State U. of New York Pr.

Affirmative action in antidiscrimination law and policy; an overview and synthesis, 2d ed.

William M. Leiter (political science, California State U.) and the late Samuel Leiter (civil rights and labor attorney) offer an updated second edition of their book on affirmative action policy, law, and ideological differences in employment, voting, education, and housing. This second edition updates the first edition from 2002 to the beginnings of the Obama administration. It also includes a new chapter that addresses age, disability, sexual orientation, and criminal justice antidiscrimination initiatives. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The beach beneath the streets; contesting New York City's public spaces.

Viewing public space in New York City through the lenses of repression and resistance to efforts to exclude people from privately owned spaces and political power in the 20th century, Shepard (human services, New York City College of Technology) and Smithsimon (sociology, Brooklyn College) treat spaces for their democratic value and role in social interaction. Case studies and photographs illustrate contested uses of urban plazas. The title refers to iconic graffiti of the 1968 upheavals in France, and evokes recent events in the Middle East. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Black womanist leadership; tracing the motherline.

How do Black mothers serve as leadership role models as they exorcise the trauma of racism, classism, and sexism to help their daughters grow in healthy ways? This anthology of personal narratives from 14 female African-American scholars recreates the space of the 'kitchen table,' a place where women give and receive support, solve problems, and make plans. Contributors come from disciplines such as education, law, social work, theology, and, of course, African American and women's studies. They recall their own mothers' teachings as they reveal the interpersonal and intergenerational dynamics of mother-daughter leadership transmission in Black communities as a form of resistance to oppression. Some topics explored include blues women and leadership, strategies for leadership in the public and private spheres, and overcoming internalized oppression. King teaches Black studies and women's studies at Denison University. Ferguson is affiliated with the Cleveland Urban Minority Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Outreach Program. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Body shots; Hollywood and the culture of eating disorders.

Fox-Kales (psychiatry, Harvard U.) is a clinical psychologist specializing in the treatment of eating disorders; she is also professor of cultural studies and a film buff. Here, she examines how Hollywood images of bodily perfection and slenderness contribute to the phenomenon of eating disorders, through screen identification on the part of the spectator. She analyzes recent films such as Miss Congeniality, Shallow Hal, Never Been Kissed, Mean Girls, and Real Women Have Curves as visual representations of various social forces including the medicalization of consumer beauty practices, the fitness movement's ideologies of discipline, and discourses of celebrity body maintenance. The book is illustrated with numerous b&w film stills. The author is executive director of the Feeding Ourselves Program at McLean Hospital. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

China's America; the Chinese view the United States, 1900-2000.

Li (history, Duquesne U.) offers an engaging exploration of China's perceptions of the United States during the 20th century. The author examines the historical, cultural, and political perspectives that have influenced Chinese opinion, both positive and negative, about the U.S. By doing so, the author also offers enlightenment regarding how the two countries perceive each other and how those perceptions have changed. The examination includes both personal perspectives and the official positions of both countries. Topics include the anti-Americanism of the 1950s, Mao's revolution and the US, and old themes and new trends in the final decade of the 20th century. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Detecting women; gender and the Hollywood detective film.

Looking at about 300 films, Gates (film studies, Wilfrid Laurier U., Ontario) explores the female detective character from her pre-cinematic origins in 19th-cetury detective fiction through the history of Hollywood cinema, focusing on the periods 1929-1950 and 1970 to today. The female detective is examined through the lens of theories of gender, genre, and stardom, and through engagement with critical concepts of performativity, masquerade, and feminism. Gates argues that the most progressive and feminist models of the female detective exist in mainstream film's more peripheral products, such as 1930s B moves and 1970s blaxploitation films. The book is illustrated with 20 b&w film stills and includes appendices listing facts on the films discussed. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Distinguishing the views and philosophies; illuminating emptiness in a twentieth-century Tibetan Buddhist classic.

Douglas Samuel Duckworth (philosophy and humanities, East Tennessee State Y.) has translated a seminal work by Tibetan Buddhist lama and scholar Bötrül (1898-1959). It discusses a number of significant philosophical and doctrinal issues in the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, and lays out a systematic exposition of Mipam's (1846-1912) voluminous writings on the Middle Way. His life and writing should be seen in the light of the development of monastic colleges in eastern Tibet during the 19th and early 20th centuries, says Duckworth. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Dreaming in the classroom; practices, methods, and resources in dream education.

This guide shows teachers, especially those interested in the integration of the science and humanities, how to teach a course on dreams and dreaming to students in colleges and universities, graduate programs, psychotherapy institutes, seminaries, primary and secondary schools, and nonacademic settings. King, former professor of quantitative methods and psychology at Hawaii Pacific University, draws on interviews with accomplished teachers as well as his own practice. He offers a description and evaluation of educational practice in the field of dream education and an exploration of associated pedagogical and epistemological questions. He also provides practical advice on proposing the course to skeptical administrators, creating a syllabus, nurturing skills in writing and critical thinking, and facilitating the sharing of dreams in the classroom. Separate chapters are devoted to approaches from the fields of psychology, anthropology, philosophy and religious studies, and film studies. Later chapters cover concerns for specific settings, such as community and alternative education. About 65 pages of appendices describe print and nonprint resources and offer sample syllabi, assignments, and projects, guidelines for assessment, and notes on using the DreamBank (a repository of dream reports and tools for analysis of dream content). (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Engaging South Asian religions; boundaries, appropriations, and resistances.

Scholars of religion in the US and Mexico contribute to the scholarship on engagements between the West and South Asia by focusing on the interaction, interchange, and interpretation of epistemological and interpretive paradigms as practiced by all sides. Their topics include Muslim and Hindu veneration of Bonbibi national borders and religious boundaries, boundaries and appropriations in North Indian charismatic Catholicism, encounters with a small Islamic sect in contemporary Pakistan that is resisting assimilation, and legend versus myth. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Episodes from a Hudson River town; New Baltimore, New York.

A small river town settled by ordinary people with no renowned citizens or spectacular events is a blue-print representing other similar river towns whose story has generally been left untold. Bush (town historian, New Baltimore) gives a historical account of a Hudson River town prior to European settlement through its current political status in the northeastern United States. From the changing landscape and the lives and deaths of its inhabitants, together with typical human events such as war, innovations, and other worldly phenomena, this account of New Baltimore offers a window into other towns all over the country that experienced a similar evolution. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The evolutionary review; art, science, culture; v.2, issue 1.

The Evolutionary Review features a variety of reviews, articles and short essays on diverse subjects under the umbrella of arts, sciences and culture from an evolutionary perspective and affirming the idea of the unity of knowledge. Volume 2, Issue 1 includes such topics as the genetic and cultural basis and effects of pornography in modern society; the evolution of empathy; new concepts of developmental psychology of babies and young children; an overview of the emerging science of neuroaesthetics; poetry as a form of highly adaptive yet inherently instinctive play; and an exploration of the spiritual implications of defecation, among other intriguing articles. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Existence and the good; metaphysical necessity in morals and politics.

Gamwell (emeritus, religious ethics, theology, and philosophy of religion; U. of Chicago) explores two related interests that have long occupied him. One is the importance of metaphysical necessity — specifically a theistic metaphysics — to a critical understanding of human life within its surroundings. The second is the importance of teleology, a comprehensive good, to moral and political theory. He considers in turn the metaphysics of existence, subjectivity, God and the world, human purpose, and democracy. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Fantastic voyages of the cinematic imagination; Mélies's Trip to the moon. (DVD included)

This book/DVD set for students and scholars of film history offers a collection of 12 essays, 25 b&w film stills from several movies, and two versions of Georges Méliès's 1902 film Trip to the Moon. The essays examine the landmark film in detail, demonstrating its connections to the literature, popular culture, and visual culture of its time period and discussing its influence on more recent films, music videos, and television. Contributors address questions of aesthetics, media, and modernity, and show that Méliès should be seen as a key figure in the emergence of the modern spectacle. An introduction traces the film's multiple versions and its place in the historiography of cinema; an appendix offers translations of three articles written by Méliès. The DVD contains two versions of the film: a reconstructed version accompanied by an original 1902 score, and a recently discovered color-tinted version; both include audio commentaries by the editor Solomon (cinema studies, College of Staten Island, City U. of New York). (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Feminism's new age; gender, appropriation, and the afterlife of essentialism.

Feminists of the 1950s and 60s fought, literally, for equal pay and equal rights. While that movement continues today, many modern women do not experience injustices on the scale they did then. The negative stigma attached to the feminist movement caused many women to distance themselves from the word "feminist" although they believed in the ideals. Crowley (Women's and gender studies, St. Norbert Col.) takes a look at modern feminism, a new age phenomenon of spiritual reawakening and bonding. She attempts to answer the question of why women, particularly white women, are attracted to traditionally native practices of goddess worship, crystals and other spiritual healings and does it through a feminist and race studies point of view. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Global governance, global government; institutional visions for an evolving world system.

Cabrera (political theory, U. of Birmingham, UK) presents 12 chapters exploring and critiquing visions of global government and global governance. Contributors approach the question from a variety of viewpoints, with some seeing advocacy of world government as leading to dystopia and un-democratic forms of domination, while others argue that it should be possible to move towards just global governance by promoting democratic accountability within existing global institutions, and still others argue that a cosmopolitan moral orientation that views all individuals as deserving of equal support is bound to support the creation of a cohesive global government. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Globalization, social justice, and the helping professions.

This book is written to support human service professionals in their roles as change agents. The essays collected here shed light on the economic and social dimensions of globalization, examine how some aspects of globalization can exacerbate oppression and marginalization, and explore the special challenges faced by welfare states and human services professionals. Readers will learn to recognize the role of institutions of globalization such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and understand how globalization dynamics affect Africa and South America. Some specific areas addressed include transnational corporations and social justice, children and landmines, and disability service sectors for the 21st century. Most of the book's contributors are from the University of Albany-State University of New York. The book's audience includes social workers and counselors, as well as those working in NGOs or government agencies. Roth and Briar-Lawson teach social welfare at the University of Albany-State University of New York. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Higher education and international student mobility in the global knowledge economy, rev. and updated 2d ed.

Former president of the Council of Higher Education of the Republic of Turkey and a retired professor of chemical engineering at the Middle East Technical University, Gürüz explores how the international mobility of students, scholars, programs, and institutions of higher education has evolved over time, and the ways in which it is occurring in today's global knowledge economy. He covers the global knowledge economy and higher education, enrollment and increasing demand, the rise of market forces, new providers of higher education, globalization and the internationalization of higher education, and international student mobility. No date is noted for the first edition, but this second incorporates data and literature up to April 2009. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Hinduism as a missionary religion.

Sharma (comparative religion, McGill U., Canada) investigates the ways and extent to which Hinduism can be described as a missionary religion in terms of available historical evidence. He discusses the antiquity and continuity of the belief that is it not; the neo-Hindu conviction that it is; and evidence from Vedic India, classical India, medieval India, and modern India. He concludes that Hinduism has a mission, so must be missionary, but does not proselytize, that is it accepts converts but does not seek them out. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Horizontal federalism; interstate relations.

Finding state-to-state relations to be a neglected topic in the literature on US federalism, Zimmerman (political science, State U. of New York at Albany) offers a review of how the US Constitution regulates interstate disputes and agreements, focusing on the constitutional provisions related to interstate commerce, full faith and credit, rendition of fugitives from justice, and privileges and immunities. He also addresses ongoing issues of interstate relations including trade barriers, economic competition, tax revenue competition, and interstate cooperation. Zimmerman is not shy about identifying those areas where he thinks current constitutional jurisprudence fails to address ongoing problems and offering recommendations for improving interstate relations. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Mortality in traditional Chinese thought.

Scholars of East Asian philosophy and religion explore attitudes and concepts concerning death in early China. Their topics include preparations for an afterlife in ancient China, concepts of death and the afterlife reflected in newly discovered tomb objects and texts from Han China, death and dying in the Analects, death in the Zhuangzi, Linji and William James on death as two visions of pragmatism, and Wang Yangming's followers as an example of death as the ultimate concern in the neo-Confucian tradition. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)