Examine new trends in the writing of new history—and what they mean to information science! History has been devalued, causing a lack of career prospects for historians, a decrease in vocations to the history profession, and historical discontinuity between generations. History Under Debate: International Reflection on the Discipline is a recap of the crucial Second International Historia a Debate conference, held on July 17, 1999 in Santiago de Compostela. This book details the comparative critical perspectives on history, historians, their audiences, and the coming trends that will inevitably impact information science. The in-depth examination provides innovative approaches to historians as they redefine their discipline in relation to the global society of the new millennium while presenting invaluable insights for librarians, social scientists, and political scientists. History Under Debate: International Reflection on the Discipline examines how the writing of history in the twenty-first century is revitalized by international comparative historiography, thanks to new technologies and the multinational integration processes in economy, politics, culture, and academics. The first section discusses the Historia a Debate (HaD) Forum and Movement, detailing the need for change to restore history as a vital global subject in modern times. The remainder of the book consists of reflective and comparative views on the study of history and historiography as well as history in and about Spain and its relation to the rest of the world. The book explores new ways for moving the discipline beyond sources and source criticism alone to a different concept of the historical profession as a science with a human subject that discovers the past as people construct it. Included in this book is the English translation of the HaD Manifesto—a proposal designed to unify historians of the twenty-first century and ensure a new dawn for history, its writings, and its teachings. History Under Debate: International Reflection on the Discipline includes vital discussions on: “Linguistic Turn,” Postmodernism, and Deconstruction gender studies and social history objectivity and subjectivity in historical interpretation multiple views of history from differing times and places history as criticism, literature, and reconstruction History Under Debate: International Reflection on the Discipline is an essential resource that teaches historians, librarians, social scientists, and humanists how to use cross-border development and new global historiographic networks to bring hope for a future in history.

The Power of Cities focuses on Iberian cities during the lengthy transition from the late Roman to the early modern period, with a particular interest in the change from early Christianity to the Islamic period, and on to the restoration of Christianity. Drawing on case studies from cities such as Toledo, Cordoba, and Seville, it collects for the first time recent research in urban studies using both archaeological and historical sources. Against the common portrayal of these cities characterized by discontinuities due to decadence, decline and invasions, it is instead continuity – that is, a gradual transformation – which emerges as the defining characteristic. The volume argues for a fresh interpretation of Iberian cities across this period, seen as a continuum of structural changes across time, and proposes a new history of the Iberian Peninsula, written from the perspective of the cities. Contributors are Javier Arce, María Asenjo González, Antonio Irigoyen López, Alberto León Muñoz, Matthias Maser, Sabine Panzram, Gisela Ripoll, Torsten dos Santos Arnold, Isabel Toral-Niehoff, Fernando Valdés Fernández, and Klaus Weber.

Social policy scholars and practitioners work with concepts such as “welfare state” and “social security” but where do these concepts come from and how has their meaning changed over time? Which are the dominant social policy concepts and how are they contested? What characterises social policy language in specific countries and regions of the world and how do social concepts travel between countries? Addressing such questions in a systematic manner for the first time, this edited collection, written by a cross-disciplinary group of leading social policy researchers, analyses the concepts and language used to make sense of contemporary social policy. The volume focuses on OECD countries located on four different continents: Asia, Australasia, Europe, and North America. Combining detailed chapters on particular countries with broader comparative chapters, the book strikes a rare balance between case studies and transnational perspectives. It will be of interest to academics and students in social policy, social work, political science, sociology, history, and public administration, as well as practitioners and policy makers.

From the welfare state’s origins in Europe, the idea of human welfare being organized through a civilized, institutionalized and uncorrupt state has caught the imagination of social activists and policy-makers around the world. This is particularly influential where rapid social development is taking place amidst growing social and gender inequality. This book reflects on the growing academic and political interest in global social policy and ‘globalizing welfare’, and pays particular attention to developments in Northern European and North-East Asian countries.

The Companion to Music in the Age of the Catholic Monarchs, edited by Tess Knighton, offers a major new study that deepens and enriches our understanding of the forms and functions of music that flourished in late medieval Spanish society. The fifteen essays, written by leading authorities in the field, present a synthesis based on recently discovered material that throws new light on different aspects of musical life during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabel (1474-1516): sacred and secular music-making in royal and aristocratic circles; the cathedral music environment; liturgy and power; musical connections with Rome, Portugal and the New World; theoretical and unwritten musical practices; women as patrons and performers; and the legacy of Jewish musical tradition. Contributors are Mercedes Castillo Ferreira, Giuseppe Fiorentino, Roberta Freund Schwartz, Eleazar Gutwirth, Tess Knighton, Kenneth Kreitner, Javier Marín López, Ascensión Mazuela-Anguita, Bernadette Nelson, Pilar Ramos López, Emilio Ros-Fábregas, Juan Ruiz Jiménez, Richard Sherr, Ronald Surtz, and Jane Whetnall.