Tracing the subject from the Middle Ages to the present, David Nash outlines the history of blasphemy as a concept - from a species of heresy to modern understandings of it as a crime against the sacred and individual religious identity. Investigating its appearance in speech, literature, popular publishing and the cinema, he disinters the likely motives and agendas of blasphemers themselves, as well as offering a glimpse of blasphemy's victims. In particular, he seeks to understand why this seemingly medieval offence has reappeared to become a distinctly modern presence in the West.

Blasphemy deals with popular and literary culture, religion and racism, law, social power, and international relations. Its scope extends from the Old Testament to the fatwa imposed on Salman Rushdie and the Gulf War.

Recent books by, among others, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens have thrust atheism firmly into the popular, media, and academic spotlight. This so-called New Atheism is arguably the most striking development in western socio-religious culture of the past decade or more. As such, it has spurred fertile (and often heated) discussions both within, and between, a diverse range of disciplines. Yet atheism, and the New Atheism, are by no means co-extensive. Interesting though it indeed is, the New Atheism is a single, historically and culturally specific manifestation of positive atheism (the that there is/are no God/s), which is itself but one form of a far deeper, broader, and more significant global phenomenon. The Oxford Handbook of Atheism is a pioneering edited volume, exploring atheism—understood in the broad sense of 'an absence of belief in the existence of a God or gods'—in all the richness and diversity of its historical and contemporary expressions. Bringing together an international team of established and emerging scholars, it probes the varied manifestations and implications of unbelief from an array of disciplinary perspectives (philosophy, history, sociology, anthropology, demography, psychology, natural sciences, gender and sexuality studies, literary criticism, film studies, musicology) and in a range of global contexts (Western Europe, North America, post-communist Europe, the Islamic world, Japan, India). Both surveying and synthesizing previous work, and presenting the major fruits of innovative recent research, the handbook is set to be a landmark text for the study of atheism.

Originally published: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1908. xxviii, 547 pp. Although Maitland never intended to publish these lectures, they have long been regarded as one of the best introductions to the English Constitution. Delivered in the winter of 1887 and spring of 1888, and edited and published in 1908 by one of Maitland's students, Herbert A.L. Fisher, they cover the period from 1066 to the end of the nineteenth century. Rather than a narrative historical format, they focus on describing the work of the constitution during five distinct moments in English history: 1307, 1509, 1625, 1702 and 1887. They provide an entry to some of the major concepts he later expounded in his seminal work written with Sir Frederick Pollock, The History of English Law. Widely considered the father of modern legal history, FREDERIC WILLIAM MAITLAND 1850-1906] was an English jurist and historian best known for The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I (1895), written with Sir Frederick Pollock. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge and studied at Lincoln's Inn, London. Maitland was called to the bar in1876 and practiced until 1884, when he became a reader in English law (1884) and professor (1888) at Cambridge. He founded the Selden Society in 1887. Hailed for his original outlook on history, his works had a profound influence on legal scholarship and remain important today.

McLaughlin, Andrew C. The Courts, The Constitution and Parties. Studies in Constitutional History and Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1912. vii, 299 pp. Reprinted 2001 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. LCCN 00-058812. ISBN 1-58477-155-0. Cloth. $95. * "This volume is composed of five papers or addresses. Two of them are careful historical discussions of the origin of the American doctrine that courts can declare acts of the legislature void; a third shows the influence of theories of political philosophy upon the ante-bellum controversy regarding the nature of the Union; and the remaining two consider the significance of American political parties and their real function in popular government. The two papers first mentioned seem to be contributions of great and permanent value to the discussion of their topic. The style of all of these essays is easy and delightful and their argument sane, thoughtful, and persuasive." J.P.H. Harv. L. Rev. 26:280-281 cited in Marke, A Catalogue of the Law Collection at New York University (1953) 377.

John Marshall [1755-1835] was appointed Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1801 and ushered in its era of power and independence. He presided over the court for 34 years. The major decisions that are included here demonstrate his formulation of fundamental principles of American constitutional law. This collection presents all of John Marshall's decisions in the Supreme Court and on the circuit in context of their times and their effect on constitutional history, through notes to each case written by Joseph P. Cotton, Jr., the editor of this work. 2 vols. xxxvi, 462; v, 464 pp.

Beard, Charles A. The Supreme Court and the Constitution. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1912. vii, 127 pp. Reprinted 1999 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. LCCN 98-50368. ISBN 1-886363-78-1. Cloth. $45. * A thorough analysis of the early history and development of judicial review, from 1787 through Marbury v. Madison. "A strong argument that the constitutional fathers intended to establish judicial review." Carr, The Supreme Court and Judicial Review 293. "The book is based on the most exhaustive examination which has so far been made of the expressed opinions of the men who were most responsible for the adoption of the United States Constitution." Col. L. Rev. 13:87 as cited in Marke, A Catalogue of the Law Collection at New York University 172. Chapters include "The Constitutional Convention of 1787 and Judicial Control," "John Marshall and the Fathers," and "Marbury v. Madison."