November 2018

Works on mining, medieval trade, theology, dramatic fiction, and the Scottish bard make up the last bookshelf of 2018.

1.

Author	Nean Allman
Degree	Geology
Book	A History: Placer Dome Inc. and Placer Development Limited

This history records the highlights of a world-class Canadian mining company’s evolution over 80 years. It includes the recollections of former employees, retirees and five former chief executive officers as well as descriptions of the company's mine development and operation successes. Placer Development Limited, one of the predecessor companies to Placer Dome Inc., first saw the light of day in British Columbia in 1926. It was the brainwave of two unique individuals: William Addison Freeman was an Australian corporate lawyer with several mining interests; Charles Arthur Banks was a New Zealand mining engineer, based in Vancouver while looking after a British Columbia silver mine. They company they founded had its first success in gold dredging operations in what is now Papua New Guinea. The decades that followed saw Placer make a name for itself developing and operating mines around the world, more often than not bringing them into production “ahead of schedule and under budget”. In 1987 Placer Development merged with two other august Canadian mining companies to continue as Placer Dome Inc. Years later, in 2006, when Placer Dome was acquired by Barrick Gold Corporation, the company had over 50 mining operations to its credit, was operating 16 mines at the time, mostly gold, and had five significant projects in its pipeline.

A History: Placer Dome Inc. and Placer Development Limited

2.

Author	Marie Carter
Degree	English Literature
Book	Holly's Hurricane

In the year 2040, the destructive Hurricane Diana descends on New York City. Holly Williams, an architect and immigrant from England flees to her home country, staying with her ailing stepdad in Boston, England. Her mother, who has Alzheimer's is living in a nursing home nearby. Holly's purpose in life, it seems, has been to design factories and offices for robotics companies while overseeing the demolition of historic New York buildings. While seeking refuge from the hurricane that has destroyed New York City to the point that is barely recognizable, Holly begins to have strange hallucinations in which a mysterious stranger guides her through some of the city’s forgotten and dramatic past.

Holly's Hurricane

3.

Author	Elizabeth A. Lambourn
Degree	History of Art
Book	Abraham's Luggage: A Social Life of Things in the Medieval Indian Ocean World

From a single merchant's list of baggage begins a history that explores the dynamic world of medieval Indian Ocean exchanges. This fresh and innovative perspective on Jewish merchant activity shows how this list was a component of broader trade connections that developed between the Islamic Mediterranean and South Asia in the Middle Ages. Drawing on a close reading of this unique twelfth-century document, found in the Cairo Genizah and written in India by North African merchant Abraham Ben Yiju, Lambourn focuses on the domestic material culture and foods that structured the daily life of such India traders, on land and at sea. This is an exploration of the motivations and difficulties of maintaining homes away from home, and the compromises that inevitably ensued. Abraham's Luggage demonstrates the potential for writing challenging new histories in the accidental survival of apparently ordinary ephemera.

A braham's Luggage

4.

Author	David S. Robinson
Degree	PhD Systematic Theology
Book	Christ and Revelatory Community in Bonhoeffer's Reception of Hegel

How is God revealed through the life of a human community? Dietrich Bonhoeffer's theological ethics begins from the claim to 'Christ existing as community', one of several variations on G.W.F. Hegel's philosophy of religion. David Robinson argues that Bonhoeffer's eclectic use of Hegel's thought, from the socialising notion of 'objective Geist' to a trenchant depiction of the 'cleaving' mind, should not be obscured by his polemic against Idealism. He also offers close readings of Hegel's texts in order to appraise Bonhoeffer's criticism, particularly the charge of a 'docetic' distinction between idea and appearance in Christology. Meanwhile, historical context is provided for Hegel's 'deconfessionalisation' of the church vis-à-vis the state and Bonhoeffer's recovery of the ecclesio-political mark of suffering as non-recognition. The author provides a vital enquiry into the social compositions of faith and reason.

Christ and Revelatory Community in Bonhoeffer's Reception of Hegel

5.

Author	Patrick Scott
Degree	PhD English Literature
Book	Robert Burns: A Documentary Volume

This large-format illustrated book collects primary source materials on Burns's life and writing, the places he lived, his early reading, the publishing history of his works, and contemporary comment, through to the first obituaries, posthumous editions, and some early accounts of visiting his birthplace. Contextual material documents such topics as Ayrshire agriculture, the law-suit against Burns's father, the minutes of the Mauchline kirk session, the duties of an excise officer, song-editing, the sedition trials in the 1790s, the regulations of the Dumfries Volunteers, and much else. Along with over 300 documents and extracts, the book includes 34 manuscript facsimiles, 45 sidebars on special topics, 10 maps, and over 100 supporting illustrations. Many of the manuscripts and other illustrations come from the G. Ross Roy Collection at the University of South Carolina. The aim is that newcomers will find an accessible introduction to Burns, and that even seasoned Burnsians will find, along with familiar material, items that are new to them.

Robert Burns: A Documentary Volume

Your book

If you are a member of the alumni community and have recently published a book, we would be delighted to include it in the Alumni Bookshelf. Email the information, along with your degree details, to Brian Campbell:

Email Brian Campbell

Please note

Books are added to the bookshelf in order of submission. All of the further information links listed are the external websites of the book publisher, the author, or the bookseller. The University of Edinburgh is not responsible for the content and functionality of these sites.

This article was published on 28 Nov, 2018