UDM Libraries Book of the Week

By Andreas Kruck Credit rating agencies play a powerful and highly contentious role in the governance of global financial markets. In the decades before the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-10, market actors as well as public regulators came to increasingly rely on the credit risk assessments provided by private rating agencies. States and international bodies made use of credit ratings for a range of regulatory purposes, thus transferring (quasi- )regulatory authority to the agencies. This book introduces an original neoinstitutionalist...

By Robert N. McCauley The battle between religion and science, competing methods of knowing ourselves and our world, has been raging for many centuries. Now scientists themselves are looking at cognitive foundations of religion–and arriving at some surprising conclusions. Over the course of the past two decades, scholars have employed insights gleaned from cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and related disciplines to illuminate the study of religion. In Why Religion is Natural and Science Is Not, Robert N. McCauley, one of...

In this terrific 60-minute master class, Brian Cox covers the fine points of tragic acting. The London Times calls this video, “Full of common sense … In the end, it is we actors who are on the spot … Scenes that start rehearsal as straightforward Shakespeare babble assume dramatic shape …” “Tragedy. A rollicking good time he has with it too – menacing whispers, daggers and blood obviously have their funny side, at least with his fascinated young audience. Among...

By Marshall L. Fisher and Ananth Raman Retailers today are drowning in data but lacking in insight: They have huge volumes of information at their disposal. But they’re unsure of how to sort through it and use it to make smart decisions. The result? They’re struggling with profit-sapping supply chain problems including stock-outs, overstock, and discounting. It doesn’t have to be that way. In The New Science of Retailing, supply chain experts Marshall Fisher and Ananth Raman explain how to...