Integral geometry originated with problems on geometrical probability and convex bodies. Its later developments have proved to be useful in several fields ranging from pure mathematics (measure theory, continuous groups) to technical and applied disciplines (pattern recognition, stereology). The book is a systematic exposition of the theory and a compilation of the main results in the field. The volume can be used to complement courses on differential geometry, Lie groups, or probability or differential geometry. It is ideal both as a reference and for those wishing to enter the field.

Born into slavery in rural Louisiana, Rose Herera was bought and sold several times before being purchased by the De Hart family of New Orleans. Still a slave, she married and had children, who also became the property of the De Harts. But after Union forces captured New Orleans in 1862 during the American Civil War, Herera’s owners fled to Havana, taking three of her small children with them. Beyond Freedom’s Reach is the true story of one woman’s quest to rescue her children from bondage. In a gripping, meticulously researched account, Adam Rothman lays bare the mayhem of emancipation during and after the Civil War. Just how far the rights of freed slaves extended was unclear to black and white people alike, and so when Mary De Hart returned to New Orleans in 1865 to visit friends, she was surprised to find herself taken into custody as a kidnapper. The case of Rose Herera’s abducted children made its way through New Orleans’ courts, igniting a custody battle that revealed the prospects and limits of justice during Reconstruction. Rose Herera’s perseverance brought her children’s plight to the attention of members of the U.S. Senate and State Department, who turned a domestic conflict into an international scandal. Beyond Freedom’s Reach is an unforgettable human drama and a poignant reflection on the tangled politics of slavery and the hazards faced by so many Americans on the hard road to freedom.

Graphic depictions of crime in Mexico abound in the global imagination, fueled not merely by media representations, but also by an abundant body of scholarship that reproduces grotesque, simplistic characterizations of Mexico’s people, cities and towns as crime-ridden and almost inherently violent. These representations, however, often lack evidence and forgo important contextual analyses, not to mention fail to incorporate the perspectives of its actors in the research development process. This collection of essays shows how community-based research efforts to examine practices like kidnapping, migrant smuggling, human trafficking, sex work and citizen-led forensics in Mexico can effectively correct methodological and conceptual gaps present in Mexico’s dominant organized crime narrative, while providing effective mechanisms to inform academic and policy debates. This easy-to-read volume provides a much-needed re-assessment of Mexico’s organized crime rhetoric, and also outlines a pathway for those interested in developing critical empirical research on illicit and criminalized practices. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Victims & Offenders.

Víctor Montejo’s story recounts the near-death experience of his grandfather, Antonyo Mekel Lawuxh (Antonio Esteban), who fell gravely ill in Guatemala in the late 1920s but survived to tell his family and community what he had witnessed of the afterlife. Narrated from Antonio’s perspective, the reader follows along on a journey to the Maya underworld of Xibalba, accompanied by two spirit guides. Antonio traverses Xibalba’s levels of heaven and hell, encountering instructive scenes of punishment and reward: in one chapter, conquistadors are perpetually submerged in a pool of their victims’ blood; in another, the souls of animal abusers are forever unable to cross a crocodile-infested river. Infused with memory, the author illustrates Guatemala’s unique religious syncretism, exploring conceptions of heaven and hell shared between Catholicism and Indigenous Maya spirituality. In the tradition of both the Popol Vuh and the Divine Comedy, Montejo’s narrative challenges easy categorization—this is a work of family history, religious testimony, political allegory, and sacred literature.

The Haitian Revolution has generated responses from commentators in fields ranging from philosophy to historiography to twentieth-century literary and artistic studies. But what about the written work produced at the time, by Haitians? This book is the first to present an account of a specifically Haitian literary tradition in the Revolutionary era. Beyond the Slave Narrative shows the emergence of two strands of textual innovation, both evolving from the new revolutionary consciousness: the remarkable political texts produced by Haitian revolutionary leaders Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and popular Creole poetry from anonymous courtesans in Saint-Domingue's libertine culture. These textual forms, though they differ from each other, both demonstrate the increasing cultural autonomy and literary voice of non-white populations in the colony at the time of revolution. Unschooled generals and courtesans, long presented as voiceless, are at last revealed to be legitimate speakers and authors. These Haitian French and Creole texts have been neglected as a foundation of Afro-diasporic literature by former slaves in the Atlantic world for two reasons: because they do not fit the generic criteria of the slave narrative (which is rooted in the autobiographical experience of enslavement); and because they are mediated texts, relayed to the print-cultural Atlantic domain not by the speakers themselves, but by secretaries or refugee colonists. These texts challenge how we think about authorial voice, writing, print culture, and cultural autonomy in the context of the formerly enslaved, and demand that we reassess our historical understanding of the Haitian Independence and its relationship to an international world of contemporary readers.

To help Meredith Moore and her brothers deal with the changes in their lives, their grandfather began telling them rich stories about their ancestors, who were advisers to kings in a magical and far-off land. Their grandfather stopped telling stories, however, when their grandmother, his high school sweetheart, passed away from cancer. Now, Meredith is an 18-year-old, freshmen in college, and her brothers have been kidnapped. The police have no leads, and the family has not received any sort of ransom demands from the kidnappers. Meredith's grandfather is convinced that Cameron and Tyler were taken to a magical world, the same world as the setting of his stories. While her grandfather is on a much needed vacation, Meredith investigates a noise coming from the basement and discovers a door that leads to a magical world. When Meredith passes through the door, she begins an adventure that teaches her the truth about her family's history and leads her to her brothers.

Beyond the Bottom Line: Integrating the UN Global Compact into Management Practice is the first book to look at how the Ten UN Global Compact Principles and the sustainability agenda can be incorporated into business practice. The UN Global Compact is the largest corporate sustainability initiative and, with over 12,000 participating organizations, provides a major influence on global business sustainability practices. Its mission is to guide organizations in how to (1) do business responsibly by aligning their strategies and operations with Ten Principles on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption; and (2) take strategic actions to advance broader societal goals, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with an emphasis on collaboration and innovation. This new book addresses head-on some of the most persistent managerial challenges faced by businesses and organizations today. To what extent are businesses able to practice responsible management with regard to the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact? How can managers of organizations comprehensively and pragmatically address the risks and responsibilities concerning these complex and changing issues in their policies and practice? It also offers a platform for academics to confront some of the most intriguing intellectual challenges on this topic.