SirReadaLot.org

December 2004, Issue #68

Guide to Contents

Art: Kenya, Lisa Yuskavage Paintings, Western Views of China, Charles Longfellow's Japan, Directing Plays, Cajun Culture, Art American Style, Running with the Hemingways, New York Art Deco, Interior Design, Green Remodeling, African American Lives, Kentucky Freindship, Canals, Motorcycle Art
Education: Black Colleges, Teaching Science, Writing as Subversive, Online Learning, Wisdom Collected, Graduate Programs 2005
Business: Branding, Employee Well-Being, Career Skills, Biotech Foods, Managing a Health and Human Services Organization,
Children: Our Forests, Piano Playing, Mummy,
Food & Wine: Mitford Recipes, Buying Wine,
Entertainment: Wodehouse Recorded, Tallulah Bankhead, Carlin Rants, Sports: North Carolina Tar Heels, Travel: Picturing the Queens, Best Caribbean Resorts
Health & Science: Sex Talk, STDs, Eating Disorders, Gerard Mercator, Veterinary
History: Great Powers Bully One Another, California Indian Labor, Civil War Washington, Vietnam according to General Creighton W. Abrams, Hawaiian Memoir, Politics, Inventors in America,
Literature: Madison Smartt Bell's Haitian Trilogy, Men and Cartoons, Kluge's Tell Some SF: Coyote Continues Toward Interstellar Revolution
Mysteries: Ancient Roman Whodunit,
Spirituality: God's Life, Christian Ethics, Practicing Ethics, Altruism Judaism Emerging, Ruth, New American Christianity, Christ & History, Christian Spirituality, Joseph Campbell 's Bliss

African Studies / Social History

The Risks Of Knowledge: Investigations Into The Death Of The Hon. Minister John Robert Ouko In Kenya, 1990 by David William Cohen, E. S. Atieno Odhiambo (New African Histories Series: Ohio University Press/East African Educational Publishers Ltd.)

Kenya’s distinguished minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation, Robert Ouko, was murdered in February of 1990. The horror of the attack, the images of his mutilated and burned corpse, and the revelations of the pressures, conflicts, and fears he faced in his last week, focused national and international attention on the extent of government corruption during the Moi era. The story of a death foretold, The Risks Of Knowledge examines the multiple and unfinished investigations into the crime.

Authors David William Cohen, professor of anthropology and history at the University of Michigan, and E.S. Atieno Odhiambo, professor of history at Rice University, raise critical questions about the production of knowledge and claims of truth, which extend well beyond the changing political landscape of post-independence Kenya. They also argue that the unresolved nature of the crime demands – as does Africa – to be understood not only in its generalities, but also in its specificities.

This book is about how facts are created and knowledge is produced. Sifting through court transcripts and other investigations into the Ouko murder, Cohen and Odhiambo show how some subjects, but not others, became evidence. Along the way, their book offers sharp insights into the ‘squirearchy’ of western Kenya, into the world of international business, and into the routine of governmental administration. This book should make historians think about their work, about how our discipline silences the small stories, rumors, and unfinished business of the past. – Derek R. Peterson, editor of The Invention of Religion: Rethinking Belief in Politics and History

The Risks Of Knowledge is both a major reexamination of the public record of the Ouko murder and a call for more detailed engagement with Africa’s historical and present complexities. Powerfully argued, complex and provocative, The Risks Of Knowledge brilliantly reveals the turmoil and untidiness beneath the smooth surfaces of historical narratives. The authors draw attention to the burden of long-standing economies of knowledge respecting Africa and to the naturalized or pre-scripted understanding or renderings of Africa’s past and present.

The Risks Of Knowledge is part of a series entitled: New African Histories edited by Jean Allman and Allen Isaacman.

Arts & Photography

Lisa Yuskavage: Small Paintings 1993-2004 by Tamara Jenkins (Harry N. Abrams, Inc.)

Entering my first Lisa Yuskavage show was like falling into a candy-colored female fever dream – room after room of colossal paintings of gigantic, naked women depicted in a range of mouthwatering colors you might find in a package of Smarties. – Tamara Jenkins, from her essay

The small paintings that make up Lisa Yuskavage, the first monograph of her work, are often the place where the characters from the artist's larger works come alive. Exploratory in nature, these paintings provide a uniquely intimate look at Yuskavage's creative process – allowing us to see how they have been a method of working for more than 20 years. The introductory essay, written by close friend, writer and director Tamara Jenkins is a work of biography and psychoanalysis, offering an up-close look at the forces behind Yuskavage’s work.

Many of the paintings included in this volume are reproduced at full-size, creating a particularly intimate experience between book and reader. As Jenkins notes in her essay, "A small painting ... creates a different physical experience for both the artist and the viewer. For someone like Lisa, who generally uses big canvases, working small allows her the opportunity to stay close to the image while painting." She observes, "By painting small, Lisa says she tricks herself into making personal work, even though eventually people will see it."

Jenkins first met Yuskavage while standing in line for coffee in Alphabet City on New York's Lower East Side. The intimacy of Yuskavage's small paintings is matched by the personal nature of Jenkins's essay, which charts Yuskavage's childhood and school years, including her preteen fascination with Penthouse and her experience posing as a nude model. In an effort to help readers further understand the genealogy of Yuskavage's creative process, Jenkins diagrams several paintings detail by detail, providing possible codes for understanding Yuskavage's canvases, and providing readers with an up-close look at the forces behind her work.

At once sexist and feminist, real and surreal, unsettling and seductive – and technically accomplished – Yuskavage's work generates buzz and controversy. And her paintings have struck a chord in a youth, size-and-celebrity-enhancement-obsessed culture. Both admired and censured for the in-your-face eroticism of her paintings, Yuskavage, a graduate of the Tyler School of Art and Yale and visiting Artist in Residence at the American Academy in Rome 2003-04, has emerged from the 1990s as one of the most important figurative artists working today. Called the "premier bad-girl artist" by The New York Times and lauded in The New Yorker as "an extravagantly deft painter," Yuskavage is known for her oil paintings, loaded with color and emotional content, featuring languid young women with outlandish body parts. Exploratory in nature, these small paintings in Lisa Yuskavage provide viewers with a uniquely intimate look at Yuskavage's creative process.

Arts & Photography / History

China Illustrated: Western Views of the Middle Kingdom by Arthur Hacker, with a foreword by Frederic Wakeman (Tuttle)
Longtime Hong Kong resident Arthur Hacker applies the eye of an artist and the knowledge of a historian to the hundreds of images presented in China Illustrated. The collection spans the period between the arrival of the first foreign traders in the mid-sixteenth century to the beginning of the Second World War. Hacker was born in England and studied at the Royal College of Art before working as a graphic designer and moving to Hong Kong where he still lives.

The hundreds of images featured in China Illustrated include magnificent early engravings and maps, charming hand-colored prints, rare hand-colored lantern slides, stunning studio portraits, candid amateur photographs, fascinating post­cards, drawings and cartoons and they all come from Hacker’s private collection. The text captures the atmosphere of China throughout the centuries.

This social history highlights various aspects of traditional China as seen through the eyes of foreign visitors and residents. The lives and lifestyles of the fascinating mix of people who came to China, as well as the places they visited and the sights and customs that attracted their attention, are set against the backdrop of China's great cities and its ancient culture. A short history of the period sets the scene in each chapter, allowing readers to follow the dramatic changes that took place through the turbulent years when China moved from feudal empire to republic. The illustrated sections which follow focus on notable themes and topics.

China Illustrated brilliantly captures the atmosphere of China and the dramatic changes that took place from the mid-sixteenth century to the beginning of World War II. The stories of the fascinating mix of people who came to China are included in the text,  illustrated with 500 magnificent and rare images. Collected with the eye of an artist and the knowledge of a historian, the images eloquently bring China's social history to life. The result is a lavishly illustrated volume and an exciting hodgepodge of merchants, mercenaries, missionaries, and adventurers.
Arts & Photography

Longfellow's Tattoos: Tourism, Collecting, And Japan by Christine M.E. Guth (University of Washington Press)

Charles Longfellow, son of Henry Wadsworth Long­fellow, arrived in Yokohama in 1871, intending a brief visit, and stayed for two years. He returned to Boston laden with photographs, curios, and art objects, as well as the elaborate tattoos he had "collected" on his body.

Interweaving Longfellow's experiences with broader issues of tourism and cultural authenticity, Christine Guth, one of the foremost scholars in Japanese art history in the United States, discusses the ideology of tourism and the place of Japan within nineteenth-century round-the-world travel. Building on the foundation provided by the written and visual materials in the Longfellow archives, and using a variety of methodologies, Longfellow's Tattoos investigates collecting in Japan from four different perspectives. Guth begins Chapter 1 with a discussion of tourism and Japan’s place in it. The arrival there of large numbers of globe-trotters of widely different geographic and cultural backgrounds created a new kind of "imagined community" that altered and accelerated the traffic in ideas, styles, and images between Japan and America. Although tourists undeniably helped to shape American perceptions of Japan, their role is generally ignored because their impressions were often partial and filled with half-truths and misunderstand­ings.

Commercial photographs of Japan and its people, often hand-painted by Japanese artists, were popular souvenirs. Easily manipulated, both by their creators and their viewers, photographs helped to give focus to notions about Japanese cul­ture that were rarely consonant with reality, creating and reinforcing some stereotypes, even as they displaced others. The advent of photography seemed to bring with it a new era of truthfulness, but, like any form of visual culture, it was not value-free.

Chapter 2 offers a close reading of the hundreds of photographs preserved in four albums assembled by Charley Longfellow to better understand how this medium contributed to the ways that Americans saw Japan, and Japanese saw themselves. These include scenic views of the country by Felice Beato, the leading commercial photographer in Japan during the 1860s and early 1870s, rare photographs of the Ainu and northern Hokkaido taken during a British coastal survey of 1871, and two highly personal albums offering a microcosm of Longfellow's activities and friendships in Japan.

What tourists chose to collect involved a complex interplay of personal and culturally ascribed meanings. Longfellow's experiences underscore that there was no preordained standard against which Japanese art, either old or new, was evaluated at the time. Chapter 3 examines what and where globe-trotters collected and the meanings that they attributed to their acquisitions. It focuses particular attention on their ambiguous attitudes toward authenticity and how these have informed modern readings of Japanese art.

Clothing is a system of communication that exposes many ideas about a people, by including questions about race, class, ethnicity, gender, and attitudes toward the body. Nineteenth-century tourists were especially prone to read inner meanings about Japan from the external appearance of its inhabitants. Tourists were fascinated by these exotic manifestations of the "artistic nature" of the Japanese people. Some men even "went native" by having themselves tattooed. In so doing, they celebrated the natural life, freedom from convention, and aestheticization of the male body they had discovered in Japan. The costumes Longfellow had made for himself and tattoos he "collected" on his back and chest dramatically illuminate the process through which Euro-American visitors claimed Japanese heritage to fashion their self-identity.

How Americans absorbed cultural difference, transforming its threat into something comforting and compatible with their own lives, is the subject of the fourth and final chapter, "Domesticating Japan." Most interpretations of the nineteenth-century reception of Japanese art in America take the museum as their paradigm, but until the beginning of the twentieth century, the primary settings for the public's encounter with Japanese art were fairs and expositions, bazaars and curio shops, and private residences. The decor of Longfellow House, and especially its "Japan Room," filled with Charley Longfellow's souvenirs, serves as the basis for analyzing some of the ways that aesthetic transactions with Japan influenced the American home. The 1870s saw the publication of many guides to interior decor for middle-class Americans. Such publications, though not explicitly about Japan, were filled with images showing how Japanese screens, paintings, ceramics, bronzes, and other decorative furnishings could be integrated into the American home – just as they were in Longfellow House. How homes were decorated reveals many unspoken, and often gendered, Victorian assumptions about the island nation and how it became associated with sophis­tication and cosmopolitanism.

A deep pleasure to read for both scholar and non­scholar, Guth's study of Longfellow's life in Japan is an exemplary, provocative, and highly important work of cultural studies. – Jay Fliegelman, professor of American Studies, Sanford University

That Christine Guth, one of the most productive and respected scholars of Japanese art, has turned her rich intellect and analytical prowess to curios, photographs, and tattoos collected by nineteenth-century globetrotters suggests that the real Japanese art history has finally arrived. – Allen  Hockley, associate professor of Art History, Dartmouth College

Guth deftly illuminates a special moment in Japanese and U.S. cultural history. By using as her touchstone the poignantly eccentric Charles Longfellow (son of the great Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), she adeptly positions episodes in Japanese and American history so they flesh out a heretofore only partially studied cultural dynamic. Each country is made to hold up a mirror to the other. – Melinda Takeuchi, professor of Japanese Art History, Stanford University

Longfellow's Tattoos goes beyond simplistic models of reciprocal influence to a more synergistic Longfellow’s journals, correspondence, and art collection dramatically demonstrate America's early impressions of Japanese culture, and his personal odyssey illustrates the impact on both countries of globe-trotting tourism.

Arts & Photography / Performing Arts

Play Directing: Analysis, Communication, and Style (6th Edition) by Francis Hodge & Michael McLain (Pearson Allyn and Bacon) is about leadership – specifically, the leadership of an artistic enter­prise: the play director in today's theatre.

Play Directing, Sixth Edition, describes the various roles a director plays, from selection and analysis of the play to working with actors and designers to bring it to life. Veteran author Francis Hodge, University of Texas, Austin has added a second author, Michael McLain, professor at the University of California, Los Angeles and founding Artistic Associate and Literary Director of the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. Hodge and McLain emphasize that the role of the director is not that of dictator, but leader of artists working in collaboration who look to the director for ideas that will give impetus to their fullest, most creative expressions. The text also emphasizes that directing is not a finite and specific “system” of production, but rather a means for providing an intensive look at the structure of plays, of acting and actor-ownership, and of all the other crafts that together make a produced play. Readers are guided through the process of working on a play from style to analysis, including its relationship to moving pictures and television.

This new sixth edition adds new chapters on working with actors (Chapter 16) and on the director and the dramaturg (Appendix 2), as well as new material on the director in opera. The authors have revised many exercises for increased focus on points discussed in the text, expanding the opportunities for practical application. The bibliography has been expanded with an updated survey of a diverse range of works related to directing, providing students with valuable guidelines to further study.

Play Directing is organized around two major approaches: first, Chapters 1 through 22 cover the mechanics of bringing a play alive on a stage with actors. Second, Chapters 23 through 29 are about refining those mechanics through the study of style in such a way as to individualize both the playscript and the approaches to making it work on the stage.

Although Play Directing is about the process of directing, it is also intended for playwrights, actors, and designers, for it is their work that the audience sees and hears. The director may give them the impetus to express their fullest, most creative talent, and the director may help shape their products, but unless these individuals know about and work as active collaborators toward what the director's imagining intends, they will merely be carrying out mechanical projects. The goal is always synthesis, and by working together under the director-coordinator, these craftsmen will find it.

Play Directing is also written for those directors who make productions at the high school level.

New author Michael McLain brings a fresh new voice to the sixth edition of Play Directing while retaining the point of view and fundamentals that have made the text a success in its earlier editions. This edition of the book offers a wealth of new information on the director's role.

Arts & Photography / History

Zydeco Shoes: A Sensory Tour Of Cajun Culture by Alexandria Hayes, with paintings by Earl Herbert (Pelican) invites readers on a multi-dimensional, sensory tour of the spicy spectrum of Cajun culture…a way of life that celebrates living.

Zydeco Shoes is collection of vivid, humorous paintings by self-taught artist Earl Hebert, plus recipes, taking readers into the back-road music halls, the small-town family gatherings, and the all-important, spicy, local cuisine.

Hebert grew up immersed in Cajun country in the little town of Ossun, Louisiana. He began painting in the late 70s and early 80s, and readily admits he knew nothing of it but thoroughly enjoyed the learning experience. "I particularly enjoy the beginning of the painting," Hebert says, "when the canvas is blank, and you can tell any story you want, but then you're married to that image for the next week or two, while you're finishing the painting."

An early mentor suggested using eight to ten standard earthy colors to begin. Hebert realized this gave his work a muddy look, and he quickly switched to the rich primary colors that have become his trademark. Another signature of his painting is the layering effect produced by acrylic paints. Hebert's work is full of the colorful world of the Cajuns, combining images of the past, present, and future and telling the story of a simpler era – when the warmth of good friends and family, a sack of crawfish, and a few cold drinks was all a person needed.

... And it was not the tragedy and sorrow that attracted outsiders to the swamps. It's the washboard-playing, dancing, crawfish-­eating, gumbo-making, joke-telling, hospitable side of the people of south Louisiana that fascinates the outside world. These persistent and defining qualities make the Cajun culture one of the most intact subcultures in America, and no one illustrates this joie de vivre better than Earl Hebert.

Whereas I felt obligated, amidst a lack of a Cajun painting tradition, to record historical facts and handed-down tales, Earl expands the definition of the Cajun culture with his portrayal of today's people. His paintings reflect the happiness and excitement with which these people exist. He embraces their joyful traditions as key elements of their culture. Using bright, strong colors and exaggerated gestures, he brings his canvases alive, weaving the people of south Louisiana – the Cajuns, Creoles, and African Americans – together in a fais do do or a crawfish boil.

Earl uses strong light, bright color, and a full, lively composition to make joy – joy of family, of zydeco, of good food, and of Louisiana itself – the true subject of his paintings. And above all else, his paintings reflect his own love of life and of his beloved Cajun heritage. – Georges Rodrigue, from the introduction

With its bold colors, evocative text, authentic Cajun recipes, and enclosed music CD, Zydeco Shoes celebrates South Louisiana and its people. Featuring the paintings of Earl Hebert, the book enchants the uninitiated as readily as it gratifies the veteran.

Arts & Photography

American Art: A Cultural History by David Bjelajac (Pearson Prentice Hall)

Dismissing the idea of art as a stately evolution of styles or "-isms," the author sees America's visual culture as an arena in which conflicting notions of class, gender, race, and regional allegiance are fought. Stepping outside traditional art-historical discourse, American Art launches boldly into the realms of politics, religion, science, literature, and popular culture in order to analyze individual art works within their specific historical contexts. Throughout, using generous quotations from primary sources, David Bjelajac pays close attention to how contemporary artists, audiences, and beholders from different backgrounds have talked about specific works, the nature of art, and the artist's role in American society.

Though broadly chronological, the book is structured around various themes, such as the animating power of religious imagery in the seventeenth century, the cultivation of republican virtue in the eighteenth century, and a split national identity in the Civil War era. The final chapters document the rise of a conflicted Avant-Garde, the populism and public art of the Depression years, the Abstract Expressionists, and the postmodern 1990s. Famous works by established names such as Charles Bulfinch, Benjamin West, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Mathew Brady, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Jeff Koons are freshly interpreted next to vernacular imagery – a masonic apron, an earthenware mug, a satirical cartoon, or a labor union poster.

In this provocative new survey of American painting, sculpture, photography, and architecture, Bjelajac, professor of art and the human sciences at George Washington University, dismisses both the idea of an evolutionary development of styles and a uniquely American way of seeing. Instead, showing the interrelation of art, politics, and social change, Bjelajac encourages readers to look at artworks from the point of view of contemporaneous audiences and within a larger historical context.

Explaining how shifting cultural values influence the way we interpret art, American Art helps us to understand why people have reacted positively or negatively to various works at various times. Nearly 400 illustrations, 150 in full color, illustrate a vibrant, stimulating, and original work in which art is viewed not only in terms of its creation but also its reception.

Arts & Literature / Biographies & Memoirs

Running with the Bulls: My Years with the Hemingways by Valerie Hemingway (Ballantine Books)

A chance encounter in Spain in 1959 brought nineteen-year-old Irish reporter Valerie Danby-Smith face-to-face with Ernest Hemingway. This brief, awkward interview led to a lifetime involvement with two generations of Hemingways, as she was sucked into the entourage by Ernest, who had become openly infatuated with the young Valerie. In her memoir, Running with the Bulls, Valerie recounts her coming of age in the company of one of the greatest literary lions of the twentieth century.

For two years she devoted herself to Ernest Hemingway and his wife, Mary, a former newswoman herself, traveling with them through beloved haunts in Spain and France and living with them during the tumultuous final months in Cuba. In name a personal secretary, but in reality a confidante and friend, she soon found herself swept up in the wild revelry that always exploded around Hemingway – dancing in the streets of Pamplona, cheering bullfighters at Valencia, careening around hairpin turns in Provence, and savoring the panorama of Paris from her attic room in the Ritz. In Cuba, Valerie spent idyllic days and nights typing the final draft of A Moveable Feast, even as Castro's revolution closed in.

But it was only when Hemingway threatened to commit suicide if she left that she realized how troubled the aging writer was – and how dependent he had become on her. After Hemingway shot himself, Valerie, then a researcher for Newsweek, traveled to Idaho to attend the funeral. It was there that she met Hemingway's youngest son, the manic-depressive, cross-dressing physician, Gregory, whom she married five years later.

As Thomas McGuane writes, "This is the best, and best written, of all the reminiscences of Ernest Hemingway, in part because its adventurous author Valerie Hemingway is such an absorbing character herself. There is far more here than the looming Papa but what there is of him is at uncommonly close range and changes our picture of him substantially. For once, the great artist, the hero and the fool seem to be the same person; and the long list of fascinating people in his train are seen with rare frankness."

It is one of the best books on Hemingway that I have read, and it has material to be found nowhere else on Ernest, Mary, and Greg Hemingway. – Norman Mailer
Valerie Hemingway is, with Hemingway’s only surviving son, the last witness to have a precious, intimate knowledge of the family. Her account of Ernest’s last years and of the tragic aftermath of his suicide is absolutely riveting: essential reading for anyone interested in the curse of fame. – Jeffrey Meyers, author of Hemingway: A Biography

Running with the Bulls is hot to the touch. I was not a little dumbfounded that Valerie Hemingway endured and survived the events of her life to write this improbably skillful memoir that frequently made me wish to climb a mountain and sit on a friendly glacier. The author’s life with the Hemingways is utterly compelling, and we must praise her for her gifts in giving us the most lucid look yet written at this haunted family. – Jim Harrison
This is a startling, complicated book . . . fresh, trenchant and intimate and revealing, yet sweet-spirited . . . told by a woman with a wonderful voice of her own. – David Quammen

With clarity and candor, vividly written and rich in atmosphere and anecdote, Valerie evokes the magic and the pathos of Papa Hemingway's last years. From lunches with Orson Welles to midnight serenades by mysterious troubadours, from a rooftop encounter with Castro to smuggling manuscripts and priceless works of art out of Cuba after Papa Hemingway's death, Valerie Hemingway played an intimate, indispensable role in the lives of two generations of Hemingways. Running with the Bulls, by turns luminous, enthralling, and devastating, is the account of what she enjoyed, and what she endured, during her years of living as a Hemingway.

Arts & Photography / Cultural History / Professional & Technical / Architecture

Art Deco New York by David Garrard Lowe (Watson-Guptill Publications) takes readers on a journey through New York in the early decades of the 20th century, when art deco, with its emphasis on machine-tooled elegance and sleekness of line, replaced the voluptuous beaux-arts style that preceded it.

During the transformative decades between the two world wars, Art Deco influenced everything – architectural styles, fashion and furniture, textiles, and graphics, the designs of trains and automobiles, and even the look of film and stage sets. The hallmarks of Deco design – machine-tooled elegance, the sumptuous look achieved by the use of rich materials and colors, the brilliant use of decorative detail – are seen here in images both of Deco icons, such as Rockefeller Center and the New School for Social Research, and of dozens of lesser known works by architects and designers who embraced the Deco style.

In Art Deco New York, cultural historian and prize-winning author David Garrard Lowe, through 150 black-and-white and 80 color images, demonstrates the pervasive influence of Art Deco on every page – icons such as Rockefeller Center; the Waldorf Astoria; William Van Alen's Chrysler Building; the Barclay-Vesey Building on West Street, considered by many to be New York's first Art Deco skyscraper; Howard & Hood's Daily News Building; and an overlooked example of superb Art Deco architecture, the Lexington Avenue Bloomingdale's. Here, too, is the classic New York Central's Twentieth Century Limited and the 1934 Burlington Zephyr, the French Line's Normandie; and even a Greyhound bus. And then, there are the Art Deco inspired fashions like Coco Chanel's "little black dress," the head-hugging cloche, and a Georges Fouquet brooch; ads like Erte's brilliant Holeproof ad for men's hosiery, and movie posters for MGM's Grand Hotel and Fritz Lang's 1927 Metropolis.

As a writer, I was intrigued by an epoch, which I had already christened "The Art Deco Era," that could give birth to the Empire State and to Rockefeller Center. Slowly, over time, like the tesserae of a mosaic, the pieces fell into place, until, at last, I had a complete picture. These tesserae came from a multitude of sources. As I began to know and to love the songs of those New York masters of American lieder – Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and others – I perceived a link between them and the architecture of the 1920s and 1930s. The beauty and wit of the Chrysler's pyrotechnic spire was as one with the beauty and wit of a Porter lyric or a Berlin ballad....

As the concept of the volume I wanted to write on the Art Deco era took shape, I realized that it would have to be a book about more than architecture. The German philosopher Friedrich von Schelling wrote that architecture is "music in space ... frozen music." The music of which the structures of the Deco years were composed consisted not only of stone, steel, and glass, but also of the spirit of the time. Thus I knew that my book would have to include essays on subjects as varied as the experience of American doughboys in France during the Great War, the transformation of society by the appearance of the new woman, and the aesthetic impact on New York of the 1925 Paris exposition. The book would have to be a rich melange of Coco Chanel and  Mayor Jimmy Walker, of Dorothy Parker and designer Donald Deskey, of barkeep Texas Guinan and debutante Brenda Frazier. – from the Preface

This gorgeously illustrated and vividly written book illuminates brilliantly the author's thesis that the designs of Art Deco were the supreme expression of the gospel of human hope and aspiration in everything around us, from skyscrapers and ocean liners to men's ties and book jackets, in the tumultuous and nervous interlude between two devastating wars. – Louis S. Auchincloss

The historically rich and visually spectacular journey of Art Deco New York showcases the hallmarks of Deco design in evidence throughout the city. There are dazzling photographs – many never before published. But Art Deco New York is far more than a catalog of buildings and art objects. It is a wise, witty, and intimate look at the social and political forces which made Art Deco so irresistible, which made it the quintessential symbol of modernity for a generation of New Yorkers.

Biographies & Memoirs / Women’s Studies / African American Studies

Sweet Expectations: Michele Hoskins' Recipe for Success by Michele Hoskins, with Jean A. Williams (Adams Media)

In the 1800s, a slave named America Washington created a syrup recipe for her plantation owner's family. The recipe was passed down through five generations of daughters to Michele Hoskins, who decided to give her own daughters more than a recipe – a business legacy – and the formula for success.

This ex-school teacher and single mother had children to support, a secret recipe, and a dream. Through her entrepreneurial spirit, aggressive sales tactics, and impenetrable faith, Hoskins launched Michele Foods, Inc., to sell her great-great-grandmother's honey cream syrup. Now a multimillion-dollar corporation with a multitude of products and national distribution in chains such as Super Wal-Mart, Albertson's, Kroger, Safeway, and Stop & Shop, Hoskins story is awe-inspiring.

The Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, People Magazine, and Fortune are only a few of the media outlets that have featured Hoskins' remarkable rise. Going beyond what has already been reported, Sweet Expectations is the full story – replete with the obstacles, tragedies, and ultimate glory of seeing her family legacy blossom and shared with her progeny.

Sweet Expectations is the story of how Hoskins ...

• Overcame a serious health condition as her business was beginning to take shape.
• Broke through racial barriers to get her products on the shelves.
• Survived her marital breakup just as her dream became clear.
• Struggled to raise three little girls while starting a business.

Michele is an example of an American success story, a victorious woman's success story, and an example of success of the human spirit. – Pat Harris, Chief Diversity Officer, McDonald's Corporation

She did it her way and today she has a thriving business built on a tenacious belief in saying no to defeats along the journey. This is a real account of triumph in the rough edges of big business. – Publishers Weekly

Sweet Expectations is an inspirational and emotionally charged story showing how the power of family, faith, and self-determination can transcend even the darkest days. Laced with touching detail, bitter­sweet anecdotes, wise observations, and valuable success principles, the book will give courage to anyone who dares to dream, seeks to beat the odds and hopes to change his or her life.

Biographies & Memoirs / Women’s Studies

A Taste of the Sweet Apple: A Memoir by Jo Anna Holt-Watson (Woodford Reserve Series for Kentucky Literature Series: Sarabanda Books)

Jo Anna "Pee-Wee" Holt-Watson is a charmer of a writer, her voice transports readers to a vanished rural culture intimately seen: mid-twentieth century, Kentucky. In A Taste of the Sweet Apple, Holt-Watson, a fourth-generation Kentuckian and self-proclaimed Yellow Dog Democrat, documents one summer, her seventh, at Grassy Springs Farm in the Bluegrass region of Woodford County. Here is a world of shadowy lanes, granddaddy's ice-cold artesian well, tobacco stripping rooms, a girl's pony barn, Ginnie Rae's Beauty Shoppe on Main Street, and Ocean Frog's Grocery.

At the center of the book is a poetic and telling bond, an adoring friendship between this small white girl and a black foreman, Joe Collins. There's a tempestuous country-physician father, a beautiful, powerful mother in powerless times, and the "wonderfully long-winded" Aunt Tott. We witness the travail of hired laborers as well as the beauties of craft and devotion in Holt-Watson's sharp rendering of traditional tobacco culture.

The title says it exactly: reading this book is indeed like tasting a sweet apple. Its a quirky memoir, with­out the sentimentality and insistence that drives so many personal accounts. Holt-Watson has a deeply moving story to tell, with fully realized characters set loose in a specific world and time. And she has a distinctly humorous voice. I'm partial to any writer who can come up with a walleyed laundress and a prize bull named Big Business, in a place called Heaven's Little Footstool. This is a wonderful book. – Bobbie Ann Mason

A Taste of the Sweet Apple is a moving meditation on the love of a place and the way the land becomes a part of its inhabitants. Wztsons writing is evocative and heartbreaking, lyrical, and often hilarious. A vivid cast of characters takes us completely into this world, reminding us of the power of storytelling in a time when we need it more than ever. This is a beautifully wrought memoir. – Silas House
… Holt-Watson does more than record quirky characters. She captures Woodford County, or "Heaven's Little Footstool," at a particular moment in time, and her memoir, which covers a five-year period, is vivid without lapsing into sentimentality. And through it all, Joe Collins is there, steady as the sun in this child's universe. An excellent inaugural title in the Woodford Reserve Series in Kentucky Literature. – Booklist *Starred Review*

Brimming with unsentimental innocence and the sensuality of furs, tobacco, and her mother's Lemon lily beds, A Taste of the Sweet Apple draws a tough-minded, tomboy-accomplished portrait of girlhood. In the rural tradition, Holt-Watson is a conjuror of tales both hilarious and moving, mixed with temper and spirit.

Business & Investing

How Brands Become Icons: The Principles of Cultural Branding by Douglas B. Holt (Harvard Business School Press)

To date, iconic brands have been built more on the intuitions of ad agency creatives than by purposeful strategies. Stories of iconic brands like Coca-Cola, Harley-Davidson, and Volkswagen have become part of marketing lore.

But Douglas Holt argues that these widely circulated stories miss the mark. In this eye-opening book, Holt, Chair of Marketing at Oxford University, demonstrates that brands become icons not by highlighting unique features and benefits, but by staking out a provocative and valued position in the national culture. How Brands Become Icons extracts the com­mon principles behind these intuitions to build a new cultural branding model that revises core, marketing principles including segmentation, targeting, positioning, brand equity, and brand loyalty. Iconic brands address acute cultural contradictions – and the widespread desires and anxieties they create – by "performing" myths. These simple stories, usually conveyed through powerful advertising, smooth over cultural contradictions and help people feel better about their identities. Using case studies of Snapple, Mountain Dew, Budweiser, ESPN, Corona, and other iconic brands, the book details these new principles, explaining counter-intuitive insights such as:

• How managers' present-tense view of brands blinds them to lucrative cultural opportunities.
• How cultural disruptions provide opportunities for new brands and threats to existing brands.
• Why consistency can be deadly for a brand.
• Why following trends can never build an iconic brand.
• How authenticity is created with communications.
• Why paying attention to the majority of the brand's customers can destroy the brand's value.
• Why television advertising trumps Hollywood as a channel for deliver­ing powerful myths.

Holt says that, to compete, managers need to stop outsourcing their branding efforts and instead build "cultural activist" organizations from the ground up.

Doug Holt deeply understands the religion of brands and the fickle ways we worship them. – Jeff Goodby, Cochair, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners

How Brands Become Icons is one of the most insightful pieces of thinking on the modern world of marketing. Its analysis, founded on exhaustive research rather than egotistical opinion, makes it invaluable. – John Hegarty, Chair and Creative Director, Bartle Bogle Hegarty

Conventional branding approaches struggle to explain the rise of iconic brands. Doug Holt's view links brand communication with societal and cultural contexts to explain how certain brands rise to the top and stay there. This fresh perspective gives valuable insights not previously covered in marketing literature. – Jochen Zeitz, CEO, Puma

How Brands Become Icons is a must-read for any researcher or executive who wants to know why some brands are holy and others are mundane. – David Mick, Professor of Marketing, McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia

Based on an extensive examination of the historical records of legendary iconic brands, Holt presents an entirely different model with significant implications for branding strategy. Upending axioms that have dominated managerial thought for three decades, How Brands Become Icons challenges managers to rethink their assumptions about brand strategy.

Business & Investing

Leveraging the New Human Capital: Adaptive Strategies, Results Achieved, and Stories of Transformation by Sandra Burud & Marie Tumolo (Davies-Black Publishing)

From research and theory to practical application, Leveraging the New Human Capital makes the case for a new way to manage that maximizes the performance of people and organizations, while promoting the well-being of employees and families.

The ideal worker in today's economy is a technically skilled individual willing to devote heart and mind – as well as hands – to drive results. At the same time, he or she must collaborate with peers and navigate the competing demands of the workplace and personal life. Unlike Industrial Age workers, who had the support of a home-based partner, today's employee can no longer focus solely on work but must manage both work and personal responsibilities.

Authors are Sandra Burud, visiting research faculty at the Drucker Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University, past president of the Alliance for Work-Life Progress; and Marie Tumolo, former vice president with Merrill Lynch Co, former teacher of strategic management at California State University. They present a new, research-based theory of human capital management and the practical steps organizations must take to put it to work. The experiences of DuPont, Baxter International, SAS, and First Tennessee National Corporation demonstrate how these strategies are used in real-world situations and their effects on employee and organizational performance. Leveraging the New Human Capital sets out five specific strategies organizations can use to succeed in this new environment:

• Choosing to invest in people.
• Adopting new beliefs.
• Redesigning organizational culture.
• Transforming management practices.
• Coordinating beliefs, culture, and practice.

Burud and Tumolo's ideas are introduced and reinforced by brief essays from guest authors Peter Senge, Robert Reich, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

This forward-thinking book, grounded in today's actions, will help managers direct their organization and enable employees to know what to expect. – Dave Ulrich, professor, University of Michigan, Business School; author, Why the Bottom Line Isn't

Offers powerful ideas that will simply make your company better. – Paul Orfalea, Founder & Chairperson Emeritus, Kinko's, Inc.

Infuses much-needed breakthrough thinking into the discussion of human capital. The authors refuse to let anyone who manages people ignore the most basic truth about leveraging humans as capital: You can't manage people as assets without respecting them as the whole beings they are. – Anne C. Ruddy, Executive Director, WorldatWork

Leveraging the New Human Capital changes the way managers see today's highly complex employees. Based on a research project, the book presents compelling evidence – it is a powerful call to action for executives, managers, and human resource directors in all types of organizations.

Business & Investing / Careers

Stuff You Don't Learn in Engineering School: Skills for Success in the Real World by Carl Selinger (IEEE Press & Wiley-Interscience) provides new engineers a road map to the other skills they need for professional and personal success.

In order to succeed in an engineering career, new graduates need more than just great technical skills. They need to be able to promote their ideas, share them with others, and work with a wide variety of people. Written by Carl Selinger, Stuff You Don't Learn in Engineering School is designed to give engineers entering the corporate world the "soft" skills they'll need to succeed in business and in life. The book is based on the leadership seminars given by Selinger, independent consultant in aviation, transportation planning, and strategic business planning.

Step by step, readers learn important skills like

• Setting priorities
• Working in a team
• Being more effective at meetings
• Speaking in front of a group
• Negotiating personal or business issues
• Dealing with stress

Based on the Selinger's popular leadership seminars, this easy-to-digest guide to success will help even the most inhibited engineer deal with the difficult people, processes, and meetings of today's competitive business world. Filled with insightful, practical advice addressing dozens of vital skill areas and helpful tips readers can apply immediately, Stuff You Don't Learn in Engineering School will help them take charge of their careers and achieve success.

Business & Investing / Engineering

The Frankenfood Myth: How Protest and Politics Threaten the Biotech Revolution by Henry I. Miller & Gregory Conko (Praeger Publishers)

Few topics have inspired as much international furor and misinformation as the development and distribution of genetically altered foods. For thousands of years, farmers have bred crops for their resistance to disease, productivity, and nutritional value; and over the past century, scientists have used increasingly more sophisticated methods for modifying them at the genetic level. But only since the 1970s have advances in biotechnology (or gene splicing to be more precise) upped the ante, with the promise of dramatically improved agricultural products – and public resistance.

In The Frankenfood Myth, Henry Miller and Gregory Conko trace the origins of gene-splicing, its applica­tions, and the backlash from consumer groups and government agencies against so-called "Frankenfoods"­ from America to Zimbabwe. They explain how a "happy conspiracy" of anti-technology activism, bureaucratic over-reach, and business lobbying has resulted in a regulatory framework in which there is an inverse relationship between the degree of product risk and degree of regulatory scrutiny. The net result, they argue, is a combination of public confusion, political manipulation, ill-conceived regulation, from such agencies as the USDA, EPA, and FDA, and ultimately, obstruction – with profoundly negative consequences for the environment and starving people around the world.

Miller, Research Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and editor of To America's Health and Public Controversy in Biotechnology; and Conko, Director of Food Safety Policy with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an interest group based in Washington, D.C. and co-founder and Vice President of the AgBioWorld Foundation; go on to suggest a way to emerge from this morass. They propose a variety of business and policy reforms that can unlock the potential of this cutting-edge science, while ensuring appropriate safeguards and moving environmentally friendly products into the hands of farmers and consumers.

Miller and Conko brilliantly expose the peril of allowing the precautionary principle to drive risk analysis and policymaking. Their thorough and articulate deconstruction of the precautionary principle should serve as a guide to developing regulatory policy, not only for biotechnology, but for any new idea or technology. – Nick Smith, (R-MI), Chairman, House Science Subcommittee on Research

This volume simply eclipses anything else on the subject. Miller and Conko offer a masterful expose of the flaws in current public policy towards biotechnology, a lucid discussion of the reasons for them, and innovative proposals for essential reforms. – Michael H. Mellon, Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine

Provocative, the book appears to be meticulously researched. The Frankenfood Myth is guaranteed to fuel the ongoing debate over the future of biotech and its cultural, economic, and political implications.

Children’s / Biography / Environment

The Midnight Forests: A Story Of Gifford Pinchot And Our National Forests by Gary Hines, illustrated by Robert Casilla (Boyds Mills Press)

Our national forests are among the great natural treasures of the United States. They are public lands with many purposes. In the National Forests, wildlife can roam free. People may hike, backpack, climb, and enjoy other activities. The National Forests are also a resource for timber. Today, we may take these forests for granted. But had it not been for conservationists in the early twentieth century, the National Forests would not exist today.

One of those conservationists was Gifford Pinchot, who is regarded as the father of the conservation movement. The Midnight Forests, written by Gary Hines, who formerly worked for the United States Forest Service, author of Thanksgiving in the White House, A Christmas Tree in the White House, and Day of the High Climber, and illustrated by Robert Casilla, a prolific artist with a bachelor of fine arts degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, tells Pinchot’s story

Pinchot put a stop to the destruction of the nation's forests by introducing methods that would ensure healthy forests for years to come. He was helped by another man who loved the outdoors: President Theodore Roosevelt. Late one night in the White House they set aside large areas and designated them public lands. They made many people happy. But they made others furious.

Hines's inspiring story, as told in The Midnight Forests, with its beauti­ful illustrations, many of them based on the historic photo reference provided by USDA Forest Service, Grey Towners National Historic Landmark, Milford, Pennsylvania, shows how two remarkable individuals changed the landscape of the nation.

Children’s / Arts & Music

Polly And The Piano by Carol Montparker (Amadeus Press)

On Carol Montparker's way to what The New York Times called "a splendid debut" at her Carnegie Hall piano recital, this future Steinway artist already had one critic howling with approval ... her beloved dog, Polly.

Both an illustrated four-color children’s story and a grown-up fantasy, Polly And The Piano is based upon the true-life relationship between the pianist-author and her dog. The book is filled with Montparker’s affectionate and spontaneous watercolor sketches of Polly, from the moment of her adoption as a puppy at an animal shelter, to the astonishing setting at the end of the book.

In the book Polly lives underneath the piano, greets piano students, learns to love the classical repertoire, and keeps her pianist-partner from being lonely during long hours of preparation for a recital at Carnegie Hall.

From the charm of everyday interactions between owner and pet, Polly And The Piano takes an enchanting turn into a musical fairy tale. Written in the dog’s voice, the story draws the reader into the pianist’s life – the dedicated work and stress, along with the relief of more playful moments when Polly persuades her mistress to take some time off. As an added bonus, the book includes a CD of Montparker's live piano performances that Polly herself heard being practiced and performed.

The author of the recent, critically acclaimed The Blue Piano and Other Stories, as well as A Pianist's Landscape and The Anatomy of New York Debut Recital, which chronicled her recital experience, Montparker has served as an editor of Clavier magazine for more than 20 years. She has written over 200 feature articles and interviews of world-famous concert artists, along with her regular column, "Carillon," a personal view of music and how it relates to the other arts, nature, and all of life.

Carol Montparker ... writes with warm, subtle colors and lines of delicate precision. – Jerome Lowenthal, pianist and faculty member, Juilliard School

Polly And The Piano charmingly reveals the daily life of a professional musician. The mutual appreciation, tender love, good humor, and surprise ending will captivate the reader’s heart. This book will be treasured by pianists, piano teachers, students, children, pet lovers, and by everyone else as well.

Children’s (9-12) / Computers / Social Sciences

e.guides: Mummy by Peter Chrisp (e.guides Series: DK) invites readers to unravel the mysteries of the mummies, from Ancient Egypt to the Arctic, using this unique combination of book and Web site.

• How did the Ancient Egyptians send their pharaohs to the afterlife?

• Why did the Chinese bury their warhorses?

• What was the 5,000-year-old Ice Man’s last meal?

From Howard Carter's discovery of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings, to the Ice Man high in the Alps, woolly mammoths in Siberia, warhorses in China, and sacrificial victims in Peru, mummies worldwide continue to hold us in their spell. e.guides: Mummy peels back the layers to see inside mummies of all kinds, to understand how they were prepared, and to piece together the evidence about their cultures' beliefs in an afterlife.
By history writer Peter Chrisp, with consultant Joyce Filer, Egyptologist, cemetery archaeologist and curator, e.guides: Mummy delves into the age-old mysteries of preserved and buried bodies, with fantastic 3-D models, eyewitness accounts, maps, data boxes, and amazing photographs. Readers find the kind of information they can’t get from an ordinary book: the book is set up so that when readers see the e-arrow symbol, they go online to an exclusive, safe, and secure Web site to learn more about a specific topic through interactive features, multimedia content, games and quizzes, and outstanding downloadable images.

Created with the 9-12 year-old audience in mind, e.guides: Mummy gives young readers a wealth of resources to complete school projects and homework about mummies, online and off.

e.guides: Mummy is part of a new reference series reflecting and enhancing how today's young researchers gather, assess, and present information. Part of DK and Google's exciting family reference partnership, e.guides look at core topics from many angles.

Cooking, Food & Wine

Jan Karon's Mitford Cookbook & Kitchen Reader by Jan Karon, edited by Martha McIntosh (Viking)
Millions of Mitford fans would surely agree – it’s easy to put on a pound or two reading a Mitford novel – scene after scene of the colorful characters enjoying tantalizing dishes can immediately start a craving.

Packed with more than 150 recipes from the Mitford novels and from the author’s own recipe box, Jan Karon's Mitford Cookbook & Kitchen Reader is loaded with tips, hints, jokes, culinary quotes, and delightful side-dish sidebars. From Miss Sadie’s Apple Pie to Puny’s Cornbread, from Emma’s Pork Roast to Marge’s Sweet Tea with Peppermint, beloved characters come alive through their own favorite recipes. Here, too, are Karon’s reminiscences of her own family’s food traditions. Also included are some of Karon's special recipes: slow-cooking meals that she prepares while spending her days writing, her favorite treat of Ice Cream in a Tray, and biscuit recipes from her mother and her grandmother.

In addition to recipes, Jan Karon's Mitford Cookbook & Kitchen Reader also includes excerpts from each Mitford novel: scenes that revolve around food, from picnics to church suppers. Also included are three short stories that originally appeared in Victoria magazine when Karon was a writer in residence, never before published in the Mitford novels. Karon, author of ten New York Times bestselling Mitford books, has also included personal anecdotes on many of the recipes featured, commentary on her favorite foods, and insight into how to present a meal. Her sly comments on "Political Chicken" will have readers laughing too hard to even snack, and her interviews with friends on what they'd choose to eat for a final meal might make readers reconsider what to have for dinner.

What makes this cookbook distinctive is that fans are treated to the exact scenes in Karon's stories where each dish was enjoyed. There's also a bonus Mitford story and recipes inspired from Karon's upcoming novel, along with plenty of sage cooking advice from how to season an iron skillet and stock a spice cabinet to pointers on saying grace and a rumination on the meditative effects of washing dishes by hand. Uncomplicated ingredients and easy-to-follow instructions will afford cooks, guests and fans plenty of time to savor the generous novel excerpts from the author's inspirational work. – Publishers Weekly

[Karon] is a writer who reflects and illuminates contemporary culture more fully than almost any other living novelist. – Los Angeles Times

Jan Karon's Mitford Cookbook & Kitchen Reader is a charming companion to the Mitford series that will have readers clamoring to bring into their own kitchens the aromas and flavors that swirl within the little town with the big heart. For readers and cooks alike, Jan Karon's Mitford Cookbook & Kitchen Reader is a veritable feast. Bon appetit!

Cooking, Food & Wine

Wine Spectator's Ultimate Guide to Buying Wine, Eighth Edition by Wine Spectator (Running Press) offers expert advice on wine buying.

For wine lovers and novices alike, the Wine Spectator's Ultimate Guide to Buying Wine, Eighth Edition is a comprehensive, up-to-date buying guide. The guide features the reviews of more than 11,000 wines, including ratings and descriptions by the editors of Wine Spectator, the world's leading wine magazine.

The experts at Wine Spectator have tasted tens of thousands of wines to provide oenophiles with a complete reference of exceptional wines from around the world. Because it guides its readers to only the most satisfying selections, the Wine Spectator is valued for the select reviews that appear in each issue. This comprehensive buying guide’s listings represent all recent vintages from 40 countries, organized by both wine and country of origin. Each entry includes a full review and rating. Make no mistake – these are the most interesting wines available, all rated on Wine Spectator's 100-point scale.

The volume includes Wine-Buying Strategies, How We Taste Wine, The Tasters, Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines, Wine Spectator's Classic Rated Wines, Wine Spectator's 150 Smart Buys from 50 Top Producers, Tasting Reports: Wines by the Country and Producer, and A Winery Index. The guide also includes vintage charts, maps and brief analyses of recent vintages.

Under Tasting Reports, wines are grouped by their region of origin and organized alphabetically by producer. Each entry includes a 100-point scale quality rating, a wine description, an estimate of when the wine will be at its best, and the winery's suggested retail price. Every major wine region of the world is covered including: Argentina; Australia; Austria; Chile; France; Germany; Italy; New Zealand; Portugal; South Africa; Spain; and the United States.

This guide's most useful features are tables organizing the wines by overall quality or value. For example, the connoisseur will enjoy the table listing only the finest wines from the greatest vintages of the past 10 years. …With that list, no one needs to rely on pretty labels anymore. – Brendan Finucane, Amazon.com

Wine Spectator's Ultimate Guide to Buying Wine, Eighth Edition is a resource for anyone interested in trying new wines, wanting to expand their wine cellar's selections, or curious about a specific recent vintage. Wine Spectator's Ultimate Guide to Buying Wine, Eighth Edition provides the easiest, most reliable way to find the wines that suit the reader’s palate and pocketbook.

Education / African American Studies

I'll Find a Way or Make One: A Tribute to Historically Black Colleges and Universities by Juan Williams and Dwayne Ashley &, with an introduction by Ed Bradley (Amistad)

Stories abound about the abolition of slavery. However, lesser known are the efforts – both prior to and after the Civil War – of African American and white abolitionists banding together to create a formal education for newly freed slaves. Through the tireless work of government organizations, black churches, missionary groups, and philanthropists, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) were established.

HBCUs have graduated such illustrious leaders as Oprah Winfrey, Thurgood Marshall, Spike Lee, W. E. B. DuBois, Debbie Allen, Alain Locke, Samuel L. Jackson, and Nikki Giovanni. HBCUs have single-handedly done more to propel black Americans into the upper echelons of formal education than any other set of institutions. These schools have been responsible for instilling a sense of empowerment and pride in black Americans for hundreds of years.

From Juan Williams, author of Eyes on the Prize, and Dwayne Ashley, president and CEO of the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund, comes a definitive resource that explores the historical, social, and cultural importance of America's 107 HBCUs: I'll Find a Way or Make One. The tales of how these schools were created and of the individuals who are linked to the schools' histories are extraordinarily rich – and sometimes controversial. In a salute to America's 107 historically black colleges and universities, the book chronicles the formation of the black middle class, the history of education in the African American community, and some of the important events of African Americana and American history.

I'll Find a Way or Make One starts off highlighting the little-discussed literacy and educational traditions that existed among the newly transported blacks who arrived in America during the 17th and 18th centuries – whether free, indentured or enslaved. Ashley and Williams point out the subtle winds of change that later blew across the nation as it prepared for war with itself, and how the tensions created by those changes effectively snatched away black America's unobstructed access to learning. I'll Find a Way or Make One goes on to describe the American scene during the 19th century, when HBCUs came into their own, including the grueling period during and after the Civil War, when black Americans still strove to learn even while they were subjected to brutal subjugation that came in many forms. Nevertheless, it was during this century that black students and faculty at neophyte HBCUs realized their autonomy and made bold strides toward shaping the destiny of their collective institutions. As well, the authors recount the glory of the Roaring Twenties, when the arts became an exciting new arena in which blacks reveled in an explosion of brilliant creativity and middle-class materialistic indulgence.

In stark contrast, the Great Depression dealt a lethal blow to the black college system and America's entry into World War II nearly finished it off. I'll Find a Way or Make One takes a hard look at just how dire things became for black students and the educators who sought to continue providing them with education at a time when the entire nation was starving for money. The authors conclude this portion of the book with a retelling of how this bleak period actually was responsible for three of the most precious assets that the HBCUs ever could have offered to black America: first, the 1929 foundation of Howard University Law School, which fostered some of the nation's greatest legal minds – including Thurgood Marshall; second, the 1943 enrollment at Morehouse University of Martin Luther King, Jr., who, most probably as a result of this, became one of the most influential and prolific political and social activists the world has ever seen; and third, the creation in 1944 of the United Negro College Fund, which has been irreplaceable in motivating and enabling black Americans' continued pursuit of education – both through raising over $1.7 billion to date and serving as a cultural icon of immeasurable grativas.

The 1950s, 60s and 70s were each characterized by seismic shifts in America's political landscape; the most pivotal among these were conceived within the HBCU system: the Brown vs. Board of Education lawsuit; the wave of sit-ins that forced the South to its knees; plus the birth of SNCC and the Black Panther Party.

I'll Find a Way or Make One tells the awe-inspiring story of the institutions that have prepared and trained black students for greatness, even while struggling to stay afloat amidst the ebbs and tides of equality in America. The book is the first of its kind – a groundbreaking retrospective that explores the dramatic development and history of America's historically black colleges and universities. A work of scope and detail, it chronicles the educational history of African Americans. At the same time, authors Williams and Ashley write with a critical realism in both their analyses of the socio-political phenomena that shaped the development of HBCUs and the anecdotes and photographs they use to flavor this history.

Education / Science / Mathematics / Teaching & Learning

Everyday Matters in Science and Mathematics: Studies of Complex Classroom Events edited by Ricardo Nemirovsky, Ann S. Rosebery, Jesse Solomon, & Beth Warren (Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, Publishers)

As a whole, Everyday Matters in Science and Mathematics reflects the shift in the field of educational research in recent years away from formal, structural models of learning toward emphasizing its situated nature and the sociocultural bases of teaching and learning. It makes the case that students' everyday experiences and knowledge in all their manifold forms matter crucially in learning sciences and mathematics. The book, the result of a multi-year collaboration, was edited by Ricardo Nemirovsky, Ann S. Rosebery, and Beth Warren, all of TERC and Jesse Solomon, of the Boston Public Schools. Composed of the contributions of 13 research teams, it is organized around three themes: 1) the experiences of students in encounters with everyday matters of a discipline; 2) the concerns of curriculum designers, including teachers, as they design activities intended to focus on everyday matters of a discipline; and 3) the actions of teachers as they create classroom encounters with everyday matters of a discipline.

At least two trends, have reoriented the field by allowing researchers and teachers to look at learning starting with complex classroom events rather than formal theories of learning: increasing awareness that formal theories can be useful guides but are always partial and provisional in how they disclose classroom experiences, and the widespread availability of equipment that enables effortless recording of classroom interactions.

Such examinations are not meant to replace the work on general theoretical frameworks, but to ground them in actual complex events. This reorientation means that researchers and teachers can now encounter the complexity of learning and teaching as lived, human meaning-making experiences.

The editors have convened an exemplary group of authors.... Together they reflect some of the best researchers in the fields of mathematics and science education. Also noteworthy is the inclusion of practitioners as active constructors of the volume as well as of the research agenda. The volume provides a balanced emphasis on issues of teaching, learning, development, and research.... It is quite important to bring these careful and detailed accounts of the realities of classroom learning to the attention of the educational research and policy community, especially now when there is a strong push to declare some forms of research scientific and trustworthy while other forms are marginalized.... Taken together the chapters put a different light on the knowledge children bring to learning tasks in formal settings.... [This] is a very substantive volume. – Susan R. Goldman, University of Illinois at Chicago

Everyday Matters in Science and Mathematics re-examines the dichotomy between the “everyday” and the “disciplinary” in mathematics and science education, and explores alternatives to this opposition from points of view grounded in the close examination of complex classroom events. Everyday Matters in Science and Mathematics is an important resource for researchers, teacher educators, and graduate students in mathematics and science education, and a strong supplemental text for courses in these areas as well as in cognition, instruction, and instructional design.

Education

Learning to Write As a Hostile Act for Latino Students by Raul E. Ybarra (Counterpoints Series, Volume 257: Peter Lang)

Cultural differences play a part in communication breakdowns between students and teachers, and only a complete understanding of the model that English instructors use when teaching writing gives insight into the reasons why.

Learning to Write As a Hostile Act for Latino Students by Raul E. Ybarra, Associate Professor at the College of Public and Community Service at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, observes and analyzes the communication patterns of Lati­no students in an English course at the college level, closely observing the interaction between Latino students and the teacher, as well as between Latino students and other student groups in the class.

Ybarra came to this topic while working on his doctorate; he realized he wanted to know why writing is so difficult for Latino students and why do many Latinos fail to acquire the writing level expected of them. Ybarra quotes Farr: "aspects of one's culture are a part of the tacit knowledge that members of a particular group unconsciously share simply by virtue of being members." When the culture or ethnic backgrounds of the members differ, "meetings can be plagued by misunderstandings, mutual misrepresentations of events and misevaluations". These misunderstandings and misevaluations have a negative effect on the student, which ultimately affects school achievement. The frequency of failure among Latino students, in particular in Basic Writing courses suggest a (dis)connection or dissonance between the cultural backgrounds and corresponding thought processes of Latino students in the writing classroom. To date, research in this area is virtually nonexistent. Understanding, and consequently overcoming, why there is a (dis)connection is key to reversing the low retention rate of Latinos in the United States.

Learning to Write As a Hostile Act for Latino Students shows how school helps in contributing to Latinos' poor performance in the classroom. Moreover, the book shows that cultural differences do contribute to the poor performance of Latino students and other minority students in composition classes at the college level. The book provides a basis for evaluating communication patterns and communication breakdowns in a classroom setting. Each chapter in the book examines the mainstream assumptions of education and culturally relevant pedagogy and provides a basis for evaluating communication patterns and communication breakdowns in a classroom setting. Learning to Write As a Hostile Act for Latino Students also shows how communication breakdowns, because of cultural differences between Latino students and Anglo-mainstream instructors, do contribute to the poor performance of Latino students and other minority students in composition classes at the college level.

Ybarra uses his own personal experiences in this chapter (Chapter 1) as an example to show how he dealt with Basic Writing as both a student and instructor. To better understand the Latino students in his classes, Chapter 2 examines the mainstream assumptions of education. Chapter 2 explores how Latino university students internalize, and eventually begin to verbalize, negative, distorted, and poorly informed mainstream perceptions concerning Latino identity. The focus is on the cultural schemata of academic discourse and why this is a difficult task for many minority students, in particular Latino students.

In Chapter 3, Ybarra focuses on four Latino students in a Basic Writing class. This chapter shows how school helps in contributing to Latinos' poor performance in the classroom. Students who are not part of the mainstream, particularity Latino students, see this pattern of writing structure as confusing and view it as a hostile attempt to change who they are. In this chapter, he shows how this does epistemological violence to Latino students of tracking because of the marginalization and cultural implications that takes place.

In the final chapter (Chapter 4), Learning to Write As a Hostile Act for Latino Students explores the pedagogical implications of what the author observed in a Basic Writing classroom, and patterns that fit those general patterns associated with the Anglo-mainstream group by comparing them to patterns that have been described in other classroom discourse studies. By comparing the demands that are embedded within mainstream language and literacy practices with those structuring influences found within the Latino culture, we can better understand where academic structure conflicts with the oral discourse patterns of Latino students, which will give us the insight to see how students from different ethnic groups and cultures respond.

Having closely observed and documented the interaction Latino students had with the teacher and with students from other groups in an English course at the college level, Ybarra argues that cultural differences and the resulting miscommunications significantly contribute to the negative impressions Latino students have about the writing process and English courses. – Book News, Inc., Portland

Learning to Write As a Hostile Act for Latino Students concludes that cultural differences and the resulting miscommunications significantly contribute to the negative impressions Latino students have about the writing process and English courses. Understanding these differences is crucial to improving the teaching of writing to Latino and other minority students, and this book will contribute toward improving the situation.

Education / Teaching & Learning / Instructional Design

Collaborating Online: Learning Together in Community by Rena M. Palloff & Keith Pratt (Jossey-Bass Guides to Online Teaching and Learning Series: Jossey-Bass), written by the managing partners of Crossroads Consulting Group and adjunct faculty at the Fielding Graduate Institute and at Baker University, is a guide to online learning for faculty.

The book teaches faculty about online learning communities and provides assistance with the "how" of building community and making collaboration work. Collaborating Online is intended as a guide or handbook for implementing collaborative activity in online classes. Therefore, the theoretical material has been kept to a minimum. Part One is devoted to presenting the theory behind collaboration and collaborative activity in an online course. Chapter One reviews some basic theory about collaboration, online collaboration, and working with virtual teams. Chapter Two discusses the process of online collaboration – where do we start and how do we make it happen? Chapter Three looks at the challenges instructors face when implementing collaborative activity online, from groups that refuse to work with one another to issues surrounding assessment of collaborative work. Chapter Four provides a discussion of the important and frequently frustrating topic of evaluation of collaborative activity and student assessment when collaboration is used.

Part Two contains a number of ideas for collaborative activities, with suggestions for using them in an online course, not every collaborative activity possible, but a selection of activities that have proven to be successful online designed to trigger the imagination. Further application of these activities is encouraged, as well as the development of other activities based on the ideas presented here. Palloff and Pratt pepper these discussions with quotes from their students and from other faculty with whom they have worked in the development of the ideas and techniques.

Collaborating Online eloquently explains the central role that community and collaboration play in fostering student engagement online. Palloff and Pratt also offer faculty a rich collection of practical strategies – ideas that are straightforward to implement. It is the best book I have read to date on the topic. – Gail Matthews-DeNatale, senior instructional designer, Academic Technology, Simmons College

This book was an aha! experience for me. After all these years, I finally gained a blueprint for assessing collaborative learning effectively and fairly. I also kept nodding in agreement as I read the book: Palloff and Pratt present numerous practical examples of what an online classroom should be like. – Karen Hodges, vice president for learning, NorthWest Arkansas Community College

Palloff and Pratt, the distinguished online learning authorities, have done it again with their latest book, Collaborating Online. This is must reading for all faculty, instructional designers, and academic administrators interested in improving student retention and success in online courses. – Jack A. Chambers, director, program development for instructional technology, Florida Community College at Jacksonville

Collaborating Online provides practical guidance for faculty seeking to help their students work together in creative ways, move out of the box of traditional papers and projects, and deepen the learning experience through their work with one another. Authors Palloff and Pratt draw on their extensive knowledge and experience to show how collaboration brings students together to support the learning of each member of the group while promoting creativity and critical thinking. The audience for Collaborating Online is those faculty who are teaching online or who are venturing into the online arena for the first time. In addition, it is intended for those who are designing and developing courses so that they can create collaborative activities that are effective and successful – instructional designers will benefit from this work in that they will be better able to support faculty in carrying out collaborative activities online. Although not specifically intended for a corporate audience, the book will also assist those engaged in training in the corporate arena and will provide ideas for the inclusion of collaborative work in training employees. Faculty developers will find the book useful as well in the development of collaborative training programs for faculty.

Collaborating Online is the second title in the Jossey-Bass Guides to Online Teaching and Learning. This series helps higher education professionals improve the practice of online teaching and learning by providing concise, practical resources focused on particular areas or issues they might confront in the new learning environment.
                                                            - Anna Washington, MAT, MEd

Entertainment / Humor

Right Ho, Jeeves [UNABRIDGED] by P. G. Wodehouse, read by Jonathan Cecil (The Audio Partners Publishing Group) 5 cassettes, playing time 6 hours, 50 minutes, also available in audio CD

Oh, joy, another of the 90 P.D. Wodehouse comedies has come out in audio! Acclaimed actor Jonathan Cecil brings comic flair to Right Ho, Jeeves, a rollicking tale by the man The Times (London) called a "brilliantly funny writer."
When Jeeves suggests dreamy, soulful Gussie Fink-Nottle don scarlet tights and false beard to win over soppy Madeline Bassett, Bertie Wooster doubts this is the way to get his friend hitched. Meanwhile, Bertie's eccentric Aunt Dahlia asks him to hand out prizes at the Market Snodsbury Grammar School, which he's sure he would have to get drunk to do. Complicating matters, Madeline invites Gussie to stay at her friend's house in the country. The friend turns out to be Bertie's cousin Angela and the house, Aunt Dahlia's. Thinking things have definitely gotten out of hand, Bertie takes Jeeves off the case, acting on his own plan to bring Gussie and Madeline together. But when things go disastrously wrong, who can Bertie turn to but Jeeves?

British humorist Wodehouse is the funniest writer, ever. – Deirdre Donahue, USA Today

All the zany Wodehouse characters are here: Bertie, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Madeline Bassette, and Aunt Dahlia. All the humorous chaos of misunderstandings, puns, and pranks are present: for example, a lovers' spat finds Bertie engaged to Madeline and a hunger strike causes the cook to give notice. In Right Ho, Jeeves the inevitable rescue by Jeeves, brilliantly conceived and executed, averts disaster and saves nitwit Bertie Wooster.

Entertainment / Biographies & Memoirs

Tallulah!: The Life and Times of a Leading Lady by Joel Lobenthal (ReganBooks)

Long before modern tabloids turned celebrity misbehavior into entertainment, Tallulah Bankhead shocked the world with her performances both onstage and off. Armed with beauty, talent, intelligence, and social pedigree, Tallulah was a woman who lived without boundaries. Outrageous, outspoken, and uninhibited, she was an actress known as much for her vices – cocaine, alcohol, hysterical tirades, and scandalous affairs with both men and women – as she was for her winning performances on stage.

In 1917, a fifteen-year-old Bankhead boldly left her well-born Alabama political family and fled to New York City to sate her relentless need for attention and become a star. Five years later, she crossed the Atlantic, immediately taking her place as a fixture in British society and the most popular actress in London's West End. By the time she returned to America in the 1930s, she was infamous for throwing marathon parties, bedding her favorite costars, and neglecting to keep her escapades a secret from the press. At times, her notoriety distracted her audience from her formidable talent and achievements on stage and dampened the critical response to her work. As Bankhead herself put it, "they like me to 'Tallulah,' you know – dance and sing and romp and fluff my hair and play reckless parts." Still, her reputation as a wild, witty, over-the-top leading lady persisted until the end of her life.

From her friendships with such entertainment luminaries as Tennessee Williams, Estelle Winwood, Noël Coward, and Marlene Dietrich, to the intimate details of her family relationships and her string of doomed romances, in Tallulah! Joel Lobenthal has captured the private essence of the most public star during theater's golden age. Larger-than-life as she was, friends saw through Bankhead's veneer of humor and high times to the heart of a woman who often felt second-best in her father's eyes, who longed for the children she was unable to bear, and who forced herself into the spotlight to hide her deep insecurities.

Drawn from scores of exclusive interviews, as well as previously untapped information from Scotland Yard and the FBI, Tallulah! is the essential biography of Tallulah Bankhead. Having spent twenty-five years researching Bankhead's life, using over 150 interviews, Lobenthal relates her unadulterated story, as told to him by her closest friends, enemies, lovers, and employees, several breaking decade-long silences.

"Becoming notorious" was her intent, according to Lobenthal, and her teenage landmarks included cocaine, which would bolster her throughout her life, and Napier Alington, the man she later referred to as the love of her life. Tallulah's romantic liaisons were many and varied, including those with co-stars like Gary Cooper and Billie Holliday, and legends such as Jock Whitney and the Prince of Wales. She often spoke of settling down and having a family, but instead continued to collect lovers, a pursuit that nearly led to her death. She sought to ease her lifelong battle against loneliness not only with drinking and drugs and sex, but also with the company of a variety of pets – birds, dogs, monkeys, Bankhead went on to win acclaim in Lillian Hellman's play "The Little Foxes," Thornton Wilder's "The Skin of Our Teeth," and in her later years, she hosted the hit radio program "The Big Show." Her years of excess took their toll when she reached her sixties, and she died at the age of sixty-six.

The word 'legend' gets tossed around so lightly these days that it's a treat to bite into the life of a real legend, Tallulah Bankhead, a sacred monster and scandalizer who tore down the curtain between onstage and off. Idol of drag queens, first countess of Camp, sexual devourer of men and women alike, she drags her mink coat through the pages of Joel Lobenthal's biography with the bravura that made her a star. It's all here, the extravagant highs and the lonesome lows. Tallulah! earns its exclamation mark. – James Wolcott, Vanity Fair columnist and author of The Catsitters and Attack Poodles

The controversial actress is seen as never before in the unforgettable biography Tallulah!. This richly nuanced portrait is an engrossing story of ambition, celebrity, and desire. From her privileged yet heartbreaking childhood in Alabama, to taking the New York theatre world by storm and joining the Algonquin Round Table, to becoming the toast of London's West End, to shaking up Hollywood, Tallulah is seen with all her devastating wit and raging insecurity, a woman more complex than her reputation suggests.

Entertainment / Humor

When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? by George Carlin (Hyperion)

Sore loser? You bet your fuckin' ass! What on earth is wrong with being a sore loser? It shows you cared about whatever the contest was in the first place. Fuck losing graciously – that's for chumps. And losers, by the way.

George Carlin's When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? offers his cutting-edge opinions and observational humor on everything from evasive euphemistic language to politicians to the media to dead people. Exactly what readers would expect from Carlin, it includes Carlin's legendary irreverence and iconoclasm as he scours the American landscape for signs of intelligence. Nothing and no one is safe.

Despite the current climate of political correctness, the long-standing, stand-up comic is not afraid to take on controversial topics:

On the battle of the sexes: Here's all you have to know about men and women: women are crazy, men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid.
On hygiene: When did they pass a law that says the people who make my sandwich have to be wearing gloves? I'm not comfortable with this. I don't want glove residue all over my food; it's not sanitary. Who knows where these gloves have been?
On evasive language: Just to demonstrate how far using euphemisms in language has gone, some psychologists are now actually referring to ugly people as those with "severe appearance deficits." Hey, Doctor, How's that for "denial"?
On religion: "When it comes to God's existence, I'm not an atheist and I'm not an agnostic. I'm an acrostic. The whole thing puzzles me."

On politics: No self-respecting politician would ever admit to working in the government. They prefer to think of themselves "serving the nation." To help visualize the service they provide the country, you may wish to picture the things that take place on a stud farm.

The thinking person's comic who uses words as weapons, Carlin, recipient of the American Comedy Awards Lifetime Achievement Award, puts voice to issues that capture the modern imagination. In When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops? Carlin's infamous razor-sharp observations demolish everyday values and leave readers laughing out loud – delivering exactly what his countless fans have been waiting for – yet another compendium of cranky meditations in the journey through the mind of one of America's premier comic observers.

Health, Mind & Body / Sex / Religion & Spirituality

Enlightened Sex: Finding Freedom & Fullness Through Sexual Union [UNABRIDGED] by David Deida (Sounds True) on 6 CDs, running time 7 ½ hours

When it comes to matters of love, sex, and spirit, many of us face some challenging questions:

• Do I have to fall in love to have deeply fulfilling sex?
• How do I find the partner right for me?
• What's the connection between my sexuality and my spiritual practice?

The answers, teaches David Deida, lie in the discovery of "sexual essence" – the degree to which individuals identify with one of two primary forces at work in the universe: consciousness and light. In this model, consciousness – the unchanging witness to it all – fuels the masculine impulse, while light – life itself, vibrant and ever flowing – finds expression in the feminine. Only when people understand where they fall on this spectrum of sexual energy can they choose who leads and who follows in "the dance of masculine-feminine ravishment" at the heart of their relationship.

On Enlightened Sex, Deida, former teacher at the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine, the University of California-Santa Cruz, Lexington Institute in Boston, and Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, invites viewers to explore the art of engaged love, to help them open to deeper and deeper levels of bliss, intimacy, and union.

Individuals’ capacity to experience enlightened sex, says Deida, also depends on their readiness to enter the third of three possible stages of relationship: the "me-centered" first stage; the "we-centered" second stage; and the third stage, "the willingness to be taken over by love itself." In this stage, people devote themselves to something bigger than both partners, and use their sexuality to "liberate love for the sake of all beings." Through ten in-depth sessions of guided practices, sexual skills, and insights into the nature of human sexuality, Deida shows viewers how to sustain the ecstasy of deep sex so that during intimate encounters they “beam” for everyone with the effulgence of Enlightened Sex.

The presentation includes, among other topics:

• How to choose the right partner for deepening the spiritual practice of sex
• Love's three threads: romance, oneness, and "sexual polarity" (the key to physical attraction)
• The six levels of sexuality, from reproduction to divine communion
• Couples exercise for incorporating the dark and light sides of sexuality
• How to arouse unbearable pleasure to heal past wounds and “melt open”
• The three types of women's orgasm, and how to develop the trust each requires

The presentation, while being on a nearly universal topic, sex, requires viewers to be open-minded; to be more precise, Enlightened Sex is aimed at the mystically oriented couple. It also contains explicit language.

Health, Mind & Body / Psychology

Eating Disorders by Pamela K. Keel (Pearson Prentice Hall)

Eating disorders provide the perfect opportunity to examine the intersections of culture, mind, and body. To truly appreciate the causes and consequences of these disorders, one must be willing to consider topics that span the humanities (history, art, and literature), the social sciences (psychology, anthropology, women's studies, and economics), and the natural sciences (anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, and genetics). As a consequence, there is truly something for everyone in the study of eating disorders. Few topics of inquiry allow individuals from so many different disciplines to make significant contributions.

According to author Pamela K. Keel, University of Iowa, almost anyone who picks up Eating Disorders knows someone who has suffered from an eating disorder. Many famous individuals have acknowledged the impact of these disorders on their lives. Even people who do not personally know someone with an eating disorder have a sense of familiarity with the problem. This topicality has two aspects. First, people probably know more about eating disorders than about many other subjects that might be covered by a textbook. Second, they probably have far more misinformation about eating disorders than they do about other textbook topics.

Eating disorders is a young field. According to Kell, there is a still much that we simply do not know about these disorders. In this new field, young people have completed many fascinating and illuminating studies; the book includes many studies conducted by college undergraduates because of the important conclusions that can be drawn from them.

Like most textbooks on psychopathology, Eating Disorders uses case studies to help bring eating disorders to life. In order to balance the competing demands of breadth and depth, three case studies are followed throughout the book so that the topics of different chapters are integrated into the lives of these individuals. Instead of presenting 25 different cases briefly, each chapter provides further insight into the three case studies.

Terms that may be new to students are defined within chapters and are included in a glossary at the end of the book. Tables and figures are also included as study aids. Figures are illustrative, and tables provide concise reviews of information not presented elsewhere.

Eating Disorders includes a chapter devoted to research methodology (Chapter 4), with examples from studies of eating disorders. This chapter is designed for students who have not completed prior coursework on research methods so that they can critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of conclusions that may be drawn from the empirical literature. The chapter also may serve as a refresher for students in advanced psychology courses who have already completed coursework on research methods.

Roughly two thirds of Eating Disorders is devoted to understanding the etiology of eating disorders. The last third of the book is concerned with treatment and prevention of eating disorders and the outcome for individuals with these conditions. Chapter 2 addresses the question of whether eating disorders represent culture-bound syndromes by examining evidence of eating disorders outside of their current socio-historical context. Just as Chapter 2 examines epidemiological patterns across history and culture, Chapter 3 examines epidemiological patterns across different ethnic groups and between the genders.

Chapter 4 introduces approaches to understanding the causes of eating disorders. This chapter presents the logic of research methods used in studies reviewed in subsequent chapters. Chapter 5 discusses the societal idealization of thinness and denigration of fatness, gender roles, and the impact of societal messages on women's body image and the pursuit of thinness. Chapter 6 addresses a second sphere of social influence – the role of families. This chapter begins to introduce a biopsychosocial model, as the influence of families can be interpreted at social, psychological, and biological levels. It focuses specifically on the rearing environment provided by families in which eating disorders emerge, as well as the rearing environment provided by women who have suffered from eating disorders. Chapter 7 reviews psychological factors that contribute to the risk of eating disor­ders. Because social learning and psychoanalytic/ psychodynamic models are explored in the context of family factors in Chapter 6, Chapter 7 examines personality, cognition, and behavior. The extent to which these factors represent causes or consequences of disordered eating is also discussed.

Chapter 8 introduces biological factors that contribute to the risk of eating disorders. In addition, this chapter reviews biological correlates and consequences of eating pathology. The chapter marks the transition from examining the etiology of eating disorders to discussing treatment and outcome.

Chapter 9 covers eating disorder treatment. As in Chapter 6, the role of different theoretical models in shaping treatment approaches is discussed. The efficacy of interventions is reviewed as well. Chapter 10 discusses theories of prevention and evidence concerning the impact of prevention on disordered eating knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. This chapter provides examples of prevention programs aimed at three different levels of intervention: a general school population, girls recruited from schools, and college age women reporting high levels of body dissatisfaction.

Chapter 11 reviews the outcomes associated with eating disorders. Statistics on mortality, recovery, relapse, and crossover are presented. Predictors of outcomes are discussed in this chapter. Chapter 12 concludes the book by summarizing information within the context of the case histories presented in Chapter 1. In addition, this chapter introduces current debates surrounding different topics reviewed in Eating Disorders. The chapter ends with a discussion of future directions within the field of eating disorders.

Eating Disorders is designed to provide a thorough research-based review of what is currently known about eating disorders. Several topics are covered from different perspectives to represent the different theoretical orientations in the field. Similarly, certain findings are reviewed in terms of how they may reflect social, psychological, and biological factors in the etiology of eating disorders. Rather than pointing to one underlying cause for all eating disorders, Eating Disorders strives to reveal how multiple factors conspire to produce these debilitating and sometimes deadly disorders. The textbook is intended for beginning through advanced graduate students in psychology as well as for a broader audience interested in the topic.

History / Europe / Science / Biographies & Memoirs

The World of Gerard Mercator: The Mapmaker Who Revolutionized Georgraphy by Andrew Taylor (Walker & Company)

The story of discovery and mapmaking is one of pushing back shadows, and no one in the last two thousand years achieved as much as Gerard Mercator in extending the boundaries of the known world. His life spanned most of the turbulent, extraordinary sixteenth century, a time when war rolled across Europe and revolutions engulfed religion, science, and civilization. Almost extinguished by the Inquisition, Mercator survived to bring his genius to making maps, and his achievement was nothing less than to revolutionize the study of geography.

In The World of Gerard Mercator, historian Andrew Taylor charts the life and projections of the geographer whose revolutionary maps would come to define the shape of the modern world. Appropriately for an era undergoing radical change, Mercator was full of contradictions, yet unafraid to forge a new path. Born in Antwerp in 1512, Mercator witnessed huge revolutions as sixteenth century exploration vastly expanded people's knowledge of the world. He was inspired by his t