This book explores the automata of the Medici Villa Pratolino, focusing on the intersection of art, engineering, and philosophy in the late sixteenth century. The author examines how these 'living sculptures' went beyond traditional Renaissance static forms, blending mechanical innovation with artistic expression. Through a detailed analysis of the villa's automata and Francesco de' Vieri's 1587 description of the site, the book highlights the philosophical and magical ideas that shaped these creations, reflecting the Medici family's ambition to fuse science, art, and power. Providing a critical bridge between medieval and Renaissance anthropomorphic engineering, and the later mechanistic devices of the Reformation and Enlightenment, this book will appeal to scholars of Renaissance art, the history of technology, and the philosophy of science, offering new insights into the role of automata in Early Modern European culture.

Shaping a distinctive Midwestern form of Mexicano identity Mexicanos in Michigan and across the Midwest share a common experience: living as largely invisible outsiders as they struggled to build vibrant communities in places that wanted their labor but not their presence. Brett Olmsted ranges from the 1920s to the 1970s as he analyzes how Mexicanos sought to transcend social, cultural, economic, and political exclusion. Never numerous in any one area, Mexican Americans pursued inclusion via leisure spaces and labor unionism. Activities like celebrations, sports, movies, and music encouraged Mexicanos to claim physical and social space, connect with Michigan's other Mexicano communities, and construct their own sense of identity. Mexicano workers, meanwhile, embraced interethnic union activism to address racism in job placement and promotion. Olmsted also examines how the state's Mexicanos adapted to Michigan's dual economy and found advantages in moving back-and-forth between rural and urban areas. In-depth and innovative, Making Michigan Home spotlights the state's overlooked Mexicanos and their distinctive experiences within the Latina/o/x Studies Midwest.

Madoff rethinks modernism-from Wagner to Duchamp, Dada to the Bauhaus-for our present era of network culture

For more than a century, European modernist art has been written about as a profound expression of fragmentation-of an alienated world in pieces. In this book, critic and curator Steven Henry Madoff proposes that there was always another artistic intention present among the modernists that offered visions of wholeness in the face of anomie brought on by wars and new technologies. From the mid-nineteenth century, when Richard Wagner championed his idea of the Gesamtkunstwerk (the total work of art), to the rise of the Bauhaus out of the ruins of World War I as the most influential art school of the twentieth century, the urge to connect different art forms into single, unified works points toward our own omnipresent culture of networks and has given rise, over the last sixty years, to such artistic practices as installation and performance art that also combine many kinds of art into one-dreams of interconnectivity binding disparate elements together. Using the contemporary lens of network aesthetics to rethink the artworks of some of the towering figures of European modernism, including Paul Cezanne, Marcel Duchamp, Hugo Ball, and Walter Gropius, this book revises standard readings of this historical art, providing not only a way to more deeply understand the art of the present, but also as a way to look at and reimagine our own society in a time of increasingly divisive turmoil.

A groundbreaking guide to achieving sustainable change in today's turbulent and interconnected global landscape

In a world increasingly divided by opposing perspectives, systemic inertia, and rapid societal shifts, From Ought to Is: Catalysing Change and Movement in a Polarised World offers a transformative approach to navigating change. Deborah Rowland challenges conventional change leadership paradigms by urging readers to confront the reality of "what is" rather than fixating on "what ought to be." Through this lens, she demonstrates how true, sustainable change is achieved not by forcing rigid ideals but by fostering courageous honesty and embracing the messy, dynamic truths of the present.

Rooted in decades of research, experience, and interdisciplinary insights from neuroscience, moral philosophy, and spiritual tradition, From Ought to Is provides a compelling guide to navigating complex systems. Rowland illuminates how acknowledging the full truth of a situation can catalyse collaborative action and new possibilities. Through real-life case studies and practical exercises, readers are invited to engage deeply with their own change scenarios, unlocking new possibilities through inclusion, truth, and adaptive leadership.

An experiential roadmap for initiating movement in systems, organisations, and personal lives, From Ought to Is:

• Presents an innovative framework for leading sustainable change which utilises a holistic and interdisciplinary approach
• Offers an adaptive, reality-based alternative for complex environments which challenges traditional command-and-control change models
• Explores the dynamics of polarisation and its impact on leadership, collaboration, and systemic transformation
• Addresses pressing global issues such as political and societal polarisation, technological disruption, and biodiversity collapse
• Expands on the principles introduced in Deborah Rowland's bestselling Still Moving to address today's unique challenges

Ideal for leaders, change practitioners, and anyone seeking to shift entrenched patterns, From Ought to Is supports learning in leadership development programmes and organisational transformation courses. It is an essential text for graduate-level studies in business, organisational behaviour, and leadership, and serves as a vital resource for executives, consultants, and change agents.

Offers a sweeping, entertaining journey through the real power structures of world history

Five Thousand Years of Monarchy challenges everything you thought you knew about political history. With wit, clarity, and a deep command of historical detail, Michael Arnheim reframes five millennia of global governance through a strikingly original lens: the idea that every government, from ancient Sumer to modern China, is either a monarchy or an oligarchy-regardless of its name or apparent ideology. This provocative framework reveals insights into some of history's greatest puzzles and personalities, from the Roman emperors to Castro's Cuba, Augustus to Queen Victoria, and from Louis XVI's missed opportunity to the untold powers of King Philip II.

Drawing on lively anecdotes, surprising facts, and colorful historical vignettes, Arnheim brings the power struggles of the past vividly to life. Why was Imperial China more stable than any modern democracy? Could World War I have been avoided by more autocracy? And why are aristocracies more hostile to monarchs than revolutions ever were? Engaging, opinionated, and highly readable, Five Thousand Years of Monarchy offers a powerful reminder that what really matters in politics isn't titles or constitutions-it's who holds the power, and how.

Presenting a bold and original reinterpretation of world history through the lens of power structure, Five Thousand Years of Monarchy:

• Distills all governments-ancient and modern-into just two essential types: monarchy or oligarchy
• Provides a global scope, covering rulers and regimes from every major civilization
• Reveals little-known historical facts, such as King Philip II of Spain's reign as King of England
• Offers original, counterintuitive takes on major events such as the French Revolution and World War I
• Explores the surprising longevity and success of the Roman and Chinese empires
• Challenges conventional narratives and political assumptions with evidence-based analysis

Written in an engaging, accessible, and often humorous style, Five Thousand Years of Monarchy is ideal for general readers with an interest in history, politics, or leadership, as well as students and instructors in History, Classics, and Political Science.

This book describes some of the most critical issues in gifted education, i.e., gender inequity concerning giftedness examinations and the boys/girls ratio. The book also discusses the background of the gifted child's family, including their parents' education and number of their siblings. The book's findings are based on quantitative studies concerning 5-15-year-old gifted children participating at the Erika Landau Institute for Gifted and Creative Children and Youths in Tel Aviv, Israel, from 1968 until 2003. It discusses aspects such as the advantages of affirmative action standards in gifted education because girls who score lower than boys on the admission test to a gifted program usually have better social skills, persistence, and fine motor skills and, thus, integrate successfully in a gifted group with boys of higher intelligence. The book's second part addresses Landau's academic work in multiple languages and offers a critique that helps educators and mental health experts build gifted programs.

The studies in this volume present some of the major "historiographical wars" over the medieval Balkan past fought by the historians of competing nation states in the region. ?thnic origins and "national" makeup of medieval states and disputed regions; ownership of the historical heritage located in or associated with that territory; provenance or "national" consciousness of important historical personalities; the boundaries of a certain medieval state and its political, religious, and cultural influence on others - these are some of the issues around which major clashes between the modern Balkan historiographies recurred. The book is valuable to all those interested in how the medieval past becomes instrumentalized by the "national historians" in the service of constructing the national canons of history.

This open access book offers a comprehensive understanding of yoga theory and practice as it bears on several dimensions of animal-related ethical reflection and action. "Yoga" has become a household word in recent decades and, increasingly, has drawn physical yoga practitioners to explore its philosophy; significantly, classical yoga philosophy and praxis are deeply grounded in realizing the self in relation with all beings as non-material selves. Therefore yoga provides an ideal entry-way into contemporary animal ethics discourse, contributing particularly in its appeal to the experiential dimension of human self-understanding in relation to nonhuman animals.

Gaia Gianni's All in the Family explores how children shaped the development of pseudo-familial bonds, or fictive kinship, in Roman society during the early imperial period. Previous scholarship on the Roman family has primarily emphasized the patriarchal and nuclear structure of the Roman family, with children often represented as passive actors in a vacuum. Believing this to be an oversimplification of how the Roman family functioned, Gianni in her study focuses on the ways in which Roman families raised children and formed long-term relationships with individuals outside of the nuclear family, such as friends, neighbors, nurses, and caretakers, who gradually became full-fledged members of the family unit. Through a wide variety of literary works, legal documents, and funerary epitaphs for children set up by their families and caregivers, Gianni borrows from modern sociological and anthropological theories to argue that children acted as catalysts or connecting nodes in the creation of fictive kinship with individuals who were not part of the biologically determined family. In addition to illuminating the roles and experiences of these figures, All in the Family reveals how this social network was integrated into the family both in practice and in ideology, presenting a more complex view of the Roman family than the traditional nuclear structure.

"Professors Milne and Bull have produced an updated magnus opus of the science of investigative interviewing. It is not only an indispensable substitute for the cruelty of torture and coercion in solving crime, as this volume demonstrates, it is also a much more effective way of establishing the truth and assigning responsibility, which is the only legitimate object of criminal investigations."
-JUAN E. MENDEZ, Former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture (2010-2016)

"Investigative Interviewing: Psychology and Practice (1999) was nothing short of the clearest, most comprehensive approach on how to effectively interview in a criminal context while adhering to the highest possible ethical principles. Milne and Bull are back with a new edition of their landmark text, updating it to include, as contributors, many of the scholars who have been influenced by the original. This edition is sure to inspire another generation of practitioners and researchers to pursue truth and justice in investigative interviews."
-CHRISTOPHER E. KELLY, PhD, Professor of Criminal Justice, Saint Joseph's University (USA), Co-Director, International Investigative Interviewing Research Group

"This second edition of Investigative Interviewing: Psychology and Practice is a rare achievement. The Editors have brought together a stellar group of contributors to create more than a textbook: it's a bridge between research and the realities of investigative work. This is a vital resource for anyone committed to ethical and effective investigations: one that informs, challenges and ultimately helps improve the way investigations are conducted."
-PAULO BARBOSA MARQUES, Inspector, Policia Judiciaria

Become a well-informed and skilled investigative interviewer

In the newly revised second edition of Investigative Interviewing: Psychology and Practice, a team of distinguished forensic psychologists and practitioners deliver an up-to-date and practical guide to the psychological concepts and evidence-based research that underpin and inform investigative interviewing. The editors have included works that examine the foundational skills and processes that make up the ethical interviewing of witnesses, victims, and those suspected of crime. Each chapter is written by a group of contributors who are leaders in their field.

Readers will also find:

• A thorough introduction to the principles of memory formation and their implications for investigative interviewing
• Comprehensive explorations of the cognitive interview, and examination concerning how to help those who are deemed vulnerable, with complex needs, to give reliable information
• Practical discussions of how to manage conversations, detect truth/deceit, and develop rapport-based interpersonal techniques
• Fulsome treatments of how to convince members of an investigative organisation to adopt the techniques and strategies discussed in the book.

Perfect for aspiring and practicing professionals engaged in the interviewing of participants in the criminal justice and investigation processes, Investigative Interviewing: Psychology and Practice will also benefit solicitors, barristers, social workers, and judges with an interest in the art and science of interviewing.

How French and American colonizers created systems of enslavement in the Middle Mississippi Valley
The Centrality of Slavery examines how French and American colonizers used the powers of various imperial regimes to create slave societies in present-day Missouri and Illinois from the 1720s through the 1820s. The first book-length study of slavery and empire in both Illinois and Missouri, it begins with the origins of Native American and African American enslavement in the region. It then traces how successive French, Spanish, British, and American regimes shaped the development of slavery over the course of a century, examines the significance of the Northwest Ordinance's ban on slavery in Illinois, and then analyzes the diverging histories of slavery in Illinois and Missouri in the early 1800s. The book concludes with an analysis of the Missouri Crisis and the compromise of 1820, along with the Middle Mississippi Valley's significance in the road towards disunion and civil war in the late 1850s.
More broadly, The Centrality of Slavery argues that the Middle Mississippi Valley sat astride the crossroads of imperial North America. The practices of empire and enslavement forged and fought over there exerted an outsized influence on the history of slavery in North America and the United States. Rather than treating the region's eighteenth-century past as a prologue to the rise of the United States, John Craig Hammond analyzes the colonial history of the region on its own terms, through the European colonizers, American settlers, and enslaved people of Indigenous and African descent who shaped the development of slavery in the Middle Mississippi Valley.