Cambridge University Press Research Articles

On Topic Validity in Speaking Tests, by Lynda Tylor and Nick Saville (Eds.), Cambridge University Press, 2021, 233 pp., $67.75 U.S.

On Topic Validity in Speaking Tests, by Lynda Tylor and Nick Saville (Eds.), Cambridge University Press, 2021, 233 pp., $67.75 U.S.

On the linear stability of the Lamb–Chaplygin dipole

The Lamb–Chaplygin dipole (Lamb, Hydrodynamics, 2nd edn, 1895, Cambridge University Press; Lamb, Hydrodynamics, 3rd edn, 1906, Cambridge University Press; Chaplygin, Trudy Otd. Fiz. Nauk Imper. Mosk. Obshch. Lyub. Estest., vol. 11, 1903, pp. 11–14) is one of the few closed-form relative equilibrium solutions of the two-dimensional (2-D) Euler equation characterized by a continuous vorticity distribution. We consider the problem of its linear stability with respect to 2-D circulation-preserving perturbations. It is demonstrated that this flow is linearly unstable, although the nature of this instability is subtle and cannot be fully understood without accounting for infinite-dimensional aspects of the problem. To elucidate this, we first derive a convenient form of the linearized Euler equation defined within the vortex core which accounts for the potential flow outside the core while making it possible to track deformations of the vortical region. The linear stability of the flow is then determined by the spectrum of the corresponding operator. Asymptotic analysis of the associated eigenvalue problem shows the existence of approximate eigenfunctions in the form of short-wavelength oscillations localized near the boundary of the vortex and these findings are confirmed by the numerical solution of the eigenvalue problem. However, the time integration of the 2-D Euler system reveals the existence of only one linearly unstable eigenmode and since the corresponding eigenvalue is embedded in the essential spectrum of the operator, this unstable eigenmode is also shown to be a distribution characterized by short-wavelength oscillations rather than a smooth function. These findings are consistent with the general results known about the stability of equilibria in 2-D Euler flows and have been verified by performing computations with different numerical resolutions and arithmetic precisions.

The Book Review Column

I am a fan of Sheldon Ross' textbooks on probability; they are concise and full of interesting exercises. He and Erol Pek¨oz have just released a second edition of A Second Course in Probability (Cambridge University Press, 2023), which promises a rigorous but accessible and modern introduction to a selection of advanced topics in the field. Javier Esparza's work includes using automata to study model checking, program analysis and verification. His book (coauthored with Michael Blondin) Automata Theory: An Algorithmic Approach (The MIT Press, 2023) emphasizes efficient constructions of (ω-)automata and other algorithmic concerns. Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by New Yorker staff writer Kyle Chayka (Doubleday, 2024) investigates the pervasive impact of algorithms on consumption and distribution of culture and explores ways to reclaim our freedom from the digital overlord.

How science tracks understanding

This review article discusses the book Understanding How Science Explains the World by Kevin McCain, published by Cambridge University Press (2022). With an impressive combination of clarity and depth, McCain provides the reader with a firm grasp of how science works, of what science aims to achieve, and of what makes science a successful epistemic enterprise. The review article reconstructs the book’s overall dialectic and identifies one potential point of tension which concerns the role of truth or accuracy in scientific knowledge.

Form Copy, Agree and Clitics

Abstract Here it is proposed that Form Copy (Chomsky, Noam, T. Daniel Seely, Robert C. Berwick, Sandiway Fong, M. A. C. Huybregts, Hisatsugu Kitahara, Andrew McInnerney, Yushi Sugimoto. 2023. Merge and the strong minimalist thesis. In Cambridge elements. Cambridge University Press), applied to features, can derive a very simple form of Agree without the need for the distinction between interpretable and uninterpretable features or the Activity Condition. Furthermore, since Roberts (Roberts, Ian. 2010. Agreement and head movement: Clitics and defective goals. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press) derives head-movement from Agree, Form Copy can be similarly extended in such a way as to derive the effects of head-movement. This conclusion holds independently of whether head-movement is a purely morphophonological operation or whether there are narrow-syntactic cases. It is also shown how an account of cliticisation, both proclisis and enclisis, can be derived, updating the proposals in Roberts (Roberts, Ian. 2010. Agreement and head movement: Clitics and defective goals. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press) in terms of Form Copy.

Karine K. Varley, Vichy’s Double Bind. French Collaboration between Hitler and Mussolini during the Second World War , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2023, 216 p.

Karine K. Varley, Vichy’s Double Bind. French Collaboration between Hitler and Mussolini during the Second World War , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2023, 216 p.

“Populism and Democracy.” A review of The Age of Discontent: Populism, Extremis and Conspiracy Theories in Contemporary Democracies By MathewRhodes‐Purdy, RachelNavaree and StephenUtych, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 2024. $34.99 (pbk); $110.00 (hbk); $110.00 (ebk)

“Populism and Democracy.” A review of The Age of Discontent: Populism, Extremis and Conspiracy Theories in Contemporary Democracies By MathewRhodes‐Purdy, RachelNavaree and StephenUtych, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 2024. $34.99 (pbk); $110.00 (hbk); $110.00 (ebk)

Low cycle fatigue behavior and life prediction of a directionally solidified alloy

Low cycle fatigue behavior and life prediction of a directionally solidified alloy

Competence or Experience

Competence or Experience

Good Governance in Nigeria: Rethinking Accountability and Transparency in the Twenty-First Century. By Portia Roelofs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 264p. $99.99 cloth.

Good Governance in Nigeria: Rethinking Accountability and Transparency in the Twenty-First Century. By Portia Roelofs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 264p. $99.99 cloth.

Accountability Reconsidered: Voters, Interests, and Information in US Policymaking. Edited by Charles M. Cameron, Brandice Canes-Wrone, Sanford C. Gordon, and Gregory A. Huber. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2023. 300p. $99.99 cloth.

Accountability Reconsidered: Voters, Interests, and Information in US Policymaking. Edited by Charles M. Cameron, Brandice Canes-Wrone, Sanford C. Gordon, and Gregory A. Huber. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2023. 300p. $99.99 cloth.

States and Nature: The Effects of Climate Change on Security. By Joshua W. Busby. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. 334p. $99.99 cloth, $34.99 paper.

States and Nature: The Effects of Climate Change on Security. By Joshua W. Busby. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022. 334p. $99.99 cloth, $34.99 paper.

The Government of Chance: Sortition and Democracy from Athens to the Present. By Yves Sintomer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. 314p. $110.00 cloth.

The Government of Chance: Sortition and Democracy from Athens to the Present. By Yves Sintomer. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. 314p. $110.00 cloth.

Voter Backlash and Elite Misperception: The Logic of Violence in Electoral Competition. By Steven C. Rosenzweig. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. 200p. $110.00 cloth.

Voter Backlash and Elite Misperception: The Logic of Violence in Electoral Competition. By Steven C. Rosenzweig. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. 200p. $110.00 cloth.

The Classical and Christian Origins of American Politics: Political Theology, Natural Law, and the American Founding. By Kody W. Cooper and Justin Buckley Dyer. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2022. 225p. $99.99 cloth, $34.99 paper.

The Classical and Christian Origins of American Politics: Political Theology, Natural Law, and the American Founding. By Kody W. Cooper and Justin Buckley Dyer. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2022. 225p. $99.99 cloth, $34.99 paper.

Making International Institutions Work: The Politics of Performance. By Ranjit Lall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. 412p. $130.00 cloth.

Making International Institutions Work: The Politics of Performance. By Ranjit Lall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023. 412p. $130.00 cloth.

Interpreting or Reporting? An Analysis of Journalistic Interventionism Across Western European Countries

ABSTRACT The literature comparing journalistic roles around the world highlights different ways of understanding journalistic work across countries. One of the main differences in conceptualising concerns the journalist’s propensity for intervention: where in some contexts it is common practice for journalists to intervene with commentary and interpretation; while in others there is a tendency to adopt a more neutral reporting style. Through the conceptual lens of journalistic role performance, this study investigates the performance of the interventionist role within its two analytical sub-dimensions (content-driven interventionism and style-driven interventionism), together with the specific indicators related to each of the two (interpretation, journalist point of view, call to action, qualifying adjectives, and use of the first person) across nine Western European countries. Contrary to expectations, our data show a higher level of interventionism—particularly content-driven—in Central and Northern European countries when compared to those belonging to the polarised pluralist model theorised by Hallin, D. C., and P. Mancini. (2004. Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics. Cambridge University Press). Moreover, in almost all the countries considered, when journalists do intervene with their own voice, they predominantly do so through rhetorical devices of interpretation and by expressing their point of view.

Democracy for the Democrats? Historical Origins of Soviet and Post-Soviet Intelligentsia

Tomila Lankina’s The Estate Origins of Democracy in Russia, published by Cambridge University Press in 2021, is a very powerful and thought-provoking book. It contains a bold argument, exhibiting the author’s erudition across several disciplines, as well as an unusual richness of empirical evidence and an exquisite prose style. The book delves into the intricacies of social resilience in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. Contrary to the notion that the Bolshevik Revolution served as “the great leveler,” Lankina demonstrates the enduring presence of Tsarist-era estates within the social fabric throughout the Soviet era and even into the post-Soviet period. The estates encompassed a system of legal classifications that stratified Russian imperial society into distinct categories: aristocracy, clergy, merchants, and meshchane (petty bourgeoisie), as well as peasants. Lankina’s primary focus lies upon the meshchane, an estate that, by the twilight of the tsarist regime, accounted for approximately 10 percent of the empire’s total population.1 Within Lankina’s narrative, the meshchane emerged as an imperial middle class – comprising individuals such as small shopkeepers, rentiers, doctors, teachers, engineers – who mostly resided in urban centers and towns. Many among this group hailed from ethnic and religious minority backgrounds, including Jewish, Polish, German, Old Believers, and others.

Book review: Ronojoy Sen, House of the People: Parliament and the Making of Indian Democracy

Ronojoy Sen, House of the People: Parliament and the Making of Indian Democracy. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press, 2022, 311 pp., ₹1,295

Current global status of male reproductive health.

Current global status of male reproductive health.