Broadview Press
Anthropology matters!
This text, aimed at first or second-year students, describes the research methods, perspectives, and application of anthropology to the real world. It links anthropology concepts to a variety of contemporary issues and practices from a global perspective, discussing participant observation and fieldwork challenges, enculturation and culture shock, applied economic anthropology and consumer habits, religion and ethnic conflict, enthnocentrism and immigration, and cultural diffusion and body image. Other topics include cultural relativism and female circumcision, cross-cultural comparison and aging, cultural imperialism and missionism, gender stratification and purdah, inequality and same-sex marriage, and popular culture and the media. The text is meant to supplement introductory anthropology textbooks. Fedorak teaches socio-cultural anthropology and archaeology at the U. of Saskatchewan, Canada. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The Broadview anthology of British literature, concise ed.; v.A.
This first of two volumes in the concise edition of Broadview's survey of British literature for undergraduates and above excerpts works from the Medieval, Renaissance, and Restoration periods. Color illustrations and reflections on historical context, culture, and themes supplement selections from British fiction and poetry including Sir Gawain and the Green Night, King Lear, Areopagitica, and The Vanity of Human Wishes. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Business and environmental politics in Canada.
Starting his review from the 1960s, Macdonald (environment, U. of Toronto) examines how Canadian firms have sought to change environmental standards to their own advantage. He describes how corporate culture influences both governmental and corporate thinking about environmental compliance and analyzes the complex processes that led to the establishment of Canada's regulatory system from 1956 to 1980, particularly in the pulp and paper business. He works through issues of the 1980s and 1990s such as acid rain, motor vehicle emissions and health issues, the move toward sustainable development, but also strong legal reactions by industries to regulations. He notes a corresponding relaxation of regulatory pressures from 1993 to 2000, and finds many signs of continuing or increasing noncompliance, despite new international protocols. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Clear writing; readings in expository prose.
This collection features 60 readings that give examples of clarity and conciseness in writing from a variety of disciplines, modes, and cultural perspectives, for undergraduate students in all types of writing courses as well as general readers. Historical and contemporary readings are mixed together and divided by subject, including personal experiences (writings by David Sedaris, E.B. White, and Annie Dillard); global media (those by Samuel Johnson and Naomi Klein); nature and the environment (writings by Virginia Woolf and Peter Singer); and social issues (those by Jonathan Swift, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Gloria Steinem). Other categories are law and politics, history, science and technology, human nature, languages and culture, and literature and the other arts, with pieces by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Joan Didion, Stephen Jay Gould, George Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Amy Tan, and Maya Lin, for example. An index of rhetorical modes is included. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Factory lives; four nineteenth-century working-class autobiographies.
Hundreds of Victorian working people wrote autobiographies it turns out, but for some reason, none have been made into television programs sponsored by factory owners, and scholarship has virtually ignored them. Here are narratives by three men and a woman, supported by contemporary perspectives in the form of letters, court and parliamentary testimony, excerpts of books, and other writings. No index is provided. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The history of sexuality sourcebook.
"Sexuality, one might say, is history's biggest secret." Kuefler (history, San Diego State U.; editor, Journal of the History of Sexuality) thus begins this sourcebook treating sexuality from the perspectives of social custom (including marriage, prostitution); ideology (views of various cultures and religions on women, sex, sin); and identity (being straight, queer, bisexual, sexy in individual and scientific terms). The entries include poetry and other writing about sexuality, illustrations, questions for reflection and discussion, sources and further reading. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The long road to change; America's revolution, 1750-1820.
In common usage, the "American Revolution" refers exclusively to the War of Independence, but for Nellis (emeritus, history, U. of British Columbia) the term applies to the 70-year period of democratic change that finally saw the solidification of Republicanism by 1820. He presents a historical survey of that era, synthesizing the secondary and primary literatures on conflict and political and economic change. Each chapter includes lists of suggested readings. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Medieval popular religion, 1000-1500; a reader, 2d ed.
Translated documents illustrate the religious experience of ordinary medieval Christians. Excerpts from plays, songs, popular testimony, descriptions of rituals, and other material look at such matters as God, devils and demons, daily devotions, and death and judgment. No date is noted for the first edition; the second adds some texts and substitutes others to be more representative and more readable. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
The memoir of 1603 and The diary of 1616-1619.
She was titled, accomplished and admired. She dressed well, knew her etiquette and was an ornament in society. However, she was no fainting flower in a lace ruff. Lady Anne Clifford would be interesting even in this supposedly liberated age, and these accounts of her life give fascinating insights into the mind of a real woman who observed religion largely as she wished, talked back to her husband when he deeded it, fought for what she felt was her rightful inheritance in a man's world, and had occasional difficulties with her mother. The content of Clifford's text, which Acheson (English language and literature, U. of Waterloo) edits with care and restraint, and Clifford's dry wit and her mastery of the language clearly illustrate, once again, that modern women are not descended from ninnies. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Politics; an introduction to the modern democratic state, 3d (Canadian) ed.
This introduction to politics covers political ideas, institutions, processes, and governing. It includes alternative features such as proportional representation, multi-party systems, coalition government, and the variations of presidentialism, federalism, and direct democracy. It does not cover in detail issues of developing countries or international relations, although the topics are addressed in terms of globalization and the effects of technology. This edition has been updated to reflect developments in North American elections and world events. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Politics in North America redefining continental relations.
Abu-Laban (political science, U. of Alberta, Canada), Jhappan (political science, Carleton U., Canada), and Rocher (political studies, U. of Ottawa, Canada) believe that it is important to analyze the domestic/national and international politics of Canada, the United States, and Mexico through the application of both historical and continental lenses. They present 21 chapters with just such an emphasis addressing broad themes of the role of the state; globalization and challenges to sovereignty; democracy, representation, and legitimacy; human rights; and community. The papers also address other themes in sections that are separately devoted to history and the politics of defining and redefining North America; institutional relations of continents, states, and federalism; public policies and human rights after the North American Free Trade Agreement; post-9/11 borders, migration, and national security; and continental cultural relations. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Race and racism in 21st-century Canada; continuity, complexity, and change.
Far from being an enclave purely for the Anglo-Saxon or the Gallic, Canada's minority groups are likely to comprise 20 percent of the population by 2017, with cities featuring over 50 percent. Already Canada has had significant discussions on what constitutes race and how race should be studied sociologically. This collection of 16 original articles starts at the theoretical and conceptual level in terms of politics and identification, including such topics as the role of silence, the politics of anti-racist scholarship and the effects of whiteness studies. Articles on structural patterns of incorporation address gender and minority status in terms of income levels, recent Chinese immigration and covert racism, incorporation of aboriginal labor, and guest workers, while other topics include the articulation of race and gender, the incorporation of aboriginal property interests, and public policy about race, racism, and multiculturalism. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Self-knowledge; beginning philosophy right here and now.
Hetherington (philosophy, U. of New South Wales) guides readers through a five-day personal meditation that would make a great philosophy course (Hetherington foresees that possibility, of course, and makes suggestions in the last chapter). He leads us from exercises and thoughts about our physical nature to others about our mental nature, ruminations about what self-knowledge would be, the methods by which we can gain self-knowledge, and ways we can confront doubts about whether true self-knowledge is possible. The result is remarkably accessible, witty, and charming. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
