and Conditional Process Analysis

In all Western countries, people are leaving work earlier than ever before – at a time when their life expectancy keeps increasing. How has this paradoxical process been brought about? What is the impact of labour markets and social policy? And what will be the effect of this massive lengthening of retirement? Time for Retirement addresses the 'aging of society' and the restructuring of the life course in terms of the changing relationship between work and reitrement. Detailed information based on the retirement policies of seven countries provides the basis for a comparative analysis aimed at assessing the range of possible political responses to these changes. The editors and contributors are among the leading social scientists in the field of life-course studies, aging, and social policy.

In all Western countries, people are leaving work earlier than ever before – at a time when their life expectancy keeps increasing. How has this paradoxical process been brought about? What is the impact of labour markets and social policy? And what will be the effect of this massive lengthening of retirement? Time for Retirement addresses the 'aging of society' and the restructuring of the life course in terms of the changing relationship between work and reitrement. Detailed information based on the retirement policies of seven countries provides the basis for a comparative analysis aimed at assessing the range of possible political responses to these changes. The editors and contributors are among the leading social scientists in the field of life-course studies, aging, and social policy.

The study of households and everyday life is increasingly recognized as fundamental in social archaeological analysis. This volume addresses the household as a process and as a conceptual and analytical means through which we can interpret social organization from the bottom up. Using detailed case studies from Neolithic Greece, Stella Souvatzi examines how the household is defined socially, culturally and historically; she discusses household and community, variability, production and reproduction, individual and collective agency, identity, change, complexity and integration. Her study is enriched by an in-depth discussion of the framework for the household in the social sciences and the synthesis of many anthropological, historical and sociological examples. It reverses the view of the household as passive, ahistorical and stable, showing it instead to be active, dynamic and continually shifting.

Through the application of mimetic theory Skidmore examines the social impact of capital punishment upon the community, and explores the cathartic nature of this practice within key Pentateuchal texts. Skidmore shows how Mimetic theorists such as Girard advance a view that a community ravaged by vengeance and blood feuds may be saved from extinction by scapegoating one of their own. As the community select a common scapegoat, and vent their collective violence upon this person, peace and order are restored. Though an in-depth analysis of various passages, Skidmore reveals this process in key Pentateuchal texts concerning capital punishment. These observations suggest that biblical capital punishment may have functioned as a means of protecting the Israelite community by managing rivalry and violence.

The Domesday Book has long been used as a source of information about legal and economic matters, but its bearing upon the geography of medieval England has been comparatively neglected. The extraction of geographical information involves problems of interpretation, since it necessitates an analysis into elements and their subsequent reconstruction on a geographical basis. But this process makes available new materials for forming a general picture of the relative prosperity of different areas, as well as for data for the comparative study of varying geographic and economic factors. This volume on the northern counties of England contains chapters on Yorkshire by I. S. Maxwell, Nottinghamshire, Cheshire, and Lancashire by I. B. Terrett, Derbyshire by Dr Holly and the Northern Counties by H. C. Darby.

During the Industrial Revolution, class relations were defined largely through the struggle to control the terms of exchange in the market. Integrating aspects of economic and social history as well as industrial sociology, this book examines the sources of the perception of the market on the part of both capital and labour and the elaboration of their alternative market ideologies. Of particular import is the argument that working-class culture expressed a fundamental acceptance of the utility of the market, a point that is supported by a detailed analysis of the labour process, workplace bargaining, and early-nineteenth-century trade unionism. The determination of market relations in this era therefore became a function of both class power and ideological prescription.

Aggregation is the process of combining several numerical values into a single representative value, and an aggregation function performs this operation. These functions arise wherever aggregating information is important: applied and pure mathematics (probability, statistics, decision theory, functional equations), operations research, computer science, and many applied fields (economics and finance, pattern recognition and image processing, data fusion, etc.). This is a comprehensive, rigorous and self-contained exposition of aggregation functions. Classes of aggregation functions covered include triangular norms and conorms, copulas, means and averages, and those based on nonadditive integrals. The properties of each method, as well as their interpretation and analysis, are studied in depth, together with construction methods and practical identification methods. Special attention is given to the nature of scales on which values to be aggregated are defined (ordinal, interval, ratio

This book describes the essential tools and techniques of statistical signal processing. At every stage theoretical ideas are linked to specific applications in communications and signal processing using a range of carefully chosen examples. The book begins with a development of basic probability, random objects, expectation, and second order moment theory followed by a wide variety of examples of the most popular random process models and their basic uses and properties. Specific applications to the analysis of random signals and systems for communicating, estimating, detecting, modulating, and other processing of signals are interspersed throughout the book. Hundreds of homework problems are included and the book is ideal for graduate students of electrical engineering and applied mathematics. It is also a useful reference for researchers in signal processing and communications.

The authors of this book have developed a new and stimulating approach to the analysis of the transitions of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia to democracy and a market economy. They integrate interdisciplinary theoretical work with elaborate empirical data on some of the most challenging events of the twentieth century. Three groups of phenomena and their causal interconnection are explored: the material legacies, constraints, habits and cognitive frameworks inherited from the past; the erratic configuration of new actors, and new spaces for action; and a new institutional order under which agency is institutionalized and the sustainability of institutions is achieved. The book studies the interrelations of national identities, economic interests, and political institutions with the transformation process, concentrating on issues of constitution making, democratic infrastructure, the market economy, and social policy.

The authors of this book have developed a new and stimulating approach to the analysis of the transitions of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia to democracy and a market economy. They integrate interdisciplinary theoretical work with elaborate empirical data on some of the most challenging events of the twentieth century. Three groups of phenomena and their causal interconnection are explored: the material legacies, constraints, habits and cognitive frameworks inherited from the past; the erratic configuration of new actors, and new spaces for action; and a new institutional order under which agency is institutionalized and the sustainability of institutions is achieved. The book studies the interrelations of national identities, economic interests, and political institutions with the transformation process, concentrating on issues of constitution making, democratic infrastructure, the market economy, and social policy.

This book looks at numerous financial crises, beginning with Mexico in 1994–5, the Asian crisis of 1997–8, and the crises in Russia, Brazil, and other Latin American countries in 1998–9. Such contemporary crises illustrate the risks of financial volatility and macroeconomic instability during the process of economic growth and development. They also raise issues regarding the management of risks associated with liberalization and global integration, particularly in financial markets. Concerns about the implications of international capital flows for developing countries have grown with the sharply increased volume of these flows since the late 1980s. The essays in this volume provide analysis and evidence on the determinants of currency and banking crises in emerging markets, the specific roles of capital flows and the financial sector, and the appropriateness of various policy responses.

This book presents a fresh view of crucial processes of change, offering through an interdisciplinary analysis, fresh insights into both the history and literature of the land in early modern England. In the period 1500 to 1660 the practices and values of rural England were exposed to unprecedented challenges. Within this context a wide variety of commentators examined and debated the changing conditions, a process documented in the pages of sermons, pamphlets, satiric verse and drama, husbandry and surveying manuals, chorographical tracts, and rural poetry. The book argues that important movements revised assumptions about agrarian England, and shaped bold new appreciations of rural life. While Tudor moralists responded to social crises by asserting ideals of rural stability and community, by the seventeenth century a discourse of improvement promoted divergent notions of thrift and property.

This book looks at numerous financial crises, beginning with Mexico in 1994–5, the Asian crisis of 1997–8, and the crises in Russia, Brazil, and other Latin American countries in 1998–9. Such contemporary crises illustrate the risks of financial volatility and macroeconomic instability during the process of economic growth and development. They also raise issues regarding the management of risks associated with liberalization and global integration, particularly in financial markets. Concerns about the implications of international capital flows for developing countries have grown with the sharply increased volume of these flows since the late 1980s. The essays in this volume provide analysis and evidence on the determinants of currency and banking crises in emerging markets, the specific roles of capital flows and the financial sector, and the appropriateness of various policy responses.

This book presents a fresh view of crucial processes of change, offering through an interdisciplinary analysis, fresh insights into both the history and literature of the land in early modern England. In the period 1500 to 1660 the practices and values of rural England were exposed to unprecedented challenges. Within this context a wide variety of commentators examined and debated the changing conditions, a process documented in the pages of sermons, pamphlets, satiric verse and drama, husbandry and surveying manuals, chorographical tracts, and rural poetry. The book argues that important movements revised assumptions about agrarian England, and shaped bold new appreciations of rural life. While Tudor moralists responded to social crises by asserting ideals of rural stability and community, by the seventeenth century a discourse of improvement promoted divergent notions of thrift and property.

This book offers a comprehensive analysis and re-evaluation of Hume's Treatise of Human Nature. Kant viewed Hume as the sceptical destroyer of metaphysics. Yet for most of this century the consensus among interpreters is that for Hume scepticism was a means to a naturalistic, anti-sceptical end. The author seeks here to achieve a balance by showing how Hume's naturalism leads directly to a kind of scepticism even more radical than Kant imagined. In the process it offers the first systematic treatment of Humean associationalist psychology, including detailed exploration of his views on time-consciousness, memory, aspect-seeing, and the comparison with animal reason. Within this framework, Hume's views on language, belief, induction, causality, and personal identity emerge in a novel and revealing light.

This book is a rigorous introduction to the abstract theory of partial differential equations. The main prerequisite is familiarity with basic functional analysis: more advanced topics such as Fredholm operators, the Schauder fixed point theorem and Bochner integrals are introduced when needed, and the book begins by introducing the necessary material from the theory of distributions and Sobolev spaces. Using such techniques, the author presents different methods available for solving elliptic, parabolic and hyperbolic equations. He also considers the difference process for the practical solution of a partial differential equation, emphasising that it is possible to solve them numerically by simple methods. Many examples and exercises are provided throughout, and care is taken to explain difficult points. Advanced undergraduates and graduate students will appreciate this self-contained and practical introduction.

This book explores the political process by which property rights are defined and enforced in two traditional states in colonial Ghana. The case studies within the book ask how colonial institutions transformed indigenous political and economic life; and how colonization and decolonization affected prospects for future economic development and stability in Africa. The introductory chapter outlines a theory of the transformation of property rights systems. The remaining empirical chapters refine this theory through a detailed analysis of the transformation of property rights within an African context. These chapters draw explicitly on rational choice theories to analyse indigenous actors' attempts to redefine and enforce property rights to land by 'reinventing' the traditions of their respective communities. These theories help to understand why property rights systems across Africa remain fluid and insecure.

This book explores the political process by which property rights are defined and enforced in two traditional states in colonial Ghana. The case studies within the book ask how colonial institutions transformed indigenous political and economic life; and how colonization and decolonization affected prospects for future economic development and stability in Africa. The introductory chapter outlines a theory of the transformation of property rights systems. The remaining empirical chapters refine this theory through a detailed analysis of the transformation of property rights within an African context. These chapters draw explicitly on rational choice theories to analyse indigenous actors' attempts to redefine and enforce property rights to land by 'reinventing' the traditions of their respective communities. These theories help to understand why property rights systems across Africa remain fluid and insecure.

Originally published in 1937, this book presents a comprehensive analysis of the nature of visual perception. The text is divided into four main sections: the first part focuses on tracing the phenomenal development of the perceptual process; the second deals with the relation of the perceptual content to some of the more important affective and quasi-affective individual states; the third discusses the objective structure of the visual field; the fourth briefly describes some aspects of the genetic development of the perceptual content in childhood. An appendix section on the tachistoscope and indices are also included. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in perspectives on the nature of visual perception.

Many of the complex problems faced by decision makers involve uncertainty as well as multiple conflicting objectives. This book provides a complete understanding of the types of objective functions that should be used in multiattribute decision making. By using tools such as preference, value, and utility functions, readers will learn state-of-the-art methods to analyze prospects to guide decision making and will develop a process that guarantees a defensible analysis to rationalize choices. Summarizing and distilling classical techniques and providing extensive coverage of recent advances in the field, the author offers practical guidance on how to make good decisions in the face of uncertainty. This text will appeal to graduate students and practitioners alike in systems engineering, operations research, business, management, government, climate change, energy, and healthcare.

Although American literature is a standard subject in the American college curriculum, a century ago few people thought it should be taught there. Elizabeth Renker uncovers the complex historical process through which American literature overcame its image of aesthetic and historical inferiority to become an important field for academic study and research. Renker's extensive original archival research focuses on four institutions of higher education serving distinct regional, class, race and gender populations. She argues that American literature's inferior image arose from its affiliation with non-elite schools, teachers and students, and that it had to overcome this social identity in order to achieve status as serious knowledge. Renker's revisionary analysis is an important contribution to the intellectual history of the United States and will be of interest to anyone studying, teaching or researching American literature.

Although American literature is a standard subject in the American college curriculum, a century ago few people thought it should be taught there. Elizabeth Renker uncovers the complex historical process through which American literature overcame its image of aesthetic and historical inferiority to become an important field for academic study and research. Renker's extensive original archival research focuses on four institutions of higher education serving distinct regional, class, race and gender populations. She argues that American literature's inferior image arose from its affiliation with non-elite schools, teachers and students, and that it had to overcome this social identity in order to achieve status as serious knowledge. Renker's revisionary analysis is an important contribution to the intellectual history of the United States and will be of interest to anyone studying, teaching or researching American literature.

Amplified climate change and ecological sensitivity of polar and cold climate environments are key global environment issues. Understanding how projected climate change will alter surface environments in these regions is only possible when present day source-to-sink fluxes can be quantified. The book provides the first global synthesis and integrated analysis of environmental drivers and quantitative rates of solute and sedimentary fluxes in cold environments, and the likely impact of projected climate change. The focus on largely undisturbed cold environments allows ongoing climate change effects to be detected and, moreover, distinguished from anthropogenic impacts. A novel approach for co-ordinated and integrative process geomorphic research is introduced to enable better comparison between studies. This highly topical and multidisciplinary book, which includes case studies covering Arctic, Antarctic, and alpine environments, will be of interest to graduate students and researchers

Constitutionalism offers a governance order a set of normative values including, amongst others, the rule of law, divisions of power and democratic legitimacy. These normative values regulate the relationship between constituent and constituted power holders. Such normative constitutional legal orders are commonplace in domestic systems but the global constitutionalisation debate seeks to identify a constitutional narrative beyond the state. This book considers the manner in which the global constitutionalisation debate has neglected constitutionalism within its proposals. It examines the role normative constitutionalism plays within a constitutionalisation process, and considers the use of community at both the domestic and global governance levels to identify the holders of constituent and constituted power within a constitutional order. In doing so this analysis offers an alternative narrative for global constitutionalisation based within normative constitutionalism.

One of the objectives of investigations carried out within the Human Adaptability section of the International Biological Programme was to obtain comparable data on population characteristics over a wide range of ecosystems. This volume provides a brief survey of the variables affecting the physiological work capacity of various populations. The items considered include body weight, fatness, maximum oxygen intake, muscular strength, and the process of oxygen transport from the air to the working muscles. The discussion is based largely on data collected under the auspices of the IBP, using methods standardised for the programme. The influence of race, heredity, environment and disease are considered, and a detailed analysis is made of various classes of athlete. The material will be useful to human and environmental physiologists, anthropologists, and those interested in physical education.

The increasing understanding of individual differences in response to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, resulting from genetic and ethnical differences, has increased the potential for individualized treatment for patients, resulting in improved pregnancy and live-birth outcomes. This illustrated book summarizes, and provides updates on, the most recent developments in individualized infertility treatment and embryo selection techniques. Individualization is not only confined to the different steps in the ovarian stimulation process and the luteal phase support, but also to embryo selection techniques, which include, among others, the analysis of embryo development pattern and genetic testing. Chapters cover a multitude of topics, ranging from oocyte maturation and immunological testing to fertilization technique in the IVF laboratory and preparation for optimal endometrial receptivity in cryo cycles. Essential reading for IVF specialists and embryologists in IVF Clinics and also

Agility and innovation are necessary to achieve global excellence and customer value in twenty-first century business; yet most approaches to business process engineering sacrifice these in favor of operational efficiency and economics. Moreover, the IT systems used to automate and encapsulate business processes are unresponsive to the dynamic business environment. Mitra and Gupta provide insight to close this gap - showing how innovation can be systematized with normalized patterns of information, how business processes and information systems may be tightly aligned, and how these processes and systems can be designed to automatically adapt to change by reconfiguring shared patterns of knowledge. A modular approach to building business systems that parallels that of object oriented software is presented. Practical templates required for accelerating integration, analysis and design are provided. This book will appeal to consultants, analysts, and managers in IT as well as researchers

Scholars have generally assumed that authoritarianism and rule of law are mutually incompatible. Convinced that free markets and rule of law must tip authoritarian societies in a liberal direction, nearly all studies of law and contemporary politics have neglected that improbable coupling: authoritarian rule of law. Through a focus on Singapore, this book presents an analysis of authoritarian legalism. It shows how prosperity, public discourse, and a rigorous observance of legal procedure have enabled a reconfigured rule of law such that liberal form encases illiberal content. Institutions and process at the bedrock of rule of law and liberal democracy become tools to constrain dissent while augmenting discretionary political power - even as the national and international legitimacy of the state is secured. This book offers a valuable and original contribution to understanding the complexities of law, language and legitimacy in our time.

Scholars have generally assumed that authoritarianism and rule of law are mutually incompatible. Convinced that free markets and rule of law must tip authoritarian societies in a liberal direction, nearly all studies of law and contemporary politics have neglected that improbable coupling: authoritarian rule of law. Through a focus on Singapore, this book presents an analysis of authoritarian legalism. It shows how prosperity, public discourse, and a rigorous observance of legal procedure have enabled a reconfigured rule of law such that liberal form encases illiberal content. Institutions and process at the bedrock of rule of law and liberal democracy become tools to constrain dissent while augmenting discretionary political power - even as the national and international legitimacy of the state is secured. This book offers a valuable and original contribution to understanding the complexities of law, language and legitimacy in our time.

Plautus' Casina is a lively and well composed farce. The plot, which concerns the competition of a father and his son for the same girl and the various scurrilous tricks employed in the process, gives full scope to Plautus' inventiveness and richly comic language. The editors' aim is to establish the play as one of the liveliest of ancient comedies, and in their introduction and notes to make the reader continually aware of the conditions of an actual stage performance. They discuss the background and conventions of Roman comedy and by offering a complete metrical analysis they help the reader to appreciate the original musical structure of the play. The edition is intended primarily for use by students at school and university but will be of value to anyone interested in reading the play in the original.

This pioneering book addresses an important gap in the literature by comparing the role of the public bureaucracies in policy implementation in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam. It highlights the importance of the policy context, especially the commitment of the government in allocating the necessary resources and the support of the implementers, as well as the public bureaucracy's effectiveness, as the critical factors responsible for effective policy implementation. The comparative analysis shows that the public bureaucracies in Singapore and Malaysia are more effective in policy implementation than their counterparts in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam because of their favourable policy contexts and higher level of organizational effectiveness. The focus on policy context and the public bureaucracy's role in the policy-making process and its implementation of two ASEAN policies will be of interest to policymakers, civil servants, scholars and student

There remains substantial agreement among the international community on many aspects of the contemporary UN drug control regime. However, diverging views on the non-medical and non-scientific use of a range of controlled substances make drug policy an increasingly contested and transitionary field of multinational cooperation. Employing a fine-grained and interdisciplinary approach, this book provides the first integrated analysis of the sources, manifestations and sometimes paradoxical implications of this divergence. The author develops an original explanatory framework through which to understand better the dynamic and tense intersection between policy shifts at varying levels of governance and the regime's core prohibitive norm. Highlighting the centrality of the harm reduction approach and tolerant cannabis policies to an ongoing process of regime transformation, this book examines the efforts of those actors seeking to defend the existing international control framework and expl

There remains substantial agreement among the international community on many aspects of the contemporary UN drug control regime. However, diverging views on the non-medical and non-scientific use of a range of controlled substances make drug policy an increasingly contested and transitionary field of multinational cooperation. Employing a fine-grained and interdisciplinary approach, this book provides the first integrated analysis of the sources, manifestations and sometimes paradoxical implications of this divergence. The author develops an original explanatory framework through which to understand better the dynamic and tense intersection between policy shifts at varying levels of governance and the regime's core prohibitive norm. Highlighting the centrality of the harm reduction approach and tolerant cannabis policies to an ongoing process of regime transformation, this book examines the efforts of those actors seeking to defend the existing international control framework and expl

Understanding Chinese philosophy requires knowledge of the referential framework prevailing in Chinese intellectual traditions. But Chinese philosophical texts are frequently approached through the lens of Western paradigms. Analysing the most common misconceptions surrounding Western Sinology, Jana Rošker alerts us to unseen dangers and introduces us to a new more effective way of reading Chinese philosophy.Acknowledging that different cultures produce different reference points, Rošker explains what happens when we use rational analysis, a major feature of the European intellectual tradition, to read Chinese philosophy. We rely on impossible comparisons, arrive at prejudiced assumptions and fail to arrive at the truth, the consequence of applying a different methodology to the process of perceiving, understanding and interpreting reality.Instead of transferring concepts and categories from Western sinology onto socio-cultural Chinese contexts, Rošker constructs a new methodology of r

The European Union's Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) is the world's largest carbon trading market. This book offers a new perspective on the EU ETS as a multi-level governance regime, in which the regulatory process is composed of three distinct 'competences' - norm setting, implementation, and enforcement. Are these competences best combined in a single regulator at one level of government or would they be better allocated among a variety of regulators at different levels of government? The combined legal, economic, and political analysis in this book reveals that the actual allocation of competences within the EU ETS diverges from a hypothetical ideal allocation in important ways, and provides a political economy explanation for the existing allocation of norm setting, implementation and enforcement competences among various levels of European government.

Risk Management in the Outdoors is essential reading for students and practitioners involved in outdoor education, sport, recreation and tourism. Written by an expert author team, it explores the value of the outdoors in a society that is increasingly risk- adverse, but at the same time pushes the commodification of high risk and extreme activities. Drawing upon the risk management process from the International Standard on Risk Management, ISO 31000, this text adopts a whole-of-organisation approach to risk management. It covers: • organisational sustainability • legal issues • program design • activities • severe weather scenarios • incident analysis . Risk Management in the Outdoors provides direction on how best to manage the 'down-side' of risk taking while maximising the potential benefits. Each chapter contains focus questions, case studies, action points for practitioners, plus further questions and activities.

The Continental Shelf Delimitation Beyond 200 Nautical Miles provides an up-to-date and informed analysis of the now fast developing, yet confusing, field of the law of maritime delimitation. It examines the procedural matters in relation to the competence of international courts and tribunals in the light of the institutional framework of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and discusses the methodological questions arising out of the delimitation process. The book engages with the key concepts of maritime entitlement, delineation and delimitation with a view to developing a coherent and consistent approach to the delimitation of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles. Essentially, it argues that the delimitation of the continental shelf will be unified with existing maritime delimitation, and a common approach to maritime boundary-making within and beyond 200 nautical miles is likely to emerge.

In a study that contributes to international relations and international political economy theory, Ruth Ben-Artzi raises substantive issues relating to aid, development, international relations and globalization. Regional development banks (RDBs), designed by politicians and economists to maneuver through labyrinths of economic, social, and political development, possess the potential to be central players in the long-term planning involved in healing and advancing poverty-plagued regions. However, RDBs in particular have received little attention. With a systematic analysis comparing four central regional development banks, this book explores why there is a variation in strategy despite similar institutional design. The formal arrangements and raison d'être of RDBs is to assist developing countries in the process of poverty alleviation - a task that is often a risky investment. Focusing on the dichotomy between their banking and development roles, Ben-Artzi demonstrates that RDBs are

This volume provides a concise overview of the career of one of the modern masters of world cinema. Jesse Kalin defines Bergman's conception of the human condition as a struggle to find meaning in life as it is played out. For Bergman, meaning is achieved independently of any moral absolute and is the result of a process of self-examination. Six existential themes are explored repeatedly in Bergman's films: judgment, abandonment, suffering, shame, a visionary picture, and above all, turning toward or away from others. Kalin examines how Bergman examines these themes cinematically, through close analysis of eight films: well known favorites such as Wild Strawberries, The Seventh Seal, Smiles of a Summer Night, and Fanny and Alexander; and important but lesser known works, such as Naked Night, Shame, Cries and Whispers, and Scenes from a Marriage.

Book VI of Livy's Ab urbe condita covers the history of Rome from 390 to 367 BC, a period during which the city, while in the process of recovering from being sacked by the Gauls, faced serious civil disturbance, the resolution of which fundamentally changed the structure of Roman society. This edition considers the historical text from a literary and historiographical perspective: the Commentary contains a detailed analysis of Livy's narrative style and structure, with particular focus on his language and use of commonplaces, while the Introduction discusses the didactic nature of the Ab urbe condita and situates Livy's sophisticated and challenging work in the ancient historiographical tradition. Special attention is paid to the role of the reader, and to the relationship between the style and the kind of history being written. Issues of contemporary Augustan politics are also discussed.