The murgas are troupes of performers, musicians, writers, and creators who, during Montevideo's Carnival, perform on the tablados, temporary stages built in the neighborhoods of Uruguay's capital city each year. Throughout the period of Uruguay's subjection to a brutal dictatorship and in the following era of "democratization," the murgas, envisioned originally as popular theater, were transformed into a symbol of social resistance, celebrated by many and perceived by others as menacing and subversive.

One of the standard thought experiments in philosophy involves a "congenital Crusoe," a human being growing up in complete isolation, like Robinson Crusoe before he meets Friday. In Friday's Footprint, psychiatrist Leslie Brothers argues that there is no Crusoe without Friday: we are evolved to be social animals, and our minds can only be said to function in a social context. "Just as gold's value derives not from its chemical composition but from public agreement, the essence of thought is not its isolated neural basis, but its social use." Brothers provides a thorough (though somewhat jargon-laden) tour of current research on the social functions of the brain. She has a particularly interesting discussion of psychoanalysis, which she uses as an example of how thought is molded by conversation.

The marriage of Virginia and Leonard Woolf is best understood as a dialogue of two outsiders about ideas of social and political belonging and exclusion. These ideas infused the written work of both partners and carried over into literary modernism itself, in part through the influence of the Woolfs' groundbreaking publishing company, the Hogarth Press. In this book, the first to focus on Virginia Woolf's writings in conjunction with those of her husband, Natania Rosenfeld illuminates Leonard's sense of ambivalent social identity and its affinities to Virginia's complex ideas of subjectivity.

The Blackwell Companion to Major Classical Social Theorists provides a comprehensive review of classical social theory. Containing original essays especially commissioned for this volume, leading experts and practitioners examine the life and work of 12 major theorists.

    * Includes 12 original essays by leading scholars on major classical social theorists.
    * Covers the key figures who shaped social theory, such as Marx, Weber and Durkheim, as well as additional classical theorists such as Harriet Martineau and W. E. B. Du Bois.
    * Essays include biographical sketches, the social and intellectual context, and the impact of the thinker's work on social theory generally.
    * Includes bibliographies of the theorist's most important works as well as key secondary works.
    * Can be used in conjunction with The Blackwell Companion to Major Contemporary Social Theorists, edited by George Ritzer, for a complete reference source in social theory.

A History of Byzantium uses the chronological political history of the empire as a narrative frame, but balances politics with a consideration of social and economic life and the rich culture of Byzantium.