March 2008, Issue #107

When looking at an artist's work, it is sometimes difficult to see where it fits within a broader scheme, but The Fundamentals of Digital Art provides some basic tools to allow readers to do this with its comprehensive overview to the discipline of digital art. An up-to-the-minute look at digital art, The Fundamentals of Digital Art offers complete explanations of physical computing, using data sources, programming, networks for artists, and experimental practices in digital media.

The book also uses extensive illustrations, ranging from work by established digital artists to recent student work, to make every point. Written by Richard Colson, senior lecturer in digital arts at Thames Valley University, the book has a portable format. The inspirational examples are accompanied by practical workshop diagrams that are designed to help students develop the confidence to work with the approaches covered in the book.

This book explores six major themes in digital art: its history, using responses, data, coding, networking and digital hybrids. These areas have been formulated on the basis of a study of the working methods and practice of individual artists, from both the past and present. The six themes draw out the key practices and debates that govern the present forms of digital art. For example, some artists want to give the computer almost full control of their final piece whereas others prefer a more limited or partial contribution from the technology. Readers might think of each of these themes in digital art as individual islands within an archipelago – each island has its own idiosyncrasies, but still maintains a place within the larger system.

Major developments in digital art have often come as a result of cooperation between artists. In the same way that climbers have to tackle a sheer rock face as a team roped together, individual artists have created networks built around their own special interests. They have found that this does in fact work to their advantage because other artists use these discoveries as a basis for their own work and research and, in doing so, reach their own unexpected outcomes, which in turn are made available to the other members of the group. The Fundamentals of Digital Art follows in this same pattern, and while providing essential information, it also creates the necessary channels to allow for feedback and further discussion.

The Fundamentals of Digital Art provides an overview; it draws together the key historical events that have had an influence on the way artists have worked, the thinking that has served to underpin their approaches and the complexity of the technologies that they have used. Thus it provides a quick scan across a broad area of practice in digital art and lays down some key markers so that readers can navigate their way within the subject with a growing sense of assurance and knowledge.

The Fundamentals of Digital Art is a resource tool for students studying digital art and design, and students of the visual arts with an interest in digital media. Ideal for students or working designers, the book provides complete explanations. Practical, clear workshop diagrams let readers self-study key topics, and the handy, portable size makes this the take-along guide to the emerging world of electronic arts.

Arts & Photography / Illustration / Social History

Drawing Conclusions: An Artist Discovers His America by Tracy Sugarman (Syracuse University Press)

For sixty years as a reportorial artist I have been struggling against the thievery of time. … But always, half a step from my elbow, has been my voracious fellow traveler, time. He has whistled the tune and I have danced. So my joy as an artist and writer has come in time-encapsulated chunks, disparate in their challenges but total in their demands.

Often I have been like a sprinter, clutching sketchpads and notebooks, racing to a finish line at a Rikers Island holding pen … And sometimes I have been like a middle-distance runner, pacing myself through the minefields of the D-day invasion in Normandy, or sweating out the perilous days and nights in the Mississippi Delta as an archivist for the civil rights movement. But I have never, until now, regarded myself as a long-distance runner. …

What has intervened in my hopscotched career has been the arrival of a benign and smiling advocate, the U.S. Library of Congress. … The library has chosen to acquire my collection of images on paper as a significant body of work, a reflection of my time and place.

I am deeply grateful for this honor and its breathtaking nod to posterity. But at such a moment I feel compelled to look inward rather than forward. As my life's most significant work is being trundled into the library's august archives, I have to make a reckoning. What indeed do all those drawings, paintings, and words add up to? What conclusions have I drawn? – from the Preface

At the apex of World War II, Tracy Sugarman documented naval life before, during, and after D-Day. In an age often dependent on photography and motion pictures, the artist, a well-know illustrator, used paints, ink, and pencil to forge his own distinctive brand of artistic journalism.

After the war, Sugarman continued to record the triumphs and contradictions of the American experience in vivid pictures and words. The result is a pictorial trove of historic, cultural, and societal events of his time: from the civil rights challenge and transformation in the south to labor demonstrations in the north; from Alvin Ailey dancers to NASA space exploration.

As told in Drawing Conclusions, Sugarman's art was first seen by a national audience in the pages of Fortune, the Saturday Evening Post, and Colliers. Publishers who commissioned him to illustrate their books include Simon and Schuster, Doubleday, Random House, and Time-Life Books. In an age of photography, Sugarman has continued to capture the disparate images of America with his pen and his watercolors. His reportage in words and drawings on the Seventh Avenue garment-center world of New York, his searing reportage for the New York Times on the Rikers Island prison, his documenting of the fascinating diversity of American corporate life, and his capturing of the lyrical world of the Tanglewood music culture and of the excitement of the Alvin Ailey Dance Group have all been preserved in his documentation. His paintings of the first rollout of the space shuttle Columbia are now a permanent part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Smithsonian Collection at the Kennedy Space Center, and now his entire collection of art from World War II has been acquired by the U.S. Library of Congress.

Most significant for Sugarman has been his exploration of many of the areas in America where the struggles for change and growth are still being waged. As shown in Drawing Conclusions, his drawings of Appalachian life for VISTA, his dramatic drawings of the Malcolm X murder trial for the Saturday Evening Post, and his poignant coverage of marginal Hispanic American life in Texas for the Housing Investment Trust of American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) have all contributed to ongoing dialogues in our society. But his recording of the civil rights movement in Mississippi in his book Stranger at the Gates: A Summer in Mississippi, marked the beginning of a searching fascination with a state that continues to challenge and intrigue him. The entire portfolio of his drawings of the ‘long, hot summer’ in Mississippi is now a permanent archive at Tougaloo College. His most recent book, We Had Sneakers – They Had Guns, is a sympathetic journey into the past of the civil rights struggle in Mississippi with blacks and whites with whom he worked in 1964 and 1965.

In 1970, Sugarman partnered with filmmaker Bill Buckley to create Rediscovery Productions, Inc. In the intervening years their documentary film company has produced nearly forty educational films about social, political, and cultural challenges to American society. He continues to serve as artist, scriptwriter, and coproducer for Rediscovery.

Tellingly, Sugarman refers to himself as an illustrator as much as an artist, in a time when few artists leave their studios to draw from life, let alone think to directly engage the political events of their day. All the more important, then, to have artists like Sugarman present their work as an example, not just to the public, but to other artists as a new model for what art can aspire to. – Steve Mumford, author of Baghdad Journal: An Artist in Occupied Iraq

Drawing Conclusions portrays an artist's unique view of great historical events, told through words and drawings. Filled with wisdom and humor yet punctuated with outrage over injustice, Sugarman's powerful, singular artistry and thoughtful prose provide insights into the American psyche and into the artist's life. Drawing Conclusions shows that an artist's personal imagery can eclipse the graphic potency of a camera in telling a human story.
Audio / Religion & Spirituality / New Age

God and the Brain: The Physiology of Spiritual Experience (AUDIOBOOK: 3 CDs, running time 3 ¾ hours) by Andrew Newberg (Sounds True)

Andrew Newberg, associate professor of radiology and psychiatry, and co-director of the Center for Spirituality and the Mind, asks listeners in this audio program, “You know what you believe – but do you know why?”

Are we hard-wired for spiritual experience? And if so, why? Is it human biological destiny to seek the divine? Is faith in a higher power a survival trait? On God and the Brain, Newberg believes that the human brain is a ‘believing machine’ – and that the capacity for self-transcendence and spirituality helps drive evolution as a species.

Newberg describes evidence that the human capacity for transcendent consciousness may have been a critical factor in survival. No matter what readers believe – or don't believe – about God, the parts of their brains that manifest spiritual experience have a profound impact on the entire identity. This pioneer of brain studies and co-author of Why God Won't Go Away presents the first audio course on his groundbreaking research into the links between spirituality, biology, and the evolution of the brain. With material from Newberg's research available nowhere else, this 3-CD program features:

How the world's spiritual paths uniquely shape the brain and mind.
How prayer and meditation alter and enhance the physiology of the brain – tips for tailoring a spiritual regimen that suits individual needs.
‘Neurotheology’: how brain chemistry shapes the sense of morality, meaning, and divine connection.
Inside the heads of the optimist and the pessimist – the survival value of positive thinking.
Why this emerging science enriches both the faithful and the skeptical.
The ‘myth-making brain’ – the survival value of storytelling and human imagination.
The biology of forgiveness – why this spiritual act boosts the health of the nervous system.

The audiobook includes a guided exercise for enhancing listeners’ neurological capacity for balance and peace.
Newberg is a leader in exploring the uncharted territory where the human body overlaps with experience of the sacred. In God and the Brain he presents a lucid exploration of the uncharted regions of the mind. Newberg, with his balanced approach of spiritual wonder and scientific rigor, shares insights that will deepen listeners’ understanding of the most human gift – the experience of the divine.

Business & Investing / Industries & Professions / Science / Chemistry

The Perfect Scent: A Year inside the Perfume Industry in Paris and New York by Chandler Burr (Henry Holt & Co.)

No journalist has ever been allowed into the ultra-secretive, highly pressured process of originating a perfume. But Chandler Burr, the New York Times perfume critic, spent a year behind the scenes observing the creation of two major fragrances. Now, in The Perfect Scent he juxtaposes the stories of the perfumes – one created by a Frenchman in Paris for an exclusive luxury-goods house, the other made in New York by actress Sarah Jessica Parker and Coty, Inc., a three billion dollar, international corporation. Readers follow Coty's mating of star power to the marketing of perfume, watching Sex and the City's Parker heading a hugely expensive campaign to launch a scent into the overcrowded celebrity market. Seeking to continue its huge commercial success with celebrity perfumes, Coty enlisted Parker to lend her star power to a fragrance. Unlike that of many celebrities, though, Parker's role will be much more than a name licensing arrangement. She is, as one insider says, ‘obsessed with scent.’ When Parker's Lovely arrives in stores, every aspect of it – from the fragrance to the package – will bear her artistic imprint. But does she have the international fan base to drive worldwide sales?

In Paris at the elegant Hermès, readers see Jean Claude Ellena, his company's new head perfumer, given a challenge: he must create a scent to resuscitate Hermès's perfume business and challenge le monstre of the industry, bestselling Chanel No. 5 – the perfume that has, for ninety years, dominated sales around the globe. Will his pilgrimage to a garden on the Nile supply the inspiration he needs?

The answers lie in Burr's portrait in The Perfect Scent of some of the extraordinary personalities who envision, design, create, and launch the perfumes that drive their billion-dollar industry. And the result is a remarkable work of long-form reporting on both art and business, a journey through a mysterious industry, and a nuanced portrait of two entirely dissimilar people, Ellena and Parker, who had one thing in common: their quest to create the perfect scent.

In a kind of travelogue through the international perfume industry … Burr illuminates perfumery's clash of cultures and values – French artistic purity versus American commercialism.... [His] is a thorough and often hilarious account of perfumery's colorful characters. The science and art of fragrance creation, and the human experience of scent itself. – Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Exhilarating . . . Burr sharply evokes the intoxicating, often infuriating mix of precise science and artistic vision necessary to create a perfume, aided by his impressively calibrated BS detector and ability to unearth the industry's many dirty little secrets. – Kirkus Reviews

The Perfect Scent is a stylish, fascinating, unprecedented insider's view of an industry and its charismatic characters. Written with wit and elegance, the book is informative and often mesmerizing.

Business & Investing / Organizational Behavior / Education / Technology

Tacit Knowledge in Organizational Learning by Peter Busch (IGI Publishing)

Data consists of raw facts ... Information is a collection of facts organised in such a way that they have additional value beyond the value of the facts themselves ... Knowledge is the body of rules, guidelines, and procedures used to select, organise and manipulate data to make it suitable for a specific task ... – Stair & Reynolds

Knowledge management is now being seen as one of the major challenges in developing strategies for competitive advantage. Businesses continually collect and assess knowledge to decide on the kinds of products and services and processes to deliver them to remain competitive. Many businesses approach knowledge management by collecting explicit knowledge and storing it for easy retrieval. However, such stored knowledge must be interpreted using people's expertise and knowledge of context to result in innovative outcomes.

Understanding the complexity of tactic knowledge has become increasingly important to the enhancement of organizational flow. Tacit Knowledge in Organizational Learning by Peter Busch, Macquarie University, Australia, advocates the need for human factor consideration from a tactic knowledge capital point of view. The book provides answers on ways to find and utilize tacit knowledge. It presents the results of a long term study on tacit knowledge by the author. The book begins by introducing tacit knowledge with wide references to earlier work. It continues with a more systematic and measured way to identify knowledge flows using tools such a social networks and the tested methodologies applying these tools. It considers aspects of organizational culture and its influence on tacit knowledge flows and diffusion through the organization, making distinctions between small and large companies. Not focusing simply on improving socialization or team structures, it also introduces ways to integrate it into organizational processes and looks at ways to identify and measure the flow of tacit knowledge as well as ways to improve its utilization. Tacit Knowledge in Organizational Learning concludes with a description with recommendations for ways that organizations can utilize their knowledge to improve their organizational performance.

According to Busch, in order to achieve greater competitiveness, organizations need to pay greater attention to managing their soft knowledge such as tacit knowledge, judgment, and intuitive abilities. These parameters could be said to fall under the purview of a discipline referred to today as Knowledge Management (KM). Tacit knowledge management is important because of the overall economic benefit it brings. Whereas codified knowledge is usually available either freely or through direct payment for patents or intellectual property settlements, tacit knowledge tends to be withheld from direct transfer. The ultimate value of any new knowledge, including tacit knowledge, is that codification leads to a greater return on investment, increased workplace efficiency, and overall lower organizational costs. For all of these reasons, tacit knowledge often tends to be a resource that employees tend to keep to themselves, for loss of it can represent a loss of power.

One good example of organizational knowledge transfer is knowledge mapping, where the firm seeks to determine bottlenecks or alternatively, particularly rich depots of knowledge. The advantage of conducting such an exercise is that new staff is more easily acclimatized to the culture of the organization, but more importantly all staff is more easily able to understand what intellectual capital exists in various parts of the company. Management also benefits as it gains a picture of the health of the organization through studying the interactions of staff and areas where they may be avoiding one another and so not passing on their knowledge. Alternatively particular groupings or cliques of personnel may represent areas where a great deal of tacit knowledge may be being transferred.

This empirical study seeks to define tacit knowledge and to measure the tacit knowledge in ICT personnel in a number of organizations. Tacit Knowledge in Organizational Learning examines the relationships among personnel to see whether there are likely to be factors that would enhance or decrease the likely tacit knowledge flows between them. As a means of increasing rigor associated with this research it Busch used a triangulated approach which incorporated (a) a psychological testing instrument; (b) Social Network Analysis (SNA) as a tool to track the soft knowledge dissipation cycle, and (c) Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) as a means to balance results with those achieved by way the psychological method, and the dissipation (through personnel) of tacit knowledge viewed by way of SNA. FCA is a mathematical lattice based means of interpreting or visualizing data. SNA is also graphical and maps the relationships between individuals.

Tacit Knowledge in Organizational Learning examines knowledge flows among individuals. There are many parameters that can affect knowledge flows in organizations, but at the level of the individual these are limited logistically with regard to how measure of flows can take place. SNA permits a viable means of measuring such flows. It is the ties between individuals that constitute a fundamental principle in SNA. Eventually, through using such tools, researchers build up a knowledge map. These knowledge maps may represent staff at the level of the whole organization, or at the level of the individual. This research focused more at the organizational level as a whole.

Given that the research is conducted in organizations, it is useful to use some categorization of company type. Busch conducted the research in three organizations, referred to as X, Y, and Z. Organization X is a very large nationally based diversified company; however, the IT branch within that firm, which is the section under study, operates as a combination of a machine bureaucracy and a professional bureaucracy. Organization Y, a small specialized firm, is either an operating adhocracy or a professional bureaucracy. Such a classification disparity depends on the type of work being undertaken by the firm. The IT group in organization Z is in fact similar to the IT group in organization X, except on a much smaller scale, such that it too comprises a machine or professional bureaucracy.

To gather data, a tacit knowledge inventory questionnaire was programmed, which incorporated a biographical, SNA and tacit knowledge inventory component. This was the research instrument that permitted the gathering of data. When statistical testing was applied to the results, the results did not reveal significant differences between experts and others. The use of FCA did however allow the identification of individuals whose answers were consistently like those of experts. It was found experts did tend to answer the IT tacit knowledge inventory items differently from those of novices. At the same time, a whole group of expert-novices were identified who were not officially identified by their peers as being experts but whose results did place them in an expert category.

Tacit Knowledge in Organizational Learning is organized into five sections and 15 chapters, followed by appendices. The content of the chapters includes:

Section 1: Background

Identifies the existing areas of concern with regard to the domain of tacit knowledge. Difficulties inherent in undertaking tacit knowledge research are explored as well as why researchers and scholars would wish to do so.
Provides a background of knowledge management and tacit knowledge.
Focuses on tacit knowledge specifically using ground theory.

Section 2: Methodological Foundations

Describes the issues that currently exist with regard to testing for tacit knowledge.
Discusses the concept of organizations. Introduces the organizations under study.
Introduces the concept of knowledge flows for learning and knowledge transfer.
Establishes arguably the major means of illustrating knowledge flows is through relationships between individuals. Introduces SNA.

Section 3: Methodology

Outlines the methodology used as a technique to eliciting tacit knowledge. Explores the data analysis necessary for interpretation of results.

Section 4: Results

Provides initial results, introducing the test instrument used in the research process. Presents results of a statistical test (Wilcoxon).
Presents results through a different technique, namely FCA to visually interpret data that would otherwise be lost in numerical obscurity.
Examines the results from the first of three organizations, Organization X.
Continues the results presentation and discussion with Organization Y.
Concludes the presentation of results with Organization Z.

Section 5: Discussion, Conclusion, and Recommendations

Provides a summary of the work.
Makes brief recommendations for organizations.

Perhaps one of the more obvious findings uncovered in Tacit Knowledge in Organizational Learning is that there are a number of parameters that are going to affect tacit knowledge utilization and transfer. Starting externally, the classification type of the organization is going to have some affect. Certain organizations are by their very mission going to be tacit knowledge rich and others far more heavily reliant on a codified knowledge base. Within the organization itself, the number of employees and number of departments of work teams affects how reliant the company is on codifying their knowledge and trying where possible to codify their tacit knowledge. At the level of the employees themselves, there also are a number of parameters that will affect how well the tacit knowledge is going to flow. Ethnic differences, how well a common language such as English is utilized by the employees, their gender, and their age group – for example along generational lines – all have a bearing.

Busch found in Organization X that the soft knowledge of ICT contractors was not being transferred in the Organization as well as it could. In addition, certain key personnel were akin to gatekeepers in their ability to either transfer or withhold tacit knowledge. Also there were quite a number of groupings or cliques in this firm, where some of these cliques were comprised of very tacit knowledge rich individuals, where other cliques were quite knowledge poor with regard to limited access to experts. In Organization Y, the cottage industry size of the firm meant that higher densities of communication were taking place between the far lower numbers of personnel. Electronic communication which can act as a tacit knowledge barrier was also minimal, for much face-to-face interaction was taking place instead. The CIO seemed to play a more prominent role in knowledge transferal in Organization Z. In many ways the parameters affecting Organization Z were similar to those of X, except on a smaller scale. Their staff complements were similar in composition and skill levels proportionately speaking. It would be easy to say that Organization Y provided the best opportunity for tacit knowledge utilization and transferal; however, by itself this would be simplistic. What is certain is that organizations and their employees need to be more aware of their current knowledge assets and focused on their future opportunities.

Tacit Knowledge in Organizational Learning illustrates the importance of tacit knowledge to an organization, presenting a means to measure and track tacit knowledge in individuals. The description of the application of social networking methods in analyzing the flow of tacit knowledge is unique in the field. The research incorporates a triangulated approach to analyzing tacit knowledge diffusion within an IT domain. This research actually examines aspects of diffusion of soft knowledge in IT organizational settings.

The research presented in Tacit Knowledge in Organizational Learning is unique in that as it makes novel use of FCA as a means of interpreting tacit knowledge related workplace scenarios – the identification of expert non-experts was only possible through the use of this technique. An original contribution of this research is the creation of an IT specific tacit knowledge inventory. This questionnaire with its IT workplace scenarios represents a research and industry tool that has practical applications in the knowledge management domain.

The book also provides valuable recommendations on firm attributes and their ideal utilization of the tacit knowledge resource.

The book will be useful for business organizations, academic and research libraries, and those benefiting from the quantifying of tacit knowledge. It will also be of interest to those involved in knowledge management, business, or management information systems and technology, and the human aspects of technology and will assist those interested in developing greater agility in their enterprises through the ability to use their expertise to respond quickly to opportunities and improve their competitive position.

Children’s / History / Occult / Middle School

The Salem Witch Trials by Kekla Magoon (Essential Events Set 2: ABDO Publishing Company)

Aimed at middle-schoolers, The Salem Witch Trials is part of the Essential Events Set 2, which explores historic happenings around the globe and how those events have sculpted societies, the sciences and politics. Each volume in the Essential Library Set offers numerous research tools: primary research and sources, maps, color images, historic documents, timelines, essential facts including an overview of the topic, selected bibliography, further reading, web sites to expand research, places to visit, a glossary, source notes by chapter, an index, and an author biography.

As told in The Salem Witch Trials, in the year 1692, in Salem Village, Massachusetts, strange events started to occur. Written by Kekla Magoon, historical fiction & nonfiction writer, who has a Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College, the book tells how young girls began having disturbing ‘fits.’ They would fall on the floor, shaking and trembling in seizures, or sit and stare off into space, unaware of the world around them. They would cry uncontrollably, shout curses and scream if anyone touched them. The villagers grew terrified as more and more girls fell victim to these fits. The Puritan villagers began to believe that the girls had been possessed by the devil.

Betty Parris and her cousin Abigail Williams were the first to fall ill in January 1692. Betty was just nine years old. Her father, the Reverend Samuel Parris, was the preacher at the village church. Eleven-year-old Abigail lived with the Parris family. The girls may have played around with fortune-telling and folk magic in the months before the fits began, so the idea of witchcraft was not new to them.

Betty's and Abigail's illnesses deeply upset people. Soon after, other girls began to have similar symptoms. The villagers wanted to know what was causing these afflictions. Doctors could not determine the cause, but the villagers believed it must be the work of witches. As the illness spread, Reverend Parris preached fiery sermons condemning the devil and anyone who worked on the devil's behalf. Puritans were a religious community and they believed the devil could influence people's behavior. They believed the devil could exercise control over the weak. Parris led the community in prayer vigils, and people fasted and worshipped in the hope that God would lift the curse off the girls. Nothing worked.

Soon, the girls began naming names. They shouted some names during their fits and whispered others calmly afterward. Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne were the first named. Sarah Good was a beggar woman living in Salem, and Sarah Osborne was a feisty widow. Since both women were social outcasts, no one was surprised to think that they might be witches. The same was true for the slave, Tituba, whose West Indian ancestry made the villagers suspect her of practicing a form of voodoo, a Haitian religion. Determined to put a stop to the witchcraft, the villagers arrested the three accused women.

On March 1, 1692, court officers interviewed Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. Both women denied the charges. They claimed not to have done anything to the girls. That same day, Tituba confessed that the devil had asked her to hurt the girls. She said she had resisted his advances, but she knew witchcraft did occur in the village. She hinted that several other people in the community were practicing witchcraft and conspiring against the children.

The villagers might have been satisfied with those first three arrests, if not for Tituba's testimony. Instead of ending the problem, her words stirred up more trouble. A witch hunt began in full force. The terrified community desperately wanted the crisis to end. They set up a special court to put the accused on trial. According to the Bible, anyone found guilty of practicing witchcraft would be put to death: "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

A horrific series of events occurred over the next several months. As many as 144 people were identified as witches and jailed. Of these, 19 were found guilty and hanged, and several others died in prison. When the hysteria calmed down, the people of Salem had to face the possibility that it had all been a mistake.

The Salem witch trials continue to fascinate people, even today, more than 300 years later. How and why did an event like this happen? And, what really caused the girls' fits?

According to The Salem Witch Trials, historians and scholars continue to speculate on the Salem witch crisis of 1692. These speculations have resulted in a variety of theories about the girls' illnesses and the reasons for the community's rash and vicious reaction.

It is generally acknowledged that witchcraft was not to blame for the illness. Scholars provide various explanations for the initial fits that overtook the girls including a game gone awry, a strange illness, a mental breakdown, or a village on edge of crisis.

The book elaborates each of these possibilities and then explores what the events in Salem mean to readers today. It helps readers see how the idea of a witch hunt can also apply to situations where the person being attacked is not presumed to be an actual witch. A witch hunt describes any situation where a community decides that certain types of people are dangerous and goes to great lengths to find and stop those people. The American justice system is based on a system of innocent until proven guilty, but in a witch hunt, those rules change. People assume guilt based on little proof and seek out those they fear for punishment. The Salem Witch Trials elaborates on both on the McCarthy era and America’s war on terror as two cases which have elements similar to a witch hunt.

According to the book, the Salem witch trials offer a lesson for future generations. When fear of certain actions drives a community to place blame on individuals, there is a risk of the process turning into a witch hunt. Fear inspires people to rush to judgment. People want the problem solved as soon as possible and are willing to accept an imperfect result. This attitude, however, often results in innocent people being punished.

Studying the history of events such as the Salem witch trials can help societies understand why and how witch hunts happen and prevent them from occurring in the future.

Books of biographies, historic events, and current debates are all essential parts of the school curriculum and the Essential Library volumes help fill this need. The Essential Library is a well-researched, well written, and beautifully designed imprint created for middle school readers. The Salem Witch Trials offers tremendous research tools and is a representative example of the series.

Children’s / Literature / Classics

Mary Engelbreit's Mother Goose: One Hundred Best-Loved Verses (Book and CD) by Mary Engelbreit (Harper Collins Children)

From the colorful imagination of Mary Engelbreit springs a Mother Goose world bursting with warmth and humor. The favorite time-honored characters are included in Mary Engelbreit's Mother Goose – Little Bo-Peep, Humpty Dumpty, Old King Cole, Jack and Jill, and more, along with a mouse running up the clock, piggies going to market, and children dancing round the mulberry bush.

Engelbreit grew up studying the illustrations in her mother's vintage storybooks, and she developed a unique style that reflects those simpler times. Engelbreit's distinctive images have made her a celebrity. Engelbreit's dearest wish has always been to illustrate for children. Her edition of The Night before Christmas glows with the sense of wonder, wit, and nostalgic warmth that is her signature.

For children, pictures as appealing as these come as a special kind of invitation. They serve as a gateway to the enjoyment of words on the page. And they usher children into a world worth knowing: the round, ripe Mother Goose world of pure possibility. – Leonard S. Marcus, author, critic, and children’s literature historian

As complete as can be with one hundred rhymes in all, Mary Engelbreit's Mother Goose is a book to treasure. It is a masterful collection of the adorable, the zany, and the beautiful. This one is likely to become a classic.

Education / Educational Theory / School Management

From Good Schools to Great Schools: What Their Principals Do Well by Susan Penny Gray & William A. Streshly (Corwin Press)

"What can I do to make a difference and lift my school to excellence?"

From Good Schools to Great Schools answers this question for principals and considers other critical issues in a detailed examination of school leadership.

Based on the concepts from the national bestseller Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't by Jim Collins (2001), this guidebook identifies nine characteristics of high-performing "Level 5" school leaders through:

In-depth discussions and detailed case studies of six ‘star’ school principals.
A comparison of principals and corporate leaders, including qualities exclusive to school leadership.
Reflection questions for more effective application of leadership principles.
Templates, implementation tips, and additional resources.

Authors are William A. Streshly, with 25 years of experience in public school administration and Professor of Educational Administration at San Diego State University and Susan Penny Gray, with more than 40 years as an educator in Indiana, now teaching and coordinating the advanced administrator credentialing program at SDSU – as members of the faculty at San Diego State University in Southern California, Gray and Streshly prepare school administrators. They present in From Good Schools to Great Schools evidence that supports a new paradigm for apprenticing school administrators – one that differs from the traditional model of unresearched best practices and standards. Grounding the concepts in a research format similar to the one Collins used, the authors have made it their business to become informed about the best ideas and theories of leadership in schools. In this researched model, school site leaders can learn to look closely at their leadership through the experiences of superstar models and reflect on their own behaviors to move schools toward a more excellent school experience for their students.

Gray and Streshly maintain that the authors of the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium standards have not gathered sufficient empirical evidence to support their standards, and that the standards too often amount to little more than craft knowledge. This is disturbing to those involved with professional development, since the standards being widely adopted by states across the country are based at least in part on that consortium's standards.

In using the Collins research model, the authors suggest a new paradigm for school leadership training. They observed commonalities of leadership with the CEOs Collins studied, as well as an additional concept – the ability to work well with groups.

Gray and Streshly in From Good Schools to Great Schools say they knew from Collins' research on leadership that there is a gap between the Level 4 and the Level 5 of the five-level hierarchy of leadership ability, and found that difference to be the maintenance of gains over a sustained period. This major shift from today's view of excellence is a key difference that is often overlooked and nearly neglected in society's rush to judge schools from the current high-stakes testing frenzy. Inspired by Collins' research they embarked on a similar investigation of the qualities of outstanding principals. They compared their findings with Collins' to see what they could learn from this prominent private sector research.

While Gray and Streshly were conducting their research, they were struck by the idea that the behaviors and characteristics of these stars could be learned. They could equip most administrative candidates with interpersonal skills and approaches to human problems that could help them succeed in doing what they set out to do. At the same time, they are also realistic about the weight of their findings. This was a small study, and although the findings raise important questions, they must be viewed as clues, not as conclusions. Their research has led them to suspect that highly successful principals possess certain characteristics and behave in specific ways that cause their schools to be very successful. However, their research, like the recent research of Collins and of Peters and Waterman 19 years before only provides strong inference – not irrefutable truth. Collins studied only 11 companies; Peters and Waterman, 75 companies.

Chapters 1 through 10 attempt to answer the question, "We know what to do, so why do we fail?" Gray and Streshly look deeply in From Good Schools to Great Schools at specific qualities of the highly successful school principal. In Chapter 11, they consider the commonalities and differences between school principals and business leaders. In addition to a discussion of the disparities, they look at observable leadership attributes universally applied to both public schools and the private sector.

Finally, Chapter 12 provides insights into the potential of people to become successful school leaders.

Gray and Streshly invite readers to see how the in-depth discussion of the interviews with each of the highly successful principals gives a priceless intimate acquaintance with the hearts and minds of star-quality school leaders. These powerful people represent a wide range of personalities, and at the same time exhibit a solid core of leadership qualities and characteristics that coalesce to create startling success in their schools. Readers can see through the eyes of these leaders in the trenches, and they will experience, through their words, what it takes to produce great schools.

Lots of food for thought. The ideas and strategies will nudge people in the right direction and help administrators be brave enough to either bring about change or resist change. This would be a good book for a principal study group. – Mary Johnstone, Principal

These successful principals move beyond platitudes and optimistic denial and learn to face the facts of what is necessary to improve schools, then they do it. These star principals learn to work with teachers and their union rather than around them. – Charles Taylor Kerchner, Hollis P. Allen Professor, Claremont Graduate University

Links Collins's work to success in the school setting. The examples of school leaders who were able to lead effective, systemic change are powerful. – Brenda Dean, Assistant Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Hamblen County Department of Education, TN

Gray and Streshly give readers insights through conversations with great principals so that readers may model them and improve their own operations. They even make a case for a new paradigm for administrative preparation programs that will do more to promote success for school leaders in the work of twenty-first-century schools.

From Good Schools to Great Schools is a valuable preservice book for administrators, as well as a book to be read by all site leaders. School leaders can use this book to inspire activities that transform their schools and reframe their professional behaviors. Correlated with ISLLC standards, this comprehensive resource is valuable for aspiring and practicing school administrators, and supervisors. The book is also appropriate for those responsible for the design and delivery of principal preparation programs as well as every educator who seeks excellence in school leadership.

Entertainment / Movies

The Kite Runner: A Portrait of the Epic Film screenplay by David Benioff, with a foreword by the novel’s writer Khaled Hosseini (Newmarket Pictorial Moviebooks Series: Newmarket Press)

With more than 120 photos in full color and the complete screenplay, The Kite Runner is the story behind the making of the movie based on the beloved bestselling novel directed by Marc Forster. This pictorial book includes behind-the-scenes stories about the production, the locations, the casting of the globally diverse cast and crew, and commentaries by novelist Khaled Hosseini and director Forster.
Based on one of the most acclaimed novels in recent memory, The Kite Runner is a profoundly emotional tale of friendship, family, devastating mistakes, and redeeming love. In a divided country on the verge of war, two childhood friends, Amir and Hassan, are about to be torn apart. It's a glorious afternoon in Kabul and the skies are bursting with the exhilarating joy of an innocent kite-fighting tournament. But in the aftermath of the day's victory, one boy's fearful act of betrayal will set in motion a catastrophe ... and an epic quest for redemption. Now, after 20 years of living in America, Amir returns to a perilous Afghanistan under the Taliban's iron-fisted rule to face the secrets that still haunt him and take one last daring chance to set things right.

Forster is the Golden Globe-nominated director of Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland, and Stranger Than Fiction. Hosseini is the author of the bestselling novels The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, the son of a diplomat whose family received political asylum in the United States in 1980, he lives in northern California, where he is a physician.

In his foreword to The Kite Runner, Hosseini describes his own personal connections to the novel, as well as his experience seeing the birth of his story on the screen: "Watching Khalid Abdalla/Amir peeking sadly through the gates at the house where he was raised in the 1970s echoed with me in strange and almost disorienting ways. Like Amir, I too was born in Kabul in the mid 1960s, lived there in the 1970s, and came to the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1980s to begin a new life as an immigrant. I too was away while Afghanistan was destroyed. And like Amir, I too went back to Kabul as a grown man to revisit the land of my childhood."

Executive producer E. Bennett Walsh spent months exploring some 20 potential countries to re-create the worlds depicted in the novel, but the surprise answer ultimately turned out to be in far-flung Central Asia, in the vast, sparsely populated Xinjiang Province of Western China. Walsh's location photographs revealed a majestic and haunting desert landscape between the ancient cities of Kashgar and Tashkurgan, starkly reminiscent of Afghanistan, which not coincidentally, it borders. Today, this remote section of the fabled Silk Road is a vibrant Islamic center within Chinese society, where Indian and Persian influences abound.

The universal human story told in The Kite Runner speaks to anyone who has every yearned for a second chance to make a change and find forgiveness. The exquisite full-color photos taken during the film's production complement the novel and the film. From the intricacies of the production to its result on the big screen, the process is captured as a celebration of the film and its cast and crew.

Entertainment / Puzzles & Games / Reference

The Book of Games: Strategy, Tactics & History by Jack Botermans, translated from the Spanish by Edgar Loy Fankbonner (Sterling Publishing)

This lavishly illustrated 736-page reference provides a lifetime of entertainment. The Book of Games traces the history of sixty-five of the most fascinating and popular games from across the globe and teaches readers how to play them.

Originally available in the Netherlands, written by Jack Botermans and translated from the Spanish, The Book of Games contains complete rules, playing tips, and instructive move-by-move examples. They range from Senat, a pastime enjoyed by King Tut, to Hex, invented by a 20th-century mathematician; from strategy games like Siege of Paris to dice games like Chuck-a-Luck to chase games like Pachisi; from Asian Shogi to African Wari; and from traditional Chess and Go to modern creations like Mastermind and Othello. This reference volume also includes classics like Backgammon and Poker. Colorful illustrations show old-time and modern players, game boards, and equipment alongside anecdotes and facts about games throughout history and illuminate rules, tactics, and key moves.

The Book of Games describes in detail the rules, strategies, and origins of sixty-five engrossing and challenging games from around the world. All the essential information readers need to know before making an opening move is included, such as number of players, average game durations, necessary supplies like chips, and categories, from logic to chance. Anecdotes and facts about the games lend insight into a variety of cultures and eras.

Readers will also find hundreds of illustrations that clarify rules, tactics, and scenarios they may face. Many of the pictures show an entire game or several matches between experienced competitors so that readers can gain knowledge and maintain an edge on their opponents. Additional archival images provide historical context. Some of the games put readers’ concentration and ingenuity to the test, others require a great deal of planning and analysis. They include:

Backgammon
Snakes and Ladders: Ups and Downs
Salta
White Horse
Windmill
Dominoes including Bergen, Fools, Forty-Two, Solo Dominoes, Tien Gow, Chinese Dominoes
Shogi
Goose
English Checkers
Senat
Poker including Dice Poker
Pachisi
Alquerque
Chinese Chess
Assault
Horse Races
Jungle
Agon
Duodecim Scripta
Go
Dice Games including Bidou
Mancala including Wari
Siege of Paris
Polish Checkers
The Chimera of Gold
Mikado
Renju
Jinx
Sun and Anchor
Hex
Shut the Box
Chinese Checkers
Saxon Hnefatafl
Planks
Hasami Shogi plus Version 2
Othello
Craps
Tabula
Shashki including Checkers in Russia and Bashne
Rithmomachia
Ming Mang
Tangram
Yut
Dablot Prejjesne
Tsung Shap
Coan Ki
Nardshir
Mastermind
The Royal Game of Ur
Thaayam

The Book of Games is a beautifully illustrated survey of games, from origins to strategies. Fascinating anecdotes and intriguing facts about the games lend insight into a variety of cultures and eras. While the book is well written and contains collectible illustrations, it lacks any overview or history of gaming, except within each game. This encyclopedic guide contains a plethora of entertainment, and game enthusiasts and collectors alike will appreciate it. The reviewer was hard-pressed to discern why no games of bowling were included. The Book of Games is especially recommended for its view into leisure activities across the ages.

Health, Mind & Body

Bursting With Energy: The Breakthrough Method to Renew Youthful Energy and Restore Health by Frank Shallenberger, with a foreword by Jonathan Wright (Basic Health Publications)
Ronald Klatz, M.D., president of The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine, predicted in 1999 that a full "50 percent of all baby boomers alive and well today will celebrate their 100th birthday with physical and mental faculties intact." The question Frank Shallenberger directs at readers is, “If you are a boomer, will you be among them? And if you are, how will you feel?” According to Shallenberger, anti-aging research has demonstrated that the human equivalent of living a fully functional life for a hundred and fifty years can be achieved in animals. Not surprisingly, the secret is energy production. In one particular study, those animals with the highest levels of energy production lived 46 percent longer than those with the lowest levels. Even more important than living longer, the quality of their lives was much better. They were free of disease, and of course, had much more energy.

In this updated revision of his acclaimed book, Bursting With Energy Shallenberger makes a connection between the amount of energy readers have and the amount of aging they do, pointing out that, in medical terms, aging refers to a loss of function, not chronology. According to Shallenberger, board-certified physician in anti-aging medicine, founder and medical director of The Nevada Center of Alternative and Anti-Aging Medicine in Carson City, the loss of functions that result from aging are themselves the result of energy loss: more energy, less aging; less energy, more aging. His work with patients over the years has proven that an energy deficit is the root cause of every disease and symptom, from cancer, to fatigue, to obesity. Shallenberger believes that knowledge is power. Energy is the key, he says. As readers learn to eliminate the bad habits that impair the production of energy and come to embrace the proven benefits outlined in Bursting With Energy, they discover firsthand the power of having maximum energy.

However, says the doctor, readers can't buy the energy they need, they have to make it, and they do that by converting oxygen to carbon dioxide. In Bursting With Energy, he explains the process and how the body uses it to harness the sun's energy. He then shows how energy relates to aging, disease, weight, and toxic elements. He elaborates on his unique breakthrough technology, the Bio-Energy Testing System, for determining energy levels, and shows how to overcome any personal energy crisis and banish the degenerative problems that deteriorate and age the body. His reinvigorating secrets include getting proper amounts of water, rest, sunlight, supplements, food, and exercise, in addition to breathing properly, replacing needed hormones bio-identically, and losing weight permanently.

In Part One, Shallenberger shares the target values with readers, so they will have a set of physiological references for their E.Q. With the Bio-Energy Testing method, outlined in Chapter 7, he quantifies and confirms the effects of all the age-defying, energy-enhancing secrets in Bursting With Energy. Then he discusses toxicity – what it is, how it can compromise the energy-producing mechanisms, and what readers can do about it.

In Part Two, he reveals eight clinical secrets, which involve lifestyle changes, some very simple, some involving effort, all rewarding. These secrets have the potential to raise readers’ energy to a level they may have experienced only in their younger days, or in many cases, to a height they never imagined possible. The goal is to be bursting with energy for a long, long time.

Dr. Shallenberger's book is bursting with compelling new insights into health and longevity. – Wendy Whitworth, Executive Producer, Larry King Live!
Well-written, and thorough, this innovative book provides very practical methods for increasing your energy production at any age. – Hyla Cass, M.D., author of All about Herbs

Bursting With Energy is also bursting with practical information for the lay person and for the busy practitioner. With mathematical precision, this book adds up to a true set of rules for health and healthy living. Some books you buy and never read; this one you will read and reread for the easy flow of ideas, the proven guidelines for staying young, and the clear answers about how and why they work. – Richard Kunin, M.D., author of Mega-Nutrition

This book provides dramatic information on stuffing yourself with oxygen, the single greatest preventer of chronic and degenerative disease. – Robert Rowen, M.D., Editor-In-Chief, Second Opinion Newsletter

Bursting With Energy offers a measurement of health and aging, making the connection clear. The book is full of insights and contains many practical ideas for increasing one’s energy level.

Health, Mind & Body / Psychiatry / Pharmacology / Culture

Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation by Charles Barber (Pantheon)

Comfortably Numb is an unprecedented account of the impact of psychiatric medications on American culture and on Americans themselves.

Public perceptions of mental health issues have changed dramatically over the last fifteen years and nowhere is this more apparent than in the rampant medication of ordinary Americans. In 2006, 227 million antidepressant prescriptions were dispensed in the United States, more than any other class of medication; in that same year, the United States accounted for 66 percent of the global antidepressant market. In Comfortably Numb, Charles Barber provides a context for this phenomenon.
Comfortably Numb examines our fascination with quick-fix drugs. Barber, lecturer in psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine, worked for ten years in New York City shelters for the homeless mentally ill. He argues that without an industry to promote them, non-pharmaceutical approaches that could have the potential to help millions are overlooked by a nation that sees drugs as an instant cure for all emotional difficulties.

Barber reveals the startling facts behind the pharmacological curtain:

Americans – about 6% of the world's population – buy at least two-thirds of the world's psychiatric and neurological drugs.
227 million antidepressant prescriptions were dispensed to Americans in 2006 – more than any other class of medication.
Only about a third of patients taking antidepressants improved dramatically after a first trial. Results were not much better than the outcomes of placebo studies.
Big Pharma has the largest lobbying contingent in the country – there are more drug lobbyists than members of Congress.
Drug companies spend almost double on marketing what they do on research. There is an army of 100,000 drug sales representatives whose job it is to push product directly to MDs.
In Japan, no selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants were sold until 1999. After the drug companies went into Japan, sales of antidepressants increased 500%.
Only 15% of the people with serious mental illness are getting the care they need.

Barber's work illustrates how the proliferation of these drugs has resulted in them being given unnecessarily and dangerously to millions of adults, not to mention children and even pets, as well as showing up in our water supply. He explores the ways in which pharmaceutical companies first create the need for a drug and then rush to fill it, and he reveals the increasing pressure Americans are under to medicate themselves. From the bombardment of direct-to-consumer drug advertising (illegal in every other developed country, save New Zealand), to the lack of health insurance covering other options – such as psychoanalysis, cognitive-behavioral therapy and new approaches including Motivational Interviewing – Barber reveals how America's belief that drugs are the ultimate answer to their emotional difficulties is misguided and ignores those who are in desperate need of effective treatment options.

A sharply critical look at the way antidepressants are marketed and prescribed in the United States. While the mentally ill aren't receiving the treatment they need, Americans with ordinary life problems are being overmedicated.... Barber articulately and persuasively counsels that it's time to abandon the quick-fix, pop-a-pill approach. – Kirkus Reviews

A fine, informed writer on cultural history as well as neuroscience, psychotherapy, and economics, Barber convincingly argues against the over-prescription of psychiatric drugs in the United States and sums up the history of U.S. psychiatry from the asylum to the community to glitzy but still elementary neuroscience. A blockbuster essential for all libraries. – Library Journal (starred review)

Comfortably Numb chronicles the extraordinary psycho-pharmaceuticalization of everyday life that has arisen in recent years and appears to be growing apace. Charles Barber marks out the inconvenient truths on our path to emotional climate change but also offers alternatives to readers who wish to avoid pharmageddon. – David Healy, author of Let Them Eat Prozac
In this passionate yet fair-minded book, Barber explores the disturbing medicalization and medication of unhappiness in America today. The author understands that while medication has an important role to play in the treatment of severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, Big Pharma has seduced Americans into believing they need drugs for the normal sorrows of life. Almost 70 percent of antidepressants worldwide are sold in the United States. Barber asks the critical question of whether Americans are crazier than the rest of the world or whether we have simply developed a crazy dependency on legal drugs. – Susan Jacoby, author of The Age of American Unreason

Comfortably Numb is a powerful indictment of the abuse of psychiatric medicine in America today. With the healthcare policy debates heating up in the presidential election, Barber's critique of mental health issues in this country opens up an essential conversation. Barber argues convincingly that other approaches are overlooked while drugs are seen as an instant cure to all emotional issues, thanks to their promotion by drug companies.

Health, Mind & Body / Psychology & Counseling / Aging

Current Directions in Adulthood and Aging: Readings from the Association for Psychological Science) edited by Susan T. Charles (Current Directions in Psychology Reader Series: Allyn & Bacon)

Current Directions in Adulthood and Aging is a compilation of Current Directions articles, focused exclusively on issues of adulthood, reflecting the growing importance of studying adult development for gaining a comprehensive understanding of human behavior.

Compiled by Susan Turk Charles, associate professor in the Department of Psychology and Social Behavior at the University of California, Irvine, the papers in Current Directions in Adulthood and Aging are divided into five sections. Readers will notice several common themes running through many of the readings. The first theme focuses on how cognitive processing changes throughout adulthood. The study of cognitive aging is important in its own right, but also when viewing changes in other psychological processes as well, such as emotional experiences and physical functioning. Another theme that pervades these articles is the importance of the environmental context when interpreting developmental findings. Research in adult development often relies on cross-sectional methodology (that is, when age differences are examined among a group, or cross-section, of people who vary in age). Interpreting cross-sectional findings necessarily involves teasing apart maturational effects from cohort effects. Cohort effects refer to the social and cultural mores and events that vary across groups of people born at different times in history. Adult developmental processes always occur in context, and researchers have grown sophisticated in their understanding of how these social contexts influence psychological processes. Additionally, researchers have illustrated how social attitudes of aging have resulted in the creation of different cultural contexts for people at different points along the life-span. Expectations of the self and others often change according to age. These 26 articles are designed to augment courses in life-span development that focus less on the first twenty years and more on the last eighty years of the human life span.

The Current Directions in Psychology Reader Series is published in partnership with the Association for Psychological Science. The Association for Psychological Science is dedicated to advancing psychology as a science-based discipline. APS members include the field’s most respected researchers and educators representing the full range of topics within psychological science.

Current Directions in Adulthood and Aging, like other volumes in the series, includes articles selected for the undergraduate audience and taken from the accessible Current Directions in Psychological Science journal. Allowing instructors to bring their students real-world perspectives from a reliable source, the timely articles in Current Directions in Adulthood and Aging discuss today’s most current and pressing issues as they apply to specific areas of psychology.

Health, Mind & Body / Psychology & Counseling

Key Studies in Psychology, fourth edition by Richard Gross (Hodder Arnold)

Written by long-time psychology teacher and best-selling textbook author Richard Gross, Key Studies in Psychology, fourth edition offers students summaries of thirty-three research reports drawn from all major areas of psychology. Designed to be accessible and reader-friendly, the book covers all twenty studies from the new OCR specifications, and it also includes two new studies. Before each summary, the study is put into a theoretical, practical and/or socio-historical context, and details of its aims, hypotheses, method and design are presented. Following each summary, an evaluation of the study is provided, focusing on major theoretical and methodological issues, subsequent research, and applications and implications.

Key Studies in Psychology, fourth edition provides students full and detailed summaries of these research reports and studies, which are drawn from cognitive, social, developmental, abnormal, biopsychology, comparative, and culture, identity and individual differences. Each is also followed by exercise questions which require readers to think critically about methodological, statistical and ethical as well as theoretical features of the study. Answers to these questions are given at the back of the book.

As with the three previous editions, the major aim of Key Studies in Psychology is to do what cannot be done in a general, introductory textbook, namely to discuss a number of individual studies in depth. Students often want to know more about a particular study than can be provided in a general textbook, or by a lecturer in a teaching situation. This means that students either has to search for, and wade through, the original journal article, which can be difficult and time-consuming, or simply get by with what can be extracted from lecture and textbook.

While it's very important that students at all levels get used to reading original sources, it may not be so obvious how to make effective use of that material. The Background and Context and Aim and Nature of the Study sections that precede each Study, and the Evaluation section that follows it, are designed to provide students with a framework for reading any original material, so as to make the best use of reading time.

The articles, with the exception of Chapters 2 and 12, are not reprints of the original, but highly detailed summaries. The aim is to retain the substantial character of the original, but at the same time to reduce unnecessary bulk. Gross retains all the section headings as they appear in the original. Most tables, figures etc. have been retained, but not all. He uses a combination of paraphrasing and reproduction of the original. But nothing appears in quotation marks, as this would disturb the continuity and flow of the text. He also replaces difficult or obscure language with simpler or more familiar language.

Key Studies in Psychology gives students excellent first-hand experience in reading journal articles and the chosen key studies will be of value in practical work, essay-writing, and preparation of seminar papers. Although a hundred different authors would choose a hundred different combinations of thirty three ‘key studies’, Gross has made a selection which will satisfy most readers. The book is suitable for Psychology undergraduates and interested general readers.

Health, Mind & Body / Psychology & Counseling / Self-Help

Boundaries in Human Relationships: How to Be Separate and Connected by Anné Linden (Crown House Publishing Limited)

In Boundaries in Human Relationships, I draw upon over 25 years of work as a teacher and therapist. I have observed and interacted with many students and clients, most of whom are adult professionals from business, the arts, education, and the helping professions, and many in the midst of either personal or professional transitions. All were motivated to improve themselves, their relationships, and their ability to communicate. This book is also the result of becoming aware of myself, my ‘stuck’ places, traps, strengths, and my relationships with lovers, family, children, colleagues, friends, students, and clients. – from the Introduction

The most important distinction anyone can ever make in their life is between who they are as an individual and their connection with others. Can one truly love another and be a whole, complete and unique person? How can human beings remain individuals and yet can empathize and identify with others? How does one know the difference between fear and the partner's, or between past anger and here-and-now anger? The answer lies with boundaries – and Boundaries in Human Relationships is a guide to unlocking these mysteries. The book teaches readers what boundaries are, how to recognize them and how to create and maintain them. It is an exploration of the many facets of individuality and togetherness, and it analyzes the most essential element that either supports or destroys self-esteem and relationships: boundaries, or the ability to be separate and connected.

After 18 years as a professional actor Anné Linden went back to college and trained to be a psychotherapist. Linden founded the New York Training Institute for Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and the NLP Center for Psychotherapy – the first of their kind in the world. She introduced NLP to Europe, undertaking the first NLP Practitioner Training in the Netherlands in 1982 and certifying the first European Trainers in 1985. Linden teaches human communication and change using NLP, Ericksonian Hypnosis, the Linden Parts Model, and the Linden Boundaries Model. To explain these models, she draws on years of experience and research into what makes for a successful relationship and a functioning, whole, and happy human being. She defines ‘happy’ not as deliriously gay, joyful, or ecstatic – but content yet yearning, satisfied but challenged, and moving toward as-yet-unrealized dreams while savoring the present moment with all one's senses.

She tells the story that at the time when she stumbled on the concept of boundaries, she was lucky enough to have a small group of professionals in her Assistant Trainers Program, people with whom she had met four times a month for two years. They were intelligent, highly trained, and motivated professionals who enthusiastically participated in her research into boundaries. With their help over several years, she began to map out the basic structure of the Linden Boundaries Model.

The first five chapters of Boundaries in Human Relationships explore the structure of boundaries, what they are, and the patterns upon which they depend. Chapter 1 defines boundaries, loss of boundaries, and walls. There are three levels of boundaries, and Chapters 2, 3, and 4 describe these levels in depth. Chapter 5 lays out the five developmental, psychological patterns that form the foundation of boundaries. Chapter 6 explains the process of boundaries; it provides an in-depth study of how exactly the human being ‘does’ boundaries. It also offers a step-by-step explanation of the three skills (perceptual, physiological, and cognitive) that we use to create and maintain boundaries. Exercises to increase awareness of and strengthen each skill are included at the end of Chapter 6. The last four chapters describe her own and others' personal experiences to deepen readers’ understanding and recognition of the practical implications of boundaries in the important areas of our lives. They examine how the lack of boundaries or the exaggeration of them into walls influences relationships, identity, and self-esteem.

A book for anyone who wants a better understanding about this often-ignored aspect of human relationships and provides valuable information for therapists and coaches who work with clients having boundary issues. – Judith E. Pearson, PhD, Licensed Professional Counsellor, Certified Hypnotherapist, and Certified NLP Trainer

This wonderful book by Anne Linden addresses a crucial aspect of human relationships. The writing is very clear, helpful, and meaningful. I believe many people can benefit from reading it. – Stephen Gilligan, PhD, author of The Courage to Love

A must for teachers, NLP trainers, and Therapists as well as lovers and parents, it will become your user's guide to successful relationships. – Dr. Susi Strang Wood, NLP Master Trainer and Psychotherapist

Boundaries in Human Relationships is for readers who are open to considering relationships and self-esteem from a different perspective. A practical guide, the book increases readers’ awareness of human boundaries and how we actually ‘do’ them. While Linden includes some exercises to increase readers’ skills, her primary intention is to provoke thought and questions.

Health, Mind & Body / Self-Help / Relationships

The Birth Order Book of Love: How the #1 Personality Predictor Can Help You Find "The One" by William Cane (Da Capo Lifelong Books)

Who's got potential as a soul mate – and who's likely to be a dating disaster? And who will readers be happy with for the long run? The surprising factor could be in birth order.

If readers have been trying to find the right match but haven't had luck, they may simply have been dating the wrong people. Studies show the most reliable scientific predictor of personality is one’s place among their siblings.

Now, with The Birth Order Book of Love, bestselling author and former Boston College professor William Cane says it is possible to predict the best romantic match with remarkable precision. From the older brother of brothers to the younger sister of sisters, Cane explains the twelve birth order types, revealing why certain pairs are more compatible than others.

In The Birth Order Book of Love readers discover:

What birth order says about personality and potential relationships.
How sibling gender and age gaps between siblings affect romantic compatibility with others.
Secrets of best and worst love matches.
How to overcome common problems, like rank conflict, sex conflict, and mismatched values.
How to improve one’s relationship with any birth order.

Why do firstborns often find romance with lastborns? Who's the worst match for an only child? Cane examines the 12 personality/birth order types, revealing why certain birth orders are more compatible and which ones can present communication challenges (and how to overcome them). Cane explains why certain pairs, for example Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck, are more compatible than others and common rank conflicts that certain birth orders can experience when matched together, such as firstborns Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey. Cane includes celebrity case studies throughout the book, analyzing the birth orders of Cameron Diaz, Prince Charles, J. D. Salinger, Hillary Clinton, Robert Downey Jr., Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and others. Based on readers’ birth order, he also tells which celebrity they are most like, which one they would be the most compatible with, and who is their overall best celebrity match.

The Birth Order Book of Love is an entertaining and informative guide to relationship compatibility based on the twelve birth order types. Filled with insights and advice, the book shows that it is possible to predict readers’ best romantic matches and demonstrates why many people never should have dated in the first place. Whether readers are trying to win the heart of a firstborn, lastborn, middle child, only child, or twin, The Birth Order Book of Love will help.

History / Americas / Business & Investing / Engineering

Idaho's Bunker Hill: The Rise and Fall of a Great Mining Company, 1885-1981 by Katherine G. Aiken (University of Oklahoma Press)

Seeking to underscore the economic and social impact of mining on American life, T. A. Rickard, the dean of mining historians, once wrote that a mine is "much more than a hole in the ground." Rickard's maxim certainly applies to Kellogg, Idaho's Bunker Hill Company – one of America's great mining properties. This company and community, located in an isolated and sparsely populated region, became preeminent in the annals of American mining and remained so for nearly a century. Located in Kellogg, Idaho, in the remote Coeur d'Alene region, Bunker Hill played a key role in the nation's industrial development. But at the same time it was the catalyst for unprecedented labor strife and environmental desecration. And today it is of one of the EPA's largest Superfund sites. In Idaho's Bunker Hill, Katherine G. Aiken, Professor and Chair in the Department of History, University of Idaho, Moscow, traces Bunker Hill's evolution from the discovery of the mine in 1885 to the company's closure in 1981.

Throughout the company's long history, Bunker Hill management was relentless in its pursuit of profit. But success came at a price. Each time managers sought production increases, workers became restless and dissatisfied. The resulting labor-management conflicts were nothing short of legendary. The history of Bunker Hill is also very much the story of the people who lived in Idaho's Silver Valley and worked for the company. Oftentimes a tale of strife, Bunker Hill's history is at the same time a story of cooperation, dedication, and ingenuity. Following closure of Bunker Hill, the company records were placed in the University of Idaho Library Special Collections. Rarely has such a complete corporate record been available for research. Taking full advantage of this resource, Aiken offers a detailed profile that illustrates major trends in American corporate culture.

According to Idaho's Bunker Hill, from its origins as two small mining claims, to its place as one of the country's largest producers of lead and zinc, Bunker Hill Company underwent a large-scale evolution in management style and policy. Although early managers operated with a hands-on mentality, the very nature of mining soon made this type of management far less viable. From the beginning, college-educated engineers brought the tenets of their discipline to bear on Bunker Hill operations. The need for more capital required Bunker Hill people to seek outside investors, thereby complicating the managerial process. Both of these developments alienated workers, who found themselves cogs in an industrial machine.

While they struggled to maintain some semblance of control over their work lives, Bunker Hill employees lived in a community where the company dominated the local economy. Although Kellogg was never a company town in the formal sense, the mine and surface plants had provided the impetus for the town's founding, and the company continued to wield considerable influence. Company managers believed they had a responsibility to offer leadership, though this leadership was often exercised in a patronizing way. At the same time, the community relied upon Bunker Hill financial investments to provide services and sponsor growth. During the post World War II period, Kellogg residents sometimes referred to the company as ‘Uncle Bunker,’ in recognition of the role that the corporation played in their lives – a constant and inescapable presence and an often generous, if perhaps also a paternalistic and domineering, relative.

According to Idaho's Bunker Hill, class, ethnic, and gender tensions were evident in the community and inside Bunker Hill gates. These conflicts often surfaced in classic battles between workers and company officials. Labor-management relations at the company spilled over into Kellogg and the rest of the Silver Valley on a regular basis. Various labor organizations provided an institutional framework for anxieties that stemmed from the complicated nature of the industrial process in terms of workers and their families.

There are many intersections among these themes – management practices and policies; class, ethnic, and gender tensions; labor relations; community development; and environmental considerations – a series of interlocking pieces that are central to Idaho's Bunker Hill. Both workers and managers were members of the Kellogg community, often making even the concept of the ‘Kellogg community’ a contested one. It is safe to say that throughout its history, Bunker Hill management was committed to making as large a profit as was possible – the primary goal of any enterprise in a capitalist system. In an often relentless pursuit of earnings, company officials urged workers to increase production, which led to worker unrest and dissatisfaction. As Bunker Hill officials chased profits, greater production often translated into progressively more dangerous conditions that jeopardized workers' health and safety. Company expansion simultaneously meant higher wages and secure employment, which contributed to the health and vitality of the local community.

Bunker Hill workers established roots in the area, and several generations of many families found lifetime employment with the company. The children of workers and those of managers attended the same schools, participated on the same sports teams, and shared community pride.

Connections among Kellogg-area residents existed on many levels, although class, ethnic, and gender differences did not disappear. Over time the Bunker Hill Company became synonymous with the Kellogg community. The ‘Uncle Bunker’ relationship meant that while workers were often critical of the company and its policies, even to the point of developing a decidedly adversarial relationship, both workers and managers took pride in their community and tended to close ranks when outsiders threatened. The overall insularity of the Kellogg community remains a noteworthy phenomenon. The community as a whole has shared the considerable social and economic dislocation accompanying the decline of the mining industry, an oft-repeated scenario in western mining communities. Silver Valley residents remain divided when it comes to interpreting Bunker Hill's legacy.

The course of Bunker Hill corporate development illustrates major trends in American corporate culture. Workers struggled to maintain their autonomy in the face of growing company power. Environmental issues at Bunker Hill had and continue to have national significance.

Not only is this book beautifully written, but the author deftly weaves together strands of business, labor, and environmental history to create a satisfying whole. – Carlos Arnaldo Schwantes, author of The Pacific Northwest: An Interpretive History

A solid contribution to the industrial history of the American West ... a
rewarding read to both newcomers and old hands alike. – Journal of the West

Idaho's Bunker Hill presents the first ever history of the Bunker Hill Company from the period of the lode’s discovery in 1885 to the closing of the complex in 1981. This is a richly detailed history, providing an in-depth profile, which takes full advantage of the complete corporate record.

History / Americas / Civil War

Memoirs of the Stuart Horse Artillery Battalion: Moorman's and Hart's Batteries by Robert J. Trout (The University of Tennessee Press)

In Memoirs of the Stuart Horse Artillery Battalion, Robert J. Trout, retired school teacher, provides readers with complete versions of three important primary documents written by soldiers of the battalion. Lt. Lewis T. Nunnelee's history of Moorman's Battery is based on a seven-volume diary that Nunnelee kept during the war and features near daily entries of the battery's actions. His extraordinary attention to detail offers readers an opportunity to follow the movements of the battery virtually hoofstep by hoofstep through the campaigns in which he participated.

The "History of Hart's Battery," as told by Maj. James F. Hart, Dr. Levi C. Stephens, Louis Sherfesee, and Charles H. Schwing, is, as Trout puts it, "a cannon of a different caliber." It recounts in broader terms the battery's history from its inception before the war to its surrender as the last horse artillery in the field. The authors offer rare glimpses into the development of tactics learned from the ‘school of the battlefield.’

Finally, Louis Sherfesee's "Reminiscences of a Color-Bearer" fleshes out many of the stories in the history that Sherfesee co-wrote with Hart and his fellow soldiers. Filled with short vignettes, it offers a behind-the-scenes look at the battery in action.

In his speech given at the unveiling of Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart's statue in Richmond on May 30, 1907, Theodore S. Garnett, an aide-de-camp on Stuart's staff, stated that the Stuart Horse Artillery probably fired the most shot and shell of any artillery during the war. With such a record, the story of the men and the batteries that made up the Stuart Horse Artillery Battalion should have been among the most celebrated in the annals of the war. But according to Memoirs of the Stuart Horse Artillery Battalion, despite such a vast number of enemy encounters, the story of the battalion remained little known because the scarcity of primary source material posed a major obstacle to historians and writers. With the 2002 publication of Trout’s book Galloping Thunder: The Stuart Horse Artillery Battalion, some of that difficulty disappeared. The dozens of letters, diary excerpts, and extracts from reminiscences and histories included in the book revealed the thoughts and emotions of their authors and provided a firm base for the telling of the battalion's story. Galloping Thunder contained a significant amount of primary source material, but a large amount failed to find its way into the book because of a lack of space. Memoirs of the Stuart Horse Artillery Battalion is an attempt to bring together a number of these primary resources for historians, writers, and readers to evaluate, use, and enjoy. Some background on the documents as well as an estimation of their overall accuracy is necessary.

Of the three documents included in Memoirs of the Stuart Horse Artillery Battalion, military historians will find Lt. Lewis T. Nunnelee's "History of a Famous Company of the War of the Rebellion (So Called) Between the States Viz. Lynchburg Beauregard Rifles Viz. Beauregard Artillery Moorman's Battery Viz. Stuart Horse Artillery Viz. Shoemaker's Battery Stuart Horse Artillery" of great value because of its accuracy and attention to detail. Based on a seven-volume diary kept almost daily during the war, Nunnelee compiled his history from the diaries about thirty years after the war's close. He supplied rich detail that often is lacking in the other accounts. So meticulous was Nunnelee that he listed the majority of the roads on which the battery marched and recorded the names of most of the farmers on whose land his battery encamped. Such rare attention to detail offers readers an opportunity to follow the movements of the battery virtually hoofstep by hoofstep through the various campaigns in which Nunnelee participated. For reasons revealed in his account, Nunnelee was absent from the battery during some of the crucial campaigns of the war, and readers are left to ponder what details of these operations Nunnelee might have recorded. Despite these drawbacks, Nunnelee's recollection of the service of the Moorman-Shoemaker Battery remains a valuable addition to the history of the battalion, offering material unavailable from any other source.

The second primary document in Memoirs of the Stuart Horse Artillery Battalion is the "History of Hart's Battery," as told by Maj. James F. Hart, Dr. Levi C. Stephens, Louis Sherfesee, and Charles H. Schwing, a cannon of a different caliber. Before collaborating on this history, Hart had written a much shorter account, which was published in the Charleston Weekly News in 1875. This work would appear to have guided the four men in their endeavor. Hart was the logical choice to head the committee since he captained the distinguished battery through much of the war. Originally an outgrowth of the Washington Artillery of Charleston, South Carolina, the battery became a part of the famed Hampton Legion and was mustered into service on June 13, 1861. Along with what became Capt. William K. Bachman's Battery, it received training under Capt. Stephen D. Lee. Following the promotion of Lee, Lt. James F. Hart succeeded to command. The history covers the battery from its inception before the war to its surrender as the last horse artillery in the field. It contrasts with Nunnelee's in that it lacks the same kind of detail, although it does provide more than adequate documentation of what the battery accomplished. The history also contains much more than just facts. The four authors touched on many of the areas Nunnelee chose to omit, and readers are rewarded with such insights as the development of tactics learned from the school of the battlefield and comments about the preferential treatment of Virginia units. Unlike Nunnelee, the authors began their history with the premise that their battery was the best and then set out to prove it. The writers' embellishments and altering of facts, such as claiming that their guns held the Potomac River crossing while Stuart's cavalry escaped at the end of the Chambersburg Raid or that their battery was with Stuart when he was surrounded at Auburn, are blatant attempts to enhance the battery's reputation. Such assertions detract from what could have been an excellent narrative. Despite this and the fact that a few campaigns receive insufficient attention, the history contains much untarnished material and proves a welcome addition to the little that has been written about the horse artillery batteries.

The third primary document in Memoirs of the Stuart Horse Artillery Battalion is Louis Sherfesee's "Reminiscences of a Color-Bearer", which was never intended to be a complete history of Hart's Battery. Rather, its writer presented highlights of his experiences during the war. Filled with short vignettes, Sherfesee's reminiscence offers a behind-the-scenes look at a battery in camp and on the field of battle. Sometimes susceptible to the same pride that overcame him when he teamed with Hart, Stephens, and Schwing, Sherfesee does manage to avoid his prejudice in most instances and especially during his recollections of incidents involving individual members of the battery. His lively description of his “one boot on – one boot off” dash into danger at Brandy Station places readers practically next to the guns, and his revealing portrait of the battery's final surrender is poignant beyond words. Sherfesee's colorful recollections are important to the history of the battalion. At some time, an unknown editor added several pages to the beginning and end of Sherfesee's reminiscence. They in no way detract from what Sherfesee wrote and, in fact, contribute important insights and information. With these exceptions and possibly a few others not so easily identified, the reminiscence comes from the pen of Sherfesee.

The types of details in this impressive work, in many cases unavailable anywhere else, will be invaluable to cavalry aficionados and scholars researching cavalry battles in the Eastern Theater of the Civil War. – Keith S. Bohannon, University of West Georgia

Until recently, it has been difficult for anyone with an interest in the Army of Northern Virginia's horse artillery, which served under legendary cavalry commander J. E. B. Stuart, to envision what the men of the battalion endured. With the publication in 2002 of Trout's seminal book, Galloping Thunder, the endeavors of the unit were rescued from obscurity. Together, the rich documents in Memoirs of the Stuart Horse Artillery Battalion provide welcome insights into the day-to-day experiences of the often overlooked Confederate horse artillery, which played an important role in cementing Stuart's reputation as one of the most outstanding cavalry commanders in the Civil War.

History / Americas / Indian Wars / Reference

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March 2008, Issue #107

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