Weekly Book List, September 2, 2016

August 28, 2016

ANTHROPOLOGY

Mourning Animals: Rituals and Practices Surrounding Animal Death edited by Margo DeMello (Michigan State University Press; 272 pages; $44.95). Topics include burials, taxidermy, grieving, and other practices for animals we mourn, as well attitudes toward "road kill" and other animal deaths not generally commemorated.

Sanctuary and Asylum: A Social and Political History by Linda Rabben (University of Washington Press; 433 pages; $90 hardcover, $30 paperback). Combines anthropological and historical perspectives in a study of ideas of sanctuary from ancient times to the modern legal concept of asylum; pays particular attention to the refugee crisis in Europe today, and Central Americans seeking asylum in the United States.

ARCHAEOLOGY

Southeast Inka Frontiers: Boundaries and Interactions by Sonia Alconini (University Press of Florida; 228 pages; $79.95). Discusses a region of Bolivia that was once a frontier territory of the Inca empire, very distant from the capital, Cuzco.

ART AND ARCHITECTURE

Welcome to Painterland: Bruce Conner and the Rat Bastard Protective Association by Anastasia Aukeman (University of California Press; 352 pages; $49.95). A study of a community of artists, centered around Bruce Conner, which in the 1950s and 60s lived and worked together in a building in the Fillmore area of San Francisco.

BIOLOGY

Not So Different: Finding Human Nature in Animals by Nathan H. Lents (Columbia University Press; 349 pages; $35). Documents affinities in human and non-human animal behavior as shaped by the evolutionary forces of cooperation and competition; topics include sex, morality, play, envy, jealousy, and greed.

CLASSICAL STUDIES

Ovid's Women of the Year: Narratives of Roman Identity in the "Fasti" by Angeline Chiu (University of Michigan Press; 240 pages; $70). Examines the varied figures of women, old and young, goddess and mortal, in Ovid's six-book poem on the Roman calendar.

COMMUNICATION

Civic Media: Technology, Design, Practice edited by Eric Gordon and Paul Mihailidis (MIT Press; 648 pages; $53). Offers theoretical and applied perspectives on using digital media for activism, policy coordination, such as disaster relief, and similar endeavors; case studies include the success of the "It Gets Better" anti-suicide campaign for LGBTQ youth, and the hijacking of the New York City Police Department's #MyNYPD Twitter campaign.

DANCE

Flowers Cracking Concrete: Eiko & Koma's Asian/American Choreographies by Rosemary Candelario (Wesleyan University Press, distributed by University Press of New England; 272 pages; $80 hardcover, $26.95 paperback). A study of Eiko Otake and Taskashi Koma Otake, two Japanese dancers and choreographers who have lived and worked in New York City since the mid-1970s.

ECONOMICS

Complexity and Evolution: Toward a New Synthesis for Economics edited by David S. Wilson and Alan Kirman (MIT Press; 395 pages; $50). Writings on the integration of concepts from complexity theory and evolutionary theory to enhance the understanding of economics and public policy.

The Curse of Cash by Kenneth S. Rogoff (Princeton University Press; 296 pages; $29.95). Argues for phasing out most paper money in light of how cash figures, among other things, in crime, terrorism, tax evasion, and monetary instability

The Guidance of an Enterprise Economy by Martin Shubik and Eric Smith (MIT Press; 592 pages; $65). Draws on game theory, evolutionary theory, and and methods of physics and experimental gaming in a study of the control, guidance, and coordination problems of an enterprise economy.

EDUCATION

A Curriculum of Fear: Homeland Security in U.S. Public Schools by Nicole Nguyen (University of Minnesota Press; 291 pages; $91 hardcover, $26 paperback). An ethnographic study of a public high school in the greater Washington DC area that has established a specialized Homeland Security program, including security-themed classes and internships with defense contractors and such agencies as the N.S.A.

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Lake Mead National Recreation Area: A History of America's First National Playground by Jonathan Foster (University of Nevada Press; 176 pages; $21.95). Examines Park Service management of reservoir-based recreation in what became the first U.S. National Recreation Area.

FILM STUDIES

Militant Visions: Black Soldiers, Internationalism, and the Transformation of American Cinema by Elizabeth Reich (Rutgers University Press; 272 pages; $90 hardcover, $27.95 paperback). Discusses the figure of the proud and powerful black soldier in cinema across a range of genres from the 1940s to the 1970s.

FOLKLORE

Chol (Mayan) Folktales: A Collection of Stories From the Modern Maya of Southern Mexico by Nicholas A. Hopkins and J. Kathryn Josserand (University Press of Colorado; 199 pages; $27.95). Transcription of 11 stories with commentary and facing Chol (Mayan) and English text.

Inuit Poems and Songs: Folk Poetry of East Greenland collected by William Thalbitzer, translated by Torben Hutchings (International Polar Institute, distributed by University Press of New England; 128 pages; $19.95). Songs and poems collected by Thalbitzer, a Danish philologist and scholar of the Inuit (1873-1958).

Packy Jim: Folklore and Worldview on the Irish Border by Ray Cashman (University of Wisconsin Press; 312 pages; $69.95). Draws on interviews with Packy Jim McGrath, a Donegal storyteller who grew up on a smuggling route on the border of the Republic and Northern Ireland.

HISTORY

Beer of Broadway Fame: The Piel Family and Their Brooklyn Brewery by Alfred W. McCoy (State University of New York Press; 448 pages; $29.95). Traces the history of a brewery founded by a German-American family in 1884.

Braxton Bragg: The Most Hated Man of the Confederacy by Earl J. Hess (University of North Carolina Press; 341 pages; $35). A biography of the Confederate general (1817-76) that casts him as flawed, but also as the subject of "unwarranted infamy."

Convict Cowboys: The Untold History of the Texas Prison Rodeo by Mitchel P. Roth (University of North Texas Press; 436 pages; $32.95). Combines historical and criminological perspectives in a study of inmate cowboy competitors and the Huntsville-based prison rodeo, which happened annually from 1931 to 1986.

Decolonizing the Republic: African and Caribbean Migrants in Postwar Paris, 1946--1974 by Felix F. Germain (Michigan State University Press; 256 pages; $39.95). Discusses black working-class migrants in Paris as agents of social change and decolonization during the period.

Distinguishing the Righteous from the Roguish: The Arkansas Supreme Court, 1836--1874 by J.W. Looney (University of Arkansas Press; 285 pages; $59.95). A study of the court's rulings that shows how preservation of the status quo hindered economic development in the state.

Executing the Rosenbergs: Death and Diplomacy in a Cold War World by Lori Clune (Oxford University Press; 288 pages; $29.95). Uses previously untapped State Department documents to examine how the case affected global perceptions of the United States; topics include protests in 80 cities and 48 countries.

Imagining Asia in the Americas edited by Zelideth Maria Rivas and Debbie Le-DiStefano (Rutgers University Press; 203 pages; $90 hardcover, $27.95 paperback). Writings by anthropologists, historians, literary scholars, and others on Asian identities across the Americas; topics include Chinese influence and heritage in Afro-Cuban religiosity.

The Information Nexus: Global Capitalism from the Renaissance to the Present by Steven G. Marks (Cambridge University Press; 292 pages; $74.99 hardcover, $27.99 paperback). Argues that what makes capitalism distinct from other systems is the drive by business to collect and analyze information.

Middle Kingdom and Empire of the Rising Sun: Sino-Japanese Relations, Past and Present by June Teufel Dreyer (Oxford University Press; 454 pages; $34.95). Sets the contemporary rivalry between Japan and China in the context of relations back to the ninth century.

The Origins of the Grand Alliance: Anglo-American Military Collaboration from the Panay Incident to Pearl Harbor by William T. Johnsen (University Press of Kentucky; 406 pages; $50). A study of military collaboration between Britain and the United States that began after an incident in December 1937 when Japan sunk the U.S. gunboat Panay anchored in the Yangtze River outside Nanjing, China.

Our Sister Republics: The United States in an Age of American Revolutions by Caitlin Fitz (Liveright; 354 pages; $29.95). Traces changes in U.S. views of anti-colonial revolutions in 19th-century South America.

The Politics of Mourning: Death and Honor at Arlington National Cemetery by Micki McElya (Harvard University Press; 395 pages; $29.95). Explores issues of representation and inclusion in a history of the cemetery since its Civil War founding.

The Risen Phoenix: Black Politics in the Post-Civil War South by Luis-Alejandro Dinnella-Borrego (University of Virginia Press; 288 pages; $49.50). Discusses six black Congressmen of the Reconstruction era: John Mercer Langston of Virginia, James Thomas Rapier of Alabama, Robert Smalls of South Carolina, John Roy Lynch of Mississippi, Josiah Thomas Walls of Florida, and George Henry White of North Carolina.

Running the Rails: Capital and Labor in the Philadelphia Transit Industry by James Wolfinger (Cornell University Press; 304 pages; $45). Focuses on the city's public transit workers in a study of shifts in labor relations from the 1880s to the 1960s.

Somme: Into the Breach by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore (Harvard University Press; 607 pages; $35). Draws on diaries, letters, and memoirs in a study that focuses on the firsthand experiences of soldiers on both sides of the extended World War I battle, which cost more than a million dead or wounded.

This Mortal Coil: The Human Body in History and Culture by Fay Bound Alberti (Oxford University Press; 289 pages; $29.95). Discusses the skin, the spine, the tongue, the genitals, and other parts in a study of cultural perceptions of the body.

Written in Blood: The Battles for Fortress Przemysl in WWI by Graydon A. Tunstall (Indiana University Press; 386 pages; $45). Discusses a fortress in what is now southeastern Poland that changed hands three times in the fall of 1914.

LABOR STUDIES

Achieving Workers' Rights in the Global Economy edited by Richard P. Appelbaum and Nelson Lichtenstein (Cornell University Press; 330 pages; $89.95 hardcover, $26.95 paperback). Essays focusing on workers' struggles under globalization, particular those in the export industries of the "global South"; topics include corporate social responsibility and trade-union elections at foreign-owned Chinese factories.

Too Few Women at the Top: The Persistence of Inequality in Japan by Kumiko Nemoto (ILR Press/Cornell University Press; 296 pages; $49.95). Uses interviews with workers at three financial firms and two cosmetics companies to document the persistence of vertical sex segregation as a cost-saving measure.

LAW

The Age of Deference: The Supreme Court, National Security, and the Constitutional Order by David Rudenstine (Oxford University Press; 326 pages; $29.95). Documents how judicial deference to executive power on national security issues dates back to Truman administration, long before 9/11 and the "war on terror."

Making Modern Florida: How the Spirit of Reform Shaped a New State Constitution by Mary E. Adkins (University Press of Florida; 240 pages; $29.95). Documents the successful effort to modernize Florida's 1885 constitution in 1966-68 in the face of opposition from rural state legislators known as the "Pork Chop Gang."

LINGUISTICS

Dictating to the Mob: The History of the BBC Advisory Committee on Spoken English by Jurg R. Schwyter (Oxford University Press; 256 pages; $40). Discusses the first 13 years of a committee that was set up in 1926 to provide guidance to BBC radio announcers on pronunciation and other matters of language; offers a linguistic perspective on the committee's work, particularly after it took on the unmandated role of standardizing spoken English.

Tone and Accent in Oklahoma Cherokee by Hiroto Uchihara (Oxford University Press; 302 pages; $105). Examines six possible pitch patterns that can occur on a syllable in the language.

LITERATURE

The Amazing Adventures of Bob Brown: A Real-Life Zelig Who Wrote His Way Through The 20th Century by Craig Saper (Fordham University Press; 305 pages; $90 hardcover, $24.95 paperback). A biography of the writer and publisher Robert Carleton Brown (1886-1959), who had links to bohemian, Beat, expatriate, and other literary circles.

The Divine Madness of Philip K. Dick by Kyle Arnold (Oxford University Press; 234 pages; $19.95). Examines links between early traumas in Dick's life, including the death of his twin sister, and the author's spirituality and drug abuse; argues that Dick was not schizophrenic and links his paranoia to amphetamine addiction.

Ernest Hemingway: A New Life by James M. Hutchisson (Penn State University Press; 292 pages; $37.95). A biography of the writer that challenges what is termed the sensationalism of previous accounts.

Fact in Fiction: 1920s China and Ba Jin's "Family" by Kristin Stapleton (Stanford University Press; 288 pages; $85 hardcover, $25.95 paperback). Focuses on the 1933 novel's setting of Chengdu in a study of how Ba Jin distorted 1920s Chinese history to fit his narrative and politics.

How Russia Learned to Write: Literature and the Imperial Table of Ranks by Irina Reyfman (University of Wisconsin Press; 237 pages; $65). Discusses the Table of Ranks introduced by Peter the Great, and the impact of mandatory public service on Russian writers.

Robicheaux's Roots: Culture and Tradition in James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux Novels by Patricia M. Gaitely (Louisiana State University Press; 168 pages; $25). Discusses Burke's mystery novels featuring the Cajun detective and their depiction of the culture and environment of South Louisiana.

Self as Nation: Contemporary Hebrew Autobiography by Tamar Hess (Brandeis University Press/University Press of New England; 228 pages; $85 hardcover, $40 paperback). Discusses Yoram Kaniuk, Yehudit Kafri, Aharon Appelfeld, and seven other writers in a study of the interplay of the collective and the Israeli self in Hebrew autobiography.

The Works of Samuel Johnson, Volume 19: Biographical Writings: Soldiers, Scholars, and Friends edited by O M Brack Jr. and Robert DeMaria Jr. (Yale University Press; 616 pages; $125). Edition of Johnson's biographical writings as well as obituaries and epitaphs.

MUSIC

Flowing Tides: History and Memory in an Irish Soundscape by Gearoid O hAllmhurain (Oxford University Press; 311 pages; $45). Combines the author's perspectives as musician and scholar in a study of two centuries of the "soundscape" of County Clare, a renowed center for Irish music.

Mahler and Strauss: In Dialogue by Charles Youmans (Indiana University Press; 312 pages; $42). Combines a comparative study of the two composers' lives with an account of their 24-year relationship.

PHILOSOPHY

Kant's Philosophy of Communication by G.L. Ercolini (Duquesne University Press; 251 pages; $30). Examines the German philosopher's investment in the realm of rhetoric and human interaction, both in his life and his writings.

POLITICAL SCIENCE

The Courts, the Ballot Box, and Gay Rights: How Our Governing Institutions Shape the Same-Sex Marriage Debate by Joseph Mello (University Press of Kansas; 240 pages; $34.95). Examines why conservatives' arguments against same-sex marriage had more success in terms of ballot measures than in the arena of the courts.

Crude Strategy: Rethinking the US Military Commitment to Defend Persian Gulf Oil edited by Charles L. Glaser and Rosemary A. Kelanic (Georgetown University Press; 300 pages; $64.95 hardcover, $32.95 paperback). Writings by political scientists, historians, and economists that evaluate the current policy.

Gender Violence in Peace and War: States of Complicity edited by Victoria Sanford, Katerina Stefatos, and Cecilia M. Salvi (Rutgers University Press; 214 pages; $90 hardcover, $28.95 paperback). Writings on instances when states violence against women; includes historical and contemporary cases from the Congo, Greece, Guatamala, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Nicaragua, Russia, and the United States.

Just War Reconsidered: Strategy, Ethics, and Theory by James M. Dubik (University Press of Kentucky; 225 pages; $50). Develops an approach to just-war theory that includes a much greater consideration of the planning and conduct of warfare, as well as of the decision to initiate conflict.

Rape During Civil War by Dara Kay Cohen (Cornell University Press; 272 pages; $89.95 hardcover, $26.95 paperback). Develops a theory of why some armed groups rape during civil wars, while others do not; draws on a database on intrastate conflicts between 1980 and 2012 along with in-depth case studies of Sierra Leone, East Timor, and El Salvador.

POPULAR CULTURE

Rewriting History in Manga: Stories for the Nation edited by Nassim Otmazgin and Rebecca Suter (Palgrave Macmillan; 191 pages; $99.99). Essays on manga's relation to Japanese history and politics; topics include atomic survivors in Nakazawa Keiji's Black Series manga.

RELIGION

American Jesuits and the World: How an Embattled Religious Order Made Modern Catholicism Global by John T. McGreevy (Princeton University Press; 315 pages; $35). Examines the role of Jesuits in Catholic globalization in the century after the order was restored, by one pope, after having been suppressed 41 years prior by another; focuses on European Jesuits who traveled to the United States, and American Jesuits who traveled in missions to the Pacific.

Black Natural Law by Vincent W. Lloyd (Oxford University Press; 180 pages; $49.95). Focuses on Frederick Douglass, Anna Julia Cooper, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Martin Luther King Jr. in a study of how appeals to a higher law has shaped black political engagement.

Jews and the American Religious Landscape by Uzi Rebhun (Columbia University Press; 248 pages; $60). Draws on demographic and sociological data in a study of Jewish identity and religiosity.

Protestantism After 500 Years edited by Thomas Albert Howard and Mark A. Noll (Oxford University Press; 361 pages; $99 hardcover, $35 paperback). Writings by historians and theologians on the significance of the Reformation, nearly 500 years after Luther posted his 95 Theses.

RHETORIC

Secret Habits: Catholic Literacy Education for Women in the Early Nineteenth Century by Carol Mattingly (Southern Illinois University Press; 272 pages; $40). A study of female Catholic religious as educators of women during the period.

SOCIAL WORK

Bullying Scars: The Impact on Adult Life and Relationships by Ellen W. deLara (Oxford University Press; 270 pages; $24.95). Draws on interviews with more than 800 people in a study of how victimization as a child can affect adult life.

SOCIOLOGY

Down, Out, and Under Arrest: Policing and Everyday Life in Skid Row by Forrest Stuart (University of Chicago Press; 333 pages; $27.50). Draws on five years of fieldwork in Los Angeles's Skid Row, both among those living in its streets, shelters, and flophouses, and among the police for the district.

SPORTS STUDIES

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey (Oxford University Press; 359 pages; $24.95). Examines how politics figure in football, and vice versa, across the region; topics include militant Islamists' love-hate relationship with the sport.

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