Cambria Press

The archaeology of late antique Sudan; aesthetics and identity in the Royal X-Group tombs at Qustul and Ballana.

Dann (Egyptian archaeology, Copenhagen U.) takes another look at artifacts and evidence uncovered during the early 1930s, which fundamentally altered the scientific understanding of the archaeological landscape of Lower Nubia at the time. The sites are under Lake Nasser now, the findings have been superseded by others, and the artifacts are ensconced at the Nubian Museum in Aswan, she admits, but points out that theories have changed over the intervening decades, as have the approaches and methods of interpretation. She offers an interpretation of the royal cemeteries based on a quantitative analysis of the remains itself based in turn on an explicitly theoretical approach. She does not dissent from the accepted time period: between the fall of Meroë and the official adoption of Christianity in Nubia in the middle of the sixth century. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Belief-based energy technology development by the U.S. government; a comparative study of nuclear power and synthetic fuel policies.

A widely as the two forms of energy differ in their physics and consumption, says Yang (technology policy, Duke U.), they differ just as widely in the US government policy towards them. At the end of World War II, he explains, they were most pre-commercial and represented about the same potential for contribution to the country's energy supply — albeit different sectors of the supply. Over the next decades, however, one received vast subsidies, deregulation, and political support, while the other got lukewarm support that was turned on and off. After setting out the two separate trajectories, he looks at such matters as the state and its ideology, symbols in social drama, the bandwagon market, and the revolt against modernity. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Cinematic portraits of evil; Christian de Chalonge's Docteur Petiot and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Delicatessen.

French occupation scholar Rowlands looks at two post-war films, Dr. Petiot and Delicatessen that both focus on psychopaths. Dr. Petiot is a fictionalized story of a real man who proclaimed himself a Resistance hero all the while he was duping and murdering people to whom he had promised exit visas. Delicatessen is set in a surrealistic "parallel universe" that seems suspiciously like post-war France and deals with murder and cannibalism as daily activities. Rowlands sees these films as part of the French attempts to internalize the idea that many people were part of the Vichy government and that it is a part of French national identity. But a sub-theme is that of the "banality of evil" as Hannah Arendt wrote. Dr. Petiot is portrayed in the film as a nonhuman vampire, but the characters in Delicatessen are all too normal. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The communicative relationship between dialogue and care.

The authors posit that in our postmodern society, people care less about each other, are generally more distrustful and cynical, and are concerned primarily with their own well-being. This has caused a diminution of what Martin Buber characterized as "dialogue" and has implications for people's capacity to communicate caring. This book analyzes the intersection between Buber's philosophy and the communications and interpersonal aspects of the relationship between dialogue and caring. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Commodore Robert F. Stockton, 1795- 1866; protean man for a protean nation.

Brockmann (English, U. of Delaware) traces the life and accomplishments of Commodore Robert F. Stockton, commander in chief of all US forces in California and the first US governor of the territory of California. Throughout his life, Stockton's actions and beliefs were varied and everchanging, like the shape-shifting of the sea god Proteus. Brockmann suggests that Stockton's protean quality resulted not from his being unfixed or unstable, but rather from a continual pursuit of glory and honor by any means. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Corruption and American politics.

One of the distinctions made here is between mere scandal — caught having sex outside marriage — and corruption — lying about it under oath. Another is between individual corruption — such as a politician taking a bride — and systemic corruption — such as a politician taking a campaign donation. Political scientists explore corruption in the US government from such perspectives as whether the low trust in democratic institutions is a problem of corruption, benevolent skulduggery, cognitive sciences and corruption, a longitudinal analysis of presidential corruption, corruption in the courts, corruption in contemporary political campaigns, the public and political corruption, and the politics of reform. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Handbook of prejudice.

With a "realistic vision of a society in which differences are accepted within the realm of universal human rights" rather than the ideal of a prejudice-free society, Pelinka (nationalism studies and political science, Central European U., Budapest) and colleagues with the university's Institute of Conflict Research present a dozen perspectives on all types of prejudice. International contributors examine the particulars of prejudice in regard to ethnicity, sexual orientation, handicaps, religion, race, and class; and in academic and scientific areas; and legal means to overcome discrimination. Illustrations depict stereotypes of the Other. The volume was published with the support of the Sir Peter Ustinov Institute for Prejudice Research and Prevention. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Hip hop and inequality; searching for the "real" Slim Shady.

Simona and Ramsaran (both sociology, Susquehanna U.) share insights they gained while putting together a senior seminar in rap and hip hop culture at their mostly white suburban college. They discuss such aspects as locating rhymes in society, contemporary gangsta violent-male masculinity, in search of the true bards, capitalist remix, and the future of the beat. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Observing society; meaning, communication, and social systems.

Lee (sociology, California State University, Channel Islands) and Brosziewski (sociology, University of Teacher Education of the Kanton Thurgau, CH) propose a new paradigm for the definition of "society" in a sociological context. They feel that the term has long been too amorphous for serious study and has caused sociology to be disparaged by other fields. Building on the work of German sociologist Niklas Luhmann, this book describes "social system theory". This defines modern society as an autonomous entity separate from the "psychic systems" of human beings. The methods by which this is done are explained after an introductory chapter defining social system theory. Communication in various forms is a major factor as well as delineation of forms of society. They conclude with the "functional method" as a more comprehensive way to observe and form conclusions about society. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Pat Barker and the mediation of social reality.

Waterman (English, U. de la Rochelle, Institut U. de Technologie, France) celebrates the work of Booker-prize winning novelist Barker (b. 1942) and her use of the novel as an instrument of social criticism. His topics include caging or community in her working class novels, heroic masculinity and the enemy within in the Regeneration trilogy, composite identity and traumatic memory in Border Crossing, and representing self and other in Life Class. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Science and society in the classroom; using sociocultural perspectives to develop science education.

A contextualized science curriculum, called the Science Education for Public Understanding Program, is designed to teach students about the interdependence of science and society. Verma (science education, Georgia State University) reports on her original research on the impact of the curriculum on students' and teachers' learning and attitudes in an urban middle school science classroom. The study uses a mixed-method design composed of both qualitative and quantitative measures, combining recommendations from science education reform documents and key theoretical frameworks. The audience for the book includes pre-service and in-service teachers, researches and educators, and curriculum specialists. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The sex goddess in American film, 1930-1965; Jean Harlow, Mae West, Lana Turner, and Jayne Mansfield.

Through the lens of feminist theory, Jordan (English and film studies, U. of California-Davis) looks at four actresses who regularly played hyper-sexual women on the screen before Marilyn Monroe became the iconic representative of the type. She discusses Jean Harlow and the economy of the gold digger, cinematic queening by May West, Lana Turner and the duplicity of the femme fatale, and Jayne Mansfield's breasts. She concludes that despite dumb blonde cliche, both the characters on screen and the actresses in their lives and careers use their sexuality to fulfill their own interests. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Social movement to address climate change; local steps for global action.

Scholars mostly of communications but also various environmental sciences provide local perspectives on the 2007 national Step It Up campaign to reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere by 80% by 2050. That campaign has evolved into the 350 Movement. Bill McKibben, pillar of both efforts, contributes the forward and an interview. Other sections cover rhetorical framing, modes of organizing, and practices of citizenship. Among the topics are moving climate change from My Space to my place, demonstrative protest rhetoric and the Boston campaign, social-movement organizations as collective resistance, challenges and possibilities for just climate-change coalitions, image politics in the Pacific Northwest, the role of natural scientists in environmental movements, and challenges of scale and the strategic. Other reports come from Texas, Utah, and Michigan. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Tolstoy's pacifism.

In the West, Tolstoy is best known for his novel War and Peace. In his home country of Russia, he is just as famous for his egalitarian, pacifistic views. McKeogh (political science, University of Waikato, New Zealand) examines the tortured path taken by Tolstoy that led from a life of aristocratic privilege to an uncompromising insistence on non-violence and self abnegation. He begins with a summary of Tolstoy's life, followed by his view of history as expressed in War and Peace. He then turns to Tolstoy's conversion to his own private version of Christianity that grew from his need to find unyielding rules by which to live. This led to his views on non-violence and passive resistance and the political fallout from them. Imber concludes with Tolstoy's searing attack on marriage in The Kreutzer Sonata and his belief that only by renouncing earthly love could one be free to live a holy life. Imber points out the inconsistencies in Tolstoy's thinking, that it became a "Christian nihilism". He concludes that Tolstoy's pacifism was, at base, that of a dissident. He influenced many but, in the end, his beliefs were directed inward and not to create a better society for all. An interesting look at a complex, tormented man. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The trouble with Dreiser; Harper and the editing of Jennie Gerhardt.

Whaley (English, East Texas Baptist University) compares the original 1911 edition of Dreiser's Jennie Gerhardt with a 1995 edition created from the author's manuscript version. Using these and letters from the Dreiser collection along with other records, she shows how editorial changes bowdlerized the book and diminished the original story. Whaley discusses the ways in which the cuts and revisions softened the characters of the rich and made the poor seem less sympathetic, including the heroine. She suggests that Dreiser allowed this because of the negative experience with his first book Sister Carrie. She also argues that the editors insisted on changes that would make the book more palatable to a general readership. In doing this they destroyed much of the biting social commentary. Whaley's understanding of the reality of publishing is refreshing, and as radical a revelation as those Dreiser's editors tried to hide. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The Victorian freak show; the significance of disability and physical differences in 19th-century fiction.

To explore the Victorian fascination with physical differences in people, Craton (English, Lander U.) considers littleness in the novels of Charles Dickens, fatness and nurturance in 19th-century fiction, female masculinity in sensational fiction 1860-90, and the mutable body and the looking glass. Among specific topics are miniatures and monsters, fat sexuality in Maupassant's "Boule de Suif," female adventure of the 1880s and the New Woman, and Alice outgrows Victorian girlhood. The study served as her Ph.D. dissertation at Emory University, and parts of it have been published separately. (Annotation ©2010 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)