New and Noteworthy

In Therapy We Trust: America's Obsession with Self-Fulfillment
Eva S. Moskowitz

From self-esteem talk on Oprah to self-help books like Negaholics and Your Sacred Self, from magazine quizzes that test your "happiness quotient" to headlines blaring the supposed deepest emotions of public figures—we live in an age fixated on emotional well-being. more

Women's Writing in Italy, 1400–1650
Virginia Cox

This is the first comprehensive study of the remarkably rich tradition of women’s writing that flourished in Italy between the fifteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Virginia Cox documents this tradition and both explains its character and scope and offers a new hypothesis on the reasons for its emergence and decline. more

The Long Baby Boom: An Optimistic Vision for a Graying Generation
Jeff Goldsmith

In 2006, the first baby boomers turned 60, unleashing a veritable tidal wave of gloomy punditry, advertising for financial services, and forecasts of impending national bankruptcy. In The Long Baby Boom, Jeff Goldsmith counters the predictions of such "catastropharians" with a far more optimistic scenario. more

Alien Volcanoes
Rosaly M. C. Lopes and Michael W. Carroll
with illustrations by Michael W. Carroll<br>foreword by Arthur C. Clarke

At once terrifyingly destructive and awe-inspiringly beautiful, volcanoes have long fascinated humankind. From Vesuvius and Etna to Krakatau and Mount Saint Helen’s, these molten rock- and ash-spewing geysers have destroyed whole cities and countless lives, and altered the course of history. more

God in La Mancha: Religious Reform and the People of Cuenca, 1500–1650
Sara T. Nalle
The Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science

"Until the middle of the seventeenth century, when complacency got the better of the good intentions of the 1560s, the Counter-Reformation triumphed in Spain. In this process, Nalle shows in her thorough study, persuasion was more effective than coercion. more