, and AI, to name a fewwhile highlighting some of the unsung upgraders pushing real progress each day. Timely and corrective, Move Slow and Upgrade pushes us past the baseless promises of innovation, towards realistic hope.
Key Features
• Demonstrates the power and utility of upgrades over innovation
• Utilizes case studies pulled from today’s headlines to ground theoretical analysis in current events
• Provides readers with warning signs they can use to spot dangerous innovations
9781009391474
Paperback
AUD $35.95 / NZD $38.95
Available November 2025
Sarah Burton
Jem Poster
Key Features
• Introduces the theory step by step using ordinary-language explanations and examples throughout
• Practice and theory are helpfully interwoven
• The authors are among the foremost specialists in the UK in creative writing, and this book can be used either in conjunction with or independently of their earlier The Book You Need to Read to Write the Book You Want to Write (Cambridge University Press, 2022)
The Prompts You Need to Help You Write the Book You Want to Write
Film, media and sport
About
How can you take your writing to the next level? In this follow-up to their acclaimed handbook The Book You Need to Read to Write the Book You Want to Write, Sarah Burton and Jem Poster offer exercises and practical advice designed to set aspiring authors of fiction on their way to creating compelling short stories and novels. Carefully explaining the purpose and value of each exercise and encouraging writers to reflect on what they have learned in tackling each task, this themed collection of writing prompts provides both encouragement and inspiration. There are many books of prompts already available, but this one is different. Its structured, in-depth approach significantly increases the impact of the exercises, ensuring that storytellers use their time and talent to best effect – not only exploring their own creativity but also developing a wider and clearer understanding of the writer’s craft.
Advance Praise
‘The prompts in this comprehensive and deeply considered collection are an invitation to explore every aspect of the fiction-writer’s craft. Reassuring and inspiring in equal measure, Burton’s and Poster’s long experience as teachers of creative writing rings out from every page. Used alone, or in combination with its sister volume, the book is a route to learning and embedding a rich palette of new writing skills.’
Helena Attlee, author of The Land Where Lemons Grow and Lev’s Violin; tutor for the Arvon Foundation
Understanding the Tree of Life
9781009207300
Paperback
AUD $30.95 / NZD $33.95
Available September 2025
Kevin Omland, University of Maryland
Key Features
• Presents illustrative examples of common misconceptions in tree thinking and guides readers toward a clearer understanding of evolutionary trees
• Highlights fascinating organisms across the tree of life, showing how evolutionary trees reveal the evolution of present-day species’ characteristics
• Features examples of organisms from around the world, making concepts relatable, with emphasis on implications for human medicine and conservation
About
Challenge outdated views of evolution and embrace a clearer understanding of life’s incredible diversity with this enlightening exploration of evolutionary trees. Far from being a linear ladder of progress, evolution is a vast, branching tree where all species-humans included-are evolutionary cousins, not ancestors or descendants. Every organism alive today shares the same 3.5 billion years of evolutionary history, uniquely adapted to its own environment. This book takes readers on a journey through the tree of life, beginning with humanity’s closest relatives and expanding outward to the most distantly related organisms. By unravelling the misconceptions perpetuated by news articles and traditional depictions of evolution, it offers a fresh perspective on life’s interconnectedness. With engaging insights and vivid illustrations, this book fosters a deeper appreciation for the remarkable complexity and diversity of life on Earth, making it an essential read for anyone curious about our evolutionary story.
Advance praise
‘In this fascinating book, Kevin Omland takes us on a tour of the tree of life, intertwining marvelous stories of evolutionary adaptation with cogent explanations of how scientists discover what we know about the history of life.’
Jonathan Losos, Washington University
Life sciences
9781009457132
Paperback
AUD $28.95 / NZD $31.95
Available October 2025
Robert Bartlett, University of St Andrews
Key Features
• Emphasizes the precariousness of our knowledge of the past
• Draws on detailed case studies from France, Ireland, Italy and Germany, between 1870 and 1944
• Highlights the importance of the efforts made to preserve and protect manuscript sources
History in Flames
The Destruction and Survival of Medieval Manuscripts
About
To what extent does our knowledge of the past rely upon written sources? And what happens when these sources are destroyed? Focusing on the manuscripts of the Middle Ages, History in Flames explores cases in which large volumes of written material were destroyed during a single day. This destruction didn’t occur by accident of fire or flood but by human forces such as arson, shelling and bombing. This book examines the political and military events that preceded the moment of destruction, from the FrancoPrussian War and the Irish Civil War to the complexities of World War II; it analyses the material lost and how it came to be where it was. At the same time, it discusses the heroic efforts made by scholars and archivists to preserve these manuscripts, even partially. History in Flames reminds us that historical knowledge rests on material remains, and that these remains are vulnerable.
About the Author
Robert Bartlett, CBE, FBA, is Professor Emeritus at the University of St Andrews. His books include The Making of Europe: Conquest, Colonization and Cultural Change 950–1350, which won the Wolfson Literary Prize for History. He has written and presented three television series for the BBC, “Inside the Medieval Mind” (2008), ‘The Normans’ (2010), and ‘The Plantagenets’ (2014).
History
NEW in Paperback
Born Sick in the USA
Improving the Health of a Nation
AUD $49.95 / NZD $53.95 Available February 2026
Stephen Bezruchka, Emeritus of University of Washington
Key Features
About
How healthy you are is dependent on where you live. Americans suffer more cancers, heart disease, mental illness, and other chronic diseases than those who live in other wealthy nations, despite having the most expensive healthcare system in the world. Why? Embark on a journey to unravel the profound impact of public policies on American health from before birth in Born Sick in the USA: Improving the Health of a Nation. Delve into the intricate web where economic inequality weaves a tapestry of sickness stemming from a highly stressed society. This compelling read illuminates the need for transformative change in social safety nets and public policies to uplift national health and well-being. Through vivid storytelling, the book unveils the symptoms, diagnosis, and ‘medicine’ required to steer the nation toward a healthier future. Join the movement for a healthier America by embracing the insightful revelations and empowering calls to action presented within the pages of this eye-opening book. 9781009573702
• Separates the truth from fiction regarding the limited health outcomes of everyone living in America
• Details the economic inequalities leading to a stressed society resulting in more chronic ailments and fatal diseases than in many other nations
• Clearly lays out evidence that early life support is vital to prevent development of later ill health
Advance Praise
‘America presents an egregious paradox – it has both the most expensive healthcare and the shortest life expectancy in the West. Bezruchka demonstrates how even the Shangri-la of universal healthcare and decreased inequality won’t erase this discrepancy. Instead, he brilliantly teaches how it is baked into American individualism, capitalism, and its myths of mobility. But just as importantly, he outlines an activist pathway towards countering this toxic brew and making us healthier.’
Robert Sapolsky, author of Determined: Life Without Free Will
9781009651875
Hardback
AUD $49.95 / NZD $53.95
Available February 2026
Olivia Weisser, University of Massachusetts
Key Features
• Uses human stories to recover what it was like to live with disease hundreds of years ago
• Illuminates everyday sexual intimacies at all levels of society
• Uncovers the voices of those who left few, if any, words behind
The Dreaded Pox
Sex and Disease in Early Modern London
History - cross discipline
About
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, venereal disease, or the ‘pox,’ was a dreaded diagnosis throughout Europe. Its ghastly marks, along with their inexorable link to sex, were so stigmatizing that it was commonly called ‘the secret disease.’ How do we capture everyday experiences of a disease that so few people admitted having? Olivia Weisser’s remarkable history invites readers into the teeming, vibrant pox-riddled streets of early modern London. She uncovers the lives of the poxed elite as well as of the maidservants and prostitutes who left few words behind, showing how marks of the disease offered a language for expressing acts that were otherwise unutterable. This new history of sex, stigma, and daily urban life takes readers down alleys where healers peddled their tinctures, enters kitchens and gardens where ordinary sufferers made cures, and listens in on intimate exchanges between patients and healers in homes and in taverns.
Advance Praise
‘Olivia Weisser has provided us with as intimate an exposure as one might want to the experiences of those afflicted with the shameful venereal diseases so prevalent in early modern London. We pry revealingly into the closets, private sickness chambers, recipe books and rare diaries of the literate class. The book culminates with an outstanding analysis of consistory court cases mostly brought against men for rape or for infecting their wives. Though women’s words had close to no value in court against a man’s, bodily and material evidence of the disease could convict the perpetrators.’
Simon Szreter, editor of The Hidden Affliction: Sexually Transmitted Infections and Infertility in History