Book reviews

CHINA

YI‐TSI MEI FEUERWERKER. Ideology, Power, Text: self‐Representation and the Peasant ‘Other’ in Modern Chinese Literature. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998. 321 pp. $A90.00, hardcover.

PO‐CHING YIP and DON RIMMINGTON. Basic Chinese: a Grammar and Workbook. London: Routledge, 1998. vii, 221 pp. £12.99, paper.

MARY ANN FARQUHAR. Children's Literature in China: from Lu Xun to Mao Zedong. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1999. $US62.50, hardcover.

RAY HUANG. Broadening the Horizons of Chinese History. Discourses, Syntheses, and Comparisons. Armonk, NY; London, England: M. E. Sharpe, 1999. viii, 274 pp. Tables, graphs, notes, index. US$56.95, hardcover; US$22.95, paper.

GLORIA HEYUNG CHUN. Of Orphans and Warriors: inventing Chinese American Culture & Identity. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2000. 198 pp. Introduction, notes, bibliography, index. US$59.00, hardcover; US$19.00, paper.

JAPAN, KOREA

PURNENDRA JAIN (ed). Australasian Studies of Japan: essays and Annotated Bibliography (1989–1996). Rockhampton, Queensland: Central Queensland University Press, 1998. 341 pp. Introduction, essays, annotated bibliography, index. $A34.95, paper.

SOUTH, WEST & CENTRAL ASIA

S. R. N. MURTHY. Vedic View of the Earth — aGeological Insight into the Vedas. Reconstructing Indian History and Culture, no. 14. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 1997. xxvi, 306 pp. Preface, figures, glossary, bibliography, index. Rs 400, hardcover.

SUBRATA K. MITRA and V. B. SINGH (eds). Democracy and Social Change in India: a Cross‐Sectional Analysis of the National Electorate. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1999. 339 pp. Introduction, tables, figures, appendices, bibliography, index. Rs 425, hardcover.

SOUTHEAST ASIA

ALBERT LAU. A Moment of Anguish: Singapore in Malaysia and the Politics of Disengagement. Singapore: Times Academic Press, 1998. viii, 312 pp. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. US$39.00, hardcover; US$25.00, paper (outside ASEAN and Hong Kong).

MICHAEL D. BARR. Lee Kuan Yew: the Beliefs Behind the Man. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, Monograph Series no. 85, 2000. £40.00, hardcover.

GENERAL ASIA

HUNG‐MAO TIEN and TUN‐JEN CHENG (eds). The Security Environment in the Asia‐Pacific. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2000. 368 pp. Tables, index. A$24.95, paper.     

Some theses completed in the United Kingdom, 1974

The North Atlantic World in the Seventeenth Century by K. G. Davies. Empire to Nations: Expansion in America 1713–1824 by Max Savelle. (Volumes IV and V of Europe and the World in the Age of Expansion, edited by Boyd C. Shafer) Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press and Oxford University Press, 1974. Pp. xiv+366, xxi+335. £5.75 each.

The Royal Navy and North America: The Warren Papers, 1736–1752 edited by Julian Gwyn. London: Navy Records Society, 1975. Pp. 463; £6.00

Empire or Independence by I. R. Christie and B. W. Labaree. Phaidon Press, 1976. Pp. ix + 322; £5.95.

The Spirit of ‘76: The Growth of American Patriotism Before Independence by Carl Bridenbaugh. New York: Oxford University Press, 1975. Pp. xiv+ 162; £5.25.

Kingston, Jamaica: Urban Development and Social Change, 1692–1962 by Colin G. Clarke. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1975. Pp. xi+270; £15.00.

Convicts and Colonial Society 1788–1853 edited by Lloyd Evans and Paul Nicholls. Stanmore, N.S.W.: Cassell Australia, 1976. Pp. viii+250; $5.95.

Religion in Early Australia edited by Jean Woolmington. Stanmore, N.S.W.: Cassell Australia, 1976. Pp. xiii + 174; $5.95.

The North‐West Mounted Police and Law Enforcement 1873–1905 by R. C. Macleod. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1976. Pp. xi+218; £10.50.

The Round Table and Imperial Union by John Kendle. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1975. Pp. xvi + 306; £8.75.

The Lion's Share: A Short History of British Imperialism 1850–1970 by Bernard Porter. London: Longman, 1975. Pp. xiii+408. £6.95 hard cover; £3.75 paper back.     

Pterygotid eurypterid chelicera from the Lower Devonian of Victoria

A single eurypterid (Arthropoda: Chelicerata) chelicera, assigned to Acutiramus sp. cf. A. bohemicus, is described from the Wilson Creek Shale, Turtons Creek inlier, north of Foster, Victoria, Australia. The specimen comprises the proximal portion of both rami. This pterygotid chelicera supports an Early Devonian (?Lochkovian) age for the stratum at this locality, by comparison with occurrences of A. bohemicus from the Czech Republic and closely related species in northern Gondwana.     

Redescription of Parexus recurvus,an Early Devonian acanthodian from the Midland Valley of Scotland

Parexus Agassiz was one of the first Early Devonian ‘spiny sharks’ to be described. The genus is readily recognized by the large size and ornament of its anterior dorsal fin spine. Although two species were erected, reappraisal of all known specimens indicate they should be synonymized in the type species Parexus recurvus. Farnellia tuberculata Traquair, originally described as a vertebral column, is actually tooth rows of jaw dentition, and is also now considered to be a junior synonym of P. recurvus. Parexus has a perichondrally ossified scapulocoracoid of typical acanthodian shape, and diagnostic features of the family Climatiidae, but has distinctive scales comprising appositional growth zones that closely resemble those of the putative stem chondrichthyan Seretolepis elegans Karatajute-Talimaa.