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History student Malcolm Archibald sees his first full length book published this month. Malcolm, who expects to graduate in July, completed the volume while in his second year - a feat which his supervisor architectural historian Professor Charles McKean described as "rare and impressive".

Privateers and "packet rats", sugar and slaves... the colourful range of characters and chapters in the history of the North Atlantic Ocean is brought to life in Across the Pond published by Whittles Publishing.

As a postman in the Borders, Malcolm was captivated with history to the extent that he took courage, gave up his job, and pursued the hobby into higher education. Malcolm was accepted into the University of Dundee's energetic history department as a mature student and moved to Dundee with his wife, daughter and son. It was while pursuing a course on American studies here - researching Columbus, Spanish galleys, whalers, slavers and the tobacco trade - that Malcolm found himself drawn further and further into the fascinating world of the North Atlantic.

"Today we think of it as a geographical boundary or barrier but in the past it was a thoroughfair and a market place. The more I researched the more impressed I was with the impact of the sea on the people. The sea was central to people's lives."

Instead of turning out an essay on the subject the second year student ended up writing a book.

Among those who particularly captivated Malcolm were the "Packet rats" - hardy Liverpool men who would board the packet ships bound for New York in their bare feet with nothing more than a knife and a little food if they were lucky. "They were a tough bunch but hard working and the subject of many a line of doggerel verse."

Now Malcolm is exploring the history of whaling for his fourth year dissertation. This is his sixth publication, but his first full length book.

The Making of the Museum of Scotland
by Charles McKean
National Museums of Scotland Publishing
ISBN 1 9016 6311 6

Museum buildings house, display and contextualise their objects. This book tells the story of how a national collection achieved a purpose-built and award-winning building of international quality - the Museum of Scotland.

Great buildings don't just happen. How did the Museum of Scotland come to be sited where it is? What was its purpose? How was it built? Why was the government prepared to pay for it? This is an account of the marriage of two contrasting museums; of royal protocol; of curators, architects, objects, construction work, stone samples, concrete quality and noise - all vying for time and space.

This beautifully illustrated volume is the story of the last great history museum to be built in the twentieth century.

Regional Planning and Development in Europe
by David Shaw, Peter Roberts and James Walsh
Ashgate: ISBN: 0 7456 1395 X

Regional planning and development has emerged as a central theme in many European Union policy initiatives and is also a key component of the UK devolution "project". Although many parts of the UK and mainland Europe have extensive experience of regional planning and development, there have been few attempts to assess which policies are most successful, and why.

Through a series of case studies and summaries of recent research, the book identifies the characteristics and major outputs of regional policies. These evaluations provide an insight into the operation of a range of EU and national approaches. The final section speculates on the likely future evolution of European regional and spatial policy.

Scotland and the Slavs: Cultures in Contact, 1500- 2000
by Murray Frame and Mark Cornwall,
Oriental Research Partners.
ISBN: 0 89250 351 3

The essays in this book are based on two conferences which looked at the general theme of Scots-Slavs links. The first was held at the Royal Society of Edinburgh in October 1996 to mark the 300th anniversary of the Russian Navy (which many Scots helped to build), and the second was convened by the editors at the University of Dundee in June 1997 to explore Scotland's historic links with Russia and Eastern Europe. The twelve essays in the book include contributions from scholars in Russia, Eastern Europe, North America and the UK including Murray Frame's own article looking at Dundee's links with Russia. The cover of the book reproduces an eighteenth-century portrait, by a Russian artist, of Sir Samuel Greig, Grand Admiral of Russia, who originally hailed from Inverkeithing. The portrait now hangs in Dunfermline Museum.

Urban Regeneration
by Peter Roberts and Hugh Sykes
Sage: ISBN: 0 7619 6717 6

Urban regeneration has grown in importance in recent years and now encompasses many aspects of economic, social and environmental improvement. Prior to the publication of this book, there was no single source of analysis and information on urban regeneration theory and practice. A central theme in the book is the need for regeneration to be guided by a comprehensive strategy and for this strategy to be subject to monitoring and regular review. Other key topics include the role of urban regeneration in promoting social justice and the environmental enhancement of towns and cities. This book attempts to fill the gap in the literature and to foster a partnership between the academic world and practice. A series of chapters deal with the key elements of urban regeneration. Most of the chapters have been prepared by a team of authors and contain practical examples of urban regeneration, including guidance on what not to do.

Purkinje's Vision: The Dawning of Neuroscience
by Nicholas J. Wade and Josef Broek
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
ISBN: 0 8058 3642 X

Purkinje's first monograph on subjective vision (published in 1823) is translated in this book by Wade and Broek, together with assessments of Purkinje's contributions to vision and the origins of neuroscience. Jan Evangelista Purkinje (1787-1869) has left his mark throughout the body. There are Purkinje cells in the brain, Purkinje fibres around the heart, Purkinje images are reflected from the optical surfaces of the eye, a Purkinje tree -the shadows of the retinal blood vessels - can be rendered visible, and at twilight we can experience the Purkinje shift which is the difference in the visibility of coloured objects when seen in daylight and twilight - blue objects appear lighter and red ones darker in twilight. As a medical student he investigated subjective visual phenomena because he believed that visual illusions revealed visual truths.

Purkinje was partially responsible for fashioning the two foundations on which neuroscience could be securely built: the cell and neuron doctrines. The emergence of both doctrines was dependent on the development of achromatic microscopes and microtomes so that the sections of anatomical specimens could be examined in greater detail.

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