This chapter studies how Mark Twain moved the representation of climate control from the intra-diegetic plot to the extra-diegetic level of authorial narration in The American Claimant (1892). Drawing on the nascent practice of large-scale climate control by business-minded engineers such as Edward Powers and Robert Dyrenforth, backed by the US government, Twain granted the reader of his proto-modernist novel climatic agency at the same time that the influential mapmaker and publisher Levi Walter Yaggy was granting climatic agency to US pupils through his interactive representation of the planet in his Geographical Study (1887) and Portfolio (1893). Making anthropogenic climate change a narrative form, the chapter concludes that Twain’s proto-modernist work shows how fiction prescribes our understanding of climate, but also how the notion of climate control influenced his fiction: the novel’s universe becomes susceptible to readerly change, providing a proto-modernist challenge to the stable diegetic confines of the realist novel.

Although closely linked in typically developing children, cognitive and language development may diverge in IA children – particularly when they arrive already speaking their birth language. In such cases, cognitive growth may outpace language acquisition in the new linguistic environment. This chapter examines the relevant literature, synthesizing findings from studies that illuminate these dynamics. Special attention is given to the contributions of IA individuals – especially those who enter their new homes with relative proficiency in their mother tongue – to our understanding of the interplay between language and cognition. Assessing the extent to which cognitive deficits resulting from institutional care can be mitigated, and whether such improvements are sustained over time, is essential not only for advancing theoretical knowledge of cognitive development but also for informing effective policies regarding the care of children without parental support.

November 1859 saw the publication and initial serialisation of some of the most influential and enduring books of the nineteenth century, including The Woman in White, which began serialisation in November; the first parts of Beeton’s Book of Household Management; Samuel Smiles’s Self-Help; and Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. The chapter considers the reception of Darwin’s work before looking at how each of these texts is centrally concerned with modes of change, and history. It argues that Beeton and Smiles show how custom can enable change, and that Darwin and Collins share an interest in a non-religious world-view that might in itself force change. All these texts also provoke questions of originality and adaptation, and raise the question of how far originality is actually a possibility. A Shakespeare burlesque shows how texts, along with custom itself, mutate over time.

The brief concluding chapter sums up the main arguments of the book and returns to the King’s refusal to send condolences to Israel after October 7, 2023. It is argued that the invalidation of their perspectives experienced by Jews in Norway after October 7 had strong negative effects on the community and on individuals.

As the large cohort of international adoptees – those placed in new families during the peak of global adoptions at the turn of the twenty-first century – enters adulthood, research on their mental health outcomes has grown substantially. This chapter synthesizes this literature and explores how lifespan trajectories relate to earlier developmental experiences. It considers the interplay of early adversity, cultural transitions, and family dynamics in shaping long-term psychological well-being. Particular attention is given to factors that foster resilience and identity integration, as well as persistent challenges that may emerge across adulthood.

With the breakdown of the peace process as its backdrop, this chapter looks at the radicalization of The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) on questions of Israel and Palestine in the period 2000–2023. LO did not mention Israel or the Palestinians in its ordinary congresses in 1993 and 1997 or in the extraordinary Congress in 1994, that is, during the crucial period of the Oslo Peace Process. However, at the start of the new millennium, a significant shift occurred. By the congresses in 2005 and 2009, LO’s position had become more pronounced. The 2009 congress produced a particularly strong statement on Palestine, emphasizing the need for practical follow-up and reflecting a broader global trend of viewing Israel as a criminal state and Palestinians as passive victims. Trade union leaders accused Israel of genocide. LO’s increasingly radical stance on Israel, including calls for a comprehensive boycott and labeling Israel as an apartheid state, reflects the influence of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. The chapter traces the anti-Zionism within Norway’s social democratic left after the turn of the millennium.

The Introduction presents the main themes of the book. Against the view that Homer’s epic poem is episodic or incoherent, the book reads the poem as a structured narrative driven by intention, miscommunication, and moral reversal. The book encourages the reader to pay close attention to textual details to ‘read the minds’ and understand the motivations of the characters – a methodology aligned with cognitive studies. It argues that the cognitive approach of ‘mind-reading’ is practised by all interpreters of fictional texts, including ancient commentators. The Introduction ends with an overview of the content of the book.

This chapter maps Plato’s epistemological vocabulary, focusing on the relationship between technē and epistēmē. It argues that while the two terms are often used interchangeably, they are best understood as interchangeable via synecdoche. The chapter introduces a structured diagram to clarify associations, contrasts, and overlaps among key terms such as phronēsis, sophia, dēmiourgos, idiōtēs, empeiria, and parergon. This analysis lays the groundwork for understanding how Plato deploys these terms throughout his corpus.

The development of commerce and integrated market exchange is perhaps one of the most dramatic factors determining the nature and evolution of human economies. Among other things, these developments become closely linked to urban communities and other central places as points to assemble and distribute labor and goods. These places, when they developed as part of the broader process of commercialization, were transformative, increasing the ease of day-by-day interactions, specialization, and freedom of movement.