SirReadaLot.org

September 2004, Issue #65

Guide to current contents

Links to Content: How to Buy Antiques, Anthropology, Dressing to Impress, Renaissance Art, Uta Hagen On Acting, Mel Ramos' Pop Art, Photographs of Edmund Teske, Marilyn Monroe's Death, Esmeralda Santiago's Turkish Lover, Business: Keeping Customers, Legacy DEC, Life Lessons from History's Heroes, Classic Children's Literature, Children's Frogs, Selma Lanes on Children’s Literature, First Day of School, Evangelicals & Israel, Bereavement, Why Wine is Good, Joan Nathan's Jewish Holiday Cooking, How to Coerce a Confession, Problems in the Classroom,  Black Men's Depression, Leisure in Later Life, Adolescents, Military History, Foreign Slave Trade to North America, The American Story, The 1927Western Pennsylvania Coal-Workers Strike, Russ Ringsak Says-No, Commentary on Milton's Paradise Lost, Audio: Nero Wolfe Mystery, Hear or Read: Tess Gerritsen's Body Double, Spy Game, Egypt: Child of Atlantis, The Psychology of Plato's Timaeus, Reader in Philosophy of the Arts,  India's Radical Humanist, Renata Salecl on Anxiety. Animal Philosophy, College Money Handbook 2005, Become a Book Publicist, History of Ancient Jerusalem, Preaching Without Jew-Baiting, Mysterious Pyramids of Egypt Masonic Style, Observing the Night Sky, Rock Types Effect Plants, Launching the World's First Satellites, Future History SF, Seven Stories & One Novella: Focus on Character, Sports American Style

Anthropology

At Home With the Bella Coola Indians: T. F. McIlwraith's Field Letters, 1922-1924 edited by John Barker & Douglas Cole (University of British Columbia Press)
Between 1922 and 1924, the young anthropologist T. F. McIlwraith spent eleven months in the isolated community of Bella Coola, British Columbia, living among the people now known as the Nuxalk First Nation. During his time there, McIlwraith gained intimate knowledge of the Nuxalk culture and of their struggle to survive in the face of massive depopulation, loss of traditional lands, and the efforts of the Canadian government to ban the potlatch.

At Home With the Bella Coola Indians was conceived around 1980 after the two editors, John Barker and Douglas Cole, indepen­dently read parts of a rich trove of letters written by McIlwraith from Bella Coola in 1922 and 1923-4. Barker, then a senior at the University of Western Ontario (now associate professor of anthropology at the University of British Columbia), came across McIlwraith's letters to Edward Sapir in the files of the Canadian Ethnology Service. He contacted McIlwraith's widow, who invited him to explore the contents of several cartons containing her husband's papers. Around the same time, Douglas Cole, professor of history at Simon Fraser University, now deceased, had come across some of McIlwraith's letters to A.C. Haddon while carrying out research on the history of Canadian anthropology at Cambridge University. Following Beulah McIlwraith's death in 1978, the family invited Cole to examine McIlwraith's private papers and prepare them for donation to the University of Toronto Archives.

McIlwraith's fieldwork experiences were remarkable. He had arrived in Bella Coola in the twilight years of the old culture, when a handful of elders still lived in the richly adorned longhouses of their ancestors. He gained their trust, becoming a sort of repository into which they poured ancestral mythologies, histories, songs, and details about ceremonials, religion, and social organization. Capping it all, he had the extraordinary good fortune not only to witness but also to participate in the winter ceremonies of a Northwest Coast secret society.

Over the course of two stints of fieldwork in Bella Coola, totaling almost eleven months between 1922 and 1924, McIlwraith wrote about the progress of his work and his experience in weekly letters to his family, less regularly to his professors at Cambridge University and his employer in Ottawa. Written with a keen eye for telling detail, a clear prose style, and an engaging wit, the letters provide a vivid record of his experiences and open a precious window onto the character of anthropological fieldwork on the Northwest Coast during this period. The letters enhance the value of The Bella Coola Indians by allowing readers to better understand the underlying research upon which it was based. But the importance of the letters goes well beyond their connection to anthropology. They are invaluable historical records for Bella Coola in general and for the Nuxalk Nation in particular. McIlwraith's correspondence gives readers a unique glimpse into life in a frontier community, then divided equally between First Nations peoples and White settlers. Even more important, they contain priceless information about the grandparents and great-grandparents of today's Nuxalk, a generation that took crucial steps towards saving the memory of their past culture when all appeared to be lost.

Although written eight decades ago, the letters remain fresh and engaging. They require no introduction to be enjoyed and appreciated. Barker’s aim in compiling At Home With the Bella Coola Indians was to provide readers interested in exploring the greater significance of McIlwraith's correspondence with some background information and discussion about the letters' implications for our understandings of the evolution of anthropological fieldwork and our perspectives on the fate of indigenous peoples. Barker and Cole begin with a brief biography and description of the setting within which McIlwraith carried out his fieldwork. They then turn to a more extended discussion of what the letters reveal about Aboriginal-White relations in Bella Coola in the early 1920s, about the working assumptions underlying McIlwraith's field methods, and about the critical role certain Nuxalk elders played in shap­ing the anthropologist's understanding of their cultural traditions. As a work of "salvage anthropology" that aimed to describe Nuxalk traditions as they may have existed before the arrival of Whites, The Bella Coola Indians neglects the contemporary conditions under which the people actually lived and denies them a role as active agents who shaped their own destinies within the confines of colonialism. The letters open a door to a historical critique of The Bella Coola Indians – not to denounce the work as flawed but to reclaim it as an essential part of a living and con­tinuously evolving Nuxalk culture.

At Home With the Bella Coola Indians, in itself a splendidly comprehensive and thematically coherent study, is a rich complement to McIlwraith’s classic ethnography The Bella Coola Indians, incorporating his letters from the field as well as previously unpublished essays on the Nuxalk. Vivid and lively, the letters show the human side of the anthropologist and provide a fascinating insight into the famous Northwest winter ceremonials and potlatch – events in which McIlwraith was one of the few white men privileged to participate.

Antiques & Collectibles

Secrets to Affordable Antiques: How to Buy More for Less by Frank Farmer Loomis IV (Krause Publications)

Viewers of Antiques Roadshow and similar television shows love to see astronomical appraisals, especially when the piece was purchased for much less. Unfortunately these sky-high amounts make the unknowing collector fear they cannot afford antiques.

Secrets to Affordable Antiques by Frank Farmer Loomis IV challenges this conclusion by proving antiques can be affordable. The book discusses how to buy more antiques for less, just like a pro, starting at 55 cents.

Loomis, a popular radio personality, professional antiques appraiser, and teacher of antiques classes, reveals savvy ways to find antiques and collectibles priced within any budget and presents price ceilings that are safety nets to guarantee success. Loomis' book explains the best time to shop, how to negotiate price, the joy antiques bring and what to avoid. He introduces “Loomisms”, his unique mantras about antiques.

Secrets to Affordable Antiques also covers many types of antiques, including furniture, china, glass, pewter, textiles and paintings. And Loomis emphasizes a rarely heralded aspect of antiques – their sentimental value. He writes, "My goal is to give you the expertise to shop with confidence without breaking the piggy bank while having a grand time."

Lomis delivers entertaining yet practical advice in Secrets to Affordable Antiques, providing proven and valuable tips and techniques to help antiquers find deals.

Antiques & Collectibles / Fashion

Accessories of Dress: An Illustrated Encyclopedia (Dover Books on Fashion) by Katherine Morris Lester & Bess Viola Oerke, with drawings by Helen Westermann  (Dover Publications) is a treat for anyone who delights in decorative accessories of the past, accessories of dress and a reference for costume designers.

From hats, veils, wigs, and cosmetics to cravats, shawls, shoes, and gloves, Accessories of Dress provides an account of the forms of personal adornment men and women have used throughout the ages to enhance their wearing apparel – and the way they look.

Drawing upon a vast number of historical sources, the authors of this refer­ence, Katherine Morris Lester & Bess Viola Oerke, have created an engaging account of historical wearing apparel. To help tell the story of accessories – from hats, veils, and pins to gloves, garters, and walking sticks – the writers have incorporated drawings of illustrations taken from rare books and magazines, photographs of original paintings and sculptures, and authentic observations by commentators on fashions of their times.

Accessories of Dress is an unabridged republication of Accessories of Dress: An Illustrated History of the Frills and Furbelows of Fashion, published by The Manual Arts Press in Peoria in 1940.

The student of the history of dress or design will ... find the book particularly rich in suggestions. – Journal of Home Economics

The book will inevitably find its way onto the working bookshelf of every costume and scene designer, as well as into the library of everyone who finds delight and inspiration in its picture of the follies and foibles of La Comedie Humaine. – Theatre Arts

Describing wigs, cosmetics, cravats, shawls, shoes, handbags, fans, parasols, rib­bons, buttons, and scores of other fashion accessories, the entertaining and enlightening commentary in Accessories of Dress displays the humor and personal charm of the many-sided story of accessorized apparel.

Art History / Renaissance

Renaissance Painting: The Golden Age of European Art edited by Stefano Zuffi, with Francesca Castria Marchetti & Tatjana Pauli & Stefano (Barron’s Educational Series, Inc.)

There are times then the heart of history beats harder and faster. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries perceptions of the world changed repeatedly until they were transformed by the great geographic discoveries that began with Columbus's voyage.

Newest among Barron's large, lavishly illustrated books of full-color art reproductions, Renaissance Painting evokes the art of the European Renaissance as it came into flower during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Radiating from the cities of Florence and Rome, then spreading across Italy and most of the rest of Europe, this era is best known today through the works of such masters as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, and Raphael Sanzio. Paintings by these and many more artists are faithfully reproduced – approximately 500 full-color reproductions of works by Italian, German, Spanish, French, and Flemish artists fill the book. Among the 90 painters represented are the Italians Fra Angelico, Piero della Francesca, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Titian ... the French artists Jean Clouet and masters of the school of Fontainebleau ... the Spaniards El Greco and Luis de Morales ... the Germans Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach . . . northern European masters including Pieter Bruegel, Jan van Eyck, Hieronymus Bosch, and many others. Renaissance Painting’s faithful reproductions represent paintings in churches, palaces, and museums throughout Europe and America.

The 500 paintings reproduced in these pages are arranged chronologically and by country, thus offering a historical overview of one of the supreme eras in world art. A total of more than 90 artists are represented in works now displayed in Florence's Uffizi Gallery and Pitti Palace, the Louvre in Paris, Theatrican Museum and Borghese Gallery in Rome, the Prado in Madrid, the National Gallery in London, New York's Metropolitan Museum, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Kunsthistoriches Museum in Vienna, and many others.

Europe experienced a period of practically continuous, bitter wars (between France and England, between Spain and the Moors, between Catholics and Protestants of various countries, between Jmice and the Itirks, and between Spain, England, and the Netherlands, to mention only a few), through which a difficult balance was achieved among the major powers. Paradoxically, what emerged from these political and territorial conflicts was an awareness of a common soul, shared cultural and spiritual origins, expressed through art, which gave rise to the Renaissance, the true foundation of the "modern" Western world.

Naturally, if we observe past centuries with detachment, without considering the wonders of art, the Renaissance may seem like a great dream that was not wholly realized. Man in the early fifteenth century saw new horizons opening up before him. For Florentine bankers, Flemish merchants, (and the professors and students at the universities in Europe, the rebirth of ancient civilization seemed imminent, giving them a key to understanding every expression of society in the light of classical humanitas, namely more peaceful relations between people and between states, with tolerance and well-being guaranteed by the spread of culture. The revolutionary invention of printing had an enormous impact on communication, helping to spread the great utopian idea of man being the measure of all things, and of a world where physical and intellectual abilities were given full expression. Perspective, a pictorial device to create the illusion of three-dimensionality, was combined with the move toward portraying scenes of everyday life. There was a new interest in depicting light, the air, the seasons, and thus, the image of nature became clearer and more identifiable, after the pioneering stage at the beginning of the sixteenth century came the period of the great masters. Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, Dürer, Holbein, Bosch, and Lucas van Leiden, belong each in his own way to the same era, an era in which ideas seemed to become reality. But the age of certainty was soon replaced by the age of doubt. Partialy responsible for this new climate was the opening up of the Atlantic routes for purposes of colonization and trade, the division of Europe, and the schism in the Church caused by the Reformation, making dialogue difficult and moderation impossible.

As the new powers were emerging, the High Renaissance began to acquire the stylistic features of Mannerism. This was the conclusion of an exciting age of ideas expressed in a period of unparalleled excellence in art.

Renaissance Painting is a beautiful volume whose large and faithful full-color reproductions present a dramatic and absorbing overview of what many historians call the single most important epoch in the history of the visual arts. Supplemented with enlightening text by Stefano Zuffi, Italian art historian and author, here is a glorious tour that surveys many of the finest works produced during the European Renaissance.

Arts / Acting / Education

Uta Hagen’s Acting Class, produced and directed by Pennie du Pont and Karen Ludwig (Applause Theater & Cinema Books) 2 DVDs each 90 minutes (1557836205) Also available on VHS (ISBN 155783511x)
The popular instructional video Uta Hagen’s Acting Class, originally brought out by Applause in VHS format (2002), is now available on DVD.

Uta Hagen, who died in January of 2004, is considered one of the finest acting talents of the modern stage. She won Tony Awards for her electrifying performance as Martha in the original Broadway production of Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and for her creation of Georgie Elgin in Clifford Odets' The Country Girl; an Obie for Mrs. Klein; a special Tony for Lifetime Achievement; and the National Endowment for the Arts National Medal of Arts. Distinguished as well as a teacher of acting (she co-founded with her husband Herbert Berghof the prestigious HB Studio in Manhattan), she has been an inspiration and influence for many of today's stage and screen stars.

In this unique, two-part set of her world-renowned master classes, Hagen shares her observations and insights on the art of acting. Culled from nearly 200 hours of classes over a two-year period, Uta Hagen’s Acting Class takes the viewer inside the classroom itself to witness Hagen's interaction with students as she provides them with practical tools for improving their technique and for achieving the transformation from student to actor.

Interspersed among her constructive critiques of the students' performances – which incorporate her classic Object Exercises – are asides from former students, including Jack Lemmon, Whoopi Goldberg, and Christine Lahti, who recall their classes with her and her enduring influence on their work.

Because I love the theater, and believe it to be not only the actor's training but testing ground, it is with great pleasure that I recommend this video set. How fortunate for actors, directors, and teachers – all over the world – to have the opportunity to study and learn from this devoted and remarkable teacher. – Meryl Streep

Here is Ms. Hagen at her extraordinary best – witty, compassionate, inspired, and inspiring. Will watching this video make you a better actor, director, or teacher? Yes, yes, and yes! – David Hyde Pierce

Uta Hagen’s Acting Class brilliantly captures the master in action. You will literally feel that you are in the room with her as she shares her wealth of knowledge. – Howard Fine, The Howard Fine Acting Studio, Los Angeles

How fortunate that Hagen's teaching has been captured on film so other gen­erations of students will be able to gain greater understanding of their craft... This is an important work... – Library Journal

A Must See for every acting student ... and teacher! – Barbara Corday, Chair Dept. of Cinema/TV, Univ. of Southern California

Uta Hagen has trained a generation of actors with grace, with skill and with a stunning effectiveness .... This unique set provides a singular opportunity for those with an interest in theater or acting to fully understand her remarkable techniques. But for those who have a passion for the field or have decided to make acting their lives, this is not merely a great opportunity. .. it is absolutely required viewing. – Richard Brown, New York University

You will be able to eavesdrop on some late innings of one of America's great artistic treasures... – Dramatics Magazine

[A] serious, insightful guide... – American Library Association Booklist

As the student actors rethink, reshape and rework their scenes based on her comments, Uta Hagen’s Acting Class becomes a study of the very essence of acting itself. It speaks to the aspiring actor, the seasoned performer, and to everyone who appreciates what goes into the making of a believable and effective performance.

Arts & Entertainment

Mel Ramos Pop Art Fantasies: The Complete Paintings by Donald Kuspit with Louis K. Meisel (Watson-Guptill Publications)

Ramos’s female nudes...are beautiful things, indeed, a kind of popularized artificial paradise of the pleasure and transcendence that mingle in beauty. – Donald Kuspit

In 1961, Mel Ramos emerged on the international art scene along with Warhol, Liechtenstein, Oldenburg, Wesselmann, and Rosenquist as part of the second post-war movement to gain historical importance: pop art. Among the great painters of the American Pop Art movement, Mel Ramos is one of the most intriguing and provocative. A painter of powerful and memorable images, Ramo’s association with Pop Art began with his painting of comic book heroes and heroines in the 1960s, including Batman, and went on to explore the idealization of the female figure within the mass media and consumer advertising. These were followed by witty and ironic images reworking and updating great nude masterpieces in Western art, ultimately leading to an insightful visual exploration of the role of artist and model.

Mel Ramos Pop Art Fantasies opens with a discerning essay on the artist’s career and work written by acclaimed art critic Donald Kuspit. With a detailed examination of his artwork, Kuspit highlights Ramos’s inspirations, influences, and characteristic themes. Each chapter in the book discusses a distinctive movement within the artist’s career accompanied by insightful running commentary by leading art critic, dealer and scholar (State University of New York at Stoneybrook) Louis K. Meisel.

Mel Ramos Pop Art Fantasies includes 480 beautiful full-color reproductions of all existent Ramos paintings and watercolors, as well as a detailed biography section and complete painting index chronicling the artist’s entire career. The book is a stunning and comprehensive volume, the most definitive volume on Ramos’s work ever published. With Kuspit’s enlightening and provocative commentary, it is a dazzling celebration of the art and innovative wit that is Mel Ramos.

Arts & Photography / Essays

Spirit into Matter: The Photographs of Edmund Teske by Julian Cox & Edmund Teske (Getty Publications)

Edmund Teske (1911-1996) was one of the alchemists of twentieth-century American photography. Over a sixty-year period, he created a diverse body of work that explored the expressive and emotional potentials of the medium. His drive to experiment with sophisticated techniques, such as solarization and composite printing, liberated a younger generation of American photographers; at the same time, his subject matter – sometimes abstract, often homoerotic, and always lyrical and poetic – opened up new areas for photographers to explore. Spirit into Matter is published to coincide with the first major retrospective of Teske's work at the Getty Museum from June 15 to September 19, 2004. Julian Cox provides an introduction and extensive biocritical essay on Teske that traces his long and varied career, from Chicago in the 1930s to Los Angeles, where the photographer took up residence in 1943. Cox investigates Teske's early associations with such influential figures as Frank Lloyd Wright and Paul Strand and his later associations with iconic figures including filmmaker Kenneth Anger and musicians Ramblin' Jack Elliott and the Doors.

Cox, associate curator of photographs at the Getty Museum, includes a transcript of a conversation with George Herms, who knew Teske for more than thirty years. The book also includes a chronology of Teske's life, a checklist of his exhibitions, and a complete bibliography.

Teske’s contribution to the art of photography was his power to give presence to the past and his ability to vivify memory. He caused an emotional spirit world captured in photographs to become a living part of every present moment. Moreover, he had an intimate relationship to the medium of photography that resulted from his living dialogue with its materials – optics, film, chemistry and mechanics. Teske believed fervently in the redemptive power of art and photography and spent every day of his adult live putting this belief into practice while at the same time inviting others to share the same commitment. – Weston Naef, Curator of Photographs, J. Paul Getty Museum

The first major study of this fascinating and influential artist, Spirit into Matter will be a dynamic source of information for students of photography, collectors, and all those with an interest in the life and culture of Southern California, where Teske worked for more than fifty years.

Biographies & Memoirs

Marilyn's Last Words: Her Secret Tapes and Mysterious Death by Matthew Smith (Carroll & Graf Publishers)
Marilyn Monroe's death in August 1962, apparently a suicide, shocked the world. The coroner's report stated that her death was due to a massive overdose of Nembutal capsules. But what about the discrepancies between the official report and the eyewitness accounts and memories of the people who were there at the scene of her death – friends, her housekeeping staff, police officers, and doctors? And what about the forensic evidence that disappeared between the time of her death and the coroner's report being issued? Looking back at thousands of documents, many never before published, and interviewing dozens of sources, Matthews Smith argues strongly in Marilyn's Last Words for a new version of events, as he paints a portrait of her day-to-day world toward the end of her life. The case he makes is based not only on the documents and on complete forensic evidence, but also on the confidential tapes Monroe made for her psychiatrist in the days leading up to her death – tapes that reveal a woman in charge of her life and her fate, a woman looking forward to a busy, bright future. Here, in her own words from the transcripts of the tapes, are the private thoughts of Marilyn Monroe.

Smith has also examined thousand of documents, many never before published, and interviewed dozens of sources. Smith has written extensively on the Kennedy administration and assassination for more than thirty years. He was a consultant to the television program The Man Who Killed Kennedy and the author of the acclaimed JFK: The Second Plot and The Men Who Murdered Marilyn.

The tapes are certainly explosive and Smith makes a good case. – Manchester Evening News

The tape transcript sounds exactly like Marilyn speaking. – BBC Radio Five Live Book Critics

Charming and intriguing ... Written with great sympathy. – Sunday Times, London

Marilyn's Last Words provides interesting material, and adds new facts. For example, forensic evidence pointed toward drugging by enema, which could not have been suicide. And the audiotapes show a person managing her life, not one ready to commit suicide. Monroe’s house was bugged by both the CIA and the FBI. While implying that Robert and John Kennedy, both of whom she had affairs with, or the CIA, who didn’t want information about the attempts to assassinate Castro to come out, had to be responsible, the author struggles too hard to exonerate the Kennedys.

Biographies & Memoirs / Hispanic American Studies

The Turkish Lover by Esmeralda Santiago (A Merloyd Lawrence Book, DaCapo Press) is Esmeralda Santiago's long-awaited new memoir – the emotionally and psychologically charged story of an exotic and dangerous love affair.

“The night before I left my mother, I wrote a letter. "Querida, Mami," it began. Querida, beloved, Mami, I wrote, on the same page as el hombre que yo amo, the man I love. I struggled with those words, because I wasn't certain they were true. Mami understood love, so I used the word and hoped I meant it. El hombre que yo amo. Amo, which in Spanish also means master. I didn't notice the irony.”

And so begins Esmeralda Santiago's long-awaited third memoir, The Turkish Lover. Along with Sandra Cisneros and Julia Alvarez, Santiago is one of today's preeminent Latina authors. Born in Puerto Rico, she moved to Brooklyn with her ten siblings and unmarried mother, who supported them all. Her amazing life is chronicled in her memoirs, one volume of which – Almost a Woman – was made into a Peabody Award-winning film for PBS's Masterpiece Theater. This fall, she'll be the subject of yet another film – Writing a Life.

In The Turkish Lover, Esmeralda finally breaks out of a monumental struggle with her powerful mother – only to come under the thrall of Ulvi, an older, more worldly Turkish man. Esmeralda then discovers that romantic passion, too, can become a prison.

Her journey of self-liberation and self-discovery is daring, candidly recounted, and leads to her triumphant graduation from Harvard. (Her view of that venerable institution is an eye opener, told as only a witty and fiercely candid writer totally outside the mold can tell it.) Throughout, she details her affair with Ulvi, using the lens of their troubled relationship to explore racism, sexism, feminism, and the value of education – and ultimately unveiling a person who, against all odds, emerges victorious.

The expansive humanity, earthy humor, and psychological courage that made Esmeralda's first two books successful are on full display again in The Turkish Lover, which will both reward the author's faithful readership and extend it. Hers is a fresh, exciting, and necessary voice.

Business & Economics

Simply Better: Winning and Keeping Customers by Delivering What Matters Most
by Patrick Barwise & Sean Meehan (Harvard Business School Press)

What do customers really want?

Most executives believe that winning and keeping customers requires offering something unique. But as physical products become increasingly harder to differentiate, companies resort to branding, gimmicks, and "thinking outside the box." Meanwhile, customers are less satisfied than they were a decade ago. Yet most companies consistently fail to meet these basic customer needs.

According to marketing experts Patrick Barwise and Seán Meehan, in focusing on differentiation, companies have neglected the very basic activities that matter most to customers. Simply Better argues that it is not the addition of unique gizmos or features that wins and keeps customers, but the steadfast delivery of the fundamentals – products that actually work and reliable services that take place on time. By following traditional marketing strategies, companies have failed to keep their eye on the ball, failed to listen to their customers, and failed to deliver on basic needs.

The authors, Barwise, Professor of Management and Marketing at London Business School, and Meehan, Professor of Marketing and Change Management at IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland, show that being truly "customer-driven" means consistently fulfilling obvious needs for customers Simply Better than competitors.

Barwise and Meehan argue that successful differentiation lies not in unique selling propositions, but in generic category benefits, such as good service, on-time delivery, and quality products, that any company can provide. The key is to deliver these consistently better than competi­tors. Illustrating this customer-focused differentiation through vivid examples of companies, including Toyota, Proctor & Gamble, Hilti, Tesco, Medtronic, Shell, and Ryanair, Simply Better outlines a framework managers can use to:

• Understand what customers really value and why they buy the brands they do.
• Discover basic, unmet needs ripe for reliable solutions.
• Channel customer dissatisfaction into performance improvements.
• Balance in-the-box thinking in strategy and innovation with out-of-the-box thinking in advertising and communications.
• Create a learning culture that continuously responds to changing customer needs.

While things like on-time delivery, quality, and good customer service might seem blindingly obvious, the authors' research shows that most companies have been ignoring these basics for too long and that customers care much less about "unique" and "different" than they do about fundamental needs.

Barwise and Meehan provide six simple rules to help keep companies focused on what customers really want:

1. Think category benefits, not unique brand benefits.
2. Think simplicity, not sophistication.
3. Think inside, not outside, the box.
4. Think opportunities, not threats.
5. For creative advertising, forget rule 3.
6. Think immersion, not submersion.

Simply Better is an essential book filled with refreshing advice discovering and delivering what customers really need. Written in fluid, engaging prose replete with examples, it deserves the attention of all senior managers. – Bill George, former Chairman and CEO of Medtronic, Inc. and author of Authentic Leadership

Too often, companies forget the core needs of their customers. This book is a good reminder to get the basics right. Managers may disagree with the message, but they cannot ignore its importance. – Matti Alahuhta, Executive Vice President, Nokia

Too many firms focus on creating minor brand differentiators but they fail to deliver on the basics of a product category. Controversially but persuasively, Barwise and Meehan reveal the competitive advantage of simply giving customers what they really want. – Philip Kotler, S. C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

Simply Better reminds us that customers' logic should always trump suppliers' logic. It is a back-to-basics business manifesto for all levels of management across industries. – Nobuyuki Idei, Chairman and Group CEO, Sony Corporation

A new manifesto for marketing executives, Simply Better, by marketing professors, based on their research, presents a framework for customer-focused innovation, employee motivation, and the development of a customer-responsive culture throughout the organization. Candid and refreshing, the book refocuses marketers and managers on what really matters to customers – and outlines exactly what companies must do to deliver it. This straightforward, no-nonsense approach will help marketers determine which basics matter most to their customers and offer the tools, rules, and strategies for delivering on them.

Business & Economics / History

DEC Is Dead, Long Live DEC: The Lasting Legacy of Digital Equipment Corporation by Edgar H. Schein, with Peter S. DeLisi, Paul J. Kampas, Michael M. Sonduck (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.) tells the 40-year story of DEC's creation, demise, and enduring legacy.

There is a culture that is unique to technology firms – casual but hardworking, anti-establishment but fiercely driven. Where did this culture come from? Not from IBM or Apple. Not from Microsoft. The blueprint for computer technology firms came from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), the pioneering company led by entrepreneur Ken Olsen.
In the annals of American business, DEC’s case history ranks among the most interesting. Over its 40-year lifetime, it reached the Fortune 50, had sales of over $14 billion, and for a time was the number-two computer maker, behind only IBM. It also was a computing pioneer, creating a great many of the innovations we take for granted today. Yet it failed as a business and was ultimately sold to Compaq. In DEC Is Dead, Long Live DEC, DEC insiders analyze the culture of innovation that drove DEC to the top – how it was created, how it evolved, and why it ultimately collapsed.

Those insiders include Edgar H. Schein, Peter S. DeLisi, Paul J. Kampas, and Michael M. Sonduck. Schein is Professor of Management Emeritus at the Sloan School, Founding Editor of Reflections, the Journal of the Society for Organizational Learning, author of 14 books, and one of the original founders of the Organization Development field. DeLisi is Founder and President of Organizational Synergies, a strategy-consulting firm and Academic Dean of the Information Technology Leadership Program at Santa Clara University. Kampas is founder and principal of Kampas Research, a strategic analysis and technology-planning firm. Sonduck is the president of Leadership For Change, Inc., a management-consulting firm, and he worked at DEC as an organization development consultant from 1976 to 1981.

DEC Is Dead, Long Live DEC is a drama of epic proportions. It explains how an organizational culture can become so embedded that the organization is unable to adapt to changing circumstances even though the need is clear to all. For DEC, the evolution of technology, organization, and culture intertwined into a complex system that left the organization unable to cope. The book shows how a powerful entrepreneur, Ken Olsen, created a culture, and how his value system was itself shaped by both his occupation as an engineer and his personal background. DEC developed a set of engineers and managers that went on to populate the computer industry of today. Most of these people consider their time at DEC to have been a great experience from which they learned a tremendous amount. Many went on to reproduce the DEC culture in their new companies.

DEC Is Dead, Long Live DEC shows clearly the price of success and growth and the problems that organizational maturity creates. It is the most comprehensive case study ever written detailing the life of a major company from beginning to end, told from an inside perspective. This is a real-life classical tragedy, and it is a must for executives wishing to make their companies more effective.

Business / Entrepreneurship

Look Back to Get Ahead: Life Lessons from History's Heroes by Michael Anthony Jackson (Arcade Publishing)

K2 nearly killed me, but it was the best business decision I ever made. – Jackson

"The further backward you look, the further forward you can see," said Sir Winston Churchill, referring to the lessons to be found in history. Using that watchword as his spring­board, Michael Anthony Jackson, a successful young entrepreneur and businessman, probes the lives of five of history's great conquerors to show how their qualities can help change a life.

A self-made millionaire, Jackson has always sought new experiences and embraced risk, whether in skydiving, mountain climbing, or in other extreme sports. When he turned thirty, he set out to climb K2, one of the world's most dangerous mountains. During the final ascent, his sherpa suffered a collapsed lung, and to save his life Jackson carried him – at great risk – for four days down the mountain to safety. That terrifying, transformative experience led him to examine his own life more closely and provided the inspiration for Look Back to Get Ahead. Who were the people in history who overcame great odds and yet stood head and shoulders above their contemporaries? What in their characters and lives – good and bad – was so special that they changed the world? What can we learn from them to change ourselves?

With these questions in mind, Jackson traces the lives and motivational strategies of

• Alexander the Great relied heavily on mentors, and believed in the inevitability of his destiny.
• Genghis Khan, leader of a destitute clan, became the ruler of the largest empire on earth.
• Trapped in Spain, with the Romans controlling the seas, Hannibal invaded Italy by taking his army and elephants over the Alps. His lesson: Be like water and do the unexpected.
• William the Conqueror launched one of history's best PR campaigns and became the first master of spin. Jumping ashore in England, he landed face first in the sand. Recovering swiftly, he said to his stunned troops, "See, men, I have seized England with both hands already!"
• Elizabeth I's control of her image enabled her to evolve from vulnerable princess to invinci­ble monarch.

Jackson presents lively, gung-ho bios of the five combative, brutal yet indomitable historical figures he has chosen. – Publishers Weekly

In this surprising study, Jackson traces the lives and strategies of five world conquerors, including Genghis Kahn. Personalizing the lessons drawn from their stories through his own business experience, Look Back to Get Ahead offers advice to help readers create a map for positive change. The book recommends using such techniques as working on one's self-image, selecting good mentors, confronting one's fears, developing imagery to tap into their power and apply it to their own lives.

Children’s / Ages 5 and up, esp. 9-12) / Nature

Frogs (All About Wild Animals Series: Gareth Stevens Publishing)

The jungle was a faraway place until the All about Wild Animals series came along. Each book in this entertaining, easy-to-read series captures a different wild animal and tells all about it – from physical features and family members to feeding habits and natural habitats. The slick, hardback books have colorful covers with large pictures. The books are small, but they pack a lot in without looking cluttered.

We reviewed Frogs. Readers can learn all about frogs, including where they live what they eat, and why they live near water.

The book starts with a bullet list of facts, in the case of Frogs, “Frog Facts” – bullets include group, color, size, eats, and lives. Then comes the table of contents. The numerous photos and drawings are colorful and dynamic. There are maps showing where frogs live – little frog heads appear all over the globe. Part of the text is written in first person, as if the frog were talking to the child, and there is a timetable outlining what a frog does during a day. The book closes with a glossary and index.

Young readers will enjoy the many fun facts and full-color photos as they start with Frogs or Spiders, for example, and collect volume after volume of this captivating wildlife library. Other titles in the All about Wild Animals series include: Camels, Chimpanzees, Crocodiles, Dolphins, Elephants,, Giraffes, Hippos, Kangaroos, Lions, Pandas, Parrots, Penguins, Polar Bears, Sharks, Spiders, Tigers, Turtles, Wolves, and Zebras.

Children’s Literature

Through the Looking Glass: Further Adventures & Misadventures in the Realm of Children’s Literature by Selma G. Lanes (David R. Godine, Publisher) includes essays on the masters the author most admires: Sendak, Steig, Gorey, L. Frank Baum, Tomi Ungerer, Jack Keats, Margot Zemach, and that editor of genius, Ursula Nordstrom.

Lanes is a writer and critic with a broad grasp of her subject, an acute eye for talent, and a sure prose style, the grande dame of children's literature. She wrote the definitive book on Maurice Sendak, The Art of Maurice Sendak. She is also the former editor-in-chief of Parent's Magazine Press and a reviewer of children's literature for various publications. She has contributed published articles on the primary protagonists and players in the field, many collected in her previous book, Down the Rabbit Hole.

What concerns Lanes most is the integration of text and image, and the ability of authors and artists of picture books to somehow change readers’ perceptions. In a larger sense, she asks, "What makes some children's books work and others fail? How does art for the young reflect, distort or create a social perspective?"

Lanes is concerned about mergers of book houses and what it will do to children’s books. Earlier she observed, "With the possible exception of advertising and film, no popular medium in our time has been as experimental, inventive, and simply alive as children's books." In the present atmosphere of mergers and corporate conglomerates that now define ‘mainstream publishing;’ she wonders if this remains true. Is the field still dominated, as formerly, by a devoted cadre of geniuses able to spot and encourage talent, willing to take risks, and ferocious in their desire to bring children the best that authors and illustrators have to offer? As she says in the introduction: Through the Looking Glass appears at a time when few independent publishers are left in the United States. The merger fever of the last two decades has claimed the great majority: Random House has been melded into the international publishing colossus, Bertelsmann; Simon & Schuster is part of the Viacom conglomerate; G. P. Putnam's Sons, Penguin, Dial, Viking, Frederick Warne and others have been acquired by the British media behemoth, Pearson…. Through the Looking Glass is, in part, a nostalgic trip back to the last half of the last century, a salute to many of the writers and illustrators whose words and pictures are important enough to be remembered.”

The pictures provided of the writers, and there are some great pictures in Through the Looking Glass, take us back to the good old days, the good old days of Selma Lanes.

Children’s / Ages 4-8

Mrs. Watson Wants Your Teeth by Alison McGhee, pictures by Harry Bliss (Harcourt, Inc.)
It’s the first day of first grade, and this little girl is excited, right?
Wrong.
That’s because although her new teacher may look harmless, she is actually… A purple-tongued, three-hundred-year-old alien who steals the teeth of earthling children.

How does this little girl know? A second grader told her. And not a moment too soon, for she has a big secret: a loose tooth! How will she get through an entire year without opening her mouth?

Mrs. Watson Wants Your Teeth was written by Alison McGhee, the author of three novels for adults, a teen novel, and a book for children; and illustrated by Harry Bliss.
With the same sweet wit as that in their first book, Countdown to Kindergarten, in this book McGhee and Bliss take a hilarious bite out of first-day jitters…and the fears about losing one’s first tooth.

Children’s

The National Review Treasury of Classic Children's Literature, Volume One selected by William F. Buckley Jr. (ISI Books)

The National Review Treasury of Classic Children's Literature, Volume Two selected by William F. Buckley Jr. (ISI Books)

The National Review Treasury of Classic Children's Literature brings back over forty literary gems – many long forgotten. The volume takes the family who owns it on a voyage, back to the Golden Era of children's literature – a more innocent time when the famous St. Nicholas Magazine offered the youth of America a monthly cornucopia of stories, tales, fables, and adventures, written by the literary giants of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

These two volumes are lavishly illustrated books that feature around forty children's stories in each volume. William F. Buckley Jr., founder of The National Review and host of public television’s longest running program Firing Line, personally selected the stories, and The National Review has polished these literary jewels, in many cases forgotten over the decades, so that they will sparkle for a new generation of American children. In Volume One readers will find

• Mark Twain “Tom Sawyer Abroad”
• Lewis Carroll “Bruno's Revenge"
• Rudyard Kipling "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," "Mowgli's Brothers," and "Tiger! Tiger!"
• L. Frank Baum "Juggerjook"
• Jack London "In Yeddo Bay" And "To Repel Boarders"
• Louisa May Alcott "Tabby's Table-Cloth" and "Onawandah"
• Frances Hodgson Burnett "The Spring Cleaning, The Story of Prince Fairyfoot, and “The Proud Little Grain of Wheat”
• Thornton Burgess "Tommy And The Meadow Mice"
• Frank Stockton "Sweet Majoram Day"
• Bret Harte "Baby Sylvester"
• Allen French "Sir Marrok"
• Palmer Cox "The Brownies"

Readers will find in The National Review Treasury of Classic Children's Literature, Volume Two:

• Mark Twain "Tom Sawyer, Detective"
• Rudyard Kipling "The King's Ankus" and "Toomai Of The Elephants"
• L. Frank Baum "Aunt 'Phroney's Boy"
• Jack London "The Cruise of the Dazzler"
• Louisa May Alcott "The Blind Lark" and "Daisy's Jewel-Box and How She Filled It"
• Frances Hodgson Burnett "The Cozy Lion" and "The Troubles of Queen Silver Bell"
• Thornton Burgess "Why Peter Rabit Has One Less Enemy” and “How It Happened That Reddy Fox Gained a Friend"
• Joel Chandler Harris "The Creature with No Claws"
• Howard Pyle "The Princess on the Glass Hill"
• Marion Ames Taggart "The Wyndham Girls"
• Ellis Parker Butler "Pigs Is Pigs"

[A] beautiful book of wonderful children's stories that will delight, entertain and nourish your youngsters and teenagers. – Catholic Parent

The National Review Treasury of Classic Children's Literature brims with wonderful stories, tales, poems, and fables and numerous beautiful and charming illustrations by renowned artists – by great writers – or in the opinion of many, the greatest writers.

These beautifully crafted and lavishly illustrated books include some of the most entertaining, touching, and wholesome children's stories that have ever graced paper. They can be counted on to provide youngsters and teens with prose and poetry that entertain and, more importantly, promote and instill those values and lessons increasingly needed in our current culture.

Christianity / Evangelism / History

On the Road to Armageddon: How Evangelicals Became Israel's Best Friend by Timothy P. Weber (Baker Academic)

Seldom does a day go by without news coverage of violence-plagued Israel. The United States has been one of the biggest supporters of Israel since its formation more than fifty years ago, and American evangelicals have played a major role in that support. In On the Road to Armageddon, Timothy Weber explores the historic relationship between evangelicals and Israel, the relationship's theological roots, and implications for the future.

Weber, president of Memphis Theological Seminary, begins with an examination of the dispensational movement of the nineteenth century. Dispensationalism is a complex and apocalyptic prophetic system in which there are seven dispensations culminating in everyone who is every lived rising from the dead. These risen souls are assigned to their proper places in either heaven or hell and God creates a new heaven and earth as an eternal dwelling place for the redeemed. On the Road to Armageddon outlines an analysis of the coming apocalypse and the role that a formalized nation of Israel would play. Weber describes the Zionist movement and events that led to the formation of Israel in 1948, including the Balfour Declaration and the increased support for a nation of Israel following the Holocaust.

Not only does Weber describe history and politics, he also explores the strong religious ideas that fuel them. His concluding chapter, "Self-Fulfilling Prophecy," speculates whether ongoing dispensational support for Israel may be helping prophecy to happen. Weber questions whether dispensationalists who are convinced that there will be no peace until Jesus comes can properly support efforts to make peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and he explores why some Christians seem to care more about "unbelieving" Israelis than Christian Palestinians.

Unknown to or barely understood by most Americans, dispensationalist premillennialism is a bedrock conviction of millions of evangelical and fundamentalist Christians. In On the Road to Armageddon, Weber has given us a balanced, well-written, and definitive history of this doctrine, its major proponents, and its adherents, many of whom form the core of the Christian Right. It also clearly delineates dispensationalism's real and potential impact on world affairs, particularly with respect to Israel and Palestine. This book will serve as a valuable resource for anyone seeking to make sense of this important aspect of contemporary American religion and popular culture. It should be required reading for those charged with shaping American foreign policy. – William Martin, Harry and Hazel Chavanne Professor of Religion and Public Policy, Rice University

Following his exceptionally valuable volume Living in the Shadow of the Second Coming, Weber provides us with a thoroughly researched historical and theological analysis of the evangelical Christian attachment to Israel and its roots in premillennial dispensationalist theology. With the ascendancy of the Christian Right in the United States and its significant role in shaping U.S. foreign policy, Weber's book is a must read not only for evangelicals but also for all who are curious about the role of the United States in the Middle East and the popularity of end-times speculation in American culture. – Donald Wagner, director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, North Park University

This is a real blockbuster. If you want to understand the current Left Behind obsession, evangelicals' fixation with supporting the state of Israel, and the dangers of basing national policy on eschatological speculation, this is the book to read. It exposes the inconsistencies in dispensational thought about the future and warns us not to link the eternal teachings of Scripture with the transitory events of our day. – Richard V. Pierard, author of The American Church Experience and scholar in residence, Gordon College

This fascinating chronicle of a group of Anglo-American Christians widely derided but little understood will go a long way toward answering questions many are just beginning to ask: Why is the Left Behind series such an unexpected publishing sensation? Why do so many conservative American Christians sup­port the state of Israel? Why do some of these people support the construction of a new Jewish temple in Jerusalem? – Gerald R. McDermott, professor of religion and philosophy, Roanoke College

A major work on a timely theme, On the Road to Armageddon provides an excellent overview of the growth of a movement. The book is shocking in its description of adherents of this movement; by supporting Israel they are trying to hasten the world toward the apocalypse. This valuable history is well researched and provides insightful reading for anyone interested in American-Israeli relations, history, theology, and politics.

Christianity Families / Death, Grief & Bereavement

Beauty Beyond The Ashes: Choosing Hope After Crisis by Cheryl Mcguinness with Lois Mowday Rabey (Howard Publishing Co.)

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Cheryl McGuinness kissed her husband goodbye ... and never saw him again. Tom McGuinness was the co-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center. It was on this day that Cheryl began the long journey of healing herself and her family.

"I was a normal woman living a very happy life, and I never pictured that our dream would suddenly become a nightmare," says McGuinness. "I never imagined that our peaceful life would be completely shattered – and then came 9/11."

McGuinness understands all too well the pit of pain people experience in catastrophic events, and she is an inspiration to many through her faith and courage. In Beauty Beyond The Ashes, she tells the story of losing her husband and offers hope to those recovering from tragedy. As a national speaker for her ministry, Beauty Beyond the Ashes, out of which this book evolved, she provides the tools necessary for rising above difficult circumstances of any kind. In addition to revealing her touching personal story, Cheryl also shares twelve powerful principles – one with each chapter – that guided her through her loss and that will guide readers on life's journey.

"Forgiveness does not come naturally, but it is essential to healing," says McGuinness. "If you harbor anger it will destroy you. Anger soon turns to bitterness, and bitterness renders the heart hard and unloving. You become like those who have hurt you."

Along with Cheryl, we have all been impacted by 9/11. Security, peace, safety – things we've taken for granted as part of who we are as Americans – became casualties of that infamous day. Every life endures sadness and loss. But the message of Beauty Beyond The Ashes is that no matter what readers have experienced or what pain they have suffered, God can bring them through the ashes of destruction to the beauty of life. The coping mechanisms McGuinness used to overcome the death of her husband and the tragedy the terrorists caused our country are the same ones people can use to deal with any kind of loss. The message in Beauty Beyond The Ashes is in high demand – and not just for families left behind after 9/11. People affected by difficulties such as a long illness of a loved one or a divorce, for example, can benefit as well from the messages in this book.

Cooking, Food & Wine

Cabernet Sauvignon: Discovering, Exploring, Enjoying by Chris Losh (Ryland Peters & Small) invites readers to take a closer look at this classic red wine, to find out where it comes from, why it tastes the way it does, and how to make the most of every fragrant glass.

We may not know that “Cab” is the most-planted quality red grape variety in the world, but we do all know that Cabernet Sauvignon tastes as good as it sounds: exotic, fragrant, intense, and mysterious – wine drinkers the world over have fallen in love with its charms.

For all its growing popularity, Cabernet Sauvignon remains something of an enigma to most of us. We don't know much about it or when to serve it.

Wine writer Chris Losh, past editor of two of the industry's best-known titles, Wine & Spirit International and Wine Magazine, takes readers on a visual, no-nonsense tour of the world of Cabernet, from the imposing chateaus in Bordeaux to the wallet-busting cult wines of California, from the taste of black currants to the tang of eucalyptus. With  photographs by Alan Williams, in Cabernet Sauvignon readers find out about Cabernet Sauvignon's dubious past, why red Bordeaux lovers owe a debt to an ancient glacier and why Coonawarra and Margaret River are doing battle for top dog status Down Under.

The book has three sections: Discovering, Exploring & Enjoying. The Exploring section takes readers from France to South Africa exploring the growing regions of the Cab grape; the Enjoying section covers tasting, storing and matching to foods. Along the way readers discover how to get the most out of the bottles already bought. And in the "How to Taste" chapter, they can pick up a few key tips on how to store Cabernet Sauvignon, when to drink it, and what food really brings the wine alive.

Bordeaux has it silky charm, deep color, and ability to age for years. Cabernet Sauvignon is a fun, fascinating guide for anyone who's ever thought they'd like to know more about what's happening in their wine glass but were afraid to ask. Readers may want to pull a cork and sit down with this book.

Cooking, Food & Wine

Joan Nathan's Jewish Holiday Cookbook by Joan Nathan (Schocken Books)
Jewish holidays are celebrated in food. Yet Jewish cooking is always changing, encompassing the flavors of the world, embracing local culinary traditions of every place in which Jews have lived and adapting them to Jewish observance. Many religions have special days devoted to feasting or fasting; Judaism, however, has a complete written code of religious dietary laws governing every single act of eating.

On the eve of the 350th anniversary of the arrival of Jews in America comes a book from Joan Nathan to introduce her to a new generation of Jewish cooks: Joan Nathan's Jewish Holiday Cookbook, which combines fully revised and udated recipes from her classic cookbooks, The Jewish Holiday Kitchen and The Jewish Holiday Baker, plus new recipes culled from her nationally syndicated television show, Jewish Cooking in America. This collection, the culmination of Nathan's decades of gathering Jewish recipes from around the world, is a tour through the Jewish holidays as told in food. For each holiday, Nathan presents menus from different cuisines – Moroccan, Russian, German, and contemporary American are just a few – that show how the traditions of Jewish food have taken on new forms around the world. Nathan tempts us with dishes from every cuisine of the Jewish tradition, including Central and Eastern European, Middle Eastern, and American, from Chocolate Babka for the Sabbath, to Apricot Honey Cake for Rosh Hashanah, to Romanian Zucchini Potato Latkes for Hanukkah. Readers are encouraged to try something exotic – Algerian Chicken Tagine with Quinces or Seven-Fruit Haroset from Surinam – Yemenite High Holiday Soup Stew or the Persian Pomegranate-Walnut Chicken – or rediscover an American favorite like Pineapple Noodle Kugel or Charlestonian Broth with "Soup Bunch" and Matzah Balls. This book is not only filled with recipes for delicious meals, but a wealth of information for Jewish and non-Jewish readers alike.

Joan Nathan is the authority on Jewish cooking, from the folkloric-cultural-historical perspective, and the food angle as well. – Mollie Katzen, author of The Moosewood Cookbook
This is how holiday cooking should be – warm, welcoming, and straight from the heart. – Anne Willan, author of Cook It Right
This beautiful book – a celebration in itself – celebrates the calendar of Jewish life in all its majesty. It is the quintessential Jewish holiday cookbook – deliciously personal and meaningful. – Rozanne Gold, author of Cooking 1-2-3 and Healthy 1-2-3

It is clear from the first pages of this book that Joan Nathan was cooking with love as she gathered oral histories to get a grasp on this intimidating subject ... This is history, well-documented, coherent, and valuable. – William Rice, Chicago Tribune

As delightful a piece of culinary scholarship as you'll find . . . Nathan has brought us one big slice of America in which all can take pride and pleasure. – Peter D. Franklin, Universal Press Syndicate

Joan Nathan's Jewish Holiday Cookbook commemorates the full richness of Jewish cuisine and culture. Only the best cookbooks stand the test of time, and this rich assemblage of holiday recipes has brought the festivity of holiday cooking to Jewish households for more than two decades. Nathan's love of cooking and insatiable quest for knowledge is evident in her lively and informative asides about social and culinary history, along with personal anecdotes from her own kitchen and from other notable chefs with whom she’s worked.

Criminology / Psychology / Law

Interrogations, Confessions, and Entrapment edited by G. Daniel Lassiter (Perspectives in Law and Psychology, Volume 20: Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers)

Subtle but nonetheless coercive influences exist in our system of criminal justice. The purpose of Interrogations, Confessions, and Entrapment is to help expose these largely unrecognized forms of psychological manipulation that undermine the integrity of American jurisprudence. Edited by G. Daniel Lassiter, Ohio University, the chapters are authored by psychologists, criminologists, and legal scholars who have contributed significantly to our understanding of the pressures that operate when the goal of law enforcement is to elicit self-incriminating behavior from suspected criminals. Contrary to what the police and the general public generally believe, it is now clear that standard techniques of interrogation can cause innocent people to falsely confess. Many of the wrongful convictions that have recently been brought to light, primarily as a result of DNA testing, establish conclusively that unreliable confession evidence is a serious problem that must be solved if further miscarriages of justice are to be prevented.

What are the various forms of psychological coercion? When and to whom is it applied? What effect does it have on the truly innocent suspect? To what extent is this nonassaultive form of coercion detected by trial fact finders? What are some ways in which such coercion can be minimized during interrogations or in other contexts in which law enforcement is seeking to obtain self-incriminating evidence from suspected criminals? These are some of the important questions posed by the contributors, and at least in some instances, partial or preliminary answers are provided.

Contributors

• Ray Bull, School of Psychology, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
• Julie Chen, Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine
• Beth A. Colgan, Perkins Coie LLP, Seattle, Washington
• Steven A. Diuzin, Northwestern University, School of Law, Chicago
• Vanessa A. Edkins and Lawrence S. Wrightsman, Department of Psychology, University of Kansas
• Caroline Everington, Richard W. Riley College of Education, Winthrop University
• Solomon M. Fulero, Department of Psychology, Sinclair College, Day­ton
• Andrew L. Geers, Department of Psychology, University of Toledo
• Sual M. Kassin, Department of Psychology, Bronfman Science Center, Williams College, Williamstown
• George R. Klare, G. Daniel Lassiter, and Jennifer J. Ratcliff, Department of Psychology, Ohio University
• Richard A. Leo, Department of Criminology, Law and Society, and Elizabeth F. Loftus, Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California-Irvine
• Christian A. Meissner, Department of Psychology, Florida International University
• Becky Milne, Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, University of Portsmouth, UK
• Allison D. Redlich, Policy Research Associates, Inc., Delmar, New York
• Melissa Silverman and Hans Steiner, Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adoles­cent Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine
• Shannon Wheatman and Elizabeth C. Wiggins, Federal Judicial Center

According to Interrogations, Confessions, and Entrapment editor Daniel Lassiter and his co-author Jennifer Ratcliff in their introductory chapter, coercive influence ties together the three "topics" that title this volume: interrogations, confessions, and entrapment.

The wrongful convictions of those exonerated through DNA testing have been studied, and we now know a fair amount about their causes. Although faulty eyewitness memory appears to play a role in the large majority of cases, we also now know that coerced or false confessions can play a significant role in leading to them as well. Faulty eyewitnesses, faulty confessions – the two are related in some ways. In the case of a faulty eyewitness, it is often true that suggestive post-event information has led someone to claim to have seen something that wasn't seen (e.g., the defendant at the crime scene, or Mr. Jones pulling the knife first rather than Mr. Smith). In the case of faulty confessions, it is occasionally true that suggestive interrogation has led someone to claim to have done something that he didn't do. The form of psychological coercion required to elicit a false confession might be greater than the forms required to distort eyewitness memory, but many of the ingredients are the same. Eyewitnesses are sometimes exposed to the opinions of others, or questioned in leading and suggestive ways. These tactics can get them to "remember" seeing things that didn't happen, or happened differently. Crime suspects often are sub­jected to more – as revealed in many of the chapters in Interrogations, Confessions, and Entrapment. These include "minimization" tactics, by which interrogators make the behavior seem normal and provide moral justification for it and "leniency" tactics, in which suspects are led to infer that leniency will follow from a confes­sion. They also include the presentation of false evidence.

These techniques may not be the worst that our citizens have endured. As George Klare so eloquently reveals (Chap­ter 2), things were a lot worse for the prisoners of war captured during World War II. Nonetheless, the modern techniques are psychologically powerful and have been perfected in the United States over many decades, as Richard Leo shows us (Chapter 3).

Experimentally, studying eyewitness testimony and how it can go awry has been quite a bit easier for psychological scientists than studying false confessions. This is undoubtedly why there have been thousands of published studies in the eyewitness arena, but only a handful in the false confession area. The widely cited study by Kassin and Kiechel involved a clever attempt to induce people to falsely confess to damaging a com­puter by pressing the wrong key. High rates of false confessions were obtained when subjects had been engaged in a fast-paced task, and when a confederate claimed to have seen the subject commit the "criminal" act. The procedure was criticized because the "destroyed computer" act was not associated with any genuine negative consequences, so a research group from the Netherlands repli­cated the study with a few procedural changes. The major one was adding a financial incentive; if subjects confessed they would lose money. Even though it was costly, the large majority of participants were willing to sign a false confession.

There are many important issues that the scholars contributing to this volume explore, and the volume is badly needed. The scholars who have contributed to this volume greatly expand our understanding of the extant literature in this area, and explore how such knowledge can guide changes in the legal system. Interrogations, Confessions, and Entrapment should take readers a long way toward a goal shared by our society, namely that our system would develop and use techniques that draw confessions from those who are guilty, but not from those who are innocent. And it is hoped that the book will serve as a clarion call for further investigation directed at both exposing the variety of ways in which coercive influences can adversely affect criminal justice and generating research-based solutions for minimizing such effects.

Education

Introduction to Emotional and Behavioral Disorders: Recognizing and Managing Problems in the Classroom by Mary M. Jensen (Pearson Merrill Prentice Hall) aims to help general and special education teachers in the pre- and elementary school levels to learn to use proactive and positive methods to reduce problem behavior, increase academic achievement, and improve social behavior.

Introduction to Emotional and Behavioral Disorders is as a practical manual to help edu­cation teachers recognize the behavior problems common to some children and youth in their classrooms, to become familiar with these problems and manage them at early stages. These problems, if unaddressed, may lead to the development of academic under­achievement and emotional and/or behavioral disorders (E/BD), which may result in placement in special education classes. The book examines common disorders such as autism and ADD/ADHD, along with such conditions as Tourette syndrome, gangs, eating disorders, depression, and others that may lead to learning and behavioral problems. The author, Mary M. Jensen, professor in the Department of Special Education at Western Illinois University, presents the characteristics of each disorder, offers observable behaviors and assessment methods, and suggests positive, proactive classroom management strategies designed to teach appropriate replacement skills for undesirable behaviors.

Introduction to Emotional and Behavioral Disorders presents the characteristics and observable symptoms of a variety of E/BD that may be observed in school-age children and youth. Many teachers view emotional and behavioral disorders as willful disruptive behavior. With that frame of reference, many simply punish these students, but punishment is not productive. Stu­dents who are only punished never learn appropri­ate replacement behaviors or alternatives to their problem behavior.

The categories of problem behavior are not limited to legal special education divisions. Topics of current interest, such as gangs, school violence, eating disorders, substance abuse, depression, and Tourette syndrome, are included among more traditional categories such as conduct disorder, autism, prenatal substance abuse, and Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Suggested classroom management methods are all proactive and positive and designed to help children and youth learn appropriate replacement skills for problem behavior to help them learn to be more successful in school and life. At the end of each chapter, excluding the final chapter, is a sec­tion titled "Implications for Working with Youth and Adolescents" that provides suggested proactive and positive methods for effectively managing each behavior problem category.

Introduction to Emotional and Behavioral Disorders has six parts. Part 1, "Foundational issues," covers the background and a brief historical overview of school-age students with emotional and behavioral disorders, IDEA 1997, common characteristics and overlapping problems, and causes of E/BD are presented in Chapter 1.

Chapter 2 introduces the process of assessment. This overview of assessment methods is presented in a general format because an entire assessment class is a required component of every university special education teacher training program. Read­ers are directed to specific texts and university courses for in-depth assessment information. The second part of Chapter 2 describes models of intervention, with emphasis on the behavioral model. Chapter 3 covers an array of educational options for students with E/BD. The least restrictive environment mandate of IDEA 1997 is discussed, along with various alternatives to public school placements.

Part 2, "Social, Cultural, and Environmental Issues," covers a variety of topics related to school-age students. Chapter 4 presents information on prenatal drug and alcohol exposure. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and fetal alcohol effects (FAE), as well as other prenatal drug exposure, are described.

Chapter 5 presents information about substance abuse and related problems in youth and adolescents. Chapter 6 and Chapter 7 discuss topics that are relatively new on the education scene – school violence and gangs – that often produce tragic results if educators, students, and parents are not adequately educated and prepared to deal with the problems that can accompany these two areas.

Part 3, "Categories of Internalized Disorders," covers a variety of problem areas. Chapter 8 begins this section with information on an array of anxiety disorders along with management methods for teachers and parents.

Chapter 9 describes symptoms and characteristics of youth and adolescents with depression. Signals of potential suicidal behaviors are also presented. Bipolar and seasonal affective disorder, along with numerous treatment options, are discussed.

Chapter 10 discusses eating disorders, since they are often the cause of behavioral and emotional problems in youth and adolescents. Definitions, characteristic behaviors, and treatment options for anorexia and bulimia are presented.

Part 4 is titled "Categories of Externalized Disorders." Chapter 11, "Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD)," discusses the typical characteristics associated with students who have attention deficits.

Chapter 12 provides information on Tourette syndrome (TS). Although it is considered a neurological disorder of unknown cause, the tics associated with TS often have such a negative social stigma that individuals with TS often develop social and emotional problems. The background and a brief historical overview of TS are presented, along with characteristics, a detailed checklist for teachers and parents, treatment options, and intervention strategies.

Chapter 13 provides information on conduct disorders and bully behavior. Conduct disorders may be the most common pattern of behavior in youth and adolescents with EB/D. Bully behavior has become all too common, with tragic results in schools across the country. Characteristics and intervention methods are also provided in this chapter.

Part 5, "Categories of Pervasive Developmental Disorders," includes Chapter 14, "Autism Spectrum Disorders and Schizophrenia." Because of the nature of the typical problems, youth and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders are often educated in E/BD classrooms. This chapter also provides information about Asperger syndrome, a condition that is closely related to autism. Characteristics, treatment options, and intervention strategies are provided.

Part 6, "The Future of Special Education," has one main objective. Chapter 15 emphasizes the importance of using a proactive and positive approach when working with youth and adolescents with E/BD. Social skills are presented as life skills. These are skills that, along with satisfactory academic skills, will help students graduate from high school and go on to become well-adjusted adults.

Focusing on today's realities in the schools and in society, Introduction to Emotional and Behavioral Disorders is a practical book, a book to assist general and special education teachers of preschool through Grade 12 to recognize conduct that may lead to academic underachievement and emotional/behavioral problems and provide positive corrective action.

Health, Mind & Body / African American

Standing In the Shadows: Understanding and Overcoming Depression in Black Men by John Head, foreword by Kay Redfield Jamison (Broadway Books)

The first book to reveal the depths of black men’s buried mental and emotional pain, Standing In the Shadows weaves the author’s story of his twenty-five-year struggle with depression with a cultural analysis of how the illness is perceived in the black community and why nobody wants to talk about it.
In mainstream society depression and mental illness is still somewhat of a taboo subject; in the black community it is a topic that is almost completely shrouded in secrecy. As a result, millions of black men suffer in silence, or get treatment only in extreme circumstances – in hospital emergency rooms, homeless shelters, and prisons.

In this groundbreaking book, veteran journalist and award-winning author John Head argues that the problem can be traced back to slavery, when it was believed that blacks were unable to feel inner pain because they had no psyche. This myth has created a society that blames black men for being violent and aggressive without considering that depression might be a root cause.
Standing In the Shadows weaves the author's story of his struggle against depression with a cultural look at why depression in black men remains one of the last taboos in black culture. Head, former mental health reporter and features writer for the Atlanta Journal­Constitution, former reporter for USA Today and the Detroit Free Press, argues that the most likely path to psychotherapy and medication for African-American men with depression is through the back door of the mental health care system but by then, it is often too late. The book showcases how Head himself has struggled with depression for the last twenty-five years. In a darker phase of his life, he moved out of his family home and into an apartment so that his sons wouldn't see his depression. Now he has moved through various stages of dealing with the disease, and has come out victorious in how he manages it.

Head believes that the neglect of emotional disorders in black men is nothing less than racial suicide. In order for the silence of black depression to evaporate, Head argues, the dominant culture would have to take responsibility for the inflicted pain. Instead, we would rather blame black men themselves.

Standing In the Shadows also examines the ways in which the black community colludes with white culture in keeping black men's emotional disorders underground. Head discusses the role of the church, the family, and the changing nature of black women in American culture as a way to understand how the black community may have unwittingly helped push the emotional disorders of African American men further underground. Finally, Standing In the Shadows is a call to action for the black community and the psychiatric community to end the silent suffering of black men.

Standing In the Shadows is a brave, unblinking look at what it is like to be an African American man with depression. John Head's insightful analysis of the connection between racism and this illness should be required reading for everyone who cares that African American men are often absent from their families, are in jails and prisons in disproportionate numbers, and die at an alarming rates from suicide. – Cynthia Wainscott, Chair, National Mental Health Association

This book does not haggle with statistics and scientific discoveries ... it literally keeps the topic of depression and Black men honest by taking us through a progressive journey that helps us understand the real hurdles. Before you want to delve into any medical journal ... read this book first so that you will have a deeper understanding of the topic and develop a good foundation. – Donna Holland Barnes, Ph.D., President and Co-founder of the National Organization for People of Color Against Suicide and Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Howard University

It is about time an accomplished, well-respected brother talked about their personal struggles with depression – a mental illness that strikes one in five Americans. My hope is this book will bring African-American men out of the 'depression closet,' and get the help that will heal them. – Carl C. Bell, M.D., President & C.E.O., Community Mental Health Council

Veteran journalist and award-winning author John Head courageously examines the effects that the unwillingness to look at and talk about mental illness has had on generations of black men and their families. Standing In the Shadows addresses what can be done to help those who need it most and challenges both the African American community and the psychiatric community to end the silent suffering of black men by taking responsibility for a problem that has been ignored too long. In this first-of-its-kind exploration of black men and depression, we find a book as daring and explosive as Nathan McCall's disclosure of black men's violence and aggression.

Health & Fitness / Aging / Sports / Physical Education

Leisure in Later Life, Third Edition by Michael J. Leitner & Sara F. Leitner (The Haworth Press, Inc.) is an introductory, comprehensive text for university-level students and lecturers, as well as service providers dealing with specific elements of leisure and aging in relation to psychology, social work, health, and recreation.

Previous editions of this book have been widely adopted for college coursework. This extensively revised and enhanced edition includes a new chapter discussing global perspectives on leisure in later life.

The diversity of the older population is recognized in Leisure in Later Life. The chapters on leadership, program planning, evaluation, techniques, exercise, adapted dance, intergenerational activities, and leisure counseling are designed for students preparing to work with elders in any setting. The chapters on the particular recreational program settings, which note specific needs for each, help students apply the material in the previous chapters as they begin to work with elders and apply their knowledge in various settings.

Authors Michael J. Leitner, Professor in the Department of Recreation and Parks Management at California State University in Chico, and Sara F. Leitner, instructor in Special Education and Adapted Physical Education at Butte College in Oroville provide myriad activities, described in detail for future leisure program directors and workers.

Covers a multitude of practical ideas for activities. – Bevan C. Grant, PhD, Professor of Sport and Leisure Studies, University of Waikato, New Zealand

An excellent resource for recreation professionals and students.... An asset to students in leisure and aging classes, program planning classes, and therapeutic recreation specialization courses. – Jerome F. Singleton, CTRS, Professor of Leisure Studies, School of Health and Human Performance, Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia

A comprehensive text for teaching a university-level course in designing leisure and recreational services for older adults. – Newsletter of the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education

refreshing.... A must for any activity director's library of reference material.... Should be in every long-term care setting. – Journal of Long-Term Care Administration

Presents the state of the art on this subject. – Tourism Recreation Research

With vastly revised chapters and totally new organization, Leisure in Later Life, Third Edition is a comprehensive text for those teaching a university-level course in designing leisure and recreation services for elders. It is designed for students preparing to work with elders in recreational settings, nursing homes, and senior centers; the materials outline activities and program planning emphasizing intergenerational activity, exercise, dance, and special topics in sexuality and hospice care.

Health, Mind & Body / Adolescents

Adolescent Health: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Theory, Research, and Intervention by Lynn Rew (Sage Publications)

Healthy growth and development of adolescents is an interest shared by many disciplines. It has long been an area of concern for people working with young people or studying adolescent behavior. However, despite the common interest, each discipline has its own perspective of adolescent health and uses different terminology to communicate its concerns.

Adolescent Health is a survey textbook that includes an overview of existing theories and current research on interventions that address the social morbidities and mortalities of adolescents. Author Lynn Rew, professor in nursing at The University of Texas, Austin, examines theories from a variety of professional disciplines that provide frameworks for understanding adolescent health behavior and health outcomes. Each theory is presented in terms of its essential elements, including its origin, a brief background of the theorist’s philosophical paradigm, the purpose and usefulness of the theory, the meaning and scope of the theory, and the empirical referents.

A generation of insights has led to some inescapable truths: no one discipline has a monopoly on the theories, methods, and skills needed to describe and understand the health, behaviors, and social contexts of youth. Breadth of perspective is a necessary ingredient for scholars and practitioners who are engaged in the science and skills of adolescent health. And our learners, more diverse than ever before, are in need of accessible yet sophisticated material that grounds them in a field characterized by rapidly expanding boundaries and a dazzling array of theory and methods to guide and propel their research.

In this last generation, we have nurtured a group of adolescent health investigators who often lack formal schooling in relevant theory and the skills and logic of theory testing. For many, that lack of formal preparation is offset to a large extent by a substantial dose of practical wisdom arising from clinical and programmatic interactions with young people. However, the transition to scholarly sensitivities requires deliberate instruction that is often lacking among those who have not grown up through the mechanisms of classic academic research training. Adolescent Health does an extraordinary job of helps these learners understand theory as a guide to and framer of their understanding. Rew also grounds the reader in contemporary threats to the health of young people; the principles of adolescent development, and the organized response to those health threats as reflected in national objectives to improve the health of young people.

Size limitations meant that Rew had to make critical choices in determining which theories to include and which to leave out. One goal was to  give enough details about each theory/model to motivate students and their mentors to think more broadly and deeply about the science of adolescent health.

A book like this is definitely needed.... I have been searching for years to find a core textbook I could use in my graduate course in adolescent health. This book, in combination with selected empirical readings that focus on specific health problems, would be very useful.... I could also see this book being a useful general resource for both academics and practitioners. – Carolyn Tucker Halpern, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Through a well-orchestrated and thoughtful progression, Adolescent Health provides us with the theories to frame our questions and the language to give those questions real substance and application. This work helps us to reach across the divides of discipline-specific thinking and methods and leaves us enriched, ultimately, and better able to collaborate with each other. Our field, and the needs of young people, deserve no less. – Michael D. Resnick, Ph.D., Professor and Director of Research, Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Health, Director, Healthy Youth Development, Prevention Research Center, University of Minnesota

How refreshing to find a single volume that not only tells us where we've been, but illuminates the critical pathways we must travel for the foreseeable future of interdisciplinary adolescent health research. Adolescent Health, designed as a comprehensive, core textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, fills a gap in the literature about adolescent health for many disciplines including psychology, sociology, nursing, medicine, public health and health education. Rew, with the insights of a clinician and the imagination of an adolescent health researcher unfettered by disciplinary parochialism, has provided us with a thoughtful and comprehensive work that will, at once, accomplish two things: it will guide and inspire learners at multiple levels, and it will provide well-organized and richly articulated material for the teachers of the interdisciplinary audience. In addition, it will be useful for certification courses in many interdisciplinary adolescent health training programs. The book will also be of interest to academics, researchers, and practitioners who are designing theoretically based interventions.

History / Military

The Battle of Mogadishu: First Hand Accounts From the Men of Task Force Ranger edited by Matthew Eversmann & Dan Schilling (Ballantine Books, Presidio Press)

In October 1993, a planned ninety-minute mission to capture a Somali warlord turned into a seventeen-hour fire-fight that left eighteen Americans dead, eighty-four wounded, and perhaps as many as one thousand Somalis killed. The Battle of Mogadishu, edited by Matt Eversmann and Dan Schilling, Army Rangers and Air Force spec ops personnel in the task force involved in the battle in Mogadishu,  presents the stories of six surviving veterans who fought in this fierce battle in their own words.

The battle was notable for many reasons – from the individual acts of bravery, to U.S. soldiers doing the job they were trained to do and not buckling under severe pressure, to its impact on U.S. foreign policy. But the Battle of Mogadishu will be remembered in the annals of modern warfare for one distinct reason. As Matt Eversmann writes, "That mission – that horrifying event, that brutal experience, that episode of complete savagery – will be, without exception, one of the finest examples of American tenacity, selfless service, courage, and commitment ever witnessed in modern times."

These soldiers had a job to do and carried out their duties with the fortitude and resolve that define our military. As Dan Schilling writes, "There are many great tales of combat controller bravery and operational feats of daring from Afghanistan and Iraq....Our mission in Somalia also had deadly consequences [and] at the time it was just another deployment. Yet, like so many things, something much grander – U.S. foreign policy – became eclipsed by something smaller, in this case the Battle of Mogadishu. In the ten years following the operation in Somalia, U.S. foreign policy has almost been completely driven by that single event."

In The Battle of Mogadishu, six individual first-person accounts provide us with a picture of this famous battle:

• Operation Gothic Serpent by Matt Eversmann: As a "chalk" leader, Eversmann was part of the first group of Rangers to "fast rope" from the Black Hawk helicopters. It was his chalk that suffered the first casualty of the battle.
• Sua Sponte: Of Their Own Accord by Raleigh Cash: Responsible for controlling and directing fire support for the platoon, Cash entered the raging battle in the ground convoy sent to rescue his besieged brothers in arms.
• Through My Eyes by Mike Kurth: One of only two African Americans in the battle, Kurth confronted his buddies' deaths, realizing that "the only people whom I had let get anywhere near me since I was a child were gone."
• What Was Left Behind by John Belman: He roped into the biggest firefight of the battle and considers some of the mistakes that were made, such as using Black Hawk helicopters to provide sniper cover.
• Be Careful What You Wish For by Tim Wilkinson: He was one of the Air Force pararescuemen, or PJs – the highly trained specialists for whom "That Others May Live" is no catchphrase but a credo ­and sums up his incomprehensible courage as "just holding up my end of the deal on a bad day."
• On Friendship and Firefights by Dan Schilling: As a combat controller, he was one of the original planners for the deployment of SOF forces to Mogadishu in the spring of 1993. During the battle, he survived the initial assault and carnage of the vehicle convoys only to return to the city to rescue his two closest friends, becoming, literally, "Last Out."

The remarkable success and resonance of this story are owed primarily to these men, to their deeds, their memories, their experience.... This is the real deal. These men were there. – From the Introduction by Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down

As the stories unfold in The Battle of Mogadishu, one gets a visceral sense of what it is like to be in the midst of a war zone. Their brutal experiences and brave contributions in a battle that changed American foreign policy for more than a decade should not be forgotten. With America's withdrawal from Somalia an oft-cited incitement to Osama bin Laden, it is imperative to revisit this seminal military mission and learn its les­sons from the men who were there.

History / African American / Southern

The Final Victims: Foreign Slave Trade to North America, 1783-1810 (by James A. McMillin (The Carolina Lowcountry and the Atlantic World Series: University of South Carolina Press) with CD-ROM

In The Final Victims James McMillin examines the volume and business of importing slaves from 1783 to 1810, the African origins of those captives, and their treatment by shippers and North American merchants. Tracing a shift in North American slaving commerce from New England to the lower South, McMillin tracks the vessels that imported slaves to America, particularly into Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans. McMillin, associate director of Bridwell Library and associate professor of American religious history at Southern Methodist University, suggests that previous scholars have underestimated the number of slave voyages and consequently the magnitude of American overseas slave trading during this era. He maintains the founding fathers did little to discourage the importation of slaves and asserts that – with the lengthening duration and distance of the notorious "middle passage" – conditions for African captives most likely worsened after the Revolution.
Combing through previously untapped public and private sources, McMillin uncovers data that challenges entrenched beliefs about the slave trade and, as a result, has far-reaching implications for our understanding of American life in the early republic. Drawing upon archival materials such as southern North American newspapers, other port and customhouse records, and merchant’s and planter’s papers, the appendix provides a comprehensive compilation of post-Revolutionary War North American foreign slave trade arrivals and voyages, the foreign slave trade between the West Indies and the North American mainland, clearances from the Carolinas and Georgia for Africa, foreign slave sales, slave vessels owners and slaving venture investors.

To his revisionist narrative McMillin appends, on a searchable CD-ROM accompanying The Final Victims, the massive data that led him to his conclusions. The information includes places of origin for the captives; names of vessels, captains, and owners; size of slave cargoes; ports of arrival; and other data pertinent to his investigation.

This important book establishes the large volume of and the major role of Southern merchants in the Atlantic slave trade after the American Revolution. Based upon a variety of American sources, it substantially revises conclusions from studies focusing mainly on European slave trade voyage documents. – Gwendolyn Midlo Hall, author of Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century

With this detailed study of the importation of slaves to North America, McMillin tests long-standing assumptions about an enterprise thought to have waned in the wake of the United States’ successful revolution against Great Britain. The exhaustive resources made available on the CD-ROM provide undeniable proof of the South’s role post-revolution. Slave Trade scholars and non-academics will find this approach and the information in it useful and accessible.

History

The American Story (Second Edition) by Robert A. Divine, T.H. Breen, George M. Fredrickson, R. Hal Williams, Ariela J. Gross, H.  W. Brands (Pearson Longman – Penguin Academics) blending the essentials of political, social, economic, diplomatic, and cultural history into a seamless narrative, presents a compact yet compelling story of the United States and its people – the powerful elite as well as the ordinary men and women who have effected and been affected by the events that have shaped the nation.

Two new authors – Ariela J. Gross, professor of law and history at the University of California, and H. W. Brands, University Distinguished Professor and Melbern G. Glasscock Chair in American History at Texas A&M University – have joined Robert A. Divine, George W. Littlefield Professor Emeritus in History at the University of Texas at Austin; T. H. Breen, William Smith Mason Professor of American Northwestern University; George M. Fredrickson, Edgar E. Robinson Professor Emeritus of United States History at Stanford University; and R. Hal Williams, Professor of History at Southern Methodist University, to create The American Story (second edition).

For many decades the traditional narratives that framed the story of the United States assumed a unified society in which men and women of various races and backgrounds shared a common culture. In recent years, however, historians have come to believe that traditional narratives stressing the rise of democracy or the advance of free enterprise undervalue the complexity and diversity of the American story. An awareness that the past is as much about controversy as agreement, as much concerned with diversity as with unity, does not preclude the possibility of a coherent narrative. To create such a narrative while still paying attention to the differences