If art and science have one thing in common, it's a hunger for the new—new ideas and innovations, new ways of seeing and depicting the world. But that desire for novelty carries with it a fundamental philosophical problem: If everything has to come from something, how can anything truly new emerge? Is novelty even possible?In Novelty, Michael North takes us on a dazzling tour of more than two millennia of thinking about the problem of the new, from the puzzles of t...

While the socio-economic and historical aspects of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) have been extensively documented and researched, the role of the VOC in visual culture and the arts has been relatively neglected. This authoritative volume addresses various aspects of cultural exchange between the Low Countries and Asia. Increased prosperity and the flood of imported goods from Asia had a huge influence on seventeenth-century Holland. To cite some examples: when the VOC spread its merch...

In this overview of the Baltic region from the Vikings to the European Union, Michael North presents the sea and the lands that surround it as a Nordic Mediterranean, a maritime zone of shared influence, with its own distinct patterns of trade, cultural exchange, and conflict. Covering over a thousand years in a part of the world where seas have been much more connective than land, The Baltic: A History transforms the way we think about a body of water too often ignored in studies...

The Baltic in the early modern period has been called a 'Nordic Mediterranean'. In the studies collected here, Professor North is concerned to examine the ways in which this Baltic region became integrated into the international division of labour and the emerging world economy. The volume opens with a new introductory essay, and the first section then focuses on commodities exported to Western Europe - grain, timber, flax, hemp and other raw materials. The following studies examine how th...

Common sense is supposed to be so obvious it can go without saying. And yet, it has been hard to pin down, partly because its contents are vague and inconsistent, and partly because it has always been difficult to say what kind of sense common sense is. Making Common Sense is an historical account of attempts, from antiquity to the present, to solve this puzzle. The ambiguity began centuries ago with the merger of the common sense, the sensorium commune, a kind of sixth s...

Offering an introduction to the world's seas as a platform for global exchange and connection, Michael North offers an impressive world history of the seas over more than 3,000 years. Exploring the challenges and dangers of the oceans that humans have struggled with for centuries, he also shows the possibilities and opportunities they have provided from antiquity to the modern day.Written to demonstrate the global connectivity of the seas, but also to highlight regional maritime po...

The Science of Synthesis Editorial Board, together with the volume editors and authors, is constantly reviewing the whole field of synthetic organic chemistry as presented in Science of Synthesis and evaluating significant developments in synthetic methodology. Four annual volumes updating content across all categories ensure that you always have access to state-of-the-art synthetic methodology.

The Science of Synthesis Editorial Board, together with the volume editors and authors, is constantly reviewing the whole field of synthetic organic chemistry as presented in Science of Synthesis and evaluating significant developments in synthetic methodology. Four annual volumes updating content across all categories ensure that you always have access to state-of-the-art synthetic methodology.

The Science of Synthesis Editorial Board, together with the volume editors and authors, is constantly reviewing the whole field of synthetic organic chemistry as presented in Science of Synthesis and evaluating significant developments in synthetic methodology. Four annual volumes updating content across all categories ensure that you always have access to state-of-the-art synthetic methodology.

Queer Natures, Queer Mythologies collects in two parts the scholarly work—both published and unpublished—that Sam See had completed as of his death in 2013.In Part I, in a thorough reading of Darwin, See argues that nature is constantly and aimlessly variable, and that nature itself might be considered queer. In Part II, See proposes that, understood as queer in this way, nature might be made the foundational myth for the building of queer communities.With essays b...

The European expansion to Asia was driven by the desire for spices and Asian luxury products. Its results, however, exceeded the mere exchange of commodities and precious metals. The meeting of Asia and Europe signaled not only the beginnings of a global market but also a change in taste and lifestyle that influences our lives even today. Manifold kinds of cultural transfers evolved within a market framework that was not just confined to intercontinental and intra-Asiatic trade. In Europe ...

Borderlands are complex spaces that can involve military, religious, economic, political, and cultural interactions—all of which may vary by region and over time. John W. I. Lee and Michael North bring together interdisciplinary scholars to analyze a wide range of border issues and to encourage a nuanced dialogue addressing the concepts and processes of borderlands.Gathering the voices of a diverse range of international scholars, Globalizing Borderlands Studies in Europe and N...