The Highest Exam provides a detailed, research-driven survey of the gaokao, China’s high-stakes college entrance exam. Ruixue Jia and Hongbin Li—past test-takers themselves—show how the exam system shapes schooling, serves state interests, inspires individualistic attitudes, and has lately become a touchstone in US education debates.

Bruni (1370-1444) was the best-selling author of the 15th century, and this book is generally considered the first modern work of history. This volume concludes the edition, the first in English translation. It includes Bruni's Memoirs, an autobiographical account of the events of his lifetime, and cumulative indexes to the complete work.

Bembo (1470-1547), a Venetian nobleman, later a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, was the most celebrated Latin stylist of his day and was widely admired for his writings in Italian. Named official historian of Venice in 1529, Bembo began to compose in Latin his continuation of the city's history in 12 books, covering the years from 1487-1513.

Victor Fuchs presents a comprehensive, integrated account of recent changes in family, work, health, and education in the United States.

The so-called Golden Age of Athens, during and after the primacy of Pericles, was in fact a time of ruinous culture wars. Hubris shows how Pericles’s circle used the Parthenon as a propaganda vehicle to flatter the Athenians, and how internal clashes hastened the rise of Alcibiades, the egocentric playboy who brought the city to defeat.

Neeti Nair explores the trend toward legal protection for the religious "sentiments" of majorities in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Nair offers historical context for contemporary persecution and rising religious fundamentalism, and highlights how growing political solicitation of religious sentiments has fueled a secular resistance.

I Am the Wounded Victim of a Suicide Bomber presents a selection of poems, translated into English and including the Persian texts, by Fazel Ahad Ahadi, a scholar and poet driven from his home in Afghanistan by the political and social disruptions that have beset his country since the mid-twentieth century.