Berghahn Books
Practicing public diplomacy; a Cold War odyssey.
Richmond presents his memoir of having served as a cultural officer in the US Foreign Service during the Cold War. He describes working in Germany during the early years of the Cold War (1947-1954), two years in Laos (1954-56), a year working for the Voice of America's broadcasts into Vietnam (1956-57), three years as a cultural attaché in Poland (1958-61), working in Austria with Western correspondents reporting on Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union (1961-63), and a two years in Moscow as the American Embassy's Counselor for Press and Culture (1967-69). (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Race, ethnicity and nation; perspectives from kinship and genetics.
Wade (social anthropology, University of Manchester, UK) looks at links between race, ethnicity, and nation in an era when family and kinship are changing rapidly due to genomic and biotechnological advances. Some areas explored are assisted reproduction, transnational adoption, mixed-race families, Basque identity politics, and post-Soviet nation building. The research presented here comes out of an EU-funded project, "Public Understanding of Genetics: a Cross-cultural and Ethnographic Study of the 'New Genetics' and Social Identity." The focus is on Europe and the approach is mainly anthropological, but the issues and case studies will be of interest to anyone concerned with the central themes of the book. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Sex, thugs and rock 'n' roll; teenage rebels in cold-war East Germany.
Fenemore (modern European history, Manchester Metropolitan U., UK) offers a detailed scholarly account of the rock and roll movement in East Germany throughout the Cold War. He discusses the cultural rift between young people who wanted to embrace the same culture as the rest of Europe and America, and the communist government that tried to suppress these so-called rebels. While obvious parallels can be drawn between East German teenagers, who felt pressure from the older generation to conform socially, and teenagers all over the world, the added dimension of an oppressive government provides an unusually deep and complex backdrop to the narrative. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Shades of indignation; political scandals in France, past and present.
French scandals of bygone centuries, says Jankowski (history, Brandeis U.), flared with treason, corruption, sometimes injustice. Today treason has been replaced by crimes against humanity, corruption inspires resignation rather than indignation, and only injustice — the triumph of arbitrariness over right — has increased its power to rouse the people. One reason, he says, is that individuals have replaced the state as the actors deemed responsible, so the government no longer holds a nobility to betray. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
Visual interventions; applied visual anthropology.
Visual anthropology is a relatively new field using images to document culture. Applied visual anthropology is the use of images: photographs, film or art, to intervene in cultures. The articles here edited by Pink (social anthropology, Loughborough, UK) cover many applications from social change to documenting medical procedures, to encouraging tourism, preserving heritage and changing people's self-perceptions. Some focus on the reporter's eye and others on using visual arts to enable the voiceless and invisible of the world to present their lives. Some of the authors consider ethical questions raised by this intervention. In several cases, the language is technical to the field and this is intended for anthropologists. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)
